Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Okay. Hello. Welcome to the May 13th long range planning committee meeting on the comprehensive plan update, progress update and review of the draft guiding principles. I am Tenley Peterson. I'm co co-chairing this meeting with Commissioner Sarah Steinberger who um is on her way and it is her birthday today. So, we can all say happy birthday to her when she arrives. Uh we will be holding a hybrid public meeting which enables remote electronic participation as legally authorized by the code of Virginia per the planning commission's electronic meeting policy adopted on July 7th, 2022. We do have um people participating in person and virtually. Right. Yes.

Okay. Um, members of the LRPC are participating both here in person and virtually through electronic meetings means. This meeting is being recorded for our public records and will be posted on the Arlington County Commission's meeting YouTube page. Avoid sharing any personal information that you would not like to be made public. At this time, I'd like to orient everyone to our hybrid environment and cover a few specifics about how tonight's meeting will run. Members of the public may attend the meeting here in person or electronically by using the Microsoft Teams link provided on the LRPC web pages, the county's events calendar, and the email notification sent to LRPC email subscribers. Additionally, there is a dial-in phone option for those who wish to use it. For our planning commissioners and roster members who are joining virtually, if anyone loses losses internet connectivity tonight during tonight's meeting, please reconnect with us by phone. Please keep your phones and devices muted until you are called upon. Turn off sound to any other devices around you to minimize interference. For our virtual attendees using Microsoft Teams, please turn off your video feed. I will address when it is appropriate to turn it on in a moment. Um the Microsoft Teams meeting chat is active to assist uh to serve two purposes. To assist participants who need technical support and for participants to pose brief clarifying questions to the larger audience. While the clarifying questions will be monitored, they will not be formally acknowledged. Staff may address these comments as appropriate. The team's chat should not be used for discussion or inappropriate statements. Those who are planning to provide public comment may do so at the end of the meeting as the chat may not be used for that purpose. All public comments must be shared verbally for the record during the assigned public testimony periods. Uh, I would like to remind everyone in the room to speak up, speak slowly, use your microphone um to allow our virtual participants to hear you. Uh, if commissioners participating virtually wish to be recognized to speak on an item during the course of the

meeting, please turn on your video feed and raise your virtual hand. Staff will be monitoring the video feeds. Um, and who do we have that's a roster member that's with us tonight? We've got Commissioner Robertson that is on Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Commissioner Robertson. Yes, we have uh Alice, Alissa Toe, McCriedi. Okay. Karen Adond, Rob Sandolei, and William Wei. Okay, perfect. Um, and do we have any commissioners or roster members who are joining us by phone without the video option?

Okay. Um, unlike the planning commission's regular meetings, the LRPC agenda items are not public hearings. Therefore, public comment is at the LRPC chair's discretion. I will call for speakers at the end of the meeting. Ask for the committee what after the committee discussion has concluded. Members of the public attending virtually will speak first followed by in-person attendees. The speaking time allotted will depend on the number of speakers we have this evening. In-person attendees, please add your name to the speakers list. Is that it's in the front?

Um at the front of the room. Um, virtual attendees, please indicate in the chat that you'd like to provide comment and your name will be added to our list of speakers. Mazelle Alfonso Ahmed will acknowledge your request in the team's chat. When virtual attendees are called upon to speak, you must unmute yourself by clicking on the microphone icon that is located on your meeting command bar. The moderator does not have the ability to unmute you. You will be muted when your time has concluded. As an alternative, public comment may also be provided on the public comment for form posted on the LRPC web page. Lastly, this is a public forum. Tonight's meeting will be recorded and posted to the county website. All information associated with today's meeting, whether written or spoken is subject to Freedom of Information Act requirements. So, now that all of that is said, I think we can do um introductions around the room. I'm Tenley Peterson. I'm co-chairing tonight's meeting with Commissioner Steinberger and I'm a member of the Planning Commission.

I'm Bob Benson with the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission. Uh, John Burke with the information technology advisory commission. Alex Alex Foster with the HRB. Jim Lantel, Planning Commission. Pa Modo, Planning Commission.

Leia Bagley, Planning Commission. Rana Abu Gazale, County Staff. Sarah Steinberger, Planning Commission, whose toddler never lets her leave without 14 hugs and a series of goodbyes. Sorry. So, I think should we open it to the virtual for for introductions? Yes. Great. So, let's see. Karen. Yeah, that's great. Karen Odon, Disability Advisory Commission.

Peter Robertson, Planning Commission. Alyssa Topp, uh, Arts Commission and Public Art Committee, Rob Sandola with the the Climate Change, Energy, and Environment Commission. Cliff McCriedy, the Commission on Aging. Cliff McCriedi, Arlington Neighborhood Advisory Committee. Is William online?

Yes, I am. C can you introduce yourself and say which group you're with? Yes, I tried earlier. William, Commission on Aging. Thank you. Did we miss anyone else?

Well, the only Let's see. One second. We just need to confirm. Is there some Who was the other person that was here for Commission on Aging? Oh, that's right. Thank you. That's I'm not with the Commission on Aging. It's Arlington Neighborhood Advisory Committee. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for clarifying that. Aging. That's right. Never had Disabilities Commission. Yeah. No, I don't think so. All right. So before we uh hand it over to staff, I just wanted to say happy birthday to Sarah who's spending her birthday here with us. Yeah.

On behalf of all of us, we have a little card and just some sweet treats for um for later when you're, you know, but don't give it to your son. He will not go to bed. It's a little too much for Thank you. That's very sweet of y'all. Um thank you. All right. So we can uh oh uh I believe staff has a presentation. Thank you. Please take it away.

Thank you, Sarah. And uh good evening everyone. Uh I'm just going to uh share my presentation. So if you can give me a minute. Hey, perfect. All right. My name is Rana Abu Ghazali. Again, I'm the project manager uh for the comprehensive plan update with the planning division. And I'm very excited uh to uh bring you some updates with regards to the Arlington County guided draft guiding principles and to um let you know what our progress is so far. All right, just a quick refresher. Uh this project uh is about developing an introduction to the comprehensive plan and refreshing the comprehensive plan goals and objectives with new uh guiding principles that are unique to Arlington. It started in April 2024 when we had the comprehensive plan update kickoff presentation and followed in 2025 uh with um community um meetings and focus groups as well as popups. Uh we also developed um a tool that relates to community vulnerability index mapping. And in the fall of 2025, we continued with community meetings and uh an additional online feedback opportunity uh specifically uh for the guiding principles. And then in the winter of uh 2025 through um the spring uh we were drafting uh the introduction and the guiding principle. The introduction is still in progress but in the springtime we have shared uh that uh um for um you know review as well. All right. So um under the draft uh

comprehensive plan introduction uh purpose and progress. I'm not going to go too, you know, in a lengthy matter on this, but as you know, this fulfills a prior five year review uh recommendation uh hoping to share um a framework for us to help us um uh with decision-making process, clarify our priorities and establish a common basis uh for accountability, coordination and future updates. The introduction would include the guiding principles which is at its heart data about Arlington and future projections, our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges and an overview of the 12 comprehensive plan elements, how they work together and um sorry, apologies and outline the process for future comprehensive plan element updates uh and how they align with those guiding principles. Uh so as I said what we drafted to date is seven uh draft guiding principles that are now available for community feedback and the introduction is currently in progress. So without further ado uh in um looking at those draft guiding principles and their supporting statements just uh reminding everyone that we had started with uh the American Planning Association's guiding principle as an initial best practice approach to see if there was um uh support from the community about the themes in general in relation to initial six uh themes livable built environment interwoven inequity, harmony with nature, health and safety, resilient economy, and responsible regionalism. And um as you can see, uh the majority were either found either those themes important or very important to them and then provided uh feedback on those statements. What is missing? How can we make that uh better

and unique to us as Arlington? So the feedback that was received uh around those principles and also as new themes that are missing revolved around four um main themes related to governance, accountability, transparency and trust, community engagement. They wanted more on that. They felt that was missing in terms of uh need to be highlighted more. Uh connection, civic participation, inclusivity, the technology aspect, innovation, digital tools, especially knowing that we are in the era of AI and what that means as a disruptor and then education or schools or learning and how those fit in the whole um equation. So the feedback was incorporated uh either um how we you know in terms of how we analyze it either feeling that it deserved to stand alone as its own guiding principle or merging that into the existing uh themes of the guiding principles and highlighting that as a supporting statement. And so the results were as I said the seven draft guiding principles and supporting statements that makes them even more focused. Um, in terms of what those guiding principles are, those are valuebased statements that express the comprehensive plan's intended direction at its highest overarching level and guides its goals, policies, maps, and any other related uh components. So hopefully it provides a shared framework, connects our values uh to the implementation. It's a foundation for accountability and measurement where we can define success by aligning uh our 12 elements and even future projects to those higher level guiding principles and it keeps the comprehensive plan relevant and adaptive. So every new project or every update to the comprehensive plan we can state clearly which guiding principle or which supporting statement for that guiding principle this new project or this

comprehensive plan element update aligns with. It hopefully strengthens the community trust, showcases impact and allows us to create a feedback loop by applying those guiding principles and how they align in decision- making and strengthening transparency. Uh the supportive the supporting statement which we see with the guiding principles is one unit. They're descriptive statements that indicate the policy direction and provide greater clarity and definition to each principle. So it provides more focus uh demonstrates uh how those guiding principles connect to the 12 elements, reduces any ambiguity and demonstrates where that those alignments between the elements or other projects lies and as as again it provides that accountability and measurements in a more focused way so we can reference exactly which supportive statement uh we are helping advance through our work. So the draft guiding principles are as such uh the livable and thriving Arlington, uh sustainable and environmentally just Arlington, inclusive Arlington, healthy and safe Arlington, economically and socially resilient Arlington, regionally collaborative Arlington, and uh finally the seventh one is infrastructure ready Arlington. Uh I'm going to go over them. I know that you guys had uh a read ahead to spend some time with, but just in case uh I'm going to show you also a few icons that show how it's relate to our work as the comprehensive plan elements and a generic one for other plans, policies and initiatives. But the list is not meant to be fully inclusive. We can never you know pinpoint all of the work that we have been doing but at least giving you an example.

So under livable and thriving Arlington uh this guiding principle talks about ensuring everyone can thrive in highquality accessible and affordable live, work, learn, play spaces that support well-being and integrate Arlington's urban and natural environments through thoughtful planning and design, coordinated infrastructure and public services and programs. So um as you can see here under the supporting statements we talk about worldclass placemaking and urban design making sure we have visually appealing architecture biophilic design culturally responsive art. Uh we talk about uh housing that meets community needs, walkable, accessible and connected spaces, quality public amenities, services and infrastructure and rich cultural heritage and identity. And as you can see uh throughout this we have examples of how our comprehensive plan elements actually align with a lot of those supporting statements. For example, in 1.1 you can see the public spaces master plan, the forestry and natural resources plan, our GLOP, our general land use plan, our historic and cultural resources plan, and even the uh Arlington economic development strategic plan, principles of civic design, green building incentives programs as a few examples. Under the second guiding principle, we talk about inclusive Arlington, where we talk about ensuring Arlington is a diverse, accessible, and welcoming community for all, free from all forms of discrimination while integrating equity across all county work. So, here we talk about what it means uh to have an inclusive culture, identity, and heritage where we strengthen and celebrate diverse community values, recognize and preserve and uplift cultural resources. We talk about economic opportunity and mobility,

equitable and accountable distribution of resources. We talk about accessible housing services and basic needs like education, health care, child care, food, nutrition, aging and disability support, recreation among other social services. We talk about diverse and meaningful engagement and what that means. And here this is one of the terms that we work upcoming from the feedback as one of those four major elements where we felt it strongly belonged in here. So we talk about ensuring that in planning, budgeting and other decision making we follow the best public engagement practices for equitable, inclusive and accessible participation and ensuring that also historically marginalized groups are able to also participate uh and uh have a sense of ownership and purpose in community life. We also talk about avoiding displacement of vulnerable communities, especially those who are most susceptible to market pressures or historic inequities and environmental risks. Under the third guiding principle, we talk about what it means to be a sustainable and environmentally just Arlington where we ensure a sustainable and environmentally just community with equitable access to clean air, water and healthy process places so nature and people can thrive together now and for for generations to come. So we talk about uh stewardship uh through environment uh you know remediating communive environmental burdens, promoting environmental stewardship across planning and policies. We we talk about uh protecting and restoring natural ecosystems. Uh access to clean air and water, nature and shade. Uh preserving the tree canopy and biodiversity by reaching or sustaining our countywide uh tree canopy goals. um biophilic and green

infrastructure and the ability to have nature-based design. Uh climate resilience and adaptation uh where we prioritize climate action efforts and invest also in uh planning and environmental protection efforts especially in communities also vulnerable to environmental risks. And we talk about clean and renewable energy and expanding uh that where possible either onsite or as off-site uh solutions. Under the fourth uh guiding principle, a healthy and safe Arlington, we talk about ensuring Arlington supports a healthy lifestyle and strengthens protection for everyone through equitable access to healthy food, essential services, recreation, trusted public safety and emergency response uh teams, safe transportation options, and reliable infrastructure and information resources. So under healthy living as a supporting statement, we talk about removing barriers uh to that by reducing food insecurity, closing the gaps uh to the most vulnerable, ensuring access to healthy food choices, stable housing, etc. We talk about community well-being and how that means for supporting behavioral health and also providing public spaces that promote an active lifestyle and social connection and reduce isolation. We talk about safe and convenient transportation, eliminating also transportation related deaths and serious injuries and under healthy and accessible built environment ensuring that we have affordable uh accessible and adaptive housing that supports aging in place but also in planning under universal design and multigenerational planning and supportive care systems as well as assisted living arrangements enabling to also be able to live uh and thrive uh within the community as well.

We talk about safe and reliable as well as resilient critical infrastructure and also health data and continuous improvement so that we can foster a community committed to health but also keep reporting on health metrics to guide equitable planning and investments and close those service gaps. All right. under um did I miss apologies? Under economically and socially resilient Arlington, we talk about ensuring Arlington fosters economic resilience and community prosperity by promoting innovative and market responsive growth, supporting diverse businesses, and offering equitable access to essential services and amenities. So here we talk about value aligned and fiscally responsible growth. How we can guide public and private investments that reflects our plans and policies and advance our community values and priorities um while maintaining of course quality and responsible stewardship of those public resources. We talk about economic diversification and investments that promotes thriving mixeduse places anchored by art, culture and tourisms as well as community serving institutions. We talk about inclusive entrepreneurship and uh business ecosystems. How we can enable uh small business success, reduce barriers to entry and offer access to new networks and opportunities for small businesses so they can thrive. uh flexibility also around commercial resilience uh CMRI or commercial market resiliency being uh one example of how we can help uh have responsive land use policies and regulations that that help us adapt. We talk about workforce opportunity and economic mobility and how we can have access to lifelong

education and training opportunities that match uh jobs and skills that are evolving as well as technologies, household stability and wealth building. uh in terms of planning policies uh and supportive services that strengthen that and enable wealth building as well as enhancing home ownership pathways and reduce work barrier barriers to workforce participation under social infrastructure and preparedness. Uh because this is not just economic but also social uh resilience. We want to make sure that we're able to protect livelihoods and well-being and prevent long-term economic loss and service disruption through strong social infrastructure, climate resilience, emergency preparedness, and reliable essential services. Under uh the sixth guiding principle, regionally collaborative Arlington. Here we talk about ensuring Arlington collaborates with regional, state, and federal partners on matters affecting the county to achieve mutual benefit without compromising local autonomy. And this was definitely one big element that we received as part of public feedback is not to lose that. And so here we talk about partnership and data sharing in a way that allows us to meet regional commitments, improve public services and advance equitable development goals. We talk about transportation planning and services where we promote comfortable and consistent uh travel experience uh by coordinating transportation uh planning to have a consistent experience enhancing regional transit systems and partnering on transportation demand management efforts. Environmental coordination was also a big part of that. Um as well as economic and workforce collaboration. So we are able to expand education to employment career pathways and align with industries and be able to continue to be regionally

competitive. uh public safety and emergency management here was a very strong element uh especially in work we do under the fire strategic plan or the northern Virginia hazard mitigation plan where we can do mutual aid structures and implement unified emergency planning and readiness and under cooperative uh growth and land use planning we talk about coordinated regional land use planning and crossber collaboration uh so that we um have uh housing targets aligned with economic and employment forecasts and support value aligned development and best practices. And finally, last but not least, uh under infrastructure ready Arlington, this is the element that we felt was able to stand on its own. um where we look at ensuring Arlington supports the community's current and emerging needs through future ready infrastructure and public facilities, technological innovation and accountable stewardship of public resources. So here we talk about emergency and essential services readiness. Uh so you can see a lot of our operational plans uh fall under that in terms of comprehensive plan elements uh making sure we modernize our aging systems, invest in clean and renewable energy, backup systems and climate resilient and future ready infrastructure and technology. We talk about technological innovation to make sure our technology is accessible, reliable, secure, scalable and equitably distributed and supports innovation as well. And we talk about educational facilities making sure that we plan for them and uh have even alternate alternative learning environments to meet projected student enrollment and learning needs just beyond just the schools. And then we talk about workforce readiness and access um to

make sure we have accessible technology enabled spaces that allow innovation and entrepreneurship uh while fostering career opportunities especially in green and technologydriven sectors. And that is a nod to um the the third element that we heard as part of public feedback related to technology as well. And then under accountable stewardship of public facilities, which was also one of those um four main feedback themes that we heard uh aside from the six themes that we started with under accountable stewardship of public facilities and infrastructure. So we can coordinate long range planning uh sighting and collocation and maximize community outcomes reduce cost and ensure life cycle stewardship and align investments with land use decisions and community growth. And so in terms of applying those uh guiding principles and supporting statements to plans and projects, uh here you can see in a snapshot uh all of those comprehensive plan elements and how um you know a lot of their goals align with the various uh seven uh guiding principles uh that uh we have uh presented in front of you uh as a draft. And so as you can see many of them of course address livability. A lot of them uh have inclusivity also built into them as well as many of those guiding principles as well. We also provided in your read ahead packet one example of how you can apply um take one comprehensive plan element and drill down up to the goal or objective level to see how it aligns with those guiding principles. And we were able to successfully demonstrate that and we're hoping to even uh be able to do that across all of the comprehensive plan

elements in in detailed um examples as well. And finally, this is uh additional examples for other comp uh plans uh projects or initiatives uh past and upcoming like the economic development strategic plan which you have seen uh that show up as an example of other plans under uh the guiding principles that I presented but also uh other examples like the the art operations and maintenance facility uh the child care initiative zoning ordinance amendments ments and an upcoming uh comprehensive plan element uh like the climate action plan and how it aligns with several of those guiding principles as well as the vision zero action plan update and how um uh you know the initial kind of um discussions around that help address uh some of those items. And so under timeline and next steps, we are currently in the process of um getting feedback on those draft guiding principles and supporting statements from the community. The online feedback form launched yesterday. So we're very uh we're looking forward to get the feedback on that to help us refine that even further. And then we're looking at uh additional community engagement in the form of popups, office hours, online feedback form as I said, and a newsletter series that talks about each guiding principle and introduces that. And of course, we have the expanded LRPC meeting today where we're presenting in front of you. And then we're hoping and targeting July uh to have that uh draft uh of the full introduction under the request to advertise process and then in September and October have a commission briefings and receive any final

community input before going into the public hearing and hopefully the adoption of the introduction and the guiding principle towards the end of the year. And so with that um I conclude my presentation. I hope it wasn't a lot of words but this is something that is necessary in terms of policy. Uh but we have some discussion questions uh to follow and of course uh Sarah will be leading that and I wanted to leave you also with the online feedback form in case you felt you needed additional things that you wanted to pose. uh the the online feedback form as I said has been launched and so you can scan that and we're happy to share that also following this meeting uh but it has gone public uh since yesterday. Thank you all.

Thank you. I appreciate the comprehensive overview of the guiding principles um you know how we've gotten to kind of this moment which this is not our last meeting on this. Correct? No. Correct. Okay. So don't get so excited guys. I think we have two at least two. At least one

at least one okay um but we you know we do have a sense of sort of where we've come over the evolution of sort of the comp plan update and sort of where we are heading um I also want to encourage and encourage before we launch into I'm not used to reading it like this angle sorry so everyone is getting a very interesting view of my like neck um but I do want to encourage folks that with regards to the online feedback form we're all coming to this meeting from different networks I know we have a several folks from the public um who've come to either give comment and just to sort of hear where we're at. And I do want to encourage us to take back to our individual networks which will vary and also overlap and encourage folks to respond and to use the online feedback form. I think that's really important so we can make sure that this is a meaningful update that does engage, you know, across, you know, as many facets of the county as we can possibly reach. So with that in mind, um we're going to kind of take the discussion questions the way that they have been outlined here by Rena. Um, so we'll start with unless anyone has a strong preference to go out of order, we will go in order, which is to say that we'll start with alignment and reaction and sort of as sub questions to that, do the guiding principles reflect the county's vision, values, and priorities? Are there any guiding principles or supporting statements that raise concerns? And as we're talking to that topic, you know, if there's a particular slide we want to go back to for any one of the particular guiding principles, I believe we have the technology capabilities to do that. Great. I don't, but other people do. um and we will go from there. So um I will open it up to the folks who are representing LRPC um at this table and also um joining us virtually from teams or on teams.

I'll start. Tell me please.

Um this is more of a larger thing for all of them. We have them in just the way we do your presentation. It goes one two three four five six. But I should there be a statement somewhere that by having them go 1 2 3 4 5 6 we're not setting the priorities that the first one isn't a priority over the second which is a priority over the third over the fourth because we look at these and we weigh them when we're setting priorities when we do have conflicts between comp plan um elements we use judgment as to which one would then be the priority. priority. So if we could have some sort of statement in front that specifically says these are not ranked by priority that depending on the circumstance different ones could be ahead of another one something like that. So

I may thank you that's that's a great comment and we have actually been thinking about that as well. Uh yes the uh the numbering does not reflect the priorities although uh let's say livability is kind of a natural entry to the comprehensive plan just because of its purpose as well as equity in terms of making sure that this is also something that showed very prominent as part of our values but it doesn't mean that trumps you know any other priorities but yes we can make that clarification uh one of the things that we received in feedback of course as you When we had done the initial draft and sent it to the various uh subject matter experts in our departments to make sure we haven't missed anything, they strongly advised us to even have the numbering like 1.1 because that would make it easier for us to quickly reference something and enable us to know which statement.

Yeah, and I have no argument with that. It makes perfect sense to do it. That's why we need to have the statement that we will definitely include that. So, I appreciate your comment on that. Thank you. That was good feedback. Sure. I wasn't trying to make you talk. It seemed like maybe you were going to. So I just looked.

Um so generally speaking, a lot of great work here. Um but from the technology commission standpoint, we do have some concerns about some things that are from our view missing. Um I sent out a note uh earlier. Thank you for for distributing that. I have printed copies here if anyone didn't get a copy of it. But um we've previously made recommendations about um policy goals that we think should be included in the comprehensive plan. The background on this is that uh in 2018 the legislature added a a clause to the comprehensive plan statute saying uh that it shall consider strategies to provide broadband infrastructure. Um it's got some more words than that in it. Um so we've made recommendations regarding that but really from a technology perspective it goes much beyond infrastructure. Um you know we're in the 21st century here. Information technology is a key aspect of how the county operates, how it does service delivery across all areas of service delivery. Um and so we think it needs to be a first class citizen in the comprehensive plan. Um, I could go on about that for a while, but for a couple examples, uh, in the critical infrastructure item that you had listed, networks are not listed as critical infrastructure. Access to data is as important as access to electricity, water, and sewer today. Um, that it's just a necessity of modern life. Um, also completely missing from this is any mention of privacy. Um, privacy is a fundamental civil right. Um, we hold that strongly. We think the rest of the Arlington community does as well. So, when you're talking about uh well-being of the citizens, uh, privacy is a key component of well-being. Um, that is not addressed at all here. Um I

think earlier before the actual review of the guiding principles you had identified some feedback about um transparency, trust and uh and governance. Um that is a couple of other areas that we've we've highlighted that the operations of county government there needs to be uh better governance. The recent auditor finding and f focus on information technology governance uh in Arlington County had several findings and weaknesses for improvements. Um we have said for a while that we feel like the lack of a board level policy on that is uh contributing to that. It's hard to add um resources to that uh kind of activity if the board has not mandated it. Um and then just service delivery. Um, you know, the the county uses technology to deliver services to the community uh across all divisions, not just the department of technology services. Um, and managing that and and doing it in an uh in a excellent way has an impact on all of these other goals. Um, so I think those aspects fall in it as well. Um, and then data. Um data is a strategic asset, right? We talk about in here um about data sharing and the regionalism. How are we going to do that um if we're not managing data as a strategic asset? Um and most importantly that data is valuable and we believe that the value streams from that data should be retained by the public not transferred to the private sector. Um and then on smart cities infrastructure, there's a lot of talk about smart cities infrastructure. We actually had a a professor from um from the University of

Ohio uh come who's literally wrote the book on uh smart cities and uh the insight that I gained that we gained from that was that the the sellers of the technology often will pitch smart cities technologies as a economic development opportunity which often have little to no performance metrics around them and what we should really be doing is looking at smart cities technologies as just any other infrastructure project as something that needs to be delivered across the county um to meet community needs and funded as such as opposed to demonstration projects or innovation zones or or type or approaches like that. Um and then uh the transparency and trust aspect with the government. Um we think that

it should be a top level policy goal to use technology to facilitate open data, open government and civic engagement. We're doing that right here, right? We're using teams to have a virtual hybrid meeting. Uh that's great, but there is no uh again county level policy on that. There is no consistency about what types of information should be available on the website as public record. um uh that uh has is uneven across the different divisions about uh who posts what. It seems to be that every county um county division manages its own web content, which is a fine way to do it, but what's the the higher order policy about what should be there, how it should be managed, and that that kind of thing. Um and then promoting dig digital literacy in the community. Um, there's an education component to it. As a trusted source of information, county government puts out public health information. It puts out public safety information. Digital literacy is uh essential to that. Uh, and we think that should be an activity that the county engages in. I think I covered most of them. Uh, I saved the best for last. On the infrastructure piece, connect Arlington. We have a ton of dark fiber in the ground. We put it there with other people's money at a very low cost, but if we're getting zero value out of it, then it costs too much. What are we going to do with it? We had the broadband infrastructure uh feasibility study that came out. Um went through three phases, did a whole lot of great work and recommended the digital equity plan which we wholeheartedly endorsed but completely whiffed on the question of what are we going to do with connect Arlington. Um so that is a an open question and we're recognizing or recommending the policy goal of maximizing the value of that infrastructure in some way or another.

We're agnostic as to how we do that, but it should be uh an a policy objective. We think now that really does cover it, but I'm happy to talk about any of those things. Thank you. Um would you like to respond? deserve if just I know I saw you taking lots of notes so I know that just noted and uh appreciate all of the comments and uh we'll see what where is the best way to incorporate that uh to make sure we're comprehensive.

Thank you. Um I noted we do have a a virtual hand raised from C2E2. Mr. Sandoli, the floor is yours. You have to take yourself off mute though.

Yes. Thank you very much. Um, well, I appreciate all the work and the progress here. I I'll have uh two comments here uh on behalf of C2E2, especially on on guiding principle three, sustainable and environmentally just Arlington. And then I have one potential overarching uh controversial comment on the on the broader guiding principles. Uh so first, yes, thank you on this slide. Um uh the first comment is that the um climate mitigation is missing. Um we see uh climate resilience and adaptation in 3.6. Um but mitigation is reducing and or avoiding emissions and that's a critical component of the the board's climate action resolution and and it's not specifically addressed here. We we obviously note the overlap with clean and renewable energy in 3.7, but clean and renewable energy is only one mechanism or a subset of the mitigation pathways. Um, so we suggest making 3.1 the climate mitigation statement that could somehow incorporate 3.7. I could word smith it, but it could be something like reduce emissions across sectors, especially buildings and transport by promoting clean and renewable energy, energy efficiency, and beneficial electrification and sustainable transportation options. So that that's a way to incorporate 3.7 into a a broader uh climate statement uh climate mitigation statement. Uh secondly uh 3.1 currently uh environmental justice and stewardship seems that it should be two separate statements. If you look at the clauses in here uh following the title uh remediate cumul uh cumulative environmental burdens especially in

vulnerable uh highly vulnerable areas is really the environmental justice component and then environmental stewardship uh could be a separate uh statement uh followed by the clause promote environmental stewardship uh everything after that. So, um maybe they were merged uh just for space constraints because there are seven statements here. We recommend breaking them out. Um and again, uh adding climate mitigation and adding 3.7 uh into that climate mitigation uh statement. Um okay. Uh now for the potential controversial statement, if you flip back to the um uh the summary of community feedback, um uh if you look at uh what the community found as important or very important, uh the top three were uh livable built environment, uh harmony with nature and health and safety. Yeah, that sorry. Yeah, that one. uh and the the one lowest scoring on important plus very important uh is interwoven equity. Now if you uh flip forward uh to the draft guiding principles on slide nine um we have inclusive Arlington uh which says you know that we integrate equity across all county work. um which is a a a a reasonable principle but then you also see accessibility and equity and equitable access in five of the seven seven statements. So I guess that the question is do the these guiding principles truly reflect the priorities of the community or are they the priorities of the staff? Uh is the inclusive Arlington guiding principle enough? We're not saying that that equity is not important, but if we're

interweaving it through inclusive Arlington statement, does it need to be stated in in all of these um uh uh uh seven all seven or five of the seven um guiding principles? Okay, let the fireworks begin. Thanks. Over. Thank you. Um

I just have like a small comment on that. Uh I appreciate all of your comments. Just in relation to the inclusive Arlington, if you look at where we started in terms of the APA guiding principles, um the APA guiding principle talked about interwoven equity. And so um even throughout those uh APA guiding principles you could see a lot of um um mention about equity but also under our commitments as a county. We have the equitable development principles which was also front and center in us also tailoring those guiding principles to uh values that we have adopted as well. but also in terms of public feedback, there were a lot of comments that centered around equity in telling us what is missing. And so all of those three components kind of showed uh where the equity was also still visible in a lot of those guiding principles as well.

Okay, thank you. I am tracking where we have hands. Commissioner Peterson had her hand raised before. Then we're going to go back to internet people and then I will Yes, I do see we're just mentally tracking. Commissioner Peterson. Um, it's on. Okay. Oh, sorry. I can adjust it, but it is. I promise it's red. Commissioner Peterson,

thank you. Thank you very much for all of the work that you have done on this and for tonight's presentation. Um, I think we've come a long way as a community and it's a really nice product that we have to comment on tonight. Um, I think one of my um recommendations would be to have um in increasing housing supply generally kind of be represented in more aspects of the overall plan. Um we do have a um a bullet on I think 1.2 is um housing that meets community needs. Um I think that we need to make sure that comes through really clearly. Different housing for different income levels, different housing types. I noticed that the um overall document focuses a lot on affordable housing very very important, accessible housing, housing very very important, but also just housing in general for all income levels so that we're meeting the needs of people at different stages of life. So that you know young people who come right out of college or right out of high school or a technical degree you know have a place to go and then maybe if they choose to start a family there's a place for them to go and then if they decide to become empty nesters there's a place for them to go because a lot of times talking in the community I hear people that feel like they're stuck in the housing they have because there's not another option for them to move elsewhere and they don't qualify for affordable housing and they don't they don't need accessible housing but they still just need some option that either um allows them to move on to the next stage of their life or at least and and stay in the community. So,

I'm going to go in order with one. So, William Way. Mr. William Way, you have the floor. Okay. Thank you. Um I guess it's just an overarching question. Um, is it possible for me to give comments cuz I just wanted to add some details in uh to some of the supporting statements. Is it possible to provide that in writing uh there um after this meeting instead of you know going into painstaking detail here? Certainly. And if you can also provide it either um in writing to us as an email or have it as part of the online feedback form. uh either way can be taken into account. So yes,

I took a look at the online feedback form, but it looks like very comfortable, comfortable, very uncomfortable, etc. Just looks like just checking the box. I didn't see any uh opportunity to provide narrative or to change um some of the supporting statements. So uh yeah, if I can submit that in a responsive email, that would be great and certainly would save um time on this forum. I mean, I'm fine with that. If county staff is fine with that. Yes, we are. And there is towards the end of the survey also space for you to write your comments, but we welcome sending us an email as well.

Very efficient. Okay. Uh, thank you very much. Also, just for the record, uh, I'm dualheaded. I'm also representing the park and recreation commission. So, thank you. Uh, thank you for noting that. That's helpful information. Um Karen Odent Adant, sorry if I mispronounced your name. Apologies, but you have the floor.

Thank you, Karen Odant. I chair the disability advisory commission. Um first, I want to applaud staff and um commissioners for all this hard work. This is a tremendous amount of work and we've made every effort to begin with the APA guiding principles but make sure that Arlington and our circumstances are are included and alignment with so many of our strategic documents and plans. Um I had four comments. So, I do want to um salute the staff who have added so many references to accessibility around housing and transportation in the disability community. It has a very specific meaning aligned with the Americans with Disability Act and the Fair Housing Act and Construction Code and so on. So, we are very appreciative. My colleague Marilyn McKelis has attended previous meetings and made that point. Um we see the second point is we do see some ambiguity because there is accessibility referenced that clearly aligns with the Americans with Disability Act and other um policies and laws. But we see some references to equitable access which doesn't necessarily align with ADA accessibility. So I am happy like William to provide some suggestions around that. Um and then the third point is uh we applaud the reference to universal design. Universal design is smart design. It is designed so that buildings are truly accessible for a wide range of people. People who may not currently have a disability but are going to be able to age in place. So we really salute that. And um the other

point I wanted to make was we are very appreciative of your reference in um diverse and meaningful engagement to make sure that those formats are accessible. um we have many members of the community whom would like to participate and sometimes they're unable to participate because um the event or the ability to participate is not accessible. So I'll go ahead and submit those comments, but thank you again for all of this excellent work.

Thank you. Um we're going to go back to folks who are in the room. Uh Mr. Benson,

thank you. Um, I want to start by just saying that, um, the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission hasn't had a chance to talk about this yet. Our meeting is coming up on May 28th. So, I'm going to share a couple general comments from some of the commissioners, but with the understanding that this is not our official feedback, and as you mentioned to Mr. Wei, I think um, we may provide a letter to you and certainly be providing comments as you go along. Um certainly want to take the supporting statements back to the commission and have them look at that. Uh with regard to um so looking at how you set up the discussion, I have a bunch of different points and I've been sitting here trying to figure out how do I put it into those categories there. I'm just going to run through kind of basic comments here. And

so, um, first of all, with regard to the feedback, I applaud I mean, you guys have had a ton of meetings and you've really gone out of your way to reach out to many groups. But I will suggest, and I've heard this feedback, I guess everything I'm going to say is something I've heard from either other commissioners or from people in the community. Um, I've heard feedback that you haven't really gone out to civic associations and civet. And that's that's a core part of Arlington's citizenry and they certainly are going to be affected by whatever the end result of this is. So I I applaud you going to groups that often aren't heard, but I I really think you need to also go out to the groups that often are heard because they they get they have a lot to say. Uh and that should be a part of whatever you do before you get to decision-making points. Um as far as the whole setup goes, um it's very impressive. Clearly a huge amount of work. A concern though is that the terminology is very broad. I mean, I worked in government all my life and I've written many planning documents and this is very impressive how you set it up. But I also feel like this could be all things to all citizens. Whoever wants to go in and support something can find 2.3 or 5.8 or whatever and do that. And I I think it's good to have the framework and to have those elements, but I I think the broad te techn terminology is good, but you don't want to have it so broad and have so many elements that it becomes just a laundry list of everything that could conceivably be. And I think what many of of us, some of my commissioners and others I've talked to feel is missing is kind of getting down to the nitty-gritty of what do we want Arlington to look like? And really addressing, among other things, the elephant in the room. How dense do we want to be? We want Arlington to become Brooklyn over time or do we want Arlington to kind of maintain the transit oriented

development or is there another model that we want? Gentleman here raised a lot of great points. I think you as you were talking I was thinking these are all specific things that are taking the broad general concepts and saying here's how we need to apply it and I think one thing that might be missing so far is how do we apply these things to for practical issues that we've got to work out before you get to the final point before we start messing with gloves you need to kind of work out some kind of consensus in the county about about where we're going with density and some of these other issues Um so bringing it back to trees and I think density relates to tree canopy and open spaces. Um so bringing it back to the main reason I'm here. Uh I want to repeat what we've said in earlier meetings which is um you need to not only assess how you integrate these now seven principles but also start to think about how do you integrate the 12 plans because they're really stovepiped in many ways. There's good efforts to coordinate across the plans. Yes, but I think very often they're stovepiped and I we would suggest my commission I think would suggest that you need to think about that from a nature standpoint. I was very gratified to see the little lizard logo on so many of the items, but frankly it could be on a whole lot more because in our view nature is pervasive across everything. All seven elements, everything, equity, infrastructure, education, community, housing, quality of housing, etc. So, we're always arguing with site plan review and with this exercise and every exercise, master transportation plan, every exercise, you need to look at it from a nature-based standpoint. And frankly, we feel a lot of times everybody says how much they love trees

and then nature is trees are like the afterthought. We really feel in our commission that trees need to be trees and and open spaces, green spaces need to be at the forefront because it integrates it affects quality of life across every one of these things. So we would urge you to think about this as a nature-based comprehensive plan with integration across the 12 elements. Um we we do um feel that we we applaud that you're you're really recognizing three important recent priorities, climate and urban biophilia and equity as recent county priorities. Um, again to the point I was just making, I think these are all pervasive across all the comprehensive plans and nature is really at the core of it, including equity. Um, I worked at EPA. I worked on an environmental equity program at EPA and I'll tell you that that that's one of the biggest areas where we we don't support the public in in how we design our developments, our building, our density, our transportation, everything to make sure that there is sufficient nature, healthy nature for everyone in the county, not just certain parts of the county. So, I would urge you to go back and and take a look at how you're integrating and really build nature into even more of the the guiding principles. The last thing I'll say is that um as I said at the beginning, I think that there's a I'm sorry before I get to that just I want to give two examples just to make sure that you understand what I'm talking about. So for the regional principle, um, collaborative land land use didn't have a lizard.

I'm working with EcoAction Arlington on a regional project for figuring out how we have better tree conservation on a regional basis and and factored into urban planning on a regional basis. So again, it's an example of where it's it's everywhere. And for education, educational facilities didn't have a lizard. working with APS right now on green infrastructure looking at the natural spaces on school grounds not just as an educational opportunity but better maintenance right now we have janitors going out and doing tree maintenance so again it's integrated in everything that we do and think so the last thing I'll say uh now truly the last thing is um I think the county has to make a decision about whether we're going to become dense all over Well, we're going to continue with the transportationoriented development model of density along transportation quarters. And I think that needs to be kind of worked out before you finalize a a whole revamp of the comprehensive plan because that that governs everything. And you're going to have years of lawsuits if you don't do that ahead of time. So, I would my my commission is going to think about which of those we we might support. Um, but for now, I think you should consider whether that gets talked about directly in the introductory chapter to be something that that is in there and the county says, "Here's where we stand and here's what we're working toward so that everybody's on the same page."

Oh, you're right. I didn't have my mic on that time. Um, if you want to respond, please do so. and then I'm going to have a brief statement and then I'm going to go to Commissioner Beagley.

Just very briefly, thank you. Those are great uh comments. Um and yes, uh I made a disclaimer at the beginning that this is not meant to be all inclusive in terms of where all of our initiatives align. There's a ton more that align with with all of the supporting statements as well as the guiding principles in general. Just one note about the guiding principles. They are meant to be a little bit more general. So, uh when we go to the nitty-gritty, we're actually going to strategies and we're trying to avoid that and leave that as a room for the comprehensive plan elements where they can tell us exactly where the focus direction is. However, in terms of your question regarding where we want to be as a county, I do think that in our guiding principles, we did stem from a lot of values that we uh have as a county and also that we heard from the community as you said related to equity, related to nature, being yes pervasive and trying to to show the lizard everywhere in the public spaces master plan, but also in terms of um making sure we also stem from our equitable development principles. but also our county's vision itself. So if that vision changes then there needs to be a discussion on that level. Uh unfortunately um the logical aspect of how you revamp a whole comprehensive plan starts from the vision but for us we wanted to update only the piece related to the guiding principles. But this could be uh you know a discussion that can take place at a future date. So if I could just just make a quick comment, I would suggest that Arlington has a vision. It's the transportationoriented development vision that we've had for several decades and have won many awards over and has made Arlington the jewel of a place it is. So I think the bigger question is do we change that vision or not?

Um before I recognize Mr. Bagley, can we go back to the question the guiding discussion question? Yeah. um because because I'm realizing that I didn't factor in timing as well. I think that we're sort of as I'm looking through what the other sort of sub questions and such things are, we're really talking through all of those things already as a group. So, uh this is a free flow. These are, you know, please factor the discussion questions into as you are, you know, responding if they are, you know, but they are not meant to limit you. If you have other points you want to raise, please do. But we are not and I'm there is no agenda to the questions anymore. that has gone away. So, any of the questions that you feel a need to respond to or, you know, are called to speak to at this point in time, please do so. It's an open discussion, free-for-all. Commissioner Baggley,

thank you. Um, once again, staff needs to be applauded for just the incredible amount of work and um, you know, crafting something that is, you know, idealistic and hopeful. Um, and really typifies why we love living in Arlington. Um, having said that, um, as a planning commissioner, as someone who is supposed to be a keeper of the plan, I am concerned we don't have the side of this that when we get a project that comes in, we all struggle sometimes doesn't have enough or any affordable housing. Um, tree canopy is short. um C2E2's scorecard, you know, just doesn't even rate any historic just goes away and we might get a placard. Um so at some point how we get these wonderful altruistic ideas into where we actually stand up and say this plan is important enough that maybe we stop just saying oh gez this is great because we got one thing but everything else fell by the wayside and then we stand at the end of the day and go like gee how did we get here how did it become so expensive here how come we don't have any any level of the trees that we used to have. How come our bird population has gone down? You know, how come history isn't represented anymore? How come we're not making, you know, how come we're not going to get to carbon neutrality by 2050? So, while I sit through and I sat through this 5 years ago and I sit through it now and I still struggle with that as a commissioner because I feel like I won't be here in 2050. I'm pretty sure. um or if I am, I

won't be in very great shape. So, but if we're really crafting this not just for the future, obviously now, what are we giving it so that it has a a shot of getting implemented or followed or that we can start to really meet our goals? Cuz from what I'm seeing, we are falling short. Um so, it this is a a sort of I'm I'm looking for the answer there. I'm not sure what that is, but that's what I'm looking for. Thank you.

Thank you. Um uh I'm going to go to I see a team's hand and then Mr. Amade will go to you. So um uh Mr. McCriedy, Cliff McCriedi, the floor is yours.

Thank you. And uh I just want to I want to relate some some of my concerns to the previous uh commissioner comments. I believe it was forestry and uh planning commission that uh we're to make this actionable. I really would give voice to the neighborhoods and um you know being from the Arlington neighborhood advisory committee and a 45 year resident of of Arlington who's worked with civic associations really the impact of policy and practice occurs at the neighborhood level. uh you know how it's operationalized. It's you know through planning decisions, site plans, through uh building of infrastructure, through all of those decisions that make an impact on community health and well-being. So I I I guess I would also emphasize that the neighborhood civic associations and the the who are all represented on the Arlington neighborhood advisory committee and also in the civic federation give voice to the neighborhood level allow them to also comment. We have a very robust citizen input process in Arlington through various commissions, but those entities are unique because they are the local geography. They are the the places where people live. And you know, of course, all of us in who are participate on these commissions have that voice as well as we as we provide that input to policy. But the specific input at the neighborhood level comes from the civic associations and the neighborhood advisory committee which also grapples with infrastructure with all of these questions about livability, public spaces, sustainability, all of the issues that

are raised in in these guidelines um how those are again operationalized and actually decided at the neighborhood level. So, I would I'm going to go back to Arnack and um and relate and and thanks again uh for all of your great work. I mean, this is obviously uh a huge lift. Uh the process is at the Arlington way is is a heavy lift, but uh thanks again for all the work going into this document. But that would just be my my suggestion is um neighborhood level input. Thanks. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Amado.

Thank you. I know we are trying not to be hierarchical, but I'm looking at this chart here, the summary of community feedback. Um, and I'm noticing that the strongest feedback came on liveable built environment and resilient economy. And and so the question that we are asking like what is the built environment of the future? What does that look like? And so you know as a practicing trained architect of course for me it's like buildings right? So, you were asking about nature. I'm going to ask you about buildings. And the first point you've made is is the Sorry, I had it and now I'm going to find it again. It's here. Create highquality spaces through visually appealing architecture. And so I think this is becoming as a commissioner a very vague thing to talk about and I would like more precise terminology because visually appealing is subjective and the rule number one in architecture studio is never say I like my project or I don't like your project. Um I want to give reasons why something is not working and if it's not working for the county it' be good to have guiding principles and so the building of the future we are looking at a lot of adaptive um you know design where we have buildings that don't really mean the same they don't have the same purpose as before. And so is there a chance that some of the buildings that we're approving now, 20 years from now, will have the same problem? And so, are we looking at the technology? Are we

looking at um materials? Are we looking at what the sun is doing, what the climate is doing? And are we requiring that any of these buildings be conscious of these changes and how fast the the technology is evolving and moving and as a commissioner that sometimes is looking at these you know the buildings that were probably designed five years ago um I'm a little you know concerned about where we're going with the built environment. Um, thank you. That's a great comment. As someone who uh was trained in my bachelor's in architecture, I know exactly what that means. Um, but yes, um, visually appealing. Yes. While it can seem uh vague, um we also tried to marry that with uh biophilic design and c cultural responsiveness in terms of also under 1.5 having locally inspired architecture. So um a sense of a place uh has a combination of things that people find as at least the basis of what visually appealing is something they are they get used to that uh provides a sense of comfort. Um where sometimes crazy architects can have like massive lines thinking that might be the most visually appealing but it might not end up providing a sense of comfort to the public. or naked architecture uh where you would have exposed uh brick or um um you know um elements that the public feels cold uh getting into a space that looks like that. So culturally responsive was something that we wanted to add in but we'll make sure to clarify that further uh so that it

doesn't appear as vague uh as as you had suggested. Thank you. Yes, you and then me.

Let me see if I can get the spacing right. The distance is hard. All right. Um, so while we're on 1.5, I really appreciated this mostly because I'm on the HLRB, but also um Mr. Schwarz sent in a comment about this that really highlighted the conflict between what's happening in development and of course the historic preservation and the need to take care of these resources. And um I know this is an ongoing discussion, but these two priorities should not be antithetical to one another. These are things that are uh mutually reinforcing and of course sometimes historic preservation will be uh preclusive to density. It doesn't always mean that and I don't think it should be weaponized that way. Um there are many opportunities for creative and expressive solutions. So looking at this, I wonder if it makes sense and said to integrate uh here we go. Strengthen Arlington's identity by protecting historic resources, highlighting and integrating cultural heritage and locally specific architecture. Um not just inspired. inspired is also kind of vague, but there are specific designs that we appreciate that lend itself well to the urban fabric that is uniquely Arlington, but doesn't preclude um growth, density, and creativity to kind of bring in the past, look to the future. Um so that's hopefully looking at that. Were you trying did you want Oh, okay. Sorry. Moving your hand and I wasn't sure. Um, so I've been sort of absorbing a lot of what's been said around the room and and and virtually and and and the kind of the the push and pull of sort of going from something that is intentionally and kind of by necessity very high concept um and to a point that's always going to be a little abstract. And I think the more we sort of I appreciate the the sub points we've sort of um illuminated, you know, for each of the

seven guiding principles. And I do think that helps, but but it's still there's always going to be a level of abstraction and sort of the reality of going from something that is very high concept abstract to something that is at the end of the day going to really impact all Arlingtonians and sort of how we engage with this community that we know is so special and that we, you know, more or less choose to live in or, you know, hopefully that's the case. Um, and I I think that that's always going to be sort of a hard relationship to to sort of manage. So, I'm very appreciative of the the thoughtful consideration and work that the the county staff has put into this and the engagement we've had from the, you know, members of the LRPC, you know, going through the comp plan update and and what that looks like because it it's a hard task and I've had trouble sort of wrapping my head around it and, you know, some of the kind of especially in like the early, you know, meetings and such that it it it is just sort of going from that very sort of high concept to what is this going to look like and then practical application. of our day-to-day existence as Arlingtonians is is a hard transition and I think a lot of us have sort of expressed points that that illustrate that struggle um understandably. So I I think that um to quote the the Sixers, you got to trust the process. So if you're going to ultimately get to something that works and gets us where we want to be in terms of a livable document that we can turn to and say this is what it mean, you know, these are the priorities of Arlington. This is what it means to sort of be Arlingtonian and these are the things that we value. We've got to kind of just like trust that the process is going to get us there. And that's that's asking a lot of people. That's asking a lot of staff. That's asking a lot of each of us individually um in the various commissions that we represent. But I I do think we are heading there and I feel much more confident of that having gone through you know the majority of this meeting and sort of the presentation and seeing where the principles are at today. At least that's how I'm feeling in the moment. So thank you.

Yeah, tell me.

Uh I have a couple of m fairly minor very targeted things and then sort of more broad one. Uh 5.2 economic diversification investment. Um, we're saying it promotes thriving mixeduse places anchored by arts, culture, tourism, and community serving institutions. Should we add education in there too? Because we have so many more universities that are moving in here and that they are anchors. Um, and in fact, one thing that on planning commission we've encountered is that it's harder for a university to open up here than it is just the average commercial entity. And if we could put that in there, make it clear that we really want to have educational um facilities here. And remember, I'm not just talking about high schools, you know, it's it's universities and other training facilities. Um it's something we really want to encourage. We're probably one of the high we are one of the highest educated counties in the entire country. So, it's a really important component for this for this community. Um down to 6.2, two, transportation planning and services. We say promote comfortable and consistent travel experiences. Should we add the word reliable there? Um, I think that's an important component of transportation because if it's not reliable, it's useless. So, you know, I just want to make sure that's in there. Um, I very much understand and agree with Commissioner Baggley's comments about how do we use all this? Um I'm comfortable with being high level and being really out there. It these should really be in fact our stretch goals. You're absolutely right that we won't meet a lot of these. Most of our project will not meet these and we know that from our experience. But if we didn't have something like this, they would be even worse. If it wasn't for a document that really

gives us stretch goals, we wouldn't be able to get as much as we do, and I think we pretty much are pretty good about doing that. So, I'm I'm comfortable with it being stretched, even knowing that we won't necessarily make it for a lot of things. So, I'm I'm happy with that. Now, getting from this to that, I think that's a valid point. I don't know how we do that, but but it being a stretch goal, I think, is good. even understanding that it's going to be hard to meet every single one of these for all of our projects. And finally, Mr. Benson, there are things worse than Brooklyn as a as a born and bred New Yorker. Right.

Thank you so much for your comment and I'm hoping that I can add a little bit of assurance that this is just one piece of the introduction. Uh if you guys uh note uh in the early um slides I had noted that uh the introduction would include um measuring uh success. So uh so give me if you can give me a minute to find that. Um yes. So we will also outline a process for future comprehensive plan elements updates but also for other projects and how they can align with the guiding principles. And we're what we're hoping to achieve is as I said we're not starting a process of creating a whole new comprehensive plan from a vision to policies to strategies to actions. We're actually trying to see what work we are doing and kind of have those overarching stretch goals which I like the term. uh but in doing so what we're hoping to achieve is provide examples where for example we can say under the FNRP the 40% tree canopy what um supporting statement does that help advance that supporting statement helps advance guiding principle number four and when we are staying on target uh that department that is leading the comprehensive plan update they can tell us on a yearly basis for example when they're reporting about a project that helps advance the comprehensive plan element as a whole or any other new project, what um metrics are helping advance which guiding principle and which guiding principle supporting statements. This way we can h help keep the comprehensive plan vision as well as guiding principles alive in each step that we take and justify that we are

doing this project because it helps us advance this guiding principle and these supporting statements and helps us stay on track and if we're missing or slipping we can report how we can rectify that as well. Miss you have the floor. Thank you. Um I will also um rather than make people sit through my word smithing, I'll plan to submit an email as well um with a few recommendations. But I did want to just quickly highlight um in regards I'm also very much in support of being able to see the little gecko in many different places and the sense of um showing I think we need to in a more in a greater way emphasize the idea of human and natural systems working together. I saw that hinted at in different ways um throughout several of the different principles, but I think if that can be said more explicitly that would be beneficial to both fronts. Um and then in on the level of the guiding principles for being uh regionally connect collaborative Arlington number six um because the name is being regionally collaborative I just wanted to highlight to me it feels like we're stopping a little short when we say um that we will collaborate on matters affecting the county and I think it should be on matters affecting the county and beyond because the whole point of working regionally is um us being aware that changes that we make here affect not only the county but um the surrounding area as well. But I'll um submit the rest of my comments via email. Thank you.

Thank you. I I do appreciate that it when it comes to sort of words smithing coming from the the planning commission perspective when we try to you know do amendments on the fly it can be very challenging to sort of wordsmith in that way. So, I do think if if folks from different commissions have a specific word choice or or sort of word smithing that they would like to suggest for any of the individual principles or or supporting statements, it is helpful to have those in writing. You can certainly speak to them tonight, but you know, please do, you know, at least follow up in in writing so that we're not trying to move commas as a group. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Benson. So, two things just going to the comment that you were making about about the forestry natural resources plan as an example. Um, I'm not a fan of reinventing the wheel. Forestry and natural resources plan is less than two years old and it's 180 pages. It has so much detail in there. It's almost it almost violates the rule that I said in my comments that everything's a priority, so nothing's a priority. But there's certainly a lot of detail in there and there are steps every year to assess progress etc. So to a certain extent that begs the question why do we need to be doing this? We have the plan. Let's do the plan. Let's integrate the plan into all the other plans. So I just want to put a little bit of a tempering on what you said there. I I'm not saying stop, but uh I'm still trying to figure out the value add here on top of 12 really terrific comprehensive plans that already exist. I think we should maybe be looking at technically how do we integrate that work better. And Commissioner Steinberger, I just wanted to quickly talk about your trust the process comment. Um I'm a big believer in that. I was a bureaucrat for 41 years. I'm a big believer in that. Um, I would offer the friendly amendment that we trust the

staff's integrity, dedication, and hard work and expertise, but from what I'm hearing around the county, there actually isn't a lot of trust in the process right now because of experiences that the county has had with EHO and missing middle and other processes that many people haven't been pleased with. And so I I think um we shouldn't trust the process to the point where like we have a polyiana view that this is all going to work out. I think getting input from civic groups and things like that will help make the process even more inclusive and give you even better feedback to make this an even better document. So I'm I'm with trust the process but not totally. I think we trust the staff to be listening very carefully to what everybody's saying here and doing what you need to do to make this even more inclusive and a better, more relevant document to what we're trying to do every day with these 12 plans.

Thank you. Anyone else looking to be recognized at this juncture from the the LRPC membership? Um if we can go back to the uh discussion questions just more time because again it's a free floor. Anything um that you all have as feedback? Anything the other sort of subtopics as a reminder were clarity? Are the guiding principles or supporting statements clearly scoped etc. Are there any terms or concepts need defining or refinement? I think we've already touched on a couple areas where we're going to see some written comments on in that regard. Comfort level. How comfortable are you with these guiding principles to inform future policy and decision-m? I think that goes into what's on the online feedback form as well um explicitly. So again encouraging folks to make sure that we are sharing that you know outreach with our respective um constituencies our different networks um and then gaps and improvements or any critical long-term issues missing or underrepresented. I definitely heard some feedback among this group um notably from Mr. Burke uh with regards to things that might be missing and what is you know not necessarily being taken into account and and represented fully and what revisions would strengthen clarity balance clarity balance and usability um again I think that goes to some feedback we're anticipating um and rating with regards to refinement of the guiding principles so if there's these are other topics that people have additional feedback on we can hear that now um absent that then we do have some public speakers signed up so we will move to the public comment portion or if staff has anything they'd like to sort of close out with, that's also uh an acceptable direction to head in. So, last call for anyone in this group or virtually um with the virtual LRPC membership. Do we have any hands?

No. Okay, then. Yeah. Yeah. Commissioner Peterson,

thank you. Um so I have a question about how this document will be used when it's complete um and how that will support. So I guess starting over um one of the purposes of this document is to guide the updates to future comprehensive plans. Um and I do agree it's like we're we've got a vision of this utopia where like every wonderful good thing is what we want and we've got it in this document. And so it does beg the question of like how are we going to prioritize the different things that we want to achieve because we can't have all the things we want at the same time all the time. Um and so I guess when we start looking at the comp plan elements to update we'll use this document maybe we reference wherever there's an icon you know that's the ones that are going to be the most important and influential but then we this is you know Arlington so we do the Arlington way. So then we'll probably also be going out and doing an entire new uh community engagement process. So does this document theoretically like get us a starting to a starting point where then we do the community engagement and say these are our guiding principles based on the introductory chapter. So give us more feedback about the strategies to achieve these goals or are we saving some time and effort and energy for future comp plan updates because we have this document. answer.

Thank you for this great question. As I said, this is definitely part of uh the introduction where we lay out steps that the public should expect when we are updating a comprehensive plan element or have a new project or an initiative. Uh if we're updating a new comprehensive plan element, we would be looking at um what our current um goals are, our metrices are, where the gaps are and uh whether we're aligning with some of the things that we want to align and if there's something missing, creating a metric around that. So that's one. The other one would be the steps to public engagement. And we recommend in that in that introduction that we follow the six-step uh public engagement guide as well as making sure that uh what we have developed as a tool to assist us with public engagement which is the um community vulnerability index map be also used in terms of um looking in terms of gaps. uh if it's more of an operational focused uh comprehensive plan element uh let's say related uh to um uh sanitary so or or or storm water management uh if there are gaps related to communities that are more vulnerable to economic risks for example highlighting that visually uh through doing that mapping process and then doing the engagement that is targeted let's say to that community but also targeted in terms of investment would be something that could result out of that would be something that could inform the capital improvement uh planning bud CIP let's say budget etc and so uh we have a combination of looking at the guiding principle because they guide us on where we want what we want to achieve uh with the vision being the first like our our county vision as a whole but also looking at our metrices and how we want

to update and then the public engagement to make sure that where we want to head is something that the you know reflects the community values and their lived experience. So yes, we do touch upon all of those things. This is coming. As I said, this is only one aspect of what we wanted you guys to see as an initial uh draft that is part of that introduction. But other parts of that in introduction includes the updating of comp plan elements, but even other new projects and how they can align with those guiding principles. I hope I answered your question.

Thank you. Well, I agree with Commissioner Steinberger. I think you said it. this is the reason why Arlington is a wonderful place to live or work or play or study or do all the things. Um, so it's nice to be part of this and kind of setting the continued future vision of having Arlington be a lovely place. Thank you. Um, I'm very grateful for this evening's discussion among the members of the LRPC who are able to join us in person and virtually. Um, I'm grateful that we have, you know, engaged members of the public who would like to speak as well. And I'm grateful that we have timing allowing each of them to have two minutes. Can you lead through that list of whoever it is your guest?

Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We'll start with the virtual first. Um, we have Jason Schwarz and what we'll do is we'll put up a a timer. So, just give us a second to get that on the screen. Um, Mr. Schwarz, uh, the floor is yours. Thank you.

Okay. Um, thank you so much. Um, I did submit some comments with, um, some technical, you know, edits. Um, I appreciate the the reference, you know, again for the, um, with HLB. You know it's definitely a conflict of uh not not a conflict of interest but there is some conflicts where you know there are things that um you know supporting statement grow housing and then preservation there is conflict we see that right now with uh Melwood where it's taking you know they it's taking almost like what since 2021 was that first submission so you know that that's definitely a barrier um and again to echo the the comment the elephant in the room is the density how dense do we want to be and my personal is full send density we have to do that um you know we when we talk about affordability and what we want to be in the future you know Arlington we were a leader with you know back you know 60 plus years ago when we decided to put density around metro stations and that carried us for quite a bit but right now it's completely lacking and we're seeing that with our zoning you know we have mansion zoning around our metro stations meanwhile we're okay putting apartment buildings next to busy roads highways interchanges um while we just leave areas next to like blocks away from steps away from metro stations completely untouched. That's not equitable. That's ridiculous. You know, our community, you know, talk about the civic associations. Why are they not having their voices prominent? Because they're a minority now. And every single year, we add more and more renters, people in high density buildings. And this is the majority of Arlington. And that people need to realize that this voice is the majority. This is what people want. This is what people vote for. Um, and I've traveled to over a hundred different MSAs around the country. There are so many absolutely gorgeous, beautiful neighborhoods. um missing middle everything that have are amazingly green, beautiful, way more dense than Arlington. Super desirable. Brooklyn, I would love to see Arlington become like Brooklyn. Park Slope, I mean downtown Brooklyn, so many insanely awesome neighborhoods. Uh look forward to more conversation. Thank you.

Thank you. You started a trend with the whole Brooklyn thing. You didn't know you were doing that. Um next speaker, please. We're now going to inperson speakers. Now, this presents a slight quandry um just because of how the room is set up today. public speakers are going to be like looking at our backs sort of. So I'm no so there'll look at them from the side. Okay, that's fine. Never mind. Way better than what I thought. As you were. Please read the next name. All right. So Jane Green.

I have to push a button. Hello. Yes, I'm Thank you. Um great. Hello. Uh my name is Jane Green. I am a 11-year resident uh renter here in Arlington just down the road. Um and I really want to appreciate staff's um work on this. The plan looks great. Um there's a lot of really good stuff here to um sink our teeth into. Um but I will further echo the point that there is the elephant in the room. The elephant of the room is density. How dense is Arlington going to be? Um and I think there are going to be strong opinions on both sides of this and I think we should have that debate or you know civil conversation. Um, my feeling is that this is a great opportunity for Arlington to embrace equity and embrace rec economic resilience by expanding growth beyond these narrow corridors where we have it now. I think there's different levels that work in different parts, but we should be growing. Right now, we have really concentrated growth in a very narrow part of the county and that's particularly, you know, commercial and residential growth and we haven't expanded that in other places and that's creating problems with traffic. it's creating problems with, you know, equity, housing supply, the diverse housing supply, affordable housing supply. And then the other side of that is that we don't have um retail in neighborhoods. We have really um segregated that type of the um Arlington experience as well. We're not allowing small commercial and real um uh like small coffee shops or other things in neighborhoods. So, I think there's an opportunity to see this both ways. It's not just growing beyond the corridors, but also bringing other elements um like cafes and and coffee shops. And then the other element is bringing more public facilities and public buildings into metro corridors. There's no really metroaccessible community center. Um you know, we have a library here, that's great, but we could use a lot more um community resources in our metro

corridors as we continue to grow those. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Kathy Rehill. Okay. Hi, I'm Kathy Rehill. I've lived in Arlington since 1991 and uh tonight I'm speaking on behalf of Arlingtonians for a sustainable future. Uh some comments about this. It feels like it's everything. And when you have so many things there, how are you going to prioritize? How are you going to measure success? There's no discussion in in all these guiding principles of where fiscal responsibility comes in. Do we say that one principle is so important that it's worth breaking the budget for it? Should we be investing more in housing or in tree canopy? How do how are we measuring this? And so these guiding principles have no grounding in fiscal reality and helping planners prioritize what's going forth. Um the second point I wanted to make is this elephant in the room. Uh, I want to quote to you your county vision. Planners who have been in your position for the last 50 plus years and county board members had a guiding principle for 50 years. And it states, "Thanks to a history of forward-looking decisions rooted in smart growth, Arlington has enjoyed remarkable achievements. A community-based vision helped Arlington protect lowdensity residential neighborhoods while planning for the expansion of Metro. This was a pivotal point in forming the compact urban

environment we know today. That was a guiding principle. You knew where you were going because it was framed around those principles. I counted about um 7* 7 49 principles we were trying to guide ourselves with tonight and that to me seems like we definitely want to be sensitive to everything and everybody but I'm not quite sure how you do it with such a broad framework. Thank

Thank you very much. We appreciate the comments. Charlie Henin. Is that working? Great. Thanks. Um, I won't echo the comments that were made by Bob over here and Kathy. I think I resonate with those. I'm representing Donaldson Run Civic Association tonight. Uh Bill just had an operation today so he asked me to uh to fill in just a couple points that haven't been made with respect to uh to transit oriented development. It has the advantage that allows the people who are moving into the county to be close to transportation to take them to culture, to take them to parks, to take them to jobs, to get around without the county investing in massive new transportation resources, which is extremely inefficient. The second thing it does, it allows there to be a population that uses those transit assets and which are now fiscally challenged. And if we want to preserve those assets, we need to put people where they are. Not just Metro Whale, but principally metro rail. Another point is instead of just measuring progress after the fact, perhaps the county can utilize the TIS BICE capabilities that is already under contract to analyze before a decision is made concurrent with a particular aspiration so that the chart the uh cost of achieving it as well as the benefits can be quantified before the county board makes a decision. Now what we do is we measure it after the fact. In some cases you say gosh our budget is over is over spent. So that's not a sensible way to proceed strategically. And those are

u just one other point. Uh the RTA is coming in July and it will be published at that point. Why can't the LRPC see a draft of the actual introductory chapter before it goes to RTA so that we can contribute to the chapter not just to these uh aspirations that are being shown? Thank you. Thank you. Uh last public speaker is No, he was perfectly timed. We don't have to. Thank you. Um, the last public speaker is Josh Handler. To adjust this a little. It does go up and down. It's

the same one at the county board meeting. Right. There you go. Good job. Okay. Can you hear me?

Okay. Good evening. My name is Joshua Handler. I'm a longtime resident of Arlington as well, and I'm concerned about this Yimi push to densify Arlington. Arlington should retain its mix of suburban neighborhoods and urban corridors. The new comp plan should retain much if not all of the language of the original, including retention of the predominantly residential character of the county and limitation of intense development to limited and defined areas. An award-winning formula, as people have mentioned, we don't want to encourage densification for densification sake at the expense of neighborhoods and loss of trees while only enriching a small number of developers who whose business model is to tear down affordable older housing and clear cut trees on lots to build expensive new housing. as is uh nothing in the current comp plan introduction has prevented Arlington from being a great place to live. The comp plan should be operationally focused on maintaining public services and safety. That is a principle that should be a foundation of its efforts and so in that sense the uh guiding principle number four healthy and safe are only to my mind is one of the key elements of what you have here. Finally, the same thought crossed my mind after hearing the discussion here this evening that Kathy mentioned. Where is fiscal responsibility in the guiding principles? That's a key thing that's important to me in terms of being a public servant myself. Uh good public steward of the taxpayer dollars, good public steward of public finances in general. This is really not coming through clearly or strongly enough in this document in whatever guiding principle you put it in. Finally, in terms of the discussion this evening, this issue of priorities. These are our set of guiding principles. I'm curious why it's being framed as priorities. The point of this overarching introductory chapter is to say we have these guiding principles that we seek to harmonize and bring into balance. So, it isn't an either or. It isn't when we come to a point we need to choose one or the other. Beyond I think what Kathy mentioned, if we can't afford to do it, we should be giving serious consideration of perhaps we can't do it.

Thank you very much this evening. Thank you. Um, that concludes our meeting of the LRPC discussing the comp plan update. Um, there's at least one more meeting to come, the timing of which is to be determined, but approximately September. Okay. Um, so more to come then, and I appreciate everyone's time this evening. Thank you so much. Bye.