News

New zoning changes make it easier to deliver food, operate shared kitchens

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

In another bid to encourage business growth, the Arlington County Board has made it easier to open shared kitchens and catering and food delivery operations.

On Saturday, the Board voted to amend the zoning ordinance to allow these uses by right in mixed-use, commercial and industrial zones throughout Arlington County. The changes streamline the regulatory approval process for several food-related uses, according to a county report.

“The outcomes of expanding food delivery to a by-right use support small business resilience by relieving businesses of unnecessary work,” the report said. That includes going before the County Board to seek approval for each use.

The changes are part of a flurry of approvals in the last 14 months to allow more uses by-right in these zoning districts. So far, the County Board has greenlit uses such as breweries, micro-fulfillment centers, podcasting studios, indoor pickleball and other emerging businesses to operate where they previously could not set up shop or needed special permission to do so.

All these updates happened in quick succession because County Manager Mark Schwartz debuted a faster zoning approval process that streamlined community engagement. The intent was to help Arlington respond quickly to changing market conditions and, ultimately, tackle the high office vacancy rate.

Food service was the next candidate for an update because, the report says, local regulations treated delivery operations like it was still 1988. (The iPhone debuted in 2007.)

Per the report, the zoning ordinance “does not account for the present-day popularity of modern food delivery services,” requiring food delivery not to exceed 20% of a restaurant’s sales.

Restaurants were relieved of that kind of provision — borne from a concern about delivery vehicle congestion — during the pandemic, the report said.

Food delivery has become a permanent part of how Arlingtonians eat, even after Covid dining restrictions lifted. This new way of doing business was under threat by the expiration of the Covid-era Continuity of Governance ordinance that relaxed delivery regulations.

The changes approved on Saturday, then, came in the knick of time for new and existing businesses, as the ordinance is set to expire in August — meaning the county would have reverted to 1988 delivery standards.

Businesses would have had to obtain County Board approval to continue delivery, had the Board voted down the zoning change. Some already did — Foxtrot in Rosslyn, for instance, went before the Board earlier this year to continue delivering beverages, ready-made food and grocery items.

Saturday’s vote also is helping another player in the app-based food delivery ecosystem: trailer-based ghost kitchens, the kind of which you might see in a parking lot between Clarendon and Courthouse. Ghost kitchen operators will no longer need certain permits to continue cooking.

Shop selling snacks “from all seven continents” opens at Pentagon City mall

By Matt Blitz
1/3

A new “weird” shop specializing in collectibles and snacks from around the world has opened at the Pentagon City mall.

Highs & Lows is now open on the mall’s third floor, across from the children’s clothing store The Children’s Place. This is the fourth location of Highs & Lows, after two stores in Springfield and the original on Richmond Highway in Alexandria

The Pentagon City shop primarily sells snacks and treats from “all seven continents,” per an employee at the Richmond Highway location, while the others focus more on collectibles, antiques, and apparel.

The Arlington location opened late last week, a mall spokesperson told ARLnow.

“Highs & Lows is quickly becoming the weird place you can’t help but love! Come in and bear witness to the wackiest place around! Look up, Look down, Look all around, because if you don’t, you may just miss that one perfect thing for you,” reads a description of the store description on the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City’s website.

It also notes that the store has the “biggest selection of exotic sodas and snacks” in all of Virginia. That includes numerous snacks and candies from Japan.

Highs & Lows isn’t the only small, independently-owned business that has announced its move to the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in recent months. Steel Life Booksellers is also planning an opening at the mall soon.

VHC Health opens outpatient pavilion after some three years of construction

By Hallie LeTendre
1/4

VHC Health celebrated the completion of its new outpatient pavilion yesterday afternoon.

The ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday marked the opening of the $250 million, 250,000-square foot facility at 1851 N. Edison Street in the Hall’s Hill/High View Park neighborhood.

There, VHC Health — formerly Virginia Hospital Center — will provide outpatient surgery, endoscopy, physical therapy, women’s health and imaging, per a press release. There will also be a pharmacy.

Christopher Lane, the hospital’s president and CEO, said during the ceremony that providing these various services makes it easier to coordinate patient care.

“By bringing outpatient services together under one roof, patients can now be conveniently scheduled for diverse healthcare services and can be seen within the same facility, often on the same day,” Lane said.

Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey told ARLnow the ease of getting care will greatly benefit residents.

“This facility will expand the ability for people who need services that don’t require staying in the hospital and getting the most expensive form of care, being emergency services, to get what they need here in Arlington,” Dorsey said. “The pavilion will reduce patient frustration, reduce errors and be a huge benefit to our community.”

State Sen. Barbara Favola applauded VHC Health’s effort to reduce emergency visits for Virginians.

“VHC Health has embraced this mission,” she said during the ceremony. “Our outpatient facility will in fact divert individuals from going into emergency care.”

Discussions of a new pavilion began in 2017 and VHC Health proposed an expansion in 2018. The County Board initially voted to delay approving the project so that the hospital could address the concerns of homeowners who live around the hospital.

The Board narrowly approved the plans two months later and the facility broke ground in the fourth quarter of 2019. Work became a source of consternation for nearby residents, who dealt with about a year of poor water quality tied to construction activity.

The hospital already has plans for a future expansion. Next up could be a mental health and rehabilitation facility on the site of its old urgent care facility, intended to address the strain on private hospital emergency rooms to receive psychiatric patients as well as troubling trends in substance use and mental health among teens.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Working out in Long Bridge Park (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Green Valley Stabbing — “3200 block of 24th Street S. At approximately 10:53 p.m. on June 11, police were dispatched to the report of a stabbing. Upon arrival, officers located the male victim suffering from a laceration and rendered medical aid until the arrival of medics. The victim was transported to an area hospital where he was treated for serious, non-life threatening injuries.” [ACPD]

Cristol Reflects on Final Board Meeting — “Arlington County Board member Katie Cristol will attend her last board meeting Tuesday as she prepares to leave her post next month after seven and a half years in office. The board’s first millennial member, Cristol was just thirty when she first ran for her seat in 2015, with the goal of bringing the perspective of a younger resident and recent renter to the body.” [DCist]

County Board Election Results Plan — “Election officials won’t be able to start the computerized ranked-choice count at least until mid-Friday three days after the election, and could be held up even further owing to matters outside their control. As a result, ‘it’s unrealistic to set a time in advance’ for the tabulation of votes, Arlington Electoral Board vice chairman Richard Samp said at the body’s June 9 meeting.” [Gazette Leader]

Va. Gov., WaPo Ed Board Against DCA Bill — From Gov. Glenn Youngkin: “A flourishing @Dulles_Airport and @Reagan_Airport are key elements in a thriving Virginia. The balanced two-airport system these premier aviation hubs comprise should be preserved and strengthened, not undermined.” [Twitter, Washington Post]

Metro Touts Progress — From WMATA: “On Saturday, 327,000 customers chose Metrorail, making it the highest ridership Saturday since the pandemic! On Sunday, 227,000 more of you rode with us. Trains ran on time an average of 89% this weekend to help make #YourMetro a fast, reliable option to get around.” [Twitter]

It’s Tuesday — Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. At night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60. South wind around 7 mph. [Weather.gov]

Nearly $2.5 million in intersection upgrades approved by County Board

By Hallie LeTendre
1/4

The Arlington County Board has approved a $2.8 million contract to upgrade traffic signals and streetscapes at three major intersections.

During its meeting on Saturday, the Board accepted plans to update Washington Blvd at N. Glebe Road in the Ballston area, Washington Blvd at N. Patrick Henry Drive in Westover, and S. Glebe Road at S. Eads Street near Crystal City.

The contract for the project stands at about $2.4 million with a contingency of nearly $375,000.

The county currently has a traffic signal infrastructure upgrades program in progress, with a goal of replacing all outdated traffic lights and signals, as explained on the project webpage.

For the three latest intersections, outdated traffic lights will be replaced and pedestrian safety improvements will be installed, the staff report said.

The project webpage notes that traffic signals at many Arlington intersections have “exceeded their intended service life” and that new traffic lights will “meet current Federal and County standards and specifications.”

So far there’s no word yet on when the intersection construction projects will begin. Updates will be provided via email lists, a construction letter, the project’s webpage and NextDoor for interested residents, according to the county.

A half-dozen affordable garden apartment buildings near Rosslyn are set to be renovated

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

A collection of garden apartments near Rosslyn are set to be renovated this year.

On Saturday, the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing received the last approvals it needed to repair 62 committed affordable units across six garden apartment buildings in the Radnor-Ft. Myer Heights neighborhood.

These renovations are part of a two-phase redevelopment project of The Marbella Apartments along N. Queen Street near Route 50. Two 12-story, 100% affordable buildings will replace a three-story, garden-style complex north of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall while the other 62 units will be renovated.

These units will get updated windows and façades as well as interiors, new handrails and new wells that protect windows that are level with the ground from soil, known as window wells.

The project had nearly cleared the last design and permitting stages when it was discovered that the property does not conform with present-day Zoning Ordinance regulations, per a county report. That meant some of its repairs, including the window wells, could not proceed by-right.

The apartments were built by-right in the 1940s, a decade before the ordinance was enacted. The buildings now do not meet the ordinance’s requirements for how close a property could be to the street nor parking and density regulations.

Arlington County staff and the applicant argued against trying to make the buildings conform with current zoning rules.

“Bringing the existing buildings into conformance with current parking and setback standards would negatively impact existing units, mature trees, and open space, thus compromising the goals of affordable housing preservation and the historic qualities of the garden apartment property,” the report said.

Instead, on Saturday, the Arlington County Board designated the property with the Marbella Apartments as a “Voluntary Coordinated Housing Preservation and Development District.”

The property joins some eight other buildings in Arlington, the report says. They received this designation between 1992 and 2011.

The Board also approved a related use permit. These two moves allow the planned structural changes to the apartments without making them conform to zoning ordinances.

The buildings consist of mostly 1-bedroom apartments, with some studio, 2- and 3-bedroom units. They are available to people earning a mix of incomes up to 60% of the area median income.

Neither the report nor application materials indicated when renovations would begin.

County Board salaries may reach six-digits over next few years after Saturday vote

By ARLnow.com
Arlington County Board discussing hike in its own salary cap (via Arlington County/YouTube)

Arlington County Board member salaries may top the $100,000 mark for the first time over the next four years, after a vote this weekend.

Board members were paid a $57,648 annual salary as recently as a year ago, though after a series of votes in 2022 and in April the base Board member salary has been increasing — to $89,851 with the new Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

A vote at the end of Saturday’s Board meeting will provide the Board flexibility to further raise its salary, as soon as next year.

The every-four-year vote sets a cap for Board member pay. The unanimous vote on Saturday brings the cap to $119,833 for Board members and $125,460 for the Board chair, a position that rotates annually.

The cap was recommended by county staff, calculated by taking this year’s average median income for Arlington and raising it 3% annually through 2027.

County Board salary pay cap raise (via Arlington County)

Board members spoke in favor of setting the Board salary at a rate that would allow members to live in pricy Arlington without existing wealth or the support of a higher-earning spouse.

“There ought to be at least some modicum of remuneration for the Board work that can attract people who can afford to do these jobs,” Board Vice-Chair Libby Garvey said prior to the vote. “Being at the AMI for a single person is a close approximation.”

Garvey said the new cap is “reasonable” and, noting that no members of the public stuck around until mid-afternoon to speak about the agenda item, “we don’t seem to have a lot of controversy about it.”

While service on the County Board has historically been considered to be a part-time position, member Matt de Ferranti argued that it’s now essentially a full-time position given its various civic and legislative responsibilities.

“This is not a part-time job, and whatever your convictions are politically, it should still not be a part-time job in my opinion,” de Ferranti said. “We need a situation where everyone who has the skills and wants to serve, financially can be able to make it work.”

“I think it’s an important step for governance and the right thing to do,” he added, “so that it’s not just folks who have means who can serve on this Board, which is the history of Virginia and in part the history of Arlington.”

Katie Cristol, who previously expressed reservations about raising her own pay in 2022, expressed some similar misgivings this time around, noting that Board members will be paid around the same as or more then elected Board members of larger jurisdictions like Loudoun County or Prince William County.

Board Chair Christian Dorsey countered that other jurisdictions have district-based representation, whereas Arlington County Board members are elected at-large and thus represent more people on a per-capita basis.

Even if the Board later hikes its salary up to the cap — the weekend’s vote does not increase pay by itself, it only establishes the maximum salary that the Board can set over the next four years — it will still be lower than the Board member salaries in neighboring Fairfax County, population 1.1 million

“We’re not the highest and we’re not the lowest, and that’s probably a safe space for us to be,” Dorsey said before adjourning the meeting.

Local elected official salary comparison chart (via Arlington County)

Power outage and road closure after tree falls on utility lines

By ARLnow.com
Reported power outage along Old Dominion Drive (via Dominion)

A hundred-some Dominion customers are without electricity along Old Dominion Drive after a tree fell on power lines.

The outage is affecting the Rock Spring neighborhood in far northern Arlington, including the area around Discovery Elementary and Williamsburg Middle School. A portion of Fairfax County is also within the power outage boundaries, as listed on the Dominion website.

Old Dominion Drive is expected to remain closed near the Arlington-Fairfax County border for at least four hours, as the fallen tree is removed and the lines repaired, according to scanner traffic.

Dominion lists the estimated time of power restoration as between noon and 3 p.m.

The outage comes as thunderstorms are expected in the D.C. area this afternoon.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Clouds and haze over Westover (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

New APS Redo Policy Approved — “Superintendent Francisco Durán said he has signed off on changes to the middle and high school grading policy at Arlington Public Schools that will allow students to retake or redo assignments and reduce the weight of quizzes or homework on a student’s overall grade.” [WTOP]

Pike Improvements Continue — “Arlington County Board members on June 10 [awarded] a contract totaling just under $35 million to wrap up the final phases of streetscape improvements to Columbia Pike. The funding will support the two segments of the project that currently are neither completed or under construction.” [Gazette Leader]

Slow Go for Rosslyn Commuters — “The situation now appears to be improving after earlier this week Metro riders faced very slow commutes on what were supposed to be ‘express’ buses put in place during a partial shutdown of the Orange and Silver lines in Virginia. As 7News first reported Tuesday, buses that were supposed to save commuters time by making limited stops have encountered major traffic congestion and slowdowns related to numerous construction projects in Rosslyn.” [WJLA]

Beyer Intros Another Helo Noise Bill — “U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) and Donald S. Beyer, Jr. (D-VA-08) today introduced the Reduce Helicopter Noise Act to take federal action that would rein in the growing noise of helicopter flights over American communities.” [Press Release]

County Sells New Bonds — “On June 8, 2023, Arlington County issued $187 million in Series 2023 General Obligation (GO) Public Improvement Bonds. The bonds received a total of seven bids in a competitive sale, with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. submitting the winning bid with a 3.48% average interest rate.” [Arlington County]

‘Temporary’ Lot Back Before Board — “It was November 1983, and those five board members had just approved allowing the owner of a Crystal City parcel zoned for high-rise residential to use it, instead, as a 70-space parking lot on a temporary basis. Thirty-nine years later, the parking lot is still there – and still, 12 amendments to the original vote later, on a temporary basis. Current County Board members on Saturday are being asked to address the matter a 14th time.” [Gazette Leader]

Lexus Driver Rams ACPD SUV — “Someone’s having a bad night. They ran into the back of an @ArlingtonVaPD SUV about 45 minutes ago on Route 50W at Irving Street. No serious injuries reported.” [Twitter]

Police Pride Event Returning — “Engagement events such as Pride with the Police provide a unique opportunity to strengthen these partnerships and hear directly from community members. The 3rd annual Pride with the Police event will take place on: Thursday, June 29, 2023. 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.” [ACPD]

It’s Monday — Showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 8am. High near 78. South wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. At night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 59. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. [Weather.gov]

Parent fight at elementary school graduation ceremony draws police response

By ARLnow.com
Oakridge Elementary School (photo via Google Maps)

(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) A physical fight among 2-3 adults marred a promotion ceremony for fifth graders at Oakridge Elementary on Thursday.

Police were called to the school in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood around 4:45 p.m. for a report of a sizable fight, involving adults and possibly children as well.

“At approximately 4:46 p.m., police were dispatched to the 1400 block of 24th Street S. for the report of a fight,” Arlington County police spokeswoman Ashley Savage tells ARLnow. “Upon arrival, it was determined that adults who are known to each other became involved in a physical altercation during an event at the school. The parties were separated and no significant injuries were reported. The investigation is ongoing.”

Savage said that no children were injured, though medics were dispatched to the school for a child who may have been bitten during the fracas.

An email sent to parents, obtained by ARLnow, further describes what happened.

Dear Oakridge Families,

I wanted to inform you that an altercation occurred between two adults this afternoon during our Fifth Grade Class Promotion. Staff intervened and were able to separate the parties involved as quickly as possible. The police were called to the school to investigate the matter and there were no injuries.

If your children have questions or would like to discuss this matter with a counselor, the student support team will be available all day tomorrow.

A tipster tells ARLnow that the fight might have been a bit larger, involving three women and a group of school staff and parents trying to break up the brawl.

“There was a fight amongst the parents… that got physical resulting in parents on the ground and other parents and staff breaking up the fight,” the tipster said. “Children were crying. Police and EMS were called.”

“This isn’t safe for our children,” the tipster added.

This is at least the second significant, traumatic incident this year for the fifth grade class at Oakridge. An alleged “sexual incident” among two students during an overnight visit to the Arlington Public Schools Outdoor Lab in Fauquier County — which was investigated by local law enforcement — involved fifth graders at Oakridge, according several sources.

Photo via Google Maps

Police investigating man’s death near county offices

By ARLnow.com
File photo

Arlington County police are investigating the death of a man near the county office complex at Sequoia Plaza.

A family member called 911 around 4 p.m., reporting that he was attempting to kill himself, according to initial reports. He was found dead by arriving police and firefighters, in an outdoor area near the Arlington Dept. of Human Services offices and a county-run mental health facility.

“At approximately 4:04 p.m., police were dispatched to the 2100 block of Washington Boulevard,” ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage said. “Upon arrival, an adult male was located deceased. ACPD is conducting a death investigation and based on the preliminary investigation, the death does not appear suspicious and there is no apparent ongoing threat to the public. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine cause and manner of death.”

A ramp between Washington Blvd and Route 50 was closed during part of the investigation.

If you or someone you know is in immediate danger of self-harm, call 911. You can also call the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, Arlington Dept. of Human Services’ emergency services line at 703-228-5160, or CrisisLink at 703-527-4077.

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