(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) McLean could be going through some significant changes, and next week is the final meeting to weigh in on those plans.

After nearly a year of collecting feedback and holding community meetings, the final vision plan meeting for the McLean Commercial Business Center (CBC) will be held on Monday, Dec. 17 from 7-9 p.m. in Longfellow Middle School (2000 Westmoreland Street).

The plan is to transform downtown McLean, the CBC, from a clump of intersections linked by gas stations to a more pedestrian friendly community destination. At earlier community meetings, ambitious comparisons were made to Maple Avenue in Vienna or Old Town in Alexandria.

At the most recent meeting, on Nov. 19, consultant Streetsense announced that the plan would recommend closing Center Street to vehicles and developing it as a pedestrian route. The plan recommends more off-street trails and on-street bike lanes be added throughout McLean, connecting the downtown area to the community center and library.

The five-way intersection at Old Dominion and Chain Bridge Road is recommended to be replaced with a roundabout.

At next week’s meeting, the CBC website says Streetsense will present the compiled and analyzed community input from the open houses and the final plan for the downtown area. The next steps following the plans completion will also be discussed at the meeting. For those unable to attend the event, it will be recorded and available on the project webpage.

Most of those who spoke at the open houses said their big goal was to make the downtown area walkable. Residents said they often wind up driving from one business to the other rather than cross busy streets. Community amenities like the McLean Central Park are cut off from the rest of the downtown by the busy Dolley Madison Blvd.

The study found that the CBC is mostly ranked as a “high stress” area for bicycling. Plans for future bike improvements would relieve some of that stress for cyclists, particularly along Chain Bridge Road.

Graphic via Fairfax County Department of Transportation

Fairfax ICE Arrests Higher Than Some States — “More than 12,000 Fairfax County residents are facing deportation proceedings, surpassing the number of cases in other major localities, including Manhattan, N.Y., and Philadelphia, Pa., and even states like North Carolina and Louisiana, a new report says.” [Fairfax Times]

Officials: Avoid Va. Travel Today — If you had been planning on driving to parts of central, western or southern Virginia today, VDOT and Virginia State Police want you to consider delaying your travel due to snowy conditions. [VDOT, InsideNova]

Hedgehogs May Be Legalized in Fairfax — “Chinchillas, hedgehogs and hermit crabs are one step closer to legalized pet status in Fairfax County. The Fairfax County Planning Commission [on Thursday] approved changing the definition of commonly accepted pets to include all three.” [Reston Now]

If you need to get some Christmas shopping done, the Holiday Market will be open today and Saturday at the Tysons Biergarten (8346 Leesburg Pike).

Hot mulled wine and seasonal cocktails will also be served. Heaters will be located around the outdoor patio. The market will feature items from vendors like

• Tocara Jewelry
• Rachel’s Handmade Accessories
• Terra Essential Oil
• Rodan + Fields

But if you’re set on gifts, there’s still plenty to do around the Tysons area this weekend.

Today (Dec. 7)

Champagne Extravaganza (5-8 p.m.) — The Vienna Wine Outlet (114 Church St) is hosting a champagne extravaganza, offering a variety of wines and a sampling of cheeses to accompany them. The event is $30 per person and guests are asked to RSVP by phone at 703-639-0155.

Tomorrow (Dec. 8)

Pajama Party – The Polar Express (10-11:45 a.m.) — The Angelika Film Center (2911 District Ave) in the Mosaic District will host a hyper-casual screening of the Robert Zemeckis animated film The Polar Express. Tickets are $12.50. Hot chocolate and warm cookies will be available at the cafe for purchase.

Holiday Market Pop Up (10 a.m.-2 p.m.) — The jewelry and accessories store at 2905 District Ave is hosting a pop-up market with a hot chocolate bar, giveaways, and more. The first 25 people in line will receive a free gift.

Brunch with Santa (11 a.m.-2 p.m.) — An extensive brunch with a chance to take photos with Santa will be hosted at Tysons’ Ritz-Carlton hotel. Tickets are $64 for adults and $32 for children ages 2-10. There is no charge for children under 2 years old.

Cookies and Cocoa with Santa (1-3 p.m.) — Vienna Pediatric Dentistry (301 Maple Ave W) will host a cookies and cocoa event tomorrow. Santa is also scheduled to make an appearance. The event is free and open to the public, though small, unwrapped gifts to donate to Toys for Tots are encouraged.

Sunday (Dec. 9)

Ice Cream Jubilee Tysons Grand Opening (12-4 p.m.) — The ice cream store that recently opened as part of the Taste of UrbanSpace in Tysons Galleria is hosting a grand opening celebration and giveaway. Tickets for a free scoop of ice cream are already sold out, but RSVP to get on the waitlist.

Doe Paoro: Soft Power Tour (8 p.m.) — The singer-songwriter will be performing at Jammin’ Java in Vienna (227 Maple Ave E) on Sunday. The musical style is mostly pop, but includes influences of everything from soul to ancient Tibetan folk opera.

One of Tysons’ oldest remaining restaurants could be demolished to make way for a new residential development.

An application submitted to the Fairfax County Department of Planning and zoning this summer proposes replacing J.R.’s Stockyards Inn, a two-story restaurant that’s occupied 8130 Watson Street for the last 40 years, with a new large-scale residential development. According to the application:

“After many years of successful community restaurant services, it is time to advance the transformation of this part of Tysons by pursuing a new vision for the Subject Property for future generations.”

The residential mixed-use building proposed for the site, designed by KGD Architecture, would consist of adjoining 11-story and 23-story towers. According to the application, the new building would be part of an ongoing effort to revitalize the older retail-commercial area near the Tysons Corner Center mall and set a precedent for future redevelopment in the area.

According to the architect’s website, the project would include 291 luxury apartments, 5,300 square feet of ground floor non-residential uses, and a 200-seat children’s theater. The proposal says the new building will also have three levels of below-grade parking and one level of podium parking.

J.R.’s Stockyards Inn, one of the first restaurants in Tysons to open outside of Tysons Corner Center mall, closed its daily restaurant operations in 2011 to focus on banquet and catering operations.

The proposal is currently under review by Fairfax County government staff and no hearing for the project has been scheduled so far.

The Tysons Corner Center ice skating rink won’t be coming back this year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still options to put on those skates and hit the ice.

Ranked by proximity to the Tysons Corner Center, site of the former rink, these are your skating alternatives throughout the region:

• SkateQuest (1800 Michael Faraday Ct) — An indoor ice-skating rink 8 miles/12 minutes away in Reston. The skating rink offers public skating sessions over the weekends and during lunch on Wednesday and Friday. SkateQuest also has various types of skating classes and pick-up hockey games Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
• Fairfax Ice Arena (3779 Pickett Road) — An 8 mile/15 minute drive south of Tysons.
• MedStar Capitals Iceplex (627 N Glebe Rd) — An 8 mile/15 minute drive to Arlington’s Ballston neighborhood, though that time estimate could vary considerably with traffic on I-66. Like SkateQuest, the rink offers public skating on weekends as well as pick-up hockey games.
• Reston Town Center Ice Skating Pavilion (1818 Discovery St) — A 10 mile/13 minute drive from Tysons to Reston Town Center, if you’re willing to take the Dulles Toll Road. This is the closest choice for those looking for the outdoor plaza skating experience.
• Pentagon Row Outdoor Ice Skating (1201 S Joyce St) — A 13 mile/20 minute drive from Tysons, this Arlington ice skating rink bills itself as the largest outdoor rink in Northern Virginia and the second largest rink in the state.

Photo via Facebook

If you didn’t know it was there, it would be easy to miss the 1st Stage Theater.

The entrance is at the end of a long walkway over a garage and a new salsa/bachatta nightclub at 1524 Spring Hill Rd. But despite the humble appearance, for the last ten years has held the distinction of being Tysons’ only professional theater and one of the few arts venues in an area that can sometimes seem like a cultural vacuum.

Like the rest of Tysons, 1st Stage Theater has been finding an identity and working through growing pains.

The theater’s director, Alex Levy, took over the company four years ago. From the moment he walked in, Levy said he was in love with the location. Levy said the black box theater offers a large enough stage to produce shows of a grand scale, but is also close enough to its audience for a level of intimacy. But for the region, Tysons is still the frontier when it comes to arts and culture.

“It’s great being part of the [Washington D.C.] theater community, but it’s a challenge being at the edge of that,” said Levy.

Levy, who had previously worked in theater in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago, said that before he moved here, there were people who tried to warn him away.

“People tried to warn me that it was a suburban community,” said Levy. “There’s this idea that art can only exist in the urban centers. But I think this shows that that’s not the case. I don’t think there’s anything we can’t do here.”

According to Levy, the theater has been growing in attendance by 15 percent year after year, but that’s starting to have its own challenges as well.

“We’re in a position where we’re starting to feel the limitations of our capacity here,” said Levy. “We have conversations all the time about what the next home might look like. We’re not leaving Tysons, and while we want to expand, we want to maintain that intimacy. But here, there’s a lot of things behind the stage we need to expand. “

Some of those constraints have become most palpable with the theater’s most recent production. Last week, “A Civil War Christmas”, directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes, opened at the theater. With a cast of 12 actors playing 48 characters, the play is ambitious for a black-box theater without any wings and a dining-room sized green room.

“We need better rehearsal rooms, we need more bathrooms, and we would love to be in a more high visibility area,” said Levy.

The theater has made some expansions, like a new rehearsal space they moved into next door to the black-box theater that allows the company to rehearse the next play while one is still being performed. There’s also costuming and storage space, but these are short term fixes for what Levy recognizes is a longer term challenge of the theater’s location.

But Levy said the script, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel, about disparate people coming together in a time of strife, was a message he thought was very relevant. Despite the challenges the scope of the play presented, Levy said he felt it was important for the theater to attempt.

“One thing that we always ask is ‘What does it mean to do this show at this time and this place?'” said Levy.

Next year, the 1st Stage Theater’s season is scheduled to continue in the spring with “The Brothers Size,” a play by life on the bayou by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the writer of “Moonlight.” Later that year, the company is scheduled to perform “columbinus,” a play about the Columbine High School shooting.

A “Civil War Christmas” also faced another challenge the week before its opening. Markus Williams, the musical director for production, died on Monday the week before opening night. The cause of his death is still being determined.

“Markus came to the theater as a musician,” said Levy. “This was his second time directing music for a play. He was always excited, and since it was all new there were no rules for him. He would play around with choral parts and he has a very staid personality that allowed for some exciting improvisation.”

There’s a photograph of Williams with a plaque honoring him in the lobby.

Yombu, a startup at MakeOffices in Tysons that specializes in fingertip authentication, recently expanded its reach into New York City, California and Colorado.

Originally reported by DC Inno, fitness centers in Manhattan and other locations have started using Yombu to authenticate gym entrance and training sessions. Joe Falit, CEO of Yombu, told Tysons Reporter the push into New York came as part of Yombu’s partnership with Motionsoft, a management and software company that operates in fitness and entertainment centers across the country.

Falit said the gyms use the fingerprint software to authenticate people coming in and out of the facilities, as well as using it to sign for training sessions to avoid fraud.

Yombu is expanding into 35-40 new locations, of which 25 are in Manhattan. Falit said Yombu may expand into as many as new 60 locations in the near future.

In 2019, Falit said his aims are to add new distribution channels for the technology and continue making technical improvements.

“We still do payments, but overall we’re becoming [more of an] authentication company,” said Falit.

For now, though, Falit says he plans on doing more work from home as he helps raise his daughter, who was born last week.

Photo courtesy Yombu

In addition to the two new Tysons Galleria stores previously announced, Johnny Was and BoConcept are scheduled to come to the upscale mall next year.

Johnny Was is a store with clothing and accessories from the eponymous designer. The store’s website describes the style as “bohemian inspired.” An employee in the Tysons Galleria management office said the Johnny Was is scheduled to open in June 2019.

BoConcept is a Danish furniture chain. The store specializes in customized home decor pieces, including home visits and 3D renderings. The employee in the management office said BoConcept would likely open sometime in winter 2019, though the exact month is currently unknown.

Lik Fine Art, a gallery featuring landscape photography by Peter Lik, is still scheduled to open later this month. But the management office employee said Lafayette 148 New York, the high-end clothing store, will likely be pushed back to an opening in early January.

The Jones Branch Connector will be partially open, with one lane of traffic in each direction, starting next Sunday (Dec. 15).

The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) announced the opening today, a slight delay from the earlier opening planned for Dec. 12.

The Jones Branch Connector links Route 123 and I-495, previously only connected at a congested interchange to the south of the project.

When it’s finished, the road will feature two travel lanes and on-street bike lanes in each direction. The road will also have 8-12 foot wide lighted sidewalks and a raised median to accommodate a future Tysons Circulator bus.

Final completion on the project is scheduled for next fall. By 2040, VDOT estimates the road will carry over 32,000 vehicles per day.

Photo via Virginia Department of Transportation

(Updated 11:00 a.m.) Just days after the Providence District Supervisor Linda Smyth announced she wouldn’t be running for reelection next year, at least two candidates have stepped forward in a competitive race to fill that seat.

Along with Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova also announcing her retirement and Supervisor John Cook’s earlier decision not to run, the Providence District race opens up a chance to see new leadership at the county level.

Erika Milena Yalowitz, a Tysons resident, Arlington County court officer and a board member of the Rotunda Condominium Unit Owners Association, formally announced her intention to run for Board of Supervisors in July at a launch event in the Tysons Biergarten. School Board member Dalia Palchik announced on Tuesday (Dec. 4) that she would also be running for the seat.

Both candidates have cited development’s impacts on infrastructure and schools as primary focuses of their campaigns, but there are still differences between the candidates. Yalowitz said her experience in the courts and with neighborhood associations gave her a well-rounded civic background, while Palchik said her experience as a teacher and within the School Board has given her experience in handling the schools as well as planning issues.

“This is a new era, I think we need a new vision,” said Dalia. “[We need to be] addressing needs of schools and kids. Land is tight… we have a lot of wealth as well as a lot of poverty.”

“She’s good as a school board member, but I feel I would be better at governing,” said Yalowitz. “I worked with the Fairfax County government from a human services perspective, and now as a court officer I have an understanding of issues about criminal justice.”

Yalowitz said her experiences with the Rotunda Condominium Unit Owners Association have given her experience in land use issues and working with the Tysons Partnership.

But Palchik said her experience on the School Board has given her broad exposure to the inner workings of Fairfax county government. Last night, Palchik spoke to Tysons Reporter after serving as the school board liaison to the Planning Commission.

“We are looking at the policy on the planning commission… regarding the ‘One Fairfax’ policy on how we handle schools through planning lenses,” said Palchik. “I don’t know that other members have direct experience in land use.”

Palchik said the gains of Tysons aren’t making their way to other parts of the district

“In our county, in Providence, we’re starting to see resegregation,” said Palchik. “We’re trying to figure out how to address that. Socioeconomic and racial resegregation are happening in Providence. How do we ensure that mixed income housing is affordable?”

Meanwhile, Yalowitz is part of the new population of the ever-growing Tysons, which she said gives her a unique insight over Palchik into the local infrastructure needs.

“I get the issue of density,” said Yalowitz. “I get the issue of growth, and the needs we are looking at for the future. Our schools are overcrowded. Our roads are overcrowded. I believe we can do better, I believe we can continue building for the future.”

Both candidates highlighted the need for Fairfax County to gain greater independence from state control, though over different issues. Yalowitz said Fairfax needs to gain greater control over it’s roads to be able to swiftly and reliably react to the infrastructure demands brought on by new development.

“Most of the roads in Fairfax are controlled by VDOT and we have no control,” said Yalowitz. “We make a bike lane and those lanes can be repainted by the state. Arlington doesn’t have that problem. Arlington owns most of its roads. We need to work with the state to change that. Tysons needs more autonomy.”

Palchik, meanwhile, said the Providence District could be a leader in renewable energy if it could free itself from state control.

“We have to work with the state to be more energy efficient,” said Palchik. “We’re limited in Virginia on what [localities] can do for solar energy, but we need to be more forward thinking with our carbon footprint.”

Whoever is elected to fill Smyth’s seat, Planning Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner said in an email to Tysons Reporter that managing how the new development in Tysons impacts the Providence district will be the biggest challenge.

“Tysons development will continue apace toward becoming a full-blown urban center and Supervisor Smyth’s successor must continue to press for diversity and creativity in building design, adequate public facilities to support a growing resident population, affordable housing units dispersed among high-density developments, open space for recreation and enjoyment, and a pedestrian-friendly infrastructure such as sidewalks, walkways across the broad thoroughfares and street lighting.”

Tysons Reporter also reached out to Edythe Kelleher, a former member of the Vienna Town Council, who, sources say, is considering a run for Board of Supervisors. But Kelleher said she was not prepared to comment.