By Brian Trompeter
Charts, diagrams and figures are valuable, but there’s nothing like a field trip to check out conditions on the ground.
That was the idea Feb. 13, when some Vienna Town Council members, accompanied by town planning and public-works officials, piled into a white Ford van to go on a short road trip and learn how building setbacks along Maple Avenue actually appear to pedestrians and motorists.
“I really pushed for this,” said Council member Charles Anderson. “Most people find it hard to visualize setbacks and heights. It’s tangible when you’re right next to the street and pacing it off. It helps convert abstract numbers into meaningful legislation.”
Joining Anderson on the tour were Mayor Linda Colbert and Council members Howard Springsteen, Steve Potter and Ed Somers. At the insistence of Town Attorney Steven Briglia, the elected officials did not discuss or transact any public business with each other, so as to avoid running afoul of open-meeting laws.
(“I would suggest the Town Council be a passive audience as much as possible and treat this as a briefing/presentation by staff,” Briglia had written in a memo preceding the event.)
The van left from in front of Town Hall, circled a big block and made its first of six stops at Maple Avenue, E., and Center Street, N. “This falls under ‘other duties as assigned,’” said Vienna Planning and Zoning Director David Levy, who shouldered driving duty on the expedition.
Deputy Planning and Zoning Director Kelly O’Brien led the tour, fielded questions and provided to Council members clipboards with maps and data for each site. Zoning administrator Andrea West used a land-measuring wheel to verify the setbacks’ lengths, and at one point found an error in the listed information.
After checking out a commercial building with wide setbacks, the group walked a short distance to the Vienna Inn and an office building, which were much closer to the roadway and had little room between them – which was allowable because of their parking arrangements, O’Brien said.
From there, the group took the van to the Bank of America site at 235 Maple Ave., W., and then to commercial buildings at 425, 427 and 431 Maple Ave., W. Next door was Hawk & Griffin pub, which was set back more from the road and had an outdoor-dining area in front.
The tour group then headed east and checked out a group of recently built commercial buildings at 256-262 Maple Ave., E., where an elevated outdoor-dining space was protected somewhat from vehicles.
Participants then walked over to the fenced-off Chase Bank building under construction at 315 Maple Ave., E. This structure was fairly close to the road, had a variety of parapet heights and plenty of new concrete-curbed islands in its parking area.
Walking the sometimes-narrow sidewalks along Maple Avenue, separated by a thin planting strip from traffic whooshing past, underscored for tour participants the aesthetic and safety aspects of various setback sizes.
Upgrading and developing the town’s main commercial thoroughfare long has been a priority – and maddening challenge – for the Council and town officials. The narrow corridor is lined on both sides with residential areas and hundreds of oddly shaped lots, many of which do not conform to the current town code but are grandfathered in.
“It’s hard to come up with a single [setback] standard with lots of such varying sizes,” Anderson said.
The variety of setbacks highlighted on the tour was instructive. Some buildings, such as the collection of stores on both sides of the 100 block of Maple Avenue, W., came right up to the property line. But many in the 300 block of Maple Avenue, E., were located far back from the sidewalk and had ample surface parking in front.
“We’re always going to have a hodgepodge,” Anderson said. “We need a modern development envelope without changing the ambiance of the town.”
The town continues to enjoy commercial success along Maple Avenue, despite the older building stock, because the roadway handles about 30,000 vehicles per day.
The town has encouraged redevelopment on Maple Avenue in the past, with mixed results. After years of study and consensus building, the Council in 2014 passed the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zoning ordinance, which offered developers density incentives in exchange for providing amenities sought by the town.
The Council, after roiling controversy on several occasions, approved only four MAC redevelopment projects before scrapping the ordinance in 2020.
Subsequently, town officials began the “Code Create” initiative to rewrite Vienna’s decades-old zoning code and have held multiple meetings about it. The Council hopes to get a draft of the proposed new code to the Vienna Planning Commission so it can hold public hearings in April and May. The Council then will take a final vote on the matter in late summer or early fall, Colbert said.
Town staff will conduct a similar setback tour for Planning Commission members, O’Brien said. Participants on the Feb. 10 tour said they found the outing beneficial.
“This is super, super invaluable,” Springsteen said.
“It’s a huge difference to see it and be able to reflect on what it really looks like,” Potter agreed.
“Seeing front and side setbacks of existing buildings on Maple Avenue in person is vastly different than seeing them on paper,” Colbert concurred.
