And who is also joined by three NAMP, Terry? I said that right. From NVTA, she is going to do a presentation for us on NVTA's bus rapid transit BRT action plan.
So good evening. I am Monica Beckman, it's the mayor stated, the CEO of the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
I have a very brief presentation for you tonight talking about the region's bus rapid transit action plan for Northern Virginia.
So before I get into the specifics of BRT, NVTA to date has invested $5 billion regionally.
Of that $5 billion, $125 million has been invested right here in the city of Fairfax.
And that's from the authority 70%. From the 30% we've distributed to the city, $33 million for your own public transportation purposes.
Some of the key projects, not all, of course, have been identified. They're noted on this slide.
Germantown, Plenum, North Fairfax, intersection improvements, North Fairfax, network improvements, intersection improvements had eaten place, chain bridge row and cue bus system.
The point is that we try to make sure our investments are spread out and that they are truly multi-model and of course that they reduce congestion.
So just speak about the BRT system. Two years ago, or about give or take, when we adopted the region's current long-range transportation plan, which is transaction, the authority adopted that plan in December 2022.
Transaction is a needs-based plan and is fiscally in geographically unconstrained, but that's our opportunity to see where the gaps are in the network.
What projects do we need to create a more unified, seamless transportation system?
And that is essentially how BRT was born.
Twin, we've identified 28 routes. Of those 28 routes, five are in various stages of development. We have a few that are actually operating.
What this BRT action plan is, it is a blueprint for the jurisdictions and agencies in Northern Virginia to develop future BRT lines.
Now, that means everything will not happen overnight. It will not happen in the next five or 10 years.
It will take place in incremental steps. But the goal is to have the seamless integrated BRT network.
Something that will provide safe, reliable, efficient, frequent service. And this is not in lieu of Metro.
I do want to note that, but this is something that we can put on the ground a lot quicker and at a lower cost.
So our BRT action plan, like I noted, identifies up to 28 routes to expand capacity across the DMV.
When we took this task on, we had a working group that consisted of our member jurisdictions, the nine members, five cities for counties in the region.
And we had Maryland, we had the district of Columbia, we had Wemata because of course, as a traveler, as a commuter, you don't want to be stopped or hindered by jurisdictional boundaries.
So the five BRT routes that we're currently investing in, the one in Fairfax County, and vision route seven, which in BTC is working on, Western Transitway and Duke Street Transitway in the city of Alexandria and then Metroway in Arlington.
Those five routes, we have a total investment of $883 million dollars. Now I will say, is that a big number?
It's a big number. All numbers are big this day and age. However, the benefits that we get will truly, truly result in 47 million hours of 47 million riders by 20,
oh, I'm saying 20, 20, 40, 5, 47 million riders, 27,000 daily car trips shifted to transit and 23 tons of carbon dioxide avoided. These numbers are very important because not only does it help reduce congestion, it helps air quality and really get people into other modes that helps improve the quality of life.
You, this at the city of Fairfax, you're in the middle of these regional routes. You have three routes that are a part of this plan that go through the city of Fairfax, the Little River Turnpike, Chamberidge Road and Fairfax Boulevard.
And I do want to note that Route 21 is the I66 Express connects Haymarket with Vienna Metro Rail Station.
Some of the next steps and why I'm here before you tonight, we really want to make sure that our member jurisdictions are aware of this plan and the next steps.
The authority adopted the action plan of July of last year. So what we are doing now is we're updating the regions long range plan and we are making some tweaks to the action plan based on some of the responses and comments that we've heard from the member jurisdictions and agencies.
We would like to incorporate these BRT route stations and facilities into your compliance, mobility plans, transit, strategic plans, or plans that you are working on.
Because once you do that, that means that you can put that information in the next update of our long-range transportation plan.
And please note, if you don't get it in, the one we're working on now, the authority adopts a long range plan every five years.
For staff, it's a every two and a half year effort. So you are not missing out on an opportunity.
Continue to advance a coordinated regional strategy. I don't need to read all of the points, but again, we have some of the lines that are underway and others are in their preliminary stages.
I want to make sure that there's regional buy-in beyond the authority, regional from buy-in from our member jurisdictions and agencies.
And then the big one that I'm often asked about explore funding opportunities.
When these routes are in your plans, it only puts it on the radar for other plans.
We have to make sure that there's a plan that the local governing bodies endorse.
I spoke with the Secretary of Transportation, and I said, hey, we need to get some of these routes in the state's long-range transportation plan.
And he said, why, to gear it up for funding, and I said exactly. So that's another conversation that we're in the process of having.
But not only have it state funded or regional funded, we're doing things to put this in place for a potential federal funds as well.
This last slide, which is my favorite, really shows the regional collaboration when we have our BRT working groups coming in a working group coming together is representative of the agencies, the member jurisdictions, the people that are across the bridge, all of us as a true DMB region to have a seamless integrated system.
Thank you very much, that concludes my presentation.
Thank you very much. Looking at all of these different bus systems, it kind of highlights the fact that there is a lot of bus transit in the region.
We have our own Qbus, which is a closed system, and I think that what we're starting to talk about in addition to the rapid transit routes is simply how we lower the barriers and the challenges to more people writing buses.
I know Womada is working on that, and there's just a lot of discussion throughout the region for how do we make this more frictionless.
So I think in the next decade or so, we're going to have a lot of proposals about how to make transit, something that those 47 million people.
And in 2045, we're going to find it more desirable to use than a car.
So I will ask the dyes if there are questions of Ms. Backman. Any questions?
Yes, Council Member Harder Chandler.
Well, thank you. You indicated that part of your goal tonight is awareness.
So thank you for the presentation. Just curious, you mentioned that you're also looking for integration into local,
local transportation plans. Can you talk a little bit about your strategy to support that kind of communication?
Because I would imagine it's a bit complicated for all of these various regions to integrate this into their local plans, even though it's clearly needed for that.
So, some are much further along than others, but I will say, when we were doing this study, we had public involvement, public involvement.
We went out to the people, which is one of the more effective strategies, and we also had the member jurisdictions and the agencies involved.
And then we add to that we have our own two, we have two statutory committees, one, which consists of elected officials who do not serve on the authority,
but represent the 14, if you will remember jurisdictions, that's the nine of cities and counties, and then the five largest town in the region, and then we have the authority.
So we may outreach one of our top priorities, because you can have the best plan, so to speak.
But if no one buys into it, you really just have a plan that sits on the shelf. Now, now that we have the plan adopted, we want to go further, because I told my team, we don't do plans that sit on the shelf.
We need to be proactive about this. This means coming to all of the local governments more than once is to be honest.
So, but what we do not control, we don't control land use.
Nor do we want to. We want to work in tandem, hand in hand with you and where you are. For some of these lives, there may be land use changes that are needed.
There may be comp plan amendments that are needed. We are there to support you to help implement some of these routes.
And that's why I said it's not going to be overnight for a lot of these routes.
Again, the five that we're currently funding, they're in various stages, but the other 23, we are here to help those get further along as well, so we can lead to that can lead to implementation.
And so remember McQueen? Yes. Thank you, Mary. How can we find information to better understand specifically how this plan will affect our city residents and how it benefits them?
We do have the plan on our website and do we bring copy free for the council?
Not that if you so choose to read her copy, but you can go to our website, we do have a plan and then you can pull up how those three routes that we have identified, particularly impact you.
I think I want to know just because we have a route that doesn't mean that route has been defined in a way that, hey, this goes through an area that we don't want it to.
That's a general area for the particular route and that's another area we want to hear from you and you tell us how to really execute where the route should go when we get to that level.
That's excellent information. Thank you. I did have one more question in this description with the return on investment features that you guys outlined here. Have you ever considered presenting the percentage of decreased time and traffic or wait times is that conveyed anywhere.
So thank you for this and I'll just take a little plug that includes the BRT plan the authority we adopt our six year funding program every two years with every adoption of the funding program we actually contract out.
With an economic impact analysis from a farm that does these studies so we can really see the benefits of these transportation investments on the economy and we have the numbers on travel time savings.
What the dollar and every dollar that spent for transportation, what that means the number of new jobs that are created the number of new jobs that are created and stay in Virginia we can get you that information.
We do it with every funding program. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Councilmember Peterson. Good to see you.
You too.
I think the other night you may have mentioned that Virginia received a special award regarding commuting recently.
We did.
Did you tell us about that?
Sure. So last week the NVTA we hosted the celebration for best workplace for commuters and Virginia was recognized.
We recognized nationally including Canada. I have to know that Virginia is the number one place for best workplace for commuters and then to take a personal point.
NVTA has received this recognition twice.
But that really speaks to providing options and what I told my team and told the authority we practice what we preach.
We invest in multimodal solutions and we do that for the commuting public.
But we also do it for our staff as well because we are members of the public and we want to be able to provide those options for our team.
So thank you for that Councilmember Peterson. But you have Virginia's number one. I told him we got to do it again next year.
And then just to think a little bit about the big picture.
We also talked about the range of investments you make on our behalf for transportation alternatives which include various forms of transit and bus rapid transit.
As a part of that when you look at that whole mix of things.
How much does this kind of transit move the needle in terms of the adoption of commuting in a different format than people normally do with cars?
So I will say it comes off not even comes off for us.
We're always looking for alternative ways of commuting and alternative to taking a single occupied vehicle.
That's what we're all looking for ways to get people out of their cars as a single occupied vehicle and take other forms of transportation to get to and from their destinations.
You know we care about air quality. We care about safety. We care about all of those things.
But then there's also
So quality of life connection as well. When you're spending time commuting and you can't go anywhere, studies have shown that that does impact your quality of life and health.
So we want to make sure that we are making those investments to get people out of their SOVs. And we see that throughout the region is no particular locality that says that's what we should do.
All localities are saying that's exactly what we need to be doing. So help us go about doing that.
And when BRT goes in place, I'm guessing that that has required frequently the improvement of various types of connections to make it maximally effective.
That's one of the areas that localities have to look in really on their own basis to see what that involves.
Can you comment a little bit on how that has looked for localities that have seriously begun the adoption process. How much of these secondary investments and infrastructure and model change have taken place to enable BRT?
I would say first of all, you have to look at the densities and what do you have, what areas are the most dense, what has the activity centers and the employment and the people where the people, the bulk of the people if you will are going.
Because that's what we've seen for those five lines, if you will, those five routes, people are looking at where are the people going, where are the densities?
Because trying to put something like BRT in the less dense area, that's maybe not what you want to do.
Maybe that's best for more local service. But when you're looking at centers of employment, centers of high residential and where you have this mixed use development, these are the types of places where BRT really, really works.
But you have to be mindful for BRT to truly work. You can't have a lot of stops because it needs to be frequent, it needs to be on a schedule to incentivize people to use it.
It's a little different than local bus service where you see a significant number of stops. This has to have some spacing between stops.
You see that the headways, what headways would be best. And like I will give an example for Richmond Highway, which with Fairfax County is doing, there BRT system is fixed guyway, meaning nothing will run in that fixed guyway except the bus rapid transit.
What Alexandria is doing, there BRT will run on the street. Now you have to look at signal preemption and making sure that there is no violation and things like that, because you don't want something that will decenabies or slow the bus down.
And so BRT comes in various forms, but to start, you need to look at the densities and what kind of uses will the system serve.
Well, thank you, and it really leads to my last question, which is how have jurisdictions approached the potential dilemma of having to reserve a lane for BRT. It has to be fast, it has to be frequent.
And in some cases that means allocating a lane to BRT that otherwise is currently used for current automobile use. Can you comment a little bit on how that has been approached?
Well, I will say Fairfax County is right now the jurisdiction that says that we're going to have this lane only for BRT, but because Vita owns most of the roles in the Commonwealth, we have to have conversations with Vita, but not every jurisdiction is saying we're going to reserve a lane exclusively for BRT.
And that's what I'm talking about when we talk about frequencies and signal preemption and trying to control violations and things of that nature to make sure you're getting true BRT.
I will say I used to work in Prince William County and at that time when I work there and it seems like it was many moons ago, they had BRT in their compound horn route 1.
Then they took it out. Now there's conversations about putting it back in. Now we'll look like what Fairfax County has.
Well, I'm not sure about that because when you are a half fixed guy where you have to talk about expanding the road and then having that BRT there, so it's dedicated, but that's not again the only definition of BRT. You can have signal preemption. You can have on road dedicated lanes. It's really what is the best fit for your jurisdiction.
Thank you. Any additional questions, Councilmember Bates?
So you mentioned collaboration with stakeholders, including the QSystem. Did that include consideration of the potential revisions that we've represented here in the past?
Absolutely. And again, because we're doing what we call BRT 2.0 integrating a lot of the suggested changes or modifications I should say for BRT that resulted from the action plan.
We are in close contact with your staff and again the BRT working group that's meet regionally because the changes you make impact the system and that's why we need everyone at the table.
So the long answer is what I just said the short answer is yes.
And so we have a discussion later tonight about the process for reviewing the small area plans. Would you see and this might be a question for our staff as well, but would you see this is something that might be considered as part of that or more for a review of the comprehensive plan overall?
Yeah, I think that's a question that I will defer to your team for us the reason why we say put it in a comp plan or mobility plan because that makes it easier to submit to us for inclusion in the region's long range transportation plan, which means that we can find it at that point in time.
Yeah, well, yeah, we can talk about that later then and lastly just to comment, you know, the big thing the big takeaway for me from this presentation is just how large of a role.
Fairfax city plays despite its relatively small size and regional connectivity, not just for bus traffic transit, but also for motorists and for pedestrians and bicyclists.
And I think that's a large opportunity for us, but also a significant responsibility. Thank you.
Thank you, and again, I think you hit the nail on the head just because your small does it mean that you're small and comparison to what this study will do.
We need you because you're so centrally located. And so while we will have three routes that will go through the city, other routes will be impacted by what the city chooses to do.
Can some brains.
There we go. Thank you. Great presentation. I think this is extremely necessary considering that I think for public transit to be successful needs to be convenient.
And so very happy to see this. My only question really comes down to expectations or future advocacy and legislative efforts.
If you want to do a ledge program every fall, just like many other jurisdictions, you mentioned that's additional state funding, maybe even for helping localities try to make that transition.
What are some things that you anticipate that we may need to start involving in our ledge program or start addressing as part of a regional body.
Once you've decided and taken action to put it in your comprehensive plans, that's the point that it can really be flagged for funding.
And what I mean by that, when I talked to Secretary Donahue, he was like, oh, then we can put it in and be trans, which is the Commonwealth long range transportation plan, which is the vehicle for them to fund eligible projects.
Now, I'm not saying guaranteed funding because that's a separate conversation, but once you take action and putting it in your complaint and making a decision on, okay, these are the routes we want to proceed with.
It becomes more than a blueprint. It becomes something that's more ready to be implemented and that's when we can have that funding discussion.
And I shouldn't say at that point because we're always having the funding discussions like we don't want to come out to you and say, oh, you've done it now. Hey, I don't know how you're going to find it. That's not our problem.
No, it's our goal to help you with that. We can help on the capital side, but getting the operational funding is something that we're discussing now, where were those funds come from?
I know this administration is in support of BRT, which is a huge plus, but again, a lot of these routes will outlive if you will.
So, the administration, so we want to make sure that whoever we're talking to, whoever is in the offices in Richmond that we're doing that outreach, but same for DC, whoever is in these federal positions, having these conversations.
I was at US DOT a few weeks ago meeting with some of the heads of FHWA and FTA and, hey, BRT, BRT and I was like, okay, so what do you have?
So we are in the process of trying to lay that groundwork.
Just a quick follow-up. So I mean, in terms of timeline and on top of that prioritization, how does that work with BRT?
I mean, I'm assuming you have certain routes that might be higher priority, or are you trying to do this more as a blanket? What is your approach to this?
For us, you tell us, okay, we have three routes identified for the city. You tell us which ones are more viable or which one is the most wanted, if you will, or is the highest priority for the city.
And that's something we would want to get from you. Again, it's not our job to come here and tell you, this is the one you need to move on first.
Because you know the things that we don't know, you know, you hear from the community, you hear from the people you know what's in your plans.
And again, we do talk to your staff, Ms. Block Sanford, has been great, but you know that.
So it's not for us to tell us, this is what you need to prioritize. We want you to tell us, all right, did I say that?
It's not for us to tell you, it's for you to tell us, excuse me.
Thank you.
Other questions, Councilmember Hall?
Thank you. I think most of my questions have been answered. It's nice to see you.
I see you name an email a lot.
I was just curious for the five routes that are in process in some way.
Are they, you've mentioned before that sometimes there are additional things that need to be done in addition to BRT and not having a dedicated lane.
Sorry, my son is calling.
And so I was up in Toronto and they had rapid transit lanes, but they were not solely devoted.
Yes. So I was trying to understand how that, you know, woodwork and in some areas, I think when you've a lot of traffic lanes, obviously there's plenty of room for it.
But the five routes that are currently in action or in the process are those specifically BRT, just dedicated lanes,
or they inclusive, I know you mentioned the Fairfax County one, but like I don't know what the one is.
I can imagine some of the other ones, but the transit ways are those other multi-modal ways of transportation or they just buses.
So I would say yes and no for the one and that's what Fairfax has called it because they're building a redeveloping Richmond Highway around this BRT system.
When that BRT lines open, it will be the longest if you will BRT in the commonwealth.
Today, as of now until something else happens, so they are doing a whole redevelopment around Richmond Highway BRT.
And that's the one that will be fixed-guided way.
The others are not fixed-guided way. They are on road and you have other traffic that may be able to use these lanes when the buses are not in them.
And that's the key component. And you can have a system or BRT where you don't have fixed-guided way because that does come at a cause,
but they're exclusive to buses only.
And again, these are the types of conversations you have.
So while it's not fixed-guided way, meaning that they're a barriers.
So nothing can infringe that lane because you have the buses there and you have physical barriers.
You can have exclusive bus lanes.
Or you can have BRT that runs in the commuting periods.
You know it runs in the AMP, and I'm using air quotes because the AMP has really changed since COVID.
And the PMP, and then off-peek, you can have cars using those lanes.
So these are the types of conversations that we would have because we would need to hear from you on what is the best fit for your community.
Thank you. Yeah, I was also thinking about how I used to commute into DC.
And there are certain lanes that are only operational, certain times a day, or the Bay Bridge,
how they give you that extra lane on the other side of traffic.
So certain things like that, I think, tend to work when you don't have a physically divided highway in some ways.
But also I think could be considered in other areas as well. So thank you very much.
Thank you.
Other questions?
I think one of the greatest things about seeing these maps and having you explain this is the fact that NVTA, NVTC, you know,
Womata are all invested in transit.
And a lot of this is going to change. You know, we're building new projects here.
Where people want to go as things get developed, look at Tyson's corner.
Things get developed. So it is all subject to change.
And that's the other thing to keep in mind about fixed lanes, too.
It's great. I mean, it makes sense to do it on the root 1 quarter.
But the rest of the region might change dramatically in the next 20 years.
And so what we need to do is come up with the system for how we adapt to where people want to take the bus from and to.
And I appreciate very much that NVTA is at the center of this.
I appreciate our staff looking at you, Ms. Wendy Sanford, Ms. Wendy Block Sanford.
And the fact that we do have a wonderful staff in Council Member Peterson and I are on NVTA.
And the member jurisdictions are working very hard to make sure that transit becomes an important part of the foundation of our economy here in Northern Virginia.
I appreciate you coming out.
Just talk to us today.
And best of luck is to do your tour.
So thank you, Mary. And again, I want to thank you for your service on the authority.
I mean, you really have been a support of this from day one.
And council member Peter Sin on our planning coordination advisory committee. You have great people here, so it makes our job easier. So thank you. Thank you very much.
All right, Ms. Shinabari.
We can go to the adoption of the agenda.
All right, then, is there a motion to approve the agenda?
Council member Hardie Chandler?
I move to adopt the agenda as presented.
Second.
The motion has been made in seconded a roll call vote.
Council member Amis.
All right.
Council member Hardie Chandler?
Aye.
Council member Peter Sin?
Aye.
Council member Bates?
Aye.
Council member McCulland?
Aye.
Motion passed unanimously.
We had to be signed up for initial general public comment, so we can go to the consent agenda.
Okay.
I will ask.
Are there any questions on any of the items on the consent agenda?
Any questions?
Okay.
Sing none.
Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda?
Aye.
I move to approve the consent agenda items.
Aye.
Through C.
Second.
A motion's been made by Council member Hardie Chandler and seconded by Council member Peterson.
A roll call vote.
Council member McCulland?
Aye.
Council member Bates?
Aye.
Council member Peterson?
Aye.
Council member Hardie Chandler?
Aye.
Council member Amis?
Aye.
Motion passed unanimously.
So we would go to the public hearings.
Our first one is a public hearing and council action on the adoption of the Green Building
Policy.
I'm going to recognize Stephanie Cooper or Sustainability Program Manager for the staff presentation.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council members.
Tonight we're here to hold the public hearing for the Green Building Policy, which is being considered for adoption.
During my presentation, I'll first provide background information on the development of the Green Building Policy.
I'll provide an overview of the research and community engagement that was conducted.
I'll then provide details on the Green Building Policy standards for both the public and private sectors.
And then we'll discuss the administrative and implementation procedures for the Green Building Policy.
And then finally, I'll provide a recommendation to Council pertaining to the adoption of the policy.
I'll first start with background.
So why does a Green Building Policy matter now?
So one of building is constructed.
That locks in 30 to 50 years of operating costs, which includes utilities, maintenance, and repairs.
And right now, the City is facing multiple challenges,
and we're also experiencing high-development pressure, which is rapidly rising utility costs.
For example, electricity rates are projected to increase more than by double in the next 20 years.
And this year alone, we're anticipating to have a 32% increase in electricity rates.
So this is a challenge for ongoing costs associated with utilities.
We're also experiencing high-development pressure, which is putting a strain on our natural resources.
And we're also seeing increasing climate risk associated with extreme weather events, flooding, and extreme heat days.
So the Green Building Policy is about responding proactively to these challenges by improving resilience, reducing long-term costs,
and helping the City achieve our goals.
The development of the Green Building Policy has been in progress for years.
So in 2020, the City Council directed staff to develop the Green Building Policy,
and staff did so in accordance with the City's plans, policies, and state and federal guidelines.
Staff has spent multiple years researching best practices, working with consultants,
George Mason University, engaging state holders, and aligning this policy with the Virginia High Performance Building Act and regional standards.
So the scope of the Green Building Policy includes both public sector and private sector, Green Building Standards.
So the public sector applies to new construction, major innovations, and existing buildings, and the private sector standards applies to new construction and major renovations.
So what does the City get for this investment?
For the public sector, there are substantial cost savings and long-term benefits for the city.
For example, at least certified building typically saves 20 to 30% on electricity bills due to energy efficient design.
It also saves 11% of water bills due to low foe fixtures, rainwater harvesting, and native landscaping.
And it also saves 10 to 20% on reduced maintenance and repair costs due to the durable high-quality materials used in Green Buildings and also the use of smart building management systems.
This policy also will promote renewable energy.
An onsite renewable energy can reduce electricity costs 20 to 50% over 20 years.
This policy also helps improve indoor environmental quality, which is shown to boost productivity by 6 to 9%.
And this policy also will help reduce disposal fees associated with race reduction due to construction waste and sustainable material choices.
On the private sector side of things, there's benefits to that as well.
So the policy creates clear expectations with developers and provides multiple benefits to the city.
The policy catches us up with other jurisdictions in the region and provides predictability with developers working in northern Virginia.
It gets us higher quality development reduces development impacts on our tree canopy, water resources and habitat through smart design and building performance.
It reduces demand on public infrastructure and utilities,
lowing the long-term strain on our infrastructure.
It improves building quality, comfort and resilience, and also aligns with the city adopted environmental and economic goals.
And then last but not least, it also helps promote access to the commercial pace program that's available to commercial properties so they can get long-term financing and then also help pay for those green building enhancements.
So as mentioned earlier, the green building policy will help the city achieve its goals.
It helps support climate environmental goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving energy efficiency, promoting renewable energy and minimizing environmental impacts.
It helps our city become more resilient and healthy by enhancing indoor environmental air quality and improving resilience to heat, flooding and extreme heat days.
It also helps support smart growth by encouraging sustainable building design, encouraging growth that aligns with infrastructure capacity and environmental constraints and help support fiscal responsibility by lowering long-term operating costs and reducing future infrastructure demands on the city.
And it also helps us align, as I mentioned earlier, with jurisdictions in the region, aligns with regional best practices and puts us in compliance with state requirements.
This policy directly helps us achieve some of our targets.
So it helps us reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and also helps us achieve our target to achieve 100% renewable electricity for city operations by 2035 and community wide by 2050.
On the pie chart, on the right shows our total greenhouse gas emissions for each sector.
And you can see that building, shown in green, account for almost half of our greenhouse gas emissions and the commercial buildings account for a quarter.
So this shows that it's really important to have both public and private green building standards to help reduce those emissions and help us achieve our climate goals.
The development of this policy has been a deliberate and inclusive process, as you see, from this timeline.
From stakeholder committee formation in 2023 to conducting research, holding council work sessions, public meetings, obtaining advisory committee and put and developing multiple draft iterations and approving that based on feedback from the community.
This policy reflects an extensive review, refinement and stakeholder engagement.
And now provides an overview of some of our research and community engagement.
So this policy is grounded in best practices.
Staff worked with the consultant to evaluate peer jurisdictions, building codes, the Virginia High Performance Building Act and reviewed nationally recognized green building ratings systems.
We also had the privilege of being part of the US Green Building Council's Green Building Policy Accelerator cohort, where we received free technical guidance and they help provide recommendations for how we can improve our policy.
So with all of this research, it ensures the policy is legally sound, technically feasible, and align with what is already working across the region.
For stakeholder engagement, we had an internal stakeholder team made up of representatives of various departments within the city.
We also had an external Green Building Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from the Development Community, subject matter experts,
George Mason University, environmental sustainability committee members, and also members of the public.
So the stakeholders meant three hours, three to our meetings each, and we, these stakeholders provide a lot of input into the development of the policy.
Throughout the process, we also did a significant amount of public engagement.
We engaged with over 250 stakeholders during our outreach process.
We held meetings with the City Council, the Planning Commission, the Economic Development Authority, the Environmental Sustainability Committee, Parks and Recreation Board, etc.
We held a public meeting, and also attended the development industry meeting.
And we also tabled public events and had an online engage fair facts page.
All of those we were able to gather input and feedback from our community, which really helped shape the policy to ensure that it's feasible, equitable, and implementable.
So here's how that feedback that we received shaped the policy.
So first we balanced ambitious ambition with feasibility by focusing on the high impact practices while ensuring that we were still remaining practical.
We also received feedback on building size requirements.
We wanted to prioritize higher larger buildings for maximum impact and also make sure that our building threshold aligned with the Virginia high performance building act.
And another thing that was added was that we added public schools to the policy because that was not first specified.
Now schools is part of the policy.
For green space and tree canopy, stakeholders wanted us to encourage green space, tree canopy, dark sky compliance and storm order best practices.
We took that feedback to heart and we added special requirements for credits to ensure that we achieve those.
And regional consistencies, the standards were aligned with the Virginia high performance building act and also aligned with what's going on with the region.
For the tax abatement incentive, as we discussed earlier, we did look at a variety of incentives.
Part of the feedback that received was the tax abatement was the most attractive to developers.
We did get a lot of feedback and concerns from the rest of the population about equity concerns and fiscal concerns.
So we did, after discussions with the council, we did decide to not include incentive as part of this iteration of the green building policy.
So we could further study that to ensure that whatever incentive we had had the best impact and also address those fiscal and equity concerns.
For technical definitions, we heard from stakeholders they wanted more definitions and so there was less technical jargon and made it more easy to read which we did.
We also streamlined the certification process to simplify that to reduce the administrative burden and to make it easier for private industry to follow.
For the next few slides, I'll provide an overview of the public sector green building standards.
For applicability for the public sector, it is existing buildings that are 1,000 square feet or greater.
New public construction or major renovations for buildings that are 5,000 square feet or greater.
And major interior renovations that are 5,000 square feet or greater.
So for all existing public sector buildings that are 1,000 square feet or greater, the city shall conduct energy benchmarking and energy audits of those buildings.
Achieve lead building operations and maintenance silver certification.
And then track and publicly disclose the public sector building energy.
For each of those buildings on an annual basis. This ensures that the city is being transparent with a community and also identify the areas where we can make improvements in our buildings and then also achieve that certification.
For new construction and major renovations, these apply to any new city buildings that are 5,000 square feet or greater.
The building shall align with the Virginia High Performance Building Act. So we need to be applying with all of those requirements.
We will achieve lead building design construction gold, meet electrification, ready in 0 emissions standards, demonstrated 50% reduction on modeled energy use above the current Virginia uniform state, statewide building code, and then earn key sustainability resilience credits.
And for major interior renovations for buildings 5,000 square feet or greater, the city shall achieve lead interior design construction gold.
So this standard ensures that even a partial upgrades improves the efficiency and occupant comfort.
All right. Now I will discuss the private sector green building standards.
So for the private sector, the green building standards will apply to development subject to special exception variants rezoning planned development review or special use review procedures.
And our new construction or major renovations where the buildings floor area is 5,000 square feet or greater.
So for private development, this policy only applies to those seeking discretionary approvals. This does will not apply to buildings that are being built by rain.
So for the applicable buildings, they shall obtain certification at the silver letter level and they have flexibility with either using lead building design instruction or earthcraft.
And then they will also be required to obtain the key sustainability and resilience credits shown here.
For administration procedures, the development of the staff will develop an annual green building policy report, which will provide an update on how the green building policy implementation is going.
And at a minimum of every five years, the policy will be reviewed and updated.
And then also with with each of these reports, key performance indicators will be measured tracked and reported to show how we're making progress towards reaching our goals.
This slide shows the implementation procedure for the green building policy.
So tonight the policy is being considered for adoption. If it is adopted, the public green building standards will become effective immediately.
In September, or sometime this fall, we anticipate to hire an onboard our brand new energy programs manager.
This position will be responsible for implementing and managing the green building policy.
In fiscal year 27, staff will be working on tasks for the pre-launch planning, preparation and coordination for the private sector standards.
So this does require significant amount of coordination between departments, finalizing standard operating procedures, building the website and forms work with developers to train them.
So this does take a significant amount of effort.
So once that is ready to be launched, we anticipate the launch will be launched and enacted in July 2027.
And ongoing as mentioned on the previous slide, each year will provide a progress report to council regarding the green building policy.
And then for incentives, I mentioned earlier that incentives are not included in this iteration.
However, we have scheduled to do further analysis and research on incentives to see which ones would have the biggest impact.
While also addressing fiscal and equity concerns, and we're scheduled to conduct that in fiscal year 31.
And then in fiscal year 32, that would be the five year mark to update and present the revised green building policy to council.
And if council directs it, that that policy would include those incentive measures.
So in conclusion, the green building policies are practical tool that advances city goals and presbuilding performance reduces long-term costs and environmental impacts and aligns the city with regional best practices.
Thank you.
Okay, before I open the public hearing, I'm going to ask if there are any questions from the dies at this time.
For staff.
Councilmember Peterson.
Thank you so much.
The training program for developers.
I'm guessing will include training around the financing of these investments for green buildings.
And you have an earlier slide that shows return.
I think they return on investment numbers.
And one could imagine adding payback periods in there that are particularly helpful as a matter of focus.
I think the payback periods for green building policies are two to eight years, something like that.
And everything after that is profit.
I raised this because I think it's an information gap.
We want to be sure we close on behalf of developers.
But I'm also curious to know, as we do that, do we have any sort of outreach or training program for financial institutions, including banks,
so that they also understand financially how this would impact their lending decisions because these payback periods would be very favorable to lenders if they're aware of them.
And can incorporate them into their terms.
We have anything planned along those lines.
So I guess there's two things.
So one is we will be working with the Fairfax Housing Renaissance Corporation.
But I think that's only for residential.
So I guess that doesn't pertain to the commercial sector.
I'm thinking out loud here.
And then for commercial pace, we have been working with the pace authority who runs the Virginia Commercial
and we've reached out through a new economic development director to help promote that program with commercial property owners.
So we don't have any plans to work with banks per se at this moment.
But that's something we can look into.
I just I just raise it because oftentimes the way this works is a developer has.
The capital part when they come forward and to be able to develop those capital partners and for the capital partners to be able to see and support developers is something that might benefit from some.
Technical education around this.
So I would just offer that as something to consider.
Thank you for that suggestion.
Any other questions?
All right then.
I will open the public hearing.
Can a beer has this public hearing been properly advertised.
Yes it has.
We had no by sign up prior to the meeting.
So if there's anybody in the room they'd like to speak on this agenda item may come forward.
And when you come forward, please state your name and address with your statement.
Hello, Mayor and council.
My name's Ben Rhodes.
I live at 3704 University Drive.
I'm a member of the Environmental Sustainability Committee.
And have gotten to hear over my year with the committee.
You know, the progress that's been made on the green building policy has been developed.
Incredibly heartening to see how much it's been improved over that year.
And I really look forward to being able to have sort of consistent environmental features,
particularly in public buildings right away.
You know, this gets rolled out.
And then, you know, seeing as our city develops and flourishes, having consistency,
particularly in the habitat, natural resources, features, tree canopy,
stormwater features, and private buildings.
So that's all I'll have for now.
Keep it short.
Thanks, guys.
So everybody else in the room, I'd like to speak.
Good evening.
We're in council.
It's a pleasure to be here at this moment to kind of speak on with multiple behalf,
as a ESC member.
Sorry, I didn't state my name.
Pfizer, along from 101 to Radcliffe Manager for effects.
And I'm a member of the ESC committee.
Science teacher at Catherine Johnson Middle School, my students presented,
because for me, that's the most powerful piece here.
We are educating our students and giving them the platform to speak.
And they came to you multiple times to different bodies here in the city.
And they did talk about green building policy and the heat island effect and all the stuff
in their presentation for North Facts and Courthouse Plaza.
Unfortunately, they couldn't come today because summer break was more important right now.
And rightly so.
And they were very, very happy.
I spoke to them today that this is happening.
They might be watching live right now at that.
This is up for adoption today.
So it's really, really important that what we do here,
we are leaving a mark for our young ones.
And they see this.
So seven greater and eight greater see this is very important.
So for us adults to see this, that's very important is really, really,
the connection we are making here and leaving it a better place.
So ESC has worked really hard into, you know, give our feedback and it's a pleasure
to be part of this.
And as a resident, it's just really good to see that as we just heard from the
transportation person that city is right in the middle of Facts County.
What we do here, even though we are small, we make a huge impact.
Right.
And we need to kind of have this policy.
And this is the right step forward to build a momentum.
And things will fall in the right place as we are developing as Mary you said.
You know, things will change in the next five years.
10 years as Tyson's corner has changed.
We have changed.
We are building.
Are we building impervious only or are we having some green space?
And that will help our stormwater management are run off or a heat island effect.
I mean, it just is a win-win situation.
So thank you so much for this consideration.
Any vials in the room?
They would like to speak on this item?
All right.
I will now close the public hearing.
Is there a motion council member Harder Chandler?
I moved to approve the resolution to adopt the city of Fairfax Green building policy.
Second.
The motion's been made by council member Harder Chandler.
Seconded by council member Peterson.
Is there discussion on the motion?
Seeing none.
A roll call vote.
Council member Amis.
Aye.
Council member Hall.
Aye.
Council member Peterson.
Aye.
Council member Bates.
Aye.
Council member McCullan.
Aye.
Council member Harder Chandler.
Aye.
Motion passed unanimously.
We will go to the next public hearing, which is a public hearing and council action on the proposed amendments to the code of the city of Fairfax Virginia.
Chapter 86.
And for in subdivisions, to amend portions of the articles and sections contained there and including administration.
I want to recognize Eric Foreman or senior planner for the staff presentation.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
This agenda item is a public hearing for consideration of amendments to the subdivision ordinance.
It's not often that we amend the subdivision ordinance.
The last time was four years ago.
And that was in response to updated flood plain standards.
What these amendments pertain to is a relatively minor update.
It's in response to state legislation from 2025.
That changed the mandatory timeframe for subdivision flat reviews.
And that particular section of the subdivision ordinance mirror state code.
So what these amendments do is they synchronize the city's ordinance with those state code provisions.
There's two components to these amendments.
One changes the first review period of an application from 60 days to 40 days.
And again, that changes to make this consistent with state code.
The other component to this amendment deals with subsequent submissions of subdivision applications.
So if an application is resubmitted for a second time or a third time or so on.
For this component, we're amending the text to read that those submissions.
Those resubmissions will be reviewed in accordance with the relevant state code section.
So just one other thing to note is to note here our most subdivision actions are administrative.
And staff's action is guided by this document by the subdivision ordinance.
Larger subdivisions and this is defined in state code is being more than 50 lots.
Larger subdivisions do require planning commission review but mostly these are administrative actions.
So again, this amendment ensures that our ordinance stays consistent with state code.
The planning commission held a public hearing on these amendments last month.
The commission recommended approval of these amendments.
And we do have a sample motion here in your packets.
And with that I'd be glad to answer any questions if there are any.
Are there any questions from Mr. Forman.
Council member Peterson.
I think we covered this earlier but just just a double check.
Does this have any impact and if so how much and what do we do about it in terms of public outreach public involvement and awareness?
Because it's shortening the period about.
It is shortening the period there is since these are typically administrative reviews.
There's no public notice to a subdivision for any larger subdivision.
At actions that now that would be a planning commission recommendation and that would be unchanged.
Thank you.
All right.
Any other questions?
All right then.
I will now.
Open the public hearing. Missionary has this public hearing been properly advertised? Yes, it has. No one has signed up prior to the meeting. Is there anybody in the room that would like to speak on this agenda item?
All right. Seeing no one rushing to the podium, I will now close the public hearing. Is there a motion? Council member Hardy Chandler. I move to approve an ordinance, amending chapter 86 subdivisions to amend portions of articles and sections contained therein, including administration.
Second. Emotions been made by council member Hardy Chandler and seconded by council member Peterson. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, a roll call vote. Council member McClellan. Aye. Council member Bade. Aye. Council member Peterson. Aye. Council member Hardy Chandler. Aye. Council member Hall. Aye. Council member Amis. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We've gone to our last public hearing, which is a public hearing and council action on an ordinance, amending, and re-enacting chapter two.
imprints administration. Article two imprints mayor and council section two dash 31 of the code of city Fairfax Virginia pertaining to the compensation of the mayor and the members of the city council.
I'll recognize Brian Lovecman or city attorney for the staff report. Good evening, Mayor Council. You all have spoken about this several times already this tonight would be the public hearing and council action.
If it's so desires and ordinance that would increase the salaries for mayor and council from the current 13,000 and 12,000 respectively to 24,000 and 22,000 respectively.
As we've noted and as the staff report sets forth an increase cannot take effect until after the next elections that is always an intervening election requirement.
And an ordinance for it to be effective July 1, 2027 needs to be enacted at least four months before the elections. So this is the last regular meeting before that could be done without I'm happy to answer any questions.
Are there any questions? Mr. Lockeman.
Okay, I'm seeing none, so we will open the public hearing. Missionary is this public hearing been properly advertised? Yes, it has someone signed up prior to the meeting. So if there's anybody in the room that I'd like to speak on this item may come forward.
Seeing no one, I will now close the public hearing. Is there a motion council member heard a gentleman?
I move that the city council in that the attached ordinance amending chapter two administrative.
So it's the right one. Yeah, administration article two mayor and council section two dash 31 pertaining to compensation of the mayor and the members of the city council.
Second motion's been made by council member Hardy Chandler and seconded by council member Peterson, is there any discussion on the motion.
Council member Bates.
I just want to reemphasize that I hope that the salary increase will make it more feasible, more realistic for early career professionals, perhaps a little parents, etc.
To run for office and otherwise need to reduce their hours worked in their daytime careers.
And also that I hope that the next council will consider this, consider this consideration as they look at the results of the classification and pay study and think about future budgets and how we're paying our staff and being care of our staff as well.
Thank you.
Thank you. Any other, okay.
A roll call vote.
Council member Amis.
I.
Council member Hall.
I.
Council member Hardy Chandler.
I.
Council member Peterson.
Council member Bates.
I.
Council member McQueen.
I.
Motion passed unanimously.
We would go to second journal public comment.
Is there anybody in the room that would like to make a general public comment tonight?
Well, all right then. I will now recess the regular meeting to go into a work session.
We will take a five minute recess to move into the work session room.
Thank you.
And welcome back to our work session here on the 23rd of June.
Missionary, what do we have up first?
Our first item is a discussion of potential reviews and updates to adopt the small area plans for old town north backs camp Washington and Fairfax circle.
I'm going to recognize Paul Natty or Division Chief of Planning for the staff presentation.
Thank you Mayer read and members of council.
The purpose of tonight's work session is to discuss this potential upcoming effort to review and potentially update the small area plans.
We will go over a proposed schedule with you as well as a proposed list of topics.
The staff recommends review when review the small area plans we will be proposing that review and potentially update all four small area plans concurrently.
And so we'll walk through that process with you as well.
Our goal tonight is to receive feedback from you on whether or not to proceed with this effort.
Whether or not you support the proposed schedule and to get feedback from you on the specific topics that we plan to discuss.
Whether it be that we are you support the topics that are in there or if there are any that are missing that you want us to include.
In general this is a discussion about the scope of this effort and so we'd like to get your feedback on making sure we're going on the right direction before we begin.
I'm here tonight with some of the staff will be coordinating on some of the major issues with this.
The effort will be certainly isn't everybody but some of the elements of the looking at from a bigger picture perspective will require some analytical components that will need their support on so.
We have Wendy's and for a director of transportation.
Coving cardaz, or economic development and Satoshi Eto public works director of utilities.
So a quick background on the small area plans.
The 2019 comprehensive plan recommended that we developed a smaller plans to provide more specific guidance that will help ensure that development is coordinated in our activity centers.
The city had already supported mixed use development in these areas in previous comprehensive plans but there was no centralized vision to guide how that development should occur.
So with that it was recommended to do this comprehensive plan to develop the smaller plans that would help provide the guidance and the elements that are listed with the bullet points on left of the screen or what was listed in the comprehensive plan at that time to be included in the smaller area plans.
So since that time we have adopted for smaller plans for four of the five activity centers the fifth one being pick it in Maine.
There's no sense of urgency to move forward without one at this time and so we'll be looking at these first four.
This is a long-term timeline of how the smaller plans have been developed in concurrence with the comprehensive plan and how we expect to be reviewing and updating all of these documents going forward.
So what this shows is a timeline going back to 2019 at that time we had a complete rewrite of the comprehensive plan.
We typically go through a more intensive effort with the comprehensive plan about once every 15 years the state code requires that we review it and update it every five years.
But these more intensive reviews occur in a longer term basis.
As I mentioned at that time, it recommended that we developed a smaller year plans.
So the boxes that are shown on this timeline, those that are highlighted with the orange glow,
are where we are saying that we wrote a document for the first time.
That wasn't our first conference to plan, but as I mentioned, it was a complete rewrite.
So we see that as our starting point.
Then following that, this is a smaller plan recommended or the conference plan recommended we developed
a smaller year plans or the course of the next four years.
We developed those four smaller plans I mentioned earlier.
So those are shown as what we consider being a new document at that point.
And by that time, we had reached the five year period with the state code requires that we review
and potentially update our comprehensive plan.
So shortly after the last smaller plan was adopted in 2024, we also amended our comprehensive plan.
And that was actually about a year-long process that went into that.
During that process of updating the comprehensive plan, we asked the city council in the planning commission
if we should review and update the smaller plans at the same time because they are considered an extension of the comprehensive plan.
And it was generally agreed that was not a good time to do that for a couple of reasons.
First, some of the smaller plans were relatively new at that point.
But also, and more importantly, the smaller plans have a lot more detailed information in the comprehensive plan.
And certain that that would detract the attention from the comprehensive plan itself.
And more people would focus on how we update the smaller plans.
And we wouldn't actually put the type of effort that we should into the comprehensive plan.
So we focused our effort at that time on the comprehensive plan with the understanding that we would come back and review the smaller plans at a later date.
With the update of the comprehensive plan in 2024, one of the recommendations was also to amend the city's zoning ordinance to be more in line with the smaller plans.
Because the ideas and divisions that were in the smaller plans were not in place before 2019 when the comprehensive plan was rewritten.
Our policies and codes weren't up to date with what the smaller plans were recommended.
So since we had those four plans in place, we had the general guidance that we needed that we could begin that update.
So we began that update late in 2024. We're still working on it now.
We have a work session coming up with you on that effort in a couple of weeks.
And we hoped to wrap that process up by the end of this year.
Following that, we can begin the effort on reviewing and updating the smaller plans.
And since the smaller plans, the overall vision was put into place with the original documents.
We expect that the changes that occur through this review will be unsubstantial enough that we can amend the zoning ordinance if needed to adjust to any changes to the recommendations that will be in there.
We aren't expecting that the smaller plan review will result in overall change the goals or the vision of those types of things.
Then looking forward long-term after the smaller plans are updated.
And I'll show you an amendment on our proposed schedule for that.
But we hope to wrap that up by about mid-2028.
We will then continue our five year cycle review per state code.
So we'll come up for a review with a comprehensive plan of 2029.
Then for the smaller plans in 2023.
And then following that, they get this close to around a year 2035.
We're showing 2035 highlighted an orange again because as I mentioned, this is our 15 year timeframe.
We're not bound to rewrite the comprehensive plan at that time.
Just looking at our past history though, that seems like a time we would do it.
Also, the 2019 comprehensive plan had a target data 2035, so it seems like that'll make sense.
Again, we're not bound to that, but just for the purpose of looking ahead.
We think that's what we'll put the effort into doing that.
So thinking more specifically about the update for the smaller plans.
This is the schedule that we are proposing.
Today, we're starting by introducing the project to you and discussing the scope.
Depending on the feedback that we get from you today, we plan to be back to you later this year to provide more information about the scope and make sure that we are confirmed or on the same page with what we want to do.
And then we can begin the work late in 2026 or in early 2027.
The next two lines under confirming the scope, say, city staff analysis and consultant analysis.
So the task here are separated by those that we can do in-house as city staff.
We can begin those right away.
As long as we have the capacity, those that require consultant support that we will after confirming the scope of you will determine if we need to make a budget request in next year's budget.
And if that is approved, those funds will become available not until mid 2027.
And so those consultant support tasks could begin at that time.
So be a slight delay there.
But we're working on formatting the documents and planning throughout the whole process.
And our goal again is to wrap this up by about mid 2028.
So the the function for tonight's work session is a walk through all of the proposed tasks that we propose to do as we review the smaller plans.
As I mentioned, we propose to do all four at once.
And part of the reason for that is that some of these tasks that we plan to do include the type of analysis that once you're doing in one area, you might as well do it in all areas at the same time to make it more efficient.
This will also allow us to bring the documents more in line with each other since they were developed at four different times.
They weren't necessarily entirely consistent with how they're written.
They have a lot of the same information, but as you look through them that they have some differences between them.
So we'll make sure that they are all aligned with each other.
Also through the process, we weren't showing in the timeline there how we plan to do community outreach.
We will refine that probably come back to you again later this year, but certainly there'll be a major component of this effort.
So as we go through these tasks, there'll be separated into two areas those that have at orange title or those that we can do in house.
Those that have a blue title or those that we would need consultant support support.
So I just keep that in mind as you're thinking about what's important to include in this process.
So the first task is a policy review.
So the goal here is to look at those policies and plans that have been developed by the city since the smaller plans were adopted and make sure that they are incorporated properly into the smaller plans.
So some examples are shown here. There are certainly be others.
One example is the Urban Forest Master plan.
This was adopted in December and includes some components of this plan,
and include recommendations related to policies, regarded trees and other types of recommendations related to physical space, which is what the smaller plans really rely on.
So that includes things such as green space access.
What they call a 33300 analysis where we look at making sure that every facility and residents has three trees within view of them.
That we have 30% free canopy in neighborhoods and that every location has a public open space within 300 yards.
For their recommendations about open space connectivity.
And there's a recommendation to conduct a forced error analysis that will provide more specific guidance on specific locations.
They're important in the city.
Another example is the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan.
It's adopted in February.
Some of the elements of this plan were already included in our comprehensive plan and were factored into the development of the original smaller plans.
Such as the ideas of using public land or partnerships with nonprofit and religious institutions to develop dedicated affordable housing developments.
The problem there is that there aren't a lot of those sites in our activity centers are mainly commercial areas.
So there weren't a lot of opportunities for that.
So there's a new recommendation through the Affordable Housing Strategic Plan that suggests we look at underutilized commercial properties.
And we'll talk a little bit later about doing market analyses and one might be included in those.
But that might help us identify some of those opportunities because actually centers really are important places for affordable housing to be located because that's where the services and the transportation infrastructure are.
So we need to look for other opportunities to establish those partnerships.
Another example is the smaller plans owning ordinance amendments that I recommended earlier.
The reason these will be beneficial is that if they are adopted they'll provide more specific recommendations on numeric standards that we don't currently have in the activity centers.
This includes things such as how we'll be calculating open space what the exact dimensions are for streets and streets gates.
And it could potentially include introduction of density standards, which there aren't any in the smaller airplanes.
And so this will help us refine the plans to make sure what we're showing in the plans is something that can be actually developed and is in line with what the zoning ordinance is showing as opposed to what we have now is a bit more speculative because it was developed when we were still generating ideas.
A couple other examples things that are in development green building policy is no longer in development but we'll be using that as a resource.
Move Fairfax transportation plan is looking at a circulation study for old towns so certainly have significant impacts in that area.
But it's also looking at pedestrian safety improvements city wide and so we might take some recommendations from there include them in the smaller plans.
Parts and recreation strategic master plan will be looking at the facilities we have and demands we might have for new facilities.
So as I mentioned there might be others I also want to mention this is where I would include external policies and plans so you have the presentation earlier tonight about the NVTA BRT action plan and so we can take a look at that as well.
Certainly this is something that there are a lot of steps we'll have to take before we know exactly how to impact the smaller plans but we can at least begin to incorporate those types of recommendations.
Similar to the policy review we will do a project review so here we'll be looking at projects that have been implemented or changed since the smaller plans were adopted so there are a couple of examples here.
Now these are more specific site location based projects so a couple of examples are a Fairfax Circle floodplain study that is underway that might end up resulting in potential future changes to the extensive floodplains in that area and that will affect some of our recommendations for development there.
The old town circulation study I mentioned is part of the move Fairfax transportation plan Fairfax Circle intersection analysis is something that is just beginning and that will provide more specific recommendations about how we handle the specific intersection in Fairfax Circle which could have more repercussions for the street network beyond just that intersection.
And another one here is the Eden Place intersection in north fax when the smaller plan was developed we had one concept for that intersection that concept has changed and that has resulted in changes to Eden Place itself and what we can do in terms of link configurations there so we're looking at certainly additional projects throughout the city and how the impact.
The smaller plans will be conducting what we are calling the property impact analysis so through the smaller plans when it comes to private development.
There's kind of a trade off that is proposed and that we are providing recommendations for additional types of uses and additional height and different types of setbacks that can incorporate more development than could be done before.
But in exchange for that we're also asking for contributions to public amenities in return and this can be in the form of many ways but the two most common ways which it shows up in the smaller plans is contributions to the street network and contributions to public open space.
And we look at various sites throughout the smaller plans that have these types of amenities on them some of them have significant impacts from them and that we're showing a lot of area of land on a private property that we're expecting to be provided for public use other properties have almost none and so.
The goal here is to make that more consistent so that we don't have development proposals coming forward and we see it and we say okay this developer is getting a lot of additional.
Uses or height or density support the smaller plant but not providing anything in exchange for the city.
In another case is developers have a process and said you're so much on our site we can't do anything.
And so by by redistributing these things the goal is that we would keep the amount of amenities that are given to the city consistent across the board but that would be distributed more evenly among property owners.
As a precursor to the urban forest master plan a citywide tree canopy analysis was conducted in 2023.
So we see this as a resource that can help us identify locations.
Specific locations where there might be important trees or stands of trees that should be considered for protection and smaller plans are good tool for doing this because we can physically change the plans to do.
Move around these areas when they're identified which is much more difficult to do on a citywide code base basis.
And so we would use SS initial resource we would go about certainly and field check and make sure anything that we're suggesting to be preserved is actually in good condition and can't be preserved and we would have support from our urban forest or on that.
But then we could actually go back and modify the plants where these where these types of locations may happen.
We think these will be few in far between because the activity centers are primarily developed in the are commercial areas but wherever they do exist it would make sense to make an effort to protect them.
This next task is what we're calling other recurring issues.
These are types of issues where we are relying more on feedback from stakeholders and community members to give us direction on things that we should revisit as opposed to the more.
Stainered analysis and code policy that's already there in written for it so an example is building height.
We hear about this a lot when development proposals come forward in some cases it's it's a major issues in other cases it's not.
So the idea here is that throughout the average effort with this project we would identify locations where we might need to reconsider height recommendations and the plans.
Another one of these is where ground floor commercial uses are shown we often hear from members of the development community that certain locations is difficult to incorporate ground floor commercial and so we've see feedback on this as well.
A couple other examples are shown here general density open space meaning exactly where open space is shown in a types of open spaces that are proposed.
Special uses in each of the smaller plans that are special uses that are recommended.
For example in old town there are recommendations to include beyond just the standard residential officer retail that we try to get a hotel to locate the old town that we look for partnerships to develop performing arts or institutional uses of those types of things.
I want to make sure that we're still on the same page that those are the types of things that we're looking for and there are similar recommendations in the other activity centers as well.
At in general formatting as I mentioned before our goal would be to make the plans more consistent with each other.
In addition we would want to make sure that they are very easily usable for somebody who's coming in and looking at them for the first time whether be a developer or a property owner or a member of the community who just wants to know what is proposed near where they live.
And so the idea here is that you would be able to.
Look for a site and then you'd be guided through the document to find all the recommendations related to that site, whether it be about building height, about uses, about where open spaces should be in those types of things.
All that information is in the plans now, is just scattered throughout and it can be difficult to find everything and so the goal is that we will restructure these to make sure that when you're looking for something you can find it.
So now we're getting into the the largest scale more numerical based analysis and this is where we would need consultant support in some cases and this is also why we have our professional colleagues up here as well because some of these relate to them.
So these are listed here where we're proposing is first market analyses and there are different ways that we can look at this.
There are a couple of different factors that we'll look at so this includes things like overall demand for development currently in each of the smaller plans are projections on demands for the different types of uses that are proposed in the smaller plans.
So the projections for a amount of residential growth office grows retail growth some cases hotel growth from those types of things in some cases is projecting that those things might shrink.
And so the goal here is that we would relook at that update those things have changed over the past couple of years some of the plans were adopted back in 2020 so we know that was certainly a traditional time since then.
But then separately we can also think about specific uses and how we might want to promote or encourage them.
And this is where we coordinate with economic development so a big discussion lately has been around office development or or lack there of.
And one of the concerns is that there is increasing interest in replacing office with residential and other types of uses and so certainly we can see regionally national there's a trend toward that.
But we also hear that our vacancy rates in the city are not quite as low as in other places so we need to figure out does that mean that we try to protect all of our offices or are there certain offices that we want to maintain and others that we should let move through the redevelopment process.
And if there are some that we want to maintain then what we do about trying to specifically identify them for to be protected and invested in and to ensure that they maintain is quality office space.
The second item here is traffic analysis this is something we hear about a lot there's a very high level traffic analysis that was done at least with the first two smaller plans that projected.
Growth based on uses but there wasn't really the end dive traffic study that projects how it will impact intersections nearby in those types of things.
And so the thought here is that we could do some kind of a high level traffic analysis we had to be very careful with this though because of a couple reasons first.
What traffic studies the the base figures that go into them being traffic counts and those types of things get outdated very quickly so they can be gone obsolete very quick.
They also require a lot of assumptions so when you receive a development application.
You receive a traffic study with it as usually provided by the developer and the factors that they put into there are assumptions for those studies they know exactly where different uses are proposed a next no exactly where their driveways are proposed which streets they're directed on those types of things.
And we do this on a more comprehensive basis we won't know all that detailed information so we'll have to make assumptions which means we're going to lose a little bit of that accuracy.
And lastly these can get very expensive we put too much into them so we need to really think about what what questions we're trying to answer and and if it's worth it to invest to certain extent on that.
Third item here is utilities and so there are two utilities in particular that we would focus on and be sanitary sewer and storm sewer because we have had cases come up where development projects have come forward.
And utility lines that serve those particular sites might be at border nearing capacity.
Now in the case of some smaller utility lines the developer can make the investment to improve that line.
But if there is a larger line that is affected then the city would have to decide if we want to invest in improving that line or if we want to regulate development in a certain area so that line doesn't have to be upgraded.
The smaller plans have again a high level analysis of this but it has shown that there have been cases that have shown up that weren't necessarily identified in those analysis so we'll want to do a little bit of a deeper look at that.
And in the last two items here are things that we have already done or able to do so we wouldn't necessarily need outside support for this includes the level of service study.
So this is something that is underway. We'll be receiving a presentation about this in a couple of weeks.
Where we are looking at the impacts of development on various types of city services and what the cost associated with that would be.
The goal of that study is to help set a standard for us to put out standards for proper contributions from developers.
That's not something we want to try to address to the smaller plans.
However the analysis that is going on to that level of service study provides us a lot of data that can help us understand the point at which we might receive a amount of development that will require investment in new facilities.
And that's something we should think about when we're thinking about how much we want to grow in certain areas.
And the next item is fiscal impact analysis. This is something we do with each development projects that we do in house similar to the traffic study.
We had to be careful here with doing a larger scale of fiscal impact analysis because again we had to make a lot of assumptions.
So with the development reviews that we do we know exactly the mix of units that are proposed the types of units, the amount of commercial space and that type of thing.
So if we're going to do it on a larger scale basis looking at an entire activity center, we'll have to estimate the types of units because that can have a certificate impact on the fiscal impacts analysis and even estimates on the mix of bedrooms and those types of things.
So things to be aware of with that.
And then lastly, this is an item that was recommended in the north fax smaller plan and has been supported by some other historic resource studies that we've done.
And that is to conduct what is called a mid-century commercial theme analysis for the city of particularly focusing on those activity centers that are out on Fairfax Boulevard.
The mid-century commercial is kind of a a key period of growth for the city and there are some structures located along that stretch that still holds some architectural characteristics that are considered important with that characteristic.
The 29 diner as everyone is aware is listed on the federal register of historic places.
But there might be other locations.
I don't think there are any other locations that would qualify for that register.
However, there might be other locations that have architectural qualities that we might want to consider protecting.
So we hear mixed reviews about this. This would require some outside consultant support on, but it would also help us to identify specific properties that we might want to maintain as is rather than encourage.
So that is a summary of what we propose of include. Again, we're looking for feedback from you on whether or not this is going in the right direction.
Other things in here you think are really important are the things that are missing.
Also, I want to just share with you, we had a work session on this with the planning commission a couple weeks ago.
Some of the key recommendations they included were to use existing studies and plans when we can.
Suggesting that traffic studies don't have to be detailed but tried to be productive.
Suggest that we look at urban heat island effect and ways to mitigate that.
There are some comments that the mid century commercial theme study was a lower priority.
And it suggested that we prioritize old town and what was meant by that is, as I mentioned, we plan to review all these plans at once.
But there was a suggestion that there's a lot of activity and interest in old town right now.
So when we get to wrapping up finalizing the documents, we shouldn't wait to do all of them that we should take old town as soon as we can.
And we'll certainly be gauging the development activity and city investments at that time.
But we don't have to necessarily carry all four of these plans at the same meeting.
We can prioritize some of their urgent needs.
So that's all we have for the presentation and happy to answer any questions.
Wonderful. Thank you for that presentation.
Councilmember Amis.
Thank you.
Yeah, just a couple of questions. Great presentation and just off-rip.
I think this is heading in the right direction.
I think nothing wrong with updating our plans, making sure the most accurate information.
And then applying that so we can continue to try to get to that central vision for the city that we want.
Three things that I want to identify.
Firstly, and all three might be a little too granular for this discussion, but just something to kind of flag.
We've seen a lot in old town specifically, a lot of focus on market rate projects coming in with an affordable component to it.
But considering we adopted the affordable housing strategic plan, is there any space or possibility for emphasizing key locations like Layton Hall or Noah projects or key sites that might be more accommodating for let's say affordable workforce housing.
So 30 to 60% am I 80 to 120, maybe that's a little too in the weeds for this type of plan, but maybe it would be helpful to start identifying sites that we want to hold for.
Thoughts on that.
Yeah, so I didn't touch on it.
I had to mention this slide there that one of the earlier things that was already listed in the company to plan was that naturally occurring affordable housing.
And so those locations are identified in the smaller plans currently actually the only one that I would say stands out is.
Foster off colony in Fairfax Circle.
Layton Hall is technically outside the smaller plan.
What if we want to we could have some language to support set.
But then separately thinking more about workforce housing, which is not something that I was really mentioned at all in the smaller plans at this point.
There may be opportunities to identify locations as I mentioned through the the market study at.
Where are those properties that have the least value to them now where we would want to encourage development versus those where there might be something a slightly productive that we want to have go on further further down the line.
And so this is something that is come up as part of the affordable housing strategic plan also as we discussed to could come up as part of our market analysis and when those two combine.
We can can help to kind of pinpoint what those locations might be.
As I mentioned earlier with the only guy into the smaller plans was religious institutions and publicly on property which the release and much of in the activity center.
So this would be kind of opening a new window for us.
Yeah, no I appreciate that I think identifying these sites and obviously there's a lot of financial components that go into it that's for a separate discussion.
Probably when we're going to have relatively soon.
But I think it would be helpful to at least start making that more of a priority or at least having some distinguishing element in our plans moving forward.
The other things so two other items when it comes to the historic preservation piece and kind of like the mid century theme.
I think that we've talked about it briefly probably more behind the scenes have we considered some type of capital infrastructure or land bank or land acquisition.
Some type of fund to start acquiring properties is become available.
Especially like for example I know we I know we had we had a lot of discussion about route 29 diner but just in general way of the sites come up or even the grocery store right across from Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
I know it's come up and it seems it happened through the idea I don't know if you have any thoughts on that.
We've certainly been talking about what that would look like to be in whether or not we want to say land banking or land acquisition.
But right now we're just trying to identify critical areas so that could certainly be part of this discussion is where are those critical corridors and critical individual properties.
Because then we'd have to determine is that even an option for that property is are there other underlying factors that would make it untenable for us to purchase.
So we will be looking at that.
Thank you and then my last question going back to the sanitary sewer line and that brief conversation.
I know with I think it's pharaoh's business park one of the S.S.P.A.s at the county was doing.
The two developers were developing in that area were required to upgrade that sanitary sewer system in the pump station as a part of their redevelopment.
Have we been exploring that or in these areas that have capacity issues requiring developers to maybe pay into a fund for upgrading that system over time.
So we have not developed a fund specifically for increasing capacity.
However the systems charges for connection the connection fees are intended to pay for future pay towards future capacity upgrades and operation.
Can you remember hard to Chandler.
Thank you again for the presentation.
I do support looking at the plans together for the efficiency reasons that you talked about and also kind of getting that broader landscape of our city they are in isolation.
So I think looking at them together is strategically a good idea.
The thing that comes up frequently in conversations for me.
I think I shared this with you also is when we have developer applications and them understanding how projects might align with the plan or not.
Some sort of a contribution I think in this would review would be some sort of guidance in how to navigate the spirit of the small area plans as people are considering development applications because that seems to be a sticking point.
Any thoughts on that.
Yes, and that comes down to the forewriting task which is something that we would propose doing in house.
And the goal there is that we would seek feedback from property owners and developers who have tried to use this smaller plans for the first time.
Other people who are kind of outside of the people who put it together and see what the confusion has been.
And try to make sure that we structure it so that you're not lost when you're getting into it because we often get into those kind of discussions with developers really come in.
They think that they're showing something that's consistent with the smaller plan that we say well if you look at detail on page 37 you know that's different the deal page 18 so the kind of losing that.
When you say that the overall spirit of the smaller your plan that's something that we can to try to emphasize as well you know there are general goals and visionary ideas in there.
But that's not being conveyed following you know hopefully that's something we'll hear during the review process and we can try to strengthen that.
Thank you.
Councilmember Peterson.
Big picture.
I'm just trying to get a little bit of clarity on how far down the pike. This effort takes us towards a complete update for smaller airplanes. So the very first slide lists a series of what are with these being, I guess they're not really being called anything, but it's a clear demonstration of a desired mix of uses, et cetera, et cetera.
Read a bit like a set of goals and objectives. Is the intent at this stage to update that list and the definition of the list of things that we are trying to achieve, in other words, a set of goals and objectives?
Where is this not the intent of this? Is the intent of this something more custodial, at least initially, clarity, consistency, and then some freshting up the foundational analysis that could be the basis of something that would happen later, is that the way this should be understood?
Yeah, I say that the latter, what you suggested is more what this is going in the direction of, it's more a review and update.
This list of items is from the conference of plan itself, not the smaller airplanes, and so if we were wanted to amend this and kind of change some of the overarching goals of the smaller airplanes, the first step would be to change the conference of plan to kind of redirect them and then we could go back to review that.
Within the smaller airplanes, what stage would we be formulating whether individually or collectively aset goals from objectives that we would have for smaller airplanes? Other than this umbrella that we have, the comprehensive plan that sounds like we don't really have that in place. Is that right?
Right, each of the overarching goals are what's in the conference of plan, which is what's shown here. There's a little more detail in the conference of plan, but it's not a lot. Then each of the smaller planes has guiding goals.
But those are kind of big picture things such as establishing north fax as a sustainability prototype or something like that.
And so that's the extent of the goals that we have. We aren't proposing updating that at this point either. If there is desire to revisit that.
Certainly the things that are within this smaller plan, we can we can make that a part of this effort. We just want to be careful that we're not redirecting things so much so that every time we review these, you know, we're we're changing direction a little bit we never really go towards a consistent vision.
Good to know again, I'm just trying to get a feel for how much we do here. So just to push that maybe as step or two further.
When we do, so the proposal here is to look at all four of these as a package, right? And there's a lot of efficiency and strategy and sense that's involved in that.
And one of the things that was noted was conducting fiscal impact analysis, which happens for individual sites.
What stage would we be doing a cumulative impact analysis for fiscal impacts of the development of the small area plans?
Would that be happening now? Is that something would happen later? Is that something that's not planned yet?
That is one of the items that's listed in with staff as proposing to include in this effort.
Where exactly that falls in the timeline as something will have to figure out as we go forward because all of those analytical items are leading toward the overall development or projected amounts of development of different types as opposed to the individual site type things.
So we haven't identified how we're going to make all those things come together to kind of clarify what our resulting long-term vision will be in terms of numbers.
But that will have to be figured out as we go forward, but it would be part of that process.
Will you be coming back to us then to talk about the game plan for that?
Yeah, certainly. I expect that will be later in the game, and so I think we'll be talking to you multiple times before we can get to that point.
Well, part of the reason I raised it is just, and I think you alluded to this to be careful about not getting ahead of ourselves.
And what we have is, you know, a set of goals, and there's some logical foundational analyses that support the development and implementation of those goals.
And it could be fiscal impacts and environmental impacts traffic, you name it.
And there's a huge value in getting a cumulative impact version of that done, so we can see what happens if we embark on this journey down there.
And so what we haven't done that yet, we haven't updated the formulation and certainly not the results of the foundational analysis that's designed to support all that population growth, household growth, etc.
So you will be coming back with further thoughts about how that could be done and when that would be done as a part of this.
It's very helpful again because the one reading of this as we're jumping forward without that, but the real reading I think that you're saying is, no, we're not.
We're going to try to take a look at what would be involved in that and how we would approach it.
Good to know.
As we do this, even if we're not at the stage where we are starting to identify material changes to the goals and objectives of these plans, it still seems to be really important to find a way to involve the public.
So that they can be a part of the thought process on what we're looking at and how we are looking at it.
There are different ways to do that. This doesn't need to be a series of public hearings. That's not the top on my list of how you actually go through code design and all that, but wondering will we be hearing more about how we might bring.
Residents, the public and stakeholders into this thought process as we're beginning to scope further these smaller plans.
Yeah, I think as we come back and refine the scope with you toward the end of this year, we can start to talk more about the committee engagement process.
And the further we go along, I said, we don't actually plan on beginning work till early next year. So as we get closer to that, that'll be more refined.
And then to pick on our economic development director, I know that you're busy on formulating analysis around commercial and economic development opportunities here that presumably will make a heavy contribution here.
What's your vision of how best all of that can be integrated because I know you're kind of turning over a new page here in terms of having a look at all these things.
Yeah, I think one of the things that was mentioned was looking at existing reports. So for example, within the last year the EDA Commission to report specifically on office conversions.
And so that would be one of those reports we'd want to make sure is incorporated so that we can take all this disperse data that we have.
Plus what we're hearing and what's coming out of the market right now, as we look at these individual plans. So the intent is for us to be in this discussion fully invested both on those individual projects as we go along, but in the overarching, because you know when you like Northx, for example, that plane came out 2020.
So since then, we've had COVID and massive changes at the federal level that impact our office environment greatly.
So we have to go back and look at what the market has done. One of the reasons for an outbreak in Salton on that market analysis is the intensity of the changes to the commercial structure right now.
To answer your question, we are going to continue to do individual analyses as they come up, but then continue to feed that into the process because each property is bringing its own challenges to us.
So we're going to kind of come at it from both sides, the individual side and then the larger market analysis.
And just as a part of that, how would you handle the question mark that was raised earlier about the possibility that there is underutilized office space that could convert to affordable housing or any other different use how do you do that.
It's just a site specific reviewers, they're more to it than that.
I think it's again, I think it's a book end approach because we have a study that shows us that identify having front of me that identifies the existing office buildings and what they're what maybe the risk factor is for each of those buildings.
Then it's going to be actually looking at each individual building. So we know that in the market right now in the northern Virginia market and Q1 of 2026 there's not a single office building under construction.
But you've got 35% vacancy in the Crystal City corridor and they are still commanding almost $40 a square foot in rent.
So we know that there's a pent-up desire for flight to quality for office even as the market is downsizing.
So this is the critical time frame for us to figure out which of our office buildings have the highest potential to attract some of that of what's what's still happening in the office market.
Again, it's book ends, it's individual properties but also keeping an eye on that market movement if financing starts to shift to commercial having a plan that gives us the flexibility when the projects come in.
So it's going to be both sides of that question.
And you mentioned the change in intensity and I think probably embedded in your comments is the change in timing.
Yes, and the market is stretching here and if I understand it, the good news is that it gets us a little bit of time here to figure out the best approach and so I gather you're taking full advantage of that.
All the assessments you're doing.
Yeah, we're seeing deals happening at smaller square footage than we've seen in the past and taking longer to go through.
Companies are with the larger square foot prints are staying longer and the ones that are moving are going this non-shaces.
That makes us a really valuable market because we have those spaces.
What we have to decide is of the buildings we have, I don't think we have any building built any office built past 2000 if I remember correctly.
So and most of our office product is built in the 70s and 80s.
So we need to make decisions on what to preserve what to update and what is perfectly acceptable at this point to go because we won't be able to compete in the market with it as it is.
So that's going to be part of this analysis.
I think it's it's really critical that we know that.
Great, just the last thought share is that.
The general, we could see a shift in general strategy for economic and commercial development housing development and growth in general.
It could be shifting away from accommodation of growth and much more towards aggressively targeting the kind of growth that we have.
So I would expect this effort could help us identify what a targeted strategy would be in all of these different areas and let me just check with Mr. and Abdi again is that.
The kind of thought process that we would begin supporting in this to understand how we would.
Identify the best strategies going forward that ultimately could be incorporated in the small area plans.
Yeah, you mean strategies dealing with all the topics that we talked about our focus.
Well, there's a big picture thing here, which is we've had a pretty significant reconfiguration of the timing intensity and characteristics of demand for a lot of different things.
And it changes perhaps the way that we approach our responses to that and certainly is encouraging jurisdictions to take a pretty targeted view of exactly what they want to accomplish.
And not simply relying on supply to answer that question for them.
Sounds like we're headed in that direction with a kind of clarity that you're trying to achieve here.
Yes, that's correct.
And I will say with the first round of smaller plans.
The overall numbers that are shown in there are projections.
That's all they are.
There's no strategy behind them.
There's no city goals of what we want to do or anything like that.
So we are trying to hone this in on how we want to handle the issues that we're dealing with.
And so we hope to get more targeted with this.
So my reaction is based on this dialogue and this conversation.
I think it's a good way to move forward, but I think these dimensions of that.
Moving forward are really important for us to incorporate.
Thanks.
Thank you.
Councilmember Hall.
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the presentation.
And I'm glad to have so many stakeholders at the table.
I think it's really helpful to come about this from a bunch of different angles.
And I think it's clear that that is what is being happened is what is happening.
I love the ADA analysis on these things.
And I was happy to hear you bring up the fact that we are.
We're small.
And so we can pivot easily much easier than larger spaces can.
But I also think that one of the benefits that we really have is that we do offer.
Smaller square footage spaces.
And the ability to, you know, start off in something that's small and then we help them move up into different levels as they need it.
Or people can stay in the small spaces.
And maybe be a little bit more transient than some other locked in long term leases.
And I do worry sometimes that with this big push of.
Make many things that are commercial into residential that we we lose some of those things in the mix.
And so I understand some things were built a long time ago and some things are a little bit more recent in the 2000s.
But I think understanding you know where we want to be when we grow up essentially is is a really really helpful tool.
And not one that we jump into very quickly but one that we really do a good amount of research on.
And like you said, things from COVID have significantly changed the landscape in, you know, many, many areas.
For the planet itself, I'm I'm very happy to hear about the changes of the general formatting.
I think that's one of the things that is frustrating for people and you know when we did our renovation, you know nearly decade or over a decade ago now.
It's it's one way in this document but it's reference is something in somewhere else or you read this and you think it's this way but then know you go to page 37 and that's not what we were saying.
So I think that that has been a primary concern of developers and as well as just regular people trying to understand what some of our policies and procedures are. So that's really helpful.
I know height is one that always gets talked about and it's one that I do struggle with as well.
I feel like if we set up our policies that we are on the lower end, it gives us the ability to make the changes.
But I think what happens is when you give someone six stories, then they want seven.
And then the next person says, well, they did seven, so we're going to do nine.
And then I think you end up with a much taller landscape than maybe was originally intended.
So I think keeping on the lower side at least for our small area plans is a suggestion that I would certainly make.
I am curious about the traffic studies. I know they're expensive and I know that they are easily outdated.
And but I would also be curious. I know we used to do in our neighborhood a lot, not a lot, but frequently we had those little.
They was called them the readers digest the older people that talked about them. They're like, oh, it's a size of a readers digest on the ground that's kind of the traffic counts.
And I am curious how often are we checking some of those traffic counts or measures for some of our bigger area roads and then comparing back to what we thought in 2020 or 2022 let's say.
I can address that. So V dot actually on many of our major roads is updating our traffic counts for us. And so we are getting updated counts through V dot.
We also do periodic accounts on some of our more minor roads.
So we are doing those. We're not doing them regularly. We don't have a set program necessarily, but we are going back and taking counts of some of our roads.
To address your other question, your earlier question about the traffic study.
We will be taking an approach that's very similar to the one that Colleen identified for the economic development sort of that book end looking at it holistically and also looking at some of the parcels.
It's really difficult to get into the weeds on some of the parcels because there are so many details that go into a detailed traffic analysis for any specific property.
It is in theory an objective analysis that said there are so many subjective assumptions that need to be made when doing a traffic analysis.
So as soon as the development comes in, if it differs from what you've identified when you've done that traffic study your traffic studies really not that great.
So what I would recommend and this is what I've talked about with the planning department is that I would recommend us looking at this holistically.
Look revisiting some of the bigger ideas if we take north facts for example.
We originally had around about proposed that eight and then chambered road. We looked at doing a row diet on eating place.
Some of those big ideas have changed. We know that we can't accommodate a row diet on eating place.
We know that we're doing a different intersection design for eating.
So some of those big ideas are absolutely what I think we should be looking at.
I don't believe that we should be looking at at assumptions for every parcel and doing that kind of in-depth traffic analysis.
It's extremely expensive and I'm not sure that it's worth it.
I would agree with that and I know that our residents are not traffic experts per se.
But I do think that if you collectively ask people that live here, drive around here day in and day out.
Again, not experts, but they can tell you where the problem areas are, where they're sitting and where things could or should be improved.
And absolutely, those are the kinds of things we should be looking at.
So the problem areas, the intersections and identifying access points, where do we want access?
So again, those are sort of the bigger picture things.
I believe that when the specific development proposals come in, those big picture ideas can guide that.
But I don't think that we should be doing the nitty-gritty traffic analysis at this point.
And I would agree with you in my very limited traffic knowledge.
But I do think that you have the JV's property which is going to change things on its own and then you have the next development next to it.
And all these different things, you can only predict what you know at that time and what you think is going to happen.
And I just think it does make it really challenging.
And it does a point to hear about the road diet on eat it, on eating not being a thing.
I still feel like there are some opportunities there.
But I do also think that the fact that the botanists was able to build out so close to the road.
I mean, I think we probably should have seen that one coming and back them up a little bit in order to try to keep some availability for a bike lane or something else on there.
So this is when we can pivot.
But doing a road diet to accommodate bicycles on road.
So in light of the fact that we need to potentially, again, this is something that we'll be revisiting.
We don't think at this point that we'll be able to accommodate that.
And this is just an example.
This is where we pivot and instead of saying, let's have bike lanes on the road.
Maybe we have a wide-shared use path that's behind the curb.
And so we still want to accommodate bikes, but maybe we're doing it differently.
So that's the kind of thing that we'll look at more holistically when we're reviewing the smaller airplane.
And just to piggyback on that, because I think that's a really good idea.
And I know there's lots of areas for shared use paths as opposed to double sidewalk, double the stubble that.
Not everything can be as wide as what's going to be doing or done on blenum.
I know we brought up the bike lanes on university the other day.
And I actually was surprised to hear that there's not bike lanes being considered for that,
because I thought that we were using that as a spine to offset some of the Cambridge road traffic and volume.
And I was just surprised to hear that there weren't bike lanes on there.
And I understand we have the chicains that are kind of making it a little bit difficult there.
But I really did think that that was supposed to be an alternate route for bikers despite the somewhat large hill.
That is the ultimate goal.
Is there a specific portion of university drive that you're referring to?
Yeah, specifically from late and haul drive down to 50.
I thought that was supposed to be part of that big conversation of bike lanes.
So what you have heard is correct that right now what we are proposing on that stretch is the sheriff's.
What we have been talking about for the spine up to this point has really been from Mason to late and haul drive.
And we're about as you know to implement the portion from north street to late and haul drive,
which leaves the center section still up for discussion which is something we're looking at as part of the old town circulation plan.
How we can get the bike lanes in that center part.
Yeah.
And ultimately it's not off the table that we could look at that as a as a subsequent step.
Yeah, okay. Thank you.
And then just a couple more comments.
The sewer situation and the proffers.
I think that's something we really do have to hit heavily.
Because I think that with all of the increased development here, I know you've mentioned this before.
Mr. Edo with regard to the amount of water that we get from the no-man coal plant.
And I don't remember all the numbers exactly, but I think roughly what we have as far as millions of gallons or something would accommodate up to like 35,000 people or 34,000 people.
And as we continue to add high density and mixed use, we're obviously growing at a much faster rate.
And so I know it's hard to tell a developer, hey, if you do this, you're going to have to put in this, you know, bigger sewer line.
And maybe that's not the way to go at that specific time.
But I do think recognizing that added density adds additional strain on the utility system as something we really do have to think about,
because we're still dealing with so many old pipes and things that have never really been updated or upgraded.
And that we're trying to do on the city's dime, despite having an influx of residents that I think should be helping out in some ways.
And my last two final things that I can read my handwriting.
Oh, we already talked about that.
It's a look forward to the 2050 plan. I know, you know, we 2035 still seem so far away in so many ways.
But I think really having a focus on that 2050 plan and starting to gather resident input.
And I know we do resident input in so many ways that I know all these little conversations and surveys and questions lead to that next step.
But I do think having that formal goal and expectation is probably something that is definitely on your radar.
And I think it's something we really should be focusing on. So thank you for all the information.
Council member based in the Council member.
Thank you. So first off, as I recall, the botanist doesn't include a 10-foot wide shirt used paths as that correct.
Yes, that's correct.
Yeah, yeah. And I believe the other project on even places proposed would also include that as well as that right.
Yeah, that's on the other side.
So and I hope that we see that continue and maybe fill in the gaps in the future.
And thinking about what we want to see reviewed as part of the process.
So first off, I think that most of what I was kind of on my mind is listed in the staff report, including height.
I do believe that height should be considered, but I believe that whether height is revised downward or revised upward should come up from from the review process itself as opposed to being prescribed.
Now, thinking about I was excited to see the idea of property based herchability being considered.
I think that's really exciting.
And as I recall, the intention behind how the targets for office space, for residential units, et cetera.
I saw that mention on one of the earlier slides.
The thought behind that I believe was that those were not to be hard, you know, hard caps or anything of that nature, but more, you know, the projected demand that, you know, that we might see there.
And then if we kind of hit that, then we kind of reconsider is that sort of what the thinking was up to this point.
That's correct. And in all honesty, those, the way we use those projections isn't defined very well. I think when we were developing a smaller plans, we wanted something that projected where we were going, what we should expect with this.
And so that's why it was really driven by market demand.
But then the language and each of the smaller plans and how we first are those is slightly different.
And so the question for that is because we didn't really know how we wanted to use it.
It was like, okay, this is a good starting point, but it seems so far away that we would reset point to say, okay, is this a hard cap?
Is this just, when we get to this point, we kind of review things and those kind of things and that's kind of how it's worded in there.
So that's the way it's used now. It's not meant to say that we will stop developing where reached this point.
We review the smaller plans. We can think a little bit more closely about how we want to use those numbers because we're a little bit closer to achieving them.
And so I think we are already, like, everyone in the back of the mind is starting to think, you know, what does this actually mean for us?
Yeah, yeah, some glad to hear that that's being said, I do recall that being a bit ambiguous in smaller plans is a written now.
Some glad to hear that, you know, your attention to detail is bringing that forward.
And then lastly, as we discussed earlier, the BRT plan would that be something that might be considered as part of this review process or more the overall comprehensive plan or the process.
I have some thoughts, but I'll also defer to as I'm a Stanford.
The fact that is out there, I think the at least incorporating the general idea in the form of a text reference in the smaller plans would be a good thing to do.
But in terms of how far we take it in terms of guiding street with some things like that, I think we're going to need some more information, but I'll see if she's not.
The thing about the BRT plan is that it requires the cooperation of Fairfax County because these roots that are proposed run through the city for just a small portion of the proposed roots.
And again, these are large regional plans.
So I do believe that we should reference these in our comprehensive plan. I don't believe they're necessarily for the small area plans.
There, I think they are larger concepts that will take a while to come to fruition if they do, given that we're probably the minority player in these because the majority of the root is outside of the city.
Yeah, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense.
The one thing I will say, I recall from the camp washing the smaller plans.
It's been a while since I've leaf through that one, but I believe there was a transit hub or transit center proposed there.
I don't know if that's something that we might want to consider if the BRT plan presents any kind of opportunity to pivot on that or just continue that direction.
Yeah, I think that's something we can we can look at.
I don't know if we'll get much more detail than we have now, but maybe this is an opportunity to say, is this the right location for that?
Is there an additional information we should be thinking about when thinking about BRT?
Fairfax Circle smaller plan, I think I should have had some more.
Or maybe so.
Yeah, thank you.
Councilmember McQuillin.
Thank you, Mary Reed.
So just to confirm it sounds like the process is to analyze what we currently have going on.
Collect all the analyses bring them together and then create our goals for these small area plans.
Is that correct?
The goals are going to come in.
We aren't proposing necessarily revising the goals.
I think it's more about everything you said collecting data and gathering information and then looking at refining the more detailed recommendations in the plans.
I wouldn't want to say though, if we had a community meeting and there was a lot of feedback about a particular goal in the plan that we would be opposed to changing it.
I think we would certainly be open to that, but that we're not necessarily setting up a process to achieve that.
I just want to ensure that it's being driven through data and the analysis of data not just out public outreach and so that we actually are basing it on current and then the analysis that we have.
Yes, that's correct.
And that's one of the main purposes with this process is to bring a little bit more data background into it.
Excellent.
Okay, so going through.
The presentation. I also support including a reference to the BRT plan. I think it's just smart for us to recognize what the plans are and to try to be a good regional partner, to at least have some expectation that these might happen. Also, just to make sure that it's communicated to developers and to our residents as well through that.
Again, with the formatting, just ensuring that everything's as consistent as possible. The analysis for traffic and infrastructure, I believe, is important. Some analysis on coming from the school board, often it was student yields as a large concern of ours.
So, I'm just thinking ahead about the, that's the number one thing I hear from all of our residents is the traffic. So, having, and again, not detailed, but if you look at an area, you should have an idea of if this is the expectation.
We're expecting this many individuals here, this many developments. You should have some idea of how that should affect the traffic in that area.
I also, other recurring issues I agree with everything you have here, building height. I also would like to include setback because I think those go hand in hand.
A lot of the concerns I hear from residents, it's the feeling of the height, not necessarily just the height.
And I think that is connected to the setback when you're really close to a building, it feels a lot higher and taller. So, I think that needs to be included in that.
I also agree with the ground floor retail, that is a concern I hear often. Parking was that addressed as well. I think I saw that.
Parking isn't really touched on very much in a smaller plans. There are general recommendations about providing or encouraging shared parking in those types of things.
So, the most part, discussion on parking is deferred to the zoning ordinance and we will be discussing that with the zoning ordinance amendments that we will have a work session with you on a couple.
Wonderful.
Okay. Great.
As far as slide eight, let me get there really quick, so I can be on the same page with you, under the tasks number one, does this include safety? Do we consider safety elements?
Just the right side, that's up on the screen.
Yeah, under one anticipate variations and impacts to individual properties, open space streets, others, what about safety impacts?
So, this is looking at physical impacts to properties for safety issues.
Is that me like vehicular access?
I'm kind of taking into consideration pedestrian.
Okay.
A flow, traffic flow, how that kind of gets disrupted and changes depending on the developments and how things are working and travel time kind of plays into that.
I was just kind of thinking big picture.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, that's not really what's meant here, but that is something that will be incorporated throughout as we develop these types of plans.
We're always pedestrian access is one of the primary things that helps drive the way these are laid out.
So, it's certainly something that will be included with this and also, you know, one of the general reviewers of this, you know, even without our traffic study.
Our traffic engineer does look at these and so if we're proposing something from a traffic management perspective that he thinks is unsafe, then, you know, he'll provide feedback on that and we'll adjust.
Excellent. I was just trying to figure out where it falls into the process, I guess, in the analysis area.
The mid-century commercial theme, I really like this idea.
It's the corridor is right as you enter our city, having just visited historic Fredericksburg.
A lot of these little locations really create the culture and uniqueness of a community, so I think that's, I like that idea.
And I hear from a lot of long-time residents that they really, you know, they have a fondness of these locations and these places, they all have a story that goes along with it.
There's an entire social media page about historic Fairfax city, where they discuss these things and the evolution of the businesses.
And since this started, this is such a small little close-knit community, I think it's something to definitely consider.
And then I also just wanted to support the formatting and ensuring that the end result is easier for both developers and our residents to understand, follow and really get the information that they're looking for from it.
It does seem, I echo, my colleague's concerns about it does seem that developers struggle with that a lot or that there's a lot of confusion between comprehensive and the small area plans.
So I just wanted to echo those comments as well. But overall, I think it's, it's, you're on the right track here. So thank you.
Council Member Aimus.
Only thing I'll add to Council Member Quill and brought up, which I believe is also in part what she was referencing, which we had the data from the move Fairfax city, steering committee was the pedestrian level of stress analysis.
And I know we currently already have that as a part of the committee, but we'll also, and I'm not sure what mechanism we have in place to track how we're improving over time.
I know you can't do it side by side, that to your point that's a little too much, but having data points on how we're doing, like let's say, where are we at and five years, like are we making progress on our pedestrian safety targets?
Any other comments?
Well, it's a wonderful presentation, and I think this is the way to go about it speaking just about bus transit, regardless of BRT, is that we've got WomadaQ and connector who all come through here.
And based on how these small area plans change, there might be some flexibility on how we move people through so they can transfer buses.
I mean, I mean, I just think, depending on the developments that come up is going to have an impact on how the buses in the short time they're in our city move through the city in order to maximize the number of people we're carrying from one point to the other, but also allows them to change buses.
Pedestrian safety, paramount, I mean walkability for the city, I think if we go back to the community survey, I hope that becomes a tool.
We've done one, and I hope that becomes a tool that we use regularly to get as a way of getting feedback from the community.
That's one way we do it.
Walkability, I think, has always been a goal for the city.
One of the things that we can't anticipate as well, but has come up recently, is things on automatic enforcement of things where it comes to traffic, pedestrian, access.
The Commonwealth Virginia seems to be moving in the direction, this says that technology can help with some of the safety issues that we have.
It's very narrow right now what we can do with automatic enforcement on intersections and stop signs right now it's just in school zones.
But I think there is sophisticated technology that is moving forward, I think the state legislature is also going to have.
The situation that enables localities to do more to make things safer to council member McQuillins point about how people and transit stops and pedestrians and bicycles and scooters.
Organize themselves in the city, I mean I think these plans are so helpful and I think the review of them is so important, but there's so much we can't predict.
So as we move forward, we're going to have to be agile, which given our size and the amazing amazing staff we have here.
Given our sizes, we are in a position to pivot and be more flexible and to be early adopters on some things more than larger localities where it makes sense.
I hope everybody remembers we can only do what we can do with what we know today, but you always have to leave space for the things that we can kind of see are there that are going to have a really big impact.
I mean we just don't know until we get there, but these things will make a difference and how we think about these activities centers and these small area plants to just have to kind of leave space for the unknown.
But as far as what is known, I think there seems to be a general consensus and agreement that this framework and how you're going about doing this, the steps the protocol and the timeline all seems to be I hear agreement.
I'm seeing I'm seeing heads not so thank you so much for the presentation.
I hope this has been helpful for you too.
Very helpful thank you.
All right, our next work session, I am Mr. Northback in the near park design guidelines introduction.
I'm going to recognize Paul Naphty, our Division Chief of Planning for the staff presentation.
Thank you again Mayor Reed and members of Council.
The purpose of this work session is to introduce you to a effort that is going on to implement one of the or support implementation of one of the recommendations of the adoptive small area plans.
This is the north fax linear park.
And I'll first provide a little background of what the park is and then what the city is doing right now to help support with that implementation.
So looking at the north fax small area plan, this is the general concept plan that's included in that plan for that area and one of the key components of this plan is what's called the north fax linear park.
That area is highlighted here.
In general, this is described as a public open space, a connector of neighborhoods and green infrastructure.
This is one of the five goals of the north fax small area plan is to establish this linear park.
The condition across the length of this proposed park varies in some places.
It really functions just as an enhanced streetscape with improved stormwater measures and visible open spaces that can be used in those types of things.
And other places it has functions as an urban retail plaza other places it functions as more of a larger programmable open space or park and in some places it really just functions as a natural area.
The extent of the park traffic traverses multiple private parcels as well as overlaps with public streets and many locations.
Some of the developer projects that have moved forward as well as some of the public projects that have gone forward in terms of implementing new streets.
I have implemented some of the recommendations of this park from the small area plan, however this has been inconsistent.
And as some places the overall vision is intended to be met but it might not be the same implemented the same way as it is on a site located another part of the park.
And so in order to provide better guidance to future projects it might be coming forward.
The goal of this effort that we're working on now is to establish design standards.
So, no matter where a property is or a public area is along this linear park we are implementing elements that make it read as a cohesive element.
So as an example, this map shows the Norfolk smaller plan with all of the parcels that overlap with the proposed linear park that have some kind of a development proposal either underway or completed.
So the blue ones are those that are still coming forward either in the application phase.
And then the red ones are ones that have been approved or are complete.
And then the dash line area is the location of the Norfolk's East West Road.
This is a city led effort that will complete the connection from university drive to chambered road that also overlaps with the linear park.
And this is one of those locations that I mentioned where what's called the park really function as a enhanced streetscape.
So as I mentioned the goal with this effort is to establish design guidelines that will be used by all parties whether it be private developers or public entities such as ourselves.
When designing various elements of this part to be consistent with each other.
So to support this we are using our on-call consultant, Timons, who does a lot of the engineering work for various transportation projects in the city to help develop these design guidelines.
And they are also the designer of the Norfolk's East West Road.
So they have developed this list of project goals and I will read through all these.
I just want to point out that the first two are really the two that I consider to be actual goals for the project.
And really defining what is intended through the Norfolk's Smaller Plan.
The last three are more process elements about how we will go about doing this and what we hope to get out of it.
And then the fourth item actually references the implementation of key ideas from the the Norfolk's Senior Park page in the drug fax Smaller Plan.
It's just a highlight with that includes there are general descriptions of the design area types.
Describes it as a natural urban setting.
Discussions on stormwater strategies.
Language that calls it the heart of the community.
And that it should be a major identifying design feature for Norfolk's.
So the the product we hope to get out of this effort is to establish again design elements and design guidelines.
This is not proposed to actually develop a design for this park.
We're leaving that to happen on a case by case basis.
But we do hope to establish certain character areas as I mentioned there are different types of characters that are proposed in the plan.
And then establish design standards for those include things such as ideal dimensions for certain types of elements.
Ideal types of tree plantings and the types of plantings certain furnishings to make sure that they read as consistent across the length of the park.
Stormwater measures including those measures that are ideal to be visible and operate at the surface level as well as identify how the stormwater system will function as development happens on a piece meal basis.
Include recommendations on materials and patterns again to create consistency and location for amenities such as public art.
This is intended to be function more as a technical document rather than a guiding policy type of document.
So the process that we are working on is.
In discussion with our consultant at this time, we have a meeting coming up with our first stakeholder group, which is a property owner group, but then later in July, we have a meeting scheduled with other stakeholders, which are representatives from city divisions and boards of commissions.
The list of divisions is shown there. We have asked the following boards to appoint someone to represent them. Board of Architecture Review, Environmental Sustainability Committee, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Planning Commission.
After these meetings, then the consultant will prepare draft design guidelines.
And then heading into September, the plan is for the city to review and recommend revision to those, and then hopefully be ready to finalize this by October. Again, this is not a significant effort. This is really just establishing these design guidelines.
So it doesn't have to be a lengthy process. In the end, we don't think that council formal approval in the form of adoption is necessary, but we do hope to get some kind of informal support.
And so you'll at least be able to kind of share your thoughts on that. So that's all I have on this. Just want to make you aware of this effort and to see if you have any thoughts or suggestions for us as we go forward and begin the design process.
And that's all I have the presentation.
Thank you so much. Councilmember McQuillin.
Thank you. I just wanted to share a thought that I'm really grateful to see that Parks and Recreation Advisory Board is involved in this as they just did a lot of work with signage in their parks.
And they did a lot of this kind of collecting and information from stakeholders regarding, you know, what kind of looks and I think working with them to find.
And you use some of that information to create some cohesiveness might be a really good idea.
I mean, they discussed a lot of things from, you know, just the color patterns and the materials used. So they've done a lot of that work ahead of time.
But that's all. Thank you.
Councilmember Peterson.
Remind me what's the history in the status of this stream.
Of the stream.
Well, the stream in north fax is separate from the north fax linear park, but that is something that.
I'm not sure what you mean by the history is.
So is this creating a stream where there was none before this wouldn't be a stream.
It would be a series of stormwater measures that will serve the development around it as development comes online.
So yeah, there are graphics in there that look like there's water, but essentially that is kind of like peak rainfall period is what it's showing.
Okay.
All right. So these are water management areas that's opposed to a free flowing stream.
All right.
Well, they go totally dry, then at some times, and other times they're wet, is that what's going on?
Yes, I think the most of the time they are completely dry, but I'll let Mr. Eto describe.
Most stormwater management facilities are intended to be dry during and drain completely when it's not raining and they'll fill and then slowly drain that that's how they control pollutants and water quantity.
Okay. So we're taking advantage of the opportunity to create that water management infrastructure and in a way that helps to enhance an area and provide an attraction at the same time, is that really the idea here.
Yes, that's a general idea and that stems from the general recommendations in the north fax model airplane.
It's a great idea. I would look forward to the way that it's done to make it as productive as possible, you know, in terms of the little bit of natural space that's in there between vegetation and if there's any opportunity to track birds and pollinators and anything else on there to make it, you know, just as live as possible. I think it would really help add to that whole anchor asset.
Thanks.
Councilmember Amis.
Thank you. I only had two quick questions, so on the amenities side of things. I saw that there was a, for example, artwork there.
Two things related to that one, when we say amenities is going to be like a list of potential items that we'd be considering like we've seen on some other presentations.
I think eventually we'll get there, so there could be things like gazibos or other types of things.
And I think through this process, particularly including a representative from Prague, as was mentioned, getting idea of what types of things.
The city lacks in these types of spaces that could be added as this goes forward.
With that in mind, I'd probably also recommend adding the commission on the arts.
If that's an opportunity to help spruce up the artwork there, I think that'd be a worthwhile venture.
The only other question I had and just let me know if this is an applicable.
When it comes to materials, are we also going to potentially discuss permeable pavers as an option?
Is that on the table or is there like a configuration on why that would not be possible at this time?
It's not infeasible. I don't recommend it for travelways. It is maintenance intensive, but it is appropriate for parking spaces or lightly traffic areas, so it is an option that can be considered.
Councilmember Hall and then Councilmember Hardy Chandler.
Thank you. This is a spot that's especially near and dear to my heart, since I live in Cobdale.
Just a couple things, on slide two, I recognize this existing trail, and thank you for getting that cleaned up by the community.
The other day.
I will say, I don't know if there's ever an opportunity to make that ADA accessible.
It does cross over the creek there and has little cement things that you can stand on, but in moms do manage to get strollers over there, but embikes can go, but you really could not get a wheelchair or a bigger baby carriage of some sort.
So I was definitely disappointed with how that totally turned out just with the lack of accessibility for some.
So I think as we maybe look into doing this further, maybe there could be an opportunity to try to add a ramp or something over there.
But onto the positive part of this, I think this is great. I know we've discussed this at length and this definitely needs to be an activated area of the city.
It's got so much potential. In addition to the boards and commissions that you outlined, I do wonder if maybe inviting a representative from Cobdale, Fairchester Woods.
The assembly and the new townhouse community that's there and then potentially the new senior living center.
Just to kind of get people that live there and will be utilizing this in a way that might just be different from a board and perspective.
I'm sorry, board and commission perspective. So that would be my only suggestion. Thank you.
Councilmember Hardy Chandler.
Thank you for bringing this to our word as I love the use of a typical spaces and the natural enhancements and the kind of connectivity, these kinds of environments can support.
There have been a couple of comments about boards and commissions for this presentation and for the previous one, I'd like for us to go beyond the typical boards and commissions.
The commission for women, other commissions I think can also act as focus groups because they are representatives from the community and that's a reoccurring thing.
I know it's natural to go to the commission that seems most affiliated with the topic.
But all of the commissions I think can support buy in and bridge community engagement.
So I encourage for all projects to use all of the boards and commissions as a resource for information and as a way to get word out about awareness and to foster engagement.
So that's just my push in support of boards and commissions generally.
In the picture it looked like some of the projects were proposed to sort of project into the project.
Will there be any kind of displacement or any disruption in any way for any of the affiliated properties?
So yes, but the intention is that this is implemented as development occurs and so the idea is not that the city is going in and acquiring land for parks based and things like that.
We do that for transportation infrastructure but not for anything that goes beyond what's needed for that right of way anything that goes beyond that is this would become a tool that we would give to a developer who is developing the site adjacent to this and say.
Okay, the part of your site is shown in this linear park if you're going to design part of this linear park these are the design scenes which you should use and so it would be kind of a voluntary participation.
Gotcha.
And are there other sort of economic impacts anticipated.
You can say no.
I would say I don't know eventually as this starts to come together I hope it's something that can will have a positive economic impact on surrounding properties.
I just can't say that with confidence.
And that wouldn't be a driver per se but just a sort of an ancillary consideration but I appreciate the thinking behind this project and look for to other similar projects for other spaces throughout the city.
Thank you.
Council member from equivalent.
I just wanted echo the accessibility concern by council member hall I've also used that area and I know there's a lot of families over there when we did door knocking to that newer community over there there were a lot of young children and families with little so we saw a lot of strollers out so I just wanted to echo that as someone who likes to travel throughout the city and especially did so on my children were little so.
Thank you.
Council member pays.
So thinking about.
The broader connectivity context.
We talked before about the importance of Fairfax City to connectivity throughout the region at the confluence of multiple state and federal highways and this right here is basically right at the gateway to the city from.
2036 and from the i66 trail so beyond this you know we have the I66 trail spur that connects down to the Cambridge RoadJardies path that connects down to.
The north fax east West roadway and the University drive extension which I believe both include charities pass.
And then I believe we also have a shared use path along the southern side of 0.50 and then
the cancel slider trail would have connected to that far corner will would plaza and
then possibly with a potential for another connection up here at this near corner will would
plaza. So, do you have any thoughts to share on next steps to in some way replicate that
connectivity over toward Cardinal Road and the Fairwoods Parkway neighborway project and the
Wilcox and Trail project and up to Fairfax Circle?
We're working on it. So, because without the George Schneider Trail, we're looking at ways to make
those connections without that project. So, one of them is through the Wilcox and Trail
extension that we're talking about and pivoting that project up to Draper and using beach
drive. We're also talking about, and we mentioned a few minutes ago, the idea of putting
shared use paths on Eden, so that if you're coming down I66 on the spur and you get to the intersection,
you then have a shared use path to go from that intersection to university drive, which has the shared
use path to get down to route 50. So, we are working on bridging all of the shared use paths in the
different connections that we have. So, this is something that we're working on all the time and
thinking about where these missing pieces are and how can we accommodate them. So, I was actually
just speaking to Mr. Nabty a few weeks ago about the potential for a shared use path
on the south side of Eden Place between university drive, extension, and Chambridge Road, and whether
this is something we should put to is something that is developer could do, but either way this is something
we would like to see in place potentially on both sides of the street. So, I don't know if that answers
your question, but the answer is that we are working on it and these are connections that we are
constantly looking for. Okay, anything else? The thing I would just add is talking about the
permeable papers. You know, there are a lot of materials that that might be desirable from an environmental
standpoint, but create mobility issues. And to accessibility, yes, I mean, we always walkability
is one of the things that people in this community have said that they want, and it's not just
people with strollers, it's people who just can't walk on uneven surfaces. So, something you could
park a car on that is, you know, it wouldn't matter so much, but for paths and choosing the right
materials, we have to balance true ADA accessibility and true safe passage with environmental concerns
too. And I mean, I think that was really the struggle, a lot of the struggle with the George
Snyder Trail was creating an ADA accessible way for people to get through the city. So, I do think we
always have to keep that up or most when we talk about wanting to be greener and be environmentally sick.
We are still trying to create a walkable city for people to safely, of all ages and mobility issues to be able to get through the city.
And sometimes that's going to mean people having to share space with bicycles, right?
And these are just all considerations.
And in Councilmember Hardie Chandler pointed out that we need to use all the boards and commissions and that includes village and the city.
Because village in the city also represents older people who want to stay in an agent place here.
So it's easy to see the kids with small children and strollers, you see them.
But what you may not see are older people because maybe older people are not actually out.
And so I do hope that we can ask our boards and commissions to weigh in from their perspective.
And I don't know if we can create a system that says we're looking at something and does your board want to send us feedback and
feedback analysis, their perspective.
Just to get a fuller representation of the work these boards and commissions are doing.
But walkability, safety, accessibility and being ADA friendly is really important.
I think to all future planning for this park and everything else that we do.
And with that, we will thank you for your presentation.
And I'm now going to reconvene the regular meeting and kick it over to our city manager.
Thank you Mayor Council. We'll get into our future city council agenda items largely moving into the month of July already.
So of note on the seventh and a work session, we have a discussion on land use application at 41 17 chain bridge road.
Also want to bring back and update on me ascribed which be our enhanced language access tool for meetings.
Also a lot has happened in Richmond over the last day or so regarding budget.
And so we're going to pivot a little bit from the 28th to the 7th.
I'll have this in city manager Martinez speak a little bit about the 1% sales tax item and some of the logistics and planning that might be necessary regarding that issue.
Sure. Thank you.
So as a manager noted, the general assembly has approved budget language that may provide localities with the authority to pursue an additional 1% sales tax subject to voter approval.
While the city is still waiting for final enrolled HB30 language and any related implementation guidance.
Indications are that revenues may be used for school construction and renovation projects and in northern Virginia may also be available to support public transportation and transit related investments.
All those staff will continue to review the final legislation once available.
The timeline for placing a referendum before the voter's requires action in advance receiving all final guidance.
For a November 3rd, 2026 referendum, city council would need to adopt a resolution and request an order from the circuit court.
No later than July 21st, 2026.
Given these statutory deadlines and the potential opportunity to secure a dedicated local funding source for critical school and transportation infrastructure needs.
Staff recommends that the July 7th, 2026 meeting be advertised as a special meeting and that city council consider and take action on a resolution.
Requesting placement of the 1% sales tax referendum on the November 2026 ballot.
This action would preserve the city's ability to move forward should the final and active legislation confirm the anticipated authority and eligible uses.
Any questions for Mr. Martinez?
Councilmember Hall.
Thank you.
I was actually very disappointed to see that it included funds for transportation to be used in there.
And my understanding after speaking with the superintendent is that we may have the ability or authority to continue to devote those funds exclusively to schools as they were originally intended.
That something that we can do as a council if there is the will of the council to do that or are we required to devote some sort of percentage in some way.
As of now, we're not reading anything legislation that would indicate commitment to either or Brian will probably step up and intervene if I speak out of turn.
But as of now, the language does not appear to suggest a percentage to one or the other.
I also thought it was interesting that it's Northern Virginia when we already have the I think that's a 0.7% sales tax that already gets applied so.
The schools.
I think it's coming out of the the desire to have dedicated funding source for Wormada and also some adjustments to the formulas that are going to create some issues potentially for municipalities and Northern Virginia related to that in terms of use of the funds and again we're waiting for the final signed budget.
It'll be a two step the referendum obviously we need to pass the referendum question I think would include all of the options because that doesn't seem to be the flexibility to not include it so.
It confuses things because it's going to say in all likelihood to be used for.
New capital construction for schools for transportation projects or for both.
So that'll be the sort of the referendum question if the referendum passes then the city council would have to enact an ordinance that would provide how the funds would would be used so I think that would be the opportunity if.
The council or future councils would want to dedicate funds for certain purposes and again there's a lot to be determined in this but for the.
The the the resolution that would offer is placing the referendum on the ballot for November I think the options are going to be limited and I think it's probably going to be the broad it would have to be the broad language that would allow for.
One the other or both.
And I completely understand that and I think you're pointing that out but I also think that we.
Collectively as a council not mean to speak for anybody else here but council school word we've been very heavily focused on this one percent four schools I mean that is when we did the referendum when we.
Or when we did the bond referendum I mean all of that was really focused on let's get this past we're hoping the one percent will pass to go here so I recognize that.
A future council would be able to.
Have determination on that but I also think that for the messaging for our residents for getting the word out on the one percent sales tax and please vote yes for this.
I would love to see.
Our attention focused on using that for schools and getting that wording out saying yes we know it says this but our intention has been this state provided this other transportation option only in northern Virginia but.
This gives us roughly 13 million dollars a year for schools we need this for our four schools and so again not trying to speak for anybody but that that was where we've been focused this whole time so I just curious what others think about that thank you.
Mr. Martinez one clarifying and and this is not been solidified yet and I think.
One of the reasons why they're allowing northern Virginia to potentially use the one percent in addition to warm conjunction for transportation.
There is also legislation that in fiscal year twenty twenty nine so starting July one twenty twenty eight.
There will be additional funding requirement from localities in northern Virginia to warmada and they're also potentially doing away with the three percent cap.
That now puts potential additional burden on the jurisdictions know the Virginia to come up with additional capital and operating needs or warmada.
This was unassuming a negotiating tactic to try to say well we'll give you access to this.
But to your point council member.
The amount of revenue that would be generated from the one percent.
Basically covers the two school the two elementary school renovations in the high school roof there's really not much left for anything else.
Given that we might have additional financial pressures given a.
A pending upcoming warmada increase.
Yes and I think if you if you assumed the one percent didn't pass and we weren't able to use it for transportation we would still have to find those funds so as far as I'm concerned.
Mentally this money should go to the schools that's my take thank you.
Well yes and I agree except that the broader language means that.
For however many years we use the revenue for schools there's succeeding years where we have the flexibility.
To use the same one percent for any further funding for transportation which I think is the idea.
So so the one percent is not just unless they sunset it or something happens in the general assembly and I like we're taking it away.
But this enabling legislation that allows us to do this one percent sales tax for either or it will be a budgetary process here in the city and the budget is passed by the city council.
So every city council every year is going to have the opportunity to say we're using 100% of this for the schools until these schools are renovated the bill is paid.
But it also gives us flexibility because you can't always see into the future and future councils I think need the flexibility down but it's it's a budgetary process.
It totally is but I also think that we are trying to or we're going to need to try to get the word out and say to our residents we really want you to vote for this we really want you to understand what this goes for.
And I think if you said to your residents hey we're going to pass this 1% sales tax and we're going to buy some new buses or we're going to do this I think the enthusiasm the desire the drive is going to be hitting much less than it is for we pass this school bond.
We need these renovations and now we have an opportunity for the money so I understand 510 1530 years down the road it could be great to have the extra 1% to do with transportation projects but.
Right now when we're trying to get the word out I think we need to be.
Strategic and what we're doing and I agree I mean I think that was the whole point when we really when we did the school bond referendum and the messaging around that and and how we talked about the school bond referendum.
And the outreach we did in the community about what it could cost people as far as you rise in taxes up to 12 cents.
We talked about that and but I think ultimately it was over 70% of the voters said sign us up for renovating the schools I just I don't underestimate our.
Our residents ability to understand that the legislation coming out of Richmond says it can be this or this.
But that we have looked at this as a tool for funding school renovation.
I mean I think it's up to us to message that regardless of what the enabling legislation says our commitment.
Is to is to this but council member McQuillin.
I think we're saying the same thing.
I don't disagree with any of that however I think it's I think it's completely prudent to put the vote to the residents and as a referendum like we do with the school renovations we've done at our school board is in a fantastic job of educating our public everyone understands.
As has our CFO to educate the public on what our expenses are what's going on it is a renovation it can only be used for renovation.
And in this case expansion we we understood that it had to have expansion included there were specific boundaries so I don't have a problem with the language of that I don't have a problem with putting it to the voters I have no problem that transportation is.
Potentially included in there because we don't know what's coming up so I personally feel that that's going to be the city's job to you know let the voters know what's going to be on the ballot.
And to move forward with the process thank you.
Council member hard to chamber I just don't want to miss the deadline so this means that we're going to be talking about this on the seven we're going to be adding.
What we're going to recommend is advertising for a special meeting on the seventh which was initially scheduled as a work session so I think what we're being asked at this gentleman is everyone agree we should have a special meeting on the seven.
I agree that's I can't remember based.
Yeah, just follow on from what was said earlier I think it's important to point out that we've been asking general assembly for greater flexibility in terms of taxation.
And they gave us exactly that with this so I don't think they should be faulted for giving us additional flexibility with a certain tax.
Now that being said I think that the to my mind the messaging is that we have to pay for our school infrastructure regardless of what that money is used for years from now or what have you and so I think from that perspective.
And you know this money will offset that because that is something that we have to use it for because we have to we have to fund those commitments of ours.
I agree councilmember Ames.
Yeah, I think we just just need to be clear we already have a schoolbound referendum that was passed I think in the broader community but also as we've discussed as a council that has to be that priority it's already passed.
And trying to figure out funding for it will really patiently waiting on funding for it now it's arriving so I think we understand that piece the transportation piece.
That's going to be it have to be handled in the future we'll need to see what exactly is coming down the road we don't know what the moderate payments going to look like and if it's going to be significant enough where it almost eats up that whole one percent sales tax or we.
We have flexibility for transportation projects. There's just too much we don't know about the transportation piece and it sounds like for the referendum in November it would be schools transportation or both.
So people will make their selection regardless. Is that my understanding or don't misunderstand that?
No, no, no. The referendum would say the funds could be used for it.
It will not ask the voters which they prefer.
That might actually be easier.
Yes, no, that decision will be left to future councils.
Yeah, I think what we can trust that we've communicated efficiently and we've talked about it as much as we possibly can.
And I think our communities involved aware and we'll trust them to make the right call.
And assuming that this goes forward, the other thing we will be doing is obviously providing the appropriate costions as to what you can say publicly about the referendum before it's voted on.
There are restrictions under Virginia laws to what can be said publicly.
It has to be neutral.
Am I in trouble?
No, no, nothing's been done. Nothing's been done. Nothing's been done yet.
Referendum has been set yet, so everything's fine.
I'm like, how you brought that up?
No, no, no, just setting the table, setting the table.
And I agree, and I think it's important because it's on the ballot in November and it's so where people who are running for office.
So when you are talking to voters about the election in the city for mayor and council, you can say there is you're going to see a referendum.
You're going to see a referendum on the ballot.
What we need guidance on is how you talk about the referendum on the ballot.
But you should tell people they're going to see it so that they're looking for it and they know it's there.
But I do think when it talk when we talk about the fact, you can talk about the fact that the community voted overwhelmingly for a school bond referendum to renovate the schools.
This is a mechanism.
This this this ballot is just is a tool to fund the renovation of this schools.
All good points.
I might just suggest we put a little pin in this for now.
Okay.
I have a discussion for another day.
Another day.
Yeah, like on the seventh, like on the seventh during that special meeting of ours.
But yes, let's let's help the public understand.
Mr. City manager.
Okay.
So that that wraps it up for the seventh on the 14th.
We're bringing back the urban force master plan to give you an update on the one-year plan and five-year outlook.
We have the housing trust fund and a presentation on that.
We'll have a continued discussion on small area plan zoning ordinance amendments.
And a follow-up discussion is scheduled for you on code of ethics for the 14th.
Moving to the 28th consideration of a contract award for an owner's rep for school construction projects.
The ADU pieces we've talked about is coming back to you and for a public hearing.
And then we have work session wise pre-application for 3541 chain bridge road.
And a discussion on the Courthouse Plaza Project.
That essentially takes us up to the break.
Notably a correction for you.
Citywide-level service will come back to you on September 1st.
Note also that you see a number of items listed on the first.
That is our first foray into an earlier start time.
And so we will do our best to schedule as much work session wise on that first Tuesday.
So that hopefully takes us to a place that counts as comfortable.
Happy to address any calendaring items.
Questions for the city manager?
On future items.
Yeah, Council Member Hall.
Thank you.
Mayor, you brought up tonight the stop sign.
Electronic monitoring and I saw something about that passing and I'm talking about pilot programs.
Is there a way that we could have a work session item on what that might look like in the city?
Or if there's an opportunity to do any electronic monitoring.
I know you mentioned before the decibels and the vehicular stuff.
Yeah, there's some recent legislation on automated enforcement around loud mufflers.
That we're evaluating now and we certainly can evaluate anything else related to our district and safety related.
Automated options.
So I've already have a meeting schedule with PD on one of these items.
So we'll wrap that into that and bring it back to you.
Okay, great.
Thank you.
Council Member Aamis, did you have something?
No, okay.
Anything else on this?
Are we all good?
Always subject to change.
But for now it looks like we're good on this.
Okay, so we're going to do the manager report out in council comments.
Anything else to add, Mr. Alexander?
Very quickly.
We're excited about upcoming events.
And obviously rock the block continues whether permitting this Friday.
And then of course the fourth and the parade and fireworks.
I'm sure you'll mention that.
But I don't think we're meeting again in the manner before then.
So appreciate staff community work.
Up to this point on these important events for our community.
That's all I have, Mayor.
Thank you.
We'll start with council member Aamis.
Only one thing.
I just wanted to say a big congrats to the Fairfax Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
They held an open house literally right before this meeting.
Managed to squeeze it in real quick.
So walked over since they're not far.
They had a lovely open house.
The renovation to their facilities really beautiful.
Highly recommend swinging by and checking out.
But everyone was very excited.
And it's really stunning.
And ongoing.
So continue to access to them.
Yeah, absolutely.
We love our city base businesses.
Council member Hall.
Just want to wish everyone a happy belated father's day.
I will say.
Father's you seem to get the best day of the year every year.
It was beautiful.
It was sunny.
It was warm.
It was great.
So I hope everyone had a great time.
And I do want to apologize.
I've been on my phone way more tonight than I normally am.
My dad's having some health issues out in California.
So just checking in and doing a bunch of things.
Thank you.
Can you remember her?
Chandler.
I would like to acknowledge all the work that went into a fabulous Juneteenth starting with
the invitation from Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
I really wish more of the community could support that event because it really is very hurt
felt and very meaningful.
I think is part of Fairfax history.
But also a little leading into the evening celebration.
So much work by the Juneteenth Committee.
Congratulations to the legacy of freedom awardee.
The amazing talent.
The spoken word performer.
Bone chilling.
Amazing performance.
And so I'm always impressed by the hard work that go.
That goes into our city celebrations.
And the engagement.
Our various committees are able to get from the community and beyond to contribute to such an important celebration.
So thank you for that experience.
Councillor Pieterson.
Well, it was great to have Monica Backman here from NVTA.
And as Bear Reid and I both know, that's a hard work and crew.
So they have just completed awards under the 60 year program.
And I think awarded $76 million for $27 projects or some such.
And couldn't begin to tell you how much work goes into that.
By all of the jurisdictions that submit applications.
We didn't have any applications in this time.
A lot of other jurisdictions did.
A huge amount of design work, a huge amount of analysis.
A huge amount goes into that.
One of the things that they shared with us when we received a briefing last week on this was that there was a record number of applications for bike and pedestrian pass.
I know there's a lot of conversation tonight about that.
Six of them made the grade and got it into the final recommendation mix.
And I have an opportunity to talk with three who was here earlier about what went into that process.
It's really complex analytically.
It's not just a simple every single option of a single application for a shared bike path or a bike pedestrian project works quite to the contrary.
And they run two grades on them.
One is the degree to which they reduce congestion and how cost effective that is cost of congestion relief.
They run another grade which has like 14 different variables on it.
That can score it additionally and one of the key things that stands out on that is safety.
I raised this because one of the projects out of that first off all of the transportation bike pedestrian projects that were approved were street based projects.
Most of them were sidewalk widening and sidewalk improvement projects, all of them were street based.
And where they scored the highest in terms of congestion relief and oftentimes safety was where the most people and the most cars are.
But I wanted to share that one of those projects is a sidewalk widening project on.
Arlington Boulevard route 50 it's a gleam road that includes a physical by a physical barrier.
The presence of the physical barrier improved the scoring of that project because of its safety enhancements to the level that it was actually able to get funded get in the mix that will now receive a $15 million award.
This is the beginning of what NVTA, three in particular would expect to happen more often when we've got a lot of cars and a lot of people in the same place and particularly when the cars are going fast.
But these physical barriers are being used increasingly they're used quite a bit in Baltimore, Brooklyn has said that they want to be the world leader in this we see Portland, Seattle etc.
And they're all over the place in Europe.
We were looking at that very option on Fairfax Boulevard during the course of the Georgetown or Trail Conversations and the potential for adding a physical barrier there as a part of a lot sidewalk widening project.
I think there were some skepticism at the time, but it is in fact the case that an almost identical project is moving forward through this process the six year project in Arlington.
And I think we can look forward to more of that I think that what NVTA is expecting is also a lot of variations around it and for jurisdictions to be increasingly creative in the way that they institute.
These shared bike paths with various types of physical barriers to put more of them in place.
And I think it's a real opportunity we'll have here in the city going forward.
We are one of the things they pointed out is that most cities, whether they're large or small, just don't have room to create new bike paths and areas where there is nothing at all.
And so the focus is really taking advantage of the street infrastructure and this is one of the big things that came through.
So I think they were really very pleased to set the precedent with us and to look forward to more of it.
So that's the transportation news for the week.
Thanks.
Can some of the debates?
So I think that the skepticism around that at least from my perspective was also about the possibility of using funding that had already been approved for a different project for that which is understood we could not.
And now we don't have guarantee of any funding for something like that but certainly look forward to further conversations about increased multi-modal connectivity.
And you just want to echo the previous comments wishing all the fathers in the city among the city staff and city residents happy fathers day.
And also want to wish echo the comments wishing everybody happy June 10th and agreed, you know, it's a very beautiful, very appointment event on Friday and glad to be there.
Thank you.
Council member McQuillin.
Thank you.
I also want to thank Monica Bakman from NVTA for the briefing on the bus rapid transit action plan and to our staff for their presentations this evening.
I also want to briefly recognize a few recent upcoming community events.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Juneteenth ceremony last week but was encouraged to see all the pictures of the participation and attendees and just want to thank all that made the event a success.
I was really sad to have to miss that looking ahead summers of busy time and if you haven't already done so please consider signing up for Fairfax city alert and city clips on the city's website to stay informed on all the events we have going on coming up this summer.
Since I'm also talking about ways to stay involved I want to give a quick plug to our local arts community.
The city currently has several calls for artists opening through the office of cultural arts.
This includes submissions for the many art vending machine project it closes tomorrow at 4 p.m.
The vice park mural and recycled art benches.
They all looked like some really neat projects to get involved in.
I'd love to see some new local artists come out and show your work.
Please consider taking a look by searching for the public art program public art program in the search bar on the city's website pulls it right up.
So you can access it easily and wishing everyone a safe and happy week.
Thank you.
All right.
So yes, many thanks for the people, the Juneteenth committee and our parks and recreation department who put together Juneteenth and Mount Calvary Baptist Church.
And I would also like to see us figure out how to engage more with Mount Calvary as well.
For the July's coming up and I just want to give a shout out to Katie McCamon.
People who are seeing that amazing 250th logo that is just the best look in 250 logo ever to be seen in America was designed by our own Katie Mac.
And I just, whenever you see it, I want you to remember that that's in-house talent.
And we have got incredibly talented people on our staff, but particularly parks and recreation know how to throw an event and to market it as well.
So I'm going to see everyone.
I hope on 4 July, along the parade route or from the viewing stand. In with that, I am now going to adjourn this meeting to go into a closed meeting, or I'm just going into the closed meeting. However, I do that. So I bid the rest of you a good night.
Thank you.