The Vienna Courts offices will officially be replaced with residential condominiums.

The Vienna Town Council voted Monday (Dec. 5) to approve a rezoning and site plans that would allow 12 two-story condo duplexes with two units each at 127-133 Park Street — a more modest project than the 30 units that developer BFR Construction originally proposed.

“This has been a long time coming, and in my opinion, this meets one of our biggest challenges going forward, which is to find lower-cost housing for Vienna,” said Councilmember Chuck Anderson. “We don’t have a whole lot of spaces for that, but this happens to be, I think, a very good space for it.”

Officials on the council — and the town’s planning commission before it — had pushed to scale back the project plans to create more open space on the 1.66-acre lot.

BFR President Steve Bukont had argued that the site’s long, narrow shape would make it difficult to meet that demand while also maintaining his vision of the development as an alternative to traditional single-family houses and townhomes for residents looking to age in place.

After initially requesting an allowance for 70%, the developer was able to get the lot coverage down to 61.5% by removing another building, slightly reducing the size of the remaining buildings and taking away three of the 19 proposed visitor parking spots.

The complex will now have a total of 64 parking spaces, including 48 garage spaces, 16 guest spaces and two Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant spaces.

The added space also came at the expense of a commitment to install solar panels and geothermal heating and air conditioning systems. The developer now says it reserves the right to install geothermal HVAC systems and will design the building roofs to support future solar panels, but the utilities aren’t guaranteed.

BFR will still install 5-foot-wide brick sidewalks and street lights and underground power lines along Park Street, according to a final proffer statement. The developer has also agreed to construct a privacy wall between its property and the adjacent house at 135 Park Street at the homeowner’s request.

The Vienna Courts redevelopment is the second duplex project that the council has approved in as many years, as Vienna seeks to provide a greater variety of housing.

The Town of Vienna is seeking a little guidance to determine what to do with the former Faith Baptist Church property on Center Street.

The town council approved an allocation of $92,500 on Monday (Nov. 14) to launch a study of potential long-term uses for the site, now known as the Vienna Annex.

After receiving two bids in response to its request for proposals, the town has contracted Pennsylvania-based firm Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site to conduct the study, whose findings will eventually be presented to the town council.

“The information from the Annex Long-Term Use Study will provide recommended land uses of the annex property based on the town’s strategic plan, [comprehensive] plan, extensive community engagement and available funding in the long run,” Vienna Parks and Recreation Director Leslie Herman said.

The town bought the 3-acre property at 301 Center Street South for $5.5 million in fall 2020, giving the Vienna Police Department a temporary base during the construction of its new headquarters. Though there was a ribbon-cutting ceremony in early September, some final work is still being done before the building can be occupied.

As officers prepare to move out at some point, town leaders have been debating the best long-term use of the former church and have, thus far, come up with a big question mark.

Herman initially proposed utilizing the building temporarily as an annex for recreational activities to supplement the Vienna Community Center, but the town council feared that would cut off other long-term possibilities, particularly since a previous study estimated the conversion would cost $1 million.

The council authorized the removal of a cross from the building’s steeple in September but declined to fund roof repairs, saying it didn’t want to invest in a building that may ultimately be torn down.

When asked by Councilmember Ray Brill, Kimmel Bogrette confirmed that it will consider the possibility of demolishing all existing structures when exploring options for the site.

“Our approach to community engagement is to try to help folks see beyond what they see there today and look at the possibilities,” Kimmel Bogrette president and co-founder Martin Kimmel said.

Town staff will meet with the consultant next week to determine a detailed timeline for the study, according to a Town of Vienna spokesperson.

“Public engagement is expected to take place in January and February, 2023 and a final report is expected to be presented to Town Council in June,” Vienna Public Information Director Karen Thayer told FFXnow.

A plan to turn the Vienna Courts offices into duplexes has been downsized again, as the developer and town leaders try to make the complex fit in without sacrificing its viability as an alternative multifamily housing option.

After initially proposing 15 two-floor buildings with one unit on each floor in September, BFR Construction President Steve Bukont agreed on Monday (Nov. 14) to drop a building and some guest parking so the development will occupy a little less of the 1.66-acre lot at 127-133 Park Street.

The project had already been reduced by one building before getting the Vienna Planning Commission’s approval on Sept. 28, so it will now have 12 buildings with 24 units.

However, Bukont told the Vienna Town Council that the smaller footprint means he can no longer guarantee that the residences will have solar panels, geothermal heating and other energy efficiency measures as previously offered.

“The green energy thing would be a goal. We couldn’t commit to doing it, but we would certainly make every attempt to do it,” he said. “Unfortunately…the cost of construction since we started discussing this project is up by double digits, and it doesn’t look like it’s going down.”

The developer confirmed that the project will still underground power lines along Park Street Northeast and install street lights similar to those on nearby Church Street, as stated in a Nov. 1 proffer agreement.

A lack of green space has been a sticking point for the Vienna Courts redevelopment from the start.

Intended to primarily serve older individuals and people with disabilities, the buildings will be small, with units topping out at 1,779 square feet. But the size and shape of the lot mean that most of it will be filled, raising fears about density on a site between Vienna’s commercial center and single-family residences.

“It doesn’t feel like we need density,” resident Brian Goldberg said at Monday’s public hearing, which was continued from Oct. 24. “Let Tysons have the density. Let Reston have the density. Let all these other areas that seem to have an appetite for going tall have it. Why do we need to do that in a residential area like we have?”

BFR Construction had requested a modification to let the development take up 70% of the lot, but the planning commision only approved 68%. Down to 13 buildings, the developer came to the town council this week seeking an allowance for 66.8%.

That still didn’t satisfy council members, who worried allowing that lot coverage could be a “slippery slope” in a town where only one development has exceeded 60% in the past 55 years, according to town staff. Read More

The Vienna Town Council says a plan for new duplexes shows promise but isn’t quite ready for approval yet.

At a meeting on Oct. 24, the council said there are lingering concerns about the lot coverage — how much of a site is built on by a development — for the Vienna Courts project. Developer BFR Construction has proposed a set of duplexes at the Vienna Courts offices 127-133 Park Street NE. The project would replace four office buildings with 14 two-family dwellings.

The developer has asked the town for an exemption to lot coverage limits so it can build on 70% of a site where the city’s zoning only allows 25% lot coverage.

“The applicant is requesting a lot coverage of 70%,” the staff report said. “The proposed style of the development does not lend itself to the stated 25% maximum due to the number of units and required parking area.”

“Your lot coverage is significantly higher than anybody else,” Councilmember Steve Potter said. “Living next to a construction site and seeing the lack of space that is on their properties and how it intrudes onto the public streets and how it impacts school bus routes and people doing their walking and all that, I wonder if that has been given careful consideration.”

The project had previously received a mixed reception from the Planning Commission.

Town leaders said lot coverage is an issue with the project, but they believe a compromise is possible.

“I’m not sure if we’re quite ready to vote on this tonight, but you have gotten some feedback,” Mayor Linda Colbert said. “I think it’s a beautiful project, and I look forward to looking at this again.”

The project was scheduled to be reviewed again at a meeting on Monday, Nov. 14.

Developer EYA came to the Vienna Town Council with a plan to turn a long-vacant commercial into a new set of townhomes, but the Town Council warned that it isn’t willing to give up on office and commercial development just yet.

Tysons Edge, an office building at 901 Follin Lane, has gone through attempts to lease since 2013 and has been vacant since 2015. The 97,000 square foot office building has had $2 million worth of renovations poured into the building with little progress in attracting a new occupant.

The proposal from EYA tearing down the building and converting the property into a 115-unit townhome development — scaled down from 165 originally planned for the site.

The project would come with some added amenities, like a new small park attached to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail.

But when the project came forward for discussion at a Vienna Town Council meeting on Oct. 17, the Council was decidedly mixed on the prospect of replacing the office building an entirely new use.

Council member Howard Springsteen said the financial benefits of the project promised by EYA amount to roughly the cost of one police office — a “drop in the bucket” — and said the change required to allow the development was tantamount to spot zoning.

“I don’t think we have a responsibility to bail out a landowner who is losing money,” Springsteen said. “I’m sympathetic to demographics changing and maybe we revisit this, but right now it’s a bad idea and I can’t support this… We’ll have to do all this for a zoning change because your owner can’t make money.”

Council member Ray Brill expressed concerns about building a housing development with only one exit lane, saying it wasn’t a proper spot for a housing development.

A recurring argument from the council was that the change would essentially signal the town giving up on the idea of office development. Despite the dramatic downturn in the office market caused by the pandemic, the Vienna Town Council said they’re not ready to recognize defeat.

The Town Council wasn’t unanimous in their disapproval of the project, however. Council member Chuck Anderson said the Town will have to be more open to making zoning more flexible.

“I understand the argument for diversity [of use], but if diversity means hanging on to a rapidly depreciating suburban commercial property that has no use and that the market has not really grasped a use for, I think we need to relook at that and see if we need to, not do spot zoning, but move the boundaries,” Anderson said.

Mayor Linda Colbert ultimately told EYA that the Town Council — in the politest possible terms — was not particularly interested in approving the project.

“At this time, thank you, and I think in the future perhaps,” Colbert said, “but I think right now we’re not moving that forward.”

The Town of Vienna could have a historical gold mine waiting to be found in old-timey toilets underneath the grounds of its Freeman Store and Museum (131 Church Street NE).

Historic Vienna Inc., the nonprofit that has operated the store since 1976, plans to fund an archaeological dig of the property after a survey identified several potential areas of interest, including two sites that might have the remains of either wells or outhouses.

“The gold in this property is probably in the privies and the well. Apparently, if you read about this stuff, [the past owners] would just at some point start throwing a lot of trash down as they changed over or moved on, and there’s often some really revealing stuff,” Historic Vienna President Anne Stuntz told the Vienna Town Council on Oct. 10.

The Freeman Store was built in 1859 by New Jersey merchants Abram and Susan Lydecker as a house and Vienna’s first general store. It benefitted from new railroad tracks at what is now the intersection of Church and Mill streets, according to Historic Vienna.

The building also served as a post office and was occupied by both Union and Confederate troops during the Civil War. After its last resident moved out in 1955, the store was sold to the town in 1969 and restored in 1976.

Historic Vienna has wanted to explore the site “for decades,” Stuntz said, but this year, the organization finally accrued the approximately $20,000 needed for a dig, thanks to the volunteers who sell books out of the store’s Used Book Cellar.

“We think [the dig] will materially increase our historical understanding, and we’d end up with more stories to tell about the Freeman Store and early Vienna history,” Stuntz said.

According to a letter to Town Manager Mercury Payton, the town previously approved a non-invasive ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey of the property on Nov. 1, 2021 that found 36 potential areas of interest, including four sites that have been singled out for excavation:

• The two possible wells or privies
• A side yard where there could’ve been a barn
• The immediate backyard, where there may be either a tree or a trash dump

The sites will each be about 4 square meters in size, but they could expand “if significant finds are uncovered,” the letter said.

If approved, the dig would be done by The Ottery Group over 10 business days between November and the end of March — ideally in early March, when the days will be longer and the ground warmer, Historic Vienna treasurer Leigh Kitcher said.

The organization said the excavations will avoid coinciding with major events, and the sites will be covered with tarps at night. Stuntz and Historic Vienna Vice President Nancy Moats have discussed even having people sleep over at the store.

“We certainly don’t want Civil War relic hunters trying to find goodies on our property,” Kitcher said. “So, there’s a balance between how much you promote this and showing little dug-up holes.”

After the dig, Ottery will restore the land and bag and document any artifacts. Historic Vienna will be responsible for their long-term storage, possibly with Fairfax County’s archaeology team.

Moats suggested the group could host a public archaeology day or a small exhibit at the Freeman Store “if the number of finds and their significance warrants it.”

“We’re all about education and informing the public in the Town of Vienna,” she said.

Since Historic Vienna leases the Freeman Store property from the town, the town council needs to amend the lease before the dig proceeds. That vote has been scheduled for Oct. 24, but the council was decidedly enthusiastic about the project.

Councilmembers Howard Springsteen and Nisha Patel speculated that the town use the excavation to plant a holiday tree on the property. Ed Somers advocated for keeping any findings in Vienna, though that may not be feasible for larger objects or ones that need a climate-controlled environment.

“I defer to [Historic Vienna], but I would like to keep whatever’s found in Vienna in Vienna somewhere so people can see it,” Somers said.

The cross atop the former Faith Baptist Church in Vienna will come down, but otherwise, the town has opted for a “wait and see” approach to the 3-acre property it purchased in 2020.

The Vienna Town Council unanimously voted on Aug. 29 to indefinitely postpone repairs to the roof of the aging building at 301 Center Street South.

While staff argued that improvements are needed to stop recurring water leaks, council members balked at the idea of investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into a building that they could ultimately decide to demolish.

“I would like to do the absolute minimum, even if that does cause some further damage to the building, rather than commit a lot of money,” Councilmember Chuck Anderson said. “If you spend a half million dollars on a roof, psychologically, you’re committed to that building, and I personally have not reached the conclusion that the best use for that property involves some sort of rehabilitation and repurposing of the existing structure.”

Built in 1956, per Fairfax County property records, the former church — now informally dubbed the Annex — will require substantial renovations to meet current building code standards and get approved for occupancy, a study by Whitman, Requardt & Associates, LLP found.

Though town staff are making spot repairs as leaks and other problems emerge, Parks and Recreation Director Leslie Herman requested the council’s support last week to replace the roof, either as a whole or in parts.

“Addressing the flat roof is the most pressing, current issue to ensure that the Annex does not incur further damage and deterioration due to the leaks,” Herman said. “There are issues on the shingled, sloped roof that will need attention in the very near future.”

Replacing the flat roof alone could cost $122,000 to $228,400, staff estimated. New rooftop HVAC units and removing the sanctuary windows would add $90,000 to the bill.

The cost of a complete roof overhaul ranges from $293,200 to $443,400, including up to $15,000 to take down the church steeple.

Whitman Requardt estimated that it would take up to $1 million to bring the building up to code and make it suitable for community uses. Herman noted that construction and supply costs have climbed since that study was first presented to the council in March.

When asked if the roof could hold up for another year without repairs, Vienna Facility Manager Leon Evans said he believes it could, but there’s no guarantee.

“I just got finished with the HVAC system that just failed in the sanctuary today,” he told the council. “All I was asked was to get numbers for you so you guys could figure out what direction you want to go.”

After some debate and confusion over the difference between the flat and sloped parts of the roof, the council decided to remove the church’s cross but hold repairs until after the completion of a feasibility report commissioned on June 13.

Expected to begin this fall and finish in spring 2023, the report will recommend long-term options for the Annex, which is housing the police department until its now-open station is ready for officers to move in later this month.

For now, parks and rec staff may need to keep buckets and tarp handy to deal with those pesky roof leaks. Mayor Linda Colbert acknowledged that the repairs deferral wasn’t what staff had hoped for.

“There’s just a lot of questions still,” Colbert said. “I would hate to vote on something now and not have it be the right thing. You’re right we’re taking a risk.”

The Vienna Town Council dedicated over half a million dollars on Monday (Aug. 29) to an ongoing project to restore Bear Branch tributary, a stream that runs through Southside Park to I-66.

With no discussion, the council awarded a $543,258 design contract to A. Morton Thomas and Associates, Inc. (AMT), one of five engineering firms that submitted proposals for this second phase of a two-part project this past spring.

This phase of the restoration will address approximately 2,300 linear feet of stream that flows through the park, parallel to Walker Street SW and Ross Drive SW, by stabilizing “the steep, eroded stream banks,” according to town staff.

“The completed project will reduce sedimentation and improve the stream’s water quality using natural channel design techniques,” the project page says.

In addition to shoring up the stream banks, the project will involve the replacement of a pedestrian bridge and the development of a “functional” pedestrian trail from the bridge to an existing sidewalk.

As part of its proposal, AMT said it would provide two recommendations for a possible bridge design and work with the town and park staff to develop the trail. The firm’s contract consists of a base fee of $497,744 with $45,514 added for the bridge and trail.

Carrying an estimated total cost of $2.5 million, the project is being funded by both Fairfax County and the town, which obtained a grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality in November 2019.

The project’s first phase, which focused on the stream segment parallel to Patrick Street SW and Yeonas Park, got funding approved in 2019 and a design contract awarded in July 2020.

The first phase’s design plan is nearly complete and will be presented at a community meeting next Thursday (Sept. 8).

Photo via Town of Vienna

At the urging of some residents and even a Fairfax County School Board member, Vienna is revisiting its noise rules, especially for businesses and other commercial sites.

The town last rewrote its noise ordinance came in 2011, but with sound issues becoming a growing source of tension between residents and businesses, the Vienna Town Council agreed on Monday (July 11) to initiate a new review — with no guarantee that anything will change.

Instead, the council directed staff to research best practices and regulations from other localities to determine whether the town should pursue any updates.

“We are not even at a point that we are suggesting there’s changes,” Mayor Linda Colbert said. “So, we may look at other jurisdictions and decide we like our noise ordinance the way it is…A conference session to review what the [police] chief and town attorney have come up with makes sense.”

Commercial Truck Noises Frustrate Residents

While possibly compounded by increased construction activities and pandemic-related changes, such as more people working from home, noise complaints aren’t a new trend for the Town of Vienna.

A resident of Park Street NE since 2019 told FFXnow that one of his neighbors has spent 20 years battling issues from Mill Street, a commercial strip that backs up to their houses. One business, the now-defunct Bey Lounge, had a live entertainment permit revoked in 2019 after multiple noise ordinance violations stretching back to 2016.

The resident, who asked not to be named out of fear that Vienna’s “small-town politics” could put “a scarlet letter on my name,” says he hears trucks pulling up to the Mill Street businesses every morning, sometimes as early as 3 or 4 a.m.

While he describes himself as a heavy sleeper, his kids reliably wake up whenever the noises begin, and he believes an inability to get a full eight hours of sleep contributed to developmental challenges his son started experiencing in early 2020, before COVID-19 arrived in the U.S.

Since he brought up his concerns to the town council in August 2021, the resident says the Vienna Police Department has done “a fantastic job” enforcing the existing noise rules, but commercial vehicle loading and unloading is allowed within 300 feet of a residence on weekdays except from 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. — a seven-hour stretch. Read More

A mixed-use development that will bring apartments, retail, and additional parking to Church Street in Vienna is moving forward.

During its meeting on Monday (July 11), the Vienna Town Council unanimously approved the project from developer Bognet Construction to replace two commercial buildings at 139 and 145 Church Street with a three-story building and two-level parking garage.

“I think it’s going to add a lot to Church Street, a lot to our town and a lot to that corner,” Vienna Mayor Linda Colbert said after a town staff presentation on the project.

The approved project was downsized from Bognet’s original proposal, eliminating a planned basement with 10,891 square feet of commercial space and reducing the number of residential units from 18 to 11.

The provided parking has also shrunk from 72 spots to a total of 46 spaces, including 14 designated public parking spaces on the lower level and nine compact spaces. The garage will be behind the building, backing up to a 15-foot-wide alley owned by the town.

The development will comprise a total floor area of 25,101 square feet with 13,055 square feet for the residential units and 14,152 square feet of non-residential space, including the public parking spaces, according to a staff report.

The ground floor will be exclusively commercial uses, while the second floor is expected to have a mix of office suits and multi-family units. The third floor will consist entirely of apartments.

A rendering depicts Texas Burger as the tenant in a ground-floor suite at the corner of Church Street and Lawyers Road, but Verity Commercial, the leasing company for the development, says the name is just a placeholder.

“We do want a fun community servicing restaurant on the future corner space though,” Verity Commercial Senior Vice President Ellie H. Bechtle told FFXnow by email. Read More