Memorial Day is just around the corner on Monday (May 31), and the federal holiday will bring a few closures of public buildings in the Tysons area.

Fairfax County Government:

• County government offices will be closed on May 31.

Fairfax County Courts:

• The Fairfax Circuit, General District, and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District courts will be closed all day on May 31.

Town of Vienna

• Town offices will be closed all day.
• The Vienna Community Center hours will change to 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on May 31.
• The holiday will not affect waste collection. Residents scheduled for pick-up on Mondays can place their waste by the curb as normal.

City of Falls Church:

• All city offices and services, including City Hall, the Mary Riley Styles Public Library, and the Community Center will be closed.

Public Schools:

• Fairfax County Public Schools will be closed for Memorial Day.

County Libraries, Recreation Centers, Parks:

• All Fairfax County library branches will be closed.
• All Fairfax County RECenters will operate at their regular hours.
• Colvin Run Mill and Sully Historic Site grounds will be open from noon to 4 p.m. for strolling, but all the buildings will be closed.
• The E.C. Lawrence, Hidden Oaks, Hidden Pond, and Huntley Meadows nature centers  will be open from noon until 5 p.m. on May 31.
• The Riverbend Park visitor center will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• The McLean Community Center will be closed for Memorial Day.

Public Transit:

• Fairfax Connector buses will operate on a Sunday service schedule. Check the link for details on specific routes.
• WMATA Metrorail service will operate from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. on Saturday and from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on Sunday and Monday.
• WMATA Metrobus will operate on a Sunday service schedule.

County Trash and Recycling:

• There will be no change in the county’s trash and recycling collection.
• The recycling and disposal centers at the I-66 Transfer Station and I-95 Landfill Complex will be open.

A house in Tysons caught fire after being struck by a lightning bolt during last night’s thunderstorm, the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department says.

Fairfax and Arlington county firefighters were dispatched to a two-story, single-family house in the 1900 block of Hull Road at approximately 8:57 p.m. yesterday (Wednesday).

Upon arriving at the scene, the units could see fire showing through the house’s roof. They “rapidly” extinguished the fire, and there were no reported civilian or firefighter injuries, according to the FCFRD report.

However, four occupants of the house have been displaced, and the blaze resulted in approximately $90,000 in damages.

FCFRD says that the house’s four occupants were all at home when the fire started:

Four occupants were home at the time of the fire. The occupants heard a loud bang, saw a flash of lightning, and then smelled smoke. All occupants evacuated the home. 9-1-1 was called. Smoke alarms did not sound due to the location of the fire.

Fire Investigators determined that the fire was natural in nature and started on the exterior of the home. The cause of the fire was a lightning strike.

The Fairfax County and Arlington fire departments also responded to a house fire in the 7700 block of Virginia Lane in Falls Church last night. A cause and estimate of damages have not been announced yet, but the blaze did not result in any reported injuries.

UPDATE- house fire in the 7700 block of Virginia Lane. Fire in attic. Fire now out. No reported injuries at this time. @ArlingtonVaFD assisting. #FCFRD pic.twitter.com/fFVp9y95Uo

— Fairfax County Fire/Rescue (@ffxfirerescue) May 27, 2021

Photo via Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department

A long-standing chapter of the Aylor family’s history concluded this week with the groundbreaking of a new housing development in Falls Church.

With members of the family present, the homebuilding company Madison Homes broke ground yesterday (Monday) at 2530 Remington Street on a new private housing community, The Enclave at Aylors Overlook. The site will be developed into 16 new single-family homes over the next year and a half.

“We were delighted to be given the opportunity to purchase the property,” Madison Homes President Russell Rosenberger Jr. said. “Certainly, the ability to honor the Aylor family legacy, we knew that was important to Marvin and his family. Therefore it became important to us also, as we were planning the development of the property.”

Madison Homes purchased the property from the Aylor family, which had owned the five acres since 1957, when Lewis and Virginia Aylor bought it. The couple had moved to the property in 1951, and three generations of the family ultimately lived on it.

“For me, it is kind of sad to be here. I’ve realized life is all about change. For me, it’s my whole life here,” Marvin Aylor, the son of Lewis and Virginia and executor of Lewis’s estate, said. “For my parents — my father — to come down here to live, for me to grow up here and my son to grow up here, it’s a lot to lose, but it did well for us. It put us where we are today.”

Marvin shared that it was his father’s desire for family homes to eventually be built on the site. After deliberating over possible companies to sell the property to, the family chose Madison Homes because of the company’s history and work.

Founded in 1992 in McLean, Madison Homes focuses on in-fill development in the D.C. area. Its existing developments include Chesterbrook Manor in McLean, The Reserve at Tysons Corner apartments, and The Palladium at McLean, according to the company’s website.

“We wanted somebody that had some clout and had a good product,” Marvin said. “We were picky too in the sense that we could be. From what I saw of their work, I wanted my dad’s name to stand for something, and to be here and mean something. That’s part of why we chose [Madison Homes].”

The property is currently in the land development process, which should finish in October.

Rosenberger expects construction on the first houses to begin in September, with models being completed in early 2022. He anticipates the entire development will be completed within 12 to 18 months.

The homes will carry a price tag starting in the $1.7 million range, with sales beginning off site this fall, according to a Madison Homes spokesperson.

“The family quite truthfully did a lot of the hard work on the property,” Rosenberger said. “The family took it through the engineering process with the county. They did a great job. They had the right consultants, engineers and advisors involved in the process. So, we really didn’t have to make any significant changes as we got involved in the property.”

Adolescents Drive COVID-19 Vaccination Surge — “More than 52,000 Virginians in the 12-to-15 age group have received their first COVID-19 shot in the nine days since federal regulators authorized use of Pfizer’s vaccine for adolescents. This means 1 out of 9 kids in this age bracket — there are 422,741 in total — are at least partially protected against the coronavirus in the lead-up to schools fully reopening in the fall. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

Three Displaced by West Falls Church House Fire — Three people were displaced by a house fire in the 7000 block of Ted Drive in West Falls Church that caused approximately $25,000 in damages. Units from Fairfax and Arlington counties arrived at the two-story house at approximately 1:27 a.m. on Sunday (May 23). The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but it is believed to have been accidental. [FCFRD]

Vienna Begins Water Flushing Program — “The Town will begin its annual Fairfax County water main flushing program today. It will run from today till 6/14. Work will not impact traffic or Town services.” [Town of Vienna/Twitter]

Falls Church City Schools Rank Top in State — Falls Church City Public Schools was ranked as the top school district in Virginia by Newsweek magazine, which published rankings this week based on data from the U.S. Department of Education. A 14:1 student-to-teacher ratio and 97% graduation rate were among the factors that distinguished FCCPS. [Falls Church News-Press]

Photo by Joanne Liebig

Virginia to Speed Up Unemployment Claims — Gov. Ralph Northam told the Virginia Employment Commission yesterday (Tuesday) to invest $20 million to add staff and make technology upgrades to process unemployment insurance claims faster. Aiming to modernize the system by Oct. 1, the governor’s office says the funds will speed up the resolution of cases flagged as potentially fraudulent or ineligible, about 4% of all claims. [Office of the Governor]

Warmer Weather Brings Hope for Cicadas — Brood X cicadas emerged “in pockets” around the D.C. region this past week, but evening temperatures in the 40s and 50s presented challenges during their molting process and left those that molted successfully “sluggish” and vulnerable to predators. The emergence should accelerate later this week, with temperatures expected to climb into the 80s and 90s. [The Washington Post]

Verizon Proposes Cell Tower in Falls Church — Verizon Wireless and Milestone Towers have submitted a proposal to the Falls Church City School Board to install a cell tower on the city’s high school and middle school campus. Two virtual town halls will be held today (Wednesday), starting with one for surrounding residents at 6-7 p.m. and followed by one for the school community at 7-8 p.m. [Falls Church News-Press]

Celebrate Fairfax Festival Canceled — “Celebrate Fairfax organizers announced late Monday that the 2021 festival will not take place. The event is typically held over several days in the summer outside the Fairfax County Government Center. The event was also canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” [Patch]

Caboose Tavern to Donate Pancakes to Firefighters — “Neighborhood favorite Caboose Tavern is donating one stack of pancakes to the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department for every breakfast meal purchased through May 28. The Caboose Tavern team will deliver the pancakes to Vienna’s first responders following the campaign. The partnership comes shortly after Caboose launched their new breakfast service.” [Caboose Tavern]

Photo by Joanne Liebig

The Falls Church City Public Schools School Board unanimously approved a $53.6 million operating budget for the 2022 fiscal year on Tuesday (May 11).

The budget, which includes $43.8 million in revenue from the City of Falls Church, is balanced, provides wage increases for staff, and meets budget guidance from the city, according to school staff.

“The budget is, in my estimation, a celebration,” FCCPS Superintendent Peter Noonan said during the school board meeting.

At this time last year, FCCPS and the school board were “cutting hundreds of thousands of dollars” from the budget and unable to increase staff compensation, Noonan noted.

“As we moved through the budget this year, we’ve been able to accomplish some things that were a long time in coming, and it does represent a turning point in the COVID-19 crisis that we’ve been in,” the superintendent said.

For the third year in a row, the budget meets a directive from Falls Church City to limit any increase in city transfer funds to no more than 2.5% over the current budget and to avoid increasing the real estate tax rate, according to the school division.

Overall, the budget marks a 3% increase from the current budget with support from a $470,000 increase in state funding, thanks to “a substantial jump in sales tax revenue,” FCCPS says.

Federal revenue, primarily for special education, will increase by $32,000.

The budget includes a “well-deserved” step increase for eligible employees, averaging 2.5%, as well as a 1.5% cost of living adjustment for all staff, Noonan said. The budget also accounts for a projected 2.4% increase in health insurance costs.

“We are able to take care of staff and faculty,” he said. “This not only helps our employees but it helps us grow salary scales, which will ultimately impact our ability to continue recruiting staff. We remain competitive in the region, and we have great benefits as well.”

The current fiscal year 2021 budget eliminated salary increases for staff due to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.

With the new budget, FCCPS will hire a school counselor to lower the ratio of students to counselors in response to new state legislation. New positions have also been added for an additional social worker, an English-Language Arts coordinator, and three more custodial staffers for the newly opened high school, which was recently renamed Meridian High School.

School Board Chair Shannon Litton lauded FCCPS for the completion of the high school campus project.

“We know that that was an incredible feat that it is completed on time and on budget,” Litton said. “I think in the midst of this year it’s gotten overlooked, but it was honestly an incredible thing you’ve accomplished.”

Meanwhile, FCCPS projects enrollment to go up by 101 students from Sept. 30, 2020, bringing the total population up to 2,605 students.

“FY 2021 enrollment was lower than we projected,” a staff presentation said. “However, we are already seeing enrollment recovery and are expecting to have a further increase in enrollment next year.”

The budget also includes funding to continue replacing school-issued electronic devices every four years at the middle and high school levels.

Budget reductions include:

• Base pay for current employees was adjusted to reflect turnover this year and projected turnover next year, resulting in savings of ~$475,000
• Discontinued retirement program benefits saved the division nearly $93,000
• FCCPS saved $100,000 by adjusting its contracts with neighboring jurisdictions for some instructional services to better reflect how much those services are used

Photos via Falls Church City Public Schools 

The arduous journey toward a re-imagined West Falls Church Transit Station Area is drawing to a close with the last two approvals slated for this summer.

“I want to thank the entire team for two-and-a-half years of dedicated work on behalf of the Dranesville district,” Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust said during a community meeting on Tuesday (May 11). “This has been a long, difficult process, and as a consequence, the product is much better. The time was well spent. The product is good — and getting better — and we still have some time.”

The development plan will go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 16 and the Board of Supervisors on July 13. The plan was narrowly approved by a task force that voted 5-3-1 earlier this month.

When the proposed plan was presented to the community for the first time on Tuesday, however, some residents expressed concerns about traffic along Haycock Road, pedestrian safety, and distance from Virginia Tech’s property.

“I’m not anti-development, but I’m really concerned,” one attendee said. “I’ve been trying to get our streets to be safer as they’re crowded with cars.”

Predicting that the new I-66 exit ramp will pour traffic into the new community, she asked staff to find a way to make it inconvenient to “pop out onto Haycock Road” for those looking to get to Tysons, DC or Arlington “as fast as possible.”

“I know every area is screaming for sidewalks, but one thing you could do is paint the speed limit or look at other creative, inexpensive ways that communities have found to reduce the speed and the number of cut-thru cars, and make better buffers and calming measures for people who live here, pay taxes and are part of the community,” she said.

The draft plan includes language directing the county to develop a West Falls Church Active Transportation Plan with recommendations for transportation improvements that will increase connectivity, fill in missing or inadequate facilities, and promote walking and bicycling.

“County staff are working on this,” county transportation planner Tim Kutz said. “A follow-up motion will be approved after the plan amendment goes forward and we’ll be reaching out in the fall to continue engaging with you. Getting your perspective is going to be critical in developing recommendations to increase active transportation in the area.”

The plan includes mitigation measures for what people perceive as “bad traffic,” with signal timing, new signals and reconfigured intersections, county planner Bryan Botello said.

Residents worried there was little to ensure the local government implements those changes, but staff said these changes will happen when developers come into the picture.

“The improvements approved are recommendations that would happen when the development team is actually going to the rezoning and development review stage,” senior transportation planner Bob Pikora said. “The comprehensive plan informs what we will be doing in the zoning and review phases, but the developments will be up to the development team.”

More landscaped buffers and green spaces have been added to the plan, according to staff.

New plans have not materialized for the Virginia Tech property after the university nixed a project to expand its Northern Virginia Center with a design school and other facilities. But some task force members were keen to get a buffer between the campus and nearby housing.

“We’ve added an additional landscaped buffer between Virginia Tech and the Villages condominium, and added additional language that strengthens the buffer, and creates a linear park,” Botello said.

Housing will be separated from Virginia Tech by landscaped buffers, a pedestrian walkway, a road and streetscaping, according to the plan.

The new plan envisions a sequence of parks through the area instead of the courtyard featured in the current comprehensive plan.

“There are really a lack of options for accessible parks south of I-66, so it was certainly a priority for us when we were drafting the plan,” Botello said, noting that the park areas shown below could take the form of pocket parks, urban greens, or a civic plaza.

A recreational park is envisioned at the northeast corner of the study area, at the corner of Haycock Road and Metro Access Road.

Images via Fairfax County

The City of Falls Church is keeping some of the relaxed restrictions on noise levels for businesses put into effect during the pandemic, but it isn’t going as far as some on the city council have wanted.

The Falls Church City Council voted 6-1 on Monday (May 10) to accept city staff’s recommendation to adopt a new noise ordinance that codifies the extension of what is considered “daytime hours” for noise levels up to 10 p.m.

The change was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to help local businesses. However, a suggestion to extend the definition of daytime hours to 10:30 p.m. was not approved.

A proposal to increase the maximum decibel levels was also struck down after staff gathered city council members in a field to hear what different decibels sounded like. The current level for commercial districts of 65 decibels will stay intact.

Some councilmembers worried this could set up problems for some businesses down the road. In particular, Councilmember Ross Litkenhous said he was concerned about entertainment venues struggling to come back, like the State Theater.

“I’m not convinced that, for a weekend night, for a venue that wants to play music, that 65 decibels is the appropriate level,” Litkenhous said. “Is it 75? I don’t know, but keeping it at 65 decibels is setting those businesses up for controversy.”

Litkenhous was the sole vote against the approval of staff’s recommendation for the ordinance.

Photo via Google Maps

Virginia to Lift All Capacity Restrictions on June 15 — If COVID-19 cases continue to decline, Gov. Ralph Northam will lift all remaining capacity limits on businesses on June 15, as suggested last week. He has not decided whether to extend the state of emergency set to expire on June 30, a move that would be necessary to keep mask requirements in place. [WTOP]

Metro Will Expand Bus Service in June — Starting June 6, Metrobus will provide late-night service until 2 a.m. on 36 of its busiest routes, and some other routes will have service increased, in some cases to pre-pandemic levels. The changes will bring the overall bus system to 85% of its pre-pandemic service levels after Metrobus averaged about 180,000 passenger trips per day on weekdays in April. [WMATA]

Citizen Catches Rabid Cat in Falls Church — Falls Church City is urging residents to contact the police or Fairfax County Health Department if they’ve been bitten or scratched by a cat in the past two weeks after a stray gray-and-white domestic long-haired cat tested positive for rabies. The cat was first spotted “in the 100 block of Gresham Place on May 2 and again in the 100 block of W. Jefferson Street on May 3 where it injured a citizen who was able to capture it.” [City of Falls Church]

Reminder: Wolf Trap Tickets Go on Sale Today — Tickets for Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts’ initial batch of summer performances will be on sale starting at 10 a.m. Highlighted by a 50th anniversary gala concert, these will be the first live, in-person events at the venue since December 2019. [Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts]

New Mural Coming to The Boro — Work has begun on a mural by Baltimore artists Jessie and Katy that will grace the Leesburg Pike side of The Loft, an office building in the Tysons mixed-use development. Expected to be completed later this spring, the mural will be among the largest in the D.C. area at 400 feet long and 80 feet high. [The Boro/press release]

Falls Church Dentist Moves to Larger Location — “Congratulations to Dr. Ramineh Kangarloo and the team at Gentle Touch Dentistry For All Ages for expanding to a larger location in the Providence District! Thank you for serving the community and finding ways to give back.” [Supervisor Dalia Palchik/Twitter]

Photo by Joanne Liebig

(Updated 4/7/21) After two years, the West Falls Church TSA Task Force pushed through a tense nearly-three hour meeting to finally approve an updated plan that will guide the overhaul of one of the Metro system’s most underused stations.

In recent meetings, some lingering divides on the task force sometimes escalated into heated moments between those with concerns about pedestrian safety and those pushing for approval of the plan to usher in new growth to the area.

“I think this plan exemplifies the transit-oriented development goals [and] represents an intensity of uses that we would expect for a vibrant, active Metro station,” Bryan Botello, a Fairfax County planner who helped oversee the task force, said.

Botello argued that the plan addresses two of the main concerns raised by task force members, namely ones related to pedestrian connectivity and safety and the efficiency of the area’s road network.

“I think this plan really balances the priorities of all road users,” he said. “…It should satisfy everyone and improves connectivity to the Metro for pedestrians and provides more efficient traffic operations.”

Covering roughly 156 acres near the West Falls Church Metro station, the new plan is a complicated patchwork of transportation and development suggestions.

The task force did hit a stumbling block when one of the major impetuses for its creation — the development of the Virginia Tech campus — was abruptly canceled earlier this year.

While county staff endorsed the plan, two of its most vocal critics, Christopher Szara and Paul Rothstein, who represent the nearby residential development The Villages, said the plan doesn’t go far enough in protecting and improving pedestrian transportation options in the area.

A motion by Rothstein to delay approval of the plan until further study by the Virginia Department of Transportation was struck down by the rest of the task force.

“We have had concerns…regarding traffic and the impact of the project outside of the scope of our discussion here, and the added impact of the WMATA project,” Szara said. “Traffic is a concern and I’m not convinced its been adequately addressed. I know over the last year we’ve been lulled into submission with regards to traffic, but having been a commuter for many many years I know how bad it can be, and having my son go to Haycock and him walking to school, I know how treacherous that can be.”

Szara, Rothstein, and task force chair David Wuehrmann voted no on the plan but were beaten by five votes in favor and one abstension.

McLean Citizens Association representative Darren Ewing had been a leading voice pushing for approval of the plan that evening.

“First and foremost, the [plan amendment] we’re entertaining here is consistent with the MCA’s long standing that density is appropriate at Metro sites,” Ewing said. “We have a failing Metro station with pre-COVID Metro ridership levels at 25,000 trips per day, one of the lowest number of trips in the entire Metro system. It’s not an inviting station, it’s a suburban parking lot, and it doesn’t encourage walking or biking. Even the park-and-ride is operating at 60% capacity pre-COVID.”

An email from MCA President Rob Jackson noted that, while the MCA is on record as supporting higher density at Metrorail stations, it has not adopted a position on the West Falls Church Comprehensive Plan Amendment.

“Our Planning & Zoning Committee will be preparing a resolution setting forth a recommended position that is expected to be presented to the MCA board at its June meeting,” Jackson said.

Following the task force’s approval, the plan will be discussed in a community meeting on Tuesday (May 11) before going to the Planning Commission on June 16 and Board of Supervisors on July 13.

Image via Fairfax County