Industrious, a new coworking space, launched last Wednesday (April 24) in the heart of Tysons as part of an expansion across Northern Virginia.

“It’s a rich market, especially with Amazon moving in,” Joyce Oh, an area manager for Industrious, said. “We’re trying to be proactive and support the companies there.”

Before its official launch, Industrious recently hosted several events in the new space at 1660 International Drive.

The company also has a new Ballston location in Arlington and a location in Alexandria, with another opening in the Courthouse neighborhood of Arlington later this year or early next year. While Amazon and Alexandria are the main hubs of Amazon-hullabaloo, Oh said Tysons as a hub for other government contractors and consulting firms made it a perfect target for a new coworking space.

“We were excited to open with higher occupancy [than normal],” Oh said. “It speaks to the level of demand we see in the market and the different product.”

Oh said that most of the offices are built with one to eight people in mind, though if they find a demand for larger offices, Oh said that’s something the company could look into.

Industrious fits 300 at max capacity, with individual rooms able to support up to 12 people. Oh said prices vary by the size of the office, with smaller offices starting at $800 per month or coworking memberships for a desk at the facility at $515.

While there are already a handful of other coworking spaces in Tysons, like MakeOffices and WeWork, Oh said Industrious sets itself apart with a more “mature” aesthetic and sense of hospitality.

“We’re a coworking office, but we train our staff to be hospitality staff and make members feel at home,” Oh said. “It attracts a different type of demographic. If you walk into Industrious, the space feels more mature than other coworking spaces. There’s a lot of maple — a lot of natural woods. We have a more polished feel.”

(Updated at 2:30 p.m.) A Tornado Watch and Severe Thunderstorm Warning are in effect for Fairfax County.

The watch is in effect until 9 p.m. today (Friday). Storms with heavy rain and strong winds are also expected this evening. Several surrounding localities across Northern Virginia, D.C. and Maryland are also covered by the alert.

The Severe Thunderstorm Warning is in effect until 3 p.m. today and covers parts of Northern Virginia and Maryland.

More from the National Weather Service on the Severe Thunderstorm Warning:

…A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 300 PM EDT FOR MONTGOMERY…SOUTHEASTERN LOUDOUN AND NORTHERN FAIRFAX COUNTIES AND THE NORTHWESTERN CITY OF FAIRFAX…

AT 232 PM EDT, SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WERE LOCATED ALONG A LINE EXTENDING FROM ASHBURN TO DULLES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, MOVING EAST AT 50 MPH.

HAZARD…60 MPH WIND GUSTS.

SOURCE…RADAR INDICATED. DULLES AIRPORT GUSTED TO 53 MPH.

IMPACT…DAMAGING WINDS WILL CAUSE SOME TREES AND LARGE BRANCHES TO FALL. THIS COULD INJURE THOSE OUTDOORS, AS WELL AS DAMAGE HOMES AND VEHICLES. ROADWAYS MAY BECOME BLOCKED BY DOWNED TREES. LOCALIZED POWER OUTAGES ARE POSSIBLE. UNSECURED LIGHT OBJECTS MAY BECOME PROJECTILES.

LOCATIONS IMPACTED INCLUDE… GERMANTOWN, CENTREVILLE, ROCKVILLE, BETHESDA, GAITHERSBURG, RESTON, LEESBURG, OLNEY, SOUTH RIDING, HERNDON, FAIRFAX, VIENNA, DAMASCUS, BROADLANDS, LANSDOWNE, LOWES ISLAND, BRAMBLETON, PIMMIT HILLS, POOLESVILLE AND MCLEAN.

A tornado watch has been issued for parts of DE, DC, MD, NJ, PA, VA until 9 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/7rMIgDS2AQ

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) April 26, 2019

11:45 AM FRI – Showers & t-storms will progress east across the region, with some storms becoming strong to locally severe with damaging winds and an isolated tornado possible. Most likely timing: 12-2 PM west of Blue Ridge, 2-4 PM metro areas, 4-6 PM southern MD & near the bay.

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) April 26, 2019

Severe Thunderstorm Warning including Germantown MD, Silver Spring MD, Centreville VA until 3:00 PM EDT pic.twitter.com/7GWxweSheR

— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) April 26, 2019

(Updated at 3:30 p.m.)  A power outage hit the largely residential neighborhoods in northeast Vienna, as well as a portion of Tysons, today (April 26).

The estimated time of restoration is between 1-4 p.m. As of noon, Dominion Energy reported 2,006 customers in the area without power.

The power outage was resolved on Dominion’s website around 1:15 p.m.

“All but 165 of the 2,000 [customers] were restored in about an hour,” Charles Penn, Sr., a spokesman for Dominion Energy, told Tysons Reporter.

A tree that fell on a power line caused the outage, Penn said.

https://twitter.com/carencey/status/1121801503998660608

Image via Dominion Energy

It’s a clean slate for the Claude Moore farm area.

At a meeting, last night (Thursday) at the Madison Community Center in Arlington, the National Park Service (NPS) opened up the public discussion for what should happen for the Claude Moore Colonial Farm property, which until late last year was operating as an 18th-century American-style farm.

“This is the first step in the process to develop a plan,” Jenny Anzelmo-Sarles, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, said. “We’re getting ideas and comments and hoping to give people a sense of the process. We’re starting with a blank slate and we want a robust and transparent process.”

Display boards around the room highlighted a variety of potential directions the park could take, asking attendees if they are more interested in casual activities, like tending to a community garden or learning basket weaving, or active uses like nature walks with park rangers or a junior ranger program.

“One option is to still run a colonial-style farm, but we could also look at active recreation or a more relaxed nature-based park,” Anzelmo-Sarles said.

The Claude Moore farm area was fairly isolated in its earlier use, and one of the options the NPS is considering is whether or not to make the property more connected to other properties and trails.

“There are existing trails in the area that don’t really connect,” Anzelmo-Sarles said. “And there are some trails around the Langley Fork Park area that are in active use. Are there different ways we can build more access to the park or do we want that access to go away? Everything is on the table.”

Redevelopment as a commercial space, though, is not an option, she said.

From the sticky notes posted around the boards, keeping the area as a farm was a popular choice. The public comment period is open through May 25.

After that, Anzelmo-Sarles said the NPS will take the feedback and develop a few potential options for the park, followed by narrowing the choices down to a final concept plan presented within the year.

Tensions reached a boiling point last night (Wednesday) in McLean as local residents threatened to run a therapy center out of town — legally or illegally, in the words of one neighbor.

A series of new group homes by Newport Academy, a corporation that runs therapy programs treating teenagers with mental health or addiction problems, are planned for a residential neighborhood.

Three of the homes — 1620, 1622 and 1624 Davidson Road — are clustered on a private cul-de-sac one block away from McLean High School, while another one is going in at 1318 Kurtz Road.

Representatives from the project, several elected officials and Fairfax County staff started a community meeting in the McLean High School auditorium with presentations about the project, but the more than four-hour-long public hearing after the presentations showed that the project has struck a deep nerve with the local community.

On one side were the Newport Academy staff and a handful of supporters in the audience who said the program is necessary to help deal with the local mental health crisis. Teenagers or adults who said they had struggled with mental health issues described the difficulty of finding treatment facilities in the area. These stories were frequently interrupted by a chorus of booing from the audience — at least once in the middle of a young woman recounting her trauma following a sexual assault.

But opponents of the project — mainly nearby residents or parents with children at McLean High School — comprised the vast majority of the standing-room-only audience in the auditorium.

While they were united in opposition to the project, their reasons varied. Del. Rip Sullivan (D-48th District) conducted an impromptu poll of the audience, and half said they are opposed to any group home while the other half would be fine with just one, but opposed the cluster.

“It’s three houses side by side; it’s a compound,” Robert Mechlin, a nearby resident, told Tysons Reporter. “If I want to build a shed, I have to get a permit. Why isn’t this the same litmus test?”

Mechlin also echoed concerns about how residents of the facility would affect safety in the nearby neighborhood. In the small town of Bethlehem, Conn., students at the Newport Academy were responsible for at least two criminal incidents — the theft of a car and a student who stole bottles of vodka from a local bar. Throughout the evening, nearby residents said the prospect of the treatment facility next door makes them feel unsafe.

Newport Academy Founder and CEO Jamison Monroe said security tightened after the incidents in Connecticut. A presentation on the project noted that alarms would be attached to every door and window and the students would be closely supervised by staff. Later in the meeting, Monroe offered to pay for a security guard to monitor the site, but by then the public concerns around the project ballooned beyond just security.

The secrecy and allegations of deception surrounding the purchasing of the property were also recurring themes among the opponents. Neighbors said that after the properties were purchased, the real estate agents who orchestrated the deals told neighbors they were subject to non-disclosure agreements.

“I was told multiple times that [the development] was for a wealthy individual,” Steve Wydler, a leasing agent with Wydler Brothers Real Estate in McLean, said. “It was only after construction started that we were told the project was under an NDA.”

Monroe admitted that he didn’t know why the non-disclosure agreements were put into place.

“I’ve learned some things about our real estate agents this evening that I was not aware of previously,” Monroe said.

Marc Lampkin, who became one of the unofficial orchestraters of the opposition from a seat in the front row, said the facility would extract money from the students and leave the neighborhood with problems.

“We all appreciate the notion of treatment, but the single biggest concern is that you failed the good neighbor policy out of the box,” Lampkin said. “You hired a real estate agent who bought the property with lies and misrepresentation. You are a for-profit entity and you’re driving a truck through a loophole [in Fair Housing law].”

As frustrations escalated throughout the evening, Monroe became the main target of the community’s rage, with local residents calling him smug, arrogant and a “son of a bitch” several times.

Caught between the two, the elected officials expressed unhappiness with the project, but said it was being redeveloped by-right and left their hands tied.

Two of the rallying cries from the opposition were “Remember Sunrise” — a reference to a plan by Sunrise Senior Living Facility that the Board of Supervisors denied following widespread public outrage — and a promise to oust elected officials if they didn’t vocally oppose the project.

“I do not support three houses on the same site,” Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said. “But it is the law. In my opinion, one company buying those properties changes the character of the neighborhood. I oppose that. But we do not see a way to stop it.”

The county argued that the project is a group home, which is considered a “by right” development — meaning there’s no requirement of public notice and no zoning approvals needed from the county. Several of the politicians said they first heard of the project when the outrage started.

“I am not at all surprised to see this turnout,” Sullivan said. “Three weeks ago, our emails lit up with questions and comments.”

Complicating the issue, the Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against individuals because of a handicap or disabilities, which the Code of Virginia says includes residential facilities housing individuals with mental illnesses.

But several opponents noted that there are ways around that protection. Some locals questioned whether the project qualified as a group home. Wydler said that the project might not qualify as a residence — a crucial part of the project’s status as a by-right development — given that the average length of stay for students of the program is substantially less than the 183 days that the tax code considers residency.

Fairfax County Attorney Beth Teare said the county was still looking into the zoning regulations and rules surrounding the project. The group’s license application is still pending before the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

If the licenses are granted, Monroe said the facilities could begin operation within a few months. If it does, at least one attendee threatened to file a lawsuit.

Regardless of the outcome, Sullivan said he and other elected officials would look into closing what the public saw as fair housing loopholes.

“One of the things I want to look at moving forward is making sure there is more advanced notice of this sort of thing,” Sullivan said.

Fairfax County Police say two employees at an unnamed business near the Spring Hill Metro station were threatened at gunpoint, and one was robbed.

The report says the robbery took place on the 8400 block of Broad Street — the block behind The Ascent residential building — around 2 p.m. on Tuesday (April 23), according to the police report.

According to the report:

Two employees overheard a commotion in the stairwell and saw two men walking away.  The employees were then approached by the men and one of them displayed a black handgun. One employee ran away while the second was assaulted and his property was taken. The men left the area in a black sedan. They are described as black, about 6′ and wearing dark clothing.

File photo

The Providence District Democratic Committee has voted to endorse Karl Frisch to represent the Providence District on the Fairfax County School Board.

The incumbent Providence District School Board Member Dalia Palchik is currently embroiled in her own heated race for the Board of Supervisors, leaving the School Board seat open to a competitive election.

Frisch is a Democratic strategist and the executive director of Allied Progress, a non-profit issue advocacy organization in D.C.

The committee voted 127 in favor of Frisch and 79 for the other candidate, Jung Byun.

Thank you Providence District Democratic Committee! I am honored to be the Democratic candidate for Fairfax County School Board in Providence District this November and incredibly grateful for the help and support of so many people that made tonight possible — especially Evan. pic.twitter.com/Tz6TljLQS9

— Karl Frisch (@KarlFrisch) April 24, 2019

The centerpiece of Frisch’s campaign was applying the principals of the Green New Deal to Fairfax schools, making the schools operate in a more environmentally friendly way. Frisch’s proposals include adding more solar panels to school buildings and converting to electric school buses.

Byun congratulated Frisch on Twitter after the race and encouraged her supporters to back Frisch in the general election on Nov. 5.

Photo via Facebook

A pop-up art store in Tysons is set to showcase art from international artists at a show on Saturday (April 27).

The Dara Global Arts Gallery is planning a reception from 2-6 p.m. in their pop-up store at 7501 Leesburg Pike, which opened in February. The artwork on display ranges from oils and acrylics to ceramic artwork, and the event on Saturday will feature an opera performance.

The gallery is typically open by appointment only, but the event will throw open the doors to the public.

Dara Global Arts Gallery is part of a budding art scene in Tysons. The gallery’s stated objective is “bringing harmony and peace through art,” reflected in the gallery’s emphasis on diversity both in artists and in the type of art displayed.

The artwork will be on display from April 27 through May 13.

The gallery is also planning an event for Mother’s Day on May 5 with special artwork and a jewelry gallery.

A small parcel of forest along Prosperity Avenue leading into the Dunn Loring Metro parking garage is likely going to be replaced by a new substation to power the Metro.

The green space is a casualty of plans to expand I-66, which would displace an existing substation along the route.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is currently seeking permission to relocate the substation.

“The relocation will affect the existing open space for the entire 15.383 acres of the WMATA Property and will diminish it approximately 5,778 square feet,” WMATA said in the application.

But the substation isn’t the only thing that could be relocated. Last fall, the Virginia Department of Transportation announced plans that some residents along I-66 could be relocated to make way for the construction.

A Fairfax County Planning Commission hearing scheduled for June 26 will consider the plan.

Photo via Google Maps

(Updated 4 p.m.) Fairfax County wants to make it easier for locals to garden and for farmers markets to operate.

As the county gets denser, residents are finding new ways to get in touch with their green thumb. A series of zoning changes planned for discussion at tomorrow’s (Wednesday) Planning Commission meeting would loosen restrictions around gardening and farmers markets.

The proposals would create a new “community garden” use in the zoning code. These gardens could be located on either the ground floor or rooftop and could be considered common open space by right, meaning no additional zoning requirements would be required for approval.

According to the staff report on the amendment:

By expanding the definition of open space to include community gardens, homeowners or condominium associations will be able to establish community gardens subject to the proposed use standards… Similarly, the proposed amendment permits non-residential developments, such as places of worship, office, and other commercial and industrial developments, schools, et cetera to establish community gardens by right as accessory uses in open space, subject to the proposed use standards.

Analysis of community gardens by Fairfax County showed that most occupy less than two acres of land, but gardens proposed above two acres could still be approved with a special permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals.

The changes also remove a restriction that only allows gardens on side or rear yards of single-family residential lots. Gardens could be allowed in front yards, provided they are no closer than 15 feet to the front of the lot and limited to 10 feet squared in area.

The zoning changes would also loosen up restrictions on farmers markets. Currently, farmers markets are a temporary special permit with what the report calls “significant restrictions.” They are currently only permitted to sell seasonal or perishable produce between April and November and only on lots that front arterial streets.

But the report recognizes that farmers markets have evolved substantially since those regulations were written and have expanded the to food beyond just produce.

The new regulations would permit farmers markets for two-year periods and allow year-round operation. The markets would also be allowed to operate away from major roads, a rule that the staff report said half of the existing markets ignore anyway.

The only restriction on merchandise at farmers markets would be that items for sale must be farm products or products derived from a farm, like salsa using ingredients from a farm.

The changes are planned to go to the Board of Supervisors on June 25, and if approved, could take effect by 12:01 a.m. the day after adoption.

“Staff believes that this amendment provides a balanced approach to providing easier access to fresh, healthy food to residents in all areas of the County,” staff said in the report, “while ensuring that the uses of community gardens, farmers markets, and residential gardening are established to be good neighbors.”

Photo via @claire_brunette/Instagram