Executive summaries are now available on the public City of Falls Church website for requests for proposals for the affordable housing development of the Virginia Village site on S. Maple in downtown Falls Church. The developer proposals range from those calling for the development of up to 200 units on the site ones proposing smaller alternatives.

The three submissions currently listed are from Homes for America, True Ground, and Urban Atlantic Development.

The City’s Virginia Village Proposals Evaluation Committee (VVPEC) is an ad hoc multidisciplinary committee representing relevant City boards, commissions, elected leadership, and professional staff serving in an advisory capacity to City Council. The committee will evaluate and rank Virginia Village developer proposals and submit its evaluation and recommended ranking of respondents to the City Council, who retain sole authority to determine final ranking of respondents and to select the top-ranked respondent.

The next meeting of the committee is slated for today, Thursday, Aug. 20 at 11 a.m. It will start in an open session. Follow on meetings will be held next Wednesday, Aug. 26 and Thursday, Aug. 27.

Members of the evaluation committee include Falls Church City Council member Marybeth Connelly, Economic Development Authority’s Jim Coyle, Planning Commission’s Phil Duncan, Housing Commission’s Sara Silverstein Ferrara, and from the City staff, Finance Director David So, director of planning Matt Mattauszek and Deputy City Manager Cindy Mester.

Virginia Village is an approximately 4.5-acre site along South Maple Avenue, between Bowl America and the Tax Analysts building. It features some of the only market affordable housing in the City, with 20 four-unit apartment buildings. The City has strategically purchased several of the Virginia Village properties over time, with the goal of preserving and expanding the neighborhood’s affordability through redevelopment.

In a heated discussion of these proposals in an open session of Monday’s meeting of the F.C. Economic Development Authority (EDA) at City Hall, Mayor Letty Hardi defended the decision to opt for greater openness and lack of specifics in the RFP call to enable the widest range of potential proposals to be submitted.

This week also, the Citizens for a Better City submitted another policy paper urging however many units get built on the site, that they allow for sufficient participation by families with lower income levels than usually accommodated in Falls Church.

Here is the latest CBC statement: 

For decades Falls Church has tried with limited success to meet the needs of affordable housing in the community. In 2021, the Citizens for a Better City and the League of Women Voters jointly focused attention on this issue by hosting panel discussions on the past, present, and future of such efforts.

Notably, the forums took place amidst the aftermath of the death of George Floyd. The key conclusion was that there needed to be a major expansion in the amount of affordable housing opportunities, along with an overarching objective of bringing about increased economic and racial diversity.

In 2026, the situation outlined in the forums remains largely unchanged. Since 2021, 43 affordable housing units (those at or below 60% of the Washington, D.C. Area Median Income [AMI]) have become available and over the past 20 years the City has brought 204 units into its inventory. While these accomplishments were hard won, it is important that the vast majority of the added units targeted wage earners with incomes at the 60% AMI level (about $80,000 for a family of four in 2021). What this meant then, and for the last 20 years as well, is the City has focused for the most part on middle income/workforce wage earners such as teachers and public safety personnel. Largely ignored were lower income wage earners at the 30% AMI level ($49,170 for a family of four in 2021), such as retail/hotel workers, house cleaners, janitors, kitchen staff, fast food workers, and servers/waitstaff.

Lastly, the City’s commitment to diversity and trying to address its legacy of segregation – notably, the late-1890s ceding back to Fairfax County of a large area where many African Americans lived – has been one of the driving forces behind the efforts focused on these items, including affordable housing. At least partly attributable to such efforts the City has clearly become more diverse over the past 20 years; Hispanics, up from 8% to 11% of the population, are now the largest non-white minority. During the same period, however, for reasons likely to include affordable housing, the African American population has been at 4-5%, with Falls Church commonly being viewed as the region’s least racially diverse community.

Recommendations: informed by our City’s history of affordable housing efforts, CBC recommends that the City Council: Residents: Act intentionally about who the residents will be as the Virginia Village project evolves. We strongly suggest the focus be on creating opportunities primarily for lower income wage earners. Expansion: Significantly expand the number of affordable housing units in Virginia Village, a minimum of 50% of which should be targeted on wage earners at the 30% AMI level.

Preservation: Seek extensions for existing affordable housing, such as the Fields’ 96 units set to expire next year. The City must continue to fund them adequately to ensure their AMI levels are sustained. Expanded affordable housing at Virginia Village should not be offset by the loss of existing units.

Financing: Prepare for the possibility that added taxpayer support could be needed to finance the Virginia Village units. If this need arose, we would actively engage to ensure such funding is available.

Diversity: Work to ensure that racial diversity is increased as a result of the City’s affordable housing efforts, including the Virginia Village Project.

(Hal Lippman is chair of the Citizens for a Better City, a former vice mayor of Falls Church and an elected member of the School Board).