In the third and final debate last week, as the hours tick off closer and closer to the Nov. 7 election day, the City of Falls Church’s four candidates vying for three open seats on the Council finally revealed some daylight between them on issues vital to the City. The debate was hosted by the City’s venerable civic action organization, the Citizens for a Better City (CBC), which earlier this election round under the leadership of former Vice Mayor Hal Lippman got all the candidates to sign onto an “integrity  pledge” not to accept funding from outside sources.

The first two debates, hosted by the City’s League of Women Voters chapter and the F.C. Chamber of Commerce, saw little differentiation among the candidates. Granted, three of them have all been endorsed by the new civic group, Falls Church Forward, and also the local Sierra Club chapter; even so it was enlightening to see policy differences emerge not among them, but between them and relative newcomer Erin Flynn.

The three Falls Church Forward candidates also broke from a decade-long practice to take out a joint ad in the News-Press this week (see below). It is not clear that they thus now wish to be considered a “slate,” but they have definitely decided they want to run as a team in the mind of voters, ostensibly on the idea that all three have been endorsed by the Sierra Club for “their eco-friendly policies.”

This quasi-slate development is something which hasn’t happened in local Falls Church politics since the CBC pulled out of the electoral politics game in 2012, following over 50 years of its very hands on approach to the process and all the CBC-endorsed candidates ran as a slate, chosen by voting among citizen activists at public pre-election candidate assemblies. 

The half-page ad (below) in this week’s News-Press touts the candidacies of incumbent vice mayor Letty Hardi, Planning Commission chair Tim Stevens and Housing Commission member Justine Underhill, citing their shared commitment the eco-friendly commitments to expanding diverse and affordable housing to reduce sprawl, to encourage adaptive reuse and revitalization so daily needs can be met in The Little City, to add bike lanes, sidewalks and safer crossings to expand car-free travel options, and to maintain distinctive high tree canopy, green space and the network of parks and trails in the City.

Flynn, a newcomer of the last few years to Falls Church, is an accomplished 13 year veteran with the U.S. Justice Department, has a modest ad in this week’s News-Press (see Page 2) that has been running for a number of weeks which touts her as “independent, capable and committed.” Both ads cite the availability of early voting on weekends up through Nov. 4.

Also in this issue of the News-Press appears statements from the candidates themselves, invited to provide them by the News-Press on their qualifications and issues (See Pages 12 and 13).

The net effect of the three public debates and campaign literature suggests that while Hardi, Stevens and Underhill stand for a general continuation of the policies of the last decade, which have encouraged reasonable economic growth to help pay for a new $120 million high school and renovations of City Hall and the Mary Riley Styles Library while the real estate tax rate dropped by 13.5 cents. Their focus now has shifted toward the renovation and retrofitting of existing properties, such as has been occurring in the recent period, with impressive redos along W. Broad Street. Flynn dove into the recent months’ contentious and many months-long debate over modifying the City’s transitional zones to allow some more diversified forms of housing. She was on the losing end of that issue, opposing the changes but in the process became a champion of sorts for the citizens who also opposed the changes.

The debate last week at the American Legion Hall, moderated deftly by Pete Davis, found the Falls Church Forward “slate” of Hardi, Stevens and Underhill focused on what they hope to build on in the coming years, while Flynn took a more negative posture toward recent local policies, though she said she would look to work with others in the context of a diversity of views.

Her main criticisms involved questions about the inability of the City to fill its retail and office spaces, while Hardi countered with data showing that Falls Church’s office and retail vacancy rates are far less than its Fairfax and Arlington neighbors. Hardi also countered Flynn’s citing the fact that the motion picture component of Founders Row 1 has been slowed with the fact that delays were due to Covid and that the entire Founders Row project is now already almost half filled, including by two fine restaurants that have received laudatory writeups in the New York Times.

An innovative idea from Stevens involved pressing for a west side entry to the East Falls Church Metro station that would enable folks on N. Washington (Route 29) to conveniently walk to that station.

Underhill said she would like to enable affordable housing development along the transit corridors of the City to make it easier for residents there to access Metro and bus lines.

Hardi noted the “regional housing crisis” that initiatives such as the t-zone changes were designed to address and Flynn focused on the unfilled openings in the City’s Department of Public Works creating a “lack of reliability in City services” and her worries about density.

Hardi said she wants to continue her work on the Council to provide a vibrant, sustainable and inclusive City, noting that she “does her homework” and represents a “pragmatic voice” on the Council.