City Council Meeting

Billy Batesand so we have a discussion later tonight about the process for reviewing the small area plans would you see that and this might be a question for our staff as well but Would you see this as something that might be considered as part of that or more for a review of the comprehensive plan overall?

Melissa Shinaberryclerkby voiceOur first item is a discussion of potential reviews and updates to adopt the small area plans for Old Town, North Facts, Camp Washington, and Fairfax Circle. I'm going to recognize Paul Naptee, our Division Chief of Planning, for the staff presentation.

Paul NabdistaffThank you, Mayor Reed and members of council. The purpose of tonight's work session is to discuss this potential upcoming effort to review and potentially update the small area plans. We will go over a proposed schedule with you as well as a proposed list of topics that staff recommends we review when we review the small area plans. We will be proposing that we review and potentially update all four small area plans concurrently. And so we'll walk through that process with you as well. tonight is to receive feedback from you on whether or not to proceed with this effort, whether or not you support the proposed schedule, and to get feedback from you on the specific topics that we plan to discuss, whether it be that you support the topics

So a quick background on the small area plans. The 2019 comprehensive plan recommended that we develop smaller plans to provide more specific guidance that will help ensure that development is coordinated in our activity centers. The city had already supported mixed use development in these areas in previous comprehensive plans, but there was no centralized vision to guide how that development should occur. So with that it was recommended to this comprehensive plan to develop the smaller your plans that would help provide this guidance and The elements that are listed with the bullet points on the left of the screen are what was listed in the comprehensive plan at that time To be included in the small area plans

So since that time we have adopted for Small area plans for four of the five activity centers the fifth one being picket in Maine There's no sense of urgency to move forward with that one at this time And so we'll be looking at these first four This is a long-term timeline of how the smaller plans have been developed in concurrence with the comprehensive plan and how we expect to be reviewing and updating all of these documents going forward. So what this shows us is a timeline going back to 2019. At that time, we had a complete rewrite of the comprehensive plan. We typically go through a more intensive effort with a comprehensive plan about once every 15 years. The state code requires that we review it and update it every five years, but these

more intensive reviews occur on a longer-term basis. As I mentioned, at that time, it recommended that we develop a small area of plans. So the boxes that are shown on this timeline, those that are highlighted with the orange glow, are where we are saying that we wrote a document for the first time. That wasn't our first comprehensive plan, but as I mentioned, it was a complete rewrite, so we see it as our starting point. Then following that, since the small area plan recommended, or the comprehensive plan recommended, we develop small area plans. Over the course of the next four years, we developed those four small area plans I mentioned earlier. So those are shown as what we consider being new documents at that point.

AGAIN, WE'RE NOT BOUND TO THAT, BUT JUST FOR THE PURPOSE OF LOOKING AHEAD, WE THINK THAT'S WHEN WE'LL PUT THE EFFORT INTO DOING THAT. So thinking more specifically about the update for the small area plans, this is the schedule that we are proposing. Today we're starting by introducing the project to you and discussing the scope. Depending on the feedback that we get from you today, we plan to be back to you later this year to provide more information about the scope and make sure that we are confirmed we're on the same page with what we want to do. and then we can begin the work late in 2026 or in early 2027. The next two lines under confirming the scope say city staff analysis and consultant analysis.

The reason these will be beneficial is that if they are adopted, they'll provide more specific recommendations on numeric standards that we don't currently have in the activity centers. This includes things such as how we'll be calculating open space, what the exact dimensions are for streets and streetscapes. And it could potentially include introduction of density standards, which there aren't any in the small area plans. And so this will help us refine the plans to make sure what we're showing in the plans is something that can be actually developed and is in line with what the zoning ordinance is showing, as opposed to what we have now is a bit more speculative because it was developed when we were

the smaller plans we'll be conducting what we are calling a property impact analysis so through the small area plans when it comes to private development there's kind of a trade-off that is proposed and that we are providing recommendations for additional types of uses and additional height and different types of setbacks that can incorporate more development than could be done before but in exchange for that we're also asking for contributions to public amenities in return and this can be in the form of many ways but the two most common ways in which it shows up in the smaller plans is contributions to the street network and contributions to public open space and when you look at the various sites throughout the small

weren't necessarily identified in those analysis so we'll want to do a little bit of a deeper look at that. And then the last two items here are things that we have already done or able to do so we wouldn't necessarily need outside support for. This includes the level of service study. So this is something that is underway. You'll be receiving a presentation about this in a couple of weeks where we are looking at the impacts of development on various types of city services and what the cost associated with that would be. The goal of that study is to help set a standard for us to put out standards for profit contributions from developers. That's not something we want to try to address through the small area plans.

Stacey Hardy-ChandlerThank you again for the presentation. I do support looking at the plans together for the efficiency reasons that you talked about and also kind of getting that broader landscape of our city. They aren't in isolation. So I think looking at them together is strategically a good idea. The thing that comes up frequently in conversations for me, and I think I shared this with you also, is when we have developer applications and them understanding how projects might align with the plan or not, some sort of a contribution I think in this review would be some sort of guidance in how to navigate the spirit of the small area plans as people are considering development applications because that seems to be a

Paul NabdistaffYeah, I say that the latter, what you suggested, is more what this is going in the direction of. It's more of a review and update. This list of items is from the comprehensive plan itself, not the small area plans. And so if we wanted to amend this and kind of change some of the overarching goals of the small area plans, the first step would be to change the comprehensive plan kind of redirect them and then we could go back and review that.

Thomas PetersonWithin the small area plans, at what stage would we be formulating, whether individually or collectively, a set of goals and objectives that we would have for small area plans? Other than this umbrella that we have from the comprehensive plan, it sounds like we don't really have that in place. Is that right?

Good to know. Again, I'm just trying to get a feel for how much we do here. So just to push that maybe a step or two further. When we do, so the proposal here is to look at all four of these as a package, right? efficiency and strategy and sense that's involved in that. And one of the things that was noted was conducting fiscal impact analysis which happens for individual sites. At what stage would we be doing a cumulative impact analysis for fiscal impacts of the development of the small area plans? Would that be happening now? Is that something that would happen later? PLANNED YET.

There are different ways to do that. This doesn't need to be a series of public hearings. That's not the top on my list of how you actually go through co-design and all that. But I'm wondering, will we be hearing more about how we might bring residents, the public, and stakeholders into this thought process as we're beginning to scope further these small area plans?

Well, great. Just the last thought to share is that we could see a shift in general strategy for economic and commercial development, but housing development and growth in general that could be shifting away from accommodation of growth and much more towards aggressively targeting the kind of growth that we have. So I would expect this effort could help us identify what a targeted strategy would be in all of these different areas. And let me just check with Mr. Nabdi again. Is that the kind of thought process that we would begin supporting in this to understand how we would identify the best strategies going forward that ultimately could be incorporated in the small area plans?

Stacy Halland then the next person says well they did seven so we're going to do nine and then I think you end up with a much taller landscape than maybe was originally intended so I think keeping on the lower side at least for our small area plans is is a suggestion that I would certainly make I am curious about the traffic studies I know they're expensive and I know that they are easily outdated and but I would also be curious I know we used to do in our neighborhood a lot not a lot, but frequently we had those little, they always called them the Reader's Digest, the older people that talked about them. They're like, oh, it's the size of a Reader's Digest on the ground that did kind of the traffic counts. And I am curious, how often are we checking some

Wendy Block Sanfordstaffthe thing about the BRT plan is that it requires the cooperation of Fairfax County because these routes that are proposed run through the city for portion of the proposed routes. And again, these are large regional plans. So I do believe that we should reference these in our comprehensive plan. I don't believe they're necessarily for the small area plans. I think they are larger concepts that will take a while to come to fruition if they do, given that we're probably the minority player in these because the majority of the route is outside of the city.

Rachel McQuillenThank you, Mary Reid. So just to confirm, it sounds like the process is to analyze what we currently have going on collect all the analyses bring them together and then create our goals for these small area plans is that correct the where the goals are going to come in

I think it's something to definitely consider. And then I also just wanted to support the formatting and ensuring that the end result is easier for both developers and our residents to understand, follow, and really get the information that they're looking for from it. It does seem, I echo my colleagues' concerns about it, it does seem that developers struggle with that a lot or that there's a lot of confusion between comprehensive and the small area plans. So I just wanted to echo those comments as well. But overall, I think you're on the right track here. So thank you.

Catherine ReadAny other comments? Well, it's a wonderful presentation, and I think this is the way to go about it. Speaking just about bus transit, regardless of BRT, is that we've got WMATA, Q, and Connector who all come through here. and based on how these small area plans change, there might be some flexibility on how we move people through so they can transfer buses. I mean, I just think depending on the developments that come up is going to have an impact on how the buses in the short time they're in our city move through the city in order to maximize the number of people we're carrying from one point to the other but also allows them to change buses. pedestrian safety paramount I mean walkability for the city I think if we