Proposed Falls Church Zoning Changes The Focus Of Postponed Tour

UPDATE: Due to severe weather expected, Monday night's walking tour on transition zones has been postponed to Monday, July 17 at 6 p.m.

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Residents will get to learn about proposed zoning changes in transition zones between residential and commercial areas of Falls Church during a walking tour.

Proposed T-zone updates are being considered in areas between commercial districts and single-family home areas. According to the city, T-zone updates would increase townhouse and multifamily housing options, provide more neighborhood-serving retail, and encourage reinvestments in properties from larger builders while considering stormwater impacts and transitioning to single-family neighborhoods.

T-zones represent less than 3 percent of land within the City of Falls Church. The T-1 zone on North Washington Street on Park Avenue includes current uses like Columbia Baptist Church, Christ-Crossman Methodist Church, Sunrise of Falls Church, single-family houses with commercial use and residential townhouses. The T-2 zone on North Washington Street and Park Avenue near Maple Avenue includes the Kaiser Permanente facility and a small office building as current uses.

The latest T-zone proposals presented to City Council during a June 5 work session include recommending a minimum of eight units per acre and up to 20 units per acre for residential uses in the transition zones. Staff recommended a maximum size of 1,850 square feet for each residential unit.

For affordable housing, staff recommended a sliding scale of up to 30 percent bonus density. A developer would be required to provide 17 percent of units as affordable housing with a 30 percent bonus density.

Newly-recommended parking requirements would be one space per residential dwelling unit, but requirements would vary for commercial uses.

Other recommendations like building heights and setbacks haven't changed since past meetings on T-zones. For commercial uses, staff recommend removing boardinghouses, lodging or rooming houses and parking lots as by-right uses and adding neighborhood-serving business uses like restaurants, barbershops, salons, clothing stores, studios, florists, furniture stores, hardware stores and more.

However, staff made a new recommendation to have special permit review for proposed commercial uses over 4,000 square feet along Park Avenue.

Recommended building heights for T-zones would be the lesser of three stories or 40 feet by-right or the lesser of four stories or 50 feet with a city special use permit review.

The Monday, July 17 tour will overview proposed changes to T-zones. The tour meets outside the Mary Riley Styles Public Library, 120 N. Virginia Ave., and runs from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The approximately 0.2-mile tour on foot will go to Park and Pennsylvania Avenues, then Park Avenue and Lee Street.

City staff are expected to schedule a new work session in July on draft code language for T-zones. A first reading of a proposal could go to City Council later in the summer.