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Falls Church boosts paving funding to $2.2 million; residents and CACT press for larger sidewalk and safety investments
Summary
The proposed FY2026 budget increases roadway maintenance funding by $700,000 to $2.2 million, but residents and the CACT asked the council to fund more paving, larger sidewalk projects and to target traffic-calming dollars where crashes occur.
Transportation, street maintenance and pedestrian safety were recurring topics during the Falls Church budget town hall. City Manager Wyatt Shields proposed a $700,000 increase for roadway maintenance, bringing the proposed total for paving to $2,200,000 in FY2026. He described paving as a core infrastructure priority and tied paving work to opportunities to implement bike-master-plan elements and pedestrian improvements when streets are rebuilt.
Residents and advisory committee members urged larger increases. Arthur Hagen, chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation, said the staff’s unfunded request included an additional $1,100,000 and called for more attention to sidewalks and walkability. Andrew Olson, a CACT member, questioned the long-term return on investment for the Neighborhood Traffic Calming (NTC) program and recommended that the city focus limited dollars where data show actual crash and injury patterns. “We’re gonna spend $200 a year. I hope we can spend it on places where people are actually getting hurt,” he said, referencing the $200,000 NTC allocation.
Shields said the city is using capital reserves and grants to accelerate paving and related CIP projects and that the long-term goal is to transition recurring funding into the base tax rate so the work is sustainable. He cited examples of larger reconstructions where state funding was combined with city funds (West Street) and noted that the transportation portion of the six-year CIP is substantial: he said transportation projects are a major component of the six-year CIP and cited a roughly $60,000,000 total investment over six years in walking and biking improvements.
CACT members and other residents also raised specific concerns about sidewalks that start and stop mid-block and narrow sidewalks that impede accessibility. Shields said major projects such as the Broad Street “Great Streets” effort aim to widen sidewalks in key corridors; that project is in right-of-way phases and will require coordination with affected businesses.
Speakers urged the council to increase the paving and sidewalk budgets to address a backlog of streets rated “poor” or “very poor” in DPW assessments and to prioritize projects with the biggest safety return on investment.
