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Open Houses in Arlington This Weekend

Published May 15, 2015 at 12:00PM

We’ve hit the halfway point of May and Arlington is experience its biggest real estate week of the year to this point. Happy hunting.

See our real estate section for a full listing of open houses. Here are a few highlights:

2598 S. Arlington Mill Drive
2 BD / 1 1/2 BA condominium
Agent: Debbie Kent, Cottage Street Realty
Listed: $389,500
Open: Sunday, May 17, 1:00 to 4:30 p.m.

3105 S. Grant Street
3 BD / 1 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Christopher Thomas, Long & Foster Real Estate
Listed: $739,900
Open: Sunday, May 17, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

1105 N. Fillmore Street*
3 BD / 3 1/2 BA townhouse
Agent: Ronald Cathell, Keller Williams Realty
Listed: $1,024,900
Open: Saturday, May 16, 1:00-4:00 p.m.; Sunday, May 17, 1:00-4:00 p.m.

4504 38th Street N.*
5 BD / 3 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Kathleen Fong, Keller Williams Realty
Listed: $1,400,000
Open: Sunday, May 17, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

6506 36th Street N.*
6 BD / 6 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Robert Ferguson, Re/Max Allegiance
Listed: $1,599,900
Open: Sunday, May 17, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

4066 Lorcom Lane*
5 BD / 4 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Elizabeth Twigg, McEnearney Associates
Listed: $1,699,000
Open: Sunday, May 17, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

*Denotes featured (sponsored) listing

#open house

FAA: Arlington, D.C. is a ‘No Drone Zone’

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 15, 2015 at 10:00AM | Updated May 15, 2015 at 10:40AM

(Updated at 10:30 a.m.) Arlington is a “No Drone Zone,” the Federal Aviation Administration is reminding residents and visitors.

The FAA launched a public outreach campaign this week to try to stop the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in the federal restricted airspace around D.C. It comes as a man was detained for flying a drone near the White House for the second time this year.

The area within a 15-mile radius of Reagan National Airport is restricted airspace, and all aircraft must get approval, even the small, remote-controlled kind.

“Anyone visiting the DC area should leave their drone at home,” FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a press release. “We want to make sure everyone knows and understands the rules about flying in the National Capital Region.”

The FAA says the D.C. region’s airspace is the most restricted in the county. It’s been tightly controlled since Sept. 11, 2001. Now, the new campaign is aimed at reminding residents and visitors of the area that nothing has changed.

The FAA is rolling out a GPS-enabled smartphone app that tells users when they are out of restricted airspace. They will also be providing materials to local jurisdictions — including Arlington, which sits entirely within the “No Drone Zone” — to educate their residents on the policy.

Image via the FAA

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published May 15, 2015 at 9:00AM

‘Hula Girl’ to Open Shirlington Restaurant — The founder of the Hula Girl food truck, which specializes in Hawaiian style food, will be opening a new brick-and-mortar restaurant in the former Aladdin’s Eatery space in Shirlington. Mikala Brennan says Shirlington is “a very friendly place for families and dogs and everyone, and I always thought it’d be a great fit for what I do.” [Eater]

Bike to Work Day is Today — Hundreds of people stopped by the half-dozen Arlington pit stops for Bike to Work Day this morning. Among them were Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and a guy on an old-timey penny farthing.

Candidates Want Manager to Live in Arlington — The candidates for Arlington County Board said they would like Arlington’s next county manager to live in Arlington. Retiring county manager Barbara Donnellan lives in Clifton, Va. [InsideNova]

Arlington Names Jay Farr Chief of Police

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 14, 2015 at 3:30PM

The Arlington County Police Department now has a permanent replacement for retired Chief Doug Scott.

Arlington County Manager Barbara Donnellan announced today that acting chief Jay Farr will ascend to the permanent job after serving in Scott’s stead since March. Farr has previously served as deputy county manager and deputy chief of police for systems management, operations and criminal Investigations, and has served in the ACPD since 1990.

“Jay has demonstrated a commitment to excellence during his more than two decades in Arlington,” Donnellan said in a press release. “He brings strong leadership skills, an outstanding professional background, and a true passion for connecting communities with law enforcement. He is the right man to lead the department into the future.”

Donnellan said she conducted a nationwide search, but determined the right person for the job already had it. Farr is a former U.S. Marine who served on the presidential helicopter detail before becoming a police officer.

“I am honored at the opportunity to lead this great department and will maintain an unwavering commitment to community policing,” Farr said in the release. “I strive to instill a sense of teamwork with our communities, officers and regional law enforcement partners.”

In addition to leading the county’s police, he’s also teaching future officers: he’s an adjunct professor of criminal justice at George Mason University and teaches for the University of Phoenix.

Photo via Arlington County

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published May 14, 2015 at 9:15AM

TargetExpress Coming to Rosslyn — A new 23,000-square-foot TargetExpress store is coming to Rosslyn. Located at 1500 Wilson Blvd, the store will have an in-house Starbucks, a pharmacy, a technology and mobile phone section and will carry clothing, groceries and prepared foods. Also coming to 1500 Wilson Blvd: a District Taco restaurant and a Wells Fargo bank branch. [Washington Post, Washington Business Journal]

Little Saigon Remembered — A master’s student at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia campus recounts Clarendon’s former identity as “Little Saigon,” thanks to the immigration of Vietnamese refugees following the end of the Vietnam War. As a project, the student has created a self-guided walking tour of Clarendon in connection with the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. [Preservation Arlington]

Victory for Yorktown Coding Team — The Yorktown High School Coding Club celebrated a big win at the Microsoft Imagine Cup U.S. National Finals in San Francisco last month. The team placed first in the competition’s “World Citizenship” category. [Arlington Connection]

Photo courtesy Peter Rof / Alt Globo MediaWorks LLC

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published May 13, 2015 at 9:15AM | Updated May 13, 2015 at 9:34AM

NORAD Flyover Exercise Tonight — NORAD will conduct a flyover exercise tonight that may be noticed by Arlington residents. The exercise will take place between midnight and 2:00 a.m. [Twitter]

Bean Kinney Attorney’s Attack Detailed in Court — In court testimony in Fairfax County, attorney Leo Fisher and his wife, Susan Duncan, described the vicious home invasion attack allegedly carried out by the husband of an attorney Fisher fired at the Arlington law firm of Bean, Kinney & Korman. Fisher said the man “slit my throat” and Duncan described being stabbed repeatedly in the upper body and being nearly shot in the head. [Washington Post]

No ‘Real Solution’ Yet for Pike Transit — An urban design and transportation writer is alleging that Arlington County Board member John Vihstadt has yet to propose an effective alternative to the planned Columbia Pike streetcar system he helped to scuttle. [Greater Greater Washington]

More School Board Endorsements — In the race for the Democratic endorsement for Arlington School Board, candidates have picked up some key endorsements in the past week. Former School Board member and current County Board member Libby Garvey says she’s endorsing Sharon Dorsey, as is former School Board member Frank Wilson. Reid Goldstein, meanwhile, has picked up the endorsements of County Board Chair Mary Hynes and former School Board member Ed Fendley.

Flickr pool photo by Alves Family

Construction Closes Half of Costco Parking Lot

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 12, 2015 at 3:35PM

Construction walls off about half of the Costco Pentagon City parking lot

Satellite image of the Costco surface lot and largely vacant roof parking lot (photo via Google Maps)

Pentagon City residents are worried about the potential for nightmare traffic and parking woes now that a large portion of the busy Costco parking lot off S. Fern Street has been blocked off for construction.

About half of the parking spaces in Costco’s surface parking lot have been fenced off over the past day or so. Kimco — which owns the Pentagon Centre big box mall and its parking lot — is beginning construction on a seven-story parking garage at the corner of 15th Street S. and Fern Street.

When the parking garage is complete, it’s expected to provide 394 spaces and include 5,919 square feet of ground floor retail as part of a larger development plan. About 260 parking spots were blocked off yesterday, according to George Ronetz, the general manager of Federal Parking, which manages the lot.

The lot will be blocked off until October, Ronetz said, after which time construction crews will repave and reopen it to accommodate the holiday shopping season. In May 2016, construction will resume on the new structure and that portion of the lot will close again.

Shoppers and area residents may worry about a “Costcopocalypse” — the lot is usually packed on evenings and weekends — but Ronetz said he will have staffers direct cars to the parking garage next to the Costco, which has about 520 spaces.

“There’s ample parking spaces, it’s just a matter of parking in a different area,” Ronetz told ARLnow.com today.

Of course, whether drivers who frequent Costco and its notorious parking lot listen to Ronetz and his staff remains to be seen.

“I was literally standing on the street today encouraging people to park in the garage on the roof, and people will flip me off and say ‘No, I will park where I want to park,'” he said. “I’ve been out there personally and have been hit by cars because I’m trying to show a little old lady a place to park and out of nowhere a car hits me in the leg and knocks me down.”

The parking garage has two entrances, off 12th Street and the Fern Street lot. Customers can either park on the roof or a level below it.

BREAKING: Building Catches Fire on Columbia Pike

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 12, 2015 at 10:30AM | Updated May 12, 2015 at 11:39AM

(Updated at 11:40 a.m.) A two-story building on the 2700 block of Columbia Pike caught fire at about 10:00 a.m. Tuesday.

The building, the headquarters of High Sierra Pools and former location of Ski Chalet, was safely evacuated, according to scanner traffic and company employees on the scene. Forty minutes after the fire was first reported, firefighters have contained it. Smoke stopped coming out of the building at around 10:40 a.m.

Fire and rescue crews from Fairfax and Alexandria joined the Arlington County Fire Department to battle the flames. The Pike is shut down from S. Walter Reed Drive to Barton Street to accommodate the large response, and ACFD Capt. David Santini expects it to be shut down past noon.

Santini said High Sierra Pools employees smelled smoke and called 911 at 10:05 a.m. When fire crews arrived, they found the fire had originated in the space between the roof and the second floor ceiling.

“We called a second alarm because of the intense work needed to gain access to the roof,” Santini said. “There were heavy fire conditions and we had to tear up several sections to gain ventilation.”

So far, Santini said there’s no estimate on the damage to the building, and inspectors are conducting an investigation to determine the fire’s cause.

The building’s exterior, from the street, looks largely unaffected by the fire, save for a few scorch marks on the roof.

County Could Pay $14.2 Million for New ART Bus Facility

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 12, 2015 at 10:00AM | Updated June 4, 2018 at 4:43PM

This Saturday, the Arlington County Board could take a large step toward solving one of its pressing issues: transportation facility space.

The County Board will vote on a $14.2 million contract to build a new facility to store and maintain Arlington Rapid Transit (ART) buses on S. Eads Street in Crystal City, right next to the current bus facility already there.

The site, at 3201 and 3175 S. Eads Street, would include a two-story building, a bus wash bay, a light maintenance bay, storage and parking and four compressed natural gas fueling stations.

“Services currently provided by ART are limited by a size-constrained storage facility that provides no capability for on-site fueling or light vehicle maintenance,” the staff report reads. “The construction of the ART Bus Facility will improve transit facilities, reduce costs, and increase utilization of mass transit services in the County, and assist with the integration of transit facilities into surrounding communities.”

In a separate County Board agenda item, county staff proposes to eliminate 32nd Street S. between Jefferson Davis Highway and S. Eads Street, which would allow two existing ART bus lots to be connected. The county has purchased, or already owns, the land on either side of the street, and transportation staff has determined “the Abandoned Street is no longer needed to provide public access from Jefferson Davis Highway to South Eads Street.”

The total cost of the new facility is estimated at $17.6 million, $5 million more than the county had budgeted in the 2015-2024 Capital Improvement Plan. County staff said that discrepancy was caused by a revised site concept with added capability for maintenance and fueling, roadway improvements to Route 1 and S. Eads Street and the increasing price of construction materials in the region.

The county plans on covering the funding gap using $1.3 million in state funding and $3.7 million through a rebalancing of ART budgets and dipping into contingency funds.

Once approved and built, the new facility is expected to save the county $57,000 a year thanks to ART buses no longer needing to use a nearby WMATA fueling and washing facility.

Photo via Google Maps

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published May 12, 2015 at 8:30AM

Renderings of Proposed Ballston High-Rise — Ahead of Wednesday’s Arlington Site Plan Review Committee meeting, developers Lionstone and Penzance have released new renderings of the 22-story, 330-unit apartment tower they’re proposing to build on the Carpool site in Ballston. The tower is sleek metal and glass, with a retail pavilion on the ground floor. In a second phase, the developers are proposing to replace an aging, adjacent office building with another 22-story, 362-unit residential building. [Washington Business Journal]

Free Cone Day at Haagen-Dazs — The Haagen-Dazs store at Pentagon City mall is offering free ice cream today from 4:00-8:00 p.m. as part of the company’s nationwide Free Cone Day. [Facebook]

Coalition for Minority Affairs Honors Students — Eighty-seven African and African-American Arlington Public Schools students were honored last week by the Civic Coalition for Minority Affairs. The Northern Virginia group “endeavors to foster high academic achievement through its annual awards ceremony.” [Arlington Public Schools]

County Board Mulls Higher Parking Meter Rates, Longer Hours

By Ethan Rothstein

Published May 11, 2015 at 2:05PM

Parking in Arlington could get more expensive this fall if the Arlington County Board approves a staff proposal On Saturday to raise rates and extend hours of parking meters in the county.

If the County Board votes in favor of the motion, meter rates will go from $1.25 to $1.50 an hour, while hours will be extended from 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m.-8:00 p.m. County transportation staff estimates the measures would generate an additional $1.6 million in combined revenue in FY 2016.

The changes would go into effect on Sept. 7, 2015.

“County fees are intended to recover the costs of the respective programs,” staff report reads. “The proposed increase in parking meter rates and the proposed extension of hours will cover more of the costs for providing, administering, and maintaining curb-side metered parking spaces than is presently the case, thereby reducing the subsidy currently being provided by General Fund revenues.”

The 181 metered spaces in the county that currently cost 50 or 75 cents an hour would not be affected by the change. Raising the rates, according to the staff report, would bring Arlington more in line with the rest of the region. The District charges $2 an hour in most locations, Alexandria charges $1.75 an hour in most spaces and Bethesda charges $2 for on-street parking, $1.25 for public lots.

If the County Board elects to extend the hours of meters and keep rates flat, it would still provide the county an extra $550,000 in revenue in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.