Critter Corner

PAGE 22 | JULY 15 – 21, 2021

LOCAL

BACK IN THE DAY

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Falls Church News-Press

Vol. VI, No. 17 • July 11, 1996

Fairfax Co. Police, in Hot Pursuit at 100 MPH, Crash in Downtown Falls Church

Falls Church News-Press

Vol. XXI, No. 22 • July 14, 2011

Fairfax Pols Turn Up Heat, Pressure F.C. To Cough Up Its Water System

The News-Press has learned that the two Fairfax County police cruisers who came down West Broad Street Sunday afternoon chasing a fleeing stolen vehicle were going almost 100 miles per hour, before one of the cruisers collided with a passenger car and careened into the Robertson Building.

With political pressure grow ing in Fairfax County to compel the City of Falls Church to sell or otherwise divest itself of its extensive water system, the Falls Church City Council called a “time out” Monday to delay implementation of a rate hike on the system’s current users. FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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Metro Site

Continued from Page 5

Duncan wrote to the News-Press, “We still have a little ways to go in our negotiations with the Falls Church Gateway Partners, to make sure the final deal for the West Falls project is fair to both the City and our development partners.” He added, “I know our Council is committed to finding an equitable compromise.”

Concerning the county board vote Tuesday, Duncan, who was writing from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he was on another frequent trip to look in on his 95-old-year father, crowed, “That is so terrific!”

He added, “It sounds like we’ve reached a happy milestone in relations between our City of Falls Church and our friends in Fairfax County.”

Speaking at Tuesday’s county board meeting on behalf of the F.C. Gateway Partners, Andrew Painter spelled out five ways in which the proposed combined project will benefit the area, saying it will capitalize on the original 1986 plan when the West Falls Church Metro station first opened.

He said the new plan will provide interconnectivity between the Metro station area and its surrounding areas, that scaled back building heights will protect surrounding neighborhoods, as will buffering, provision for affordable housing by the Metro station will become available and a network of pedestrian and bike lane infrastructures will make the whole area accessible to nonvehicular transit.

David Baker, the director of government and community affairs for Virginia Tech, said that it is a strong desire of the school to buy the land on which it now sits with the waning years of a lease from Falls Church.

“We want an urban, walkable community,” he said. “It is what graduate students prefer.” He cited the grant, secured by State Sen. Dick Saslaw, for a “smart roads test bed” to be embedded at the site that will provide a network of sensors enabling adaptations to changing conditions.

Douglas Stewart of the area’s Sierra Club chapter spoke in support of the plan, as did Christin DeShauer of the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association and Bernard Suchicital speaking for the Beyer Family, the largest landowner in the area.

The prospect of the Beyer Family folding its holdings into the 40-acre plan could make its scope significantly bigger and wider.

Nia Rubin spoke in favor of the project on behalf of WMATA, and Rochelle Barimany weighed in for the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce.

With the approval Tuesday, the county board then moved to the formation of a Falls Church Active Transit Plan to explore the next steps.

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ORIGINALLY FROM OXFORD, MISSISSIPPI, Gillian has recently called Falls Church her home for the last year. While not studying away at Georgetown University, with the hopes to one day work on International Climate Policy she has been known to dabble in the arts. (P����: J. M������

W�����/JM������W�����.���) HIDING AWAY FROM her in-house paw-paparazzi is Audrey, the Ortega family’s cat. While Audrey might be a little camera shy, we all know cats love attention...on their own terms.

Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be! Send in your Critter Corner submissions to crittercorner@fcnp.com.