City of Falls Church
The City of Falls Church is a small independent city in Northern Virginia that appears repeatedly in the dated record as a reference jurisdiction and benchmark comparator across multiple policy domains being examined by the board.
Beacon Landing
Beacon Landing is a 54-unit supportive affordable housing development co-developed by Wesley Housing and the Lamb Center, located within the city. The project drew on 23 separate financing sources and received a $700,000 gap financing investment from the city's Housing Trust Fund in February 2023 — a fund built from cash-in-lieu payments made by developers prior to the adoption of the city's Affordable Dwelling Unit ordinance in 2020.
- Housing Trust Fund, Process & Application Review
The City of Falls Church Affordable Housing Fund Guidelines were referenced as a model informing the draft Housing Trust Fund guidelines.
passedMotion to proceed with the Housing Program Manager incorporating suggested changes into the Housing Trust Fund Guidelines, Application, and Scoring Tool and presenting to the Council on July 14, 2026.✓ Light✓ LaCroix✓ Anderson✓ Bonaiuto✓ Vincent✓ Ihara✓ Jensen✓ Wilber✓ Derosier✓ Atwood✓ Gillespie✓ Napolitano✓ Hatch✓ Opoku-Yeboah· Delboy· Cabelli· Cattaneo
- Review of Draft Policies and Procedures
The City of Falls Church Affordable Housing Fund Guidelines were cited as one of the reference documents informing the draft Housing Trust Fund policies and procedures.
- Continue to Review Draft Policies and Procedures
The Housing Program Manager was directed to connect with the City of Falls Church to understand its selection process and application framework, and to prepare a draft based on that process prior to the May 20 meeting.
In full
It is not itself a subject of board action, but is consistently cited as a model or peer locality. Most notably, the City of Falls Church's Affordable Housing Fund Guidelines and application framework were used as a primary reference document in developing the board's own Housing Trust Fund policies and procedures, with the Housing Program Manager explicitly directed in April 2026 to connect with Falls Church to understand its selection process. Falls Church has also been referenced as a comparator on topics including ADU ordinances (enacting one in the recent past), virtual public participation (offering video/virtual testimony via Teams), urban forestry staffing (approximately two square miles, lacking some tree regulations), climate action planning (having completed its plan), and green building policy (requiring LEED Gold for rezonings and special exceptions in the private sector).
As of July 14, 2026, staff confirmed that Falls Church's housing trust fund processes were among those reviewed in developing the board's draft guidelines, and that Falls Church's housing trust fund balance stands at approximately $7 million.