All right.

Well, then I guess we can go ahead and get started.

We will call the meeting to order at 5 31 p.m.

Um, Kurt, is there a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting?

So moved.

All right.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

All right.

The ayes have it.

All right, Dr.

Ginsburg, I'm gonna turn it over to you to kick off our update first.

Sure.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor.

Thanks, Councilman.

Um, tonight we're gonna go over a few uh items that have been happening in the General Assembly and also in the governor's office.

Uh the first thing I actually wanted to note was that today, Governor Spanberger signed bills to send some of the constitutional amendments um uh to Virginia voters.

So uh the affirmative right to marry and the reproductive freedom constitutional amendments were signed by the governor, and they should be going to referendum in November.

So I just wanted to flag those priorities are moving along.

The second thing I wanted to talk about were immigration bills that have been moving today.

Uh on Wednesday, uh the a lot of these immigration bills are about uh how localities and the state are going to enter interact with federal uh immigration enforcement.

Um on Wednesday, February 4th, the governor uh released an executive directive that instructed the state law enforcement and other entities to end any sort of 287G agreements with U.S.

Customs and Migration Enforcement or ICE.

Um and then today there were a series in the House, there were a series of bills, and the mayor actually testified on one of them related to immigration that moved through committee.

And I just wanted to highlight a couple of them.

Uh some of them were rolled together.

There were uh three of them from Delegate Lopez that uh protected certain areas from uh immigration enforcement from entering them, including schools and courthouses and voting areas.

Uh, and then there was a bill on cooperation with immigration enforcement that would codify a lot of what the executive direct uh directive from the governor said on Wednesday.

Um, and then there are always the mask bills.

One of the House cognate of the Selene mask bill that we worked on previously, it uh it's also accepted our amendments, and that is also moving through and got uh pass out of the subcommittee in the house today.

So they will be moving forward and going to full committee for consideration.

So a lot of those immigration bills are continuing to move.

Um, and uh unfortunately uh Councilman Aguray tried to testify today too, but he had similar problems to you, mayor, where he couldn't quite get on screen.

And then at the end they ran out of time and they didn't even let anybody who was online testify.

So he tried, um, but Alexandria was there in full support for all of the immigration bills.

Um, and I'll keep you posted on how those are moving along.

I'm actually now gonna hand it off to Bonnie, who's gonna talk for a bit about an update on Faith in Housing and the Faith in Housing Bill and where we are standing with that.

Yeah.

Hi, everybody.

Um, I had a meeting with Eleanor from archaeology and voice and some other housing advocates related to the faith in housing bill yesterday.

Um, and just as a very brief overview, I sent kind of a longer email to some of the most interested parties, but um, we're still working through amendments to the bill to try to make it so that we are protecting some of the most important local interests.

And in that meeting, we were focused on historic districts and archaeological interests.

Um while also seeking to see if we could find a way forward for the bill.

Um, I think um the APA, um, the planning association, which I'm sort of Paul, I see Paul on my screen is familiar with, they're gonna be neutral on the bill because the bill it came to light very concretely, will preempt local historic districts.

Um, we do think we were able to craft language that will preserve our archaeological code, which has been in place in Alexandria since 1989.

Um, but the by and large, the conclusion of the meeting was the bill continues to preempt our discretionary approvals for the covered projects in the bill, the affordable housing projects on faith-owned and nonprofit-owned land as defined in the bill.

Um, so a lot of our usual conditions that we put on DSUPs, we would not be able to impose on those projects.

Um, but we could still impose code-specific conditions that don't have discretionary review.

So remains a moving target.

They're still willing to negotiate, um, but I think people are starting to, you know, draw their lines and decide where they stand on it.

And I know at least the APA is going to be neutral and not able to support it based on the historic district issue.

Um that's my overview of that meeting.

Do you want to pause for a second?

Mayor, councilman, do you have any questions on immigration on faith and housing before we move on to the next issue, which is the automated speed enforcement.

Um, I would just say for on the immigration-related bills.

I just wanted to say to APD and I think the Sheriff's Association, all of the amendments that we recommended and changes, they were rolled into the larger bill and accepted today.

Um, so that was a good win.

I think on faith in housing, I've connected now with most of the mayors and chairs, not just in Northern Virginia, but across the state.