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,

City Council wrapped up our formal meetings this week and begins our winter recess until our January 6 work session. This will be my last post of the year, so will be full of good information to carry you into 2025. I’ll cover our adopted budget guidance, economic development news, and a potential property acquisition for flood mitigation and future green space.

I hope you have a peaceful and joyful holiday season. If you’ve written to me recently, I’ll be using the recess to catch up on emails and will get back to you soon. See you in the new year – when the Community Center HVAC project begins (note changes to the operating schedule) and save the date for Restaurant Week 2025!

Best,
Letty

PS – a brief plug to check out our new Visit Falls Church website that may be helpful as you’re finishing up holiday shopping or looking for a festive activity or gathering spot. Note that the Yiftee gift cards (that the city promoted the last two years as part of the Covid-recovery efforts) have no bonuses this year. We encourage you to shop with our small businesses directly!

What Happened This Week:

(1) FY26 Budget Guidance

As I wrote about last week, our annual budget guidance in December sets the ball in motion for the next fiscal year’s budget process. The bottom line is that while we’re expecting 6% revenue growth in the coming year (likely twice what our neighbors will have), it’s not keeping pace with expected growth in expenses, primarily in the schools – the preliminary school budget request will be an 8% increase over last year, which results in a $2M budget gap. With home values increasing, even if the tax rate stays flat – the median homeowners’ tax bill will rise to $529 next year. To fully fund the schools’ request as it stands, it would require an additional 4 pennies on the tax rate.

Budget guidance language was amended during our meeting this week to provide flexibility on tax rate options to address these competing pressures. Since last week’s draft guidance, the specific change was:

“In light of projected growth in assessed value of real estate and its associated financial burden on homeowners, the Council desires to hold steady or reduce the tax rate, but is also aware that in order to meet core government and public education needs, a tax rate increase may be required. Throughout the budget process, the Council will endeavor to determine the appropriate tax rate to match the core government and public education needs of the community and may consider setting aside tax revenues for contingencies. The Council and School Board will continue to remain in contact.”

Between now and March 2025, the schools and general government will be working on their respective budgets which will be presented to the City Council when we begin our work. Your thoughts and questions are welcome.

Letty’s Thoughts: I remain concerned about economic impacts of a federal administration change, whether that’s direct jobs and budget impacts or softer, indirect impacts like more cautious spending and investment behaviors. This is important backdrop as we consider balancing the needs of the entire community with additional tax burden on residents and businesses. I also want to make sure that budget growth is sustainable in the long run.

(2) Property Acquisition

We also voted to authorize the City Manager to acquire 222 Cameron Rd, which is a residential parcel in the floodway near Oak Street Elementary and the Sherrow Bridge, for $795K using capital reserves. (This is not the first time we’ve acquired property in this area – the city also purchased 436 Sherrow nearby that I wrote about in July 2022).

Currently, the intention is to demolish the home and remove a household from the FEMA designated floodway. The longer-term goal would be to use the property for stormwater management and eventually as part of a possible greenway connection along the Tripps Run stream. City planning documents call for completing linkages in this area to connect the Cavalier Trail and is supported by various city plans – the 2005 open space acquisition plan, the parks chapter of the Comprehensive Plan, and a 2022 pedestrian connection study.

(3) Economic Development Updates

I get asked about this frequently, so I’m including the latest updates on newly signed leases and anticipated openings around the city. The full deck is available here but here are the highlights:

• A signed lease with Little Beast, a pizza restaurant at Broad & Washington
• A signed lease with Tiger Dumplings, a dumpling shop at Founders Row
• Sgned leases for Tatte and My Home Thai at Founders Row 2
• Pop Up District, a food hall, nearly to the finish line with their build out at the Eden Center
• Another “adaptive reuse” at 106 Little Falls into Little Falls Creperie

And did you know the EDA built two new parklets in the S. Washington area? And you can help name them! See here and submit your suggestions.