The Falls Church City Council aims to revamp its approach to affordable housing as its population continues to grow — and the stock of affordable units quickly dwindles.

The City Council is considering refreshing its Comprehensive Plan’s housing guidelines with a focus on tackling what some councilmembers recently referred to as an “affordable housing crisis.”

Emphasis on Affordable Housing

At a joint work session on Monday (July 15), the council and the city’s Planning Commission reviewed a proposal that would revise the housing guidelines to adjust for demographic changes and the future impact of Amazon HQ2 on the region.

City documents at the meeting confirmed that the increasing demand for apartments cannot keep up with the influx of the population, which is growing at a rate of 2.6% each year.

Councilmember Letty Hardi fronted the discussion at the meeting when she brought up the expiration of affordable housing and the dilemmas facing recent graduates who can no longer afford to live in the area.

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The map of where to find Capital Bikeshare docks around Tysons is starting to get a little more filled out.

There were 11 stations in our first roundup in October. Since then, the numbers have grown.

Currently, cyclists can find 14 stations in Tysons. One of the new additions is near Tysons Galleria (Park Run and Onyx Drive), while two other stations sit at either end of the soon-to-open Jones Branch Connector, connecting the area around Tysons Galleria, like The Mile and Valo Park with Tysons East.

Sidewalks for the Jones Branch Connector are expected to open sometime this summer, while the full bridge is slated to open this fall.

The connector and new bike-share stations are part of an effort to capitalize on the new Capital One headquarters and upcoming commercial and residential development.

Image via Capital Bikeshare

The Fairfax County Police Department is seeking the public’s help to identify a suspect linked to Tysons Corner Center fraud.

Police said they are looking for the “man suspected of stealing a credit card and making fraudulent purchases at Tysons Corner Center earlier this month.

Anyone who has information is asked to call Master Police Officer Mergler at 703-556-7750, send an email to [email protected] or submit an anonymous tip.

Photo via FCPD

Kiln & Custard, a local woman-owned custard and ice cream chain, has plans to celebrate National Ice Cream Day this weekend.

The Vienna, Reston and Falls Church locations will offer a buy-one, get-one-free deal on ice cream scoops on Sunday (July 21).

“[The] custard is made fresh daily, in-house with no food dyes, artificial flavoring or harmful preservatives and are colored with fresh spinach, pureed beets and ripe tomatoes,” according to a press release about the event.

Here are the locations and hours on Sunday:

• Falls Church — open from 1-7 p.m. at 455 S. Maple Avenue
• Vienna — open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. at 138 Church Street NW
• Reston — open from 11 a.m.-7 p.m. at 1631 N. Washington Plaza

The Kiln & Custard locations are inside the Kiln & Co. pottery stores, which offer pottery painting and classes.

Former President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day in 1984, according to the International Dairy Foods Association.

Photo courtesy Kiln and Custard

Fairfax County police arrested a man in connection with fraud at the Louis Vuitton store in Tysons Galleria last month.

On June 2, Julian Kendrick allegedly picked up an online order totaling $9,910 that was linked to a driver’s license from Georgia with a different name, according to a court document.

“The store employees thought that the transaction was suspicious and requested police assistance, however, the employees did allow Kendrick to complete the transaction and receive the merchandise,” police said in the document.

Police said they found Kendrick in his car and he gave them a driver’s license from Michigan with his name to police, who then searched the car and found fraudulent identification, including two credit cards and the driver’s license from Georgia.

Police arrested Kendrick, charging him with false pretenses and for the fraudulent credit card.

After a slew of noise violations, Bey Lounge agreed with the Town of Vienna to no longer offer live music.

Rami El-Hasrouni, one of the co-owners of Bey Lounge, told the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals last night (Wednesday) that the lounge (303 Mill Street) would no longer need its live entertainment permit, which the board was considering revoking.

“We’re going to be a straight restaurant from now on,” El-Hasrouni told the board.

The issues for the lounge started several months ago when it received a number of noise complaints and then was found guilty of three noise violation cases in a General District Court.

El-Hasrouni told Tysons Reporter that the cost of paying for lawyers and the permit renewal “were way too much” for the lounge, which is known for its Lebanese cuisine and live music.

“Right now, we are in the process of changing the lounge in general just because once we don’t have live entertainment we are going to lose all our customers, so we are very in risk of losing our business right now,” he said.

The “new concept” under consideration could possibly add more seating and “putting more grocery inside the lounge,” he said, adding that a timeframe hasn’t been set yet.

“Hopefully, it works,” he said.

Photo via Google Maps

The City of Falls Church wants to know how people who live or work in the city get around the area.

The city has two surveys available — one for residents and one for workers — to gather transportation data.

The surveys will be open until the end of July, Deputy City Manager Cindy Mester told Tysons Reporter. After the surveys close, the results will get analyzed and then posted online.

Updated at 8:50 a.m. — The roads have reopened.

Earlier: Fairfax County police said that two roads in McLean are closed due to a tree blocking each one.

Police said this evening (Wednesday) that 977 Balls Hill Road and Swinks Mill Road at Gelston Circle are the two closures in the McLean District. More than a dozen roads are affected across the county after a storm earlier today.

Police said that the list will be updated.

Map via Google Maps

Roughly 4,000 people in McLean have lost power this evening (Wednesday) right after a storm hit the area.

A Dominion Energy map shows five major power outages. One is west of I-495 above Odricks Corner that is affecting 1,076 customers.

The other four are around Old Dominion Road in the Chesterbrook area — the largest of which was caused by a circuit outage and is impacting 1,237 people, according to the map.

Investigations are pending for the three others ones, which, in total, have left a little more than 2,000 people in the dark.

Dominion Energy does not yet have estimated times for when the power will be restored for the outages.

Several smaller outages affecting 14 people or less are scattered throughout McLean, Vienna, Tysons, Falls Church and Merrifield.

The outages popped up on the map shortly after the National Weather Service issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch, followed by a storm that quickly passed through the Tysons area shortly after 5 p.m.

Map via Dominion Energy