Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, July 25, 2023 Date: Tuesday, July 25, 2023 Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia Length: 6h 48m (video) Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/2978 Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/ 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 2026-11-03. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:05] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our board meeting of July 25th, 2023, and we are going to begin our meeting in a moment with a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, and before those who are able to rise for that, I'm going to ask my colleagues if there's anyone they would like to keep in our thoughts and prayers this morning, and I'm going to begin, and I know that there may be people who want to add to this. But obviously, I think we are all shocked by the recent death of a Robinson high school graduate, Rebecca Zarko, who was tragically killed in a car accident last Tuesday night in Burke. [00:00:45] And we keep her and her family as well as all of the passengers, all of which were teenagers and remain in critical condition. This was, of course, 24 hours after another fatal accident in the county on jeff todd way down near fort belvoir and i just want to remind folks that our police department in conjunction with the virginia state police have completed a third wave of their road shark campaign this month and officers have issued over 5800 citations and warnings during this cycle and are now transitioning into their fourth wave and this operation of course is to [00:01:23] deter aggressive driving, reduce accidents, and change driving behavior in Fairfax County, and I want to remind all of us that it is all of our responsibility to do that. Speed, in fact, was a factor in both of these tragic fatalities, and just another reminder for all of us that we all play a role in protecting each other's lives on the road, but certainly this morning, We keep the Zarco family, Robinson, Rams, and the school in our thoughts and prayers and continue to hold out hope that all of the other passengers who were injured have a full and speedy recovery. [00:02:04] Secondly, Abraham Scott, who was a longtime resident and active community member of Springfield, died peacefully on July 5th. After his wife Janice was killed in the September 11 attacks, he dedicated his life to advocacy on behalf of those who died on 9-11. [00:02:22] His extensive advocacy included serving more than four years on the Board of Directors for the Pentagon Memorial Fund, testifying before Congress, and service on multiple boards. He was also a board member of the Sideburn Civic Association here closer to home. [00:02:38] If we could keep Abraham and the Scott family in our thoughts and prayers, that would be appreciated. And at this time, I'd be pleased to recognize any of my other colleagues who would like to share a few thoughts. Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [00:02:54] I wanted to weigh in with about Abe Scott. I'd known Abe for many years. His daughters, Crystal and Angel, were part of our Girl Scout group. And I remember taking them on camping trips with the Girl Scouts. [00:03:11] Abe visited my office quite frequently. He would come in before 9-11 and then several times after 9-11. You're correct. His life's mission, he was a retired military, but his life's mission, once his wife Janice was killed, was to keep her memory alive. [00:03:33] And he did that every single day. He was a wonderful fellow, obviously had a tragic, tragic situation in his family following a lot of wonderful times. [00:03:51] And so I remember when we were here at the board after 9-11 and so many Fairfax County residents were killed either at the Pentagon or through one of the other hijacked airplanes. [00:04:13] And I think that Abe was one who always kept the flame alive, always kept the flame alive. And in doing so, he reminded us all of the value of life, the joy of life, and the absolute need to make sure that nobody else forgot what was going on that day and what it meant to so many families. [00:04:38] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Gross. Others who would like to be recognized? Supervisor Walkinshaw to be followed by Supervisor Stort. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and just want to thank you for acknowledging the terrible loss of Rebecca Alexis Zarco. [00:04:54] She was known as Becca to her friends and family. She was the daughter of William and Glenda Zarco, two brothers, David and William Zarco. She was, as you noted, a recent graduate of Robinson, and she had been planning to attend George Mason School of Engineering in the fall. [00:05:15] Her father is an engineer. She was hoping to follow in his footsteps. She was also a talented musician, a pianist, and she played piano for a church. And obviously, it is every parent's nightmare for William and Glenda, but it's really been a nightmare for the entire community, the Robinson community, the Burke Center and Burke community. [00:05:41] And it's a reminder to all of us, as you suggested preliminarily, It seems that that that speed of the other driver was a significant cause and the severity of the of the crash. And it's a reminder to all of us that aggressive driving, reckless driving, speeding can have really deadly, deadly consequences as it as it did here. [00:06:04] So I hope colleagues and all those watching today will send their thoughts and prayers to the Zarko family and the entire community that's grieving this week. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Stort. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I I wanted to also acknowledge that a severe accident that occurred in and asking people to keep their Keep my Mike's all Mark Sullivan in their thoughts and prayers mark is a Lorton area resident But he's been deeply involved with the Lorton community for a long time He established and co-founded the South County Colts lacrosse program coached I don't know how many you maybe most the girls in that program for for a long time [00:06:44] But he was critically injured in a cycling accident on Saturday on Route 23 near Birk Lake. He's an avid cyclist, toured a Mount Vernon, a participant for many, many years, a bike commuter. Again, somebody who we recognize has been deeply involved with the community for a long time. [00:07:01] And we also recognize the challenges of cycling and wanted to highlight that as part of our comments about those really accidents and careful. And you really hearken back to our Take a Moment campaign that we established last year and remind all of us that we have a responsibility for keeping each other safe. [00:07:19] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And if there's no one else to be recognized, if those who were able could rise for a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Face the flag. [00:07:51] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. indivisible with liberty and justice for all and we are pleased this morning to have a very large audience of folks here for our four presentations and so we will do these logistically in the order in which i have them presented to me for each presentation i will announce the proclamation [00:08:27] and invite our speaker down to the podium and certainly those who are here to support the speaker may also join them at the podium in front of me we will then read the proclamation and after the speaker's remarks we will pose for a photo at the dais and our first presentation this morning is a resolution to recognize the mclean high school scholastic bowl team for their its academic championship and this was requested by supervisor faust and our speaker today is noah chin quiz bowl team captain and graduate from mclean high school and anyone else who is here with him is [00:09:03] welcome to join him at the podium as well and at this time i will turn to supervisor faust thank you mr chairman mr chairman i move the following resolution whereas its academic is recognized by the guinness book of world records as the world's longest running tv quiz show and whereas mclean high school highlanders defeated perennial contender montgomery blair school and sandy Springs Friends School to emerge victorious in its academic finals for the second year in a row. [00:09:42] And whereas the McLean High School team, composed of Noah Chen, Ethan Zhao, Carter Pisaki, and alternate Andrew Evans, who competed in the first two matches, is the first Fairfax County public school to win back-to-back its academic championships. And whereas the hard work, dedication, and commitment of the team members and the support and guidance of coaches Jeff Bricchetti and Lindsey Benedict led to this victory. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the [00:10:19] Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County, does hereby congratulate the McLean High School, its academic team, and its coaches on their tremendous accomplishment. So moved. You've heard the motion and the second. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Principal Ellen Rowley is becoming a regular here. You are knocking it out of the park over there, McLean High School. Congratulations. But today, we'll focus on the It's Academic team. I want to congratulate you for your achievements. I think it's pretty obvious [00:10:58] that to win one It's Academic tournament is fantastic, but to win back-to-back and to be the first FCPS school ever to do that is just awesome so McLean High School continues to excel in academics athletics and producing awesome young people and we appreciate that and it gives me enormous pleasure to recognize students from that school you have you've done much to be proud of And I hope you enjoy this accomplishment for many years to come. [00:11:35] So thank you. And I won't be here next year for the third one, but I'm sure someone's going to pick up the banner, and you will be back. Congratulations. Thank you, Supervisor Faust. Supervisor Palchuk. Just a quick congratulations. [00:11:52] Excellent work. Thank you for standing out and being here on your summer vacation to join us in the morning. We know that not just what you do at McLean, excellent coach and principal, but I think you're an inspiration to all of our schools and FCPS and all of the students rising up. [00:12:08] So thanks for what you do. Thank you for your leadership and looking forward to hearing from you and best of luck to the years ahead. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. And let me also add my congratulations. And one note that's in here that Supervisor Faust did not mention is that you defeated perennial contender montgomery blair high school and anytime as expected fairfax county can top montgomery county is something we can all celebrate but but in all seriousness certainly [00:12:44] congratulate the whole team here and most importantly the coaches the parents the families that support all of you because i know without their support in the background this achievement would not have happened, so certainly want to salute them, as well as all the staff at McLean High School, who do an amazing job each and every day building tomorrow's leaders, and so congratulations to them as well, and with that, I think we are ready to vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion [00:13:20] carries, and Noah, welcome. The floor is yours. It's good to see everyone again. I like it. I like it. But before I get into my prepared speech, I just want to shout out my grandfather who's in the audience. [00:13:36] He was a former It's Academic contestant. Without him, I never would have had, I never, I don't think I would have been done any of this. But I'd like to thank the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for having us at this meeting to highlight our victory on It's Academic. [00:13:59] While the record may show that the McLean team won back-to-back championships, that record does not demonstrate how much effort went into these victories. From last-minute after-school practices to late-night study sessions, everyone on the team and associated with the team worked incredibly hard for these victories. [00:14:17] From our principal, Dr. Riley, who supported us by attending every single match, through our coaches who helped us become the best possible versions of contestants that we could be. I'd like to shout out particularly our alternate, Andrew, who filled in for Ethan twice and promptly led us to a perfect game and an 800-point victory. [00:14:38] The other newcomer to our team, Carter, who cannot be here, is the fastest one on the buzzer and has an encyclopedic knowledge of literature, giving us a crucial advantage in a critical category. Ethan, as always, was our mathematical and scientific quiz while I covered history, and as seniors, this was our final event for a team which has gone from a perennial first-round exit to a back-to-back champion. [00:15:01] Thank you. Thank you very much, Noah, and congratulations to you and the team again, and I think at this time we're ready for a photo. [00:15:18] If Supervisor Faust would join me and the board would rise. [00:15:20] And next up, we have a proclamation to designate July 2023 as Disability Pride Month in Fairfax County, and this was requested by Supervisor Faust, and our speaker today, who I know is here, David Simon, is the chair of the Fairfax County Disability Services Board, and at this time, let me recognize Supervisor Faust for a proclamation. [00:17:16] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm following proclamation. Whereas since 2004, Disability Pride Month has been celebrated in communities around the United States, and whereas more than 25% of adults in the United States live with a disability, and whereas Disability Pride Month is an occasion to celebrate people with disabilities, honor their inherent dignity and inalienable rights, promote their visibility, and applaud their many achievements and whereas we celebrate disability pride month in july because the americans with [00:17:55] disabilities act was signed into law on july 26th 1990 and this month is a powerful reminder about the importance of disability rights and why we fight for them whereas while much progress has been made including the passage of the ada amendments act in 2008 more needs to be done before we live in a truly inclusive world and whereas in celebration of fairfax county's richly diverse population we affirm our commitment to promoting a culture of openness and inclusiveness [00:18:31] and acceptance of all persons now therefore be resolved at the fairfax county board of supervisors on behalf of all residents of fairfax county does hereby proclaim july 2023 as disability pride month in Fairfax County in celebration of the countless talents, experiences, and contributions of individuals with disabilities and encourages everyone to take meaningful action to help create a county that is inclusive to all. So move. I'm happy to second that motion along with a whole [00:19:06] lot of folks. Discussion on the motion? Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm pleased that We are proclaiming July 2023 as Disability Pride Month in Fairfax County. While this Pride Month is celebrated nationally in the month of July, this is and has been for several years, this is the first time we've officially recognized it in Fairfax County. [00:19:30] I want to thank Debbie Alexander and Ellen Dyke of the SPARK group for bringing it to our attention. The 33 years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law. [00:19:46] The ADA was groundbreaking legislation and has been compared to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in that it offers similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities. But unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also covers employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations. [00:20:23] It is critical that Fairfax County constantly strive to observe both the letter and the intent of that important law. Since 1990, Disability Pride Month has celebrated people with disabilities, their identities, cultures, and their contributions to society. [00:20:44] It also seeks to change the way people think about and define disability, to end the stigma of disability, and to promote the fact that disability is a natural part of human diversity and that people living with disabilities want to celebrate and take pride. [00:21:00] So while employment, housing, and other challenges of the people with disabilities may differ, we can show our pride by celebrating all county residents with disabilities. [00:21:19] People with those disabilities should take pride in all the amazing contributions you are making to our community on a daily basis, and we thank you for that. So we also appreciate that by embracing and celebrating individual differences and individual identities, we become a better county and we grow stronger as a community. [00:21:41] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Supervisor Faust. Supervisor Palcic. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. thank you Supervisor Fowler for bringing this forward and this we will certainly continue to bring you and after your retirement and I too want to give my thanks to SPARC to other groups such as the ARC and those providing services and advocacy for our some of our favorite community members especially over at the community center we love our SPARC community and the joy and the community, the sense of community that you bring to Fairfax County. I think it's really important [00:22:19] that we continue not just to honor and bring awareness, but also understand where there are gaps, gaps of funding, of supports, of activities across the county, and being able to ensure, as was shared, that every single one of our community members is able not only to survive and thrive, but also to really thrive in our community and to bring back to our community to the best of their abilities and so I want to thank everyone who works on the front lines supporting our disability community supporting members of our community and bringing them here not just today but every day supporting [00:22:56] their families as well as was mentioned we know that so much of what's great and what we're able to do here in Fairfax County is large part to our services but also to the community the families the neighbors and the support networks that make make us be able to thrive no matter our circumstances here in Fairfax County so thank you for helping us bring this forward thank you to my colleagues for helping us celebrate this month and ensuring that we continue to do and to support the great work happening and a big thank you to spark to Alan and to Debbie and all of you for ensuring that we continue this excellent programming [00:23:34] here in Fairfax County Thank You Supervisor Palchuk Supervisor Harity and And I'll just echo the thanks to Ellen and Debbie and Spark. I had a chance to visit last Thursday. Incredible. They beat me at Wordle. [00:23:50] So that was just one of those, you know. So it's, and we've got such a broad range of groups that deal with our special needs service source and those that go out and get them jobs. I'm drawing the blank on the one in Lee District, Mount Vernon Lee District, all the way down to great programs like SPARC that are really needed for the full spectrum of those with disabilities. [00:24:14] So thank you, Supervisor Faust, for bringing this one forward. Thank you, Supervisor Herity. And let me also thank our Fairfax County Disability Services Board. I know we're going to hear from David in a moment, but they do work, of course, around the year towards advocacy to make Fairfax County a more inclusive community. [00:24:36] And we know that we've come a long way. Certainly since the Americans with Disabilities Act was approved, but we also know that we still have a long way to go to really be truly inclusive by our standards in Fairfax County. And so today we, of course, celebrate Disability Pride Month not only as an acknowledgment of all the great work that our disability community does, but also as an acknowledgment that all of us have a role to play in continuing to improve conditions in Fairfax County, be even more inclusive. [00:25:10] And we could not do that without our county staff, with our network of nonprofits and advocacy organizations, many of which were mentioned earlier. And I just want to leave everyone with this one statistic that I'm always reminded of, which is nationally, more than 25% of adults live with a disability. [00:25:31] So this is not something that we do to help a small fraction of our community in the way of inclusivity, but this is something that affects all of us. Every single one of us knows somebody who has a disability and who needs advocacy and needs our support to be able to coexist and live and thrive in our community here in Fairfax County. [00:25:54] So this is really about all of us, this advocacy and the work that we do. And so with that, let us not only celebrate our disability community, but all think about ways we can advocate to make inclusivity, real inclusivity, something that we can achieve here in Fairfax County. [00:26:13] And so with that, I think we're ready for a vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And as I mentioned, we have David Simon, the chair of our Fairfax County Disability Services Board, who would we welcome to share a few comments with us. [00:26:47] Okay. First and foremost, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the chairman, Supervisor Faust, and the entire Board of Supervisors for this important proclamation. [00:27:02] I'd also like to thank my fellow members of the Disability Services Board, SPARC, and the members of the wider disability community for all of the years of devoted advocacy and awareness work that have gone into ensuring that people with disabilities are treated both fairly and equitably. [00:27:24] I'd also like to take a moment to share my own perspective on what disability pride is. And it should surprise no one that it's not simply pride in having a disability. Rather, to me, it's pride taken in the life that a person with a disability leads and the recognition and acknowledgement that while differences need to and should be celebrated, someone's disability neither defines them nor in any way detracts from their value or worth. [00:27:55] I've seen success be measured in a million different ways, but of all those possible ways, I believe the most universal and equitable measure of individual success is how strongly a person fights to overcome their own unique challenges. [00:28:13] And here, the disability community shines incredibly brightly. And I believe that this is why research consistently shows that for the one in four of all of us that live with a disability. These people consistently report having a quality of life that is equal or even greater than those not living with a disability. So switching gears, the Americans with a Disability Act was a huge step forward and is absolutely a milestone, but it's an ongoing process and not the finish line. No one with a disability should ever feel [00:28:49] marginalized, and the sad reality is that we're not there yet. But fortunately, Fairfax County has strong leaders and an outspoken disability community invested in ensuring equity and fairness for the disability community. [00:29:07] So I want to, again, thank the board for this proclamation, raising the visibility of the disability community and for the recognition of the pride that those of us in the community take in ourselves and in the lives that we lead. [00:29:22] Thank you. Thank you very much, David. And we are certainly blessed. with your leadership on the Disability Services Board, as well as, as you mentioned, all of our other pointees on that board and the work that you do to make sure that all of our policies and procedures are geared towards equity and inclusion. And we will continue to partner with you to do that. And thank you for your service. With that, I think we're ready for a photo. And if Supervisor Faust would join me, and for the folks who are here, we'd welcome everyone in the photo. Please [00:29:57] join us. Debbie, your camera. Next, we have a resolution to recognize the organizers of Pride [00:34:31] Month events throughout Fairfax County. And this was requested by myself. I'm going to turn the gavel over to Supervisor Gross. I know our speaker today is Bree Morgan, organizer at Reston Pride. And if anyone else is here who would like to join Bree for this presentation, please come on down to the podium. And while that is happening, I am going to read the following resolution. Whereas Fairfax County is an active supporter of the LGBTQIA plus community and is committed to promoting a culture of openness, inclusiveness, and acceptance for all [00:35:07] persons. And whereas every year in June, communities across the country celebrate Pride Month to honor the impact individuals have had on society and to advocate for change to ensure equality, inclusion, and non-discrimination. And whereas during this year's Pride Month, private and public organizations throughout Fairfax County put together incredible programs, held parties, parades, bike rides, and much, much more to celebrate and honor Fairfax County's LGBTQIA plus community. And whereas Fairfax County is proud of its reputation as an inclusive [00:35:44] and welcoming community for all whereas these events and displays of community unity support and celebration bring us together and highlight why we fight for freedom liberation joy and pride now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county board of supervisors on behalf of all residents of fairfax county does hereby recognize and thank the many companies organizations and individuals who contributed to an incredible pride month in fairfax county you've heard the motion seconded by supervisor lusk is there discussion on the motion mr chairman yes thank [00:36:18] you supervisor gross i wanted to recognize these organizations for a couple of reasons one clearly to make sure that the larger fairfax county community knows how important this board feels inclusivity is and without condition that all people in this county are welcome and all people in this county will be protected in order to be able to thrive obviously to recognize all of the companies organizations individuals who organize pride events throughout fairfax county and and one of the other reasons i wanted to make sure we recognize them this year is obviously [00:36:59] there's a lot of conversation happening in our community that is outside of the values of fairfax County. And increasingly, we're seeing more and more organizations and companies come forward to celebrate Pride Month, but also to celebrate inclusivity as the right thing to do. I grew up in Fairfax County, and I can remember when there was no Pride events in this county. And as a matter of fact, few across the country. And if you wanted to celebrate Pride and you lived in this area, you maybe could have a chance to go to DC and do that. And what has happened, and this is something [00:37:36] we can all be proud of, is that the entire community can come together during this month in locations throughout Fairfax County and celebrate the dignity of individuals and show our support for all people in our county that make this a great place to live. And that was not always the case. And so when I think about our young people in particular and what they see in here in the news, what they see in here from elected leaders, I want them to know and see and hear what we're saying in Fairfax County, not just from this dais and this board, but also from all [00:38:13] the people from one end of this county to the other who put together amazing events for the month of Pride and as a reminder for them that we stand in solidarity with them. And so this really is to recognize a whole lot of folks. I'm not going to read them all, but I do want to point out some of the big contributors. Mosaic Pride, Eden's Mosaic Management, Fairfax City Pride, Mayor Catherine Reed, I think is here. There she is. Mayor, come on down. Mayor Catherine Reed from Fairfax City, put on the Fairfax City Pride event, Wolf Trap Out and About Festival, Springfield [00:38:52] Pride, Fairfax Pride Ride, Arts Fairfax Reading, Fairfax County Public Library, a lot of other organizations and entities. And that's just to name very few of the many folks who helped organize events, as I said, from one end of this county to the other and in the city of Fairfax. And we thank them for doing that and look forward to next year when we can grow this into an even larger list of individuals. And so with that, it is an honor to bring this forward to celebrate this moment and to show our solidarity in Fairfax County. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to [00:39:30] start at this end of the dais, Supervisor Palchuk and then Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Vice Chair, and thank you so much to the chairman for bringing this forward. Thank you to those of you who are here joining us. I see that Greg Durkacz, I call him the mayor of Mosaic, is here with us today as well as so many of the organizations and Arts Fairfax who have made this happen. I think what really stands out to me, I know those of us who grew up here definitely see and feel the difference though it feels like not that far away. I think some are still surprised that just a few decades [00:40:04] ago we weren't not just not celebrating but not ensuring the same protection and support for everyone in our community especially our LGBTQ plus community so while I think today I appreciate that we're celebrating this for the first time everyone who's been doing this work in the community what really stands out is that we're just here leading and the county can do so much to help support and emphasize and hopefully support programs but there are so many from the that were listed today and in mosaic and i believe there have been quite a few in tysons this year and across the county so many this year that we weren't even able to mention that i do know that [00:40:44] next year when we do this there we will have a room full of participants but it really is we are hopefully setting the stage and the leadership but knowing that it is providing the space the support for so many of our community members our neighboring jurisdictions our organizations our businesses, organizations, nonprofits, and even our schools and our community and our families, not only to celebrate, but to feel safe and to know that we are inclusive in every sense of the word, that everyone needs to feel safe in our community, in Fairfax [00:41:18] County, to study, to live, to work, to play, to retire, and to feel that they not only belong, but they really truly are proud and we are proud that they are part of our community. So thank you so much for the chairman, but especially thank you to all of you here today, and I know so many more that we will include next year, who are helping spread the word, the joy, and the love, and the pride in our community. [00:41:42] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. I also saw Supervisor Faust, so we'll just come around this way. Thank you, Madam Chair. As the board knows, this is the 11th year that this board had proclaimed June as LGBTQ plus Pride Month in Fairfax County. [00:42:01] And I just want to say, the mayor, long before she was mayor, I attended several of those earlier sessions here at the board when we did that proclamation. So your support is deep and long, and we appreciate that very much. [00:42:20] Supervisor Lusk. Thank you very much, Madam Vice Chairman, and I'll thank the chairman for bringing this item forward. And I'll also acknowledge the Springfield Town Center, which he referenced in his motion. for hosting a Pride Night Out event, which I had the opportunity to attend. [00:42:38] And I'll say it was very, very nice to be amongst so many of the residents in our district who were expressing that they support inclusive community and also are able to say that we value and see all members of our community. [00:42:55] And I'll note that the event actually did something important, which was to raise funds for Safe Space Nova and Safe Space Nova is dedicated to providing a safe, accepting, and supportive environment to combat social stigmas, bullying, and other challenges faced by LGBTQ plus youth. [00:43:18] So I'm just excited to have been a part of that event and thank Chairman again for bringing this forward. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Any other comments before we vote? I do want to say one thing. I received one email about Pride Month. [00:43:35] The email said, I am offended by the pride flags at our local library. No U.S. flag was flown. I understand June is Pride Month, but really? I was trying to figure out, okay, what are we talking about here? This was at the George Mason Regional Library in Mason District. [00:43:56] The George Mason Regional Library doesn't have a flagpole. So there were no flags being flown. What the library staff did, and it was really cool, was a colorful duct tape design of all the rainbow colors that they had pasted onto the brick wall flanking the front door. It was probably eight feet or so long. It was really cool. The staff [00:44:27] had done that as part of their contribution to Pride Month. So I explained to the person who had written to me what it was, and also reiterated that our libraries welcome all visitors and all Fairfax County libraries practice and celebrate the one Fairfax policy that the board has adopted. [00:44:51] I did not receive a response to that. But I thought it was really interesting that someone would look at a very simple demonstration of Pride Month and take it to another level that just didn't exist at all um and and i was really proud of our library staff for doing that and i thought that's a cool idea why didn't i think of that you know duct tape now doesn't just come in silver and black but it was it was it was a wonderful and of course i don't could all be seen in front um [00:45:26] from little river turnpike so it was um it really was a wonderful statement for our community um seeing and hearing no further discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed say nay any abstentions that motion carries mr chairman thank you vice chairman gross uh and with that uh as i mentioned earlier we have brie morgan organizer at rest and pride uh who is with us and wants to share some comments welcome thank you um i'll try and keep this short because i intend to be long-winded i want to thank you all for taking the time to [00:46:05] recognize Pride Month and all the events that we have here in Fairfax County. Reston Pride is very fortunate to have the support of the county. We have been doing this since 2018. We started off at the UU Church of Reston and they have continued to support us all these years which we really appreciate. We've continued to grow through the years and mostly due to not just the environment of inclusivity, but the support of all of our volunteers, sponsors, vendors, and the Fairfax [00:46:45] County in and of itself. Our goal is not just to have an amazing Pride Festival, but to also support the LBGTQ community. As Chairperson Gross just mentioned, it doesn't take much to set off the hate. And while this county is very inclusive, and I feel very privileged to be a part of it, we still have work to do. I still hear from especially the youth of this community of the bullying, vandalism on their properties, and so forth. So while we feel that we may have a great, great county, there's still work to do. And of course, the outlying regions of Virginia still [00:47:24] have even more work to do. So besides having a great festival where we celebrate our community and the allies that support us we also our festival is also about raising money to support other organizations as chairperson lusk mentioned in springfield helping out safe space which is a fabulous organization this year we raised six thousand dollars to give to the rest the pride liberation project which we felt was a very important organization this year because it [00:47:59] supports, it's an organization that started in high schools, and it creates sort of clubs and safe places for high school students, also is a training ground to teach them how to become political activists and lobbyists, thus setting the stage for the future generations to protect our rights. So we really appreciate the work that they do. I'd like to really give a shout out to all the faith organizations which historically have not been terribly inclusive right we had [00:48:35] 14 faith organizations supporting us this year that's just amazing we started with a faith organization and that the community has grown ever since of course we couldn't do this without the support of the resting community center they provided both financial support logistical support and they are our kind of our talent scout for our main act usually and we really like to thank them for that we also are part of core foundation which i don't know if you all are familiar with that but they are an umbrella organization that helps out smaller causes and and they keep us on the right track making sure we do all our finances right our documentations right and so forth and [00:49:15] also provides training for uh for new members of the board and so forth um of course all the volunteers the various board members um that couldn't be here today kyle rowan our president Eve Thompson, our Vice President and Logistics Chair, Jeremy Malloy, Laden Madrasi, and I'd also like to make a special shout out to Ken Williamson, who has helped us since the beginning and retired this year, and he was our personal talent scout and MC for all the previous Prides, [00:49:51] and we just appreciate all his support. So with that, I say thank you all, and we invite you out to rest in pride next year for the first Saturday of June. Thank you. Thank you very much, Bree, and thank you for all your work. Much appreciated. And Mayor Reed, if you want to share any comments, you're welcome to as well. Thank you for being here. Well, as Supervisor Faust pointed out, I'm no stranger to being here for the Pride Month proclamations in the county because we never had a pride event in the city of Fairfax up until this year. So when I ran for office, I said [00:50:26] we would have a pride event in the city of fairfax and we did deliver on that it's a little it was a little rocky not everyone embraced something new but it's important to make a commitment to the many people who live in the city of fairfax including our children we had an event that included children that was family friendly that acknowledged children in the lgbtqia plus community to let them know that they are valued they are celebrated and we will keep them safe And that is our commitment in the city of Fairfax. [00:50:57] And I expect we will have a pride event every year that I am mayor and hopefully beyond. Thank you for the support of the county. Thank you very much, Mayor Reed. And as was acknowledged, your longstanding work on this, much appreciated. With that, I think we're ready for a photo. [00:51:13] And if anyone is here for this event, please come on down and join us for the photo as well. And supervisor. [00:53:23] And finally, this morning, we have a proclamation to designate July 2023 as Parks and Recreation Month. [00:54:12] And this was requested by myself. Our speaker today is Jay Cole, director of the Fairfax County Park Authority. Jay, if you could come on down, and judging from the shirt you have on, there are a lot of people here with you that are welcome to join you now or for the photo, whichever you would like. [00:54:31] But I have a feeling everyone with that colored shirt on is here with Jay. So please take a moment to come down and join us. And while you are doing that, I am going to turn the or I'm going to give the gavel to Supervisor Gross so that I can read the following proclamation. [00:54:51] I will read the following proclamation, whereas we celebrate July as Park and Recreation Month when we recognize that parks and recreation programs and legacy park systems such as the Park Authority are an integral part of communities throughout this country, including Fairfax County. [00:55:23] And whereas our parks and recreational opportunities are vitally important to establishing and maintaining the quality of life in our communities, ensuring the health of all citizens and contributing to economic and environmental well-being. And whereas parks and recreation programs build healthy, active communities, aid in the prevention of chronic disease, provide therapeutic recreation services for people with disabilities, improve the mental and emotional health of all residents, and work to ensure equitable access and resources. [00:55:55] And whereas parks and recreation programs increase a community's economic prosperity through increased property values, expansion of the local tax base, increased tourism, attraction and retention of businesses, and crime reduction. And whereas park systems such as ours, with our 420 parks and nearly 24,000 acres of parkland, are fundamental to the environmental well-being of our community, improving water quality, protecting groundwater, preventing flooding, improving the quality of the air we breathe, providing vegetative buffers to development, producing wildlife habitat. [00:56:33] And, whereas our parks are instrumental in growing our communities by providing places for people to gather and strengthen the neighborly bonds of goodwill and a setting for formative and enriching experiences for individuals of all ages, abilities, and interests, now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents, does proclaim July 2023 as Park and Recreation Month in Fairfax County and urges all residents to take advantage of the outstanding parks and recreational resources available to them. [00:57:08] And I'd be happy to second that motion. Is there discussion on the motion, Mr. Chairman? Thank you very much, Vice Chair Gross, and certainly thank you, Jay, for being here and bringing a few of your closest friends. This is an amazing turnout. And I want to start by thanking the employees of the Fairfax County Park Authority, Because I know that maintaining, we're certainly proud of the 420 parks and nearly 24,000 acres of parkland. [00:57:37] We know that takes a lot to manage and maintain. And our parks are exceptional. We do an amazing job maintaining them. We know that our residents demand high-quality facilities and are not shy when those facilities don't meet their standards. [00:57:55] But it is not because of the hard work of our Fairfax County employees who do an amazing job, as I said, working in each of these facilities and maintaining them. And certainly want to thank the Park Authority Board for their work as well. But there are things in this county that our residents particularly love. [00:58:14] And parks is routinely rated among those top things, even for people who don't use the parks necessarily but know that they're there. And certainly through the height of the pandemic, we've said this many times before, our parks were discovered by a lot of people who live in this county who did not even know some of our parks existed, including parks that they could walk to. [00:58:37] And I think their new appreciation for them has been seen and heard. And as the proclamation mentions, this is important not only to the quality of life of Fairfax County and our reputation, but literally to the health of our community, mental and physical health. [00:58:53] And I know for myself and each of us on the board have our kind of go-to parks. And whenever I'm looking to reduce my blood pressure significantly, all I do is walk into Huntley Meadows Park. And I have to do this often. But it is it is it's really a respite from, you know, the things going on in the community that can stress out our folks and give us a chance to refresh our mental health and physical health. [00:59:19] And also, as a parent of kids who play sports in the county, I think one of the often overlooked elements is how life changing our youth athletics can be. And those groups rely heavily on our facilities and bring our young people together and get them away from their screens and out into nature in a remarkable way. [00:59:40] And so we celebrate Parks and Recreation Month as a way not only to celebrate our facilities, but also to remind our residents of our unwavering support for the park authority, for the programs, for the facilities, for the staff, for the friends groups, for all the folks who make our recreational opportunities in abundance in Fairfax County and really contribute and improve our quality of life. [01:00:05] Lastly, outside of the active recreation piece, the environmental components here that are in the proclamation are important because we know that the stewards of our parkland take great care in maintaining it, but also make major contributions to the overall quality of our environment in Fairfax County. [01:00:27] You just think about the tree cover, the work that we do in mitigating flood and stormwater management, the air quality components. The Park Authority wears many responsible hats from historic preservation to environmental protection to recreation to so many things that our county and residents rely on. [01:00:47] And so I want to thank all those who contribute to this and look forward to making sure every July we celebrate Park and Recreation Month in Fairfax County. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Other comments? [01:01:04] I'm going to start on this. Okay. Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you. First of all, not only was Parks and Rec, I think, the greatest TV show of all time. But I think one of the important things that I brought in seeing J. Cole here today is seeing women leadership and women in leadership. [01:01:23] So I really want to thank all of you. And I'm especially excited to be able to know that we have so many parks in this county that we know some of our gems, our Nottoway parks, our Birk Lake parks, our Huntley Meadows. But I really appreciate that J. and your entire team have brought forward the importance of our community parks. [01:01:41] As the chairman mentioned, being able to walk to your parks. not a way was a little far for me to walk growing up so you walk to Aiken Park Eakin as we called it back then was our community park and now John Mastenbrook lovingly known as Shady Park in our community is where we get respite and so I really appreciate the work that you do and all of your staff every day to keep our gems or gems but also to ensure that we uplift and look at our community parks across the county and being able to have that access to that to be more walkable in our community and then finally I will never forget a conversation I have with one of [01:02:15] our important CEOs hi fortune 500 CEOs and Tyson's who said to me the two most important things we have in the county that we need to continue to support our schools and our great parks so thank you for what you do every day thank you to the chairman for bringing this forward and very excited to celebrate this in July also the best month thank you thank you others on this side supervisor Very quickly, thank you, Madam Vice Chairman. [01:02:43] I'll say I'm excited for this item, and thank you as well, Mr. Chairman, for bringing it forward. And I'll just make a couple of points. One, the Chairman and I share a district, so it tends to be that we both like the same park. And apparently when we had to make a decision about which park we would profile last year, someone had taken Huntley Meadows first. [01:03:06] So I had to go with my second choice. But I'll say we are so blessed to have so many great parks, both active and passive in Fairfax County. The thing I like, too, is and I'll say this, Jay, I want to acknowledge your work on equity in the parks. [01:03:22] You have been very focused on this issue and we can see we can see the fruits of your labor and the community is going to benefit. So I just want to acknowledge and say that here publicly. And then I also want to say, I mean, I'm excited to see what's happening with our summer concert series, too, just in terms of the people who come out to it. [01:03:44] So last week we had in our district, Franconia District, 600 plus folks who came out for the Chuck Brown Band. And I got to tell you, they were having so much fun. And just to think about the opportunity that that provides. [01:04:01] And you can see young, old, the diverse members of our community that are a part of those events. So this is so important. And, again, just delighted that we can honor and recognize and thank you for what you do. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. [01:04:17] Any other comments? Supervisor Stork. I just had one question, and I think I know the answer. But how many people in this audience and on this board have visited all of Fairfax County's parks? [01:04:34] but it took me a lot longer than it took jay i just wanted to i wanted to give her a chance as well thank you sir yeah yeah thank you um before we vote i can't let it go by without talking about our parks i've been an active park volunteer for 43 years starting in 1980 when we founded the friends of mason district park our first park festival and we did the park [01:05:10] festivals for 32 years our first park festival we wanted to earn enough money to buy a weed whacker so that staff could keep the weeds down we we netted enough money from that to buy a tractor and i have been um i i was thinking i was cleaning out files i've been consolidating files lately and i ran across this weekend that initial receipt for the tractor um it's you know our parks [01:05:44] provide such respite for so many people and such so many opportunities but for me personally our parks it's probably I would not have been such a fan of parks if I hadn't gotten involved when my kids were really really little. I discovered in going through some old files that our first park concert at Mason District Park which was the very first park concert in the [01:06:15] county was actually in 1985 so these park concerts that we now all enjoy but used to only be one um have been going on for almost 40 years and yes they we we sometimes have 60 people other times we have 600 people um but they are the best thing we do as community and and we now all have uh concerts in the parks of various kinds something that we would never have probably thought of back in 1985. Of course, in Mason District Park, we have the Newton Edwards Amphitheater, [01:06:53] which is the best venue in the county. But, you know, there are so many people who tell me every summer, because I'm still there hosting those concerts every three times a week, I didn't know this was here. How long has this been here? Well, you know, it's just amazing. [01:07:18] And then we also have people who will travel all the way from New York and Pennsylvania to come to the concerts because they're following some of the other performers. So we really have the opportunity to this is an opportunity to celebrate our parks. I've not just only done the kinds of the concerts and the festivals. [01:07:37] I can remember during a children's concert one time going back and putting on my gloves and pulling weeds. What I didn't realize is that I had unearthed ground bees, and I was stung 16 times. [01:07:54] So I stopped doing that, Jay. I don't pull weeds in the parks. I'll do just about anything for the parks, but I will not pull weeds. It's just too dangerous. but for the community our parks are the great leveler they're open to everybody everybody can find something that they want to do in our parks whether it's something sports related or something you know artistic related or just to walk certainly we know that our community treasures our parks because when a tree goes down on a trail we get the notice from our community members [01:08:33] who say, get that taken care of. And oh, by the way, I believe in today's announce, our carryover, there's a proposal for that. I think it's the third, I don't remember if it's the second or the third forestry crew for the park authority, which is something I've been hoping for for a long time. [01:08:54] So our parks, you're right, Supervisor Palachuk, our parks and our libraries, but our parks especially i think everybody understands the value that they bring to them i wish that they would understand what they need to do to maintain them and clean them up but um certainly our parks are well loved and may it always be that way so um with further ado all those in favor of the motion please say aye any opposed say nay any abstentions that motion carries and thank you mr chairman for [01:09:30] indulging me a little passion about parks thank you supervisor gross and um you heard it here first in two years when we celebrate the 40th anniversary of our concert series supervisor gross will be standing where jay is uh ready to receive the proclamation so we'll make a note of that um but but in all seriousness that they've been going on for a long long time as you acknowledged uh with that uh jay welcome the floor is yours thank you mr chairman and the members of the board you know A lot of the stuff that I wanted to say you guys already said for me, which is great because it means that it's true. [01:10:06] And today was a really awesome show of support for people with disabilities, the LGBTQIA community, all things that all the people behind me fully support. We even had a young gentleman who beat Montgomery County, which is one of my favorite things. [01:10:23] This is just phenomenal. So I just wanted to, you know, point out the fact that in the county there's very few, I think we're the only agency that does such different things. Schools build schools. [01:10:39] Schools, they might teach different age groups, but schools are schools. Roads are, generally speaking, you know, roads. Here we've got golf pros running golf courses on one side, and we've got, you know, ecologists managing, you know, preserves. [01:10:54] and we've got Zamboni drivers, and we've got rec centers, and we've got absolutely everything. And so I just wanted to thank staff, and I'll have to get you guys in a second. Let me make sure that I make my phone locked. Okay. So first and foremost, parks are in the business of fun. [01:11:11] So everybody behind me work extremely hard to ensure that our residents get to not work extremely hard. We work extremely hard so that they can relax, have fun, and recharge. And everybody here, including supervisors, know how serious that business is. [01:11:29] We've said this hundreds of times, and Chairman McKay reiterated it, but the pandemic really has reintroduced our communities to their local parks. Places of leisure, recreation, fitness, services, relaxation, recharging, and socialization. And it's important because everybody meets at a park. [01:11:47] Everybody meets at the trail. Everybody meets at the playground. Everybody meets at the ball field. I am a product of Fairfax County youth sports. Somebody behind me has met a child and introduced them to something that changed their life. Whether or not it's nature, whether or not it's the environment, whether or not it's sports, these people behind me really do change our residents' lives for the better. [01:12:09] Access to parks is associated with lower risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, lower BMI, and diminished mental health and other health concerns. And this is just one of the reasons we are so focused on equity. We are all working to ensure that all of our parks are available to all of our residents. [01:12:27] And everybody behind me believes that the predominant race and demographics of an area should not predetermine the quality and quantity of parks in that area. And that our rec centers and other services should be available and affordable to all of our residents. Because Fairfax County parks are for everyone. [01:12:45] They're where the community grows, which is the theme of this year's National Park and Recreation Month. As a note, we had about 18.2 million individual visits to our parks this year. And that's an undercounting. So the people behind me. So what people who are in this business often don't really understand is that everybody behind me are the renaissance men and women of public service. [01:13:12] They can do absolutely anything. You can have an emergency right here. There is a term in the business. We are parks and rec, and that's not a joke. Anything that happens right now, we can fix and we can do and we can mobilize. We're so much more than just camps and caterpillars. We're health care providers, first responders, educators, scientists, builders, engineers. [01:13:34] fixers designers accountants coaches programmers counselors entertainers planners and so much more the people behind me are the michelangelos of public service and i can't be more proud of everything that that they do so i'm gonna be remiss to remind everybody um i don't know where they got this idea from but um fairfax county residents we invite you to celebrate parks and rec month by participating in our national park and rec month selfie contest we're accepting photo submissions now through Friday, so please visit our website for all the details. I have not [01:14:09] been told that I can't win this. Nobody's told me, so there might be something that's going to happen after we take the photos, kind of like that Ellen DeGeneres photo at the Oscars. We're going to break the internet a little bit today, so thank you so much. Thank you very much, Jay. [01:14:26] Thank you very much, Jay, and I enjoyed our selfie at Huntley Meadows Park, so hopefully that's in contention, but in all seriousness, again, thank you all for being here. This is going to be a tough photo to organize, but it's going to be beautiful when we're done. If you all could [01:14:50] come forward, face the audience for a photo. Next up, we have appointments to citizen boards, [01:18:32] authorities, commissions, and advisory groups, and let me turn to Supervisor Gross for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move approval of the appointments listed as final copy and dated July 25th. [01:18:47] Second. That's been moved and seconded. Everyone should have a hard copy of that final copy before them. Is there any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. Two, three, four, five, six. We barely have what we need. [01:19:05] All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries uh six to zero uh with four board members being in the back all right uh next up we will go to board matters and the clerk has compiled these digitally as we always do we will go in order alphabetically by district following myself and vice chair gross i am going to hand the gavel over to vice chairman gross and first i have a a board matter to approve without objection the proclamation requests listed in this document [01:19:44] and that is a resolution to recognize the modern free tri-state masons a resolution to recognize green spring on its 25th anniversary facets on its 35th anniversary a proclamation and recognition of national night out on august 1st a proclamation and recognition of hunger action month in september And finally, a resolution jointly with Supervisor Palchuk in recognition of Food for Others, Tyson's 5K and Fun Run, and 10th anniversary on September 9th. [01:20:15] Without objection, so ordered. Thank you. And that is the only board matter that I have, but I do want to introduce two folks to the board who are summer interns in the chairman's office and are sitting behind me. First is Yasmin Marrero, who has lived in Fairfax County her entire life. [01:20:34] Recently, she graduated from Edison High School, and Yasmin is a super volunteer with local environmental groups, helping them with their social media accounts and organizing community members to protect the environment. She is passionate about politics, the environment, building people together for a good cause, and hopes to learn more about, and will learn more, about how local government impacts the community. [01:20:58] And this fall, she will be going to Dartmouth College. So join me in welcoming Yasmin. and secondly we have Christopher Supa is also proud to be born and raised in Fairfax County three years ago he graduated from Robinson Secondary School and will be heading back to UVA as a senior this fall he is double majoring in political science Spanish language and minoring in Mandarin Chinese Chris works as a tutor on campus helping international students and their families transition into the higher education system in Virginia and adjust to life in UVA. [01:21:38] Join me in welcoming Christopher. And as my colleagues have seen, while I see Supervisor Lusk and Supervisor Alcorn smiling because Christopher's a UVA grad, I don't let that stop me. But in all seriousness, in listening to all of our summer interns that have been introduced here in the board, just some remarkable young people. I mean, I think all of us are blushed when we look at their resumes. I mean, just really impressive and hope for the future. [01:22:12] And we thank all of them for volunteering to serve and to learn about local government and certainly hope that as they go away to college or go back to high school or go out into the working world that they remember how important local government is to the quality of life in people in Fairfax County and we're just blessed to have them with us for a period of time this summer and certainly glad that they're joining my office and with that Supervisor Gross that is the end of my board matters thank you Mr. Chairman and next up is you Vice Chairman Gross no board [01:22:47] matters no board matters thank you Supervisor Walkinshaw thank you Mr. Chairman I have three three board matters just one made it into the packet but all were distributed to to board offices The first is a joint board matter with you and Supervisor Smith to declare September a Suicide Awareness Month. [01:23:08] And as we all know, suicide is a serious public health problem that has lasting harmful effects on our community. And the goal of suicide prevention is to reduce factors that increase risk and increase factors that promote resilience. [01:23:23] And here in our community, organizations like PRS Crisis Link, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and of course our own CSB are on the front lines working to change the conversation from suicide to suicide prevention. [01:23:40] And we have the opportunity to provide support, encouragement, and resources that help promote healing and give hope. During the month of September, advocates, prevention organizations, survivors, and community members unite to promote awareness and to raise awareness every year. [01:23:57] Supervisor Smith, Chairman McKay, and I have led the Fairfax County team at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's annual Out of the Darkness Community Walk, which this year will be Sunday, October 1st in Fairfax City. And we want to invite everyone in the county community to join us, join our team, and join the walk. [01:24:20] We've had members of staff from a number of board offices join us, Supervisor Faust and his staff. I think Anthony and Supervisor Herity's office has joined us previously. And I do remind people that it is a competition. [01:24:36] It is a competition to raise money for the Foundation for Suicide Prevention, so please help us ensure we continue to have a good showing there. Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that the board proclaim September as Suicide Awareness Month in Fairfax County and that PRS Crisis Link, the Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the CSB, and other partners in suicide prevention be invited to come before the board on September 12th to accept the proclamation. [01:25:05] And I ask that the Office of Public Affairs help publicize both September, that's Suicide Awareness Month, and the October 1st walk. And without objection, that is so ordered, Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My next board matter is a joint board matter with Supervisor Palchuk and with you to declare September 11th through 15th as Disability Voting Rights Week. [01:25:29] It's appropriate given the presentation that we had earlier. Rev Up Virginia is a nonpartisan voter education and engagement initiative aimed at increasing the influence and participation of people with disabilities at the ballot box. [01:25:45] They seek to help effectuate meaningful change in the lives of disabled Virginians and their families. They launched in 2021 by bringing together people with disabilities and ally groups in the voting rights space. Each year, they coordinate Disability Voting Rights Week to acknowledge the strength of voters with disabilities and educate Americans on the importance of full enfranchisement in the disabled community. [01:26:12] In 2020, estimated 38 million people with disabilities were eligible to vote. The Voting Rights Week is September 11th through 15th, and they invite advocates and allies to participate in this national initiative to raise the disability voice and civic participation. [01:26:31] This year, they're sponsoring six events around the Commonwealth, including in Fairfax County at George Mason University on September 14th. Supervisor Palchuk and I participated last year, and I hope to do so again this year. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that the board proclaim September 11th through 15th disabilities voting rights week in Fairfax County. [01:26:55] I further move that the board recognize Helena Berger and Susan Lydic, who are the co-chairs of Rev Up Virginia, by inviting them to appear for a presentation and recognition at a location outside the boardroom. And without objection, that too is so ordered. [01:27:11] Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My final board matter is a joint board matter with you, and this is an exciting one, recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Penn Community Center, which has a very unique and interesting history. [01:27:29] The Penn Community Center has served a vital role for our community since it was acquired by the Sideburn Civic Community Association in 1973. In 2023, we recognize the 50th anniversary of the center. We also celebrate the nearly 100-year role that the center and the center site has played for the local African-American community. [01:27:53] The Penn Community Center at 10255 Zion Drive offers after-school programming, senior activities, a computer lab, and much more. It's one of our smaller community centers, but its service to the community is significant, as is its historic location. [01:28:13] After the Civil War, a small group of black families, including the Penn family, lived on farms along what was then Route 654, which is now Zion Drive. And in 1904, the Penn family donated an acre of land to build Little Bethel Baptist Church. [01:28:32] That building was used as a school for black children and for community events for the broader sideburn community. After World War II, the church building was purchased by the Immediate Relief Association to help families in need. And in 1973, the Sideburn Community Association requested that the County Board of Supervisors approve funding for the operation of the David R. Penn Memorial and Civic Recreation Center. [01:28:57] The building was subsequently renovated in 2011. Today, it serves neighborhood families, including many descendants of the original families who continue to live in the immediate area. And we celebrated the first Penn Community Day since the beginning of the pandemic just this past weekend. [01:29:18] And I want to thank the entire NCS team and all of the county and community organizations that helped bring it together. It really was a wonderful day. Hundreds of folks from the community came out to enjoy the center and the site and each other. [01:29:34] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, we move that the board direct, I'll ask without objection, the board direct OPA to draft a proclamation recognizing the 50th anniversary of the Penn Community Center to be presented outside the boardroom. You've heard, or without objection, that too is so ordered. [01:29:51] Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just one announcement, just wanted to share with the board that we had last night, the third meeting of the Lake Akatink Task Force. I joined the meeting, so we had former Braddock District Supervisor Sharon Bulova, former Braddock District Supervisor John Cook, and myself. [01:30:12] To quote John Kennedy, it was the most extraordinary collection of Braddock District talent and knowledge since Audrey Moore dined alone. I've been thinking of that all night. But the task force has had great dialogue and discussion. [01:30:32] Last night, they agreed to establish three subcommittees that are each going to be working on different topics that were laid out in our board matter. We also discussed and gave the task force the opportunity to provide input in the scope of the work that a consultant will do to look at the managed wetland and smaller lake hybrid options that came up throughout the public comment period. [01:31:00] So I feel like we're moving in the right direction. A lot of work to be done, but I want to thank all the members of the task force and our staff, staff in my office, Marcia and our summer interns who have been working really hard on it, Clayton in the chairman's office, Chris Harrington and Charles Smith and the Channel 16 team. [01:31:21] And it's been a heavy lift to pull it all together, but I'm optimistic about the work that they're doing and the outcome that we'll get to. So that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Supervisor Walkinshaw, and for your leadership on that, as well as former Chairman Sharon Bulova. [01:31:39] And I know we're trying to shoot to get more information to the board, maybe as soon as by the end of the year. And certainly I want to thank my colleagues. I've seen your newsletters and the work that you're doing and promoting the work of the task force. It's definitely a tall order for them, but we have confidence in them. [01:31:58] so thank you very much for that um with that uh next up is supervisor faust thank you mr chairman mr chairman this uh board matter addresses mclean community center board vacancy mr chairman as of the uh july 19 2023 the mclean community center governing board has a vacancy due to the resignation of an existing member attached to this board matter is a copy of the letter of resignation provided by my office i actually yes uh it is attached the rule of the [01:32:35] mcc board and process of making appointments that body are detailed in the 1984 memorandum of understanding between the bos and the mcc board the language of section 4c of the mou specifically addresses that when only a single vacancy occurs under the mlu the unsuccessful candidate from the the most recent election who received the most votes will be the first appointed to the unexpired term. This is an appointment to complete the existing vacant term ending May 31, 2024. [01:33:11] Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors find that it is in the public interest to appoint the person receiving the next highest number of votes in the May 23 election of governing board members and that the following individual will be appointed to the McLean Community Center governing board matthew kolsha term expiring may 31 2024 so moved you've heard the motion it's been seconded by supervisor lusk any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries supervisor faust thank you [01:33:46] mr chairman my next uh board matter uh addresses a possible conveyance of board-owned property to the fairfax county redevelopment and housing authority 13 500 screen drive herndon uh due to timing it does not indicate this but the board matter is joint with uh supervisor elkhorn so increasing supply of affordable housing is a high priority in fairfax county in march of 2022 the board of supervisors doubled its strategic goal to provide a minimum of 10 000 new affordable housing units by 2034. the department of housing and community development continues to actively [01:34:23] investigate the feasibility of board-owned sites for the development of affordable housing within all magisterial districts through the public private education facilities and infrastructure act publicly owned land in fairfax county has been successfully leveraged through partnership with private development and use of resources like low-income housing tax credits to reduce affordable housing units in a cost-effective manner board supervisors owns approximately 9.63 acres of land in the drainsville district located at thirteen five hundred dollar screen drive herndon probably is currently being used on a temporary basis as an athletic field the property [01:35:02] presents an opportunity for the creation of an affordable housing community as a transit-oriented development within one-third mile of the silver lines innovation metro station and nearby recreational and commercial amenities excuse me inclusion of affordable housing accessible to multiple modes of transport within the amenity rich area is consistent with the board's equity goals as described in its one fairfax policy therefore mr chairman we move that the board direct staff to initiate steps to formally authorize and schedule a public hearing to [01:35:39] consider conveyance of 9.63 acres of the board-owned dullest green site located at tax map parcel 0161010011B to the Fairfax County Redevelopment Housing Authority for the development of affordable housing subject to the following stipulations. In the event the FCRHA does not pursue the project, the FCRHA will transfer ownership of the property back to the board and the FCRHA will provide the county with access to and use of the site until such time as development activities begin. [01:36:17] And I further move that the board direct the county executive to work with the park authority to identify field capacity that might be made available to serve the needs of the groups that are currently using the property as an athletic field. [01:36:32] So move. Second. We've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Lusk. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Herity. Yeah, Mr. Chairman, as somebody who's been very, very involved with the cricket community in Fairfax County and trying to develop additional cricket fields, we've got a shortage of fields in general, but a severe shortage of cricket fields, I'm fully aware that this is the Dulles Green Cricket Ground, which is where we've got a pretty active cricket field now. [01:37:05] have we reached out to either the cricket community to park authority to find out where they're going to be able to replace that field supervisor i know they're having trouble adding fields because i've been on them to do that yeah i mean that's the whole point of the provision that we're going to look for alternative sites we have proper money that i was able to obtain through other developments in that area that is probably adequate to address this issue [01:37:43] and that's one of the reasons supervisor elkhorn and i are working together this is kind of in that general vicinity and maybe we'll even approach the sully supervisor but that vicinity we have resources to do something really nice in terms of a cricket field this field was made available and clear clearly uh made available to the cricket community uh it's in within one-third of an acre or of a mile of a metro site uh it was designed as a temporary uh uh i i was um aggressively [01:38:21] approached on many many occasions by the cricket uh community until i could find i finally found this opportunity and made it available but it is not a permanent solution we as a board need obviously across the county to address this issue but in particular uh we're focusing on it out here to make sure that we can accommodate their needs thank you supervisor faust any other discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any [01:38:52] opposed parody nay any abstentions and that passes nine to one supervisor faust thank you mr chairman my third and final work matter today involves expediting processing for hf tech point llc pca 79 c03709 concurrent with rz fdp 2022 dr 00029 mr chairman hf tech point llc has filed a [01:39:31] rezoning application pca 79c03709 concurrent with rz fdp 2022 dr 00029 on approximately five acres of land located at 13 595 dollars technology drive herndon to permit construction of a single multi-family residential building a public hearing is scheduled before the planning commission on september 13th 2023 the applicant has requested an expedited board of supervisors public hearing date to advance delivery of the project and public improvements the tech point application proposes [01:40:08] to demolish an existing office building to construct a single multi-family building that will provide up to 348 market dwelling units inclusive of a 42 uh 348 dwelling units inclusive of 42 workforce dwelling units the applicant has submitted proffers committing to widen river birch road and dallas technology drive to accommodate expanded sidewalks and bike lanes these improvements would enhance connectivity to area facilities including areas of innovation center metro rail stations and north of the site therefore i move that the board direct staff to [01:40:45] authorize concurrent simultaneous processing of a site plan architectural drawings and any other drawings as it may be necessary in conjunction with pca 79c03709 and rz fdp 2022 dr 00029 located at tax map 16 3 double circle 1 32c in addition i move that the board of supervisors direct staff to expedite a public hearing for the board of supervisors for pca 79c03709 and rz [01:41:20] fdp 2022 dr 00029 to a date certain of september 26 2023 this motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation by the board of supervisors on the proposed application and does not relieve the applicant from compliance with the provisions of all applicable ordinances regulations or adopted standards in any way so moved heard the motion it's been seconded by supervisor Lusk any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion [01:41:58] carries supervisor Faust thank you mr. chairman I have no further board matters thank you supervisor Faust next up is supervisor Lusk thank you mr. chairman I have two board matters the first is on the Springfield branding project so mr. [01:42:14] chairman about five years ago the board approved a contribution from the economic development support fund now known as the economic opportunity reserve fund or eor for the springfield branding project to aid springfield revitalization goals the project was conceived to strengthen the identity and image of central springfield to include the springfield commercial revitalization district as well as the springfield transit station area since then community revitalization section dpd staff with the assistance of staff from the department of [01:42:47] public works and environmental services have led the project through design conception manufacturing specifications permitting fabrication and this fall installation of four gateway signs in the central springfield area now in addition staff coordinated with the fairfax county department of transportation and the department of public works and environmental services on development of the design of a gateway sign to be placed on the pedestrian bridge of the springfield commuter parking garage now under construction. To complement the flagship welcome sign from the [01:43:25] west at the new commuter parking garage, staff developed an innovative gateway on the south and east of the commercial areas comprised of unique lighting installation at the Frontier Drive underpass. This lighting feature will improve the connection with the Franconia-Springfield metro rail station while also improving pedestrian safety and comfort this installation is beyond the budget of the initial gateway project so additional funds are being sought to complete the gateway system for springfield therefore mr chairman i ask without objection that dmb department of [01:44:00] management and budget include 150 000 to complete the springfield branding projects as a consideration item for the FY 2023 carryover adjustment. So moved. And without objection that is so ordered and again for consideration item request these consideration items will be added to the consideration items list for when we approve carryover. [01:44:25] This does not approve them at this point but certainly they can be approved as part of the carryover action. Supervisor Luss. Thank you Mr. Chairman. The second board matter is on reauthorization of Comprehensive Plan Amendments for SSPA nominations, so forgive me for these acronyms. [01:44:42] So the SSPA nominations, CPN 22-LE-004, CPN 22-LE-006, CPN 22-LE-008, and CPN 22-LE-009 consist of residential mixed-use proposals in the Springfield area that were authorized on April 11, 2023, as part of the 2022-2023 Conference of Plan Amendment Work Program. [01:45:19] Staff were directed to consider these nominations as part of the Springfield Transit Station Area slash Community Business Center, TSA slash CBC study. Plan Amendment 22, excuse me, Plan Amendment 20 23 dash roman numeral 4 dash s1 nomination cpn 22 dash le dash 06 proposes residential mixed use for tax map parcels 80-4 double circle one um parcel 16 17 18 19 and 20 b and tax map parcels [01:45:58] 90-2 double circle one parcels 4a 4b and 4c nomination cpn 22-le-008 proposes mixed use residential for tax map parcels 90-2 double circle one parcel 86a and nomination cpn 22-le-004 proposes residential and or continuing care use with potential ancillary ground floor retail for for Tax Map Parcels 90-4, Double Circle 1, Parcels 11C. [01:46:32] The broader study of the Transit Station TSA, Transit Station Area, Slash CBC, Central Business Center, is beginning and will involve a number of related initiatives to facilitate and update vision for Springfield. [01:46:47] However, given the longer anticipated timeline for the broader study and the potential for these nominations to catalyze redevelopment in the area, make sense to consider these nominations in advance of that broader study moreover the opportunity to study parcels 80-4 double circle 1 14 14a and 15 and 16a under cpn 22-le-009 should be considered for possible coordination with the cpn 22-le-006 site therefore mr chairman after all those acronyms [01:47:27] thank you for your indulgence to initiate the review of these nominations separately i move that the board of supervisors reauthorize consideration of individual plan amendments to include but not be limited to the land use and densities intensities on land areas in the The Springfield TSA slash CBC that were accepted into the 22-23 countywide SSPA process. [01:47:56] Again, CPN 22-LE-004, CPN 22-LE-006, CPN 22-LE-008, and CPN 22-LE-009. And to clarify, although the nominations were included in the motion for the broader Springfield TSA-CBC study, The intent is that they are being moved forward and will not be reconsidered for the broader study. [01:48:24] This motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation on these applications by the board and does not relieve the applicant from compliance with the provisions of all applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards. This action in no way prejudices the substantive review of the applications. [01:48:41] So move, Mr. Chairman. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Faust. Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Smith. I would appreciate some clarification of what's happening with this process so that I understand it because we just approved the SSPA nomination. [01:49:05] Staff has Tier 1, 2, 3 with how they're working on these processes. I'm not sure if I'm understanding this. These are now becoming out of turn, and since we're doing the SSPA with the Hall County, want to understand how that affects staff's workload and what they've already committed to across the county with the SSPA process thank you that's a question for staff thank you Leanna O'Donnell with the Department of Planning and Development these were already identified as tier one items so we've worked with supervisor Lusk's office and have coordinated in terms of [01:49:41] workload and in terms of reviewing these ahead of in coordination with that larger study so in other words there won't be any impact to any other nominations is what we're here that's correct okay thank you Leanna other discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries supervisor Lusk yeah mr. chairman I'll just say I'm really excited about this study and I want to thank the staff for their work in helping us to bring together all the different parts of Fairfax County government to support the effort. [01:50:21] Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. And next up is Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I do have a few board matters today. First is I have two carryover consideration items. The first relates to pre-development permanent supportive housing costs. [01:50:39] The development of affordable housing to meet a wide variety of needs in the community continues to be a major challenge that requires significant ongoing investment by the board of supervisors our adopted affordable housing development goal 10 000 new affordable homes by 2034 demands that the board keep up keep its foot on the gas keep our foot on the gas we all know homelessness in our community particularly among individuals with special needs is a challenge that can only be truly solved by affordable housing as we have discussed there is a need and the staff has told us for about 300 additional units of permanent supportive housing to serve the population of chronically homeless singles in Fairfax County while we are [01:51:18] making significant progress and have a substantial number of permanent supportive housing units in our development pipeline we need to continue to invest specifically in this much-needed type much-needed housing in all areas of the county so Mr. Chairman I move that as part of the carryover process that the board would have a consideration item to commit $500,000 in unallocated funds for inclusion in our competitive affordable housing blueprint pool to support pre-development and construction costs for housing projects that include permanent supportive housing. And Supervisor Alcorn, let's do that without [01:51:54] objection, since ultimately we're building a list here of consideration items. Without objection, that is so ordered. Thank you. And here's another consideration item that I'll also do is without objection, if the board is willing. So this past spring, the county, with the assistance of consultant StreetSense, successfully concluded phase one of an economic visioning study for the Lake Ann Commercial Revitalization Area, or CRA. The goal of this study was to build community consensus around a positive path forward for the Lake Ann CRA. We sought an economic vision that was [01:52:29] aspirational, grounded in market realities, and able to strengthen the economic viability and sustainability of the area. There was extensive participation by the Lake Ann community to shape the economic vision through a combination of focus groups, an online survey, and several in-person workshops and meetings. I'm pleased to announce that this goal was achieved and that there is substantial alignment on the economic vision across community members. Following the phase one work, the county, working with Street Sense, will assess individual property owner interests and their willingness to partner on implementing the vision. Phase two, which is [01:53:06] already funded, is critical to structuring this final scope of work that will explore the feasibility of various aspects of the economic vision. The third and final phase of work will involve the participation of Street Sense and sub-consultants with specialized expertise and knowledge in areas such as civil engineering, land use and condominium law, economic feasibility analysis, and the assessment of cultural and institutional uses. Phase 3 will build on the understanding gained through Phase 2 and will investigate various options for implementation in-depth. This information will provide landowners and the county with a clear understanding of options [01:53:44] and allow all stakeholders to construct an actionable plan for realizing the economic vision. Phase 3 of the economic visioning study is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2024. So I would ask without objection that this be included, $200,000 be included as a consideration item as part of the carryover. And without objection, that too is so ordered. [01:54:06] Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, the South Lakes High School women's track and field team has several outstanding athletes who had great success during the 2023 indoor and outdoor track season. Their 2023 state championship achievements included, first, the winter indoor Track 4x100, 4x800 Relay, Indoor Track 1,000 Meter State Championship, Outdoor Track 4x800 Relay, and they also earned national titles, including the Nike Outdoor Nationals 4,000 Meter Distance Medley Relay National Champions, the Nike Indoors Nationals 4x800 Relay in [01:54:45] second place, and the Nike Outdoors Nationals 4x800 Relay in third place. The Reston community is very proud of these outstanding achievements, and we look forward to another successful track season. So with that in mind, Mr. Chairman, I would ask that the Office of Public Affairs prepare a certificate of recognition for the team to be presented at a Board of Supervisors meeting in the fall. [01:55:07] And Supervisor Alcorn, I assume you would be okay with them working with your office on either in or out of the board room, whichever is appropriate and whichever the school prefers? Yes. Okay, excellent. All right, you've heard the motion. I'm happy to second that. Is there any further discussion? [01:55:24] Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you. One more board matter and then one announcement. As the board is aware, we adopted a new comprehensive plan amendment work program in April of this year, as was discussed a few minutes ago. [01:55:43] In Hunter Mill, there are 10 site-specific plan amendment nominations identified as Tier 3 reviews and noted together on the work plan as the Reston TSA study. These were placed on the work program in a deferred status until completion of the Reston Plan amendment, at which point development of a formal schedule and the review of these areas would begin. [01:56:05] As the Board is aware, due to recent changes in state code affecting public hearings, the Reston Plan amendment public hearing will be held before the Board of Supervisors on September 12th, rather than today as originally scheduled. While the ultimate outcome of each of these SSPA nominations is still to be determined, there are common themes across the nominations in Reston that would greatly benefit from staff research and analysis that has not yet started. In order for staff to begin this important preliminary work on these nominations prior to the pending adoption of the Reston Plan Amendment, I propose that we move these items from Tier 3 to Tier 1 on the work program. Therefore, [01:56:44] Mr. Chairman in order for important preliminary staff work to commence I move that the comprehensive plan amendment work program be revised to include the items identified as rest and TSA study items and that is CPN 22 - HM - 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 and 14 as tier 1 items You've heard the motion happy to second it discussion on the motion supervisor Smith I guess basically the same question thank you supervisor Smith this is Leanna O'Donnell [01:57:23] with DPD as supervisor Alcor noted the rest and plan amendment was originally scheduled for public hearing for today and it's been moved to September we anticipated that with completion of that amendment these would all move to tier one and we we have talked with him and internally and there won't be an impact on staff resources with this movement which was anticipated any additional discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries supervisor alcorn thank you one last item an announcement [01:57:57] as the board is aware tyson's is planned as fairfax county's urban center immediately to the west of existing planned and planned development in the hunter mill portion of tyson's is a stream Valley that includes Old Courthouse Spring Branch. Also included in this stream is Raglan Road Park and other Fairfax County Park Authority property, which contains more than 40 acres of forested land. [01:58:22] This green corridor is of great value to nearby residents, local businesses, visitors to the area, and the numerous flora and fauna that make this stream valley their home. Unlike many areas of Fairfax County, land along the stream valley is owned by a variety of property owners, including but not limited to the Park Authority. For the Board's awareness, I am creating a community-led task force with representatives of property owners and other community partners to develop high-level strategies for the preservation and enhancement of the Stream Valley. The task force will provide a forum for discussion and recommended action to maximize [01:58:59] the ecological benefits of this green corridor while maintaining appropriate access by us humans. I appreciate the Park Authority's active interest and participation in this effort, And I look forward to sharing the task force findings and recommendations at this import as this important community work moves forward and also would welcome any Participation by any of my colleagues or their staffs in this effort. It's it's going to be actually a fun Exercise to really see how those ecological assets could be Built upon and used for the broader community as well. Thank you. Thank you very much [01:59:37] supervisor Alcorn for that announcement and I assume that's the end of okay next up we have supervisor stork well thank you mr. chairman and this first item a charge at work program is really a follow-on from our environment committee meeting last Tuesday which the board strongly supported this so really this is on behalf of all board members previous County has shown a strong commitment and leadership to environmental sustainability community health and supportive workers are adopted community-wide energy and Climate Action Plan, CCAP, commits the whole of Fairfax County to achieving carbon neutrality by [02:00:12] the year 2050. Part of this plan includes increasing the purchase and use of electric vehicles as a fundamental strategy of that long-term carbon neutrality goal. CCAP specifically sets a goal for electric vehicle use in the community of at least 15 percent, or less than two percent as of today, but 15 percent of all light duty registrations in the county by 2030. [02:00:37] In addition, Fairfax County supports the environmental air quality jobs and economic opportunities electric vehicles and electric vehicle charging can produce. The county is actively engaging and involving businesses and other workplaces in the achievement of the community carbon neutrality goal. [02:00:53] With strategic, technical, and practical support, Fairfax County business and other workplaces can help accelerate electric vehicle adoption and access to clean transportation. Charge at Work is a new program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy that provides free technical and program support to workplaces that pledge to encourage and facilitate electric vehicle use by employees. [02:01:15] Therefore, I move that the board direct the county executive or his designee to enroll Fairfax County government in the Charge at Work program for assistance supporting electric vehicle charging and access to clean transportation at workplaces. Second. You've heard the motion and the second. [02:01:31] Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The next item is a joint one with yourself. [02:01:47] We all spent many, many board meetings a couple of years ago on really this issue, and we truly are here to celebrate that the American Horticultural Society, AHS, celebrates 50 years at River Farm this year. [02:02:03] AHS is one of the most longstanding, respected gardening organizations in North America and has been a good steward of our beloved River Farm, located on land once owned by George Washington along the picturesque Potomac River. River Farm is a national showcase for gardening, horticultural practices, and sustainable gardens. [02:02:21] The natural beauty of this 25-acre historic site is enhanced by a blend of formal and naturalistic gardens, including woodlands, a meadow, and award-winning children's gardens, along with many breathtaking views. by sharing its gardens ahs provides an opportunity to enlighten visitors to river farm and provide them with inspiration for their own home in 2020 when previous ahs board members decided to sell this historic property the community local leaders this board of supervisors and current ahs board members were instrumental in saving and helping to preserve the rich heritage [02:02:58] at river farm for potential future development the ahs is celebrating its 50 years at river farm throughout the year including a free community event the river farm anniversary picnic on august 24th and the annual ahs gala simple pleasures of the garden on september 23rd therefore mr chairman without objection we ask that a proclamation be signed by the chairman and myself to be presented to the american horticultural society at the river farm anniversary picnic on august 24th recognizing them for their 50 years at river farm you've heard the [02:03:33] uh without objection it is so ordered supervisor stork mr chairman that's it thank you thank you very much uh supervisor stork supervisor palchek thank you mr chairman i have one board matter and one announcement and the board matter is jointly with you and supervisor gross there is an updated version of the board matter that you all should have received at your seat at the dais to rename the providence community center to the jim scott community center members of the board on october [02:04:07] 25th 2022 we introduced the board matter requesting to begin the process of renaming the providence community center and honor former providence district supervisor james m scott you can see that attached in accordance with the board's renaming policy the department of neighborhood and community services ncs is coordinating this process and led the outreach efforts including collecting votes and feedback from the community a public vote was open from june 1st through june 30th and i'm pleased to announce that based on the community's input the providence community center [02:04:42] will be renamed as the jim scott community center the process of coordinating signage for the name change has begun and a name change ceremony will be held at the community center within the next few months after further coordination with the scott family information about the ceremony will be presented to the board at a later date therefore i move that the board of supervisors adopt the attached resolution to rename the providence community center in honor of james scott i further move that we direct the office of public affairs to work with the facilities management [02:05:17] department and the department of neighborhood and community services on logistics and plan an event this fall to celebrate with the scott family and the community i'm happy to second that motion along with supervisor gross uh any discussion on the motion um i just want to thank ncs and the staff who've been working on this uh there was a robust outreach and engagement and a poll sent out to the community after a conversation with miss scott and with her daughters about the possibilities of the name, and I think we're all pretty pleased that Jim Scott, who, and I know there's [02:05:52] more that's been shared, has done so much, did so much for the community, and so much I learned through this process of what he did at the state level that we still benefit from today. So I think we're very delighted, especially for his focus on the community, on health and human services, creating SAC, and other programs that benefit at the community center. [02:06:12] I think it will be a wonderful tribute. Absolutely. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. Any other discussion? I think a lot of us feel exactly the same way. So you said it well, and I look forward to the event when we can unveil this formally. And I really want to thank you for the process that you went through to get us to this point. [02:06:30] So it certainly was a good process with an outstanding outcome. So thank you. Supervisor Palchuk, was that all? I do have one. I guess, did we do that without objection? I forgot. uh let's we actually we did it we did it as a motion you're right let's vote on that i seconded it um all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that resoundingly uh passes 10 to 0. supervisor palchek thank you and it's been a long morning already um my other one um i did not have the opportunity to put together a formal motion um and while i [02:07:09] cannot personally attend it will be the second day of rosh hashanah i did want to share out and ask OPA if they could support and sharing outreach about the 9/11 Heroes Run that will take place at Oakton Elementary School on Sunday September 17th at 8:30 p.m. it is in coordination and support for the Travis Mannion Foundation Travis was a hero thanks to the work that he did his entire troop survived their work in Iraq while he did not come home and so actually this foundation is incredible work in the community supporting future leaders supporting [02:07:49] sorry supporting future leaders making sure that they are have a mission to empower veterans and families of fallen heroes to develop character in future generations so there's a family that I believe this is the second year they will be hosting this run and I'll be sure to share out additional information if any of you would like to attend the run to remember it's a 5k run walk and Brooke at 8:30 a.m. on September 17th sponsored by USAA and registration is [02:08:23] at 911 heroes run org so thanks the family who's brought this forward and who has helped organize this run at this new run in Oakton and we'll be happy to share it out and with support from okay thank you supervisor Pouchek and next up is supervisor Herdy yes mr. chairman my first one on advertising national night out you already did the proclamation to to do national night out as August 1st in Fairfax County but this would just without objection have OPA advertising [02:08:59] and without objection that is so ordered second one is done jointly with you mr. chairman and supervisor stork and it's on Lee Chapel improvements we obviously we're talking about loss of young life earlier today and this was a horrific accident on lee chapel road resulted in the death of two teenagers and serious injuries to another these are not the first deaths on this section of road and there have been efforts by me and others in the past to fix the ongoing concerns about the roadway tragedy only amplified the need for safety improvements on this segment of lee chapel road between ox road and the fairfax county parkway [02:09:35] In a coordinated effort with my office, Delegate Tran, Senator Barker, the Office of Supervisor Storkin, Chairman McKay, VDOT, FCDOT, and the Park Authority, there have been a number of immediate safety improvements to the road while mid- and long-term solutions were examined. [02:09:52] With the paving of Lee Chapel Road this month, additional short-term safety measures will be installed. FCDOT and VDOT have evaluated three midterm options to improve safety on Lee Chapel, removing the principal hill, removing both hills, and building the first leg of the eventual widened Lee Chapel Road. [02:10:13] The alternative that appears to be the most prudent from a funding, timeline, and community support standpoint is a project that would eliminate the two hills and include two 11-foot lanes and a 6-foot shoulder on each side of the roadway. Preliminary costs for this project are approximately $9 million. [02:10:32] We will be further discussing this direction with the community and soliciting its feedback at a town hall meeting we plan to host in early September, along with the Supervisor Shork's office, the Chairman's office, Senator Barker, and Delegate Tran. [02:10:48] We've been assessing ways to fund the project and working with our partners and staff to identify funding opportunities at the state level. We have also looked at the Board's adopted transportation priorities plan for opportunities to reallocate funds. [02:11:05] One of the projects that has sufficient funding available, as well as a schedule that allows for a temporary transfer, is the Shirleygate Extension Project. The Shirleygate Extension estimated cost is $22 million, and it is currently fully funded. [02:11:21] While this project is vitally important, we also understand the need for expediency in moving forward with the project on Lee Chapel Road. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move the Board of Supervisors direct county staff to work with the transportation to adjust, I'm sorry, to work to adjust the transportation priorities plan to provide $5 million for the Lee Chapel safety project and reduce a corresponding amount currently allocated to the Shirley Gate Road extension project. [02:11:49] I also move that county staff continue to work with our partners to find additional sources of funding to fund the remainder of the Lee Chapel project and to restore full funding to the Shirley Gate Road project as quickly as possible. So moved. [02:12:05] And I will second that along with Supervisor Stork. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Herity. Yeah, they are both very important projects, but I think it's critical. This move will not slow down the Shirley Gate Road extension project. That's been insured by staff of that, but I think it's critical we move forward with the late chapel safety improvements, and this allows that to happen. [02:12:30] We're actively working to seek some additional state funding for both of those projects. Further discussion, Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So just a process question. So the transportation priorities plan, we are going to be looking to update that, starting that process in the next few months. [02:12:51] So is the expectation, is that going to be rolled into this, or is this going to happen before then? I believe this is happening before then so that we can get moving with planning. Okay. All right. It's happening with this motion. With this motion, yes. [02:13:07] In essence, yeah. Got it. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And obviously willing to support the motion and understand the urgency and need of the Lee Chapel improvements. I am a little bit concerned about the impact on the Shirley Gate extension, which has been an important project for a long time. [02:13:30] It's more important today given the direction that George Mason University is headed in terms of some pretty intense development, including a stadium complex on their west campus. And the Shirley Gate extension is really the only transportation improvement happening anywhere in that area. [02:13:51] So I would be deeply, deeply concerned about a potential delay. I take Supervisor Herdy and staff at their words that this wouldn't cause a delay, but that presupposes that we identify the funds, working with our state partners. [02:14:08] The concern I have there is, and Supervisor Herdy recalls this, I'm sure, there have been efforts in Richmond in the General Assembly to defund the Shirley Gate Extension Project because it does not have support from, I will say it doesn't have unanimous support from General Assembly members who represent the area. [02:14:27] They were unsuccessful in defunding it because there wasn't any state funding. I don't think they were aware of that. So I would be a little bit concerned if we're reliant on VDOT or the Commonwealth of Virginia as a source of funding here. [02:14:43] So I guess all that is to say we're going to need a backup source, which I presume would be some other county-funded project. Let's ask staff. [02:15:01] We have our director of DOT here if he'd like to respond to that. Good morning. members of the board greg steverson with fcdot so the concept behind moving the money is that while uh obviously not nine million dollars could be moved over the course of the length and duration of the project we would have time to find other funding but yes other funding would have to be found from somewhere else whether it's another project whether it's um when we look at the tpp again in future years reallocating from somewhere to somewhere somewhere else we would have to do [02:15:40] that for sure okay all right if that piece of it occurs within the broader tpp conversation if that's necessary i think that's good obviously if there's a an additional reallocation from some other county project i think it'll be important that we have that that conversation as a board i'm also i'm just i see two different numbers here i see the preliminary cost for the project of nine million dollars and then the adjustment of five million dollars so what's that four million dollar delta you want me to answer you want to go or am i not understanding i'll give you first [02:16:20] crack at all right i'll get all the first crack that the five million gets it moving it's going to take the full nine million and again we're going to have to find that from state or other local service so the total the total for this piece is nine million dollars to take both hills the so so we're moving five million from shirley gate through this motion yes we hope to replace that five million maybe with our state partners or from some other project and then we're going to [02:16:53] need another four million correct to do lee chapel and what so and we'll figure that out later the other four million or do we think we can get four million from state partners that's what we're hoping okay got it and i will say that there there has been a lot of local opposition but by our local delegates but i i think the need for the for the road improvement and the understanding of the the need for the road improvement has eroded a lot of that opposition okay and i think i would just say that you know i mean i'm i'm supporting this because i think it's important to do something [02:17:28] on lee chapel i i will say the conditions on lee chapel have been the same for a long long long long long time. And so this is unusual that we're doing this. I think given the magnitude of what happened there, certainly the reason that I'm supporting it, but this is extraordinary for us to do this out of turn. And certainly any money that we might find to backfill, we're going to be doing with special care to not affect any other district's projects because, and this is certainly in the springfield district and a high priority in the springfield district but what we're not [02:18:05] doing here is signaling that we're going to be taking nine million dollars from another district and so as we move forward we're going to be working with staff to try to figure that out hopefully uh the state will surprise us um and come forward uh with money they're sitting on a ginormous surplus um to to put it in technical terms and and it would sure be nice uh to get a little bit of that for Fairfax County to help with this road and I do want to thank Senator Barker in particular and Delegate Tran for their work on this to try to come up with state funding and ultimately that will determine what [02:18:41] we're going to have to do moving forward to fill this hole but it I'm certainly approaching this with the expectation that you know my support is not going to hinder or take finances from projects and other districts in the county if i could add it that the shirley gate project clearly is in the springfield district but the impact is largely felt in the springfield and braddock districts so in our road projects while you know they're in one district or another many of them spread the impact to spread across [02:19:14] all districts lee chapel is going to impact mount bernard district as much as my district so i i think it's it's kind of tough when you're looking at it district by district um but i understand we're going to try to make everything work here but i think we need to get moving on lee chapel hence this it is difficult when you do it district by district but in defense of that some people in their districts have had projects that have been on the books for a long time before lee chapel came along and so that's why we want to try to not delay and protect those and i think the [02:19:48] What we're talking about here, you know, with the initial $5 million, you know, I'm fine with given the magnitude of that project and, you know, the need and the timeline of when that money will be necessary for Shirleygate. What we want to be careful about is where that extra $4 million comes from. [02:20:07] And, you know, hopefully, like I said, we get some from the state dedicated to this project. But certainly, Supervisor Harry and I will keep the rest of the board aware of what's going on, how that money is being found, efforts that can be made to achieve that. [02:20:23] And this, you know, we'll certainly be sharing that information with the rest of the board. But just wanted to make sure folks knew my intention on this, which is to address this issue. It's extraordinary. It's certainly out of turn, and it's certainly being done to deal with a major problem in the community, but not being done to try to hinder the progress that we're making on any other transportation project in the county. [02:20:48] Supervisor Walkinshaw, then Supervisor Alcorn. Just one follow-up point, and maybe there's an opportunity now with Shirley Gate to make an even stronger case with the state that they should be contributing to that project, given the benefits that the George Mason University, major, most important institution in the Commonwealth, I would argue, and what they hope to do there, which is largely out of our control. [02:21:18] So maybe we can make that argument in a stronger way and enlist George Mason University to help us in doing that Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, just thank you. Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the discussion and I think that helps me get my head around why the board matters says Direct County staff to work to adjust the TPP So it sounds like there's still a couple more steps that are underway. It's not the full amount So that that's very helpful and and this is unusual, but I'm I'm okay with the motion Yeah, and the initial amount that's in the board matter is necessary, as was mentioned earlier, to get things going here. [02:21:54] Because what we want to do, obviously this is as quickly as possible, but we also know it's going to take a couple years to get through engineering, citizen meetings, design, construction. There's a process here, as we all know too well, and, you know, we really need to get started formally on that. [02:22:12] Okay. If there's no other discussion, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Supervisor Harrity. That's it, Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [02:22:31] My first board matter is about our Zoning Ordinance Work Program. Mr. Chairman, at the Board's July 18, 2023 Land Use Policy Committee meeting, Leslie Johnson, Zoning Administrator, presented the proposed FY 2024-2025 Zoning Ordinance Work Program, which represents an updated two-year work program cycle. [02:22:53] Ms. Johnson highlighted the accomplishments in fiscal year 2023, specifically the completion of several reports to the Board, including the first ALU HBB report since the adoption of ZMOD, additional minor and editorial revisions to ZMOD, and, of course, the re-adoption of ZMOD. [02:23:11] She also highlighted the significant progress made on numerous topic areas, including parking reimagined, signs part two, and landscaping and screening. proposed fy 2024 2025 work program has 13 topics including both new and carryover items it is anticipated that many of the topics currently under review will be completed over the next two-year cycle ms johnson also presented an updated priority to list since many of the items were addressed through the adoption of zmod the work program was reviewed by the planning commission's land use process review committee on june 8 2023 with that mr chairman i move that the board of [02:23:49] supervisors endorse the FY 2024 2025 zoning ordinance work program as presented in the memorandum to the Board of Supervisors dated July 12 2023 it is my understanding that the FY 2024 2025 work program will be posted on the Department of Planning and Development's web page and circulated by gov delivery announcement I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Alcorn any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries [02:24:25] supervisor Smith so my next one Evelyn's been sitting here patiently I know she wishes that Sully district wasn't last in the alphabet as you are aware one of the success stories of the county is our Michael Fry animal shelter not only is the facility the location where a child might pick out their first pet, but also where many of these pets find a new adult companion. In 2022, the shelter received a total of just over 3,500 dogs, cats, small animals, and poultry, and in 2022, the live release was an astounding 92 percent. In addition to the outstanding shelter staff, the Friends of the [02:25:01] Fairfax County Animal Shelter and other volunteers provided over 15,100 in-house hours, which equals seven full-time positions. The Friends, through their efforts, provided nearly $209,000 in shelter funding. These monies were used for items such as $52,000 for medical treatment of shelter pets. [02:25:21] One of the fundraisers for the Friends group is the Putting for Pets golf tournament. This year's tournament is Monday, September 18 at Chantilly National Golf and Country Club in Centerville. The shotgun start is 10 o'clock a.m., and there will be light breakfast before and dinner after the tournament and an online silent auction where they have wonderful things therefore mr chairman if any of my colleagues are golfers and wish to spend time outside on what will hopefully be a beautiful fall day i would encourage them to sign up if you are not a golfer you can also sign up to attend the dinner which is what i do i would also ask that the office of public affairs [02:25:58] publicize the event you've heard that and certainly without objection it is so ordered everyone should have a copy of the flyer there is a big white flag that says senior t60 plus so if you're if you're qualified to participate in that program maybe that will entice you to come but in all seriousness a great day always for a great cause and in the past has had tremendously good weather so we hope that that continues but we thank the friends group for all they do for the shelter and look forward to participating in this fun event thank you mr [02:26:32] Supervisor Smith my last board matter is additional language for the reaffirm reaffirmation procedure for affidavits before the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals to address new and additional public hearings as the board knows recent state legislative changes pertaining to public hearing notice are having unintended consequences both here in the county and in other jurisdictions in some cases those changes might result in the need for for additional public hearings, even if everyone wishing to testify has already done so and no changes are being made to the application. [02:27:07] In an abundance of caution, we intend to proceed in a manner that continues to ensure the soundness of our public hearing processes at the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Planning Commission, and the Board of Supervisors. One of the consequences is that zoning applicants will have to reaffirm affidavits or submit new affidavits disclosing parties connected to the applications for any such additional hearing while we have a board adopted procedure for applicants to reaffirm affidavits that procedure does not contemplate these new additional hearings staff has proposed changes to the adopted procedure to address how applicants are to update or reaffirm their affidavits when the Planning [02:27:46] Commission or BZA is holding an additional hearing this new language affects the affidavit procedure for only those two bodies and not for the board of supervisors. The proposed language requires that if the Planning Commission or the BZA schedules an additional public hearing to be held within eight weeks of the prior hearing, the applicant or the applicant's authorized agent must reaffirm a previous affidavit or submit a new affidavit on or before the close of business seven business days prior to the additional public hearing. [02:28:18] The only other proposed change is to modernize the document, as we've done in many other contexts, by using the term must rather than shall to indicate a requirement. I have distributed the proposed additional language and modernization tweaks to all the board members. You can see from the red line that the new language affects only the Planning Commission and the Board of Zoning Appeals and that the new language adds and does not reduce requirements and that the new language is solely directed at addressing the new and additional hearings that are being required in response to the legislation that took effect on July 1st. [02:28:54] Therefore, I move that the board approve the revised affidavit reaffirmation procedure. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? [02:29:12] That motion carries. Supervisor Smith. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. And that brings us to the end of board matters. And at this time, we are going to move on to admin items. And let me ask Supervisor, this is admin items one through five. [02:29:29] Let me ask Supervisor Gross if we have a motion. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of administrative items one through five. You've heard the motion. It's been multiply seconded. Are there any items that board members have any questions about or would like to pull for a separate vote? Supervisor Herity. [02:29:46] Yeah, just questions. I believe it's, yeah, admin one. Just admin one. Which is the carryover. Okay. So, Admin 1, we will ask questions in a moment. [02:30:02] All those in favor of Admin Items 1 through 5, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Question on Admin 1, and I know we have budget staff here that are making their way down. [02:30:18] Admin Item 1 is authorization to advertise a public hearing on the county and schools FY 2023 carryover review to amend the appropriation level in the FY 2024 revised budget plan. And just as a reminder, we had a few items added to the carryover consideration item list here with board matters a moment ago. [02:30:41] Admin item one is only to authorize the public hearing. This is not a vote on the carryover package. With that being said, questions, Supervisor Herity. Yeah, I just was looking to get some additional information on the school budget's carryover. requests. They've got all their expenditures listed in one line item, but if we could get a breakdown of expenditure by category for the 63023 numbers by expenditure category. So requests for information. [02:31:14] And that's what these are more questions to have the answers before we have to vote on carryover. We'll get that and make sure that's distributed to the board, Supervisor Herring. The second one would be details on the $102.5, what are they, the administrative adjustments and the $29.4 million in department critical needs carryover. [02:31:46] Are you referring to schools? Schools, yes. Okay, so. Yeah, we break ours down pretty good by department and expenditure category and all that. It's a pretty detailed carryover package, but in the carryover package that was provided by schools, i didn't see a lot of that same detail and the third one's not really related to the uh the carryover package but uh you know each year the county's books are audited by an independent external accounting firm and i've gotten different answers on this when was the last time the school [02:32:19] systems books were audited by an external auditor christina jackson chief financial officer they also participate in the audit just as we do same as we do same timing yes all right thank you that's it it for me a couple of questions on the schools uh that we'll get answers to and circulate to the board okay um with that we are going to move on to action items action item number one is approval of a board of supervisors draft regular meeting schedule for calendar year 2024 supervisor gross mr chairman it's sort of bittersweet for me to make this motion because i've been doing this for [02:32:57] years and i appreciate the clerks um sending me information ahead of time to double check all of various regional and national meetings but i move approval of the board's uh regular meeting draft meeting schedule for calendar year 2024 in which i will not participate you've heard the motion a second by another smiling board member so if there are conflicts on our schedule next year we'll know which two board members to blame deal deal all right it's been moved and seconded [02:33:33] if there's no further discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries uh action two i understand is being deferred to this afternoon following the associated public hearing but action two is approval of a parking reduction for the converged development in the drainsville district supervisor faust thank you mr chairman i i move that we defer uh consideration of this action item until uh we complete the uh the public hearing on the converge uh redevelopment rezoning uh this afternoon i'm happy to second that along [02:34:11] with supervisor gross any discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries action item number three is approval of a parking reduction for 8110 gatehouse road and 2990 telestar court uh supervisor palchick thank you mr chairman i move that the board of supervisors approve a parking reduction request pursuant to subsection 6100.6.g of the zoning ordinance based on the unique characteristics of [02:34:43] the use as demonstrated in the parking study number pks-2023-00001 i'm sorry there was a hash at the front of that subject to the conditions dated may 19th 2023 in attachment one of the board item second you've heard the motion and the second by supervisor faust any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of action item three please say aye aye any opposed [02:35:16] any abstentions and that motion carries action item four is approval of the metropolitan washington regional fair housing plan supervisor faust thank you mr chairman uh i'm going to move approval and then have uh some comments so i move approval uh of the county executive's recommendation i'm happy to second that along with a whole lot of folks uh on the board uh discussion supervisor faust thank you uh mr chairman uh it's been an amazingly uh uh difficult project i say difficult time [02:35:52] time-consuming, hard work, a lot of outreach, just generally I think staff in the community have done a really outstanding job putting together a very, very significant comprehensive document. I especially want to thank Ken Saunders for getting approval of some language that was I think important to address issues that came up during the public outreach process And that language specifically is found in the front of the Fairfax County objectives. [02:36:28] And it says, Fairfax County recognizes the importance of dynamically adjusting and adapting its local goals throughout the five-year plan in response to data identifying the changing needs of residents and reflect ongoing dialogue and feedback from the community and service providers. [02:36:44] I think that satisfies a lot of concerns that we would just take this report and set it on the shelf, and that's not going to happen. And I also want to acknowledge the fact that yesterday we received communications from AHAC and specifically directly from Kerry Wilson and from the Fairfax County NAACP Fair Housing Group, specifically from Mary Payton. [02:37:20] Those two groups have been intimately involved in putting this all together, and both of them had similar recommendations with regard to, you know, keep the momentum. Let's come up with a plan for implementation. [02:37:37] Let's come up with goals, actions, budgets. And so what I anticipate is that we'll be coming back to the board with a board matter at some point, trying to capture some of that. I'm not sure all of it. I mean, we need to have that discussion, but I think they're on to something that, you know, we can really make some significant progress with respect to fair housing if we focus like we know this board can focus. [02:38:05] So we'll be coming back with that. But for today, we'll just go ahead and prove what's been done by Ken and Tom and his team. And thank you all. Did you guys, I know this has been a huge process, Mr. Chairman of SoCal, asking if they have any comment they want to make. [02:38:26] Thank you, Supervisor Faust. Did you have anything Ken you wanted to add? You know, we've been involved in this process with the regional AI probably the last three or four years. [02:38:44] I'm updating my deputy county exec on a biweekly basis. I think that we've been meeting on this weekly with the COG members, internally with all of the offices, going back at least a year. So I'm glad we're here. [02:38:59] It is a work in progress. I'm glad, and Supervisor Faust, I think we shared with you, we've made sure that this is a living document that we can change, add those goals. [02:39:15] That's something that COG really appreciated, so that the goals that you have right now, if we figure that it's not working or if it's working well, if we want to increase what we're doing, we have the ability to do so. So I'm very confident in what we have here right now. [02:39:33] Thank you, Mr. Saunders, and thank you, Supervisor Faust, for your comments. For people watching at home, just to reiterate a couple things. First, this is a Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments-led process that over the past several years, Fairfax County, along with seven other local jurisdictions, has been working with COG on this fair housing plan. [02:39:57] The final plan, which is before us today, is comprised of seven overarching recommendations for all participating jurisdictions to continue work to affirmatively further fair housing as well as Fairfax County-specific goals and strategies. [02:40:14] And the board has been involved and well aware of the plan's development at all stages, and I want to thank staff for that, including many board members who participate in the community listening sessions with constituents, that review during the public comment period and discussion of the draft goals that we had at a housing committee meeting Supervisor Faust committee. In addition to that robust community participation, the board clearly recognizes the importance of continued feedback from community groups regarding the plan, as Supervisor Faust have acknowledged. And I know that there's already a lot of plans and work [02:40:52] with Mr. Saunders and our other staff folks here, Mr. Fleetwood and others, to work on implementation. And as a part of this implementation, staff will develop a plan of action evaluation for the potentially highest impact actions and provide updates not only through equity plans, but also part of updates to the board. [02:41:13] And we'll work with Supervisor Faust on a motion that outlines some of those implementation pieces, but then also the continued community outreach piece to a number of organizations that work in this area, but also who are important to fair housing and affordable housing in Fairfax County. [02:41:34] And so, as was mentioned before, we're approving this plan today, but we, on an ongoing basis, are going to continue the implementation process, the community outreach process, to make sure that this is, in fact, a living document and not something that we approve today and walk away from and return back the next time we're doing this. [02:41:54] This is actually a living document that, you know, provides us not only with region-wide goals, but as I said earlier, but with some specific Fairfax County goals and strategies, and we'll work with our staff on making sure that we are addressing each of those Fairfax County specific goals and strategies on an ongoing basis. [02:42:16] But this has been a heavy lift, as it always has been in the past, and certainly thank the staff for their involvement in it, And we'll work with Supervisor Faust on some next implementation and community outreach, continued community outreach steps. So thank you. [02:42:33] Other questions? Supervisor Alcorn and then Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I really appreciate your comments. I appreciate Supervisor Faust's comments and the staff, all the great staff work on that that's gone into this, not just here but regionally. I do want to just flag something. [02:42:50] I think when we are looking at implementation, certainly our testing program is excellent. You know, I think it's really gone a long way to identify, you know, where there are issues and frankly uncover some things that some of us may not have been aware of. [02:43:09] I would like an implementation for us not only to consider some of the AHAC recommendations but also to start looking at maybe some other law enforcement strategies that might be used, particularly as it relates to discriminatory practices of some folks in our housing industry. [02:43:30] I know we have a way of doing it, and it's been very effective in many cases, but frankly, I'm, for one, looking to see where we might want to ramp something up a little more. I know when we're looking at resources, that's going to be an issue, but clearly I want to make sure that everyone, everyone in Fairfax County understands that if you're going to discriminate and you're going to do so in a way that violates the law, we're going to catch you, and so you better stop. [02:44:01] So I think that's a message I look forward to incorporating as we go forward on this and look forward to working with the chairman and Supervisor Faust as well. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Alcorn. And just for the board's indulgence, as a reminder, it is 12.15. [02:44:20] We will be going into closed session at 1.15. So that gives you an idea. We've got a little ways to go here on action items. So we are literally eating into our lunch. So just as a fair warning, Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to acknowledge and express my appreciation to COG for the work that they've done, obviously, in helping to organize and produce this very comprehensive fair housing report. [02:44:47] The thing I appreciate, too, was the comments that were made by Supervisor Froust as it relates to the implementation and the next steps. Because I think that's going to be very, really important as we look at the prioritization of the recommendations and then we've got to measure these things. [02:45:06] How do we determine if we've been successful or not? And I think that's going to be a necessary part of it as well. And I just also appreciate and raise up the comments from AHAC and the NAACP as they relate to ensuring that we have our chief equity officer be a part of the work as it's related to connecting to the other parts of Fairfax County government. [02:45:32] So I appreciate all that's been done here, and I'm looking forward to seeing the motion from Supervisor Faust. And I think this initiative is going to help us address this really complex problem because we know that there continues to be disparities, racial, ethnic, and disability-related in the areas of sales, rental, and financing. [02:45:58] So we've got to do something. And I just appreciate that this effort is bringing the region together and looking at it more holistically and comprehensively as opposed to us just looking at it from our own individual jurisdiction. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. [02:46:15] Thank you, Supervisor Lusk and Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, really, the community that's come together to create this, 1,200 different organizations and groups. And then, frankly, the 3,000 comments that helped to bring this about, I think those are all critical parts of how we've put this together. [02:46:36] But we also recognize that there's elements of this that don't meet, I think, our needs broadly. I think some of those have been mentioned. And I think the final piece I would say is that one of our challenges, maybe one of our blessings, but still a challenge for somebody who lives in this area, is the higher income levels that we have Mean that we don't qualify for some of the kind of designations. I think would help make a difference in particular The racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty. We have some of those areas in Fairfax County I I know they're along Richmond Highway. I know Supervisor Lusk and I see those but because we don't meet the [02:47:16] Income levels are higher than maybe otherwise would be permitted We don't qualify for some of that designation which I think would help us Provide more focus and diversity in our efforts to address the housing needs that we have So I just wanted to highlight that and recognize that we have challenges But we don't always have the same levels of income That affect that. So thank you. Thank you Supervisor Stork and if there's no other comments all those in favor of [02:47:48] action item we were on action item number four please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries action item number five approval of plain language explanation for the 2023 bond referendum for improvements to public schools and i will go ahead and approve um recommend that we approve action item number five i'd be and it's been moved by the chairman seconded by supervisor pal check is a discussion on the motion seen hearing none actually i do have one comment [02:48:23] uh this is supposed to be plain language i'm not sure we've actually gotten to as plain a language as we should and the the explanation is the plain language okay yeah the the ballot question itself um how would you parse this particular one two three i think seven line sentence if you had to to go back to middle school and diagram the sentence you wouldn't be able to do it so I do think that quite often when we have when we look at the vote totals there are under votes on the [02:49:01] school bond question and I think sometimes it's because people just don't understand what the question is it's just too much so the plain language explanation is okay but I think we still have a ways to go on what we're really asking for yes sorry since we're speaking I do want to add on the positive note and really want to thank staff and I believe led by the CFO on the and the council staff that even though Spanish and Vietnamese are the only required languages that we will be providing this and have in English Spanish Vietnamese and Korean so I [02:49:41] really well it's not the plainest of language I know the legal plain English is there as well as in those four other languages. Thank you, Supervisor Palachuk. Anything else before we vote? All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Any abstentions? That motion carries. Thank you, Supervisor Gross. And we are now on action item number six, approval of resolution to support the abandonment of a portion of Hoos Road's Route 636 in the Franconia District. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move approval of action item number six per the county executive's recommendation i'm happy to second that [02:50:17] is there any discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of action item six please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries action item number seven is authorization for the fairfax county redevelopment and housing authority to utilize up to eight point zero million dollars of the county's american rescue plan act coronavirus state and local fiscal Recovery Funds Allocation for the Acquisition of the Telestar Court Redevelopment in the Providence District, Supervisor Palcic. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move approval of Action Item 7. [02:50:54] For the motion, I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Faust and Supervisor Alcorn. Any discussion on the motion? I just want to, sorry, I know we're quick on time, but a couple highlights and really want to thank staff for this um this this project both repurposes office space and will hopefully create 80 multi-family units affordable units in merrifield and i believe it is our first project that is applying for the new virginia housing housing opportunity tax credits h-o-t-c which are due in two days i believe so hence um the timing uh fingers crossed hopefully [02:51:33] that is able to add to the to the federal funds and other funding sources and really appreciate the many many um hours that have gone into this project and looking forward to an innovative housing opportunity in tyson in maryfield sorry thank you thank you supervisor paucic all those in favor of action item seven please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries action item number eight is adoption of a resolution approving the issuance of fairfax county economic development authority residential care facility revenue refunding bond [02:52:09] series 2023 for the vincent hall retirement community in the drainsville district supervisor faust thank you mr chairman i move approval of the county executive's recommendation i'm happy to second that uh any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries action of item number nine is approval of revisions to fairfax county's road fund guidelines and this affects a lot of districts braddock uh let's see braddock uh drainsville hunter mill providence springfield [02:52:48] and sully supervisor alcorn thank you mr chairman i move approval of action item nine that's recommended by the county executive so i heard the motion i'm happy to second that as well and just a reminder to my colleagues this started on a board matter that i brought forward on august 2nd of 2023 and this is something that's been shopped heavily with industry and the community and and has their support and i just want to thank staff for their work in getting this here to us today uh with that uh all those in favor whoops i'm sorry supervisor uh smith any other discussion [02:53:27] thank you um when i was looking through the agenda item and looking at the equity impact and understanding there could be less revenue and the impact of off-site improvements i wanted to understand something about the changed language about whether the road fund contribution kind of goes with the property or the owner so say somebody owns this piece of property and they go to redevelop it or if it's whether somebody new buys the property and goes to redevelop it does the credit for what already and i'm really not saying this very well does the credit for what [02:54:07] went into the road fund go with the property or is it related to who the owner of the property is if that makes any sense it does uh good afternoon uh members of the board greg steverson fairfax County Department of Transportation so the concept behind it is that it does run with the property it's not the specific owner over you know the previous that's provide the previous contribution it could be that owner or the new owner okay you know I guess we'll follow this and see what happens as we move forward and any projects come in it just it's at the top of my mind because we're [02:54:44] looking at the Centerville suburban study for the comp plan and making those changes so it's something I want to keep an eye on as we move forward thank you thank you supervisor Smith supervisor Alcorn yeah just very quickly I appreciate supervisor Smith's question any any time we're looking backwards in time to create credit especially with frankly the complexities of our land use process I know the I wouldn't expect I might expect perhaps we might see this again in terms of some tweaks but I would just point out I think I think this also goes to show we do have some legacy programs it's particularly on the [02:55:21] transportation funding side that frankly are calling out for for updates so you know at some point maybe in the Transportation Committee we might talk about several of these processes that that need a little more comprehensive review just to make sure they're they're working in a way that makes sense for us today so actually a very good point I mean this one came forward because there was a problem that arose um but you're exactly right it was just you know when when that problem arose i think we all looked at it and said this seems grossly out of date needs to be modernized and you know frankly i think there are other candidates for that as well so thank you supervisor [02:55:59] alcorn uh supervisor harry yeah and that problem that arose was in the springfield district and i just wanted to thank staff for taking the time to get this right as we move forward Okay. If there's no other discussion, all those in favor of Action 9, please say aye. [02:56:15] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that brings us to Action 10, adoption of a resolution for the McLean Volunteer Fire Department, Fire and Rescue Equipment Financing, Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to move approval of the county executive's recommendation. [02:56:33] I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on Action 10? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries and brings us to Action Item 11, Board approval of Fairfax County's Title VI program for the Federal Transit Administration, FTA. [02:56:57] Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move approval of Action Item 11 as recommended by the county executives. I'm happy to second that. Multiply seconded. Any discussion on Action Item 11? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. [02:57:12] any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries action item number 12 is approval of resolution endorsing projects being submitted to the northern virginia transportation authority for fiscal year 2024 to fiscal year 2029 regional funding supervisor alcorn thank you mr chairman i move approval of action item 12 as recommended by the county executive you've heard the motion has been seconded by supervisor palchick uh any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none All those in favor of Action 12, please say aye. [02:57:45] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And that brings us to closed session. I announced a few minutes ago that we are going to begin closed session at 1.15 per the county attorney's recommendation should this motion pass. [02:58:01] And at this time, we'll turn to Supervisor Gross. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors recess and go into closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711. enlisted in the attached agenda for this meeting and in addition one consideration of settlement authority in board of supervisors v bargotty fairfax county circuit court case number cl-2022-4703 and board of supervisors v desari fairfax county circuit court case number cl-2022-4702 [02:58:39] 2. As well as consideration of settlement demands related to several employment claims, all as permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A7 and 8. 2. As permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-2711A8, legal analysis of the draft Green Bank Ordinance. [02:59:02] And three, as permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1, and eight, briefing regarding Retirement Board Authority and Board of Zoning Appeals appointments. That's my motion, but I do have a question for that. Let me second the motion. [02:59:20] Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Gross. Number two says 2.2-2711, but is it supposed to be 3711A8? And that's what I was seconding. Yes. It's 3-7-1-1. It's been, it's just a typo. [02:59:37] Yeah. Thank you. So we are at 3-7-1-1. As permitted by 3-7-1-1-A-8, legal analysis of the Draft Green Bank and Ordinance. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any other discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. [02:59:53] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And with that, we are going to move into closed session. we will begin closed session at 1 15 which gives us a few moments to likely grab lunch and if you need to bring it into closed session that is fine as well and then after closed session of course we'll return to the board auditorium for the remainder of our meeting that being said the [03:00:19] board will be in recess the board is back from closed session and before we begin public hearings [03:03:19] this afternoon i am going to turn to supervisor gross for a motion mr chairman i move that the the Board of Supervisors certify that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements by virtue of Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which closed session was convened, were heard, discussed, or considered by the Board of Supervisors during the closed session. [03:03:45] You've heard the motion. I'm happy to second it. Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Motion's coming out of closed session. Supervisor Gross. [03:04:00] Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize county participation in any proceeding of the Federal Communications Commission relating to the notice of proposed rulemaking regarding all-in pricing in MB Docket No. 23-203 on the terms and conditions outlined by the county attorney in closed session. [03:04:21] And the Chair will second that motion as well. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Smith. Thank you. [03:04:39] I move that the Board of Supervisors give the county attorney settlement authority and Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, versus A.J. Bargata, case number CL-2022-0004703, Fairfax County Circuit Court, according to the terms and conditions outlined by the county attorney in closed session. [03:04:58] I've heard the motion. It's been seconded by, with Supervisor Lusk. Discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Supervisor Smith. [03:05:14] I move that the Board of Supervisors give the county attorney settlement authority and Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia, v. Sunavaris Dasari and Padmajapani Dasari, case number CL-2022-0004702, Fairfax County Circuit Court, according to the terms and conditions outlined by the county attorney in closed session. [03:05:37] I've heard the motion and the second by Supervisor Lust. Discussion on the motion. Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? that motion carries and i believe that's all we have coming out of closed session so at this time we will begin our public hearings and just by way of announcement individuals wishing to testify are provided a number of ways to do so first they can testify here in person or they can provide testimony by phone or also by youtube video at the designated point in the public hearing i will call for any speakers from the speakers list and they will [03:06:16] either come forward or their video will be shown or they will be connected live by telephone. There will then be an opportunity for anyone else who would like to speak to the application who is present to come down to the podium or to call in on a number that will be provided on the screen. Speakers testifying by means of video must have signed up and submitted their video no later than 9 a.m. on the day prior to the public hearing. For all testimony, you are given three minutes to speak as an individual. If you were the spokesperson for a group, you were given five minutes. [03:06:46] With that being said, I'm going to call our first public hearing, which is a public hearing to lease county-owned properties for the purpose of installing solar facilities in the Franconia, Mason, and Braddock districts. And, of course, we have no affidavit for this public hearing, and when county staff is ready, we would welcome a staff presentation. [03:07:16] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Kevin Smith, and I am a division manager with the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. Sun Tribe Solar is one of two vendors contracted with Fairfax County to provide solar power purchase agreement, or PPA, services following a competitive procurement in late 2019. [03:07:38] A power purchase agreement is one of three procurement options the county is using to obtain solar electricity. The other two options are to purchase solar installations through an energy performance contract or to have the general contractor include solar installations as part of capital facilities projects. [03:07:58] The contract with Sun Tribe Solar allows Fairfax County to purchase on-site renewable energy with little to no upfront or operational costs. Participation in the solar PPA program is expected to reduce the county's greenhouse gas emissions and electricity costs. [03:08:15] Sun Tribe Solar proposes to install roof-mounted solar systems at four sites. Franconia Governmental Center, located in the Franconia District. Police Operational Support Bureau, located in the Mason District. [03:08:32] Mason District Police Station, located in the Mason District. And Building 1, Building 2, and Building 6 of the Stormwater and Wastewater Consolidation Facility, located in the Braddock District. These buildings are under construction with expected completion dates in the next 18 to 30 months. [03:08:53] When the county selected Sun Tribe Solar as a service provider, it agreed to the form lease that was provided as an attachment to the request for proposal. This form lease provides that the term shall commence on the effective date and terminate as provided in the form PPA. [03:09:09] The form PPA provides for a term of 20, 25, or 30 years, though it may be extended by the party's agreement. The lease will automatically terminate if the PPA is terminated for any reason. The form lease also provides for an annual rent of $1 per year. [03:09:28] Although the rent is de minimis, the solar facilities have a financial benefit to the county. Total electricity costs across the contract terms for facilities at which PPA solar projects are installed are expected to be lower compared to purchasing electricity at retail rates from the electric utility. [03:09:49] Per the terms of its current contract with Fairfax County, Sun Tribe Solar offered a fixed rate of 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour delivered for a 25-year contract term. Staff is recommending that the board authorize staff to finalize the documentation to lease the rooftops of the four county-owned facilities to Sun Tribe Solar. [03:10:10] This concludes the staff report. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff? Any questions of staff? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing. I have no speakers who have signed up in advance. Is there anyone here in the auditorium who wishes to speak on this matter? [03:10:27] Anyone present who wishes to testify on this matter? This is a public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask the clerk if any speakers have called in. No speakers have called in. Thank you very much. Any closing comments or recommendation from county staff? [03:10:44] Staff is recommending that the board authorize staff to finalize the documentation to lease the rooftops of the four county-owned facilities to Sun Tribe Solar. Thank you very much. uh last call any questions from board members seeing and hearing none i will now close the public hearing and turn to the chair of our environmental committee supervisor stork thank you mr chairman and i can't tell you how happy i am that this day is finally here and i i think uh john and combes and really all the struggles challenges we've had to get here we are here it's hopefully we'll see these now coming in quicker uh succession but the bottom [03:11:21] is we need to get these forward to make a difference for this planet for our county and really in general for society so I move the Board of Supervisors authorize staff to enter into lease agreement with Sun Tribe Solar for the purpose of designing and installing rooftop solar I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Lusk and Supervisor Palchik any discussion on the motion I think we're all delighted this day is here for those of us who supported this uh for a lot of years uh to get to this point uh that being said all those in favor of the [03:11:54] motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion is approved that brings us to our next public hearing which is a public hearing to convey board-owned property on columbia pike to the fairfax county redevelopment and housing authority in the mason district and as soon as staff is ready we would welcome a county staff presentation thank you mr chairman my name is mike lambert i'm the property manager of real estate services for the facilities management department the board of supervisors is the owner of an approximately three acre parcel of land located near the intersection of columbia pike and leesburg pike and identified as tax map [03:12:33] number 61-2 subdivision 1 parcel 113e the property is currently vacant except for a small portion next to columbia pike which has been temporarily repurposed as crossroads interim park and is maintained by the park authority and the stormwater division of public works situated directly to the southwest is the future site of the alta crossing apartment complex a 361 unit building that is currently under construction with a scheduled date of completion in 2025 to expand the county's own affordable housing portfolio the fairfax county redevelopment housing authority has identified the [03:13:09] columbia pike site as a suitable candidate for the construction of a multi-unit affordable housing complex and a child care operation the project is still in its conceptual phase as the housing authority evaluates the possibility of using a ppea or other procurement process to enlist the services of a private developer to construct the facility once the initial design is complete and a developer has been selected the public will be afforded several opportunities to comment on the project and its possible impacts on the surrounding community through the public hearings that must occur during the zoning entitlement process. Crossroads Interim Park will [03:13:45] remain in place until construction of the new building is ready to start. Staff recommends that the conveyance of the Columbia Pike parcel to the Housing Authority be subject to the condition that the property must be incorporated into an affordable housing community. In the event the Housing Authority no longer pursues the residential housing project, the Authority will transfer ownership of the property back to the Board. This concludes the staff report. [03:14:08] Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff? Seeing and hearing none this is a public hearing i have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter is there anyone here present in the auditorium that would like to speak on this subject anyone present who would like to testify this is a public hearing seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in no callers any additional closing comments or recommendations from staff staff recommended the board authorized staff to execute all the necessary documents to convey the columbia pike property to the housing authority [03:14:45] Thank you very much. Last call for questions from board members. Seeing and hearing none, at this time I will close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Gross for a motion. [03:14:55] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This site is not unknown to the board. It's been presented to us a number of times. Actually, I think it was 2005 when we first started talking about a county private partnership for redevelopment of this entire site that now also includes the Alta Crossing development, and there was a land swap years ago. [03:15:27] and it's it's it's taken a very long time we need to find a way to not spend so much time and effort not doing things rather than doing things so I am very pleased that this has come to us at this particular point of course as you heard if the redevelopment housing authority determines that it cannot make this a proposal work that they will come back to the board that the property will come back to the board but I think we have a really good idea here that we [03:16:04] will be able to see to fruition and therefore I am happy to move the county executive's recommendation and I'm happy to second that motion is there discussion on the motion discussion on the motion any further discussions just just to I'm sure this will pass but I want to thank county staff we've had lots of county staff work on this and um they never gave we never gave up so that's thank you to county staff over a long period of time and struggles yes all right uh with that being said [03:16:37] all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries thank you thank you very much uh next we have a public hearing on proposed plan amendment 2021-4-S2 Villa Park Road located south of Villa Park Road and west of the ramp between Backlick Road and westbound Franconia Springfield Parkway in the Franconia District and this was a plan amendment so we have no affidavit when staff is ready we would welcome county staff presentation [03:17:15] on this and just to refresh the board's memory this was a case we had at our last meeting where we had some discussion, so we're not starting from scratch, but if staff would give us an also short staff presentation, we would appreciate it. [03:17:33] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Sophia Fisher with the Department of Planning and Development. With me this afternoon are Graham Owen, also of DPD, and Tom Burke from Fairfax County Department of Transportation. This plan amendment was authorized by the board on March 23rd, 2021. [03:17:53] and staff was asked to consider a density of up to 8.5 dwelling units per acre, which would have allowed for a total of 49 dwelling units to be developed on the site. The plan amendment is being processed concurrently with a rezoning, which is currently proposing 42 townhouses or a density of 7.2 dwelling units per acre. [03:18:18] The site is currently planned for residential at four to five dwelling units per acre and is surrounded by several different planned and developed densities, ranging from one to two dwelling units an acre all the way up to eight to 12 units per acre with townhouse developments to the north and south, single-family houses to the west, and the Backlick Road on-ramp to the east. [03:18:48] These are a couple of views into the site. is currently pretty heavily forested. Here are a couple of views of the surrounding areas. Again, as I mentioned, there's pretty wide diversity of housing types existing in the area, including single-family homes on Stringer Court and Wesley Road and the Grandview and Villa Del Rey townhouse communities to the north and south. Some of the considerations that were taken into [03:19:23] account during the plan amendment review process we determined that the authorized 8.5 dwelling units per acre would not be possible while still meeting the other priorities on the site such as tree preservation stormwater management and open space additional considerations during the review of the plan amendment included buffering the existing neighbors residences roadway connections, safety and access and impact to public facilities and infrastructure. [03:19:58] Many of these considerations are governed by existing plan policies and are fully further evaluated during a rezoning process. Stock determined that a recommendation of five to eight dwelling units per acre would be appropriate for the site. This would allow for up to 46 units to be constructed and the development type would be compatible with the existing development this is a sketch from the most recent submission from the applicant on the rezoning [03:20:32] showing the current layout I'll note that the rezoning is still undergoing review and this layout could potentially change prior to it coming before the board in terms of community outreach we held two community outreach meetings one in september of 2022 and the other in april of 2023 also visited the franconia district land use committee twice discussion at both of or at all of these meetings really focused more on details [03:21:08] pertinent to the rezoning such as parking and traffic and we do note that the proposed townhouses actually generate fewer trips than the 29 single-family houses that could be built under the current four to five units per acre. And that concludes my presentation. Thank you very much. [03:21:30] Are there any questions of staff? Any questions of staff? I'm not seeing or hearing any. At this time, I'd welcome the nominator or agent for the nominator if they'd like to share a few thoughts. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. I'm Brian Winterhalter with DLA Piper here on behalf of the owner of the property subject to the plan amendment and the applicant for the concurrent rezoning application. [03:21:53] We are in support of the proposed plan text as coordinated with Supervisor Luskin County staff. We appreciate the opportunity to work through some of the concerns that were identified at the last board meeting. We look forward to continue to work on the rezoning application, and we would be grateful for your support. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Winterhalter. [03:22:10] Any questions for Mr. Winterhalter? Okay. This is a public hearing. I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify. is there anyone here in the auditorium who would like to speak on this matter anyone present who would like to testify this is a public hearing anyone present who would like to testify seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in no one has called [03:22:37] in any final comments or recommendations from staff and the commission voted to recommend that the board of supervisors board of supervisors adopt the proposed comprehensive plan amendment to add an option to develop the site at a density of five to eight dwelling units per acre subject to the conditions that the 10-year tree canopy target is fully met that stormwater management is provided on site and above the minimum standards and that vehicular access is provided [03:23:13] from villa park road with secondary access from wesley road staff does concur with the planning commission recommendation however i'll also note that this item was previously heard by the board supervisors on june 27th 2023 at which time the item was deferred since the last board hearing some modifications to the tree preservation and road connection text have been proposed these changes can be found in a handout dated july 25th 2023 that was distributed electronically to the [03:23:46] board last week thank you very much any last questions from board members last call supervisor Yeah, I was just going to say, we've heard a lot of hearings on this case. This is, I guess, our first time in this new process. So thank you, Mr. Chairman. [03:24:02] We have any other questions. Okay. We have had a caller now who has just called in. So we are going to take that testimony. Let me ask, can the caller hear me? Yes. [03:24:18] Okay, if you could just tell us your name and address, and then we would welcome your testimony. My name is Kathy Samper. I live in Grandview community right north of the proposed construction. I needed to note that not every resident in this community is okay with the construction that is coming. [03:24:41] The question for me, for all the Board of Supervisors folks, is who do you defend? Do you defend the residents and the homeowners or do you support JR real estate and construction development? They want to rip a hole into our community. [03:24:56] It is not okay. Their exit is not okay. They have the money and the resources to make an exit on the ramp instead of through our community where all the children run around, where all the buses run around, where all our parking is. I understand a lot of people there are happy and patting themselves on the back for this wonderful business deal, but it needs to be noted that not everybody in this community is happy with the construction that is coming. [03:25:23] Okay. Thank you, Ms. Stamper, for calling in. Let me verify there are no other callers on the line. Okay. At this time, I'm going to close the public hearing and turn to Supervisor Lusk for a motion. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. [03:25:39] Let me start by saying I appreciate very much the staff's engagement. Excuse me, guys. I've got a little frog in my throat. Appreciate very much the staff's engagement on this plan amendment as it relates to the plan text. [03:25:57] There were a couple of issues that were identified from a neighboring community, and as a result of that, we needed to go back and look at the question of both pedestrian and vehicular access and safety, and the language that we have here I feel very comfortable with addresses that. [03:26:20] And we also had the opportunity to talk with the applicant directly about some of the issues that are more attendant to the rezoning. And we will be making some adjustments in regard to it. All of these points have been brought to us directly from the community. [03:26:41] We've worked with the Grandview community, which the previous speaker is a member of. we've also worked with a couple of other communities that are adjacent to this site so I feel comfortable as of right now with the work that we've done and also with the plan language that is before us so I want to go ahead and make a motion now to move mr. chairman I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt PA [03:27:14] 2021-Roman numeral 4-S2 with the modified language as shown in the handout dated July 25th, 2023, acknowledging that this plan amendment has support from the Franconia District Land Use Committee, Planning Commission, and staff. So moved. [03:27:38] You've heard the motion, and the chair will second that motion along with Supervisor Palchuk. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Lusk. What I'd like to do for the caller is we would like to have a conversation with her later in regard to the rezoning. [03:27:57] We'll see what issues we can come to a conclusion on and look forward to that discussion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Any other discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. [03:28:13] Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And that brings us to our next public hearing, which is a public hearing on SE 2022-MA-00032, the Kingdom of Children, LLC, doing business as the Kingdom of Children Bilingual Preschool to permit a child care center in the Mason District. [03:28:41] And do we have someone who can reaffirm the affidavit? Good afternoon. My name is Dave McElhaney, a representative of the applicant. I reaffirm the affidated, dated March 20th, 2023. [03:29:09] Thank you very much. Are there any disclosures? Any disclosures from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Emma Estes with the Department of Planning and Development. [03:29:24] The applicant is requesting approval of a special exception for a child care center and an increase in fence height. The 13,450 square foot application site is located at 6481 Little River Turnpike, Alexandria in the Mason Supervisor District. [03:29:40] The site is in the R2 Zoning District and Highway Corridor Overlay District south of Little River Turnpike and accesses from Cherokee Avenue. The applicant is requesting a special exception to reestablish a child care center that had previously operated on the subject property. [03:29:56] The proposed child care center would have a total maximum daily enrollment of 36 children. And the applicant would make a series of modifications to the parking area, access, and landscaping. The SE also includes a request for an increase in fence height from 4 to 6 feet to allow the existing 6-foot tall fence to remain in a portion of the front yard and fulfill zoning ordinance barrier requirements. [03:30:18] The operation of the child care center will be consistent with that previously approved except for a proposed decrease from 40 to 36 children and eight parking spaces to seven. No changes to the building itself are proposed. And the site modifications include the expansion of the parking area, inclusion of a vehicle turnaround, ADA parking space and path, and a widened driveway apron for compliance with a PFM. [03:30:43] The applicant has provided an updated S.C. Platt with revisions that address the deficiencies with parking lot design that were noted in the staff report. Staff finds the proposed child care center meets the conditions of the zoning ordinance and is in harmony with the comprehensive plan. [03:30:58] And that concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, we'd welcome an applicant's presentation. Again, my name is Dave McElhaney, for the record, principal with Urban Engineering. [03:31:14] I'm joined here this evening by the applicant, Maria Martinez. Staff has done a splendid job in presenting this application, so we're available for questions, but I have no presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. [03:31:31] For that, are there any questions for staff or the applicant? Any questions of staff or the applicant? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I have no speakers who have signed up to testify in advance on this matter. is there anyone here present in the auditorium that would like to speak this is a public hearing anyone present who would like to testify seeing and hearing none are there anyone who has called in no callers have called in assume the applicant waves rebuttal closing comments and a recommendation from county staff on june 7th 2023 the planning commission recommended approval of the proposed [03:32:08] special exception and associated modification of transitional screening subject to the development conditions dated June 6th, and staff concurs with this recommendation. Thank you very much. Any last call for questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Gross for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This property, I live in the neighborhood. I go by this property every day. It really hasn't changed much in the last [03:32:41] 50 years. It's still a very nice brick home. Looks like it was built in the 40s. A number of years ago, it transitioned from a single-family detached dwelling to a child care center. Big change. There were a lot of concerns about traffic and noise and so forth, and none of that actually happened, which was good. The applicant today, I think because it was going to [03:33:18] be the same thing, daycare center, I remember meeting and the applicant was quite surprised when she couldn't just carry on what was going on before and had to come forward with another special exception. So I appreciate the patience of the applicant to get us to this particular point. [03:33:41] I think that because child care is so sorely needed, it's one of the biggest issues we have in the community. Having a return of child care or preschool to the neighborhood will be nothing but a plus. [03:33:59] I would like to ask the applicant to confirm their agreement to the development conditions dated June 6, 2023, or on behalf of the applicant. Yes, we confirm those conditions. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors approve SE 2022-MA-00032 subject to the development conditions dated June 6, 2023, and I further move that the Board of Supervisors approve a modification of the transitional screening requirement for the south lot line in favor of that shown on the SE Platte. Second. You've heard the motion at [03:34:36] multiple seconds. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion passes thank you mr chairman and thank you to staff for helping see this one through and good luck thank you next we have a public hearing on pca cdpa 2010-pr-014e rzpa 2022-pr-00051 gcc 28 owner llc [03:35:15] in the providence district and could we please reaffirm the affidavit thank you mr chairman members of the board of supervisors my name is lynn strobel i represent the applicant i reaffirm the affidavit that's dated may 22nd 2023 thank you thank you very much any disclosures from board members any disclosures from board members seeing and hearing none i will now recognize county staff for a staff presentation thank you mr chairman i'm sunny yang with the department planning and development the applicant gcc28 owner llc requests to amend proffers and site layout on a portion of [03:35:55] a previously approved mixed-use development at 8401 Greensboro Drive. The area subject to these applications is a portion of Part E of the rezoning, known as the Spring Hill Demonstration Project, located on Spring Hill Road between Greensboro Drive and Broad Street, within a quarter mile of Spring Hill Metro Station in the Huygens Urban Center. [03:36:21] The site is zoned PTC and is in the Highway Corridor overlay district. The site is developed with two 10-story office buildings that are built on a parking garage podium. The surrounding uses include multifamily residential to the east and west, office condos and the borough development to the south, and a mix of commercial development to the north. [03:36:44] Access to the site is from Broad Street and Greensboro Drive. The specific area subject to the applications is approximately 2.92 acres and is located at the intersection of Spring Hill Road and Broad Street. This application proposes to convert Building E3 from the approved office use to multifamily use. [03:37:06] The proposed building would accommodate a 410,000 square foot high-rise residential building with between 350 and 410 multifamily rental units. A minor revision to the building E5 footprint is proposed to accommodate the new building E3 footprint extending along Spring Hill Road. [03:37:27] No change is requested to the use height or GFA of building E5. The development proposed three new public parks that total approximately one acre, which include Highline Plaza at the intersection of Spring Hill Road and Broad Street, Highline Square, a pocket park along Broad Street behind building E3 and Highline Park, an elevated urban park provided on the top of the existing garage beside building E1 and E2. [03:37:57] Access to Highline Park is provided from Broad Street and Spring Hill Road with ADA access from Greensboro Drive. Here are the architectural elevations showing the proposed buildings E3 and E5. New roads would be applied to the existing garage. [03:38:14] applicant also requests to reaffirm the previously approved waivers and modifications this concludes my presentation thank you thank you very much this time we welcome an applicant's presentation thank you mr chairman members of the board again my name is lynn strobel i represent the applicant i believe that ms yang gave a very thorough report and as such i don't think that i'll go through a lot of detail in a powerpoint presentation i'll just say that the property that's before you this [03:38:48] afternoon was part e of the demonstration project so it is zoned to the ptc district it was approved in 2003 but unfortunately it was approved for an office building and i think we're all familiar with the state of the office market right now and so the applicant decided to come through this process to modify that to a residential building we spent a lot of time with staff to ensure that this project would be of the quality that you've come to expect in Tyson's I would note that there are a couple things that we really had to work on because of the topography and the fact that there are two existing office [03:39:25] buildings that will remain next to this proposed building and those issues that we worked on very closely included parks and the accessibility of parks and what we came up with I think is a very good proposal for two parks that are at the ground plane at broad street and spring hill but also an elevated park that's between the two existing office buildings and that will include a stage area as well as some active recreation and i think that we're optimistic that these improvements will ensure kind of a revitalization [03:39:59] of this area and it's an area that has been rather slow to redevelop under the tyson's plan even though there have been approvals not much has been built so we're hopeful that this will activate this part of tyson's so with that i would be happy to answer any questions i'm pleased to say that the staff does recommend approval and this has been recommended for approval by the planning commission thank you thank you very much uh miss strobel are there any questions of staff or the applicant any questions of staff or the applicant i'm not seeing any thank you very much this is a [03:40:32] public hearing and i do have one speaker who has signed up in advance to testify uh william lawson who is an attend attorney for the rotunda condominiums and has five minutes mr lawson welcome uh thank you mr chairman for the record i'm william b lawson jr and i represent the board of directors of the rotunda we do support this application we think it'll be a terrific addition to the tyson's community the board had hoped however that with this application and the [03:41:08] borough development that broad street would be completed along the frontage of these two projects we understand after meeting with the applicant on site why that is is not possible it's going to have to be preferred until the the future if the developers are going to be the ones doing it broad street is an important component of the grid system we know from experience how a grid system can help relieve traffic in that community it's the completion [03:41:43] of broad street would we believe relieve a lot of traffic on greensboro the planning commissioner and our supervisor know that the main entrance to the rotunda condominium which has many many residents is on greensboro and the issue that we have is the the guard security Booths are not far enough away from Greensboro that it does not occasionally result in the backing up onto Greensboro of trucks, moving trucks, trying to get and so forth and so on. [03:42:19] So the reason I'm here speaking tonight is to ask that, you know, if this could be monitored, the traffic situation, and if indeed it does become hazardous to the traveling public in the future, the Board of Supervisors has many tools that you can use to complete Broad Street, which would help the situation very much. [03:42:46] And we would hope that that would be considered by the board at the appropriate time. The Board of the Rotunda wants to thank the staff, the applicant, Planning Commission, and you all as well for listening to their concerns. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Lawson. [03:43:04] I have no other speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. Is there anyone else present in the auditorium that would like to speak on this subject? This is a public hearing. Anyone else who would like to testify? Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask if we have anyone who has called in. [03:43:21] No one has called in. assume the applicant waives rebuttal closing comments and a recommendation from county staff on july 12 2023 the planning commission recommended approval of the applications subject to the proffers consistent with those dated july 11 2023 staff recommends approval of the applications and finds that the applications are in conformance with the comprehensive plan and applicable zoning ordinance provisions thank you thank you very much final call questions from board members yes supervisor Palchik thank you Mr. Chairman and I want to thank Mr. Lawson for [03:43:56] speaking here and also the planning commission if I could ask staff Sunny if you could give us just a brief very brief explanation of a broad street I know we we know it's a it's a complicated but necessary issue of will this get will this get have any possible improvements or will we be monitoring this moving forward thank you so with this application the application property is located at the intersection of Spring Hill Road and [03:44:29] Broad Street and being consistent with the original approved CDP so this application also proposes two scenarios so and the ultimate scenario will the Broad Street will be improved as a four-lane connector public public collector connecting Wester Park Street to the west however with this proposal the interim condition would be an improvement of Broad Street in front of the application property with the two-lane the current existing condition [03:45:06] but so the development of Broad Street will pending on the development or with redevelopment of adjacent properties. So there are some existing approved proposals and applications in line, but however, the final extension of Bradstreet will still, depending on the adjacent development properties, but it's included in this plan. [03:45:36] - So to clarify, it does abut and actually relapse with several existing properties. So this will improve this property, there's still i believe at least one or two others yeah there are a couple um adjacent properties um the the formal um county retainer store and another one adjacent to that which is going to be subject to will be impacted and also the borrow has been approved and there's another one at the corner of of Leesburg Pike and West Park, which has an approved plans. [03:46:07] However, those are in line depending on redevelopment or development, but all of those gonna be impact the extension of the general extension of the Broad Street. Thank you. - Thank you, I appreciate that. [03:46:23] So hopefully a catalyst for the continued improvement. - Yeah, thank you. - Eventual development of Broad Street. - Thank you. - Thank you very much. Any other questions? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Palchuk for a motion. [03:46:40] Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. Before I make the motion, I think as you all heard and saw, first of all, thank you so much to Sunny and to all the staff who've been involved with this. Thank you to the Planning Commission, to the applicants for communicating with us and with the community. [03:46:57] I do believe that we are seeing here a little bit of a shift in the office market. it and so this brings an opportunity while we need to continue to monitor and track where we are knowing the current situation may change in the future I think as was heard both in the testimony and in our many hours of work on this project that there are many positive outcomes out of this especially I love that's called the High Line but the urban park space well not quite competing with New York yet so we're getting there I believe is wonderful to [03:47:31] see this the shift of space and being able to turn existing less useful space into urban space the flexibility the creativity and I know staff and not my office and the Planning Commission and commissioners over quite a bit with you to ensure that we get the best possible benefits and the ability for the community to see where the park is I know that that was a concern for many of us and so I do appreciate that everyone has worked really hard to accommodate the wayfinding as well as the public access to those parks and then I also [03:48:10] appreciate that in this area we are able to see some other public amenities that will be visible from the public including you know placemaking through the paths through the seating through the outdoor stage space the plaza and I really just bringing some opportunities for people to be able to stay enjoy live or work in Tyson's and then finally I really appreciate that the Planning Commissioners did ask some very I think important questions at their meeting and that there will be the full streetscape and the and the and the trees in [03:48:47] addition to the urban park that is being provided and I think this was mentioned I think it's important that we be flexible and knowing that there is quite a bit of need for housing and a little bit less in an office space now so I think this is a creative solution moving forward so to that I will make two motions Mr. Chairman I move that the Board of Supervisors approve approve PCA 2010-PR-014E and the associated conceptual development plan amendment subject to the executed proffers dated July 11th 2023 and I further move that the Board [03:49:25] of supervisors reaffirm their previously approved waivers and modifications listed in the handout distributed to you and i will second that motion any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries supervisor palchick thank you mr chairman did you have a second motion too oh no those both combined okay excellent excellent very good thank you so much thank you very much uh next we have a public hearing uh that i understand is being deferred but is public [03:50:03] hearing on pca 2004-le-012-02 cdpa 2004-le-012 rzpa 2022-le-00055 rh senior housing llc of Virginia Limited Liability Corporation in the Franconia District, Supervisor Lusk. [03:50:26] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At the request of the applicant, I move to defer the public hearing for PCA 2004-LE-012-02 slash CDPA 2004-LE-012 RZPA 2022-LE-00055 in the name of RH Senior Housing, LLC, a Virginia Limited Liability Corporation [03:50:59] to a date certain of september 26th at 3 30 p.m and the chair will second that motion any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries brings us to our next public hearing which is also a candidate for deferral, and that is a public hearing on PCA CDPA 2016-HM-035-02, RZPA 2022-HM-00085, [03:51:36] and PCA 2009-HM-019-03, RZPA 2022-HM-00084, Comstock Reston Station Holdings, LC, in the 100 Mill District, Supervisor Alcorn. [03:51:54] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Due to an affidavit issue, I move to defer the public hearing of PCA 2009-HM-019-03, PCA 2016-HM-035-02, and CDPA 2016-HM-035-02 until September 12th at 3.30 p.m. [03:52:18] You've heard the motion and the second by Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries and brings us to a public hearing on proposed plan amendment 2023-2-M1, west falls church tsa subunit a-2 in the drainsville district and rz 2022-dr-00018 [03:52:52] converge west falls church llc to rezone from c3 and hc to prm and hc to permit mixed use development in the drainsville district and could the applicant please reaffirm the affidavit Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Andrew Painter, representing Converge West Falls LLC, the applicant. I reaffirmed the affidavit dated July 13, 2023. [03:53:16] Thank you very much, Mr. Painter. Are there disclosures? Disclosures. Any disclosures from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm Daniel Creed with the Department of Planning and Development. [03:53:33] This presentation will cover both the proposed plan amendment followed by the rezoning application associated with the Converge application near the West Falls Church Metro Station. I'm joined this afternoon by Planning Division staff. On March 21st, 2023, the Board of Supervisors authorized the comprehensive plan amendment for land subunit A-2 in the McLean Planning District. [03:53:56] The review of the plan amendment is concurrent with the rezoning application RZ-2022-DR-0018. The site falls within the West Falls Church Transit Station area, which consists of a 7.53-acre site that is comprised of two parcels. [03:54:13] It is owned by Virginia Tech and the City of Falls Church. The site is currently developed with the Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center. Staff reviewed the plan for a shift between the office and institutional uses for the Virginia Tech property, maintaining the planned intensity of 2.5 FAR. [03:54:31] The difference between the adopted and the proposed plan for Land Unit A, Subunit A-2, is summarized in the table. This change does not increase the planned floor area ratio or overall plan limits of the development in the transit station area. Staff concurs with the Planning Commission recommendation to support the proposed shift from institutional use to office use. [03:54:55] And next, I will cover the rezoning application, RZ-2022-DR-0018. The 7.53-acre subject property is located in the Drainville Magisterial District, south of the West Falls Church Metro Rail Station, southwest of the Village Condominiums, west of Meridian High School, east of the City of Falls Church, and north of Haycock Road and the Gates Condominium Development. [03:55:20] The site is currently developed with a college, the Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center. The campus consists of a four-story, 101,000-square-feet building, landscaping, associated surface parking, and a stormwater detention pond. This application proposes to rezone the property to the PRM district. [03:55:40] The applicant proposes a two-block mixed-use development. Block A consists of an office and education facility. Block B consists of a residential multi-family tower with ground floor retail. Between buildings A and B, the applicant proposes to construct a street kit connection to extend West Falls Station Boulevard through the property to the property line with the City of Falls Church. [03:56:00] This road will feature a publicly accessible medium green with a pavilion structure, landscaping, and hardscape. Building A is proposed to be a total of 270,000 square feet with a maximum height of 120 feet. The building will consist of 230,000 square feet of office and 40,000 square feet of institutional uses. [03:56:20] Building A will include a solar photovoltaic panel array as a canopy feature. The array will have the capacity to generate between 1,100 and 1,400 megawatts of renewable electricity for the building. Here are the proposed architectural elevations of Building A. [03:56:39] Building B is proposed to be a total of 550,000 square feet with up to 440 multifamily units and a maximum height of 145 feet. The tower will include up to 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail space. Here are the proposed architectural elevations of Building B. [03:56:59] I'd like to discuss the height at the corner of Building B. This issue has been closely analyzed during the review of the application with the applicant asked to revise their proposal over time. Ultimately, staff weighed the language and exhibits of the comprehensive plan and found the request in harmony. [03:57:16] The comprehensive plan provides height recommendations in Figure 39. Figure 39 is not to scale and does not depict planned roadways, including the West Falls Station Boulevard intersection at this corner. The only road depicted is Falls Church Drive, and the 85-foot section width is not specified, and length along the frontage is unknown. [03:57:38] Therefore, with that in mind, staff reviewed the language and the text of the comprehensive plan and noted that the language states that the portions directly across from the villages should be no more than 85 feet in height. Portions of the building directly along the frontage of Fall Church Drive are 85 feet or less. The plan further states that step downs may be appropriate when adjacent to or across from existing residences. Mechanisms such as shadow studies, cross sections, and building design should be provided to demonstrate that the proposed heights do not adversely impact residents in the neighboring developments. Using this language, staff further [03:58:13] interpreted the comprehensive plan to permit certain design mechanisms to be used to reduce the impact to existing residences. On subsequent submissions, the applicant set the building back further from the street at the corner, included the step back to reduce the visual impact between transitions and height, and included a 30-foot retail podium and an 85-foot section at the corner to offer visual relief. Further, the applicant provided shadow studies depicting impacts largely during the twilight of the winter solstice. [03:58:45] These slides show the evolution of the design through the review process. The applicant is proposing a number of publicly accessible parks, including a sustainability pocket park, the Innovation Civic Plaza, and a pocket play park. [03:59:04] Staff had requested a contribution towards a county project to improve the intersection to facilitate a planned shared use path from the Washington-Old Dominion Trail to Leesburg Pike. With the intersection improvements, the proposed shared use path could connect to planned trails on Hacock Road and provide a connection to the site. [03:59:21] Since the publication of the staff report, the applicant has proposed a proffer to contribute $500,000 towards the project. That concludes staff's presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. This time we'd welcome a presentation from the applicant. [03:59:38] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank staff for hard work on this request. This site is the critical missing link between the city's high school site, which is shown on your screen in pink to the west, and the green WMATA site, which is shown to the east, which this board approved redevelopment of at the last meeting in June. [04:00:00] This is the smallest of the three sites, but it is, again, the critical one that facilitates pedestrian and vehicular mobility all the way from Leesburg Pike to the Metrorail site. I like this image here because it shows a composite of all three projects together, both in the city and in the county, without respect to jurisdictional boundary. [04:00:17] It's not to scale, but it does show how all three projects will interact with one another. To talk about just a couple of things that Mr. Creed mentioned, Building A, this is going to be 270,000 square feet of office and educational uses. Most of the building will house a new corporate headquarters for HIT Contracting, which is a successful Fairfax County business. [04:00:37] Many of you all know that HIT contracting has grown substantially in recent years, and it wants to stay in Fairfax County, but locate to a place that's walkable, is transit accessible, and features amenities. And so this is an extremely important project from a work culture perspective, but also from a creative talent attraction retention perspective. [04:00:56] And as Mr. Creed mentioned, this is not just intended to be just another office building. This is really intended to be a defining architectural statement for our region, and it will be in our county. It is intended to be a collaborative corporate, educational, and research space, which is why we refer to it as Converge. [04:01:14] Approximately 40,000 square feet, which is shown on the lower podium of the building here, will be dedicated to Virginia Tech's future Coalition for Smart Construction. This will be Virginia Tech's second largest footprint in the area. [04:01:30] It will be a regional innovation hub for the construction industry, and it will be overseen by Virginia Tech's highly regarded architectural school, where it will blend mechanical, structural, environmental engineering, robotics, material science, all under one roof. And the idea is to come up with innovative ideas and push those ideas out to the construction industry as quickly as possible. [04:01:49] We have really not seen something like this before in our area. What you're looking at here is Mustang Alley. Mustang Alley is really the border between the City of Falls Church, which is on the left-hand side of the screen where the taller building is, and Fairfax County, which is on the right-hand side of Mustang Alley. At the very back, in the background, is a beige building. [04:02:07] That is the newly completed Meridian High School in the City of Falls Church. And one of the things you'll see with this design is we've been purposeful. It symbolizes progress, it symbolizes openness, and encourages people to look inside the facility and see what's going on and get them excited about visiting and the construction industry generally. [04:02:25] There is a large solar array, which will be on top of the building. Architecturally, we haven't seen something like this in Northern Virginia. I think Udvar-Hazy meets the National Air and Space Museum meets the JFK Presidential Library in Boston, and we have that here. [04:02:41] That solar array will generate the electricity for the building. This is intended to be a net-zero building, and the solar array is supposed to be a visible commitment to building sustainability. And what you're looking at here, I couldn't be prouder, you are looking at the Meridian High School football stadium looking into Fairfax County at this building. [04:02:59] And lastly, this is the last perspective image. This is the drop-off area at Meridian High School. You'll see Mustang Alley on the left-hand side of the screen. The taller buildings in the background are in the city of Falls Church. They are currently under construction. And on the left-hand side, you will see, if you can squint, you'll see the window transparency. [04:03:17] People will be able to look into the facility, into the robotics, into seeing what the researchers are working on. But the importance of this cannot be underscored. You will have hundreds, if not thousands, of people walking by here on a weekly basis to and from school, being able to look in and see what's going on. So this is an exciting thing from an economic development perspective, but also a jobs perspective, too, and getting people excited about the construction industry. [04:03:40] Building B is the residential building. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but it's 440 residential units, 18,000 square feet of ground floor retail. This is a perspective view looking west towards the city of Falls Church. The building that's in the background that's tall is in the city, so they have buildings that have been approved at about 40 feet higher than those in the county, and you'll see the Converge Virginia Tech building on the right-hand side, and then you'll see the Converge residential building on the left-hand side. This has been designed to be complementary to the Virginia Tech hit contracting building. We created kind of a wave-like effect that steps back along West Falls Church Boulevard, then steps back again, [04:04:19] but it rises to its full building height along West Falls Station Boulevard, where you want to have that architectural expression, and then if you look on the left-hand side of the screen, you'll see a substantial drop to 85 feet along Falls Church Drive opposite the villages, which is what's recommended by the comprehensive plan. And you'll also see the townhouses in the very lower part of the left-hand side of the screen. Those are the EYA towns that were approved last month as part of the WMATA station redevelopment. And here's another image looking at Falls Church Drive and West Falls Station Boulevard. Mr. Creed showed this, but it shows some of the architectural elements that we've incorporated to provide an appropriate transition to the neighborhoods [04:04:55] across the street. I think it's been in the area of the public realm that we spent a lot of time working with staff to create places that encourage socialization and interaction. We have public art and pollinator gardens and botanical seating areas scattered throughout the property. We'd like to highlight two areas in particular. One is the Innovation Civic Plaza. This is the nucleus of the site. It will be in the median of Westfall Station Boulevard with plaza space and gardens and whatnot. Shown on the left-hand side of the screen and in the foreground of this picture is the event lawn, which will be a multifunctional space that can showcase what Virginia Tech is [04:05:32] working on or public art created by students nearby. In the background, you'll see a pavilion, which we refer to as the cloud pavilion. This is totally different. It is an electronic fabric LED pavilion that floats over the area that responds to what is happening in and around the canopy. [04:05:49] So it creates a series of floating pillows or clouds that can change color, it can change size, it can change shape based on the angle of the sun, believe it or not. We can change how the material functions. You could have, for example, a pre-programmed light show to celebrate or draw attention to things. [04:06:06] You could put imagery or a pattern on it. But we believe this is going to be an immersive experience that will be a distinctive public art moment for the entire West Falls Station, West Falls Church transportation area. At the northern end of the site, we are going to be upgrading a forgotten and outmoded stormwater management pond into what we call our sustainability pocket park. [04:06:25] And this sort of blends together the idea of having a learning moment with teaching about sustainability, which goes to the core mission of HIT Contracting and Virginia Tech. So there will be an elevated boardwalk, seating, interpretive signage, and more. And then last but not least, just to talk about the educational innovation journey, which is what's on your screen. [04:06:46] Each star on this map represents 25 different innovative experiential learning moments because the concept is that when you visit the site, you're not just coming and, you know, walking around. We want to be able to help educate people out what it took to put this site together, everything from the solar array to the plans themselves. [04:07:03] And so each of these moments would have a QR code or an app that you could access. There would be information about it. It would take you to audio or visual displays. But it's kind of a choose-your-own-journey adventure for all abilities and accessibilities. And what you're looking at here is Mustang Alley again with one of those moments looking at the high school site and the robotics laboratory on the right-hand side of the screen. [04:07:26] In terms of transportation, not going to dwell too much on this. We are implementing the comprehensive plan's street grid. We've worked with staff to provide full pedestrian connectivity in and around the entirety of the site. We are completing the extension of Westfall Station Boulevard, So there will be a connection between Leesburg Pike and the Metro Rail Station vehicularly and mobily. [04:07:45] And then we are contributing $500,000 to help reconstruct the Leesburg Pike-Haycock Road intersection, among other things. We are proud of our landscaping environmental approach. This will expand the mitigation of stormwater runoff and ultimately aid in the reduction of the urban heat island effect on the property. [04:08:04] We are also upgrading the site to address the heightened stormwater management recommendations as envisioned in the 2021 Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Mr. Chairman, I guess in conclusion, we've been at this for about five years, from project inception through the Comprehensive Plan to get to this point today. [04:08:23] And I thought about how I would conclude this. I feel like I've been living with this. I think we all have been. But I thought about how I'd sit back and reflect upon it. And at least to me, this is much more than a redevelopment project. This represents the partnership of this county, the City of Falls Church, WMATA, Virginia Tech, the private sector, citizens both for and against, many of whom will testify tonight, and your professional planning staff. [04:08:47] I think it capitalizes on the investment that we are making in Metro Rail, in jobs, in housing, in Fairfax County, in education in particular. And again, this site is a critical piece that makes the entire transit station area function. And I would like to express my appreciation to Supervisor Faust for his leadership over these many years, as well as Supervisor Palchuk, because Providence is just a stone throw away across Leesburg Pike. [04:09:10] We are honored to have staff's recommendation of approval and a unanimous recommendation of approval from your planning commission. So our entire project team is happy to answer any questions, and we appreciate your time and consideration. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Painter. At this time, I'd ask my colleagues if anyone has questions of staff or the applicant. [04:09:29] Let me start with Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This all looks, you know, otherworldly almost. But I do have a question about the parks. And if you could put up perhaps the, not the aerial view, but it was a rendering that showed the play park, I think it was, which is about 7,000 square feet or something. [04:09:57] I'd like to, I have a question about that. If you can put that up. Yes, okay. It would appear to me that you've got a children's play area immediately next to a four-lane roadway, which gives me some qualms. [04:10:21] Could you expand on that a little bit? And then also, I'm wondering where the nearest parkland is. I mean, you know, something that's got more than a couple thousand square feet of play area. [04:10:39] Where is the nearest? if you want to be 10 minutes from a park i don't think this is what we were talking about in the park authority about being 10 minutes from park so i'd like to know a little bit more about what the opportunities for true parkland and and explain to me what you're doing on this particular location near a what looks to be a four-lane roadway do you want to bring up i think i've got in the image on mine as well. So this will be a 7,908 square foot park. We located it on this side of the building because it was proximate to one of the main entrances. There will be berms, [04:11:18] there will be fencing, there will be an entire streetscape as well. We are going to be rebuilding Falls Church Drive as part of this project. And then throughout the entirety of the West Falls Station transit or the transit station area you have Meridian Park I'm sorry you have Meridian High School and all of its athletic fields immediately to the north and then as part of the rebuilding of the Womata site there is a nature play area and a dog park area that is over at the intersection of Falls Church Drive and Haycock Road so and I wish we could bring up the one screen that shows the entirety of the park system and then throughout the throughout the length of [04:11:57] westfall station boulevard in the median there are a series of you know public art moments and play areas and things like that and i think we could just so those those are planned there so so these are new new facilities park facilities that are being built as part of this they're not something that exists so if i'm looking you know i'm standing there now i wouldn't have any any of those parks there they but they are part of your proposal that is that is correct and i wish that could get to and i guess it's been taken away from me but there is a map that shows both the parks in the city of false church that have been planned as part of that project and then the parks that [04:12:34] have been planned uh in fairfax county as part of the urban parks framework okay all right thank you very much for your attention to that okay um yes supervisor alcorn yeah just to follow up on that thank you uh supervisor gross for that that question i i know um in a lot of places where we're seeing development like this we really struggle with the parks in the pocket parks a lot of times have not been sufficient but you know from what i can see this actually looks like a good improvement over at least some of the some of the things i've seen developed you know in previous years so it looks like you have been working a lot on those we have surprised alcohol [04:13:13] and in both the eya in both the lamata site and in the site we do exceed the urban parks framework recommendations um and if you take a look at that height map the area that is the former stormwater management pond that is over adjacent to the interchange of i-66 and the and the connector road that area has been specifically reserved for passive recreation so we've included a sport court there we've included dog park but then there's also another publicly accessible open space nature play area that includes play elements for all ages as part of the womata site redevelopment [04:13:45] okay uh supervisor lusk thank you mr chairman um i'm really excited about that solar array the size of it it's just totally immense um what's the square footage what's the area of that solar array how large is it i don't know if i have the square footage uh supervisor lusk but i do know that it generates approximately 1.1 to 1.4 megawatts of electricity it will sit between 108 and i believe 115 feet in height but it covers the entirety of the block the the building footprint envelope. Because I'm wondering if it's like one of the largest canopies. Is it one of [04:14:21] the largest solar arrays in the area? I think it would be the largest one. I'm getting notes that it's about a hundred thousand square feet. Holy cow. That is a very big solar array. And then second on the discussion around the construction technologies, I was really intrigued by the point you mentioned robotics, but one of the things that's really kind of becoming more innovative in construction is the use of 3D printing to actually build the frames and the structures on site. Is that one of the areas that's going to be studied here as well, or do you know? [04:14:52] It will be, and it's not only going to be studied here, but the actual building itself, HIT Contracting is experimenting for both buildings with different types of construction techniques. So furniture within this building will be generated with a 3D printer. The facade of the building will be prefabricated to reduce the carbon footprint. So at every step of the way, there will be no red toxins at all, but at every step of the way, we will be incorporating those types of sustainability elements in the building. [04:15:17] I'm going to ask something I almost never ask, and that is I want to come to see this building once it's built. I'm actually very intrigued by it, so thank you. And to follow up on that, Supervisor Lusk, HIT Contracting operates something called the CoLab, which is on Merrifield at Heartland Road in Providence District next to the Beltway. [04:15:35] They have various experimental techniques in that building that they like to have displayed. They have approximately 2,000 people coming in every single year to that building. There will be a community impact officer associated with this building as well that will encourage individuals to come here. [04:15:52] There will be events. There will be internships with Fairfax County Public Schools and Falls Church City Public Schools as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other questions? Yes, Supervisor Palchek. I will try to be brief. Just a comment, and I really appreciate living so close to this area is that absolutely right now, And I'm looking at the map again. [04:16:13] I believe currently it's mostly parking lot and the closest parks are linear parks or smaller community parks, mostly in Providence and Drainesville. So I really appreciate the improvement there. Watching that, all I'm thinking is outdoor sensory room in addition to everything else. [04:16:30] But I do think that there is a lot of thought put into this and I think it'll be an improvement. My one question, I guess, is really to transportation. The Falls Church Drive, I know that was mentioned. I don't recall, and maybe that's for staff, if this is county-city split and if we have a sense of traffic calming or speeds that might be going through that area. [04:16:54] I believe it's going to be a private road, and I'm not sure what the posted speed limit there, if it's planned to change or not. Supervisor Patrick, that road is actually on WMATA property, so WMATA will be operating it. The development consortium that will be redeveloping the site will be rebuilding it, but WMATA will be operating it. [04:17:16] 25 miles per hour will be the posted speed likely in all likelihood okay and i do see there is there are medians there so hopefully a lot of things being designed to help the engineering slow the traffic as well correct that's right okay and if you could remind me i do believe it's connected quite a few ways to metro but also the new ramp to 66 as well as leesburg haycock quite a few ways to get in and out hopefully safely and quickly there there was a grid that was approved with the 2021 comprehensive plan amendment and all elements of the grid will be completed with this project as sort of the linchpin of it all okay perfect thank you so much i appreciate everyone from staff to to the developers in the community who've worked on this and the staff and supervisor [04:17:56] fast thank you thank you supervisor palchek any other questions yes supervisor faust yeah um i'll have time more to say later but in terms of parks uh you've got meridian high school is right there i mean you you can see it from these these buildings you've got wnod which is about six 10th of a mile i think the walk from these buildings you've got haycock elementary school with all its uh playgrounds and and fields which is walking distance i know this because i walk it [04:18:29] most mornings uh from haycock down to this site so uh there is not an issue uh they what they're contributing uh with their um with the two applications uh the metro and this one are are just really nice places to be i mean it's more active the metro parks i think are a little more uh provided on the metro site but these parks are you know going to be very very attractive just to just to be in thank you supervisor faust and we're about to start the public hearing but i just want [04:19:05] to make sure there are no other questions before we begin that we do have nine speakers who have signed up in advance and are testifying either by phone video or in person when we complete these nine speakers who have signed up in advance i will ask if there's anyone else here who would like to testify and again check and make sure that we have no one else who has phoned in that would like to testify this is a public hearing and my first speaker who is signed up should be joining us by phone cindy cordell miss cordell there yes i am uh welcome miss cordell the the floor is yours [04:19:43] and you have three minutes. Thank you, Chairman McKay, for allowing me to speak to the entire Board of Supervisors. My name is Cindy Cordell, and I live at 7072 Fall Street Drive, which is directly across from the Converge project and adjacent to the WMATA project. Both of these projects will significantly impact my living environment due to the major rezoning changes approved or set to be approved by this board. I just have three points I would like you to before you vote today. One, the Fairfax comprehensive plan clearly states in text that no building [04:20:17] across from the villages should be more than 85 feet. The applicant did not show the slide today that was shown at the planning meeting. It clearly shows the 145-feet tower is directly across from about six of the townhouses, and unfortunately, one of those townhouses is mine. It seems that the planning staff, as well as many others, want to disregard the comprehensive plan statement and approved this 140-foot building tower with just a very minimal setback. [04:20:46] I've attended so many meetings, and when setback is discussed, it was discussed in the context of buildings. Each building got shorter and shorter, not just a 27-foot setback on an existing roof. So police represent constituents and require the applicant to provide a more substantive setback before the 140-foot tower overs villages. [04:21:09] And I will say I fully support this is a massive rezoning. Every other aspect of this plan I fully support and I'm excited about. Point two is I know others have testimony about the shadow issue because I think there's been a lot of data out there that's been misrepresented, and I'll let others speak to that. [04:21:26] But it really does look like from 3 p.m. mid-September to about after 3 p.m. mid-September to mid-March, the villages portion that I live in will be shadowed. And I know that's not what the developers want you to believe. I don't think 3 p.m. is twilight time in the winter solstice, so I hope you really do look at that shadow data. [04:21:47] It does impact the villages, and it should be considered. And the last, no matter how you vote, the villages are going to be subject to construction, which we already are because of the West Falls Church development with noise, dust, traffic congestion for years to come. [04:22:04] This is not the same communion. It's a health issue for those of us with respiratory issues. Your votes today really matter. And please do not disregard all the problems that happens during, you know, four or five years of construction. It's going to impact our quality of life. And the least you can do is follow the Fairfax Comprehensive Plan for the villages, which clearly states across there should be no building greater than 85 feet. [04:22:29] I thank you for listening and for your consideration. Thank you, Ms. Cordell. And our second speaker is Sonia Brihi. Is Sonia on the line? I am. Welcome, Ms. Breehee, and you are representing the Coalition for Smarter Growth and have five minutes. Welcome. The floor is yours. Great. Good afternoon, Chairman McKay and Board of Supervisors. My name is Sonia Breehee. I'm the Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth and a resident of Falls Church in the Providence District. [04:23:03] I appreciate the opportunity to phone in my testimony today and convey our support for the Converge West Falls Redevelopment. This is the final and critical piece to the emerging West Falls Church transit-oriented community and will knit together the City of Falls Church's new mixed-use development already underway and the redevelopment of the metro station area. [04:23:26] This is the right kind of development in the right place. Providing more homes and jobs and walkable communities at major transit stations is how we can accommodate future growth served by more sustainable transportation options and give people more ways to travel, helping to reduce vehicle miles traveled, and cut our greenhouse gas emissions. It's worth noting that HIT, a major construction firm, is choosing to locate its headquarters in a transit-oriented location. [04:23:55] Like Amazon and National Landing, Volkswagen and Reston, and many others, businesses are prioritizing transit-oriented locations with good placemaking and amenities. Additionally, Virginia Tech's Coalition for Smart Construction and the solar array canopy powering the building with clean energy is exciting and will create an innovative and vibrant addition to West Falls Church. Overall, the applicant is proposing a good mix of uses and will create approximately 440 new homes, including affordable and workforce housing. This redevelopment will provide an enhanced grid [04:24:31] of streets, including the critical piece of the West Falls Station Boulevard, wider walkways, shared use paths, and on-road bike facilities within the development. And I'm glad to learn also that the applicant has proffered a contribution towards the much-needed bicycle and pedestrian improvements to the Route 7 Haycock-Shreve intersection. There are good environmental benefits and recreational opportunities included in this application. In addition to the solar canopy, the buildings will be LEED certified. A significant number of trees will be planted to meet the 10-year canopy requirement, and the applicant has agreed to native planning [04:25:10] and natural maintenance techniques. Redevelopment will provide significant upgrades to stormwater management, including a bioretention pond that has been thoughtfully planned as a sustainability pocket park, providing recreation and educational opportunities for visitors. [04:25:28] Plans also include the Innovation Civic Plaza, a pollinator garden, and a pocket play park. Converge West Falls is a well-designed mixed-use development proposal that is an integral part of the vibrant, transit-oriented neighborhood being created in West Falls Church. [04:25:45] I ask that you vote in favor of the application. Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker number three is Paul Rothstein. Is Mr. Rothstein on the line? Yes, I am. Can you hear me? We can. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you. My comments with supporting links are at tinyurl.com backslash not so progressive. [04:26:07] That's one word, not so progressive, and it describes your conduct, Chairman McKay. There you will find your guarantees of progressive governance alongside a smiling picture of you and your longtime friend, Andrew Painter, counsel for Converge. Through Mr. Painter, Converge has ready access to you. [04:26:25] No problem with that. Let me repeat that. No problem with that. But you will also find repeated requests for you to speak to hundreds of your constituents who don't have the resources to hire expensive attorneys. you ignored those requests. You will find the fact that you appointed another of Mr. Painter's clients who does not live in Virginia to the Parking Reimagined Working Group, which affects that client's business interest at the Westfall Church Metro and throughout the county. There are also repeated requests for you to distribute the county ethics codes to volunteer groups, including internal messages from your own audit professionals. I don't believe that happened. [04:27:04] correct me if I'm wrong. Supervisor Faust, I don't have enough time to detail how many times you failed your constituents. I encourage people to review tinyurl.com backslash Faust Paulchick McKay. As your longtime McLean Citizens Association colleague, Adrian White, wrote to you, I'm used to obfuscation from the board. I am disappointed but not surprised when the board members quote-unquote listen to public testimony, then follow with statements that are clearly intended to support their predetermined favorable votes for resolutions that were prepared in advance [04:27:39] of the hearing after little to no discussion of what they heard. Dr. White was a plaintiff in Berry v. Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. In unanimously striking down ZMOD, the Virginia Supreme Court reminded the board that words have meaning. Today, we will almost certainly see that you haven't learned that lesson. You will advocate for an unrealistic interpretation concerning the height of the building directly across from the villages that violates the comprehensive plan amendment, as Cindy Cordell just discussed. I have separately sent comments that conclusively show [04:28:15] the county's failure to follow the comprehensive plan amendment. You will further validate Dr. White's comments by erroneously stating that you seriously considered community opinions. Supervisor Faust, you are retiring and sponsored significant pay increases for your colleagues, who are grateful to you. You have said that you will take on economic development consulting opportunities in retirement. I asked you about your ethical obligations about representing entities that have had business before you and have not received a response. On this day, when you are once again ignoring your constituents' interests, will you at least assure us that you [04:28:54] will have a cooling-off period of any length of time before promoting clients with fire business before you to your grateful former colleagues on the Board of Supervisors. Thank you for that. I think that was on this case, but thank you for that testimony. Our next speaker has submitted video testimony. Aaron Wilkowitz, representative of Yes in My Backyard of Northern Virginia, who has submitted video testimony. Hello, my name is Aaron Wilkowitz, and I am the Fairfax lead for Yimby's of Northern Virginia. We say yes to more housing, yes to more neighbors, [04:29:33] and we believe in legalized housing. I also live not even a half mile away from the West Falls Church metro station, so this project in particular hits close to home for me. I want to speak unequivocally in support of this converged West Falls Church development site because I fundamentally believe that it will help solve so many of the challenges that Fairfax County and the rest of the region face. First and foremost is housing affordability. We have a housing crisis across all the DMV and especially in NOVA. Regular blue-collar workers cannot afford to live here. Regular white-collar workers cannot afford to live here people are leaving the area in droves young people people my age my friends are leaving the area in droves because they can't afford to live here and that's [04:30:12] fundamentally a cause of or a result of housing scarcity and the only way to fix housing scarcity is create housing abundance by building new homes we're so excited about the 15-story apartment building that would be built on the converged site and we enthusiastically support it because more homes especially close to the metro means that prices everywhere across the county will start to go down and more and more people can afford to live here. Second, there's a tremendous environmental benefit to having so many homes right next to the metro. Sprawl across Fairfax County, across Loudoun and Prince William County has terrible environmental consequences because [04:30:48] you have people commuting dozens of miles every single day to and from the urban core. It's essential that we build more homes next to the metro and just generally closer to the urban core so that people are driving fewer distances, or better yet, just taking mass transit and significantly reducing our carbon footprint. It's essential that we build close to the metro for that reason. Finally, and maybe most importantly, it's just smart design. We've already approved, you know, the Falls Church City site. We've already approved the Lamada site. If we don't approve the Converge site, none of the designs will make any sense. We're going to have a street that starts over here, continues over here, but nothing in the middle. So it's essential that we continue the plans that we have today by approving this. I'm sure you're going to hear a number of [04:31:28] of arguments against this by the opposition you'll hear folks say that there's no community support i want to say that that is fundamentally not true at all there there is a very small vocal minority that is opposed to this project but the vast majority of my neighbors that i talk to regularly are extremely excited about the developments that are coming through we want new restaurants we want new neighbors we don't want to look at an old parking lot and a few uh you know mid-sized office buildings we want more density and we're very excited for it additionally i know we've heard some challenges about the 15-story building being too tall. First of all, the Planning Commission unanimously decided that the comprehensive plan allows for that tall of the building. And second [04:32:06] of all, I would argue that's not tall enough. The more we can build up, especially around the metro, the more we can fix those challenges around affordability and in the environment. So again, for those reasons, I urge you to support this development project, and I appreciate all the great work you guys have done so far. Thank you very much. Thank you. And speaker number five is Mustafa El-Nahas, who has submitted video testimony. [04:32:32] This is County Ford. My name is Mustafa, living in 7000 Falls Ridge Drive, the pavilion in the Drainsville District next to West Falls Church Station near the Virginia Tech Convergence Development. And I stand before you today to express my strong support for the mixed-use development and conversions of the Virginia Tech site. [04:32:52] As a resident, I believe that this plan is a crucial step forward for our community. I support the approval of the finance section of the three West Falls Church developments, which aims to transform an outdated academic office building into hundreds of new units, a new office building, and several parks. [04:33:10] This development will address critical aspects that benefit our community. One of the key reasons I support this rezoning application is the issue of housing affordability. Northern Virginia is facing soaring rents, and we are in dire need of more homes, especially affordable ones. In Fairfax County, the introduction of new multi-family homes at scale will help alleviate the burden of unaffordable rents. Furthermore, the proximity to the metro will not only provide convenient access for residents, but will also contribute to driving down surrounding rents. Secondly, approving this convergence plan will ensure continuity in design. [04:33:47] Both the Fairfax County Commission and Falls Church have already approved the old high school and WMATA sites, which in West Falls Church, and respectively, it's essential that we also approve the convergence plan, which includes connecting the two sites through the other approved developments. This connectivity will enhance the overall design and functionality of the area, benefiting both residents and visitors and workers. Moreover, this development aligns with the smart urban design principles by replacing the old office building with housing, a modern office building and green spaces. We can create a more vibrant and sustainable [04:34:24] community, Fairfax County has historically been too car-centric, and the West Falls Church Metro stations in particular lacks housing density. This development also incorporates new bike and pedestrian walkways, dedicated space for cyclists and pedestrians, and measures to slow down cars, such as road diets. These initiatives will promote alternative modes of transportation, reduce congestion, and create a more livable environment. Lastly, approving higher-dense development around major transit stations bring significant environmental benefits. It plays a crucial role in reducing carbon footprint by encouraging more sustainable commuting options. [04:35:02] Without this upzoning and development, we risk perpetuating more single-family housing located far away from the urban core. This should result in longer commutes and increased emissions, hindering our efforts to combat climate change. Currently, people live far away from work. [04:35:19] They drive to their office park, and during lunch hour, they drive to a commercial area, which is also very far, and then return back to their office park, drive there, and drive back home. And speaker number six is Holly Wade, the president of the Village HOA, and has called in. [04:35:42] Miss Wade, can you hear me okay? I can. Thank you. Welcome. The floor is yours, and you have five minutes. Great. Thank you. I'm Holly Wade, the Village HOA President, and as you have heard now many times, the main concerns for some in the Village residents are the height and proximity of Building B to the Village property. [04:36:06] The comprehensive plan accommodates the height limitation for Building B at 85 feet all along Falls Church Drive and 145 feet for the rest of the building to mitigate the visual and aesthetic impact to the village community and reduce the shadows cast by building B that will impact those condos within the village community located directly across from the tower. [04:36:30] The current plan does not conform with the comprehensive plan. The 145-foot tower is well within that 85-foot zone in that corner of the property, and the HOA requests that the 145-foot portion of that building be set back at least to that depth of the northeast corner of the 85-foot building in Figures 39 of the comprehensive plan. [04:36:58] Needless to say, the response to these concerns have been inadequate, mostly by promoting the benefit of existing trees, some of which are deciduous and furthermore generally relevant to the conversation, and that the exhibits in the comprehensive plan showing the building and surrounding property are not to scale. [04:37:18] Neither of these arguments give those of us with concern any comfort. From all indication, with the information available to us, the part of the 145-foot tower is directly across from the village property, impacting those condos at the corresponding corner. [04:37:38] And that's why we're requesting that the 145-foot portion of the building be set back at least to the depth of the 85-foot zone. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much, Ms. Wade, for your testimony, and speaker number seven is Elizabeth Yu, representative of the McLean Citizens Association, who is testifying in person and has five minutes. [04:38:04] Ms. Yu, welcome. When you are ready, the floor is yours. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Board of Supervisors. [04:38:19] My name is Elizabeth Yu. I'm speaking today on behalf of the McLean Citizens Association. I believe the clerk has just distributed to you paper copies of my written testimony which has the exhibits that I will be referring to in this oral testimony. [04:38:35] The height of the northeastern section of Building B in Converge's conceptual development plan is not in conformance with three provisions of the comprehensive plan that are designed to protect the village, a neighboring condominium community. [04:38:51] These three provisions are, one, portions of converged buildings that are directly across from the village should be no more than 85 feet high. Two, buildings should comply with the maximum height limits shown in figure 39 of the comprehensive plan. [04:39:11] Three, the proposed height of buildings should not have adverse shadow impacts on the village. As to the first provision, as shown in Exhibits A to C, which are based on Converge's own building location drawings and its visual rendering, the approximately 145-foot-high tower portion of Building B is directly across Falls Church Drive from the northern portion of the village's property. [04:39:40] This is contrary to the provision in the comprehensive plan that states that portions of buildings directly across from the village should be no more than 85 feet high. As to the second provision, as shown in Exhibit D, an overlay of the maximum height limit zones depicted in Figure 39 of the Comprehensive Plan over Sheet C5 of Convergence Development Plans shows that the 145-foot-high northeastern section of Building B is in the Comprehensive Plan's 85-foot maximum height zone, [04:40:18] which is also contrary to the Comprehensive Plan's provision about maximum heights being shown in Figure 39. As to the third provision, as shown in Exhibits E and F, shadow studies demonstrate that Building B begins to cast a shadow in the afternoon on portions of the village property as early as the autumn equinox. [04:40:43] Then, as a matter of science, between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, Building B will cast a progressively bigger shadow on the village in the afternoon. The adverse shadow impacts will be greatest on the winter solstice, but the adverse afternoon shadow impacts start much earlier and continue throughout the fall, winter, and early spring months. [04:41:11] Most significantly, the shadow studies show that the tall, 140-foot-high northeastern section of Building B casts a longer shadow across Falls Church Drive to the village than the shorter, 85-foot-high section of the building. [04:41:29] In summary, the current design of the northeastern section of Building B fails to conform with three specific provisions of the comprehensive plan designed to protect the village. The MCA has a general interest in seeking to assure that development conforms with the comprehensive plan. [04:41:52] The MCA is especially concerned when specific provisions of the comprehensive plan designed to protect a neighboring community are minimized or ignored. Even if the county considers the comprehensive plan to be merely guidance, the MCA respectfully suggests that the county should follow its own guidance, especially when such guidance contains provisions designed to protect a neighboring community. [04:42:22] So I respectfully urge the Board of Supervisors to keep the faith with the village by honoring the specific provisions in the county's comprehensive plan that are designed to protect the village. And therefore, on behalf of the MCA, I recommend that the Board of Supervisors require, as a condition of approval of the resulting application, that the design of the northeastern section of Building B be revised so that it is no more than 85 feet high to bring it into conformance with the comprehensive plan. [04:43:01] Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. And if you have any questions for me, I'd be happy to respond. Thank you, Ms. Hugh, and thank you for your handouts as well. We all have those. Speaker number eight is Bruce Jones. [04:43:18] Is Mr. Jones on the phone? Mr. Jones, welcome. The floor is yours, and you have three minutes. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Bruce Jones, and I live up in the Drainville District. [04:43:34] While the Converge application includes many positive features, my reason for speaking at this meeting is to express support for the Village HOA regarding building height compliance. The West Falls Church TSA was the subject of a Comprehensive Plan Amendment, or CPA, approved by the BOS in 2021. [04:43:59] The CPA recognized distinctive characteristics of the West Falls Church DSA in that there is considerable existing residential development that is planning to be preserved. Accordingly, this CPA provides for transitions from tall new buildings to existing residential development. [04:44:23] In particular, Figure 39 shows a zone with a height limit of 85 feet along the southwest side of Falls Church Drive. The overlay prepared within the MCA Planning and Zoning Committee shows that, based on Figure 39, the setback of the tower portion from the property line on Falls Church Drive should be about 120 feet. [04:44:51] At the Planning Commission meeting, we learned that the application's proposed setback of the tower portion from the property line is only 27 feet. Accordingly, the applicant is proposing encroachment of the tower into the 85-foot height limit zone by 77% horizontally. [04:45:16] Citing factors such as stepbacks, county staff are willing to accommodate this encroachment. In my opinion, an encroachment by 77% is much too large to be acceptable. In my assessment, staff are, in effect, recommending that Fairfax County wink at a substantial deviation from the building height limits of the comprehensive plan. [04:45:42] My view is that you should not approve an application containing such a large building height deviation from a CPA approved by you only 24 months ago. Neither county staff nor Mr. Painter have identified any changed circumstances on the ground during the past 24 months that would justify reducing the planned setback of the tower by 77%. [04:46:11] Also, I do not see that an encroachment by as much as 77% is necessary for Converge to have a successful project on the subject property. Thank you for your consideration. [04:46:28] Thank you. And that brings us to Speaker 9, PJ Ross. Mr. Ross, can you hear me okay? Do we have Mr. Ross on the line? Mr. Ross, can you hear me okay? [04:46:46] Yep. Can you hear me? We can. Welcome. The floor is yours, and you have three minutes. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time today. So my name is PJ Ross. I live at 2038 Beacon Place in Reston, Virginia. My wife and I have been Fairfax County residents living in Reston for more than 20 years, so we are no strangers to development. [04:47:05] And we love how well our area has been thoughtfully developed to create a community where Fairfax County residents can both live and work. We fully support the Converge West Falls Territory development. And we feel that this is exactly what the area needs in terms of mixed use space that is mass transit accessible. [04:47:22] When the metro was brought out further into Fairfax County where we live, it was a very good start. But adding this type of development makes it a great decision to expand the metro. because now we can take that metro to get to other places where people work and live. It's awesome to see the development of this new sustainable office building supporting local business growth. [04:47:43] It's important for local residents to have healthy new spaces to work, and it's just these types of office buildings that bring amenities that local residents will benefit from. This looks like an amazing project, and we hope that you all vote in favor of this development. Thank you for your time today. [04:47:59] Thank you, Mr. Ross. And that completes our speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. Is there anyone here present who has not spoken who would like to testify on this subject? Anyone present who would like to testify on this matter who has not already spoken? [04:48:17] This is a public hearing. Not seeing or hearing anyone. Let me ask the clerk if anyone else has called in. No one else has called in. At this time, I would give the applicant an opportunity for rebuttal. Mr. Chairman, I'll be brief and happy to answer questions about building height. [04:48:36] I know that that was an issue that was raised by some of the speakers. One of the speakers had talked about dust and construction activity, and I just wanted to mention that we have committed to above and beyond proffers with this, things that are not required by the PFM. One, in Proffer 49, we will meet with surrounding communities on planned construction activities and appoint a community liaison. [04:48:58] and then proffer 50 before any land development permit or building permit we will prepare a construction management plan for each phase of development to ensure safe and efficient pedestrian vehicular circulation interim lighting for pedestrian passageways identification of construction entrances material deliveries construction worker parking and more and communicate all of those to contractors and subcontractors on the property but that has to be reviewed per the proffer by vdot fcdot and lds prior to the issues of any land development permit or building permit for the project but again happy to defer to staff on issues of height and how staff has interpreted it but i'm also available to answer questions about that as well [04:49:35] thank you mr painter and i'm sure we will have some questions on height but before we get to that let me ask county staff if they have any closing comments or recommendation first thank you mr chairman on july 12th 2023 the planning commission recommended approval of pa 2023 dash roman number 2-m1 at the same meeting the planning commission recommended approval of rz-2022-dr-0018 [04:50:09] subject to the executed proffers dated july 10th 2023 and the associated waivers and modifications staff concurs with all of those recommendations thank you thank you very much at this time let me ask questions from board members let me start on this side with supervisor alcorn yeah thank you - Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. [04:50:30] Question for staff, the elephant in the room. Hi, so we heard from a number of speakers that this violates the comprehensive plan. What's staff's interpretation of that? - As I outlined in the presentation, we feel that what's presented is in conformance with the plan based on the language directly across. [04:50:57] The portions of the building along the entire frontage, I mentioned are at 85 feet and as I also mentioned the the width and the location of that 85 foot section on figure 39 is unknown so it's hard to say you also have you know the park space between the building up to the 85 foot section on the southern portion and it tapers down a bit towards the top but and the portion at the corner a large majority of that is across from the metro property and the metro property line runs along the fence there. [04:51:35] So a lot of that corner, you also have the intervening metro property, and then you have the villages. And we also, we looked at the other plan language as well, as I mentioned, which included the step downs, the language that says, you know, when adjacent to or across from existing residences, these are the mechanisms that you can do to mitigate the impacts. [04:52:00] And we feel the applicant has provided all of those mechanisms, including step-downs, shadow studies, cross-sections, and building design. Okay, so according, in your opinion, then, this is in conformance with the comprehensive plan. [04:52:16] Is that correct? That's correct. Okay, thank you. Okay. Other questions? You asked my question, and that was the elephant in the room. Are there other questions of board members at this time? Okay. I am seeing and hearing none. [04:52:32] I will close the public hearing and turn to Supervisor Faust for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a motion and then obviously some comments. [04:52:48] Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt PA 2023-II-M1 as shown in Appendix 4 of the staff report. Second. [04:53:03] Heard the motion and multiple seconds. Let me ask if there's discussion on the motion. Discussion on the motion. Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? [04:53:19] Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors approve RZ-2022-DR-00018 and its associated CDP subject to the executed proffers dated July 10, 2023. [04:53:44] And I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the modification of the loading space requirement as shown on the CDP. Second. You've heard the motion and the second by Supervisor Lust. Discussion, Supervisor Faust. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. [04:54:01] I want to thank the witnesses who came out today. I have more to say, but I wanted to address, you know, Ms. Wade and Mr. Jones have been active and helpful and, you know, they have strong opinion, obviously, that this does not comply with the comprehensive plan, which I don't agree with. [04:54:24] However, I did want to point out that, you know, when Ms. Wade started her testimony, she said that the comp plan says the building should be 85 feet, quote, all along Falls church drive end quote but that's you know i think we've demonstrated over and over again tonight that is not what the comprehensive plan says it what it does say and if that was what was intended i think that's what we would have said but what it does say is that portions of the building that [04:54:57] are directly across from the village should be no more than 85 feet which i think uh opens to interpretation and i don't argue that some people can reach a different conclusion different from what staff has reached different from what a unanimous 11 to 0 plan commission reached and different from what i reach and other constituents who have uh contacted us uh and express their [04:55:29] opinion that uh you know this is in accordance with comp plan uh mr jones uh one point a point that he was prominent on uh it was that the uh there's a 77 reduction in the setback and that's only if you measure from basically the curb not from the building and the building angles back away from property and so there's at least i think a step correct me a 200 foot setback from building to building so it is 250 feet again an interpretation i can understand [04:56:08] you know why he might want to start at the property line but that doesn't make sense from a practical standpoint of what we were trying to accomplish uh in terms of protecting uh protecting uh the uh the homeowners so uh having said that i i thank them for their involvement and i thank them i thank everyone who's participated in this process for so long so you know i i'm really uh [04:56:43] i'm really happy with this project i mean it's really going to make a difference to our county and our community and the people who actually live there now will be the ultimate will ultimately benefit greatly that live around it uh we have before us an application filed by converge west Falls Church LLC. It's a rezoning subject site in the West Falls Church transit station area from the C3 to the PRM district for transit oriented mixed-use development. This site is [04:57:15] referred to as the Virginia Tech site. The associated plan amendment which is pending will permit a modest shift from institutional use to office use and does not increase the density of the plants that kind of sets the stage i'm excited to have this case come to the board re-planning for the west falls church station area began in 2018 and has involved a lot of coordination between the county city of falls church virginia tech watching metropolitan area [04:57:49] transit authority and development team but the for the project historically the west falls church metro station has served as a commuter station uh and served us well but it uh this replaying process creates the opportunity to create uh uh transit oriented development consistent with the goals of the county uh so just in terms of the background we started on 2018 with a comprehensive plan amendment we got that approved and then supervisor pulchik and i uh created a a task [04:58:29] force that did an amazing job of uh identifying active transportation issues uh in the area and we've starting to address those very well and this metro project that was approved last week and this project are significant players in uh carrying out the community's goals for the uh trans the pedestrian bicycle access around there so the converged proposal you know we then went into the rezonings and last board meeting we approved to Metro and this [04:59:04] board meeting where we have before us the Virginia Tech site those two combined with what what's happening in West Falls Church or in Falls Church will make as the drawings staff showed us or the applicant showed us it's just a fabulous integrated mixed-use community that's going to be have some of the most attractive buildings i think in the northern virginia region the converge proposal is a final piece it's going to knit those together it's uh it's going to provide a link between uh false [04:59:41] church and the metro property i'm grateful to virginia tech and uh hit contracting for their what i would define as a bold vision and their steadfast efforts uh through what was at times difficult planning process. The office building in the Converge site will serve as HIT's corporate headquarters. The building, you know, HIT is literally one of the largest general contracting companies in the country and obviously has options as to where they're going to place their [05:00:20] headquarters. I think we're fortunate to keep them here in Fairfax County. But beyond that, i mean they're such a they're on the cutting edge of sustainability and what you know they're going to serve as an that building will serve as an example of what can be done with construction and design uh i met with mr hit recently and it was it was fun to watch how enthusiastic he is about the sustainability aspect of that building i mean this guy's got a huge company to run and And he said, you know, the upper floors at night will be shut off. [05:00:56] It won't be like turning the lights on. You won't be able to turn the lights on. I mean, they're so focused on energy preservation. It's going to be an iconic structure. It's going to make a statement about the importance of sustainable development and the county's commitment to that important goal. [05:01:15] So I'm pleased that Virginia Tech's plan coalition for a smart construction lab will be located in this building. Virginia Tech is a leading education institution in design and construction, and their lab will serve as an innovation hub for the construction industry while contributing to the economic growth of Fairfax County. [05:01:36] And it is something we truly need. Construction has not been on the cutting edge of innovation, and they're focused on that. The 440-unit residential building is going to provide much-needed market-rate housing as well as affordable workforce units Per the Affordable Housing Objective of the West Falls Church Comprehensive Plan, providing more homes close to transit is a major piece of the solution to many of the problems that we face. [05:02:07] And this project is going to move that along quite well. There will be an impressive network of walkways, shared use paths, a series of public spaces and parks will be provided. They have designed everything with sustainability as a priority. [05:02:22] So, I did, you know, I wanted to say that before I move on, you know, to improve the connectivity of the pedestrian bicycle network, the task force identified a pedestrian bike connection from the metro station to Great Falls Road in that direction. [05:02:51] The first Metro project we approved last week is addressing that. We asked Mr. Hitt for a contribution to address the other direction, even though it's off-site, and even though we made the ask after the staff report was issued. [05:03:10] Nevertheless, he agreed to proffer $500,000 to support the improvements, at the pedestrian and bicycle improvements at great um haycock and route 7 and shreve road very generous contribution but he appreciates the importance of getting people out of their cars and to the site so to create appropriate transitions to establish communities reduce visual impacts the applicant has used building modulation step backs varying heights and his tapered building height [05:03:46] toward haycock road and false church drive so obviously i recognize that there are concerns raised about the height i think i i tried to address those but i will say this you know this issue is not new it was raised you know during the course of the uh development reason i would say the specific issues have been more recent uh you know the issue of the building height was always there but whether this was in what was being proposed was in compliance with the comprehensive [05:04:17] a plan i don't know that that has been lingering but now it's an issue i know that uh staff has looked at it and believe me they looked at it hard because i asked them to and they they did it the plan commission blank slate comes before them they hear the same testimony we have they read the same documents 11 to 0 conclude that this is consistent the the building heights are consistent with the [05:04:51] comprehensive plan so uh i would say that uh it the impacts are uh the the units uh set back from the highway as you go further up uh west falls uh drive there uh but the impacts are further mitigated uh by the fact that uh with the use of step backs and varying heights that provide light views and privacy within and around the site and additionally the building will be between [05:05:28] 212 and 240 not 17 or whatever the number was it was thrown out feet away from the buildings in the village at least 212 to 240 feet from the buildings not the property lines again the plan commission unanimously 11 to 0 so I you know I'm sorry that we got to the end and we had an issue that I think is real I mean I know people feel very strongly I know they believe that they're right we're wrong i i'm sorry i can't agree with them and i'm sorry i couldn't solve the problem [05:06:05] but i will say this uh i think that this is you know just an absolute first class uh uh project and uh needs to be approved uh by the board of supervisors thank you mr chairman thank you supervisor faust other discussion other discussion i'll just cement uh the comments that supervisor Faust made, he made many of the same ones I was going to make. I really did want to thank the task force. I know who spent immeasurable hours working on this, both Supervisor Faust and [05:06:42] Supervisor Palczyk for their leadership in setting up that task force, City of Falls Church, and of course the nine folks who testified today, as well as the MCA presentation that we were all given um i also want to thank the 13 speakers who spoke at the planning commission i had an opportunity uh to review all of their testimony and um you know frankly of a project of this size even though uh in the minds of all people not every problem was solved i think the the testimony that we have was balanced and supported the project and i i do know that sometimes it's [05:07:19] difficult when you get down to one issue and they're you know as supervisor faust mentioned frankly a difference of how you interpret comprehensive plan language and and i will associate myself with his comments that you know i've been doing this for a while and i know our professional county staff and i know how sacred the comprehensive plan is and i know some people say that's not the case when they just disagree with county staff but i know how seriously our county staff takes that and if this was an issue that i think was still unsettled completely I don't think and I know you would not have the unanimous support of the planning commission who also heard from 13 different speakers. [05:07:58] And so without judging the quality of the rest of the case, I know this really came down to the issue of height. And I feel like the county staff has given a sufficient explanation for how that building height was measured. But again, I appreciate all the folks who were involved in this journey because it has been a journey. [05:08:18] As Supervisor Faust acknowledged, I can remember in 2018 when this process began, and here we are five years later, there certainly has been more than adequate opportunities for all people in the community to be able to be involved in this process. [05:08:34] And when you think about the number of people here who had to collaborate from the county to Falls Church, to Metro, to Virginia Tech, to the applicant, to HIT, there's a lot of moving pieces here to get us a very complicated but I believe very high quality application before us today and so when I look at the totality of issues that were raised in testimony that we've received in our county staff review and the planning commission review I come to the same conclusion that supervisor Faust does which I think this will be a great addition to this part of the county and you know I do think that this applicant in particular has done a good job of [05:09:13] getting us to this point and i think we all are certainly happy uh that hit as you acknowledged um will will remain in and and expand in uh fairfax county and we'll do it in such a remarkable way in terms of the quality of the sustainability design architecture and layout of this application and so i too will support it uh any other discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions And that motion carries 10 to 0. [05:09:47] And again, thank you all for your work on this, including county staff who's invested a whole lot of time over a long period of time and responded to a lot of emails on this. Thank you all very much. May I say the same? Yes. I just want to thank the staff too. It's been a long process. [05:10:05] The three of you have been part of it. Dozens of others have also been part of it. And not one step was easy. So thank you. And, of course, Andrew and your team, you were very responsive, and that's all you can ask whenever you're working on these type projects. [05:10:24] I think you listened. I think you heard what the concerns were, and I think you did an excellent job of addressing them. And so, you know, I thank you for that. And so I look forward to the groundbreaking, I guess. [05:10:42] Thank you all very much. And we now have a public hearing on PA 2021-CW-T1, Route 7, Bus Rapid Transit, BRT. [05:10:58] I'm sorry. Before we move to that BRT public hearing, Supervisor Faust does have a follow-on motion from an item that was on the agenda for this morning. Supervisor Faust. [05:11:13] Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I mean, this is not a public hearing, but it didn't make sense to make this motion until after we saw what the outcome was for the rezoning case. So this is a parking reduction for the redevelopment of the converge development, which we just approved. [05:11:30] And I move that the Board of Supervisors approve a parking reduction request pursuant to subsection 6100.6.b, paren 1, paren A of the zoning ordinance, based on the proximity of a mass transit facility, as demonstrated in the parking study number PKS-2023-00011, subject to conditions dated April 24, 2023, in attachment 1 of the Board item. [05:12:01] sum up it's been moved and seconded by supervisor paucick uh discussion for those um maybe watching at home we are on action item number two and this is an overall eight percent eight percent reduction for the redevelopment proposal located at 20 on 2023 tax map numbers 040-3 double circle 192 and 92 a in the drainsville district any other discussion any questions Supervisor Palchik I just want to add I assume that reduction is as you mentioned basically on the [05:12:38] proximity to Metro existing Metro I think even more comfortable with it though is that the next case we have is on BRT route 7 eventually coming to bring additional multimodal options so So definitely, I think, a case that this is prime transit-oriented development, bringing community, business, education, and other amenities, both to the city and the county. [05:13:08] Mr. Chairman, I probably should have said that this is, as you say, it's only an 8% reduction, which is very modest for a project being constructed almost on top of a metro station. But not only that, immediately adjacent to, well, I'll pick my words carefully when I'm talking about adjacent, very close to a grocery store and a shopping center that has just about everything in it. [05:13:37] You know, you can walk to a library, you can walk to parks. It's a type of place that if people are going to get out of their cars, this is the place they're going to do it. Thank you, Supervisor Faust. Any other discussion? and again this was action item number two uh for this morning you've heard the motion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries and that now brings us to our next public hearing which is a public hearing on pa 2021-cw-t1 route 7 bus [05:14:14] rapid transit brt and the providence drainsville and hunter mill districts and at this time we would recognize county staff for a staff presentation thank you good evening my name is sean schweitzer a transportation planner with the county's department of transportation again this is the staff presentation for plan amendment 2021-cw-t1 related to the route 7 bus rapid transit project and the recommended changes to the comprehensive plan on july 27 2021 the board of supervisors [05:14:51] endorsed recommendations from the route 7 bus rapid transit study and subsequently authorized staff to evaluate a plan amendment to incorporate those recommendations into the comprehensive plan in the graphic to the right you can see the brt corridor a proposed corridor in the southeast portion you can see in the dashed red line we're proposing the brt to use the route seven flyover ramp to terminate at the west falls church metro metro rail transit station there it would service [05:15:26] the redevelopment site of the west falls church area and then continue making its way along haycock road and take a right going westbound in mixed traffic and stop at chestnut street station and route 7 again servicing the west falls church redevelopment site as we move forward westbound we the brt transitions into exclusive exclusive running brt in the middle the next stop would be patterson road station and route seven this would service the trader joe's right there as [05:15:59] well as the idyllwood shopping center again all the station locations in purple will have the station platforms will be in the middle and the station platforms will be staggered to reduce right-of-way needs just a disclaimer as we move forward so continuing going to the next station george marshall station and route seven this would service the george marshall high school as well as the planned townhouse complex to the north of this station continuing in median running brt [05:16:34] we cross over the beltway and the next station would be fashion boulevard station there at route seven this station would service the the mall area as well as surrounding businesses continuing on route 7 and taking a right onto international drive the next stop would be flesher street station and international drive we propose this to be kind of a trans transfer point to the gallows road high quality transit corridor that we're looking at currently this also this stop would [05:17:08] also service the tyson's mall as well continuing north the next stop would be greensboro international station again this station would service the tyson's galleria mall as well as other businesses in the surrounding area continuing north the next station would be lincoln station which is lincoln circle and international drive this would service the rotunda condominium as well as other apartment complexes complexes within the area this also would be a transition point for the brt to [05:17:41] transition into mixed traffic to make that left onto spring hill road and as we continue on spring hill road the brt would transition into bat lanes or business access and transit lanes going along spring hill road and ultimately terminating at spring hill metro rail station and then continuing in mixed traffic on route 7 taking a right onto taiko road in bat lanes or business access and transit lanes before ultimately going back down and transitioning back into median running brt the graphic to the right shows the current fairfax county transportation plan map [05:18:21] so what the current plan recommends is from route seven haycock road to i-495 widening from four to six lanes it's currently four lanes what this plan amendment is recommending or proposing is to use those two new lanes to identify them strictly for brt lanes then from route seven to from i-495 to international drive the current comp plan recommends winding from six to eight lanes with this plan amendment we're proposing to use those two new lanes for brt [05:18:59] exclusive median running brt lanes then from international drive from route seven to lincoln circle currently international drive is six lanes general purpose lanes this plan amendment is proposing to repurpose two existing lanes to brt and again spring hill road and tyco road we're proposing bat lanes or business access and transit lanes along the northern side of spring hill road and on the southern side of tyco road then just to kind of recap what this plan amendment is proposing uh segments of the route for exclusive lanes route 7 recommending or proposing converting [05:19:39] to two of the plan lanes that are recommended currently in the comp plan from general purpose to BRT to make them designated BRT lanes for international convert to existing lanes general purpose lanes sorry to exclusive BRT lanes all other segments are bat lanes or mixed traffic also this plan amendment is proposing to define the BRT route from the west falls church metro rail station up into Tyson's or spring hill metro station lastly the plan amendment or proposed plan [05:20:12] amendment is to identify potential station locations along the brt route some community engagement we have currently or previously done march 11th in 2020 we have the public meeting at the george c marshall high school to kind of go over information about the route 7 brt study and garner feedback from the community as well as present the measures of effectiveness that we were going to use in the study to kind of compare the alternatives once we dwindled them down [05:20:46] then we came back to the public in march of 2021 we held two virtual meetings we presented the three final alternatives that we were looking at kind of went over the comparisons between the three of them and we gathered input on the community's preferred route and the proposed station locations that went along with those three alternatives lastly we went back to the community june 7th and 8th of this year to discuss the route 7 brt plan amendment kind of give them [05:21:23] the proposed changes we were planning to make with this amendment and kind of garner feedback on what the community thought about that as well so so next steps if the board adopted the plan amendment the revised recommendations would become part of the comp plan and become eligible for prior prioritization and funding by the board through the transportation priorities plan in addition it would become eligible for grant and funding applications such as through VDOT or the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority ultimately staff recommends the route 7 BRT transportation recommendations as detailed here and at the staff report [05:22:01] dated May 31st of this year I'm done sorry okay thank you I was waiting for a video to play or something thank you for this suspense to make sure people are paying attention here let me ask if there are questions of staff supervisor palchick thank you mr chairman and thank you so much sean really well done appreciate you and the staff's work on this [05:22:37] um a couple of clarifying questions for us also for the public um number one can you describe what a bat or bat lane is sure so so a bat or bat lane or also stands for a business access and transit lane is exclusively used for uh transit uh buses and also uh cars that are trying to get into you know taking a right into businesses or um other you know roads that they're trying to get to so it would strictly be for those two purposes um that lane would be for yes so not fully mixed [05:23:14] not fully separated but kind of that turn lane slash okay thank you um second question um so in addition to where we do have the dedicated lanes my understanding is that I'm not latest up in the technologies that there are possibilities there's a whole range under BRT that some of it is technology that can be used to help me give preference to buses whether or not they could dedicated bus lanes yes so we're assuming TSP or transit signal priority so that the bus can jump before the light turns green allowing the bus to get through that intersection and not get stopped [05:23:52] along the corridor yep uh and then finally i think you have one more uh maybe two uh so the clearly this is going from this is the northern section the first section we're looking at so from tyson's all the way down to west falls church where well then it goes into the city property correct yes so for for this portion we're looking at uh just terminating at west falls church but ultimately in uh the future as the entire route seven corridor comes online we would then uh it would continue down route 7 into city of falls church as well as seven [05:24:28] corners area all the way down to the mark center in alexandria excellent thank you so this one is fully in the county so that's why we're doing this and then it becomes kind of a mix of jurisdictions all the way to alexandria excellent thank you and finally um you mentioned in the possibilities for funding and i appreciate that i think you had on there uh mvta and perhaps dot i can't remember now but yeah sorry so but i believe there are other so mvtc did was able to um receive federal earmark funding as well and are there additional um opportunities for funding and maybe ones that [05:25:04] aren't as directly transit related that are being looked at for bus rapid transit or multimodal improvements yeah i think we'll possibly look for smart scale and stuff like that so down the future as a future but thank you um this is very exciting and clear just the plan amendment it's a long process um this is one step in that process so those are all my questions thank you supervisor palchek supervisor harry yes uh as a part of this did you uh model the impact on congestion of the lost lanes on route 7 and international yes we did all right so what was [05:25:39] the impact on congestion so uh there was for the preferred alternative there was minimal impact from compared to the other alternatives and as we looked at the no builds there was just a minor impact to the overall traffic congestion within Tyson's and along the Route 7 corridor. So the benefit of having BRT outweighed the minimal impact without having it or just leaving it as general purpose lanes in the future. I'm going to get back on my soapbox on the stations and pull off for the stations i didn't see any language in here on the stations and whether [05:26:19] they're going to include pull-offs so that you can run express brt along the routes is that something that's being considered here or not being considered here uh for pull-offs where since it's in the median um it would be exclusively for just the brt i don't we could potentially look at express in the future but uh so they're not going to be any stops along this brt there There will be the stations that I went through in the beginning, the first or second slide, sorry, shows the station, BRT station locations that were proposing. [05:26:58] Okay, yeah, I thought I saw stations, but so every bus is going to have to stop at every station. This would just be strictly for, yeah, the BRT. Supervisor Herity, this is Mike Garcia. Yes, there are no express, there is no express in this service. There's no ability to run express. we don't have that not not not in what we studied and not what's been proposed in front of you if that is a desire of the board to look through as we go through design then we can definitely take that into consideration but you know the number one reason people and this might said it means at times and i think we're making a mistake on route one but the number one reason people take transit if it gets in there better or quicker if you're going to have to sit at every [05:27:38] stop it's going to take longer than it would if you rode a bike if you got in a car and drove And unless you can, you know, figure a way to run expresses and encourage people to take long haul transit, people won't do it unless they have to do it. [05:27:57] And people who have to do it will do it. But, again, it's disappointing that we're not looking at creating BRT systems like other places in the world and the country are where you can make it time efficient, where you can run expresses and get some real time savings on transit. [05:28:17] So I would just encourage, as this project moves forward, that we make that a strong consideration so that maybe not every stop, but every other stop, you can get the local buses off so that you can run an express through and get people through on transit quicker than they would if they were sitting in a car. [05:28:40] Understood. The BRT lanes are not supposed to have local transit in them. The local buses will be in the general purpose lanes. No, but the BRT buses are essentially local buses if they're stopping at every station. So what you're preventing is the ability for an express to use the BRT lanes that we're spending a lot of time and money to create. [05:29:04] I think we need to clarify how many stops there are on the BRT versus the regular. Yeah, let's clarify that, too, because I think there have been some things said that are just simply not true. This is getting buses into dedicated lanes instead of co-mingling with traffic that exists today, which is already express. [05:29:22] I guess the question is, how long would it take you from one point, the end of the BRT express lanes, to the other end point of this phase to ride the BRT versus how long it would take you to drive a car? Certainly, it will be far longer than to bicycle, as was mentioned. [05:29:41] Bicycling would take much longer. So do we have any idea of the time it would take somebody? Because the whole design here is, in fact, time savings. That's why we're doing this. So I just want to make sure that that's clear. This is getting buses in their own dedicated lanes so that they can travel Route 7 faster. [05:29:58] And obviously, there are stops along the way. But do we have any idea what the travel time would be from, you know, basically the parameters of the BRT if you were in one of these BRT buses versus what that travel time would be if you were in a vehicle or a bus? bicycle, not in these dedicated lanes. [05:30:16] I don't know off the top of my head. I know that we looked at the different speeds, average speeds of, you know, the general purpose vehicles compared to the buses, the BRT buses, and then also compared to, you know, local buses that are using just mixed traffic or in the general purpose lanes as well. [05:30:36] And the BRT buses were going faster than in the general purpose lanes, obviously. since they're in dedicated lanes, but I don't know off the top of my head what from point A to point B, what the time it would take to get from West Falls Church to Spring Hill Metro, but we can look at that. [05:30:58] Yeah, I think it would be useful to look at that. I mean, in the case of Route 1, it is substantial time savings if you're in the BRT versus if you're in the regular commuter routes or you're traveling by foot, bicycle, or individual car. [05:31:14] And so this idea that these systems, because there's not an express, meaning you can bypass a station, are not time savings is just not true. In the Route 1 case, we've seen that it's dramatic time savings for people who are using the BRT system, even though there aren't station pull-offs. [05:31:32] And, of course, those station pull-offs, in the case of Route 1, and I presume it's probably the same as the case here, would require dramatic additional land acquisition. And in the Route 1 case, displacing many, many more businesses and neighborhoods to make that happen. But we wouldn't be approving a BRT like we approved on Route 1 or a plan here if the idea wasn't to get transit users through this corridor faster than any means they can get through today. [05:31:58] And I just want to make sure people understand that as the baseline coming into the conversation. Well, I will just say you referenced bicycles. There have been many an article written about people getting on bicycles at Dulles Airport and beating the train across the river. [05:32:17] So I'll share some of those with you. But when you have to stop at every stop, the speeds, yes, the speeds are quicker because you're in dedicated lanes. But when you've got to stop and onload and offload at every stop, they don't. [05:32:33] And I'll share some of that with you. How many stops are in this corridor right now compared to how many stops are in this corridor right now compared to how many stops are being proposed in the BRT? [05:32:50] So for the BRT, there's nine stops currently. I don't know exactly for the local buses off the top of my head since there's multiple bus routes in this vicinity. So I'd have to take a look and see. [05:33:06] Definitely, this is much more minimal stops, which helps to not slow down the bus, as well as its level boarding, so the bus doesn't have to drop down to allow for people to get on. It's off-boarding fare pay, so you're already paying before you get on to help fast-line or fast-track the BRT so that it stops minimally at the station locations. [05:33:38] Okay, thank you. Other questions or comments? Okay, I'm not seeing or hearing any others. This is a public hearing, and I do not have any speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. [05:33:54] is there anyone here present in the auditorium that would like to speak at this public hearing on this subject? Anyone present who would like to testify? This is a public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask staff if anyone has called in. No one has called in. Closing comments and a recommendation from county staff. Yes, on June 21st, 2023, the Planning Commission voted 10 to 0 to recommend adoption of the staff recommendation as detailed in the staff report included with the board item. Since the Planning Commission decision, additional minor modifications have been incorporated into the staff recommendation to further emphasize pedestrian and bicycle safety. [05:34:33] Those modifications are detailed in a handout dated July 25, 2023, which has been distributed to you. Staff concurs with the modified recommendation. With that, this concludes the staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Final call questions from board members. [05:34:49] Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Palczyk for a motion. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you again to Sean and to staff for their work on this and for the great questions. I do think this is a really important movement forward in this project. [05:35:07] I was trying to look up Route 7 bus. I believe there's twice as many stops in half the area, but we'll have to look that up. And I do know that in addition to what was discussed going off topic a little bit, as we look at express bus along Gallows, reducing stops is something, you know, I know we're looking at and without that additional infrastructure saying there are a lot of possibilities Agreeing that we need to both have the speed and the ability For people to to use it to separate from traffic and to be able to use it quickly to get around So as we've discussed this amendment considers revised long-term multimodal [05:35:43] Transportation recommendations for route 7 between the West Falls Church and Spring Hill Metro rail stations as well as portions of International Drive spring hill road and tyco road to include bus rapid transit brt as a preferred mode define an alignment and identify planned station locations the revised recommendations for brt were developed through a robust evaluation of existing conditions and future needs with extensive public outreach consistent with the ongoing northern virginia transportation commission's mvtc envision route 7 planning effort the revised recommendations presented this afternoon and subject of this plan amendment [05:36:23] Provide a more current and context-sensitive transportation vision for the future of this portion of Route 7 and Tyson's. The Board of Supervisors endorsed the study recommendations on July 27, 2021, and authorized Plan Amendment 2021-CW-T1, so it's been a while, directing staff to consider incorporating the recommendations into the comprehensive plan, transportation plan, maps, and text as necessary. [05:36:52] I will be moving to recommend approval of the staff recommendations with a couple of minor modifications to the recommended conditions and to strengthen the condition language to further emphasize pedestrian and bicycle safety. I support staff's recommendations for the Route 7 BRT as reviewed by the public and endorsed by the Planning Commission and as detailed in the staff report dated May 31st, 2023. These revised recommendations are long-term in nature with no set schedule for funding. However, the inclusion of BRT on Route 7 into the Comprehensive Plan strengthens the [05:37:28] county's position as it continues to refine the design and pursue funding options. The recommendations will set up Route 7 to equitably accommodate anticipated future growth within this part of Fairfax County, to Tyson's, as was discussed, all the way to Alexandria and future faces, and to better serve all users and most. Now, therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopts the Planning Commission recommendation for plan amendment 2021-CW-T1 as detailed in the staff report included in the board item with additional modifications [05:38:07] as detailed in the handout dated July 25th, 2023. I've heard the motion. I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Lusk. Discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? A lot was said. So I just think it's a great step forward. And really, again, thank you, Sean. [05:38:23] It's been, I guess, two years or close to it or more at this point. And I think that the extensive work has made it even better plans and options that were originally looked at. And the fact that, you know, we are staying on Route 7, but bringing it inside in Tyson's, bringing it into the community, into the businesses, really finding the best routes that will get the most usage and not compete with the metro lines that are already existing. [05:38:48] So really appreciate all the work that's gone into this. looking forward to getting this here and continuing to look for funding local state and federal thank you very much uh with that i think we're ready to vote all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries next we have a public hearing to establish parking restrictions on boston boulevard corporate court and research way in the mount vernon [05:39:20] district and as we have staff transition now recognize staff for presentation good afternoon [05:40:02] vice chairman gross members of the board henry stein mccartney with the department of transportation this is a public hearing to consider parking restrictions in the mount vernon district on boston boulevard from fullerton road to the cul-de-sac inclusive corporate court from boston Boulevard to the cul-de-sac inclusive and research way from Boston Boulevard to the cul-de-sac inclusive as shown on attachment two in the board package. Property owners along these streets are seeking relief from long-term parking and vehicle storage that diminishes the capacity of on-street [05:40:38] parking for other uses. The requested restriction will prohibit the parking of commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles, and all trailers between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Staff has observed Boston Boulevard, Corporate Court, and Research Way over a period of 30 days and documented long-term parking of commercial vehicles along these streets. [05:41:04] Based on our findings, staff recommends approval of the requested restrictions as proposed. Thank you. Are there any questions of staff? Any questions of staff? Seen and hearing none. This is a public hearing. [05:41:21] I have two speakers who have signed up. Aaron Ogbay. Aaron Ogbay here. And then I come on down. And then I have Johannes Wandamou. [05:41:36] All right, if you could both come down. Mr. Ogbay, you are the first person we have listed. Go ahead. Thank you for telling me. My name is Aaron. I'm living almost nine years in Springfield, Virginia. [05:41:55] So we have commercial truck. So we park in from the morning 7 to the 8 is a small car, but we are, sorry, almost we work in three years. [05:42:11] I don't know what's going on. It's commercial area, but they are put restrictions. So what's the reason? I need to know just why is the reason to move our trucks. Thank you. So you have a question. Thank you. We'll get into discussion. Mr. Wandamu? [05:42:27] Yeah, it's the same thing. It is we parking over there and in the morning we're going to go to work and then we're coming back at 3 o'clock or 4 o'clock. We parking our truck over there and then we live in Fairfax. [05:42:44] It is close by. The area is an industrial area, no residence, no shopping centre. I don't know why it is, you know, they put a sign over there. The street is not busy, it's not much busy, it is wide. [05:43:02] We are paying property tax for Fairfax and we are a citizen of Fairfax living here. I don't know, there's a reason. It is when we go everywhere in the Fairfax area, we don't have any parking spot for our trucks. [05:43:19] Because, you know, when we're hearing this patient, we see a lot of construction. We are a part of construction. We remove snow in Fairfax. We're working a lot of asphalt, everything in construction in Fairfax. [05:43:39] But nobody considers our parking spot for our trucks. If we have three or four or five trucks, we're going to buy land for parking or we rent. The only thing is we have one truck. [05:43:54] It is a small business. which is our kids for that business. I don't know, it is sick and tired for parking in Fairfax area, but we pay tax for Fairfax. But, you know, we don't have any parking in the county. [05:44:12] The only thing we ask board members or the one, the officials, is if there were Fairfax residents, we need something for, we don't know, we don't have any, We will not give it to you to do that, but, you know, we need the parking spot for our trucks. [05:44:35] Only we have one truck, that is our business. We are raising kids and families. We don't have any parking spot in Fairfax, but, you know, we live in Fairfax. We pay taxes for Fairfax. I'm sorry for my language. [05:44:53] Thank you very much. Thank you. You did just fine, Mr. Yuanwu, just fine. Is there anyone else here in the auditorium who wishes to speak to this matter? Ms. Strobel. Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the board. [05:45:11] My name is Lynn Strobel with the law firm of Walsh-Kaloochee. And I represent a number of the owners with property that is located on Boston Boulevard, Corporate Court, and Research Way. And the problem with the parking of trucks in this area has been fairly consistent. [05:45:29] And some of those problems are that trucks are left there for long periods of time. They sometimes are leaking fluids. They often are parked too close to entries, creating a hazardous situation for people going in and out of parking lots. And it also precludes parking by people who have business in this area. [05:45:48] So the owners did make this application to Fairfax County. We really appreciate the time that Fairfax County took to investigate this. I believe that they concurred that there was a problem here with parking of vehicles that don't belong in this area. And we really appreciate their investigation and good work. [05:46:08] And we would ask that you support this parking restriction. So I'd be happy to answer any questions. And I thank you for your time this afternoon. Thank you, Ms. Drogel. Thank you. Is there anyone else here in the auditorium who wishes to speak to this matter? Anyone? I will recognize the clerk to note if we have any speakers who have called in. [05:46:27] No callers. Closing comments and recommendation from staff? Staff recommends approval of these proposed restrictions. Okay, thank you. are there any questions from board members questions from board members supervisor stork thank you madam vice chair I think I just want to make sure that you clarify what the restriction is that this would impose so if you could just be very clear about what that is and what you think the consequences of [05:47:02] that will be hey the restriction will prohibit the parking of any commercial vehicle, which is a vehicle that is more than eight feet tall, more than 21 feet long, or more than 102 inches wide. Also parking of any watercraft, such as boats, jet skis, recreational vehicles, such as campers or RVs, and also trailers and semi-trailers. This restriction [05:47:38] will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. So this is a restriction during business hours on the proposed streets. This is an area that has been plagued with the long-term parking of commercial vehicles for quite some time. So we do believe that the request from the property owners along these streets was a very good request to kind of clean [05:48:18] up the area from long-term parking. We understand that commercial parking is at a premium in the county. However, commercial vehicle owners would still be able to park their vehicles overnight and on the weekends on these streets when they're not being used. [05:48:40] The real purpose of the restriction is to prevent the long-term storage of vehicles, which is the condition that we found on these particular streets. If vehicle owners are looking for parking during other times, There are certainly public streets in other commercial and industrial areas in the county where parking is allowed other than these particular streets that are in the proposed restriction. [05:49:16] And I would imagine that also be true of private parking spaces in some of these industrial areas. There would be owners that might provide or lease or whatever make those kinds of spaces available. [05:49:32] Is that part of your understanding or expectation? It is our understanding that there are a number of locations where spaces for commercial vehicles are available for rent. [05:49:51] We know that a number of storage businesses in the county, a lot of the self-storage locations do offer spaces for rent. where vehicle owners may store their vehicles yeah thank you and I guess I want to go back to the last point which is the previous point which is if I have a recreational vehicle that I want to park at six o'clock at night I can park that recreational vehicle along this area and they can [05:50:25] stay there until 8 59 in the morning and as long as I move it by nine o'clock then I'm not I would not be violating this parking restriction or for that matter if I had a truck or a semi truck or a trailer and I wanted to do the same so we're not really eliminating truck parking we're just saying between these hours you cannot do that and the again my understanding of the purpose of this is to keep it from being a 24/7 parking lot that is correct thank you thank you [05:51:02] questions supervisor gross mr. chairman just to I want to make sure that we clarify this our speakers talked about um inability to find parking spaces for their truck for their job based on what this says and what you have said i want to make sure that we we we're we're clear on if you are going to go to work you've parked your truck you're going to work [05:51:36] nine to five or eight to six or whatever you can park your personal vehicle on the street Pick up your truck and go and then be able to come back and park the truck after the time frame so that there really is still some flexibility to the folks who would like to be able to use Boston Boulevard for parking of a vehicle. [05:52:08] it's not it's not that we're eliminating all parking options on boston and the adjoining streets it's that it's a time frame piece so if you're out um at your job site you've taken your truck to your job site you should be perfectly fine so i i just wanted to make sure we clarified that because i know that we often have um this kind of testimony from folks who are not storing their vehicles but they found a spot to be able to park their vehicle overnight and this will still [05:52:46] allow them to park their vehicle overnight so am i correct on that henry henry stein mccartney department of transportation yes um supervisor gross you are correct personal vehicles non-commercial vehicles would be allowed to park on these streets during the hours of nine to five monday through friday um and commercial vehicles would be allowed to park there in the evenings overnight and on weekends okay thank you very much okay are there any other questions of board members any other questions seeing and hearing none i will now close the public hearing and recognize supervisor stork [05:53:25] for a motion thank you mr chairman and just as another matter if if anybody has any questions are more than welcome to contact my office it's m-t-v-e-r-n-o-n that's mountvern at fairfaxcounty.gov would be happy to work with you talk with you to ensure that we can hopefully we can help you find other options if for some reason this particular flexibility which i think it is very flexible doesn't meet your needs so thank you with that i move the board adopt an amendment to appendix r of the Fairfax County Code that will prohibit commercial vehicles, [05:54:02] recreational vehicles, and any trailer or semi-trailer as defined respectively in Fairfax County Code 82-5-7 and also 82-5B-1 and 82-1-2A from parking on Boston Boulevard from Fullerton Road to the cul-de-sac inclusive corporate court from boston boulevard to the cul-de-sac inclusive and research [05:54:38] way from boston boulevard to the cul-de-sac inclusive between 9 a.m and 5 p.m monday through friday so you've heard the motion and multiple seconds any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries Thank you very much. Our next public hearing is a public hearing to establish parking restrictions on Boone Boulevard in the Providence District. And at this time, I would recognize county staff for a staff presentation. [05:55:12] i'm henry stein mccartney department of transportation once again um this is a public hearing to consider parking restrictions in the providence district on boone boulevard between howard avenue and the southeastern property line of 8230 boone boulevard as shown on attachment two of the board package property owners along these blocks of boone boulevard are seeking relief from long-term parking and vehicle storage that diminishes their capacity of on-street parking [05:55:46] for other uses and creates safety issues for vehicles entering and exiting their property. The requested restrictions will prohibit the parking of commercial vehicles, recreationals, and all trailers 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Staff has observed these blocks of Boone Boulevard over a 30-day period, and we have documented that the long-term parking of commercial vehicles is occurring in this area and based on our findings staff recommends approval of the requested parking restrictions as proposed thank you very much are there any questions of [05:56:26] staff seeing and hearing none i have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter this is a public hearing is there anyone here present who would like to testify on this matter this is a public hearing anyone present who would like to testify seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in there are no callers no one has called any closing comments or recommendation from county staff staff recommends approval of this proposed restriction thank you very much last call questions from board members seeing and hearing none i will now close [05:57:03] the public hearing and recognize supervisor palchick for a motion thank you mr chairman And first of all, I really want to thank staff for their work on this and the staff also in my office who've been working with the community. We do know that this is much requested and hopefully will bring some flexibility into the community, some reprieve on Boom Boulevard. [05:57:24] I therefore move for the adoption of an amendment to the county code to prohibit commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles, watercraft, boat trailers, motorhomes, or camping trailers, in any trailer or semi-trailer as defined respectively in Fairfax County Code 82-5-7, 82-5B-1, and 82-1-2A from parking on the north side of Boone Boulevard from Howard Avenue to the southeastern property line of 8230 Boone Boulevard, 24 hours per day, seven days a week. [05:58:00] You've heard the motion. The second from Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And that brings us to our next parking restriction and public hearing, which is a public hearing to establish parking restrictions on Pender Drive in the Springfield District. And at this time, I would recognize county staff for presentation. Thank you, Chairman. Henry Stein-McCartney, Department of Transportation, once again. This is a public hearing to consider parking restrictions in the Springfield District on Pender Drive from [05:58:39] Waples Mill Road to the cul-de-sac inclusive, as shown on Attachment 2 of the board package. The Association of Commercial Property Owners along Pender Drive are seeking relief from long-term parking and vehicle storage of commercial vehicles along Pender Drive that diminishes the capacity of on-street parking for other uses. The requested restriction will prohibit the parking of commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles, watercraft, and all trailers 24 hours per day, [05:59:13] seven days per week. Staff has observed Pender Drive over a period of 30 days and documented long-term parking of commercial vehicles along the street. Based on our findings, we recommend approval of the parking restriction as proposed thank you very much are there any questions of staff any questions of staff not seeing or hearing any uh this is a public hearing and i do have two speakers who have signed up in advance to testify speaker number one is stacy bell is miss bell here she is and she will be followed by carl uh stall stall neck is call is he here okay you will [05:59:52] be speaker number two. And Stacey Bell is the president of the Pender Park Business Association. Has five minutes. Welcome. Thank you and good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. [06:00:08] I'm Stacey Bell. I'd like to thank you for your time today. It is my second time in front of this body. The first was as Serena's mom. Eleven years ago, my nine-year-old daughter was recognized as part of a team for Forestville Elementary that won a coveted award for creativity at the world finals for Odyssey of the Mind. That win and even more the recognition she and her teammates received from their school and from this body in support of their creative thought processes and out-of-the-box thinking was one of the defining moments of her life and encouraged her to embrace her creativity. [06:00:40] Today she is pursuing a degree in English from the University of California at Berkeley and she hopes will be hopefully someday a career in writing. Thank you for taking the time to recognize and inspire even the youngest of your constituents. Today, I am Assistant Vice President of Business Development and Real Estate for Inova Health System. [06:00:59] Part of my responsibilities include representing Inova in the Pender Park Business Association, which made the initial request for the restrictions being considered today. I currently serve as President of the Association Board and I'm here representing all 12 owners along Pender Drive. [06:01:15] As some of you may know, the Inova Keller Center and the Keller School, both of which provide behavioral health support and treatment for local children and families, are housed in the business park at the intersection of Waples Mill Road and Pender Drive. Earlier this spring, the Business Association reached out to the county to initiate a request to consider parking restrictions along the entire length of Pender Drive, which is a long cul-de-sac. [06:01:39] We understand this is not the first time concerns have been raised. On any given day, Pender Drive is lined on both sides of the roadway with a mixture of buses, large limousines, dump trucks, tow trucks, large vehicles with trailers, and semis either with or without their trailers. [06:01:55] We believe these conditions are inappropriate and unsafe. The lack of visibility around these large vehicles creates a safety hazard for team members and visitors entering and exiting properties along Pender Drive. There have been several near misses due to both reduced visibility and a narrowing of the roadway by these oversized vehicles and trailers. [06:02:16] We also find that some of these vehicles will park along Pender Drive for weeks or months at a time. As you might suspect, we have representatives from federal agencies as well as federal contractors leasing from our property owners. Some of those tenants have expressed a concern for the security threats posed by large vehicles and trailers parked and left unattended for long periods of time. [06:02:37] Other owners have expressed concern that the parking conditions have hampered their ability to lease building space as the large vehicles give the impression to prospective clients that this is an industrial area rather than high-end office space. We greatly appreciate the efforts of Fairfax County Department of Transportation staff who assessed the conditions and helped bring this matter forward for consideration, and we ask for your approval. [06:02:58] Thank you very much, Ms. Bell, for your testimony and for the update on your daughter. That's fantastic news. Thank you. Our speaker number two is Carl Stalnek, president and CEO of Stable IT Solutions and also has five minutes. Welcome. The floor is yours. [06:03:15] Good afternoon, and thank you for providing me with the opportunity to speak today. My name is Carl Stalnek, and I am a local small business owner of an IT company here in Fairfax. My reasoning for coming before the board today was to discuss your proposal to implement parking restrictions on Pender Drive. [06:03:31] Our office has been located on Pender Drive in Fairfax since 2018. Originally, when we were touring offer spaces and considering moving to Pender Drive and actually considering moving to Fairfax, one of the initial reactions we had about the office was very negative due to the large number of junk vehicles that were parked on Pender Drive. [06:03:50] We eventually decided to proceed with renting or leasing the office due to the excellent location and amenities that Fairfax has to offer. Our landlord at the time, P.S. Business Parks, who's now Peterson, assured us that they were working with Fairfax County to have these vehicles removed, but the efforts proved to be difficult, and after them trying for multiple years, multiple years, we were told that the effort had been abandoned. I would like to further clarify that prior to Pender Drive being repaved approximately a month ago, there were more than just standard commercial vehicles parked on Pender Drive. When I think of commercial vehicle parking, I think of work vans from contractors who are [06:04:27] maybe parking on the street at night because they live nearby and cannot park their vans in their neighborhoods. While this use would be harmless and non-problematic in my personal opinion, that is not what has been occurring. Instead, almost all of the vehicles parked on Pender Drive had been junk vehicles, some with smashed windows and flat tires. There was a pickup truck with a flat tire that was remained there for probably two or three months. There were also multiple older model buses, dump trucks, limousines, and other vehicles not in good condition. Most of These vehicles almost never moved and leaked oil and gasoline onto the ground. [06:05:04] They have also been subject to vandalism on many occasions, including graffiti. There were broken glass bottles all over the ground and trash, presumably from vandalizers. Additionally, my staff and I have noticed that people began performing truck repair services and multiple large trucks and buses began coming and going at all hours of the day and night. [06:05:23] Loud machinery was being used and performing truck repair services and blasting music at very, very loud levels. On one occasion earlier in 2023, at 10 p.m. on a Friday night, I personally witnessed a person cutting down multiple trees on private property that were blocking where they wanted to park their bus on Pender Drive. The person dragged the trees into our office building's parking lot and left them there. I called Fairfax County Police. Unfortunately, the person left before Fairfax County Police arrived. The activity occurring on Pender Drive due to the lack of any sort of [06:05:59] parking enforcement over the last five years has caused our staff to feel unsafe at night. Our business operates on approximately a 24-7 basis, with employees coming and going at all hours of the day and night, sometimes as late as 1 or 2 a.m. I have had multiple employees express safety concerns to me after they arrived at our office late at night and witnessed people hanging out and drinking and playing loud music while they performed truck repair services. [06:06:25] One employee in particular expressed that she did not want to come to our office after hours anymore due to this activity. Since Pender Drive has been repaved earlier this month, almost all of the vehicles in question have not reappeared, and Pender Drive has become significantly better looking, with a better looking curb appeal, overall better aesthetics, and my staff have commented to me that they immediately noticed the improvement, and many of the safety concerns previously mentioned to me have been resolved now due to this. [06:06:55] I was delighted to find out that Fairfax County is considering prohibiting commercial vehicle parking on pender drive and i would like to strongly voice my support for passing these restrictions i hope that the board understands my concerns and takes them into consideration with their vote thank you once again for your time and consideration thank you very much for your testimony and that brings us to the end of our speakers who have signed up in advance let me ask if there's anyone else present here who would like to testify on this matter anyone else in the auditorium who would like to speak on this matter this is a public hearing i'm seeing and hearing no one let me ask if anyone has called in there are no callers no one has called in closing comments [06:07:33] and recommendation from county staff staff recommends approval of this restriction thank you very much are there any questions of board members seeing and hearing none we'll now close the public hearing and recognize supervisor herity for a motion yeah i'd like to thank both of our speakers and certainly carl i know i've talked to stacy but carl if you've got any more of those problems be sure to reach out to to my office and we'll see what we can do to get them corrected this area is new to the springfield district so this is one of the areas i picked up in [06:08:08] redistricting so i'm happy to be able to get this thing on track and and hopefully get many of those problems resolved pender drive has been a commercial parking dumping ground for many years the businesses along the corridor will benefit from these proposed parking restrictions uh as you've heard requested by the president of the penderbark business association on behalf of all 12 business owners so all the business owners are clearly behind us uh accordingly mr chairman i move that the board adopt an amendment to appendix r of the fairfax county code that will [06:08:46] prohibit commercial vehicles recreational vehicles and any trailer or semi-trailer as defined respectively in Fairfax County Code sections 82-5-7, 82-5B-1, and 82-1-2A from parking on Pender Drive from Waples Mill Road to the cul-de-sac inclusive 24 hours per day, seven days a week. [06:09:13] So moved. I'm happy to second that, along with, I heard, Supervisor Lusk and Supervisor Palchik. Discussion on the motion? Any additional discussion on the motion? I think I've done my bit. Okay. Supervisor Palchik. I just want to add and appreciate the work and working to try to improve the situation. [06:09:32] The businesses were mentioned. There are also many nonprofits, Insight Memory Care, and I believe our own housing authority located here. So I absolutely appreciate the work of staff over many years to try to help make improvements and happy that we're able to approve this. [06:09:48] And it's good to hear today we had heard also that the improvements in place now have been helping. So I'm glad that this is continuing to improve the area for the community, for the businesses, the nonprofits, and everyone there. Supervisor Smith. Well, I'm happy to support this. [06:10:06] My eye doctor is on that road. And I know leaving and trying to make a right turnout was always scary because she didn't know if somebody was going to come down so thank you i'll appreciate this one too supervisor smith is not driving with dilated pupils however um any further discussion um i too want to thank the folks who testified today and i apologize it took a while to get to this point but uh clearly and we were looking supervisor smith and i were looking at some aerial photos of the of the area and it's it is clearly a problem and no matter what time or where those photos were it's constant that the vehicles are parked out there so delighted to [06:10:43] support this as well with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries thank you very much that brings us to our next public hearing on a proposed amendment to appendix q land development services fee schedule of the code of the county of Fairfax, Virginia, county code regarding site inspection fees for bond agreement extensions. And as soon as county staff is ready, we would welcome a county staff [06:11:16] presentation. Good evening, Chairman McKay and members of the board. For the record, my name is John Friedman. I'm representing the Department of Land Development Services. Additional staff from LDS are with me this evening to respond to your questions. Staff is proposing a change to one single line item in the fee schedule. That item is the inspection fee for agreement extensions. [06:11:47] The agreement and associated bond guarantees that the proposed construction is completed per the approved plan and in a reasonable time frame. Agreement extensions are required when construction hasn't been completed by the date specified in the original agreement. [06:12:04] Extending a project's construction period generates the need for continuing inspection. a fee is charged to cover the additional inspections the current fee schedule has been in effect for approximately nine months coinciding with the launch of the planning and land use system known as plus the inspection fees for agreement extensions are considerably higher than the prior computations and as you might expect have generated some questions and complaints lds believes the inspection fee formula for agreement extensions warrants further review [06:12:42] modeling to ensure it accurately reflects the inspection costs for agreement extensions. A comprehensive review of LDS fees and costs is underway and will be used for a future fee schedule update that will include this inspection fee. To address immediate concerns with the current inspection fee, the proposed amendment will reinstate the fee that existed prior to adoption of the current fee schedule. The inspection fee for agreement extensions proposed with this amendment is $46.26 per disturbed acre per month for the length of the agreement [06:13:21] extension. This change will on average reduce costs for customers. The proposed amendment was recommended for approval by the Planning Commission. That concludes my presentation. Thank you very much. Any questions for staff? Seeing and hearing. We do have questions. Supervisor are stored my understanding of the fee structure is that that needs to correspond to the approximate cost of what we do that's that's like a state responsibility that we have can you clarify that [06:13:56] my understanding is generally correct or not i don't know that it's a state requirement it's it's a county policy that we our fees should be no higher than necessary to cover our costs and we view that in the aggregate so individual fees can vary a little bit it's it's very hard to get all the fees to exactly match all the costs for each individual project but we we try and do that [06:14:32] in the ag aggregate so we're you know we have a balanced budget that's the best way to present that so in this case you think these fees are are more out of line than other fees that the county currently charges they're not as close to the actual cost as what is typically being done therefore this change is being requested is that just i guess i'm restating what i think you're asking for here um i wouldn't say you know unequivocally that the costs don't match up with [06:15:10] the fee what i would state is that they're considerably or restate that they're considerably higher than what we were before the fee schedule update with plus so that we think that they need to be re-looked at and that's the purpose of this overall fee study that we're in the process of doing right now and we expect to be completed around the december time frame and that fee is to align actual costs versus the revenue that's generating for that particular service [06:15:44] yes that's the stated goal okay so we will see in something in many months we'll see this aligned for these different elements right you we should view this change to the fee schedule as a temporary thing until the study is completed i doubt seriously that it'll end up being what we're proposing here today but we're trying to address a specific problem and complaint that we've received from our customers supervisor stork patrick fultz from the county attorney's office if I could address the board on that point, 36-105 of the Virginia Code requires that fees [06:16:21] charged as part of the building permit process are towards defraying costs. What that means is that generally what you spend investigating certain permits and inspecting them has to be covered by the fees. Legal authority exists though that if you're going to decrease a fee that you are almost always permitted to do that because you are not taking from some other fund that's an inspecting fund and sort of robbing Peter to pay Paul the county is always allowed to use its own general fund to sustain fee decreases okay supervisor Alcorn just very quickly thank you for that [06:16:59] explanation that addresses some of the things I was wondering and I know the staff report does talk about monitoring the impacts and certainly hopefully we won't see ourselves having to use general fund revenues you know anytime soon for this I also just wanted to compliment staff the equity impact statement here is is is pretty thorough and addresses I think some parts of the community appreciate you doing that because that's very helpful particularly in this context yes you're welcome thank [06:17:34] you very much for that and let me ask if there are any additional questions I'm not seeing any. This is a public hearing and I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify. Is there anyone here present in the auditorium that would like to speak on this matter? [06:17:50] This is a public hearing. Anyone who would like to testify? Seeing and hearing no one. Let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. There are no callers. No one has called in. At this time I will close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Smith for a motion. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I move the board adopt the proposed amendment to appendix q land development services fee schedule is recommended by the planning commission and set forth in the staff report dated june 6 2023 the amendment will become effective at 1201 a.m on july 26 2023 and the chair will second that [06:18:24] motion any discussion on the motion let me just thank staff for for getting this to us this did come up among other things in conversations with the chairman's round table where we meet with a lot of our customers who use our lds system and this is uh definitely something that they have raised as a concern and i'm glad we were able to fix it all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries and that brings us to our next public hearing public hearing on a proposal to prohibit through truck traffic on lorton market [06:19:00] street and gunston cove road in the mount vernon district and as soon as staff is ready we would welcome a staff presentation chairman mckay and the board my my name is neil freshman and i'm with the department of transportation this public hearing is for the purpose of receiving testimony [06:19:37] on a resolution requesting that virginia department of transportation study the feasibility of prohibiting through truck traffic on lorton market street and gunston cove road between lorton road and richmond highway located in the mount vernon district implementing such prohibit prohibition if it is feasible, is also requested. An alternate route for the proposed restriction starts at Lorton Market Street and Lorton Road, travels along Lorton Road to the intersection of Lorton Road and Richmond Highway, and then continues on Richmond Highway to the intersection [06:20:12] of Richmond Highway and Gunston Cove Road. Enforcement of this restriction was reviewed with the Fairfax County Police Department and is feasible. Staff recommends the board approve a resolution requesting VDOT to study the feasibility of including Lorton Market Street and Gunston Cove Road and the Residential Traffic Administration Program for through truck traffic restriction. [06:20:35] Thank you for your time. Thank you very much for that presentation. Are there any questions of staff? Any questions? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing. I do have two speakers who have signed up in advance to testify, one by phone and one in person. Our first speaker is Monica mcclendon is miss mcclendon on the line hi yes i am welcome uh we can hear you fine and you have three minutes to testify and the floor is yours all right um thank you for this opportunity to [06:21:08] share my experience living in lorton um regarding this uh particular um public hearing um so i just wanted to get some feedback. As a mother who lives in the area, my children have grown up here, and they have friends who live in various parts of this particular area that's impacted by this public hearing. And my first concern is safety. The trucks, mostly the [06:21:47] Industrial trucks, buses, and, you know, large vehicles, they speed, they rarely stop. It's very challenging for them to cross the road to see their friends in the neighborhood that's across the street. [06:22:04] The road conditions have really been impacted over the years. We have more potholes, a lot more gravel. I've had to replace two car windshields, you know, since I've lived here, and I feel like a part of it is just because of a lot of the gravel that's on the road. [06:22:25] I've had to either get, you know, tires plugged or replaced numerous times because of nails in the area from the construction trucks going through our neighborhood. The third thing is just our inability to leave the neighborhood. [06:22:44] My kids are now at the driving age, and, you know, I have to be honest and say that, you know, I feel nervous sometimes with them just leaving our neighborhood, mainly because of the speed that the trucks are driving, the traffic that they bring in our neighborhood. [06:23:00] It makes it challenging to leave out, to get onto Route 1. So, you know, that's really a lot. And then, you know, the last thing is just the noise. You know, we already have the train, which, you know, it's just kind of like a heartwarming part of living in Lorton. [06:23:21] But the trucks, they can get quite noisy if something's in their way or sometimes if they're honking at walkers, because that happens as well. You know, it's a lot of noise and the harassment and things of that nature is just a bit much. [06:23:40] Thank you, Ms. McClendon, very much for your testimony. And speaker number two is Mark Wing. Is Mark here? Mark, if you could come on down. And after Mr. Wing, is there anyone else here present who wants to testify on this matter? Ma'am, if you could come down, sign in with the clerk right here. If the clerk could wave her hand. She's down here. Yep. In the corner, if you could just sign in for us, that would be appreciated. Mr. Wing, welcome. The floor is yours. [06:24:10] Chairman McKay, Board of Supervisors, thank you for being here tonight. I couldn't do your job. You're never going to make everybody happy, and then you've got to sit there and miss dinner, too. I've owned a townhouse that butts up against Gunston Cove Road for 20 years now. [06:24:27] I was the first owner. I still own it, and it's about 40 feet from that road. And I'm here to tell you that the buses and trucks, and I don't condone this, but I've clocked it with my own vehicle to find out how fast they're going, and they're exceeding 50 miles an hour. in a 25 mile an hour zone and the curb is only 12 inches from the sidewalk or the sidewalk's only 12 inches from the curb so it becomes a safety factor and i sit there in the yard and i watch families walk by with their kids and stuff and these trucks and buses haul butt through there i've called the bus company a few times there's been no change in their actions i gave up you know [06:25:01] i kept praying for this for years and so i bought in 2003 when it was first built i think 2004 is when they opened the road through gunston gunston road used to come down and go over one lane wooden bridge and then the wooden bridge went away and they opened the road down through there well i'm a retired army pilot and to be able to go to lorton the market square to lorton road over to davison army airfield it drastically shortened up my my commute i could get to work in 14 minutes i was like that's great you know especially because i got to be there at six in the morning and uh it wasn't long after that i hated it because of all the trucks that were coming through there [06:25:39] The dump trucks that are parked along Route 1, use it to cut through to get over to the highway. And I thought, well, you know, they're going so fast and all that. What about putting speed bumps? Well, that's not going to solve it because then they're going to hit those and cause so much more noise. But the way it is now, they're using their engine brakes, creating a lot of noise from their engine brakes. [06:25:58] And what the previous lady said about going through that stop sign, they do do that. I sit there and I wait until I make sure everybody stops because you'll see them fly through there. They get going so fast, and then they're like, oop, and then they do a quick rolling stop through there because they know that you're stopped. That's really all I had to say. [06:26:16] I mean, I guess the biggest thing, too, or one of the big things is the gasoline trucks that go through there. I know gasoline trucks are safe. You rarely hear about anything except for Philadelphia, you know, a couple of them like that. But they're 40 feet from the house, and there's other routes to go. So, you know, being a helicopter pilot, I always try to mitigate risk. [06:26:34] And so we can mitigate that for the families that are walking to the grocery store or the other restaurants and stuff in the area. And from the vehicles just traveling so fast. So thank you for your time. I appreciate it. Y'all have a great night. Thank you very much, Mr. Wang, for your testimony. [06:26:51] And speaker number three is Wendy Henloy, who has also joined us in person. Welcome, Wendy. The floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening. And thank you for this opportunity to address the board. [06:27:08] I'm a resident of Gunston Cove Homeowners Association, and we are located on both sides of Lorton Market Street and Gunston Cove Road. We have asked for this study several times because of the speed, which Mr. Wade spoke about, because it's a safety issue. [06:27:36] On Lawton Market Street and Gunston Cove Road, there's only one sidewalk on the street. There's only one side of that road that has a sidewalk. And we have buses, we have trucks, and then we have cars that race down the road. [06:28:02] When you're driving north on Gunston Cove Road, the speed limit is supposed to be 25. No one acknowledges it. I won't say no one. I would say hardly anyone acknowledges it. [06:28:18] And we also have a lot of road gravel that's dropped by trucks that are delivering their loads. Now, my community, we have community cleanup, whereas we're out sweeping the street trying to make our community aesthetically pleasing and a great place to live. [06:28:40] However, the road gravel is a bit much, you know, so I appreciate you all considering the study. I hope that the results of the study ends in approving a restriction going down Lorton Market Street. [06:29:04] That's all I have to say this evening. I actually agree with what the speaker on the phone line says and Mr. Wade. And again, I thank you for your time and your consideration. [06:29:20] thank you wendy wendy did i get your last name right henloy is that right henley henley yes henley thank you thank you very much appreciate your testimony and let me ask again if there's anyone else here who would like to testify uh seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in there are no callers no one has called in uh any closing comments and recommendation from county staff chairman mckay staff recommends approval of this resolution Thank you very much. At this time, last call, questions from board members. Seeing and hearing none, I will close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Stork for a motion. [06:29:59] Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank the speakers for coming today and, Wendy, particularly for your service in the South County Federation and your work in so many other ways. So, Mr. McClendon, Mr. Wing, thank you very much. We have a problem here, and this is going to dramatically improve it. [06:30:19] And the problem is this road is not really fully complete. It's one of those roads that part of it is great, you know, the part that's been redeveloped. And the other part of it is if you ever want to ride a bicycle or walk along it, you're taking your life in your hands. [06:30:35] And this will help to improve that at least a little bit. And the gravel on the road, there's a number of quarries and cement. We have lots of cement mixing companies in Lorton, and we have lots of other things going on. So this is a way of saying, no, trucks, you have to follow the main roads, in this case, Lorton Road. [06:30:55] It's a four-lane road, in some cases, a six-lane road, and onto Richmond Highway, either four- or six-lane road to make that work and, frankly, stay out of the neighborhoods. So I'm very, very pleased to support this as is. This was sponsored by the Lorton Station community. [06:31:14] And I especially want to thank the community for their advocacy on this. They're the ones who brought this up probably six months or so ago. And I think this is the reason why we get things done. In this case, Candace Bennett is the chair or the president of the association. [06:31:32] So again, for all those folks who have been involved, I appreciate their work. And with that, I move that the Board approve a resolution requesting VDOT to study the feasibility of including Lorton Market Street and Gunston Cove Road between Lorton Road and Richmond Highway Route 1 to be included in the Residential Traffic Administration Program for a through truck traffic restriction. [06:31:57] and i'm happy to second that motion uh discussion on the motion uh let me just add i am very familiar with this section of roadway as well and and couldn't be happier uh to support this so great to see this moving forward tonight uh with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries and again thank you to all of our speakers that brings us to our last item on tonight's agenda which is public comment and And before we begin public comment, and I have five speakers signed up for it, just a few reminders. [06:32:34] First, the board will hear public comment on any issue except issues under current litigation, issues that have been scheduled for public hearing before the board, and personnel matters and or comments regarding specific individuals. Speakers must register in advance, and each speaker is given three minutes for his or her remarks. [06:32:52] A maximum of 10 speakers may address the board during any public comment period, and speakers may address the board once during a six-month period again i have five speakers who have signed up to testify speaker number one is eric bianchi is eric here speaker number one eric bianchi i'm told is in person is mr bianchi here i will circle back in a moment speaker number two [06:33:19] is gregory lyon who has submitted video testimony hello my name is greg lyon 6727 newington road And I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to present some information to the board and grateful for the time I'm allowed. Today I'm going to talk about Newington Road and the need for a sidewalk or paved path on Newington Road between Ona Drive and Telegraph Road in the Mount Vernon District. Newington Road is dangerous. It has no pedestrian infrastructure. It is extremely dangerous for pedestrians, children, seniors, anyone with disabilities, really anybody that [06:33:58] tries to walk because you're forced to walk in the middle of the road with cars and trucks going by. the county has also recognized this a county in a report in 2015 noted that there's no pedestrian facilities and there's a gap that exists on newington road and it creates an extremely dangerous situation for bicyclists and pedestrians along this segment this is just a couple pictures of newington road where there's basically nowhere to walk except for on the road and on the left we see children getting off the school bus and walking right next to cars that are driving past and often at high speeds and on the right we see someone walking with a stroller that is in the [06:34:33] middle of the road and certainly liable to be getting hit anytime. Adding a sidewalk or paved path would align with the principles in Fairfax County's Safe Streets for All program recommendations. It adds a missing sidewalk link between Telegraph Road and Ona Drive. It'll enable citizens to reach public transit stops like the 334 line and Springfield-Renconia metro. It'll enable citizens to reach community amenities like the library nearby, the Kingstown library, the post office, and the grocery store. It'll also enable citizens to reach schools, including Island Creek Elementary, daycares, Red Wagon, Nova Academy, and more. Aside from this, it'll reduce traffic congestion. [06:35:11] People won't be as inclined to drive if they can actually walk safely on this road. And aside from all the benefits and the ways in which it aligns with the county's priorities, there's widespread support for a sidewalk on Newington Road. My neighbors and I have gone to many households in the area, and 95% of the households along Newington Road that we spoke with have signed a petition in support of a sidewalk or a paved path along Newington Road between Ona Drive and Telegraph Road. Widespread community support for a sidewalk doesn't just end at Newington Road residents. Over 50 households and counting around Newington Road have signed a [06:35:46] petition in support of a sidewalk or paved path. Here you just have a couple pictures of the actual petition we've been going around with and then just a few of the sheets that have been signed. That's not all of them and we're still going out door to door today and anytime we have that we find time to do so. A sidewalk or paved path in Newington Road is needed. It aligns with the county's priorities. It connects disparate sidewalk networks. It enables residents to have a safe, accessible walk community. It reduces traffic congestion, enables residents to access public transit, community institutions, and schools, and has widespread support in the community and [06:36:22] neighborhood, partly because Newington Road is extremely dangerous. Please, I ask the board and all supervisors to move forward with a plan for a sidewalk or paved path on Newington Road. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mr. Lyon, for your testimony. Our next speaker is Peter Atoe. Is Peter here? Peter is. If you could come on down and following him will be Geraldine Horan. Is Geraldine Horan here? She is. Excellent. Okay. We are on speaker number three, Peter Atoe [06:36:56] from the Evergreen Park HOA yes please welcome come on down to the podium and the floor is yours welcome hello Mr. Chairman Board and Clerk of the Board of Supervisors my name is Peter Atoy I live in 3461 Evergreen Farm Place Lexedra in Virginia 22306 and I have lived most of my life in Fairfax [06:37:27] County and bought this townhouse in 2009. But thereafter, from 2010, I started having problems with the Hormone Association parking. And the problem has existed for more than 10 years because we have two kinds of units. It's a small community of 23 units. Of the 23 units, six of us, we don't have parking garages. The other 17 have parking garages [06:38:04] and ports. So, and we have other issues within the community that makes the parking situation very, very, very difficult. So for about 10 years, I've been dealing with the homeowner association to figure out what to do with the parking situation. And one of the issues that I have is that I've gone through the homeowner association books and the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance Section 11103 that specifies the minimum number of parking that [06:38:42] we're supposed to have in the community and it was made. So I don't understand why I'm still having issues with parking and getting told. So one of the reasons I'm here this evening is to ask the board to please clarify for me the essence of zoning Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance 11103 that assures everybody to have parking spaces. [06:39:04] And yes, some of us don't have parking spaces. So I don't know if this is unique with me in Fairfax County. So I'm just trying to figure out what the board can do to help me end this ordeal. It's been going on for over 10 years. I've spent so much of my money and time on this result. [06:39:22] So I'm trying to see what the board can do to help me to resolve this issue. And if it is possible to not make it happen to any other homeowner in Fairfax to deal with this kind of issue. I don't see any reason why anybody should have parking issues, anyone who wants to have issues with parking in Fairfax County, because every development has the specified minimum parking spaces. [06:39:47] And I thank you guys for giving me the time. Mr. Ato, if I could ask you one question. Are there visitor parking spaces that are in the neighborhood that are being used by people who aren't in the neighborhood? Mr. Lusk, there's a lot of things that have been going on in the community some of the houses have tenets some of them have they converted their parking spaces to living spaces those are some of the issues we'll be dealing with okay i got it i [06:40:24] understand you now i just wanted to make sure on that point and i know uh supervisor lusk this is in the franconia district um will certainly work with you on this i'm very familiar with with the community and where it is i just wanted to make sure i understood from your perspective what what was going on there so we appreciate that and we'll be following up with you okay thank you very much for your testimony thank you god for my for the time sure um our next speaker is geraldine horan uh please if you could come on down and geraldine is speaker number four uh welcome the floor is [06:40:59] yours thank you so let's see here um my name is geraldine horan of 5704 dawes avenue alexandria mason district that would be penny gross from a subsection called dowden terrace dowden terrace is an oak forest the overriding reason that i'm here is because we received a letter in the last few days about this continuing the leaf vacuuming program just so you have an overview of why i'm talking about the trees etc my property and the properties of my continued contiguous neighbors [06:41:32] are half acre lots with an average of 15 mature oaks per lot as well as many ornamental trees we homeowners pay for tree trimming and removal as needed we blow our leaves to the street and we don't ask for subsidies this neighborhood and the other wooded areas rose hill sleepy hollow etc make up the five percent of properties that use the leaf vacuuming program and could be considered the Amazonian lungs of Fairfax County. We strongly and respectfully request for the leaf vacuum program to continue. It is a reasonable expectation for heavily treed [06:42:10] neighborhood neighborhoods for heavily treed neighborhoods that have had a successful program ongoing for 30 plus years. These same necessary programs exist in the surrounding locales of Alexandria City and Arlington County. Last year was a debacle primarily due to management hiring a new untested contractor that was not prepared to do the job so there were delays there were heavy cost overruns but this has not been the norm i've lived in the neighborhood for 20 years and many of my neighbors have been there for their whole lives 50 60 70 years [06:42:48] the program has worked additionally the staff your staff had to bear the brunt of many complaints that weren't their fault, but those would make anyone want to discontinue the program that was the source of the complaints. As tax-paying citizens, we tacitly agree to subsidize all types of services that we don't use. [06:43:11] Many use the school system and parks, but don't use other services. But we all agree that our tax money should be used for the good of all. We are suggesting that management take a good hard look at how to make the leaf vacuuming program work better and be more cost effective. Reducing the three pickups scheduled to two well-timed pickups would provide significant savings. Have a consortium of neighboring locales share their vacuum trucks. Institute a small fee for citizens to purchase leaf mulch. [06:43:48] Levy a little bit more tax on leaf vacuuming properties, but not make it punitive. A local mower leaf blower company that many of us use said that our leaf removal costs would more than quadruple if he had to remove them. The suggestion of turning leaves into mulch on one's property is not appropriate for oaks. I have just a tiny little bit more. Sure. As over mulching will kill them. [06:44:14] Regarding the letter that was sent, we have a concern that many people may not have even opened their letters as it looked like a pro forma envelope with no alert on the outside regarding urgent information and a survey finally we would ask that the board we would ask the board to make sure that the surveys are reviewed and organized by a disinterested third party and that the public hearings are well advertised thank you for your time and service thank you very much miss oran for your testimony and constructive ideas and i appreciate that and i will forward this to penny [06:44:49] And Mr. Chairman. Excellent. Thank you. And thank you. And you did a great job of moving the meeting along. I really appreciate that as best as you could. Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Based on the calls and emails that I'm getting in my office, people are opening their letters and reading them. Absolutely. Thank you, Supervisor Gross. And our next speaker is Michael Martin. And Mr. Martin has submitted video testimony. [06:45:16] Good afternoon. Thank you for letting me speak. My name is Michael Martin and I live in North Springfield. I'm here to celebrate the use of ranked choice voting in the Arlington County Democratic primary and to urge the board to consider using ranked choice voting in future Fairfax County elections. For several weeks before the primary, I went to Arlington County farmer's markets and early voting sites to inform and educate about the use of ranked choice voting. [06:45:50] A majority of the people I spoke with were already familiar with it. Some were quite enthusiastic. The election went smoothly. Election officers were prepared to explain how to use ranked choice voting, and the rate of spoiled ballots was low, indicating that voters were not particularly confused by ranked choice voting. County officials reported that there were no complaints about ranked choice voting on election day. At its July meeting, the Arlington County Board discussed their experience with ranked choice voting and considered whether to use it [06:46:24] for future elections. The election administrator reported that the pre-election public outreach, the election itself, and the tabulation afterwards had all gone well. A county data analyst stated that survey results indicated that more than half of all Arlingtonians understood and liked ranked choice voting and wanted it to continue. Fifteen speakers addressed the board. Twelve of them spoke in favor of ranked choice voting, with some representing good governance groups like the League of Women Voters. The reports of county officials, the post-election surveys from both [06:47:02] Arlington County and third parties, and the testimony of most public speakers were decidedly positive, urging continued use of RCV. Yet the board inexplicably chose not to recommend the use of ranked choice voting in the November general election. The reason they gave? They didn't understand some details of the tabulation method. They put their personal squeamishness with math over the clearly stated will of the county residents they were elected to serve. [06:47:33] And they ignored data gathered from a century of ranked-choice votes in countries all over the world and from decades of ranked-choice votes in dozens of municipalities across the United States, which validate the integrity and superiority of ranked-choice voting over our current plurality voting system. [06:47:54] Arlington County residents liked ranked-choice voting. Hopefully soon the county board will put it back on the menu. Ranked choice voting gives a better voter experience, attracts more and better candidates, rewards respectful campaigning, and ultimately produces better governance. [06:48:12] I urge the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to consider implementing ranked choice voting for future county elections. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Martin. And let me double check and make sure speaker number one, Eric Bianchi, has not arrived. [06:48:30] Okay, that brings us to the end of our board meeting of July 25th, 2023, and unless there are additional business items to come forward, not seeing or hearing anyone, the board is adjourned. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting ยท aguyonx.com