Falls Church City Needs You

Four of the seven seats on the Falls Church City Planning Commission  will be up for reappointment in December.  Allow me to be direct in encouraging good readers to apply for appointment.  The city would be best served by a wide diversity of applicants. 

The PC has a huge impact on the direction of development in the city.  Its importance is magnified by antiquated language in our city charter which gives it the ability in certain circumstances to "overrule" our elected city council and dictate to professional city planning staff. 

Since 2000 our majority city council has made remarkable strides in securing the basic economics of the city and injecting vibrancy and a sense of energy into downtown re-development.  Of course, the council has not acted by themselves.  They have had help from boards and commissions, excellent city staff, and a number of extraordinary volunteers.  The PC has been vital to the re-development era - sometimes as co-agents of change and sometimes as loyal opposition.

In recent years, however, citizen apathy and a lack of political leadership has set the PC adrift.  The unmoored PC has caused havoc in mixed used development projects and the city center south project.  I have documented some of the issues here.   But they are really just the tip of the iceberg.   

Let me pause here.  Some of the issues with the PC are due to the conduct of the commissioners themselves.  Without going into a lot of unnecessary details, that is just a truth you will have to trust me on.  But most of the issues have been caused by lack of leadership from city council.  The council has ignored the PC to its detriment.  It has appointed warm bodies with no particular background in planning (or, unbelievably, appointed people with anti-development backgrounds) and allowed vacancies to remain unfilled.  It has allowed the lines of communication with the PC to deteriorate to the breaking point.  At times the relationship between the two bodies has been downright toxic.  Reckless naysayers like council members Snyder and Baroukh have leveraged this public tension for their own personal political motives.  The disputes have also led directly to the city being pulled into pointless and costly litigation (see Broad Street Hotel et al).

The council's lack of leadership on working with the PC in my view is one of the top three mistakes it has made since 2000.  The other two, btw, are not putting revised zoning codes in place before undertaking significant development initiatives and in allowing the Team Dave Synder problem to fester. 

I digress.  There are four vacancies on the PC which can be filled in December.  Two incumbents have already asked for reappointment, and a third citizen has asked for appointment.  The other two incumbent may still ask for re-appointment.  But really it does not matter.  The city council should have as many qualified applicants to chose from as possible. 

Application for the Planning Commission is really simple.  (1) You must be a city resident.  (2) You must attend one meeting or work session of the Planning Commission.  (3) You must complete an application for board or commission (see online application for board or commission).  Applications will be reviewed and successful applicants will be appointed to a four year term by the city council.

No prior experience is required (citizens with a wide range of professional experience have served).  It is a part time volunteer gig. 

Good luck.  Tell them Blueweeds sent you.