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4-17-2025

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April 17 -23, 2025

Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free

Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 10

The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia

In Reversal, A CHEERY PROCESSIONAL F.C. Council Nixes Tax Reduction Lower Revenue Worries Arising Due to Trump by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Citing a revised projection downward of $1.2 million in upcoming fiscal year revenue due to draconian Trump administration federal worker and contractor layoffs, the Falls Church City Council voted unanimously Monday night to work with new budget numbers eliminating the 2.5 cent real estate tax reduction recommended earlier by City Manager Wyatt Shields and instead proceeding with one that has no tax rate cut. The dramatic change, keeping the current rate of $1.21 per $100 of assessed valuation instead of Shields’ earlier proposal for a rate cut to $1.185, was adopted with no disputes among the Council’s seven members, and still leaves open the prospect that some changes could be introduced before its approval of the final budget for the coming year on May 12. The Council also moved to increase the personal property tax rate, the so-called car tax, upward to $5 per $100 assessed valuation. Shields told the Council Monday that budget numbers in the current fiscal year indicate that “we face a challenging economy” and that he is forecasting that $1.2 million less than originally calculated will come to City coffers in the coming fiscal year. In a discussion with the Council’s Budget and Finance Committee last week, he said,

LAST SUNDAY WAS PALM SUNDAY and members, friends and clergy of the Falls Church Episcopal Church preceded their regular service with a palm-waving procession down beside the church on E. Fairfax Street on a sunny morning. (Photo: News-Press)

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After a Year, Accessory Dwellings Get a Final OK

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

After almost a year of town halls, public comments, surveys, petitions and governmental agency deliberations, recommendations and votes, the Falls Church City Council came together this Monday for a surprising unanimous vote adopting an ordinance permitting the construction of accessory dwelling units on residential properties. A draft of the ordinance that was introduced at the meeting wound up being amended four times with unanimous 7-0 votes

in all but one case (6-1), with one proposal that failed before its final approval. The matter has to do with the wider, national effort to address a severe housing shortage in the U.S. and especially in terms of affordable housing in the case of this region and the City of Falls Church, where the value of the average single family home is in the range of $1 million. Accessory dwellings, also called “granny flats,” offer as their intent a lower priced housing option and commonly are considered desirable options for housing inlaws, either young or older, by a single family home-

owner. But they can also be used for rentals, which would also help alleviate the housing problem by adding income for an economically-squeezed homeowner. Mayor Letty Hardi wrapped up the discussion praising the outcome, noting that it will provide “more housing options,” taking less than a year to address a long-standing problem.” The new law “allows for byright development, no restrictive parking requirements, and for mutli-generational living addressing the needs of children, parents and more,” she said.

She added that the new policy also sends a message that Falls Church is “a welcoming city, and we are serious about that.” She hailed the “well-rounded discussions about the good we can bring” to the city, and against “the bad stuff that keeps good stuff from happening.” Vice Mayor Deborah ShantzHiscott said she was “proud of the collaborative approach” exhibited by the Council since the matter was first introduced last May. Councilmember Marybeth


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