Fairfax County Board of Supervisors

Published April 1, 2024 at 1:30PM | Updated July 16, 2024 at 7:58PM

Workers install solar panels on Reston Fire Station 25 (courtesy Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination)

Fearing that new interconnection rules from Dominion Energy could derail its carbon reduction targets, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has asked Virginia’s utility regulator to step in.

In a near-unanimous vote, supervisors authorized Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw on March 19 to send a letter asking the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to evaluate whether the new regulations create unnecessary hurdles for small renewable energy projects attempting to join the power grid.

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Fairfax County may expand court access with remote kiosks, artificial intelligence

By Melanie Pincus

Published March 28, 2024 at 2:30PM

Fairfax County Courthouse (staff photo by James Jarvis)

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is considering using kiosks equipped with artificial intelligence to provide select legal information in a variety of languages.

The kiosks would feature a virtual assistant that could answer frequently asked questions using a closed-AI system (as distinct from open AI), according to Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who introduced a board matter on the kiosks at the board’s March 19 meeting.

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Senior housing now complete near GMU, helping county’s affordable housing goal

By James Jarvis

Published March 25, 2024 at 11:45AM

Rendering of Ilda's Overlook in Fairfax (courtesy of Jeffrey Sauers of CPI Productions)

Eighty new affordable homes for seniors have become available just east of George Mason University.

Located at 10055 Braddock Road, Ilda’s Overlook Senior Residences serves individuals aged 62 and over with incomes at or below 60% of the area median, developer Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) said in a press release.

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County board to consider more funding for library books in new budget

By Angela Woolsey

Published March 22, 2024 at 11:45AM

Fairfax County Public Library (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Fairfax County’s next budget could give its public libraries a little more spending money for books.

At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday (March 19), Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn proposed allocating an additional $500,000 in the upcoming fiscal year 2025 budget to Fairfax County Public Library’s book collection.

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With FCPS facing lawsuit, students to rally tonight in support of pro-LGBTQ policies

By Angela Woolsey

Published March 21, 2024 at 1:30PM

Students hold trans rights and LGBTQ Pride flag signs at a rally protesting Virginia's model policies on transgender students outside Luther Jackson Middle School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Students are getting organized in response to a lawsuit challenging Fairfax County Public Schools for its LGBTQ-inclusive policies.

The Pride Liberation Project, a student-run group that advocates for LGBTQ+ rights in Virginia, will host a rally “against anti-trans hate” outside Luther Jackson Middle School in Merrifield at 6 p.m. today (Thursday). The demonstration will precede the Fairfax County School Board’s meeting, which starts at 7 p.m.

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County board OKs Tysons office-to-housing conversion but calls for more EV parking

By Angela Woolsey

Published March 21, 2024 at 10:15AM

The owner of 8221 Old Courthouse Road is seeking to repurpose the office building as multi-family apartments (via Walter L. Phillips Inc./Fairfax County)

Another Tysons office building is set to be transformed into housing.

After a public hearing on Tuesday (March 19), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal to convert the three-story office building at 8221 Old Courthouse Road into 55 multi-family apartments, including six workforce dwelling units.

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Fairfax County to revise zoning regulations for data centers amid surging usage

By James Jarvis

Published March 20, 2024 at 3:45PM

CoreSite's Reston data center campus (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Amid a surge in digital storage demand in Northern Virginia, Fairfax County is drafting stricter zoning regulations to enhance oversight of data center projects.

On Tuesday (March 19), the Board of Supervisors directed staff to update the county’s zoning laws to include new data center development criteria, such as increased residential buffers, size limits, energy efficiency standards and a mandatory noise study in the site plan.

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County to take stock of Reston’s ‘alphabet soup’ community infrastructure

By Fatimah Waseem

Published March 19, 2024 at 3:00PM

Reston Community Center at Lake Anne Plaza in Reston (staff photo by James Jarvis)

In the nearly 60 years since it was founded, Reston has become host to a variety of community and public entities with often blurred lines and responsibilities.

To provide clarity, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn wants Fairfax County to develop an inventory of Reston’s community-level services and infrastructure, including who is responsible for what services and infrastructure and how they are funded.

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FCPD: Fairfax County is ‘safest’ jurisdiction of its size, but shoplifting, officer assaults on the rise in 2023

By Fatimah Waseem

Published March 18, 2024 at 11:45AM

Fairfax County police vehicle with lights (file photo)

The Fairfax County Police Department touted the county’s status as the safest jurisdiction of its size following the release of its year-end crime report.

The report — which is based on violent crime rates among participating agencies evaluated by the Major Cities Chief Association — shows that Fairfax County’s rate is the lowest among jurisdictions of comparable size. Homicide offenses, sex offenses, burglaries, and robberies all declined between 2022 and 2023, according to the report.

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Fairfax County board approves Top Golf redevelopment in Kingstowne

By James Jarvis

Published March 15, 2024 at 9:30AM

EYA is seeking to build 174 single-family homes on the former Topgolf site in Kingstowne (via Fairfax County)

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved the transformation of Rudy’s Golf and Sports Bar in Kingstowne into 17 acres of single-family homes and public parks.

Last week, supervisors unanimously endorsed a proposal by Maryland-based EYA Development to redevelop the property at 6626 South Van Dorn Street. The roughly 17.4-acre site hosted the first Top Golf in the U.S. until the facility closed in early 2020 and Rudy’s opened in 2022.