Updated at 1:15 p.m. — The mural unveiling has been postponed to Friday, June 30, due to potential inclement weather this afternoon, Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services says.
Earlier: Community members will be able to enjoy a colorful new mural in the parking lot of the Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive) today, June 26.
Set to take place from 4-6 p.m., the mural unveiling event will include family-oriented activities and games, snacks and face painting. Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik will lead the ribbon-cutting ceremony, with Neighborhood and Community Services officials on hand for the event.
Without enough physical space to expand the center’s outdoor facilities and build a playground, NCS instead created the parking lot mural as an alternative means of engaging with the community and providing kids with increased outdoor programming, the county says.
“We thought this was a good idea and a good use of space to have a place where children can come out and play outside,” NCS Division Director Chris Scales said.
According to the county, the mural is the “first of its kind” at an NCS center.
The vision for the mural was brought to life by several artists of color, including muralist Kendra “Kay” Lee, Artbae and Artbae Foundation founder Cary Michael Robinson and NCS staffer LaShari Celistan.
Celistan, who is also a member of Artbae, initially “brokered” the partnership between the Maryland-based artist collective and NCS, which led Robinson to enlist Lee as the artistic lead of the project, Lee says.
Lee noted that the project’s primary goal was to create a “bright” and “interactive” space for children.
“Before, [kids] would just come out and play in the end of the parking lot with balls and stuff like that,” Lee said. “There was nothing really to do.”
To carry out this goal, Lee and NCS decided to pair “nature” and “popular games” as the mural’s dual theme. Lee spent three weeks painting both nature-related images — such as bees, sunflowers, snails, leaves and a caterpillar — and childhood favorites, like hopscotch, four-square and a racing track.
“[I wanted to make] sure that the kids could relate to the things that we were putting on the ground,” Lee said.
The team also tried to incorporate as much community feedback as possible, taking into consideration comments made by community members passing by as Lee worked to complete the mural. For instance, Lee says she and NCS decided to scale down certain interactive paintings after several parents remarked that their children were too small to jump between designated spaces.
“This is their neighborhood, and it’s important to them,” Lee said. “…So we definitely wanted to make sure that they…felt included in the end product.”
As the pioneer behind an art-based community engagement project, Lee expressed that she hopes the county continues these types of projects and “look[s] forward to doing more.”
“I’m just excited for the reveal and excited to actually get the feedback from the community because at the end of the day, I just hope that my idea and [Celistan’s] idea and the things that we put together really meets the needs of that area,” Lee said.
Attendees of the mural unveiling will also have the opportunity to vote on a new name for the community center, which is set to be renamed in honor of former Providence District Supervisor Jim Scott. Voting is open through Monday, June 26, and votes can also be cast online.

As homelessness increases in Fairfax County, affected residents can use revamped county resources to cope with extreme summer heat.
The county will activate its extreme heat response when the National Weather Service issues a heat advisory, excessive heat watch or excessive heat warning.
As part of the response, 47 county facilities are now designated as cooling centers and will provide supplies, such as water, sunscreen, insect repellant, body wipes, and bus passes, according to a presentation to the Board of Supervisors’ health and human services committee last week.
“Like in previous years, all county facilities that are open to the public can be used by residents to come in for cooling,” Jill Clark, health and human services policy and planning manager with Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services, said in the presentation.
The cooling center facilities include all libraries and community centers. In those locations, staff will be prepared to welcome residents in need, and there will be supplies and seating in designated spaces.
Supplies will also be available at shelters and drop-in centers and from outreach workers. Most of the supplies are single-use and/or lightweight and portable. The decision to supply single-use items, among other parts of the plan, came from feedback from a September 2022 survey of 81 unsheltered residents.
“In the responses, you could hear the challenges they experienced both in terms of discomfort and real negative health effects from the extreme heat, including nausea, shortness of breath, exhaustion, asthma attacks, inability to eat as well as sunburns and rashes,” said Tom Barnett, deputy director of housing and community development in the Office to Prevent and End Homelessness.
The county will also aim to better notify unsheltered residents about heat advisories by using a new dedicated channel of Fairfax Alerts.
“We learned through the unsheltered residents survey that most respondents actually have a phone with internet access, and actually prefer getting information about resources and heat alerts via text messages and emails,” Barnett said.
To help residents get to cooling centers, drop-in centers or weather-related overflow sites, the county will offer free Fairfax Connector bus passes in the form of 3,000 postcards that cover two rides each. In addition, the county will provide pre-loaded Transportation Options, Programs & Services (TOPS) cards to assist unsheltered residents who cannot access Fairfax Connector buses.
These changes came out of recommendations from a workgroup that formed in August 2022 in response to concerns raised by the Fairfax County NAACP. The board received the workgroup’s recommendations in a March memorandum.
“The work group and its four committees included a robust membership across many different county departments as well as key partners and representatives from the homeless service providers, the faith community and advocates,” Barnett said.

Fairfax County can officially retire Lee Highway and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway as its names for routes 29 and 50.
The highways will be renamed after their route numbers effective July 5, the county announced today (Thursday).
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted on Sept. 13 to drop the highway names, which were homages to Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, but the Commonwealth Transportation Board didn’t approve the changes until May 24.
“The renaming of both roadways signifies our unwavering dedication to acknowledging the experiences of our community, especially our African American neighbors,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said in a statement. “Thanks to the dedicated work of all the community members who participated in the Confederate Names Task Force, we can put these divisive names behind us and continue to move our County in the right direction.”
According to the county, its records will automatically update on July 5 to reflect the new street names, including for property taxes, voter registrations and Fairfax Water.
However, individual property and business owners will be responsible for updating their address when it comes to their driver’s license, legal documents, utility bills, mail and other services.
The county says it’s developing a grant program to provide financial assistance for those affected by the name changes, though the program needs to be approved by the Board of Supervisors.
The Virginia Department of Transportation will replace the road signs, but the county has agreed to cover those costs, which were previously estimated to range from $1 million to $4 million, depending on the length of the new names.
The Board of Supervisors created the Confederate Names Task Force in 2021 after the Fairfax County History Commission identified hundreds of sites bearing names associated with the Confederacy, including Lee and Lee-Jackson Memorial highways.
According to the task force’s report, Lee Highway covers about 14 miles from Centreville to Falls Church, with a break in the middle where Route 29 meets Route 50 in Fairfax City. It was named after Robert E. Lee in 1919.
Lee-Jackson Memorial consists of about 8 miles of Route 50 in western Fairfax County. The name was adopted in 1922.
The highways have already undergone renamings in other jurisdictions, including Arlington County, Fairfax City and Loudoun County.

Fairfax County is continuing to see the number of locals experiencing homelessness over the last year increase — and a new report said inflation and housing costs are partially to blame.
This year’s point-in-time count — an annual count of individuals in shelters, transitional housing, and experiencing unsheltered homelessness — found 1,310 people experiencing homelessness in Fairfax County.
That’s a 10% increase (119 people) over the previous year, when a slight drop was reported. Around 30% of those were adults experiencing chronic homelessness.
The survey found that 87 households said they were fleeing domestic violence and 229 households reported a history of domestic violence, according to Fairfax County.

This year’s count follows a recent trend of homelessness increasing again after years of decline throughout the D.C. region.
“After a steady reduction of people experiencing homelessness on the night of the Point-in-Time Counts between the 2008 and 2017, a decrease of 47 percent (871 people),” the county said on the Point-in-Time report. “The number of people experiencing homelessness identified through the counts increased 27 percent (258 people) between 2017 and 2021 and then decreased 3 percent (31 people) in 2022.”
In particular, the report says there’s been a notable increase in families with children facing homelessness:
The number of people in families with children experiencing homelessness increased by 33 percent (188 people) between the 2022 and 2023 counts. This increase is primarily attributed to the multiple negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on families in terms of health, employment, and inflationary costs, especially for housing. Meanwhile, the number of single adults experiencing homelessness decreased by 11 percent (71 people) during the same time.
As with the previous year, the report noted that people who identify as Black or African American are disproportionately likely to experience homelessness in Fairfax County:
The most significant disparity in the demographics of those experiencing homelessness on the night of the 2023 Point-in-Time Count remains the disproportionate representation of people identifying as Black or African American. While 10.8 percent of the general population in Fairfax County is estimated to identify as Black or African American , 48 percent of people experiencing homelessness on the night of the count identified as Black or African American. The imbalance slightly improved from the 2022 count, when 50 percent of people identified as Black or African.

A developer that filed a plan for a new Reston Regional Library and affordable housing in the Reston Town Center North area is challenging Fairfax County’s handling of its procurement process in court.
The complaint, filed by Reston Civic Core LLC late last year, is being litigated even after developer Foulger-Pratt withdrew its offer of a public-private partnership for the same area — a move that leaves no immediate option for the redevelopment.
Foulger-Pratt offered an unsolicited proposal in October 2021 under the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act to redevelop two properties with up to 350 affordable apartments and a new library on land owned by the Fairfax County Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
The county and FCHRA declined to comment, given that the issue is under active litigation.
“As a matter of policy, we don’t comment on matters in litigation,” said Linda Hoffman, a county spokeswoman.
In addition to retaining 30 units at Bowman Towne Court, Norton Scott’s plan called for 324 affordable housing units and a new library on mostly county-owned property next to the Bowman Towne Center property. It also included a public plaza, homeless shelter, performing arts amenities, and above-ground parking for the Hunter Mill District Supervisor’s Office and the police department.
The complaint formally alleges that the county violated Dillon’s rule and urges the county to accept its application for consideration. It also calls on the court to cancel the interim agreement with Foulger-Pratt — which has since been canned.
The county issued a call for competing proposals — as required by law. Norton Scott’s competing plan was rejected.
The county moved to sign an interim agreement with Foulger-Pratt in July, but the agreement was voided in February. Foulger-Pratt cited “significantly higher construction costs and recent interest rate hikes” as the primary reasons for scrapping the proposal.
Norton Scott argues that the because the proposal publicly posted by the county had 74 of 188 pages fully redacted, it barred the developer from developing an understanding of its competition.
“As a result of the heavily-redacted proposal, it was impossible for potential offers to gain a clear understanding of what the county sought when it invited competing proposals of the project,” the complaint says. “The lack of transparency runs counter to the principles of open competition and access to information that are at the foundation of public procurements.”
The developer also alleges that the county did not not formally reject its proposal and instead “determined that the proposal will not be accepted for detailed review,” according to legal documents.
“Under the PPEA, after accepting the proposal or consideration, the county was without authority to reverse course and not accept the proposal for consideration,” the complaint states.
At a later point, the county then stated the proposal was “ineligible for review.”
A task force with various stakeholders is currently examining key issues in Reston Town Center North.
Chelsea Rao, a senior vice president with Norton Scott, said it seems that the development’s team solution is not being considered at all.
“It seems silly that there is a task force looking for a solution that is not considering the option we have proposed,” Rao said.
The case is currently in the discovery phase.

Fairfax County wants your food scraps and yard waste.
The county will officially launch its new compost outpost at the I-66 Transfer Station (4618 West Ox Road) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday).
Part of a two-year-long pilot program, the facility consists of two 20-foot-long shipping containers modified so that visitors can drop off organic waste in the dirt-filled receptacles.
“It is designed to create optimal conditions for composting and is a test facility to demonstrate small-scale, decentralized, organics processing,” the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) said in a media advisory.
The pilot will expand the county’s efforts to promote composting, which makes soil healthier by returning nutrients to the earth, reducing erosion and improving its ability to hold water, according to the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
The county has also been accepting food scraps for composting at the I-95 Landfill Complex (9850 Furnace Road) in Lorton and at some farmers markets, though the 2023 season isn’t set to begin until later this month.
The I-66 outpost will process food scraps and yard waste from residents and county facilities, though residents must drop off their collections directly.
“We will not be picking them up for this program,” DPWES spokesperson Sharon North said.
The resulting compost is expected to be initially used at county parks, according to North.
The pilot will help the county determine the facility’s effectiveness and provide a visible demonstration of “the ability…to take a waste product and turn it into a locally sourced and readily available resource that can be used to enhance the community,” said Matt Adams, director of the Solid Waste Management Program in the DPWES Engineering and Environmental Compliance Division.
“The Compost Outpost pilot demonstrates this by utilizing sustainable materials, such as plant material and food scraps that are currently treated as a waste products to be removed from the community, and transforming them into compost that can be used locally,” Adams said in a statement to FFXnow. “This greatly benefits the environment and the county’s overall sustainability goals by lowering emissions through the reduction [of] transportation/processing practices and adds to the resources available within a community.”
Here’s more on the pilot from DPWES:
The two-year pilot was approved by the Department of Environmental Quality and aligns with the county’s Zero Waste Policy by diverting food waste and other organics from municipal waste streams.
Over the course, the operational impacts, as well as the production of the finished compost will be assessed to determine the project’s feasibility and efficacy.
The Compost Outpost pilot will cost approximately $100,000. It is funded by the county’s Zero Waste Team and hosted by the Solid Waste Management Program and its partner, Compost Crew.
More information on the materials accepted for composting can be found on the DPWES website.

A day after neighboring Arlington County made waves by ending single-family exclusive zoning, Fairfax County saw its own zoning reforms reversed two years after they were approved.
The Virginia Supreme Court declared the county’s Zoning Ordinance Modification Project (zMOD) void yesterday (Thursday) because the new code was adopted at a mostly virtual meeting — a ruling could have consequences for other actions taken during the first years of the pandemic, as noted by Inside NoVA, which first reported the decision.
The county is now operating under its previous zoning ordinance, which had been in place since 1978, according to the zoning administration division’s website.
“We are currently evaluating the Virginia Supreme Court decision and considering our options,” Tony Castrilli, the county’s director of public affairs, said. “In the meantime, the 1978 Zoning Ordinance is presently in effect and available for reference on the County website.”
In a 29-page opinion, Justice Wesley Russell sided with four residents who argued that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors violated the Virginia Freedom of Information Act’s open meeting requirements by not holding an in-person public hearing or vote.
The county contended that an ordinance adopted on April 14, 2020 gave it the flexibility to hold public meetings on the zoning update and other subjects electronically during the Covid state of emergency.
The Supreme Court disagreed that the ordinance allowed the county government to conduct all regular business electronically, finding that the zoning update doesn’t qualify as “necessary to ensure the continuation of essential functions and services.”
“The modification of a 40-year-old zoning ordinance after a five-year revision process does not satisfy this standard,” Russell wrote. “It is not a time-sensitive matter, and its adoption is not and was not necessary to allow the County to continue operations.”
The residents behind the lawsuit — David Berry, Carol Hawn, Helen Webb and Adrienne Whyte — filed a complaint in Fairfax County Circuit Court on March 5, 2021 seeking to prevent the board from adopting zMOD at a public hearing on March 9, 2021.
The circuit court denied the request and ultimately dismissed the complaint on Sept. 9, 2021, stating that it had been rendered moot by the adoption of zMOD on March 23, 2021 and that the county board’s emergency powers gave it the authority to act at an electronic meeting. Read More

The Fairfax County Park Authority is going to need a bigger budget to handle its running bamboo.
The agency has requested an additional $500,000 and a new, full-time staff position for an ecologist to help manage bamboo removal projects now that the county requires property owners to contain the species.
The park authority has 185 bamboo patches on its property, covering 250 acres of land — exceeding an earlier estimate and any other county agency, according to a Feb. 28 memo to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ environmental committee.
“Due to the excessive cost, bamboo management on an estimated 250 acres of Park Authority land will be a long-term management issue,” FCPA Public Information Officer Benjamin Boxer said.
While no removals have been conducted yet this year, the park authority has developed a “protocol” for prioritizing projects based on:
- Site conditions, such as the bamboo patch’s size, accessibility and proximity to rare resources
- Cooperation from neighboring landowners
- The county’s vulnerability index in terms of the impact on resources, restoration areas, high-quality natural areas, and the community
However, the county’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 doesn’t include funding for either the bamboo removal projects or the ecologist, who would be dedicated specifically to this issue, Boxer confirmed.
The park authority instead hopes to get the funds as part of the county’s fiscal year 2023 third-quarter review, which was presented to the Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday).
The package proposes allocating $400,000 “as initial funding” for bamboo mitigation, falling short of the FCPA’s request. It also doesn’t add any new positions, though staff identified nearly $10.7 million that the board could devote to non-recurring priorities.
“The Park Authority has requested recurring and dedicated funds for contracted bamboo removal and suppression projects on FCPA property and will proceed following the prioritization protocol with available resources as they are identified,” Boxer said.
The county’s running bamboo ordinance took effect on Jan. 1, requiring property owners to prevent the invasive species from spreading to other properties or risk getting fined.
The Fairfax County Department of Code Compliance has received 44 complaints about running bamboo since the ordinance took effect, but no fines have been imposed yet.
“We are focused on working with property owners to gain voluntary compliance. At this point no fines or litigation have been sought,” DCC Director Gabriel Zakkak said.
When the ordinance was adopted last year, Zakkak’s predecessor suggested the county may not resort to fines until cases have continued for a year or longer.
In addition to the bamboo on park authority land, the county’s Facilities Management Department identified about 1.5 acres of bamboo on eight of its properties, led by 43,000 square feet at the Mason District Government Center, according to a staff presentation.
The department said it has removed that bamboo and is in the process of treating the sites, stating that it doesn’t anticipate needing more funding to manage bamboo.
While Fairfax County Public Schools found no issues on school properties, Rose Hill and Hunt Valley elementary schools have adjacent properties with bamboo, according to FCPS spokesperson Julie Moult.
“Grounds has met with both owners and are working collaboratively to ensure that, if a small amount is on FCPS property, it is properly removed and also ensure that it does not spread onto FCPS property in the future,” Moult said.
Public hearings on the FY 2023 third quarter review package will be held on April 11, 12 and 13 — along with the proposed FY 2024 budget — before it’s adopted on May 2.

Several locations linked to African American history in Fairfax County could be eligible to be designated as historic places.
Those buildings and neighborhoods include the Louise Archer School, the Tinner Hill neighborhood and Clifton Primitive Baptist Church. Along with other candidates, they appear in a draft African American Historic Resources Survey Report, which was released on Feb. 23.
The county is looking for residents to share their thoughts on the report ahead of its final version, anticipated late this spring.
“We’re looking for feedback on the historical context and properties as written in the report,” Leanna O’Donnell, planning division director at the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development, wrote in a statement to FFXnow.
Residents who want to weigh in on the report can do so through Friday, March 24. There will also be a virtual community meeting on the report’s findings at 6:30 p.m. on Monday (March 6).
“Any feedback will be taken into consideration as we finalize the report and help identify properties that could be nominated for inclusion in Fairfax County’s Inventory of Historic Sites, the Virginia Landmarks Register or the National Register of Historic Places,” O’Donnell wrote.
The survey report furthers the work of the African American History Inventory, a database of resources related to the county’s African American culture and history. That inventory came to be following an October 2020 motion from a commissioner on the Fairfax County History Commission.
In 2021, the county received funding through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources’ Cost Share Grant Program to support the current study.
The report includes historical information about African Americans in present-day Fairfax County, starting in the 1600s. It also features photos and descriptions of buildings and communities surveyed, as well as preliminary recommendations.
For example, the entry on Louise Archer Elementary School includes a description of the building’s location, its exterior and the surrounding area of Vienna, along with pictures of the building and some historical context.
“The evolved building is the third purpose-built school for African Americans in Vienna,” the report says. “Once Fairfax County schools began to integrate, Louise Archer School was the only formerly Black elementary school to integrate and remain open.”
The report calls the school “a strong candidate for NRHP listing.”
Of the sites not already listed, Lane’s Mill in Centreville and Luther Jackson Middle School in Merrifield were deemed eligible for the national register. Other potential candidates include McLean’s Chesterbrook Baptist Church, Clifton Primitive Baptist Church, Quander Road School in Belle Haven, and the Tinner Hill neighborhood in Falls Church.
The Gum Springs area was the only part of the county excluded from the survey. That area is “part of a more intensive survey effort focusing specifically on this prominent African American community,” according to a county press release.
The county has also moved to honor Black and African American history with new historical markers, selected late last year.

Each election cycle requires some tweaks to Fairfax County’s polling precincts, and 2023 will be no exception.
This year’s proposed revisions aren’t quite as intensive as 2022’s, which affected over half of the county’s precincts to account for redistricting changes. However, they’ll still have an impact on hundreds of voters in a year when nearly all key state and local offices will be on the ballot.
According to a staff memo, Tysons has grown enough to need two polling places. With the Tysons precinct now exceeding 5,000 registered voters, the county recommends splitting it up to create a new “Jones Branch” precinct.
The Jones Branch precinct will take over the existing polling place in the Providence Committee meeting room (7921 Jones Branch Road). Staff have proposed relocating the Tysons polling place to The PARC at Tysons (8508 Leesburg Pike), the county-owned events venue that replaced the Container Store.
“This building is well-situated in the Tysons precinct…and will accommodate the continued growth in this area,” staff said in the agenda for last week’s Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting.
It costs the county $23,865 to add a precinct, a price tag that covers voting equipment, election supplies and notices to affected voters. There’s also an annual cost of $4,800 per year to staff the new precinct with the election officers for at least two elections.
Also in the Providence District, the county suggests renaming the Oak Marr precinct to “Oaktree Crossing,” since the polling site is no longer in the Oak Marr Rec Center.
The polling place was relocated to the Oakton Library in March 2021 “to provide the 4,000 voters a more accessible voting location,” according to staff. The Oak Marr Rec Center now hosts a different, small precinct called Island Pond that was created after redistricting.
Nearby, the Difficult Run precinct in Oakton is permanently moving to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax (2709 Hunter Mill Road) after getting relocated there temporarily last year when its previous site became unavailable.
The church already has a polling place for the Oakton precinct, but it will have “separate voting rooms” for each precinct, per the staff memo.
The county is also considering moving the precinct Spindle #2 out of the Centreville Regional Library, where it’s currently co-located with Spindle #1. The polling place would be relocated to Bull Run Elementary School and renamed “Robinson Mill.”
Staff recommends the change after the county’s election team “reported that the library cannot logistically support colocated precincts” based on last November’s election.
Finally, the county intends to rename the Franconia #1 and #2 precincts as Edison #1 and #2, since they’re both located in Edison High School.
“This name change will avoid voter confusion resulting from the renaming of the magisterial district from Lee to Franconia,” staff said.
As authorized by the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 21, a public hearing on the proposed changes will be held at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, March 7.