A woman was pinned between a minivan and a house after an unusual accident in McLean.

The crash happened in the driveway of the home on the 6800 block of Dean Drive, near Westmoreland Street, shortly before 1 p.m. Firefighters from Fairfax and Arlington counties used heavy equipment to free the woman, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

It was not immediately clear to rescuers how the crash happened, nor was it clear whether the woman had been driving the van or was simply standing next to it when it pinned her against the wall.

“It was probably just one of those weird things where something happened and she was stuck,” one first responder said.

The woman was transported via ambulance to Inova Fairfax Hospital.

During the rescue operation, a passerby stopped to see what was going on and remark on the number of emergency vehicles on the street.

“There was more response for this than for the double homicide here a few years ago,” she said.

An outdated office building in northern Tysons could be replaced by a new mixed-use residential and commercial development called Hanover Tysons if its rezoning is approved early next year.

The new development would be located just west of Jones Branch Park at 1500 Westbranch Drive.

Currently, the site is occupied by a seven-story office building that was built in 1983 and is currently vacant. Redevelopment of the parcel would also require rezoning, and is scheduled for a Planning Commission hearing in February 2019, with a Board of Supervisors hearing in March.

The new residential building would be between 5-7 stories with 350-400 dwelling units. Portions of the ground level along Jones Branch Drive would be designed to accommodate retail and service uses. In keeping with Fairfax County’s efforts to promote more affordable housing around Tysons, 20 percent of the residential units, or 66 of the potential 400 units, would be workforce housing.

“Approval and construction of the proposed Hanover Tysons development will continue the implementation of the Tysons vision by converting a suburban-style office building into a lively residential community and help address the current imbalance between those who work and live in Tysons,” wrote Elizabeth Baker, senior land use planner for the law group filing on behalf of developer Hanover Co., in the application. “Provision of on-site workforce housing will promote Tysons as a community for all.”

The development would also bring street improvements to Jones Branch Drive and Westbranch Drive, widening them to allow parallel parking spaces, bike lanes, and streetscape improvements.

In addition to streetscape improvements, the application also includes new public and private parks for recreational use. The public park would add 1.12 acres of gardens, trees, walking paths and outdoor seating. The private amenity space would include a new swimming pool.

The following article excerpt is from our content sharing partner, FairfaxNews.com.

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring and a coalition of 17 attorneys general yesterday filed an expedited motion to challenge Friday’s opinion in Texas v. HHS, which declared the Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor wrote in his opinion Friday that “(t)he remainder of the ACA is non-severable from the individual mandate, meaning that the Act must be invalidated in whole.” O’Connor is a conservative Republican appointee who previously blocked other Obama-era policies.

The AGs’ motion seeks clarification on the impact of Friday’s decision and requests that the judge prevent any confusion about the opinion. The motion requests the court to make clear that the ACA is still the law of the land and will continue to be enforced and implemented by states, the federal government, and entities across the country unless and until an order by the court expressly states otherwise.

Read more at FairfaxNews.com

Blend 111 is shaping up to be a little different than many restaurants in Vienna.

It isn’t the latest branch of some regional or national chain. Instead, Blend 111 is a food and wine bar for Vienna by local Vienna residents.

Signs are up on the front of the restaurant under construction at 111 Church St., but there’s still a lot of work still to do inside before it’s ready for its first customers. Michael Biddick, principal owner and CEO of Blend 111, says construction will start the first week of January and is scheduled to take 8-12 weeks with an opening in mid-spring 2019.

But when it does open, Biddick says the restaurant will be a blend of the taste and regional dishes of the four different Vienna families coming together to support the project.

“We wanted to bring something you normally find around D.C. or Logan Circle, an upscale restaurant experience that’s accessible for the community,” said Biddick. “We wanted a special place to go on a night out.”

Biddick said the idea for the restaurant came as he was commiserating with neighbors that they all loved going into the city, but with kids and jobs with long hours it was difficult to make the hour drive and get a babysitter.

“A lot of people around here just go somewhere else, like a chain or somewhere in town, but they make do with convenience,” said Biddick. “We wanted to give people a great restaurant to go to for wine and a special night right here in Vienna.”

Around April, Biddick said he sold the last of the tech startups he’d been working on and had extra time on his hands. Wine and food was a hobby for Biddick and he began to take a serious interest in turning that into a local business.

“I started on my own, but as we shared that with neighbors they got really interested and wanted to come in on the project,” said Biddick. “So now there are four families in Vienna investing… They’re mainly neighbors, just people on the street who want to be involved.”

The restaurant will offer a blend of cuisines from Venezuela, France and Spain, three culinary cultures Biddick says were important to the families involved.

“We took those three regions and tried to create some menu concepts off the things we saw when we were traveling,” said Biddick. “Like we really loved this menu dish from Spain, so we made a note to bring that back with us.”

While there are options for meat eaters like grilled quail or duck, Biddick, a vegetarian, said he was also mindful to offer equal portions of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options in the menu.

The restaurant’s origins come from a community need, and Biddick says he aims for that community focus to continue after the restaurant opens. The types of food served and hours the restaurant runs are all planned to be flexible based on what the community responds to.

“The localness of Vienna, and the lack of a lot of the larger restaurant chain environments directly in downtown Vienna, makes it unique,” said Biddick. “I think this is showing that you can do something unique and super high quality that isn’t part of some big chain. That’s something that’s important for us to prove.”

Photos via Twitter

Agora Restaurant Update — Mediterranean restaurant Agora is “putting the finishing touches on a second location that will land in Tysons Corner near Founding Farmers in February (7911 Westpark Drive).” [Eater]

Hallucinating Man Causes Early Morning Scene — Residents near the Fairlee neighborhood “called for help when they saw a man yelling outside of their building. Officers arrived and discovered the man was hallucinating after taking drugs. The man continued to yell and refused to follow the officers’ instructions. The man then tried to run away but was caught, arrested, and taken to a local hospital as a precaution.” [FCPD]

Vienna Getting New A/V Gear — “Vienna Town Council members on Dec. 10 approved a $164,187 contract with Human Circuit to provide upgraded audio-visual capabilities for the town government’s cable channel. Four years have elapsed since the town did a major upgrade of its audio-visual equipment, said Information Technology Director Tony Mull.” [InsideNova]

If the new ice cream parlor wasn’t enough dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth in the recently opened Taste of Urbanspace, boutique cakemaker Lady M opened in Tysons Galleria last Thursday.

Lady M’s Urbanspace location is a pop-up that is scheduled to last until February 2019.

During December, the boutique’s website says the shop will offer a selection of classic and seasonal cakes:

Get ready for Mille Crêpes in Signature, Green Tea, Coconut, and Marron. With winter weather in mind, we’re also bringing Chocolate Arc-en-Ciel, Gateau Fromage, Mont Blanc (thoughtfully sized for one), and the beautiful and boozy Black Forest.

Lady M will be open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. from Monday-Saturday, then 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday.

Six or nine-inch cakes are available from $55-95, with slices of cake available from $8.50-9.50.

Photo via Facebook

(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) The Motherhood Maternity store at Tysons Corner Center is closing.

The maternity clothing retailer is selling merchandise at 75 percent off the regular price leading up to its final day in business on Christmas Eve — Monday, Dec. 24 — but all sales are final. With the discount, leggings and t-shirts are as inexpensive as $2-3.

Other nearby maternity clothing retailers include A Pea in the Pod, which is owned by the same company as Motherhood Maternity, at nearby Tysons Galleria. A selection of Motherhood Maternity and A Pea in the Pod merchandise is also available at the Tysons Corner Center Macy’s store, according to the company’s website.

A new bus route will connect the Vienna Metrorail Station to the Pentagon via I-66, starting on Jan. 22.

The new express Route 698 will operate during weekday rush hours only, with ten trips in the morning and evening. The route, approved by the Board of Supervisors in November, will be supported by the Commuter Choice Program and I-66 toll revenues.

The first bus will leave Vienna at 5:40 a.m. and the last bus will arrive in Vienna at 6:46 p.m.

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation also announced the Fairfax Connector’s holiday schedule. While most Fairfax Connector buses will not be operating on Christmas Day, the following bus lines in the Tysons area will not operate on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Day:

• Route 422: the Tysons Circulator
• Route 461: Flint Hill-Vienna
• Route 494: Lorton-Springfield-Tysons
• Route 495: Burke Centre-Tysons
• Routes 624, 634: Stringfellow Road-Fair Lakes via Vienna Metro Station
• Routes 640, 642, 644: Stone Road – Centreville North via Vienna Metro Station
• Route 724: Lewinsville Road via McLean Metro Station

Photo via Facebook

The plan for downtown McLean will break it into three zones, but local residents want to make sure it doesn’t become a second version of Tysons.

After a year of meetings with the community, contractor Streetsense presented its final vision for the McLean Community Business Center (CBC) last night (Monday) in Longfellow Middle School.

In Streetsense’s final proposal, the McLean CBC would be broken into three categories: center, general, and edge.

Colin Greene, Director of Planning at Streetsense, said the center zone could be occupied by either retail or residential spaces with a few offices. Buildings in this area would generally go up to seven stories, though Greene said those could be up to ten stories if they offer open space benefits.

In the general zone, Greene said the building heights could go up to five stories tall, with an emphasis on scaling development down as it approaches the edge zone, which would primarily consist of two or three story residential buildings.

“We expect and recommend that that [scale of residential development] continues,” said Greene. “Redevelopment would need to be in-kind and similar in scale and size.”

The map at the meeting showed the center zone in dark purple, with the general and edge zones in lighter shades.

The new plan puts McLean’s downtown center at the corner of Elm Street and Beverly Road, a corner whose most notable occupant today is the “Wok & Roll” Chinese restaurant. But the proposal would see the corner eventually developed with towering new residential and office buildings with retail frontage.

This new plan would also require substantial infrastructure improvements, including road improvements for Elm Street and Beverly Road and converting the nearby Center Street into a pedestrian avenue.

Several of those in attendance at the meeting had concerns about the level of density in the new downtown McLean, particularly with the proposal of a seven or ten-story office building in the heart of the CBC. More than one McLean local said they didn’t want to see the downtown turned into another Tysons.

Robert Moll, a McLean resident, said he looked at the sudden expansion of development in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, and said he didn’t want to see this happen to McLean.

“The CBC is not going to compete with Tysons for office space,” Greene said. “There is a low need for offices [here]. We don’t foresee a long or deep demand for office use.”

Green said most of the office space proposed for downtown McLean would be replacing existing, aging office buildings rather than adding new office capacity.

One local resident said that many of his neighbors and other members of the community would have liked an option for things to remain the same in McLean rather than see any new development, but many in the audience vocally opposed this idea.

“I’m out and about all the time and I get a lot of feedback on when I’m not getting something done,” said Supervisor John Foust. “One [bit of] feedback I get a lot is that we’re not doing enough to make McLean a place people can come together. That’s what they tell me they want in McLean. It’s not a scientific survey, but there’s support for doing something good but not overboard.”

After the presentation, those in attendance browsed the final plan spread across several boards in the back of the room.

“There are some real positive things here,” said Rob Jackson, chair of the McLean Citizens Association’s planning and zoning committee and a member of the CBC task force. “I like the focus on Elm Street and Beverly Road and putting the focus there. But I still have questions about where cars are going to park when people come for this pedestrian area.”

Walkability, even since the early meetings, was one of the most talked about topics for McLean residents at the CBC meetings.

“We enjoy walking everywhere,” said Frank Peterson, a local resident, “so we fully support the comment that this effort should integrate pedestrian-friendly ways to get around.”

Foust said working through the parking and pedestrian issues related to the McLean CBC study are going to be a priority as committees begin to meet in January to start looking at how to turn this vision plan into a reality.