Snow and colder weather have now descended upon the Northern Virginia area.
Forecasters expect rainy weather later this week and temperatures dipping into the 30s.
For locals gearing up for more wet, wintry weather, Fairfax County has a “Guide to Snow” with information ranging from shoveling to driving tips.
Winter officially begins next Saturday (Dec. 21). Let Tysons Reporter know if you are ready for winter weather.
Starting next week, people can get free Lyft rides during the holiday season from the ridesharing app’s partnership with a local nonprofit to combat drunk driving.
The Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) is sponsoring the free rides starting next Friday (Dec. 20), according to a press release from WRAP.
Local residents in the D.C. area ages 21 and older can use a promo code for rides up to $15 from 10 p.m. until 4 a.m. in Lyft’s D.C. coverage area, which includes all of Fairfax County.
Riders can find the codes starting at 9 p.m. on Dec. 20, 27 and 31. on SoberRide’s website. The program is set to run to Jan. 1.
Last December, 1,988 people in the D.C. area used WRAP’s SoberRide program, the press release said.
“More than a third of all U.S. traffic fatalities during the holiday season in 2018 involved drunk drivers according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,” WRAP’s President Kurt Gregory Erickson said in the press release.
Image via Washington Regional Alcohol Program
After dozens of meetings on proposed changes to the zoning ordinance, a Vienna Town official proposed a solution to speed up the process.
Earlier this year, the Vienna Town Council extended the moratorium on the MAC zone to June 30 — after pushing the deadline several times.
Councilmember Steve Potter called the work on updating the zoning ordinance a “log jam” and brought forward a motion for a comprehensive reorganization and update of Subdivision and Zoning Ordinances, Chapters 17 and 18 of Town Code, by using a consulting firm.
“It is time for a process check,” Potter told the Town Council last night.
“There have been approximately 75 Town Council and Planning Commission meetings and work sessions plus six MAC ad hoc committee meetings and two community workshops on proposed amendments to the zoning ordinance since 2016,” he said.
Potter’s motion:
I move to direct planning and zoning staff to expand the scope of the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zone and other proposed commercial zone amendments, as directed by Council to date, to include: request for proposal preparation for the comprehensive reorganization and update of Chapters 17 and 18 of the Town Code; consultant interviews and selection recommendations for consulting firms with national and Virginia experience; and determination of a realistic moratorium period for the MAC zone based upon the scope of work identified.
All pertinent work accomplished to date by staff, committees, commissions, boards, and Council, as well as relevant results from public comments, surveys, and workshops shall be retained and shared with the winning consulting firm for use in development of the aforementioned reorganization and update.
“I think this gives us a chance to kind of fix things correctly,” Councilmember Howard Springsteen said.
Potter’s motion aims to make the regulations organized and easy to understand by using plain language, charts, tables and illustrations, along with consistent with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan.
“The project is funded, up to $240,000, through the FY 2019-2020 budget from currently allocated funds and prior reserves,” according to town documents.
The Vienna Town Council approved the motion, which Councilmember Linda Colbert called “a great way to end 2019 and a good way to start 2020.”
Image via Town of Vienna
Starting next year, motorized scooters will be able to go up to 8 miles per hour in the Maple Avenue and Nutley Street corridors.
The General Assembly passed legislation earlier this year allowing localities to regulate motorized scooters and skateboards before Jan. 1.
The Vienna Town Council approved last night (Monday) a one-year pilot program for shared mobility devices, which include motorized scooters, ahead of the end-of-year deadline.
The devices will be able to go up to 8 mph on the Nutley Street and Maple Avenue corridors and in areas adjacent t0 schools, parks and recreation centers. On side streets, the devices will be able to go up to 20 mph.
Town staff said that it is anticipated that people will use the devices on the sidewalks on Nutley and Maple and in the road on the side streets.
Each operator will be required to pay a $5,000 fee to the town and be capped at 150 vehicles per the mode of transportation — motorized scooters or bikes — for each company.
Currently, the town has not capped the number of companies.
The Fairfax County supervisors representing Tysons and McLean voiced support for a proposed change that would allow residents to access roads with restricted turns during peak-hours.
Currently, a joint program from the transportation departments for Virginia and Fairfax County restricts access to neighborhood roads during peak-hour traffic — including the residents.
Fairfax County has three cut-thru restrictions in place. Four additional ones are at various stages, including:
- Dead Run Drive/Carper Street in McLean
- Electric Avenue/Williams Avenue/Overlook Street in the Tysons area
- Allen Avenue in the Falls Church area
Earlier this year, Virginia General Assembly passed a law allowing local jurisdictions to create a program to issue permits or stickers to residents to make turns into or out of a designated area during certain times of the day when those turns are not allowed.
Now, Fairfax County is considering creating the program with permits.
“Permits would not be available for visitors, caregivers, service providers, non-resident owners, relatives, or other non-residents,” according to a presentation to the Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday).
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation has submitted a budget request for fiscal year 2021 to pay for the change.
“We have not received any funding to pay for this,” Henri Stein McCartney, a transportation planner for FCDOT, told the board.
While the supervisors mostly agreed that cut-thru traffic is — as Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay called it — a “bad problem” made worse by navigation software like Waze, they disagreed on whether or not to pursue the proposed change.
Chairman Sharon Bulova said that she is worried about not allowing people who need to get to the homes in the cut-thru area but aren’t residents.
Mason District Supervisor Penny Gross echoed Bulova’s concerns, saying that the program would create an “equity problem.”
“I don’t see anything that is broken here that needs to be fixed,” Gross said.
Gross also said that she does not support the “enormous” cost of the $230,000 software needed for the change.
Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust argued that residents should have access to the cut-thru areas, saying that the proposed change would allow more people in instead of keep more people out of the areas.
“Not being able to turn into your own neighborhood is what keeps neighborhoods from doing [the cut-thru program],” Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth said. “We need to have some sort of selectivity here.”
Other supervisors, like McKay, voiced indecision on the proposal.
FCDOT now plans to work on a draft ordinance for a Board of Supervisors public hearing.
Photo via Facebook
Tysons Reporter reports local news for Tysons, McLean, Vienna, Falls Church and Merrifield.
Thank you to everyone who has liked, followed and bookmarked us.
Unfortunately, for those who only get our stories via social media, you’re missing out. Algorithms decide what you see on platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and oftentimes that means important local stories don’t make it to your feed.
So how can you make sure you’re seeing all Tysons Reporter headlines? Sign up for our email newsletter, which delivers local headlines to your inbox once a day.
Mayor Laurie DiRocco announced last night that she will not seek re-election in 2020 in the Town of Vienna.
“After great thought and reflection, I have decided not to seek a fourth term as mayor,” DiRocco said at the Town Council meeting last night (Monday).
A resident of Vienna since 1995, DiRocco was first elected to the Town Council in 2009 and has been mayor since 2014.
“I have served on the council for over a decade and served on town boards and commissions for six years prior to that, so after 17 years of service to the town, I would like to start a new chapter in my life and pursue some other interests,” DiRocco said.
DiRocco said that when she was first appointed to the Transportation Safety Commission for 17 years, she did not plan to run for elected office.
“I never really thought of myself as a politician,” DiRocco said, thanking former Mayor M. Jane Seeman for encouraging her to run for mayor.
DiRocco also thanked volunteers, staffers and supporters in the town.
“I am so grateful to the many citizens who have supported me over the years,” DiRocco said. “I am very humbled by it because many of you are so active and involved yourselves.”
While DiRocco noted that there has been disagreement over commercial redevelopment in the town, she lauded the town’s operations
DiRocco did not elaborate on her plans for after her term ends, but she did say that for her last six months in office she plans to push for a parking structure for Church Street.
“The Town of Vienna is in a very positive state,” DiRocco said.
DiRocco’s term expires on June 30.
The next election for the Town of Vienna is in May 2020.
The Town of Vienna recently bought the property of the late former mayor — and may possibly turn it into a park.
The town was the winning bidder of the Nov. 22 auction hosted by McGuire Group, LLC for the property at 124 Courthouse Road SW for $1,438,500, including a 5% buyer’s fee, according to a press release from the town.
The property was once the home of former Mayor Charles Robinson and former Councilmember Maud Robinson.
“Both of the Robinsons had an outsized impact on the Town of Vienna and contributed an enormous amount of their time, energy, and heart to creating a more personally connected and livable community,” Mayor Laurie DiRocco said.
More from the press release:
Following discussion in a closed session earlier in November, Town Council authorized Town staff to bid on and purchase the property at a cost not to exceed a certain limit. Last night Town Council officially authorized the purchase.
The nearly three-quarters of an acre property includes a single-family house and outbuildings. The property was made available via auction by the executor of Maud Robinson’s will; Robinson passed away March 11 this year at the age of 96. Her husband served as Vienna’s mayor for 24 years, from 1976 until his death in 2000…
The Town tentatively plans to use the property as parkland, but additional uses will be considered as well.
“Maud Robinson was a champion of parks and conservation,” DiRocco said. “The town felt it appropriate to keep her and Charlie’s property ‘in the family’ and to utilize it for the benefit of the entire community.”
Image via Google Maps
Local officials are set to talk about how to improve safety along Shreve Road at a town hall on Thursday.
The event comes several months after a Falls Church resident Betty Ana Bernstein-Zabza died from a hit and run near the intersection of Shreve Road and Hickory Street in August.
Del. Marcus Simon (D-53rd) and the Shreve Road Community Working Group, a coalition of residents and community associations advocating for improvements to the corridor, plan to provide an update “on actions by local officials to improve the notoriously dangerous Shreve Road,” according to an email from the working group’s co-founders.
The town hall is set to start at 6:30 p.m. at the cafeteria in Shrevewood Elementary School (7525 Shreve Road).
First image via Google Maps; flyer via Shreve Road Community Working Group
Fairfax County police arrested a woman from California for allegedly making fraudulent credit card charges at a Marriott in Tysons.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. on Friday (Dec. 6) at 8028 Leesburg Pike.
“The victim, who resides in Florida, called the hotel to report that someone was using her credit card and making fraudulent charges at the hotel,” according to the police report.
When officers arrived at the hotel, they were directed to the reserved room and charged a 28-year-old with credit card theft, the report said.
