City Council - Regular Meeting

that will help guide future police department operations and budgeting decisions. The first meeting will be held on May 14th, this Thursday, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Dogwood room. And the second will take place on May 16th, this Saturday, from 12:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. here at the council chambers. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Would you all like to come up and receive the proclamation? Sheriff, were you looking to speak as well or

Oh, no. I think Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Our second proclamation is May 17th to 20 23rd, 2026 as public works week in the city of Falls Church and the son will do the honors.

Thanks, Mayor Hardy. Whereas the staff of the Department of Public Works, DPW, manage infrastructure, facilities, and services that are of vital importance to a sustainable community and to the high quality of life and well-being of the people of the city of Falls Church. And whereas the city's infrastructure could not function without the sustained efforts of DPW professionals who are collectively responsible for our city's transportation system, public buildings, trees, fleet, solid waste collections, and sanitary sewer and storm water systems. And whereas we thank the dedicated city employees who served around the clock during winter storm Fern in January 2026 despite the challenges posed by Snowcrete. And whereas this the year 2026 marks the 66th annual National Public Works Week sponsored by the American Public Works Association. And whereas this year's theme for National Public Works Week is rooted in service powered by community. And whereas that theme acknowledges that the roots of service run deep in public works, leading to innovations that help communities evolve into places where people can lead lives of purpose and possibility. And whereas the public is invited to acknowledge the dedication and achievements of the city's department of public works. Now therefore, I, Letty Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim the week of May 17th to 23rd, 2026 as public works week in the city of Falls Church and urge citizens to join in recognizing the substantial contributions which a city's public work staff makes in maintaining our quality of life. And welcome, Miss Brain, and other members of public work staff. Can we just scroll up to see the rest of the proclamation? There's an amazing graphic that's on our version. I guess there it is

that the public had that benefit too. Wild graphic is from the American Public Works Association. Um but it is a a great motto rooted in service powered by community. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for joining us. Before we get to a third one, I just want to say it's notable actually our two longest work sessions were actually about public safety and public works ass this time in budget season. So, it's fitting that we're recognizing both our public safety and public work staff on our final budget hearing night. Okay, our third proclamation is declaring May 20 26 as bike month in the city of false church and Miss Underh Hill will do the honors. Whereas May is recognized nationally as bike month established in 1956 to promote the benefits of bicycling and to encourage safe riding for people of all ages and abilities. Whereas bicycling improves public health, reduces traffic congestion, supports local businesses, contributes to our children's growth, and helps create vibrant connected neighborhoods. And whereas in 2025, the city of false church made major progress towards safer and more connected bicycling network, including the unanimous adoption of a new bicycling master plan and the adoption of a vision zero resolution committing the city to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries. And whereas the city staff across departments have begun implementing this vision through a more datadriven and complete streets approach to planning, street design, and safety enforcement. And whereas the Department of Public Works advanced safer street design by in 2025 by installing new bike lanes on Wallis Street, Anandale Road, and South Roosevelt Street, closing sidewalk gaps, including the new sidewalks on Wallace Street and Hillwood

Avenue, installing Hawk signals to improve crossings on Broad Street, and incorporating safer design standards such as 10-foot travel lanes to encourage lower vehicle speeds. And whereas the false church police department plays a critical role in keeping safe in keeping people safe on our streets through traffic safety, education, enforcement, and collaboration with city staff and the community support and and the community to support vision zero goals. And whereas false church schools, families, and community members continue to grow a vibrant bicycling culture in 2025 through programs such as the Mount Daniel Elementary traffic garden, bike buses to school, bike tomarket day, community rides, and trail cleanups. And whereas these efforts reflect a shared commitment among residents, city staff, and community organizations to create streets that safely allow mobility for all modes, including bicycling. Now therefore, I, Letty Hardy, mayor of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, do hereby proclaim May 2026 as bike month in the city of Falls Church and encourage all to celebrate by riding safely, supporting efforts to improve street safety, and continuing to work together to build a city where people of all ages can comfortably travel by bicycle. Looks like we have guests in the audience join us.

Welcome, Mr. Olison.

Hi, I'm Andrew Olsen. I lead uh bikewalk and roll fall church. I just want to say thank you everyone here on behalf of um all of our members, many of whom are putting their kids to bed right now or doing their homework. Um we're still working. But thank you for everything over this last year. Thought it was fitting that Mike month and the public horse appreciation and police appreciation role in the same month. Um because this is a huge part of the dream team um including planning and the rest of um city staff. Uh so thank you. Lots more to do. Living vision zero is much harder than proclaiming it. We've got more to do on the WOD places like Grove Avenue. We've got more to do to get kids to the secondary campus. Um but amazing progress this last year. We're excited to see what next year holds or this year I guess now. And um we hope to see you all on Friday at bike to work day.

Great. Thank you. If you all want to come up, Mr. Olson, I'd invite you to come up as well as all the cross functional teams that were mentioned that play a role in advocating for bike and multimodal transportation. No bike riding. I know. I know bike riding. I stopped. Andrew, I feel like you should. Yeah. But it'll come back. Yeah, it'll come back.

Thank you. Thank you all. Moving on to the next agenda item. Uh madam clerk, do we have anyone in the audience taking an oath of office tonight?

Uh yes, we have Meredith Cavan for Arts and Humanities Council. And if anybody else is here for an board and commission oath of office, you can let me know. Thank you. Swear that you support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth and that you will perform all the duties in upon you as a member of the arts and council of Paul Church to the best of your ability. So help me. I do.

Thank you for serving. Thanks. Thank you.

Okay, moving on to our public hearing. Uh we do have a public hearing for the budget. So, if you'd like to save your comments for the budget public hearing, you're welcome to do so or speak now. Uh let's start with a summary of written comments, please, Madam Clerk.

Yes. All of our comments uh since your last meeting were about the budget. Uh Jesse Bradford wrote to support raising taxes when there are clear goal-driven community benefits for additional spending and is a com and and is comfortable with higher overall taxes if funds are used effectively for the common good. The Chamber of Commerce wrote to support modernization of the permit process and improve customer service. Took no position on fee increases. asked that permit fees not exceed service delivery cost and noted member concerns that the proposed increase uh might burden both new and existing local businesses. Greg Pas asked for more enforcement of vehicle registration and personal personal property laws in order to increase tax revenue and ensure all residents pay their fair share. Connie Ryberg wrote to support the proposed 0.5 cent tax rate reduction and 50/50 uh FY27 revenue growth split between government and schools noting that a fiscally conservative approach is needed amid uncertainty uncertainty and that ongoing budget growth is unsustainable. The following wrote in support of installing solar panels on the community center center. Sandra Clea, Jason Crawford, Hapsa Quada, Sylvia Malm, uh Katherine Murphy, Laura Nelson, Gary Rucker, Sandra Tarpinian, and Jennifer Tus. The following requested that in the FY2027 uh FY27 budget, the schools are funded at a level that maintains current services for students. Kathy Gaspie, Adam Hudas, and uh Kelly Harris Hudas, the FCE PTA president. Great. Let's move on to public comment either live or virtually.

Yes, we have um several folks signed up and um I will uh so the mic is on and um we do um limit uh speakers to 3 minutes. You'll get a little warning when you have 45 seconds um for your sum up, a little yellow light up there. Um, and so first we have Jared Anderson, followed by Anna Ortiz.

Good evening. Uh, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor DS, City Council. Uh, I'm here to speak about traffic safety in particular, uh, West Annale and Gundry. Uh, as you all know from my uh very frequent uh emails, um hopefully not too frequent, uh the intersection there is quite dangerous. Uh people do not stop at stop signs. Uh recently um my youngest son who's in a wheelchair had a close call while he was in the crosswalk and a car just decided to keep going. Um, this has been an issue for a while and a year after being designated a high priority uh project, the traffic calming uh efforts have uh ended with um painted bike lanes and six uh plastic post. I will say that the six plastic post seem to have had some impact on cars turning on and off of Gundry. Um but the issue is mostly about the cars on Anendale. Um, more needs to be done. Um, and I would I I I am not short of ideas and I don't want to kind of belabor the point here. Um, I will say that the speed at which things are done, I know that they're quicker than what they used to be is still not um I would say is not acceptable. Um, it's taken a while just to get those those things in place. And I would encourage the council um I know y'all are looking at the uh half cent reduction uh and you all want to make sure that it is sustainable growth and all that. I would encourage the council to forego the halfsent reduction and put that money into neighborhood traffic calming that would allow services to be provided in a very visible way but not leading to a large uh increase in the city budget. those those projects can be foregone in tough

budget years. Um, but I think having more rapid response, traffic calming to uh to serve the needs in an immediate way uh can go a long way of increasing uh pedestrian safety, encouraging people to bike, which is what we just proclaimed. Um, I think waiting around with whatever red tape seems to gum up the process uh is just a um it's asking for kind of more near misses and potentially um kind of severe accidents. Uh and so I would encourage you to if not, you know, if not commit money this year, at least commit to reducing the red tape and figuring out a way that city services can be provided in a more u kind of timely manner. Thank you.

Next, we have Anna Ortiz followed by Case Yorgi.

Good evening, council. Several months ago, along with Jared and other neighbors, we detailed for the citizens advisory board on transportation our urgent concerns with pedestrian safety at that west at that West Diamondale and Gundry intersection. We described many near misses between impatient and inattentive drivers and pedestrians. As Jared noted, the flexi posts and some of the improvements have had a marginal impact, but there are still far too many near misses. And in fact, last month, as my children were walking to the bus stop, they happened upon a car whose driver was helping a child she had just hit at that intersection. The child was on a bicycle. The child was okay. His bicycle was not okay. But it underscores overall the urgent need for investments in that intersection and other intersections with high pedestrian traffic throughout our community. I stand with Jared and our neighbors in calling for the city to reconsider whether that half cent tax property tax decrease could be better invested in year uh better invested to address such urgent pedestrian safety issues before a real tragedy happens. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh, next we have uh Case Gorgi and followed by Joseph Sherizi. How do I reset this? You're good. I can do it for you.

All right. Perfect. All right. Oh, no. They're multiplying. Hi, I'm Casey Georgie. Um, I'm also here to talk about the intersection at Anadale and uh Gundry. Um, I know the city cares about roadway safety. You've lowered seat speed limits on Broad Street. You added the pedestrian hybrid beacon outside the post office. You've added bike infrastructure. You added the flashing beacons outside Big Chimneys Park. Um, after many close calls myself at that intersection with a stroller or with a dog, um, I wanted to ask you all to consider, yeah, using some of the money to maybe host some sort of um, full pedestrian safety study at that three-way stop. Um, that intersection serves a large part of the community. There are about 200 condos in Winter Hill. There's West Broad um apartments, Big Chimneys Park, Harris Teter, the Oak Street Tiger Trail goes through there. Um and then many families, dog walkers, bicyclists, and students use it. Um Winter Hill is kind of the only bus stop on that bus route, right? So, let's say 40 people at each school will get on the bus there. Um that's 4% of Meridian High School. So, we're not talking about like just a few kids stopping at the bus stop there that have to go through that intersection each morning while you're rushing off to work. and people might not want to stop or do a rolling stop. Um I know in December one of our neighbors emailed you all. Uh they did a little study of their own where they sat there for 5 minutes and counted cars. Um in that seven cars came to a complete stop. 12 cars per performed a California roll and rolled through the stop and 11 didn't even bother to really stop at all. Um so based on those findings, I feel like we could do something a little more uh than the bumpers that are, as Jared said, helping. Uh but there are other some lowcost options um lowcost treatments that we could do that would still help uh the pedestrian safety at that intersection. And I think that is all of my notes. Thank you so much.

Thank you Mr. Georgie. And uh next we have Joseph Sherizy followed by Marylu Pickle.

Good evening everybody. My name is Joseph Sherizy. I live on Gundry Drive around the corner from a said mentioned um uh corner on Anendelle. And uh first off, thank you to public works for the awesome uh improvements that we've already had there this year. Uh I think actually the city council's um street uh street plan that has gone into effect this past year has made so many improvements to my neighborhood that we've been asking for for a long time. So, I'm actually really really happy to see all of those. Um, raised crosswalks would be awesome to do next. So, let's let's hopefully we can do that. Uh, and I really like the new bike lane on Anendale, but I would also really like to see it be a protected bike lane. And I think that that is something that will also slow cars down on Anendale and increase traffic safety here in the city. Um, the other thing that I wanted to mention very briefly is, uh, I think that the city should issue a new bond to, uh, pay for more improvements for affordable housing, especially in the Virginia village area, which, uh, we're seeing some site plan improvements or zoning improvements uh, coming in our planning pipeline for the city this year, right? So, it would be really great to take that project super seriously. I think it could be the most ambitious affordable housing project that uh the city takes up for the next few years and I hope that y'all will consider uh making a major investment in affordable housing in the city and being a leader for the rest of Northern Virginia. Uh this year 2026, the average age of a firsttime home buyer is now 40. Uh and this is tearing apart the fabric of our society. So, please uh continue to invest in affordable housing and uh take it seriously. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Mary Lou

Pickle. Is it is it on? Yeah. Okay. Um, I just wanted to first say please fund the schools at 50 50%. And consider filling the positions that the school board said it had to leave off the budget proposal. There's around a dozen that they couldn't hire for that they need. Um, as for pedestrian safety, I think uh an important thing to do would be to for that intersection is to not increase the density in the area. Um, that would go towards helping with the volume there. I agree. It's It's a dangerous intersection. Um, I'd like to speak about the Virginia Village RFP. Um, please include community input into the RFP before it goes out. And please include as part of the RFP itself and not as an addendum. It would be better to include community input at the start rather than as an afterthought. Um, I'm just going to go through what I was hoping to convey. It might not be very um articulate, but please include the need for robust buffer setbacks and the stories in height next to Winter Hill to create I'm sorry, setbacks and two stories in height next to Winter Hill to create an appropriate transition for the neighborhood and for Big Timmy's Park. Please do not change the zoning code to weaken buffers. Please also include the need for a mix of housing types and income levels, including market rate, to create a sustainable and integrated community. Also, the RFP should request proposals for redevelopment or expansion of the units and new garden style units. Please address expanding Big Chimneys Park as part of the RFP and do not put that off for a future phase. Uh city might not have the land for that in a

future phase. So, it's important to take that into consideration now on this RFP. So, in summary, I would encourage the RFP to focus on Garden Style units with expanded park space for phase one. Thank you for your consideration. That's all we have for this section. Thank you. Uh let's move on to the report of the city manager. And Mr. Shields, I assume we were going to ask you about Anand Gundry while we have members of the audience here. So, if you want to start with that before Mr. Anderson rolls away.

Sure. Uh thank you. Uh and uh thank you for the comments. Um and um Mr. Mr. Anderson, thank you for sharing with us what you observe on the street. You know, um it is read and it is data that informs, you know, how we think about that intersection and that and that whole corridor. I think the kind of the bottom line is um the staff have been gathering data and at the June meeting of the neighborhood traffic of the um CACT u that intersection will be on the agenda to review that data and to consider what the data tells us and any other interventions um that that might be called for. So that's um um uh we can I'll follow up after this meeting just about the details of that June uh CACT meeting. Um so uh that's what I have to report on it. I'd be happy to if council has other questions on it, I'll attempt to respond to them.

Questions on Anendale and Gundry while we're on that topic.

Mr. Snider. So, I'm interested in what are some of the alternatives that are likely to be considered. I think we're all impatient. Um, we see this bad driving behavior at many, many stop signs around the city. Nonetheless, this one um continues to be a major hot spot for bad behavior. So, I'm just wondering if you could share with us some of the potential ways forward. So, I think that's what's going to be discussed at the CAC meeting. I don't uh I don't have those proposals right now, but um I think that's what the topic will be discussed that night.

I guess I have a follow-up question. What is the latest on when the roundabout will be done? I think there was some thinking that that will throttle some of the volume

going through Annadel and Gundry as well. So, uh I don't uh have the completion date. That is on the city website so people can track the progress um of the milestones of that project. But yes, that will I think uh calm down traffic through that whole corridor. That's the intent of the roundabout and I think that will have a good good uh impact. Um, and then I guess uh in terms of CACT's role, I know as long as like some information sent out to them, the members beforehand um and and expectations for for what they would be doing specifically related to the fact that I know that we paused the NTC program in some ways and so figuring out what what they would be asked to do would be very helpful if they can get as much advanced notice before the June meeting for that. Other questions, Mr. Reagan?

Just one comment on the Gundry and Endale, which is that I first I'd like to thank Mr. Anderson for the video he sent that was very informative. Um, especially showing the mix. And what really jumped out at me is that the behavior of the drivers I other than the idiot who was honking because somebody stopped um I see that same kind of mix of behavior throughout the city. So any solutions we come up with but what struck me watching that video is the volume that's there on coming on an Ann and Dale. Um I think that more than anything else is what's making it so dangerous and and should and I'm glad it is a high priority and I I think the CACT has pushed for faster movement on it and we'd like to see that. I'd be also interested in what um given that volume's been raised on other streets as well, such as Grove Avenue. Um I know that we have collector streets, arterials, and then like true neighborhood streets, whether we have different treatments depending on that because frankly, we're all concerned about volume, but volume as long as they're safe isn't actually an issue. And so I'm curious that, you know, as our streets change over time and things like Anendale, Franklin, and arterial that really connects to big commercial streets, what the expectation should be for people living on those bigger streets. this one.

Um, thank you and thanks to the Winterhill community and Annale and Gundry um, contingent for your continued comments and seeking solutions there. I also just wanted to respond um, on the half penny issue as I understood it from our conversations. You know, the the implementation of solutions has not been a funding issue or wasn't discussed as a funding issue. And I think the council in terms of our strategic priorities and wanting to take up the neighborhood traffic coming discussion and how that process is working is in direct response to frustration at the speed of solutions and implementation and trying to strike that balance at top- down solutions where we're seeing data that necessitates doing something but also getting informed, you know, input from the community and its experiences living in the places where you're encountering um you know, issues with bad drivers or speed or volume or whatever it is that's making streets unsafe. And so um you know, we've been pressing for that conversation. It looks like it's going to be um occurring during our July 20th work session. And I would just ask the public works department and the city to think about for that work session, you know, how we can have as much community input and reflection on sort of what the sources of frustration have been both in people moving through the program and in people feeling like the response hasn't been fast enough so that we have the benefit of all of that information when we're trying to determine a best path forward. One quick comment on Mayor Letty's comment about the different types of streets. Um, I was really happy to see that in the urban design master plan proposal that there is a street type section in there and so I believe that's fantastic and I'm glad it's going to be addressed cuz that is something.

Yeah, I think I've been around long enough now this is maybe the third iteration of NTC. I think we originally had like NT 1.0 and 2.0 And the goal has always been to get more projects done faster because we know that that is like the number one concern and um complaint we get from the community. So the intent has always been let's try to get more projects done. I think we funded kind of a um kind of like a fast response uh team at one point and I think we still would like to see more improvements. Um I think I'm trying to balance that with the realization that over time it does take time and money to kind of evolve our streets and we've done a lot. I think as evident by the public works proclamation there are a lot of projects happening across the city. That said, we still know that uh as more pedestrians experience our streets and as we have, you know, more cars coming through because we are at the crossroads of Northern Virginia, which is growing, that our residents are going to have higher expectations. And so, we ask number one for both the community's patience, but as well as, you know, continue to challenge staff to to do differently and do better and try innovative solutions. I think NTC 3.0, whatever this version is going to be, hopefully will be more data driven. Um, and I think we're also asking for the community for some patience as we approach it with a more tops down data driven approach. uh NTC to date has been mostly bottoms up. So we're asking for neighborhoods kind of elicit when there's feedback, but often we know that the noisiest areas are not necessarily the most dangerous ones. And so we really want to be a lot more data driven. So I'm saying that to manage expectations in the community because for our third attempt, we want to really make sure that the resources go to the areas where we see crashes, near misses, and the most dangerous intersections. I think self-report data like the near misses we hear about are certainly important, and we want to make sure that our limited resources can go to those top areas as well. And I'll just piggyback on the mayor's comment. So, um, to put it I I guess in more layman's terms, um, you know, one of the things sometimes we would see is, um, you know, a neighborhood might want to have speed bumps or humps and, um, you know, some people don't want them in front of their house and so then that sort of clogs up the whole process and

so the mayor is saying tops topd down approaches and Miss Flynn said the same thing. The idea there is if we know this is for the betterment of the community that sometimes we the city council may just need to come in and say this is you know we may not have 50% of the neighborhood voting this but this is something that's really important for safety. And so we may we're looking at do we need to really get more involved in some of these thing some of these issues when sometimes um just a few neighbors can really clog up the process. Um, I do think there's it's not so much funding as it is process. And, um, we want to, you know, and to Ms. um, Hardy's point, the mayor's point again is we also do want to look look at data. So, it's not necessarily always, um, you know, based on just emails coming in. That said, I know with Ann and Dale and Gundry, this is definitely something that um, the community has been concerned about. And I guess Mr. Shield. This is where I just wanted to ask you to make sure I'm understanding. Um the community their main um request is is the is um raised crosswalks and speed humps. I know that's and we're saying that's a snow is that emergency route or a snow route if you can refresh my memory on that.

It's a snow emergency route. Snow and emergency route. Okay. And that's one that's one of the part um part of the problems with the with the speed t with the speed humps with the table would right am I getting you clearly I am not on on c and the raised crosswalks have many issues okay so it's um but yeah

yeah okay and and you know I I will say not that we you know hopefully we will see I I do feel strongly that one of the problems with Ann and Dale um is that people, you know, and I when I was doornocking this fall and I spoke with people on broad who see a lot more, you know, once I think 66 was made into hot lanes, we saw a lot more people using false church as a way to get to Tyson's and not having so you taking Route 50 to get in and then um you know, you get off Hillwood, then you use Anendale to get to seven and then you get to Tyson's. And so, um, I think I'm hoping that with that roundabout that will really discourage people from because it's going to be a much more labor intensive now route to take and it will naturally slow down traffic. So, I think that is may not be the whole answer, but I'm hoping that will be part of the answer. But, thank you again for your advocacy, Mr. or Dr. Anderson, sorry, and as well as your neighbors. Thank you very much. And I just looked it up on the city website. I think assuming things are on track, the roundabout at Maple and Anendale scheduled to end this summer. So, Mr. Snder,

one other point that in collecting the data, we've talked about accidents that actually happened near misses. I'm hoping we will also include an element of traffic volume particularly in streets like uh Annandale, Maple, Great Falls West, where the traffic volumes are significant through neighborhoods. So, I'm wondering too if we're going to be collecting data on traffic volumes. Um, traffic volumes are collected every year and so that data is available. It is part of the uh the CACT's review as well. Okay,

great. Yep. I think the planning department about a year and a half ago had actually really interesting data for the past 15 years that actually looked at uh volumes at our borders kind of boundaries as well as our measuring our downtown and mapped it actually over population. So a common misconception is that as our population has grown over time, people must think, gosh, traffic volumes have gone up. And using actual VOTE data, it actually showed that both the counts at our boundaries as well as in our downtowns have actually decreased. No one ever believes me. So I always carry that chart around. So I think it would be worth refreshing with kind of 2024. I think it just goes to show that people does not always equal more cars, especially when you create multimodal cities where we provide for bike lanes and walkability as well.

I would love to see that chart updated and shared with the CACT and council. And by the way, the anytime in the past there's been an NTC program that one of the first things staff does is they do that sort of traffic study for that area. They get it they get it very detailed through 24 hours and I'm assuming that they've been doing that. The the traffic the vehicle traffic is fine. The the collection of that is really good. What has been a source of gap and I would encourage us to figure out how we can collect it is none of those studies ever include the pedestrian and bicycle traffic

and that should be a critical piece of collecting data and we need to figure out how we collect that data in a automated full 24-hour cycle several day method. I think that's that's the gap that we have as far as is allowing us to do that on our major quarters where we have that technology installed but not on streets like Anendale and country.

Great. Well, thank you for that uh response to the public commenters and thank you again for people in the audience who joined us tonight. Uh do you have other things in your manager's report, Mr. S? Well, I um I'll just take one time to um update the community on Virginia Village and um we do have a work session a week from tonight on May 18th and the council will be considering uh one the input from the four public uh meetings that we had to gather community input on on updating the vision and ultimately code language for the Virginia Village area. So, we're going to be talking with council about what we heard from the community and then talk about uh with council about the scope of work for changes to our small area plan comprehensive plan and to city code in response to what we heard in those meetings. In addition to that discussion, um we will also have a first draft of or be discussing together the draft request for proposals that uh we intend to issue to the developer community or to the property uh community um for uh where we can ultimately uh transfer title to the nine uh quadlexes that the EDA owns at Virginia Village to a respons responsible part partner that can uh manage the properties affordable housing and ultimately work with the city potentially for the for the future. And that RFP lays out some scenarios which is a wide range of potential uh futures for the Virginia village area. that draft RFP has been uh sent out to the economic development authority, to the planning commission, to the housing commission, and is available to anyone who requests it and um um and we'll be discussing that draft with the city council on Monday the 18th. So, I just wanted to talk about that process. Um,

if the council is comfortable with the RFP, then you know, staff is going to ask that the council uh authorize staff to release that R RFP at the meeting on the May 26. And I think that'll be the key point of discussion with the city council. Are you happy with what it says u and and the overall process? And are we ready to release the RFP? That would be the discussion on the 18th as a setup for that um meeting on the 26th. A quick thing if I could just note as a primer if other members of the public or council want to watch uh I think Mr. A and I were the two members that were at the joint housing commission planning commission joint meeting last week and they had a very lengthy probably three plus hour discussion on it. So they had a first crack and a lot of discussion on both the small area plan changes as well as RFP language and so know that our boards and commissions have started the discussion as well. They ran late for them.

For us, not so late. Is there anything else? That's it. Uh, that's all I have to Mr. Snider. Thanks, Madam Mayor. Following up on Virginia Village. I'm asking the city manager to uh provide information about any contacts or communications with developers about Virginia Village over the past year. And so we did as part of this process, we had some intentional outreach to the developer community and we did log all of those and provide notes on all those meetings. And so uh that is part of the record of of our process and and that is public information. We'll make sure it's available. Thank you.

Council requests. I had two requests that came up um again recently and one is about the crosswalks at Annandale and uh South Washington. Is that where the papuseria and the rotating recurring vacancy that keeps with the new restaurant? And so another inquiry on that and I know you know the different intersections on Annandale will be coming up for various states of repair but the crosswalks are missing again and they're large you know like four lane crossings and so if it could be something that you know we're more attentive to in terms of some of those big lane crossings where the crosswalks are completely missing at this point. um likely need to get updated sooner than whatever improvement projects and grant projects are going to be taking place. Um and then more locally, I've had multiple people ask me now that the stop signs are um implemented at Little Falls and Great Falls, at what point in time the big speed um trailer like the postings of the new traffic patterns will end up coming down. Um, I will get back with you on both of those. Thank you.

Can I piggy back on the Anandale link because just another block away at Anandela Hillwood. Um, I think I put this in council request at this point probably two years ago, but I continue to observe it. So, there's actually a really busy bus stop that is right near the gas station and it empties into essentially no sidewalk. And so, you have families that are trying to get to the Aldi that are essentially walking through um the gas station or into the street. And I know that I think this whole intersection is part of the CIP project that we're looking for funding on. I think it's through NVTC. I don't know whether there's an interim project that we can do to improve at least either moving the bus stop because I think it's a Fairfax connector bus stops. It's not ours, not Wamada. Um or adding a sidewalk of some kind because I do think it's actually a heavier pedestrian corridor and it's somewhat in no man's land because it's on the border between the county and the city. Uh and in general, I think the South Washington area just needs more love. And so this is one of those that I don't think the residents even know how who to advocate for because it's kind of between the county and the city. So I'd ask for more attention to that area.

Um thank you for that. Um we will get back with if there are interim measures just as you as you um it's tough because I'm sure there's no easement for us and there's no public rightway rightway problems there at particularly on the gas station side. Um so there is a big CIP project that is as these do that's going to take years um to happen and so are there interim solutions that we can uh put in place sooner. Yeah. As you continue on in Anandale, you can see essentially there's a dirt path that have been worn in because it is very popular route from everyone that lives south I guess on Anenddale that comes up to the Hillwood intersection.

Yeah. Um I know exactly what you're talking about. Um we'll we'll follow up on that. Thank you. other council requests. Okay, thank you. All transportations again. Okay. Well, let's move on to business on the agenda. Um I think before we get to budget, Miss Connelly, do you have your disclosure? Actually, no. We could Well, you look for it. I think it looks like we have a city manager recruitment update is on the agenda. Might be a standing agenda item. So we uh do you want to provide those updates or do you want me to?

Uh I'm happy to. And actually it looks like Miss our HR directors in the audience. If you can join us, we'd welcome you to come join us and you can present. That's fantastic. Thanks.

Good evening. As you know, we've engaged Ref Telis to support the national recruitment process for selecting the next city manager. This is being led by Ann Lewis, who is a senior manager with Raph Telis. Uh, Miss Lewis is scheduled to complete her individual one-on-one meetings with council by tomorrow. These sessions will help inform the candidate profile as well as interview questions. A focus group consisting of a cross-section of city employees is scheduled for May 18th from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. This will also help gather information to inform the candidate profile. The confidential community and stakeholder feedback form remains open through May 21st. This form will continue to be promoted this week through city communication channels, including social media and coordination with the school system for morning announcements. The next phase of the process will focus on the development of the recruitment brochure and associated text to support the national search effort. An HR draft is anticipated for review by May 14th prior to council's review and feedback. happy to take questions. Great.

Thank you. And just for council's awareness, I think I heard from nearly everybody with two schedule options that I circulated over email. And so if you have any final thoughts, I'd like to get back with HR and Ref Telis on kind of our preferred timeline. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Questions or comments? Okay. Thank you for your work and joining us tonight. And now we're ready for business on the agenda. Okay. Hey, Miss Connelly.

The city council is discussing tonight the city's proposed FY2027 budget. I am an employee of the Fster City School Board, which will be affected by the proposed budget amendment. Because I am only one employee among many who may realize a reasonably foreseeable direct or indirect benefit from the proposed ordinance, I am allowed to participate as a council member in this matter under the Conflict of Interest Act. After consideration, I am electing to participate in this transaction because I am confident in my ability to participate fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. Great. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Yes. Would you like me to read the seven items involved in the budget before the staff presentation? I think it's fine with me. What do y'all think?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. First, we have TO26-03, ordinance fixing and determining the budget of expenditures and revenues and appropriating funds for expenditures for fiscal year 2027 across the following funds: general fund, sewer fund, storm water fund, cable access fund, affordable housing fund, school operating fund, school community service fund, school s food service fund, community development authority, and capital improvement program funds. and adopting the FY2027 to FY2032 capital improvements program. Second, we have TO26-04 ordinance setting the rate of tax levy on real estate for tax year 2027 and on personal property, machinery, and tools and all other property segregated by law for local taxation in the city of Falls Church, Virginia for tax year 2026. Thirdly, we have TO26-05 ordinance setting the storm water utility billing unit rate in accordance with chapter 42 article 7 of the code of the city of Falls Church, Virginia as of July 1, 2026. Fourth, we have TO26-06, ordinance to amend the code of the city of false church, chapter 42, utilities, article 3, sewers, section 42-172, availability charge to increase sewer service and availability charges to be effective July 1, 2026. Number five, we have TO26-07, ordinance setting the solid waste collection fee in accordance with chapter 40 34 solid waste section 34-3 residential solid waste collection of the code of the city of Falls Church, Virginia as of July 1, 2026. Number six, we have TO26-12 ordinance to amend chapter 15 fees.

Article one in general, article two, Department of Development Services, and Article 3, Department of Public Works of the Code of the City of Falls Church to adjust development related fees to remove reference to copy fees and to adjust the fee for return checks. Finally, number seven, we have TO26-13, ordinance adopting the fiscal year 2027 permanent positions count, salary increases, and employee classification plans for the city of Falls Church. Thank you, Mr. Shields or Mr. So,

so council, I'll provide just a quick update for council just to review uh the final uh decisions that the council has worked through with respect to uh the FY27 budget. And um and before we get to the details, I'll just note the process the city council has led the community through and and considering options for the budget. And those included two budget town halls, multiple work sessions. This is our third public hearing and um last week the city council worked through a final markup and provided direction to the city council for the budget ordinances that are before you tonight. Um so next slide. So, relative to what was presented uh on March 23rd when we were here before you uh joined with the school board to present our proposed budget, um the uh the city council uh directed at the work session to um reduce the real estate tax by a half a penny. Um and then with the um uh remaining uh of the $700,000 increase in revenues based on our third quarter financial results, I split the remaining uh dollars 50/50 with the schools. So $180,000 uh to the school board and $180,000 for street maintenance. And the way that that will be used is to uh reduce the use of capital reserves to pay for street maintenance. Um, in addition, the council directed that the uh 174,000 that in the city manager's proposed budget was in the school CIP that that is uh shifted over to the uh school operating fund. Uh the school's uh school superintendent has indicated in his comments to the to the school board that they do intend to use those dollars for capital purposes, but that will be at the direction of the

school board. Um and then the last change uh with respect to the sheriff's deputy compensation um uh there was u an increase in compensation of $19,000 for based on um the different positions in the sheriff's office and that was being paid for internal to the sheriff's budget through a reduction of the jail uh budget line item and that is we think that that will be okay uh based on current projections for cost this year uh which informed our projection for FY27. So those are the the major changes and then on the last slide that this u shows with those changes how the final numbers are. So for the general government the FY27 budget will have 59,463,724 and that's a 3.4% 4% increase over the prior year FY20 or the current year FY26. The school transfer of 58 million141,784 uh is a 4.8% increase uh to the school transfer. And then uh the other items, I won't read them all through, but the bottom line then is an overall city budget of 134,514,059 or just under 1% increase over FY26. So that's the summary and um and I'd be happy I'll stop there and we'd be happy to answer any questions that the council might have. Um, if I could just take as a as a moment to thank u the whole uh city staff team that worked on the budget. Um, and I will note uh that we had 103 council questions that were responded to and uh David and Melissa and uh and Russ and the finance

department worked to um worked with staff to respond to those questions and I think they were very informative and so I you know you you know I'd encourage the public to read those questions and responses as well and um so with that uh I'll be happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you. Was it the most Q&A ever? Yes. Oh, yeah. I feel like it has been the longest since we started doing budget Q&A and the answers I say were very thoughtful and very thorough. So, thank you to staff for working on those. As a first experience, the Q&A seems to be where all the information is. And but I will disagree with you. I was just looking at the Q&A. I see 104. Did I say 103? Yes.

I was never very good at numbers. So, uh, okay. Any questions or comments before we open up for public hearing? None from council. I guess 104 was exhaustive. Left. Okay. Well, I'm going to open the public hearing if any members of the public wish to comment on any of the seven ordinances. Actually, do I need to call each one? Like I believe so. Yes. Okay. I'm going to open the public hearing for TO26-03. I don't see any. No one online. No.

Okay. So, I'm going to close the public hearing for TO26-03 and reopen it for to 26-04. No takers on that one. Going to close that public hearing. Open the public hearing for TO26-05. That's storm water. Close the public hearing. TO26-06 for utilities and sewer. And you're still monitoring online in case no one's signed up for anything? No, nobody signed up to speak online.

Okay. And close that public hearing. Open the public hearing for TO26-07 for solid waste. Close that public hearing. Open the public hearing for number six, TO26-12. These are the fees as proposed for permitting. Close that public hearing. Final one, TO26-13. And this is the new ordinance with the position count and classification. Going to close that public hearing. Any further discussion from council? I just have a statement on the tax. Um

during the next few years, we're going to fa face quite a few things. Um continued need to take care of our employees in a period of inflation, a need to address deferred maintenance on roads and others infrastructure. In particular, I'd like to point out that budget Q&A 103 says that we are $400,000 short of the level needed to maintain our current road conditions and $550,000 short of reaching satisfactory. Um, we are facing increased cost, including fuel. That's not going down anytime soon. uh fiscal challenges for infrastructure improvements including bike and pedestrian friendly streets and facility improvements and how to address equity of contribution to the city between property owners, renters, and the greater community. Because of these upcoming challenges over the summer, we need to have thoughtful and unrushed discussions about all of our revenue sources. But I agree we need to address increases in tax burdens. I also believe these are uncertain times and that we should wait until we understand more of the ramifications on any changes to the tax rates.

Thank you. Okay. Other comments on the budget? Miss Flynn?

I'll give a quick comment. Um I'm going to support the budget this evening. I do share some of the concerns that Mr. Aen um raised. I think that the uh budget reflects various structural issues that we do need to address and we've started to take first steps in doing so. Um but we you know spent a lot of time on issues like paving bike infrastructure, expanding sidewalks, DPW, police. Um and these are going to be recurring needs with revenue streams that we're going to need to develop. Um, we also saw decreases in our affordable housing contribution even though it remains a council priority as an area to address and fund and it shouldn't be one of the first things that we remove from the budget. Um we also saw because of the increased work of the commissioner of revenue large increases and the personal property tax and the um revenues from those increased collections and um entries on you know those roles and um those are not going to be funds that are necessarily going to increase um and in all likelihood won't increase at the same rates going forward. So, I do think that it's important for us to be responsive to residential taxpayer burden, for us to do so at a moment where people continue to face unemployment and underemployment because of regional changes, but um want to make sure that as we continue to go forward, we keep those sort of funding gaps in our mind and committed um to a further conversation, whether it's through personal property tax, CNI tax, or other mechanisms that we're going to need to explore. or more fully to determine how it is that we fund um these various avenues while remaining responsive to residential um assessments and the fact that people are trying to remain in the community and not seeking to leave our

community. And so um I think this ballot this budget tries to balance all of those concerns um and does a and does a good job in doing so. And so would thank staff again for all of your work as well as the work of the school board and city manager's office, finance office, and um our school board colleagues and and um all of the contributions of the public in terms of their input of what was important for us to seek to fund this year. Thanks. Vice Mayor,

thank you very much. Um city manager Shields and U Mr. or so and your team and uh it's a lot of budget questions to answer. So maybe you being here inspired the council to ask lots of questions, but um speaking of that, Mr. Shields, um just one more plug for um you know, either now or I I still don't see a link to the Q&A on the um FY27 uh budget web page. So, if we could do that at some point, um I think that is, as Mr. Aen said, I think that's by far the most informative um document that the public can read and it, you know, really um I think speaks in a way that it's easier to to digest for the public. So, I think if we could do that, that would be great. And um I did have a question. And I think um just to clarify the and to Miss Lynn's point about all the advocacy people advocating for the solar on the community center. Did we say that we were going to look at um unspent funds at the end of FY26 and if that I can't can you refresh my memory about that?

So staff will take the approach that we are going to do that this year. Okay. And so we'll put together um better cost proposals for the council to consider in the fall. And we do know already that there will be some funding available for the council to appropriate for various different uses and we will have a proposal for you to fund uh the solar at the community center among that list. That's the way we will that's our takeaway from the from the budget this this spring.

Okay, that's right. That that was my understanding. Thank you. Uh and then just some closing remarks. Uh I too wanted to thank the schools and the school board. But I know that they um originally, you know, came in higher and then uh went back to the drawing board and and made cuts and um I want to thank them for that. Uh I do and also I I hope that you know putting that that recommendation we had to put some of that money aside for future capital improvements. Uh you know I I and this will probably be maybe after your time, Mr. shields. But I think at some point we're going to need to sit down with the schools once those facility assessments come back and really look at, you know, what um kinds of needs um some of their facilities are going to have and what what we're looking at. Um you know, it's going to be more than 174,000 I'm assuming. So um you know, working as a team doing maybe a joint work session or something like that so we can um and we'll have our own facilities assessments coming back as well. And so we're going to need to, you know, see on our end what what we need to be doing. So I think that's going to be some long-term planning ahead of us in terms of planning that for that financially. Um but again, want to thank our um schoolboard colleagues as well as um Dr. Dade and Alicia Prince and the staff there. Um big shout out to my colleagues. Uh, you know, I think the fact that we ask so many questions just shows that we care and it's a very hard I always say it's a messy process and no matter what it's always a messy process because we want to listen to the community and try to do our best to balance all these factors. I completely understand what Mr. Agan is saying, but I also understand um the desire to try chipping away at that tax rate because we're never going to have the kind of money like we had over the past couple years. We do big tax cuts. So, I just feel like a little bit every year, just keep chipping away at is is what we're going to need to do. Um, but I also see Mr. Reagan's point, we do have a lot of um DPW things um infrastructure issues

that we're going to have to, you know, fund somehow. So, it it is quite a needle to thread, that's for sure. Um, but again, thank you, Mr. So, to you and your staff, um, and Mr. Shields. Really appreciate all of your work on this. and um it's been uh you all make it our job much easier and it's a hard job but but thank you for your support. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Comments on this side.

I'll I will repeat all of the thank yous. Mr. So it was your first time doing this. So thank you. And I hope those 104 questions and answers now you really really really get it. So it takes a while. Um I want to commend Mr. Aen on your first time doing budget because you also read every single one of those questions, asked a lot of those questions and did a really nice job of uh seeking to understand all the ins and outs of the budget. Uh Mr. Shields on your last budget. Thank you for all the work you put in as well answering those questions and um you know we had some conversations and disagreed on some things and agreed on others and um I've learned a lot from you about municipal budgeting and our time together as city manager and council member. So thank you for that. Uh and to the people who commented, the other thing there are several things that are sort of out there that we have said yes, we're going to figure out a way to pay for that within this existing budget. And one of those is the community center uh teen room and how that's going to get taken care of. So, we got a a letter yesterday or today from people concerned about that and I just want to let them know that that is on the radar as something that um the community center staff is is looking into and we're trying to figure out a way to make that happen as well as the paving and the mastarmms and the solar and all the things that really that matter to people. There's so much that matters that's in this budget. Um, I'm really glad we were able to meet the revenue sharing agreement, uh, despite the challenges we have at West Falls and I'm really looking forward to looking together at how we can continue to shore that up, rewrite it, make some changes so that it really fits all of the needs that we have as a community going forward. Um, so all in all, we have a lot to be proud of. Um the work that we've done for the last 20 years to

build up the commercial base in the city is paying off. I remember years ago when we were talking about how how are we going to do a library and a city hall and a high school all in that same chunk of time and what's going to happen five or 10 years after that and now we're in that time and it really is paying off. Um so good work to everyone on that as well. Thanks. You

I'll just quickly reiterate some of the things, but I won't take too long. Um again, thank you all. Uh this is your last budget. I feel so grateful. I feel like I've been able to just on my short time in council been able to learn a lot from you um during this time, but I won't you're not leaving yet, so I won't I won't give all those nicities quite now. Um Mr. Aen raised a lot of points that um are very conflicting for me. Um, and while I still think the right move is to uh reduce the tax rate by half a penny, um, I am deeply conflicted about doing that knowing, um, the status of road paving and and how much we care about our bicycle infrastructure network and all sorts of other things. Um, but I I do do believe that where we've gotten to on this budget is a really good place. And um what I'm looking forward to is continuing this difficult discussion over the summer as we talk to the school board, as we figure out where our priorities are as the city grows, how our needs are shifting, and so really taking a holistic look at this. And so I think we're in a really good place for for what we have right now. Um, but I think this discussion will continue for many months ahead. Thank you.

Mr. Snider, any comments?

So, what does this budget do? Well, first of all, it maintains across the board the um very diverse and complex uh elements of running a city were small but were incredibly complex. If you think about the diversity of responsibilities of our employees, everything from people working behind desks to frontline uh people who work on our streets, who respond to public safety calls uh and everything in between. So I think first of all what this budget does is it uh treats our employees fairly. The second thing that it does is it treats the schools fairly and they have reciprocated with a responsible partnership with us and we have in turn reciprocated to them in terms of the revenue sharing and that's much appreciated. The third thing the budget does is with a half cent it does recognize the concern raised by the people who are ultimately paying for all of this which are our citizen taxpayers and um that's important to maintain credibility um there um certainly um some elements here weren't funded and I know that we'll continue to work on those various environmental uh requests. Uh transportation infrastructure um I recall the team center request for updating that sheriff's department to make sure that we're maintaining the ability of that department to do what it what it uh what it needs to do. And finally, one thing that I don't think should be in the budget, which is a city

council salary increase, and I do not support that. But with all that uh said, um um this is a good faith effort on the part of the city council to resolve contending claims and to be as responsible toward each element of our city um as possible. At the same time recognizing that there are extraordinary challenges coming at us from the federal government and even from the state government in terms of unfunded mandates and housing and elsewhere. And um we have not used all the tax capabilities that we have. We hope not to have to use them, but they're there if we have to in order to meet legal or financial obligations in the future. But for right now, this budget is a responsible balancing effort for the reasons that I've indicated and our continuing commitment to look at those things which were brought to us by our citizens which were not funded um and um a continuing interest in seeing what we can do um in each of the areas that I mentioned both and working especially with our schools. on the um on the revenue sharing agreement to see if there should not be some more work done there. So with all of that, I'm supporting this budget with those comments in mind. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh Mr. Shields, just a quick interlude since it's come up twice now. Um what is the staff recommendation on the teen center request that we've been hearing or the next steps on that? So that is actually similar to the um solar array um is we need to do some work to scope that and we'll do that with community, we'll do that with the city council. What are we trying to take on with that project and at the same time there are a host of other needs at the community center. So we'll put those on the table, evaluate what can be done with funds that are available and think, you know, we'll expand the scope a little bit and then shrink it down ultimately. So bottom line again an October decision.

Okay. Thank you. So not forgotten just we'll discuss in the fall. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Uh so to echo a lot of my colleagues comments. Well first of all um congrats to David and Art for your first budgets and congrats Wyatt on your final one. Uh and thank you for all the public comment that we've gotten from people and for all the hard work um behind the scenes as well. I know that budgets are never easy and budget seasons are really intense frankly that starts for staff starting uh in December. Uh, and not to disparage any of that hard work, but as I've I guess this is my 10th budget now. As I reflect on it, um, we've had actually a round of like ninth 11th. Oh my gosh, Mary Beth, this is my 11th. Um, we've actually had three rounds of good news. And I want us to pause to realize that. So, I remember when we sat together in our December meeting, we're like, oh my gosh, the only thing that's certain is more uncertainty. And then it turned out that our residential assessed values came in quite strong, like almost 2x what our neighbors were seeing. And then our commercial assessments uh in February turned out actually better than we thought. So that was the second round of third good news. And then in April we saw that our Q3 local revenue results were better than what we had a year a or a year ago which I think we had a really rough Q3. So I want to pause. I think Mary Beth talked about how the investments we made in kind of mixed use development and the growth of city is starting to pay off and we continue to be kind of the little city that could uh and so I think frankly it hasn't been that hard of a budget as it I guess when it relates to revenues. I know we've had some surprise expenditures, but in terms of revenues, we actually have a pretty good news story. And I think that's important because I think we've all said and we've all seen from our neighbors, they've had a much harder budget season. Uh there are a lot headwinds, frankly, in the region that I want to make sure we don't forget. Uh and we also are not going to have as many great revenue sources with no commercial development coming online next year. And so we know that FY28 is going to be harder. I do want to make sure that we keep in mind that mostly we've been debating new spending decisions. how are we going to spend the new 700,000? And we really haven't had to actually make any expenditure cuts beyond the ones that the city manager proposed. And so that is an important muscle we need to keep in mind because if revenues are not going to be 6 8% growth, and I know I've been kind of the debut downer in saying

this now for three or four years, uh, but if FY28 really is going to be that, how do we live in a 3% revenue growth year, right? That is a much harder budget season. And so I want us to think about, you know, what really are our priorities um if we have to make those kinds of kinds of revenue decisions. And second, uh I think I said this last week, um I'm feeling kind of deja vu from 2017 when we had a bunch of capital needs and had to figure out um how are we going to pay for those capital needs when you have operating budget needs as well. So we're expecting this facilities conditions assessment in 6 months and I don't think we're going to just get a very small bill from that. We're probably going to get a big one. How do we balance that with operating budgets which I think for Miss Connelly, Mr. Snder and I feels like deja vu from 2017. So that's kind of the second thing I want us to keep in mind is balancing the capital with operating. And so because of that, I do think that we really need to think about how to really do true needs-based budgeting. So as many of us, I think nearly unanimous have said, how to revisit revenue share and be more flexible in light of both the economic headwinds as well as the capital and operating needs because frankly, I don't think the needs across the city are always going to be 50/50. And I think revenue share needs to be modernized to account for that. Uh, I'm glad this summer that budget finance is going to take a look at other revenue levers. Uh, we should not always use real estate tax rate. We should look at other levers. Hopefully, we don't have to use any of them. Hopefully, I'll be wrong and revenues will continue to be strong, but I do think it makes sense to be proactive this summer to look at what those levers might be should we need them. Uh, I think the fourth thing is as I reflect on my 11th budget, um, it is for the seven of us up here, it's always natural to kind of fund the most important and urgent things. Who who complains the loudest? who has a need that says, "Oh my gosh, you must get to this masstorm. You show us a picture of a rusting mass arm. We're going to want to fund it." But I think it is equally important for the governing body to think about what are the important but not so urgent ones that are generational investments for the city. And I think climate change is one of those. Uh we've had some very good advocacy this season um on climate, not only for the solar, but also just other things that we should be doing for greenhouse gas

emissions. And so one idea that we can do outside of budget season is how do we look at a report card similar to what we're looking at for housing or for transportation improvements so that climate investments continue to get attention from us. Um because that is something that I think future generations are going to look to this council to make some serious investments in beyond a one-time community center solar project or onetime geothermal project. So that's something I want to keep an eye on looking ahead. Um but overall I think this is a balanced budget. Um budgets are doing a lot of good here. Um, I think there's always going to be unfunded needs, but I do think that this one overall balances a lot of what we're trying to accomplish in the community. Um, while being pragmatic and realistic about what's coming ahead. So, I want to thank my colleagues for and the community for joining in the discussions and all the hard work. Uh, I think 104 questions clearly reflects how much this council likes to dig in and ask hard questions uh and really make sure that we're doing um being fair to taxpayers and the community alike. So, thank you. Um, are there any motions for the first ordinance?

I move to adopt TO26-03. Is there a second? Second. M. Flynn on the second. You call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. and Mayor Hardy. Yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, council. Is there a motion for the next ordinance? The tax rate. I move to adopt GO26-04. Second. Miss Flynn on the second. You call roll. Mr. Aen. No. Miss Connley. Yes. Miss DS? Yes.

Miss Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snyder? Yes. Miss Underh Hill? Yes. Mayor Hardy. Yes. Motion carries 6 to1. Thank you, councel. Is there a motion for TO26-05? I move to adopt TO26-05. Is there a second? Second. DS on the second. Call roll. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries 7 to Z. Thank you. Is there a motion for the next ordinance? Move to adopt TO26-06. Second.

It was Flynn on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, councel. Is there a motion for the fifth ordinance? TO26-07. I move it out. TO026-07. Second. M. Flynn on the second. Call roll. Yes. Mr. Aen. Yes. Miss Connley. Yes. Miss DS? Yes. Miss Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snder? Yes. Miss Underh Hill? Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you.

Number six. Is there a motion for TO26-12? Move to adopt TO26-12. Second. Miss Flynn on the second and call roll. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carry 7 to zero. Thank you. Final one, TO26-13. Anyone got a motion? I move to adopt TO26-13. Second. Flynn on the second. You call roll, please. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy,

yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you, councel. Phew. Well done all. Thank you. Well, we're on a roll, so let's continue with the next items. I feel like Mr. Shields should have some champagne or something for his last budget. Congratulations, Mr. Shields. Thank you, councel. Can you call the next item, please? And and I might suggest we read all three of these together as well and and get a staff report, a unified staff report on all three and then um we could go from there. Does that make sense?

That makes sense. Okay, great. Um, we have TR26-13 resolution to initiate an amendment to the comprehensive plan chapter 5 environment for everyone environmental sustainability resilience and natural resources chapter of the city's comprehensive plan to add required elements of the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act program. We have TR 26-14 resolution to initiate an amendment to the code of the city of Falls Church, Virginia, chapter 38, subdivisions, article 2, requirement for plan section 38-30, preliminary and final plats required, and section 38-34 general regulations to comply with the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and correct city code references. Um, and then we have TR26-15, resolution to initiate an amendment to the code of the city of false church, Virginia, chapter 48, zoning, article 5, supplementary regulations, division 7, site plans, section 48-1134, when required to comply with the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act and section 48-1135, preliminary survey documents. Section 48-1137 required information. Section 48-1141 considerations and division 8 landscaping. Sections 48-1179 intent and objectives and section 48-1180 tree canopy coverage to correct typographical or city code section errors. And so our senior planner Emily Bazemore will give a staff report on this. And is Mr. Kele on online? Okay. And uh the council did discuss all of these at work session. So we'll just give an abbreviated uh staff report for the benefit of the community. Miss Bazemore. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good evening council. Um, tonight council is requested to adopt a resolution initiating an amendment to chapter 5, environment for everyone, environmental sustainability, resilience, and natural resources chapter of the city's conference of plan to incorporate maps and narratives required by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. This proposed amendment is prompted by a recent review of the city's Chesapeake Bay program with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and it is part of a set of relatively minor technical modifications that the city is taking following that review. To amend the city's conference of plan, council must first adopt an initiating resolution signaling that this work has begun and is appropriate to proceed to next steps. This item is before council for action on the initiating resolution. Um staff recommends adoption of TR26-13. Um in the staff report um on line 16, you'll just see a recap of last week's council meeting, the work session to review the request. Um I do just want to note that the initiating resolution for the comp plan amendment has been updated to allow for um flexibility for those minor clerical um updates. Also just want to touch on staff analysis really quick. the different U maps and the narratives are listed on lines 58 to line 68 69. Um and then again this is coming back to council on June 1st and that's when we'll bring the draft amendment um with those maps, narratives, minor clerical updates included um and also some formatting upgrades. Um thank you all.

Great. Thank you and thank you for incorporating um that additional little bit of flexibility that Mr. Aan proposed. Uh questions or comments from Miss Bazemore? Okay. Is there a motion for the first item? I guess it's TR26-13. And these are resolutions, so we don't have a public hearing for them. Correct. Correct. Okay. M Madame Mayor, I move to adopt TR26-13. Is there a second? Second. Miss Connelly on the second. Call roll, please. Mr. Aken, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn,

yes. Mr. Snder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. A second. Resolution is TR26-14. Is there a motion? I move to adopt 20 TR26-14 and TR26-15. That's what the proposed better do separately since land use. Okay. 26-14. Is there a second for that motion? Second. DS on the second call roll. Mr. Aen? Yes. Miss Conley? Yes. Miss DS? Yes. Miss Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snyder? Yes. Miss Underh Hill? Yes.

And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7 to zero. Now let's take the third motion. TR26-15. Anybody? I move to approve TR26-15. Do you need MS to read the whole thing? No, that's fine. Okay. Is there a second? Thank you. Second. M. Connelly in the second. Mr. Aen. Yes. Miss Connley. Yes. Miss DS. Yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you.

On consent, it's only 9:00. Any members of council wish to remove anything from consent? I think these are the four items we discussed in work session last week. If not, I'll take a motion. I move to adopt the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second. Snider on the second. Call roll. Mr. Aen, yes. Miss Connley, yes. Miss DS, yes. Miss Flynn, yes. Mr. Snyder, yes. Miss Underh Hill, yes. And Mayor Hardy, yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. Okay. Well, let's move on to other business.

Mr. Shields. Uh, will the clerk read the item? Oh, certainly. It's a memorandum of agreement between the city of false church and the false church economic development authority for the management of Virginia village properties.

All right. Uh thank you. I'll provide the staff report on this one. So, since the council lost uh last saw this, uh there are uh three changes and they're highlighted in gray and uh they can be seen at section 4 E uh Romanet I and then Romanet double I and then Romanet triple I and um so the um uh 4E was a wanted to make it clear. So, this is a situation where the EDA um has a market rate sale, in which case, this is for the Virginia Village property, 302 Shirley Street, that if it's a market rate sale where the city is not trying to accomplish an affordable housing objective, then the EDA is um eligible to receive a profit uh for that fair market value sale. Um, and so we want to clarify that if we do get a fair market value sale of 302 Shirley, but the proceeds are to be plowed into a larger affordable housing project at Virginia Village, then uh the profit share provisions do not apply. And then similarly or in parallel um that the uh the sentence added at 4E um double I basically says says the same thing. Um and then the last section that was added is um this EDA wanted to have essentially a um a clock on the overall getting their money uh back the 475,000 that they still have invested in the Virginia Village property at 302 Shirley and that uh basically says that by January 1st 2029 if this the properties have not been sold that the city then at that time will pay back uh the original investment so that their investment

doesn't stay in indefinitely. So those are the changes. Um and uh if the council would like I can just provide a summary of the other provisions but uh since we've covered those in prior meetings I will do that only at council request. Any questions or comments for Mr. Shields? I think the EDA's had like three turns of this now. they have more.

I'm not I'm not asking I'm not seeking to do anything to theou on on 43 um and the three-year term. I saw the EDA meeting and the conversation about it. I understand why it's there. Um that money would come from where?

So um capital it would need to come from the city's reserves. Okay. um we could uh start to set money aside for that purpose. Um and so we have kind of three years to to get there, but uh that's where it would come from. because I understand that provision that the the properties right the properties could be still used for affordable housing or there could be or would be city committed affordable units but it would just be that the land had not been transferred in that 3-year period and so even if the city retained I guess even if the right the EDA retained ownership despite its preference to not have ownership then it would retain ownership, but the city would have to pay the $475,000.

That's right. Okay. And that's a scenario where basically nothing is happening. Um if things are happening and affordable housing is is happening on the site, the city council retains the option to not pay the EDA back uh but to continue to provide the return on equity as called for in this agreement, which is CPI plus one. I think just as they view themselves as kind of a catalyst for helping this move along and they don't want to be in the business of keeping their money in this forever. That's right. I mean that seems fair to me.

It it seems fair. The only concern I have is the fact that we don't know timets or anything like that with the development. It could be very you know the we don't know what's going to happen. The the development could be phased. It could be so we hit that threeyear that's but I guess one of the options would be we come up with another agreement for an extension or something along those lines. So it might not been sold but there's a plan to sell it or I think the EDA's worry is that just sort of it's all quiet and nothing's really happening and they're just sitting there in limbo and that I understand.

Yeah. And I think if there's momentum and we're close, I think the u the EDA would be persuaded to keep their money in if it was if it was needed, right? Re renegotiate it, right? But I think I think for now this this seems like the fair thing to do.

Any other questions or comments? Okay, we'll take a motion. I motion to authorize the city manager to execute on behalf of the city the memorandum of agreement between the city of false church and the false church economic development authority for the management of Virginia village properties in the form presented herein second downs on the second and call roll please Mr. Aen yes Miss Connley yes Miss DS yes Miss Flynn yes Mr. Snider. Yes. Miss Underh Hill. Yes. Mayor Hardy.

Yes. Motion carries 7 to zero. Thank you. How about we get to schedule? Then we cancel Wednesday. Does that sound okay? Let's bring up the schedule. So, the first thing on the schedule is having a council baby. But not tonight. Not tonight. But not tonight. The next week. Is this her first council baby? We were saying it's first pregnant council woman. Yeah. So, first council baby who I think automatically gets onto city council by proxy. Already is on city council. Yes. Wait a minute. Justine has two votes. Yeah.

So, looking ahead to the May 18th work session. Uh so we'll have Virginia Village scoping discussion on code amendments and uh plan amendments. Virginia Village Affordable Housing Partner, RFP, scope of work. Um, and then, uh, so that's kind of the the headline for the work session. We'll have a scoping discussion on the urban design master plan, and we'll have a discussion about the final budget amendment for uh, the current fiscal year FY26, budget amendment number three. So, how many hours is this one? Yep. long. It's a long one.

Can I can I reup my request relative to this that um we've been making continued reference to the revised relocation policy and I would just like to see what that looks like. Okay. at this point in time. It was briefly discussed in the housing commission meeting because the Q&A on so the if you haven't seen the Q&A on the Virginia Village page is actually quite uh detailed and it references various commitments around relocation and how residents have a right of return. Um but if we have a policy ready for review, I think it'd be good to get that scheduled too.

Well, yeah. And it seems to me like if we're putting out an RFP that the revised policy should be updated and so it's clear

available as to what the relocation policy is because when I've raised it part of the answer has been oh well you know the expectation would be that the development partner would be absorbing we're thinking about some of the issues with the relocation policy. policy and so I would like to understand what that is before we're having it accompany a project or at least know where things stand with respect to it before we're sharing that as to what the expectations are around relocation or return or the criteria. Okay.

I think as a precursor to that staff has been identifying everyone that lives currently in Virginia Village and what their current AMI levels are and how much rent they pay. So we know that hey they're returning you know they are currently paying 30% of AMI and so knowing that that's what might need to get replicated and a future development should there be a future development is helpful for that.

I think the idea is you know for incumbents to try to replicate it but if the incumbents left then we would follow policy for new tenants that move in. So, obviously there's we're on an accelerated timeline here with the RFP. Could I suggest we have like maybe a similar to the budget Q&A document that we could send your our questions in ahead of time and then have a Q&A document at next Monday. And similar for the boards and commissions that have reviewed it, we have to we've been a little careful about inviting, you know, formal comment on it because we were a little worried about our ability to sort of onboard it. We're going to be posting this staff report on Thursday. Well, staff has to post it on Wednesday so that Sally, Celeste, and I can review it on Thursday. So, um, you know, they've got basically two days for them to finish up the staff report on it. I might have missed this in my email, but did we recirculate the summary of the public comments that we collected at the four sessions?

So, that's been circulated to the EDA because they specifically requested it and the I don't know if the planning commission and housing commission got it as well. It was in the staff there was a staff report. It was like like a six- page matrix. It turned into a much bigger one, but Okay. I don't know. I don't know whether the because there was a two-page like front and back that was shared at the last three community sessions like hey here's the input we heard and then people had a chance to digest it. So if either that one or the planning commission housing commission six page one yeah that'd be great if we could get that in the next couple days. Yeah.

Okay. Anything else on May 18th? So the other one which is it's an important one is the uh contract authorization for financial system RFP support and um and that is is part of the procurement process for our ERP system having an advisor who is helping municipalities through that decision-m process be with us uh for it. So u those are kind of the main things. We also have Versa renewal, but I think that's generally pretty status quo and the council's approved the budget for it. So, yeah. All right. So, that's the 18th. Uh the 26th, uh CBC youth reps, uh we'll have during the city manager report a quarterly CIP update and council priorities update. Um the I did send out the um sort of more colorful version of the council priorities uh last week and we'll be uh using that to communicate with boards and commissions and the public. Uh first reading on the budget amendment initiating resolution on urban design scope of work. uh initiating resolution on the Virginia village uh plan and code amendments and uh authorization to uh staff to issue the RFP scope of work authorization financial system RFP support contract and Versa contract renewal and I think we're tenatively planning a close session that night on the Pearson where

okay next steps on that case.

All right. Then looking into June, uh we have a Koa uh filing code update, a scoping discussion on BCA approval of parking and landscape mods. um updates for Ches Bay regulation compliance. So, we did the initiating resolution for these tonight. This will be the actual uh code updates and then several items on consent. So June 8th, uh, Delegate Simon will join the council for employee service recognitions, final public hearing and second reading on the budget amendment, initiating resolution on BCA approval of parking and landscape mods, uh, updates for Chesapeake Bay regulation compliance, and um, and then the the, uh, consent items. And I think we're looking for a date that's going to work for a general assembly briefing. And was June 8th the date that we landed on? Okay. So June 8th, we'll do um a budget briefing as well as the general assembly session briefing.

Is that when we invite both Delegate Simon and Senator Seline or is this more of a staff driven one? This is more staff just to go through the inventory of code changes and things that we really need to amend our code to reflect and then the optional things we if new authorities that the council may choose to uh take on. Although if delegate Simon's there that night with us, yeah, maybe we could move it early in the agenda and he's welcome to hang out. It is kind of a lot to think about so it might be better while minds are fresh. Um, it was it was a busy session. All right, June 15th. So, we'd have V Virginia Village.

Real quick, you can I will be there for the June 10th agenda meeting. Okay. And then fly out in the evening. Okay. So, that question mark we can u just strike your name.

Yeah, you can take my name out of there. So the June 5th work session uh Virginia village uh we'd review comp plan language, small area plan amendment language and code update language uh together with city council. Uh we would discuss the contracts approval policy where the city council approves contracts and uh on consent uh Walden Court stormwater improvements. the Tener Hill reszonings that that also should be not on consent. Uh but we're uh confirming that we'll be ready to move forward with those. Then on the June 22nd action meeting, um uh recognition if I were mayor contest, uh Virginia Village referral to the planning commission and first reading of the comp plan, small area plan and code updates. contracts approval, first reading, and uh the consent item. Um the Tener Hill resonings would be uh potentially up for action on the June 22nd as well. Then there's a independence day uh break with the fifth Monday and that uh the holiday weekend and then we come back in mid July, July 13th. Um, maybe I will note we also have the June 26 budget and finance committee uh where we'll be talking revenue sharing principles.

And just one thing on that, Mr. Aan was just asking me if we had budget and finance this week and I said no that we tend to do them like every other month or they were kind of quarterly or pegged to revenue kind of and budget amendments and whatnot. But um on the calendar we still have on the calendar budget and finance for May 15th. And so could that be taken down from the calendar? Could the clerk kick down the budget and finance meeting on May 15th this Friday? We don't have budgeted. Okay, great. Thanks. Yes. Sorry. And then we're keeping the 26th of June. No, we probably need to look further in the summer about budget.

Yeah. I think it would end up that we'd be back in sort of the August. We not have the July meeting, but the August meeting and we'd maybe look to when we're all back from recess. Yeah.

All right. So, then that July 13th action meeting, uh, public hearing and final action on the Chesapeake Bay regulations, uh, public hearing and second reading on the Virginia Village comp plan small area plan and code updates and, uh, second reading on the contracts approval ordinance. uh July 20th work session. So we shift gears and we talk uh snow removal on commercial streets. We talk about neighborhood traffic calming. We talk about snow emergency routes. Uh we have a complete streets for uh vision zero update and uh and we talk personal property tax relief. Um I had we that personal property we need to move that forward. Um but any rate that's going to be in June where we'll be talking personal property with the shift of moving to the later meetings in August. Uh if the council does second reading in August, late August, it's too late for the bills. So we need to move that up. And I think we'll stop there.

And I think we did decide to do the 24th and 31st though as meetings and not the 17th and 24th. Right. We talked about that last Wednesday of like using the fourth and fifth. We pushed it one more week. push it one more week so we get closer to why it's retirement and give ourselves a slightly longer recess. Yeah. Did you notice how we broke the page put a page break in here when I think we said we're going to use the fifth Monday or the idea that was floated was instead of the 17th and 24th of August meet the 24th and 31st of August. That's what we were told but we haven't posted it. Yeah. We haven't changed the posting yet. So if that's what you want to do, we can do that. Is there agreement for people?

That's 24th work session 31st action meeting. Okay. So then none on the 17th. Nope. Yeah.

I mean, there's a chance we'll still be like doing city manager hiring process stuff. Yeah. So, it might be good just to keep some dates open in case. Plus, it sounds like the what's on that action meeting, one of them has to move forward anyway. So, the personal property tax has to come up anyway. So yeah, that needs to be so that's going to be even thinner uh now July 27th at the latest and then the revised schedule I have the council finishing personal property on July 13th and that will give the treasurer and commissioner a good good buffer of time to implement it and we'll have more scheduling requests by then. They tend to get rolling

I'm sure August will fill up before we know it. But I like how there's a big he put a specific page break in the spreadsheet when he leaves. Okay. Questions or comments on the schedule? Um I don't know what's under to be scheduled, but um I guess there's one more thing that would be nice. Oh, maybe there's nothing. Oh, or Yeah, there were things. There are things. Okay. It's on if you the paper copy. It's on the back of the I don't Yeah, I didn't. Um I guess the other thing would be um Oh, there's a road closure policy. Okay, that's all.

It's still not including the full parking review, just some parking code amendment. Residential multif family. It's still a limited thing with with the council priorities. I guess we kind of had a a mapping of things that we were going to tackle. Is that something that's to come? Yes. So, uh, with the council priorities, we'll have a report that shows kind of the blocking of when we will we think we'll be able to make progress on those, get council feedback on that. Um, and then from that, we'll have a regular report on our progress compared to that sort of highle schedule for getting these done. Okay.

I was just looking for it on the to be scheduled. So, we don't know when, but it's not on that list. Yeah, they should all be on under the uh the council priorities should either be on a date or to be scheduled. They all should Yeah, I think the broader parking is not on either of those. That's right. Other things for the schedule. Okay. Consider us done then on schedule. So we are cancelling the Wednesday 8:30 a.m. council's agenda scheduling meeting. Yes, please. All right. Thank you. It shall be done.

Sorry. Back to budget and finance. So you're doing the July one as or June one as revshare and then we need the one to talk about revenue levers in August. Probably August. Yeah. Okay. And we may have to we'll have to look at the dates. Um because it's normally the third I think it's normally the third Friday, but maybe it will end up being the fourth. I don't know. The fourth Friday. We'll see. We'll talk about it. He also may take more than one meeting every day. Yeah. Yeah. That that's what worries me.

Okay. Well, let's move on to any other business not on the agenda, committee or leison on reports. Council member comments. Mr.

Snider. Mor just just one comment. Um I would really like uh city staff to focus on transportation funding rounds. Um we had to approve a rounded NVTC uh for inside the beltway that did not include a false church project. And I think I've raised this before and I want to emphasize the importance of committing whoever you need to to make sure that we're getting our fair share. Thank you.

I would just like to piggy back off of that. This is the second time that we've not applied for any funding um in this process and so I think the next time would be in another couple years. But um I would like to second what Mr. Steiner said, which is that this is a a great use of funds that could be used for smart cities. It could be used after talking with um Kate Matise. Um there are lot of projects that we could be using it for in the city. Um so I would also encourage us to look into how how we can collaborate with NVTC to apply for those funds. Okay. Other council member comments? We have no minutes tonight. do it. We have no other business. I'm going to win the bet with Vice Mayor DS ending the meeting at 9:30. Okay, we're journed.

Thank you everyone. Good night all. Thank you. 6