Jan 20, 2026 7 min read Mayor Hardi

Mayor Hardi Serves Spanberger Transition Team in Richmond

"We asked Hardi about the nature of her service to Spanberger, who was inaugurated in Richmond, Saturday, Jan. 17 as Virginia's first woman Governor...." Newly re-elected City of Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi. Courtesy FCNP.

So, what was the mayor doing down in Richmond?

In our Jan. 15 piece "Mayor Hardi Enthusiastic about F.C. Restaurant Week, Jan. 23 to Feb 1," we noted that newly re-elected City of Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi had just served on the transition team in the Commonwealth's capital, for then Va. Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat. We asked Hardi about the nature of her service to Spanberger, who was inaugurated in Richmond Saturday, Jan. 17 as Virginia's first woman Governor.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger is sworn into office at the state Capitol on January 17, 2026, Richmond. Photo by Win McNamee / Getty Images.

Spanberger selected Hardi for her expertise on local housing affordability – as she has demonstrated, and received awards for, in the City of Falls Church – and put her in charge as a Policy Co-Chair on an Affordable Housing Committee comprised of around 35 state and local specialists from all around Virginia and Richmond.

Mayor Letty Hardi was awarded the 2025 Livable Communities Leadership Award on May 14, 2025. The organization is dedicated to: "making the case for smart growth," by advocating for "walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, D.C. region to grow and provide opportunities for all."

Commitment to Affordable Housing

In her Jan. 5 remarks to the F.C. City Council upon her mayoral re-election, Hardi re-iterated her commitment to boosting housing affordability to make the Little City an even more "livable city."

"We’ve just come through an incredible era of growth and revitalization, and we’re finally mostly on the other side of it," Hardi said. "It’s no accident that even with all that disruption, we lowered tax rates by 17 cents, earned national accolades, and saw a five-point increase in our community survey — where 93 percent of residents say quality of life here is good or great. Construction was painful, but that long-term investment in housing and infrastructure matters."

"Falls Church is, hands down, a great place," Hardi continued. "Now let’s take it to the next level. This is the moment to invest in the future of the city we want to leave to the next generation. As the real estate market cools, we have an opportunity to reimagine economic development — not just as new buildings, but as showcasing our great bones and what already makes this place special," Hardi continued. "We can be the best city for small businesses. And we can keep building on the evolution we started a decade ago toward a walkable, bikeable, greener, safer, healthier 15-minute city. And are we going to make bold moves to meet our affordable living goals we adopted last summer and match our welcoming values?"

"....The policies we pass up here on this dais are just the starting line," Hardi said. "The finish line is knowing we actually achieved what we set out to do. How many homes did we build? How many crosswalks did we paint? How many new jobs did we add? How many trees did we plant?"

Fast & Furious in Richmond

We asked Mayor Hardi what it was like on Spanberger's transition team in Richmond.

"It was very fast and furious kind of six weeks or so, but yes, it was an honor to be on the Governor-Elect’s transition team," Hardi told us. "It was sweet. They called me up kind of around election time. And, given that I have a personal interest in housing policy and a lot of the debate today is about, ‘What can you do locally?,’ and ‘What should you do statewide?’"

"Eden Center is *pho* lovers!" At Eden Center, June 27, 2025 Mayor Hardi (front, left) greets then Democratic candidate for Virginia Governor, Abigail Spanberger (front, right). Photo by Chris Jones.

An Issue Across the State

"One thing that’s a big shift in the past five years or so is that the affordable housing issue is no longer just a NoVa, Falls Church, Arlington issue, right?," Hardi continued. "But, when I meet with colleagues across the state, it is now pervasive across the Commonwealth. So I think that’s why every General Assembly session – in the past two or so – there have been a lot more General Assembly bills at the state level. So, I’m glad they invited me and it was an honor to serve and to have contributed ideas."

A Who's Who Across Virginia

"My committee had 35 people on it or so because I was a Policy Co-Chair specifically on housing policy within the commerce and trade area and it was kind of like the Who’s Who of housing policy across Virginia," Hardi said. "So, I personally learned a lot from the experience, met a lot of great people, and had a lot of new connections to bring back to Falls Church. So it was a good experience, albeit a bit intense because it was over the holidays."

Any Yimby's?

We were curious to know about the political composition of the committee. Were the specialists generally in favor of more housing density and affordable or missing middle housing, or for protecting single-family zoning from "new housing developments" in traditionally suburban areas where housing costs have skyrocketed. So, we asked the mayor if there were "any Yimby's on the committee?" – where "Yimby" is on the opposite political pole as "Nimby" when it comes to views on building new housing, as Nimby stands for "Not in my back yard," while Yimby stands for "Yes in my back yard."

"We had advocates. I don’t know if they were officially part of the Yimby’s, but I know that [we had] everything from true, committed affordable housing advocates to nonprofits," Hardi said. "We had land-use lawyers kind of representing developers, people who had been in Richmond and government – like Bill Shelton who was a Co-Chair with me. [He] had been the Director of Deep City [an urban planning concept for sustainable, efficient city development aligning with goals for better urban quality of life] which is at the Va. Department of Housing and Community Development, I think through five different Governor terms. So he had so much experience and such wise counsel and perspective on housing needs. And I’m really glad to have learned from him and to have a new mentor. But that’s only a spectrum of housing views. On the committee there was everything from your most Yimby to your more conservative. But I think that’s kind of reflective of the Governor’s vision. She really means it when she says she wants to work for all of Virginia and to be pretty moderate and pragmatic in her approach."

Housing as Top Affordability Concern

We noted that the issue of affordability was foremost in off-year Democratic campaigns this cycle, including for Spanberger's gubernatorial run. "Yes," Hardi said. "Housing is the majority of a household’s costs. So I think focusing on housing definitely makes sense. Child care comes in second. And then transportation costs after that. So, it’s across-the-board now. It is so hard for a family to build roots in housing and to think what [unaffordability] does to a family’s income when you start to see 50, 60, 70 percent of your income just going to housing. It’s something that clearly can’t go on. The way we’ve been doing it, certainly isn’t working for the average Virginian. So, I’m glad that it is central to Spanberger's platform."

As Falls Church Restaurant Week comes on Jan. 23, we asked Mayor Hardi whether the housing issue is linked to the opening of new restaurants and whether restaurant workers can afford to live nearby. "Absolutely," she said. "That’s one thing we talked about. I always say housing is always central to other parts of public policy. So, if you care about the environment, you probably don’t want people living in the exurbs, one, because it destroys the green forests out there, and, two, they have to drive an hour and a-half in because there’s probably no public transit out to West Virginia. So they’re on the road creating greenhouse gas emissions, so you’re like, ‘It would make sense to have housing where there are jobs,’ because then people don’t have to spend all that time commuting."

"So, from an environmental and a transportation perspective, and also from an economic development perspective, the number one thing we often hear from businesses is, ‘I want to open, but I also have to find workers.’ But if workers are going to have to travel from an hour and a-half away, then it’s really hard to hire them. So that’s why I think we’ve done so much on housing in Falls Church and we look forward to, hopefully, Virginia stepping up too."

While Mayor Hardi was unable to divulge the committee's specific recommendations due to confidentiality, she did say: "I can talk about what the experience was like and I think Richmond in general is kind of eye-opening. Because I spent a fair amount of time meeting with agency heads and the current Secretary of Commerce and Trade, so all that was great learning. And that’s not the sort of thing traditionally that local government has access to."

So, Hardi has seen the "inner workings of Richmond?," we prodded. "Somewhat. [Laughs], she responded. Somewhat filtered through obviously the heads of these agencies. But now, we have issues with an affordable housing project, and I’m like, ‘Well, now I know the head of Virginia housing and that probably is a helpful connection for the City of Falls Church.’ "

For more on the City of Falls Church's Affordable Housing Policy, go here:

For insights into politically nettlesome missing middle housing issues in the City of Falls Church, see this piece by Scott McCaffery in ArlNow.