Office of Government Ethics Director Has Reston Roots — In a letter to the editor, John Lovaas salutes Walter Shaub, an SLHS grad. He also commends the Reston Association Board of Directors for its recent work to attend to matters of ethics. [Fairfax Times]
Parking Lot Resurfacing — Resurfacing of the Lake Newport soccer fields parking lot is scheduled to begin today, and the project is anticipated to take three days to complete. The lot will be closed during that time. For further information, email [email protected]. [Reston Association]
Reston-Based Swim Team Sets Records — Members of the Fox Mill Woods Swim Club broke two marks at the Northern Virginia Swim League’s recent All-Star Relay Meet. [Reston Patch]
Toll Road Lane, Ramp Closures — Once again this week, there will be plenty of activity on the Dulles Toll Road, Airport Access Highway and Dulles Greenway as work continues on the Silver Line. [Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project]
Finishing touches are being completed inside Cava Mezze Grill’s new Reston location, where an early August opening is planned.
The Greek and Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant (1815 Fountain Drive) will introduce itself to Reston with a free “community lunch” from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1. Lunchgoers are invited to stop in to try out the restaurant’s grain bowls, salads, pitas and more.
Meg Schiffman, Cava’s director of marketing, says the restaurant will open for regular business hours — 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. — the next day.
Cava Mezze Grill is an offshoot of Rockville-based Cava Mezze restaurant, which has five locations in Maryland, Virginia and D.C. There are currently about two dozen Cava Mezze Grill locations nationwide, with the Reston location one of about a dozen more planning to open soon. There are several other locations elsewhere in Northern Virginia, including in Tysons, Vienna and Merrifield’s Mosaic District.
The Herndon Centre retail space (330-460 Elden St.) will soon become home to another shopping market.
Ethnic grocer Lotte Plaza Market will open in the spring. The news was confirmed to Reston Now by Dennis Holste, the Town of Herndon’s economic development manager.
[Lotte Plaza Market] will be opening a new store in the Herndon Centre in spring, 2018. The store will not be opening in the K-Mart space. The new tenants for the K-Mart space have not been announced.
(The Kmart store in that plaza will close in the coming weeks. That space is owned by Florida-based real estate-investment firm Sterling Organization, while the rest of the plaza is owned by A.J. Dwoskin & Associates Inc.)
Lotte Plaza Market is described on its website as “the premier source for Asian groceries in Maryland and Virginia.” It currently has six locations in Maryland and four in Virginia — Annandale, Ashburn, Centreville and Chantilly — but plans to expand to a total of 50 in the next three years, according to its site.
Heat Advisory today 10am to 8pmhttps://t.co/Kt74D8dUsR pic.twitter.com/0ENF5AABBY
— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) July 21, 2017
With high temperatures forecast in the mid- to upper 90s, and humidity making it feel like upward of 105, the National Weather Service is again placing the area under a heat advisory. Today’s advisory will be in effect 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
According to the NWS alert:
The National Weather Service in Baltimore MD/Washington has
issued a Heat Advisory, which is in effect from 10 AM to 8 PM EDT
Friday.* HEAT INDEX VALUES…Around 105 due to temperatures in the mid to
upper 90s, and dewpoints in the lower 70s.* IMPACTS…The heat and humidity may cause heat stress during
outdoor exertion or extended exposure.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A Heat Advisory means that a period of high temperatures is
expected. The combination of high temperatures and high humidity
will create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible.Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when
possible and drink plenty of water.To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks
in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by
heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke
is an emergency — call 911.
Fairfax County offers these pieces of advice for people to help avoid heat-related illness and other calamities:
- Never leave children or pets alone in a closed vehicle.
- Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside.
- When possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening.
- Wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothing when possible and drink plenty of water.
- Drink plenty of fluids: Drink two to four glasses of cool fluids each hour. Your body needs water to keep cool. Drink water even if you don’t feel thirsty. Do not drink caffeinated or alcoholic beverages because they dehydrate the body.
The county suggests that residents without access to air conditioning should consider spending the warmest part of the day in public buildings such as movie theaters, shopping malls and other community facilities, or visit one of Fairfax County’s Cooling Centers.
(This article was updated at 2:05 p.m. with comment from SLHS Principal Kim Retzer.)
Police say the former treasurer of the South Lakes High School athletics booster club pocketed tens of thousands of dollars from the club.
The Fairfax County Police Department says 58-year-old Robert Clinage took at least $60,000 from the club while volunteering as treasurer, a role he was in until last year.
According to their report:
After [Clinage stepped away] from his position as treasurer, other members noticed a large amount of money missing from the booster’s bank account. The boosters conducted an internal audit of their account which initially discovered the shortcoming. A subsequent criminal investigation began in December 2016, and charges were filed in June of this year.
As booster clubs are independent of school districts, Clinage was not an employee of the school. Kim Retzer, South Lakes High School principal, responded in an email sent to the entire SLHS community.
As many of you have seen, a former South Lakes Booster Club member was arrested recently for embezzlement of Athletic Booster funds. This is an on-going investigation so there is little I can comment on. What I can share is that I am grateful for the current Booster board members who have faced this situation head on and are fully cooperating with authorities.
Once the new board took over in the fall of 2016, they engaged a CPA to assist with the review of historical transactions and provide ongoing professional assistance. They have fully reviewed and revised the by-laws including implementing term limits and new criteria for board members. They also added an additional financial position to the board to increase safeguards for handling funds. Protocols around handling financial transactions have been further defined with additional safeguards put in place.
The Activities Office and I will continue to work closely with the Booster Club as they work through this situation. I am confident in the current board of highly dedicated parents who are focused on doing what is necessary to revitalize the Booster Club and provide support to our school.
Clinage turned himself in last week, according to FCPD, and was taken to the county’s Adult Detention Center. We have a request out to FCPD for further information, which will be provided once it becomes available.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Solvers or by texting “TIP187” plus the message to CRIMES(274637).
Sterling Chipotle Reopens After Outbreak — Chipotle’s stock plummeted Wednesday after news spread of a suspected norovirus outbreak at the chain’s location on Tripleseven Road in Sterling. The restaurant reopened after “multiple teams performed complete sanitizations of all surfaces.” [Eater]
West African Music Tonight at Lake Anne — The “Take A Break” concert series at Lake Anne Plaza will continue tonight with a performance by Cheick Hamala Diabate. [Lake Anne Plaza]
Rowing Machine Competition — Orangetheory Reston will host a rowing machine competition Friday evening at Reston Town Center. [Orangetheory Reston/Twitter]
Man Found Dead in Centreville Pond — Pedro Ramirez Matom, 28, of Centreville, was found earlier this week face up and fully clothed in a pond in the 5800 block of Trinity Parkway. [Fairfax County Police Department]
Heat and humidity will be on the rise through the rest of the week and into the weekend, with the hottest days likely to be FRI & SAT. pic.twitter.com/GhiPn2TBTl
— NWS Baltimore-Washington (@NWS_BaltWash) July 19, 2017
As the area remains embroiled in a heat wave, the National Weather Service has again issued a heat advisory that will be in effect Thursday from noon to 7 p.m.
According to the NWS alert:
The National Weather Service in Baltimore MD/Washington has
issued a Heat Advisory, which is in effect from noon today to
7 PM EDT this evening.* HEAT INDEX VALUES…Up to around 105 degrees.
* IMPACTS…The heat and humidity may cause heat stress during
outdoor exertion or extended exposure.PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A Heat Advisory means that a period of high temperatures is
expected. The combination of high temperatures and high humidity
will create a situation in which heat illnesses are possible.Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When
possible, reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or
evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat
stroke. Wear light weight and loose fitting clothing when
possible and drink plenty of water.To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks
in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by
heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke
is an emergency — call 911.
Heat advisories were issued last week as temperatures neared triple digits, as they are expected to do again in coming days.
Residents are encouraged to avoid any activity that keeps them in the extreme heat for lengthy periods of time. Anyone who must be outside in the heat should know the signs of heat-related illness.
Anyone who finds themselves in extreme distress because of a lack of air-conditioning or other means to keep themselves cool can seek the assistance of a county-designated cooling center. Local centers include the Reston Regional Library and Southgate Community Center.
After a lengthy discussion during its meeting Tuesday (video), Reston’s Design Review Board deferred voting on approval of landscape, architectural elevations and other aspects of the Tall Oaks Village Center redevelopment.
In their presentation, representatives of Jefferson Apartment Group described their plan for the residential portion of the redevelopment, which will include multifamily residential buildings, two-over-two condominiums and townhouses for a total of 156 residential units.
“One of our main goals with these schemes was to continue to provide diversity, not only in the number of different housing types proposed, but to really give each housing type its own identity while still maintaining a very consistent theme throughout the site,” said a representative of architectural design firm KTGY, emphasizing that the development’s architecture would be “innovative and of its time, but still respectful of its surrounding context.”
KTGY said the two multifamily home buildings in the plan directly relate in scale and density with the adjacent Tall Oaks Assisted Living facility, while the two-over-two buildings and townhomes would have “more of an appropriate relationship to the surrounding neighborhoods.”
Members of the DRB, however, were concerned by the fact that all residential buildings within the development would be four stories tall, creating what some called a “cavernous” feel.
“There’s a sense of walking through a valley,” said lay member Bruce Ramo. “It seems very un-Restonlike, particularly in the context of where it is sitting, not in a transit area.”
DRB members also expressed concern about what the townhomes would look like as drivers approach the development from North Shore Drive.
“To me, as I turn onto North Shore Drive from Wiehle into this new Tall Oaks Village Center environment, I feel a little disappointed to see brownstones,” said W. Neal Roseberry, DRB vice chair. “I kind of would want to see, personally, something that’s Reston in a contemporary way.”
Roseberry said the proposed design of the townhouses would be like a “little piece of West Market” at Tall Oaks.
Richard Newlon, another of the committee’s vice chairs, agreed.
“From three years ago, May of 2014, our interest has always been to try to keep North Shore looking more Restonlike [with] a more natural buffer,” he said. “Please, pay attention that. That’s a key element.”
Images via JAG/KTGY
Hot, Hot, Hot! — Last week was sweltering, and the rest of this week may actually be worse. Weather models predict the possibility of triple-digit temperatures and heat indices as high as 110 through this weekend. [Capital Weather Gang]
Pink Fire Trucks Paying a Visit — The Pink Heals organization will visit the Fairfax County Government Center (12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax) on Friday. Pink Heals partners with the public safety, medical professionals, local businesses and community leaders to bring more support for local citizens by keeping fundraising activities local. [Fairfax Fire and Rescue]
Laughs Take Over at Lake Anne — A recent comedy night at Lake Anne Plaza’s Café Montmarte was deemed a great success. Another is being planned for September. [Reston Connection]
FCPD Officer Put on Leave After Crash — Officer Pshko Siteki did not have his emergency equipment on and was going 68 mph in a 40 mph zone prior to the February crash in Falls Church, which left a private citizen with extensive injuries from which he is still recovering. [Fairfax County Police Department]
Portion of Potomac May Shut Down for Trump — Boaters who enjoy paddling their canoes and kayaks in the Potomac River are facing a new hazard on the water: the closure of a 1.6-mile stretch of the river whenever President Trump visits his golf course in Sterling. [Washingtonian]
Photo courtesy Fairfax Fire and Rescue
Restonians know how historic Lake Anne Plaza is.
Now, that historic significance has been made official by the National Park Service, as the Lake Anne Village Center Historic District has been named to the National Register of Historic Places.
Lake Anne Village Center, the first village of the planned community of Reston, was constructed between 1963 and 1967. According to a press release from the Reston Historic Trust and Museum:
[Lake Anne Village Center] is considered to be nationally significant in the areas of both social history and architecture.
As the first village of the planned community of Reston, Virginia, it is part of the nation’s first zoned planned unit community. Additionally, it is socially significant because it articulates its founder’s seven goals, as well as Mr. [Bob] Simon’s insistence on an integrated community in the Commonwealth of Virginia prior to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Lake Anne Village Center’s influences derive from the English Garden City movement, as well as European plazas and the townhouses of urban areas of the northeastern United States. The complex, designed by the New York architectural firm of Conklin Rossant, features Brutalist-influenced architecture tempered by its human scale and medieval elements. For its era, the complex presented a shockingly modern design in a Northern Virginia dominated by single-family Colonial Revival homes.
Lake Anne Village Center showcased the new town movement, with social, architectural and land-use development innovations — elements internationally recognized today for influencing subsequent planned developments in the U.S. and around the world.
Lake Anne Village Center was named a Fairfax County Historic District in 1983. In March, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources included the Lake Anne Village Center Historic District in the Virginia Landmarks Register.
The American Institute of Certified Planners celebrated Lake Anne Village Center’s status as the nation’s first Planned Unit Community zone in 2002, when it designated Simon a “Planning Pioneer.”
[Simon] introduced urban living to the American suburban countryside at Lake Anne Village Center, created the nation’s first Planned Unit Community zone, and founded a community of international renown dedicated to social openness, citizen participation, and the dignity of the individual.
Elizabeth Didiano, executive director of the Reston Historic Trust and Museum, said the new federal designation will “bring awareness to the property’s significance and encourage property owners to preserve their property through historically sensitive improvements.”
“Property owners within the historic district may also qualify for Federal or Virginia Rehabilitation Tax Credits (RTC) through the Virginia Department of Historic Resources for substantial improvements to the exterior of their buildings,” Didiano said.
She said the federal listing will not provide any further restrictions on property owners to use private funds for development.
Images courtesy Reston Historic Trust and Museum
Silver Line Delays Have Steep Price Tag — A series of delays that has pushed the opening of the Silver Line’s Phase 2 back to 2020 will cost $95 million. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority disclosed that number in a presentation prepared for its Wednesday board meeting. [WTOP]
Design Review Board Meets Tonight — Among the topics to be discussed at tonight’s meeting of Reston’s Design Review Board (7 p.m. at Reston Association headquarters, 12001 Sunrise Valley Drive, as well as live on RA’s YouTube channel) is the redevelopment of Tall Oaks Village Center. [Reston Association]
Zoning Open House Coming Up — Fairfax County will hold an open house Wednesday, July 26 to talk about proposed zoning changes that may affect local communities. Among the topics to be discussed are potential changes to the rules about short-term rentals, such as Airbnb; rear-yard coverage, such as patios; and more. [Fairfax County]
Herndon High Grad to Play at Georgia Tech — After completing his bachelor’s degree in economics in three years while playing basketball at Lehigh University, HHS grad Brandon Alston has transferred to Georgia Tech to play out his final two years of sports eligibility. [Georgia Tech University]
Dr. Tuliza Fleming, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, will visit Reston this weekend for a discussion with artist Radcliffe Bailey.
Bailey is an Atlanta-based mixed media artist whose work is currently on view at both the museum and the Greater Reston Arts Center, where his exhibit “The Great Dismal Swamp” will be through Aug. 18. According to GRACE, Bailey’s work “layers imagery, culturally resonant materials and text to explore themes of ancestry, race and memory.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened to the public last September and was visited by 1 million people within its first few months. It features exhibits about African-American struggles, triumphs, activism, entertainment and much more.
The free event will take place at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Reston Community Center’s CenterStage (2310 Colts Neck Road). The formal discussion will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.
RSVP is required and can be made by emailing William Parker at [email protected].
Image via Wikimedia user Fuzheado
An application has been filed with Fairfax County to bring another new restaurant to the Hunters Woods Village Center.
Under the permit name “Mingtong Huang,” the application for a new restaurant at 2260-B Hunters Woods Plaza was processed earlier this month. Attempts to reach the applicant and plaza management for additional information about the incoming restaurant have been unsuccessful.
The site at the plaza, between Rite-Aid and Buffalo Wing Factory, was most recently the home of Mathnasium. Prior to that, it housed Reston Tailoring for nearly 30 years.
Several new restaurants have already opened in the plaza this year, including Kung Fu Tea, King Pollo and Pista House Indian Cuisine.
County Remains Among Richest — U.S. Census Bureau estimates for 2015 have Fairfax County’s median household income at $112,844, more than twice the national figure. The county trails only Loudoun County ($125,900) and the independent City of Falls Church ($122,092) in the national rankings. [WTOP]
Reston P&Z Committee Meets Tonight — The Reston Planning & Zoning Committee’s monthly meeting will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the North County Governmental Center (1801 Cameron Glen Drive). Matters to be discussed include JBG/EYA’s project near the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station. [Reston P&Z Committee]
Wanted: School Bus Drivers — Fairfax County Public Schools has 85 openings for bus drivers. A job fair will be held Friday, Aug. 11, at Stonecroft Transportation Center (4641 Stonecroft Blvd., Chantilly). [Fairfax County Public Schools]
Connolly Plans Telephone Town Hall Tonight — Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) will answer questions by phone tonight beginning at 8 p.m. [Rep. Gerry Connolly/Twitter]
Gas Grill Safety Tips — Fairfax County Fire and Rescue wants citizens to be safe when they fire up the grill to make summer meals. With that in mind, they shared a video from the National Fire Protection Association that includes tips on where to place the grill, how to turn it on safely and more. [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue]
A Tall Oaks Village Center business that is being uprooted by upcoming development won’t be moving far.
Pet grooming business Fur Factory, located on the lower level of the current village center at 12010-B North Shore Drive, will be moving across the plaza to the Tall Oaks Professional Building (12054 North Shore Drive). A permit application to lay out the new space was processed by Fairfax County earlier this week.
The Tall Oaks Professional Building is one of two buildings at the village center that will remain through the redevelopment. The two-story building is being expanded to include ground-floor retail plus additional office space.
A one-story building at 12056 North Shore Drive — which most recently housed Curves Fitness and, before that, 7-Eleven — is also staying in place but being built out. Construction activity is already taking place at that site. Paisano’s Pizza plans to move across the parking lot from its current location in the village center to that site this fall.
An employee at Fur Factory was unable Friday morning to provide any information about when the business is planning to make its move.
The redevelopment of the village center into a mixed-use development will include 156 homes, 8,500 square foot of retail and about 6,000 square feet of office space, as well as community space. It will go before Reston’s Design Review Board next week for conversation about details including landscaping, lighting, site amenities and architectural elevations.
