Tysons Partnership wants to create a localized data hub as part of its rebranding efforts underway for Tysons.
The organization aims to create a public database with localized information from Fairfax County, from commuting patterns to how office and retail space are used.
Sol Glasner, Tysons Partnership’s president and CEO, told Tysons Reporter that the database will make it easier to collect and analyze Tysons-specific information.
The financial support for the hub is coming from Fairfax County’s $1 million — an equal match to Tysons Partnership’s fundraising — to help with the rebranding and work to find a sustainable business model, Glasner said.
After putting out an RFP, Tysons Partnership is now discussing the proposal with a prospective consulting organization, Glasner said. If all goes well, he’s hopeful the data dashboard, which will be available to the public, can be put together by the end of this year.
Glasner said that pandemic seems to increase the need for Tysons-centric data as county officials, planners and the private sector look to address affordable housing, walkability, transportation and development issues in the area.
“It’s like this big tapestry with a lot of moving parts to it,” he said.
Unlike the database, the pandemic may delay the group’s rebranding effort for Tysons. While Tysons Partnership aims to have the rebranding, which is being done with the help of Gensler, ready by early next year, Glasner that it’s unclear how the public health crisis will impact the rollout.
“We need to have a public that is receptive,” Glasner said. “Right now, people are preoccupied.”
Tysons Partnership doesn’t want to encourage large crowds in public places to reduce the risk of spreading the virus, he added.
“It’s very hard to know how all this will play out,” he said about the pandemic. “We could be in this mode for another year, another two years.”
When the rebranding does get revealed, Glasner said that people can expect place-making and place activation to help with community building.
Ultimately, the rebranding is meant to get people to think of Tysons’ four square miles as one place, Drew Sunderland, the director of marketing and placemaking at Tysons Partnership, previously told Tysons Reporter.
“We’re trying to create a common sense of community,” Glasner said.
As for the pandemic’s impacts on Tysons’ urbanization and appeal, Glasner emphasized that the creation of the Tysons Comprehensive Plan and completion of Silver Line Phase One years ago have set the area up for success.
“Tysons is a long term project that is measured in decades — not in months, years or even a single decade,” he said.
(Updated 8/20/20) The City of Falls Church will receive funding from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA) for its two proposed projects.
The projects are among the 21 transportation projects the NVTA announced will receive funding from its program, which is now in its fifth year and is offering $539 million, according to a press release. The projects were selected from 41 proposals — totaling $1.44 billion — from 13 localities and agencies in Northern Virginia.
The NVTA will fully fund Falls Church’s projects. One will address transit access and multimodal connectivity in West Falls Church for $6.9 million, while the other will tackle multimodal improvements in the downtown area for $8.3 million.
“We much appreciate the regional cooperation that has led to the approval for funding of both of the City of Falls Church transportation proposals,” Councilmember David Snyder, who also serves on the NVTA’s Executive Committee, said in a statement. “This is a great example of the direct benefits that accrue to our citizens from the active engagement of city councilmembers and city staff in regional policy and funding bodies.”
More from the city about the projects:
West Falls Church Access to Transit and Multimodal Connectivity ($6,900,000)
Install a new 10′ multi-use path and 6′ planting strip along Shreve Road between the W&OD Trail and Route 7, acorn style lights, crosswalk near the intersection of Shreve Road and Gordon Road, and benches near the entrance to the W&OD trail.
Downtown Falls Church Multimodal Improvements ($8,300,000)
Install two midblock crossings, widen sidewalks and remove obstructions (including utility lines), install curb extensions, adjust intersection geometry, and increase visibility at six crossings/intersections on Park Avenue between N Washington Street and Virginia Avenue.
While the majority of the selected projects got the full funding request, four projects received partial funding.
“The fully-funded projects will receive sufficient funds to advance to construction, while the partially funded projects will advance to the early phases of project development, but not necessarily [for] completion,” the press release said.
The Town of Vienna’s expansion plans for the Capital Bikeshare program to help people get to the Metro was among the 20 projects that didn’t make the cut. The project would cost roughly $280,000.
Update corrects name of NVTA
Image via City of Falls Church
Northern Virginia’s COVID-19 cases appear to be holding steady as Virginia sees an uptick in cases.
Statewide, new daily cases hit a low point in mid-June with 380 cases before an increase last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Last Monday, 354 new cases were reported in Virginia before jumping to 972 new cases today (Monday).
Testing for current and past infection has been increasing statewide, according to labs’ testing numbers.
Meanwhile, the Fairfax Health District has seen consistent numbers of tests since June with 1,000-2,000 tests per day.
The current seven-day trend for the percentage of positive tests is 6.7% statewide and 5.9% for the Fairfax Health District.
In mid-June, Fairfax Health District saw the majority of its new daily cases drop from triple digits to double digits. As of today, 74 new cases were reported in the health district.
The epidemic curve for the Fairfax Health District, which shows the number of new cases in a week by the date symptoms started, has been decreasing since May, according to Fairfax County’s dashboard. (Data has not been completed from June 28 to today.)
In total, Fairfax County has had at least 14,556 cases, 500 deaths and 1,713 hospitalizations. Of the state’s 529 outbreaks, 67 were located in the Fairfax Health District.
Vienna Officials OK New Police Equipment — “The Council agreed to ‘ride’ a Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services contract with Kustom Signal Inc. to obtain new in-car radar units for all 11 of the Vienna Police Department’s patrol vehicles and 10 ProLaser handheld LIDAR units. The contract’s cost is not to exceed $51,202.” [Inside NoVa]
Supercuts Closed in Falls Church — “According to a notice on the door from Woodmont Properties, the landlord has taken possession of the space and changed the locks.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Local Paper Condemns Falls Church Institutions — A commentary from the Falls Church News-Press calls for the city to get rid of the “Hangman’s Tree” plague and either reimagine or eliminate the annual Civil War Day tradition. [Falls Church News-Press]
Students in Fairfax County public schools will get two more weeks of summer vacation.
The Fairfax County School Board approved the superintendent’s proposal to wait to start school after Labor Day.
The school board voted yesterday (Thursday) to push the return date for students from Tuesday, Aug. 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 8, according to a press release from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
The two-week delay will give staff more time to prepare for online and hybrid learning — especially since the deadline was extended for parents to pick which learning option they want.
Parents have until Wednesday, July 15, to indicate whether they want their kids to take classes fully online or a combination of in-person and online learning for the entire upcoming school year.
In a newsletter today, Melanie Meren, who represents the Hunter Mill District on the school board, said that she was originally not in favor of the pushed start date, but changed her mind.
“I reconsidered after I learned that school principals and directors of student services expressed concerns about the time that they will need to turn around the enrollment data from parents and build the master schedules associated with the two options,” Meren said in the newsletter.
Now, Meren said that the new plan will help support “the quality of the learning experience.”
The school board’s vote only affects students’ return — staff will still follow the original schedule, allowing additional days to prepare. Meren noted that staff will receive professional development opportunities, like socio-emotional supports, along with training for the new curriculum and technology during the two weeks before school starts.
In response to queries about why online learning can’t start in August, Meren said that having the two school systems on different schedules “is not feasible.”
Photo via Element5 Digital/Unsplash
Plans for a proposed commercial building in Falls Church may soon move forward.
Fairfax One LLC wants to add a 12,000-square-foot building at 130 E. Fairfax Street — the current location of parking for the nearby Protestant Episcopal Church. The project, which is called Southgate II, proposes to house Scramble, a kids’ play gym that is currently located in Alexandria.
The developer told the city’s Planning Commission earlier this year that churchgoers would still be able to park there, along with space at an adjacent property.
While some of the Planning Commissioners had concerns about the location of the kids’ center and the project’s “suburban, strip mall feel,” some argued that child care is needed in that part of the city and that the building is an improvement from the site’s current conditions.
On Monday, the Falls Church City Council is set to move along the rezoning process for the site. Currently, the site plan for the project is on hold until the rezoning application is finalized, according to city documents.
Map via Google Maps
Wawa plans to open its first store in the Town of Vienna next Thursday (July 16).
The store at 465 Maple Avenue W. used to house a Coldwell Banker branch. Now, the building has been retrofitted — the first time ever for Wawa, according to a press release.
To commemorate the opening, a ribbon cutting will happen with social distancing outside the store on the morning of its opening. Wawa is encouraging people to watch a celebratory video and take part in an online contest for limited-edition Vienna Wawa t-shirts.
The store will open at 8 a.m. on Thursday, according to the press release.
Roughly 40 employees will work at the 6,290-square-foot store, which will offer Tesla charging stations. People who don’t want to venture outside for hoagies can get food and drinks delivered from the store via DoorDash and Uber Eats.
The press release detailed Wawa’s COVID-19 measures to reduce the risk of spreading the virus:
Wawa made several key changes to ensure it has the safest, most convenient store environment. The changes include launch of The Wawa Clean Force, a dedicated and trained sanitizing swat team working at each store every day with one job: keeping Wawa stores clean, sanitized and safe. Additional protections and policies include masks and gloves for all associates; clear plastic safety guards at check out and food-service counters; even more frequent hand washing standards; and wellness temperature checks for associates before each shift. For customers, social distancing with friendly visual markers and more hand-sanitizer stations have been added in common areas.
Wawa also plans to launch an initiative that will donate $1,000 from the Vienna store’s first week of sales to the Capital Area Food Bank and donate $1,000 each and hoagies to charities picked by Vienna’s police and fire departments and Fairfax County Fire and Rescue, the press release said.
Additionally, people will be able to make donations to support military personnel and their families until Sunday, July 19, at any Wawa store, the press release said.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is looking to alter its rules for adult day care centers after providers complained about previous zoning changes.
The board will vote on Tuesday to authorize public hearings — one for the Planning Commission on Sept. 16 and one with the county board on Oct. 6.
The newly proposed changes would make adult day care centers a by-right use in industrial areas and allow the Health Care Advisory Board to review proposed centers. The county also wants to reevaluate the requirement for outdoor recreation space at the centers.
Back in 2018, county officials greenlighted zoning changes that adult day care center providers now say have made it difficult to find appropriate locations in the county, according to county documents.
More from the county documents:
Of particular concern is the requirement for special exception approval in the industrial districts and the requirement to provide outdoor recreation space. This use, similar to child care centers, private schools and places of worship, was previously allowed by-right when located in an office or industrial park and where vehicle access is provided via the internal circulation system of the park. Adult day care providers indicated that the special exception requirement puts them at a disadvantage when trying to lease space, particularly industrial flex space, as other uses with similar land use impacts are allowed by-right, like child care centers, private schools, and places of worship.
The new proposal under consideration stemmed from county officials earlier this year asking staff to review the regulations.
The hearings will seek feedback from community members on the proposed amendments.
As two drive-in movie fundraisers gather donations for Second Story, the local nonprofit is reevaluating how to seek support as the coronavirus pandemic continues.
Based in the Merrifield area, Second Story helps kids, teens and young adults seeking food, shelter and emergency support.
Tysons Reporter caught up with Jade Leedham, Second Story’s vice president of development, to hear how the drive-in movie fundraisers happened, what fundraising looks like now and how their clients’ needs have changed during the pandemic.
Drive-in Movies
Leedham said that both Tysons Corner Center and Capital One Center, which have been long-time supporters of Second Story, reached out about the drive-in movies.
Tysons Corner Center starts its series tonight (Friday) with movies on the second weekend of each month through September, while Capital One kicks off its four-week-long drive-in movies series tomorrow (Saturday). Both events are asking moviegoers to donate $25 to Second Story.
“It just kind of happened coincidentally at the same time from two of our main supporters here in Tysons,” she said.
Because Second Story is not co-planning the drive-in movies series, Leedham said it’s hard to predict what the donations might add up to.
“We don’t have any expectations, but we’ve seen some donations coming in,” she said. “For Capital One, I believe we passed $1,000 and there’s still a long time to go… I imagine it’s going to be a pretty sizable donation at the end.”
Leedham said that the donations will go toward supporting young people’s needs for food, safety items, toiletries and other essential items.
New Needs
Over the last few months, Leedham said she’s seen clients’ needs change. The nonprofit has had to significantly increase funds for rent support for participants in the program for homeless youth.
“That’s one big area that we’ve seen a hit,” Leedham said, noting that unemployment is impacting people’s ability to pay their rents.
Second Story has also shifted its asks for community support to gift cards and donations after seeing a decline in volunteers helping with things like food pick-up and drop-off and bringing in donations.
Leedham speculates that some corporate sponsors may now be seeing a loss in revenue or challenges with remote work, which could impact their contributions to Second Story.
“At the beginning, maybe they had enough to be able to do what they were able to do, but now they’ve got to start focusing on how to how to maintain their own businesses, which makes complete sense,” she said.
Even with fewer volunteers showing up in-person lately, Leedham says she’s still seeing a variety of support, from people starting online fundraisers to memorial donation drives.
“We had a teacher contact us recently because their colleague teacher passed away. They are doing a memorial donation drive because that teacher who passed away cared a lot about young people and especially homeless young people,” she said.
Some people were even able to donate personal protective equipment even when it was largely out of stock.
“I don’t know how they did it, but people were going out and looking for all of these essential items and bringing them to us. And so without that help, I don’t know how we would have been able to provide those things to our clients,” she said.
Sustaining Support
As Virginia rolls back COVID-19 restrictions and the start of the new school year approaches, Leedham said there are new, pressing concerns for people to grapple with.
“I just feel like the demand is just so high that it may be hard to keep up with the demand in terms of donating food,” she said.
To make sure people don’t forget about Second Story’s efforts, the nonprofit has increased its online marketing campaign and created a task force that alerts members of the organization’s immediate needs. Second Story’s podcast and newsletter also share how people’s support makes a big difference.
“We are trying to look for opportunities and help people to come up with fundraising ideas, while of course also relying on others to pitch ideas to us and just supporting them however we can with our materials and our branding and our videos and our messaging, so that they can represent Second Story in their own unique creative ways,” she said.
Second Story is also working toward a three-year fundraising goal that began last fiscal year. “As we go into the second half of the year here in 2020, we are doing our best and staying cautiously optimistic that we will have a great holiday season to sustain all of the things that we’re doing, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that COVID will have long term effects on everyone,” she said.
How People Can Help
Second Story is encouraging donors — if they have the capacity — to commit to the Beacon of Hope Society’s commitment to at least $1,000 per year for five years, Leedham said.
Leedham also hopes that people donating smaller amounts will be able to increase their contributions on a consistent basis.
There’s even a free way to help the nonprofit — by voting for Second Story on Apple Federal Credit Union’s list of four charities, Leedham said. The votes will determine how much each charity will receive from a pot of funding up to $100,000.
Falls Church Development Moving Forward — “With the Falls Church City Council’s first in-depth public look at the detailed special exception site plan for the 9.77-acre mega-West End development project Monday night, an undertone arising from the Covid-19 pandemic’s ‘unbelievable headwinds’ suddenly facing it in these extraordinary times was in the background for the three-hour discussion.” [Falls Church News-Press]
List of Local PPP Loan Recipients — Patch has lists of local businesses in Vienna, McLean and Tysons that received loans of $150,000 or more. [McLean Patch, Vienna Patch]
Local Leaders Respond to DeVos’s Criticism — “U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had some criticism for Fairfax County Schools’ virtual learning during the pandemic and reopening plan for the fall. Leaders from the school system, the largest in Virginia, responded in defense of the plan providing only virtual learning or a mix with two days of in-person learning.” [Patch]
Pandemic’s Impact on Local Dentist — “As coronavirus restrictions in response to the pandemic ramped up in mid-March, dentists like Dr. Nicole Van closed their offices for all but emergencies. Since reopening, the dentist’s office experience looks different from pre-pandemic times.” [Patch]
Photo courtesy Hilde Kahn
