By Peter Behr
Four of the six Falls Church City Council candidates appearing at a candidates’ forum on April 16 said they opposed a referendum on the May 6 city election ballot that would limit the amount of residential units in major new commercial developments.
“Usually charter changes are to allow the city to have more leverage, to be able to do more things, not to restrict a community. And that’s what this is doing,” said Mayor Robin Gardner, arguing against the referendum. The proposal, put forward by opponents of the City Center South project, would amend the City charter to require that mixed-use developments have at least 60 percent commercial space. “It’s not simply restricting City Council, it’s restricting the community from being able to evaluate the best projects for this community,” she said. Gardner heads a three-member slate endorsed by Citizens for a Better City.
Independent candidate Nader Baroukh, a referendum promoter, took the opposite side. One of the referendum’s early sponsors, he said, “I think the referendum is an extremely difficult issue. I think that our city must expand its tax base in order to maintain its independence and exceptional schools.” But the city’s current development strategy is too vague and weak, he continued. “It doesn’t drive the market in any way. It has led to artificial inflation in land values because owners know that the majority of Council will approve almost any project no matter how disproportionately residential it is.”
Former city employee Margaret Housen, running as an independent, also endorsed the measure. “I am in favor of the referendum for the simple reason that if 60 percent is commercial, then to me it stands to reason it would bring a constant flow of money in …and it will ultimately be less taxes for the taxpayers. Let’s face it, what has been done hasn’t worked, so we have to find something that works. And you can’t just dismiss it and throw the baby out with the bathwater, because we have to find a solution.”
Vice Mayor Lindy Hockenberry joined Gardner in attacking the referendum as too rigid and unworkable, saying it would drive away developers. “I didn’t support a similar referendum that was turned down by the voters a few years ago, mainly because it would totally restrict the Council from negotiating with developers. It would shut down all future development. Make no bones about it. There would not be a developer who would come into this situation” if the referendum passed. She said some residents may not understand that the referendum, if passed by voters, would still require approval by Virginia’s General Assembly, which she asserted was unlikely.
Lawrence Webb, a college admissions administrator running with Gardner and Hockenberry on the CBC ticket, said the referendum proposal is “bad government. I think the city of Falls Church has a tradition where its citizens have the opportunity to express their views on all projects that are coming before the city. By putting in such a charter change, it would potentially remove that long-standing tradition.”
Patrice Lepczyk, a freelance writer and artist running as an independent, opposed the referendum too. “There should be really a much more important reason when you want to change the charter, rather than risk ad-libbing [changes]… When major retail chains are filing for bankruptcy, this would be poor timing for a restrictive measure like the referendum to pass. The City of Falls Church needs further development to expand its tax base. Voting “no” against the referendum will help the city of Falls Church to maintain its autonomy, independence and therefore the special individualism and charm that we all hope to retain.”
Gardner added that a 2002 design for the City Center project, developed by the Street-works consultants, was very popular with city residents. “Well, that Street-Works project actually calls for 60 percent residential and 40 percent commercial. We’d never even see that project if this referendum, this charter change were to go through.”
A seventh candidate, independent E.B. Ed Hillegass, did not attend the forum, sponsored by the Falls Church League of women Voters and the Village Preservation and Improvement Society. You can view the candidates’ positions on questions from VPIS by clicking here.
The televised forum gave the candidates an opportunity to define themselves and their issues.
Baroukh, an attorney with the federal government, said he would seek to expand the city’s commercial tax base with “a more balanced approach.” The Council majority leadership “has lost its way,” he said, promising to be “a much needed alternative voice” on the Council.
Gardner said that in her eight years on the Council, she has helped to find innovative approaches to redeveloping commercial land that has been vacant for two decades. She has supported the construction of a new middle school and renovations to the high school, to maintain the city school’s excellence. “We have been able to keep the tax rate down, and in many years have lowered it.”
Hockenberry, a Falls Church teacher for 31 years, said she was proud of the Council’s work in economic development, in adding park and recreation areas and affordable housing, and particularly, in supporting the schools. “We have an excellent relationship with the School Board,” she said.
Housen, a former city employee, said the Council must act to bring “runaway costs under control” beginning with “excessive salaries of assistant managers and above.”
Lepczyk noted the “charm and friendliness” of the city, but said some of her experiences with City Hall have been “out of the twilight zone. The pattern of bureaucratic ineptitude has been amazing.”
Webb cited his volunteer work on the city Parks and Recreation Commission, saying that as a Council member, he would continue to seek ways to expand those services. As a college admissions official, he said, he appreciates the quality of the George Mason High School graduates and is committed to supporting the school programs in the future.
As incumbents, Gardner and Hockenberry have records to point to and defend, and they did so. They lead a City Council that has been committed to completing the City Center South portion of the development project, along Maple Avenue and Annandale Road. Council majorities over this decade have backed “mixed-use” developments with a majority of the space committed to condominiums and apartments, usually with ground level commercial areas, citing two reasons: Retailers have been unwilling to build stand-alone stores in the city, because it lies too close to the much larger shopping areas in Tysons Corner and Bailey’s Crossroads. Consultants have advised that new potential customers in mixed-use developments could create a critical mass of shoppers to persuade retailers to enter.
The City had hoped to develop both sides of Broad Street at once, but when its master developer could not assemble the land to do that, it opened up the process and received a proposal from the Atlantic Realty Cos. to build on the south side of Broad Street. The Council in February approved an amended version of the Atlantic Realty project, overriding the negative position of the Planning Commission. The project includes a grocery store (Harris Teeter is the intended store), 90,000 square feet of office, 412 apartments, 16 townhouses, 134 active adult condominiums, a 180-room hotel, and a new bowling facility. Click here for the City Center South page on the City website.
The city staff said that when the entire project is completed, probably in 2013, the City should realize net annual income of about $2.7 million from the project -- $5.4 million in new real estate, sales and business taxes, less $2.7 million in city expenses, including school operating costs of $1.1 million per year in 2013, assuming the development adds 75 new pupils from the project. Click here for an information sheet “Fiscal Impact of Revised and Expanded City Center Proposal,” prepared in January 2008 by City staff.
Advocates for the referendum, including former Vice Mayor Sam Mabry, contend that the city is underestimating the potential increase in student enrollment due to the City Center development and the impact that will have on annual city operating budgets and costs of new school facilities. City officials reply that the mixed-use projects now open on West Broad Street have produced fewer students than the city’s model projected.
VPIS urged the Planning Commission to reject the Atlantic Realty proposal on several grounds, including the lack of a public square or “commons,” the centerpiece of the Street-Works plan of 2002. While this could be part of a City Center North development, that hope looks remote, VPIS leaders say, because of the cost of assembling land on that part of Broad Street. Click here to read the VPIS position.
The Candidates' Forum will be rebroadcast on local cable station FCCTV -- Cox Ch. 12, RCN Ch. 2, and Verizon Ch. 35. Click here to view the FCCTV program schedule.
Information about all candidates on the ballot in both the City Council and School Board elections will be in the LWV Voter's Guide scheduled for publication in the May 1, 2008 issue of the Falls Church News Press.
Peter Behr is a freelance writer and a member of the steering committee for Deliberation Falls Church City. He is also a member of the Citizens for a Better City.
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