Additional no-turn-on-red traffic restrictions are coming to Falls Church, and even more may be on the way.
Police Chief Shahram Fard told City Council members that the Department of Public Works has approved several of his requests for additional no-turn-on-red restrictions along Broad Street.
Signage is on the way, Fard said at a Council work session earlier this month.
His comments were part of a broader discussion on no-turn-on-red restrictions, which have begun popping up with more frequency along the city’s main east-west thoroughfare.
Mayor Letty Hardi said that, while on runs throughout the city, she has sometimes been the near-victim of vehicles turning on and off Broad.
“I’ve had to leap out of the way in the crosswalk several times,” she said.
Hardi suggested that banning turns on red lights might be something to consider for all intersections on Broad, for consistency’s sake.
“At some point, it’s worth thinking [about]: Is it more confusing to have half no-right-on-red and the other have regular?” she asked.
City Manager Wyatt Shields said staff is looking at the possibility of more no-right-on-red limitations, including the potential of a blanket prohibition on turning against the light.
“We’ll provide the council some feedback” later, he told Council members.
Death Could Get More Expensive in Falls Church: In Falls Church, death eventually could become more expensive.
To understand why, one has to look to the city’s eastern neighbor, Arlington, for an explanation.
Leaders in that locality, as part of their fiscal 2026 budget planning, have proposed adding a $25 administrative fee on top of the state and county taxes levied on the probate process for wills.
The state probate tax is 10 cents on each $100 of an estate’s worth, applicable to any estate worth more than $15,000. The local surcharge, if enacted by a locality, is up to 3.33 cents per $100.
On an Arlington estate with a probate valuation of $1 million, that would add up to $1,355 — $1,000 in state tax, $330 in local tax plus the new $25 fee.
There is an exception. “Assets that pass outside of probate, such as payable-on-death accounts, are not taxed,” Clerk of the Circuit Court Paul Ferguson told ARLnow.
Currently, Falls Church imposes neither the probate tax nor the $25 fee. But Ferguson — whose office serves both Arlington and Falls Church — tells ARLnow that he will alert city officials to the possibility of doing so.
Given the timing, it’s not likely such a measure would be included in City Manager Wyatt Shields’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal, slated for release in coming weeks. But it could be a consideration in the future.
The revenue brought in would be relatively small change for Falls Church leaders. But it would be something.
“We do have multi-million-dollar estates pass through probate,” Ferguson told ARLnow of the experience in Arlington. “It is rare that we collect more than $10,000 in tax, but it has happened.”
While it imposes the probate tax, Virginia does not have an estate tax. The federal government, which has imposed an estate tax since 1916, currently has tax rates ranging from 18% to 40%, although the first $14 million of an estate generally is exempt.
