"All in all, a lot has taken place in the last year due to a lot of hard work by a lot of good people," said City of Falls Church Mayor Dan Gardner. "The result is very positive, and the future looks bright, although not without its challenges."
Thus, Gardner summed up the annual mayor's "State of the City" interview with the News-Press last week. The News-Press has conducted such exclusive interviews with the mayors of Falls Church every summer since 1993.
Gardner broke his comments into two sections, the achievements of the last 12 months and the prospects for the next 12.
"A lot of positive things have happened in the last 12 months," he began. "First and foremost was the hard work and community support that went into the passage of the referendum to finance construction of a new middle school, which validated the bed rock values of the community, and will result in the construction of the first new school here in 50 years. In addition, there will be enhancements at Mt. Daniel School, providing overall for 700 new students. This will solve the overcrowding problem and will provide a surplus of space to grow into and should be ready by the fall of 2005."
"We can see the work being done on these projects right now, and I'm pleased that the School Board has worked hard with school staff, in combination with a lot of diligent citizen input to bring it to pass."
The next most important achievement, the mayor said, was across the board in the area of economic development. "We've approved three significant projects, the Byron, the Spectrum and the Atlantic Realty project on the Diener tract," he said. "In each case, we've learned from the preceding one. We evolved better ways to evaluate such projects and the result has been a better product each time, given that each has been unique given its site and make-up."
He added, "We've been able to provide the City with both significant initial proffers and significant net revenue to lighten the tax load in the future. As we move forward, we will continue to raise the bar. We'll bring on better and better projects, more and more beneficial to the City."
"We are now a proven market," he said. "We were untested three years ago, but now we have investors willing to invest. We're getting a better mix of commercial and residential development, and I'm looking forward to what's coming next."
The mayor also pointed to the City's ability to maintain its public services, including its public safety services, while lowering the tax rate by five cents, from $1.13 to $1.08 per $100 assessed valuation, the biggest one-year cut in over a decade. He acknowledged the rate cut was done in an attempt to assuage the impact of a hefty hike in real estate assessments, the result of a combination of a long-overdue thorough reassessment of every property in the City, regional real estate trends and the impact of the outstanding reputation of the Falls Church City Schools.
"The baseline data base on assessments will help us in the future," Mayor Gardner added, noting that the public generally took the big one-year jump in assessments in stride. "People understood the requirements and accepted the results," he said.
"What we experienced was the same as our neighboring jurisdictions, driven by the overall Northern Virginia market," he said. "In Falls Church City, if you have a home, it's the best investment you've made. You can't say that elsewhere. We get an extra bump here from our outstanding schools, our great community and our location inside the beltway."
The mayor noted that while "the market in real estate continues to be strong," he does not expect anything like last year's jump in valuations again this coming year.
He went on to point to the City's enhanced bond rating, which enjoyed a two-point jump by Standard and Poor this spring. "The enhanced rating went to the soundness of our overall fiscal policy, by our sticking to debt and fund balance policies that are now in place," he said. "The bond raters commented on our fiscal policies and the City leadership's firm commitment to support them."
He praised the role of the City's chief financial officer, Shirley Hughes, in devising and maintaining the City's fiscal policy. "She has been the mainstay of prudent policy, and I'm sorry to see her leave," he said, referring to her recent decision to accept a new position.
The mayor also praised the outcome of the municipal election in this spring. "Voters re-elected two outstanding Council people to continue their leadership and David Chavern was elected as a talented, level-headed and intelligent addition."
"A lot of things were done to better manage the City in the last year," Gardner added. "Our City Manager Dan McKeever has nurtured and enhanced a very professional team at City Hall.
Turning his attention to the goals of the coming 12 months, Mayor Gardner first addressed the new economic development initiative, the City Center redevelopment. "This continues to be negotiated" with the City's chosen "master developer," the Akridge Company, Gardner said. "We'll have a lot more information after the summer."
He said that while he can't talk a lot about the details of the deliberations between the City staff and the developer, he said it is important "that the City is a participant with resources to bring to the table to produce something that will bring the best ultimate yield for the City in the long run and make economic sense."
"This is going to be a major development and there will be plenty of controversy, but I am confident we will come through with the best project possible. It is the hallmark of the City for the public to vet all the issues and this case will be no exception. I trust that people will do their homework and bring a balanced viewpoint to the discussions," he said.
"Some will love what we'll do, some may hate it. But we'll still be the City of Falls Church facing the same issues as have been handled by larger jurisdictions. Ideally, the outcome will produce a distinct sense of place, a 'there there' place," he said.
"There will be no quick fix. It will take time to redevelop four major blocks of the City into an overall integrated whole," he said. "It will be phased to be feasible for both the developer and the City. But it will be a major challenge. It won't be painless. There will be a reduced traffic flow and dirt and dust. But we'll live through it, and we won't turn back."
The mayor said, "It will be a significant challenge to manage what we're facing. It's been good for us to get some of these other, smaller projects under our belts and gain the experience of lessons learned. The latest, the Diener project, was the best yet and raised the bar for what we'll do from now on."
"But the City Center will be a whole different ball game," he went on. "By being phased in, it will be prolonged, but the necessary adjustments minimized. Overall, it will take four, six or eight years to complete. I'm not sure right now."
Gardner added that with all the development in Arlington, including in the Clarendon area, "I have taken the same route to work at the Pentagon every day, and the work hasn't slowed my commute once. I'm convinced we can make it happen. Each phase of our project will bring new opportunities for shopping, eating and entertainment. It won't be painless, but we have to focus on the positives."
As for the City's role, he said we will most likely not participate financially except with City owned land, infrastructure and some federal money that we might get coming our way." He said that could be achieved in part by "working a new post office into the deal. It's a tall order, but we'll go after it."
As for the City's powers of eminent domain, he said utilizing that tool "is an unlikely outcome."
"I may be overly optimistic, but hopefully by next year at this time there will be a spade in the ground, and we'll take it a year at a time after that."
As for other prospects for the coming year, the mayor said he's "excited about" the creation of an Open Space Task Force, and the City's prospects for spending money to acquire open space, or obtain it through trades or conservation easements. He said he's also encouraged by the recent efforts to update the tree ordinance and the City's commitment to look at the issues of the environment, trees, impervious surfaces and the flood plain "from a balanced systems perspective."
"These are very important issues for the citizens, and very worthwhile," he said. He also praised Council colleagues David Snyder and Vice Mayor Marty Meserve for taking the lead in development a resolution on civil liberties and national security identifying potentials for abuse in the Patriot Act that the Council passed earlier this month.
On affordable housing, the mayor called it "a challenge we have to take on. There has been exciting proposal by the Falls Church Housing Corporation. I'm pleased to see more coming forward from them, and believe there will be a nice compromise on the West End. I hope to see that happen. It depends on finding the right balance."
"The big issues are the schools and economic development," he said. "But there is also the day in, day out running of the City. That includes housing and human development, public safety, a solid community and a solid government."
In terms of prospects for next spring's budget, he said that the new school bond costs have already been factored in to projections, and that proffers from the three developments approved in the last year will contribute substantially to buying down the debt. "That would be the logical way to use them," he said, noting that they will not come to the City, however, until the projects are completed.
But he noted that these projects will also contribute net tax revenue to the City, which should begin to impact the Fiscal Year 2006 (which begins next July 1) revenue stream.
"All in all," the mayor concluded, "A lot has taken place and we face a lot of positive challenges that can be met by a lot of hard work by a lot of good people. What we face are the same challenges that are facing all jurisdictions in this region, as those challenges have been identified recently by an excellent series in both the Washington Post and the News-Press. We'll continue to work diligently to address the needs that arise."