Blog posts are the personal views of Letty Hardi and not official statements or records on behalf of the Falls Church City Council

Dear Friends,

This week’s post will be shorter than usual. Our City Council meeting touched on two issues that will shape Falls Church for years to come: how we create more affordable housing and how decisions made in Richmond affect our community. Having just returned from a quick trip to Richmond, this is a timely topic so read on.

Even though Virginia Village wasn’t on our agenda this week, we continued to hear public comment and again will welcome public comment at our June 22 meeting or via email in the meantime. As we work towards a RFP issuance, our goal remains clear: preserve and expand affordable housing while creating a high-quality community that fits within its surroundings. To continue the conversation next week, two opportunities for your calendar:

• The city will host a walking tour of Virginia Village and adjacent neighborhoods before our work session – next Monday June 15, 6-7 pm. Staff will be marking proposed setback distances so we can better visualize how future buildings could relate to neighboring homes and open space. Seeing current conditions and concepts like setbacks and height in person provides a much clearer understanding than reviewing plans on paper.
• Falls Church Forward is hosting our monthly happy hour and a discussion with city staff about Virginia Village next Thursday, June 18 from 6-8 pm at Cafe Zevian.

Stay cool and have a safe weekend – hope to see you out at the Pride Pop Up and Little City Sips tomorrow!

Best,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

General Assembly Briefing, aka What Happened in Richmond Matters Here at Home

We were joined by Delegate Marcus Simon for a recap of the 2026 General Assembly session. While I focus on local decisions, state legislation often has a significant impact on Falls Church especially being a Dillon Rule state. In this session, there were 3,646 bills, 2,379 passed, 723 failed, 447 carried over to the next session, 1131 signed by the Governor, and 31 were vetoed.

For a more detailed briefing, see the staff report but here are my highlights:

Housing was a major focus this year. New state laws related to housing:

• New limits on parking requirements near transit. Parking is a significant cost in development – as much as $50K per underground parking space – which raises the cost of housing. And while no one believes it, we also overbuild parking such that we have excess spaces because parking requirements are often made up (this is an especially good and entertaining video). Parking is also an important amenity for residents – so builders generally know better than the government how much parking is needed and have the incentive to build enough in order to rent or sell their homes – ie, we should let the market work! Meanwhile, government has a role in managing adjacent street parking to encourage turnover near commercial properties and limits any monopolies of those spaces with overnight parkers.
• Expanded opportunities for affordable housing development on certain nonprofit and religious properties
• Stronger tenant rights

The General Assembly also expanded local authority in several areas that could affect quality of life in Falls Church:

• New legislation allows localities to use noise enforcement cameras to address excessive vehicle exhaust noise
• Expanded automated traffic safety enforcement options (note: staff is analyzing if/how/where this could apply in Falls Church)
• Allows for small, portable solar generation device, often referred to as “balcony solar”, in residential structures
• Permanently authorizes ranked-choice voting for local elections should communities choose to adopt it in the future

The state budget remains unfinished. A special session is underway as lawmakers continue negotiating differences over data center taxation and other issues. This matters because local governments depend on many state funding commitments. One item we are watching particularly closely is Metro funding. If the current funding proposal is not included in the final budget, it could have a meaningful financial impact on our region and on our budgets.

Celebrating Public Service

Finally, one of the highlights of the evening was recognizing four public servants whose combined service to Falls Church spans more than a century. Delegate Simon presented General Assembly commendations honoring Renee Bergman Andrews, Ted Trott, Joe Carter, Veronica Prince, and Danny Schlitt for their decades of dedication to our community. As local government often focuses on projects, budgets, and policies, it is worth remembering that our success ultimately depends on people. This week’s recognitions were a reminder of just how fortunate we jave been to have so many dedicated public servants and volunteers helping move our city forward.

What’s Coming Up:

June 15 – City Council Work Session*

June 22 – City Council Meeting*

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

July 13 – 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 (Cafe Zevian)

August 26 – 630 – 8 pm (Little Beast)