The City of Falls Church’s “Missing Links” program, designed to fill in places around the Little City where sidewalks are damaged or non-existent, was the subject of a spirited discussion during Monday’s F.C. City Council meeting, with a lot of back-and-forth between Council members and City staff on where the work should be done first.

Amanda Stout Brain, the City’s new director of Public Works, and Uros Jovanovic presented an update on the effort, which has $569,579 left in the current fiscal year for its work. The cost of improvements range from $215 to $1,000 per linear foot, with an average of $400, meaning the City budget allows for roughly 375 to 420 linear feet of sidewalk improvements per year (or the length of one city block).

The Department of Public Works’ (DPW) current goal is to improve sidewalks where either partial sidewalks exist but do not connect or no sidewalks exist on streets near public areas such as parks, trails, schools or commercial areas. It also prioritizes locations that typically experience higher traffic volume and travel speeds posing a higher risk to pedestrians.

Most recently a project on Hillwood Avenue, from Brook to Cleave and from Shady Lane to South Street, has been completed, covering 910 linear feet of sidewalk, 10 ADA ramps and 4 crosswalks.

Prioritized for the remainder of the current fiscal year are Great Falls St. between N. Washington and Maple (500 feet), Lynn Place between Randolph and Roberts Park (140 feet) and Madison Lane to Randolph (300 feet). To implement these, DPW staff is confirming right of way impacts, beginning public outreach on streets with high parking impacts, and starting design. Construction is slated for Summer 2026.

The DPW developed lists of future priority efforts, with Tier 1 projects being segments with no existing sidewalk providing connectivity between collector or arterial streets (6 projects), Tier 2 projects being where no sidewalks exist providing connectivity between Tier 1 streets and high volume local roads (5 projects), and Tier 3 projects near lower volume roads and shorter segments near public areas (4 projects).

Priority criteria are constructability, earlier requests, right of way availability and requirements from adjacent counties, Brain said.    

At Monday’s meeting, Councilman David Snyder urged that Maple Street between City Hall and the Harris Teeter (that is, between Park and W. Broad) be addressed, due to the high number of utility poles on the sidewalk there. He suggested that extending the sidewalk into the street could be a solution. He also said that on Great Falls from Maple to Little Falls, nothing is on one side and on the other the sidewalk “goes to nowhere.”

Council member Laura Downs suggested that areas around school bus stops should be prioritized. Council member Deborah Shantz-Hiscott questioned whether additional funds for the effort could be handled by existing City staff, to which Jovanovic replied, “It is complicated,” given that some projects require a lot more work than others.

Council member Justine Underhill suggested that Roosevelt between N. Tuckahoe and Villa Ridge  (identified in Tier 1) needs work urgently for “walking connectivity,” adding that James Street also needs attention.

Mayor Letty Hardi questioned why all but one of the 11 Tier 1 and 2 projects prioritized by the DPW are north of Broad Street and that an “equity lens” may need to be applied to the list. (The only south of Broad project listed is Knollwood Dr. between S. Spring and Timber Lane).

In another report presented Monday, the City’s Capital Improvements Project coordinator Caitlin Sobsey provided a quarterly update on active CIP projects around the Little City’s 2.2 square miles.

She reported there are 34 active projects around times, including 16 for transportation, 7 for facilities and schools, 7 for stormwater, 2 for parks, 1 for public safety and 1 for sewer work.

There are 4 projects currently in development and 4 pending future grants.

Of the 34 active projects, 16 are on target (down 7 percent over last quarter), 9 are at risk (up 10 percent over last quarter), and 9 are behind target (down 3 percent).

Five projects were completed in the last quarter, including upgrades to the Aurora House, to the Cherry Hill Farmhouse foundation, to the Meridian High School baseball field, to the Upper Lincoln Avenue stormwater project, and to the Hillwood Avenue sidewalk.

In another development Monday, the City Council issued a proclamation declaring the week of Nov. 13-19 as Transgender Awareness Week and Nov. 20 as Transgender Day of Remembrance, which was first organized in 1999 to commemorate the murder of Rita Hester, a transgender woman, and has grown into the recognition of the many transgender people lost to violence each year.