City Council Work Session

Melissa ShinaberryclerkSo we have the Katherine Johnson Middle School students doing a presentation focusing on sustainability for North Facts and Courthouse Plaza Shopping Center. I'm going to recognize Amy Lynn Denny, our city planner, for the introductions before their presentation.

Amy Lynne DennystaffHello, Mayor and Council. So, yes, tonight you'll be hearing about redevelopment in North Facts and for Courthouse Plaza. This is a group of students who are doing this completely voluntarily. Over the years, we've done this. We had a group of students with Miss Alum back in 2021, 2022, when Camp Washington Small Area Plan was being developed. when the Fairfax Circle small area plan was being developed. Now we have all the small area plans, but we still wanted to do a redevelopment project. And so the students were doing a similar thing for Northfax and then also to have a site-specific example. We did Courthouse Plaza before the applicant had submitted a proposal that started last fall. And the students were challenged to envision redevelopment

Ms. Alamall right it would be a miss if I did not introduce Ms. Conley here Ms. Conley teaches the leadership class in addition to the art that she teaches the electives and through the leadership class I always like these projects have come through during the after school or the science classes but this year I wanted to incorporate it through the leadership class because it fits there so met with Paul and Amy in the pipeline and what would be a fit for these guys, we chose and gave the students the opportunity to choose from. So different students chose different projects. So a group chose North Facts, then many other kids chose Courthouse Plaza. And it started with giving them the maps, Amy coming to the classroom and explaining

All right, so we have the courthouse plaza here. So as I said before, so there were a lot of students in the leadership class and there were multiple groups that there were students who kind of picked on courthouse plaza and then this was the group who kind of brought their ideas together. So you will see a few plants out here.

Kamala Michaelpublic commentAll right. Good evening, mayor and council members. Today we're going to be reimagining Fairfax, specifically Courthouse Plaza. I'm Kamala Michael.

Adele Wisemanpublic commentso this is just the table of contents everything we're going to be going through today we are going to talk about urban planning building inspiration zoning concerns designs sustainable solutions and of course our conclusion this is the courthouse plaza shopping center as you can see it's a lot of empty space a lot of asphalt there's not a lot of greenery around the area yet kids come here a lot of the times to just hang out with their friends a lot of people go by e-bike electric scooter and hang out in this area so we would love to bring something new to this community and give kids and adults alike a place to go

Kamala Michaelpublic commentIn the top left of our slide over here, you're going to see our land value legend. Land value just essentially means how little or how much a piece of land is worth. You can see the courthouse plaza is in the red, which is less than 20%, meaning that when we're reimagining this area of Fairfax, can't have very luxury businesses here but that also doesn't mean we have to have very low-end businesses either we can find a nice middle. Zoning.

Milana Camillapublic commentZoning is basically a set of rules of what you can build in certain areas. For an example you would not want your house next to a factory because factories are for commercial use and houses are for residential use. The zoning for a courthouse plaza is commercial use. And then I also want to further explain that in our ideas, there is no type of housing or anything like that because one, there's housing nearby. And also, like I said, the courthouse plaza is for commercial use. But recently we talked to the property owners and they talked about how they wanted to change it to mixed use, BUT WE DID NOT KNOW THAT BEFOREHAND. I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT THERE

Kamala Michaelpublic commentThe green is the pervious. The gray is the impervious. If you look at Courthouse Plaza, very much gray. And that's not a good thing, as we've said before. And we want to change this when rebuilding and reimagining Courthouse Plaza. So what are some sustainable solutions that we could implement? Solar panels would be great. There's a lot of wasted space on roofs, and they're very nice, eco-friendly, green energy. More pervious surfaces, just making it more eco-friendly and prettier to look at. And then stormwater and runoff detention systems so that we can prevent flooding in the future.

Adele Wisemanpublic commentokay so this is design a or our first design before i get started on the idea we just want to say that due to the changes in the land use they are currently proposing making courthouse plaza mixed use instead of commercial use but it is still commercial use as of right now we weren't able to update our projects before this presentation. So keep in mind that this is our ideas before we knew this information. And also all of these shops are recommendations and we understand that some of them can be mixed around and changed. So in this area we wanted to add a mix of all of the age groups and all of their interests. So for young adults, a lot of young adults are getting into athletics, so Pilates is a very big thing right now.

Henry Streetpublic commentSo this is our second design. One of the big things that I had thought of for this one was changing the name WANT TO HAVE A NEGATIVE CONNOTATION WITH COURTHOUSE PLAZA. LIKE, OH, PARKING LOT, LOVE HANGING OUT AND ABANDONED PARKING LOTS. SO I THOUGHT ABOUT CHANGING IT TO LORD FAIRFAX PLAZA BECAUSE LORD FAIRFAX WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL FOUNDERS OF THIS FAIRFAX AREA. SO I THOUGHT THAT COULD BE A FUN, UNIQUE NAME AND KIND OF BRING A NEW LIGHT TO IT. OVER ON THE LEFT WOULD BE MORE OF A RESTAURANT AREA. It would have pervious surfaces with public seating over in the blank area there. And it would be kind of like hexagonal tiles with grass in between because no one wants to walk on just grass and mud, of course.

There would be all kinds of different restaurants, sit-down restaurants, fast food. There might be a Chick-fil-A because we all know it's one of the best chicken places to go. over there would be the pre-existing Safeway because along with the things mentioned before it is also one of the biggest revenue generators for Courthouse Plaza and so we didn't really want to get rid of that over on the right top there would be a kind of a unique area with different booths that small businesses could rent out so let's say I make art and I want to share my art, I want to sell my art, but I don't have enough money to buy a storefront. I could start from here and maybe move up to a storefront at some point

Catherine Readby voicewas a big deal. on your kudos to Combined Properties as well. So Combined Properties is probably the largest commercial property owner in the city. They have four developments and they've actually been in the city for more than 60 years. So Courthouse Plaza goes back to the 1970s. But they scout on the circle, which is that new apartment complex. That is a mixed, that's a good example of a mixed-use development. That is a combined properties project. And so you have restaurants, you have a giant, and you have apartments upstairs. But they own other properties here, too. And combined, it has a long-term commitment to the city. And it doesn't surprise me that they were interested in hearing your ideas and talking to you

Daniel AlexanderstaffAll right. From a work session standpoint on the 28th, pre-application briefing for 35-1 Chain Bridge Road, proposed redevelopment of office space to mixed-use development of townhouses and retail uses, and also the discussion on the land use application for Courthouse Plaza is scheduled for that work session. So potentially busy night that night. Looking forward on September 1st, I think I've spoken to some of you about a concept that we're looking for consensus on potentially to begin from a pilot perspective our first Tuesday work sessions at 4 p.m. The idea behind that would be to try to schedule as many work session items on that date. Also, maybe have somewhat of the discussion we're having tonight on schedule,