Local nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) and ridesharing app Lyft are again partnering to offer free rides during the holiday season.

As part of an effort to combat drunk driving, WRAP will be sponsoring free Lyft rides starting this Friday (Dec. 14) .

From 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., rides up to $15 are free with the use of a promo code. The user is responsible for any costs over $15. The offer will continue until Jan. 1.

Weekly codes will be posted at the Sober Rides website at noon on Dec. 14, 22, and 31. The weekly code is only valid for one ride.

According to the Virginia Highway Safety Office, there were 621 alcohol-related crashes in Fairfax in 2017, resulting in 331 injuries and 12 fatalities.

As the program is aimed at preventing alcohol related crashes, Lyft riders must be at least 21 years old to claim the offer. The code is valid for any rides inside the D.C. coverage area, which includes all of Fairfax County.

The SoberRide program operates during the December/January holiday season, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Independence Day and Halloween.

Image via Washington Regional Alcohol Program

Fairfax County is currently mulling over changes to its sign ordinance that has schools, local realtors, and Tysons Corner Center concerned.

At a Planning Commission meeting last week, the commission deferred a decision on the new sign regulations until Jan. 16 to allow for more discussion on the impact of the ordinance.

Currently, county staff are reviewing changes to the zoning ordinance to make the language “content neutral.” The change is in response to the United States Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling in Reed vs. Town of Gilbert, which ruled that localities that define sign categories based on the message expressed, or content-based, is unconstitutional unless it furthers a compelling governmental interest.

Rather than allow free reign for Fairfax residents of businesses to erect signs regardless of content, a proposed amendment would tighten sign regulations across the board.

The proposed changes to the sign ordinance are wide-ranging but often minor corrections. One of the biggest changes is that one freestanding building identification sign is permitted for each detached building and such signs must be limited to identifying the name of the building or the individual enterprises located therein, the address, trademark or identifying symbol of the building occupant.

For instance, a real estate sign pointing to a nearby open house, but placed at the entrance to a subdivision, would be prohibited.

One of the proposed changes alters the definition of a sign from something “visible from the public right-of-way or adjoining property” to “visible from any street.” It’s a relatively small change, but any tampering with language in county ordinances could have a ripple effect. According to the staff documents, for instance, a representative of Tysons Corner Center expressed concerns about the impact of the change.

Tysons Corner Center currently has sign exemptions, allowing exceptions to current county rules, but these exemptions are based on the existing definitions of visibility from the public right-of-way or adjoining properties. As a result of these concerns, staff said new language was written into the proposed ordinance to allow greater flexibility.

According to county staff, minor signs — formerly referred to as temporary signs — were the largest challenge in the zoning ordinance rewrite.

“While staff acknowledges that the proposed language could negatively affect some developments that are currently exempt from regulation, we continue to recommend the language found in the draft text as it provides the closest level of regulation as the current provision.”

A representative from real estate investment company Macerich, which owns Tysons Corner Center, said at the meeting that the company had a laundry list of concerns but has been working with county staff to whittle those issues down. Another local realtor at the meeting said the new ordinance could push open house signs and corner signs off of local lawns and into already-crowded street medians.

The sign ordinance changes also sparked concern with the inclusion of language that would remove government exemptions from sign ordinances.

“Staff has received comments from both Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA), neither of which is in favor of eliminating the current exemption status. Of particular concern to the Park Authority is the limitation on the size, number and location of minor signs permitted for non-residential uses in a residential district. These signs are used to announce summer concert series, camps and other activities at the parks. The schools have raised concerns with the proposed height of permitted freestanding signs for non-residential uses in residential districts which is proposed to be limited to 8 feet in height.”

As a result, staff said at the Planning Commission meeting that there would be modifications to the ordinance allowing some exceptions for schools and parks.

Planning Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner said at the meeting he was generally in favor of holding Fairfax County government to many of the same sign regulations as the public.

“There’s something to be said with us being able to model our behavior consistent with what we expect from the private sector,” said Niedzielski-Eichner. “There is a different benefit to be realized to the public with the park authority and public school [having] latitude with signs, but frankly I’m comfortable with them doing it within a regulatory context… not unfettered.”

Photo via Flickr/Alan Levine

After 18 months of renovation, the McLean Community Center’s arts venue will be returning in January.

The Alden Theatre is reopening early next month with a full season of all-ages theatrical performances. Tickers are currently on sale.

“We’re looking forward to being back in the community’s beloved venue,” Performing Arts Director Sarah Schallern said in a press release. “The inside of the theater hasn’t been renovated; however, the rest of MCC will have amenities that will make the audience experience so much nicer.”

A schedule of performances is below.

• Jan. 5: The Capitol Steps — SOLD OUT
• Jan. 20: Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration — a musical blend of jazz and hip-hop. Tickets are $25 or $15 for McLean residents.
• Feb. 2: The Wizard of Oz — A children’s theater production of the classic story. Tickets are $15 or $10 for McLean residents.
• Feb. 23: The Okee Dokee Brothers — The Grammy Award Winning folk musicians will perform a concert for children and parents. Tickets are $20 or $15 for McLean residents.
• Feb. 24: Perspectives Speaker Series — Crime novelist Walter Mosley will host a free lecture and book signing.
• March 23: The Joshua Show — A puppet show take on Mr. Rogers with live music and “hipster appeal”. Tickets are $15 or $10 for McLean residents.
• March 30, 31: American Shakespeare Center — The travelling theater show will perform Antigone, The Comedy of Errors, and The Winter’s Tale over two days. Tickets are $40 or $30 for McLean residents.
• May 4: New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players — A performance mixing rewritten Gilbert and Sullivan songs as well as the original versions. Tickets are $40 or $30 for McLean residents.
• May 11: All the Way Live — An interactive show where hip-hop artists remix various dances, rhymes and music. Tickets are $15 or $10 for McLean residents.

Photo via Facebook

I-66 Tolls Shifted Behavior, Did Not Improve Traffic — “The new high-occupancy toll lanes on one of the busiest highways in the Washington region have sparked dramatic shifts in commuter behavior, prompting motorists to alter their commute times and routes, data show, while yielding tolls as high as $47.50 — some of the highest per mile in the country.” [Washington Post]

‘Green’ Vienna Businesses Recognized — “Nine Vienna businesses who have successfully completed the Town’s 2018 Sustainability Challenge were recognized at last night’s Town Council meeting… Through the program, certified businesses tally points on a checklist of green practices that they undertake as part of day-to-day operations.” [FairfaxNews]

Local Restaurants Open On Christmas — Staying in town for the holidays and planning to dine out? Patch has compiled a list of McLean, Vienna and Tysons restaurants that are planning to remain open on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. [Patch, Patch]

Rough Night for Silver Line Commuters — Those heading home on the Silver Line last night faced delays, offloading and other issues during the evening commute due to a track problem outside of Foggy Bottom. [Twitter, Twitter]

Tysons Corner Center estimates 3.65 million shoppers are likely to visit the mall during this year’s holiday season.

With the crush of shoppers filling parking lots and local roads, the mall and I-495 Express Lanes operator Transurban put together some suggestions for spending more time shopping and less time parking.

The best time to shop, we’re told, is before noon from Monday through Thursday, between Dec. 10-20. On Dec. 21, winter break for many local schools starts and lasts until Jan. 4, meaning even the mornings at the mall are more likely to be crowded.

The fastest suggested route into the mall is to access to eastern garage near Barnes and Noble using Westpark Drive. Shoppers are also encouraged to use the Jones Branch Connector, which partially opens this weekend.

Transurban, naturally, recommends the Express Lanes as a time-saving option.

“Shoppers driving to the mall can save time by taking the 495 Express Lanes and using Westpark Drive for direct access to Tysons Corner Center,” said Elisa Bell, a marketing director for the company.

Metro is also an option. The Tysons Corner Metro station connects to The Plaza, which is connected to Tysons Corner Center.

If you want a take a car but don’t want to park, services like Uber and Lyft can get you there — just “ask your driver to enter the Center near the entrances to Rt. 7 or International Drive off Fletcher Street to avoid time in traffic around the Center,” according to the mall.

Valet parking is available for $12 near Coastal Flats outside the Bloomingdale’s. A portion of valet proceeds are also donated to the Northern Virginia Family Services. The “Front and Center” parking in Garage C, meanwhile, is closest to the mall and costs $7. Both of these parking options earn shoppers discounts at mall stores and restaurants.

For those who don’t mind a longer walk, Garage B and C are both still free.

The 85 students from four Fairfax and Falls Church public schools expected to graduate yesterday from the Capital One Coders program at the Capital One headquarters in Tysons East. What they weren’t expecting were free laptops given away by the company to each of the graduates.

The Capital One Coders program trains local middle school students after school for ten weeks. Students learn the basics of programming and eventually work up to developing their own mobile applications.

Part of the surprise at the graduation was gifting each student their own laptop and giving a $10,000 grant to the schools for STEM education. The kids went home with the laptops, but the grants will go to the schools at the end of the spring semester.

“The coders program started in 2014,” said Jay Sanne, Vice President of Software Engineering for Capital One. “It is deployed in each of our major people centers. It’s had a great response from schools and associates.”

Sanne said the coders program is part of a commitment to building a 21st century workforce with technology skills.

Typically students develop games, although Sanne said the applications students build are often pretty sophisticated. Sanne noted there was one student early in the program who developed a mobile application to automate her family’s chicken coop so she wouldn’t have to leave the house to open up the coop and let the chickens out.

“It’s amazing to see them going from week one to week ten, where they’re demoing real mobile apps,” said Sanne. “We see the excitement in the kids as we’re teaching the program.”

At the graduation, the students at the Capital One Coders program also demonstrated their apps for parents and loved ones in attendance. Different prizes were awarded, like most creative or most technical.

Longstanding tensions over improvements to Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna escalated to a proposal to deny Fairfax Schools continued use of trailers and fine the school system for violations as long as they’re still in use.

While the proposal wasn’t supported by the rest of the Council, its creator, Councilmember Pasha Majdi, expressed frustrations echoed by others.

“This is a bad joke and nobody’s laughing,” said Majdi. “I graduated from Louise Archer and went to class in trailers. My son starts elementary school [there] in nine months. My recommendation to the town is that we rename this provision from temporary trailers to generation trailers.”

One trailer was removed earlier this year as it began to deteriorate, according to the staff report. Students were relocated to two additional trailers, which are 17 and 19 years old and have a maximum lifespan of 25-30 years.

Staff from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) said the school’s renovation would be unlikely to be completed before 2023, and even that is reliant on construction money being approved in a referendum for 2021. An addition onto the school is planned for 2025.

“It’s an embarrassment that the school system can’t get their act together and move quicker on this,” said Councilmember Howard Springsteen. “It’s been 20 years we’ve been promising this… I give you guys an F for the ability to manage these projects.”

Springsteen said he didn’t have a lot of faith that the school system would be able to deliver that addition by 2025.

FCPS also faced criticism for coming to the Town Council for re-approval of the trailers four months after the approval had expired.

“You need to get here before the application expires,” said Councilmember Douglas Noble. “The clock was for August 22, not today. They need to be here with an application in July 2 two years from now.”

Despite these concerns, the Town Council didn’t go along with Majdi’s proposal to deny the trailers continued use renewal. Councilmember Tara Bloch said while she was frustrated by the trailer situation, pushing students out of the trailers and back into the already overcrowded school would hurt students.

The council voted 6-1 in favor of allowing continued use of the trailers.

Photo via Google Maps

New residential buildings are coming to The Boro, but a new partnership with WhyHotel means many of them might temporarily be hotel-style rentals before they’re leased.

WhyHotel is a startup based in D.C. that takes unrented units from recently-built apartments, from studios to two-bedroom units, and rents them out as hotel spaces and pay some of the rent back to the developer. Meanwhile, on-call staff handle the cleaning and other guests needs.

In addition to new WhyHotel locations planned in Arlington, the company announced Monday that it will partner with The Meridian Group and Kettler to operate a “pop up” hotel in The Boro (8395 Greensboro Drive). Up to 150 residential units will be used as WhyHotel rentals. Guests will be able to stay in the units starting late summer or early fall next year.

The new WhyHotel spaces will be located in Rise, a 27-story luxury high-rise apartment building scheduled to open sometime in 2019.

Image via The Meridian Group

The log cabin at 307 Cabin Road SE has survived for over 80 years, but it couldn’t survive development plans to subdivide the lot it sits on.

Last night (Monday), the Vienna Town Council voted to approve a subdivision of the cabin that would ultimately result in its destruction. But like the Planning Commission at their meeting in November, the Town Council couldn’t find a compelling reason to deny the application, which cabin-aside would be an otherwise unremarkable request.

The cabin is not a designated historic location, which means it has no legal protections. Members of the Town Council noted that it was one of several buildings in the town that have some historic relevance but not enough to protect or have an impact on the local community.

There is also the issue that the building is also in poor shape, with rotting wood and a fragile structure. The owner of the site told the council that the building could not be saved.

“This does mean things to the community,” Councilmember Carey Sienicki. “We heard from citizens that this is an important structure. Unfortunately, it was in disrepair. It can’t be moved.”

Instead, some of the logs from the site may be salvaged as it is taken apart. The council also proposed working with Historic Vienna to preserve pieces of the building and erect a plaque, either at the site or at a display the Freeman Store and Museum.

Members of the council lamented that while the developer American Signature Properties had said they were amenable to historic research and preservation as long as it didn’t interfere with development plans, representatives of the group at earlier meetings concerning the cabin had showed little interest in any form of preservation.

Town Attorney Steve Briglia told council members that there was very little the town could do to force the developer to engage in preservation measures for the cabin.

Photo via Town of Vienna

New French Bistro Coming to Mosaic District — “Brothers Ian and Eric Hilton are betting third time’s a charm for the Mosaic District space where both RJ Cooper’s Gypsy Soul and Mike Isabella’s Requin Brasserie imploded. The restaurateurs behind Chez Billy Sud, Marvin, and around a dozen other bars and restaurants will open a French bistro in the Fairfax development by early summer.” [Washingtonian]

How to Prevent Clogged Pipes — “Avoid clogged pipes this holiday season — don’t pour fats, oils and grease down the drain. Wipes pots and pans clean before rinsing them in the sink. Cooking oil can be recycled at the I-66 transfer station and I-95 landfill complex.” [Twitter]

Holiday Hours for Tysons Malls — “Many malls will be offering extended hours in the days before Christmas, including Tysons Corner Center and Tysons Galleria.” [Patch]