Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 4h 22m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3232
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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[00:00:08] Good morning. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our board meeting of February 20th, 2024. And we are going to begin our meeting, as we always do, with a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. And before we rise for that, I'm going to ask my colleagues if they have anyone that they would like to keep in their thoughts and prayers this morning.

[00:00:31] And I'm going to mention a couple and then turn to my colleagues first. I think all of us have learned, sadly, that the former Fairfax mayor, John Mason, passed away on February 7th at the age of 89, and he served on the Fairfax City Council from 1986 to 1990 and as mayor from 1990 until 2002.

[00:00:57] Served in the United States Army, completing two tours in Vietnam, and retired as a colonel. Following his retirement, he served as vice president at SAIC and director of the Transportation Policy and Analysis Center. He also served, as we know, on many regional boards and commissions over four decades.

[00:01:17] His impact has felt well beyond Fairfax City's borders through his leaderships of many organizations, such as the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority and the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Virginia. Mason has survived by his wife of 60 years.

[00:01:34] Jeanette Mason and their four adult children, John, Jonna, and Jeffrey, and his four grandchildren as well. And so if we could keep John Mason, our friends in the city of Fairfax, in our thoughts and prayers. He was a giant not just for the city, but also very involved in regional and county initiatives as well.

[00:01:55] And I believe information about his services have been circulated or at least posted for board members. Secondly, and this one is a shock to me and I think will be a shock to a lot of my colleagues, but Catherine Riley passed away.

[00:02:12] And Catherine, of course, worked for the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority for over 35 years. And as recently as working heavily in our efforts to attract the FBI to Fairfax County. And so it was just shocking to hear that news, especially since I just felt like I had just met with her not long ago on the FBI issues.

[00:02:37] Catherine not only served the EDA for a long, distinguished career, most recently a senior vice president, but she also served on numerous regional, state, and international economic development councils, including British American Business Association, the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, George Mason University Honors College, Dean's Advisory Board, the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce, and Leadership Fairfax.

[00:03:05] And I think all of us saw Kathy involved in just about everything. So if we could keep Kathy, her family, and our friends at the EDA in our thoughts and prayers, that would be appreciated. And then finally, I think we all watched in horror what happened in neighboring Loudoun County with the house explosion.

[00:03:26] And sadly, the loss of a volunteer firefighter with the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company. But, you know, that incident had many victims, not just the firefighter whose whose life was taken, but many injuries, as well as those who own the property and people in the neighborhood who, of course, were traumatized by the event.

[00:03:50] We know that 11 first responders, including Firefighter Brown and two civilians, were taken to the hospital with varying injuries after the devastating explosion. I also want to thank our own fire and rescue team who were involved in the response and on the scene to see what had happened and to provide as much support as possible to our partners in Loudoun County.

[00:04:16] This was a devastating event and certainly took a toll on our own firefighters to see that amount of devastation, to lose a partner in public safety who was volunteering, but most importantly, who put his life ahead of others to try to respond to a call.

[00:04:35] So if we could keep the Loudoun County, especially the Sterling Volunteer Fire Company, as well as our own fire and rescue folks who responded or who were affected by the loss of that firefighter in our thoughts and prayers, I would appreciate that as well.

[00:04:52] With that, I'm happy to recognize my colleagues at this time. And let me start, I'm going to start on this end with Supervisor Lusk and we'll work our way down. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll join in on both of the points you made with regard to former Mayor Mason.

[00:05:10] I had the opportunity to work with him when I worked for Jerry Connolly. And just his commitment and service and dedication, all the things that he did were admirable and is a big loss. So I am thinking of his wife and his family at this time.

[00:05:26] And then you mentioned Kathy Riley, and this one's a little more personal in that I had the opportunity to work with Kathy for 21 years at the EDA, and she was an amazing public servant, committed to her work in ways that many are not.

[00:05:47] And I just appreciated how she was so focused on addressing the needs of the companies that she served. And I'll give you an example. When Volkswagen North America was looking to relocate its headquarters, they came out and they toured a number of buildings along the Dulles Toll Road.

[00:06:10] And the thing that was interesting is that when they were looking out of the windows out to the toll road, they noticed something that they did not notice in Michigan, and that is that their cars were flying past along the toll road.

[00:06:27] So Volkswagen at the time owned, obviously, Volkswagen. They owned Audi. They owned Porsche. They also owned a little small company called Bugatti. Not many Bugattis, obviously, on the toll road, but many of their cars they were able to see, and that helped them make the decision to obviously come here.

[00:06:49] But they also had a little small request. They asked if they could have an interior stairwell built inside the building. The building was already constructed, had an elevator, did not have an interior stairwell for use by those who would be wanting to go from floor to floor other than the emergency stairwell.

[00:07:13] So that got worked out, and I'll give a lot of kudos to Kathy here as well because she worked diligently to figure out how to make that happen with the county staff. And I think that type of service is what allows us to win the projects that we've won over the years.

[00:07:31] And I'm thinking with a heavy heart today about all of my former co-workers at the EDA. I think about also Dr. Gordon, who had 35 years, and one other person who had 35 years, who was Barbara Cohen.

[00:07:47] So there's three members of the Economic Development Authority in its history who served for 35 years. So with that, Mr. Chairman, I'll just say thank you for bringing that up, and we'll continue to think about her family. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw.

[00:08:04] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At our last meeting, I shared the terrible news of the tragic crash that occurred at Braddock Road and Bradfield Drive, and at that time I shared that one individual had passed away. Unfortunately, since then, two more have died.

[00:08:22] Yan Zhu, Hong Tang, and Yun Hu have all lost their lives as a result of that crash. So I just ask once again that we send our thoughts and prayers to their families and their loved ones. I want to thank you for what you shared about John Mason.

[00:08:39] John was a good friend of mine for many years. He was someone who was really passionate about our region, about Fairfax, I'll say the greater Fairfax region. And John really loved our history and the history of Fairfax.

[00:08:58] And one of the things that he did over the years was invite Lord Fairfax to visit. And I guess the last one was maybe six or seven years ago. Lord Fairfax, Nicholas Fairfax, came to visit and they organized a motorcycle tour that raised money for charity.

[00:09:21] And John called me up. I was working for Congressman Connolly on the Hill at the time. And he said, I want to bring Lord Fairfax up, you know, to the Capitol. We want to have lunch with the congressman and do a tour of the Capitol and everything. So he came up and you can imagine, you know, for the Irish Catholic Jerry Connolly and this Scotsman here, our enthusiasm for lunching with Lord Fairfax started out somewhat limited.

[00:09:49] But John was so passionate about it and so enthusiastic about it that we just had an amazing time. And at that point, John was he was in his 80s and he was insistent on doing the tour of the Capitol Dome, which anyone has done it.

[00:10:05] It's a it is strenuous. Yeah, it's it's it's it is a hike. But John did it like everything with with great enthusiasm. And I think that's just the way he lived his life. And one of his legacies, among many, is he really established the city of Fairfax as a player in the region in a way that previous mayors perhaps hadn't.

[00:10:29] And Mayor Meyer and now Mayor Reed have continued that. And that's a great benefit to the city of Fairfax, to Fairfax County, and the broader region. So I know all of us send our thoughts and our prayers to Jeanette and his entire family, and we will miss him dearly.

[00:10:50] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw. Others who would like to be recognized, Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I also wanted to recognize and really recognize and thank Kathy Riley for her years of service and her family for supporting that.

[00:11:12] She was truly an amazing asset and amazing, I'd say, developer of our community, developer of people, obviously developer of property and businesses, et cetera, but clearly somebody who was deeply committed to our community.

[00:11:28] I also wanted to recognize and really kind of add to some of the comments that were made about John Mason. John had so many different roles in the community, and maybe the one particularly one I wanted to highlight is the fact that his work at the Workhouse Arts Center, His military and business background really made him almost a perfect individual because his deep love of art made him the right leader at the Workhouse Art Center from 2011 to 2015 at a very, very critical time in its development.

[00:12:00] Many of you may remember, some of the board here may remember that the workhouse had gone through some difficult financial issues, major challenges. And as a result, he busy was brought in, Chairman Bullough at the time, recognized that we needed to have somebody who was a credible, truly maybe a transformative leader to get really a handle on its financial structure and get a handle on its debt and help it move forward.

[00:12:27] But Sharon's words in particular were he was a fantastic planner and a manager. That's why he was tapped to lead the Workhouse Arts Center. For me personally, I had the same opportunity to work with him. I know Kim Lesbier and my staff worked very closely with him for years, and I know she shares the comments that I'm making as well.

[00:12:46] So he strengthened the Board of Directors, increased fundraising really through his own commitment. Well, I think he was a key player in starting the fireworks, the Fourth of July fireworks here, which are a major event every year. So there are many, many more things that can be said, but truly he was transformative for the Workhouse Arts Center and truly set the stage for what it's becoming today.

[00:13:09] So thank you, John. The other news I wanted to mention is very sad news. It's Pastor Kevin Corey. He was a Newington resident who was severely burned in a tragic accident at his home in January. He sadly died from his injuries on February 7th.

[00:13:28] Corey had been the youth pastor at Calvary Road Baptist Church in Alexandria. He was transitioning from that job to be the senior pastor, and he and his wife and family were kind of very involved in the community, to say the least. His daughter is a South County High School student, actually a graduate, and she shared at least briefly that the family is heartbroken but happy that he is no longer in pain and his body is healed.

[00:13:56] There will never be enough words to tell of the impact he had on my life and the lives of so many. So I just wanted to recognize that, the sadness and tragedy that's part of our lives and recognize the good that we do while we're here. Thank you. Thank you very much, Supervisor Stork.

[00:14:15] And anyone else who would like to be recognized, seeing and hearing no one, if all who are able could rise for a moment of silence to be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Face the flag.

[00:14:49] 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 with that, we are now going to move to appointments to boards, authorities, commissions, and advisory groups.

[00:15:15] And let me ask Supervisor Smith if you have a motion. I move approval of the item on appointments to boards, authorities, and commissions. I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Palchuk, and everyone should have a final copy of these at your place.

[00:15:34] Is there any discussion on the motion? Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And next up is a report on General Assembly activities, and at this time, we'll recognize Supervisor Walkinshaw, the chair of our legislative committee.

[00:15:55] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The legislative committee met on Friday, January 6th, and the committee's report is posted on the board's website. Our initiatives continue to move through the legislative process successfully. The first initiative addresses speed limits in school zones, and the second initiative addresses deadlines for certifying election results.

[00:16:15] Both bills were incorporated into other related bills and have passed the full House. They now head to the Senate for consideration. Legislative staff will continue to provide updates to the board on the progress of these bills. The legislative committee at our meeting on January 6th received updates on a number of bills, I'm sorry, January 26th, including items related to public safety, land use, human services, and transportation, among others.

[00:16:41] Last week was crossover at the General Assembly, which is the deadline for bills to pass the originating chamber and crossover to the opposite chamber. Nearly 3,000 bills were introduced for consideration this session. More than 450 bills have already passed both the House and the Senate in some form.

[00:16:58] there are approximately 1,200 bills working their way through the process and awaiting final disposition. The 2024 session is heading toward its scheduled adjournment on March 9th. On Sunday, the House Appropriations Committee and the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee reported the House and Senate amendments to the governor's proposed budget. While some information about various items has been released, the full text of House and Senate budget amendments will likely be available in the next day or two staff will be busy analyzing both budgets and will provide an overview of the house and senate budgets at friday's legislative committee meeting obviously

[00:17:38] one item of note that folks are probably aware of is that the house budget includes additional funding for metro and the senate budget currently does not as is typically the case it's expected that each chamber will reject the other's budget and appoint members to a conference committee to resolve the differences. In light of the many changes to the General Assembly's membership after the elections in November, the group of budget conferees will be very different this year and there's a lot of anticipation surrounding those appointments. Legislative staff will continue to closely monitor the process as they work with legislators to advance county priorities

[00:18:13] and updates will be provided to the board as information becomes available. I also want to thank my colleagues who made the trip to richmond on february 15th for our reception with the delegation we had a great attendance and it provided another opportunity for productive conversations with our delegation with that mr chairman i move that the board adopt legislative committee report number two you've heard the motion i'm happy to second that along with supervisor palchick uh discussion on the motion discussion on the motion yes supervisor alcorn yeah thank you mr chairman i i want to thank uh supervisor walkinshaw's great work on the

[00:18:49] legislative package um i know that our last legislative committee meeting we did talk about three bicycle bills that came up i've heard from several constituents uh with some concerns about our position on two of those three i think there may be a little bit of a difference of opinion between maybe some folks in our public safety community and some folks in our bicycle community So I would just flag that as maybe something for us to talk about at the next legislative committee, if that's okay with you, to talk some more about that.

[00:19:21] Okay, we can take another look at those, assuming that they're still alive in some form. Thank you. Okay, further discussion? Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[00:19:38] And that motion carries 9 to 1. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw, and as we always say, thank our staff who are embedded down in Richmond working on behalf of the county and didn't have the day off yesterday, so they've been working hard for us, so thank them.

[00:19:54] With that, we are going to move on to the county executive's presentation of the proposed FY 2025 and FY 2026 multi-year budget plan, And while the county executive is getting ready for that presentation, I just want to remind everyone, even though we do this, I remind everyone, no one acts like I've reminded everyone, that this is the first step of a very lengthy process.

[00:20:21] This is, in fact, a proposal. This is not the budget. We will have public hearings on this proposal. The board will adopt something different than what is being presented here today, and that's the beauty of the public engagement process. We have several months here between today's presentation and when we adopt the budget.

[00:20:42] And so there will be a lot of public hearings. Individual supervisors will have budget committee meetings within their districts, town halls, and we will get a lot of input on this budget proposal that we are about to hear.

[00:20:57] And at the end of the presentation, you'll hear the county executive walk through the next steps in the process, including the public hearing dates and all the other activities that will take place so that we can get good public input on this proposal. With that being said, I am going to turn the mic over to our county executive, Mr. Brian Hill. Welcome.

[00:21:16] Good morning, and thank you, Chairman McKay, members of the board, Supervisors Beerman and Jimenez. Welcome to the budget gauntlet. We appreciate you being here, sir. Last year when I presented my FY24 proposed budget to the board, I noted that we were anticipating a troubling revenue picture and tight budget for fiscal 2025.

[00:21:41] At that time, we projected flat residential assessments, slight growth in commercial and real estate, potential interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve. Although our current updated projections include continued elevated interest income, our net overall real estate picture has not substantially changed from our estimates a year ago.

[00:22:07] We are seeing some residential growth, but our commercial values have declined, resulting in an overall real estate growth of just over 2.7%, paired with significant expenditure pressures, particularly for employee pay and benefits, transportation requirements, continued inflationary impacts.

[00:22:32] Balancing this proposed budget has required some difficult decisions. With this backdrop, I present the FY 2025 advertised budget plan for your consideration. Like our budget last year, the FY 2025 budget is focused on supporting and stabilizing our employees and core services.

[00:23:02] A substantial portion of the overall budget increase is directed to our partners at Fairfax County Public Schools. The superintendent's proposed budget prioritizes compensation, addressing enrollment growth, and changing student demographics and continuing multi-year investments.

[00:23:23] As articulated in the board's budget priorities, our focus likewise remains on our employees. With over 82% of the proposed county disbursement growth attributable to employee pay increases, including our recently negotiated collective bargaining agreements and benefit requirements.

[00:23:43] Other county adjustments are included for our required debt service payments and our commitments to funding Metro and our connector bus system. Our revenue increase at the current real estate tax rate will not support these expenditure increases.

[00:24:06] Therefore, I have proposed a 4 cent increase on the real estate tax rate in order to balance the advertised rate. All other county increases, including investments in board priorities such as funding for environmental initiatives, park support, early childhood education, inflationary and contract rate adjustments, and information technology infrastructure are completely offset by $36 million in identified savings and reductions.

[00:24:35] Our reduction exercise, which was supported by staff from across our organization, has also identified 85, excuse me, 84 positions that can be eliminated. However, I've recommended to include 42 new positions.

[00:24:58] So in other words, for every new position we have recommended to add, we have identified two positions for elimination. As I'll discuss throughout this presentation, we are continuing to monitor state budget action, particularly as it relates to schools and metro funding.

[00:25:15] as well as Metro's action on its own budget. I recommend that the board consider advertising a tax rate that provides flexibility to adjust to what we expect will be an evolving environment throughout this budget season.

[00:25:33] Before we turn to our revenue projections, I want to provide some context on the national and local economies. For fiscal, excuse me, for 2023, the national economy grew at a rate of two and a half percent, up from 1.9 increase in 2022.

[00:25:55] Defying expectations of a slowdown, the labor market remained remarkably resilient despite the impact of higher interest rates. Payroll growth averaged 255,000 jobs per month in 2023.

[00:26:12] The economy continued to add jobs in 2024, with 353,000 jobs added in January. The unemployment rate stands at 3.7% as of last month. In addition to continued employment growth over the last year, the major economic story has been moderating inflation.

[00:26:34] In December, the year-over-year increase in the consumer price index was 3.4%, down considerably from December 2022's rate of 6.5%. The region's economy performed well in 2023, though it is lagging peer metropolitan areas in job growth.

[00:26:57] The number of jobs in Northern Virginia grew at a rate of 2% in 2023 after increasing 3.3% in 2022. Significant economic uncertainty remains as to whether the region is in the midst of a soft landing or a start of a recession.

[00:27:16] The county's unemployment rate was 2.5% in 2023, which is unchanged from the prior year. Based on preliminary estimates, the county's economy increased at a rate of 2% in 2023 and is expected to grow to 2.1% in 2024.

[00:27:36] This slide provides a history of the annual changes in general fund revenue. Similar to last year, the chart shows revenue growth related to our normal revenue base and does not include the impact of one-time federal stimulus funding that the county received in FY 2020 through FY 2022.

[00:27:59] The FY 2025 revenue forecast includes an estimate of 6% growth over our current 2024 estimates. This assumes a 4-cent increase to the real estate tax rate. Our revenue growth rate at the current real estate tax rate would be 3.5%.

[00:28:19] As we look ahead to FY26, our early projections indicate flat revenue growth under 1%. This slide provides information about some of the major general fund revenue categories.

[00:28:41] As you know, the county relies primarily on the real estate tax to fund county operations. In FY 2025, approximately 66% of the general fund revenue is derived from real estate taxes, which are projected to increase 6.8% over FY 2024 as a result of equalization and the increase in the tax rate.

[00:29:09] Personal property taxes are projected to increase 8.8% in FY 2025 after decreasing 2.3% in FY 24. The FY 25 projection assumes an assessment ratio of 100%. With the number of vehicles in the county anticipated to increase by 1%, Personal property tax relief from the state, which has been capped since fiscal 20, sorry, excuse me, capped since fiscal 2007, is estimated to provide a 50% reduction in FY25.

[00:29:44] Growth in sales tax revenue is projected as slow as the impact on the federal stimulus begins to wane. It is expected to be up 1.6% in FY24 and another 1% in FY25. BPOL is a revenue category for which we currently do not have any actual data as businesses file and pay on March 1st based on their gross receipts during the previous calendar year.

[00:30:14] BPOL grew rapidly in fiscals 22 and 23 as the economy recovered. The advertised budget assumes slower growth. Investment interest revenue increased significantly in both fiscals 23 and 24 as the Federal Reserve raised rates to deal with inflation.

[00:30:36] The Federal Reserve is expected to make several rate cuts at some point during the calendar year of 2024. While our staff in the Department of Finance have been working to lock in current yields into FY 2025, we expect to see a slight decrease in revenue as interest rates begin to fall.

[00:31:02] The real estate tax base is projected to increase 2.73%. Residential real estate experienced an overall increase in value of 2.86%, primarily due to low inventory. Commercial real estate, on the other hand, decreased by 1.24%.

[00:31:20] The next two slides will have more details on each. The value of one penny on the real estate's tax rate is $32.32 million for fiscal 25.

[00:31:36] The combined impact of equalization and the proposed 4 cent increase in tax rate to $1.13.5 results in an average increase on the tax bill to just under $524. Because of the decline in non-residential values in FY 2025, our commercial and industrial base has continued to decline to just 15.6%.

[00:32:01] In the residential real estate market, the average sales price of homes sold in the county rose 3.8% during calendar year 23. The number of homes sold decreased 22.6% as increased mortgage rates made homes less affordable.

[00:32:23] Homes that sold during the year stayed on the market for an average of 18 days, which is one day longer than it did in 2022. The appreciation in home values has experienced across the board. Of the more than 312,000 taxable residential properties in the county with equalization changes, over 89% saw an increase in assessed value, while only 3% experienced a decrease.

[00:32:55] This year, single-family home and townhomes values lag condominiums after outpacing them for the last two years. Single-family homes values increased 2.8%, which is down from the 11% and 8% increases in 2023 and 2024.

[00:33:15] Single-family homes are the largest component of the county's residential base, making up 72% of the residential equalization value. Townhomes increased 3%, also down from last year. Condos were up 4.21%, approximately the same amount as the past four years.

[00:33:35] Overall, residential equalization was up just under 3%. Non-residential equalization is down by 1.24% in fiscal 2025.

[00:33:53] The amount of empty office space increased to 21.6 million square feet. the direct office vacancy rate in the county was 17.2 percent at the end of 23, which is up from 16.7 percent from the prior year. There are currently five buildings with one million square feet of office space currently under construction in Fairfax County. Three of the office buildings under construction commence work without a committed tenant, but are expected to

[00:34:28] capture some of the trophy office demand due to their location along the silver line and the proximity to amenities. Due to increases in vacancy rates, higher capitalization rates, and the difficulties in securing commercial financing, the office sector continues to struggle. Office elevator properties, the second largest component of the non-residential tax space experienced a decline of 9.1 percent in fiscal 2025 and are down for the fourth year

[00:35:01] in a row. Apartments, retail, industrial properties were generally stable with slightly higher assessments in some cases. Data centers are included in the industrial category with several new developments nearing completion and coming online. We will see a change next year. The biggest gainer was hotels for the second year in a row increasing to 22 percent with our higher occupancies

[00:35:28] and increasing revenue. Slide nine provides a summary of the overall budget proposal. In the top half of the chart, total projected increase in available funding is shown to be just under $363 million. That amount includes the impact of a proposed increase in a cigarette tax from 30 cents to 40 cents per pack. Although this change provides some increased resources in 25, it should

[00:36:06] be noted that the revenue category has been trending down for 11 consecutive years. There are also several adjustments resulting from the efforts by our staff to identify additional resources, which I will describe in more detail later in the presentation. These include an increase of $2.74 million as a result of comprehensive review of fees and charges and an increase of $3.86 million reflecting revenue adjustments associated with county expenditure adjustments. Another half a million increase for our review of the indirect cost charges applied to other funds

[00:36:45] for the support that they receive from our central service agencies in the general fund. The lower half of the chart lists how we can utilize the projected revenue increase. Approximately $174 million is allocated to FCPS, with most of that for operating support. County increases total approximately $178 million with $148 million of that for employee pay and benefits. Increases of approximately $12 million

[00:37:20] are also included for our required debt service payments and for transportation. The other priorities category on this slide includes the net expenditure impact of all other adjustments offset by reductions that have been identified in the general fund supported agencies. This category is broken out in the following slide. After all of our recommended adjustments, there is a balance of $3.8 million. The pie chart on the left shows the allocation of

[00:37:58] new spending in the advertised budget, excluding the balance that we have set aside for the board's consideration. 49% of our projected resources are proposed to be allocated to Fairfax County public schools. Another 42 is allocated for employee pay and benefits. Increased support for Metro and Fairfax Connector account for about 4% and 3% is allocated for debt service.

[00:38:25] All other adjustments are broken out in the chart to the right, along with nearly $34 million in the offsetting expenditure reductions and account for just 2% of the overall increase in expenditures. As I noted earlier, this small 2% portion of new spending associated with all other adjustments in this budget is fully offset by fee adjustments, revenue enhancements, indirect cost chargebacks identified by county staff through a months-long process.

[00:38:56] The following slides will provide more detail on each of these areas with highlights of some of the adjustments included in the budget. The advertised budget summary, which is posted online and included in your package, provides an exhaustive list of all adjustments and reductions proposed.

[00:39:24] The largest net increase included in the advertised budget is to support Fairfax County Public Schools. Like the county, the Fairfax County Public Schools superintendent focused on employee compensation as part of her proposed budget.

[00:39:42] Her budget includes a 6% across-the-board salary adjustment for all FCPS employees, funding to support the ongoing cost of a 2% pay adjustment provided in January, a new deferred retirement option program for legacy employees, and over $46 million in funding to address enrollment growth, student demographic changes.

[00:40:08] The budget also includes ongoing support for multi-year investments, such as inclusive preschool expansion, jet recommendations, and fine and performing arts stipends. The superintendent's operating transfer request is an increase of $254 million, or approximately 10.5%.

[00:40:32] This is the largest school operating request by percentage since fiscal 2007, and the largest request in terms of dollars in our history. Based on other significant budgetary pressures, I have not been able to include full funding on the requests in my proposed budget.

[00:40:52] The advertised budget includes an operating transfer increase of $165 million, or 6.8%, leaving just over $89 million unfunded. As the superintendent noted during her presentation to the school board, the funding challenges facing FCPS are due to the severe underfunding of schools by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

[00:41:15] As the board has discussed several times, a recently released J. Lark study noted that Virginia schools receive 14% less funding per pupil than the average across the entire country. With West Virginia as an example, providing 25% more funding per student, funding Virginia schools at a national average would provide another $1,900 per student or approximately $345 million in additional funding.

[00:41:43] We have been sharing this information through our communication channels to help our community understand the scope of this important issue. I hope our legislators will agree that a strong educational system is key to our economic successes and that the General Assembly will expand schools' funding beyond the minimum funding contained in the governor's proposed budget.

[00:42:07] Borrowing additional state funding, fully funding the superintendent's request, will require an additional three-cent increase on the real estate tax rate. By far the biggest driver on the county increases is due to county compensation.

[00:42:29] with the proposed pay and benefits increased totaling $148 million. This includes the necessary funding to implement pay adjustments outlined in the collective bargaining agreements presented in December, when the board approved resolutions indicating its intent to allocate the necessary funding.

[00:42:48] As the board is aware, over the course of many months last year, the county worked with representatives of the Southern States Police Benevolent Association and the International Association of Firefighters to negotiate two collective bargaining agreements for our uniformed police officers, firefighters, and public safety communicators.

[00:43:07] The police agreement reflects a challenging market in which our police department must compete to recruit and retain employees and includes a 3% scale adjustment, merit and longevity increases, including a 10-year longevity step and a 2% cost of living adjustment.

[00:43:25] The agreement for the Fire and Emergency Services Bargaining Unit, which includes employees in fire and rescue as well as the department of public safety communications includes a new redesigned pay plan which eliminates longevity steps and holds increases minimum pay and includes a three percent scale adjustment both agreements include increases to various stipends and a full day holiday for christmas eve which we propose to expand to all county employees with your approval in alignment with budget guidance approved approved by the board last year i have

[00:44:03] included pay increases for non-representative employees that are consistent with our negotiated agreements. These include performance and longevity increases for general fund county employees, as well as merits and longevities for non-represented uniformed public safety employees. For uniformed sheriff employees, specifically I have also included a new 10-year longevity step to encourage retention and boost salaries in the middle of the salary range. We have also fully funded the adjustments related to our annual benchmark studies to maintain competitive pay

[00:44:41] scales and ensure that we do not have specific job classes falling behind as compared to the market. Since fiscal year 2012, when the market rate adjustment was first calculated utilizing the current formula through fiscal year 2022, before supply chain issues from the pandemic began to spur inflation, the average calculated MRA was 1.86%. In the past three years, the average has jumped almost two and a half times to 4.52%. Even before the impacts of the

[00:45:19] pandemic, we saw fluctuations in the MRA calculation, ranging from 1.3% to 2.5%, which caused budgetary challenges. As those fluctuations make it difficult for budgeting, it also creates uncertainty for our employees. As we held out collective bargaining discussions with public safety unions, it became apparent that proposing an alternative to the MRA was necessary. Unable to guarantee funding of an MRA whose calculation in future years was unknown, we instead proposed and the unions accepted a 2% cost of living adjustment in many years of the contract.

[00:45:58] A standard COLA is in line with what we see in other jurisdictions, provides stability for our budget, and allows employees to anticipate their pay increases in future years. Although I know further board discussions will be necessary regarding this issue, I felt it important to begin this conversation as part of this budget process. In that vein, I have not included funding for the full calculated MRA at 4.1%, and I'm proposing an increase of 2%. I have chosen to do this for fiscal reasons, as I am proposing shifting to the COLA model in future years to

[00:46:33] provide some predictability for our employees and for budget planning. Certainly from a fiscal perspective, this is a challenging budget that has required difficult decisions. I have included adjustments only when I believe that they were necessary to address inflationary impacts and workload increases and to make small investments toward board initiatives. Each of my proposed adjustments was contemplated with the knowledge that a tax increase would be required to balance this budget. I would be hard-pressed to propose increasing the tax rate by an additional penny,

[00:47:11] which would be required to generate an additional $36 million necessary to fully fund an MRA. This board also includes, this budget also includes significant increases to support employee benefits, particularly for county-defined benefit retirement plans.

[00:47:28] Over $31 million is included for required increases to the employer contribution rates for all three systems, based on FY23 investment returns and remaining impact of smoothing in the returns for prior years. All three systems experienced returns well below the 6.75% assumed rate of return in fiscal 22, while only the uniform system exceeded that target rate in 23.

[00:47:55] It is county policy to fully fund actuarially determined contributions to the systems, and making those investments is crucial to sustaining the strong financial position of our plans. Excuse me.

[00:48:14] The proposed budget includes an increase of $20.5 million to support county and schools' debt service requirements. This includes debt payments resulting from last month's $350 million general obligation bond sale. January 2024 represents the second year at this level after the Board of Supervisors and School Board approved their recommendations in late 2021 One, from the Joint County School Capital Improvement Program Committee to gradually increase annual bond sales from $300 million to $400 million.

[00:48:51] The last increase to the full $400 million will occur as part of the January 2025 bond sale with associated debt service payments included in fiscal 26 budget. The increase in our debt service payments is also attributable to the current interest rate environment.

[00:49:13] Last month, the county sold its bonds at a rate of an interest rate increase of 3.27%. That rate is competitive given the existing market and is evidence of the strength of the county's triple A bond rating, but is slightly higher than the 2.98% we received last year and far above the 1.23% received in January of 2021.

[00:49:40] So for comparison's sake, our combined debt service obligation in fiscal 2025 would be reduced by $6 million if we had been able to achieve the same 1.23% rate for the most recent bond sale.

[00:49:55] The table at the bottom of the slide shows a bond referendum plan. With more significant changes to the CIP proposed in the past two years, this year CIP proposes fewer changes. First, we are recommending removing the Mount Vernon police station from the 2024 public safety bond referendum and pursuing EDA bonds for future financing.

[00:50:20] This facility is part of an ongoing master plan study underway to determine if co-location opportunities could be realized for police and fire stations, Sherwood Library, and other county facilities in the area. EDA bonds can provide flexibility in scheduling the project and braiding those funds with previously approved geo bonds for the fire station and library.

[00:50:44] Second, staff is recommending increasing the 2026 library referendum by $2 million to accommodate the Braddock District board office space as part of the renovation project. Lastly, on the pace of spending associated with previous 2014 road bond, we recommend eliminating the 2028 road bond referendum.

[00:51:09] EDA financing can be pursued with the ability to leverage commercial and industrial real estate tax funds to make debt service payments. With these changes, we anticipate that we will be able to increase bond sales to support parks projects from $25 million to $30 million in fiscal 2027, two years earlier than originally anticipated.

[00:51:31] This will help alleviate some of the pressures associated with the proposed construction schedule for the Audrey Moore Rec Center. As the board is aware, Metro is facing significant budgetary pressures.

[00:51:52] With the FY25 budgetary shortfall initially projected at $750 million, WMATA has been pursuing a multitude of potential measures, including fare increases, service reductions, shifting funding targeted for preventive maintenance to operations.

[00:52:10] The general manager's budget release in December outlined several budget scenarios with the impact to Fairfax County ranging from the increase of $39 million to almost $80 million. After applying estimated state aid and gas tax receipts, we estimated that the general fund impact would range roughly between $16 to $55 million.

[00:52:34] We have included a net increase of almost 37 in my proposed budget, with a $10 million increase in general fund support, with the remainder coming from applied state aid and gas tax revenues. As maintaining a strong rail and bus system is a regional priority, Metro funding has been a hot budget topic in our neighboring state and local jurisdictions, as well as the Virginia Assembly.

[00:52:57] Based on the preliminary financial commitments from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, Metro released a revised budget which included targeted service adjustments with no station closures and scale-back fare increases, along with organizational cost reductions including no salary increases for Metro employees for Fiscal 25.

[00:53:20] Our advertised budget was developed before this revised budget was released. And as Virginia's support and the final Metro budget numbers are still unknown, further adjustments may be necessary to meet our Metro requirements. As the state budget moves closer to approval and we learn more from WMATA, we will provide the board with updated budget figures when they become readily available.

[00:53:47] Similarly, we are awaiting more information regarding the ongoing negotiations with our contract vendor for the Fairfax Connector bus system. Our proposed package will ensure our valued Fairfax connector employees are adequately compensated relative to regional comparators.

[00:54:04] Although we have included a modest contract rate increase in our proposed budget, the final fiscal impact will not be known until negotiations are completed. I am hopeful that we will have more information and we will be able to include further adjustments as part of our FY25 add-on package prior to the budget adoption.

[00:54:32] As a fiscal outlook for FY25 began to come into focus, we realized that tough decisions would be required to balance this budget. As we have noted to the board at the joint forecast meeting with the school board in November, We directed agencies to provide reduction options totaling 7% of their general fund budgets to provide savings to offset other required increases.

[00:54:58] As a result of this exercise, we've identified $36 million in net savings, including a reduction of 84 positions. While these actions may reduce agency year-end balances, they are not expected to have a considerable impact on agency operations or existing employees.

[00:55:15] A full listing of proposed reductions is included in the advertised budget summary. Reductions primarily focus on identified efficiencies and shifting costs of non-general fund sources with minimal number of full or partial program reductions. I'm incredibly proud of the work that our agencies put into this exercise, scrutinizing their programs and activities to determine where they could eliminate vacant positions, align budgets to actual spending, and utilize technology to generate savings.

[00:55:47] We had robust conversations with our leadership to ensure that any recommended reductions would not negatively impact our existing employees or create operational challenges which could impact the services we offer to our residents. While agency reduction percentages vary, the average reduction proposed is 2% of the $36 million identified.

[00:56:11] A majority is attributable to expenditure reductions, while a small portion is associated with increased revenue. The revenue is primarily due to additional resources of the Department of Tax Administration, which are expected to improve business tax compliance and hopefully increase revenues.

[00:56:28] In addition, staff conducted a comprehensive review of individual agency and program fees for potential adjustments. The proposed budget includes increases for many of them, which are listed in the advertised budget summary.

[00:56:44] Among those is an increase to zoning fees based on cost increases and revised fire marshal fees with a goal of achieving cost recovery between 90 to 100%. Both of those as well as recommended adjustments to land development services fees will be discussed in further detail as part of the budget land use policy committee meeting on February 27th.

[00:57:09] Staff also having reviewed the indirect cost chargebacks to other funds resulting in a net increase half a million in the amount transferred to the general fund. These charges are self-supporting fund reimbursements to the general fund for the support provided by central service agencies such as finance, human resources, and procurement. The savings and fee increases noted on this slide

[00:57:39] fully offset adjustments noted on the next two slides for all other priorities. As noted earlier, we have included an abbreviated list of adjustments on this slide, a full list of adjustments included in each of these categories can be found in the advertised budget summer. Following the same trend as last year, the second largest increase after employee paying benefits is to address inflationary impacts and contract rate adjustments. We've included net associated revenues, approximately

[00:58:15] $15 million to provide an average of 5% increase for most personnel-based contracts, particularly in health and human services agencies, but also where necessary in county agencies.

[00:58:31] This funding will help support our community nonprofit partners as they continue to face inflationary increases and compensation pressures. Funding has also been provided for some expenses which are not personnel-based, including fuel, waste disposal, and information technology, maintenance, and software.

[00:58:52] In direct response to the board budget guidance approved with the FY24 budget and further the county's goal of expanding access to early childhood opportunities, this proposed budget includes targeted investments in several critical human services areas.

[00:59:09] Funding and positions have been provided to support the county's effort to create and preserve affordable housing, and we have also added baseline funding to support our hypothermia program, following several years of increased resources allocated as part of our quarterly reviews.

[00:59:30] We have redirected some of the savings identified in our reduction exercises to preserve 72, again, 72 early childhood slots, which were originally funded from a federal community funding project in fiscal 2024. We have also included funding to continue initiatives begun as part of prior budget process or originally funded with federal stimulus dollars. This includes a second year of a two-year phase in of funding for behavioral health system navigation

[01:00:03] program as part of Healthy Minds Fairfax. Baseline funding to sustain increased support for the TOPS program approved at carryover and continued support for positions at the health department's laboratory which were initially supported by federal stimulus dollars. In line with the board direction we've also included funding to become a certified My Brother's Keeper community. In total we've included approximately $7.1 million for housing and human services initiatives net of revenue. Almost $7 million have been provided for investments in environmental and energy initiatives

[01:00:41] and other support for parks. Following the board's budget guidance, we have provided baseline funding to continue bamboo mitigation efforts at the park authority properties and provide support for forestry operations, and high-risk tree removals.

[01:01:03] Funding and positions are also included to support what is expected to be a multi-year effort to assist FCPA in its efforts to work towards county goals of achieving zero waste by 2030. Additional funding is included for general parks maintenance for over three million in new funding for FCPA.

[01:01:24] As part of the budget development process, we have also examined our athletic service fees first implemented in 2005. Diamond field and indoor gym fees have never been increased, and rectangular field fees were increased in 2016 as part of the Synthetic Turf Task Force recommendations.

[01:01:44] In FY 2025, we are proposing to increase fees for diamond fields, indoor gym, and rectangular field users, which will generate additional $0.7 million. The fee for non-county participants is also proposed to increase, generating additional $0.4 million.

[01:02:08] Also, the $0.6 million which has traditionally been generated from the existing non-county fee and deposited in the general fund will be applied directly to athletic sports programs going forward. In total, $1.7 million additional resources generated by these cumulative actions will be used to support the increasing costs associated with turf field replacement, custodial support for indoor gyms, maintenance of all athletic fields, and youth sports scholarships.

[01:02:39] Finally, $3.4 million in annual park funding previously provided to the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority through general obligation bonds have been moved out of the county's bond program. This will provide more bond capacity for other programs and allows more flexibility in being responsive to Nova Park's capital funding needs.

[01:02:59] While I anticipate continuing to provide IT project funding as part of our quarterly reviews, as we have done for many years, I've also included $5 million in baseline funding to support ongoing improvements in our overall technology infrastructure.

[01:03:21] My goal is to further modernize our IT systems. As we develop an approach to improve and update our tax administration systems, it is imperative that we make the necessary investments to stabilize our current county network.

[01:03:38] Additional funds will be required in future years, especially as we incorporate emerging technologies and increase our use of artificial intelligence into our IT infrastructure architecture. Other adjustments included in our proposed budget include funding and positions to support new facilities and address workload issues.

[01:04:01] That includes additional support to the Office of Elections, particularly in the response of changing state requirements. New probation counselor positions in the general district court to assist those being diverted from incarceration to mental health treatment. A new position in the office of the sheriff to support IT needs and a civilian support position for the Lorton Police Station.

[01:04:28] Looking forward, we will continue to monitor our major revenue categories and keep track of general assembly actions to determine impacts on the FY25 budget. In April, we will submit an add-on package to the board with many suggested revisions to this proposal. We will have two upcoming budget committee meetings to discuss the budget in more detail, with a joint meeting with the school board scheduled from one week from today.

[01:04:52] At the following meeting on March 12th, we will provide an overview of our proposed capital improvement program and preview of the third quarter review. It is important to note that the additional increases beyond the proposed four cents would be required to fully fund the superintendent's proposed budget, school operating transfer, as well as to provide flexibility in meeting the county's metro and connector obligations, which remain to be finalized.

[01:05:19] I encourage the board to advertise a real estate tax rate increase above the four cent increase upon which the budget is balanced to allow for and encourage engagement of our residents in the discussion on the budget challenges facing Fairfax County.

[01:05:36] This year, we are expanding the options that the public has to participate in our budget process. We can now receive feedback on the budget by text, email, or voicemail, and the feedback form on our website now has Spanish and Korean options.

[01:05:54] As in prior years, the residents can provide written or video testimony or participate in an April public hearing by phone or in person. We will also be updating our list of board member budget town halls posted on our budget website as they are scheduled.

[01:06:09] This presentation and all associated budget documents are now available on www.fairfaxcounty.gov backslash budget. This is the favorite part of my discussion.

[01:06:26] This is the last slide. The last slide provides the upcoming timeline for the FY25 budget. The board will take action to advertise the budget and tax rates on March 5th. Public hearings begin on April 16th. Ultimately, the board will mark up the budget on April 30th, followed by adoption on May 7th.

[01:06:46] I do want to say thank you for your time and attention this morning. I want to remind the board that the budget questions can be submitted to the Department of Management and Budget as part of our normal budget Q&A process. Otherwise, at this juncture, I'm happy to entertain any questions you may have.

[01:07:05] And I do want to thank the budget staff because we've been working pretty hard trying to get us to this point. So any questions you have, I'm more than welcome to try and answer them. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hill, for your budget presentation, and also thank the budget staff, as you acknowledge, who have put a lot of work in to the presentation.

[01:07:28] We're going to open it up for any questions, but before we do that, I just want to highlight a couple things. And one, at this time, normally board members share their budget town hall dates with the public. But as the county executive acknowledged, there's also going to be that information widely spread by OPA and by the budget office.

[01:07:50] I would also suggest and thank our staff for the new ways in which people can provide input, including language access opportunities. And and, you know, clearly we're going to hear a lot from the public, from our employees, from other stakeholders about this budget process.

[01:08:08] And we want that. We want as much feedback as possible. So I do want to thank you for increasing the platforms by which people can weigh in and that language access piece. I also want to thank you for the efficiencies that are in here.

[01:08:23] I know that was an internal exercise that the board was not involved in, and that caused some concerns among some of our agencies, some of our employees. But clearly, having just heard the budget presentation, the attention to that and the prediction that that would be necessary is appreciated.

[01:08:44] And we'll, of course, go through all those reductions, as you said, that are outlined in detail in this proposal. But it is nice as a beginning point to have those options here, to have that $36 million in 84 positions that have been eliminated that were vacant, giving us an opportunity to be more efficient as a county government, especially as we have learned a lot of things through the pandemic about different ways to do business, different ways to be data informed.

[01:09:16] And I look forward to looking at those, and thank you for putting those in your presentation. Um, you know, lastly, I will just say, uh, for, for myself and, and, you know, I know the rest of the board, uh, public may not be aware of this, but this is the first time we're seeing this presentation.

[01:09:33] And so this is all new information to us. Uh, we have a lot of time, uh, to be able to digest this and, and to hear, uh, feedback from all of our stakeholder groups and our county residents. And, um, as I mentioned at the beginning of this, this is the beginning of what is a very long, uh, budget process.

[01:09:50] We work on budget all year. But today, myself, my colleagues are hearing this presentation for the first time as the public is. And so we may not all have reactions to it at this point in time. We're absorbing the information, but look forward to engaging the public as we move forward.

[01:10:09] I would characterize this as an expected, difficult budget. We've known throughout the year we had a meeting with the school board recently where revenue projections for fiscal forecast was shared we knew that we were pointing towards red and in what you know the expectations for our community are and what the revenue available would be to meet those expectations and so subsequent to that time the school board has put in a request for us for a transfer which I personally find to be entirely unrealistic

[01:10:47] but I do appreciate what you've done in this budget in terms of addressing some significant school needs and as you mentioned we'll be having a joint meeting with our colleagues on the school board next week as we try to hash through this. Lastly I'm just going to emphasize something that you emphasize because I don't know that it can be emphasized enough which is we were down last week to the General Assembly meeting with our partners in Richmond and I hope a major takeaway of this budget presentation for our general public is the lack of state support that we get for public

[01:11:22] education. A huge driver in their increase is not inefficiency of FCPS. A huge driver in their increase is a lack of state funding to support public education. And I have said from this dais before, I will say it again, it is a national embarrassment that Virginia underfunds public education and that we are trailing all of our neighboring states, including West Virginia and Kentucky.

[01:11:48] That is an embarrassment, a stain on Virginia's reputation, and I hope that the General Assembly begins to address that. As you pointed out in your presentation, the average, we're underfunding pupils, and we know it's a much higher number than this in Fairfax County because of our support of public education, but the average is $1,900 per pupil, and that would generate in Fairfax County $345 million. So I want to be crystal clear to the public. We would have $345 million more to invest

[01:12:22] in all the priorities we just heard from if the state simply met the national average for public education funding. And I think our kids are worth more than the national average. And much of the conversation that we're going to have over the next couple months about this budget is based on that underfunding amount. That's a lot of money, $345 million. And so I can't emphasize this enough because we've sat here many years and talked about underfunding of public education. And this JLARC study that came out this year that points to actual figures and shows us where we are

[01:12:59] nationally should be a call to action for everybody. And at the end of the day, because of that 345 million dollars as this budget shows there's increased stress and strain on property owners residential property owners in the county and the county executive has proposed a four cent increase that four cent increase if you look at the amount of pennies is 130 million dollars that generates 130 million dollars and we are underfunding the state public education by

[01:13:32] $345 million. So the entirety of that tax increase is more than overtaken by that underfunding that has been proposed. And so I want our residents to understand that difficult position that we're in, because as we see in this budget, over 50% of our budget is a transfer to the school system. And when you start in the hole as bad as we do in Virginia, that revenue has to come from somewhere. And it puts strain on every other thing that we need to do in the county, from public safety to human services to affordable housing all the other priorities parks environment that

[01:14:09] are in here are strained from that starting point and I think this is a moment in time where we can't state that enough and certainly in a difficult budget year it is very clear what the challenges are out there and where they begin so with that I'm going to turn to my colleagues to see if folks have any questions they want to announce a town hall meeting date and again stress that we have several committee meetings, several town halls, and a lot of ways for people to provide input as we move through this process for the next couple months. And so at this time, I'll

[01:14:45] entertain. Mr. Hill will entertain any questions that board members have. Let me start with Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Hill, for your presentation. I'm looking at slide eight, and I'll say it certainly is maybe a little concerning, but I guess we'll have to see in terms of what happens over time.

[01:15:06] But if we look at the first category under the equalization chart here, it says apartments, and the apartments are down a little more than 2-plus percent here, and just trying to get a sense of what's the – is there any thought about what is driving that number first, and then I'll have a follow-up as well.

[01:15:39] Well, what I'm going to say is we are working tirelessly to try to figure out what is driving many of these numbers. Obviously, with your equalization rates and property value decline in those large entities, we're working with tax administration to come up.

[01:15:57] So that's going to be like one of those Q&As that we will do a little bit more forensic science on. Yeah, just curious. And I know we're doing a lot of additional residential construction, particularly in the apartments category and just trying to understand what is the issue as it relates to 2024 versus our projection for 2025.

[01:16:17] So that can be a Q&A question. That's perfectly fine. If I can move then further down on the chart, and this one is one I know others are probably of the same concern, and that's under the office elevator. So just acknowledging that we've got a pretty substantial reduction there, if we could understand, I think we are not probably seeing that level of reduction along the high-valued silver line properties, but just trying to get a sense of where are we projecting this reduction, which markets, which type.

[01:16:56] I know it's elevator, but quality, A, B, C, what's the class of building? Just trying to understand the specifics there. And then if I could drop down to the low rise, it would be the same sort of question. Just trying to understand what markets and the class of space.

[01:17:16] And then last, what is our sense about this? Because I think when I look at our direct vacancy and our sublet vacancy numbers, they really haven't changed that much. which is good. But I guess the question to me is that when I look at the office market, we have these buildings that have leases that are seven-year, 10-year, and sometimes even higher.

[01:17:43] So as those leases are rolling, this is going to be the question, I think, is that are we going to see that compression in the utilization of the space? I think that's been the question mark from the beginning and for me personally i don't know the answer to this but i'm definitely concerned about it because i think this is where the softening is and this is where the the issue could be so just trying to get a sense of kind of how you see that going forward um and then

[01:18:15] um any thoughts clearly if this is the harbinger of things to come what is the response how do we approach this and what are the maybe remedies that we would suggest I'll just start by saying this and I'll let Christina or Phil interject as well we've been working with Victor Hoskins and EDA to understand the compression situations that are going on with those categories we really have a chart and we do know where the lower the values are going or being devalued we don't wear what

[01:18:51] districts, what types of buildings. That is associated with part of our push to move forward with a diversification of our economy. What I will say to you is that we will provide you exactly where the values are declining. You made an interesting point about the leases, the 7, the 10, and the 15, and actually 20 years. As those roll off, those markets or those buildings are no longer valued as high because they can't return the rent because we're building, as I stated in this presentation, a million square feet along the Silver Line.

[01:19:32] That space is going to be snapped up quickly, which will create situations in areas other and around our county that will be then vacant. And we have to figure out ways to fill those spaces, albeit whether it is converting or doing something different on that plot of land.

[01:19:50] I think we have done a pretty good job in certain areas of revitalizing those areas, but we need to do more. And you'll see that in my eval that I wrote the last two years, actually, that we were starting to address that. Victor Hoskins in the EDA has been working tirelessly with that.

[01:20:09] Our Department of DEI has been working tirelessly with that. So we're working on it. The question is, how do we get more folks to come here and be a part of our community? No, no, I appreciate that, and I'll look forward to seeing the Q&A responses.

[01:20:26] And I think, you know, this is something we're certainly going to have to get our arms around and really completely understand. And then if I could, Mr. Sherman, one last point is on slide 14. You talked about Fairfax Connector, and you made a point that we are still in negotiations on what the cost structure might be here.

[01:20:49] just out of curiosity what the request that has been made specifically as it relates um to this item what is the value of the request that has been made all right i have to do i have to send that in a budget q a okay i don't have that off the top of my head all right no problem i appreciate your responses and i'll look forward to those um answers thank you very much uh supervisor walkin joe thank you mr chairman um agree with your remarks obviously it's a difficult budget appreciate the great work that that staff has done even if i don't love everything that i've heard um one

[01:21:29] before i forget our braddock district budget town hall will be monday march 11th at 7 p.m on channel 16 as well as streamed on my facebook page um just following up on uh chairman mckay's comments about jlark and he articulated it so i won't go through all of it the only thing i will add is in the budget bills that have been released in both the Senate and the House with respect to teacher pay, the Senate includes a 3% pay raise for teachers, and the House bill includes a 3.375%

[01:22:07] pay raise for teachers. And I'll make two points with respect to that. One, those are probably the high watermark of what will come out of the process. The governor's budget, I think, was a one and two percent perhaps pay raise so between the negotiation that occurs with the general with the house the senate and then ultimately the governor i find it hard to believe that they're going to end up higher than three percent with a state pay raise for teachers and then as we all know it's also very important to remind people that the general assembly or the governor signing

[01:22:39] a three or 3.37 percent pay raise for teachers does not mean that they are funding a three or 3.375 percent pay raise for teachers in Fairfax County. What it means is they're making a down payment of roughly 20 percent and ask us to fund the rest of it. So the 6 percent that is in the superintendent's budget, as important as it is, and we all know that that's important, it is almost double what even the most generous pay raises that the General Assembly is considering.

[01:23:20] significant difference there. Two points. One, I appreciate the work that's been done on fees to make sure that we're looking holistically at all our fees. That's something that I have been asking about. I will reiterate that maybe this year's budget and maybe budget guidance provides us an opportunity to make sure that we have a policy and a timeline for when and how we look those fees because we don't want people to feel like it's arbitrary or when we need money we're

[01:23:55] raising fees and you want to have predictability in it so i don't know what the answer is i don't know if it's three years five years different fees on a different timeline i think it would be valuable for us to have a policy and a timeline for all of those fees and final point the investment returns, obviously the $28.57 million needed to increase retirement contribution rates on slide 12 is a big, big number. I had a budget Q&A about looking at the respective systems and their

[01:24:35] returns. I asked for them relative to the S&P 500. Somebody smarter than me also included the median public plan returns. And what jumped out at me, and look, obviously you don't want to evaluate investment returns based on one year, but it is very striking that in FY23, ERS, Employees Retirement System, returned negative 1.8 percent. POORS, Police Officers Retirement System, negative 3.7 percent. The median public plan was 9.3 percent in FY23. So that's a dramatic

[01:25:13] difference. So maybe as a follow-up to my previous budget Q&A, I'd like to get a narrative explanation of that difference. Why are they so far behind, at least in FY23? Are they looking better since FY23? And I'd like to know if they had met the median public plan for FY23, what would that twenty eight point five seven million dollars be and in this year's proposal thank you okay mr. Hill do you want to respond it's

[01:25:51] interesting that you you state that supervisor walk-inshaw I had a another board member ie chairman and I talked about that last night so that that is a Q&A that's already been queued up but I do appreciate your you're looking into that and I believe that there will be a proposal well there'll be an answer to the question as well as potential solution to your questions forthcoming mr chairman and i and i i would just suggest that this this is an area that i think is going to get a wholesale look not just

[01:26:26] the returns but also the fees the structures of our retirement systems because it is glaring what was just mentioned and it does require a much more thorough investigation including Obviously the bottom line numbers, but then also are we structured properly? Are we most efficient?

[01:26:46] Are our fee structures? Correct. Some of those things that I think will involve Will might might necessarily involve even an outside Look so that we're getting the best information that we can on that point. Yeah And I thank you for that question last year. It was a good question last year It's a great question again this year I think if we if we could get a five-year look back in a 10-year and a 15 That's typically what you do when you're kind of like analyzing those returns because you can get wild fluctuations But I think we're gonna see the same thing and I think it points to the work that needs to get done

[01:27:22] But I think having that 5 10 and 15 year look back as well would be very very helpful makes sense. Okay Supervisor Smith, I just want to follow up on the fees the county executive did mention it February 27th land use policy meeting We will be talking about the land development services Zoning ordinance and fire marshal fees and part of the issue we face is sometimes it's 10 12 years before we 15 years before we look at this And my budget town hall is coming up quickly on February 29th from 7:00 to 9:00 we are going to do it in person at Rocky run middle school in the lecture hall

[01:28:01] And so I hope that a lot of the public will come out and we can have a great discussion. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Supervisor Smith, Supervisor Palchuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. Hill, and the entire budget team and county staff for their work on this.

[01:28:17] Let me start off with my budget town hall, always joint with our school board members, and I believe we have our CFO will be joining us virtually on Tuesday, April 2nd at 5.30 p.m. on both channel 16 and Facebook live definitely look forward to that conversation and then just a couple of follow-on questions since we're here today knows the beginning and we're just looking through this number one I really want to thank you in here clearly it's been over 40 years since we have collective bargaining in this county and so definitely the investments and want

[01:28:54] to congratulate you and your staff for a I think a very productive first club collective bargaining agreements with two of our agencies and knowing that our general county employees do not yet have collective bargaining appreciate from what I'm reading today that we are generally following similar guidelines as we did in those other agreements so as that continues to move forward and I know our employees are collected are actively working on the collective bargaining agreements that we continue to ensure that for all of our employees number two I do note that quite a bit is brought up about the state budget and I know there

[01:29:32] will be more questions around that number one and I think as supervisor Walkinshaw mentioned and and the chairman and others not only are is our state underfunding schools but when we hear those percentages of the increase whether it's one two three or more present from the state we know that means a very different thing for our county so a couple of specific questions because we know the per people funding here at the state level is very very small compared to what we we are doing number one I don't know if we have

[01:30:07] additional information on what we do see which would be increases on caps for support positions if that's been included in the state and the state budgets the Senate and the and the House of Delegates and any other funding that follows specific students which is really I think was Jay Lark is recommending and that we've seen for years is our students who are receiving special services for special needs for ESOL and our students living in poverty if we could get additional information on that from the state budgets I know that continues to change but I think that's what we really look at at the

[01:30:46] bottom line of what we get from the state that we don't have to fund locally number two as was brought up quite a bit on the transit and transportation Transportation issues. I know we are looking and waiting to see final numbers for Metro but also for our perfect connector As well as other transportation needs that we know we care about here in the community Whether it be sidewalks and trails or other improvements Locally, I think my question there Really is the latest I saw the Senate budget includes nothing for Metro

[01:31:26] And that's not just unfortunate, but disappointing, because that doesn't mean that we're not going to fund Metro. It means that here locally we're going to be funding Metro and the state's not going to be supporting that. And that will be taken away from our schools and other budget priorities. So if we could get any updates we have now on the transportation recommendations or as they move forward at the state level, knowing that we can't not fund Metro, it has to get funded because it is so important here.

[01:31:56] And then finally, I was reading through this, and I think there was information in the details on the capital improvement program. I know we're always looking at areas that can be shifted from baseline budget to one-time funds. I believe there's not a page number yet, but I believe there's information here about only part of the capital program, $13.1 million, maybe $2.5 million, some more being funded here versus being left for carryover funds.

[01:32:24] If I'm reading that correctly, I just want to make sure we can look at anything in a tight budget that can be shifted from the baseline budget, programmatic budget, to possible year-end or one-time funds. I think I read that correctly. Please correct me if I did not, if we are looking at those recommendations.

[01:32:45] Yeah, I'm not sure that I quite know what you might be talking about. I know that right now we have two and a half million in the baseline for both the county and the schools related to those joint CIP Recommendations our goal was to try to get to at least ten million dollars in additional pay down money on both sides Right now we're just at two and a half each So that that might be that two and a half million that you're referencing But we can certainly follow back up with you and make sure we're addressing the appropriate question. Okay Yeah, I was looking at the full list of the 25 general fund supported capital program 32 million and then be before that it was talking about not fully funding that through the

[01:33:26] 25 budget so I think just any Clarity on that on what is being funded through the 25 budget Yeah, and then are there areas that could be considered for what do you think that we have an outstanding Q&A right now? Related to where we stand on the recommendations that came out of that joint CIP committee And so I think that that response will tie into your question, because really, we would have liked to have included more in terms of pay down funding in this budget, but we have not moved off that two and a half, again, five total, two and a half county, two and a half schools in the 25 proposal.

[01:34:01] Excellent. Thank you. That'll be very helpful. Very much appreciate it. Okay. Supervisor Alcord. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I will be hosting a couple of town halls for public input on the proposed budget. But first is going to be March 20th at 7 p.m. in person in Vienna at a location, TBD, but that will be posted.

[01:34:24] And then on March 25th, I'll be having a virtual meeting as well. I do have a couple of questions. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for you and others flagging the JLARC issue with schools. This is a major concern.

[01:34:42] I know we all have. I did want to build on something Supervisor Palchuk just asked about in terms of WMATA. And does the budget increase that we're showing for the local portion of WMATA, does that assume $65 million, which is in the House budget, or no?

[01:35:02] It does not. Okay. This is why I asked to give you some flexibility to see if we get everything from the House, and obviously then we don't need, and the Senate, We don't need to raise base on as a model, but if there's a Delta, we need to figure out what the Delta is and how we deal with it.

[01:35:23] Okay, thank you. And I just want to remind everybody, too, you know, when, I mean, thank you, House, you know, for that budget proposal. But even that, even that is a $1 per $1 match required by local government.

[01:35:39] So when we see $65 million coming in from even if the House gets its way in the budget, that's still an additional $65 million from local governments in Northern Virginia. And that means mostly us in Fairfax County. That is correct.

[01:35:55] $10 million of it would be Loudoun. And then there's percentage calculations, and we are probably half of that remaining. So, yes, it's a very interesting calculation. Yes, it is. and one that I hope Senator Ebbins' study committee will be taking a serious look at because this structure is very problematic, I think, for all of us and has been for a long time.

[01:36:22] A couple other quick questions. The Animal Protection Police, is that change included in the proposed budget? Christina Jackson, the only change that we've included, and I'll let Tom Arnold elaborate, is moving one position from the police department to the Department of Animal Sheltering to create a new deputy director position, which would be the chief ACO.

[01:36:49] I'm probably getting the title wrong. So moving one position, we know that we still have some more work to do in that total reorg. We would expect to see further kind of more major movement as part of the FY26 budget. So there's a really small piece in the FY25 budget. Okay, we might just reduce the number of speakers coming to the budget hearing.

[01:37:07] So I just wanted to make sure I didn't see it in there, so I just wanted to confirm that. So thank you very much. Just to be clear on that point, though, the reason for that position is to begin the process of converting.

[01:37:22] So in a way, it is very much in there because that's a first step that would be necessary to do the conversion that's been spoken about. And so while the conversion itself might not physically happen until the next budget year, the process towards that begins in this budget year should we adopt it the way it's been proposed.

[01:37:41] And I just want to just be really clear about how we message that because I think it's important. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for making that clarification because, yeah, I think this is something we are going to hear a lot from folks about and maybe some budget questions coming in on that too.

[01:37:57] My last question is on the 2% MRA for General County employees. I am a little disappointed, but I understand. I think my question is for each 1% of the MRA, I think I saw in the summary, is that about $12 million per 1% MRA?

[01:38:24] That could be a budget question, too. I think it's closer to $15. Closer to $15, okay. But we'll do the math, because now that some of the employees are over in the representative collective bargaining, the numbers have changed. Okay. Thank you very much.

[01:38:40] You're welcome, sir. And, you know, if I could pile on to that, because I think for us, for clarity, it'll be helpful. The county executive mentioned that we might be shifting from a, you know, to a COLA model away from a market rate adjustment model.

[01:38:56] And I am sure that will engender a lot of questions as to what that actually means. And so what would be helpful for us in a budget Q&A, not necessarily to do here, but describe to us what that would look like and maybe go back in time and apply if we had been using the methodology for a COLA versus an MRA, say, over the past 10, 15 years, what would that have looked like?

[01:39:21] because I understood from the presentation that that transition is partly driven by the conversations that we've been having as a part of the collective bargaining agreement. And so I think it's important for us to know, you know, what does that actually mean in terms of compensation? The model that was described, one of the highlights of it was predictability, better predictability than the market rate adjustment. And so for our employees, that'll mean, you know, well, what does that look like over a time horizon? Because it's one thing to be predictable, it's another to be made whole by comparison of the two. And the roller coaster of

[01:39:58] the MRA, no matter how you calculate it, might not be in the best long-term financial planning interests of our employees. And so I think it would be helpful for us if you could hash that out a little bit better in a little bit more detail as we progress through this budget, what that would look like. The only other point I'm going to make, and it's in response to a A question that Supervisor Alcorn had in a response from the county executive about flexibility.

[01:40:23] I just want to be crystal clear because there's a lot of confusion about this. On March 5th, this board will advertise a tax rate. That advertised tax rate would be the highest tax rate by law that we could adopt a budget based on.

[01:40:41] And so that's in a matter of two weeks. and so between now and the next two weeks we'll be deciding just the advertised tax rate that does not equate into what the budget will be or what the final tax rate will be but when we talk about flexibility and the county executive has suggested flexibility not knowing what's going to happen in Richmond in terms of budget not knowing what's going to happen with Metro that's the flexibility you were talking about is that when we go advertise we have to know going into that conversation that we are advertising the highest possible tax rate that can even be considered.

[01:41:15] Not likely to be adopted, but could even be considered in light of the fact of those uncertainties that were mentioned. And I just want to make that clear because a lot of people don't understand, you know, how that works and why we advertise a rate and why we cannot go any higher than that rate when it comes time for budget adoption in a couple months.

[01:41:34] Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I particularly want to kind of add my voice to the questions, concerns about better funding for schools and the JLARC proposals and the fact that we are near the bottom in terms of state funding for schools, but yet Fairfax County is near the top in terms of how we fund our schools.

[01:42:00] We've taken that seriously. I've taken that seriously during my 20 years of public service, not on the school board, but also board of supervisors. And I recognize that that is a core part of, I think, the value added to being a resident of Fairfax County. My challenge is that the recommendation this year from the superintendent is, I think, is far beyond what is affordable.

[01:42:23] And clearly, I appreciate the kind of executive's recommendation that's in here. I'm not sure that that's affordable either, but I'm happy to take a look at that. But I have deep concerns about that as well. And my general advice as a former school board member and now board supervisor member is urge the school board to take a very, very, very, very, very, very hard look at their budget and look for ways that they can dramatically reduce and shift resources.

[01:42:52] Obviously, we always want those to go in the classroom, but clearly they're going to have some tough decisions to make because I know that we have some very tough decisions here. I have a question in general. I know it's not mostly it's not in the general operating budget, but the transit occupancy tax and the information for that, looking forward to seeing where that is.

[01:43:15] I looked in here quickly. I just had a chance to look at the proposals this morning, so I don't know if it's specifically in there, but I'm looking for that. And then I wanted to ask a question about the hotels. Maybe it's a budget question because we've seen that the hotel valuations went down dramatically a few years ago.

[01:43:32] COVID obviously have been creeping back up where are we now and wanted to overall have some additional information on that. So are you asking for the value of the hotels or are you asking for the TOT? I'd like to see over time because where are we I mean I know what's the core what is the value because it went down 44 percent and it's gone up 20 percent and kind of where are we in general and is that a starting to hit a more positive tone? I know we have Office Elevator that's still in deep trouble and at least in our some of our areas obviously our newer billions are doing better but I need to understand that better I want

[01:44:12] to see how that may be affected around the county I know some of that I'll see that when we get our revenue presentations but it just would get an overall review of where that's been the last let's say five or ten years sure we can we have a chart for that we can we can help you with that and then transit occupancy tax I know I want to take a look at that and and I I can't recall if we're at our maximum rate on that or not so I I definitely want to take a look at that and see how we should take it further I think we have an opportunity there I know others around here charge more than we do and it's I think at least a little bit of money that might make a difference for

[01:44:52] us so okay thank you thank you supervisor Hardy yeah I want to start by announcing before i forget my budget town hall will be march 12th at seven o'clock um and we're going to do that virtually always a lot of people like in person but virtually we get so many more people so we've opted to go with the virtual format i want to again start by thanking staff for uh for pulling this all together it was a lot of work finding 36 million dollars in reductions and and all that that went into i know that's not an easy nor a fun nor a

[01:45:29] fun thing to do uh and i know this is the county executive's budget it's not anywhere near final um but it includes a seven percent increase roughly on our average homeowner assessments up 2.86 percent and a four and a four cent uh what do you call it four cent tax increase if it stays there and of course that doesn't include um the the school's full requests and i with dan i think schools have got a lot of work to do there and it doesn't include metro um let me start my questions

[01:46:05] with with um with metro the metro funding formula is that being going to be or has has it been adjusted by based on ridership ratios between the jurisdictions because i understand our ridership is not and when is it scheduled to happen is that a whole can of worms and i just opened that you're Is it a better-a-budget question, or is that?

[01:46:34] Well, it really is better-a-budget Q&A because I will have to look also at the Metro budget, which has changed slightly. I do not believe that I could answer your question in the affirmative predicated on what information I've received from Metro at this juncture.

[01:46:53] Okay, um As I'm looking through the presentation on slide three just generally, it's not really the economy But it it kind of is but you know domestically more people are leaving Fairfax and coming to Fairfax And I think that's kind of that's I think that's an important point as we go into this budget to to keep in mind On a broad overall perspective. So I think it at some point The $36 million in reductions, and I haven't had a chance to look at the budget package.

[01:47:31] Are those detailed in here? Okay, I assume they were, but I wanted to make sure. I assume the list of fee increases is detailed in here as well. So no question there. Trying to read my writing here.

[01:47:51] Transfers in on page 15, is it clear what funds those transfers in came from, the $0.48 million? Yes, sir. Interactive which could you share the advertised budget? Yeah, we'll send you the link. All right Just wanted to make sure that that is all in there So I you know, I think I'm you know what this budget to me I mean I'm gonna start where I left off last year with all due respect to our new board members I'm gonna start why I left off last year. I

[01:48:26] Seven percent at the bottom hopefully blower is is unsustainable It's unfortunately not surprising, but it's disappointing that we're here. As the board knows, for the last several years, I've asked that we go adopt budget language to form either a citizen review committee, some kind of deep dive into the budget as has been done under Chairman Hanley, Chairman Davis, Chairman Bula, Bula have all done it.

[01:49:00] The lone exception to those boards was under Chairman Connolly and taxes doubled during the eight years that he was here. the school boards already agreed to do that deep dive and and i commend them for at least embarking on that process we'll see what comes out of it but you know we we need to be tracking our spending commitments we say we work on the budget all year but what we do is work on the spending side of the budget all year we really need to to get that budget review committee and i hope this board

[01:49:35] will get there i hope this board will take longer than the next two months to take a deep dive it it you know the pandemic has changed a lot it's looking at efficiencies and i appreciate the effort you did to look for savings but i think the board needs to really look at what results are we getting for what we spend and making sure that we're spending that officially you know efficiently uh we got a lot of work to do um but we got a short window to do it with and i look forward to working with you to see what we can do to to make this palatable to our taxpayers

[01:50:08] i appreciate those comments again if you look at the budget 148 million of the 178 that we've requested is in compensation as you know we've had some significant issues in retaining and attracting our staff i believe that moving forward with the 148 is going to allow us to be better positioned for employees however i do take your words with i do take your words and and we'll look into seeing how we can become even more efficient than we have been.

[01:50:43] The $36 million that we've removed from the budget for operational efficiencies is our first pass. Obviously, this is not something that you can do in one year, but it is something that we're going to look at over a period of time.

[01:50:58] But again, the $148 out of the $178 I think we've asked for is all about compensation and keeping on board and keeping on track with our competitors. I appreciate your comments thank you supervisor Jimenez and then supervisor Beerman thank you mr. chairman and thank you mr. Hale and staff for for this presentation I know you put a lot of hard work into this we will be announcing our in-person town hall later this week in Mason district which I'm very excited to be doing one quick question for you mr. Hill is you

[01:51:36] mentioned the importance of revitalization and bringing businesses through certain parts of the district, obviously Mason District in certain parts is prime for revitalization. You talked about looking at ideas to bring in businesses to generate revenue. Can you talk a little bit, though, about the retention of those businesses within Fairfax County? Are we having success when it comes to keeping the businesses that come to Fairfax County here?

[01:52:05] I will say this. As you know, sir, Supervisor Jimenez, thank you for the questions. As you know, 93 percent of our businesses are 50 people or less and what i've seen through b poll from the fiscal 22 and 23 is an increase in b poll taxes which means one of two things businesses are growing or where or their gross receipts are growing or both we have a plan that we're going to be articulating to you especially specific to bailey's crossroads the department of economic initiatives has done an excellent job in reaching out and as you know we have three or four that we

[01:52:40] have contacted to come to mason district can't really say who they are what they're doing right now but we are very poised in trying to ensure that each and every one of our magisterial districts are going to get more business opportunities i believe supervisor smith was at a groundbreaking on tuesday we had a committee meeting she told me i could not go with her but but she was there those are the types of things we're trying to do is bring those smaller businesses back into Fairfax County. Again, 93% are 50 or less people in the county. And this is

[01:53:15] what we're really targeting. And that is one of the reasons why we created, you created, the Board of Supervisors created the Department of Economic Initiatives led by Rebecca Mowdry. So those are the types of things we're trying to tie in because I believe diversification is not something you can do over a day or two. It's going to take some time. And in working with the EDA, Victor Hoskins and team we are working to bring in more diverse businesses to our county as you and i have spoken on several occasions we're targeting the mason districts under your under your leadership because you have asked me on several occasions to look at certain properties especially in bailey's

[01:53:55] crossroads and seven corners and that's where we're moving forward towards well i appreciate that thank you mr hill and being the cultural hub of fairfax county we're very excited to start welcoming new businesses in Mason District. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Supervisor Beerman.

[01:54:11] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, County Executive Hill. Thank you to the budget team for all the work that you've done. I wanted to touch on, you sort of almost stole my thunder when you were talking about county employees. I think this is a really challenging year because oftentimes when you have lower revenue growth, you're in an employer's market and not an employee's market. I was going back and looking at some budget task force documents from my predecessor, John Faust, back to the Great Recession. In many years when the Delta and the

[01:54:47] Gulf was far, far bigger than it is today, but also in those years, you did not have a situation where we were also losing or hemorrhaging employees potentially if we did not provide the necessary increases. I find it surprising. And so I have to be wrong, but I think I may be, I know James was on the Hill, but I may be the only former federal government employee up here.

[01:55:14] Am I? Oh, there we go. Okay, good, good. The new guys. But yeah, looking back to years where we were dealing with, you know, the federal government was in sequestration. Here, we're looking at situations where the federal government is actually raising their employee compensation as well. So I think that puts us in a unique position where we have to continue to be competitive.

[01:55:41] Now, Supervisor Alcorn stole my question about what fully funding the MRA would be. I think it's, you had said an additional penny would get us to 4%. But my other question is, Have you looked at, obviously you are not the superintendent of schools, but have you looked at how if we fund the school transfer, $160 million I think was about the amount, no, what was it?

[01:56:11] It was a quarter of a billion, it was $254 million. Sorry, but I was saying in your budget. Oh, in my budget, okay. $165 million in your budget, what that is on an average teacher pay increase versus what our average employee increase would be.

[01:56:27] Have you compared the two? Is the question what the $165 million would allow the schools to do in terms of a teacher pay increase? Yes. So they've asked for a 6% increase. We obviously, you know, $165 doesn't give them a 6% increase.

[01:56:44] We've proposed a 2% increase for our employees. so would 165 be a two percent increase for teachers would be a four you know that's why i'm trying have we equalized those two back in the envelope would be about another three percent increase for schools employees in july what they've been they did that two percent increase in january and i think that when they've been looking at averages they've been kind of splitting that and counting one percent towards last year and one percent towards this year so if they were able to do 3% as part of July and including half of that 2% that would be about a 4% average for the school's employees and right now for our general county employees we're just below 4%

[01:57:22] average in terms of what's in this budget great yeah I'd like us to consider trying to come close in what we're providing to our own employees and also what we're providing to teachers that's just a concern of mine and obviously we've got two and a half months to talk about that so I'm not saying that it has to be or anything like that I'm just pointing that out sorry yeah supervisor Beerman I would suggest especially with two new board members if we could circulate an updated we ask for this if not every year close to every year an updated timeline over the past 10 years or so that shows

[01:58:02] you school employee pay increases and county employee pay increases because what has happened over the years is that they're not ever necessarily equal but over a 10-year horizon they even out and i think it's helpful for us to kind of see what that what that has looked like in the past and then under this proposed budget what that would look like this year as well as the question that supervisor bierman asked recognizing it's a projection because obviously no matter what we transfer to the schools whatever that amount is it's going to be up to them to determine but because there was a mid-year adjustment made on the school side I think it's important for us to

[01:58:42] see that updated chart just so that we can better better answer that question as part of a budget Q&A sorry for my ignorance on that but we'll we'll look at into that chart I don't necessarily want to beat a dead horse but I will when it comes to school funding I saw in some of the uh the stuff that was released about the house budget on um on uh sunday there were claims that uh in certain school districts that were higher risk would get nine hundred dollars more per pupil

[01:59:17] that was touted as something that was really great obviously that's probably not what we will get per pupil and that is still a heck of a lot less than nineteen hundred dollars per pupil i would like to note, um, that we talk about this a lot for our own benefit, obviously, but $1,900 per pupil would go a long way in lots of counties. It would go a long way in Wise County, Virginia. It would go a long way in Norfolk. It would go a long way in Richmond. It would go a long way. I could do the whole state, but I won't, um, I'll save you that. So I will just end by, um, uh, by saying that,

[01:59:54] and then I'm hopeful that we will, uh, see more out of, out of Richmond, uh, and to thank you all for your efforts here today and looking forward to two months of process here. So thank you. Thank you, sir.

[02:00:09] Thank you very much, Supervisor Bierman. And everyone's had a chance. Let's see. Yeah, Supervisor Lusk. I realized I forgot to announce my budget town hall. I think that's what Supervisor Lusk was going to be doing.

[02:00:25] I'm channeling. Go ahead, Supervisor Lusk. Okay. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. So Franconia District will host its virtual town hall meeting on March 14, 2024, from 6 to 8 p.m. It will be on Channel 16 and Facebook Live.

[02:00:42] Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Lois. Supervisor Beerman. We will hold our first budget town hall at the McLean Community Center on March 11th in person. It won't be on Channel 16. That will be the Braddock Town Hall on March 11th. But we will be on Facebook Live.

[02:00:57] And we're planning a second budget town hall in Herndon. week of March 18th. Excellent. Thank you. And I know that our budget office working with OPA will help publicize all of these countywide. And I would also ask our staff to provide us the right way for us to message the new text feature, the language access feature. These are brand new this year. And I think all of us want to make sure that our communities know of those new opportunities and how to access them so if you could kind of give us a snippet that we can

[02:01:32] all put consistently in our newsletters and messages out to the community because again as i said earlier every budget cycle that we go through is dramatically improved due to public input and the more of that we can get the better this process works and so we'll want to advertise that widely okay any closing comments mr hill i just want to say thank you for the opportunity this was number seven for me it feels like it's number two but the strategic plan annual report is also out we will be forwarding that to each and every board office it's a great read in my

[02:02:09] opinion because of the connectivity with our dashboards and our mobility transportation has been publicized by many news outlets as we work through the process you will see how we are trying tie the dots in to help you make data informed decisions as well as having our community understand what's happening in fairfax county again i just want to say thank you for the trust and the confidence and to the team thank you so much for all the hard work especially yesterday thank you thank you thank you all very much appreciate the presentation and with that we're going to move on to the next item on our agenda which is board matters and as the board knows

[02:02:48] these have been compiled digitally and have been sent to the board offices. We'll go alphabetically following myself and Vice Chairman Smith by district, and I have just a couple board matters. First, I move to approve without objection the proclamation request listed in this document, which is a resolution to recognize Lula Bauer, Executive Director of the Lee Mount Vernon Sports Club for induction into the Virginia, D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame, a proclamation to recognize Consumer Protection Week, March 3rd through 9th, Public Health Week, April 1st through

[02:03:26] 7th, a joint resolution with Supervisor Jimenez to recognize Arab American Heritage Month in April, and finally, a proclamation with Supervisor Smith, Stork, and Walkinshaw to recognize Earth Day on April 22nd. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[02:03:42] Thank you, Vice Chairman Smith. My next board matter is a review of county boards, authorities, and commissions, and I offer this jointly with Vice Chair Kathy Smith. As the board knows, we have a robust community engagement process in Fairfax County, volunteer services on volunteer service on boards, authorities, and commission, commonly referred to as BACs as one of the most well-known ways residents can have a seat at the table when it comes to shaping public policy.

[02:04:11] Currently, Fairfax County has over 80 BACs. These BACs perform a wide variety of functions. Some advise the Board of Supervisors on a specific topic. Some perform duties required by state code, and others help the Board identify issues in the community that need to be addressed.

[02:04:28] It's time, in my opinion, and Supervisor Smith's, that we conduct a thorough review of existing Board's authorities and commissions to ensure their original purpose is still relevant to the community. The BAC is still fulfilling its purpose and to identify any opportunities to reduce any potential redundancies in the work of BACs.

[02:04:47] There has been considerable work performed in the recent past to review the operation and purpose of the county's BACs. I've asked Board of Supervisors Vice Chair Kathy Smith to lead a review of the previous work and to lead any further work that is necessary to determine how our BAC system is operating.

[02:05:05] This work should conclude with recommendations to the board to ensure continued contributions from our community through a well-organized and high-performing BAC system. Are we without objection?

[02:05:21] Yeah, let's do this without objection. I think the, you know, let's do it without objection. I do want to just clarify something because I've talked to many of you about this issue. And every time we do appointments, we ask the clerk for some updates.

[02:05:38] And I know the clerk's been doing a lot of work. County attorney's been doing a lot of work with our BACs. But I think the piece of this that actually takes the board to do is to understand structurally if we have redundancies, we have BACs that are no longer functioning under their previous mission, have been overtaken by time, we need to do a cleanup here.

[02:06:02] and to me it's almost like the zoning ordinance modernization that we went through where you know we always add things traditionally to the zoning ordinance never really take anything out and i think this is an opportunity to look at an accumulation over a lot of decades to get to over 80 of these and to understand you know are some of them probably past their prime or can be folded into other efforts but efficiency here is key we're not trying to cut off public access we're not trying to discourage citizen involvement quite the opposite i've heard from some members of bacs that in fact they don't feel like their time is being respected because they don't feel like

[02:06:41] the mission of the bac is necessarily being fulfilled and so we need to take a look at this holistically kathy has bravely taken taken an opportunity to take a lead on this and i don't necessarily want to put a timeline on it here but i will say some of the recommendations will probably come back to us sooner rather than later because i think there's some obvious opportunities here and then i think there's other ones that probably are going to take some more time to consider and so that's what the objective is here and just wanted to announce that kathy's going to be doing that and frankly both of us would appreciate you know feedback uh individually from you as you've heard from your own uh commissioners or appointees about about some

[02:07:21] opportunities or some concerns in this area supervisor Alcoy well right I just wanted to thank both of you for doing this and moving forward with it I there's to me there's almost nothing worse we can do than to have a citizen waste their time or feel like their time is wasted or not used efficiently so this is this is good it's it's time to do this so thank you supervisor yeah and I just real quick a good place to start would be the number of meetings that they actually have

[02:07:57] in the attendance at the meetings because that's what we found there we did eliminate one committee it was actually interestingly a committee formed by my dad the committee for transplant awareness that they came to me and said you know we've been overcome by events you know they've got the washington regional transplant consortium so anyway they did a lot of great work while they were here and they're gone but it the key was they really weren't coming up with anything at their meeting so meetings good place to start in fact that if i could just add i mean that's one of the first things we're going to do is look at how frequently they meet and what is the attendance

[02:08:34] because i think that's this code for a lot of things in terms of you know what's actually going on i did lead this on the school board i think we only had about 12 committees so it was a little bit different but it's important to know what's required legally and and we do want to use people's time well so without objection it is so ordered mr chairman thank you very much uh supervisor smith and that is the end of my board matters uh next up is you vice chairman smith thank you i have one board matter staff from land development services the department of code compliance and the

[02:09:10] fire and rescue department enforce the virginia building virginia uniform statewide building code statewide fire prevention code to ensure minimum life safety requirements are incorporated into the design construction and maintenance of the buildings and structures in fairfax county we celebrate building safety month each year to raise awareness of the importance of complying with these codes to provide safe buildings and infrastructure that serve our community every day therefore mr chairman without objection i ask that we recognize may as building safety month in fairfax county and direct staff to prepare a proclamation to be presented to the building

[02:09:46] Safety Month Planning Committee members, along with Mr. William Hicks, Mr. Jay Riott, Chief Bill Vinoy, Chief Chris Sample, and Mr. Gabriel Zakak at the Building Safety Month Proclamation event at the Heritage Building in May. And without objection, that is so ordered, Supervisor Smith.

[02:10:02] Thank you, Supervisor Smith. And next up, we have Supervisor Walkinshaw. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just one board matter, which is a joint board matter with you, with Supervisor Stork, with Supervisor Bierman, and Supervisor Jimenez to recognize March 10th through 16th as Flood Awareness Week.

[02:10:21] And I won't read it, I'll just use it as an opportunity to plug our Resilient Fairfax plan, which is really one of the many amazing documents that our staff has put together. And in one of the technical reports, it highlights the vulnerabilities that Fairfax County faces due to increasing precipitation and inland flooding.

[02:10:42] And one thing that surprised me is they looked at the 10 factors that make a parcel prone to urban flooding. So that's not floodplain flooding, but urban flooding outside of a floodplain. And looking at every parcel in Fairfax County, 71% of general households and 65% of vulnerable households have at least two flood-prone factors on their parcel.

[02:11:13] So as climate change continues, they're going to become increasingly prone to flooding. And I think it was mentioned in the county executive's budget proposal, 97% of service requests that come in to DPWS for flooding are urban flooding requests, and that's going to continue to grow.

[02:11:29] So, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask that we recognize March 10th through March 16th as Flood Awareness Week in Fairfax County and that a proclamation be presented out of the boardroom to the Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, the Department of Emergency Management and Security, the Police Department, the Fire Department, and the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

[02:11:50] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Walkinshaw. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Supervisor Bierman. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have only one board matter, which is Wood Oak Drive right-of-way vacation. It's not as fun as a normal vacation, but here we go.

[02:12:08] Mr. Chairman, I'll be here all week, folks. Mr. Chairman, Pulte Home Company, LLC, the applicant has filed a rezoning and final development plan for approximately 12.01 acres of land in the Herndon Transit Station area to permit a residential development comprised of two multifamily residential buildings and two existing office buildings.

[02:12:34] The property is located on parcels 16-300129B and 16-300115A. As part of the applications, the applicant proposes to incorporate a portion of Wood Oak Drive located between Sunrise Valley Drive to the south and Cooperative Way to the north into the application property.

[02:12:59] The applicant has been in discussion with the Fairfax County Department of Transportation regarding the feasibility of a request to vacate and or abandon that portion of the right-of-way that is no longer for roadway purposes. Since Fairfax County owns the right-of-way associated with Wood Oak Drive, the board must concur with the filing of the applications.

[02:13:17] The applicant understands that this motion will not prejudice the consideration of the applications in any way. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors consent to the inclusion of approximately 7,600 square feet of right-of-way previously dedicated for Wood Oak Drive to be included in the RZFDP 2022 DR0002 application and authorize the county executive and or his designees to act as agent of the board in conjunction with this application.

[02:13:48] The inclusion of a portion of Wood Oak Drive right-of-way in the rezoning application in no way relieves the applicant of the requirement to process a vacation and or abandonment request. This motion should not be considered as a favorable recommendation by the Board of Supervisors, nor does it relieve the applicant from compliance with the provisions of all applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards.

[02:14:12] In addition, this consent does not imply county support for this application, does not dictate to staff that the application should be approved, nor should it prejudice staff's review of the applications. It is so moved. I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Smith.

[02:14:27] If you could, Mr. Beerman, read the tax map parcels again. We just want to make sure we got those right. We think it was, I think I might have heard differently than what it says on the paper. So maybe just repeat those as a part of the motion. Oh, parcel 16-3, double circle 1, 29B, and 16-3, double circle 11, 5A.

[02:14:52] I think you're right. I think I said double circle 1. I apologize. Double circle 11 in the second reading. Excellent. That motion has been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

[02:15:07] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Beerman. Told you it wasn't as fun as a normal vacation. Thank you. Thank you very much. Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've got two quick matters. Mr. Chairman, increasing supply of affordable housing throughout Fairfax County is a high priority. A strategy to exceed our goal of developing a minimum of 10,000 affordable units by 2034 is to leverage use of vacant board-owned property for housing development. Department of Housing Community Development continues to actively investigate the feasibility of board-owned sites

[02:15:44] for affordable housing throughout the county. One such site is the Franconia Governmental Center property that currently houses the Franconia Police Station, Franconia Museum, and Franconia district supervisor's office, all of which are being relocated and co-located on the site of the future Kingstown library. The relocation provides a redevelopment opportunity at the current site. The board acted in January of 2021 to convey the site to the Fairfax County Redevelopment Housing Authority to begin pursuing the potential redevelopment of the site principally for affordable housing on January 23rd of this year. The board held a public hearing on the validation and reconveyance of the property to the Fairfax County Redevelopment Housing Authority

[02:16:24] during the course of the public hearing it became apparent that more public outreach and information sharing were needed and the decision was deferred to a date certain of March 5th 2024 given the interest in this property and the need to ensure that our entire community has an opportunity to voice their opinions on the property transfer transfer I believe more time is required before this matter returned to the board i plan to convene a set of community conversations in the april time frame in partnership with the department of housing and community development and the department of neighborhood and community services ncs as you know ncs is inclusive community

[02:17:00] engagement framework or engage fairfax provides a robust process to ensure meaningful community conversations about issues like this one these conversations will reflect diversity of the views of the frank county district residents and stakeholders will ensure that participation is inclusive equitable and welcomes all members of the public including those who will be most affected this dialogue will allow residents and stakeholders the opportunity to express their ideas and vision and in a subsequent meeting provide feedback on development processes and concepts these in-person community conversations along with the online engagement platform option

[02:17:40] are expected to increase public understanding of affordable housing and generate public knowledge to inform decision making using the expertise of ncs's staff and outside facilitator facilitator and the county's inclusive community engagement framework i'm confident we will be able to have the kind of conversations that are needed to ensure that we have the benefit of our constituents perspectives i'm notifying the board of my intent to further defer the decision only the validation and reconveyance to the fairfix county redevelopment housing authority of the 3.26 acre

[02:18:16] franconia governmental center property consistent consisting of tax map parcels 81-3 double circle 5 2a 2b 2c1 and 3a and tax map parcels 81-3 double circle 8 503 to a date certain of may 21st 2024 at 3 30 p.m you've heard the motion has been seconded by supervisor alcorn discussion on the motion any discussion on the motion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion

[02:18:51] please say aye aye aye any opposed any abstentions and that motion carries supervisor lust okay thank you mr chairman this one go a little bit faster um i am notifying the board of my intention to remove from the board's agenda the 4 30 p.m public hearing on the acquisition of certain land rights for the construction of bus stop improvements at Commerce Street, Westbound, and Brandon Avenue as the property rights for the project have now all been voluntarily acquired by the Land Acquisition Division, and condemnation is no longer necessary.

[02:19:26] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very good. So that is to be withdrawn, and that is the first 430 item on our agenda this afternoon. Yes, sir. Okay, excellent. Very good. Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. Thank you. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No board matters, but I do have one announcement about an item that doesn't come to us on the board, but I want to make sure everybody knows about it. Last week, the Fairfax County Public Library Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name the planned rebuilt library facility, which will be located on the site of the current Patrick

[02:20:00] Henry Library, to be the Vienna Carter Library. So opened in 1971, the old library, which is known the patrick henry library it was bond funded in 2020 for a new facility on the existing site located in the heart of the town of vienna fairfax county has an agreement with the town of vienna to develop the site of the current library for both a new library and a shared parking structure for county and town usage the new facility is scheduled to open in late 2026. so the library board has been considering the name change since the summer of 2023 when community members first

[02:20:36] came forward with the request to honor the Carter family for their invaluable stamp on our library system. So just as background, the Carter family has contributed significantly to the history of the library, the town of Vienna, and Fairfax County. William McKinley Carter, who was born in 1897, was a charter member of the Fairfax County NAACP. He was instrumental in procuring a county library branch to serve everyone in the town of Vienna, where at the time, the existing town Library had a whites-only policy. In 1958, Carter and his wife Lillian co-founded the non-profit

[02:21:13] Vienna Friends of the Library in their living room and led a successful community effort to open a county library facility. Their efforts bore fruit just a few years later as an integrated library facility was opened where everyone was welcome. So I've worked closely with my appointee on the library board as this has proceeded, and I'm delighted that they have chosen to move forward with the new name of the library facility as the Vienna Carter Library.

[02:21:40] So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, Supervisor Alcorn, for that announcement. And was that all? That is all. Okay, Supervisor Jimenez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one board matter and two announcements to make today.

[02:21:58] My board matter has been co-sponsored by Chairman McKay, Supervisor Herity, Supervisor Smith, and Supervisor Walkinshaw. It is the Korean Community Service Center 50th anniversary. Mr. Chairman, on April 21st, the Korean Community Service Center, KCSC, will recognize their 50th anniversary.

[02:22:21] In 1974, Rev. Young Cheol Chung and Benjamin Sheldon, along with their congregation, formed KCSC to provide transportation and translation services for visitors and immigrants from Korea.

[02:22:37] They expanded their services to support individuals and families throughout the DMV for the past five decades, serving over a quarter of a million Asian Americans since it was founded. KCSC expanded their services to include financial literacy classes, continuing education programs for seniors, mental and physical health services, and even health care services through their two community clinics in the DMV.

[02:23:06] This included emergency assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic, where they partnered with other organizations to form the Sharing Love campaign, which provided emergency food and rent support for those who were severely affected. Some of their most notable achievements included being selected by the Asian Health Coalition for the ARC campaign with the National Institute of Health Research Program, being awarded grant funding for supportive housing for victims of domestic violence and for senior crimes and abuse prevention, and being selected as one of the best nonprofits in the metro D.C. area by the Catalog for Philanthropy.

[02:23:45] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that we prepare a resolution recognizing KCSC's 50th year of existence and service to Fairfax County to be presented outside the boardroom. Very good. Without objection, that is so ordered.

[02:24:02] Supervisor Jimenez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, I have two announcements. Mr. Chairman, I would like to congratulate Alice Wang on her appointment to the Planning Commission. Alice is no stranger to Fairfax County, having served on Mason District's Land Use Committee, Bailey's Crossroads Seven Corners Revitalization Board, and as Vice Chair for the 2020 Mason District SSPA Task Force.

[02:24:27] Alice previously represented Mason on the Human Services Council, where she served as Vice Chair and as Budget Chair. Alice also served as Vice President of the Lake Barcroft Association and Mason's Representative for the 2021 Fairfax County Redistricting Advisory Committee.

[02:24:46] Welcome back, Alice. We're thrilled to have her serve on the Planning Commission. I've got to say, I am really excited about this appointment. I know she's going to do a fantastic job. And I'm excited for her colleagues to get to know Alice because she's a fantastic, fantastic person.

[02:25:02] Mr. Chairman, I'd also like to congratulate Darren Shumate on his appointment to the Economic Advisory Commission and thank him for his service on the Planning Commission. Darren is a longtime Fairfax County resident and well-known for his involvement in various community organizations, including the Park Lawns, Recreation, and Civic Associations.

[02:25:21] Darren also served as vice chair on Fairfax County Boards of Code Appeals and Small Business Commission. During his time in the Planning Commission, Darren helped facilitate the East Cape development and Dale's first mixed-use project, and he helped oversee renovation applications for the Mason District Police Station and Brenmar Park Elementary School.

[02:25:42] We're excited to have his expertise as the newest member of the EAC and want to say thank you, Darren, for being on the Planning Commission and working so hard. Thank you very much, Supervisor Jimenez. Outstanding appointment, so well done.

[02:25:57] With that, we are going to move to Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I think I'd start off by saying it's time to let the dogs out. This is the seventh annual Ides of Bark. And, you know, dogs are ready to go, and they're at the door pawing it and trying to get moving forward here.

[02:26:19] And we're going to let them do that. With our March 24th Mount Vernon District and Fairfax County Park Authority, We're hosting our annual Ides of Bark Dog Festival from 1 to 4 o'clock at Gristmill Park. Participants will receive treats from local canine businesses, play in the dog park, learn pet care and pet CPR from pet technicians, and enjoy some delicious food from local Mount Vernon District businesses, chalkboard, wings, and barbecue.

[02:26:47] The festival is a great day with our furry four-legged friends and their humans to meet others and enjoy a day in the park. The amazing community event could not happen without the incredible support of the Fairfax County Park Authority, Police Department, Fire Department, and local annual organizations, and our wonderful vendors.

[02:27:06] My sincerest appreciation goes out to each of these groups. I invite everyone to join us on March 24th, again, at Gristmill Park. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I ask without objection that the Board of Supervisors direct the Office of Public Affairs to advertise and promote the Ides of Bark Dog Festival. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[02:27:23] Supervisor Storr. Thank you. My next item is a proclamation recognizing Ron Kowalski. Since 2009, South County residents young and old have eagerly anticipated the annual Ron Kowalski Real Estate Group's Monopoly Tournament. Ron initiated this tradition to bring the Lorton community together and to spotlight local community nonprofits.

[02:27:43] Initially, proceeds benefit the Workhouse Arts Center and Habitat for Humanity, but for the past 11 years, the focus has been on supporting the Lorton Community Action Center, LCAC. Through these 15 years, Ron and his real estate group have raised nearly $80,000 in support of these local causes.

[02:28:00] This year's event takes place on Saturday, February 24th, that's this Saturday, from 9 to 2 o'clock at the Moose Lodge in Lorton. The Motley Tournament holds special significance for LCAC as it not only provides funding for families in need, but also serves as a platform to raise awareness about their vital work.

[02:28:17] This increased awareness leads to more volunteers and support, allowing LCAC to further broaden its impact. Last year alone, LCAC aided 380 families with weekly food distributions, emergency rental assistance, job training, English classes, and so much more.

[02:28:33] Local businesses and groups also play a vital role when the Woodbridge Moose Lodge generously offered free venue space. South County Cares Church provides breakfast, and Antonelli's pizza and subs provides lunch for participants. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask that a proclamation be prepared with our signatures to be presented to Ron Kowalski and the Ron Kowalski Real Estate Group out of the boardroom for supporting our local nonprofits and LCAC for the past 15 years, as well as for their invaluable role in uniting the Lorton community in raising nearly $80,000.

[02:29:07] Without objection, it is so ordered. Supervisor Stork, do you play in the Monopoly tournament? I have never played in the tournament. I don't know. Why? I mean, it's...

[02:29:22] In light of the budget presentation we just got, you might want to... Maybe we can help a lot of folks out this year with that. Well, as part of being a part of a large family, of course, you played monocle and had the boards thrown a few times and everything else as part of that tradition.

[02:29:43] But I'm going to look forward to connecting and hopefully helping them raise some additional dollars this year. Thank you. I have another one. This is a joint with Chairman McKay as well as Supervisor James Wackenshaw. Many, I think, of you folks know this.

[02:30:00] Fairfax County is a leader in environmental and conservation efforts, and the I-95 landfill can be considered as the largest and most important grassland in the eastern part of the county. The county is also poised to further become a leader in grasslands management on landfills. Current environmental uses of the landfill include pollinator meadow areas and active beehives that are part of the George Mason University Honey Bee Initiative.

[02:30:25] Future uses include a 5-megawatt solar field with energy generation expected in 2025 and native plantings throughout the installation. Landfill is also a unique nesting ground for grassland birds who nest between April 1st and mid-July.

[02:30:41] Grassland birds are a critical species that depend on grasslands to survive. DPWES currently has an agreement with the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia that allows for monitoring and bird counts on the landfill. As a result of this activity, Mount Vernon resident Glenda Booth, in coordination with the Audubon Society, reached out to me to request that the county limit mowing on the landfill during grassland bird nesting season.

[02:31:04] Through discussions with Chris Harrington and Eric Forbes, DPWES is supportive of this request. However, the closed landfill has DEQ requirements and a post-closure plan. Routine mowing is needed to allow for inspection of the integrity of the landfill cap, access to landfill gas wells, and stormwater drainage issues.

[02:31:23] The plan to protect the grassland birds during the nesting season will need to be developed, incorporating considerations for continued landfill operations. Staff will need to coordinate any changes to the operations and post-closure plan with DEQ. Therefore, we ask with unanimous consent that the Board of Supervisors direct DPWES to identify a no-mow area for bird nesting season and develop an initial pilot plan incorporating landfill operational needs in coordination with the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia by April 1st, 2024.

[02:31:56] We also direct that the DPWES ensure collaboration with DEQ, the enabling authority. Further, if this plan is found to be no cost, DPWES is directed to proceed. However, if funding is required, DPWES will inform the board of those costs through a not-in-package or NIP report for further direction.

[02:32:18] And let's make that a vote. I'm happy to second that motion. Supervisor Stork, any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[02:32:35] I have, I have, I want to announce my budget meeting will be held on March 13th at 7 p.m. It's a virtual meeting. It'll be at least a county. I don't know from the schools yet whether they'll be part of it, but we're going to do one for the county. And if the schools can be part of it, that'll be great.

[02:32:52] So thank you. I have one other, and really it's a very sad situation. I know many of you are familiar with it. I know particularly my counterpart, Supervisor Luska, is very familiar with this because we live with this almost every day, and we get texts, it seems like almost every day, on some accident or some incident on Richmond Highway.

[02:33:11] And over the past week, specifically last Wednesday, a fatal crash occurred on Richmond Highway in Lorton. A young man crashed into the back of a stopped dump truck on Richmond Highway. The dump truck was turning left onto Giles Road. It was pronounced dead.

[02:33:29] We additionally have had two pedestrian deaths in the last week. The first pedestrian death occurred last Thursday, the day after another fatal accident. The car hit a pedestrian while he was walking at Route 1 and Huntington Avenue. And finally, this past Sunday evening, a man was struck and died in a hit-and-run crash at Buckman Road.

[02:33:47] I know we've had studies, and we've sure looked at this in depth, and I'm highlighting again that we will take a further look at this and to see how much of this can be affected or changed. I know that the changes of the highway, the widening of the railway, the BRT, those are going to provide more safety zones.

[02:34:09] First off, they're going to provide a sidewalk for folks, which is not always true, and they're going to provide, I think, more designated crossing areas. But I've asked Tara Ronald to to put together the safety statistics on Richmond Highway corridor from these tragic accidents as well as to identify How many of these potentially are?

[02:34:27] ones that the county can Affect I mean sometimes and we see this on Richmond Highway particularly and we've all lived this on Richmond Highway Somebody walking in dark clothing along the side of the road or walking into the middle of the road, etc et cetera, those are risks that maybe are very difficult to avoid.

[02:34:44] But I want to try to at least separate those that we maybe can fix or address from those that are going to take further education and hopefully ways to deter people from engaging in that kind of behavior. But I just needed to bring that to everyone's attention. Thank you, Supervisor Stork.

[02:34:59] And, you know, I know that the district station there at Mount Vernon in the past has done some pretty extensive community engagement and education around these issues. But this is particularly important now as we begin phases of construction that happen on the highway.

[02:35:16] I'm particularly worried during construction about how much worse that situation is going to be made. And as you point out, you know, there are cases where there are things can be done. There are other cases where we have all the infrastructure in place. I mean, the Route 1 corridor was the first corridor in Fairfax County to have countdown signal pedestrian heads installed and remarked crosswalks.

[02:35:39] And we've been putting in sidewalk segments aggressively up and down the highway. And even despite those efforts, we're still having far too many pedestrian accidents on the highway. And so, you know, I think when Mr. Arnold looks at that, I think one of the pieces to be mindful of is that every time there's a particularly a pedestrian involved accident, that our Department of Transportation also works with police and analyzes the intersection and the circumstances that led to that accident for the possibility of infrastructure enhancements or improvements,

[02:36:15] everything from lighting to lane markings to a lack of a pedestrian facility. And so I would just say as we're looking at that, let's be mindful of and bring DOT into the conversation and make sure each of these incidents are also reviewed by them because we can learn a lot from the accident report, but DOT can learn a lot from that as well.

[02:36:36] And so I think that, you know, having to take a look at that Route 1 corridor in particular makes sense. But we have done major work on that strip of highway. If you look back just a few years ago to the conditions on the highway compared to the conditions today in terms of pedestrian facilities has dramatically improved, and yet the accident numbers still continue.

[02:37:00] So we're missing some things, and I think in particular we're missing some opportunities to increase the education opportunities in the people who live on the highway. And maybe we can use our transit operations, our connector buses and other things to raise awareness about not only the responsibilities of the motorists but the responsibilities of the pedestrians as well to protect them.

[02:37:26] Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your comments. I think they're excellent. And I just, the numeric on this is in the last 10 years, we've had 22 deaths, pedestrian deaths. That doesn't count the other car and accident. So we have an ongoing issue here.

[02:37:44] We've already now had two this year, so we now are getting ready to exceed our average. And we have a long year to go. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork. And, you know, once Mr. Arnold's done with that, we look forward to getting that information back because some of the things that we learn from that might be applicable in other parts of the county that have similar circumstances, high pedestrian activity, older parts of the county.

[02:38:11] And so perhaps, you know, those findings and or recommendations could be helpful in other parts of the county as well. So look forward to hearing more on that. Okay, next is Supervisor Palachuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm gonna switch it around and start with the fun one.

[02:38:27] My first board matter is jointly I believe with you as well as with all of our members here. And I really wanna thank my staff who took the lead on this and who have reached out to all of your offices. Thank you all for joining this. It is a joint board matter with all of our offices to celebrate Women's History Month with a feminine supplies drive.

[02:38:47] As well as I will add in the title with the Severs County Public Libraries have also joined in with all of their libraries. So exciting, I think, kickoff year for this program. Members of the board, as we prepare to celebrate Women's History Month in March, we want to recognize the need for menstrual supplies around the county.

[02:39:04] These essential hygiene products are costly and the lack of access to safe and clean menstrual products can negatively impact someone's overall physical and emotional well-being. I have partnered with my colleagues to host a Feminine Supplies Drive in March to collect essential menstrual products for our vulnerable community members.

[02:39:24] We will be accepting new and sealed packages of tampons, pads, liners, and menstrual cups that will support local shelters and nonprofits in each magisterial district. Hosting this drive will help reduce barriers for our Fairfax County residents for whom access to menstrual supplies can pose a financial burden.

[02:39:42] Donations will be collected around the county, including at the Jim Scott Community Center, the Sully District Governmental Center, the Sully Community Center, North County Governmental Center, West Springfield Government Center, Braddock District Office, McLean Governmental Center, the Mason District Government Center, the Mount Vernon Governmental Center, the Franconia Governmental Center, if we forget some, please let us know, the Fairfax County Government Center, the Park of Tysons, and all Fairfax County Public Library locations.

[02:40:11] Additional information can be found on that link on the website, and feel free to reach out to us, my office if we need to add some to that website. Therefore, we move without objection that the Office of Public Affairs share this information through its channels. And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Palovic. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I have two land use related board matters. The first is concurrent processing for the judicial complex. This is not the first one that we've heard on the complex, but the process continues. Members of the board, the Judicial Complex is a 47.8-acre property owned by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors,

[02:40:49] the board, and identified as Fairfax County Tax Map Parcels 57-4114 and 57-30117. As many of you may know, the Fairfax County Judicial Complex Master Plan, known as the plan, was completed in 2021. The plan provides the county with a 20-year roadmap for physical development on-site to allow for efficient use of board-owned property and provides for a more effective delivery of county services to the community. The applicant of Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services, DPWES, has submitted a

[02:41:27] proffered condition amendment to amend the proffers and conceptual development plan and companion final development plan amendment to initiate the redevelopment of the judicial complex. Public hearings are scheduled before the Planning Commission on May 8, 2024, and the Board at a subsequent date to be determined.

[02:41:47] The applicant is preparing site and building plans for Phase I of Development and has requested authorization to process concurrent site and building plan permits to allow this project to move forward expeditiously. Phase one of development includes the construction of a new facility adjacent to the existing judicial center and a relocated main entrance to the judicial complex from Cambridge Road that will align with planned future roadways within the city of Fairfax.

[02:42:14] The new facility will include space for the Commonwealth's Attorney, Office of the Sheriff, Police and Fire Departments Evidence Storage, Circuit Court File Storage, Incubator Space for the new Diversion and Community Reentry Center, and other court-supportive services.

[02:42:30] Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors direct the Director of the Land Development Services to accept concurrent and simultaneous review of a site plan, architectural drawings, building permits, and or other plans and permits as may be necessary to implement the improvements proposed with this conceptual development plan, final development plan application.

[02:42:51] This motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation on future applications by the Board and does not relieve any applicant from compliance with the provisions of any applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards. This action in no way prejudices the substantive review of future applications.

[02:43:07] And the Chair will second that motion. Is there discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Supervisor Palachuk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My board matter is an authorization of comprehensive plan amendment for 7426 Eidelwood Road.

[02:43:27] Members of the Board, this motion is to direct staff to evaluate a potential change through the Comprehensive Plan guidance for property located at 7426 Eidlwood Road and consisting of tax map parcels 40-316, 7, 7A, and 9.

[02:43:44] St. Paul's Lutheran Church is located on parcels 7A and 9. Parcels 6 and 7 are currently vacant. The Comprehensive Plan envisions residential development at 16 to 20 dwelling units per acre with consolidation of all four parcels. Additional plan guidance speaks to the orientation of future development, integration with the slopes of the site, access locations, pedestrian amenities, compatibility with adjacent development, and cluster development. The plan text expects that the full redevelopment that addresses these conditions would only be possible with the removal of the church. St. Paul's Lutheran

[02:44:22] Church has expressed interest in remaining at its present location and continuing its investment in the community with building additions to support its current and future needs. They have partnered with EYA on the potential redevelopment of the vacant portion of their property with single-family-attached dwellings.

[02:44:40] A pre-application request was filed with the Department of Planning and Development in the summer of 2023, and staff have been working with the applicant to address preliminary staff comments, which included conformance with the plan guidance, particularly related to integration with slopes and cluster development.

[02:44:57] Recognizing that the church wishes to remain on site, and this impacts the available area for development and the design of the site, a planned amendment for residential development at the lower density with suitable conditions related to the site design, recognizing retention of the existing church is appropriate.

[02:45:15] The addition of this planned amendment to the work program was coordinated with staff. The proposal does not involve any new uses, but instead is a reduction in intensity. The staff have indicated that the amendment can be accommodated in the context of the concurrent zoning cases without impacting the rest of the work program.

[02:45:34] Therefore, I move that the Board of Supervisors direct staff to consider a comprehensive plan amendment to consider adding an option for medium density residential development for tax map parcels 40-31677A and 9 with suitable conditions related to site design recognizing retention of the existing church.

[02:45:55] This plan amendment should be processed concurrently with a rezoning and special permit amendment applications. This plan amendment should be identified as a Tier 2 priority item on the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Work Program. This motion should not be construed as a favorable recommendation on future applications by the Board and does not relieve any applicant from compliance with the provisions of any applicable ordinances, regulations, or adopted standards.

[02:46:21] This action in no way prejudices the substantive review of future applications. You've heard the motion. I'm happy to second the motion. Is there any discussion? Mr. Chairman, if I could just add briefly a little bit to the history of this proposal, and I appreciate all the work that staff have put into this.

[02:46:41] There was previously a different developer that had gone through pretty extensively with the designs and plans and then pulled out, I think, many of their locations and their work in the county. And so this is the same site, but EYA has come in as a new developer working with the site and the continued engagement with our office and with the community to try to find a proposal that will work for the church and for the site and the community.

[02:47:11] Transportation improvements and others are key to this development. Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Palchuk. Any further discussion? Seeing and hearing no. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries.

[02:47:26] Supervisor Palcic. That is all. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. Supervisor Herity. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I've got one Autism Acceptance Month. Mr. Chairman, April is National Autism Acceptance Month, promoting acceptance for individuals on the autism spectrum.

[02:47:43] One in 36 children in the United States and more than 5.4 million American adults are on the autism spectrum, including over 155,000 Virginians. diagnosis of autism has increased in the last five years nationwide, which some researchers attribute to an increased awareness of autism. Persons with autism form an incredibly diverse community with vastly different abilities, limitations, and preferences from individual to individual. Young adults on the autism spectrum demonstrate the lowest

[02:48:16] employment rates among people with disabilities. Individuals on the autism spectrum have amazing strengths and skills that often go untapped when the proper supports are not in place. Existing incentives or strategies for businesses to hire persons with autism are currently underutilized or unknown. Modifying hiring practices to accommodate persons with autism, taking advantage of work opportunity tax credits, partnering with a non-profit resource provider, and working with a job coach have all proven to be effective in supporting persons with autism

[02:48:51] and their employers. In fact, 59% of individuals on the autism spectrum gained employment after receiving vocational rehabilitation skills. Fairfax County is fortunate to have organizations like Service Source, Phillips Programs, and others that are dedicated to this mission of promoting gainful employment and services for those on the spectrum. Although most autism research focuses on children, the organizations play a critical role in closing the gap of service needs when our residents with autism reach adulthood, which is often referred to as the services cliff. Our

[02:49:27] community is stronger and more diverse because of our autism residents and our businesses and nonprofits who partner with them. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, without objection, I ask we prepare a proclamation that recognizes April 2, 2024 as Autism Awareness Day and celebrates April as Autism Acceptance Month, encouraging all citizens to exercise respect and compassion for our relatives, friends, co-workers, and fellow Americans on the autism spectrum.

[02:49:55] This proclamation will be presented a service source, a phenomenal community partner serving the needs of residents on the autism spectrum. I further ask that the proclamation include recognition of the unique challenges faced by individuals with autism and that it reaffirms the commitment of this board to encourage businesses and employers to utilize existing incentives and strategies to assist them in hiring persons with autism.

[02:50:20] And without objection, that is so ordered. Supervisor Herodian, if you could circulate the date to the board, make sure that gets on the public meeting calendar so that others can attend as well. Thank you. All right. That brings us to the end of board matters.

[02:50:36] We are going to move to admin items. Supervisor Smith, do you have a motion for admin items 1 through 5? I do. I move approval of admin items 1 through 5. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion or any items that board members would like to have pulled?

[02:50:53] Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of admin items 1 through 5, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. And that brings us to action items. Action item number one is approval of license agreements with Bikes for the World for the use of county-owned property at the I-95 landfill and West Ox Transfer Station in the Mount Vernon and Springfield districts.

[02:51:19] Supervisor Smith. I move approval of the county executive's recommendation. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by a lot of us. Supervisor Herity, Stork, Palachek, myself. Any discussion? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Yes, Supervisor Herity.

[02:51:34] I was going to say, this has been an outstanding program to recycle bikes since we got it going at the West Oaks Transfer Station, and we've since expanded it down into the I-95 landfill. But it is an incredible program. Any further discussions?

[02:51:51] Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Action item number two is approval of a project agreement between the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, DRPT, and Fairfax County for Fiscal Year 2024 Transit Assistant Grant Funds.

[02:52:11] Supervisor Beerman. I move approval of the county executive's recommendation. Per the motion, I'm happy to second that, along with Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion on action item two? Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye.

[02:52:28] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Action item number three, resolution to support the abandonments and additions of various roads associated with the Fairfax County Parkway, Route 286 extension by the Virginia Department of Transportation, VDOT, in the Franconia, Mount Vernon, and Springfield District, Supervisor Beerman.

[02:52:49] I move approval of the county executive's recommendation. You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Lusk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions?

[02:53:06] That motion carries. Action item number four, authorization to make a loan to Wesley FCC of Falls Church, LLC, of up to $9,700,000 to finance the development of 6165 Leesburg Pike for affordable senior housing in the Mason District, Supervisor Jimenez.

[02:53:25] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, I'd like to acknowledge in the audience Reverend Stephen Moore. Thank you for being here from the First Christian. This action item is regarding Wesley Housing. Wesley Housing has partnered with the First Christian Church of Falls Church in the Mason District to develop a four-story senior affordable property on an undeveloped portion of the church property. Adults age 62 and up will be exclusively served by the 95 one and two-bedroom units and associated community space. In addition to the housing

[02:54:04] units, the building will include commercial space for a 5,000 square foot free health clinic that will provide access to primary care for older adults with low-income living at the property and throughout the surrounding neighborhood at little to no cost.

[02:54:23] A variety of sources are being leveraged to finance the project, and today the board is considering the developer's request of up to $9.17 million of FCRHA subordinate financing to support this crucial development. For each local dollar spent on this project, at least $4 in non-county funds will be leveraged to bring this much-needed, high-quality, affordable senior community to the Seven Corners neighborhood.

[02:54:50] It is a great source of pride that this project will be one of Fairfax County's first to be developed in partnership with the faith-based community, a community that wanted to use its land to further its mission. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of the county's executive recommendation on action item number four.

[02:55:10] I'm happy to second that motion along with Supervisor Bierman. Discussion on the motion? Discussion on the motion? Supervisor Palchuk? No, I think this is a very exciting project. We've been looking at it for quite a bit of time, and I know there have been many involved with this, the church.

[02:55:28] I also want to thank Camila from Wesley Housing, who's here today, representing the work. I know it has not been an easy project, but I think especially knowing that the seniors in our community are struggling to be able to afford to retire in their community, I hope this is one of many future projects of this type that we will see in the county.

[02:55:51] So thank you to Supervisor Jimenez, to Supervisor Gross before your time when this project began, And to all who have worked on this, also our county staff who worked on this in the housing office who's here today. Thank you, Supervisor Palachek. And we remember when this case came forward to us.

[02:56:08] You were on the planning commission, so you remember it well. Was not an easy one. But to be able to get here to the finish line and to know not only that our faith community is making an investment in affordable housing, but making an investment with Wesley, who's been a long partner, very valued partner to Fairfax County.

[02:56:27] So this will be excellent when we get it done, but we know the process is a tough one, and securing this financing is going a big way towards making sure this project happens and can serve our seniors and affordable housing. And so absolutely support this and thank our nonprofit partners for their engagement as well.

[02:56:47] If there's no further discussion, all those in favor of action item four, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. And that takes us to action item number five, which is designation of a portion of 6165 Leesburg Pike as a revitalization area in the Mason District.

[02:57:09] Supervisor Jimenez. Mr. Chairman, I move approval of the county's executive recommendation on action item number five. I'm happy to second that motion along with Supervisor Lusk. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of action five, please say aye.

[02:57:25] Aye. Any opposed? any abstentions. That motion carries. Action item number six is authorization for supplemental subordinate financing of up to $14 million for the Somos at McLean Metro in the Providence District. Supervisor Palcic. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This again, another very exciting affordable housing project. This one, a public-private partnership that will bring 456 affordable housing units. I was trying to add up our total units today, but we're well

[02:57:58] over 500 at this point, getting close to 600 to reach our 10,000 unit goal. This one is walking distance to the McLean Metro Station. It includes over one and a half acres of park space. It will acquire and redevelop both existing office for repurposing and a parking garage as well as building new affordable housing as many of you know the the dollars that we put in here are leveraged by non-county funds in this instance for each local dollar spent on this project nearly seven dollars in non-county funds will be leveraged to bring this critical affordable

[02:58:37] housing to tyson's urban center i want to thank definitely our staff under tom fleetwood and Anna Shapiro and everyone who's worked on this project SCG that the private partner that has that is working on this project and we are hopeful that we'll be able to see the start of the construction this year on this important important investment so to that I would like to make a motion to prove the County Executive's recommendation on action item number six I'm happy to second that along with Supervisor Alcorn Supervisor Jimenez any discussion on the

[02:59:17] motion any discussion on the motion Supervisor Beerman can I just ask one question sure um the location map says Old Meadow Road and that's what's said on Google Maps but the term sheet says Old Meadow Drive do we know which one it is and let's make sure it's right mr. chairman Tom Fleetwood with the Department of Housing and Community Development that's a editorial error it's old meadow road and uh we'll be happy to correct that okay thank you sorry supervisor beerman demonstrating he reads every word from these packages uh any further discussion seeing and

[02:59:54] hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed 30 nay any abstentions and that motion is approved nine to one and that brings us to action item number seven which is authorization for the fairfax county redevelopment and housing authority to make loans to subsidiaries of lincoln avenue capital of up to 11 million dollars to finance phase two of the residents at government center two development in the braddock district supervisor walkinshaw thank you mr chairman this is one that we've spent a lot of time on i think we've transferred the property three different times public hearings but but it is really going to be

[03:00:34] a great project for us and i'm really excited about it as we've said before 279 units one thing that's worth pointing out 53 of those units will be ada units which is it's tough to get that number in this kind of project because they are more expensive so really happy about that 15 000 square feet of community space and a daycare facility desperately needed in this part of the county a a brand new and and i think it's going to be a really wonderful amenity not just for the residents but for anyone who works at the government center complex or visits the government

[03:01:09] center complex a pedestrian promenade linking a government center parkway with with the complex itself rooftop solar earthcraft gold and also stormwater improvements and as folks drove into the complex today you can see that we're doing a major stream restoration project just east of where this will be we recently completed one just west of where this will be and and the need for those projects is we got so much pavement and such large parking lot out there so this is going to be a real improvement all around for us so with that Mr. Chairman I move the move approval of the county

[03:01:47] executive's recommendation on action item number seven. I'm happy to second that with a lot of folks including Supervisor Palchik chair of our housing and human services committee is there discussion on the motion Supervisor Palchik? Just want to add my math may not be correct but I believe we're up to 825 units in our three approvals today.

[03:02:09] So thank you and congratulations to Tom Fleetwood's team and to our board's continued commitment to the needs of affordable workforce housing in our community. - Thank you, Supervisor Pouchek, Supervisor Walkenjohn. - No, that's wrong. - Just, no, no, you're absolutely right. I was just, one thing that I forgot to mention, because I think we probably don't talk about this enough.

[03:02:29] For this project, the cost to the county, $90,000 per unit. So everything I just described, we're getting for about $90,000 per unit. The units, the ADA, the pedestrian promenade, the community space, the daycare facility, for $90,000 per unit because we're leveraging so many other funding sources.

[03:02:50] So thank you to staff for doing a great job for that and all of our partners on this project. A true public-private partnership, and I know we're looking forward to Cornerstones operating some of the facilities at this location. And I think another important point to point out, similar to the last item, too, is these are serving residents from at or below 30 percent up to 70 percent of AMI.

[03:03:14] And so this is also serving a critical income area. And lastly, on this particular one, we're doing this right here on the front yard of the government center to demonstrate not only the importance of affordable housing to this board, but also to the county and the county's economic success.

[03:03:32] And so having seen a lot of the architecturals and layouts, I mean, this will be a phenomenal development, very similar to in terms of quality to what was already built on the government center complex on the other side of the building. And so a great opportunity to take underutilized asphalt and transform it into something environmentally friendly, useful and something that can support not only our folks who need affordable housing, but the overall economy of the county.

[03:04:02] And so it's been through a long journey, but a successful one and looking forward to getting this item improved and getting the construction underway. And as you acknowledged, thanks staff on their work on all of these. These are incredibly complex deals to get to this point and require just hundreds and hundreds of hours of staff time.

[03:04:23] And we appreciate that. So with that, all those in favor of action item seven, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Harrity nay. Any abstentions? And that motion is approved 9 to 1. And that brings us to the end of our action items. Before we break for closed session I'm going to turn to Supervisor Smith who has some announcements about some additional deferrals this afternoon. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

[03:04:51] I am going to defer the 3.30 hearing for the Agape property management to March 19 at 3.30 and then at 4 p.m i have the acquisition of certain land rights for pleasant valley shared use path and i will have a motion to indefinitely defer that okay so that is our first 3 30 case our last 4 p.m case and we've deferred already our first 4 30 case and as mentioned in here there's a springfield district case uh that is also being deferred did you want to announce Is that Supervisor Herity, just in case anyone is wanting to attend?

[03:05:31] Yes, I'm going to be deferring the public hearing on AF 2023 SP0005. Okay. So with all of those changes, let me ask the county attorney how long we need for closed session. Mr. Chairman, I estimate at least two hours, 45 minutes.

[03:05:50] Two hours and 45 minutes. Okay. So what we're going to do is people, we're going to have to go get our lunch. Is that right? then go into closed session okay so if everyone can be in closed session it's 12:38 right now if everyone can be in closed session at 1 o'clock we will begin closed session at 1 o'clock we only have one 3:30 item left on the schedule so we're gonna be starting probably closer to 3:45 to allow us the full two hours and 45 minutes and so if everyone can get their lunch report in

[03:06:27] to close session at exactly one o'clock should this motion be approved supervisor smith thank you mr chairman i move that the board of supervisors recess and go into closed session for discussion and consideration of matters enumerated in virginia code section 2.2-3711 and listed in the attached agenda for this meeting and in addition as permitted by virginia code section 2.2-3711 a 7 and 8 discussion regarding the following proposed bankruptcy plan submitted by endo international plc to resolve opioid litigation claims washington gas versus zinner

[03:07:06] et al fairfax county circuit court case number cl-2022-2942 and cl-2022-3061 possible construction contract claims associated with the sorenson gross company contracts and town of vienna virginia i'm sorry town of vienna virginia versus board of supervisors case number one colon 12-cv-514 u.s district court for the eastern district of virginia and as permitted by virginia code section

[03:07:42] 2.2-3711 a1 interviews for the police civilian review panel liaison and related discussion You've heard the motion has been seconded by Supervisor Palczyk. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye.

[03:08:01] Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. We will begin closed session in 20 minutes at exactly 1 o'clock.

[03:08:10] The board is just coming out of closed session,

[03:09:01] and we do have a couple motions to make coming out of closed session. Before I do that, I am going to turn to Supervisor Smith. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors certify that, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the open meeting requirements by virtue of Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which closed session was convened, were heard, discussed, or considered by the Board of Supervisors during the closed session.

[03:09:34] You've heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palczyk. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. I am going to turn the gavel to Supervisor Smith so that I can make two motions.

[03:09:52] First, I move that the Board of Supervisors approve the bankruptcy plan proposed by Endo International PLC and its affiliates in case number 22-22549, which is pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

[03:10:09] I'll second that with Supervisor Palachuk. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Vice Chair Smith. Secondly, I move that the Board of Supervisors authorize county participation in the proceeding of the Federal Communications Commission relating to the notice of proposed rulemaking regarding cable operator and DBS provider billing practices in MB docket number 23-405, as well as future FCC consumer protection proceedings on the terms and conditions outlined by the county attorney in closed session.

[03:10:48] Seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion on the motion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? That motion passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much. At this time, we are going to move to our afternoon public hearings and just a few announcements.

[03:11:07] Individuals wishing to provide testimony have had a number of options. They can testify here in person or they can provide testimony by phone or 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 or their video will be shown or they will be connected live by telephone.

[03:11:26] There will be an opportunity for anyone else here present who would like to speak to the application to come down to the podium or at home to call in at 703-324-1020. Speakers testifying via video must have signed up and submitted their video no later than 9 a.m. on the day prior to today's hearings.

[03:11:46] For all testimony, you are given three minutes to speak as an individual. If you are the spokesperson for a group, you are given five minutes. With that being said, I know our first case is being deferred, which is a public hearing on PCA 79-C-089-02, RZ 2022-SU-00013, SE 2022-SU-00030,

[03:12:16] and SEA 00-Y-017-02, Agape Property Management, LLC in the Sully District, Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[03:12:30] I move that the Board of Supervisors defer RZ 2022-SU-00013, PCA 79-C-089-02, SC 2022-SU-000030, and SCA 00-Y-017-02 to a date certain of March 19, 2024 at 3.30 p.m.

[03:13:00] The Chair will second that motion. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have a public hearing on SE 2023-SP-00016, 11 Valley Road, LLC, in the Springfield District.

[03:13:26] And if the applicant, when they are ready, can please reaffirm the affidavit. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Lynn Strobel. I represent the applicant, and I reaffirmed the affidavit that is dated January 11th, 2024. Thank you.

[03:13:46] Thank you very much. Ms. Strobel, are there any disclosures from board members? Any disclosures from board members? Seeing and hearing none, at this time I'd recognize county staff for a staff presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am Tabitha Cole with the Department of Planning and Development.

[03:14:02] This afternoon, I will be presenting the special exception request for a lot width waiver by the applicant 11 Valley Road, LLC. The subject property is a vacant lot located at 11433 Valley Road, just east of the intersection with Highland Place.

[03:14:18] It is owned to the R1 District and has an area of 3.83 acres with a width of 200 feet. Nearly 50% of the property is covered with existing tree canopy, and the remainder is disturbed area. The site was previously developed with a single-family detached home and accessory structure that were demolished around 2010.

[03:14:39] The site is abutted by a conservation easement to the south, and residential use, also zoned R1, to the north, east, and west. Most of the surrounding area is developed with single-family detached homes, and the comprehensive plan recommends a density of 0.5 to 1-acre dwelling unit per acre for this area.

[03:14:58] The applicant requests approval of this special exception to waive the minimum lot width, allowing the site to be subdivided into three residential lots that are accessed by a shared pipe stem drive. The configuration of the lots would result in a lot width of 10 feet each, as shown on this graphic.

[03:15:18] Each of the three lots would be developed with a single-family detached dwelling that would each be served by private septic drain fields and public water. The development would result in an overall density of 0.78 dwelling units per acre, which is within the recommended density of the comprehensive plan and in conformance with the zoning district.

[03:15:37] Along the frontage of the property, a five-foot-wide sidewalk would be constructed to connect to the existing sidewalks in the neighborhood. The applicant proposes to manage stormwater quantity and quality through the installation of three urban bioretention facilities, one for each proposed lot.

[03:15:54] There are also two outlots proposed with this application, as highlighted in green on the graphic. These outlots would function as tree preservation areas and common space. The applicant proposes to reforest and preserve 51,000 square feet of the subject property through the creation of outlots A and B.

[03:16:13] Development conditions are proposed to ensure a tree preservation easement is created for both outlots to prohibit the removal of any healthy trees. Additionally, the site would be landscaped with a variety of Category 2, 3, and 4 deciduous trees and Category 2 evergreen trees.

[03:16:33] Shown here are the conceptual elevations as provided in the development conditions. Each home would be constructed in accordance with an approved green building certification program, and all garages would feature appropriately sized electrical panels to accommodate EV charging to be installed separately if requested by the resident.

[03:16:54] The panels will be able to accommodate Level 2 EV charging stations. With approval of this application, the site would be governed by development conditions and an SE plat to provide for more pervious area, tree preservation, buffering, and a higher quality of landscaping and stormwater management than would be provided if the site was developed by right.

[03:17:16] With the exception of the waiver to minimum lot width, the applicant is not requesting any other waivers or modifications to the zoning ordinance. Overall, staff finds that the proposed application to be in conformance with the comprehensive plan and requirements of the zoning ordinance.

[03:17:33] This concludes my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, I would recognize the applicant for an applicant's presentation. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of the board.

[03:17:51] again my name is Lynn Strobel I represent the applicant I will provide just a brief presentation because this is a waiver of minimum lot width and there are some unique circumstances here that merit its consideration and hopeful approval by this board so I won't go into a lot of the details as those were covered by Ms. Cole but I'll simply say that you can see by just the zoning map that this is an area where there have been a lot of large lots and And these large lots have been subdivided in numerous ways over the years.

[03:18:25] So the proposal is to waive the minimum lot width. And I just want to emphasize that the proposed density at 0.78 dwelling units per acre is in conformance with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan. In addition, this proposal has environmental benefits.

[03:18:43] In addition to what would typically be called tree-save area, the applicant is providing tree-save within designated outlots. so they will be in protected easements they will not be taken down and the area that is being preserved is over 51 000 square feet we also have a robust planting plan and again additional tree save that are within those limits of clearing and grading the unique circumstances associated with this proposal really have to do with the fact that it went through a buy right subdivision process that was almost completed when a conflict arose between zoning administration

[03:19:23] and VDOT. An outlot was established adjacent to the eastern property line to address a Fairfax County concern for separation with the adjacent subdivision. VDOT, however, deemed that unacceptable because it was not in accordance with its regulations unless access to the street was provided from the adjacent lots, which really was not feasible.

[03:19:46] But when the road was moved to the property line, zoning determined it would create two front yards, possibly impacting existing home setbacks and future accessory structures that could not be in a front yard.

[03:20:01] So the suggested solution that was actually suggested by Fairfax County was to pursue a special exception to modify the minimum lot width. So that is the application that is before you this afternoon. And to justify the modifications, the homes were located to maximize tree preservation.

[03:20:21] And as I noted, those are within protected easements. Outlot A and B are the protected easement areas. And the proposed lots, they could be larger to be comparable with surrounding adjacent lots. But the objective was to maximize the size of outlots A and B and those trees that are there.

[03:20:43] Impervious area was reduced from 27% on the buy-write plan to 15% with the use of a private street. It does not have a cul-de-sac, and it was shortened, so there is less impervious area. It is, this layout is in fact the definition of low-impact development because we are meeting pre-development conditions and again providing large tree-save areas.

[03:21:09] And just for comparison, you can see kind of where this property started and then where we've ended. And I think where we've ended is a much better solution. With regard to Purdue's proposed density, we are comparable. If you look to the north, you can see a subdivision at 0.74 dwelling units per acre.

[03:21:29] To the west, 0.71. And right next to the application property, 0.86 dwelling units per acre. would just emphasize that on the application property all setback requirements are being met all zoning ordinance are being met with the exception of minimum lot width and all of the and then also this is in accordance with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan very briefly we did do some outreach here we do have a favorable recommendation from the Springfield district land use committee from the staff and from the Planning Commission and with that I would ask for your favorable consideration this

[03:22:06] afternoon, and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff or the applicant? Any questions of staff or the, Supervisor Alcorn? Yeah, just on, I guess, a question for staff, if anyone knows. This is not the first time I've heard of VDOT moving to implement this policy, and I don't even know if it's an old policy or it's just being enforced or if it's a new policy, but is this the type of thing, are they not showing the flexibility on the multiple connection?

[03:22:37] That's a very interesting and deep question. Their policy is to have interconnectivity. And in this situation, I think they had a hard time with their secondary site access requirements where, as the applicant has pointed out, you have individual properties that are adjacent to this and there's almost virtually impossible to get access easements through those individual property owners.

[03:23:12] And I mean, VDOT basically was holding on to their regulations once they knew that there was a relief through the special exception process. And fortunately for this application, the special exception process, as the applicants pointed out, has led to a better design because it's less pavement we're getting more tree preservation as a result of it but to your point I mean VDOT is upholding that regulation and it really is a case-by-case situation okay well I'm glad it's being worked out here but this may be something that we would want to bring to a committee maybe

[03:23:49] the transportation committee because it's this is going to be a real problem in some communities i'll give you a more direct sorry i'll give you a more direct answer no we tried i was just going to say exactly supervisor herity we tried and supervisor herity was kind enough to coordinate a meeting with vdot and um for everything that makes practical sense we couldn't get there so that's why we're here before you this afternoon okay uh any other questions of staff or the applicant seeing and hearing none uh 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

[03:24:29] on this subject? This is a public hearing. Anyone present who would like to testify? Seeing no one, let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No callers. I assume the applicant waives rebuttal. Closing comments and a recommendation from county staff. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. On February 7th, the Planning Commission recommended approval to the Board of Supervisors for this special exception, and staff agrees with this recommendation. Thank you.

[03:24:55] Thank you very much. Last call, questions from board members? Seeing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Herity for a motion. Yes, Mr. Chairman. First, let me just thank zoning staff, LDS, FCDOT, for their work on the application.

[03:25:11] And this, we did have a number of meetings very early on in this, trying to figure a solution. We've had the opportunity to meet with the community on the project, and we've addressed their primary concerns. The project was unanimously approved by the Springfield Land Use Committee on January 30th.

[03:25:29] It has the unanimous support of the Planning Commission and a staff recommendation for approval. At this time, I'd like to ask the applicant to confirm their agreement to the proposed development conditions dated February 12th, 2024. Yes, the applicant's agreed with the development conditions. Thank you.

[03:25:47] Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors approve SE-2023-SP-00016 subject to the development conditions dated February 12, 2024. Heard the motion. It's been seconded by Supervisor Palchuk. Any discussion on the motion?

[03:26:06] Any further discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? That motion carries. Thank you. Next, we have a public hearing on AF2023-MV-00002, Holly Spring, in the Mount Vernon District.

[03:26:30] And if we can have folks who are here for that hearing to come on down. There is no affidavit for this application, so as soon as county staff is ready, I would recognize county staff for a presentation.

[03:26:53] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is Sophia Fisher with the Department of Planning and Development. This application requests to establish the Holly Spring local agricultural and forestal district for an eight-year term. The 26-acre property was previously included in the agricultural and forestal district program as the Nippling local district, but expired.

[03:27:17] The proposed district is similar to the original district established in 1988, and the property has continuously been owned by the Nippling family for about 40 years. The property is zoned residential estate.

[03:27:33] It is planned for low-density residential as well as private open space. The property is primarily forested with two meadow areas in addition to the cleared area around the residence. The site is in the Cain Creek Watershed and contains environmentally sensitive features as shown on the map.

[03:27:56] A soil and water quality conservation plan was prepared. Recommendations include nutrient, pest and pasture management, and erosion control. The area forester inspected the property and recommended removal of invasives and reduction in the size of the deer herd.

[03:28:15] The proposed district satisfies the applicable group A criteria and two of the applicable group B criteria. It also meets the minimum district acreage and other requirements of the code. It should be noted that there have been no substantive changes to the district since the previous district expired.

[03:28:34] Should it be reestablished, it would be expected to meet all other ordinance provisions. This concludes my presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. At this time, it's not required, but if the applicant would like to share any thoughts, we would welcome those. My name is Gary Nippling, and I live at the place.

[03:28:58] And thank you for letting me come before the board to present this application here. Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. Let me ask if there's any questions of staff or the applicant. No questions of staff or the applicant?

[03:29:15] Okay. Sir, you can have a seat if you want. Thank you. I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this subject? Anyone present who would like to testify? Not seeing or hearing anyone.

[03:29:31] Let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No one has called in. The applicant waives rebuttal. Closing comments and a recommendation from county staff. The Agricultural and Forestal District Advisory Committee both recommended approval.

[03:29:49] Staff concurs with their recommendation, and I would be happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you. Any questions? Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Stork for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to first off thank Mr. Nippling and his wife.

[03:30:09] They've been great stewards of the land and key parts of Mason X being really the beautiful place to escape, truly get back to nature with all that's there. And again, I thank him for his work for decades and helping to make sure that we have the running trails and biking trails and uses them regularly and also just is just a key part of active member of the community.

[03:30:32] And to set aside this beautiful area as an agricultural district, I think it's a great gesture and we obviously support that. With that, I want to request the applicant state on the record their acceptance of the ordinance provisions dated January 10th, 2024.

[03:30:50] Mr. Nippling, if you could come up here, please. Thanks, Gary. Yeah, if you could just state, I just need you to state for the record that you're accepting the ordinance provisions dated January 10th, 2024. I accept the ordinance dated January 10th, 2024.

[03:31:15] Thank you, sir. With that, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors approve AF-2023-MV-00002 and amend Appendix X, excuse me, Appendix F of the County Code to establish the Holly Spring Local Agricultural and Forestal District subject to ordinance provisions dated January 10, 2024, which were contained in the staff report.

[03:31:42] And the chair will second that motion. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. all those in favor please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries thank you very much chairman thank you and again i want to thank the nipplings for agreeing to reinstate this agricultural and forestry district and to sophia fisher for your work on this as well thank you great thank you thank you thank you all right uh that takes us to our next public hearing uh which i understand is going to be deferred and that

[03:32:14] is a public hearing on AF 2023-SP-0005, AR 2006-SP-003, Shoals Local Agricultural and Forestry Renewal in the Springfield District. Supervisor Herity. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of Supervisors defer the public hearing for AF-2023-SP-00005 to a date certain of March 19th 2024 at 4 p.m so moved you've heard the motion the chair will second that motion is there

[03:32:49] any discussion seeing and hearing none all those in favor of the motion please say aye aye any opposed any abstentions that motion carries and that brings us to our next public hearing which is on af 2023-dr-00003 simonson local agricultural and forestal district in the Dranesville District, and again, there is no affidavit for this type of application, so at this time, I would recognize county staff for a staff presentation.

[03:33:22] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My name is William Nance from the Department of Planning and Development. This application requests to establish the Simonson Local Agricultural and Forestal District for an initial eight-year term. This application includes properties which make up the current Simonson Agricultural and Forestal District, plus two additional properties for a total of 29.81 acres in the Joranesville District.

[03:33:49] The property is zoned residential estate. It is planned for low-density residential uses as well as public parks. Approximately 4.8 acres is used for agriculture, while 22 acres is forested or undeveloped. There are three residential structures on the property, along with the barn and outbuildings.

[03:34:07] This site is in the difficult-run watershed and contains environmentally sensitive features in three areas of the property. A conservation easement has been recorded with the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust on most of the property to preserve and protect the property and historic resources in perpetuity.

[03:34:27] A soil and water quality conservation plan was prepared by the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. Critical recommendations include nutrient and pest management and erosion control. Other recommended items include meadow establishment and record keeping.

[03:34:43] The plan also notes the impressive job done by the applicant to remove bamboo within stream buffers and other areas of the property. 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.

[03:35:04] The proposed district satisfies the applicable Group A criteria and four of the applicable criteria in Group B and meets the minimum district acreage and other requirements of the code. Should it become a district, it would be expected to meet all other ordinance provisions. Thank you.

[03:35:21] Thank you very much. It's not required, but if the applicant would like to share anything with the board, we would welcome that. Nothing, but I appreciate all your time and effort. Excellent. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff or the applicant? Seeing and hearing none, this is a public hearing, and I have no speakers who have signed up in advance to testify on this matter.

[03:35:43] Is there anyone present who would like to speak on this subject? This is a public hearing. Anyone present who would like to testify? seeing and hearing no one let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in no one has called in the applicant waves rebuttal closing comments and a recommendation from County staff thank you the Planning Commission and agricultural and forestal district Advisory Committee recommended approval of the application subject to the proposed ordinance provisions the staff concurs with this recommendation that concludes my presentation thank you I'd be happy to answer any questions thank you very much last call any questions

[03:36:19] from board members. Seeing and hearing none, I will now close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Behrman for a motion. Thank you to county staff for putting this together and for working me through my first agricultural and forestry district meeting here. Mr. Chairman, I request that the applicants state on their record their acceptance of the ordinance provisions dated January 10th, 2024. Yes, we accept. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Board of

[03:36:52] Supervisors approve AF-2023-DR-00003 and amend Appendix F of the County Code to establish the Simonson Local Agricultural and Forestry District subject to ordinance provisions dated January 10, 2024.

[03:37:12] Chair, we'll second that along with Supervisor Smith. Any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Thank you very much.

[03:37:30] All right. We have two public hearings here. One that's going to be deferred. First is a public hearing on the acquisition of certain land rights necessary for the construction of Pleasant Valley Road, shared use path in the Sully District. Supervisor Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[03:37:46] I move that the Board of Supervisors indefinitely defer the public hearing on the acquisition of those certain land rights necessary for the construction of Project ST-000036-013, Pleasant Valley Road Shared Use Path Project.

[03:38:03] Heard the motion. The chair will second that, along with 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. Next, we have a public hearing that has been withdrawn.

[03:38:22] this next one, so let me verify with the county attorney. We don't need to dispose of that, correct? It was already done this morning by board matter? Mr. Chairman, I think a motion should be approved allowing its withdrawal from your agenda.

[03:38:39] Okay, so let me announce it. It was a public hearing on acquisition of certain land rights necessary for the construction of improvements to bus stop number 01655 Commerce Street Westbound at Brandon Avenue in the Franconia District, Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[03:38:55] I move that the 4.30 p.m. public hearing for the acquisition of certain land rights for the construction of bus stop improvements at Commerce Street, Westbound, and Brandon Avenue be withdrawn as the property rights for the project have now all been voluntarily acquired by the Land Acquisition Division, and condemnation will no longer be necessary.

[03:39:17] The Chair will second that motion. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none, all those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. any opposed, any abstentions. And that motion carries. And that brings us to our next public hearing, which is a public hearing to establish parking restrictions on electronic drive in the Mason District. And as soon as staff is ready, if they could please give us a county staff

[03:39:44] presentation. Good afternoon, Chairman McKay, members of the board. I'm Henry Stein-McCartney, Department of Transportation. This is a public hearing to consider parking restrictions in the mason district on electronic drive from tiros drive to the eastern property boundary of 6211 electronic drive as shown on attachment 2 business owners along electronic drive are seeking relief

[03:40:20] from long-term parking and vehicle storage that diminishes the capacity of parking for other uses the proposed restriction will prohibit commercial vehicles recreational vehicles and all trailers from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days per week. Staff has observed electronic drive over a period of 30 days and documented that long-term parking of commercial vehicles and trailers along the street.

[03:40:47] Based on our findings and staff recommends approval of the parking restriction as proposed. Thank you very much. Are there any questions of staff? 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 on this matter but is there anyone present in the auditorium that would like to speak sir if you could come on down and if you wouldn't mind if you could see the clerk right over here and just give your name and address and then we welcome your testimony oh you can do it afterwards okay welcome why

[03:41:25] don't you state your name and address for the record welcome my name is Bob i'm with hadid carpet cleaning in springfield at the address 6628 electronic drive i've been with the hadid carpet business now for about 10 years uh but prior to that i was the the building owner at 6628 through 32 electronic drive going back as far as 1982 under an llc 6628 electronic drive llc so my experience on electronic drive goes back almost 42 years i look much younger than that but It does go back that far.

[03:42:00] I was a toddler, I think, in 82 when I started. But that said, in the last 15 to 20 years, I've personally witnessed the changeover from a relatively quiet backwater street in an industrial park zoned all the way up through I-6 become nothing but a traffic nightmare for commercial trucks.

[03:42:24] What's happened now is as the laws have changed within the residential districts of Fairfax County, a lot of these truck owners have now decided they can no longer park in the front of their house, so let's find a place to park these trucks. And they've certainly used Electronic Drive, the industrial park area over in Springfield, as that safe haven.

[03:42:44] And while that is convenient for the truck owner to dispose of their vehicle overnight for that purpose, what it then becomes is now a nuisance and other things to the property owners. And we look at it as, for the most part, these truck owners are independent contractors.

[03:43:04] They don't use these vehicles. They use these vehicles for their purposes for revenue and business. as a rule, they're not property owners paying taxes to the county and abiding by the rules of the county for this commercial use. So consequently, they're getting rights to park in the county at no additional cost to them. And whereas, say, if I was the owner of a truck, I'd have to go find a parking place to put my truck. I'd pay a reasonable price to do that. I'd park it there overnight. And the following morning, I'd pick it up and go to work. These gentlemen, these truckers

[03:43:42] for the most part, have decided that this is the safest place to put their trucks overnight. And so now we get the negative impact in our little community there. And while parking in and of itself isn't a nuisance, these trucks don't just park there. They just become an open repair center for these trucks. They do all the repairs, all their maintenance right there on the road, out in broad daylight. And then overnight, they're changing tires. And frankly, it's gotten to the point where they even dispose of all these things, the waste oil, the used tires and whatnot.

[03:44:19] They just line it up where they were parking. So we not only have the negative impact of this used oil all over the property and the streets, but then we have these used tires being stacked up and then anything else they might be carrying if it's a refuge, they dispose of it right there on the street.

[03:44:39] So all these nuisances have led us to one conclusion. We have got to work vigorously as property owners to see that these guys park where they belong. Thank you, Mr. Karate. I appreciate your testimony. And if you could sign in here. Again, I appreciate you coming to testify. Is there anyone else present who would like to speak on this matter?

[03:44:56] This is a public hearing. Anyone else who would like to testify? Seeing and hearing no one else, let me ask the clerk if anyone has called in. No one has called in. Closing comments and a recommendation from county staff. The staff recommends approval of this restriction.

[03:45:13] Thank you very much. Last call. Any questions from board members? Seeing and hearing none, at this time I will close the public hearing and recognize Supervisor Jimenez for a motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move approval to Appendix R of the Code of the County of Fairfax, Virginia, to establish parking restrictions on electronic drive in the Mason District that will prohibit the parking of commercial vehicles, recreational vehicles,

[03:45:41] And any trailer or semi-trailer is defined respectively in Fairfax code 8255-782-5B-1 and 82-1-2A from parking on electronic drive from T-Rose Drive to the eastern property boundary of 6621 electronic drive 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days per week.

[03:46:08] I'm happy to second that motion. Are there any is there any discussion on the motion? Any discussion on the motion? Seeing and hearing none. All those in favor of the motion, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? And that motion carries. Thank you.

[03:46:25] That brings us to our last agenda item, which is public comment. And before we accept public comment from our 10 speakers, just a few reminders. 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.

[03:46:50] 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 of time. I do have 10 speakers who have signed up to testify this afternoon, and our first speaker is Joseph McCormick, who is a caller.

[03:47:15] Mr. McCormick, can you hear me okay? Yes, I can. Welcome. The floor is yours. Thank you very much. I'm a homeowner at Emmerly, and while I am a board member, I'm not speaking as the board. I'm speaking today to express my frustration with the process of the cinder bed bikeway and the communication or lack thereof our community received from your office.

[03:47:39] Chairman Mitae, you yourself spoke at an HOA board meeting many years ago regarding this topic when it was first under discussion. However, since then, we did not receive any further correspondence or information until we were notified by a conservation group regarding the potential development that would take place in our backyard.

[03:47:56] When we approached your office regarding this, we were told that we missed the planning discussion. We were told that letters were sent, but to the builder and not to the management company that was on file. When we asked your office to help us identify how you found the builder's address and not our management company's address online, so we could get the information, we received no answer.

[03:48:18] Now, I'm not sure if this mistake was carelessness or not, But it did deny our community's ability to respond in a timely manner. Also, during this time, when your office needed to be on property for a walkthrough, you had the phone number of our concierge, Lisa Puma, at the time, which allowed you to have somebody to contact and get timely responses, a courtesy that was not provided to us.

[03:48:41] Once we were notified of the cinderbed bikeway, we expressed significant written concerns of the disruption the paths would have to our homeowners, including noise and disruption during building, increased unwanted foot traffic, potential litter, the 24-hour lighting, icing of a footpath in a floodplain, and the horrific environmental impact this would have on a globally rare habitat.

[03:49:05] The responses received from this office have been less than satisfactory. Further, the county already fails to properly maintain an existing pathway that connects Crestley Way to Barry Road. This pathway has become dangerous to walk on following snow or ice. Fallen tree branches have not been removed, and mulling has not been conducted on a regular basis.

[03:49:25] When I asked about this existing pathway, I was told it wasn't ADA compliant, and when I asked about the landscaping cost in order to ensure compliancy, I was told by your office that that was not conducted as a feasible alternative for the Cinderbed Whiteway.

[03:49:41] Now, again, thank you for the opportunity to speak. I wanted to express my frustrations with the communication and to let you know that, to my understanding as a homeowner, the board is not going to be able to grant an easement, which would require the signatures of myself and the other homeowners of the community or eminent domain to pursue, in which case, if a public hearing is required, I sincerely hope for communication from your office regarding that eminent domain hearing.

[03:50:08] Thank you very much for my time. Thank you, Mr. McCormick. And I'm going to ask Supervisor Lusk's office to reach out with you. This is in the Franconia District. I'm not sure who in my office you spoke with, but I would ask that maybe there's a connection made.

[03:50:26] I know Supervisor Lusk is in regular communication with the Amberley HOA, but we will follow up and see what happened there. um our second i'm sorry i wanted i wanted to say we have received um some communication from supervisor less more more recently and i do thank his office for that again my concern is um the process that when this was planning and taking place that we were not afforded an opportunity um to have that communication thank you okay thank you very much um our second speaker is kristen burns is miss burns here she is if you could come on down please uh and she will be

[03:51:04] followed by uh courtney jones is courtney jones here courtney jones speaker number three speaker number four robert mcahill is here okay um and if when we're getting closer to your time if you can come on down closer to the podium that would be appreciated miss burns welcome good afternoon it looks like it's been another long day for the board my name is kristen burns i am a mother of two children who lost my home and my children in 2011 to domestic violence.

[03:51:38] I have spoken to this board, I believe, three times in 2014. I tried to get across to the board how men who are violent can misuse our protective agencies, including law enforcement. That happened in my case.

[03:51:54] He misused law enforcement, made false reports, had me arrested, used those arrests to take exclusive ownership of my home and ultimately custody of my children. I have also spoken to the board last year regarding the fact that every plate of food that we eat comes from agriculture and in a county of more than one million people we have abandoned ours and it was good to see some agricultural districts restored. We need to start using our resources for the things that really

[03:52:28] sustain our lives i have also spoken with the board regarding the abuse of guardianship law as a victim and a witness of crimes i have seen at the courthouse here in fairfax county somebody who has committed crimes against another person walk into the courthouse with no notice to the other person's family members or other important people file a petition for guardianship get a clerk to assign an attorney to waive the person's legal rights in the proceeding and then take that individual's legal rights.

[03:53:07] I have reached out to a couple of different offices trying to get support for a special session to address those kinds of violations. In particular, there is a statute in Virginia.

[03:53:25] It is 15.2-853. When human rights are being violated, you guys have the legal authority to set ordinances. And these are the kinds of places, housing is another issue I have talked about.

[03:53:44] A living wage brings home $2,000 a month for an individual, and a one-bedroom apartment is $2,100. We need to stop denying we're in a humanitarian crisis, the people who have the authority to help us alleviate that suffering which would be each and every one of you need to start taking an interest in doing so I want to mention one other thing that I think that I haven't talked about with this board but that is important as a victim of stalking and I believe the

[03:54:19] misuse of technology against me we need to stop denying that those things can happen to us i am speaking on behalf of children there's a scam right now that's well that is well reported where somebody can pretend to be a grandchild call a grandparent's phone it looks like their phone number it sounds like their grandchildren that technology exists we need to stop pretending that it doesn't we need to reorganize ourselves as people to push back on

[03:54:55] that kind of technology in fairfax county i will give one important example family services there is a single point of entry it is a different phone number for a child victim an adult victim or a victim of domestic violence or a homeless person now the people who take these phone calls don't know each other so if there's one person causing all four problems there's nobody to go to Now the phone number comes in to a call center or to an individual who can tap into the call center.

[03:55:35] Ms. Burns, I need to have you wrap up. Your time has expired. And I am speaking on behalf of two children as well. Once the report is entered, it goes to a completely different group of people. What they did does not go back to the people who took the initial report.

[03:55:56] There's no checks and balances on the process. We are completely relying on the integrity of our phone systems, that nobody is spoofing our phone lines, and that nobody is corrupting the reporting. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Burns. Thank you for your testimony.

[03:56:11] It is important for us to address that in common sense ways, and I apologize for taking extra time. I am asking for two board members to support, or Chairman McKay to support, a special session on the human rights violations that I believe you have the authority to address.

[03:56:31] Thank you, Ms. Burns. Let me call again for Speaker No. 3, Courtney Jones. Is Ms. Jones here? She is not here. Speaker No. 4, Robert McKay Hill, to be followed by Speaker No. 5, Sally Horn. Speaker No. 6, Andrew Pavard.

[03:56:49] Welcome speaker number four, Mr. McCahill. Good afternoon, Chairman McCahill and the supervisors. I'm here today to ask the board to make it clear that there is no place in Fairfax County for a casino, specifically at Tyson's.

[03:57:05] As president, I represent the largest civic association in Vienna, the Northeast Vienna Citizens Association. We're in a part of the town that lies closest to the proposed casino location. Vienna has been deemed one of the best places to live in the United States a number of times.

[03:57:23] Our small-town character and family-friendly focus and large number of community events are some of the reasons why. Vienna and Tysons have existed as different but complementary types of urban communities for many years. I cannot comprehend how a casino could make that relationship better.

[03:57:42] Tysons is an especially bad place for a 24-7 gaming facility, especially in Vienna. Traffic on Maple Avenue. It's already beyond capacity. It would only get worse. A recent traffic study created the level of service along Maple Avenue as E or worse.

[03:58:01] Imagine having a large gaming facility less than two miles away from our borders. This increased traffic would make life worse for our residents and would make it more difficult for our businesses to attract drive-by traffic, as those seeking to dine out or shop would gravitate towards less congested areas.

[03:58:19] A nearby casino could easily lead to lower commercial property values, the closing of our local businesses, and replacement by the type of businesses that co-locate with gaming sites, especially like businesses as pawn shops, tattoo parlors, or the like.

[03:58:38] The negative impact on Vienna's family-friendly image could be enormous. We're also concerned about the negative impact of the casino on our residential property values. I'm sure that you've heard that studies have shown that nearby residential property values decline significantly when casinos are built.

[03:58:56] Finally, the board should consider what you are asking Vienna to absorb. Vienna is the closest town to the proposed casino locations. We, along with Tyson's, McLean, and Great Falls, would be the most negatively affected communities. Vienna, in particular, would be asked to pay the price in terms of increased crime, lower property values, and added traffic congestion, but we would get virtually none of the additional tax benefits as the proposed location for the casino lies outside our boundaries.

[03:59:28] Vienna already pays more than its fair share of taxes to Fairfax County as we tax ourselves for services that the town provides but that are provided by the county elsewhere. It's patently unfair to ask this of Vienna. Thank you. Thank you very much.

[03:59:44] Speaker number five is Sally Horn. Soren, welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Sally Horn, the chair of the Greater Tyson Citizens Coalition.

[04:00:01] Since 2008, we have been advocating for Tysons, where people will want to live, work, and play. Businesses, small and large, will want to locate and can succeed. And traffic congestion and safety challenges associated with growing Tysons are mitigated.

[04:00:19] We recognize that the board's initial communications with the Virginia Senate focused on process concerns because neither you nor we, your constituents, had a seat at the table. Sadly, however, those initial communications have been interpreted as tacit support.

[04:00:36] For example, in the February 6th meeting of the Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee, Senator Marsden said, quote, Fairfax County did not take a position against this legislation. They certainly had some concerns about process issues, end quote.

[04:00:52] Senator Surivel stated at that same meeting, quote, the board of supervisors has not said no. They've said they want some changes to it and they want to talk about it. I am here to ask you to tell the senators and other casino advocates that your initial cautious communications did not constitute support for SB 675. Let me enumerate some of the reasons why a Tyson's casino would be harmful to the county, Tyson's, and the communities surrounding Tyson's. Tyson's is a family-friendly environment with a growing residential base,

[04:01:28] parks, shopping, and recreation. A casino does not complement this mix. A casino would damage the county's ability to continue to attract new housing and commercial construction projects and new Tyson's residents. Problems associated with a casino very well may cause potential corporations to bypass Tyson's and could even cause current businesses to leave. Small local businesses in men around Tyson's are privately worried that a casino likely would cause them to lose business.

[04:01:57] According to the National Association of Realtors, the impact on home values in an urban environment where a casino is built appears to be unambiguously negative. Fairfax County would need to spend potentially large sums of money to address the increased traffic congestion and improve the public safety and social network infrastructures to deal with the well-documented challenges associated with casinos, especially in urban areas.

[04:02:23] Finally, it is highly doubtful that a casino will bring such significant amounts of money to Fairfax that the county would simultaneously be able to give everyone a $500 to $600 tax break, close the current county budgetary and metro funding shortfalls, close the school construction funding gap, and compensate for the current likely temporary loss in commercial tax revenues as casino proponents have suggested. Please let casino supporters know that Fairfax County's Board of Supervisors does not support a casino, will work to discourage reintroduction

[04:02:59] of authorizing legislation, and if necessary, work to encourage rejection of such legislation. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Horne. Appreciate your testimony. Speaker number six is Andrew Prevord to be followed by speaker number seven, Jim Battle.

[04:03:15] Welcome, Andy. Good evening. I am Andy Pavard. I'm a resident of Providence District. As you know, the General Assembly may direct a study of the proposed casino in Fairfax County. It is important that such a study be objective and unbiased.

[04:03:32] Since the argument for casino and Tyson's rests largely on the revenue it generates, we should look very carefully at any such study, and we should look at three different things, at least. First of all, the substitution effect.

[04:03:49] Studies show that most casino revenue comes at the expense of other local businesses. Casino tax revenue is a substitute for tax revenue lost when local businesses lose customers. A recent Federal Reserve study recognizes that substitution effects may be so powerful that they overcome gaming revenue, leading to net negative revenue for the state and the county.

[04:04:16] And if you don't believe that, if you don't believe the Federal Reserve, take a look at Maryland. Maryland has a $2 billion deficit. Casinos have not saved Maryland. Second, the impact of casinos on real estate values.

[04:04:34] The numerous studies indicate that casinos generate crime, traffic, and other nuisances. This is uncontroverted. These things reduce property values. It is logical to expect that placing a casino in Tyson's Corners will reduce the value of homes in Providence District.

[04:04:55] This logic was validated in a study produced by the National Association of Realtors that found the value of homes in the vicinity of a casino will decline. This reduction in property values will impact Fairfax County revenue. A credible study must evaluate the decline in home values due to a casino and the resulting loss of revenue to Fairfax County.

[04:05:22] Third, the economic cost or the social harm that casino-generated gambling addiction will impose in Fairfax County. There is an abundance of reporting and research that describes how casinos are designed to promote casino gambling, casino gambling addiction.

[04:05:41] I particularly urge the member of the board to read John Rosengrand's How Casinos Enable Addiction in the Atlantic Monthly. Casino operators are good at what they do. They will increase the prevalence of casino gambling in Fairfax County.

[04:06:02] And there's also a huge body of social science that demonstrates the social harm of gambling addiction. personal bankruptcies, depression, crime, and suicide. It should come as no surprise that peer-reviewed social science shows that communities with a casino have higher rates of suicide than communities without a casino. An unbiased, uncredible study will include estimates

[04:06:38] of the cost to Fairfax County for dealing with these social harms. Finally, you know, the principal findings of an unbiased study are easy to predict. I mean, if you spend some time with the literature, it's just overwhelming. The social harm caused by a casino are not worth the mirage of additional revenue. So, of course, if there's a referendum, casino billionaires are going to spend millions of dollars putting out a lot of information. It's going to be up to citizens to combat that misinformation. So we hope you all will join us. We hope you will say loudly and

[04:07:16] no casino in tyson's corner or anywhere else in fairfax thank you thank you mr bevord speaker number seven is jim battle battle welcome and he will be followed by is gene gresco here speaker number eight gene gresco uh okay okay and speaker nine uh dennis hayes dennis hayes here if you could come on down closer uh mr battle welcome thank you i've lived in a residential neighborhood near Tyson's for 40 years. My house is actually less than a quarter of a mile from the back of the

[04:07:53] proposed casino site. A National Association of Realtors studies states that bringing in a casino may decrease home values as much as 10%. Could I interest some of you in buying my house with that kind of a prospect? I want to address people issues related to bringing a casino to Tyson's Corner. A casino would greatly undercut the safety and values of my family-friendly residential neighborhood. The county has nicely paved the Vesper Trail to access the Spring Hill

[04:08:32] metro stop. Now we would have to pass a casino on our way to the metro. Of course, the Vesper Trail also makes it easy and inviting for casino patrons to come into our residential community. A casino would bring danger to children. There are three elementary schools within a mile of the proposed casino, easy walking distance. In my community, Westbriar Elementary School, there are over 1,200 students, many of them walkers. How many of them will come in contact with overflow from the casino?

[04:09:10] Could we ever have a child kidnapped or abused or more from a casino drunk wandering into our neighborhood? That would be a tragedy, and we all know the news climate these days. Instantly, Tyson's corner would receive a huge black eye nationwide. Fairfax County would too. Addiction issues come with a casino. Gambling addicts are the main source of casino income. Drugs, sex trafficking, drinking are fellow travelers with casinos. There are human costs of these addictions. DUI

[04:09:50] accidents, family disruption, bankruptcy, homelessness, depression, even suicide. Don't we have enough of these already. Just the fact of a Senate proposed casino bill now has the whole Tyson's area in limbo for years, waiting for General Assembly action and then a referendum.

[04:10:14] Businesses will think twice before moving to Tyson's. If I was a home buyer, I'd think twice before moving into the neighborhoods. People already there will consider leaving. By the way, no elected official whose district includes the proposed casino has publicly stated support for it.

[04:10:32] we need the board to speak for us loud and clear. No casino. Money is not the object here. Even if the county received 100% of the money, this is a bad idea. Don't hide behind a study process or defer to referendum. Please don't bet our community on a casino. Just say no sooner rather than later. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Speaker number eight is Gene Gresko.

[04:11:10] County Supervisors, over a year ago, you evaluated zoning changes to allow accessory dwelling units.

[04:11:27] After numerous meetings here, and with the Planning Commission, and with extensive citizen input, ADUs are now allowed according to prescribed specifications. However, now the State Senate has advanced proposed ADU legislation, SB 304, which has crossed over to the House of Delegates for consideration.

[04:11:58] This bill would take the ADU decision-making process out of local jurisdiction control and require ADUs under parameters that conflict with what Fairfax County implemented, thus disregarding your hard work.

[04:12:18] Your legislative committee has already stated its opposition to SB 304, but I encourage it and you to reach out to the 15 delegates who represent Fairfax County and stress that SB 304 should be defeated and that local control of zoning be preserved.

[04:12:48] Thank you for helping to stop SB 304. Thank you very much. Speaker number nine is Dennis Hayes, to be followed with speaker number 10, Tyler Ray. Is Mr. Ray here? You can come on down a little bit closer. Mr. Hayes, welcome.

[04:13:04] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the board, thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. Over two centuries ago, Thomas Jefferson observed, the only way to make money at a casino is to own one. True then, true now.

[04:13:21] House always wins. Everyone else loses. There's been a lot of conversation the last couple of months about this, and I can't help but noticing that proponents of this always refer to the extra tax revenue that will be brought in. In fact, it seems like it's the only thing that they ever talk about.

[04:13:39] Now, tax revenue is important. I'm a believer in tax revenue, but we have to look at other considerations, too. If you simply say tax revenue is the only important issue here, then you say, well, any business that provides tax revenue is therefore acceptable. Steel mill, pig farm, toxic waste dump, they all produce tax revenue. But I'm pretty confident that this board would turn all of them down. Why? Because they would be entirely inappropriate for this county. Because your

[04:14:15] constituents would tell you loudly and clearly that they are opposed to it. And because the negatives greatly outweigh any perceived positives. You know, I have to wonder if a casino is such a good deal, why is it that the two senators who keep proposing this don't want it in their districts? I mean, why do they want to push it miles away from where their constituents are? I don't know. Now, the Las Vegas comic guy named Tommy Cooper said, you know, gambling brought my family much closer together. We had to move into a smaller house. Promoters never seemed to

[04:14:55] mention that casinos generate income out of the pockets of our neighbors. And there's a guarantee 100% that a significant percentage of those people will be thrown into financial distress or even bankruptcy. The Gambling Research Institute has determined that 50% of the gambling revenues that goes to governments come from problem gamblers. Now, there's a lot of money involved here. We understand that. And the proponents are been freely passing it out. Over

[04:15:32] 1.2 million so far is reported. And I'm sure there's a lot more of that to come. But having campaign funds is not the same as having votes. And I think you have to look at saying whether as many ads, as many TV reports as you can put out there, balance out the fact that you're going against the wills of your citizens there.

[04:15:56] We look to you. We look to you as our elected officials to protect us from special interests who believe that money overpowers common sense. We look to you to stop downstate officials from dictating what is best for Fairfax.

[04:16:14] We look for you to send a message that Fairfax is not to sell. And I'll finish. There's an old English proverb from the 16th century. He says, the best throw of the dice is to throw them away. Thank you.

[04:16:31] Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hayes. Appreciate your testimony. And our final speaker is Tyler Ray. Mr. Ray, welcome. Great. Thank you all so much.

[04:16:48] I'm here today with my husband, Brian, concerning an emergency matter that only the Board of Supervisors can address. On February 7th, a site plan for a massive by-right data center and electrical substation was submitted for Plaza 500 in the Mason District. It would be the fifth largest data center by square feet and the closest to residents in the county, only 300 feet away.

[04:17:09] In 2022, when a rezoning application came before the Planning Commission, the commission and staff were concerned about the signing of a data center here, that they indefinitely deferred the application after indicating to the developer that they would deny the application if a data center was proposed.

[04:17:25] Unless you take action, this site plan will move forward without any public input or board review. I'm begging you to follow your own words and take immediate action, and I have a short two-minute video to show. And I want to thank my colleagues for supporting the motion that I made to develop higher standards for data centers in Fairfax County, and that matters.

[04:18:00] We asked our staff to give us an ideal set of recommendations to deal with data centers because of the alarming numbers that are happening in other jurisdictions that have not happened here. To make sure that if we're going to do any data centers in Fairfax County, even if it's one-fifth or one-tenth of what other people are going to do, the ones we do in this county are going to be done at the highest standard we can possibly foresee.

[04:18:25] This application meets that highest standard of recommendations that is being considered by our board to adopt as a county-wide standard for any other data center that might, might come into the county. I really appreciate all the public participation.

[04:18:41] that input helped to prompt real improvements to the application at this public hearing at the planning commission hearing in other community meetings and in countless correspondence we've heard concerns about noise visual impact energy demand water quality and the like but we've also heard how thoroughly this applicant has addressed these concerns by submitting a more robust proffer package that any data center applicant has previously provided in this county comes before the board's been able to kind of discuss and issue our guidance on data centers

[04:19:18] you have a data center that's met what i anticipate our future board standards are going to be for data centers in fact everything i've heard and understood exceeds some of those standards i also have an opportunity to establish standards that are the highest in the commonwealth if not the highest in the nation and i think the work of this application and the work that staff has done with our data center report put us on that path i agree with supervisor jimenez moving forward i would like to see us go even further

[04:19:54] it is about doing this responsibly and what message would it send if we're accepting things with you know accepting a data center without stuff from the data center report but i got news for you there's a lot of proffers here there's a lot here with this data center that matches this report i will also support making sure that this is the standard on any data center that comes into fairfax county because frankly we need to be setting the nationwide standard on these thanks i know my time's almost up i'm just begging you please start the process to remove by right

[04:20:33] otherwise this data center is going to go forward it's completely against what you voted on and based your support for the gentility data center on reopen your business meeting offer a motion from the floor to advertise the planning commission hearing on the matter the work's been done for you the staff has completed their data center report you have a proposed amendment text in your folder along with letters going back to May 2023 of our community raising this specific concern with you you also have a community that has rolled up our sleeves and is offering to support to see this happen thank you thank you very much for your testimony and I will

[04:21:11] follow up with you afterwards but I do understand that this particular application is by right meaning that it doesn't have any public hearings scheduled with it and of course all the testimony that was just shown on the screen was relative to a rezoning case in which we had a set of proffers and a public dialogue here and so this is one of the unfortunate byproducts of by right development and one of the reasons why you know we want to encourage rezonings of these applications so that they can adhere to the very standards that were just mentioned in the testimony of myself and my colleagues and I do

[04:21:48] know that we're working as quickly as we can to modify our zoning ordinance to make as many of those requirements that were mentioned at our public hearing material elements of our zoning ordinance and I believe we're going to be discussing this in the next couple weeks in a development process committee so stay tuned and appreciate your testimony thank you the board basically has 60 days to act before the county's forced to accept the site plan which would grandfather in this application and so time is up the essence yeah which is under state code uh rules exactly okay thank you very much for that and that brings us to the end of our meeting of february 20th 2024

[04:22:25] and the board is adjourned

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