Reston Town Center will get a second salon dedicated to men when Roosters Men’s Grooming Center opens at 11990 Market St. on May 13.
Owners Amy and Larry Hall of Ashburn are the owners of nearby local Roosters franchises in Loudoun County. They say Reston, particularly in the ground floor if the Midtown Condominium, is a great spot for their store.
“We were met with such an overwhelmingly positive response when we opened our locations in Ashburn and Leesburg that our dream of opening an additional location in Reston Town Center is now becoming a reality,” the Halls said in a release. “We are thrilled to become active members of the Fairfax business community.”
This will be the second salon dedicated to men’s haircuts, shaves and other treatments that opened at RTC in the last year. A few blocks down Market St. is PR Barbers, formerly Joe Grooming.
Roosters aims to offer modern services in an environment reminiscent of an old-style barbershop. The interior features oversized leather barber chairs in eight barber stations with personal shampoo bowls. Read More
Officers from Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station report a list of items stolen from cars, homes and businesses, but no major crimes so far this week.
LARCENIES
- 2200 block of Astoria Circle, wallet from vehicle
- 1700 block of Clubhouse Road, property from business
- 11900 block of Market Street, watches from residence
- 11100 block of South Lakes Drive, merchandise from business
- 2200 block of Stone Wheel Drive, bags from vehicle
- 12000 block of Taliesin Place, bicycle from residence
- 2300 block of Colts Neck Road, purse from business
- 12100 block of Abington Hall Place, backpack from vehicle
- 11500 block of Lake Newport Road, cash from vehicle
STOLEN VEHICLES
- 1700 block of Ascot Way, 1998 Cadillac
- 11000 block of Thrush Ridge Road, 2012 Toyota Corolla
New On The W&OD — Bike counter from the Reston Bicycle Club was dedicated on Wednesday. [Fairfax County]
New At The Top — Fairfax County has a new county attorney and a new public library director. [Fairfax County, Fairfax County]
Kudos, Young Journalists — Several South Lakes High School students were placewinners in the Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers write-off. [FCPS]
Update On Man Who Died After Police Scuffle — Fairfax County Police have more information about the incident that led to the death of Paul Gianelos, a man with autism whom they were trying to reunite with caregivers last week. [Farfax County Police]
ADHD Conference in Reston — Parents of kids with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, as well as teens, teachers and professionals are invited to the International ADHD Professionals Conference this weekend at the Hyatt Regency Reston. [ADHD Professionals Conference]
Michael Wayne Edwards, the man charged with filming women without their consent at the South Lakes Safeway in Reston last summer, will be back in court in two weeks.
Edwards, of Centreville, was found guilty of filming women and simulated masturbation in Fairfax County District Court in January.
However, Edwards’ attorneys immediately appealed the decision, which paves the way for a new trial in Fairfax County Circuit Court.
He has a motion hearing on May 13, court information shows.
Here’s what happened:
Edwards, who was employed as a trainer at a South Lakes fitness studio at the time of his arrest, was charged in August and September for two incidents.
The first incident was July 24, where the victim said she was in the South Lakes Safeway and felt someone someone bump her and then touch her underneath clothing while she was in the store.
The other incident was Aug. 5. In that incident, a woman said Edwards followed her as she shopped at Safeway, and then followed her down Sunrise Valley Drive as she returned to work. He also exposed himself, the woman said. Read More
When Reston Town Center initiates paid parking beginning Aug. 1, it will be under an app-based system developed by Passport Parking.
While Reston Town Center officials say the gateless, ticketless license plate recognition system is secure, a quick look through Passport Parking’s privacy policy says otherwise.
Parking will be $2 an hour in RTC’s seven garages on weekdays starting this summer. It will remain free on weekends (12 a.m. Saturday to 12 a.m. Monday). Patrons as well as RTC employees will have to pay. Many stores will validate for some free parking, but the exact system and which stores will participate has not been finalized.
RTC is encouraging customers to register their license plate and payment information with the app.
“When customers download the app, they will then be able to pay for their parking from the comfort of their vehicle or extend their parking session remotely,” says the Frequently Asked Questions section on Reston Town Center’s website.
“There will be no need to visit a pay station, as the fee will be automatically charged to their designated credit card at the end of the parking session. Multiple license plates and credit cards may be added into your account when using the Park RTC app.”
Furthermore, RTC says “Park RTC solely hosted by Passport Parking, Inc. will keep all details secure in accordance with their privacy policy, which can be found online when the system goes live. ”
While your credit card info will probably be secure, the rest is open to interpretation.
Passport says users can opt out of sharing some personal info, but “if you choose not to share, some parts of our sites and some services may be more difficult or impossible to use.”
Visitors to RTC do not have to use the app, though RTC management is encouraging them to do so. Visitors will also be able to pay manually via a kiosk.
Now that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved a $4.01 billion budget for 2017 — a plan that nearly fully funds Fairfax County Public Schools — it is time to look ahead to Fiscal Year 2018.
The supervisors and the school board will engage in a joint retreat on June 14 to get a jump on what surely is to be another testy budget battle.
Even with a new tax rate, approved on Tuesday, of $1.13 (a 4-cent jump) of assessed home value, the county and the schools will likely feel the pinch again next year.
FCPS superintendent Karen Garza, who had requested a 6-percent increase from the Supervisors for 2017, has already predicted similar needs for 2018 as the nation’s 10th-largest school system faces rising cost drivers such as retirements, health care and the need for special programs.
The budget shortfall initially was about $67 million, but in the end, the schools received about $2 billion from the county, or about a 4.8 percent more than in 2017.
Now, on to 2018.
“There continues to be a projected shortfall of over $75 million as we project ahead to FY 2018,” Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova said at the 2017 budget markup session last week. “This projection includes revenue increases of approximately 2.4 percent based on limited projected growth in the county’s real estate market.”
“The projected shortfall makes it clear that difficult budget decisions lie ahead,” said Bulova. She directed the county executive to outline a FY 2018 budget that “allocates current projected available resources between the County and Schools.” Read More
Another giant crane will set up in Reston later this week as construction on the Reston Town Center Metro station continues.
The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project says crews will be assembling a tower crane in the median of the Dulles International Airport Access Highway (DIAAH) between the Fairfax County Parkway overpass and the Reston Parkway overpass. That will affect lanes on both the access highway and the Dulles Toll Road.
Construction will take place Friday, April 29 through Monday, May 2.
The crane will be used for construction of the Silver Line’s future Reston Town Center Station, which is scheduled to bring Silver Line service to the spot in 2020. Read More
Bozzuto Development and Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins will present a revised proposal for St. Johns Wood Apartments at a community meeting on Wednesday, May 4.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Hunter Mill District Office, 1801 Cameron Glen Dr. in Reston.
The St. Johns Wood plan has been through a couple of changes since first plans were shown to community members more than a year ago.
The 14.3-acre development currently consists of nine three-story, garden-style apartment buildings containing a total of 250 multi-family residential units.
Bozzuto first submitted an application to Fairfax County in 2014, proposing to redevelop the property with three mid-rise residential buildings containing 625 multi-family units and 34 single-family attached townhomes.
But based on meetings with Fairfax County, the Reston Association Design Review Board, and members of the Reston Planning & Zoning Committee, the developer revised the plan to reduce the scale and scope of the multi-family residential buildings.
Bozzuto eliminated one of the previously proposed multi-family buildings, adjusted the massing of the two remaining residential buildings to improve their compatibility with surrounding uses, and is making an effort to preserve more wooded area on the property. Read More
Brew House Shoutout — Lake Anne Brew House “is another addition to a Fairfax County microbrewery chain that runs close to W&OD bike trail.” The Brew House reopens later this week after stopping to brew more beer. [Brewery Showcase]
Bike To School May 4 — Many Reston schools are among the FCPS schools participating in Bike to School Day next week. Check if yours is on the list and how to get involved. [FCPS]
Co-Working Grand Opening — Refraction, a co-working space at 11911 Freedom Dr. in Reston Town Center, is holding a grand opening May 12. [Refraction]
Was Fairfax County Firefighter Bullied Before Death? — Fairfax County officials are looking into cyberbullying against firefighter Nicole Mittendorff, who is believed to have committed suicide. The body of Mittendorff, who had been missing more than a week, was found last week in Shenandoah National Park. [Reston Connection, Washington Post]
Virginia Department of Transportation crews are nearly done with a $1.5 million project to add sidewalks to the east side of Soapstone Drive from Glade to South Lakes Drive.
The work caps several improvements over the last few years to the increasingly traveled road. Among the additions: Going from two lanes in each direction to a wider road with one lane each way with bike lanes and turning lanes.
Another recent addition: “No parking” signs, which were installed along the new sidewalk stretch in the last few weeks. Several residents have reported getting ticketed when they left their cars on the east side of the road.
There has traditionally been parking on both sides of Soapstone, including on the gravel shoulder of the west side. The new east side was configured with a parking lane, and then a grass strip to provide a buffer so pedestrians aren’t hit with car doors while walking on the sidewalk.
John Farrell, president of Colonial Oaks Cluster, which is located off the stretch of Soapstone in question, said the signs were installed wrong and he is working with county transportation officials to correct the issue.
He said there is supposed to be some no parking areas, particularly to provide access to the Soapstone convenience center and into clusters on that stretch.
“We are determined that parking be restored on the east side,” he said. “They are not supposed to be parking within the sight lines of the shopping center and clusters, but otherwise it should be allowed on Soapstone. We don’t want people parking in our cluster [instead].”
Meanwhile, beware of the no-parking zones.
The future of Tall Oaks Village Center is back open for discussion.
Hunter Mill Supervisor Cathy Hudgins and The Jefferson Apartment Group (JAG) are holding a community meeting May 10 to share a revised proposal for the ailing Village Center, which has been mostly vacant for several years.
The meeting is 7 to 9 p.m. at Tall Oaks, 12040 North Shore Drive,.
The future of the village center has been been a development topic for more than a year and the new proposal is scheduled to go before the Fairfax County Planning Commission on June 23.
JAG purchased Tall Oaks in December of 2014. The group held a series of community meetings in the spring of 2015, where it outlined plans to turn the 70,0000-square-foot center into more than 100 multifamily units and townhomes and limited (about 3,000 square feet) of retail.
That did not sit well with neighborhood residents, who said the center could work as retail if marketed properly. Reston Association also said in a letter to county officials last summer that the plan fell “woefully short” on retail and community space.
JAG then came back with a new proposal, which offered a reduction in the number of residences and doubled the planned retail space to 7,000 square feet.
JAG representatives said in February they would also conduct a market study examining the area’s retail viability. The results of that study are expected to be available at the May 10 meeting.
Several Tall Oaks-area residents have said they would like to see a study done independent of the one JAG is conducting.
They have also said they would like to see about 10,000 square feet of retail, as well as more green space, on the site.
Graphic: Tall Oaks concept as of June 2015/Credit: JAG
The average Fairfax County homeowner will see a rise of about $300 in his or her annual tax bill next year.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved its $4.01 billion Fiscal Year 2017 budget. The motion passed 7-3, with Supervisors Herrity (Springfield), Linda Smyth (Providence) and John Cook (Braddock) voting against it.
The supervisors’ vote approves a tax increase of 4 cents per $100 of home value, to $1.13. This will provide an additional $93 million to the county annually.
At a budget mark-up session last week, the supervisors said they would provide an additional $33.6 million to Fairfax County Public Schools. This was done by allocating an entire penny of the tax rate and using reallocated funds from Third Quarter Review, said Supervisor Chair Sharon Bulova. Read More
Do you want to pay more taxes for transportation improvements? An informal Reston Association survey shows that most Restonians don’t.
Reston Association recently surveyed members (through a printed questionnaire at its annual meeting and a link sent electronically) asking how residents felt about Fairfax County’s proposal to create a service tax district to fund transportation improvements here.
The county says about $2.6 billion in improvements will be needed in Reston as it grows over the next several decades. Much of that will be paid for in developer proffers, but there still are hundreds of millions needed for roads, lights, ramps and bridges.
RA says nearly 700 individuals completed survey.
Residents were asked if they would be willing to pay an additional tax based on the value of their property that would only be used to fund transportation improvements in Reston. Eighty-six percent of respondents (597) answered “no.” Among the 94 (14 percent) that answered “yes,” most said they would be willing to pay extra taxes but only at the lowest rate (0.020 per $100 of value). Read More
Nearby: Afghan Restaurant Earns High Marks — Zamarod Afghan Cuisine in Great Falls gets thumbs up from critics. [Fairfax Times]
Chamber ACE Awards Now Open — The deadline to nominate a Reston business for the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce’s annual Awards for Chamber Excellence (ACE) are open through May 13. [Greater Reston Chamber]
Save The Date: Trucks! — The Town of Herndon’s annual Big Truck Days event for youngsters returns May 5 and 6. [Patch]
Fundraiser For SVES Team — Sunrise Valley ES’ Odyssey of the Mind Team has qualified for the World Finals in Iowa in late May. The group, which won the state championship earlier this month, is trying to raise $7,000 to fund the trip. [Go Fund Me]
Kendra Scott Fundraiser For Amy’s Amigos — Reston Town Center’s Kendra Scott store will host a special shopping event tonight, with 20 percent of proceeds going to Amy’s Amigos, the organization behind the Reston Youth Triathlon. [Facebook]
Officers from the Fairfax County Police’s Reston District Station held a sobriety checkpoint on Saturday that yielded several charges.
FCPD regularly holds checkpoints in various parts of the county in order to monitor for intoxicated drivers. They do not announce the location ahead of time.
Saturday night’s checkpoint was at Walnut Branch Road and the Fairfax County Parkway.
Police said 623 vehicles passed through the screening point, resulting in one DWI arrest, one criminal charge, and three traffic summonses.
