The Falls Church City Planning Commission failed to approve the historic affordable workforce housing site plan Monday night. The vote effectively kills the project designed to provide affordable housing to low income local workers. The vote by the appointed volunteer board overrides the city council's final approval of the project in August and ignores the recommendation from professional city staff to approve the site plan.
The Planning Commission vote kills the initiative because in order to move forward with the project, the Falls Church Housing Corporation needed to have site plan approval before the end of this month and the start of the next General Assembly session in January. Without an approved site plan, the FCHC has no ability to request state funds necessary to build the project. Conveniently, the Planning Commission also opted not to hold its only other regularly scheduled meeting in December for "lack of an agenda." The vote was 6 to 1 with only Lindy Hockenberry voting to approve site plan and allow the FCHC to request funds from Richmond.
The Planning Commission meeting was extremely difficult to watch. The commission is boiling pot of egos, misinformation, and hyper personal political agendas. The commission switched agendas several times, passed an unintelligible "resolution recommending its comments" in response to a simple council request for comments, asked for legal advice from one its own members who happens to be a lawyer (but not legal counsel for the commission), talked over each other, ignored and grimaced at speakers, applied speaking time rules inconsistently, inserted, rejected, and rearranged agenda items on the fly, and at various times was heard on open mic picked up by television cameras hissing "liar" and "he's lying again!" in response to presentations by the architect and public comments.
The campaign treasurer and girlfriend of council member Nader Baroukh (who has voted against the project several times) spoke against approval of the site plan claiming it would ruin the neighborhood. Former Planning Commissioners Rob Puentes and Bob Burnett, two of the most respected planning professionals to ever serve on the commission, submitted letters in support of the project and several local residents spoke in favor of the project.
Commissioner Suzanne Fauber, who has requested reappointment to the Planning Commission this month, voted no and gave no reason for her vote. Commissioner Christine Sanders, an advocate for anti-development lobbyist who has threatened to sue this blog and who is fond of wearing Nader Baroukh campaign buttons on the dais, voted against the approval. She spoke twice. First claiming her no vote was a "health and safety issue" and then finally cackling some explanation about how affordable housing was no longer needed because it was tied to a no longer viable city center south project. Commissioners John Lawrence, Melissa Teates, Maureen Budetti, and Ruth Rogers all said they were voting against site plan approval because they thought it was an overall flawed project and that affordable workforce housing should be sprinkled throughout the city rather than clustered in one place. Budetti, who earlier this year said she wanted Falls Church to remain a "walled off 1950s city," claimed that even though the city staff had provided a written recomendation to approve site plan, she "sensed" the staff really did not want them to allow the initiative to move forward.
Brave Lindy Hockenberry got it exactly right. She reminded her colleagues the only issue before them was approval of the site plan. Lindy gently pointed out it is the responsibility of elected city council members to address the broader policy questions about how to implement affordable housing policy. She reminded them the city council had already set the policy on affordable housing. Lindy urged her colleagues not to destroy a unique opportunity to provide affordable housing for local workers by myopic focus on nineteen parking spaces. Our city policy "should be about taking care of people, not focusing on nineteen silly parking spaces," said Lindy.
Hockenberry's pleas fell on deaf ears. The Planning Commission was determined to play out its peter principal and insert itself awkwardly into policy.
So despite the results of local elections, entreaties from citizens, advice from affordable housing professionals, and the recommendations of city staff, the Planning Commission made itself right at home (pun intended) in (un)making the city's affordable housing policy.
The unelected Planning Commission's policy? In difficult financial times, disregard professional advisors and the express policy of our elected representaives, and screw local workers first.
Pathetic. Just pathetic.
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UPDATE: The FC Housing Commission and Human Services Advisory Committees also met last night to consider the workforce housing plan. In an earlier post I said both volunteer boards were unlikely to approve the initiative. It turns out both citizen organizations focused on affordable housing issues recommended approval of the initiative. I understand HSAC was going down the same misguided policy path as the PC, but former school board chair Craig Cheney was instrumental in helping the committee frame its message. Good for him. So the PC stands alone. In its cold dark soulless place.
UPDATE 2: Commissioner Christine Sanders has taken a look around at the caranage she helped create and decided, "Yep. I'm in for another four year term." She has reapplied for another term on the PC. Also, Nigel Yates (of the No Hotel Group fame) has applied again for appointment to the PC. Meanwhile, a group of completely sane people who care about the city are somewhere drinking themselves into oblivion.
