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Approved - February 2023 Minutes

Draft - HCA Meeting February 2, 2023

Zoom meeting attendees: 21

Officers:

  • Tamara Srader, President

  • Mark Rogers, Vice President



Call to Order @19:32 (7:32pm)

Approval of Minutes. VOTE The minutes from the January 2023 meeting were approved and accepted as written.



Treasurer’s Report. Michael Hamill was not present. The President had no updates except to note that the HCA hasn’t spent any funds since the last report in January. I will be working with Michael in March to provide documents for previous payments from my personal funds for payment to the Va Corp and MVCCA. We will provide those updates when they are processed.


Committee and Other Reports

Mt. Vernon Council meetings.https://www.mvcca.org/record-archive

Environment and Recreation Committee (E & R) (Rep. Alan Ruof). Alan provided the following update from his committee meeting prior to our HCA meeting - was not able to attend the HCA meeting due to previous commitments

If there’s anyone in the HCA who’d like to participate in the MVCCA E&R committee, they would be welcome to join, even as an alternate representative. We would like increased participation.

Committee member Brian Pagels will be taking on a role of focusing on recreation, as we’ve had a strong focus on environmental interests. The meaning of recreation is broad—parks, recreational facilities and activities and cultural assets and programming. Brian is soliciting suggestions and feedback from community organizations.

Wetland Board chair Clyde Wilber provided an overview of the mission and activities of the board.

These local community boards exist to protect and preserve wetlands. Their mission is to balance public and private environment and economic impacts (four factors) in permitting decisions. The VA Marine Resource Commission (VMRC) is a scientific entity that has considerable influence over wetlands and is the appeal body for Wetland Boards’ decisions.

The recent law is stricter because wetlands are being lost. A typical problem is that a homeowner does not maintain a bulkhead, eg, and if new wetlands develop as a result, then possible future actions are constrained. Homeowners should carefully maintain existing bulkheads to avoid being required to install living shorelines.

Not getting a permit if it turns out you need one is a big risk.

It’s often difficult for individual homeowners to take wetlands actions—organizing a plan for a series of homes might be possible utilizing a grant.

There is a map that shows recommendations for every coastal property in the county.



Planning & Zoning Committee (Rep. Ray Novitske)

Didn’t attend the last meeting due to illness; the past meeting was more of an informational meeting and the public was not invited; reviewed some potential developments on Richmond Highway around Montebello specifically Cityside - Montebello opposes this development. There is another meeting on the infill development task force coming up as they have not met in about 3 months.


Public Safety Committee (Rep. Jason Zaragoza) - Not in attendance due to previous commitments


Education Committee (Rep. Mark Rogers)

Committee met - meeting was focused on the budget so there's a proposed budget from the School budget proposal overall much of that is taken up by a 3% COLA for staff.

Traditional step increases for the Educational Employees and that's always so Fairfax county is long had 25 steps and then if the teacher or educational admin Works beyond that they stop getting increases except for the COLA which is impetus for people to quit and go to work for the other districts in the area that have up to 30 years step increases. Starting next year there's also a 1% retention bonus that will go to teachers who taught last year and states there's also some surprising growth of enrollment with more than 2,000 new students anticipated into FCPS. There is also 6 million dollars going towards addressing the achievement gap which is an ongoing long-time issue. Budget is going to the Board of Supervisors for review. If you have any other questions please reach out directly to me or to the President’s email address.


President’s Report. Update from Tamara Srader.


Was scheduled to attend the grand opening of the Arden - however a last minute work commitment occurred. Will be reaching out to the leadership team of the Arden and invite to our March meeting.


Know that parking is an issue in the neighborhood with the Arden now open - will reach out to the new Parking Enforcement Officer for Fairfax county and invite to meeting; ask for enforcement of existing parking stickers and request new signs for those taken down as well as restricting parking on Biscayne Dr between Glendale and Huntington.


ur admin functions (website/MVCCA dues/VA Corporation Commission filing). Payment can be made on our website through PayPal


Member Time. If you would like to discuss a specific topic at the next meeting, please email Tamara Srader, HCA president prior to the meeting at president@huntingtononline.org)

  • Jaime - shout out to all those helping with the community orchard in the circle at the top of Blaine Drive.

  • Question asked about the stairs opening at the top of Biscayne - Tamara will see if we can get a participant from the developer to attend our March Meeting

  • Ashley - trash cans at the Levy walking trail - she has reached out to stormwater management and the park authority about placing trash cans for pet waste - no one seems interested

  • Tamara - owner of Jefe’s would like the community to write a letter in support of providing an outdoor space in the back and maybe in the front for dining.

VOTE - Mark Rogers made a motion to allow Tamara (President) to write a letter of support to the Fairfax county entity reviewing the license application as it seems their concern is with parking; neighborhood wants more businesses like this that are in walking distance; second was made - letter will be written by HCA to support the application.


  • Mark - Rollins Rd off of Fort Hunt will be closed to traffic off of Fort Hunt to study if this will make things safer. Current traffic on Fort Hunt is impacted here - residents on Rollins would need to exit the neighborhood on Quander. This is not a permanent closure however it is being considered.

  • Emily and Mike - informed us that the property on the corner of Huntington and Biscayne has sold ($750K each side). Buyer is Quality Estates LLC. Per the VA Corporation site owner is YANIRA A ARIAS - company started in 2019 - further research found that the company is https://qualityservicespro.com/leadership.html - this entity is not registered with the state of Virginia. Also at the address listed is a company called RG Home Improvements. Ray reviewed and the property is zone commercial.

  • Anthony - brought up the safety of the Huntington corridor - speeding and pedestrian traffic with little Fairfax County police enforcement.

  • Community concern - owners of 7-11 and continued police actions; wonder if we could reach out to owners and or 7-11 Corporate to talk about the impact on the neighborhood

  • Bert -Supervisors environmental advisor committeehad one of the the newish offices in the county the Office of Environmental and energy coordination. This started in 2019 right before the pandemic popped off so I think they've beenslow it in getting kind of operational. Work across Fairfax County - lots of different initiatives touching everything from zoning building codes to putting trees in the ground and Forestry programs so I think if you drop the link in the invite it's worth looking through some of those resources. They are very interested in getting Community feedback on their work and what they should be focusing more on and they seem very responsive to a lot of the feedback they're getting. Supervisor Storck said that he wants to see them more active out in the community as well. Please let Tamara know if you would like to get involved and she can put you in contact with Bert.

  • Linda - property at 5825 Biscayne Drive is back on the market at 1.8 million. Developer that purchased 5825 Biscayne (Classic Cottages) is no longer working on the proposed development. Linda said that they have been approached by numerous other characters who would like to develop the property and the easement situation is still not settled.


The meeting was adjourned at 20:38


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