Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Housing Committee, Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Date: Tuesday, June 18, 2024
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 16m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3417
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 2026-11-01. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:02] Good afternoon. I am Supervisor Dahlia Palczyk of the Providence District and Chair of our Housing Committee. And we are very delighted today to be meeting here with our Housing Committee.

[00:00:18] We are joined by three of our excellent staff. Tom Fleetwood, the Director for Housing, Anna Shapiro, Deputy Director, and Megan Van Dam. I should know her title, but she'll announce it soon. and we do have it doesn't look like a full agenda but they're very meaty topics but before we get into them if we could go ahead and see if there are any questions or comments you should have received the meeting summary from our February 27th housing committee any feedback comments

[00:00:54] from our board members okay excellent then with that we will move on to our two topics The first one is going to be about taking stock. We always appreciate this, and there's quite a bit on the agenda and the work program for the Housing Committee, but really seeing our progress on housing initiatives and the development that will be led by Tom and Anna, followed by our For Sale Workforce Dwelling Unit Comprehensive Plan Amendment, which, as you are all aware,

[00:01:28] Tyson's already has the WDU for sale policy, and this is looking at the countywide plan amendment. And then we'll have a little bit of time for additional business, other business, and our next meeting is scheduled on October 15th at 1.30 p.m.

[00:01:46] So to that, let me turn it over to Tom Fleetwood. I'm pretty sure Chris has nothing to say. So Tom Fleetwood, if you'd like to kick us off on our taking stock presentation. Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, and thank you for that very kind introduction.

[00:02:03] I'm Tom Fleetwood of the Department of Housing and Community Development. We're going to start today's presentation with just touching on kind of an overall survey of some of the priority work of the Department.

[00:02:19] And we'll go ahead and jump right into it if we can. Number one, with respect to the capacity of the Department of Housing and Community Development, I wanted to start on a note of thanks to the Board for the additional resources that have been provided as part of the FY25 budget.

[00:02:37] We are indeed very grateful for those resources, and those are going to be really important to our efforts to meet the goals that you've set forth for us. I also want to note with both great pleasure and relief that we have hired our Manufactured housing coordinator who started last week and we're very pleased to have her and she's already jumped in very much with both feet. In terms of our response to homelessness, a few things that I'd like to note. Number one, we're working to establish the temporary overnight shelter

[00:03:16] in Reston as part of an overarching process to move towards the replacement of the Embry-Rucker shelter. Similarly, we are also working towards the replacement of the Eleanor Kennedy shelter at the Pandas site. We're also making progress on delivering new permanent supportive housing units. We have two major projects that are in various parts of the pipeline, one being our project at Westox with Cornerstones and the other being Beacon Landing, which is a partnership of

[00:03:53] lamb center and wesley housing in the city of fairfax we're also preparing to start up our new program funded by the state which will provide for 300 new uh permanent supportive housing vouchers over the next three years with respect to that program just a reminder for the board and the public of what that is again it's 300 new vouchers for permanent supportive housing serving people with serious mental illness and the initial agreement will last for three years and it has a value of 20 million dollars provides for both the rental subsidy and the supportive

[00:04:30] services necessary for people to be successful in their housing we are expecting to start the leasing by this fall and i just i want to you know particularly express my gratitude to our partners at the community services board and at pathway homes we're playing such a critical role in in moving forward with that with respect to our development work i will go through this pretty quickly because i know all of you are quite familiar with it we have so far completed

[00:05:05] 959 new units since january of 2020. you see the the projects there that we've completed and this This includes the ADUs and WDUs serving 60% of the median income and below. The most recent project that we opened was ILDA's Overlook, which is the new senior housing property in the Braddock District with the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing.

[00:05:30] Going forward, we've got over 1,300 units actively under construction. I can say that one university will be delivered this summer. It is almost done. We are underway at SOMOS in the Providence District, the exchange at Spring Hill Metro is also well underway, and we also expect the Autumn Willow Senior Development in Springfield District to deliver this calendar year.

[00:06:03] You can see in our development pipeline, we have almost 850 units in various stages of preparing for financing, et cetera, won't dwell on that. And we have a sort of more future pipeline relative to projects that we're going to be putting out for competition, particularly this calendar year.

[00:06:26] And I'll note that we expect to put out the East County site in the Mason District, the Innovation site in the Drainsville District, as well as the James Lee site in the Mason District this calendar year.

[00:06:44] Thanks to the Board's budget actions, we have a substantial amount of funding to put out for competition to our development partners as well. It's currently $32.2 million in local funds, and our priorities for that funding are the same as that they've been for some time now, targeting 60 percent of the median income and below for new production, preservation of our affordable housing, and the production of permanent supportive housing for formerly

[00:07:15] homeless persons across the county with respect to preservation we have multiple plan amendments that may that may involve affordable housing preservation so we're going to have a lot of work there we anticipate excuse me and we also most recently closed on the preservation of creekside village in the franconia district which is 319 units of affordable housing very close to the high blood valley community center moving forward with respect to manufactured housing again as i

[00:07:52] mentioned our new manufactured housing coordinator is in place your staff both with the department of housing and our partners in the energy efficiency office one fairfax public works and several other agencies have worked very hard to put together the draft price grant application I feel like we are in a very strong position competitively, and we have to -- the deadline was extended to July 10th, and we are putting the finishing touches on it.

[00:08:23] We'll move that forward. We're also preparing to solicit for the Manufactured Housing Repair Program. With respect to inclusionary zoning programs, I wanted to provide a snapshot of how many units have been produced under the adu and wdu program since 2020 and give you an idea of the breakdown of the incomes that have been provided and the pie chart there provides that for you we're anticipating that over the next year an additional 220 units will be delivered

[00:08:59] with respect to home ownership we also have new leadership now in place in our home ownership division we are working on streamlining our processes both for developers and for our buyers to make the to make the process for them much easier much simpler we are also preparing for the implementation of additional down payment and closing cost assistance and again we're preparing to issue the rfp for the james lee site in the mason district and then finally madam chairman

[00:09:36] just a snapshot of where we stand relative to our various activities related to policy development under anna and megan's leadership you'll be hearing in just a moment about where we stand with the wdu comp plan amendment and we also have relocation guidelines that are in process the manufactured housing pilot and the others you see here also in the context of getting had the price grant done. And with that, Madam Chairman, I'm very happy to try to answer some questions.

[00:10:09] Thank you so much, Tom. Very much appreciate that. Quick update. I know it's always helpful for us to see this moving target, and thank you to your staff, and I'm very happy to hear that you've been, I know hiring is difficult these days, that you've been able to hire someone for manufactured housing.

[00:10:31] A couple of questions and a comment. This is all great work. I believe, I don't think you had it in here, for the AMI calculation for 2024. Do you happen to have that? I think we just received it recently for what that is, the average median income. I think I have it for a family of four and an individual, just so that we're, we in the public are aware of that.

[00:10:54] I don't have it off the top of my head, but we can certainly provide that to the board. Okay, that would be, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, sorry, the updated 2024 AMI is for an individual, it's $106,000, and then for a family of four, it's about $155,000.

[00:11:12] Thank you. I knew it had gone up, and I remembered $106,000, but could not remember $155,000, so that's the average median income. I know we're talking about that in the next one, but as we look here at all the units, we were working with the 23 numbers until now.

[00:11:28] I believe it was $128,000, so it has gone up. And especially, I think recently there was an article about us having reached a million dollars for the average sale price, I believe a single-family home in the county. So, I know, incredible.

[00:11:44] More of an issue than ever to make sure that we continue to support and fund every tool we have with the limited land we have to do this. So, before I open it up to my other, sorry, I had one other question. And I know you've mentioned, and I believe July 17th, we're doing the SOMOS groundbreaking.

[00:12:05] Is there, do you have a total amount of how much has been support from the Amazon Fund? I believe they funded at this point a couple, at least one project. So the Amazon Housing Equity Fund has supported three projects in Fairfax County, one of which was a preservation deal in the Mount Vernon District for the city side apartments.

[00:12:27] The other two were new construction, one being the exchange at Spring Hill and the other being Somos. As of right now, the contribution from Amazon for the two new construction projects is in the neighborhood of $75 million. I will, what we can certainly do is come back with a, you know, with more of a snapshot for you of the entirety inclusive of CitySide.

[00:12:53] I appreciate that, and, yeah, if you could come back with that, because I think as we put funding and we hear from the community put funding into our affordable and workforce housing programs, as you know, it is braided the lasagna of funding, and we are only providing a small portion of that.

[00:13:11] So at some point, if we could get just an update to understand this really is public-private partnerships, how much we are leveraging with that new Amazon funding um uh for every dollar we're putting in um how much we're leveraging outside funding i think especially the private sector funding would be very much appreciated very happy to do that thank you um and with that i think those were my main comments the other thing is just to point out here to our colleagues i know we can see it as a competition but really um i appreciate

[00:13:46] those of us and those of you really taking the opportunity to use the county-owned land to be able to leverage that for additional housing. As you know, that is the biggest hurdle is land. We can't produce more of it, and so I appreciate and please help continue to look for opportunities and bring them to the staff as you see pieces in your district that you think might be eligible.

[00:14:12] they can help you do that due diligence as they haven't already to help understand where that is and what could be leveraged. But that really is, in addition to the monetary funding, the land piece is quite critical. So before I turn it over to my colleagues, let me turn it. Oh, Chairman's good.

[00:14:29] I'm good. I was just going to say the next presentation has good information about the AMI in it. So, but no, I'm good on this presentation. Well done. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I knew I'd seen it somewhere. All right, well, let me start at that end. I see Supervisor Jimenez, and then I'll move this way.

[00:14:47] Thank you so much, Madam Chairwoman, and good afternoon. Nice to see all of you. I had a quick question. We were talking about the hiring of the Manufactured Housing Coordinator, which I think is fantastic. Could you give me a little more insight into some of the responsibilities that they will have?

[00:15:08] Certainly Supervisor Jimenez the Manufactured housing coordinator will have primary primary responsibility for Essentially community building within those neighborhoods developing a relationship with the residents assisting them in Identifying raising up their challenges and and identifying resources to address those challenges as well this person will also be Responsible for managing the mobile home roundtable that we will have we're going to have a you know establish a

[00:15:47] Formal group that is made up specifically of the residents of the mobile home of the mobile home communities in the county This person will also be responsible for managing the mobile home Improvement program that we've set up and should we be so fortunate as to be awarded Under the price grant the person that our coordinator will have primary responsibility for that work as well Well, it seems like they're going to be doing some important work. Thank you so much for going through that supervisor less

[00:16:21] Supervisor Jimenez took a little bit of my steam there, but my question is around the manufactured housing coordinator first let me start by saying thank you very much for Bringing this person on board. I know this was not necessarily easy and I get the need that we have relative to my district and the other Supervisors who have manufactured housing I think you started to touch on this a little bit with the response to Supervisor Jimenez, but in those five recommendation areas that we had

[00:16:56] In the manufactured housing task force recommendations. How do we envision this? coordinator going and working towards each of those five recommendations and then what is the maybe the process for prioritizing and then also for reporting back to this board so i'll start with the last question which is accountability through uh through the board we would certainly plan on having that being reported out through the housing committee initially okay uh and depending

[00:17:32] on what the board's needs may be it may otherwise be we can certainly identify other opportunities to do so okay with respect to uh with respect to their duties and the recommendations under the manufactured housing task force uh first of all it's important to understand that this position will sit within our development uh arm under anna's leadership and that of and that of megan and it will be prioritizing for example the work that we're doing on the comp plan amendment relative to manufactured housing relocation guidelines therein as well as

[00:18:10] getting the pilot program up and running so those will be sort of the initial priorities that we'll have moving forward in addition to you know the outreach and community building type activities as well okay that's helpful because that basically touches on those five discrete areas With regard to the timing for the actual home repair program, do you have a sense of kind of what's the proposed schedule in terms of the RFP and then delivering the actual program?

[00:18:39] So, if we could go to my last slide. You can see on there that the RFP is in development. It's largely written. We're going to be issuing it relatively shortly, later this summer, with selection then occurring and getting launched in September.

[00:18:58] Okay. So, then we could envision that we could be actually having people apply and then possibly start working on actual repairs to individual structures as a result of that. That's correct. Just making sure I understand. Okay. That's great. And I guess with that, I'll conclude for now. Thank you very much.

[00:19:19] Thank you very much, Supervisor Lusk. I think the next one is Supervisor Alcorn. Oh, thank you, Madam Chair. On slide five, this is the new Permanent Supportive Housing Partnership. Just to drill down a little deeper, I know the leasing is starting this fall, so I understand that.

[00:19:38] I'm curious about the population that's going to be served by these 300 new vouchers. Do we anticipate that population is mostly currently unhoused? Is it mostly coming out of state facilities or group homes?

[00:19:59] I'm just curious because this is a very specific population, I know. So the main common characteristic will be having serious mental illness, and they'll be referred through the state.

[00:20:16] And I think it'll be a mix of people coming out of state facilities, people being referred through CSB. But these are also going to be people who, in the main, have experienced previous and chronic homelessness as well.

[00:20:32] The primary criteria is serious mental illness. okay all right that's that's helpful i i i'd also and i you're going to be doing this anyway i'm sure but but i know uh the board probably very interested in how this is going getting regular updates um i don't know every few months or so at least at the beginning uh because i know this is i think i've used as you have described it potentially a game changer um for the level of service that we're able to provide to that part of the community um so happy to do that very much

[00:21:06] okay thank you yeah and definitely and i would say being in constant communication as well as you know we don't meet as a committee that often so whether it's through nips or communicating directly i think getting your your input on that would be very helpful thank you uh supervisor herity yeah to stay on that for a minute are are those um vouchers going to be used in our current adu units are you referring to in our currently committed affordable housing or specific to the

[00:21:38] program. Yes. Well, it's certainly possible. Not all of them necessarily will be. But some will be. It's entirely possible. As you're aware, under fair housing in Virginia, multifamily housing providers cannot discriminate based on source of income.

[00:22:08] And they pay full market rent, correct, to the owners? In effect, they would pay full market rent up to the allowed fair market rent, yes. So if it's an ADU, they'd only pay up to that ADU amount, or would they pay full market rent?

[00:22:23] They would pay the ADU rent. All right, that was a curiosity question there. Comment-wise, I guess two comments. One, a little disappointed. As you know, I'm a big fan of home ownership programs because it solves the generational wealth, helps solve the generational wealth issue.

[00:22:46] Just looking at this, we're 0.1% of our units that are in production or planned are homeownership units. Are we doing anything to kind of move the homeownership program along?

[00:23:01] I saw a bunch of bullet points there, but I didn't see any timeline. So certainly a lot of the means that we have at our disposal are aimed at rental affordable housing, and we are, as you pointed out, I think are making significant progress there.

[00:23:21] In the area of affordable homeownership, there is not as much being produced. I think the role that we can help out with the most is on the financing side and providing down payment and closing cost assistance as opposed to new production.

[00:23:39] That being said, though, I think that we're certainly exploring some opportunities using our smaller-scale county-owned land to assist with the development of new homeownership units as well. Could you, and you probably don't have it available, what's the total investment we have right now in homeownership programs?

[00:24:01] I mean, unless you have that available right now. But I'd be interested to see what are we putting into homeownership programs. And I agree with you, down payment, closing cost assistance, where you can knock the payment down to where it's somewhat reasonable versus the rental program.

[00:24:18] I'd love to see those dollars broken out that way. Happy to get that to the board. Right. Thank you. Slide 10. So looking at the last bullet, for formerly homeless individuals, and maybe this is a Chris Leonard question, But I think our homeless population, when they come to our shelters, they're required to show two pieces of evidence that they were former Fairfax County residents, either an eviction notice or a utility bill or a driver's license with the Fairfax County address before we accept them.

[00:25:00] So I'm not able to speak to that. OK, I don't know if Chris is either. OK. It's just my question. Let me just get to my question is, is why are we, as we're looking to build this housing, why are we not looking at restricting it to either our residents or those that work here in Fairfax County as other jurisdictions in the surrounding area do? And have we looked at that? Are we going to be looking at that on any of these? And if not, why not?

[00:25:32] So we have done it in some of our and some of our developments. I will I will say that our development partners tend to believe that they're not as Effective as we would like for them to be especially especially with the working preference But certainly, you know each of these is on a case-by-case basis and that that was an or not any end Well, maybe we can get an update on how that okay that would be good currently and how other jurisdictions are doing it Pros and cons. Thank you

[00:26:06] So I got if I can also follow up, I think the permanent supportive housing was brought up. I think you alluded briefly to the Pathway homes and the support that is provided. It's not just giving people a voucher To live in a place on their own for the permanent supportive housing So maybe as a follow-up if we could also share with us how that a little more detail about how that program were about how permanent supportive housing works exactly certainly and if you could clarify those are 300 uh vouchers it does say um agreement with the state um if you could tell us a little bit more

[00:26:41] my understanding is that is primarily state funded it's entirely state funded thank you uh yes supervisor stork this is maybe not totally appropriate here but i i read it the other day and i wanted to maybe it's part of our legislative package but i wanted to ask you all if you're aware of it that the restrictions on manufactured housing in the federal code really minimize or limit the ability for somebody to come in and use modular units to build housing because it according to the federal code and it has to be connected to some kind of metal frame i know you

[00:27:20] this is totally out of blue you may know something about it but more importantly it may be something that we want to include as part of our our legislative package to support you know supporting the flexibility for people to come in with modular units and build it obviously less expensive potentially less expensive housing but add and decrease our challenges with with building more housing a couple things on that we're you know certainly happy to provide some more detailed information if you like but the the challenge under the existing federal regulations has to do

[00:27:53] with whether or not a mobile home has a chassis yeah right now federal funding can be used to purchase modular housing, manufactured housing that is not also a mobile home. And in fact, some jurisdictions have found success in doing so with federal funding in part because it does not then result in an obligation under Davis Bacon relative to wage rates because you're purchasing a product.

[00:28:24] So certainly part of our journey is going to be continuing to learn about that and identifying as many, you know, as many avenues as we possibly can. The particular thing I read is a bipartisan bill in Congress to look at that because it has to do with anybody, not just people who are procuring, using federal funds to procure, but anybody because of this particular restriction, reducing the amount of, okay.

[00:28:51] We'll definitely want to at least take a look at that in our legislative packages as well. Thank you. Thank you. And then I think only one follow-up I have. Another question that came up is, I believe looking back at this, slide number nine, speaking of home ownership, I only see the piece that was Providence, now Mason District.

[00:29:12] The two pieces own in addition, going for home ownership in addition to the ones we're able to do through our existing home ownership programs. If you could maybe at a future meeting or follow up with us individually about additional opportunities.

[00:29:28] I know you mentioned some small plots of land, county-owned, and if we're looking at additional opportunities and ways to expand after our next presentation, being able to have additional options for homeownership. Thank you.

[00:29:44] All right. Seeing no more questions on that one, I think we are ready to move on to what may be a slightly more lively conversation, but really looking at the For Sale Workforce Dwelling Unit Program, and this is to update our policy plan.

[00:30:04] So there is no vote. Today we are on committee. We are here as an opportunity to hear from staff, to hear from Megan, the Affordable Housing Development Division Director. There you go, I've got your title here, Anna Shapiro, the Deputy Director, on the work they've done with the task force.

[00:30:23] I know they've reached out and offered to give updates to all of us. I hope we have all taken them up on that. And they will, on slide three, go through the timeline as to when it will come before the Board of Supervisors. So to that, let me hand it over. I see Megan holding the pointer.

[00:30:39] Go ahead, Megan. Good afternoon, members of the Board of Supervisors. Thank you so much for your time today, and thank you as well for the time that you've given us over the last few weeks and months. And we're happy to bring forward the final staff policy recommendations for the changes to the For Sale Workforce Dwelling Unit policy.

[00:31:03] So today we'll give a preview of what will translate into the hearings presentation in the middle of July, And we'll go through the timeline of where we've been, where we're going. We'll talk a little bit about the for sale program briefly, go through the task force analysis and their recommendations, the community engagement that we conducted and the feedback that we received, and then the final plan amendment considerations and recommendations.

[00:31:39] So last time we were here at the end of November to talk about the conclusion of the task force and the recommendations. We had the authorization since then, and then we've been conducting with our partners in the Department of Planning and Development, who are also here today, a lot of community outreach and engagement throughout the county and with different industry groups.

[00:32:02] We published the draft text in early March, and we've been to the Planning Commission Housing Committee And we had the Planning Commission hearing last week on these policy changes, and there was unanimous support for the changes. And then we're here today, and we're moving towards, as I mentioned, the board hearing in the middle of July.

[00:32:25] So I don't need to review this in great detail, but this is the overview of the program. As you're well aware, the program is part of our larger inclusionary zoning programs. And we have, this one focuses on development, residential development within development centers.

[00:32:46] And we typically expect county-wide the 12% of the total development as workforce affordable, divided evenly across the 80, 100, and 120% AMI tiers. And that was the focus of the task force.

[00:33:01] And as we have been looking at the changes, we've also been adjusting and have proposed adjustments to some unique areas that have specific recommendations related to the workforce, for sale program and the rental program throughout the county.

[00:33:18] The one that's highlighted here is the Tyson's plan, which has that higher level of expectation for affordable housing and has a bit of a broader range and a deeper affordability range as well. Next slide, please.

[00:33:34] And I should say on this slide, this is a slide that highlights, sorry, this year the individual area median income has increased to $108,000 and then also has the family of four at $155,000. So as you're aware, the task force did look at three main policy challenges related to our ability to move units at higher AMI levels to closing, that the units are priced close to market, they're spending longer times on the market,

[00:34:05] And the majority of them require seller incentives, whether it's a reduction in price or prepayment of fees, closing costs, or condo and HOA fees. The group also looked at our ability to meet the needs of families and larger households within the program, and then also geographic equity, so expanding the program potentially outside of development centers.

[00:34:31] The group also looked at pricing adjustments as well, and just a note on that, since those are part of our administration of the program and not part of the policy, we did bring forward to the county executive for approval the adjusted pricing, so those are published and online now for 2024.

[00:34:51] So I mentioned the primary challenges with the affordability levels. As far as the analysis, we did look at where the market was and how that compared to affordability levels within our program, and we certainly found that the higher AMI tiers within the program were overlapping.

[00:35:10] In this slide, you can see almost one out of two homes on average that were sold in the county, sold at that 120% AMI level, but there were fewer homes at the lower AMI tiers available for potential home purchasers so the the task force took a look at the analysis they did some financial impact analysis to look at what would be the effect of shifting the affordability levels and found that projects there was a sort of a very minimal effect of reducing the AMI tiers

[00:35:48] from 80 to 120 down to 70 to 100 percent, and that would, in that scenario, we would keep the 12 percent assumption, and we would just shift the expectation evenly across that 70, 80, 100 percent AMI levels.

[00:36:10] Next slide, please. The second one I mentioned was related to accommodating larger households and families. We looked at a demand analysis for where the demand is right now and found that there was a high need for units to be provided for those larger households.

[00:36:31] But the challenge in the policy related to the fact that there's only in Tyson's do we expect proportionality in the bedroom mix of workforce dwelling units relative to the market rate units. And when we looked at that, the task force did recommend, and we looked at different financial models, and the task force did find that if we were to expect proportionality in the bedroom mix, that there was a minimal effect on the developments.

[00:37:07] For developments, sort of studios one, two, three bedrooms, When we looked at developments with greater or larger units with four or five bedrooms, we did have larger challenges to project feasibility.

[00:37:24] So the task force did build in a recommendation to have flexibility for developments with four and five units that we could accept three-bedroom WDUs for that. So there is some flexibility built in there, and staff is supportive of that.

[00:37:40] I will say since the task force met, we have been talking with other staff about the issues surrounding the accommodating families. We also recognized that part of the problem with the marketability of these units is that the room sizes, bedrooms and living room sizes, are too small to accommodate those larger families.

[00:38:02] So they are not choosing to purchase some of the units. And it's not across the board. It is just there are certain developments that have this issue. So we are, in order to address that, we are making, in our recommendation, making reference to having these room sizes meet the Virginia construction and maintenance codes.

[00:38:30] So that would be, in effect, a living room size no smaller than 120 square feet and having bedrooms that are at least 70 square feet, and then if you're assuming additional people, there's an additional 50 square feet above and beyond that.

[00:38:48] Finally, the last policy challenge related to the geographic applicability and whether or not it would be possible to have developments that are outside of development centers that are coming in kind of with similar densities that we're seeing in development centers for them to also provide workforce dwelling units within them.

[00:39:09] And I wanted to point out that this is a new map. We have refined the analysis thanks to the GIS work with the Department of Planning Development. So I'll give them a big thank you for that. And what we found when we looked, we were looking for sites that were planned for eight dwelling units an acre or greater within the county that did not have an associated zoning district, so that these might be sites that would be ripe for a potential rezoning application.

[00:39:46] We did find about 20 of them throughout the county, and that these are consistent with what we originally found in our rough estimate, what we talked to you all about in November, which is that most of these are located right near development centers or along major corridors, the majority of which are located along Richmond Highway.

[00:40:08] And there are a couple, there's some sporadically located around the Francone area, Kingstown, Merrifield, Flint Hill, and the Vienna Transit Station area. So the analysis that the task force did remains true that these sites do have, or I should say, they may have and most likely have sales values that are similar or greater than what's in the development center, and we believe that the inclusion of the WDs would still remain feasible.

[00:40:38] So moving on to these next set of slides, I mentioned we have done robust outreach with a number of different business and development groups throughout the county, and then we also next slide please we've also spoken with a number of different community groups and citizen organizations and we held two virtual meetings as well and in general these are the the feedback I'll just say that there was a lot of support for the expansion of the program we have we were pleased to also have

[00:41:17] some you know folks who were not familiar with the program in these meetings and we were able to help them better understand what the the county is offering to support lower and moderate income households so we talked a lot about what the program was and how it operates there was support for the shift of the ami levels when we talked to the business groups i think you know i'll say that much of the concern about the bottom line did come from the business groups. I think they were very interested in what the analysis was during the task force

[00:41:55] and how the task force, which was comprised of representatives from for-profit development. So they were interested in what that conversation was like. And we talked a lot about the trade-offs between having units that are more difficult to sell and the carrying costs that are associated with that and the lack of predictability within that process and so I think there is some understanding of of what the what are the benefits as they relate to

[00:42:29] the the potential costs with that and then we also talked to their support for the expanded geography and I think there were there's I recall there are some questions that related to some of the details about the eight dwelling unit perk your threshold. And so we talked about how that's where the stacked townhouses come into play and that we'd like to make sure we are able to negotiate through the policy in those types of developments. There was also a suggestion to have this apply to developments that are at least 50

[00:43:05] units. We did do some research and found that we do have developments within our program that are less than that. So we would like to not have that threshold as our minimum standard. I'll say that if a developer is having trouble being able to work out the WDUs within their site, we would be open to having that conversation on a case-by-case basis. And so that would be something that we could look forward to if it's needed. The bedroom mix proportionality,

[00:43:41] There's flexibility built within that recommendation for developments with larger units. So we didn't necessarily have a lot of comments on that, but we did have some general comments about including the bedroom sizes and the living room sizes.

[00:43:58] Those will make for larger units. In some cases, as I said, this is not a universal problem. This is really just unselected developments. And, you know, the comment was about the bottom line again for them. But knowing that the majority of our partners are really already doing this, you know, we know that it is feasible and it can work.

[00:44:20] So we think it's really important for us to have that policy in the comprehensive plan. We had some questions about the effective date of the policy and a suggestion to extend the effective date to July of 2025. You know, we understand that, you know, that the development process is -- ooh.

[00:44:41] We understand that the development process, that the performers are developed early on and the inclusion of the affordable housing is part of that from the get-go. But we also think that, you know, this is -- there's been a lot of lead time on these recommendations already with the publication in March, with the task force making recommendations last year. So there has been sufficient time to make adjustments for that. And anything that's a rezoning right now would be negotiated under the current policy. That's what the

[00:45:21] developers are working through now. And I'll just say as well that, you know, we don't want a consequence of sort of moving the effective data also would be that we would continue to produce these units at 120 percent based on the policy, and certainly that's not something that we want to do, and that, you know, delaying that, I think we would have that consequence of keeping those units in the program and producing more of them.

[00:45:49] And then just as a note, as far as the administrative guidelines, this is the kind of the nuts and bolts document of how the program actually works. We are working through those and making the necessary adjustments to them and making some cleanup, and we're expecting to get them this fall to you all.

[00:46:11] So this is a summary of the recommendations. I've gone through most of these. I'll say that there are some additional editorial changes that we found to fax figures that clean up of some of the preservation language. We've also found that in sort of part of that cleanup, We realize that the non-residential contribution rates have not been adjusted since they were adopted into the plan for Tyson's and for the continuing care, as an example.

[00:46:40] We recently adjusted them for the Reston, but those other ones have not been adjusted. So it's outside of the scope of this amendment, but we would like to bring forward an action item to you all, much like the road fund action items are presented to the board to make adjustments to that non-residential contribution rate.

[00:47:01] So in conclusion, we are looking to make sure that the affordability is matched with the need and filling that gap between the ADU program and the market right now for our working families.

[00:47:18] We would, from the development side, we're excited to also see that this would bring units faster to closing and reduce carrying costs and sales incentives. We think this will improve the predictability of the process and the negotiations so that we, since we already have, we'll have the 70% built into the plan.

[00:47:39] And we also have a number of process improvements. And in addition to streamlining our homeownership program, we're trying to streamline this program as well to bring the units to closing more quickly. So I'm happy to end there and answer any questions. Well, first of all, thank you so much to our staff to Megan, Anna, and Tom, to all who participated in the task force and the conversations.

[00:48:03] Clearly, there's quite a bit before us, and in addition to this presentation, remind my colleagues that there's the full staff report as well online, that you have some time to review that before our public hearing on July 16th, right? And just a couple of clarifying questions before I turn it over.

[00:48:23] So the number of units, when you're talking about the eight dwelling units, that's the minimum, right, per acre or greater. You mentioned stacked townhouses. Do you have a sense if that includes, I assume it includes triplexes, and does it also include non-stacked townhouses that are maybe narrower than regular townhouses?

[00:48:51] Yes. So townhouses also fall under that same density. And triplexes would be typically greater in density than 8 dwelling units per acre. So multifamily would be part of that. So triplexes could be upwards of 20 dwelling units per acre, 16 to 20 dwelling units per acre.

[00:49:12] So just go. And then another clarification question. You mentioned that there are very few, when we're talking about the minimum bedroom size and living room size, very few current developments that were impacted. Did you have an opportunity to connect with some of those or all of those developers to understand if this really, you know, would prevent them from being able to build in the future?

[00:49:39] We have not asked them that specific question about preventing them from building in the future. We have heard from them that it would affect their bottom line, but we have not heard that it would prevent them from building developments in the future.

[00:49:57] Okay, but they were looped in and they were generally, I understand, comfortable with this proposal. Yes, yes. I don't want to characterize it as comfortable, but, I mean, they're certainly, They did provide comments on it, and I don't know that we've heard an absolute objection from it.

[00:50:18] No, and I appreciate that because I know I do have concerns about seeing some of those units that they technically check the box of the number of bedrooms and having the living room, but I've had concerns about the size of those spaces. So I appreciate that we're including that here very much.

[00:50:36] and then my only other question you brought up the next steps of updates looking at non-residential are we able to look at that more regularly you did bring up the you know the road contributions and others and how we update them regularly is this something that we can bring into that regular updates program as well per per county policy per the comprehensive plan right now it is supposed to be an annual update this is supposed to be it is supposed to be an annual update okay So the plan moving forward is that this will be an annual update. Yes. Okay, and hopefully the new staff can help us with that workload

[00:51:12] I appreciate that having been through some difficult ones. It's worth every unit we get We know there just is not enough housing being built in the county hasn't been for probably two decades So thank you for your work on this Let me turn it over to the chairman and then I'll start with supervisor vice chair Smith I just want to thank the staff who worked on this and particularly the task force, I know Candace Bennett chaired that for the Planning Commission.

[00:51:41] This has a unanimous vote of support from the Planning Commission and thank Commissioner Phil Nijelski-Eichner and the Commission for weighing in on this and helping shape this. I look at these recommendations, most of them, as long overdue and common sense, and I think if you look at the folks who were involved in making these recommendations, you will find it to be very comprehensive.

[00:52:06] And so I'm looking forward to us adopting this in July and then, frankly, closely monitoring it thereafter, as was mentioned before, because I do think while we're making these changes today, they're based on the market reality and what we're hearing from people today.

[00:52:22] And we know in an instant that can change. And so I think it's important for us as we move forward to maintain flexibility. And when we look at these and do them with regularity, just so that we're making sure we take advantage of every opportunity out there, but also doing that in a fair way, understanding the challenges that the development industry and others have in producing these units.

[00:52:43] And so very well done. Great presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I appreciate your comment. I want to point out, I appreciate that I think it's slide eight. It says that it's the point in time analysis, right, of potential WDU expansion area. So I appreciate using that language and why, especially in the shifting market, we need to continue to have that annual point-in-time update.

[00:53:07] So thank you. Vice Chair Smith? Thank you. I just want to make sure I understand the piece about the policy for areas planned for eight dwelling units an acre. So you have the map on slide 8, and it says staff recommendation to extend WD policy to areas planned for eight dwelling units an acre.

[00:53:28] And then on slide 11, where it was expanding the geography, but there were questions about the proposed density threshold and suggestions to increase applicability threshold. And so right now, if I'm understanding this right, this is looking for where it's planned.

[00:53:45] But if there's a rezoning to eight dwelling units an acre, would it apply there, too? Yes, that is correct. So the plan would inform whatever decisions, the analysis for that rezoning. Because, you know, the map doesn't look too good for me out in Sully, so I wanted to make sure that would be covered.

[00:54:05] Thank you. I appreciate you brought that up, because I think as we look closely, it's pretty small in print. There are only, I believe, three at most districts currently impacted, but that could change. Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you very much. Thank you for flagging the non-residential contributions and the need to keep those up to date.

[00:54:25] I guess, and I know this is not the focus of this presentation, but more broadly, I believe non-residential contributions are limited to only a couple of areas in the county. Is that correct? Yes, there are a few.

[00:54:43] A few. There are options within, I believe, Merrifield, the Dulles Suburban Center, Tyson's, Ruston. And then within that, the $3 per square foot, that specific recommendation for a monetary contribution is limited to Tyson's and Reston.

[00:55:08] And then Merrifield has one, too. That's a percentage similar to Tyson's. Okay. Probably not in time for this one, but at some point soon, I'd really love for this board to have a conversation about that policy to see if it might be made a little bit more broad, maybe even countywide, because it is something I don't believe the board's talked about for quite a while.

[00:55:34] And it might be worth, because we are seeing some non-residential activity. I do believe that's what staff said, that it was out of the scope of this. But I think what you're asking for, if I understand correctly, is the plan. Once this is finalized, is to look at the commercial piece, if I'm understanding your question correctly.

[00:55:52] so that is going to be looked at yes all right well i want to make sure because when this last came to the board about 15 years ago there were some board members that said oh no not in my area so uh hopefully we'll pass that uh at this point but i this was something that the board was very much engaged in if i can if i can clarify so the the the recommendation that we have in the the text speaks to updating the the the language about specific dollar amounts correct uh so that

[00:56:26] wouldn't be the broader conversation right that uh surprise alcorn is referring to um that based on our recommendation alone okay thank you excellent thank you supervisor sork uh thank you madam chair um first off thank you very much for the presentation thank you for the previous conversations that we've had. And as you may know or likely know, my question and concern has really been consistent throughout, which is I very strongly support moving it down

[00:57:02] lower. 7,900 percent, I think, is a better range than where we've been, 80 to 120. But I've always, I guess, at least argued or maybe encouraged us to look at weighting that even lower because the core challenge people have is not even at 100%, it's at the 60% to 80% range.

[00:57:28] And having the ability, having more units available at that range give us our lower income people, middle, frankly, middle income, lower income people, more options than what they now have. At the 100% range, there are some options available. I think that's at least what I believe.

[00:57:48] They may not be ideally what they want, but there's still the market itself has some units at that range. And I know I've asked a question, you all have responded, but I don't feel like I still have a sense of the financial difference between, let's say, a 70 and 90 or 70 and 80 percent focus versus a 70 to 100 percent focus.

[00:58:12] Because in the end, we're really asking developers to subsidize some of what these products are they're going to be providing. And why not focus more of that product that they will be producing at a range where we know folks have the greatest difficulty in purchasing?

[00:58:31] So there are a couple of pieces to that. So the analysis that we did did have a specific impact for an example development. And that's contained in the final staff report, which we can send to you, or final task force report, which we can send to you.

[00:58:52] And what it looked at really was, the financial impact is sort of nuanced because you have what's expected under the policy, then sort of what's actually being produced, because relative to the policy, what's actually being produced is oftentimes less than that.

[00:59:13] And then the third tranche is the development of what the new tiers would be, the 70% to 100%. And what we found was as we sort of scaled back, there was a cost.

[00:59:28] It was, in this example, it was a couple hundred thousand dollars, sort of additive across the impact, the analysis, I should say. But ultimately, when we compared sort of an actual development to the new tiers, there was a sort of a very minimal impact to development overall and you know overall what where we were we were looking was really sort of this general this broader question about will the project remain feasible and what our consultants found is that that as we as we you know are shifting those tiers the

[01:00:04] projects are remaining feasible if at the 70 80 and 100 percent level you know We, working with the task force and sort of the, kind of the intent of the workforce program is really to fill that gap between where the ADU program is, that is serving incomes at those lower income tiers as well, and then where the market is.

[01:00:32] So, you know, we were, as we were talking with the task force, we really sort of looked at and spoke to kind of where that gap was, and that was at the 70, 80, and 100%. And you're right. The 100% AMI tier does have availability. It's not a lot, but it does have availability in the market. But what we're not seeing is that availability also in new construction.

[01:00:56] And we think it's important also to have options from an equity perspective also about to look at sort of other opportunities, affordability opportunities for people wanting to buy a home within a newer development as well.

[01:01:15] I understand. I guess I'll still respectfully disagree. I think our focus needs to be to increase the amount of housing for those who have little if no access to it because they can't afford it at the current levels. And we should be, as a county, we should be focused on those individuals who don't have options, have very little options, versus folks who have options, which they maybe don't like as well.

[01:01:38] They prefer a newer unit, a unit in a newer place, versus a unit that they can, you know, afford and maybe an existing. So I guess I just still come to the same point that I've been, which is I think we're missing the boat here to really serve lower-middle-income folks and the lower-income folks.

[01:01:56] Thank you. I think, Anne, I wanted to add something. Go ahead. Thank you, Anna Shapiro of the Department of Housing. I just wanted to add, just sort of hearkening back to Tom Fleetwood's presentation and some of the demand side initiatives we're taking and expanding some of the down payment assistance that can help households at 80% AMI and below also reach that 100% AMI cost here.

[01:02:16] So we're really working to partner all of our kind of demand and supply side tools together as well. So I just wanted to mention that. I appreciate that and obviously very much support that. Thank you. I also want to clarify, so we're clear here, this is just for sale, right, where we already have a very, very, very limited amount.

[01:02:35] I only saw two on the work plan. And so, at least from my perspective, getting more is helpful. We'll continue to moderate. The for rent is a little bit different. There's quite a bit more available there. And perhaps a look at where the WDU is the right fit there with the ADU, which we're already looking at.

[01:02:54] But at least from what we're seeing, where the units just getting a few, getting eight, getting 12, is quite a challenge and absolutely necessary. And so I think your point's well taken, but I think bringing it back to the task force, you know, once we have more data might be beneficial.

[01:03:14] Right now, there's just not enough. We need to build more, and we need to build more variety of units. I fully agree. I just think the county resources should be focused on the area that has at least private sector support. And that's where we can make more of a difference than we can at the 100% level.

[01:03:33] Thank you. Thank you. Assembly Supervisor Lusk, go ahead. Thank you very much. I guess my question is kind of thinking about what happens once we have the person move into the unit, Thinking a bit about the point that I think Tom made earlier is that we are providing some assistance to help with the down payment.

[01:03:59] But what I worry about here is what happens with the COA fees, the HOA fees. I mean, there are going to be costs that will be increasing over time in these units. And the question is, it's affordable today, but I've seen in my own house my insurance kind of skyrocketing.

[01:04:21] So I'm just trying to understand, like, to what degree are we able to support and help with, I think I heard down payment, but maybe you can express more about how we support those individuals, and then what happens with the associated costs that are increasing over time, condominium, HOA, and even taxes.

[01:04:44] Supervisor Lusk, I'll try and help on that one. You know, just taking a step back, you know, again, this is a home ownership program, And it comes with the attendant advantages and risks associated with homeownership, increased costs being among them.

[01:05:05] And I would say that our most important role in this respect is, yes, the purchasing power up front that can be aided by down payment and closing cost assistance, But also providing connections to and requirements for homebuyer education so that our buyers understand fully going in what it is they're buying, what it is they're signing up for, and the responsibilities that they'll have as a homeowner.

[01:05:33] So, you know, this is, again, this is very, very different from a rental program and the supports that might be provided in a rental program. You know, I certainly appreciate it, but I guess I still hearken back to the point that someone could get into a little bit of difficulty if the costs are escalating faster through no fault of their own.

[01:05:57] I mean, their market conditions, there's a number of things that happen. Condominiums, it could be some catastrophic event that raises the cost for each individual unit to some number that they were not anticipating. Even if you were preparing, you might not have enough to cover that, depending on what that escalated number is.

[01:06:16] So I'm just trying to make sure we want people to be able to stay in their homes as well. So I guess just trying to understand if there's any program or process to support and help, if there's something that's beyond the control of the individual and not saying that they're not being responsible.

[01:06:35] They are being responsible, right? But this happens. We don't want them to lose their home. Thank you. And I think just to, you know, this is a sort of nationwide problem that I think we're, you know, something that we're all trying to look at and understand how we best support households in this.

[01:06:53] You know, we do require a certain amount of savings that households have because we want to make sure that they are prepared. But also we expect that, you know, income will rise steadily as well. And I think that's part of sort of this longevity of homeownership. That said, I think that is something that we sort of cross-jurisdictionally are talking about and trying to figure out ways to address it without, kind of over-supporting the independence that comes with homeownership.

[01:07:19] So just, you know, we are, you know, looking into it. Thank you. I might also say that the means and methods of assistance for renters and homebuyers that are available through coordinated services planning in the event of, you know, some sort of catastrophic situation would also come into play here.

[01:07:38] Thank you. Supervisor Bierman. So I really support these changes and 70 to 100% makes sense to me. I want to make the case though that actually going up to 100% makes a lot of sense given where we are at as a county. One thing that I think is important is creating housing mixes across the county and having opportunities across the county for people to live. And guess what? 100% of AMI is having a lot more trouble living in the drainsville district than it's having living in another district but i don't

[01:08:18] think we want to cut off certain areas of the county where the only opportunity would be if you're in you know one program or another i think we having a housing mix is useful and it's useful from an economic development standpoint as well because we want people to have close access to where they work. I mean, you know, going back actually to the prior conversation just for a second, I mean, I was at the Great Falls Rotary Club meeting and somebody comes up to me and says, I love this program. Why? Because he was a jeweler and he needed some retailers to be able to live

[01:08:55] near his jewelry shop. So I think continuing to go up to 100% of AMI here makes sense. It prevents to some degree certain areas of the county being overly siloed and it expands opportunity for housing mixes across the county which i think is very useful so i appreciate the work you've done and the work of the task force and the work of the planning commission which was unanimous in supporting us thank you thank you uh 100 agree let me turn it over i think chris leonard wanted

[01:09:28] to add something? Oh, no. And I'm sitting here looking at the map. If I'm overlapping correctly in my head, most of the current geographic applicability areas, several, are on or very close to metro lines, right? So they are metro accessible. The transit is going to become more and more both expensive to live in. And I think to Supervisor Biermann's point, another reason we need to make sure that it continues to be spread across especially

[01:10:04] ensuring our workforce continues to have access to transit as we do this so very much appreciate the work looks like we are ready to to move it forward for the July 16th and continue to monitor I mean all you hear about is we want more I think we all want to see more of this more homeownership and as was mentioned i mean average of a million dollars a home it really is not affordable to live um to be able to own a home um and any bit helps um before we close out i just wanted to see if um chris or his

[01:10:41] team have any update i know we're all indoors today but we know outside there's quite a bit of heat and uh we want to understand the heat plan i think it was shared with us uh from the county's and especially as we go into the heavy heat season right now? Definitely indoors is the place to be.

[01:10:58] Over the next, looks like, in over seven, eight days, we're going to have the heat dome. You've all seen it. Tony Castrilli and his team have done a great job of messaging out. We'll continue to do that, especially because tomorrow is Juneteenth, we're closed, but all of our park authority sites are open, including some of our nature sites that we don't generally list as cooling sites where we're making sure folks are aware that we're hitting our emergency alert systems for unhoused to make sure that they're aware of what's available tomorrow and into the weekend.

[01:11:31] It looks like the weekend is going to probably be the worst of it. As a reminder, our heat plan is activated whenever the National Weather Services calls an extreme heat event, which is basically once it's not based just on the temperature. It's the temperature plus humidity that gets up into that 105 degree range or higher and it looks like we're heading that way so we're doing everything we can one thing I want to make sure that you all know we have already pre-positioned pre-dispersed a number of supplies we doubled the amount of supplies that we had for last summer in response

[01:12:10] to a lot of our partners so they have those and they are active actively utilizing them our homeless outreach workers are are ready to go to to get out to try to encourage folks to come inside because this is even even in the shade when you get this humidity this size is dangerous so we're ready i double checked with our staff this morning i got a got a response we're ready i'm confident in our staff that we've done everything to be prepared frankly june heat we're not used to that here so a lot of the the body's acclimation to the heat we're really

[01:12:46] concerned. We've talked a lot with Dr. Glory over the last couple days to make sure that we're ready to go. So I just wanted to alert you to that and we'll continue to alert the community. I know Tony Castrilli and his team are all over this to make sure that we're messaging out. Thank you, Chris.

[01:13:01] And if I could do a quick follow-up, you know, especially our kids and our seniors. I saw it's very exciting that the schools, I believe, have opened up most of their blacktops and playgrounds for the kids. Just want to make sure we're extra coordinating with them as well in case they see an increase of need maybe kids not being used to what the heat means this week absolutely absolutely and i know my my daughter one of my daughters works uh camp and they went from an outdoor field trip tomorrow to they're going bowling tomorrow so uh we we ensure that all of our all of our camps for our kids and for our senior adults that's not so much of a problem as far as

[01:13:39] making sure we keep them inside uh but but our kids kids want to get out their their uh schools you know summer just began they want to get out but uh we're gonna we're gonna do our best to keep everybody uh safe and sound over the next seven to ten days with this heat though excellent well thank you so much thank you um entire team for your presentation we are adjourned at 240 oh i apologize yes supervisor store go ahead yeah thank you chris for your update and and that includes all the shelter overflows being open and available and how long will that last

[01:14:16] So as soon as the heat plan is activated, we go right into overflow. So as soon as you see that from the National Weather Service, we're activated until the National Weather Service moves us out of that activation. Okay. And I would encourage you to take a look at -- I know it's not ideal, but looking at the Kennedy overflow there, because they've been full for some time now, and we've had a lot of conversations with folks who are homeless and not having places and options for that.

[01:14:47] So I appreciate you taking a look at that. And the other thing is on the flyer itself. I think QR code is wonderful generally, but I would urge you in the narrative of the flyer to at least reference broadly where the stations are, for example, libraries.

[01:15:06] And I mean, because we know that in a broad way, those are available to people. And instead of somebody who may be homeless and doesn't have access or doesn't have the ability to use a QR code and look up where those centers are, they would have at least a high-level understanding of where those protected areas are.

[01:15:24] Yeah, we go back and forth. Should we just say all county buildings? Or we definitely say community centers, rec centers, libraries. We try to highlight those. We know those are our community access points that everybody's aware of. We try to do the map so people can see where the 47 are located.

[01:15:43] But generally what we're telling folks is if there's a county building, a public building, go to the mall. It doesn't say that on the flyer, though, Chris. Right, right. So I just urge you to put something on the flyer that would at least prompt them to say, okay, county building are likely to have access. Absolutely.

[01:15:58] Thank you. We'll get on that. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Our next meeting will be October 15th at 1.30 p.m. We are adjourned. Thank you.

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