Why Rush the Design of  New Harris Teeter Project?

Editor,

Few of us who live closest to the proposed Harris Teeter high-rise development wish to “rebuff this gift horse,” as suggested in last week’s News Press editorial. But keep in mind that our neighborhood will bear a disproportionate share of that gift’s cost.

We will lose privacy and sunlight, and gain traffic, noise, pollution and odors. Furthermore, the new “drive aisle” will carry roughly 3,000 cars and 30 trucks a day passing just a few feet from the bedroom windows of some homes, as estimated by the developer’s consultant. We acknowledge that the developer has removed or mitigated some of the code violations in its initial plan, but we ask for further improvements that will lessen the impact on the neighborhood in accordance with the goals of the City’s Comprehensive Plan. We believe this can be done while still turning a handsome profit for the developer, providing the city significant tax revenue and generating the same “seminal” potential for added development in the City center area.

This project can be a win for all of us– the city, the developer, and the neighborhood — so why rush through a design that fails the neighborhood?

Ken Fears

Falls Church

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