Monday’s Falls Church City Council meeting was opened with a moving presentation by the manager Alex Kuczkowski of the Falls Church Little League team which had won for the first time in memory the championship of the District 4 region. The team showed up en masse and was applauded strongly by the audience in the Council chambers. The team’s road to the championship came through an arduous seven-week process that Coach Kuczkowski said won the support of legions of new supporters as the process unfolded. He hailed the sportsmanship of the team members and the sense of community that grew to encompass players, parents and fans alike. It was a new experience for Falls Church but one that enthused local citizens are intent will not be the last going forward.

So allow us to add our congratulations to the team as preparations are now underway for the fall season.

The spirit of that opening presentation Monday did not carry through the rest of the meeting however, as a citizen activist said he took as “personal and troubling” what were apparently some innocent clerical errors in reports on the shadow impacts of a prospective new development at the Virginia Village site on S. Maple. The remarks led City Manager Wyatt Shields to assure the community that while there were some mistakes, there was no ill intent in anything that was produced and errors were corrected.

 The activist subsequently spoke again to walk back his remarks, saying he did not question the intentions of anyone involved. Nonetheless, the meeting wound up taking over four hours while minutiae of the proposed zoning and special exception components of new legislation were painstakingly discussed and ultimately passed unanimously.

We can take heart in the fact that this was ultimately resolved with a 7-0 vote. It is a far cry from days a decade ago when far more contentious Council meetings were held that also took long hours but led to split votes. It is an encouraging sign that the Virginia Village project will actually come to pass, even if the process will take a long time and be fraught with delays.

It is gradually getting across that this is about adding affordable housing, not about a developer’s grab for big profits. As such, frequently reminding the public that this is, indeed, the purpose behind all this effort, that the eventual achievement of concrete results will occur.

The bottom line for us is the recognition that this City Council has evolved and is considerably more sophisticated than ones of the past. Only one member now seems intent on throwing monkey wrenches in the process and the frustration at an inability to get her way as in days of old is becoming evident to all.