Good evening, everyone.

We are going to begin our second legislative meeting of May.

Okay.

Uh Madame Clerk, please call the role.

Councilman McCurry.

Councilman Chapman.

Councilman Elmuby.

Councilwoman Green.

Here.

Councilwoman Marks.

Okay.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for joining us tonight.

Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Moment of silence and pledge of allegiance.

Okay, it is our practice to begin each meeting with a moment of silence followed by the pledge.

If you are able to stand, we ask that you please rise at this time.

Okay, I have asked Councilwoman Mark to read this proclamation.

If you are here joining us for the recognition of the eighty-second anniversary of D Day, we ask that you please come to the front.

Um this is my right, your left, the front corner at this time.

Khan City Motors visited Alexandria to participate in events commemorative of Lafayette's visit to Alexandria.

And Alexandria City Winners visited Khan for that city as a winning celebration last year.

And was the assault on the beaches of the Nazi occupied France for our sister City Khan on the June 6th, 1944 by the United States and its allies, popularly known as D-Day, was one of the most important efforts of World War II.

And the success of the landings led to the defeat of Nazi Germany, the liberation of Western Europe, and the advancement of freedom, democracy, and shared prosperity between the United States and Western Europe in the post-war post-war world.

And whereas the sons and daughters of the City of Alexandria participated in that great operation and in the larger war effort of which it was a part, in some cases, making the ultimate sacrifice.

And whereas this year's commemoration of D-Day recognizes the 82nd anniversary of this historic operation, and whereas this year, the City of Alexandria's 16th annual commemoration remembers this critical moment in world history, educates our community, honors our veterans, strengthens Sister City camaraderie, and recognizes this time when the endeavors of our two nations overlapped and changed the course of history.

And whereas the city or whereas the Alexandria Khan Sister City Committee has organized several programs to recognize this 82nd anniversary of D-Day, including a flagship event on Sunday, May 31st, 2026 in Alexandria's John Carlisle Square, and a June 4th lecture at the Lyceum by Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, U.S.

Navy retired, Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command on Operations Tiger and Neptune, D-Day at Sea.

Now, therefore, I, Sandy Marks, on behalf of Mayor Oleah Gaskins, Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the entire Alexandria City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of June as 82nd anniversary of D-Day Commemoration Month in the City of Alexandria and call upon the city and the citizens of Alexandria to participate in public commemorations of the heroic events of D-Day and reflect upon Alexandria's post-war relationship with our sister city con.

In witness hereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Alexandria to be affixed on this day, the 26th of May, 2026.

Thank you very much.

I'm Kari Anderson.

And I'm Diana Garcia.

So Mayor Gaskins, members of the City Council, thank you for issuing this proclamation.

This year is the 16th year that the Alexandria Khan Sister City Committee has commemorated D Day to strengthen bonds between our city and our sister city of Caen in Normandy, France, by recognizing the heroic events of that day.

On behalf of the Alexandria Khan Sister Com Uh Sister City Committee, we hope people will join us at the commemoration on May 31st in John Carlisle Square and for a June 4th lecture at the Lyceum.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

And with that, I move that our council accept this proclamation.

Okay, there has been a motion and a second.

Is there any further discussion?

Councilman Chapman.

Thank you.

Um just again, thank you to uh the committee for continuing to put this effort together for all of us.

Um please uh let's roll up our sleeves and help them because as you know, uh the committee knows this is the first time they're gonna be at John Callal.

Uh so uh folks are kind of nervous about turnout just because we're moving it from Market Square.

Um, but we are excited that you guys are putting this on again.

Thank you.

I too just want to echo my thanks to the committee and to both of you having seen your work up close and personal, but also I know Councilman Chapman and I had the honor of traveling to our sister city for the millennium, and one of the things they talked about was just how special and unique our relationship is, and how they always appreciate the committee coming up with new ways for us to do exchanges for us to learn from each other, and they talked about at a time when so much is going on in the world to know they have a friend in Alexandria, is really special.

So I too would just echo what my colleagues said.

I really hope if you have some time either this weekend or the next, please come out and support our committee and join their events, and also if you're interested in serving our sister city committee, I think, as one of our most active boards and commissions.

So, with that, there has been a motion by Councilwoman Marks and a second by Councilman Chapman to pass the proclamation recognizing June as the 82nd anniversary of D-Day Commemoration Month.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed, the ayes have it.

Congratulations.

Okay, Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of a proclamation recognizing May Essex Education Month.

Okay, I have asked Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley to read this proclamation.

If you are here joining us for the recognition of Sex Education Month, we ask that you please come to the front at this time.

So I'm going to read the proclamation.

I'm very ordered to deliver this.

And then we're going to pass the mic down.

Everybody will introduce themselves, say their role with the commission, and we'll talk a little about uh what you do in the community.

All right.

So whereas the City of Alexandria is dedicated to the positive development of our children and youth.

And whereas adolescent pregnancy continues to be a serious and complex national and local issue that impacts the social, economic, health, and developmental outcomes of all of our residents.

And whereas since 1991, Alexandria public and private youth serving agencies have worked together to reduce adolescent pregnancy and provide sexual health education to youth and their families.

And whereas sexual health education that gives young people age-appropriate, medically accurate information and answers to their questions about sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and relationships without being shamed or judged, has proven to positively impact young people's lives.

And whereas sexual health education helps young people learn how to have healthy relationships, make informed decisions, think critically about the world, be good allies to those who are marginalized and love themselves for who they are.

And whereas research shows that culturally responsive and inclusive sexual health education helps young people develop the social and emotional skills they need to become caring and empathetic human beings, and often leads to the prevention of child sex abuse and dating and intimate partner violence, improved social emotional learning, and increased media literacy.

And whereas the Alexandria campaign on adolescent pregnancy and its partners are committed to working together to provide Alexandria youth with the sexual health information, comprehensive education, and access to the care they deserve and need to live healthy lives.

And whereas since 2019, May has been recognized nationally as sex ed for all month.

Now therefore, I Sarah Bagley, on behalf of Alia Gaskins, mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of the entire Alexandria City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of May 2026 as Sex Ed for All Month in the City of Alexandria and recognize this important opportunity to raise awareness about the need for real commitment to sexual health education in Alexandria and communities across the country.

And I call this observance to the attention of all of our citizens in witness whereof I have hereinto set my hand and cause the seal of the City of Alexandria to be affixed this 26th day of May 2026.

Mayoria Gaskins.

Yay.

All right.

You ready to begin?

Yeah.

So hello, I'm Mary and I'm a PIA advocate.

Hi, my name is Yasin Bunya, and I'm the advocate and an ACAP board member.

My name is Felicia Parks, and I'm with DCHS Youth Development, and I am the ACAP coordinator.

And I'm Helen Morris, and I'm the chair of the Leadership Council for ACAP.

Do you want to talk to us a little bit about the role of ACAP and the work that they do?

Sure, absolutely.

Well, I'm thrilled to say that we've been doing this work for 35 years.

And thank you to Council for the support that you've provided for 35 years for our young people.

We are very fortunate to be in a city of Alexandria that wants young people to have full education about themselves, about their place in society, about the opportunities that are open to them, and about their sexuality and about pregnancy prevention.

And we are we talk about this openly and with full hearts so that our young people can have everything that they need.

We have a great leadership council of community members from across the spectrum.

We have uh, I believe eight or ten of our peer advocates join us on our leadership council and provide us real-world information about what we should be doing for them in their schools.

And they also are pure educators.

They work with our middle school students so that younger people than them get good education as they're coming up into the world.

So yeah, did I miss anything?

Thank you guys.

All right.

Thank you so much for your support.

And can I just get those of you who are here tonight?

We have other peer advocates, other members of the group.

Can y'all just like raise your hand and get some acknowledgement?

And earlier this evening, Councilman Aguirre and I um visited with the group and celebrated the membership.

And I just want to acknowledge and what I said earlier to them, which is this really is a group that is driven in many ways by youth voices and both you know helping us inform and then helping passing that knowledge to medical middle school students to each other.

And so, you know, I want to express my appreciation to the youth that participate that give of their time.

Um they're going on to do amazing things.

I think we're losing four of our seniors this year, and they've got really exciting futures ahead.

Five.

Oh, I don't want to think about that.

Um, but uh it's it's a really uh it's a really special opportunity because I think Alexandria has prioritized sort of community engagement and lifting up youth voices, and this group is one that excels at it.

So thank you so much for that.

And with that, Mayor Gaskins, I move the proclamation.

Okay, there has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilman Agiri.

Isn't there any discussion?

Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, thank you.

Um, I just wanted to echo some of the words of the Vice Mayor.

Uh, really proud of this organization, this group uh in Alexandria, we truly do value the voices of our youth, and I think this is a shining example of that.

Um, where youth lead and you know the adults follow, and we try and make it happen for the youth so that we can improve uh the future, not just here in the city, but as uh our youth move out into the rest of the world, thank you, Councilman Aguirre.

And I would just add to our peer advocates and especially to those of you who are graduating, I want to echo the thanks of the vice mayor and to my colleague, Councilman Aguirre.

We recognize how much you have going on, whether it's just the everyday things that you have to do to keep up with school, to the extracurriculars, to the jobs you may have, and so I hope you know how much it is appreciated that you would take time out of your schedule to go above and beyond to make sure that your peers are safe, that they're healthy, and they're cared for.

Um that's huge.

And to show that level of concern for your neighbor and for our community is really important.

So I thank you.

Uh, we're so proud of you, and I would have to say we hope you come back if you're leaving to go off to school or whatever is next.

I hope that you always know this is your home, and we could use you here continuing to be an advocate and an educator across our community.

With that, there has been a motion and a second to pass the proclamation recognizing May as sex education month.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, the ayes have it, and the proclamation passes.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of a proclamation recognizing May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Okay, I have asked Councilman El Nubi to read this proclamation.

If you are joining us for the recognition of May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we ask that you please come to the front at this time.

Oh, all right.

Whereas the City of Alexandria continues to celebrate the rich heritage, diverse cultures, and numerous contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to our community.

And whereas, the growth of this vibrant community enriches our city with traditions, art, and entrepreneurial spirit that contribute to our social and economic fabric.

And whereas we recognize the significant roles that Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders play in advancing educational, cultural, and leadership realms within Alexandria.

And whereas we acknowledge the ongoing challenges faced by Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders, including racism and discrimination, and reaffirm our commitment to promoting inclusion, equity, and justice for all.

And whereas the 2026 national theme for AANHPI Heritage Month.

Quote, power in unity, strengthening communities together, end quote.

Reflects City Council's commitment to fair, inclusive and responsive governance for all residents.

Now, therefore, I, Abdel Al Nubi, on behalf of Alia Gaskins, mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, and on behalf of Alexandria City Council to hereby proclaim May 2026 as Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the City of Alexandria.

And I urge all residents to recognize this occasion by participating in events that honor and highlight the contributions of our Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander community members and to strive for a more inclusive society that values diversity as a strength.

In witness whereof, I hereon to set my hand and cause the seal of L City, the seal of the city of Alexandria to be affixed this 26th day of May 2026.

And thank you all for joining us this evening.

If you can briefly introduce yourselves.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, I move approving the proclamation.

Okay, there has been a motion by Councilman El Nubi and a second by Councilwoman Green.

Is there any additional discussion?

Well, I would just say first, thank you to Digitals who came and joined us.

I think one of the things we talk about when we do our Heritage Month celebrations is the many roles that different communities play across our city.

And so to our peer advocate, to our city leaders, thank you for coming and showing just the many ways in which you are bringing your culture, your traditions, and your heritage to the work of city government.

And I would encourage, I think on the website and across some of our other city partner agencies.

There are a number of events that have been going on at the end of the month, so you may have missed some, but I think there are still a few as we close out the month, but would encourage you to celebrate with our community.

With that, there has been a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye, any opposed?

All right, the ayes have it.

The proclamation passes.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Or reports from members of city councils, um, boards, commissions, and committees.

Council of governments, board of directors, Mayor Gaskins.

Okay, uh, the Council of Governments met uh a few weeks ago.

The main focus of conversation was an update on the regional point in time count.

I wanted to share um some of the data that was presented for the city of Alexandria.

For those of you who may not be familiar, the point in time count is an effort that happens every January.

It's done in collaboration with our Continuum of Care as well as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, and the focus is on getting a snapshot of the number of unhoused persons in a community.

Um there were 104 households without children were identified in 2026.

This is a 3% increase from 2025 for both men and women.

We saw an increase in households reporting homelessness due to fleeing domestic violence.

Um, I'm sorry.

Households reporting domestic violence, households reporting homelessness due to fleeing domestic violence decreased, I'm sorry, by 26% from 23 households in 2025 to 17 in 2026.

19 individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness, and that is up from 2025.

And we also saw um that while the number of adults remained uh similar, the number of families that had children experiencing homelessness increased this year.

You can find the full report on the city's website as well as additional information about the various services that we provide and our task force to prevent and end homelessness on the city's website.

The other focus of the COG meeting was a presentation from several of our leading nonprofit providers, specifically Goodwill of Greater Washington, the United Way worldwide, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and Melwood.

They spoke about the ways in which they are working individually, but also across their organizations to support efforts around workforce development and economic mobility.

The next update is the council city and school board subcommittee, and I will turn this over to my colleague, Councilman Chapman to begin.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, for the uh subcommittee, um, we opened up talking a little bit about youth workforce development.

Um we had uh presentations from uh the summer work, some excuse me, summer youth employment program, uh, as well as, and I think we're allowed to say this, uh, a new um opportunity that's going to be coming through the city uh for an uh enter internship program uh through our senior leaders uh in the organization uh as well as um had the folks from a live come out and talk about the work that they've been doing, uh pulling together uh various partners in the community to kind of give us an overall picture of uh what youth work looks like and entrepreneurship looks like uh so that we have a better opportunity better opportunity to find better partners and frankly funding uh for some of the opportunities that we want to provide uh our youth uh in terms of early employment in the city.

Um outside of that, we also had a and then I was a little late for this part, so I might need the mayor to talk a little bit more about this.

Um we had a presentation by staff.

Uh I think they do this annually, where we talk about kind of the future of uh attendance and uh numbers for ACPS and what does that mean in terms of capacity uh within uh the system uh and where does where are we going in terms of the next five to ten years?

Uh what are the expectations um and so how we aligned with those expectations over uh the years, it's one thing to have uh an understanding of where we think we're gonna go, but it's uh staff is doing an amazing job in terms of aligning that prediction up with kind of really accurate data.

Um, and so we had a presentation about that.

Um I'll turn it over to the mayor.

Sure.

I guess the only thing that I would add was sort of um that presentation when we talked about the alignment between our two bodies and our staff was really focused around student generation rates.

And so I would just encourage the public.

I think one of the main takeaways was that when we do our planning and development, it all traces back to these early conversations with our colleagues at the schools.

We go through to understand and create a formula so that we can understand the type um the impacts of different types of development on our community.

That same formula then goes into all of the reports that we get on different planning and zoning decisions so that we have an understanding of our existing capacity, where there are challenges, and how we can think about the overall growth of our community.

I think a big takeaway was that um when we look at student generation rates, the majority of our student population is coming from housing that is over 30 years old.

And so um it there's a really interesting, I guess presentation that I believe is on the website.

If you're interested in those formulas, how they're calculated, and then um how they ultimately end up in our decision making.

The next committee is the commission on aging, and that is Councilman Aguirre.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um second, I'll pull it up right here.

Um we were doing this right in for a couple of new commissioners.

Uh as usual, we had our police liaison report along with a couple of other reports, and our special presentation uh at the commission on aging uh was on the assisted living model.

So thank you to our presenters for that.

Um, and then we also had uh presentation on uh the DAAS staff, and that was honestly about it for Commission on Aging.

Uh, you'd like me to go to uh TPB?

Yes, that would be great.

Uh TPB also uh not a lot going on.

Uh we had uh a couple of presentations on the transportation land use connections program, uh regional roadway safety program, uh congestion and travel analysis and uh performance measures for the targets on CMAC air quality congestion.

And that was pretty much it.

Thank you, Councilman Aguirre.

I had a request to add um citizen core council, councilwoman Green.

Thank you, madam mayor.

Um I wanted to to give this update.

Well, the Citizen Corps Council met last Monday, and um just uh I they don't get a lot of recognition because we don't meet like every month, so I'm don't have a monthly report for them because of that, but I wanted to give a shout out to them because they are such a wonderful group of selfless individuals that work so very hard and um on a consistent basis, training volunteers to minimize disaster impact within our city.

So, you know, they are preparing for things that may not happen, but things do happen, such as COVID, such as Snow Creek, where they come together and they have volunteers ready to step up to provide for our city.

So I wanted to give them a shout out today.

Um, represented by the Medical Reserve Corps, the Radio Club, American Red Cross, Volunteer Alexandria, CERT, and under the leadership of our chair Pat Moran, and also the Office of Emergency Management, um Parker Frisch and Mark Barbieri.

So just wanted to give them a wonderful shout out.

I'm proud to represent them as their city council representative and work with them in the trenches.

And um council uh councilman uh Kirk McPike was the second representative for for them.

He's now moved on uh to bigger and better things, and we will welcome um councilwoman Marks at our next meeting in July.

So thank you.

I'm just gonna say it's not bigger and better.

We're pretty great, we're pretty great here.

That's sure.

Wrong words.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I think that is our final uh oral report on boards and commission.

Madam Clerk, next item.

City Council General Updates.

Okay.

I'm gonna go to Vice Mayor Bagley, then I have Councilman Aguirre, and then I have a few.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

Uh thank you.

I just wanted to take the opportunity to uh remind the community that there will be another set of closures around the Amtrak VRE station May 29th through June 2nd uh for ongoing replacement of those two hundred-year-old bridges.

Um there is information at the Alexandria homepage, uh AlexandriaVA.gov.

But um there will be significant road closures um on King Street and along Commonwealth Avenue at various times.

There's already detour signage up.

Um there will be flaggers out at different times.

So I just wanted to uh point that out to everybody, asking you to use caution, um, try to use other methods, and then once again just point out that this is um a really additive um process.

It's worth it.

If it uh what's gonna happen, what we're doing is we're replacing um both bridges, and the net effect will be that they will be higher, which will prevent bridge strikes, which happen frequently, which cause train service to be shut down in both directions until the bridge can be inspected.

So, A, it's going to improve the bridge bridge, uh the train functions itself, and then underneath the bridge, um, us pedestrians and drivers and cyclists are gonna get a much better experience underneath the bridges because the new bridges will be both higher and the footings will be wider.

And so we'll be redesigning and implementing a better experience underneath as well.

So appreciate everybody's patience.

Um, this is the second of three scheduled closures, but um the outcome is going to be uh a significant improvement for everybody, and it's the first piece of sort of the five-year puzzle that dramatically changes what passenger travel is gonna be like in the corridor when the long bridge opens.

That's it.

Thanks.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Councilman Aguirre.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Uh, I will echo quickly the vice mayor's uh report and say this is gonna be short-term pain for long time long-term gain.

Uh, we're talking about potentially hourly trains between here and Richmond by 2030.

We're talking about uh reverse service for VRE.

It's just really gonna open up uh the possibilities when it comes to to rail travel for passengers because this is the largest bottleneck uh essentially on the east coast.

Um said, let's go.

So want to give a shout out to uh Hank's Pasta Bar for reopening in Alexandria and their new place where Hank's oyster bar is.

They're on the second floor.

Um so if you get a chance, please stop by Hank's.

Uh also want to give a shout out to CFNC for their spring benefit.

Uh their amazing, amazing early ed group.

Uh all the all the studies show when we invest heavily in early ed, there are bigger and better benefits as uh the children move along.

So thank you to CFNC for all their great work here in Alexandria.

Uh I also have the opportunity to participate.

Well, not on a bike, but did participate with Bike to Work Day, uh, making stops uh at Carlisle, Tavern Square, and Delray.

So thank you to everyone uh that helped set up the stops and for everyone that was able to stop by and enjoy some of the festivities and grab some swag.

Uh also stopped by uh the library's all staff day, always a really great uh all the staff from one place.

Uh some of the staff haven't actually been to the Beatley Library because they're so engrossed in what they're doing at their own library.

So it's nice to get everybody together, uh, have some great panels, have some great speakers.

Um thank you to some of uh the city staff that came to share uh some things around human resources and other items.

So overall, always a really great day.

Uh thank you to everyone that helped put that together, the planning staff, and uh hope the library staff had a great time.

Uh also want to say uh give a shout out to our um clerk of the circuit court, Greg Parks, for his love boat.

Uh even though they were in DC, the the actual legal part of it was done on the Virginia side, and then once they got onto the boat, they were married in a uh ceremony on the tall ship, so it was a lot of fun.

Um they were doing about one wedding every 15 minutes, and then he did it for like six hours or something.

So kudos to him and congrats to all the newlyweds.

Also want to give a shout out to Nova Labor for their annual tribute to labor dinner.

I know several of us were able to uh stop by there uh on Sunday, two Sundays ago.

Uh we had our Speed and Style Festival, which is always really, really cool.

If you like cars, even if you don't like cars, it's a good time.

You should go check it out.

Um I had three seniors with me doing their senior experience, and they had no idea that this festival had been going on for several years now, and they were all pretty amazed at it.

Uh so if you get a chance next year, please check out the Speed and Style Festival.

I also want to give a shout out to the old Dominion Boat Club for their annual flag raising.

Uh, I think one of the comments uh, and the vice mayor was there as well.

And uh I think one of the comments I was made that's really important is tradition and how we connect ourselves with the past and what some of that kind of means.

Um also want to give a shout out to the Founders Park Community Association, their annual block party.

It's always good to uh break bread with your neighbors and get to see what's going on within your community.

And then later that evening, uh, I was able to stop by the Torpedo Factory uh for a celebration of Mary and Van Landingham.

Uh it was um it was a solemn but festive occasion uh to celebrate uh Miss Van Landingham and everything that she's been able to do, not just for uh our city, but also for the entire commonwealth.

Uh lots of her friends uh who had some really great stories were able to be there as well.

So very moving night.

Um so thank you to Miss Van Landingham for all of her service to Alexandria.

Uh the next day uh was able to stop by uh La Pluma Cafe, which is celebrating their one year anniversary.

So shout out to La Pluma.

And then on Tuesday last week, uh VTA, the Virginia Transit Association had its yearly conference.

I was uh unanimously re-elected as vice president.

Uh we had lots of great panels and speakers, uh, also celebrating uh the awards to transportation agencies across the Commonwealth and graduation of the Leadership Academy for VTLI.

So congratulations to all the leadership graduates and congratulations to all those that are gonna be entering uh the next session of leadership.

Uh and of as of course we have uh members from our very own dash that are participating in that.

Uh would also like to give a shout out to visit Alexandria for their summer social.

It was housed hosted by Port City and catered by La Tingeria.

Uh very nice time to be had.

Plus, they were showing off the new uh ASA Croatia Dash jerseys, which if you haven't seen them, they are super cool.

I'm gonna go get one as soon as I can.

Uh swag, swag, sweag.

Um also wanted to give a shout out to Code Administration.

Last week they had a property management resource forum, which I think is very important because we have so many folks that live in the city that are renters, and so um the more we could connect the property management folks with resources, the more they're able to connect their residents with the resources and thus making the city's job a little bit easier.

Um had a lot of good groups that were there.

APD was represented, housing, uh DCHS, and a couple of other uh city agencies.

So thank you again to Code Administration for that.

Um also went out of the city boundaries for this one uh to a Nova Labor meeting with Senator Tim Kane.

Uh, but that ties into my last item, which is uh just one more time.

Wanted to give a shout out to my three seniors who uh joined me for senior experience, Darwin Salazar, Sama Hamid, and Zayn Steppy.

Um they weren't expecting it, but they had a chance to meet two out of their three federal delegation.

They met Don Bayer, they met Tim Kane.

Uh didn't get the chance to get to Mark Warner, but um maybe some other time.

Just want to say I had a really great time with them.

Uh they got to see a wide array of things going on in the city.

Uh and they were very excited to be able to see all of those things, and they were also very, very helpful to me.

So uh greatly appreciate it.

Looking forward to uh the seniors that I could potentially have next year and wishing them the best of luck in their uh future endeavors at University of Richmond, VCU, and uh James Mandison University, but also potentially K-State, depending on what the third person decides on.

Uh so thank you to all three of them.

Uh last last thing, uh, while at the Mary and Van Landingham tribute, uh, it came up that uh there was uh a prior attempt, a prior uh move to try and potentially name uh the Torpedo Factory after Miss Van Landingham.

And so uh to the members of the naming committee, uh, just want to give you guys a heads up that uh you will likely be contacted by some folks uh to potentially look at um adding the name of Miss Van Landingham uh to the Torpedo Factory.

And I, for one, would be fully supportive of that.

And with that, Madam Mayor, uh, that is my report.

Okay, thank you, Councilman Aguirre.

Councilwoman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and good evening, everyone in person and online.

Thank you for joining us, which um is uh on the best day of the year, if I do say so myself.

And um, I wanted to uh make sure that I give kudos to the career planning and placement center at um Alexander City High School for the work they put into this senior experience for um seniors that go into different businesses for two weeks in Alexandria, and we had quite a few, as um Councilman Aguirre said at City Hall.

My two students were Isat Adries and Jamila Solano, and they learn all the inner workings of City Council and being a um elected official.

Thank you so much to the city departments that were so willing to teach them so excitedly about what you do.

Um it was an amazing experience.

I hope that many people um or many businesses will um sign on and take in some students to help them learn about what we do in our city, and hopefully um when they return from college will want to stay here in our city and work and uh have a rewarding career.

And my two students will be attending Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall.

My alma mater.

Thank you.

And if you didn't catch today is the best day of the year because it is uh Councilwoman Green's birthday.

So we wish you a very happy birthday.

Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, just a couple of things.

Um had the opportunity to speak at uh the annual Black Scholars Awards program held by the National Panolinic Council uh that has been giving out dollars to uh local youth uh for a couple of decades now.

Um it was great to see a number of Titans receive money uh to support their next uh chapter in their lives.

Um also had a chance to uh be with Councilwoman Marks uh to ribbon cut uh a couple of uh new and one new and one uh moving business um in Del Rey, uh lifestyle and performance fitness um has just opened up right off of the avenue, and then the Department of Beer and Wine.

Um, if you are familiar with where they were before on um on Richmond Highway, um they have moved now to um Mount Vernon Avenue.

And so if you are uh have been a customer of theirs, uh just note that they have changed locations, but they have changed locations within the city, and so that is a marvelous win.

They definitely have a great uh great space uh on the avenue.

So thank you for that, and that's it.

Thank you, Councilman Chapman.

I have um the first two are just thank yous, and then I do have a few items where I will be seeking the council's feedback um and support.

The first one is I want to echo um Councilman Aguirre and Councilwoman Green and just give a thank you and a special shout out to my um senior who spent her senior experience with me, Eleanor.

She worked on everything from engaging our trade associations to doing research with our Office of Race and Social Equity Office, and she will be headed to UVA in the fall.

I also wanted to thank the American Council on Education for choosing to host their Building Pathways Summit here uh this morning at the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus earlier today.

It brought forth university partners from across the Northern Virginia region as well as the broader DMV to talk about how we can work together to create greater pathways to employment for students who are leaving our um higher education universities.

For the next few items, so the first two that I wanted to raise with council are in response to two requests that we receive from the school board.

I wanted to, as I stated in um the email that I sent to each member, make sure that we are being responsive and that we have an opportunity to provide direction to the city manager uh should we wish to move forward.

The first request was related to funding for communities in schools NOVA.

This request was to use any contingent reserve um funding that is generated by our parking revenue to support communities and schools.

I think all of us are familiar with this program as well as the fact that the current funding structure leverages funding from ACPS as well as a number of different other partners in order to support this program.

The challenge is that we don't currently have the money in hand.

I think as many of you know, the parking revenue is based on whether or not people actually accumulate the same number of fines that they did in the previous year.

Additionally, the program would not go into effect until January 1, and then still require time to turn over all of our parking meters and to begin the new enforcement.

And speaking with the manager, the earliest we would have feedback on whether on like what we've collected so far and the amount of revenue that we're generating would be the fall, likely end of September, early October.

And so wanted to raise to each of you that while we can't allocate money that we don't have, what we could do in an effort to be responsive is direct the manager that when he brings back the contingent proposal in the fall to include um some recommendations for funding for this program.

And so wanted to, I'll pause there, but just wanted to throw it out to the group to see um if there is interest in giving that direction to the manager.

Madam Mayor.

Councilman Aguirre.

I mean, I'm so sorry, that's the second time.

I'm so sorry.

Uh Councilman on New Peace.

Um I'm sorry, point of clarification.

I think you said January one.

I think you meant July one, but it goes into I thought July one just to make sure we're all in the same way.

Great.

Okay.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

No, I I I appreciate the ask.

I I think to coming forward in time for us to sort of uh be considering it.

I don't have a sense of I feel like the night we did the budget, there was a you know a number thrown around with like a three in front of it.

It was roughly 300,000 in change that we anticipated, if then you know, all of that is the request for all money generated if it's in that ballpark to be used to this purpose or and I'm sorry if I missed it, but is there a a budget uh percentage in mind?

So um I was leaving it in intentionally vague.

Um for everyone's awareness.

So in terms of what was stated during our FY27 budget process, there could potentially be if people get the same number of fines as they have historically, $329,000 and $329,000.

The funding that ACPS has invested in Cisnova is $350,000.

So I don't know that we could give a direct number to the manager because we can't we don't have that number and we don't have that funds.

What we could do is something with we could ask him to give a recommendation for a portion of those funds.

We could ask for up to a percentage.

We can give sort of broad language, but without having an exact number, we can't specify a number.

Well, so um for the purposes tonight, I think to give feedback, I I would absolutely like to see this included in like the memo that comes back with the the clearer sense of the figure and then the recommendations.

I think that night I expressed a preference for this surplus to be directed towards a school level item.

And if this is you know what the school has sort of, you know, the school systems has indicated, I'd be supportive of it.

I just would want to leave a little bit of space for the manager to include other you know, other items that maybe over the next few months might benefit, but um I'm supportive of um of this receiving uh you know whatever you need to hear tonight that says like yes, I'm supportive of the money going in this direction.

Thank you, Vice Very Bagley.

Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I am um very much supportive.

Um communities and school is a wonderful program that benefits many students.

However, I do have a question on um if this money won't come to them until later in the fall, how does that keep the program running um as school will start before that money will come to the school system?

Yeah, I think that that is the challenge that we are are facing right now.

Um I did have an opportunity to talk to some of the other funders that were mentioned in the letter that we received to ACPS.

Um they said that they would need to have additional discussions depending on this conversation, but a signal of support might be helpful for them to be able to put them the funding in that they need to advance the next phase of their decisions.

Okay, thank you.

Um Councilman Agarry.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um I've personally worked with CIS, and I I can attest to the great work that they do within the school system.

I guess my my only frustration is that um if the school system was aware that this additional money unlocks additional money, then that they would have tried to have budgeted this within the means that they have.

So I it's it's unfortunate.

I'm not saying that I'm against it, but um I I wish I there would have been a little bit more fiscal responsibility there, if you will, to to make sure that this was something that was going to go forward.

And while we're on this topic, you know, I'm just gonna take a moment to also advocate for um, you know, the two positions, uh past speaking positions for the community liaisons uh with a very vulnerable community right now within Alexandria and uh you know the fact that we can't budget 100,000 dollars from the school budget of you know 300 plus million, 100k seems very reasonable for the school board to have put together uh for these two positions that support such a vulnerable police uh population at this point in time.

So you know we still don't know how much money is gonna generate.

Um I don't know if I'd want to see the entire amount go to CIS if there's another position like this that's um so important and vital, you know, maybe it's not both of the positions, maybe it's one.

I don't know.

Ultimately that'll be up to the school board and whatever the money is generated uh do become.

But I just wanted to put that out.

Thank you, Councilman Aguary.

Um it sounds like just so I'm gonna recap the conversation.

What might be emerging is that there is starting to be a sort of majority support for at least directing the manager to bring back a memo that includes this as an option or broader funding for ACPS as it um comes through.

I saw a hand from Councilwoman Marks, um, and then I saw Councilman Chapman, and then I saw Councilman Alnubi.

Uh Mayor Gaskins, you covered what I wanted to say.

Yes.

Uh Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I just wanted to so I appreciate the letter and um I appreciate the the board kind of reaching out to this to us about this opportunity.

Um a little bit in line with uh Councilman Agiri, I think the the worry I have in as the manager brings something back, probably further discussion we should have with each of our liaisons uh about what happens if we don't cover the full amount.

Um I think there's there's still a little sunlight, even if they were to get everything.

Um but in the event that they're not, um, because I know there are still some competing things for that uh that additional money, um, kind of what is the what happens next if we're only able to give 200 or only 300, you know, do we have do we have school board's commitment to kind of make up that difference by uh making additional changes to their budget to be able to handle that?

Uh and then I think um the the issue of timing uh is is very well placed.

Um and even if there's maybe needs to be a discussion with our liaisons about something they can frontload and maybe be able to get the money later and and not have that effect um CIES programming because I have seen this program not only work here in Alexandria uh but across the region as well, and so I do know that is uh certainly a benefit uh to our young people.

Yeah, I definitely think uh Mr.

Manager, it would be helpful to add those layers and maybe in conversation with um the superintendent and with the school board sort of because even the amount we have is less than the amount that is what's supported.

So what happens at different tiered levels?

Councilman O'Nuby.

Yeah, not to repeat anything.

I'm in support and in agreement of the general direction and consensus.

I think it's a great program as well.

Well, thank you all for your support um of this direction.

Mr.

Manager, do you have any clarifying questions on that request?

Yeah, so is there I'm assuming there is majority support.

Yes, it looks like you got all of us for the support of you returning to us with a set of recommendations that outline potentially how we could um support this program or um, I guess there were options at different tiered levels to ACPS, and then also with a note on timing.

Okay, the other um letter that we received from the school board was a request um to develop a ad hoc committee um that would be responsible for developing a recommendation and timeline to implement the board's November 7th, 2024 resolution to adjust the Alexandria City School Board election cycle and to initiate a charter amendment uh consistent with that resolution.

So the specific request is around a committee focused on that resolution.

I have had an opportunity to just touch base with each of you individually.

I think what I have gathered and wanted to leave space for conversation here is that there is support um for having a committee with two members of the council, that the in doing so that there would be a desire of the council to have a committee that is not just focused on looking at staggered terms, but also looking at staggered terms plus other types of election reform, whether that be board size, um timing or reper representation.

And so what we could do today if we wanted to move forward would be to give the manager direction to prepare a resolution outlining the purpose and the scope of a potential committee on school board election reform.

We would then vote on that resolution at a later date.

I think ideal given the timing, ideally we would do that before our recess, and then at that time would identify two people to formally a port uh a point to such a committee, and then they would work in partnership with two members of the school board to then bring back a set of recommendations in each of those reform areas, as well as the number one thing I heard from everybody was a set of recommendations on community engagement and communication back to um our residents on how this would work and what that would look like.

So what I'm requesting today is if there is support to move forward with such a committee, um, that you would signal that this evening and that we could give the manager um both signal that support, but also what you would need to see in the resolution so that we could bring that back um and vote on that.

I see Councilman Age, and then I see Vice Mayor Bagley.

Uh Madam Mayor, I I'd be supportive of something like that, and I appreciate you uh kind of giving it a little bit more leeway and openness, and so that we're not just an uh strict lane.

Um I don't want to make it too open for the city manager, but uh you know, around governance, um, I think the only other thing that I didn't hear that I would I would potentially think about is um compensation.

I I think if we're talking about the board as a whole, I think that would be something that would be included.

Uh but again, how leaving it kind of open gives us the opportunity to have a fuller conversation, if you will.

So I I'd be in support of that.

Thank you, Councilman Aguirre.

I appreciate the support.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

No, agreed.

I think I mean I understand that the school board that has to happen on the school board side, the compensation piece, but I would absolutely agree that it's an element that that this joint body could discuss.

Um so I'd like to see that added to if if my colleagues agree.

I'm supportive of putting together a joint committee.

A question I had is about sort of staffing.

I the joint committee that I did last term with SLEP was jointly staffed, I I think by both sides, and I'm just curious if is that something the manager would sort out, or you've already given thought to.

So um the manager would in his resolution recommendation proposed staff.

I will say just what I have heard in um conversations is at least somebody from um legal as well as the registrar's office and and the CMO um office.

And then I guess if we are talking about bud compensation, it might be helpful to have budget.

But Mr.

Manager, I don't know if you want to jump in on this one.

Yeah, no, thank you.

So yeah, I think what we would do is uh a small team with multidisciplinary functions um related to the types of reforms that uh we could bring some experts to.

I mean, you mentioned uh voter registrar or city attorney's office, our management and budget office, our finance office, I think would be really important, someone from my office, um and maybe someone from the clerk's office as it relates to some of the organizational elements as well.

So um that that would be kind of the theme and what we would do the way I understand uh the request is I put forth a draft resolution to you that would include those those types of things.

Uh what you wouldn't be taking action on the actions, you would be taking action on the resolution.

Thanks, Mayor.

And thank you.

And so, yeah, I I appreciate the reference to the um registrar's office.

I think whether or not she can participate to someone from her office, and that then has downstream effects on budgeting and and how we budget for elections.

Um and I and I apologize, I was listening as you were speaking, but do the other thing I'd like to make sure that was in it that I think you raised in either conversation was um a time frame.

So this isn't intended to, you know, we sort of I I'd like the resolution to sort of already have a path of a deliverable and a time frame for that deliverable, which maybe the members can reflect on early in their work, but I think that would be valuable in the resolution for the public to understand and for the to for the body itself to sort of understand.

We're on an 18-month plan here to to get this done.

Um I did not specifically state that, but I completely agree.

I do think this needs to be time bound.

This is not a committee that needs to exist in perpetuity.

And honestly, if we are moving forward with changes to our our charter, I think there is a very strict time process that we'd have to go through to do that.

So I I would be in full support of the resolution breaking out clearly what is that time frame.

I saw Councilman Marks and Councilman Green.

Um I'm very supportive of this moving forward.

Uh I'm really looking forward to some positive, respectful experiences on this topic specifically, which I know school board has been asking uh to review for quite a while.

Uh appreciate the elections office and the registrar being raised.

I'm also interested to understand if we should include somebody from the legislative office.

Um, as there will certainly be some scheduling issues there, and certainly the cost of you know these kinds of reforms.

Just want to make sure everything is clear and upfront uh so that anything, any fruits that this particular uh conversation bears is doable and legal um and wise, and that we understand what the unforeseen consequences are.

Um I know that that sometimes in bodies like ours, we are thinking in one track, and there are actually much wider repercussions uh for you know, not just administratively and financially, but also electorally and democratically.

Uh so we want to make sure all of those things are included.

Uh, but overall, just wanted to uh I don't I think you've noticed I don't like to repeat what other people have said, but I do just want to vocally support um my optimism for this particular ad hoc committee.

Thank you, Councilman Marks.

Councilman Green, and then Councilman Alnuby.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Also very supportive of the ad hoc committee, but also would like to know as we talk about this and talk about a time frame.

Is there something else we might want to talk about if we're opening up our charter as we move forward?

Just something to think about down the line, but just putting that out there.

Yeah.

Um I think that's a that's a great question.

I would think of those as maybe two separate processes, because I imagine if we're talking about our charter as a whole, that might be other departments than some of the ones that we've named here.

So I guess maybe Mr.

Manager, and I'd be curious your thoughts on this.

What I'd offer up is a specific resolution that is related to this and the formation of this committee, but then maybe a separate memo that is what are those things that if we are working on our charter, now might be the opportunity to have a broader discussion about.

And we can look at that through a separate process, but make sure they're um aligned.

That would be great.

I think it actually fits really well with some of our internal staff conversations before.

No, I think that we don't want to keep opening up, so that's okay.

Um Councilman Alnubi.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

So I'm not I would say I'm I'm for an ad hoc committee, and I support the scope as laid out by you and and my colleagues.

I think my hesitation is I need to hear from the school board first if they sign off on the scope.

I say that because we've had an experience in the past where we were told that we tried to force things into the conversation and that we were not on the same page from the beginning.

I want to avoid that scenario.

So before our staff does any work, before we start any efforts, I want both bodies to be on the same page and both bodies sign off on that scope and be on the same page about that scope.

We look at things differently just because we have different responsibilities.

Haven't been on the school board.

I know how they look at things, and I know how that resolution came about and why they only care about what's in that resolution, because they look at things from their perspective and the responsibility.

I think as council members, we look at things more broadly.

For myself personally, as a council member, I want to see more competition in school board elections, hence I want to talk about reducing the size.

I think a lot of people don't know that since 2009, at least one district had an uncontested school board race, except in 2018.

That was the only outlier.

But for every single year since 2009, at least one school board district did not have a competitive race.

People are on the unopposed, including the year when I was elected to the school board.

So you think I'll be supportive of keeping those board size, but I think for the better of democracy, for the better of the community having a choice in who represents them, having a choice of who spends a third of the city budget, because the school board spends the school board budget, which is a third of the city budget.

I think for me as a council member, I would like to look at the size.

But again, I think that's a conversation we'd have the school board to make sure they're on board with that from the beginning.

So we don't get to a point at the end where we're seeing something, we want one type of reform, they want one type of reform, and we don't know how to agree or disagree.

So I guess also deciding from the get-go how we're gonna make decisions about this when we get to the end and when the recommendations um.

Um what I also add is one thing I think is important for the school board.

I think they should have staff aids.

I think that's one thing as someone who served on both bodies, saw is very helpful.

It probably will attract more people to run for school board because it helps when you have someone.

We have part-time aides.

Maybe they don't have to each have one part-time aid, but some sort of aid, um, some sort of staff support um for them as well.

I think the salary was so it was said uh certainly agree with that.

Um, I started, you know, a framework before I left the school board um through the committee I was chairing.

Um so again, that's kind of like where I stand.

So I don't know how we approach that, but I would want the school board to sign off on any scope before we start.

If we are expanding the scope, I want to make sure that they are in support.

Okay.

Um, Councilwoman Marks.

Um I'm really interested in a lot of what uh Councilman Alnubi has to say.

This specific letter focuses on a really narrow set of questions, which are electoral in nature.

And my interest specifically is in having some positive narrow, very specific experiences with school board where we can advance some shared goals now.

Um and so I'm really interested in all of those things, and those things represent, I think, a scope of a broader election reform and a broader look into what school board is and how it is governed, and I'm not sure that that is what this is asking for, and that is uh our necessary focus right now in this experience uh that just two people from each body would participate in.

I think that's a much larger conversation that I would love to have and would love to participate in.

But I'm wondering if it makes sense here to move forward with this and uh you know take a look at what we can do electorally, maybe broaden the scope a bit to talk, you know, beyond only staggered terms, but maybe not quite into staffing yet.

And I also wonder if one of the ways in which we can hold this respectful positive experience is to perhaps in that first meeting talk about uh agenda setting in that first meeting.

So rather than prescribe ahead of time exactly what this ad committee will do, uh perhaps uh instead focus on an agenda for the first meeting of this ad hoc committee, which establishes the parameters of what the committee will do.

In other words, what I'm trying to prevent here is creating an ad hoc committee on creating an ad hoc committee.

Um so that's what I'm interested in.

I'm interested in focusing on this specific set of um election reform that I hope will lead to a broader respectful conversation about governance.

I guess what I would offer up, um just kind of pulling together the two themes that I'm hearing is first, I do agree that there has to be alignment between both of our bodies and in whatever we're doing moving forward.

And so I think um I would still ask that the manager draft the resolution so that way our colleagues on the school board have something specific to react to around what is being proposed.

And then before we vote on it, there has been time for them to weigh in as to is this an alignment?

Because if neither body is aligned with it or wants to move forward in that way, then I don't think it would lead to the positive and productive set of conversations that I think councilwoman Marks is raising.

I do for the resolution, we do need to have a specific purpose.

Um, and so I think that purpose could lay out some of those themes.

But in to risk getting into sort of what they will cover at each member meeting and all of those details, I think your point about that first conversation should be what it, you know, how are we going to achieve the objectives as set out by the resolution in the time frame that we have?

And we can even when we do oral reports, we can add this as an oral report and we can get an update.

And if there are topics that are not covered, one of the things we could do if there's agreement is I know I said this earlier because I don't think this needs to go on and on, but if there are topics that have not been covered, we can always vote to extend the subcommittee to pick up other issues of governance or things that we'd want to cover.

But I think initially this would give us enough to get started to at least see how this could be framed to respond to the requests from the school board and then see if there's an alignment in this path.

Uh Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um at this time I'm just gonna withhold my support for this.

Um I certainly uh understand that there's a majority, so uh look forward to engaging in the conversation about uh the next steps.

Okay, thank you.

Um council uh sorry, I'm so tired.

Um City Manager Bear John, do you have any uh clarity or question clarifying questions on this item?

Just to summarize, so a resolution will be part A, and then there'll be a separate memo really for council consideration about the broader question about charter.

Yes, and that resolution will speak to the purpose, um, the types of reforms, so staggered terms, board size, um, district boundaries, representation.

It will also specify a time frame for this committee and a clear deliverable as to what they will work on.

I've got it.

All right, thank you all.

The last one I hope is super easy.

I just wanted to, we've got a couple memos about bathrooms on the waterfront.

And recognizing that we have a summer of a lot of events.

For most of these events, we are planning what you would expect to port a potty.

But then they come, they leave, they come, they leave.

And so what I'm requesting your support is um we know that we're gonna have bathrooms in future development, but that's kind of a much longer term.

I'd like for the manager to maybe look at, especially for the summer of events with sale 250, our birthday, the Jazz Fest, is there any efficiencies or economies of scale that can be achieved if we just have a set of port of potties or some sort of temporary bathroom the entire summer long?

And could this be a chance for us to get a better sense of cost and and structure so that people have a, you know, we want to attract a lot of tourists, but they also need a place to use the restroom.

Um Vice Mayor Bagley.

Um I I never thought when I signed up for the waterfront commission that I would be talking about bathrooms as frequently as we have monthly, monthly we talk about bathrooms.

So I I agree, I like the idea of investigating.

Um while we're looking into this, uh I'm sure you all have been on the mall in the last couple of years, but um they have something like that's a step up from port a potties, but it's a trailer essentially.

I've seen them at like weddings and things as well.

So I don't I don't know the cost differential or the security concerns, but um I'd be curious in something beyond like a six-month lease on a port a potty.

Is there something a slightly more, you know, aesthetically pleasing and significant with the ones on the mall have like running water, you know, in them and a little sink and it feels more like a trailer.

Um it also feels a little more accessible from a like um I know we're working hard to be like an accessible tourist destination.

So just want I no sense of budget.

I I I on that, but um would appreciate if whatever you look into could give us some options that go beyond like the classic port a potty and maybe even I don't know how specific we want to be, but in terms of locations, um if there are locations that then can be shared with Visit Alexandria, it can go onto websites, can you know, in our visitor center, they can sort of give you a map.

That sort of thing No, I appreciate that, and I should say I'm not limiting it to Porti Potty, it's just the example I was I was thinking of, but I think the ultimate goal is like what is um how can we find the most cost effective way to ensure that tourists, residents and anyone who's down there visiting our waterfront also have a place to go without overburdening um recognizing like the torpedo factory, it closes.

We we can't have that open all night.

And so, how do we have some other options?

I was just saying to Councilman Chapman when we were in France.

There were self-cleaning ones.

There's a lot of um things on the market, and so if there's support, I see a couple nods.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Manager.

I have no more oral reports.

Does anyone else?

Okay, Madam Clerk, next item.

City manager oral report, Duke Street land use plan.

Update, so we have a couple items uh under this agenda.

Uh the first one is two expert planners in front of you tonight.

They're gonna give you uh uh a timely update on street renders plan, and then uh we'll talk a little bit about the memo of understanding as it relates to uh uh ACPS school um resource officers.

Great, thank you.

Um good evening, and for the record, uh Jeff Farner, Deputy Director Planning Department.

Uh as the manager indicated, this is this is sort of an important update for us.

Uh we were in front of council in February.

Uh you gave us some very clear guidance, and uh we think we've incorporated uh almost all of that into what you're gonna see tonight.

And and we were we were talking with you in February, we had said we're gonna bring some really key important elements to you, which is sort of the fundamental elements of this plan, uh, which we're gonna talk to you about tonight.

And really the guidance tonight is is just to get feedback.

Are we headed in the right direction?

Are the things we're missing, things you want us to look at.

Um so that's really what tonight is, and then we're gonna talk about next steps at the end.

So again, this is just agenda sort of where we were, uh work session in February discussing what we're calling the framework plan, which is sort of the fundamental elements of a land use plan.

Uh and Carrie's gonna walk through most of those tonight land use, building height, open space, and what we're calling mobility, which is sort of where is the network, how are people moving around next steps, and then hopefully a discussion and questions by the council.

So uh you uh I think most of you have seen this before.

This is a very large corridor for our city.

Uh I was just looking at acreage and uh size-wise, this is about three times the size of the Potomac Yard, just to put this in scale.

Um obviously not the entire corridor is developing.

Um but it is a very large corridor.

We've heard a lot of different feedback.

I'm gonna summarize this in an upcoming slide.

Um and there was a lot of discussion earlier by council and students, and we have gone through a lot of effort to get feedback from students.

Uh they are a big part of our future, of course, and this is a plan thinking about our future on Duke Street.

Uh we've had a lot of great feedback from the businesses uh along the way, and uh I'm gonna try and update some of those as well.

Um and that was I think one of our directions at our last briefing from council, make sure we incorporate a strategy for small business.

We're gonna talk to you about that.

So, really high level, what have we heard?

Um we've heard a lot of pride from people in their communities, but we've also heard some concerns.

Uh so one is how do we make the corridor feel more cohesive and less piecemeal?

Uh and uh we have some strategies and what we're gonna talk about ways to do that.

How do we build on the big parks that are at each end of this corridor?

And we're perhaps missing some neighborhood parks in the middle.

We're gonna talk about that.

Housing affordability and supply.

Um we've heard a lot of how do we continue to stay and live in this corridor?

Um and concerns about affordability sort of up and down the corridor.

All of the uh multi-unit rental uh housing is 80% AMI or less.

We have some of our biggest housing assets in the entire city and Fox Chase, which is over 2,000 units.

Uh and as part of this, we've been working with um the housing staff uh for housing 2040 to make sure we're integrating direction that they are going to be bringing forward to council very soon.

Infrastructure capacity.

One of the things as we bring plans forward is to make sure they work.

So we're going through that process now.

The council was talking about school capacity, which we have been coordinating with school staff on.

We're looking at things like sewer capacity.

We're going to bring bringing back traffic study in June to the community.

So we're in process of working on those things as well.

We've also heard very, very clearly from almost everyone, I would say keeping the grocery stores in their community.

And I want to be able to walk and access those in a convenient way.

Also thing we probably universally heard safer connections, bike ped driving and support for local businesses.

We've heard a lot about people enjoying the local businesses that are up and down the corridor and talking to the businesses.

I think we've heard a lot of sort of discussions about how affordability is really important for them staying in our city.

A lot of them were able to move here and sort of be in a brick and mortar location because of affordability, and what are some strategies we we can employ to address that.

And then traffic and mobility.

We've heard concerns about traffic, particularly in certain locations, as well as sort of moving up and down the corridor.

So that really led us to this idea of how do we begin to organize themes.

So as we think about taking all of those concepts and organizing those into sort of fundamental themes and strategies.

So they are all commercial properties.

So for example, Alexandria Commons, the commercial properties east of Telegraph, where the postal facility is today, we're talking to them and other owners.

And the the benefit of this strategy, we think is it's not displacing existing residents.

So one of the things we heard from council as part of our last briefing was anti-displacement was a as it was a priority of this council.

So really incentivizing development in sort of these commercial areas results in no displacement of existing residents.

It also gives us housing supply and net new affordable housing.

So when that how new development comes in online, one of the recommendations will be a certain percentage of that be affordable.

I had mentioned housing affordability.

You see two very large sites.

One is Fox Chase in the middle.

On the sort of bottom left is uh Mason and Van Dorn.

Uh, two market rate affordable housing sites today.

We're in conversations with those owners today of strategies of how can we integrate some of the discussions with housing 2040.

Um the other area, sort of direction by council was how do we retain as many of the small businesses as we can?

So in this red area, uh we're calling this sort of the small business area, and uh the proposal that we are putting forward is potentially not increasing FAR or height in substantial ways to essentially keep the building stock that is there today, keep the level of affordability.

Um we've heard some concern by some of the uh existing businesses that if if redevelopment happens or new building happens, we can't afford to be in that new space.

Uh the other thing that you see in front of you, which we talked about in the uh February briefing was the city campus.

I think this is a really unique opportunity for us to plan a 55-acre site we own.

And I think one of the things we heard from you and and certainly from the manager is making sure we build in capacity to make sure we as a city can function for snow events and storing buses and storing dump trucks and salt domes and things we just need to operate a city, and then this sort of yellow area is perhaps something a little more public-facing, something where maybe there are different uses that we can stack uses together.

Um again, very much a concept.

And sure.

Just a quick follow-up question.

While I recognize the goal of having a concentrated hub of small small businesses, I'm curious for the opportunity areas.

Are those other areas where we might also incentivize retail, or are you just looking to have it kind of in the red corridor?

So very good question.

So Carrie's gonna talk in the land use plan.

One in Fox Chase and Alexandria Commons.

We're gonna recommend what we're calling retail areas.

So and really keeping the uses and density that are there today, particularly the grocery stores.

Um we can't really require grocery stores, but giving them enough FAR and enough space to make sure this kinds of uses can stay.

I think one of our challenges when we were talking with the community of how do we get how do we maximize retail in the corridor?

And our our challenge is we have the former landmark mall site, which is redeveloping, which is going to be a retail destination, we hope.

And then we have old town.

And so we think the retail sort of on the corridor is going to be more neighborhood serving.

So keep the neighborhood serving on the corridor and sort of the regional destinations on on in Old Town and the former landmark mall site.

And Carrie's going to have a diagram showing that.

No, I appreciate the feedback.

I think what I was trying to get at is part of the other things I read from the plan feedback is this desire for walkability.

And for the folks who are out of those space right now, pretty much their walkability is to the 7-Eleven points.

And so if we have an opportunity to be thinking about, especially if those are opportunity sites where there might be ground floor opportunities, just making sure we're thinking of spaces that will be walkable to those areas as well.

Yes.

Thanks for Maggie.

Walters.

So I'm just I I agree and understand the direction of maintain, not looking to like change heights and chencies for that reason.

But I just wanted to like touch on is that also part of the long-term vision is maintaining it as a place where light industrial is also welcome, or does it matter from a planning perspective?

I I it's a it's a really good question.

I I think one of the things is we've been looking at the uses that are there.

A lot of the uses that are there really aren't what we would call industrial or or maybe even light industrial.

There's sort of different things.

There are there are caterer, there's a brewery, there's sort of different things happening that aren't really industrial, but they they also need trucks.

So they need truck service.

If you've gone up and down wheeler, you see a lot of tractor trailers because that's what they need.

And so the the challenge is like do we adjust the zoning?

I think that's a policy question for us as part of this plan.

Do we facilitate some of the uses that are there versus industrial, which is maybe not what's happening there today?

So that's probably a future discussion we're gonna have a council.

So thank you for that.

Great.

Am I pushing this button?

Yes.

There we go.

Okay, thank you.

Um Carrie Beach with also with planning and zoning.

So the next series of maps um slides that you see are going to be the framework maps.

And because of the length of the corridor and the kind of detail that's included in these maps, we've split them in the two.

So you'll see um an east web east map and a west map for each of the different uh framework plans.

So we'll start with um land use on the east side.

The pink um areas you see uh generally represent those opportunity um themes that uh Jeff mentioned on the land use themes map.

And those are the areas that are generally commercial now, and we are recommending can have flexibility to be residential or commercial in the future.

And you'll see um in response to your question, some of those areas have a red line where there would be um recommended kind of retail focus areas, but retail could be allowed in any of those areas.

It's a flexible um land use.

Um another area that I would highlight are the um kind of teal and purple areas, those are the city campus, and as Jeff mentioned, the areas closer to the rail corridor would be more of the back of house, the purple more kind of front facing.

Um we've uh purposely looked at these land use areas as very flexible to enable the city to have to maximize options in terms of how we use this space, um, looking at a combination of uses, whether it's um continued civic use, um city services, or some residential or commercial.

Um and uh Jeff is gonna speak to the open space uh question in the middle there when you get to the open space map.

Um we also have you'll see some uh yellow and orange sites, those are the existing residential areas uh in the plan, uh which Judge Jeff mentioned are some of our uh key resource areas and heading west, uh you'll see Fox Chase here um is the big yellow site, and and Mason at Van Dorn and some other sites to the north of Duke are in the orange.

And uh we are talking to those property owners to um develop some uh recommendations related to how we can preserve these really important uh uh housing resources in the city.

As Jeff mentioned, they are um market affordable.

Some also have some committed affordable units, but these are really important resources for our residents, and we want to uh minimize uh displacement, acknowledging that uh some uh redevelopment or additional density will be needed in some cases to um maximize that preservation.

The pinks, the pink areas you see continued to the west represent more of those opportunity sites, generally the commercial areas that are fronting Duke Street.

These are generally closer to the transit stops.

You can just barely see those tiny little buses.

Um those are the uh future transit stops that will be coming with the um the future transit way.

Moving on to building heights, this really um follows the land use plan.

So uh generally heights are uh clustered closer to the Duke Street to the frontage of Duke Street and generally closer to the uh transit stops.

Uh at the same time we did hear from the community, you know, we don't want to see uh you know monolithic same height along the entire corridor, so there's also kind of a variation of heights built in.

Another thing to note is um some flexibility for the city campus to um to have some flexibility to do the things that we need to do, potentially stack uses if needed.

Um the uh let's see, the areas in blue that you see are some of those um existing housing um sites where we have um proposed some increase in heights to enable uh use of the bonus density incentive that the city has in its zoning ordinance, section 7700.

Are you wanting to jump in?

Okay.

Uh and to the um west, um, you'll see again on the um Fox Chase, which is that kind of orange to the north and Mason at Van Dorn south to the west, west and south.

Um those uh heights um remain as they are currently.

Uh we are, as we mentioned, still in conversations with those property owners to see how we're best going to approach those those sites going forward to preserve housing affordability potentially through some uh uh minimal redevelopment.

Um you'll see um at most of those opportunity sites along the corridor, some additional um height is enabled to allow for some of that flexibility of uses, possibly some ground floor retail commercial or residential.

And then uh lastly, moving on to mobility.

Um this these two the east and west portions of this mobility map really take into account um trying to look at this corridor from a system perspective and uh you know, understanding that this was really developed in more of a suburban uh way than uh kind of an old town grid kind of a way.

And so looking at ways that we can take our recommendations to kind of retrofit this area to address some of the concerns we heard about safety crossing the street, about uh local access.

A lot of people talked about you know the congestion on Duke Street, especially from uh regional traffic, and so how can how can we improve local connectivity either by car or by foot or by bike to make it easier and safer to get around?

So with this plan, we have we have multiple opportunities.

One is we are um memorializing the uh transit improvements with the future transit way, but also with that are um pedestrian and streetscape improvements and uh uh bicycle infrastructure improvements that come with that.

Uh we're also um uh memorializing the recommendations of the Alexandria Mobility Plan.

So uh recommendations there are all being um uh put into this one plan.

And then with redevelopment, we also have the opportunity to uh further um uh expand the grid.

So where we have larger sites, we can include new street connections and further expand the grid.

Um so that's generally what you see on this map is is um expanding the network where we can, um adding new connections where we can.

Um we're also um looking at ways that we can oops went backwards.

Uh improve this area's connection uh connectivity to other parts of the city.

Of course, uh transportation is a system, and we need to look at ways that people can you know better access homes run, which will lead to allow them to better access other parts of the city.

Um sorry, I wanted to show you on this map.

Um, for example, improved connectivity for PED bike under Telegraph Road east and west, um, so that folks get going from the city campus or Witter can uh go over to the Dove Street area where we anticipate future redevelopment would occur.

One second, I have a question from Councilman Chapman and then another from Victoria Bagley.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And you I think you opened up another one talking about uh under um under the telegraph road bridge, because if I remember correctly.

We just were I think somebody closed the uh is there any chance of kind of doing something there, reopening that?

Does that seem to be a real opportunity?

Umops, sorry, didn't mean to do that.

Staff knows what I'm talking about.

Yes.

Um so there was a tunnel that would that went under the railroad tracks.

Um that was a little um sketchy and uh was ultimately um closed um for probably for that reason, but also because of the um fourth rail project that's occurring.

And so as part of that um staff and what body would that be.

Yeah, the folks working on the fourth rail project um are looking at opportunities to improve pedestrian and bike connectivity north-south.

So whether that that may include some improvements on telegraph road that that make that more accessible, um, but utilizing that under telegraph improvement as well and and making the um that all work better.

But that has absolutely been something we've been hearing from the community, and um, we're looking at ways we can approve that.

Second question.

Um kind of have some thoughts around not thoughts to start with, but um anything around a uh Eisenhower connection.

And if we're if that conversation's ever gonna come up, it's gonna come up on this path, right?

Because you know, that was uh uh subset of what we were gonna do on Duke Street and whatnot.

And so um not to just make busy work, uh I would really love to see how what that looks like and what the hurdles are.

Uh obviously we know money is one, we know planning and incentivizing people to come to the area have all been talked about in the past is some of the things that we are worried about.

Um but you know, I I do want to kind of understand um there had been some work in the past that staff had done uh around trying to minimize impact on what that could be.

Uh and I would love to kind of talk about that, talk about opportunities for funding uh if that is something that could be done, especially if we're talking about additional development here as well, uh what those could look like I mean just to talk generally, I think one of the things that um obviously that was something that was talked about a lot and studied quite a bit as well.

And there were a couple different locations.

One is um let's go back, Carrie.

Uh you go back.

Um was sort of the bluestone connection through the middle.

There was also a discussion sort of connecting Wheeler, there was also one close to Cameron Station.

And and I think ultimately one of the really big challenges is the rail corridor and having height and as you mentioned, cost.

And so I think I think one of the um challenges we were trying to face in sort of uh compiling this plan is how do we maximize the assets that are there and understanding cost challenges with some other options.

For example, Carrie alluded to this, but I think everyone east of not everyone, but almost everyone east of Quicker Lane has has said uh how do we get to Eisenar East and Wigman's if we're not on a car.

And so walking, biking, uh, and you see that sort of purple line, how do we make that connection better?

And so there's so many needs right now, sort of up and down the corridor for vehicle, ped, bike, walking, safety, and so I think we were trying to sort of balance how do we address those needs and also implement them in a way that really makes sense given some of our constraints.

Um and there are a lot of needs up and down the corridor.

Um I think we've consistently heard safety.

Um, one of the things, just to add to what Carrie said, one of the things we're of course doing right now is working with the transportation staff and integrating the transit corridor that council approved.

So all of these assumptions are integrating the work that that our transportation staff are doing.

So we were trying to balance a lot of competing things, but um, if that's the desire of the council, we can we can certainly build that into some of the effort that that we're looking at here.

Thank you.

Um to my colleagues, and I appreciate that that uh response.

Um to my colleagues, I think again if we were doing uh area planning in Delray, we're not gonna be talking about the Eisenhower connector, right?

If we're doing planning anywhere else uh except this corridor, there's not the opportunity to talk about what had been a long-term kind of conversation and see if there is in this new reality an opportunity to have that and be aspirational.

Um, frankly, with a number of our plans, we've done that in the past.

Um obviously things don't always come to fruition, uh, but I think it would be a lost opportunity not to even have the conversation, not to explore the challenges, also the opportunity to do that.

Um again, I'm not trying to make busy work for staff.

Uh I know they've got a lot on their plate as they do try to balance the needs of this particular corridor.

But again, I think the opportunity, if this is something that could come to pass with opportunities for funding, uh, opportunities for support and how this plays out could be um something that could be wonderful for the corridor, uh, as many folks have talked about, you know, the Eisenhower and it's one of the quote unquote largest city blocks, people talk about it like that, because you have very few ways if you are an Eisenhower to get back over to the Duke Street corridor, uh, and what does that do for the residents and any potential existing and potential businesses that have a strict disconnection from the city?

Um, you know, I think one of the things that um I think prior to everybody here, one of the big conversations for council was either to put a BRT on Duke Street or to put it on Eisenhower.

And one of the reasons we chose Duke Street is because there are no connections back to Duke Street on Eisenhower, and so you'd be building a BRT that would be underutilized because there's lack of a connection to a major thoroughfare.

And so again, that is why kind of raising this up again because it does need to be talked about, studied, um, and if if we we know that there are challenges, knowing what those challenges are, because if money was to fall from the sky that made us uh allowed us to have that, which is something that we do with a lot of our plans.

If you know X, Y, and Z happens, we can fund these things.

And I think that is one of these things that we we should um have as a appendix or side note on this particular plan.

Um, and what does that do to change mobility uh particularly in the Duke Street corridor?

Because that would be a major change, probably from what some of the small, probably not, probably uh a significant change from what staff is doing.

Um and so that is uh that's one area I'd love for us to consider as a council uh and work with staff to bring that about.

Um the last thing um I would I would hope as we continue conversations with the community and even within ourselves um that what four or five block uh backup of of cars uh is a strong challenge to grid expansion and some of the things that I'm hearing, particularly for car traffic, right?

I think we are we do not love to kind of elevate cars and car traffic and in some of our planning because we want to make sure everyone gets around, but that the thickness of cars during any part of the day, any day of the week, um, continues to be uh is a current challenge, and I have no doubt if we are looking at additional development, not only within the corridor, but of course uh in and around the corridor as well, and that will continue to be a challenge.

Um, and so you know, elevating the need to quote unquote solve the issue or really have some options for that particular issue.

I think that is why it's probably been a consistent thing that uh residents and businesses along the corridor have mentioned uh along with affordability, uh congestion and affordability from a number of people I talk to are those biggest things.

Um obviously safety uh along with that, but um making sure that we figure out how to make the uh east-west drive for particularly for our west end residents that need to come into the city for uh other needs, making that drive as smooth as possible, and we know where the issue is.

It's not by Fox Chase, right?

It's not by the Masonic Temple.

Um, Alexandria Commons is kind of uh round zero for a lot of that issue.

Uh, and so what are we willing to do to actually fix that issue versus kick the can down the road is is really what I want to have a conversation about as we plan out the future of Duke Street.

Um I appreciate you raising it, Councilman Chapman.

And so I do think it's really important.

I guess the question I would have for staff is Jeff you mentioned, you know, we could add it in.

What does added in look like in the existing process and what does that mean for our timeline?

I also I guess a second part of that might be, you know, how would that plan um align with also some of the transit planning, like and this may be a question for the manager, but just I I want to make sure we've talked a lot about how do we sequence plans, how do we sequence conversations, like what's happening with our transportation work plan and this work plan, and what does this fit in look like, or what would that mean?

Yeah, it's a very good question.

I mean um like the connector in particular, I think is wherever uh if it happened is a very large conversation that requires a lot of study, and and I guess one option could be um study this as part of a future effort.

Um there could be notes or something very general.

Uh as we think about one of the things we haven't gotten to yet is our schedule.

One of the things we're hoping to is bring this to council in December.

Um so there's a lot of um effort underway.

And so we have had sort of general notes uh in a plan uh versus something specific.

Um so that's an option uh which keeps the door open for future efforts and future discussions, perhaps.

Um so again, just a thought versus a really uh detailed study um that might delay the plan.

Um so that's I think that's that's perhaps a conversation.

You know, what the one thing I would say we're um in the process of looking at our traffic study in Quaker to Telegraph.

I think we've heard that consistently.

Um I think one of our challenges, and this came up during Duke Street in Motion is um that particular corridor and that segment of that corridor is uh subject to the geography.

It's between 495 and 395, and people cut the corner.

Um I think that is um uh that is in part dream driven by behavior.

Um people jump off the main line to save some time, and technology is also promoting that to be candid.

And so I think I think the thing we're talking about sort of struggling with is how do we balance local behavior and local benefits versus regional impacts.

And ideally, regional impacts are staying on the main line, 395 and 495.

Um and one of the things that uh happened during Potomac Yard, we had this discussion as well is do we widen route one or do we do other things?

And I think as a city we said no.

And and what happened is we were able to introduce a mix of uses, we were able to introduce transit, we were able to introduce a more more of a grid of streets, and people had options and abilities to make decisions, and so everyone didn't have to be on the same street at the same time.

Uh also the city has the public benefit of getting schools and revenue and additional housing and other things.

So, in theory, some of that local traffic could display some of that regional traffic.

So those are things we're still talking about as part of the traffic study, but um it's a challenge.

Um and it's really in part our geography and where that segment is and what's happening and who's using it.

So one of the things we're doing now in the traffic study is a sort of origin destination where people going to and from.

Uh, and we're still in the middle of that, but what it's really showing is there's a lot of there's a lot of what we call are calling regional cut through.

No, I I appreciate the answer.

I think um if I remember correctly, we've we've done um origin studies kind of in that same vein around the the corridor.

Um and I think the challenge has always been we have a lot of people coming to that particular area.

We have limited um ways to get them out of there.

Um I know staff uh you know much to my personal sugar in um has been working on what they can do in terms of uh making uh opportunities around Telegraph Road for people to get out.

Um but I do think a lot of what we've done has been driven by an earlier intentional decision by previous councils not to move on or not uh a connector or a series of connectors, right?

Um but I think the the reason why I'm talking about this is because I do think we have one of these areas where we have to figure out intentionally what do we want to see for that corridor for the future.

Um and I am very concerned about the fact that it does not seem like we would align with opportunities to get people out of that corridor.

Because again, I think earlier data shows that where people are going.

We know that they're they're trying to get to the beltway, right?

That like you said, they're they're coming from wherever they're coming from.

It could be somewhere else in Alexandria, it could be somewhere else regionally, but they're trying to get as far as they can down the beltway before they get on.

Um and that usually means either they're getting on on Route One or now they're getting on on down Telegraph Road.

Um, and so what we can do in terms of making an intentional decision by council to kind of elevate um future opportunities if they were to come uh available, I think it is necessary for the conversation for what we do here, um, just like some of the other things that staff is looking at as we look at kind of the option B in a certain area uh on that is we we have to play out certain opportunities and scenarios, uh, and I think this is the plan to do that in terms of timeline.

Uh you know, uh respectfully, I I would say that this is a big enough of a need um to push that sign on, and obviously I'm one vote.

Um, but knowing the history of that conversation um and the ability to have that be a part of this broader conversation with the plan, it it's worth the time.

Um so I would just share that with my colleagues.

Okay, I have Vice Mayor Bagley and then Councilman Green.

Um I I kudos to the people making the slides on this presentation.

I mean, it's been through a lot, and I I think it's getting easier to read each time.

So it's you're trying to convey a lot, so I just wanted to acknowledge like that that I do think it's getting easier with each iteration.

Um I was gonna ask is when it comes forward ultimately in the mobility slides.

I'd love a slide that overlays dash routes, both current and proposed in the vision, the fully like the fully executed Dash vision, because in the absence of a metro station here, to the extent we're going to I you know, I know at a recent lengthy council meeting, I threw out a stat about Wilson Boulevard and how they added like 45,000 people to Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, but traffic went down.

But that was very much metro-driven.

So we are looking to add people to this corridor and to create more housing, but we don't have the luxury, you know, in the central part of a metro station.

So we are relying to some extent on Dash and on bike and PED and other connectivity.

So just as we move forward, I just think that would be a useful you know, um thing for council to actually see is is how those routes um and whoever can figure out the way to display that.

Um that was just a thought I had early in that conversation, and then to this point about the Eisenhower Avenue Connector.

I mean, I I what what came to mind for me having participated in like NVTA meetings intermittently over the last few years is they work in like six-year plans, right?

And if something isn't in the six-year plan, it can't be, it can't apply for money.

It has to at least be am I saying this right?

Yeah.

So it has to be in that six-year plan for us to potentially ask for money.

And so as long as it's not even like a thought bubble in that plan forecloses any potential investment in it, probably even study side funding or you know, design side funding.

So I I defer to, you know, the the test people watching this and and to y'all in planning and zoning, but for me, just being mindful of what I've seen play out now, you know, the length of time it can take and the vision that it requires.

Um that would be a vote on my end in favor of enunciating it somewhere so that maybe at some point it can be in transactions, you know, six-year plan.

But I don't want to overly burden this you know, land use plan with that effort.

I I just yeah, I'll I'll pause there.

I mean, it sounded to me that, and then I want to go to councilman Green and but correct me if I'm wrong, I thought it to me like in this plan, we could put in placeholders where there could be potential space for those connectors, and then use our transportation environmental services planning process to then look at those potential holding places and begin to go after money for studies and so forth to see what's feasible.

Is that correct, bridging it?

I think I think that's right.

I I think I think the key word would be to study them because these are very complex conversations when you're talking about spans of rail corridor, cost implications, traffic impacts, um intended or unintended.

So it's a very complex sort of scenario of investigations, but if it wants to be sort of areas for future study or something high level, let us let us certainly discuss that.

Yeah, I mean I think what you're hearing um at least from several of us is that there would be interest in having some sort of placeholder to say like we want to study, we want to have this conversation, we want to be able to do that exploration and recognizing to both my colleagues' point on either side that if it's not at least mentioned in here, we've kind of shut one door to be able to do that.

And so how do we mention that and then be able to work backwards to put forth the process to do that deeper study, recognizing that that's not a land use plan to do that type of study.

That's a different process.

But here is a place where we can, it's almost like when we talk about Old Town North and the power plant.

We're always able to go right back to the small area plan because it clearly outlined this is what we wanted to see, or these are some of those high-level goals.

Council Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

And before we moved on to mobility, um, I was waiting to hear about open space.

Is that coming later?

Yes.

Okay, I'll wait.

Thank you.

Okay.

I read I had one question and it's not everyone's face.

Uh here.

Yes.

Uh perfect.

So uh this is as Carrie was pointing out, I'll try and be quick just given the hour.

So uh one of the things we were really uh trying to do is what we heard from the community is we have big parks at either end and making sure when redevelopment happens, we have those neighborhood parks and also thinking about connections.

That's the other thing we heard.

Walking, biking safely to the existing and future parks was really important.

Um the other thing you'll s sort of see on this diagram, we have these sort of green asterisks.

We're talking to some of the property owners about additional open space.

Uh we're not there yet.

Uh so this is sort of a a status update of where we are.

The other thing you see on um city campus is option A and B.

Uh so one is uh redevelopment and um the other is uh redevelopment around the existing field.

So those are options.

We were just talking about the need for flexibility, so that is something that's currently part of the city campus.

Um and then moving farther west, again, more connections, more parks to mitigate new development impacts uh and more safer, uh better, safer connections to those parks as well.

So with that, maybe I'll respond to some questions on parks.

Uh let me start with Councilman Green.

Okay, so and thank you for very boldly high highlighting the open space because we really need to get it right in this corridor.

So thank you for that.

Um but so are we expecting property owners to give us land to have more open space?

So short answer is yes.

Uh so one of the things that as we think about new development, so uh the power plant was mentioned.

So as part of the power plant, there's waterfront parks and new parks that are happening.

And and really that's to mitigate the d impact that they're having.

Um new residents, new jobs, new retail.

So making sure that when we look at Smaria Plan, development is mitigating its impact.

And so one of the ways to do that is through parkland.

Um Councilman Chapman.

I'm sorry, just one last thing I would mention, uh, because this has come up as well is will these be public parks?

I think um maybe you're gonna ask that question.

Um so uh so these will be uh public access easements, and we've done this elsewhere, so everyone gets to use it, but it will not be the responsibility of the city to maintain uh the new parks that are being proposed.

I think I was I appreciate that answer because I was kind of getting there in a way because uh I was gonna mention um the development that we have uh next to the AMC Hoffman, I can't remember uh where the whiteman's is.

Um I think what we've seen uh in kind of the recent past is a number of developments that come in with you know second story or or first story open space that's just not necessarily accessible to the public.

And I think I want to make sure as we plan out uh Duke Street we m if there's a way for us to make a real strong difference between the two.

Um that somebody's open space for their residents on the second floor is not necessarily what we are going for with a goal.

I think we I don't know if we change policy there or or do something different.

Um but I I definitely want to see that kind of in the plan and then years later as people are redeveloping, we start to see kind of that real parkland open space kind of swallowed up by development where everything's on the second floor and no longer is accessible.

Yeah, that that's a good point.

That's certainly not the intent here.

Um the green spaces that you're seeing are ground level open space.

Um and then if they provide more rooftop open space as part of redevelopment, that's part of the development review process.

My question was going to be if you go back, I think it was slide eight where you had the pictures of um the two areas where we're going to be focused on incentivizing more housing.

Yes.

I think let's go to that one's fine.

Okay, sorry.

So it may just be the where the stars are showing up.

But one of the things that popped out to me is that in the two areas where we're trying to bring the most housing, we don't have a you know a star that says we're also going to look for additional open space.

I recognize you know there are trade-offs and we can't get everything with each development, but I I would imagine, given what we know from COVID and other things, bringing more people, we want to have more space for them to be able to go outside.

And so I just want to understand for these ones where we're trying to get more housing, what is the open space plan and how does that differ from the rest of the corridor?

It's a very good question.

We are um so one of the things we're talking about right now for these affordability and growth.

Um, how do we set surety in the process for affordability, but also free development happens?

So one of the things we're talking about now is performance standards.

So if development happens, uh you're eligible for this amount of FAR, but this amount of affordable housing and this amount of open space would need to be provided.

So those are discussions we're in process of having right now.

Uh we're just not there in the planning process.

As part of those performance standards, are you looking at specific incentives for more open space, or would those be more geared towards just housing incentives?

So in Alex West, we had um if a certain amount of development was being proposed, um, then a certain amount of public open ground level open space needed to be provided.

And so we're thinking uh sort of a sliding scale.

If you provide a certain amount of development, you need to provide a certain amount of uh ground level open space.

Sort of like we're doing with the opportunity sites.

Um so there's surety in the process for the existing residents, but also as someone pointed out, um, that is development comes in, there's an expectation that public parks will be provided.

Okay.

Um I guess what I would just say as we continue to go through these future parts of the plan, uh, I know there's more we need to work through in terms of those incentives.

I just would really hope that we're really thinking about sort of what makes a complete neighborhood, because these are the same ones where the retail is further away, the park is further away, everything's further away.

And I know we're working to make this more walkable, but this will never be like walking in old town.

And so I think the more we can think about like where those shorter distances are to opportunity, the better.

And so I I know we have a while to go till December, but what would be my hope is that as we build out those standards, we start to see a map that also has you know a green star or better connectivity to the red block so that people um really feel that community connection that I think also kept coming up through some of the initial plans and and work sessions.

Yes, thank you for that.

Vice Mayor Bagley.

Just on this point, I I think something I would like us to be mindful of as we're thinking about that is it north or south of Duke Street, because like letting your kids kind of roam over to the green space, it if if you're south of Duke Street and it's it's north yeah, so um, and because Homes Run is such an incredible existing, you know, facility sort of on the north side.

I just to put a finer point, I mean, to agree and is I I feel like the need is more south of Duke Street to the extent we're getting into that kind of negotiation.

And I know we can't be overly prescriptive and topography being what it is, but um especially when we look at the the the west end of this image.

Um I think the need for open space is is actually more specifically on the south side of Duke Street rather than you know, generally in that orange space to allow people to avoid that crossing to get to it, which also creates just more freedom and independence.

I mean, I'm not opposed to more, but um I just kind of wanted to, you know, agree, but be a little more intentional that all locations aren't equal in terms of the ability to access them at sort of a broader ages, broader abilities, broader methods.

All right, I have Councilman Chapman, and then um we'll get to the timeline and get to our next presentation.

All right, back on the um open space eased.

Um one of the things that came up in a recent um community meeting um, and kudos to to Mr.

Knight from Tess about the possible opportunity within the telegraph road um interior where it comes down and curves around to make use of that open space, like we've done on a similar one uh up by the library uh where it's a dog park in the middle.

Um, you know, being able to make some of these spaces usable for the community might be an opportunity as well.

I don't know how much that's been looked into.

I think he was looking into who owns uh that property, whether it's a city or somebody like VDOT, but maybe having those conversations and seeing uh if there's potential kind of dog park or I don't know, public park use uh of some of those spaces so they're not just kind of dead open space, but maybe usable open space as well.

Okay, let us look into that.

Thank you for that.

Um and then lastly, last question was um, and I can't remember, I apologize.

Um when we did planning in the Parker Gray area.

Um there's I think there still is a kind of Queen Street fund that's kind of used for kind of local needs.

Uh was that ever talked about in terms of something for Duke Street with anticipated development?

Maybe there's a way to uh use that to operationalize something like that.

We haven't talked about that.

I I think with recent plans we're trying to get away from developer contributions and requiring on-site improvements.

Okay.

Um, but I don't care if you want to speak to that as well.

Okay.

I guess um my question would be as you're going through, are we thinking about that plan by plan and maybe what works said to the area, or is it just we generally just don't want to have that policy?

And what I'm asking is if this area is different than you know, other areas, and if that could be a transformative policy, do we want to just take that off the table?

Let us look at it.

I I think in in general, I think um we're trying to get away from developer contributions and rather we talk we're talking about parks, um, having the development community build those uh rather than provide a contribution.

But um let us I think it sounds like the small business, the small business is maybe where you're going.

Yeah, so let us look at that.

We hear you.

Um I had one last question, and then if you guys want to start moving towards the timeline, I know through the city schools we are working closely um on our long-range facilities plan and sort of the joint planning efforts there.

Something that has come up the last few times you presented is around the transportation facility, and as we think about the broader campus.

I'm just curious um how those two processes might align, given that they're on two different time schedules and how we should be thinking about incorporating this information into that planning effort into planning for the uh bus facility or school facilities.

I mean, I think both are important.

I think the bus facility is probably one that's been more of a conversation here, but recognizing the changes to the corridor and the impacts that could have on school growth and planning, I think they're related.

Right.

So um, in terms of school enrollment or student generation specifically, um, we have been working closely with um our ACPS colleagues just to update them on the anticipated um development yield here um pretty closely in line with um things that they already know in terms of the COG forecast.

Um but but having more um you know current conversations about that.

And um those discussions have been productive and they are currently not seeing a need for a future school in this area based on those conversations.

Um so we'll continue working with them.

But but that's the um joint facilities.

Yeah.

Um and then the joint facilities master plan effort is kicking off in the next um few months.

Um that is under the procurement is underway right now.

Um and that will be another opportunity to continue um thinking about, for example, the bus facility location and what is the best use for that site.

Um we've also talked about possibly some future study of the city campus in general and looking at that in more detail about how we can uh best maximize the city's resources there.

Um and so those will be follow-on um efforts.

Okay, thank you.

All right, do you want to close us out with the timeline?

Excellent.

So next steps, uh we have a community meeting this week.

And it is to talk about affordable housing.

Um sort of everything we're sharing with you tonight.

And then as I mentioned uh in June, we're gonna have a discussion on transportation and mobility.

We're gonna bring back the findings of our traffic study and also talk about parks and sustainability.

July, uh, we're gonna release draft recommendations and then hopefully have a draft plan in September.

And then hopefully dock it this for hearing with city council.

Okay.

Well, thank you both for your presentation, and um we look forward to seeing you in a couple months.

With that, uh, Mr.

Manager, your second oral report.

So this next one is uh an update on the memo of understanding for the uh SROs.

And I do want to recognize while we have staff here in the front.

I know that we also have um school board member Ashley Simpson Baer and the attorney for the school district, Bob Fulconi.

I just want to invite you guys up to uh the front, either with our staff or in the front row, just in case there are our questions.

But thank you both for joining us tonight.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of council.

Um my name is Jan Lambert.

I'm a deputy city manager.

Um I'm here tonight with team from uh APD and the city attorney's office, and you uh Madam Mayor just you mentioned the school member uh school board uh uh representatives that are here.

We're here to do a brief presentation for you tonight on the uh city and schools uh school resource officer memorandum of understanding.

Um it is important to note that um there this is an opportunity for council to provide feedback.

Uh that there is no action required or requested here tonight.

I do, however, want to note that council has provided extensive comments to this document, which I've been incorporated into the document already, although it has not been before council for um several months now.

Um I did want to make sure to uh make that note that uh council members have provided a number of comments that are built into the MOU.

The MOU is attached uh to the to the presentation tonight is in the materials and legislatar.

And then finally, I want to note that the school board uh did unanimously approve this version of the MOU on May 7th, and this MOU if it if it is continues to go forward, it would be in effect July 1st, uh 2026 through June 30th of 2028.

And um, with that, I'm gonna turn things over to Assistant Police Chief Tina Laguna who's gonna take us through the presentation.

All right, good evening, Madam Mayor, Counsel, Tina Laguna, Assistant Chief with Alexandria Police Department.

Uh, also here, uh Tarek McGuire, our chief of police, and Travis McCray from the City Attorney's Office.

I do oversee the community support bureau and the school resource unit does fall within that bureau.

So the code of Virginia requires that any school district uh or local law enforcement agency that uh has school resource officers within the schools uh establish a memorandum of understanding.

And the purpose of the MOU is to define roles and responsibilities so that both entities can work collaboratively to create a safe, welcoming and engaging environment for staff, students, and parents.

To aid in this endeavor, the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services created the Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety.

That entity provides models, policies, and best practice recommendations so that schools and law enforcements can work collaboratively.

And the Code of Virginia also ensures that there is a scheduled review and affirmation of the MOU by both parties.

So our current MOU was adopted in June of 2023.

The school law enforcement partnership or SLEP subcommittee, made up of members of City Council, the school board, and APD staff met about five times within a six-month period.

The recommendations from that subcommittee were incorporated into a draft document that was thoroughly reviewed by all parties.

During the process, a concern was raised regarding the designation of school resource officers as school officials.

The concern was that this would give SROs too much authority and would also allow them access to unnecessary information of students, such as grades or school disciplinary information.

The MOU was extended, which allowed uh APD and city staff to work on it and to refine that language.

ACPS governance committee also used some extra time so that they create could create language that would allow law enforcement to do uh what it needed to do, but also maintain the privacy of students.

The results of this collaboration is the document presented to you this evening, and as you heard was already adopted by the school board.

This slide here summarizes the nine major changes to the MOU.

I would like to concentrate on sections six, seven, and eight.

So section six, again, as we just discussed, it removed the designation of SROs as school officials, therefore reducing the access to student records.

SROs can still obtain information, however, they will need written consent from the parent, guardian, or legal custodian, which is in line with the Family Educational and Rights Privacy Act.

Additionally, a process was also established for questioning or interviewing students in non-emergency situations that would allow for a parent or again guardian to be present if they request.

It would also involve notifying school administrators immediately that this was needed.

The Code of Virginia in section seven requires that principals immediately report felonies to SROs.

So in this section, language was included to educate principals that the possession of alcohol and possession of marijuana under a pound was not a felony.

So this was not something that they had to report immediately.

They could go through their normal channels for this.

Section eight is new.

And this section is consistent with our department policies as SROs will not ask students, staff, or employees their immigration status.

Of course, our focus is on public safety and on building trust within the community, which is why, of course, we are taking this stance.

So as you heard earlier, no action is required from you all this evening.

And again, this MOU will be in effect starting July 1 and go to June 30 of 2028.

And I stand ready to answer any questions.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'm gonna start with uh Councilman Agiri.

Uh thank you, Assistant Chief Tin.

Um Laguna.

I was about to say your whole name, my apologies.

Um just a quick question.

I just want to make sure is ACPS keeping up with uh quarterly reports, are we getting those in a timely fashion still?

So that then you guys can provide the quarterly report as well.

Yes, we are working on ensuring that that is occurring.

Okay, wonderful.

Yeah, I just want to make sure we're never in a situation like we were several years ago where um there was literally no report to be heard of.

Um so I want to make sure that we're consistently uh getting those reports out.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Agarry.

I had uh two quick questions.

One, going back to the new section as it relates to immigration.

I know the language on our website is much more direct in terms of APD's role.

I think it specifically says that we do not enforce immigration-related activities.

I'm just curious if you could speak to the distinctions between the language used on our website versus what is being put here, and if there are any additional supporting documents that talk about, you know, what if ICE is outside of a school or what what that um relationship and coordination looks like between APD and ACPF?

Yes.

Thank you, Bob.

Thank you so much.

Uh good evening, Mayor Gaskins.

I can answer that question.

The language that was added to the new section eight is taken directly from a new section of the code of Virginia that will come into effect uh July 1.

So it was it was taken almost verbatim, and that's why that changes there.

Is there any um that's really helpful?

I guess I'm curious um any other types of scenarios where we are dealing with ICE in the related area or within a certain radius with around the school.

I'm I get that that might not be specific to this document, but I guess are there other documents or work that we're doing collaboratively to spell out what would happen in those situations?

Um could you give me a little bit more specificity as to what you had in mind?

Sure.

I think um initially I think we had some concerns where community members sent, you know, like what if ICE is they're not on the school grounds, but they're right across the street in order to um sort of intimidate students.

And I think we had some people email and say, well, couldn't APD come and like tell them to go away?

Or or like what happens in these situations?

And so I think what I'm trying to get at is while that may not be you know spelled out here, the school resource officer is probably the one person who is representing APD right on that property.

And so do we have a set of guidance for what those interactions look like?

And if not, what is the work we might need to do beyond this to spell that out?

I can respond or yeah.

Uh good evening, everyone.

I know all of you in front of me, but for any staff members I haven't met, Ashley Simpson Barrett.

I'm Alexandria City Public School Board Member and chair of our governance committee through which this MOU came through.

Um last fall, and actually even earlier than that, when we were seeing increased ICE activity in the region, um, we took a look again at our emergency response plans for any sort of incident that would happen at schools.

And you might want to speak to you about the trained up uh administrators on those protocols.

Those, of course, are not public documents because of the sensitivity of those safety scenarios, um, but it has been a frequent topic of conversation.

But it has been a frequent topic of conversation.

And I guess we don't have to go into it, but I guess what I'm getting at is there coordination with APD in terms of that emergency response training.

So yes, so we have been made aware of it.

In addition, um, again, we solidified our policies and did internal training with staff, which would also include the school resource officers, and we did share that information with ACPS so that we can all be on one accord.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um the only other question I had is a completely different topic, but on page eight, it talks about um APD will receive feedback from ACPS on SRO performance.

I was just curious, um, what does that process look like?

So there is an assessment form that principals can fill out.

Um it has some basic information, so again, it talks about uh judgment, performance, uh, again, talks about engagement with staff and uh with the student population.

So it is um something that, if you will, it's a little bit higher level, uh, but it is just great feedback for the SRO and also the sergeant that is there as well.

Thank you.

Are there other um questions, comments?

Councilwoman Green, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, my question is around training for the SROs.

I know they receive training when they become an SRO, but what ongoing training services do they receive?

So uh again, through uh the Department of Criminal Justice Services in the summertime.

There is a week-long conference that the SROs attend, and they specifically schedule it in the summer so it won't impact school.

Uh, there are things like their such as uh they go over again the uh SRO triad model, they talk about different training moda modalities for young people, they discuss things such as again adolescent behavior and things like that.

So the SROs receive that.

In addition to that, um uh if you will, externally, um, again, we've got uh the academy, we've got various classes.

The SROs also do training with our staff.

Uh so all officers, all sergeants, so there's this constant training, if you will, the the SROs are the the subject matter experts for the school, so they work with the other officers and our first line supervisors to help them as well, and they are also uh able to take any training that's at the academy.

But again, DCJS does very specific training for school resource officers each summer.

Okay, so every summer before school starts, they go through training.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you.

And I want to I want to thank my colleague, uh, Councilman Chapman, who very chivalrously has lent me his um handkerchief.

So my apologies, I'm having some sort of allergic reaction up here, so I just not to the handkerchief.

No, no, no, who he gave me his handkerchief.

So just apologies.

I can I can if it's disruptive that I'm sitting here crying and sniffling.

Um what I just wanted to um call out a little bit, recognizing we're not here to vote and really make any changes, but um, some of the things that I think came out of SLEP, the committee that I served on last term, and I think came out of the work is uh what I felt was an emphasis in the document on avoiding sort of criminalizing youth behavior to you know to the extent we can avoid that, and and um and there were certain elements in the MOU that that speak to that, and I guess I just wanted to invite maybe um school board member Baird or or um assistant chief to just um I guess uh speak to that.

And what I'm getting at is there's language in here, excuse me, um, that says consequences of student misconduct should be effective, developmentally appropriate, and fair.

Um, this is in section six two on page 13.

And and then it sort of outlines you know what that means, you know, alternatives and um that it that thing actions will be taken um in a way that is in a way that is fair without regard to race and um other status.

And if I if I had a question, it would be because it isn't so much spelled out in this section, and perhaps at references in other sections, how are y'all going to monitor sort of to these goals?

You know, how are we going to be comfortable and confident that um certain groups aren't being overly referred upwards in a criminal manner, or certain groups aren't not be, you know, that there's sort of an equal application of these policies.

Because the reports that Councilman Aguirre referenced are really valuable, but they tend to be sort of numbers after the fact, and they don't kind of show us who who didn't show up here, you know, who didn't get referred, or are there certain and I don't, you know, are there certain teachers or certain grade levels or or certain um departments within ACPS that are referring more often than others?

Um, and can we be confident that that is not indicative of sort of a and I hate to use the word discriminatory, you know, but it but uh an inappropriate application of uh the SRO procedures.

So in the uh MOU on page four, it talks about some of the uh data that will be collected.

Um and some of that talks about a decrease in number of arrests, a decrease in number of violent or aggressive incidents.

Um and so there's gonna be some very specific tracking again to ensure that, as you said, certain groups are not being targeted.

Madam Mayor.

Can I just ask a follow-up first?

Let me get your follow-up and then I'll come to uh councilman agree.

Yeah, excuse me, councilman agarry, I don't want to cut you off.

Okay, so the I I I appreciate that.

I think what I am hoping is an eye towards what shows up on the page doesn't necessarily show us what what isn't showing up.

And so, yes, uh an overall trend downward in certain areas is is absolutely the goal, but how are we making sure that who is being you know arrested, who are being referred, that there's there's something to that, so there's analysis to to that piece because these data points might mask who isn't getting referred and and who who isn't having the SRO brought into a classroom.

Okay, uh Councilman Aguirre.

So I appreciate um the vice mayor's line of questioning.

This is something that I've brought up for the last I don't know, six or seven years.

And unfortunately, you know, where you would find that is in the tracking of the form where it says who's putting in the request, and I understand the need and the want for uh keeping it anonymous.

Uh we've had this back and forth with ACPS for for many years, and um we haven't been able to find a solution, I'll just put it that way.

Um because my my concern was likewise in that if there's a teacher that is regularly uh calling in the SRO for disciplinary action, which is clearly not the use or intention of the SRO, um then how do we then uh correct that issue?

Uh likewise with as you mentioned, a department or something else.

Um you know, within the forum, I still feel that there's uh an opportunity to have an anonymous identifier, um, but we haven't come to an agreement on that, and ACPS has decided not to.

So I like I said, we we've had this conversation for several years, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

Um I don't know if Deputy City Manager, you want to, Lambert, you want to add anything because I know you've been privy to these conversations.

Uh Councilman Aguary, I mean, I I I also I reiterate I I think we have had these conversations a number of times.

I think um where we have tried to go at a certainly at a staff level um and senior staff levels to make sure we are communicating as much as we possibly can uh about these issues and that that we're we are sharing the information so that we're we're providing a little bit of a look in uh behind the data itself.

So um again appreciate the points that that that are being made here.

And and while um we may not be able to formally track it at least, I would hope that um if an R SRO were to see some type of trend with a specific teacher or a specific department, that they would then relay that um either to the chief or uh to uh school leadership.

Hi, um you will all have to forgive me for taking a little personal privilege to get caught up.

Um I have a general question, which may not pertain to exactly what's happening here, so apologies.

I understand it's late.

Um, and I would love to get further briefing on this just in general.

Um, but as I'm going through the MOU in depth for the first time in a few years since it's origin story, um, and as a parent of two teenagers, one at George Washington and one at ACHS.

I'm looking at page 15 right at the top, um, investigation and questioning.

And so I notice early in the document, it talks about um officers engaging in educational activities with students once per quarter and the different things that they uh might, the different types of activities that they might engage in, uh, presentations, student government activities, those types of things.

Um, and I also notice throughout the document significant reference to mentoring and sort of relationship building, and I can understand why that might be important.

And then on page 15, it talks about um school resource officers having the authority to stop and question students off campus who may have information uh about criminal activity on or off school property, so potentially things that don't have any relation to school, uh, but the officer may have a relationship with that student that was built at school and therefore has the authority to go off campus and ask the student about something that is unrelated.

And um, in this case, because it is not school related and because it is off campus, the same guardrails um are not in place.

And presumably this is when there is some kind of imminent threat or there is some type of um we're preventing uh injury death or destruction of some kind.

Um, and because of that, we are sort of circumventing some of the parental contact and legal guardian guardian contact, having uh authority figures like school administrators, principles and stuff like that in the room.

So, my question is um how often does that happen?

I mean, are the relationships that are that are being built in the classroom setting leading to off-campus contact with students that is stopping crime?

Um, or is this just sort of something that is in place in case it were necessary?

So I'll I'll answer the question, and if I don't answer it, please let me know.

So uh we have a directive uh that literally dictates how we are supposed to interact with juveniles.

It is based on the code section.

Uh it's also based on again training that we've gotten from the juvenile court system.

So there are parameters in place.

So whether a child is on school property, whether they are an ACPS student or they are a kid coming from somewhere else, we have policies that dictate how we deal with juveniles.

The law does not allow you to deal with juveniles in the same way as you deal with adults.

So I'll give you a for instance.

If there was a critical incident, um there's a different process to actually charge a juvenile with a crime, completely different from an adult.

So there is uh a policy in place.

Again, it does not matter if they work in the schools, if they wear this uniform, that directive applies to all of us.

Myself, the chief, and everyone all the way down.

Okay.

I I don't know if that helps.

And as far as the data, I would have to do some research on that.

Yeah, I'm just wondering if it actually if it leads to if this particular practice and the authority to do so leads to the prevention of injury death or evidence destruction, um, or if this is just a like a precaution that we write in in case it's necessary to sort of uh you know make it possible to question students when they're off campus.

So I'm interested to know that, but I'm happy to talk about that offline.

Okay.

Are there other questions or comments on this item?

Okay.

Well, seeing none, as was stated earlier, this is not an item for a vote, but for information.

And so I want to thank everyone who is a part of this presentation.

And um, we look forward to continuing the discussions and receiving the first report.

But thank thank you all for your time tonight.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Action document roll call consent items 12 and 13.

Okay, is there a motion to approve the roll call consent so amendment?

All right, there has been a motion by councilwoman Green and a second by Councilman Chapman to approve the roll call consent items 12 through 13.

Is there any discussion?

All right, seeing none, Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote.

Please call the roll.

Councilwoman Green.

Aye, Councilman Chapman, Mayor Gaskins.

Aye.

Icemar Bagley.

Councilman Gear.

Councilman Al Newby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Marks.

Aye.

All right, the eyes have it.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Consideration of a resolution to approve the Go Alex Strategic Plan, fiscal year fiscal years 2027 through 2031.

Okay, now we'll welcome our test team for a brief presentation on Go Alex.

While he's doing that, we can just introduce ourselves for all of you.

Leah Riley, I'm the director of TES.

I'm Katie North, the division chief of mobility services.

Hillary Orr, Deputy Director for Transport.

Joshua Uton, the Go Alex Program Manager.

Thank you.

Tonight we're considering the Go Alex Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2027 through 2031.

It's a five-year strategic plan that helps us to identify funding resources, identify our target markets, programs, and projects that the team goes through.

The Go Alex vision is really to see an informed community where everyone has options and are empowered to choose safe, seamless, and convenient ways to move around.

In addition, Go Alex has this mission to connect residents, employees, and visitors with a range of transportation options that make it easier to move throughout the city and in the region.

We work with our jurisdictional partners to achieve this mission.

To remind everyone what Go Alex is, it's a program here in the city that connects people to their transportation options.

And it really focuses on residents or the employee in the workforce development in the business community as well as the visitors as they walk, bike, take public transportation, and any other way to go around the city.

We also partner uh heavily with the business community by going to large employers and medium-sized employers, making sure that they know about the transit options that are available to everyone because of the high investment the city makes, and moving that forward into transportation benefits for their employees.

We have an uh employer engagement team that talks about what models products such as smart benefits and making sure that employers know that they can use pre-tax dollars, uh saving the employer money or pre-tax dollars on the employee and to put into their metro trip card and be able to use Metro Bus and Metro Rail as well as VRE if they're moving people from south of uh south of Alexandria.

Additionally, GoAlex administers the transportation management program, and that's a program focused on developments themselves to say do you have the support and the funding mechanisms to have people move throughout the region without driving by themselves in the car?

It is about getting people out of the car alone if that's if there are other choices and opportunities for them to get from point A to point B.

And then finally, we really work a lot to empower better travel travel options that we look at the mode split, meaning what ways are people getting to a destination.

Is that in a balanced uh approach based upon the resources that are available?

Here on the screen, you can see our overall success indicators or overarching, I should say.

We have additional success indicators, but here we this really helps us take a pulse of knowing our messaging is getting across and it's making an impact in the community.

You could see the non-SOV mode split that I just talked about.

Uh also, as we all know, Dash is free.

We want to see Dash ridership increase over time.

We haven't seen that over the last few years, and we've been part of that messaging that Dash is free, getting the bus wrapped and putting out that message into the community.

We look at capital bike share membership and ridership numbers as they increase and Metro bus, Metro Rail, everything that you see on the screen.

Taking a step back, we ask ourselves why are we doing a strategic plan?

Uh it really helps us align our programs and goals and things that we hear from city council.

I should say that we look at council's priorities.

We look at approved plans such as the Alexandria Mobility Plan.

Um, we look at what's happening within Vision Zero.

We try to connect those pieces and say, how does the Go Alex messaging and purpose and mission get fulfilled and put it into a five-year framework plan as well as finding the right funding sources to operate everything that we anticipate.

Through this plan, we've also been able to identify target markets and customers to make sure that we are talking to the right people with the right message at the right time.

We meet people where they are, and then we have established clear metrics to uh measure our work to say, are we hitting success?

If we are not, how do we change course and still uh be successful?

And then any gaps that we find, we look for opportunities to move forward.

The strategic plan uh provided three goals for us, which are inform and educate, enhance and invest, and as well as prove and celebrate.

I will say that the city does a lot of work for the citizens and for the business community, and we even for visitors, but we often celebrate what we've done, the investments we made.

So we wanted to make sure that that was included with uh what we do over the next five years because making sure people are informed, that was part of our mission and vision and leveraging our investments.

I will say that each goal also has or each program that the Go Alex Strategic Plan has meets one or two of the goals.

We use the live work visit framework where within Live, you can see a number of target markets.

I'll talk about the students for a moment, where we've already achieved the grant funding opportunity to have middle school and high school students ride metro bus for free.

But it's Go Alex's duty to make sure that message is getting across.

We work, we will work with students to say this is how the metro card works.

This is these are the buses, and you do tap on those buses, but you don't tap on Dash.

Make sure that message gets across and it's clear, and we can see and track the success of that program very well.

Other things that we do within the Live framework would be people making everyday trips, making sure that if people can go to the grocery store either by walk or by a bike, that that becomes something that is very communicated up front, especially for new residents as they move into a location.

That's just whether they're an apartment or new residents near transit.

If people move here from a place that's never had public transit, they need to be informed and educated about those aspects.

And that fills in our wannabe car light uh target market, and how do people navigate that lifestyle change of going maybe from three cars down to two cars or from two cars down to one car?

Because they realize if they get a new job and they can go and take metro to their work site more often, how do they shift in their overall lifestyle?

What does that do for their pocketbook?

Um, if they go from two cars down to one car, you are eliminating car payments often, you're eliminating insurance, but how do they have that confidence to know that they can use metro uh and not pay that out of pocket but rely on their employer to pay that public transit cost and other ways that we can also help them with say capital bike share?

Those are the things that we hit in that area.

Moving forward into the work target market, uh I've already mentioned large employers looking at uh employers that have 50 or more, those are the employees that we're targeting.

We are keeping in mind other employers as we engage with them, but we see more bang and more efficiency.

If we say, here's one employer that has uh 500 employees, how do we help them make a transportation benefits program that sticks?

How do we get them onto the corporate capital bike share membership where uh the costs are lowered to have people use both the pedal bikes and the e-bikes more often throughout the city and leverage that investment that the city has made, and then finally uh visitors and tourists, we know that this is a visitor heavy year and season with sales on the Potomac, the city's birthday, um, and then even the eco city um what is it, the eco city festivals that is gonna happen in October this year.

Uh, we want to make sure that people go to those events in the most effective way possible, and they don't get stuck in traffic or driving around the block looking for parking, communicating ahead of time that Dash is free, that they can use capital bike share, and these are the capital bike share locations and corrals that they can find.

Those are the type of things that we'll be doing and targeting.

Here are the grant opportunities and the programs that we're funding, a good plethora of them.

We'll start with the youth and adult bike safety, recognizing that not all adult, not all adults know how to ride a bike.

Just as much as we teach kids or teenagers how to ride the bike, we should be continuing our investment in adults uh for their bike safety as well as capital bike share.

Not everyone is comfortable using a red capital bike share pedal bike or even a silver e-bike, and there's gonna we want to make the moment in time to allow whether you're a resident or a in the business community that opportunity to engage on those type of bikes and feel good about taking a test ride.

We'll move forward into the e-bike incentive area where we've had a lot of discussion about how to encourage more e-bike usage appropriately throughout the city and even in the region.

Uh, we'll be having deliberations over this next year of how to make that happen in a reality in the city and then line up with a grant funding opportunity to have that execute in fiscal year 28 uh 28.

Sorry.

To talk about events and outreach, there is all the big events that we know.

Bike to work day just happened last Friday.

Thank you to those that participated and went to multiple pit stops.

We also have operation illumination in the fall, with that's when the daylight savings time is happening.

We want to make sure residents and people going to and from work during the darker hours are illuminated and safe on our streets as they go across crosswalk.

Those are events that we make sure we have high engagement and high attention to.

Making sure that they know that they have a parking spot next to the event because it would be a vendor with a um clear barricade area where someone comes in, they roll up, they park their bike and be monitored by some staff member for the duration of the event.

So if they're coming to City Birthday over the last two years, the role and park services have been available.

It is something that we're looking to continue and keep our funding for that through the grant opportunities.

Then we have a couple of pilot programs to look at the e-bike lending library to make sure that people that are on the fence about getting an e-bike, they have opportunity to try out one or two e-bikes, maybe have an e-bike for a month and see if that really fit their lifestyle.

If it's someone who is um say two parents and they have a child and they want to put the child on the back of the e-bike, they have to get used to biking that child.

What does that really look like?

Are there the different types of e-bike uh setups to use?

What makes the most sense?

Uh, and then last thing I will mention on this slide is the recognition and celebration piece.

Um, we all know that COG is uh they do a lot of awards.

Last year the city was recognized as uh we're for getting an employer award, saying like the city itself does a lot for uh city staff and making sure our commutes are well established and we have benefits there.

But we also work on something called the best workplaces for commuters.

That's a national recognition that has a list of opportunities any employer can deploy.

And if you make that list, then you recognize this this is one of the best places for commuters to go and work.

There were eight employers to in the city of Alexandria recognized this year, and then come June, there's actually gonna be a celebration event at NVTA saying Virginia is number one across the nation for having the most best workplaces for commuters.

Um that's something that we helped to contribute in, and we want to continue that investment and get more employers on board that way, recognizing employers for what they're doing.

Here you can see that we have a diversity of funding mechanisms, both from a state level and from a um federal level, and then also the city funds.

The C funds is really the grant match to those other grants.

Uh, but we want to make sure that if the winds change in the future, we have different places that we can leverage a grant opportunity and fill in the gaps.

So all of this is inside the plan to say here's where we're gonna go over the next five years and what we could do next and ways to move forward.

Here are the success areas.

I've already talked about a few of them.

Uh the one thing that I do want to, or two things I want to point out is the expansion of e-bikes per capita.

As we've already discussed, having more e-bikes on the road changes that mode split, but we want to actually measure that, and that's uh something that we can directly impact.

And then on the internal side, we'll be having a customer relationship management program uh or investing in it more.

We use the council of government's commuter connections CRM right now, but that's to help us measure our baseline and make sure we're making improvements throughout time.

And then going back to successful stair storytelling.

One of the ideas that have come out of this plan is a Go Alex yard sign, which is at different traffic improvement locations.

We'll put a yard sign that says this is the improvement, this is how what it means to you and how it helps you.

Here's a QR code to the city website that explains more about it.

We want to tell people what we've done in the community, why it's a benefit and it matters.

So with that, uh we're here in this council meeting.

After this, we will give the plan over to DRPT.

Part of our grant requirements is to have a five-year strategic plan, and this fulfills that.

And then we'll implement in July.

I'm open for questions.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you so much for the presentation.

Are there questions or comments from the council?

Councilman Gary, Councilman Green, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

First of all, I just want to commend Go Alexandria for all their outreach efforts and uh hard work because uh whenever I'm out, I can attest to seeing Go Alex out there, uh tabling, providing people information, uh, not just you know, how do I get from one place to another, but also what are the benefits that I could utilize in the region?

Um, and I'll also um give them credit for getting me on a bike again after you know almost 30 years.

Um I've ridden a bike more in the last year and a half, two years than I have in the previous, you know, like 25, 28 years.

Um, and I also have Capital Bike Share on my phone.

Uh so uh yeah, no, it's uh we are a multimodal transit-rich area, and uh I think that Go Alex is doing a great job with uh getting the word out.

So thank you for all of that.

Thank you.

Much appreciated.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, and thank you for the all the wonderful information.

Exciting.

Um I love to see where it's gone come from and where it's going.

Um but just uh two questions.

Um messaging to students and maybe more underserved populations.

How are how are we getting messaging out to them that there's training out there?

And I know you mentioned that, and I know kids pick things up easily, they probably know how to get on the buses and and do it.

But how is that messaging getting out?

Are you partnering with ACPS or just interested in knowing we have started uh discussions and continuing discussions with ACPS uh both for their students and for their staff population to get words about this is how you go around Alexandria and what's gonna make sense, and we'll definitely get more into it as the middle and high school uh metro card comes into fruition.

And then as to the point of underserved communities, picking the locations that are really underserved, uh, such as Operation Elimination.

Last year we had two locations, one in Arlandria, and the other one was at Braddock Road Metro Station.

Um, but we made sure that we went to where people are and spoke the languages that we believed were in that community at the time.

Excellent, thank you.

And I'm sorry, one more question, Mem.

On the over uh overarching success and indicators page.

Um wonderful that the trend is up, but is there anywhere where I can see information that shows quarter over quarter how much it's grown, or on the annual ones, how much it's grown versus previous year?

We could look into that and try to get that to you.

These are for forward-looking of what we're gonna be doing going forward, not we weren't considering it going back, but that's your desire, Trump.

But yes, but we could look in the past if that's desired.

I'm not trying to create more work.

I just I would just be interested.

I'm I'm sure it goes up all the time, but that would be something I would be interested in seeing as we move forward.

Yeah, I could say in general, because I know uh capital bike share pretty well, it has been going up definitely since the pandemic, and we've seen the same with Dash ridership across the board.

Most of these have gone up.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, I have Vice Mayor Bagley, Councilman Marks, Councilman Chapman.

Um thing I really appreciate about the plan um is its focus on on business and business support and business development and sort of the commuter aspect of this.

And so um interesting tonight, I almost asked during the Duke Street land use plan if they'd interacted, you know, as they're talking about small business and we're talking about um, so uh I'll I didn't ask it on that end, so I'll ask it on this end.

Do y'all I I know you're working with like AEDP, I know you work with COG, and but um is there an overlap and a relationship with sort of planning and zoning when they're trying to engage with the business community and and thinking about that.

Are there opportunities there to raise these uh you know, commuting concepts?

That comes through more in the transportation management plan side of things, where like I said, the specific developments that are coming online, uh, especially if they are mixed use, we do engage with that development and say this is what we anticipate you are bringing to uh commuters or people, constituents coming to your site, that mode split idea.

Here are some ways that we want you to be successful or participate in the city's uh newest TMP policy, which was enacted in 2023.

It depends on when the development was approved, but that's where we engage with that type of community.

Okay, no, yeah, I I think this is a really nice sort of one-to-punch tonight between land use planning and then um you know movement and you know, mobility planning around the city.

So I'm you know, I I the more we can have interaction between those plans, I I think the the better for everybody.

Um I wanted to, I I realized um the term e-bike is sort of used a lot, and I'm very excited about the lending library and the e-bike incentives.

These are things that have come up in sort of budget conversations over the years.

So I'm excited that we are putting them into this plan, which would make them potentially eligible for for grants and other opportunities.

Um I'm wondering if part of your education and outreach though, is some some education for the community broadly on like what is an e-bike and the various kinds of e-bikes.

Um, because I heard you a lot, Josh, say, like, you know, pet pedal bike and things like that.

And um, I think as we see a proliferation of these tools and and um devices, I think we're going to need to help the community understand the differences in what they're thinking of as an e-bike.

So I I don't I don't know that you know, tonight at 9 50, we need to sort of do that education, but I I mean I I'll just volunteer, you know, the e-bike that I ride most days requires me to pedal.

There's no throttle on it.

And I think generally speaking, that is the what you are aiming at here when you're talking about e-bike lending libraries, you're talking about e-bike incentives, it's focused on you know that version.

It's still a bike with a with a battery pedal assist.

And um jump, you know, sort of correct me if I'm wrong, but I but I just wanted to put that in into this presentation tonight.

That I think there are obviously other things we see on our streets that have throttles that don't really require pedaling.

I think Veo was an operator that had this bike that even when I checked one out, I realized I don't even have to pedal.

I can just set my feet down and go.

Um, but uh you know, correct me if I'm wrong, I guess, but the gist of what we are talking about here in terms of incentives and lending libraries is still a more classic pedal bike with a battery assist.

Is that that is correct?

It is about the pedal assist.

Um yes.

Okay.

And yeah, and so um, if people have questions about that, you know, they can reach Josh and his team.

I'm gonna ask about it, but certainly from where I'm coming from and some of these programs that I have asked about in the budget process, that's really what I have in mind.

And I think we're already seeing to your point about you know, children and cargo bikes and stuff, many of those are still very much in the pedal assist category.

I know my bike literally won't assist me over 20 miles an hour.

I can keep pedaling harder if I'd like, but it's not gonna push me faster than that.

So I just think it's as we induce and incentivize more of these bikes.

I want to give some assurance to the public that that that's the lane we're really talking about.

Um, on that note, um, I I have used the Roland Park at city events in the past.

And I also know that Dash buses have been advertised as charging opportunities in terms of like crisis and you know, storm situations, like you can actually run electricity off of them.

I'm curious, is there an opportunity there to provide charging for bikes from a Dash bus or for that's something that we could look into?

We have done it in the past with the city's lightning vehicles, the e-trucks, if you will, uh, but we could take that back and see if Dash uh if there's a way to a mechanism that we don't overpower the e-bikes or scooters that are at the roll and park services.

That's a collaboration opportunity there.

I'm thinking not more as like a big advertisement, but let's say like a family arrives and realizes like their cargo bike is on you know at 10% and they don't know they're gonna get home.

You know, can we provide sort of a you know last mile charge to people because we often do have Dash buses at large city events that are there for cooling purposes or for other purposes?

Um and I love the yard sign idea.

We love a good yard sign here in Alexandria.

So thank you.

Hi, I uh wanted to offer a comment slash question.

I'm looking at this particular slide, training education incentives, events and outreach, and marketing specifically.

And um again as a parent with teenagers, um, what I'm hoping is to make the distinction in everyone's minds between educating our kids about what buses you tap for and what buses are free, and educating ACPS.

Um, because they have recently sent out some pretty conflicting power school messages to all of the kids and parents that say things like, you have to pay for the bus.

Don't get on the bus and not pay.

There will be consequences to not paying when you're on the bus, which is true, unless you're on a dash bus.

Um, so you know, and when parents send clarifying messages asking, you know, could you send out a second message that says act if you're on Dash, it's fine, just not you know.

Um, so it would be really helpful if if the folks communicating to the kids, because I think they're getting more messaging from their schools than they are from the city and from you know, even the socials, they're not following us.

I hate to break it to all of us here.

Um so it would be lovely for the school system who does reach all of the teenagers and the private schools and everybody else to have good information that they can relay about transportation.

Uh because you know, my kids regularly take Dash as opposed to school bus when uh when their bus system isn't working for whatever reason.

Thank you.

That's very insightful.

I appreciate that.

And Councilman Garrior had a comment on this point, and I'll come back to Ms.

Marks.

Uh yeah.

For ACPS, red pay, yellow and blue don't pay, right?

Uh, not to oversimplify it, but um at some point, uh, can the council just get a quick update on where we are for um uh students to be able to ride metro buses for free?

You don't have to you don't have to answer to anything just well, I can answer that.

Um that our goal is that by the beginning of the next school year, we are already working with uh Walmata to get the cards in place, and so that that is the goal we're aiming for.

Perfect, thank you.

Okay, let me come back to Councilwoman Marks and then okay, then Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Um, just a couple of quick things, and I appreciate my colleagues talking about ACPS.

I think one of the one of the things that we probably hear across the board in terms of and and not really to poo-poo on ADCPS, but uh challenges around kind of getting into ACPS.

Um, you know, being able to talk to talk to students, being able to talk to staff, being able to make sure messaging is uh right and appropriate.

Um and this seems to be another example, and maybe I'm maybe I'm hopefully missing it, but it I would actually point this to maybe the manager and talking to the rest of us.

How can we get a broader conversation with ACPS to say, hey, we're doing this plethora of things that we need you not just at the table, but like in alignment with the things that are going on because they're going to improve the outcomes for our young people.

Um, I'm I'm really interested in over the next six months, how can we do that as an organization?

Because I think there's so many things that we are doing uh that staff is doing well, grant opportunities, um that you know staff should not have to go through five different calls to five different people to get something, right?

It should be hey, this is a contact, this is who's gonna be able to break it through to the school board or to senior leadership at ACPS.

And I really want to kind of get through this because I think there are some real opportunities here that GoAlex does that all of our kids don't really get to fully uh connect with because of a barrier that that's our staff is not putting up.

Um, but they're running into every time there's a conversation.

And so I do want to kind of get to the bottom of this.

Um I'm sorry this has to be the latest example of that.

Um, but I think it's a bigger, broader issue overall as it relates to our relationship with the city, but to focus in on this.

The the only thing that I would love to see, because I uh I, similar to Councilman Aguirre, have seen this program grow over the years, and I I think it's exceptional.

Um we are reaching people, educating people, probably changing a lot of habits.

Um, but I'm very interested as we we plot out the next five years, whose habits are we changing?

Are we being intentional about people that may not have already jumped on board with Go Alex?

Right.

Um and you know, I hate to be stereotypical, but you know, as we do some of the outreach events, how are we connecting with our HA residents about the choices they're making and are they getting an opportunity for e-bike learning?

Like are we being that very speci uh very intentional about communities that we know traditionally have not taken advantage of transit or uh different opportunities?

Um I would really love to see something there about that intentionality.

Um and I don't know if that that uh answers questions for some of the other funders that are that we're gonna be taking this plan to, but I think locally I think it helps us step up our game.

Because I I I would say that you guys are doing an amazing job with this.

And I think we're at a level where we've increased the community's overall knowledge about opportunities to get around.

But we know there are probably people that are just left behind.

Um and it's not because we haven't been working, it's because of whatever what other barriers, right?

We've started to introduce, as you said, language and going to where people are, right?

That's huge.

But we know that's not gonna hit everybody.

And so, how can we, as the next five years, continue to follow up with different um opportunities and and strategies to continue that work and really honing in on groups that you know are are not gonna be um part of kind of the everyday outreach.

We'll really take your comments to heart because that totally makes sense.

And in addition, within the youth and adult uh bike safety and education and along with the capital bike share.

I talked about the corporate, but we've also already been pushing the cabbie for all program, which is five dollars for your annual membership if you qualify for the cabbie for all.

Uh, but putting the classes of if it if we're just talking about bikes and scooters, we will determine where those places go.

And uh some developments are also located near ARH and that I can see good overlap with that type of thing.

So again, going to where people are, giving them the right tools that uh are appropriate for them to have them know they could take Dash, they could use capital bike share or any of the other ways to go around.

And sometimes carpooling is as viable as everything else, and that's something another tool in our toolbox to get people to where they need to go.

Absolutely.

Um, and not just our residents, sorry for cutting you off, but I will also say for commuters coming into our city because um it's everyone.

That's right.

Thank you.

Last last thing I have, um, I saw mention of uh water taxi, water taxi study.

And so I'd love to learn more about kind of where that's going.

I think with Northern Virginia Regional Commission some years ago, we we did something with the study.

I don't remember where that went.

Um and so I kind of want to kind of understand where what the possibilities are for future study and then hopefully one day implementation of something bigger.

Yeah, thank you for that question.

And bringing that up, you know, that that Alexandria was not officially included in that study.

Um much to our chagrin.

Um and so this is something that you know when we talk about alignment of plans, we talked about in the Alexandria Mobility Plan.

One of our our goals is how do we utilize the waterway for transportation?

And we think there's there's different data out there now that can help us understand who might take this, what might this look like, how viable would this be?

There's different types of boats out there that kind of change the the ability and the viability of a water taxi.

And so that's something I believe it's an out year that we put in into this.

But when we put these types of things into this five-year plan, now when we are going to our funders and asking for money, it's already in the plan, it's already been approved.

We know what we're asking for each year, and it helps us develop our our work plan.

So we're we're excited to take that one on.

And I did want to mention to your last point, you know, I think um you make a really good point about reaching people, and we've thought about that a lot, and that was one of the reasons that we have the youth is such an important target market for us because we're hoping that they will share with their parents, right?

And and we thought that that it is hard to get into a lot of communities, and so if we can get to the youth and educate them that they're our next generation of transit riders, and uh but they're also gonna educate up.

So that's something we were we were thinking about.

Well, I just have uh three, I think quick closing comments.

The first is thank you, Josh.

Um, I feel like ever since I met you, your passion for this work always is so inspiring for me.

And I think you know every route to get around this city.

So I just want to know.

I um you don't get to come before us very often, but it is appreciated to see you here tonight.

The second thing I would just mention is a few weeks ago we had a conversation here.

It started as a conversation around parking, but it led to a larger conversation around sort of this summer of events and everything from you know alternative trolley routes to different ways we want people to get around.

So I guess this is more to the manager, but I would just want to see maybe these two conversations brought together.

We've talked about how do we use this summer as a way to pilot getting information out differently, and so um just want to make sure that as council gets an update on what that pilot could look like, that we're also building on some of the lessons here and making sure that it's incorporated into that marketing, that messaging and the new things that we might try during our summer of fun.

And then uh the last thing I would just say is I was really excited to hear about the storytelling and would just I think there's a real opportunity here given the relationships that you've built with so many employers.

I'm wondering sort of what it looks like for them to help us capture videos of their employees or testimony, because I would think if I'm a new, if I'm a new resident or I'm just a new employee to this city, I I might trust my new peer or my employer to tell me that message in a different way than the the government.

And so, how do we capture some of those experiences?

And even if there's a way then on the yard signs where people there's a QR code and I can learn about somebody who used this project or came from where I'm coming from.

I think that would be a really interesting way to not only get more people connected, but it also gives us something we can measure.

We can tell, you know, we can't tell how many people looked at the yard sign, we can tell how many people scanned a QR code or did something with the yard sign, and so would just offer that up as a as an opportunity.

But thank you for the presentation.

Thank you for the time tonight.

I think this is one where we do have to formally take a vote, and this is a roll call vote.

So I will look for a motion.

Um Vice Mayor Bagley.

I would move that we uh adopt the strategic plan and refer it to DRPT.

Second.

Okay.

We're approving a resolution.

Yeah, resolution.

We approve the resolution that uh adopts the plan to write.

Yeah, that's good.

Stopping there.

Okay, with that, there has been a motion and a second to approve the resolution to formally adopt the Go Alex strategic plan.

Uh it has been properly motioned and seconded.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Excuse me, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Aye, Councilwoman Green.

Hi.

Councilman Chapman.

All right, Councilman L Newby.

All right.

Councilwoman Marks.

Aye.

All right, the ayes have it.

Thank you.

Have a good evening.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Consideration of city council schedule.

All right, move to approve the council schedule.

There's been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley, a second by Councilman Aguirre to approve the council schedule.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The ayes have it.

Move to adjourn.

All right, there's been a motion by the Vice Mayor and a second by Councilwoman Green to adjourn tonight's meeting.

Any discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Ayes have it.

Motion.

Oh what's happening?

Meeting adjourned.