More than 5,000 people in northern Fairfax County are currently without power, as a thunderstorm pummels the D.C. area.
According to Dominion Energy’s outage map, the largest outages are concentrated in the east Reston and Great Falls area and north of Tysons, where 1,075 customers between Lewinsville Road and Georgetown Pike are without power due to the storm, which started pouring rain earlier this evening (Thursday).
For the Tysons outage, a crew is currently assessing the damage, but Dominion has not determined an estimated time of restoration yet.
In a Severe Thunderstorm Warning issued at 8:21 p.m., the National Weather Service advised residents to move indoors to the lowest part of their residence.
“Large hail and damaging winds and continuous cloud to ground lightning is occurring with these storms. Move indoors immediately,” the NWS said. “Lightning is one of nature’s leading killers. Remember, if you can hear thunder, you are close enough to be struck by lightning.”
Great Falls, McLean, Falls Church… https://t.co/Jx8LAn5ED0
— Fairfax County Government 🇺🇸 (@fairfaxcounty) May 27, 2021
Image via Dominion Energy
Updated at 4:35 p.m. — Vienna and Falls Church have now been added to the Severe Thunderstorm Warning, which has been extended to 5:15 p.m. today.
Earlier: Fairfax County and other areas in Northern Virginia have been put under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning on top of a Severe Thunderstorm Watch that will be in effect until 10 p.m.
Here is the full alert from the National Weather Service, which is scheduled to last until 4:45 p.m.:
At 405 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm was located near Warrenton, moving northeast at 30 mph.
HAZARD…60 mph wind gusts.
SOURCE…Radar indicated.
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…
Centreville, Reston, Annandale, South Riding, Herndon, Fairfax, Mantua, Dulles International Airport, Burke, Linton Hall, Oakton, Sterling, Chantilly, Merrifield, Bull Run, Haymarket, Arcola, Manassas, Sudley and Manassas Park.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
For your protection move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a building.
A list of possible new names for Lee Highway (Route 29) and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway (Route 50) could be ready as soon as this December.
On July 13, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors could approve about 25 members for a task force to examine the possibility of renaming the highways and appoint the group’s chair.
The group would recommend whether to rename those streets and what new names to consider this December. A public hearing and decision could come in early 2022.
“Approximately 30 organizations and individuals have expressed an interest in participating,” Fairfax County Department of Transportation Director Tom Biesiadny said yesterday (Tuesday). “14 organizations and individuals declined to participate.”
This schedule was announced one year after the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked Black Lives Matter protests nationwide. In Fairfax County, the movement prompted the board to consider renaming streets and structures with Confederate names.
Biesiadny and his staff presented their recommendations to the board’s land use policy committee for how to move forward with renaming Route 29 and 50 as well as streets and subdivisions.
“I think the schedule is good and compact,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said. “If we can get the recommendations by the end of the year, that would be helpful.”
The two thoroughfares are the first locations to be considered for new names after the Fairfax County History Commission compiled a list of street names, monuments and public spaces with Confederate ties.
The group identified more than 26,000 streets and places, which was first narrowed down to 650 well-known Confederate officers and locally-known Confederates and again, down to 150 assets confirmed to have Confederacy-associated names.
Neighboring Loudoun County is establishing a task force to consider renaming Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway, and a group in Arlington County is discussing new names for Lee Highway, Biesiadny said.
Some supervisors urged staff to keep coordinating with Fairfax’s neighbors.
“If it’s possible to be on the same page as Arlington and Loudoun, that’s great,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw said. “We shouldn’t be driven by their process, but that seems to be like a viable secondary goal.”
He also suggested the task force develop a naming plan that reduces confusion for local businesses.
“One of the things I have heard from businesses in and around the Kamp Washington intersection is that the status quo is very confusing,” Walkinshaw said.
Route 50 has four names depending on the location, Deputy County Executive Rachel Flynn explained to Tysons Reporter in December.
In Loudoun County, it’s John Mosby Highway, and in Fairfax County, it becomes Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway. Route 50 then becomes Fairfax Boulevard in the City of Fairfax, where it intersects with Route 29, also known as Lee Highway. East of the city, Route 50 turns into Arlington Boulevard once it’s back in Fairfax County. Read More
The Fairfax County Democratic Committee wants county leaders to fire newly hired county Police Chief Kevin Davis in response to continued controversy surrounding his history as an officer.
The local political group passed a motion at its general membership meeting yesterday (Tuesday) recommending that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors fire Davis, reopen the police search, and implement a transparent hiring process.
“We believe we need to overhaul the criminal justice system from top to bottom, to end racial inequity in policing, end police brutality and build a police force built on trust where our residents don’t need to worry about protecting their families from the police sworn to protect and serve them,” FCDC said.
Davis’s hiring has drawn vocal criticism from civil rights advocates and community groups since he was appointed as retired Chief Edwin Roessler’s successor on April 23, particularly in the wake of an NBC4 report on two lawsuits that he faced while working as an officer in Prince George’s County, Maryland in the 1990s.
In one case, Davis reportedly stopped and violently arrested a driver, eventually leading to a $12,500 jury award to Mark Spann, who is Black. The other case involved Davis and a group of narcotics officers illegally detaining a 19-year-old, who later sued and won a $90,000 judgment.
Davis has also faced renewed scrutiny for his 2015-2018 tenure as commissioner of the Baltimore Police Department, which included a secret aerial surveillance program and a six-day lockdown of the predominantly Black Harlem Park neighborhood that is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed by the ACLU’s Maryland chapter.
“Hiring a candidate with a history of racially charged use of force incidents in their past is not starting from a place where community trust can be built,” FCDC said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay has repeatedly expressed confidence in Davis as Fairfax County’s new police chief.
A spokesperson from his office declined to comment on the FCDC motion, which was developed by the committee’s Black caucus. The committee says in a press release that it was “overwhelmingly” supported by its 1,000-plus members.
In lieu of a comment, McKay’s office shared a letter sent to FCDC on May 20 that touted Davis’s “ability to implement progressive reforms,” citing his efforts to implement changes in Baltimore like the introduction of body-worn cameras and a revised use-of-force policy that emphasizes deescalation.
The letter, which was signed by all nine Democratic supervisors, also defended the level of public engagement used during the police chief hiring process. The search included a pre-screening panel, a survey that generated over 3,000 responses, and an outreach campaign with over 275 community meetings and calls.
Davis also participated in a public input session during his first week as the new police chief — albeit with continued controversy.
“We are confident that this year’s process was the broadest and incorporated both extensive public input and intentional inclusivity,” the Board of Supervisors letter said. “Regardless, we commit to looking at our entire public participation process for future personnel decisions and establishing a framework for further improvement.” Read More
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Fairfax County student Pranav Choudhary started watching school board meetings on YouTube in middle school.
Now, the rising senior at Langley High School is the next student representative to the school board.
Elected by the countywide Student Advisory Council to serve a one-year term, beginning July 1, he will participate in board meetings as a nonvoting member, filling the position currently held by Nathan Onibudo, a senior at South County High School. He will be the school board’s 51st student representative.
Choudhary aims to be a voice for students on issues affecting his peers, including how Fairfax County Public Schools delivers instruction to students enrolled in different programs and supports students struggling with their mental health or who have disabilities.
He also hopes to carve out more spaces for students to use their voices.
“If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’d better pull over a chair and sit yourself down to make your voice heard,” he said. “[That’s] why I want to expand student voice opportunities across the county.”
He has experience amplifying student voices as a member of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council and as the co-founder of Virginia Teen Democrats.
“We didn’t see a space for teens in the Democratic Party of Virginia and in Virginia Democratic politics,” he said. “VATD has taught me how to organize [and] how to make sure that everybody is pulling their weight.”
Choudhary argues that student voices will be critical to overcoming the educational gaps that FCPS sees based on race, socioeconomic status, and English language proficiency.
He says FCPS should also examine differences in the kinds of experiences students get depending on whether they’re in the Advanced Academic Program, general, and honors education, such as the extra field trips available to AAP students.
“We often talk about equity in this broad, intangible sense, but we don’t talk about what that means and what that looks like,” he said.
He also sees room for more student participation in deciding what services schools must provide to students with disabilities — codified in an Individualized Education Plan — a conversation mostly directed by parents, teachers, and specialists.
“There is a lack of students’ voice in the IEP process,” he said. “Ensuring everyone can be heard and that their individual needs are met is beyond vital.”
That also means “proactively monitoring the environment in which students are being put day-to-day” to look for signs of depression and suicide, he says. Read More
By 2023, McLean Central Park (1468 Dolley Madison Boulevard) could be completely overhauled with a suite of new recreational amenities, though there’s some back and forth in the community over what exactly those should be.
The Fairfax County Park Authority is currently gathering public input on what the community hopes to see from a revitalized McLean Central Park, and at a meeting on Monday (May 24), local residents shared their hopes for what could be included, as well as concerns for what the overhaul would mean for nearby residents.
The plan is to reconfigure much of the 28-acre park to include new recreational facilities, an amphitheater at the southern end of the park, and a dog park where the tennis courts are today.
Bocce ball courts are included in the plan, but some residents expressed a hope that frisbee golf might make a return, and one resident was particularly pining for some ping-pong presence in the park.
Other callers who participated in the meeting said they were concerned the overhaul of the park would attract more cars to central McLean, potentially making local streets more hazardous.
The discussion also delved into the minutiae of the park plan, such as a comment that a proposed fiberglass bridge looked out of keeping with the wooden bridges around McLean. Paul Shirey, a manager at the Fairfax County Park Authority, said the decision to go with fiberglass was an economic one.
According to Shirey, wooden bridges might last 20 or 25 years, but a fiberglass bridge could have double that lifespan and greater durability.
County staff said the project will likely start construction in fall 2022, with 10 months of construction leading to a summer 2023 opening.
The public comment period on the park authority’s development concept will be open until June 25. Comments can be sent by email to [email protected] or [email protected].
Photo via Fairfax County
Fairfax County Updates COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard — The Fairfax County Health Department launched an updated version of its vaccine dashboard yesterday (Tuesday) with data on administered doses, how many people have gotten vaccinated, demographic breakdowns, and other information. [FCHD]
Fairfax County Indoor Ski Facility Could Be First of Many — Alpine-X, developers of the planned Fairfax Peak indoor ski and snowboarding facility in Lorton, hopes to expand the concept to more than 20 other locations around the U.S. and Canada. The Fairfax County facility will be the flagship with a luxury hotel, a gravity-powered mountain coaster, zip lines, and food and beverage outlets planned for the area. [Patch]
Bike Lanes Proposed on Chain Bridge Road — The Fairfax County Department of Transportation will hold a virtual meeting at 6:30 p.m. on June 8 to discuss striping changes that would create bicycle lanes on several roads. Among the proposals is the addition of bicycle lanes “where space allows” on Chain Bridge Road from Colonial Lane to Great Falls Street in McLean. [FCDOT]
Falls Church Councilmember Won’t Seek Reelection — Ross Litkenhous, who is serving his first term on the Falls Church City Council, announced on Monday (May 24) that he will not run for a second term when four seats are on the ballot in November. He cited a need to focus on a new company that he recently launched, but he plans to stay involved by applying for the city’s economic development authority or planning commission after his term ends. [Falls Church News-Press]
Del. Simon Addresses Greater Merrifield Business Association — Del. Marcus Simon (D-Falls Church) highlighted the Virginia General Assembly’s work to address the COVID-19 pandemic, an estimated $500 million budget surplus, and bills that dealt with eviction prevention, stormwater management funding, and electric vehicle rebates in a recent presentation to the GMBA. [Sun Gazette]
Falls Church Hires New Public Works Superintendent — “The City of Falls Church welcomes Herb Holmes as the new Superintendent of Public Works. Throughout April, Holmes shadowed the incumbent, Robert Goff, who will retire on July 1 after 40 years of service…Holmes most recently served as the Superintendent of Streets for the City of Alexandria, Virginia.” [City of Falls Church]
Fairfax County wants the public to weigh in on the projects that it plans to submit for funding as part of the Transportation Alternatives initiative, a federal program that gives grants to smaller community projects that expand non-motorized travel or enhance transportation infrastructure.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation is reviewing four projects that it has proposed submitting for the federal grants: the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro Station bicycle connection, Safe Routes to School projects for Shrevewood and Bush Hill elementary schools, and the Mason Neck Trail.
The virtual meeting will occur at 6 p.m. on Thursday (May 27). County staff will give a presentation at the meeting and provide a Q&A session. Attendees can join online or call 1-844-621-3956 with access code 173 919 2128.
FCDOT spokesperson Robin Geiger said that, once projects are identified, the county often seeks multiple funding sources due to the competitive nature of grants.
The Shrevewood Elementary Safe Routes to Schools project has been the beneficiary of a Transportation Alternatives grant before. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors accepted $560,000 from the Virginia Department of Transportation in March to support the project, which will add crosswalks, curb ramps, and other improvements outside the school in Falls Church.
The Metro station bicycle project will add dedicated bicycle facilities to Virginia Center Boulevard and Country Creek Road from Nutley Street to Sutton Road, county staff said. It will also include a connection to the I-66 parallel trail being planned with the Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project through protected bike lanes, narrowing an existing median and adding trail connections, according to the county.
The Transportation Alternatives initiative is overseen by the Federal Highway Administration. Projects through the program can assist students, people with disabilities, pedestrians, cyclists and others by adding sidewalks, lighting, and other safety-related infrastructure.
Photo by Michelle Goldchain
A long-standing chapter of the Aylor family’s history concluded this week with the groundbreaking of a new housing development in Falls Church.
With members of the family present, the homebuilding company Madison Homes broke ground yesterday (Monday) at 2530 Remington Street on a new private housing community, The Enclave at Aylors Overlook. The site will be developed into 16 new single-family homes over the next year and a half.
“We were delighted to be given the opportunity to purchase the property,” Madison Homes President Russell Rosenberger Jr. said. “Certainly, the ability to honor the Aylor family legacy, we knew that was important to Marvin and his family. Therefore it became important to us also, as we were planning the development of the property.”
Madison Homes purchased the property from the Aylor family, which had owned the five acres since 1957, when Lewis and Virginia Aylor bought it. The couple had moved to the property in 1951, and three generations of the family ultimately lived on it.
“For me, it is kind of sad to be here. I’ve realized life is all about change. For me, it’s my whole life here,” Marvin Aylor, the son of Lewis and Virginia and executor of Lewis’s estate, said. “For my parents — my father — to come down here to live, for me to grow up here and my son to grow up here, it’s a lot to lose, but it did well for us. It put us where we are today.”
Marvin shared that it was his father’s desire for family homes to eventually be built on the site. After deliberating over possible companies to sell the property to, the family chose Madison Homes because of the company’s history and work.
Founded in 1992 in McLean, Madison Homes focuses on in-fill development in the D.C. area. Its existing developments include Chesterbrook Manor in McLean, The Reserve at Tysons Corner apartments, and The Palladium at McLean, according to the company’s website.
“We wanted somebody that had some clout and had a good product,” Marvin said. “We were picky too in the sense that we could be. From what I saw of their work, I wanted my dad’s name to stand for something, and to be here and mean something. That’s part of why we chose [Madison Homes].”
The property is currently in the land development process, which should finish in October.
Rosenberger expects construction on the first houses to begin in September, with models being completed in early 2022. He anticipates the entire development will be completed within 12 to 18 months.
The homes will carry a price tag starting in the $1.7 million range, with sales beginning off site this fall, according to a Madison Homes spokesperson.
“The family quite truthfully did a lot of the hard work on the property,” Rosenberger said. “The family took it through the engineering process with the county. They did a great job. They had the right consultants, engineers and advisors involved in the process. So, we really didn’t have to make any significant changes as we got involved in the property.”
