(Updated at 4:35 p.m.) A new nightclub and bar has taken over space formerly occupied by Outback Steakhouse in Herndon.
Ibiza Nightclub Bar & Grill opened on July 7 at 150 Elden Street. The business is the brainchild of two Honduran brothers Jimmy and Yonis Matute, who are seeking to reinvigorate the nightclub scene in the area.
Elena Beleniuc, a spokesperson for the business, told FFXnow that they wanted to create an elegant place for locals to “decompress.”
“Since we got here we always worked in the restaurant and nightlife industry and wanted to revolutionize the industry,” Beleniuc said. “We started our first business in West Virginia and it was a success. We brought the community together there and decided to do the same with our hometown, Herndon. We are young, full of life and ready to work hard and contribute the local economy.”
The location includes happy hour plates and drinks, a private event space and entertainment.
The business is closed on Mondays and open on Tuesday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. and on Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. The business closes on Sunday at 2 a.m., but the opening time is not confirmed yet. The owners hope to offer brunch, a company spokesperson told FFXnow.
(Correction: Ibiza told FFXnow that the operating hours posted to its website were inaccurate. The correct hours and restaurant name are now shown.)
Outback Steakhouse relocated down the road to 365 Elden Street last year.
(Updated at 11:55 a.m.) Fairfax County has a new plan that could help inform arts venue development in the county for the next 20 years.
Adopted unanimously by the Board of Supervisors Tuesday (July 11), the 49-page Fairfax County Master Arts Plan: Facilities includes an inventory of the county’s arts venues, an examination of gaps in resources, options for funding new facilities and more.
Members of the county board said that, in the past, they have lacked some key information when trying to establish arts facilities.
“We were kind of operating under good guidance, but largely in the dark in terms of some of the technical components and what makes sense and where you do these in the county and in what types of communities, and so the work that the task force has done is amazing,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said.
The facilities plan takes into account the county’s strategic plan, adopted in October 2021. For example, its formulation involved “inclusive engagement,” which the facilities plan says was among the drivers of the strategic plan.
“Extensive analytical data was collected through interviews and personal discussion with a wide range of arts and community leaders, as well as residents of both majority and minority ethnic or racial makeup,” the facilities plan reads.
The facilities plan also aligns with One Fairfax, which is the county government and school board’s racial and social equity policy.
“Equity and diversity goals should be paramount in the development of venues that will support arts activities from ethnically diverse perspectives and approaches,” the plan reads.
Among the plan’s recommendations is an expansion of “support facilities,” which could include vacant buildings converted for temporary arts use and storage facilities for costumes, props and scenery.
A consultant’s study conducted in 2019 as part of the plan found that cost is the top consideration for local arts organizations when they decide what venues to use, leading many to go outside of the county or utilize facilities like churches and community centers that aren’t designed for the arts.
Marketing organizations, venues and specific events is also a challenge, tending to be “cost-labor-time intensive and drastically underfunded.”
Following Capital One Hall’s opening in Tysons in 2021, new venues have been proposed for Fairfax City, Reston, Falls Church City, Chantilly, and the Herndon area, among other sites.
The report also outlines funding possibilities for capital projects, including bond referendums, an entertainment tax and private donations.
The facilities plan came out of work by the Master Arts Plan Task Force, which formed in 2009. Before the board adopted the plan Tuesday, it passed a resolution recognizing the task force “for their achievements.” Members of the task force, including chair Leila Gordon, attended the meeting.
Gordon gave a presentation about the plan to the board’s economic initiatives committee in March. Even as the board accepted the plan at Tuesday’s meeting, members and Gordon noted the plan’s status as a “living document.”
“Now we have a solid plan for supporting the wonderful array of arts venues already available in Fairfax County as well as to realize the venues of the future that will continue to provide encouragement to artists and welcoming spaces for all to enjoy,” Gordon said at the meeting. “This is a living plan designed to achieve our goals while responding to change.”
Dozens of dogs at Fairfax County’s animal shelter have become infected recently by a respiratory illness known informally as “kennel cough.”
While it’s common to see some canine infectious respiratory disease complex (CIRDC) cases, the current wave has been exacerbated by more dogs staying in the shelter for longer periods of time, according to the Fairfax County Animal Shelter (FCAS).
As of yesterday (Thursday), 42 of the 67 dogs in the shelter at 4500 West Ox Road were symptomatic with CIRDC, which has cold-like symptoms such as coughing and a runny nose, Fairfax County Department of Animal Sheltering Director Reasa Currier told FFXnow.
“Every dog has received an individualized treatment plan from our veterinarian and most dogs are improving quickly without the need for medication,” Currier said, describing the symptoms as generally mild.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, CIRDC comes from a variety of viruses and bacteria and is spread through respiratory droplets. Dogs can catch it through close or direct contact with infected animals, sneezing and coughing, and exposure to contaminated objects, such as toys or water bowls.
Kennel cough doesn’t affect humans and other kinds of animals, but it can spread quickly in congregate settings like a shelter, in part because it’s contagious before symptoms appear. The illness also thrives in humidity and is “exacerbated by stress,” FCAS says.
The shelter says it has “robust daily cleaning protocols,” and staff have been “carefully monitoring all dogs for symptoms,” separating those that are symptomatic from the healthy animals.
However, the biggest challenge has been the size of the shelter’s dog population, which neared 100 dogs earlier this summer.
“[There are] more dogs in our care than the staff and facility can adequately support and dogs remaining in our care for extended periods of time,” Currier said. “Our animal population has increased by 25% over the same period last year while the number of days animals spend in our care has also increased as adoptions have slowed.”
Crowding is an issue at shelters nationwide, as some of the over 23 million households that reportedly adopted a pet during the COVID-19 pandemic reevaluate that decision.
The surge in pet surrenders reflects “complex social and economic circumstances,” led by people moving or encountering other housing-related challenges, Currier says. Though 70% of renters in Fairfax County own a pet, many apartments don’t allow pets, place restrictions on the size or breed, or require a fee or deposit.
Increasing costs for veterinary care and pet supplies, particularly food, may also affect someone’s ability to keep their pet, according to Currier.
In the hopes of encouraging adoptions and reducing surrenders, FCAS is promoting its available pets more frequently, reviewing its adoption process to reduce barriers, and providing more resources to pet owners, including free or low-cost vet care and free temporary boarding for those in crisis.
The shelter is also seeking volunteers who can foster large dogs and asking anyone planning to surrender a dog to try to postpone it for at least two more weeks. Owners are advised to ensure their pets are up-to-date on their vaccinations before turning them in.
“There is not one easy solution to the increase in homeless animals, but it is something we must tackle through multipronged efforts,” Currier said. “We appreciate the support we receive from our generous community who keep our pet food pantry stocked and our team of dedicated volunteers and fosters who allow us to continue to provide exceptional, individualized care to every animal who come in the shelter’s doors despite the growing need.”
Who let the fox in? Restonians did after they selected the furry creature as the community’s official icon.
In survey results announced today (Friday), the animal prevailed over two other options — a heron and woodpecker — for a project between Friends of Reston, Public Art Reston and Reston Association.
A poll took place in May and garnered more than 2,800 votes. Local artists Tracie Griffith Tso, Ben Morse and Dana Scheurer designed the proposed icons.
RA says the fox will be fabricated into replicable cast sculptures that will be painted by local artists in the coming months. Through a public auction, the replicas will then be auctioned off. Funds will be used to support local public art projects.
“Thank you to our wonderful community partners, artists, and residents who made the first phase of the Icon Project a success,” RA wrote in a statement. “Friends of Reston, Reston Association, and Public Art Reston look forward to working together on the continuation of this initiative.”
Reston Parkway Bridge Repairs Continue — “Motorists can expect delays on Reston Parkway/Route 602 at Sunset Hills Road/Route-675E to continue until Monday afternoon due to emergency bridge work, according to VDOT. A truck traveling southbound on Reston Parkway to the eastbound entrance ramp to the Dulles Toll Road in Reston struck the bridge on Monday morning” [Patch]
Opening Date Set for Lorton Lidl — “The long-awaited Lidl supermarket in Lorton will officially open July 26 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration…The 30,000 square-foot Lidl will soon be joined by several neighboring retail businesses and a childcare center that are slated to open this fall or winter.” [On the MoVe]
Park Authority Wants Your Selfies — “Grab your friends and your camera and celebrate National Park and Recreation Month! The Fairfax County Park Authority is holding a selfie photo contest from July 24 through July 28 to commemorate this year’s theme ‘Where Community Grows.'” [FCPA]
Vienna OKs Parking Restriction — “Vexed by construction parking near the new Sunrise Senior Living building at 380 Maple Ave., W., and apprehensive about vehicular spillover once that facility opens, residents on Millwood Court, S.E., have pressed Vienna officials for years to impose permit parking on their cul-de-sac. The Vienna Town Council voted 6-1 July 10 to grant them their wish” [Gazette Leader]
Local Students and Seniors Design Cane for Navigating Crosswalks — “Five students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology in Alexandria were named finalists in the Conrad Innovation Challenge for the walking cane they designed with the help of visually impaired people from the Herndon Senior Center.” [Patch]
Herndon Satellite Company Gets Funding Boost — “HawkEye 360, a commercial operator of remote-sensing satellites, announced July 13 it has raised $58 million in new funding. Based in Herndon, Virginia, the company uses radio-frequency data collected by satellites to geolocate electronic emissions and draw insights.” [Space News]
Owner Sought for Annandale Office Building — “A four-story office building at 7023 Little River Turnpike in Annandale is for sale, according to a listing on LoopNet. Known as the Annandale Professional Building, it has 41,944 square feet. It was built in 1973. The listing doesn’t include a sales price.” [Annandale Today]
County Library Hits E-book Milestone — “Fairfax County Public Library celebrated it’s 20 millionth digital checkout last week when one cardholder borrowed ‘Crying In H Mart’ by @Jbrekkie! We are so excited to reach this milestone and are thankful to everyone who helped us get there by supporting us!” [FCPL/Twitter]
It’s Friday — A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2pm, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 2pm and 5pm, then showers and thunderstorms likely after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 88. Chance of precipitation is 70%. [Weather.gov]
People walk and bike on a bridge at Lake Accotink Park in Springfield (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
The Fairfax County Park Authority wants feedback on a draft plan to make county parks more equitable and accessible.
County staff is collecting input on its Parks, Recreation, Open Space, and Access (PROSA) Strategy through an online survey and two virtual workshops scheduled this month. The second round of community engagement comes as the FCPA prepares to finalize the strategy later this year.
FCPA Director Jai Cole said the strategy will guide the park authority toward improved accessibility, park equity, and a “stronger balance of park experiences countywide.”
“The cutting-edge research which we’ve undertaken, coupled with the valuable insights we’ve received by way of community input, will be invaluable tools in our work to ensure equitable access to our park system,” Cole said.
According to the county, top priorities of the draft PROSA report include:
- Ensuring all community members have access to FCPA parks within a 10-minute walk
- Enhancing access to “complete park experiences”
- Enriching habitat connectivity between environmental corridors
- Analyzing and prioritizing recreation needs and projects with an equity lens, as required by the county’s One Fairfax policy
According to the report, approximately 52% of residents have access to a county park within a 10-minute walk from their home.
Emphasizing its vision of ensuring residents can get to a park without driving, the report states that barriers can include the presence of large roadways with limited pedestrian crossings, a lack of sidewalks, remote park entryways and natural features, such as a stream or forested area.
“Opportunities to remove barriers and improve park access range from adding a trailhead or a new park entrance where feasible, to partnering with an agency to add a crosswalk, or acquiring parkland,” the PROSA report says.
Enhancing accessibility is also about improving the access visitors have to active, “passive,” social and natural or cultural recreation, according to the report, which proposes that the park authority develop parks with limited activities, acquire parkland, and collaborate with other public agencies to achieve its goal.
The objective of enriching habitat connectivity is centered on preserving and enhancing the county’s current and future natural environment.
“Improving habitat connectivity is a critical strategy for addressing habitat loss and fragmentation, a top threat to biodiversity,” the report reads.
The FCPA will identify sites where habitat health could improve, plant trees to bolster area with lower tree canopy, and consider opportunities to improve habitat connectivity when acquiring parkland.
The report commits the park authority to considering “racial and social equity and population density when prioritizing park and recreation needs and projects in order to diminish racial and social inequities within our community.”
The first round of community engagement on the PROSA strategy wrapped up last fall. The virtual workshop for the second round of community engagement is scheduled for July 18 and July 25. Comments through the online survey will be accepted through Aug. 6.
Registration for the online survey and workshops is available on the PROSA webpage.
Additional growth in the Town of Herndon is prompting town officials to consider adding additional capacity to its sewer system.
At a Herndon Town Council work session on Tuesday (July 11), Public Works Director Tammy Chastain told the council that the town is working with Fairfax County to install a new sewer pump station. The project would take roughly two years to design and three years to construct.
Additional development and growth — particularly in the Herndon Transit-Oriented Core and the Transit Related Growth areas — is expected to place more strain on public utilities overall, Chastain said. The town is in the midst of planning ways to accommodate that growth, she said.
“We need to look at our utilities,” Chastain said.
The town is considering two sites for the pump station. So far, officials are favoring a site opposite Marjorie Lane and Herndon Parkway that preserves an undeveloped area and does not require any easements. The location is also further away from historic structures and a swim club, Chastain said.
The area will flow into the Sugarland Run sewer lane.
Chastain said the pump station is needed because the capacity of the regional Potomac Interceptor is maxed out.
The county will share the cost and capacity of the project. The timing of the project is dependent on development, Chastain said.
Pickleball fever has officially taken hold at The St. James, a sports, entertainment and wellness club in Reston Town Center.
The Reston location will now offer two separate outdoor, turf rooftop areas with four pickleball courts, in addition to strength-building and cardio equipment. There will be more than 70 weekly group classes.
The company, which also has locations in Springfield and Bethesda, says the addition of its pickleball club demonstrates the company’s commitment to the community’s needs.
“Our mission at The St. James has always been to exceed the expectations of our members and provide them with world-class training opportunities for growth within sport and in life,” said David Hoye, general manager of The St. James Performance Club in Reston.
The club opened at 11951 Freedom Drive last year. The main facility in Springfield has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, field house, rock climbing wall and other recreational amenities. It also offers 50 group classes per week, sports leagues and numerous camps.
Court use is complementary for members, but non-member rates are $10 for drop-ins and $25 per court reservations.
Visitors to Fairfax County’s website may have noticed that it recently got a digitized makeover.
Going live on Monday, June 3, the website update offers a range of upgraded services, including a bilingual virtual assistant with added Spanish language features and a “more readily available” language translation tool. Plans for the update were announced late last year.
Users can now also access a new email newsletter subscription management platform, giving “County agencies the ability to share more visually compelling content via email and text” and expand their “electronic outreach,” a county spokesperson told FFXnow.
The website’s homepage also got a facelift, focusing more heavily on the county’s Strategic Plan, One Fairfax and data analytics. The updated homepage further strives to foster more community involvement through an Engage Fairfax County portal.
Direct links to popular County services, such as real estate assessments, the PLUS land use and permit database, library access and park classes, continue to feature prominently on the homepage, the county says.
While information, links, site structure and department content remain the same, the county strove to update the visual presentation of the website’s information through “a new color palette and more modern elements,” the county said.
These costless changes were largely driven by feedback acquired from a 2022 public survey, which was used to create a draft design that the county says “received accolades from employees and the community.”
However, since the update launch, some website users have reported experiencing technical difficulties. For some, navigating the website prompted error messages that denied them further access to certain webpages.
“As with the launch of any new design of a website, the traffic to view and use the new site increases, which might have caused users to experience some challenges,” the county spokesperson told FFXnow. “We apologize to our customers that experienced any problems. We will continue to monitor and optimize performance.”
Army Acquisition of Mason Neck Land Halted — The Army had recommended a transfer of 50 acres of public land in the Meadowood Special Recreation Management Area “for long-term usage” by horses in its Caisson Platoon, which supports military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery. Congress dropped the language from its draft defense budget after an outcry from the community. [On the MoVe]
Overhaul of Virginia Education Funding Recommended — “Virginia’s complicated formula for funding K-12 schools needs an overhaul in order for the state to adequately fund public education, according to the results of a major legislative study presented Monday…School divisions receive 14% less funding from the state than the 50-state average, JLARC found, equal to about $1,900 less per student.” [Virginia Mercury]
Nonprofit Documents Black History of Bailey’s Crossroads — “The Springdale neighborhood in Bailey’s Crossroads has long been the center of a flourishing Black community…Julius Smith, who grew up in the neighborhood, is working on documenting that history for a nonprofit he founded called the Black American Registry of Bailey’s Crossroads.” [Annandale Today]
Housing Prices Elevated as Sales Decline — “The Fairfax County real-estate market stayed above the billion-dollar mark in June, according to new data, as the average sales price among single-family homes remained above $1 million.” As of July 11, sales were down 18% from last year, continuing a trend fueled by “a combination of affordability and availability issues.” [Gazette Leader]
County Board Honors Title-Winning Madison Baseball Team — “On Tuesday, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors honored the Madison High School baseball team for winning the Virginia Class 6 state title over Westfield High School. Coach Mark ‘Pudge’ Gjormand and the team were present to accept the board’s resolution.” [Patch]
GMU Adds Pickleball Courts at Fairfax Campus — “Join us Tuesday, July 18 for the Grand Opening of the Mason Recreation Pickleball courts! The event will include learn-to-play sessions, drills, and open play until 9:30 pm. The Ribbon Cutting Ceremony will take place at 12:45 pm by Pam Patterson.” [GMU]
Winning Lottery Ticket Bought in Vienna — “Typically, [George Katan] plays the $50 and $30 tickets, but this time, he decided to buy a $20 Multiplier Mania ticket. That decision paid off in a big way because Katan won the $1 million top prize with the ticket purchased his ticket at the 7-Eleven at 1931 Old Gallows Road in Vienna.” [Daily Voice]
Northern Virginia Businesses Celebrate Bastille Day — Restaurants in Reston and Great Falls are among the local businesses commemorating Bastille Day, the French national holiday marking the fall of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 and the beginning of the French Revolution. “In France, Bastille Day on July 14 is often honored with parades, dancing, and fireworks.” [Northern Virginia Magazine]
It’s Thursday — Mostly sunny, with a high near 95. South wind 7 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. At night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 8pm. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 75. South wind 9 to 11 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. [Weather.gov]
Locals are hunting for Waldo throughout Reston and Herndon this month.
Scrawl Books, a local bookstore in Reston Town Center, has launched a scavenger hunt that challenges individuals to find Waldo all month long at various locations around Reston and Herndon.
The scavenger hunt is a community event organized by Candlewick Press, the publishing house behind the “Where’s Waldo?” book series. Scrawl Books is one of 40 bookstores chosen to take part in the event nationwide.
“The event did happen online in 2020, but was on hiatus last year, and we’re absolutely thrilled that Waldo is back and hiding around Reston and Herndon this July,” said Leah Grover, a spokesperson for Scrawl.
Residents can get their passport stamped at 10 businesses where Waldo is reportedly hiding. Passports are available for pick up at Scrawl Books, the list of businesses, and online.
- Scrawl Books
- Art Insights Gallery
- Reston Museum
- Good Wolf Gear
- Elden Street Tea Shop
- Weird Brothers Coffee
- Lake Anne Coffeehouse & Wine Bar
- Mayflowers Floral Studio
- Reston’s Used Bookshop
- Chesapeake Chocolates
- Cinnamon Tree Dance Shop
- A Thousand Stories Herndon Books
- Pollo Peru
- Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls
- Reston Art Gallery
The scavenger hunt will conclude with a celebratory event at Scrawl Books (11911 Freedom Drive) on July 31 at 7 p.m. The event will include games, activities and a grand prize drawing.
Improperly discarded fireworks from a Fourth of July celebration were the cause of a Herndon house fire that resulted in $371,290 in damages.
The fire broke out around 12:55 a.m. in the 600 block of Stuart Court in Herndon, according to the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.
A dozen people were home at the time of the fire and safely evacuated the two-story house. One individual was treated for non-life-threatening injuries at a local hospital.
Investigators have determined that the fire started accidentally near a sliding glass door inside the screen-in patio, where fireworks were improperly discarded, according to the FCFRD.
“Smoke alarms were present, but activated after the fire was discovered,” the department said.
All 12 occupants have been displaced by the fire, which was one of several blazes that firefighters had to address the night of July 4.
A second house fire in the Fair Oaks area caused a reported $1 million in property damages. The cause in that incident remains under investigation.
Overnight Traffic Stops Coming to I-495 — The southbound I-495 collector-distributor road near Georgetown Pike (exit 44) in McLean will be closed in 30-minute increments between midnight to 5 a.m. today (Wednesday) through Friday (July 14). “Following each stoppage, one lane will reopen to clear traffic before the next stoppage is implemented…These traffic stoppages are necessary for crews to remove overhead roadway signs.” [VDOT]
Youngkin Pushes Early Voting for Republicans — “Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on Tuesday rolled out a web portal aimed at encouraging Republicans to register for absentee ballots and vote early in this fall’s legislative elections, embracing many of the voter-access policies enacted by Democrats in the past few years.” [The Washington Post]
Fare Discount Ends for Reston-to-Pentagon Bus — “Beginning Aug. 1, Route 599 will return to the regular fare of $7.50 per trip. Connector was able to offer Route 599 passengers a discounted rate of $4.25 per trip thanks to a grant from @NoVaTransit. We will exhaust all grant funding for the reduced fare on 8/1.” [Fairfax Connector/Twitter]
Annandale Is Getting Sub and Wings Eateries — “Jersey Mike’s Subs is expected to open in Annandale in early September. It’s located between the future Wingstop and Moby Dick House of Kabob in the new retail center at John Marr Drive and Little River Turnpike. Wingstop has set an opening date of July 30.” [Annandale Today]
Beverage Truck Launches in Mount Vernon — “For just over a month, entrepreneur Eric Danish has been serving up hot and cold beverages from his ‘Caffeine Machine VA’ food truck at The Garden Plot.” Danish previously drove the “full-service coffee and beverage trailer to events in various locations in the Manassas area” until he got Garden Plot’s offer of a permanent site. [On the MoVe]
County Adds Drop-Off Site for Latex Paint — “Due to the volume of LATEX PAINT we receive and current staffing shortages, a temporary disposal location for LATEX PAINT is open at the I-95 Landfill Complex. Please review the location and hours for dropping off at our facilities.” [Department of Public Works and Environmental Services/Twitter]
Library Short Story Contest Underway — “Fairfax County Public Library and the Fairfax Library Foundation invite adults (18+) to participate in our first annual ‘The World We Write’ short story writing contest. Use one of the prompts to write a 250-word story.” The contest will run through July 31, with winners getting notified by August 21. [FCPL]
Local Opera Company Brings Shakespeare to McLean — Shakespeare Opera Theatre founder Dr. Lori Lind’s vision of combining opera and Shakespeare initially confounded participants, but now, “her double dream has become a thriving reality at churches in Northern Virginia.” The company will perform “Much Ado About Nothing” at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in McLean this weekend. [WTOP]
It’s Wednesday — Sunny, with a high near 93. Light and variable wind becoming west around 6 mph in the morning. At night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 74. South wind around 7 mph. [Weather.gov]
The years-long process to overhaul the Reston Comprehensive Plan will take a little longer than expected.
At a Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting today (Tuesday), Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn announced that changes to Virginia’s laws regarding public notice and hearing requirements will push public hearings on the long-running update to the plan into September.
“It’s an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the statutory amendments, but we want the county to move forward on all these matters in a manner that leaves no doubt about the soundness of our public hearing process,” Alcorn said.
Underway since 2020, the Reston Comprehensive Plan update lays out the county’s vision for the 6,750-acre area’s development, touching on everything from transportation to density recommendations for the transit station areas and village centers.
The proposed draft was shaped by county staff and a community task force convened by Alcorn in 2020. During a planning commission meeting in June, some residents criticized the county for releasing a supplement to the draft plan less than 24 hours before the public hearing.
The statutory changes will also affect the timeline for the work of a task force studying development and other related issues in the Reston Town Center North (RTC North) area, along with the approval of Reston’s Site-Specific Plan Amendment (SSPA) applications.
Alcorn said he hopes that the SSPA process will pick up in the fall following the adoption of the Reston Comprehensive Plan.
New rules adopted by the Virginia General Assembly require notices of ordinance amendments or land use applications to be published no more than 14 days before the items are intended to be adopted or passed.
Local boards must take a final vote on items following a public hearing or advertise another public hearing, when action will likely be taken. Notice for those hearings must be published no more than two weeks before the planned vote.
The board must also advertise land use applications or ordinance amendments in a local newspaper no more than 14 days before the items are intended to be adopted.
All public meetings and meeting documents must be posted at least three days before the meeting. Similar changes apply to planning commissions in the county.
The county is in the midst of taking a special look at several major redevelopment applications and land use changes. Other applications throughout the county are being considered as part of a separate work program.
The change allows for more opportunities for public feedback on the Reston Comprehensive Plan, Alcorn said. An additional planning commission public hearing is slated for July 19 before the plan goes to the board for a hearing on Sept. 12, according to Alcorn.
Other processes impacted by the new laws include comprehensive plan updates for the Pan Am Shopping Center in Merrifield, which has been proposed for redevelopment, and special exception applications. Loudoun County and other neighboring jurisdictions were also affected.
Alcorn said the move was undertaken “out of an abundance of caution.”
That means the public will now have at least four more chances to provide input on the plan. Along with the hearings before the commission and board, Alcorn plans to hold a town hall on July 27 at the North County Government Center and a virtual meeting ahead in August ahead of the September hearing.
Alcorn said he plans to distribute a mark-up of the plan before the board’s vote on the proposal.
The Fairfax County Park Authority is asking people to stop fighting with kites.
Last week, the park authority issued a warning about the dangers and harm caused by kite fighting, which is prohibited at county parks.
Kite fighting is an old tradition that has seen its popularity rise in recent years, partly due to the book and movie “The Kite Runner.” It’s particularly practiced in South America and a number of Asian countries, including India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Korea, and Vietnam. The main objective is to cut an opponent’s kite line before they cut yours.
But kite fighting can also be dangerous, since the already-sharp strings are sometimes coated with pieces of glass mixed with glue. Strings prepared this way can cause severe injury or, even, death. Earlier this year, sharp strings killed three children at a festival in India.
The FCPA says visitors could be banned from county parks if they repeatedly violate the kite fighting prohibition.
“The Fairfax County Park Authority has prohibited kite fighting at Fairfax County Parks, citing increasing reports of harm to wildlife, vegetation, maintenance equipment and the inherent risks to public safety,” the agency said in a press release. “Individuals observed to be kite fighting will be asked to stop. Individuals who refuse or repeatedly violate this rule may potentially be banned from park use.”
FCPA spokesperson Ben Boxer told FFXnow that kite fighting has been prohibited in county parks for “well over a year.”
However, the authority decided to issue a warning after getting complaints from community members and reports from volunteers and maintenance crews who are consistently “removing kite string/wire and debris from trees, trails and from our maintenance equipment.”
The county has received a dozen complaints from the community and volunteers in 2023, Boxer said. It also has led to increased maintenance costs with strings getting caught in mowers and other equipment.
“We’ve begun to encounter these hazards at more of our parks within the last 12 months, so this is not an isolated issue,” he said, noting that the issue isn’t confined to a specific park or area of the county.
The park authority has “seen evidence of kite fighting and received concerns from several locations,” Boxer told FFXnow.
Beyond presenting a potential danger to humans, the sharp lines can get caught on treetops and low-lying brush or end up in the water, which can be fatal to wildlife.
“Often, the kite debris and attached string are not recovered and disposed of, leaving a potentially near-invisible hazard for animals and people,” the park authority said. “Park patrons, wildlife managers and Park Authority staff are regularly documenting potential harm to birds, reptiles and other wildlife caught in kite line.”
