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,

Today is the first day of in person early voting for this fall’s general election – voting in local and state elections is one of the best ways to make your voice heard! I’ve been asked a lot about local candidates, so I’m cribbing from the Citizens for a Better City the list of upcoming candidate opportunities (as late as October 22) for you to learn about them before voting. Plus, one of the top issues discussed every election cycle is development and school enrollment – read on for the surprising latest data plus our big work session on Gordon Road Triangle (what or where is it??).

A few top line things:

• If you haven’t selected your choice of organics cart, remember to get to it in the next month (new FAQs also just dropped) – it takes less than a minute.
• For current and former federal workers and contractors, Congressman Beyer and I are hosting a joint event this weekend at Paragon Theaters right here in the Little City.
• If you missed the Fault Lines screening a few weekends ago, the Coalition for Smarter Growth shared a recap of the film and the great panel conversation. It’s also streaming and available in a few other places if you search online.

City Council meetings will resume October 6 – no meeting next week due to Rosh Hashanah and we traditionally take a week off when there is a 5th Monday in the month – but come see me at my office hours next Monday, September 22 at Semicolon Cafe at Founders Row or the Ask the Council office hours on Wednesday, October 1 at City Hall.

Take care,
Letty

What Happened This Week:

(1) 2025 School Enrollment

Having been around almost 10 years now, it’s fair to say that we obsess over school enrollment stats every year. And rightfully so – enrollment figures help us plan annual budgets, school expansion/renovations, and serve as inputs in our fiscal impact modeling, which is one part of how we make smart decisions for development.

The TL;DR: FCCPS was expecting enrollment growth of 6% (+159 students) this year and per the schools opening day report shared last week, enrollment is actually flat. While not the official September 30 numbers, this is still surprising especially with the new housing opening up.

We will conduct the annual “where students live” analysis this fall to deep dive into where exactly we’re seeing changes in the community and why the projections are off. The new buildings are leasing up as expected – for example, the Whole Foods / Broad and Washington building is nearly full at 88% occupancy so housing demand hasn’t waned. Nearby Arlington Public Schools is also seeing declining or flat enrollment plus nationwide declining birthrates and obviously regional economic upheaval – so there are likely broader trends at play.

Letty’s Thoughts: School enrollment is one of the top misconceptions out in the community – that our schools are overcrowded and new development is adding too many kids to our schools – as a pushback to growth. It’s fair to say for now, that it’s simply not true. As it stands, FCCPS enrollment has essentially returned to pre-Covid numbers. I field a lot of FAQs over the years and have written a lot of posts about them – I encourage you to find 15 minutes to read this “greatest hits” post to get informed and share with others if you’ve ever heard the same incorrect soundbites – let’s all have more informed community discussions.

(2) Gordon Road Update

We had a lengthy joint work session with the Planning Commission and Economic Development Authority (EDA) to hear about the Urban Land Institute (ULI)’s Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) report on Gordon Road Triangle. (Whoa, that’s a lot of acronyms.) It was a read out from the findings from a 2 day convening of planning and real estate experts last winter who were charged with coming up with public and private possibilities at Gordon Road Triangle, which is the 20 acre corner of the city across from Giant and bordered by the W&OD and Shreve Road.

Currently the city’s Public Works Operations Property Yard is on the site, along with a bunch of other private industrial and commercial uses, with 13 different property owners. The Property Yard is one of the last public facilities we have yet to modernize in the city. You may have accessed the Property Yard for recycling your glass at the purple bins, or seen the city’s winter homeless shelter or FCCPS school buses parked on the site.

You can dive into the full report here but I’ll share my thoughts/takeaways here:

Letty’s Thoughts:

• Before you anticipate redevelopment happening at this corner – know that this is far from reality for now. This is not the first time we’ve engaged ULI in a TAP – Meridian High School plus the 10 acre West Falls development helping pay for it – was the result of a TAP about 10 years ago so these ambitious ideas and plans take a long time (and often various twists and turns) to come to fruition.
• There is a lot of potential for this site to accomplish various public policy objectives – new Property Yard facilities, expanded homeless shelter, creative uses like innovation/apprenticeship space, better street grids, and activation to the W&OD, affordable housing, and more. But this will also be really complex given that the corner of Gordon Road Triangle is in Fairfax County and there are private land owners who all have different timelines and objectives as well. For now, we have in the city’s CIP plans to begin funding the property yard design in FY28 (2 years from now).
• To me, there are 3 big next questions:
  • Our neighbors: What do the private property owners and Fairfax County think and how does this align with their plans?
  • Our finances: Are we comfortable taking out new debt to design and construct a new Property Yard and where to put it, ahead of any private redevelopment that could help offset the cost or be co-located for more efficient land use? Or does it need to be linked?
  • Our priorities: can we “be everything to everyone” or what are the most important and best uses (and what does the market think) of the 20 acres?

I’m grateful for the experts at ULI to again catalyze our thinking of the possibilities here!

(3) Learn about City Council and School Board Candidates

Thanks to the CBC for this helpful compilation of candidate forums and opportunities to learn more about everyone running before you vote.

What’s Coming Up:

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

Monday, October 6 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, October 20 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, October 27 – 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 Office Hours:

Monday, September 22 (9 am) – Semicolon Cafe

Thursday, October 16 (12 pm) – The Happy Tart

Tuesday, November 18 (5 pm) – Harvey’s