Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Fairfax County BOS: Nov. 25 Environmental Committee, Tuesday, November 25, 2025

Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2025
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 22m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/3976
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 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[00:00:00] Good evening, or good afternoon, it's just dark now. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Environmental Committee meeting November 25th, 2025. Today we have three presentations, electric vehicle readiness, greenhouse gas inventory, and resilient trees.

[00:00:22] Before we begin, I want to ask for acceptance of the meeting summary for our September 16th meeting. Once there are any comments or corrections, we will consider that summary accepted as presented. With that accepted, I will now turn over the meeting to Director John Morrill and his staff for the first presentation. So please, sir, after you. Thank you. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of the Board of Supervisors. My name is John Morrill of the Office of Environmental and

[00:00:55] Energy Coordination, and I'm joined by Julie Gurney, also of OEEC, Mark Moffitt, and Marguerite Guarino of the Department of Vehicle Services, and Deputy County Executive Alicia Seard-McCormick. This first presentation provides a summary of the findings from a recent analysis prepared with consultant support on the transition of the county fleet managed by vehicle services to electric vehicles, and a community electric vehicle readiness strategy, which identifies gaps in EV charging infrastructure throughout the community and how we might address filling those gaps.

[00:01:35] First, to summarize the EV readiness strategy, here is Julie Gurney. Thank you, John. Thank you, members of the board, for having us. My name is Julie Gurney, and I'm with the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. So for the community portion of the EV readiness strategy, we worked with both internal and external stakeholders.

[00:01:58] We shared a draft copy of the strategy on the Fairfax County public input site in July and had a public town hall to present the strategy. We now have a final strategy and are going to share the main points of that today. So this chart from CCAP shows greenhouse gas emissions in Fairfax County.

[00:02:15] Transportation makes up a large percentage of greenhouse gas emissions, and overall our county fleet emissions make up a very small portion of that. So we have been pleased to see that electric vehicle registrations in the community have steadily increased since 2016.

[00:02:31] We did just receive preliminary 2024 numbers, and the number of registrations is now over 37,000. So as part of the community EV readiness, we want to ensure that Fairfax County infrastructure is supporting the needs of its residents. To meet the county's CCAP goal of 15% of all light duty registrations to be electric vehicles, by 2035, the community portion of the EV readiness strategy focuses on increasing EV adoption and accessibility of public EV infrastructure for residents in underserved communities and increasing access to D.C. fast charging stations to fill in the gaps in EV charging infrastructure around the county.

[00:03:10] So to reach these goals, the analysis used background data and community input with mapping software to consider adding L2, Level 2 charging stations to fill in for residents in underserved communities and looking at that through an equity lens and looking at DCFC charging stations to fill in the fast charging gaps.

[00:03:41] And so these two maps show an overview of the proposed locations for L2 charging on the left using an equity lens and DCFC on the right to fill in fast charging gaps. So using GIS, we can zoom into these locations and see the details on each priority zone.

[00:03:57] So the map on the left shows current charging infrastructure in yellow and green and recommended infrastructure in light and dark blue. And on the right, you can see we can zoom into each location and get details for current and recommended stations. So we're going to use these maps to guide us in our next steps to improve charging access across Fairfax County. So currently we're meeting with charging network and infrastructure providers to discuss the opportunities for public-private partnerships and other opportunities to expand the charging infrastructure within Fairfax County with an

[00:04:29] emphasis on equity and filling gaps where they're identified. Thank you, Julie. Moving on to the county fleet transition to electric vehicles. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but it must be said. Electrification of the entire county fleet by 2035, the goal within the operational energy strategy, is unattainable. Our assessment of the market with the consultants' insights reveals

[00:05:03] that suitable electric alternatives for a variety of county needs, including public safety vehicles, large vans, and heavy-duty equipment are simply not available today. Even if a few emerge over the next eight years, the volume of needed replacements is daunting, and conversion all at once is unrealistic. Vehicle manufacturers have retreated from past promises, and the outlook for EVs is much different today than it was four years ago when the goal was set. For more detail

[00:05:41] on this challenge, I pass it to Mark Moffitt. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and each of the members of the Board of Supervisors. I'm Mark Moffitt. I'm the Director of Vehicle Services and with me today is Marguerite Guarino, one of my deputies, predominantly helping me with the infrastructure piece for electrification, amongst other things. As you know, the Department of Vehicle Services' main job is to maintain 6,200 pieces of equipment and vehicles in the county

[00:06:21] and the Fairfax County Public Schools fleet. 3,700 is for the county and 2,500 is for the school system. DVS does everything from cradle to grave. We do the plans for, we talk with each of the agencies that we're buying for, we procure the piece of equipment, we in-process the piece of equipment, we build it out if it needs to be built out, like most of the public safety vehicles need to be done, we use it, and then we make sure it gets

[00:06:57] to auction so that we get some residual value back at the end of the pipeline. We also take care of all the county's fuel. So in the past, it was the 53 fuel supports all around the county for diesel and gasoline. About four years ago, we got added to the opportunity to strive forward and get electrification. So we have worked really hard over those last four years to get the electrification

[00:07:29] infrastructure started in a good spot and moving forward. To date, we have 18 locations and 161 ports. And then over the next three or four years, we have in the design right now 213 ports over 26 facilities that will both be public and fleet use. And then a separate category of fleet only would be 50 ports and five additional facilities. Today, as we speak, we've got 76 BEVs, battery

[00:08:07] electric vehicles, in the fleet. That's been building up over the last four to five years. We also have 440 HEVs, so hybrid electric vehicles, in the fleet. So looking at the chart before you, On the left-hand side, that is the county fleet of 3,700 vehicles and the breakdown of percentages of equipment.

[00:08:33] So a large portion, somewhere right around 30%, is public safety, police, sheriff, in regards to their specific vehicles to protect the public. You can see at the bottom of the 6 o'clock, the fire and the rescue side.

[00:08:52] We also have the packers. And then on the right-hand side, essentially from 12 o'clock down to 5, 5.30 are all of the administrative-type vehicles that we have in the county fleet, from cars to vans to light trucks to medium trucks to heavy trucks.

[00:09:11] On the right-hand side is where, as of today, we could electrify vehicles. The only section really is between 30 minutes from the top of the hour to about 2, 2.30.

[00:09:29] That's our light fleet, because the only solid amount of vehicles out there are for cars, small SUVs, light pickup trucks, and some work vans that are on the smaller side of the house. The light shaded areas for both police and then the light truck section, we, DVS, buys almost exclusively hybrid vehicles at this stage.

[00:09:55] Not the perfect scenario with an electric vehicle, but much better than an ICE vehicle or an internal combustion engine vehicle. So most of the police fleet is in the transition of going to fully hybrid for their pursuit vehicles.

[00:10:14] We're at about 400 vehicles, as I said before, in that category for them. Each year, DVS buys between 140 and 180 vehicles, depending upon how it breaks out for their total fleet. So that number is going to continuously go up in the hybrid version until we can get an electric vehicle in the police world that the police world is agreeable that does their functions.

[00:10:42] Right now, that's not available. Next slide, please. Thank you. This shows a chart on the left shows all of the vehicles that we're buying in each year. So all the way on the left is right after COVID. It's 2021. Manufacturers had stopped producing. We didn't drive as much because we were doing other things, obviously. And then we didn't have to buy as many vehicles.

[00:11:08] But 2021, 2022, predominance was still at that time to buy only ICE vehicles because there were very few electric vehicles to go after. Starting in 2023, you can see we started to make a big inroads into getting the police and others to use the hybrid vehicles.

[00:11:31] And as you can see, over the last four years, we've bought essentially 400 plus hybrid vehicles. And the light green shows the electric vehicles, and then we do still have to buy some number of ICE vehicles, but that's only because the platform is not available in an electric or hybrid model.

[00:11:52] On the right-hand side, we really wanted to show those are the different types and the different vehicles, the different types of electric vehicles and or ICE vehicles, and how much pollution that they're producing.

[00:12:09] Obviously, our goal would be to get to the right-hand side, but we're in the middle sweet spot right now, and we're going to continue to buy as many vehicles as we can that meet the goal of the board. Next slide. So this is our fleet transition challenges.

[00:12:27] We're really challenged up front with the limited number of EV replacement options. A lot of that has changed over the last six to nine months. You've seen all the manufacturers basically say stop. Unfortunately, that is not going to change for a period of time.

[00:12:43] We don't know how long that's going to be. But if they're not even putting forth the effort to try to build a vehicle, I can't, on your behalf, buy a vehicle to then test it and make sure it works for the community. So that's my huge challenge with our team.

[00:13:01] We're not going to let up in regards to the charging side of the house. We're going to be smart about the locations. As I said, we have a number of locations already in the design works. One is right outside here in front of our building.

[00:13:18] Those of you that know where the purple bin is, the outer wall or the outer band closest to Government Center Parkway will be moving forward with electrification. That is for the fleet predominantly, but it's not going to be gated off, so the public is going to be able to use that area as well.

[00:13:38] So we're working toward that in the infrastructure, and we will keep that prized by the leadership and the folks above me to tell me, yep, we're going to spend more, nope, hold off or slow down. That just depends on where the inventory becomes available for the leadership to make that decision.

[00:13:58] The other ones you can see are different pieces from resiliency to funding to staffing. Everybody's worried about, in the world, about staffing of equipment and staffing to take care of electric vehicles. We have jumped out in front of that.

[00:14:16] We've procured all that equipment. We've done a lot of the training. Now we're in the maintaining side of the house, maintaining of the technicians, to be able to do that once this gets going further. Next slide, please. As John and Julie both said, AECOM did a study for us.

[00:14:34] They came forward with a lot of great information, but at the end of the day, their proposal was going to give us about 50% of what we would call in lieu of type vehicles.

[00:14:49] Not vehicles that would do the mission, but vehicles that could be electrified at that particular time, which was about four or five months ago. The challenge is that I have to deal with each of the agencies to make sure that the in-lieu-of-type vehicle can actually do the mission that the police chief, the sheriff, the fire chief, the DPW director all need to have done.

[00:15:14] So that was one of the challenges that we were dealing with. We're working through the charging piece, as we've discussed, but at the end of the day, the cost is going to be a big decision that this board is ultimately going to have to make with all the priorities that you have to deal with.

[00:15:32] Next slide, please. As you can see here, we've checked the block in regards to the initial transition. We've got the fueling or the electrification in good stead.

[00:15:49] we've got about a 75% there, not completely filled in checkmark in regards to the training and the tools and the equipment for that. I'm holding off on that until we have better clarification in the coming months and years. And then the last two in our area for the fleet transition are somewhat easily to be done, but not done at this time because we just don't know what the market will bear. And with that, I'll turn it back to Julie for the community EV.

[00:16:26] Yeah, as you can see here, we're coordinating with DVS for installation of the planned CFI grant chargers. And we've been meeting with infrastructure providers to discuss partnership opportunities for expanding the charging network in Fairfax County.

[00:16:42] And that concludes the presentation. We welcome your questions. Well, I appreciate all the information. It seems like obviously there's some pretty big hurdles that are a little bit out of our hands here nationally and it might be some time before we can kind of get back on on the right path there but I think that you know as you mentioned with the smaller vehicles using a more of a hybrid system right now is kind of the best option it's rather than just going to full gas so we just got to try to figure out as time goes on

[00:17:20] when we can jump back on the train of looking at fully electric vehicles especially the larger ones It seems like the larger the vehicle, the more complicated it gets. You mentioned real quick that you were looking at charging stations throughout the county.

[00:17:36] Do you all have a district-by-district kind of map out? So, like, in my mind, I see the ones that we currently have, right, and then maybe in a different kind of icon, the ones that are coming so that the public knows. And then obviously my colleagues, the rest of the supervisors can also be aware of kind of what's coming to their district and where it is based on a map.

[00:17:59] Yeah, so actually if you go back a few slides, we have on this slide here, we can share this map. This has current charging, current public charging infrastructure.

[00:18:16] So that's all public charging infrastructure. We also have a map that shows the CFI grant charging stations that are already being worked on, being presented. So those are going to be up in the next couple of years. And then the dark blue and the light blue are from our EV readiness study.

[00:18:36] Those are the recommended public charging stations, both Level 2 and the DC fast charging. So that's all on GIS, and we can put it in by supervisor district. I think that would be helpful because, I mean, obviously this is great, but I think that, for example, if I'm looking at Mason District, like I want kind of a more kind of granular view of kind of like, oh, where exactly they are.

[00:19:03] So I think that if you could send that to all the supervisors based on their district, that would be pretty helpful. Yes, Chairman. Okay. Yeah, just a few questions. One, when we talk about the charging infrastructure that we're putting in place, Like you used the example of the chargers outside of the government center here that would be available to the public as well.

[00:19:26] Walk me through how that works. So how do we make sure that the county fleet has enough of those to maintain itself? And then any time those are available, the public can use those charging stations. Is that for a fee? Or help me understand how that works.

[00:19:45] Yes, sir. So we have certain county facilities that have things in a garage, like here in P1. Those are not going to be open to the public, as you know. Public safety has some other, Merrifield has some, so on and so forth.

[00:20:04] The ones outside, like where the purple bin is today, that's going to be open. The charging infrastructure will be put in. The county, if it's a county vehicle pulling into that spot, we use a charge card and hit it, and it's charged and then billed to the county department that's using it.

[00:20:29] The same system can take a private citizen's charge card, put it in there, charge, and the same thing with amount of charge, dwell time, so on and so forth. So the revenue on that then comes back to the county.

[00:20:45] Yes, sir. And that's in a contract with the provider. Are they offsetting the cost of installing some of those chargers to begin with? Because obviously, if you go to a fully public one, a shopping center or somebody else has worked with a charging company to share the cost of the installation of that.

[00:21:03] And then the revenues from that aren't going to the shopping center. Typically, they're going back to the charging company. So if we're paying for the upfront cost of all the installation, all the revenue that we collect on those comes to the county minus a servicing fee. Is that how that is structured? Yeah, Marguerite, or, you know, Department of Vehicle Services.

[00:21:22] So ChargePoint accepts all of the revenue. They keep their proportionate share of the revenue. What the county takes in goes into the fund that we use to purchase the charging stations. Okay. I mean, one of the reasons I'm asking that is I don't know if we're heading forward if we would ever reach a point where we have the sufficient charging infrastructure for our own fleet to handle, but we have land.

[00:21:47] And we have land where charging companies may want to come and install charging devices at their own expense. And I don't know if we've ever done anything like that or can envision that. But to me, sometimes the shopping centers are reluctant to do it because they don't want to give up parking.

[00:22:05] Sometimes other private entities are reluctant to do it. But where we have excess parking, if we had somebody walk in the door who wanted to install charging infrastructure on our land at no cost to us, would we entertain that? And do we have a mechanism to do that? Mr. Chairman, I'm John Morrill from OEEC.

[00:22:25] Two points. One is I'd like to point out it's my understanding that at the installation here at the government center, it includes two rows of charging. One will be at the forward parking lot that will be available to visitors and employees.

[00:22:40] And then the second one by the purple bins will be for the fleet, which can also accept visitors or employees if there's overrun. So we are building out a larger network. To your second question, as a matter of fact, yes.

[00:22:58] And Julie and I were just speaking with one of the major EV infrastructure providers today about possibilities for partnerships. And they showed an example where they've essentially repurposed a building in San Francisco so that they provide 24-hour-a-day indoor fast charging.

[00:23:27] And they don't need an existing building, but as you say, just land can be repurposed for a substantial charging. Yeah, I mean, I would be interested, and I have no idea if there's a market for this, and so it would take some analysis.

[00:23:47] But, you know, if there was a market for this, we would put out, you know, an RFP and say, hey, if you run charging station operations, we have land. If there's particular places where we have a county facility where it would be in your interest to put in high-speed or regular charging stations, we would be open to considering that.

[00:24:09] To me, it feels like there's a market for that, but I'm also not blind to the trends that were presented earlier at this point in time that we have. Maybe that would have been more robust had not that interruption on that technology occurred.

[00:24:25] But I do think it's something in particular that we should continue to look at because the breakdown rate of some of these chargers across the county that are privately run is pretty high. And a lot of them are out of commission for very long periods of time. And that's a frustration point, which means we need more of them, but they need to also better maintain them.

[00:24:45] If we enter a contract with someone, we would, of course, require them to provide better maintenance on them. And then the last question I would ask is, as part of our strategy, when I look at the next steps, for vehicles right now that we think either have an EV option, even if it's dwindling, but is not highly technologically advanced, versus the ones that are going to require a lot more work that may be years away, are we able to look at deferring replacement of some vehicles that we think are more early to get

[00:25:24] back into the ev game so that we don't go out and buy one next year and then three years from now we're right back to the robustness that we had before but we're stuck with one that we just bought that we could have waited a year or two to see if the technology comes back short answer is yes. My team works each purchasing cycle with each agency specific to say, you have a small SUV going out. You're probably going to buy a small SUV unless you have a really good reason

[00:26:02] that your deputy is going to say, go do that. And we then buy a vehicle. In our case, what we do with those it's an easy fix because we're forcing the issue whether it's electric or hybrid to an electric hybrid to hybrid whatever the case may be but we are really smart right now because of the way the money is flowing to make sure that we're planning to get an extra year if i can out of a vehicle or two because we use three different factors now we used to use just mileage

[00:26:41] in years. Now we use a total cost of ownership piece. That total cost of ownership makes us hold on to vehicles one, two, three more years because we have a lot of vehicles that sit in that sweet spot about 60,000 miles of use and then it's old. So they don't want to drive it because it doesn't look cool. We force them to use those vehicles until they get to those pieces and that helps me to make those decisions that you just brought up.

[00:27:13] Good. I really appreciate hearing that. I think that's really important for us to hear and that new methodology because there are some that we don't want to regret. Obviously, there's a lot of vehicles that don't have in the short term an EV solution ahead of them, and there's others that I would say right now are probably in a suspension zone where they maybe have stopped production, but if things change in terms of, you know, federal laws and regulations and other things, Maybe they ramp up again in a couple of years, and they already have the technology.

[00:27:43] They already have been building these. They've just slowed production. Those are the ones, if we can stretch out longer, are most likely to come back sooner as we move forward. And then finally, the hybrid, EV hybrid option that is in here. You know, we had this conversation recently with the BRT on Richmond Highway, and I appreciate that we're being pragmatic about the situation that we're in.

[00:28:08] We're not saying we're abandoning any of our goals. We're saying they might take longer, things beyond our control. But we're also saying we'll look at other things in the marketplace. And a hybrid is infinitely better than a conventional combustion engine. And so we're looking at the thing that emits the lowest emissions in this period of time right now where our more robust goals are being hampered beyond our control.

[00:28:32] And I really appreciate that and strongly support it. We just recently had to do that with BRT. We didn't want to. We wanted a fully electrified BRT solution for the Richmond Highway Corridor, but we know that without the federal funding to support that, we're not going to get there.

[00:28:50] And so we had to make a compromise, but it's a compromise that is way better than a conventional solution would be. And that's what I'm hearing here, and I appreciate that strategy. It's pragmatic and smart. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're going to go to Supervisor Smith and then Supervisor Alcorn.

[00:29:09] Stork. Then we will move on to the next presentation. I appreciate getting this presentation because you're kind of hearing what's happening at the federal level, and it's good to see how this is impacting us. So the community has that information too. On slide five, I want to understand the terms here, the recommended EV charging stations. Is that just recommended that whoever puts them, those are locations they should be? Is that looking at what the county does?

[00:29:41] that's not clear to me? Yeah, so this comes directly from the strategy. So we looked at where there are charging deserts, both level two and the fast charging. So when we looked at this, we looked at putting in where it would be recommended to put in level two charging stations near where people live and work or spending a couple hours a day. So community centers, rec centers, parks, things like that. And then for the fast charging, it was, again, we looked at

[00:30:15] where there was fast charging deserts, close to major highways, and then close to areas where there's a lot of community activity. So looking at having D.C. fast charging within two miles of where most people, everyone having D.C. fast charging within two miles of their home or work.

[00:30:33] So this isn't just focused on county properties. Correct. This is, okay. Correct, yes. And so that wasn't clear. Is this looked at as a county responsibility? This is just a community, private business where they should be. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you.

[00:30:50] Just very quickly, to build on what the chairman was saying, I really appreciate the vehicle comprehensive fleet across all the different vehicle types because we have been focused on buses in particular and been hearing similar things, not just federal funding, but, well, frankly, the bus manufacturing industry putting the brakes on production for EV.

[00:31:15] So this is a really helpful snapshot, and hopefully we will get back on track, you know, as we can. So thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Storm, and then we'll wrap up with Supervisor Loss.

[00:31:31] Thank you. Just the basis on which you identified that you would be meeting county's goals. I just wanted to hear what specifically you looked at to say that. Drawing a blank, sir, to be honest, what's this?

[00:31:51] The Operational Energy Strategy, the Joint Environmental Task Force. Oh, we, yes, sir. I wanted to hear and confirm, I guess, the basis on which you identified in here. Yes, sir. We used all of those documents to look at the DVS piece of buying vehicles for the county's needs.

[00:32:14] And then what I do from my position and then with my two deputies is we look at the industry, both the charging industry, which is one of my deputies, and the procurement side of the house, which is a different deputy, and say, these are the vehicles that are available.

[00:32:29] And then we turn around and find the best vehicle for our organization that can help the specific department to achieve their goals. So we use all the information that the board provided to us, and then we move forward.

[00:32:50] And then this document from AECOM helped us to kind of put a more specific point on the pencil in regards to items that we could use to potentially work through this electrification piece.

[00:33:10] Is that? That's part of what I was trying to get at. Okay. The board set a number of environmental goals and vehicle goals, and they were on a range of issues related to vehicle acquisition. I think we've recognized over the course of the five or six years that it was difficult to achieve at least our near-term goals on passenger sedans, but that we were looking to try to elevate the environmental improvements that we could make with whatever we bought.

[00:33:42] And I think you've identified some out here, and I'm very appreciative of that. But I also wasn't clear whether or not that was looked at in each of the vehicle categories. I don't know. And that's probably why I'm asking the question, because I know that, and I know you've identified some of the pieces of the pie, you've identified those elements.

[00:34:02] But I also know that part of the work that we did on the Joint Environmental Task Force with the schools was to look to see how we would collaborate and work with them and identify how we could be tried purchasers and do other things that would maybe give us scale in the marketplace to essentially at least get closer to achieving the emission reductions that we wanted to get, even if we couldn't get the types of vehicles, which I think we're all recognizing now, the industry is not moving as quickly to build and perfect, maybe is a better word, because they're building them, but what we get sometimes isn't particularly usable,

[00:34:42] Lisa, with respect to Fairfax County and how large we are, et cetera. So, Supervisor Stork, I agree with you. We were looking at building an EV fleet predicated on the environment that we were in. At this juncture, unfortunately, that environment has shifted a bit.

[00:35:01] We're still developing our infrastructure. So, as the chairman stated, and Supervisor Walkinshaw, wow, Supervisor Alcorn states. Supervisor Walter is okay, too. That sounds like Supervisor Bearman. As we look at our future goals and our EV infrastructure, it's going to take us the time to put the infrastructure in to support whatever new vehicles are coming out.

[00:35:29] In my humble opinion, at this juncture, the cost of said vehicle is not conducive to what we're looking for and how we're going to get things done going into the future. We are working with the schools.

[00:35:47] They have EV school buses. We are collaborating with them to help them charge those buses. But to buy one school bus EV, we can get two or three ICE buses. And we're in that space right now.

[00:36:05] We're not stopping that goal. We're still going to keep going. And as Mr. Moffitt stated, when he finds vehicles that we can bring into our fleet, we're definitely going to do that. So, I see the high-level presentation we have here, and I'm asking for at least the next layer down, because that's when the rubber meets the road, and particularly because we know some of these things we're not going to be able to do, but some of these things we can do.

[00:36:30] Understood. And I'm wanting to understand better what we can do, not just what we can't do, while recognizing that part of this is an infrastructure issue. Okay. And then also recognizing, and I'll get my last question in related to this, which is the issue of battery hybrid vehicles versus hybrid vehicles and having battery charging vehicles, obviously even more effective and more greenhouse gas reduction kinds of vehicles.

[00:37:04] So that's the piece I'm going, is taking broader stuff here, but also what else can we do to further take advantage of the situation, even though we recognize the situation has changed. Thank you. If I may, the fleet analysis that AECOM helped us with looked at every single vehicle in the fleet that DVS buys and maintains.

[00:37:31] And so on a case-by-case basis for all their different purposes, they examined the potential, you know, is there an electric alternative? And this is where we really found the market to be lacking.

[00:37:49] However, as Mr. Moffitts pointed out, with the goal of meeting the environmental goals set out by the Board of Supervisors, falling short of an electric vehicle, then it's, well, can we do it with a battery hybrid, plug-in hybrid?

[00:38:12] And then if that's available, we get it. If it's not available, well, it's just a conventional hybrid available. And so then if it is, then we get that. So the whole mission has been to pursue the goals of the operational energy strategy in every purchase decision. But the one constraint is not trying to substitute an electric vehicle for a purpose the county has that doesn't really meet our needs.

[00:38:48] And just as one example, and this might sound a little silly, and that's actually the way it sounded to us, they proposed using an electric pickup truck as a pursuit vehicle. No, that's not going to work for the police department.

[00:39:05] Can you say they? Has the board asked you to do that? No, the consultants. In discussions with the consultants. So they were identifying in looking for a vehicle that could go fast and could be sturdy.

[00:39:23] But that is not, you know, in speaking with the experts or the public safety officials, that is not a suitable alternative for a police pursuit vehicle. And so it was taken off the table.

[00:39:38] Jennifer Miller, Deputy County Executive. So one of the early discussions when we had when we got the input, and AECOM was very helpful, but they weren't constrained by operational capabilities. So when we engaged with police and fire and some of the proposals were a significant reduction in capabilities, we had to come back and say we can't do that, right?

[00:39:56] Like we can't double the fleet to allow for the length of Fairfax County. We can't double the fleet to have half of them charging at the time. So then we came back with the constraints of, given that we need to be able to complete the same operational tasks, especially with our public safety, what can we do?

[00:40:12] And so that's where John's talking about the triage. Hopefully, at some point, we'll have those capabilities in those vehicles. Until then, it's what's the most environmentally friendly and operationally sustainable vehicles. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Stork.

[00:40:27] Supervisor Lusk? Yeah, I've just got two quick questions. On slide three, I appreciate seeing that the EV registration percentages are going up. And I acknowledge we don't have the 2025 data yet, but was just curious to know what is the anticipated timing for that in light of the fact that the provision which would have allowed for the EV tax credit expired just over a month ago.

[00:40:57] So I'm assuming that we will have more people purchasing EVs as a result of trying to get in before that expiration, but just wanted to know what's the timing to see those actual numbers. Yeah. So we just received, this is preliminary 2024 data, so it's probably going to be another year.

[00:41:16] It'll probably be the end of next year. We are trying to find better ways to get data, but we're working with a few different groups and it's hard for us to get that data. Nationwide data is showing there was a big spike in EV sales in August and September.

[00:41:34] But countywide, it's hard to get those numbers. So it'll probably be another year before we get 2025 data. Okay. Well, I guess you'll have to be patient. But thank you for sharing the constraint, and I certainly acknowledge it. And then the second question was on slide five where you show the different charging stations.

[00:41:55] In terms of cost, because we certainly would, the faster chargers would be better, but I guess I'm trying to understand what's the delta between the slow charging versus the fast charging. And do you mean? Cost. Installation cost.

[00:42:10] Installation, yes. There are a lot of factors that go into installation costs, but total ballpark figures, yeah, 10 times more for a fast charging station.

[00:42:28] Okay, that's significantly higher. Yes. All right. And then last, I'll just say appreciate the presentation and appreciate the approach that you're taking and recognize the constraints. Going back to the chairman's comments, you know, we're doing what we can do that is best under the circumstances, and we can acknowledge and say thank you for that.

[00:42:52] Thank you, Supervisor Lusk. We are now going to presentation number two on greenhouse gas inventory for Fairfax County. And with that said, John, when you are ready, we will begin. Thank you, sir.

[00:43:32] Good afternoon. I'm John Morrill, director of OEEC, joined by Neely Law, OEEC deputy director, and Matt Myers, a division manager in OEEC. We're here to provide a summary of the latest greenhouse gas emissions inventory prepared by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.

[00:44:01] Greenhouse gas emissions are the pollutants that occur primarily from the burning of fossil fuels that are causing climate change. Carbon dioxide is the dominant greenhouse gas, but methane and a few other chemicals are also potent heat-trapping substances in the atmosphere. A greenhouse gas emissions inventory is a calculated estimate of how much of these substances enter the atmosphere from a given geographic area, such as a city, county, state, or nation. Greenhouse gas emissions

[00:44:39] are usually expressed in terms of metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, where the potency of other chemicals is converted to the effect of carbon dioxide. So the Council of Governments, staff, and consultants have calculated greenhouse gas emissions for member jurisdictions for years since 2005. The Fairfax Community-Wide Energy and Climate Action Plan, or CCAP,

[00:45:10] use the COG inventory from 2005 as the baseline year. In 2005, emissions of greenhouse gases were well over 14 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and the sources were predominantly transportation and buildings. The most recent analysis by COG is for 2023, and it's 4 million metric tons lower, a 28% reduction from 2005. The relative contribution from transportation has

[00:45:46] grown to 49% of all emissions, and this will be explored further. So while they're 4 million tons lower than 2005, unfortunately, emissions rose slightly between 2020 and 2023, interrupting what had been a steady decline over many years. But I would remind everyone that 2020 was the pandemic year, and all forms of transportation were sharply curtailed then. In 2023, there was

[00:46:20] a rebound in transportation, which is predominantly responsible for the increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Nonetheless, I will explain here how the overall momentum and trends point to increasingly cleaner travel, a more efficient economy, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions going forward.

[00:46:44] This is a glass half full story. I will also point out that for the first time, COG has estimated energy use and emissions from data centers. For 2020 and 2023, there's a little sliver of darker orange immediately beneath the blue portions of those bars in the graphic.

[00:47:09] Data centers are responsible for less than 10% of all electricity use and about 2% of all emissions in Fairfax. And again, they were there in earlier years. It's just the first time that COG has tried to estimate this for 2020 and 2023.

[00:47:27] Also, please note the green bars below zero on these bars. This is the credit or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions due to trees absorbing and holding carbon dioxide. COG will publish a final version of this inventory in January, along with their analysis of the factors that drove changes in emissions. We are sharing this draft version with their knowledge as a courtesy ahead of that final release. Taking a closer look at electricity use,

[00:48:03] I note here a trend that I've mentioned before, specifically that overall electricity use in Fairfax County continues to decline. Electricity use in the county was 10% lower in 2023 than it was in 2015. This is despite the growth in population, economy, housing units, and thousands of electric vehicles being charged in Fairfax. So this points to continued energy efficiency gains in Fairfax County, as thousands of residents and businesses make decisions,

[00:48:41] large and small, that improve energy productivity. We can think that years of county outreach and programming to build awareness of smart energy decisions has contributed at least a little to these gains, but it's hard to quantify. And in case you were wondering, we cannot attribute this reduction in this utility electricity use to solar energy, because although solar continues to grow with strong momentum as on the handout, its contribution is actually still less than 1%

[00:49:20] of all electricity used in the county. So here's a closer look at transportation. The graphic shows the rebound in people moving by vehicles in Fairfax between 2020 and 2023. And while 2023 shows a rebound from 2020, we also see that 2023 remained lower than 2015 or 2018. So people are

[00:49:51] moving in vehicles, but it hasn't rebounded all the way back to before the pandemic. And looking at overall emissions from all forms of transportation, we see that on-road vehicles in the blue portions of the bars remain the dominant travel mode and source of emissions.

[00:50:14] But the emissions from on-road vehicles rebounded less than the amount of miles traveled. Put another way. Vehicle miles traveled went down 5% between 2018 and 2023, but emissions from vehicles went down 10% over that period, thanks to greater vehicle efficiency and electrification. This is an encouraging sign. This shows that the vehicle fleets overall are still becoming more

[00:50:45] efficient, which is what the goal for the county fleet that we were speaking of before. The next two graphics focus on emissions from buildings. Here we see the steady decline in greenhouse gas emissions from the commercial sector in Fairfax. The steady decline in total emissions is driven by electricity becoming cleaner over the past two decades and gains in energy efficiency in the commercial building sector. Direct use of fossil fuels in the gray in commercial buildings has been

[00:51:24] relatively constant over the last 20 years, and it's somewhat sensitive to weather as fossil fuels are mostly used in buildings for space heating. Similarly, in the residential sector, emissions have also shown a steady decline, even with the growing housing stock. This is total emissions based on total consumption. Again, electricity became cleaner, and direct use of fossil fuels

[00:51:56] in homes fell 17% between 2005 and 2023, thanks to increased efficiency as people replaced aging equipment and as people switched fuels, such as from oil to gas or from gas to electricity for heating. To summarize, while the latest results show a rebound in greenhouse gas emissions in Fairfax County since the pandemic, a more granular look at the data shows the overall trends remain encouraging with gains in transportation efficiency and buildings energy efficiency.

[00:52:37] OEEC and our partners will continue to provide energy programming and outreach to homes and businesses in the county to maintain momentum in these trends. And I'll add that while the unique needs of the county's vehicle fleet may delay our electrification goals for our specialty needs. The variety of electric vehicles on the market for routine residential and business use continues to grow. And looking forward, OEEC will continue working with our colleagues across the

[00:53:11] county and provide more detailed program results, focusing on the operational energy strategy in February of next year, as we commonly do. And for CCAP, we'll have detailed results in May of 2026 for calendar 2025. In addition, work continues on addressing the effects of climate change through the resilient Fairfax program, a topic of the next presentation. And I can promise that the next presentation has perhaps more compelling visuals than this presentation.

[00:53:49] We'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Well, again, thank you so much for this presentation. I just think it's all the information today is just so needed right now. And I think it's great i don't have any questions i just want to say that hopefully the emission trend uh that is on the decline continues um at some point hopefully um speeds up even but we will continue to look and observe to see what that's like with that being said i'm going to pass it over to chairman mckay for any comments or questions i'm okay uh there's no ask here this is just information for us and it's it's telling the story we need to keep telling about the progress we're making, even when it goes off.

[00:54:28] So, thank you. Thank you, Chairman. We will go to Supervisor Stork, and then we will go to our final presentation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and mine is a pretty straightforward one. The more electric vehicles we have, the lower our emissions go down because we don't ascribe any emissions to those electric vehicles since the electricity they're using is built, I mean, is generated somewhere else, even if they are.

[00:54:58] The emissions go down because we still count the electricity and we count the emissions that happened at the power plant because that's a direct user. But the electric grid is getting cleaner and therefore and the emissions at the power plant are still much lower than from burning a gallon of gasoline.

[00:55:21] Good. I just that's helpful to know that we're taking the holistic view of emissions. All right. Thank you. And non-greenhouse gas emissions, I know we have some other, and I don't know, we don't generate a lot of methane here, mostly the landfills in Mount Vernon District.

[00:55:40] Yes. The COG inventory includes an estimate of methane leaks from the whole distribution system, and they do that for every jurisdiction. And the other refrigerants and that kind of thing, we know of any other significant? Yes. Actually, the methane leaks and refrigerants that are used in refrigeration systems like air conditioning, those are part of the other category. And that's actually risen to 7% of our emissions in 2023. The challenge is that these, they're called

[00:56:16] fugitive emissions because they, when they leak out of the equipment, what happened was the refrigerants. We got rid of the refrigerants that damaged the ozone. The unfortunate thing is the replacement refrigerants, they're potent greenhouse gas. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, you think that's most of that differential, that additional percentage increases on, or is that just the same emissions from 2005 to 2023, just the whole thing has shrunk. So it's a bigger percentage of the

[00:56:51] No, it's actually, I was looking at it, and the refrigerant emissions have grown, and that's why they're a larger piece of the pie. And do you know if that was true of methane as well? It was not. Okay. Thank you, John.

[00:57:07] Well, thank you, Supervisor Stork, and again, thank you to all of you for this valuable information. And we will now head to our final presentation of the day, Resilient Trees Public Facilities Manual Amendment. So with that, I'll make sure that everyone gets ready, and then we will begin. Thank you.

[00:57:30] Good afternoon, everyone. I'd like everyone to settle in.

[00:57:58] But when you're ready, Allison, if you'd like to begin, we'll send it off to you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. My name is Allison Homer of the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. I'm joined by colleagues from Land Development Services.

[00:58:14] Adam LaPera is the chief of the Forest Conservation Branch, and Sandra O'Connell of the Site Code Research and Development Branch. This amendment also involved close collaboration with Urban and Community Forestry, Park Authority, and others. Today, we will be giving a brief overview of the Resilient Trees Initiative and the associated amendment to the Public Facilities Manual.

[00:58:38] The tree section of the Public Facilities Manual is used as a guide by developers when they are deciding which trees to include on development plans to receive tree canopy credits. It does not set any requirements for the average resident planting trees on their own properties, but they could use it if they find it helpful.

[00:59:02] The goal of this amendment is to encourage trees on development plans that have a higher likelihood of surviving and thriving. In Fairfax County, we are experiencing warmer, wetter, weirder climatic conditions.

[00:59:19] which our office continually tracks. These include statistically significant increases in average and seasonal temperatures, extreme heat events, precipitation intensity causing flooding and flash flooding, and severe storm events. All of these changes affect the health and survival of our trees.

[00:59:38] We are also seeing shifts in hardiness zones, which are temperature zones that are commonly used by landscapers, farmers, and tree experts. Different tree species belong in different hardiness zones. The hardiness zones are generally shifting northward, which means that temperatures that were previously normal south of us are now normal in Fairfax County.

[01:00:02] Between 2012 and 2023, most of Fairfax County shifted from Zone 7A to Zone 7B, and we are projected to be in Zone 8 as soon as 2040. Tree habitats are shifting accordingly where possible.

[01:00:19] In addition to the hardiness zone map shown on this slide, which is based on minimum temperatures, there is an equivalent heat zone map, which is based on maximum temperatures. For Fairfax County, for both hardiness zones and heat zones, conveniently the number to remember is zone 8 or higher.

[01:00:39] So, for example, a tree that does well up to zone 10 may be a better candidate than a tree that belongs in cooler zones like zones 4 through 7. Concurrent with these changes in climate, there is a trend of storm-related tree losses.

[01:00:58] As storms increase in severity, we are losing a large number of trees. We would, of course, prefer to lose fewer trees, both for safety and ecological reasons. As you can see on this map of weather-related road closures and the pie chart on the slide, downed trees are so common that they are the most common reason for weather-related road closures in Fairfax County.

[01:01:23] They also outpace road closures from car accidents. It should be noted here that tree losses in general have a wide range of contributing factors, some of which are not climate-related, including poor planting, poor maintenance, invasive vines, mechanical injury, and more.

[01:01:43] Some of those factors are out of the scope of the Public Facilities Manual and this amendment. So for this amendment, we are focused on reducing tree losses that are climate-related and species-specific. The good news is that there are tree species that are physically more resilient to climatic shocks and stressors like severe storms or increased heat.

[01:02:06] There are species that are better able to adapt to change over time, and species that themselves provide climate adaptation benefits to our community. For example, some tree species provide above-average stormwater absorption to help reduce flooding.

[01:02:24] Some trees serve as an excellent wind barrier or provide above-average cooling benefits. This specific PFM amendment arose from the implementation of the Resilient Fairfax Plan, which was adopted by this board in 2022.

[01:02:40] Within the Resilient Fairfax Plan, there are two strategies of relevance. Strategy Climate Ready Communities 3D directs us to update the public facilities manual to consider climate projections. And strategy Adaptive Environments 1D directs us to integrate climate change considerations into the urban forestry program.

[01:03:03] Therefore, this PFM amendment for resilient trees furthers the implementation of two strategies simultaneously. For the Resilient Trees Amendment, we evaluated 288 tree species for 70 traits each, including the factors to be shown on this slide.

[01:03:23] These traits can be organized into three buckets. The climate resilience and vulnerability factors are shown here in the blue box. The purpose of these factors is to identify a tree species' resilience or vulnerability to climate conditions like flooding, wind, heat, or drought.

[01:03:42] Some of our local trees show excellent resilience to warmer, wetter, weirder conditions. Others are more vulnerable and likely to fail. The second bucket of traits shown in the purple box are other environmental or urban tolerances, such as tree species' ability to handle air pollution, de-icing salts that we use during the winter, soil compaction, etc.

[01:04:05] These traits in the purple box are already in the PFM, but they were in need of an update for consistency and accuracy. Additionally, as shown in the green box, we considered other factors that can help with tree canopy success. For example, the species must be non-invasive, preferably native, and commercially available, among other factors.

[01:04:30] We scored each tree for all of these factors with a goal of planting the right trees in the right place. This amendment was supported by a significant amount of research. All 288 tree species were evaluated for over 70 traits.

[01:04:47] And to ensure confidence in the traits that are listed in the PFM draft, we committed to having multiple reputable sources to back up each trait listed. In cases where sources conflicted, the trait was marked as neutral. Therefore, any traits that made it into the PFM draft have expert consensus.

[01:05:06] We relied on hundreds of sources from academia, forestry resources at multiple levels of government, extension offices, and other forestry tools. The tree species themselves can be sorted into three categories of edits. Trees that are remaining in the PFM, trees that are being added, and trees that are being removed. First, the trees that are already in the PFM that are proposed to remain generally score well across the board. There are 67 trees in this category. For example, red maple, and common hackberry, shown on this slide, have largely positive traits as represented

[01:05:44] by the green icons in their boxes. Green icons are positive, red icons are negative, and white icons are neutral. Because these trees were already in the PFM, we are merely updating their traits in the PFM to help developers plant them in the right locations. Second, we have trees that are proposed to be added to the PFM because they score well, they're largely native, and in some cases they're commonly requested for tree plans, but they're currently missing from the PFM.

[01:06:15] There are 46 trees in this category. Third, there are trees proposed to be removed from the PFM because they score poorly, they're largely non-native, sometimes even invasive, and are not commonly used anyway. There are 34 trees in this category proposed to be removed. For example, Douglas fir, is non-native and cannot handle wind or drought, flooding, heat, soil compaction, disease, road salt, and its high maintenance, so it may not make sense to continue encouraging it in the PFM. It's important to note that there are no notable anticipated commercial impacts of

[01:06:54] removing these trees from the list because these trees are not commonly planted or used on site plans anyway. The only exception to this statement is Japanese zilkova, which is common but invasive. Altogether, the current draft amendment would increase our tree list from 102 trees to 113 trees.

[01:07:18] So the amendment would provide more options and better options. It should be noted here that the graphics shown on this slide are for illustration purposes only. The PFM itself does not look like this. So what do these amendments look like in the PFM itself?

[01:07:35] Most of the amendments are within Table 12.14, the tree selection and canopy cover guide, and the surrounding paragraphs that describe the table. In addition to the tree additions, subtractions, and trait edits discussed on previous slides, we are proposing mild table reformatting for easier use.

[01:07:57] three new tree uses, namely forested area, floodplain, and street tree, to help developers select trees appropriate for those situations, tweaks to tree credits to ensure that they are allocated logically and consistently, and other editorial updates for alignment with previous technical bulletins and zoning ordinance amendments. To ensure that the amendment sits well with our local tree community and local development community, the team conducted early engagement of numerous entities, including those listed on this slide. We gathered many helpful

[01:08:35] comments as a result of this engagement, and we are currently updating the draft to incorporate consideration raised by those comments. For example, Virginia Tech forestry professors suggested additional high-scoring trees for consideration. Once these edits are complete, we plan to post the polished version on the Land Development Services Public Facilities Manual and County Code's amendment web page under the proposed amendments under consideration so that all those interested can review the updated draft prior to the public hearing process.

[01:09:08] We thank you for your time and are happy to answer any questions you may have. Allison, thank you so much for this and to your team as well for all the hard work. One quick question. You know, our office gets a lot of calls asking about tree ID tags and kind of what they are, Why are they on their trees?

[01:09:28] And we were wondering, I was wondering if this is an opportunity for some public education around that. Adam LaPera, Chief of Forest Conservation for LDS. Yeah, it's a great question. We get that a lot as well. I think passed from your office and other offices here.

[01:09:46] We are updating the ID tag to be an actual tag instead of just the really colorful ribbons. So that should help as well. But I do believe there is an opportunity to educate the public through outreach on what these tags are, what they mean. A lot of times people see the tag and say, oh my gosh, the tree is coming down, when in fact it's just part of the required inventory. So yeah, we can definitely look into that. That's great. Yeah, we hear that as well. With that, Mr. Chairman, do you have? Yeah, I just have a really simple question for people watching to make sure they understand this. So this is a

[01:10:21] proposal that will come to the board. We'll have a public hearing spring, summer of next year, but this is a PFM amendment. And so will the recommendations on tree types be used both in determining whether a tree is to be removed pre-development and what types of trees get planted as a part of a site plan? So it's an instrument that's used in both of those instances or it only applies to new site plans? Typically new site plans.

[01:10:58] So, the reason I bring this up is because we do have significant, I've experienced this when I was Franconia District Supervisor, where we have specific tree-save areas, where we've designated these as tree-save areas because we want to save the trees in those areas, but they may not be the best trees, and then they die after development, and they become the Homeowners Association's responsibility for removing them.

[01:11:26] And so is there anything in this that we can use to assess tree-safe areas on-site plans and make determinations about which trees within those tree-safe areas are worth protecting the most versus which ones may be better off to be removed and replanted with a tree that is actually in the recommended inventory?

[01:11:51] We do have the ability to do that, yes. And we're exploring that through other avenues within LDS as well. I think it's important because it's sometimes hard to determine the health of a tree. Sometimes very large trees, we put a lot of effort into protecting them.

[01:12:10] Their root structure gets damaged through development. They die, and they're a major liability to take down. And this, I think, speaks volumes to which trees we think are preferred that hold up, that are healthy, that would support our environment. And I would just say that in tree-saved areas, when we go do a pre-development tree inventory, that we factor in these elements into the areas that we think are most important to save, and that when we talk to people in the development process, that we are not just protecting trees, but we're protecting the best trees.

[01:12:46] And if they're not the best trees and they present a liability, that we're encouraging them to be removed and planted with the best trees so that long-term we get the most benefit out of it. And I kind of see this work in both ways with determining which trees we should be looking at more critically, including ones that probably should just come down.

[01:13:05] And then in the site plan process, obviously steering which species and types of trees get planted in the development community to ensure the best success of our future canopy. And I think we need to be looking at it from both of those directions. Agreed.

[01:13:22] Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We're going to start all the way at the end with Mr. Bierman, followed by Supervisor Stork, and we'll close it out with Supervisor Alcorn. Thank you. I love this. This is wonderful. This is great.

[01:13:38] People in my district love their trees. They love information about what trees will hold up. They need more information about what trees won't sometimes. So I want to just build on what Chairman McKay said. With the caveat being that if I heard you correctly, so correct me if I'm wrong, these are recommendations, correct?

[01:14:05] They are not like hard and fast rules. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. So with that being said, let's make these recommendations far and wide in as many opportunities as we have. and uh i think let's also utilize this and focus on public outreach and and telling more people about this as a resource um you know adam you and i have had this conversation before about how i will have uh you know i will have people in my district who are complaining about a tree that came down and it turns out that adam had worked on that site plan trying to figure out

[01:14:44] the best way to preserve the tree it just didn't work or there was a there were problems that were not foreseen necessarily by the residents next door so getting out the information about what trees are more resilient what what trees work better you know what we're doing to try and have better tree canopies really really uh necessary and uh this is exciting i hope it doesn't take us all the way till summer of 2026 to get it in place because i say that on everything let's move

[01:15:14] faster. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Bierman. Supervisor Stork. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for this report. And I think one of the best things we did a few years ago is a resilient Fairfax, because I know it's paid dividends in almost any and every community conversation that I have about how the county is foresighted enough to recognize that things are changing and to provide guidance to community members and property owners, etc., to adapt to that change before it actually gets here in some cases or if it's already here to to adapt more wisely to it so

[01:15:53] and just on that the point that the chairman had raised about the preferred tree types i know only developers only can do what they want to do and how far can they go with that in other words what's the likelihood of adoption success for our recommendations if these are adopted by the board The development community has largely been supportive so far.

[01:16:24] So we've presented to NAOP and ESRC and a few other development industry groups. And once they were assured that there weren't commercial ramifications to the trees that we were removing because they weren't commonly planted anyway, they seemed comfortable with the amendment.

[01:16:47] So you believe that they will embrace this. Has that been true in general? Because obviously the easiest thing, cheapest thing, and some developers might look at this, is to plant a tree that will grow quickly and they correspond to a 30% cover and all that.

[01:17:07] And I know we have some changes that we're looking at that are coming forward that are going to address some of that as well. So you're not seeing that? You're seeing in general that people are doing the right thing? we haven't received any negative comments from the development industry entities that we've presented to so far and given that there are more tree species after this amendment there will be more options than there are currently it's just expanding the the list of options available to

[01:17:42] them is there any way we can influence that to to ensure that we're getting the larger better covering trees i mean that's maybe not a question for oec but is that there's something else that the board can do to encourage that kind of villain because i know we've looked at maybe there's incentives that we should do and i know there's some conversations that we're having i had a presentation just a few weeks ago about that so i just i'll let it go at that if there's anything else that we should consider to encourage this kind of proactive approach i'm interested in

[01:18:19] trying to do that. So in terms of broader outreach about these recommendations, we are planning to have public-friendly, graphic-friendly guides on, like, which trees are appropriate. In terms of, you mentioned, like, canopy coverage. Do you mean, like, which trees have broader canopy coverage size? Yeah, long-term. They're not, maybe junk trees is the quick, I'm not a tree expert, so I I think of some trees that people plant to grow quickly but die early and aren't really

[01:18:58] long-term trees, and this is an opportunity to encourage people to do the right thing long-term. So a couple of things. We did factor in lifespan of trees into the back-end matrix and trees' ability to provide shade and cooling capacity.

[01:19:16] And then trees are already classified in the PFM according to category, which helps them identify which helps identify which trees have which amount of coverage and adam can expand on that these are all native native trees as well that's that are in here the native is preferred none of them are invasive okay and just i want to give you all thanks broadly to folks who have organized in the past we had an oak tree online oak tree how to keep and preserve your oak tree

[01:19:51] largest attendance that i've ever had for an online meeting it was a couple hundred people there it was a huge and i know i so i i would encourage you all to do something like that again because i think it creates awareness that's in a win-win for us and also has those individuals feeling like the county does care about their trees and and hopefully it gives us a little bit of halo effect that we are we're there for them too so thank you mr alquhoun you're going to take so. All right. Thank you very much. Just very quickly. So when you were looking at what you

[01:20:29] considered for what's a resilient tree, and I don't know if there's any way that this ever gets measured or maybe there's not a difference, but I've seen a good number of trees even recently that have been choked by invasives. And is there a measurement for resistance to invasives or, I mean, was that one of the criteria? I don't know if anybody's measuring that or maybe it doesn't matter i don't think there's a measure for that okay all right i was just wondering because that's also a killer of of trees you know we're seeing that a lot i think out there so this is great thank you for doing this and i think this will help and i also just would close with one

[01:21:08] thing you know it's it's not just trees that fall down and block roadways uh we've had you know injuries and even fatalities uh from trees falling on folks so um so this is relevant there too so thank you and you are correct one of my neighbors uh had a tree fall in their house and they've been displaced since um that happened so um it is happening um well thank you so much to my colleagues for all your amazing wonderful questions thank you allison and your team for this wonderful presentation and the other presentations that happened today

[01:21:43] Our next Environmental Committee meeting is tentatively scheduled for May 12, 2026, so right around the corner. And unless there are any other additional comments, this meeting of the Board of Supervisors, Environmental Committee is adjourned.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com