Music and special events return to Lake Anne Plaza the last week of August, culminating in the 10th annual Lake Anne Jazz and Blues Festival on Sept. 3.
The Jazz & Blues festival is a free, family friendly, all-day event that will take place from 1 to 9 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3.
Here is the performer lineup:
- 1 p.m. – Adrian Duke
- 2 p.m. – Mykle Lyons Sextet
- 3 p.m. – Chip Bubeck
- 4 p.m. – Integriti Reeves
- 5 p.m. – Clarence Penn
- 6 p.m. – Sam Gunderson
- 7 p.m. – Dixie Power Trio
Other Jazz Week Activities
Lake Anne Film Festival – Lady Sings the Blues. Free outdoor movie on the plaza to kick off Jazz Week on Aug. 26. Showtime is about 8:30 p.m. Bring a chair/blankets for seating.
Chesapeake Chocolates, Wine, Gifts and More
- Sept. 1: Virginia Wine & Cheese Tasting (6 p.m. – 7 p.m.)
- Sept. 3: Wine and Chocolate Tasting (2 p.m. – 4 p.m.)
(both events are free)
PetMAC Pet Nutrition Center – Jazz up your pet with 35 percent off all collars, leashes and apparel.
Reston Art Gallery – Browse locally-created works of art at Reston Art Gallery & Studios at Lake Anne Plaza. Choose from a variety of musically-themed works of art in various media such as acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels and even mobiles and collages, and get 10 percent off. Refreshments will be served. Read More
The Fairfax County Park Authority is offering an outdoor getaway for women very close to home.
The park authority’s “Women Unplugged” Weekend is Sept. 3 and 4.
Here’s the deal: Participants in the program, which runs from 8 a.m. Saturday to 2 p.m. Sunday, will kayak from Algonkian Park to Riverbend Park and have an outdoor dinner with a bonfire. Bring a tent and spend the night under the stars or “camp out” in the FCPA Nature Center.
On Sunday, participants will explore birds, edible plants, and learn to shoot a bow and arrow.
Cost is $200; most meals included.
For more details, visit Parktakes online.
Fairfax County will embark on a new search for a septage site in an effort to find an ideal dumping ground for waste in this part of the county.
Fairfax County announced in February that it wanted to move one of two county septic tank dumping sites from Colvin Run in Great Falls to Lake Fairfax Maintenance Area 6, a parcel on the Reston/Vienna line owned by the park authority.
The Colvin Run site, which is currently closed for nearby construction, has been used by sewage haulers since 1970. The facility is outdated, in a flood plain, smells and is poorly equipped to handle truck turnaround, county officials said.
Last winter, officials said it looked at six county sites, and found the Lake Fairfax one the only suitable one.
The proposed move did not sit well with area residents, who spoke up at a contentious community meeting. They told county Department of Public Works and Environmental Services (DPWES) and consultants from Hazen and Sawyer that the Lake Fairfax spot, located near Hunter Mill Road’s one-lane bridge, was a poor choice because of proximity to homes, increased traffic on a country road and environmental hazards.
A man was killed Saturday morning in a one-car crash on Walker Road in Great Falls.
Officers from the Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station responded to the 1100 block of Walker Road around 7:30 a.m. They found a 2004 convertible that had been involved in the crash.
Officer determined that a 28-year-old man had been driving the car northbound on Walker Road, when, for an unknown reason, the vehicle left the roadway, hit a dirt berm, overturned several times, and came to rest.
The driver, identified as Henry H. Sterne of Alexandria, was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and pronounced deceased by medical staff. There were no other occupants in the vehicle.
Preliminary information suggests that speed appears to be a factor in this crash.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact Crime Solvers electronically by visiting http://www.fairfaxcrimesolvers.org or text-a-tip by texting “TIP187” plus your message to CRIMES(274637)** or by calling 1-866-411-TIPS(8477), or call Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.
This is the second one-car fatal crash in the Great Falls area in the last several weeks. On July 20, a 24-year-old man swerved to avoid an oncoming car on Riverbend Road, hit a tree and was killed when he was ejected from the vehicle.
Photo of crash scene/FCPD
Nearby: Murder at Fairfax County Park — A seasonal employee at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Chantilly has been charged with second-degree murder after he allegedly stabbed a wedding caterer after an argument over folding chairs late Saturday. [Washington Post]
Food Memory Lane — This tumblr has a copy of the 1980 menu from Reston’s Fritzbe’s at Hunters Woods Village Center. [Library of Va]
Zika Chat Today — Fairfax County Health Department officials will be hosting a chat Monday, Aug. 8 at 11 a.m. to discuss local Zika risks. [Fairfax County]
Car Crunch — A Mercedes accidentally backed over a parked Ferrari outside Katie’s Coffee in Great Falls over the weekend. Katie’s Coffee hosts cars and coffee on Saturday mornings, where classic and exotic car owners meet (but usually not like this). [Mashable]
Now that Jefferson Apartment Group’s (JAG) plans for Tall Oaks Village Center have been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, let’s look ahead.
Tall Oaks today has about 75,000 square feet of retail, only about 13 percent of which is occupied.
The new village center at Wiehle Avenue and North Shore Drive will be 156 homes; 6,000 square feet of office space and 8,500 square feet of retail space,
JAG representatives say the retail portion, which will relocate into an existing free-standing office area, will be redeveloped first, and the hope is that the permitting process will be completed within the year.
JAG also hopes that some of the existing tenants (Paradise Nails, Mama Wok, Pho 75, for example) will sign leases to remain at the new Tall Oaks.
Overall, the retail plaza will have room for about five stores to serve neighborhood residents. That’s not a lot of space, but could provide the essentials.
So, what do you think would do well there? Remember, it’s 8,500 square feet, so big-footprint stores like Wegmans, Lowe’s, Barnes & Noble and the like are not fair answers.
Put your thoughts in the comments below.
Photo: rendering of new Tall Oaks retail building/Credit: JAG
The Clinton-Kaine campaign is opening a local office for the final months of the presidential race in a very high profile Reston spot.
The campaign will open an office at 1635 Washington Plaza, a former hair salon storefront at Lake Anne Plaza.
The office is expected to open soon, with a grand opening party later this month, a campaign spokesman said.
In 2012, Barack Obama’s re-election campaign had an office in Reston in an office building at 1760 Reston Parkway.
Local offices are where campaigns organize volunteers, hold phone banks and do other community-level campaign work.
Voters in Reston traditionally vote heavily Democratic in presidential elections. In 2008, Barack Obama won Reston precincts 66 percent to 33 percent. In 2012, Obama had 65 percent of the votes to Mitt Romney’s 34 percent.
Correction: An earlier version of this post had an incorrect stadium rendering/model attached to it.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said on Friday the commonwealth is in “very serious negotiations” with the Washington Redskins to build a new stadium — possibly in the area along Metro’s Silver Line.
McAuliffe said on ESPN 980’s “Cooley & Kevin” show Friday he hosted team owner Dan Snyder and franchise officials at the governor’s mansion Thursday night. The team is in Richmond for training camp until next week.
McAuliffe said a stadium site in Virginia would be located near a Metro station. In the interview, he listed areas along the Silver Line, including Tysons, “Reston/Wiehle, and then to Dulles Airport with the Silver Line, and then further into Loudoun.”
The second phase of the Silver Line, which will run from Wiehle-Reston East to Dulles and into Ashburn, where the team currently trains, will be complete in 2020.
While areas west of Reston may have available land suitable for a stadium, there is virtually no space in Reston that could accommodate a stadium and associated parking.
Meanwhile, the team is locked into a lease at FedEx Field in Landover, through 2027. However, Snyder has already hired architects at Bjarke Ingels Group, which has worked up concept drawings.
McAuliffe said Virginia’s booming population and a strong economy are among reasons why Virginia should be the stadium location.
He also mentioned that the majority of season ticket holders live in Virginia, as do most of the players because the team trains in Ashburn.
“We have plenty of land, obviously, to do this. … If I’m looking to put a sports team, where are most of my fans? Where’s most of my income come from? Where do all my players live? That’s Virginia,” McAuliffe said. “So, I think from the team’s perspective, looking at it that way is important.”
Rendering of new Washington Stadium/Credit: Bjarke Ingels Group and “60 Minutes.”
The annual Fairfax County 4-H Fair and Carnival brings old fashioned farm fun to Frying Pan Park this weekned.
The fair runs Friday through Sunday and will feature carnival games, rides, fair exhibits and entertainment. There will be 4-H exhibitors showing farm animals, and visitors can try their hand at milking cows and goats.
Here are some of the highlights to plan your visit:
Friday — The farmyard opens at 9 a.m., and carnival rides run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. then again from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday is also Big Truck Night, a free, hands-on activity featuring a variety of large, commercial trucks.
Parking and admission are free on Friday (you must purchase tickets for food and rides).
Saturday and Sunday — The fair begins at 9 a.m. The Fair Entrance will be on Monroe Street for those days. The carnival rides run from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Sunday. Entry to the park grounds is free, however there is an $8 parking fee per car, per day on the weekend. Cash or check only. Read More
North Point-area residents packed a Reston Association meeting room Thursday to point out a long list of issues they have with plans to redevelop St. Johns Wood apartments.
Project developer Bozzuto has made several changes to its redevelopment plan for the 14-acre garden apartment complex over the last two years. The newest one calls for turning 250 units in nine garden-style buildings into 467 units and 46 townhouses.
That’s scaled down from the starting point for 625 units in 2014 and then 511 units and 51 townhouses in an amended plan earlier this year.
It’s still too much for a quiet, suburban-style residential neighborhood, residents said Thursday. They said the plan looked like “Inova Fairfax Hospital,” or a “VCU college dorm with a facade like the Mosaic District.”
“This is way too large,” said area resident Gary Fogel. “It is twice what is there now. If you told me 100 more units, that makes sense. But doubling it? That’s insane.”
Bozzuto reps say the complex at Reston Parkway, North Village Road and Center Harbor Road was identified for high density as far back as when Reston was first planned in 1964. The idea was to have critical mass around Reston’s village centers, said Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins.
“Basically, it has been underdeveloped,” Hudgins told the crowd. “The only place you will see density [growth] is near the village centers.”
However, the Reston Master Plan update in 2014 brought down the density allowances farther from the Metro. That’s why Bozzuto reworked St. Johns Wood, which is more than a mile from the future Reston Town Center station, from 46 dwelling units per acre to 39 units per acre and now 36 units per acre.
The developer also has changed the facades of the townhouse to have cleaner lines and has scaled the buildings from six stories to five to rise no higher than the current tree line.
That’s still to much change for the character of the neighborhood, says Susanne Andersson-Tosado, who has organized a petition protesting the plan. Read More
Now that plans for Reston’s tallest building have been given final approval (for the second time) by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the project has a name and a sales pitch.
The 23-story building will be dubbed “One Reston Town Center.” Even though its location at 1760 Reston Parkway puts Akridge’s project slightly outside of what a shopper would consider Reston Town Center, it still falls within what planners have zoned for Reston’s urban core (and therefore technically part of RTC).
The building will be located at Reston Parkway and Bowman Towne Drive, near the Spectrum Center. The Spectrum Center will also be undergoing a massive redevelopment in the future. Read More
Reston’s Hot, Developers Say — Bisnow checks in on why Reston is an attractive place for developers theses days. [Bisnow]
Leidos May Ink Marathon Deal — Reston-based Leidos, already a major sponsor of DC United, may be working on a deal to sponsor the Marine Corps Marathon. [Washington Business Journal]
It’s National Farmers Market Week — And that means special cooking demos at this Saturday’s Reston Farmers Market at Lake Anne. [Fairfax County]
Hot Night, “Frozen” Movie — This week’s outdoor movie at Reston Station is Disney’s “Frozen.” The free screening begins Saturday about 8:30 p.m., and there will be food trucks, and children’s activities on site. [Reston Station]
Students of all ages are invited to Reston Community Center’s Back to School Bash on Saturday, Aug. 13.
This free event will feature information from all kinds of family resources, including information about community agencies, resources and programs.
There will also be hands-on activities for kids, as well as free vision screening, haircuts, raffles, and Fairfax County Public Library card registration.
Notes: This is a different event than the South Lakes High School Block Party, which takes place on Sept. 2.
RCC can still use volunteers for the bash. Sign up is available online.
The free event is at South Lakes High School, 11400 South Lakes Drive, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Three break-ins mark this week’s police report from Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station.
In one incident, a man forced his way into Reston Town Center’s Bow Tie Cinemas in the middle of the night and was arrested.
Here are police reports from FCPD for the week ending Aug. 4:
TRESPASSING / DRUNK IN PUBLIC: 11900 block of Market Street, July 25, 2:25 a.m. Officers responded to the location for a report of a burglary. Security officers advised that a man had forced his way inside of the theater after being asked to leave the property. Zachary Visco, 23, of Ashburn, was arrested and charged with trespassing and drunk in public.
UNLAWFUL ENTRY/DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY/ARREST: 1400 block of Aldenham Lane, July 27, around 5:10 a.m. A 16-year-old boy was taken into custody after allegedly unlawfully entering a shed in a 41-year-old woman’s yard. The suspect was released to his parents and petitions for unlawful entry and destruction of property are being sought.
UNLAWFUL ENTRY: 2200 block of Winterthur Court, Aug. 2, 9:38 a.m. Property management reported an unknown woman was found in a vacant apartment. The woman left when she saw someone enter the apartment. Responding officers located the woman in the area. Karla Flores, 21 of Reston was charged with Enter Property to Damage and Trespass.
LARCENIES:
- 1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, purse from business
- 2300 block of Hunters Woods Plaza, beer from business
- 1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, items from vehicle
- 9800 block of Georgetown Pike, liquor from business
- 9800 block of Georgetown Pike, merchandise from business
- 2100 block of Astoria Circle, television from residence
- 11800 block of Baron Cameron Avenue, beer from business
- 2300 block of Cypress Cove Circle, bicycle from residence
- 12000 block of North Shore Drive, phone from residence
- 12100 block of Sunset Hills Road, merchandise from business
- 11800 block of Baron Cameron Avenue, beer from business
- 12100 block of Sunset Hills Road, milk from business
- 11800 block of Baron Cameron Avenue, beer from business
- 1800 block of Cameron Glen Drive, phone from residence
Friends of Connor Golden are holding a fundraising concert to help the 19-year-old Oakton High graduate who was hurt in an explosion in Central Park last month.
“#ConnorStrong — A Benefit Concert for Connor Golden,” is Sunday at 9:30 p.m. at Jammin Java in Vienna.
Golden, a 2015 Oakton graduate who attends the University of Miami, was vacationing in New York City on July 3 when he stepped on explosive material in Central Park. The injury from the blast caused his leg to be amputated just below the knee.
Oakton High Chorus families have started the Connor Golden Fund to help Golden, who aspires to a career in music engineering, with medical and rehabilitation expenses. More than $66,000 has been already been raised in the Go Fund Me campaign.
The benefit concert will feature a mix of talent representing Oakton High School students and graduates, as well as local singers, musicians, and bands, says the Go Fund Me Page.
Tickets are $15 for general admission/$30 for VIP seating.
Photo: Connor Golden/Go Fund Me
