Coraggio Consulting
Manassas City Council 5/19/2025

Date: Monday, May 19, 2025
Place: Manassas City Council, Virginia
Length: 1h 36m (video)
Official meeting video (Wistia / RegionalWebTV): https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/8sd9p6bm90

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 2026-10-17. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:21] City Council Committee of the whole work session of order. Mr. Smith, please call the roll. Mayor Davis-Junker. Present. Vice Mayor Wolfe. Here. Council Member Ellis. Here. Council Member Smith. Here. Council Member Osina. Here. Council Member Vasquez-Luna.

[00:00:36] Present. Council Member Hudson. Here. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here tonight. We're going to just move right through the agenda with several items ahead of us for discussion tonight. First item on the agenda, item 1.1, is the VRE project and weakness service update.

[00:00:53] And I'll bounce to Matt Arcieri to intro properly. Thank you, Your Honor, Members of Council. Your VRE representatives, Council Member Luna and Council Member Smith, requested in talking with staff that we haven't had an opportunity to interface with VRE in a little while and get an update on the projects that have been underway in the city.

[00:01:10] So thank you to Mr. Dalton and Mr. Richards for putting this together. and without further ado, the CEO and Chief Engineer of VRE to give you an update on projects in the city. Thank you. Again, Rich Dalton, VRE CEO, and we'll just start.

[00:01:28] We'll hit a couple of projects here, and then I'll end with just some comments about a topic on weekend service. So I'll hand it over to Dallas here. Dallas is our Deputy CEO and Chief Engineer. And he did lay a placemat in front of you.

[00:01:46] We will show a couple of those slides up there as well. So with that. Thank you, Rich, and thank you for having me. We'll get started here. I know we came mostly to talk about the Manassas City project here in town, but wanted to mention here on the fringes, also out on the border between Prince William County and the city of Fairfax near the airport.

[00:02:05] We've been in discussions, you know, talking to folks at the regional airport as well, just trying to coordinate some of our work that we have coming. We have a pretty substantial project. The big thing to know here is we order 21 rail cars, 10 of which will be delivered to one of our yards and 11 of them to the other yard.

[00:02:22] We're getting cars here. In order to take delivery, we need to move a few things around, lengthen track, add some track. That's going to be happening. That basically cascades, changes physically in the yard and to the station, and that's what we're rebuilding.

[00:02:38] So, you can see here the proposed, what we call AEW, Administrative and Employee Welfare Building, as well as the new station itself, to be built essentially where the station is today. We're straightening and lengthening some track along the line there, and then widening the yard to take delivery of those vehicles.

[00:02:59] And then, jump quickly over to the Manassas Station. Sorry, if I'm fine. Yes, you may. Can you go back to the previous slides? There we go. Do you have, does VRE have any plans for the property either side of Access Road around the parking lots?

[00:03:17] There is, there's a drain field that is there today. So no current plans as it stands. Expansion parking could be in that area, but it's also in the floodplain. Okay. It's in the 100-year floodplain. Okay, very good. Thank you. All right.

[00:03:33] Move quickly to Manassas Station itself. Some very clear objectives from this project, safety improvements. know, you have pedestrian traffic, vehicular traffic, and train traffic. All are good things, but when they mix, it's not such a good thing. And this project will help us to separate many of those elements, vehicular and train traffic, pedestrian and train traffic, vehicular and train traffic, bringing those in different ways. So some enhancements there. Also, accessibility.

[00:04:01] There's a number of things that between Amtrak and we've identified we want to take care of at the station to enhance our accessibility to the station around the station so on so forth and improve network fluidity I'll elaborate that a little bit but having dual platforms basically right now we serve essentially from one side of the corridor having dual platforms would allow us to ultimately serve on both sides of the corridor if it's bi-directional service morning service afternoon service bi-directional then that sort of thing happens a lot a lot more basically you're gaining capacity through that kind of fluidity much more reliable movement right now this is the concept plan we've been working on just we started this

[00:04:40] spring early spring late winter we'll say with our consultant um laying out concepts and evaluating some of those concepts um also worked with our partners at amtrak who had some ideas about how they wanted to do it uh some of the works here at the station and work with them on these concepts as well you can see am i able to point with this one or not that's okay that's okay um to we i'll i'll use railroad north and railroad south so to the right of the page if you will is railroad north toward dc railroad south towards broad run um so to the north end you'll see the parking lot we noticed there's been some folks walking up the hill across the tracks like we want to contain

[00:05:18] some of those movements um basically coming to city hall where we're sitting today so we're looking to add some fencing on what would be the east side and the west side of the corridor and then a path that would take you from the parking lot down to the great crossing over the tracks and to the north again on a new um parking i mean on a new sidewalk what you can see in front of you not shown on the board but on the placemat in front of you is a few images or renderings if you will of what that path could look like from the great crossing area itself so thoughts of how those pedestrian traffic see again excuse me come back to those three modes pedestrian vehicular and

[00:05:52] train right we want to help contain and and um channelize that flow of pedestrian traffic next and then would be on the south end the far south end would be extending the platform and adding a small canopy for the amtrak lift they have to use a small lift um it's not real easily done this is one of the ac uh ada enhancements we talked about so moving the lift to the southern station there southern end of the platform they have one there they can operate it but thinking of more accessibility more availability for that and then lengthening the platform to get a full train set right now we're limited in number of cars that we can load and unload which affects our dwell time

[00:06:28] and then finally the center section looking to to close off that great crossing if possible for battle street and and basically what we have now is a discontinuous platform we have people that actually stand on the opposite side of the gate on the train side track side of the gate waiting for the train so we'd like to close that off and put a full contiguous platform from one end to the other basically from west to main on the full length of the platform which also improves our ability to load and unload. We've done a lot of analysis with the roadway, that

[00:07:02] one-way road. It's actually, you can't go past the street coming from the east side of the corridor. So looking at that closure, we looked at several alternate means and then how we might, the big thing was delivery, delivery trucks and fire trucks. So we've evaluated how that might happen. One of the many possibilities we evaluated is basically a three-point turn because we couldn't bring them down the street and then go back out the wrong way on the street.

[00:07:28] In fact, that street is limited even for certain size fire trucks. You may know that street is really narrow, so it does limit, and there's no parking on the street. It does limit severely what can come down the street already. So we looked at the three-point turn, so it could come down the street to the crossing, pull into the parking lot, back in for delivery, and then pull out basically through the parking lot as shown here.

[00:07:49] We understand city parking. It basically would be changing the direction in and out of the parking lot without sacrificing but two parking spots as we can tell right now. So pretty fluid movement in that as well and would be able to maintain deliveries to that facility.

[00:08:05] And that's the sort of crunch of the analysis. You can see the other alternatives if you wanted to. Next steps were environmental review, preliminary engineering, expected to end later this year with NEPA. Final design by the end of 26 and then look into construction to start in the summer of 27 through 29 about a two-year cycle or less if we can right so that is basically the project um public engagement we've been working with the city clothes been always helpful um i saw it back earlier always helpful and engaging and getting things materials from us and to us um so we can

[00:08:40] stay and keep the public informed with that i'm going to be mindful so the um in the uh manassas station, the walkways that you have, proposed concrete sidewalk, the one that would be on the northbound side of the tracks there, how will that be integrating with the walking

[00:09:17] bike trail that might be put in between Manassas, Manassas Park, and Prince William County? And I'll share, I'm not familiar with the details, but I do know some of that's coming and Chloe showed that there's things in development for that bike path.

[00:09:36] But we could tie in, if you're tying into Main Street, obviously it comes to Main Street right there towards City Hall. So the Railway Trail study is actually evaluating the likely alignment for the entire Railway Trail corridor. So projects like this extending the pedestrian path to the City Hall lot would be built into that study.

[00:09:57] So likely we're thinking the Railway Trail would run along the City Hall side of the tracks in this piece, at least down to Fairview Avenue, and then more to come as we flesh out that stuff. Yeah, you're right. That's right. Now that you mentioned that, I do recall that.

[00:10:14] Well, it would be nice that whatever is built actually is built to fit what might come along rather than built and then undo along the way here, to be quite honest. And so I bring that up so you are aware or now you are aware, And you will find out more and be included in whatever discussion.

[00:10:37] So you can, because I'm taking it. My next question would be the timeline on this part, these things. Completion, we wouldn't start construction likely before 27, early 2027. Complete construction, say 2029.

[00:10:54] And again, closely coordinating with the city, city offices, and whatever that might look like for allowing those movements. Very good. Thank you, Madam. With the double platform that you're proposing, does that also include effectively ADA communication as to which side of the track the folks need to be at?

[00:11:18] Indeed. And so I want to clear one thing up. That is a future platform, not part of this immediate project. Like in the 27 timeframe, this is not something we'd be building right away. It's future casting. But, you know, in the fourth dimension of time, looking at what we would need to do that, this is what we wanted to lay out and reserve that space.

[00:11:36] but absolutely so you know we do that elsewhere on the system um woodbridge is an example of that quantico uh now with our new station ped bridge soon um also at alexandria we communicate that information through our vms or variable message sign and through um announcements on the over the loudspeaker to which track tracks are clearly labeled our crews are very good about allowing time for folks to make it over in plenty of time so yes yeah um so is this is this done oh no this

[00:12:10] is a concept i'll be honest i struggle with the closing battle street um yeah and i understand the rationale uh but it also uh your diversion i frankly just don't think works that's a really can be a really congested area of town um particularly when the train comes through and if the train's coming through you're not getting out down main street because it's all walked out with people.

[00:12:41] And no, it's not a through street, but the relief valve of the access in front of the train station getting over to West Street does provide a significant amount of through traffic, at least in the one direction to the south.

[00:13:02] So I understand we're not talking about an increase in ridership. We're not talking about a need of increased capacity at the station, are we? Okay.

[00:13:20] So approve the... All right? Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. We will have soon traffic counts on that street as well. Very close proximity among the streets there. We will have a traffic count for vehicles on Battle Street.

[00:13:37] Anyone else? Yeah. Could I take just 90 seconds here? I just wanted to touch on the topic of weekend service.

[00:13:52] So I know that's been a topic in the region, specifically, I think, in and around the city of Manassas since I've been at VRE, and I've been at VRE for 16 years. So just wanted to let you know, previously we had, as part of a lot of these different transactions that VRE has been involved in with Norfolk Southern, CSX, and the Commonwealth of Virginia, we had codified in agreements that VRE will be permitted to operate weekend service,

[00:14:30] and by definition weekend service is both Saturday and Sunday, as soon as some very large infrastructure improvements were done on the CSX line. We're still looking in that couple, two, three-year time frame. So what we wanted to do is introduce potentially some level of a Saturday service on both of our lines, not an all-day or full-day service, primarily to help, in part, to complement existing Amtrak service that's in the region that runs up and down the rails.

[00:15:04] So that's something that we're continuing to work on. One of the things that the reason why we can't set a date or a time yet is the next, as I mentioned, those other infrastructure improvements on the CSX line, we're currently going through basically some planning that looks at work windows.

[00:15:23] We need work windows on that line in order to do those infrastructure improvement projects. And those work windows will go from Monday through Saturday. So one thing, and our operations board has been a little sensitive to this, in that we didn't want to go start a service and then in three months shut it off, right?

[00:15:44] So let's have a little bit more, you know, a little bit more clarification. And if there's a way to introduce a VRE service on Saturday in the near term, that's what we're going to do. So please invite me back in a few months or a couple of months or whatever, and I can give you continuous updates on that topic.

[00:16:11] And the green part from the picture, if it's not too late, I would like to add, that is only measuring the length, but it's not affecting any of the parking, right? Because I remember you said about the two parking spots at the closing of Battle Street.

[00:16:29] And my concern is on the water tower. The green line. I just want to make sure that that was just a dim line. So all the parking spaces there, the new side of the station, the part that will be built, it won't affect any of those, right?

[00:16:52] Thank you. Thank you both very much. Thank you so much. And look forward to keeping y'all informed and updated on what we're doing as we progress again from these concepts. So thank you very much for your time.

[00:17:09] Thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Item 1.2 on the agenda, ordinance 02025-738, city erosion and sediment stormwater management, and it's still the map.

[00:17:31] I will introduce Amy in a second. So this is a bit of a housekeeping ordinance required by some state law changes. E&S is erosion and sediment control, basically, during construction, how you keep dirt on the project, and stormwater is stormwater. I won't steal Amy's thunder.

[00:17:47] She'll take you through the changes, but the ask tonight is, of course, to advance this for an ordinance adoption at your next meeting. And with that, Amy Billman, our stormwater administrator. Hello. I am Amy. And as Matt mentioned, there's a new regulation. It came about in July 1 of 2024. And it's 9VAC 25-875. And it basically combines the stormwater regs with the erosion control regs and with the certification regs.

[00:18:26] So it's basically taken the erosion program and the stormwater program, which was separate rigs, separate books, and put it into one and then into one handbook. And so with that, it has been updated.

[00:18:44] The handbook has been updated with current erosion control measures and also BMPs, which are your ponds and your bioretention facilities and things of that nature. And then as part of that regulation, the city has to update their ordinance.

[00:19:07] So that's what this is. So basically, Chapter 58, Article 3 was the Erosion Control Code, and that is being repealed. And it's being combined in now with the Article 4, which is now the Virginia Erosion and Stormwater Management Program.

[00:19:28] So basically, we are combining the two articles into one, into Article 4. So throughout that, I believe on pages 62 and 63 of your packet, you have the detailed revisions. Basically, the ordinance was updated to parallel with the model ordinance from the state, and then also update definitions and the code references.

[00:20:01] And then in the last part, in Division 5, in the previous code, it addressed all of the fees. And now basically we compiled that, and that is in Section 58, Subpart 101D, and it's referencing Chapter 130.

[00:20:24] So that's the summary of the order. Your Honor, so this is one of those pieces of code that if it works, you will never hear about it. publicly and we're already operating under it now yeah it's been a huge lift from the stormwater folks to get caught up with the state regulations it's a good simplification of our codes um it should definitely benefit those doing development in the city and i think that's where we are today any questions councilman head nods to um proceed we can place on consent if it's

[00:21:00] unanimous your honor if we'll place it on consent if it's unanimous that everyone's in agreement yeah for the june 9th meeting that's fine all right thank you oh thank you 1.3 home two suites at landing at cannon ranch

[00:21:31] um when council uh rezoned this property that it owns uh back in i guess 2016 uh thereabouts 2014 You reserved unto yourselves the right of architectural review for everything that gets built out there.

[00:21:48] Originally, that review was designated to the Land Use Committee. It is now delegated to Council as a whole. We put this in your Friday package, so hopefully you had seen it then, and then in your agenda package for this evening.

[00:22:04] And we are here to solicit your approval for the architectural design of this property. We will bring this back to you as part of a land transfer.

[00:22:21] You'll notice on the last page in the package, which shows you the layout for how the hotel situates, that it actually does cheat over onto the former DMV lot and cuts off part of that parking. It doesn't impact our ability to redevelop the DMV site, but that is property the council did not include in its development agreement with the EDA.

[00:22:46] and Buchanan, so it will require a separate council action to subdivide that piece of property off, and we'll put this in for final approval with the resolution at that time. Any questions, Councilman? So the existing DMV building will stay in place while this is built, is that what you're saying?

[00:23:07] Unless we walk in in short order with another developer for the multifamily part is willing to knock the DMV building down, but this does not impact. For the record, I like the color scheme. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:23:25] Stop me if I'm getting too much in the details. I don't remember if it's the home, too. But I know some of them, they have, you know, not themes, but inside. It reflects a little bit of, you know, the city that you're visiting. I'm not sure if this is it, but, you know, if there is.

[00:23:42] I was, after reviewing it yesterday, I was thinking about it. And I, you know, understand our lines. But I just wanted to, you know, say something when it comes to everything. if we're able, you know, that in somehow, shape, or form, even though it's a little bit outside of all the town, that it's, you know, the characteristics.

[00:24:04] But I do like the outside. And, you know, the truth did that inside. Hilton has a commitment to trying to make its hotels become part of the communities that they reside in. So I'll pass that on to the developer, just for the public's recollection, and perhaps yours.

[00:24:22] This is the same development firm that built and owns the Hilton Garden Inn and Haymarket. Do we know particulars like, and maybe I just missed it, I don't know, like rooms and food, meeting space?

[00:24:38] There will not be a restaurant in the facility. There will be a little bit more meeting space than is normal because there's a market for that, but it's not conference or convention type meeting space. Rooms are around 100. And do we know the number of jobs maybe?

[00:24:56] 50-plus. I do know, but I don't recall off the top of my head. Yes, it's 50. Any other questions, Counselor? Mr. Ossinger. Thank you. So you're saying a four-story building with 100 rooms?

[00:25:16] Is that what I'm seeing? Plus or minus, yes. You know, right. Okay. Comparable to the true. Okay, and when I was looking at the site plan, Will the parking lot of the old DMV building still be accessible by going around one state?

[00:25:40] Absolutely. Your Honor, we're still working with them on that. If you look at the site plan, it looks like it's being cut off. Right now, that's the preliminary site plan, so we're still working with access from, I guess, Fairway. We have access on Fairway and likely through the back of the old DMV lot, at least in the short term.

[00:26:00] To Council Member Rosina's question, we're not proposing to eliminate the second access point and make it only all of God. So we'll have to do a review. The final plan will be revised to reflect on that. And who gets to review the landscaping that is going to be proposed for this facility?

[00:26:21] Your awesome city staff. All right. Under Mets. There is a streetscape plan that's been adopted for the entire site, a consistent streetscape plan that they will have to follow. That was part of the development approval for landing at Cannon Branch.

[00:26:38] So they'll be following the same streetscape standards that the TRU has to follow, that any other parcel has to follow on that site. And then those will go through the normal site plan review process and out there particularly concerned about what may or may not attract birds that are in conflict with the airport.

[00:26:56] Gotcha. And hadn't thought of that. Good point. along the way here we don't want that um i'm worried about it that's right now it's going to be completely barren no no no trees whatsoever because once with his bulldo's they're pulling them all down there right he might um how about um um so the only signage is going to be as part of the uh exterior of the building meaning they're not going to be outside independent

[00:27:28] They have not submitted their site plan or their sign package yet. I'd be surprised if they don't have a monument sign of some sort and take full advantage of the maximum allowable sign regulations within the city.

[00:27:46] But, again, those go through your planning review process as well. So, no, we don't approve garish, blinking, flashing, ugly signage. So when you said monument sign, what is a monument sign?

[00:28:02] It's no longer the pole-mounted signs that go 60 feet in the air like the Cracker Barrels. It's now something that looks more like this table on end with a nice flower bed around it that says Hilton, Home Two Suites, and sits out near towards the road.

[00:28:20] I got you. All right. Okay. Thank you. And Madam Mayor, it might be for the student manager or maybe for him, but I believe that this year we should get an update when it comes to the project as a whole, not the hotel, but the whole, I would like to hear.

[00:28:42] I know that 10 years is coming up and, you know, that. And then my question for you will be, if the DMV part, what is parking? because it's all together, will go away.

[00:28:57] Will there be a problem for parking for the hotels? And if the whole place was built, will there be parking issues for them? If we didn't at least preserve some of the parking of the DMV, at least worries me for future projects that come forward when it comes to the DMV.

[00:29:18] Hopefully it's not anytime soon, but if it does, you know. So this is an illustrative site plan that's in the back that will give you a general idea, Property line is not quite specific, but you can see on the bottom the edge of the DMV building where the parking ends, and you have that sort of little employee parking that butts up against where Matt's department was temporarily located out there, and then the parking along the front.

[00:29:44] So you can see it comes up to about three parking spaces away from the edge of the current DMV building, so you'll still have plenty of parking out there for that building in the short term, that we're not using it nor is anyone else and again we will make sure and are confident that this design doesn't impinge on the ability to redevelop that corner lot and you will see that because you kept that lot out of the development agreement so it is not a by right redevelopment of that former DMV

[00:30:20] building so any use out there will need to be approved by Council in advance yes And my concern is, and you know, this is the time that I'm thinking about because it was brought up, I believe this will be sufficient. It's just as a holistic approach that is just, you know, being conservative.

[00:30:41] I'm sure that the team will think about it, and I just want to highlight that, as it will be a concern if any future comes. But I'm not concerned about this one. I just want to make sure. The company is at about 90% site plan completion.

[00:30:57] We're expecting them to file those by the end of the month. June might be a little bit more realistic, but as soon as a site plan comes in, we'll get to work on issues like access and circulation and all the other things that go along with that signage.

[00:31:15] This is just the architectural piece that's in front of you tonight only because uh it was one of the proffers that was submitted as part of the rezoning is it the same size as the true hilton roughly okay what is the height uh restrictions out there 65 feet what is that uh four four to five stories so it's a little under is that because the airport is close by or because of your zoning it's a it's a mixed-use uh zoning district so

[00:32:04] Diane's going to present the chickens. He's kidding. Item 1.4, chicken ordinance update slash options. Still the Matt Show. Still the Matt Show, but the chief is here to help me along. So I'm going to take council through a couple documents that we've prepared over the years through the history of this ordinance.

[00:32:24] Obviously, this is coming before council, so you've received a number of ongoing requests from the community to consider allowing chickens in the city. So rather than spending a lot of time on new research, what we wanted to do tonight was take you through the history of how we got here, what your options are as far as an ordinance goes, and then look for guidance as to how council wants to proceed.

[00:32:45] And I'll end up with an A, B, and a C option to consider. But just to back you up right now, so chickens are actually currently permitted in your animal control ordinance, but they have to be 250 feet away from any resident. So in the city of Manassas, that's a de facto ban because there's maybe one lot in the entire city that even meets that requirement.

[00:33:04] So essentially, chickens are banned. Say that again. 250 feet from any occupied residence around where you'd want to have your chicken. So in the city, it's a ban, effectively. So in 2020, 2021, during the height of COVID, we started looking at ways to loosen that restriction, starting to look at other jurisdictions and what they do.

[00:33:27] We actually found a lot of jurisdictions, and I've included that chart for you. That's Attachment 3, do allow chickens, especially surprisingly in some more urbanized places like the city of Richmond, some localities in northern Virginia. Planning Commission worked on this as a zoning text amendment, as they do every year when they take up their annual updates.

[00:33:44] It went through Planning Commission and went through City Council. And ultimately, City Council received some pushback and tabled it. That's around early 2021. So the first attachment is actually the 2021 ordinance that covers all the issues that were raised at the time.

[00:34:00] There was a lot of work put into the ordinance, a lot of research into things like maintenance, sizes, animal care. And that's all in there for reference because we have done a lot of research to kind of back up, if you want to go forward, what we can do. And the draft ordinance is in there as well. So here we are today.

[00:34:17] What we've heard more recently, and this gets me to what attachment two is, There are some concerns about whether this is, because it was going to be a zoning ordinance amendment, whether code enforcement, this was the best use of code enforcement's time. Code enforcement is the department that's primarily tasked with enforcing zoning ordinance regulations.

[00:34:35] So as we were asked to bring this back to council for consideration, one of the conversations we had with the city attorney's office and with Chief Keene was, maybe this is better for council's consideration as something you want to house in your animal control ordinance, which is chapter 18. So very quickly, I went and wrote a very high-level draft of what an alternative ordinance might look like.

[00:34:54] So that's your B. So A would be zoning ordinance, B would be something in the animal control ordinance. In all of these regulations, we're basically proposing a basic set of restrictions, typically four hens. That's what they do in Fredericksburg. Interestingly, they've adopted in Fairfax City an ordinance subject to 2021 that largely looked like the draft you tabled because copied us.

[00:35:19] And so that also has a restriction of four. In all the ordinances, there's a ban on roosters. In all the ordinances, there's a ban on slaughtering of chickens, selling of chicken meat. All the ordinances have restrictions on welfare, sizes of coop, and locations. The one thing on location, that's why I asked Eric to bring these up, is the map before you is minimum lot size.

[00:35:39] So the zoning ordinance that you ultimately tabled in 21 had a minimum lot size of 10,000 square feet. That's about a quarter of an acre. An acre is about 43,560 square feet. so about a quarter acre. You can see a 10,000 square feet single-family detached. So again, can't have them in townhouses, cannot have them in apartments. Single-family detached regulation.

[00:35:58] Those are the lots that would, at a high level, would qualify under the 10,000 square foot size restriction. If you give me the next slide, when we looked at what Fairfax City did, they took our ordinance, our draft ordinance, and actually went to 20,000 square feet. You can see that cuts out a lot of lots and really reduces the number of properties that would be eligible for a permit.

[00:36:19] We also did an acre. Once you get to an acre, you get pretty close to a de facto ban again because it's few and far between in the city. You're literally 20,000, and I highlight that even in the drafts, might be something that council wants to give us guidance on. Maybe we want to consider, if you want to move forward, doing this at 20,000 square feet as opposed to 10,000 as a minimum lot size, see how it goes.

[00:36:39] You can always come back and amend your ordinances in the future if you still get a lot of requests for even more people wanting to do this. So really, what's before you then this evening are a couple options. Option A would be resurrect the zoning ordinance updates, send it back to the Planning Commission with probably that lot size change.

[00:36:58] That would go back to the Planning Commission, City Council, public hearings, or option B, do it as a change to your animal control ordinance, which would go through City Council. City Council would still have to figure out a way to take some additional public comment on the draft. but we believe either ordinance is going to accomplish a regulatory aim if you want to allow domestic chicken keeping in the city.

[00:37:18] They both have roughly the same regulations. Option C, of course, would be do nothing, leave it as is. Your de facto ban would stay in place. So unless the chief has anything to add to the city manager, I think that's where we are at this point. We have the regulations in place. We've done a lot of research.

[00:37:34] We can craft the ordinance any way council desires. And I think with that, I stand for any questions. the green was 10,000 correct and and that shows how how many right now would be eligible able to get chickens would be eligible for a permit correct if if they met all the other requirements but there would there would be other things you'd have to look at so you know there's setback requirements a chicken coop it couldn't you may not be able to fit it on your property for other reasons and we could add those you know the draft that was tabled had requirements on how far we wanted it from a storm drain for instance so this would be kind of your high level meets the

[00:38:12] requirements. In a Chapter 18 version, an animal control version, what Doug and I envisioned would happen would be zoning would probably have to look at the application first, sign off on it from things like setbacks and stuff that zoning does, and then animal control would probably issue a permit once zoning said meets requirements. Do you talk about or have plans to, and I'm just thinking ahead, on the permitting costs and things like that. I mean, has that even been thought about at all i was just reading it and coming up with some questions but i mean the zoning permits runs

[00:38:50] is 50 but i don't know what um i don't think we've had any discussion about what a chicken i was thinking yeah i had thinking yeah those are things we need to hear because we we have enough these are just questions as i was reading that i wrote down myself just to um and then how do hoas play into who trumps who hoa say no chicken hoa would trump the city ordinance so matter what so if an HOA says no chickens then no chickens. Zoning never can supersede a private

[00:39:23] covenant restriction. Then I asked then I had historic overlay district. I know there's mostly townhomes and there's no I mean there's single family in there right but I didn't know. They might need ARB approval in the we'd have to we'd have to rule on how your district is set up if something in the backyard required ARB approval in that situation. Our codes our ARB guidelines currently don't address backyard chickens and then um i saw the change from and i guess one of them taking it from from the police chief to the city manager that's the animal control part or am i

[00:40:02] mixed up it's just an edit that allows the city manager to designate the standard edit we do in most codes is allow the city manager to designate who works the ordinance it would remain animal Control's not moving. If I had to guess, he's going to delegate that over to me. Or finance, one of the two.

[00:40:21] I had, well, Costa Permit asked about renewal yearly. One of those things we could work out. I mean, zoning, one of the downsides to zoning is it's harder to make zoning permits renew than it is an animal control permit. So if you want to do it on an annual basis, it's another reason to consider the animal control option.

[00:40:42] Enforcement, I know you mentioned inspections, fines, that's all code enforcement. A person, additional people would have to be hired, or we don't even know. If you put it in the animal control section, I don't think you know any of those yet, depending on the workload that it would pose.

[00:41:00] I think that would be our recommendation is if, I think the big question is if there's a desire of the majority to even move forward, our recommendation would be putting it in animal control easier to manage and we don't know we don't know how many people have chickens right now we just know some people do an idea but we don't know how many when we get the complaints we literally try to chase them down where they're at thank you for indulging me council members

[00:41:34] questions i saw her first thank you because you hit some of them um i asked you know it was about the HOA which you know I don't understand but within that you know many of the ones that you change are under HOA so is there any consideration into 15,000 will that be a big change if this is 10 and the other one was 20 but I don't I think most of them are 10 so it might not even make a difference it's not going to make a huge difference your lot sizes run in the city between 10 and 15,000

[00:42:11] square feet so 20 is kind of the not as many 20s as you would as you can say it's 10 to 12 is really where we run in the city so the other one is um you know it made me think of the dog license the dog license you have to pay every year the ten dollars but you cannot get your license without the shots record so you know i know they were discussing different and i know it's down to the details but it's you know something that it came to mind and then um i believe the fair tax one

[00:42:44] They have different things for different lots, but I don't want to get to... Fairfax City, I apologize, lets you do a special use permit to go less than 20,000 square feet.

[00:43:00] I do not recommend. If you go down the Chapter 18, Animal Control, I don't recommend mixing that in with land use regulations. That's all I wanted to hear. Thank you. Mr. Smith. Just an observation. As we move forward, I do think enforcement should be under the animal control. I think that would allow us to timely respond to and take appropriate actions when necessary.

[00:43:35] I just think it's more practical and would be more effective, and that we can incorporate reasonable adjustments that addresses the issues that have been raised, will be raised, those things that need to be addressed.

[00:43:53] So I just want to say, I think as we move forward, I would lean more towards the animal control process. Any other comments? so what are the um when i was reading about chickens and complaints um one was health health issues health concerns like do chickens have to be inspected make sure they don't have the virus and viruses and like i don't understand rules for that to make sure they're safe to have

[00:44:32] in a neighborhood that'd be part of the permit to have inspections and i think you would set up some administrative regulations that look at things like disease, chickens get vaccinated, vaccinations, that kind of stuff.

[00:44:51] So, you know, it's another, the way I drafted this up, it basically allows the police department to set a whole set of regulations for care and maintenance. So beyond kind of, where does the coop go? It's all the things that have to happen every year to keep people safe. Yeah, we'd recommend yearly inspection.

[00:45:09] But those are the things we or you are bringing up. We didn't want to put all that work into it if there was no desire to even move forward. So another question, the map there, is that the residents that are not in HOAs or condors?

[00:45:29] Most of those lofts, just looking at it off the top of my head, are actually not in HOAs. There's a few in Wellington down in the left-hand corner that probably don't know all of Wellington's HOA rules. spec don't qualify but a lot of these neighborhoods are in fact not under an hoa what about the yellow one yellow map the orange oh yeah there's lots of joys in that situation i mean you pick up sumner lake you pick i don't know you don't pick up summer excuse me you pick up um all of wellington as an example um get into interesting to see that map with uh the absolute i mean i

[00:46:08] don't think there's any hoas or condos that allow chickens because we don't allow chickens so better map if we had that. So that's something you want to see them work on. I think it would be a better visual to see what's left after the HOAs and kind of show us where the HOAs are and then... The one caveat is we don't have all, we don't keep all the HOAs bylaws, covenants, and restrictions, so it would be a bit of an effort to find out.

[00:46:38] Well, I doubt they would have them if we don't allow them. That wouldn't make any sense. I'm sorry. We're leaning towards the 20,000 square feet, not 10,000. You go to the 20, right? That is what we would recommend.

[00:46:57] We wouldn't recommend a 10,000 square foot lot. Unless you all would say otherwise. Build around the 20. Do you happen to know off the top of your head how many people work in our animal control department?

[00:47:17] I do. You should. That's what I can answer. There's three sworn animal control officers. They are fully sworn police officers. That is an assignment. They go to the academy just like every other officer. And would you say they have, each of the three of them already have a full workload?

[00:47:37] Especially this time of year when babies are being born in the wild, their calls for service go up. Babies are being born in the wild? Puppies, foxes, cats, springtime. Not a human baby is born in the wild.

[00:47:53] Sorry. I was thinking that falls under animal control. Learning a lot. Sorry, no calls for service. No calls for service. Go up this slide. Thank you for that. And I wanted to echo the thoughts that the mayor had shared of the cost of these permits.

[00:48:10] And if we are to move forward, I definitely think an annual permitting would be annual inspection, annual permit. But, I mean, I do fear that this becomes a $140,000 investment for another additional person or something for the city.

[00:48:28] So, you know, how that plays out. But if, again, we are to move forward, what I would like to see is in our setbacks or our requirements to, like, combine the city of Norfolk's in the city of Fairfax's because I think that separately they both have really good, Um, really great regulations. Um, but I think that like having a combination of those two

[00:48:55] would be good. I am good. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Um, yeah. In our permitting process or in our system now, are there any situations where pain in a permit is contingent upon completion of some sort of orientation or, um, no, we don't have a process system where chicken skull, chicken skull.

[00:49:35] I was just thinking of a session there with resources and links and things like that to people on how to clean, when to clean and all those things. We are permitted an instruction, preparation to get into details like handling of manure and disposition and all those kind of things.

[00:49:58] Believe it or not, manure can be, we looked into some of this, manure can actually be disposed in the city trash. We actually looked into that during the 2020, if it's properly packed. That was on my mind. That is actually something that our trash hauler takes, believe it or not. And also set forth, we'll be setting forth the size, style, and placement, obviously, of the coop.

[00:50:24] You definitely want to set minimum standards for animal welfare. And standards. Absolutely. With skin cleaning and this would be enforced by animal control in the police department. and we would, I think the path we're going down is to work with the attorney about inspections.

[00:50:46] We should be able to come in and inspect at any time. We're supposed to have a head nod if we want this to go forward, because I'm thinking there's some of us that don't want it to go forward. Yeah, we need some guidance from you before we put in more work.

[00:51:05] I just have another question. In what other cases do animal control people, enforcement people, whatever, go into residents' backyards? Are there any other circumstances where people are, like, required or invited?

[00:51:22] If we're checking the welfare of an animal after a complaint, we can gain. Just like anybody's pets or anything? We have one house that will not allow us to gain access, and we have no evidence to pursue that. No probable cause, we suspect, but they will not allow us to.

[00:51:38] So, yeah, so then, you know, you can have complaints from everybody in the neighborhood about somebody's backyard chickens, and they can tell you, no, you can't come. Neighbors can give us a picture of it, and then that would allow us to go in there. Well, we, any neighbor, and this is code enforcement, too, if a neighbor gives you permission to go into the backyard, you go up on their deck, you take a picture of your neighbor's yard, that's permitted.

[00:51:59] We do it every day. That's one of our techniques for confirming violations if we're not given written consent to go in the backyard. Sonia, and then Mr. Wolfe. thank you madam mayor so i would like to um i'm in favor of it as long as it's for over 20 000 the single family detached residents i want to make sure it's no more than four i do like what they said that they whether it's a tag or it's a permit or both you know whatever it is

[00:52:34] possible but i understand that you still want to go back and take it to the commission and then finally you know some details will come back so i will even though i'm in favor right now i will wait for that to see how it looks like because i don't even know if uh this council is interested on mr wolf and then mr smith yeah i just uh this is not worth the squeeze all these regulations and rules and this just like being a little pregnant you're gonna have chickens you're not gonna have

[00:53:10] chickens and then you're gonna get into the situation my lot my lot is 19 823 square feet Why aren't I allowed where my coop is 24 feet from the house? It's going to be an administrative, absolute nightmare. Not one man's opinion.

[00:53:30] Mr. Smith. Thank you. Mr. Smith. Well, as we move forward, let's ignore what he just said. In some research, I've noticed that some jurisdictions talked about concern over three types of, In what specific and defining, first of all, domestic things, and then within that, which breed would be allowed and so forth.

[00:54:01] So those are things you will check out. Are you seeing that you've inquired? I have been. And, you know, to those residents who have contacted me and written, except for the last set of emails, I think we all got, I don't think I got any individually.

[00:54:34] They all came to all of us here. I replied to all of them. So I was around in January 2021 when the vote was taken. And I voted to exclude chickens from the city.

[00:54:51] And as I've told people in replies prior, that there has been nothing to change my mind that I've seen. It's come along the way to change my mind, to change that vote.

[00:55:10] So I'm going to just put it out there. In that regard, you know, I have a variety of concerns that back then, and I still do, but in fairness and making sure everybody knows, that's where I fall on that here.

[00:55:31] I recognize that there was their petition last year that we, as a council, March work session, I believe, briefly talked about it and said, well, let's ask staff to put something together.

[00:55:50] But as Mayor Wolf used one expression, I used another, you know, either the window's open or the window's closed. There's no in-between along the way here. So I don't want our residents to ever think that this council is not listening or open along the way here.

[00:56:10] But from my standpoint here, I just have not seen anything that addresses the concerns that arise from health. I, as you know, I have worked with different associations and one association was very much involved in the raising of chickens.

[00:56:38] And I can tell you firsthand what it's like when avian flu comes in and destroys a flock. And then no matter what precautions you take, how quickly it spreads, you can wear all the coats and booties and what have you, but it still spreads from chicken, chicken farm to chicken farm to chicken farm and chicken farm. And I know we're not talking about birds to that large extent, but I can see that happening. It is, you know, one of those diseases that is just very, can spread

[00:57:18] lots and lots of different ways here along the way, as an example. So I worry about the health health cases here. I also look and say, taking just the map here with the purple with the 20,000 square feet lots here, and I go, what if all of those decided to have backyard chickens? That's a lot of chickens, a lot of stuff going on here, because that's what's permitted. And I'm not sure

[00:57:56] that the trade-off of having, being able to walk out and pick up eggs and, you know, raising chickens in your backyard here outweighs all the different things that quality of life issues that people who don't want chickens at all, near them, behind them, in front of them, those kinds of things this way here.

[00:58:30] And so I'm going to err on the side that what we have works very well. If you want to support our agriculture industries, there are many farms not very far from here. You can go see chickens, you can get eggs, fresh eggs.

[00:58:49] You can support them along the way here. But as I said, to the many, and when I say many, to the ones that signed the petition last year, to the folks who have written in favor, I'm certainly aware of their interests there.

[00:59:06] As I said, I've never misled anybody in saying that I would be in favor or I now have seen new evidence along the way that that would make me change my mind. So with that said, I would, if this is the time that staff is looking to have a definitive answer, then I would not be in favor of us moving forward.

[00:59:32] You're looking for him to move forward. Yes, ma'am, we are. At least four. What were you going to say? I was going to say there's one thing that Mr. Ocina brought up that, in my opinion, we need to make sure we put thought in.

[00:59:48] There is no doubt if you permit chickens, you are going to get complaints from a neighbor once that house gets chickens beside it. And we need to be prepared for that side of it as well. We can say we have visited.

[01:00:11] Who's no? Who's no? Who's yes? Mark is a no. Thomas and no, Teresa's and no, Ralph. I've been advocating for very strong regulations, obviously, and would not like staff to go through all that if chances of being even remotely successful.

[01:00:36] I mean, I think the concerns that are brought up about health of the residents, health of the Hens, and health of the city. Enforcement is going to be very key. We have some issues, some thoughts, some thought processes there.

[01:00:58] Went in play when we realized in reality what the enforcement there would be and who they would be, the numbers that we may need. You asked me for a no, yes. Well, I had not to move forward or not, please.

[01:01:18] I'm not in favor of them moving forward. If moving and going around the corner, there's going to be a wall, and they won't go further than that. And it sounds like there's some obstacles that we're just not going to overcome. I have major concerns both ways, but there are some valid concerns, and I will commend those who are for the effort that have done great research, and there's an answer to every challenge, but the challenges will still be there, even with the answers.

[01:01:50] So that's a long way to spell the word no. Thank you, sir. Ashley and Sonia, y'all are... I think you have four, right? Yeah, I just wanted to allow you the opportunity to say... Well, for me, I will say, you know, I have heard a lot more than before.

[01:02:09] I was not here when they heard it before. I believe since COVID-19, things have changed for everybody. I, you know, it's saddened even an opportunity to maybe see if it works or it doesn't under the $20,000, which is not even half of the housing.

[01:02:27] And then if you take into consideration HOAs, some of them are under, you know, it will even be more limited. I believe when people buy their houses, they understand how much land they got. And because of the changes, you know, I'm for it.

[01:02:44] And I think, you know, hearing from the residents, I heard yeses, I heard noes. But I did hear, you know, a special interest now, you know, in regards to that. So I'm a yes. You know, again, echoing what Councilman Osino said, we did receive quite a bit of correspondence.

[01:03:05] I can't say I have replied to every single one of them, but I did read quite a bit, and, you know, there's been some strong opinions on both sides of the argument. I'm okay with not moving forward. Like I said, if we were to move forward, I would want to combine pretty much all these regulations and give them all of them.

[01:03:24] But if, you know, we're not to move forward, certainly no sense in using up the staff time. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you all.

[01:03:37] I would like to recognize two of our commission members that are here tonight, Mr. Sweeney

[01:04:11] and our vice, Mr. McGee, here offering support. They got the presentation several months ago, and I've just been waiting to have an opportunity to brief counsel on the results of our master plan process, which took about two years.

[01:04:35] I will say there's nothing surprising about the master plan. If you thought we were going to have some type of flashy new crosswind runway or something like that, it's just not going to happen. So it's kind of vanilla, I like to say, because a lot of what we're doing is maintaining the facilities that we have.

[01:05:01] So I'll go through these. What are we going to be talking about tonight? What is a master plan? What our goals are or what the goal of a master plan is, elements. Talk a little bit about the schedule, mainly because it changed. We'll talk about that.

[01:05:17] change orders, cost, aviation or the forecast, and we'll end with the implementation plan. So what is an airport master plan?

[01:05:33] It's a comprehensive study of the airport. It describes the short, medium, and long-term developments. So essentially you take the strategic plan of the airport and the master plan is really your capital plan. So it supports and prepares for modernization, expansion.

[01:05:53] Or in some cases, you might have a master plan to create a new airport. In our particular case, we started this, our last master plan was approved back in October of 2002. So it's been quite a long time, 23 years since we've actually updated our master plan.

[01:06:14] Why has it taken so long? Well, in between the time the one was approved in 2002, we've done a lot of little mini plans that kind of get us where we need to be without doing a big, expensive process like this one has been.

[01:06:31] So I also wanted to say up front that just because a project is in the master plan does not guarantee that it will be funded by the FAA, the Department of Aviation, or the City Council, for that matter. and projects are subject to change because of unforeseen issues.

[01:06:49] In fact, I'll point out how there's already a change in the master plan already. So what is the goal of the master plan? It's to provide a framework, like I've discussed, kind of a guide for airport development.

[01:07:05] What will it cost, you know, satisfy aviation demand, and also consider potential environmental and socioeconomic impacts. So what are the elements of an air master plan?

[01:07:21] We basically start off with a pre-planning process that usually involves the airport staff, shareholders at the airport, users of the airport also get involved with that process. Public involvement, we did have a public process where folks were able to come out to the airport.

[01:07:37] We have poster boards up and everything. We took comments. We responded to those comments. Of course, environmental considerations, we do not do anymore an environmental assessment once the master plan is done.

[01:07:54] Years ago, every time you did a master plan, you would do this extensive environmental process. Well, the FAA figured out that, hey, a lot of these projects are long-term, 10 years, you know, 20 years out. You do an EA, and they're usually good for about five years.

[01:08:10] And the circumstances changes, so you're spending all this money on an environmental assessment. So the new thought is you do some environmental work through this process, But when you go to do the actual project, that's when you typically will do the environmental process along with it.

[01:08:28] So we usually capture existing conditions, aviation forecasts, facility requirements, alternatives, the airport layout plan, and facilities implementation plan, and financial feasibility analysis. I would like to point out that the FAA does not approve the master plan.

[01:08:48] They will review it. The only thing that they're required by law to approve is the actual aviation forecast and the ALP, the Airport Layout Plan. Those are the only two documents that you will find that they actually approve.

[01:09:04] Everything else they'll review, but they will not put their signature or stamp on the entire document. So we started this process back in 2021. This is how long this process has started and taken us. But you can see there, right in the center, in 2023, lo and behold, Avport agreement is signed.

[01:09:25] So if you go back a couple quarters in, say, the first quarter of 2023, maybe the fourth quarter of 2022, that's when I started speaking to Avports, communicating. None of this was disclosed, obviously, you know, as we worked through the process.

[01:09:43] And then eventually, you know, when we had enough information, we came forth. And that's the time frame which city council said, hey, go forth. We've signed an agreement with AvPorts, and the airport will now become a commercial service airport and not a general aviation airport.

[01:10:03] So a lot of things had to change at that point. We were pretty far. You could see we were pretty far in the process when we had to say, hold it. Now things are going to start changing because if you're going to add commercial service, your forecast is going to have to be updated to include that, as well as facility requirements are going to have to change.

[01:10:24] So we basically put a pause on the master plan process while we got through this. And then as soon as it was determined, we would move towards commercial service. Then we started again. But that's why you see we're here in 2025 when we should have finished, you know, the process.

[01:10:43] some time ago. So we did a pause, and we had some other changes. So what I asked, you know, of the staff is to say, okay, you know, what did this cost us? What were the changes? So the original master plan update was $791,000, almost $192,000 to complete. Very extensive process, as already explained. So in March of 2003, you know, as we were going through these processes, And as I had mentioned in public at some of the public meetings with the airline service, I had to do some legwork.

[01:11:20] I had to be able to let the public know how this might affect them and how we would be able to address, for example, the noise contours. So, yes, in 2023, as I explained in public, we did go and actually do some noise analysis, and that's what it cost us, about $5,200 for the update in the noise contours.

[01:11:48] And then we had to go through and update the forecast. Now, an interesting tidbit about the FAA, anytime you're doing a planning document with the FAA, once the scope of work is established and approved, you cannot change it. If you do, they're not going to pay for it. So we found ourselves in a situation where we have to update the forecast.

[01:12:08] So fortunately for us, the Department of Aviation stepped up and said, we don't have such a rule. So they were able to give us a grant to help pay for some of that $76,000. So essentially, we started, you know, the initial completion was supposed to be in December of 2023.

[01:12:25] And the actual completion was in January of 2025. And again, the variance there is because of the change orders, the pause in the project after we had the commercial service agreement. and also the FAA's review time, having to go back and actually look at that forecast.

[01:12:46] So I know this has got a lot of words on it, but I highlighted really the main things here. The aviation demand forecast, again, this is something that the FAA reviews and has to approve. But, you know, currently, you know, we're a general aviation airport in the NIPIAS, which stands for the National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, And we're moving towards commercial airline service.

[01:13:10] So the FAA's forecast predicts a 1.38% growth. And I highlighted the base year there of 2026 because it shows total operations of 106,000 and employments of 37,000.

[01:13:27] Well, we won't have any employments until we actually have airline service. But one thing I can tell you with my experience over 30 years, when it comes to forecasting, the FAA is very conservative. For example, it shows there that we're supposed to have 106,000 operations in 26. Guess what?

[01:13:43] Last year we had 110,000. So, you know, it's one of those things that when you follow their forecasting mythology, it's very conservative. And so we outpaced their forecasts on a fairly regular basis. So it's not new to us.

[01:13:59] Another aspect of the master plan is to determine what the critical design aircraft is. So the existing critical aircraft for us would be the Global G500, and that's specific to the long runway, the 1-6-left, 3-4-right runway, and then the Citation Sovereign is the shorter runway, 16-right, 3-4-left.

[01:14:20] Now, when we started to add airline service, it was determined that, you know, to be a critical design aircraft, you have to have over 500 operations per year. So, what we determined was, based on the low-cost carriers, ultra-low-cost carriers that we anticipate having, you know, that the 737-800 would be the aircraft that we would design to and that would be considered the critical aircraft going in the future.

[01:14:51] So we still maintain the sovereign for the short runway, and the only change is that you go from the Gulfstream to the 737-800, and that's driven strictly by the commercial service. Facility requirements. Basically, this shows, you know, why do we do airport facilities, mainly capacity short, falls, updated standards.

[01:15:19] FAA comes out with standards every so often and requires us to change geometry, so we have to do projects for that. We also replace outdated facilities just like everybody else, all the departments in the city do.

[01:15:36] But I highlighted some of the projects there on the right-hand side of the slide, kind of showing these are the projects that we really need to get going on, and they're going to be the ones coming up sooner than later.

[01:15:52] So you can see there the paved shoulders for the 16th left, 34th right, along with the rehab of the runway. Eventually, we need to go from 100 feet to 150 feet. Taxiway Bravo is an important project.

[01:16:10] We just rehabbed it, but we need to actually have paid shoulders and widen it. Widening the taxiway is almost more important at this point than the runway because I can show you multiple airports around the country that are operating with commercial service that only have a 100-foot-wide runway, but the one thing they all have in common is they have a 50-foot-wide taxiway.

[01:16:34] So that's one of those things that we need to push forward with sooner than later. So you can see there that, you know, it's broken into different categories. Your airfield typically, you know, is your most important leading facility. If you can't land on good pavement that's safe, you know, how are they going to get to the terminal building if you don't have good taxiways?

[01:16:55] And so, you know, I've been in airports in my past where people are like, oh, we need to have an ILS, instrument landing system. We have to have that. And I'm like, well, your runway has troughs in it, you know, it's just falling apart.

[01:17:13] What good is an ILS going to do if they can't land on a runway that's not safe? So we have to make our decisions based on, you know, the priorities. And, again, the priorities typically go to the airfield component projects. But you can see there that, you know, we are showing expansion of parking lots, and all of that stuff is to support the air carrier service.

[01:17:38] I do wanted to highlight the runway extension because the runway extension that's shown in the master plan would take the runway an additional 500-foot, resulting in a 6,700-foot runway. And what I want to point out this most of all is when we did the runway length analysis, the 500-foot extension to the south was supported by our current general aviation traffic.

[01:18:05] So that does not have anything to do with commercial service. So that's an interesting part of this study was that we were able to support a 500-foot extension with the traffic that we currently have at the airport and not including a 737 or 800 or 700.

[01:18:24] So that's a key point that for our citizens who might say, oh, you're going to make the runway longer for bigger aircraft. No, we've been able to show in the study that we can extend the runway based on our current traffic with the types of aircraft that we currently have in our inventory.

[01:18:41] So I thought that would be a good point to bring up. Some of the project highlights, you know, we looked at the intersection here of Delta and Charlie. It does not meet, this is one of those standards that the FAA has said, hey, we do not want a taxiway.

[01:19:00] You can see taxi lane Charlie there that if you follow the green straight out, it goes directly to the runway. Well, the new standards are they want an air pilot to make a move so that they don't, you know, their head's down in the cockpit. They accidentally, you know, look down for a split second, and next day they find themselves out onto the runway, an active runway.

[01:19:21] So in order to prevent that type of thing, the FAA now requires that you have some type of little jog, so they have to actually make a conscious effort to make a turn so that they don't run onto an active runway. What this realignment also does for us is enables us to build a new ARC facility when we get to that point, which is probably 10 years down the road.

[01:19:46] Highlighting the redevelopment of the terminal area, what we call the Terminal Area Plan, This was, you see the parking lots there, you see the terminal expansion, you see the positions of the aircraft, we've got some remain overnight positions, and some de-icing pads there, but this has changed again, this was the, you know, our partners, AvPorts, have gone through multiple renditions of what, you know, we're eventually going to look like, so I thought it would be prudent to put in, you know, here's another change already

[01:20:21] to the master plan, where you see, you've seen this slide before, where we have the phase one portion of a new terminal building, which will be a standalone facility. You got that presentation a while back. But this just goes to show, you know, you have a plan and things change.

[01:20:45] This is the ALP, airport layout plan. It is very busy. It shows existing conditions. It shows future development of the airport. So this is the document that if it's not on the ALP it won't be funded and it won't be done by the FAA. So we can do pen and ink changes where if we have a new project that comes up we can actually literally you know pencil it in. We don't we don't do that anymore. We have engineers that will actually update it for us but that's the pen and ink change

[01:21:19] goes way back when I first started, too many years ago. Development phasing again just kind of talks about you know what part of the airport you know will be developed. Again you know this can change as well as funding levels if we can get funding or not. So this is probably as good as the day that it was actually drawn. I do want to point out the Exhibit A because the Exhibit A is the meets and bounds of the airport. You can see in the upper left-hand corner, I don't, is there a pointer on this thing or something? It's very light. You can try it on the white area, but it's probably

[01:21:57] not going to show. Yeah, you can't really see it, but it just kind of goes away. Up there in the, I guess it would be the upper left-hand corner, that's the property that we're going to build the new data center. So you can see that that used to be a part of the airport, but that is coming off.

[01:22:21] As you can see, it's hashed there where it says released, okay? So that's really no longer a part of the airport. I do want to point out the little areas that have the red arrows. There are only two.

[01:22:39] what the meets and bounds not only does it show the existing airport and the zoning and when we bought the property, who we bought it from, how many acres it is, it also shows on there any future property acquisitions. And there's only two areas that we have on that's pointed out by the arrow.

[01:23:01] The one that would be on the right-hand side is a navigation easement that we currently have. Now, the FAA likes you to own property fee simple, but it is a very low priority. Since we have an actual navigation easement, this has been on the Exhibit A for many, many years.

[01:23:22] It's not a high priority for us. The airport, and it's not really a high priority for the FAA. If at some point in the future we can acquire it, that would be great, but we do have an navigation easement to protect the airport. The other arrow is the vice mayor mentioned this with the VRE briefing, the parcel that is right adjacent to the development of the VRE.

[01:23:46] They do not show this parcel in their development plan. And as you can see, it's very hard to see on this drawing, but we actually show future development on that parcel. One of the buildings we have on there is for AM, Advanced Air Mobility.

[01:24:03] That could be some type of facility that supports, you know, a nine-seat electric aircraft. It could be, you know, some type of, you know, heliport or something of that nature.

[01:24:20] It's just not been identified, but it's been identified as some type of advanced air mobility. And then the other building is just sitting there. I'm not quite sure. We just put that on there to show that you could actually put a little bit more building on there. Not all of the site is developable, but like anything else, if you want to spend the money, you could probably develop the entire parcel.

[01:24:46] You just need to find a, you know, if you're going to fill it in, you're going to have to find another place to dig a hole so that you don't have the core breathing down your neck for increasing the rise of the flipping. So anyway, important exhibit, just wanted to make sure council was aware.

[01:25:03] Now, if you look down there on the south end of the airport, those are the lots that we own that are in the county. I don't know if you were aware of how many actual parcels we own that are located in the county, but we own a considerable amount.

[01:25:22] Now, at one point, the FAA asked us to identify properties that we can sell because we no longer could justify having them. And what we would have done is sold them and actually put an navigation easement on them.

[01:25:40] We sold one parcel, and the rest of them we kind of dragged our feet, and I'm glad that we did because now with commercial service, with the changes in the noise contour lines, I'm glad we still have the properties because it gives us a nice little buffer.

[01:25:58] And so obviously we're going to tell the FAA that we're no longer going to sell those properties because we indeed would need them as a buffer for the airport. So sometimes taking your time helps out a little bit. And this is just really the funding mechanisms that we can use.

[01:26:17] Those two little red arrows that I put on there to identify two sources of revenues that the airport does not currently have that in the future we will have the ability to get that, and that's entitlements, and those are both state and federal entitlements.

[01:26:34] It's based on employments. So if today we had 10,000 employments, we would get $1.3 million from the feds, and we would get $500,000 from the Department of Aviation, which is in the process of trying to increase theirs to a million dollars.

[01:26:51] So let's say in the future if we had a minimum of 10,000 operations, which is the minimum you have to have, we would automatically get $2.3 million in additional federal aid to use as what we needed it for. Still, we could get discretionary dollars, but this was just another pot of money.

[01:27:09] PFCs, Passenger Facility Charges, these also can be used for large capital projects, and we can reimburse ourselves as well. That is a two-year process to get that going, and to put together a plan and get it through the FAA is about a two-year process.

[01:27:26] So once you hit that $10,000 employment, you start the process, it's going to be two years down the road before you actually see any of that money. So it's available, but it takes some time. Once airports hit that magic number and they continuously hit that number, then they can have a pretty robust program to reimburse themselves.

[01:27:46] So that's it. Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. It does not require, the master plan does not require city councils to approve anything at this point. I would just need to get our city manager to sign off on a couple of the documents, but I stand ready to answer any questions you may have.

[01:28:06] I have some of those questions, comments. Wow, I explained it that good. Either I'm really boring or you're tired of it. You're fine. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Madam Mayor. We're ready for dinner.

[01:28:23] All right, next up is item 1.6, the city of Manassas legislative priorities. Yes, ma'am. Basically, in advance of your July, legislative directors, we wanted to put it back on your radar of what the current approved legislative priorities were. We also wanted to bring a couple other items to your attention for discussion with our legislators, if you desired. One would be the regulations that establishes that banks are exempt from personal property taxes. I know that some of our delegates are already aware of that, but just to put that on your radar. And then Matt also wanted

[01:29:01] to put forward SB 1313, which did not pass, but it would have given the city greater flexibility as far as ADUs, accessory dwelling units, to allow for additional housing stock within the city, so that if you have the opportunity or would think that it's worthwhile, that's another item that staff would suggest either discussion with at the breakfast or to be

[01:29:33] included in your legislative priorities for 2026 yeah i happened to run into uh senator rome on saturday and she was very uh engaged with regard to the data center exemption and asked that we to champion this with uh vma and vaco she felt very confident that she can it would pass through the general assembly and uh a person in the governor's chair might actually get signed

[01:30:18] for me i haven't talked to them but i did talk to other delegates and they couldn't believe it i showed them the news and everything and they said it was something they had never seen or heard so they'll be you know open to you know supporters on the change as i'm sure you know our delegated i'm saying yeah i want to say there is a overwhelming support once they get there I have different pieces of legislation.

[01:30:52] So we were approached last fall's town hall meeting about looking into legislation or getting permission to set up noise abatement monitors. I don't think that made it into our legislative packet at this moment, you know, for the 25 session here.

[01:31:16] This is just as a reminder. These were noise abatement monitors. I think was referenced that Montgomery and Prince George's County and Maryland use them, and it's primarily for vehicles, very loud vehicles, that sort of thing here.

[01:31:37] And, Chief, maybe you can fill in the gaps here of my deficit of memory and what have you here, but right now a locality would have to get permission to put those monitors in place in there. Yeah, they're not even permitted in the state code at this point, so it would take a whole new law.

[01:31:59] The only thing permitted for electronic law enforcement and for enforcement purposes, photo red light, speed, cameras in school zones and work zones. And I'll defer to the city attorney. I think there was discussion of consideration of those within this last assembly, but I don't think it made it anywhere.

[01:32:21] Well, nonetheless, perhaps something that we include is why I'm putting it forward. That's all. And if we're going to be talking with our delegation there to at least share with them that information, start.

[01:32:44] Living on the Center Street Speedway, yes. I just didn't want to see that loss. I'm sorry.

[01:32:54] for this the bank capital accessible this changes sound in Richmond is the existing businesses that are set up with that exemption is that they

[01:33:31] grandfathered in or does it go into effect they wouldn't be grandfathered in but we would not be able to retroactively collect anything would just to be July 1 of future year. When it turns into effect. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Excuse me.

[01:33:49] I don't know. Okay. All right. Anyone else? Anything else? I'm looking for the council. If I could. Oh, no. HMI had set up a meeting last week with myself and the HMI director with some of the local businesses.

[01:34:07] And just in case you're interested, she has also set up two additional ones. One this Thursday at 1130 at Doug's Deli. And then next week, the 28th, it's a Wednesday, at Gerani's at 8.38. Thursday at 10.

[01:34:25] Thursday at 10. 11.30, sorry. Thursday, 11.30. And then when was the other word? 30 at Gerani's. Yeah, the 28th at 8.38. Gerani's. My eyes help to say it again.

[01:34:43] HMI and city managers just giving the businesses an opportunity to come in and talk about any concerns, ask any questions that they might have. We had a little over half a dozen folks at the last one, and it was some good discussion.

[01:34:59] There's some things that they brought up that we're following up on, but it was just a good opportunity to hear some of the businesses and their concerns. In all businesses, not historic downtown only, but all? HMI is doing it primarily for downtown, but it is an open, and anyone willing that wants to come can.

[01:35:21] Will that be on the calendar? We can add that. The legislative reference was there, but my other question was, have they been notified, or they're just in their ass no basis, or how?

[01:35:41] HMI sent out a notice to all of the downtown businesses. The next meeting is the 9th. We are going to, for the first time I think ever in the city, have a proclamation to recognize women veterans.

[01:36:02] I've been working on them for a long time, and we're finally doing anything that happened. so that meeting is going to be loaded in the front um with with a proclamation for women veterans we have a couple of proclamations too that ms vasquez luna has out there so next meeting next council meeting regular meeting is on the night so that out there for y'all special meeting also in the second yeah the second is a special meeting that's the can we cover caring utility

[01:36:36] anything to come before the council any questions comments concerns okay thank you we are adjourned

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