The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved yesterday (Tuesday) plans to urbanize a Merrifield office park engulfed by I-495, Lee Hwy and Route 50.

The changes to the Merrifield Suburban Center will turn Fairview Park into a mixed-use development with more office space, multi-family homes, a hotel, retail and recreational uses.

Additionally, the changes urge developers to include affordable housing dwelling units or workforce dwelling units, along with senior living and student housing options.

The changes to the plan will also alter an area catty-corner to Fairview Park near the Inova Fairfax Hospital.

Fairview Park currently has offices — including the four-story-tall HIIT Contracting building — by a lake and residential communities. A tributary of Holmes Run runs along the southern edge of the area. Northrop Grumman Federal Credit Union and the 2941 restaurant are nearby.

“The justification for the nomination states that the existing single-use office park model that was successful in the 1980s is no longer competitive with mixed-use work environments that provide retail and service amenities, as well as the opportunity to live near work,” according to a staff report.

Elizabeth Baker, a senior land use planner for Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh, previously told the Planning Commission that only three of the eight previously planned office buildings have been built for Fairview Park, which had a 29% office vacancy rate last year.

Baker told the supervisors last night that Fairview Park’s offices were the “gold standard” in the 1980s. While the office park has been well maintained, she said that retaining tenants has been a struggle.

Charlie Hall, a Falls Church resident who chaired the task force that helped to evaluate the proposed changes, told the supervisors that the new vision “closely align with the task force’s recommendations.”

“Every major dispute has been resolved,” Hall said. “This is exactly what [the taskforce] wanted to come out of this.”

Hall urged the board to make an immediate commitment to improving the public sector in the nearby area to keep pace with the increased number of people from the upcoming urbanization, echoing concerns from residents worried about worsening traffic and housing congestion, along with added strain on overcrowded schools.

Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said that it’s important to make sure that Merrifield — the center of Fairfax County — does not become a “congestion center” that will hurt not only locals, but also people traveling through that area.

The board approved the proposal, along with five follow-on motions from the Planning Commission, which include:

• conducting a multi-modal transportation study
• conducting a study of the connectivity barriers created by I-495
• working with property owners to reduce single-occupancy car trips
• working with Fairfax County Public Schools staff to determine school capacity needs
• developing a funding plan for transportation projects recommended in the Merrifield Suburban Center Comprehensive Plan

“Merrifield has been a success and the idea here was to keep the success going,” Smith said.

Image via Fairfax County, map via Google Maps

The Town of Vienna has now received the funding it needs for a $2 million stream restoration project.

The Board of Supervisors approved giving a little more than $1 million for the project to the town at its meeting yesterday (Tuesday).

“The project will restore approximately 1,900 linear feet of [the] stream on Bear Branch Tributary, providing nutrient reduction and improved water quality in the Accotink Creek watershed,” according to county documents.

Earlier this year, the Town of Vienna received a grant from the Department of Environmental Quality that will cover roughly half of the design and construction costs.

About half of the Bear Branch Tributary, which is apart of the Accotink Creek watershed, is located in the Town of Vienna.

The Accotink Creek Watershed Management Plan rates the Bear Branch Tributary’s condition as “very poor” and calls for a series of restoration projects, starting with retrofitting the stream channel on the upstream side of I-66 at Southside Park.

“The channel is over-widened with moderate to severe erosion along the stream banks,” according to the plan. “Restoration would include reducing the channel dimensions, raising the bed elevation and installing grade controls.”

After work is done on that portion, the plan calls for work on the stream from Hunter Road to Route 50 to stabilize the stormwater outfall structures and regrading eroded stream banks.

“Partnering with the town on this project will save the county the time and administrative costs that would be incurred if the county were to implement the project under its stormwater program,” according to county documents.

Image via Google Maps

As scrutiny continues of public building and road names tied to the Confederacy, the Fairfax County School Board is looking to revamp its renaming guidelines for schools.

A proposal under consideration by the school board would allow the school board to rename schools to “reflect an inclusive, respectful learning environment as outlined in our adopted One Fairfax Policy.”

Two local elementary schools are named after individuals with Confederate ties — Haycock Elementary School (6616 Haycock Road) in McLean and Shrevewood Elementary School (7525 Shreve Road) in the Falls Church area, according to the school board.

They are a part of six FCPS schools and one facility owned by the City of Fairfax School Board that have names with Confederate ties.

The school board has been discussing the issue over the past year, Reston Now reported, adding that school board members recently said that “Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community.”

The school board is scheduled to vote on a proposal this Thursday (Sept. 26).

If the proposal is approved, it is unclear how soon the schools and facility might undergo name changes.

(Updated at 2:35 p.m.) Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved today (Tuesday) $4 million to begin implementation of police body worn cameras.

The Fairfax County Police Department is set to receive 1,210 body-worn cameras that would be phased in over three years with a five-year contract for equipment, licensing and storage.

Before the vote, Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity shared concerns about the fiscal impact of the proposal, including that the funding approval is happening outside of the budget cycle, Chairman Sharon Bulova said it’s necessary to have the funding before the budget decisions in May.

The $4.3 million approved by the board today comes from the Reserve for Ad-Hoc Police Practices Review Commission.

“This amount will cover the initial cost of equipment, infrastructure enhancements and will allow for the immediate recruitment and hiring of personnel to ensure a seamless implementation on or about May 1,” according to county documents.

Herrity also said that he has concerns about the funding coming from the reserve — a one-time fund — and that body worn cameras are getting prioritized over increases in police officers’ pay.

“This is going to set our public safety budget back by millions of dollars,” Herrity said, adding that he wants information on extra costs for the Public Defenders’ Office.

In response to Herrity’s concerns that the program is meant to address national issues with police, Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said that the program is not trying to address criticism of police outside of Fairfax County.

“The overwhelming support in the community for doing this is important. We know our community pretty well and we know the respect the community has for the Fairfax County Police Department,” Foust said. “We have the tech to do it, and we should move forward.”

After the vote, Braddock District Supervisor John Cook requested that the county executive work with the Public Defenders’ Office to determine an increase in the office’s budget that the board can consider in May.

Cook said that the body worn cameras will generate “significant legal work needed to review [the footage],” noting that most of the defense attorneys are from the Public Defenders’ Office.

The full implementation of the body worn cameras is expected to take three years. The cameras would come to the McLean District during the second year of the program.

“This is about transparency. This is about the community feeling confident in our police department,” Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay. “We know that they do.”

Image via FCPD

The number of stolen tires reported in the Tysons area has now reached two dozen this year.

Tysons Reporter has been keeping an eye on where wheels have been reported stolen — dubbing the thief(s) the “Tysons Tire Bandit(s).”

The 24 reports span from Merrifield and the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station area up to Tysons, according to the Fairfax County Police Department’s daily crime recaps. (Fairfax County’s weekday police recaps are not comprehensive lists of every incident and the addresses are approximate.)

Some of the areas had multiple reports, including:

• four reports in the 1500 block of Westbranch Drive
• three reports in the 7900 block of Jones Branch Drive
• two reports in the 9400 block of Lee Hwy
• two reports in the 1500 block of Lincoln Way

A few of the incidents also include stolen rims.

The robberies have mostly occurred in the residential areas of rapidly urbanizing Tysons and Merrifield.

FCPD recaps noted between one to five stolen tire reports per month this year. The most recent incident was noted in the Monday (Sept. 23) recap.

Falls Church residents may have noticed that work has started on several projects to minimize flooding damage and better manage stormwater.

City Manager Wyatt Shields gave the City Council an update on stormwater management projects at Monday (Sept. 23) night’s meeting.

Smaller ones, like drainage issues between Laura and Poplar drives and flooding issues at 913 and 915 blocks of Lincoln Avenue, will be handled in-house and paid for by the current stormwater operating budget, he said.

Residents can expect work to finish on those by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the city has reached out to GKY about five larger watersheds, including:

• the area by W. Columbia Street and Shadow Walk
• the Hillwood Avenue area
• the Sherrow Avenue area
• E. Columbia Street and Harrison Branch Tributary
• Ellison Branch Stream near new homes on Lincoln Avenue

“Ultimately, we will get the options and get the costs and we will need to work together to prioritize our resources for where they can do the most good for the buck,” Shields said.

The timeframe will be determined during budget discussions in the winter, and work won’t begin on those larger projects until July, he said.

“People have been seeing us out in the field doing the initial walkthroughs with the engineers,” he said, adding that city staff is waiting to get a cost estimate from GKY before alerting the residents.

“It sounds like we’re making a lot of progress, I think if we can communicate better to those residents and let them know that work is happening, that would be very reassuring to people,” Councilmember Letty Hardi said.

The city has also been working to update its stormwater management plan after suffering severe damage from major flash flooding in July.

Shields also said that the wing wall on Tripps Run has been completed, eliminating a flooding risk to residents on Sherrow Avenue.

“It’s good to get that resolved,” he said.

Langley High School delayed students from leaving this afternoon while Fairfax County police responded to a report of a “suspicious man” in a nearby yard.

Sgt. James Curry, a police spokesman, told Tysons Reporter that police received a call at 2:16 p.m. about a man in someone’s yard in the 900 block of Ridge Drive.

Curry said that the man ran away when police arrived and has not been found.

The incident was not related to the school and does not appear to pose any threat to the school, Curry said.

The school was secured — which is different from a lockdown — because of the increased police activity in the area, Curry said.

Principal Kimberly Greer said in a letter to families that the school was secured around 2:50 p.m. “At this time, students (and buses) have been released,” Greer wrote.

More from Greer:

This letter is to inform you of an incident that occurred today. At approximately 2:50 p.m. the school was notified that there was an incident in the surrounding neighborhood with police involement. At that time we went into “Secure the Building” status. This means that all exterior doors are locked and students are to remain inside. Staff reacted swifty and appropriately, and our students behaved in an exemplary manner. At no time was anyone on school property.

Upon advisement from the Fairfax County Police Department, we ae no longer in “Secure the Building” status. At this time, students (and buses) have been released.

Map via Google Maps

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is set to move forward two projects aiming to make Tysons and Vienna more walkable and bikeable.

At Tuesday’s meeting (Sept. 24), the board is slated to approve an extra $3 million for a project that will add a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over I-495, connecting the east side of Tysons to Tysons One Place.

“The project will provide for the design and construction of a 10-foot shared-use path along Old Meadow Road beginning at the intersection of Route 123 and Provincial Drive, and terminating at Tysons One Place near the intersection with Fashion Boulevard,” according to county documents.

Construction is slated to start on the project in spring 2021 and finish in spring 2022, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

“The project area has a mix of retail, business, and residential communities with no bicycle and pedestrian access across I-495,” the document says.

Previously, the project was fully funded, but changing right-of-way estimates and construction costs increased the costs, according to the county.

The board is also set to authorize the director of the county’s transportation department to work with VDOT on improving bike access to the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station.

The project includes:

• construction of a new shared-use path along the south side of Virginia Center Blvd
• removing the existing sidewalk on the west side of Sutton Road
• construction of a two-way cycle track and sidewalk along the south side of Country Creek Road
• adding bike wayfinding signage and shared lane markings

The work on the trails is part of the I-66 project, according to county documents.

Map via VDOT

How do you bike from Tysons to Reston? One person took to Twitter to ask that very question on Friday (Sept. 20).

While most of the tweets said the Washington and Old Dominion Trail is the way to go to, several people shared different routes for getting to the trail.

One person recommended that cyclists head from Leesburg Pike (Route 7) to Gallows Road down to the W&OD Trail. The trail follows Piney Branch Stream from Vienna to Difficult Run River, before heading north to Plaza America and Reston Town Center in Reston.

For cyclists who don’t want to head that far south, another person recommended a route behind Walmart (1500 B Cornerside Blvd) by the Spring Hill Metro station that connects to the W&OD Trail.

Another person suggested the new Vesper Trail, which runs through the Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Valley Park as another way to get to the W&OD Trail.

Get to Route 7 and Gallows and take Gallows down all the way to the W&OD trail; most of Gallows will have an unprotected bike lane, which definitely helps. You then take the trail all the way to downtown Reston. Not sure if I would do a CaBi for this ride, but to each his own.

— Jofi Joseph, CPA (@Jofi_Joseph_99) September 20, 2019

https://twitter.com/jtedc/status/1175385848843575296?s=20

@bikeshare Springhill #wmata station 👉 Vesper Trail 👉 Pine Valley Dr 👉 Fairway Dr 👉 Creek Crossing 👉 Glyndon Park 👉 Ayr Hill and 👏👏 your a block from the @WODTrail where it crosses Church St in Vienna. All relatively quiet neighborhood streets.

— Chris French (@chrislfrench) September 20, 2019

Tysons has some changes underway aiming to make the area more bikeable and walkable.

The Route 7 Corridor Improvements Project plans to add paths between Reston and Tysons. Meanwhile in Tysons, the Jones Branch Connector is slated to open this fall, connecting the Tysons East and North Central neighborhoods.

For cyclists looking to rent bikes, Capital Bikeshare has brought more than a dozen bike-share docks to Tysons.

Autumn has officially arrived today (Monday) despite it still feeling like summer with temperatures in the 80s and 90s.

While the weather doesn’t have that crisp fall feeling (yet), other signs ushering in the new season have arrived. Pumpkin spice lattes returned a month ago and Halloween-themed stores and selfie museums are popping up in the Tysons area.

To celebrate the start of a new season, Tysons Reporter wants to know what your favorite fall activity is.