The two contenders for an open seat on the Falls Church City Council used the same word to describe how city leaders should address housing policy going forward.
“We have to attack it in different ways. We have to be aggressive,” said Laura Downs.
“We’re going to have to take more aggressive steps than we have in the past,” said John Murphy.
Downs and Murphy squared off in a genial and facts-based forum at the monthly networking luncheon of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, held Tuesday (Oct. 15).
As attendees dined on pasta, chicken and vegetables, the candidates intimated that city leaders should push the envelope of the powers they currently have on housing, while also seeking more local autonomy from state leaders.
Perhaps the most newsworthy proposal on the issue came from Murphy, a former Board of Zoning Appeals chair, who pressed the case for creation of a housing authority that would have the power to build dwellings — likely committed-affordable ones — in the city.
“We need to look at ways to make it more affordable,” he said of the housing stock. “I just don’t see the market [doing it].”
Creation of a housing authority would require passage of a citywide ballot initiative. Where voters ultimately would land on the issue is anyone’s guess, but in neighboring Arlington, the electorate four separate times (in 1958, 1983, 2008 and 2013) rejected the concept by large margins.
Downs, who served on and chaired the School Board, didn’t address Murphy’s housing-authority proposal, but did voice support for a wider array of housing options in the 2.2-square-mile community of 15,000 people.
She promoted “having tiers and different options for all walks of life,” and bemoaned the fact that condominiums had not been built in the city for two decades.
At an earlier forum, sponsored by the League of Women Voters, the candidates spent time on the city’s proposed accessory-dwelling-unit rules, but that facet of the housing discussion didn’t come up at the Chamber forum. Other topics touched on in business group’s forum included parking, economic development, small-business survival and Falls Church’s relationship with its neighbors Fairfax County and Arlington.
Murphy and Downs emerged as the lone contenders to make the Nov. 5 ballot in a special election called to fill the remaining year in the term of Caroline Lian, who resigned earlier this year. The winner is expected to take office after the result is certified by local election officials a week after Election Day.
Like all Falls Church City Council seats, this one is an at-large post.
