Economic Development in the City of Falls Church
Nov 5th, 2008 by Andy
The City of Falls Church has a variety of Boards & Commissions. One of them is the Economic Development Authority. I’m not sure exactly what the differences are between committees, boards, commissions, and authorities. I’ve been to the past two EDA meetings and my intention is to try and get one of the three open seats on the seven member board.
Last night’s meeting covered a variety of topics. The meeting got started by completing the switch to David Tarter as the Chairman - an issue that was raised at the end of the last meeting.
The first topic of the meeting was a grant for Falls Church Arts and Creative Cauldron - the two groups that are working together to build the art center located in the Pearson Square development. They have some funds from the developer and some funds from the City but they need more. The buildout costs are estimated at $300,000 (which for about 3000 square feet seems high to me - but maybe theaters are more expensive to build out than other spaces). I’m not aware of the details but it sounds like the City Council is working to get them some more money but they’re also hoping to get $15,000 - $25,000 from the EDA.
The EDA approved a grant for $15,000 and it sounded like Falls Church Arts and Creative Cauldron might come back in the future looking for another grant to help promote the center.
I certainly think having a small theater in that location is a good idea. The City is starting to build up a pretty good collection of nice restaurants but there aren’t as many options for things to do before or after dinner - and this arts center could be a perfect fit. I do worry about parking though.
Next on the agenda, we heard about the City’s plan to make it much harder for car dealers (new, used, rentals) to locate in the city. Apparently neighboring jurisdictions have already made it hard in their areas, and car lots are very low revenue for the City (for a variety of reasons). It seems like a no-brainer and I expect the City Council will pass the measure soon - and the EDA supported it.
One related thing that came up was if or when these kinds of changes would impact existing car businesses. It sounds like in the long run it would be nice to replace car lots with more revenue generating businesses - but I think we should be careful. I don’t know the history but Don Beyer seems to be a big supporter of the city and I’m not sure it would be right to try and force him out. It sounds like if anything like that were to happen it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
There was a lot of discussion about the plan to get a BJ’s Warehouse located on the edge of the city. It’s a complex deal with pros and cons and the general sentiment seems to be that getting something like a BJ’s in there isn’t ideal but pretty sweet considering the current market. I think I’d be more opposed to it if they were looking at any other location in the City but the little strip where BJ’s would be seems like a decent fit for something like that.
The only other major thing that came up during the meeting was the idea of hiring a consultant to really help with planning and establishing a clear vision for how we want future development in the City to go. I’m too new to things to totally understand how all the parts work together but I gather that there’s a big overhaul of the zoning laws going on right now (about a year into a two year process was what I heard) - and that’s the primary mode for guiding development over time. My impression is that all of these things have to be looked at with a pretty large time-frame in mind - you can’t change most things overnight.
Anyway, the meeting was a bit longer than I wanted (wanted to get home to watch the returns) but it was interesting to see a little bit of how City business is conducted. I hope to stay involved with the EDA and offer my perspective on things as a resident and business owner in the City.
