City Council - Regular Meeting

Everyone ready now? Good evening. I wanted to call tonight's meeting to order. Welcome to the Monday, March 9th meeting of the city council. Madam clerk, can we start with role, please? Mr. Agen here. Miss Connelly here. Miss DS here. Miss Flynn here. Mr. Snyder here. Miss Underh Hill here. And Mayor Hardy here. Thank you. Uh everyone rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Is there a motion to adopt tonight's meeting agenda? I move to adopt agenda. There second. All in favor? I. I. Meeting agenda is adopted. Uh let's start off with a proclamation tonight. Uh Mr. Agan will help us declare March 26, 2026 as equal payday in the city of Falls Church. Whereas equal pay day 2026 marks the current state of the intersectional gender pay gap for women. And each year this symbolic day is used to raise awareness around and combat the impact of pay inequities by highlighting how far into a new year a woman must work on average to earn what a man did in the previous year. And whereas in 2026, April 9th is Asian-American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Women's Equal Pay Day. August 6 is Mom's Equal Pay Day. June 17th is LBG, LGBTQIA+ Equal Pay Awareness Day. July 21st is Black Women's Equal Pay Day. September

15th is Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Women's Equal Pay Day. October 8th is Latina Equal Pay Day. October 20th is disabled women's equal payday and November 19th is native women's equal payday. And whereas the gender pay gap reflects the discriminatory barriers women face in accessing good paying jobs while meeting caregiving responsibilities including a lack of affordable child care, elder care, and paid family and medical leave which can prevent women from joining and staying in the workforce. And whereas more than six decades after the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, census data show that women overall paid just 75 cents for each dollar paid to men. Asian-American women are paid 94 cents. White, non-Hispanic women are paid 80 cents. Black women are paid 66 cents. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander women are paid 65 cents. Latinos are paid 58 cents. and American Indian and Alaskan native women are paid 58 cents for every dollar paid to white non-Hispanic men. And whereas over a woman career woman's total estimated earnings loss due to the gender pay gap is nearly $462,000 and black and Latino women experience even greater earnings losses around 885,000 and$1.2 million respectively. And whereas addressing the barriers that hold women back from full participation and fair treatment in the workforce, promotes gender equality, strengthens the security of families, and eases future retirement costs while enhancing the overall economy. And whereas Thursday, March 26, 2026 symbolizes the time this year in which the wages paid to American women catch up to the wages paid to men from the previous year. Now therefore, I, Letty Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim March 26, 2026 as equal payday in the city of Falls Church and

urge the community to recognize the full value of women's skills and their significant contributions to the labor force. Acknowledge the injustice of wage inequality and join efforts to achieve equal pay. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to help receive the proclamation? Okay. Well, the five women up here will help receive it on everyone's behalf. So, thank you, M. Reagan. Um, Madam Clerk, do we have anyone in the audience to do a new uh border commission oath of office? Yes, we have John Ferris here uh to take his oath for the Environmental Sustainability Council. Welcome and thank you, Mr. Ferris. So, if you'll raise your right hand, do you do you solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon you as a member of the Environmental Sustainability Council according to the best of your abilities? So, help you God. I do. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, let's move on to receipt of public comments. Can we start with a summary of the written comments? One moment, please. I think we just had one, right? Believe so. Yes. Sorry about that. It looks like we have another one that just came over email. So,

change.org or forwarded a link to a petition initiated by Meg Byer requesting budgeting for the renovation of the teen room at the community center in FY27. And um then you were just sent over a comment that was received. Uh Dave Gustiffson wrote to encourage adoption of the shared mobility devices pilot program and to encourage that any future device corral locations not be on the city's narrow sidewalks. Okay. And how about uh public comments live or in person tonight or virtually tonight? We did not receive anybody uh request to speak remotely and I haven't seen any speaker slips come in. So, okay. I know we have a couple items up for public hearing. So, we will welcome public comments when those items are called as well. Uh let's moving on quickly through the agenda tonight. Um let's move on to the report of the city manager. Thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of council. Uh just wanted to note two things in the manager's report tonight. Uh one uh is that property owners in the city should be receiving soon if they have not already received notices of reassessment from the city's office of real estate assessment. Uh the city put out a press release last week that provided some of the details about the reassessment this year. Um overall the city's tax base has grown to just over $6.8 8 billion which is a 6.9% increase over last year. Uh market growth um is 5.3% growth across all of our uh real estate sectors commercial and residential and new construction again this year is a significant uh amount of the growth this year and that accounts for 1.6% of of the growth in assessed value. Um, so I just wanted to call that out and encourage people to look in their mail and look for their assessments and if they do have any questions about

that, they can contact the city's office of real estate assessment and the contact information is on the assessment notice. Um the city council will be joined um at your next meeting two weeks from now on March 23rd to uh receive uh the city manager's budget recommendations for the coming year and the school board's budget request. Um and so we'll kick off budget season um two weeks from tonight. We'll also be inviting the public into a uh two town hall meetings on the budget. And the first is the following the Thursday after budget presentation. So that would be on Thursday, March 26th at noon. And then um we'll have a whole series of work sessions and public hearings. And then there'll be um a second town hall meeting on April 30th at uh also a Thursday night, April 30th um at uh 700 p.m. So we encourage the public to uh participate in that process as the city council weighs what I think will be u some challenging uh budget decisions for the for the coming year. Uh the second thing I want to note uh the public has seen the roll out of our new yellow compost carts and uh so those were all delivered the the uh last week and the final deliveries uh finished up on Friday. Um and uh so appreciate the uh public's uh feedback on that. If you do have any questions about the program, you can contact the city through the city website. Lonnie Marquetti is their solid waste uh programs coordinator. She's done a great job in responding to any questions um or if people want any change to their to their bin uh she can uh carry those out. One of the questions

that we have gotten about the bin has been the question of is the new fee related to the new compost bin and the answer is no. Uh the solid waste fee is really driven by what you're throwing in your gray uh bin that you've traditionally had. That's really what drives the city's costs. And the compost program is really intended to ultimately to lower those costs by diverting waste away from the waste energy incinerator that's operated by Fairfax County where we pay high tipping fees and instead divert that uh to be reused and turned into soil enhancements and and compostable materials. And so that's the intent of that program and um and those are the two things I wanted to report on tonight and I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay, Miss Connelly. Thank you for that, Mr. Shields. Uh they were uh there was just there they were. That's right. After all that talking, there they were. Um, one of the things that I saw in the the communications that came with it, and I appreciate all of those different pieces that once a month we'll still collect yard waste bags. Do we know what what day that which week is it? A certain week of the month. Um, that's going to work. Let me check with Andy if you know the answer to that question. Okay, we'll uh we'll that would be helpful just to put out some communication on that on the fourth Wednesday or the second Wednesday or every other Wednesday or something whatever that is so people aren't lugging their bags back and forth if they feel the need to. But other than that, thank you. Anything else on the side? Council requests or questions? Mr. Snider. Thank you very much, Madame Mayor. Um Mr. City Manager, I know that I've received two questions from constituents on the um the new uh the new bins. First

of all, u some didn't like the color. I assume that can't be changed. Is that right? Without huge expense. Is that right? That's right. Um and I do think yellow has been a color that we've talked a lot about and numerous hearings, etc. The other question came from mixing um um organic um waste with um yard waste and I wondered if you could comment on that. There's some concern about rodents etc. Well, thank you for the question and um uh when we were exploring this uh compost cart, uh we had we formed a committee and one of the things that the committee did was um have a field trip with Arlington County to see how Arlington County does it. Arlington County does mix its yard waste with its compost materials from the kitchen. And um and so we kind of saw how that played out in Arlington County and I think we were satisfied that it would be done without uh problems with rodents or odors and things like that based on the experience that our neighbors have had. Um, there are best practices and tips that I think are in the materials that we're putting out in the communications about how homeowners can use those carts to um, you know, to sort of avoid what we called back when we were looking at it, the the potential ick factor of having those uh, those waist streams mixed and um, but I think there are ways to um, sort of layer well basically use the bends um, in ways that that won't cause uh those types of problems. I don't know if Andy if you had any other sort of comments just from the the work that the team has been doing on this in terms of advice for the public on that or do I hopefully our microphones are working?

No, I think um I think overall the the bins deployments have gone really well. The materials the teams distributed both with the bins as well as online. the life cycle of a lemon video, for example, I think those will give the public some good information on how best to use the organics carts. The the question earlier about yard waste bags, I I'm not aware of a schedule where we're only picking those up once a month. So, we'll follow up with staff, but if if that's the case, that's new. Okay. Uh, I was just going to add that I actually peaked in some of Arlington's uh, compost bins as well as when I was on the West Coast that actually had similar size and they were all fine with kind of yard waste and kitchen waste mixed together. So, and of two instead of just one. You looked in the bins. Trash day. I opened. That's dedication. Mayor Unreal. Um, so just a couple comments. Um, yeah, it's it's unfortunate because I'm so I'm so excited about this roll out. I was so excited to see the bins and this is just such a great step forward, I think, for the city. Um, but then, you know, a tiny detail like the color of the bins can suddenly um have all these adverse reactions um and add visual clutter or whatever else to the city. So, I am hoping that maybe down the line as we issue more bins, if we have the option to change the color later on, uh we can do so, uh so that it's not so so jarring. But, um as I've been talking to other council members, maybe over time they'll get dirty and more muted. So, plastics do fade in the sun. Things things do fade. So, um yeah, maybe maybe it won't be so um jarring. The on the positive, it does stand out from the other two men, so it's easy to tell. But I think the other way to make something stand out is just to have the label compost on top so people know which one says compost recycling and

trash. um separately. Um I did get um from from members of of CACT um they were asking if there could be uh some additional communications sent out um from you know in the focus or something uh about the the laws that had changed regarding the side um crosswalks and how police treat people crossing the streets um and so what the rules are with um drivers going through crosswalks now um I don't know if any communications had gone out about that sense um that change has happened, but if there could be some mention in the focus or other uh citywide communications about how to treat people in crosswalks, uh that would be deeply appreciated. And that's all. Okay, this side, uh Vice Mayor, thank you uh very much, Mr. Shields, Mr. Young. I um was I was interested. I read the report um that Mi M um Marquetti sent out about the just updating the council and I thought it was interesting that um she said they received a number of um comments from people that they were unaware this was happening and which I thought I found surprising because I feel that Mary Mary Catherine Chase and her team and Andy Young and his team they I mean I don't know what else we could have done. We we had yard signs out. We had door hangers out, flyers, you know, and so I I I am curious, you know, just maybe something that in the future when we get those kind of calls, we can ask people, where do you get your information about city business, you know, because I don't know what else we could do. I feel like that one is really something that we worked hard on to get the word out. So just just food for thought, but it would be interesting short of doing a survey of people, but just say, "Hey, you know, I'm curious where where would you have picked up on this information?" you know, that's just something um because I don't know what else we could have done. I I think our I think the team did a

really good job get trying to get the word out. And then we we did have that written public comment tonight about the um teen room in the community center um needing a renovation. I believe there there's a petition and I believe someone's coming in in a week or two to give an oral um a verbal public comment. Um but I I you know I was wondering if you know we can just you know put that on our list look into it. You know maybe u Mr. Schlit can brief parks wreck about it or what have you. But just um you know obviously we know what what the budget we already know what the budget is like for this upcoming fiscal year. So uh but you know is it something we would want to add to the CIP down the road or something like that. So thank you. Yeah, on that point, I actually encouraged uh the petitioners to go to the Wreck and Parks board meeting, which I think incidentally is this Wednesday, so at least the board can be discuss it and staff has a chance to decide about the scope of the project. So, before coming to council, we figured we'd probably look for advice from that board anyway. So, I think they should be doing that. Miss Bl, I just had two quick things. Um, like you, mayor, I also suggested that they go to the wreck and parks advisory board just to put the concern, you know, on their radar and help prioritize relative to other um, you know, things that the wreck and parks department might be looking to in its budget or just so that they're aware of kind of that um, request in the community. And then back to the compost bins. My only request was that um kind of seeing the different conversations on some of the different you know groups or neighborhood listerves um you know people do have kind of workarounds like when neighbors say hey I'm I'm concerned that this is going to get icky or I'm concerned I'm going to attract like rodents or raccoons or whatever else or I'm keeping compost crew because I don't you know want to attract like vermin to my house. There are other people responding, you know, saying, "Oh, well, I actually like keep the compost crew bucket and I'm keeping it sealed in that for the week

and then I'm going to transfer it to my bin, you know, on the day of pickup just so that it can be included in what I'm already paying for as a fee for service." And so maybe, you know, drawing from Arlington best practices or drawing from some of those kind of community um best practices tips, so to speak, the communications office could do another round of just, hey, you've now gotten your bins. Here's ways that you might be able to, you know, use them even though you could have a initially adverse reaction, but you know, um so wanted to put that out there as kind of just a follow-up request. given the um good work you know the communications team has been doing across issues. Mr. Hagen, I'm going to jump on to the yellow bins also and say I was getting worried last week because apparently I live in I guess the last section to get delivered. So I was getting a little worried but all was good. Um I do have a question on the egg factor and something that's in there. Um, there are compostable bags, the BPA, BPI certified bags, and the materials do refer to saying that those are the quote liners are allowed in the BA in the the bins while plastic bags are not, but they kind of get marketed as compostable bags and they look like plastic, but they're made they're made of like corn and they're compostable. I think we might want might get some clarity on that because um I personally I'm using one using them right now in my kitchen to collect all the stuff and I don't know whether I can just toss the bag in the bin or I have to dump it out into the bin. And so I think we we might want to get some clarity on that cuz you put them in a nice compostable bag. No factor. And I think the yellow will fade. You'll

get used to it, Justine. Okay. Is that it for council requests? Okay. Well, I'm not going to pile on on the yellow ones. I think all the comments I've heard have been similar. So, thank you to staff for that and is um appreciate all the hard work leading up to this point and the final roll out and I think when they get is pick up this week. Actually saw some yellow cards actually get used by people with yard waste. So, that is nice to see. So, thank you. Uh let's move on to business on the agenda. Can you call the first item, please? Yes. And before I read, I just want to acknowledge we are having a bit of a sound issue in the room. So that's why you're hearing we're we're trying to troubleshoot it, but something came up just before the meeting. So apologies for the disturbance there. We're working on it. Um, so this is an item for public hearing. TR24-28 is a resolution to amend the city of false church comprehensive plan to update chapter 8, community building blocks, community facilities, infrastructure, utilities, and public services. And for staff, if you'd like to use the handheld mic, you can. Or we can put a mic here on the um podium, this mic if it works better for you. So, it's up to you. And as Miss Lariv is moving to the other microphone, I do want to just note that this item is before the council uh with request for for final public hearing and final consideration. Um this was a big and broad team effort to develop this chapter of the comprehensive plan and Zoe Lariv has been our team leader and has done a great job. So Zoe, thank you for your work and we'll turn it over to you for the staff presentation. Uh thank you and I want to share the um uh the thought that this is a was a large team effort and I want to thank everyone especially uh the department of

public works which we coordinated with a lot in this project. Uh so tonight uh the council is requested to approve a the amendment to the comprehensive plan uh titled chapter 8 community building blocks community facilities infrastructure utilities and public services. Uh the comprehensive plan is a policy document that guides physical development and investment in the city and it's a long range plan looking 20 to 25 years out into the future. The chapter 8 that is being updated uh was the existing version of that chapter was last updated in 2005. The update to the chapter is um based on the most recent demographic projections as well as industry specific breast practices and the uh state of the existing infrastructure. Uh the chapter is divided into four topic areas. Government services and facilities, public safety, city utility services and third party utility services. You can see in the uh staff report uh we have addressed the comments from uh the previous city council work session which was on February 2nd as well as the comments from the planning commission recommendation meeting which was uh I believe February 18th. Uh and the third comment matrix is uh addressing comments from Arlington County in their letter of support they've submitted. So uh to finish up, we are recommending tonight that city council adopts this uh

new chapter update. Um and we thank you for your time. questions or comments from council before I open it up for any comments from the public? Mr. Snider, I had one question on the gold Gordon Road triangle discussion. Um, is it clear enough that the ULI TAP is just a plan and that we are not committing necessarily to adopting that because that plan does not provide for other uses at Gordon Road Triangle, potentially recreational or housing or other issues. So, I'm trying to think what page that's on. Um uh I believe the text uh we uh included that it is a recommendation of uh tap ULI tap which is just a um which is not a cityrun plan that is not a city um adopted policy that is a study in a sense um I'm looking again at the uh language anguage uh and I believe that it um sufficiently talks about it as as a recommendation, but we are open to adding um more clarifying language if you believe we should. Yeah, I actually had that same exact um question written down in my notes. Um I don't think um Mr. shields. It's It's not, you know, when I think of the ULI tap, you know, I think of this sort of big picture kind of thing that wanted, you know, with a combination of Fairfax land, Foster City land,

private owner land, you know. Um, so, and then the way that it's worded in this, it it makes it seem like it's just expanding the property and it talks about it being included paid for through the CIP. But the other time when we talked about it, my understanding was if we went with this big version, we would have to, you know, assume some debt and that kind of thing. Um, so I just didn't know, to me, it didn't seem completely clear how it's it how it's described in there. Um, cuz again, cuz I I felt like the ULI tap, their recommendation was to kind of blow, you know, excuse me, but really develop it into one big piece. whereas what we're talking about in here is more that more focused on the property yard. So we can I don't know we could just that that one section I thought I I agree with Mr. Snder I thought could be clarified a little better and you know the focus here because this isn't really a land use chapter or a vision for the West End. It's a facilities uh chapter of the comp plan. That's why the focus is on what the city owns, the city's facilities there. I don't know if there are any suggested edits to it that but maybe just adding a line that said something like this report recommended a variety of ways to develop it. One being expansion of the property or something. I don't know because it just um like I said when that report came out it was much more comprehensive than what's is here. I think I've been on the record saying that to me the most important thing is that we fix our DPW facility um above anything else. Um so but I guess it says that it says a key recommendation of the Yeah, I guess it says that enough. I just um I don't know and I was trying you know I know that we had you know the financing

piece and all that but you know if we're just looking at it as just focusing on the DPW part of that TA ULI TAP report I think I guess that's okay to do it that way. Madame Mayor I'm just suggesting a slight edit. It would be on page 24. um something like one study colon ulit reimagining so that it doesn't imply that we're accepting that as the uh necessarily the way we're going to go in the future. Other people have suggestions or input on that or fine with that edit. I'm fine with it. It's just the I think what's throwing me off is the fact that there's a list here of studies that considered it how it could evolve and so forth that there's five studies but only one of them was kind of flushed out. I think it's the fact that only one of them got flushed out that is throwing things off. But I'm fine with clarifying that to make it clear. This was one of one of the studies. Thoughts? I think we're fine with it. I expect that given when we do take on Gordon Road more thoroughly, we will have plenty of discussion when that time comes as well. Okay. Other thoughts or comments? I had one that um shouldn't be on critical path for adoption tonight, but I was reviewing kind of the engagement schedule that we've taken since gosh two years ago, March 2024. Uh so I know that we spent a fair amount of time in the chapter talking about schools and so I think it would actually make sense to visit the school board with this either after we adopt tonight or just make sure they send it to them because I know it calls out their facilities assessment

that they're planning to do which I think we had approved the 200,000 for them to spend um taking on. I think the chapter even calls it out. Um, so I would recommend that the school board at least get a copy, if not a full briefing about their responsibility as called out in the plan. Uh, we were able to share the plan with the school board, I believe, uh, digitally in January. We were in discussions to uh either do a physical presentation to them or share the plan earlier but there was a error in the um previous draft of the plan that uh said that the schools were included in the city's uh facility conditions assessment. And um so in conversation with the staffing schools staff uh they recommended that we instead of taking it to the schoolboard at that point and just verbally and and in a written way saying there's an error in this ver draft we will be fixing it in the next version. They because they were moving forward with that FCA recommendation. um they they asked if we could instead wait until the next version of the draft was um going forward was published and in that timeline we weren't able to make it to visit them. Uh but we would be happy to go and give them a further briefing. Um yes, we've been in conversation with how long this uh project's gone on. The school staff has has had some overturns. We've had a lot of different meetings and conversations over the last two years and are happy to continue that partnership. Great. Thank you. Okay, I'm going to open it up for public comments. Any members of the audience wish to comment on this item? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. If there's no

further discussion, I will take a motion. I'll move to adopt TR24-28. Is there a second? Second. DS on the second. Can you call roll, please? Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes. The motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, council. Congratulations and thank you for the long work on this. Thank you. and call the next item. This item is also for public hearing. TO25-22 is an ordinance to amend the code of the city of Falls Church. Chapter 48 zoning. Section 48-2 definitions. Section 48-3 general regulations. Section 48-101 general requirements. Section 48-1106 tree canopy requirements in non-residential zoning districts. and section 48-1135 preliminary survey documents to increase minimum standards for tree canopy coverage within non-residential zoning districts program. So we have we're joined by Mr. Charles Prince, the city arborist, and I want to thank him for his good work on this ordinance supported by our planning staff and supported by the urban forestry commission. And we have our chair in the audience here with us tonight as well, but we'll turn it over to Mr. Prince for the presentation. This is before council for also for final public hearing and final consideration. Mr. Prince, thank you. Thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of council. Uh, I'm going to keep my presentation short. Uh there's been very few changes since the last time uh I stood in front of you to speak. Um the uh from feedback from

council uh if you look at the lines 241 to 244 uh just explains a little bit about what the the money is, what it's for and how how it kind of calculated it. And also uh in the ordinance itself um uh se line 548 under hardships just some minor cleanups of the language uh in that just to make it a little bit more concise. Um other than that that's all the changes and I'm happy to take any questions. Okay. Thank you for your work on this. Uh questions or comments for Mr. Prince? Vice Mayor. Thank you so much Mr. Prince, I had one quick question. Um, in looking, let me find it. Uh, looking at the, uh, staff report and I, I know this was something I think Mr. Agan brought up about the um, if there's a hardship in, uh, I'm I'm sorry. I'm on the staff report. I'm at line 241 through 244. This is the gray part that was added, I believe, um, after our discussion the last time. Um, I just had a question. Is this per state code or is this a city code or is this just something that just how how we are operating? It's a you know in terms of the so so the section I'm talking about in such instance there's an option to pay into the tree canopy fund at 2,000 per 250 square feet. Is that something the So the state code I'll take that if you don't mind. Um this is um this provision that um is state code driven. The state code does require that we offer an opportunity in case of hardship for a a cash and loo payment. Okay. And so I see that it says there's kind of an option, but it's um the option only exists in cases of hardship as

determined by the city. And um if that hardship exists, then there really isn't an option. um the that there's a requirement that that money be paid into the fund. So, and that's what I thought um I remembered us talking about. I didn't know to cl to be more transparent and to clarify, would it be good to add something in there that says per state code, you know, so I know that's not exactly what the state I'm just I'm just wondering if that, you know, to show that we're following what this code is. Um let if you don't mind um I'd like to just before I answer that visit the uh section of the ordinance that Okay. It's not a huge thing. I just thought you know if people think oh this is the city trying to you know you know but this is really something us trying to follow what the state is telling us that we need to be doing. We we we could um as part of the motion for this item uh move to add that language to the staff report. Okay. That um in the lines that you mentioned. I don't know. Again, it's not a huge thing. I just um thought that might clarify why why we do that. On line 569 uh of the the ordinance, it does um can describe all of that information. You I believe it should cover everything that you're looking for. And that's what will actually be in the city code. And if it isn't, I'm happy to add it. Ah, I think um if you look at line 38 through 42, it says state code requires I'm kind of reading this live, so if it doesn't say what I think it's going to say, I'm sorry, but state code requires that any

local tree ordinance must allow challenging sight sites facing specific criteria to be eligible for satisfying the tree canopy requirement through payment of a fee to a locally administered tree canopy fund. No, that's right. I I must have just totally missed that. No, that's right. It's a It's long. There's a lot in there. Thank you. No, that's it. Thank you very much. Okay. Others, Mr. Aan. Just one quick timing question. Um, I know there's a site plan that's been submitted for uh T1 zone at 258 North Washington. Um, would that site plan be subject to previous to the current regulations or to these rules? I believe uh they're going when they were submitted. That's what uh what code they'll be held to. Okay. So, they'd be held to the current code. I'm not sure it makes any difference, but I don't believe we can change it in the middle of process. I think their current site plan like their their documents that they submitted have in their like tables which regulations they're subject to and have the city requirements at 15% and they are their representation is that the yeah lot meets a 15% tree canopy requirement. So it's actually a better tree canopy currently then Yeah, it's not bad. It's a it is a good question. um ordinances um by default are effective 10 days um after they're vote they're voted on by council. That's pursuant to our city code. Um and so uh anything that's acted on voted on like for site plan approval or I guess not voted on acted on after that date um would have to meet all the site the existing ordinance requirements. Yeah, I I don't think they they're a problem, but I was

just curious. But isn't this also just for the T-zones that are non-residential uses and the site plan is residential proposed? Oh, yeah. I wasn't aware. It's this only applies to commercial uses in the T-zones. Okay. This one, did you have something? Oh, no. I just wanted to say thank you again to staff and to um everyone else who was involved in moving this along. I think the Urban Forestry Commission um commented at its last meeting that it's been authority we've had for decades. And so it's nice to finally see that we're imposing the minimum in business districts and that we'll continue to hopefully seek further, you know, legislative authority to do even more to promote and preserve tree canopy in the city. So thanks again. Okay, I'll echo that because I think when I was your leazison three plus years ago, it was discussed. I'm glad to see it get to the finish line. So, thank you for the work on it. I'll take a motion. I'll move to adopt to 25-22. Is there a second? Second. Mrs. Schneider on the second. You call roll, please. Mr. Aan, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snider. Yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. The motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, councel. Thank you. Okay, moving on to the next item. We're on to a couple resolutions. The first one, TR26-07 is resolution to authorize the city of Falls Church shared mobility devices pilot program. Mr. Kurt Lawrence is going to give the staff report on this and the council's discussed this a few times at work session and this resolution is before council for uh for formal action tonight

and uh so Mr. Lawrence we'll turn it over to you for the staff report. Okay. Uh thank you Mr. Shields for the introduction. Um as as he said it's been to work session two times now. Um and the most recent time on Monday, March 2nd. uh we sort of worked through some of the questions that we've received during this planning process since that work session on Monday. Uh there's been no substantial changes. Um just a quick few words of clarification in theou that we will be um uh making sure that the city's able to set uh no ride zones, no park zones, and slow ride zones uh per the our discussion on Monday night. And then as part of follow-up to that discussion as well with regard to the schools and um considering different options for folks being able to ride there, uh staff will be meeting with with school staff in the coming weeks to work on a uh plan of action before um scooters come to the streets and um the program is fully underway. With that said, um I think that's that's really it. There's no changes since since last time other than that. and I'm happy to answer questions. Um, I actually will point out that previously the the MOA and the um program document have been attachments to the staff report. They're now sort of directly attached to the resolution just so everything's um together. Just a procedural thing. Thank you, Mr. Lawrence. I know we had a very thorough discussion in last week's work session. So, we'll see if there's additional ones this week. Right. Thanks. Questions or comments on this? this one. I just had one quick one and it's because of um I think continued resident concern around scooters on the sidewalk. Um and I just I guess wanted to confirm you know since we're doing this by resolution and because it is a pilot program to the

extent that um if this were rolled out and we wanted to make changes just based on sort of interactions in the community between the scooters and ebikes or whatever else it is. um that we would actually be able to move pretty quickly and more quickly than you would be able to amend an ordinance for example to respond to concerns we see um arising that we would want to actually you know be responsive to during the pilot program. Yes. So there's a a range of options that we can do in terms of making changes kind of depending how big the changes that'll be how big our our process is. Um, but I'm expecting uh the city to work very closely with our operator partners and um any sort of day-to-day minor changes can just happen at that kind of um administrative level. Uh so I'm confident that we can be pretty agile during this process. Thank you. Others Mr. Snider. Thanks very much. Um, could you summarize the communications that will accompany this pilot? Communications to the users uh of the devices, but also communications to the public. Sure. So, um, communications to the users, I'll start with that. Um, as people sign up for um, whichever operator we end up do getting in the city, they'll have an app that they have to sign up for which will include kind of an age verification check. um you know terms and conditions to agree to and just sort of introductory information for riding riding scooters. Um as they go on each individual ride, we can remind them of certain information. For example, our our sidewalk practices. Um so, right, we want people to go to lower speed, 6 miles an hour on the sidewalks um when compared to the street, which would be

faster. And then in terms to uh the general public, we want to do a really broad outreach. Um you know, sort of inspired by what we talked about earlier with the yellow cards, how with that we looked at several different options to kind of reach as many people as possible. So, newsletter, social media, website, um press release, um and just starting that pretty soon um after after council adoption so that we can get the message moving clearly and get it out before any scooters come to the streets. So, here's a question. If someone sees um a scooter rider violating uh good practices, for example, going um you know um not treating other pedestrian, not treating pedestrians well on sidewalks, for example, or other behavior. Uh how would how would that be enforced? So that would be similar to um for example if a if a bike rider was sort of breaking rules and and being you know not courteous on our roads, they could send a complaint to the city. Um and then we could work with the operator to maybe try to figure out if if we know who that person is, if maybe that's a repeated offender. Um and then otherwise they could contact the police non-emergency number. Um, so I I think there's a range of of ways for them to kind of make that complaint and then we can act on it from there. Is that clear to the public as to how to make that complaint? We can include that in um our materials as we Great. kind of advertise the program prior to the scooters being rolled out. Yeah. I mean, I want to add this um additional capability, but safety is number one for me. safety of the users and safety of other people that are

users of our um of our infrastructure. Um and and taxing um do we tax the um the operators for the ability to to make a profit with that with a with these devices? Um so we do tax the operators. Um the the last I'd heard on that was um that in a conversation with an operator prior to the previous work session, they said they do pay taxes in Arlington County. They had just done the taxes and they believed it was the business tangible uh personal property tax. Um which I believe will be the tax assessed on these companies. Um but they they do pay taxes and the case will be the same here. Mhm. Okay. Thanks. Mr. Reagan, just one quick thing. Um, when we go to do the communication, I think it would be important to also point out that not all of the scooters and ebikes on the street are through this program. Um, I'm sure everybody was out there this weekend. There are already privately private scooters. People have them and I don't think we've really had a problem with them, but this is in addition to those. So, I think that's important to communicate. Okay, understood. Thank you. So, I know that April was the planned when we'd open up for applications for operators. Yes. To send a request for applications to operators. Yes. So, assuming we approve this, we open up for applications. How quickly would we actually have scooters available in the city? So it uh kind of depends on on how that process goes with the operators, but we're anticipating um May or June as the launch date um with July as the absolute latest. Okay. And we think unlike 2019, we will get some takers this time. During the conversations I've had with operators, it's been positive. Um so I

won't make any promises, won't jinx anything, but I'm confident that our program is designed to be friendly to the operator industry. Okay. Well, I know this one doesn't require public hearing, but I guess I will still open up for any members of the public to comment. Anyone want to comment about scooters or shared mobility devices? Okay, I'm going to close public hearing. Would someone offer a motion? I will. I move to I do it if I can find the number. I move to adopt TR26-07. Is there a second? Second. Miss Connelly in the second. You call roll, please. Mr. Aan, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snider, yes. Miss Underhood, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. The motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you. And um before we move on to the next item, I don't think we actually opened the tree canopy item to public hearing. So Oh, good think we may need to revisit that one and follow up on that. Thank you for catching that. Thank you. I don't know if we need Mr. Prince come back up, but we can go back to TO25-22. Any members of the public wish to comment on to 25-22? Okay, you want to close the public hearing? Do we need to do a new vote? I think the the best practice would be to uh resend the vote that was taken, open the public hearing, close the public hearing, and then take a new vote. Okay. People have to the person who made the motion resend their vote. Resend the

motion. Uh it's uh anyone anyone can make the motion to resend the vote that was taken on that item. I move to resend the vote. That has to be done by roll call. Thank you. I move to resend the vote that was taken on to 25-22. Is there a second? Second. And this has to be done by roll call. Okay. So this is to rescend the previous tree canopy vote. Mr. Mr. Aan, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. Thank you. Okay, we're going to open up for public comment again. Here's your second chance or third chance. Oh, yes. Oh, wow. Thank you so much. You hear me? Um, none of this process has been e easy and I think symbolically having to resend the vote and vote on again is is is probably, you know, part for the course. But I want to thank again Mr. Prince for all the work he did and for city attorney catching all the stuff that she did that needed to be clarified and to all of you for all the hard work you did, all the great questions you had. So we're very very hopeful that we can move forward in the future with new regulatory authority if the state gives it to us. So, thank thank you very much. Great. Okay. Any other members of the public? Okay. We're going to close the public hearing and I'll take a new motion. I move to adopt uh TO25-22. Second. Mr. Snyder on the second. You call roll again, please. Mr. Han, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill. Yes. Mayor Hardy. Yes. Thank you, Council. Thank you, Mr. Prince. It's because the

agenda was moving along so quickly that we had to do it twice. Okay, let's call the next item. TR26-11 is a resolution to initiate amendments to the South Washington Street small area plan and downtown small area plan related to recommendations for redevelopment of Virginia Village and to amend the city of Falls Church comprehensive plan to update chapter 4 land use and economic development to incorporate both small area plans. Thank you. I know we also had very thorough discussion about Virginia Village in our joint work session last week. So, thank you for coming back again, Mr. Trainer. My pleasure. Uh, thanks for having me. Um, I have largely the same presentation as last week, but, uh, with a couple key, uh, small updates, so I'm just going to, uh, revisit it, uh, real quickly. Um, again, the request tonight is adoption of, uh, an initiating resolution to address, uh, and consider possible amendments to the South Washington Street and downtown small area plan. Uh and then also the uh new part is to also include these two small area plans into the comprehensive plan. Uh okay. So as a reminder, small area plans uh reflect comprehensive plan guidance and go into more detail about how to implement um that guidance. Um they are uh heavily community vetted um visions for the uh their respective area of the city uh which are called planning opportunity areas. And this u map that uh is also new a new feature to the presentation shows uh kind of an updated look at where all those uh planning opportunity areas um lie in the city which are primarily along our commercial corridors. Um the uh some of the identified reasons for uh updating the small area plan uh

is one to reconcile uh the guidance in those two smaller area plans with the um overhead guidance already included in the in the comprehensive plans uh land use chapter uh and also to reflect the um uh more recent city policies uh such as the Virginia village property acquisition strike fund. Uh and then also to um dust off those recommendations and confirm that those are still um the um the community's vision for uh the future of the Virginia Village area uh to include in a uh RFP process that staff is proposing uh to initiate in um the spring of this year. And those would include to be clear just uh the properties that the city owns. Uh this is a zoom in on uh the kind of current conditions uh in terms of the small area plan boundaries of Virginia Village which is outlined in yellow. Uh the South Washington Street small area plan boundaries are in that kind of beige color that's labeled number two. Uh and the downtown small area plan is in the blue area. Uh which includes just a sliver of the Virginia village area. But um so some of some of the considerations that uh could be revisited uh and reconfirmed with the community include future land uses for uh the Virginia Village area um buffering and screening of any redevelopment that might occur there with the surrounding area and context uh and that would also include building design uh including height density and stepbacks. Um so the key uh stakeholder outreach uh obviously includes the residents that live there today. Uh staff held a meeting uh with uh some of the residents on February 24th to describe this process to them, make them aware that this was happening um ahead of any

council action. Uh we'll we'll be specifically also reaching out to uh all three uh subgroups of the Winter Hill community uh and then also the Tinder Hill Heritage Foundation uh and then obviously residents um across the city as well. And what that uh look like, what staff's proposing is a a three three-part process. The first would kick off um in just a couple weeks later this month following any council action tonight to initiate um this process. Uh that would include a visioning process where we'd have community meetings um included during uh one week night and one uh weekend uh where we would invite the community to come and share their vision for the community. we revisit the guidance that's currently in the south in the um small area plans um and start identifying any areas for potential um amendments. Following that process in April, we'd come back to the community with u two more meetings following the same structure, one um uh week night meeting, one weekend meeting uh with some draft amendments and get further uh feedback on those. Uh and then the board and commission consideration and feedback process would start uh later in April. Uh and we've budgeted that to happen um into June. Uh with right now looking like a um second reading from council potentially happening in June of this year. Uh and here's another kind of visual um uh representation of that process uh with the RFP process um initiating in in May right now uh allowing for a two-month period for submissions and then um a selection process would happen for another two months beginning in July and August.

Uh so lastly, next steps uh following uh potential action tonight, uh staff would start um planning and advertising those meetings that would happen um later this month and into April. Uh staff would also um start exploring the uh procurement process for a commercial real estate advisory service that would help with that RFP um development and selection process. Uh and then a little further down the road, uh staff also recommends that city council um appoint a selection committee to also um weigh in on that uh on that process, the RFP process. Uh and so that concludes my presentation. I'll end it there for any questions or discussion. Thank you. Great. Thank you, Mr. Trainer. Questions or comments? Mr. Snder. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um so what if in these community meetings the community says we don't want to go the RFP process or we have a different idea of mix of uses. U there seems to be a little bit of a jarring inconsistency. We're asking the community to input to give us their their guidance, their suggestions, and yet we seem to be moving on a course that's predetermined. So, could you explain to me how we're going to um sort of um coordinate? It's not just coordination. it it's if someone is attending these meetings, I think they're going to assume that all ideas are welcome and that one proposal is apparently that the documents that have been presented will be available to them. But are they are they restricted as to what they can comment on or what their vision is for

that area? Sure. So, a lot of this is building off of previous guidance, right? That's already in the small area plans. The small area plans make a lot of um future land use recommendations that includes an affordable housing component, new affordable housing. Uh and the comp plan also is is um not as descriptive about it, but talks about future land uses being a multitude of different housing typologies. And so starting sort of with that guidance and then also applying the more kind of recent posture that the city's taken to acquire these properties from and make sure that they come under you know city ownership and saving them from you know the the private market where you know current residents could be kicked out um just just because you know their owner the building owner sold to a private developer who you know could buy right put something up. that's that's uh uh you know market product right. Um, so sort of taking all of that into consideration, affordable housing is in in a lot of ways already sort of uh in in the plans. And so what we'll be describing is okay, so taking what's already in the plans, this is, you know, the guidance for kind of the whole site and how can we include as many kind of positive communitybacked outcomes here as possible. Right. I I know that's probably what you would like to come out of the discussion, but what if the community says we really don't like this? Um I I guess the big thing is I want to make sure that there's maximum freedom for the community, if you will, and that we may be presenting materials, but they have the right to make comments that may be very favorable, may suggest modifications, or may suggest going in a different direction. and that all of that would be considered seriously

moving forward. Am I hearing that's what you're saying or am I hearing something else? Well, so this this scope would just be considering the small area plan amendment process. And so this process alone wouldn't itself initiate any redevelopment or in the RFP process. That'd be a separate action. So if there is, you know, substantial disagreement on that concept, I think that'd be something that would be addressed, you know, as part of the amendment process in a separate action. Okay. So we're this isn't a we're going to do this and we're explaining it to you, but rather here is something that we're thinking about that we've talked about. We invite your views on that. Um, positive, negative, modifications, whatever. Is that what I'm hearing that the community meetings will be? Yeah. So, it'll be explaining, you know, what the current guidance is that's that's in the plans that have been adopted. Here's where we're at, right? And here is where we could go, right? Based on policies that have happened. But again, yeah, getting feedback on on all of that. So there's no um we're going to be again yeah getting feedback on all that. So this this any other action is not procluded in in this uh jump to that slide that talked about like components called that like height and density like community uses previous to this. Yeah I'm one um not that one this one I I guess if I can jump in Mr. I don't think there is a this yet for the community to comment on that. What they're commenting on is the smaller plan that was adopted two actually two that we adopted over 13 years ago. Should it be refreshed in light of the new acquisitions we made at Virginia Village in light of the affordable living policy plans? And if so, along these lines, what are the things that people want to comment on? And then this will then be used to inform the RFP that will be under development. So, we don't actually have

a proposal in front of the community that's like, "Here's a project. We don't even have a project yet." I think this guides the RFP process. Developers may respond to that and propose projects, but that's down the road. That's several months down the road. That's how I read it. Is that That's accurate. Yeah, there is no this, I guess, to discuss at this point. Okay. Okay. So, would it be okay if I uh Thank you very much, Mr. Trainer, for this. Um, two things. One is if we could, um, if you all could make sure to notify the council of when those community meetings are. Um, because I know many of us would like to attend the community meetings to hear firsthand, you know, feedback. And then, um, I don't know if this is a question for the mayor or for Mr. fields. But in terms of the city council coming up with um a selection committee, h how do we would that just be something that um we would give our feedback to the mayor? And I'm just like logistically how how do we do that? Well, the Westfalls selection committee was an appointment. there was a sort of a chartered group with the sunset that was given a set of tasks to perform and and that included being on the selection committee for an ultimate uh partner uh for Westf Falls. So I think uh what you know council can talk about how detailed you want to be but I'm envisioning this being a chartered uh group uh established by and appointed by the city council. But I guess that's my question like how do we um when you say established by the city council uh maybe this is a gov ops conversation I'm not sure but I'm sure we all have different ideas of who should be on this committee. So is that just something that the mayor will sort of No that's you know the I mean not not she can kind of organize that process. I'm sorry.

I was just going to say in writing it that's allows this discussion to to be had and so the council can say okay well you know what's the right number of people is nine too many five too few you know where what's the right number for a good group and who do you want to be on this group and what's their scope of work I recall with West Falls we kind of named bodies we want represented like we wanted one member of the planning commission we wanted one city council member one EDA member one school person and then we let those bodies kind of come up with recommendations that we then all collectively voted on. I vaguely remember that. Yeah, I think that's about right. Yeah. Um so, okay. So, we'll just we can give a vote of the full council. Okay. And we can just figure that out. Okay. that that's a decision point whether the council would say planning commission you pick your one designate to be on the selection committee or the council could say send us your name but we're going to make the final appointment that's a decision point that you could make you know when you're establishing it how how you'd want to handle those appointments okay thank you because I mean for me personally I mean I'm not we're not going to get into this right now but you know it's probably I think worth it to have the homeowners association present from Winter Hill, you know, be involved at, you know, whether it's his part of the process or different part of the process of but um but you know, housing commission and all that so we can figure that out later. But that's I was just curious on how logistically we get we get that together. Thank you very much. But yeah, Mr. Train, I'd love to when you have those meetings set up, just let us know. Thank you so much. We sure do that. Thank you. Miss one, I had a um similar question to Miss DS. I guess I'll just say yes. I would be in favor of a work session as to what the selection committee looks like, who the bodies sort of like are on the selection committee and then might even favor some use of appointments committee in terms

of like potentially choosing people depending on if there's like interest among a commission or sort of seating the people. Who knows? Um, but I I guess my question was going to go more to, you know, a public RFP process and what the public can actually expect out of an RFP process. And so that's why I would like the selection committee process to be more visible because, you know, an RFP goes out and you can see the contents of the RFP, but then the public often isn't privy to the actual RFP submissions, right? like those are generally only seen by the selection committee. And so I think to the extent we can have transparency and visibility into the process at different points knowing that the public won't necessarily have the same degree of visibility into other aspects of the process um is just helpful from a procedural standpoint going into this. Mr. Reagan, uh just one quick thing on the uh selection committee. I just I agree we we will need to I think we should have uh community representation on there additionally but the what I wanted to jump on to um and thank you I've heard this many times now um I an area that of confusion I think we get and it's on the previous slide I think can show it where we have the um small area plan process and the small area plan process is looking at the entire entirety of Virginia Village and the surrounding area. It's really looking at the Virginia Village area of that small area plan. It's not really looking at the rest of it. Um, and that's the top part above the the dates. Um, if you go to the previous slide with the the calendar, there you go. And that's the if I understand this

correctly, the top part is talking about the entirety of the Virginia Village property. the smaller plan, the strategy we want to embrace. And really what you're asking us to do right now is to initiate the top part. And then the bottom part is specific to the properties that the city owns. So it's actually a subset and the bottom part is the development. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think that's the piece that people mix up and I I think has caused confusion. What which is the top and bottom parts are so the the blue above the above the uh dates and that's the arrows that's the small area plan the strategy of what we want there um and then the bottom part is really the RFP and specific to our properties the things so the I think that's important to differentiate and maybe communicate because we mix them together and I think it it gets confusing and the stuff on the top feeds into the RFP. The the things that are coming out of the blue feeds down into the RFP. It's not going the other way. The RFP is not feeding the strategy. It's the strategy is feeding the RFP, right? So, yeah, we'd be looking at the plans for the whole area, but obviously the RFP uh the city only controls what it controls, right? So, the RFP process will will only involve those city properties. Um and so it will be, you know, an important distinction to make when we're um going through this community engagement process to highlight that ownership and be like this is these are the properties the city owns. These are, you know, what what could be included in an RFP um more immediately and then in the future, you know, these are all the properties that the city doesn't own. But um you know, if there is an opportunity down the road, what is the community vision for th those areas?

I think we just need to work a little bit on the communication. I think part of it is that in people are used to government where the old way of doing it would have been we do the two blue ones and then we start the green ones but we're not doing that. We're running them in parallel which is great and um is a much better way to do it in my opinion and um but it does throw it off. That's my only comment is I think we just need to maybe look at the communication of it. Noted. Thank you. this one again. I just had one followup and I think that I think that here the community concern is that because of the timeline that the RFP is actually going to drive what comes out of the community conversations, right? So the thing that you said like the the the blue line, right, is supposed to at some point inform the green piece, but the green piece isn't supposed to get so far ahead of the blue that it actually loses what the community vision is even for those parcels that the city owns because the city own doesn't like own those parcels without the community's commitment to the development, right? like it's not it's not like we own them independent of the community in which we sit and the financial sort of contributions that the community is going to be making to the parcels over time. And so I think that the the the reason that people have been or that there's been some push back in different places or concern in different places is because people want to make sure that the because the timelines are as aggressive as they are on the RFP issuance that it does have time for the blue to inform the green before the green is so far along that we're backfilling the blue to ensure that the comp plans meet whatever the developer is going to need for the you know entitlements and permissions right and so and so that's like the tension in this and I just want to acknowledge that it's not as clean as one way or the

other and that that's some of the concerns and some of the things that I think you know the planning director talked about is the acknowledging the elephant in the room in terms of trying to do this on a on a fast scale recognizing that an RFP as the mayor said you know it takes years before you are actually having and Mr. Matusk said, you know, 80% of an RFP is really how do you respond? What's the paperwork? You know, administrative stuff that can be done. And I thought 95% community. Yeah. Waiting for that community piece. But wasn't there also, if I'm remembering this right, if there was something that really that came out of the meetings that was very important or Yes. Yes. we could still um update that RFP, right? Or there's I thought there was some sort of I don't know what the terminology was, but that we could go and and notify people that this has been updated with maybe a new, you know, whatever. Yeah. And and that's there so they're they're acknowledging that there's overlap between these two processes, but um the um Yeah, I mean the so both would be interspersed with community meetings, right? in meetings that require action uh not just from this body but from planning commission recommendations from other groups. Uh and so there will be, you know, critical dead, you know, um goals to hit along the way within each of these scopes. And so starting, you know, so aggressive just kind of sets us just gives us that momentum to keep going versus something that could be really long could take um inadvertently longer than perhaps it it might need to. So starting um with this sort of aggressive schedule again just kind of sets I think that momentum but by no means is uh well allows for some flexibility I think with those other meetings that again need to need to happen in there. Um and so the addendum part um that's what would be that would go into the RFP. um any additional information that um needs

to be added certainly can um after its issuance. Um and if need be um you know perhaps that that um the the window could even be extended you know if if it needs to. Great. Thank you very much. Yeah. I think what made me feel better is when Mr. Musi last week said 95% of the RFP is kind of boilerplate and that the 5% would be reserved so that when the community input and the board and commission review completed that could be slotted in. So that made me feel better that one is driving the other not the other way around. Okay, other questions or comments? Okay, I know we don't need a public hearing for this, but for posterity sake, let's do one anyway. Any members of the public wish to comment on this one? Maybe it makes up for not having the public hearing earlier. Okay, we're going to close the public hearing. Is there a motion? I move to adopt TR 2611. Is there a second? Second. Stounds on the second. You call roll, please. Mr. Aan, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We look forward to the next steps. Okay. Third item is our council priorities. Thank you, Mr. Shields for incorporating comments from last discussion and looks like we have close to final copy in front of us. So I did want to just note that there is a revised draft that's at the DES with the council and was also made available to the public. And so the gray highlights represents uh language changes from the work session last week and the yellow highlights represents

comments received over the weekend. Um, and I want to thank Council Member Aen uh for comments and I hopefully we captured them all. Um, and uh, we'd be happy to um, I won't give a detailed staff report because the council's discussed this several times at work session. Uh, there is still the typo at lines 167 168. There's two one of the the public needs to be removed. There's two the public's in there. So, uh, that second the public should be crossed out. My apologies. Could I make one other suggestion? This is on me for not submitting this in writing. It was only when I looked at the highlighted version that it stood out to me. Um, and it's in my mind a relatively simple fix just to make sure this isn't kind of more parallel structure throughout it. 166 to 169. Could we just simplify that paragraph and say public engagement colon engage broadly and deeply with the community whenever important policies are being considered. Keep the public informed on issues before the council and meet the public where they are to ensure that all are heard and then it makes it consistent with the rest of the document. I can provide that to um Miss Prince if it's easier. I have the paper copy here if people are inclined to agree. People agree with that. Yep. Thank you. Any other comments? I think as we talked about work session, I look forward to this version kind of pertified and just like a digestible like one pager ideally so we could say

here's the top five, you know, buckets of work that we're focused on or maybe a fivepage deck or something because I think be important for the public to know that, you know, here's things that we've said collectively are important for us for the next two years. Okay. So, thank you in advance for staff for helping with that. Madameir. Uhhuh. I only had one question. Uh on line 2011 and 202. We've just had a discussion of Virginia Village and I'm not sure this language um is consistent with that. I just ask a question. The second the second paragraph under Virginia Village, take policy action that will encourage community partners to preserve. Okay. How about and potentially build new committed affordable housing in Virginia Village cuz it sounds like again a predetermined outcome. And I thought we just had a discussion that that we are open. I mean, this may be the direction that some folks want to take, but it just seems to me it went too far in this particular document. Thoughts from others? I'm okay if we want to say something on 202 like and build comma as appropriate, comma, new committed affordable housing in Virginia Village. If that resolves your concern, could you repeat that? Sorry. Again, if we were to say I think Yeah, it's similar to what Mr. Snyder said. I think he was saying on 202 to say and potentially build new committed affordable housing or we could say and build as appropriate new committed

affordable housing in Virginia Village. So basically add the words build as or as appropriate. fine with me. It's fine. I just call out that you know at 193 we are committing to increasing housing affordability or access to affordable housing and so we need a strategy to do so and unless we say that I mean we didn't spend millions of dollars buying up units of Virginia Village just to keep them as is forever. We're very explicit that we were going to do more, especially given the affordable living policy goals we all collectively adopted last year. So I would just challenge us to you know while we haven't committed to anything in terms of how many how big what AMI levels what the mix of uses are that I do think we've sent a pretty strong signal in both acquisition of the properties as well as the strike fund that we have funded with some local dollars and some grants that we are trying to do something bold for affordable housing in the community. I'm I'm perfectly fine leaving it as is. I think the language feels fine to me. Yeah, I I would agree because I I think to me, Mr. Schneider, the um you know, it says I I would agree if it would just if it just said take policy actions that will encourage community partners to build, but it does say to preserve. So, I think that sort of makes it broad enough that, you know, if we have community feedback that maybe, you know, I don't know, there's community members that don't want that sort of building to happen. I mean, I think it covers us both ways, preserving and building. So, I'd be okay to leave it as is thoughts. So, I I wanted to step back to 193 and 190. I I think you um obviously I prefer 193. Um but I believe you put it in this

as an alternative. And so, I guess the question is council, which do we prefer? I think the intent was one or the other. If from if I'm correct, was that the intent is that we would choose between 190 and 193? Yeah, I thought that it was just easier for the council to read the two sentences side by side and then choose the one they preferred. So, which do we prefer? I obviously prefer 193 cuz I wrote it. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with it. I just don't want it to be used later to say we committed to something that we didn't actually commit to. And so I think so long as we're not saying, well, the council decided in X to do this a year from now with respect to something that isn't on this page, then with that shared understanding, I'm fine with alternative with the alternative language. So going back to lines 2011 to 202 I think I heard Miss Underh Hill Miss DS say it's fine as is. Any other comments? Mr. Snider had the only comment I have is we could say preserve and slash or build to committed affordable housing. That might cover everything the whole waterfront. Thoughts on that? But then that sort of I guess um backs away from everything that we've been doing with Virginia Village so far. Well, it does, but it also leaves the opening that there may be some that we know never own. So, that would be the or like if if they're still there. I don't know. I would be okay to leave

it just as is, but I just propose that as a complex. I like that compromise. Okay. So, and or Yeah, sounds fine. And then I had a question, Madame Mayor, on line 210 to 212. So can we review again what this new state authority is and it's granted to the city to evaluate and ultimately set. So we're evaluating whether to use this new state authority. So what is that state authority we're talking about? I believe this is the one that we requested last session that we granted that we got granted. Correct. That's correct. It's an amendment 15.2-2304 2-2304 which is embedded in my mind but it gives you all more flexibility and authority to decide how you want to do your ADUs in terms of density and ratio to ADU where right now you're in the code section 2305 that's very constrained. So it's authority the general assembly has now granted and so the process would be to develop the ordinance as you want to have that structured within the city of false church. So we can determine whether we use the state authority and if so how correct is that right is that implied okay I don't need to change the wording then although actually can we spell out ADU just to avoid confusion with accessory dwelling units. Yeah, this is the affordable dwelling unit ordinance, not accessory dwelling. Couldn't get the state to rename them. And it's looking like the entire state's going to get the same authority. Correct.

It's looking like it's coming out right now. The authority for the city of false church fills out the donut hole in Northern Virginia. It's really hard to hear that mic. I don't know whether it's on or Okay. Anything else? Okay. Is there a motion to adopt? So, does the motion need to say It sounds like we we've agreed on the alternative 193. There was a type or edit on line 168 to remove the second public as well as Aaron's edits from 166 to 167. Were there other changes? So, I'll move to adopt TR26-10. Oops. Did you hear me? Okay. I'll move to adopt TR26-10 as amended with discussion of council. Is there a second? Second. MS on the second and call roll, please. Mr. Aan, yes. Miss Connelly, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we have nothing on consent. Yes. Can I just say thanks to the staff for helping us through this process? finish early March, which I think is a nice goal to have. Um, we can get to schedule at the end, but do we want to do any other committee reports first or comments? People have standing regional committee related

potentially other business like a legislative update. Do we want to do that and then we can get the schedule? Okay. And semester. All right. Have a good night. Ready mayor for the legislative item you wanted to raise. Yes. Well, one I guess as an opening is are there I know that they're nearing the end of session, end of this week. Is there anything that we should know about or is the ledge committee engaged or meeting this week? Um, yeah, they are scheduled to adjourn uh this upcoming Saturday. Uh, there are 50 bills still in conference or committee that haven't been negotiated out, so we're still waiting to see the outcome of those. Uh, transportation funding, uh, collective bargaining and transportation funding would be the top ones we've been focusing on there. Um and then there's still been no announced budget agreement. Um the committee uh conferries are still working on that. So lots to happen this week. The budget if it's going to be adopted by their deadline of adjourning would have to be announced on Thursday. So it's going to be a tight window. Um for the budget, I think it's 50/50. we may have a continuation of the session and still be working on the budget for a bit. Uh so that's a quick update on that. Um, mayor had sent out an email earlier this afternoon about possibly um, co-signing a letter at the request of the city of Alexandria um, regarding the um, skill games bills that are in Richmond, which is House Bill 1272 and Senate Bill 661. They are very different bills. They're

also in conference and so there's a lot of negotiation still to go on those. the qu the request from Alexandria would be to sign on to a letter um requesting that if the bill makes it out that you have to opt in and the locality can have a referendum to opt in which is the House version the Senate version you would automatically be have skilled games and you'd have to do a referendum to opt out so That's the the core thing of the Alexandria letter. There are some pieces where they speak to um some of the limits are different. Um some of the controls, the separation and distance from schools um is better in the House bill than the Senate bill. Some of those type of things. The revenue that comes from this is a split of state and local. So there is some local revenues associated with this with also the desire to have some guard rails around the safety. Okay. So since this isn't specifically called out in your legislative program, it is not inconsistent with the basic local authority retain that locally position. And you all were meeting tonight. It seemed timely to have consensus whether you wanted to sign on to that letter. And you all in your inboxes should have a draft of that letter that originated from Alexandria if you all have opinions. So, um, for the public's benefit, probably my own, what are skills games? That's like if you, um, go into gas stations or 7-Elevens or some of the bars and you can play a gaming video game, like machine type games inside. They were legalized briefly during CO to help with um some of those small businesses uh and so they were legal for a little

bit and then I think the period ended and so they ended with co and administrative change. So is there gambling connected with these games or it's just you it is gambling. There are some um theoretic consumer protections. So on the house bill they would only pay 84%. Um there's some tax rates on there. Um the House bill limits only 15,000 machines throughout the um state. Senate has 35,000. So there are some limits. Some of the concerns is for people with addictions and what kind of support if that happened. And so the the Alexandria letter also flags that um as an issue. And that's where the ability to have local control and decision is preferred and recommended that you could opt in to have the referendum. And that also allows you to decide where you want to put them and how many. So just one further question is Alexandria supporting the opt in or the opt out? Opt in. Okay. So it's not the state is not automatically authorized unless the city council were. Yeah. Yeah. authorize a referendum and then the community would get to vote and then you get to optimize. I personally think that's fine if if we're going to have to deal with the issue. So earlier in the session, I know some of the bills included language around increasing the gambling commission at the state level or establishing one. I forget exactly the details. Where where do those stand and would the skill games fall underneath that commission? I would have to check and see if the commission is progressing through, but this would fall in the lottery would fall in the casino if it happened would all fall under that, but I'd have to check on that specific bill. And I um

just found on my notes from Alexandria for some of the consumer safeguards, the House bill limits the payout to be $500. The Senate bill um is removes has 4,000. So you could get a big payout at one time. This is not one bill that's been in your legislative program. So um I'm following along with Alexandria's research. Guess I'm hearing general support to sign on to the Alexandria bill. Okay. Uh and the other one which I don't have a draft of was uh Vienna reached out asking us to join in on their letter to oppose the casino legislation which actually already passed. I think it's just asking the governor to not sign it to veto it. Uh and that's strictly for Fairfax County and I think as I understand it would still require the board of supervisors to authorize a referendum. Several members of the board have said that they don't actually want to proceed with that. And I mean even after they authorized they have a majority vote. voters would have to vote for it before it would be allowed. And it's no longer limited to Tyson's, it could be anywhere in Fairfax County. So, my only and I communicated this with the mayor earlier today, but my my only thought, and this is just me, but the Alexandria version is pretty general. It's it's general. And then what Vienna is asking us to sign is this very specific matter that Fairfax is dealing with. So, I'm I'm more apprehensive um to join in with Vienna and, you know, injecting ourselves into another jurisdiction's business, but that's just my thought. You know, the Alexander one is very general and can be applied in multiple situations. Yeah, I tend to agree. I tend to stay out of other people's business. Madame Mayor, um I do have a question. Um, could we reach out to Fairfax County

Board of Supervisors to determine whether they want us at this point to weigh in? Um, it's interesting that Vienna wants that, but I'm interested in whether the Fairfax County Board would like us to weigh in or not. They they may not or they may. And if they may, then I'd suggest we bring this back to the city council. I mean, Vienna is located as a town within the county, which is probably why they have been more opinionated about this as opposed to a independent jurist, fully independent jurist. I mean, we're we're right. They are, but the action would be to put it anywhere in Fairfax County, right? And we have intel that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors really doesn't like this. And I think if they would like us to be supportive of their position, I think we ought to seriously consider it in my own view. But it's whatever the consensus is. Other opinions? Mhm. While Tyson's is very close to us, I was less concerned. But now if I hear it could be anywhere in Fairfax County. There's a lot of false church that touches Fairfax County that puts it right in our closer in our backyard. Tyson's is pretty close anyway. So, um I would not be opposed to if if we are working with our partners Vienna and Fairfax County Board to saying false church agrees with this or disagrees whatever false church sides with our neighbors. I would support that position. That's two. Anybody else? I I was fine deferring, but I mean I'm happy to support the position if as you're saying, right? I mean, it basically could sit on our border.

I mean, the bill has specific like site requirements and how big it would have to be, how much like square footage and how much housing it would have, and you'd be transit. So, it's there's nothing nearby in my opinion that would actually fit those site characteristics. I I think my understanding is the the other sites that people are talking about now beyond Tyson's are down near the uh the bridge in the you know greater Alexandria so south of Alexandria but and I don't like the idea of it being just off of our borders too but it's I don't know it's this is getting into the politics of who do you support who do you set there's a lot lot of different groups involved D on this. So I I'm not sure that. Okay. I heard three as being open to the idea of joining the Vienna letter. My preference is to stay out of it. I'd like to stay out of it. Sounds I think was out. Mr. Reagan was undecided. So we're split three. Then I'd say let's stay out. Okay. Okay, thank you for that discussion. Um, I know that we also were talking about doing a letter on transit funding at this point. Do we think that matters or helps or doesn't help? Um, I'll be in Richmond tomorrow, so I'll have a better chance uh to confirm that with what's happening, you know, informally and then whether it goes to the conferees again or to the administration. So, um, since that's in council's position, once I know the outcome, then I'll follow up on the letter. And I know it's tricky because originally we thought about NVRC doing a letter, but given that the Senate version impacts NVTA funding, NVTC has different opinions, if we want to do a letter among Arlington, Alexandria, and false church. Um, I think people are a game for that, especially if we really strongly prefer one version or we think we have a hybrid third version that

would Yeah, the hybrid version would eliminate the negative impact on NVTA. Um, I will be with the executive director of MBTC all day tomorrow so we can get that feel. But I know Alexander and Alexander still willing to co-sign a letter jointly with the city. Okay. Well, and you know, I agree. I think we should consider co-signing a letter, but we're not exactly sure at this point what it would say, right? Until we get more firm language. Is that sort of where we are? Um, we have some options that are floating and so we're trying to get the reaction from the conferees and the patrons and if it's favorable, we won't need the letter or we'll need the letter to reinforce. So, need to allow some of the dialogue to continue. um for two days, no longer. Okay. Okay. Anything else coming out of the state? That's the key ones. I gave you the email earlier about the housing bills. So, a lot of that has changed. We're still We have some pending requests and for the faith in housing, uh but haven't heard if the patron accepted them yet. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you in advance for being in Richmond. Okay. Um, anything else before we get to minutes and then schedule? Okay. Who's read the February 23rd minutes and has any comments? Anyone have a motion to approve minutes? I move to approve the minutes of February 9th.

Is there a second? Was it Connelly in the second? I don't think that's the right date. February 23rd. 23rd. Yes. Sorry. I move to approve the minutes of February 23rd. Although I would change the date at the very top. At the top it still says February 9th. Yeah. Is there a second? Second downs on the second. All in favor? I opposed. Minutes are approved. Okay, we can move to schedule. We cancel Wednesday because it's only 9:15. Can we pull that up, please? I assume people wanted schedule. Yeah. Okay. Why is your mic on? It is now. Thank you. So, uh March 16th board session. Uh we'll have the uh feedback on names for the park at the fellow's property. We'll have a briefing on the permit process improvements and permit uh fee changes. Uh we'll have um uh our afteraction report for snow response. And uh one potential item just from tonight's discussion uh if we're able to get it to you, we could have sort of a rough draft of a charter for the selection committee. So, you could discuss uh what that would look like because it is a two-step process. First, you would would establish the committee and then you would make appointments to it. So, um we could get that conversation started on the 16th.

Um on March 23rd, uh child abuse prevention month proclamation, uh fair housing month proclamation, annual report from the arts and humanities council, and then the budget presentations by the city manager and the school board, and uh then action on the fellow's property naming, action on the memorandum of agreement with the EDA on the Virginia Village properties, and the charter for a selection. committee. Why? Going back to March 16th, I think in the previous version, I was kind of looking forward to the bus stops improvements project briefing. Did that get bumped somewhere? Yeah. Uh, let me check in with Amanda on that. Could I also ask for March? Um, I don't know if it fell off or if it's it will be captured somewhere else or in a memo potentially, but um, can we have a followup on preservation of units and any additional information we requested? So, we could do that in the context of the housing the human services budget when that comes to council. And I haven't actually plugged that in on um uh the budget work sessions, but we could do that. That April 6 work session is pretty loaded and so I think adding housing to that agenda would be a bit much. On the other hand, the CIP is a time where we consider uh sort of capital funding or long-term funding for affordable housing alongside the CIP. So, actually, that could be a good time to talk about um funding for preservation.

I just Yeah, more than anything, I want to make sure that it doesn't get lost and that we slot it in somewhere. Yeah. Sorry for that kind of rambling response, but that uh No, that's fine. And I mean some of the shorter sessions, I mean my Yeah, I mean maybe it would be a close session at the end of a work session as opposed to an end of that really long work session if it fit in March somewhere, but Right. Okay. Um so after the budget, we would have the uh first of two town hall meetings on the budget. the first one on Thursday at noon and um then we would uh get back together on April 6 for work session. We would first meet for the pinwheel garden ceremony at 7:00 p.m. then come in for work session focused all on budget CIP. Uh so the six-year capital plan along with the six-year housing um affordable housing funding plan, a discussion of the DPW budget, uh discussion of a planning, economic development and code administration budget along with um a review of all the tax and fee ordinances and that would include uh the building permit fees. Then looking ahead to the 13th, uh, proclamation on National Library Week, Arbor Day, National Public Safety Telecommunications Week, be joined by the AAB for their for its annual report. And then uh, first reading on the budget ordinance and the tax and fee ordinances. Um, in terms of adding to that, as I think that would be a potentially a relatively

short meeting, uh, we could then have a deeper dive on a budget topic and I think, um, that, uh, housing potentially would be one of those strategic areas, uh, because, um, we could do a little bit more of a discussion about that that night. Looking ahead to the other um budget work sessions, we have the budget and finance committee on the 17th. We'll get third quarter financial results that night. And then on April 20th, uh the school budget, the public safety uh budget, and uh feedback from Virginia Village Community Engagement, Gov Ops Committee on April 22nd. Um and then April 27th, um we would have a 6:30 reception for employee of the year. We're going to announce that u this week, so we're excited about that. Um employee of the year recognition at the meeting, proclamation on public service recognition, Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Jewish American Heritage Month, and the retirement board annual report. Uh there would be an advertised public hearing on the budget ordinance and the tax and fee uh items and then we would uh end that meeting with a budget work session. Then on um May 4th, that's uh the last budget work session on the budget or last work session on the budget final markup. And um um we also have some updates on um the Chesapeake Bay state law compliance. Um

so then on May 11th uh is final action on the budget. We do have these initiating resolutions on comp plan chapters and um so I'll have more information on those. A lot of those are u the environment one is fairly technical in nature. The subdivision and site plans, however, uh relates to the discussions we've had in the past about updating our processes uh in light of the uh state state code provisions relating to a granting of waiverss um through the site plan process. um and have have those um in instead go to the board of zoning appeals. So um I maybe that's uh far enough for us to get through tonight and uh but I'd be happy to answer any questions. Okay. I had sent an email about April 1st, both the mayor's meeting as well as our office hours. I think I only heard affirmatively from Art that he'll be here. I think handful of us were actually out. Yeah, Mary, Beth, and I. And I think you are out. So, that's three. You're in your room. I don't know. I responded to the city clerk to say that I was hoping we'd determine our plans over the weekend, and they're not settled yet. So, I'm I guess I'm up in the air right now. But am I the determinative factor for quorum? I'm not 100% sure it'd be there. You shouldn't count on me. I mean, it seems like we should just cancel. Yeah, I think so. Art, do you feel comfortable doing Ask the Council, even if it's you by yourself? I I I said we could we could title it ask art wearing a t-shirt with rebranding. Um cuz that we don't need like a quorum for. Yeah, I mean I can do it if you want to

do that. Thank you. I think uh people ought to know that there would only be one person there. That's okay. Yeah, we never promise that you get all of city council. Sometimes you get all, sometimes you get three, sometimes you get four. So, and I know Gov Office is going to take on a process to have things in the community as well. So, okay. Sounds like we're canceling the schedule part of it and then Art and maybe whoever else wants to join them will be there for office hours at 9:00. Okay. I just want to put out there make sure that Miss Flynn and Miss Hardy know there is no appointments committee meeting this week. Great. We have no one no one to interview. Yeah. Madame Mayor, just a quick question. Looking at May 11 and then May 18. Um no, actually May 4 and May 11, the um subdivisions and site plans. Now that's just the initiating resolution. That's approval of the resolution. Is that right? That would be just to kick off the code review. Okay. I think that's important for the community to know. Thank you. Anything else? Are there other dates that people are out? Well, um, isn't there go ops on March 25th or is that canled because there's no meeting after it? I think we're still planning on gov ops on the 25th. Yeah, it I I noticed I meant to follow up that for some reason I had seen that it had fallen off. I'm not sure why, but I'll I'll go back and check the uh schedule that m Miss Carol had given us. I'm likely

absent for the June 8th meeting. I'll see whether I might be able to join at the very beginning if it turns out. Are we going to have do you think a work session on appointing members to the selection committee? Probably, right? Yeah. Before I mean that's an action meeting on June June 8th. Yeah. Sorry. Anyway, you can just note for now that I'm likely Babson on the ETH, but I saw it earlier. Is it June 2nd has the work session? Looks like that's on May 18th. I'm just a quick note. So, I'm probably going to be remote for all of May. I don't know. But just something to note. Just and beyond. I I I will be remote for all of my or absent. Yeah. Or absent would be fine, too. Yes. Okay. Okay. There's nothing else. Quick question. Is there any update on whether or not there was a meeting with the Broadf Falls community that happened yet for the by False Plaza? Oh, excuse me. False. Oh, I apologize. I need to get back with council on that. I I don't think it has happened, but there should be a date, so I'll get that date. Okay, that would be great.

I want to share that. Thank you. Okay, there's nothing else. I think we're good night all. Enjoy the early night.