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,

Happy November, which is #LiveLocalMonth in Falls Church – let’s support your local businesses all year round, but what a great opportunity to “live local” leading up to the holidays. And way to go Falls Church! While mail and provisional ballots have yet to be counted, our turnout in the midterm election was about 69%, beating the Virginia turnout of 45% and approaching presidential year turnout levels. (Remember we have elections every year in Virginia so it’s just as important to vote in the odd years for local offices.)

Our work session this week covered two important, and always of interest, topics – preserving and adding affordable housing and how we make our streets safer for everyone. Read on for our first public discussion on the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Urban Atlantic, who was the top ranked respondent for the Virginia Village project, The Fields, and an update on our Complete Streets & Vision Zero agenda, including some of the smaller, practical changes we’re making throughout the city and how we’re using data to make our roads safer for all.

And because it’s leaf season – this is a good annual plug to try leaving the leaves (leave all, or even some). I know there are a lot of opinions about gas powered leaf blowers, especially with the bans in surrounding jurisdictions. Come learn more this Sunday morning over hot cocoa with Falls Church Forward and Falls Church Climate Action Network – we’ll also be doing a park clean up at Howard Herman Park afterwards.

Take care,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) The Fields

The owner of The Fields apartment complex is pursuing a sale of the property, which includes 96 affordable units. A buyer has been selected, and the city is in discussions with that buyer about preserving the affordability of those homes. Creating new affordable housing is important, but so is preserving what we already have. Despite doubling our affordable housing stock in the past few years, losing existing affordable units would be a significant setback so we are committed to continue working on this and share more as we can.

(2) Virginia Village

Monday was our first public discussion of the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Urban Atlantic, the top ranked developer selected for Virginia Village. The draft proposal includes 132 affordable apartments in two buildings for 30-80% of area median income (AMI) households, with majority at 60% or below AMI along with family sized units. Also planned are approximately 10 market-rate townhomes to help offset the cost of the affordable units. It also includes a right of return for existing residents.

One important piece of this proposal is that the city’s contribution is the land the city owns through a 99 year ground lease, with no additional city dollars projected to be needed. That’s an important distinction as we work to maximize the public benefit of this property.

But the MOU is just the beginning. It’s an interim agreement that establishes a framework for the work ahead. I’ve been thinking of the MOU as the “engagement” where we get to know each other better and commit to working towards a marriage. Before we get to a final, binding comprehensive agreement next summer which is like the “wedding”, Urban Atlantic will be working through due diligence, designing the conceptual development plan, with many opportunities for the community to continue weighing in.

(3) Complete Streets & Vision Zero

A year ago, we adopted both Complete Streets and Vision Zero as the overarching, cross functional strategy for transportation safety. Vision Zero is a movement and strategy that aims to have a goal of zero fatalities or serious injuries on roadways, formally adopted by many cities. Complete Streets is a broad approach to planning, designing, building, operating, and maintaining streets that enables safe access for all people who need to use them, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit riders of all ages and abilities. Along with that, we have been pushing to be data driven in our approach – focus efforts on high risk areas and pursue “quick build” projects that get solutions on the ground quickly.

In one year, a lot has happened! I know many are aware of (and inconvenienced by) the high impact, high visibility capital projects to improve our streets (Maple/Annandale roundabout, Greening of Lincoln, Sherrow Ave Bridge, Columbia/Washington intersection). But there is a lot of ongoing work, much of it happening block by block and intersection by intersection.

A few highlights of these “smaller” Safe Streets projects underway:

• Improvements along Hillwood Avenue are underway, with flexi-posts installed and additional beacons and radar signs expected in the spring.
• Coming soon: improvements at Columbia/Van Buren, Park & Maple, Great Falls traffic calming
• New red stamped-asphalt crosswalks at the Grove Avenue and West Street W&OD Trail crossings are scheduled to begin November 17 to match the crossings along the rest of the W&OD.
• In December, the CACT will vote to recommend 2 projects for traffic calming work for this coming year (5 petitions under consideration: Grove Avenue, Pennsylvania Avenue, E Jefferson Street, N Tuckahoe Street, E Columbia Street)

We’re also collecting data at 20 signalized intersections through our partnership with Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Besides using the data to improve signal timing (underway now), that data is also helping us better understand how people actually move through our streets, including some concerning patterns at Broad and Birch and Broad and Washington.

Letty’s Thoughts: Given the high interest in the community, I asked staff to continue providing regular updates on this Complete Streets/Vision Zero. I’d also like us to keep looking at low cost, low tech opportunities like leading pedestrian intervals (LPIs) where peds get a head start to cross before the signal turns green and no-turn-on-red restrictions which also protects pedestrians. The work is incremental and requires patience and dollars, but I am heartened that in one year’s time – there has been much progress. It will remain a top priority.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, November 9 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, November 16 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, November 23 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, December 7 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, December 14 – City Council Meeting*

*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 Fall Office Hours:

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