March 11, 2026 PC - Mar 11, 2026

meeting

Fairfax County Planning Commission 4h 15m 6 speakers 8 agenda items transcribed 7 days ago official recording ↗

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What is discussed at the start of this section?

Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 0:03

Well good evening. Welcome everyone to our March eleventh, twenty twenty six Planning Commission meeting. Uh our agenda this evening consists of a conversation with uh Mr Alex uh Imes, uh Executive Director Vice President of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority. We'll have some commission business and there will be four public hearings. Periodically the Commission welcomes individuals to meet with us in the first half hour of our meeting. whose work has a significant and positive impact on the community and the direction in which our county is evolving. Mr Alex uh Alex Imes certainly meets these criteria. He is the Executive Vice President of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority.

Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 0:47

Mr. Imes directs strategy and operations for business investment, talent and market intelligence. Since joining EDA six years ago, he has focused on attracting emerging uh emerging industry sectors and strengthening collaborative economic development across Northern Virginia. And the national capital region. Mr Imes has a twenty five year career in economic development and urban planning. His work includes leadership roles in the recruitment of Lytle's North American headquarters, the successful attraction of Amazon H Q two, and the development and implementation of plans shaping urban centers in Arlington, Virginia. He currently serves as the ex uh on the executive committee of the Tysons Community Alliance and previously on the board of the Arlington County Employee Retirement System.

Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 1:37

Earlier in his career Uh Mr. Imes led research and technical assistance initiatives at the Council of Development Finance Agencies and the International Economic Development Council. Supporting communities across the United States. He holds a master's of city and regional planning from Ohio State University, Go Bucks, and a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. The Planning Commission's mission is centered on land use of course uh within the county. Our work at its core. is economic and community development. A focus that is obviously overlaps and is synergistic with that of the mission of the Economic Development Authority. So tonight we welcome Mr Imes for a conversation about that synergy and our respective roles and responsibilities.

Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 2:27

Alex, thank you for taking the time uh to be with us tonight and the podium is yours. I'm gonna raise it up. For you.

Alex Imes 2:35

Yes, thanks.

Phillip A. Niedzielski-Eichner 2:35

It's as high as it's gonna go.

Alex Imes 2:38

All right, I'll take what I can get and uh good evening, Phil and Planning Commissioners. It's a pleasure to to be with you um to share some of the information about emerging technology sectors in Fairfax County and how we can connect that with uh land use planning and the uh commission work that you all do on a on a weekly basis. I appreciate you mentioning um the Buckeyes. I know that can be a polarizing topic, so I won't Voilà. But instead move beyond and I appreciate you uh reading out my my bio. I have worked in Northern Virginia for going on 20 years. in planning and in economic development and had the opportunity to work in the Crystal City area of Arlington when you all were working on the Tysons Comprehensive Plan.

Alex Imes 3:22

And so we were, I think, comparing notes or following uh your work very closely at that time to um in in a in a sense uh uh uncomplicate comp complex urban areas in in our our s our cities. So um That was certainly a a challenge and uh we resolved it just as you all have with the the Tysons area tonight. I'm going to talk to you uh about some trends in uh in our market and begin by laying uh a context for you all. And I bring I come bringing uh good news mostly across the board, uh starting with the office market that has shown some positive stabilizing traits in the past. last year, uh specifically at the end of last year. The number of job openings, which took a precipitous drop in twenty twenty five, is since slowly recovering to where it was before uh the new administration took office and and some of the issues presented themselves.

Alex Imes 4:19

And our efforts in business investment and attraction in the areas such as space commercialization, quantum computing and artificial intelligence are um have got us headed in the right direction.