The Town of Vienna Police Department will once again usher in summer with a hardline approach to stop sign violations.

The department launched a campaign today (Thursday) that will see officers step up their enforcement of traffic safety laws, especially those governing stop signs, after seeing “a noticeable increase in such violations.”

“For the entire month of June, we have taken the initiative to address the repeated violations that have been reported by both residents and Town of Vienna staff members,” VPD Public Information Officer Juan Vasquez said.

Like in a similar campaign organized last June, the crackdown will involve a particular focus on drivers who roll through or ignore stop signs:

Officers will be actively present to issue tickets and remind drivers about the importance of coming to a complete stop when approaching a stop sign. Whether facing a solid or flashing red light, drivers must stop before entering the crosswalk, intersection, or stop line. It’s worth noting that, under certain circumstances, a stop sign violation can be cited as reckless driving.

Motorists who receive a ticket for a stop sign or red light violation will face a fine and three demerit points on their driving record. The Vienna Police Department emphasizes the need for defensive driving, courteous behavior, and strict adherence to all traffic laws to ensure safe arrival at destinations.

Virginia law defines reckless driving as anyone who drives a vehicle “in a manner so as to endanger the life, limb, or property of any person,” which can include a failure to yield the right-of-way.

Reckless driving is classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries maximum punishments of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. It can be elevated to a Class 6 felony if the driver doesn’t have a valid license and the incident resulted in another person’s death.

(Updated at 4:25 p.m.) A rock fight disrupted a warm Saturday afternoon for two Vienna households last week, though who exactly was throwing the rocks is a matter of some dispute.

A resident in the 100 block of Patrick Street SE reported to police on May 20 that, around 5 p.m., a man threw rocks at his juvenile son, who was playing outside, according to the Vienna Police Department’s weekly recap for May 19-25.

“An officer spoke to the man who advised he was sitting on his balcony when a group of juveniles began throwing rocks at him, cursing, and calling him racial slurs,” the VPD said in its report.

The man denied throwing any rocks, telling the officer that “he took the rocks and placed them on a toy in front of the apartment the juveniles ran to.”

No injuries were reported, but the police explained the warrant process to both parties in case they decide to pursue charges.

In a separate incident, police arrested a 21-year-old man from Woodbridge who backed into an officer’s cruiser when he was pulled over for reckless driving at the intersection of Maple Avenue and East Street SE on May 21.

According to the recap, the officer initiated the traffic stop at 2:52 a.m. The driver pulled over to the side of the road and hit the police cruiser when he started to back up.

“Upon the officer’s interaction with the man, he detected signs of impairment,” police said. “The driver failed to complete a series of field sobriety tests and was placed under arrest.”

The man was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center and charged with driving while intoxicated.

Other “highlights” from the past week include a report of Cedar Lane School student harassing a classmate and hitting a school bus driver, along with an apparent road rage incident:

Assault 23-004593
Cedar Lane School
101 Cedar Lane, SW
May 23 7:45 a.m.

On May 24, the school administration reported a juvenile assaulted their school bus driver on May 23. The juvenile began harassing another student and, when the bus driver tried to intercede, the juvenile began striking him.

Arrest – Destruction of Property 23-004600
Lawyers Road and Malcolm Road, NW
May 24 3:10 p.m.

A citizen was traveling northbound on Lawyers Road when he observed another vehicle driving erratically. When the citizen honked his horn at the other driver, the man cut his vehicle off. As they reached the stop sign at Lawyers and Malcolm, the other driver got out of his vehicle with a baseball bat and proceeded to hit the citizen’s side-view mirror, breaking it off. The man then fled the area.

Police identified the driver as a 23-year-old man and served a summons charging him with property destruction at his home on Laurel Ridge Road.

A Vienna warehouse recently vacated by the U.S. Postal Service is being eyed as a potential storage site for classic cars.

Roadhouse Development Company LLC is seeking to lease the existing, 34,241-square-foot warehouse at 831 Follin Lane SE for indoor car storage, according to a certificate of occupancy application scheduled to go before the Town of Vienna Planning Commission tonight (Wednesday).

The USPS exited the warehouse earlier this year after utilizing it “on an irregular basis when mail loads are high,” town staff said in a report to the commission.

“This is an opportunity for owners of classic and exotic vehicles to store their vehicles in a climate-controlled environment and use them as desired,” Walsh Colucci lawyer Lynne Strobel said in a statement of justification for the applicant.

Dating back to at least the 1960s, the warehouse is located at the rear of the site where it backs up to the Washington & Old Dominion Trail. The parcel also has an office building that’s currently occupied by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, according to town staff.

Designated by the town’s comprehensive plan as a corporate office park, the site has been approved for additional office development, but staff concede that that vision is unlikely to materialize soon.

“The market for such office development is weak, and the location of this building is particularly challenging in terms of marketability as it is not easily visible from any major transportation corridor,” the staff report says.

Roadhouse Development has proposed operating the storage facility as an interim use until the future office development moves forward.

According to the application, the business will operate daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Vehicle owners will be required to provide 24-hour notice for deliveries and pickups, and only the approximately four on-site employees will be allowed to actually drive the vehicles into and out of the building.

Owners can park other vehicles on the site for up to 48 hours while using their stored car. Storage contracts will be available on a monthly or annual basis.

In addition to storage, the warehouse will have an interior detailing bay and provide maintenance services, such as weekly tire pressure checks and battery monitoring, according to Roadhouse.

The application says only “cosmetic” improvements are proposed to the building’s exterior, and no road or driveway changes are needed.

Even though the business is focused on vehicle storage, it’s expected to have “little to no impact on the surrounding road network,” because most trips will be scheduled outside of peak traffic hours, according to Strobel.

“Owners typically want to use their vehicles on weekends or for a specific trip and not on a daily basis,” Strobel wrote. “Given the requirement of 24 hours advance notice…the Applicant can easily stagger arrivals as needed. It is anticipated that the proposed use will generate tax revenue for the Town and will also bring people to the Town who will patronize restaurants and businesses.”

Town staff said they concluded the proposal is a “reasonable” use for the site. However, after getting the planning commission’s recommendation, it must be approved by the Vienna Town Council because warehouse storage isn’t a permitted use in the property’s current zoning district.

Photo via Ryan De Hamer on Unsplash

A dog attacked a cat and a rabid raccoon in Vienna earlier this month, an encounter that left the raccoon dead, police say.

The dog got loose in the 700 block of MacArthur Avenue NE and attacked the two other animals on May 12, according to the Vienna Police Department’s recap for the week of May 12-18.

The incident was reported on May 15 by a neighbor of the dog’s owner. The neighbor also told police that his own dog was bitten while he and the owner were both walking their pets at noon on May 8. The bite left “a puncture wound.”

“The Animal Control Officer in Fairfax County investigated these incidents and placed the dog under a 10-day quarantine,” the VPD said. “ACO Barker had a conversation with the dog’s owner, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the dog does not pose a threat to other people or animals in the future.”

The Fairfax County Health Department reported to police on May 16 that the slain raccoon had been tested for rabies and was confirmed to be positive.

“The owner of the dog was promptly notified, and the quarantine period was extended to the required 45 days,” Vienna police said, noting that both that dog and the dog of the resident who reported the incidents were up-to-date on their vaccinations.

About half of the 40 to 60 rabies cases recorded in Fairfax County each year involve raccoons, the county’s rabies program manager previously told FFXnow. The virus typically spreads through a bite or scratch and nearly always proves fatal.

Other notable incidents in last week’s crime round-up include three domestic assaults and a May 12 crash at the intersection of Locust Street and Branch Road where “the driver lost control, went over the curb, and struck a utility pole.”

The driver, a 69-year-old man from Vienna, was charged with driving while intoxicated.

Alcohol also figured into a trespassing incident at Yeonas Park around 3:30 p.m. on May 13:

Officers responded to the report of a man who was refusing to leave the ballpark. The Vienna Little League President advised he saw the man drinking alcohol and when he requested he leave the park, the man threatened him. The man was trespassed from the park by the Little League President and he left the area.

In addition, officers responded to three times to people playing pickleball at Glyndon Park outside of the town’s approved hours. The complaints came in at 7:36 p.m. and 9:07 p.m. on Wednesday (May 17), and at 9:02 p.m. on Thursday (May 18).

Separately, the VPD announced last week that a man had been arrested on Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a girl at a Vienna park.

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) A Vienna man has been arrested for allegedly raping a girl at a local park.

The suspect, Celvin Aragon Flores, met the victim online through a social media app and then “engaged in a sexual encounter with her at a park in Vienna,” the Town of Vienna Police Department says.

The sexual assault was reported to the VPD on Monday (May 15), though the department’s weekly recap suggests the assault occurred around 8 a.m. on April 16.

“Detectives from the Criminal Investigations Section, dedicated to this case, conducted interviews with the victim and witnesses, coordinated a forensic rape examination, and obtained search warrants,” police said.

Arrested yesterday (Thursday), Flores has been charged with sodomy, rape, aggravated sexual battery and animate object penetration. Additional charges are expected “as the case progresses,” according to the police department.

The VPD said it has notified victim services personnel and Child Protective Services, which “will provide the necessary assistance and ongoing support for the victim.”

When asked about the age of the victim, who’s identified only as a juvenile, and the name of the park, police said they were unable to disclose that information.

“Due to this case being an active investigation, we must abide by certain protocols to ensure the integrity of the case,” VPD public information officer Juan Vazquez said.

The Town of Vienna has set a tentative timeline for wrapping up the first overhaul of its zoning code since Richard Nixon occupied the White House.

At a May 8 conference session, the Vienna Town Council urged staff to have the rewritten code ready for adoption on Oct. 23 — its final meeting before a new council is elected on Nov. 7.

To meet that deadline, staff will present a complete draft of the new code on June 5 and schedule public hearings for July 10 and 12. Officials with the Department of Planning and Zoning had proposed waiting until late August for the public hearings, since people may be out of town during the summer.

“Staff could…use the summer break to engage with the public and educate them about the contents of the draft, so that they are more able to provide informed testimony,” Planning and Zoning Director David Levy and Deputy Director Kelly O’Brien said in a memo. “While it is likely that many people will be on vacation, staff will provide multiple opportunities both in person and online for citizens to engage when they are available.”

However, the council argued that it would prefer to hear from the public “sooner rather than later” on the update known as Code Create, whose completion was designated as a top priority for 2023.

Faced with a tight timeframe either way, council members noted that July hearings would give staff more time to incorporate the public’s feedback into the final document, and community members could still submit written comments afterwards.

“I think there’s an advantage to going out earlier, because I think I’d like to hear from the public,” Councilmember Ed Somers said.

Before spending over half an hour debating the Code Create schedule, the town council discussed potential new uses in transitional zones — which currently allow little beyond medical offices and massage therapy businesses — and how to handle the mixed-use building at 901 Glyndon Street SE.

The council was particularly split over whether to allow child care centers in transitional zones with a conditional permit. Councilmember Nisha Patel worried that the noise could drive away tenants, while Councilmember Chuck Anderson countered that having child care available in or near their office is a draw for many workers.

Council members suggested creating a zoning district specifically for 901 Glyndon, which is unique in Vienna as a condominium building with ground-floor commercial space in the middle of a single-family residential neighborhood. Town Attorney Steven Briglia warned against “grandfathering” as a “slippery slope.”

“[The building is] always going to be a square peg in a round hole,” he said.

The discussions hinted at the myriad issues that still need to be settled before that Oct. 23 deadline for Code Create, which has been underway since September 2020. The rewrite will shape the town’s future look and development, dictating everything from new zoning districts to lighting standards and bicycle parking requirements.

The first segment of the Virginia Department of Transportation’s planned shared-use trail along I-66 has been completed.

State and Fairfax County officials will celebrate the milestone today (Wednesday) with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m., followed by an inaugural bicycle ride or walk on the finished section, which starts east of the Vienna Metro station and extends to Cedar Lane near Merrifield.

The segment includes a tunnel under Nutley Street, one of several below-grade crossings planned for the 11-mile, mostly 10-foot-wide trail being built from Gallows Road in Dunn Loring to Route 29 in Centreville.

More portions are expected to be finished later this month, including a crossing at an I-66 entry ramp at the Nutley Street interchange and a segment from Blake Lane to Route 123 in Oakton.

“The 66 Parallel Trail and new bike and pedestrian access across the I-66 bridges supports VDOT’s commitment to providing multimodal travel options to ‘move more people — not just vehicles,'” VDOT said in a statement to FFXnow.

VDOT’s private partner I-66 Express Mobility Partners (I-66 EMP) and construction contractor FAM Construction built the 66 Parallel Trail — a name chosen by a Fairfax County survey — as part of the Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project, which added 22 miles to the I-66 Express Lanes.

Including sidewalks being added on bridge crossings over I-66, the project will deliver 18 miles of new pedestrian and bicycle facilities, according to VDOT.

The trail’s inclusion in the highway widening project came after a campaign by local pedestrian and bicycling advocates, including the nonprofit Fairfax Alliance for Better Bicycling (FABB).

“The new 66 Trail will significantly improve east-west connectivity for people walking and biking in the corridor that does not exist today,” said former FABB President Sonya Breehey, who’s now the Northern Virginia advocacy manager for the Coalition for Smarter Growth. “The trail opens up the opportunity to walk, bike, roll to the Metro, schools, parks, restaurants, retail, and other places throughout the corridor.”

The design process for the trail was contentious, as cycling advocates pushed to keep it outside the I-66 soundwalls. However, adjacent homeowners objected to giving up part of their backyards, fearing a loss of privacy and green space.

The final design placed approximately three miles directly next to the highway, while about eight miles will be behind a noise barrier or have no noise barrier.

Breehey calls the trail’s placement inside the soundwalls an “unfortunate compromise,” but VDOT mitigated some concerns by elevating some portions above the highway and putting others behind a 50-inch concrete barrier. Read More

The Town of Vienna is ready to turn over a new leaf in its commitment to tree plantings and preservation.

In the hopes of reversing a significant decline in canopy coverage over the past decade, staff proposed a tree conservation ordinance to the Vienna Town Council last week that would require developers to preserve existing trees when possible.

An ordinance would put the town in line with Fairfax County, which has had conservation rules since the General Assembly extended that authority to Northern Virginia localities in 1990. Right now, Vienna only requires that developers replace eliminated trees to meet canopy standards.

“This is the kind of thing that’s so big, so impactful that I would like to hear from the community on and…is absolutely worthy of a public hearing. It’s a big idea that could have big results,” Councilmember Ed Somers said after the May 8 presentation.

Current canopy requirements vary across zoning districts, but for the single-family residential lots that dominate most of Vienna, builders must provide enough trees to cover at least 20% of the lot after 20 years.

A conservation ordinance would raise that 20-year standard to 25%, require developers to “make an effort” to preserve any trees likely to survive, and let developers unable to meet their on-site canopy requirement contribute to a fund for trees plantings elsewhere in the town.

“If you can’t meet your tree requirements through tree preservation, you supplement that through tree planting, as opposed to what Vienna has right now, where a builder can cut down all the trees if they want and then just replace them with new trees later,” Brian Land, a Vienna resident and Kirkland & Ellis LLP attorney, explained.

The town hired Kirkland & Ellis and the Ramboll US Corporation, a consulting company, in September 2020 for a pro bono project to analyze its tree program and those of other jurisdictions in Virginia.

In addition to a conservation ordinance, the consultants recommend that Vienna create a tree commission to supplement its Conservation and Sustainability Commission and track and publish plantings data on an annual basis.

Town staff have already started to make progress on the tracking recommendation, thanks to a town-wide tree inventory now underway.

Building off an urban tree canopy assessment released in October, the now-complete first phase of the inventory identified 8,640 sites in town that either have a tree or are suitable for future plantings. Of the 7,224 existing trees, 306 were dead, and 689 others were in poor condition, town staff told the council.

Conducted by consultant PlanIT Geo, the project’s second phase will consist of parks that weren’t already surveyed. A final report is expected to be presented to the town council on June 12.

The inventory data, including the health and species of each tree, is being assembled into a dashboard that staff will be able to update in real time and that will be accessible to the public through the town’s website.

While the inventory will provide valuable information, more staff and money are needed to actually plant and maintain trees, Vienna Park Maintenance Superintendent Jeremy Edwards said.

According to Edwards, the town’s annual tree maintenance budget has jumped from $30,000 just two years ago to $80,000 this year, and the council approved $250,000 in federal Covid relief funds for a street tree replacement project on May 1.

However, Vienna has no staff dedicated to tree maintenance, and with hundreds of trees in need of removal or pruning, those funds start to look pretty paltry.

“If trees are important, which I think they are, we do need to build a staff of competent workers that can not just cut trees, but know how to prune them, how to maintain them so we can manage them much better going forward,” Edwards said. “A lot of people can just cut. That’s what we’ve been doing so far, but knowing the proper cuts, that’s the skilled staff we need right now.”

An Alexandria man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday (May 10) for selling fentanyl to a woman who died from an overdose in Clifton in 2021.

Reza Hashemi, 34, was sentenced for conspiring to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl in Northern Virginia between July 2020 and June 2021, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release announcing the judgment by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

According to court documents, Fairfax County police were called to a home in the Clifton area on May 28, 2021 by a witness who told 911 that a woman had taken an “unknown white substance” and needed naloxone, the drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.

A woman identified as J.F. was found unresponsive in the residence’s basement and pronounced deceased at 11:44 p.m. after failed resusitation efforts, one of the responding police officers said in an affidavit.

The witness told police that they had obtained powder fentanyl from Hashemi at a spot near Reed Avenue in Alexandria City.

Police arrested Hashemi in Tysons on June 2, 2021 after he dropped off fentanyl that the witness had arranged to buy from him, according to the affidavit.

Court records indicate that Hashemi reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in February.

“Mr. Hashemi became addicted to opioids after suffering trauma early in his life. He accepted responsibility early on in this case and continues to do so,” the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Alexandria, which represented Hashemi, said in a statement. “Although we do not agree that the sentence imposed was necessary, Mr. Hashemi accepts the court’s decision and is determined to address his own addiction through the next 15 years and beyond.”

In announcing the sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office also linked Hashemi to the Oct. 24, 2020, fatal overdose of a 22-year-old man identified as J.V. in Vienna.

Hashemi distributed drugs, including “pressed counterfeit pills containing fentanyl,” to J.V. from Sept. 18, 2020 to “at least” Oct. 14, 2020, according to a statement of facts filed by prosecutors. After police informed him of J.V.’s death, Hashemi said he didn’t want to talk to law enforcement without a lawyer.

Court documents don’t explain how police determined that the drugs involved in J.V.’s overdose were the ones he got from Hashemi. The U.S. Attorney’s Office didn’t respond to FFXnow’s request for comment by press time.

“The government’s repeated insinuations in connection with [Hashemi’s] invocation of his right to counsel misrepresent the facts and betray an ignorance of every individual’s constitutional rights,” the public defender’s office said.

Photo via Google Maps

The Vienna Town Council appears inclined to raze the former Faith Baptist Church, as a study continues to sift through ideas for the long-term future of the site now known as the Annex.

A vote on whether to demolish the now-vacant building at 301 Center Street South has been set for June 5. While no decision was made, a majority of council members indicated at a conference session Monday (May 8) that they would rather knock down the structure than invest money in maintaining it.

Council members Howard Springsteen and Ed Somers seemed open to keeping the church gymnasium — another option suggested by the consultants conducting the study — but it was unclear how much that would cost compared to replacing the 1950s-era building with new, temporary recreational facilities.

Martin Kimmel, president of the consulting firm Kimmel Bogrette Architecture + Site, confirmed the team could provide “rough” cost estimates in time for the June vote.

“It’s going to come down to cost,” Councilmember Steve Potter said. “I’m leaning toward don’t put good money into bad. I think the best thing would be to demolish the building, but I’m having a hard time making a decision because we don’t have all the information.”

It will cost about $250,000 to fully demolish the church and remove the resulting debris, town staff estimated.

The town purchased the former church on Aug. 31, 2020, turning it into a temporary base for the Vienna Police Department until its new headquarters was built. The move-in process was completed in January.

After a review found that it would take $500,000 just to bring the existing building up to code, the council commissioned Kimmel Bogrette and fellow consultant Kimley Horn to help the town develop a long-term vision before it makes any short-term commitments.

Based on initial public input, including a still-open online survey and an in-person workshop, community members would love to see recreational amenities of some kind — particularly an indoor pool or other aquatics facility — in the Annex’s future.

“There was no doubt the word ‘pool’ jumped out” as a use that should be evaluated, Somers said, referencing a word cloud in the consultant team’s presentation.

An exercise or fitness facility, pickleball courts and meeting space also got solid support as potential uses at the March 28 workshop, which was held in the new police station.

With the police station costing about $14.1 million, it will likely be at least a decade before the town can implement another project of that magnitude. That may not be as far off as it seems, given the amount of time needed for planning, design and construction, Town Manager Mercury Payton noted.

Springsteen said a pool seems “cost-prohibitive” when the town already has millions of dollars worth of capital projects to address, from road improvements to sewer upgrades. Other council members suggested all options should remain open until they get a clearer idea of the costs.

Kimmel Bogrette proposed bringing in another consultant that could conduct a market and operational analysis. For an additional $23,500, the analysis would evaluate different possible uses for the site and project potential demand, construction and operational costs, and revenue.

Some council members expressed skepticism at the need for that analysis, though Payton said the consultant would be able to provide a more detailed, informed review than what town staff could manage. The proposal will come up for a vote on June 5.

“I don’t know what we’d wait for. We have to know what the costs are,” Mayor Linda Colbert said.

In the meantime, Kimmel’s study will proceed with more community engagement events at the Vienna Community Center from 4-7 p.m. today (Wednesday) and from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday (May 13).

A final recommendation is scheduled to be presented to the council on June 12.