The owners of Tall Oaks Village Center have slightly tweaked the proposed redevelopment plan to turn the ailing shopping center into a mainly residential neighborhood, but citizens would still like to see more changes.

Duncan Jones of Tall Oaks’ owner, The Jefferson Apartment Group, showed changes at a community meeting on Monday that included four fewer townhouses, a doubling of the retail space from 3,500 square feet to 7,000 square feet, and an addition of more common area.

The standing room-only crowd seemed to look ahead this time around. At two meetings in April, many community members disliked the residential plan and insisted residents would support retail if Tall Oaks were managed correctly.

At Monday’s meeting, which broke up into roundtable focus groups, attendees were asked to take a critical look at JAG’s plans. JAG purchased Tall Oaks for $14 million late last year.

The consensus: the small groups generally liked the diversity of housing (including two garden-style condo buildings, four clusters of 2-over-2 townhouse condos and 100 townhomes), the addition of more retail and the move towards community space.

They also requested even more stores and a more cohesive community open space, as well as another exit to Wiehle Avenue and more integrated space with the existing Tall Oaks Assisted Living building.

“I would like to see more retail,” said longtime resident Dick Rogers, a former board member of the Reston Citizens Association. “It’s an improvement [over what was presented in April], but they can go a little farther in my view.”

Citizens were asked to rank amenities in order of importance, including trees and open space, a dog park, trails and walking paths, public art, playgrounds and variety of retail shops.

County planning officials and JAG will tabulate results and consider them, along with the feedback summary from Monday’s meeting.

Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins, who lives close to Tall Oaks, said she sympathizes with neighbors about the potential loss of their village center as they have known it for the last 41 years.

“Many of us remember Tall Oaks when it was a vibrant center and people supported it,” she said. “But for eight years, no matter what we have tried [has not worked]. The point is to bring some vibrancy back to Tall Oaks.”

Jones said the 70,000-square-foot center — of which only about 13,000 square feet is occupied — faces extreme competition from neighboring existing and future retail centers. Retail centers at North Point, the Spectrum, Reston Town Center and Plaza America, all built after 1990, have contributed to the demise of Tall Oaks, he said.

“There are competitive locations that are sucking your dollars away from this center,” Jones said of nearby Harris Teeter, Giant, Whole Foods and other big retail stores.

The Tall Oaks anchor space vacated by Giant in 2007 (and later two international groceries that each lasted just two years) is just 35,000 square feet, which is too small for most modern grocery stores, he added.

He said the planned retail — which could also be further expanded by adding ground-floor stores to an existing office building — would most likely be small stores, with an outreach to existing tenants such as Paradise Nails, Mama Wok, Fur Factory pet grooming and others.

“It would most likely be limited to what we see today,” he said. “Food and delivery supported by a loyal base.

Photo: Reworked concept for Tall Oaks/Courtesy JAG

Chef Love — Check out Ed Hardy, owner of Reston-based Bacon N Ed’s food truck, in Sunday’s Date Lab. [Washington Post]

Storm Central — Fairfax County Emergency Information has some friendly reminders about intense summer storm safety. [Fairfax County]

Catapalooza — Fairfax County’s Animal Shelter is at capacity for cats. They are encouraging residents to come over and adopt a cat or two. Adoption fees are half price through Saturday, and then will be waived for the last week of June. [Fairfax County]

Tuesday is forecast to be the hottest day of 2015 so far, the National Weather Service says.

A heat advisory for Reston, Northern Virginia and the DC area is in effect from 1 to 7 p.m. as afternoon temperatures may hit 99 degrees. With the heat index, it will feel like 105, so take precautions.

A heat advisory means a period of high temperatures is expected. The combination of high heat and high humidity creates a situation in which heat illnesses are possible, says the NWS.

To avoid head exhaustion and heat stroke:

• If possible, reschedule outdoor strenuous activities to early morning or evening.
• Wear lightweight and loose-fitting clothes.
• Drink plenty of water.

Relief is in sight late in the day, when thunderstorms are expected to roll through Reston, bringing with them slightly lower temperatures for Wednesday.

More than 10,000 police and fire fighters from around the world will converge on Fairfax County for the World Police & Fire Games beginning later this week.

But, first, the opening ceremonies at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.

The opening ceremonies begin Friday at 6 p.m. Doors open at 4 p.m.

Admission to the event is free, but tickets are necessary. Visit the Fairfax2015 website to order tickets.

The opening ceremonies will feature a welcome celebration; parade of athletes; lighting of the torch; Athletes’ Oath; and an after-ceremony concert by Sugar Ray.

The games will take place Friday through July 5 at 53 venues, mainly in Fairfax County. More than 200 Fairfax County officers will compete.

Nine sports competitions will take place in Reston, including:

• Honor Guard — Hyatt Regency Reston, June 27 and 28.
• Ice Hockey — Reston SkateQuest, June 27 to July 3
• Police Service Dogs — Lake Fairfax Park, June 27 and 28
• Rowing — Hyatt Regency Reston, July 3 and 4
• Half Marathon — Reston Town Center, July 5
• Open Water Swim — Lake Audubon, June 28
• Triathlon — Lake Audubon/South Lakes High School, July 3
• Cross Country Running — Lake Fairfax Park, June 30
• Wrist Wrestling — Reston Town Center, Hyatt Regency Reston, July 3

Tickets to all Reston events, and almost every sports competition are free and do not require tickets.

Reston Town Center will also be a hub of activity as the Athletes Village for the Games. Athletes will not necessarily be staying in Reston, but the town center will serve as a nightly venue for socializing with organized activities and entertainment for athletes, family and friends. Read this previous Reston Now story to get an idea of what’s planned.

Photo: World Police & Fire Games 2013/file photo

This is an op-ed by Reston resident Bill Woloch. It does not reflect Reston Now’s opinion.

Reston founder Robert Simon envisioned Reston as being a place where people could walk to work and shopping, walk to recreation and nature without using a car. He designed a number of Village Centers that were actually within walking distance of most of the residents homes in Reston.

One of those Village Centers is located at the corner of Wiehle Avenue and North Shore Drive. It is called the Tall Oaks Village Center. It has been in disrepair for a number of years, a decade, and no one in Reston cared. It was sold a few times, most recently to another developer.

Village Centers are more than just shopping and retail. They are gathering places for people who see each other occasionally from nearby neighborhoods. Where parents and kids could easily walk after hitting the RA pool and maybe have a coke or ice cream. Where dog walkers could sit and chat.

Architecturally, Village Centers made people feel like they could stop by no reason other than to hang out a while, with inviting open spaces, sitting areas (covered) and up till now, maybe a county or RA office or branch library.

The developer’s current plans allow for none of these. Worse yet, I believe the Reston Association and Fairfax County don’t seem to think it is important. Actions speak louder than words.

Who is responsible for ensuring the principles of Robert Simon’s vision and association bylaws are adhered to? Not an easy answer. There is the Fairfax County Planning Commission, the Reston Association (RA) Board of Directors, along with the RA Planning and Zoning Committee and the RA Design Review Board. That’s a lot of oversight. So what have they been doing during the last 10 years of the Tall Oaks Village Center’s decline? Ask them yourself. Send an email. Read More

Interested in what Tall Oaks Village Center’s owners have planned in redevelopment of the site? Then attend Monday’s community meeting at Reston Community Center Lake Anne.

Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG), which purchased Tall Oaks in December for $14 million, will present a revised look at plans for the space at 7 p.m. Monday.

At two community meetings in April, JAG showed plans to replace the increasingly vacant shopping center with 154 residential units (townhomes and condos) and a small amount of retail.

The proposal was not well received by Tall Oaks-area residents, man of whom would prefer the village center be preserved as a retail center, including a grocery store anchor. There is an online petition asking JAG to keep Tall Oaks retail.

Other residents at the April meetings said residential might be a good plan, but would prefer more open and community space than JAG has planned for the site.

The 25,000-square-foot grocery store space — formerly a Giant and then two different international groceries — has been vacant for nearly five years.

Land use attorney Mark Looney said Tall Oaks, which had a nearly 90-percent occupancy rate in 2007 and currently has a 13-percent occupancy rate, will be 6 percent occupied by early 2016. Competition from other nearby retail centers and grocery stores is one of the main factors in Tall Oaks’ demise, he said at the previous meetings.

Meanwhile, Reston Master Plan Phase 2, recently approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, says developers do not have to get a Comprehensive Plan Amendment in order to redevelop Tall Oaks as residential.

Map of new Tall Oaks residential neighborhood (April concept)/Courtesy Jefferson Apartment Group

United Christian Parish will hold a prayer vigil Monday at 6:30 p.m. to honor the victims in last week’s shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.

Nine people were killed at Emmanuel when a white gunman began firing at a Wednesday night bible study at the historically black church. The gunman, Dylann Roof, 21, is in custody.

Sunday services were held yesterday at Emmanuel. Rev. Norvel Goff Sr., a presiding elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said moving forward “sends a message to every demon in hell and on earth.”

UCP will hold a vigil every night through Saturday to honor the Charleston victims.

The owner and former director of the Reston Zoo — the latter convicted of animal cruelty in 2012 — is in trouble for mistreating animals at a similar facility near Pensacola, Fla.

The Department of Agriculture has filed a complaint against Gulf Breeze Zoo owner Eric Mogensen and his daughter, Meghan Mogensen, for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the Pensacola News Journal first reported.

The complaint alleges the Mogensens shot an animal to euthanize it, failed to control and supervise animals (one of which it a child) and possessed drugs without authorization.

In September 2012, Meghan Mogensen, then 26, was convicted of animal cruelty and possession of a controlled substance in Fairfax County General District Court. Employees said Mogensen, then the director of the Reston Zoo, drowned a sick wallaby in a bucket to euthanize him earlier that year.

Mogensen, who was sentenced to 30 days in jail, then transferred to the Gulf Breeze Zoo. The Mogensens own that zoo and the Reston Zoo on Hunter Mill Road near Route 7.

The alleged violations at the Gulf Breeze Zoo include improperly euthanizing animals, including “gunshot as a means of euthanasia without any description of, [among other things], the circumstances in which gunshot could be used, the personnel authorized to perform this method of euthanasia, the training that any such personnel would be required to receive, the weapon or weapons used, or the location where such method of euthanasia would be carried out.”

Other complaints in the filing against the Gulf Breeze Zoo:

Repeated failure to handle animals as carefully as possible to prevent harm to the animals and the public. An attendant was not present when the public, including children, had contact with camels, goats, and llamas, resulting in a child being bitten by a camel, and a short-tail opossum escaped from an enclosure that was not covered. It was found dead the next day.

Repeated failure to safely handle and houseprimates. There was not sufficient distance and/or barriers to restrict the public from having contact with squirrel monkeys, tamarins, and/or marmosets.

Repeated failure to maintain animal enclosures. An enclosure housing golden-headed lion tamarins had protruding nails; an enclosure housing a Patagonian cavy had buried wire mesh with sharp ends that protruded into the enclosure; a door in an enclosure housing tigers had rusted, jagged, and sharp edges, and an enclosure housing raccoons had rusted and corroded wire as well as wood that was splintered and warped.

Failure to separate incompatible animals. Rabbits were housed in incompatible groups, resulting in newborn rabbits “being eaten, chewed upon, or otherwise injured by the other rabbits in the enclosure,” and causing the newborns to die or be euthanized due to their injuries.

Failure to provide shelter from sunlight or inclement weather to goats and sheep.

Failure to ensure that food was clean and wholesome when food for marmosets was prepared at a sink that was dirty and had dead insects and mouse droppings around the sink’s perimeter.

Photo: Reston Zoo/Credit: Reston Zoo

Inmate’s Death Becomes Campaign Fodder — The in-custody death of a woman who was tasered by Sheriff’s deputies and died while in custody has become a campaign issue in the race for Fairfax County Sheriff this fall. [Washington Post]

Court Date for Former FCPD Officer  — The case of former Fairfax County Police Public Information Officer Bud Walker, arrested on child porn charges in April, has been continued to Sept. 8. [Fairfax Times]

Who Is The ‘Ultimate Firefighter’? — Meet one Fairfax County firefighter who hopes to win the prize. [Fairfax Times]

Photo: Taste of Reston 2015

Don’t throw away coffee grounds, corn husks, fruit peels and other earth-friendly refuse. Bring them to Reston Farmers Market at Lake Anne Saturday mornings.

Reston Environmental Action (REACT) is collecting scraps next to the kettle corn stand. Either bring them in a container to empty into the bin, or place scraps in “If You Care” compostable bags, (which can be purchased at Whole Foods, MOMs Organic Market or Harris Teeter) and place the whole bag in the bin.

The scraps are picked up by District Compost and taken to a commercial composting facility, where they will be turned into compost that will be broken down into soil enrichment for other gardeners and farmers.

Here’s what’s compostable:

• Fruit and vegetables (such as apple cores, banana peels, melon rinds, corn husks, coconut shells, potato peels, squash seeds, stems and peels, etc.)
• coffee grounds and filters
• tea bags (remove metal staples from the bag and/or tag)
• nut shells
• onions and garlic
• crushed egg shells

Photo: Compost Bin/Kitchen Compost Bins of Lakeland

Fairfax County Police’s undercover narcotics unit made several arrests in a dramatic drug bust at North Point Village Center Thursday night.

According to witnesses, about six unmarked black SUVS and sedans surrounded a car with New York plates in the parking lot about 9:30 p.m.

A witness said undercover narcotics officers wearing balaclavas quickly surrounded the vehicle. The occupants, a man and a woman, were removed, placed in cuffs and frisked and squad members searched the vehicle, the witness said.

The suspects were taken away in a FCPD squad car.

Fairfax County Police confirmed that the narcotics unit did participate in an apprehension at North Point Thursday. Due to the undercover nature and the ongoing investigation, they will not give further details, said police spokesman Lucy Caldwell.

Caldwell did say that a “significant amount” of drug material was confiscated.”

“FCPD OCN works in an undercover capacity across Fairfax County and targets illegal drug activity and transactions as part of their core mission,” she said. “Often, these cases are not publicized due to continued investigation and active nature of these types of investigations.”

“In this case, there was a significant amount of drug material confiscated and taken off of the streets of Fairfax County; including marijuana, oxycontin and a variety of prescription drugs.”

A new Reston company wants to do for electrolytes what Keurig pods did for coffee and fitness Apps did for your steps walked in a day.

LifeFuels, with offices near Plaza America, officially launched last week. The product pairs nutrition drink pods with a smart water bottle, giving health-conscious folks feedback (via App, of course) on how their caffeine and hydration day is going.

“We are changing the way people consume vitamin supplements,” says Jonathon Perrelli, LifeFuels’ co-founder and CEO. “This way you are taking vitamins throughout the day.

Perrelli, a Virginia Tech grad and angel investor in several area companies, says LifeFuels bridges the gap between nutrition and wearable technology.

Here’s how it works:

1. Purchase the Dispensing Bottle (Preorder for $99; will be $199 when sales begin in the fall).

2. Visit the The FuelPod™ Marketplace online. LifeFuels has teamed with a number of vitamin, mineral, supplement and flavor products, which package their product in a recyclable pod for easy consumption and tracking.

3. Use the LifeFuels App. The App will pick up other info from your other fitness Apps and wearables (i.e., a Fit Bit) to bring you a complete picture of your nutrition, hydration and activity information.

“Today, fitness wearables measure basic output like steps, heart rate and pace, but activity tracking is only a partial view into our wellness picture,” said Perrelli. “The LifeFuels system uses intuitive products and concepts to smartly automate and track the missing piece: what we put into our bodies.”

The BPA-free bottle holds 16 ounces of liquid, plus five, one-ounce recyclable FuelPods which can each provide up to 30 servings. Perrelli envisions a child-size bottle in the future as well.

LifeFuels plans to build product through social media and brand ambassadors, active people who can spread the news about LifeFuel at the gym, the running trail, basketball court and other high-hydration locations, says Perrelli.

In the meantime, more than two dozen employees are working on the product development and launch at the offices at 11501 Sunset Hills Rd. LifeFuels is also hiring. It is especially looking for a Chief Marketing Officer and a iOS Developer.

Learn more about LifeFuels on its website, and on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.

Photo: LifeFuels bottle/Courtesy LifeFuels

Updated, 1:15 p.m. Friday).

Many residents of South Reston are beginning to clean up this morning after a quick but powerful thunderstorm moved through the area Thursday night, downing trees and power lines.

The storm may have included a microburst, meteorologists said. A microburst is a very localized column of sinking air within a thunderstorm, says the National Weather Service. It can last a few seconds or a few minutes, but has the power to knock over large trees.

The Capital Weather Gang has some detailed information on how Thursday’s microburst formed over Western Fairfax County.

Fox Mill Road, which was closed at Fox View Road overnight dus to a downed tree and power lines, is reopened.

Reston Association says it is working in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Transportation to remove debris from the storm. VDOT is responsible for clearing and ensuring the safety of state streets. Secondary cleanup of the tree debris will be completed after all VDOT roadways are clear and safe, says RA.

Says RA: “Priorities for clearing hazards will be placed on compromised trees that could potentially cause harm to a person and/or damage property or infrastructure.”

The RA Central Services Facility team will also be clearing the RA paths of debris this morning.

Dominion Virginia Power said more than 2,500 Reston-area homes lost power last night. Fewer than 1,000 countywide are still without power this morning.

Volunteer Drivers Needed — NV Rides, a non profit that matches volunteer drivers with senior citizens who need rides, is holding an info session and lunch on June 25 11:30 a.m. at Gregorio’s Trattoria at North Point Village Center.  For information or to RSVP call 703.390.6198.

Loudoun Out of Silver Line Loop — Loudoun County Officials say they are being kept in the dark about Silver Line Phase 2, despite making an investment of $300 million. [Washington Business Journal]

Meet The Artists — Here are some of the creative minds behind Reston Art Gallery [Reston Lifestyle Magazine]

GRACE’s Weed Walk — Greater Reston Arts Center (GRACE) is sponsoring a Weed Walk with Patterson Clark, featured artist this month at GRACE. Take a walk on the W & OD Trail Saturday morning and learn about his process through nature. [Reston Now]