Big things are happening in Falls Church
While redevelopment in Mason District is slow going, the City of Falls Church is having a renaissance, with several major mixed-use projects underway.
Part of that’s due to Falls Church’s status as a small, self-contained municipality and its proximity to Metro.
The biggest project is West Falls, a huge development on the site of the former high school, community members learned on a tour of the area hosted by the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
A new five-story school, Meridian High School, was built nearby next to I-66. It opened for in-person learning in September 2021.
The new West Falls project will have a wellness center, a hotel, a 15-story senior housing facility with 200 units, a 15-story condo with 130 units, an apartment building above a grocery store, and 90 townhouses, said Evan Goldman, executive vice president for acquisition and development at EYA, which is developing the site.
The main driver for the West Falls project was the need to replace the aging, obsolete high school, said Falls Church City Council member Philip Duncan.
Community meetings on the need for updating the school started about 25 years ago. Eventually, it was decided that “we needed to do something bold and long-lasting, not just add a wing or an addition,” Duncan said.
The large site where the school had been was well-suited to a high-density development due to its location on Broad Street near the West Falls Church Metro station.
“Once the city cleared the hurdle for a new high school, it was relatively uncontroversial that we would remake the non-school site,” Duncan said.
EYA is also working on a project to replace Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center on Haycock Road with a Virginia Tech innovation center focusing on smart construction. Construction on that project, which will also include mixed-use development, is expected to start in about two years.
A third project in West Falls Church calls for townhouses and other development on the surface parking lot at the West Falls Church Metro station. That project is in Fairfax County and is being planned with WMATA. The parking garage will remain. Construction could start in 2027.
Those three projects together will have about 2,500 housing units.
All this development will lead to more people using transit and walking and biking, which will result in less traffic, said Stewart Schwartz, executive director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth.
Duncan expects the huge developments in the West End will provide a needed boost to Metro’s Orange line, which has experienced sharp declines in ridership. When the Silver line opened, the commuter buses moved to the Metro station in Reston.
Meanwhile, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation is drafting a West Falls Church Active Transportation Study, which is looking at pedestrian and bicycling improvements within two miles of the Metro station.
FCDOT has scheduled a community meeting on the study on Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m., at Lemon Road Elementary School in Falls Church, and a virtual meeting on Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m.
The Falls Church tour passed by the retail center on Broad Street between Haycock Road and Falls Avenue, which has been renovated and rebranded as Birch & Broad. Federal Realty added more outdoor dining spaces, a trend accelerated during the pandemic.
To relieve congestion on the popular Washington and Old Dominion Trail, the City of Falls Church divided a three-mile stretch of the trail through the city into two separate lanes. One lane is for pedestrians, and the other, separated by a median, is for bicyclists and scooters.
The W&OD Trail runs behind the huge Founders Row mixed-use project on Broad Street developed by Mill Creek and Spectrum.
Construction of the first section, Founders Row I, is completed, although the retail spaces are still being built out. It has 320 apartments, including 70 for seniors, said Falls Church Senior Planner Jeff Hollern.
It will have ground-floor retail, including a movie theater where patrons can have dinner while watching a movie. Its commercial spaces are designed to attract people from the broader community.
Founders Row I replaces a gas station, a 7-Eleven, and a small retail strip.
Founders Row II was only recently approved by the Falls Church Planning Commission. It will be constructed on Broad Street on the other side of West Street on the site of a Wells Fargo Bank and Jiffy Lube.
It will consist of apartments, a 5,000-square-foot co-working space, and convenience retail for residents. Founders Row II is expected to be completed in 2027.
Six percent of the units in Founders Row I and 12 percent in Founders Row II will be affordable.
As noted in this article, a very significant reason for the development taking place in Falls Church is the West Falls Church Metro Station.
And a major reason for the slow (close to nonexistent) development in Mason District is because of the ignorance (or deception on the part of those who are not ignorant) of those who oppose the expansion of mass transit into Mason District.
I’m referring to the commenters on this blog who repeatedly, using faulty logic, claim that expanding mass transit (such as establishing a rapid bus or streetcar line on Route 7 thorough Mason District) would bring a rapid and permanent increase in violent and property crimes into Mason District.
Nothing can be further from the truth, as seen from the very low crime which Arlington, the City of Alexandria, and Tyson’s have experienced because of (not just in spite of) the Metro and bus lines that have been established over the recent decades in their jurisdictions.
In fact, both Arlington and the City of Alexandria share a bus rapid transit line along Route 1 where a great amount of development is taking place.
The reality is that there is little (close to no) development in Mason District because there is significant public opposition to this development because the people who claim they want development do not want to do what it will take to attract such development to Mason District.
While I am no fan of Penny Gross, it is a fact that those who blame Penny Gross for the lack of development in Mason District are being inaccurate and lazy, or else deceptive.
And if you want to see crime continue to rapidly increase in Mason District just keep doing what we have been doing. The lack of transit infrastructure will result in a continued lack of investment, which will result in pockets of high crime expanding.
The fact is, Mason District is lucky to have the level of development it currently has — primarily the redevelopment of vacant office buildings into live/work apartments. And the relatively new Harbor Freight hardware store.
How are things going at Tyson’s corner since the metro started going out there? Shootings all the time. Know how almost all the criminals get there? Mass transit. Have a conversation with FCPD and inform yourself.
All the time? I certainly don’t have any data either way but do you have anything to back up your statement?
The same people who believe BLM and Antifa burned entire cities to the ground in 2020 take a handful of instances to make it seem like NoVa has become some sort of hellscape. Combatting their efforts to create a false narrative is important.
Agreed, and never, ever provide any documented proof, like their orange god.
@Jerry – lol. I do think public transit is a great thing! 🙂
It seems quite silly (to me) that almost all the criminals you mention would take transit to Tysons, commit said crime, then wait at a station/bus stop to flee the scene. Especially with the delays on the all lines with 7000-series out of service.
Penny and company are in fact to blame, but may be number 2 on the list. Moreso, it’s the voters that allow the status quo to fail us year after year.
Public transportation seems to be a non priority for these conservative inpeople, afraid of change and improvement for anyone but themselves.
You sound like a Fox News pundit. “The criminals”. Like it’s genetic. Get real, mass transit may have a weak correlation with crime but there are plenty of missing variables.
The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.
Build rapid transit in Fairfax County. Build transit-oriented development in Fairfax County.
@catboy, why did you write “Fox News pundit”? Isn’t our country divided enough? Stop with the nonsense.
Well said. Mason district missed it’s chance when KMart left. That was an opportunity to redevelop that whole area from LRT to Columbia Pike.
Thank you for this enlightened comment!
These projects all look the same. I look foreward to the day when a new style becomes popular at the architecture schools.
No architecture schools teach this style! This is developer style – the thing that most architecture students are avoiding.
Baileys/7-corners could have had a few similar proposals but got nixed for one reason or another. Mill Creek project, Avalonbay, Sears building come to
Decent transit on route 7. Maybe finally we’ll get Route 7 transit or frequent bus circulator service that connects Baileys/7 corners to Falls Church Metro.
Something needs to change so the area isn’t constantly left behind.
Leadership needs to change first. Mason district deserves better.
Leadership doesn’t change by itself. The voters have to want change. So far there is no evidence the voters of Mason District want change.
I can’t believe these archaic and rotting minds that think mass transit is a ticket to increased crime. Hello, this is 2022 and not the bigoted days of the 1950’s and 60’s, although there are plenty of aging relics that are still in that mindset.
Just look at all the areas that have expanded their mass transit reach and efficiency: Arlington line has created robust growth of their economy in Ballston, Courthouse, Clarendon, Crystal City and Roslyn; Bethesda, Rockville and Gaithersurg in MD; and all the new thriving pockets of neighborhoods in DC such as Petworth, Waterfront, Navy Yard and now even Anacostia. All of these areas have a common denominator: METRO.
As for the aging minds of Mason, you and the community are failing as a result of no vision and expanding social handouts because Mason has turned into the growing ghettos of the poor (Culmore, Baileys and 7 Corners) and the wealthy (Lake Barcroft, Sleepy Hollow), while the young middle class flee to areas where metro is accessible.
All that will be left if this mindset is not turned around is a skeleton of what once was with neighborhoods of urban blight. If that is what you want Mason, you are assured that destiny!
Well, we need metro in order to control street congestion. Crime will exist no matter what and as long as we have people who are in need and have no hope left but to commit crime. Our world is not perfect and people, especially people, are not perfect. There will always be good and bad people, period.
Our city government wants the growth to increase tax revenue. Poor planning result in lack of street expansion, or maybe it was done because certain groups are pushing the “Green New Deal” agenda. There are always agendas being pushed by certain individuals with power.