March County Board Meeting Agenda Highlights

Published on March 08, 2019

The Arlington County Board will hold a public hearing on a proposed performance agreement with Amazon and consider dozens of other items at its Saturday, March 16, 2019 Regular Meeting. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. The March Recessed Meeting will begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19.

Note: Due to broad public interest in the proposed performance agreement with Amazon, the Board encourages those who wish to comment at the public hearing to sign up in advance online. Advance sign-up will close at 4 p.m. on March 15, 2019. Advance online sign-up speakers will be called first, in the order in which they are received. Speaker forms will be available at the meeting starting at 8 a.m., and may be submitted to the Clerk before the first speaker on this agenda item is called.

The Board meets in Room 307 on the third floor at the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center, 2100 Clarendon Blvd. All County Board Meetings are open to the public. Visit the County website for information on speaking at a Regular County Board Meeting.

Watch it Live

All County Board meetings are live-streamed on the County website, and broadcast live on the County's cable channel, ATV, with live captioning. You can watch the Board Meetings on Comcast 25 & 1085 (HD), and Verizon FiOS 39 & 40, or live-streamed on YouTube. Videos of Board meetings are archived on the County website (with captions and reports) and on YouTube.

Saturday, March 16 — County Board Regular Meeting

(Note: The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. with public comment. Some reports will be posted closer to the meeting date.) View the agenda and read the staff reports. Highlights include:

Proposed performance agreement with Amazon: The Board will hold a public hearing, at 1 p.m. or as soon thereafter as possible, and consider adopting a pay-for-performance incentive package for Amazon. In November, 2018, the company announced it plans to build a second headquarters in Arlington.

If approved, the performance package would grant the company up to 15 percent of net new hotel tax revenues associated with increased business travel to Arlington related to the Amazon headquarters. The grant will begin to be paid out in the second year of the performance period. Its total value over 15 years is estimated to be $23 million. The tax is paid by tourists or business travelers on the total cost paid on hotel rooms or other paid lodging in the County.

The County also would agree to set aside up to 50 percent of the growth in incremental tax revenue in the existing Crystal City, Potomac Yard and Pentagon City Tax Increment Financing Area for up to 10 years to finance pubic infrastructure projects serving, or near, Amazon's headquarters. The value of this revenue is projected to be $28 million over 10 years.  Amazon is expected to create 25,000 jobs with an average annual salary of $150,000, and to occupy 4 million square feet of office space in Arlington by 2030. The County estimates that the 16-year cumulative gross tax benefit to Arlington from Amazon's expected growth here will be $342.26 million. The net tax benefit will be $319.54 million over 16 years.

To view the proposed agreement and the staff report for this item, scroll to Item No. 29 on the agenda. Visit the County website to learn more about Amazon in Arlington. 

Child Care Initiative: The Board will hear public testimony and consider adopting changes to the Zoning Ordinance and local child care codes related to the County's Child Care Initiative. The changes are meant to improve the availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of child care in Arlington.

The proposed Zoning Ordinance changes address topics related to center-based and family-based child care programs including: child care definitions; maximum number of children and development review process for family day care homes; family day care home use standards; child care center parking requirements; and other technical changes.

The proposed changes to Chapter 52 of the Arlington County Code incorporate the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) Standards for Licensed Child Day Centers (with the exception of teacher-to-child ratios, group sizes, and lead teacher qualifications). The proposed changes to Chapter 59 of the Arlington County Code incorporate the VDSS Standards for Licensed Family Day Homes (with the exception of teacher-to-child ratios). To read the staff reports, scroll to Item Nos. 25, 26 and 27 on the agenda. 

Bicycle Element of the Master Transportation Plan: The Board will consider authorizing advertisement of public hearings before the Planning Commission and the Board in April on the proposed update of the Master Transportation Plan's Bicycle Element, and to amend the MTP Map section "Arlington County Bike and Trail Network." The Bicycle Element of the MTP guides long term transportation planning, including future project concepts for Arlington's bicycle transportation infrastructure. The update process began in May 2017, with the formation of a resident working group. Since then, the County has collected more than 3,000 comments from the public. To read the staff report, scroll to Item No. 28 on the agenda.

Digital Engagement Initiative: The Board will consider a proposed licensing agreement with WMATA that will allow Arlington to run ads for the County's public art, and cultural events such as the Rosslyn Jazz Festival, on new digital screens in Metro stations. Arlington will be one of several regional cultural partners to participate in programming the screens. To read the staff report, scroll to Item No. 15 on the agenda.

 Tuesday, March 19 — County Board Recessed Meeting 

View the agenda and read the staff reports for this meeting.

3 p.m. — Board and County Manager Reports, Awards and Recognitions

No sooner than 6:30 p.m. — The Board will hold public hearings on, and consider, any items pulled from Saturday's Consent Agenda. O sooner than 6:45 p.m., the Board will hold the following public hearing: 

Public Spaces Master Plan Update — The Board will consider setting public hearings in April before the Planning Commission and the Board on the draft Public Spaces Master Plan (PSMP) update. The update, if approved by the Board in April, would replace the 2005 PSMP. The draft plan outlines the vision, polices and tools for the development and management of the County's diverse public spaces system, including parks, natural resources and recreational assets. The PSMP is one of 11 elements of the County Comprehensive Plan.  The update process began in 2015 and included the appointment of an advisory committee; a statistically valid survey; focus groups and stakeholder interviews; pop-up events; a planning and design charrette; formal public meetings, online feedback opportunities and presentations to various County commissions and community groups. To read the draft plan and staff report, scroll to Item No. 30 on the agenda.