Bike to Work Day tomorrow (Friday) wants locals in the D.C. area to hop on a bike for their commute — even if it’s just for one day.
People interested in the free event can register online to access 115 pit stops throughout the region — seven are in the Tysons area — and link up to commuter convoys.
Participants can expect a warm and overcast Friday with the chance of stray rain or thunderstorms.
So what do you think? Is this something you would want to do or not?
Photo via Facebook and map via Bike to Work Day
A task force meeting next week will tackle proposed retail, residential and public facilities near the University of Virginia Northern Virginia Center, as Fairfax County looks to revamp an area by the West Falls Church Metro station.
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and Virginia Tech submitted proposals as part of the county’s 2017 Site-Specific Plan Amendment Process.
The county has initiated a planning study of the proposals, which would add public facilities and government mixed-use and possibly residential units, on the WMATA parcels and up to 130 dwelling units and 43,800 square feet of retail and office space on the Northern Virginia Center parcels.
“The proximity of the Northern Virginia Center property to the WMATA site presents an opportunity to plan the area in a more holistic manner,” the Fairfax County website says. “This approach would allow consideration of their joint land use, transportation, and public facility impacts. Therefore, the proposals will be evaluated concurrently as a special study separate from the Site-Specific Plan Amendment process timeline.”
A community meeting in January gave an overview of the county’s planning and review process.
After that meeting, a task force made up of residents in the area has been working with the county to evaluate the proposals to make a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The task force is analyzing transportation, public facilities, schools and environmental impacts.
The task force meeting, which is open to the public, is set for Tuesday, May 21, from 7-9 p.m., at The Northern Virginia Center (7054 Haycock Road) in Falls Church.
In addition to the task force, the county plans to hold meetings to get the community’s input.
First image via Google Maps and second image via Fairfax County
A musical about how women won the right to vote is coming to the Town of Vienna for a sold-out preview ahead of a national tour.
“19: The Musical” chronicles the struggles of women suffragists, including Alice Paul, Ida B. Wells, Susan B. Anthony, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Inez Milholland.
Ratified Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment made it illegal to deny U.S. citizens the right to vote on the basis of sex. The show’s national tour for this fall coincides with the amendment’s centennial next year.
From the musical’s website:
The inspirational story of these fearless women is brought to life through jazz, traditional musical standards style, spoken word, hints of gospel and dance. 2020 is the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment; our goal is to get a full production of 19 up and running, and onto a stage by the end of 2019.
The show’s book and lyrics were created by Jennifer Schwed and Doug Bradshaw, the cofounders of the Alexandria-based Through the 4th Wall. The show’s music is by film composer Charlie Barnett.
All 200 tickets got snapped up for the special preview performance at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) on Friday (May 17), according to the musical’s Facebook page. The preview will include songs, dance and narration from the first and second acts of the show.
Photo via Facebook
The showroom’s closet full of prop Gucci and Saks Fifth Avenue bags says just about everything you need to know about The Monarch — Tyson’s new mega-rich condominium building under construction.
Yesterday (Wednesday), developer Renaissance held a project launch celebration inside their ninth-floor office in the Ritz-Carlton (1650 Tysons Blvd) overlooking the site.
The office also doubles as a fully furnished model residence. Renaissance staff guided prospective residents through lavish bedrooms and kitchens, noting amenities like a direct-access elevator that opens right into the living room and white-glove lobby attendants who can carry groceries for residents.
The building offers a kind of opulence unfathomable to anyone making less than $100,000 a year. Units in The Monarch range from $600,000 to just over $3 million.
Kami Kraft, the vice president of The Mayhood Company, which is marketing the project, said the types of employment in Tysons and the proximity to Tysons Galleria were indicative to a need in the area for new luxury condominiums.
The building is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in late 2020.
The project is part of the Arbor Row development, a 19-acre stretch of mixed-use buildings along Westpark Drive. The first building of the project, the residential Nouvelle, was completed in 2015 and the next phase, the senior living facility The Mather, is going to the Fairfax County Planning Commission tonight.
The Falls Church City Council recently voted to move forward a series of developments that would transform the area south of the West Falls Church Metro station into a new commercial center and gateway into the city.
The council unanimously approved the signing of a comprehensive agreement with EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency Centers for their planned development of nearly 10 acres at the George Mason High School, the Falls Church News-Press reported.
The current George Mason High School is set to be demolished and replaced with a new commercial area like the Mosaic District in Merrifield.
The approval of the comprehensive agreement now allows the Falls Church City Schools to solidify plans for the construction of a new high school next to the current one, the Falls Church News-Press noted.
The council decided to delay a final vote to July 8 on the specific exception entitlement after the development faced last-minute changes, which included removing the structured parking lot near the new high school and reverting back to a surface lot for school use, according to the Falls Church News-Press.
Rendering via City of Falls Church
A fitness studio’s former Mosaic District spot may soon welcome an increasingly popular recreational sport: urban, indoor ax throwing.
A building permit indicates that Bad Axe Throwing is looking to move into 2985 District Avenue, Suite 195, which used to house Elevate Interval Fitness. The spot is next to BGR and Nando’s Peri-Peri.
Started in Canada in 2014, Bad Axe Throwing has expanded to roughly two dozen locations across the U.S. and 10 in Canada.
At the current locations, large and small groups of people can throw axes in lanes with throwing coaches, who can demonstrate different games. The closest one to the upcoming Mosaic spot is in D.C. at 2419 Evarts Street N.E.
First photo via Facebook
The curved One Tysons East project has hit a roadblock that could stall the project.
Akridge — the project’s developer — has put a temporary hold on the entitlement process for the office building while it works out right-of-way negotiations with the Virginia Department of Transportation over the Route 123 frontage, according to the Washington Business Journal.
Leadership at Akridge said the process should only take a couple of months, but in the meantime, the Business Journal says the project is classified by Fairfax County as “indefinitely deferred.”
The last major change for the project was in April when the building went through a series of design changes, including an effort to mitigate the likelihood of bird impacts with the building.
The project is part of a series of new buildings planned for Tysons East — a neighborhood around the McLean Metro station seeing rapid growth spurred in part by the opening of the new Capital One headquarters.
Image via Akridge
A free forum tonight (May 15) will question the Hunter Mill District Supervisor candidates just on the Town of Vienna.
Vienna Votes, a new voter outreach initiative in the Town of Vienna, will host the forum at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) from 6-9 p.m.
Five Democrats have jumped into the race for the seat, which oversees Reston and Vienna. Cathy Hudgins, who currently holds the seat, announced her decision in January to retire after her current term ends.
Vienna Votes posted on Facebook that all five candidates have said they will participate in the forum. They are:
- Former Fairfax County Planning Commissioner Walter Alcorn
- Lawyer Laurie Dodd
- Comstock Companies executive Maggie Parker
- U.S. Air Force veteran and community advocate Shyamali Hauth
- Recent Roanoke College graduate Parker Messick
Vienna Votes was launched in March to help citizens have easy access to voting resources and information.
From Vienna Votes’ Facebook:
The Vienna Votes Project has organized this casual forum to hear what all five candidates on the ballot have to say about Vienna. Please join us this Wednesday, May 15th and, more importantly, remember to vote in June. High voter turnout signals to our elected officials that Vienna is an active and engaged population that will be paying attention!
The forum will consist of questions entirely about the Town of Vienna. That discussion will be held from 6:30-8:30 PM although some candidates will be available before and after for one-on-one conversations. Have other obligations that evening? This is a casual event and you are welcome to come in/out anytime between 6 PM and 9 PM.
The Democratic primary is June 11.
Second photo via Facebook
If you’re looking for a place to house your servants, watchman and tenant farmers, there’s good news — Fairfax is in the middle of a process to simplify its complex and humorously outdated zoning code.
At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Development Process Committee meeting yesterday (May 14), the committee reviewed a series of proposed changes to modernize the zoning code — a process dubbed zMOD.
During the meeting, a consultant working on the modernization said Fairfax County’s zoning wasn’t the most labyrinthine he’d seen, but it was close.
Much of the process involves consolidating a wide array of residential classifications — like dormitories, fraternity/sorority houses, rooming/boarding houses, etc. — into a single use, like “residence hall.” Servants quarters and housing for tenant farmers in Fairfax are now grouped together as “caretaker quarters.”
But the regulations also add new zoning uses to the code as well, like electric vehicle charging or solar collection systems.
At the meeting, staff said part of the new zoning would include extensive modifications to accessory dwelling unit (ADU) zoning. These are dwelling units designed as separate from the primary residence.
Currently, all ADUs require a special use permit, but under the new regulations, an administrative approval could be obtained if the unit is located entirely within the main residence — like a basement separate from the main house.
The zMOD process is scheduled to be presented as a consolidated draft to the Board of Supervisors in July. Work is expected to continue on the zMOD process throughout 2019 with public hearings on the final draft in spring and summer 2020.
Photo via Fairfax County Government
A moratorium on new development applications for Maple Avenue that was scheduled to expire in June has been pushed to November.
The Vienna Town Council voted on Monday (May 13) to extend the temporary suspension of the Maple Avenue Commercial (MAC) zone to November 15.
The moratorium first went into effect last September to allow the town staff time to redesign the town’s guidelines.
Since then, the Planning Commission, the Board of Architectural Review and the Town Council have held individual and joint work sessions on draft design guidelines.
Additionally, the Town of Vienna also commissioned a Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation and Land Use Study, which is expected to be received this summer and could be incorporated into the design guidelines.
Final design guidelines and amendments are anticipated to be done by September.
