Height and density restrictions will be top priorities in the Town of Vienna mayoral contest

Town of Vienna residents have begun mailing in ballots to select the town’s next mayor in an election that promises to be yet another referendum on whether or not to ease the town’s strict height and density limits.

Three Vienna Town Council members, Linda Colbert, Pasha Majdi, and Howard Springsteen, are all seeking the seat soon to be vacated by Mayor Laurie DiRocco. Last year DiRocco announced that she would not be seeking reelection following a series of increasingly tense Town Council meetings defined by debates over development projects.

Of the candidates stepping forward to replace DiRocco, two hold tight to the Town’s outdated zoning restrictions, while one is willing to adjust to the realities of the changing needs of the Washington region.

At issue are zoning restrictions unchanged since 1956

To Virginia commuters heading northeast through Vienna towards the Beltway, GW Parkway, and Tysons, Vienna’s main thoroughfare — sleepily named “Maple Avenue” — is little more than a cumbersome obstacle to be treacherously navigated until it widens out as it turns into Route 123.

That the height restrictions along this road abruptly changes from Vienna’s 35 feet to 400 feet (with recent projects managing to stretch this limit to 600 feet) in Tysons, underscores the changes and growth happening around Vienna, but not necessarily in Vienna.

Although some residents tout Vienna’s “small town” character, as retiring Vienna Town Council member Douglas Noble put it, “We haven’t really been a small town since the 1950s. What we really are is an independent suburb in the sixth-largest metropolitan area of the country, two miles from [Tysons] the 12th-largest employment center in the country.”

Despite an explosion of demand for housing in the area, “Most of the current residential development in Vienna” continues to be, “demolition and rebuilds of existing single-family detached homes,” according to the town’s comprehensive plan.

In 2014, Vienna’s height and density restrictions were eased along Maple Avenue, following a 14-year planning process. The new Maple Avenue Commercial zone (MAC) created a complex system whereby developers could offer architectural and parking incentives to bypass the Town’s height restrictions, last modified in 1956, allowing them to construct buildings up to 54 feet, or four stories.

Through this process, according to the comp plan, Vienna officials hoped to, “transform the corridor into a pedestrian-friendly and lively mixture of commercial activity, recreational opportunity, and residential life.”

After the passage of the MAC, a series of projects utilizing the higher limits were brought to the Town Council, and the reaction from Vienna residents was…sheer outrage.

Meeting after meeting of the Town Council was packed with residents voicing their opposition to constructing slightly larger mixed-use developments, claiming they would cause traffic problems, light pollution, and be an eyesore.

After approving only a handful of projects, the Town Council suspended the MAC in September of 2018. In 2019, voters ousted MAC supporter Tara Bloch from the Town Council, filling her seat and that of retiring councilmember Carey Sienicki with two of the most vocal opponents of the MAC on the ballot. Since then, the MAC has remained suspended.

Where the candidates stand

Of the three candidates seeking the mayor’s seat, two promise to uphold the code of 1956. Majdi and Springsteen have both offered an unyielding anti-development vision of the Town’s “small-town” character.

Majdi, the only councilmember who voted against the MAC in 2014, recently attempted to rescind authorization for a MAC project already approved by the Town Council in the hopes that the freshly elected anti-development candidates would support his unprecedented move.

Springsteen, while originally being a proponent of the MAC, has opposed recent MAC projects, and stated at a candidate forum, “I support projects that protect, and improve the quality of life in Vienna. The allowable heights and densities in the current MAC do neither of these, this is why I have consistently voted against MAC projects and for extending the moratorium.”

In contrast, candidate Colbert has signaled that she is willing to take Vienna into the 21st century. Colbert voted for the MAC in 2014, saying at the time, “I think it’s time to make some changes.”

Colbert supports what the MAC has tried to accomplish, and is in favor of reinstating it while ridding it of loopholes and ambiguities that provide fodder for its detractors.

She says she has, “No agenda on height on Maple Avenue. Whatever is economically feasible, and whatever our residents want, and whatever works. We need to make some hard decisions.”

Town of Vienna residents can request an absentee ballot by visiting https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/absentee. While election day is currently scheduled for May 5, this date is likely subject to change.