Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said he’s supportive of plans to extend the express lanes on I-495, but has major concerns about the timing of the project with Maryland’s piece.

The I-495 Northern Extension Project would expand express lanes from the Dulles Toll Road to the George Washington Memorial Parkway, replace overpasses and noise walls and add a shared-use path. The project could save drivers up to 25 minutes during peak-hour commute times, according to the presentation given at the meeting.

Toll revenues are expected to support the cost of the project, according to the presentation.

Maryland is currently evaluating its options to rebuild and widen the American Legion Bridge, Susan Shaw, from the Virginia Department of Transportation, told the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

Preliminarily, construction could start on Virginia’s portion of the project in 2021 and take three years to finish, Shaw said.

“Obviously, solving the congestion issues at the American Legion bridge are just absolutely essential that we do that,” Foust said at the Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday. “This project doesn’t solve the congestion problems.”

While Foust said that the project is a “necessary piece of the puzzle that will do that,” he said that most of the relief will come from increasing capacity and widening the Beltway from Maryland.

Foust said he thinks it would be a “huge mistake” to start the Virginia part of the project before it can get aligned with Maryland’s timeframe.

“Timing is everything here,” Foust said. “You’ve got to get this coordinated better with what they’re doing in Maryland or a bad situation is going to get worse.”

A public meeting on the project is set for March 12 at Langley High School (6520 Georgetown Pike) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Public comments will be accepted through March 30, although Shaw said the public can reach out anytime after that.

“You want to extend the express lanes, but that’s not a good enough public purpose reason for doing this,” Foust said.

Vienna Town Councilmember Douglas Noble announced earlier this week that he plans to retire after his current term ends.

Noble was first elected to Town Council in May 2016, according to his town bio. His term expires on June 30.

Noble told the Town Council on Monday that he’s been helping with mom’s knee replacement rehabilitation, along with assisting his wife with an aunt who has Alzheimer’s disease and helping dad publish a photography book.

“I note this not without a touch of irony, considering last week I was accused of being ageist and discriminatory by a member of a public,” Noble said. “And I guess public officials should simply accept that people attack us personally.”

Noble has several things he’d like to see the Town Council accomplish in the next two years.

“I need to get the zoning code update right and we need to get it finished,” Noble said, adding that he also wants to see updates to the comprehensive plan.

He said he’d also like the town’s performance dashboard to be online and move projects and studies forward more quickly.

“And lastly, in the next couple years — four years, 10 years — we need to have a real conversation about this small town thing,” Noble said. “We need to come to grips with the idea that we haven’t really been a small town since the 1950s.”

Noble said some of the highlights of his time on the council have included the Vienna Community Center getting finished, the new police station started, expanded community events and added town positions.

Noble’s announcement means that at least three new faces will join the council later this year.

Councilmembers Pasha Majdi, Howard Springsteen and Linda Colbert are running for Mayor Laurie DiRocco’s seat.

The terms for Majdi and Colbert both expire this year, while Springsteen’s current term ends next year.

Councilmembers Nisha Patel and Steve Potter’s terms expire in 2021.

Image via Town of Vienna

(Updated at 4:50 p.m.) The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch for Fairfax County and surrounding areas starting tomorrow afternoon.

The watch will be in effect from Thursday afternoon to Friday morning.

More from NWS:

* Multiple rounds of rainfall will occur through early Friday. The heaviest rainfall potential will begin Thursday afternoon and continue into Thursday night. Storm total rainfall amounts through Friday morning are expected to range between 2 and 3 inches.

* Flooding of poor drainage and low lying areas will be possible, and some smaller streams and rivers may exceed their banks.

People are urged to monitor weather forecasts.

Residents in the City of Falls Church can get up to 20 sandbags per household, according to an email from the city.

The city’s Department of Public Works is providing the sandbags, which will be available on a first-come, first-served at the Property Yard A (between 215 and 217 Gordon Road) on Thursday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“City staff will help with loading bags into a vehicle, but they will not be responsible for vehicle damage,” the email said. “Sandbags must be returned to the distribution site after the storm.”

A research team from the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) will study use-of-force incidents by Fairfax County police.

About nine months ago, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors directed Police Auditor Richard Schott to find an academic after a study released almost three years ago found that 40 percent of use-of-force cases in 2015 involved Black people.

After the study was released, Schott reviewed the police department’s data, but several of the supervisors called for more data.

The county announced today (Wednesday) a contract was awarded to a research team from UTSA in partnership with researchers from the University of Cincinnati on Jan. 27.

The study is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2021, the press release said.

More from the press release:

The study will build upon previous Independent Police Auditor’s reviews of Fairfax County Police Department’s (FCPD) use-of-force incidents. It is intended to identify patterns and trends in uses of force by the FCPD with emphasis on racial, ethnic, gender, or similar disparities across subpopulations.

The study will address the following questions specific to incidents that occurred between 2016-2018:

What factors or combination of factors contribute to the use-of-force by FCPD officers? Specifically, what role does civilian race, ethnicity, gender, or similar personal characteristics play in the decision to use force?

Does the rate of force experienced by persons of different races and/or ethnicities align with those groups’ representation among persons at risk for having force used against them by the police? Do disparities exist in rates of force experienced by different racial and/or ethnic groups relative to risk?

Is civilian race, ethnicity, or gender-related to the level of force used by the police while accounting for resistance and other relevant individual, situational, and environmental factors?

How can the FCPD improve its use-of-force data collection processes to help facilitate future analyses?

What steps can the FCPD take to help reduce bias in use-of-force incidents?

“The UTSA team will issue a public report detailing the study’s methods, findings, conclusions, and recommendations and present it to the Board of Supervisors,” the press release said.

A Tysons citizen group recently sent a list of concerns to Fairfax County officials.

The Greater Tysons Citizens Association was founded in 2008 and is made up of residents and organizations in the Tysons area, including the Vienna Town Council and McLean Citizens Association.

In the letter dated Jan. 29, the association noted that with the upcoming 10-year-anniversary of the Tysons Comprehensive Plan, the group is worried about the impact of Tysons’ transformation on surrounding communities.

The letter was sent to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Planning Commission and School Board.

The letter goes on to outline four main concerns:

• traffic congestion
• reaching the goal of 20 urban athletic fields in Tysons
• infrastructure funding and Tysons school planning
• recent interpretations of the Tysons Comprehensive Plan

The association then provided requests for each item.

For traffic congestion, the association would like the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to look into short- and long-term solutions with community members.

As the athletic fields, the group would like the Board of Supervisors to revisit a follow-on motion decision that allowed a developer of The View to make a monetary contribution to be allocated to a community center.

“We urge investigating and pursuing other funding sources for construction of the Tysons community center,” the letter says. “We urge the PC and BOS to return to the long-accepted practice of requiring in-kind contributions rather than monetary contributions when the calculated field contribution exceeds 1/3 field.”

The association had several suggestions for the school issue:

• complete the revamp of the methodologies used in the capital improvement and proffer formula for better school population projections
• increase staffing in the facilities branch of FCPS
• identify and implement new options to acquire land and fund construction of new schools

Finally, the group requested that the Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission have an in-depth review regarding interpretations of the comprehensive plan and any “potential ramifications.”

Tysons Reporter received a copy of the letter from the McLean Citizens Association (MCA).

Sally Horn, the chair of the Greater Tysons Citizens Association, is set to discuss the letter with the MCA tonight.

The MCA meeting will start at 7:30 p.m. at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Avenue).

Fairfax County police say that a T-Mobile in McLean was robbed Monday night.

The incident happened shortly after 7 p.m. at 1400 Chain Bridge Road, Suite 100.

“A man entered the store, implied he had a gun and demanded items from inside the safe,” police said. “He left the store in a car and lookout information was broadcasted.”

Police said that the car was later stopped in D.C., adding that charges are pending further investigation.

In a separate incident, police say that someone stole lawn equipment from a home in the 7400 block of Allan Avenue in the Falls Church area.

A developer wants a proposed retail building in Falls Church to house a kids’ play center.

Bob Young, the developer, told the Falls Church Planning Commission Monday night that Scramble, a self-described “European-style play center” in Alexandria, would be a tenant.

“It’s what I would call a high-end, indoor children’s playground,” he said. “It will have a cafe. It will have an area for parents to work on their computers.”

Fairfax One LLC wants to redevelop the lot, which is across from the Protestant Episcopal Church and currently being used as a surface parking lot for the church, under a land lease agreement with the church, according to city documents.

Called Southgate II, the development would add a 12,000-square-foot retail building at 130 E. Fairfax Street. (Southgate I is at 116 E. Jefferson Street.)

While the redevelopment would remove parking spaces, the developers told the commissioners that churchgoers will be able to use the parking at the redevelopment and at an adjacent property on Sunday mornings.

“[The church] would have exclusive use of parking 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Sundays,” Young said. “Scramble would be closed.”

The project includes solar panels on the roof, which would provide roughly 25-30% of the electricity use, Young said.

Discussion of the proposed building and kids’ play center was mostly limited to comments from a handful of commissioners.

Vice-Chair Brent Krasner was the most vocal with his concerns, calling building a “very suburban, strip mall feel.”

Krasner also questioned if Scramble would be the best tenant, saying that the kids’ center seems to be better suited to “industrial” areas.

“I’m not saying there’s no use for it here,” Krasner said, adding that he doesn’t know if the space would “translate” well to a future tenant if Scramble were to close.

In response to Kranser’s comments, Young said that the building is “probably a step in the right direction,” emphasizing that the “filthy parking lot” could add tax revenue to the city as a commercial building.

“There’s good and then there’s best,” Krasner quipped back.

Not all of the feedback from the commissioners focused on concerns. Commissioner Cory Weiss, who described herself as a “semi-young mother,” called the building “a great opportunity.”

When Weiss asked the developer if the project could be more pedestrian-friendly, Young said that constraints on the site, like being “dense with underground utilities,” would make that difficult.

The site also has some restrictions from the church, although Young did not elaborate much on what those restrictions entail.

“We have a lot of constraints that are put on us by the church itself,” Young said. “We had to work through a lot of issues with the church.”

A public hearing is tentatively scheduled for March 2, according to the documents.

Image via Google Maps

Shoppers who bring their own bags to Whole Foods can help raise money for the Foundation for FCPS.

From now until June 30, Whole Foods’ “Nickels for Non-Profits program” will donate to the foundation every time shoppers re-use a bag.

The Nickels for Non-Profits program donates a nickel to a chosen local non-profit every time shoppers bring a reusable bag to discourage the use of new bags and to support local organizations.

Participating stores include the ones in Tysons (1635 Boro Place), McLean (7511 Leesburg Pike) and Vienna (143 Maple Avenue E.), along with the Whole Foods in Fair Lakes and Springfield.

The foundation helps provide teacher grants, employee recognition and funding for kids in need and for music education, according to its website.

Omina Technologies, a company focused on artificial intelligence, has opened its first U.S. headquarters in Tysons.

The company recently announced the new location at 1750 Tysons Blvd, Suite 1500, saying that the local area’s diverse high-technology companies will help Omina grow quickly.

Based in Belgium, Omina Technologies also has an office in Miami, according to a statement. Omina Technologies offers AI training for business people, consulting and an AI platform.

“The decision to expand our presence into Washington’s high-tech corridor was a logical step in our business growth strategy,” Brian Alexander, Omina Technologies’ CEO North America, said in a statement.

Photo via Omina/LinkedIn

Tysons’ 1st Stage Theatre has nabbed 18 Helen Hayes Awards nominations — making it the second most nominated theater this year in the D.C. area.

The awards, which were announced last night, recognize excellence in professional theatre in the D.C. area.

The awards are split into two main categories: the “Hayes” for productions featuring a majority of theater union members and the “Helen” for productions with fewer union members.

The Tysons theater trailed Olney Theatre Center’s 27 nominations for the most for any theater.

Here is the full list of nominations:

• “Airness” with Keegan Theatre — Outstanding Choreography in a Play, Outstanding Sound Design, James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play, Outstanding Choreography in a Play
• “columbinus” — Outstanding Lighting Design, Outstanding Sound Design, Outstanding Direction in a Play, Outstanding Ensemble in a Play, James MacArthur Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Play, Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play
• “The Brothers Size” — Outstanding Production in a Play, Outstanding Set Design, Outstanding Sound Design, Outstanding Direction in a Play, Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play, Outstanding Production in a Play
• “The Royale” with Olney Theatre Center — Outstanding Choreography in a Play, Outstanding Sound Design

Last year, 1st Stage won five of its 22 nominations.

The winners will be announced on Monday, May, 18, at the Anthem in D.C.