Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Date: Tuesday, November 21, 2023
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 5h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3117
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 2026-11-02. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:06] Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our Board of Supervisors meeting of November 21st, 2023. And we are going to begin our meeting with a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And before we rise, for those who are able for a moment of silence, I'm going to ask my colleagues this morning if they have anyone that they would like to keep in their thoughts and prayers during that period of time.

[00:00:30] And I'm going to start and then recognize others. If we could keep in our thoughts the family of Mort Downey. Mort Downey, folks probably read about him in the Metro section of the Post recently.

[00:00:45] They did a life tribute to him. He spent a lifetime working in the public transit industry and sadly passed away on November 2nd at a retirement home in Oakton. He was 87 years old. He was the U.S. Transportation Department's longest-tenured Deputy Secretary, serving from 1993 to 2001.

[00:01:10] As the Chief Operating Officer for eight years, he played a role in initiatives such as reforms to Amtrak and the drafting of the Transportation Equity Act of 1998, the most expansive public works legislation ever passed by Congress. It authorized an outlay of $217 billion. That would be equivalent of over $400 billion in today's dollars, and granted localities more flexibility in spending federal funds on mass transit.

[00:01:38] He spent six years on the Metro Board of Directors, including four years during the period of time that I served with him on the Metro Board of Directors, which was probably the worst period of time in Metro's history.

[00:01:55] Those will remember that he was chairman of the Metro Board when the horrible red line crash happened on the Metro line. And so he has just spent really many, many decades advocating for, working for public transit.

[00:02:14] He was a resident, longtime resident of Fairfax County. And frankly, some of the network of transit opportunities that exist today in Northern Virginia, I would say would not be there if it weren't for the work of Mort Downey. And so if we can keep Mort Downey and his family in our thoughts and prayers as we progress through the day, that would be appreciated.

[00:02:38] Others who would like to be recognized, let me start on this side with Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'm sad to announce that constituent and beloved community member and friend Eileen Menrick passed away earlier this month.

[00:02:54] Eileen was a Montessori early childhood educator touching hundreds of lives over almost half a century. She was actively involved in the Montessori community since 1974 as a parent, teacher, trainer, and even as a grandparent. She helped establish the Montessori program at Green Hedges School in 1976, where she completed her teacher training and became a lead teacher.

[00:03:18] She then focused on Reston Montessori in 1984, which she operated out of her home for two years. In 1986, she took upon a partner, and they worked together for eight years. In 1994, Eileen sold Reston Montessori to her partner and founded Sunset Hills Montessori School.

[00:03:35] In 2003, after success in her original location, Eileen took the giant leap of purchasing the former United Christian Parish Church on South Lakes Drive in Reston, vastly expanding the school's capacity and the quality of its facility for the children.

[00:03:51] In both 2022 and 2023, Sunset Hills Montessori was voted the best Montessori school in the Washington, Maryland, Virginia region by Washington Parent Magazine. She also served the community in many other ways, including making the assembly hall and her building available to charities and other community organizations, including providing a long-term rehearsal and occasional performance space for the Ruston Community Orchestra.

[00:04:16] So our sincerest condolences go out to Eileen's family, to Joe, and to her Montessori community. Thank you, Supervisor Alcorn. Others who would like to be recognized? Supervisor Palcic. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I know many and our community and in our Providence and our school communities Our thoughts and prayers are with six youngsters Who are in critical condition following a very terrible crash yesterday morning?

[00:04:45] So I want to thank all of the first responders the paramedics And the hospital personnel who have been out there supporting them as well as the school personnel who are also supporting the community at this time Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Pouchik. And before we rise, let me also acknowledge someone close to all of us, and that is Hal Gross.

[00:05:09] Supervisor Gross's husband, since we last met, passed away, and we, many of us, almost all of us, maybe all of us, all of us were able to attend his celebration of life ceremony, which it really was.

[00:05:25] And I think all of us learned a lot more about all the things that Hal Gross was involved in. Certainly, we knew about his long partnership with Supervisor Gross, but a lot of his life achievements on Capitol Hill and his work at the federal level and his advocacy for so many of the progressive causes that many of us continue to advocate for this day was doing them well before the time that most of us were focused on those issues.

[00:05:54] And so I don't know about the rest of you, but I really enjoyed Penny's speech, for lack of a better term, because it was. It was a proclamation literally of a life well lived on behalf of Hal and the photos that we all saw during the ceremony.

[00:06:14] And then I think as many of us also went to the burial site afterwards, seeing our Fairfax County first responders out throughout the community, saluting Hal as he passed by was just another example of what a great community we live in and how we are a county family.

[00:06:35] And so clearly, if we could all continue to keep Penny, the Gross family, especially Penny and Hal's two daughters and son, in our thoughts and prayers as we move on throughout our day and weeks and months ahead, that would be appreciated.

[00:06:51] But, again, what an amazing service, Penny, that you put on with your two daughters speaking as well, which I know was not an easy thing to do. But certainly your marriage to Hal and the life you lived was a model for all of us.

[00:07:08] And so we also want to salute Hal and keep Penny in our thoughts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I married a very accomplished man. Most people knew him only after I got elected, but he had a remarkable career. And helped me get to where I am.

[00:07:24] And I'm okay. I have no regrets. I've always thought that the military gave a great send-off at Arlington. Well, Fairfax County gives a great send-off to Fairfax Memorial Park. That was the only time I cried was when I saw the entire motor squad and the fire department out to salute my husband.

[00:07:47] So it's a very busy time right now in closing down an office and closing down a marriage. and, um, finding a new life, but I will remain in, um, Fairfax County in our home and look forward to being an active volunteer here. But Hal was, um, he, he was remarkable, had a tough time at the end, but, um, no regrets. Thank you. Thank you, Penny. And I, I think, you know, one other thing I want to acknowledge is being a spouse of an elected official is not easy. Um, and, and Hal did that with grace and i think my my favorite story penny that you shared is when he would be

[00:08:27] recognized places like in the grocery store and didn't know why he was being recognized and it was his picture on your annual holiday card that was getting him recognized and how he got a kick out of that but being the spouse of an elected official is not an easy job as all of us know with our own spouses and so we thank him for the way in which he he dealt with that as well With that, I think we are all ready to rise for those who are able for a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

[00:08:58] Please face the flag.

[00:09:26] 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 this morning we have five presentations, so we will try to be mindful of that as we get through each of them.

[00:09:56] As I always do, I will announce the proclamation and invite our speaker down to the podium in front of me. We'll then read the proclamation and pose for a group photo. And first, today we have a resolution to recognize Abigail Achao, a finalist in the Boys and Girls Club of America's National Youth of the Year Award.

[00:10:16] And this was requested by myself and Supervisor Lusk. And our speaker today is Abigail Achao. Abigail, if you're here, if you could come on down, and anyone who is here with you is welcome to join you at the podium as well. And while you are doing that, I am going to recognize Supervisor Lusk for a proclamation.

[00:10:37] Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I will start. Whereas every year the Boys and Girls Club of America selects one teen as its National Youth of the Year award, with six teens from around the country advancing to the national celebration, And whereas Abigail Acha, a Fairfax County resident and member of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington's Murray Gate Club since kindergarten, earned the opportunity to represent the Southeast region in this national competition.

[00:11:11] And whereas, Abigail Ochao credits the Marygate Club with teaching her to appreciate her heritage and individuality, sparking a passion for inclusivity that led her to found West Potomac Change, a club promoting inclusivity and diversity at West Potomac High School.

[00:11:34] And whereas, a keynote president of Marygate Club, Abigail Ochao, also represented the club as an ambassador with the Boys and Girls Club of America's inaugural cohort of the President's Circle, and whereas Abigail is an advocate for her peers, impacting others as a teen mentor, speaker, and volunteer in hopes to one day build and support the Boys and Girls Club of America and continue to change lives. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents,

[00:12:13] does hereby congratulate Abigail Ochoa for her achievements and for being selected as a Boys and Girls Club of America National Youth of the Year Award finalist. I'm happy to second that motion.

[00:12:36] Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I am very pleased that Abigail is here today to accept this proclamation for her outstanding achievement as one of the six finalists in the Boys and Girls Club of America's National Youth of the Year Award contest.

[00:12:53] Abigail's success is a great example of how providing our youth with support and opportunities fosters the creation of new, vibrant community leaders. Thank you to the Marygate Boys and Girls Club and Neighborhood and Community Services for providing programs that offer our children a better path forward.

[00:13:15] Most importantly, though, I want to thank Abigail for being the type of person who is able to learn and take advantage of the support she received. As a daughter of first-generation immigrants from Ghana, she exemplifies how having positive mentors creates new mentors.

[00:13:34] I was especially proud to learn about your participation in the Murraygate Teen Talk program. Being open to discussing your views on social issues and open to receiving support when feeling stressed about social issues allowed you to develop new perspectives and to help others.

[00:13:56] Now, as a VCU college student, I'm sure Abigail is mentoring and leading many on campus. And let me share the quote I shared from Abigail when we did the original board matter.

[00:14:12] Abigail says, true change starts with investment in today's youth. These investments will create stronger, inclusive communities that are innovative and ready to change the world for the better. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I want to say I'm so proud to be able to present this proclamation on behalf of you and the members of the board to Abigail for her exceptional work and support in our community.

[00:14:40] Thank you. Thank you very much, Supervisor Lusk. And let me just add how proud we are of you. These are tears of joy in front of us and well-deserved given all the success that you've had.

[00:14:55] And I was there the day the Boys and Girls Club of America opened for the first time at Murray Gate, and I've had an opportunity to go back and visit many times and see the transformative work that is happening there because of dedicated folks with Boys and Girls Club of America, supportive NCS, but most importantly, because of the kids that are there who have a place to go, a place to learn, a place to interact, a place to build camaraderie.

[00:15:24] and, you know, it's just bustling with activity every day there. And I remember a time going there when we brought broadband service from Cox to the facility and the excitement of all the folks in the community.

[00:15:40] There were so many people there they couldn't fit in the space that they had. And so Murray Gate is a wonderful community that's had a lot of history and a lot of success and producing young people that go on to do great things. And you're another example of that.

[00:15:56] Finally, you know, obviously the lasting work that you've had at West Potomac High School is impressive. But I think about all the very young people who are in the Boys and Girls Club today and to have someone like you to look up to.

[00:16:12] The people who live in Murray Gate, who participate in Boys and Girls Club, the people from outside the community that come there who can who can look at you, Abigail, and say, wow, Look at the amazing things that you have achieved already in such a young life with many achievements still to go.

[00:16:29] And the awe that those young people must have just by looking up to you is incredible. So congratulations to you. Thank you for doing what you're doing. And I know we'll expect great things from you in the future as well. With that, I think we're ready for a vote.

[00:16:46] All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? that motion carries Abigail welcome the floor is yours well good morning everyone my name is Abigail Shaw and this is my board director well this is our branch director Miss Amber and this is our program director Miss Liz and these are our mentors at the Marigate Village Boys and Girls Club to start off I am very honored to be here I am just 19 years old and I did not expect to be proclamated as such a young age, but one thing that I learned about being a club kid at the

[00:17:24] Boys and Girls Club is that my club is my village. They're my support system, and doing the Youth of the Year process, it was an 11-month process, and being able to represent the southeast region of the United States and representing hundreds and thousands of young people's dreams, goals, and being the voice for them in moments where they can't express themselves, it's such an honor and is such a blessing. I wanted to share that with the platform that I have right now, I want to continue to advance DEI initiatives for clubs across the country. There's over 5,000 clubs in

[00:18:00] Boys and Girls Clubs of America with over 3.7 million kids, and I want young people to understand that they have a voice. I want people to understand that when they walk in rooms that they're meant to be there and with living in Fairfax County and living in a low-income housing area and also attending West Potomac High School and being a first-generation immigrant there was moments where I didn't feel like I have a voice and that's why I started West Potomac Change to push those DEI initiatives and make sure that students and staff feel like they're heard and with West Potomac

[00:18:35] change some of the members and I myself included we started a wellness day and we had animals and both staff and students got to participate and it was such a beautiful day because sometimes in school you get overwhelmed with working so hard and you forget to just live in the moment and just put yourself first so I'm so blessed to be here and I'll continue to work hard here at Fairfax County and I'm starting more initiatives in Richmond as a VCU student. So I am so blessed

[00:19:06] to be here and thank you for just having me here. Well, congratulations again, Abigail. We're so proud of you and great words of wisdom for all of us. So you may be 19, but those are great wisdom words for all of us. So well done. I think we are ready for a photo. And if you could come forward and face the audience the board would rise and supervisor lusk and i will join you

[00:19:40] and next we have a resolution to recognize alice and jerry fultz for their contributions to our

[00:21:36] community and this was requested by myself and supervisor smith and i know alice and jerry are both here if you all could come on down to the podium and at this time i'll recognize supervisor Smith to read a resolution. Such a bittersweet moment I have to say. Whereas Reverend Dr. Gerald Jerry Fultz and his wife Alice Fultz are longtime residents of Centerville who've devoted themselves to public service and the principles of equity and justice in our community, and whereas Jerry Fultz has served as Sully

[00:22:16] District's representative on the Human Services Council since 2014, organized a non-profit community food co-op and a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and has served as a volunteer chaplain for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department. And whereas Alice Fultz has served as Sully District's representative on the Advisory Social Services Board since 2016 and on the Affordable Housing Advisory Council, and was instrumental in advocating for the new Fairfax Connector Bus service for the Centerville and Chantilly communities. And whereas Alice and

[00:22:53] Jerry Fultz founded the Centerville Immigration Forum, an organization dedicated to providing immigrants in our community with the means to improve their lives and were recognized with CIF's first-ever Visionary Award in October. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all Fairfax County residents, does hereby congratulate and thank Alice and Jerry Fultz for their outstanding contributions for the betterment of our community and wishes them well in retirement.

[00:23:24] second um it's been moved and seconded uh further discussion on the resolution um i will give supervisor smith a moment um because this is emotional and and a lot of us have known um alice and jerry for a long time and their contributions just don't don't fit on the resolution and only scratch the surface of what you have done for our community and you know i I couldn't help but thinking when Abigail was here a moment ago that her life story so much reflects all the good work that you've done, too.

[00:24:03] Trying to make sure that our immigrant population, in particular vulnerable people in our community, have a voice, have a path forward to improve their lives. And, you know, having joined Supervisor Smith at the Centerville Immigration Forum, where you received the Visionary Award in October, there's so many things that you've done here.

[00:24:25] But I'm sure that one in particular was an amazing capstone of contributions that you've made to this community for a long, long time. And I know how personal that one was for you and the difference that that's making in Centerville with our immigrant community.

[00:24:44] But all the things, the work on the Human Services Council, certainly the chaplain work you've done for our first responders, all the advocacy for the bus service that Supervisor Smith mentioned, but just for being a model pair for the rest of us to look at, who always had good advice, always knew how to advocate in a polite but effective way.

[00:25:13] recognizing that you know sometimes it's not the loudest voice in the room that moves the needle sometimes it's the people who are doing the work and just trying to improve people's lives not looking for attention for themselves but just trying to improve the livelihood of other people around them in our community and what a model both of you have been when I learned that you were leaving the area at first I just refused to accept that but I know you're not going too too far away and so I know that part of your heart is still here and part of you will always be coming back

[00:25:50] visiting and continuing to support our community as you've done for for so so long but on behalf of all those folks whose lives have been improved who maybe have never met either one of you I want to say thank you for them as they would if they had this opportunity so So wish you well in this next chapter, but know that you're a short distance away and hope that you'll continue to contribute to your new community and to our community.

[00:26:17] And we are very grateful to both of you. Other discussion? Supervisor Smith. I'm good. I didn't realize I'd get so emotional. You know, when Alice and Jerry, they lived with the community that needed our help.

[00:26:35] They shared their time with them. They lived their experiences. And this is what's made such a difference, to really, really care about people by knowing about their day-to-day lives. I remember Alice's advocacy for the bus when she said there's somebody that lives near Route 50 that takes two hours on the bus to get up to rest into the health clinic.

[00:26:56] And we have to do better. And Fairfax County is a great place to live because of people like Alice and Jerry that immerse themselves in these communities and make life better for them. We need to do a better job with more affordable housing when people retire in Fairfax County, and maybe we would have been able to keep them here.

[00:27:15] But there really aren't enough words for your care for this community. And the Center for Immigration Forum is just such a wonderful, wonderful place that embraces people, that teaches them English and teaches them job skills and deals with wage theft and so many things and brings together a community to celebrate culture together.

[00:27:38] And so I can't thank you enough. Thank you for your commitment to this community, and you will be sorely missed, and I plan to see you at least once a year when the Center for Immigration Forum meets. Thank you so much. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. Further discussion? Supervisor Palchuk.

[00:27:54] I just want to add, I think Supervisor Smith really touched on the point why the work you have done is so impactful and has been so transformative. The fact that I think you've set the gold standard for how to empower a community, it's not you've never gone in and say I know what you need and let me give that to you you've been with the community you've asked them what they need you've helped empower them to advocate as well for their own needs and to help them realize that everyone has a voice and should have a voice here in Fairfax County and from my first days of being an elected official and spending time with Jerry

[00:28:30] and then with Alice I think that's what really touched me and as an immigrant as to why the work you've done really is the way we want to see all of the advocacy and engagement for our community to happen. I'm sad you're going to the wrong side of the Potomac, but we hope to see you very often. Thank you so much for all you've done and for the, I think, the leadership and the tone that you've set for our community. Thank you, Supervisor Pouchek. With that, I think we're ready for a vote uh all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye all those opposed uh any

[00:29:08] abstentions that motion carries and uh jerry and alice welcome the floor is yours um thank you so much for all those kind words and i'll say the work that we've done um whatever it's been has been a joy to us and we're both grateful for the opportunity to live and work in fairfax county for nearly 28 years and for the opportunity to participate in the big changes that have come in Fairfax County over that time, big changes in demographics and in the way the county looks.

[00:29:47] We appreciated when we began the discussions about Centerville Immigration that led to Centerville Immigration Forum through our faith community, Wellspring, we had the support at that time of Supervisor Michael Fry.

[00:30:05] and many others in the many other faith groups joined and other community groups joined in and certainly we're grateful for the support of Kathy Smith now Supervisor Smith and her staff Mike Coyle and Kim Ward have just been wonderful and a way for people in our community the immigrant community to share their views about what they need and that's so important

[00:30:34] And there are also other people on the Fairfax County staff who were a part of that story in the early years, and some of those are still with the county, people like Paul Woods and Sarah Allen and Evan Broff and many others.

[00:30:49] And they saw the need and also helped us find ways to get support and to shape what we were doing. So many thanks to all these people, volunteers and others who helped us begin those discussions about 16, 17 years ago.

[00:31:10] There was certainly some controversy at that time, but I'll say that the support from so many people in the county, And this includes ordinary residents as well as leaders and Fairfax County staff. Overall, the support was very positive.

[00:31:27] And we know from looking around that that's not true everywhere in the country. And so we're very grateful for being able to be a part of that. This is what Fairfax County means to me. It's a place of welcome in many places around the county.

[00:31:44] And thank you for making that possible. I think that positive welcome that Fairfax County offers makes it a safe and healthy place to live for all of us. And that's what we've worked for. And I'll say a word, too, about the Advisory Social Services Board, where I came to know and appreciate the great work being done by Director Michael Beckett, Director of the Department of Family Services, and the staff of that department who do so much good work to make the community, make family life sustainable for so many in our community.

[00:32:19] And I appreciate your support for the work done by the Advisory Social Services Board and the Department of Family Services. So thank you for the opportunities you've provided for so many people. Thank you. Thank you, Alice.

[00:32:37] And certainly thank the Board of Supervisors, Kathy Smith and Jeff McKay, for this great honor. It is humbling, but I'm also grateful. In our 27 years plus in Fairfax County, I've been privileged with the opportunities to invest myself in a variety of concerns.

[00:33:00] Alice and I came to the county to start a new church, the Wellspring United Church of Christ, and she to teach in public school and I to minister and outreach. But soon I became a volunteer with the Centerville Volunteer Fire Department, Station 417, as a chaplain, and then with the County Fire and Rescue Department with a great core of dedicated honor volunteer chaplains that serve quite well and great diversity.

[00:33:31] And soon I became, well, I'm finally retired, sorry, but I continue to serve in multiple ways. And as you might know, I'm currently chair of the Centerville Immigration Forum Board of Directors. In the 12 years in our serving the immigrant community in the county, we have enjoyed the support of our supervisors, especially Mike Fry earlier and Kathy Smith and Jeff McKay.

[00:33:57] And our common core values that we have with the county, I think, have meshed well, especially with the concept of recently One Fairfax and the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. They're really a part of what we're about.

[00:34:13] And we continue to provide safe employment opportunities, skills training, as was mentioned, leadership development, avenues of advocacy for themselves, and also ultimately sustainability for themselves and their families. Other area residents also, of course, benefit from their growing skills and hard work.

[00:34:35] On behalf of the Center for Immigration Forum, the worker members, the volunteers and dedicated staff, our supporters, and the whole community, which benefits, I thank you, our supervisors, for your continued support. And for several years of appointment, I've also been privileged to serve on the Human Services Council, as was mentioned, representing Sully District while also having concern for the whole county.

[00:35:03] I have always been impressed with the dedication and hard work of our county staff in supplying us and the Board of Supervisors with information, studies and analyses, enabling us to advise the board for their good decision making.

[00:35:19] I should mention also that I've enjoyed the last four general elections serving as an election officer for Fairfax County in two primaries, 16-hour days, roll along more or less rapidly, but not always.

[00:35:35] And I really appreciate being on the inside sometimes and seeing how things really do work well. As we leave Fairfax County now next month for Maryland, we take with us our desire to help make other pastures as green as Fairfax County.

[00:35:54] Thank you for this recognition and honor, and I pray God's blessing on all of you and what you do. Thank you. Thank you very much, Jerry and Alice, for all that you've done for our community. As we've said, we can't thank you enough.

[00:36:11] You've made a difference, and a difference that will be felt by many people and many families for a long, long time. So thank you for your advocacy and service, public service. With that, I think we're ready for a photo, and Supervisor Smith, if you'll join me, and the board would rise.

[00:36:30] We now have a resolution to recognize John Fee for his contributions to the community,

[00:37:57] and this was requested by myself and by Supervisor Walkinshaw. And our speaker today is John Fee, former chair of the Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission. If you could come on down, if there's anyone else you're already down, if there's anyone else here with you, they're welcome to join us as well.

[00:38:16] And at this time, I am going to turn the gavel for a moment over to Supervisor Gross so I may read the following resolution. Whereas Fairfax County Consumer Protection Commission chairperson and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel John Fee has been an active member of our community for more than 40 years, dedicating much of his life to public service.

[00:38:38] And whereas John Fee was appointed to the Consumer Protection Commission in 1995 and served as a chairperson from 2004 to 2023, working collaboratively with directors and staff of the Fairfax County Department of Cable and Consumer Services.

[00:38:54] And whereas during his time as chairperson, John Fee's accomplishments included advising on and facilitating the consolidation of various municipal water companies, recommending regulations for the utility and taxicab industries, among others, and facilitating expansion of the cable television industry to all county residents.

[00:39:15] And whereas John Fee has also served his community as Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, President of the Middle Ridge Civic Association, Braddock District Planning Project, and Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Associations, Chairman of the Annandale Braddock District Council of Community Associations, and a member of the Fairfax County Public Schools School Bond Committee and the Fairfax County Trespass Towing Advisory Board, on which he also served as chair, and was named Lord Fairfax for the Braddock District in 1991.

[00:39:49] Therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County does hereby recognize and thank John Fee for 28 years of service, including 19 years as chairperson to the Consumer Protection Commission and his many contributions to Fairfax County and wishes him well in his future endeavors.

[00:40:11] You've heard the motion. Seconded by Supervisor Walkinshaw. there discussion on the motion mr chairman yes uh thank you vice chairman gross uh we we didn't want to let uh john go without uh being formally recognized uh here at the board and and i think the resolution speaks for itself in terms of why uh we are doing that but um stepping up and serving as a community volunteer uh is what is what makes fairfax county such a great place to live few people have done it as extensively and for as long as you have, John. And we can't thank you enough

[00:40:47] for all the contributions that you've made. And as I read the resolution, just thinking about the time span in which you've been doing this and the things that have come up, you know, through the Consumer Protection Commission in particular, some very tough issues involving everyday things that people in Fairfax County rely upon and just assume will always be working, like the water wars and the challenges that we're faced going through that, but also the work you've done with the cable television industry. I mean, I can remember when cable first came to Fairfax County. I know

[00:41:24] you can too. And just seeing how much things have evolved over the period of time that you've been of volunteers been incredible and then of course uh being named lord fairfax for braddock district in 1991 a long time ago you were recognized for all that you were doing for the community and you continued to do that for decades literally after that and so we can't thank you enough for the commitment you've made to this county the difference you've made in the lives of so many people and the example that you have shown for other people about volunteerism,

[00:42:03] dedicated love of community and involvement that's so important to our civic fabric here in Fairfax County. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

[00:42:19] I think the chairman said it well. Few people have been doing it as well as you, as long as you have. A lot of things have changed in the time that John's been involved in Fairfax County. The name of the Braddock District has changed. As was noted there, it used to be the Annandale-Braddock District Council.

[00:42:38] And John has been just one of those pillars in the Braddock District, in the county, really holding things together. And I want to especially thank you for your work in Middle Ridge over the years. It's one of our most active and engaged communities, a really great neighborhood.

[00:42:57] Chairman McKay and I were there for National Night Out this year, which I always say is the best National Night Out event in Fairfax County. I've been to a lot of them around the county. I've been to a lot of them. It really is amazing, and you're one of the people that has made that happen.

[00:43:12] One thing we didn't put in the proclamation is John is also recently an author. He just shared this with me. He's the author of I three putt experiences of a duffer, which is an ode to high handicapped golfers, which we can all relate to.

[00:43:30] It's on sale right now. I'm looking at it right now. It's on sale on Amazon. So definitely check that out. And every year since I've been on the board, when we go through the Lord and Lady Fairfax process, I say, has John Fee been? And we go back and look at the list. And yes, it was 1991. He did it.

[00:43:46] But, John, thank you for all of your service to the county, which I know is going to continue in different ways. Congratulations. Any other discussion before we vote? I just want to make one quick comment. John, I think you were one of the first people I met when I got elected 28 years ago.

[00:44:02] You came and you wanted to make sure that I understood all the things that cable and consumer protection and so forth does. And then there was this trespass towing board. And it's like, the Board of Supervisors gets involved in what?

[00:44:19] It's one of those things that most people, when they run for office and get elected to local office, do not recognize as something that they might be involved in. But you have been just a stellar member of the community. And it was always good to know that you were there and could give us the benefit of your good guidance and counsel.

[00:44:42] Seeing and hearing no other 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. And John, welcome. The floor is yours. Good morning, Chairman McKay, and thank you and the members of the Board of Supervisors for this opportunity that you and your predecessors gave me to serve our county.

[00:45:05] I would not have accomplished anything, of course, without the support of my wife, Barbara. I also thank Consumer Protection Commissioner Jacqueline Rozier and her colleagues for putting this together. recognition is often the work of a good publicist and I've had a great one I was the last public speaker before this body in the Massey building and I was the first public speaker in this board room over the years I've had the privilege of serving with dozens of civic volunteers county staff elected supervisors in this county of 1.2 million people I followed Jerry Connolly and David

[00:45:43] Bolova in leadership positions at different organizations. In baseball terms, this was the equivalent of batting cleanup after they hit it before you has cleared the bases. It is personally confounding to find portraits, meeting rooms, parks, roadways, and buildings honoring flesh and blood people that I knew. They made this county the great place that it is.

[00:46:11] Former chairperson Sharon Bolova was my mentor in many manners, particularly in the art of conducting a meeting with respect for all participants. I'm convinced it would not be a Virginia Rail Express without her conciliatory efforts behind the scenes. She also founded the non-profit Braddock District Tree Planting Project. Eventually, I became president and found myself spreading mulch on Saturdays in the median of Braddock Road with octogenarian volunteers and inmates from the Sheriff's Weekend Offender Program. Once when finishing our work, I said to a young

[00:46:48] offender, I guess you can take pride in your labors on this road the next time you drive down. He responded, oh, it'll be a while before they let me drive down this road again. It was the first time some of these young offenders ever saw pure altruistic behavior.

[00:47:08] They wouldn't let the old people lift anything. My regret is that my neighbors are too often unaware of the good and conscientious work by their elected officials and county workers. At a celebration of life service for Jack Knowles, a county civic volunteer from the Mount Vernon District, a hymn repeated, Whom shall the Lord send now? Whom shall the Lord send now? My time, literally and figuratively, is over.

[00:47:38] I urge anyone watching this to take the challenge. Volunteer for vacancies in our non-profits and our county boards and commissions. Your payment will not be monetary. Your compensation will be satisfaction beyond measure. Thank you, Chairman McKay, members of the Board of Supervisors, and all your predecessors.

[00:47:57] God bless America. God bless America. Thank you very much. John, outstanding words, and we're so grateful to you. You're literally a Fairfax County legend. And of all the things we knew about you, I know I did not know you were the last person to speak at the Massey Building and the first person to speak at this building when it opened.

[00:48:21] And that's just remarkable. And why wouldn't you be right? And so we are so grateful for everything you've done for our community. And I truly hope that people listening, especially this morning, we started with a young person that probably can can fill a lot of these shoes that have been left here and these champions in our community.

[00:48:43] But what a day to celebrate so much work that so many volunteers have done, and a perfect day to have you here to celebrate that and all that you've done as well. And so thank you. With that, I think we're ready for a photo. And if Supervisor Walkinshaw would like to join me and if you could come forward.

[00:49:44] Okay, we next have a proclamation to recognize Adoption Awareness Month.

[00:50:18] This was requested by myself and Supervisor Herity. And our speaker today is Julie Bowman, Resource and Support Program Manager for Foster Care and Adoption here in the Department of Family Services in Fairfax County. And I see you making your way down.

[00:50:34] If there's anyone else here who would like to join you, they're welcome to join you at the podium as well. And at this time, I would recognize Supervisor Herity for a resolution. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I have a proclamation to move. Whereas November is National Adoption Awareness Month, and across the nation, more than 64,000 children are available for adoption, and over 1,200 foster children in the Commonwealth of Virginia are waiting for adoptive families.

[00:51:00] And whereas youth leaving foster care without being adopted or without permanent connections face ongoing challenges with employment, education, and mental health, as well as have an increased risk of homelessness and being human trafficked.

[00:51:15] And whereas every child in Fairfax County, regardless of physical, medical, or emotional challenges, needs love, support, security, and a permanent place to call home. And whereas during Adoption Awareness Month, we celebrate all the families who have opened their homes to children through adoption, including the 30 children and youth adopted from foster care last year in Fairfax County.

[00:51:39] And whereas we also recognize those children and youth still waiting to join an adoptive family, including the 10 children currently in foster care in Fairfax County. And whereas the Department of Family Services is committed to supporting children in foster care waiting for adoption and supporting adoptive families through education services and resources.

[00:52:00] now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county board of supervisors on behalf of all residents of fairfax county does hereby proclaim the month of november 2023 as adoption awareness month in fairfax county and urges all residents to support our children in any way they are able whether by opening their hearts and homes through adoption becoming foster parents or by supporting adoptive and foster parents in our community community so moved i'm happy to second that along with a lot of the board.

[00:52:32] Discussion on the motion, Supervisor Herity. Yeah, and I'll try to be brief, but as an adoptive parent, I'm happy to see us recognizing Adoption Awareness Month. Adoption, just like having kids of your own, has challenges and rewards and ups and downs.

[00:52:50] I'm happy I made the choice to positively impact a life in a very meaningful way. I happened on it accidentally. That's a longer story then I'll share today but I'd encourage all of our residents to actively consider it whether they start with fostering or or jump right into it to adoption I was we were at the VACO conference that many of us were at the VACO conference and and I noticed on the Roanoke news Virginia Kids Belongs does a segment on kids up for adoption so I don't think we have that up here but

[00:53:27] And I know that's certainly something I'm going to be pulling the string on and seeing if we can get some kind of, you guys do a great job, 30 families, but we've got 10 that still are looking for homes and that the need is almost always there. But I want to thank you for the great work that you all do to find those permanent homes that are so important for those in need of adoption.

[00:53:52] Thank you, Supervisor Herity. Further discussion? Supervisor Stork. thank you mr chairman and and thank you and supervisor for bringing this forward i as an adopted parent and the challenges that go with that are real but the joys and the light the laughter the shaking of the heads lots of different directions are part of that but but clearly it it adds a whole different perspective to your life and and truly

[00:54:27] enables you to to see a whole different part of our community i mean the number of folks who are involved particularly with when you're involved with special needs kids that that is that whole support system is huge and can make a difference but also recognize that we have so many more children out there that need that help that love that light that adults parents can can give a child that it truly can help them find a whole new to track to a whole new place in their own kind of

[00:55:00] lives and a sense of that they do and are loved and have so much more that they can in turn give back to to all of us so thank you very much for your efforts and really the support network that's a key part of folks who want to adopt and and ultimately are willing to make that that commitment and challenge and and open their heart and their houses and homes to to folks who truly they can make a difference with so thank you thank you supervisor stork any further discussion let me

[00:55:35] to thank you as well our staff this is one another example of what an amazing job they do every day really changing the lives of people in fairfax county and i know it's a labor of love and passion but i know also know it's emotional stressful and difficult and a lot of times we we see the upsides always, but we don't see a lot of times the challenges that exist and the work that you do to help children and families overcome those challenges. And I had two neighbors of mine on

[00:56:08] both sides of me that both had adopted two kids themselves from our foster care system. And I just remember them telling me how often the support of our county staff and the handholding that you provide to those families throughout the process and long past adoption day, what a big difference that has made to them. And so I can't thank you enough on their behalf, but really on behalf of all of the children and families who have been able to adopt and, you know, make space in their home for someone who needs it. It's a really emotional, compelling, difficult, but worthwhile

[00:56:46] endeavor and so we thank you for that with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries Julie welcome the floor is yours thank you so much chairman McKay supervisor heritage supervisor short and members of the board on behalf of the Department of Family Services and the many adoptive families in Fairfax County thank you so much for recognizing November as adoption awareness month in Fairfax County. Hearing about the story of adoption is best shared by an adoptive family. So I'd like

[00:57:21] for you to meet one of our adoptive families via video this morning. And a special thank you to Channel 16 for their production of our videos to support our outreach for our foster care and adoption program. So please meet Katie and her son, Zach. Oh, Zach. Zach is a wonderful child.

[00:57:51] I could not ask for a better son. He is super social. Everybody loves Zach. He's very funny. He's engaging. He's empathetic. He can really match people's feelings, personalities. My name is Katherine Damon. I am a third grade teacher in Fairfax County. Zach came to me at two years old. He came with his brother who was an infant. He was two weeks old. He was in two foster families before me, and he had tried to reunify with his mother, which didn't work out. So then he went

[00:58:30] back to another foster family, and then he came to live with me. When Zach came, he had some, you know, behavior issues. He was, you know, a little bit more reserved. He was a little bit more frightened, but he's getting better. I can see with every month, every year that, you know, he's growing, but he's just a dynamic super kid.

[00:59:02] Zach loves to hear his story. He's always asking, you know, can you tell me my foster care story? Can you tell me my adoptive story? And he has a good relationship with most of his family. He has a relationship with his aunt, Aunt Sarah, and so sometimes when Aunt Sarah comes over she'll call his dad who's in Saudi Arabia. I keep in touch with his mom so I can send her pictures and let her know how he's doing. He has a brother and a sister. We're with an aunt and so he is able to see them. He knows his foster families that he was with so he

[00:59:39] loves to hear his foster care story. And so he is all this family and we talk about when he was born. It's been we've been very lucky that we've been able to get pictures. So he has his entire story from when he was born until now and So his story is complete.

[00:59:57] I think I have the same hopes that most parents have for their children. I want him to have a good life. I want him to be healthy. I want him to be happy. I want him to have integrity as a strong man in society. But as an adoptive child, I want him to be able to know that he's loved.

[01:00:15] I don't want him to have questions about where he came from, which is why, you know, knowing his story is so important. I want him to be able to go forth and have a strong family himself. I've been super lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life.

[01:00:31] He has known the same social worker all throughout. And I know that I can call her anytime about Zach and that she absolutely adores Zach. So I think that, you know, if you're looking to foster, go into fostering. If you're looking to foster to adopt, that's a wonderful thing to do.

[01:00:49] It's very important for these kids to have a safe place to land when they most need it. Everyone knows Zach's adoption story, and my kids in my class all know, you know, Zach's adopted, and Zach's class knows Zach's adopted, and we're able to share that story with others.

[01:01:07] And then, you know, other teachers come up to me, and other adults come up to me, and they ask me about foster care, and they ask me about, you know, adoption, and I'm able to share that with them and hopefully, you know, encourage others to do that as well. Good.

[01:01:34] Well, thank you very much, and especially the folks who were able to share Zach's story and put together that video is powerful. And I also want to thank our friends at Channel 16, as you did, for their help with that. With that, I think we're ready for a photo, and if Supervisor Herity would join me, if you could come forward and face the audience.

[01:01:56] And let me just make sure before that we vote on this. I don't think there's anyone opposed to it, but all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Now we will take our photo.

[01:02:49] Mr. Chairman, I believe we need to take a break for a brief costume change.

[01:03:32] Hopefully everyone can see us now.

[01:04:27] We next have a proclamation to designate November 15th as Fairfax Recycles Day. and this was requested by myself by supervisor herity gross and stork and our speaker is matt evans division director for sustainability engineering and environment in our department of public works and environmental services if you could please come on down anyone else who's here with you and i can see a lot of people here with you if they could come on down as well for the presentation. We would appreciate that. And while you're doing that, I will turn to

[01:05:05] Supervisor Herity to read a resolution. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I have a proclamation to read, to move, I should say. Whereas American Recycles Day on November 15th is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the U.S.

[01:05:22] And whereas nationally, thousands of organizations and jurisdictions hold events to educate people about recycling resources in their community. Whereas through recycling collection drives, demonstrations, competitions, tours, displays, and additional awareness-raising events, residents are encouraged to increase recycling at home, at school, and in the office and community.

[01:05:46] And whereas there are many ways for our community to increase recycling at home, at school, in the office, and in the community, including dropping off glass at a Purple Can Club location, visiting the I-66 transfer station's compost drops-off and learning how and where to recycle common materials by using the county's what-goes-where tool.

[01:06:06] Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, on behalf of all residents of Fairfax County, does hereby proclaim November 15, 2023 as Fairfax County Recycles Day and urges all residents to support the national initiative and local efforts to recycle.

[01:06:24] So moved. I heard the motion. It's been multiply seconded. Discussion on the motion? Supervisor Herity? Yeah, I think I want to start by thanking all the people that are in front of us today. Because without you, a lot of recycling doesn't happen.

[01:06:41] I want to start by thanking the team for sharing the shirts with us. It is important that you get seen and that people can see us and see us supporting you. Because it is critical. I turned the drive here this morning. i drove by a truck full of people with the these shirts on on their way to work and and when you look at a day like today where it's cold rainy miserable with the uh with uh visibility down it it shows just how important you all are that you're out there day in and day out whether we're

[01:07:19] short-staffed or not short-staffed getting done the job that that needs to get done so that we can put up the recycling numbers that that we do here in the county and we do a very good job of recycling so i want to thank everybody that's involved in that but it's a great recognition our residents are very passionate about recycling and love the many opportunities we have to recycle year-round i know at my office at west springfield i don't ever walk to the car almost day day or night without hearing the glass being broken i think our residents really love getting their

[01:07:54] frustrations outbreak breaking the glass inside the bins not outside the bins i want to thank chris harrington eric forbes charlie forbes and their team for their efforts uh innovation's key um to increasing uh and i'm seeing this innovation in our community as residents get excited to recycle last year we recognized uh the glass recycling network at this event um started by a high school student and i've seen numerous other recycle events like that where they actually make it easier for our residents to recycle by collecting it locally and then delivering it to our great staff. This year, in the weekend following Recycling Day, one of our Eagle

[01:08:33] Stouts, Caden Coffee, partnered with DPWS to host an e-recycling event, again, in the community to make it a little easier to get there. But designating this Recycling Days continues to educate our students, citizens, and businesses about the importance of recycling and reducing waste look forward to working with you on and furthering ways to uh to further our recycling goals and uh thank you again for uh for all you guys do because it it is important um it's important to our residents and it's important to us so thank you supervisor pal jake uh thank you

[01:09:09] mr chairman and thanks to you and i think the many people you're representing who are still out there in this terrible weather today it is my first time in 30 years being on Fairfax County trash and recycling services and I have to say they are the best in the county the teams that come out to to do that are incredible well today is recycling I heard another word that growing up we learned that I think is really important to keep in mind reduce reuse and then recycle right so we know that the recycling part especially now knowing that the glass recycling what may take a little more effort is actually being recycled and reused

[01:09:48] uh as an incredible uh achievement i think of our county things that many of us have seen in places farther away um to be able to see that they the recycling is being recycling that recycled it is being reused and that we are able to as a community to reduce that um reduce our waste um reduce the amount of people power needed to collect that waste but to have excellent recycling services when those are needed as well as our waste management so as was mentioned I really want to thank the crews you are the best out there I would say in the nation I haven't been

[01:10:25] in other places and use their county services but I have to say the ones I've seen here not only the the commitment to doing an excellent job but to being so collaborative and cooperative with our neighborhoods with our communities so much so that in my neighborhood uh when one of the workers was injured we had all the kids out there collecting and thanking um our our trash guy who got injured because we love him so much so thank you for all you do uh thank you for being out there every day thank you for uh our swag um and i know that we up here are all very proud

[01:11:02] to be wearing it today because you are really the best of fairfax county so thank you supervisor Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to thank you so much for the service you provide to our community. It's obviously extremely critical. I also want to note that the reason we wear this and the reason you wear it is because of safety.

[01:11:25] And it's so critically important. Our community must realize how important it is, the service you provide, but the risks you take for us just by being out there on the streets as you are. And, you know, I would just say the word needs to go out, and we try to get the word out all the time that, you know, your safety is critically important to us.

[01:11:47] And I know you're going to act in every way you can to be safe. We as a community need to respect, you know, the fact that you're out there taking chances for us. So I just want to thank you so much for what you do. Thank you.

[01:12:04] Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to staff. We've come a long way in recycling since I first joined this board. A lot more people are paying attention to it, a lot more questions about what I can and cannot recycle.

[01:12:24] Supervisor Herity and I cut the ribbon for the compost center at I-66 a few years ago, and we've had a number of requests for composting sites closer than I-66 and I-95.

[01:12:41] And I think that's one of those innovative things that our staff is working on. The Purple Can Club, just absolutely just the most popular thing. In fact, when we had to close it down for a few weeks during COVID, we got almost as many calls and complaints as we do about leaf collection.

[01:13:02] And so the idea that we were then able to reopen fairly quickly was good. And I think, yes, I agree with Supervisor Herity and the rest of my colleagues. You never walk into the parking lot at the Mason District Governmental Center without hearing clink, clink, clink, and that's a good thing.

[01:13:21] Over the last few weeks and months, I have visited the I-66 Recycling Center with mixed paper, lots and lots of mixed paper, as I close down some of the files in my office and also my husband's files.

[01:13:39] I was there this morning in the rain, figuring that as long as I was going to be out here, I might as well bring some more boxes. Thank you very much for organizing that so well, because you can follow those orange barriers and make it very easy to go in and around and out.

[01:13:58] It didn't used to be that way, but it's really good now. So as we continue to look at curbside recycling, which is the easiest for people to do, I want to thank staff for being very innovative on the I-66 and 95 locations because you can do so much more now.

[01:14:17] You can load everything up and go to each station and get it taken care of. My one caution would be don't go right after Christmas. I did that one time. The lines were all the way out to West Ocks Road. I could not believe it took about 45 minutes just to get to the location that we needed, even though all the staff was working really hard and very well organized.

[01:14:41] There were just so many people getting rid of their old electronics and so forth after the holidays. So I wish you well after the holidays because I think you will probably see that happening again. But thank you very, very much for your good work and for bringing attention to the recycling opportunities that we have in Fairfax County.

[01:15:03] And also, of course, safety. And thank you for your reminder that we had these shirts in our closets for a while. It was very nice of you to say, by the way, don't forget. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[01:15:24] Sorry, I have a finicky light. I wanted to thank you all. I know my colleagues have really talked about the safety and the challenges and particularly the drivers that we all see that don't honor the importance of being respectful and staying back and giving you all a chance to finish and to do your job safely, but it is something that's on our mind.

[01:15:45] It's always on my mind, and again, I thank you for your efforts to be sure that you keep those safety levels high in our community, in our county, and to, I guess, add one more to what we all are here to do, which is recycle, which is really the four R's, reduce, reuse, reduce, reuse, refuse, and recycle.

[01:16:08] No, refuse, refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Man, even I can't quite get it right, but I know there's four R's. I know in the end, it's about recycling. And I also know that we've made a huge commitment as a county, and you all are the key part of how we do that, not only for county government, You know, because we've said in our objectives and the JET initiatives that we did, we said by 2030, we would be, we'd recycle 90% of what the county produces.

[01:16:40] But we also said for our community, for the county overall, we'd achieve the same goals by 2040. So we have some major challenges to do. And then as part of that, we know we have to only reduce the amount of stuff that we use. So going back to reuse, refuse, reuse, reduce, and recycle is key, and I'm here to support that and look for other ways that the county can continue to make progress on that.

[01:17:06] So thank you all. You all are the front lines of making that happen. Appreciate it. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And let me also thank all of you, and as was acknowledged earlier, so many other folks at DPWS who are not here today who are out, you know, working the routes and working at the stations and doing the important work that we all have acknowledged here this morning. And I also want to thank you for being an essential part of our resilience and our ways to address climate change. Because, you know, recycling is taken

[01:17:41] passionately by people in this community. But as you all know, we've been recycling for many decades. It's kind of the old news of the environmental movement, but it's a critical part. And obviously, as we look forward to doing some of the other elements like refusing and reducing and trying to cut the amount of waste and recyclable materials that you have to collect in the first place is really a key to our future existence and to addressing climate change. And so you are on the front lines helping us deal with what is a global challenge. And I want you to know how important you are as a part of that and to be a part of this county family.

[01:18:20] When we look at ways we can support you, ways that we can invest in our environmental movement but also in our employees, it's people like you that we're thinking about. And Supervisor Stork and I were recently at the ribbon cutting for the new electric trash trucks and we hope that, you know, making investments like that in a cleaner community is important

[01:18:44] But setting an example for the rest of the community is important, but also investing in materials and supplies and supports that make your job easier, less toxic, safer, more sustainable is something that I know this board will continue to be focused on moving forward.

[01:19:05] And so thank you all for joining us this morning. This is Fairfax Recycles Day, but we know every day is Fairfax Recycles Day, and we wouldn't have that operation without you and your dedication. So we salute you this morning, and I'm always happy to put on the bright yellow vest with you as part of our county family.

[01:19:25] With that, I think we're ready to vote. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And Matt, welcome. The floor is yours. Good morning, everyone. My name is Matthew Adams. I'm the Division Director for the Sustainability, Engineering, and Environmental Compliance Program for the Solid Waste Management Program inside of the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services.

[01:19:53] Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board for recognizing Fairfax Recycles Day and celebrating an occasion that is not only significant for our community, but also for the planet. It is a day dedicated to promoting the importance of sustainability and the criticality of reducing our waste footprint on the environment.

[01:20:12] I'm proud to be a part of the solid waste community and be recognized by the board for our collective efforts. We accept this proclamation with sincere gratitude. We will continue to champion recycling right and encourage everyone in the community to contribute to decreasing our effects on the environment.

[01:20:32] This proclamation will bring awareness and highlight the benefits of community's continued efforts to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle. First of all, we want to thank our residents for their efforts to recycle, compost, and reduce waste.

[01:20:51] We also want to thank our internal partners for their participation in our programs and for making the conscious decision to benefit the community and support a sustainable lifestyle. We would also like to thank our partners in the waste collecting industry who work diligently to make sure our recycling is collected every single day.

[01:21:11] Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank our team members who are both here today and both out in the field. On days like today, it's the most important. When it's cold, when it's wet, when it's raining, those guys are out there. Well, guys and girls are out there collecting the waste, making sure that we're having a sustainable environment, that we're continuing to keep Fairfax clean and to make sure that, you know, that we have an environmentally safe community. As we embark on our community-wide goal of zero waste by 2040, incorporating the One Fairfax and Strategic Plan, I'm thrilled to share some of the successes

[01:21:49] of our program and those of the community, which not only serve as a testament to our dedication to recycling and waste reduction, but also as a beacon of hope for a greener future. In Fairfax, we've taken significant strides in our recycling efforts, particularly in the realm of glass recycling. Recycling glass is a success in Fairfax County. The Purple Bend Club has been expanded throughout the community, making it easier for residents to participate. This year alone, we're estimating to recycle over 7,000 tons of glass through this program. That's 14

[01:22:23] million pounds of glass coming out of the waste stream. Our community's commitment to glass recycling, we have significantly reduced our waste footprint and will continue to improve as the program grows. Additionally, we've also embraced technology and innovation to reduce our carbon footprint. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we were unable to have our touch-a-truck event for our newly electrified trash trucks, but know that they're out there in the community today picking up recycling. These are the first of their kind in the area. This not only benefits the air

[01:23:01] we breathe, but also sets a precedent for Fairfax County to have a cleaner and more sustainable future in transportation and waste management, while also leading the way for others in the region. Let's celebrate our accomplishments today, but also look forward to the zero waste journey ahead. As we accept this proclamation, let it serve as a reminder that our collective efforts matter. Every act of recycling, every food scrap composted in our drop-off center, and every effort to reduce waste contributes to a more sustainable future.

[01:23:36] Together, as we continue to fight climate change, preserve our environment, and build a greener tomorrow. Thank you again for this honor and for your commitment to a more sustainable Fairfax County. Thank you. Thank you very much, Matt. We appreciate your comments, and I think we're ready for a photo.

[01:23:53] This should be the best-looking one of the day. If you all could come forward, and if Supervisor Herity and Supervisor Stork, chair of our environmental committee, want to join me? It'll be the brightest.

[01:24:11] You'll have to use a filter on it.

[01:24:13] And we now have a special recognition from the National Association of Counties.

[01:26:19] And I'm going to recognize Matt Chase in a moment. He has a presentation to present to Supervisor Gross. And before he does that, I do want to also acknowledge that we, many of us recently were at the Virginia Association of Counties Conference where we were taking part in the annual conference.

[01:26:41] And as a part of that conference, the prestigious Jefferson Cup is awarded to individuals who have made a difference in local government in the Commonwealth of Virginia. and not every year someone gets that award.

[01:26:57] In this particular year, two people got it. Billy Kiger, who, for those of us who serve on Vaco, has become a friend to many of us and somebody, I think, if we were to handpick someone to get that award the same time our own Penny Gross got it, I think we probably all would have voted to have Billy Kiger be the one to get that award simultaneously with Supervisor Gross.

[01:27:21] But Supervisor Gross was acknowledged by VACO for all her years of service, not just to the Virginia Association of Counties, but really on behalf of all the regional work and efforts that Penny has put into making Virginia, and in particular Virginia counties, better.

[01:27:40] And so I also wanted to acknowledge that Supervisor Gross was the recipient of the Jefferson Cup, and there is no higher honor that VACO bestows upon a public servant than the Jefferson Cup. And so before I turn to Matt, I wanted to give us an opportunity and thank all of my colleagues who joined us at VACO to celebrate that moment with Penny, but wanted to give us an opportunity to give Penny another round of applause for that here locally.

[01:28:09] And with that, I am proud to recognize Matt Chase, National Association of Counties CEO and Executive Director. Matt, welcome. Mr. Chairman, thank you.

[01:28:24] And members of the board, it is an honor to be here today and want to thank you. I also want to give you some praise for representing Mort Downey, who is a friend and a mentor at the federal level, as well as for HAL. So I'm honored to be here today on behalf of America's 3,069 counties, officials across this country, as well as 3.6 million public servants like the ones that you just recognized.

[01:28:52] So we have a large membership, but it really is a distinct pleasure to be here today to represent and honor someone who really embodies the spirit of the National Association of Counties. And our job is to be a nonpartisan representative of America's counties with our federal, state, local, and tribal partners.

[01:29:12] And Supervisor Penny Gross has really exemplified what we stand for, her work at the national level, her work regionally here in the D.C. area, as well as being a past president of the Virginia Association of Counties, but also the National Association of Regional Councils that represents groups like the Washington Area Council of Governments.

[01:29:30] But for the National Association of Counties, she's also been really at the forefront as chair of our Environment, Energy, and Land Use Committee. She worked on issues like recycling, saving the Chesapeake Bay, the waters of the U.S., an EPA regulation that just continues to go on.

[01:29:47] And she really has done it in a nonpartisan and bipartisan spirit. So it really is our honor to present a small token of our appreciation. We found a gentleman out in Las Vegas who hand makes these American pens, and the name of his company is a shallows company actually named after the gentleman who hand wrote the U.S. Constitution that sits in our National Archives.

[01:30:10] So it's a very special honor of somebody who really embodies the spirit of public service. We want to thank you, and on behalf of the National Association of Counties, thank you again for your years of service. Thank you. Matt, thank you very much.

[01:30:32] and thank you for sitting through all of our presentations this morning you got to see the fun stuff that we do but you know that most of the work of county officials is governance it's the hard stuff it's the decisions that we have to make and I want to not only thank you but also make a pitch for my colleagues and for anyone else to get involved in the associations that are regional, statewide, national. You learn so much from other elected officials. The guy in Wyoming,

[01:31:08] I'm sorry, the commissioner from Wyoming, who after I gave a presentation at NACO about subsidence and sea level rise in Virginia, he didn't believe me. Well, he has fracking in his in his jurisdiction he doesn't have a coastline but when you look at the broad variety of people who are representing various um counties in the in the nation you really learn in some cases why we are as polarized as we are but also you can find that common ground you can find what

[01:31:46] um what you can agree on what you may share that is really important and that is what helps us make the good decisions and Matt thank you very much um you um you were I was already on NACO when you became the uh CEO and executive director and I was really pleased to be able to get to know you and work with you because um when you when you are elected it is a great honor it is also a great responsibility and I think that for most of the people that I've worked with at NACO um they

[01:32:24] recognize that. I remember the woman from California who was at the NACO conference as her house was burning down in a wildfire. Boy, do you think she got it? She really did. And she was able to give us that very personal experience of being, you know, trying to keep track of what was going on at home and knowing that when she got home, there would be no house for her those are the kinds of things that you really remember and that's that's really the value i think of naco is that taking that personal piece and making it broader so that you can

[01:33:02] understand how the people fit into this great fabric that we have of counties so thank you very much matt thank you thank you very much um well said penny and matt thank you again for joining us today for all the work that you do on behalf of the national association of counties and fairfax county we thank you as well and happy to have you here not only to celebrate all the work that that penny has done which has been significant but also to remind us as penny did the importance of your organization to the work that we do and and we appreciate you thank you thank you to the board

[01:33:40] thank you to your county executives team who also work with us every day thank you again and why don't we take a picture uh to to mark this occasion matt and penny brian why don't you get

[01:33:55] come come get in the photo as well and next we are going to move to board matters and as we always

[01:35:14] do the clerk has compiled these digitally and will go alphabetically by district following myself and vice chairman gross and let me begin by moving to approve without objection the proclamation requests listed in this document and you can see them there arts fairfax let's see resolution to recognize linda sullivan from arts fairfax jointly with supervisor alcorn and lust to recognize karen cleveland work with leadership fairfax recognition of woodson high school students and

[01:35:51] also recognizing a campaign day with let's see low carbon diet campaign day on december 7th and i would move without objection without objection so ordered thank you vice chair gross my next board matter is a simple request for report on operations of the 2023 election cycle and i'm not going to read all of this but we know every year after an election we try to invite kate hanley before our board to give us a recap of how the election went what went well what we can improve upon but just for the public's information, and these results are still unofficial, but the Office of Elections

[01:36:30] processed 323,816 ballots, 207,630 which were cast on election day, and an additional 64,371 that were cast in person early, and 46,335 were received by mail. And so this is an opportunity for us not only to hear more about how that operation went but also to recognize the thousands of people who work to make our election process what it is here in Fairfax County including

[01:37:04] all the election officials who worked that day was acknowledged earlier behind the scenes the good work that they do and so I would ask that the Board of Supervisors request the Office of elections to provide a report on the 2023 election cycle and invite them to appear at our December 5th board meeting. And without objection, so ordered. Thank you, Vice Chair Gross. My next board matter is the creation of a joint workforce readiness working group. As all of us on the board know, with over 100,000 jobs vacant in Northern Virginia and rapidly diversifying

[01:37:43] workforce, the board must continue to work with strategic stakeholders to ensure that the workforce of tomorrow is being built today. In 2022, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority successfully worked with over 148 businesses to grow their presence or relocate to Fairfax County.

[01:38:00] We know that the key factors attracting businesses are our world-class education system, a business-friendly climate, a strong and diverse talent pipeline, and ecosystem of innovation. The breadth of companies investing in Fairfax County ranged from corporate headquarters, hospitality, defense, and aerospace, financial services, health and life sciences, and emerging technologies, to name a few. We know about many of the notable companies who have come to Fairfax recently or have expanded their presence and footprint in Fairfax County. Our county's growth

[01:38:35] requires collaboration and vision to build upon and to be a part of the great work being done around our region on workforce development. I am establishing the Workforce Readiness Working Group. I request that staff work with my office to develop a structure and specific objectives for the working group that will further our goal of building a world-class talent base for the future.

[01:38:56] The collaborative work group will be made up of two members of the Board of Supervisors, two members of the school board, as well as strategic partners from academia, government, and the private sector to be selected by the chairman. And again, I'm making this announcement here this morning that we'll be working closely with staff and the EDA and all of the different entities mentioned here.

[01:39:20] The idea behind this, similar to the work that the JET did, trying to bring together some strategic partners on the school board, as well as two members of our board. This will be a short assignment. This is an ongoing group. The hope is, like the JET, that we would give them a specific timeline to make some strategic recommendations on ways that we can continue to address workforce readiness issues in Fairfax County.

[01:39:46] And again, the hope would be they'd issue that report to us. We haven't established an official timeline yet, but we're looking at that report being given to the board no later than the end of next calendar year. and hoping to stand up the group itself on the first board meeting in January of the new board.

[01:40:06] And so if board members have a particular interest in this, please see me. But we'll be working with staff on a list of the folks to be appointed to this and would welcome any input on that along the way. And so really just an announcement. Just an announcement, Mr. Chairman.

[01:40:22] Yes. The Northern Virginia Regional Council, our commission, along with its military and federal facility and community partnership, has been doing a lot of work on workforce. So I would hope that as you're looking for partners, that you consider someone from the regional commission.

[01:40:41] Yeah, they are on the list. And I should mention that, you know, as you acknowledge, there's a lot of folks working on this issue. Probably the biggest is our own Fairfax County public school system. And we forget that they are a huge driver in workforce talent. And so we are going to be, the folks who are on this is going to be a small group, but the folks who are on this are going to be people working in this space, not people who are learning about it, but people who are actually doing it, who can recommend ways to even further collaborate as we move forward and make it simpler for people looking for jobs in this region to be able to take advantage of those and then also to find where we might

[01:41:18] have holes in the process with all the different groups working on this and so we're not we're not starting from zero by any stretch here we're really just trying to continue to jump start the effort and make sure all the people who are working in this space are communicating and talking with each other as well that's especially important as we're working on the portal to be able to do that we took a lot of people together thank you correct um and my final board matter um is public awareness for houses of worship security opportunities. In February, this board approved my board matter to request that the Office of Public Affairs work with the Fairfax County

[01:41:55] Police Department to share applicable information with our community about how to best protect themselves, worshipers, and houses of worship that include but are not limited to security surveys. Unfortunately, it is time to redouble our efforts on this front due to rising hate and bias incidents around the country, many stemming from the conflict in Israel and Gaza.

[01:42:19] Thankfully, our county has been spared the violence that we've seen in other places, but we know there are still significant challenges in our community, and we need to be vigilant to ensure that our rich diversity continues to be a source of pride rather than a source of pain.

[01:42:35] Later this morning, the board will authorize the Fairfax County Police Department to apply for state grant funding for four specific houses of worship in the county to help protect them against hate crimes. The Combating Hate Crimes Grant Program is a $1.5 million statewide grant funded by the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services. The grant period is for the calendar year. For organizations wishing to apply for future grant funding opportunities, next year's application period is expected to open in September. You can contact your supervisor

[01:43:09] or the chief's office, and you'll see the email there for the Fairfax County Police Chief's Office. The county has also been advertising opportunities for nonprofit organizations to apply for federal grants through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to protect their facilities from attacks.

[01:43:27] Therefore, we request that the Office of Public Affairs work with the Fairfax County Police Department to continue to inform our houses of worship or other nonprofit organizations that may be targets of hate that these opportunities to protect themselves exist through federal and state grants, as well as security surveys that are conducted by the Fairfax County Police Department.

[01:43:49] I therefore move. Second. It's been moved, seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Is there any discussion on the motion? Yes, very briefly. I put this board matter in because obviously we know of the item that's in the agenda later today, but we also know that unfortunately because of things happening across the country that many people in our community are fearful for legitimate, obvious reasons about spending time in their houses of worship, sending their kids to community centers or schools that are faith-affiliated, and I just want to, you know, mention again that, you know, obviously

[01:44:29] hate has no place in Fairfax County, and it doesn't matter which house of worship, which community is targeted. Nonprofits are included in here, nonprofit organizations, because there have been some incidents that have really nothing to do with faith, but have to do with hate towards the advocacy of certain organizations. And it will not be tolerated in Fairfax County.

[01:44:53] We will continue to speak out against it, but we will also use as many tools as we can to make sure that people can safely worship and conduct themselves in Fairfax County and advocate for their own community and in a safe way and so it is important that we highlight this grant opportunity is important that our houses of worship and non-profit organizations take advantage of not just our security surveys but also potentially grant opportunities in the future i know that we have some procurement challenges that exist with directly having our

[01:45:28] police provide security at some of these facilities but i also know that our police are constantly monitoring chatter in the community chatter online and making their presence well known throughout the county including at places of worship as a precautionary measure to make sure that people in our community understand how important the safety of every resident of fairfax County is, particularly when they're doing something as sacred as worshiping with their own faith community. And so our police have redoubled their efforts. I want to thank the

[01:46:03] chief and the police department for the increased visibility that they've had in many of our houses of worship that have been feeling threatened at various times. It saddens me that we had to have this conversation, but it also is important that we do it and that we provide the support system that so many of our faith communities and nonprofits in Fairfax County need, especially at a time where they're feeling personally threatened, real or perceived.

[01:46:31] It is feeling personally threatened, and we need to do everything that we can to protect them. And so I look forward to my colleagues supporting the item later today for the grants, but also want to make sure that our Office of Public Affairs is working to spread this message widely to all of our religious and faith communities, nonprofit communities in Fairfax County to at a minimum ask our police department to help with a security survey and also to build a relationship with our men and women in public safety because I know how much they welcome the opportunity to be involved in conversations with so many of these locations throughout the county

[01:47:09] and helps improve their performance and their protection of public safety as well. So I look forward to my colleagues' support, not just of this board matter, but also of the grant application later today. Madam Vice Chair.

[01:47:25] Yes. Thank you. If I may, before I speak, if I could ask for a friendly amendment, if that's all right, for the motion in addition to the Office of Public Affairs with FCPD, if we could also include the Interfaith Coordinator with Neighborhood and Community Services.

[01:47:41] I think that's, some know about it, but sometimes under tapped and really important work also happening through that. office so that's accepted as a friendly yes ma'am this was yes if you want to go I'll speak to the motion I'll go ahead now okay and I just want to thank the chairman for bringing this forward I want to thank our faith communities our county executive and our police who continue to do diligent work because the next the board item is in our administrative package I wanted to just Speak to that a little bit here as well, if that's all right.

[01:48:17] First of all, I want to share that, you know, we have seen this. This is not the first time, unfortunately, when we talk about One Fairfax, that we are seeing an increase in hate crimes, in biased crimes. We are seeing anti-Semitism. We are seeing Islamophobia. We are seeing racism.

[01:48:34] And we are seeing it in our schools. We are seeing it in our community. We have seen incidents, luckily not violent incidents in our community, but we have absolutely seen incidents that have scared many in our community, and I really appreciate the work that happens and that continues to happen by all of our leaders, our faith leaders, some of whom are with us here today, our community leaders.

[01:48:57] We first saw this rise, as I said, for the first time in the 30 years I've lived here, serving on the school board after the 2016 election in a way that I would never have expected seeing in this country in my lifetime. We have seen it again now with the conflict in Israel and Gaza, and we unfortunately continue to see it, whether from elected officials or other members of our community.

[01:49:20] I know for the most part, our community is a caring and loving One Fairfax community, but that does not mean that we are immune from the incidents from what our young people and our adults are seeing and hearing in our community and the fear that has risen in many.

[01:49:38] So I do appreciate the work, both of our police department, but as was mentioned, also of our interfaith coordinators, our interfaith leaders, our school leaders who have been working and meeting with many in our community. I joined school board members on Election Day in the morning for an anti-Semitism training that was happening with the Jewish Community Relations Council and the ADL in one of our schools.

[01:50:04] And I know that many of our faith leaders have offered to our school leaders to have conversations and to better understand how to support their staff as well as their students and their families. I did want to read in the background to the action item that we'll be voting on, Administrative Item 11.

[01:50:22] It mentions that the goal of this program is to minimize bias-motivated incidents by providing funding that supports institutions and or nonprofit organizations that may be at risk based on race, religious conviction, color, gender, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin.

[01:50:43] I know that especially coming out of elections, and we know we're going into national elections next year, the fear is about some of that hate in vitriol that can be sent out in the community. As was shared, we hope it does not rise to the level of violent hate crimes,

[01:51:01] But I do think it's important that we, as elected leaders, that are community leaders, be very thoughtful about the words that we use, about the example that we're setting in our community with our young people and with our adults, but especially with our young people, that regardless of people's convictions, they should have the right to speak out safely, comfortably, whether we agree or disagree.

[01:51:28] That is what is so important about our nation, about the freedom of speech, and about protecting those rights. And so I really appreciate both the work that this county has done and continues to do, that our police department and all of our county agencies do to protect that work.

[01:51:45] I know that this is a difficult time we're going through, and many of us, especially new parents, are just shocked that we are seeing this and are pretty scared about the future. But I know that there are the youth in our community who are the future, who are doing everything they can to have productive and safe conversations, difficult conversations in those classrooms and in their community.

[01:52:10] And I really appreciate that we continue to support that work. And I thank the chairman for his leadership in these efforts. Thank you, Supervisor Palczyk. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Palczyk, for those words. really appreciate that and and and also wanted to thank the chairman I did want to just note that I know most of us maybe even all of us have been doing things in our districts going to houses of worship going talking with faith leaders about this I think this is and without beating ourselves on the back

[01:52:47] too hard I think this is one of those unwritten roles and responsibilities of members of this board so I just want to thank my colleagues for doing that and frankly emphasizing the role that we play as leaders in the community of making sure as as incidents happen and frankly before incidents happen that the lines of communication are there and and that our our communities understand that we're here, that we're supportive of them, that we are inclusive, and we're committed

[01:53:23] to the ideals, Mr. Chairman, that you articulated, and also Supervisor Pulchek. So, you know, things may get worse before they get better on some of these issues, and I really do think our commitment to continuing to really engage with our communities is so critical um to writing this out and and uh seeing a good outcome at least here locally so thank you thank you supervisor alcorn any other discussion supervisor alcorn you you mentioned something that

[01:53:58] triggers in my mind um we need we build the relationships before we need them so that at the time of a crisis we don't spend our energy trying to figure out who is who we know who's who and we're able to have those go right into addressing whatever issue.

[01:54:18] I learned that from Dahl Hezra Mosque years and years and years ago. I was so glad that I had that relationship before 9-11 so that we could have those conversations. And Mason District has one of the largest mosques as well as the Jewish Community Center.

[01:54:35] I fought to keep the JCC and redistricting. I didn't want to go to Providence or Braddock. and uh and and and so developing relationships and making sure that folks from all faiths are working together that that you can have people from the jcc and from the mosque knowing one another and figuring out how we deal with this together so um this gives us great opportunities great opportunities to further the good work that is done in fairfax county i'm trying to remember Or was this a motion?

[01:55:12] It is not. It is just a direction for OPA and others to work together. That's what I thought. So I think with that, we move on. Thank you. Vice Chairman Gross. And next up on board matters is you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a joint board matter with Supervisor Herity, and it's a long one, so I'm going to read only part of it.

[01:55:32] Phillips Programs, a nonprofit now in their 57th year here in Fairfax County, serves youth with complex and significant social, emotional, behavioral, and academic needs in their therapeutic schools. Phillip's program serves students ages 6 to 22 with disabilities for whom traditional, public, or other specialized schools were not successful.

[01:55:55] Their career and technical education offerings include hydroponic farming, culinary arts, 3D design, and print and IT and building trades. Their Building Futures program, which is one of my favorites, is currently building their third house in Annandale.

[01:56:14] Supervisor Herity and I attended the wall-raising ceremony. They actually are building the kids as they are building a house. Phillips has founded a new profit, Spring Forward Ventures, to create a pathway to quality improvement, employment, wealth building, and employee ownership for young adults with emotional and behavioral wellness needs.

[01:56:35] Spring Forward Feeds, a social enterprise incubated by Spring Forward Ventures, is a meal production company creating high-quality jobs for young adults facing barriers to employment. Currently, Spring Forward Feeds is housed in a commercial kitchen at Phillips Program's main campus, Phillips Schools in Annandale.

[01:56:54] Spring Forward Feeds, currently in early stages of operation, is partnering with Chef's Brigade, which is transforming institutional food to scratch cooking in schools and prisons throughout the U.S. Does everybody understand what scratch cooking is?

[01:57:11] You start from the beginning. It's not something that you just have all frozen. Spring Forward Feeds is poised and ready to impact lives beyond culinary training to meaningful employment and wealth building. Projected employment over the next five years is 50-plus workers, and attaining profitability is anticipated within 18 to 24 months.

[01:57:35] Mr. Chairman, I believe that Spring Forward Feeds, as outlined by Philips Programs, is worthy of consideration for the county's economic opportunity reserve. and I move that the Board of Supervisors, one, direct the county executive to prepare an initial project evaluation of a potential investment of $250,000 for Phillips programs to support their spring-forward feeds enterprise as described in this board matter, and direct the county executive that no investment from the Economic Opportunity Reserve be made until the board has approved the use of those funds.

[01:58:07] And that is my motion. Thank you. And here comes the chairman. don't leave me in the large area chaos has ensued you've heard the motion and the multiple seconds all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries supervisor gross thank you mr chairman that's all thank you excellent thank you very much uh supervisor walkinshaw thank you mr chairman no written board matters just want to announce

[01:58:45] that on Wednesday, December 6, along with the Braddock District Council, I'll be hosting our annual Best of Braddock Award Ceremony and reception. As we do each year, we will recognize the Braddock District Citizen of the Year, the Young Person of the Year, Neighborhood Enhancement or Beautification Award winner, the club or organization Making a Difference and a Civic Engagement Award.

[01:59:08] And this year we're adding, or I should say, bringing back the Most Can-Do Public Employee Award. So we'll be honoring a county employee. The title of that, as you can probably tell, is something that Sharon Boliva came up with, Most Can-Do Public Employee, but we're going to be bringing that back for the record.

[01:59:27] I do not select the award winners. The Braddock District Council does. But we're really looking forward to that event on December 6th at 6.30 at the Braddock District Office. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Supervisor Faust. No board matters, Mr. Chairman.

[01:59:46] Thank you, Supervisor Faust. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first board matter is, Mr. Chairman, I would like to recognize the varsity field hockey team from Hayfield Secondary School and their head coach, Chuck Serino, and assistant coaches, Jamie Austin, Sheridan Lusk, Hannah Nurse, and Nubia Toomer.

[02:00:08] 2023 is the first year in the school's history that the varsity field hockey team has won their first district championship in the school's 41-year history. They advanced to the Region 8 Finals.

[02:00:24] The Hayfield varsity team was a 9-2 win-loss record in the region for the 2023 season. Head coach Chuck Serino has been leading the team now for the past 13 years. his dedication to the team, and the sport is inspiring. The Hayfield Varsity team this year consisted of 26 students on the roster, which were four freshmen, eight sophomores, four juniors, and eight seniors.

[02:00:49] As both of my daughters have played for Coach Serino, I've had the opportunity to watch the team grow over the past eight years. Thank you for your service, Coach Serino, and I want to give a huge congratulations to the team, and I'm going to say go Hawks. And with that, Mr. Chairman, I move that a proclamation be prepared in acknowledgement of Coach Chuck Serena and the 2023 Hayfield Secondary School varsity field hockey team to be presented at the school at a future date.

[02:01:17] And without objection, that is so ordered. And we normally do these for state championships. But in light of the fact that this is the first district championship in the school's 41 year history, we didn't want these kids to go.

[02:01:33] this coach without recognition and look forward to hopefully joining you at the school when we can celebrate that together yes supervisor lusk thank you mr chairman um and i have an announcement second uh very quickly uh the virginia purple schools excuse me the virginia purple star schools um has been awarded and we have a number here in in franconia district so i'm just delighted to acknowledge that november is military family appreciation month and i am a son of a army veteran the grandson of a navy veteran and i'd like to recognize the following schools in franconia district that have earned their virginia purple star designation these schools have shown their

[02:02:12] commitment to the students and families connected to our nation's military schools need to reapply every three years for this designation and since the program's inception in 2018 we've had several schools earning their second award i'm proud to share that 59 of the schools in franconia district have earned their virginia purple star designation uh you can see the list here i'll just acknowledge the three that have gotten their second award so excuse me one is hayfield elementary second is hayfield secondary school uh key center and middle school as well as lane so there are four

[02:02:49] that have gotten their second award just wanted to acknowledge the work of those schools and supporting those who are connected to our military so thank you mr chairman thank you supervisor lusk and for those watching there are 69 schools county-wide that have gotten this recognition and so they're covering all corners of the county including woodlawn elementary school and whitman middle school too that i attended but there are 69 and i would encourage people to look these up because to get this recognition is significant and i was at a veterans event

[02:03:29] over the weekend and was just reminding folks about how blessed we are to have such a veteran rich community but also such a large defense department community of both active and retirees and and this is another example of that and so i would encourage people to look up that list of 69 schools that have have received this recognition and thanks supervisor lusk for mentioning it this morning supervisor lusk thank you mr chairman that concludes my board matters thank you very much supervisor Alcorn thank you mr. chairman no board

[02:04:05] matters but one announcement or maybe a status update in front of you you should have the RTC and task force recommendations report I just want to speak to that for just a minute as you may recall the beginning of the year a community task force led by Kate Hanley who was mentioned earlier for another context began the process of developing recommendations for the placement of future public facilities on Reston Town Center North. These facilities include the Reston Regional Library, Embry-Rucker Shelter in Supportive Housing, a Health and Human Services Building, as well as a Park Authority Rec Center now known as

[02:04:40] Health and Wellness Center, I believe, and an athletic field. Priority was given to the location of the new library and shelter since the current facilities are nearing the end of their operational lives and the timing for their replacement is becoming critical and the funding is available. I'm happy to report the following that following eight meetings a walking tour and numerous presentations by county agencies and partners the task force has reached a consensus as outlined in the report that has been distributed to you this morning it's actually the location is on the last page and I would note this is

[02:05:15] not a design document just a location document for where those facilities are recommended to go and as noted in my September 12th board matter co-sponsored by Chairman McKay, the board asked the county executive to move forward on an expedited basis on the real estate exchange agreement with ANOVA and the associated zoning actions and on the design entitlements and construction of the new Embry-Rucker Shelter and Supportive Housing Project and the Reston Regional Library, consistent with the size and scope of those public facilities presented by staff to the RTCN task force.

[02:05:49] So this process is now moving forward. we do have location recommendations which is a big milestone and I would just finally know it should be noted that discussion is ongoing by the task force on possible interim uses on these county parcels specifically in blocks 1 and 8 pending funding and county approval processes it's recognized there'll be a need for flexibility with community needs changing over time the scheduled or the task force is scheduled to reconvene on November 29th that's next week to discuss possible interim uses and some examples that will

[02:06:26] be discussed or have been raised include a dog park exercise circuit accessible playground walking trails food trucks and pickleball courts things like that so work continues but this is a milestone in terms of recommendations for locations of permanent facilities so thank you very much mr. chair very good Good. Thank you for that update, Supervisor Alcorn. Good progress, for sure.

[02:06:52] Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a proclamation to, in 2005, Pastor Andy Casper was driving off the I-95 Lorton exit and felt a calling to open a church and serve the South County community.

[02:07:09] After numerous picnics and surveys to determine the community's need, Pastor Andy opened South County Church on Easter, March 23rd, 2008 at South County High School. He has been engaged in our community ever since with a specific eye to supporting those in need. You can often see members of the church on weekends putting up signs around Lorton inviting everyone to services.

[02:07:30] Care to Serve Our Community and the World is one of the three core missions of South County Church, and members accomplish this through many care projects in South County. They are known for raking leaves around the community, serving snow cones during summer community events, and hosting an annual Easter egg hunt, they are here to serve.

[02:07:48] Over the past year, South County Church has assisted my office at several community events, including the grand opening of the Lorton Community Center, Library and Park, Fall Fest, and the grand opening of the Lorton Police Station and Animal Shelter, with hundreds of attendees at each visit.

[02:08:03] They also assisted us at our first back-to-school community day, which had more than 1,500 attendees. At those events, they provided thousands and literally thousands of hot dogs, chips, drinks, snow cones, and dozens of volunteer hours.

[02:08:19] South County Church has been a great partner that the community, county, and I always count on to serve when called upon. Thank you to this generous ministry for their 15 years of service, helping to ensure that nobody is left behind. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask that the proclamation be prepared to be presented to South County Church outside the boardroom, recognizing them for 15 years of service in South County.

[02:08:44] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And if Channel 16 could put up an image of the new co-located facility. As you may recall, Mr. Chairman, on Saturday, October 28th, we opened the door and welcomed the public to explore the new Lorton Police Station, Police District Station, and Fairfax County Animal Shelter, Lorton Campus.

[02:09:07] Community members adopted furry friends, explored the new shelter, toured the new station and enjoyed an array of exhibitors, food, and game. In addition to more than 1,000 residents, Congressman Connolly, yourself, Mr. Chairman, Supervisor Herity, and Supervisor Lusk, and former Supervisor Highland were also there, along with Chief Kevin Davis, as well as Director Risa Currier.

[02:09:31] They had more than 1,000 residents that visited, as well as more than 18 adoptions at the animal shelter. It was a great way to welcome the Lorton community to these two very new, important, co-located facilities. And a couple, I think many of you read this as well, a couple moved their wedding ceremony so they could come and adopt the puppy that they saw was opening, was going to be available for adoption that day, in their wedding attire, and then took the puppy to reception as part of their new family.

[02:10:00] The Lorton Police Station is the first new station in the county in nearly 20 years. The new station is planned to span from the railroad tracks in Clifton down to the Potomac River, Mason Neck, the Fairfax County Parkway, and Poick Road on the northern boundaries. So it is the largest of the nine police districts spanning more than 69 square miles.

[02:10:21] The new station will allow department to organize smaller patrol areas and decrease response times throughout the county. And there's a satellite office there, and we have community rooms for community to be involved. So over time, we recognize that our shortages of officers will at least only allows us to open the center on a limited basis.

[02:10:42] But over the course of the next year, year and a half, we'd expect it to open more fully. But I just wanted to recognize that that important milestone in the community, particularly a milestone for the Lorton area. The folks who 20 years ago literally had the Lorton prison that the county was fortunate and along with many of the leaders here to be able to get and only make a difference for our community.

[02:11:10] And as part of that, a few weeks before that, I honored a particular individual on our staff that had been very, very involved with making all that happen. So if they could put up the sign, if Channel 16 could put up the sign. So this was a particular thing that we put together to honor Christine Morin, my chief of staff, but frankly, long before that, a community leader, in fact, the first time I ever met her, was in the basement of her home when I was a new school board member in a new community, and there were more than 65 people that were in her basement there to tell me that they wanted their schools, and they wanted them right away.

[02:11:48] So she was instrumental in getting the elementary school built as well as ultimately the middle school. And I know many of you know that story, but that's just one of the many things that she's been deeply involved with. She served on jury staff for a number of years, but we have had so many larger Mount Vernon district issues that she's been involved with, but particularly in the Lorton community, not only the Liberty, which has been totally redone.

[02:12:14] If you haven't been to the Lorton, the maximum security part of the Lorton Prison, you would not recognize it today. It's an amazing, really amazing community. The Workhouse Arts Center, which for those of you who may not know, we have new buildings that are being developed in the front. And they're going to open up, we hope, by St. Patrick's Day, open up the new Buddyman Brewery, which really adds to the whole ability to create placemaking and to create truly a community opportunity here.

[02:12:40] a new fire station in Lorton, obviously the community center, the library and park, and then most recently the police station, the animal shelter, and Central Green. So all those have been key parts of her engagement and, frankly, her bringing the community together.

[02:12:57] We have a Lorton Vision 2040 right now that we're finishing up. So all those are key parts of what have helped to give her a legacy in our community, even though she's so young. I know. So I wanted to share that with you all. And also, I have just the picture that we put together in person.

[02:13:14] Christine, come on. I tortured her before on this, but I realize it's a point of personal privilege, but I wanted to make sure that she at least was up here and got recognition that we all see, and I know most of you know as well. And her family have been a key part of that.

[02:13:30] That's right. But thank you. She can hang that in the basement the next time she has a meeting down there just to intimidate people a little bit.

[02:13:48] thank you mr. chairman all right thank you and thank you Christine for all you've done madam Lorton in our presence literally has done so much in that part of the county and I appreciate that you recognized her here today at the board as well okay next up is supervisor pal check a tough tough act to follow I know I might are just two very simple ones the first is a board matter on the hunters branch office complex the comprehensive plan amendment work program members

[02:14:25] of the board the board adopted the comprehensive plan amendment work program in april of this year which included a plan amendment for a residential proposal at the hunters branch office complex in the vienna transit station area tsa this amendment was scheduled as a deferred tier 3 amendment to allow for further development of the plan amendment scope since april the property owner has worked with a developer partner to refine the scope of the amendment to consist of site redevelopment with multifamily and townhouse building forms. Given that the site is within a TSA, there may be advantages to consider a mix of uses, especially ground floor retail and other non-residential

[02:15:04] uses. I have spoken with staff and there are resources available to begin work on this amendment. It is my further expectation that the resultant planning process will have a robust community engagement. The owners have committed to the same. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the comprehensive plan amendment work program be revised to include plan amendment 2023-2-2V as a tier one item and to note that the proposal should consider residential or mixed use development. Second. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Smith. Any

[02:15:39] discussion? The only thing I want to add, Mr. Chairman, is I know I've walked this area. Many of us know as the former ICF building since ICF has moved out to Reston this this tower has been sitting there and it's surrounded by a very I think underappreciated and an area that needs environmental support a creek that runs along it and I know that the owners and developers are also very committed to ensuring both the ecological support as well as the community amenity for this area okay uh with that uh all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any

[02:16:19] abstentions that motion carries supervisor palchuk thank you mr chairman uh members of the board to prepare for the winter season it seems to be coming upon us pretty quickly uh my office is once again hosting a winter gear donation drive and we invite our community members to be part of this heartwarming effort with the cold weather settling in there are many in our community in need of warm winter gear we are seeking donations of gently used or new coats jackets scarves gloves and hats and new thermal socks and underwear donations can be dropped off at the jim scott community center

[02:16:54] 3001 vaden drive beginning monday november 27th this year the donations will benefit the committee committee for helping others fairfax fish second story and the lamb center more information can be found on the Providence District website, fairfaxcounty.gov slash providence. This year's partners include the Greater Merrifield Business Association, Tyson's Community Alliance, Girl Scout Troop 1489, and the Miller Heights Neighborhood Association. If you or your HOA or organization are interested in helping collect donations, please email providence at fairfaxcounty.gov

[02:17:32] and we'll be happy to coordinate with you. Therefore, I ask that the Office of Public affairs and the department of neighborhood and community services share this information through their channels and without objection that is so ordered perfect thank you that is all at the moment thank you and we have your flyer attached with a convenient qr code for people to know our staff uh many duties in their jobs and one of them is uh creating uh graphics for the excellent work that we do so really want to especially thank my staff and help coordinate as well as put together

[02:18:06] this beautiful flyer. Thank you very much. Supervisor Palchuk. Supervisor Harity. No board matters. Thank you. Supervisor Harity. Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Approximately one in every 389 children will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 15. This statistic unfortunately directly affects members of our community. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that representatives of Bite Me Cancer be brought before the board on January 23, 2024 to receive a resolution recognizing teen cancer awareness week and without objection that

[02:18:43] is so ordered supervisor smith all right thank you very much uh supervisor smith we now are going to move on to admin items and uh there are 16 admin items i'm going to ask supervisor gross first if she has a motion on the admin item move approval of the administrative items one through 16th second i'm happy to second that along with supervisor palchek are there any items that board members would like to have pulled for a separate vote or separate conversation i would just acknowledge that the board matter i did earlier on houses of worship that is admin 11 which is

[02:19:19] authorization for the fairfax county police department to apply for and accept grant funding from the department of criminal justice services fy 2024 combating hate crime grant program we don't need further discussion on that but i just want to make sure people are aware that that is a part of these 16 admin items that we are about to approve supervisor harry uh 15 16 for separate votes 15 and 16 for separate votes okay any others for separate votes or discussion okay so we are now

[02:19:55] we are approving admin items 1 through 14 we'll vote on 15 and 16 separately all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and we have two affordable housing items admin 15 is authorization to advertise a public hearing and this again is authorization to advertise a public hearing to convey property at the fairfax county government center to the fairfax county redevelopment and housing authority in the braddock district is there any discussion supervisor herity i think i brought it up before uh when

[02:20:35] this first came up but uh i think we're putting the cart before the horse here we've we've got a study going on what we're going to do on the county government center lots but we're moving forward with this before we've even got the results of our own study back um and and the board knows where i am on this kind of program so i will be voting against it okay uh any further Their discussion, Supervisor Walkinshaw.

[02:21:00] This will be Groundhog Day because we had this conversation last time. But as I pointed out, the reason we have a visioning study of the Government Center campus is because this project was moving forward. I wish that that visioning study of the Government Center campus had happened 10 years ago, 15 years ago, 20 years ago.

[02:21:21] But I didn't represent it at that time, and it didn't happen. It is happening now, and the design of this project is such that it will not impede any other use that might be visioned through the visioning process. So with that, unless there's other discussion, I'm happy to move approval of the county executive's recommendation on admin item 15.

[02:21:40] And I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Smith. Any further discussion? I would just add that there have been a lot of public meetings about this, that this is not a new concept either. All those in favor of admin 15, please say aye.

[02:21:56] Aye. Any opposed? I'm sorry. I thought I convinced you there. Any abstentions? That motion carries nine voting in favor, Supervisor Herity voting nay.

[02:22:13] Admin 16 is authorization to advertise a public hearing to validate and convey property in the Franconia Governmental Center to the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority in the Franconia District. Uh, let me ask first as Supervisor Harrity asked for a separate vote. Is there any discussion? Okay Uh, having seen, uh, that there's no further. I'm sorry. Supervisor grows. I I do have a question of staff Um, part of this is a word we haven't seen before, uh, very often and that's validation

[02:22:48] Um, how many other cases do we have, uh, in the pipeline that might need to have this look at the validation the validity of of our previous actions supervisor gross tom fleetwood from the department of housing community development it is only these two properties only these two oh that's a good answer thank you okay um and again uh talk about another one that's been around for a long time and discussed in the local community that is most impacted by it in

[02:23:27] Franconia extensively and again, this is authorization to advertise Public hearing to validate and convey this property for the purposes of affordable housing Any further discussion? Yes Supervisor Palachuk. Thank you since both of these I believe are being pulled For reasons that my colleague has and I see that our housing directors here I just want to convey that I know speaking of convey and our board. We are very committed to Probably the biggest issue and concern we have in our county, which is housing for all, affordable workforce housing at all levels.

[02:24:03] We know there is not enough housing for our workforce, for our retirees, as we heard earlier this morning, who are finding it very difficult to retire here in Fairfax County and in Northern Virginia. And one of the very few assets in areas that we are able to help leverage the construction of these really remarkable, well-developed, well-designed housing projects is through looking at land that is either publicly owned, we have some faith community-owned land, but it's really one of the highest needs to help leverage those projects.

[02:24:36] And so I just want to thank and appreciate the work of our housing authority, of the staff who've been working on this, and on the supervisors who are leading these efforts and helping us move forward, both with a community engagement through these, but also with really, I think, historic ways to think about how we use land in our county.

[02:24:54] Well said, Supervisor Palchuk. And these are both examples of the tremendous creativity of our housing department. And I would also say that these have not been uniformly embraced by every resident, but there have been extensive conversations in the community.

[02:25:14] And we just talked earlier today about doing what's right for the larger community doesn't always necessarily mean everybody is happy. at the end of the day, but this is critical for us to address affordable housing in both of these locations. And again, these were in the Franconia and the Braddock district. Supervisor Luss, would you like to make a motion? Sure. Before I make that, I'll just make a couple of points.

[02:25:39] The first is acknowledging that this is kind of an initial step. No decisions have actually been finalized with regard to a decision yet on the location of this affordable housing but the idea goes back to the point that supervisor pal check just made is that if we can look for ways to reduce the cost of constructing this affordable housing and one of the best ways to do that is to take out the cost of the land you you provide the land from a public space and then you can build the housing and that allows for us to provide it at a lower

[02:26:18] cost and we've seen that already and sure McKay and I just had the pleasure of going to the oak wood project and seeing you know what we've been able to do by using public land and I think this is something we should at least consider and I think that's what's important acknowledging that we have so many needs for affordable workforce and other types of housing here in our in our county so um and the last point i'll make is you know we're going to have a new government center um in the frank county district we're going to be vacating this land it's not going to be used for the purpose that was originally intended which was for the supervisor's office

[02:26:56] as well as the police department so we should think about other uses for this for this land so with that mr chairman uh i will make the motion i move the county executive's recommendation for administrative item number 16. You've heard the motion.

[02:27:14] It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. We've had a lot of conversation already. Let me make sure there's no... I'm sorry, and Supervisor Faust. Let me make sure that there's no further conversation. Okay. All those in favor of admin 16, please say aye. Aye.

[02:27:29] Aye. Any opposed? Herity, nay. Any abstentions? And that motion, too, passes 9 to 1. Supervisor Herity voting nay. with that uh we are going to move on to action items action item number one is approval of a resolution to participate in the virginia juvenile community crime control act and to form a combined plan with the city of fairfax and fairfax county acting as the fiscal agent and let me ask if there are any questions i would i'm happy to uh recognize uh supervisor lusk if you'd like to make a motion Sure, Mr. Chairman, I'll be happy to do that.

[02:28:06] So, again, for action item number one, I move the county executive's recommendation for this item. And just to give a little bit of a primer on it, it provides funding and support youth who are not currently involved in our juvenile justice system, but could benefit from community-based services or diversion.

[02:28:30] So they'll do some work on screening individuals who might be eligible for the service. And I think it'll make a difference in the community. So with that, Mr. Chairman, so moved. And I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Pouchek. Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none.

[02:28:46] All those in favor of Action 1, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Action 2 is authorization of Economic Opportunity Reserve Funding to establish the Accelerate entrepreneur investor forum program supervisor faust thank you mr chairman i'm happy to move approval of this item which will help us advance our efforts to create an economic environment and support for our small business communities in particular i think this is a strong statement

[02:29:24] of our commitment to the one fairfax program because what it can accomplish for small women, minority businesses, so I move approval. I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Lusk.

[02:29:42] Any further discussion? Supervisor Lusk. I just want to acknowledge and thank Supervisor Faust for shepherding this really important initiative. I think ultimately what we have before us is an opportunity to also expand our commercial tax base. We're going to create opportunities for companies. Those companies will grow. They will add people. They will take space that will convert into revenues that will come back to this county to help us provide for the critical services that our residents seek and deserve. And I'll just say I appreciate that

[02:30:20] George Mason is going to be the partner here. Their expertise with particular Paula Sorrell Being able to help leverage the platform the infrastructure that they already have in place as a way for us to support These companies that are looking for funding and also looking for support as they grow and identify Which areas of business they will go into so I'm excited about this and just want to wholeheartedly support it So thank you mr. Chairman, okay Seeing no further discussion all those in favor, please say aye aye aye any opposed?

[02:30:59] any abstentions that motion carries uh brings us to action item number four approval of the approval of the 2024 public transportation agency safety plan ptasp for the fairfax connector uh supervisor alcorn uh thank you mr chairman i move approval of a three is that right four four sorry lost count a four as recommended by the county executive heard the motion i'm happy to second that is there any further discussion on action item number four seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye

[02:31:38] any opposed any abstentions that motion carries brings us to action item five approval of comments on the preliminary alternative concepts of the i-495 Southside Express Lanes SEL study in the Franconia Mason and Mount Vernon District Supervisor Alcorn thank you mr. chairman I move approval of a five but believe there's a new updated letter so let's say as modified in the letter distributed to the board this morning and I'm happy to second that and at this time I'm going to recognize supervisor stork so that he can just highlight those modifications for the public watching thank you mr. chairman site

[02:32:18] Thank You Supervisor Alcorn Mr. Chairman I'd like to make the following bulleted comments and minor modifications to the original letter in summary I am proposing to add language which is currently in this letter emphasizing the following, the need for high-quality transit options, including Metro, along the Woodrow-Wilson Bridge.

[02:32:36] The second one is the importance of using this opportunity to address existing I-495-related backups on other roads, such as Richmond Highway and Van Dorn Street. Third, the importance of aligning the study with the goals and land-use vision of the HATS, which is the Huntington Area Transportation Study, the HATS study, which is mostly the Richmond Highway-Fort Hunt area study.

[02:33:00] And finally, this stress, the need for VDOT to hold additional meetings in the Huntington, Mount Vernon, and Franconia district areas. Mr. Chairman, more specific language regarding these changes have been circulated to the board in a copy of the revised letter. Both these modifications have been provided as well for consideration, so thank you very much.

[02:33:17] Thank you, Supervisor Stork, for those additions, and everyone should have a copy of the modified version of the letter. Is there any further discussion? Supervisor Herdy. Just a question for staff. I know one of the designs that they're looking at for the Woodrow-Wilson Bridge is to go ahead and put in the hot lanes and then later come back and convert one of those to potentially rail.

[02:33:44] Can that be done that way and it not be a compensation event for a concessionaire? I'm sorry, your question is whether Metro can- Whether when they came back to convert that to a rail, because I think that's the direction they're heading is two hot lanes and then coming back and converting one of those to rail later.

[02:34:07] Can you do that without it being a compensatory event? That's the request we'd like to make of VDOT, to have a greater clarification on that point. I think it's been brought up in other venues as well. I mean, we'd have to discuss that with VDOT, but that is something that we've proposed to them.

[02:34:23] I would say when you reduce the capacity of their asset, it's hard to make it not a compensatory event. Mr. Chairman. Yes. Further discussion, Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, this is actually one of the items addressed in the letter, and I believe this came up in the earlier discussion.

[02:34:43] Maybe it was at the Transportation or somewhere. It really depends on how the contract's written between VDOT and the vendor. So this is one of the things I would assume VDOT will be negotiating. Okay. Thank you, and I would just add that when the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project was built, it was built to have this capacity for transit.

[02:35:06] It was to think in the future for transit. At that time, it was not built at the width it was or the design that it was to support a tolling operation. It was built to support transit. And I would also add that from an equity standpoint, I do appreciate the fact that this is on the table because this remains the only piece of interstate highway in Fairfax County that currently has no transit benefit whatsoever.

[02:35:34] And so I would, you know, acknowledge a failure of past efforts when projects were done to literally cut off this part of the county from the same type of transportation options that other parts of the county now have. including the communities that are sandwiched between the Springfield Interchange Project and the Woodrow Wilson Project, which did not touch each other geographically, but left a giant void between the two of them with little to no improvements made, either in noise attenuation or really in transportation to the people who live, work, and travel through that section of 495.

[02:36:12] And so, you know, we've raised some issues in here, certainly strong support of transit in this corridor to match up to the opportunities that exist in other parts of the county. But I do want to acknowledge a level of appreciation that we're having this conversation because this does afford us an opportunity to fix a number of other transportation challenges in that area at the same time.

[02:36:35] And so certainly happy with the changes that have been made to the letter and look forward to signing it. future additional conversation supervisor harry yeah just just real quickly and i think you're right it this is ideally suited for hot lanes especially when you've got the uh with the route one brt i mean to get access to that community to tyson's corner and to the western part of the county on rail absolutely needed but i would hate to see it not come to fruition because we've got

[02:37:10] some limiting factor in there that makes it too expensive to get to because we think we're going to have rail sometime in the next 30 years in that corridor but I'm going to go ahead and support this because I think that will probably get worked out in the long run okay with no further conversation all those in support of action item number five please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries before we go to consideration items we inadvertently skipped one critical action item and that was action item number three authorization assigned a standard project

[02:37:46] agreement for distribution of the i-95 395 toll revenues to multimodal projects in the i-95 395 corridor probably skipped this because i spent so much time working on this at nvtc that my eyes glaze over but let me turn to supervisor alcorn for a motion thank you mr chairman i move approval of action item three as recommended by the county executive i'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Palchuk, Supervisor Lusk, any discussion on action item number three?

[02:38:16] Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries and brings us to a consideration item. We have two consideration items today. The first is approval of the amendments to the bylaws for the Fairfax Area Disability Services Board.

[02:38:36] Are there any questions from staff on this item? Mr. Chairman. Yes, Supervisor Gross. I do have a question of staff. The Fairfax Area Disability Services Board has 15 members. The proposal for quorum is four, which is very, that's 25, less than 25%, or maybe a smidge more than 25%.

[02:39:03] I'm troubled by that. But in looking at the equity impact statement, Virginia Code section does not allow members who attend electronically to count toward the meeting quorum.

[02:39:21] So apparently, in order to have people physically present, it was determined to have four. And the rest of the people who are attending do have the ability to vote, I believe. So that's one of the things I want clarified.

[02:39:38] And then also, what steps we will take to adjust this to get the Virginia Code section amended. I know that's an issue that's percolating in the General Assembly. So if you could answer those two questions, and then I may have another one.

[02:39:54] Good morning, Supervisor Gross. Martin Desjardins, Assistant County Attorney. I can address the question about voting. Yes, under the remote participation portion of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, remote participants can vote. Absolutely.

[02:40:09] They can vote, but if you only had three people physically present, you wouldn't have a quorum. Is that a proper reading? Under the bylaws, correct. Under the bylaws. Yeah, because another aspect of the remote participation statute is that you have to have a quorum physically assembled.

[02:40:27] Okay, so you would not be in a situation, hopefully, you would not be in a situation where those four members who are physically present would take an action that it wasn't agreed upon by other people. So you're not going to have sort of a takeover. Correct.

[02:40:44] In fact, the bylaws state that the voting, if voting occurs, it's based on all of the members then present. So it would include, so the bylaws additionally require the presence or the voting of the remote participants. Okay. All right. And so then the other question would be, what are we doing to pursue a change in Virginia law that would allow, that would take care of all this mess, to put it mildly?

[02:41:13] - Good afternoon, Claudia Villit, Disability Rights and Resources Manager, staff liaison to the Disability Services Board. The Disability Services Board is very interested in advocating legislatively to be able to have their members count towards the quorum requirements when participating remotely.

[02:41:36] They have submitted a position statement that the Board of Supervisors has reviewed and they are hoping that this will be taken up during the next legislative session. Okay. Thank you. Then, Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion to approve these amendments to the bylaws of the Fairfax Area Disability Services Board, but I also want to sort of put a marker out there that these need to be reviewed should there be a change in the state law.

[02:42:07] I won't be here to remind you, but I think that this is one that, as a result of COVID and a whole lot of other things, it came up as, whoops, you know. And I think we don't want them to be operating, and it was just a quorum of four, if the law does get changed and allows them to operate with a larger quorum.

[02:42:28] Right, and I'm happy to second that. Further conversation, let me recognize Supervisor Walkinshaw in the legislative piece. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chairman. We did discuss this issue at our most recent legislative committee meeting, and there is language in the program that we'll discuss later today during the public hearing to address this issue.

[02:42:49] You know, we have tried over the last couple of years to make progress on the remote meeting policies. It's a bit of a struggle in Richmond, quite frankly, But I think it is really helpful for the Disability Services Board to highlight the special, unique challenge that a lot of their members face.

[02:43:08] And I'm hopeful that will get some attention in the General Assembly. Mr. Chairman. Yes, Supervisor Gross. Ironically, all the work that we did during COVID to expand virtual and remote participation, which is a really good thing, has come back to bite us in a way because the General Assembly or whomever has not yet made advances to allow to maybe even to recognize that you can do so much more when you have a variety of participatory methods.

[02:43:44] And that's what I think has been a difficult situation for a lot of our boards, authorities, and commissions, as well as the Board of Supervisors. Thank you. Agreed. So you've heard the motion for consideration item number one. I'm happy to second that motion.

[02:44:01] If there's not any further conversation, all those in favor of consideration item number one, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And I also want to acknowledge and thank David Simon, who's here with us, who is the chair, of course, of our Disability Services Board.

[02:44:21] Thank you for your work on this and your continued work with the DSP. It's much appreciated. Thank you for being here today. And with that, we're going to move to consideration item number two, which is approval of bylaws and resolution renaming and restating the purposes, membership and procedures of the long-term care coordinating council.

[02:44:44] Uh, supervisor gross as the only member of the board who was on the board when the LTCC was originally established, I'm happy to make a motion to approve the bylaws and the resolution that renames long-term care coordinating council to, um, it's, it's a coordinating council on aging and adults with disabilities.

[02:45:09] Second. Seems appropriate for you then to make that motion. Seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any further conversation, discussion? Yes, Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, I don't have any problem with this. I think the new name in particular probably makes sense in describing what it does.

[02:45:28] But I'd also notice, you know, that the new name Coordinating Council on Aging and Adults with Disabilities, we still have a commission on aging. And we also still have, and we just talked about the Disability Services Board. So I think that I do want to make sure that, you know, At some point, we probably should look at the names of all our BACs and make sure that, you know, that it's clear.

[02:45:53] And maybe we're doing this over time as we review things, but just to reduce confusion and make sure that our BRCs are being as efficient and focused as they can be. So, thank you. I know there's also an ongoing review of that, which I think is a good thing.

[02:46:08] Yes, and part of the confusion allows us to figure out who's paying attention and not. but no in all seriousness it is it is an issue and you know frankly we have so many uh boards authorities and commissions that sometimes the naming of these and the acronyms associated with them is one of the hardest parts um but i think the the most important thing in here uh at least for me is the renewed work uh that they're doing here and and point well taken on the name but this is a important turning point uh for this particular uh group and the work that they're going to do

[02:46:44] moving forward so appreciate that um any further discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor consideration item number two please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries and we i'm going to turn to supervisor gross in a moment to make a motion to bring us into closed session but let me ask the county attorney as a reminder how long we need for closed session mr. chairman i estimate one hour and 15 minutes one hour and 15 minutes and uh so we will

[02:47:19] we have a 3 p.m public hearing uh we will report back for closed session should the motion that supervisor gross is about ready to make pass we will report back for closed session at 1 45 p.m which gives us a little bit a little bit over an hour break here uh supervisor gross mr chairman I move with the Board of Supervisors recess and go into closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 and listed in the attached agenda for this meeting.

[02:47:49] And in addition, one, as permitted by Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A, seven and eight, legal analysis regarding the following. Omesh v. Kincaid et al., Appeal Numbers 22-1826, 22-1878, and 22-1936, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and Insulin Pricing Multi-District Litigation.

[02:48:15] Two, as permitted by Virginia Code Sections 2.2-3711A, 1 and 8, Personnel and Legal Briefing Regarding Retirement Board Authority. And three, as permitted by the Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711A1, consideration of candidates for the vacant auditor of the board and human resources director positions and discussion regarding annual evaluations of the county executive and the county attorney.

[02:48:42] You've heard the motion and the second by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[02:48:53] that motion carries and the board will report to closed session promptly at 1 45. and the board is

[03:01:26] coming back into session after our closed session meeting that just occurred and in order to bring us out of closed session i'm going to turn to supervisor gross for a motion mr chairman i move the board of oh my goodness i move that the board of supervisors certify that the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements by virtue of virginia code section 2.8 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 you've heard the motion it's been multiply seconded myself

[03:02:04] supervisor lusk any discussion further discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries motions coming out of closed session uh let me first uh recognize supervisor faust yes thank you mr chairman mr chairman i move the the board of supervisors authorize the county attorney to support a motion to stay maintaining the status quo during the pendency of the appeals in the following two cases

[03:02:42] Inray, February 2, 2022, decision of the Board of Zoning Appeals of Fairfax County, Virginia, CL-2022-002942.

[03:02:57] And Washington Gas Light Company, V. Christine Chen Zinner, Kurt Eiselt, Sarah Ellis, Lillian Whitesell, Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County, Virginia.

[03:03:14] Board of Zoning Appeals of Fairfax County, Virginia. Virginia Department of Transportation. CL 2022-0003061. So moved.

[03:03:30] Second. You've heard the motion. It's been multiply seconded. 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 Gross. Mr. Chairman, I have two motions for appointments. I move that the Board of Supervisors appoint Jennifer Girard as performance auditor to the board, effective November 27, 2023, consistent with the terms and conditions discussed in closed session. Second. Heard the motion. Again, it's been multiply seconded by many members of the board. Any discussion on the

[03:04:08] motion? Any discussion on the motion? Supervisor Stork. Mr. Chairman, just to say that the And I think all of us who have met her now multiple times, but particularly the audit committee members who include both supervisors as well as public members, the six of us that are part of that board, spent, frankly, the past year looking for the right candidate, and we didn't settle.

[03:04:34] We absolutely didn't settle. We kept looking until we found the person that we thought would help lead our general auditing, really our performance auditing area, which we know is essential to the board and, frankly, the confidence of the public. and the trust the public has in us that we will ensure that their money is well spent and that we do that in efficient effective in a progressive way so we are very pleased to to say that jennifer gerard is is that's our choice so we recommended to the board of supervisors and the board i know will be considering and voting on that in a few minutes so thank you sir thank you supervisor stork if there's no further discussion all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any

[03:05:13] opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries, and Ms. Gerrard is with us if you want to be recognized. Thank you very much. Welcome. We're glad to have you. Supervisor Gross. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors appoint Linnea Jablonski as the Director of the Department of Human Resources, effective January 8, 2024, consistent with the terms and conditions discussed in closed session. I'm happy to second that motion, along with other members of the Board of supervisors. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of

[03:05:51] the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And she is in Washington State, so is not with us here presently, but I know looks forward to an opportunity to meet all of us. And again, we welcome her on board Team Fairfax and look forward to seeing her in person soon. Are there any other motions coming out of closed session? Seeing and hearing none, we will now move on to our afternoon public hearings and just a reminder individuals wishing to provide testimony have a number of options they can testify here in person or they can provide testimony by

[03:06:28] phone or by YouTube video at the designated point in the public hearing I'll call for any speakers from the speakers list and they will either come forward 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 to come down to the podium or to call in on a number that will be provided on the screen. Speakers testifying via video must sign up and submit their video no later than 9 a.m. on the day prior to the hearing. For all testimony, you are given three minutes to speak as an individual. If you're a spokesperson for a group, you are given five minutes. This time, I am going to call our first public hearing, which is a public hearing to receive comment

[03:07:08] from residents on the proposed legislative program to be presented to the 2024 Virginia General Assembly. And before I turn to staff for a brief update, let me turn to our Legislative Committee Chair, Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to welcome everyone to our public hearing on the 2024 draft legislative program. I will limit my comments today to a brief description of some of the items in our program for the upcoming General Assembly session. I'll have more to say when we adopt the program in December. For the board's information, the language

[03:07:42] that's highlighted in yellow in the draft program has been added since the last legislative committee meeting held on October 17th. That language is in response to direction the board provided at that meeting. As we discussed and have discussed at legislative committee, there is much in the program that remains the same, especially with respect to our fundamental priorities. And over the course of the last year, both the governor and members of the General Assembly have described the state's revenues as in surplus or in excess. However, as we pointed out in our letter to the

[03:08:21] governor last month, until the state meets its commitments to fund core services, including shared state and local services, there isn't really a surplus or excess revenue because they haven't paid their bills. It'd be kind of like not paying your water bill or your electric bill or your gas bill and telling people you got extra money to spend. They don't. This presents an opportunity, we hope, to make investments in K-12 education, human services, and other shared programs after years of underfunding. Obviously, the state budget will be a major focus of the

[03:08:55] 2024 session as the General Assembly works on the 2024 to 2026 biennium budget. As in previous years, our program features increased state support for education as an overarching priority, especially in light of the watershed report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commissioner, JLARC, in 2023, which outlined both the inadequacy of state funding and the flaws in the current state funding formula.

[03:09:26] We've included language in our program that urges the state to fully meet its responsibility to adequately fund K-12 education, including continued efforts to address formula imbalances and inadequacies, as well as restoration of full funding for cost of competing funds.

[03:09:44] And as we have discussed, that report revealed that state funding for K-12 education in Virginia lags behind not just most of the nation, but our neighbors, including West Virginia and Kentucky.

[03:09:59] Our WMATA and Regional Transportation Funding Priority Statement encourages the General Assembly to fully restore the $102 million of funding to the NVTA that was diverted to WMATA in 2018. And our Transportation Priority Statement encourages the General Assembly to build upon the successful enactment of new transportation revenues by both the 2013 and 2020 General Assemblies to ensure sufficient funding for transportation needs.

[03:10:28] The Commonwealth must also provide dedicated and sustainable funding for WMATA that addresses the looming budget shortfall, putting the agency on sound financial footing without diverting resources from other transportation needs in northern Virginia and the Commonwealth.

[03:10:44] And as we have said, there is no greater threat to the Commonwealth's economic development and continued economic success than the fiscal challenges at Metro. If we don't solve that, we won't continue to have the economic development success we've seen in Northern Virginia.

[03:11:01] We also have an initiative item, a new initiative item, under consideration this year. It seeks budget action to restore funding for the salaries of local finance directors through the Commonwealth of Virginia's Compensation Board. In Virginia, funding for the offices of constitutional officers, so named because their offices are specifically established by the Constitution of Virginia, is a shared responsibility for the state and localities.

[03:11:29] Due to an extended impasse in negotiations, the 2023 General Assembly did not adopt amendments to the 2022 to 2024 biennium budget until September of 2023. While funding was included to restore salaries for unfunded positions, the budget only restored funding in the sections of the budget that relate to commissioners of the revenue and treasurers, which my colleagues know we don't have, But they did not restore funding to local finance directors, which we feel is likely to be an inadvertent error.

[03:12:04] It's estimated that this initiative will restore funding for 43 positions in the county, which is approximately 29% of the staff in that department. I also want to mention, just as a reminder, our final legislative committee meeting for the year will be November 28th.

[03:12:21] We'll finalize the state legislative program in preparation for board adoption on December 5th and discuss our federal legislative program and other relevant issues, including a discussion of pedestrian safety initiatives that we will look at inclusion in our final program.

[03:12:38] So with that, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank those who came to participate in the public hearing and look forward to hearing from the public. Thank you very much, Supervisor Walkinshaw. And let me ask Ms. Arco, if there's anything else that you wanted to add before we begin the public hearing thank you mr chairman no there's nothing else other than that we're just going to have a very different general assembly this year and as the board is well aware and so we're going to be working hard to sort of educate them on local government issues and work with them and coordinate with them and I think the public will be an important part of that so if people can be in touch with their legislators and reach out to the general assembly I think that that would be very helpful to a lot of them as well thank you very much and before we open the

[03:13:17] public hearing to our speakers. Let me just ask my colleagues if they have any questions for Supervisor Walkinshaw or our staff. Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing and I do have four speakers who have signed up in advance to testify. The first of which is Stephanie Berkowitz, the President and CEO of Northern Virginia Family Service, who has submitted video testimony. I'm Stephanie Berkowitz, President and CEO of Northern Virginia Family Service,

[03:13:47] One of the region's largest human service nonprofit organizations dedicated to helping families and individuals access services they need to thrive and achieve economic independence. I want to begin by thanking members of the Board of Supervisors for the support you've provided to NVFS, which helps us deliver services to more than 14,000 individuals in Fairfax County each year.

[03:14:12] I'm grateful for our decades-long relationship with Fairfax County leaders, elected officials, and community partners. Together, we have seamlessly partnered to address challenging issues through shared investments. Together, we provide key services in the areas of home visiting, mental health counseling, emergency food assistance, multicultural services, housing assistance, homeless prevention, and workforce development that creates a more equitable and thriving community.

[03:14:42] And with your support, 98% of clients receiving homeless prevention services have maintained their housing. Graduates of NVFS's Training Futures Program increased their wages by 83%. 169 households received low-cost or free prescriptions last year, saving an average of nearly $1,300 in medication costs.

[03:15:08] 127 clients received immigration legal services, with 95% of cases having a positive outcome. including citizenship, green cards, renewed DACA, or some other valid status. And 70% of foster care children remained in stable placements, and 100% of discharges were to permanent homes.

[03:15:29] These are just a few examples of the impact of our efforts here in Fairfax County. And to enable us to do this work, NVFS relies on funding from a wide range of sources, including the state. Currently, NVFS receives a significant amount of funding from the state in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF funds.

[03:15:49] We've been able to leverage this TANF funding and make those dollars reach further and more deeply to benefit Fairfax County and its residents by raising millions of additional dollars in private and federal funding each year. This TANF funding, plus the additional resources we leverage, directly impact children and families throughout Fairfax County who are living in poverty.

[03:16:13] Moving forward, however, the portion of TANF funding that is being allocated to support our efforts is expected to no longer be available beginning in 2025. NVFS is extremely concerned about the impact this will have on those most in need of support if an alternative state funding source isn't identified.

[03:16:33] It is for this reason that we are asking the county to include in its state priorities a statement in support of protecting the state funding that is currently coming to organizations like NVFS to help us to address community human service needs.

[03:16:50] Our specific request is that the county support efforts to ensure state funding for nonprofit organizations that deliver services to help address local human service needs, such as those currently funded through TANF, be protected.

[03:17:07] We know that the county and you, as members of the board, share our commitment to helping residents maximize their potential and thrive. And this state funding is so critical to our efforts to provide the essential building blocks for financial, emotional, and physical well-being.

[03:17:24] Thank you for your partnership with NVFS, and thank you for your consideration. Ms. Bergerwitz, we appreciate your testimony. Speaker number two is Avril Garland, who has called in. Ms. Garland, can you hear me okay?

[03:17:41] Yes. Welcome. The floor is yours, and you have three minutes. Thank you. I'm a resident of Fairfax County. I applaud the Board of Supervisors seeking to facilitate the use of electric vehicles for cleaner transport.

[03:17:59] However, it is disappointing that gas-powered landscape equipment is not included in this effort to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. According to the U.S. Department of Transport, in 2021, landscape equipment used 3 billion gallons of gas.

[03:18:20] Of this equipment, the most hated item must be the gas-powered leaf blower. Many commercial models operating at 90 to 100 decibels, and whose emissions include high levels of nitrous oxides and carcinogens such as benzene, for which no safe level has been established.

[03:18:40] Gas leaf blowers may be fine in rural areas, but many residents of densely populated neighborhoods with small lots find the horrendous noise and fumes intolerable. D.C. banned them in 2019.

[03:18:57] Montgomery County listened to its residents and has recently taken this step with a ban on both sales and use. This is a win for quality of life, for public health, for wildlife, for climate action, and for landscape crews.

[03:19:15] The residents of Fairfax County deserve the right to choose this option, too. I urge the Board of Supervisors to include in its legislative program the authority to ban or restrict the use of these loud, filthy tools in our county.

[03:19:32] Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Garland. I appreciate your testimony. Speaker number three is Chris French, who I know is here, representative of Fairfax Families for Safe Streets and has five minutes. Mr. French, welcome. And following you will be Larry Zaragoza, who I also know is here.

[03:19:50] Welcome, Mr. French. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Chris French. I'm the president of the board of Fairfax Families for Safe Streets. And as our name suggests, we're an all-volunteer organization focused on street safety, specifically pedestrian safety, and a group that tries to educate elected officials, policymakers, and the public about how they can act to eliminate the traffic violence that kills and seriously injures so many county residents.

[03:20:15] This past Sunday was the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a global event, but one that we commemorated with a local regional event. We were disappointed that none of you on the board were able to join us on Sunday, but the county was well represented by Deputy Chief Blakely, Superintendent Reed, Deputy County Executive Rachel Flynn, Delegate Tran, and Senator Adam Eben, among others. We read the names of the 17 pedestrians that had been killed since our event last November on county roads.

[03:20:48] We would not have had time to read the name of the 56 additional pedestrians who were seriously killed, excuse me, seriously injured over that same time period. Survivors, but burdened with broken bodies and years of legal, financial, emotional, and mental health challenges.

[03:21:08] So we fully support the Board's continued inclusion of transportation safety issues in general into your legislative program, in particular those directed at the most vulnerable at-risk road users. And we ask that you continue to ask Richmond to knock down the barriers that prevent you and our local jurisdictions from implementing the well-studied, proven, common-sense safety treatments that we have available to us.

[03:21:35] And we're happy to work with you together going forward to do so. More specifically, we support inclusion of the Transportation Safety Coordination Position Statement in the program legislation that would include authorization of local governments to reduce speed limits to less than 25 miles per hour, but not less than 15 miles per hour in business or residential districts.

[03:21:57] We would offer a few observations. Based on our own advocacy work around this issue, opposition enrichment often centers around the lack of specificity in such provisions, and VDOT has expressed concern to us recently about the lack of the potentially broad definitions of the terms business or residential district.

[03:22:17] Further, if it would make a bill more palatable to those sitting on the fence, we think we would support changing the floor speed from 15 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour, as is done in some of our neighboring communities, if that would help such a bill pass.

[03:22:34] We could fight for the extra 5 miles per hour another day. We're aware that a bill such as this failed in Richmond last session, but we're optimistic that we're continuing to make inroads in Richmond. Quickly, I'll throw our support behind a couple of other measures that are not included in your agenda.

[03:22:50] First, House Bill 2119 from Delegates Hudson and Shin, expansion of photo speed monitoring and enforcement. I'm sure you've read Deputy County Executive Arnold's memo to the board from November 8th, which noted a 25% reduction in average speed through the eight Fairfax County public school zones included in that pilot program.

[03:23:12] Really, really, really remarkable results. Ultimately, we do need engineering solutions to lower speeds on our roads, but we cannot wait the decades that it takes for these to be implemented while people are dying on our streets. ASC has proven effective short-term solution. We believe fines should remain at or below where they are now.

[03:23:32] This is not a revenue-generating program, but one that should result in changes to driver behavior. Should there be excess revenue, we would suggest that you direct it to sustainable transportation initiatives. And quickly, Delegate Trans Bill 2218, decreasing speeds in school crossing zones.

[03:23:52] I mean, really, like, there shouldn't be any debate about that. I'm sure you've heard that two children were killed in Prince George's County yesterday by a driver as they walked to school. To wrap up, a common theme in the areas that we collectively support today in this agenda really revolve around local jurisdictions' flexibility and authority in making decisions that reflect our community's values.

[03:24:16] I'm not sure if you hear a book titled Confessions of a Recovering Engineer by Charles Marone, but in it he addresses the issue head-on, and I'm going to read briefly from his book because he'll say it better than I can. Traffic engineers are a critical part of designing transportation systems, but the values of the public need to dominate decision-making.

[03:24:36] Elected officials, you, must be given the ability to set the values for a project. It is your responsibility on behalf of the people you serve to establish the design speed, number of vehicles that the road should accommodate, size of vehicles, and the degree or deference that should be shown to people walking or biking at a given intersection.

[03:24:55] These are not design decisions. They are value decisions. The burden of responsibility of making value decisions should not rest with technical professionals. VDOT cannot make these decisions. You must. Thank you very much for your time.

[03:25:11] Thank you very much, Mr. French. I appreciate your testimony and all the work that you do. It makes a difference. Thank you. Speaker number four is Larry Zaragoza. After Mr. Zaragoza, is there anyone else present here who is here to testify on this item?

[03:25:29] Okay. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Chairman McKay and members of the board. Today I would like to speak on the Living Shorelines issue. And I before have mentioned that Delegate Kruzik had developed a bill before to address living shorelines issue.

[03:25:49] One of the things about that bill that's desirable is if you had a structure that was deteriorating such that materials would be falling into the water and so forth, you wouldn't even have to go that far, but it would require that the property owner address it. The way our law is structured right now, bulkheads and other materials, they can fall apart, and there's nothing that is being done, nothing that can be done legally, I understand, HB 739 would have addressed that issue.

[03:26:18] I see the need for some legislation at some point, no matter what, at least I would hope so, because we do care about our waterways, and this is one thing we need to address. The way the law is currently structured, it can call for taking a significant part of the yard.

[03:26:37] It treats waterfront property owners poorly, I think, in the process. The law is written so every property owner who submits an application for a JPA for their waterfront structure, they basically are subject to the same process.

[03:26:54] So right now, what's happening is people who have a violation, those are the ones who have been targeted. But the way the law is written, it doesn't distinguish between the two. And so one of the things that a lot of people fear is that should they submit a request to repair their structure, they are going to be required to put in a living shoreline.

[03:27:20] The wetlands board, when they go about undertaking these reviews, they're undertaking one right now, and they talked about requiring a living shoreline for this party. And basically their suggestion, what they're pushing is to have 2.5% of their waterfront converted to a wetland.

[03:27:38] And so if they did that, what you're doing is you're changing the stability of the waterfront. And one of the things that happens is anybody who canoes, kayaks, and spends time in the wilderness knows water moves.

[03:27:54] The shoreline moves. And so they may see a subsidence in their property. They may also see things move. It's also conceivable that things could accumulate, but I think that's unlikely because this is a canal. and canals generally water flushes down and they tend to get filled in from the sediment material that comes from the stormwater management system and and so that for that reason they have to dredge as such property owners who live on canals have a strong incentive to want to maintain their bulkheads this particular entity who's being subject to this review they do live in a canal

[03:28:32] and and so they they do have and they do have an incentive to maintain things and it was maintaining things that cause the problem. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Zaragoza for your testimony and let me ask once again is there anyone else present who would like to testify? Seeing and hearing none let me ask the clerk if anyone else has called in. No one has called in. Any questions from board members? Before we close the public hearing let me ask Supervisor Walkinshaw if he has any remarks. Thank you Mr. Chairman. I just want to thank everyone who came

[03:29:09] out or submitted testimony today and remind the board that our next legislative committee meeting will be November 28th. As I mentioned, we will adopt our program at our December 5th meeting, and we will host our annual work session with our delegation to the General Assembly on December 12th.

[03:29:30] Thank you very much, Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you for your work on the package to get us to this point and look forward to adoption on december 5th with that i am going to close the public hearing obviously there's no motion at this point but again thanks staff as well for all of their hard work to get us to this point as we rev up for this session so thank you we next have a public hearing on rz 2023-su-00008 hey

[03:30:04] hovnanian homes at the gallery park at westfields llc in the sully district and just as a reminder at our last meeting the board did vote to waive its election year policy regarding the scheduling of this particular hearing because of the peculiarity of it and the fact that it was caught in obscure unusual situation so this is an exception to the rule but one that the board felt like was permissible and at that point if the applicant could please

[03:30:37] reaffirm the affidavit including the date for us good afternoon mr chairman members of the board ken wire with law firm wire gill representing k offnanian homes at gallery park we are reaffirming the proffers and the effort david dated november 11th i'm sorry november 9th november 9th november 9th okay thank you very much um disclosures from board members i'll begin by disclosing that David R. Gill of Wiregill LLP donated in excess of $100 to the Friends of Jeff McKay.

[03:31:10] Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will also disclose that David R. Gill of Wiregill LLP donated in excess of $100 to Friends of Dahlia Palchuk. Supervisor Smith. Martin Reiser donated in excess of $100 to Kathy Smith for Supervisor.

[03:31:28] And Supervisor Stork. Martin Reiser, K. Hovnian Homes at the Gallery Park at Westfields LLC donated an excess of $100 to Dan Stork for supervisor. Can I have another one, sir? Gary Chandler of K. Hovnian Homes at Gallery Park at Westfields LLC donated an excess of $100 to Dan Stork for supervisor.

[03:31:49] Thank you, Supervisor Stork. Are there any other disclosures? Seeing and hearing none at this time, I would now recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Good afternoon. I'm Suzanne Wright with the Department of Planning and Development. The subject property is bounded by Ole Road to the north, Stoencraft Boulevard to the east, North Ridge Drive to the south.

[03:32:11] The subject property is vacant with the exception of 102-foot-tall transmission, power lines, and associated easement crossing through the center of the property. The site is surrounded by Westfield High School to the north, by single-story industrial buildings to the west, and by office buildings to the east and south.

[03:32:28] On June 28, 2022, the Board of Supervisors approved RZ FTP 2021 SU017 and a PCA to rezone the subject property from the I-4 to the PDH-16 district to permit the development of approximately 154 stacked townhomes at a density of 13.83 dwelling units per acre, inclusive of the bonus density associated with affordable housing.

[03:32:54] Under Virginia Code, the applicant was required to pay within 60 days of approval a buyout of the special improvement tax that the county had estimated would be lost based on the change of zoning classifications. However, due to a misunderstanding, the buyout was not paid and the rezoning is void. As a result, the applicant has filed this application, which is identical to the previous one. The applicant proposes to carry forward all approved commitments and zoning ordinance modifications under this new rezoning case number. Since the current applications are identical to the ones previously approved and the applicant has committed to carrying forward the previously approved commitments staff finds the application to be in

[03:33:33] conformance with a conference plan and zoning ordinance this concludes my presentation thank you thank you very much at this time we'd welcome an applicant's presentation again mr. chairman members of the board Ken wire with wire gill I'd like to apologize to the board the county staff for having to give this application a second time I can assure you the check is cut and ready to go and we appreciate you accommodating this late November hearing course. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff or the applicant? Yes, Supervisor Alcorn. Mr. Chairman, I'll just say we had a similar situation in the Hunter Middle District, so you're not the first person to have a signature problem.

[03:34:12] Thank you for saying that. Thank you very much. Any other questions of staff or the applicant? Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, let me announce this is a public hearing. I have No one who has signed up in advance to testify.

[03:34:31] Is there anyone here to testify on this case? Anyone present who would like to testify, this is a public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask if anyone has called in. No one has called in. I assume the applicant waives rebuttal. Any closing final comments and a recommendation from county staff?

[03:34:49] On September 20, 2023, the Planning Commission recommended approval of the rezoning applications and the waivers and modifications subject to the proffers consistent with those dated July 13th, 2023. The Planning Commission also approved the concurrent final development plan subject to the rezoning approval.

[03:35:07] Staff concurs with those recommendations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Last call. Any questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Smith for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the Board of Supervisors approve RZ 2023-SU-00008 and the concurrent Conceptual Development Plan application subject to proffers dated July 13, 2023.

[03:35:36] I further move that the Board of Supervisors approve the waivers and modifications included in the waivers and modifications list dated September 20, 2023, which will be made part of the record. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion on the motion?

[03:35:54] Yes, Supervisor Smith. I just want to thank my colleagues for letting us do this little bit of a different thing so that this could move forward. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Smith. Any further discussions? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[03:36:10] Any abstentions? That motion carries. Thank you. Our next public hearing is a public hearing on AFR 2023-SP-00002, AR 2015-SP-001, Molita Local Agricultural and Forestal District Renewal in the Springfield District.

[03:36:34] And I understand due to unforeseen circumstances, we have the applicant on the phone. Can the applicant hear me? Yes, I can. Okay, I know there are no affidavits on this case.

[03:36:50] Just wanted to make sure that you were with us. At this time, I would recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is William Nance with the Department of Planning and Development. This application requests a renewal of the Melada Local Agricultural and Forestry District for an additional eight-year term.

[03:37:08] The 23.17-acre property is in the Springfield District. The property is zoned for residential conservation and is in the Water Supply Protection Overlay District. It is planned for low-density residential as well as private open space. Approximately 12 acres has been cleared for agricultural use.

[03:37:28] There are residential structures on the property along with a large barn that remains in agricultural use. The site is in the Johnny Moore Creek Watershed and contains environmentally sensitive features on the western portion of the property. A soil and water quality conservation plan was prepared by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

[03:37:50] Critical recommendations include manure, nutrient, and pest management and erosion control. Other recommended items include pasture management and record keeping. The area forester inspected the property and prepared a land use forest management plan. Recommendations were included to remove some invasives as well as to further reduce the size of the deer herd on the property.

[03:38:11] The proposed district renewal satisfies the applicable Group A criteria and three of the applicable criteria in Group B and meets the district acreage and other requirements of the code. It should also be noted that there have been no substantive changes to the district since the previous approval.

[03:38:30] it be renewed it would be expected to meet all other ordinance provisions this concludes my presentation thank you i'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much are there any questions of uh staff seeing and hearing none uh at this time i'll now recognize the applicant for any remarks the applicant wishes to make hi this is heather scott molleta um i'm very sorry i can't be with you i was enjoying um the farm in this property and i had an unplanned dismount um the the other day. So I was ejected from the horse. So I'm sorry I can't be there in person. I did

[03:39:10] want to thank you all for maintaining this program and helping to preserve some of the agricultural nature of Fairfax County. We're very fortunate that this particular farm, which was part of a much larger Plifton farm, is connected actually adjacent to another ANF district. So It really does help, I think, to preserve the rural nature, and we've done what we can to keep it – to plant native trees, including American chestnuts, and keep the – there's a historic barn on the property and keep that – preserve that.

[03:39:48] So I do appreciate it, and I think it's a good program, and we're happy to be part of it. Thank you very much, and thank you for taking advantage of technology, joining us by phone.

[03:40:04] We're sorry to hear about what happened to you, although I will admit you've given us a new term of art. An unplanned dismount is something I plan to use in the future, so thank you for that, but definitely hope you're healing from that well.

[03:40:22] At this time, this is a public hearing, and I have no one signed up in advance to testify on this matter. Is there anyone present in the auditorium that would like to testify? Anyone here present who would like to speak? This is a public hearing. Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in.

[03:40:40] No one has called in. I assume the applicant waives rebuttal. Any closing comments and a recommendation from county staff? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Planning Commission and Agricultural and Forestal District Advisory Committee recommended approval of the renewal application subject to the proposed ordinance provisions.

[03:41:03] Staff concurs with this recommendation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any questions from board members? Any questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Herity for a motion. Yeah, and I'll add my condolences on the unplanned dismount, and I'm glad we were able to move this forward.

[03:41:22] Let me start by saying thank you for keeping this property in an A&F district. They are very important to helping us on a whole number of fronts in the Occoquan watershed. With that, I would request the applicant state on the record their acceptance of the ordinance provisions dated October 18, 2023.

[03:41:43] Yes, I do. All right. With that, Mr. Chairman, I move the Board of Supervisors to approve AFR 2023-SP-00002 and amend Appendix F of the County Code to renew the Modela Local Agricultural and Forester District subject to ordinance provisions dated October 18, 2023.

[03:42:07] So moved. Heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palczyk. Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none. all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries thank you all very much thank you thank you our next uh public hearing uh is a public hearing on a proposed zoning ordinance amendment regarding outdoor lighting around the turner farm park observatory in the drainsville district and as soon as they are ready i will recognize county

[03:42:45] staff for a staff presentation good afternoon i'm carmen bishop in the zoning administration division and i'm joined by leslie johnson zoning administrator and tammy schwab with park authority this amendment stems from a follow-on motion that was approved by the planning commission and the board and it was in response to comments that were received from the community during the adoption of a previous zoning ordinance amendment regarding outdoor lighting

[03:43:20] and that follow-on mission it directed staff to consider additional zoning provisions to protect dark skies around astronomical facilities now the only astronomical facility that we have is the turner park observatory and it's located at the intersection of springvale road and georgetown pike in the drainsville district we do have another observatory located at george mason but that's not subject to the zoning ordinance so there are many health and environmental benefits of dark skies but the purpose of this amendment is to protect the night

[03:43:59] sky for the observatory although fairfax is in an overall area of light pollution due to the scientific properties of light lighting near the observatory has a greater impact on the ability to view the night sky from that location the purpose of the outdoor lighting provisions in the zoning ordinance includes reducing light pollution but also to promote safety and security so this amendment aims to strike a balanced approach as i mentioned the amendment started

[03:44:35] with the board motion and then we've worked through the process since then and that included a town hall that was held in march of 2020 of 22 and at that town hall there was background information as well as discussion of various options that could be considered for the amendment and we followed that up with a survey it was an online survey of the residents within the potentially affected area as part of that we did send a postcard to all of the properties and that was intended to make sure that everyone could have the opportunity to know about this amendment

[03:45:13] process and then the survey itself included background information on the observatory on lighting regulations as well as options for the amendment so we took that feedback and we put together a white paper and first draft and then we followed that up with another town hall and then again we took that feedback and we revised the text we did make it less restrictive based on the feedback followed that up with another town hall and then that brought us to the staff report and the planning commission hearing last month now i'm going to turn it over

[03:45:47] to Tammy. So I'm here representing Observatory Park at Turner Farm. The observatory was conceived in 1998 by members of the Analemma Society, which was formed around the same time. But the building itself wasn't finished until 2016. And since 2018, the observatory has served over 16,000 people and educational programs and viewing sessions.

[03:46:16] The observatory provides classes, camps, scout badges, free viewing events, and all things supported by the Analemma volunteers. We've been doing a lot of outreach on dark skies since we applied for our Urban Night Sky Place designation through the International Dark Sky Association, and so that's since about December 2021.

[03:46:43] We've created a brand new topic page for the Fairfax County Park Authority website, five blogs, did all kinds of different social media support, and we've been presenting to community associations, garden clubs, tabling at community events like Green Expos, George Mason Space Day, and Wolf Treff events like the Firefly Festival and Batfest.

[03:47:06] One of our proudest achievements is working with the Park Foundation and the Girl Scouts of the nation's capital to create a brand new patch called the Dark Sky Patch that the girls can earn by learning about the importance of dark skies. This winter we'll be having lots of astronomy festivals which will feature information again about dark skies and that's really the goal is education there at the observatory about dark skies but also just about astronomy and the wonderful nature of what's out there. But not only are we doing outreach to the public but we're also multiplying our outreach by doing training sessions for amateur and professional naturalists

[03:47:45] in the Chesapeake Bay region. The authority for this amendment is found in state code which does allow any locality to regulate outdoor lighting within one half mile of an area within a planetarium, astronomical observatories, etc. So that does limit the maximum area for this amendment to the area that you see here on this slide. That includes a total of 525 parcels and they are all zoned to low density residential districts so the zoning ordinance requires most lights to be what's called

[03:48:20] full cut off and of course that doesn't mean that the light is off it means that the bulb is not exposed and so the light it can go out with these fixtures and down but not up the zoning ordinance also requires most lights to meet a setback or shielding requirement and this is where if the light is located adjacent to another residential property it needs to be located a certain setback from the lot line based on its mounting height and then if it doesn't meet that it needs to have supplemental shielding to reduce the light trespass and glare onto the adjacent property

[03:48:54] now the zoning ordinance does have certain exemptions from these requirements and this amendment proposes to modestly pull back on those exemptions for the observatory area so now i'd like to walk through the proposed amendment in this chart on the left you have the current countywide standards that apply countywide and on the right you have the proposed amendment for the observatory area so starting with that top row previous amendments have allowed legally existing lights to remain until they're replaced and the proposed amendment would do the same and this is

[03:49:31] important because it means that no additional expenditures are needed to comply with this amendment moving to the next row motion activated lights on single-family lots they don't need to be full cut off or meet the setback or shielding requirement if they are a 4,000 lumens or less turn off within five minutes of the motion ceasing and see they're directed within the property for the proposed amendment there would be no change to B or C but the lumens would be reduced from 4,000 to 1,500 1,500 lumens is about equal to one 100 watt incandescent bulb

[03:50:10] so moving to the next row other lights that aren't mission activated are also exempt from the full cutoff and setback or shielding requirements if they're 1500 lumens or less and with the proposed amendment the exemption from those requirements would apply to any lights that are 20 lumens or less and this is going to allow for your string lights your landscape lighting those types of decorative lighting that people like to have as well as any number of lights at a door or garage within three feet of that door garage and intended to illuminate that feature again up to the same

[03:50:49] 1500 lumens and then moving to the last row the zoning ordinance does allow for up lights or spotlights these are the lights that are intended to focus on a special architectural feature landscaping flags so forth and if they're not full cut off the zoning ordinance requires the lights to be shielded to confine the light to the object intended and with the amendment there'd be no change to that except you add a maximum of 300 lumens per fixture so in summary the proposed amendment allows existing lights to remain and it allows for flexibility in outdoor lighting design

[03:51:29] while also protecting dark skies by allowing any number of full cutoff lights of any brightness as well as any number of unshielded motion activated lights or lights around doors or garages up to 1500 lumens any other type of light up to 20 lumens and any number of up lights or spotlights up to 300 lumens so i'd like to end with an example uh these photos show before and after a 35 investment in a full cutoff fixture and i like the photo on the right because it does show that

[03:52:04] that full cutoff fixture does a better job of illuminating the area intended near that garage and these uh fixtures they are available for purchase online and in stores thank you and we are happy to answer questions thank you very much are there any questions of staff any questions Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I do have some speakers who have signed up in advance to testify.

[03:52:31] Our first speaker is Jennifer Falcone, Land Use and Zoning Committee Chair, Greater, I'm sorry, Great Falls Citizens Association. Jennifer, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Excellent. Welcome. The floor is yours, and you have five minutes.

[03:52:48] Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to offer testimony on behalf of the Board of the Great Falls Citizens Association, the GFCA. For more than 20 years, the GFCA has been actively engaged in efforts to preserve the dark skies in the Great Falls community.

[03:53:08] In continuation of those efforts, the GFCA supports this amendment and urges the members of the Board of Supervisors to adopt the amendment as recommended by staff and the Planning Commission. On September 19, 2023, the Executive Board of the GSBA adopted a formal resolution in support of the amendment and staff's recommendations.

[03:53:30] I wish to acknowledge the work of the late Charles Olin. His extraordinary and pioneering vision materialized in 2016 when public and private cooperation and financing resulted in the opening of a roll-top observatory and educational classroom known as Observatory Park at Turner Farm.

[03:53:49] Equipped with quality permanent telescopes and instruments, it has been continuously staffed by volunteers of the Analemma Society and subject matter experts, including educators, certified naturalists and interpreters, certified Virginia Cooperative Extension master gardeners, retired geologists, physicists, NASA experts, and more.

[03:54:12] The observatory is an important and unique STEM educational resource that may serve to inspire students in their pursuit of further education and training and eventually join the STEM workforce. This amendment gives formal recognition of the importance of this treasured county resource and offers the support and protection it deserves.

[03:54:35] Fairfax County zoning staff, led by Assistant Zoning Administrator Carmen Bishop, have invested considerable efforts to research the science and technology of outdoor lighting and work with members of the Great Falls community to explain the purposes of the amendment and solicit important community feedback from those who reside in the 525 parcels within the one-half-mile radius of the observatory.

[03:55:04] I live within this area. Given the evolution of lighting technology and the introduction and popularity of bright LED lighting, GFCA believes this measure is especially appropriate. While this amendment will not halt the trend, it does propose what GFCA believes are appropriate accommodations to address concerns over increasing light pollution and glare. GFCA has conducted numerous well-advertised and well-attended community meetings in town halls to support the preservation of dark skies in the community and hosted presentations by county staff to

[03:55:41] publicize this amendment. The GFDA board believes the current draft language now reflects the careful consideration of community feedback by zoning administration staff and that the resulting amendment offers balanced and reasonable measures to address lighting concerns while preserving dark skies near the observatory. GFDA also acknowledges that while not all residents in the affected area will agree with the county's proposal, county staff made significant changes to the initial draft requirements to accommodate objections. Affected residences are not required

[03:56:18] to make changes to existing fixtures. This amendment is not onerous. Experts in astronomy have testified to the benefits of this amendment. Crime Prevention and Safety Officer Katie Defoe of the Fairfax County Police Department participated in the GFDA Town Hall and supplied information regarding how to optimize outdoor lighting and home security.

[03:56:44] Security is not compromised by dark sky compliant lighting. I would like to thank Strangeville Supervisor Faust for his interest in the progress of this proposal and his attendance at the gfda town hall on this subject along with benjamin wiles of his staff for his support and participation thank you again to carmen bishop for her outreach to the community and her collaboration with the gfda on the support important amendment finally the gfda's resolution and correspondence correspondence forwarded to your board on september 29 2023 offer our concurrence with the staff's report for this proposed amendment we agree that the amendment

[03:57:24] would support dark skies around the observatory and allow for flexibility in the application of lighting design. Accordingly, the GFCA respectfully requests that the Board of Supervisors adopt this amendment in its current form. Thank you, and I would be pleased to answer any questions you may have.

[03:57:42] - Thank you very much, Jennifer, for your testimony and work with the GFCA. We appreciate that. Our second speaker is Christina Tyler-Wencks, board member and volunteer With the Analemma Society partnered with Fairfax County Park Authority at Observatory Park, who has submitted video testimony.

[03:58:02] Hi, I'm Christina Tyler-Winks, Great Falls resident and board member of Analemma Society, a non-profit organization that partners with Fairfax County Park Authority to provide science education through astronomy at Observatory Park. Thank you for addressing the lighting perimeter around Observatory Park, that greatly impacts the quality of education we can provide as well as the quality of the lives of residents in the area. For more than 20 years, non-profit Analema Society has partnered with Fairfax County to provide education and purchase and maintain on-site telescopes and technology

[03:58:40] at the former Nike missile navigation site. Constituents voted to fund the observatory and classroom just a few election cycles ago. Volunteers may be considered amateur astronomers in their off hours at the park, but they consist of subject matter experts, educators, scientists, retired NASA and USGS specialists, and more, sharing their enthusiasm and expertise as they freely teach revenue-generating park takes classes. We volunteers provide astronomy festivals,

[03:59:14] scouting events throughout the year, camps, and a lot more. In May of this year, Observatory Park doubled last year's attendance. By September, more than 10,000 residents of the region had visited our park. Popularity is growing, but with artificial light at night doubling every 10 years and causing sky glow, our local treasure, which is just a stone's throw away from Great Falls National Park, is threatened. 15 years ago, the Milky Way was visible at Turner Farm, which is now at Bortle

[03:59:49] five more than halfway through the nine-point nighttime visibility scale. Great Falls is still the darkest spot of Fairfax County, but from here we can see glowing, growing municipalities like Vienna, which is Bortles seven, McLean eight plus, Tyson's is off the chart. Lighting ordinances should require clarity in definitions of lumens, light color, and also require definitions of how light fixtures should be shielded, like the ordinance in Middleburg, Virginia, which simplifies

[04:00:26] the ordinance language to eliminate confusion and ambiguity for residents, lawmakers, and code enforcement. Success requires all of us. Thanks to a grant, Observatory Parks lighting bollards are being replaced with amber lights that optimize walking safety and allow optical adjustments so we can see the colors in the night sky. Educating the public is part of our jobs. At home, simple steps that each of us can do. Point lights down to the ground. Use dimmers, timers, motion sensors.

[04:01:05] Replace blue and white lights with warmer lights that reduce the glare and thus increase safety and visibility. And of course, turning lights off when they're not needed, that's a given. Sky glow impedes sky view. I've heard from so many children and adults visiting the park who say constellations don't exist above my house. It's because they can't see them. The constellations are still there. We are learning a lot more about the impact of artificial light at night on human mental health, on the

[04:01:43] reproduction of plants and pollinators, hunting habits of predators, and of course the impact on pray. May what you learn through this process help you see the opportunity that you have to lead northern Virginia by considering greater application of responsible outdoor lighting at night, prioritizing the health of residents and wildlife, while maintaining the historic small-town character of our growing communities. Without action to preserve the night, our

[04:02:17] observatory has 10 maybe 15 years left so i leave you with an invitation to join us for a free friday night viewing to see the constellations star clusters and colorful nebulae this is nebulae season meet the science experts who share their career specialties with the public meet the high school volunteers so inspired by their experiences they are now working with us starting astronomy clubs at their high schools and earning college scholarships that support their STEM careers.

[04:02:53] Experience Observatory Park while we can still see the stars and the planets. Thank you. Thank you very much, Christina, for your testimony. And our next speaker, speaker number three, is Eileen Craggy. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Eileen is here.

[04:03:12] After Eileen speaks, is there anyone else present who would like to speak on this matter? Anyone here present who would like to speak, this is a public hearing. I'm not seeing anyone else. Eileen, welcome. And Eileen is president of the Dark Sky Friends and has five minutes. Welcome. Thank you.

[04:03:28] My name is Eileen Craigie, and thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak with you all this afternoon. We support establishing the establishment of this special zone around the observatory park at Turner Farm Park. And you have my previous comments that were given at the Planning Commission hearing.

[04:03:48] The importance to the observatory, to this county, and our communities in this region are enormous. Light pollution is growing at twice the rate of the population. It's doubling every 10 years. And scientists predict that in 20 years, in some places, no stars will be visible.

[04:04:06] And we are in one of those places. People don't think about it, and they don't know about it. i was out at the emergency management and security building in fairfax the other night and i looked up before going into the meeting i could only see two stars and i think one planet i'm not a astronomer so and that's just simply too sad for words so we can aim for international dark sky community standards for lighting in our county and communities and these are cities and towns with quality outdoor lighting ordinances that educate residents about the importance of

[04:04:45] dark skies and i provided you with a link to that site on dark sky international so people are replacing bulbs with bright blue white ones that are so damaging to human health in the environment with the county exempting some of the light fixtures from being fully shielded and not reducing the Kelvins, that's the color temperature. This problem is only being exacerbated. The LEDs today are substantially brighter than the old

[04:05:18] incandescent bulbs, and carriage fixtures were invented for candles. Now people are using electric bulbs and ones that are far too bright and far too white, as with all of these other light fixtures, and people just don't understand what the lighting is.

[04:05:38] So the light trespasses onto people's property, into their bedrooms, and into our parks and common sky. I don't have a right to trespass onto your property. Why do my lights? Nothing onerous is being asked of anyone, simply to have kind, considerate, and responsible lighting.

[04:05:57] And other communities across the country and across the globe have far more restrictive ordinances than what's being asked here. If we ever hope to slay this problem, we must educate people now. Fairfax County not only needs its own master lighting plan, but it must be part of a regional master lighting plan.

[04:06:21] Now's the time to stop this exponential growth, and now's the time to reverse it. Not 30 years from now, as it took the air pollution problem in California to be fixed, but fixed it was. This is a simple, easy problem to solve.

[04:06:37] It does take some planning and forethought, especially for streetlights. But it's being done across communities and areas in the U.S. and across the globe. I talked with a gentleman who's a backyard astronomer the other week from Alexandria who was able to have a new streetlight that was trespassing into his yard and home retrofitted with a part that actually made the light better than the old one.

[04:07:03] Every street light in this county must be modified like this, and Dominion Power has the parts, and it can be done. And I'm talking to people that are really unhappy about the new lights. There's concern about changes around the observatory and what lights will be added out that way that will adversely impact this area.

[04:07:27] Fairfax County has made light pollution a priority in one of its environmental goals for years. It's now the time to take serious action to eliminate grandfathering, to require full shielding for every fixture, and to incorporate light trespass as a cause of action into the ordinances.

[04:07:46] I don't have kids or grandkids, so why should I care about this? But I do. I want every generation alive today to be able to see the stars, to have their health protected from the dangerous and deadly effects of poor artificial light and that of every other creature and plant who cannot speak for themselves. And I want that for all future generations. I believe we have a right to have the night skies and environment that I had when we moved here in 1969. Why are we allowing everyone to be robbed of our birthright to pristine dark

[04:08:21] night skies into a healthy environment? So establishing this lighting center around Turner Farm Park Observatory leads the way in preserving our night skies and in educating people and is a good first step. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Ms. Craig. Appreciate your testimony. And let me ask again if there's anyone else here present who would like to speak on this matter. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone else present who would like to testify? Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No callers. Closing comments and a recommendation from county staff thank you the planning commission held a public hearing on this

[04:08:58] amendment on october 18th and they recommended approval with the text as stated in the staff report dated september 12th and staff concurs with the planning commission recommendation thank you thank you very much last call questions from board members seeing and hearing none i will now close the public hearing and recognize supervisor faust for a motion thank you mr chairman this chairman uh i really am pleased uh the hearing today went relatively smoothly obviously and that that is in large measure due uh to the efforts over the past uh two years i would

[04:09:36] say uh of carmen bishop you've done an amazing job with this and getting it in a position uh that it's in i will say that it's not unanimous in the community support but i will say that the opposition is much less and uh i think uh much less almost justified than it was when this thing started uh you saw the the chronology of how uh we met with the community and after each meeting you know carmen and team listened uh suggested some changes and we've got it in a in a position

[04:10:15] where I think it's a very, very reasonable approach to the challenge that we have. And I do want to say I was so glad that Jennifer Falcone mentioned Charles Olin. I think probably several members of the board may be familiar with Charles.

[04:10:33] he's been he was an amazing individual who is almost uh he and his wife jackie uh you know responsible for the the asset that we have in this county uh out there at the park observatory turn farm park uh so you know i think that um you know i just think this is a wonderful uh way to start the process of trying to preserve uh a sky that is uh that we can observe through the

[04:11:06] telescopes and really it's a you know it's unique it's it's not like anything else we have in this county and i encourage everybody to get out there on a friday night to see what's happening mr chairman i move that the board of supervisors adopt the proposed zoning ordinance amendment for outdoor lighting around turner farm park observatory as set forth in the staff report dated September 12th, 2023, and that the amendment become effective at 12.01 a.m. the day following adoption.

[04:11:42] So I'm happy to second that motion along with a lot of other folks. Discussion on the motion. Supervisor Gross. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Faust and I were at the Ellie Doyle Awards the other night, and the Analema Society received one of the awards, and there was a lot of...

[04:12:04] discussion and photos of just exactly what Turner Farm is and how the Analemma Society has been supporting it. I wanted to thank the Dark, what is it, the International Dark Sky Association. This is a really cool little postcard that I'm looking at. Unacceptable is the kind of lighting we put in our revitalization areas for a long time. And I'm reminded that we have a house at the beach and years ago when we first built it about 40 years ago you could easily see the stars

[04:12:39] you could see the Milky Way as the area has grown up and this is quite a few this is about 30 miles south of Nags Head so it's pretty remote and but it's getting more popular and so it's harder and harder I've had several times when I've gone down we've discovered that our porch light which was opaque has been painted over because neighbors didn't want even that much light um so i've had to replace it but um i i think that um the education piece is so helpful and what the our speakers have given us um it's so helpful that we don't necessarily need all of that light

[04:13:18] and i i really do hope that that turner farm will be able to serve future generations uh and that we can keep it uh relatively dark there because astronomy is i've never really gotten into it very much i can recognize the milky way and the and the big and little dipper about that's about it but um it really is fascinating and when one of our speakers talked about the colors of the night sky and the nebulae and so forth that's just fascinating so maybe in retirement supervisor

[04:13:54] Faust, you and I can go over and spend some time on Friday nights at the farm because it sounds like it's really fascinating. So I am pleased that this is finally coming to us. I know we've had a lot of discussion about it, and I appreciate everybody coming out. This is something we talk a lot about, but I don't think we've ever seen quite this kind of an artistic expression of just exactly what we don't need and what we should be looking for thank you thank you supervisor gross any

[04:14:26] further discussions supervisor stork and i just wanted to add to that those points which is this is frankly the way the i hope the world is moving we recognize that this is an initial effort on the part of this community this area but we recognize that our our own development plans and guidelines are including doing this kind of shielding and we all know the sports fields around us are all have all kind of adopted in our moving this way so this is just my mind the start of a process which we hope is mostly voluntary but we

[04:15:04] recognize it there's true benefits for all of us and particularly wildlife by by providing this kind of lighting and shielding and in limited escaping if you will the lumens where they don't belong so I'm pleased to support this thank you Supervisor Stork any further discussions see supervisor Palchik no well first of all I really want to thank the staff Carmen especially who've worked on this clearly I agree on the education piece and the way we're moving forward my only question I apologize if this was shared Normally we think of so long soil and water conservation district to help us with education

[04:15:43] And with equity issues and impacts and helping ensure that you know everyone in our community has access to the resources So when you mentioned that they only cost $35, but I'm wondering if we can start to think about ways to help expand the outreach and communication and support for changing light fixtures across the county, especially in a targeted way.

[04:16:10] Thank you. Absolutely. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Palczyk. Seeing and hearing no one else, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Thank you again to staff for an excellent job.

[04:16:29] Next up, we have a public hearing on proposed zoning ordinance amendment regarding sign regulations. And we have a little shift in staff taking place. So as soon as staff is ready, we would welcome a staff presentation.

[04:16:53] All right. Good afternoon. I'm Casey Judge with the Department of Planning and Development. I'm also joined by Leslie Johnson, also with DPD. Today, I'll be walking you through a proposed zoning ordinance amendment related to the sign regulations. This amendment focuses mainly on regulations for electronic display signs, as well as the entitlement process to request sign modifications.

[04:17:16] As part of that entitlement process, I will go over some revised application criteria as well as review standards that are being proposed. Also, we will touch briefly on other regulations to Article 7, which include the sign regulations of the zoning ordinance.

[04:17:33] first up with electronic display signs currently we do allow electronic display signs in the zoning ordinance we allow this area as part of a freestanding sign it's limited to one electronic display sign per lot and 50 of the allowable freestanding sign area may be electronic and that's for the overall lot itself we also do have a requirement that the electronic display sign include a photo cell which automatically dims the night the brightness at night down to 40 to 100 nits is our current regulation now nits themselves it's a way to measure illuminance or brightness of

[04:18:11] an object so for reference commonly sold monitors computer monitors tv screens and phones typically range up to 600 nits with your higher end models being up to a thousand nits or more as well so So during outreach on this amendment, we did receive feedback from industry that modern screens are getting brighter, including the widespread use of LED technology.

[04:18:35] And so they did want us to take a look to see if a higher knit level would be appropriate. And they did mention that the current knit level is extremely low, making the signs sometimes unreadable at night. So based on feedback and research, staff did recommend increasing the brightness of the electronic display signs up to 500 nits only in non-residential zoning districts and we have include an average included an advertised range from 100 to 1000 nits for consideration we also have recommended submission requirements be added for the electronic display signs and that includes

[04:19:10] sign specifications so that would be the sign provider would need to show us what the program nit level is to make sure that the sign will be in compliance with that limitation staff has not proposed any other changes to the buy right electronic sign provisions including the number and size limitations for electronics display signs in terms of the next topic i'd like to go over i did want to highlight the entitlement process for sign modifications so currently we do have a variety of ways for an applicant to request modifications to the sign limitations the first

[04:19:45] is the comprehensive sign plan or csp application that's available for all p or plan districts the planning commission does approve those applications currently it does allow for a modification of any zoning ordinance signed standard and the standards that are reviewed are somewhat limited they're limited or they're related to scale and design convenience for users of the development and making sure that the signs aren't adding clutter the special exception is available for commercial and industrial districts currently and that currently has a planning commission recommendation with the board approval this does uh it is limited in what you can request

[04:20:22] limited to an increase in sign area or sign height as well as a modification of the sign location we do have a standard that's very stringent it only allows requests of the special exception for an unusual circumstance or condition so i will say that that standard has limited its use historically and then we do have a special permit option we've only received one of these in the last 10 years because it is very specific for shopping centers in limited circumstances so staff has recommended consolidation of all of these different application types into one special exception for sign modifications so all applications would go to the board of supervisors

[04:20:59] for ultimate approval we do think that because ap district and its associated design standards are approved by the board in staff's opinion it is appropriate for that application for signs to also come to the board for its review and approval so this new special exception would be available for all p districts as well as commercial and industrial districts developed with at least 30 000 square foot of gross floor area we have included an advertised range for consideration as well and we did bring forward that unusual circumstance or condition language for any application type that can't meet that 30 000 square foot criteria but maybe does have a

[04:21:36] compelling argument to make and does want to request changes to the sign regulations we've also proposed review standards that would assure consistent review and recommendations provided to the board these range in compatibility of the sign size height and scale we do want to ensure that no adverse impacts would be imposed by the the sign package we do want to look at the materials of the sign ensuring that they're aesthetically compatible continue to review and make sure signs do not add to clutter or interfere with any traffic and then we do require consistency

[04:22:11] with any applicable urban design guidelines so for the special exception it would also allow modifications to those electronic display sign regulations that i touched on earlier so for a p district a request could be put in for an increase in the number height and size of freestanding signs and in commercial and industrial districts we would allow for a request for an increase in height or size but not to increase the number so those would continue to be limited to one electronic display sign we also would allow a request for building mounted electronic display signs as the by right limitations only would allow for freestanding

[04:22:50] and then we would allow an increase in the knit level to be requested with the special exception and then lastly there are some other changes i just briefly wanted to highlight first being signs in or adjacent to reserved parking spaces so currently through interpretation We do limit these to one square foot in size, and so we have seen these come through for a variety of purposes, like electric vehicle charging spaces.

[04:23:13] So we did want to exempt these from the permit requirements as well as the size limitations. The next is ordering signs associated with the drive-thru use. We do propose to exempt these from the sign regulations as well. We would limit them to 20 square feet in size.

[04:23:29] One of the reasons behind this is that they are reviewed as part of the special exception application for that use, so the signs can be further limited and analyzed during that special exception process in recognition of common practices we also have added some standards for illuminated window signs so a non-residential use not a residential use could be allowed to have up to four square feet of illuminated window signs they would be required to be static so no moving flashing images and they also would only be eliminated during the hours of operation of that business and last but not least for signs associated with a subdivision we have limited proposed to limit these to only be allowed

[04:24:08] at a major vehicular entrance and they must be located within an agreement or easement recorded for signage purposes or common open space located at the vehicular entrance so that concludes my presentation thank you and i'd be happy to answer any questions thank you are there any questions of staff any questions of staff supervisor faust thank you uh i think you intended to address my concern, but I want to make it very clear. The window signs are not permitted in home-based

[04:24:43] businesses. Is that correct, the electronic window signs? That is correct. We would consider that a residential use, and only non-residential uses could have illuminated window signs. Okay. Thank you very much. Absolutely. Other questions? And on that particular piece, if you already have a business in a commercial area that has a sign that has flashing or whatever they are they don't fall into this new it'd be only new signs is that right so currently we actually do not allow illuminated window signs so any existing window signs would not be in conformance with the ordinance um this

[04:25:20] actually gives a little bit more flexibility and a little bit more permission to allow four square feet of window signs so all those flashing signs on little river churn pike are uh should be the focus of department code compliance. They would be subject to enforcement. Okay. All right. Thank you. Supervisor Patrick. Thank you, Mr. Gross. Thank you, first of all, for your research on this. I know when I've looked at some of these exceptions, I just don't want it to look like Vegas. I think you've gone a step farther. One question I do have reading some of your research is the use of knits versus the foot candles. I don't know if you could speak on that a little

[04:25:59] bit more for us? Sure, yes. So in 2019 when the ordinance was amended most recently for the sign regulations, NITs were the chosen illuminance standard. Foot candles is an option and it really varies depending on jurisdictions which one you choose. We chose to continue with NITs and we do have a reader that measures NITs so that also factored into our consideration. I was going to ask if it's more challenging to measure foot candles versus NITs. I believe there's different types of readers that measure each type but we have been going out in the field and practicing with our knit gun and we have gotten more comfortable with with measuring the knits now supervisor palchuk leslie johnson zoning administrator i wouldn't i wouldn't note though

[04:26:37] that other standards in our lighting ordinance do use foot candles as a measurement and we we have both meters now so we can use that but when we introduced electronic display signs with actual standards we decided to go with the knit the knit approach versus the foot candle approach so and we decided we would stick with that because we were used to it we have the meters we can continue to implement and monitor it too okay no thank you i i from what i've seen there are some

[04:27:13] upsides of one versus the other but i you know it's a challenge and so i appreciate that we're going forward with this and also that you were able to look at some of our existing signs and screens out there and to share some of that information with us. So thank you for the research on this. It's been very helpful. So we've heard another new terminology, a knit gun is actually. Don't quote me on if that's the industry term for that. It's actually a meter that reads the brightness. Yes, that's right. Thank you. Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you,

[04:27:47] Madam Chairman, just two questions on the Planning Commission recommended alternative text 4B. So first question, the language says, if the sign is located within 100 feet of any property, so if I'm understanding it correctly, basically draw a circle around the sign, right?

[04:28:12] So it's not 150 feet from the property line of the commercial property that will have the sign. It's 150 feet from the sign to any property developed with a single-family dwelling. Is that right? That is correct. Okay. So in theory, a property owner could move the sign to a different location within the commercial property to be outside of the 150 feet from a single-family dwelling.

[04:28:43] Yes, they could relocate the sign. Second question. The language says any property developed with a single-family dwelling. Um, so is that to say that a property that is zoned R1, 2, 3, but for whatever reason not developed currently would not apply in this instance?

[04:29:08] And if so, what, why? Yes. So it would, the way that the language is drafted, it would be, it would have to be developed with that use. Um, I think there are other uses in residential districts. So just because a property is zoned R1, there may be a religious assembly use.

[04:29:25] or another non-residential use. So we were really trying to capture at the time of signed installation and looking at what distances and where it would be set back from an existing residential development. Okay.

[04:29:42] Any other questions of staff? Yes, Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you. And, yeah, just to build on that point, I appreciate putting in, working on that language and coming up with the number. I'm not sure 150 feet is the right number, But I think, you know, this is one of those things over time.

[04:30:04] We'll probably be getting feedback if it's too short. So anyway, thank you for making that. We do certainly have neighborhoods that are potentially in close proximity to where these signs can be placed. So this is a good start. Thank you.

[04:30:19] We probably all have something in our district that would meet that. Okay. Any other questions of staff? not this is a public hearing and we have two speakers signed up our first speaker is kenneth peskin who is here and eileen craigie who also is here i believe you signed up for this one too mr peskin uh after these two speakers are there any other persons in the auditorium who wish to speak on this item any others um do we know if we've had any call-ins we do have one call in

[04:30:58] jennifer falcon with the great fall citizens we will take her as the third speaker mr peskin hello my name is kenny peskin i live in the evermay neighborhood in mclean and the drainsville district i also work for the international sign association in alexander virginia and in my work there i serve on a bunch of relevant committees with underwriters laboratories national electric code and international code council so i help write the standards for safe fabrication of electric signs safe installation of electric signs and also for the regulations for designing and installing

[04:31:33] ada and accessible signs i'm appearing today generally in support of the motion and and specifically the version that was presented in the staff report to the planning commission we do have several concerns with some of the motions made by the planning commission on the 15th I submitted written written comments as well so I'm going to try and summarize but not not repeat them the first concern we have in the alternate text presented by and recommended by the

[04:32:08] Planning Commission dealing with the issue that was just the source of discussion about properties within 150 feet having a step down brightness limit there's a standard of analysis that the the Supreme Court has used since 1980 for any regulation that affects protected speech and signs are a version of protected speech.

[04:32:30] It's called the Central Hudson Test. It's the name of the case. There's a four-part analysis, and one of those parts asks, does the regulation directly advance the government interest asserted? The recommendation of the Planning Commission didn't take into account whether a sign happens to be visible. The sign face happens to be visible for a neighboring property. And an example that I would use, and it's in my written comments, Langley High School, which is in an R1 district, so it would not be affected. Langley High School has an electronic display sign that is a single face sign.

[04:33:07] It is directed and points out towards the entrance to the student and faculty parking lot, as well as eastbound traffic on Georgetown Pike. The nearest residential property over here, there's a property line that's about 90 feet away. Those neighbors can only see the aluminum cabinet in the back of the sign and manufacturer's markings. They can't see the sign face, but yet would be affected by this. My recommendation, my suggestion would be that you consider making sure that the sign be visible. The other thing I want to mention, as I know my time is short, there's a difference

[04:33:47] in how the county measures the signs in terms of peak brightness versus average brightness. The numbers that are being used, 300 nits or whatever, represent the peak brightness, not the average brightness. And the actual brightness of many signs is considerably less. And once you get to 61 feet away from the largest possible sign, you're under the threshold for objective light trespass. Thank you. Appreciate your testimony. We now have speaker number two, Eileen Craggy,

[04:34:26] who's with us still and to be followed by Jennifer Falcone. Welcome, Ms. Craggy. Good afternoon again, and it's Eileen Craigie, Long A, just if you care. I'm the founder of Dark Sky Friends, and first I want to thank you all for all the work that this county is doing on light pollution and light trespass, and for making this a priority in our county.

[04:34:52] This appears to be a credible first cut for the electronic signage ordinance, but experts in solving light pollution and light trespass must be brought in to work closely with the county and industry to solve this problem, to halt it, and to begin reversing it.

[04:35:12] We all need to understand how these new signs operate in the real world to see just how bright they are and just how far the light trespass is. We are all poor for this, for not addressing this now. Technology and the goal of some to turn night into day has now resulted in a very deadly situation, not only for us, but for the entire planet.

[04:35:35] Simply because the technology exists is not a good enough reason to deploy it. Artificial light is deadly, not only to our view of the stars and night skies, but to every being's health on this planet, human, creature, and plant alike.

[04:35:51] Artificial light at night has been linked to cancer, breast and prostate, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disorders, sleep disorders, and more. And the body of evidence just keeps growing. And we're also losing our night vision by not using it.

[04:36:10] A moratorium on lights needs to be implemented in this county as it's being done in other communities across the U.S. and the globe, so during certain hours. And as I mentioned before, it's time for Fairfax County to have a master lighting plan and to work on a regional master lighting plan with other jurisdictions.

[04:36:31] We cannot solve this alone. Smarter, ecologically friendly, and human friendly lighting is available. With strict ordinances on the books, the market will develop the products that meet that need, which serves the greater good. There's simply no reason to light up this county like L.A. or Las Vegas.

[04:36:50] Although I understand that we're really close to the situation in L.A., we'd like to think of Fairfax County as a suburb, but it is, in fact, a city with the amount of light pollution. Tyson City is a sad but apt example of the recent runaway growth of light at night.

[04:37:09] There's nothing onerous being asked of people, and that includes businesses and municipalities, to adopt kind, considerate, and responsible lighting practices. it's being done across the country and the globe as people begin to recognize what is at stake and what is being lost and we owe it to ourselves and all future generations i for one am happy that i won't have to answer the question for my child grandchild or great-grandchild what did you do to save this for me it may be too late for my mother who's 95 although she may outlive my

[04:37:44] grandmother who died at 101 so there still may be hope with swift action that she and others of her generation can still get a glimpse of the stars over their homes and not have light trespassing into their bedrooms hers is a generation who knew blackout curtains for their original purpose to keep light in not light out and to protect from bombing runs for the sake of the birds and other creatures and our health it's time to employ blackout curtains for that use i for one am not willing to wait 30 years to fix this as i mentioned before with the case of the air pollution

[04:38:23] in california not when it's so easily solvable and i along with everyone else deserve to have the skies above me at night that were here when we moved here to this county pristine and a billion stars twinkling overhead so grandfathering must be eliminated sunset dates must be instituted and education must become a top priority all fixtures must be required to be fully shielded and the kelvins again the the warm the color temperature for all fixtures must be lowered so thank you all

[04:38:56] very much thank you very much for your testimony and speaker number three uh jennifer falcon are Are you still on the line? Yes, I am. Okay. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you for allowing me to speak again.

[04:39:13] The Board of the Great Falls Citizens Association, GFDA, has reviewed the testimony, information, and staff memos regarding science part two and supports the motions adopted on 11-15-2023 by the Planning Commission.

[04:39:29] The GFDA thanks staff for providing the important information requested, and we also thank the Planning Commission for their review and decision to recommend a lower net level. Thank you again for allowing me to speak this afternoon and I'll see you the next time. Thank you very much. I appreciate your testimony on this as well and let me ask if there's anyone else present here who would like to testify on this matter. This is a public hearing. Anyone else who would like to testify?

[04:39:57] Seeing and hearing no one. Let me ask the clerk if we have any other callers. No other callers. closing comments and a recommendation from county staff thank you the planning commission held two public hearings on october 25th and november 15th and recommended approval of the amendment with the text shown in the staff report dated october 3rd 2023 with the exception of electronic signs the planning commission did recommend alternative texts for electronic display signs in the pc and i districts to have the maximum knit level after sunset be 300 nits and signs within 150 feet of any property developed with a single family dwelling be limited to 100 nits

[04:40:35] staff continues to recommend approval of the proposed amendment with the text as shown in the staff report dated october 3rd 2023 thank you thank you very much um are there any questions of from board members let's call last call questions oh we got a lot of questions let me start over here supervisor pelczyk thank you mr chairman um a couple of clarifying questions uh first of all i know um we are talking about single family dwelling units um could you clarify that is uh single family including townhouses that's correct it would include single family attached as well

[04:41:09] perfect okay thank you and then i know if you look at being able to um i think we're considering demonstrate um that the sign is not visible from the dwelling i know we want to both think about the protection from the lighting as well as thinking about some of our smaller businesses and not creating any onerous additional costs for them for being able to operate businesses in a very difficult time.

[04:41:38] I don't know if you could explain for us just briefly what the zoning administrator would expect from those businesses. Yes, I'll speak for the zoning administrator. She can add in as well. Or you, Casey. We do plan to work with the signed permit applicants as well.

[04:41:53] we aren't expecting anything you know intensive renderings or reports or studies to be prepared but more of an aerial image to be provided to us in a written justification if there is something that would prevent the sign from being visible so they may explain the signs located behind the shopping center building even though technically it's within that radius so so again we'd work with them and our staff our permit staff would also take a look at it and do the analysis as well Excellent. If you could clever, I think it's in the notes. They're very helpful. One last question is, I think when we're talking about shopping centers, if they're at two major intersections or roads, the sign can only be at one of those. Is that correct?

[04:42:33] I believe if they're along two major thoroughfares, they do get two freestanding signs, but they would have to be on, yes, separate major thoroughfares. Only one electronic display sign would be permitted per lot. Yes. Excellent. Thank you. Really appreciate that.

[04:42:49] And finally, I think you mentioned in there that you all really did look both across our county at the existing, whether they were under the permissions currently or not, and in other jurisdictions. And I think what you shared is that you did not see a negative impact from going a step into the 100 nits, remaining in the residential areas and going up to 300 for commercial areas.

[04:43:16] yes that's correct okay thank you very much thank you supervisor faust thank you mr chairman i would just ask if someone in case here a county attorney could address mr peskin's comment about the 150 foot uh if you're uh have a residence with 150 feet of the sign but the sign has its back turned to you basically uh or are we do we have an issue or should we be concerned so we have worked with the county attorney's office to draft some changes to the alternative text that was recommended by the planning commission that text was distributed to you all as well and it does include language

[04:43:56] that the um they could they would not be subject to the 100 nits if they can demonstrate to the zoning administrator that they're not visible um so we've worked in that language to address the comments that were provided today thank you okay um and that um motion that contains that change and it should be in front of everyone if you have not received that.

[04:44:19] It should be in your paperwork there. Other questions? Other questions of staff? Okay. Seeing and hearing none, at this time I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Smith for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So I'll have my motion and then follow on motions. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt the proposed zoning ordinance amendment for signs part two with the staff recommended options and the proposed amendments to appendix one relating to previous approvals as set forth

[04:44:52] in the staff report dated october 3 2023 except for electronic display signs with regard to electronic display signs i move that the board adopt the alternative text for electronic display signs in the p c and i districts to have the maximum knit level after sunset be 300 nits and signs within 150 feet of any property developed with a single-family dwelling to be limited to 100 nits unless the applicant can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the zoning administrator that the electronic display is not visible from any such dwelling. The text is set

[04:45:31] forth in the handout dated November 21, 2023, which was distributed to the Board. I further move that the amendment become effective at 12 01 a.m. November 22 2023. Heard the motion and second 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? That motion carries.

[04:45:59] Supervisor Smith. So I have two follow-on motions. I'll read both of them. Changing the current comprehensive sign plan process to a special exception application may result in additional time needed for the entitlement process as approval from the Board of Supervisors would now be required.

[04:46:18] To limit delays, I move that the Board directs staff to develop a policy to automatically expedite the scheduling of Planning Commission and Board hearing dates without individual motions from the Board for special exceptions for sign modifications. And you've heard the motion.

[04:46:34] 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? And that motion carries. Supervisor Smith. I move that the board directs staff to monitor and report on the implementation of the amendment, including the maximum nighttime brightness of electronic display signs and special exception applications for sign modifications.

[04:46:59] This report should be provided within 18 months of adoption of the amendment. You've heard the motion. It's been multiple. He's seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Yes. Supervisor Smith and then Supervisor Alcorn. I just wanted to thank staff for all their work, Casey Judge and Leslie.

[04:47:16] Okay. Supervisor Alcorn. Yeah, I don't think this needs to be amended, but I assume that the report that we would get back would include any complaints that we're receiving, and we would see statistics on that. Yes, absolutely. All right. Thank you. Okay. Any further discussions?

[04:47:32] Supervisor Palachuk. With that, in addition, I know we've heard and it's concerning that code compliance hasn't been able to address existing issues, maybe because there haven't been complaints. if the report could also just mention if there have been additional code compliance efforts or citations there yes we can do that and i plan to put the report on the work program when it comes back to the board next in the spring and also you know we've been talking internally casey and i with our sign permit folks and also with department of code compliance and we think this is a really

[04:48:09] good opportunity to kind of reset our education campaign casey went through with the initial outreach about a year and a half ago you know meeting with a lot of providers and citizen groups but we think that we have opportunities now to really hit home about you know the the background colors the the knit levels that are now required so we are going to be focusing on making sure that we get that message across great maybe like the postcard it looks great with lights on it thank you okay uh any further discussion seeing and hearing none all those in

[04:48:47] favor of the motion please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries and is that all super president okay thank you again to staff for an excellent job we will now move on to our next public hearing which is a public hearing to consider expanding the mclean residential permit parking district district 21 in the drainsville district and as soon as staff

[04:49:12] is ready we would welcome a staff presentation good afternoon chairman mckay and members of the board amir fasci with the department of transportation this is a public hearing to consider expanding

[04:49:47] the mclean residential permit parking district district number 21 to include rosemont court from Rosemont Drive to the cul-de-sac as shown on attachment 2. Residents along this block of Rosemont Court requested expansion of the McLean RPPD to protect residents from unreasonable burdens to access their property caused by parking of non-resident vehicles. Based on the fulfillment

[04:50:25] Of all other requirements set forth in Fairfax County Code, staff recommends approval of the McLean RPPD expansion as proposed. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff?

[04:50:42] Any questions of staff? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this subject? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone present who would like to testify?

[04:50:59] Seeing and hearing no one, let me ask the clerk if we have any callers. No callers. We just heard staff's recommendation, but maybe you could repeat any closing comments in your staff recommendation. Staff recommends approval of this item.

[04:51:15] Thank you very much. Last call, questions from board members. Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Faust for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the board adopt the county executive's recommendation regarding the, adopt the amendment as set forth in attachment 1, and that amendment would be to Appendix G of the Fairfax High Court to expand to McLean, RPPD, District 21.

[04:51:50] So, moat. You've heard the motion. It's been multiply seconded. Any discussion on the motion? Just thank you, staff, for getting us here. Appreciate it. Thank you, Supervisor Faust, as well. With that, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

[04:52:07] Any abstentions? That motion carries. Thank you. Next up, we have a public hearing on a proposal to vacate and abandon a portion of Forest Hill Drive in the Braddock District. And at this time, I would recognize staff for a staff presentation. Okay.

[04:52:25] Okay, I am told that the next public hearing after this one does not need presentation.

[04:54:58] So we're going to give you time to work on that. And I am going to call the next public hearing, and then I will go backwards to the Forest Hill Drive in the Braddock District. So while they're working on that, I will call the public hearing on the acquisition of certain land rights necessary for the construction of Innovation Station North Neighborhood Access Shared Use Path in the Drainville District.

[04:55:23] And at this time, would recognize staff for a presentation. Mr. Chairman. Yes. I should have announced this before we broke. That is not going to be necessary to have this hearing because staff pulled a rabbit out of a hat and was able to get the land acquired.

[04:55:44] So I'm going to make a motion to take it off the calendar. You've heard that motion, and I'm happy to second that. Let me read. I move that the board remove from today's agenda the 4 p.m. public hearing regarding the acquisition of certain land rights for the construction of Innovation Station North Access shared use path as that matter has been resolved.

[04:56:09] And I'm happy to continue to second that as I did earlier. Any discussion on the motion? This is good news. Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and uh while we're working on that uh can we move forward with the plan amendment public hearing or do we need okay uh so we're going to move forward while we're working on that one uh with public hearing on proposed plan

[04:56:42] amendment 2022-i-b1 in the baileys crossroads community business center subunit b5 located south of leesburg pike and east of carlin springs road in the mason district and as soon as staff

[04:56:58] is ready we would welcome a staff presentation good afternoon chairman and members of the board

[04:57:36] my name is david wilmon i'm with the department of planning and development i'm accompanied by clara johnson with dpd and thomas burke with fcdot subunit b5 is a 12.7 acre site that is located on the southeast of leesburg pike and carlin springs road it sits in the town center district of the baileys crossroads community business center it is developed primarily with community serving commercial uses the carousel

[04:58:13] court apartments with 90 affordable residential units are located south of seminary road the board authorized staff to consider an option on subunit b5 for a mix of residential and commercial use with a strong emphasis on parcel consolidation design and open space in addition to building heights ranging from four up to 14 stories the carousel court apartments on the south side of ceremony road were not to be considered for change in land use or density staff evaluated a mixed use option that included a range of 900

[04:58:50] to 1300 new multi-family residential units approximately 65 000 square feet of ground floor retail use and a maximum building height of 14 stories that transitioned down to five stories A number of planning considerations were evaluated during the review of this plan amendment.

[04:59:10] Of particular note, the proposed plan amendment is consistent with the current vision of a village-scaled, mixed-use urban environment. The current road network is anticipated to accommodate the trips produced by the proposed land use scenario. Additional considerations include how the adoption of this proposed plan amendment would create on-site publicly accessible park space and promote equity goals of providing more housing opportunities.

[04:59:38] This concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I have no one who has signed up in advance to testify. Is there anyone here present who would like to speak on this matter?

[04:59:55] Anyone here present who would like to testify? Welcome. Good evening. I'm Sarah Mariska with the law firm of Odenfeldman and Pittleman here on behalf of Bailey Star LLC, And we are here just to support staff's recommendation. We've been working very closely with staff.

[05:00:11] I'm very grateful for David and Clara's work on this, and we urge the adoption of their proposal this evening. But I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Mariska. For your testimony, is there anyone else here who would like to speak on this matter?

[05:00:28] Anyone else present? Let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No one has called in. So at this time, closing comments and a recommendation from county staff. Thank you. On October 25th, the Planning Commission recommended adding a redevelopment option for the portion of subunit B5 north of Seminary Road.

[05:00:50] This would include up to 1,300 new residential units and 65,000 square feet of retail use at an intensity up to 2.5 FAR. The recommendation includes provisions of significant public park amenities and additional pedestrian crossing in addition to the streetscape and urban design guidance that already exists in the Baileys Crossroads CBC.

[05:01:16] Staff concurs with the Planning Commission recommendations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Last call. Any questions from board members seeing and hearing none? I will now close the public hearing and turn to Supervisor Gross for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To orient everybody to this, if you've been around Fairfax County, Mason District for very long, this site was the site of the former Toys R Us store, which actually had two iterations, closer to Route 7 and then moved it back from Route 7.

[05:01:50] And now it is a Food Star grocery store. The site is completely impervious. And it's on the western edge of Skyline, which really hasn't, that side has not been looked at closely for redevelopment until now.

[05:02:13] We held two, I believe it was two virtual meetings with the community, pretty well attended with a lot of questions. And it's been determined that with this plan amendment that it is appropriate for mixed use.

[05:02:31] it is a step down. If you looked at the aerial to the right of the location, those are 26-story buildings. And so while the original idea that was proposed was much taller than what we have now, it really is something where you need to step it down, not step it up there, because the tallest buildings are in the middle, and then you step down. The original concept envisioned more units and much smaller ones, the language of the plan amendment will accommodate an intensity

[05:03:09] of units that I think could be successful and bring additional housing and park amenities and mixed use to this particular site. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt the Planning Commission recommendation for plan amendment 2022 dash that's i dash b1 that is found in the board item you've heard the motion it's been seconded by supervisor powell check any further discussion just some of the other surrounding areas have not been incorporated into this particular location

[05:03:46] but in discussions we really think that the properties to the east at gorham street would be well served to be part of a future development because then you would have a real, you would have a, wouldn't be chopped up so much because when you have a new development and then sort of sandwiched in between the existing tall buildings and this new development, you've got some older stuff I think that they will see that it will benefit them to look at redeveloping

[05:04:23] also but that will be another that would have to be another action so thank you mr chair thank you very much uh supervisor gross with that all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and uh we're going to go backwards uh let me verify that we're ready uh can we go back to the abandonment okay uh so uh next we have a public hearing on a proposal to vacate and abandon a portion of forest hill drive in the braddock district and as soon as staff is ready we would welcome a staff presentation good evening chairman mckay and

[05:05:01] members of the board sorry for the technical hiccup my name is jeff edmondson i'm with the fairfax county department of transportation site analysis section and i'm here to present a proposal to vacate and abandon a portion of forest hill drive in the braddock district the applicant DLA Piper LLP on behalf of their client trinity christian school of fairfax is requesting that a portion of forest hill drive Shown here on the aerial be vacated under 15 2 2 2 7 2 2 of the virginia code and abandoned under 3 3 2 9 0 9 of the virginia code

[05:05:35] The applicant is seeking this request to support the consolidation of their clients parcels tax maps 56-4 double circle 3 blot 11 and lot 12 56-4 double circle 1 lot 18 The subject portion of Forest Hill Drive south of Warren Lane is unconstructed The subject portion of Forest Hill Drive was designated as public streets by the Warren and Blevins families in 1957 deed book 1570 page 572 The subject portion of Forest Hill Drive is not in the VDOT secondary system of highways Following a discussion with neighboring property owners to the north of the Trinity School properties

[05:06:14] the applicant drafted a letter of understanding to their neighbors that letter outlines the school's intention to solely access their property from Shirley Gate Road and that they would not pose any future vacation abandonment actions by the neighbors to the north of the Forest Hill Drive north of the proposed section today I believe that letter was distributed to the board and that concludes my presentation thank you very much are there any questions of staff seeing and hearing none this is a public hearing and I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter.

[05:06:48] Is there anyone present in the auditorium that would like to speak on this subject? This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to testify on this subject? Okay, can you please come all the way down here and sign in with the clerk on the corner here?

[05:07:05] And if there's anyone else here to testify, please come on down. If you're here to testify on this subject, we need you to sign in, and then we'll recognize you for testimony. while we're doing that let me ask the clerk if we have anyone who's on the line no one's on the line okay uh you're going to sign in after you testify if you could state your name and address for the record uh to begin your testimony hi my name is lydia hart and i live at 46 16 forest hill drive

[05:07:42] so the road that is our subject and good afternoon and good evening so um i would like to say that the letter the trinity letter which is dated november 20th of 2023 was written by dr matt thomas of trinity christian school is well received and it's merit given that the intent is clearly stated and has been notarized and my understanding is that the letter also will become part of the records or the minutes of this meeting but i would like to recommend that that letter also be entered in the county land records so because as we all know when management changes

[05:08:19] some of the practices change with management so i just want to make sure the letter is part of the land records please and the letter does state that trinity does not know yet what use the school may they propose for the property so I guess they don't have their plans drawn out for us to see at this time but that does bring concern it brings issues to a home to me as a homeowner on that on that road and I know they're not part of this particular meeting but possibly in other meetings I would like to have them address possibly some about preserving the forest because in our forest

[05:08:56] there there is a lot of natural trees some are rare there's edible mushrooms there's other natural growth that is not not a common thing and so i'd like to preserve that growth from harmful human activities from such as development and i would also like to to again state that hopefully i'll be able to bring those up in other meetings because i know it's not on the agenda for today but i do appreciate your time that i'm able to at least be recognized and state that i do have other concerns regarding this but that i do appreciate the letter and i do value the letter

[05:09:31] see the merit in the letter but would like it somewhere so it's recognizable besides in the minutes. Thank you kindly for your time. Okay thank you very much for your testimony and we have a second speaker here. Welcome. Good afternoon Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Brian Clifford with DLA Piper. I'm here tonight on behalf of Trinity Christian Schools, the owners of the parcels. As you've heard we had some issues in the lead up to it. We worked through with the neighbors and resolve them in the form of the letter anything we would wish to do with

[05:10:10] the site consistent with our mission as a private christian school would require a special exception issues that were raised by the previous speaker would be among the many that would be thoroughly vetted and of course we would continue the dialogue that we started already with our neighbors if and when we decide to file a development application to that end with me tonight is dr thomas head of school at trinity christian school and he and i thank you for your time and are here to answer any questions thank you thank you very much um and we do all have a copy of the letter that's been referenced here and we thank you for sending that and providing copies uh to all of us which will be made part of the record um and let me just verify there's

[05:10:50] no one else who would like to speak on this subject and there are no callers who have called in uh closing comments and a recommendation from county staff thank you mr chairman uh county staff recommends that the board adopt the attached vacation ordinance and order of abandonment for the subject area. Thank you very much. Last call, questions from any board members? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Walkinshaw for a motion.

[05:11:20] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start just by thanking Ms. Hart for coming and sharing her really important perspective and we'll certainly explore whether the letter can be included in the land records i don't know that that's the case but but i can promise you it it will be on file in my office in the braddock district office and i know that trinity christian has every intent of abiding by the commitments they've made to the community and we will ensure that that they do that so it will not be forgotten no question about that and i do want to thank trinity christian for for working with the neighbors and the community on this

[05:11:59] kind of came up as a concern at the last minute, and I think they're off on the right foot with respect to these parcels and working with the neighbors and the community through this process. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors adopt attachment three, the ordinance of vacation, and attachment four, the order of abandonment of the subject right away.

[05:12:25] You've heard the motion. It's been multiply seconded. Any further 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. Thank you very much.

[05:12:42] Finally, today, we have public comment and just a few reminders about public comment. The board will hear public comment on any issue except issues under litigation, issues that have been scheduled for a 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. 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. I will now call our first public comment speaker and I have

[05:13:18] two who are on the speakers list today and our first one is Lubna Debaugh. Are you on the line with us? Yes, I'm here. Great. We can hear you fine. Welcome. The floor is yours. Oh, thank you.

[05:13:36] Good evening, Chairman and board members. I'd like to bring your attention to a health issue. I've lived in Vienna since 1996. And as you know, the town has expanded and we have a lot of landscaping companies now. And I have asthma and the gas powered leaf blowers aggravate my asthma and I cannot be outdoors when anyone is using it. I have to come inside, wait for, you know,

[05:14:13] they blow, not just leaves, they blow the grass that they cut. I have to wait for all of this to settle and then I can go outside. Oh, I really would appreciate if you're able to look into this and see how we can regulate it.

[05:14:31] I know that there are several and increasing number of companies that use electric equipment, as I do. I love to be outside in my yard and, you know, grow things.

[05:14:48] I really would appreciate it because it's just, you know, in any given hour on the street, I live on Fairway Drive, any given hour there's at least four or five companies out there and everybody's, you know, blowing and so on. And it just ties in also to the health of the workers themselves.

[05:15:05] They lose their hearing. They get lung cancer from using these, you know, gas things all day. And climate change, which is a big concern. I used to be a farmer, and I know how more difficult it is to be able to grow, you know, food with the heat and these unusual um circumstances that we're facing so i just thought i would let you know and hope you um would look favorably upon this and encouraging maybe

[05:15:41] electric and um equipment that's thank you for listening and thank you for your time thank you much uh thank you very much for your testimony uh we appreciate it and speaker number two is cynthia Shang. Ms. Shang is here and is coming down. Welcome. The floor is yours. Hi, good evening.

[05:16:04] I'm Cynthia Shang. I live in the Pleasant Valley neighborhood in Chantilly, Virginia. Recently, we've been really kind of thinking about the process here in Virginia State and our county with regard to deferrals. Private investments, conflicts of interest, greed, corruption. With big money flying around in land use cases, our democracy is not immune to these problems. Recently, statewide zoning laws regarding deadlines in land use cases have caused

[05:16:42] problems. Did a deferral cause an issue with the 100-day rule? Was it 98 days or 84 days? Was there really not enough time for a public hearing? Did the applicant supply changes without time for review. Without safeguards in place, our system can be manipulated, leaving our county vulnerable to greed, corruption, and lawsuits. Other counties have put in safeguards, and I think we should take those as a beginning step in some of the examples on how to correct this. I provided you with two

[05:17:21] such counties, Henrico County and Goochland County, which require an applicant to not only provide a reason for deferral but to also waive the 100-day rule and the 12-month deadline if they request a deferral. Secondly, for transparency, a deferral or a motion to defer should always come with the reason, regardless of who initiates it, and that reason should become part of public record. And finally, as we saw recently with Prince William County's digital gateway controversy, Fairfax

[05:17:58] county should consider waiving the deadlines when an applicant provides changes without enough time for review my request to you tonight is simple is to please consider implementing a policy to waive deadlines and provide transparency on deferral requests and to waive deadlines on applications where additional information is provided without sufficient time for staff review thank you thank you very much and that brings us to the end of our speakers list for

[05:18:33] public comment and also to the end of our board meeting today and if there's no further items to come before the board the board is adjourned

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