County Officials Defend Amazon FOIA Deal — “The Arlington government’s top attorney says there’s nothing improper about part of the county’s incentive deal with Amazon that gives the company notice of Virginia Freedom of Information Act filings related to the agreement.” [InsideNova]
Pedestrian Struck in Virginia Square — Police, firefighters responded to a pedestrian struck by a vehicle on Wilson Blvd at N. Oakland Street Tuesday morning. The vehicle was turning and struck the pedestrian, who suffered minor injuries, we’re told. In Arlington, pedestrian-involved crashes like this are common, occurring almost every day, though most — like this incident — result in non-life-threatening injuries to the victim. [Twitter]
Smoke Fills Lee Highway Building — Firefighters responded to an under-construction commercial building on the 5800 block of Lee Highway yesterday afternoon to investigate smoke in the building. It was determined that the smoke came from a malfunctioning HVAC unit. [Twitter]
An art studio for kids along Lee Highway is looking to double in size as part of its new expansion plans.
Art House 7, located at 5537 Lee Highway in Yorktown, is looking for the County Board’s permission to earn the necessary zoning changes to make the move. The studio has offered classes and summer camps on everything from painting to pottery-making since it opened in the space in 2015.
Art House 7 is currently based in a condo complex near the Lee Harrison shopping center, with classes offered on both floors of the small home. But its owners recently purchased an adjacent condo as well, located at 5535 Lee Highway, and wants to expand its operations there as well, according to a report prepared by county staff.
That would allow the studio to double the number of students allowed in the space at any given time, from 12 kids up to 24.
Staff wrote that they haven’t found any reason to deny that request, and noted that both the Yorktown and Leeway Overlee civic associations support the permit changes.
The matter is slated to go before the Board Saturday (March 16), as part of its consent agenda. That is generally reserved for noncontroversial items passed without debate.
So long as the Board signs off on this change, it would be up for review in one year’s time.
A design sketch of the proposed Artis Senior Living Center on Lee Highway.
A design sketch of a new Artis Senior Living Center on Lee Highway.
A design sketch of a new Artis Senior Living Center on Lee Highway.
A new senior living center, perhaps the first to be built in Arlington in decades, could soon be on the way for a property along Lee Highway.
McLean-based Artis Senior Living has filed plans with the county to build a six-story facility with 175 units on a 2.79-acre property near Cherrydale. The building would be divided into two wings, surrounding a landscaped plaza and a new public park near the site, located at 2134 N. Taylor Street.
Artis has discussed the potential of bringing a senior living center to the property with neighbors in Cherrydale and Waverly Hills for close to a year now, but the company (which operates facilities across nine different states) only brought zoning applications to county officials in late November.
“The proposed facility would be the first new assisted living facility constructed in Arlington in almost 20 years,” Martin Walsh, an attorney representing Artis, wrote in a letter to zoning officials. “There is a sincere need for additional senior housing in Arlington. Currently, without sufficient capacity in the county, seniors are forced to look outside Arlington for assisted living. The proposed facility would allow Arlington’s seniors to ‘age in place’ and continue to call Arlington home.”
Artis’ plans call for one wing of the building to be about 173,600 square feet in size, with another at about 152,500 square feet. That would include room for 95 assisted living units, and another 80 specifically set aside for “memory care” patients.
The apartments would range in size from studios to one- or two-bedroom units. The buildings will overlook a plaza with green space for residents, which will sit over top of a partially buried parking garage. That will have about 108 spaces, under the company’s proposal, which Artis expects will be more than enough space for the center’s 50 employees.
The company also expects that close to 30 percent of its workforce will rely on nearby Metrobus and Arlington Transit routes to get to work, and a traffic analysis attached to the plans does not foresee the senior center impacting congestion on Lee Highway.
The new park, designed as a contribution from Artis to the county in order to benefit both the facility’s residents and neighbors, would be located at N. Taylor Street’s intersection with Lee Highway. Walsh noted in the application that a visioning study of the Lee Highway corridor completed in 2016 called for a new park on that site — the document was created ahead of a broader effort to draw up new plans for the entire corridor, which just began in earnest last month.
Once the county signs off this proposal, Artis plans to purchase the property, which is made up of several different parcels of land along the 4300 block of Lee Highway. They were owned for decades by the Courembis family, and neighbors have often debated what might become of them, though the homes on the land now sit empty, according to Arts’ application.
The company is asking for some zoning changes to allow for the construction of a senior center in the area, and submitted this application as a “site plan,” a process that will involve an additional layer of county scrutiny.
The Site Plan Review Committee will now hold meetings on the project and its design. Should it withstand that group’s review, it will need to advance to the Planning Commission and, ultimately the County Board for approval.
Snow Likely Tonight — An inch or two of snow may fall overnight tonight. Snow is also possible Sunday. [Capital Weather Gang]
Clement Running for County Board Again — “She’s been a familiar name and face in local elections for nearly a decade, and Audrey Clement has made it onto the ballot again for 2019. Clement filed all requisite paperwork to run for County Board as an independent, Arlington election officials confirmed.” [InsideNova]
Lee Highway Revitalization Process Chugs Along — “Neighborhood activists… turned out Feb. 12 to execute ‘The Arlington Way’ and put in their two cents on how to create a theme for the multi-ingredient pudding that has characterized Lee Highway since it was so-named nearly a century ago.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Ballston Apartment Project Update — “Saul anticipates substantial completion of its massive North Glebe Road project by early 2020. The $275 million development will include 490 apartments and 60,000 square feet of retail — small-format Target included — across 2.8 acres.” [Washington Business Journal]
Dim Sum Restaurant Closes in Seven Corners — “Fortune is closed for good. Always an awkward space in the middle of the Home Depot parking lot, but I know it was a special spot for many.” [Twitter]
Lubber Run to Become Smoke-Free — Thanks to a change in state law, Lubber Run Amphitheater could be smoke-free by the end of the year. The state has until now prohibited Arlington County from being able to enforce a smoking ban at the venue. [InsideNova]
A map of planned work associated with I-66 widening (via Arlington County)
Renderings of the new bike and pedestrian bridge over Lee Highway in East Falls Church (via VDOT)
Renderings of the new bike and pedestrian bridge over Lee Highway in East Falls Church (via VDOT)
Construction is ramping up on the widening of one of the most congested sections of I-66, and that will prompt some changes on county trails and streets lining the highway.
The County Board gave the go-ahead yesterday (Tuesday) for VDOT workers to relocate some local trails and build a noise wall and storm drain associated with the project. Once it’s completed, I-66 eastbound will boast an extra travel lane between Exit 71 in Ballston and the highway’s intersection with the Dulles Connector Road, long one of the worst traffic choke points in the region (and even the country).
The construction will impact areas along the highway throughout Arlington, however, prompting the Board’s latest action.
Perhaps the largest change is the relocation of part of the W&OD Trail near East Falls Church to a new pedestrian bridge running over Lee Highway, and county officials formally gave VDOT workers permission to start work on that project last night.
VDOT just finalized plans for the bridge this past fall, following a bit of controversy over its design, and hopes to start work on it sometime this spring.
Workers also now have the county’s permission to build a new noise wall near the N. Harrison Street bridge over I-66 in the Bluemont neighborhood. But that wall will block off a portion of the Custis Trail as it runs alongside the highway, and workers plan to create a new connection from the trail onto the bridge itself, according to a county staff report.
Additional construction on the highway widening will also force workers to connect a portion of the Custis Trail near Bon Air Park to an underground tunnel beneath I-66.
The county will also construct “park benches, trail signage, lighting, bike shelter and racks, railing and fencing” along the new sections of the trail, the staff report said.
State officials awarded a contract for the $85.7 million project in 2017, and they’re currently hoping to have the new lane open by fall 2020.
A rendering of possible new development at Glebe Road and Lee Highway (via Arlington County)
A rendering of possible new development at Cherrydale’s “five points” intersection (via Arlington County)
A rendering of possible new development at the Lee Heights shopping center (via Arlington County)
Arlington leaders are starting a planning process to chart out the future of the Lee Highway corridor in earnest tonight (Tuesday), setting the stage for a lengthy debate over how the county allows development along the many neighborhoods lining the highway.
Officials are holding a community kick-off for “Plan Lee Highway” at 6:30 p.m. at the newly renamed Washington-Liberty High School (1301 N. Stafford Street) tonight, giving anyone interested in the corridor’s future a chance to learn more about the process and offer their thoughts.
A group of dozens of community leaders, known as a “community forum,” has already begun some initial discussions on how the process should go forward. In essence, officials are hoping to sketch out a new “area plan” for a five-mile stretch of the highway, guiding future public and private development from the East Falls Church Metro station to the Lyon Village neighborhood near Rosslyn.
The question of how much more density planners allow along the highway will likely come to define the ensuing debate.
Though many shopping centers and apartment complexes sit on the highway itself, most of the neighborhoods just off the roadway are reserved for single-family homes. Officials are now examining a variety of “nodes” on the highway that could someday become home to mixed-use developments or different types of housing, a focus that will become all the more important as Amazon moves in and puts a strain on the county’s supply of available homes.
The future of those shopping centers will be another key concern, as the county weighs how best to transform them to protect existing businesses thriving on the highway while also luring in new development.
Planners also hope to focus on transportation along the corridor, as the county considers ways to ramp up bus service on the highway and make it a bit more walkable as well.
County officials are expecting the planning process to stretch over the next three years, given the size and scope of what leaders will examine.
The Lee Highway Alliance, a group of businesses and other concerned citizens living along the roadway, will hold regular design studios over the coming weeks to accept more community input, with another “public workshop” tentatively scheduled for September.
Bliss Massage recently opened up shop in a small storefront at 5161 Lee Highway.
The space sat vacant for months, before the spa secured permits move in in late January. It sits next to Yorktown Nails and in the same small shopping center as Preston’s Pharmacy.
Though plenty of other massage studios and nail salons in the Northern Virginia area share the name “Bliss,” this spa appears to be the first of its kind. State records show that Bliss Massage Spa, LLC was only formed back in October.
The shopping center has seen a bit of change recently, with a new vape store also set to move in nearby.
A new shop offering up e-cigarettes and other tobacco products looks bound for a Lee Highway shopping center.
Thicker Cloudz Vape ‘N Smoke is “coming soon” to a space at 5157 Lee Highway, according to signs posted at the location.
The shop doesn’t appear to have an online presence of any kind just yet, but county permit records show that its owners first applied for permission to open up in the space back in mid-January.
The store, located in the same shopping center as Preston’s Pharmacy and several other small shops, has seen quite a bit of turnover in the past few years.
County records show that it’s been home to everything from an Indian restaurant to a cell phone store dating back to 2015.
The site of a soon to be rebuilt Taco Bell on Lee Highway.
The site of a soon to be rebuilt Taco Bell on Lee Highway.
The site of a soon to be rebuilt Taco Bell on Lee Highway.
The site of a soon to be rebuilt Taco Bell on Lee Highway.
(Updated at 10:30 a.m.) It seems as if Arlingtonians craving Taco Bell may have a while left to wait for one of the chain’s four restaurants in the county to re-open.
The Taco Bell near Yorktown, at 4923 Lee Highway, shut down back in September as its owner sought to tear down the restaurant and completely rebuild it.
Contractors working on the project had initially hoped to have it open within three to four months. But these days, the only evidence of progress on the new restaurant is a new foundation where the old building once stood.
Managers of the construction project did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the project’s timeline. County permit records show the restaurant’s owners won building permits for the project in October.
The project’s slow progress leaves county residents craving a taco or burrito with just three other options in the county: in the Pentagon City mall, in the Pentagon itself, and along Route 7 near the S. Walter Reed Drive intersection.
A new Taco Bell Cantina, complete with alcoholic beverage options, opened at the end of last year in Alexandria.
The rear of an empty building along 5009 Lee highway.
(Updated at 9:35 a.m.) A new fast food restaurant and hookah lounge looks to be on the way to replace a vacant building along Lee Highway.
All About Burger plans to open up a new location at 5009 Lee Highway, according to county permit records.
The records indicate that a hookah lounge is also part of plans for the roughly 11,100-square-foot space, though it’s unclear if it will be attached to the restaurant, or merely operate in the same building.
The Lee Highway location would become All About Burger’s third shop in the county. The small chain already operates a location in Virginia Square, with plans to open another in the revamped Ballston Quarter mall.
All About Burger has several other locations in D.C., and has a bit of an unusual past.
The company’s owners, Mohammad and Ebrahim Esfahani, started out as business partners with Peter Tabibian to run the D.C.-area chain Z-Burger, and even opened the Virginia Square location under that name.
But a dispute between the company’s co-owners led to a severing of the business — Tabibian earned the right to retain the “Z-Burger” name and still runs two locations in D.C., while the Esfahanis’ restaurants became All About Burger instead.
The eatery offers hamburgers, hotdogs, cheesesteaks and milkshakes, according to its menu.
A new UPS Store looks to be on the way along Lee Highway.
Signs posted at a storefront at 4532 Lee Highway, in the Lee Heights shopping center, indicate that the shipping store is “coming soon.”
The space has sat vacant since Bradshaw’s Children’s Shoes closed back in November 2016. The store was a fixture of the shopping center for more than 20 years, but it shuttered when its owners decided to retire.
