Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax City Council Meeting, Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 1h 28m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4641
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4641
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4641&doc_id=c50324c6-ac59-11f1-a183-005056a89546

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:14] Good evening. I would like to call the regular meeting of September 8, 2026 to order. If you are able and so choose, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:00:41] And now I will ask the Fairfax County chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to come forward for a proclamation. stand here in the well. I'm going to read the proclamation, then I'll ask if anyone has comments

[00:01:11] they would like to make. Sounds good. Always good to be prepared. So this is for Constitution Week. Whereas, the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution initiated the observance of Constitution Week in 1955 with a resolution that was later adopted by the U.S. Congress creating Public Law 915, which was signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in August 1956.

[00:01:43] And whereas the goal of this annual observance during the week of September 17 to 23 is threefold, to encourage the study of the historical events that led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787, to remind the public that the Constitution is the basis of America's great heritage, and to emphasize U.S. citizens' responsibility to protect, defend, and preserve the U.S. Constitution.

[00:02:11] And whereas the U.S. Constitution is the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in the world, having been amended 27 times since 1789, beginning with the Bill of Rights, and interpreted, supplemented, and implemented by a large body of federal constitutional law.

[00:02:30] And whereas September 17, 2026 marks the 239th anniversary of the framing of the United States Constitution by the Constitutional Convention, this week of observance offers opportunities for education, celebration, and community awareness of the importance of our country's governing document to our way of life. And whereas the U.S. Constitution is singular in its history and importance to our country, we must endeavor to teach its significance to each new generation and to keep its core tenets at the center of our American principles. Now, therefore,

[00:03:07] I, Catherine S. Reed, Mayor of the City of Fairfax, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17 through 23 as Constitution Week and ask our community to reaffirm the ideals of the Framers of the Constitution that the Framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this foundational document forming the structure of our government in these United States and guaranteeing our individual rights and liberty.

[00:03:42] And with that, I will ask if we have comments you would like to make. Ms. Jackson. Yes, I want to thank you, Mayor Reed and those council members and Melissa for helping me set this up, Shinaberry, the city clerk. It's good to see you all again. We were here last year as well. I am Katie Jackson, the DAR Constitutional Committee Chair for the Fairfax Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and here today with me is a past regent, Janice Dixon, our current assistant treasurer, Christina Thomas, and one of our newest members, Elena Musial.

[00:04:15] We appreciate that you have proclaimed September 17th to the 23rd as Constitution Week here in the city of Fairfax again this year, and we're honored to accept this proclamation on the behalf of the whole chapter.

[00:04:28] As we continue to celebrate America's 250th anniversary, this proclamation supports D.A.R.'s efforts to encourage all citizens to gain a greater understanding of the Constitution and its impact on the lives of citizens past, present, and future, and reminds us all, as was mentioned in the proclamation, that it's our responsibility to protect, defend, and preserve the U.S. Constitution, each and every one of us, and our individual rights and liberty.

[00:04:57] As part of our activities, we also once again are hosting an open house, U.S. Constitution open house at the Fairfax Library. This year it's on September 16th, the eve of Constitution Day, and it's a chance for the community to come learn a little bit more about the Constitution.

[00:05:16] We have a few displays up, and we have handouts. Last year we had this woman from the elementary school come dressed in one of her favorite historical figures. So it's a fun little event, family friendly, and also there will be books out there, library books that the librarians have put out that people can look through to learn more about the men and women that were part of the founding of our government.

[00:05:40] So please tell your colleagues, yourselves come too as well, and your neighbors. So thank you again for your time, your recognition, and your support of our organization and its mission. We really appreciate it. You are welcome. And now we're going to have a photo. Got our backup band.

[00:06:03] now i'd like to ask chloe ritter my favorite multi-modal transportation planner honestly my

[00:06:37] favorite to come down for the proclamation for car free day whereas my favorite opening sentiment for all of these whereas the city of fairfax is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions including emissions from transportation, as part of the city's environmental sustainability goals.

[00:07:02] And whereas the city strives to create a livable community with access to safe and convenient transportation options, and whereas reduced reliance on driving alone supports the city's safety and sustainability goals and provides other community benefits such as reduced congestion and reduced parking demand.

[00:07:21] And whereas World Car-Free Day is celebrated annually on September 22nd to promote sustainable transportation choices, and whereas the City of Fairfax is encouraging residents to try car-free and car-light transportation, such as the City's Q-Bus, Metro Rail, bicycling and walking, and carpools on Car-Free Day and throughout September.

[00:07:46] Now, therefore, I, Catherine S. Reed, Mayor of the City of Fairfax, do hereby proclaim September 22nd is Car-Free Day in the City of Fairfax and encourage members of the community to enjoy local trails, public transit, and other sustainable transportation options available in the City of Fairfax.

[00:08:04] Ms. Chloe Ritter. Thank you, Mayor Reed, and thank you, City Council, for your ongoing support of sustainable transportation and encouragement of people to try out car-free transportation. And as you mentioned, we have our Q-Bus system, our free Q-Bus system.

[00:08:22] That's one of the great ways you can get away on the city in a sustainable way. We also have the Capital Bike Share System and a great sidewalk and trail network. And the city is also continually working to improve our transportation options through things like new sidewalk projects, intersection improvement options to give people more sustainable and safe options to get around the city.

[00:08:43] So Car Free Day and all of September is a great chance to try out our great transportation options in the city. Thank you. I'm going to now ask Adam Rizzoli from Rev Up to come forward to accept a proclamation, Susan, as well.

[00:09:19] Thank you so much for being here. So this is about Disability Voting Rights Week. Whereas more than 1.9 million adults in Virginia live with a disability and approximately 938,500 Virginians with disabilities were projected to be eligible to vote in 2024, accounting for 15.1 percent of the Commonwealth's electorate, and whereas approximately 2,000 Fairfax City residents live with a disability, and whereas in the 2022 midterm elections,

[00:09:58] 53.2 percent of Virginians with disabilities voted, matching the turnout rate of Virginians without disabilities and eliminating Virginia's disability voter turnout gap, and whereas nationally, 40.2 million people with disabilities were eligible to vote in the 2024 elections, nearly one-sixth of the electorate, while 72.7 million voters, almost one-third of all eligible voters, either have a disability or live with someone who does. And whereas nationally, the

[00:10:33] number of eligible voters with disabilities grew 5.1 percent from 2020 to 2024, compared with 2.5 percent growth among those without disabilities, yet millions of voters with disabilities continue to face barriers to full participation. And whereas Rev Up Virginia, Register, Educate, Vote, Use Your Power, empowers Virginians with disabilities and their families to participate fully in democracy through voter education, voter registration, advocacy for accessible elections, and efforts to

[00:11:07] strengthen the political power of the disability community as part of the national rev up campaign now therefore i katherine s reed mayor of the city of fairfax do hereby proclaim september 14th through 18th 2026 as disability voting rights week in the city of fairfax and encourage residents to support the growing involvement of the disability community in the political process and civic engagement and with that i will ask if adam risoli would like to make some remarks. Thank you so much. Can everybody hear me okay? Fantastic. Good evening,

[00:11:47] everyone. My name is Adam Rizzoli. I am the coordinator for Disability Voting Rights Week for Rev Up Virginia, the nonpartisan disability voting rights coalition in Virginia. Want to begin by thanking Mayor Reed and the clerk, Melissa, for making this proclamation a reality. And I wanted to thank the entire Fairfax City Council for being here to listen to what I have to say about disability voting. Many people believe that disability voting only mattered in the 1990s when Congress passed the Americans of Disabilities Act. The Americans of Disabilities Act guarantees

[00:12:25] the right of disabled Americans to access employment, transportation, public accommodations, health care, education, and all other government services. To give you a real-world example of why this matters, I don't think I would have graduated college with a master's degree without this law.

[00:12:47] The disability vote continues to grow in number and in power. Today, including neurodivergent people, nearly 28% of the American population is disabled. And we matter in elections. In the 2022 midterms in Virginia, we turned out the same rate as everybody else.

[00:13:07] And we also vote the same as everybody else, despite the barriers that we face. We do this because the stakes are higher for us. Policy touches our liberty, our livelihoods, and our lives. Our goals are surprisingly similar to everybody else's.

[00:13:28] We want federal funding to go to the people, like people in this room, who do the hard work providing services. The difference for our community is impact. Every victory lets us exist in our communities. Every defeat makes us invisible because less access, less services, and less support means we can't show up anywhere.

[00:13:53] Getting results starts at the ballot box. That's how we push for full funding of federal and statewide mandates instead of leaving local governments like Fairfax City to fill the gap. By supporting us, all of you support the funding that this city needs to work for everyone.

[00:14:14] Let me tell you a bit about Rev Up Virginia. We are dedicated to building the power of the disability vote. We organize the disabled voters across the Commonwealth to show that the disability vote brings change. We are a nonpartisan coalition of disability rights, disability service, and voting rights organizations.

[00:14:36] We are the only space where all these organizations come together in Virginia. Our biggest push each year is Disability Voting Rights Week. This national campaign promotes disability voting through September 14th to December 18th this year.

[00:14:54] Our priority is to make sure that every disabled voter is registered, which is why we picked September. We host events across the state and continue our mission of registering disabled voters. But Forever Virginia does so much more than this.

[00:15:11] Our greatest achievement last year was the statewide candidates forum, where all six statewide candidates showed up to answer questions on disability issues. Meanwhile, this year, after years of pushing for a law to protect the voting rights of Virginians under guardianship, we succeeded.

[00:15:32] It protects the voting rights for 12,000 Virginians. I also wanted to say to everybody here that we are a resource. You can check out our website, am I allowed to shout out the website, at revupva.org.

[00:15:47] We, every month, via Zoom, discuss barriers to voting and solutions to it. I invite everybody in this room to join our meetings. Finally, I do want to recognize Mary Reed. Thank you for your years in office.

[00:16:04] Thank you for standing up for the disabled community and championing our issues. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you, Adam. And now a photo. Does that sound? Get our backup band.

[00:16:21] Get our backup. It's okay if you get a photo with my phone or anything similar.

[00:16:36] We'll send you this. Okay. We're going to send you this. I want to tell everybody I got this. I will make sure you get that photo, yes? Like, I'm getting, yes, he's shaking his head saying, you will get that photo. Thank you. This is awesome. Like, y'all framed this and everything.

[00:16:52] We can move on to the adoption of the agenda.

[00:17:08] Is there a motion to approve the agenda? I move to adopt the agenda as presented. Second. The motion has been made and seconded a roll call vote. Council Member Amos? Aye. Council Member Hall? Aye. Council Member Hardy-Chandler? Aye. Council Member Peterson? Aye. Council Member Bates?

[00:17:24] Aye. Council Member McClellan? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go on to initial general public comment. I had one speaker sign up by 5 o'clock p.m. today. So the one speaker would be Doug Cox, if he can come up. Good evening.

[00:17:44] My name is Doug Cox. I live in Fairview. Yeah, I just want to say the city's not working. We've got to change something in this city, like, really quick. All right? I mean, I write to you guys. I give you these briefs, the pictures and everything, and I don't even get acknowledgement.

[00:18:03] Nothing ever happens. Getting a little tiresome. So you guys don't respond to residents. You write to division heads in the city. They don't respond. What are residents supposed to do? We have to come up to city hall and start, like, standing at people's desks.

[00:18:20] It's not working, guys. It's not working. But I will say, Mr. Alexander, I don't know who Nancy Tingen, or however say her name, she did actually acknowledge my two e-mails. So thank you to Nancy. It was nice to actually get a little bit of feedback.

[00:18:36] Also, I want to start on a plus note and say congrats to the police for trying to curb a little bit of the activity down at the Circle. Things seem to have calmed a little bit, but I got to say, never should have got that way.

[00:18:54] I sat in these meetings a year ago, and you had people coming up saying, yeah, I walked past and there's a person reaching out for me or, you know, in a park. Or, yeah, my daughter or my wife and kid were followed in our neighborhood by a homeless person, and nobody did anything.

[00:19:15] Nobody cared. It took a guy to get shot wielding a knife at Wawa. It took a guy with a hatchet trying to enter businesses and someone getting beaten up and their phone stolen before someone went, yeah, you know, maybe this is something we ought to look at.

[00:19:32] That ain't working, guys. When people come up here and say they've got problems, how about doing something about it? Because here's the other thing that doesn't work. I've said this time and time again. Four years is when we broke out the stormwater from the regular real estate. Four years ago, real estate taxes started going up.

[00:19:53] Not the assessments, the rates. See this little chart, this little dandy? There's Fairfax City, 6.188% in the last four years. Real estate rate going up. We're number 16 in the state. We're the only municipality with four, it used to be three, now four straight real estate increases.

[00:20:12] How's that possible? 133 cities, counties, we're the only one with four increases. Like I said previously, three increases. And I mean, they don't increase that much, folks. 2022 to 2024, there were, I believe, four other municipalities that raised their rates consecutive years.

[00:20:33] 2023 to 2025, there was four or five other municipalities. Out of 133, we're killing money. Start reining it in, folks. This is ridiculous. We can move on to the consent agenda.

[00:20:52] Are there any questions on any of the items on the consent agenda? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve the consent agenda, item 6A through G, as presented September 8, 2026, and the accompanying motions in the staff reports.

[00:21:17] Second. The motion's been made. A motion has been made by Council Member Hardy-Chandler and seconded by Council Member Peterson. A roll call vote. Council Member McQuillan? Aye. Council Member Bates? Aye. Council Member Peterson? Aye. Council Member Hardy-Chandler? Aye. Council Member Hall? Aye.

[00:21:32] Council Member Amos? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go on to consideration of appointments to boards, commissions, and advisory committees. Is there a motion to approve the appointments to boards, commissions, and advisory committees? Thank you, Mayor. I move to appoint the following applicants.

[00:21:47] of architecture review reappoint heather wave for a three-year term extending through october 25th 2029 appoint rethi sang v for a three-year term beginning september 22nd 2026 and extending through september 22 september 22nd 2029 commission for women reappoint trish bailey for a three-year term extending through june 30th 2029 appoint anisha singh for a three-year term extending through September 9th, 2029. Environmental Sustainability Committee. Appoint Thomas Williamson as the

[00:22:24] business representative for the remainder of the three-year term extending through February 23rd, 2028. Fairfax Area Disability Services Board. Reappoint Diane Moaning for a three-year term extending through September 26th, 2029. Grievance Panel Board. Reappoint Isay Alexander for a three-year term extending through may 20th of 2029 historic fairfax inc appoint j someain lockwood for a five-year term extending through september 9th 2031 parks and recreation advisory board

[00:22:59] reappoint sarah ross for a three-year term extending through june 28th 2029 second the motion has been made and seconded a roll call vote councilmember amos aye councilmember hall aye councilmember hardy-chandler aye councilmember peterson aye councilmember bates aye councilmember mcquillan aye motion passed unanimously we will now go on to public hearing we only have one public hearing tonight which is a public hearing and council action on a request from nala iube nala iube daycare and

[00:23:32] parents applicant for a special use permit pursuant to city code section 110-6.7 to allow a family daycare home for a maximum of 12 and Prince 12 children in accordance with the city code section 110-3.5.5.3.8 on the premises known as 10230 Antidium Avenue and more particularly described as tax map parcel 47-4-07-Q-008. I'm going to recognize Savannah Newbern from the Berkeley

[00:24:10] group for the staff presentation good evening counsel my name is Savannah Newbern I assist the city of Fairfax community development department with

[00:24:46] reviewing and processing special use permits and as Melissa said this evening we'll be hearing a special use permit request for an in-home family daycare located at 102 30 Antietam Avenue the applicant is proposing an in-home family daycare for up to 12 children ages 0 to 12 accessory to their single family dwelling. The proposed use will utilize the full home and the property is fenced along the rear adjacent to Interstate 66. The applicant is currently licensed and operating a child care

[00:25:21] business in Fairfax County and is relocating and expanding the business. Here is an aerial image of the location, the home, and the zoning is residential high. This is an allowable use in this zoning district, and the comprehensive plan future land use designates this area as a single-family detached neighborhood, and staff recommends approval of this use as being harmonious with this neighborhood type.

[00:25:54] The single-family detached neighborhood place type applies to neighborhoods that are primarily developed with homes, and accessory uses associated with these residences are permitted. We find that this proposed use is consistent with the comprehensive plan, the requirements of the zoning ordinance and is harmonious with the neighborhood and has no negative impact on public welfare. The staff recommendation is for approval with a few conditions, namely those being a maximum of 12 children allowed per on-site parking spaces, outdoor play shall not take place

[00:26:32] before 8 a.m., and the special use permit shall not be transferable. So the extent. Are there any questions of staff councilmember Amos thank you and I know very excited to see this and just wanted to thank the applicant for their work in previous operations my understanding is they operate in the county before yes I typically ask this but just wanting to check in any previous citations or violations of note I didn't see in the staff report but no okay and I was going to ask about the the parking and potential constraints then I read the

[00:27:11] letter of support which directly addressed that so greatly appreciate it And just reiterating, we're talking about eight spaces, four off-street, four driveway. Well, I just want to identify that the ordinance requires two parking spaces for the single-family dwelling and two parking spaces for the accessory use for a total of four required parking spaces.

[00:27:32] The applicant did specify that there is on-street parking available, but that cannot be used to meet the requirements of the ordinance, but their driveway does meet those requirements. Excellent. Thank you. Any other questions of staff? Council Member McQuillan.

[00:27:49] Could you briefly run me through the timeline that it took to get here to this point, please? That is a wonderful question. So the applicant, I believe, originally contacted the city, and that request was forwarded to me sometime this spring.

[00:28:07] Okay. Do you know what month by chance? I would say around April. Okay, thank you. And if you would like a more detailed timeline, I'd be happy to provide that in follow-up. any other questions of staff all right um i will now open the public hearing the shinaberry has this public hearing been properly advertised yes it has no one has signed up prior to the meeting so if anybody would like to come forward on this item they may okay seeing none i will now close

[00:28:43] the public hearing is there a motion council member hardy chandler i move that the city council approve the request from nyla au applicant for the special use permit pursuant to city code section 110-3.5.5.d.8 to allow the establishment of a family daycare home for up to 12 children as an accessory use to a single family dwelling in the RH residential high zoning district on the premises known as 10230 Antietam Avenue and more particularly described as tax map parcel

[00:29:21] 47-4-07-Q-008 with the following conditions. One, the applicant shall obtain and maintain all required state licenses required for providing care for 5 to 12 children.

[00:29:37] Two, the facility shall be the principal residence of the operators of the family daycare home. Three, there shall be a maximum of 12 children allowed per current number of on-site parking spaces. outdoor place shall not take place before 8 a.m. 5 the special use permit shall not be transferable to any other operator second okay a motion has been made by councilmember Hardy Chandler and seconded by councilmember Peterson is there any discussion on the motion seeing none a roll call vote customer McQuillan aye councilmember Bates aye councilmember Peterson aye councilmember

[00:30:16] Hardy Chandler aye councilmember Hall aye councilmember Amos aye motion passed unanimously we will now go to the second general public comment i had one person signed up and after that person if there's somebody else in the room that would like to speak they may our first speaker is jessica lock good evening madam mayor members of the council and fellow neighbors thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight my name is jessica lock and i'm a fairfax city resident

[00:30:52] tonight i'd like to pose three questions first if you're hiring a contractor to renovate your home Would you want a written contract that clearly outlines expectations before work begins? Second, in your own workplace, does your employer have a clear code of conduct for how employees handle financial decisions and conflicts of interest?

[00:31:13] And finally, should our local government, responsible for managing hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars, be held to those exact same baseline standards? The answers are obvious. Of course we would. Of course they do. And of course we should.

[00:31:30] Like many Fairfax city residents, I assumed our government already operated under a local code of ethics. I was surprised and somewhat concerned to learn that we don't. To be clear, council members are subject to Virginia's state conflict of interest laws, but state law sets only a bare minimum legal floor.

[00:31:48] It defines what's criminal, not what is best practice, and I submit to everybody tonight that we should hold ourselves to a higher bar than the bare minimum. Every month, this council and past and future councils vote on land use rezonings, multi-million dollar development projects, and municipal contracts, all spending taxpayer dollars.

[00:32:09] Residents deserve total confidence that decisions are guided by consistent standards, explicit disclosure rules, and clear recusal protocols, just as neighboring jurisdictions like Fairfax County, Alexandria, and Herndon have done. It's not just about good governance.

[00:32:27] It's about basic fiscal management. The private sector treats ethics codes as standard risk control because preventing conflicts and protecting competitive bidding saves organizations millions, an estimated 5% of annual operating costs in waste, legal disputes, and audit costs.

[00:32:48] To put that in perspective for Fairfax City, in our annual budget, that is approximate $10 million in annual savings reduction every annum. A municipal budget managing hundreds of millions in public funds shouldn't operate without that same protection.

[00:33:05] And that's why it has been so disheartening to watch this common sense effort slow-rolled. We've heard from this council that a code of ethics shouldn't be political, yet setting standard rules for good governance is the least political thing a council can do. We've heard it should be kicked down the road, folded into strategic planning, and left for the next council to handle.

[00:33:24] We've been told that a written code isn't necessary because everybody simply follows their own personal values. And most dismissively of all, I've heard the idea of written off as trivial, something we shouldn't bother with. I urge this council to look at the policies already working across Northern Virginia and adopt a clear enforceable code of ethics with recusal provisions as recommended today.

[00:33:45] Thank you. Is there anybody else in the room that would like to make a general public comment? Okay. We will move on to items not requiring a public hearing. Our first item is a consideration of adopting City Council Code of Ethics.

[00:34:02] I'm going to recognize Brian Lovegerman, our city attorney for the staff report. Evening again, Mayor and Council, very timely after the last speaker. But this item is a consideration of the adoption of City Council Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct. The City Council had requested to examine the merits of adoption of a Code of Ethics.

[00:34:18] There were two work sessions, May 26th and July 14th. At the latter meeting, the sentiment of the majority of the members of the City Council was to proceed to consider adoption of the Code of Ethics as presented. There was a request to ask the chairs of the various Boards and Commissions, since the recommendation is to have it applied to the Boards and Commissions, for comment.

[00:34:38] We received one comment back, which was mostly a stylistic request, but the language in the Code of Ethics is fine. Other than that, we received no input from Boards and Commissions. So presenting it to you for consideration this evening, happy to answer any questions. Are there questions for Mr. Lupkin?

[00:34:56] Councilmember Amos. No questions. Just wanted to thank you for putting it together and garnering the feedback. And I think this makes sense as a common-sense thing to do. Other questions or comments? Councilmember Bates. I just want to highlight that part of the proposed code of ethics that states all members shall also perform their duties to the very best of their abilities, treating the public in each other in a courteous, impartial, fair, and equitable manner, which is something that I strongly agree with. And to me, that means conducting ourselves with honesty and transparency

[00:35:33] and not surprising each other at the dais, which is something that I have always remained true to. And, you know, I think that this is certainly worth an attempt to, you know, see how this is able to improve the process of governing the city.

[00:35:55] Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, is there a motion? I move that the City Council adopt the Code of Ethics and Standards of Conduct document as presented. Second. A motion's been made by Council Member Hardy-Chandler and seconded by Council Member Peterson.

[00:36:14] Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, a roll call vote. Council Member Amos? Aye. Council Member Hall? Aye. Council Member Hardy-Chandler? Aye. Council Member Peterson? Aye. Council Member Bates? Aye. Council Member McQuillan? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We'll go on to the next item, which is a consideration of an award of construction contract for University Drive bike lanes.

[00:36:36] I'm going to recognize Chloe Ritter, our multimodal transportation planner, for the presentation.

[00:37:00] Good evening, Mayor and Council. As the clerk mentioned, this is the presentation to recommend the award of contract for the University Drive bike lanes project. So I'm going to go through the background on the project and go through the design again.

[00:37:15] I know we talked about this last week, so I'm just going to go over that again so we can answer any questions that you have. Can I just bring it closer? Closer, okay. Yes, great. Okay, so this is the timeline of the project. I'm not going to go through each date here because I also have it on the next slide.

[00:37:34] So this project did go through our project development process, starting with the identification of the project in our adopted plans. In June of 2020, the Old Town and North Fact Small Area Plans were adopted. The University Drive Spine was included in those plans, and that's the genesis of this project.

[00:37:53] Then in June of 2021, the Bicycle Master Plan was adopted, which also included this project and gave it a little bit more specificity, recommending it as a road diet and bicycle lanes, whereas the Old Town Small Area Plan was looking at it a little bit more generally of adding bicycle facilities in this corridor.

[00:38:09] And so then we took that project and put it into our program, our two-year transportation program in spring of 2021, which was adopted in June of 2021 for us to proceed with developing the concept. We then had a city council work session in 2021 to look at that concept.

[00:38:29] We did several rounds of analysis and looked at developing how we were going to develop the concept and then had a public hearing to present that concept and get feedback on whether we want to proceed with funding it. And the funding endorsement also happened at that same meeting in September of 2021. So that kind of leads us through the first part of the process, the project development process. Then we got the funding. This is transportation alternatives funding. So we got the funding in 2023. And then we had a public open house on that concept as we were starting to develop it again in December of that year. Then we continued developing the design

[00:39:09] and brought it back to this council in February of last year for the design public hearing. And since then, we've been refining the design, working with VDOT to get approvals. And we are now here at step 13, where we are recommending a word of the construction contract to construct the project.

[00:39:26] So again, going through the background, the small area plans adopted in 2020 envisioned the spine as a safe and comfortable pedestrian facility connecting North Vax, Old Town, and Mason. It builds on previous efforts.

[00:39:42] We already have the road diet that's just outside of City Hall on University Drive between Armstrong and South Street, and also we have the traffic calming that was installed on University Drive north of Kenmore, and the intent is for this to be a context-sensitive pedestrian and bicycle facility, and what that means is it's going to be different depending on which part of the corridor you're in.

[00:40:03] So on a more residential area like north of Kenmore Street, the traffic calming and having on-street facilities and sidewalks is more appropriate versus through downtown, you might tried a different facility. And then here close to City Hall, south of City Hall, we have the shared use path along George Mason Boulevard. So it's not necessarily meant to be the same facility throughout the entire corridor. And the other feature that the small area plan calls that is to do consistent branding along the corridor. And then again, the Bicycle Master Plan, which was adopted the following year, took this concept and started looking at where we would want to put in facilities and what type of facilities would we want to put in. And the Bicycle Master Plan

[00:40:42] looked at University Drive particularly north of Bulltown and said there's extra capacity the number the amount of traffic on the street is not necessarily doesn't necessarily need the four travel lanes so this would be a good opportunity to put on a road diet with bike lanes so that's what the bicycle master plan recommended and that's what was adopted with with that plan in 2021 and this this is going to go I'm just going to go through a few more points of why we looked at this the road diet with bicycle lanes so as I just mentioned it's consistent with the small area plan and the bicycle plan recommendations and as we found in the bicycle master plan and then again

[00:41:21] through consistent studies we did find that there is additional capacity on University Drive specifically north of North Street so a road diet by national standards typically you want to have less than 16,000 cars a day and on University Drive we have about 10,000 cars a day so that's one of the criteria we looked at another benefit of having the bicycle lanes is it allows us to put bicycle facilities in both directions on both sides of the street, whereas if we did a shared use path, that would probably be on one side of the street. Another thing that we looked at is that the bicycle lanes and the road diet does provide benefits for all road users, not just

[00:42:00] for bicycle users. You know, there's pedestrian crossing improvements included with this project. The bicycle lanes provide additional separation between the vehicle lanes and the sidewalk. It offers, it helps reduce conflicts for motor vehicles. So if you have somebody who's turning left. They have a left turn lane that they can get into. And then it also gives bicycles a separate facility, separate from both motor vehicles and separate from pedestrians on the sidewalk. And this is a high pedestrian area. We have the flats that have a lot of people walking there. And we have other multimodal, I'm sorry, mixed use developments going in which we would

[00:42:35] expect to increase pedestrian activity. Bike lanes and the road diet is a relatively low cost project. It's primarily a restriping project. And it doesn't have any property impacts or utility impacts. In contrast, the shared use path concept would have a lot of property impacts, a lot of utility impacts. It has more conflicts between bicycle and pedestrians, and again, this is a very high pedestrian area, so we wanted to avoid those conflicts. It also is a little bit less comfortable and less predictable if you have people on the street north of Kenmore Drive, and then they get

[00:43:12] on a shared use path, and then they get back on the street. That's less comfortable experience for people than if they just stay on an on-street facility and again as I said the utility property and grading impacts are pretty significant there's a lot of utilities in this corridor there's a you know a long downhill and the cost of the project and the development timeline would be significantly higher so again like I said we did a couple of rounds analysis the most recent analysis we did was in 2023 and when we did that analysis we assumed that traffic was going to increase every year we'd looked at a 10-year period and we assumed it

[00:43:51] increase a half a percent per year and we also included traffic prediction projections from the Willard Sherwood project and the the caps I'm sorry the courthouse plaza project and what we've actually seen since since looking at traffic over the years is that traffic has actually gone down so looking at 20 excuse me 2017 2018 traffic was around 11,000 cars a day and last year traffic was around 9,500, 9,600 cars a day.

[00:44:22] So traffic has, instead of going up, has gone down. The analysis did look at the peak periods on both weekdays and on Saturday. And when we added the bike lanes into the analysis, we didn't find that there was a significant increase in delay. Another question that came up last week was how many people are currently walking and biking there.

[00:44:41] We do have some new signal equipment that can help us count traffic at the intersection. And so at the signal at University in Whitehead In a recent week, we looked at what the counts were, and it was about 50 people in the crosswalks per hour, which may include some people on bikes and scooters, but the system doesn't sort that out.

[00:45:02] And then on the street with cars, we're seeing about three bicycles per hour in the travel lanes on average. And so this is just to give a little bit more context of what's going on around here. Obviously, we've talked about some of these projects.

[00:45:18] we have the University Drive traffic calming. The Blenheim Boulevard cycle track is just down the street and there's good access there along the bike lanes that are on Leighton Hall Drive. This project of course is in red and then going to the south that will connect to the existing bike lanes that begin at South Street. Just to walk through the corridor, this is just a quick overview of what the design is. So at a high level when you get to North Street, just north of North street the project to the south of that is where there's shared lanes so when we looked at the

[00:45:58] traffic analysis we felt like going through the middle of old town there was not enough capacity because there's a lot more vehicles turning left and right and going in all directions and so we decided to leave that with the four four lane cross section for for now we're looking at that again with the old town circulation study but in those in that section people will share the share the lane with cars and then when you get to the old town plaza garage in the library garage to the north of there is where we're doing the road diet and right now it's a four-lane cross section and we're proposing to convert it to one lane in each direction a center turn lane and then

[00:46:33] bike lanes on the curbs and then at the intersection of leighton hall drive and university drive there we are making some additional pedestrian improvements and then as mentioned last week We also have a separate recommendation to improve the striping at Kenmore.

[00:46:52] And then this is just zooming in and looking at this in a little bit more detail. So this is the transition area. So you have the Old Town garage entrance here. You have the entrance to the library garage here. And this is where the bike lanes begin and end, so that we're able to make that transition area where we start to see more people turning left in and out of the garages and left at North Street.

[00:47:14] And this is also a really good place where there's good visibility in both directions, so people can see where they're going to merge into or out of the bike lane. And then continuing north, you can see that the bike lanes go through Whitehead Street. We do propose some green striping there to emphasize that conflict area.

[00:47:33] And then the bike lanes continue all the way down to Leighton Hall Drive. And there are no driveways in this section, so the center turn lane converts to just a painted median. And then at the intersection of Leighton Hall Drive, we are removing that right turn slip lane.

[00:47:52] here and we're removing we're keeping the right turn lane but converting it to a traditional right turn lane there and this really tightens up the intersection makes the crossing shorter and then and we also included a pedestrian median across University Drive and again this is the proposal for Kenmore this would be separate from the transportation alternatives project but we could do it in coordination with that project because we did hear that the striping at the Kenmore Drive is a little bit confusing where the stop sign currently is today people aren't stopping and so this will help bring the

[00:48:30] crosswalk closer to where people actually stop and just make it a more easy to navigate in this in this intersection and so I'm bringing this back from the public hearing last year just as a reminder of the feedback that we've heard and how we've addressed it and we did hear some comments and we've addressed some tried to address those comments as we are able about things like how do we what is the right intersection design how do we make sure people are visible through intersections and that's for example where we brought on the green paint we wanted to look at we did look at the traffic delays we

[00:49:09] have a lot of interest in continuing the road diet through Old Town so this is just some examples of some of the the feedback that we heard and and we've tried to address them as best we can and we did hear some support from the from the public as well just in general so that brings us to tonight so over the summer we have we issued the IFB and we received the bids in August and we're here tonight to recommend council action to award the construction contract for seven hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars to Arthur construction that concludes the presentation and I'm happy to answer questions and I know

[00:49:47] there's other staff in the room to help answer questions if they come up thank you very much questions council member hall thank you very much Can you remind us why you do not suggest the vertical barriers, the flex posts? Yes, we did look at that, and one of the reasons that we didn't recommend that is, well, there's a couple of reasons we didn't recommend it.

[00:50:10] Right now, there's concerns about making sure that there's good access for fire trucks and also making sure that we're not creating a barrier for snow removal. That is something that we can continue to look at, and it would be easy to add that in later if that's something that we feel like is needed and will work.

[00:50:28] We did include a painted, an extra painted buffer, I believe, in the uphill direction to give people a little bit more space, but just not the physical, the vertical barriers. Okay. I am all for bike lanes. I don't love these bike lanes. I do think it's still a bit confusing, I think, on slide 10, where you show the bicycle boulevard area, then this area, then the shared use path.

[00:50:55] It just seems like it's a lot of different options and that we're choosing consistency in one part, but not necessarily throughout the whole project, or not the project, but throughout the whole road itself. I do think that this is definitely a busier area, and so I can understand why maybe what's working along the George Mason side would not work down here. I feel like we fall in love with shared use paths for a hot minute here and then we kind of convert back to not liking them or then saying that they create conflict points. So I sometimes just think we need to be a little bit

[00:51:31] more consistent in our messaging overall of how we expect bikes and pedestrians to coexist because sometimes it seems like what we say is good for one area is not necessarily good for another area. And I think a prime example of this is what is being proposed here on University Drive is then different than what we're proposing on Germantown, I'm sorry, on Germantown Road, where then it'll have a sidewalk on one side, and then it'll have the shared use path on the other side.

[00:51:58] So I just think it's mixed messaging. I think it can be confusing. People don't necessarily know, should I be biking on the sidewalk here, or am I biking in the road, or am I biking on this other path so i think there's a lot of opportunity for consistency that maybe we're lacking in some areas so just my comments on it thank you council member amos thank you uh having lived at layton hall that layton hall uh that layton hall turn area definitely appreciate some of the updates there i've seen a significant amount of confusion of folks coming down university wanting to make

[00:52:38] that left and then people will just completely forget how right-of-way works so i think this will help shore that up a bit. Really, really love the Kenmore re-striping. I always stop at the stop sign at Kenmore. I'll get that on the record, but I've seen a significant number of people blitz straight through and even hit the crosswalk without a second thought, and that's become kind of normalized.

[00:52:59] So I think trying to shore that up-- I would be curious about the vertical posts. I understand that we can revisit that later, but that would be something to potentially keep in mind. Some people come down to university very quickly, So having that type of visual representation may be pretty beneficial.

[00:53:15] My only question is more actually with the bid itself. So it was noted in the staff report that it came in roughly 30% lower. I mean, almost a 1/3 drop, which, you know, very competitive bid process. That's ideal, something you would look for.

[00:53:30] But is that standard or more of a curiosity question on how it came in so much lower? I'm going to turn to our other staff for that question.

[00:53:47] For this project, it's relatively mostly striping. It's not a hard project for a contractor, really, to do. It was a good timing, this time of the year, where bids are competitive. But with bids, you never know.

[00:54:03] But this time, I felt like it was a relatively easy project. It was a good time to bid a project, and a lot of bidders bid, so we got good prices. No, I appreciate that. I'm always happy to see a lower cost. I was just surprised by the difference between the consultant's estimates and the final cost, but I appreciate that.

[00:54:25] Thank you. Councilmember Peterson. A couple quick things. Just in terms of semantics, we talk a lot about bicycle paths, et cetera. Are we always and at the same time talking about scooters, too?

[00:54:41] Yes. Scooters should be using the same facilities, bike lanes, or should use paths. Okay, so this is really interchangeable. just to pass on some community feedback not directly about the construction itself but associated with it so i was in the cobdale neighborhood over the weekend and ran into some folks who are very avid bicyclists and they uh they ride all over the place uh and they like to go places and then stop and they have very expensive bicycles they were very proud to tell me they're bicycles from germany so they don't want to leave them outside of a store unattended

[00:55:18] What they would really like to do everywhere they go is have a place where they can lock their bikes up. And I don't, you know, when we put in these facilities and infrastructure improvements to encourage more bicycling to destinations, I'm wondering what we might do to be thinking about keeping bikes safe at those destinations when people hop off the bike and get on two feet to shop or go to restaurants or whatever.

[00:55:44] any thinking about that I'm sure we're doing something but do we have any thoughts around that sure I mean I can give you two two of my own thoughts one is that there's there's two different ways we can address it and two different ways we should be addressing it one is through working with developers making sure that they're providing bicycle parking especially when they're providing retail or commercial businesses I know for example the the Courthouse Plaza development does have some bicycle parking outside of all of their retail area so that's one way that we're trying to encourage more more bicycle parking to be available and then we we could i don't think that we have a set program or a set set of priorities but we could be putting in more public bicycle racks if we can find the

[00:56:24] right of way to do so and the funding to do so so that's something that we can look into well and then just to add that as a for instance these folks i'm sure lots of others like to ride to old town fairfax hop off their bike and get around where do they park and lock the bike when they get to old town there are a few bike racks in old town but there could be more Okay, well, fair point, and when we get the chance to do that, I'm sure it would be a popular thing with people who like to ride bikes and people who are hoping that they don't have to worry about them when they get there.

[00:56:57] Just one other question here, just out of curiosity, the construction company, where are they located? Falls Church. Great, thank you so much. So I think generally the improvements to encourage bicycling seem to be really critical.

[00:57:18] And thematically, the driver for this, no pun intended, seems to be making the streets safer. The safer the streets are for bicyclists, the more they will use them. So I appreciate everything that's going on here. Back to the flexi-post or separation between bike and vehicle lanes.

[00:57:37] I don't know if this helps, but, of course, there are a number of different options for doing physical barriers. Flex post is one. There are just ground bumps as well that could be used. I don't know whether that is still problematic because of snow removal.

[00:57:56] But I'm just curious whether you looked at any other physical barriers, including ones that are closer to the ground, and whether there were any physical barriers that possibly would work here. We did not look at a wide range of options, but I think that, and I would look to our other staff to confirm, but I believe that even small bumps still run into snow plowing issues, particularly, you know, if you can't see them.

[00:58:20] So, again, like this is something we can continue to look at and continue to explore different options for. Great. I think good to know and good to know that there are options. There's sort of a variety. They're all kind of site and circumstance specific, obviously.

[00:58:35] So just good to know we have that flexibility. But thanks so much for doing this. I think it's, again, no pun intended, a long road we've got here to continue to make streets safe for biking throughout the city. The other plug I will put in as we do this that came from not just the folks I talked with over the weekends, but others.

[00:58:53] As they go through the city and getting from point A to point B, they highly appreciate these micro segments that we've connected that help them not have to, you know, cut through the woods or, you know, things of that sort and notice that there are still a number of them that are possible so I know we're keeping an eye on that I know it Fern Lane for instance we're putting something in but those kinds of small connective segment things certainly are appreciated by people who are moving around on their bikes in the city but thanks so much for doing this councilmember McCullough you married so

[00:59:29] following up on councilmember Amos's question in regards to the bid the contract being lower estimate than what was originally estimated. Will that funding be reprogrammed to another, no, not applied to any other improvements? And then can we go to slide 12, please? I'd just like to piggyback on Wendy's thing. You know, when you look at the staff report, you see the engineer's estimate and it's higher. Well, it's much better to ask for funding

[01:00:06] that's conservative so you have enough money than if the engineer's estimate is too low and the bids come in higher and we don't have enough funding to do the project so typically when we do our engineers estimate they're on the conservative higher side so we make sure we have enough funding to do the project understood thank you appreciate that on slide 12 um could you walk us through where it says the southbound bike lane ends can you just kind of walk me through what and the northbound as far as what a biker will be experiencing during that portion sure so as a as a

[01:00:42] bicyclist is coming southbound from Leighton Hall Drive. They will be getting to the Old Town Plaza garage entrance. That's where you see this dashed line. You kind of get that advance warning that the bike lane is ending. At this point, a bicyclist, like a more confident bicyclist, will be encouraged to take the lane and share the lane with traffic. And that's what these shared lane markings are indicating, is that bicycles and cars should be sharing the lane.

[01:01:11] A less confident bicyclist has the opportunity, here's a driveway here and a driveway here where they can get onto the sidewalk and walk their bike if they're heading into Old Town Fairfax. And then similarly, coming from the southbound direction, coming from Old Town, you have shared lanes here up until you get to the library garage.

[01:01:31] This is where you have cars required to turn right into the library garage if they're in the outside lane, and then the bike lane picks up here. So similarly, bicycles will be going from a shared lane into the bike lane at that point. Okay, excellent. And then what kind of signage?

[01:01:46] You mentioned that there's going to be signage that lets motorists know to be aware that they're sharing the road with. I just assume you're going to have a lot of signage that clearly indicates what's going on there. I don't have it in front of me, but I can certainly share that detail with you. Okay, just making sure.

[01:02:03] And then I did have a question about the – I do support the proposed Kenmore re-stripping to be done at the same time. I think that makes sense. It's a safety issue for me, so I think that makes a lot of sense. I do have a question about the crosswalks for both the Leighton Hall and the Kenmore location.

[01:02:21] Are those raised by chance? They're not raised. They're high visibility but not raised. Okay. Would that be something – why won't they be raised? so raised crosswalks would be a much bigger investment and also we'd want to look at it from a safety perspective we did not evaluate whether it'd be a safety issue to have cars turning immediately over a raised area i know that's something that our traffic engineer has raised concerns about in the past okay um so it wasn't programmed as part of this project because it was something that would be a much bigger um impact okay but it was something that more so would have been considered had the formation of the road been appropriate the

[01:03:00] The other consideration, and I don't want to put words in our traffic engineer's mouth, but I think the other consideration would be how much traffic is actually on the road. So typically we look at things like speed humps and raise crosswalks on lower volume roads. So with about 10,000 cars a day, 9,000 cars a day on University Drive, that might exceed the threshold for where that's allowed.

[01:03:21] Maybe on the side streets it might be more possible. I'm going to have to look at what the traffic volumes are and what some of the other implications are. Okay, thank you. Appreciate that. I think that's all of my questions. Thank you so much. Council Member Hardy-Chandler? So I certainly appreciate all the work that gets a project to, what did you say, step 13, the input, all of the feedback.

[01:03:47] There was a phrase that stood out to me. I recognize that this was very much data-driven, so I appreciate all of that. And there's a phrase that stood out to me that I'd love for you to elaborate on, and I think it was something like context-sensitive.

[01:04:05] Yeah, so I will say I took that straight out of the small area plan. Right, right. And I just would love for you to have an opportunity to just elaborate a little bit on how you factor data into context-sensitive decision-making, which clearly is a part of what this project reflects, right?

[01:04:27] Yeah. So I think looking at like in this particular segment, looking at the pedestrian volumes, looking at the vehicle volumes, looking at how the road is currently used, that's all part of the context of how we felt like this would be a good option to give people good facilities, give people both in both directions versus in comparison going north.

[01:04:51] you have a much more residential area, there's less foot traffic overall, there's a lot more demand for on-street parking. So, for example, to continue the bike lanes north, that would require removing the on-street parking, which, of course, maybe that's the wrong context for that.

[01:05:09] So those are some of the considerations, some of the more qualitative considerations of how context, the surrounding land use context and the surrounding road users, who's using the road, what what destinations are they going to those are all things that matter when you think about how do you want to design a road so there's a lot of intentionality about tailoring what those segments need for that particular area and the various usage i just wanted a little elaboration on that thank you so much any other questions or comments council member bates so um you know i

[01:05:45] think that we need to take into consideration the drastically different characteristics and Circumstances at these different locations where these projects are proposed for example here We have a much more pedestrian focused area where this project will be taking place Where we hopefully be seeing much higher?

[01:06:10] Volume of pedestrians than we would otherwise other places in the city And also University Drive is is far from Fairfax Boulevard or Pickett Road or Germantown You know, I think that you would probably be seeing perhaps slower vehicle speeds here.

[01:06:28] And so I think that separate bike lanes make sense here, whereas in other places, a sure-use path might make more sense or, you know, a sure-use path in addition to an existing nearby sidewalk. And I think that our staff are the experts, and they put a lot of due diligence into this, and I think that this solution makes sense here.

[01:06:50] That being said, when, you know, this is the project that we have before us that is funded, is within, well within the engineer's estimate, if we were to reject this and not award this contract, then there's no guarantee that we would have another project funded.

[01:07:13] And, you know, even if it was, it would be after perhaps multiple more years of planning and funding application and et cetera. So, and furthermore, this is almost entirely within the bounds of the existing roadway.

[01:07:33] So I think that this is perhaps the lowest impact form of multimodal improvement where we're not even disturbing the land around the roadway, which, you know, as I've heard, has been a previous objection to other projects.

[01:07:51] So, you know, my point being that we have, I think, a slam dunk here, and I would have concerns about the path forward if this were to not go forward. Thank you. Council Member Peterson.

[01:08:08] I want to, if I might, go back to a thought that Council Member Hardy Chandler raised and build on it having to do with science and analytics in this area and a really specific question about the relationship between bicycling and traffic congestion. And so I believe that what we are trying to do here and in other areas where bikes and cars are sharing the same space or close to the same spaces, we do not want to cause congestion from car traffic as a consequence

[01:08:46] of enabling bicycling to happen at the same time. And it looks like this has been designed to avoid changes negative changes in traffic congestion but at the same time make sure that we're building opportunities for bicycling can you just maybe elaborate a little bit and explain well confirm that that's what's going on here and also that the way this system is designed here is not going to lead to cars slowing down and backing up because we're now making room for bikes i think is the bottom line sure so there's actually i have two thoughts on that the first one is we're trying to balance different different needs and one of them is we want to not make traffic congestion worse you know this is not going to make

[01:09:26] traffic congestion better but it's not gonna make it worse the other thing is that we're trying to build to bicycle facilities that will be usable by more more than just this extremely confident riders you know some people ride right down the middle of Fairfax Boulevard that's not me and some people will ride down University Drive as it is but a lot of people won't feel comfortable until until we give them their own lane.

[01:09:48] And this is going to help a few more people feel more comfortable. So we're balancing the safety and the comfort of bicycle riders with the ability to keep moving vehicle traffic. And this was intentionally designed to make sure that we're not having significant impacts on the traffic at all of these different intersections.

[01:10:09] There is still traffic congestion in Old Town, especially when you get to North Street. And again, that's why we intentionally made this design stop just before we get there, because we don't want to have huge backups at North Street. And again, we're looking at the core of Old Town Fairfax, again, separately, now that we're going to have the South Street extension, and we're looking at the Old Town Circulation Study, that's going to maybe have us take another look at how this is going to continue, or how we can continue providing bicycle facilities through Old Town without having significant traffic backups, because we do want to balance those needs.

[01:10:42] And I don't have the numbers in front of me, but we did look at this very closely in our traffic analysis study, which is posted online. Very, very helpful. And again, the kind of summary point, if I understand it right, is while this is very helpful to encouraging a diversity of people now to be able to bike more than they were able to earlier and to do that more safely, this is not a panacea for reducing traffic. And it's not designed for, and we shouldn't really expect that that's going to happen here. Great. Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions or comments?

[01:11:19] Council Member Amos. Just a quick comment to kind of build on that as well is that, I mean, this doesn't, and give me your opinion on this as well, but this wouldn't decentivize, for example, a lot of people stopping along right in front of the North Street light for loading, for example, with truck traffic, but also sometimes you have cars parked right in front of Old Dominion Pizza to pick up a pizza.

[01:11:41] That doesn't really decentivize this at all. This does not, yeah, this doesn't change that behavior. I mean, I think that's something that's an enforcement question. Because it's currently a travel lane. It will continue to be a travel lane for bicycles. So people stopping in the lane is not allowed.

[01:11:58] It's just a matter of how do we enforce that. Understood. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Seeing none, is there a motion? I move to authorize the purchasing agent to award a construction contract in the amount of $725,551 to Arthur Construction Company, Inc.

[01:12:20] for construction of the university drive bike lanes project contingent upon approval by the virginia department of transportation second motion's 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 mcquillan aye council member bates aye council member peterson aye council member hardy chandler aye council member hall aye council member amos aye motion

[01:12:52] passed unanimously go to future meeting topics good evening mayor accounts good evening we went into this in some detail last time so i will spend a little bit of time in granularity on the next few meetings and then happy to address any strategic issues as we look through the remainder of the year looking ahead to our next meeting on the 22nd of note and as we've talked about before We'll be bringing back a resolution to adopt the establishment of the process for the Housing Trust Fund.

[01:13:32] We expect public hearing and action on the Highlands at Mantua during public hearing. And then we'll have a work session on potential amendments to the zoning ordinance that we have previously discussed. October 6th intended to be largely a work session on transportation and also tentatively a discussion on youth sports.

[01:13:55] We have a resolution that we'll discuss, and you'll see it later on consent relative to accepting funding for streets and maintenance payments. Looking ahead to the 13th of note, if needed, we will introduce or consider supplemental appropriations for 27.

[01:14:21] We'll talk about certificate of take for properties associated with the chain bridge project. And then, as mentioned before, we'll look at the resolution to petition DOT for the street maintenance payments. On the 27th of note, we have a public hearing on an SUP for Mantua Hills Swimming Association to modify their conditions governing hours of operation and other items associated with them.

[01:14:52] That takes us through October, and we would be happy to address any additional items into the future at the council's pleasure thank you councilmember Amos just a quick one are we still feeling confident about the timeline I know this is further out towards December the timeline specifically for the pedestrian master plan and safety action plan I know we still have and I'm looking over to Councilmember McQuillan she may be thinking the same thing we're supposed to still have two more meetings and then still have the amendment drafted and

[01:15:28] then have a discussion in the work session and then decide on it is that enough time do we feel confident in that and I know just miss Chloe she just walked out to dagnabbit so this might be a follow-up item I think we have it scheduled for the eighth is that is that the items you were talking about yes and I know you know that's our last current official meeting for the year I know we have the potential for the special meeting but I just am concerned that that might not be enough time to be able to have the meetings get the language set review it and then decide on it within a reasonable amount of time I may be wrong on that just would be curious on staff's thoughts well we'll have an

[01:16:06] internal discussion it looks like we have the work sessions planned with a follow-up the next meeting but we'll certainly talk about it and bring back any concerns that we have regarding the timeline thank you and so that kind of leads us to the question December 8th is the last official meeting unless there is a meeting added which could be canceled if we don't need it but is it the will of the council to advertise that we are scheduling a meeting should it be needed for

[01:16:41] anything that comes up in the next we just don't have that many meetings left in september and october and so we've got one meeting in november unless the special one for the one percent possibly and then we have the one in december council member hall i think we're early september right now i think there's no need to add any meetings and take them away and i think that if we need a meeting we can certainly add a meeting any other thoughts on that okay council member amos yeah i don't mind revisiting this later that's fine okay council member maquillen that's

[01:17:17] my thoughts as well if we can just kind of see how we're doing as we go along and then discuss it before you know as the time element gets close okay council member bates uh it's been my experience that things tend to add up especially as we get toward the end of the year um but that being said if the majority wants to just revisit this later then let's revisit later councilmember Peterson let's revisit it later okay we will revisit it later oh councilmember Hardy Chandler so long as we have time to get the public notice within the boundaries of giving sufficient public notice okay anything

[01:17:56] else mr. city manager that's it councilmember Peterson I may have missed this but I know we are undertaking and I'm going to get the name of it wrong as I always do a finance and efficiency audit, if you will.

[01:18:15] At what point does that become a matter of public discussion? I think right now we're making appointments for both the governing body and staff. And so maybe you can speak, J.C., more to the timeline.

[01:18:32] I know that you were managing some of that on your end. Sure, thank you. Council Member, as the manager stated, we are not a preliminary state, but not a middle state. We're in the middle of all that with an expectation of trying to wrap something up probably by early to mid-November is the expectation.

[01:18:56] And then try to review all that information and then potentially have a work session or a presentation to council, I would hope, sometime in December. With the understanding that there's probably only one meeting in December, so we'll have to sort of figure that out to be as efficient as possible.

[01:19:15] So we'll try to get that wrapped up by that time period. Helpful, and it would seem to be really helpful to do that in a way that's synchronized with budget so we can capitalize on the outcomes of this as we do that. Then another general question, and it may be this is something that's percolating, but I know there has been interest in and I think activity around generally in the realm of performance management and innovation moving in a direction that's a little bit more defined in terms of a system of measuring and managing around definable community impacts.

[01:19:51] And I'm wondering, is that something that's going to materialize into a public discussion and a sort of a work session environment for us? Or what's your thought on how we might begin that thought process? Yeah, I think they're a good question. A couple of items that are still in process, actually three in total that we brought to you in a sequence of sorts, the first being efficiency, that's been our priority in getting that set up.

[01:20:18] Pleased to have communicated to you that we hired a performance innovation manager, and so that person's begun her work in that area. We will also, once we get past efficiency, start to work on the tiered performance management process that we described to Council previously.

[01:20:38] And so, you know, we hope to probably get that going at the latter part of this year, bring it into next year. At the same time, we talked about strategic planning and the work that we'll be doing around that with the beginning of data collection, community engagement occurring at the latter part of this year, moving into the first quarter of next year.

[01:20:58] And so that was so much of the sequence I think we described the council previously. It's a lot of work to do in a short period, but I think we're on pace to accomplish that as stated. Thank you. One last quick question. I think I saw December 8 as what is possibly a hard date for affirming the Wilcoxon Trail and the decision to move forward on that.

[01:21:31] I raised that just to check and see what the time sensitivity is around that because it sort of read as if we have a defined window. We have to kind of jump through on that. I wanted to make sure I understood it and we understood what we were doing there. I know it's scheduled for consent on the 10th, the consideration of resolution to adopt the trail with the updated alignment.

[01:21:59] And then an alternative date would be the 8th. And so maybe your question is how confident we feel about the 10th versus the December 8th. Well, and is that driven by procedurally a funding deadline, so we have to be sensitive to that?

[01:22:16] I just want to be sure we're on top of the schedule for that, if that's a defined moment. Well, I believe some time ago we had two on twos. So we've pretty much met with all you folks about the new alignment, and everybody seemed to be happy with it.

[01:22:32] And I know the money's sitting there, and we're just ready to get going on this. So I think we want a resolution that that new alignment is okay. Yeah, I think the question is largely, you know, one of when we can get it to council. I think we actually work session that item, too, up to this point.

[01:22:50] So we'll check and see whether there's any concern about timing with funding. The more we wait, the more expensive it's going to be. Yes, I think we'll make sure that our schedule is accurate here and remove tentative the more confident we feel about the schedule on the 10th or have it on the 8th.

[01:23:11] Thank you. I mean, I am sensitive to the point that this is something that appears we're in pretty strong agreement on, and there's an opportunity to proceed and maybe be saving ourselves a little bit of money as we do it. Thank you so much. Any other questions on the future meeting agenda items?

[01:23:31] Okay. This is the manager's report out. Very quickly, congratulations to all involved in a very successful Labor Day car show yesterday. Again, another live life connected example of the community coming together on a number of different levels.

[01:23:46] Thanks to staff, too, working the holiday and, again, just a fantastic community event. Of note, we will be having a 9-11 remembrance this Thursday at 5 o'clock. Very short ceremony recognizing and memorializing the 25th anniversary.

[01:24:04] That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Amos. Thank you. I mean, by the time we have the next meeting, it'll be my one-year anniversary, so just shout-out to my wife, Morena. Very excited. We're going to go to Myrtle Beach, so thank you. Council Member Hall. No comments from me.

[01:24:21] Well, I guess I'll say it was a great labor-to-car show. The weather was fantastic, so thanks to whoever ordered that. I love that we do things like this. It really brings that small-town feel, that hometown kind of vibe to everything that we do here, and it's just another example of what we do that's so great.

[01:24:39] So thank you to everyone involved with that, and a huge shout-out to Jeff Greenfield. Councilmember Hardy-Chandler. I agree, and congratulations to all of the car awardees, and not only their colorful cars, but their colorful personalities as well.

[01:24:55] It's a wonderful way to celebrate in our city. Happy anniversary, Councilmember Amos, and that'll be it for me. Thank you. Councilmember Peterson. Well, to build on the car show, which was a great show and great weather, I talked with one of our organizers and said, by the way, when's the next time you have to pull one of these things together?

[01:25:15] And the answer was Fall Festival, which I think is October 10. Good Lord, that's going to be here, like, just real soon. So it's the next big thing. But before that happens, we have Rock the Block. So we've got a little bit to do between now and then, but it sounds like the Fall Festival is going to be set up.

[01:25:33] I'm crossing my fingers and hope everybody else will, too, that we have the same kind of weather for the Fall Festival that we had for labor day thanks council member bates i just want to acknowledge labor day and thank all of our staff for all their hard work uh it is appreciated i know that it's often a thankless job being in public service and also acknowledge 9-11 um not something that has affected me or my family personally but um i do know someone or have met someone who uh um was actually

[01:26:12] at working at the Pentagon during the the attack there and I think it's also important to acknowledge that we still see first responders and law enforcement officials succumbing to health effects due to their service during 9/11 and so just want to take a moment to acknowledge that. Thank you.

[01:26:38] Councilmember McQuillan. Thank you. As someone whose father-in-law was working at the Pentagon at 9-11, that hits home to me. So I can't believe it's been 25 years. I know I'm not alone in feeling that way and just want to send my thoughts and prayers to everybody that is still dealing with losses from that day. I also want to acknowledge and congratulate you on your anniversary. My husband and I just celebrated our 18th last week. So happy anniversary to my has been. Thank you. Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting for the Metropolitan Washington Council

[01:27:15] of Governments renovated space in D.C. And so I am thrilled to represent the city as we have been meeting on Wednesdays every month and borrowed space all over D.C. And I know that Clark Mercer is anxious to welcome the jurisdictions tomorrow for the ribbon cutting and be back in their space.

[01:27:39] The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments does a tremendous amount of work for our region. And being a part of that helps us as a city to punch above our weight. The regional organizations that we belong to, and there is more than just COG, but it's what makes our region strong.

[01:27:57] It's what gives us a voice. It's what makes the city far stronger than we would be if we were just on our own in this region. So congratulations to Cog on the ribbon cutting tomorrow. And with that, I'm now going to adjourn the meeting at 8.28 p.m. on Tuesday.

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