City Council Meeting

Paul Nabtistaffjust consolidated together a couple of other changes are that in the activity centers where we have adopted small area plans in some cases they recommend different street types and what were shown on the comprehensive plan so we changed this to make it consistent and we also updated the locations of what are called neighborhood connectors these are kind of the main roads and to be consistent with what are identified as neighborways on the bicycle master plan because these are the routes within neighborhoods that would be used for through bicycle traffic. We updated the transportation projects list. That's the list that I showed you on the previous slide. These are primarily smaller projects.

Thomas Rossyes thank you for this the presentation And I want to give a special credit to our CFO for being able to look at how we could make this project work, use additional funding so that we are not at risk of losing that funding. I think that's really important. And that's a pretty critical role. And I'm grateful to the CFO for being able to find it and being able to make this work. One question I did have, we all know how much work has gone into the master plan, the strategic plan, and the planning for Van Dyke Park, which is a very high priority, I think, for this community and certainly for me as long as I'm on council and even after I'm on council. Has the PRAB endorsed this way of proceeding?

Shinneberryclerkour first items of discussion overview on the urban forest master plan Anna Safford urban forester will provide a staff presentation

Anna SaffordstaffGood evening, Mayor and Council. So tonight we're here to provide an overview and then receive feedback on the Urban Forest Master Plan project. Tonight I'm joined by Dr. Garrett Wolf, who has been leading the stakeholder engagement

Garrett WolfeGreat. Thank you, Anna. Ladies and gentlemen of City Council, thank you for having me to speak about the Urban Forest Master Plan. You can go ahead to the next slide. As Anna mentioned, I'm Dr. Garrett Wolfe. I'm the Director of Environmental Resilience and Ecosystem Restoration at Marstelde, the firm in the middle up there. Marstelde, as Anna said, is leading the outreach and engagement portions of this effort. I'm going to briefly introduce the other team members with the other firms on there. So the prime on this contract is Davia Resource Group, or DRG. They're led by Matt Erb. He's a senior associate consultant and a certified arborist. He's also joined by Ashley McElhaney, who's an urban forestry planner and a certified arborist.

planning or guiding document that allows strategic planning and resource allocation for urban tree management in the long term generally urban forest master plans explore tree maintenance planting needs staff capacity budget invasive species tree related policy volunteer opportunities and additional relevant topics for a community for Fairfax's urban forest master plan we'll be covering a 20-year planning horizon this this master plan will identify the community's shared vision goals priorities and address specific challenges and opportunities for the city which are revealed in part through our outreach efforts including this discussion tonight So a brief overview of the purpose purpose and goals of the urban forest master plan

This will be the first urban forest master plan for the city of Fairfax It will create a cohesive management strategy that maximizes the city's time and taxpayers dollars and respond to current and future conditions using a variety of recommendations The master plan will address three overarching goals. Sustainability to ensure that the actions support long term goals and use resources wisely. Resiliency to address challenges such as climate change and plant disease. And equity, ensuring all members of the community have access to and benefit from the urban forest. Fairfax's urban forest provides significant benefits to the community, such as improved air quality, carbon sequestration, and The bottom line is that an urban forest is an important asset for the city of Fairfax and will benefit from a cohesive management plan

You see the topics up here on the slide the urban forest master plan will cover the following topics existing conditions of the urban forest results from public outreach and engagement activities which take place throughout plan development a shared vision for the urban forest recommendations to attain that shared vision implementation guidance on five year cycles and metrics for implementation success to monitor progress and efficacy community engagement is a major part of this process from start to finish and it's important that the plan works for both the city and its residents provide a little bit more detail about how this planning process will unfold the master plan will be developed in two phases which we will discuss more in the

canopy change over time it uses a set of universal indicators of a sustainable urban forest to evaluate Fairfax's trees stakeholders and management strategies it's also reviewing city operations to understand how urban forest how the urban forest your program functions and what additional needs exist the report will summarize key findings and will inform the master plans goals and recommendations the master plan outline will be developed near the end of phase one and into phase two with report drafts and find the final report being in phase two now for discussion of the engagement plan as part of this planning effort we've developed an engagement plan which is essentially a work plan specifically for the outreach strategies of the urban forest master plan it is a

After we've completed the master plan tabling city staff and project team members Have and will continue to host tabling events at public events will be at fall fest. So we hope to see you all there To further spread awareness There's a public survey that is currently active to gauge the public's connection to and perception of the urban forest we are holding public meetings two per phase the first meeting was an information session held in July I recognize that some of you were there and the second one will be next week meetings three and four will occur during phase two the engaged Fairfax web page serves as a project hub with updates for meeting information, public surveys, and frequently and answers to frequently asked questions.

database we use that to track the involvement and what topics are important to various stakeholders we incorporated feedback as appropriate for upcoming outreach activities and we'll re and we will reference public and stakeholder input heavily as the master plan is being developed Comments on the master plan drafts will be tracked and responded to using comment matrices.

The public survey is live for five weeks through October 25th Stakeholder interviews have already been held and will continue to do so through the fall. Next, we'll see the project timeline. So as you can see there, we are just about smack in the middle of Phase 1, already completing public meeting number one. The survey is live. Stakeholder interviews will be continuing throughout the fall. The Phase 2 schedule, which will be developed in more detail as Phase 1 progresses, but primarily includes the outline of the master plan several drafts of the master plan steering committee meetings to further provide feedback Tabling events to public meetings including a workshop and a final presentation

And of course updates to the engage Fairfax web page at every step along the way next slide So as I mentioned previously I keep mentioning this because I'd love to see you all there and for anyone who's listening Public meeting number two is coming up on October 17th in person and the 23rd virtually We'll continue to update Information for meetings and any outcomes on the engaged Fairfax web page. Please visit our survey and answer the questions And if there are any questions or comments that you'd like to share of course, please contact the city's project manager Anna Safford So to wrap up, I just want to reiterate that the master plan covers a broad range of topics that affect both the city and its residents, including tree maintenance, planting, policy,

Wendy Sanfordstaffthe City Council goals it comes from our strategic plan and as I mentioned our adopted city plans and there are a number of them we have our comprehensive plan all of our small area plans our bike plan our economic development strategic plan our parks and recreation master plan and these are plans that have gone through engagement process they they've gone through public vetting they've been adopted by the City Council so what that means is that these are concepts that have already been endorsed by the City Council. So why is a two-year program important? As I mentioned, transportation projects take a long time to develop, fund, and implement. They span multiple City Councils. There are significant time, money, resources going into every single project. So it's