By Christy Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 15, 2010; VA21

The Arlington County Board approved guidelines and policy goals Saturday for development around the East Falls Church Metro station.

The approval sets the larger framework for county staff members to plan for future development in the suburban transit community. The county will use the East Falls Church area plan, which was the result of a three-year community task force, as a jumping-off point.

Board member J. Walter Tejada (D) said the board was accepting the task force's plan and "passing it on for further and deeper analysis."

"This is not the end of the process," he said. "This is essentially the beginning."

The task force's plan called for a more walkable community with a grocery store and other amenities. It also recommended replacing the more than 400 parking spaces at the park-and-ride with a six- to nine-story building, a central plaza, retail operations and about 100 short-term parking spaces for shoppers, among other ideas.

In September, the board is to receive a report from county staff members intended to explain unanswered questions. The second report, or an updated plan, will be ready for community discussion in about six months, said board Chairman Jay Fisette (D).

County Manager Michael B. Brown said, "The intent here was to be engaging . . . informative" in listening to and studying community concerns and developing policy for future work on the neighborhood plan.

Many residents agreed that the community should be a part of a plan for the future, especially with the Metro extension to Dulles underway. They said that they wanted a thoughtful plan that took all ideas into account, and they disputed that the task force's plan was complete.

Several residents complained that an eight- or nine-story building would be too tall and inappropriate for their community of single-family homes. Many people said they saw the proposal, with its incentives for higher buildings and densities, as putting their neighborhood on sale to the highest bidder.

Board member Barbara A. Favola (D) suggested the county do an economic feasibility study to see what the area could support. That information could be incorporated into the plan to give the residents more certainty about their future, she said.

Michelle Gallo told the board that without the parking lot, commuters would take over neighborhood streets. Melanie Laforce said she feared the impact on green space and parkland.

The approved policy guidance states that better public transit, controlled spillover parking and eased traffic congestion are goals for the plan. It calls for more pedestrian and bike access and includes the preservation of single-family homes, historic properties and open areas, such as parks.

Other residents voiced concern that the Virginia Department of Transportation's refusal to approve the East Falls Church plan because of the lack of commuter parking spaces and appropriate space for a wider Interstate 66 was not considered.

The state transportation agency was part of the task force and owns the park-and-ride lot and land adjacent to I-66 that the plan would develop.

The plan "doesn't mean any of it will ever get built," said board member Chris Zimmerman (D). "Maybe VDOT doesn't ever let anything happen, and you don't have anything to worry about because nothing happens."

Zimmerman said if development occurred, it would be best to "have a plan in place that creates a presumption about what this thing should look like," because there is a "reasonably good chance" that an interested developer would start from that plan.