Good evening and welcome to the City of Fairflex planning commission meeting of Monday, January 14, 2008. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance, all rise. of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. I'd like to wish my colleagues and the staff a happy and a healthy new year. Why don't we discuss the agenda? Are there any changes or do we have a motion to accept? All right, good. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. It's unanimous. Are there any presentations by the public this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to agenda item number three, which is consideration of the 2007 annual report, Ms. Kahnel-Essa. You have a chair places tonight, commissioners, a blue copy of the planning commission annual report that has had the benefit of some changes that couple of you brought forward to us. A couple of errors and an emission here and there. This has corrected I believe those that were called in and accurately reflects the commission's activities during 2007. This is a report that is annually reviewed and adopted by this commission and forwarded to the City Council for their information. Great. Thank you. Is there any discussion among the commissioners? I move the approval of the in the report. I second. It's a great discussion. I think we've thought everything that we went through in the past year. I'm not there with a. A busy year from certain standpoints with major projects going on, but also a year of transition. And it was noted 12 regular readings. The staff was busy. There were issues between it and many of the issues that we worked on were preparatory in dealing with the challenges we have coming up for this year. So I think we laid good groundwork and would like to see our agenda stay as busy or busy or this year seeing that that groundwork is solidified in a foundation built on it. And I think having a framework around it, annual calendar is going to be very helpful for us as a group. I just want to note that the ethics resolution that's noted in the annual report that was approved in April of 2007, forwarded to the City Council. And then once again, a follow-up letter was sent to the City Council in December of last year. On December 13, 2007, we have received a response from City Council. The consensus, as this is a summary letter, is from the City Council that the members of the Council believe that there are multiple existing ethical standards that are in place that are required for elected and appointed officials. And while they quote applaud our efforts and interest in ensuring all local government offices adhere to the highest ethical standards, at this point they feel that for the City Council to act as unnecessary and they leave it for the planning commission to discuss if we would like to adopt as far ourselves or not. And I'd like to recommend that we add this to the agenda item when the ethics cannons come up at a future meeting. Does that accept the buy everyone? Yes. Very good. All right. There was a motion to accept the annual report and it was second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Past you, unanimously. accept the annual report and it was second all those in favor please say aye aye Past unanimous lake Introduction of form based codes and next agenda item number four following on to Commissioner cutting him's earlier comments we have an opportunity for the first few months of this year as we get Ready to go forward with the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan. We have an opportunity to educate ourselves and ground ourselves in some of the terminology and some of the tools that we may be looking forward to using to implement such a plan. Those of you who have sat on the steering committee for this plan have heard the term form-based code most most all of you on this committee have. But I think it's difficult if you've never dealt with one to get a grasp on that. It's also a fairly new product and one that has different iterations in different communities. Mr. Cunningham called and and let me know that this Virginia chapter of the American Planning Association news brief had a fairly good article on form-based codes and how they're coming to the fore in some communities and giving a good overview of such products. We on staff had prepared also a little monograph on what is a form-based code, trying to get in lay terms to the extent possible what it does, what it doesn't do, and what its pros and cons are, in preparation for our discussion. Essentially, form-based code is, as its name would suggest, regulations that affect the way our community looks. It's form. How the buildings are cited. How the parking is cited more than the traditional zoning ordinance, which deals with the types of uses and separation of uses in a community. Form-based code is site-specific. So it's very micro-level design as to how a community would like to see build out. It provides for the shape of buildings, the location of buildings, and an underlying pallet of uses, which may go in there, but is not as anxious as most Euclidean zoning ordinances are to separate those uses. And in trying to get back to what some of us may have known from our youth as mixed-use communities where you could walk down the street, go into a bakery and somebody would live above the bakery and next door there might be some other kind of use. That's been almost impossible under Euclidean zoning because we very carefully separated out all these uses, trying to make sure that negative impacts didn't go on one another. I think over time in our wisdom we've discovered that that's created somewhat of a sterile environment in many cases and also a very ought to appeal dependent environment as we go from residential areas into commercial and industrial areas. So what this does is it takes a specific area and allows you parcel by parcel to look at the shape of the parcels, the types of building forms that might be appropriate for those, a very careful look at what type of transportation network, side streets, interlocking streets would be appropriate to deal with the kind of buildings we're talking about. And regulates not only the way the buildings look and the streets look, but enables things like shared parking and a much better mix of uses than we have now. It can be done a lot of ways and it can be quite cumbersome. Many of you are familiar, I think our most local example is the Columbia Pike area where they have been through a full form-based code preparation. They first put in place their form-based code in about 2003. This is a form-based code for that very small stretch of Arlington County. This is an appendix to their zoning ordinance. It's enormous. It's highly detailed. Since its approval in 2003, it's had a series of half a dozen or more amendments, as one would expect for a living document. And I think they've had some experience that we'll be able to build on as we look at this in the future for how we can avoid some of the questions and mistakes. The general idea with this is to go to the community and say, how do we want this area to look? And to get community buy-in in very detailed level as to what it should look like so that when development comes and when a developer comes in, we remove so much of the uncertainty that you have where you go into a site and say, I don't know what the community wants and bring a random proposal into the council. Developer knows up front what is going to be acceptable I don't know what the community wants and bring a random proposal into the council. Developer knows upfront what is going to be acceptable at that location. And so does the community know what to expect from that location. And so there's a whole lot of upfront planning, which is the purview of this board, fortunately, and something that we have to do in a much more detailed level in a form-based code. There will be several examples. I'm going to be gathering at various seminars, some other examples of working documents and how they function. Gathering a library that I will be willing to share with each one of you on some of this as you get into it will have some more formal presentations. As you know, with the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan, there was a very not very detailed draft of a form-based code possibly for that Boulevard that would need to be tweaked, but it gave you an idea of what could occur there. And really, the purpose tonight was just to give you an introduction to the concept. Hopefully as we get a little more information and revise this monograph on what is a form-based code, it'll be a good document to take out as we're going out with the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan to help the community begin to understand it before we go through the process during the zoning ordinance rewrite of using it. And that's the presentation. Thank you very much. And I'd like to thank Commissioner Cunningham for sharing the article with us. What I took away from the article was its focus on sort of place-based planning or development. I'm sure many of you saw the Washington Post article last week about the City of Fairfax model home Renaissance program. It was a wonderful article celebrating how the community plays a role in fostering redevelopment, literally a public-private partnership with the lender, commerce bank, and others who are involved with the program. And I really smiled when I saw, in particular particular the focus on having a front porch and it talks about the community and it speaks to what in fact the City of Fairfax is all about. But please, other comments about this. Mr. Caleon? Yes. I remember while I may have noted a moment ago in our annual report that we did not meet as often, that was in no way intended to mean that we have not been asking the staff for a tremendous amount of information and working through a process that is going to take a tremendous learning curve to climb. And I think the ideas that are expressed here are what have been worked on in the process, bringing the master, the effectable of our master plan to the fore at this time. They bear good information that will spill over into other portions of the community as we go forward. And they are extremely staff intensive. And I know that those things have kept the staff busy in the professional area so that as we reap the benefit of all of their hard work, it shows how much hard work has gone into it. And I think things like the Housing Renaissance Program, the fact that the staff has also been working on a pattern book for neighborhoods, the projects we've got coming along mean that our staff has been working extremely hard. And as we can bring this into focus, I would hope that they will continue to give us the guidance that we've come to expect as we work our way through this process and are able to pass on quality ideas for City Council consideration and use in our process of redeveloping or reviewing our master plan and our comprehensive plan this year. Yeah, and I think over my tenure as a member of the commission, how a number of the infill or spot developments, for my opinion, while they may have been appropriate under the existing zoning code, they didn't really follow the characteristics of the communities that they were being built in or celebrate the characteristics of similar housing, neighboring housing. So I think this is just a golden opportunity. Dr. Codden, any thoughts about this. No, I think the only question I have with you is this is one of the options. It's not mandated by the state. No, it's not. It's one of the tools that you can use to implement a plan. And the city has already used this one. This is we're looking considering using this type of of section of the zoning ordinance for the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan to realize that plan. And that will come forward in sections as we go through the zoning ordinance. What I frankly, I mean, liked about this really is that you say, you say it takes into consideration that local specific needs of that that it's not citywide but it can go to a different segment of the community where the need may be very different and unique. So it gives the flexibility really to do things that may not be appropriate for the whole city, but for that specific area. And I think what we see the existing stocks of homes in Fairfax, some of the old homes may require a very, this kind of farm-based code to do the redevelopment or in full development in some of the poorest areas of the city you have. That's my just thought. poorest mean the oldest, I mean economically poor but the old. First of all, sir. Miss Kodlesa, one of the things that I think we should consider, and I'm still reaching for words to describe it, but we're talking about the Fairfax Boulevard area. We're talking about three centers and two connectors. And you made a comment earlier about a detailed description on a parcel by a parcel basis. And I guess I'm thinking given the large number of parcels, the odd shapes of many of these parcels, that maybe we need to think, excuse me, in terms of a maybe slightly larger area, maybe two or three or four parcels rather than single parcels. And maybe these, as you move along the Boulevard, maybe they phase one into the other instead of having a sharp delineation between this group of parcels and that group of parcels that it is kind of a blending going on so that we're having consistency in what we're trying to do or how we're trying to apply the code. I don't know how that's going to work in terms of the detail that's necessary to facilitate the implementation of form-based code. But I don't think it's going to work necessarily on a pure parcel by a parcel basis. Yeah, and the intent is not to do each necessarily individual parcel, but sometimes it might be a block. There are occasions where you'll look at an individual parcel and say whatever's on that parcel right now is going nowhere for the next 50 years. For some reason it's just in belts, class A or whatever, it's going nowhere. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense then to design the whole block to change in a certain way. So you recognize the realities of what's on the site and how you can work around and with it. You might have a couple of odd shaped parcels and the statement is that in order to build under form-based code, those parcels need to be combined. Otherwise, you know, you very tightly hold to a by-right scenario to make that less likely. You're absolutely right. But it's site-specific and site may be a parcel or it may be several parts. Some of the parcel still are going to be perfect and you can do it on a standalone basis. But as you say others are going to need some form of combination to make it happen. But we will have to look at each piece of property as opposed to looking at a general large area and saying what type of zoning is appropriate for that we're going to have to look at not just the transportation aspects where the streets going to go Not just what it's next to and what it might be combined with But also what what are the environmental constraints everything that has to do with the parcel very specifically? Thank you. You mentioned that there may be some conferences that you will be attending to gather information. If any of them are appropriate for participation by the Planning Commission, please feel free to let us know about the process. I will indeed. Considering the focus that we're going to be placing on this issue to try to support you and also develop sound recommendations for the City Council, I think it behooves us if we can, if schedules permit to try to participate and take advantage of some of these conferences that possibly you're aware of. And if I'm correct, I believe that the annual Virginia Planning Conference is in rest on this year, which would be very convenient, and I will certainly, as soon as I get information, make you aware of that. Terrific. Thank you very much. Yes. I may ask, is that true that once this code is adapted, it will be hard to change? Any zoning ordinance can be changed at any time by going through the standard zoning text process. What is difficult is when you have something like a form-based code that is thoroughly vetted in a community and is very detailed. Part of the issue is let's bang out all the details and have the community buy into it so that when the developer comes in you can do it almost as a matter of right if that developer follows the rules. Well, if for some reason the developer doesn't want to follow the rules to change that, well, it's difficult because you've got to go get back and get your community buy-in to read, to read, to read out that. You can, however, build some flexibility into plans. And as these are coming to the foremork, there's several things. There's thresholds that have been established in some of these. For example, in Arlington, if it's less than a 40,000 square foot development, as long as it meets all of these aspects of the code, it's administrative through the staff. And greater than 40,000, it goes through the Planning Commission and City Council process still. So they've established a threshold of size. You can also, and this is fairly new, establish sunset provisions, say we do a form-based code and we think that what might be appropriate in one of these nodes is a certain mixture, size buildings that we want to promote and we lay it out in here. But who knows if that's going to be the right mix 50 years from now. So what you may do is say, all right development community, given the current environment and given the way our roads are and what we're doing right now, this is what we see, but it expires in five years or 10 years. So it has them come in, but it automatically, you know, reverts or changes after a certain period of time. You might also say that, okay, this is the form we want in this 123 and 50 corridor. The underlying uses might be retail, they might be commercial, they might be residential. Well, there might be a push right now for multifamily. Everybody wants to build multifamily. Whereas 10 years ago, they might have wanted to build office. Well, in order not to just open it up to whatever the current market idea is as opposed to what the community wants, you might say, okay, here, here's the building form and we want to mix your abuses. And to that end, in this particular grouping of properties, we will accept up to 500 multi-family units, set a threshold, and no more, and the rest has got to be whatever. So I mean, there are different ways you can approach a form-based code to make sure you get what the community wants, and anything beyond that would have to go through a process. So those are the types of things you can do to, you know, to try and make it flexible, but still set a standard. Thank you. Great. Great. Any more discussion on this agenda item? I trust we will have plenty of time to continue it because there are great many more details and issues that are that will rise under arrest. We'll be thank you very much for the introduction. Absolutely. Absolutely. issues that will rise under it. We'll be thank you very much for the introduction. Absolutely, absolutely. Item number five is the election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman for the Planning Commission. Before we move on to that item, I just feel it's appropriate to note that three of our colleagues have stepped down from the commission and we wish them the best and we'll be honoring them at a future meeting of the Planning Commission. But there are three open positions out of seven. And frankly, that places us at a crossroads as a group because it's critical for quorum purposes as well as the quality and robust functioning of this group that those appointments take place. I did communicate with Mayor Lederer to find out the status of those appointments. And he assures me that the council is interviewing and he hopes that by a week from Tuesday that in fact the council will deliberate and take action on the appointment. So I hope as we move forward we will have new colleagues joining us and the commission of the business will not be interrupted. I'm going to have to get back to it. Mr. Cunningham. With that as we get into election, I gather that's the next thing. And yes, you will open the floor and then we'll proceed. Sure. So we'll do it sequential. I believe and Ms. Colorado has prepared to back us up to see that we're maintaining appropriate rules. Right. Or under Robert's rule, I believe that I'm supposed to be stepping down if I am nominated from my role as chairperson. But first, let us open up the position of chairman for nominations. Are there any motions? Okay. I would just say that Mr. Barnbaum has done a tremendous job. He proven leaders by nominate him to continue one of these. Second, the nomination. I will accept the nomination and turn over the chair role to my assistant chair, Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster. Thank you. We have a nomination on the floor. Are there any other nominations? Then the nominations are closed. It should be pretty easy here. All those in favor of David Barronbaum to serve as chairman of the Planning Commission or the calendar 2008 year, please signify by saying aye. Aye. May I? Carried unanimously. Thank you, and the chair to the new chairman elect. Great, thank you very much. And it continues to be my honor to work with you and to serve as a volunteer in the city. Thank you very much. So let's move now on to the nomination for the vice chairman. Is there a nomination? Mr. Chairman, I would like to nominate Mr. William Foster as vice chairman. Second, then. Accept that nomination. Thank you. Okay, we'll call the question. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. And it seems to be unanimous. Congratulations. All right. So now we move on to the appointments to boards and commission. We have the board of architectural review and the park and recreation advisory board. What I suggest and I know there's been some discussion is that we take nominations tonight. And then as we have new colleagues join us, we can also revisit who was serving on various other boards and representing us. One of the items I would like to explore again this year because of the important issues that we're facing is to once again approach the city council to have a liaison from the city council to attend our meetings and vice versa, make an effort to attend their work sessions more regularly on issues of concern to us. So we'll save that for a future discussion. Do we have any nominations for the B.A.R.? More volunteers? Mr. Derewant. Go ahead. I would, I have been the representative for the Board of Architecture Review for several years now. And would be pleased to offer my services in that role again this year. Thank you. And as we look at some of these new opportunities for code, I think that actually is going to be a very critical role. Is there any discussion? Anyone else like to volunteer? Everyone except Mr. Cunningham in that role. We commend Mr. Cunningham in the comments. And we thank you. All right, so that appointment is done. And Parks and Recreation Advisory Board? Mr. Chairman, let me just make one comment. I frankly, I was the nominee and I enjoy the group, their phenomenal group, very dedicated. We have new leadership. But unfortunately, and I like the new leadership. The unfortunately, I couldn't continue because my commitment at work demand really has far exceeded. Now, I'm almost full time. So it really didn't have any time for the family. So for that reason, I asked the chairman to appoint somebody else. But I appreciate the opportunity that. No, and thank you for your efforts and the meetings that you attended. It's my understanding that Mr. Cunningham, you have stepped forward also for that role and we appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Foster, is that all right with you? Dr. Cunningham? Yes. Very good, very good. And I just want to share with the commission that we did receive a thank you from the staff of the parks and recreation on behalf of the board, expressing their appreciation for our review and for our diligence and looking at their proposal for the CIPate. So I just want to share that with you. Yes, Mr. Chairman. We have two other appointments. Mr. Kenningham and I have been serving on the Fairfax Boulevard Steering Committee. And I don't know that we formalized that, but we probably ought to. And I can't speak for Mr. Kenningham, but I would be delighted to continue as long as the Steering Committee is in existence. I think that would be fine. And are both appointments for the Fairfax? Hold of our steering committee. The steering committee has two members of the Planning Commission, two members of the EDA, two members of, oh my gracious. It was the I have a memory lapse in serving. So that yes, there would be two positions. Great. Thank you. I just want to check when this cut a less as far as the timing of that appointment, is there any specific date or does it follow the calendar year? I'm not aware of any specific date, but you might just word the motion to be a point continuing appointment from the board. That works right. Is there a second? Second, and I would like to indicate and following up on that, that I would be pleased to continue working with that group as well. It's been very productive. I will feel over the last several years. Very good. Is there a unanimous vote on that? I believe there is. Yes. Very good. So we have consensus on that. And actually as we move ahead to the staff report why don't we begin with the status of the in fact the Fairfax Boulevard Master Plan and where we are. At the moment we are awaiting a return from the consultants who prepared the plan for some revisions that were based on staff comments and summary from the Landsdown Conference that you all had. That should be in place within the next couple of weeks. It's expected that that plan revision will be reviewed by staff summarized and carried forward to the steering committee that you've just made your reappointments to. That steering committee will then set the direction. It consists of the members of council, plus members of these other bodies. Will then set the direction for the actual implementation and forward progress of that plan. Great, thank you. And is there anything else in the staff report this evening? I have a couple of things. One is just a reminder. I hope everybody's by now got their statements of economic interest in since they're due tomorrow. And I wanted to pass something out to you all. You all may already be aware of this, but there is something of interest on the web called lobbyist in a box, which is through the Virginia legislature. And it's a prescription subscription subscription service, which is fairly expensive, but for citizens, each individual citizen can get up on there and sign up and follow and see all of the bills that are in progress in the legislature and can also get email notifications when things come up of interest. The second page, and the first page tells you how to get there and look at it. The second page is my profile that I created to get up there and follow some bills and asked it to notify me when bills are introduced that have the words land use or zoning or transportation or comprehensive plan in them. It will follow for you five bills at a time only and there are probably several hundred right now. But if once you've sort of looked through their brief descriptions, you can pick the ones of most interest to you and you see on the left hand side, some of the ones that I'm following. One is a primary interest to this board is the Joint Committee. They're setting up a committee on the Dillon Rule which over two years is due to do a full review of how the Dillon Rule in Virginia affects what we do versus since they're only four or five Dillon Rule states in the country whether or not that's good to continue. Ms. Connelly, so for the benefits of anyone watching at home, could you just do a quick three sentence on the villain rule? Yeah. In Virginia, localities are allowed to do exactly what Richmond gives them permission to do. It's not like a home rule state where you, or a home rural locality, you have to have some basis in Virginia code to be able to do what it is we're doing here in zoning and every other kind of land use based legislation. If it's not specifically permissible, then it's, or easily derived from the general public health safety and welfare, then it is not permissible, as opposed to other localities, where you sort of make your own way and write your own rules. That constricts, and it also causes a whole lot of rules to go through Richmond that are very site specific rules, you know, counties between 35,000 and 50,000 people with these parameters can do thus and such. It really chokes up the legislature and limits what localities can do. So they'll have a good discussion. It'll be a two year discussion and you'll be able to see the results of that. It'll be kind of interesting. Several other things are coming about in terms of variances and nonconforming uses and what the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority is doing. A lot of really interesting things on overcrowding, which is a big topic in our community and many other communities. They're building code rules with how many people per square foot, but there's also other overcrowding issues that are reflected in zoning. All of that's a hot topic of debate. So you might want to get up there and follow things that interest you. It's great because it keeps you up to date. And as most of you know, it might bounce back and forth between the Senate and the House and until it's all done signed at the end. It is, but it is a topic of discussion. And before, you know, we just talked about having it last year. I'd sort of an overview of what happened in legislature Now you've ever see it in process and I just thought you all might find it an interesting tool Thank you. I think it's a terrific tool Anything else on the staff report now good. I just have a quick question. I've noticed Driving through the city that there are areas where development is taking place as planned But I've also noticed that from appearance there are areas that I think some of the some of the developments that we have acted on appear to be slowing down and I'm wondering if the real estate market is having any impact or effect on the volume of papers or approvals that you're seeing in the office right now. I really can't speak to that directly. I haven't been around long enough. This go round to sort of see the changes that have been occurring. A lot of times after you see something go through, there is a fairly extensive site plan review process. And then sometimes in that process, there are other things on Earth where they have to make some changes and you go through dozens of iterations of engineered plans. That has slowed up a couple of the things I know that you're probably thinking of. But other than that, I'm not aware of anything that's caused, you know, the current economy has caused a specific slowdown. Right. And upcoming issues that you expect are there any proposals or applications that will be coming our way? Not on the current fast track horizon. There will be some zoning text amendments that they're still back with council to talk about how they want them to be brought forward, but right now there is nothing on the track. Any other questions or thoughts? Please Mr. Finneum. anything on the track. Great. Any other questions or thoughts? Please, Mr. Fennium. The one comment I would have for one of the issues in terms of the agenda is one that's a carryover from December and that's that there were several individual items dealing with route 123 that were in the comprehensive or the CIP discussions, and would like to be able to follow up so that we can bring those into a focus if we could sometime this spring, is that the CIP is also proceeding. Keep those on our agenda. And possibly we could have a work session with some of the civics in the area or other interested parties, businesses, or others along the corridor. Any other discussion or thoughts about his staff report? The section, thank you. Great, I appreciate it. And as we begin the new year, I want to express our appreciation to you and the staffing that you're providing to us. It's wonderful. And we're very blessed that we have you with us on the serving as our staff liaison on the commission. So thank you. Thank you. Moving on to commission comments. Dr. Cohn? Well, again, you know, appreciate the services, but I think I want to commend Jeanne. She's a very good and very reliable. And appreciate all the things she does on the commission. And it has been a moment. Last year was very productive year. And I'm looking forward to this year. Thank you. I will echo Dr. Conn's remarks. Very good. I will say that as we start the new year and we are a somewhat diminished group, I'm going to miss the input that our three departed members have provided in the past because I think they've kept this group very vital. Mrs. Bumpery has been a stalwart and it will be very difficult to replace that kind of experience level of the expertise that comes with it. Mr. Fitzgerald, likewise from his professional thoughts and all of the experience that we've had here has been tremendous and kept us a viable group so that I would like to congratulate the City Council in advance somewhat for the quality of the candidates they're going to fill our empty seats with. Because my expectation is that we'll be able to proceed with an active agenda this year and work at the same level while we bring people up to speed, but have the same kinds of input and quality of input than the ability to reach out to the community to ensure the things that we're doing are vetted and everybody's aware of them and has had a chance to weigh in on them. So I absolutely concur. I think the free thinkers and the folk fact that we've had such diverse backgrounds on this commission has really led to some very good decisions out of the commission as a whole. Just as a final note, I look forward and I'm sure everyone has noted the lights on in the City of Fairfax Public Library. The bookshelves are filled and the grand opening is quickly coming up. I believe is the 26th, the next 26th. So the community I believe is invited to that and it's very exciting. So with that, we will adjourn. Thank you.