Long Time Resident Thinking Outside the Parking Box

I've heard of these systems before. I know they aren't cheap but they work well in densely populated areas such as NY or DC. A typical precast parking garage runs around +/-$10K per space, double that for underground stalls. It will be interesting to find the cost of these in relation to the typical construction. Of course the savings is in the reduced building area where land is a premium. Interesting idea.

I'd much rather paid $7 million for parking/traffic solutions than a Green. I can goto Nottoway for my summer concerts.

There are garages and there are garages. It's not just that this town council is stuck in a box over issues like garages, they are stuck in a box over any improvements the businesses and residents have introduced in the last 4-5 years.

They haven't any real leadership or common sense to realize that with everything that is going on with the Tysons Corner Project (which by the way is the reason Vienna got the 4th best place to live in the Money Magazine as it was their zip codes that made the grade... look for yourself), Vienna is going to have to make some changes and improvements or else, Vienna is going to continue to be a mere cut-through town.

Yes, we have banks, gas stations, groceries, and an assortment of other shops, we all need and want, but the land use in Vienna is horribly managed and under utilized. It's this way because the present code does not allow for any common sense or forward thinking.

We think Vienna could improve with minor changes to the code to allow for smart growth allowing business owners and investors to be able to work on a level and even playing ground without anyone getting special back room deals like Steve Bukont and his partner Doug D'Alexander.

While most people would agree they like to some part, the new construction that includes Bazins, what isn't widely known to most people in Vienna is that Bukont and D'Alexander got more than a sweat-heart deal when they were allowed to build that structure they way they did.

It has been said that no-one else in the TOV would have been able to get away with what they were allowed to get, and this is wrong. Allowing for code changes would not only allow other contractors to work in Vienna with the same goals of improving Vienna's appeal and business diversity, these changes would allow for everyone involved to get the same treatment from the TOV.

Again, no-one is fighting for large monstrous changes in Vienna, but we want to ability to approach the TOV and its council and know what we are going to get without having to know that we are getting short-sheeted while other's are getting more than just a pick at the apple like Bukont and D'Alexander.
This is wrong, but it happens. Maud knows this is wrong, but she lets it happen.

Without true leadership, nothing can or will get done, and then all we will see are a series of land owners taking their cases to the courts to make the town give them what they want on their terms without any control from the council or its advisory boards.

This is not good for Vienna. Maud knows this, but she has drawn her line in the sand and has chosen to simply ignore what is best for Vienna. She would rather waste our tax dollars and fight blindly rather than get together and play fairly and cooperatively.

She's is not what Vienna need, and ultimately, her New England sentiments are going to make Vienna look more like a vast string of strip malls.

Vienna needs smart growth, but first it needs better leaders. We cannot support or re-elect Maud Robinson this spring. We have good people who live in Vienna, we have good people who volunteer their time and efforts in making Vienna a town we want to share and raise our children, and we need more forward thinking people to volunteer and get elected to council to lead Vienna into a better tomorrow and not just sit back and gripe over garages and Town Greens.

I love Vienna, and I want to see it grow and nurtured, but to sit back and allow it to stagnate with without any common sense development simply because you have the power to kill all the work involved with the Maple Avenue Vision, is hardly a way to show real leadership in our town.

VOTE