Fairfax County would overhaul its plan for funding facility renovations and other capital projects with bonds under the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget plan presented by County Executive Bryan Hill earlier this week.
Some projects have been deferred, others shifted to Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (EDA) bonds, and still others eliminated from the bond schedule entirely.
“Our goal is to prioritize critical building systems and defer projects that can wait,” Hill told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors when outlining his spending proposal on Tuesday (Feb. 17).
“These investments ensure we can maintain and improve critical infrastructure,” he said.
As part of the shuffling, funding requests for a proposed Springfield Community Resource Center and renovations of the Kings Park and Herndon-Fortnightly libraries will be taken off this November’s ballot, delayed instead to a proposed 2032 bond package.
In a letter to supervisors included in the budget package, Hill acknowledged with regret that this would be the second deferral for the Springfield Community Center, which was bumped from the 2024 bond package to 2026. It will now be pushed six years out.
According to the advertised FY 2027-2031 capital improvement program (CIP) released as part of the budget, the planned facility will serve the Springfield District, the only magisterial district without a dedicated community center, but a site doesn’t appear to have been identified yet:
The future center will offer programming for all ages and feature collocated services to maximize efficiencies and resources. Potential sites would be near public transportation in the West Springfield area. Current programs operating in the Burke and West Springfield areas serve over 800 residents annually with 350 participants in session classes. There are waitlists for classes and requests for additional programming that currently cannot be met. A new facility would enable program expansion to address ongoing unmet demand.
As a temporary fix, the county opened a Burke-Springfield Center for Active Adults at 7541 Huntsman Blvd last August to provide programming for older residents in the area.
Hill attributed the additional delay to the need to free up bond funding for renovations at other facilities where upgrades are most urgent.
A human services bond referendum heading to voters this fall will instead request $75 million for renovations at the Tim Harmon campus in Chantilly, where a new youth crisis center is planned, and an expansion of the Jorgenson Public Health Laboratory, which is located in Fairfax City and serves as the only locally operated public health lab in Virginia.
County staff previously recommended prioritizing the health lab project because the current site needs to be replaced. Established through a retrofit in 2010, the facility’s testing capacity was expanded during the COVID-19 pandemic with the addition of a modular lab.
“Space reconfiguration, modification, and expansion is needed to integrate the two laboratory worksites into a modern public health laboratory facility, to expand the County’s capacity to monitor and respond to routine and emerging public health concerns, and to meet current and future service demands,” the CIP says.
While this year won’t bring a library bond referendum as expected, the proposal calls for moving up referendums for improvements to the Centreville and Chantilly libraries from 2032 to 2028 and 2029, respectively.
Hill said both library properties have the potential for redevelopment to incorporate affordable housing. That would allow the renovation projects to be funded through EDA bonds, which do not require voter approval.
Hill’s proposal would remove facilities to provide early childhood development services from the bond schedule altogether.
“We will continue to pursue co-location opportunities instead of standalone projects,” Hill said of early childhood facilities.
The updated bond schedule
As currently envisioned, the ballot this fall will include a referendum for $180 million in Fairfax County Park Authority bonds in addition to the aforementioned human services bonds.
November 2027 would bring a $460 million school bond as the lone referendum on the ballot. In 2028, plans call for a $200 million bond to support the Metro system’s capital projects as the lone ballot question.
The schedule will remain in flux until the Board of Supervisors formally asks the Fairfax County Circuit Court to authorize the referendums. Hill did not rule out further tinkering.
“We’ll continue to monitor these projects and adjust as needed,” Hill said.
Hill said the schedule for general obligation bonds, which require voter approval, will be coordinated with planned sales of economic development bonds to avoid concerns that the county is accumulating too much debt.
The county government last sold general obligation bonds in January, receiving an average interest rate of 3.37%. That’s an improvement from 3.57% obtained in a bond sale a year before.
For the January 2026 bond sale, the county retained the AAA ratings from Moody’s Investor Service, S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings it has held for decades.
