(As prepared for delivery on March 28, 2008)

Hello, I’m Gerry Connolly, Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, and I am honored to once again report to you on the state of Fairfax County.

Much has happened since my report to you last spring. For starters, you elected a new Board of Supervisors in November, and I want to thank you for your continued support of our agenda to move Fairfax County forward. It has been an exciting year punctuated by new initiatives to further protect our environment, to expand progress combating congestion and to provide renewed public and private investment in our community.

I am proud to say that the state of Fairfax County remains strong: Our public schools continue to be the envy of the nation. We remain one of the safest communities in the nation with a near-record low crime rate and economic investment continues to pump new jobs into our local economy.

Two major corporations recently moved their national headquarters to Fairfax County. Last fall, Volkswagen of America rolled its corporate headquarters and 400 jobs to the Herndon area. And just a few weeks ago, IT giant Computer Sciences Corporation became the eighth Fortune 500 Company to plant its flag in Fairfax County. We added 5,700 new jobs to our local economy last year. Another indicator of our economic vitality is the recent income data showing Fairfax households have achieved the highest median income in the nation exceeding $100,000, the first time any jurisdiction has crossed the six figure mark.

Building upon our recognition as the best managed County in the Country, according to Governing Magazine, Fairfax County was recently named the Best Digital Government, according to the Center for Digital Government. In addition, a report from the U.S. Department of Labor singled out Fairfax County as the epicenter of the national capital area job boom, and Time magazine cited Fairfax as “one of the great economic success stories of our time.”

Of course, all of us are concerned about the current state of the national economy. Our proximity to the federal government has made us a beneficiary of federal procurement, and we continue to benefit from private sector investments in IT and bioinfomatics.

But we are not immune from a national recession.

Real Estate Tax Assessments

For example, we are witnessing a much higher rate of foreclosures compared to just one year ago. In January of 2007 we had 74 foreclosures; this January we had 1,330. That phenomenon is placing tremendous strain on our families and neighborhoods. At the same time, the assessed value of our homes dropped on average 3.4 percent this year, which will have a dampening effect on county resources since taxes on real estate account for 60 percent of all local revenue. During the past six years, the Board of Supervisors has cautiously reduced the real estate tax rate by 34 cents. As part of their budget proposals for next year, our neighbors Loudoun and Prince William counties are considering tax increases of 26 cents and 21 cents respectively. Because of our conservative fiscal approach, we are not looking at anything remotely close to those levels in Fairfax.

With respect to real estate values, let me address a question many of you have raised about the Department of Tax Administration’s calculation of land and building values as part of the latest real estate assessments. This year’s assessments used a new methodology to break out the value for land and buildings producing some significant changes, including many cases where land values shot up and home values declined. This change does not affect the total property value, which is calculated by comparing the sales of similar nearby properties. The break down of value for land and buildings, which has no bearing on the total assessment and is required under state law, is made only after the total assessment has been determined. After hearing input from me, other members of the Board of Supervisors and the public, the Director of the Department of Tax Administration re-examined all properties that experienced such dramatic shifts and made revisions in nearly all cases.

Rail to Dulles

Let me now turn to another subject weighing on many of us that also will have a significant impact on our local and regional economy. The expansion of Metrorail into Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon and on to Dulles International Airport continues to be Fairfax County’s top transportation priority. The Dulles corridor is the second largest employment sector in the national capital region, and Dulles Airport is the premier international gateway to the nation’s capital with 24.7 million passengers last year. That figure is expected to hit 55 million by 2020.

The federal government has a critical role to play in transportation for the national capital region. By partnering with state and local governments to fund the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, the federal government would meet its responsibility for improving transportation in its own backyard. We have a unique project that provides increased transit capacity with 100,000 transit trips a day; the equivalent of an additional four lanes on the Dulles Toll Road.

I am heartened by recent statements made by the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters and Governor Tim Kaine signaling a renewed positive direction in this critical investment in Northern Virginia. The public is committed to making this project a reality. Recent polling shows more than 90 percent of residents of Northern Virginia support the construction of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.

This project will help alleviate traffic congestion, it will provide options for commuters, and it will encourage smarter growth and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For all of these reasons, the Federal government should be our partner in funding this critical rail link. Governor Kaine, Chairman Scott York in Loudoun County, and I, along with our partners at the Airports Authority and Metro, stand ready and determined to move this project forward.

Base Realignment and Closure Act

Another critical investment in which we are partnering with the federal government is the implementation of the Base Realignment and Closure Act (or BRAC), which will result in the relocation of more than 19,000 military jobs to Fort Belvoir and the Engineering Proving Ground in southern Fairfax County. When the BRAC moves are fully realized in 2011, it will double the workforce currently stationed at Fort Belvior. This move will have a transformative effect on nearby communities like Lorton, Mount Vernon, Kingstowne and Burke, and it will be a tremendous catalyst for revitalization in central Springfield and the Richmond Highway corridor.

Of course, such tremendous growth poses a great challenge, particularly with respect to transportation. I am pleased to report progress on that front. Last fall, the Commonwealth and the Department of the Army reached an agreement on completing the missing two-mile link in the Fairfax County Parkway. The County has pushed for this much-needed connection, which runs through the Engineering Proving Ground, for 20 years, and, to be frank, the Army would not have been able to carry out its BRAC plans without it. Planning is also underway for improvements to Telegraph Road, which runs along the north side of the base. Working with our Congressional delegation we have secured funding for the new connector road to move cars through the base. We also are working with our federal partners to identify other sources of revenue to address the hundreds of millions of dollars in other transportation improvements that will be essential to making these military moves a success.

One critical piece of the BRAC puzzle is locating the 6,200 workers associated with the Washington Headquarters Service to the General Services Administration warehouse complex adjacent to the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station. We believe the GSA site makes the most sense because it is the only site under consideration with access to Metro, Virginia Railway Express and I-95. Plus it is the only site currently under federal control.

Enhanced Code Enforcement Strike Team

Let me now share with you some of the great progress we have made on a new initiative I launched last summer: The Enhanced Code Enforcement Strike Teams. Last spring, with your help, we identified a troubling phenomenon in which a small number of property owners were willfully violating local zoning and safety laws by creating unsafe boarding houses. To respond, we formed Strike Teams consisting of personnel from 19 different County agencies to combat boarding houses and other threats to our neighborhoods.

Since the Strike Teams were put into action, we have issued more than 4,000 violations at 218 properties. We have closed more than 60 cases involving boarding houses or other code violations, another 75 cases have been referred for criminal or civil prosecution, and more than 180 cases are still under investigation.

Building on that success, the Board of Supervisors intends to push for additional funding in next year’s budget to create a third Strike Team, expanding our capacity for responding to neighborhood concerns. Although there are more investments to make, we are turning the tide, and we will continue to pursue this endeavor until we have fully met our goal of stable, safe residential communities. Citizens and civic associations have played a central role in this ongoing effort, by reporting suspected violations or sitting on neighborhood advisory panels. We could not have successfully prosecuted some of these boarding house operators without your assistance, and we will continue to pursue these violators neighborhood by neighborhood.

Affordable Housing

Clearly the great demand for affordable housing continues to pose a challenge in communities throughout the region. When I first took office as Chairman in 2004, I made preservation of affordable housing one of my top priorities. At the time, Fairfax was rapidly losing affordable units, and with input from community stakeholders I challenged the county to save 1,000 affordable units. We dedicated the value of one penny on the tax rate to support that ambitious initiative and I am proud to report that we not only met that goal; we more than doubled it! We now have saved more than 2,200 affordable units in neighborhoods across the County. The newly elected board’s commitment to affordable housing remains strong, and we will continue looking for more opportunities to build on the success of the last four years.

A new approach we will explore involves using a portion of the Penny for Affordable Housing to purchase foreclosed properties in some of our more distressed neighborhoods. Foreclosed properties can sit vacant for long periods of time, creating blighted, unsafe conditions. Such properties can also affect the values of neighboring homes and the overall quality of life for a neighborhood. Having the County step in to purchase some of these units would have multiple benefits.

• Clearly taking a home out of foreclosure would help restore stability to a neighborhood and restore confidence in the local real estate market.
  
  
• It also would allow the County to open these homes to working families for purchase at an affordable rate. Workforce housing is in great demand but short in supply. The County has not considered the outright purchasing of houses in the past because the market was so high, but the recent increase in foreclosures presents us with an opportunity to help bring stability to working families and to neighborhoods beset with empty houses.

This summer, the County anticipates holding its first Workforce Housing Summit. Workforce housing refers to those units targeting specific employment fields. For example, the County partnered with Inova Hospitals in 2006 on workforce housing for nurses and other hospital workers, offering these critical care-givers the opportunity to live closer to their jobs and also encouraging more people to fill those essential roles. In addition, the County is considering a proposal to construct workforce housing to accommodate teachers, police, firefighters and other employees here on the Government Center property itself. Partnering with the community on such projects will play a critical role in our ability to provide adequate, affordable housing for those who serve our community.

Preventing and Ending Homelessness

You know, despite our successes in providing affordable housing, and despite having the nation’s highest median household income, many Fairfax County families are either homeless or on the verge of being homeless. It is a small number as a percent of our total population, but the fact that more than 2,000 individuals – including about 800 children – are struggling daily to find food or shelter should be troubling to us all. Roughly 60 percent of our local homeless are employed and are truly living day to day.

We cannot sit idly by while a child sleeps in the woods.

Last year, we celebrated the opening of our fourth, and hopefully last, family shelter, which is named for my predecessor, Katherine K. Hanley. The shelter provides vital services to families in need, and we recently added transitional housing to the site to better serve those families working their way back to independent living.

Next week the Board of Supervisors will receive recommendations for our Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness in Fairfax County. While the initial focus is to find stable housing, we also must address some of the root causes for homelessness. Many of our homeless suffer from mental illness or substance abuse. With proper treatment, they can return to being productive members of our society. By making modest investments we can and will end homelessness in our community.

Mental Health

Let me spend a minute discussing Fairfax County’s approach to mental health challenges within the community. Clearly this community, the Commonwealth and the nation were reminded of the extreme consequences for letting mental illness go untreated with the tragedy at Virginia Tech last year. Among the 33 killed in the shootings were six young people who once called Fairfax County home, including the shooter.

In the months since then, we have come to discover that our local mental health services are pretty strong, but there is clearly room for improvement. The General Assembly recently infused the state mental health system with significant new investment to provide a more robust array of community services. Here in Fairfax, we have long supported mental health services. Even before the Tech tragedy, we felt it was necessary to review the provision of our own services in order to better assist those in need. That is why the Board of Supervisors created the Beeman Commission to study our current system and make recommendations for further improvements to it. We expect a report from the commission later this spring.

Older Adults

In Fairfax County we strive to address the needs of our citizens throughout the various stages of their lives. To that end, the fastest growing segment of our population is residents 50 years of age and older. In the next decade, we expect the population of adults between the ages of 50 to 69 to increase 25 percent. The number of adults above the age of 70 will increase nearly 60 percent during that time. Referred to as the “Silver Tsunami,” this development presents a variety of challenges and opportunities for the County, whether it is providing appropriate transportation options for active seniors or harnessing the wealth of their knowledge and experience for the benefit of today’s youth.

The Board of Supervisors formed its own Committee on Aging, which spent the better part of last year analyzing the current experiences of local senior citizens and retirees, including their health care needs, housing options, transportation challenges, volunteer opportunities and more. The result was a 50+Action Plan outlining more than 60 initiatives the County will now pursue.

For example, we will expand transit and transportation opportunities such as Seniors on the Go and FASTRAN. We will ensure communities are planned and built to provide housing options for all ages. We will pursue respite options for caregivers and provide them with additional support and training. In addition, we will offer more strategic services for seniors, whether it is helping them learn to avoid consumer fraud or helping them master today’s technology.

Continuing Education and Arts

Continuing education is another investment we intend to pursue for all age groups, and we are finding a strong desire within the community for more education and opportunities in the arts. The Board of Supervisors created a Commission on the Future of the Arts to assess facility and financial needs of such a program, and it will issue a report this spring. Clearly, at the county level, we need to reemphasize the importance of art in public places and explore partnerships with the schools and community centers to offer more opportunities to view and participate in the arts.

Of the many critical investments we as a community can make, education continues to be the number one priority for the Board of Supervisors. Nothing is more important than providing a proper foundation for the growth and enrichment of tomorrow’s community leaders. As I mentioned earlier, next year’s budget will be lean. In fact, spending on education will be virtually the only line item that does not get reduced due to our declining revenue. But the needs of our school children continue to grow as do the mounting demands placed upon students and teachers by the state and federal government.

That is why the Board of Supervisors is committed to maintaining the standard of excellence expected in our classrooms. The returns on our investments in education speak for themselves: We have the highest graduation rate of the 50 largest school districts in the nation. Our SAT scores are among the highest in our county’s history. All 24 of our high schools are ranked in Newsweek Magazine’s listing of the top 3% of schools in the nation, and U.S. News and World Report listed three Fairfax schools in its top 100 schools in the country, including Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, which topped the list.

Gang Prevention

Another investment in our young people that has yielded tremendous results is the county’s anti-gang initiative. Four years ago, we identified a growing concern in the community about the number of young people involved with gangs. After seeking input from community stakeholders, the Board funded the expansion of after school programs targeting our middle school-aged students. At the time, just three middle schools offered such programs.

Today all 26 middle schools provide opportunities to engage our young people in productive activities. We also enlisted the support of community partners in the form of summer school scholarships, mentoring programs and a $3 million donation from Cox Communications for the creation of five Boys and Girls Clubs focused on gang prevention in targeted parts of the county. The result of all that work is that in just a few short years, we witnessed a 50 percent decline in the number of young people reporting they were involved in gang activities, and the number of gang-related crimes dropped 32 percent. We cannot declare victory yet, but those statistics speak volumes about the willingness of our young people to respond when offered positive opportunities.

Environment

Let me now share with you some of the exciting progress being made on the County’s environmental agenda. Last year at this time, I unveiled the Cool Counties initiative, Fairfax County’s collaboration with the Sierra Club and a handful of other national partners to reduce greenhouse gas admissions. We kicked off a national campaign to marshal the resources of all 3,066 counties to address the threat of climate change at the National Association of Counties Conference last summer. Since then, we have had counties from every region of the country representing more than 30 million Americans sign on as partners.

The national call for a meaningful response to the threats of climate change has largely gone unmet by the Bush Administration. That is why we felt it was incumbent upon those of us in local government take action and lead by example.

The mission behind Cool Counties has infused new direction in nearly every environmental initiative we have in Fairfax County. For example, the Board just adopted a sustainable development policy with the aim of constructing new County facilities or renovating older ones using Green or LEED principles. We already have built four such green buildings, including two new fire stations and the recently opened Oakton Library. The County is working with builders and environmentalists to develop incentives that would encourage green building in the private sector. And next year, we will double the amount of wind power purchased by the County to 10 percent of our annual usage.

We also are recruiting others in the community to join us in this effort. The School Board recently adopted a Cool Schools resolution and to expand dramatically the school's recycling program. Let me also highlight a parent-initiated program called Bright Futures. The joint initiative with Fairfax County, the schools, and the business community has set a goal of replacing one incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb for every student in the school system.

That's 165,000 energy efficient light bulbs!

Thank you to the parents who have led this effort. While the overall focus of these initiatives is to reduce our carbon footprint, it also is critical that we educate our young people about these challenges and prepare them for when it is their turn to take leadership roles within the community.

Neighborhood and civic associations also will play a critical role in this effort, and we will soon release a Cool Neighborhoods template that will provide a toolbox for citizens across the County to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions, which will soon be available on the County’s Web site. From reducing energy consumption in our homes to reducing single occupancy vehicle trips to planting new trees on Homeowners Association-owned land, we can all do our part.

As we implement Cool Counties I have continued to look for opportunities to strengthen environmental stewardship in the county. For example, the Board passed a Comprehensive Plan amendment for Transit Oriented Development, focusing future growth around mass transit stations.

We have nearly reached our goal of preserving 10 percent of the County's landmass as County parkland.

We also have completed 12 synthetic turf athletic fields. The all-weather material increases field use by as much as 62 percent and offers some reduction in greenhouse gases since they do not require mowing.

We have won numerous awards for our environmental stewardship, including a National Association of Counties award for residential greenhouse gas emissions and an EPA Green Energy Partners award for our use of wind energy.

We have adopted the goal of increasing our tree canopy to 45 percent, from 41 percent today, and allocated additional resources to reach this ambitious target. We need your help, as we aim to plant more than two million trees by 2030 to reach this goal.

I am also proud that the Board of Supervisors is working to develop regulations that will result in the protection and reforestation of 400 linear miles of intermittent and perennial streams. This would increase our inventory of protected streams by nearly 50 percent, and it is probably the single most important step we can take to restore the health of our streams and water quality. Looking at water quality, the Board has initiated a regional effort to protect the County’s drinking water supply by preserving sensitive land in the headwaters of the Occoquan and Potomac rivers.

Tysons Corner Land Use

Let me now spend a minute addressing future growth in Tysons Corner, a topic that will have far-reaching impacts for not only the County but the rest of the region. The Tysons Land Use Task Force will make recommendations to amend the Comprehensive Plan later this spring. The task force, composed of dozens of residents from across the County, has spent almost three years preparing these recommendations to transform Tysons from an auto-centric office park into a vibrant, walkable, 24-hour community. With courage and foresight, we can remake it into a destination in which everyone in the County can be proud.

I want to emphasize that transforming Tysons is a central part of our efforts to combat global warming. Recent studies show that suburban sprawl is the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions growth in Virginia. If we are to achieve the objectives we established with Cool Counties, we must transform patterns of growth and development. We have already changed the paradigm of growth and development in the last four years. Beginning with the watershed MetroWest rezoning at the Vienna Metro Station, and continuing with rezonings near the Dunn Loring Metro Station and at Tysons Corner Center, the site of a future rail station, we have aggressively promoted transit oriented development. Even in areas not directly adjacent to transit, like Merrifield, we are transforming sprawl into livable, walkable, sustainable communities. Merrifield, once the embodiment of dysfunctional development, will soon include a mixed-use town center with open space, a retail center, and enhanced connections to the nearby Dunn Loring Metro Station.

In the area of smart growth, Tysons presents a unique opportunity. Never in American history has a community like ours taken an "edge city,” emblematic of sprawl, and transformed it into a walkable, urban, and ultimately sustainable community. We have the opportunity and, for environmental reasons, a responsibility to transform Tysons.

Transportation

Let me return again to transportation, the great equalizer throughout our region. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re going, traffic is a constant challenge. We have had quite a productive year in terms of transportation projects and funding.

Here in Fairfax, we have completed our first Four-Year Transportation Plan (PDF) and we begun work on our Second Plan (PDF). Although transportation is primarily a state responsibility, we initiated these plans to speed up delivery of critical transportation choices or fixes. The multimodal plans encompass every facet of local transportation allowing us to deliver real improvements in our transportation system through specific roadway, intersection, pedestrian access, and public transit initiatives. Supported in part by a $165 million bond package overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2004, we completed more than 60 projects.

Another key component is providing choice to commuters. For example, we recently installed bicycle racks on all Fairfax Connector buses. As part of our Comprehensive Bicycle Initiative we hired a bicycle coordinator and will soon roll out a map of safe recreational and commuting routes to destinations across the county. We also launched an aggressive Pedestrian Safety Initiative in response to the dramatic increase of fatalities on local roads. A recent study from the Inova Regional Trauma Center shows six pedestrians are injured on daily basis with at least one fatality a week. Fairfax County is spending $60 million over 10 years to improve sidewalk and trail connections. We already have upgraded 110 intersections with countdown signals and are working on another 50 as we speak.

Our Second Four Year Plan will continue that work, driven in part by a $110 million bond package just approved by voters in November. That plan includes:

• Spot improvements on Route 7 and the Fairfax County Parkway.
  
  
• Mass transit improvements such as rehabilitating the Herndon Connector Bus Facility.
  
  
• Installing transit centers at George Mason University and the Northern Virginia Community College.
  
  
• Expanding the Stringfellow Road Bus Transfer Facility.
  
  
• Replacing more of our buses with environmentally friendly and more fuel efficient vehicles.
  
  
• Widening Stringfellow Road from Route 50 to Fair Lakes Boulevard and widening Lorton Road from Route 123 to Silverbrook Road.

Despite those local investments, our long-term needs for transportation continue to go unmet. As you may know, legislation passed by the General Assembly last year that empowered the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority to generate as much as $400 million for local and regional projects has been ruled unconstitutional by the Virginia Supreme Court. The Court ruled that taxes or fees must be imposed by an elected State or local government.

As I mentioned earlier, we are already doing more than our share at the local level, so it is incumbent upon the General Assembly to live up to its transportation responsibilities and provide our region with critically needed transportation resources. Transportation in Virginia is by law a State responsibility and any proposal that requires local governments to take it over is a gross abdication of duty and, frankly, would be dead on arrival. Nonetheless, we stand ready to partner with the Governor and General Assembly in moving forward.

One element that did survive in last year’s transportation package granted local governments the authority to enact a higher real estate tax rate on commercial and industrial properties. That provides a new tool for us to enhance local transportation funding. Fairfax County will look to increase the rate by 10 to 12 cents, which will generate as much as $56 million a year for the County to spend on local transportation improvements.

Clearly we have some challenges ahead of us, but together we are moving forward in a positive direction, building on the tremendous quality of life we enjoy here in Fairfax County. All of us have invested in this community and have a stake in its success. In the next year, you will see progress being made in one shape or another at every turn, whether it is installing a synthetic turf field in your community, providing easier access to services in our expanded courthouse or relieving congestion with the opening of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge.

Thank you for sharing this time with me tonight and I look forward to continuing our partnership in the year ahead.