Motorists driving inappropriately through Vienna could be socked with fines of around $400, if town officials authorize additional penalties for speeding in certain residential zones.

Town Council members at their March 8 work session decided to have the town’s Transportation Safety Commission review a proposal that would add a $200 civil penalty for violations occurring in those zones.

Drivers already pay $5 for each mile per hour over which they exceed the speed limit, plus more than $60 in administrative fees.

More bad news: Judges may not waive the extra residential fine unless offenders agree to perform 20 hours’ community service.

The residential-speeding fines could be collected only along minor arterial, collector and local streets, which must be at least 300 feet long to qualify, said Town Attorney Steven Briglia.

A traffic engineer, or that person’s designee, first would have to cite data showing that motorists along those roads regularly go at least 10 mph faster than the posted speed limit.

In their initial proposal, town officials said these streets meet the above criteria: Park Street, S.E., between Kingsley and Tapawingo roads; Courthouse Road, S.W., between Nutley and Locust streets; Kingsley Road, S.W., between Nutley and Cottage streets; Old Courthouse Road, N.E., between Country Club Drive and Westbriar Drive; and Malcolm Road, N.W., between Orchard Street and Lawyers Road.

Young people often speed along that last stretch of road while trying to get to James Madison High School, said Mayor M. Jane Seeman.

Council members George Lovelace and Michael Polychrones said the higher fines would discourage drivers from speeding.

But council member Howard Springsteen urged caution before fining motorists so severely.

Council member Laurie Cole said she wanted to find out from officials in other jurisdictions whether the fines reduced speeding, or produced any unintended consequences.

Some Town Council members said the residential-speeding fees could prompt motorists to speed down other streets not covered by the ordinance.

Town officials agreed higher fines would get the public’s attention.

“I think you’re going to get a lot of feedback,” said Vienna Police Chief Robert Carlisle.

If Fairfax County officials move forward with plans to bring back the county’s vehicle-decal fee, Vienna residents could feel the pinch.

Vienna eliminated that fee several years ago, but the town is part of Fairfax County, which has the authority to impose its fee on town residents if the town government chooses not to.

The Vienna Town Council on March 1 authorized town officials to advertise a public hearing on a proposal to begin charging a $33-per-vehicle fee - the same rate Fairfax County is considering.

State law limits Northern Virginia localities to charging no more than $33, while most other Virginia jurisdictions are limited to $25. The fee is on top of the personal property tax for vehicles.

The hearing likely would be held in early April. Because Vienna officials adopt their annual budget after Fairfax County does, the town could rescind its reinstated vehicle tax if county officials abandon theirs.

Vienna Town Manager John Schoeberlein said he is preparing his fiscal year 2011 budget proposal without anticipating revenues from a vehicle tax, but said if residents were going to get stuck with the county’s tax anyway, the town should follow suit to keep the revenues in Vienna.

Schoeberlein said he did not know if the town could negate the county’s tax while charging Vienna residents a lesser amount. When Vienna last charged a vehicle tax, it brought in about $250,000 per year in revenue, he said.

For decades, Virginia localities required motorists to display a decal or metal plate on their vehicles, in order to prove that the personal property tax on the vehicle had been paid.

Fairfax County officials eliminated the decal fee - and the decal itself - in 2006, when the county government was flush with tax revenue. Under the new county proposal, the fee could come back while the decal probably would not.

Few people love the personal property tax on vehicles - the phrase “No Car Tax” swept Jim Gilmore to the governorship in 1997, even though the tax was not eliminated during his tenure or later. And there has always been a mixed reaction to the decal itself.

James Campbell, a Northern Virginia resident, thinks it’s stupid and annoying.

“I have lived in a number of states and other countries, and as far as I’ve been able to determine, none of them has a tax to prove you paid your taxes,” he said. “I don’t understand why we haven’t been required to buy a large, ugly sign we must nail on our houses, saying we paid our real estate taxes.”

But other localities have made the best of the situation. In Arlington, which has kept the decal (and the fee), there is an annual contest to choose the design, based on submissions by high school artists.

It’s official: “Aunt Alice’s house” is historic.

The Vienna Town Council on Feb. 22 unanimously placed a house at 214 Nutley St., N.W., on the Register of Vienna Historic Structures, Sites and Places.

The house’s moniker derives from a previous resident, Alice Taylor, who lived in the house until 1978.

According to an application by the house’s current owners, Edward and Melissa Maillett, the structure is one of the best remaining examples of a house formerly owned by a freed African-American.

“We’re proud to live in an older home that has a link to Vienna’s past,” Edward Maillett said. “We’ve added on to the house, but respected its original structure.”

Former Union officer Harmon Salsbury deeded the property to Gilmore Taylor for $107 on Oct. 4, 1907. The site was part of Salsbury’s several-hundred-acre estate, a portion of which became the Windover Heights subdivision, Vienna’s only historic district.

Salsbury developed an affinity for his African-American troops while commanding a division of the 26th Regiment of the U.S. Colored Infantry. After the Civil War, Salsbury sold land to blacks in Vienna under easy credit terms, according to the Mailletts’ application.

The Mailletts, who purchased the house in 1995, removed its siding to expose the old German clapboard. The house’s interior has exposed wooden beams and retains much of its original pine wood floors, the application read.

The house’s original footprint is intact and the structure’s older, front portion still rests on a stone-rubble foundation with a dirt cellar floor, according to the application.

The house sits quite close to Nutley Street, a result of the town’s taking of 8 1/2 feet of land in 1969 to widen the roadway.

In addition to the town’s review, the Mailletts’ application passed muster with Historic Vienna Inc.

According to Fairfax County tax records, the more modern part of the two-story house was constructed in 1935, with an addition built in 2004.

Council member Laurie Cole said the house’s new status did not protect it from future changes.

“Things can still happen to this house,” Cole said. “It can still be remodeled.”

Shortly after being made public late last year, plans to revamp a central site in Vienna’s main commercial area have been scrapped.

Despite the setback, town officials said they will move ahead with discussions on how to redevelop the town’s commercial corridor.

Vienna developer John Sekas in January withdrew his proposal to redevelop the site now occupied by Marco Polo Restaurant and turn it into a much larger mixed-use development with office, retail and residential components.

Sekas could not be reached for comment. In a Jan. 21 e-mail to town officials, Sekas cited market conditions and the project’s complexity as reasons for his withdrawal.

Town officials in December 2009 discussed the possibility of creating a new commercial zone that would accommodate Sekas’ proposal, and set the pace for similar developments.

The new zone would have been modeled on the Church Street Vision Plan from the mid-1990s, which allowed increased development densities in exchange for shared parking and architectural features that mimicked buildings from the early 20th century.

Sekas’ proposal would have allowed building heights of up to 50 feet, or 15 feet higher than allowed under current town code, and decreased the amount of parking spaces required.

“We think that this zone will enhance the character of the town and fulfill some of the needs of the residents,” Sekas’ e-mail read. “We look forward to finding another opportunity in the town which will allow us to pick up where we left off.”

The Vienna Town Council will hold a special work session on Monday, March 22 at 8 p.m. at Vienna Town Hall to discuss Maple Avenue redevelopment in a broader context.

Council work sessions are open to the public, but residents do not have a chance to speak unless requested by the council.

Any redevelopment policy changes would be reviewed by the town’s Planning Commission and Architectural Review Board. There also would be plenty of opportunities for public input, said Mayor M. Jane Seeman.

Maple Avenue redevelopment has been on the back burner for years. Sekas’ proposal pushed town officials to start thinking seriously about how much development to allow, and how far to go with incentives to developers, she said.

“It’s time for us to come up with our vision for Maple Avenue,” Seeman said. “We can’t compete with Tysons, so we need to find our own niche. I don’t want us to become another Reston or Merrifield. It’s got to look real, and it’s got to be Vienna.”

With Sekas’ proposal withdrawn, town officials now can examine their options in a more holistic fashion, said Town Council member Michael Polychrones.

“Having a particular piece of property to look at would limit the discussion,” he said. “I think we need to look at the whole picture.”

A number of property owners along the Maple Avenue corridor are interested in redeveloping their sites, but are waiting to see which approach town officials will take toward future development activities, said Vienna Planning and Zoning Director Greg Hembree.

Key factors in this discussion likely will be building heights and various development scenarios, including mixed-use developments, he said.

“It’s a very important decision for the town,” Hembree said. “Without a specific parcel in mind, it might be a good idea for the mayor and council to consider changes on what I like to call ‘the Big Street,’ Maple Avenue east and west.”

This nut job was spotted in a Vienna neighborhood

Vienna Council OKs Controversial Courthouse Road Sidewalk Project

by Brian Trompeter
January 26, 2010

When Vienna officials last November proposed adding a sidewalk along Courthouse Road between Ware and Nutley streets, S.W., they received enough flak from nearby residents to reconsider the idea.

But when the matter came up again at a Jan. 25 public hearing, the Vienna Town Council sided with the majority of residents who testified, and voted 5-2 in favor of the sidewalk.

Council members who supported the project said the sidewalk’s benefits outweighed neighbors’ objections.

“You can’t make everybody happy,” said Mayor M. Jane Seeman. “I see this as for the good of the whole town.”

The sidewalk will be 4 feet wide, instead of 5 feet as town officials originally proposed, and built by Arthur Construction of Dulles. The project will cost up to $60,000, which will come from the town’s capital-improvement fund.

Opponents said the street’s pedestrian safety could be improved with crosswalks, better lighting and stepped up traffic enforcement by town police.

“If the town slows vehicle speeds down, the pedestrian problem will solve itself,” said Mike Harris of 501 Ware St., S.W.

Many of the sidewalk’s opponents live on Stephens Court, S.W. The rear portions of their properties face Courthouse Road, and some of the parcels are protected by privacy fences.

Some who objected to the sidewalk said they feared a loss of privacy in their homes, but proponents countered that pedestrians already walk on the grass on the south side of Courthouse Road.

“Let’s give them a safe place to walk,” said Council member Laurie Cole, adding, “We all have some burden from part of the town on us. We have to look at the big picture for all the residents.”

Courthouse Road is a major route for pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists traveling between Meadow Lane Park and the Maple Avenue commercial area, James Madison High School, Nottoway Park and the Vienna Metro station.

When the council deferred the proposal on Nov. 2, members wanted to know why the Vienna Sidewalk Task Force placed the Courthouse Road project on its top-priority list. There is a 4-foot-wide sidewalk on the other side of the road, and many streets in town do not have sidewalks on either side, several officials noted.

That was the concern expressed by Town Council member George Lovelace, who opposed the project along with council member Michael Polychrones.

“This is one principle that we should uphold: that every neighborhood have a sidewalk on at least one side of the street,” Lovelace said.

Polychrones said he usually sides with the views of residents living closest to proposed projects, and wanted to be consistent. He was a little surprised at who joined him in voting nay.

“Madam Mayor, we should check the temperature outside,” Polychrones said. “Hell has frozen over. On a controversial issue in this town, Councilman Lovelace and I agree with each other.”

The Vienna Town Council on Jan. 25 unanimously approved a franchise with CoxCom Inc. that would abandon the town’s currently unused analog cable channel in exchange for $50,000 and a future digital channel.

Local governments receive cable television channels and Public, Education and Government (PEG) funds in exchange for granting cable franchises.

Vienna shares Channel 23 with the town of Herndon. Town officials for years have considered broadcasting town-government meetings over the channel, the way Fairfax County and many other localities do.

Vienna resident George Creed, a Realtor and member of the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals, prodded town officials to move forward with community-access broadcasting.

“It’s a great idea,” Creed said. “The only disappointment is, we haven’t activated [the channel] yet. I think it’s high time we do something.”

In return for its onetime cash contribution to the town, CoxCom will be able to fit four or five digital cable channels in the place of the former analog one, said Town Attorney Steven Briglia.

Following highly disparaged snow-removal efforts after a mid-December blizzard, Vienna officials held an after-action meeting and soon will produce a report outlining improvement efforts, Town Manager John Schoeberlein said at the Jan. 4 Vienna Town Council meeting.

Schoeberlein’s assurances came too late for Vienna resident Lynn Sanderson, who lit into Vienna officials during the meeting’s public-comment section.

“It was the worst mess I’ve ever seen in my life, in 32 years of living in the town,” Sanderson said. “And you ought to be ashamed of yourselves for allowing it to happen.”

Sanderson continued, “If you can’t do it, there’s the door. Run!” She added, “I’m not faulting the guys that drive the trucks. I’m faulting management. You all slipped on the ice. It’s too bad your butt didn’t hit the ground and bounce a few times. It has to be said: If you can’t do the job, get out.”

Vienna police are looking for a man who allegedly cut another man with a knife on Dec. 24 in the 200 block of Cedar Lane, S.E.

At about 10:19 p.m., a man in need of assistance flagged down an officer. The man told the officer he had been slashed on the arm by an unknown assailant, police said.

The officer summoned Fairfax County Emergency Medical Services to treat the victim’s non-life-threatening wound.

The victim told police that after a verbal interaction near the McDonald’s restaurant on Cedar Lane, the alleged assailant threatened him and then attacked, cutting his arm with a utility-style razor knife. The assailant then fled on foot, police said.

The assailant is described as Hispanic, in his 50s, with white hair and wearing blue pants and a striped shirt.

Police ask anyone with information regarding this case to call Master Police Officer J. Evans at (703) 255-7825.

New Shops Opening on Maple Avenue Midtown Plaza developed by local businessman. By Donna Manz, The Connection December 15, 2009

Where now a big, deep hole sits on Maple Avenue, a new retail complex will spring.

Long-time Vienna businessman Charles Chahel is developing Midtown Plaza at the corner of Glyndon Street and Maple Avenue, where Chahel’s Sunoco station used to sit. Current plans at 256 Maple Ave. E. call for four shops, each approximately 1,300 square feet, and parking spaces for 25 vehicles.

“A lot of traffic goes by there,” Chahel said. “I want to make a place where people will stop, spend time there, say ‘OK, let’s meet over there.’”

Chahel said he has businesses in mind but is flexible about tenants. He is hoping for a mix that will draw people to it as a kind of community meeting space.

Chahel has lived in the Oakton area for 21 years and has had businesses in Vienna for 20 of those years. He owns four gas stations and repair garages between Tysons Corner and Oakton, and other properties in Northern Virginia. Midtown Plaza is his first Vienna retail project.

“Everything I do, I do with integrity,” said Chahel. “My reputation is very important to me.

“We do a lot of automotive business and that’s an industry that doesn’t have a good name. We strive to give it one.”

The longevity of Chahel’s staff at his four stations, most of whom have worked for him for more than 10 years, reflects his business culture, that of “good customer service and honest work,” he said.

That, he said, is the type of business he’d like to see come into Midtown Plaza.

The new complex is set back 15 feet from Maple Avenue with parking spaces in back. The architect, Ziad Demian of Demian/Wilbur in Washington, D.C., sited the building, along the Glyndon side, to create a small corner square.

“The idea was to create a meeting space … something so that people will say, ‘meet me at 256 Maple Ave.,’” said Demian. Demian and Chahel shared a vision of what they wanted of the plaza: a pedestrian environment, a sense of place, and a way of marking the corner to introduce a new Vienna landmark.

The building was designed to be unique and constructed of beautiful materials, such as wood and glass, said Demian. When people walk by, they will see the structure, not a parking lot.

“You’ll walk by and want to stop there,” Demian said.

Midtown Plaza is slated for completion by late spring.

"...I can't find a damn thing on the Virginia Supreme Court site about your alledged [sic] lawsuit- Not a word under Appelate [sic] Cases or Defendants."