Wind Advisory in Effect — The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for the D.C. area, including Fairfax County, starting at noon today (Friday). In effect until 2 a.m. Saturday, the alert says to expect northwest winds of 20 to 30 miles per hour with gusts up to 55 miles per hour. Gusts could blow around unsecured objects and bring down tree limbs, potentially leading to power outages. [NWS]
McLean Community Center Gets New Executive Director — The MCC Governing Board has chosen Daniel Phoenix Singh as the center’s next executive director was to succeed George Sachs, who is retiring on May 7. Singh’s selection to the position, which has an annual salary of $150,000, was effective April 12 but not publicly announced until the board’s meeting on Wednesday (April 28). [MCC]
Help Tysons Plan for COVID-19 Recovery — The Tysons Partnership is conducting a community survey until May 14 to gauge people’s interest in transit, dining, shopping, office work, and other activities affected by the pandemic. A follow-up to a similar survey from last summer, the results are expected to be released at the end of the month and “will be significant to recovery efforts,” President and CEO Sol Glasner told Tysons Reporter. [Tysons Partnership]
Police Body Cameras Coming to Falls Church — The City of Falls Church City will use grant funds and an anticipated $650,000 surplus in the current fiscal year to establish a body camera program for its police department. City Manager Wyatt Shields told the News-Press that the cameras should arrive in the next couple months. A Use of Force Committee recommended that the city evaluate the feasibility of body cameras in February. [Falls Church News-Press]
Tysons Social Tavern Reopens With Outdoor Patio — After a year-long closure, Tysons Social Tavern is back with operating hours from 4-10 p.m., seven days a week, and a new outdoor patio. The bar took over the O’Malley’s Pub spot at the DoubleTree Hilton in Tysons two years ago. [Tysons Social Tavern]
The Falls Church City School Board voted Tuesday night (April 27) to rename two of its schools, effective July.
Thomas Jefferson Elementary School will now be called Oak Street Elementary School — a name it bore before it took the third U.S. president’s — and George Mason High School will be Meridian High School.
The vote concluded a lengthy process that involved public comments, surveys, and work by two renaming committees to generate new monikers for the schools in place of the names of white Founding Fathers who enslaved Africans. The approval came despite recent opposition from a group of high-profile citizens, including a former mayor and two former vice mayors.
“This has been a long and, at times challenging, process, but I do think we’re moving onto a newer and brighter time in Falls Church,” Board Chair Shannon Litton said.
Choosing the elementary school’s new name came easily. Each board member had the same top two picks — Oak Street and Tripps Run, in reference to a nearby creek.
Those who favored Oak Street argued, among other points, that naming the school after the creek is only one step removed naming it after a person, specifically the creek’s historical namesake, Silas Tripp, and that the name’s grammar and spelling could confuse students.
“If the run was not named after a person, I’d be in support of Tripps Run,” Vice Chair Laura Downs said. “I do have some concerns that, in the end, the body of water was named after a person, and we don’t want to find ourselves here years from now because of something someone found.”
For the high school, however, the board was split between Meridian and West Falls Church or West End before ultimately voting 5-2 for Meridian after many awkward pauses. A few members lamented the board-imposed rule of disqualifying the names of people dead fewer than 10 years, saying Ruth Bader Ginsburg would make a fine name.
Meridian’s proponents highlighted the fact that it had been proposed by a teacher, Meridian Street‘s history as a boundary for the original District of Columbia, and its global connotation, which they argued would be fitting for a school that offers the International Baccalaureate curriculum.
As a bonus, they added, “M” paraphernalia from the former Mason name will not be obsolete.
Opponents dismissed the bonus, criticized the name as generic, and worried that it would be unfamiliar to graduates, requiring frequent explanations of its ties to local history.
Elisabeth Snyder, the student representative to the board, said she could not find a clear frontrunner based on conversations with students and teachers. She shared that many had expressed support for Meridian because of “how it connects to IB and inclusiveness,” while acknowledging that the Falls Church association isn’t instantly apparent. Read More
(Updated at 2:40 p.m.) The Falls Church City Council approved a real estate tax rate reduction on Monday (April 26) in what councilmembers called a testament to the hard work and planning of the city staff — especially amid a pandemic that devastated the national economy.
Overall, the three-and-a-half-cent tax rate decrease comes despite a 2.3% growth in the city’s operating budget, which totals $41.3 million.
“The adopted budget includes a real estate tax of $1.32 for every $100 of assessed value, which is a decrease of $0.035 from the previous year,” the city said in a press release. “The general government operating budget is approved at $41.3 million, which is 2.3 percent growth over the previous year.”
The Falls Church City Public Schools budget was fully funded at $43.9 million — a 2.5% growth over the previous year.
“The last time we even contemplated lowering the tax rate was 2005,” City Councilmember Letty Hardi said. “It’s a pretty remarkable achievement.”
The city says the tax rate decrease was made possible through a combination of eliminating a contingency fund, cutting $340,000 in capital projects, and using $460,000 in funding from the Founder’s Row development as a downpayment on the city’s high school construction debt.
The city said the reasoning behind the capital project cuts is that many are expected to be eligible for federal grant funding starting next year.
It’s not all good news on the bill front, though. The stormwater utility rate is increasing by 2% — an average $5 increase for the average homeowner:
The Council also set a new stormwater utility billing rate of $18.72 per 200 square feet of impervious surface, an increase of 2 percent from the current rate. The increase would result in an approximate $5 increase for the average homeowner. The stormwater utility rate increase is needed to address increased investment in repairs and maintenance of the system. The Stormwater Task Force, convened by City Council in 2019, identified six major flood mitigation projects, which are in final engineering now. A financing plan to pay for these major projects will be finalized in the coming year.
Other items of note in the budget include $100,000 for the Affordable Housing Fund and body-worn cameras for police officers.
“The City Council understands that this has been a difficult year for a lot of people, including our taxpayers,” Mayor David Tarter said. “I am happy that we were able to lower our tax rate and ease the burden on our residents while maintaining our schools and critical City services. We are grateful to our community for helping us get through challenging time.”
(Updated at 3:40 p.m.) If your reaction to Falls Church’s Berman Park is “what’s that?,” you’re probably not alone.
Even City of Falls Church Planning Commission members said they were only vaguely familiar with the linear park when presented with project details last week, but a new plan aims to make the park a more memorable part of the city’s green infrastructure.
The park is in the center of the city and connects several commercial properties and residential areas, but it is broken up by several street crossings that the city says lack adequate pedestrian facilities and signage.
In a presentation to the Planning Commission, staff said the goal of the project is to make those crossings more pedestrian-friendly by increasing visibility for all users and decreasing vehicle speeds.
“I agree with staff’s recommendations, they seem to be the most bang for the buck for those types of improvements,” Planning Commission Chair Brent Krasner said. “Berman Park is kind of like — I’ve ridden my bike through there…but the first time I even found it existed, I was like ‘okay, I didn’t even know this was here.'”
At the meeting, city staff went through each of the four intersections connecting the project and shared plans how the streetscape could be modified. Every proposal included some level of curb extension to make the sidewalks more walkable, and nearly every project also included new street signs.
“The goal of the project is to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists using the trail,” staff said in the project description. “The proposed trail crossings will greatly enhance the trail for users traveling through the City and could set a precedent for further improvements trail-wide.”
Preliminary engineering for the project is scheduled to be completed next January, with construction starting a year later in January 2023 and finishing that July.
The project is being funded by a $600,000 award from the Highway Safety Improvement Program/Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Program (HSIP/BPSP) and an additional 30% local funding.
When early voting began at the North County Government Center in Reston on Saturday (April 24), the crowd of electioneers assembled outside the building dwarfed the number of people casting their ballots inside the building.
The absence of lines contrasted sharply with the 2020 general election, when Fairfax County sometimes saw hour-long waits at early voting sites. This time, the biggest hold-up was the few extra seconds election volunteers needed to sort through 16 different ballots and match them with the right voters.
While not surprised by the relatively muted turnout for the first days of early voting for the June 8 Democratic primary, which started on April 23 at the Fairfax County Government Center before expanding to two satellite locations a day later, Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn says it’s too soon to make any confident projections about what early voting will look like in the future.
“Going through a couple of election cycles, I think we need to do that before we can come to any long-term conclusions about how early voting is best done, how to staff it, what resources are necessary,” he said.
Even with a crowded gubernatorial contest on the ballot, the 2021 election cycle likely won’t match the high turnout for last year’s general election, which was buoyed by an especially heated presidential race, but there is already evidence that the Virginia’s new laws permanently expanding the accessibility of absentee voting are paying off.
According to the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project, 63,508 voters have requested mail ballots, and 709 people have voted in person, as of April 24. In comparison, there were just 35,390 early voters in the 2017 primaries, the last time that Virginia had a governor’s race, and that includes 8,815 people who requested mail ballots but never returned them.
Fairfax County has gotten 11,222 mail ballot requests and 68 in-person voters. In 2017, 3,109 people voted early in person, and 1,919 people voted by mail.
Fairfax County Office of Elections spokesperson Brian Worthy attributes this uptick to recent legislative changes made by the Virginia General Assembly, particularly the introduction of no-excuse absentee voting that took effect last year.
“Since the last gubernatorial election, voting by mail has become easier in Virginia,” Worthy said. “Not only can any registered voter do so without needing a reason as was required in the past, but also the law now makes it easy to vote by mail permanently. As a result, the Office of Elections expects to see an increase in voting by mail over time as has happened in other states that have implemented similar laws.”
Legislators took further action to make early voting more accessible during a special session in March, including requiring localities to offer ballot drop-off boxes, permitting absentee voting on Sundays, and suspending witness signature requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic, though those laws don’t take effect until July 1.
Early voting is also “way up” in Falls Church City compared to the last gubernatorial primary, according to Director of Elections and General Registrar David Bjerke.
Bjerke told Tysons Reporter on Friday (April 23) that the city had sent out 315 ballots so far, including 176 mail ballots and 139 email ballots to overseas voters, and three people showed up to vote in person that day. The 2017 primary saw just 240 early voters total, even though the Democratic and Republican parties both held elections that summer.
“It’s a huge increase,” Bjerke said. Read More
(Updated at 3:10 p.m.) Memorial Day festivities are coming back to the City of Falls Church, but they won’t be quite as raucous as previous years.
Like the Town of Vienna, Falls Church City opted for virtual events last year in lieu of its usual crowd-drawing celebration to honor people who have died serving in the military and mark the unofficial arrival of summer.
While the COVID-19 pandemic remains a concern, cases have fallen since the nationwide winter surge, and vaccinations are becoming more widespread, prompting Virginia to ease public health restrictions and enable a limited return of large public events like ViVa Vienna and Falls Church’s annual Memorial Day Event.
According to Falls Church Director of Recreation and Parks Danny Schlitt, the Memorial Day Parade and Festival is the city’s signature event, drawing more than 15,000 people in past years.
“This year we will keep the numbers limited based on whatever the Governor’s guidance will be at the time of the event,” Schlitt said. “The ceremony will be a limited, pre-registration event, and the other festivities are virtual or viewable from the comfort of your front yard. The safety of our residents and visitors is our number one priority. We hope to be back to normal next year.
While the festival aspect of the event will still largely be absent, with no food vendors or amusement rides planned, the City of Falls Church shared in its newsletter yesterday (Thursday) that it will host a Memorial Day ceremony and parade this year, along with the Beyer 3K Memorial Day Fun Run, which will mark its 40th anniversary.
The city is also organizing an 11-day scavenger hunt — its fourth in the past year since the pandemic began.
Here is the full schedule for the 39th annual Falls Church Memorial Day Event:
Memorial Day Scavenger Hunt (May 22-June 1)
Like the Historic Scavenger Hunt in June, the Halloween-centered hunt in October, and the Valentine’s Day-inspired Heartfelt Hunt in February, the Memorial Day Scavenger Hunt will send participants dashing around the city to find various locations that match provided clues.
The specific logisitics of the event are still being worked out, but people who complete the hunt will receive a custom-made T-shirt.
“If the popularity of the past three are any indication, this next one will be our best yet (no pressure, Special Events Coordinator),” the City of Falls Church says.
Beyer Auto 3K Fun Run (May 24-31)
Sponsored by Don Beyer Volvo, the 40th year of the Beyer 3K Memorial Day Fun Run will deviate from past iterations by giving runners the full week leading up to Memorial Day to complete the 3,000-meter race on their own instead of competing in a group.
Participants must register online in advance. Fun Run T-shirts will be available for pick-up on May 31 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. in front of the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St.).
Memorial Day Ceremony (May 31, 11 a.m.-noon)
After unfolding remotely last year, the Memorial Day Ceremony will be back in person this year at the Falls Church Veterans Memorial outside the community center. It will feature appearances by the Greater Falls Church Veterans Council, the Falls Church Concert Band, and other groups.
However, attendance will be limited to 130 people “because we still have a pandemic to deal with,” the City of Falls Church says. Spots can be reserved online starting on May 4. The ceremony will also be recorded by Falls Church Community Television.
Memorial Day Parade (May 31, 2:30-4 p.m.)
The 2021 Memorial Day Parade will be scaled back from past years with a lineup mainly composed of city government vehicles, such as school buses, police cruisers, emergency vehicles, and public works trucks.
Falls Church City says that the parade will “hopefully” be led by former Councilmember and Planning Commissioner Lindy Hockenberry, who served as the 2020 Memorial Day Parade grand marshal even with no actual parade.
Instead of going down Park Avenue in accordance with tradition, this year’s parade will travel throughout the city. An exact route has not yet been determined, but the city says it will likely be similiar to its Snow Emergency Routes.
Photo via City of Falls Church/YouTube
Former Falls Church resident and civil rights pioneer Edwin Bancroft Henderson is one of five Black Virginians being honored with a new series of highway plaques aimed at highlighting Black history throughout the state.
Options for the new markers were submitted by Virginia students, and of the 100 submissions, five were chosen.
According to a press release from the Governor’s office:
Henderson, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame known as the “Father of Black Basketball,” organized athletic leagues for African Americans, wrote The Negro in Sports (1939), organized the first rural chapter of the NAACP, and was president of the NAACP Virginia state conference as he worked for civil rights.
The recognition also comes after years of work by Henderson’s grandson to get his grandfather’s contributions to civil rights recognized, along with his promotion of physical fitness in young Black athletes and work to document Black sports, as reported by Northern Virginia Magazine.
The marker for Henderson was suggested by Sullivan Massaro from Kings Glen Elementary in Springfield, Virginia.
“The Historical Marker Contest helped me learn more about Black Virginians who have made a difference, like Dr. Edwin Henderson,” Massaro said in the press release. “Dr. Henderson introduced the sport of basketball to Black athletes in Washington, D.C. and is a big part of why basketball is so popular today. As I researched him I learned how much he did not only for the sport of basketball, but for civil rights in Virginia. I couldn’t believe that he did not already have a historical marker, so I chose to nominate him for the contest.”
In 2013, Henderson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Edwin Henderson II, grandson of Edwin Bancroft Henderson, said the marker will help secure his grandfather’s legacy and spread awareness of the local piece of Black history.
“On behalf of the Henderson Family, I’d like to express my deep appreciation to Sullivan and his teacher Ms. Maura Keaney for the recognition of Dr. Edwin Bancroft Henderson’s accomplishments in Virginia by placing a historic marker in front of his home in the City of Falls Church,” Edwin Henderson II said. “This contest is part of an important effort to intertwine African American history into all school curriculum, and ensure that Virginia’s diverse history is represented honestly in classrooms across the Commonwealth.”
Image via University of the District of Columbia
Not all grocery stores are created equal.
There isn’t exactly a dearth of grocery stores in the area around the planned West Falls Church Economic Development Project, inspiring some confusion when it was announced the project will be anchored by 123,000 square feet of retail primarily consisting of a grocery store.
But at a recent meeting last week on the project, developer EYA argued that the city is big enough to accommodate multiple grocery retailers.
“Within this market, because it’s such a high density area leading towards both to Tysons as well as towards downtown Falls Church, the numbers within that three mile ring is high,” Evan Goldman, executive vice president of acquisition and development for EYA, said. “Even though you do have a lot of grocery stores, you have different types of grocery stores.”
The identity of the grocer expected to move into the extensive mixed-use development remains under wraps, sealed by a nondisclosure agreement, according to City of Falls Church staff.
Goldman noted that some grocery store chains operate as primary stores for staples, while others live symbiotically with those chains as providers for more niche products.
“Like Trader Joe’s, that’s something where somebody will often cross-shop,” Goldman said. “They’ll go to Trader Joe’s and Giant or Whole Foods or Harris Teeter. The grocery store we’re bringing to bear is something more unique and different as well, so it might be something as well where people cross-shop to grocers.”
The cross-shopping trend for grocery stores was called into question during the pandemic, however, when more shoppers started to focus on getting all their grocery needs at a single store. Whether that endures after the pandemic is too early to say.
“Grocery stores, of all the retail tenants, probably have the most sophisticated demographic software when they determine locations,” Goldman said. “So they clearly think there’s demand for their product here, and we agree based on what we’ve seen.”
Final action on the West Falls development — and its mystery tenant — is scheduled for May 24.
Image via City of Falls Church
Lane Closed on Old Meadow Road Today — “The left lane of Old Meadow Road heading toward Route 123 will be closed for several hours beginning at 9 a.m. Friday, April 16, to permit minor asphalt repairs. This work was originally scheduled for Saturday, April 3.” [Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project]
Tension over Alleged Racism at Football Game Continues — Wakefield High School community members issued a letter on Wednesday (April 14) calling for a formal apology from Marshall High School in relation to a March 5 football game where players allegedly used racial slurs. Marshall’s coaching staff and parents have disputed that account, but some students recently released a statement criticizing their school for its handling of the incident. [Patch]
D.C. Airport Unveils New Addition — “After nearly 25 years, officials at Reagan National Airport on Thursday unveiled a much-anticipated addition, a sleek 14-gate concourse that will mark the end of operations of the much-maligned Gate 35X.” [The Washington Post]
Falls Church City Too Small for Retail Shopping — Even as Falls Church pursues a sizable mixed-use developments, Councilmember Ross Litkenhous says the city lacks the foot traffic or surface parking needed to attract retail merchants like Urban Outfitters or Macys. The city’s proximity to Tysons and Merrifield, though, means that residents still have many options nearby. [Falls Church News-Press]
The Falls Church Kiwanis Little League is hoping not to strike out on a proposal to add new batting cages to a field at Idylwood Park between Falls Church and Tysons.
At a Fairfax County Parks Authority meeting tonight, the Kiwanis Little League is docketed to suggest adding three hitting stations to the field, with a concrete bases, heavy-duty cage netting, and synthetic turf mats.
“Hitting stations allow multiple players to practice their skills simultaneously in a safe, protected space,” a staff report said. “By making such efficient use of space, this improvement will alleviate some of the competing uses in this popular park.”
The Kiwanis Little League has raised $12,737.25 for the project, but is seeking a matching contribution from the county in the form of a Mastenbrook Grant, which provides up to $20,000 in matching funds for local park projects.
In its application for the grant program, the Kiwanis Little League says that players hoping to use batting cages currently have to travel to Arlington, and a new set of cages in Falls Church could help alleviate the demand.
In a supplement to its application, the league further explained the benefit of adding hitting cages at Idylwood Park, which is located on Virginia Lane:
Hitting stations would be an extremely popular recreational resource at Idylwood Park and many different groups would benefit from them including several hundred FCKLL members, local travel teams, middle and high school students, as well as the general public. They would provide a new year-round recreational and developmental resource for individuals, teams and the community at-large, without adding burden to fields. They are a practical and effective alternative to batting cages and allow multiple players to work out in a confined space, safely and at the same time. Equally important, it provides the community with another opportunity to be outside and engage in physical activity.
Image via Fairfax County
