A second open house is being tonight (Thursday) to discuss the future of McLean’s central business district.

The open house will be held in the McLean High School cafeteria (1633 Davidson Road) from 7-9 p.m.

The McLean Community Business Center (CBC) vision plan predicts that retail, residential, and office space will continue increasing in demand in McLean. The final version of the CBC vision plan, scheduled to be released later this fall, will make recommendations on how McLean should approach this growth on issues like land use and transportation.

Retail is projected to grow by 80,000 square feet over the next five years, slowing to grow by an additional 40,000 square feet over the subsequent five years. Most of this growth, however, will likely replace existing retail spaces.

The demand for residential growth is similarly projected to grow over the next five years, with a demand for 720 new units expected to consist mostly of apartments, then slowing to the growth of an additional 240 units in the five years after that.

Office growth is projected to remain more consistent, with 50,000 square feet in demand over the next five years, and an additional 50,000 square feet in the five years after that.

Streetsense, the consultant hired by Fairfax County to help create the vision plan, is scheduled to present a more refined draft of the vision plan at tonight’s meeting that takes into account the feedback from the first open house.

The first open house, held in September, outlined the broader scope of the plan. When asked for feedback, McLean residents at the meeting overwhelmingly agreed that more pedestrian access was vital to making McLean feel like more of a community location.

Specific intersections along Dolly Madison Boulevard were also noted to be particularly dangerous, cutting McLean Central Park off from the rest of the downtown area. Residents expressed frustration that many nearby streets lack sidewalks, an issue Fairfax County Government is currently working to address.

After tonight’s open house, the CBC Task Force is scheduled to meet on Monday, Nov. 19, before the final vision plan is unveiled at the Dec. 17 meeting. The final plan is scheduled to be presented to the Board of Supervisors in late 2019 or early 2020 for adoption.

Ten restaurants around the Tysons area made it onto this year’s Northern Virginia Magazine Top 50 Best Restaurants list, including five of the list’s top 10.

At the number three spot in the list is Maple Ave Restaurant at 147 Maple Ave W, just a few blocks west of the Vienna Town Green. It’s a small restaurant, but inside it’s an eclectic mix of American and European cuisine. The restaurant is open seven days a week for dinner, with lunch available on weekdays and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

At the eastern end of Maple Avenue is Clarity, which comes in at number five on the list. Clarity offers a seasonally rotating menu of modern American cuisine. A nightly “tasting menu” offers a guided tour of the restaurant’s cuisine. Tonight (Thursday), it’s a three-course meal a variety of seafood and roasted duck, accompanied by Suntory Japanese Whisky and followed by a chocolate almond torte.

But Vienna doesn’t take all the culinary credit for the region. At number seven on the list is Asian Origin, a Chinese restaurant just west of Tysons Galleria at 753 Pinnacle Dr. The restaurant serves a mix of traditional Chinese dishes as well as pan-Asian cuisine like sushi. Asian Origin also boasts a variety of vegetarian dishes.

At number nine is 2941, the modern American restaurant in Falls Church (2941 Fairview Park Dr) near Merrifield. The restaurant puts a French spin on classic American dishes, like a Bordelaise sauce on a rib eye steak.

Lastly, Esaan near downtown McLean (1307 Old Chain Bridge Rd) comes in at number ten on the list. Esaan is a Thai restaurant that offers a variety of specialty items and “street style” dishes from the northeastern region of the country. There’s none of the usual Pad Thai, but offerings like the spicy papaya salad offer a more unique Thai experience.

Also included on the Top 50 list are:

• Amoo’s Restaurant (6271 Old Dominion Dr) – A Persian restaurant in McLean
• Assaggi Osteria + Assagia Pizzeria (6641 Old Dominion Dr) – An Italian restaurant with a focus on fish and pasta in McLean
• Elephant Jumps (8110 Arlington Blvd) – A Thai restaurant in Merrifield
• Nostos (8100 Boone Blvd) – A Greek restaurant in Vienna
• Tachibana (6715 Lowell Ave) – A Japanese restaurant in McLean

Nearly one year after the shooting, there are no answers in the investigation of McLean resident Bijan Ghaisar’s death at the hands of U.S. Park Police.

In addition to a resolution on VDOT’s ramp closure proposal, the McLean Citizens Association’s (MCA) Board of Directors is scheduled to vote tonight on a resolution to pressure Park Police and the FBI to release more information about the shooting of Ghaisar.

Ghaisar, a 25-year old accountant who lived in the Tysons area, was shot on Nov. 17, 2017 by two U.S. Park Police officers who fired into his Jeep Grand Cherokee. Ghaisar died at Inova Fairfax Hospital on Nov. 27.

The incident started when Ghaisar was rear-ended by an Uber driver and the driver contacted police. Park Police located Ghaisar’s Jeep and signaled for him to pull over, and on two occasions he did — before then driving off. Finally, on the GW Parkway south of Alexandria, Park Police officers moved in front of the Jeep and when Ghaisar tried to maneuver around, the two officers opened fire.

In December 2017, Fairfax County Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. released a dashboard camera video showing the pursuit and the shooting. After this, federal investigators took over the case.

Since the FBI and Justice Department took over the case, little new information about the case has emerged.

The resolution from the MCA urges the Park Police and FBI to disclose the reasons for the shootings, the identities of the police officers involved, and other results of the investigation. The resolution also commends Roessler for releasing the video of the incident in a timely manner.

The MCA Board of Directors meetings are open to the public. The meeting is scheduled to be held at 7:30 p.m. tonight (Wednesday) in the McLean Government Center (1437 Balls Hill Road).

Image via Fairfax County Police Department

For residents of the corner of McLean inside the 10th Congressional District, last night’s election saw Jennifer Wexton (D) oust Barbara Comstock (R). But for the rest of the area, incumbents will be returning to office.

Not only did Wexton win in Fairfax County, but the Dranesville District heavily favored Wexton by 3,592 votes.

It was an active race, with 73 percent of voters casting ballots across the Dranesville District. Even before election day, the 10th District race saw an unusually high number of absentee ballots.

Comstock won the seat in 2014 after replacing Congressman Frank Wolf (R), who’d held the seat for over 30 years. Wexton will be the first Democrat representing the 10th Congressional District since 1981.

But while McLean saw high turnout in the competitive race, the Tysons area voter turnout was lower than the countywide average.

Countywide voter turnout was 69.8 percent, but the Tysons precinct only reported 58.7 percent voter turnout. At the nearby Magarity and Rotonda precincts, voter turnout was 66 and 64.7 percent respectively.

In the 8th Congressional District, incumbent Don Beyer (D) handily beat challenger Thomas Oh (R), winning 76.3 percent of the vote.

It was a similar story in the 11th Congressional District, where incumbent Gerald Connolly (D) defeated challengers Jeff Dove (R) and Stevan Porter (L) with 71.1 percent of the vote.

In the statewide race, Sen. Tim Kaine (D) won a 15-point victory over Republican Corey Stewart.

Two constitutional amendments allowing tax exemptions and the public safety bonds request were also approved.

Photo via Facebook

(Updated at 6:50 p.m.) There’s skepticism in McLean about a plan to close Beltway access during weekday afternoons, but the McLean Citizens Association may vote to support a pilot phase for the project.

Tomorrow evening, the McLean Citizens Association (MCA) Board of Directors is scheduled to vote whether or not to endorse the Virginia Department of Transportation’s (VDOT) pilot program for a controversial proposal to close the northbound ramp from Georgetown Pike onto the Beltway during evening rush hour.

The MCA Board of Directors meeting is open to the public and will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the McLean Government Center (1437 Balls Hill Rd).

The logic of the MCA’s resolution is that the four-month inconvenience of testing the closure is better than a more permanent change based on traffic model predictions alone. Among alternatives proposed by the MCA to closing access to the Beltway would be tolling the ramp.

The proposal stems from the heavy amount of cut-through traffic driving through the largely residential McLean streets to avoid traffic jams on the Beltway. The northbound ramp from Route 193 (Georgetown Pike) onto the Beltway in McLean is the last entrance before the American Legion Bridge, a major bottleneck for regional traffic.

The problem has been exacerbated by the rise of apps like Waze and Google Maps, which encourage Maryland commuters to use McLean streets as a shortcut, according to local residents.

VDOT’s proposed pilot program would close the northbound ramp from 1-7 p.m. on weekdays for a four-month trial, during which VDOT would collect data on whether the closure was successful in reducing cut-through traffic.

VDOT has previously held two meetings on the subject, during which most of the feedback was critical of the proposal. Residents in McLean and Great Falls said the proposal would force residents to take a more inconvenient route to access the Beltway.

The MCA’s resolution expresses support for the VDOT proposal on the grounds of testing the proposal rather than relying on traffic models alone. The resolution says that the testing the proposal as a pilot project would show the real-life impact of the change.

Also under consideration is an alternative proposal put forward by one member of the MCA, which calls for VDOT to halt all consideration of the project entirely.

Photo via Virginia Department of Transportation

(Updated at 12:45 p.m.) A new five-house cluster subdivision is set to be built at 7327 Georgetown Pike, just south of Scott’s Run Nature Preserve, after the project’s approval at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Wednesday).

Whether a new trail planned for the site will go forward is still up in the air.

The project includes 1.45 acres of open space along Georgetown Pike, providing a buffer between the homes and the busy street. But what had many at the meeting concerned was a six-foot-wide paved trail planned through this open space.

Attorney Keith Martin, representing applicant Peter Fitzgerald Jr., said neighbors feared the addition of a trail would add to the problem of people parking along Georgetown Pike to access Scott’s Run.

Dranesville Supervisor John Foust confirmed that residents he met with had shared those concerns. Foust said construction of the trail would be postponed until either the parking problem could be worked out or the trail could be connected to a broader network.

“This is a community inundated with parking,” said Foust. “It’s become a parking lot for Scott’s Run. The community is very concerned that this will be even more of an invitation to come in… It’s very unsafe and not something we want to encourage.”

But the postponing of the trail spurred a brief but tense standoff between Martin and Foust.

“If the trail never gets built, does my client get the money back?” Martin asked.

According to Foust, the agreement between Fairfax County and the developer was that up-front funding would be obtained for the trail, but Martin said he has seen proposals like this before that never went anywhere and the money for the project was “sucked into a black hole.”

“Not according to the proffer,” Foust answered. “This is not the time to be talking about this, to tell you the truth… Wow.”

The development was unanimously approved, but not before Chairman Sharon Bulova double checked with Martin that the proffer terms were agreed to.

The Balls Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive intersection can be a headache for anyone driving through McLean, but plans are underway to make major changes to the troublesome conjunction.

A meeting is scheduled for Thursday (Nov. 15) to update the public on the Balls Hill Road and Old Dominion Drive Realignment Project.

Currently, the road faces substantial queuing during rush hours, caused in part by poor intersection design and insufficient sight-lines for drivers at the intersection. Between 2010-2015 there were 29 total crashes in the vicinity of the intersection.

Two new by-right developments approved in the area, Mehr Farms and Summerstone, are likely to add more traffic to the already congested streets.

The improvements are part of a broader series of traffic projects underway across McLean.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in at Cooper Middle School (977 Balls Hill Road).

According to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, there are several traffic alternatives being considered for the site:

• T-Intersection: This would solve queuing issues at the site while having a relatively small footprint. But this shift could also have an impact at the Balls Hill Road intersection with Dulany Hill Drive nearby.
• Roundabout: This would allow the intersection to maintain the historic look of the intersection and maintain the state standards of design at the lowest cost. But roundabouts have been shown to have a substantial learning curve for drivers. The intersection would also have to undergo significant topographical changes and it would impact three homes currently under construction at the Mehr Farms development.
• Dedicated Left Turn Lanes: This would be lower in cost than the T-Intersection and have a smaller footprint than the roundabout, but the turn onto Old Dominion Drive would be a quasi U-turn. The new turn lanes would also significantly impact the nearby Korean Presbyterian Church and the Mehr Farms development.

The design is expected to be finalized this fall, with design and right-of-way acquisition occurring between 2019 and 2023. Construction on the traffic alternative is scheduled to start in spring 2023 and continue until fall 2024.

Fairfax County Police arrested a 20-year-old Maryland man early Saturday morning on charges of trying to hit an officer.

The incident started when police were called to the 6800 block of Dillon Avenue in McLean just after midnight for a report of a loud party.

“When officers walked towards the backyard, a man, Michael Wade, 20, of Maryland, became belligerent and tried to hit our officer,” FCPD said in a crime report. “When officers searched him, alcohol was discovered. Wade was arrested and charged with attempted assault on a law enforcement officer and underage possession of alcohol.”

Photo courtesy FCPD

McLean may not be as fully walkable as residents would like, but one stretch of road is stepping in the right direction.

According to a Twitter post by District Supervisor John Foust, construction finished last week on a new sidewalk along Dolly Madison Highway (Route 123) near downtown McLean.

Did you notice the construction along 123 near downtown #McLean? @fairfaxcounty just installed new sidewalk to complete an important missing link & provide safer pedestrian access to bus stop near Kurtz Rd. Coming soon ➡ filling the gaps along 123 between Old Dominion & Beverly. pic.twitter.com/hmmo4MznQ1

— John Foust (@johnfoustva) October 26, 2018

The sidewalk construction is part of a broader effort to install new walkways across McLean.

Foust said the new sidewalks are part of an effort to complete a missing link and provide safer pedestrian access to the bus stop near Kurtz Road.

According to Foust, the construction will continue with new sidewalks on Dolly Madison Highway between Old Dominion. A Sept. 25 update on transportation projects estimated the Kurtz Road area sidewalks to be fully completed next spring and cost $450,000.

Additional sidewalks further along Dolly Madison Boulevard will be completed later that summer, also costing $450,000.

Photo via Twitter

Get the fresh fruit and veggies while you can, because several local farmers markets will be closing for the season next month.

In and around Tysons, there are at least four weekly farmers markets to choose from:

• Tysons Farmers Market (last day: Sunday, Nov. 18)
• McLean Farmers Market (last day: Friday, Nov. 16)
• Vienna Farmers Market (last day: Saturday, Nov. 3)
• Mosaic Central Farmers Market (year round)

The Tysons Farmers Market is held Sundays from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at the National Automobile Dealers Association parking lot (8400 Westpark Dr). Organized by Community Foodworks, the market features a variety of vendors offering everything from empanadas to coffee to fresh produce.

Like the Tysons market, the McLean Farmers Market starts up for the season in May and closes in mid-November. There are four market days left for the popular McLean bazaar of locally-produced food, which is held every Friday from 8 a.m.-noon in Lewinsville Park (1659 Chain Bridge Rd).

In addition to a variety of vendors, the Master Gardener Plant Clinic sets up at the McLean market to help locals learn more about the vegetation of their yards.

The Vienna Farmers Market, meanwhile, will not be open this weekend, according to its website. There’s only one market day remaining before the Vienna market closes for the season: Saturday, Nov. 3, from 8 a.m.-noon.

For those in the area who need to get their farmers market fix year round, the Mosaic District hosts a weekly farmers market on Sundays that runs through the winter. Mosaic Central Farmers Market is held at 2910 District Ave from 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. — that is, until the end of December.

From January to March, the market shifts to a winter market, with modified hours and 40 vendors instead of the usual 55, according to its website.

Photo via Facebook