Emerging from an hour-long closed session at the end of its business meeting tonight, the Falls Church City Council went back into open session to move and pass two motions unanimously. The first was to reiterate its earlier denial of all claims for refunds of alleged water overpayments received since the Council last took a similar action on May 23. The second was to authorize the City Attorney “to take all necessary steps to protect the City’s interests regarding City Center, including but not limited to, initiating legal action according to the terms and conditions discussed in closed session.”

City Manager Wyatt Shields told the News-Press he was not at liberty to discuss these matters further, but said there would be some public announcements soon. The latter matter concerned properties in the general area of the so-called City Center, the plan that the Council approved in 2007 for extensive development by the Atlantic Realty group but that has remained without action since.