Office To Residential Conversation OK'd By Vienna Town Council

VIENNA, VA — A revised plan for 24 residential units to replace four office buildings received approval from Vienna Town Council Monday.

The approval was for the Vienna Courts buildings at 127 to 133 Park Street NE. The current buildings are four, three-story office buildings with 12 units and 80 parking spaces. The developer plans to convert the buildings into 12 buildings with a total of 24 residential units.

To accommodate the residential buildings, a rezoning change was approved from transitional zoning for professional office uses to multifamily low density zoning. Approval was also given to site plan changes for lot coverage, front yard setback, rear yard setback and minimum lot area.

"This has been a long time coming," said Councilmember Chuck Anderson. "Basically in my opinion, this meets one of our biggest challenges going forward, which is to find lower-cost housing for Vienna. We don't have a whole lot of spaces for that, but this happens to be I think a very good space for it."

The maximum height of the buildings would be 28 feet, which is below the 35 feet maximum in multifamily low density zoning. There would be 64 parking spaces for the buildings, including two-car garage parking for each unit and 16 surface parking spaces.

The buildings are located close to the Church Street and Maple Avenue commercial corridors as well as residential properties. A town staff report notes the town's comprehensive plan recommends townhouse or multifamily housing "to provide a transition between commercial and industrial properties and single‐family neighborhoods."

"Staff assesses that making this change in zoning, and granting the modifications, would be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan," the staff report read. "However, it is likely to result in the loss of low-cost aging office space that serves current users."

In September, the Vienna Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend the request. From there, the proposal was revised twice from the one presented to Town Council on Oct. 24 with 14 buildings and 28 total units. The second time it was revised, the proposal had 26 units in 13 buildings.