The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is marking Women’s History Month with a menstrual supply drive.
Starting today (Monday) through March 29, sites throughout the county will collect new, sealed packages of tampons, pads, liners and menstrual cups.
Those supplies will go to local shelters and nonprofits, including Bringing Resources to Aid Women’s Shelters (BRAWS), Western Fairfax Christian Ministries and Food for Others.
All Fairfax County Public Library branches are collecting donations, as are all nine magisterial district offices, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay’s office and the Sully Community Center. The PARC at Tysons (8508 Leesburg Pike) is also accepting supplies from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow (Tuesday).
Support our local shelters and nonprofits by donating new and sealed packages of tampons, pads, liners, and menstrual cups, from March 4-29 https://t.co/pHXnhzXeow
Questions? Email: Kimberly.Jaramillo@fairfaxcounty.gov pic.twitter.com/yeziKqOh4U
— Fairfax County Government 🇺🇸 (@fairfaxcounty) February 29, 2024
At the board’s Feb. 20 meeting, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik announced that all supervisors would support the drive to help community members “for whom access to menstrual supplies can pose a financial burden.”
“These essential hygiene products are costly, and the lack of access to safe and clean menstrual products can negatively impact someone’s overall physical and emotional well-being,” Palchik said at the meeting.
This is the first time that Fairfax County has conducted this drive, and it comes more than a year after Virginia stopped charging sales tax on menstrual products.
BRAWS, one of the supply drive’s beneficiaries, says one in five Virginia residents don’t have access to needed menstrual supplies.
“By hosting this drive with collection sites all over the county, we are raising awareness while helping meet these basic needs,” Palchik wrote in a statement to FFXnow.
Other Women’s History Month events in the area include classes and programs from the Fairfax County Park Authority and a panel of local female authors at the City of Fairfax Regional Library.
Photo via Natracare on Unsplash
Plans to build housing in front of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Idylwood have been resurrected.
After a previous attempt in 2019 sputtered out, the church has found a new developer partner to potentially buy vacant portions of its property at 7426 Idylwood Road and transform it with residential development.
The developer EYA submitted an initial pitch to Fairfax County last summer for approximately 65 to 75 townhouses that would be constructed on two parcels of the roughly 10.7-acre site, an EYA marketing manager told FFXnow. The church intends to stay and use the money from the land sale to fund an expansion of its building, which was built in 1968, per county records.
“EYA is interested in the site for townhome development given its proximity to nearby established retail amenities, Tysons Corner and the City of Falls Church for work and shopping, and a direct bus connection to the West Falls Church Metro Station,” EYA said in a statement. “…We look forward to continuing to engage with the community, staff and elected officials as we develop our plan for this site.”
EYA’s proposal revives a development plan filed in March 2019 by Toll Mid-Atlantic LP Company, an affiliate of the Delaware-based home builder Toll Brothers.
According to that application, St. Paul’s wanted to sell part of its property to pay for a “family life center” that was approved in 2005 but never constructed “due to financial constraints.” The church consists of a main sanctuary with an attached educational building, though it also owns a separate, now-vacant building that once housed Lutheran Social Services.
Toll Mid-Atlantic sought to replace the empty building and another undeveloped parcel — totaling about 5.85 acres — with 67 residential units, which would’ve been a combination of single-family townhomes and two-over-two multi-family units.
The county’s land use database indicates that the application was scheduled for a public hearing before the Fairfax County Planning Commission multiple times, most recently on Sept. 30, 2020, but it ultimately got deferred indefinitely.
To allow for EYA’s development, the county needs to revise its comprehensive plan for the site, which currently designates the entire church property as a future residential development with 16-20 dwelling units per acre.
With the church committed to remaining at the site, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors directed county staff on Tuesday (Feb. 20) to craft a plan amendment that would reduce the intensity of the housing envisioned for the site.
“Recognizing that the Church wishes to remain on site, and this impacts the available area for development and the design of the site, a Plan amendment for residential development at a lower density, with suitable conditions related to site design, recognizing retention of the existing Church, is appropriate,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said when introducing the request.
Recalling the previous attempt to develop the site, she added that “transportation improvements and others are key to this development.”
The proposed amendment will be added to the second tier of the county’s comprehensive plan amendment work program, meaning it will be reviewed concurrently with rezoning and special permit amendment applications. Submitted on June 27, 2023, EYA’s proposal is still in the “pre-application” stage, so it’s unclear when an official plan will be available.
According to a summary report from the Department of Planning and Development, the initial concept tweaks Toll Mid-Atlantic’s earlier design to allow for more open space and tree preservation. It also features a recommended sidewalk along Idylwood Road and commits to replenishing landscaping that screens the church from existing townhouses to the south.
Image via Google Maps
(Updated at 9:25 a.m. on 12/15/2023) The long-running effort to bring bus rapid transit (BRT) service to Route 7 is about to enter a new stage of planning, but for some Fairfax County leaders, the milestone doubles as a reminder of how much more still needs to be done to turn Northern Virginia’s vision into a reality.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement at its Dec. 5 meeting to help fund an engineering study and environmental analysis required to implement the bus system, which will serve the corridor from the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons to the Mark Center in Alexandria.
Though they voted 9-1 in support of the agreement, some board members raised concerns about a lack of clarity on the project timeline from the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission, the regional organization that’s managing the planning process.
“I sit on NVTC, and I don’t have a comfort level yet that they have their hands wrapped around this,” Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said. “Constantly, I’m asking for schedules — when is this going to happen? — and they never provide them.”
Foust — whose district includes the West Falls Church Metro area at the southern end of the BRT’s future Tysons segment — called NVTC a “great organization” and voted for the agreement, which was only opposed by Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity.
But Foust urged county and NVTC staff to provide a thorough breakdown of the long-range plan for the project known as Envision Route 7, including an estimate of when it would be completed “if everything goes as anticipated.”
“That would be very helpful, I think, in evaluating each step as we go forward,” he said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay concurred, adding that the county doesn’t need specific dates but would find it “helpful” to get a more detailed timeline of key milestones to expect going forward.
He noted that NVTC has already been working on the dedicated Route 7 bus system for years, dating back to a transit study commissioned in 2013.
“The number one question I’ve had about this is, ‘What has been taking so long to get to this point and what does the future look like?'” McKay said. “What we do know is this will be a long-term project, but we need to have a reasonable understanding of what that means in terms of years.”
Fairfax County Department of Transportation acting director Gregg Steverson confirmed the request was “something we can provide to you.”
(Correction: This story initially misidentified Gregg Steverson as the NVTC acting director.) Read More
(Updated at 4:50 p.m.) After initially holding off, Fairfax County is now ready to consider allowing a redevelopment of the former ICF International headquarters in Oakton.
At Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik’s request, the Board of Supervisors authorized county staff on Nov. 21 to craft a comprehensive plan amendment that would open the door for residential or mixed-use development at the Hunters Branch office buildings (9300 and 9302 Route 29).
Constructed in 1987 and 1989, the 12-story, 200,000-square-foot buildings housed ICF for over three decades until the consulting firm relocated to Reston Station, a downsizing finalized in November 2022.
“Since ICF has moved out to Reston, this tower has been sitting there, and it’s surrounded by a very, I think, underappreciated area that needs environmental support,” Palchik said at last week’s board meeting. “…I know that the owners and developers are very committed to ensuring both the ecological support as well as the community amenity for this area.”
Property owners BCSP Hunters Branch Fee and BCSP Hunters Branch Lessee (BCSP) nominated the 13.9-acre site for potential land use changes last year as part of the county’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment process.
(Correction: This story initially suggested that the Hunters Branch owners are affiliates of the firm Beacon Capital Partners based on their corporate addresses. FFXnow has been told that they aren’t affiliates, and Beacon hasn’t had an ownership stake in the property since 2021.)
With the nomination, the property owners suggested two options for redeveloping Hunters Branch:
- “Adaptive reuse” of the office buildings as senior living facilities and/or multi-family dwelling units, and a replacement of an existing 706-space parking garage with multi-family housing
- An exclusively multi-family residential development
The proposal called for mid-rise buildings with five to seven stories and between 913 and 1,124 units. A second, 1,462-space parking garage would be retained in both scenarios.
However, the Board of Supervisors adopted the ICF nomination on April 11 in the third tier of its plan amendment work program, deferring a review to “allow for further development” of the scope, according to Palchik’s board matter.
With last week’s vote, the nomination was elevated to the work program’s highest-priority tier.
In a change from BCSP’s original proposal, the plan amendment could allow non-residential uses, such as ground-floor retail, as well as multi-family and townhouse buildings. Palchik said the site’s location within the Vienna Transit Station Area suggests “there may be advantages to consider a mix of uses.”
With demand for older office space declining post-pandemic, the property owners noted in their nomination that redeveloping the Hunters Branch offices would boost the county’s senior and multi-family housing stock. A “meaningful portion” of the new residences would be designated as affordable dwelling units.
“The area surrounding the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metrorail Station is emerging as a residential hub, and the community’s need for an increased and varied supply of housing in this location is growing,” Hunton Andrews Kurth counsel Jill Parks wrote as BCSP’s legal agent. “As such, it is critical that a mix of housing options be made available to the neighborhood’s current and prospective residents.”
When asked about the changes to the development proposal, Parks told FFXnow the developer doesn’t have any comment “at this time.”
Known as Land Bay A in the 56.9-acre Hunters Branch neighborhood, the former ICF office isn’t the only property in the Vienna Metro station area getting a new look. The board approved a plan on Sept. 12 to allow housing and additional retail at the nearby Pan Am Shopping Center, and discussions are underway for a redevelopment of AT&T’s Oakton campus.
Just south of the Metro station, the MetroWest development is also slated to get more residential buildings and a town center, though Fairfax County’s land use database indicates that site plans for both projects are still under review.
Fairfax County is designing a new layout for Prosperity Avenue near the Dunn Loring Metro station.
The new configuration will reduce the roadway from four to two lanes by adding a road diet and protected bicycle lanes between Gallows Road and Prosperity Metro Plaza, the two-building office center whose tenants include U.S. Customs and Immigration Services’ D.C. field office.
The project will also convert existing on-street bicycle lanes that start to the west and continue until Hilltop Road into protected bike lanes.
Design funding will come from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), whose Transportation Planning Board awarded $80,000 to the project last week as part of its Transit Within Reach program.
COG is “excited” about the county’s proposed improvements to Prosperity Avenue, which currently has a “very wide” design that “encourages drivers to speed and discourages people from walking and biking,” according to John Swanson, the principal transportation planner for the regional nonprofit.
The affected section of Prosperity Avenue has a 35 mph speed limit. A 19-year-old man from Chantilly was killed in a crash on the road last December, but that occurred to the south between Route 29 and Arlington Blvd.
“This part of Fairfax is undergoing a lot of change and the county is really committed to making the Dunn Loring station the center of a vibrant, walkable community,” Swanson said. “…This kind of project will make a real difference at the local level and will serve as a model for the region.”
The idea for the Prosperity Avenue safety project emerged out of discussions that started in April between representatives of businesses along the roadway and Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik’s office.
Since then, the district office has been working with county and state transportation staff to develop their proposal.
“I am delighted to see that this project design was approved for funding!” Palchik said in a statement. “After hearing from local businesses about safety concerns for their staff and visitors, my office worked diligently with FCDOT and VDOT on a proposal for a road diet for Prosperity Avenue. This design work will help improve safety for our pedestrians, especially for staff and community members visiting the USCIS offices or attending naturalization ceremonies.”
The Transit Within Reach funds will cover the project design up to 30% completion, according to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. That will encompass the bicycle lanes from west of the Metro station to Hilltop Avenue, which is expected to be completed around the end of 2024.
The COG funding will also give the county an estimate for how much it’ll cost to implement the project.
“Once complete, FCDOT will identify funding to complete the design and construct the project,” a department spokesperson said.
Launched in 2021, the Transit Within Reach program provides consulting services for the design and preliminary engineering of “small, high-impact bicycle and pedestrian projects,” per COG.
The Transportation Planning Board approved a total of $250,000 in funding from the program at its meeting last Wednesday (Oct. 18). The other projects were a shared-use path in Gaithersburg and a sidewalk in D.C.
FCDOT is also working on a separate study to identify potential improvements on Gallows Road. Staff told community members at a meeting last month that traffic congestion, crashes, a lack of sidewalks and general pedestrian, bicycle and transit safety are all issues on the 7-mile corridor, Annandale Today reported.
While that study won’t assess or make recommendations for Prosperity Avenue, it could “be informed” by the road diet and bicycle lanes project, according to FCDOT.
Image via Google Maps
A hole was recently found in a sewer pipe along Shreve Road in Idylwood, necessitating emergency repairs that started yesterday (Wednesday).
The issue was discovered during a “routine inspection” of the pipe, which carries wastewater from 34 homes and Shrevewood Elementary School, according to the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services.
DPWES described the defect as a visible “hole void.”
Identified by the department’s Wastewater Collection Division (WCD) last week, the defect is severe enough that “immediate action” was required to repair the pipe and prevent it from collapsing, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said yesterday.
“WCD is initiating an emergency response to perform the point repair,” Palchik said in a tweet. “The work will be performed with Utilities Unlimited and is anticipated to start TODAY and be completed within one week.”
According to DPWES spokesperson Sharon North, the actual pipe repair is expected to be finished this week, but more time may be needed to repave the site, depending on whether the Virginia Department of Transportation allows crews to work over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.
“We anticipate the pipe repair will be completed this week, but site restoration (repaving) may need to be completed next week pending VDOT decision,” North said. “When the work commences, since the sewer is in the middle of the road, the repair will require some traffic lane closures with flaggers directing traffic to safely perform the work.”
The pipe has the capacity to convey approximately 1.4 million gallons per day of wastewater flow from residents and the school, according to DPWES.
The sewer line was already scheduled to undergo “trenchless” cured-in-place pipe rehabilitation — a type of repair for pipe lining that can be implemented without digging up the pipe.
That rehabilitation work will now begin after the emergency repairs are completed, Palchik said.
WCD is initiating an emergency response to perform the point repair. The work will be performed with Utilities Unlimited and is anticipated to start TODAY and be completed within one week. Following the repair, the entire pipe will be rehabilitated using trenchless CIPP method.
— Dalia Palchik (@SupvPalchik) June 28, 2023
Winter is coming, and with temperatures projected to top out in the 30s and low 40s next week, staying warm will soon become even more of a challenge for many Fairfax County residents.
To help those in need get through the season, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik’s office will launch a winter clothes drive today (Monday), collecting coats, gloves and hats of all sizes for donation to local shelters.
New and gently used items are being accepted until Jan. 19 at the Providence District Office (3001 Vaden Drive), which is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. A flyer says additional drop-off locations will be shared, but as of press time, the office was still waiting to confirm the other sites, including one at Tysons Corner Center.
“Holding donation drives is an opportunity for people to get involved and give back to the community,” Palchik said in an emailed statement. “What some may deem as a small donation is a big help to those in need. The collected winter gear will be donated not only to our unsheltered community members but also those who may not be able to afford them.”
For the drive, Palchik’s office has teamed up with the Providence Community Center, local homeowners’ associations, and the Tysons Community Alliance, which was formed in October to replace the Tysons Partnership as a nonprofit organization that advocates for the area and guides its evolution.
Recipients of the winter clothing donations will include The Lamb Center, a shelter for individuals experiencing homelessness located on the border of Oakton and Fairfax, and Tysons-based Second Story, which focuses on helping kids, teens and families.
While this drive will support Providence District residents, including Tysons, Oakton, Merrifield and the area around Fairfax, the North County Government Center will host a final drop-off date for Reston’s annual Winter Coat Closet on Jan. 14.
Photo via Eli Pluma/Unsplash
Talks are underway to design a street-level crossing across Route 123 at Tysons Blvd, a daunting challenge that would — at least in theory — improve access to Tysons Corner Center for pedestrians, bicyclists and others.
Fairfax County, the Virginia Department of Transportation and Macerich, the mall owner and developer, are currently hashing out an agreement for the crossing as an alternative to the existing pedestrian bridge that links the mall’s plaza to the Tysons Metro station on the other side of Route 123, also known as Chain Bridge Road.
“We’re not there yet, but we are diligently working to find the best and safest street-level crossing there as well, because just that bridge is not the best way to have a crossing,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said when sharing the news at last month’s World Day of Remembrance ceremony honoring pedestrians killed in vehicle crashes.
Exactly what a safe Chain Bridge Road crossing might look like remains to be decided.
According to Palchik, the discussions began in the wake of 74-year-old Annandale resident Filadelfo Ramos Marquez’s death in a crash on Dec. 30, 2021.
At the time, police noted that Ramos Marquez wasn’t using a crosswalk when he got hit by the driver of a 2010 Toyota Camry going south on Chain Bridge. However, the closest crosswalk to the mall is two-tenths of a mile to the south at International Drive. Reaching it means crossing a bus entrance for the Metro and multiple gas station driveways on a narrow, sometimes uneven sidewalk.
The Metro walkway isn’t particularly convenient either except for those actually planning to take a train, and it’s not open 24 hours a day like it was supposed to be, Palchik told FFXnow.
“We’re still figuring that out,” she said when asked what a safe crossing would look like. “I think VDOT has one idea of what it would be, we have one idea, Macerich has another idea.”
Palchik says the crossing should include a pedestrian refuge in the middle of Route 123 so people at least have a place to stop, and lights will “definitely” be needed. Right now, the Tysons Blvd intersection only has traffic lights to direct vehicles with no signs or signals to indicate pedestrians might be present.
A VDOT spokesperson confirmed the department “is planning pedestrian enhancements due to the volume of pedestrian traffic and proximity to transit,” but no design details are available yet since the project “is still in early stages.”
VDOT also said Macerich is planning to modify a part of an intersection at the mall. When asked about its plans, a spokesperson for the real estate developer directed comments instead to Palchik’s office and the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, which didn’t respond to an inquiry by press time.
The developer’s proposal to replace the now-vacant Lord & Taylor store with a mixed-use tower was revised again last month to include “a grand portal” through the tower that will better connect Tysons Corner Center’s elevated plaza to the street below.
The mall’s next phase of development will also include a 10-foot-wide trail from the Metro bus bays to International Drive, according to the updated application filed with Fairfax County on Nov. 21.
The proposed staircase and additional streetscaping were added in anticipation of a future street-level crossing at Tysons Blvd, the Washington Business Journal reported.
Acknowledging that congestion can be a concern on Chain Bridge, both going north to the Capital Beltway and south toward Vienna, Palchik says a safe, more accessible crossing is still necessary, as walkability remains a challenge in Tysons.
“We do want to continue to build that as an urban city and core, and that means people walking [and] rolling across not just internal streets, but Route 123 and Route 7,” Palchik said.
Rep. Gerry Connolly will put his experience dealing with Scrooges on Capitol Hill to the test tomorrow when he takes the stage for a youth production of “Commedia Christmas Carol.”
The congressman and Providence District Supervisior Dalia Palchik will join student actors with the Traveling Players Ensemble for their take on the Charles Dickens holiday classic at 8 p.m., the Tysons-based theatrical company announced earlier this week.
Held at the Traveling Players Studio (DL01, 1961 Chain Bridge Road) in Tysons Corner Center, it will be the penultimate performance of the production, which launched on Dec. 2 and concludes at 3 p.m. on Sunday (Dec. 11).
Aimed at audiences 8 and older, the show puts a comedic twist on “A Christmas Carol.” It runs 75 minutes with no intermission and features a cast of kids from across the D.C. area.
“I love that it’s a ghost story, swirling out of control, careening through Scrooge’s painful past, and foreseeing his isolated future,” Traveling Players Producing Artistic Director Jeanne Harrison said in a press release. “And then he does the thing that is so brave: he changes. He lets people laugh at his newfound zest for life. And he is so much happier. He is renewed.”
Harrison founded the nonprofit theater company as a summer camp with 18 students in 2002. She is also the director for “Christmas Carol.”
Now in its 20th year with students in grades 2-12, the Traveling Players says Connolly and Palchik will make cameos in tomorrow’s show to acknowledge the key roles they played in the group’s journey.
Congressman Connolly is a lifelong supporter of arts and education. It was through his support that Traveling Players found their first long-time home in Fairfax County at The Madeira School, back in 2007 when he was still the Chairman of the Fairfax County Supervisors. A thespian in his own right, this will not be the Congressman’s first time taking the stage in a local production, but it will be his first cameo appearance with Traveling Players.
In 2020, Supervisor Palchick celebrated with Traveling Players by cutting the ribbon when they moved into their new home, their Studio in Tysons Corner Center, inside her district. Also an ardent supporter of the arts and education, Supervisor Palchick’s priorities overlap with those of Traveling Players: to expand artistic opportunities to every child in her district and the wider Fairfax County community.
There will also be an introduction by Jesse Benites, the general manager of Macerich, which owns and operates Tysons Corner Center. The mall has housed the Traveling Players Studio since February 2020 and hosted outdoor performances on its Plaza this summer.
Tickets to “Commedia Christmas Carol” cost $15 and can be purchased online.
(Updated at 10:40 a.m. on 12/5/2022) Even with one month left, 2022 is the deadliest year for Fairfax County pedestrians in more than a decade.
Through October, vehicle crashes have killed 22 people on streets and highways in the county — the most since at least 2010, the earliest year in Virginia’s Traffic Records Electronic Data System (TREDS). The previous high came in 2018 and 2019, when there were 17 fatalities each.
The state data doesn’t appear to include the teen who died last Wednesday (Nov. 16) after being hit while crossing Columbia Pike in Bailey’s Crossroads.
The teen was among the almost two dozen people represented at Oakton High School on Sunday (Nov. 20) by electronic candles and empty chairs covered by shroud-like white sheets. A Fairfax Families for Safe Streets (Fairfax FSS) volunteer read their names in a hushed cafeteria for the community group’s World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims ceremony.
“We have experienced many more tragedies than we are able to name individually today,” Fairfax FSS volunteer and board member Chris French said, noting that the list didn’t include 18 non-pedestrians killed on county roads or people who survived crashes but still suffered physically, financially and emotionally.
One life lost is too many. All of us need to work together to make sure our streets are safe and I am grateful for the continued collaboration with our community in keeping this a priority.@JeffreyCMcKay @fcpsnews @FairfaxCountyPD @ffxconnector @VaDOTNOVA @OaktonHS
— Dalia Palchik (@SupvPalchik) November 20, 2022
Started by European nonprofits in 1995, World Day of Remembrance is commemorated on the third Sunday of every November as an occasion to mourn those lost and a call to take action to prevent future losses. FFS also had events in Alexandria and Arlington.
Fairfax FSS urged local and state officials to make safety improvements throughout the area, especially in corridors known to be dangerous to pedestrians like Columbia Pike and Blake Lane — where two Oakton High School students were killed and a third was seriously injured in June.
- Installing automated speed enforcement at all schools
- Deploying proven safety measures around schools and activity centers, such as rapid flashing beacons, HAWK or pedestrian hybrid beacons, and lighting at unsignalized crossings
- Implementing a dedicated safe routes infrastructure plan for all Fairfax County schools
- Implementing speed management solutions on all high injury and multilane arterials, for example, speed feedback signs, road diets
- Improvements to pedestrian signals and timing for pedestrians to cross high traffic streets safely
- Installing crosswalks and accessible ramps to all approaches at signalized crossings
Speed cameras likely coming
Fairfax County is moving to make that first demand at least a reality. Spurred in part by the fatal Oakton crash, the Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a speed camera pilot program after a public hearing on Dec. 6. Read More
