Tysons is now set to get a new senior living facility in two towers behind the Tysons Galleria.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the senior living complex known as The Mather during the board’s meeting yesterday (Tuesday).
The Mather is a part of Cityline Partners LLC’s Arbor Row project near Tysons Galleria, which includes the completed Nouvelle residential building and The Monarch, and plans to transform the back of Tysons Galleria along Westpark Drive into a suite of mixed-use buildings.
Slated to open in 2023, The Mather plans to seek a LEED Gold designation for the building and will be the first Life Plan Community in Tysons, according to a press release from Mather LifeWays, an organization that creates senior living programs and places.
“The Mather will offer apartment homes with SMART home technology, amenity-rich community spaces and luxury of a different kind for those who wish to plan ahead to live life to the fullest,” Mary Leary, the president and chief executive officer of Mather LifeWays, said in a press release.
The one- and two-bedroom room apartments in The Mather will start at $650,000, according to the press release.
Image via Fairfax County Planning Commission
Two sites poised for redevelopment in Tysons now have new owners.
Thallium LLC acquired 8133 Leesburg Pike for a little more than $30 million, while McLean-based Tepe & Hisar LLC paid $19.5 million for 8201 Leesburg Pike — a total of about $50 million for the redevelopment sites, the Washington Business Journal reported.
Two years ago, Fairfax County approved the sites for a redevelopment project called International Place. Shortly afterward, the developer filed for bankruptcy.
It’s unclear what will happen to the two sites next.
“Dogan Savasman, identified in court records as chief executive manager for Tepe & Hisar, could not be reached for comment. He said in a previous interview he intends to redevelop 8201 Leesburg but those plans could change from what Garrett had proposed,” according to the Washington Business Journal.
Image via Fairfax County
Police, fire and emergency response agencies might not be the only ones who will be using unmanned aircraft in Fairfax County in the future.
Back in May, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program, which proposes to incorporate drones into government operations with a particular focus on public safety.
Now, the county board has decided to not limit unmanned aircraft to only public safety uses.
At yesterday’s meeting, the Board of Supervisors approved a new procedure for non-public safety departments and agencies, including the Fairfax County Park Authority, to obtain the board’s permission to also use the drones.
Interested agencies will need to tell the board why they want to participate in the program, and, after reviewing the request, the board will then take a vote.
Braddock District Supervisor John Cook suggested adding the approval process for the drone program expansion.
Photo via Flickr/Joe Loong
In its appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), group home operator Newport Academy said county staff overreached in its determination against a planned facility in McLean.
There have been more than a few stories recently on the Newport Academy’s planned opening of a for-profit therapy program in a McLean neighborhood, but as Fairfax County Board Chairman Sharon Bulova pointed out, it’s an issue that could set precedent in Fairfax.
In May, Fairfax County Zoning Administrator Leslie Johnson issued a letter saying that because the Newport Academy’s three adjacent properties at 1620, 1622 and 1624 Davidson Road shared staff and resources, they were not individual properties eligible for by-right development but as a congregate living facility.
But in the appeal filed to the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Newport Academy laid out its argument that it had been the unfair victim of public backlash and a selective zoning ruling.
“The Newport Academy has been deprived of the right to operate each of the Davidson Properties… as a residential facility for up to eight individuals with mental illnesses as permitted and consistent with [Virginia code],” the company said in the appeal.
The appeal also lays out a timeline of events starting with Newport Academy purchasing one property at 1624 Davidson Road and another at 1318 Kurtz Road. In August, the company sent a series of questions to the Zoning Administrator regarding the prospect of opening multiple homes at Davidson Road, to which zoning answered that the group residential facility may occupy a dwelling unit without any proffered or development conditions and that there was no limitation on the number of group residential facilities.
After this, the appeal says Newport Academy invested millions of dollars on the purchases and renovations for the other properties. Now, the Newport Academy is saying Johnson’s ruling is inconsistent with Virginia law and other codes.
The appeal also alleges that the Newport Academy was the victim of a “sophisticated campaign to turn elected and appointed public officials against Newport Academy’s efforts to provide appropriate mental health services to adolescents in McLean” that included dozens of letters, emails and phone calls from local residents.
The Newport Academy reiterated that it is a group residential facility, defined in zoning ordinance as “a group home or other residential facility with one or more resident or nonresident staff persons, in which no more than eight mentally ill, intellectually disabled or developmentally disabled persons reside… or eight handicapped persons reside.”
Newport Academy alleges in the appeal that Johnson employed external factors without a statutory basis.
“The Zoning Administrator considered factors including common ownership, physical proximity, and programmatic elements of the proposed use at the Davidson Properties, factors not found in either the Virginia statue or the Zoning Ordinance,” the appeal said. “This ‘single facility’ analysis is foreclosed under [Virginia code], which unambiguously invests [the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services] (VDBHDS) as the sole authority to determine whether a home meets the requirements of being considered a ‘residential facility.'”
The Newport Academy argues repeatedly throughout the appeal that Johnson stepped on the VDBHDS’ role as the licensing agency.
The appeal also points to other group residential facilities in Fairfax, like the properties at 8333, 8337, and 8341 Lewinsville Road, which share a driveway and programming across the three facilities.
When, or if, the appeal will be heard by the BZA is still to be determined. The appeal was received on Friday, June 14, and must be scheduled within 90 days if accepted unless other arrangements are agreed to. Brian Worthy, a Fairfax County spokesman, said that county staff are currently going through the application before the county officially accepts it — a standard procedure for every application.
Raglan Road Park between Tysons and Vienna just got a little bigger.
The Fairfax County Park Authority added another acre to the park by buying one acre at 8608 Raglan Road, according to a Fairfax County press release last Wednesday (June 19).
The additional land is meant “to help meet the future recreation needs of the growing Tysons area,” according to the county.
Raglan Road Park, a forested area adjacent to the Old Courthouse Spring Branch Stream Valley, has long been slated for more recreational facilities, and the recent opening of the new Vesper Trail signaled that more amenities might be on the way.
Photo via Facebook
(Updated at 10:05 p.m.) School Board member Dalia Palchik won the Democratic nomination for the Providence District seat on the Board of Supervisors.
Shortly after 9 p.m., Palchik defeated Fairfax County Planning Commissioner Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner and three other challengers in the Democratic primary.
Palchik received 39.7 percent of the vote. She will face Republican Paul Bolon in the November election.
Palchik said in her victory speech:
This is part of a movement; a movement of people who want new leadership. People who want classrooms — not trailers — and teachers who can afford to live here. They want someone who is going to fight to protect the environment, to get solar panels, who are going to work hard every day to get us out of our cars and walking, biking, getting around, with access to buses and metro, and into a community that cares and is inclusive. This is the beginning. It’s been an incredible campaign. It was scary. It was fun. We cried. We laughed. And we want to see the next phase of Providence District in Fairfax County.
Palchik celebrated her win at Settle Down Easy (2822 Fallfax Drive), a local brewery that launched in 2018. It was a trendy spot that is representative of a candidate who pulled together a coalition across a variety of demographics.
Even at the headquarters of Niedzielski-Eichner, the runner-up in the race with 23.4 percent of the vote, there was a reluctant admission that Palchik was a charismatic candidate. Several Niedzielski-Eichner supporters noted that they saw her at polls shaking hands and taking selfies with voters.
Del. Mark Keam (D-35th) said Niedzielski-Eichner relied on an older local establishment, while Palchik was able to tap into a younger, wider base of local supporters.
Linda Smyth, the current Providence District supervisor, announced in December that she wouldn’t run for reelection this year, along with several other supervisors on the 10-member board.
Shortly before 10 p.m., current Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay won the Democratic nomination for the Board of Supervisors’ chair with 42 percent of the vote. McKay beat Georgetown law professor Alicia Plerhoples, who received 31 percent of the vote, and two other Democratic challengers.
For the Virginia State Senate, incumbent Barbara Favola won with 61 percent of the vote, beating Nicole Merlene for the 31st District seat, which encompasses McLean.
Incumbent Dick Saslaw narrowly beat challengers Yasmine Taeb and Karen Torrent for the 35th District seat. Saslaw received 48 percent of the vote.
In a close race, challenger Steve Descano beat incumbent Raymond Morrogh for the Democratic nomination for the commonwealth’s attorney position in Fairfax.
Catherine Moran and Vernon Miles worked on this story.
New plans are on the way to fix traffic on the Dolley Madison Corridor between Tysons and McLean.
The Fairfax County Department of Transportation (FCDOT) and Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust are planning a meeting next Thursday (June 13) at 7 p.m. in the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Avenue) to discuss the new “Dolley Madison Corridor Study.” According to the meeting description:
The purpose of the study is to analyze Dolley Madison Boulevard between the Dulles Toll Road and Old Dominion Drive and recommend solutions to improve traffic conditions. The team will present a variety of options with traffic model analysis and is looking for feedback from the public on the short-term and long-term improvements presented.
A Fairfax County Transportation status report from February said that four local intersections are being evaluated to understand how changes to one impact the others.
- Dolley Madison Boulevard, Great Falls Street and Lewinsville Road intersection
- Dolley Madison Boulevard and Old Dominion Drive intersection
- Great Falls Street and Chain Bridge Road intersection
- Balls Hill Road and Lewinsville Road intersection
Robin Geiger, head of communications for FCDOT, also said the intersections of Dolley Madison Boulevard and Ingleside Avenue and the intersection of Old Dominion Drive and Ingleside Avenue are being considered. Geiger said staff evaluated short term solutions that could be implemented to benefit traffic over the next 10 years.
The status report noted that FCDOT staff presented scenarios to Foust’s office and they were asked to look at more long-term solutions as well. Geiger said FCDOT are considering longer-term solutions for the Great Falls Street/Lewinsville Road intersection with Dolley Madison Boulevard near Tysons and the intersection with Old Dominion Drive.
The specific solutions being proposed are not presently available, but Geiger said a website for the project is planned to be launched soon and community feedback will be gathered at the June 13 meeting.
Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors greenlighted funding for new streets and highway improvement projects in the Tysons area.
In total, the county’s board approved $55 million for transportation projects in Tysons and Reston today (June 4), with more than $51 million for Tysons-area roads.
The greenlighted funding includes:
- $17.5 million: I-66 widening at Route 29
- $16.6 million: State Street land acquisition
- $7 million: land acquisition for Leesburg Pike widening
- $759,000: pedestrian improvements along Lee Highway
The board also approved funding for preliminary engineering and feasibility studies:
- $7 million: Lincoln Street extension
- $1.5 million: Broad Street
- $1 million: Greensboro ramp to Dulles Toll Road
- $500,000: Tysons West Park Transit Center ramp to Dulles Toll Road
I-66 median widening at Route 29
Fairfax County originally approved endorsement of the I-66 median widening in March 2017. The cost estimate for the project, however, increased by $17,500,000 “due to [the] complexity of construction (e.g. shutting down lanes to install the center pier, number of detours, which creates a larger project footprint),” according to the county staff report.
Lee Highway pedestrian improvements
The street improvements would span Nutley Street to Vaden Drive by the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station, completing missing portions of bike and pedestrian areas. “This project will allow more commuters to make trips by biking, walking, and transit instead of driving, which will improve mobility not only on I-66, but also on the parallel facilities of Lee Highway and Route 50,” the staff report says.
Land acquisition for Leesburg Pike widening
Fairfax County staff want the $7 million for a partial land acquisition between I-495 and I-66 once the design work is done. After deciding to replace an existing gas line along Leesburg Pike, the Fairfax County Department of Transportation has been studying right-of-way and road alignment needs for this section of the highway that runs along the southern edge of Pimmit Hills.
Land acquisition for State Street
Envisioned in the future Tysons Grid of Streets, State Street would connect Greensboro Drive to Route 7 between Spring Hill Road and Westpark Drive.
Currently, the desired, vacant property is for sale, according to the staff report. “If the property is sold to another party and the existing building encumbered with a long-term lease, the cost of acquiring the property will increase significantly, and may become prohibitive,” the report says.
Preliminary engineering and feasibility studies
The Greensboro and Tysons West Park Transit Center ramps to the Dulles Toll Road are two of the three planned ramps that will provide a connection between downtown Tysons to the highway.
Meanwhile, Lincoln Street would connect Old Meadow Road to Magarity Road in Pimmit Hills. The new, two-lane road is meant to provide more access for residents.
Another new road — Broad Street — would run parallel to Route 7, providing access between Spring Hill and Tyco roads and offering an alternative to using Route 7.
The board also approved $3 million for construction to widen Telegraph Road at Hayfield Road in Alexandria and $500,000 for preliminary engineering and feasibility studies on improving the intersection of Reston Parkway and Baron Cameron Avenue.
The funding adjustments from the Tysons and Reston Transportation Service Districts and the Tysons Grid of Streets Road Fund will be made as part of the carryover review for fiscal year 2019, according to a staff report.
Bus riders in the Tysons area can expect to see blue and white Fastran buses on some Fairfax Connector routes starting today (June 3).
The buses are meant to help riders impacted by the summer shutdown of several Metro stations during the summer.
The Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and Fairfax County Department of Transportation teamed up to bring Fastran buses to a few Fairfax Connector routes, as the Fairfax Connector offers more service on two express routes from the Springfield area to the Pentagon.
The Fastran buses will cover these Fairfax Connector routes:
“Fastran buses do not have route numbers and destinations listed outside of the buses,” according to Fairfax County. “The Fastran buses will stop at each bus stop on affected routes to make sure passengers know to board. When boarding, please look for a sign inside the bus to verify your route.”
Riders won’t be able to check real-time arrival information for the Fastran buses, since the buses do not have the technology. Fairfax County urges riders to get to their bus stop at least 5 minutes before the bus’ scheduled arrival time, which can be found via the static schedule information on BusTracker and by texting 41-411.
Metro recently closed several stations on the Blue and Yellow lines south of Ronald Reagan National Airport for platform reconstruction that will last until September.
Fairfax County is deploying the Fastran buses through September.
Let us know below if the Metro shutdown will affect you during the summer.
Photo via UCM of Alexandria/Facebook
The Fairfax County Police Department is looking to keep pace with Tysons’ rapid urbanization with completely different service from the rest of the county.
Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. talked to Tysons Reporter about the new, urban-style police station and service model he hopes to bring to Tysons in the future.
“It’s going to be different from all of the other stations,” he said. “In Fairfax right now it’s isolated. It’s got gates. It’s got cars.”
Roessler said that the station will be “very small” and that the officers will be trained for flexible policing styles that include: rail, retail, nightlife, vertical in high risers, bike and foot patrol.
“I envision it as that old school, early 1900s police station where it’s just part of the environment,” he said. “You see a small police station — it’s part of the fabric of the community.”
While the police department considered Segways for Tysons earlier this year, Roessler said that the pilot program showed they were “too clunky to work right now.”
Roessler started thinking about adding a Tysons station back in 2003 when he was a patrol major working with the county’s zoning staff on a strategic staffing plan.
He said that he helped to put together a team that traveled to Boston, Chicago, New York City and San Diego to find out how their police stations handled rapid urbanization in the 1890s-1920s. The takeaway: police departments need to plan ahead of time to make sure they have the personnel and equipment in order to avoid making quick changes to respond to a tragedy.
Working with the county’s zoning staff is a “really crucial piece” as the process for a Tysons station continues, he said.
For the last few years, Roessler said that he’s been working with different county agencies to get a land purchase or proffer for a Tysons police station — even if it’s just two floors in a mixed-use development.
“We’ve come close several times to getting a proffer in a mixed-use facility to have that urban station, but we continue to work on finding an area that would be conducive to a police station there,” he said.
Currently, nine full-time officers are assigned to the Tysons urban community — a number Roessler said he’d like to boost in the five-year staffing plan, which would also hopefully address the police department’s understaffing issue.
Tysons, Reston and Merrifield are the urban centers where Roessler plans to switch from “this 1940s-style of one person per patrol car” to a range of policing styles.
“We have to patrol like in Tysons, Reston in pairs because we have to go up 30 plus floors and it’s not fair for the community for one patrol officer ti come and wait for the other one,” he said. “It expands the response time.”
A new Lorton station within the next two years is part of larger redistricting effort that will shrink police district stations’ response areas countywide.
With tighter boundaries and the same amount of personnel, Roessler said that policing will become more efficient and engage in the community within smaller geographic areas, which will lead to detecting more crime. The police department will then need more support personnel for more cases, he said.
After the Lorton facility opens, Fairfax County Police Department will hold community meetings across the county about redistricting each district station to ensure a continuity of service, he said.
“I hope within five years we’re going to have a date inked in where we can have another station,” he said.
