The new Apple store at Tysons Corner Center is ready to say hello.
Opening to customers at 10 a.m. today (Friday), the 13,010-square-foot store has been branded as a “new chapter” for the technology company, which launched its original retail location at the mall on May 19, 2001 — exactly 22 years ago.
Given that history, Apple was “excited” to introduce its latest design features in Tysons, a spokesperson said, as the business seeks to maintain its status as a trendsetter in the ever-evolving world of retail.
“It’s so exciting to see how many people know about our old Tysons Corner store,” Jason Reyes, a business expert for the Tysons store, said at a media preview yesterday. “It’s the first one ever in the whole world, and for it to kind of get into its next generation, really, is so exciting to see. It’s just showing how we’re evolving as a company.”
Now located on the mall’s second floor adjacent to Victoria’s Secret, the remodeled Apple Store trades its predecessor’s enclosed, almost utilitarian design for a warmer, more natural look with wood paneling and a wrap-around, all-glass storefront.
Accessibility and sustainability were top priorities for the new design, according to Apple Retail and Design Manager Bill Bergeron-Mirsky.
In addition to being carbon-neutral and operating entirely on renewable energy sources, the store was built out of plant-based materials, with “biogenic acoustic panels and baffles” for the ceiling and biopolymers for the floor.
“That replaces a petrochemical product, but it also increases the performance of the floor itself,” Bergeron-Mirsky said.
He highlighted the varied table and chair heights, intended to ensure all customers can “engage with the store team,” and wide aisles designed for easier navigation by wheelchair users. The store also has a portable hearing loop to assist people who use hearing aids.
The store layout will be familiar, with long tables and wall displays for different products, from iPads and phone cases to Apple Music and Apple TV+, the company’s streaming services.
Additions include a more prominent “Genius” bar for technical support next to a pickup counter for online orders. There is also a table for “Today at Apple” workshops and an Apple Watch studio where both the products and the environment can be customized.
“We can end up transforming this room to highlight [a] new product, or we could bring a music experience into it,” Reyes said. “I mean, the possibilities are endless. Even the lighting itself can be changed, depending on what experience we want to give the customer in this room.”
The focus on accessibility extends to the store’s over 100 employees, a team that includes speakers of American Sign Language, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, Vietnamese, French, Amharic and other languages, Bergeron-Mirsky said.
Apple declined to comment on whether any of its other 500-plus stores will get similar overhauls, but the relocation has boosted the company’s profile in Tysons Corner Center, placing it closer to the Plaza that owner and developer Macerich built as the mall’s focal point.
“Apple has been such a key partner with Tysons Corner Center since they opened their store in our center 22 years ago and we look forward to working with them on this next chapter of their brand evolution for their new location within the center,” Macerich Director of Property Management Jesse Benites said. “As a leader in innovation and design, Apple has always been a destination retailer for malls and we wish them continued success.”
Missing Oakton Man’s Car Found — “Shenandoah National Park announced Wednesday morning that a gray Honda belonging to Mateo Luis Cabo Zevallos, 21, was found in a parking lot at mile 21 on Skyline Drive. Zevallos was last seen May 5 leaving his home in Oakton en route to George Mason University.” [Inside NoVA]
First Ride Suggests I-66 Trail Criticisms Merited — The newly opened 66 Parallel Trail segment between the Vienna Metro and Cedar Lane is “not a very pleasant ride, but it’s not as bad as the pictures make it out to be,” DCist’s transportation reporter says. On the upside, the trail has “direct connections to places people want to go,” but concerns about noise and vehicle fume exposure in places next to the highway “bear out.” [DCist]
Dulles Airport Could Let VIPs Skip Terminal — “The airports authority is advancing plans for a VIP remote passenger processing service for commercial airline flights at Dulles. A committee of the authority’s board voted Wednesday to issue a presolicitation for a firm to develop, lease and operate the facility at 45041 Compass Court…Departing passengers would be transported directly to their scheduled commercial aircraft from the new facility.” [Washington Business Journal]
Dulles Toll Road Revenues Rise — “A post-COVID back-to-work culture, aided by some help from Mom Nature, helped fill the Dulles Toll Road’s coffers during the opening third of the year. Toll Road revenues for the first four months of 2023 stood at $66.5 million, up 33 percent from a year before and 7.6 percent above budget, according to figures reported May 17 by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.” [Gazette Leader]
FCPD Hires IT Director — “Chief Davis from Fairfax County Police Department (FCPD) is pleased to welcome Smitha Tumuluri as the new Director of its Information Technology (IT) Bureau…Director Tumuluri will work with FCPD’s administrative and uniformed team leaders to develop IT strategies and solutions that align with the agency’s mission.” [FCPD]
Oakton HS Student Wins State Beauty Pageant — “Ashley Wang is a sophomore making history beyond the pageant stage. Ashley is the first East Asian and the second Asian to win the title of Miss Virginia Teen USA…As Ashley gears up to represent Virginia in the Miss Teen USA competition, she is spreading a message of self-love and encouraging everyone to embrace the unique qualities that make them different.” [FCPS/Facebook]
Lorton Picnic Area Is Getting Restrooms — Fairfax County Park Authority contractor, Bright Construction Group, will be mobilizing next week to build the Laurel Hill Central Green Restroom. Expected to finish in spring 2024, the $2.5 million “project includes construction of a restroom facility, accessible walkway and supporting infrastructure to include sanitary sewer, electric and water lines.” [FCPA]
County’s Oldest Boy Scout Troop Reaches 95th Anniversary — “Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, parents, grandparents, elected leaders, Boy Scout officials, and former scouts celebrated the 95th anniversary of Troop 150 on May 15…Troop 150 is the oldest troop in Fairfax County still operating and is among the oldest in Northern Virginia.” [Annandale Today]
It’s Friday — Partly sunny, with a high near 73. Southeast wind 7 to 11 mph. At night: A chance of showers after 2 a.m. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. [Weather.gov]
The American tax system may finally get dragged into the modern world, with an assist from a federal contractor based in Tysons.
Maximus has signed an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service to participate in a $2.6 billion push to modernize the agency’s computer systems and databases, the government services company announced yesterday.
Under the seven-year contract, Maximus will compete with other awarded companies to upgrade technology dating back to the 1960s, consolidating over 400 different systems into “a new, cloud-based architecture,” according to a public relations representative for the company.
Other awardees include Booz Allen Hamilton, which is also headquartered in Tysons.
“The IRS laid out an ambitious plan to transform how the agency provides services and capabilities to improve the taxpayer experience as well as IRS internal operations,” Maximus Federal General Manager Teresa Weipert said in the press release. “Maximus, through our excellent IRS team and modernization expertise, will deliver on that plan and taxpayer experience.”
The announcement came a day after the IRS filed a report in Congress outlining plans to test its own free electronic filing system as an alternative to paid services like TurboTax and H&R Block, which have lobbied against taxpayers submitting their returns directly to the federal government.
The IRS currently has a list of private companies that offer free tax preparation and filing services to people under certain income thresholds, but less than 3% of taxpayers utilize the “Free File” providers, even though about 70% of people are eligible, according to the Government Accountability Office.
A pilot program is expected to launch by the beginning of the 2024 tax season in January, making the IRS system available to “a small group of taxpayers,” the Washington Post reported earlier this week.
Maximus won’t be directly involved in developing the e-filing system, but its work to modernize the IRS’ technology will help “enable offerings like that,” the company spokesperson said.
Headquartered at 1600 Tysons Blvd, Maximus has worked with the IRS for more than three decades, per the press release. Its other government clients include the Social Security Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The company has faced protests and strikes by workers in its Medicare and Medicaid call centers over their wages, benefits and working conditions. A coalition of labor and civil rights groups sent a letter to the Labor Department in March calling for an investigation into allegations of racism and sexism.
Low pay, unaffordable health care costs, inadequate break and paid leave policies, and other issues persist in Maximus call centers, according to the Communications Workers of America, the union that has been organizing some employees.
“Workers have raised serious questions about racial disparities at Maximus, particularly for Black and Latina women who feel that they have no clear paths to career advancement,” CWA organizer Victoria Miller said. “The IRS itself is a model of equity in comparison to the vast racial and gender disparities that exist at Maximus.”
A board-commissioned workgroup is calling for changes to Fairfax County Police Department’s use of force policies and expanded independent oversight.
At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors safety and security committee meeting on Tuesday (May 16), a 10-member Police Reform Matrix Working Group (MWG) created by the board released a broad 46-page report that establishes the need for policy changes and additional accountability.
The report builds on more than 300 recommendations from a community-wide survey of residents that evaluated the FCPD’s public safety and security responsibilities. It was influenced by the death of Timothy Johnson, who was shot and killed by an officer who pursued him for reportedly stealing sunglasses at Tysons Corner Center.
The officer who shot Johnson was fired but not indicted. A second officer who also fired his gun remains with the department.
“The MWG could not overlook the totality of these events and the context within which we received and created an actionable set of policy and program initiatives,” the report said.
As noted by the report, the FCPD has had eight police shootings in the past 15 months after the prior decade averaged 1.5 per year. Starting in 2022, police officers have killed four people, including Brandon Lemagne just last week.
In a recent study, a team from the University of Texas San Antonio found Black civilians are almost two times more likely than white civilians to experience high levels of force. Additionally, Black civilians were 1.2 times more likely than arrested white civilians to have force used against them.
Board Chairman Jeff McKay said the report is working document that will inform continuous change in the FCPD, which he said is in a much better place than it was in 2015.
“To be a great police department, you have to constantly evolve,” McKay said.
Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn said he appreciates the recommendations — some of which are already going forward — particularly the co-responder model, which emphasizes coordination between police and mental health professionals.
“This is not easy. This is complex fraught with emotion, human emotion,” Alcorn said, adding that the rise in shootings by officers is not acceptable.
But Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity said he struggled to reconcile the report with high levels of confidence reported by recent community surveys.
“We don’t have broad community input into this. We’ve got a group of police reform folks that got together and hasn’t heard the other side of the impact,” Herrity said.
Looking forward
The report argues that most recommendations by the county’s Use of Force Community Advisory Committee — a group charged with reviewing the university’s report — weren’t adopted in full, despite revisions to FCPD’s use-of-force general order in 2022.
It emphasizes that any force must be proportional to the risk of harm to the officer or others, and the events leading up to the use of force have to be taken into account. It also says the FCPD should add pointing a gun or other weapon to its definition of force, revising a current standard that treats it as a separate reportable action not subject to a use-of-force investigation.
Other recommendations include a foot pursuit policy dictating when officers can chase a suspect. After civil rights groups decried the lack of an existing policy in the wake of Johnson’s death, the FCPD said it will implement one based on guidance from an outside review of recent police shootings.
The report also calls on the FCPD to expand its co-responder team, which is currently only staffed from 2-10 p.m. The model intends to ensure behavioral health professionals are the first point of contact for people who are disoriented, intoxicated or in a behavioral health crisis.
That recommendation comes on the heels of the shooting death of Jasper Aaron Lynch in August 2022. Lynch was shot and killed at a home in McLean while experiencing a mental health crisis.
Non-voting members on the working group include representatives from the FCPD, the Civilian Review Panel (CRP), and the Office of Independent Police Auditor (IPA).
The report also calls on expanded independent oversight, including allowing the review panel and IPA to delineate when they should monitor FCPD investigations or conduct independent ones.
It says the panel should be allowed to review FCPD administrative investigations involving allegations of bias or profiling, and that the IPA should be allowed to recommend when the Commonwealth’s Attorney should proceed with independent criminal investigations of officers.
Maintaining and improving police officer excellence also ranked high on the report’s recommendations, including the need for evaluating officers’ understanding of escalation tactics and crisis intervention skills and training. Emphasis on community engagement was also flagged as a need for improvement.
The report also notes a need for more data transparency. For example, public data overstates the proportion for white arrestees because Latino individuals are included in that category. Additionally, data on police stops and searches of pedestrians isn’t made public.
“These shortcomings increase the challenge of building and sustaining community trust by suggesting there is something to hide, even though FCPD’s approach is consistent with historical policing practice throughout much of the country,” the report states.
Use-of-force incidents should be analyzed to determine if disparities persist, examine full details on those encounters, including escalation measures taken, and flag any officers who repeatedly escalate initially minor encounters.
“Additionally, full transparency and a ramped-up effort to communicate broadly the status of these recommendations is of the utmost importance in building trust and community confidence in the ongoing efforts by the County and the FCPD to achieve protective, equitable, responsive, and respectful policing,” the report said.
Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk said the board will get Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis’s review of the report at a future meeting.
“They have worked diligently to figure ways to share more data,” Lusk said.
MWG member Vernon Walton said the erosion of trust in police can make it difficult for a community to be its “best self.”
“Jasper Aaron Lynch, Timothy McCree Johnson cannot simply be names added to a list,” Walton said. “But their names, and particularly their deaths, should propel us to greater reflection, rigorous reform, practical policy, and a more caring community.”
Photo via FCPD/Facebook
A man died after hitting a deer on the Dulles Airport Access Highway in Tysons last night (Wednesday).
Police responded to the westbound lanes about a mile west of the Capital Beltway (I-495) for a single-vehicle crash around 8:17 p.m., says the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which has jurisdiction over the Dulles Access Road.
Upon arriving, officers found the adult, male driver dead in the vehicle, which police described as a “ride-share Toyota minivan.”
An injured passenger was transported to Reston Hospital Center by the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, according to scanner traffic. Police confirmed that the passenger was a rideshare customer.
“Airport-bound traffic was detoured to the Dulles Toll Road during the accident reconstruction,” MWAA said.
FATAL DEER-VS-AUTO CRASH — westbound Dulles Access Rd just past the tollbooth. One human dead, and another injured. #VATraffic pic.twitter.com/lBvDaRMzOc
— Alan Henney (@alanhenney) May 18, 2023
Map via Google Maps
Capitol Police Push to Expand Presence After Assault — “The U.S. Capitol Police wants to increase the number of field offices it has around the country to investigate threats to members of Congress, as well as more funding to beef up cooperation with local police departments, the agency’s chief said Tuesday, a day after a man…attacked staff members of Rep. Gerald E. Connolly” [The Washington Post]
Sister of Man Killed by FCPD Speaks — Nechelle Lemagne, sister of the man shot and killed by police in Penn Daw on May 11, says her brother “was definitely murdered,” expressing bafflement at Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis calling the officers heroes. “Nechelle said she isn’t defending her brother’s actions but questions the way police handled it.” [ABC7]
One Injured in Vienna Townhouse Fire — Around 8:30 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday), Fairfax County Fire and Rescue units responded to a townhouse fire in the 700 block of Hunter Court SW. All occupants were evacuated, but one person was taken to a hospital “with non life-threatening injuries. No reported firefighter injuries.” [FCFRD/Twitter]
Metro Got Hacked From Russia — “A former WMATA contractor using a personal computer in Russia breached Metro’s computer system earlier this year, according to a report from WMATA’s Office of the Inspector General, revealing ‘grave concerns’ for the system’s cyber vulnerabilities.” [DCist]
Inova Mount Vernon Opens Region’s First Post-Acute Care Unit — “Inova Health System held a ribbon cutting Tuesday for its new post-acute care specialty hospital in partnership with Select Medical. The specialty hospital serves critically ill patients who need extended care but no longer need the intensive care of an acute care hospital. The first patients will be welcomed on Tuesday, May 23.” [Patch]
Tree Trimmings May Affect Traffic Next Week — “Dominion Energy will trim and/or remove trees along Blenheim Boulevard between Great Oaks Drive and Ridge Avenue. This work will reduce hazards to overhead lines and reduce the potential for residential power loss during storms. Work is expected to last one day. Residents are advised to slow down when they see the orange cones.” [City of Fairfax]
GMU Swim Coach Announces Retirement — “George Mason University men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach Peter Ward has announced his retirement after starting the program 25 years ago. Hired in fall 1998, Ward built a Division I program and led the men’s and women’s teams to several team titles in two different conferences.” [Inside NoVA]
Scotts Run Fire Station Celebrates New Engine — “FS44 Scotts Run (A-Shift) held a push-in ceremony for their new Engine 444. Shout out to @SupvPalchik staff for stopping by! Thank you to the @fairfaxcounty residents and leadership for providing us with the latest cutting-edge equipment needed to serve the county.” [FCFRD/Twitter]
South Lakes HS Tops Local Theater Awards — “South Lakes High School received 18 nominations for the prestigious National Capital Area Cappies, which are considered the Tony Awards for high school theater in the DC region. It received the most nominations in 2023 of all DC area schools for its production of ‘Bright Star.'” [Patch]
It’s Thursday — Sunny, with a high near 69. Northeast wind 6 to 8 mph becoming southeast in the afternoon. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 52. Southeast wind 5 to 9 mph. [Weather.gov]
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.
(Updated at 2:15 p.m.) 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 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
Clemyjontri Carousel Temporarily Stalled by Birds — “The Fairfax County Park Authority took its Americans with Disabilities Act-accessible carousel at Clemyjontri Park in McLean out of operation May 5 because the birds had placed nesting material in its main gear.” The carousel is expected to resume operations this weekend after staff removed the material and installed a Plexiglas barrier to prevent the birds from returning. [Gazette Leader]
Man Who Assaulted Connolly Staffers Previously Called Office — Rep. Gerry Connolly “said that staffers had previously talked to the man on the phone and he seemed off. Pham’s father said in an interview that his son was schizophrenic and has been ill since his late teens. The father said that his son had been refusing to take his medication and that he had unsuccessfully sought help for him.” [The Washington Post]
Car Crashes Into School Bus in North Springfield — Yesterday “around 8:45am in the 5200 blk of Inverchapel Rd, a sedan struck a school bus. No children were injured as a result. The driver of the white sedan was treated for minor injuries and was charged with having a phone in hand. U text. U drive. U pay.” [FCPD/Twitter]
State Trooper Injured in I-66 Collision — “A woman struck the back of a Virginia State Police SUV, propelling it into a state trooper and knocking him into incoming traffic on Interstate 66 late Monday afternoon, law enforcement says.” The crash occurred around 4 a.m. after the trooper stopped a pickup truck near the 50-mile marker for speeding. [WTOP]
New Restaurants Coming to Annandale — “A Wingstop restaurant is coming to the new shopping center on the corner of Little River Turnpike and John Marr Drive in Annandale…Another restaurant is under construction next door. Moby Dick House of Kabob is opening at 7042-J Little River Turnpike at one end of that retail center, and Patient First is coming to the other end.” [Annandale Today]
Results Are In for FCPD Anti-Speeding Campaign — “The Fairfax County Police Department shared the results of the agency’s ’50 Means 50′ campaign, which aimed to deter dangerous driving behavior on the Fairfax County Parkway…Officers issued 890 traffic summonses and 163 warning tickets, totaling 1,053 violations.” [WUSA9]
Vienna Repeats With Fitness Challenge Win — “For the second consecutive year, Team Vienna emerged the victor in the annual Mayors’ Fitness Challenge. The friendly competition between the Town of Vienna and Falls Church and Fairfax cities encourages residents to get moving and log their minutes of exercise in the name of community spirit and team pride.” [Town of Vienna]
Library Fandomania Returns to Providence Community on Saturday — “‘Geek out’ at our sixth annual celebration of comic books, science fiction, fantasy, TV, movies and more. Meet Ben Hatke, author and illustrator of the Zita the Spacegirl series and other titles…Show off your costuming skills in a cosplay contest, learn how to paint gaming miniatures, browse the vendor and artist hall, take a snack break at a food truck, and be sure to pick up some free swag.” [Fairfax County Public Library]
It’s Wednesday — Sunny, with a high near 72. North wind 11 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Tonight: Clear, with a low around 47. Northeast wind around 8 mph. [Weather.gov]
Reston Row is under construction (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Fairfax County government staff said a proposal (action item 3) that aims to right-size how much developers pay for their transportation impacts could negatively affect funding for local projects.
Currently, developers have to pay to offset their transportation impact of added density if the development exceeds the limits established in the comprehensive plan for areas like Tysons, Reston or Centreville.
With the county trying to emphasize public transit in many of its denser areas, proposed changes could reduce the estimated “trip generation” of new development, and past contributions to programs offsetting that development impacts could be adjusted to the new standard.
Back in August, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to reevaluate guidelines for the county’s road funds in order to maintain the county as an appealing destination for developers, according to the board matter introduced by Chairman Jeff McKay.
“Recently, the County has been experiencing various forms of redevelopment, including repurposing buildings for different uses and the redevelopment of sites with new developments where other buildings had been rendered obsolete and torn down,” McKay wrote. “This redevelopment is vital in keeping the County economy competitive, as well as resilient…However, the adopted guidelines do not anticipate how to handle the new reality we are experiencing.”
McKay said some of the current contribution requirements for developers don’t reflect the reality of how much traffic the new developments are putting on roads:
For example, a project in Fair Lakes where an obsolete office building paid into the Road Fund in the 1980s is being replaced by townhomes. The townhomes will generate a lower trip rate than the office building. As such, and absent guidelines on how to address these instances, County staff was only able to give the developer credit for the previous contribution. However, that contribution was at a much lower square foot rate since it was made 40-years ago. Staff did not have the latitude to consider the lower trip generation rate, or how much the rates have increased over time when evaluating the Road Fund contribution.
But while that could benefit developers, staff also said that change could be a hit against the county’s transportation funding — and at-risk populations are most likely to be impacted.
According to the staff report:
Staff conducted an Equity Impact Assessment and concluded that this action may negatively impact at-risk populations. While there is a realized benefit of allowing developers to reduce their development derived contribution toward County road funds, that benefit comes at the expense of reduced transportation funding. Although the at-risk populations in most road fund areas are primarily within the low to average vulnerability index, the Centreville area has populations that falls within the high to very high vulnerability index. Reduced funding in all areas, especially Centreville, may result in reduced transportation services for populations in need of additional accessibility and transportation options.
In short, if approved, staff said there will be less money to spend on transportation projects.
“The proposed revisions to the road funds may result in reduced developer funds received for transportation projects,” the report said.
The item was docketed for review at a Board of Supervisors meeting on May 9 but was deferred.
