Falls Church City staff has created an informal survey to help gather community input on the type and priority of capital infrastructure projects to fund in the next five-year Capital Improvements Program (fiscal years 2018-2022), which is part of the upcoming budget discussions. The survey will close at 11:45 p.m. on February 12 and is available at www.fallschurchva.gov/CIPSurvey.

Survey results will be presented to the Planning Commission and City Council during budget meetings from February through April and posted to the website.

The five-year Capital Improvements Program (CIP) identifies capital infrastructure needs of the community and indicates how these needs will be funded over the five-year period. In general, only projects that cost more than $150,000 and have a useful life in excess of five to 10 years qualify for funding in the CIP.

Capital infrastructure refers to the built environment that makes the City of Falls Church safe, healthy, engaging, and beautiful and helps fulfill the City Council’s vision of “A Special Place.” Projects can be mandatory, like police emergency radios, but others build a quality community. Some construction project examples include roads, sidewalks, crosswalks, bus shelters, traffic signals; stormwater water detention and pipes; tennis and basketball courts, park trails, park play equipment; and more.

CIP projects generally require significant engineering design and construction, whereas maintenance projects (like road paving, crosswalk painting, sidewalk section replacement, and landscaping) require routine upkeep every one to five years.