Members of the Falls Church City Council appear ready to jumpstart plans for the city’s newest park.
As they determine what to do with the city government’s $5.3 million fiscal 2024 surplus, Council members seem enthusiastic to allocate $1.5 million to complete design and move forward with construction on what they call the Fellows site.
The city government in 2019 acquired the 1.9-acre property, located at 604 S. Oak Street near Oak Street Elementary School. The parcel previously had been the home of city resident Lydia “Betty” Fellows.
A master-planning effort was conducted to determine appropriate uses of the park. A 2020 resident survey found that 51% of respondents wanted passive-recreation uses on the site, 31% wanted it preserved as open space, and 18% wanted it used for active-recreation efforts.
At a Monday (Oct. 28) Council meeting where budget-surplus issues were discussed, Council member Marybeth Connelly said she was pleased that the park project, as well as funds to create more bike paths in the city, had been added into a list to receive some of the surplus funds.
“There’s community movement behind these two,” she said. “We’ve made a decision to keep going and not hold back.”
Council members have slated a Tuesday, Nov. 12 public hearing on the plan for surplus funds before taking a final vote on how that are allocated.
Falls Church currently is home to 14 city parks.
Tree Inventory May Have to Wait: Despite a request from its Urban Forestry Commission, Falls Church leaders seem disinclined to spend surplus funds on hiring a consultant to inventory the condition of trees on public land.
The commission asked City Council members to use $95,000 from the $5.3 million in available surplus to hire a certified arborist who would look at the status of approximately 12,000 trees.
Council member Erin Flynn, who wants to see continued attention paid to the city’s treescape, seemed to acknowledge the funding would not be forthcoming as part of the budget closeout.
But she asked city staff to look into the possibility as the city goes into its next budget cycle early next year.
Falls Church is a member of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, which in April set a goal of achieving a minimum 50% tree canopy across the region.
In 2023, an estimated 49.6% of the region’s 2.2 million acres of land was covered by tree canopy, according to Chesapeake Bay Program data. But that was down from an estimated 51.3% in 2014.
COG officials estimate that nearly 4,400 acres of tree canopy are lost in the region each year, owing to development and other factors.
Dinner with Other Elected Officials Proves Success: Members of the Falls Church City Council recently hosted a dinner for elected officials from Arlington and Alexandria.
And the city’s top leaders said it was a worthwhile effort.
“It was super-beneficial just to get to know people better and also discuss our commonalities, the way we are each addressing different topics,” Vice Mayor Debora Schantz-Hiscott said at the County’s Monday (Oct. 28) meeting.
“Ditto,” added Mayor Letty Hardi.
