For those who care to pay attention to such things, the recent decision by members of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to reduce – by an overall 29 percent – the amount of required parking at a major West Falls Church redevelopment will provide a good test case for whether such reductions are a net plus, or minus.
Instead of the nearly 1,600 parking spaces mandated by zoning regulations, the developer is being allowed to get by with just 1,140. The biggest cuts are those associated with two-bedroom apartments (parking spaces down 40% from regulations) and townhouses (down 41% and 44% depending on the home’s size). The reductions will be much less, or in some cases none at all, on the commercial and retail side of the property.
Supporters of the reductions say they make sense because the project (being planned by FCGP-Metro Development LLC) is adjacent to a Metro station, so there is less incentive for residents to have personal vehicles if they don’t need them. Critics suggest that simply flies in the face of human nature, and if there end up being more vehicles than spaces, adjacent neighborhoods will pay the price.
Fact is, we simply don’t know how it will play out in coming years. But this particular project is among those worth not forgetting about, as they will prove instructive as to whether real-world conditions mirror the expectations of planners, or run contrary to them.
We’ll see. Eventually.
