Franconia Government Center Public Hearing Gets Pushed Back To January

FRANCONIA, VA — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is expected to push back to late January 2024 a public hearing on the future of the property at the current Franconia Governmental Center after several community groups expressed concerns about a lack of time to prepare for the hearing.

Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk said he plans to enter a motion at the Dec. 5 Board of Supervisors meeting to defer the public hearing — originally scheduled for that day — to Jan. 23, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.

Lusk told Patch that he will announce the plan to defer the public hearing in his board matters during the morning session of the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, with a vote on the motion expected later that afternoon. With the Franconia Governmental Center property in his home district, he expects the motion will easily pass.

Fairfax County plans to relocate the Franconia Governmental Center to a new Kingstowne facility in 2025. Once the new Franconia Governmental Center is completed, Fairfax County is hoping its planned transfer of the property at the old government center to the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority will increase the inventory of affordable housing in the county.

At its Nov. 21 meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved the advertisement for the public hearing to be held two weeks later on Dec. 5. But after hearing from community groups and neighborhood associations, Lusk said he decided to defer the hearing.

READ ALSO: Affordable Housing Sought For Franconia Governmental Center

The Board of Supervisors is seeking to validate a decision that was made on the transfer of the property at a March 9, 2021, public hearing that was held virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lusk said a new public hearing on the property transfer is needed due to some issues with the public notice for the hearing that was held in March 2021.

Prior to Lusk announcing his decision to defer the public hearing, the Kingstowne Residential Owners Corporation (KROC), the largest neighborhood association in the area, had asked Lusk to delay the public hearing until January to give the association more time to prepare.

"Two weeks, one of which was Thanksgiving week, is not enough time for us to communicate with our members, particularly the members who live closest to the new construction," Tony Johnson, general manager of KROC, wrote in a letter to Lusk on Friday.

Sharada Gilkey, founder of the Rose Hill Coalition LLC, sent a letter to Lusk's office on Wednesday, asking for the public hearing be scheduled for the middle of January 2024 or later to allow more time for preparation of public input.

"I am pleased to hear that the community is being heard on this issue. Education and debate are essential in our democracy," Gilkey said in a statement after learning of Lusk's decision to defer the hearing.

At the Nov. 21 meeting, where the advertisement for the Dec. 5 public hearing was approved, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said the planned affordable housing project at the site is important because the board is committed to “housing for all.”

At the same meeting, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay described the planned transfer of the Franconia Governmental Center property to the Redevelopment and Housing Authority as a plan "that's been around for a long time and discussed in the local community that is most impacted by it in Franconia extensively."

But local groups said they were not aware of the plan to transfer the property to the Redevelopment and Housing Authority until after the March 2021 hearing.

"The hearing is critically important to our association and our neighbors because, as I am sure you are aware, we were not able to provide input at the March 9, 2021, hearing about the new construction," KROC's Johnson said in his letter to Lusk.

"Rescheduling will allow Kingstowne and other associations in Franconia District to attend the hearing properly prepared for a productive discussion, perhaps the only remaining opportunity to comment on the new construction," he said in reference to the planned housing at the site.

Earlier this year, the Virginia Supreme Court invalidated Fairfax County's zoning modernization effort, or zMOD, adopted in 2021, saying that the Board of Supervisors violated the state's open meeting law.

The ruling supported a claim made in a lawsuit filed by four county residents that the board of supervisors had violated the open meetings provision of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act by holding meetings electronically rather than in person.

After the Virginia Supreme Court's decision was issued in zMOD case in March, some residents pointed out that the March 9, 2021, public hearing on the Franconia Governmental Center was also held during a time when the Board of Supervisors was only authorized to conduct business virtually if it was necessary to continue operations.

Those residents argued that the conveyance of the Franconia Government Center property to the Redevelopment and Housing Authority was also void because it violated the open meeting laws of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

Lusk said the decision to hold another public hearing to validate the decision made in March 2021 on the Franconia Governmental Center was not related to the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling in the zMOD case.

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