In this space this week, we reprint some of what Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi had to say at the conclusion of the historic vote to push ahead with the Virginia Village affordable housing project earlier this week, focusing on her admonition to not be governed by fear in this process.
“In this moment, I want to encourage us to be careful without being fearful,” Mayor Hardi said. “Because that is mostly what I hear. Whenever communities talk about housing, it’s human nature to focus on what could go wrong. We spend so much time imagining worst-case scenarios that we lose sight of the very real challenges that already exist today.
“Today, families struggle to find housing they can afford. Seniors who want to downsize and stay in Falls Church often have few options. Teachers, first responders, healthcare workers, restaurant employees increasingly find themselves priced out of the community. Students and young professionals find it impossible to return to the hometown they grew up in, maybe to only return to their parents’ basements or hopefully backyards. Many of those people are not in this room tonight.
“Meanwhile, communities across Northern Virginia and the US are having these same debates. Years of meetings. Years of hearings. Years of worrying about every possible downside. Years before anything gets built. And then we wonder why housing costs keep rising.
“The status quo is not risk-free. It has consequences too.
“Similarly, I know some up here have concerns about by-right zoning because it feels like we’re giving up control. And hopefully we decide to only apply that process to the non-city owned quads so we really can invite maximum creativity and not scare people away with a discretionary, uncertain process on the other side.
“For those of us who have been around for multiple special exception (SE) approvals and for those who feel like public trust in Council over development is an issue – I’d like to remind us that SEs that City Councils cast votes on are not mistake and complaint free.
“I believe we can be careful without being fearful. Leadership is about keeping a keen focus on our policy objectives, our goals, and commitments we made to the community now and to future generations.
“Years from now, they are going to remember whether we had the courage to do something tonight – to match our actions with our values. Whether we created enough homes for families who otherwise couldn’t afford to live here. Whether we preserved the opportunity for future generations to call Falls Church home.
“This is a generational opportunity, much like the bold decision to invest in a new high school and reimagine the land around it that helped pay for it. We can approach it with caution and thoughtfulness as we did eight years ago. That was a much bigger leap. We should not let fear make the decision for us.”
