McLean Student Wins Contest to Study in Spain — “Ethan H., an 11th-grader at BASIS Independent McLean, has won the 2019 Junior Study Abroad Scholarship and will travel to Spain this summer. This national award, valued at more than $3,500, is given each year to 24 students nationally who become eligible by earning high scores on the National Spanish Examination.” [Inside NoVa]
Look Back at Falls Church’s Memorial Day — Missed the City of Falls Church’s parade and festival during the weekend or want to relive it? This article describes what it was like to be there with the young families who joined veterans and active service men and women to honor fallen service members. [WJLA]
Vienna Mom Qualifies For Olympic Trials — Perry Shoemaker, a 48-year-old Vienna resident, is the second-oldest woman to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials.”Shoemaker’s journey to Olympic Trials qualifier started back in about 2011, when the family moved from Pittsburgh to their current home in Vienna… she did most of her runs pushing a jogging stroller and holding a dog on a leash.” [Runner’s World]
Tysons Restaurant Makes OpenTable List — Founding Farmers in Tysons made it onto OpenTable’s 2019 list of 100 best restaurants in America for a “big night out.” [Patch]
Falls Church Crash Injuries Five People — On Saturday, four pedestrians and the driver were taken to a hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries following a crash in a parking lot along Annandale Road in Falls Church. [Twitter]
Tysons Building at Full Capacity — “A new 150,000 square foot lease with an undisclosed company has capped off Rubenstein Partners and Griffith Properties’ lease up program for their jointly-owned building, Centerstone at Tysons. The single transaction brought the newly-renovated building to full occupancy. Rubenstein and Griffith acquired Centerstone at Tysons, located at 1550 Westbranch Dr., in July 2015.” [GlobeSt]
Photo via Founding Farmerres
Memorial Day is coming up on Monday (May 27). Check this list in case you are planning to visit government facilities around Fairfax County this weekend while honoring people who died while serving in the U.S. military.
County-wide
All county offices, schools and libraries will be closed on Memorial Day.
County trash and recycling collection won’t have any changes for Monday and Recycling and Disposal Centers at the I-66 Transfer Station (4618 West Ox Road) and the I-95 Landfill Complex (9850 Furnace Road) will be open on Memorial Day. Residents with private collection will need to contact their haulers.
Vienna
Town of Vienna offices will be closed on Monday, but refuse collection will take place as scheduled.
The Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) will have reduced hours on Memorial Day from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Falls Church
The Mary Riley Styles Public Library will be closed on Sunday and Monday.
The Community Center (223 Little Falls Street) will be open from 2-6 p.m. on Sunday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday.
City Hall, city government offices and courts will be closed on Memorial Day.
McLean
The McLean Community Center and the Old Firehouse Center will be closed on Monday.
Other Closures
Metro trains and buses and the Fairfax Connector will be operating on a Sunday schedule (8 a.m.-11 p.m.) on Memorial Day.
The Department of Motor Vehicles will be closed on Monday.
Speaking of closed offices, Tysons Reporter will be on a break as well on Monday.
Music lovers looking for free concerts can head to McLean on Sundays this summer.
McLean’s returning summer concert series plans to feature a variety of musical styles, including Latin, brass, jazz, Americana and rock.
The concerts run from June 16 to July 29.
June lineup:
- Alphabet Rockers — hip-hop beats for kids
- Jazzy Ash and the Leaping Lizards — New Orleans-style jazz and favorite jazz standards
- Sonia de Los Santos — Latin American family music
July lineup:
- DuPont Brass — a brass band that plays jazz, hip-hop and R&B
- Frontiers — a Journey tribute band
- Justin Trawick and the Common Good — a band led by D.C.-based songwriter Justin Trawick
- Slippery When Wet — a Bon Jovi tribute band
Sponsored by The Alden at the McLean Community Center, the concert series takes place every Sunday afternoon at 5 p.m. in the gazebo of McLean Central Park (1468 Dolley Madison Blvd).
Photo courtesy McLean Community Center
Updated at 8:45 a.m. — Corrects the picture of the building and its address.
Passersby the McLean Medical Building would never know that the building is connected to the first doctor in the nation who gave children the Salk polio vaccine.
Denice Dressel, a heritage resource planner for Fairfax County, recently unearthed the building’s ties while working on a heritage study to identify potential significant sites as downtown McLean prepares for a new look.
Her research revealed that the building (1515 Chain Bridge Road) was constructed in 1964 and first owned by a group of doctors that included Dr. Richard Mulvaney, who is credited with being the first doctor to give the vaccine to kids with the crippling disease.
Mulvaney died at the age of 88 in 2006 at Inova Fairfax Hospital, according to a Washinton Post obituary.
The building does not have any markers or plaques indicating its connection to Mulvaney, Dressel said.
Dressel’s finding flummoxed some members of a task force made up of McLean residents working to revamp the downtown area during a Monday (May 20) meeting.
“Who determines whether or not that is an architectural gem or a building that could use some substantial demolition and work?” Kim Dorgan, the chair of the task force, asked. “A quick point — I think many of us are surprised to find that building on this list.”
Dressel said that there are no regulations to preserve the buildings on the list, which might affect the fate of the McLean Medical Building.
“While I was conducting the fieldwork, a redevelopment proposal was submitted for the site, which proposes to raze the building,” Dressel said, adding that redevelopment is in the very beginnings of review.
Image via Department of Planning and Zoning
Could a desire for more park space make McLean less attractive to developers? That was the question residents pondered at a meeting earlier this week.
Currently, a task force made up of McLean residents and civic group members has been working with Fairfax County to revamp the McLean Commercial Business Center (CBC).
While the Fairfax County Park Authority pushed for more parks at the task force’s Monday (May 20) meeting, some of its members worried that an emphasis on more parks might push developers away.
Ryan Stewart, a senior planner for the Fairfax County Park Authority, said that a long-term vision for green space in McLean would move toward a mixed-use model, possibly emulating Fairfax Corner, Reston Town Center or the Mosaic District.
Population size determines countywide park facility service level standards, Stewart said.
With projected population changes that could have McLean see nearly 3,000 more residents and 1,500 fewer employees, the Park Authority recommends an additional 4.25 more acres of urban park space, a new playground and another sports court at full buildout in McLean.
“Any development scenario should consider how these needs will be met within the CBC or nearby,” a Park Authority presentation slide said.
The immediate area of the CBC has several parks, including McLean Central, Lewinsville, and Bryn Mawr.
Stewart stressed that urban parks provide a variety of benefits, including social connections, urban cooling and air and water quality improvement.
Kim Dorgan, the chair of the task force, supported a common sentiment among the task force members for more greenery.
“We all want trees,” she said, adding that McLean already has a green space deficit. “We are already 2.5 acres under where we ought to be in today’s standards in terms of green space,” Dorgan said.
While members of the task force said that adding more parks is important, they also expressed concern that developers might balk at more green space requirements.
“I’m all for green space, but stick it to a developer and say you need to give me an acre is going to be challenging,” one task force member that Tysons Reporter was unable to identify said.
Dorgan suggested finding a “creative” way to improve access to the McLean Central Park as a possible way to avoid the trade-off between more green space or more development.
“If we do nothing and there’s nothing that happens in McLean, we are still not where we want to be,” Dorgan said. “We need the change to get where we want to go.”
A parade and fireworks are planned for a pair of Memorial Day commemorative events in the Tysons area.
On Sunday (May 26), the U.S. Marine Band will play a free concert at the Filene Center (1551 Trap Road) in Wolf Trap National Park. A fireworks display is planned to follow the concert.
Gates open at 6:30 p.m. for lawn and in-house seating, with curtains opening at 8 p.m. the fireworks are planned to start at around 9:45 p.m.
Seating capacity for the event is limited. The Fairfax Connector bus from the West Falls Church Metro station will not be available for the event. Parking is free and attendees can get $5 off two Lyft rides with the code WOLFTRAP19.
On Monday (May 27), the City of Falls Church is hosting its 38th Annual Memorial Day Festival and Parade with an expected 12,000 visitors. The festival is planned to feature food, live entertainment, artists and various vendors.
The Don Beyer Volvo 3K Fun Run is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. The parade is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
Free public parking will be available in the Kaiser Permanente garage at the corner of N. Washington Street and Park Avenue and at the George Mason Square garage (103 W. Broad Street).
The parade and festival will also result in several street closures.
- Park Avenue will be closed from 5:30 a.m.-7 p.m. between N. Maple Avenue to N. Virginia Avenue (except for limited vendor traffic)
- Little Falls Streed will be closed from 5:30 a.m.-7 p.m. between Park Avenue to Great Falls Street
- Great Falls Street
- Pennsylvania Avenue
- Fulton Avenue
- N. Oak Street
- Lincoln Avenue
- N. West Street
- Park Avenue
Other Memorial Day events around the area include:
- The Murphy Challenge: Memorial Day Workout and Grill-Out — 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at CrossFit Tysons Corner (8452 Tyco Road) — The event is a fundraiser to support educational charities to honor the life of Lt. Michael Murphy. Three workouts will be held followed by a grilling event, with attendees asked to bring a drink or dish to share. Visitors and non-members can sign up online.
- Memorial Day Annual Pool Party — 12-2 p.m. at Sport&Health McLean (1800 Old Meadow Road) — The summer barbecue and pool event is hosted by Sport&Health McLean and will include information about aquatics programs, camps and more.
Photo via Facebook
Updated 5/22/2019 — A new plan could widen the Beltway in McLean, but nearby residents say the plan won’t do anything to fix the bottleneck of traffic.
At a meeting in Cooper Middle School (977 Balls Hill Road) yesterday (May 20), the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) presented plans to add new toll lanes from the Dulles Toll Road to the American Legion Bridge to help alleviate a severe bottleneck in the region.
The plans for the toll roads have been in the works since last June, but the need for a solution to Beltway congestion was highlighted in March when a tanker crash paralyzed regional traffic.
VDOT’s plans call for the expansion of express lanes to the bridge and connections with the Dulles Toll Road. A connection to the George Washington Parkway is being considered, but options are included to not have the express lanes connect to the parkway.
VDOT officials said the three bridges in McLean that pass over the Beltway would be replaced and would include new pedestrian and bicycle facilities.
But for over an hour, McLean residents expressed outrage at the expansion of the Beltway and a perception that the decision had already been made behind closed doors. Residents who felt empowered by a recent rejection of a proposal to limit access to Georgetown Pike from McLean — a proposal that new state legislation means could come back — asked why this expansion was being treated as a done deal.
“[That] was a transportation solution for a neighborhood problem,” Susan Shaw, megaprojects director for VDOT, said at the meeting. “This project is a regional transportation project. We will consider input from communities, but we will also be considering transportation improvements for the region. If we only let direct impact communities decide — we would never provide any regional project.
One of the biggest criticisms — raised by State Senate candidate Nicole Merlene running against Barbara Favola — was that the success of the project seemed dependent on the expansion of the bridge and connection to toll roads on the Maryland side, projects that are still in early stages.
Shaw said that no traffic analysis was ready yet to show the impact of the toll lanes without improvements on the Maryland side, but she said that would be considered before final approval.
“We don’t have that traffic analysis yet, but I would expect there to be a bottleneck without increased capacity on the bridge,” said Shaw. “I think the question is, ‘Are there other improvements that we would see on this project? If there’s a period of time where Virginia is in on this project and Maryland is not, are there transportation benefits?’ That will be included in the assessment.”
A Maryland man picked up drug and weapon charges at a CVS Pharmacy in McLean, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
Police say the man was arrested for obtaining drugs by fraud, along with other charges, after calling in a fraudulent prescription.
According to the police report, the incident occurred at the McLean CVS (1452 Chain Bridge Road) on Sunday (May 19) morning:
A pharmacist received a fraudulent prescription and notified our officers. The man arrived to pick up his medicine and was arrested. A loaded handgun with an extended magazine was found concealed in his backpack. [The man] was charged with obtaining drugs by fraud, carrying a concealed weapon, carrying a loaded firearm in certain specified localities and possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute.
Photo via Google Maps
Freddie Mac Expanding Tysons Footprint — “The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. has signed a full-building lease at 1550 Westbranch Drive, a six-story building Rubenstein Partners and Griffith Properties bought for $27.75 million in 2015, according to sources familiar with the deal.” [Washington Business Journal]
Hunter Mill Democrats Focus on Vienna — “Five candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for Hunter Mill District supervisor tried to differentiate themselves May 15 at a debate in Vienna… Several candidates said public officials should listen to residents’ concerns, a topic fresh on the minds of Vienna voters who on May 7 ousted a Town Council incumbent and voted in two development critics.” [Inside NoVa]
Vienna Crafter Makes Wigs for Cancer-Fighting Kids — Janet O’Grady, a crafter from Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Vienna, helps knit Disney-inspired wigs for The Magic Yarn Project, which is based in Alaska. Kids fighting cancer receive the wigs for free. [The Arlington Catholic Herald]
Firefighters Mow Man’s Lawn in Vienna — Firefighters and medics responded to a report of a man feeling ill while mowing the lawn. After the medics took him to a nearby hospital, the firefighters “saw mowing not done so they finished up so he would not have to worry about it upon return home.” [Fairfax Fire and Rescue/Twitter]
Langley Student’s STEM Project Lauded — “Hana Abouelenein, a sophomore at Langley High School, has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the AAUW McLean area branch’s STEM Excellence Award, presented to a female student or team from a high school in the McLean area with an outstanding project in the field of Engineering presented at the Fairfax County Regional Science Fair.” [Inside NoVa]
Pool Party Season Almost Here — With Memorial Day weekend coming up, Patch has a list of when pools in the McLean area are open during the day. [McLean Patch]
Neighbors opposed to a controversial for-profit therapy program got a win from a Fairfax County zoning official’s letter.
A piece of the Newport Academy’s plans to open a facility treating teenagers with mental health or addiction problems in a McLean neighborhood hinged on that facility being a by-right use — a use that won’t require approval by the Board of Supervisors. But local officials are now saying that isn’t the case.
Fairfax County Zoning Administrator Leslie Johnson said in a letter to local residents that the facility is a congregate living facility, which is not permitted as a by-right use at the location.
According to Johnson’s letter, in August 2018 the Newport Academy sent a letter to the Department of Planning and Zoning stating its intent to open two homes — one at 1624 Davidson Road and one at 1318 Kurtz Road — and asked if it could purchase a neighboring house and operate it as a licensed home.
In response, the zoning staff agreed that the buildings would be considered group residential facilities, which are limited to eight residents. The response did not directly answer whether a neighboring home could be used as a licensed home, and the Newport Academy did not contact Fairfax County after it purchased the properties at 1620 and 1622 Davidson Road.
But Johnson said the Newport Academy’s assertion that the homes were separate operations — crucial for qualifying for the eight resident limit — were contradicted by other applications listing the operations as a single program with residents above the limit for the group residential facility classification.
The appearance of the Newport Academy program being a single facility didn’t stop there. Johnson’s letter to the community notes that in April, county staff learned that a 6-foot fence had been built around the facility, “creating the appearance of a completely enclosed facility.”
Johnson’s letter said the supposedly separate facilities were listed as having shared staff, like a security guard and night staff, in both public meetings and other permit applications.”
