(Updated at 11:25 a.m. on 8/5/2022) Fairfax County is exploring being the first Virginia locality to create a “green bank” as a way to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors’ environmental committee last week, county staff said a green bank can help spur investments in clean energy.
Fairfax County is on track to bring in more than $1 million in revenue from the first year of its plastic bag tax.
In the first five months after the tax took effect on Jan. 1, the county government received over $500,000, the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination said in a memo to the Board of Supervisors.
As Fairfax County finalizes its first-ever plan to address the future effects of climate change, community members can see how the phenomenon already affects them with a newly released interactive map.
Launched last week, the climate map depicts heat and flooding data that can be viewed in conjunction with maps of the county’s population and infrastructure, including roads, utilities, and public facilities.
The greenery proposed for Amazon’s second headquarters in Arlington is so extensive that the company needs a greenhouse to keep it going.
According to plans submitted to the county, Amazon hopes to convert Meadow Farms Nurseries and Landscapes (10618 Leesburg Pike) in Great Falls into a greenhouse to provide a “permanent operation to provide for the continuous maintenance of the extensive landscaping elements” at HQ2. The concept is called Project Wren.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission has given the green light to preliminary plans to convert the closed Lorton Landfill into a public park.
Dubbed Overlook Ridge Park, the park would house the highest point in Fairfax County, hiking trails, picnic areas, an amphitheater, bathrooms and bird sanctuaries.
A floodwall in the Belle Haven community could help address Northern Virginia’s flood risk.
A recent study looked at the west bank of the Potomac River from Arlington to Prince William County for solutions to improve resiliency and reduce risks to human health and safety, economic damages, and disruption of critical infrastructure, according to a presentation.
A local environmental nonprofit is concerned that a recent sale of a 7-acre forested property near Accotink Creek could lead to its development.
A public auction was held last week for seven lots near Woodburn Road and Accotink Creek in Annandale, the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust (NVCT) and the Fairfax County Parks Authority confirmed to FFXnow.
With summer on the horizon, visitors are expected to flock to Scott’s Run Nature Preserve in McLean, but the Fairfax County Park Authority is warning now: leave the coolers, alcohol, and swimming suits at home.
The park authority and Fairfax County Police Department will step up enforcement of the nature preserve’s rules starting this weekend (May 28-29), a move that has become routine in recent summers.
Fairfax County hopes to rely entirely on electric and non-carbon-emitting vehicles by 2035, but projected costs could become an obstacle.
While the county government already has electric vehicle charging stations across several parking garages, future installations could require double or triple the current estimated cost of $75,000 per site, Kambiz Agazi, the director of the county’s Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, reported on Tuesday (May 17).
Fairfax County has a plan to help address the local effects of climate change, which already contributes to storms and other challenges that have caused tens of millions of dollars in damage.
The draft Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan for Resilient Fairfax is now open for public comment through June 15. The county’s Board of Supervisors could approve it in September or October this year.
