Politics & Government
FC City Council Begin to Brainstorm Year’s New ‘Policy Direction’
City Council begins prioritizing the council's work plan at retreat.
The Falls Church City Council and city staff members got comfortable in Wednesday as they began evaluating possible council work plan items for the upcoming fiscal year.
During the three hour long retreat, city manager Wyatt Shields gave updates to the council concerning the fiscal year 2011 council work plan items.
According that meeting’s agenda, “Council Work Plan Items are areas where the council will consider new policy direction” including code changes, contract approvals and projects coming to the city council that fall into adopted budget, CIP, resolutions and ordinances.
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The council, led by Mayor Nader Baroukh, agreed that anything concerning the budget was top priority. These work plan items concerning the budget include developing a budget calendar, exploring debt management structures, creating a multi-year operational budget and revenue sharing with schools.
The council also agreed that a top priority is for the city to help existing businesses in Falls Church grow through improving maintenance, parking, walkability, street amenities, public art and marketing.
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When asked by council member Robin Gardner on how to maintain the mom and pop shops that make Falls Church unique, Snyder answered through allowing people to “grow their buildings” without having to design for parking.
“Parking is an issue for all these small businesses,” Falls Church development services general manager Jim Snyder said. “The code requires what you have to stay even if you it is inadequate for what you’re planning. We have all these bulk parking competing with one another. Some businesses that want to expand can’t because of it. We have seen plans where businesses have been wiped out by a changing street.”
Using Pasadena as an example, Snyder told the council how he believes making minor changes such as parking code can help revitalize a part of town.
At the end of the retreat, the council decided another meeting was needed to narrow down the council’s focus as eight poster board-sized full pages of ideas were stuck against the wall.
