By Brian Trompeter
Supervisor John Foust (D-Dranesville) has only nine months left in office, but he’ll have a full to-do list until he steps down.
In his annual “State of McLean” address to the Greater McLean Chamber of Commerce on March 15, Foust said his most immediate challenge is the county’s budget and how to balance competing needs of higher employee pay and tax relief for homeowners.
The Board of Supervisors has advertised a maximum real-estate-tax rate of $1.11 per $100 assessed value, which is the current rate and the one suggested in County Executive Bryan Hill’s proposed fiscal 2024 budget.
Supervisors wish to cut that rate somewhat to offset drastically higher housing assessments, but homeowners still likely will end up paying more, Foust said.
About 52 percent of the county’s general-fund budget goes to Fairfax County Public Schools. School officials seek a budget-transfer increase of $160 million from the county this year, but Hill’s budget allocates about $144 million more. The resulting gap is money the school system wants for one-time retention bonuses for its employees.
“We typically don’t fund one-time expenditures through the general fund,” Foust said. “We tend to wait until the end of a quarter or the end of the fiscal year, and then if there’s money left over, we’ll use that.”
Supervisors are keen on increasing county employees’ pay to keep up with inflation. Officials calculated a cost-of-living adjustment of 5.4 percent would accomplish that, but Hill’s budget calls for only a 2-percent increase, Foust said.
(Most employees also would receive longevity increases of approximately equal value and uniformed pubic-safety workers would get even more.)
Hill’s budget has a $90 million unallocated balance, which supervisors likely will use to lower the tax rate and bolster employee pay, Foust said.
Supervisors at a March 21 public hearing were to discuss raising future board members’ pay for the first time in eight years. Foust, who will leave office before the proposed increases take effect, said higher salaries would encourage a wider spectrum of people to serve on the board – beyond those who have completed successful careers, have spouses or otherwise are well-positioned to do the job.
Foust, who chairs the Board of Supervisors’ Housing Committee, said the county officials is making progress toward obtaining, by 2034, 10,000 housing units that are affordable for people making 60 percent or less of the area median income. About 4,000 such units already are under construction, in design or undergoing land-use approval, he said.
County officials may use federal American Rescue Plan Act funds for affordable housing and have committed $45 million of those moneys so far, the supervisor said.
Regarding McLean, Foust expressed hope that the new comprehensive plan for its Community Business Center would strike the right development balance.
The three-zone plan concentrates development intensity in the center and then tapers off to the edges, where local merchants would continue to offer their services.
Fairfax County recently received legislative authority from the state to offer economic incentives in its revitalization zones, including downtown McLean. Under the new rules, developers who consolidate 2 or more acres for redevelopment in revitalization zones will pay real-estate taxes on the sites’ previous undeveloped value during the next 10 years.
Foust mentioned the upcoming by-right redevelopment of the shopping center with Giant Food, but said it would not mark much change in offerings or density at that prime location.
He was enthusiastic about other upcoming projects, including Chain Bridge Estates, a 35-unit housing development for people 60 and older, and Chain Bridge Sunrise, a 140-bed assisted-living facility with a 1-acre public park.
Foust also praised Mars Inc.’s plans to expand its McLean corporate headquarters; the McLean Astoria, a planned mixed-use development in downtown McLean; and a 44-unit condominium project at 6707 Old Dominion Drive.
Regarding transportation, Foust lauded progress on the $314 million Route 7 widening project, and its associated shared-use paths on both sides, between Tysons and Loudoun County.
But improvements at Balls Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive likely are years off, as much utility-relocation and land-rights work must be done before a pair of offset T-shaped intersections get installed there, he said.
The supervisor was irritated about the 495 Express Lanes Northern Extension Project, the value of which to local commuters took a hit the previous week when contractor Transurban pulled out of negotiations in Maryland to build such lanes north of the American Legion Bridge.
Until Maryland does its project, the Virginia Department of Transportation “is accomplishing nothing other than destruction,” said Foust, adding that Maryland now has different priorities under new Gov. Wes Moore (D).
“You’ve got to fix the bridge,” he said. “That’s the bottom line.”
Foust expressed hope the McLean Project for the Arts would be able to build its proposed art center at Clemyjontri Park and that progress would be made on McLean Central Park improvements, including an amphitheater.
Foust hopes Fairfax County officials can finalize a deal with the National Park Service to swap the county’s Langley Oaks Park, which will never be developed, for NPS’s nearby Langley Fork property, which the agency now lets the county use for athletic fields.
“Once we owned [Langley Fork], we’d be able to invest in it and make it a first-class facility,” he said. “It has outstanding potential, but no one’s willing to put money into it as long as the National Park Service can pull the plug any day. They wouldn’t, but they could.”
The county government now is appraising both sites. It’s likely Langley Oaks is worth less than Langley Fork and the county will need to pay the federal government the difference, he said.
The county’s plan for the Salona property calls for more passive park uses, but that might need to be re-examined if the Langley Fork deal falls through, he said.
Foust said the chamber event, where he made his first in-person “State of McLean” speech in three years, reminded him why he first became involved in politics and community service.
“It’s just so wonderful to be part of a community,” Foust said. “COVID tried to steal that from us, but I think what it did, in fact, was make us appreciate even more how wonderful McLean is.”
