After nearly two hours of trash talk, Falls Church City Council leaders have settled on two potential options for funding future garbage collection and recycling services.
Council members have set a Sept. 8 date for a public hearing, and a likely final vote, on the long anticipated switch away from paying for trash collection and recycling services via general taxation.
The Falls Church City Council is considering future changes to the city’s tax relief policies for seniors and people with permanent disabilities.
Council members considered a relatively straightforward staff request on Monday night: updating the city code to include changes that leaders made about two years ago with regards to real estate tax relief.
Falls Church is considering changes to trash and recycling services, but city leaders say a voter referendum is unlikely.
The changes could decrease the financial burden on some property owners while increasing fees for single-family homeowners.
The next Falls Church City Council will be the one to decide whether some City advisory panels need to be merged or disbanded.
“This would be a big effort. Even getting rid of one is going to have all kinds of psychological weight associated with it,” City Manager Wyatt Shields acknowledged when the proposal to consider changes to advisory boards and commissions came up at meeting last week.
It most likely will be 2028 before the Falls Church Police Department learns if it has achieved national accreditation.
But Police Chief Shahram Fard has a prediction.
Falls Church has hired its first outreach specialist for the city’s Vietnamese communities.
Following city leaders’ promises to improve engagement with Vietnamese-American residents and businesses, Le Nguyen, a veteran journalist with local ties, started work on July 10.
An 82% increase in estimated costs has led Falls Church officials to rethink plans to improve a key city byway.
As a result, it appears likely that transportation and stormwater improvements along Lincoln Avenue will be phased in over time.
Falls Church officials next week are expected to authorize requests for regional funds in support of two key transportation upgrades.
The proposals for Haycock Road and Annandale Road were discussed at the July 7 City Council work session, with formal action slated for Monday, July 14.
Falls Church officials are considering whether to allow public safety aides to issue parking tickets, direct traffic and respond to abandoned vehicles.
Under current Falls Church city code, only sworn law enforcement officers have the ability to conduct parking and traffic control.
Revamps of parking, towing and tree-canopy requirements could be coming to an increasingly urbanized Falls Church.
A work plan from City Manager Wyatt Shields includes a possible rewrite of existing rules for how much parking new development projects must include, plus possible changes to the city’s tree canopy ordinance and towing ordinance.
The ad-hoc task force studying trash collection options in Falls Church continues to refine ideas as a key deadline draws ever nearer.
With two meetings down and two more to go, the goal is to now “get closer to a path forward,” said Deputy City Manager Andy Young, who is chairing the panel.
Falls Church leaders remain noncommittal to a request from the owner of the city’s weekly newspaper for a partnership.
Nicholas Benton, who has owned and run the Falls Church News-Press from its founding in March 1991, came to the City Council on June 16, following up on previous proposals to have city leaders provide more funding.
