State Sen. Janet Howell will retire from the Virginia General Assembly after representing a significant swath of northern Fairfax County for over 30 years.
Rumors that Howell wasn’t planning to pursue another term began circulating during Virginia’s 2021 redistricting process, which paired her with Sen. Jennifer Boysko — a more junior Democrat currently representing the 33rd District — in the newly created 38th Senate District.
This month marks the third anniversary of the first Covid case in Fairfax County, and the Board of Supervisors has voted to bring the state of emergency to a close.
The emergency declaration that has been in place since March 17, 2020 officially ends today (Wednesday).
The days of saving up loose change to pay the Dulles Toll Road’s fees are officially in the past.
Effective today (Wednesday), the 14-mile highway also known as Route 237 has converted to an all-electronic, cashless payment system, joining the network of express lanes that criss-cross Northern Virginia.
Child Care Enrollment Starts Next Week — “Registration for 2023-2024 Fairfax County School Age Child Care (SACC) will begin on March 9. Registration will open on a rolling basis in alphabetical order by school…The SACC School Year Program…offers before- and afterschool care for children attending kindergarten through sixth grade in most Fairfax County public elementary schools and several community centers.” [Neighborhood and Community Services]
Couple Found Dead in Fairfax Home — Fairfax County police are conducting a death investigation after an adult man and woman were found dead in a home on the 8900 block of Walker Street. Police believe preliminarily that the “elderly couple” died in a murder-suicide incident. [FCPD/Twitter]
The long-awaited redevelopment of Reston’s Golf Course Plaza office building near Isaac Newton Square is going to remain a reality only on paper for a while longer.
The project is being delayed once again due to “market changes” that have required the landowner Golf Course Plaza LLC to secure new financing, attorney Shane Murphy said in a Feb. 12 letter to Fairfax County Zoning Evaluation Division Director Suzanne Wright.
The traffic safety advocacy group Fairfax Families for Safe Streets (Fairfax FSS) says the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is primarily to blame for Fairfax County’s high pedestrian fatality count last year.
The Safe Streets Report compiled by Fairfax FSS examines the crashes that resulted in 32 pedestrian fatalities and 53 serious injuries in 2022. Like the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles’ (DMV) earlier report, Fairfax FFS found that the county saw a dramatic increase in fatalities and serious injuries last year from any other year going back to 2010 — the first year where data is available.
Work on establishing a new economic vision for the Lake Anne area is underway.
In collaboration with consulting firm Streetsense, the county is currently courting feedback via a public survey on economic visioning for the Lake Anne Commercial Revitation Area, an area that was designated as a possible hotspot for commercial revitalization in 1998.
Four Displaced by Two-Alarm Tysons House Fire — A malfunctioning water heater started a fire in the 200 block of Trailwood Court that resulted in approximately $175,000 in property damages, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department says. After an initial dispatch at 3:52 a.m. last Thursday (Feb. 23), additional Fairfax County and Arlington units had to be called to the two-story house, but no injuries were reported. [FCFRD]
Maryland Contractor Plans Fairfax County Move — “Amentum Services, Inc., a leading provider of engineering and advanced solutions and services to the U.S. government, allies, and commercial companies, will invest $495,000 to relocate its headquarters from Germantown, Maryland.” Its operations will be consolidated at 4800 Westfields Blvd in Chantilly, a move expected to create 157 new jobs. [FCEDA]
Work has begin on a new pedestrian bridge at Sugarland Run Stream Valley Park, according to the Fairfax County Park Authority.
Slated to be completed by the end of the summer, the bridge replaces a span that was removed 15 years ago between Heather Down Drive and Eddyspark Drive.
Fairfax County Parkway is one of the main arterial routes through western Fairfax County, but staff say it’s due for an overhaul.
At a recent meeting of the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s Transportation Committee, Department of Transportation senior planner Thomas Burke laid out some of the changes recommended in a recent study of the Fairfax County and Franconia-Springfield parkways.
