Reduced Space For VA Tech At West Falls Church Prompts Plan Amendment

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Plans for a redevelopment at the West Falls Church Metro station area will be tweaked from a previously approved Fairfax County plan amendment, which set land use guidelines for the site.

A mixed-use development is planned on part of the Metro-owned West Falls Church Metro land and Virginia Tech site. The developer team of EYA, Hoffman & Associates and Rushmark has been working with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to turn some of the station's parking area into a mixed-use development. Apartments, townhouses, office, retail and academic uses are envisioned for the site, as well as new roads, a transit plaza and other improvements.

The development is planned in conjunction with the City of Falls Church's separate West Falls Church development, which is under construction on its former high school site.

For the development on the Metro station site, the first step in the approval process was a comprehensive plan amendment approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in July 2021. The redevelopment would also require a rezoning process and site plan.

In that plan amendment, 160,000 square feet of institutional use for Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center was anticipated for a research center. But last week, Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust was informed of changes to the Virginia Tech square footage in a rezoning application filed by the developer.

The application proposes decreasing the 160,000-square-foot academic use by 120,000 square feet, bringing the planned academic use square footage to 40,000. In place of the reduced space, the proposal calls for 62,000 square feet of additional office space.

The supervisor noted Virginia Tech's "programming needs have changed" since the July 2021 plan amendment approval. On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors approved Foust's board matter requesting a comprehensive plan amendment for the shift in uses.

"While this shift from institutional office use requires an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan recommendations, this change does not propose to increase the plan floor area ratio [density] or overall plan use limits of development in a transit station area," said Foust at the board meeting.

A spokesperson for Virginia Tech said plans have not changed and the square footage was approved in the plan amendment before the plans for its research center were announced in 2022. Even with the plan amendment, the school had only planned for the center to be up to 40,000 square feet.

Foust said the plan amendment should be reviewed with the rezoning application.