Does this mean the Harris Teeter offer is out for Marco Polo location?

Mixed-Use Proposal Could Prove Facelift for Vienna’s Commercial Core by Brian Trompeter December 16, 2009

Vienna’s commercial area may get a new look in coming years if the Vienna Town Council approves a developer’s mixed-use zoning proposal for a property that’s now the home of Marco Polo Restaurant.

John Sekas, owner of Sekas Homes Ltd., has suggested a mixed-use commercial zoning amendment that would allow buildings up to 50 feet tall, cut parking requirements by one-third and permit retail, office and condominiums on the same site.

Sekas’ plan calls for a U-shaped building with a central, parking-free courtyard in the 200 block of Maple Avenue, W. The idea is to provide a safe environment for pedestrians and a place where people ideally could obtain essential services without needing a car, he said.

Under Sekas’ proposal, parcels would have to consist of at least two contiguous acres to qualify for the new zone. Town officials said they’re not sure if that minimum is sufficient.

The plan also calls for one parking space for every 300 square feet of office, retail and residential floor area. Current town rules call for one parking space for every 200 square feet.

This initial design assumes acquisition of the adjacent Bank of America property, which might not be available, Sekas said.

Sekas’ proposal is a hybrid of recommendations made in a town-commissioned Maple Avenue study and Vienna’s Church Street Vision Plan, which in the mid-1990s led to the creation of the C1-B commercial zone along a section of Church Street.

Signs, plantings and brick sidewalks would be similar to those on Church Street, but building setbacks likely would be larger, town officials said.

The C-1B zone is the only place in town that limits building sizes according to floor-area ratio (FAR), a measure that compares the square footage of a site’s buildings with that of its land footprint. The C-1B zone allows up to 0.7 FAR, but Sekas is asking for 1.5 FAR on Maple Avenue. By comparison, floor-area ratios in Tysons Corner often are between 2 and 5, Sekas said.

The town’s current building-height limit of 35 feet was imposed after construction of Vienna’s tallest building, the six-story White Oak Tower on Maple Avenue, W. Town officials have fought to maintain lower heights to keep development from changing Vienna’s small-town appearance and feel.

Town officials long have wanted to revitalize the Maple Avenue commercial corridor. The town in the last several years has held a charrette with public participation and commissioned a professional study, which recommended three discrete mini-zones along Maple Avenue, each with its own development focus.

But until now, the key obstacles have been public assent, the political will to act and the hesitancy of developers to offer proposals.

Any new plans for Maple Avenue first would be parsed by the Vienna Planning Commission and Vienna Architectural Review Board (ARB), then followed with public hearings and finally a Town Council vote. The council will discuss the issue again at its Feb. 8 work session.

The ARB is prohibited from imposing specific architectural styles, said Town Attorney Steven Briglia. The town was able to achieve an early 20th-century look in its revitalized Church Street area by providing incentives to developers, he said.

The stakes are high as the Town Council moves forward. The new standards would apply to any properties that met the size and location requirements, Vienna Planning and Zoning Director Greg Hembree wrote in an Oct. 1 memorandum.

“We have several people sitting back with their hands in their pockets, waiting to see what you’ll do,” Hembree told the council.

Vienna Mayor M. Jane Seeman said she was excited by the prospect of revamping the town’s commercial corridor.

“With the economic slowdown, this is the perfect time for us to set [the new plans] out and be ready,” she said.

Council member Michael Polychrones also was eager to move ahead on Maple Avenue revitalization.

“We have a lot of pieces of the puzzle,” he said. “Now we have to put it together.”