Vienna Town Council's Inept Leadership on Parking Problems
This image shows the Vienna Presbyterian Church (VPC) parking lot on Maple Avenue. There can be no greater example of the failed leadership of Jane Seeman and Maud Robinson. These same Council members whine nonstop that a lack of parking is Vienna's biggest problem, but why did they allow this? For the lost in space critics who will write in and say, "but that is the Vienna Presbyterian Church's private property, Vienna could do nothing!"
That's BS. There are any number of private/public partnerships that could have been conceived to allow a parking garage at that location. All of Tysons Corner is going to be redeveloped through give and take incentives/negotiations and Jane and Mother Maud can't get one parking garage done? You say the Church is not interested in a win/win solution for all of Vienna? That's hard to believe. The Town should reach out now and do something productive for a change. Will it happen? Doubtful. Mother Maud is focused only on tearing down the Vienna Inn and the antique stores next to it.
Comments
That whole area (including Town Green, Freeman House) is lost revenue for the Town. From the way Maud is going the Vienna Inn will be lost revenue also.
Posted by: too much | February 19, 2007 09:38 AM
Underground parking sure would have worked well here, for everyone. Did Laurie or Jane even have that as a suggestion for the church? All they did was lobby for the Church expansion and not for the Town. The two could have worked well together, but alas that is not the way Mother Maud wants it. Sadly her power has come from YEARS of pitting people against each other. I'm sure she is sleeping better knowing that her protégés Laurie and Jane are following suit.
Posted by: too much | February 19, 2007 09:47 AM
unfortunately, underground parking is way too expensive to be viable on Maple Avenue. This is mostly because the policies of Maude & co have suppressed commercial land values and kept potential developers away.Maude believes that all development is bad development, and so we're left with the outdated shops from the 1950s that couldn't survive anywhere else and do not serve the community well.
Posted by: anne smith | March 24, 2007 04:31 PM