City Council - Regular Meeting

Hi, I'm just checking to make sure you guys can hear us in here. I mean, right now we haven't started the meeting yet, but I can hear you. Can you hear me clearly? Yes, we can hear you. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. I can hear you guys. Awesome. Yep.

What are those lot of those lobsters?

Okay, good evening everybody. Welcome to the Monday July 13th meeting of the City Council. I want to call the meeting to order. Can you call roll please?

YES, MR. AGEN. HERE. MS. CONLEY.

HERE.

MS. DOWNS. HERE. MS. FLINN.

HERE.

MR. SNYDER. HERE. MS. UNDERHILL.

HERE.

AND MAYOR HARDI.

HERE.

THANK YOU, COUNCIL.

WE HAVE A MOTION FOR JUSTINE TO PARTICIPATE ELECTRONICALLY.

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor. I'd like to make a motion for electronic participation by Justine Underhill. Council Member Underhill, could you please identify your remote location and reason for participation by electronic means?

I am in Falls Church, Virginia, and I'm participating remotely for personal reasons.

Thank you, Ms. Underhill. I move that the City Council approve electronic participation by Justine Underhill in this meeting for personal reasons pursuant to the City Council's adopted policy. Is there a second?

Second. Ms. Connolly in the second. And call roll, please. Mr. Agin? Yes. Ms. Connolly?

Yes.

Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snider? Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 6-0. Thank you.

Great. If everyone could join us in a Pledge of Allegiance. Please rise.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you all. Is there a motion to adopt tonight's meeting agenda?

I move to adopt the meeting agenda. Is there a second?

Second. All in favor? Any abstentions or noes? Meeting agenda is adopted. So before we get into business tonight, well, first of all, welcome back from our mini recess. We have a busy three weeks ahead of ahead of our real summer recess where we actually Get some more substantial time off and we actually have five meetings left with Mr. Shields as our city manager. I think tonight's starting the countdown of five meetings. And so I wanted to provide a brief update on the city manager search as well as announce a special closed meeting. So first, appreciate all the input from both employees and community members in both a feedback form as well as a focus group. I think we found that there was a strong alignment ON QUALITIES THAT WE HEARD FROM THE COMMUNITY AND EMPLOYEES ABOUT WHAT WAS IMPORTANT IN THE NEXT CITY MANAGER. QUALITIES LIKE STRONG INTEGRITY, TRANSPARENT COMMUNICATION, STRONG LEADERSHIP PRESENCE, AND A COMMITMENT TO THE POSITIVE ORGANIZATIONAL AND COMMUNITY PROGRESS THAT WE HAVE MADE SO FAR. top of mind for us. We've received strong applications in partnership with Raftelis, our search firm, and the interview process is commencing. The process will include a mix of city council members, employees, and community members in kind of a traditional panel as well as a mix of activities. And so that I don't get this wrong, if we could bring up that statement in the staff report, that would be great. OR DO YOU WANT ME TO BRING IT UP ON MY COMPUTER? YEAH, MINE IS TOO. THAT'S WHY. OKAY. THANK YOU. In accordance with Virginia Code 2.2-3712 , which allows a closed meeting of the City Council to occur at an undisclosed location so long as the sole purpose of the meeting is to interview candidates for the position of City Manager and so long as the meeting is announced at an open regular meeting of the City Council within 15 days PROCEEDING SUCH MEETING. I WISH TO ANNOUNCE IN THIS REGULARLY SCHEDULED PUBLIC MEETING THAT THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH WILL HOLD A CLOSED SESSION FOR CITY MANAGER INTERVIEWS AT AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION WITHIN THE NEXT 15 DAYS. THANK YOU, MS. CITY ATTORNEY, FOR THAT STATEMENT. SO THAT, I THINK, IS THE PRELIMINARIES FOR THE MEETING. ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS BEFORE WE MOVE ON? Do we have any proclamations or special presentations tonight? We had a busy month or two, so.

No, we don't tonight. Thank you.

And any members of the public here for oath of office?

Yes, we have Bella and Colette for the Environmental Sustainability Council.

Welcome. And thank you for volunteering.

Thank you. Catch both of us. Do solemnly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon you as a member of the Environmental Sustainability Council according to the best of your ability, so help you God. I do. Thank you. And so you're ready to assume your duties on the ESC, and we thank you for volunteering to do this. Thank you so much.

Just one? Great. Well, thank you for volunteering and coming to get sworn in.

Yes.

Thanks for volunteering, and there's a meeting Thursday, so hopefully you'll be there to make quorum. Thank you.

Let's move on to receive a public comment. Madam Clerk, can you start with a summary of written comments, please?

Certainly. Let's get to that section. And these are the comments we received in written format since your last regular meeting regarding Virginia Village. Nader Baruch asked for stronger transition standards at the Winter Hill Edge, mandatory public open space, and onsite stormwater fixes for Big Chimneys Park. Joseph Conady wrote about Virginia Village's historic value and asked for scale limits at Winter Hill and Big Chimneys, stormwater remedies, and retention of open space options. Barbara Kennedy asked to keep parking and services away from Winter Hill limit height to three stories at the edge, fix drainage and preserve usable public open space. Rebecca Johnson said she was concerned that the RFP scorecard did not embed preservation priorities and urged explicit waiting for waiting. for community and historic values and reported DHR's preliminary finding of national register eligibility for Virginia Village and urged use of tax credits for preservation-based affordability. Amaya Lambert requested secure package delivery and stronger trash and property management standards in any new Virginia Village. In other comments, Jimmy Jung wrote to oppose more town homes on Park Avenue. citing loss of small town character and prolonged construction impacts. Peter Oppenheimer asked the city to plow the W&OD trail and enforce sidewalk snow removal to support safe winter biking and walking. John Tepperman wrote to support exploring solar walkways and canopies and innovative EV charging as next steps towards sustainability. And the Urban Forestry Commission proposed an urban forestry management plan policy updates and expanded public outreach to support tree canopy goals.

Thank you. Let's receive public comment either live or virtually. I don't have anybody signed up at this time. That's quite a change from our last meeting. Well, welcome to the members of the public who are joining us. Let's move on to report of the city manager, Mr. Shields.

Thank you, Mayor Hardy, members of council, members of the community. The headline for the city manager's report is two reports, one from our housing staff with their annual report on affordable housing, and secondly, We'll hear from the police chief on the annual report for the police department. Before we get to the first of those two reports, I would like to provide an update for the community on the council directive that occurred at your last regular meeting on the night that the city council adopted on first reading or gave first reading to a zoning text amendment creating the Virginia Village overlay district in support of the goals of that district. The council directive was to bring back options for a potential streamlined special exception process for projects coming up through that overlay district. At tonight's meeting tonight, under other business, there'll be an opportunity for council to discuss what I'll report on briefly. during the manager's report, but wanted to just get information out to the community about what's being considered at the front end of the meeting so people don't have to wait all the way till the end. Staff has put together an initial memo that lays out some of the criteria that would go into a special exception process for projects in the Virginia Village Overlay District, and those criteria are largely aligned with the criteria that are established in the performance goals that are already called for there. But with a special exception, there are additional ones that the City Council attests that the City Council would apply in any special exception process. We will propose a timeline for special exception review that the Council ultimately would make the decision on as to whether you want those timelines in there. But the direction at your last meeting was to provide some milestones so that that SE process does not go on for an unduly long period of time. And so we'll have options for that. And then also one of the things that we'll be discussing to get some direction on later on in the meeting tonight is sort of where SEs would apply in the Virginia Village overlay. So what was adopted at first reading, there is no special exception process. It's a by right process. And so one option would be to have a special exception that applies to all development that occurs in the Virginia Village overlay district. Another option would be to limit it only to projects that exceed, say, four stories of height in that district. A third option for the Council to consider would be to limit the applicability of special exceptions only, you know, to exempt the Economic Development Authority-owned properties but have a special exception requirement for properties that are not owned by the Economic Development Authority, i.e., for privately owned properties. Or another option would be to limit the applicability of the special exception requirement only to projects with a date deadline. So if a project achieved an approved site plan before December 31st, 2027, no special exception would be required under that example, just as an illustrative example of how a date could work. Whereas any projects that had not gone through this site plan process or gotten an approval for a site plan by December 31st, 2027 would require a special exception. Those are some of the options that the staff has put forward in a memo to Council that's part of the packet tonight. Under other business, we'd like to get some discussion from Council so that as we draft language for consideration at your work session on July 20th, we can flesh these ideas out with actual legislative action. So that's the report on the special exception for Virginia Village. And now we'll move on to the next item on the city manager's report, which is the annual affordable housing report. And I see that both Dana Jones and Kaylene Mark are on the on the call. And maybe, Dana, you want to make some introductory comments, but But I'll turn it over to you.

One quick question. Before we move on to those, do we want to do other questions before or after the police report? Yeah.

Do we want to do that now or after the housing and... Well, given that we have people in the audience waiting to present, let's do the housing report, the police report, and then we can save council requests after that.

Okay.

MS. JONES, I THINK YOU'RE MUTED.

I'M NOT HEARING YOU. CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Okay, sorry about that. So Kayleen Mark, Housing Specialist 2, will actually be giving the report this evening. But just as background, the Affordable Living Report is every year. So we have the city's Affordable Living Report, which was adopted in 2025. And then annually we have an update to that report. And so that's what this is. So every year you all will be getting an update to where we are. what we've been doing with housing, what goals we've been meeting, and kind of where we're matching up with the goals that were set out in the report. And so Kayleen is going to kind of give you an update of this report and walk you through it. And if you have any questions, we're more than happy to answer those after both reports go. Kayleen?

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor and members of Council. Tonight, I will provide a brief overview of the 2025 Affordable Living Report, which summarizes the current state of affordable housing in the City of Falls Church, highlights key accomplishments and city's progress over the past year, identifies ongoing housing challenges, and the priorities established through the Affordable Living Policy. In 2025, we made meaningful progress in expanding affordable housing opportunities in the city. We added 34 new affordable dwelling units, ADUs, at Madera Falls Church or Founders Road 2, increasing our affordable housing inventory for income ranges between 40% to 80% of the area medium income. City Council also adopted, as Dana mentioned, the affordable living policy in August of 2025, establishing a long-term strategy for preserving and expanding affordable housing throughout the city. Today, the city has 336 committed affordable rental units, consisting of 189 ADUs, 15 city committed affordable units, or CCAUs, 36 units at Virginia Village, and 96 units at The Fields. These programs provide housing opportunities across a range of income levels. While we've made progress, affordability continues to be one of the city's greatest challenges. Nearly 43% of rental households are considered to be cost burden, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. The city had the fourth highest average rent in the region, with the median gross rent being $2,190. The city also currently only has 231 units that are considered to be market rate affordable where rents are at or below 60% AMI and these units are concentrated in just three apartment communities in the city. In addition, we currently have more than 300 households on our affordable housing wait list for households earning 50% AMI or below Yet the city has only 1180 use affordable to households in that income range. This highlights the growing need for deeper affordability, particularly for our lowest income households. Home ownership is also becoming increasingly difficult. This city had the highest medium home prices in the region in 2025. The medium home value now exceeds $1 million, creating a significant gap between market prices and what many moderate income households can afford. Homes affordable at 100% AMI is only $573,814. The city also currently only has 17 affordable home ownership units. Another major priority is preserving the affordable housing we already have. The city is at risk of losing 159 affordable units by 2040 as affordability restrictions expire. Those are 63 ADUs and 96 units at the fields. Protecting existing affordable housing is just as important as creating new units and will require long-term planning and investment. The affordable living policy identifies several priorities moving forward, including expanding the CCAU program, which currently costs the city between $140,000 to $150,000 a year, continuing investment in the Virginia Village redevelopment and preservation efforts, increasing the number of deeply affordable units, and preserving existing affordable housing through strategic funding and partnerships. The final sections of the affordable living report focuses on the city's future priorities and the resources that are needed to achieve them. While the city's housing stock has continued to grow, our priority is ensuring that affordable housing grows alongside it and that we preserve the affordability of existing units. The report also highlights the importance of unhoused and wraparound services, In 2025, the city provided emergency financial assistance to 38 households. The food assistance program provided 127 services to individuals in need, continued homeless outreach, and supported assisted living programs for eligible seniors and individuals with disabilities. In 2025, we added two residents to the assisted living program at Sunrise. Looking ahead, the Affordable Housing Fund will continue to play a critical role in implementing the affordable living policy with the primary focus on creating and preserving affordable housing through the Virginia Village Redevelopment Project and the CCRU program. Finally, the report recognizes that achieving these goals will require strong partnerships, meaningful community engagement, and strategic use of the city's limited staffing and financial resources. HHS will continue to measure the goals that are outlined in the affordable living policy based on the current affordable housing stock and provide annual updates. I would like to close by saying while the city has made meaningful progress in expanding affordable housing opportunities, the report makes clear that significant work remains. The continued implementation of the affordable living policy, strategic investments, STAKEHOLDER AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WILL ALSO BE ESSENTIAL TO PRESERVING AFFORDABILITY AND EXPANDING HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR CURRENT AND FUTURE RESIDENTS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME.

GREAT. THANK YOU, MS. MARK. APPRECIATE THE THOROUGH REPORT. I'M SURE WE PROBABLY HAVE SOME QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS. OKAY.

MAYBE NOT.

OKAY. I'M GOING TO START DOWN THERE, MS. REAGAN.

I think this is a good report. I think it does a really good job of laying out where we stand with the affordable housing right now. What I have questions about, and it does not answer, is the rest of the housing stock. The median, it does talk about 2024. The median is $1,055,000. I think we probably could have the 2025 by now. That's all it says about the affordable housing. The rest of the housing stock, I want to understand, how bad is the case-shaped affordability that I think we know is going on? We've got an affordability piece, but what's happening in our single-family stock? What's happening in the higher-end condos, the higher-end apartments? Are we spreading that out? What Is this that the median is right in the middle, but is it splitting between them, or is it moving towards the median? What's happening up there? I feel like we need more information about the the housing in the the city above the affordability range you know above that 100 ami because that is not something we can necessarily do with funding and helping but it does flow into i things we might want to do around code and how do we we would have to take a different approach to that um to keep that middle vibrant um we all know about the the the houses that, you know, small $500,000, $700,000 house comes on the market, you just assume it's going to be torn down and you're going to get a $2.5 million house put up. It's like. We need to understand that piece of the picture, I think a lot better, and I'm not getting that from this. The affordability piece of it, I think it does a really good job. And I think we understand that. I think we're doing a lot in that area. I'd like to understand the rest of the housing stock and where we are.

Okay. Thank you for that suggestion. We definitely can do more research for that piece. For the report, we mostly focused on the affordability part and in mention of your comment for the 2024. So we use our data from the census and the census is always a year behind. So when we do the report in 2025, the information and data that we get from the census is for 2024. So we're not going to get 2025 data until the end of this year.

All right. I'll blame the federal government for being so slow with that.

I think also if maybe if you could give us your request, we could follow up on that. As Kayleen said, we're more, this report is really focused on affordability.

Yeah, this is an annual report. So this is your first one, Mr. Agin, but we get an annual report on how we're doing on affordable housing. But I think on the broader question, does everyone get the updates from the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis? I think they sent out like a quarterly update on how the region's doing in terms of the economy. I think their last one included an update in partnership with the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors that actually looked at the health of the housing market in general. And so maybe we could ask staff to look at that, and if there's some Falls Church-specific data they could share with us. That's probably one of the best sources we have for the region.

It could be that subtlety between affordable housing and affordability of housing, and they're different.

Well, capital A versus kind of lowercase a, I think.

Yeah, exactly. The affordability goes the whole range, so...

OK, this one or did you have others? This one.

So thank you for the report. I have some specific questions. I guess on Mr. Egan's point, it also struck me in reading the report, right? And I understand it's kind of a gap analysis or it's saying here's what's happening in terms of affordable housing and AMI levels in the city and housing stock and what we would need. But I think there's also a piece of sort of affordability and as we talk about in council conversations often like taxpayer burden and that there's also a stretch like within the homeowners of people who have housing in the city and yet are probably stretched more than the numbers reflect because of the high cost of living and so may purchase things that because of the median home values are higher and then are cost burdened in that way. And I don't know that this is the place for it, but just want to also kind of make that comment. It's a little bit of a different angle than what Mr. Egan was getting at. In terms of the report in particular, I had a couple of questions. AT ONE POINT, WE TALK ABOUT THE 231 UNITS THAT ARE MARKET RATE AFFORDABLE, SO OUTSIDE OF THE ADU APARTMENTS UNDER, YOU KNOW, COVENANTS AND THE CCAU PROGRAM THAT THE CITY ADMINISTERS. FOR THOSE 231 UNITS SORT OF IN THE THREE APARTMENT COMMUNITIES, DO WE HAVE ANY SENSE kind of as to vacancy rates. And I guess I asked the question just to understand, you know, when those units may potentially be available for expanding the CCAU program or in terms of, you know, thinking about future planning with respect to expiring ADUs, kind of if there's a way to get better insight into the 231 units, or just thinking about kind of expansion of the CCAU program, given that, you know, it's one of the strategies that is highlighted in the report.

Okay. So we usually don't keep up with doing research as much as with current vacancies. It usually just happen if, like, for example, if you mentioned if there is an opening with the CCAU, then we would just reach out to different properties to see the type of vacancies that they have. And those three properties that are considered to be market rate affordable are Columbia West, Broad Falls, and Winter Hill. We usually do a rental survey every year, but this just includes an overall summary of the actual units that are available and not based on the vacancies.

Okay. I guess I'm just asking, I guess I would ask whether there's bandwidth or capacity, you know, for kind of internal, your internal conversations of systemizing in some sort of way, kind of, or determining if there are vacancies in places that we know may be more affordable or maybe buildings that are candidates for an expansion of a CCAU program, for example. that we're kind of actively doing work to determine, are we able to expand? the program and then hear about those opportunities to the extent that they exist at all. And then there were two other strategies that were the aging in place, the whole modifications with tax relief and the accessibility kind of renovation assistance. As to the second one, I was wondering whether there are kind of service providers, nonprofit service providers that exist locally that we might be able to link people to. And then for the tax relief, you know, this is something that has come up in various ways in thinking about kind of the housing strategy. And I would still be interested in, you know, potential work in our council strategy on like the affordability generally and looking at the tax structure. Like I know that I've raised it before with respect to older homes and renovations and that people when they there's a code provision I think that allows for you know if your house is over x year of age that x amount of rehabilitation or renovation of the house can be made without the the assessed value on the books rises but the person may not pay WE'RE EXEMPT FROM PAYING THE DIFFERENCE IN THE ASSESSED VALUE IN TERMS OF THE TAXES. AND SO THERE ARE THINGS LIKE THAT THAT, YOU KNOW, MAY GO TO BOTH MR. AGEN'S POINT ON SORT OF EXISTING HOUSING STOCK AND THEN ALSO DOVETAIL WITH THIS, YOU KNOW, ACCESSIBILITY RENOVATION, THE HOME MODIFICATIONS FOR WITH TAX RELIEF KIND OF ITEM THAT'S ON HERE. AND THEN TWO OTHER THINGS WITH THE Fairfax West Falls Church development in terms of the apartment buildings and the townhouses that have an affordability component. I didn't know if you thought that that in any way, I guess it won't apply like how, you know, that it's geographically limited or limited to Fairfax residents, even though those Fairfax residents are closer to Falls Church in terms of where they're situated with respect sometimes to like employment opportunities whether there was anything in the affordability criteria for the fairfax west falls church portion that would help with some of the affordability issues we're seeing with our workforce being able to access affordable housing options locally so maybe something to just look into um And then, you know, with respect to even people who live in Fairfax, but it might make sense for them to live in Fairfax, but closer to Falls Church if they're employed in Falls Church. And then the last question I had was just the graphic on page 19 in terms of the affordable housing fund balance. And we've talked about this before during budget season, but that 2027 number coming down to 200,000. when you think about, you know, that balance, that's essentially just like holding flat the CCAU program.

I believe, and Dana, you can correct me if I'm wrong, the balance that was like the fund balance that's been kind of being counted is the unallocated fund balance, which is about 1.9 million.

That's correct. But this piece that they're talking about, right, the 200,000, it goes to what you're saying, Kayleen. um also i wanted to just address some of the other questions that you had um with the townhomes in fairfax we actually have gotten a few calls um on those townhomes because i think there was an ad um that was in the in some of the newspapers uh and so city residents want to know if they could have priority there and as far as we know the answer is no because it's the fairfax housing department is handling it um but what we are trying to do is uh give them a call and see if perhaps something could be done um with the priorities but since fairfax and fairfax housing is handling it we don't currently have a priority would be kind of like our adu program if somebody from fairfax was trying to get a priority for our adu program ANOTHER QUESTION THAT YOU HAD, I'M TRYING TO, I WROTE A BUNCH OF NOTES OUT, IS ABOUT THE RENOVATION. WE PARTNER WITH REBUILDING TOGETHER, WHICH IS A NONPROFIT, AND WE CAN FORWARD RESIDENTS THERE. ANYONE THAT NEEDS ADDITIONAL HELP OR CAN'T AFFORD WORK THAT THEY NEED ON THEIR HOMES, ESPECIALLY SENIORS AND THAT TYPE OF THING, WE'RE ABLE TO MAKE REFERRALS TO THAT ORGANIZATION.

And I just want to add also, Virginia Housing also has different sort of grants for seniors for any sort of renovations and aging place renovations that they may need.

Yeah, no, that's helpful. Thank you. Yeah, I assume something likely existed and that you were making referrals and maybe, you know, depending on the nature of the inquiries you get or kind of your insights into accessibility issues, regardless if it's in the senior population or not. It might be something in terms of working with OCOM to better kind of advertise those opportunities or the existence of those programs. And then I take your point on the Fairfax, like the West Falls Church affordable homeownership program and wonder, you know, whether even if we have people who are lower down our ADU criteria because they're like that group three or four, like not living or not working in the city, but seeking opportunities in Falls Church. If they're Falls Church employees, for example, we might want to make sure that they're aware, if they're in Fairfax, that they might qualify for the Fairfax program closer to Falls Church, if you see what I mean, like helping people to make that connection. So thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Downs.

Thank you both for this report. It's really informative. Just a couple quick questions. In the home ownership section, in the section where we talk about goals, there's a reference to sponsoring that we should participate in sponsoring partnerships and revitalizing community programs. What exactly is that program? And do we not participate in it right now?

Yeah, so that's SPARC. SPARC is funding through Virginia Housing that allows anyone, it doesn't have to be anyone participating in our affordable home ownership program, but anyone in the city to use those funds to get at least a 1% interest rate decrease for their mortgage. However, currently it is now at a standstill due to funding, and we are not sure if we will be receiving any more funding for the new year. We had additional funding that we used that we allocated to be used because they ended on June 30th, but we currently do not know if the program will continue due to budget. Okay. But it is funded through Virginia Housing.

Okay, thank you. So if it is funded, we do participate in that, and then we would just need to publicize it. Yep. Okay, got it. And then in the preservation section, there is a talk, you mentioned implementing a city right, a first refusal policy to preserve affordable units. So do we not have that kind of a policy right now?

I'm sorry, what page are you referring to?

So let me find it. It's... IT IS ON PAGE 15, SECTION 4.3, THE LAST GOAL, IMPLEMENT A CITY RIGHT OF FIRST REFUSAL POLICY TO PRESERVE AFFORDABLE MARKET RATE UNITS.

prior to 20, July 1st, 2026, we did not actually have the authority. The General Assembly actually just passed that legislation that got signed into law. So now we actually have enabling authority, and we would, I think, probably need to enact an ordinance to make it possible for us. Okay, so could we start working on that?

It's something that we could look into. Yeah, that was something that was part of the affordable living policy for the city to have some sort of ordinance regarding that.

Okay. Great. Great. Thank you. And then one last question. This is a more general question. In the section where we're talking about our unhoused population and providing them services, and I guess this might be also a question for Mr. Shields, but I know that we have a substantial contract with Fairfax County in terms of providing different services. How does that mesh with what you're saying here in terms of helping our unhoused population? I know we pay quite a bit of money to Fairfax County. for some human services sort of programs. Does that, do those help our unhoused population, or is that mostly just on the city to help our residents?

I can speak to that. Kayleen, if you don't mind. Sure, go ahead. So as far as the shelter, that is what, we provide the space, but as far as the services, that's through the city's contract with the Department of Family Services. And then we also that also includes services through the shelters that are. So the overflow shelter for our shelter is the Bailey's shelter. And then Bailey's also has path workers that work with our human services specialists that will come to the city. and you know if we need them to visit with homeless or do particular services they are able to do that as a matter of fact we just scheduled a training for the library and parks and rec and so those staff are going to come do training on what to do if somebody's exhibiting signs of mental illness, they're in the building or if they're homeless and they need services, that kind of thing. And then they also work really closely with our human services specialists. So those are the services and also the CSB through that contract. If there are people that need mental health services, we're able to get them services through the CSB.

That's excellent. Thank you. I hadn't had all that background information. So that's really helpful. And it definitely sounds like it's, you know, worth the money that we pay to Fairfax to have those support services. And, you know, I am the city council liaison for the library board. And I do, you know, that It didn't occur to me really until I sat on that board that that's a public access building that anyone can come in and there's really. And so I know that sometimes safety and security is, and I know Chief Fard, I think, is in the audience. I can't see him behind the podium. There he is. But I know that they're always very grateful to our police department for providing backup at the library. But some training like that, I think, that would be very welcome, too. So thank you very much.

And I just wanted to, I failed to mention that we work really closely with one of the officers who's designated to this, Officer Feliciano, and they work as a team. He's pretty excellent as far as, you know, having engagement with the homeless in the community as well.

That's great because it definitely takes a special caring touch when we're working with those community members. Thank you very much.

Anyone over here?

Okay. I'll just say thank you for this report, very thorough. Having seen affordable housing reports over many, many years, this one has a lot of data and is real specific. So thank you for the improvements that have come over the years and make it really easy to understand all that's happening. And I appreciate the questions of my colleagues. So that's all. Great.

Thank you very much.

Yeah, I was going to echo that, that having been the Housing Commission liaison now for 10 years, I've really seen this report evolve, so I appreciate it. A couple things I wanted to, one, call out just progress that we've made in this area, and then a couple questions. So one, I think we have 336 committed affordable units now, and in this council's tenure in the past 10 years, I think 126 out of the 189 80s never expire. And that's actually a big deal because I know that we've wrestled a lot with what to do with units as they expire. And so a vast majority of the ones that we've added in the past 10 years don't expire. So kudos to this council, the staff and our development community for bringing online new buildings that actually have inclusionary zone units that don't expire. So that's the first thing I wanted to call out. The second, I think, is the note about townhomes, that we've added 32 townhomes, I think, the first time in 25 years. A question I have for staff is, I think when I last checked about accessory dwelling, which we adopted at this point 14 months ago, none had been permitted. Is that still the case? And I know we'll talk about it this fall, but do we have any late-breaking updates on that?

So I don't have the latest on that. We do have on the council's agenda a report on cottage housing, ADs, and T-Zone. And so we'll have that data. It has been a very small number of ADs. I can say that.

Okay. Thank you. I did want to actually kind of piggyback on Mr. Egan, Ms. Flynn's point about kind of the broader housing picture. I do think that would be useful information. So I'll find that and VAR report in partnership with George Mason in case that's useful. But I think the bigger thing that we've kind of circled around is what to do about kind of the middle home ownership, because we've all seen our neighborhoods change, right? From the small starter home stock of the two or three bedroom Ramblers that turn into the much larger McMansions I think Ms. Flynn has been a fan of offering tax strategies that can help preserve and renovate more modest homes. I think there's this other broader kind of topic on that that we should explore. So for example, I know that house sharing is an option that a lot of seniors might want to look into. So if you can't move into something else, could you consider house sharing and opening up your home so that you may not need to keep your three bedroom home, but you can move into something? COULD WE CONSIDER OTHER SORTS OF MIDDLE HOUSING THAT IS ALLOWED IN SINGLE FAMILY NEIGHBORHOODS? I KNOW ZONING CHANGES ARE CONTROVERSIAL, BUT THAT IS A REAL NEED AS YOU LOOK AT WHAT OUR HOUSING STOCK LOOKS LIKE. I THINK THINKING ABOUT TAX STRATEGY, LIKE A MANSION TAX, WHICH WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE ABILITY TO DO IN VIRGINIA, BUT I HAVE MENTIONED A FEW TIMES AS PART OF OUR LEGISLATIVE AGENDA, So both a stick and carrot approach, right? So carrot as in tax incentives to renovate modest homes, but also a stick that if you have a really big, you know, 200% over median home value home, would you, you know, should you pay more than your fair share to help offset the cost and the loss of those starter home stocks? So I think all that to say, I think there is probably many things we could do to tackle, but that's a concern I share, especially when we look at impacts of our single family home neighborhood changing between stormwater, tree canopy, all the things that we've talked about. not to mention just the social impact of losing that middle starter home stock that we all care about. So I know right now we're focused very much on affordable, but I at least wanted to put a plus one next to that broader question of what to do about kind of starter home middle housing stock issue that we have as well. Okay.

Okay.

Absolutely. Great. One quick thing. I wanted to build on something that Ms. Flynn said. It would be good to get a better picture of the housing stock and the housing affordability within a quarter mile, half mile of the city. We have a tendency on all things to stop our focus at the line, and especially with the West Falls developing going on, we really want to look that quarter mile, that half mile out. Even though we can't do anything about it, we want to understand it. be good to understand. That was it.

I did the math recently just out of curiosity between kind of things happening at Seven Corners and West Falls. We have about 1,500 units coming online potentially in the next five years. All that to say, I think our economic development strategy needs to be poised to receive and welcome all that spending power to the region. That said, I don't think anyone else is really solving. I mean, everyone still has the same issues with affordable as well as kind of the middle housing gap as well. It's really a regional issue. Good thought. Okay, let's move on to the next special report we have tonight.

So we'd like to invite Chief Fard to the podium and he'll present the 2025 annual report from the Police Department.

Welcome Chief Fard.

Good to see everyone. Good evening, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor Downs, members of council, city staff, members of Falls Church community that are watching from home. Of course, my name is Sean Farr. I'm Chief of Police, Director of Public Safety. We started a tradition two years ago of me coming to council and presenting the police department's annual report to the community and I'm here again once again doing this and I'm honored to continue it and appreciate the opportunity to present to you our annual report for calendar year 2025. So since stepping in my role, my command staff team and I have established a very clear vision of advancing and modernizing our police department, which is driving a lot of our current programs and projects. We're doing all of this with a very small team. Our accomplishments are anything but the I'm very proud of my entire team and hope that as people read this report, they keep in mind the sacrifices our team members make to keep our city safe. And so much of it, you know, happens out of plain view. But I think it's important to point that out. Our police team members and their families do deserve our endless gratitude and continued recognition. So I'll jump in and report. I know council and community are often interested in state of crime in the city. So if you'll indulge me, I'll answer two questions that I hear very often. How safe is our city? And are crime rates improving or not? These are two questions I hear often, which is great. And the headline response for how safe is our city is that the city of Falls Church, a geographically small but densely populated community, continues to be at top of the list as one of the safest independent cities in Northern Virginia region. And we continue to see improvements on that every year. So the other question I mentioned, are crime rates improving or not? The answer is yes, but There are areas that we have to continue to work on and last year there were 505 crimes or offenses. These are individual offenses arising out of 468 incidents that we responded to. So the city continues to be mostly free of serious violent crime and crimes against persons continue to be exceptionally low. However, there was a slight increase with the numbers of property crime offenses last year, and the good news is that the number of burglaries is one of the lowest we've ever seen in the city, only six in an entire calendar year in an entire city. And that was half of what we had the year prior. So we did note a driving factor with our property crime specific to shoplifting cases, which did show a rising trend since 2022 after having stabilized during the COVID years. Last year, specifically shoplifting cases, we had 93 of them, which made about a half of the 208 larceny theft offenses cases you see on the chart on page seven. And of those 93 shoplifting offenses, about 75, over 75% of them were from very few convenience stores, grocery stores, and liquor stores. So we know where they're happening, we know when they're happening, and we deploy strategic methods in addressing those. These are crimes of opportunities. So we work with involved resale stores to try to prevent further thefts in the future. And looking at our group B offenses on page nine, if you recall that these are generally less severe offenses and the state only captures these offenses of those that have resulted in an arrest. So the total number of arrests for these specific offenses were lower in 2025 than the year before. Now, of course, fighting crime requires constant visibility, rapid response, and fruitful investigations by our city's finest. Last year, our dispatchers and officers fielded some 29,000 calls for service, which includes both those calls that we initiate by proactive work, but also those that are generated from the community. And our detectives carried out over 250 complex investigations. I'll remind you, we have three detectives. So there's a lot of good work being done by a few folks. So while responding to crime, officers, detectives, dispatchers, they all require advanced technology to be effective in what they do. And in this day and age, as we know, outdated or missing technology have serious operational and administrative consequences and negatively impact growing expectations, especially for police officers, with transparency and accountability. So we asked for council support to close some of these key technological gaps by addressing growing issues with legacy radios, mobile computers, audio-video recording systems, and I'm happy to report that you delivered. So with your support, the advancements shown on pages 11 and 19 have fully been implemented. We've upgraded our portable radios, our mobile radios, our mobile computer system, the body-worn camera, the in-car camera system. And thanks to you, your police department is now operating with the latest and greatest telecommunication and audio video recording systems. So we appreciate that support very much. And of course, those technological upgrades greatly support our crime-fighting efforts and traffic safety operations. Last year, Falls Church police officers stopped over 3,000 motorists and issued over 1,500 traffic citations, while the city's three automated photo enforcement programs issued a combined number of 11,000 citations. And the city's police department has been a leading partner in furthering the city's Safe Street Vision Zero initiatives. Now, while traffic enforcement and education programs are occurring, the city did experience a higher number of reportable crashes last year, as you see in the report. So in response to that, you know, we're halfway through 2026. There's been a lot of proactive work, collaborative work between city police department, public works, planners, engineers, office of communications, city manager's office, contractors and others. that have been occurring all year. And I'm happy to report that in 2026, so far, these efforts are paying dividends. During the first half of this calendar year, compared to the first half of last calendar year, we've already seen a 22% reduction in the number of reportable traffic crashes and even more reduction percentages in number of injury crashes and number of injuries within each one of those crashes. So, a lot of good work happening, but we still have another six months to go, so, you know, we don't want to get too excited because we still have a lot to do in addressing issues, especially at WOD crossings, trail crossings, protecting pedestrians and bicyclists in crosswalks, crashes occurring at intersections and our primary corridors, but I'm optimistic about the positive combined efforts and results I'm seeing. Traffic safety will continue to be a mission priority for my team, and we need everybody's help by slowing down, coming to a full stop at red signals, coming to a full stop at stop signs, giving way to bicyclists and pedestrians, and we all need to fight the urge, where's mine, of looking at our phones when we're walking or biking or driving. It's not very safe, so we need to do better there, all of us. So I want to shift gear from crime and traffic safety and highlight some of the community engagement, transparency, and trust initiatives that are outlined throughout the report. which you'll read about and see a lot of pictures of many community programs. We have Coffee with the Cops, National Night Out, which we started two years ago, our premier school resource officer program, rape aggression defense training program, and a highlight from last year, our inaugural community police academy have all been fruitful in building relationships and improving quality of life in the city. And while community engagement is important in developing relationships, we recognize that our authority comes directly from the consent, the trust, and the cooperation of our community. That trust and consent occurs when the community is assured that its police department is abiding by law and nationally accepted best policing practices. That assurance often occurs through accreditation. And when I took over to the department, I stood before you and I committed our team to the goal of becoming nationally accredited. And back in April, my team provided counsel with an update on our progress. And I'm happy to report that we are on track for an independent assessment late next year or the following, early the following. And a successful accreditation assessment requires that by through policy and proofs, the police department demonstrates that we're meeting or exceeding national policing standards. These standards are infused in our general orders, which evolve as laws change and best practices are refined through lessons learned and research. In addition to the benefits that accreditation brings about to our external stakeholders within the organization, the team has appreciated the consistency with which policies are being applied across the organization. That consistency is ever more important with policies and practices around personnel complaints, which is an integral part of trust both externally and internally within our team. And with the improved personnel investigations policies, we've greatly improved how we report, how we investigate, how we track uses of force and personnel complaints. This, coupled with our state-of-art body-worn and in-car camera systems, provides for increased accountability that align with best policing practices. For the past two years, we've investigated not only individual uses of force incidents, But when there are multiple officers using force during one particular evidence, incident, excuse me, each individual officer's application of force is investigated independently on its own merits to determine if it meets legal and policy requirements. The updated policies and procedures for investigating personnel complaints includes a newly implemented disciplinary actions and appeals policy. This was implemented beginning of 2025 and it provides employees with defined adjudication process and mechanism for appeals setting clear accountability expectations. The new administrative investigation policy implemented last year includes requirements to investigate all injuries that result from uses of force as a separate matter from a use of force itself to determine if the cause of the injury to either the arrestee or the officer and how those injuries happen. Other personnel complaint classifications, as you'll see in the report, were added to provide for clear distinction and grouping with specific types of complaint. These policies ensure your police department's internal investigation processes meet or exceed national standards. These policies are, of course, with all of our policies, they're published on our website for public's access. So finally, in the report's final three pages, we celebrate retirements, promotions, awards, new team members. And I just want to close by thanking council, the city manager's office, our city manager, city leadership, residents. I want to thank you guys for your confidence, your trust, and your support as we continue to make the police department ever better. So thank you.

GREAT. THANK YOU, CHIEF. WE APPRECIATE ALSO YOUR COMPREHENSIVE REPORT AND CONTINUING THE TRADITION. I'M SURE WE ALSO HAVE QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS FOR YOU. SURE. I'LL START THIS WAY. MR. SNYDER?

VICE MAYOR? I'M NOT LETTING YOU GET OFF THAT EASY, CHIEF.

OKAY. I DRESSED UP.

Okay, a couple comments and questions. Yeah, I thought it was terrific to see the report about the new laptops, the mobile laptops. I thought that was terrific. Oh, there you go. What I liked even more was that you mentioned about having a five-year replacement cycle. So that's one of the things I know that I've been, you know, I think that's one of the things that we have to, whether it's masked arms or police cars or, you know, having that sort of like in a cycle so that we're always replacing it. Because we're never going to be in a financial position where all of us, oh my gosh, we have to replace everything all at once. I think that's great. So that was really good to see. I also was really interested about your special events section, because I agree with you, you know, that no one really needs to look at the data to know, like, our special events are increasing. And it's great. I mean, part of it is the whole, our economic development, what we want to see is the vibrancy and, you know, especially supporting our restaurants and businesses. But I know I've been in two meetings recently where it did come up, One was at our Rec and Parks meeting. They were talking about possible expansion of the farmer's market and what that would mean for closing down streets. And that was brought in to what would that cost for, you know, and then also in terms of having police support and then also our... our first night event that's, you know, and I know that recently we had the DORA, the outside strolling and sipping event. So do you, is there anything the city council can help you with that support or do you feel like as long as the, you know, that it's built into the budget to compensate your officers for the overtime that's sufficient?

I think we always need more money, right? But the number of the special events are increasing every year. So what we find ourselves is that we developed the budget last year and we're operating it now and the events are occurring now and we may not have the money for it now. But when that happens, we built that into our next year's development, and we are saying that. So you mentioned watch night, right? So we have money implemented in the FY27 for that because we knew it was coming. Now, if something comes up between now and the start of FY28, we may not have the budget for it now, but we work around it. We have a lot of options, salary saving, and other programs to make it happen. What I'm more cognizant of, not so much the budget side of it, is the impact on staff. We only have 38 officers. That includes me, by the way. So these special events mostly happen on overtime, which is the officer's off time. So they're having to work their regular shifts and then come in on their day off or what have you on a holiday, watch night, and work these. So just want to be cognizant of the demand. Certainly I'll leverage mutual aid to do what I can to support that and supplement that. So I appreciate you bringing that up, but I think we're okay right now.

Do you feel that we need to bring your office in earlier when we're calendaring some of these things? 100%.

Okay. 100%.

Okay, well, that's something that's good to know. Because, again, it might just, they may continue to increase as our city grows and we have, you know, just more events going on.

Yeah, the special events process keeps evolving, keeps getting better. Right, okay, good. I mean, two, three years ago, we didn't really have the committee that we have right now with Parks and Rec. All the departments, including my representatives, there's a lot of good dialogue, discussion, planning going on. But yeah, as much notice as we can get, you know, better.

Okay. Just a couple more things. I love the community policing academy. My friend participated in the first one. So is that going to be an annual endeavor?

I was hoping somebody was going to ask. It's coming up. It's coming up this fall. We're taking applications. So yes, apply. I think it starts late September.

But you intend to try to do this every year?

Yes. Okay.

Yeah, it's a great way to read. But as I said, my friend did it and she's a big Dateline fan, you know, so now she thinks she's... But, no, she loved it. And so I think it's a great way to really have that PR and connection with our community. So that's terrific. Two other notes. You talked about the WNOD, where we've seen those with Grove. What do you think the issue, you think the issue is that the biker, is it more bikers that are coming down the bridge and not stopping? Is that tend to be or is it seem to be any kind of certain theme or not? We've seen both ends. Okay.

We've seen whether it's the motorists or the bicyclists. The good thing with Safe Streets with our Vision Zero plans are that we have monthly meetings where all the stakeholders are in the room. You know, I'm in there. DPW, traffic engineers, planners. And the first thing we do at the beginning of that meeting is look back to the injury crashes that we've had. And we plan out processes. Another thing we implement is when we have a serious crash, we come together specific for that crash. So I think there's a lot of good collaborations happening. There's a lot of conversation with the folks on Grove Avenue. And I rely on our traffic engineers to really come up with some good suggestions for us to address some of the conflict issues that we're seeing there. But we're spending a lot of time on the trail, you know, the electric motorcycle issues that are popping up. So we're doing a lot of spot checks, a lot of hot spotting, and officers are spending a lot of time on the trail for that. So hopefully that will help prevent issues as well.

Yeah, I think, you know, I've mentioned this before that when I walk that trail, I do think for someone who's not paying attention, it can be confusing because at some intersections there are stop signs for the vehicles and then others there aren't. And so there's not consistency. So if you're sort of in a zone and you're assuming, oh, they have a stop and they don't, you know, so it is hard. And Grove in particular, I don't know if you, I know it would be awkward to put a stop sign if you're headed from Founders Road towards the Fairfax, but I had suggested maybe putting a stop sign if you're heading the direction from Fairfax towards Founders Row there, you know, maybe to stop people for that, because that's almost a blind, you know, right before you get to that, you know, that, I don't know. But I'm sure that everyone's been thinking about how to work on this.

They have, and I'll just remind everyone, the three pillars of Vision Zero, the three E's, are engineering, education, enforcement, and really that order, sometimes a Venn diagram. So I'm really relying on our engineers to come up with some good suggestions for us to try to improve those areas.

Great, thank you. And then my last, I guess this is more of a comment. A community member reached out to me recently. During one of our recent storms, some power lines went down on Columbia and Underwood and there was a fire when the power lines came down. And my friend who lives on Underwood and then a neighbor called And I think called 911. And I think they said they were transferred to Arlington. And then they waited for four minutes till someone answered the call. So that could be there was a storm. I guess my question is, but the neighbor asked me, like, is that typical that we would get transferred to Arlington? Of course, I didn't know the answer to that.

DOES THAT SOUND... DID SHE CALL 911? THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID. SHE CALLED 911 AND SAID IT RANG AT ARLINGTON.

THEY SAID THEY WERE TRANSFERRING YOU TO ARLINGTON OR SOMETHING?

ALL OF OUR 911 CALLS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO TO ARLINGTON. THE REASON FOR THAT IS BECAUSE WE HAVE OUR FIRE AND EMS CONTRACT WITH THE ARLINGTON COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT. So they hold on to those calls and anything law enforcement, it comes back to our dispatch center. It all happens with a click. It's not like the rotary dialing or anything. It happens very quickly. With cell phones, it's a little bit tricky depending on where you are because if it hits a cell phone that's in Fairfax, it may pick up Fairfax. So depending where you are in the city. So I'm glad it went to Arlington because that's what is supposed to happen.

But she, and then what do they do? So both her and her neighbor waited for four minutes, approximately four minutes, until their call was answered, until Arlington answered. And, again, that could be the storm was going on.

But, I mean, is that a typical?

It shouldn't be that long. Yeah. It shouldn't be that long.

Okay. So is there something that they should just maybe reach out or something? I don't know. Yeah, absolutely.

I mean, not everyone is supposed to be picked up. Okay. But, again, it's not out of, like, 9-11, right? There could be overwhelming of the city's system. Maybe there was a bad storm, like you said. But four minutes seems kind of long.

Well, if it's okay with you, I'll follow up with them and maybe just ping you and just let you know.

Yeah, and then if I can get specific times and dates, I can follow up with my liaison at Arlington. Okay, great.

Thank you very much for your report, and thank you to all your staff and everyone. I mean, you and your department is so highly regarded in our city, so thank you for everything. Thank you.

I'll echo Ms. Downs' appreciation. I think we get to see you on a pretty regular basis now between sort of budget season and the proclamations and the annual report and the different community events. And so it's nice for us to be able to establish sort of a healthy dialogue with our police department and police chief, you know, in particular, and sort of just want to thank you for being clear about the substance of the work of the department, its operations, and also candid, I think, during our budget conversations about sort of the various needs, right, and also kind of steps you've taken to sort of standardize operations in ways that you felt those improvements were needed in order to ensure transparency, accountability, and a level of engagement that you wanted for the department. I had just one question with the annual report in the category A offenses, I guess, crime against persons. If a member of the public was looking at the report, to me, one of the categories that would stand out is likely the spike in forcible sex offenses that we saw from a low number of 2-2-2 down to zero and then up to 12. And so I didn't know if you wanted to speak at all to that sort of number. If you know if if you view it as an anomaly, like if there's anything people should be aware about, like to the extent they're looking at the report and that number stands out in a way that's different from like the trend generally.

I don't have enough details to give you specifically if that's a one-off or it's a trend. I do know we don't have, I'd say, stranger type.

Yeah, that's what I mean. So, like, it's not reflecting sort of... dangers that people should feel about being in the community. It's reflecting even potentially like known aggressor kind of situations that the police are like involved in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Majority of those cases, it's the victim knows the perpetrator, right?

Yeah. Other than that, that was my kind of single question. Just wanted to, again, thank you for the, both the detail as to the work of the department, the work that is happening inside, sort of, right, this operational administrative aspects, and then the focus on the continued community engagement efforts and outreach.

Thank you. Thank you.

Ms. Reagan?

So I think you buried one of the interesting number on this crimes against persons again. The 87 you have there, that's the lowest in five years. Yes, it is. So I think you kind of missed a spot there. Yeah.

I was told to keep it under 10 minutes by my team. So that's what I aim for.

I also wanted to call out another mention you had in there about for the Cyber Tip Line. Just in general, I want to make a call out to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I did some work with them a couple decades ago. Fantastic organization. Yes. Unbelievable. And the stuff they deal with is just horrible. Yes. Now, what I do have questions about is the pedestrian and bicycle incidents. The traffic stats you have on here are really around the vehicles. Do we get, do we have some feel that, where we have this heat map of where we're seeing the car accidents, do we have a similar feel beyond the W&OD? Where are we seeing incidents near misses, especially near misses, and you may not be getting them reported, for bicycles, for pedestrians? Is there a way to track that information so that we know before somebody gets hit.

Near misses, we're working on that. Of course, our Safe Street team, we're working with Virginia Tech Traffic Institute to try to collect some of that data. So we want that information. I don't have that information to tell you where specifically where we're having near misses right now, specifically with bicyclists or pedestrians. But I can tell you, based on the crashes we've had involving bicyclists and pedestrians, mostly at intersections, the WD crossing that we talked about and other intersections, primarily on our primary routes on Broad Street and Washington Street. So that's what I can share just based on the research I've done on the calendar year 2025 data.

And is it related to vehicles not following the traffic lights, bicyclists just not following it? Is it a crossing? We don't see very many people being crazy enough to bike on broader Washington.

Yeah, it's mostly crossings. It's not any one particular thing. The biggest reason there's collisions in the city is usually with left turn moves. It's either at an intersection where you have to yield to left turn or there's incoming. Left turns are generally very, very dangerous because we know things getting hidden behind the A pillar. And of course, pedestrian and bicyclists are smaller than other vehicles. So there's a little bit of that. But I don't there isn't any specific trends other than tell with pedestrians and bicyclists other than to say that they're happening primarily at crossings.

Okay. I was also surprised on your map here, the second, obviously Broad and Washington is the highest point for intersection, blows everything else away. We know about that. I don't know what the answer is, but what surprised me was the second highest is actually Broad and Roosevelt. Is there a reason for that? Because...

Impatience, speed, disregarding red light, the traffic flow in the mornings. So, yeah, that is, and, you know, we do get a lot of crashes there. There and West Street, West and Broad is also another hot spot for us.

Yeah, West and Broad, I wouldn't have been surprised. Broad and Roosevelt just surprised me that it was number two. Yep. The other one I want to ask about is you mentioned the stop-arm violations, the bus stop-arms. They seem to be going up. Obviously, that's poor drivers. Obnoxious drivers, I don't know how somebody can do that one. That one boggles my mind, but are there specific locations and are you working with DPW to identify those? Because sometimes the answer is in the street construct or it can be, you know, flexi posts or something like that near the bus stops to try and slow people down instead of freaking out.

Well, I'll say over the years, we've added more cameras. So the number of cameras on a number of buses has increased. So that's one issue to consider. In terms of locations, in terms of the analytical capacity and tools for me to be able to bring all that together, that's limited right now. So I'd love to be able to do that in the future.

And finally, I just want to say I appreciate the effort with the e-bikes. I've seen your officers several times sitting out there. Unfortunately, I don't think sitting out there is really going to do it. They spot them. I'm sorry, you guys just don't blend in. And might need to take a different tact with them. They're still out there. And some are bad. Some are just going down with their wheelies. And some are just wearing their helmet and zipping along.

Yeah, we've asked for help from the parents, right? Buying very fast moving vehicles. They're not bicycles and putting it in a kid's hand. And they're out there making videos for TikTok. So, yeah, we're and it's a rising issue nationally. So we'll continue at it.

Yeah, you don't hide very well. Oh, and then one last question, just a curiosity. Obviously, we've had a lot more restaurants, and so I would have to assume that Dine and Dash increased just because there's more restaurants to do it from. I couldn't tell really where that shows up in the data, or have we seen an increase in that sort of?

I'm not aware of that being an issue, but I'd have to go through our larceny data because although we put them together in one category, the state has a lot of different types of categories, larceny from buildings, larceny from vehicles. So I'd have to go through and see if we're having any issues. Again, I don't see it as an issue because usually when I go to roll call and talk to my officers, they'll tell me what's going on. And if it's something they're going back and back and back and back, they'll bring to my attention. I just haven't heard that being a thing.

I've seen them occasionally in the crime reports. So you're saying they're really more one-offs and just...

Okay. I'll take a look at it. That's fair.

I was just curious. Yeah. All right. That was it.

Great. Did you have some now? Okay.

Thank you for all that information. On page 4, you have the City of Falls Church demographics. This is the first time I have seen that number, 17,056 people in the City of Falls Church. I don't know. I keep waiting for it to get higher and higher.

Here it's correct. I think we projected 18,000 by next year. Right.

So that's just the first time I've seen it in an official document. But my question is just about your police officers and you opened a spot in Eden Center and we've talked about a spot at the West End. How are those going? And with that increase in population, and it's not just our population that live here that you're working with, it's everyone else who's coming through as well. So it's just that, that's my question about

So the one in the west side of the city hasn't opened yet. We're still working on getting that open. So the one in Eaton Center has been great. I've gone out there, done a walk with our liaison, and then Officer Feliciano has done it, and repeatedly what we've gotten feedback from the business owners and the visitors saying since that was open, there's been a noticeable change in illegal activity, people hanging out, spending the night, and those kind of things that we used to see in the past. So that's made a positive impact. I do want to point out that when we look at the crime numbers, what we also look at is crime rate as it relates to our population numbers, right? And the crime rate this 2025 was 29.60 per 1,000 residents. That was an 8% reduction since 2024. And I have 17-year bar graphs. If you guys are into that, I'll send them to you if you want. And what you see through a 17-year decline, that crime rate, because It considers the population growth, right? It keeps going down. So I can't say that the population growth is increasing crime. It's increasing workload. It's increasing service demand, sure. But crime specifically, no, it's not affecting that.

That's great. And then what about the West End station? Do you have a timeline on that?

We should be near. We just finished design. We're picking out furniture. So it's just a matter of getting those things ordered and installed, hopefully before the end of the year. So we've been doing a lot of back and forth to make sure the space is usable for the officers. It's a little bit bigger than the one at Eden Center. So we have an opportunity to bring folks in, meet with them, you know, addressing officer safety issues, their comfort. So we're finished with design, so we're just ordering the furniture. So hopefully by the end of the year, maybe even sooner.

Yeah.

Mr. Snyder.

Thank you. I wanted to focus for a minute on the citations for speeding in the school zone. And those numbers clearly indicate that we have a speeding problem if we didn't know it before. Do you have any sense about whether having the camera there Eventually reducing the speeding, is there any indication of that at this point or are we still dealing with the fact that speeding is endemic and this is one of the locations where the legislature is saying to give us an opportunity to actually try to control it? So, any thoughts you have about what we're getting there?

Yeah, so the numbers are going down. The number of citations are going down, which indicates greater compliance, right? We made some changes, as noted, in the time period of the enforcement to make it more consistent with what we were hearing from the community and also with our neighboring jurisdictions. We're seeing the compliance rate increase. I've also not gotten a whole lot of complaints about pedestrians trying to get across the street and worrying about speeding vehicles. So since those cameras have gone up, the complaints have gone down. And we don't have to put officers out there to do speed enforcement. And I think it is working. So we'll see how it goes over the coming period. But it has been very effective in all the different ways I explained.

That's good to hear. And I suspect these numbers will be requested next year in the legislative debates over whether we can have more authority to to enforce electronically. Thanks for that. And I am glad that the numbers of citations are going down. That means that there may be more compliance and that's our objective. It's not citations and money, it's compliance and highway safety. Second question is, is the department looking at deploying drones for any purpose?

No.

No?

No. No. We have so many other priorities right now to really address accreditation, other technological needs that we need. That's not really on our list, on very high list. We're two square miles. We can pretty much get there pretty quickly ourselves. But, yeah, we'll evaluate it, see if the technology is going to keep changing. But unless council wants me to look at it, I don't really think it's something that we really need to worry about right now. Okay. Thank you.

Great. Well, just to wrap up, overall, I think like my colleagues, we really appreciate how engaged and committed you are to the city and appreciate the engagement from your officers as well. I do have some comments and then some questions as well. So I liked how you started with core values again. And in particular, the one that really jumped out at me besides the ones that I know you all take really seriously is your last round of innovation. And I think I'll read the words around kind of challenging status quo and trying kind of new and innovative approaches. And I think that's reflected in large parts of kind of what this council has tried to do. And so the two I'll call it in particular where I think PD plays a really instrumental role is, you know, one, special events, as Vice Mayor Downs has mentioned. I think that's going to be a continued priority for this city as we think about how to grow our city and make it more vibrant. I think having more events and activities to bring in not only revenue, but people, all that we have to offer. I think having police as part of that early on will be important, so we appreciate you working on that. I think the second one, as you've heard all of us ask about, is really around transportation safety. So given that we are 2.2 square miles, how can we be innovative in making sure that this really is a walkable and safe place to be, regardless of the mode of transportation? So I appreciate that. That core value is kind of called out for you and your officers. Building on what Ms. Connolly asked about population growth, if I did my math correctly, at 2020, we were at 14,000 according to official census numbers. If we're at 17 now, that's a 20% increase in population. Clearly, we've added a lot of housing stock and all that housing is being absorbed and filled up. So we've grown our population 20%. I feel like I asked this last year in your annual report, so I'm going to ask it again. While raw numbers is really helpful, would it make sense to actually look at these crime numbers on a per capita basis? Because with that population growth, I think having our crime rates hold steady, if not decrease, is even more impressive.

Yeah. So we do look at them. As I explained, crime rate with these numbers that are on those charts, those are just numbers from last year, right? They don't consider the population. The crime rate does. And I have bar charts going back 17 years for every single one of those types of offenses. And so we do look at those different types of crimes considering the population, which is looking at the crime rate per population.

And the reason I ask that is because I remember very clearly that during budget season you had come in front of us and said our crime rate was the lowest it's been in 17 years. And that is a remarkable headline. I think that's something that we should feel very proud of and people should brag about Falls Church being a really safe little city.

Yes. Thank you for that. Yeah. And if I can just inject real quick, when you look at all of the regions and the localities in northern Virginia and look at their crime rates and you separate out independent cities from the smaller towns. Right. We're at the top of the list. So that is the crime rate. So, you know, it considers the population growth. as Councilman Agin noted, violent crimes. It's not only the lowest in five years, but if you go farther than that, you just see this decline. And it's remarkable. It speaks to our community and how well it works to keep the community safe together. Great.

I know that the national trend is that crime has decreased across the U.S. despite a lot of fear-mongering. And so it would be nice to know kind of, I guess I would encourage you all to use per capita stats. Like, again, raw number is helpful, but be able to use per capita stats, especially benchmarked against kind of a broader U.S. standard as well. If we are, for example, crime rates are much lower than what the U.S. trend might be, I think that is also a cause for celebration.

That's good feedback. For next year's report, I'll make sure we include some of those charts that shows crime rate per population and show longer trends so we can see those.

That's helpful. Thank you. So moving on to traffic safety. I did note in the report that I think in 2025, the General Assembly changed the property damage threshold from 1,500 to 3,000. Does that mean now that you have to have double the amount of damage before you report it as property damage in a car accident?

Not reporting. We want folks, if they're on public property, they're involved in the crash.

Be counted, I guess.

Yeah. It's really at the officer's discretion based on the investigation evaluations. Combined damage, right? And the reason they increase it because, you know, the cars are getting so more expensive that the slightest little, you know, damage is resulting in 1,500. So I don't think it's going to make a whole lot of difference because as I've looked at the first year, the first part of the year, 2026, and compared to the first part of 2025, and I reported that reportable crashes were down 22%. The majority of our reportable crashes are not property damage. They end up being the injuries. So folks, you still call us. We'll still come out. And there's a record that we responded. We'll exchange information. If there's a violation, they can still cite the violator without having to do a report. There's still a report within our CAD system that we went out. So yeah, I don't think it's going to make a whole lot of difference.

So people can still call. I guess my question is, maybe a roundabout way of saying is, do we think the 2025 numbers is undercounting because the reportable crashes threshold is now higher. So had we used the $1,500 amount of property damage, would that 134 number be higher?

Well, we have to get through the rest of 2026 for me to be able to answer that question so that I can compare the second half of 2026. to the second half of 2025, which really counts for when that change was made. But looking at the second half of 2025 to first half of 2026, I don't I don't see a whole lot of.

Well, that's notable because even with changing that threshold, if you don't think that the crashes have actually increased or we're not undercounting in any way, then that's important, especially when paired with my first point about our population having increased. So we have presumably more people living here. Crime rate is still low, if not decreasing. And then reportable crashes are also not spiking despite the concern that we have more people living here.

Yeah, but the caveat I'll put in the crash data is the injuries, right? So if we have three occupants in a car versus one occupant in a car and three are injured, one injured, we have three injuries. It may not be three crashes, but it's still serious enough. So traffic volumes are increasing, just like population number. Speeds, as Councilman Snyder alluded to, causes a lot of injuries. So the number of these crashes, reportable or not, are important. But as we've done with Bike Falls Church and other groups, is really look at those injuries and seeing if we are having crashes, okay, but what's happening with the injury numbers as well? And I'm seeing in 2026, we're doing better than last year. That's good to hear. We just got to keep working on it.

Yeah, quick detour before I forget. Mr. Shields, while we were talking about traffic volumes, I think this has been in a council request now for a couple months, but we had asked for traffic volume data. I think the last time we had looked at that VDOT report was probably 2023. And so I think it would be helpful to look at what volumes look like, because I think the report from 23, as well as looking back several years before that, was actually volumes have actually decreased on Broad and Washington, increased on a few other places, some small arterial streets, but the overall volumes in the city has actually decreased. So I do think that would be worth refreshing.

Those are the trends. We do need to update that data, and I think that's in the planning work plan as well.

Great. So back to PD. So while we're on auto enforcement, I share Mr. Snyder's concerns and others about school bus citations going up on the cameras there. The red light one decreasing is good news. I recall that you were recommending two new locations. Do we have those? Do you have any of that information to share with us?

So we haven't moved them operationally, but the new locations, the cameras have been installed. So we're on final stages with DPW and the contractors to actually make the connections, and turn things on. So it should be soon. Fingers crossed. We're having to work with other departments on that, permits, DPW, and certainly the vendor. Do you want the locations?

Yeah, you can't leave us hanging.

Well, where did Mr. Agin say was the second highest location? Roosevelt and Broad. There you go. And then what was the first location? Broad and Washington. There you go. It wasn't there already. No, no, sir. So I'll remind council we have so obviously in a four way intersection, if you want to enforce all four ways, you need four cameras. We have four cameras in our program for the entire city. So we've always deployed those four cameras at two separate intersections, understanding that at the intersection we can only cover two directions. So at Broad and Washington, we're covering Washington. So people coming down the hill and trying to make the light. And then at Roosevelt, we're covering broad because that's where we see a lot of the red light violations. So those are the details.

Should we have budget? Could we cover all the directions?

Certainly we can look at that in FY28 if that's what council wants to do.

I guess those are the two intersections that you determined the most crashes, so it necessitated that auto enforcement.

We looked at all intersections throughout the city. We narrowed it down to 10. Then we narrowed it down to intersections, which allows based on direction, turn radius, and the ability to have the equipment. And then we narrowed it down to five, and we had to pick two, so we picked those two, which you see on the sheet, on the heat map.

Were those two like definitely rising to the top? Is there like a close third that we should consider?

West. Broad and West.

I think it's important for us to keep in mind because, again, I personally think red light running is pretty flagrant at all of Broad Street. And so I think it would be helpful for us to know what those top offending intersections are. And that's something that we can have a community discussion about.

Yeah. And then when we update the stop arms around Hillwood and Annandale, that's another spot we want to look at.

Great. Okay. So moving off traffic safety, one final question. Wildlife complaints. I know that those have actually increased, I think, in your report.

Yes.

I personally have received a lot more of those as well between rabid foxes, raccoons, and deer. Mm-hmm. Is that something that has been concerning enough for police?

I wouldn't say necessarily concerning. There was a 31% increase, as you noted. No, I mean, I'm not sure exactly why the increase. I did know that we had more euthanization by police officers. If you look at our use of force data, you'll see more than we had. But looking back years, it's really ebb and flows. We only have one animal control officer, so, you know, they can only be available so much out of a 24-hour period. But, yeah, I can't say exactly what has contributed to the increases.

Yeah, we've had some public comment and requests for deer culling, and so this is, I guess...

It's not usually deers. It's usually small foxes and things like that.

That need euthanization that are usually rabid?

Or appear to be, yeah. Rabid, okay.

Okay.

Well, that's it for us. Thank you again very much, Chief Hart. We appreciate you coming out tonight and all the good work in the team.

All right. Thank you for all your support. Appreciate it.

Okay.

You're welcome to stay.

Well, I know there's probably some, might be some additional questions for me, as Council Member Agin noted, but I do want to just thank Dana Jones, our Human Services Director, Kayleen Mark, Chief Fard, and the whole Police Department team for really informative reports that show the dynamism and the really serious work that staff are doing with community. So thank you for those reports.

Yes. Thank you to our public safety and housing teams, both really important departments for the city and top priorities for us on council. So moving on to council requests, which I know that some of us probably have. Mr. Reagan.

I've got one that already ties into what we've touched on a bit, and that is Grove and the W&OD. I've been through there a couple of times. I really haven't seen much change, to be honest, as far as structure. Can you give us an update on what's happening besides moving, I guess, a stop a little bit farther away. What's the status? What's going on? Because right now I haven't seen anything actually implemented yet.

So our team, as the Chief noted, we do get together to assess these things, and I think there's a set of that are being run to ground in terms of changes we could make to that intersection. I don't have details on that to report tonight, but we will follow up with Council on that and with the community. OK, this one.

I have a quick one. I'm raising it now given the kind of limited scope of the Virginia Village conversation later. And so this one relates more to the RFP process and kind of two requests. The first is as to the evaluation kind of advisory committee, it still hasn't been clear to me, you know, as we populate the committee, WHO LIKE OF CITY STAFF LIKE IN TERMS OF DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATION TO HELP ADVISE THAT ADVISORY COMMITTEE WILL BE ON THERE AND I GUESS I'M JUST MAKING A REQUEST AND THINK THAT IT WOULD BE PRUDENT TO INVOLVE THE FINANCE DIRECTOR IF IT WASN'T ALREADY ON YOUR RADAR TO INVOLVE THE FINANCE DIRECTOR YOU KNOW I KNOW WE HAVE JLL AS OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS BUT I'VE RAISED BEFORE THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING KIND OF THE FISCAL IMPACT NOT ONLY OF THE PROJECT BUT KIND OF THE BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING OVER TIME AND THINK IT MAKES SENSE FOR MR. SOH OR SOMEONE FROM THAT DEPARTMENT TO BE PART OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO HELP IN THAT RESPECT WITH REGARDS TO KIND OF THE CITY'S AWARENESS, RIGHT, OF BUDGETARY AND NEED FOR BUDGETARY PLANNING AROUND DEVELOPMENT. AND THEN THE SECOND POINT, I KNOW IN THE COUNCIL STRATEGIC PRIORITIES WE HAD TAKEN UP WITH DEVELOPMENT APPLICATIONS GENERALLY, MORE FORMALIZED CONFLICT CHECK KIND OF PROCESS, AND JUST WANT TO ENSURE THAT, YOU KNOW, THE SAME WAY THAT OR FOR THE CITY ATTORNEY AND CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE TO JUST BE ATTUNED TO you know, how that process will play out with respect to an RFP or kind of respondents with an RFP, that that continues to be on your radar given that we implemented those changes to kind of development and site plan applications, but to make sure that they carry over to a process like this as well. Thanks.

And thank you for those suggestions. And if Council has other suggestions, I'm happy to be all ears. I do intend to get word out on the committee this week. We have heard back from the Housing Commission, Planning Commission, Economic Development Authority and City Council. on representatives from those boards and commissions, and so we'll flush that out with the staff members and get the word out just so the community knows who's on that evaluation.

I thought the Planning Commission had it down to two, but they were deferring it till this Wednesday's meeting.

I was not aware of that. I thought I had a name.

Unless that's changed.

Okay, so there's still, the Planning Commission is still working through their final determination. Okay.

And has the EDA sent a name? Because they were also going back and forth between two.

My understanding is that they did. Okay.

Is that it? That way? Council across over here?

I have a request regarding Southwest Street. The neighbors there, who are your neighbors also, Mr. Shields, are very excited that the no parking without permit signs are going up. They've gotten their stickers from staff. They have further questions, and they're just wondering how they're going to get this information. They want to know when is it going to start to be enforced. Is it a, is there a date certain?

So, typically, we do give a little bit of a grace period after signs go up with warning tickets. Right. So, that would be, that's the way we've laid these, when we've rolled these regulations out in the past.

That makes sense. But, like, when does the grace period, has it started? When does it end?

Well, first, the signs need to be up. I don't know if they're up or done or, yeah. Yeah. Typically, it's 30 days.

Okay. Yeah. They're also wondering, like, if their driveway is blocked at any time. Do they still call the police?

So one of the...

I feel like you don't have to answer this question. They just need a communication from staff.

So Jenna Brummond is our lead on that, and I'll follow up with her.

Because they've sent some questions in, and there seems to be a little bit of confusion. And then their other question is just... One of the requests had been that the signs be farther away from the driveways, and some of them right on West Street are, the sign is right next to the driveway or within three feet of the driveway, and that was part of their big concern was how hard it is to see when people are driving 40 miles an hour and you're trying to back out of your driveway. So they were just wondering about the placement of those signs. So again, those are, I have some pictures and other things which I'm happy to share, but if Jenna could follow up on all those things, that would be good.

While we're on Southwest, I had a question whether we're going to start allowing parking on Ellison behind the back of Founders 2.

Yes, that is part of the package. So there would be two-hour parking on Ellison on the side towards the Modera. And so the signage will reflect that.

And I know Chief Fard's not here anymore, but I know that we had noted we were doing less parking enforcement until we kind of restaffed up our PSAs. But that'll probably be an important area to start enforcing the beginning, especially if we are adding parking. I imagine you'll get a lot of commercial parking along there. Sorry, Ms. Connolly, please continue. I have. Thank you. Mr. Snyder.

Thanks. With the departure of one of our key employees, I wanted to make sure, City Manager, that we've got somebody assigned to work on transportation grants, looking for opportunities coordinating with the council representatives and otherwise making sure we're getting into each of these funding cycles. Can you comment on that?

So we will work closely with the council and with you with your role with NVTA and NVTC and Councilmember Underhill just to coordinate strategy on seeking funding. So that is our commitment to do that.

And that connection, I would note that NVTA approved $30 million Annandale Road project. We had another project and it was not funded, but we're going to be looking for ways to pursue that funding in connection with Fairfax County and working with them. But that's just an indication of the real money that we're talking about and why it's very important to have staff, adequate staff dedicated to coming up with these projects and helping us get them into the system and then advocated for funding. Thanks.

Agreed.

I think we've been very successful in the Transportation Fund winning grant money, so I think that's been... And thank you for putting out the note to citizens and asking them to comment. That's an important part of it, so thank you.

So on transportation, I've heard from three neighborhoods. I imagine that next week's discussion on neighborhood traffic calming will be busy. And so Grove is very interested in the timing of those improvements with Grove and W&OD. Hillwood Avenue, I think, are getting some light solutions, and they're waiting to hear time frames on when their light solutions will be implemented next. And then Andale and Gundry, I think getting their mini roundabout. People are very excited about that quick build solution. So those are the three that have neighborhoods that have pinged me for updates. And so I'm sharing that as kind of top of mind for staff when we do our NTC discussion work session next week. I think one thing that I mentioned last week. Or not last week. Maybe it was in the mayor's meeting. The streetlights have been out. I didn't see any council requests because those council requests haven't come out for a couple weeks. But when I was in the city, in the south part of the city, South Washington, Hillwood by the taxi cab, as well as Broad Street near the property yard and Burch and Broad, those are all out. And it's a big stretch. So it's not like a few.

It's the new ones, too.

Yeah, especially the South Washington ones are worrisome because that was all near the new multimodal transit plaza and all of them are out. And so I wonder if there's some sort of circuit or systemic problem and it's not just a few out, but it might be worth just going through broad in Washington in general and figure out if there's some broader issue, because right now, while it's light out till late, it may not matter. But I do worry about it once it gets to the fall and winter.

Right.

Thank you. I think that's it. Let's move on to business on the agenda. Can we call the first item? I think we have a series of public hearings and second readings tonight.

Yes, our first item, second reading public hearing is TO 26-16 ordinance allocating personal property tax relief funds for tax year 2026.

And our Commissioner of Revenue, Tom Clinton, will provide the staff report on this. Thank you for your work on this.

Good evening, Mayor Hardy, Vice Mayor Downs, the rest of the city council members. We're just here for the second reading and final approval on the PPTRA tax relief rate, something we've traditionally done internally, but we're now doing it, you know, with conjunction with the council. And we added a little bit of tax relief for some of the lowest vehicles that we do assess, where it's very time consuming for us and it's also, beneficial to people that are really struggling to hold on to, you know, cars with the least value. So I think that's, you know, progress there. And other than that, I don't, you know, I'm open for any questions if they haven't arisen earlier.

Any questions or comments for the Commissioner? Okay, I'm going to open the public hearing. Any members of the public wish to comment? I don't see actually any members of the public here.

Nobody on the line?

Okay. Well, seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing. Is there a motion? I'll move to adopt TO 26-16. Is there a second? Second. Ms. Downs on the second. Can you call roll, please?

Mr. Agin? Yes. Ms. Conley? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snyder?

Yeah.

Ms. Underhill? Yes. Yes. Mayor Hardy. Yes. Motion carries seven to zero. Thank you. Great.

Thank you. Sorry to make you sit two hours just for a two minute item.

This is early. You've been here till midnight waiting for us sometimes. Thanks for coming, Mr. Clinton. Thank you.

Let's call the next item, please. Yes.

Next, we have TR26-18, Resolution to Amend 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.

And to the clerk, I might suggest we read the next two items, the next three items so they could all be staff report together as we have been doing.

Okay. We're going to have to open each one of them as separate public hearings. So the three other items related to Chesapeake Bay are TO 26-08, Ordinance to Amend Chapter 35, Stormwater Article 1, Stormwater Management Section 35-2, Definitions Section 35-12, Water Quality Impact Assessment, and Section 35-24, Fees of the Code of the City of Falls Church, Virginia, to comply with the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. We have TO 26-09, Ordinance to Amend the Code of the City of Falls Church, Virginia, Chapter 38, Subdivisions Article 2, Requirement for Plats, 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. Finally, FTO 26-10, ordinance to amend the code of the City of Falls Church, Virginia, Chapter 48, zoning, Article 5, supplementary regulations, Division 7, site plan, Sections 40 8-1134 when required to comply with the chesapeake preservation act and section 48-1135 preliminary survey documents section 48-1137 required information section 48-1141 considerations and division 8 landscaping sections uh 48-1 1179 intent and objectives and section 48-1180 tree canopy coverage to correct typographical or city code section reference errors.

Great. And I think, is that all three of them? Thank you.

And so, Emily Bazemore is our lead planner for the comp plan amendment. And then, Baha'u'llah Kifle is our lead for the code amendments. And we'll do as we have been doing, starting with the comp plan. Thank you, Emily, for your work on this.

Thank you. Good evening, Council. Tonight, Council is requested to approve an amendment to Chapter 5 of the City's Comprehensive Plan, Environment for Everyone, Environmental Sustainability, Resilience, and Natural Resources. This Comprehensive Plan amendment is before Council for a public hearing and final action. The amendment to Chapter 5 incorporates maps and narratives required by the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, which were prompted by a recent review of the City's Chesapeake Bay program with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. they represent a set of minor technical modifications the city is undertaking following that review changes to this report since the june 8 2026 action meeting of city council are highlighted in gray this item is now before city council for a public hearing and final action Tonight, staff recommends approval of the proposed motion. On July 1st, 2026, the Planning Commission held a public hearing on this item and voted unanimously 5-0 to adopt the proposed amendment and recommended the Council grant final approval. Starting on page two of the staff report, this item was most recently reviewed by City Council at its June 8th, 2026 action meeting, where this item was referred to the Planning Commission for their review and the recommendation. The City Council also scheduled a public hearing as required by the Virginia State Code and the City Charter. All updates since the June 8th meeting are reflected in red underlined text in the draft dated July 2026. There's a list here of some different key updates that were included in this updated draft. Now I'm going to move to line 44, the Planning Commission Public Hearing and Recommendation, which happened on July 1st of 2026. So here we have the proposed motion from the Planning Commission at their July 1st meeting. I just want to jump to line 57. So language has been added to the implementation chart on page 43 of the draft chapter. This is item number 22 to support the recommendation from the planning commission found in the motion of that. With respect to the latter portion of the motion, the stormwater management facility inspection, maintenance and enforcement is an existing program implemented in accordance with state regulations. It is intentionally captured under proposed programs and projects or under the proposed programs and projects section of the chapter's implementation table as its operation remains continuous and critical to supporting the implementation of the city's Chesapeake Bay program. Now I'm going to move to page four of the report. I DO WANT TO HIGHLIGHT UNDER COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT THAT THIS DRAFT AMENDMENT, IN ADDITION TO BEING REVIEWED BY CITY COUNCIL AND PLANNING COMMISSION, WAS ALSO SHARED DIGITALLY WITH THE ESC AND WITH URBAN FORESTRY FOR THEIR AWARENESS AND THEIR REVIEW. AND THAT'S ALL FOR ME. I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO BAHAILU. THANK YOU.

Good evening, City Mayor Letiherde and City Council. Tonight, Council is requested to adopt the proposed amendment to Chapter 35, Stormwater, Section 2, Definition, Section 12, Water Quality Impact Assessment, and Section 24, Fees. Chapter 38, Subdivision, Article 2, Requirement for Plots, Section 34, General Regulations, and Chapter 48, Site Plan, Section 1134, when required of the city code. The relatively minor technical amendments are intended to address three state mandated code amendments identified under the Ordinance Consensus Review during the Department of Environmental Quality audit of the Chesapeake Bay Program. THE CITY COUNCIL GRANTED FIRST READING OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO THOSE ITEMS ON JUNE 8, 2026. AS A PART OF THAT ACTION, THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO ZONING TEXT AMENDMENT TO 26-09 AND TO 26-10 REFER TO PLANNING COMMISSION FOR REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION The Planning Commission reviewed TO 26-09 and TO 26-10 during its June 17, 2026 work session and subsequently held a public hearing on July 1, 2026 before forwarding the amendment to the City Council with no comment or recommendation, recommended change. After reading and After first reading and in consultant with the city attorney, TO 26-08, Chapter 35, stormwater, was redrafted to remove specific state fee language from Section 3524 in order to reference stormwater management permit fee as established in Virginia Code annually. So the proposed amendments are now before the city council for secondary public hearing and final consideration. Tonight, staff is recommending holding public hearing and adopting TO-2609, TO-2609, excuse me, TO-2608, TO-2609, and TO-2610. That's all I have. If you have any question, welcome.

Great. Thank you, Baha'i, Lou, and Emily. I know that both of these were all under quick turnarounds. We appreciate your work this summer to get this in front of us. Any questions or comments for staff? I'm going to open the public hearing. We have to do these all separately, right? First for TR26-18, the comp plan amendments. Any members of the public wish to comment on TR26-18? OK, I'm going to close the public hearing. The next one is TO 26-08. I'm going to open the public hearing. Seeing none, I'm going to close the public hearing for TO 26-08. The next one is TO 26-09. I'm going to open for public comment. Seeing no public comment, we're going to close that public hearing. Now we're at TO 26-10. Any members of the public wish to comment? Last call. Okay, we're going to close that public hearing. Okay, with no further questions or comments, I'll take a motion for the first.

Madam Mayor, I move to adopt TR 26-18. Is there a second? Second. Second.

Ms. Connolly in the second. Call roll, please.

Mr. Egan?

Yes.

Ms. Connolly? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snider? Yes. Ms. Underhill? Yes. And Mayor Hardy?

Yes.

Motion carries 7 to 0. Thank you.

Is there a motion for TO 26-08?

I move to adopt TO 26-08. Is there a second?

Second.

Ms. Agin on the second.

Call roll, please. Mr. Agin? Yes. Ms. Conley? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snider? Yes. Ms. Underhill? Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes.

Motion carries 7 to 0. Next, is there a motion for TO 26-09?

I move to adopt TO- I move to adopt TO 26-09.

Is there a second? Second. Ms. Downs on the second.

Call roll. Mr. Agin?

Yes.

Ms. Conley? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn? Yes. Mr. Snyder? Yes.

Ms. Underhill?

Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Next. Is there a motion? We're on 09. We're on 10. 10, sorry. TO 26-10.

Move to adopt TO 26-10. Is there a second?

Second.

Ms. Downs on the second.

Call roll, please. Ms. Dragan. Yes. Ms. Conley. Yes. Ms. Downs. Yes. Ms. Flynn. Yes. Mr. Snyder.

Yes.

Ms. Underhill. Yes. And Mayor Hardy. Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you, council.

Congrats, thank you. Thank you. Good work.

Thank you.

Okay, I think then we just have consent for tonight before we go into other business. Any questions or comments on consent, which is compensation for our three employees for the fiscal year? If not, I'll take a motion.

I move to approve the consent agenda.

Is there a second? Second. Call roll, please.

Mr. Agin?

Yes.

Ms. Conley?

Yes.

Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn?

Yes.

Mr. Snyder?

Yes.

Ms. Underhill? Yes. And Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you very much, Council.

Kudos to our three employees for a solid year. Thank you for all your work and also to Vice Mayor Downs for spearheading the performance reviews this year. Moving on to other business.

Thank you, Council.

Other business?

OK, so for other business, we would recommend that the city council consider going into closed session to receive advice of legal counsel and then and then after having that legal counsel then come out to open session and provide guidance to staff.

OK, so I have the motions here upon a motion made by. Downs? And seconded by? Connelly. And passed by a vote of City Council, Council went into closed session pursuant to Virginia Code 2.2-3711A8 for consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding the specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel, specifically to consult with the City Attorney regarding the special exception options in the Virginia Village Overlay Zoning District. Mr. Agin?

Yes.

Connelly? YES. DOWNS? YES. FLYNN? YES. SNYDER? YES. UNDERHILL? YES. HARDY, YES. WE'RE GOING IN AT 9.31 P.M. ONE OF THE EARLIER NIGHTS FOR CLOSED SESSIONS. MS. UNDERHILL, I GUESS WE'LL SEE YOU IN THE OAK ROOM. WE'LL GET YOU THE LINK IF YOU DON'T HAVE IT ALREADY.

YEAH, IF SOMEBODY COULD SEND IT AGAIN, BUT I'LL CHECK MY EMAIL.

We're sending that to you.

Ms. Underhill, we'll just call you from the room. Ms. Underhill, we'll just call you from the room. You'll get a Teams call. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

I sent an email with the motions to the whole city council and the city clerk, if you have access to email up there.

I don't have it yet.

Oh.

Oh, great. Thank you.

Okay.

Well, let's come out of closed session. Are we rolling now? WE'RE GOOD NOW. OKAY. WELCOME BACK. WE ARE COMING OUT OF CLOSED SESSION. SO UPON A MOTION MADE BY CONNELLY AND SECONDED BY DOWNS AND PASSED BY A VOTE OF THE CITY COUNCIL, THE COUNCIL RECONVENED AN OPEN SESSION. COUNCILMEMBER AGEN?

YES.

CONNELLY? YES. DOWNS? YES. FLYNN? YES. SNYDER? YES. UNDERHILL? YES. Yes. And Hardy, yes. We are coming out at 11.27 PM. This is now the certification. Upon a motion made by.

Egan.

And seconded by. CONNOLLY. AND PASSED UPON AFFIRMATIVE ROLL CALL VOTE IN OPEN SESSION, IT WAS CERTIFIED THAT ONE, ONLY PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS LAWFULLY EXEMPTED FROM OPEN MEETING REQUIREMENTS, AND TWO, ONLY SUCH PUBLIC BUSINESS MATTERS AS WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE MOTION BY WHICH THE CLOSED MEETING WAS CONVENED, HEARD, DISCUSSED, OR CONSIDERED IN THE CLOSED SESSION OR MEETING BY THE CITY COUNCIL. AGEN?

YES.

CONNOLLY? YES. DOWNS? YES. FLYNN?

YES.

SNYDER? YES. UNDERHILL? YES. HARDI? YES. OK, we are back in open session. Thank you all for the hearty discussion. In closed and I think we have a. We have direction for staff, but I don't have anything from. Is it stuck in your outbox?

For anybody watching the live stream, we're just waiting for a motion to come up on the screen.

Can you just hand us your screen and we can?

Okay. Thank you.

OK, so we have a motion to direct staff action, so I'm going to read it. So based on discussion and closed session, I move that Council direct staff to one draft the overlay district ordinance with a special exception requirement that goes into effect on July 1st, 2027, prior to which time development within the overlay district will be by right and to draft the special exception regulations that they may apply to any type of development proposing to utilize the rights afforded by the overlay district. Second. Did you just make that motion? I made that motion. Okay. And Vice Mayor Downs seconded that. Can we call roll?

Madam Mayor, before we do that, I just want to make a formal request to the City Manager that we provide clarity with regard to the City's ability to negotiate with regard to a privately with regard to the City-owned property. And included in that are things like a site plan and other elements of the process.

Thank you, council member. And so the intent is that a site plan would be approved by the city prior to comprehensive agreement execution and that vote by the city council for the comprehensive agreement. But we'll lay out a clear roadmap on kind of what those approvals look like and the opportunities for public input prior to those approvals at your meeting on July 20th. Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. I think we're ready for roll call.

Mr. Egan?

Yes.

Ms. Conley? Yes. Ms. Downs? Yes. Ms. Flynn?

Yes.

Mr. Snyder?

Yes.

Ms. Underhill? Yes. Mayor Hardy? Yes. Motion carries 7 to 0.

Thank you. Great. Thank you. I know it is past 1130, but I know that we had a brief scheduling thing we need to discuss that we might not have quorum on Wednesday morning. Who do we expect to be in person on Wednesday?

Actually, Madam Mayor, I got the weeks wrong. I think I will be there this week. So I think we may have, I think we do have a quorum.

Okay. Well, good. So Ms. Underhill will be, I mean, Ms. Flynn will be joining remotely. I'll likely be just absent. Absent. Okay, cool. Yes. Okay. So we'll have a quorum.

I'll be absent because I'll be on a plane soon.

Okay.

OK, well, we'll tackle schedule Wednesday morning and not do it tonight. But before we get to adjourn, I think we have any committee or liaison reports or council member comments. OK, let's do minutes. These were minutes from our special meeting on July 1st for employee reviews. Is there a motion? Very brief minutes.

I move to approve the July 1st, 2026 special meeting minutes as presented.

Is there a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Minutes are adopted. I don't think we need the closed session on HR things, on the city manager recruitment, because I think I talked to every one of you individually. So unless there's any other business, I think we are adjourned for tonight. Good night all. Thank you. Good night.

Thank you, Council. Good night.