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Vienna council continues parking‑study review; takes informal polls on pedestrian crossings and TDM
Summary
At a March 3 work session the Vienna Town Council continued its review of the commercial‑corridors parking study, heard long‑term strategies from staff and held nonbinding hand‑raise polls on pedestrian‑crossing priorities and transportation‑demand‑management recommendations; staff will return with zoning‑and‑parking code options and follow up with Fairfax County on TDM programs.
The Town Council on March 3 resumed a multi‑meeting review of the Vienna commercial‑corridors parking study, hearing the remaining long‑term recommendations and taking nonbinding hand‑raise interest polls on several strategy groups.
Kelly O’Brien, deputy director of Planning & Zoning, walked the council through the remaining strategies in the Nelson Nygaard parking report and asked members to indicate whether each item was high interest, low interest or not of interest. David Levy (planning staff) and Andrew Jenks (transportation engineer) joined the discussion to answer technical and implementation questions.
Pedestrian crossings and HAWK signals: Staff presented pedestrian‑crossing safety as a high‑priority area (strategy 14). Andrew Jenks said spacing and signal interactions should be checked; he agreed to report back on any statutory or installation constraints and cost estimates. The council took an informal show‑of‑hands poll: the tally reported by the mayor was 4 members signaling high interest and 5 signaling low interest.
Transportation demand management (TDM): Staff grouped strategies 15–20 under a TDM umbrella (annual expenditure plan, oversight committee, district‑level programs, monitoring and enforcement). Council members expressed concern about scale and capacity — several said TDMs are typically implemented by larger jurisdictions or by a consortium — and asked staff to check Fairfax County’s TDM offerings before designing town‑specific structures. The council held a second informal poll on the remaining TDM items (staff reported roughly 4 high interest, 5 low interest, 1 not in favor) and agreed to pull the Fairfax County‑cooperation item for follow‑up.
Shared parking and code updates: Council and staff discussed shared‑parking agreements and existing code provisions that allow off‑site agreements within defined distances (a 400‑foot agreement threshold was referenced). Multiple members urged focusing first on code‑based parking‑standards updates and traffic‑signal synchronization (a near‑term construction item) before implementing complex TDM districts or fees. Staff said the most immediate next step is to translate report recommendations into zoning/parking‑standards options and return to the council for a focused work session.
Votes and next steps: The hand‑raise tallies were informal, advisory signals rather than formal motions. Staff will circulate the 2019 Maple Avenue multimodal study for council review, share the parking‑study attachments in Granicus, send appropriate items to the Transportation Safety Commission for review if requested, and prepare proposed zoning‑code changes and prioritized next steps for a future work session.
What’s next: Staff identified the zoning/parking‑standards update as the likely immediate follow‑up and will bring detailed options back to council; they will also check Fairfax County TDM resources and return with findings.
