County Board - Regular Meeting

Hi, welcome to the Arlington County Board meeting. We're so glad you've joined us. Before the meeting gets started, here are a couple of things you can expect. The Arlington County Board meets monthly with the exception of August. Meetings are typically held in two sessions, Saturday regular meeting and a Tuesday recess meeting. These meetings are where the board makes decisions, hears updates, and receives public input on community issues. Today's regular board meeting includes three parts, public comment, consent agenda, and regular agenda. Public comment is for new business. These are items that are not already on the agenda, items that have not already been heard, and items that do not already have a future scheduled hearing. Public comment begins at 9.30 a.m. Speakers are limited to two minutes with one speaker per topic. Opposing viewpoints are considered separate topics. Following public comment is the consent agenda. These are non-controversial items voted on as a group, such as board minutes, grant applications, use permits, or advertising future hearings. There is no public hearing for these items. If you'd like to speak on a consent agenda item, please notify county board staff as soon as possible. They will be located outside the boardroom and are happy to assist you. Hi guys. Some items may be removed at the request of a resident, while others require board approval. Removed items are scheduled for the Tuesday's recess board meeting. Regular agenda includes staff presentations, public hearings, and a full discussion from the county board before a vote. If you are signed up to speak, please note your speaking category. Individuals may speak for two or three minutes, and representatives of civic organizations may speak for two, three minutes, or five minutes. Remain seated until your name is called. The clerk will call the current and next speaker. When called, come to the podium and use the button on the right to adjust the height. You can also adjust the microphone. A timer will be visible on the podium. Please stay within your allotted time so that everyone has an equal opportunity to be heard. For virtual speakers, keep your camera and microphone off until your name is called. When acknowledged, turn on your camera and unmute. Your timer will appear in the team's meeting and will begin once you are recognized. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please speak to county staff outside the boardroom or the clerk at the dais. If you have any questions, staff are happy to assist you. Thank you for being here and sharing your voice with the county board. Have a great meeting.

Good morning, welcome to the July 2026 Arlington County Board meetings. We are all here, you can see our name tags. We are looking forward to today's conversation as we engage with our community in the work of Arlington County. Thank you for joining us. I got a few announcements. But first, before we do anything, I'd like to ask, once folks in the back have filed in, just for us to take a moment of silence for firefighter Larry Wright, who passed away. He passed away suddenly. We're mindful that every individual is on our vision to make a difference, so a moment of silence, please. Thank you. Our thoughts are with his family, with whom our clerk is engaged, and the entire Arlington County Fire Department as we work through the loss of one of our firefighters and great members of our family and community as a whole. Thank you. There's no way to transition. I will we will have to press ahead, so I will move to our next piece of things. To highlight resources for federal workers and immigrants, I'd ask Mr. Kushner, our clerk, to please pull up that slide. If you or your friends or family need resources, either as a federal worker facing challenges, I just was talking with a community member last week who was let go three days before I visited with her. So that was extraordinarily difficult for her and her family. So federal workers and then immigrant families and immigrant resources. We have all seen the news from Houston and elsewhere. Arlington is 21% of our residents are foreign born. We are all, almost all of us, are immigrants at one point, except Native Americans. So please use those resources if you need and share. And there are also copies with our clerk or Mr. Davis, our deputy clerk outside. So we will begin with public comment. is meant to give you context on public comment. Just to reiterate my little one piece that I suggest, if you agree with someone, my best way to keep the meetings moving, someone who is speaking is that you stand while they are speaking so that we know that you are with the speakers. So with that, Mr. Clerk, please call the first two speakers.

Certainly our first public comment speaker this morning is Dixie Duncan, followed by Audrey Clement. Ms. Duncan.

Good morning, board. If I look terrible, that's because my air conditioner out and my family's here from South Carolina. And anybody that knows anything about South Carolina, we don't even need to go any further. So anyway, two weeks ago, this is to inform you about Glen Carlin, about Carlin Springs Road. Two weeks ago, a home was run into off of Carlin Springs Road at Third and Carlin Springs. And from all the research I've done for the past four months, there's numerous accidents have not been reported. I bring that to your attention because Vision Zero, who I talked to Christine Baker, and she says we, you know, we analyze the accidents. Well, in this case, which is what I told you when I came before you three months ago, this is a unique road. And I want you to go home today. My homework for you is to say, if this is your child or this was your grandchild, what would you do? Because as Matt mentioned, the immigrants in our community, that's where I live. Those immigrants are not represented, and this road has got to have change. It is not sidewalks. The speed limit has to be reduced. There are areas in DC and in Falls Church where the speed limit is 20 miles an hour. A temporary issue could be 20 miles an hour. I don't think that takes rocket science. It's pretty straightforward. I will tell you again, Arlington County, please listen to me. This road has three schools. It is the only road in the community that has three schools within six-tenths of a mile. That is your responsibility, my responsibility, and everybody's responsibility to take action right now to slow down, to get signs, to do whatever it takes. I've submitted short and long-term suggestions for improvements in the road. I have seen there must be a little bit of a lack of communication because I don't think we've got a plan. I just would like a plan because school starts in five weeks. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, Ms. Duncan.

Next speaker. Sorry, our next speaker is Audrey Clement followed by Ms. Lauren Anderson. Ms. Clement.

Welcome, members of the board and the county manager. I'm Audrey Clement, the independent candidate for county board. At the June 13th county board meeting, Takis Karantonis characterized me as a loser for challenging the notion that missing middle, also known as expanded housing options, EHO produces affordable housing. He said, quote, I had the opportunity to run elections against Dr. Clement a couple of times, and we have had this argument again and again. And she lost the argument, and I believe she's going to lose it again, end of quote. Takacs went on to claim that I have proposed no solutions to the housing crisis. On the contrary, I have repeatedly proposed a whole suite of solutions, including rezoning neighborhood by neighborhood based on simple to understand floor area ratio, or FAR rules, as recommended by the Laboratory for Architecture. Promoting office to residential conversions, also known as adaptive reuse, which I acknowledge the county itself is now doing. investment in community land trusts, and restoring the partial tax credit for renovation of multifamily dwellings, which the County Board repealed in 2021. That Takis misrepresents my position and relies upon ad hominem remarks to shut me down indicates that EHO is the real loser when it comes to affordable housing. Indeed, in commenting on my remarks of June 13th, Maureen Coffey congratulated the county manager for proposing to pay for more affordable housing through bonds, whose quote, debt service would have to be funded most likely through a tax rate increase, end of quote. Those are the county manager's own words. In other words, since EHO isn't working, the county's solution is to tax gouge people out of their homes and businesses to subsidize affordable housing for others. Thank you.

Thank you. Ms. Clement, next speaker. Yes, our next speaker joining us virtually is Ms. Lauren Anderson, followed by Ms. Pamela Pinnock.

Ms. Anderson, I believe virtually, are you there?

I'm actually not seeing Ms. Anderson in the meeting. Ms. Anderson, if you can hear us. Certainly happy to reach out. In the meantime, if we would like to move along to Ms. Pamela Pinnock, followed by Ms. Nicole Altomare.

Ms. Pinnock.

Thank you very much, good morning. My name is Pamela Pennock and I am here today to present a petition calling for transparency and accountability regarding the fatal police shooting of Sean Vaughn on May 8th, 2026. Mr. Vaughn was a black man known to many in the Columbia Pike community and was shot and killed by Arlington police less than three hours after officers first arrived on the scene. This occurred although he did not have a gun and had barricaded himself alone in a storeroom. More than two months have passed since county or police officials have made any public statement about the killing. There has been little to no meaningful information shared with the community. The petition submitted today asked the board for a few things. A full public accounting of the events of May 8th, convene community meeting where public can ask questions directly to police leadership and view body-worn camera footage, share in writing information about the de-escalation and the use of force policies that guided the response, and communicate policy changes or recommendations that emerge from the tragedy. Transparency is not a threat to public safety. It is the foundation of public trust. There seems to be an unhealthy us versus them dynamic that has developed and been normalized between ACPD and the community it serves. I have a deep concern implicit and explicit racial bias influences policing decisions. Across this nation, including here in Arlington, black people have been too often perceived as inherently more dangerous and more readily subjected to deadly force than whites have. If Arlington is truly committed to equity, it must be willing to publicly examine how race influences policing, public trust, perceptions of justice within our own community. I respectfully submit this petition and ask the board to implement the recommendations showing your commitment to building a community where everyone, regardless of race, is treated with dignity, fairness, compassion, protection, and equal justice under the law. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Ms. Pinnock. Next speaker, I think almost everybody knows, but just to reiterate, once everybody has spoken, I'll provide, and we will provide brief comments seeking to be responsive to all of those who have spoken. Next speaker.

Our next speaker is Ms. Nicole Altamir, followed by Ms. Susan Campbell. Ms. Altamir.

Good morning board members and fellow Arlington residents. My name is Nicole Altomare and I live in Douglas Park, Arlington, Virginia. I would like to start by thanking board members Cunningham and Coffey for their recent engagement with Douglas Park residents and Neighbors for Neighborhoods in June and hearing our concerns directly. We may not always agree, but I do respect their commitment to the constituents. Second for the record we have shared our recommendations on missing middle any a show Improvements with this board twice and we've been met with silence I'm here today about the approval of the missing middle project at 38 12 16th Street South This project will change the character of our neighborhood It's going to strain aging infrastructure and create real conflict between neighbors if it moves forward as approved Although unsuccessful the BZA was on record sharing our concerns the strain this project would impose on adjacent neighbors I've included data In this, on the curb space, the trash binch will occupy, which is roughly 44 feet of the 66 frontage feet of that lot. The vehicles this project would likely push onto street parking, which would account for roughly half of the parking available for six lots, dedicated to one, and the plumbing capacity of a system that was built nearly a century ago. These lots were not built for six households or two dozen residents. This project will consume a large amount of our resources. And frankly, these lots do not accommodate a car-free lifestyle because it's simply not realistic in this area of Douglas Park. The project strains infrastructure and invites conflict in an area already dealing with rising crime, visible neglect, and a commercial vacancy rate of over 20%. In election season, this board should be asking, has this board made our lives better? Elections have consequences, and we are living with the consequences of previous board elections. I supported previous candidates, but my vote is different this time. When we moved to Arlington in 2017, we stretched our budget to build a life away from density of apartment living, and we are now considering leaving, facing a loss of great equity and a quality of life. I ask the board not to reconsider EHO altogether, but as we've included in our suggestions that we've sent twice, to implement small changes that will not increase strain on existing and inadequate infrastructure or cause unnecessary conflict between neighbors.

Thank you, Ms. Altamira. Altamira, excuse me. Altamare, excuse me, I'll have comments once we finish. Next speaker.

A moment, if you don't mind. Our next speaker is Ms. Susan Campbell, followed by Brendan Dresner. Ms. Campbell.

Good morning, again, hi. Thank you for listening. Glenn Carlin would like to thank you for your time and attention, especially this last week. We had a crowded room at Carlin Hall, over half of the 40 people that were there. for the VHC operational details meeting were from the county or from VHC was impressive. It felt like people were leaning in and we were given an opportunity to participate, which makes people feel like a community exists. Through the years us Glencarlonites have enjoyed being part of that collective effort and it's that connection that some say stem the tide from the isolation that might lead to behavioral and mental health challenges. The need for all the players to participate fully leaves the groundwork for this facility and its nonprofit partner. And we would like to create a working relationship with those people and you. This project, in fact, may usher in a new era of connectedness for the area. Last fall, when we were looking at the plan, We said, oh my gosh, our top priority is going to have to be traffic, even though there were major environmental concerns. So we put that environmental issues aside. For the people coming to this facility, the longstanding risks that we've endured on Coral Springs Road were too great. And so we have focused, like a laser, like you all know, everyone who's walked on Coral Springs Road has known, on making that more safe, even in the interim. This week Brandon Hemel, our GCIA president, sent you all a letter that the executive committee put together and you've all heard the asks already and I've left copies for you and I'm hopeful that this actually brings forth a vision of potentially a

Thank you, Ms. Campbell.

Thanks very much. Thank you. Our next speaker this morning is Brendan Dresner, followed by Jay Hamilton. Mr. Dresner.

You have a presentation? Yes, I apologize. Sorry about that.

I'll get started. Hello, and thank you again for the opportunity to speak with you all. I am proud to stand here with Arlington for Palestine. We are a large group of volunteers doing what we can to end the shameful collaboration between AED, Arlington Economic Development, and VIAB, the Virginia-Israel Industrial Advisory Board. It is definitely weird that Virginia has an advisory board for Israel and not any other country on earth, but what makes it shameful is that Israel is committing a genocide and you aren't supposed to collaborate with genocide. There's also, of course, the indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon and other victims like journalists and humanitarian workers and American activists like Rachel Corey, who died back in 2003. Two minutes isn't enough time to list all our brothers and sisters who have given their lives to expose the harsh reality of this genocide. Rachel would have been 46 today. Please show the next slide. It has been over 1,000 days of genocide, and meanwhile, we have Arlington collaborating with Viab to help Mr. Starburst set up shop. Starburst is a part of the Israeli war machine, and AED has designated the war machine a key industry to develop. Who can say how many other weapons companies Arlington has been trying to support? Never again means you don't collaborate. Like we're not occupied France here. We're not like Coco Chanel, okay? There's no gun to our head or anything close to that. AED is choosing to reach out. Hope you guys understand how grave this is. This is collaboration. Now I actually have some good news to share. Please show the next slide. Similar to Viab, Maryland has a Maryland Israel Development Center and the Montgomery County Board just passed a budget that lowered their funding to zero. They did something. Surely our county board can do something too. Next slide please. Last December we brought this ethics policy to the board and since then we've waited patiently for budget season to pass and the only response we've gotten so far is that you're thinking about it and that it would take a lot of work. Let's roll up our sleeves and get this done. All right, we can end this shameful era together. Let's make Arlington a county we can be proud of. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker. Our next speaker is Jay Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton.

Good morning, Jay Hamilton with Neighbors for Neighborhoods. First off, thank you for going on the EHO tour and facing some of the residents going through the issues there. I'm here not to sling arrows, but to support efforts to make housing affordable for Arlington's low and moderate income families. The county's own housing needs analysis last year tells us where the need is greatest. Rental housing for the very lowest income residents, those earning 30% or less of the area median income. Last year, Arlington was short more than 8,000 of those units, and the shortage has real consequences. The families are stretching their budgets to cover rent and cutting back on food and healthcare. Zone changes don't help these families. What helps is more funding for affordable rental housing, which is why Neighbors for Neighborhoods supports the county manager's proposal to study using bond funds to expand Arlington's investment in affordable housing. It isn't a new idea. Other jurisdictions are doing something like this. As the manager's proposal suggests, this study should also look at whether Arlington's current tool, the Affordable Housing Investment Fund, is the right mechanism going forward. We know bond funding means additional revenue. Probably, as the county manager mentioned, a 1% to 2% tax increase, and as you know, the T word gets people all excited, and that's... perhaps a way we can study how we can get there without using the tax increase. Other capital projects could be deferred or scaled back to make room within the county's debt limits. As I've said before, the EHO ordinance is nothing for low or moderate income residents. Only high earners can afford those units. Let's focus on the housing needs that actually we need the most. The manager's proposal to study this is a real step forward solving it. And I want to end with a slide that is a to-do list that my daughter likes to give me every weekend. And this is back, I guess it was in kindergarten. Fixed lanes, drawers, put up, molding in basement, do anything. Well, we appreciate you guys taking a look at this and doing something about it. And I look forward to hearing your responses and getting a little bit of a map going forward on the bond idea. Thank you.

Sorry about that. Thank you. Is that the last speaker, Mr. Kushner?

I would like to give just a moment to see if Ms., pardon me.

Oh yes, we had the one prior person online, is it Ms. Anderson?

I am not seeing that she's joined and I do not understand that we have been able to reach out. Great. Get in contact, so no further speakers.

Great, so that means we will respond To briefly, this is not, our responses are not comprehensive, but they are intended to be responsive and seek to deliver a little clarity. They often, but not always, result in a email exchange that leads to a next step. We'll start with Ms. Duncan. And Mr. Hemel, I think is, yeah, he's still here. So, in the press of business, I'm not sure we had a couple of letters in the last two, three weeks from Mr. Hemel. So I don't know that I acknowledged it. I did, however, I think I did. I think I then forwarded it. There is, frankly, when I was on Carlin Springs this week, there's a new bit of construction that's going. But the big picture of the sort of four to six bullets that you asked, the two of you, and your community, We are working on them. I know that colleagues, I believe Ms. Cunningham and Vice Chair Coffey were there this week on a separate subject, but we have also been working on this, and that short-term plan. I also think there's been engagement with all board members and Hui Wang, who's the lead of our Department of Transportation. The long and short is that we're trying to get a meeting that's somewhere in the range between August the 3rd and August the end of that week would be the plan. We have to do, we wanna not overpromise. One of the pieces that I think is raised is can we move the overall transportation studies timing And I don't think we can do that, just being transparent. But the other things that are there, they're things we are working on. And that does not mean that running into a home isn't newly concerning, even though you and your neighbors have told us numerous times that that's happened quite often. You know, I think Ms. Duncan, both of you have sort of indicated, we need a plan to make improvements to keep the kids safe when they come back somewhere in the August 15th to 20th timeframe. I don't have off the top yet the date for the school starts. So series of, there's staff leading and working. They're not gonna be able to do every one of the bullets, but we wanna be responsive on all of them. All of us care and are engaged. Ms. Coffey and I have kind of been point on those daytime meetings. We would hope to have one of those before August the 15th, being transparent and accountable. We also need to talk with staff. You guys have lived the reality that sometimes board and staff, the left and the right hand, need to know what each other's doing. So we are, we're working, and that is the start of a plan, which is what I heard as the theme of your comments. And... I am rooting for air conditioning and I will leave the great virtues of the state of South Carolina to Mr. Spain who grew up there. So Ms. Clement, I don't know if you're still, yes, you're still here. So I'll leave most of it there. at least for my part, there's debate and who temporarily may prevail on an issue, and then there's the broader word loser. I don't like that word very much, and I don't know that that's what Mr. Karantonis was saying, I would hope not. We can win, quote, and lose on policy. I love it if we ascribe labels like winner and loser, leave those to those outside our county, or as few of us as possible. So I'm not denying your truth that you shared. I just wanted to add that 10 cents, two cents. Ms. Pinnock, thank you for coming in. I had not seen the text of the petition, but in the Community Criminal Justice Board meeting a week plus back, it was brought to my attention that there was the petition. So I do the four or five items. broadly there's a couple of pieces that i i did we have been thinking and struggling and working with this and i'll just read a short statement on behalf of the board and then we also have and i would ask mr kushner if it's possible if you could share this document so that by the time i've finished you got the three of you who The whole community can have it, but I think it would be helpful to see this document because we prepared it in the spirit of accountability that you're seeking, I believe. The statement that I'll make is, on behalf of the board, is that the board issues this statement to acknowledge the death of Sean Vaughn as a result of an officer-involved shooting. The board affirms its agreement with the Arlington County Police Department Directive Manual that the county's highest priority is the sanctity of human life. A criminal investigation into this matter is currently being conducted by the Criminal Investigation Section's Critical Incident Response Team. I'll have words to say about that in a second. This is getting back to the quote. And additional investigative steps will be completed after the criminal investigation concludes. The board is confident in the Commonwealth's attorney's ability to review the completed investigations and make appropriate decisions regarding any further action. Following the conclusion of the criminal investigation, the board expects that a thorough administrative review will be conducted in coordination with the independent policing auditor. Any appropriate action is warranted by the findings of that review will be taken at that time. That's the quote. I'm going to offer, you know, and we can share that quote with you so you can evaluate it. But beyond that, I'll offer my own thoughts, and colleagues certainly will have the opportunity to add. This document is prepared... The Critical Incident Response Team is a regional effort so that when there are issues that involve officer-involved action that result in death or serious bodily injury, it is not just Arlington County Police that are investigating those incidents. We believe and our police department believes that those should be regionally investigated so it's not in-house being done where the stakes. And independence is the wisdom and the right word Thank you. Bless your coffee. So that is that's what the critical cert, the critical incident response team is. And there's information on this in this one pager that we're sharing. The independent policing auditor, I'm confident that you know of, but I think it's useful to just reiterate, that was a step. And in this boardroom after the murder of George Floyd, I don't know whether it's in this courtroom, it was in the pain of COVID. So we sat, the board at the time sat and listened as was appropriate, is appropriate, to the pain of our community was feeling at that time. Just because we have an inane and inhumane president doesn't mean that this board isn't committed to that work. That doesn't mean we're perfect, but people are, there's parts of the country that are sort of saying, ah, that's 2020 stuff. Not for this board, at least not for me. And I'm confident all five members of us are there. That doesn't mean, again, that doesn't mean we're perfect. So the independent policing auditor is part of that. We just passed a bill, which I think you may know of, that we're putting into effect in the next few weeks that basically says, and I'll just give you a second so that you guys can get all the information, and anyone else, certainly welcome to it, to this two-pager. It's public, it's foible, it's also, we have paper copies in preparation, but where was I? So the, you know, I'll just skip to a couple of points, and we can come back to colleagues, we'll certainly fill in. One is, when there is a criminal investigation that our Commonwealth's attorney is leading, It is not our, we don't own the investigation. In fact, we shouldn't be talking with her, nor should our police department. In certain cases, they can in certain issues, but influencing what she concludes in her criminal investigation is not something that this board should at all, in my view, in our view, be involved with. It's also the case that the common law's attorney, we have engaged with her on this broad topic, but the common law's attorney certainly has her own agency in this and I think it is fair to say that reasonably common law's attorneys have been hesitant to issue interim statements when they don't know where the conclusion of the investigation will go. So the policing auditor, what I lost my train of thought was, We passed a bill, Governor Youngkin vetoed it and we passed it again and we're moving the supervision of the independent policing auditor under the board instead of the county manager with his support just for that additional independence that we think is appropriate. And that may be relevant to the subsequent investigation that will happen after the criminal investigation is done. In terms of timing, there's criminal that has to conclude and then there's administrative. That doesn't mean we're not paying attention to all of the things that could happen. The Community Oversight Board, which is a part and works with the policing auditor, will also engage on this over time. The length of criminal investigations speaks to your concern over two months. It is there is certainly a tension. We want to provide information such as we are able. We do not believe it is appropriate before that investigation is concluded for us to be able to be saying anything in detail about the facts or law in the case, particularly none of us are lawyers in Virginia. And, you know, that's not our expertise. I'd say more broadly, part of your petition appears to, there are pieces of it that I have to parse and we have to parse and think through what we can act on in the shorter term. We are happy to continue with that conversation. That's plenty from me. There'll be more from others. We're also happy to engage afterwards. And I won't deny the broader theme that we have accountability for public safety that is thought of holistically, and we know, as does our police department, that public safety hinges significantly on trust. I will not claim that we, as a community, are all there. I will say that having an independent policing auditor is a important step in my view. Enough from me on that. Ms. Altamare, I think I got it. I apologize. I did have a conversation. This is one that is with our sort of two lead individuals who help us with detailed responses. You said you sent this twice. I'm not here to say that we are always within our two-week response. And I hear you loudly and clearly that this is not about the full policy. This is about implementation in the specific instance. We have not gotten to the response. It's fair to say that for me and for Ms. Bellow and also who's here, and I'll give you a chance to add, Mr. Manager and Ms. Bellow, this will be a priority on Monday. It's not that it wasn't, it's that I want us to think this through and answer. With respect to the other pieces, the civic dialogue, I think all of us on the board share a desire for accountability. on Monday I will be before your civic association. Doesn't mean to be accountable in that civic process. And so that's there and colleagues can certainly add. There may be more expertise. I would also say kudos and thanks to Vice Chair Coffey and Ms. Cunningham for already being engaged. Ms. Campbell, thank you for your comments. It strikes me that from your comments You, wait, and I'll come back to Ms. Bellow on that last issue once we're done with everything. From your comments, it strikes me that you read Mr. Schwartz had a response to your email of the last 36 hours. a response to us that we'll just share now. There is concern about that project that there would be a meeting in August, and just by confirming before we get to full comments, SPRC 2 will not happen in August. So that is a piece, that is not to say that all things are great. I saw an awesome fist bump between neighborhood activists, and I'll leave that to you guys. The broader sense of community and civic engagement we'll come to in a minute. Mr. Drezner. Thank you for mentioning Montgomery County. To one of your colleagues, I shared a response that seeks to be stickier, more specific on the work that we're doing. We have had extended conversations to try and think through the various components of the two and a half page request for policy that you mentioned. And I appreciate both the moral clarity that you have shared as well in past conversations as well as the theme of sort of constructiveness in past conversations and in this one. I had not been aware of Starburst, and so what I would say, and colleagues can certainly add, is that I fully anticipate within the next three to five weeks that you know, at least for my part, that I'd wanna be accountable with a wrapping up of what has been extended thinking, because that's a measure of responsiveness that I think the board shares. May not be the outcome that you seek, and there are multiple pieces in the two and a half pages, but I think it's fair to say that we have been busy, but it's also fair to say that it's a long time since the original request of two and a half pages. Mr. Hamilton, thank you very much for just makes me excited every Saturday or any day where someone who has strong critiques of each of us in some venues finds something that we're doing that's okay. I'm a human being, we're all human beings, we like that. I would say, love it if you'd continue this part of the conversation a little bit with us. Because I'm a lefty, but I'll tell you, we can't do housing grants for all 8,000 of the 30% and below. In my office yesterday was a longtime advocate on 30% and below. What we're having, to be honest, is that a lot of people whose incomes are 40% or 30% and below are in units that are 30 to 60% and below. So there are tons of buildings in West End of the Pike and across our county where people are paying even more for their housing, but we're not as often helping the poorest or the lowest income amongst us who are most at risk of homelessness. We do better than any locality that I'm aware of in Northern Virginia and in Virginia. We provide about 1,600 housing grants for the folks that you spoke about, 30% and below for the most part. But we are making some changes to our housing grants program. I just wanted to add that to our dialogue so that there's the potential for continued constructiveness, sort of in the spirit of Ms. Campbell trying to have a little bit of civic positivity in the midst of a difficult moment. So that's plenty for me, colleagues. I will look for lights. We'll start with Vice Chair Coffey. But I would ask, I think the only piece that I promised that we would respond to and I'll give opportunity for the manager and Ms. Bello, but let's see if staff, I promised that we would respond to one of the items, which I think is, but I don't know. So Mr. Manager, if you and Ms. Bello could kind of tick through the pieces, I think it's the CHO.

Yeah, Ms. Altamira came in and testified. We didn't see that specific email, I think. She didn't mention the address. The only thing I know about that case is it's been to the Board of Zoning Appeals, and there's been a decision rendered, but beyond that, I really don't have any comments. We'll follow up.

And the same, that covers you, Ms. Bellow, as well? Okay, got it. Sorry. So the minus side of that is that we didn't give you immediate response, and that's a desire. The plus side is that we didn't... we didn't BS you and say that we had done everything when we hadn't. And I would say that's a technical term. The next thing is, I don't think there were any other staff pieces that are left, so now I really will open it to Vice Chair Coffey and to colleagues.

Ms. Duncan, I think, you know, we'll all be spending a lot more time together, but I really, I appreciate your consistency. And as Matt mentioned, we've engaged with staff on the specific back to school questions. They are looking into it and they're working to get some time on the calendar with the two of us. So this is, it's in progress. And I think, you know, there are some things that are easier to do than other parts of that. And so I think it's also a little bit about triage and figuring out where is kind of the most effect for what we can get done in what is a relatively short amount of time. So we appreciate the consistency in coming back. On all topics housing, I think one thing that I think is really important to say is that housing is in all of the above issue. We can't just pick market rate housing or committed affordable housing or ownership housing or rental housing because we have... community. We have a natural desire to have all kinds of different housing. And so it's interesting to hear the different perspectives of, you know, from Ms. Clement, don't provide bond-funded affordable housing. And then from Mr. Hamilton, do provide bond-funding affordable housing. And really, you know, we need to have ownership opportunities. We need to have things like townhouses and duplexes, smaller fourplexes and quads and we need to have committed affordable apartments that work for people who are the lowest income in our community and we need to also have subsidies available for those people where a committed affordable unit still isn't even enough and we need to have market rate housing for folks like me whose rent went up eight and a half percent and has pushed me out of my apartment this summer and so It really, I appreciate that there's a lot of different perspectives about which things are the right things and I really encourage us to think of it as an all of the above. It is not about saying we're gonna do this one thing on housing that can solve all problems in the housing market because Mr. DeFerranti is right, we cannot subsidize our way out of the affordability problem. It's just never going to happen because if you do not build physically more space for people to live and there is a growing population which frankly this board is not capable of controlling even if we wanted to. We cannot force there to be fewer people in our community. We cannot force people to not move in. That is not something that frankly is right to do, but it's also not really possible either. And so if you understand that we are going to continue to be an attractive place to live with people who want to come and live here, if we do not build more housing of all types, it is going to push people out of our community. Because the people who have the ability to compete in a really tight housing market are not the people who are most vulnerable. They are not the people who have limited options. They are the people who have the means to outbid, to outwork, and to outnetwork their way into housing. And that's what we've really seen over the last few years. Our housing needs analysis, when you look at ownership in particular, From 2015, we had an average of 700 ownership units on the market. We are down to less than 200 ownership units on the market each month. That is a drastic decrease and that has been consistent post-COVID in terms of the shrinking of inventory. I don't know how we solve that other than creating more inventory. So I appreciate everyone's thoughts on housing. Let's all keep, I mean, we're all gonna keep talking about this. This is the issue of our lifetimes, so. On the police transparency and accountability, Ms. Pinnock, I'm so grateful that you are here. This has been an issue I think that this board is really struggling with because we want to provide the community information and respect the process and right now I think The fact that we've set up the independent regional investigation is so important because when we have officer-involved shootings, I do not believe it is appropriate for our own officers to be investigating our own department. And so putting that in the hands of a different department in the region makes sure that there is independent oversight over that process. It helps to reduce at least some of the biases of investigating yourself. At the same time, that means a lot of this is out of our hands. It's in the CERT team, it's in the Commonwealth's attorney office, and we really are waiting in some ways as much as the community is to hear what they are going to do and how they want to proceed. I really do think that none of the four asks in the petition are unreasonable or unachievable. I think it's the timeline on which we're able to work towards those that I don't know about because I think we are trying to figure out where that can fit within the criminal investigation process and where it is appropriate to share that level of detailed information with the community, but I think that there is a desire to do so. So we really, we appreciate that and this is gonna continue, I think, to take some time and we hope that the Commonwealth's Attorney can make her wishes known soon. VHC we sort of talked about already. I think we're all good there. I think for Mr. Dresner, the only other thing I'll say is I'm super proud to be represented by Don Beyer this week. He's been voting against the weapons sales to Israel since more than two years ago at this point, which was very early on. And I continue, that is a big reason I continue to support him.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffey. I think Mr. Carantonis was next, and then we'll come back to Mr. Spain and Ms. Cunningham in terms of order, if that works for folks. Mr. Carantonis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I feel that Ms. Pinnock's testimony today just puts into a completely different perspective everything else that we are dealing with this morning. So I will only address this. I know, Ms. Pinnock, that you wanted to have this debate at least a month ago. And you showed enormous restraint, civility, and patience. You did not rush to conclusions. Even today, not. You gave the benefit of doubt. you fully respected the presumption of innocence of all involved, not only of Sean Long, but also the officers who shot. So thank you for that, but I fully understand that there is a moment where reasonable questions need straight answers. And for that we have the famous criminal process. But I know that you are not here and you have heard a lot about that and you will hear a lot further down. And this is extremely important because yes, this is a big chunk of what justice is, but it's not the whole thing that justice is. Justice is basically a compact of trust between us the people and the people in uniform who we entrusted and empowered to enforce the laws that we decided that have to manage our peace. And what happened on May 8th was not a peaceful moment in our community. A person lost his life. He was my neighbor, or our neighbor. I knew him. I knew Sean Ball. He was a black man, 33 years old. That's all correct. He was unhoused. And I heard from many, and it doesn't let me sleep, that just a simple question that in our society has become a legitimate question, and shouldn't be, but it is. What if Mr. Rollin wasn't black and wasn't unhoused and his family wasn't so remote in Pennsylvania and his only friend were the people who live around South Lincoln Street? I feel that what this petition is asking, the transparency that it's asking, is basically an exercise in active empathy, in saying, yes, we have a criminal process going on, there are a lot of stakes there, In order for the Commonwealth's attorney to be certain and to actually be a factor of justice, she and her office have to take all possible and impossible precautions to hedge in an adversarial system. And this, to us lay people, sometimes seems absurd and remote and absolutely out of touch with the realities of the street, of the realities of a person who lost his life and who we knew. who is our neighbor. So I feel this outreach myself, if I may say. And I have big difficulties to restrain myself, to respect the technical process, who I agree is very important. But at the same time, I think that you are absolutely right. we need to sit down with the community and have a very honest conversation to the degree that it is safe to have it, but certainly the very moment that we can have it without any further repercussions or prejudges to the case, we need to have this conversation because what happened on the 8th of May is based on a symmetry of power that we all agreed that is needed to keep the peace and keep our community safe. Our officers have a choice of weapons. They have equipment. They have training. We gave them that so that they can have a choice when they have to use force to resolve the crisis without lethal consequences. It didn't happen this time because Sean Vaughn is dead. So why this didn't happen and how we can avoid, because one thing I'm absolutely certain, and I don't need the criminal justice process, every death of this type is an avoidable tragedy. It is a tragedy, but in my opinion, it is an avoidable tragedy. There is always an alternative to that, always. I understand that sometimes the options, the situation, the tension, the crisis, the perception, all these micro, thousands of micro circumstances can lead to this tragedy, but for me it's still an avoidable tragedy and the accountability of this board, My job is to do everything in my power to avoid the tragedy. So that's all I have to say. And thank you again. So I'm taking this petition very, very, very seriously. I will be back to respond to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Karantonis. Mr. Spain.

I was thinking that a board member, Karen Tonis, was going to go a bit farther, but look, this is our last county board meeting before we go into our August recess and everyone's biting at the bit and ready for the August recess. But before we get there, I, one, want to thank everyone for coming out for their public comments. And I'm going to use this time, Mr. Chair, to talk about a few things that have come up today in public comment, some of which were what Board Member Takis-Carantona has just talked about. We knew a few days ago that we were going to have some comments coming in, so we kind of got our thoughts together. So... Let me start with Ms. Dixie Duncan and everyone up there in Glencarlyn, a place that I enjoy and the community enjoy. Look, we have two liaisons, as you've heard. Both the chair and the vice chair are leading on that, and I have the utmost trust and confidence in their abilities to figure out how we, at the end of the day, save lives. Because something you've emphasized to all of us, Dixie, is Now is the time to act. And if something happens to a young kid, or someone crossing the street there at third or fourth, you don't wanna hear about, we come up with a lot of excuses. So we need to do whatever we need to do, live hell over earth, to figure out to get this right. On, there was this July 6th, when I came down to visit with you and 11 other folks in Glencarlyn. You know I rode my bike down there from Penrose. Took about 20 minutes. And I parked up on Third Street at nine o'clock, our meeting was at nine, to observe that intersection. And let me be quite frank, there were people running lights, there were people speeding, and it was unsafe. And I saw it with my own eyes. So, Mr. Chair, you know I say this a lot, failure's not an option when it comes to South Carlin Springs. in that neighborhood. And I know that we're gonna help this community and all the other communities, Dixie. So thank you for your persistence. Thank you, Sue, and everyone else in the presidency here, Brandon, for all the work you've done in that area. I think our vice chair said a good bit there on housing, which I am aligned with. And let me just be quiet. And this is indirectly, but directly tied to what Ms. Clement said. and many others. Housing is not just a standalone issue. It's foundationally the premise of how everything we do here in this community is connected. And I'm gonna be quite frank, if you're trying to hold back on building the much needed housing that we need in our community, then that's just not my cup of tea. We need to explore all options that are on the table in Arlington to ensure that we have right size housing here in Arlington for our community and people at every point of their career. We're losing too many folks right now, folks, because they can't afford and we don't have the housing that's needed. It's not just about missing middle. It's about all those things that help people live a thriving life. So here we go. I'm gonna talk about Ms. Pinnock's petition, and then I'm gonna talk about Orleans v. Palestine. You must understand that being a person of color, but also before I came here being a person who worked in the civil rights space, that a loss of life, more especially a loss of life of a person of color, a black man, affects me in a way that you probably can't even imagine. I'm not trying to make any presumption and nor should I on about what's going to end up happening at the end of the day. But before I came into the meeting, I did some research online through a competent source and I'm gonna share something with you to date in 2026, 664 people in the United States through June 27. These are black Americans have been killed by the police in America. Let that sit with you. And not all of it is because these folks are violent offenders. But this is a, this has been happening the entire time I've been on this earth for 54 years. And we have not fixed it. We can make all the excuses we want about what we plan to do, what we're going to do, but we have not fixed it. And I think Board Member Takis Karantonis just now summed it up about we have to understand there's other options besides deadly force. I'm probably the only one in this room, maybe there's others that served in combat. And part of that is preserve and support, defend the Constitution against all enemies. I took that oath and was prepared to kill enemies. But this one strikes me a little hard. And I'm just gonna tell you that we're gonna have to work hard to bring trust and confidence back in this community. I am so shocked that there's not more concern in the community of this man who lost his life. Because I will tell you, if it was somebody else, it would be different. Make no mistake about it. It's like it didn't matter. So I hope and I appreciate this petition. I'm looking at names on here. First time I've seen it. There's a lot of folks across this community. You're asking about viewing a body worn camera footage. And I'm gonna say this. We can watch it on TV, we can see whatever. Historically, you see some of these incidents happen across America, but I don't want camera footage, it comes right out. We as the county board, we don't control that. That's the chief of police. And the buck stops there. We need to get a policy together to, like other jurisdictions, if we want to release some of that, Pam, and have that out there in the public, what that's going to look like. We're not trying to compromise an investigation, but I'm going to tell you, we're two months into this, and we have not done, I think, our due diligence to share with the community what happened on that day. We chalk it up to there's an investigation going on. Sure, there's an investigation going on, and there'll probably still be an investigation going on a year from now. That's unsatisfactory. I'm getting a little emotional here because I think of that man who could have been my brother, my cousin. And I know so many people in my life who have lost their life in that manner. And it's painful. And some of you, again, you just don't understand it. You would not understand it. Lastly, let me talk about Audit for Palestine, and I support what our vice chair said. I'm a champion. I like what Congressman Don Beyer has done. But here again, I'm going to give you some statistics. This is broad, and you need to think, because look, I have friends on all sides, whether they're from Gaza, Palestine, the Jewish community, faith-based, I'm connected to a whole lot of folks. But there's a hardcore reality here. Since October of 2023, this is according to the UN, we've had over 74,000 Palestinians lose their life. 1,200 Israelis. If you go to Nats Park and you play ball, go watch the game over there, that place sits about 70,000 people. Losing of lives, folks, humane suffering, human suffering, is heartbreaking. And I'm willing to meet and continue to meet with A4P, you've heard the chair, And there's limitations, of course, within state and federal law about how much we can do. But I am not subscribed to the belief that there is nothing that we can do. And I think it's going to continue to mean we need to have conversations to figure out what the art of the possible is. But I'll also be quite frank with you. There's some folks that don't want to have this conversation. It's politically toxic. You may say the wrong thing, get caught up in the web, But this is also about your values and what you believe in. And I think there's more work to be done, and willing to have these conversations, not to string you along, but to figure out what the art of the possible is. And to continue having this conversation, because there's people in our community, quite frankly, on both sides who are hurting. They've lost loved ones. Silence cannot just be the answer. So with that, Mr. Chair and folks, you won't hear from me again until probably September. I know, Madam Vice Chair, but look, I know we have a lot of work to do. I'm torn in so many ways today. I have a lot of things going on, not just in life, but just observing these past 20 months of being on the board. It's different being on the outside and then on the inside. And I've worked in a lot of places. And there's challenges on the inside, just as there were challenges on the outside. And we got a lot of work to do. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. Ms. Cunningham.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I just want to go back to stepping off that conversation, just how important it is the work of community building and of gathering together and having hard conversations. So we saw that in a number of places, from Glencarlyn to housing to the incredibly important question of racial bias and policing. So just thank you. proud of Arlington sometimes that we can still do that and we can always get better at it. I want to support Ms. Coffey's points particularly around ownership housing gaps. I think the crux of a lot of our concerns about housing that are unaddressed is how do we get more ownership housing? 200 units available at a time is not sufficient to meet the need. of our community and I would implore all of us to work with our state delegation to encourage change to the condominium liability rules so that we might be able to move that needle over time. Here in Arlington we do have A lot of rental housing, we do have adequate supply of rental housing. We'll be adding some more later today, I suspect. But that ownership housing is a big, big challenge. And then for Ms. Altomare, Mr. Kushner, if you could just take the action item of confirming the receipt of those two emails. and the response either from the chair or another assigned board member. We do aspire to make sure you get a response within 24 hours and then a like real response within two to three weeks. It sometimes is three weeks now because we have some staffing gaps in the constituent services office. So we'll check on that. And then Mr. Dresner, just to clarify, It's interesting to see Montgomery County's change. We are already at that level of funding. We do not fund Viab on the local level at all. I believe the state level funding is about $62,000, but the Arlington funding is zero. And then finally, and most importantly, Ms. Pinnock, thank you, thank you for the time and care and walking with us on this really, really important path. Mr. Spain said it better than I possibly can, but I know May 8th is my birthday, and I was out of town with my extended family in the middle of Tennessee, which has some characteristics in common with South Carolina. And I was remembering as I was driving there exactly 30 years ago, I'd been pulled over as I crossed the Virginia to Tennessee state line in a driving rainstorm, not speeding at all. It was not stated on the, there was no ticket, because there was no violation, but essentially I was pulled over for driving with a black man, and I was pulled out of the car, and we were both questioned separately. And we've come some way, but we have so, so far to go in our country and here in Arlington. So thank you for your energy, for your commitment, and for the work to keep us moving forward. this specific incident I just want you to know that the board has engaged deeply with our attorney with our chief of police with our Commonwealth attorney to understand the the incident response team process the challenges of it being independent means that we can't make it go faster Prince William County has been the the jurisdiction that's managing this one, and they have their own staffing constraints. But we are taking it very seriously and have multiple conversations and review of the information. And we all recognize that other jurisdictions do a different policy of releasing body-worn camera footage, of releasing other information. And so we are looking at creating a more public-facing and clear policy about what's released when so that we can all know what to expect. And then finally, I will just say the loss of life is a human tragedy. It's always a human tragedy. And so we hold Mr. Vong in our hearts. And as we do the work to try to be better as a community, he will be with us. Thank you.

Thank you Ms. Cunningham, thank you colleagues, each of you for speaking your truths eloquently and I would argue more eloquently than I did today. I would ask that those who have come here for public comment, you have the choice as to whether to listen to us on land use minutiae that is very important for our community, but you do not have to stay. You are welcome to stay. We will now, and so, and that's the case with everybody who came to speak on public comment. We anticipate your follow-up. You are all welcome to meander out and, There's plenty of space for conversation also just outside as you get there. So, colleagues, today is, like most board meetings, we have a consent agenda. I'd like to move to our consent agenda. Mr. Kushner. Have any items been pulled from our consent agenda?

Yes, one item has been removed, item number 10, which is the use permit review for Tyndale Christian School at 712 and 716 North Barton Street.

Thank you, is there, yes, Ms. Cunningham, is there others that have been?

May I just ask a clarifying question about the neighborhood complete streets projects? There was discussion about pulling one of those, I thought.

Off the top my head.

I know where I may be conflating Neighborhood Yeah, I did not see any emails to that effect. It's possible.

I could have missed it Okay, I think I will let it go. I think there is one that sounds very similar, but it's the other program the MP

Okay, got it. All right, thank you. Thank you very much Ms. Cunningham and Mr. Spain for helping with that. I move that the County Board adopt the County Manager's recommendations for all items on the Consent Agenda with the exception of pulled item number 10. Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. All in favor of that motion say aye. Aye. Aye. That motion passes 4-0. We'll certainly give Mr. Karantonis the opportunity to also vote on that if he likes to. It turns out that the record is, it's fine if you don't vote on a single consent agenda once in your term or in your four years or whatever you have. So we will hold a public hearing on item 10, which is pulled from this consent agenda by the public and the board, During the evening segment of our recess board meeting on Tuesday, July 21st, the public hearing will begin no earlier than 6.30. That number 10 item will likely be discussed significantly later because we have some other items that under our procedures comes first. If you want to speak on the consent agenda items, You can register on the county board's website starting today or call our office 703-228-3130 on Monday. The board just approved, voted to approve the consent agenda which includes minor site plan amendments, use permit requests, ordinance amendments, request to advertise and more. These items were put on the consent agenda because they were considered non-controversial but that does not mean that they are not important. So I want to take a few minutes to highlight several items very briefly. I hope it will be brief. Next slide please. funding, Ms. Cunningham's question, for four new Neighborhood Complete Streets capital projects. I heard from one neighbor who said they have been waiting, they're so excited about one of these items. This is a connection to our community and our neighborhoods that's very important as a program. We approved four capital projects under the Neighborhood Complete Streets program. You can see them laid out there. The funding total of $2,570,000 is also there, and we are constructing a missing sidewalk and two single-family homes near the park entrance to Benjamin Banneker. We are also building another missing sidewalk with curb ramps next to North Van Buren Street near 18th Street North. and they were constructing sidewalk curb ramps, curb and gutter on 13th Street North between North Quincy Street and North Lincoln Street and we're constructing bump outs with new sidewalk curb and gutter around obstructions in the existing sidewalk. These are important steps funding for these improvements is included in the capital improvement plan across multiple years. We will take that up on Tuesday, that specific piece. Next slide. Board also approved three requests to advertise, which means those three items will come back to us next month. Briefly, Updated zoning requirements. There's language from the General Assembly that's in item 31 that we have to focus on. You can see the other summary pieces of item 31. Item 32, to change land use designation of some units in 4500 Langston Boulevard from service commercial to low office apartment hotel. We'll talk about that more next month. And the proposed Vision Zero Action Plan, which is very important as we work and as was referenced in the Glencarlyn item. We also have, I think it's the next slide, well, yes, the next slide, to Ms. Vice Chair Coffey's comments and several comments regarding housing. Barcroft loan and the financing of it, those details are very important as we continue to work to preserve the affordability of those units. Over 1,300 units was a significant financial investment originally, but this is not requiring net new funds from our affordable housing investment fund. AHIF, if you have not heard that and you're in this boardroom or listing online, AHIF Affordable Housing Investment Fund is a critical piece of what we try to do on housing. So we're refinancing there and we have a slightly higher gap, but we are refinancing and not requiring net new funds from AHIF. Next. That is our consent agenda. With that, we are ready to move to our regular agenda. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the first item?

Of course, a moment please. Sorry about that. Item number 36 concerns a proposed site plan amendment for 1401 Wilson Boulevard and 1400 Key Boulevard. It's a two-parter. The first to allow redevelopment of the site with a mixed-use project consisting of two residential towers, ground floor, excuse me, ground floor retail and related modifications to the zoning ordinance. Part B includes associated street and easement vacations subject to a restrictive covenant. Part A and Part B, excuse me, site plan and ordinance to vacate.

Thank you, Mr. Kushner. We will send it to the staff. This is, to my knowledge, there is one speaker signed up for this one. To my knowledge, this is a semi-unique project. I'm not aware of any votes We'll hear the manager's presentation, and I'll share it before the applicant's presentation. We have a lot of positive feedback on this to date, but let's hear the full presentation and show our math on this.

Go ahead. Sure. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With me to make the presentation today is Kevin Lamb, who's our lead. He's joined by Rob Gibson to talk about some of the related transportation issues. We also have Maxine Chumley here, who We'll talk about some of the vacations, land use issues. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Lamb for the presentation.

Mr. Lamb. Thank you. So good morning. This is a brief presentation on the 1401 Wilson Boulevard project. So this includes a site plan amendment to construct a mixed-use development consisting of two residential towers and ground floor retail. The second part, there's also an associated ordinance of vacation to facilitate the redevelopment. So here's just an aerial of the site. It's located in Roslyn and is currently occupied by two vacant office buildings that were constructed in the 1960s. Now in terms of the site's history, today the site includes a historic marker located along Nash Street that commemorates its significance in the Watergate investigation. So in the early 1970s, Mark Felt, second in command at the FBI, met reporter Bob Woodward in the existing parking garage to provide information that exposed the Nixon administration's obstruction of the FBI's Watergate investigation. So prior to construction of this project, the applicant will temporarily remove and store the historic marker and reinstall it in the same general location on the Nass Street sidewalk. The existing general land use plan designation is High Office Department Hotel and also located within the Roslyn Coordinated Redevelopment District. The site also includes a triangle denoting public space and the existing zoning is staying at CO Roslyn. In terms of the site's entitlement history, in June of 2014, the County Board approved a rezoning and site plan to construct an office building, a residential building, and around 55,000 square feet of retail. This includes a large space designed to support a grocery store. The project included a total density of 10.0 FAR and 816 total parking spaces. It also included new public space in the form of the 18th Street corridor, pedestrian way, as well as a semi-elevated public plaza known as Okinkee Plaza, which was located directly above the planned grocery store. The approved 2014 site plan was extended several times by the County Board, but remains unbuilt. Predating the Roslyn Sector Plan, this approved development, the plans essentially were incorporated into the overall vision the Sector Plan has for Roslyn. So while the approved project supports the overall policy framework for future growth in Roslyn, key project elements such as the substantial office component, excessive parking supply, as well as that semi-elevated plaza now warrant reconsideration given recent development and market trends. So the current proposal consists of two 27 story residential towers with 831 units and almost 29,000 square feet of retail GFA, including a large 17,000 square foot retail space within the key tower podium at a total density of 9.94 FAR. The project includes 602 total parking spaces with a residential parking ratio of 0.65 spaces per unit. It also includes two separate loading areas at the base of each of the towers supporting the residential and retail uses. The applicant is installing and maintaining new public space contributing to the 18th Street corridor as envisioned by the Roslyn Sector Plan. The development will be built to achieve the gold certification and the applicant is requesting the following zoning ordinance modifications listed here. And this just shows the site access and overall layout of the proposal. So for the Wilson Tower located here and the Key Tower on this side, their residential lobby entrances are shown in green. For the large retail space located over here, the entrance is shown in blue. Notably, this time is located off the 18th Street corridor plaza over here. Meanwhile, the parking garage entrances are shown in yellow and the loading and trash entrance shown in red. And then lastly, the two bike rooms for each tower are located in purple. So, adopted in 2015, the Roslyn Sector Plan is the primary policy document guiding feature redevelopment in Roslyn, with a particular focus on urban design, building height and form, transportation and public space. So the next few slides outline the proposal's general conformance to the sector plan guidance in these areas. So first in terms of the proposed land uses, they are consistent with the plan goals which just envisions a greater balance between commercial and residential uses in order to promote increased activity on nights and weekends. So the proposed ground flow retail shown in pink within both towers, podiums, supports the street activity. And then in terms of service and parking access, the sector plan recommends access from Nash and Key Boulevard. Meanwhile, the proposal includes access from Nash and Oak Street instead. However, staff finds this deviation appropriate since Key Boulevard is a much higher traffic street, which would introduce greater vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle conflicts. So the building height form and architectural expression of both residential towers advance the urban design goals of the sector plan for contributing to an attractive built environment, while still ensuring appropriate transitions to the neighborhood edge and street level conditions, primarily through the use of step backs. The proposed streets and streetscape improvements align with the recommendations of the sector plan. So all adjacent sidewalks and streetscapes will be widened to meet or exceed plan goals. And then all adjacent streets will also include bike lanes, included protected bike lanes on Wilson Key and Nash Street. The sector plan does identify the subject site for new public space, shown here, including a segment of the 18th Street corridor, which is essentially envisioned as a series of linear public spaces running through the heart of Rosslyn. The second plan also identifies Okinkee Plaza, kind of shown in these renderings here at the site. Essentially mirroring the previous development plans, so the approved 2014 site plan, essentially took advantage of the available rooftop area above the planned grocery store, which had its main entrance on Key Boulevard, different than what is being proposed today, basically shown here on this bottom view. So as you can see, the leftover space above the grocery store was designed as a semi-elevated plaza, shown here as well, adjoining the 18th Street corridor that bisected the towers. However, success of this specific large retail space became an important factor in the project's overall viability. But according to the applicant, the planned grocery store lacked critical visibility from a key corridor, that being Wilson Boulevard, which was an important factor for prospective grocery store tenants. So as a result, shown in these two images, the proposal now repositions the large retail space up to the 18th Street corridor plaza level, as shown in this bottom view, in order to prioritize that visibility and access. So consequently, the area above this large retail space is now entirely elevated and redesigned as a private building amenity with trees, planters, bioretention, as well as a dog run. So the applicant's proposal improves upon the previous design consistent with plan goals by prioritizing connection to nature, retail activation, and overall connectivity, despite the absence of this public Okinkee Plaza. The applicant did work closely with staff on redesigns based on community and SPRC feedback. So rather than an open hardscape plaza as originally designed and submitted, the proposal now includes a much more landscape plaza with biophilic design principles. As you can see in this rendering, it offers comfortable places to sit and is also aligned with retail, that large retail space as well as dining destinations. In order to, again, support that pedestrian activity at all times of day, In addition to the construction, as well as the long-term maintenance of the on-site public spaces, the applicant is also providing a $2 million contribution towards off-site public spaces in Roslyn, such as the Gateway Park redesign project and the planned boathouse facility. So in addition to the standard site plan features and amenities that are listed here in blue, the applicant is also requesting 5.17 FAR of additional density. So in order to achieve this additional density through Section 7.15.4 of the Zoning Ordinance, the applicant has agreed to the following commitments listed here, which are also identified by the Rossland Sector Plan as appropriate mitigation methods. So this includes contributions for affordable housing, offsite public space and transportation improvements, new public utilities and a new historic marker, and the installation and maintenance of the onsite public space. So kind of related to the $6 million AHIF contribution, staff coordinated with our colleagues in the Housing Division on this monetary contribution recommendation rather than on-site units. So staff find that a cash contribution can actually be leveraged to serve additional families, including some at deeper affordability levels for longer terms. elsewhere in the county. So this $6 million cash contribution could be leveraged to create around 52 CAFs offsite versus the 11 CAFs that could be achieved onsite. In addition, kind of shown on this slide, our analysis looked at the existing nearby affordable housing units. So within a half mile of the site, there are almost 1,000 CAFs and 1,800 marks, or market rate affordable units. So in terms of equity, the applicant's proposal makes substantial commitments towards advancing the county's equity objectives in these areas of affordable housing, public space, transportation, sustainable design, as well as new retail employment opportunities. And then in terms of student generation, based on APS enrollment data and the county's housing data, the project is anticipated to generate a total of 30 students. So this project was reviewed by the SPRC, which included representatives from various commissions, civic associations, and adjacent condo buildings. So during the SPRC meetings, there was actually overall support for the proposal with members finding it is in general conformance with the Roslyn Sector Plan. And the following commissions and community groups also provided letters and comments which are attached to this agenda item. And then overall, staff finds the proposal to be consistent with the county's adopted plans and policies, including primarily the Rodson Sector Plan in the areas listed here. Just to touch on a few that I haven't mentioned yet. So the first one, the project does revitalize obsolete office buildings, advancing the adaptive reuse policy. And then also the project achieves legal certification, energy performance improvements, and compliance with the GYP, consistent in advancing the goals of the community energy plan. So following the online engagement and the SPRC meetings that occurred earlier this spring, the project was heard at the following commissions listed here in which they all recommended unanimous approval of the project. And then lastly, the applicant is also requesting the following vacations of public right-of-way and existing public easements. So once vacated, the applicant will request encroachments and grant public easements back to the county to facilitate the redevelopment. And to conclude, staff recommends approval of the site plan amendment and ordinance of vacation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Lamb. We will now turn to our applicant. I'm still curious as to whether there is a piece of public feedback that is not in support of this project. There's one commission that I have some question, and I'll take that as my ownership, but there may be others. But I'll go to our applicant. That is a hint, but... Show your math. Do your thing. Thanks to you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everybody. My name is Andrew Painter with the law firm of Walsh Gallucci. Mr. Lamb is going to share the screen on our behalf. I'm joined today by Tim Helmig and Frank Craighill with Monday Properties, as well as our entire applicant project team. I'd like to say a few words and then turn it over to our project architect, Shalom Baranas, to walk through the slides. But before I do that, I just want to pause for a moment. I want to express my sincere appreciation to staff, not just the manager, but Mr. Lamb, Mr. Gibson, Mr. Schreiber. This process has been on time. It has been efficient. It has been professional. It has been constructive. And as I was driving over here this morning, Mr. Chairman, as many of us do on our way on these Saturday meetings in the mornings, I thought about where we all were 12 years ago, last month to be precise, because that's when this board approved the first iteration for the redevelopment of this project. And think about all the things that have occurred over those last 12 years, the changes that we've seen, changes in office supply, how we program our public spaces. We now realize the importance of housing supply region-wide and what grocers are looking for in a post-pandemic environment as well. And it's not every day that you get a chance to do a do-over, a rare opportunity to reflect with only the benefit of hindsight and make improvements upon what you previously approved. And over the past couple of years, we have spent countless hours as a team working with your staff, resolving what sometimes seemed like 120, 130 different issues. What has made the process so unique this time around, though, is that every participant, public and private alike, have approached it wanting to leave a positive and lasting imprint on this project. Every detail has been examined. Every detail has been debated. It's been refined. And I say that because while this has certainly been an applicant-driven project, it has been shaped in meaningful ways by your professional staff. They too were handed this piece of clay. They have had an impact on the streetscapes, the pedestrian realms, and the overall character of this project. The same is true with our friends on SPRC, with the civic associations. I see representatives of Ray Farm in North Roslyn here today, with the bid, with our neighbors, with the planning commission. It has been a truly collaborative process, and because of that collaboration, the project that's before you is stronger, it is more resilient, it's more thoughtful, and ultimately a much better design. If we could advance the slide deck, please. This is an important project for Monday Properties. They have lived with this site since these original buildings were constructed. Even though they've grown into a national real estate firm, they have always considered Roslyn and Arlington County their home. And so what happens with these properties is important to them. It's important to their legacy. They spent several years trying to figure out a project that could be eminently financeable. And what is before you today is a proposal that finally realizes, as staff mentioned, the longstanding vision of the Roslyn Sector Plan. achieving the sector plan's goals for housing supply, for sensitive edge transitions, for biophilia, for removing obsolete office buildings, and delivering the Western bookend of the planned 18th Street corridor. Next slide, please. We are carrying forward the grocery store commitment that we had back in 2014 as a key component of the retail strategy. We are moving it up from a less visible location on Key Boulevard to a superior location where it will help activate the 18th Street corridor and be visible from all of the streets and especially Wilson Boulevard. But we've placed it at the confluence of our key vehicular and pedestrian realm. Next slide. It is with the 18th Street corridor that we spent the plurality of our time working with staff, what this space wanted to be. This really is the brainchild of a collaborative effort of staff, but especially with Craig McClure and Rachel Rittler of Parker Rodriguez who are here. And I'm not going to do it justice, but I'll just say that This improves the programmatic elements that were there in 2014. It is wider. It improves accessibility for people of all abilities in and around the site to help navigate the 40-foot topographical change. We're maintaining the public jump elevator. We have 52% open space, which is remarkable for a project in Roslyn. Most are in the single digits. We have been focused with staff on self-generating programming where people want to dwell, where they feel welcome. We have also focused on the natural elements, as Mr. Lamb said, in a way that celebrates the hillside escarpment that a lot of projects in Riles and seek to work against. Here we're actually celebrating them. And then we have a series of other open spaces as well. Next slide. I'm going to pause my remarks. I'm going to recognize Shalom, and then I'll come back to conclude. Shalom. Thank you, Andrew, and good morning.

You know, we're very fortunate here to be able to work with this site. It's a full city block. It's surrounded by four streets. And basically, what that allowed us to do was to really focus on the public aspects of this project. And we developed a design strategy that involved minimizing the footprints of the towers in order to maximize the open space at ground level. As I go through this, you'll see what we did with that ground level opening up the site to the public and making the entire block very porous and accessible for many different points. Next, please. Here we go. So here we are standing at the corner of Wilson and Nash looking north. And we developed a site plan that allowed us to create public access into the center of the site from several different locations. You could start at the corner of Wilson and Nash, follow along the face of the building, along the retail facade that we have there, and you wind up at the center of our plaza, which is level with Oak Street. Alternatively, you can walk right to the corner where the crosswalk is and follow the sidewalk gently down to Key Boulevard, and there's almost a 40-foot drop across the site. And working with our landscape architects, we were very careful to landscape both of those routes and making them safe and fully accessible to the public. Next place. On the right you see the Roslin's master plan diagram for the 18th Street corridor and on the left with that red dotted line you can see how we designed our site, designed our site plan to have that visual connection run right down the center of our plaza both on the east side and the west side. Next place. This is a view looking westward. We're standing on Nash, looking up towards Oak. And what you can appreciate here is that we actually separate our buildings by over 60 feet. I mean, that's almost the width of a public street running right through the center of our site. It allows you to see the sky as you look westward, allows you to see the horizon. And I think it's an inviting aspect of our project that brings the public in a safe way into our site. Next, please. We're now standing on Oak Street, looking in the opposite direction, looking eastward. And again here, you can see the separation of our two towers. You see the sky. You see the horizon beyond them. And you're looking across the public plaza that's lined with retail on both the north side and the south side. Let's go to the next one, please. In this particular view, we took out all the trees. And the reason we did that is because we wanted you to appreciate how we've lined both sides of this plaza with retail in order to enhance a sense of safety for the public. So here on the south side, we created a space that's set back from the primary face of the tower that can accommodate a large restaurant. It has outdoor seating under cover behind those three columns, and then that opens up to the publicly accessible space, which has a series of seated areas under shading, under trees, and then that opens up to the public access, which is adjacent to the grocery store, which you'll see in the next slide. This is the north side of our plaza. We designed the facade of the grocery store to be transparent in order to create a sense of connectivity, a sense of safety, connectivity between the outside and the inside. And of course to give the grocery store the visibility that it needs from a commercial standpoint. This is a view of our plaza at night. We're designing the lighting, the landscaping, all to invite the public during various hours of the day. In the foreground, you're seeing the stairs, the top of the stairs that lead you down to Nash. And we've made a major effort. Let's go to the next slide, please. to make that a very rich, inviting experience for the public. And this is part of making the site porous, as I mentioned earlier. So here we are standing on Nash Street, the bottom of our site essentially, and we created a version of what you might think of as the Spanish Stairs of Roslyn. We hope it has that kind of recognition over time. We designed the stairway so it creates a series of different areas to rest, to sit, to appreciate the views, and it has a series of rock outcroppings, it's very richly landscaped, and we believe it's an area that will really attract a lot of public involvement. Next please. This is a view of the grocery store standing down at Key and Oak. And again, as you've heard, it was very important to give the grocery store its own identity. So what we essentially have here is a full city block with three buildings with individual identities. You can see we gave it a separate treatment on the facade and we fenestrated both the Oak Street side and the Key Street side in order to activate the sidewalk. On the right, on Oak Street, you see a series of windows that open up into the shop area. And then on the left, along Key Boulevard, at the sidewalk level, we created a biking facility. We placed one of our main residential entrances. Again, all in an effort to activate the sidewalk for the public along there. Next, please. We made an effort to line as much of the base of our buildings along the sidewalks with retail as much as possible. We're looking north here along Oak. At the very end there, you can see the entrance to the grocery store. It's visible from Wilson. And then we continued the retail frontage all the way to the corner of Wilson. We wrapped the retail around Wilson and then continued the retail along Nash. You can't quite see that here, but it does turn the corner.

I think this slide is like broken, so I want to go to the next one.

Okay. We'll use that massing on a different project. Looks great. Anyway, what I wanted to point out in that slide is that we designed the two towers. to have individual identities. You can see they have different coloration. The bases, you can see, are activated by two and three stories of expression of a base that has retail in it. And it's lined all the way around. And again, I would say that the unique feature of this project is the way it invites the public into the center of the site. And I feel it's a very civic-oriented scheme that we've developed here. So, thank you.

We can close on the next slide there, Kevin. Just to close, Mr. Chairman, we are proud of the evolution of the project. We have worked cooperatively with staff to resolve a number of issues and believe that this represents a major step forward in the realization of the sector plan recommendations for this site. This is a substantial investment by Monday Properties. I think as a matter of personal privilege, just stepping back in my career, I have not worked on a project that has been this smooth at all levels. I am generally proud of this. Our entire project team is proud of this. It is going to be remarkable. It is going to be stunning. And I think it's one of these projects that we are going to look back 12 years from now and say, we had a part in this. This has made a difference for the people of this county. So with that, we're happy to answer any questions and appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you very much, Mr. Painter. We will go to our commissions, and I really appreciate the presentation in both parts. I've got a phrase that I picked out of your comments, and I appreciate you giving us context, Mr. Painter. But first, we'll go to our planning commission, represented by Ms. Amodeo. If you want to come forward, yeah, and hit one of the, you can go wherever you like. But that's probably the best seat right there. And if you hit the, let's see if that works. The light is on. We are ready to hear from you. Thank you.

Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the County Board. For the record, Paola Mudeo representing the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission considered two major projects, starting with 1401 Wilson. The project was very well received by the Commission. The applicant was commended by the SPRC Chair for a productive public review process, responsiveness to feedback, and strong engagement with the community. There was strong support for the addition of a grocery store in Roslyn, excuse me, the architecture of the project and the implementation of the 18th Street corridor. Commissioners also appreciated the landscape concept, particularly the way it references the geologic character of the site. The Commission discussed pickup and drop-off activity, or PUDO, and how curbside demand would be managed. Staff explained that the project included short-term PUDO areas along Oak Street and Key Boulevard, and noted that curb management is a broader challenge in dense, mixed-use areas. The Commission also discussed landscape and biophilia. Commissioners encouraged the applicant to maximize pervious surfacing within the 18th Street corridor and continue strengthening the native planting strategy. Now, the most substantive policy discussion concerned affordable housing. Commissioners discussed the choice between an affordable housing investment fund or AHIF contribution and onsite committed affordable units. Staff explained that the AHIF contribution would leverage approximately 52 off-site units with longer affordability terms compared with approximately 11 on-site units with standard 30-year terms. The Commission understood that analysis but also noted the trade-off. On-site calves would be located within the project and could potentially be delivered more directly, while off-site units depend on the AHIF. AHIF process and timing. The Planning Commission voted unanimously eight to zero to recommend approval of the site plan amendment and by separate unanimous vote to find the proposed vacations substantially in accord with the comprehensive plan.

Thank you very much, Ms. Amadeo.

Pardon the accent.

Oh, no, not at all. We are trying to remember, I believe you have presented already. This is your first time? This is my first time. Congrats, thank you. As a non-planner, I'm a good human, but a non-planner, when you were brought forward, I think my sense is you are a planner's planner, and thank you for serving us on the Planning Commission.

Thank you.

We'll next turn to our Housing Commission, Mr. Ventrone.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the Commission, the County Board. I'm here representing the Housing Commission on this most innovative development. This project represents exactly the type of transit-oriented redevelopment envisioned by the Rossum Sector Plan. It replaces obsolete office space with more than 800 new homes in one of Arlington's most accessible locations while making a substantial contribution to our affordable housing goals. From the Housing Commission's perspective, this is an exceptional affordable housing package. The project includes a guaranteed six million contribution to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund, plus the developer must meet the county-based affordable housing requirement either through an additional 3.6 million contribution to AHIF or by providing committed affordable homes. In total, this project nearly 10 million in affordable housing value, making it one of the strongest affordable housing commitments associated with the Roslyn development. The staff analysis concludes that leveraging the six million through AHIF could help create approximately 52 committed affordable homes compared with roughly 11 onsite units that might otherwise be negotiated. Even more importantly, those homes can remain affordable for 75 years or more, allowing the county to maximize the long-term public benefit and serve households with significant housing needs. The Housing Commission believes this approach is consistent with the Roslyn Sector Plan and represents a prudent investment that will expand affordable housing opportunities throughout Arlington. Finally, wearing my other hat as president of the North Roslyn Civic Association, we appreciate the applicant's willingness to work with the neighborhood and especially the new grocery store, which we badly need. While we support this exceptionally designed project, we continue to urge the county and the applicant to ensure that the pick-up and drop-off activity, deliveries, and loading operations are accommodated safely on site whenever possible. Through curb management is essential to protecting pedestrians, reducing congestion, and keeping traffic moving. Finally, we applaud Mundy Properties' continued long-term commitment to our neighborhood. For these reasons, the Housing Commission fully supports this project. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Ventrone, for your thoughtful and detailed analysis on the housing front. Appreciate it. Next, we'll turn to our Climate Change and Energy Commission. Is Mr. Bordeaux here? I did not see him. Okay, that's fine, we'll move on. We will now hear from our public speakers. I will filibuster a second so that you can pull up the public speakers, Mr. Kushner. But if you call two speakers at a time, We have, I think, three speakers in total, but we will first, our first public speaker is making his way. Mr. Kushner, would you call up our first public speaker?

Our first public speaker on this item is John Musso, followed by three-minute speaker, Mr. Bernie Byrne. Thank you, Mr. Musso.

Go ahead. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the County Board, John Musa, Government Affairs Manager at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of the Chamber, I wish to say a few brief words expressing support for the proposal before you all. As noted, this is a project that advances many of the goals and plans that we have for Roslyn in particular and Arlington as a whole. This will replace two obsolete office buildings with more than 830 units and 28,000 square feet of retail and a transit-rich, connective, and constantly innovating area that is Roslyn, and as noted in the sector plan, really does help advance the goals that we all share in Roslyn being a world-class downtown. This conforms with the Roslyn sector plan, and additionally, as noted, really advances the goals of the affordable housing master plan, the transportation master plan, and the public space master plan. We believe that this project really goes a long way in order to making Roslyn an even more dynamic and attractive neighborhood for those who wish to work, live, and do business here in Arlington. So we urge you to please adopt the sector plan and the associated ordinance to vacate. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Musso. Our next speaker, I think virtually.

Our next speaker virtually for three minutes is Mr. Bernard Byrne. Give me just a moment. Mr. Byrne, are you there?

Yes. Can you hear me?

We can.

Go ahead. Thank you. Mr. DeFerrante asked for criticism. Here it is. Neither of the two towers is biophilic. Neither has a green roof nor green walls. Neither has solar panels. No vines hang from the roof or balconies or climb from the ground or lease ledges. That's part of the criticism. The project's draft plan palette does not adequately align with the county board's monic pledge or the county's forestry and natural resources plans. These documents encourage plantings of native nectar plants to support monarch butterflies and other pollinators. They do not support plantings of cultivars and native plants. To its credit, the plant palette does contain clama milkweed. This is the only plant on which monarch butterflies prefer to lay eggs and that thrives in Arlington's natural areas. However, as I informed the applicant and the SPRC and Planning Commission, but for which I have not yet seen any response. The pallet contains 30 non-native plant species. 22 of these are not native to North America. Eight are native to North America, but are not native to Arlington County and vicinity. Reports have shown that some are invasive. The applicant needs to replace all of the non-natives with native plants that have similar characteristics. such as size, shape, and flower and leaf color. The pallet has 25 cultivars that have no more disease resistance than their parents. Cultivars often have reduced nutritional benefits or are toxic to insects. Many have not been studied well enough to identify those that may be harming pollinators. The applicant needs to replace all 25 with native species that have similar characteristics Now here's an important point. All 40 species in the draft plant palette for the 2015 Street North election project, which you approved on June 13th, are native to Arlington and its vicinity. Only two are cultivars. Please, please ask the applicant to limit its plantings to those in that palette and to other plants that are native to our area. We don't need any more natives or any invasives. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Byrne. I appreciate your sharing thoughts and I'll respond with humbly when the time comes. Next speaker.

Our next and final speaker on this item is Stuart Stein representing the Radnor Fort Myer Heights Civic Association. Mr. Stein.

Yes, I'm here representing RAFOM. We believe the project before you fits very well into the goals, vision, and framework of Realize Roslyn. It will provide a welcome addition of a large number of much needed residential units. We share the NRCA's concern for safety with all modes of transportation. in the streets surrounding development. Pickups and drop-offs is a huge problem in our neighboring community of Roslyn. Always building to the sidewalk and lack of setbacks has contributed to this. A great example of how things can work is the new Hilton building with its port couture, however large circular driveways and internal drives exist in many older buildings and should help us show us the way. These sorts of solutions have been working in Arlington for many years, should be taken advantage of in future buildings. We want to express our appreciation for a project that fits so well within the planning for its site, rather than asking for more and more. We also appreciate the developer working with the community. I still remember the developer coming to us, even though we were just an adjacent community, well before they even submitted their 4.1 for the 2014 site plan. I also want to express our appreciation for at least a .65 parking ratio. It's good to see an important part of the 18th Street corridor being built and to see a project that incorporates a site coverage of less than 50% in Roslyn. In my community, we greatly value diversity. I was originally drawn to Radnor Heights, an area where billionaires, and people living in some of the most affordable units in Arlington were within a block of each other, we have lost a lot of our affordability. And if this project was in our area, we would have pushed for onsite affordable units. There is also a hope Well, I should say we do recognize, however, that affordable units are not the number one priority in all situations and each plan is individual and balances the importance of each priority in each area. There's also a hope that to the extent possible that future EV readiness will be maximized or at least to the extent that future access to electrification of these spots is not blocked but supported by the infrastructure. Lastly, many people in my community, as elsewhere, look forward to another grocery store nearby. This project will be a very important addition for our neighbors in Roslyn. As I have said, it will further the goals, vision, and framework laid out in Realize Roslyn.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Stein. I believe that is our last speaker. Conversation is now with the board. Thank you, Mr. Painter. Probably all the way down if you can. And I will, colleagues, I am guessing that there are some questions about Mr. Byrne and justice delivered through Mr. Byrne's point that there are concerns. There's a question there. I think there may be a question about housing and there may be a question about pick up, drop off. I'm proposing we get a motion on the table and we have one round of questions and concluding comments. That does not mean that we cannot extol, because it is truly nearly unprecedented to have a project of this size Limited concerns very limited concerns, but over to Ms. Coffey, Vice Chair Coffey to get a motion on the table.

All right. Thank you I'm gonna do these as two separate motions So I need to make the first motion discussion and then we'll come back for the second motion.

Correct.

Thank you. I move that the County Board adopt the site plan SPLA 26-00001 site plan number 429, ordinance attached to the board report dated July 13, 2026, namely to permit the construction of a mixed-use development consisting of two residential towers with up to 9.94 FAR, including 887,232 square feet of residential gross floor area and 28,908 square feet of retail gross floor area with modifications for additional density, percentage of compact parking, required residential loading spaces, density exclusions, and other modifications necessary to achieve the proposed development located at 1401 Wilson Boulevard and 1400 Key Boulevard.

motion is made by Vice Chair Coffey, seconded by Mr. Spain. Do you want to speak to your motion?

I'd love to. I'm really excited about this one, and Mr. Painter, I think we'll throw your quote on the economic development website if you don't mind, that this is the easiest to work with that you've ever experienced. So, you know, I think that part of the reason for the smoothness of this is frankly the upfront work that has gone in with the Roslyn neighborhood to get very serious about what it is that we want to see and how we want to design our urban space. I do think that the sector planning and then all of the subsequent conversations have really led to some clear guidance, very clear community desires. And I think that's really reflected here. It really is. a nice set of buildings, right, it's not just one building, aesthetically, but also in terms of what it's bringing in. I think, I know the, we're reaching 25, almost 25%, at least 25% tree canopy in Roslyn, which is really huge. Roslyn is, I think, the lowest percentage of tree canopy as far as neighborhoods go in all of Arlington, and so block by block, being really able to fill out and reach that 25% threshold or higher on green space and trees while integrating it directly into our urban space is super important to me. I think that one of the things that I am a true believer in is that green space and urban space are not mutually exclusive. And in fact, in order to do urban space well, They need to be two very, very integrated things. And so I'm really grateful to see that. I will have maybe a couple of questions. But in general, I think we talk about, we have a lot of conversations around housing and density. And I'm just really grateful to see a project of this scale truly where it belongs. I think Roslyn is one of the most exciting opportunities that Arlington has because we we can do buildings like this that may not belong anywhere else really in Arlington, but truly fit with the world that we have started to sculpt out of Roslyn. And so I'm really appreciative of that. The grocery store is one of those things that feels like a no-brainer. But Roslyn used to be really office heavy. And the need for a grocery store when you have mostly eight to seven type foot traffic is not the same as we are adding thousands of residents into the Roslyn neighborhood, which is really, really great. But now there's all of this other infrastructure that needs to come along with it. And grocery stores are a really key part of that. We're really grateful that you've continued the commitment, that that will be one of the retail tenants. I will not ask you which grocery store it will be, but we all have our preferences and opinions there. And I think... The only real question that I have is, you know, I think the proposed publicly accessible space is really, really great. I think a lot of it is going to be more passive recreation, right, people passing through or stopping by. And I wonder if you've thought or started conversations at all with the BID or other community groups in terms of ways to really activate that space and bring people in because You'll have the residents, you'll have the people visiting the retail and the grocery store, but Roslyn, with all the people, is in desperate need also of space to bring folks together.

Yeah, thank you very much, Ms. Coffey. I'll just respond real quick, and I might also recognize Ms. Rittler here, too. Again, part of the brainchild behind the design of this. In terms of tree canopy, we actually worked really hard in the plaza area to achieve 40% tree canopy, which we now have. In terms of your comments about grocery stores, and Mr. Hellman can speak to this too, Roslyn as a sub-market now has strong fundamentals that are attracting grocers or attracting to grocers. We have a lot of new housing coming on. That residential density is critical. Grocery stores are also attracted to Roslyn because they're looking at the sector plan recommendations and what the county, the people's plan, what the county has telegraphed. that it wants to see, and that's additional housing density. So that is really supporting grocery stores looking in Roslyn. In terms of the programmatic elements of this, when we designed this space and we had these collaborative discussions with staff, planning commissions, and more, It was clear that they did not want to have this be something that had to rely on programming, specifically from the bid or anyone, you know, Screen on the Green or anything like that. They wanted this to be self-generated programming to work on its own. And so what we've done by moving that grocery store up, it serves as that Western anchor. It will get people moving in there. And then how we've redesigned those spaces naturally attracts people wanting to linger, wanting to come and just sit, just dwell in the space. And then having that direct line of communication or direct line of sight from Wilson Boulevard in particular and having accessible access points all the way naturally draws people in. And Rachel, I don't know if you want to speak to that at all.

No, I think that's a good summary. The only thing I would add is if anyone's familiar with William White from the 80s, he did a lot of studies of urban public spaces and what makes them successful. He had seven key points, several of them relating to sunlight, access, triangulation to street corners, food, places to sit, shade. So a lot of those elements that help to cultivate a successful place have been incorporated into this design.

And we have coordinated with the bid. Great. And we look forward to that continuation. But I wanted to let you know that the design of this, again, is supposed to be self-generating as far as activation.

Great, thank you. And the last thing I'll say is I appreciate you let off by saying that Monday has been in this site since the initial development. And we do really appreciate that so many of our Roslyn development groups are long-term invested in our neighborhoods. I think helps the fact that you're designing and building these buildings for the long term because you're in it for the long term. And so we just appreciate and hope that you will continue to be invested and really part of the neighborhood for years and decades to come.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffey. Mr. Spain. Yeah, I'll just talk briefly to my second. I know you're going to have a round of areas that we're going to focus into. I would just state that, you know, Andrew, when you started about 12 years ago, you mentioned, I mean, we would hope and expect that in the future it does not take 12 years, right, to get to this point. But I will say to all folks who are in and around the Roslyn area, Roslyn will not shut down after the workday now, right? I think what we're seeing is this appetite, you know, we're going to put more folks there, right? The demand even for grocery, right? Like, wow. I mean, I don't think this is where it stops even with one grocery store. I think as we continue to build out, you'll see a demand for another one possibly. But I think the strong retail component is a key aspect of what's going on. I think the work of all of our commissions and the engagement that has taken place over an extensive period of time kind of pays off. And at the end of the day, I think it makes our job quite, you know, at the end of the day on the board, quite easy. I mean, there's a few things we're going to deliberate. I have some questions for staff as we talk about affordable housing and AF. But outside of that, I'm very pleased at where we're at in this moment and looking forward to more work being done in our community. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. I don't see lights. I'll sort of crack the door open. I feel like Ms. Coffey got what she needed. I'm not wedded to a process, but just because you have a potential question doesn't mean you have to ask it. And I'll follow it and lead it to, and that's the thumb on the scale, sorry. But I'll lead it to, there is a housing question. Mr. Ventrone, you spoke very specifically on housing. And I think, Mr. Spain, did you want to ask or talk about that?

Yeah, let me go ahead and do that. That way I can get out of the way and let Board Member Cunningham and Caucus Caritonis go at it. This is going to be more for staff. So can we pull up slide 18 again? And I just want to give a shout out to our Deputy County Manager, Shannon, I know you're with us. Thank you so much for your work and staff over several months. You know, this is a piece of the puzzle that I like to look. Can we pull it up on the screen? Yeah, it's coming up shortly. Okay. So I'm going to continue to, you know, folks should be prepared for this. I'm going to continue to kind of like beat the drum because the last person who spoke in public comment, is it coming up here? Is this taking some time? All right, it should be up. Because, yeah, I want to be able to talk through it. Here we go. All right. This is a great slide. Tells us a lot. Really good numbers, right? But I also think to the very last speaker, we need to really think about and continue to be vigilant in, if we're gonna get $6 million in AHIP funding to be used because it's more beneficial in other projects, I think the point I made last month, and you heard it again today, is that inherently what's gonna happen over time in some of these very key areas, we're actually gonna gentrify them. And you're gonna have folks who perhaps in key places like Rossland where transit is amazing, walkability, all those things, they will miss out and they will be far, even though it's a half a mile, I get it, but they won't be as close to the newer projects in the areas that we may assume. And I think you realize there's some folks who are seeing this. So to staff, we are talking about potentially 50 other calves that this money can be used towards. Can you just give us a quick overview on some of the calves in and around this particular site? What's their timeframe when they expire? In the short term?

Yeah, so kind of, Diving deeper into this data, you know, this shows surface level, kind of looking at the status of the nearby committed affordable units. I checked with our housing colleagues. There are none within this half mile that are, quote, unquote, at risk of expiring within the next 10 years. Good. I'm just looking at what is located nearby. We do have some 100 percent affordable projects such as Queens Court here. We have a few like mixed income projects. I know I think Park Roslin has around 100 calves mixed in with market rate units. Now the closest one to this one is 1800 Oak Street, and that has both calves and marks that are definitely not expiring anytime soon. So we do have, you know, keeping track of the data of what is expiring and what is not expiring.

Thank you. And I'll close. Appreciate what you're doing there, Monday, probably. I know you have some historical preservation aspects of this project, but I am just really laser-focused on, and this is for everyone to understand, that new bills is just a matter of time that, you know, whether it's in a block or two radius, you still want to be intentional on who lives there. And I think that's the theme I hear from folks, like we can constantly take money and put it elsewhere, but there's key kind of luxury type areas within our community that we will not have folks in if we don't be mindful of putting units, and that's not for you, but making a decision on how to put units in some of these newer areas, new bills, right? So other than that, I think it's an amazing project. Thank you for all your hard work on this. Thank you again to all the commissions. And I see Joe, you're here representing and congratulations. I don't mind your name. I don't mind your, you know, it sounds well, I can understand you. It's all good. You did an amazing job. So congratulations on coming here the first time around and back over to you, Mr. Chair and the rest of the board. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. I think Ms. Coffey, I'll just say I was on the board for a groundbreaking of the True Ground project that's sort of located close. This was a huge issue. four, five, six years ago, still an issue. And you got 1800 marks, we've been losing marks. And so I'm glad you raised it, but that's why, while I fully hear what you're saying, it didn't come up as quickly for me, because I was sitting on the board when we did some of the geographic pieces. And I certainly hope that the AHIF might be used for areas that have been underserved. Vice Chair Coffey.

Yeah, I think it's just a quick follow-up for staff because I think one of the things about Roslyn is there's quite the trade-off when it comes to the on-site units versus the AHIF contribution. And so I wonder if you can tell us a little bit about how we...

Where our leverage is best used and and how you think about that in terms of each of these site plans that comes to us And why we're going more towards the a have contribution than on-site this time I think you know a lot of factors go into that analysis I think kind of the the main one for this is just where it's located in Ross and where kind of the rents command high rents given the location, transit-oriented, kind of the type of development leaning towards more, you know, new luxury, which kind of means the delta between the market rate rent versus the kind of established affordable rent is quite big. Therefore, you can't really achieve that many committed affordable units onsite because of a lot of the money goes towards this quite large subsidy that must be kind of put into each unit. So that was kind of the biggest factor because when you look at elsewhere in the county where rents are more on the average side, you can leverage a lot more.

Great, yeah, so basically the amount we would be buying down would just give us a very small number of on-site units as opposed to being able to leverage the nearly $10 million, which could be, you know, that's about the amount that we award some entire new projects through AHIF, so.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you. So the true ground project was 50, I think, and then it's 250, but they owned the land, and that doesn't take away from your micro geographic pieces. You got that? Okay. I was going to go to you next, but colleagues, Mr. Karantonis, next to you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have opinions on housing, but I will keep them for my closing remarks. I have one technical thing, which I find very important for me, and I believe for many others. So there is a historical marker on the Watergate scandal. Just last week, the Vice President of the United States let the nation know that, Watergate, what is Watergate? Nobody should have been affected by that. No president should have ever, you know, have to resign for that minutiae, et cetera. And this is something that offends me. and I believe millions of others. And so I care a lot about what happens with this marker and what can be done first in the interim during the construction phase of the project. And then what else can be done to add to context to the traditional here depicted historic marker. and whether this is included in the packet of this project.

Yeah, so I kind of brought up the marking question. This has been here since 2008. So it's in the sidewalk on Nash Street. So obviously it will be impacted by construction when that occurs. So the standard process we have is with county-owned markers. remove it temporarily during construction, store it in a safe place and then put it back in pretty much the exact location because the marker is kind of related to where it's placed. So that's kind of the standard process. The applicant has agreed to it. Speaking with my colleagues in historic preservation, I think the preference would be to stick to that process. I know we kind of looked at whether it could be located across the street, across Nash Street on the other side. I think there were considerations whether that would maybe confuse the public. Just given the text Within the marker itself it kind of talks about in this garage this happened so it might lead to some confusion if it's not located where that event actually happened and it may require review and approval by the HALRB if it is located temporarily across street. So I guess those were some considerations if we were to pursue temporarily relocating across street.

Okay. With all due respect to HALRB and the powers to be, I cannot imagine that we can transverse the next two, two and a half years with a mothballed marker about the Watergate scandal. I'm very sorry, but we have to put it there. And it's not a very big problem to add some context there and explain to people that, yeah, there was a garage across the street, and democracy actually needed to have a garage and a free press that receives information from people. from a whistleblower who would today be prosecuted to the largest extent of the whim of the president, which is unacceptable to me today as it was unacceptable to all Americans back then, so thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Karantonis. We'll go to Ms. Cunningham, we'll also invite Closing comments, I think we've had some, but we'll go expeditiously. But first to Ms. Cunningham, and then I think Ms. Coffey's good. Mr. Spain, I'll leave it to you. Oh, I'll take this. Whether you have any other. Ms. Cunningham, go.

I just wanted to touch briefly on the pickup, drop-off, and loading considerations. There's a lot going on in Roslyn at any given time. And I know there's been concerns raised continuously, and we're all learning as the economy evolves a little bit here. But could you show us a little bit of how you considered both of those? And Mr. Ventron, if you want to add in, I know the community's had lots of questions there.

Yeah, I'm happy to and happy to refer to Mr. Gibson as well. This is a perennial issue. It's something that's growing as our economy is changing. We do not have a Port Co-Share. It's not something that, at least at this site, is envisioned by the Rosin Sector Plan. What we do have, however, on North Oak Street and on Key Boulevard is almost the equivalent of two, the linear footage, almost the equivalent of two full blocks where we will hopefully have short-term pickup and drop-off parking. We have 165 feet in front of the Wilson Tower, which is the tower that's on the left-hand side. And then we have another about 165 feet in front of the Key Tower that's on the right-hand side. Both of those are about, again, 165 feet each. Parallel space is about seven cars in each, seven to eight cars in each. We will have package delivery rooms that are proximate to the main lobbies. During our initial lease-up, we will work with our future tenants to educate them about the importance of where the pickup and drop-offs are, where the package rooms are. And then we have worked with staff during this process as recently as last week in coming up with the design on Nash Street so that there is prioritization for the bicycle lane. So most of you all know that when you have bicycle lanes that are on road, where they're not separated from the traffic, oftentimes package trucks or Uber drop-offs will occur partially blocking those bicycle lanes. So on Key Boulevard, we actually moved out the parking so that its curb and bicycle lane parking, so it narrows that up. So it should dissuade people from parking in the main travel lane on Key Boulevard. On North Nash Street, and this is the most recent thing, and again defer to Mr. Gibson on it, but we're actually raising a portion of the bicycle lane in front of the Key Boulevard or Key Tower entrance and the loading so that there's a prioritization for that, and that will narrow the curb-to-curb width of North Nash Street where those drop-offs would typically occur. So Our hope is that through this design, again, we have more generous drop-off space than pretty much any other project in Rossum because we have a full city block. But I hope our design dissuades people from blocking those entrances.

Great. Is there anything you want to add, Mr. Fincher?

Thank you. If everything that Mr. Painter said is done in... enforced and followed through, that should greatly take care of our community's concerns, especially in using, it's really, the thing about this project, and it's so beautiful with the 18th Street corridor thing, hopefully the people that live there and the management will educate people, the Amazon people and stuff like that, to use the proper places or go in actually into the garage area under reserved places, park there and run into the lobby and deliver the things. So if that's all done, it will be great.

And if I may, Ms. Cunningham, just to build on that, one thing I neglected to mention, with the 2014 approval, we had one centralized loading zone underneath the key tower that serviced the entirety of the property. Now what we've done is broken that up so there's a separate loading area under the Wilson Tower and under the key tower to make it a lot more efficient for retail deliveries, for move-in, move-outs, and the like.

Great. It looks like you guys have done amazing work here. So thank you for helping lead all of us into this new era. I would just highlight, I think we talked about this before, but for pedestrians, especially along Nash, but also at the garage entrance at North Oak, I know some of our buildings that have been occupied for a while really are asking the owners to put in signals or mirrors or other devices to help reduce those conflicts. I don't know if those are in already or that's still to come, but just raising that up because we do hear it a lot.

Yeah, no, sort of those fishbowl mirrors that we have right here in this building, for example, that's something that we would definitely be looking at from a pedestrian safety perspective, dealing with lighting when there's a transition when you come in during the afternoon or the morning or whatever, making sure that there's, you know, when people are leaving. So we'll be looking at that as we do our final CEP drawings.

Great. And then on enforcement, a big shout out to the Roslyn Bidd, who's using rovers and other kind of public safety, I forget what they're called, but awesome people, aids, to help enforce. That's really wonderful. And Mr. Manager, if you want to share a little bit about curbside management and enforcement tools that we are trying to get permission from the General Assembly for, I'll give you a minute of jollies here.

I'm just gonna give you jollies.

And I know, because I read with rapt attention Mr. Ventrone's letters and other people's input, you know, we tried last year in the General Assembly to enhance our authority for ticketless enforcement, which would allow us to be much more effective in addressing that. We haven't given up on it. We're looking at alternatives, and also we, in the budget you just adopted, there's, you've included Contract parking enforcement, we still have a ways to go though to make progress there and I think it's not only just a combination of doing additional enforcement but also being more thoughtful about how we design projects and our roadways and that'll be a big subject that'll come up when the board gets to spend some quality time looking at the revisions to the master transportation plan coming up later this year.

Great, thank you. Second area is really, as Ms. Coffey said, the gathering spaces. Really pleased with the work you've done to get to 20% tree canopy, to celebrate the escarpment, and to invite people. I love this term, the self-programmed spaces, because I hear... operating dollars not needed. So that's great. And I think we've been having a lively conversation amongst the staff and board about third spaces. And so how do we create more of those in all of our projects and celebrate them and self-program them as well as partner on programming. So thank you for that. And as you get through all the details, just raising questions that we hear most often is how are dogs being managed? Are there bags available? Is there any sort of water feature or misting to help with heat? And then of course, milkweed and other native plants you've heard already. So we don't need to go in great detail here, but if you want to say anything, you may, but just highlighting this.

Yeah, I would just say, and I recognize Ms. Riddler as well. I mean, we, as far as the plant palette, we are selecting it from the county approved plant palette. This will be determined at time of footing to grade permit with our final landscape plan. one of the benefits of this project that you don't have on many 4.1 site plans is we are programming in a dog run which is something that you know is critically needed so we're happy to provide that to our residents to reduce the potential that they would be using the landscaping on our street edges yeah great

Thank you.

And then lastly, just on the category of C2E2 energy and climate concerns, I know you got accolades from them as well of being proactive and engaging. But they did highlight a number of things from dark sky lighting to additional energy reduction, biophilia, et cetera. Is there anything you want to share about how that's evolving or where? And I guess waste management was the other.

Yeah, I don't know if we want to speak to that. I think part of our LEED certification will have to demonstrate compliance with dark skies.

Yeah, dark skies will be an important consideration for the county standards in order to accommodate. And in terms of biophilia, it's not just sort of green walls and green roofs and sort of vegetating it up. There's different principles of biophilia like prospect and refuge, bringing in natural materials like the boulders that we've integrated. And, you know, given the grade change that we have across this plaza and site, Prospect and Refuge really is able to be highlighted. We've demonstrated multiple locations where you have opportunities for overlooks, for sort of getting that visual cue through the 18th Street corridor. So, and in addition to, of course, there will be some vegetative green roofs, specifically on that third level amenity that we've talked about. And green walls, we're looking at different treatments to help soften the edges through the corridor. So there are definite elements in the landscape.

Terrific, terrific. And then just finally, thinking about Balcony Solar and about EV Ready. Again, you guys are at the cutting edge. You've got an awesome project. So as much as you can help us lean forward on those issues is welcome. And I'll have no closing comments. Those were my comments.

Oh, you beat me to it. Thank you, Ms. Cunningham. I was going to describe them as concluding questions, but I also, I'm glad you touched particularly on Mr. Byrne, and you responded, Mr. Painter, on that substantively, so we addressed that concern, and I appreciate all the other questions. Mr. Spain.

Okay. This will be it for me, Mr. Chair, and I am going to go back down this rabbit hole again. Because in this moment, I've been here long enough, I think I see which way the winds are blowing. Look, we know, you may have heard, look, our AHIF fund is dwindling. Bottom line up front, AHIF fund is dwindling. When I think about new projects, when I think about CMRI and the Art of the Possible and what is happening, how do we make up these deltas in AHIF, we have to think about, at least I do, that affordable housing is not just about a number, right? It's about where do people have this opportunity to live? And if we as a collective, under invest affordable housing in key opportune areas, what we risk doing at the end of the day is reinforcing exclusionary neighborhoods. We reinforce it. And the question is not simply about how much money we can generate, but if we really are living up to our values and building an inclusive community. So Ms. Armadillo, you mentioned in your comments that there was a part of this discussion that was going on in the planning commission, And I would like for you to talk a little bit about what were some of the thoughts. I didn't get a chance to go back and talk about it, but I'm bringing this up now because I plan to be in Arlington for a while. And I don't think this is the last of this conversation. It's just a matter of time before the alarm bells are going to go off. and you're gonna have pockets in Roslyn and other place where you were not. So please, Ms. Armadale, talk about it. What the commission, what was the debate? Because I heard from a couple.

The Planning Commission's been talking about affordable housing pretty much in every project. And so that's gonna come up for the next project as well, of course. And so yes, the question was brought up by certainly the chair of the SPRC, Mr. Berkey, also the idea, you know, do you give up the benefit of doing something now, which would be in that community versus something later, maybe longer term, but not in that same community. So these are really important questions that I think the county will have to answer very soon.

Yeah, residents, at the end of the day, of all incomes and socioeconomic dynamics should be able to share, right, in Arlington opportunities regardless of where the neighborhoods are. And if we consciously do things that make that difficult, then that's gonna be problematic. Let me say, to the 831 units, to the grocery store, to the money that's actually coming to Ahiff, to the historical preservation, thank you, is a good process, Mostly, I'm honored to be up here when this gets approved. What I would ask of the developer, and Andrew, we've been knowing each other for a while, is to think creatively down the road about how we can consider within the build-out, I know it's all about the business bottom line in the development, carving out spaces for units that could be affordable, even in new builds. And I know you have to make money. I get all that. But I'd love to talk more about perhaps opportunities in new bills here in Arlington outside of the luxury types, okay?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Spain, Mr. Karantonis. Thank you. We will have a long conversation over the coming year on housing.

I'll say that. I know we will. And this is a great moment to actually see the challenges here. This is not just about the diversity in our housing options, et cetera. This is about realizing the new posture of Rosslyn as a residential space. It used to be mostly a commercial space, and now it's more of a residential. It was always... sufficiently mixed, but now it's an even stronger mix. And I would always posit that the affordable housing or the economic diversity discussion, because this is not only about affordable housing, it's also about attainable housing and the affordability of the entire space, is something that developers and investors should care as much as we do on the side of the social justice part of it. Diverse communities are more resilient, economically more resilient. They create more opportunities for yield, honestly. I mean, think about that. Let's imagine we would have the few, because the ordinance is still not fixed, and we are working on that. COFE is working on this. Let's imagine we have these affordable apartments in these two towers, the Key and Wilson Tower. So somebody takes the elevator downstairs and there's absolutely nothing that they can afford there. You mentioned Mr. Gale and the space between buildings, right? And the users, the necessary users, the optional users, and the social users. And for people who would live in the new millionaire's island, so to say, or the new very expensive island, these diversity of uses down on the street level begins to fade when we don't have enough socioeconomic diversity in the place. And when this begins to fade, the place by itself begins to be more fragile. Any economic, political bump in the road, a stock market crisis tomorrow will be a far more difficult to manage challenge as if... in contrast to a place where we have socioeconomic diversity in the place. So the fact that when I see Rosslyn, I see an emerging market for residential diversity and socioeconomic intervention that needs to happen in handshake with those who invest there, not only for the benefit of our residents and our different constituents, but also to the benefit and the resilience of the industry itself. A couple of things on the project. Mr. Painter, I fully, I want to abuse your words of thanks to the process to say, yeah, this is what happens when you hire and you trust highly credentialed and good architects and people who know how to work for them. Ms. Amodeo, who's not a planner, she's an architect. So I have to say that because it is extremely important for everything else that we are doing. It is an example of how this works. And Mr. Baranes, I hope I pronounce your last name correctly, It is a matter of pride. I mean, I really appreciate that here in Arlington we have a number of your buildings, especially in the Roslin sector. I particularly like, I was the other day photographing myself for my own memory and edification, the building on Lynn and Langston, the white facade. You have another white building here. So going through a roster of thoughts here, this block truly reweaves the neighborhood. So it creates and enhances the connections. It creates a new connection. It creates a new plaza. It creates a new gale space between buildings. I think that you check on this, and this is a very big criterion for me. You change the way social Roslin will move. I will take losing a few affordable units there just to gain this possibility, because the next building will have to deal with this new transparency and connectivity in the neighborhood. So you create, actually, indirectly the reasons for better and more diverse housing further down the road. The second thing is the design is bold and interesting. I find the fact that we have the two towers that have different textures. I like the choice of white for the, I believe it's the Wilson Tower. No, yes, it's the Wilson Tower. I think that you didn't go bold enough, in my opinion, but this is different design in both towers. This is very distinct, and it sits with me very well, and I think with everybody I discussed that with. I do think that the treatment of the downstairs and the plaza is, The textures, the materials are quite premium. They invite, they create a positive posture of the building as we go in from all places. I really appreciate the difference of experience when you come either from Oak or from Nash. I think that you activated the edges, not only where you have to, I mean on the plaza, et cetera, but also around the building. I have one small piece of critique. I do think that the treatment of the facade of the grocery store, it's kind of big and institutional. It doesn't say here, There is a big grocery store behind that, but it could be a small bodega, and we could have three or four different sub-stores there. Your designers put upstairs this placeholder, names for the future businesses, it should be a market of things, a plaza, should invite to multiple users, also on the mixed use side. There is a misconception that we have to put a very big restaurant there, a great sports bar, to occupy the space. I think that design should be flexible enough to accommodate more diversity in that, because if you have diverse residents, you want to have a diverse retail. I think there is one thing that is kind of a perennial comment of mine on site plans that come before us. We don't see the interior of the buildings. We don't have a lot of discussion about how residents in these buildings will live, where they meet, how they go up and down, et cetera. I very much appreciate the, and this is a new thing for Arlington, the elevator, the public elevator to deal with the topography there. This is an absolute first and I really, really, really appreciate that. The, I'm not so sure about public art and how, I mean, not the program of public art, but like the design elements that you would put in the square besides the natural and natural-like elements. I think this is an important piece of how a public square is created for these optional and social uses. I think that this, I would be very interested to figure that out. And at the end, I haven't seen a lot, you know, when we build a public space between two buildings, et cetera, there is also a place where we invite people to express themselves in a personal fashion, right? So we say, here's a niche for a little market, or here's a niche for a little food thing, or a yoga class, et cetera. I would like these users to be more clear. I mean, the space for these users, the availability of space for these users to be more clear in this. all together, this is a great project. So thank you so much for that. And as I said, with exception of the one project that you don't have in your portfolio page, everything else is really very admirable and thank you for the work that you put in this community.

Thank you, Mr. Karantonis. I will be ready for a conversation about the level of detail of architectural analysis that we discuss on the dais, but I need to be respectful. You are an architect, and you, I think, have been or trained as an architect, so I want to be respectful. I'm mindful, but I have to say that out loud if it's okay. I'm flipping this over. 831 units. There's money for parks. There's money for transportation. The housing piece, to be concrete about it, Mr. Spain, I'm eager to take the AHIF money and put it in a part of Arlington where there is not enough affordable housing in addition to Roslyn. Your truth coexists with that truth, but that's just the two cents I would say that tries to align with your comments and also all colleagues' comments on this, but we'll have continued dialogue on this. The phrase, I'll stick with Mr. Shalom, which seems the Spanish Stairs of Roslyn is an interesting one that came to mind. With that, colleagues, the question is on Ms. Coffey's amendment, Vice Chair Coffey's amendment. All those in favor say aye. Aye. That motion passes 5-0. I have another motion. Oh, yes. Go ahead, Ms. Coffey.

On part B of this item, I move that the county board adopt the ordinance to vacate attached to the board report dated July 10th, 2026, namely to vacate one, a portion of North Nash Street at its intersection with Wilson Boulevard, abutting part lot 13 and 14 subdivision of lots east of A and B Colonial Heights and portions of existing easements for public street and utilities purposes on lots one, 10, 11, 12, and 14, and part of lots six, eight, nine, and 13, subdivision of lots east A and B, Colonial Heights, subject to a restrictive covenant with conditions. I also move that the board authorize the real estate bureau chief or his designee to execute on behalf of the board the deed of vacation and restrictive covenant, and any other documents necessary to effectuate the ordinance of vacation subject to the approval of all documents as to form by the county attorney. Senator. second motion by vice chair coffee seconded by mr spain uh no comments needed we've already covered all grounds as i i can think of with respect to this motion unless someone is you know well the only thing i'll say that i didn't quite get to sneak in before that is not related to the easements at all is that on the question of what we can and can't require as far as affordable housing i hope you'll come back on tuesday when we will hopefully be kicking off a work group conversation to look at the ordinance and look at our process because I think we know that we have some level of authority but frankly it hasn't changed in more than a decade and the economy and the world has changed so significantly since then. We want to be able to have some degree of local control to not ask the General Assembly every single time we want to breathe or cough but to really have that conversation with our community based on what our economics and what our market looks like. And so I totally hear you on the concerns there. I think that that conversation will enable us to have this conversation in the future in a much more in-depth and hopefully successful manner as well. So not related to the easements, but I'll sneak that in.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffey. The question is on Ms. Coffey's amendment. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, no. Congratulations to all of you and thank you for the work. And we will, you guys can go ahead and you'll enjoy your afternoons. Colleagues, we will go to lunch. We will come back by 1235. For those of you waiting for leaf blowers or the other item, for leaf blowers, we will not get to leaf blowers before one o'clock. And so... Could be longer, but I just like to underestimate that piece of it. Thanks, we're recessed until 12.35.

Thanks so much for your time.

That was really great. Thank you. Congratulations.

You're not gonna miss too much. Mr. Kushner, if you can join us in a bit, sorry. Mr. Kushner, can you call the next item, please?

Certainly. The next item on today's agenda is item number 37, concerning the Brookfield Site Adaptive Reuse Project at 601 and 701 12th Street South. It's a two-part item. Part A includes site plan amendments to revise the existing phase development site plan and to allow the adaptive reuse of two office buildings for residential use with new residential and retail additions. Part B is an ordinance to permit encroachments within the existing public street utility easements subject to conditions.

Thank you, Mr. Kushner. It's to Mr. Schwartz, and then we will hear, I believe, Mr. Watson.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. With me today is Adam Watson, who's going to present, and then Daniel Creed in his premier appearance before the county board as a member of our DES staff, and Maxine Chumley, who you already know. So I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Watson. Mr. Watson, go.

Thank you, Mr. Schwartz. Good afternoon, everybody. Yeah, this is the 601 and 701 12th Street South PDSP Amendment and Adaptive Reuse. And so I have three action items before you this afternoon. The first is the phase development site plan amendment. The second is the adaptive reuse site plan amendment. And then lastly, of course, an associated encroachment ordinance. So this site is located in Pentagon City, just across the street from the Pentagon City Mall. It's 601 and 701 12th Street South. There are two buildings on site today, both built in the early 1980s. 701 is the western building, that was site plan two of the Pentagon City PDSP, and 601 12th Street South, which is the eastern building, that's site plan three of the Pentagon City PDSP. The zoning is CO 2.5 mixed-use district and the glove designation is high office apartment hotel with note 4 for our Pentagon City coordinated redevelopment district. There are no proposed changes to the zoning or the glove designation for the site. Just two ground level shots of existing conditions of the site for you to keep in mind as we have our discussion this afternoon. There's a lot of hardscape down there today. Not much of a destination. Definitely an opportunity for increased landscaping and planting and adding retail and adding actual public access easements to these plazas and spaces so the public has a right to be there. So again, moving forward in a positive direction with regard to both of those things. Briefly covering some policy guidance for the site, the Pentagon City Sector Plan is our primary policy document governing the site. I won't read all of this, but at a high level, we can come back to our core planning principles for Pentagon City, coordinating a district scale, equity, places for people, places for nature, transportation, and green development. So drilling down a little bit further in the Pentagon City Sector Plan to our site-specific guidance, I was just going to highlight a couple of things recommended in the Sector Plan for the Board to consider. The site is allowed to have up to nine FAR total density. That, of course, is not something that would be able to achieve under adaptive reuse, but just making note of that. And then also these public realm recommendations as well. So creating the green ribbon through the site, you can see on the images on the right-hand side of the screen that is this biophilic pathway that would lead you from the southwest corner of the site to the northeast corner of the site. including a public plaza at the southwest corner of approximately half an acre, creating a public access route along 11th Street, which is the northern edge of the site, and then lastly having separated bike facilities, southbound bike facilities along South Fern Street. In addition to that, we of course also have the board's adaptive reuse policy, which was adopted in 2024 in response to declining commercial office sector. And it recognizes that chronically vacant office buildings are negatively impacting surrounding neighborhoods, whether that's economic activity, property values, the public realm and the fiscal health. And that would certainly be the case here as these two buildings are vacant today, if there was a no build situation and they remain chronically vacant. So with that in mind, repurposing chronically vacant office buildings is therefore a public priority as identified in this policy. And with that, we also have to acknowledge that there are potential trade-offs, policy trade-offs in this case between this policy and the sector plan and realizing goals and objectives. But the policy guidance box on the right-hand side of the screen sort of speaks to that a little bit further and notes that this is an area where realizing this transformation is urgent because projects that do not proceed to completion deliver no benefits at all. In addition, the adaptive reuse policy also recommends a streamlined review for projects, and we followed that with this. We did do a lunch and learn that I'll speak to later, but following overall a streamlined review process for this project. So jumping into the proposal a little bit, I'll have the applicant speak more to this in their presentation, but essentially we've determined that the existing approved PDSP, the 12th street landing project for this site is not feasible. And so therefore proposing to amend the Pentagon city PDSP to discontinue that approval and the design guidelines that were associated with it and revise the conditions to make this adaptive reuse possible. The second part of it is, of course, the adaptive reuse itself, which is converting these two existing vacant 12-story office buildings to residential and constructing single-story ground-level retail and then two-story residential wings. Something that makes this adaptive reuse, I would say, exemplar is that we are also going to be getting new public spaces and green ribbon, landscaping and streetscaping improvements, which is something that we have not seen before with other adaptive reuse projects. So just to summarize here, there's about 560,000 square feet of office space down there currently, which is vacant. And the applicant is proposing to convert that to 607 residential units and just under 30,000 square feet of retail. This is about 15,000 square feet of retail on each building. And you can see with these massing diagrams here on the far right, The red is your single-story retail bump out. In the blue, we have two-story residential wings that are going to be framing the streets in a manner that's recommended in the sector plan. In addition to that, they're going to retain about 3,500 square feet of office in the garage. In terms of parking, we are setting a residential minimum of 0.2 spaces per delineant. That's just the minimum we're requiring. The applicant could, of course, park it at a higher ratio if they feel the need to. This is exclusive of an additional 20 visitor spaces that will also be in the garage and then 120 spaces for the retail. That leaves 468 flexible spaces for the applicant to be able to use at its discretion. I would just side note say that there is an approved use permit here for for the Avis car rental, which is just basically storage of those vehicles as they move them elsewhere, setting aside 100 spaces in the garage for that use for the life of the use. If it's discontinued, that requirement no longer exists. But since the applicant believes that may continue, we are making sure there's some parking available down there for that. The proposed ground floor plan, so you can see in red the retail bump outs along 12th Street, so activating that frontage, which is a recommendation of the sector plan. The green dashed line is showing you the green ribbon route through the site. Again, the sector plan recommends having that run straight unobstructed line from the southwest corner to the northeast corner. Of course, that is not Feasible given the need to keep the existing buildings as part of the adaptive reuse And then also noting the locations of our public plaza areas I would say that the the plaza space at the southwest corner is not hitting the minimum quarter acre size It's about our assuming half acre size. It is about a quarter of an acre but cumulatively across the site actually exceeding the sector plan recommendation and getting up to point seven to a acres of public space. That's excluding, of course, easements for sidewalks and other things like that. Lastly, pointing out on the far right hand side, the separated bike lane that's being provided just as recommended in the sector plan. Along the northern edge of the site, although it's not labeled there, you'll see that that is the access point for the existing garage that's going to be retained. You can access from Hayes or from Fern. That means that, of course, we're not going to realize 11th Street as a complete street in the sector plan. With this, there will be public access for pedestrians to get across the northern edge of the site. But, of course, because we need to keep the existing garage and ramps there, that's not going to be having through vehicular access. that grade. We do coordinate with APS on all these projects and Arlington Public Schools has told us they expect a total of 39 students generated here. That's 21 elementary school students, six middle school students and 12 high school students. The last part of the proposal, of course, is the encroachments of the underground garage and, of course, the transformer vault as well. And as Mark mentioned, Maxine is here if we have questions about the encroachments. So moving forward into some staff analysis. I apologize, this slide's a little bit busy and small, difficult to read. But basically what this does is it's a chart that's comparing the proposal to those key recommendations in the sector plan that I talked about a couple slides ago. and just noting where there are some trade-offs or deviations, given the fact that this is an adaptive reuse. I would say overall there are very few, and we are achieving the sector plan recommendations by a large. It's just with different configurations. So the blue is showing you those areas where there are some trade-offs, and I can walk through those briefly. So, you know, having up to nine FAR, is what the sector plan recommends. We're at something closer to a three AFAR with this proposal. Of course, that is consistent with and less than the sector plan maximum. So there's no conflict there. It's just far less than what could be realized under a regular site plan. Again, with adaptive reuse, that limits new additions to no more than two stories above grade. And so again, no deviation there per se, but less than the maximum given that this is adaptive reuse. Public space, again, they are actually exceeding the half acre target of the sector plan at 0.72, but it's not going to be all accumulated at the southwest corner. And of course, the same thing goes with having that direct line of sight with the green ribbon where you have existing buildings that need to remain. Public access along 11th Street, I think I just spoke to this on the previous slide about how that can't be a complete street because it's going to remain the parking garage access ramps. And then this is really important to note too, the bottom four rows here, where they're actually achieving all of the things that are recommended exactly to the letter of the sector plan. So separated bicycle facility along South Fern Street, the building coverage maximums, we are below those. 22% below the fifth floor and 43% below the sixth floor and 22% above the fifth floor, which is less than the recommended maximums in the sector plan. The tree and vegetative coverage, again, hitting those targets as well. We're at 23.5% tree canopy, almost 50% overall vegetative coverage, exceeding sector plan recommendations there. And then, of course, the building edge itself, we have sort of an existing situation of almost the towers in the park design where the buildings are very far set back from the right away from the sidewalk recessed. Of course, adding active uses along 12th Street with the retail and then having retail fronting along the sidewalk edges on Fern and on Hayes as recommended in the sector plan. Excuse me. Another key element here is our office vacancy rate. And we are going to be seeing reduction there. So Pentagon City, we anticipate working with our colleagues in AED, 14.3 percentage point reduction in Pentagon City as a result of this shift. The Richmond Highway Corridor, which is Crystal and Pentagon City's combined, 2.7 percentage point reduction. And then for the county as a whole, one percentage point. In terms of our community engagement, I mentioned we did follow our streamlined process, but on May 28th, we had a lunch and learn virtual community meeting with the three civic associations of 22202, as well as CPCC and the typical commissions involved and SPRC was well attended and got a lot of good feedback, mostly positive. On June 6th, we went to the planning commission where they voted unanimously eight to zero to approve the items per the county manager's recommendation. One thing that came up at both the Lunch and Learn and the Planning Commission is this desire for both staff and the community to expand the hours of the existing metro stairs and tunnel that are on the southwest corner of the site. So, I'll just mention that's shown circled in red on the aerial image on the right-hand side of the screen. Those are stairs in a tunnel that was built in the early 80s. They connect to the actual Pentagon City metro mezzanine. There's an existing easement there that's been in place for almost 40 years. It limits the hours to Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. We're all working together to Expand those hours to move them to the weekend to hopefully have the mirror Essentially the operating hours of the Metro itself. And so we've we've had meetings preliminary meetings with all of those parties involved at our parties to the easement and we are actively working to amend that outside of this entitlement process to try to get that those hours expanded and So we find that this project complies with the general land use plan, the zoning district regulations, and the adaptive reuse policy, and is also generally consistent with the recommendations of our sector plan. Of course, noting the constraints of retaining the existing buildings. And so So this list here, of course, corresponds with those planning principles that I showed you at the beginning. So reducing office vacancy, expanding our housing supply by 607 units, creating truly new public spaces and plazas. Again, there's no public access or right to be down there today. Creating the green ribbon pathway, albeit with a different layout. implementing new multimodal infrastructure, exceeding our tree and our vegetative canopy targets, creating new retail, and then improving our streetscape and activating those edges and improving the urban design as well. And so with that, we recommend adoption of both the PDSP and the adaptive reuse and ask that you enact the ordinance of encroachment per the county manager's recommendation. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Watson. You stay close. And I did hear... You've joined us first time, Mr. Creed, so we may have questions, but we'll go to the applicant first. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, Madam Vice Chair, members of the board. I'm Ken Weier with the law firm WeierGill. With me this afternoon is Jeff Zell with JM Zell Partners, and Lincoln Equities is also joining us virtually, as well as other members of our design team. Could staff please bring up our presentation? Much like the earlier conversation about the prior development approval, I do want to give Arlington County a compliment on the process. Having a CMRI policy is a clear delineation of county policy and how they want to go forward to enact these conversions. I've had the privilege of working on 15 conversions in Northern Virginia. Every single one is different because buildings are different. And the fundamental nature of a conversion is you have a building, it is what it is, and you do the best you can to convert it into a new use. you're doing a conversion because the existing building no longer meets its design purpose and can't attract the additional revenue to continue as an office space. So if staff is coming up with the presentation, we'll go ahead and I won't repeat what Mr. Watson said, other than to also thank him and Mr. Creed. They've been very accessible during the five months we've been at this. We've had great interactions with both staff and the community. And the number one question we get is please get to work. This site is very inhospitable today. It's an island of concrete with the building set in towers, which doesn't reflect obviously the design principles that Arlington County has today. Next slide. So those of you who live and work around here, you know how the site is situated. We have Hayes to our west, Fern to our east, and the Costco to the south. Somewhat inhospitable out there today on our site. And obviously we face the back wall of the Costco. and we have the DEA site to the north. And when Jeff first, Mr. Zell first approached me on this site, he quickly realized it's a good candidate for conversion because the building core is about the right thickness. It allows us to have a quarter down the middle of the hallway and apartments on the east and west side are flanking both sides of that hallway that were the right depth to conversions. What it doesn't have, it doesn't have any street presence, and we'll go forward to the next couple slides and show you how we took this sort of vacant opportunity and turned it into what we think is a great site. Starting from the south, you can see two roughly 15,000 square foot retail corridors there, or retail spaces. That is by design. Since we face the back of a Costco, if we had too shallow of a retail, we wouldn't attract enough retailers. This needs to be a destination in and of itself. So we felt that a meaningful move towards retail on these two 15,000 square foot platforms was a good idea. As I'll show you in later slides, it also faces south, so the tops of these retail corridors, or spaces rather, provide space for on-site amenities for the residents above the ground plane. But on the ground plane, the county was crystal clear on the need for the green ribbon. So what this exhibit is attempting to show in colors is in the blue, it is a public access plaza. So if you're there walking on a day, it's very clear that you can walk in these areas and you can sit and spend time outside what we hope are two strong retail cafes flanking the southeastern and southwestern corners. And then you can see the two arms, if you will, on the far east and west, which is the two stories of the retail, excuse me, residential that we're adding to bring that building wall out to the street. And then the purple in between are some of the amenities spaces for the building residents at the ground plane. But it is somewhat remarkable that the county had a plan for a half an acre of open space. We're doing a conversion. We're able to do 50% better. So I think that was a really good selling point to the community. And we, of course, as we can talk in more detail on all the perimeter streets inside, we're doing everything the county wanted as far as the streetscape, depth, turn lanes and bike lanes as part of a conversion, which is a credit to the collaboration with the Zelle team and our civil engineer to make it all work. Next slide. These are just the specific square footage of the public access easements. Early on it came up whether we were adding public access on both sides of the cul-de-sac drop off. Today there's two curb cuts and we're reducing it to one. But what this shows is the public is welcome to go on both sides of that internal drop off. We'll skip through these. These are somewhat just technical, strong, I'm sorry, south facing elevations. Let's go to the next slide. So when Mr. Zell first showed me this presentation, I think even the community kind of nodded and said, you know, this is pretty strong. I think this can work. And the greatest compliment I can give to Chris Shorten and the Architectonica team is it doesn't look like a conversion. A lot of the conversions I've done, you just keep the facade, you punch some windows in, you change the color and do the best you can. But what you're seeing here is a complete facade replacement. You're seeing the strong green ribbon continuing. It gives you the idea of the scale through the middle of the building. You can see the retail facing the south with the pool areas on top, which facing south is where you want to put your pools. And you can see the enhanced streetscape and, of course, the 50% tree canopy that we talked about earlier. It's pretty remarkable to have in an area today which is entirely covered by a garage. Let's go to the next couple of slides to give you some context. We have our back to the north, and we're facing southwest. It gives you an idea of the two-story residential we're adding. Your CMRI policy allows up to two stories of addition and still qualify for the conversion. So we use that opportunity there to break up, if you will, the interior courtyard, which would be residential amenity space, and then yet having strong entrances and exits along the frontages where we can do degrade to enlivening that streetscape and have individual residences enter and exit. Next slide. There was quite a few questions earlier. I know Mr. Byrne will probably be speaking tonight or this afternoon about the pollinators. And we're confirming that all of our plants are non-invasive and native species. We certainly also have milkweed and sassafras trees. And we're certainly going to continue to work with the county during the landscape plan to pick a variety of plant species which is appropriate given our ongoing climate change and so the demarcation of zones marching further to the north due to climate change. But this gives you an idea of the feel and texture of the interior green ribbon. We are bound by the two walls of the existing buildings, but we're able to still make it an amenity and gathering space for the community and not just our residents. Let's go to the next slide. Corner space, so I want to speak a minute about the metro access. We did have a good conversation with Mr. Creed and his staff. It's a little tired, a little scary today. It's at a corner here on the south left-hand side of the drawings. We're certainly willing to work with county staff on everything from power washing and lighting and really making that metro entrance better. And we don't own the property yet, or Zell and Lincoln Equities don't own it yet, but once they do, they're certainly willing to comply and will be complying with the county easement and also trying to expand the hours when we can once we get our team stood up to be able to operate that space. This gives you an idea of how everyone in Arlington County knows this, but you can blend public spaces and retail and residential seating and retail seating. So what you see here is just a placeholder, if you will, for a restaurant with seating here that borders the public open space areas. But of course, these seating areas don't count as public access, but they are a source of visual sort of connectivity between the retailers and the open space. Let's go to the next slide. So a few things to cover. We did talk for a minute about the excess garage spaces these conversions are almost always have the story you have hundreds of extra spaces so working with Mr. Watson and his staff we do have it's a big number 400 extra parking spaces so it's my understanding that county does not allow off-site parking to park in those garages so we do want to work forward with the county to figure out how to use those spaces it is a almost like a utility supply that's just sitting there and it's going to be empty unless we figure out how to do something about it that's not before you today because it's an ordinance change but we look forward to working with county staff to advance that necessary ordinance change then finally just to bring up a key issue about our business plan i know there was an extensive conversation earlier about affordable housing as you all know for the mri conversion policy we're exempt from that this is a meeting the market where it is plan this is not luxury this is a right down the middle sort of meeting the market where it is and that is a function of the conversion itself if we price these things too high they would expect certain geometry of the building that doesn't have we are stuck with the shell that we have and we're going to reuse it which is in and of itself the final comment is with green building converting an existing building we are saving a lot of time for the community by reusing the existing garage we don't have to haul in new concrete and there's millions of tons of carbon dioxide that we're saving by these conversions so i'll stop there mr chair we're very excited to be here we hope the efficiency to get us to entitlement continues forward as we move towards building permit so we thank you the community and staff for your time

Thank you very much, Mr. Weier. Stay close. We will have questions, I believe. Next, we turn to our commissions. To our new speaker, who is an architect and clearly not a planner. Thank you, Mr. Carantonis. Excuse me, Ms. Amadeo, for the Planning Commission. Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and members of the County Board. For the record, Paola Modeo representing the Planning Commission. Again, the Planning Commission received the project positively with much of the discussion focused on the benefits and trade-offs of adaptive reuse. Commissioners recognized that the proposal would return two vacant office buildings to productive use, deliver new housing more quickly than a full redevelopment, and help reactivate this part of Pentagon City with new residents, retail, public space, and an improved 12th Street frontage. The commission also recognized the broader value of retaining the existing structures while still hoping the applicant would develop the design further to address exposure and orientation. The commission recognized that adaptive reuse can reduce demolition and construction waste, preserve a substantial amount of embodied carbon, and respond more quickly to the county's office vacancy and housing challenges. At the same time, commissioners discussed the limitations that come with retaining the buildings and garage. The project would not produce the same total housing yield as the previously approved redevelopment, and the existing structures constrained the site plan, including the alignment of the green ribbon. The key public realm discussion therefore centered on that trade-off. The green ribbon cannot follow the same direct route envisioned in the Pentagon City Sector Plan. Instead, the proposal provides a pathway through the site together with public plazas, retail activation, and public access easements. Some commissioners remained concerned about the clarity and legibility of that route, while others felt the broader benefits of adaptive reuse justified the compromise. Transportation and circulation discussions focused on multimodal access, the metro tunnel connection, and whether future redevelopment north of the site could help complete the planned 11th Street connection. Commissioners also raised questions about landscape native planting and ecological performance. The applicant stated that invasive species are not being proposed and that it would continue working with staff through the final landscape plan process. Bird-friendly glass was also raised for consideration. Overall, the commission viewed the proposal as a meaningful test of the county's adaptive reuse policy, one that delivers housing and reactivates vacant buildings sooner while accepting some limitations in housing yield and public realm configuration. The Planning Commission voted unanimously 8-0 to recommend approval of the phase development site plan amendment and unanimously 8-0 to recommend approval of the adaptive reuse site plan amendment.

Thank you, Ms. Amadeo. Now we'll turn to public testimony. We'll hear from our public speakers.

I think we have one or two. We do indeed. We have one three-minute speaker registered at this time, Mr. Bernie Byrne. Mr. Byrne.

Yes, can you hear me?

We can. Go ahead.

Okay, thank you. The two buildings lack significant biophilia. There are no green roofs. No vines hang from the roofs or ledges or climb from the ground on trellises. There are no green walls. For the following statement, the applicant said that they will change this, but I haven't seen it in writing or any details. But I'm aware of that. The plant palette does not adequately align with the County Board's 2016 Monarch Plan, Georgia County's Forestry and Natural Resources Plan. Both encourage planting the native nectar plants to support monarch butterflies and other native pollinators. They do not support planting or cultivizing non-native plants. Although you may think an applicant may have changed this, the app, the pallet presently does not contain any milkweeds, which butterflies require when feeding, caterpillars require when feeding. The applicant should add, probably will, but may not, apply, add common milkweed to the pallet. This is the only plant that mountaineers prefer when laying eggs and thrives in Arlington's natural areas. As I have informed the applicant, the plant palette contains 32 non-native plants, which hopefully will change. Reports have shown that some are invasive in various regions of the United States and are locally designated as such, but are not yet on Arlington's invasive plant list. The applicant should therefore replace all the non-natives, every one of them, with native plants that have similar characteristics. The pallet presently has 34 cultivars that have no diseases than their parents. I'm waiting for the county to really change this. Cultivars also have reduced nutritional benefits or toxic to insects. Please note that the county has plant lists As I stated before, All species in draft plant palette for the 2015 Street North Alexum project, which approved on June 13th, are native to Arlington and its vicinity. Only two are cultivars. The applicant should limit its plantings to those in that palette and those that are native to others that are native to our area. I've sent the applicant a list of those plants, but have not received no response except the one that the applicant just gave to you. Please ensure that the green ribbon conforms to these recommendations. This is one of the first projects that contains a part of the ribbon. Do not permit the applicant to set a very bad precedent for planting the ribbon. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Verner. Mr. Clerk, are there any other speakers? There are no further speakers. Conversation is now with the Board of Colleagues. I propose that we start by getting a motion on the table, and we will turn to Ms. Cunningham for that motion. Go ahead.

I move that the County Board adopt the Phased Development Site Plan Amendment Ordinance, SPLA 2600-004, SP 105, attached to the Board Report dated July 13, 2026, namely to revise the Pentagon City Phased Development Site Plan conditions governing Parcel 1C South and discontinue the associated 12th Street Landing project design guidelines for the properties located at 601 and 701 12th Street South, subject to the proposed conditions of the ordinance. And secondly, adopt the attached adaptive reuse site plan amendment ordinance SPLA 26-00006 attached to the board report dated July 13th, 2026, namely to convert two existing office buildings to residential use and construct new retail and residential building additions with up to 607 residential dwelling units, up to 29,990 square feet of retail gross floor area, and up to 3,579 square feet of office gross floor area, with modifications of zoning ordinance requirements, including reduced parking requirements, altered dimensional parking standards, density exclusions, and other modifications as necessary to achieve the proposed development plan for 601 and 701 12th Street South, subject to all previously approved conditions of SP2 and SP3 of SP number 105, and the conditions of the ordinance.

Thank you, Ms. Cunningham. It's seconded by Mr. Spain. Would you like to speak to your motion?

I will speak briefly because we have a long day ahead and we're glad to see you and want to get you to work working on this. Very much support this adaptive reuse and like our conversation earlier today, the community is just delighted and thrilled with your engagement, with your design, with your and just overall awesomeness, I would say. So we don't hear that all the time, even though there is awesomeness much of the time. So gold stars to you. And just a huge thank you, a huge thank you. So this is very, very visible right on top of the metro, right across from a very active mall. And to have it come back to life and have green, 23% tree canopy, places to sit and to recreate, and all the amenities for families and for larger size units is just terrific. So I will leave it there, and we can turn to questions.

Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Cunningham, Mr. Spain. You weren't there. Vice Chair Coffey, go ahead.

Great, thank you. I'll just skip right to the core of it. If we could pull up slide 17, I believe.

Is it 16 or 17? I don't know. Depends on where you're going.

17. While we're getting that up there, you know, I think our adaptive reuse program has to be one of the most successful things this board has ever done, at least this group of five. I really I mean, I think that these numbers are pretty staggering and I think goes directly to the core of why this is not a super controversial vote. Right. I think that this is the type of project that historically would have drawn many, many people to come and talk to us and want to negotiate and change every little detail, which, you know, it does matter for our built space to get it right, but I think this slide in particular shows how long, what a long way we've come. And I think one of my questions, and I'm gonna try and ask it in a way that makes sense to staff because some of these numbers can get confusing, is we've approved previous adaptive reuse projects as well. And so looking at, in the first row there, the county-wide 23.5 office vacancy and the approximately one percentage point reduction that this project could have. Is that incorporating other approvals that we've already done? Where will this set us once everything we've approved in adaptive reuse comes through?

All right, let me take a shot at that. And I think what we're going to do is, probably sometime in the fall, we'll be publishing a report that sort of summarizes all of this. CoStar, which is the source of information you see down below for May, tracks information that is post building permit and sort of later on down the line. So the board, according to my calculation, has approved, without this specific project, close to 2.4 million square feet of adaptive reuse, and this is another 500 and something. About six hundred and twenty six hundred and twenty thousand. So, you know, what you see here is it's coming down. The vacancy rate in the county will come down almost a full percentage point related to this specific project. And so if you look back and we'll we'll. publish the information, like I said, we want to make sure we get it all perfect. We were at 24% at our peak about a year and a half ago. With this, we'll go below 20%, which I think speaks to your earlier point about how effective the program has been. Now, that doesn't mean all the spaces are now fully occupied by residents. So that's what I wanted to be clear about.

Yeah. No, I think that's really, really helpful just in putting this in context, because each individual project that comes to us, we see, you know, frankly, seeing projects that get to a full percentage point countywide is truly impressive. I mean, those are no small numbers, but we've had a number of these projects, and so I think it's helpful, and it will be helpful to kind of come back to the board with that larger report, because I think it just... 24% down to, you know, projected below 20% in a year and a half or so. I mean, that's really something. And I think, you know, I just thank you to staff for all the work. I know that this is not easy to get us here, but it really deserves its moment. The flip side of that, I think, is as we keep moving these projects through the pipeline and as we... you know, get to a more stable office market and think about the trade-offs that commercial adaptive reuse has, I think it starts to become more of a question for me when are those trade-offs really worth it? And I think this project in particular, there's another slide that compares the FAR that was proposed previously or allowed under the site plan. I'm trying to figure out, scroll back to which slide that is, you might know faster than me.

Mr. Watson, yeah.

Yeah. 11 might be. There we go. No, this one. Yeah. With a 9-0 FAR and over 1,600 residential units. And that would have, of course, come alongside the different community benefits around affordable housing and other investments that are so important to us. I do not feel yet that we are at the point where the trade-offs as far as the economic development needs versus the unrealized housing units and benefits means we need to stop. But I do think that we are getting to a point where we might need to have a conversation at least. Crystal City and Pentagon City in particular have been the center of the universe on a lot of this. And that means that at this site in particular, It's a delta of almost, I think, 1,000 units. And that's a really big deal, because it's not like we have infinite space where we can just make up those housing units somewhere else, whether they're affordable or market rate. And so we do, I think, need to be thoughtful. And I think this site plan comes to us, and I think I will be supportive of it, but I think it is starting to push me into the do we have the balance exactly right as the market starts to stabilize? And I think that's going to be a really challenging question to answer because none of us have a crystal ball and we can't predict the future. And Lord knows the macro economy keeps doing things none of us can predict, even the best economists. And so it's not to say we want to move quickly or reel this back or stop doing what we're doing. But I do think it's something that I personally have my eye on at this point because it does seem to me that we are in, because of our success, quite a different place than we were two years ago when we passed this policy initially. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffey. Mr. Spain. Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and great comments, Madam Vice Chair. I think I'm aligned with a lot of what you just stated. Can we pull up slide 19? And then as we're doing that, I just want to first say to Jeff, you know, they're EZL partners. And Ken, thank you for working with us, working with the community, moving at the pace of need. And I heard you at the end where you're ready to get to work. There's a couple things, and so this is first going to go to staff. I'm hearing, and I went through the staff report, so the East Metro entrance there, talk me through a little bit, I know there's some challenges, what it takes to get that. I know we need to talk to a lot of folks and the hours and all that, but I also read from rural Highlands. They, they want it like 24 seven, but when do we, when should we expect, when should the community expect some kind of like definitive answer on what we can do with that tone on? I know y'all want to hear us. I probably want to hear from them as well. What, what, what do you think?

Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. We've already had preliminary meetings so far with all those parties that are part of that easement to date. I actually might call on Mr. Creed who's been actually leading those to talk a little bit further about what we've been doing and sort of anticipated timeline to your question.

Thank you, Mr. Watson. As you mentioned, we've had several preliminary conversations with all the easement holders, and in terms of timing, depending on what that ultimate agreement looks like, we could be looking at expanded hours, depending on the timing of construction. Prior to construction if it's further out in the future But ultimately access to that tunnel during construction will need to be curtailed So if we were looking if as the applicant is stated there like to get going pretty quickly So if we do get everyone in agreement Likely we could be looking at time of occupancy for the for the new hours first occupancy to get those extended hours going I

Yeah, I think what I will be curious to see and maybe, you know, not today, but at some point in time, you can put this on record. I would love to hear, you know, get some scenarios on timing. And if there's anything you want to lean in on there, you know, Ken, just any thoughts?

Yes, sir. So thank you for the question. So we do view this as an amenity to our project. Having a metro station entrance on your property is a pretty valuable thing. You won't be surprised by a lawyer saying we need to work out the liability. There's two doors. It's not hard to lock and unlock a door. But Mr. Zell is committed to working with the county and the neighbors to get that thing open as much as it can. And just we need to work out, again, liability and making sure who closes what door, what hour. But it's not complicated to fix the hours.

I know that's right.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I just want to say, look, this is very important to us as much as it is to the community. We are the community with you. And so as I made a commitment to Daniel and his group on the phone that we need to make it dynamic. It has to look usable. You can't have people sleeping in the steps. Right. And we get all that. And so we will come up with a plan to activate it in the sense of that it looks really good or exciting or nice. And if people have seen other projects we've done in Alexandria and also the ones we've done here, we want it to be special. And it's part of our corner. It's what you see when you come across the street. So we need to incorporate it in a way that it looks good and we will work with staff to make that happen. I appreciate that.

I think you just put a lot of folks in the community at ease, kind of relaxed them a little bit, at least got their blood pressure down. So I only asked for this slide to come up because if I contrast against the previous presentation, I think for me this is kind of like the bottom line up front, right? We have a number of buildings, quite honestly, that are vacant. And, you know, just for the public and maybe for staff, This particular slide is for the sector plan. There was a slide in the last presentation, Shannon, and we could talk about this later, how it was kind of overlay with the comp plan and things alike. They're different, but... I just think this is a great slide for the public to look at as far as our goals and objectives outside of all the nuance associated with development. And I just want to, again, lift this one up for folks to look at and for me to kind of drive home that it's powerful. And thank you, because we got to fill these buildings as quickly as possible. And I think I'm all in. So thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, colleagues, for the opportunity.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. I'll turn to Mr. Karantonis and Ms. Cunningham in a moment. While you guys are getting prepped, I'll just say, just from the pictures, the renderings, there's a whole lot of those two buildings that doesn't look like, you can't put solar on top of rooftop HVAC little units, but the two front areas, You know, we don't have that authority in this instance, but I think it might, you know, you do the analysis, we did it on our house, and solar advocates said eight years you'll be done, and then I did some digging and it's more like 12. But, you know, and I had a lot of conversations with my family about the upfront cost. We eventually did it. I'm just, you know, those buildings look as solidly built as almost anything. If those rooftop little boxes, the two boxes are free, it might actually be financially within range for you privately. I don't know if you have any comment. It's totally almost precatory and wish, but I just wanted to ask because that occurred to me. Go ahead, yourself.

Yeah, no. Look, we look when we do these buildings at all the available opportunities that make, what I would say, good decisions for long-term value. And also, the issue of solar and electrical power in today's world is just unknown. So anytime we can get an advantage, because it becomes an advantage. And I think you're 12. It's probably down to 10 over the last four months of what's going on in the Middle East.

We bought the old technology.

Yeah, yeah. But my point is, I think we're gonna look at it, because I think it's just a smart idea. Now, obviously there's a trade-off between design and working with staff and everybody to make sure it's put in a place that doesn't detract and looks good, and we will take a look at it.

There's no question about it. Perfect. That's great. I'm not asking for more than just that look. That sounds good. I might have a concluding comment, but first we'll go over to Mr. Karantonis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have two questions. One is a design choice question, just for discussing that. So the two buildings, I appreciate a lot what you have done to reinterpret the facade of the Beelix scissor, but you opted for a completely symmetric mirroring design. The reason why I'm asking is that symmetric mirroring design is the design language of what is there today uh you know the buildings the tsa building the dea building behind across the street etc this was kind of one of the factors that arrested value from there was not enough variability in the public realm. So a question of that is whether this is a conscientious choice or is it an economic, driven by economic consideration. The second question is related to use. So I find that one of the most interesting additions of the project is the commercial space that you create on 12th Street and on the corner. I find that very intriguing because I think that this is extremely critical. It moves a lot of activity or potential activity on the other side of Hays and Joyce, sorry, Hays, Hays. And I want to try to calibrate how these dynamics will go. The mall is one of the last urban malls in a very big area that is actually functioning. I think that the connection through the tunnel, et cetera, is only viable, reasonable. I mean this was built for the federal employees who would be going into these four buildings over there. But today it could connect actually commercial activation spaces. And 12th Street around you is a very, emerging market. It has a lot of potential because Costco is still there, and this is where, I mean, this is not residential, obviously, but the Whitmer is on the other side, which is, as Ms. Coffey mentioned, three times more FAR. You will have on your side at some point the Penn Place. You have the enormously intense land use around Met Park, another three and a half times more of the FAR that you are retrofitting here. So I'm trying to figure out what is the concept for this commercial space because I believe that the biggest value added is there. So let me discuss that if you can.

First of all, I agree with everything you said. So can we go to the elevation, if that's okay, staff facing from the south? We had to balance two things. You had a very prescriptive green ribbon that said thou shalt have half an acre of open space. So that, for better or worse, is competing with the retail. We have to figure out when the first question was, is your retail too big? Is it too small? As Mr. Zell knows from all his decades of experience in retail, we didn't think token retail here would work. I'll make up a number. 5,000 square feet, lining both of them. It doesn't have enough capacity to attract a variety of retailers. Restauranteurs, maybe small grocer, we're not sure. It seems to us to fit a storyline for the retail, one larger user and a series of smaller users in the different buildings. So we view leaning into the retail corridor and making this a place in and of itself. We thought we were too small. It would be a token. And we really couldn't get much bigger than this without compromising the green ribbon. So that's why we settled on this floor plate, for lack of a better term. As far as, can we go to the perspective, Mr. Watson, if that's okay? The comment about the architecture, there's more going on here than you might first take. The first is we are limited by the massing. The concrete tower is what it is. We are reskinning the building and we are adding balconies to these buildings. We do not want anyone to mistake these two towers of being in a complex with the two to the north. These need to look different. So we did add balconies throughout the facade. We did explore different colors, and it looked a little artificial to us to have one lighter and one darker. So we did play with it as a team. We, as a team, settled on this, and I don't think staff pushed back on us too hard on it. So we did give it some thought. We thought this was enough differentiation to the north, and we hope that the balcony add alone, along with some of these window patterns also, would give us a clear delineation. This is not an office building that was converted. It looks good in its own right, if that's a... architectural comment. Mr. Zell wanted to follow up.

Yeah, I mean, two things. One is the county has spent a lot of money on the 12th Street corridor, right? Right. And we're kind of on the front door, which is what you were saying. So I think it really behooves us to move the buildings out as far as we can, giving you what you need is for the public easement aspects of it. But we just felt we need to start to create this as a living urban city aspect and not just go blank. So it was very important for us to move that out. I think the retail closer to where the subway going to the metro is easier to deal with because it's a prime corner across from the mall. The one across from Costco is going to be a little more challenging until the sites are developed further east. So I think from our perspective, it brings the buildings. And if you walk streetscapes throughout Crystal City, Pentagon City, people only see the first 20 feet when you walk down the sidewalks. And so for us, I think it's really important that what they're seeing is streetscape that's retail, that's active. And we're going to make this really nice and special. And we were able to utilize it for our amenity decks. And one of the things... I just want to bring out, because it's going to come out at some point, because somebody asked with the solar panels, and I'll tell you, the issue with the roof, you have it where your conversion, you could do your amenities on the roof here. And somebody said, take the swimming pool to the roof. What we wanted you to tell you is, and unfortunately what happened in New York wasn't really great, but... These buildings, most of them in Crystal City, cannot handle the weight load of putting amenities on roofs. They just want to make everybody aware. So when you decide to put another floor on these buildings, there's a lot of structural belt and suspenders that need to be added on your column basing down below to work. So we got very nervous when we looked at it. And that's why you're seeing our amenity deck, which I think is in a great spot and works to utilize the space correctly. Architectonica is a world-class firm, as I'm sure everybody knows from a perspective of they do stuff all over the world based in Miami, New York. And Chris Short is the one that did this with Bernardo himself. We're very happy with the facade. As I said, I don't think anybody we've ever showed this building to knows that this is an office to resi conversion. I think that goes a long way with the architectural group. Thank you.

I absolutely, I mean, I'm not critiquing that. Actually, I'm not even critiquing at all the design choices of the buildings. I think the solar gain is a little bit too much, but that's all I would say. No, I was only asking whether it is a choice that you made that both buildings are symmetrically aligned. I mean, they are the same.

Yeah, we want them to be brother and sister. They're slightly different. And remember, one building is slightly bigger than the other. But they're brother and sister. They look symmetrical, but they really kind of aren't. But we wanted to read as the same palette, in a sense. So that was a choice.

It's not new for anybody. I have been talking about 12th Street South, the South 12th Street, for a very long time. I do believe that the flow of people that 12th Street South has, after the Whitmer and the rearrangement of the exit of Metro there, is a completely different game than it was 10 years ago. The problem for you probably is that the majority of the flow, the majority of the walking people goes on the right side, so on the south curb of 12th Street. The whole point of your investment is to get them on the other side of 12th Street, on the north side of 12th Street. So there is one thing that I would invite you to think about. The interruption of the entrance of the cars, this curb cut there. has to be designed in a way that it looks very pedestrian friendly. Because if not, people will be keeping working on the other side. The people go from the thousands of apartments in the Berkeley and the Millennium and everything that's around Met Park to Metro and back. you want to intercept that traffic, your commercial tenants will want to intercept that traffic, lure them in. And one of the best ways to do that is to provide them a seamless transition down to what's the next street, third.

Yeah, we agree and we don't disagree. You gotta remember that the single entry point is only servicing drop off on the two buildings. This is not a pass-through. All the real traffic is going to go to the back of the building into the garage. We don't think this is going to be used that much. So people, if we design this correctly, I don't even think there will be a large amount of traffic flow that will use that turnaround, except for people that need to drop something off at the building. That's really what we're looking at. So it should be very limited.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Zill and Mr. Karantonis. Ms. Cunningham.

Thank you for that. Maybe one quick question as we transition from that conversation. The pick up and drop off and the parking ordinance change question. Anything you want to say?

So staff did approach us, and I think I have the number correct. The state reduced our parking requirement down to 0.2, so we took that as an opportunity to not be restricted. We're still going to have to park it to market, which is much closer. I think we were at 0.75 or 1 is where we were. So we did reduce it because the state required us to, but our utilization in the initial traffic study is not changing. We're still expecting to park it at about 0.75 per unit.

Got it. And so all the spaces there will probably be used in the short term, right? You talked about 400 spaces access.

Sorry, just by reference, round numbers, 600 units, there's 800 parking spaces in the building. So we still have quite a few spaces even after that parking utilization of close to 0.75 per unit.

Great. And then pick up and drop off the Ubers, the door dashes, how do you envision that working and are there space in the garage?

So we are trying to counterbalance the last conversation with that fact that people do arrive and drop off. So we took the two curb cuts today and reduced it to one and we made it long enough there should be some stacking internally and it's away from the sidewalk. So as you transverse east and west and north and south, make up your number, two, three, four Ubers that are sitting there dropping off are not interfering in the way. They're not parked in the sidewalk path, if you will, that are up inside the site in front of both lobbies, allowing people to walk around them and not have to be too interrupted by them as they go east to west.

Great. And then can we pull up the elevation that show, or the site plan that shows the new retail on the other side of the building? So we talked a lot about the 12th Street retail, but I'd love to hear more about the Fern and Hayes Street size.

So the Fern and Hayes Street...

Sorry, it's not retail. That's residential too. The blue.

Tell us about the blue. Yes, ma'am. So your ordinance allows... I'll call it moderate additions to open spaces as part of the CMRI conversion up to two stories. So when we looked at this site, as Jeff mentioned a minute ago, we actually explored adding more height to the building. That became cost prohibitive. So we started to look at the ground plane and the buildings are set so far back on that side. I mean, it is a priority of the county to get the street facing interacting. So on the Hay side of the street, those front doors, you see the little triangles there on the far left-hand side, those are entrances and exits to those houses onto the street. As most of us know, that's quite valuable for dogs and people who want to have immediate access without having to be forced to go through the building. On Fern Street, it's the same concept, but the grade prohibits us to have steps down, but we do have outdoor spaces there. So it was meant to set a strong street wall and make sure there's eyes on the street, if you will. And it also enables us to have the internal sort of crook of the arm, if you will, for our internal open space kind of tucked away on the inside for whatever those individual tenant uses will be.

And can you say a little bit about the tradeoffs of making that shorter and getting even more open space or more visual connection to the green ribbon versus the street presence?

Sure. We wouldn't want to do it for one or two units. There's an economy of scale. So we are building an addition. And obviously, we want to be as efficient as we can. And we brought it all the way up to the... 11th Street crossing. I know that the sector plan calls for an east-west connection on 11th Street, which obviously won't be there with us because our project is there, but we do have a public access easement across the northern half of the site so that you can still walk pedestrians. We went up to it without taking it all the way to the garage ramp. I hope that answers your question.

Yeah, it does. And I shared this with staff earlier and with you guys as well, but it would seem intuitive to me to maybe make the one on the right on the Fern Street side just a little bit shorter so you feel the invitation into the green ribbon. But the ship has sailed, so I will let the ship sail. Final area is on environment. So you mentioned some great stuff in terms of obviously saving the embodied carbon, 23.5% tree canopy, the 43% lot coverage, all those are better than today. What about the insides of the building? And we talked about solar a little bit, but are you doing everything you can to meet our energy goals and our climate goals?

Sure. In Arlington County, most urban cities, there's a standard of care that tenants expect. So low VOC chemicals, low lighting, low flow fixtures, those things will be incorporated because the market expects that. The one thing that we are saving some money on is not having to go through the green building rating agency. I know localities sometimes sort of say that's not a big deal. that can be a huge pain. So we are going through, in accordance with your policy, doing all the green building things we can, frankly, because the market expects it, and it's good business. It does lower operating costs, it makes healthier spaces, so we will be complying with those criteria, because that's our business model.

Great.

That will be all of my remarks.

Thank you. Colleagues, the question is on Ms. Cunningham's motion, seconded by Mr. Spain. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion passes 5-0. Thank you, colleagues. I will leave my concluding comments on that to the Lord, or to anybody else, because I was ready to move forward, and I'm not actually that super religious. Mr.

Chair, I just want to check with the county attorney. Does that include the encroachment?

No, no, no. We got Part B. I shouldn't have said that because I'm going to get paid for it. Now the question is, now, Ms. Cunningham, I'd love to go back to you for the encroachment part of this if you'd make that motion.

Yeah, I mean, I want to invite all kinds of discussion and questions.

Fair enough.

Going once, going twice, okay. So we'll now move to part B of this item. I move that the county board adopt the ordinance of encroachment attached to the board report dated July 10th, 2026, namely to permit the encroachment of portions of existing underground garage and portions of proposed electrical transformer vaults under portions of existing public street and utilities easements located along the South Hayes Street, 12th Street South, and South Fern Street frontages of the buildings located at 601 and 701 12th Street South, Arlington, Virginia, with conditions.

Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconded by me. And so, is there discussion?

Yes, let's talk about what kind of leaf blowers we'll use to clean there.

We'll ask the attorney if that is in order on this. All in the vote. The question is on Ms. Cunningham's motion on Part B in the Encroachment Ordinance. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? No, that passes 5-0. Mr. Kushner.

Thank you.

Thank you, and I hope you understand the balance. We do appreciate the work, and I think all of us are grateful for the work on CMRI, which is critical for our, you know, and the housing. So thank you so much.

And confirming staff's direction to go get to work. Staff is great.

Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Zell. Credit to the staff.

We cannot approve projects with a lot more tree canopy coverage without talking about the leaf blower usage.

Sure. Thank you. Mitigation of the same. Thank you. It is now. Thank you. It is now. Mr. Caritonis, thank you to our clerk, Mr. Kushner, for the next item, which a few people, I think, may want to speak on.

Go ahead, Mr. Kushner. Of course, our next item for the day is number 38, an ordinance to amend, reenact, and recodify Chapter 15, Noise Control, Sections 15.3 and 15.6 of the Arlington County Code. to prohibit the operation of gasoline-powered leaf blowers and vacuums at any time with an effective date of July 18th, 29, and an alternative effective date of January, excuse me, January 18th of 2028.

Thank you, Mr. Kushner. It is now to the manager for the staff presentation.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to turn it over to Jen Fioretti, who is here to make a presentation. I know she has John Santafima and other staff available to assist her, but we'll turn it over to Jen. Over to you.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Manager, and good afternoon, Chair DeFerranti, Vice Chair Coffey, and members of the County Board. As the manager shared, my name is Jennifer Fioretti. I'm in the Climate Policy Office, and I'm joined by John Santafimia, who is online. He is the Assistant Building Official within the Inspection Services Division within the Community Planning Housing Development Department. And we are here to present on item 38, the ordinance to amend, reenact and recodify chapter 15, sections 15-3 and 15-6 of the Arlington County Code to prohibit the operation of gas powered leaf blowers and gas powered leaf vacuums at any time. Last month, the county board authorized a request to advertise a public hearing no sooner than the July board meeting to consider adoption of chapter 15, otherwise the noise control ordinance to prohibit gas powered leaf blowers and gas powered leaf vacuums with an effective date of July 18th, 2029 and an alternative effective date of January 18th, 2028. The county manager's recommendation brought forward today makes three suggested key changes to Chapter 15 of our noise control ordinance. First, definitions. Under Section 15-3, we are recommending that the county board consider adding distinct legal definitions for gas-powered leaf blower and gas-powered leaf vacuum. This covers handheld, backpack, and walk-behind equipment powered by an internal combustion engine. Second, prohibition. Under Section 15-6, it would become unlawful to operate or permit the operation of either at any time. Third, the effective date. The ordinance would take effect on July 18, 2029, following a 36-month phase-out. That window gives residents and businesses time to transition to electric alternatives. For context, our current county code already restricts motorized leaf blowers at night in residential zoning districts. That's 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weekdays and 9 p.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays and holidays. So this proposal builds on rules already in place, extending them to address the noise but also has the benefit of addressing health and environmental impacts of gas-powered equipment year-round. So why are we proposing to prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers? First and foremost, noise pollution. Gas blowers emit noise that can disturb people and wildlife. And in some cases, backpack gas leaf blowers can reach over 106 decibels. What sets them apart from electric leaf blowers, they also produce a low frequency sound that travels farther and penetrates walls more easily than other noise. So it affects far more than just the property being serviced. Secondly, public health. Documented effects, including hearing risks, annoyance, stress-related responses, sleep disturbances, cardiovascular impacts, and those risks reach operators, nearby workers, and the broader community in some cases. Third, air pollution and emissions. The small two-stroke engines commonly used in this equipment release outsized amounts of pollutants for their size, their significant source of VOCs and other critical air pollutants. And fourth, spills. Handling gasoline for this equipment can lead to spills that contaminate soil and water. Taken together, these impacts on noise, health, and the environment form the foundation for the proposal. So how did we get here? First, public interest in prohibiting gas-powered leaf blowers has grown steadily in Arlington, across the DMV, and nationwide. Residents report that their excessive noise harms quality of life, while others have raised concerns about impacts on air quality, wildlife soil, and waterways. There are also health and safety risks, which I referenced earlier, for operators exposed to harmful two-stroke engine emissions linked to cardiovascular, cognitive, and respiratory issues. Second, the county led by example through our own operations from 2022 through 2025, we transitioned our inventory of non-emergency handheld landscape equipment, including leaf blowers from gas to electric in support of our environmental goals. That experience gave us firsthand knowledge of how electric equipment performs in real working conditions. Third, recent board direction. So in September 2025, the board directed staff to evaluate options for a potential year-round prohibition of gas-powered leaf blowers In response, staff coordinated across several departments, so the Climate Policy Office, Parks and Recreation, Environmental Services, Community Planning, Housing Development, to scan industry best practices, gather public input, and develop a recommended pathway forward. So in February 26, staff returned to update the board on these findings and committed to come back with a request to advertise an amendment to the noise control ordinance with a 36-month phase-out. And finally, last month, the County Board authorized the request to advertise to prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers and vacuums, gas-powered leaf vacuums, with an effective date of July 18, 2029 and an alternative effective date of January 18, 2028. The county manager's recommendation was informed by nearly 4,000 people who participated in our engagement from last fall, as well as more recently as part of the request to advertise leading up to the board meeting today. In our engagement last fall, which ran from September to October 2025, we received over 3,700 responses submitted online and 208 people who also joined us in person at six different pop-up events. We heard strong support for the prohibition from residents, particularly around concerns around noise, emissions, and public health. At the same time, we heard from residents and businesses, including garden and lawn companies in particular, who were concerned about the upfront cost of making the transition and the difference in performance between electric leaf blowers and gas-powered ones. During the request to advertise period leading up to today's board meeting, we heard from both residents and businesses whose concerns tracked with what we heard last fall. We also received feedback from members of the environment and advocacy organizations like Quiet Clean Northern Virginia who support the policy with less than an 18-month transition time, as well as the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and the Apartment and Office Building Association who expressed concerns about the policy underscoring the importance of a long phase-out period consistent with staff's recommendation. Staff continue to recommend prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers and gas-powered leaf vacuums at any time with a 36-month phase-out effective July 18, 2029, which we believe strikes the right balance between meaningful progress and practical transition support for our residents and local businesses. At the same time, we recognize that there are voices calling for faster action and so are also sharing an accelerated 18-month phase-out as an alternative for the board's consideration. We believe that an accelerated timeframe, if selected, should be paired with a dedicated support package to help ease the transition, especially for small businesses who may not have the upfront capital to invest in a quick transition. Both options reflect a shared commitment to the same policy goals but differ in how quickly to begin enforcement and with what level of direct support we should provide. So why are we recommending prohibiting gas-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuums with the 36-month transition or phase-out? So the 36-month window gives residents, property owners, lawn care businesses the time that they need to plan, budget, and make the transition. While considerable progress is being made every year, the performance of electric leaf blowers is still evolving, particularly on the commercial side. Additional time allows technology to improve and costs to come down. making the transition more accessible and affordable for everyone. It also gives county staff the runway needed to develop and implement the transition. Financing support options are being actively explored, including helping businesses access the Virginia Small Business Finance Authority Microloan Program, which offers a competitive 6% interest rate fixed, paired with hands-on loan readiness assistance through Northern Virginia Small Business Development Centers and Arlington's very own Economic Development Biz Launch Program. The county will lead a robust communications and education campaign to help the community prepare, including guidance on sustainable leaf management practices such as leaving the leaves, as well as multilingual outreach, which will be core as part of our engagement strategy to ensure all residents and businesses are reached. The accelerated option includes an 18 month phase out, which covers two full fall leaf seasons, giving residents and businesses time to plan and transition before enforcement begins. We recognize that speed comes with real costs, especially for small businesses, which is why this option includes a front loaded support package In addition to us exploring some financing options through the microloan program, we are also looking at an enhanced communications and engagement package, which will hopefully help train and educate folks well in advance of the transition to maximize the use of the leaf blower equipment that they have. While this option offers a faster timeline, it places additional strain on county staffing resources, both in terms of supporting the transition but also managing enforcement calls. With only eight enforcement officers to manage enforcement calls across the county, a shorter transition time increases the risk that folks will not be transitioned in time and thus needs additional enforcement activity. While preparing our recommendation, we considered a variety of inputs including the county's current enforcement workflow process. As described in this slide, code enforcement is primarily complaint-driven and all complaints require verification of a violation prior to an enforcement action. At current staffing levels and workloads, the process from intake to an actual on-site inspection by an inspector can take between 24 and 72 hours, at which time the violation would more than likely have left and no longer actively occurring. Localities that we benchmarked against also shared similar processes and remarked that enforcement was a significant and is a significant challenge because of the speed at which they need to respond. To address this, many localities opted for strong education programs which sought to enhance understanding and awareness of the requirements to improve compliance, which is what we're doing and what is part of our recommendation today. Now, let me walk you through how we're proposing to implement the policy we've designed, which is designed to be equitable and fair. First, on timing, as proposed, enforcement would begin July 18th, 2029, the proposed effective date. That gives everyone this opportunity to make some changes before enforcement starts. The lead unit would be community planning, housing developments, inspection services division, code enforcement. Next, accountability. The following parties could be held responsible. So we've got contractors who use this equipment, property owners who hire the contractors that violate the ordinance while servicing their property, and property owners themselves who are using the equipment. The ordinance would apply to all private property. In practice, investigations would primarily be complaint-based. However, our overall goal, and I know I've mentioned this before, is voluntary compliance. The process follows three steps. First, we investigate and validate, verifying the complaint through inspection. Second, we notice and educate, issuing a notice of violation and helping the responsible party understand the rules. And third, and only if there's continued noncompliance, we escalate to civil infractions or court summons as a last resort. I referenced earlier the importance of transition support. After speaking with communities that have implemented similar ordinances, they all emphasize the importance of regular communication and engagement. And to that end, this just underscores the importance of our multilingual communication education campaign. We also seek to advance, again, the financing support through the state and potentially through other local partners. That brings us back to our recommendation. Based on our research, discussions with staff, public input, we recommend that the Board adopt the Attach Ordinance Attachment A, effective July 18, 2029, to amend, reenact, and recodify Chapter 15, Sections 15-3 and 15-6 of the Arlington County Code to prohibit the operation of gas-powered leaf blowers and gas-powered leaf vacuums at any time. This recommendation reflects the documented concerns we've discussed today, the noise, public health, environmental impacts of the equipment. It also incorporates what we heard from the community, balancing broad public support for the prohibition with the concerns raised by local businesses in particular. The 36-month phase-out is central to the balance, giving residents and businesses the time they need for practical, equitable transition to electric alternatives. We believe this is a well-balanced approach that advances Arlington's goals that support a quality of life, public health, and environmental quality. That concludes staff's presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Fioretti. We very much appreciate it. And thank you for Mr. Amiri and Mr. Santafima for being here virtually. We may well have questions for you, but first we'll go to our advisory groups. And we have Josh Handler with the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission. You are up first. Thank you.

Is this on then? You can hear me? Yes. I think it's lit. Go for it. Yep. All right. Good morning, everybody. Or good afternoon, I guess. For the record, I'm Joshua Handler, representing the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission today. And I think before I start my remarks, I just want to make sure you have a copy of the letter we sent you with our recommendations for November 2025. That wasn't clear. It was part of the staff report. So I just wanted to make sure you had it. and I will be building on a couple of the points you raised in the letter, particularly relating to the health and environmental issues. So, dear county board members, thank you for your support for prohibiting the use of gas-powered leaf blowers and the staff's hard work on this question. We all agree this prohibition is needed and long overdue to protect the health and environment of the county's residents, as has been done in other DMV jurisdictions. We all understand people and families living in a single-family and multi-family homes have suffered for years from the noise and air pollution from gas-powered leaf blowers, and that the health and well-being of the lawn care workers themselves is affected by their use. With alternatives available and the promise of some relative peace and quiet on the near horizon, everyone deserves relief sooner rather than later. The key question is whether we can do it in 18 months or three years. As the staff report noted, the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission favors the shorter 18-month phase-out option. We think we must and we can. Must because of gas-powered leaf blowers' outsized environmental and health effects. At the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission meeting in May, we discussed prohibiting gas powered leaf blowers in the context of a staff presentation on the Climate Action Plan, which noted 97% of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the community at large, not Arlington County government. Staff noted many different actions, large and small, will be needed to reduce emissions to address our climate change crisis. Prohibiting the use of gas powered leaf blowers would be a significant contribution to this effort. An off-site Edmonds study found two-stroke gas-powered leaf blowers had more emissions than a Ford Raptor truck. A half hour of yard work would be like driving the truck almost 3,900 miles. And yes, thank you for putting up the slide. On a given summer or fall day, there are likely dozens, if not hundreds, of gas-powered leaf blowers in use at any given time. Imagine then, it's like dozens and dozens of extra vehicles that have failed their inspections and with particularly dirty exhausts on our roads, adding to our greenhouse emissions and likely health effects like asthma. Particularly worrisome on the yellow, red, and purple days like we've had this week, but really on any day of the week, adults and children are outside in the summer or fall weather. must, because the pollutants released by gas-powered leaf blowers not only impact our health and the lawn care workers' health, but particularly our children's health. An environmental health institute at the Mount Sinai Health Center emphasized gas-powered leaf blower operations disproportionately impact children's health. Their points included, children are highly susceptible to the carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, nitrogen oxides, and hydrocarbons generated by gas-powered leaf blowers because children breathe more air per pound of body weight per day than adults, and thus inhale more of any pollutants that are thrown into the air by this equipment. Children's vulnerability is further magnified by the fact that their lungs, ears, and eyes and other organ systems are still developing, making them inherently more sensitive to environmental hazards than the organs of adults. These pollutants are associated with numerous health outcomes, including autism, in addition to impacting respiratory health and increasing asthma risk and severity. The noise, which we refer to in terms of what's unique to the gas-powered leaf blowers, affects the quality of life by impairing communication and learning, reducing the ability to accurately complete complex tasks, increasing stress in addition to damaging hearing. The high intensity noise that gas powered leaf blowers produce is particularly harmful to the developing ears of infants and young children because their auditory systems are undergoing rapid growth and development and these developmental processes are easily disrupted. Studies have also shown that exposure to excessive noise during pregnancy is associated with preterm birth and high frequency hearing loss in the child. And we can do it in 18 months. Other DMV jurisdictions have already taken this step. Alternative technology already exists and is in use. 18 months is still a long time over multiple seasons in comparison to the one year phase out any number of people wanted. The long-care market is strong and influential in Arlington, so it is not likely any companies will go out of business. Any responsible and savvy company will already be thinking and planning ahead now. Lagging companies will merely wait three years before changing. Dear board members, staff supports a 36-month phase-out, arguing it would give residents and businesses the time needed to transition and minimize in their report. But impact on whom? Changing environmental conditions argue for the shortest possible transition. And these machines are more than environmentally dangerous. They are a public health hazard. When contractors or residents use gas powered leaf blowers in our county, a brief 15 to 30 minute yard cleanup pollutes our air as much as driving a massive pickup truck for hundreds if not thousands of miles. Our children are the ones paying the price, absorbing these toxins into their developing lungs. The prohibition on their operation should come in 18 months, not three years. Each company that takes action will immediately be making a positive contribution to our health, our children's health, and the environment. Finally, lawn care companies will never lack for business at Arlington. They will figure this out because they are surrounded by examples of how it has been successfully done. The technology already exists to drop gas-powered leaf blowers tomorrow. Not everything needs to be blown all the time. We see plenty of uses of this that are effectively abuses of the equipment, if you will. The FNRC recommends that you put the prohibition on the faster track for the health of all Arlingtonians, particularly those with respiratory issues who are most affected by these machines. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Handler, appreciate your presentation and the work you've done on this. Stay close, we will have questions in all likelihood. We'll now turn, I do not believe that there are other commissions that are here to speak with us on this matter, and so we'll hear from our public speakers. To you, Mr. Kushner, for our first two public speakers.

Of course, our first public speaker on this item, speaking for two minutes, is James Klein, followed by Cassie Transgrid.

Mr. Klein, are you here? We'll keep going. We'll go back at the end for everybody. Cassie Transgrid, Cassie, are you here? Aldo Sirotic, are you here? Mr. D'Alessio, you are here. I thought I saw you, and I always... You've been hanging out all day. I struggle. This Italian sometimes struggles with pronunciation of your name. But if I... Please reshare it so I try to get it better and right. Okay. And you can make the podium taller. On the right, there is a way to lift the podium.

Oh, lift it.

Over there.

If I want. I think... Imagine having been here before. Only a few times.

Thank you. Click where you want it.

Okay, perfect. Okay, so I'm speaking today, once again, against the proposed three-year phase-in period of the gas-powered leaf blower ban in favor of the 18-month phase-in plan. I think we all agree gas-powered leaf blowers do real harm to our Arlington community in many ways that myself and other community members have already outlined. They contribute to climate change through their carbon emissions, contribute to hypertension, asthma, and other health issues in ways that harm the most marginalized in our community the most. Some of the voices in opposition to the 18-month phase-in plan have raised concerns that are completely unsubstantiated, such as the idea that an 18-month phase-in timeline is too onerous on businesses. such as landscapers. However, neighboring communities such as Montgomery and D.C. have already implemented such bans, and Alexandria will be soon implementing its own ban. Clearly, these policies are workable, and landscapers in these areas have already made the phase-in. Simply put, this industry has already begun the process to transition away from gas-powered leaf blowers, and the further delay will weaken Arlington's reputation as an environmental leader in Virginia. Switching to electric leaf blowers will save money because the cost of electricity at some $0.16 per kilowatt hour in Arlington is far less than the cost of gas and oil to run a gas leaf blower for an hour, which is typically about a half a gallon of gas for an hour. Some have also raised the concern that somehow asking for a speedy transition away from gas powered leaf blowers is unfairly or irrationally singling out one piece of equipment. But the fact is that the issues we are facing are significant and any substantial action we can take, even if it means targeting one specific piece of equipment matters. Such an argument would mean that many policies we create in our community to decarbonize technologies would have to do with all the technologies in that sector. So again, I'm in favor of the faster phase out. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. D'Alessio. Our next speaker.

is Carol Parker, followed by, and I've just understood Casey Creech isn't along with us, James Lomonica.

Hi, I'm Carol Parker. I've been an Arlington resident for 40 years. I also work for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Occupational Health Administration, and for a number of environmental non-profits. I'm here to urge you, I'm very grateful to all of you for considering this measure, and I'm here to urge you to do it quicker rather than later. a gas powered noise blower, I looked this up, is 95 to 105 decibels, and that's more than a Mack truck. So this is what I listen to underneath my bedroom window with my next door neighbors. I have six neighbors who all use these things within two house radius of my property. So I'm retired, I love to garden, and I'm urging you to go for the shorter term rather than the longer term. I am concerned about the effect on small businesses. I'm not immune to that. I think that there are ways that one can do that. At OSHA, we worked a lot with small businesses to minimize the impact. You know, the two guys in the truck, what do you do about them? This is a big impact on them buying nook equipment. And maybe you could do a longer term just for them, but not for the big guys. And I like the idea of the low interest loans for them as well.

Thank you. You do have 20, 30 seconds.

Anyway, please don't destroy my health. My remaining years, I'm almost 80. I'm one of the elderly. I have grandchildren, and I am concerned about the health effects on the workers as well. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Parker. Next speaker.

All right. Casey Creech is not able to join us this afternoon. We'll go on to James Lomonaco.

Mr. Lomonaco, I think he was...

Correct. Not feeling well today. We'll move on then to Mr. Todd Darley. Mr. Darley.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the Arlington County Board. My name is Todd Darling. I was born and raised in Arlington where my mother was a kindergarten aide at Jamestown for over 20 years. I graduated from Yorktown. I've owned a lawn mowing business in Arlington for the past 18. I'm here to respectfully ask you to delay the implementation of the proposed gas blower leaf ban until the financial, operational, and safety impacts on local businesses and residents have been more thoroughly evaluated. My concern is not just for the businesses like mine, but for the residents of the community we serve every day. If this proposal moves forward in 18 months, the technology is just not commercially viable. The result will be higher costs for homeowners and renters and added strain on small businesses and fewer service providers that operate in Arlington. Today's battery technology is simply not capable of replacing gas power blowers for commercial use. The real challenge is in the batteries. A steel AR3000L battery costs approximately $1,600 with the charger and provides only one hour of runtime. Each employee would need about six batteries to complete one day of leaf cleanup. That increases the equipment cost for one employee from about $600 to over $10,000 for this service. The battery power blowers also weigh 50% to 70% more than the gas option, which is going to place additional strain on our hardworking employees. For my company alone, the investment would be about $140,000. That includes blowers, batteries, chargers, generators, and a charging facility with the electrical capacity of multiple EV chargers. After a few years, these batteries are worthless, they have no value, and they need to be replaced. In fact, the cost of the batteries alone will exceed the value of my entire fleet of mowers, string trimmers, and hedge trimmers. This would be similar to forcing every restaurant in Arlington County to replace their entire kitchen every few years. While electric blowers are often viewed as a way to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, the reality is more complex. The daily logistics of transporting, managing, charging batteries is much more than the anticipated fuel savings. Many companies must rely on gasoline and diesel power generators running eight hours a day in the field to recharge the batteries. As a result, the environmental benefits may be significantly less than anticipated. These costs don't disappear. They're passed on to Arlington residents through higher service prices, making Arlington an even more expensive place to live. I personally fear the greatest burden will fall on my vulnerable population of seniors and those living on fixed incomes. This effect will also affect gutter cleaning companies, tree services, and pest control companies. Finally, I encourage you to consult with Arlington County Fire Department regarding the increased risks associated with lithium ion batteries. According to the National Fire Protection Association, from 2022 to 2024, New York experienced more than 800 fires linked to batteries, resulting in 30 deaths, 400 injuries, and millions in property damage.

Thank you very much. We may have questions, but thank you very much, Mr. Charlie. I want to apply, appreciate your preparation. I want to apply the same rule to everyone testifying. But we may have questions of any speaker, should they still be here. Our next speakers.

Our next speaker is Peter Harnick followed by John Musso.

Mr. Harnick.

Thank you.

I'm Peter Harnick. I'm representing Quiet Clean Maywood with 26 members today. Our organization applauds the board for ending the scourge of gasoline-powered leaf blowers and we ask that you provide this relief in no more than 18 months. We appreciate the tremendous amount of work and care that you and particularly Jennifer Fioretti have put into this important issue. Incredibly hard work and it makes us proud of Arlington County's diligence. According to the website Howes, there are approximately 23 landscaping companies in Arlington. Surrounding them are approximately 244,000 residents. While it's important to consider the business needs of our companies, it's also important to think of the health and welfare of your constituents, including, if you want to think about it, even the business needs of your constituents if their conversations are regularly interrupted and their thoughts obliterated by these intrusive machines that make life so difficult here. You've heard some of the landscaping companies testify against a rapid transition to quieter blowers, but I'm actually quite sure that if their employees were allowed to testify, they would also support a quicker transition period since it is their bodies that bear the brunt of the emissions and all the noise. Thanks to you, board members, we're no longer arguing about gas versus electric. You've resolved that, which we appreciate. We're talking about how quickly Arlington can follow the lead of Washington, DC, Montgomery County, and Alexandria. It's our belief that most smaller service companies like Landscapers probably do their budgeting on a one-year horizon. In our opinion, if the Board allows a very relaxed three-year transition schedule, most landscape companies will do nothing for the first two years and then begin planning with one year to go. I'm not denigrating that. I would do that myself. We believe that the amount of work and stress that they will face over 18 months will be exactly the same as if they have 36 months. And meanwhile, the 244,000 of us could be having 18 months of relief rather than agony. As Ms. Parker said, when you're a senior citizen, 18 months is a significant percent of the time you have left. If one year from now all the companies have made a good faith effort to comply with the law and can't do it, we think the county could reevaluate that 18-month grace period. That would give us time to do that. Thank you for getting us this far, and let's set the date for peace and quiet for January 18th, 2028. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Harnick. Next speaker is Mr. Musa.

Correct.

Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the County Board. John Musa, Government Affairs Manager at the Arlington Chamber. On behalf of the Chamber, I wish to urge you all that should you adopt the ban on gas-powered leaf blowers before you, we strongly urge you to please consider and concur with the staff's recommendation of a three-year phase-out period. We thank the staff for their hard work in taking in all of the thoughts and opinions of community members, key stakeholders, and other individuals in Arlington in creating the staff recommendation, and we believe it reflects both the concerns raised by the members of the community, but also the valid concerns raised previously in this hearing from businesses about the cost in adhering to an 18-month time frame. Landscapers and other businesses have noted the upfront cost in replacing equipment, the potential challenges in financing, and the impact it would have on delivering services to Arlington customers. We believe that a three-year phase-out period would provide much more time and more adequate ability for businesses to spread these costs out over a series of years and making these replacements of equipment more feasible and therefore more enforceable while allowing the services that it provides in terms of landscaping to be positively impacted for Arlington. So fundamentally, we believe that the three-year staff recommendation is in the best interest of the business community and community members going forward in order to adhere to the goals considered in the span. So we strongly urge you to please concur with staff and go with the three-year phase-out period should you choose to ban the operation of gas pilot league foes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Musa. Next speaker.

Is Patrick Dirks, followed by Andy Shelton.

Mr. Dirks. Mr. Shelton. Here he comes. We will not do a walk-up song. We have considered that for the board, but I've been overruled by far on that one. Go ahead.

Good afternoon, Chair and members of the County Board, and thank you, Jennifer, for all the time you've put into this. My name is Andy Shelton. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you guys again. After the last meeting, I spent the several past weeks researching what this transition mean would require for a small landscape company like mine. I was born and raised in Arlington. My father served this county as a police officer for close to three decades. And today, my company proudly serves Arlington homeowners. I deeply care about this community, which is why I'm here again today. I'm not here to oppose cleaner technology. I believe battery-powered equipment is part of the future of our industry. I have already phased out all our two-stroke blowers and are now using cleaner four-stroke blowers only in our fleet. Arlington County began its own transition in 2022 with federal funding in approximately three to four years to complete it. Today, small businesses are being asked to make essentially the same transition in as little as 18 months without comparable funding or financial assistance. For my company, replacing our gas-powered leaf blowers with battery-powered equipment would cost me approximately $194,000. The truck-mounted charging systems would need to keep our equipment operating throughout the workday. It costs another $88,000. That's more than $280,000 for just one local Arlington business. And that's just one company. The challenge isn't only financial, just for me. Our current commercial backpack blowers weigh right around 22 pounds. The equivalent battery powered models weigh approximately 38 pounds. So now I'm asking our employees who wear these machines eight plus hours a day to carry more than 70% additional weight using equipment that is still less efficient for commercial operations. There's a significant difference between a homeowner blowing leaves once a week and a professional landscape crew relying on this equipment all day, every day. Our crews don't have the luxury of stopping to recharge. They work against weather, daylight, and customer expectations. Ultimately, these costs don't disappear. They become higher costs for Arlington homeowners, your constituents. We're not asking you to stop this transition. We're simply asking for the same opportunity that Arlington gave itself. If three to four years was the right timeline for Arlington County, why should 18 months be enough for the small businesses that serve Arlington homeowners each and every day? Please give Arlington small businesses that same three to four year runway you gave yourself, not 18 months. Thank you.

Thank you, and you do, should you wanna, it sounds like you were at the end, but you do have 25, 30 seconds if you, you're good. And that we all, the sense of the board is we appreciate brevity. So great for that, but we wanna hear everything. Don Franklin, is that next? Our next speaker is Craig Eldridge followed by Don Franklin. Oh, Mr. Eldridge, are you here? Go ahead. Sorry, Ms. Franklin. Go ahead, come on.

Good.

Glad humor is appreciated and no sale. Go ahead.

I've been here since 915. So, and I thought I was going to be late. So, all right, here goes. I want to thank you for the opportunity to address you all. I want to thank the board. I want to thank Ms. Fioretti. She did a great job with the research. I respected everything that she said. I wanna thank you for listening to my issue, and I don't envy your position. I can't imagine the number of calls that you got specifically about the noise, okay? I'm in the industry. I understand that it's annoying, okay? To address this issue, we didn't take this lightly. Andy who just spoke, Todd Darling that just spoke, and nine others we met to try to come to a consensus regarding what we could do. We are doing what we can. We're speaking to you, but I want to tell you one thing is in common amongst all of us is a consensus. We care about Arlington County. We care about the residents. We try to beautify the county. But one thing that is foremost is that we want to comply with what you determine and do what we have to do to fulfill your requirement. I believe the issues that have been brought up are very significant, the cost, the emissions, and the noise, but I want to bring up something that I think is even more important, and it's the safety. The safety, people refer to it as electric, but there's no electric here for us. It's all batteries. And with batteries, there's risks. And because if we go to convert from gas powered, it's all gonna be batteries. Now I feel as though we need more time to issue customer awareness, get them educated about the risk of batteries. and their disposal. There's just numerous articles and instances where people are out there are disposing of batteries. I have articles which I'd be glad to give you that Todd Darling gave me about hundreds of fires and people dying because they're disposing of these batteries incorrectly. As another example of the awareness of the batteries, when you go to check in with your airline, one of the questions I have is do you have lithium batteries? That tells you that there is a risk with these batteries, so I am requesting the 36th month lead in time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Eldridge. Now, our next speaker.

Is Don Franklin, followed by Walter Franklin. Ms. Franklin.

I didn't time this, because we just found out yesterday we're going to be speaking. So if I don't finish, then Wally, my cohort, will finish. I want to thank you for the opportunity to address the challenges and concerns surrounding the proposed ban on gas-powered relief mowers. I'm Dawn Thomas Franklin, the fourth generation of my family watching over Columbia Garden Cemetery. We are the other cemetery in Arlington in Ashton Heights. First, I'd like to thank Jonathan Davis for his patience in guiding us through the process of preparing for this meeting. Second, a bit of trivia that I guess probably no one in this meeting knows, but my father, Ned Thomas, and my husband's father, Walter Franklin, both served as chairman of the Arlington County Board. Boy, has Arlington changed. So I have great memories of sitting in this room on one January, having to be very quiet, and I hope that tradition has changed. But that's not my purpose today. Columbia Gardens Cemetery has been in my family for almost 110 years. We have always considered ourselves to be good neighbors, good stewards of our environment. Every year we host community events, which we open to the public. We sponsored the bunny hop, the turkey trot, the 5K races that now include the route that goes through the cemetery. We collaborate routinely with the tree stewards of Arlington and Alexandria in order to maintain our level two arboretum. We work closely with the county stormwater wise office to resolve water run out off to our neighbors in Oakland Street. And they even granted us a small grant to help us with this work. We have a table every year at the Arlington Teen Summer Job Fair. This year, we hired 26 high school and college students for working on our dew crew, extra help for our busy season. We collaborate with agronomists, horticulturists, arborists, beekeepers, and our award-winning rose garden is maintained by the president of the Arlington Rose Foundation, who uses our facility to teach others about roses and their maintenance. All this to say, we are professional. We try to provide a quality service for almost the 30,000 families that have chosen to lay their loved ones to rest at Columbia Gardens. We follow changes in the industry closely, especially as it pertains to equipment. During last year's Virginia Cemetery Association annual meeting, we asked Steele to come and demonstrate their full range of electric equipment from zero-turn mowers to hand tools. We are now coordinating with them to demonstrate their equipment at our cemetery. We have participated in your webinars, hosted little foot electric leaf removal on a Columbia Gardens site visit, one of your recommended vendors. We contacted Wheats, a larger landscape company, and had no positive results. We have written to the county board regarding this very important change in the way we currently maintain our grounds. We estimate that replacing our three gas-powered backpack blowers alone will cost us $60,000. Wally, you want to come finish? Thank you, Ms. Franklin. Just one more paragraph.

And we do try to, if you wish, Ms. Walter, Mr. Franklin, you could finish where she left off, but that's most appropriate because we do try to keep three minutes for every person, if you're willing.

Oh, good.

That's a good idea and a good agreement, but we can't do that. I'm sorry. And I'm sorry to be the grinch, the grump, but if you could finish it, please. There are other instances, and one just came up, where can I give 25 seconds of my time, which was a good sort of effort by Mr. Andes. But if you could finish what she said or speak to your own truths, you have three minutes as well.

Thank you very much, and I will start off where she left off. But we estimate the transition that replacing the three backpack gas mowers that we have, just those three blowers will cost us $60,000. That doesn't include the challenges of finding somebody that can pick up the leaves, which we have not been able to do thus far. $60,000 just for three backpack mower blowers that cost us probably less than $3,000. So in summary, we have a track record of collaborating with the county. That was the purpose of talking about the many things we do with other county organizations. We think this challenge is solvable. We very much support the 36-month timeline that will not only help us in the budgeting process, but it also helps with what the industry is doing because the industry out there that provides these batteries and these electric pieces of equipment are really working on it. And so every day that we can gain gives us another chance that they will come through with something that will even improve it because we want to move to battery. We like electric and we are happy to move to that when the time comes. We would also like, a second thing we would like is if there is somebody or part of Arlington County that's responsible for the actual doing of picking up Arlington County leaves, if we could talk to them and learn from how they do this stuff and what they do with something, for us is a pretty big volume. The cemetery is 38 acres. And we haven't been able to find anybody with a comparable experience or ability to pick up these leaves. And with that, that's all I have. Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.

Thank you for being good-humored about enforcing the rules. I'd like to do them for everyone, and thank you both. I appreciate that.

Our next speaker is Joy Jacobson, followed by Joan McIntyre.

Ms. Jacobson.

There you are.

Hello, I'm gonna amend my comments a bit here because a lot of this stuff's been covered. I'm here today as an older white female Arlington homeowner and someone who's been in the landscaping business for 29 years in this county. I expect you to hear my concerns. That is not the case for the demographic that will be most affected by this change. The significant Hispanic population in Arlington that both owns and works in this landscaping business This group is under siege. It has largely been silenced over the last year and a half and lives and works daily in a climate of fear. There are numerous reasons why electric leaf blowers are not ready for prime time and don't make commercial sense. I think they mainly revolve around batteries, and I think they've been well explained by the other speakers. My other concern is about the enforcement mechanism, for this law will be mainly complaint driven. The county currently has just, I'm not sure if it's eight or 12 inspectors that are already responsible for enforcing laws that govern property, maintenance, health, and community standards. This means the enforcement will be largely done in an ad hoc way by angry homeowners with no real expectation of an inspector showing up. Is this really something the board right now wants to add to an already fraught situation for our Hispanic workforce? Finally, the feedback you collected according to your own presentation shows that you heard from 1% of the population of Arlington. 78% of them came from the wealthiest zip codes, 75% identified as white, 93% as homeowners. That means, according to your data, the Arlington Hispanic residents that will be most financially impacted by this board's actions have hardly been heard, while your heavy-handed solution requires nothing of the wealthiest, whitest, home-owning part of Arlington, which is so heavily overrepresented in your collected data. There's been a lot of discussion here about health. This health component, to me, seems like it's clearly a strategy to shoehorn this into the current noise ordinance. What gets lost in this maneuver is how condescending the rhetoric sounds. I've worked with this community for years. They are entrepreneurial, hardworking, informed adults. They are very aware of the personal health benefits to them of wearing earplugs and masks and handling fuel in a safe manner. They also have a keen understanding of how much further fuel goes when equipment is maintained and efficiently utilized. They know better than most of us daily prices of gas and electricity. I can assure you that when battery technology improves and the economics of electric leaf blowers are ready for prime time, the Arlington lawn mowing industry will make the switch without being threatened and harassed and fined. Putting the little guy out of business is not the Arlington I thought I lived in. As a lifelong Democrat, I urge you to come up with something that is more reasonable and fair.

Thank you. Ms. Jacobson, next speaker. It is Joan McIntyre followed by Bernie Byrne. Ms. McIntyre.

Good afternoon, I'm Joan McIntyre, speaking for Eco Action Arlington. We're pleased that after years of community advocacy, the County Board is moving forward to ban gas-powered leaf blowers. The real question before you today are, what does Arlington gain, if anything, in delaying the start of the ban for three years? And should the near-term concerns of landscapers outweigh the benefits of public health and the environment? While I know that owners of landscaping companies are hardworking and change can be difficult, there are good reasons to believe that with some planning the cost will likely be transitory and manageable within 18 months. Many landscapers are already having to adapt to bands of gas-powered leaf blowers in DC, Montgomery County, and soon Alexandria. The writing is on the wall. Landscapers will start saving immediately on fuel costs and lower maintenance requirements that will help fund further investments. While each company will be different, with today's high gas prices, landscapers could save thousands of dollars over the life of the equipment with payback for the higher upfront costs in as little as one year. Arlington is not an early adapter, and technology has been improvement. Let's not wait for the perfect. Landscapers should be able to learn from other landscapers and vendors on how to cost effectively and operate and charge the electric leaf blowers. County staff prepared 18 month timeline leveraging existing small business lending program with extensive outreach and engagement. Seems sufficient to support landscapers making the transition. particularly smaller companies without easy access to credit lines to cover the initial upfront investment. Under the three-year plan, outreach and education would not even start for at least a year. Concerns over the compliance have also been raised and would delaying the start change anything? Shouldn't the county assume that responsible landscapers will do their utmost to comply and expect to continue to engage and educate them as the ordinance goes into effect before taking steps to enforce the ban. It is likely that the market will play an enforcement role as well. Customers who realize that their neighbor's landscaper is much quieter will opt to switch companies. We urge you to adopt the 18-month phase-in of the ordinance as being the best interest to the health of our residents, particularly the most vulnerable, children, the elderly, and low-paid workers with little control over their work conditions, for our environment and for the peace and quiet of our neighborhoods. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. McIntyre. Next speaker. Is Bernie Byrne, followed by John Bloom. Mr. Byrne.

Hello, can you hear me? We can. Hello, can you hear me?

We can, go ahead.

Thank you. Please approve this ordinance with an effective date of January 18th, 2028. Gas-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuums are noisy, needlessly consume energy, and create air pollution, as you well know. These are extremely disruptive to people living and working at home and working in offices. Electric-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuums create less noise, consume less energy, and create less air pollution than those at gas powers. Uses of gas-powered blowers and vacuums can quickly convert to electric-powered blowers and vacuums at little expense. Now, for my main point, which staff and all prior speakers have neglected— That includes speakers who represent businesses and the Chamber of Commerce. It is important to recognize that businesses that now use gas-powered blowers and vacuums can quickly purchase rakes, brooms, and shovels at very little cost and effort. If it takes longer to remove leaves with rakes, wounds, and shovels than with plowed lowers and vacuums, those businesses can hire additional people to do the work within the same amount of time. This will create jobs and employment opportunities for many Arlington residents who presently cannot find suitable employment within the county and who are underprivileged. Nobody who speaks here seems to care about this. Please address this alternative in your discussions. It's more important than you think. I therefore ask you, in summary, I ask you to approve this ordinance within the earliest possible effect date and discuss the alternative I mentioned. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Byrne.

Our next speaker is John Bloom, followed by our five-minute speakers. Afro Garland, representing QuietCleanNova.

Mr. Bloom. Good afternoon. I'm John Bloom, speaking for the Sierra Club's Potomac River Group. First, a big thank you to staff and the board for getting us to this point and pushing a gas leaf blower ban across the finish line in a few minutes. First, as you might guess, we have a few thoughts about the effective date of the ban. Our view is that the long phase-ins that were appropriate back when DC passed its law in 2018, followed by Montgomery County and Arlington County's own government work starting in 2022, those are no longer necessary. Here's what's changed in recent years. The economics of making the switch to electric have improved dramatically. Battery tech and commercial equipment have advanced every year, and continue to improve. For example, the market for professional grade aftermarket batteries is now robust and competitive with higher quality batteries in that category for commercial blowers available for much less than the cost charged by original equipment manufacturers. Of course, due diligence is essential in that category to ensure quality and compatibility. Recent studies show that landscapers can and in all likelihood will make more money, not less, using battery-powered leaf blowers. The break-even point in recent studies is in the range of one to two years down from three years a few years ago. Landscape Magazine, not an environmental magazine, Landscape Management Magazine, found that electric leaf blowers and spring trimmers went out economically in all 50 states now for residential commercial work. Another change in recent years is that we now have scores of communities that have put these bans into place and done it successfully. So we have best practices for landscapers to follow to make the transition and for communities to follow in implementing an ordinance. There's much less trial and error needed now. We also know from peer communities that these bans achieve a high level of compliance with limited enforcement. Notably, it's extremely easy for anyone, including inspectors, to spot an infraction. There's no need for decibel meters or distance measurements or any of that complicated stuff. We know balancing competing interests can be difficult. In this case, however, the balance tips fairly easily to 18 months as a reasonable phase in period. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bloom.

Next speaker. Our next speaker for five minutes is Avril Garland on behalf of Quiet Clean Nova.

Yes, hi, I'm Avril Garland representing Quiet Clean Nova. Interesting what some of the landscapers are saying. Just one thing, higher costs for homeowners. No, that is not true. We have a neighbor that hired Little Foot Landscaping and she pays an extra $10 per month. Now considering she's getting quieter service and no pollution, that's basically an upgrade and she has a third of an acre property. That's not a lot of money. We also hire Littlefoot and his costs. There is no evidence to say that landscapers are going to go out of business. It's the same thing in Ireland, where we had smoking was banned in pubs. Well, the publicans took to the streets. They were saying people weren't going to the pub anymore because a beer went with a cigarette. That's not true. The pubs are thriving, there's barely a sitting room in a pub. That this is simply, it's hysterical disinformation, I'm sorry. The other thing they claimed is that the batteries, the electric and the batteries are not there yet. That's not true. A battery made by steel, BRO 600, they have the equivalent force in number of Newtons as the gas ones. It's not true. The other thing about what the landscapers brought up with the very high costs of transition, Arlington County held, you held it, Ms. Ferretti, in October last year, you had a seminar so that landscapers could learn how to make the transition, how to charge their batteries. And just, you have to learn how to do it. And there was nobody there. There was people from Quiet Clean Nova, and you had three landscapers. And one of them sussed to landscaping. He said the return in investment was about between two and four years. And Little Foot runs a viable business using all electric. And the other thing is, I just personally, as a small business, you have a concern about small business owners. I'm a small business owner. And the noise from the leaf blowers is affecting me. Only two weeks ago, landscapers woke up the baby. And I depend, all people minding babies, we depend on that two-hour nap. That's the only time when I can make money. So I had a lesson to give on the Zoom from 12.30 to 2.30, guaranteed sleeping time. Well, 10 minutes into my lesson, the leaf blower came on, woke the baby up. So I had to call my student back and say, I'm sorry, we have to cancel the lesson. Well, that cost me $90. And then a few weeks ago, the same thing happened. An Amazon packet arrived. I had to open the door. The sound roared into the house and up the stairs. The baby woke up, and I had to call my student, I'm sorry. And she said, well, I have an exam tomorrow. What am I going to do? I have all these problems. You said you would do it. I don't have any other time. I'm working the rest of the day. So my business is harmed by this. And this has been going on for years, and in the fall, It's especially difficult for me because the blowers are on all day. So I did some calculations. I was thinking that everyone is considering the quality of life. We've heard that. We've heard about the health. We haven't heard really the economic argument. If I'm just one person, And I'm looking after, in Arlington has a very large proportion of people who work at home. I'm looking at, I got 54,000 people work at home in Arlington. I'm talking about professional, white collar technical work. That's basically the economic driver. Now, they work at home, and they are very much disturbed by the leaf blower noise. Let's put a number on it. Let's say one worker is disturbed twice a week for 10 minutes. That's 20 minutes a week. That's a very conservative estimate. And if you scale it up to a year, that's 13 hours a year, 13.3 hours a year. You multiply that by, oh I have five minutes because I'm representing a group. You represent that by, multiply that by 54 and you get 720 hours of loss. 720,000 hours of lost productivity to Arlington County. Now, what does that cost us in terms of dollars? I multiplied by the average clerical worker on the low end, part-time clerical worker is 45 an hour. That's from the Arlington County website. And that's

No, you have two minutes. I think you said the three minute clock, if I'm not mistaken.

Okay, that's right, it was a three minute clock.

Am I incorrect?

Yeah, it was a three minute clock, sorry. So I have two minutes left.

Wait a minute, hold on just a second. It was for five. You set the five minute clock. All right, so if you can wrap up in the next 15 seconds, please.

Okay, so that added up to 32 million dollars a year. And at the higher end of the higher scale, it was 38 million, yeah, 38 million dollars a year, as against 44 million dollars a year. So that's the scale, that is money that we're actually losing.

Thank you.

Okay. Well, thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Garland. And I didn't know the exact seconds. With that, we'll go back to look through. Mr. Kushner, is there anybody else that has not spoken that has either messaged you via Teams or?

We have since heard from all of these speakers who were not present that they will not be able to testify today. So at this point, no further speakers.

Got it, so the conversation is now with the board. Thank you very much for everyone coming in. It's nearly three, so I'll just gratuitously say as a percentage of speakers, the quality of speakers in this agenda item who are here is perhaps as good as the quality I've ever listened to in seven and a half years. That doesn't mean, and there were different thoughts, but we've had more speakers. That doesn't mean they've always been as good as you all. So thank you very much. We will not put a motion on the table immediately. Colleagues, I suggest that we start with questions. I have, there's some areas of possible questions categories, but I don't know that I have strict categories. And I guess I would just say, if you got questions, you may put your light on and go for it. Vice Chair Coffey.

Great. And I'm actually going to start with a question to our attorney. Can you remind us under what legal authority we are analyzing and framing this issue?

Sure. It's under your authority to promote the public's health, safety, and welfare and to abate public nuisances.

Great. Thank you. And related to that, Am I correct that it is not possible to regulate different users as different categories? So one as a user might find that an individual residence using a leaf blower feels qualitatively different from perhaps a landscaping company. But under the authority in which we are looking at this, is it possible to differentiate across those uses?

I would have to brief you in closed session to give a full answer to that, but I immediately would flag equal protection concerns and enforcement ability concerns.

And it could be closed session. There's two ways to interpret that. We may have potential different legal authority for lawnmowers versus leaf blowers. And then the other is, would we have different legal authority for small business versus larger-sized business? And your caution, without getting us into closed and open session, is that both types of regulation could present some concerns. Is that fair? Sorry.

I would say the concern would be treating different businesses differently just based on their size. Thank you. Sorry, go ahead Ms. Goff.

Great. No, I think that is sufficient and obviously we've all had other conversations that are not right now. I just hope that that can help elucidate and frame the boundaries with which we are discussing this issue and what is possible. And Mr. Karantonis is waving us down.

Mr. Karantonis, go ahead.

I have just a follow-up question to what she confessed. So, yeah, I understand that equal protection. I mean, different businesses differently, this is not okay. But what about commercial versus noncommercial use?

For abating a public nuisance, the difference between commercial and non-commercial wouldn't be material. It's the actual nuisance itself that you're addressing.

Thank you, Mr. Caritonis. Mr. Spain.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think we're going to have a... a dynamic conversation around this area, considering what's on the table. But I first want to thank you, Jen, and to the entire team, because for me, you have my utmost trust and confidence, and the entire climate staff and your recommendation. I know we're going to have discussion, but you have had significant stakeholder engagement. And I remember when you first came on board to this position, something I talked about is making equitable decisions. And I know your decision is rooted in, or your recommendation is rooted in equity. You have a level of technical expertise and you have professional experience in this area. So again, I hold you in high regard. Just so we can kind of recalibrate, because Ms. Joy Jacobson, thank you for your testimony. I just want you to know that I hear you loud and clear. We all do. And what you said in your comment is something that has been on my mind for a while about how we take on this project. So can you talk a little bit about some of the engagement? I've heard some conversations about, you know, data supporting, who was actually participating, and some of the things you looked at as you arrived at this recommendation of 36 months.

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Spain. So prior to even designing the public engagement plan, one of the first steps that we took was benchmarking other jurisdictions across the country, those that have actually taken the step to adopt an ordinance and those that explored it and ultimately decided to hold off. And we looked at the type of engagement. We looked at sort of the conversations that have happened in other communities. And one of the things that was really important to us, also in line with our six-step guide to public engagement, was making sure that we spoke to the impacted folks, whether they were residents, and in this case also businesses. And not just businesses that just broad, sort of the broad category, but those that are serving directly, their customers, garden and lawn companies. And so what we decided really early on was beyond sort of the posting a feedback form, having pop-up engagements, all good things. We also wanted to reach out directly to businesses and call every single one that we could that was registered in Arlington, recognizing, of course, that there are businesses that serve Arlington outside that are that are sort of headquartered, if you will, outside of Arlington. But we wanted to get a better understanding of how they would be impacted by this. And so so our engagement took a number of different steps. The feedback form, where we had close to 3,700 people provide responses. And we actually broke it down into a fine level of detail so that we could understand who was responding, whether they were within the county to the extent that they were willing to give us the information, whether they were a resident, a business, what type of business. So we had that sort of color of detail. And then we had pop-ups, so we tried to go where we might intercept businesses and residents as well. And then we also had a demonstration event where we invited – we did direct marketing to businesses, but it was open to everyone – where they could talk to vendors that offered electric options, just to get a better sense of – what it was like. And we also took the opportunity to cross market our engagement so that we could sort of get that in. And then we also had an online engagement where as I mentioned previously, the focus was on, so how do businesses that have already made that transition or are in the business of providing electric options, how did they do it? And again, to help inform us as we were moving towards making a recommendation. So we did all of those things. And then we went back. after the first engagement back in the fall and called the businesses not only in Arlington but also across the region who had already sort of made that shift again to understand their experience. And then finally, you had asked about what other areas did we take into consideration? Well, the county embarked on this process back in 2022 and made diligent progress transitioning our inventory of handheld electric gas powered equipment, so handheld only, right? So that was trimmers and leaf blowers, et cetera. And we had a conversation with the folks that were using the equipment to, again, better understand how we made that transition. Where were the challenges? Where were the opportunities? What did we really like about it? And all of that, the research, the engagement, our own experience informed our recommendation.

Thank you. Mr. Clerk, can you pull up this one slide? Which slide? There's a slide, he has.

Oh, he's got it, sorry.

Because the conversation as it relates to noise, pollution, the impact on our environment is broader in my opinion than just gas powered leaf blowers. I took some time to, and this is all sourced, It's not just about the backpacked leaf blower, and I know you have some data, but I want to do my own research. This conversation also, if we're gonna really move the needle, all these things that we've talked about, or these things that I have listed here, that exceed 85 decibels per dpa, these are things we're gonna have to perhaps consider down the road. And I hear the community, why are you talking about just gas powered leaf blowers? And I see this every day as I go around Arlington. It's more just gas-powered leaf blowers that are emitting noise and bad stuff in our environment. You can take this down. We're gonna have a discussion here in a second about timing, and I think we've moved the needle tremendously, and I fully support moving this needle. Where we land, I guess we'll all find out here in a second, because folks have thoughts on that. I just want to let the community know, as one person, we received a lot of emails, a lot of communication, and wherever we land today, I think it's going to be great. But that's it for now. I have some additional comments, Mr. Chair. But thank you, Jen and staff, for what y'all have done. I thank you.

A lot of gratitude to your work. Thank you, Mr. Spain. Colleagues, I'm going to ask a few questions, and hopefully they won't be too many, but I feel like there's just some basic questions that we've got to sort of hit and work through. First, help me with the staff presentation and the timing here. The difference between 18 and 36 months and 30 months versus 24 months turns out, leaf blowing happens in the fall, right? So you can talk academically about is there a slide or is there a way of describing what we're really talking about because it seems to me 18 months would be two falls from now and 30 and 36 months would be three falls from now. Is that correct?

That's correct. I can share a slide if you'd like.

Because seeing is far better than me trying to speculate that I can run a calendar and think it all through. You can take your time on that And I'm gonna give you plenty of time when you're ready is fine But I also have a couple of other questions that maybe there's they'll be a little unorthodox But I'm probably gonna have a question for some of them for you miss fear ready And if you don't know off the top maybe for some of the operators who spoke So this is so For me The third, the columnist says, number of fall seasons skipped before effective date seems most relevant. So that for me, sort of 18 and 24 months, you know, We'll have a conversation about compliance and adoption. I love to, without full data, criticize adjoining jurisdictions, because I think Arlington's the best, but Arlington has probably gone, this is an actual question from . Would you say that we're further along on getting our leaf blowers to be electric than Alexandria? And can you say anything else? And you can contradict me. Tell me I'm wrong if I'm wrong. But we kind of are bureaucrats. We do things slow. The history of Alexandria is they were all developers and all green, all developers and all green for 30 years on their city council. So implementation, we... worry about it forever, but then once we implement, we often do it. So can you speak a little bit to that? Because I would be interested if when Alexandria's date comes up, if every last homeowner is, and every last business is actually doing what they're saying. Can you speak at all of this?

So what I can certainly say is that we started our own transition much earlier, right? So in 2022, the board and the manager recognized the importance of making the transition. We were able to, we received federal funding to kick off that transition, which was one of the earlier, on the earlier sides in the region, so from a comparison standpoint. While we didn't take the step of proposing, prohibiting gas-powered leaf blowers across the board, we certainly started, we led by example. and are happy to say that we've made that, 100%, we've made that transition. Some of our, in our benchmarking, other communities are in the process of making that transition. And in the case of Alexandria, my understanding was that they were going to make the transition in line with, or maybe a little bit sooner than the transition time that they gave for the city at large.

Great. It seems like it's going to be a lot easier for the city or the county to go to 100% electric than it is going to be for me to tell my neighbors, you know, thinking about your neighbors, that they must get there, and there's a process with businesses. I'll just ask one more question. I have a couple of other, like, get relevant facts out there, and we talked about this last time, but do you know, Ms. Fioretti, or is it a question for operators, how long for y'all businesses, the two or three businesses, but it's first to Ms. Fioretti, and then we'll ask you if we don't know, how long does a gas-powered leaf blower last if you're using it 24-7 or five days a week? Like, not 24-7, of course, we can't do that because there are timing restrictions, but if you're using it super heavy, how long does it last?

Sure, so it... This is the legal response, right, that I'm not a lawyer, but it depends. It depends on the type of battery that you have. It depends on the operator. It depends on how you... There are some electric leaf blowers that have like a turbo and a sort of medium level blowing and then like a lower level. And so it depends on what you use and how you use it and what type of model you're using. That being said, the average is about 45 minutes, maybe even up to an hour of use. And then you have to swap out your battery.

That's for battery. That's right. And I wasn't quite clear. There's how long? I was asking actually a different question, which is? Life of the equipment. Yes. Gas-powered leaf blowers. What is the life of the equipment? How long does that last? Am I fault for not? Sorry.

My apologies.

No worries.

So the life of the equipment, and this is just based on our conversations with businesses, it can, again, it depends on how well you maintain it. But it could be three, four, five, even 10 years old before they're turning in their gas powered leaf blower to replace it with something else.

Got it. I mean, yeah, two of you, there are three folks, but I'll share it with Ms. Cunningham, but I will be interested eventually in getting to a question of like, can you give me a number? Because I used to be a lawyer and I always said, it depends. but I also like numbers of how long it lasts, but first I'll share it with, I think Ms. Cunningham was next, and you wanna hold? Okay, so I actually, can you guys just share, the three of you, there may be four business owners, but Andy, and then Mr. Darling, and Joy, and then Mr. Craig. How long? And you can come on up. And you don't have to take too long, but go ahead.

Our average is eight to 10 years. I have an in-house steel certified mechanic.

Great. And is that... I don't want to put you on the spot to the other folks. Yeah. But thank you, Andy. And then, you know, if you feel comfortable in sharing, Ms. Jacobson or Mr. Darling and Mr. Craig first.

I just asked all three of us. We all had different answers. Okay. I had three. Got it.

If I could ask, just if you could speak into the microphone for the record, please. Oh, just open the, just turn the mic on.

I had three.

Yeah. Okay. What I do is I rotate them out so that I always have new equipment. Sure.

Ms. Jacobson? Very much.

It depends on how you maintain it.

Okay. Got it. Just wanted a little context.

Mr. Chair, like everything, these are very different machines. I mean, you buy a Mercedes and it will be different than, you know, a Ford.

So that's... Yeah, I would say that... You know, I still am glad I asked the question, but it's not going to put us in a policy place where we have, we should not base our decision exclusively on that, and we should also be mindful. That's why I try to ask Ms. Fioretti first. I think that's most, the last, just trying to get facts out there. Help me a little bit with coaching. Four-stroke blowers, does anybody use them anymore? I mean, excuse me, does anybody use two-stroke blowers anymore? Is there federal law that prohibits that, or is the industry standard four-stroke now? Because it seems to me that you said they were healthier, and I believe you.

Yes, they very much, two-stroke blowers are very much still in use, yes.

Got it, and I'm not gonna get into pieces in addition. I need to yield, but I just was trying to get facts out there. I think there's a separate fact about the cost-benefit we got. A Quiet Clean Nova gave us a slide deck. I don't know that it's, I'm in an easy space to know the cost-benefit of how it all fits together. I believe you when you said 1600 for a battery. I don't know all the details of that, but I do think it's a relevant question. We'll go this time to Mr. Karantonis, then Ms. Coffey, and then Ms. Cunningham.

I think you had Ms. Cunningham first.

Go ahead, Ms. Cunningham.

I just had a follow-up question on that. Sure. Are the four-stroke blowers any noisier or quieter?

Marginal difference, again, depending on the model. It's more about the efficiency. So better emissions, but noises still. But it's still noisy, yeah. And again, it's not just the decibel level, it's the frequency in which they operate. I think that's a bigger challenge as well.

Thank you. Go ahead.

I believe that the four-stroke blower is just a more powerful machine. It uses the maximum of the energy density of the fuel, so it blows far more and harder. It's also heavier. The problem with these is they're handheld, so you cannot actually insulate the thing. because then it will be completely unwieldy. The advantage of electric machines is that they are by definition less noisy, by construction less noisy, but they are also less powerful. That's the problem.

Further, sure, and I see multiple lights on. Are there further questions?

I have some questions, but I don't believe that Ms. Cunningham was done. I can yield for the moment.

Go ahead, Mr. Kirotonis, questions for clarification. Okay, questions.

So number one, the discussion about, It's just a methodological issue. We are dealing here with mostly the practitioners, the landscaping companies, et cetera. What about the customers? What intrigues me with the Columbia Gardens case is that they are a big user, a customer, right? I happen to live in a community that's even bigger than Columbia Gardens, 42. 800 trees. You can imagine the biomass that would need to be removed and blown. So did we hear from them? Because these are huge contracts, and this is where the price begins to bite.

Yes, Mr. Karantonis. So we actually had the benefit of having some of the businesses in this room, Columbia Gardens as well, participate in some of our engagement. We heard from Aoba, who represents the apartment building association, who shared sort of members' concerns about the impact of the policy, particularly in the short term. So I guess the short answer is yes, we've heard from businesses that are not necessarily directly engaged in the selling of services around leaf blowing, and their concern about the cost associated with a contract if there was an immediate shift from gas to electric.

Right. A follow-up question on that. One of my biggest frustrations, because before I sat behind these ties, I was on the HIA board that had to handle a $350,000 contract, annual contract on landscape services. One of the biggest frustrations is, well, we wanted to pay we couldn't find anybody who would actually guarantee electric leaf blowing. And let me put this into perspective. We are 600 owners. We live in very modest, this is very middle class. It used to be the modus operandi of our landscapers was to descend with an army of leaf blowing personnel that was mind-blowingly loud. Because there were like 30 people at the same time blowing, you know, efficiently working. That's not a problem. But back then, in the good old times, people were not at home at 10 a.m. Today, about two-thirds of my neighbors are at home at 10 a.m. And they began to say, okay, okay, what does it cost? And then we went and we bid out. And there was nobody who could provide the service at the level we wanted. So this is now a problem because it seems that When we talk about transitions, it's also technology adoption a problem. Do we know anything about the organic or progressive technology adoption that is happening, or is it not happening and everybody is waiting until regulation catches up with them?

So I have some anecdotal evidence. I reached out to the District of Columbia. I talked to some staff that were responsible for enforcement. And this is post their ordinance becoming effective. And I asked them a very similar question, which is, what was your observation? During the three-year transition, what did you see happen? And what they noted was that the larger businesses had the ability, because they have the capital, to wait towards the end of the transition time, purchase the equipment, maybe they did some testing, that sort of thing, and then purchase the equipment closer to the effective date. Whereas the smaller businesses would swap out their equipment over time to sort of lengthen the sort of financial impact to the business. As an example, but I've actually spoken to businesses that have made the transition, and you see a little bit of both.

Right. Yeah. Just a little follow up on that. So about 200 locations, jurisdictions, and a huge concentration in our region, actually, has taken different levels of regulation. So bands, DC, Alexandria, Annapolis, Tacoma Park, Hyattsville, I don't remember every single one. So the market here is already basically banning the equipment. Do we see, so we are late bloomers in this, right? We are coming late to this discussion. So do we see any consequences from that? Are businesses adapting? I cannot imagine that somebody who works here doesn't work in Alexandria or they forfeit. With other words, is it reasonable to expect that we will be, if we go too slow here, that we will be the last ones to still get the gas part blowers because everybody else has banned them?

While there is a sort of a trend, if you will, or the beginning of a trend to prohibit gas-powered leaf blowers across the country, it's not uniform. It's not like this huge wave. At least that's not how I would describe it. In the region, yeah, you see a lot more activity. On the Maryland side, we have now Alexandria. In my experience, in talking to businesses that primarily serve Arlington, particularly the really tiny one, so they have two, three, four teams, they are almost 90% serving Arlington. So the Some have said, well, we have one that we're testing out. But it's not all businesses, again, that I've spoken to are going across borders. The larger ones, yes. And they're the ones that have said to me, well, we can probably make it work in a shorter period of time. But it's the smaller businesses that really stay within the Arlington borders, or very close to it, if that helps answer your question.

Anecdotally, all the tag plates are from Maryland. Sure.

Thank you. I think we have other questions from Ms. Coffey. I will say Fairfax hasn't done it, so there's five times the size of us. There's no grand trend. That's my 10 cents. But to Vice Chair Coffey.

Fairfax hasn't. Falls Church hasn't. They haven't even initiated both of them, to my knowledge.

Loudoun, neither.

Yeah, Prince William. So I know to get us here, there's been already a lot of outreach and engagement. And regardless of any timeline, no matter how many months, there's going to need to be a lot of outreach and engagement and transition support provided to make this successful. Can you talk a little bit about that kind of future-looking plan? And in particular, I know you've done some work with economic development and the small business community on what things are available to help with that transition. Sure.

So we see this as a sort of multi-pronged approach to helping to support transitions, both residents and businesses. So underpinning our transition plan, if you will, would be communications. as much as we can do it as frequently as we can, particularly centering around fall and spring leaf blowing season, recognizing that fall tends to be the heaviest lift for people who are leaf blowing. And so communication, not just about the ordinance amendment, should the board go that direction, but also what you can do instead. So what are your options? So communication, number one. Number two would be education. So education is going to look a little different depending on whether you're a resident or a business. So resident, it's what are your options, how can you dispose of the batteries if you have them now or in the future, safety, et cetera. Businesses, however, our focus is going to be on targeting, like a targeted sort of mailing and engagement to have webinars on, similar to what we actually did already, on the businesses that have already made that transition and or are sort of operating in that space, lessons learned. We also envision having additional in-person demonstrations where you can touch and feel the equipment, ask the questions of the vendors, not the county, but we're here to answer questions as well. And then there's technical assistance, where we could envision potentially helping businesses more closely with the charging aspect of the transition. What we've heard is one of the hardest pieces of the transition is, where do I charge my batteries? I'm going to need eight batteries per person per day. Not per day, but to get through the day. And so where do I charge them? I don't have a warehouse. I operate out of a small room somewhere. What do we do? And so helping to support them from that perspective. And then finally, financing. So we have engaged the state with the opportunity of helping to bring people who need the support to access the 6% fixed interest microloan program. But we are also in other talks with local banks to see if we can provide additional support. And then I guess finally, and there might be other things that we will explore. I guess that's sort of the benefit of having a little bit more time. is perhaps there's a recognition program for businesses that are early adopters that have sort of made that transition. And how would we do that just in keeping with county policy and sort of our legal frameworks? How can we support them and acknowledge that transition? Yeah.

That's really great. And you all have clearly thought a lot about this, which is very deeply appreciated. My last question, and then I am ready for a motion, depending on where colleagues are at. My last question is, we have gone through this transition. And we know that one of the most rapidly changing elements of a lot of the electrification process is just the batteries, that every year battery technology gets better or at least different. Throughout our transition period, what have we learned about kind of the rate of improvement? Is the equipment we're buying now better than it was five years ago? And kind of how can you use that to inform what might be true in perhaps two years from now?

Yeah, we've seen incredible progress since we started our journey in 2022. So it's very true. There are some commercial electric backpack leaf blowers at the start for us. They're very heavy. And not only that, but you couldn't actually switch the blower from one side of your body to the next. It wasn't as ergonomic. All of the weight was sort of concentrated in one area as opposed to being more distributed.

Ms. Fioretti? Just because Mr. and Mrs. Falkland, I may have mispronounced your name.

Franklin.

Franklin. There are other things in life than staying to hear from us, but I interrupted just because I think probably all five of us on the board just would like to thank you for coming in and sharing your thoughtful comments.

We have a funeral going on right now for a young man.

Yes.

Of course. Of course. But just it's appropriate that we would interrupt to thank you for your comments were thought very thoughtful. We will try to absorb them and do the best we can.

And I will also I wanted to say something to you all before you left. My grandmother was buried in Columbia Gardens just in November and you all are really wonderful to work with. So thank you.

Thank you. And I'm sure we each could have a But that is a powerful piece, and so thanks very much. Back to, we don't have an easy way to transition, but back to you, Ms. Fioretti, as you try to answer the, you know.

Batteries. Batteries. So, well, so the, just that the weight has changed, the battery themselves has changed in just that it, It holds a charge longer. You now have backpacks that have two batteries. You're able to charge a little faster. And the power has gotten significantly stronger. So I think one of the public speakers talked about the Newtons, and in my presentation last month, we had pulled up a pocket slide that identified sort of the different newtons of electric leaf blowers. And we had the same for gas. And they are getting close. And we've seen this year over year. But it's not consistent across all brands. And the costs are somewhat reflective of the power that you're getting. So just long story short, we're seeing sort of the rapid market transition, but it's still not uniform across the board from my perspective.

No, I think that is great and really helpful, and I'm looking to make a motion without objection.

Sure. We will get there quickly, but Ms. Cunningham, you were next in time, Mr. Spain, but Ms. Cunningham hasn't gotten around in edgewise. I don't care who goes first, but...

I was going to paper, rock, scissors.

Mr. Spain, and then Ms. Cunningham, you may have a couple, and then we'll go to a motion.

So I just wanted to, to staff, I was making some notes here, and I want to know if you can enlighten us a little bit. Has there been any analysis done on perhaps some of the indirect impacts that will happen? You know, I think we talked about Board Member Carantones, about where he lived. The impact on HOAs, condominiums, associations, how some of these costs, I would assume, is going to be borne on the residents here in Arlington. Have we done any analysis on that? Perhaps I would like to hear. Secondly, I would like to know, in your opinion, are you and your team right-sized individuals to effectively communicate this change and the level of engagement it's going to take. And then also, I want you to talk a little bit about what we need and what more we need for enforcement. And lastly, there was a speaker who came and talked about batteries and disposal, which is Definitely, you know, public safety, public health, you know, how can we perhaps even incentivize disposal of batteries because they're not going to last forever, but something to think about, and maybe you don't have to answer, you know, if you can't answer it all right now, I'm still going to support, you know, us moving forward, but I just want to get on the record. Those are some thoughts that are on my mind right now, okay? So feel free to answer what you can right now.

Sure, thank you. So from a sort of an economic impact assessment, we didn't do a full-blown analysis. It wasn't really part of the scope. What we did do was we looked at the, as part of our benchmarking of the communities, we looked at the the research, the findings, we actually reached out to ASGA, which is the sort of a trade association related to, that focuses on the electric leaf blower transition, and talked to them about their, the sort of those general economic impacts of a policy like this. In short, the benefits over time If the transition is managed correctly, it can certainly outweigh the negatives of the health impacts, et cetera. And so that's sort of the basis by which we started this work. You asked about resources and the staff readiness, I think, if I understood correctly, about supporting the transition and engagement.

And enforcement.

And enforcement. So from an engagement communications perspective, it's a challenge. We have many other policies that we're working to support and advance. And so that requires balancing, which was part of the reason why staff is recommending a longer transition timeframe, a 36-month transition time. And then on the enforcement side, we have eight inspectors that are responsible for snow and other public health-related issues. And based on our benchmarking, we know shorter transitions in particular, you may see an uptick in enforcement calls. And we want to be responsive, right? So our focus was on how do we balance our enforcement capacity but implement this policy. And again, that brings us back to a 36-month transition time. And then battery disposal. Yep, got battery disposal. So the county on its website and also on the leaf blower, we have a leaf blower project website, identify where you can dispose of batteries. And we'll be promoting that as well, including safety. Does that...

That's it, Mr. Chair, until my closing remarks. Thank you, Mr. Spain. Ms. Cunningham.

Okay. We have an absolute goal to get out of here by 4, so I will not jinx us, I hope. Just wanted to ask about two areas. One is emergencies. So I know in our own transition we've said for all of our equipment, not just for blowers, in the case of a hurricane or something, we do have some, you know, gas powered chainsaws and that sort of thing for a heavy lift. Is there a circumstance where a leaf blower would be needed in an emergency basis? Is there anything that we need to consider about that? Or like, you know, where we declare it's okay for a week because it's an unusual time?

So I guess the good news about the policy is that it does give us the flexibility to, in an emergency for county operations, we can bring out the gas-powered leaf blowers, chainsaws, et cetera, in this case wouldn't impact chainsaws, as needed in order to clear roadways, et cetera. It is something that we continue to have in practice, sort of on the books, if you will, to use if we need to, to support life safety related activities.

Great, thank you. And then my other question is about our Arlington County Schools partners. So recognizing when we say county, we moved the non-schools things forward. And can you say some of the work you've done, we've done, what the Parks Department's done already with supporting schools in this transition and what more we might try to do? I think there's... A number of community members give frequent feedback, I'm one of them, about the importance of reducing emissions right up against our students and our own employees, and so curious what you would recommend there.

Yeah, so of course we have a long standing history of collaborating with Arlington Public Schools and we've shared this information, our findings, we've talked to the environmental planner on staff about our work and very much plan, depending on the board's guidance, would reach out and continue to collaborate with Arlington Public Schools to share any information that they need in order to make their transition successfully, including our Department of Parks and Recreation, who's already invited public school staff to come and participate in some of the demonstrations that we've had just in-house. So we've done some work on that, and we fully expect to offer opportunities for APS to participate with us in the future.

Great. And then I would just echo Mr. Spain's comments. Thank you for the very, very thorough work. It's not easy to have such a complex question and then to also reach into both the business and the resident community. So thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Cunningham. So colleagues, a slight shift a little bit. I'm going to ask the our county attorney one question, and then there's a series of findings that I think we all share that I'm going to make as one motion, and then separately we'll go to the dates. Yeah, I think Mr. Spain, unless you had your lights off, so you're okay if I go ahead? Okay, so first, without getting into inappropriate closed session in the details of this, it is my I have read and considered there is a county, there's an attorney general opinion that provides some justification for our ability to regulate in this area. Is that correct?

There is one, yes, related to Alexandria and additionally its city charter. Got it.

At least for my part, I believe that the reasoning in that Attorney General opinion could apply and gives us grounds with which to regulate. Is that a reasonable conclusion for A, one of our board members to reach? It is, yes. Great, okay. Next, I'm gonna move, and this won't shock anybody in the room, there's a series of, Findings I move that the county board make the following legislative findings based on the record before the board including but not limited to the staff report prior briefings on gas powered leaf blowers and vacuums and the public comments received today and in writing prior to today's meeting gas power one bullet one gas powered leaf blowers and gas powered leaf vacuums are significant contributions to noise pollution in Arlington County Second bullet, research such as the characteristics of lawn and garden equipment sound, a community pilot study, Walker and Banks 2017, highlights the substantial sound levels generated by these machines. Third bullet, noise from these machines, particularly their low frequency components, exceeds the World Health Organization's recommended outdoor daytime guidelines of 55 decibels at distances of up to 800 feet, these low frequency Sounds travel farther and penetrate structures more easily, posing risks not only to operators and nearby workers, but also to the broader Arlington County community. Documented health effects from gas-powered leaf blowers include, without limitation, auditory risks, annoyance, stress-related responses, sleep disturbances, and cardiovascular impacts. These effects are also caused by gas-powered leaf vacuums. Next bullet, gas powered leaf blowers and gas powered leaf vacuums unreasonably interfere with public rights common to the general public in Arlington, including but not limited to the right not to be subjected to unreasonably loud, disturbing, and unnecessary noise. These rights are common to all members of the Arlington general public and are not particular to individuals in the enjoyment of their property. Next bullet, the adverse impacts of gas powered leaf blowers and gas powered leaf vacuums are so great and extensive as to constitute a public annoyance, a public inconvenience, and a harm against the community. Thus, gas-powered leaf blowers and gas-powered leaf vacuums constitute a public nuisance. Mr. Attorney, there was a word in there that read wrong against the community, and that seemed particularly judgy to me. So I substituted harm. Is there a problem with that? No, no problem. OK. So is there a second on these findings? Seconded by Mr. Carantonis. I won't, most everybody here still knows that we are likely to take this step and we'll have that debate in a minute in more full, but I would encourage us to, if we can, adopt the findings without extended debate. Is there colleagues who want to speak on the findings? There are not such. The motion is made by me as chair with Mr. Carantonis seconding. All in favor say aye.

Aye. Aye.

The findings have been adopted. Now we will move to Ms. Coffey for a separate motion with respect to timing. Over to you, Vice Chair Coffey.

Yes, and give me just one second while I make sure.

Yeah, and when you're ready, go for it. I also can say that we have referenced speakers, and I hope that the findings indicate that the three or four or five in-person speakers here today who are eager for 18 months, we are listening, and we might not be taking this step without listening to the survey. Over to you, Vice Chair Koff.

All right. I further move that the board adopt the attached ordinance as attachment A to the board report dated July 11th, 2026, and amend the effective date of July 18th, 2029 with an effective date of January 1st, 2029, namely to prohibit the operation of gas-powered leaf blowers and leaf vacuums at any time after January 1st of 2029.

The motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Cunningham. Do you want to speak to your motion, Vice Chair Coffey?

I would love to. I think there are a few issues with which our community has engaged with us with such vigor as this one. There is a lot of interest on all sides. I commend our small businesses, who I believe reached out to their client list, who reached out to us very actively this week as well, and helped, I think, to educate a lot of the community as to the fact that this is going on. And I think the public engagement form that we put out may have been one of the most answered public engagement forms that we have ever had. We really, I think Mr. DeFerranti's legislative findings that we have put into the record, we really do recognize that there are adverse impacts of the gas powered leaf blowers. And I don't think anyone on this board wants to diminish the concerns and legitimate grievances that there are with those. At the same time, our staff, Ms. Fioretti, but really beyond her have done such an immense amount of work to really weigh all of the factors that will make this successful. And as I have really been contemplating this, and I've shared with a number of the environmental advocates over the last month or so as well, I think for me it's really about how do we set ourselves up for success because we are not going to be able to enforce our way into compliance with this as much as we will do our best on the enforcement side when this goes into effect. The real way to make this happen is to make sure that we are creating a system and a structure that supports the transition and that gets everyone there at or about the time that this becomes actually effective. And my worry with moving faster is that we could have set ourselves up for failure. Just imposing a date in and of itself to me does not satisfy me as far as the ability to be successful with that date actually changing the behavior in our community. And I think there are reasonable interests and differences in terms of what an individual resident property owner might be able to do within 18 months versus the business community interest. And we really have to weigh all of those different things. And so I think in addition to the fact that January 1st of a year is a much easier to communicate implementation date that will help with Ms. Fioretti and her team's outreach and engagement and communication. It's a little less confusing than saying on the 18th of some random month in the middle of the year. It does preserve three fall seasons in order for our companies to make that transition. It moves it forward slightly so that we will have Additional time also I think to work with our community not just to say this is coming before the peak seasons But to say this is in place which I think also that change in messaging to me feels very important that we have some time to proactively communicate After it is effective that it has become effective Before we just go straight into a season of needing the compliance to happen right away And so with that, you know really weighing all the factors.

I am at January 1st, 2029 Thank You vice chair coffee We'll go to mr. Spain and then we'll come to this Cunningham and then to mr. Karen Thomas. Oh

So to be quick, you know, open and transparent, when I was going through the reports last night and I came in here this morning, I was on 36 months. I was. But I want to thank some members in the community. I also want to thank colleagues on the board and Madam Vice Chair. We've had some conversations. You've heard me over the past 20 months of being here trying to find that sweet spot of compromise. And quite honestly, I believe that taking, moving this to 30 months is a very pragmatic compromise. Why do I say that? Because you need to know, look, I stood up in Environment and Climate Justice Committee when I was in the NAACP many years ago. I'm all about environmental sustainability and doing what's right. reducing emissions, noise from gas powered leaf blowers, but I'm equally concerned about how we implement this policy and how it impacts the small business community. I often say as well, there's a wrong way to do the right thing. And over the several weeks, I've spoken and heard from small business owners, landscapers, members in the business community, and there has been a very consistent message and theme they need time to adapt. And so I am concerned about the small business owner who doesn't have, quite honestly, and I've seen some data that's been presented to us, they don't have the financial resources, right, of a large organization. And many of these organizations, these small businesses, they work right down the margins. And so look, I think we are in the right place. This transition period, it recognizes that these businesses are willing to move in a direction, but it's a realistic timeline. And to budget, to plan, and replace the equipment responsibly. So I just want to thank my colleagues on the board. I want to thank everyone in the community. I want to thank you, Madam Vice Chair, for your leadership, and Board Member Susan Cunningham as well, pointedly in this, and I look forward to the vote.

Thank you. Mr. Spain, I'm going to interpret both your comments and Vice Chair Coffey's as concluding remarks, unless you vigorously oppose. It's to Mr. Karantonis.

I don't know if Ms. Cunningham was before me, but...

I think she wanted to give you the first opportunity on this.

So... being in mind the 4 p.m. goal. Oh, 4 p.m., yes, okay, let's go for it, seven minutes. So I will try to be brief, I will try. I said I will try. So, two things on that. I do believe that I mean, this is a discussion not so much about leaf blowers. I heard somebody calling them the devil's hair dryer. What was that? So this is a discussion about how do we initiate transition and technologies that need to be transitioned to. Not because we know better how... you should run your business. Government has no business to tell you how to run your business, but government has a business to convey to the industry what is harmful to our residents. So we don't know exactly every single dial of your business plan, but we know who is harmed every day out there. And there is a lot of discussion about that. I have a different also insight on how small businesses prepare and transition. I mean, some people may know I was a loan officer for microloans here in Arlington. And I actually ran a program to re-equip small minority-owned businesses to be able to compete in a cutthroat loan and mo sector. I can tell you who was failing. Who was failing was who was trying to emulate the big business model by offering only one advantage to their customers, which was the cheap labor. They were consistently running behind. They would always not be competitive and they could only be competitive when they offered abysmal discounts on wages and they would self-exploit to a degree that I found sometimes inhumane. And they were never coming out from this pit. Who could compete? was those who will come to us and work with us, with their lender in this case, to renew their business plan, to add value. when we incentivize them to adopt electric tools is because we wanted them to learn to sell not only the blowing business of the leaves, but the value added that they do it right, and they are a small business. This was a different product, that big lawn and blow. So there is a long discussion about what is actually good and has a future for small and minority-owned businesses. And I can sit here for hours to go... On another day, correct? And I feel extremely strongly about that. I don't want to just, you know... turn it into a political discussion. So I think we should do a different type of transition. The transition of putting a reasonable yet shorter transition time and then check with all stakeholders like Ms. Fiorecchi has done already to see whether we are arriving at where we want to be. Very long, comfortable transition trajectories were a practice of the past, and we have seen with all our environmental goals, for example, that this is not working quite right as we expected. Doing shorter and correct as we go is a better transition philosophy for me and this is why I'm proposing that. I am aware that our board doesn't have a majority right now. I respect that and it's not a very big difference and I'm fine. I still think that 30 months is short, okay. I'm not going to be offended about this. So Mr. Chair, if you want, I'm not going to offer a counter.

Correct, your thinking was more in the range of...

But I really think that active outreach is extremely...

So as I understand it, your thinking had been in the 24 months range. In light of the lengthy discussion, I myself will be aligned. I appreciate your sort of understanding reading this room at this moment the best you can. So thank you to you, it's to Ms. Cunningham for what I would guess to be concluding remarks unless there is a groundswell of support amongst other three colleagues for a shorter time period.

And great, go ahead. Very much concluding. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and thanks to all of our community members for caring so deeply and helping educate us about the trade-offs here. I think we will move forward with this and we can revisit if times change in some way. But I think this is a good step forward. It's one that's been on the legislative agenda for the county since I think before I was here, but certainly from the day I came. And so I think it is good to be moving forward. It's good to be moving forward with care and some extra time. So thank you.

Thank you. I'll offer concluding remarks, and I'm starting my stopwatch. First, some people wrote in saying your regulation is way overreach. Were catalytic converters overreach? And with full respect to our business members, because your arguments were very persuasive to me today. I'm not saying they were dispositive, as were the others. But we didn't have catalytic converters, and then we did. This is a different level, but I want to mention it. On the research, I appreciate staff having two references. I appreciate also the reference to Landscape Magazine from Mr. Bloom. It seems difficult for me to know whether Denver to Los Angeles is a huge drive that's equivalent to a gas-powered leaf blower with a four-stroke or two-stroke. I'm not an expert. I'm not the one to make that conclusion. The fundamental choice is between two years and three years, and ultimately doing this firmly and right in three years is where I think January 1st is where I am. I want to thank everyone who's mentioned it. I also want to not rule out the possibility that if Richmond were to act as have I think some states, I might be in a different position. I certainly would not want that. So thank you. One minute and 15 seconds. The question is on the implementation time from Vice Chair Coffey. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion passes 5-0. With that, Mr. Clerk, are there any other items come before the board?

Yes, there are no additional items.

Got it. We are recessed until Tuesday. Thanks very much.

And to our Lictonians, just contract electric. You are far faster in adopting these.