Families looking for something to do after presents are opened on Christmas Day can lace up skates at Reston Town Center.
The Ice Skating Pavilion at Reston Town Center (1818 Discovery St.) is scheduled to open every day over the extended Christmas holiday weekend.
Here are the hours over the holidays:
- Christmas Eve (Saturday): 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Christmas Day (Sunday): Noon to 11 p.m.
- Dec. 26-29: Normal operating hours.
- New Year’s Eve (Saturday, Dec. 31): 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
- New Year’s Day (Sunday, Jan. 1): 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
For more information on skate rentals, hours and pricing, visit the Ice Skating Pavilion website.
Fairfax County Public Library Reveals Most Popular Books of 2016 — The Fairfax County Public Library yesterday announced that the books locals checked out the most this year were “The Girl on the Train” for adult fiction, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: the Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing” for adult nonfiction, “The Fault in Our Stars” for teens and “Green Eggs and Ham” for children. [Fairfax County]
Reston-Area MLK Day Service Projects Planned — The Reston Community Center is partnering with the Reston Association, Southgate Community Center, Cornerstones, The Closet and other local organizations to host a day of community services projects in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, Jan. 14, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. [Reston Community Center]
What’s Open, Closed in Reston for Christmas — Christmas is nearly here. In Fairfax County, many government and Reston Association buildings will shut down for the holiday. [Reston Now]
Christmas is nearly here. In Fairfax County, many government and Reston Association buildings will shut down for the holiday, with some of them closing today.
At Reston Now, we’re taking a break, too. We won’t publish Monday in observance of Christmas Day, but we’ll return with more local news Tuesday.
According to locals officials, here’s what’s closed in Reston around the Christmas holiday:
A 28-year-old man was arrested after a worker at the Carlton House condos at Reston Town Center told police that the individual broke into the building this week, according to authorities.
Michael Jesse McLong, who has no fixed address, was charged with burglary and possession of burglary tools in connection with the break-in Monday.
The Carlton House employee called the cops to report that a man had forced his way into the building on the 11800 block of Sunset Hills Road about 9 p.m. that day, police said. Authorities later found McLong and took him to the the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
Photo via Fairfax County Police
Not All Reston Town Center Eateries Will Validate Parking — Reston Patch recently polled many of the restaurants in Reston Town Center about whether they plan to validate customers’ tickets once paid parking launches Jan. 3. Out of 32 restaurants that responded, only 16 said they had plans to validate, while 12 said they would not, and 4 said they were still unsure about their policy in 2017. [Reston Patch]
Fairfax County Official Looks to Save More Trees — Although it appears a developer followed the letter of the law, a member of the Fairfax Tree Commission is unhappy with the number of trees that were cut down to make way for a new development in Great Falls recently. Commission chairman Robert Vickers suggested the county’s law needs an overhaul to protect more local trees from development. [InsideNoVA]
Close Out 2016 With Some New Year’s Eve Golf — Herndon Centennial Golf Course (909 Ferndale Ave.) is set to host a New Year’s Eve Golf Scramble on Dec. 31. Start the morning off with a champagne breakfast followed by a tournament. The $60 registration fee covers green fees, cart fees, range balls and the chance to win prizes. [Town of Herndon]
Reston residents may be able to get once again take a free Metro ride on New Year’s Eve.
The transit agency is in the final stages of another partnership with MillerCoors to provide free rides between midnight and 3 a.m. on all six Metro lines this year, as it did for last year’s holiday. The agenda item was up for approval during the Dec. 15 meeting of Metro’s Board of Directors.
According to a staff report, MillerCoors paid WMATA more than $160,000 last year to subsidize all Metrorail and Metrobus rides on New Year’s Eve between midnight and 3 a.m., as part of he company’s Free Rides promotion. The amount was based on expected ridership.
This year, if approved, MillerCoors will pay just over $81,000, as ridership on New Year’s Eve was only about half of what was expected last year. However, the amount is guaranteed regardless of actual ridership, the report states.
MillerCoors has offered its Free Rides program in more than 20 major cities across the U.S. for more than a decade.
“Our partnership with Metro is part of MillerCoors’ overall commitment to help prevent drunk driving by bringing alcohol responsibility programs to more markets,” a MillerCoors spokesperson said during the inaugural promotion in 2015.
In addition to Metro, local New Year’s Eve party-goers can also call for a free taxi ride of up to $30 thanks to the local nonprofit, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program.
Photo courtesy of MillerCoors Free Rides
If you’re going away for vacation this holiday season, the idea of making some extra cash by renting out your home for a few days through a site like Airbnb might seem appealing. But make sure you check with the local rules and regulations, first.
The law in Fairfax County states that only owners of single-family homes can apply for a special permit that would allow them to rent out their domiciles like a bed and breakfast. That means people who own “attached homes” — such as apartments, townhouses and condos — are prohibited from renting out rooms.
Per the staff of the Reston Association, RA members must follow the same rules of the county.
Naturally, the duality means some locals aren’t happy. A blogger at Restonian recently wrote:
Apparently ‘Live, Work, Play, Get Involved’ doesn’t apply to peasants who own townhouses and condos. But – have a single-family home the rest of us can’t afford? Feel free to charge for visits. While this is more the fault of the county than the RA, we wonder what’s next.
RA CEO Cate Fulkerson said the association felt the need to clarify the regulations for RA members’ homes after some people complained.
“Reston Association is obligated to uphold its restrictive covenants. When we learned of home-sharing concerns from some of our members, the first task we undertook was to determine whether the homeowners [were] in compliance with state and local ordinances,” Fulkerson said in an email. “If we find that no approvals of licenses have been obtained, then we set out to work with the owner, in accordance with the Association’s Governing Document, to come into compliance.”
How do you feel about the rules? Weigh in by taking our poll below or letting us know how you feel in the comments:
Driver Hits, Injures Woman and Two Kids in Herndon — A motorist crashed into a woman and her two children in Herndon yesterday evening. The collision happened near the intersection of Centreville Road and McNair Farms Drive around 3:22 p.m. yesterday. The woman and her kids all sustained non-life-threatening injuries. [WJLA]
Reston Station Development Gets Top Floor — The OB1 office tower going up at Reston Station has finally topped out at the 16th floor. The structural engineers at Thornton Tomasetti posted photos of the progress on its blog this week. Once complete, the building will have space for offices, a restaurant and eight floors of below-ground parking, right next to the Metro stop. [Thorton Tomasetti]
Record Number of Degrees and Certificates Earned in 2016 in Virginia — According to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, Virginians earned the largest number of higher-education degrees and certificates Virginia institutions this year than in any other period in history. That’s 49,726 from public institutions plus 7,179 from private institutions, for an increase of nearly 4 percent over last year. [Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce]
How Reston Compares to Rest of Virginia in Commute Time — The U.S. Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey examines the average commute length of areas across the country. Reston Patch took the 76 areas of Virginia the survey reported on and ranked them from best to worst. Are you surprised that both Herndon and Reston ranked in the top 10 best, with averages of only 25 to 29 minutes? Nearby Dulles ranked in the bottom third with 37 minutes. [Reston Patch]
To put Reston’s holiday weather forecast in musical terms, the chances are pretty low for a “white Christmas” this year, but hopefully the day will turn out “merry and [at least somewhat] bright.”
Temperatures likely will reach the upper 40s Sunday in Reston, with some peeks of the sun, according to Weather.com.
Christmas Eve is more likely to be wet, though, with a 40 percent chance of rain in the morning. But with the high and low temperatures expected to stay above freezing (47 and 36 degrees, respectively), rain probably won’t turn to freezing rain or snow. The chance of precipitation goes down to only around 10 percent by Christmas morning.
During the past 25 years, the chances of Northern Virginia seeing a white Christmas on any given year have stayed around 25 percent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In fact, the only areas of the U.S. where chances are 50 percent or above are in “the mountainous West, northern New England and the far northern tier,” NOAA says.
Reston and the greater D.C. area have had a white Christmas less than 10 times in the past 127 years, according to Reston Patch and DCist. Snow was last on the ground on Christmas in 2009, after the “Snowpocalypse” hit the area.
It looks as though another huge development could soon go up near Reston Station.
Developer Comstock Partners has submitted plans to Fairfax County for a new mixed-use development, to be located south of Sunset Hills Road and immediately north of Reston Station and the Wiehle-Reston East Metro Station. The Washington Business Journal first reported on the new development last week.
If all goes according to plan, the new development would consist of 500 residential units, about 91,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space and another 178,000 square feet for office or hotel use.
Comstock, which had its eye on the site earlier this year, will reportedly call the development The Promenade at Reston Station. Additionally, the developer plans to connect the new building to its adjacent developments via a “woonerf” on Reston Station Boulevard, WBJ reported.
Reston Station file photo from Oct. 2016
Fairfax County Home Sales Flat, Unemployment Slightly Up  — Between July and October of this year, home sales saw a tiny bump of 0.4 percent, homes were on the market for eight fewer days and home prices were up about 1.5 percent on average when compared to the same period last year. One area that went down, however, was jobs. September’s unemployment rate in the county was up about 0.1 percentage point from this time last year, bringing it to 3.3 percent. [Fairfax County]
Someone is Stealing Holiday Decorations in Reston — Someone is stealing Christmas decorations in one Reston neighborhood. Could it be the Grinch? [Reston Patch]
U.S. Attorney General Speaks at Interfaith Event — U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch delivered a keynote address during a meeting of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Monday morning. The gathering included included Muslims, Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus. “When one is threatened, we are all threatened,” Lync said. “That’s the pledge we made as citizens.” [Reston Connection]
A Reston advisory group studying how to raise $2.6 billion for road improvements over the next 40 years is set to hold a pubic meeting tonight.
Members of the Reston Network Analysis Advisory Group are scheduled to gather in the lecture hall at South Lakes High School (11400 South Lakes Drive) at 7 p.m., according to an announcement.
RNAG, created by Fairfax County’s Hunter Mill District supervisor, is a group of locals who seek feedback from people who are the most affected by local development and changes to the transportation system. Through the Reston Network Analysis, the county seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of pedestrian friendly streets and paths around the Wiehle-Reston East Metro station, as well as the future Reston Town Center and Herndon stops.
The advisory group works with the county and the Virginia Department of Transportation to come up with ways to secure funding for Reston’s network and maintaining local roadways. This fall, RNAG expressed strong opposition to creating a special tax district, in which residents who live near the Metro stations would get taxed to help with road improvements.
Fairfax Police Respond to Stabbing at Dunn Loring Metro Stop — Someone stabbed a person and then hopped aboard an eastbound Orange Line train at the Dunn Loring Metro stop in Vienna earlier this morning, according to the Fairfax County Police Department. [Washington Post]
Ice to Meet You — The Reston area saw some ice over the weekend. Did the wintry weather affect your Saturday at all? [Twitter]
Local Home Sales Boosted ––  Home sales in Reston and the surrounding areas were up 22 percent over the same month last year, according to a recent report from a realty company. The median home price dropped by about 1 percent, but with inventory down, homes were snatched up quickly. [Reston Patch]
(Updated at 3:58 p.m.) Reston Association North Point Director Danielle LaRosa said she plans to resign from the board to spend more time with her family.
LaRosa will remain until her replacement is chosen. Her last day is April 11, and by the time she leaves, she will have served a total of three years on the board.
LaRosa announced her resignation in an email to the RA’s CEO, Cate Fulkerson, and other members of the board on Thursday.
“Due to family commitments, coupled with the number of board and committee meetings, I feel that my resignation would be best for my family and for North Reston as a whole,” she said in a statement. “I have loved being a member of this board and I will treasure the conversations that I’ve had with my neighbors as we’ve worked to better our community.”
LaRosa’s replacement will be responsible for handling issues such as the proposed St. Johns Wood development.
Mike Leone, the RA staff’s director of communications, said that LaRosa realizes that as a representative of her neighborhood, she feels whoever fills her position should be someone who can pay full attention to such projects.
“She feels [St. Johns Woods] is an important project that requires a lot of time and attention, given its importance to the North Point District,” Leone said. “Since she feels she needs more time for her family, she feels personally that it’s important that whoever fills that position has enough time and commitment to attend all meetings, like the Design Review Board, Planning and Zoning, and other meetings within the governing body, since they are so important to that project.”
In addition to being the representative for North Point, LaRosa also served as the board’s treasurer. However, Leone said important positions such as president, vice president, treasurer and secretary are decided each year during a newly-installed board’s first official meeting. Therefore, LaRosa will continue to serve as the treasurer until a new one is decided after the election in April.
“Right now, her decision to resign leaves the [treasurer] position to be filled as well, but it won’t necessarily be the person who succeeds her,” Leone explained.
LaRosa’s resignation means there will be a total of four seats on the nine-member Board of Directors up for election in the spring.
In addition to North Point, the Hunters Woods/Dogwood District representative, an at-large board member, and the Apartment Owners representative are also up for election. Those positions are currently filled by Lucinda Shannon, Jeff Thomas, and Board President Ellen Graves, respectively. Their three-year terms are up on April 11, 2017.
In order to run for a seat on the board, a potential candidate must write a candidate statement and obtain signatures of support from at least 25 different households within their district, or in all of Reston if running for an at-large position,
Candidates must reside within the boundaries of the Reston deed, and may not have any outstanding balances owed to the association.
An information session for interested candidates will be held at RA Headquarters (12001 Sunrise Valley Dr.) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2017.
The deadline to submit completed candidacy forms is 5 p.m. on Jan. 27, 2017.
Voting by RA members will take place in-person and by mail-in ballot between March 3 and April 3, with results being announced on April 11.
Visit the board’s election page for more information on running.
Photo: Danielle LaRosa / Credit: RA
A mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain is in the forecast for Fairfax County and the surrounding areas beginning late tonight and lasting through tomorrow morning, according to a winter weather advisory issued by the National Weather Service today.
The wintry precipitation is slated to come between midnight and noon Saturday. Snow and sleet are expected to come first, followed by freezing rain early Saturday morning. The precipitation likely will change to rain by noon.
Snow and sleet accumulation of less than one inch is possible, making roads and walkways slippery.
File photo via Twitter/George Mesthos
