Falls Church coalition follow-up

Hello!

It was great to officially launch Falls Church Forward with all of you on Sunday (and that’s our new name, which won out by a few stickers in the vote!). Whether you've been there from the beginning when we gathered in backyards in 2020 or whether you were new to us on Sunday — we're thrilled to bring together such a passionate and diverse group into a coalition to move the city forward.

If you are on this distribution list and couldn't make it on Sunday, no worries! You'll continue to get updates from us and we hope you can join us next time. We expect to have monthly/bimonthly meetings where we'll cover one specific topic from one of our pillars and mobilize with one action/to-do. 

Five follow-ups:

1. Email List: If you are receiving this, you have been added to our email listserv. We are going to use this for now to send out official updates to anyone who wants to follow along with the coalition’s happenings.

2. Slack Channel: I have also sent everyone an invite to our Slack channel. We can use this as a way to informally connect in between meetings — for if anyone has any links they want to share, news they want to call people’s attention to, or quick questions they want answered. You’ll notice each of the five pillars have their own tag channel within the Slack, for dropping relevant news and links. (The Slack is going to be used mostly for informal back and forth, so if you just want to be sure to not miss formal announcements/meeting times/etc., the email listserv will get those into your inbox!)

3. T-Zones Petition: We heard a brief summary about the city's effort to modernize the zoning code in Transition Zones (aka T Zones) to allow smaller scale development that "transitions" between commercial and residential areas and add housing types we lack in the city. As one of our first actions, we believe it's important to have "yes" voices in support while the Planning Commission works on recommendations and when the proposal is back in front of the City Council this spring. We plan to do a deeper dive at our next gathering. In the meantime, if you are supportive, you can sign this petition HERE and circulate with others.

4. Grow the Coalition: Please spread the word about the coalition! If there’s anything you think might be interested in joining up with Falls Church Forward (or at least joining the email list to stay in the loop), they can sign up at FallsChurchForward.org. (A more robust website is coming — for now, it's just a simple sign up form to be added to the email list.)

5. Next meeting: Save the date! Our next meeting will be Sunday, February 26 from 3-5 pm.

Onward to a more vibrant, sustainable, and inclusive Little City!

Pete