Each year, Thomas Brady, Fairfax County Public Schools assistant superintendent of facilities services, and his staff is faced with a growing capital improvement plan (CIP), which now totals $1.78 billion, and a $130 million yearly cap on spending set by the county Board of Supervisors.
The funding for the plan comes from county bond money and the spending limit is set to help maintain its AAA rating. The supervisors have discussed raising the spending cap to $135 million for next year, but an even bigger financial windfall could help the school system put a dent in its CIP.
The county Planning Commission will be holding a public hearing Wednesday, June 19, concerning overhauling the development criteria which guides the rezoning process, included are proposals for accepting cash proffers for public facilities, namely parks, libraries, fire stations, police substations and schools.
“If it goes through, it could add $10 million to $20 million a year to our capital funds,” Brady said. “It’s all additional revenue. We’re not getting enough from the state and we’re maxing out our bonds.”
FOR ABOUT TWO YEARS, school officials have been asking the county about cash proffers, which are already accepted in some cases for affordable housing and parks. Then last year, as part of the county infill study, the planning staff, along with the development criteria review committee, a subcommittee of the Planning Commission, began reviewing the 10 development criteria as a whole including the proffer system, three of which deal with public facilities. Proffers are a voluntary commitment by the developer to resolve development-related issues, such as making road improvements, restoring a streambed, donating land for a library or park, or cash in lieu of making actual improvements.
“One thing we’re looking at is how a developer can offset the impact on our public facilities,” said Jim Zook, the county’s Department Planning and Zoning director. “In the past, we may have gotten land for a park or schools or a police substation. The question is, given our current development, should the system be re-evaluated?”
The subcommittee came up with three draft recommendations when it comes to cash proffers, two of which have been put forth to the full Planning Commission.
Zook said the first is similar to the existing policy, but the second has school staff creating a formula based on the number of units proposed to be built by the developer and the estimated number of students the development will add to the local schools.
ABOUT A YEAR AND HALF AGO, the supervisors commissioned Tischler & Associates to study the feasibility of a cash proffer system. The study concluded that the county could generate as much as $7,110 per unit for a single-family detached development, $5,715 per unit for a single-family attached development and $3,400 per unit for a multifamily development.
“The county’s study said we could generate $10 million per year for schools construction,” said School Board member Kaye Kory (Mason), the School Board’s facilities committee chair.
Kory and fellow School Board member Christian Braunlich (Lee), along with schools staff, have been working with the planning subcommittee on the proffers proposal.
Braunlich said the proposal, if passed would give the school system “another tool we can put in our belt.”
The proposal has to make it past the Planning Commission, which is scheduled to decide whether to support the measure or not on June 26. After which it heads to the supervisors for a public hearing, tentatively scheduled for July 22.
The Planning Commission hearing begins June 19, at 8:15 p.m., in the Government Center auditorium at 12000 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax. Anyone wishing to be placed on the speakers list should sign up by calling 703-324-2865.