Broad and Washington Project Unanimously Approved — “A major mixed use development project at the City of Falls Church’s central intersection of Washington and Broad Streets (Rts. 29 and 7) to feature a huge new Whole Foods grocery was approved unanimously by the F.C. City Council Monday night.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Bloomingdale’s to Experiment with Downsized Store at Mosaic District — “The retailer’s small-format concept, dubbed Bloomie’s, is set to open this fall in Virginia’s Mosaic District shopping complex, reported FN’s sister publication WWD. It’s expected to span roughly 22,000 square feet — a departure from the chain’s average department store size, which measures about 200,000 square feet.” [Footwear News, Mosaic District/Twitter]

Virginia Extends COVID-19 Restrictions Through February — Gov. Ralph Northam has extended mask requirements and restrictions on social gatherings through the end of February. He also announced that the state will get a greater supply of vaccine and addressed questions about a gap between doses distributed and doses administered in a news conference on Wednesday. [Patch]

First Responders Flash Lights for Kids at Inova Children’s Hospital — “Tonight, we were honored to participate in a “flashlight salute” at @InovaHealth Children’s Hospital along with @DLVFRD and @FairfaxCountyPD. We turned on our emergency lights and shined our flashlights at the kids and they returned the favor!” [Vienna Volunteer Fire Department/Twitter]

Virginia Makes COVID-19 Workplace Safety Standards Permanent — “The new regulations, approved last week by Gov. Ralph Northam, require all employers in the state to provide personal protective equipment when workers can’t physically distance, close or control access to common areas like lunchrooms, develop safe “return to work” plans for workers recovering from COVID-19, and regularly clean areas with heavy foot traffic, among other measures. Employees who interact with the public must wear masks.” [DCist]

Photo via Vienna Volunteer Fire Department/Twitter

Eating outdoors may not sound especially appealing when temperatures are hovering in the 30 to 40-degree range, but that is exactly what some local restaurants are urging patrons to do so they have a chance of outlasting a grueling winter.

With COVID-19 still limiting people’s ability and willingness to dine inside, Caboose Brewing Company, which runs Caboose Tavern in Vienna and Caboose Commons in Merrifield, joined forces with Reston’s Lake Anne Brew House in December to launch the #BundleUp campaign.

The grassroots initiative encourages customers to don blankets and winter clothing so they can eat and drink outside. It is open to all restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, and other food establishments, though the organizers are not keeping a tally of everyone who’s participating.

“A lot of people feel safer when they’re outside with people, so I think it’s catching on,” Caboose Events and Marketing Manager Courtney Beazell said. “It’s getting the response that we wanted. We’re hoping that more people will continue to promote it and continue to use it.”

Over the campaign’s two months of existence, it has evolved to include a “collaboration brew” that Caboose is offering to other restaurants and bars, along with a Bundle Up bike ride.

According to Beazell, Lake Anne Brew House owner Melissa Romano proposed developing a brew to spread the word about the Bundle Up campaign. Caboose was already planning to sell a “Wee Heavy” scotch ale for the winter before realizing that the new brew would be a perfect fit for the campaign.

The brewery started canning the ale on Jan. 5, producing 36 cases to sell to restaurants, breweries, and bottle shops. Wee Heavy is also available to customers on tap at Caboose Tavern.

Caboose sold out its supply, with buyers coming from across Northern Virginia and even as far away as Richmond, but the recipe is available on the company’s website for any breweries still interested in participating.

Caboose Brewing Company owner Jennifer McLaughlin says the collaboration brew has helped create a sense of community within Fairfax County’s craft beer industry.

“We’re all in this together, and everybody’s suffering right now,” McLaughlin said. “Just knowing that there are other restaurants and breweries out there that are going through the same thing and that you’ve got friends out there going through the same thing, that helps.” Read More

Fairfax County employees are now prohibited from providing information about a person’s immigration or citizenship status to federal immigration authorities unless required by law or court order.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 to adopt the new Public Trust and Confidentiality Policy yesterday (Tuesday) as part of a board matter introduced by Chairman Jeff McKay, Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust, and Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik.

While Fairfax County has long maintained that it does not assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unless mandated, McKay, Foust, and Palchik say the need to turn those guidelines into a formal policy has been heightened the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionately affected local Latino communities in particular.

“While there are no known instances of General County employees voluntarily sharing information about a resident’s immigration status, such policies are no doubt critical steps forward in building community trust and transparency,” the board matter said. “They also help quell fear in our community and ensure everyone feels comfortable getting the assistance they need from local government.”

The immigrant rights groups ACLU People Power Fairfax and CASA hailed the trust policy as “a major victory” after a four-year campaign urging Fairfax County to bar agencies from voluntarily disclosing information to ICE.

Advocates have argued that information-sharing with ICE can undermine public safety, as fear of detention or deportation discourages immigrants from reporting crimes, seeking medical attention, going to school, accessing basic needs assistance, and utilizing other critical local government services.

CASA says Fairfax County’s new policy is the first of its kind in Virginia.

“For four years, we have marched, spoken out and stood up for our rights as immigrants, and now we can finally breathe easier,” Luis Aguilar, CASA’s Virginia state director, said. “We are grateful for the leadership of Chairman McKay and Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who stood strongly in support of immigrant families by voting through this critical county policy change.” Read More

Fairfax County Expects COVID-19 Vaccine Supply to Remain Limited Until March — The county health department has vaccinated approximately 35,200 people since late December, but the current waitlist has more than 156,000 residents. The pace of incoming doses is not expected to increase until March due to changes in the state’s allocation procedures. [Fairfax County Health Department]

Representatives Request Mass Vaccination Site for NoVA — “Representatives Gerald Connolly, Don Beyer, and Jennifer Wexton, who are all Democrats, sent a joint letter Tuesday to Robert Fenton, FEMA’s acting administrator, requesting that Northern Virginia be selected as the location of one of the 100 community mass vaccination sites that the Biden administration has proposed creating throughout the country as part of its effort to combat the covid pandemic.” [Washingtonian]

Verizon Outage Disrupts Remote Learning for Students — A cut fiber cable in Brooklyn took out Google, Slack, Amazon, and other sites for many Verizon customers on the East Coast, including in the D.C. area. Fairfax County Public Schools acknowledged that the issue might prevent students from logging into their online classes. [Washington Post, FCPS/Twitter]

Lidl Eyes May Opening for Merrifield Plaza Store — Updated at 11:05 a.m. — The grocery store chain announced that it would move into a space previously occupied by Office Depot last June. The $5 million renovation is happening in conjunction with a facelift for the entire shopping plaza. [Greater Merrifield Business Association]

McLean Contractor Lands $87 Million Deal with Navy — “McLean-based defense contractor Alion Science and Technology Corp. announced Monday it has received an $87 million task order to help the Naval Surface Warfare Center develop a vertical launching system and training equipment for the naval base in Port Hueneme, California.” [Virginia Business]

Staff Photo by Jay Westcott

Electric vehicles can now get their batteries recharged at Idylwood Plaza.

Property owner Federal Realty Investment Trust announced yesterday (Monday) that the Falls Church shopping center on Leesburg Pike has joined Tesla’s Supercharger network, which encompasses more than 2,000 electric vehicle charging sites around the world.

Eight individual charging stations have been installed in the Idylwood Plaza parking lot near Tara Thai. It is Federal Realty’s first Northern Virginia property to be outfitted with Tesla’s charging infrastructure and its fourth in the U.S., according to a press release from the real estate company.

“We are excited to host Tesla charging stations at Idylwood Plaza”, Federal Realty Vice President of Asset Management Deirdre Johnson said. “The addition of the Tesla chargers further enhances the variety of options available for EV drivers at Federal properties along Route 7, which includes EVGO at Pike 7 [Plaza] and the Volta charging stations that are becoming available at Falls Plaza later this year.”

Other Tesla Supercharger sites in Fairfax County include the Vienna Wawa, the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station, and Springfield Town Center. Another site on Route 123 in the City of Fairfax is currently projected to open in the fourth quarter of 2021.

The Tysons area’s network of electric vehicle chargers is also expected to expand this year with a station at Tysons Corner Center from the Volkswagen subsidiary Electrify America.

Photo courtesy Federal Realty

(Updated at 11:55 p.m.) More than 100 people have signed up to compete in Virginia’s inaugural Smart City Challenge, and organizers expect more to join in the coming weeks.

The proceedings kicked off on Saturday (Jan. 23) with remarks from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and panel discussions on how technology could be used to address societal challenges, from COVID-19 and natural disasters to the availability of healthy food and efficiency of traffic lights.

The month-long competition will conclude on Feb. 18 when participants pitch projects designed to improve modern communities by tackling issues in housing, transportation, health, education, and other sectors.

People can also register for virtual discussions on topics like female leaders in innovation and the future of housing, even if they are not taking part in the competition.

“I can’t wait to see the impactful solutions that come out of the Smart City Challenge,” Northam said. “In fact, I hope we can implement some of them right here in our Commonwealth to create high-paying jobs and advance equitable and inclusive opportunities for all Virginians.”

Spearheaded by the nonprofit accelerator Smart City Works and McLean coworking hub Refraction, the 2021 Smart City Challenge is part of Virginia’s efforts to position itself as a leader in the development of artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and other kinds of “smart” technology.

According to Refraction CEO Esther Lee, who briefly served as Virginia’s commerce secretary under Northam, Virginia Tech’s plans to build an innovation campus in Alexandria helped draw Amazon to Northern Virginia.

In addition, the Herndon-based Center for Innovative Technology has teamed up with Stafford County to establish a Smart Community Testbed that Northam says will enable Virginia to deploy technology ranging from wildfire-detecting sensors to a WiFi-equipped park in Fredericksburg.

Given the amount of construction and traffic in the area, Tysons could be another prime location to experiment with smart technology, particularly when it comes to climate and energy efficiency issues, MITRE Labs Senior Vice President, General Manager, and Chief Futurist Charles Clancy says.

Headquartered in McLean, MITRE is a sponsor of the Smart City Challenge, along with Fairfax County, Dominion Energy, and several other local governments, businesses, and educational institutions. The company will host a discussion about resilence and sustainability on Feb. 12, and Clancy spoke on one of the panels for the kick-off.

“How can smart city technology…further reduce [greenhouse gas] emissions, particularly in an environment where, post-pandemic, we expect upwards of 50% of employees to not be in the office every day, all day?” Clancy said. “…Tysons is a great playground to experiment with that, given the density of office space and, of course, mixed-use [development]. It’s a microcosm of all those issues in one.” Read More

Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and 25 other technology companies will be represented at a virtual career fair hosted by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority on Thursday (Jan. 28).

The Cyber and Cloud Virtual Career Fair will focus on the information technology, cyber, and cloud industries. Participation is free of charge for job seekers, and the FCEDA is encouraging professionals of all experience levels to attend. People with security clearances are especially in demand, though that is not a required qualification.

“Our region is a top cyber and cloud hub and there has never been a better time to land a job in this industry because of the thousands of open jobs here,” FCEDA President and CEO Victor Hoskins said in a press release. “We are proud to be working with such a diverse group of companies that are letting us help them cast a wide net to find the right talent to fill these jobs and keep our networks, businesses, agencies and people secure.”

This is the latest in a series of job fairs that the FCEDA has been organizing throughout the past year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Previous events included fairs focused on hiring and reskilling, and women in technology.

According to the FCEDA, the first three job fairs in the series “collectively attracted over 2,100 attendees and resulted in 3,100 completed conversations between job seekers and hiring reps from a wide range of employers.”

The tech industry is expected to grow rapidly in Fairfax County in the coming years. About half of the more than 86,000 open jobs on the FCEDA’s job board are in technology fields, and the D.C. area is projected to add more than 130,000 tech jobs within the next five years.

The FCEDA’s job fair series is part of an initiative funded by Fairfax County to attract, retain, and retrain workers.

“Cloud and cyber companies are an important and growing facet of the Fairfax County tech economy,” Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. “I am delighted to see the talent initiative that the Board of Supervisors funded helping residents find jobs and emphasizing the importance of these sectors to Fairfax.”

Because the cyber and cloud career fair will be conducted virtually, candidates do not need to be currently located in Northern Virginia, and some companies are open to remote work options, the FCEDA says.

Interested job seekers can visit the FCEDA’s Work in Northern Virginia website to register and to see a full list of participating companies.

Photo via Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Updated at 5:05 p.m. on 1/29/2021 — The opening of a temporary ramp from I-66 West to Nutley Street has been postponed to next weekend due to anticipated inclement weather, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced today.

Earlier — Drivers exiting onto Nutley Street in Vienna from Interstate 66 West will be directed to a new, temporary ramp starting Sunday (Jan. 31).

Here are the details from VDOT on the new traffic pattern, which is expected to stay in place for approximately 18 months:

New Ramps for I-66 West to Nutley Street North and South

• The current ramp from I-66 West to northbound Nutley Street will close.
• Drivers will access northbound Nutley Street using a new ramp to Nutley Street North and South located slightly west of the current exit, then stay to the right to northbound Nutley Street.
• Drivers will access southbound Nutley Street using the new ramp from I-66 West, stay to the left, then turn left at a temporary traffic signal to southbound Nutley Street.

A temporary traffic signal will be installed while the temporary ramp is in place so that drivers headed south on Nutley can turn left.

To complete paving work for the change, the Virginia Department of Transportation will close the existing ramp from I-66 West to Nutley Street North from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Jan. 30 and 31.

During that time, drivers looking to get off of I-66 West will be detoured to the exit for the Vienna Metro station. They will then have to stay right on Country Creek Road and Virginia Center Boulevard to reach Nutley.

According to VDOT, the new, temporary I-66 West exit ramp is needed to accommodate construction on a new Nutley Street interchange as part of its Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project.

When construction is finished, the new Nutley interchange will have two roundabouts, which VDOT says “will provide safer, more efficient travel for vehicles entering and exiting I-66 and improve safety for vehicles and pedestrians traveling on Nutley Street.”

The department also notes that all work is weather dependent and will be rescheduled if there are inclement conditions.

“Drivers should always use caution and pay attention to lane markings and roadway signs in construction work zones,” VDOT says in its news release.

Images via Google Maps, VDOT

(Updated at 10:15 a.m.) Inova Health Systems has cancelled all appointments for people looking to receive their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Starting today (Tuesday), the nonprofit healthcare provider will cease administering first doses of the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine for the foreseeable future due to a change to the Virginia Department of Health’s distribution process that has “severely diminished” supplies for Inova.

According to Inova, vaccine doses are now being sent directly to local health districts, which are responsible for allocating supplies.

“We understand and share the frustration that this news brings to our patients,” Inova said. “When we receive more supply inventory, we will first prioritize patients who had an appointment scheduled and then focus on opening further appointments up to eligible groups.”

Anyone whose appointment has been canceled will be contacted by Inova to reschedule once the needed supplies are available.

People who have already received a first dose and need a second one will be prioritized, and their appointments have not been affected, Inova says.

Inova says it has administered more than 70,000 vaccine doses to healthcare workers and select groups in phase 1b of Virginia’s COVID-19 vaccination plan, including patients aged 75 and older, emergency first responders, public safety personnel, and school employees.

Fairfax County Public Schools formed a partnership with Inova that enabled about 40,000 teachers and staff to start receiving the vaccine on Jan. 16. FCPS spokesperson Lucy Caldwell said then that all workers who wanted the vaccine should be able to get the two required doses through Inova’s clinics, which were expected to last three weeks.

“This is very disappointing news but we will continue to work with our partners from Inova and the Fairfax County Health Dept to secure vaccine for our staff as soon as we can,” FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand said in a statement. “We must keep the faith.”

With vaccinations stalled, the union that represents FCPS educators and staff called on Brabrand to hold off on plans to resume in-person learning for students.

“Educators want more than anyone to be back in schools, but COVID-19 continues to surge in our community,” Fairfax County Federation of Teachers President Tina Williams said in a statement. “We urge Fairfax County Public Schools to alter the return to school timeline given the current health metrics and this unfortunate shift in vaccine availability for school staff.”

The changes in vaccine distribution methods will also reduce the already insufficient supply available to the Fairfax County Health Department, according to Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.

McKay explained the changes in a newsletter released last night:

The Virginia Department of Health has announced that they will only receive 105,000 vaccine doses per week from the federal government. For context, last week the Fairfax County Health Department alone received over 22,000 doses from VDH for the 168,000 residents eligible for a vaccine. This is in part due to two changes at the federal and state levels, not the County level. At the federal level, there is a nationwide shortage of COVID-19 vaccine. At the state level, unfortunately they have decided to change distribution to per capita, as opposed to the amounts County’s and hospital’s have ordered.

McKay says the county will prioritize the more than 50,000 people 75 and older who had registered to get vaccinated before Virginia expanded eligibility for phase 1b. Public safety personnel and people living in correctional facilities and homeless shelters will continue to get the vaccine through special clinics.

“It is profoundly unfortunate that despite all of our efforts at the local level that we must again ask for patience, which is frustrating for all of us,” McKay said. “I hate to have to share this news, but I also want to be transparent about the situation we are in.”

Photo by Karen Bolt/Fairfax County Public Schools