Sprawl and Crawl Wrote:
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> Vienna Town Council OKs subdivision on edge of
> historic district
>
http://www.insidenova.com/news/fairfax/vienna-town
> -council-oks-subdivision-on-edge-of-historic-distr
> ict/article_37c1f5e0-0da1-11e4-8017-001a4bcf887a.h
> tml
>
> The Vienna Town Council voted unanimously July 7
> to allow a developer to subdivide a property in
> the town’s Windover Heights Historic District
> and add two more houses.
>
> The site now is home to a house at 130 Pleasant
> St., N.W., which was built in 1910 and will be
> retained under the subdivision agreement. Town
> officials acknowledged that nothing in the accord
> would preclude the old house from being torn down
> in the future.
>
>
>
>
>
> The existing house and two new homes will be
> accessed via a new cul-de-sac and listed under the
> addresses 301, 303 and 305 Salsbury Lane, N.W. The
> current house’s driveway and detached garage
> will be removed to make way for the new Andrew
> Minor Subdivision.
>
> Emergency vehicles will be able to access the
> cul-de-sac in case of an incident and subsequently
> back out onto Pleasant Street, said Deputy Public
> Works Director Michael Gallagher.
>
> The subdivision will feature a
> stormwater-detention facility under its yard along
> Pleasant Street, which will handle water from the
> site and the surrounding area, said Vienna
> Planning and Zoning Director Greg Hembree.
>
> The 3,500-square-foot stormwater facility will
> reduce peak runoff by 30 percent from a storm
> severe enough to occur only once per decade, said
> Anthony Venafro of SMITH Engineering, an agent for
> property owner Michael Covel.
>
> Council member Emil Attanasi inquired whether it
> would not be better to construct the stormwater
> facility out of concrete rather than corrugated
> metal, but Gallagher assured him there was little
> chance a vehicle would drive over the
> water-detention area and damage it.
>
> The Vienna Planning Commission on May 14
> unanimously recommended approval of the new
> subdivision. But Planning Commission member
> Charles Anderson, who lives across the street from
> the site, said the decision was not easy for him.
>
> The development will necessitate cutting down some
> tall trees along Pleasant Street and will increase
> the number of streetlights on that short section
> of road, Anderson said.
>
> While Vienna follows Fairfax County’s
> streetlight standards, Gallagher offered to
> inquire, as Anderson’s request, whether the
> additional lighting equipment could be the sort
> that minimizes light spillover.
>
> Council member Pasha Majdi asked Hembree how often
> town officials granted waivers to developers. The
> Planning and Zoning director replied that town
> staff members review such requests and that “95
> percent of the stuff you see has been
> ‘sanitized.’”
>
> Hembree also fielded a query from Council member
> Carey Sienicki, who inquired whether it would be
> possible to continue listing the site’s housing
> addresses under Pleasant Street, which would
> maintain congruence with notations in local
> history books.
>
> Hembree responded that the new Salsbury Lane
> addresses stemmed from zoning-code requirements
> regarding side-yard setbacks.
>
> Judi Medwedeff, who lives on nearby Windover
> Avenue, N.W., opposed the addition of sidewalks,
> curb and gutter at the site because they would not
> be in keeping with the rest of the town’s
> historic district.
>
> Mayor Laurie DiRocco said the new sidewalk would
> connect with the adjacent Maple Avenue commercial
> corridor and that not requiring such a pathway
> would necessitate a waiver.
>
> Curb and gutter were required by town code and
> will help channel stormwater properly, Venafro
> added.
>
> But Medwedeff’s husband, David, inveighed
> against the subdivision, calling it a “pipe-stem
> [site] with a glorified cul-de-sac that will
> dramatically the character of the historic
> district.”
>
> Before voting, Majdi summed up several Council
> members’ positions by saying the developer would
> end up building one less house at the site than
> otherwise would have been allowed.
>
> “Single-family detached homes generally are
> considered good in town,” he said. “Three is
> better than four.”
"MEDWEDEFF ","DAVID "," ","049"," 309","WINDOVER ","AV","VIENNA ","VA","06/04/2009","40-44MPH/25MPH ZONE "