Herndon Elects a Nearly New Town Council. Where the Winners Stand on Comstock, Herndon 2050 and Housing

Herndon voters gave five of the six Town Council seats to first-time candidates on November 3, and four sitting council members lost. Vice Mayor Clark Hedrick was the only incumbent to win another term. Mayor Keven LeBlanc ran unopposed and won a second term.

The new council takes office on January 1, 2027, for a two-year term, and the Municipal Center on Lynn Street, closed since October for renovation, is scheduled to reopen in early January. The council inherits the town’s appeal over the Comstock land downtown, the Herndon 2050 comprehensive plan, the town’s first affordable housing policy and the search for a new town manager. It is expected to vote on the last three before these members face voters again in November 2028.

Five of six council seats change hands, and only Clark Hedrick returns

Twelve candidates ran for six at-large seats, and voters could pick up to six. These are Fairfax County’s unofficial results as of noon on November 4:

The count is not final. Mail ballots that reach the Fairfax County Office of Elections by noon on Friday, November 6, still count, along with provisional ballots, and the state certifies results by the first Monday in December. The race for the last seat is the closest: Britt, in sixth, leads del Aguila by 239 votes. In 2024, the final count moved Herndon’s sixth council seat from Stevan Porter to Naila Alam, FFXnow reported, and Alam kept it by 32 votes after a recount.

Del Aguila, first elected in 2018, was the council’s longest-serving member. Garcia, Lloyd and Reyes were finishing their first terms. Alam did not run.

FFXnow’s results story said the near sweep signaled a desire for change, and Bruce said the same thing in her statement after the vote: “Voters have demanded change here in Herndon and they are putting their trust in us to deliver that.”

Four winners ran together on housing, safer streets and a social services approach to public safety

Bruce, Shafiq, Yohannes and Ezekilov campaigned together as an informal coalition that described itself as progressive. Herndon’s charter keeps party labels off the ballot for town offices. The four agreed on affordable housing, pedestrian safety and accessibility, and an approach to public safety that leans more on social services than on policing, FFXnow reported. All four also expressed opposition to the Herndon Police Department’s use of Flock license plate cameras.

Herndon’s mayor votes as a member of the council under the town charter, so the council casts seven votes. The four hold four of them.

• Sabrina Bruce led the field and is in line to become vice mayor, according to FFXnow. The charter has the council elect its vice mayor from among its members. Bruce served 12 years in the Air Force and Space Force and moved to Herndon in 2022. She ran on what she called transit, transparency and transformation: safer walking and biking, including more crosswalks on Herndon Parkway and protected bike lanes on Van Buren Street, and requiring or incentivizing affordable homes in new development, especially near the Herndon Metro station.
• Yasmin Shafiq has lived in the Herndon area since 2004 and works for Fairfax County government in parks. Her housing plan is to “simply mirror” Fairfax County’s affordable housing program. She also lists parks and open space, fewer administrative burdens on small businesses, and better transit.
• Meron Yohannes grew up in Herndon and serves as vice chair of the town Planning Commission, where she worked on the zoning for the Transit-Related Growth area around the Metro station. She wants an inclusionary zoning ordinance, a rule that makes affordable homes a standard part of new development, and she has proposed set-aside housing for households earning under $100,000.
• Josif Ezekilov is an activist with New Virginia Majority, a statewide advocacy group. He wants to focus new affordable housing on households earning 40 percent of the area median income or less, about $60,000 a year by his figure, and to end the town’s Flock contract “on day one.”

Justin Britt and Clark Hedrick ran on business growth, faster permits and experience

Justin Britt has lived in Herndon for 25 years, works as a marketing director at Deltek and owns a digital marketing firm. He wants clearer and more predictable zoning, faster permitting, and pop-up markets and temporary parks on vacant land while long-term plans move forward. On housing, he supports density bonuses and expedited permits in exchange for affordable units, and zoning that favors for-sale condos and townhouses over rental-only buildings. He supported the town’s application to Virginia Main Street, which the council approved 6-0 on October 27.

Clark Hedrick, a federal government attorney, won his third term. He pushed for the Main Street application, which the state accepted on October 30. He wants to broaden the commercial tax base so residents carry less of the tax load, speed up the time from site plan to permit, create a business improvement district near the Metro station, and restore the spring and fall bulk trash pickups the town cut for budget reasons. He also supports a long-term change in state law that would let Herndon tax land value only, so owners are not taxed more for improving their property.

Since winning, the new members have named housing, growth and downtown as early priorities

The winners told FFXnow on November 4 what they plan to tackle first:

• Shafiq named an affordable housing policy modeled on Fairfax County’s and a larger tax base to pay for “a high quality of life for all Town residents.”
• Yohannes named three: an inclusionary zoning plan, a new town manager within six months, and a new vision for downtown.
• Ezekilov said voters chose “a team that is ready and able to work together to address our affordable housing crisis, to improve the town’s public services, and deliver a vision on how to grow our town smartly and sustainably.”
• Britt named “smart growth, making Herndon easier to do business in and with,” and continued investment in town events.

Del Aguila said after the results came in, “It’s a new day, and more change has come to Herndon, but my concern is families and Latinos may not have a strong voice in its future.” Garcia congratulated the winners and said he stands ready to support the incoming council. LeBlanc said in a video statement that he is working to orient the new members to their roles.

Deputy Town Manager Kirstyn Jovanovich is serving as interim town manager. The current council voted on September 29 to end Town Manager Dan Hoffman’s employment after less than a year in the job, FFXnow reported. Under the charter, the council hires the town manager, and the manager hires department heads and prepares the budget for the council to adopt.

All five newcomers signed a pledge to keep fighting for the Comstock land

In an opinion dated September 17, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge ruled for Comstock in the town’s lawsuit to reclaim the nearly five acres at Elden and Center streets that Herndon conveyed for a downtown project Comstock later abandoned. Herndon filed its notice of appeal with the Court of Appeals of Virginia on October 7. The deed stays in Comstock’s name during an appeal that will take months. Our posts on the ruling and the appeal and on the contract at the center of the case cover the details.

After the ruling became public, six council candidates signed a joint letter pledging to keep trying to recover the land, to “put Herndon first” in any future talks with developers and to write enforceable deadlines into future agreements. Five of the signers won: Bruce, Shafiq, Yohannes, Ezekilov and Britt. The letter said, “We want this land back, and we want the people of Herndon to have an opportunity to build a downtown that serves our community, not a corporation’s bottom line.”

Their individual answers on the site in The Connection’s October voter guide, some written before the ruling:

• Bruce wants a full review of what will work on the site once the legal issues are settled. She told FFXnow in July that downtown should get smaller buildings that fit its character, with the big mixed-use projects near Metro.
• Shafiq expected the town to get the deed back and wrote that the land would then be available for the town’s use after any needed cleanup.
• Yohannes wants to stay with the legal route, look for ways to use the land in the meantime and prepare a new vision for it, work she says she has started as the Planning Commission’s representative on the Downtown Advisory Board.
• Ezekilov said the legal process is the only way to reclaim the site and pledged that “corporations like Comstock” will not “bully our town.”
• Britt would keep protecting the town’s legal position while pursuing a negotiated settlement, and would put temporary parks and pop-up vendors on vacant downtown land in the meantime.
• Hedrick said the council should build an actionable plan for the property now, ready to carry out once the litigation ends.

None of the six winners proposed buying the land back. Britt was the only winner to name a negotiated settlement as a path. Comstock said after the ruling that it remains willing to work with town officials on a mixed-use project, FFXnow reported, and LeBlanc’s town statement called the ruling one that “gives a large corporate developer the heart of a community and turns it into blight.”

This council is expected to vote on Herndon 2050 and the town’s first affordable housing requirement

The outgoing council formally started Herndon 2050, the update to the town’s comprehensive plan, on March 24, 2026, and gave the Planning Commission until December 31, 2027, to hold its hearing and send a recommendation. The town expects to adopt the plan in late 2027 or early 2028, which puts the final vote in the new council’s term. Two Early Action Plans, one for the Metro station area and one for downtown, are set to move ahead of the full plan.

Five of the six winners backed putting the town’s densest growth near the Herndon Metro station, and Hedrick said the council should hold projects there to the green space and infrastructure goals in the existing Metro-area plans. Bruce put a number on it in The Connection’s guide: “If we add 1,000 homes, I do not want that to mean 1,000 more cars on our roads.” Our post on Herndon’s Metro pipeline covers the apartment projects already approved there, including The Nell at 555 Herndon Parkway, which plans move-ins in early 2027.

On March 24, the outgoing council voted 6-0 to prioritize development proposals that include affordable homes and directed staff and the consultant TPMA to write an interim policy that follows Fairfax County’s affordable housing standards “to the greatest extent possible,” FFXnow reported. The council also directed staff to secure an agreement for the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority to administer affordable units in Herndon. Herndon does not require developers to include affordable units today.

The winners’ answers on that policy range from Shafiq’s call to copy the county’s program, to Yohannes’s inclusionary zoning ordinance, to Ezekilov’s focus on households earning 40 percent of the area median income or less. Britt favors density bonuses and faster permits as incentives. Bruce wants pre-approved, “off-the-shelf” plans for accessory dwelling units, so homeowners do not have to design one from scratch. Herndon has its own accessory dwelling rules, separate from Fairfax County’s, and our post on backyard cottages explains them.

Before the new members take their seats, town staff planned to bring a cap on parking requirements near Herndon Station to the council on November 17, and a council hearing on by-right housing on church and nonprofit land before that state law takes effect January 1. Our October post explains both.

Four incoming council members oppose Herndon’s Flock license plate cameras

The Herndon Police Department runs 10 Flock cameras and keeps the data for 21 days, according to its public dashboard, and it budgeted $38,000 for the cameras this fiscal year, the department’s FOIA specialist told FFXnow. A police spokesperson has said the department takes its direction from the Town Council. All four members of the slate expressed opposition to the cameras, FFXnow reported. Ezekilov pledged to end the contract on his first day. Shafiq’s campaign site says town technology should not compromise residents’ rights, citing Flock cameras as an example, and promises to set safe practices for residents’ data. Britt and Hedrick did not state a position in the coverage we found. Our Flock camera post shows where the cameras are and what they record.

Herndon homeowners and buyers should watch the appeal, the housing policy and next spring’s budget

• The Comstock appeal. Downtown’s center block stays surface parking until the Court of Appeals rules or the two sides settle. Buyers weighing a home within walking distance of Elden Street should assume no change there in 2027.
• The affordable housing policy. Herndon’s first requirement for affordable homes in new development will shape the projects near the Metro station, where the town plans most of its new housing.
• Herndon 2050’s Early Action Plans. The Metro-area and downtown plans will set what can be built near both, and the town posts updates at herndon2050.org.
• The town budget. The council adopts its first budget next spring, and that budget sets Herndon’s town real estate tax rate, which owners pay on top of Fairfax County’s.
• The town manager hire. Yohannes wants a new manager within six months.

We will cover the votes as they come and update this post when the results are certified.

See something missing or wrong? Email us at [email protected] and we will check it and update the post.