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 early voting! Remember Virginia has no excuse early voting, so you can stop into City Hall anytime during the week (weekend early voting begins in late October).

It’s been a packed week! Last weekend was the embodiment of Falls Church: our “small town vibe” paired with big city conveniences, community, culture, history, and restaurants to enjoy. And a shout-out to the Pearson Square neighbors – thank you for the warm welcome and great discussion at my visit this week. As I make my way to more multifamily buildings, I’m also happy to join you at your next HOA, scout meeting, or neighborhood gathering as well – just reach out.

Read on for the latest on new business openings, updates on housing and accessory dwellings, and pedestrian safety and walkability work. Because there is much to share, this week’s update will be broad vs deep, and as always, I link to staff reports so you can get accurate information on the topics that interest you.

Best,
Letty

PS – It’s PARK(ing) Day! Stop by 479 S. Maple and see how a parking spot can be re-imagined!

What Happened This Week:

(1) What a weekend!

All that’s great about the city was evident at the best attended Falls Church Festival yet (lots more photos here), the 20th annual Run for the Schools 5K, and the Moon Festival at the Eden Center.

If you haven’t seen it, we launched the City’s new tourism website that does a nice job showcasing the Little City. I often joke that we’re the best kept secret in Northern Virginia and now the secret is out!

(2) Housing Updates

In this week’s Housing Commission meeting and City Council work session, there are a lot of updates on many fronts:

Affordable housing:

• Long time, avid readers know we have 99 units of new affordable housing units coming online with the 3 projects underway at Broad and Washington (33 units), West Falls (32 units) and Founders Row 2 (34 units). That’s double our current stock!
• These units are targeted to people who earn between 60-80% of Area Median Income (AMI) and we have made recent progress in adding units for deeper levels of affordability around 40% AMI.
• We’ve already welcomed new neighbors into 19 of the 99 units and look forward to this significant increase in affordable housing stock to make progress against the waitlist (over 450 people), especially because these units’ affordability will ever expire. (Note this was not always the case – buildings approved before 2016 have units that expire after 15-20 years we will address.)
• More information about our ADU program here, including how to get on the waitlist, priority rankings, and more.

Virginia Village:

• We’ve also have been committed a longer term affordable housing strategy as the city has been acquiring units at Virginia Village the past 3 years. This week we heard an update on a curve ball from Virginia Housing and had a closed session discussion on next steps.
• To date, we have been fortunate to receive over $6.5M in various grants from Amazon, ARPA, and federal HUD dollars to pursue acquisition with $2.9M in local dollars ($9.6M total). So far, I’ve learned that affordable housing is complex and requires patience, creativity, and flexibility when curve balls come – more details in this memo here.

Accessory Dwellings update

• After our lengthy work session on ADs a few weeks ago, the Planning Commission also dug in this week.
• More community engagement is scheduled in the coming week. Join staff to provide input on the draft framework for potential updates on the City’s accessory dwelling regulations. Information Sessions:
  • Wednesday, September 25 – 6 p.m., City Hall Council Chambers
  • Sunday, September 29 – 2 p.m., Lower Conference Room, Library

And thanks to Senator Saddam Salim for joining us at a joint Housing Commission-Human Services Advisory Committee meeting this week to discuss many of these same priorities as he prepares for the 2025 session!

(3) Transportation

School Zone Speed Safety Program – ICYMI, we launched the city’s first automated speed enforcement in the 800-900 block of W. Broad, near St James school. This is one of many tools to increase safety on our roads, in addition to traffic calming, sidewalks and crosswalk investments, new HAWK signals underway, road redesign, red light cameras, school bus stop arm cameras, and traditional police enforcement. I often get asked whether this can be deployed across the city and the unfortunate answer is no, we have limited authority from Richmond to deploy primarily near schools and will keep evaluating other eligible locations across the city.

Greening of Lincoln – Greening of Lincoln doesn’t fall neatly in the transportation category as the project’s goals are stormwater management, green space, traffic calming, and pedestrian and ADA improvements. That is an ambitious set of goals for the $11M project (primarily grant funded on tight timelines), especially for such a large project spanning Lincoln Ave from West St all the way down to the Arlington border.

We spent over 2 hours in work session this week digging into the final round of details. Thank you to the neighborhood for deep engagement and the project manager for the diligence in listening and considering all the different opinions with detailed block-by-block walking meetings, public briefings, and offline correspondence. I’ve read all the comments and responses in the public comments log and emails we’ve received (and actually know the street quite well as I lived at 921 Lincoln for years). All in all, I think the project does a good job balancing the goals and different input we’ve received. I want to make sure large investments like this are future looking, we “do it right the first time”, and we get to consensus where possible but know that means we may not get 100% agreement. I especially want to make sure while we’re impacting the street, we address known problem areas – such as the sight line issues at the intersection of Lincoln/Oak.

As this project moves from 50% design/conceptual to engineering plans, that also means that plans will be finalizing in order for project timelines to stay on track and start construction next summer.

(4) Economic Development Updates

As shared in this week’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) meeting, with new buildings opening, that also means we are adding opportunities for new businesses. Here is the latest of the new restaurants that are announced at the 3 buildings underway. It’s also noteworthy that there are new businesses opening in spaces *other than* new buildings. We are welcoming more neighbors which means there are more customers and Falls Church becomes a more viable and attractive location for small businesses.

What’s Coming Up:

Monday, September 23 – City Council Meeting*

Wednesday, October 2 – Ask the Council Office Hours (9 am, City Hall)

Monday, October 7 – City Council Work Session*

*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 30 – Letty’s Office Hours (12-1 pm, Mr Browns Park)

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)