Dear Friends,

Our last City Council meeting of the summer was a long one. While actual business on the agenda was light – it was City Manager Wyatt Shields’ final meeting, plus we received extensive public comment and the quarterly deep dive on capital projects is always interesting. Read on for highlights on various capital projects – including the first-ever roundabout and recommendations from a police organizational assessment. We also got a process update on Virginia Village, whose RFP responses are under evaluation right now. Finally, I’ll include snippets of business updates and openings around the city, including Wonder – which has opened in the space of beloved, former Browns Hardware.

For any new readers – I don’t attempt to summarize all that is happening on our dockets – you can always see the full agendas and staff reports, watch the recorded meetings, or read summaries about City meetings – these are AI-generated summaries, without any bias, based on the meeting recordings and transcripts (full disclosure, I’m a member of Falls Church Forward).

I hope you have a good long weekend – we’ve canceled our work session next week with the holiday weekend so we’ll be back on September 14 and my posts will resume that week. I look forward to hearing your input – besides official City meetings, you can catch me 1:1 at my office hours (schedule below) or via email. I’ve been writing and holding office hours for 11 years now to keep you engaged, share my point of view and hear yours before votes, and to keep government accessible – in a city so small, you should have a regular, direct line into your local government! Along those lines – strong local journalism is the backbone of democracy and part of the secret sauce of Falls Church. I’ve seen firsthand how misinformation (or lack of information) derails important community priorities. I am grateful we have smart, committed neighbors who want to keep it going so please share your input here.

Best,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) CIP Updates

It was a pretty infrastructure-heavy Council meeting this week – which may not sound terribly exciting, but these are the kinds of projects that are the most visible deployment of tax dollars and shape Falls Church for years to come. A relatively new concept a few years ago, we now discuss our CIP (Capital Improvements Program) once a quarter outside of budget season. The CIP is the City’s long-term capital wish list and investment plan. It covers the big, expensive things that have a useful life beyond a single budget year: roads, sidewalks, stormwater infrastructure, public facilities, vehicles, parks and other major investments.

The current six-year CIP represents roughly $163M in planned capital investments, with transportation making up a particularly large share. And importantly, about 60% of the overall CIP is supported by grants and other outside funding. That matters because we are a very small city with a very big-city infrastructure bill.

We have aging roads and sidewalks, stormwater challenges, facilities that need investment, and a growing list of projects that make it safer and easier to walk, bike, drive and take transit around town. The goal isn’t simply to build new things—it’s to take care of what we already have while making smart investments in what comes next. That’s not always the most glamorous work of local government but it’s some of the most important.

Our first roundabout is finally taking shape

If you’ve been through the Maple Ave and Annandale Rd intersection lately, you have probably noticed that the intersection looks… different.

As of Monday, August 31, the traffic signals have been removed and the new traffic pattern is officially in effect. The orange barrels are currently outlining what will soon be our first roundabout. We are now in the final phase of construction, with the center median, lighting, paving and new crosswalks still to come. And yes, I know: driving through a roundabout for the first time can be harrowing.

The basic rule is simple: slow down, yield to vehicles already in the roundabout, enter when there is a safe gap, and travel counterclockwise to your exit. And please watch carefully for pedestrians and people biking in the crosswalks. The new intersection will include pedestrian refuge islands, ADA ramps, improved sidewalks and flashing beacons. The roundabout is designed to reduce conflict points and slow traffic through the intersection, making it safer for everyone—not just people behind the wheel. You can find more information and why they’re safer when we first discussed this roundabout in my January 2022 post!

Construction began back in July 2025, so I know it has felt like a very long time coming. We’re getting close to the finish line now, with construction expected to wrap up this fall. Thank you to everyone who has navigated the construction with patience.

Other projects underway and coming soon

You can also read status updates on the Greening of Lincoln project (yes, also messy and disruptive with Lincoln Park closing soon) and the intersection upgrades at Columbia/Washington and others. We have several projects that are short funding or are delayed due to right of way acquisitions (ie, we need permission from nearby property owners to improve the public infrastructure on their properties) or Dominion Energy work.

Finally – pay attention to Broad St. Likely starting early in 2027, the Broad Street Multimodal project will widen and upgrade pedestrian facilities and sidewalks on Broad St between West and Virginia, including a much-desired mid block crossing between Virginia and Pennsylvania.

(2) Police Organization Recommendations

Chief Fard shared recommendations from an organizational assessment for our Police Department. I always appreciate that we’re thinking about how to do things better vs resting on our laurels. The full study and recommendations are here, with the shorter presentation that Council heard here. Among the recommendations:

• Patrol operations: Community-generated workload averages approximately 13 calls per day. Response times are strong and officers have approximately 84% proactive capacity—well above the 50% threshold at which staffing increases would be recommended. The recommendation is not to add patrol officers, but to restructure from a two-shift to a three-shift model with staggered overlap, adding two lieutenant positions as watch commanders for two platoons.
• Investigations: Current detective staffing is insufficient; the study recommends adding two detectives and shifting to four-day, 10-hour shifts to extend availability Monday through Friday.
• Community support: Recommends creating a sergeant position to provide first-line supervision; recommends reducing one photo enforcement position and redirecting that capacity to social media and community outreach.
• Emergency Communications Center: Recommends adding eight technicians (for a total of 14 technicians and two supervisors).
• Administrative services: Recommends creating a full-time public information officer, adding one records specialist, and establishing a police accreditation specialist position.

More to come as it will need further Council discussion if there are headcount and budget implications – 12 net new positions is a significant impact if that can’t be achieved with reorgs, attrition, etc

(3) Business Updates

At the EDA’s meeting this week – among other updates, there are some changes and moves at Founders Row – Nue is expanding and Roll Play will be moving closer to West St. I also regularly field questions about the status of Sweet Leaf, Dark and Unbound, and there’s new exciting news from Dogwood Tavern.

On Wednesday, we welcomed Wonder at the corner of Broad and Washington, the space of the beloved, former Browns Hardware. We’re always happy to add new businesses of all kinds to Falls Church. I appreciated the early outreach from the team at Wonder when I was able to share the significance of this corner and they were open to the idea of the mural, recognizing how Browns Hardware was such a meaningful part of this community.

I know many of us were sad to see Browns close and wish it could have stayed open another 142 years. But like all things – time marches on and it’s up to us to determine how we want the community to change. Lamenting about change doesn’t stop it – it just puts you on the sidelines. Two things can be true: we can honor history and welcome change at the same time. I hope the Wonder team will keep looking for other ways to acknowledge the importance of their new home. I think that starts by serving the community with the same reliable, steady, and helpful service Browns was known for.

And more importantly, I encourage the community to keep supporting, shopping, and eating at the businesses you value so they stick around.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, September 14 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, September 22 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, September 28 – City Council Meeeting*

Letty’s Fall Office Hours:

Tuesday, September 15 – 630-8 pm (Dogwood Tavern)

Tuesday, October 20 – 630-8 pm (The Cheese Cartel)

Wednesday, November 18 – 630-8 pm (Lucky Thai)

Dear Friends,

It’s been a big week in the Little City after our 3 week summer recess: welcoming Seth, celebrating Wyatt, and talking taxes. If you have school-age kids, I hope they’ve had a great first week back in school.

On Monday night, City Council unanimously voted to appoint Seth Hendler-Voss as our next City Manager. Yesterday, we gathered with friends from across the region, former colleagues, elected officials, and City employees to celebrate Wyatt Shields and his extraordinary 23 years of service to Falls Church. And in between all of that, we had a pretty substantive conversation in work session about a potential Commercial & Industrial (C&I) tax to fund transportation.

This coming Monday night, it will be Wyatt’s last City Council meeting if you missed yesterday’s celebration. We would also welcome public comment if you’ve missed us for the past few weeks. I know Virginia Village is top of mind for some – the city received 3 proposals whose executive summaries have been posted online. Our evaluation committee is hard at work and will be sharing their recommendations with Council in closed session with us later in September. If you prefer more informal settings, I also had office hours this past Wednesday night – read on for the schedule for my monthly office hours this fall to see me in person or you can always reach me by email.

So, a lot to catch up on!

Best,
Letty

PS – Remember, it’s the last few days of Summer Restaurant Week and there are some delicious deals!

What Happened This Week:

(1) Welcoming Seth

On Monday, we voted to hire Seth Hendler-Voss as our next City Manager. The City Manager is one of the most important positions in Falls Church. This is the person who leads our professional staff, manages our day-to-day operations, helps turn Council’s priorities into action, and ultimately has an enormous impact on the quality of life in our Little City. So finding the right person for this job was a big responsibility – and I think we did that. We had a thorough national search, and a lot of input from our staff, our community and this Council. And Seth Hendler-Voss really stood out. We’re looking forward to the community getting to know Seth when he joins us on September 14.

(2) Celebrating Wyatt

Of course, welcoming a new City Manager also means saying goodbye to the only City Manager many of us have ever known.
Yesterday we celebrated Wyatt Shields. My comments from yesterday are here – a tough one to write and an even tougher one to deliver.

You’ll be really missed, Wyatt!

(3) Commercial & Industrial Tax (C&I Tax)

At our work session Monday, Council had an initial discussion about whether Falls Church should consider adopting a Commercial & Industrial (C&I) tax to fund transportation improvements.

Quick summary:

• This isn’t a new idea. We’ve discussed it during the budget process, and the City already sets aside money for transportation in lieu of imposing this tax.
• Under Virginia law, the City can levy up to 12.5 cents per $100 of assessed value on commercial and industrial property, with the money restricted to certain transportation purposes. Staff estimates that each penny would generate approximately $113K per year. The full 12.5-cent tax would therefore generate roughly $1.4M annually.
• And while it’s a commercial tax – it’s important to understand who would pay it (commercial triple-net leases often pass the tax to the tenants who are often small businesses).
• Several Northern Virginia jurisdictions already have a C&I tax, including Arlington, Fairfax County and Fairfax City.

There have been two reasons discussed for a C&I tax:

1/ Transportation needs as we continue making the city more multimodal – we have transportation projects that could be eligible for use with C&I tax revenue, we are revisitng this conversation now ahead of the next budget season to discuss the possibility of this tax to fund projects such as: Metro capital obligations, sidewalks, bikeshare operating expenses, bike lanes, bus shelters. By using C&I for those projects, that frees up money for other priorities.

2/ The “tax burden” issue – our residential assessments have increased significantly over the past few years (because Falls Church has been such a desirable place to live and with limited ownership housing supply – house prices do go up. On the rental side – we’ve actually seen rents flat.). And while we’ve reduced the tax rate over 17 cents the past 5 years, residential tax bills have still gone up. But commercial tax revenues, which haven’t seen as large of an appreciation, have stayed flat.

Letty’s Initial Thoughts: While there is a reasonable question about whether the tax burden should be shared somewhat differently, I am not sold yet. I don’t think the answer to every difficult budget problem should be “find another source of revenue.” We need to continue looking hard at our costs, prioritize what is truly essential. That doesn’t mean we should never raise revenue. It means we should be disciplined about when and why we do it especially if we have no new commercial projects coming online in the next few years (the blue bar above will be smaller), we should be way more critical on costs first and should keep revenue levers available when we truly need it.

If we are going to ask businesses to pay more, we should make sure we share the rationale with our business community, what that money would fund, and why those projects matter to their businesses and the city. And with WMATA funding being a big regional priority this coming year, we should also keep in mind that big priority we’ll need to cover.

More discussions and business engagement to come this fall after the follow ups we discussed with staff.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, August 31 – City Council Meeting*

Wednesday, September 2 – Ask the Council Office Hours (9 am, City Hall)

Tuesday, September 8 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, September 14 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, September 22 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, September 28 – City Council Meeeting*

Letty’s Fall Office Hours:

Tuesday, September 15 – 630-8 pm (Dogwood Tavern)

Tuesday, October 20 – 630-8 pm (The Cheese Cartel)

Wednesday, November 18 – 630-8 pm (Lucky Thai)

Good afternoon, everyone.

Since I’m the first one up, I want to make sure I take the opportunity to welcome everyone and recognize all the VIPs who have joined us – electeds, former electeds, former employees, and friends from all over the region.

I’ve likely missed some others, because Wyatt has made a lot of friends in 23 years! But please know that we are so grateful to see you all today. Or in some cases, welcome you *back* to Falls Church to help celebrate Wyatt.

Wyatt – in keeping with one of the first things I said to you when I became mayor – I  believe in “no surprises” as a general rule in working relationships. So – while I know you wanted all the speeches to be brief and not over the top, I’m sorry and I’m warning you now: we’re going to make you sit through some uncomfortable moments where we say nice things about you and make you the center of attention – because we all have a lot of reflections.

And this is kinda for us too. Retirements are like weddings and funerals – they’re not really for the dead guy or the bride or groom, they’re for your family and your community who are celebrating you, acknowledging this big life transition for you and for all of us.

And for the last time today, you can give me the blank “Wyatt Face.”

Wait – am I the only one who has experienced the Wyatt Face? Where he tunes you out after 45 minutes into a meeting and starts looking blankly at you and you know he is no longer paying attention or definitely won’t do anything I’ve said?

Thank you all for being here to celebrate someone who, for more than two decades, has been at the center of so much of what makes Falls Church the community it is today.

And I have to admit, it is a little strange to be standing here saying retirement and Wyatt Shields in the same sentence.

Because for many of us, Wyatt has simply always been here. And we’ve taken for granted that he would always be here.

Since joining the City in 2003 and then taking on the reins in 2007 as manager, it has somehow been 23 years of the quiet, never flashy, leadership many of us have grown up with. I have been on City Council for 10 of those years, and Wyatt is the only City Manager I have ever known. Which means he has set a ridiculously high bar for me. And for Falls Church.

While we are small in Little City, we make up for it in heart and ambition. And that has started at the top with Wyatt.

There are a lot of ways to measure a City Manager’s career: budgets balanced, projects completed, buildings built, grants secured, real estate taxes grown, infrastructure improved… grocery stores opened.

And Falls Church has certainly done all of that with Wyatt at the helm.

He helped strengthen our financial position with a Triple-A bond rating. He guided the City through the Great Recession and a global pandemic. He oversaw the renovation of City Hall, the construction of major public facilities like the library, new parks, and sale of the water system which catalyzed the financing of a once in generation new high school. He invested in our roads, utilities, and public safety. 

So many consequential changes have happened in Falls Church since 2003.

He steadily helped guide Falls Church through an extraordinary period of growth and has set us on an amazing trajectory forward – while somehow managing to keep us, well…Falls Church.

And I think that is one of the hardest things about leading a place like Falls Church.

We want to grow – but not lose ourselves.

We want to be ambitious – but responsible.

And Wyatt has spent his career walking that line.

But today, I don’t really want to talk about the budgets or mixed use projects or bond ratings. That’s the ambition part and that’s a bit boring. Numbers don’t tell you what it is like to work with Wyatt.

I want to tell you about his heart. And by the volumes of people here, I bet you all know it too.

Numbers don’t tell you that he is unflappable and the best I’ve seen at handling the toughest members of the public. And for that matter, Councilmembers.

They don’t tell you that he is smart, thoughtful, patient, and incredibly prepared.

They don’t tell you that he is, quite possibly, the hardest-working person in City Hall. Often times when I stop in, it’s Wyatt who is one of the last to leave.

And they definitely don’t tell you that this is a guy who could spend his day negotiating a complicated development deal, answer to seven different bosses – and then, on the way home, bike through the traffic calming project to check on its status. 

My first one on one interaction with him was when I as a new Councilmember and I reported a hornets nest at Berman Park over the weekend. He came out and sprayed the thing himself so no kids would get stung before Public Works could get to it. He’s also the one who dons his raincoat and surveys the streams every time there is a big storm to check for flooding or would be out there shoveling snow from public sidewalks himself knowing that our crews were swamped.

I’m sure all of you could share your own stories about how Wyatt has humbly and selflessly served this community. And please do that with each other during the reception and with him – that will make him incredibly uncomfortable!

Of course we all have those stories. Because that is Wyatt.

And that’s why, when Wyatt announced his retirement, the reaction around Falls Church and the region was so immediate and so heartfelt.

People talked about his professionalism and his intelligence. They talked about his calm. They talked about his integrity. But over and over again, people also talked about how much he cares.

Wyatt – You have done something that is actually very difficult in local government. You have made Falls Church better without making it less like itself.

Good government is unsexy and doesn’t get attention, but the results show. You have left us stronger financially, stronger institutionally with a solid staff, a more livable and vibrant community that really stands out, and better prepared for the future. 

And most importantly, you have left behind a culture.

A culture of professionalism.

Of service.

Of treating people with respect, even when you disagree with them.

And maybe most importantly, a culture of knowing that government is ultimately about people — making government work for people and improve their lives.

And you have done it with an extraordinary amount of humility where you have always put your people first.

So today, we’re not just celebrating the retirement of a beloved and respected City Manager.

We’re celebrating Wyatt as a person. And today, we get to put you first, Wyatt.

And Wyatt, I want you to know how deeply grateful we are.

You’ve said recently that serving Falls Church has been the honor of your life. I hope you know that having you serve Falls Church has been an honor for us, too.

On behalf of the City Council, past and present, and our City employees, and the residents of Falls Church: thank you.

Thank you for the late nights.

Thank you for tackling the impossible problems.

Thank you for patiently answering the phone, even when you didn’t want to hear another idea from me.

Thank you for knowing every detail – and still remembering the big picture.

Thank you for keeping us calm when things were not calm.

Thank you for telling us when we were wrong.

Thank you for believing in this City.

And thank you for making all of us who had the privilege of working with you a little better at what we do.

You have left Falls Church immensely better than you found it.

And while we are going to miss having you as our City Manager, I have a feeling we’ll still be seeing you on a bike, probably keeping an eye on things around town. 

For all of us who are here together to see this big transition moment for the City – let’s not think too much about this as an ending. Let’s think about what a remarkable chapter it’s been – 23 years of service, leadership, friendship, and love for this little city.

Wyatt, congratulations on an extraordinary career.

Thank you to Patty, Carlos, Leidy, Tank for sharing Wyatt with us and letting him give so much of himself to Falls Church.

We love you, Wyatt, and wish you all the best in your next chapter. 

Please join me in celebrating our friend and our City Manager, Wyatt Shields.

Dear Friends,

I hope you’re having great summers. These posts have been on a bit of a hiatus while the work has continued. We had a mini break for the July 4th holiday and have been back in session the past few weeks, with one final meeting next Monday night, July 27 before we take a summer recess.

Three calendar things before the city business:

• Civic Jam is tonight! if it’s not on your calendars already, the weather looks perfect for the rescheduled event. Join your friends and neighbors in fun ways to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US. Food, games, brews, and live music all night.
• Coffee with a Cop is next Wednesday morning, July 29 930 – 11 am at Grocery Outlet. Meet members of our Police team, enjoy coffee and pastries and check out our newest grocery store.
• Summer and fall is the season for block parties and neighborhood gatherings! Falls Church Forward has a new microgrant program to give $50 to $150 to host gatherings that encourage neighbors to build connections, get to know one another better, and imagine what’s possible for our shared places. Grant requests close at the end of July.

There is a lot to catch up on! As usual, these posts aren’t meant to be comprehensive, so I’ll share key topics from city business that have high community interest – read on for the latest updates on affordable housing, public safety, street safety, and commercial area snow removal. A theme that weaves through all of these topics: how we prioritize limited time and resources. Falls Church has big ambitions, but we’re still a small city with a small staff. Every new project means making choices about what gets done first, what has to wait, and how we make those decisions as transparently as possible. We’re also continuing preparing for the next phase of Virginia Village now that the RFP has been issued and we are awaiting bids (due August 6), We have also been interviewing candidates in our search for our next City Manager. We are entering an important transition period and appreciate all the thoughtful input I’ve received from residents and employees.

After next Monday night, we will recess and our next Council meeting will be August 24. I’ll also have my last summer office hours on Wednesday evening August 26 – save the date.

See you soon –
Letty

What Happened This Week (and Last):

(1) Affordable Housing – progress, but plenty of work ahead

We received our annual Affordable Living Report last week which shows real progress – we now have 336 committed affordable rental homes across the city, including 100 new affordable units that opened in the new buildings at Broad and Washington, the Alder at West Falls, and Modera Falls Church (fka, Founders Row 2) the past 2 years and 17 affordable ownership homes.

At the same time, the numbers are a reminder of how challenging affordability remains. Over 40% of Falls Church renters are considered cost-burdened, our median home value is now over $1 million, and hundreds of households remain on waiting lists for affordable housing.

(2) Annual Police Report – one of the safety communities in the region

Police Chief Shahram Fard presented the department’s annual report, and there was a lot of encouraging news there as well. Crime fell another 8% in 2025, giving Falls Church its lowest crime rate in 17 years. Burglaries were cut in half compared to the previous year, and crimes against people reached a five-year low. Traffic safety is also moving in the right direction. While there’s still plenty of work to do, reportable crashes during the first half of 2026 are down 22% compared to the same period last year (they were up in 2025).

Red light cameras will also move to two busy intersections to help improve safety. Revealed at this meeting, the two likely intersections with the most safety risk and actual crashes where the red light cameras will move to: Broad/Washington and Broad/Roosevelt.

(3) Safe Streets

A good segue to our meaty work session this week, where we had a deep dive into transportation safety and neighborhood traffic calming with the CACT – the volunteer board that advises us and works on all things transportation.

The TL;DR:

• Historically, many neighborhood traffic projects have been driven by resident petitions through the Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program.
• At the same time, Council has pushed for a more data-driven, tops down approach and more throughput of projects in response to community desires to make our streets safer for all modes.
• Staff is trying to respond to crash data, school safety concerns, requests from Council, and other city-wide transportation priorities. Those all compete for the same limited staff time.
• While NTC has been on hold the past few months from new requests, staff has been advancing projects already in the queue and working on a restructured program.
• Proposed restructure: staff proposed limiting NTC to 2 resident-initiated projects per year, freeing up capacity to address data-driven safety priorities on higher-risk corridors.

City Council and CACT broadly supported trying this approach, with discussion about whether “two” is the right number or whether a budget allocation model would be more appropriate, the role of CACT taking a bigger role in vetting and prioritizing NTC project requests, doing before-after “did it work?” analysis to ensure solutions addressed the original safety issue, and eliminating neighborhood voting processes which are often time consuming and sometimes water down the recommended engineering solutions.

I appreciated this holistic look at all the projects underway under Safe Streets

(4) Snow Removal Policies

Thank goodness “snowcrete” of last winter is now a distant memory. But even knowing that it was likely an anomaly, we have wanted to revisit snow removal policies in advance of next winter. Last year, there was proactive staff outreach to repeat offenders before storms to clear their commercial properties, a “snow removal phases” graphic used extensively on social media to inform and encourage everyone’s responsibilities, and DPW crews took on curb ramps with heavy duty equipment and bus shelter clearing in commercial areas. We have also had 6 (commercial) and 12 hour (residential) deadlines for snow clearing, but no real enforcement mechanism.

Staff is recommending a combination of legislative and operational changes for the coming winter:

• Fall 2026 (immediate): Amend city code to establish a uniform 24-hour post-snowfall clearing deadline for all properties (Council proposed 12 hours instead)
• Remove the existing fine language from the code, which has been generating complaints because it is unenforceable as currently written. The relevant state code currently applies only to Northern Virginia counties, not cities.
• Seek authority to issue $100-per-day civil penalties for commercial properties that fail to clear sidewalks from the 2027 General Assembly session
• Next winter: deploy inspectors to actively check commercial properties 24 hours after snowfall ends and issue warnings/reminders – a shift from the prior complaint-only model.

We also discussed the importance of school routes, bus stops, crosswalks and corners where the ramps are, and whether the city could maintain a list of commercial snow removal contractors that property owners could hire.

What’s Coming Up:

July 27 – City Council Meeting*

Summer Recess

August 24 – City Council Work Session*

August 31 – City Council Meeting*

*All Mondays (except 5th Mondays and holidays) at 7:30 pm. You can access the agenda and livestream here, including recordings of past meetings

Letty’s Summer Office Hours:

August 26 – 630 – 8 pm (Little Beast)

Dear Friends,

With the July 4th holiday next week, I’ve been thinking about our country’s upcoming 250th anniversary and the choices that shape a community. Milestones like these invite us to celebrate the past and also ask what we’re leaving for the next generation. That question was on my mind throughout Monday night’s City Council meeting.

Virginia Village took center stage in one of our longest meetings in recent memory (we finally wrapped up around 1 am!). It’s one of the biggest decisions we’ll make this year, and I know many residents have been following it closely. We had a packed room, extensive public comment, and several hours of discussion before voting 6-1 to issue an RFP to help determine what comes next. While much of the conversation over the past several months has focused on technical details like zoning and process, underneath those debates is a much simpler question: will future generations have the same opportunity to build a life in Falls Church that so many of us have had?

Read on for the top concerns we’ve heard, how I think we’re addressing them, and the comments I made Monday night. And what’s next – this is just the first of many decisions, far from the finish line.

We’re taking a mini recess before returning on July 13, so these updates will be back in a few weeks too. In the meantime, I’ll be holding my monthly office hours next Monday June 29 at 630 pm at Harvey’s. Stop by if there’s anything you’d like to chat about.

Best,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

On Monday night, we took several votes on Virginia Village:

• Updated the South Washington Street Small Area Plan and Comprehensive Plan (first reading)
• Created a new Virginia Village Overlay District (first reading)
• Authorized staff to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) to affordable housing developers with 3 scenarios (preservation and small expansion, lower density redevelopment, medium density redevelopment)

As we approach America’s 250th birthday, I hope we remember that every generation inherits a community and leaves one behind. The parks, schools, neighborhoods, and small businesses we enjoy today all exist because previous generations chose to invest in the future, not simply preserve the present. My hope is that years from now, people will look back and say we made room for the next generation to call Falls Church home.

Top 5 concerns we heard and my thoughts:

(1) This is moving too fast.

Over the past five years, the City has been thoughtfully acquiring quadplexes in Virginia Village (see my post about our first acquisition in 2021). The goal has always been the same: preserve and expand affordable housing in a community where the demand for low to moderate income housing far exceeds the supply, despite doubling our affordable units inside the new mixed use buildings the past few years. We also updated our affordable living policy last year, which was a year-long process with the community. Staff has also done a commendable job in community engagement, with 11 public meetings so far – with Virginia Village residents, with adjacent neighborhoods and stakeholders, and broader community.

The vote this week was one of the first milestones with many more decision points to come at the end of the summer, the fall, and into 2027. We’ll get responses to the RFP at the end of this summer, the community will see executive summaries of the proposals, an evaluation committee of city residents/key stakeholder groups like the Planning Commission and Housing Commission will help evaluate the proposals, City Council will decide on a top proposal, begin negotiations with a partner, and make any final tweaks to the zoning code in a “second reading” this fall.

(2) Wait until zoning is finalized before issuing the RFP.

My view is that we actually make better policy decisions when we know what’s feasible. The RFP isn’t selecting a developer or approving a project. It’s gathering information with responses from experienced housing developers about what they could realistically build (based on the city-owned parcels, financing conditions, construction prices, etc) under several different scenarios. In the city’s experience, we have also had several examples where we created zoning rules in a vacuum, only to have no market response and no one use the available zoning.

(3) Any project needs to be compatible with the neighborhood.

I agree that compatibility with the neighborhood is important. I also want to balance leaving enough flexibility in those zoning and RFP rules so we get high quality, creative, financeable options in the RFP responses. We listened to concerns about neighborhood transitions, building heights, setbacks – and those have all been adjusted from staff’s original proposal of 25′ setbacks to 35′ setbacks facing Winter Hill, 3-4 stories facing Winter Hill, and gradually increasing to a maximum height of 6 stories, reduced from 7 stories, on the side facing Maple Ave. Under the medium density redevelopment option – keeping the entire project to 3 stories isn’t financially realistic given high land values.

(4) The zoning overlay changes or removes property rights from owners.

The new zoning overlay is optional. If a private owner wants to keep using their property under today’s zoning, they can continue to do exactly that. The overlay simply creates an additional pathway if an owner chooses to redevelop in the future with more density than what is allowed in their zoning today, by adding open space or adding affordable housing – both are public policy goals that are encouraged with this overlay. While we welcome additional properties to join in the potential city project, we are not using eminent domain to force anyone to sell their properties either.

(5) City Council should not give up control and retain a special exception/special use permit process for any project.

I’ve linked my remarks from Monday night’s vote which covered much of this. If you’ve ever wondered why someone who is naturally cautious (me) would argue for less discretionary review, I’ve tried to explain my thinking. 10 years of observing and being a part of housing and land use decisions in Falls Church have convinced me that good outcomes come from clear rules and thoughtful planning – not the illusion that more control always produces better results – especially if we are serious about affordable housing and smaller scale, infill projects that can’t afford the time and cost of our traditional approval processes. I believe we can be “careful without being fearful.”

What’s Coming Up:

July 1 – Ask the Council Office Hours (9 am, City Hall)

July 13 – City Council Meeting*

July 20 – City Council Work Session*

July 27 – City Council Meeting*

Summer Recess

August 24 – City Council Work Session*

August 31 – City Council Meeting*

*All Mondays (except 5th Mondays and holidays) at 7:30 pm. You can access the agenda and livestream here, including recordings of past meetings

Letty’s Summer Office Hours:

June 29 – 630 – 8 pm (Harvey’s)

July 15 – 630 – 8 pm (Grillmarx)

August 26 – 630 – 8 pm (Little Beast)

Last fall, you laid out an ambitious and transparent process for how this would unfold. You have spent months listening to residents, accurately capturing feedback from across the city, and continuously refining both the zoning language and the RFP—now on its fifth iteration. You’ve shown patience, professionalism, and a willingness to adapt as Council and the community have worked through difficult questions and kicked this RFP vote out a month. The fact that we’re here tonight is a testament to that listening and hard work.

And hopefully, this is just the first of many milestones and the beginning of the work ahead.

When we talk about the future of Virginia Village, I get why people have questions and anxiety. This is one of the most significant affordable housing opportunities our city has seen.

For those just coming into the process or feels this is too rushed – you should know for the past five years, we’ve been thoughtfully acquiring the quads – each one of those were public decisions that re-emphasized our long term goal and commitment to affordable housing. We didn’t just decide to do this overnight. Across the city, we’ve doubled our committed affordable housing units within the new mixed-use buildings. Last summer, we adopted an Affordable Living Policy that set ambitious goals for who we want to be as a city. To the comment we received over email – “Council members should develop zoning that represents their constituents goals and vision for the community” – that’s actually what we’re doing tonight.

And now the moment has arrived.

The question before us is simple: are we willing to follow through on the vision and values we’ve already embraced?

I believe we are. In our hearts, we all know that this is the right thing to do for the city’s future. 

And in this moment, I really want to encourage us to be careful without being fearful. Because that is mostly what I hear.

Whenever communities talk about housing, it’s human nature to focus on what could go wrong. We spend so much time imagining worst-case scenarios that we lose sight of the very real challenges that already exist today.

Today, families struggle to find housing they can afford. Seniors who want to downsize and stay in Falls Church often have few options. Teachers, first responders, healthcare workers, restaurant employees increasingly find themselves priced out of the community. Students and young professionals find it impossible to return to the hometown they grew up in, maybe to only return to their parents’ basements or hopefully backyards.

Many of those people are not in this room tonight.

Meanwhile, communities across Northern Virginia and the US are having these same debates. Years of meetings. Years of hearings. Years of worrying about every possible downside. Years before anything gets built.

And then we wonder why housing costs keep rising.

The status quo is not risk-free. It has consequences too.

What happens if housing costs continue to rise faster than incomes? What happens if more families are priced out? What happens if our workforce has to commute farther and farther away? What happens if we miss an opportunity like tonight to create a community that is more inclusive and invests in the future to be who we say we are? 

And yes, what happens if we write rules so restrictive that we never receive the creative, high-quality proposals we’re hoping for?

Those are risks too.

So addressing the final concerns I heard tonight:

1/ On process – I believe the sequencing of the RFP and zoning changes to inform each other is a feature, not a flaw as staff has designed.

Planning in a vacuum rarely produces the best outcomes. We need community input, but we also need real-world feedback about what is feasible and achievable. Given the ambitious timelines we are trying to hit – the purpose of issuing the RFP after first reading of zoning is not to lock anything in. It’s to test our assumptions, invite creativity, and learn something before final adoption of zoning. We are setting the guardrails now and can tweak and tighten as necessary when we finalize the zoning at second reading this fall.

That’s not abandoning planning, in my opinion. That’s smart planning.

2/ Similarly, I know some up here have concerns about by-right zoning because it feels like we’re giving up control. Hence some of us directed staff to add a special use permit (SUP) process tonight to add more control back in. And hopefully we decide to only apply that process to the non-city owned quads so we really can invite maximum creativity and not scare people away with a discretionary, uncertain process on the other side.

I will remind us though – even when you have control, you don’t achieve flawless results. 

For those of us who have been around for multiple special exception (SE) approvals and or those who feel like public trust in Council over development is an issue – I’d like to remind us that SEs that City Councils cast votes on are not mistake and complaint free. We now lament about the architecture or tree canopy at Founders Row, the traffic signals and new intersection at Broad Washington, the lack of pull off zones at Founders Row 2. Those were all SE projects that took 5-15+ years and had plenty of public input and debate. In the end received majority support from Council and created new homes, lively businesses, gathering areas, bring in millions of revenue annually we wouldn’t otherwise have, and improved what was there before – we learn from each one, but clearly they weren’t perfect. 

So I really would caution us into falsely believing that SEs, where City Council has some control, create perfect outcomes.

And that is for large projects that can afford the time or money a SE or SUP processes demand. Predictability matters if we actually want affordable housing, infill or smaller-scale projects, and innovative proposals. A city that relies exclusively on discretionary approvals – because we think we’re the best at negotiating – often creates delay, uncertainty, and higher costs. And again if we care about affordability, those higher costs ultimately get passed on to future residents.

Finally, I’ll end with where I started. 

I believe we can be careful without being fearful. 

Leadership is about keeping a keen focus on our policy objectives, our goals and commitments we made to the community now and to future generations. 

Years from now, no one is going to remember whether the RFP was issued before or after a particular vote. No one is going to remember the exact wording of a setback or bulk plane calculations.

But they are going to remember whether we had the courage to do something tonight – to match our actions with our values. Whether we created enough homes for families who otherwise couldn’t afford to live here. Whether we preserved the opportunity for future generations to call Falls Church home.

This is a generational opportunity, much like the bold decision to invest in a new high school and reimagine the land around it that helped pay for it. We can approach it with caution and thoughtfulness as we did 8 years ago. That was a much bigger leap. But we should not let fear make the decision for us.

As leaders, we should set guardrails, not eliminate possibilities. And we should have the confidence to believe that the future of Falls Church can be even better than its past.