Good Thursday evening, Fairfax County. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
🕗 News recap
The following articles were published earlier today — Mar 28, 2024.
- 8:15 am: Morning Notes | 🗣️ Comments
- 9:30 am: Longtime Esposito’s Fairfax patrons launch fundraiser to help owner of now-shuttered restaurant | 🗣️ Comments
- 10:15 am: Pipe replacement will force one-day closure of Fox Mill Road in Herndon | 🗣️ Comments
- 11:00 am: Potomac Yard developer blames Tysons talk for failure of pro sports arena deal | 🗣️ Comments
- 12:10 pm: BREAKING: GMU calls off plan for cricket and baseball stadium at Fairfax campus | 🗣️ Comments
- 1:30 pm: Area auto dealers give donated vehicles to single mothers at Tysons ceremony | 🗣️ Comments
- 2:30 pm: Fairfax County may expand court access with remote kiosks, artificial intelligence | 🗣️ Comments
- 3:30 pm: Fairfax County to clear Reston homeless encampment, open temporary shelter | 🗣️ Comments
- 4:45 pm: Smallest and largest homes sold in Fairfax County (February 2024) | 🗣️ Comments
📅 Upcoming events
Here is what’s going on Friday throughout the county, from our event calendar.
- 10:30 pm: NOVA SCRIPTS–Nutrition
☀️ Friday’s forecast
Expect sunny skies and a high of 59 degrees, accompanied by breezy northwest winds ranging from 11-23 mph and gusts up to 32 mph. The evening will be mostly clear, with temperatures dropping to around 41 degrees. Nighttime winds will decrease to 5-14 mph, and gusts may reach 18 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Here in Fairfax County, real estate is a spectator sport. Let’s take a look at some of the smallest and largest homes sold last month (February 2024).
Largest homes sold
- 9351 Cornwell Farm Dr — Great Falls — $14,750,000 (8 beds | 16 baths | 24,500 sq. ft.)
- 1105 Towlston Rd — Greenway Heights — $3,400,000 (6 beds | 10 baths | 11,950 sq. ft.)
- 6538 Sothoron Rd — McLean — $10,100,000 (6 beds | 10 baths | 10,975 sq. ft.)
Smallest homes sold*
- 4591 Marshall Hills Ln — Lewis Park — $1,800,000 (6 beds | 6.5 baths | 5,197 sq. ft.)
- 4922 Berkshire Woods Dr — Fair Lakes — $1,325,000 (4 beds | 3.5 baths | 5,204 sq. ft.)
- 11587 Cedar Chase Rd — North Reston — $1,425,000 (5 beds | 4.5 baths | 5,282 sq. ft.)
*Minimum home value of $200,000 set to exclude certain land sales, retirement condos, properties with expiring ground leases, etc.
A tent encampment housing between 20 and 35 individuals in the woods between Inova’s emergency room and Sunrise Assisted Living Center in Reston may soon fold.
Fairfax County officials hope to open up a temporary overflow shelter in a government building in the Reston Town Center North area to accommodate the people who’ve been living in the tents.
“No Trespassing” signs are set to go up around the encampment, which is located on county property, in the coming weeks, as the county’s hypothermia shelters close their doors for the 2023-2024 winter season on Sunday (March 31).
The Reston encampment is the largest one in the county, according to Hunter Mill District Supervisor Walter Alcorn. Cornerstones — the nonprofit that runs Reston’s Embry Rucker Community Shelter — and its outreach teams plan to discuss their options with residents as the transition is phased in over the coming weeks.
“It’s really an unmanaged campground,” Alcorn said yesterday (Wednesday) in a call with media. “You know, if you walk through and talk to people, that’s really how its functioning at this point. So, I have concerns about, frankly, the safety of the folks living there now and the personal safety.”
Many details of the overflow shelter, including when it will open and how many people it can fit, remain to be determined, but it’s intended to help wind down activities in the encampment that has occupied the hill for years.
In some cases, neighbors have complained about the encampment, though data on how many police calls have been placed wasn’t immediately available.
According to Alcorn, there have been issues at the Reston Regional Library and reports of break-ins in some of the surrounding communities, but he cautioned that it would be “unfair” to attribute all incidents to the encampment.
Sunrise recently put up a fence around their property, creating a buffer between their property and the encampment.
Alcorn said he asked staff for an “effective and humane” plan for winding down the camp. He emphasized that its future is already in limbo because that property and the rest of Reston Town Center North are slated for major redevelopment. Plans call for a new Embry Rucker shelter and a new library, though an earlier agreement with a private developer fell through.
The encampment first began as a handful of tents but has since grown substantially. Reston Strong, a local nonprofit organization, began offering support to the area, providing food, tents and other supplies.
The organization launched a Neighbors in Tents campaign in 2022 to raise awareness about homelessness in Fairfax County. A temporary tent community was set up in front of the North County Governmental Center (1801 Cameron Glen Drive) as an alternative after the county’s hypothermia and COVID-19 emergency shelters closed for the season.
The organization called for permanent solutions to address homelessness in the county, which saw a 10% increase in people experiencing homelessness from 2022 to 2023. The results of the county’s most recent point-in-time count — an annual survey of the number of people without housing — are expected to be released in May.
Reston Strong says it welcomes the plans for a temporary overflow shelter to assist “our most vulnerable residents,” but it still has “many unaddressed concerns and questions.”
“We have not received answers from the county about when the shelter will be ready or if there is enough capacity for the Hill residents and those already in hypothermia, but we have been told via a letter from Supervisor Alcorn that no trespassing sign will be posted and we are not allowed to set up new tents,” Reston Strong organizer Sarah Selvaraj-Dsouza said. “The Hill will be closed in the near future for the planned land swap with Inova. We are hoping for a timely resolution that meets everyone’s needs.”
Alcorn said the logistics of the overflow shelter are still being ironed out.
News of a plan to clear the encampment comes as the county’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority prepares to implement a $20 million agreement that will provide housing for those in need, specifically individuals with serious mental illnesses.
Starting in May, the county will receive 300 new supportive rental assistance vouchers for residents over three years and three new staff positions to manage the program.
Alcorn says both initiatives are the beginning of important steps to addressing chronic homelessness.
“It’s going to make a big dent in the problem,” he said of the voucher program.
Virginia Psychic Fair 2024
Many of the best psychics, mediums, healers, and readers of all types, along with related arts and crafts vendors from Virginia and the surrounding areas. Besides all types of readings done at tables their will also be related arts, crafts,
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is considering using kiosks equipped with artificial intelligence to provide select legal information in a variety of languages.
The kiosks would feature a virtual assistant that could answer frequently asked questions using a closed-AI system (as distinct from open AI), according to Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, who introduced a board matter on the kiosks at the board’s March 19 meeting.
“The distinction is that we will program the answers to frequently asked questions into the system using curated templates and language,” Lusk told FFXnow. “The AI program will not be creating its own answers.”
None of the questions are finalized yet, but they could help users identify forms and address other process-related queries. The virtual assistant would also be available online, and both resources would have accessibility features.
County and court staff are reviewing the kiosks and online AI program, and the board voted on March 19 to direct staff to finalize its review and report back. The county also plans to reach out to relevant nonprofits to assist in testing the kiosks, Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at the meeting.
The kiosks and online resource would be an “extension” of the self-help resource center that the county rolled out in October, according to Lusk’s board matter. Staff at the resource center can explain court operations, provide contact information for legal services and answer some general questions.
The resource center launched to assist county residents who are representing themselves in court. The new resources could help residents who aren’t able to travel to the center, which is located in the Fairfax County Courthouse (4110 Chain Bridge Road), though no kiosk locations have been selected.
“Personally, I feel it could be beneficial to be placed in government facilities that are remote from the Fairfax County Government Center and the Fairfax County Courthouse,” Lusk said by email, citing the Gerry Highland Government Center (8350 Richmond Highway) or Franconia Governmental Center (6121 Franconia Road) as examples. “We know that people live great distances from the Government Center and Courthouse, which limits the accessibility of these services.”
The board matter passed unanimously, despite a public meeting notice issue that McKay said left some board members without the opportunity to see the kiosks. Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik also said she was concerned about making sure the kiosks were fully vetted before they’re implemented.
The topic will come to the board’s health and human services committee for additional discussion, though the board didn’t specify a date. The committee’s next meeting is currently scheduled for June 4.
Testing the kiosk with actual users and not rushing the process will be important, McKay said, adding that the county should also plan to reach out to the state about support for the program.
“What we don’t want to do is just rush in and further complicate and frustrate people where there’s a misinterpretation and they’re getting the wrong documents that they need to help their case,” McKay said.
Commuting will be easier for four families in the D.C. area, thanks to their new vehicles from a quartet of Virginia and Maryland automobile dealerships.
The businesses handed off the donated vehicles to their recipients — all single mothers — with a ceremony on March 18 at the National Automobile Dealers Association’s (NADA) headquarters (8484 Westpark Drive) in Tysons.
NADA, which represents over 16,000 auto dealerships nationwide, organized the initiative with Vehicles for Change (VFC), a nonprofit that accepts donated vehicles and gives them to families in Northern Virginia and Maryland who need access to independent transportation.
“Every day, our members see firsthand the benefits, opportunities and freedoms a vehicle brings to its owner’s life and family,” NADA President and CEO Mike Stanton said in a press release. “That’s why we’ve been engaged and supportive of VFC for several years and are excited to further embrace their mission this year.”
According to the release, NADA’s philanthropic arm — the NADA Foundation — located the donated vehicles and contributed $5,000 for each of them to cover the costs of refurbishments, repairs and other expenses that came with making them ready to drive.
Though the vehicles were donated, they’re not entirely free for the receiving families, who will each pay $950. They were provided 12-month loans from Sandy Spring Bank, which serves the D.C. region, and got warranties that cover the vehicles for six months or 6,000 miles.
The goal is to improve the recipients’ personal mobility, while also giving them “the opportunity to build their own credit portfolio and enhance their financial literacy,” NADA said.
“Access to a vehicle — by having reliable personal transportation — is paramount to a families’ ability to thrive,” NADA Board of Directors Chairman Gary Gilchrist said at the hand-off. “Not only will the vehicles here today give the recipients opportunities they might not have otherwise, but they also help families build their credit.”
According to NADA, the women who received the donated vehicles in Tysons plan to use them to get to their jobs or college, and to transport their children:
Sport Automotive Group in Silver Spring, Md., awarded a Toyota RAV4 to Candice McNair, a single mother of two daughters and a clerk in Annapolis, Md., who will use her vehicle to pursue her bachelor’s degree in health administration.
Nissan of Bowie in Bowie, Md., awarded a Nissan Versa to Toni Brown, a single mother of a teenage son and a medical secretary in Baltimore, Md., who will use her vehicle to alleviate the financial burden of her daily commute and access medical appointments.
Rosenthal Automotive Group based in Reston, Va., awarded a Nissan Altima to Tammy Carter, a single mother of two teenage daughters and a patient access specialist in Prince William County, Va., who will use her vehicle to decrease commuting time and transport her children to extracurricular activities.
Carter Myers Automotive Group based in Charlottesville, Va., awarded a Kia Rio to Adrianna Boyer, a single mother of two young children and a sales administrator in [Loudoun] County, Va., who will use her vehicle to get her son engaged in afterschool activities.
VFC founder and president Martin Schwartz noted that access to transportation enables people to be more involved with their family and community, in addition to making work, medical appointments and other tasks more convenient.
“This car is not just a mode of transportation; it’s a lifeline that will bring back normalcy to our lives,” Boyer, the Loudoun County resident, said. “Now, with the joyous addition of a car to our lives, I can foresee a positive shift. The ability to go to the grocery store, attend doctor appointments, and respond swiftly to emergencies is a game-changer.”
According to Fairfax County’s transportation data dashboard, the vast majority of residents drive to work, and about one in five households spend over 15% of their income on fuel, maintenance, tolls and other vehicle-related expenses.
Over the past decade, there’s been a slight uptick in households that don’t have a vehicle, from 5.1% in 2012 to 5.7% as of 2022.
(Updated at 4:10 p.m.) It has not been a great week for plans to bring professional sports teams to Northern Virginia.
Just a day after negotiations for a Washington Wizards and Capitals arena in Alexandria officially fell through, George Mason University has announced that it’s no longer planning to build a joint baseball and cricket stadium in Fairfax for the Washington Freedom.
“After hard work and due diligence from the team at Mason, we have concluded that this opportunity does not meet the strategic objectives and interests of our campus and community and the Washington Freedom,” GMU President Gregory Washington said in a statement. “We appreciate the continued feedback and dialogue with leaders across the Commonwealth and with the local community.”
The decision to part ways was mutual, according to a statement from the Washington Freedom, which indicated that it’s still looking to build a stadium somewhere in the D.C. area.
“While we have decided to go in a different direction, we are appreciative of the dialogue and partnership with GMU,” the team said. “We remain committed to working with the broader DMV community to grow the sport of Cricket in the region and to build a multipurpose stadium that will be the future home of the Washington Freedom.”
The university first announced in 2022 that it was partnering with Major League Cricket and Washington Freedom owner Sanjay Govil to study the feasibility of a multi-purpose facility at its West Campus that could host professional cricket matches and college baseball games.
GMU’s governor-appointed Board of Visitors gave university administrators the green light in January to start negotiating a ground lease for the prospective stadium site, which encompass 15 acres between Braddock Road and Campus Drive.
Though the project was still in the planning phase, Mason staff and Govil said at a virtual town hall on Jan. 29 that they hoped to finish construction on a temporary facility that could seat 7,000 to 10,000 spectators by 2025.
As the proposal gained more attention, residents of the area around GMU’s campus began to organize opposition, raising concerns about the potential traffic and environmental impacts, noise and light pollution, and a process they perceived as lacking in transparency.
In a Feb. 7 letter to elected officials, the GMU Board of Visitors and the GMU president’s council, a group of neighborhood associations working together as the GMU Braddock Road Adjacent Community Coalition called for a halt in the stadium project “until a thorough and proper evaluation can be accomplished with all affected parties in attendance.”
“While we recognize change is necessary it also needs to be targeted and sized appropriately to address known university problems with consideration of adjacent neighborhood concerns paramount,” the coalition wrote. “The creation of a commercial zone that benefits some and punishes others on state supported property is an egregious abuse of positional power.” Read More
The deal to bring the Washington Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard is officially dead, and the developer says suggestions that an arena could be built in Tysons instead were the final nail in the coffin.
Alexandria City officials revealed yesterday (Wednesday) that they had ended negotiations with developer JBG Smith, Wizards and Capitals owner Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and other stakeholders for a stadium in the proposed Potomac Yard Entertainment District. About an hour later, Monumental owner Ted Leonsis and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the two professional sports teams will stay at Capital One Arena in Chinatown after all.
After joining Leonsis and city leaders in December to tout the Wizards and Capitals’ planned move across the Potomac River, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lamented that “personal and political agendas” at the state level torpedoed a significant economic opportunity, while the city expressed disappointment in how discussions between Youngkin and the General Assembly unfolded.
However, JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly pointed to a different culprit, claiming that “special interests” seeking to combine a sports arena with a casino in Tysons had “complicated and ultimately blocked” the Potomac Yard negotiations.
Despite our best efforts, this project was unable to get a fair hearing on its merits with the Virginia Senate. It is now clear that our efforts may have been complicated and ultimately blocked, in part, by special interests seeking to move the Monumental arena to Tysons Corner and to combine it with a casino. The Washington Post and other outlets have reported on this scheme and the hundreds of thousands of dollars, enormous sums in Virginia politics, of political contributions associated with it — a large portion of which were directed to key senate leaders. When one follows the money, the implications are deeply troubling for Virginia and for the future of transparency in economic development pursuits, especially those that seek certainty through the now damaged MEI legislative process.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday (March 24) that Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34), hopeful Fairfax County casino developer Comstock CEO Christopher Clemente and political consultant Ben Tribbett, who counts both Surovell and Comstock as clients, had raised the idea of moving the Wizards and Capitals to Tysons instead of Alexandria with Monumental executives.
According to the Post, Leonsis and the other Monumental executives quickly rejected the proposal, which also didn’t appeal to Youngkin.
State Sen. Dave Marsden (D-37), who patroned the ultimately postponed bill to make Fairfax County — specifically a site in Tysons along Metro’s Silver Line — eligible for a casino, says he was never involved in “any serious talk” about combining the casino with a Monumental arena. The idea was “casually talked about” during the General Assembly’s session, which ended on March 9, but he never viewed it as a legitimate possibility.
“I think that was a last-minute thing people threw out there,” he told FFXnow. Read More
Fox Mill Road will be closed at the beginning of next month to allow for a pipe replacement.
Virginia Department of Transportation crews are replacing a drainage pipe, prompting the closure between Pinecrest Road and John Milton Drive in Herndon on Monday, April 1 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Individuals who need to access properties along Fox Mill Road will still have access, but drivers will not be allowed to go beyond the point where the pipe is being replaced, which will be located roughly at 2516 Fox Mill Road near Pinecrest Road.
“Through traffic will be detoured via Pinecrest Road, Viking Drive (Route 5340) and John Milton Drive back to Fox Mill Road. Drivers are asked to follow posted detour signs,” VDOT said in a press release.
After years of enjoying the homey Italian cuisine served at Esposito’s Fairfax, Colleen Lester and her family decided the time had come to give back to the woman behind the restaurant.
So, when they learned that Esposito’s would close for good on March 10, ending a 42-year run in Fairfax City, Lester created an online fundraiser to support owner Maria Esposito. The campaign has now raised $4,100 out of a $20,000 goal, as of press time.
Esposito previously told FFXnow that she was given just two weeks to vacate the building at 9917 Fairfax Blvd where the business had operated since 1982. The property had been sold and is being considered for a Tommy’s Express Car Wash.
According to Lester, the abrupt notice left Esposito with a significant financial burden.
“Since she didn’t have much notice, she didn’t really have time to prepare financially for the cost of moving out of the space,” Lester said by email. “She also wanted to provide some sort of severance for her employees, who all lost their jobs without much warning.”
She will also still need to pay business taxes and any debts resulting from food and equipment orders that were placed weeks to months in advance but then had to be canceled, added Lester’s mother, Brenda Halbrook, who remains in close contact with Esposito.
The GoFundMe campaign is intended to help ease the burden of those expenses. Boosted by multiple triple-digit donations, it will remain open until early July, according to Halbrook.
A native of Fairfax County, Lester says her family was “heartbroken” when they heard that their long-standing favorite dining spot was going to shutter.
“My parents have lived here for the past 40+ years. We have been going to Esposito’s together for decades and are long time customers/friends of Maria’s,” she wrote. “…Our family has been eating at Esposito’s since I was a child and now my kids love going there with my parents (their grandparents) so we are 3 generations of loyal customers.”
Esposito’s was “packed” during its final week of business, and based on their conversations with Esposito, Lester and Halbrook say the restaurant owner appreciated the outpouring of support.
Since the closure, Esposito has been working at the Italian Oven, which is owned by her cousin. The McLean restaurant reopened at 6852 Old Dominion Drive in June 2022 after a 20-year hiatus.
The possibility of a comeback for Esposito’s Fairfax in a new location isn’t out of the question, according to Halbrook.
“The sudden notice to close shocked Maria to her core, but the outpouring of support from her many fairhful customers has been incredibly helpful to her,” Halbrook said. “Maria is a ‘people person,’ who genuinely loves her ‘family’ of customers. Maria would like to open her own restaurant again, if she can get the needed support.”