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City Council · Dec 10, 2024

City Council Meeting

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Before the first agenda item

Catherine ReadGood evening. I would like to welcome everybody to the regular meeting of December 10th, 2024. We've had a lovely reception out in the atrium. It's just party, party, party. Thank you for everyone who came to the reception and all those seated in the chamber. We're going to start our meeting off tonight by honoring the city council members for whom this is their last meeting, the last meeting of the year, but their last meeting on this dais in this council. I am going to begin by calling each one up to present them with a token of the city's appreciation and asking them to say a few words. Let's start with Council Member Doyle Feingold.

Anna ColebrennerstaffThank

Kate Doyle Feingoldyou. I didn't know we were saying a few words. I'd just like to say thank you. it's been a complete pleasure and i will continue serving the city in all capacities that i can thank you thank you

Melissa Shinaberryclerknext i

Catherine Readwill ask council member tom ross to come up and say a few words council member ross Thank

Billy Batesyou,

Thomas Rossand it's a pleasure to have served the city. This is my second term on council, but it's been many years of involvement, and I think this is a wonderful community to be involved in. So those of you who haven't gotten involved yet, do so. It's a great place to serve. I want to recognize my wife, Barbara, and my son, Michael, who are here. It's a reminder that when an elected official serves, it has all sorts of things going on with the family. And you don't serve and are able to serve effectively unless you have a supportive family and a family that cares about you and the work you do. So I want to thank them and grateful for them for supporting me. And thank you to the community. I'll still be active and still be involved.

Thank you.

Catherine ReadNext, I'd like to call up Councilmember So Lim.

So LimWow, last six and a half years just kind of flew by. It's been both very humbling and rewarding. I think before I came on City Council, all I knew how to do was to run a business. development, budgeting, all the things that gets involved with City Council, but it's been very rewarding. I learned a lot and I think I learned a lot about myself so it's been awesome experience. I'd like to thank all the city staff that's been very gentle, kind to me when I didn't know stuff, so thank you so much and I'd like to thank all of the residents that gave me their supports and gave me their votes thank you and I still be involved after today thank you very much

Catherine Readcouncilmember John Staley

Jon Stehle Jrthank you mayor I want to thank the citizens for the opportunity to be here my journey started in third grade my grandfather came to our third grade class and talked about being a councilmember and when we talk about seeing yourself in a position I had the opportunity to do that and I was proud to get a chance and learn a lot from him. We have an amazing team here at City Hall. Our city staff is fantastic. Thank you for all you do, our first responders, amazing. Our crews who are out there every day are amazing. Our planning team here is fantastic. But you don't get to be a council member without a great support system behind you. So I wanna thank those that knocked on doors for me, those that came and supported me and had their ears,

but most importantly, my family. In the audience, I've got Zoe and Cooper. Cooper was a year old when I started knocking doors. And you know we got to know that Cooper was a very energetic young young man when he decided the second time around to go into somebody's house on The Saturday and play with them.

Jon Stehle Jrdon't know if we got that vote, but we definitely know we made an impression And that is really what it's all about in this space So thank you for Zoe and Cooper for being my grounding and what's there and there is no question that I cannot do this without my best Friend and so to Stephanie. Thank you for all the support Thank you for being the person who waits up for council meetings at the end to make sure I get home Thank you for the person who always has my back and tells me what she thinks is really going on in the city, which is incredibly helpful. So thank you, Mayor, and to the next council, best of luck. Thank you.

Catherine ReadAnd last and most importantly, Councilmember Jeff Greenfield, for whom this is not the first time he's rolled off the city council. This is the second time. He is probably the longest-serving council member, I'm not sure, maybe in the city's history. time and so I present to you councilmember Jeffrey Greenfield thank

Jeffrey Greenfieldyou

Speaker 17I appreciate this I

Jeffrey Greenfielddid not start serving on council in 1994 with a goal of being the longest serving in the city's history when I started knocking on doors we didn't have Alexandra my wife was on one side of the street and I usually enjoyed it right we're out talking to the community we are getting to know people I was young one of the youngest folks elected at that time in and what a difference we made right but fast forward you know I retired I came back and now I have more time to spend with my family but I'm not going anywhere I'm still going to be raising money for charities leading the city's car show being involved annoying the mayor and council with multiple emails see how all the typical metrics right that we would do but um but we look good up here as a body

because of the city staff and so i want to thank all of you many of you i've known since you started with the city brooke you included um in in how far we've come right as a community and so thank you for the tireless hours when the mayor and council want to have a retreat on a Saturday and you're there, you're there on your own time, right? And so we are so fortunate to have great staff. Do we always agree? Of course not. But you all are so dedicated and worked so hard to try to again make us look good. So thank you. And to the community, thank you for all the support that you've given me. I don't always get it right, but I've always been willing to listen and I will continue to do that. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you to the Council, Mr. Lubkerman,

staff over here again Val Marie congratulations but thank you all so much for for all you've done for me I appreciate it

Melissa Shinaberryclerkso I think

Catherine Readthe city fire and police department have presentations they would like to make I see chief O'Neill coming forward to make the presentation chief Scheibel? Yes. Captain Hawkins?

Speaker 17Deferred it. We'll need somebody to hand us all the plaques. City

Jeffrey GreenfieldCouncil members,

Speaker 17first and foremost, I want to thank you for your service to the city. We appreciate what you do. We appreciate, as part of the public safety team, all that you've done to support us, whether it's the City Fire Department, the Volunteer Department, and certainly our excellent police force. appreciate your support over the years and all you've done to help make the city better and safer with that we have a bunch of plaques for you always appreciate Mr. Stavis, you've been here eight of minus nine years. Thank you, Senator. Perfect. Thank you. And last but not least, Margaret. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Speaker 23And a couple words from the police perspective too. We have really, genuinely appreciated the support and the focus on public safety, making the city safer. you have given us the tools that we need to do our jobs and we greatly appreciate all the support positivity the respect and and your dedication to making the city a safe place so thank you

Catherine Readwe're going to do a photo so i'm going to move this you guys are just going to switch in with all the chiefs I'm now going to invite of Fairfax local 2702 to make a presentation

Susan Hartley-Kylerpublic commentmy

Speaker 20name is David I'm the president of the city of Fairfax professional firefighters and paramedics we also you know want to say thank you for everybody's support with all of our initiatives new stations and new buildings supporting all of our equipment PPE to keep us safe so we can better serve you all so thank you to all of you have a little parting gift for all of you as well first thing the holder for it didn't show up in the mail today so I'll finish putting them together probably tomorrow do you want

Catherine Readto do a photo

Speaker 20we can do it okay can

Jason Suffinstaffyou get them all I'm sorry Go to three Three No,

Catherine Readwe're not done We're not

Speaker 17done Do you like a wrap-up or a car? That could be cool Okay,

Catherine Readwe have one final presentation I would like to ask Zoe Stalen to come up to say a few words

Speaker 8Good evening, everyone. I know a lot of you here to talk about, like, legitimate political matters, but I just want to take a second to talk about Councilmember Staley here, who just, he happens to be my dad, in case you can tell, matching last name. Councilmember Staley has been serving this great city for, I believe, eight years now, and I've grown up seeing him work the polls, hand out literature, and most of the time I'd end up getting roped into this with, you know, no reward for this, which, you know, I'm still waiting for. I hope it is. I've seen him grow, has really become a great leader of the city. But not only is he a council member, he's a coach. He coaches both me and my brother Cooper in both ice hockey and lacrosse.

He's had a tremendous impact with FUIC, and I know many of my friends who started up because he kept pestering them to play are now playing on varsity field hockey and varsity lacrosse over at Fairfax. You know, we joined when we were younger, and he taught us nearly everything we know, and we're incredibly grateful for that. tonight but they wish they could be. I also don't know if any of you know this but he played Councilmember Saleh played collegiate ice hockey at the University of Washington and Jefferson as a defender. Yeah he did. He now he still plays today in a men's league and it just brings me so much joy to go and be able to watch him play but aside from being a council member a coach and

having like a real adult job he's also a really good dad despite having to do all of this and listen to all of you talk he still made efforts to come to everything from me and my brother and i'm really grateful for everything he's done i don't know if he realizes it but i'm sure you all know he brings a lot of energy to everything he does and hearing him cheer for me during games means a lot and i'm really grateful he's going to be able to go to more I wanted to make sure that he got the recognition he deserves because he's really not that type of guy that's going to ask for the spotlight, and I really think he deserves it. So I wanted to come up here and congratulate him and tell him how proud of him I am

because he's done a lot for this city, and I'm really proud.

Catherine ReadWell, I cannot

Salissa Lambert Woodardapplicanttop that.

Catherine ReadI cannot. But I will say this, there is a lot of sacrifice made by families, everyone's family up here. The amount of time that's given, the complicated things that we're asked to do, and families are the support network, the people who stay up and watch the meetings, who stay up and wait for us to come home, who know that we aren't going to be available on Saturdays and weekends and for all kinds of things. And so I, too, Zoe, appreciate your dad and everyone else up here, too, and the families that have supported all of us. my greatest appreciation to all of you I was a newbie and the last two years have been such a learning experience for me and I appreciate everything each of you have done

and so I will say with gratitude that this council has left its mark on this city and we are grateful thank you applause applause applause applause All right, if you are able and so choose, please rise for a moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'll start the meeting with the agenda adoption. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Council Member Staley.

Jon Stehle JrThank you, Mayor Reed. I move to approve the agenda as printed and noticed with the following amendment. Addition of an item not requiring a public hearing entitled Consideration of the FY24 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, parentheses, ACFER, in parentheses. I further ask consideration that this item be placed immediately prior to the consent agenda. Second.

Catherine ReadThe motion has been made and seconded a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Greenfield? Aye. Council Member Ross? Aye. Council Member Lim? Aye. Councilmember Staley. Aye. Councilmember Doyle Feingold.

Kate Doyle FeingoldAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncilmember Bates.

Kate Doyle FeingoldAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkMotion passed unanimously. We'll move on to the initial general public comment. I've had two speakers sign up by 5 o'clock p.m. today. So the first speaker I have is Sosen Zayada.

6

Consideration of the FY24 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR)

16:29

Catherine ReadIf you want to come to the podium.

Speaker 26Good

Kate Doyle Feingoldevening. I'm

Speaker 26from Sudan. And thank you all you invite me. Would like to take a moment sincerely thanks the city council and the organization for extending this kind invitation to the upcoming city council regular meeting today. It is truly an honor to be invited to participate in gathering that plays such as potential role in shaping the direction of our city. I deeply value the opportunity to engage these discussions that impact our community to hear directly from the Council and other attendees about important issues to the agenda. I participate in the accessibility provided by sharing the agenda and staff report in advance. This is a great reminder of how governance should always inform the public. Thank you again for this opportunity.

I look forward to begin a part of sufficient event and contributing the conversation that supported the cross and the success of our city. Thank you everyone to invited me. I be a member of you and serve and to be close if you need me anytime I'll be here. Thank you so much.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkOur next speaker is Susan Cullier.

Susan Hartley-Kylerpublic commentHello, my name is Susan Hartley-Kyler. I live at 9742 Cardinal Road. I want to take this opportunity to express my appreciation of Council Members Kate Doyle-Feingold and Jeff Greenfield for their service in this city, and thank them for their friendship and for running on the independent ballot, and for staying above the fray and refusing to respond in kind to unfounded and dishonest attempts to smear their reputations and bombard during the recent election campaign, which, as Council Member So Lim noted last week, was pretty nasty. One of Kate's gifts is her ability to focus on the heart of the matter and explain key points in plain English with examples to illustrate the points. As our Council Member, she did not tell people what they should do or should feel or should think.

She viewed residents as intelligent, thoughtful people who can understand issues when they are explained. I will miss your cogent and thoughtful remarks from the dais, Kate. To many residents, Jeff is Mr. Fixit. His belief in serving constituents was evident in his actions. He knows his city and how city government operates. Before and during the campaign, I observed firsthand his service to residents of this city. People would call him asking for help, and he would immediately call the appropriate city staffer to address the issue. When we asked him to walk the proposed changes to the George Tender Trail with us, he showed up with a measuring tape, and I knew then that this was a man I could do business with.

I will miss seeing both of you on the dance, and I'm sure many others will too. I hope you stay involved in public life because this city needs you. I am so grateful to call each of you friend. I had intended you to say that, but then I learned this afternoon that rumor has it fire the city manager and she the rumor has four votes if this is true and this is despicable and dishonorable and unsportsmanlike but given what transpired in the recent election not unexpected such a decision should have been deferred to the new council thank you we

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcan move on to the consideration of the FY 24 annual comprehensive financial report in parents ACFER I'll Martinez, Chief Financial Officer, to give the staff report.

JC MartinezstaffThank you. Mayor, Council, I will actually be turning this over to Lynn Guzman, who is the Finance Director and probably had the greatest hand in putting the ACFRA together, very similar to last year as well. I'd like to recognize Lynn.

Lynn GuzmanstaffThank you, JC. Good evening, Mayor and Council. It is an honor to be here for the annual comprehensive financial report presentation. I would like to thank the finance staff for their hard work and cooperation during the audit. I also would like to thank all the departments for their cooperation during our audit. The city has received a clean audit for many years due to the team effort of all the departments. Again, thank you to all the city staff. I would like to introduce our auditor from Robinson Farmer Cox Associates, Andrew Grosnico. Mr. Grosnico will present the fiscal year 2024 annual comprehensive financial report. At the end of the auditor's presentation, I will provide a two-slide update on the audited information previously communicated in late October.

Thank you, Andrew.

Andrew GrosnicostaffThank you for your

Billy Batestime

Andrew Grosnicostaffthis evening. Those of you that have

Billy Batesbeen on the council for a few years will know that I'm making my

Andrew Grosnicostaffpresentation about four or five hours earlier than some evenings in which I go to another locality and then come here. So this is a nice change. But I just want to take a couple minutes to go over the highlights of our audit for the year into June 30th, 2024, and then a couple of financial highlights as well. Just from an overall standpoint, I'd like to lay out kind of what the engagement entailed that we were engaged to perform. We were engaged to perform a financial statement audit for the year ended June 30, 2024, and that audit was subject to the auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America, the audits specifications for the audits of counties, cities, and towns issued

by the Auditor of Public Accounts of Virginia, or the APA, the standards for the financial contained in the government auditing standards issued by the comptroller general and also the provisions of the uniform guidance or what you'll hear referred to as a single audit from a standpoint of our audit processes obviously there is an annual comprehensive financial report that is a byproduct of our process but from an audit perspective the main byproduct is our independent auditors reports or our opinions that we include in the financial There are three of those types of auditors reports that are contained in the annual comprehensive financial report for the year into June 30, 2024 for the city.

The first one is the independent auditors report itself, which is the opinion on the financial statements and really on the numbers in the financial statements. For the year into June 30, 2024, we issued an unmodified or a clean opinion on the financial statements, which is what you're looking for on that report. The second two reports, or the remaining two reports, are compliance in nature. The first one is the internal control over financial reporting and on compliance. You'll hear that referred to as the government auditing standards report or the yellow book report. And so in that report, we would note any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in internal controls. We did not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies to report.

And then lastly, there's the compliance report on each major program and on internal control over compliance in accordance with uniform guidance. And so nonprofits, local governments, authorities, boards, commissions, different entities that expend over $750,000 of federal awards in a given year are required to undergo what's called a uniform guidance or a single audit in which we pick the major programs based on the criteria that's laid forth on selecting those. and then we test those for the compliance requirements that are set forth by the federal grants or agency that's applicable for that program. And in that report, we would note any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies related to that major program or programs.

And I'm pleased to report that we did not have any material weaknesses or significant deficiencies on our uniform guidance report. We did issue our standard communication with those charged with governance communication letter. And that's a communication that just highlights a couple of the significant accounting estimates that the city uses. For example, it highlights that the estimates related to pension liabilities and other post-employment liabilities and associated deferred inflows and outflows are estimates that are based on actuarial information provided by actuaries. It highlights that we did not have any disagreements with management, that management made all the representations required of us, and things of that nature.

So that's kind of all standard communication there. this year with any written recommendations for improvements and controls. Just going to go over a couple of highlights, very high-level financial highlights for the year into June 30th, 2024. Local governments report on two different basis of accounting, so they report on a full accrual basis of accounting, which takes into account all of their long-term assets and long-term liabilities so your buildings your equipment things of that nature and also your your not just your obligation bonds and your revenue bonds but also other post-employment benefits that I alluded to pension liabilities and things of that nature and under that basis the residual or the

equity of the local government or the entity is referred to as net position and so for that standpoint the primary government so the the governmental activities and the enterprise activities of the city reported total net position at June 30th 2024 of 121.4 million and that represented an increase of 6.3 million from the prior year the other basis of accounting is what you use more on a day-to-day basis in your governance it's sometimes referred to as the budgetary basis of accounting or the modified accrual basis of accounting and that only includes your near-term assets and liabilities, and under that basis, the residual or the equity retained earnings is referred to as fund balance. And so for the governmental funds, which is your general fund, your capital projects fund,

your special revenue funds, the total governmental fund fund balance at the year in June 30, 2024 was $73.4 million, and that represented an increase of $28.9 million from the prior year. Within the fund balance itself, you have different buckets of fund balance based on different levels of restriction. So there's some fund balance that's non-spendable, some that is restricted for certain purposes, committed or assigned, and then the residual is the unassigned fund balance. And at the year end of June 30, 2024, the general fund fund balance that was unassigned was $32.3 million. dollars. General fund revenues exceeded final budgeted amounts for FY24 by 11.3 million, and general fund expenditures were basically right on budget. They exceeded budget by $8,585.

Just have a couple of charts and graphs to go over. The first one is the change in net position, just showing the last four years of the overall city net position that you can see it's trended up from a little under $100 million to now over $115 million. And again, that's on the full accrual basis when taking into account all of your long-term assets and long-term liabilities. And then the general fund fund balance we just referenced, we mentioned fund balance on that modified accrual basis. And your general fund fund balance, you'll see the trend there. a couple years where fund balance had decreased in the general fund, and then this year it's up to $43.6 million. The next two charts are pie charts that both give a little breakdown

of how the major buckets of revenues and expenses for the city break down between on the revenue side, revenue type, and on the expense side, functional expense level. So the first one is your governmental activities revenue. type. You can see that general property taxes make up the largest piece of the pie. Your other local taxes are the second largest piece. That other local taxes are things like meals tax, local sales tax, business license taxes, all of those local taxes that are not property taxes in nature. And then your operating grants and contributions and your capital grants and contributions, Those are your federal and state revenue items that you have from a grant standpoint. In addition to the Commonwealth Virginia non-categorical aid, those are basically state grant items that are not specified to a specific grant.

They're general in nature and what they can be used upon. And then from the expense standpoint, we break things down in governments by functional level, so education, public safety, public works, et cetera. The biggest piece of the expense pie for the city of Fairfax is education at about $56 million. Public safety is second, around $40 million. And public works there is also a large amount at $27.6 million. I don't know if you wanted to have questions of me before you do the couple slides. or so if you have any questions for me before the city does a couple extra slides I'd be happy to take those

Jon Stehle Jrcouncil members daily well thank you Mary and just a quick statement having grown up with GAO I just want to thank my colleagues the government accountability office particular Comcroller General D'Addario for their great work on the yellow book it is an incredibly important piece of how we govern and I appreciate their work on the standards and and what it means for locality to go through that so thank you to all the hard-working people at GAO for everything that they do thank you

Catherine Reador comments at this time? Okay, I don't believe so.

Lynn GuzmanstaffSo the top portion of this slide shows an estimate that was and the bottom half now incorporate audited financial information. On October 22nd, the estimated fund balance allocation to the budget stabilization fund was half a percent, which is $1.5 million. The general fund unassigned fund balance was 17.9%, which is $32.8 million. For the adopted financial policy, the general fund unassigned fund balance minimum is 15%. $27.5 million. Projected positive variance over the financial policy was 2.9%, $5.3 million. The aspirational targeted fund balance ratio is 22%, $40.3 million. Highlighted in yellow reflects the changes from what was presented on October 22nd. The fund balance allocation to the budget stabilization fund is 2.6% versus half a percent

and is $4.3 million. The FY24 general unassigned fund balance is 18%, $32.3 million, and the minimum per adopted financial policy is $27 million. Projected positive variance over financial policy is 3%, and the aspirational target The limited fund balance ratio is $40 million. This slide shows a screenshot of note one in the ACFER for the assigned and unassigned fund balance in the general fund. Highlighted in orange reflects the changes from what was presented on October 22nd. $4.3 million was allocated to the budget stabilization fund and the unassigned fund balance is $32.3 million. For the first time in six years, there is now a line item in the assigned fund balance for the budget stabilization fund.

Are there any questions?

Catherine ReadAre there any questions from the dais at this time? I don't see any questions. for the presentation. I think I have a motion, Mayor. Is there a motion? Yes, Council Member Staley.

Jon Stehle JrThank you, Mayor Reed. I move the City of Fairfax accept the City of Fair... I'm sorry. I move the City Council accept the City of Fairfax FY 2024 annual comprehensive financial report.

Catherine ReadSecond. A motion has been made by Council Member Staley and seconded by Council Member Lim. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncilmember Ross aye Councilmember Lim aye Councilmember Staley aye Councilmember Dole Feingold councilmember Bates aye motion passed unanimously now we will go to

Catherine Readthe consent agenda is there a motion to approve the consent agenda council member Staley thank

Jon Stehle Jryou Mayor Reed I move adoption of a consent agenda for agenda number 7a consideration of the November 12th 2024 regular meeting minutes agenda number 7b consideration of appointments to boards and commissions agenda number 7c consideration of a resolution to approve City's submission to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for $1 million in FY 2025-2023 Regional Surface Transportation RSTP funding. Agenda 7D. Consider a resolution authorizing the City Manager to sign the standardized project agreement with the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for the Germantown slash Route 29 Intersection Improvements Project. Agenda 7E. Consideration of adopting a resolution for the creation of the City of Fairfax Parks

Agenda number 7F, consideration of adopting a resolution endorsing Project Play Children's Bill of Rights and Sports. Agenda number 7G, consideration of the proposed City of Fairfax 2025 legislative program. Agenda number 7H, consideration of a resolution approving and accepting the conveyance for no consideration of certain real property located in the city and owned by Calvary United Methodist Church, tax map number 58-1-02-020B comprising approximately 0.30962 acres and having the address of 3635 Park Lane Road. I move to approve the consent agenda items number 7A through H and the motioning accompanying the consent agenda item as printed.

Catherine ReadSecond. A motion has been made by Council Member Staley and seconded by Council Member Lim. Are there any items Council would like pulled for additional discussion? Seeing none, a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Bates? Aye. Council Member Doyle Feingold? Aye. Council Member Staley?

Catherine ReadAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Lim? Aye. Council Member Ross? Aye. Council Member Greenfield? Aye. Motion passed unanimously. We will go to our first public hearing. It's a public hearing and council action on a request from ABTB Mid-Atlantic LLC applicant by Catherine Taylor, agent slash attorney, for consideration of an amendment to the Zoning and General Development Plan for Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center at the premises identified as 10140-10160 Fairfax Boulevard in Paren's Tax Map 47-4-23-000-A and 10120 Fairfax Boulevard in Prince tax map 47-4-23-000-d and the CR commercial retail district and architectural control overlay and print a COD a special use permit to allow a restaurant with a drive-through facility a special exception to provide an interior landscape island

7a

Consideration of the November 12, 2024 Regular Meeting minutes

37:10

Melissa Shinaberryclerkfor every 10 parking spaces on the premises identified as 10120 fairfax boulevard imprints tax map 47-4-23-000-d and a major certificate of appropriateness for architecture and landscaping albert frederick city planner will provide the staff presentation good

Albert Frederickstaffevening everyone this is the public hearing for taco bar the applicant is a bt mid-atlantic llc the site is located at 10140 through 10160 and 10120 fairfax billard the applicant submitted a formal application and plans on february 6 2024 work sessions were held during the month of June of this year on April 28 2024 the Board of Architecture review recommended approval with conditions and on a and on September 9th 2024 Planning Commission recommended to approve the general development plan amendment the applicant has submitted the following language applications an amendment to the previously approved 2017 general development plan and the CR commercial retail district especially use permit to allow a restaurant with drive-through

window facility special exception for for a number of consecutive parking spaces without a landscape island and a major certificate of appropriateness for architecture and landscaping in 2008 the City Council approved a general development plan to allow total of 17 300 square feet of commercial space including a 3 500 square foot bank with a drive-through facility in 2011 the shopping center was subdivided into two separate parcels creating parcel a and parcel d in 2017 the city council approved a general development plan amendment to allow approximately 5 100 square feet of retail building off a building on parcel d to replace the previously approved bank with the drive-thru so here tonight this is an amendment

to the previously approved 2017 general development plan the applicant is the contract leasing for parcel d which is the vacant pad site within the shopping center today parcel d remains a vacant pad site as approved and under the 2008 plan no changes to the previously approved proffers and no changes to the existing conditions to the shop and Center the shop the shop center has approximately 119 parking spaces so the existing conditions the subject property the larger parcel parcel a is 2.4 acres the parcel D which is a site for Taco Bell is 0.66 acres in the commercial corridor place type and the commercial retail zoning district and the architectural control overlay district so before you are pictures of the subject property looking at the streetscape

along fairfax boulevard and also interior to the site the applicant proposes a 2 900 square foot fast food restaurant with 20 seats and a drive-through window which requires a special use permit the general development plan shows the drive-through facility that wraps around the around the building and in the parking lot for the customers so the proposed drive-through facility has 13 spaces from drive-through window on the west side of the building and nine spaces from the order station the requirement is 10 stacking spaces the applicant has proposed a total of 13 stacking spaces the applicant has provided nine spaces adjacent to the entrance to the of the east side of the building and 11 spaces along Fairfax Boulevard for a total of 20 spaces the

requirement is 11 spaces so the applicant is exceeding the minimum parking requirement the applicant is also seeking a special exception for the number of consecutive parking spaces within the landscape island along Fairfax Boulevard there are 11 spaces the requirement is 10 so the applicant is seeking a special exception to allow one additional space beyond the requirement the applicant has proposed a 190 square foot outdoor patio seating area for up to 10 seats near the main entrance of the restaurant and the applicant has also proposed a walk-up window for mobile orders and delivery drivers the applicant has provided pedestrian access interior to the building from the parking lot area along Fairfax Boulevard the applicant has

proposed pedestrian improvements along the frontage of the shopping center by expanding the six foot sidewalk to ten feet which is consistent with a multimodal plan the applicant has provided a connection from Fairfax Boulevard to the existing trail on the west side of the parcel D and the applicant has also proposed improvements for the internal protection and connections from going from east to west along the front edge of the of the site near the building and finally the on the west side of parcel D an existing shared use path connects to george steiner trail on the north to the north of the site the applicant has also provided two bicycle parking spaces since the work session the applicant has amended the hours of operation the dining hours as

proposed is from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily drive-through from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. daily and a walk-up window is open from 11 p.m. to 11 or to 12 a.m. daily the applicant is anticipating 30 employees 18 full-time 12 part-time employees the applicant proposes to meet the 10-year minimum tree canopy requirement of 10% the applicant is proposing to provide 21% the applicant has provided evergreen trees directly adjacent to the menu board providing new plant plantings and interior to the parking lot and along the drive-through aisle and plantings along the existing streetscape on Fairfax Boulevard between the parking lot and the sidewalk also the no the applicant has provided an annotation to the plan that no the no mow zone

within the RPA would be allowed so no mowing within the RPA so would remain undisturbed in terms of vehicular access the primary primary access point to the proposed restaurant is through the existing internal connections to the shaman center with two access points along Fairfax Boulevard one on the west and at Boulevard Marketplace and Fairfax Boulevard and one in the east at fairwoods parkway both these access points are full movement access points and then a secondary access point would be provided to the is is currently provided to the shopping center as a ride in and ride out along fairfax boulevard the shopping center has it has an east-west parallel street interior to the site that provides patrons access through the

shopping center to the interior to an interposter connection from patient first heading west through the shopping center the a traffic analysis was provided and the level of service for the adjacent streets will not experience any significant degradation and operating conditions with this construction of the proposed Taco Bell here's an aerial view that shows the nearest location of the nearest residential lot to the proposed site it's roughly 450 to 500 feet to the north the map before you shows the existing drive-throughs throughout the city and also the proposed drive-through the map shows the location of approximately 12 existing drive-through restaurants in the city and eight of those restaurants have a residential lot

that is closer than what's being proposed tonight staff has received recommendation of approval from the Board of Architecture review for the subject property with conditions staff is recommending approval of the zoning and general development plan amendment staff is recommending approval of a special use permit with conditions and also staff is recommending approval of the special exceptions with conditions that's the end of the presentation and i'll stand by for any questions you may have

Catherine ReadI will now open the public hearing miss Shinaberry has this public hearing been properly advertised yes it has is there anyone signed up to speak at this time the applicant is going to present okay so the applicant has a presentation if you'd like to share that

Melissa ShinaberryclerkGood evening, council

Kathryn Taylorapplicantmembers. My name is Kathy Taylor from the law firm of Walsh Colucci. It's a pleasure to be here tonight to present this proposal we brought to you all back in June during a work session. I do want to take some time to further elaborate briefly on several of the plan changes that we've made since that work session as well as specifically address a number of concerns and issues that we have heard not only from you all from the planning commission as well as the community. Before doing so I do want to let you know that we do have representative from the applicant developer our traffic engineer as well as our civil engineer should you have any

Molly Novotnyapplicantadditional questions.

Kathryn TaylorapplicantSo if we go to the first slide, as you saw, you're all quite familiar with the subject parcel. It's a vacant pad site that the applicant is looking to develop, and it's part of the larger Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center. If we jump to the next slide, this is just an image of a view of the vacant pad site today. You can see the landscaping and plantings along Fairfax Boulevard, and that will remain, but will be supplemented with additional street trees. So if we jump to the next slide, I'm not going to spend too much time on this slide as Mr. Frederick also went through the development history. As you heard, it is subject to a general development plan, which includes the larger shopping center

approved back in 2008. In 2011, the site was subdivided. The one parcel that you see to the left on the graphic is parcel A, and that is the larger shopping center, and that is owned separately from this pad site, which is the much smaller within this larger multi-tenant shopping center. As you heard most recently, it was approved for, originally approved as a drive-in bank, and then later was amended to be a 5,100 square foot retail building that could also include eating establishments such as sit-down restaurants that you see in the shopping center today. So to date, as you know, neither the bank nor that retail or any sit-down restaurants have been constructed and the site is vacant. So if you go to the next slide,

the applicant does propose to develop That will be approximately 2,090 square feet. To redevelop, we do need an amendment to the existing GDP as well as a special permit to permit the drive through portion of the new walk up window. No modifications or improvements are proposed to the larger shopping center site or its existing buildings, which as I mentioned is completely under separate ownership and management from this site. Since the City Council work session, we have met with the community twice on this proposal. We would staff and have had multiple conversations with various planning commissioners as well as certain council members to revise and improve the site plan as you see it today.

So I thought it may be worth to go through some of those major revisions since we last met. If we go to the next slide, you can see I've numbered them one through seven. As mentioned by staff, that resource protection area to the back, number one, will continue to remain in its natural undisturbed condition. Furthermore, in response to concerns that we heard from the community, we are adding a buffer in the back near the George Snyder Trail. That's also in response to staff's request to add more plantings around the RPA and noise concerns that we've heard. So we would be installing a row of approximately 600 square feet of new plantings, including evergreen trees and other native and non-invasive plantings.

And that would be directly adjacent to the menu board within the drive-through lane. would be providing additional visual screening as well as increasing the plantings and green space on site that would assist to absorb any noise pollution that may result from the menu board sound levels. As noted, we are only required to provide 10% of tree canopy, but with this small pad site we are providing a tree canopy of 21%. So number two, in addition to that drive-through component, the applicant, as noted, will be integrating a walk-up window. So generally this would only be open when the actual restaurant dine in area is closed. This is an additional option for customers to obtain their orders and

will effectively alleviate the drive through traffic. So this would be for drivers like Uber Eats, DoorDash, etc. Number three, in response to the concerns that we've heard about parking, a fairly large change is that the applicant has modified the building prototype. It was previously a 40 seat restaurant and now it will be a 20 seat restaurant. So from a site design perspective, this modification will increase the open space at the front of the building with 250 additional square feet of plantings. That would be native, non-invasive. It would decrease the impervious area on site, as well as improve the site distance for exiting vehicles from the drive through. But most importantly, this change will reduce the parking demand for dine-in customers on a daily basis.

Number four, to provide enhanced connectivity from Fairfax Boulevard to the George Snyder Trail, the applicant now proposes to construct a new six-foot-wide pathway that will ultimately link to the existing six-foot-wide trail along the western lot line. This will require a slight enlargement of an existing island on the western side of the existing parking aisle that would result in the loss of one parking space. all new sidewalks on the site will integrate ADA curb ramps and detectable warning strips number five number six to continue to facilitate improved pedestrian circulation and the ultimate vision of the city for walkability in accordance with the city's long-term planning the applicant is going to widen

that existing six foot on this small parcel to up to ten feet with the hopes that in the future whenever other parcels surrounding redevelop they can also do so. This would not interfere with existing mature vegetation and utilities within this general area. And finally, the applicant does intend to retain all the existing mature street trees along that Fairfax Boulevard frontage. However, in coordination with the city arborist, we would be planting new trees and that would also add to increase that tree canopy on site. So in the end, that proposed development will result in notable increased green space and an overall decrease of impervious service on site. If we go to the next slide, as I mentioned, I know that one of the city's long-term goals

is to promote places along Route 50 corridor that can be accessed by foot. And so we do believe just kind of the scope of this site that the applicant has gone above and beyond to integrate a number of pedestrian infrastructure with this proposal to promote walkability. So staff went through this also, but you can see in yellow the connection to George Snyder from Fairfax Boulevard and then in blue the connection to the larger shopping center in addition there'll be new crosswalk stop signs a pedestrian crossing warning sign 88 compliant ramps and just necessary traffic control signage so despite the small scale of this proposal the applicant we believe has gone above and beyond to fulfill a number of the multimodal transportation

goals including promoting walkability and improving improving pedestrian safety and connections. So if we go to the next slide, I believe we talked about this before, but just to remind the council, it's important to note that the main vehicular routes to the site were previously contemplated by the property owners of both the patient first site as well as the larger shopping center. And so there is a cross access easement that was executed in 2015 by all of the property owners. owners. You can see the patient site in green, Taco Bell in blue, and the larger shopping center in red. The agreement effectively permits a shared access between all three parcels. So we do believe the access being proposed, as you heard from staff, is consistent with

this recorded access easement and is fully contemplated by all of the property owners, including patient first. I will note that the applicant has reached out to patient first on a number of occasions. actually on three occasions, the third being most recently on September 3rd, and this was as a result from some safety concerns raised by Planning Commissioner Chairman Feather. And specifically in that letter, we did offer to install off-site wayfinding signage or pavement markings or some kind of visual cue on patient first site to direct vehicles coming to the new restaurant to utilize the outermost drive aisle and away from the drive aisle closest to the patient first building. To date, the applicant, despite these letters, have not

received any response from patient first to any of these correspondences. So if you go to the next slide, again, Mr. Frederick went through this, so I'm not going to belabor the point, but I do want to emphasize that no changes are being proposed to the existing access or on-site circulation with with the larger shopping center. But I will note that there were some concerns that were raised, both with the community, and both PC and City Council work sessions about how specifically visitors would be coming eastbound, how they would reach the site. So to alleviate congestion at the Fairwoods Parkway intersection, as well as reduce the number of vehicles having to cross the patient first site, The applicant proposes to integrate new way finding signage.

Where you can see that on this graphic with the green star is where we would work with transportation staff to figure out the best way to integrate signage. This would inform drivers to turn at that first intersection across the larger shopping center. To then get the Taco Bell rather than passing it, going to the second intersection at Fairwoods Parkway. first to have to enter the site. So we hope that that will effectively lessen the number of cars that may conflict with pedestrians that may be going to the patient first site. So if we go to the next slide, I did want to take some time. Again, we just heard so many concerns about whether a new restaurant with a drive-through component could effectively integrate into a busy already busy shopping center.

And we do believe that it can. I've just provided a few data points about the proposed operation as mentioned we heard that the hours of operation may be too late we have changed that the drive-through will now close at 12 a.m. as opposed to 2 a.m. we have integrated that walk-up window that would be open only from 11 p.m. to 12 a.m. on a daily basis there is a small window during the dinner peak hours which for where the Taco Bell is 530 to 7 p.m. typically. That may overlap with the main dinner rush of the various sit-down restaurants. But unlike those establishment, Taco Bell is not historically a sit-down type restaurant and thereby not expected to greatly impact or aggravate that existing parking issue of the overall shopping center.

Rather, as we've mentioned before, the drive-through usage is approximately 80% to 85% of the customers that come to Taco Bell. Only 15 to 20% are actually coming in to dine. As a result, the majority of visitors are using the drive-thru. They are not parking. On average, a drive-thru visit, Taco Bell prides themselves on it being very quick, where they do have a measured goal of keeping it under three minutes. To break that down, the order time is approximately 49 seconds on average, when a customer places an order at the menu board to when they pass it. So that equates to about one vehicle every minute passing the menu board. So this quickness and speed at which people are receiving their food has two important implications.

One, patrons are just simply not in the drive through for very long. So they're moving through that very quickly. And we believe that this assists to alleviate concerns related to there not being any kind of bypass lane within the drive through. And then secondly, patrons are moving quickly in and out of the site and will not spend a significant amount of time attempting to circulate the shopping center or idling around in the drive aisles as many do when they're trying to locate a parking spot. That being said, Taco Bell has been thoughtful of the drive-through design at this location to ensure that its drive-through operations would have minimal impact to the pre-existing vehicular circulation conditions of the overall shopping center.

As noted, the stacking lane is only required to be 10, I believe, and in this stacking lane we can accommodate 13 vehicles. So based on market research, the applicant does believe there will be more than enough capacity to accommodate the forecasted numbers of cars queuing, even during the peak hours. And so what are the numbers to back this up? If we go to the next slide, the applicant's traffic engineer has conducted an analysis which shows that stacking at this location would not exceed an average of seven cars 95% of the time. And so just to kind of understand, I know at the work session there was confusion about stacking and queuing, and I think it was important to understand that queuing is the number of vehicles starting at the menu board and behind it,

whereas vehicle stacking is the total number of cars that are in the entire drive-through. So when we say seven vehicles 95% of the time, at peak times, that's a maximum of approximately seven vehicles, and at non-peak, that's three vehicles. So I kind of give you a graphic there. You can see the nine vehicles that are in the stacking, that would be the green dots plus the purple dots. The five vehicles that are in the queue, again, kind of a difference there, that's only the purple dots. And then the four stacking spaces that we believe would remain open during any given peak hour on site, those are the yellow dots. So in accordance, the applicant does anticipate that there will be no cars that would spill into the existing drive aisle,

or even larger than that, that would spill onto Fairfax Boulevard or even Fairwoods Parkway. Notwithstanding, in response to specific concerns that the team heard, One being from Councilmember Greenfield related to the drive through vehicles possibly impacting traffic circulation. I know we heard concerns about traffic flow and circulation. The applicant is adding an additional layer of management by agreeing to commit to a development condition that will effectively monitor and manage the drive through to ensure vehicles that are stacking will not obstruct will not obstruct the drive aisle or otherwise impede it so one way to do this and and the applicant is here they can talk more about that they will integrate a certain camera system

typically across most taco bells they operate systems that only have a 16 camera 16 cameras on with within the site in a limited number of locations they will integrate a 24 camera system And usually that's when there are significant safety concerns at a site. While there are no major safety concerns here, to increase its ability to monitor and manage that drive through and the surrounding area, the applicant is willing to install that 24 camera system. And this will allow them to monitor and capture every angle of the drive through in order to preempt and control any possible disruption in that drive through line. Furthermore, we're going to work with city staff. We're looking in the fire marshal to look at possibly integrating any appropriate signage.

You can see that with the red star there, that will further signal to drivers to keep that drive out clear. So if we jump to the next slide, another big concern as you all know is the parking. And I experienced that parking first hand when I visited the site for my birthday a few months back, especially during that dinner time hour. So again, it's important to remember at a baseline, this use only requires 11 parking spaces. We are providing 20, which is almost double what is required. And it is unlikely, I believe, that this site would stay vacant. So if not this use, what else? As previously discussed, what is approved there today is a 5100 retail or especially food establishment and that especially food establishment could be

another sit-down restaurant which is double the size of what this proposal would be so I emphasize that in any of those scenarios the parking demand for a comparable by right use or in other words would not require City Council approval could be much higher because if it was another sit-down restaurant they are definitely parking and so while the taco bell i admit will inevitably generate more traffic and utilize more parking spaces than its current empty condition it would have we argue a less parking impact than a buy right use or a retail or a sit-down restaurant so i've just provided a little some numbers here as you can see the parking time if someone were to come to the taco bell would

to 15 minutes, whereas if it's any type of retail or sit-down restaurant, you have people staying there for 30 minutes to two hours. And then in the next kind of chart that you can see there, our traffic engineer did do ransom quick numbers. As you can see from the chart, a Taco Bell restaurant will generate a much lower parking demand than any approved by right use, where that parking demand would be higher and in some instances double. And again, this is looking at that peak dinner time, which I know is the most concerning for the shopping center when parking is the most scarce. So if we go to the next slide, this is just a graphic depiction of what I just discussed. The Taco Bell is the orange.

Possible retailer sit-down restaurant is blue. and you can see towards the right during the high peak evening times the shopping set when the shopping center is the busiest the parking demand would be higher if this got developed with a retail or some sort of sit-down restaurant so I won't spend too much time on the next slide staff went through this this is just showing the other drive-throughs I know that was raised at the work session there are other drive-throughs that are open later and closer to residential is the only point that I'll make there if we go to the next slide again staff shared this this was just again there was issues about our concerns about noise so this just shows the closest residential and

actually if we stay on the topic of noise if we go to the next slide this again was something that we've heard from the community as well as from City Council about the proposed drive-through sound system so here just wanted to let you know that the noise there is a noise ordinance requirements that would be applicable the noise ordinance permits a max noise level of 60 DBA in a commercial district the applicant does install certain drive-through communication systems for its menu board and it is equipped with automatic volume control technology which is basically their sound dampening controls that adjust the outbound sound pressure level based on ambient ambient noise so in In this instance, they will install this AVC technology at this site.

As you can see, when you're only 16 feet away with this technology, the sound level is only at 36 dBA. So as you saw in the previous slide, at 450 feet, the closest residential, we believe that there will be nominal or very little impact, any type of noise impact from the menu board. So if we go to the next slide, these are just perspectives of the various facade. As mentioned, we did go to the BAR in August where we received a unanimous recommendation of approval for this proposal. And then finally, briefly, just to talk about the economic benefits of this proposal on the next slide. As mentioned, this property has been vacant since 2008. I think we can all agree tonight that no one wants to see it remain vacant.

We do believe that the redevelopment of this pad site will hopefully maximize the revenue generation that could be realized on this very small pad site that is separately owned from the larger shopping center currently the applicant is negotiating a 20-year lease with the property owner with four additional five-year lease options after the initial lease term is up so while the overall investment value that you can see on this slide of the project is roughly 2.5 million the real estate valuation for tax purposes of the property post development of the land by the market value of the Taco Bell 20 year lease and the credit rating of the Taco Bell operator, which will effectively place the highest possible valuation on the property.

So in other words, the valuation is calculated by taking the annual rent and multiplying it by the appropriate capitalization rate. In this instance, by applying this formula, the real estate valuation is anticipated to be approximately 2.3 million, which would result in an increase of 1 million from the current assessed value for property tax purposes. As to the meals tax contribution, this is estimated to be 80,000 per year to the city, which is approximately 1.6 million over the 20 year lease term. If the lessee does choose to pursue the lease options and those are exercised, that potentially could be up to 3.2 million. And lastly, from a broader perspective, as staff noted, the benefits that this Taco Bell would bring to the city far exceed annual tax revenues.

Specifically, it is expected that this Taco Bell would bring 30 full and part time jobs within the city. So as you can see, despite the small size of this site and proposal, the proposed development will actively activate an empty idle site and will generate increased economic activity and contribute positively to the city's continued fiscal growth as a community serving commercial use that is supported by its commercial corridor land use designation. The next slide just talks about, we've already discussed most of this, but this is the community outreach that we've done. We did meet with the Mosby Woods community the first time in person here at City Council Room and then also on 22nd, which was a Zoom meeting.

that those communications and the participation that we had for both. The individuals that actually came to the April meeting also came to the August Zoom meeting. And they did express their appreciation for the changes that we made and felt that we had addressed their concerns. Some of them even noted that they were previously skeptical of this proposal and now they felt much more comfortable with what we were proposing. So we generally felt that the community response was positive. So in the end, the applicant's proposal, we do believe presents an opportunity to redevelop and activate a very underutilized parcel with a vibrant, high quality community serving use. That will enhance and positively contribute to the commercial activities along the Fairfax Boulevard commercial corridor that is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan.

As such as you heard the BAR staff as well as the Planning Commission have all recommended approval of this application and I do request your favorable consideration of this matter thank you.

Catherine ReadAll righty then I will ask the clerk to call the speakers forward.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkI had one person sign up prior to the meeting. Thomas Mecca, if you can come forward.

Thomas Meccapublic commentThomas Mecca, if you can come forward. Good evening, everyone. My name is Thomas Mecca. I live at 10302 Cardinal Road in Mosby Woods. I'll speak tonight. I signed up for two things, but I'll speak. The issue is talk about tonight. Interesting presentation today that I just heard. I was wondering if the folks making this proposal visit the same site that I visit on various occasions. Whatever was mentioned today about alleviating traffic is not going to alleviate traffic. Parking is a mess in that shopping area. It's going to just make it worse. Traffic is going to be worse. No matter what signage you put up there, people are still going to make that illegal U-turn on Fairwood Parkway Boulevard.

They're still going to go into the parking lot any way they want. There's a lot of reserved spaces already for 10-minute parking because there's various restaurants like the Pizza Place, Subway, etc. that need customers who will come to pick up the food, and so they separated 10-minute parking area already. and so parking is going to be an issue no matter what you put up there to control the traffic it's a very limited space there's a lot of traffic on peak hours it's going to be a mess it's just going to interfere it's going to make everything worse originally i came to the council years ago opposing the development of that spot as a shopping center so here i am again arguing an addition which is Taco Bell again the city unfortunately lost a great

restaurant in Esposito for another not so good proposal and so the acceptance of a Taco Bell which is not the most nutritious of places to eat I don't think it's a great addition for the city but that's a that's a different different point the bottom line is that this space is just gonna make traffic worse into mostly woods on fairfax boulevard is is not going to help the already existing restaurants and other venues there it's just going to make it much worse alternative proposal if you go to the site on an evening where there's a lot of folks there they use this space as a parking area why because there's no parking and so you're going to add are you going to reserve bill and not for the other places it's not going to work they just said that their place is mostly

drive-through people don't come in to eat so why separate the parking spaces anyway the bottom line is it's just going to make everything worse it's not going to help you're going to get a lot of tax revenues that's great but it's going to make the whole situation of traffic and livelihood good and everything else much much worse my alternative is use the site as a parking area turn it into a parking space people are doing it already thank

Catherine Readyou very

Thomas Meccapublic commentmuch thank you very much thank you for your remarks

Melissa Shinaberryclerkis there anybody else in the room that would like to talk to this agenda item you may step forward

Catherine Readyeah I find you can

Kathryn Taylorapplicantyeah

Catherine Readlet me I will go ahead and close the public hearing since we don't have any more speakers so if you would like to respond then I'm going to open it up to the council for questions.

Kathryn TaylorapplicantAnd I can certainly appreciate this neighbor's concerns. These are a lot of the concerns that we did here, and the applicant is very mindful of the existing, as we've emphasized, that that is the existing condition at this site. We do believe, as mentioned, that they have done as much as they can to try to help alleviate that. and I can't emphasize enough again if not this use what else could go here unfortunately it is not going to stay a parking lot I don't think the current property owner wants to keep it as a parking lot so it is going to get developed eventually there is a shared parking agreement that's in place with parcel a which is the the larger shopping center so they're both both

Both sites do have an agreement to allow for patrons from one site to park on either and vice versa. So I do think that the applicant has done as much as they can to address these various concerns. As we mentioned, majority of the business would be drive-through, so you don't have a lot of people parking. From what it sounds like, that is kind of the biggest concern here is that parking demand. but again happy to answer any additional questions maybe that were raised by by that comment or others by City Council thank

Catherine Readyou are there any count the questions from the dais does anyone have questions for the applicant from the dais anyone clarifying questions about this project

Thomas Rossyes Councilmember Ross yes thank you for your work on this and your presentation this evening. And I originally had a number of questions and concerns that we went over in the work session, and I'm generally satisfied I think you've addressed most of those. I guess my one question is, you talked about, in terms of the management plan for this facility, the importance of having someone on staff who will make sure that the flow continues, Again, this is predominantly a drive-through facility. I guess my question is, how can we sort of ensure that that will continue and that there will be periodically some review to make sure that steps are being taken to continue to facilitate traffic? Because I can see and I worry that this could open up.

there's active management of that at the beginning and then all of a sudden bingo they say well we don't need to do this anymore and we end up potentially with some issues so I think it's really incumbent upon the management team if this passes that they recognize this is an ongoing issue for the city and that it's not just a one time kind of thing that happens and disappears if there's no issues other places in the city, in particular one of the areas that has caused a lot of concern is Chick-fil-A, and they have, I believe, addressed and really worked hard to move people through that site. And I recognize this site does get a lot of activity. I go down there, I'm fairly close to it, and I've been down on numerous occasions.

and and i do think this is a little different from the remainder of the site because you are primarily a drive-through facility so i guess i'm trying to get a better sense of what kind of real commitment is there to continue to make sure that we don't have the kind of issues that sure could develop

Kathryn Taylorapplicantand we do have our applicant operator here i think that they can speak one from their experience at other taco bells and i won't i'll let him kind of go into the details of that but i also know that taco bell as a friend because this would be a franchise as a franchisee they have certain metrics that they need to meet that directly play into that drive-through operation and making sure it stays at a certain level and so even after year one two three those metrics for that um for that facility is not going to change and so the i do believe it would be ongoing and it's running fine we're going to stop monitoring it so um if you would like to come up

Speaker 15good evening so as part of our taco bell franchise agreement that we have with yum brands taco bell we have to be able to maintain certain standards and those standards are the 330 drive-through that she brought up earlier as we try to push as many cars through the drive-through that throughput is how we're going to be able to capture revenue be able to take care So that's one of our primary goals is as fast as we can move customers through the better. The concern of a backup. Historically speaking, when you look at we operate 133 locations across six states. So we don't want to have any backups at any given time. Not only does it cause a bottleneck for our customers, our neighbors, et cetera, but it

also then impedes our business and doesn't allow us to be able to grow. so at our different locations where we do have potential traffic issues those are locations where we may staff a little bit differently to have additional folks so that that way we can stay on top of it one of the concerns that you brought up that we have spoken about is that all of our stores are staffed with seven managers excuse me not seven managers at a time but seven managers assigned to that store so one of the things that we would specifically work location is that those managers would be tasked that if we did have any kind of backup beyond the keeling area that those managers would need to go outside go to the end of the drive-through lane

and ask customers to progress through the thoroughfare there so that that way we could push folks through so that we aren't backing up over into the health center

Thomas Rossokay thank you thank you mayor

Catherine Readany other comments or questions council member greenfield anything to add

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank you, Mayor. I appreciate your answer. I think we're going to get at this two ways. One, Taco Bell accountability, but two, if the maker of the motion tonight is amenable to an additional condition that I will add, we will have a condition as part of the special use permit that will require them to monitor this on an annual basis to ensure, on a daily basis. but it is a condition of approval. If they get to a point that they are out of compliance, technically their special use permit could be revoked to operate because they aren't adhering to that condition. So I think you've got two different sides to try to work this issue of stacking.

Catherine ReadOkay, Council Member Ross. Yes,

Thomas Rosslet me ask the applicant if that kind of additional requirement would be acceptable, that there would be an annual requirement, I believe.

Jeffrey GreenfieldA daily requirement.

Thomas RossRight. As a part of the special use permit. In other words, you would be beholden to the special use permit that this would be taking place every day.

Speaker 15yeah certainly we're going to take steps to make sure that we can push the cars through as quickly as we can whatever would be in the special use permit that is something that i would want to review and make sure that it's something that we could comply with i wouldn't want to tell you something and then review the special use permit or review whatever restrictions are in there and then us not be able to respond to that appropriately i'm confident that we are going to be able to achieve what the council wants and what the city and our customers want however I want to double check the language in the agreement prior to being able to say this is something that we 100% can comply with.

Catherine ReadCouncilmember Lim and then Councilmember Greenfield did you want to speak to this Councilmember Lim? Yeah go ahead and speak to that we'll circle back around Councilmember Greenfield.

So LimThank you Mayor. So what you're saying is basically one of your manager will be monitoring the video

Speaker 15yes

So Limand if it's cues more than allowed a loud number of cars he'll go outside and make sure that the cars will be located somewhere else so you know during peak hours there are obviously a lot of other things that they need to be doing while they're managing the restaurant how will they be monitoring the videos can you just explain that to me

Speaker 15so in the drive-through area where the registers are and where we pass the orders out the window we actually have a monitor there currently at many of our stores one of the cameras is where the actual order is taken so that that way we can visualize the person that is taking the order we would do a split screen on that particular monitor so that then the other camera that would be at the end of the queuing lane we would be able cars are backing up beyond that point so while the folks are taking the order and making all the processes and they look up to see who is at the speaker they would also be able to look up and see oh well we have cars that are now backing up beyond did that right turn in or I guess you

could also make a left turn in there as well but at the end of the queue line should that happen that's when we would ask the manager to go out and make the communication with the guests to go ahead and proceed through the shopping center so that they aren't backing up into the drive lane

So LimOkay, thank you. And I guess my other concern is when we talked about the peak hours and you guys are trying to push the cars out, so there's a car that's coming out every minute. So I guess my concern is, yeah, there's a queuing, there could be some control, but what about the cars that are coming out after getting their food? You know, every minute there will be a car coming out. So that's another concern, but that's not something, you know, you guys can do.

Speaker 23you

Catherine Readmayor

Catherine Readto councilmember Greenfield

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank You mayor um mr. Taylor help me understand this so you reached out to me and asked if I would be willing to have a conversation

Speaker 17I

Jeffrey Greenfieldexpressed a number of concerns that I have about this project you asked for a meeting I indicated I was away and the earliest we were able to meet was Friday afternoon at which time we talked about the condition that you've offered it so am I but I'm surprised to hear now the operator is saying that they don't know anything about this yeah

Kathryn Taylorapplicantno if actually if you want to go keep going in the slide I think I think miscommunication I think Deke thought that you were offering or you were suggesting a different condition they are agreeable to to this condition that we have provided to you correct

Jeffrey Greenfieldwhich which is okay I'm not asking for

Speaker 15yeah no

Jeffrey Greenfieldno you were on the call right I think you weren't on the team's part you were yeah so or Monday whatever day was I can't remember so so it

Kathryn Taylorapplicantwas just a miss I think he just thought it was a different but we are this is the condition that we shared with you and we are a hundred percent on board with this condition

Jeffrey Greenfieldthis is the condition that speaks to addressing the the problem of having cars back out out of the the aisle into the rest of the shopping center correct and and so this is something that's going to be dealt with on a daily basis and will become condition number two if the council agrees to to add that to your overall special use permit approval process yes

Kathryn Taylorapplicantso the monitoring and managing although not written here would be on a daily it's a continual while the restaurants open they are as as Deke mentioned they are trained to watch these cameras and I think and Deke can correct me if I'm wrong to to Councilmember Lim's question I think during peak hours they would likely have more employees working as opposed to non-beak when it's it's less busy and so I think that also assists to answer your question they have more there the managers freed up to be able to address this monitoring issue because they have more employees that are working and I think you know it is helpful to have to have these types of meetings and hearings because we know the issues were coming into and I will just emphasize that as well the applicant

is very aware of what they are stepping into many people have said I hope you guys understand what's gonna happen when you start operating and there they have thought about this they have designed the site accordingly and we do believe will work at this site so we appreciate the consideration thank

Jeffrey Greenfieldyou thank you mayor

Catherine Readokay any other further questions okay seeing none I'm going to ask there are Siri I'm going to close the public hearing that we did that council we answered all the questions there are a series of motions for this item is there a motion for the general development plan amendment councilmember Ross thank

Thomas RossBased on the public conveyance, welfare, and good zoning practice, I move City Council adopt the attached ordinance to approve the application of the ABTB Mid-Atlantic LLC applicant for consideration of a general development plan amendment subject to the general development plan dated October 1, 2024 on the premises known as 10120 Fairfax Boulevard and 10140-170. 10160 Fairfax Boulevard and more particularly described as tax map parcels 47-4-23-000-A and 47-4-23-00-D.

Catherine ReadIs there a second? Second. A motion has been made by Council Member Ross and seconded by Council Member is there any discussion on the motion councilmember Staley

Jon Stehle Jrthank you mayor Reed I appreciate the applicants efforts in here I thank my colleagues for listening to concerns and providing alternatives from my perspective this is not a positive addition to this particular site I think there are far better opportunities out there to consider and building a drive-through there will leave a drive through there for the next several decades and from my perspective that shopping center cannot handle it so I'll be voting against these motions but I do appreciate the engagement I thank my colleagues for alternatives thank you other

Catherine Readcomments or discussion on the motion councilmember bates thank

Billy Batesyou i um i think it's important to note that we do have a development that has been previously approved for this site and as the applicant noted it is projected to lead to an even greater demand on parking than the current development proposal and additionally the applicant has gone far above and beyond, over twice the tree canopy requirement, and, you know, that is certainly, I think, a great benefit for the city as well. And not to mention that a Taco Bell does still provide something of a destination for pedestrians and bicyclists, whereas something else like a, you know an auto service oriented use wouldn't necessarily and so for those reasons you know all this use certainly is not my dream scenario for this site I'm happy to support the proposal

that's before us with Councilmember Greenfield's proposed condition thank you

Thomas Rossthank you

Catherine Readany other discussion councilmember Ross

Thomas Rossagain for your work on this and for bringing it forward I started out as a very skeptical person on this because of my use of that shopping center and I think there were inadequate planning at the beginning for this in terms of parking not this particular site your particular project but the shopping center in general I've driven through there many and experienced frustration, almost gridlock, difficulty in finding parking. I think there have been some steps made to improve it. I think it still could take some additional steps. But in looking at this further and the work you've done and the applicant has done, I think it deserves its support. And I'm going to support it. I think it will bring an addition to the city.

I think it's an appropriate use. I think there have been steps made to mitigate And with the additional steps, especially regarding the active management of the traffic flow coming in and out, I think it will be in a nice addition to the city. So I'm going to support it. Thank you, Mayor.

So LimThank you.

Catherine ReadCouncil Member Lim.

So LimThank you, Mayor. As my colleagues mentioned, I really do appreciate all the fixings you did to the original application, but I still cannot support the application. such a hectic shopping center I just don't think it can accommodate the number of cars going in and out so I would not be supporting it thank you any other comments

Catherine Readcouncilmember Greenfield

Jeffrey GreenfieldI'll wait until I get the motion on the amended motion on the floor for the SUP

Catherine Readokay so no more discussion on this amendment a roll call vote

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncilmember Greenfield

Salissa Lambert Woodardapplicantall right

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Ross aye councilmember Lim no councilmember Staley

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Doyle Feingold councilmember Bates

Melissa Shinaberryclerkmotion passed 4 to 2

Catherine Readokay is there a motion for the special use permit councilmember Ross

Thomas Rossyes thank you mayor I move that the city council approve the request of a b tv mid-atlantic llc for a special use permit promote pursuant to city code section 3.55 dot c parentheses accessory use table for drive-through windows facilities in cr commercial retail district while maintaining the architectural control overlay district in the premises known as Parcel D of the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center and more particularly described as 10120 Fairfax Boulevard and more particularly described as Tax Map 47-4-23-00D with the following conditions. One, development shall be in conformance with the general development plan.

Jeffrey GreenfieldSecond. We need a motion.

Catherine ReadRight, right. So I just didn't know if he was finished. Okay, do we have a second? Okay, so we have a motion was made by Council Member Ross and seconded by Council Member Greenfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Greenfield.

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank you, Mayor. I'd like to add an additional condition, so it would be condition number two to the special use permit approval. The applicant will monitor the length of the drive-through vehicle stacking by installing a dedicated camera system and will manage the vehicle stacking within the drive-through lane to ensure the vehicles waiting in the queue will not obstruct the drive aisle or otherwise impede the internal traffic circulation of the shopping center. In addition, notwithstanding what is shown on the approved general development plan and special use permit plat, signage or provide pavement markings south of the drive-through entrance that warns motors do not block the shared drive aisle. Such signage will be subject

to review and approval by the City Transportation Department and the City Fire Marshal and installed prior to the issuance of the occupancy permit.

Catherine ReadOkay, so we have an amended motion. Mr. Lubkerman.

Mr. LubkermanstaffOh, I was just going to say, as long as Mr. Ross agrees, it's a friendly amendment. Don't need to vote on it separately

Catherine Readokay you agree councilmember Ross to

Thomas Rossthe friendly amendment

Catherine Readokay any other discussion on this motion councilmember Greenfield

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank You mayor I appreciate the comments of my colleagues both mr. Staley and in Muslim I started quite frankly where they were an absolute hard no. I drove by this every day, saw cars parked everywhere, recognized that we had certainly a site that we were receiving no more than real estate taxes on. But you've been willing to listen and I have to ask myself, am I willing to, when this was approved back in the day, it was approved for the notion of a bank with a drive-thru. It wasn't, and I had lost track of it, I wasn't aware or had forgotten of the subdivision that separated this parcel from the rest of the shopping center. But you can't get to this parcel without being in the shopping center.

And so do we want to say we aren't going to allow anything here because of the sins of the success of the rest of the shopping center? you when we when we approved the the original multi-tenant shopping center it wasn't envisioned with restaurants that would be as many sit downs as there are there today and that's the challenge that we have with a shopping center so it's certainly something for for the next council and staff to think about as there are other multi-tenant shopping centers what happens if someone goes in they still have to meet parking requirements but this entire center to include in front of Taco Bell are all shared spaces. So there is no dedicated parking for Taco Bell. There is no dedicated parking for the Crab House, you know,

any of the sushi restaurant that's brand new, the Korean barbecue on the other end. And the list goes on and on and on, right? And so it becomes a struggle. But, again, do we want to have this site sit empty or do we want to recognize that whatever was going to go in there the ability to have a drive-through. That was done with a bank. But we have some say here in what we can put in, and hence the development condition that was added for this, hence the reduced hours of the drive-through, hence the reduced footprint of Taco Bell, this site, compared to what they do as a standard. That's what happens when we go this route versus what you get by right. And so I, for those reasons, it's something we're going to have to continue as a partnership between the shopping center and the city to continue to monitor.

But I'm confident that you all have worked and you've listened and you'll continue to listen. And so for that reason, I will continue to support this special use permit. Thank you, Mayor.

Catherine ReadAny other discussion? Council Member Doyle Feigl.

Kate Doyle FeingoldThank you, Mayor. You know, I had similar concerns about traffic. I go there for the restaurants. I think an important point is what could be there by right, and I think that another sit-down restaurant will bring more traffic problems there. I also have to echo what Council Member Greenfield said. I think you've done a lot more than what a lot of developers do in terms of making changes. I think that the walk-up, bike-up window will be huge. The fact that the inside is a lot smaller, which allows for more space for the drive-through, the 20%-plus tree canopy is a big deal. And so I think in looking at what could happen there by right versus what you've been willing to do and the changes that have been made, I think that they're positive.

I think also just looking at our city and the commercial tax revenue that we have versus residential, we really have to keep an eye on that. And I think it's important when we have opportunities to work with developers that are willing to make these important changes and make something that works, then I think it's important to move forward on them. So thank you.

Catherine ReadThank

Billy Batesyou.

Catherine ReadAny other comments before we take a vote? Seeing none, a roll call vote. Council Member Bates? Aye. Council Member

Melissa ShinaberryclerkDoyle Feingold? Aye. Council Member Staley? No. Council Member Lim? No. Council Member Ross? Council Member Greenfield? Aye. Motion passed 4-2.

Catherine ReadIs there a motion for the special exception, Council Member Ross?

Thomas RossYes, thank you, Mayor. I move that the City Council adopt the attached resolution to approve the request of ABETB Mid-Atlantic LLC for a special exception to provide an interior landscape island for every 10 parking spaces on the premises known as Parcel D of the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center and more particularly described as 10120 Fairfax Boulevard in parcel 47-4-23-00D with the following conditions. Development shall be in accordance with the general development plan.

Catherine ReadDo I have a second? A motion has been made by Council Member Ross and seconded by Council Member Greenfield. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, a roll call vote. aye

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember ross aye councilmember limb no councilmember staley no councilmember dole feingold aye councilmember bates aye motion passed four to two

Catherine Readis there a motion is is there a motion for the certificate of appropriateness councilmember ross yes

Thomas Rossthank you mayor um i move that city council approve the request of abtb mid-atlantic llc for a certificate of appropriateness in accordance with 110-6.5-0.6.B of the city code. The premises known as Parcel D of the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center were particularly described as 10120 Fairfax Boulevard and Parcel 47-4-23-00D with the following reasons. One, the proposed modification shall be in general accordance the plans and renderings received by staff in august 2024 and recommendations for approval by the board of architectural review as of august 28 2024. two the applicant shall secure all required zoning approvals and permits prior to construction three landscaping is subject to change per urban

forest or comments at site plan approval stage

Catherine Readis there a second

Jeffrey Greenfieldsecond a

Catherine Readmotion has been made by councilmember Ross and seconded by councilmember Greenfield is there any discussion on this motion seeing none a roll call vote

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Bates aye councilmember Doyle Feingold aye councilmember Staley

Catherine Readno

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Lim no councilmember Ross aye councilmember Greenfield motion passed 4 to 2 thank

Catherine Readyou

Melissa Shinaberryclerkgo on to our second public hearing thank you so much next public hearing is a public hearing and council action on a request pines llc applicant by robert d brandt attorney slash agent to redevelop 9917 fairfax boulevard with a car wash facility anna colebrenner city planner will provide the staff presentation

7b

Consideration of appointments to boards and commissions

1:45:49

Anna Colebrennerstaffgood evening mayor and council this is a public hearing for tommy's car wash the site is located at 9917 Fairfax Boulevard. The applicant submitted a formal application in August 2023. There was a work session with the city council in January 2024. The Board of Architectural Review recommended approval on April 17, 2024. The plans submitted for tonight's consideration were submitted November 2024. We are currently in the public hearing phase of the application. the applicant is requesting a special use permit to allow vehicle service three special exceptions to allow exterior vacuums modification to the street tree requirement modifications to the ty3 transitional yard and a major certificate of appropriateness

for architecture and landscaping this site is approximately 1.15 acres and currently has two vacant existing structures. This site is zoned CR commercial retail in the architectural control overlay district and is designated as commercial corridor place type on the comprehensive plan future land use map. This site is south of Fairfax Boulevard and north of Line Run. This slide shows existing site photos of the now closed Esposito's building in the vacant retail building. as discussed in the previous work session at the beginning of the year with the city council the applicant is proposing a 4553 square foot car wash facility with 14 self-serve vacuum spaces with three stacking lanes allowing room for 30 stacking spaces the proposed car wash would

operate between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. with a maximum of four to five employees the applicant is surpassing the tree canopy requirements I'm slight at it they actually are providing 60% tree canopy and then 10% is required they are per serving the existing tree line in the rear of the site and providing a fence and landscape screaming along the proposed vacuum stations. There would be a one-way in and one-way out exit onto Fairfax Boulevard. The vacuum stations are optional after the customer goes through the car wash and are self-serve. The applicant provides an area designated for future inter-parcel connection. the applicant proposes three special exceptions the first would be to allow a modification to

section 3.5.3 k of the zoning ordinance to allow in the installation and use of exterior vacuums the applicant is proposing 14 vacuums while providing a fence and landscape screening The vacuums would have sound mufflers to further mitigate sound as the applicant has worked with the zoning administrator on meeting the noise ordinance requirements. Each vacuum space meets dimensional parking space requirements. requirements. The second special exception request would be to allow a modification to section 4.5.6 of the zoning ordinance to allow street trees more than 15 feet from the back of the curb along Fairfax Boulevard. The applicant is proposing to install a five-foot landscape strip and a 10-foot

sidewalk along Fairfax Boulevard the street trees are proposed to be 19 feet from the curb due to the existing utility easement that runs across the frontage the applicant is still meeting the required landscape quantities the third special exception would be to allow a modification to section 4.5 point 7 C of the zoning ordinance to install a fence within the required ty3 transitional yard along the southern and western property lines the site is occupied by existing vegetation and installing a wall or fence along the line would require the removal of the vegetation and not provide effective screening at the BAR public hearing the board thought the project was well designed and was handled articulately the BAR recommended approval to the City Council

staff recommends that the City Council approve the request for a major certificate of appropriateness special use permit and special exceptions and that concludes my presentation thank you

Susan Hartley-Kylerpublic commentI

Catherine Readwill open the public hearing miss Shinneberry has this public hearing been properly advertised yes it has does the applicant have a presentation they would like to share

Robert Brantapplicantgood evening madam mayor members of City Council Bob Rant for the law firm of Walsh Colucci Lublin Walsh on behalf of the applicant this evening it's a pleasure to be back in front of council this evening with this application we last were in front of you I think just just under a year ago was January of this year January of 2024 when we returned for a mid application work session on this but discussions with the City Council discussions with city staff began much earlier before that even my client Trevor Sperry with Olympus Pines who's with me this evening and his team first approached the city in 2021 with this with this idea and we've been working very hard since that time working very closely with city staff working working based upon the feedback

and the proceeding council and I'm very very happy to be before you this evening with a project that has recommendations of approval from staff as well as a unanimous recommendation of approval from the Board of Architectural Review as Ms. Colbriner mentioned and so there's been a lot of work that's gone into this we're very appreciative of all the work that staff has put in I think Ms. Colbriner did an outstanding job kind of summarizing the overall application so I'll try to be brief but the property itself is located here on Fairfax right at the intersection of Fairfax Boulevard and Lion Run. As you're all aware, Fairfax Boulevard is the city's commercial corridor, and as such, the comprehensive plan recommends a variety of commercial uses.

If you look around the site today, what you see there is PJ Skidoo's, a restaurant right across the street, some medical office buildings immediately east of the site, some existing older hotel uses to the right, but it's commercial. And so the comprehensive plan supports commercial uses, including but not limited to car washes. The site itself, 1.15 acres, it's developed with a former restaurant, the former Esposito's restaurant, which is now vacant. It's served by a wraparound surface parking area and two curb cuts on Fairfax Boulevard. Esposito's has since left the building. My client actually acquired the property within the last year and is very much looking forward to redeveloping it with a new Tommy's Express car wash.

Existing conditions, I'll skip over this slide. I'm sure everybody has driven by, walked by the site, is familiar with what's out there today. I think one of the significant features that I want to point out, and this is something that received a lot of attention during our application process, is the existing tree canopy on site. We worked very, very closely with staff, with our landscape architect on our team to preserve and maximize the amount of tree preservation and tree plantings on site. You'll hear a little bit from that, a little bit more on that point from me a little bit later, but that was a focal point of our application, and I'm very pleased with where we ended up on that. A little bit about Tommy's Express, and you all heard about this in the work session earlier this year, so I won't spend a ton of time, but Tommy's Express is the country's largest car wash franchise.

One of the reasons they got to be as big as they are is the emphasis that they place on quality and convenience. Efficiency is the name of the game. These are modern car washes. They focus on the customer experience, ensuring that their customers are entering and exiting the site, going through their car wash and having the best experience they possibly can in the shortest amount of time. On average, their customers spend less than five minutes on site. The technology that Tommies uses is such that it takes just over two minutes to get through the car wash tunnel itself. So that, combined with the three service lanes, the three queuing lanes that provide stacking for up to 30 vehicles on site without reaching Fairfax Boulevard,

really enables them to process cars as efficiently and quickly as possible. It has the three drive-through lanes, the two outer lanes on the site, kind of the outboard lanes, those are reserved for Tommy's Club members. So like other car washes, you're able to purchase a monthly membership for a fee. And so those outer lanes are used by those members who drive up, a camera scans their license plate, the lift gate goes up, and they're on their way into the tunnel. And so over all their locations, over all of the experience that Tommies has, they really refined and perfected this process to make sure that their customers are processing through the site as efficiently as possible. In addition to the car wash itself, as Ms. Colbraner explained, we're proposing 14 self-service vacuum stations on the east side of the building.

Again, unlike some older car washes in the area, there's no employee hand-drying, hand-finishing of vehicles. those vacuum stations and about 25% of Tommy's customers do drive their cars themselves to their self-serve vacuum stations empty out their the garbage in their car vacuum their car and they're on their way and so the whole process is really designed again with efficiency in mind in addition to being really experts in the efficiency field Tommy's isn't the leader in terms of an environmentally friendly car wash practices like all of its locations this car wash on Fairfax will utilize a fairly sophisticated water reclamation system that will treat and reuse water for future washes on site.

The amount of water that a Tommy's Express car watch uses to wash a car is less than the amount of water that you or I use in our driveways or out front of our homes. And so through the use of this sophisticated technology, they're able to really, again, maximize the efficiency of the water that they use. these locations are also energy efficient all of their Tommy's car washes including this one would be lead certifiable they utilize a clear acrylic roof system that allows for natural daylight to penetrate in reducing or eliminating the need for interior lighting during daylight hours and again emphasizing sustainable building design so again Tommy's is a leader in terms of environmentally friendly car washes in addition to that they're a community partner we spent a little time talking

this during the work session but Tommy's is very much going to be a member of the Fairfax community each of its locations supports local organizations through fundraisers community events partnerships with local schools high schools sports teams during this process we've met with the school board which obviously has a has an interest in this application in this project given its proximity to Fairfax High School we had a very positive discussion with the school board earlier this year and I think they were very much appreciative opportunity to have a partner, a community partner like Tommy's right next door to them. And so there will be multiple opportunities for collaboration with the school system,

other organizations here in Fairfax, and my client in Tommy's is very much looking forward to doing that. In addition to that, Tommy's gives back. They have a longstanding partnership with Water Mission, which is a nonprofit that's committed to advancing sustainable water solutions in developing countries. They provide educational assistance to their employees through the Tommy's Express with college and higher education scholarship Teaches which provides team members with money towards higher education expenses And so unlike other businesses unlike other car washes that I'm aware of They really try to give back to their community in a very positive way So moving on to the site plan and miss Cole Brenner shared this already, but just to touch on some of the highlights here

Again, it's a 4,500 square foot car wash located on the interior of the site. Those two existing curb cuts on Fairfax Boulevard will be maintained. The one closest to the line run intersection will be right in only. The one on the right side of the site will be right out only. And so we've really focused, as we've gone through this process, on maximizing the efficiency of on-site circulation. Those three stacking lanes that I described are on the left side of the screen, so the west side of the building, which will eventually consolidate into a single lane going into the car wash tunnel. After leaving the tunnel, customers will have the option of either leaving right away, turning right out onto Fairfax Boulevard, or turning into the nested parking area of the self-service

vacuum stations on the east side of the building, the right side of the site. As we went through this process, we were very careful to make sure that those vacuum stations buffered and appropriately mitigated so we've provided a six-foot fence plantings along the eastern property line which you can see on this screen and added the the noise mitigation muffler systems to the car wash vacuums to make sure that there's no adverse impact on on the surrounding properties in addition to the improvements on site we're making some pretty significant pedestrian improvements that existing car excuse me the existing sidewalk rather along Fairfax Boulevard will be removed and replaced with a 10-foot wide sidewalk

which is consistent with the recommendations of the comprehensive plan and the zoning ordinance there will be a five-foot landscaped buffer between the sidewalk and that curb providing a buffer between pedestrians cyclists and Fairfax Boulevard and then street trees along along the frontage I want to talk a little bit about the detail about the the tree canopy coverage because again as I mentioned earlier this really was a focal point of this application based on the feedback that we heard from staff and from council as miss Cole Brenner mentioned we really gone above and beyond the applicants gone above and beyond in this case providing 31,000 nearly 32,000 square feet of tree canopy on site that's through an extremely robust tree preservation

program as well as a significant amount of new plantings on the site and so at preservation and the new plantings which you can see here very clearly on the screen we're preserving over 60% of the site as tree canopy that's six times what the zoning ordinance requires and so that's something that we heard loud and clear from this council loud and clear from our staff was a priority and it's something that I think the applicant certainly took to heart and responded to as we went through this process a little bit about the architecture before I close as you heard already the the Board of Architectural Review unanimously recommended approval of this one of the reasons they did that I think is that the applicant was very intentional about

choosing an architect working with an architect that has experience here in the city of Fairfax this architect has designed the Fairfax Boulevard Marketplace shopping center which you heard a little bit earlier this evening they designed other retail establishments and other shopping centers And so while the architecture you see does not copy or mimic those styles, it borrows from them. The stone veneer that you see on the front of the building, the tower feature on the car wash tunnel exit there, is the same stone veneer that you see in Boulevard Marketplace and those other establishments. And so in doing that and working with this architect, which has the experience along Fairfax Boulevard,

what I think the city will get out of this from an architectural standpoint is a treatment that's consistent with and cohesive with other developments along the corridor. Just a closer look at that tower feature with the stone. You can see the vacuum stations on the left side of the site as well. Finally, one further look of the architecture of the building. This one I think we included to show the emphasis that's been placed on the landscaping along the frontage. You can see here through a combination of not only trees but shrubs and lower level plantings. We're really improving the streetscape and the pedestrian experience along Fairfax Boulevard. So in closing, I'd like to thank council for all the attention that you've given us thus far throughout this process.

Thank staff for all of their input. I really think that this application at the end of the day is in a much better position due to the feedback that we heard from you all at the work session this year staff throughout the process with that we're happy to answer any questions and I'd ask for your favorable consideration this evening thank you

Catherine Readthank you for the presentation do we have any speakers signed up to speak

Melissa ShinaberryclerkI had one speaker sign up prior to the meeting Thomas Mesa he's

Catherine Readno longer here left oh right so is

Melissa Shinaberryclerkthere anybody else I would like to speak to this item

Catherine Readokay I I will close the public hearing. Does the council have any questions of staff or the applicant?

Jon Stehle JrCouncilmember Staley. Thank you, Mary. Just a quick question. And, Mr. Brandt, it's to you, and it's an intentional sort of softball. I noticed the Planning Commission didn't have a way in that. Can you talk about that sort of approach in the City of Fairfax versus other jurisdictions that you may be presenting?

Robert BrantapplicantSure. Sure, so the City of Fairfax's zoning ordinance does not require planning commission input for special use permit applications, which this is. I work in a handful of other jurisdictions throughout Northern Virginia. In some cases, those jurisdictions do require planning commission review in addition to, for example, Board of Supervisors' review for certain uses. And so it really depends. The city is just, by virtue of its zoning ordinance, does not have that requirement. So we did not proceed to the Planning Commission. That's not to say that we wouldn't if the requirement were there, but this application itself, because of the nature of it, did not require Planning Commission review.

Jon Stehle JrI appreciate that, Candor. It is something I think a future counselor should take a serious look into. I think in particular when we're talking about changing the nature right next to our high school, having the Planning Commission weigh in on here I think would have been very helpful. And so I put that out there as an example. This is my last time on the dais, So I appreciate you allowing me to use you as an example of something that we may want to consider in the future, something I will not be voting on, but I wanted to put that for the record. So I appreciate it, Mr. Brant. Thank you, Council Member.

Catherine ReadAny other questions or comments? Well, Council Member Greenfield, then Council Member Ross.

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank you, Mayor. If you said this at the very beginning of your remarks, I apologize. I was in search of some additional food. So could you – this would be the second car wash that would be in the City of Fairfax. the difference between this operating model versus for example what most of us have known as long as we've lived here embassy auto wash and and now um um yeah flagship flagship car wash further up next to anitas

Robert Brantapplicantcertainly councilmember greenfield and i touched on it but i didn't name names and so what i what i did mention is that unlike that establishment um tommy's express is a driven experience right the car watch that you're referencing i believe until at least recently i haven't been through it in a while had employees hand finishing hand detailing hand drying cars as they exited the tunnel it results in sometimes some congestion i know there was actually an unfortunate incident there earlier this year but tommy's express on the other hand does does not have that employees are actually not allowed to touch or drive or or or handle customer vehicles And so for that reason, that leads not only to probably a safer experience for

those employees of those different types of establishment, but a more efficient operation. And so customers, and this is, I think I did describe this as you were out of the room, council member. But customers drive their cars through the car wash themselves, they get on the conveyor belt. If they want to use the vacuum stations and hand dry, hand finish their cars, they're able to do it. But it does not require an employee. are not allowed to participate in that. Another thing that sets this establishment apart from that other one is frankly the amount of stacking that's going to be provided on site here at Tommy's. The three queuing lane system just inherently leads to more stacking space on site and so I'm not exactly sure

how many cars can stack in the single lane at that other establishment but by having three parallel side-by-side lanes on site we're able to stack 30 vehicles on site without any one of those cars ever touching Fairfax Boulevard and so I know that anecdotally I've heard concerns from this council and from others that we've worked with in this process that other car washes have backup concerns stacking concerns we do not believe that that will be the case here and so I think those are two of the reasons that two of the two of the characteristics that set this car wash apart

Jeffrey GreenfieldI feel like I read it, but I can't put my finger on it right now, that if the stacking gets out to the entrance, you will shut that entrance down so that you don't have people waiting out on Fairfax Boulevard.

Robert BrantapplicantIs that correct? Absolutely right. There will always be an employee presence on site, and so in the unlikely event that that were to occur, there will absolutely be an employee that's able to go out there, direct traffic to keep going, and come back later if they have to. I was speaking with my client just yesterday about this. At those peak times, if they need to speed things up, employees on site also have the ability to turn up the speed of the conveyor system inside the car wash to move things through even quicker than they do on a regular basis. And so there will absolutely be an on-site employee presence to make sure that things like that do not occur. Okay,

Jeffrey Greenfieldso I think it's fair to say that your location is not quite the full service that exists at the other location further west on Parfax Boulevard, where you pull in, you get out of your car, they vacuum it, it runs through, you come out the other end, they wipe the vehicle down, do the interior or whatever. That doesn't happen here. You can still vacuum your car, but you do it. You pull into a space. You vacuum the car. and then you continue on. All of that is correct. Okay. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you.

Catherine ReadCouncil Member Ross.

Thomas RossYes. Thank you for your presentation and for the work that's gone into this. I think it's a credit to the applicant and to your work that you've really worked very hard to address the concerns that have come up in other planning or work sessions and through other procedures. One area that I didn't hear you talk about and still is a bit of a concern for me is not so much the stacking, because I think you've taken adequate steps to address that, but the impact on Route 50. and maybe this is not a question for you but maybe for the city staff, have we done any analysis because obviously in order for me traveling westbound to enter Tommy's, I'm going to have to come in and make a U-turn or a turn somewhere up

and come back and enter into the because there's only that one side that you can enter into. Has there been any analysis of that concern on the impact on Route 50, which is a very, as you know, a very heavily traveled boulevard almost all day long?

Robert BrantapplicantSure.

Thomas RossAnd I'm a little concerned about traffic deciding that they'll come down going westbound and want to come back and turn around, and if that could have an impact on further intersections up or down Route 50.

Robert Brantapplicantas we were going through the process and I don't want to speak for staff but I'm sure they considered it as well you know fortunately Councilmember Ross this intersection is a signalized intersection and it's a three-lane section on either side of Fairfax Boulevard and so making that U-turn and I actually anecdotally went out there and tried it myself because I knew this question was coming I went out there and and made a couple turns and a couple passes that myself with my pickup truck And fortunately, due to the width of the lane there, there is ample room to make that U-turn at the light at Lion Run and then turn right into the site. And it's frankly a similar condition at various different intersections up and down Fairfax Boulevard, which as we all know is a divided median road.

And so, you know, if you were going to if you were driving eastbound and you wanted to go to PJ Skadoos across the street, you would need to drive a little bit further down in front of the animal hospital by the racquet club, make that U-turn and turn into PJ Skadoos. And so that's just a fact of life along Fairfax Boulevard. But fortunately, in this case, again, this site is located at a signalized intersection. And another important trait to mention is that there is a pedestrian crosswalk there that crosses over Fairfax Boulevard. far side of Fairfax Boulevard from that from that U-turn movement and so from a pedestrian safety standpoint there aren't any concerns about that either okay hopefully that answers your question

Thomas Rossthe duds thank you thank you mayor

Catherine Readthank you any other discussion questions of the applicant council member Bates thank

Billy Batesyou earlier on in the process I spent a lot of time about the loss of tree canopy with this project. And eventually the applicant met with me and said, you know, we need one more vote. What can we do to make this a more amenable project? And, you know, I again expressed that with a decrease in tree canopy, I wasn't sure I could justify supporting this project. and the applicant went from what would have been a 45% decrease in tree canopy relative to the current conditions while still almost three times the required tree canopy to now an 18% increase in tree canopy. And that is a very significant improvement to the project and a very significant benefit to the city's urban forest. And also I'd like to thank the applicant for putting so much thought clearly into the design of the project.

It's a very nice-looking, very attractive project and much more attractive than what's there right now. And it's also important to note the stormwater management improvements that would result from this project. Thank you.

Catherine ReadThank you. Any other discussion? All right. There are a series of motions for this item. Is there a motion for the special use permit, Council Member Ross?

Thomas RossThank you, Mayor. I move that the City Council approve the request of Olympus Pines, LLC, for a special use permit pursuant to City Code Section 110-3.3 to allow vehicle service in the CR Commercial Retail Zone District on the premises known as 9917 Fairfax Boulevard, Max map parcel 48-3-13-001, with the following conditions. One, the operation of this establishment shall be consistent with the application, statement of justification, and plans. The zoning administrator shall be enabled to approve minor changes.

Catherine ReadIs there a second?

Thomas RossSecond.

Catherine ReadA motion has been made by Council Member Ross and seconded by Council Member Bates. motion councilmember Staley

Jon Stehle Jrthank you mayor Reed and again I this is one where I appreciate the applicant and their work on there when I think about the opportunity at that corner adjacent to a high school in 20 years having a car wash there misses the mark it's an opportunity where I hope in future councils they go to the Planning Commission I hope we leverage our amazing EDO and EDA and we really think about opportunities where in this particular case we have our future generation walking down the hill every day past a space that has lots of traffic going and from my perspective

Laszlo Palkostaffhaving

Jon Stehle Jra car wash there misses an opportunity and I think that's the part that as a council member every now and then you run across something and you're not able to get it across the goal line this is one that that I am frustrated at that we were not able to get more creative with in a longer space but that happens and that's why we have a vote that's why we have a time to do it so I will not be supporting that this application but it is because I think there is a bigger vision we had an opportunity to pursue and we're just unable to do it so I appreciate all the work you're doing the applicant I hope you're wildly successful and I hope in 10 years you're telling me this was an amazing opportunity with the students there and we unlocked opportunities

there and we're high-fiving how well we showed entrepreneurs to be there we talked about on learning opportunities with the high school and it just knocks it out of the park but right now I just don't see it thank you any

Catherine Readother comments councilmember Bates and then councilmember Ross

Billy Batesthank you I'd like to note on the special use permit the conditions that we will be approving that the special use permit is subject to include consistency with the statement of justification and to paraphrase parts of that the the applicant has committed to taking measures on the site to ensure, as their words always, ensure that queuing will not occur out onto Fairfax Boulevard. And again, credit to the applicant for being responsive to concerns expressed early on in the process. and additionally I'd like to again reemphasize that if the applicant were to choose to develop this site by right or sell it to someone who would we could see much more than a 45% decrease in tree canopy on this site

and otherwise perhaps a use that is even more unfavorable than a car wash that is designed as consistent with what we've been, what

Andrew Grosnicostaffthey've

Billy Batesproposed here. And yes, is it my, again, is it my dream project for this site? Not necessarily, but I cannot in good conscience pass this up, given the significant benefits to the city that I believe this project holds. Thank you.

Catherine ReadCouncil Member Ross?

Thomas RossYes, thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the work that's going. this project into the application. I think I, as was said earlier, shared a lot of skepticism on this project. I had some major concerns and it struck me as looking at that site and the proximity of the school whether we could do something better. And yet, I think sometimes we have to take a look at what is the best opportunity we have right now. And it seems to me like the old Pennsylvania Dutch expression. you'll appreciate that. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. And this is not, in my view, the perfect opportunity, perfect ideal that I would have for that site. But I do think the applicant has provided a lot of really good design, good planning, worked very carefully with

the staff. And I think it will bring a benefit to the community overall. And that's how I had to weigh my decision on whether to support this or not. And it strikes me that this will be a big improvement over what's there now. It is very positive to hear the discussion and the feedback from the school board because they have a very vested interest in this location and this site. I remain a little concerned about traffic flow, but I think that can be mitigated and site in terms of the stacking will be allowing, in my view, for this to be a successful project. And I also want to add compliments on the design. I think it's a very attractive facility. I think it will add a lot to that location. And I look forward to hearing of this being a success.

Thank you, Mayor.

Catherine ReadThank you. Any other comments? Council Member Greenfield.

Speaker 15Thank you, Mayor.

Jeffrey GreenfieldIt was just about two years ago that this applicant came to us talking about this location. And so a lot of time and effort has been put into getting to where we are today, architecture that's gone above and beyond. I was coming back from northern Pennsylvania and was going through a jurisdiction before I got back on a part of 15. and it wasn't a Tommy's car wash, but it was another self-service type car wash, very by right, very industrial looking, where you didn't have the controls that we have here. I would also say that as we talk about by right, previous owners have tried to do the knock it out of the park type concepts here, and quite frankly they've fallen apart. And so we could let this sit empty as a jurisdiction.

And by right, what could go in here tomorrow is a vape shop. So is that what we want kids from Fairfax High School to be walking to, or do we want them to potentially be walking to a business that they could actually work at and be a contributor to the local economy? And so no project is ever perfect, but it's about our willingness to work together, to collaborate, and to see if we have an applicant who's willing to listen and be responsive. And again, this is another example tonight of an applicant that has been willing to do that. And so your commitments to ensuring that we don't have a, you know, a Chick-fil-A type situation like we, you know, we could here is really important. Again, your collaboration, the operators' collaboration, and I plan to support the project.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you.

Catherine ReadThank you. Any other? Councilmember Doyle Feingold.

Kate Doyle FeingoldThank you, Mayor. So I'll echo some of the comments. I appreciate, you know, from the beginning you were preserving a lot of the tree canopy, the environmental aspects of the functionality. I think also it didn't get mentioned tonight, but some of the other aspects that I liked from this project, carried forward are the it's the focus is on being a really good employer and making sure that the employees are taken care of you know full benefits the types of things you don't see in establishments like this and I think another thing that I really hope to see carried forward that I've heard in past presentations are the working with the community in terms of the teams from the high school being able to use this establishment to raise funds for their

and the athletic department there I think that is really great and in that aspect it's helpful where it's located so I also I think it's great for us to begin to make these changes to Fairfax Boulevard sidewalks and widening those for more accessibility so thanks any

Catherine Readother comments I'm just going to echo what councilmember Doyle Feingold said both about the commitment to the about living wage jobs, the tree canopy, both very much supported by Council Member Bates and Council Member Doyle-Feingold, and the improvements to the sidewalk. All of these are, in fact, benefits of this project that should not be overlooked. And so if there's no further discussion, we will start the roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Greenfield?

Jeffrey GreenfieldAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Ross? Aye. Council Member Lim? No. Council Member Staley? No. Council Member Doyle-Feingold? Aye. Council Member Bates? Aye. Motion passed 4 to 2.

Catherine ReadIs there a motion for special exceptions, Council Member Ross?

Thomas RossYes, Mayor, there is. I move City Council adopt the attached resolution to approve the request of Olympus Pines LLC for a special exception pursuant to City Code Section 1110-3.5-3.k to allow the installation and use of exterior vacuum stations, pursuant to City Code Section 110-4.5.7.C, with a requirement to install a fence within the required TY3 transitional yard along the southern and western property lines, a special exception pursuant to City Code Section 110-4.5.6 to modify the requirements for street trees within 15 feet of the back of the curb on the premises known as 9917 Fairfax Boulevard and more particularly described as tax map parcel 48-3-13-001 with the following conditions. One, development shall be in accordance conformance with the supplemental plan set.

Catherine ReadIs there a second? Second. A motion has been made by Council Member Ross and seconded by Council Member Bates. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Bates? Aye. Council Member Doyle-Feingold? Aye. Council Member Staley?

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Lim? No. Council Member Ross? Aye. Council Member Greenfield? Aye. Motion passed, boarded to.

Catherine ReadIs there a motion for Certificate of Appropriateness, Council Member Ross?

Thomas RossYes, there is, Mayor. that the City Council approve the request of Olympus Pines LLC for a certificate of appropriateness in accordance with section 1110-6.5.6B of the City Code on the premises known as 9917 Fairfax Boulevard and more particularly described as text map 48-3-13-001 with conditions as follows. Number one, the proposed modification shall be in general conformance with the plans and renderings received by staff in March 2024 and recommended for approval by the Board of Architectural Review as of April 17, 2024. Two, the applicant shall secure all required zoning approvals and permits prior to construction. Three, landscaping is subject to change per urban forester comments at site plan approval stage.

for the applicant shall obtain a minor certificate for the proposed dumpster enclosure and retaining wall

Catherine Readis there a second second a motion has been made by councilmember Ross and seconded by councilmember Bates is there any discussion on this motion seeing none a roll call vote

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Greenfield councilmember Ross I house a member limb no councilmember Staley

Jon Stehle Jrno

Melissa Shinaberryclerkhouse member Doyle Feingold council member Bates aye motion passed 4 to 2

Catherine Readthank you

Robert Brantapplicantthank you very much council and just a brief personal comment I just want to say that the departing council members it's really been a pleasure working with you all and getting to know you all over the years so thank you very much happy holidays everybody thank

Laszlo Palkostaffyou

Robert Brantapplicantthank you

Melissa Shinaberryclerkour next public hearing is a public hearing and council action on a request from pathway homes and corporation applicant by molly navanti agent for consideration of a special use permit to allow upper story residential slash mixed uses at the premises identified as 4010 university drive in parents tax map 57-4-02-087-b in the cr commercial retail zoning district and old town Fairfax Historic Overlay District Jason Suffin Community Development Division Chief will provide the staff presentation

7c

Consideration of Resolution R-24-33 to Approve the City's Submission to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority for $1,000,000 in FY 25-30 Regional Surface Transportation Program (RSTP) Funding

2:27:43

Jason Suffinstaffput me up here and of course I break everything thank you and good evening The application before you tonight is a special use permit that would allow upper story residential above an office on the first floor. The property is located in the commercial retail zoning district and this requires a special

Billy Batesuse permit.

Jason SuffinstaffThe existing site outlined here in yellow is at the corner of Sager and University, built around 1982 and is known as the Joshua Coffer Gunnel Building. approximately 19,000 square feet it's three levels of office with partially underground parking on the bottom level and surface parking around the back property is zone CR commercial and is located within the Fairfax historic overlay district Old Town historic overlay district I apologize the graphic here on our map is not great but the the block the entire block here has the historic overlay district hatching and some photos of the property from different different views I'll draw your attention to the bottom center photo again a portion of the parking is located under the building some of the

spaces are proposed to be converted to storage which would leave the resultant underground parking and lot at 40 spaces. There is one minor modification to be made. The upper right photo shows sort of an open area between the floors, kind of like a porch. They have proposed an elevator that would access the upper floors if approved. This would be clad with brick and it would match the architecture of the building. That is the only exterior change proposed site is located in the Old Town Fairfax Activity Center and is covered by the small area plan smaria plan specifically identifies in the historic core meaning the four blocks there that it envisions and supports a mix of uses including housing in that area.

Highlights of the small area plan and what it really does envision in a 15-year horizon. Residential at up to 1,250 units. The only project that has been approved to date, City Center West, that proposal included 79 units. This proposal would be for a maximum of 15 units. this is just an image illustrating the the arrangement of one of the floors the applicants proposing studio slash one-bedroom units only and what we would see is a mixture of uses in the building the ground floor would remain completely office use for pathway homes they're relocating from another site in and they would provide and self administer an affordable housing component for 100% of their units. The ground floor would be approximately 6,500 square feet of office, which is 96% of that space.

There are some access ways, stairs, and elevator shafts that would lead to the upper floors, which get deducted from the total calculation the upper story residential use category requires 75 percent of the ground floor to be commercial so

Speaker 20they exceed that standard the

Jason Suffinstaffapplicants overall goal is to build 15 dwelling units here with eight on the second floor and seven on the third floor I've highlighted this as there is a discrepancy in applicants plans the dimensional table has inaccurately depicted that the density is 10 units per acre while they're only proposing 15 units the site is just over half an acre it's actually 28 dwelling units per acre which exceeds what the ordinance allows by right at 20 the applicant will speak more as to their immediate needs and why they wish to move forward with the special use permit to achieve the 15 would require that they come back for a special exception for five more units so they can they they're seeking approval of 10 units at this

point and they know they have to come back for a special exception in their plan to correct that inaccuracy. Parking is not required in the Old Town Historic Overly District Parking District A which this property is located in. So zero spaces are required however there would be 40 spaces on the site and it's interesting to note that based on the Institute for Traffic Engineers parking demand standards that the available parking would actually provide what is demanded daily by both the office and the residential use so if it were somewhere that had parking it would actually require 40 spaces per ordinance which is quite interesting there are no exterior improvements proposed or required by the zoning

ordinance there is no site plan required because of such what you see here is an app it barely shows up in red along the property boundaries of Sager Avenue University Drive the applicant is proposing a dedication for a public access easement for the city to construct in the future widen sidewalks and to allow and accommodate for utility work which could also include future undergrounding efforts by the city all of the landscaping the retaining walls brick walls decorative walls that are on the site will remain intact there is one tree that's been noted by the urban forester that's went missing over the last 40 years so that will be replanted on the property and staff has provided three recommendations for this special use permit that the operation be

consistent with the statement support and the plans zone administrator be able to make minor deviations that the public access easement is codified here and the third is in relation to what the applicant has requested moving forward at this time with a special use permit rather than waiting it would allow for consistency with in performance to the zoning ordinance where no more than 10 dwelling units would be allowed because of the density ratio of 20 per acre

Jason Suffinstaffthis case. The applicant is here with the presentation and can certainly explain in more detail their desire for the special use permit at this point and the bifurcation of the process. Thank you.

Catherine ReadI will open the public hearing. Ms. Shinneberry, has this public hearing been properly advertised? Yes, it has. Does the applicant have a presentation they would like to share?

Molly NovotnyapplicantGood evening Madam Mayor, members of Council. My name is

Stacy Hallpublic commentMolly Novotny.

Molly NovotnyapplicantI'm an urban planner at Curata Partners and I'm very pleased to be here before you all tonight to discuss this important project for the city at Pathway Homes. Jason did a great job overviewing the project and at its core it's a reuse of an existing building in your historic downtown. We are wholly consistent with your small area plan that calls for an activity center here that calls for adding residential density to your downtown. We're also consistent with other elements of your town plan that call for affordable housing. This project will be leased to those making about 30% or below of AMI. It's Pathway Homes. It will be professionally managed by Pathway Homes, and they will be their clients who sign those year-long leases,

who will receive services from pathway homes and who will reside in those upper two floors as Jason mentioned we talked a little bit earlier today about the density we've always requested 15 units to be retrofitted for this building so those upper two floors today is office space we've always requested that we do 15 units and it was brought to our attention that's above the ordinance requirement and so we will be back for that special exception to ask for the tonight the request would be for those 10 units in january we'd come back to ask for the additional five to complete the overall project the there are no renovations aside from that elevator addition that we're proposing at the back of the property and that's because it is an existing building

the image that's on your screen today shows the building placement with the existing brick sidewalks right along and kind of that right along the curb and then a darker red area which is that public access easement that we would grant to the city for a future sidewalk expansion if the city wants to do that or for an undergrounding project we're not proposing those improvements now the building is very very tight to the street today and so there really is not the ability to widen that sidewalk would be right at the building front and so right now and and there's no need from the zoning ordinance perspective to make those improvements but we've worked closely with the city and said let us give you

that public access easement for in the future if a project arises and is funded then there would be the ability to do that on this project with that I'm going to introduce dr. Lambert who is the director of pathway homes to kind of walk through the program a little bit because I'm not sure if everyone on familiar with the organization.

Salissa Lambert WoodardapplicantGood afternoon. It is a pleasure to be here and to present to you this evening. My name is Dr. Salissa Lambert Woodard and I'm president and CEO of Pathway Homes. We are your neighborhood nonprofit organization. We've been in your community and your neighbor for over 44 years and we've been here directly as a neighbor since 2006. So for about 18 years, Pathway Homes has scaled from our humble beginnings as a grassroots organization to an organization now that serves the entire Northern Virginia region, Washington DC, and Central Florida. We are excited to be able to have and to identify ourselves as a taproot within your community. We're a behavioral health care organization that's built on a foundation of housing.

What is unique about our nonprofit is that we are a professionally run organization. That means that as an organization, Pathway Homes employs and runs through our executive leadership team and leadership team. The leadership is composed of individuals who are psychologists and licensed clinical social workers, licensed professional counselors and we also have on staff professionals who specialize in regards to housing development I mentioned that to you because we have a number of admirable nonprofits within our community but to provide the specialty services that we do to a population of individuals with serious mental illnesses and co-occurring disabilities it is a unique opportunity to be able to bring our talents to the table to be able to

scale such an organization as to scale such a building that has a very small footprint within Fairfax City. We serve in Fairfax County and surrounding areas approximately 2,000 individuals. You can see from the slide that we have properties that are dispersed across Northern Virginia, over 500 properties in the Northern Virginia region itself. We also have the capacity through our services to provide the specialized services which are unique to the population. So Pathway Homes is actually licensed and accredited by the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. We're licensed by the Department of Social Services. We're licensed through DMAS to provide Medicaid services. And we're also internationally accredited through the Commission of Accreditation and Rehabilitation Facilities.

It's a unique design that brings specific talents of individuals together that have a passion to be able to provide these services and have tremendous outcomes in regards to our capacity to serve, support, and help individuals thrive in the community in which they live. We're committed, as you are, to affordable housing. We are committed, as you are, to allowing individuals to age in place. This particular location is a culmination of a great deal of what we all have as a common interest. that we're serving will not be coming from other areas but our focus is here in Fairfax City so it's not a situation where we were build it and they will come it's a situation where we're here and we're going to support those individuals in our community in a better

way to support them and allow them to be able to thrive it's an important distinction in regards to the types of services that we're able to provide you will notice that when you learn more about pathway homes you'll see different types of service types you'll see that we're running 24-hour programs and congregate programs, assistant living facilities, and scatter site. This particular project is a scatter site, meaning that the individuals who we will have the privilege and pleasure of being able to serve largely currently reside in Fairfax City, and the individuals that we're going to be serving are individuals who need minimal supports, that they're already in our community. Many of the individuals that we'll be serving also

are going to need this particular building because of handicap accessibility areas. So priorities are going to be given to a population of individuals with behavioral health care conditions. Priority will be given to individuals who are aging out in place. Priority will be given to individuals who need ADA and universal design concepts to be able to age in place. And obviously we want to make sure that we're able to do that in a way that allows choice coming into this program. I think those are the highlights in regards to Pathway Homes. I want to be cognizant of the time that we have this evening. You can see that our outcomes are incredibly impressive in regards to being able to support individuals remaining in housing year after year at over 90% of our time.

The individuals that we're serving remain out of hospitals and remain outside of our jails and institutions. Over 98%, 96% of these individuals remain in the community because of those specific services. So I will rest there, give you an opportunity to be able to hopefully celebrate and appreciate and continue to invite us in to your backyards. As we are currently your neighbor, we simply want to remain a neighbor and to be able to provide our services more intentionally and to be able to have outcomes for our entire community that we're able to be able to celebrate in the future. So thank you very much.

Catherine ReadThank you. I will ask the clerk to call speakers forward. Do we have speakers

Melissa Shinaberryclerksigned up? I had nobody sign up prior to the meeting so if there's anybody that would like to speak to this item they may come forward

Catherine Readokay I will close the public hearing council are there any questions of the staff or the applicant okay if there is there a motion for the special use permit council members daily thank you mayor

Jon Stehle JrReed I move the City Council approve the request by of pathway homes Inc. applicant for a special use permit pursuant to City Code Section 110-3.5.1.D to allow upper story residential slash mixed uses in the CR Commercial Retail Zoning District on the premises known as 4010 University Drive and more particularly described as Tax Map Parcel 57-4-02-087-B with the following conditions. One, the operation of this establishment shall be consistent with the application, statement of purpose of support and plans. The zoning administrator shall be enabled to improve minor changes. Two, the public access easement along University Drive and Sager Avenue, as shown on the plan to accommodate future sidewalk widening and undergrounding of utilities, shall be recorded

prior to issuance of a zoning permit or any permits for construction. Three, the maximum total number of dwelling units shall be no more than 10, parentheses 1, 0, in parentheses, in accordance with the maximum density allowed by the zoning ordinance, lessened until the applicant files a special acceptance application to be reviewed by the City Council to increase the total number of

Catherine ReadIs there a second? Second the motion. Motion's been made by Council Member Staley and seconded by Council Member Ross. Is there any discussion on the motion? Council Member Staley.

Jon Stehle JrThank you, Mayor Reed. I'm incredibly proud to be able to support and make this motion this evening. Pathway Homes is an absolute gem of a partner already existing in the city of Fairfax. Thank you for bringing forward this application. Thank you for the work that you do, and thank you for the partnership. Thank you, Mayor Reed.

Catherine ReadAny other comments or questions? Council Member Bates.

Billy BatesI'll defer to Councilmember Ross.

Thomas RossOkay, Councilmember Ross, then Councilmember Bates. Thank you. It's always nice to be deferred to by Mr. Bates. I appreciate that. I want to echo what my colleague Mr. Staley said. I think this is a wonderful opportunity for the city and for the community and for us to really address an important critical need we have in this community for housing, for those who really need it. and I think it's a great opportunity I hope we can really get excited about this and I look forward to hearing your next application for the remaining and five percent five more units and hope the new council will love will proactively support that Thank You mayor

Catherine Readcouncilmember Bates thank

Billy Batesyou I am grateful for the applicant for putting this forward and I look forward to supporting this proposal for the 10 units and additionally the additional five units in the future this is just you know morally one of the most significant impacts that we can have on housing the unhoused Tom Barras said, those who really truly need it, and making sure that we're taking care of those who are in desperate need of someone to look out for them, and making sure that we're supporting nonprofits that are offering to do that and not hindering them. And I look forward to supporting this proposal, and thank you.

Catherine ReadAny other questions or comments? I would just like to say too that I support the work of Pathway Homes. I originally learned about you when I encountered the Brain Foundation here in Fairfax City. And Trudy Harsh started a wonderful nonprofit to support people living with mental illness. And I know that you have partnered with her. The Brain Foundation has been in our city for 20 years. and it's important for us to not just talk about the things we want to do like affordable housing or supportive housing we have to put our intentions we have to fund our intentions and I think it's incumbent on our city government to stand behind what we say we believe in and without further comment or discussion I

will ask for a roll call vote

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Greenfield

Jeffrey Greenfieldnay

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncil member ross aye council member limb no council member staley aye council member doyle feingold council member bates

Melissa Shinaberryclerkmayor reed and the mayor votes aye motion passed four to three okay next item is a public hearing and council action on an ordinance amending Taxation, Article 2 and Parenz Real Property Taxes, and Division 3 of the Code of the City of Fairfax, Virginia pertain to tax relief program exemptions for the elderly and disabled. JC Martinez, Chief Financial Officer, will provide the staff report.

7d

Consideration of Resolution R-24-34 authorizing the City Manager to sign the Standardized Project Agreement with NVTA for the Jermantown/Route 29 intersection improvements project

2:49:21

JC MartinezstaffThank you. Mayor, Council, as presented during the October 22nd work session meeting, the city last updated and adjusted qualifying income levels for eligibility for tax relief programs for the elderly and the disabled in December of 2022. Staff has determined that it is appropriate to again update certain of these levels and qualifications and adjust asset limits to ensure that the city's programs remain competitive with those of surrounding jurisdictions and to more accurately reflect the cost of living implications. In addition, staff is recommending adding a new 75% exception category to the basic tax relief table in Section 90-76 of the City Code. As listed in the staff report, additions to the current City Code are shown as underlying text, and deletions are shown as strikethroughs.

Approximately $63,000 in lost revenue is projected annually. the projected revenue loss for FY25 is approximately half of that or $31,500 happy to answer any questions you may have

Catherine Readare there any questions of staff on this issue seeing none a roll call vote oh sorry skip to step I will open the public hearing machine a berry has the public hearing been advertised yes

Melissa Shinaberryclerkit has I had no one sign up prior to the meeting is there anybody that would like to speak on this agenda item?

Catherine ReadOkay, so I will close the public hearing. Is there a motion, Council Member Staley?

Jon Stehle JrThank you, Mayor Reed. I move to enact an ordinance amending Chapter 90, parentheses, taxation, and parentheses, Article 2, parentheses, real property taxes, and parentheses, Division 3 of the Code of the City of Fairfax, Virginia, pertaining to tax exemptions for the elderly or disabled.

So LimSecond.

Catherine ReadA motion has been made by Council Member Staley and seconded by Council Member Lim. Is there any discussion on the motion? Looking to the left, looking to the right. Seeing none, now a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Bates? Aye. Council Member Doyle Feingold? Aye. Council Member Staley?

Catherine ReadAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Lim? Aye. Council Member Ross? Aye. Council Member Greenfield?

Speaker 23Aye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkMotion passed unanimously. The next item is a public hearing and council action on supplemental appropriation resolution in the amount of $650,000 for FY 2025 fall non-discretionary and council authorized expenditures. financial officer will provide the staff report.

7e

Consideration of adopting Resolution R-24-35 for the creation of the City of Fairfax Parks Foundation

2:51:56

JC MartinezstaffThank you. Mayor Council again, as presented during the October 22nd work session, summarize below are the staff's recommendation for the FY 2025 fall supplemental appropriations totaling $650,000 for all funds. The capital improvement program, also known as the CIP fund, will be receiving an additional $50,000 from the NVTA 30% and applied towards the transit development plan for Q. The net impact of the proposed general fund appropriation results in a reduction of $600,000 for the FY 2025 general fund balance. The proposed general fund supplemental appropriation is about 0.3% of the FY 2025 adopted general fund budget. Of listed there, $600,000 will be for the seven city manager work plan items

pharmacy item that was presented also at the work session and as previously stated $50,000 for the transit development plan for Q Via NVTA 30% funds happy to answer any questions you may have

Catherine ReadAre there any questions of staff on this issue any anyone questions? Okay, I will open the public hearing mission a berry is this public hearing been advertised. Yes,

Melissa Shinaberryclerkit has I had no one sign up to speak prior to the meeting. Is there anybody in the room? I'd like to speak to this item

Catherine ReadSeeing none I will close the public hearing is there a motion council members daily you

Jon Stehle Jrmay read I move to approve an appropriation resolution in the amount of 650,000 to fund the FY 2025 fall recommended supplemental expenditures second

Catherine Reademotions been made by council members daily and seconded by council member Lim is there any discussion on the motion seeing none a roll call vote

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Greenfield councilmember Ross aye councilmember Lim aye Councilmember Doyle Feingold. Aye. Councilmember Bates. Aye. Motion passed unanimously. The last public hearing is a public hearing and council action on a resolution for the reappropriation of general funds in the amount of $5 million within the approved FY 2025 budget. JC Martinez, Chief Financial Officer, will provide the staff report.

7f

Consideration of adopting Resolution R-24-36 endorsing the Project Play Children's Bill of Rights in Sports

2:54:13

JC MartinezstaffThank you again. Mayor, council, the finance team is requesting a reappropriation of general funds currently appropriately appropriated in the FY 2025 approved budget, specifically a $5 million reduction of the general fund transfer to the capital improvement program fund, making the new transfer amount $7,136,540 versus $12,136,540. This revised transfer amount represents 4% of the budgeted general fund expenditures. When incorporating the city's use of annual debt service payments towards capital projects of $11,226,147, the total reinvestment in capital planning equipment equals 10.2%, well above the 5% financial policy. The reappropriated amount, again $5 million, will be allocated to the Economic Development

Office, also known as the EDO. happy to answer any questions you may have.

Catherine ReadAre there any questions for Council Member Lim?

So LimThank you. So on the staff report, it says that having this money reappropriated the physical impact is neutral. Can you explain that to me further? How can it be neutral?

JC MartinezstaffSure. Council Member Lim, so the money and appropriated in FY25. I would be moving money from the transfer from the general fund to the CIP over to the EDO. I'm not requesting any additional funds to be reappropriated or appropriated for this cause.

So LimRight so for the money that we needed for CIP are we having to take on additional loans or transfer the money from the ones we're getting the loans from or does it I guess the general fund versus the debt ratio, does that change?

JC MartinezstaffThat's an excellent question, Council Member Lynn. It would impact the amount of what we would call pay-go funds from the general fund to the CIP. As listed here on the staff report, we were projecting to do about a 12 million contribution, basically cash fund from the general fund to the CIP. That amount is being reduced. we currently have about a 40% cash fund basis and a 60% debt issuance of that percentage would change ever so slightly at least in this fiscal year so we would be utilizing potentially more debt to cover those CIPs and less actual general fund transfer just

Laszlo Palkostaffto add though once once we

So LimI'm not finished so

Laszlo Palkostaffhow

So LimHow much more debt?

JC MartinezstaffIt would be at least $5 million, Councilmember Loon.

So LimOkay, all right, what were you going to say?

Speaker 17Thank you.

Laszlo PalkostaffSo just to add, when we get the $5 million back from the EDA in a few years, then we forego taking on debt at that time. So it's just starting the debt earlier.

So LimRight. It

Laszlo Palkostaffstill has a neutral impact.

So LimYeah, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. You know, we're going to be discussing that afterwards, the agreement. But like you said, in a few years we'll recover, but on the MOA, it's more than five years from now. I guess that's my point. So, you know, if the debt ratio is changing, we're obviously having to pay interest on that money. So can we talk about how much more money we're having to pay interest on that additional debt that we're taking on?

JC MartinezstaffSo it would vary. When we issued the last debt issuance about 14 months ago, the current interest rate was about 4%. If you were to apply that on the $5 million that is potentially being transferred to the EDO, over the course of 20 years potentially, which is what, again, what we had issued previously, that's about $2.4 million in just interest expense or additional debt that we would have to cover.

So Lim2.4 million?

JC Martinezstaff2.4 million. for the full term of 20 years at 4% interest.

So LimOkay. What about, can we talk about 10 years? Because the MOA talks about up to 10 years. Do you have that number? No?

JC MartinezstaffThat would be about $1.4, $1.5 million, roughly.

So LimAll right. Thank you.

Catherine ReadAny other questions? Discussion? Council Member Ross.

Thomas RossYes. Thank you. Mr. Martinez for that information. One of the things that we've always prided ourselves on, and we've had a lot of discussions on this over my term on Council and even previously, is our fiscal situation overall and how that affects our interest rates and everything else. What kind of impact do you foresee this would have on our financial situation? Would it impact negatively our standing, our credit rating, anything else to that regard? I mean, in many ways, the way I've understood this is we are shifting funds from one account to another, and the net result is it's not going to have a direct impact.

Speaker 26that if

JC Martinezstaffif i understand correctly council member ross um in your example when you say shifting money from the general fund to the cip it's still within the city and we're paying down debt that is going positively to our debt ratios in this instance money would be basically leaving the city but i think to the city manager's point the next section that we're going to get to with the agreement we would potentially be realizing that money back at a certain point potentially with some interest is not the right word but some type of additional premium on on that principle from a rating agency perspective five million dollars in the grand scheme of the city's finances and our total debt issuance is a very nominal amount so i don't see it negatively

I don't see it negatively impacting our rating or anything of that nature.

Thomas RossThank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Catherine ReadThank you. Any other comments, questions? Otherwise, I will open the public hearing. Ms. Shinneberry, has this public hearing been advertised?

Melissa ShinaberryclerkYes, it has. No one signed up prior to the meeting. Is there anybody in the room that would like to speak to this item?

Catherine ReadI will close the public hearing. Is there a motion, Council Member Staley?

Jon Stehle JrThank you, Mayor Reed. I move to introduce a resolution to reappropriate general funds within the approved FY 2025 budget as detailed on the attached list

Mr. Lubkermanstaffbecause there's a second I'm sorry there's an error in the motion it's I move to approve a resolution I'm sorry let

Jon Stehle Jrme try that again I move to approve a resolution to reappropriate general funds within the approved 20 FY 2025 budget as detailed on the attached list

Catherine Readsecond a motion's been made by council members daily and is there any discussion on the motion

Catherine Readcouncilmember Ross I meant to say Ross is there any discussion on the motion yes councilmember Lim

So Limyou know there's goes of saying it takes money to make money I get that but I just don't feel comfortable spending five million dollars of course yeah we are re appropriating it but when we talk about it does impact us as far as interest any changes are general funds versus debt ratio. So I will not be supporting this motion. Thank you.

Catherine ReadAny other comments? Seeing none, a roll call vote.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Bates?

Catherine ReadAye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Doyle Feingold? Aye. Council Member Staley? Aye. Council Member Ross?

Speaker 20Aye.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkCouncil Member Greenfield? Aye. Motion passed five to one. We will now go to our second general public comment. Is there anybody in the room that would like to speak on anything that's not on the agenda?

Stacy Hallpublic commentGood evening. I'm Stacey Hall, address 10719 Oak Place. I am speaking here as an incoming council member and on behalf of my colleagues Rachel McQuillan, Anthony Amos, and Tom Peterson. We understand that a closed session will soon be held to discuss personnel matters. While the specifics are not yet clear, we want to emphasize for the record that we believe decisions regarding significant personnel changes should not be made by an outgoing council. As this is the final meeting for five of the six council members, we strongly believe that any major personnel changes, changes that will impact both the incoming council and our city residents, should be left to the incoming council. Thank you.

Melissa ShinaberryclerkIs there anybody else in the room that would like to speak? Okay, we will move on to items not requiring a public hearing. Consideration of a memorandum of agreement with the Economic Development Authority in Parence EDA for a city contribution of $5 million to the EDA's real estate resources fund for acquisition of strategic economic development properties in the city. Lazlo Palco, city manager, will provide the staff report.

10a

Consideration of a Memorandum of Agreement with the Economic Development Authority (EDA) for City Contribution of $5,000,000 to the EDA's Real Estate Resources Fund

3:04:21

Laszlo PalkostaffGood evening, city council. So this is a follow-up to the $5 million appropriations that you just approved. This memorandum of agreement was negotiated with the Economic Development Authority. The Economic Development Authority agreed to the terms as outlined. This would govern how that $5 million would be utilized and repayment terms as well. So this doesn't have to be sold in five to ten years, right? The document just governs what happens if it is. So the sooner we get the money back, the better. So we incentivize a quicker resale of that property by adding on the additional kind of profit sharing that occurs after the five years. But the expectation, again, is with this funding being provided to the EDA, the EDA will have

to ensure that they're developed to maximize the tax base for the city, also aligning that development to the vision of the city council, the incoming city council, and the EDA, a shared vision for how to proceed, and also potentially some historical preservation as well for certain parcels that we're under consideration right now as well. So the goal of this, again, is to govern how this funding will be utilized with the hope that the EDA is able to sell this back with significant profit for themselves so they can continue to not only pay the city back but bolster this fund for ongoing such investments to improve the city tax base that's all I have

Catherine Readare there any questions of staff council member Lim

So Limthank you mayor so on this agreement number four item number I so basically if they sell the property prior to five-year anniversary city will only receive the principal so how are we making money

Laszlo Palkostaffso we're not making money off of the

So Limsorry off

Laszlo Palkostaffof this financial transaction we'd be making money out of the development itself the tax base improvements there from having for example a used car dealership compared to a village town center what the it would be a long-term investment for the city.

So LimOkay, but that's not a guaranteed thing. It's just only if. Of

Laszlo Palkostaffcourse.

So LimYeah. Right. And then not only that, I don't think I'm going to get support from my council colleagues, but I just wanted to go on record. So after five years, if the property is sold, we'll receive the principal, and then we would only get 10% of the additional funding that were made. So in the given example here, if the property were sold for $6 million, we would receive $5 million, which is the principal, and we would get only 10% of the million proceeds. So basically over the five years, we're only getting literally 0.05% interest on that money, And yet, we're having to incur additional debt ratio. This does not make any sense to me. Is this normal, what other jurisdiction do? I wouldn't do business this way.

So I cannot support it. Mr. Palco?

Catherine ReadCould you repeat that please? This is

Laszlo Palkostaffwhat other jurisdictions do through their development authorities that's why economic development authorities are set up.

Catherine ReadDid you have a comment? Councilmember Greenfield.

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank you Mayor. I understand the concept. The city's done it before but I guess to Miss Lim's point what you're describing is if we buy a property A for five million dollars and we get the but it sold for $6 million, the million dollars goes back into this fund. I think what's missing here is the ability for the EDA to come back to whatever council is at that time and ask if they want that additional $1 million back, or they are comfortable with the EDA having it and using it for a specific purpose. I think it's taxpayer money regardless, And so ensuring how it's going to be spent and spent wisely, EDAs change, governing bodies change. And so having some level of certainty there, I think, is perhaps what's missing.

That may not convince Ms. Lim completely, but I do think there's a bit here. We've always been very thoughtful, even if we've given money to the EDA, that that in and they did something like this that they're still coming back to us and and we are the ones ultimately involved in whether that next strategic purchase is is wise in meeting our our objectives our goals for economic development in the city so so I know what's coming up tonight not easy to resolve although I guess we can vote if that's the will of the body to address it, we can do it through comments and the agreement can be tightened up after the fact. Is that, are you comfortable with that approach, Mr. Lumpkin?

Mr. LubkermanstaffYes. I mean, the EDA has approved this document and it would depend on the nature of the requested changes. If it's substantive enough that we thought it had to come back to the council, I guess the future council barring a special meeting, then we would have to do that. But it all depends on what the conditions might be on approval. Thank you, Mayor.

Catherine ReadCouncilmember Lin.

So LimI'm going to further explain. You know we talked about this at a closed meeting very briefly and we were not given this very specific of this agreement so you know when I don't know anything I don't know what to ask so I wish that in hindsight we had like a you know as we done before like a two council member at a time have a more specific thorough presentation for us to what kind of agreement they were drawing up with the EDA for us to really understand it fully rather than kind of giving it to us at a council meeting like this maybe it's because it's our last meeting but I just don't feel comfortable we're investing the money and I guess EDA is planning on making this new sort of a committee I guess called the real estate resource fund

and we don't really know how the proceeds will be spent. Is this going to be spent to purchase additional property here in the city? We have no idea. So based on how we're going to be retracting our investment, don't feel comfortable supporting it I wish that we'd had more time going over it understanding it more

Mr. LubkermanstaffMayor yes Mr. Lubkeman Member Lim's question if you look down at section 3 of the agreement there's some intentionality to that language I mean obviously there this is a little bit of an assumption that the process will work the way it works but you'll note in there, although the funds are under the control of the EDA, the EDA agrees to consult with the City Manager and City staff to determine whether the acquisition of individual properties in the terms meets the City's strategic goals. And the EDA further agrees to partner with the City on master planning once properties are acquired. There are restrictions on the use of the funds. The second part of it, and you saw that and you may have alluded to that as well, is all

of the principal, if it hasn't come back sooner, has to come back within 10 years. I understand the comments and the difference in philosophy on what a rate of return should be, but the principle of the funds is not at risk, if that makes any sense.

So LimYeah. That I understand. The principle is not, you know, getting touched.

Mr. LubkermanstaffFair enough.

So LimBut I'm just saying that, you know, we're having to incur additional debt ratio, whereas we're not getting the money back for the next five years if it does get sold. And when it does get sold, we're only receiving the 10 percent of the extra profit that they're how the money would be specifically spent, and none of that, how they're spending the money, will never come to the council. They'll just be spending it based on how EDA wants to do it. So there is a little discrepancy, in my opinion.

Mr. LubkermanstaffMr. Lepkeman. And one final point, and I think this is important as well. In Section 4, you'll note, the city can at any time request back any funds that have not been spent. So there's an ultimate control by a future council over that. funds would be helpful and they haven't been deployed or allocated the city can request these funds back and the EDA is obligated to return them

So Limthen then would the city council be able to rework the return on the invest investment you know right now it's I mean it's an agreement they're gonna be signing 10% of the profit and that's that's set in stone

Mr. Lubkermanstaffand I'm sorry mayor and the last comment I'll make is it's it's a memorandum of agreement it's always subject to amendment by a future council future EDA it's it's not inscribed in stone

So Limall right thank you

Catherine Readall right if there's no other further discussion councilmember Staley I

Jon Stehle Jrthink you may read I move to approve a memorandum of agreement with for city contribution of five million dollars to the EDA's real estate resources fund for acquisition of strategic economic development properties in the city

Catherine Readis there a second second motion has been made by council member Staley and seconded by council member Ross is there any discussion on the motion council members daily I

Jon Stehle Jrthink you may read just to and I appreciate council member limbs comments in there the EDA is our number one goal this is a strategic development fund that has some safeguards on there I think that this is step forward I want to commend the EDA for creating the fund and for the opportunity to sit in there this is something I think we should have done long long ago to be in position to be at the table to acquire certain real properties I think the more we do this the easier to be for future councils in the ADA to determine the right rate of return the right timing of information back and forth what to clearly do with the proceeds and I'm very comfortable based on the relationship we have with the EDA and the MOU that should a future

council look at that and want to change the terms or have a conversation that partnership that we have so I appreciate the concerns raised I'm very comfortable because of the nature of the MOU because the principal is safe in there and because of the parts with the EDA of making the motion this evening thank you Mary thank

Catherine Readyou any other discussion on the motion councilmember Bates thank

Billy Batesyou in the earlier on I did share councilmember limbs concerns I read due to the considerations that councilmember staley mentioned I'm comfortable supporting this motion at this time. Thank you.

Catherine ReadAny other discussion? Council Member Ross.

Thomas RossYes. Thank you, Mayor. And I think this has been maybe a confusing, but I think a helpful discussion to have so that the concerns are out there in the open and will be a part of the record so that we will be looking at this in the future. To my colleague's point, this is a really an important opportunity for us and the EDA who we have created. It's an arm of our city government to help create the kind of economic opportunity that I think many of us have been anxious for. This is a new opportunity for us and I think I really think it's the right move to make support doing this Thank You mayor

Catherine Readthank

Melissa Shinaberryclerkyou any other discussion on

Catherine Readthe motion hearing none a roll call vote

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Greenfield councilmember Ross

Catherine Readaye

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Lim no councilmember Staley

Melissa Shinaberryclerkcouncilmember Doyle Feingold councilmember Bates

Melissa Shinaberryclerkmotion passed five to one

Catherine Readnext we have the managers report out and council comments mr. palco

Laszlo Palkostaffnothing to report tonight

Catherine ReadCouncilmember Greenfield

Jeffrey GreenfieldThank You mayor two items first happy birthday to Jennifer Rose who was with us here in the audience taking time away from celebrating her birthday to be with this stair body so thank you for that sacrifice we owe you a drink secondly well I'll buy her a drink I don't care you know I mean she deserves it she's done a she's been a good partner and Doug you know maybe if you want to come along well you know you can drive how about that I'm joking aside seriously happy birthday in in unfortunately you know tonight is also a time just to to make the community aware I know that the governing body was made aware that you know our former police chief John Skinner passed away suddenly but he was well known and well regarded in the community in the city is someone

who got his start as a patrol officer and and became our police chief and we've had a few occasions where that's happened here in the city but very fortunate for his service his leadership really moving us in a direction at a challenging time of growth of managing more cars coming through the city and so he certainly will be will be missed and was a was an asset and a pleasure to to know tonight we've heard a number of different comments happen I'm sure there will be more to to perhaps say later this evening but again just for for folks I again want to seriously thank staff for their hard work their dedication and trying to to work with seven different people up here it is not easy to try to

be accommodating and respectful of all of us but recognize that we have to try to move the city forward and so all of you have had a difficult role to play a A lot of change, a lot of change will be coming starting in January with almost an entirely new council. And, you know, I found in my time up here, you're really in about your third term before you're hitting your stride and you really know what you're doing and you really know the budget and you know the CIP. And so to staff, be patient. So with that, Mayor, thank you.

Catherine ReadCouncil Member Ross?

Thomas RossYes, thank you, Mayor, and I would want to, as I conclude my term, my last meeting as a council member, I too want to wish Jennifer a happy birthday and cite the great relationship we've had with the Chamber of Commerce and Doug Church. But so much of what we do is reflected in the relationships we have with our partners, not just the Chamber of Commerce, but so many other partners that I could take hours, and I know you don't want to hear me speaking for hours, that our community is built on those kind of relationships. And one of the roles that I have really valued is the ability to be out in the community, meeting with those groups and organizations and being a part of their efforts, because they contributed enormously to our success as a community.

So thank you. Also, echo again my thanks to the staff. When I ran for re-election, I heard nothing but praise from people I visited with when I was going door-to-door and at community events. We are unique in that we have a truly dedicated group of people in this community who serve us day in and day out, not just the council and the issues that we deal with, but our community residents. And I think we have an enormous right of respect for that workforce. They are challenged sometimes daily on doing the work they need to get done, but they do it. And I think, again, I want to acknowledge that and just add to what Mr. Greenfield said about the great work they do, not only on our behalf as elected officials in the community, but to the community residents and to

the people that live in this place. It makes a huge difference. And I've been here 45 years, almost 45 years, and I've seen that day in and day out. I also want to wish our new council members, some of whom are still here tonight, the best of success. You will find there are nights that cause you anxious nights. You will find that sitting on the dais is very different from sitting where you're sitting now, and I know you recognize that. You were elected to represent everyone in this community, and sometimes that makes it challenging when you have friends or neighbors or others who have a certain point of view that may differ with what is best for the community in the long run. And that makes it challenging.

And yet, that is our role. We listen very carefully to every citizen that comes in that door and testifies either at public hearings or in council comments or any other time they do it. It doesn't mean we always agree. We were elected to represent everyone in the community today and tomorrow. And sometimes that makes it difficult for us personally. But I urge you to take that role seriously. I know you will. and wish you all the best as you take on your new roles and you sit up here in January and wrestle with some of the same things you've heard us wrestling with. So thank you all. It's been a pleasure to serve and I look forward to remaining active in the community for many years to come. Thank you.

So LimCouncilmember Lim? I'm like forced to speak. I feel like this is the last time I'm on the dais. want to again thank all the staff members that helped me especially and like councilmember Greenfield said I think that by the time you're on a third term I feel like I know what I'm doing you know and maybe that's what made me want to stop doing it I know I know I now know too much but since and I also want to thank the past councilmember and the past mayor as well as the current and the current mayor that's serving with me and served with me. And since five of the oncoming council members are here, I just want to wish you guys the best. And I think that from now on, I'll be able to sleep on Tuesday nights.

You know, even if the meeting ends at 11 o'clock, I go home, I still can't go to sleep because I'm thinking my mind is still going, did I do things right? Did I do it right? Did I say the wrong thing? So, you know, I wouldn't be able to go to sleep, able to go to sleep on Tuesday nights but thank you very much thank you Councilmember Staley

Jon Stehle Jrthank you mayor Reed it has been an absolute honor to serve up here for the past four terms I've had the privilege of serving with multiple mayors and I'm gonna thank you mayor Reed for the type of approach you have the collaboration the the partnership that you've created I want to speak to our amazing department leads you are all experts in your field you You have demonstrated multiple times the ability to talk to seven individuals up here, and I would encourage the next council to develop relationships with all of them. We do too many things to be siloed. We must develop relationships across the organization. You must develop access opportunities and conversations. You cannot surprise staff, don't surprise each other, have the conversations as you're working on it.

You're not always going to be able to achieve that goal, and that is a fact of life. That's a fact of moments. forward consider the the focus of positive intent that the group brings forward that the efforts are made there and that we're all humans that we learn together we grow together and at the end of the day we're going to learn together and I think that's very important I want to thank a few people in particular I want to thank Councilmember DeMarco he was one of the coolest thinkers to work with up on this dais and it's because of his vision and Councilmember Greenfield's vision and others that we have the Willard Sherwood That's a really big deal. It took decades, but those are the type of projects that our city benefits when you have

the knowledge transfer and working together to see it through, and I think that's amazing. Councilmember Passy was someone that I miss on this dais because of her humor, her approach, and her just level-headedness, and I want to thank her for all of the conversations and discussions that we've had. And I appreciate all my colleagues on the dais, but I have to pick on one, and that's Councilmember Lim. For the past three terms, I've gotten to know you and work with you, and I have appreciated every moment of it. Up on this dais, you get to learn about people in very different ways, and I appreciate the relationship I've had built with each of them. But in particular, Councilmember Lamb, thank you for all that you do.

And finally tonight, I just want to thank one last time, Steph and Cooper and Zoe. As a dad, watching your daughter give a speech in front of everybody is about everything I could say. So thank you for the opportunity to serve, and good luck.

Catherine Readfine gold um

Kate Doyle Feingoldi'll echo the comments um thanks to staff mr palco our new city manager everybody's great we have great people here committing a lot to the city and i will continue to appreciate them so thanks

Catherine Readcouncilmember bates thank

Billy Batesyou first off i'd like to thank councilmember greenfield councilmember ross councilmember limb councilmember staley and councilmember doyle feingold for your service and your expertise and I hope that you will all stay engaged and continue sharing your perspectives and now I would like to acknowledge the the death of a friend of mine who passed last month a friend of mine that I've known since at least second grade, if not first grade, and continued to spend time with over breaks. There was a group of three of us, and we all went to different universities in different regions of the country, but we would still get together over breaks and sometimes include other friends of ours. and his name was Kenyon Kern, one of the most caring and just, you know, can't really put into words,

but one of the most caring and thoughtful and considerate and humble people that I've known and also very sharp, always had a unique take on things and cared a lot about Fairfax City, his hometown, and about the growth that we've seen in recent years. And he loved Old Town, Fairfax. He loved visiting Old Town and wanted to see more of that community feel in Old Town throughout the rest of the city. And Kenyon, I would have been looking forward to seeing him over winter break, perhaps over Thanksgiving break. And my heart goes out to his family and his twin sister. I can't imagine what things are like for her right now. And, you know, I'm just ready for this year to be over. And just turn a new page.

and I hope that Kenyon's family can find it in themselves to look forward to all the memories that they have left to create and the opportunities to honor his memory, not by dwelling on what might have been, but on what still could be. Thank you.

Catherine ReadThank you, Council Member Bates. Not to be a downer, but I also want to acknowledge the passing of Jim Graham. For those of you who know Cameron's Coffee and Chocolates, Jim and Ellen Graham started that business here in 2013, and after a brief illness, he passed away on Saturday. Many of you know that Jim is my cousin. So I've known Jim all my life, and I hope that you'll keep Ellen and Cameron and her brother Jay, his sister Mary, in your thoughts and prayers at this time. His service will be at Holy Trinity in Georgetown next Wednesday. But I know that the family at Cameron's would appreciate being embraced by our community. Cameron's has been incredibly important to our community. On a lighter note, we are celebrating the lighting of the menorah at sunset on December 25th.

The first day of Hanukkah happens to fall on December 25th. We have invited the community to come celebrate with us, so I'm hoping the weather is good and that we will see our community come join us in Old Town Square at sunset. And with that, I wish everyone a happy holiday. we are now going to go into a closed meeting I move that the City Council convene a closed meeting under section 2.2 dash 3 7 1 1 point a 1 of the code of Virginia to discuss personnel matters all council members in favor of the motion please signify by voting by voting aye aye those opposed to the motion please vote nay the vote is unanimous in favor of the motion the City Council retired into a closed meeting at 10 36 p.m.

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Closed meeting to discuss personnel matters — actions out of closed session

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