Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax School Board Work Session, Monday, September 28, 2026

Date: Monday, September 28, 2026
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 1h 53m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4665
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4665
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4665&doc_id=733c507a-bc3b-11f1-89ef-005056a84798

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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[00:00:00] good evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is monday september 28th 2026 and this is the work session of the city of fairfax school board uh we are going to begin with a presentation on residential development from mr eric foreman uh city of fairfax cdp planner try to think of what the all the letters stand for community development planning

[00:00:42] advance okay this is high technology there we go okay residential development summary i think i've provided this to the school board for a few years i think it's something that folks find helpful there's just a lot of new development in the city and new development has it is responsible for an increasing share of the student population so i think it's helpful to summarize just what kinds

[00:01:17] of new development might be on the horizon for us both the near term and longer term and just specifically what magnitude of student generation we might expect from from these projects and assuming that they're built so that that is making some assumptions and and really what the big topics are for student generation from new development and really just the purpose tonight is just helping the school board just stay aware of some of the bigger development related topics that we're seeing as a city and also this melds into our second presentation tonight which is about

[00:01:53] cash proffer contributions and that can come from new development so these two are related and there we go so ordinarily when we talk about future development i'd like to start out by talking about our current year enrollment numbers but today's meeting comes right before the september 30th numbers come out. So we'll bypass that information for now. But I'm awfully curious to see what this year's enrollment winds up looking like. I'll be keeping an eye on it. I know the board will too. But what I'm really wondering, like it says here, is whether we're seeing a

[00:02:32] continuation of last year's enrollment trends. And I mean, really for our schools and region-wide. And what I'm thinking about is last year, we saw a membership decline in three of our schools. And it declined overall and broadly throughout FCPS, throughout Northern Virginia.

[00:02:52] And most significantly is those numbers were in a lot of cases much different than FCPS's projections from the previous year. So that's important. We want to take a look at that. We want to look at the incoming kindergarten class since that just has such a significant impact for the future.

[00:03:10] And just to keep an eye on, like we usually do, what kind of trends we're seeing from new development, we've had some delays in getting our city-specific membership data for the last year. So we hope to be able to get that information soon, and we can continue our city-specific analysis, membership analysis, for this coming school year.

[00:03:35] So we're keeping our fingers crossed with that, and hopefully we can talk about that in the spring. So just for a quick refresher, the key to figuring out how new development can turn into potential students is by looking at student generation rates, and these are the most recent rates that we have for the city from 2024-25, but they are largely still accurate, and we discuss this often. You're probably familiar with it, but still just worth going over again, and especially,

[00:04:11] like I said, looking into that second presentation tonight on proffers. This is a major ingredient in the city's fiscal impact estimates that we provide to the city council for new residential development applications. And we calculate student generation ratios for various housing unit types. We arrange these types among housing units or neighborhoods that share similar characteristics so ends up in a number so that number 0.383 on the left says that for houses like

[00:04:50] that in that case detached houses in older neighborhoods that we see on average let's say 38 students per 100 housing units or 0.383 student generation the the big thing to take away from this, and again, this kind of folds into the next presentation, is there's a big difference between established neighborhoods and newly built neighborhoods, and a big difference between

[00:05:21] rental apartment complexes and condo developments. So keep that in mind, because again, we'll be talking about that kind of difference in the next presentation as well. And this chart Here, this shows the major new types of market rate housing that we tend to see and the yield ratios. And these are the yield ratios that we typically use for fiscal impact analysis. And

[00:05:55] again, this changes a little bit every year, most years, and sometimes even project by project. One of the most important numbers up there is the apartment ratio, because we're seeing so much in new apartment applications and for a typical apartment and by typical i mean market rate apartment complex with a unit composition being one bedroom two bedroom and so on that that's you know roughly normal we'd look at a 0.115 student generation rate so 11 or 12 students per

[00:06:35] 100 housing units. And that's an average, but that's what we tend to use when projecting enrollment from apartment complexes that have been proposed. So we move on to talking about actual new development. And this chart sets the stage for that. I know I've shared versions of this chart with the board before. This is updated with the current information because those two columns on the right change every year. And this shows the number of housing units that have been

[00:07:14] built in Fairfax City by decade, and also by the type of unit. And the type of unit is up there on the key. And that type of unit is important for us because each type of housing unit has a different student generation rate. And what's important for us right now are those last two columns, the ones on the right. The one that's the second from the end on the right shows the housing units that have been built so far this decade. So there have been seven years so far, well, really six

[00:07:51] years so far in the decade. And on the far right, that's the housing units that are currently either under construction or have already been approved by city council. So the things obviously that jump out with this is this decade is larger in terms of development than anything that we've seen since the 1960s, so for 50 years. And a very, very strong, heavy emphasis on multifamily. So you can see those two right charts are almost entirely orange, which is the multifamily

[00:08:28] housing unit type. And you see that's a big difference from previous years. So this kind of sums up recent development and planned development in a nutshell. That non-student generating is a few projects that are the flats on university, which is college student housing, and we have some age-restricted housing as well, just built in the North Facts area, and a little bit of that is the Beacon Landing supportive housing

[00:09:04] development, but those are all anticipated not to generate students. So that's hatched out there. Brightview, yeah. And Brightview is leasing up right now, so that's just in the last month or two.

[00:09:25] As far as non-student generating, no. Is that also included? Right, yeah, that's Beacon Landing. That's the Beacon. Yeah, so I think that's 54 units of supportive housing, and I think almost all of those are either studios or one-bedroom units, and it's not something that we expect much in terms of student generation.

[00:09:55] Ms. Sassari, sorry. Just a quick clarifying question. I'm looking at last year's slide that's similar to this one. Are my eyes deceiving me, or are the townhouse and the non-student generating portions smaller this year than last year, or is that just me?

[00:10:11] I'm looking on my screen, so there's no numbers, but I'm just curious if there's less. in that far right column yeah yeah because some of those have been shifted over into the build oh that makes sense yeah yeah okay thank you okay this map here and i think you all have a big version of that yeah oh okay in your packets uh this shows uh what all of these

[00:10:45] projects are and that we're going to be talking about in the next few slides and where they're located map is just kind of a helpful reference we won't be talking about the map in detail but this shows all of these residential projects that are either under construction or that we've had applications filed for or just talked about it shows the type of housing unit by the color key and the stars there show where it is in the development process and keep in mind this doesn't

[00:11:22] show the details of the project. Sometimes details are important, but for the next several slides, we'll look at each one of these individually, and I think that'll make this a lot more digestible, but again, the map is a good reference for... Mr. Foreman, when you're, you know, reviewing these, when you get to something like Leighton Hall, which we know that has been at least six or seven... It's been more than that. It's been 12 years. 12 years. I knew it was a very long time just to give board members a reference point that while it's up there and it was approved

[00:12:00] it has been 12 years and it has not um moved forward with financing just to so we know right and i i've got a slide on layton hall okay on that and and the reason that i don't take it off is the development has been entitled so the property owner has the ability to build exactly what was approved. So it's not quite right to take it off. It's unlikely that anything will happen anytime in the near future. It's getting late enough where I'd be, if they have an interest

[00:12:36] in continuing, I think they might come through with a change of their plans instead of building exact, because the market changes. Do the approvals expire? No. Okay. So the way those approvals work is they expire unless the property owner does a certain amount of work and i think that property owner did a very minimal amount of site grading work just to keep that alive so that's that's why 10 or 12 years later that that's still a thing so it has not expired and that property owner can sell the property also and the new owners could could build it so that that's why

[00:13:16] staying up there but that that one's a little bit unlikely to happen in the short term so uh projects themselves before we talk about the new projects i think the most interesting ones to talk about actually aren't on that map uh the these two apartment complexes aren't quite brand new but they're big and they're also representative of the type of development that we're seeing an awful lot more of right now uh so scouting the circle and point at fairfax pointed fairfax used

[00:13:52] to be called the Moxley but they're both rental apartments they're both about 400 units and as as of two years ago as of the 24 25 school year they were both fully occupied so we got a glimpse of what enrollment tends to be at these and you know like it says up there in the green the general rule of thumb that we use is that we're seeing about one student per 10 apartment units and you You know, this is what it looks like in real life.

[00:14:25] You know, I should mention, you know, the numbers up here, again, say 24, 25. Again, that's the most recent numbers we have, but we had 53 students from Scout on the Circle at that point. The point at Fairfax, that was the first year that it was fully occupied, and we saw 37 students from there.

[00:14:48] So the yield ratios down there are kind of in line of what we would expect. Generally, in line with what we expected before they were built as well, what we had said before the developments were approved, we've been tracking this student generation from this kind of project for a number of years.

[00:15:09] And I think that tracking's paid off because this really didn't come as a huge surprise to us, largely aligned with our expectations. But, you know, I've got to add that we've been seeing a lot of demographic shifts and population shifts just in the last few years.

[00:15:25] And there's really no telling what the near term might look like with apartment buildings like this. It could go in either direction. So we'll see when we get the new data. But these are probably just the most interesting just based on the fact that they're occupied.

[00:15:43] Scouting on the circles, actually, the student ratio is higher than the 0.115. Right. Which doesn't seem like a lot when you think of that 0.115 to 0.13. but it is when you think about student yield and that type of housing.

[00:16:05] Yeah. I would say the point is, you know, what we would think we would get out of. Right. Sorry, just a clarifying comment. So another major development that's been completed, been occupied, is Boulevard 6.

[00:16:27] so the total development includes 144 condos 115 townhouses and some detached homes there's a few interesting things here for one we can see that big difference between apartments and condominiums and and here you know we've got 144 unit condo building but we have very light student impact so there were two students in 24 if these were apartments I think we'd expect at least a dozen students from that size of apartment building. So that's an important thing to keep in mind.

[00:17:04] Townhouses, you know, we had nine students two school years ago. I'd expect that number to rise probably to about 20 in a few years, kind of gradually rise, but seems to be tracking more or less in line with other recent townhouses. There was one or two as of two years ago, but the numbers are just so small, I mean, with just seven units.

[00:17:38] Overlook at Fairfax Boulevard is another recent development. It's an interesting one, 40 townhouses, and then there's two over two units, stacked condominiums. It's, you know, I'm curious to see what the student generation rate ends up being here because those two over twos are, they're a unique product, and they can go in either direction as far as student generation.

[00:18:06] I've seen examples in Fairfax County that have had really high student yields from these two over twos because they're kind of the lowest cost new housing units that you can buy. On the other hand, Mount Vineyard, which has been around for a decade now, has very low student generation from those.

[00:18:28] So it's hard to figure out what to expect. I live two blocks from, and I walk by it every day. They have a playground, and I tend to count the children occasionally. And I would say there's probably 12 to 15 kids that I see sort of on a regular basis.

[00:18:52] So it will be interesting to see what the student yield is. But it feels more family-oriented than Mount Vineyard, which is down the street from me. That seems like more of like an older resident.

[00:19:12] Yeah, it'll be interesting to see. The condos in Mount Vineyard are definitely skew older. Yeah. The townhouses, I think we've gotten about what we would expect as far as student generation from them.

[00:19:28] So I'm awfully curious to see how this works out. Yeah, I am too, because like I said, I count the children. See, that's the kind of intelligence that we need. yeah just me stalking that's right a neighborhood so there's two other developments that have been completed just in the last year or two uh the one on the left is uh the north facts development that consists that that development itself consists of two parts one part is that bright view uh senior living which is the big building and then there's a section of 56 townhouses so

[00:20:04] So again, no word yet on how many students we have from here. I'd expect 10 or 11 eventually, though probably not that much in the first few years. And there's also a small development along West Drive that you see to the right next to Ardmore, contains six housing units.

[00:20:25] It took a long time for that to get built, but it is built and occupied. So those are all of the developments that have been built recently. So most of these in the last year or two are occupied at least in the last year or two.

[00:20:42] So now we can switch to talking about developments that haven't been built or have already been approved, I guess, by city council. So the next batch have already gotten the go-ahead to be built. And most of these big developments in the city need city council approval.

[00:21:03] So it's important to keep in mind and especially important when talking about potential projects because just because something's been proposed doesn't mean that it'll actually be built that way. And we've seen a few projects kind of bounce back and forth.

[00:21:20] We've seen the Davies project just up the road here had a few iterations, came to city council for apartments and then townhouses and then apartments and then senior living and then apartments. And it finally got approved as apartments.

[00:21:36] Courthouse Plaza has been another one that's come, I think, on its second iteration. But these projects here, the next batch here, have in fact received city council approval.

[00:21:52] So this one here was approved by council in 2024. This is on the grounds of the Willowwood office complex. for some reason it's now called the botanist which is is not what it was called when it was approved i i i don't know i don't know what to say i mean you know it's they've been talking about building another building on the other side of willowwood maybe it'll be called the anatomist i mean i don't i don't get that one we'll we'll see uh from from everything i can tell it's a

[00:22:28] typical apartment building so typical as far as unit mix and it has six percent affordable units which is, you know, what's pretty much standard throughout Northern Virginia. So we would apply our typical ratio, that 0.115.

[00:22:45] So that winds up from 260 units, winds up at about 30 students. So this is under construction right now. And this is the Davies project, the one that I just mentioned, kind of bounced back and forth between a whole bunch of things.

[00:23:01] This is the two-acre property just up the road here that currently contains a big white house. And the current plan that got approved is for just an apartment complex. I think it has 10,000 square feet of commercial space at the bottom.

[00:23:19] But from the 276 apartment units, we'd expect around 30 or so students. And, again, this seems to be kind of a typical mix. This one is an interesting contrast.

[00:23:36] This was approved three years ago. There hasn't been much progress on this development, which is why I'm calling it delayed down here. So this may or may not see fruition. I think the developer is proposing some changes, and this was a case where they had proposed ultra-high-end condominiums, you know, selling for $1 million or $2 million apiece, and they were really large units.

[00:24:00] And I think they're coming back for smaller units, so more units but smaller ones. So that is what I've heard. But what's interesting here is that this is a condo, so 79 units we would not anticipate much in the way of student generation at all.

[00:24:22] And we can move on to some townhouses, the one on the right, Park Road. This was approved in 2023, so building 13 townhouses on about an acre of land in Westmore.

[00:24:43] So pretty much standard for townhouses, we'd expect two or three students or so from this. The one on the left, this was approved by city council just last week. This is similar in size to the park road development.

[00:24:59] So it's 14 townhouses. This one is on two acres of ground near just off of Pickett Road. It's right next to the enclave condo development. And standard townhouse ratio of 0.215, these are market rate units and affordable townhouses.

[00:25:22] They're uncommon, but they do tend to generate a lot more in terms of student generation. And we do have an approved affordable townhouse development. So this one is affiliated with Habitat for Humanity.

[00:25:38] It's on the Fairfax Presbyterian church property, and construction has actually started on this. So it's 10 committed affordable units. Several years ago, we had talked about student generation from committed affordable units.

[00:25:56] The issue actually came up at city council last week as well. So we would expect, I think, student generation rate, I'd say here, two times. I think for townhouses, it would probably be more than two times market rate, but we'll see when it's built.

[00:26:17] Ten units, I wouldn't be surprised if we get seven or eight students from there. They're marketed to families, which is the point of them. So we'll see about that. Any questions on the approved units before we move on to the ones that have not yet been approved?

[00:26:43] Oh, yeah, if there's any questions on... We have Ms. Susserey and then Ms. Hickman. So I have a, I'll wait a little bit until they end, but I do have a question. So there was a recent postcard that went out in the mail that the city residents received that was saying that there's a plan over the next 15 years for 4,700 residential units.

[00:27:08] So luckily I've seen that postcard. Okay, great. Actually, I saw it today. Okay. And. Did those numbers seem accurate to you? Because I just did a quote calculation. I'm seeing 3,300 if that's all approved, but that is including, like, Leighton Hall that, like you said, has been 12 years.

[00:27:26] So as far as I know, that postcard is looking at the small area plans. So there's four so-called small area plans, which are development plans for various parts of the city. So Camp Washington, Old Town, North Vax, and Fairfax Circle. And they're very detailed plans, and in each plan, there's a summary of how much development could be seen if the plan is fully implemented.

[00:27:50] And adding all of those up gets to whatever that is, 4,700. It's 4,700. Yeah, 4,700. So adding that up gets to 4,700. And I'm not sure, I shouldn't say what if the plan is fully implemented. I think they were couched as a likelihood for 10 or 15 years or something.

[00:28:11] So that doesn't mean that it's fully built out. It kind of means the first phase of it. But I think that's where that number comes from. Well, it did imply there was a question on the back and implied impact on schools. But obviously that could be, right, that doesn't mean that for 4,700 units we're going to have 470 students, right?

[00:28:30] The understanding is that that could adjust and change based on what sort of buildings or anything like that. Right. Yeah. And I mean, there could be a big variation if, you know, first of all, 4,700 units might not wind up getting built.

[00:28:47] But let's say that they are. If a lot of them are condos, that would be a much less, much lower student generation than apartments. You know, you have the unit mix because we've seen a few projects come forward that are very heavy on one-bedroom and efficiency units.

[00:29:05] So that would decrease the student yield. So there are things that are good. That's what most of my understanding is. I just wanted to make sure that we have publicly discussed it, that it's not a direct correlation between what could happen versus the school populations. And then I'll ask my other questions.

[00:29:22] Ms. Sessori? Yeah, the property that is – I just had it for a second. There we go. point at fairfax yes um i know that's that ratio is under the calculated ratio that um we tend to that we've seen the last few years um but i did see like their move-in date really wasn't until mid-2026 right so like they're not is it my assumption that they're not the point at fairfax yeah i i did a google is it fully is it fully like is it close to capacity i guess it is uh 2024, the 24-25 school year is when that was fully occupied.

[00:30:00] It became fully occupied during the 24 calendar year. And I wouldn't be surprised if that 37 number went up just because leasing was still. It fluctuates, absolutely. Because that's what we saw with Scout, that Scout held to 40 or so in the first year that it was fully occupied and then gradually cracked up.

[00:30:24] Do we tend to notice, like, I'm assuming you probably don't get a sense of, like, the age of students when they come? Like, is that? We do. I mean, we have the grade level. And, you know, I'd say we had a heavier proportion of elementary students from these complexes, which isn't surprising.

[00:30:46] I mean, you tend to see that with rental apartments anyway. But it wasn't overwhelmingly so. Okay. Thank you. And I would just add that you're bringing up a great point around these complexes and when they're actually fully occupied.

[00:31:02] And then typically with this work, we monitor it over the years because there's a stabilization period, you know, over the, you know, Mr. Foreman might say five years or 10 years. But it's going to settle into that typical generation rate. We might see fluctuation over the first several years.

[00:31:19] Yeah, and the one thing that really surprised us with this is that stabilization rate tended to come much quicker than we had expected. I really had expected a much more gradual ramp up to that stabilization rate, you know, lasting like 10 years.

[00:31:35] But we tended to see, you know, very early enrollment. So I don't know if that's something that was specific just to the early part of this decade or if that's something that's just changed. Do we have – I know this is a bizarre question of sorts, but Glebe View, do we have a price point on that affordable housing?

[00:32:00] Do they know what? I don't. I think the closest thing that I would peg it to, there's a handful of affordable townhouses at the Sutton Heights development on Pickett Road. So there were – I think there are 50 townhouses total, and five of them are committed affordable.

[00:32:21] And I don't know what they sold for, but the assessed value for those is about $275,000 or so. So that should give some kind of indication. Yeah, no, that does. And also, when we talk about student yield, are we, I know we do not track homeschool or private school students, so that's not part.

[00:32:50] So it is possible if, you know, somebody is homeschooled or if they're in a private school and they're not counted as part of this yield, that they will end up in public school at some point.

[00:33:06] Yes, that's correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. We can move on from approved.

[00:33:23] And actually, before we get to the filed, here's the Layton Hall that we just talked about. So it's up there, filed under delayed. It'll probably be filed under delayed next year. But again, the reason I keep it up here is that development has been entitled and also it would have just a big impact on student enrollment because if the Leighton Hall, if the current Leighton Hall apartments close down, that's 100 students.

[00:33:50] Yeah, it would be greatly reduced. Yeah, if anything happens with that, we'll let the schools know for sure, but unlikely in the near future. Okay, so these are the projects that have been funded filed. So filed in this term means that the developer has actually submitted a formal development application to the city. And just in the ways of the development process, filing can be thought of as kind of the end of a long process. It sounds like it should be the

[00:34:24] beginning, but it's really the end because the developer and frequently city council and planning commission has done a lot of work to get up to that point. But these projects have not been approved yet by city council, so it's important, I think, to keep in mind that the details on these may change before any kind of a final hearing.

[00:34:47] They may be withdrawn. We've seen cases of that occasionally. City council does have discretion with all of these, so council may approve them, council may deny them. So I don't want to misrepresent these as being a sure bet.

[00:35:05] But that said, there's a lot of these pending applications. So I won't dwell on the details of these projects, but just for this discussion, you know, we'll talk about the general types of housing units that are proposed and the potential student impact. The one on the left here is proposed for part of the current Courthouse Plaza Shopping Center.

[00:35:28] So that's where Safeway is. It's a big development. It's over 300 units. But this is one of those where the unit mix is heavily slanted towards one-bedroom and efficiencies. So that would likely result in a smaller student yield than what we'd expect from a typical apartment complex.

[00:35:49] I think three-quarters of the units here are planned to be one-bedrooms or efficiencies. So I'd estimate a student yield of about 23 students, but that's a lot less than what we typically see from a 300-unit apartment. The one on the right, this is the biggest of all of the projects that we're looking at.

[00:36:11] It's about 400 units. So this is proposed for downtown. It's on Chainbridge Road, kind of in that block between Chainbridge and University Drive. This is a more typical unit mix. So we'd estimate student generation probably similar to Scout on the Circle, so 400 units, I'd say about 40-some students.

[00:36:37] So these two applications have already been filed. So council is set to hear the Courthouse Plaza project in December and that gallery project, I think, next month, maybe November, but I think next month.

[00:36:55] So these are imminent. I mean, some kind of a decision will likely be coming pretty soon on these. This is another one that's already been filed. is Fairfax Square. Fairfax Square is the big apartment complex on Main Street. It has garden style apartments and townhouse apartments. There's also a commercial component to Fairfax Square, which is on the, you know, closer to Main Street. So the site's owners are proposing to remove some

[00:37:29] of that commercial component and construct a project, like it says here, that's part apartments and part townhouses. The townhouses will be rental townhouses. So full townhouses, but part of the rental complex. You know, I'd estimate around 20 students or so from all of it combined. This one's a little bit later than the others. I don't think it has been scheduled for a public hearing yet, but it would probably be in the spring when this comes up. And the apartments that are currently at Fairhawk

[00:38:04] square would remain yes okay right so there's 500 apartments right now in that whole complex and how many students do you remember how many students we get out of fairfax square a lot i think at least 50 okay that sounds about right yeah so these these three have been filed and all of the ones that are coming up in the next few slides are what i call up here potential

[00:38:37] projects. So these are projects where a developer has held work sessions with city council. So the project has been talked about in some kind of a public meeting and council was able to provide feedback on the project. So, but there hasn't been a formal application filed with these yet. And again, that application signifies the end of the process. So these projects haven't gotten there yet. These are largely very similar buildings. I mean, there's not a whole lot of creativity in the development world right now. I mean, they're six or seven stories tall, so a small amount of

[00:39:15] commercial space at the bottom. I mean, kind of, you could tell it's a similar kind of footprint. The apartment building on the left, this is proposed for the intersection of 123 and 50, so kind of next to those Northfax townhouses next to the Brightview Senior Living Complex that we just talked about.

[00:39:40] So 350 apartment units, and I'd say about 40 students from that. The one in the center is proposed for an area right next to the Courthouse Plaza development.

[00:39:57] So that was the one we just talked about next to Safeway. So no renderings on that one yet, but 280 apartments is what is proposed right now. Looks like a standard apartment complex, so probably around 30 or so students from there.

[00:40:16] And on the right, this one is proposed for another side of the 123 and 50 intersection. So similar size building, 271 apartment units, and again, probably about 30 as far as student generation.

[00:40:36] And there's more. The one on the left, and again, I'm awfully glad I saw that postcard today because I know what you're talking about. That's the image on the postcard. So that is, I think the postcard said it's an 11-story building, and that's what's proposed.

[00:40:55] The reason it's so tall, it's proposed for a one-and-a-half-acre site, so that 261 apartments goes on one-and-a-half acres, and the only way to do that is to get up really high. So that's near Fairfax Circle. That's on the site that used to be the Lottie Plaza market.

[00:41:15] And so what's proposed now, 261 apartment units, and again, that would fall in the same 30 or so student generation category. The one in the center here, so this building is on Main Street.

[00:41:32] It has a name. It's called the Mosby Tower, and it was built in the 1960s, and it was actually built as an apartment building. It converted at some point to offices, and now the building's owner is proposing to convert it back to apartments.

[00:41:50] They're proposing a little over 100 apartment units here. I have heard that it's proposed to be rental apartments. The building immediately in back is a condo complex that was built at about the same time. So assuming apartments, I'd say about 12 students or so.

[00:42:10] And the one on the right here, this is something that's proposed for. It's a property near the intersection of Chainbridge Road and Eaton Place. So right now, there's a few low-slung office buildings on that side.

[00:42:27] It's kind of across from the best western, across from the botanist, too, and just north of the residence in Hotel. And it's now proposed to be a development that's kind of similar to Overlook, so a combination of townhouses and two-over-twos.

[00:42:48] And actually, I have this here in the potential column, but I just got an e-mail today that the city's received an actual application on this. so this can shift in our minds to the other part of the presentation, but this is another one of those projects. This one a little bit different because it's townhouses and not apartments. So that is a lot of development, and I know I went through this pretty fast, but hopefully it gives the board some kind of an idea of the type and the scope of projects

[00:43:25] that we're seeing. You know, there may be others too, and that's kind of what that flyer alluded to, and it's a good point to make, I mean, without pegging numbers to it. The city has these small area plans that call for continued development of these areas where most of these projects are located, so that may generate more development interest over the years. There's another

[00:43:54] Another thing as well, and I was just talking to city council last week about it, there's a new state mandate that allows churches or other nonprofits to build housing on their property without going through city approvals.

[00:44:14] And it's not just for the city. This is statewide. But it grants, you know, what developers would call a buy-right ability to build any kind of housing on nonprofit-owned land. So that's another potential source of development. We haven't received any firm development applications or anything yet.

[00:44:38] I know there's a few churches that have been kind of curious about the process of doing that, and the fact that it's now permitted by right might prompt them to go ahead and do that. If you have any questions on that, I gave a long presentation to city council about that, so I can answer any of your questions.

[00:44:58] I'm very well-versed on that. But those two things are important to keep in mind because this list of potential projects is always changing. and just following city policy and following, again, that state mandate. And any questions about these, either now or even after tonight?

[00:45:20] I mean, I'd always be happy to answer any questions. Okay. Do any board members have questions so far about the development? Ms. Bartome? I'm curious about long-term trends with the apartments in particular, especially as the cost of living in this area is, like, drastically increasing.

[00:45:42] So if we look at, like, long-term trends, has that, like, 0.115 number stayed fairly consistent for a long time period, or has that changed? The student generation rate, it really, I mean, I'd say for the last five, six, seven years, it's been about the same.

[00:46:01] I mean, that number is about what we had projected for Scout on the Circle and for the Moxley when they were proposed. So it's gone up and down, but really hasn't changed that drastically. which I'm kind of surprised about, because there had been a sense that, and maybe that had already happened by the time we started tracking it, but there had been a sense that more families were going to move into rental, you know, and especially high-rise or mid-rise housing units than had been the case before, but we've seen that be relatively steady over the last decade or so.

[00:46:39] I had always thought that as the apartments, like, neared, like, 10 years plus in age that the student yields went up, but it doesn't. Right. And that's what I was mentioning about the stabilization rate, because we had thought that we would see a good decade of relatively low yields. And we thought that for a few. I mean, historically, that's the trend. And I think there's a few reasons why that's the trend. One of them is that when apartments come online, they tend to be at a higher price point than existing apartments. I mean, everyone wants a

[00:47:18] new apartment. Brand new is a big selling feature, so they tend to have higher rents. Maybe that wasn't so much the case with these two, with Scout on the Circle and the Point. Maybe we're seeing just a regional change, but that was surprising. I mean, I was just thinking, like, in terms of Fairfax Garden Apartments, we had an inordinate amount of kids out of there and out of Oak Knoll's apartments right um they were old 50s and 60s and we the student yield was much higher out of those

[00:47:53] apartment complexes one because they were more affordable probably than the newer apartments but just seemed like as you know uh these multi-family units got to the 10-year plus age we were seeing more students than so i didn't know right will the yields change as these age so i don't know i seem i mean i'm looking at your ratio your the yield ratio doesn't seem to be right it doesn't

[00:48:28] seem that way i'd be surprised if we would see appreciably more student generation from these apartments than we see now but i don't know well maybe somebody on the board will ask you in 10 years right it's uh miss kelsey yeah um this may i'm kind of going in you got to think hypothetical a little bit here um i kind of went to your next slide where it sums it up a little easier and i can see all the student numbers and stuff um and i know this is very hard to do probably but

[00:49:07] But in your estimate, could you estimate, like, when approximately these 74 kids? Like, obviously, it's an estimate and hypothetical. Right. Like, when you would think all of those places approximately would be finished?

[00:49:26] Yeah. If they're all being built right now. Right. The botanist is under construction right now. So we're in 25 now. I'd say that that would probably reach full occupancy two years from now. I'd say in 27. And that's going to be the first.

[00:49:43] And, you know, the smaller ones are small enough that they're not going to have a really big impact. Botanist, I'd say, in two years. In two years, okay. Davies property, even though it was approved, I think, a year and a half ago, hasn't started construction yet.

[00:50:01] So that'll be, I don't know, I'd be surprised if that's four years or so at the earliest. Okay. I was just curious because I will say the past. The thousand potential numbers are really scaring me for Daniel's run, which is the next slide.

[00:50:20] Right, and the next slide even, and I provided these exactly for this purpose. I mean, not for the purpose of scaring people, but just putting these together, you know, with all the numbers together.

[00:50:37] I'd be hesitant to come up with an estimate here because, I mean, these haven't been approved yet. And they can still change the numbers and all that? Economically, it's just so hard to tell where this region is going economically.

[00:50:54] You know, developers have a tendency to overbuild. And once they get to that ceiling, then, you know, the development applications drop off. So, you know, will that happen or not? I have no idea. Hypothetical thinking right here.

[00:51:10] And I would just add that it's important to remember on these numbers their projections, right? And so Mr. Foreman brought up the great point about the economic volatility. And that far right column indicates where they are within our city in terms of elementary school boundaries.

[00:51:29] But Mr. Foreman, make sure I say this correctly, those students are also spread across K-12. So it's not an assurance that that gallery is going to put 45 additional students at Daniel's Run. It'll be 45 students that some will be at Daniel's Run, some at KJ, some at Fairfax High School.

[00:51:45] So that, you know, not, that's just, as we look at those numbers, think K to 12 on them. Yeah, no, I'm just also, I am thinking KJ and Fairfax, too, because where Fairfax is right there and KJ is there, I mean, it kind of makes you think of where we are already on occupancy.

[00:52:05] Tuition is more where my brain is going to. Ms. Hickman. So I think kind of off of what Ms. Kelsey was saying, so I am I'm actually not scared the numbers do not scare me um because I think what it is hard to put a number on and I think it's kind of what you were saying is we also are seeing a decline in birth rates we're seeing um you know just less students in general in public schools so I think saying okay in five years we might have 241 students like that would be the very very max

[00:52:42] possible. And we have to remember that as students graduate, as there's less kindergartners, that there's really no guarantees that that means they would be in our schools. That said, you know, I think we've asked for a couple of years now, I don't know, there's any way to try to project what it might look like in the next five years by maybe not grade level, but by like elementary, middle and high, what the numbers could possibly look like if you have any sort of idea of, you know, let's say it opens in three years at 20 students that

[00:53:16] usually we get, you know, a third of them are elementary, however it works out. If we could do kind of our own mini projection, because as you said in the beginning, the FCPS numbers did not look like what ended up happening, at least for the past two years. And I'm curious to see, we don't know yet, like you said, what will happen. But as we're going into these renovations with the elementary schools and as we eventually get to needing to look at capacities at other schools just want to make sure that we are not over being overly concerned and saying oh these additions

[00:53:52] aren't going to fill all these students and that we're also not you know minimizing it and if there's any way to do that I'd appreciate it with again that consideration of that the numbers are going down and I was just looking at the numbers we received just this past week of the August I mean we were at like 85, 90 kindergartners at Daniel's Run as opposed to like the 110, 115 that it used to be. So we're already seeing that decrease. And so there's, I think there's a lot of question marks. Right. And that's a great point because what we're looking at now is potential student

[00:54:27] yield could very well go down at, like you said, falling birth rates. And, you know, that has a big effect with with the five-year projections uh these developments that have been approved when when they're approved we pass this information on to fcps so they can use that for their you know for the official five-year projection so they do fit into that uh you know they don't fit in perfectly but it is hypothetically in there necessary i will echo ms hickman's point as

[00:55:07] well then the numbers don't really scare me actually i'm kind of similarly i'm curious because when i'm doing kind of the math in my head and think about what we've seen enrollment and knowing what we've heard from uva right and by 2030 this region is going to see a 6.6 percent decrease in enrollment and so what does that look like when it comes to all these pieces falling together like you know in my mind i'm curious if we're going to be able to stay constant with enrollment because of these increases. To Ms. Sigmund's point, I think it would be helpful to have that five-year

[00:55:39] projection moving forward, especially with the renovations, too. I'll say our enrollment's been sort of a roller coaster since 2010. I think we were at almost 3,100 students at one point. We just kind of go like this. I don't know how predictable anything is anymore.

[00:56:04] Okay, we will continue with mr. Foreman with a discussion of potential cash proffer policies And while we're making that transition I would just like to try and frame this conversation a little bit for the board in terms of some of the outcomes for this evening And then outcomes moving forward. Mr. Foreman earlier this year presented the City Council along with some consultants the city brought in some overall work that they were doing and around this topic of proffers and our levels of service study what you're

[00:56:42] gonna hear tonight is background information and details on on how proffers can potentially impact schools and then the role that the schools in the city have with these cash proffers and then by hopefully November what mr.

[00:56:58] Foreman and his team will be looking for some input from this board in terms of what type of recommendation they have because you'll hear about a few different approaches we can take here in the city of Fairfax with cash proffers. So when it comes to school cash proffers, we definitely, you know, it's, you know, important to have the input of the school board on that topic. So with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Foreman. You're going to hear a great presentation. You're going to hear the ask for that recommendation, but, but it's hoping to have that recommendation in November, not tonight. Okay. Thank you very much. This, the last presentation

[00:57:36] was probably a bit more exciting because it's tough. This one is a little bit more technical in nature. Cash proffers is a tough topic to kind of fully understand because it's very complex.

[00:57:52] So I appreciate the introduction. Cash proffers, it's an odd term. It really is a monetary contribution from a property developer and contributions that are promised in the development review process.

[00:58:11] So cash proffers can be dedicated to a whole bunch of different things, and schools is one of the most common of them. So the study that Dr. Wright had been referring to is something that the city commissioned this year to get recommendations generally for accepting cash proffers kind of citywide.

[00:58:34] The work session on this was at the beginning of this month, on September 1st, and it was on the overall topics and not just on schools. But the ultimate goal with that project was to come up with a recommended methodology for the city to figure out how to accept cash proffers.

[00:58:54] So it's a kind of methodology that could be provided to developers and that would be consistent among development applications. So, you know, one application and the next application would be subject to the same proffer recommendations.

[00:59:11] And the reason, like Dr. Wright said, the reason we're talking about it tonight is really to get the ball rolling on the schools component of this and to just think about the best way to calculate to recommend school proffers. And there are a few alternatives.

[00:59:30] I mean, first, tonight we'll just take a basic look at the concept of cash proffers. I'll try to keep it as short as possible, but just go over how it's written into Virginia law. I'll take a look at the consultant study, and that study was called the level of service study, and again, included just a bunch of city functions.

[00:59:57] And the reason it's called the level of service study is that that term, level of service, is something that's used in proffer terminology. And then after that, we'll get into the meat of what we're discussing tonight, which is essentially two options for how to recommend cash proffers, school proffers for new development.

[01:00:18] And then we'll talk about next steps on this topic going forward. So the big question here is a relevant one, because honestly, the proffer system, as it's known in Virginia, is really a kind of a Frankenstein kind of public policy.

[01:00:37] The term proffer applies to a lot of different things that developers can offer a community in order to offset some of the expenses that a development proposal is likely to generate.

[01:00:52] So there's all kinds of different proffers. So sometimes actual things are proffered. So things like physical improvements. So we see this a lot with transportation. So a developer may proffer a new traffic signal or intersection improvements.

[01:01:08] and whatnot. Sometimes proffers are more for, you know, kind of promises for how a property will be used. But what we're talking about is the one on the right here, which is cash proffers. And like the name implies, this is where a developer offers a locality cash so that the locality can use that cash in order to offset future expenses. But the acceptance of cash proffers is tightly regulated by state code. So it's not just free money. And sometimes folks think about it as, you know,

[01:01:45] just contributing to the general fund of the city, and it's not that at all. There's a few sections of state code that deal with this, and we won't go into detail about it tonight. But importantly, cash proffers can only be accepted as part of rezoning applications. So developments that are considered by right or permitted are not eligible for cash proffer contributions. So it's only projects that go through a rezoning process. And on top of that, cash proffers can only relate

[01:02:23] to capital projects. So not regular operating costs and only those projects, only those capital projects that address some kind of capacity constraint that exists at the time of rezoning.

[01:02:40] So Virginia is very peculiar in this regard. A lot of other states do what's called impact fees, which is just assessing a general impact of new development. Virginia doesn't do it this way. It goes through all these machinations instead. But it's important to be aware of all this stuff just as a part of this discussion.

[01:03:00] There's other limitations as well. A proffer has to be considered reasonable, and we'll look at that a bit more in the next slide. And there's a time limit too. So there's a time limit for how long a locality can keep proffer money without spending it.

[01:03:17] So 12 years is the limit. So if a locality doesn't think that they'll have a qualifying capacity need, capital need in the next 12 years, then cash proffers just might not be the best way to go because that money reverts to the state after 12 years.

[01:03:36] And then, like it says at the bottom here, qualifying uses for proffer money means a capital project that expands capacity. So cash proffers can't be used for things like it says there, renovations, operating expenses, repair projects, and so on.

[01:03:59] Has to be capital projects, has to be capital projects that increase capacity. And the focus on reasonability is important because this is what leads localities to developing formulas for how to estimate how much proper money is needed.

[01:04:21] And that consultant study that we undertook was essentially a way to address this reasonability standard. So reasonable means that any money received has to be related to the development that's actually being rezoned, and again, also that there is a capacity need at the time of rezoning.

[01:04:42] So basically, it means that the money just can't be used for random projects. That has to be used for specific things. Another element is that cash proffers are required to be voluntary, and it's easy to trip up and talk about proffers as requirements. And especially when we think about places like Fairfax County that routinely accept cash proffers for a lot of new development, but technically, these can't be required. I mean, not technically, they can't be required. So

[01:05:14] they have to be voluntarily offered by developers. So guidance on proffer amounts like what we're talking about now are known as suggested or recommended rather than mandatory. So it's an important point to think about when just talking about proffers. All of us, I think, who've worked in the field have slipped up on occasion and said the dreaded words of, you know, we require proffers or something. But that is not the case in Virginia. The proffers are voluntary. So lots

[01:05:52] of restrictions, lots of state restrictions, but even with all those restrictions, like you know, a lot of jurisdictions and a lot of school systems do accept cash proffers as part of rezoning applications. We've done it in the past, but when we have accepted cash proffers, and not just with schools, but with other aspects of city operations, we don't have any policy guidance on what kinds of proffers are needed, how to calculate those proffers, so every time that we've accepted

[01:06:26] cash proffers, just the process itself has been scattershot, has been messy. So the rationale for this level of service study was to be able to establish a framework for doing just that, for accepting rezoning proffers just based on an orderly methodology. So cash proffers for schools, again, need to be applied to capacity-enhancing projects like other proffers.

[01:06:54] And this down here, this is the specific phrase from state code that addresses school proffers. The school proffers must be used for construction or expansion of existing primary and secondary schools to include all buildings, structures, parking, and other costs related thereto.

[01:07:20] But expansion is construction or expansion is the big phrase there. Okay, so the level of service study. So like I mentioned, the city hired a consulting firm to develop a methodology for proper recommendations.

[01:07:37] The main output of that study was to develop what the consultants call a dynamic capital impact model. And that model is something, hopefully, that the city can use just to estimate capital needs that result from residential development.

[01:07:55] So in addition to schools, the study looked at police, looked at fire, looks at park and recreation. And I'll show you what the output of that looks like. The model itself is one of those programs that just has a deceptively simple output.

[01:08:14] But behind this kind of a screen is just a ton of data, a ton of calculations. These numbers that are up here, these are generated. The back end of this is from the city's CIP. So these are all related to CIP and budget items.

[01:08:31] But basically, this slide looks at sample projects. So a 400-unit sample apartment complex on the left, 50 units of townhouses on the right. and this shows all of the proffer eligible categories here and we'll concentrate obviously on schools so on that left hand box that 400 unit apartment complex the level of service model ends up with a recommended school proffer of about 478 000 so that's for 400 apartments

[01:09:11] At the bottom there, you see that that translates to about $1,195 per unit, again, for multifamily. For a typical townhouse development, the model puts out about $2,671, it says there, per unit.

[01:09:33] So the difference between those is student generation. Now, for police, for fire, for parks, this is all fairly straightforward. For schools, on the other hand, there's an added question, and the added question is really how best to proceed, and that's the reason that we're here tonight.

[01:09:55] So basically, that question is, given that our schools are different from other city functions, so primarily in the shared services with FCPS, and FCPS is already a well-known entity in the field of cash proffers regionally, and by well-known, I mean within the development community, FCPS proffer system is pretty well-known.

[01:10:25] Given that, I mean, really, the big question is whether it would make more sense to recommend cash proffers based on the city's level of service study or based on FCPS's existing proffer formula.

[01:10:44] So I talked to our consultants at length about this, the consultants who worked on the level of service study, and even they could see both sides to this situation. So it's an interesting topic. There's two aspects, really, to comparing these options, and I guess the financial aspect is one, and the procedural aspect would be another.

[01:11:09] Now, about FCPS's proffer methodology, FCPS has a methodology for recommending, again, recommending proffer contributions. And as far as I know, they've used the same general approach for at least 20 years.

[01:11:25] They do modify it, I think, every five years or so. But their methodology, the details of this is available on FCPS's website. It's a rather complex formula. Like you can imagine, it takes into account school capacity.

[01:11:43] It takes into account construction costs, countywide yield ratios. But the end result is that it ends up with a uniform proffer recommendation. And this is what is recommended through the Fairfax County development process for proffer contributions for schools.

[01:12:03] And that uniform nature is very important. That recommendation, like it says here, is $14,956 per anticipated student.

[01:12:20] Now, for our purposes, I think it puts it into better perspective just to apply the FCPS yield ratios to that 14,000 number. So we end up with a per-unit recommendation.

[01:12:36] It makes it easier to compare. And that's what's at the bottom here. So using the FCPS countywide student generation numbers, what they recommend and what Fairfax County recommends for rezonings is, like you see there, 7,700 per unit for detached units, 69 or so hundred for townhouses, and 1615 per unit for mid-rise and high-rise multifamily.

[01:13:11] Ms. Hickman pointed out that the yield rates are significantly higher for the county than the city. What's the difference in their process for making that determination? So they used yield ratios. If you remember in our previous presentation, we talked about separating out yield ratios for new development versus existing development.

[01:13:36] FCPS doesn't do that. So that townhouse number right there is all of the townhouses in Fairfax County combined. So there's a lot of older townhouse complexes that have a lot of student generation, and those are lumped into the new million-dollar townhouses that are built that have less student generation.

[01:13:59] So that's how that number winds up being significantly different. Could we get an apples-to-apples for the city similarly, like just in general, detached, in general, townhouse? Yes. So we can just...

[01:14:15] And I'm thinking, I do have that number, so I'll send it to the board tomorrow. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Yep. So that's an important difference of the way that we look at student generation is definitely more accurate for projecting future needs.

[01:14:39] This does actually have its advantages for proffers. It has its advantages for proffers. It also has an advantage in the development process because, I mean, right there, that multifamily, the note down there says that there's a big difference between looking at condominiums and apartments, and that's another aspect in there.

[01:15:06] We break those out. FCPS does not. And where that becomes problematic is we'd hate to be in the position of having developers say, oh, this is going to be all condominiums, just so they can get away with a lesser amount of profit contribution or say something like, this is all going to be one-bedroom units, you know, you don't count one-bedroom units, and so on.

[01:15:35] So as much as we love those yield ratios that are really drilled down and have proven to be fantastically accurate for projecting enrollment, for proffers, it's actually a better idea to look at the bigger picture.

[01:15:53] You know, on a staff level, I mean, none of us on staff either in the city or in the schools would want to be in the position of having to argue with the developer about, oh, we don't believe you with this development application.

[01:16:12] It's an unusual situation for sure. The FCPS approach on one level is very complex and on another level is very plain.

[01:16:31] And that plainness is actually an advantage when it comes to actually implementing the proffers. Now, I know with non-student generating housing units, we wouldn't think about school proffers for something like age-restricted housing and so on.

[01:16:50] So that wouldn't factor into this, but regular market rate housing tends to be a bit easier. So this is a comparison of what the level of service study has for recommended proffers and the FCPS recommended proffers.

[01:17:11] And there are pluses and minuses really to either option here. You know, we like to do things customized in the city of Fairfax, and that's why we like those yield ratios and other things that we do. So the level of service study gives us the ability to do that kind of customization if we want to.

[01:17:32] It says there it can be tailored to various capacity triggers, and that was one of the things that was built into the model, looking at whether the city would need proffers for schools that are currently over capacity only or are approaching capacity, and that's something that could be adjusted.

[01:17:55] With the FCPS approach, ordinarily, when I was talking to the consultants about this, the consultants said that they would never recommend one jurisdiction pegging proffers to another jurisdiction, but this is different. Not only the shared services, but also facilities are built to similar standards, similar construction costs and whatnot, and those are the major elements to the FCPS proffer calculation.

[01:18:26] That second element down there, any developer in Northern Virginia has done work in Fairfax County, and those proffer recommendations are well-known just because Fairfax County is by far the largest jurisdiction, and it just is sensible from that perspective because it's just something that's so well known.

[01:18:50] And again, that consistency with apartment and condo applications is also a plus to FCPS. So definitely advantages to both. So I feel that was a lot of material in a short presentation, so I'd be glad to answer any questions.

[01:19:13] But if you remember back when I was introducing this, I guess, and I said that the goal tonight was to kind of start thinking about the school component of recommended proffers. This is what I meant.

[01:19:31] You know, the big question, big question number one, is whether the board wishes to recommend cash proffers in general from new development. Again, we have accepted proffers in the past, but not consistently. And if the board does wish to recommend proffers, which methodology does the board think is more suitable?

[01:19:56] Again, the level of service study calculations or the FCPS proffer calculations. I think Dr. Wright might want to say a few words on this before we hand it over to the board for questions.

[01:20:13] So if you have more to add, it would be great. Dr. Wright, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Foreman, and we appreciate the presentation. Nothing to add in terms of the content, just in terms of those two questions. I would recommend that we continue to recommend cash proffers for school projects.

[01:20:38] It's a standard practice throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. And then for the second part, I think my recommendation would be around utilizing the FCPS proper method for the consistency that it provides and the simplicity that it provides.

[01:20:58] But it avoids us having to have a project-by-project approach to this, just one standard approach, is something that I think could have a lot of benefits. So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions, and I know Mr. Foreman is as well.

[01:21:14] I think we should probably add this to our October work session. Ms. Barton, do you have any questions? Can I just have a little bit more explanation as to, like, why there is such a difference in the townhouse amount between the LOS study and FCPS study?

[01:21:42] So you mean the townhouse ratio? I think it all boils down to the ratio that we're – the student generation ratio. So FCPS uses a townhouse ratio of 0.46, and that's more than double the ratio that we would look at.

[01:22:03] Because of considering the old. The age, yeah. I might have more questions. Okay. Ms. Kelsey. So, yeah. One of my questions is – I'm trying to figure out which one to do first.

[01:22:23] Can you explain, so on slide four and on slide six, I feel like there's conflicting things. You can stay on that one and I can go to slide four. So I feel like my brain is saying this conflicts each other.

[01:22:42] The part that says cash cannot be used for facility improvements that do not expand capacity. So no renovations, technology upgrades, operating expenses, or maintenance slash repair. But then here you're telling me it can be used for construction of new primary or secondary public schools or expansion. To me, my brain is saying those are still kind of renovations. And so that's why I'm, can you explain? Right. So the way the state code is interpreted is construction means building a new facility, which means just by its nature, enhancing capacity. So construction

[01:23:15] means new. Expansion means expanding a current facility. So like, just as an example, like with our renovations for the elementary school. If we are adding classrooms, would that be considered renovation or expansion? So I think the way it works out, and I don't want to pass myself off as the definitive source on this, but if it adds seating capacity, then that would be a capacity enhancing project. And it's not just seating capacity. So it could be something like a larger

[01:23:52] gym for instance you know would be able to add capacity and and that kind of thing but that would that would go beyond what would be considered maintenance it's my understanding that both of our projects would fall or it would be eligible for support from this because they include 15 to 30 thousand foot additions that fall into that expansion category but it's something will verify for the board okay thank you doctor right do you oh yeah that's why I'm wondering

[01:24:27] how like how much well just just pick a couple that you think the whole board would benefit from and then you can always email mr. if you have some a lot of my other ones kind of go towards using the different options with the council and with this being the city because you said the city can we can get proffers for they can get proffers for the public safety they can get it for the schools they can get it for parks and rec and fire and all that my question is so the city

[01:25:02] would go with the study sample but undoubtedly so what would that mean though if we went with the fcps model would that uh that that would be fine it would all be wrapped into one document

[01:25:17] Now, I think what we're, different jurisdictions do this a little bit differently, but I think what we're considering is some kind of a memo or a resolution that comes from the city manager to the city council saying that we endorse these proffer recommendations, these recommendations for proffers for rezonings to include, and it can reference the level of service study and reference whatever action the board decides to take with us.

[01:25:49] So then my follow-up to that goes, can the developers say, great, I will pay for the fire because it's smaller and not the schools or just the schools, so they can pick where they want to pay the proffers towards?

[01:26:04] Absolutely, because this is voluntary. So a developer might come through and not offer any proffers at all or could offer different proffers than the city's recommendation because that ultimately is a recommendation or a suggestion.

[01:26:20] It is not mandatory. Okay, I'll go back. I think my other one is still on. You can always email it to me. Okay, Ms. Hickman. All right, you hit on this, but I think I need a little more clarification.

[01:26:38] So with our unique agreement with the county, our capacity is a little different than FCPS in that if we get more city students and before we hit our capacity, county students would need to be moved to other schools.

[01:26:54] How is that taken into consideration when we're looking at these proffers and when they hit on a capacity concern or issue? It doesn't have to be identified at the time of rezoning exactly what the proffer would go towards.

[01:27:16] And the way Fairfax County Public Schools works it is a particular rezoning that occurs in, let's say, Oakton, that proffer contribution would go towards the region of, and I don't know what region Oakton High School is in.

[01:27:39] So that would go towards Region 1, and that money could be dedicated to capacity-enhancing programs anywhere within Region 1. And I say that just to give a little bit of idea of how this is put into practice in a real-world situation.

[01:28:00] I think it's a little bit more nuanced with us because it is city versus county, And my understanding is that we overlap. If students were to move from Fairfax, they could go into Region 5 or Region 4, right? Who else? Who's like the Centerville?

[01:28:18] Centerville High School is Region 4. Yeah, 4. So I guess my question then, you know, based off of what Dr. Wright said, is if we did, you know, adopt the FCPS strategy, Would that mean also adopting future FCPS updates or would there be periodic reviews for council and our school board to look at, to confirm that, you know, that this still makes sense for Fairfax City?

[01:28:50] Right. I think the recommendation would be written something to the effect of referencing the FCPS proffer methodology as amended or something to basically say that as that changes, our recommendation would change, but the board would always have the option to modify that in any capacity.

[01:29:16] Thank you. To clarify, when this is voted on, and I recognize volunteer proffers through rezoning, right, when could we use that money the moment that it's applied and then it applies to the renovations that we're currently doing? Is that correct?

[01:29:40] Yes, that's correct. The money itself is dedicated. It is given to the city at some point after the rezoning. And I think it's before the certificate of occupancy for the building itself, but it's not immediately at rezoning.

[01:30:00] But it can be applied to projects, as far as I know, that are addressing a capacity constraint that was in effect at the time of the rezoning. So, for example, you know, paying the bond referendum, that is addressing an issue that is present now, so that proper money that's dedicated now could be used in the future to paying off the bond, you know, because that is addressing a capacity constraint that is currently in effect.

[01:30:37] What's the timeline typically from, just give me a ballpark, like from rezoning to when, in theory, money's in hand? Is it like two years? Two years unless there's delays.

[01:30:53] Okay. Typical project, I'd say two years, maybe three years. But realistically, I mean, again, thinking ahead, right? Like we're talking about renovation schools, elementary schools now, but we still have to think about high school and middle school renovations in 10 to 15 years or so.

[01:31:09] And, like, in theory, this money could then be piggy banked in for those renovations, those future ones too, as well. Okay. Thank you. I do know we have received proffers recently in the last, I would say, three to four years for, where is that money?

[01:31:32] Is that money going to be used towards? That money is in an account. Right now there's about a million dollars in that account from three or four projects. And it can be used to pay down eligible, proffer eligible projects.

[01:31:50] Okay. That's good to know. I think all my questions have been answered. Does anybody, Ms. Bartlemay. What percentage of the proposed projects or potential upcoming housing projects would require rezoning?

[01:32:09] Nearly all of them. It's just change in density. Is that correct? Change in density, and a lot of these projects, the city has created or is creating new high-density zones that are not on the map right now.

[01:32:29] So a new project would zone into a new zone, which is the only way to build something up to that density. So that's the reason most of them involve rezonings. Okay, thank you. Go ahead. Sorry, it's a quick one.

[01:32:45] Can you tell me in the process of the approval process with council, where would the council, or where would the city ask for these proffers? Are they asking when they're filed? Are they asking when they're approved? Like, when? Okay, not ask, recommend.

[01:33:01] Yeah, not ask, we can. Oh, recommend, sorry, yes. Right. So in the development process, when the developer meets with staff, staff will frequently say, this is, you know, these are our recommended proffers. That proffer statement appears as a condition in the development application.

[01:33:23] So when I said that a development application is filed, that that's where it's contained. So it's a condition in there. So they're locked in once it's in the application. Not necessarily locked in. It can change.

[01:33:41] Could they take them back? Do they say we're not going to? they could they could increase them or they could decrease them at any point up to the rezoning got it so and up to the rezoning actually means at the public hearing at the rezoning we've had that on occasion uh you know if if city council is kind of on the fence with something like that the developer's attorney can come up and and say well we we proffer three hundred thousand dollars for a transportation improvement or something and and and that has happened in the past but once that rezoning is approved that's when it it's locked in because it's a commitment it's promise

[01:34:20] okay um if anybody has additional questions both okay and then so before our work session in october send questions to either dr wright or mr foreman so we can have you can have all the information for the conversation so we can make our recommendation to council thank you mr foreman You're welcome.

[01:34:46] It was a pleasure as usual. Madam Chair, can I ask one question to you? No. No, I'm just asking about are we voting on this at the November meeting then, or is it because it said November. That's just my question. Yep. No, we're going to discuss it at the work session, and then we'll figure out.

[01:35:03] Figure from that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Foreman. All right. We will move on to our last presentation with the CIP priorities discussion. Dr. Wright. Thank you, Chair Pitches, and good evening to the board.

[01:35:18] Looking forward to this conversation on this important topic this is one of the first things we'll do during this budget development process for the FY28 budget and lots more important conversations to come similar to the last presentation in terms of framing what we're trying to accomplish with this discussion tonight it's really a chance for the board to share some of the priorities that you may have around capital improvement projects here in the city of Fairfax and

[01:35:51] And as I continue to develop the actual CIP presentation and budget that will come before this board in October and then will be voted on in November and that then gets transmitted to the city government, it helps me make sure that we're hearing all the right information and input from all of you.

[01:36:11] So that's the goal tonight is not to decide on anything. I'm going to share a few suggestions or possible projects, but to hear feedback on those or to hear suggestions of things that aren't in this that you think are things that may warrant inclusion in this year's CIP.

[01:36:30] So as we go to the next slide, you'll see essentially an overview of what I just talked about. we're going to review our current cip very briefly talk about some of the ongoing capital projects and then a timeline for some of the next steps what you're going to see on this next slide is our current cip that was voted on in february and then was approved by the city council as a part of their budget what what they voted on was really the adopted fy 27 column and then everything else was just things that were proposed I'm going to mention all of those zeros and

[01:37:10] that adopted FY 27 column here in a minute and then you can see that there are some things that were proposed for next year especially around projects you can see the proposed and FY 28 column there was a softball field that was in there again that does not mean it was approved it was just it was proposed as a part of this process so that's that's what we've been currently operating with here during this fiscal year as we look at the next slide you'll see just a reminder of what shifted in the city this year so all those zeros that I was alluding to on the previous screen traditionally the city of Fairfax

[01:37:48] schools and the city of Fairfax government put recurring maintenance items in their CIP presentations things like paving and roofing painting there was a line item in their CIPs they've as a as a practice a fiscal management practice they've shifted away from that and so that's happened for the city government side of the house as well as for the city of Fairfax schools so moving forward we'll continue to adopt that practice as we look at the next slide we just want to have a conversation quickly about some things that could be possible see CIP requests you'll see three here on the screen just

[01:38:27] to get us going and then I'm gonna actually jump ahead a few slides and come back to these before we discuss them and have this be the last thing that we discuss because it's important context to remember that technically in terms of how it's managed and budgeted our gigantic capital projects at our elementary schools and our high schools are technically CIP projects so as we look at the next slide it's just a reminder of these ongoing projects that we have and when you actually look as where the money is in the budgets it falls under the the CIP budgets for the Daniels run project the Providence

[01:39:07] project and the Fairfax High School work and then finally in terms of a timeline we talked about coming back to this board with an official CIP presentation and a public hearing will go along with that in November we have Scheduled a vote from this board on that that CIP budget and then it'll go on to the mayor and City Council and Planning Commission for consideration for inclusion in their their overall city CIP and then that continues with the budget process throughout the spring and then the eventual

[01:39:44] Nothing is final until that City Council vote in May. So Miss King if you could go back to some of these Potential requests just to discuss these briefly with the board What you see here starting on the right side of the screen is, and this has been an ongoing conversation for the last several years, is doing a turf field at the Fairfax High School softball field.

[01:40:11] We've requested updated cost estimates on that, but I think that number is a pretty safe idea of what that would be. Another potential thing that could be for consideration is some upgrades in our auditoriums at KJ and FHS, specifically around audio visuals and projectors and screens and painting in the Fairfax High School auditorium.

[01:40:40] And then there's a potential request on the left side around our HVAC units and replacements at KJ and Fairfax High School. That number is a number that would allow us to do some upgrades, but definitely we could easily see much higher costs than that over the next five to ten years.

[01:41:05] I've been watching a media report, several media reports from a school division in the central part of the Commonwealth. that is they've been closing schools and having significant issues because of HVAC troubles in their building and years and years of deferred maintenance what you're seeing here is I don't have a three million dollar bill for a non working HVAC unit at our schools right now but I believe we need to start planning to replace some of the rooftop units a lot of them I have the data not share tonight but i have the data on the age of each of our units how much maintenance there has

[01:41:44] been and this would be a a i think an appropriate you know first step in terms of making sure that we have the fiscal resources to address those proactively as opposed to reactively so i will stop there and turn it over to the board i'm happy to answer any questions on any part of this process but really what what i'm hoping to be able to learn from each of you is either feedback on these type of requests or other requests um that you want considered for inclusion that aren't on here right now so thank you so much um dr wright would it be possible for board members to get the

[01:42:18] horizons report for the end of useful life for any for any of the hvac at kj and fairfax just so because i know that that report will tell us like which ones are five years past or a year past yeah we we can definitely provide that information okay um miss bartle may um maybe come back to me in a minute sure sure necessary starting here awesome so um just thinking about like

[01:42:54] i know the auditorium upgrades for fairfax high school have been bookmarked um various parts at least for a while um and and nothing to i think you might be talking about the is is it the lift fees okay yeah I know that I know that I kept getting good and and certainly no shade to the past board members I know things come up and whatnot absolutely I'm just curious and thinking about like alternative funding structures like public partner partnerships to maybe leverage

[01:43:28] to bring in I know FCPS or we now have naming rights for stadiums of sorts to consider at least for FCPS and at some point I'm not going to dip too deep in that but just thinking about like you know if there's any way of maybe thinking about where other funding could help support auditorium upgrades again just thinking how could we leverage turning these into

[01:43:54] really exemplary areas for our schools. Thank you for those suggestions and bringing up those topic so you know I don't know that I have too much to add beyond what you shared but just to kind of provide some context on one of the things you talked about and then a related topic so so you're you are correct that FCPS is currently considering looking at naming rights for facilities in schools so that could be something that this board would consider for their schools because

[01:44:33] anything that FCPS would do around that topic would not apply to our schools I I would also share one of the things that was discussed at the Parks and Rec Advisory Board joint dinner is that Parks and Rec is even looking here in the city of Fairfax through their foundation at potential naming rights for pavilions and fields and things like that.

[01:44:53] so along along the lines I think of what you're talking about of alternate revenue sources so yeah I think you know these are they're important things to think about because especially a space it applies to everything that we're talking about but especially a place like an auditorium is as much a community resource as it is a school resource and so looking for those those joint investments could be it could be important but those are definitely some good things to consider um can you confirm that the katherine johnson turf field project is still under parks and rec

[01:45:29] correct and if you don't know offhand that's fine too so i can confirm that i've had no involvement in it and to my knowledge that nobody in the city of fairfax schools office has had any involvement in terms of um looking at is this something that we want to put in our in our cips it's my understanding that it's been something that parks and rec has looked at uh but it's important to note that it would be on city of fairfax schools land um through that um okay so i think that would be the only additional thing that i would request that we look into is if my i'm trying to think back to all the prep meetings we've had and it sounds like there was a lot of different things

[01:46:08] that were coming up that were delaying it different types of turf but i would want to look at um i know there's been challenges with how many students they have at kj during pe being outside and the that they run into and if it doesn't look like this is going to be anywhere nearer in the next 10 years that maybe there's some work that we would be able to do and then no thank you for sharing that I what I can confirm through conversations with staff at Katherine Johnson is that that would be a a tremendous upgrade to their ability to serve their students not only through

[01:46:45] you know just having that resource there in the building but thinking about three key things that are different at middle schools than in the past first of all there's middle school sports and that will continue to expand there's recess that is something that's a part of it and then just the overall health and PE usage that really makes a big difference there after school programs would take advantage of it so a lot lots of different ways that it would fill some school needs thank you and I don't know where that lands in our the other priorities, but it was something I wanted to point out that I think it's important, like you said,

[01:47:21] for all those reasons. Parks and Rec did ask the schools back in 2010 to 2014 to partner with them on that. At the time, the chair of PRAB actually wanted it shifted to schools, but it was later determined that it would have to be in the PRAB budget.

[01:47:43] But I would agree that it would add to KJ's instructional ability in terms of their PE program and their school day with the recess and everything. Ms. Bartlemy? I think I'm good.

[01:48:02] Okay. Ms. Kelsey. Just a quick kind of clarifying question about the HVACs at KJAMS and Fairfax, mainly it's Fairfax that I'm thinking of, would this be where it would occur like along with the rolling installments of the new roof we would put them on like when that section of the roof is done or is this something we're talking about before we do the new roof no that's a wonderful question i you know it would definitely have require coordination and alignment with that i think you know the first step in this is is as you heard from chair pitches

[01:48:42] is really identifying are there key units that we think you know in the next 12 months need to be identified some of this might expand beyond that that 12-month typical timeline for the cip but but you're you're correct it would be something that we'd be looking at regardless when they're doing the roofs and what where we see the highest hvac costs are those rooftop units even the ones that are still in good shape need to will need to come up off so they can replace the roof i think more long term you're also thinking about as we get to what you heard from accessory earlier about

[01:49:17] Those the Katherine Johnson and Fairfax High School renovations will be around the corner at some point trying to determine Where when do we want to make the investment because typically the renovation the at Daniel's run in Providence? There will be brand new HVAC units as a part of the renovation So that that'll be something as we get closer to that becoming a reality We want to think about can we just maintain it for a year or two instead of replacing it?

[01:49:46] Doctor, I was curious about the carpet and tile numbers that remain in the current CIP. Are we going to continue? What do we have?

[01:50:02] Basically, what do we have left? Do we still have Fairfax High School still has some carpet to tile, right? Is that I'm just asking, what is this money going to cover? Is it going to go to replacing any more carpet and tile at the elementary schools?

[01:50:21] or is this strictly likely to be just directed at the high school? Or I don't think KJ has any carpet. No, that's a very good question, and I appreciate you bringing that up. I think the majority of it would be focused at KJ and the high school, I think, unless there's really urgent needs at the elementary schools because it's going to come out in the next 24 to 36 months, depending on the phasing.

[01:50:54] it's something that we think we want to just be thoughtful about those investments that we're going to make. So I think most of it will be at the high school. We have some existing balances from previous years. So what you'll see in the CIP that goes forward will probably not include that whole top part of the table, unless there's a specific need where our existing balances aren't going to cover us from year to year. And then as we move forward each year, so let's say we're good for FY 28 but FY 29 we spent most of our carpet and tile down then we would make a specific request through the traditional operating budget process

[01:51:33] perfect okay and I would say that in terms of priorities for me HVAC at the high school and the middle school are fairly top of the list for me they directly affect student learning teacher health student how the ability to work and learn the fish you know efficiently so I would say and I love what necessary said I mean auditorium softball field like we could maybe see about getting

[01:52:09] other people to those are both community use areas well community use area so it would be nice if we could find somebody if it's possible to partner no I think think that's yeah really well said and this is more specific typically to athletic fields that there's lots of precedence in our areas for partnerships less like public-private but more partnerships with some of the local youth organizations like they may contribute a portion of the field because they end up being one of the primary users and then the only other thing I would add on

[01:52:49] this which is I think closer to miss Hickman's comment is the Planning Commission identified that KJ field last year as one of the top priorities that they would like to see. So just that, you know, that recognition of it as a resource for both the community and the school is out there as well. Yeah, and maybe we could, I mean, I'd love for that to be the KJ property to be a discussion at some point for us. Yeah, we can take a look at it and try and get the most updated pricing I'll reach out to our colleagues and parks and rec and

[01:53:28] see where it goes from there I believe there'll be a lot of positive feedback for that I think it's it's gonna just it's also a large project so there the price tag will will reflect that yeah I will adjourn this meeting at 8:23

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