HCA Meeting 4/5/17
Welcome and Introductions:
Art Ovalle, President
Jeff Woodward, Vice President
Harry Shepler, Treasurer
Everett Price, Secretary
Recognition:
Thanks to the Parker Apartments and Capital Investment Advisors for allowing HCA the use of their party room and parking lot, respectively
HCA Committee Reports:
MVCCA General Meeting – Art
Unable to attend; But the agenda was mostly covering the County Budget, which Christoph will discuss (see below)
Planning and Zoning – Ray
Absent
Transportation – Jeff
Budget – Christoph
Fairfax County Budget Proposal was discussed (see Budget Presentation here)
4% increase in real estate taxes took place in FY17; lack of increase this year leaves county in tight spot regarding education
Schools account for 52.8% of budget
School Board asked for $113m additional for FY18, but only received $52m
the topic frequently being discussed is how to maintain competitive teacher salaries; this issue is not going away and is likely to only get worse
County doesn’t get adequate support from military to finance schools that support bases, namely around Ft Belvoir
Committee resolution listed Education, Public Safety, Health and Human Services as top priorities
Committee passed resolution establishing priorities (see passed resolution here)
Real estate tax will stay where it is and not be reduced, every cent off tax puts the county another $24m in the red
A 2.5% increase in the real estate tax would erase the deficit
Budget in process of receiving public comments, supposed to be adopted in early May
In the future will want a more robust discussion in HCA to bring points to MVCCA
Resolution drafted by budget committee, each committee passes individual resolutions, they are submitted directly to Board of Supervisors
Fairfax County gets 22 cents back on every dollar of revenue it sends to Richmond because of wealth transfer to the south of the state
Education - Caitlin
Voted on Education Committee resolution (see resolution here)
Revenue falls $61m short, requiring cuts on programmatic end and staffing; cutting teachers increases class size
Resolution says we need to maintain our reputation as destination for people looking for good schools
Fairfax County Schools and the Mount Vernon School Board Representative explained how Department of Defense doesn’t do their part for schools around Ft. Belvoir
Reduction of workforce likely to be result of cuts; also cuts to extracurricular programs
Need to do a better job getting information to HCA ahead of resolution passage to get input for votes
Transportation – Jeff
No chair for transportation committee—volunteers needed!
Jeff raised the issue of the U-turn at Huntington & Rt1 where the left turn arrow from Huntington onto Rt 1 and the right turn arrow from Rt 1 onto Huntington conflict and can lead to accidents; discussing ways of properly synchronizing the lights
Planning and Zoning – Jeff
Plan discussed for parcel next to Walmart/Chuckie Cheese
Someone has bought area around tae kwon do studio and a few houses; getting community feedback on initial plans
County has plan for intersection near Walmart
April 18: revised Rt1 Embark plan will be released
North Hill project underway
Huntington/Telegraph intersection “No Turn on Red”
County unwilling to change it back to “when pedestrians present”
Posting police officer more often for enforcement,
Change was made because of concern about traffic accidents and pedestrian safety, coming off the commuter bridge
County might look into addressing the long light
Levee Update – Jeff on behalf of Alan
The levee groundbreaking ceremony was held March 23, including Supervisor Dan Storck, Chairman Sharon Bulova, and former supervisor Gerry Hyland, county staff, and members of our community.
The County held the first partnering session with the Archer Western Construction Co. and Arcadis consultants. The purpose is to plan and ensure good communication for the duration of the project and there will be quarterly meetings.
The security fence requested by Midtown and Parker residents at the Metroview end has been completed.
The erosion sediment control setup has been completed.
Construction of the access road has reached to about Liberty Drive. When it's finished, it will run to the east end of the site.
Deep excavation for the main and low-flow pump stations is beginning, as is excavation for the "keyway," which is an area of poor soils that must be removed at about Liberty Drive.
Tree clearing has been completed and the removed trees will be mulched. When construction is complete, the County will plant trees for transitional screening along the Arlington Terrace side of the site.
Sunday, April 9th, 9am-noon, Mount Eagle Park Restoration of Natural Habitat Clean-up
Neighborhood Watch – David
Police beat has been pretty quiet
David Sears has taken over the HCA Neighborhood Watch Coordinator, until someone else volunteers.
New Business/Action Items:
Art had good meeting with HCA officers last month to discuss various action items
Huntington Neighborhood Cleanup
April 22: Stairwells on Biscayne, sweep some of Huntington
We are the organization that has adopted Huntington, so we need to clean that area
Tried to reach out to Boy Scouts for community service help; still trying to get a response
Crosswalk safety issue
Huntington & Metroview intersection; buses taking right turn on red, which is illegal
Art will reach out to WMATA, Fairfax Connector
HCA flyer distribution
April 29th: handing out flyers in neighborhood
Aim is to get the word out about HCA
Community member suggested targeting new homeowners in the area, to inform them of HCA
Huntington Community Picnic
Need to identify date; need to ensure Farrington Park will be open
Rolling HCA Memberships
Proposed idea of offering rolling membership enrollment, instead of calendar-year enrollment;
This would avoid people paying for a full year if they join part way through
Community member suggested may be too much work to keep track of $10
HCA looking into Paypal, or some other option for electronic payment to facilitate this process
Overall the proposal met with the approval of community members in attendance
Will plan to vote on rolling dues issue and electronic collection of dues at next monthly meeting
Farrington Park
Art had conference call with Fairfax county park representative two weeks ago; Farrington park was closed too early, which is why it sat idle for so long before work began
Best case, re-open second week in May; worst case, last week in May
All equipment has arrived
Replacing fence with black vinyl covered chain link fence
Art inquired about a 6ft. fence on the backside of the park, to disguise the neighboring backyard/fence. County considering 6ft chain link along the back with slats to hide what’s behind it.
AOL email address
Newsletter mailing system is getting bounce back from all AOL email addresses
Seeking to reach affected people to ask for alternative contact information
May HCA meeting
Trying to secure Midtown, but could also use Parker again
Huntington and Belleview Emergency Response Plan
Huntington Community Center is no longer an emergency evacuation location for Huntington residents, and has not been since 2014
Huntington Metro and Mount Eagle Elementary School are closest new relief points
Relief points are places to find supplies and where emergency responders are centrally located.
Fairfax County Emergency Operation Plan – Updated June 2015 http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/eop2015.pdf
Website overhaul
Ray Novitske and Everett Price working together to propose overhaul of website that would cleanup content, streamline navigation, and add improved functionality for a community calendar, posting updates/meeting minutes, newsletter subscription/unsubscription/distribution, membership enrollment, dues paying
Will provide regular updates and will request community feedback as they go along
Guest Speaker from Wesley Housing Development Corp.:
Did not arrive, will reschedule
Old Business/Updates:
Community Center Restoration
Art expressed concern about time it has taken to get work done to Supervisor Storck
The fire system needed many upgraders, so the county is taking advantage of the Comminuty Centers renovation to replace fire system(sprinklers and alarms); custom work was required
Supervisor Storck wants it open by June 2nd for kids summer programs
Supervisor Storck will come to June meeting, hopefully in newly-opened community center
Light pole outages
Huntington-Telegraph lights out; learned that some work is contracted out, some done by VDOT
VDOT replaced over 65 lights in our little area, and pedestrian bridge (Eisenhower-Telegraph)
Art expressed to VDOT that this was unacceptable, and that it shouldn’t happen again
Huntington Club Condominiums
March scheduled vote pushed back
Working on paperwork; 99% ready to vote
Four weeks for residents to look through packet
Vote to take place by end of May; results looking good
Huntington Crossing
Lennar property behind Midtown
Lowered to height of Parker in two plans and developer doesn’t like new designs
Attorney willing to come in May after more new designs are considered
Light outages
Biscayne Drive(near Mount Eagle Park) is maintained by MonteBello
Wooded area belongs to Stout and Teague
Stout and Teague still has plans develop the wooded area, and area where the Old WMATA Police Station once stood; currently in design phase, still a year or two down the road
Stout and Teague very responsive; Art talked to Teague today, he’s paying engineer to design proposal for light installation
Mr. Teague met with MonteBello; Montebello also willing to work with us; next month, likely to bring all of us together plus one other community that is affected, all this before meeting with County
Sidewalk problem; WMATA doesn’t want people crossing there and have thought about blocking it off; Stout and Teague also meeting with WMATA
Upcoming Events, Topics, Guest Speakers:
Capital Investment Advisors doing some project; want to present to us before presenting to County Board; bringing proposal next month
Huntington Farmers Market; starts April 27, 2017, Thu 3-7 (Smart Markets Huntington)
No July meeting
National Night Out – August 1st
Talking to Midtown to combine efforts
Want to get Fairfax County police, maybe canine demonstration, maybe firetruck, block off Parker Road
Need a non-officer volunteer to help planning starting now
A&R property next to 7-11
HCA wrote letter supporting development a few years ago
Apartments above, retail below; wants to bring company offices into bottom floor
Working with county for credits; County has limited number of credits to distribute per year, doesn’t look likely that A&R will secure their credits
Sounds like delayed by a year due to this
This property encompasses apartment building and two houses behind
Affordable housing for people at 60% of median income
Former Sunoco Gas Station
Trying to find out who won sealed bid
Supervisor Storck doesn’t know either
County opposes new gas station