A recent forum quizzed Falls Church City Council candidates on what local governments can do to blunt ever-increasing costs of child care and preschool services in Northern Virginia.
It was, one incumbent noted, the first time the issue had been raised during a candidate forum in her memory.
“We are breaking ground,” Marybeth Connelly said during the Tuesday (Oct. 21) debate, sponsored by the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce and hosted by the new Paragon Founders Row theater complex.
Connelly said a first step for the city government would be compiling, and keeping updated, an online list of available child-care facilities across the community.
“Create some kind of database” parents can search, she suggested, while also holding out the possibility of the city — and taxpayers — potentially providing subsidies for child-care facilities or those who need them.
Challenger James Thompson, Jr., also was in favor of a database to serve as a “ready-to-go, one-stop place to look.”
He wanted a deeper dive into existing zoning regulations and whether they could be eased to permit more child-care offerings in certain areas of the community.
Arthur Agin, another challenger, agreed with that sentiment.
“Many of our zoning rules do not include that allowance [for child-care facilities],” he said. “That is something we can take care of quickly.”
Council member Laura Downs was one of several who said future potential development at S. Maple Avenue and Annandale Road might be a spot for a child-care facility, while pressing for a more comprehensive set of options citywide.
“We’d have to look at what kind of tools in our toolbox we could use” to entice providers to Falls Church, she said.
The third challenger, Brian Pendleton, also was among those saying local government should do something. What that should be, he said, was still undetermined.
“Does the city have a role? Absolutely,” Pendleton said. “We need to get together and figure it out.”
Speaking last on the question, incumbent David Snyder said that before rushing headlong to embrace future facilities, a step back was in order.
“The first thing we need to do is assess the need — assist and support the providers that are already out there,” he said.
After doing that, local leaders could then focus on determining what to do if more child-care providers are needed, Snyder said.
The forum also touched on topics ranging from mixed-use development and school funding to housing affordability.
Many of the topics — minus child care — had been discussed at an earlier candidate forum hosted by Citizens for a Better City. Because of scheduling conflicts, two of the incumbents (Snyder and Connelly) were unable to attend that event.
Moderator Andrew Painter, a land-use attorney, said the candidates represented “a good cross-section of who is living in Falls Church,” while Chamber executive director Elise Neil-Bengtson said the forum was a way for the business community to have input on decision-making.
“One of the benefits of being a member [of the Chamber] is you have access to elected officials,” she told attendees. “They do want to hear from you.”
Four of the Council’s seven seats are on the ballot this year. Debora Schantz-Hiscott is alone among incumbents occupying those seats in not seeking re-election.
The three other Council seats will next be on the ballot in November 2027.
