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,

With two destructive hurricanes impacting the US in one week, climate change has been top of mind. Locally, our focus has been on strategies to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to get to net zero emissions by 2050, as outlined in two energy plans we adopted last year. Another area of local impact is our solid waste (ie, trash, recycling, compost) as landfills are a significant contributor of emissions. Out of our $130M annual city budget, about $1M goes towards curbside services that is borne by everyone in the city, but we mostly only offer the service to single family homes and townhomes. This week, we discussed options for funding this service that can be more equitable and help reduce our waste.

For me – this is one of those areas of inequity where once you see it, you can’t “un-see” it – so I look forward to hearing your thoughts too.

And read on for an update on West Falls, the 10 acre project adjacent to the schools secondary campus, too.

Best,
Letty

PS – City Council is heading to the annual Virginia Municipal League conference this weekend, so posts will resume the week of October 21 when we’ll discuss priorities for the $5M surplus I wrote about a few weeks ago. Before then, you can catch me at my October office hours on Thursday, October 17 at Cafe Kindred, and I’m always happy to hear from you offline.

What Happened This Week:

(1) Solid Waste Financing Options – aka, How Should We Pay for Trash?

Quick background:

• In response to concerns raised to us last spring about the equity of the city’s curbside program being funded out of general taxes when certain community members, such as multi-family residents and businesses, do not receive curbside solid waste services (they are serviced by private haulers from their HOA or landlord) – exploring options for how to fund solid waste was added to our 2024-2025 City Council strategic priorities.
• Also we just adopted our 20 year Solid Waste Management Plan in May, which outlined a number of strategies to reduce our waste. The TL;DR – plastics recycling is really a hoax and we should be thinking of the other Rs we all learned: reducing our consumption and reusing as much as possible before disposing. And food waste is a serious contributor of greenhouse gases too.
• Right now, the city provides curbside services to just over 3000 homes for trash, recycling, and yard waste. Curbside composting is available via a vendor for an additional fee. The annual cost is a little over $1M per year, equivalent to about 2 pennies on the property tax rate. Because it’s paid for out of the operating budget, the $1M cost is shared across the city regardless of whether you receive the service. More details in the staff report.

Options for Consideration:

Staff presented several options on how to charge for solid waste services that would further incentivize waste reduction and promote more equity and transparency, all with various pros and cons. The options would be budget neutral for the city, but would have implications for property owners: for those not receiving services currently, they would see a tax rate reduction of 2 pennies or so. And for those who receive services (primarily single family homes and townhomes), they would see the tax rate reduction coupled with a new fee that would have either a net positive or negative bottom line impact. Note these are early, preliminary numbers.

• Charge a flat fee – If the $1M cost were to be shared with the 3000 homes who receive the service, it would roughly be equivalent to $370 per year per household served.
• Charge a “pay as you throw” model – instead of a flat fee, the fee would vary depending on the size of bin (majority of households use the 65 gallon ones today) used. Moving to a smaller bin, ie creating less waste, would be a lower fee.
• Offer services to multi family buildings – distinguishing between condos, apartments, and those with mixed use would be challenging and only some buildings would be eligible, creating more inconsistency among multi family buildings.

Curbside organics/composting – the one option we reached consensus on was to further explore a third cart for organics for everyone. That could divert food and yard waste from the general waste stream and reduce what goes to the landfill or incinerator. It would have a one time cost of $150K for new bins for everyone and annual cost of $50K, but obviously doesn’t address the equity concerns of how the $1M overall solid waste services are funded when multi-family and commercial properties don’t receive services.

For reference, everyone does it a little differently in the region – some jurisdictions pay for solid waste out of the budget where the cost is shared by everyone, some assess a special fee to those receiving the service. This was a question asked and answered in the recent budget cycle.

Given the complexity – further analysis and community engagement are needed so no immediate changes will happen. The earliest we could consider changes would be the FY27 budget process (spring 2026). I’d welcome your thoughts!

(2) West Falls Update

We also received an update on the West Falls project, including a request to extend the closing date by 30 days for the senior building that is part of Phase 1. Under the Comprehensive Agreement, the West Falls Developer is to transfer the senior living site to Experience Senior Living, the senior living developer/operator approved. The 30 day extension has no impacts to the financial terms for the city, per the staff report.

We also heard an update that 70% of the ground floor of the Phase 1 development has been leased (see leasing map below), with the apartments to begin pre-leasing this fall and condo sales underway.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, October 21 – City Council Work Session*

Monday, October 28 – City Council Meeting*

Monday, November 4 – City Council Work Session*

Tuesday, November 12 – 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:

Thursday, October 17 – Letty’s Office Hours (9-10 am, Cafe Kindred)

Thursday, November 14 – Letty’s Office Hours (9-10 am, The Happy Tart)