Public Affairs

Fairfax County Deputy County Executive for Public Safety Dave Rohrer today issued a report on his review of allegations made by Fire and Rescue Department Battalion Chief Kathleen Stanley in her Jan. 29 resignation as interim Women's Program Officer for the department. The review was conducted at the request of County Executive Bryan Hill.

Rohrer examined the specific complaints and allegations made by Stanley to determine whether they had been reported, investigated and reviewed in accordance with county policies and procedures. As part of the review, Rohrer and the human resources director met with Stanley to discuss the allegations and her concerns.

In cases where the review determined complaints or allegations had not been previously reported, they were assigned for immediate appropriate action. In other cases, the review determined that the allegations had already been appropriately investigated by the county’s Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs. Of those complaints reviewed by OHREP, some were substantiated while others were not.

“The county and FRD are committed to making improvements and change to benefit all FRD members, whether uniformed, volunteer or civilian,” Rohrer noted. “We need to acknowledge that change is not always readily accepted and the change process can be hard, but we have to be committed and consistent in our approach. We do need, however, to be more strategic in change management and communication. We must communicate more broadly a sense of both purpose and urgency."

Hill and senior leadership have met with representatives from all 10 of the work groups charged with implementing the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department Organizational Climate Review Action Plan. That plan was created in response to an independent cultural assessment that identified challenges related to leadership, dedication, perceptions of bullying and harassment, hiring and promotions and conflict management.

“The cultural concerns in the Fire and Rescue Department stem from varied issues,” Hill wrote in a memo to the Board of Supervisors. “Our goal now is to understand these concerns as we move our great department forward. As I have begun my tenure in Fairfax County, our ultimate goal is to understand the past to effectuate the needed change for our future as our community deserves our best.”

Related Items

• Report on Review of Allegations from Deputy County Executive Dave Rohrer
• Memo to the Board of Supervisors from County Executive Bryan Hill
• Statement from Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova:
  “I am grateful to our county executive for working to better understand and further address cultural concerns that have been raised within the Fire and Rescue Department. Fairfax County is committed to continuing to move the department forward to ensure a healthy work environment, effective internal communication and equal opportunities for professional development and leadership advancement.”

The Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended approval on Feb. 22 for the proposed, new land use plan that supports walking, biking, and a bus rapid transit system on Richmond Highway.

Commissioners adopted 83 changes to the county’s original draft of the land use plan. More than 70 of these revisions were requested by the 14 community, environmental and historical groups that testified on the proposal.

For the past two years, county officials have been working to update the land use plan for the 7.5-mile corridor as a first needed step towards building the future bus system.

The proposal also supports two future Metro stations along the highway, extending the rail system’s Yellow line to Hybla Valley.

Overall, the plan calls for concentrating more mixed use development, especially residential, within a half mile around the nine bus rapid transit—or BRT—stations. It also envisions new ways to get around, providing continuous walking and bike paths along the corridor as well as the BRT system.

While the total amount of new development proposed isn’t significantly more than the current land use plan, the proposal calls for more residential development. In total, the plan foresees a maximum of 18,000 housing units and 8.5 million square feet in non-residential development.

New, interconnected park spaces are envisioned along the corridor. The parks will be strategically located at each of the BRT stations and distributed throughout the station areas, providing places for people to recreate and enjoy nature and opportunities to reference historic resources through their design. The proposal also features two new, innovative concepts for open space called livability and ecological spines. These spines are continuous park spaces that are integrated with streets and buildings.

Livability spines act as alternative main streets to Richmond Highway, creating destinations for shopping, recreation and gathering outdoors. These spines integrate local streets with pedestrian and bike paths, linear parks, plazas and retail and restaurants.

Ecological spines highlight the streams that were diverted into channels or underground tunnels before modern environmental regulations. Many of these currently hidden streams will be “daylighted,” incorporating them into the street design. These spines could offer boardwalks, seating, gathering areas, trails, fitness equipment and other passive recreation spaces, as well as help make connections to existing residential neighborhoods.

The corridor is home to six community business centers, areas planned for future development.The proposal concentrates most of the future growth into four of these centers: Penn Daw, Beacon/Groveton, Hybla Valley/Gum Springs and Woodlawn. The densest development would be focused in Beacon/Groveton and Hybla Valley, the locations for the two future Metro stations.

Today, the four centers are dominated by suburban retail and strip malls. Under the plan, they would be transformed into places with distinct characters and identities:

• Penn Daw: Encompassing the crossroads where North and South Kings Highways meet Richmond Highway, this center is planned as a transit gateway due to its proximity to the Huntington Metro. It is planned for 2,910 housing units, 2,663 jobs and 915,000 square feet in non-residential development. Buildings will reach up to 15 stories along the highway closest to the BRT station. This center will feature a livability spine on the east side of the highway.
• Beacon/Groveton: It is envisioned as the urban town center and focal point or the entire corridor. Beacon/Groveton is planned for approximately 1.3 million square feet in non-residential development, 4,200 housing units and 3,560 jobs. With a Metro station, the plan allows for an additional 1.8 million square feet in non-residential development. Because it is a town center, Beacon Groveton is planned to have the tallest buildings along the corridor, reaching up to 22 stories closest to the BRT station, taking advantage of the potential views to Old Town Alexandria and Washington D.C. On the west side of the Richmond Highway, a central civic plaza will connect to the BRT station, and this plaza is intended to host large community events like festivals, farmers markets and outdoor performances. The plaza will also link to a livability spine.
• Hybla Valley/Gum Springs: This center contains ecological resources, including streams that connect to Huntley Meadows Park, and a rich historical legacy, including the Gum Springs community. At more than 1.25 miles long, it’s also the longest center in the corridor, and it is planned for three BRT stations and a future Metro station. The center will feature three ecological spines. Two will incorporate local roads and the third will not, primarily designed as a waterway and walking and biking path located between residential uses. In total, Hybla Valley is planned for 2.4 million square feet of non-residential development, 3,400 dwelling units and 6,460 jobs. With the construction of a Metro station, the plan permits an additional 910,000 square feet in non-residential development.
• Woodlawn: Because it located near major historic sites, including Mount Vernon, Washington’s Grist Mill, Woodlawn and PopeLeighey House, this center is imagined as a mixed-use neighborhood and tourist hub. A central feature for this center is a network of shared walking and biking paths that lead from this center to the area’s historic attractions. To support tourism, the plans envisions a hotel with conference center to be located near the BRT station and center’s livability spine. The plan calls for a maximum of 786,000 square feet in non-residential development, 1,020 housing units and 2,281 jobs.

The new land use plan for the corridor must ultimately be approved by the Board of Supervisors. The board is currently scheduled to hold a public hearing on the plan at its March 20 meeting.

The county began its efforts to update to this plan in May 2015, following the board’s authorization to look at land uses within half a mile of proposed BRT stations. The planning efforts were aided by a 13-member advisory group, and six major community meetings and numerous neighborhood meetings over two years to help gather public feedback.

The future bus rapid transit system will run primarily in the median from the Huntington Metro station to Fort Belvoir, and eventually extend to the countyline at the Occoquan River. Buses are expected to run between every six to 10 minutes between the nine BRT stations planned along the corridor.

Embark Richmond Highway is the overall project to revamp the corridor’s land use plan, widen the highway to six lanes along the entire corridor, provide continuous sidewalk and bicycle facilities and build a BRT system.

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A new regional startup census finds that Fairfax County leads with the most of these entrepreneurial businesses in Northern Virginia.

Fairfax is home to 12.5 percent of startups in the D.C. region, according to Fosterly’s 2017 Startup Census. This is not quite double the number of startups compared to Alexandria, the jurisdiction with the second highest percentage in Northern Virginia.

Last year, startups in the county also raised $158 million in venture capital funds, based on census findings.

Fairfax County sponsored this independent study for a second year in a row, along with corporations, universities, tech firms, accelerators, incubators, and local governments.

Fairfax officials said they backed this count because it supports the county’s and region’s efforts to grow the innovation economy.

The census offers granular, localized data and insights about startups. This information is intended to help the ecosystem’s players make investments and policies to expand this economic sector.

The census is one way that Fairfax has been trying to knit together the different parts of the ecosystem, said Eta Davis, Fairfax County’s economic initiatives coordinator. Local government can play an important role as a convener.

Fairfax County is trying to foster more startups and entrepreneurship as key strategy in its plan to grow and diversify the economy. This is vital because startups drive job growth and innovation.

They employ three percent of the nation’s workers every year—yet they account for 20 percent of net jobs created. This finding came from U.S. Census Bureau and University of Maryland economists who examined job growth over a 29-year period.

In 2015, startups created 2.5 million new jobs nationwide, according to the Census Bureau’s latest numbers. Firms that were less than six years old accounted for 27 percent of job creation that same year.

Startups are also critical because they help move the region’s economy away from its reliance on federal spending.

In total, startups generated only 11 percent of their revenue from the public sector, Fosterly’s census found. Private sector spending made up 89 percent of revenues.

While the region is known for its many IT and software companies, the census indicated a growing segment of non-tech startups. Food and beverage companies made 4.9 percent of startups counted while health, wellness and fitness companies comprised 4 percent.

Fosterly’s numbers also point to a possible reason for optimism in the persistent gender gap in the tech industry. Women founded 29 percent of the D.C. region’s startups. This is significantly higher than the 16 percent nationwide, according to Crunchbase’s 2017 numbers.

In Fairfax County, women own 36 percent of all companies, the highest figure in the state.

Fosterly’s is a community of entrepreneurs, creators, creatives, and collaborators, and it works to advance the interests of the region’s innovation ecosystem.

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Fairfax County zoning officials have extended the deadline to take an online survey to provide feedback on its zoning modernization project. The survey is now available until Feb. 14, 2018.

It was previously set to close on Jan. 31, but officials wanted to offer more time for public input.

Dubbed “zMod,” the modernization project will revamp the county’s zoning laws that were first adopted in their current form in 1977. In part, the effort focuses on making the overall ordinance easier to use and establishing new, more general zoning use categories.

To make it more user friendly, the county is looking at incorporating more charts, graphs and illustrations into the ordinance, reducing redundancies in the text and using language that’s easily understandable.

New zoning categories will be proposed to combine uses of similar impact into broad categories for consistency and ease of understanding and implementation. This shift will permit for greater agility, so the county won’t need to make zoning updates to accommodate specific new uses.

The county has hired Clarion Associates, a nationally recognized planning and land-use firm, to lead these two major components of zMOD.

The county held its first meeting community on this effort on Jan. 24, 2018. View Clarion’s presentation, or watch the video of this meeting.

When Fairfax County first wrote its zoning rules for restaurants 36 years ago, fast casual eateries like Panera, Elevation Burger or Pei Wei didn’t exist.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors took action to modernize its zoning definitions for restaurants.

The changes are important because the outdated regulations created challenges for many restaurants that are a growing segment of, and vital to, the county’s retail economy. Fast casual restaurants, for example, have had sales growth that topped 12 and 13 percent nationwide in the last two years, according to Technomic, a research firm that tracks the restaurant industry.

The update simplifies and clarifies the definitions for restaurants and where they can locate, making them more flexible and adaptable to any future changes in the industry.

Until now, the county defined restaurants based on how they operate, using these characteristics to distinguish between traditional sit-down and fast food restaurants. The classifications considered whether employees bring food is to a customer’s table, individual menus are given out or whether disposable plates and silverware are used. Fast casual restaurants have blurred these distinctions, and some traditional sit down restaurants and fast food restaurants are changing their models consistent with this trend.

As a result, the county streamlined and simplified its zoning definitions into three categories: one for restaurants, one for restaurants with drive-through service and one for carryout restaurants.

The zoning changes also removed some of the use limitations. For example, the previous rules restricted the size or number of restaurants allowed in a shopping center based on their square footage, percentage of the building or the number of other uses. These limitations presented an unnecessary obstacle to filling vacant retail space in shopping centers at a time when many other retailers are closing their brick-and-mortar stores.

The new rules also ended the restrictions on where restaurants and carryouts could locate in office districts. The previous rules limited restaurants to office buildings with a minimum of 90,000 or 100,000 square feet depending on the zoning district. By removing this building size restriction, this could help smaller office buildings revitalize and offer existing tenants in those buildings new customer opportunities.

The changes also allow for restaurants to add limited outdoor seating without requiring additional parking like some neighboring jurisdictions. Outdoor seating is important because it helps to contribute a location’s vibrancy, character and sense of place.

To craft it’s new zoning rule for restaurants, county staff and officials sought public input from residents and industry representatives.

The update makes up part of the county’s overall project to modernize its zoning ordinance, known as zMod. Officials are working to update specific, key zoning provisions, like the recent changes to allow greater flexibility to make minor modifications to approved rezonings, and the county just launched its effort to make the ordinance more user-friendly.

Residents are encouraged to attend a Jan. 24 community meeting to learn more about the zMod project, as well as take an online survey that will be available through Feb. 14.

For more information, contact the Fairfax County Zoning Administration Division at 703-324-1314, TTY 711.

The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket will hold a graduation ceremony Thursday, March 8, marking the successful completion of 24 months of comprehensive treatment and supervision by a military veteran.

The ceremony will be held during the 2 p.m. docket in Courtroom 1E, Fairfax County Courthouse, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax. The public is invited. The guest speaker will be attorney Alexis Stackhouse, a U.S. Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel in the Judge Advocate General Corps. Stackhouse was awarded a Purple Heart for wounds sustained during a deployment to Iraq.

“We ask much of our men and women in uniform and they ask little in return. We are ultimately responsible for ensuring that whatever effects they suffer in the mission of defending our nation will be treated,” said Fairfax County General District Court Judge Michael J. Lindner. “It is our goal that they emerge with pride, ready to engage their families and community with the dignity and honor they learned during their service in the United States military.”

Since February 2015, selected veterans have been offered the opportunity to participate in an intensive court-supervised treatment program. The Fairfax County Veterans Treatment Docket is designed to address the mental health and substance abuse issues often resulting from the combat stresses of military service.

Across the United States, more than 230 court-supervised veterans treatment programs have been created in courtrooms since 2008. The goal of these programs is to restore the veteran to the community and the family, capable of facing the future in a productive way without reoffending and without resorting to alcohol or drugs.

The docket is held twice monthly. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Penney S. Azcarate presides over the Circuit Court Veterans Treatment Docket and Lindner presides over the General District Court Veterans Treatment Docket.

CONTACT: Don Northcutt, Docket Coordinator, Fairfax Veterans Treatment Docket, 703-246-2592, Donald.Northcutt@FairfaxCounty.gov, General District Court, 4110 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, VA 22030

Following a recent change to more easily allow empty office buildings in mixed use and industrial areas to be converted into other uses, Fairfax County officials are looking to expand this flexibility to offices in suburban neighborhoods.

To introduce this proposal, the county will hold a community meeting on Monday, January 29, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Fairfax County Government Center, conference rooms 9 and 10, 12000 Government Center Parkway, Fairfax.

At this meeting, county planners will seek public feedback on what kinds of conversions to allow and the criteria and conditions for offices to be eligible for conversion, such as ensuring they are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods.

The proposal would allow vacant or partially vacant offices to be turned into other uses without requiring a site-specific change to the land use plan, known as the Comprehensive Plan. This could give these offices new life as apartments, schools, co-working spaces, maker spaces or food incubators. As an example, a former, five-story brick office building across from the Seven Corners Shopping Center was converted into Bailey's Upper Elementary, the county's first "high rise" school.

Even if this proposal is adopted, most eligible office buildings would still need to go through a rezoning process. This process offers many opportunities for community input, including public hearings before the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors.

Officials want to expand the conversion provisions to suburban office buildings as a way to deal with the more than 18 million square feet in vacant office space countywide.

The Planning Commission is currently scheduled to hold a public hearing on the proposal on March 22, and the Board of Supervisors, which must ultimately approve it, plans to hold its public hearing on May 1.

Last December, the board directed county planners to move forward with this proposed Comprehensive Plan amendment.

A new, modern, resident-focused website is critical for Fairfax County Government’s digital business and informational future.

After many months of work, here is the initial version of a new county government website at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov.

Small businesses can now participate in Fairfax County’s Green Business Partners Program, and they can seek help from the county on ways to make their businesses more environmentally sustainable.

The program recognizes companies for their leadership in sustainability, and it gives environmentally-conscious consumers a way to find green businesses in their neighborhood.

“Small businesses face unique challenges, but there is still a lot they can do—and many already do–to operate sustainably,” said Jessica Lavender, program manager for Green Business Partners. “We want to recognize companies that use green practices and technologies, and we’re ready to offer tips and advice to those who want to get started.”

Small Green Business Partners mirrors the Green Business Partners membership program, and it is designed for businesses located in a home or small leased space.

Businesses that submit an approved application are listed in our Small Green Business Partners Directory.

Green Business Partners is an environmental initiative that was launched on Earth Day 2016.

“It puts a spotlight on companies that embrace green practices, like saving energy or water or reducing waste,” said Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova. “It’s a way to help people shop with their values if protecting the environment is important to them, and we hope it also encourages sustainability communitywide.”

Today, there are 24 Partners in the Green Business Partner Program, including Hilton, MOM’s Organic Market, PNC Bank, Sears and Target. There are three small business Partners as well.

For more information, including how to apply, or to seek advice, please contact the Green Business Partners Program at 703-324-5955, TTY 711, or by email.

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Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers, in collaboration with the Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) and county staff, has released the “Organizational Climate Review Action Plan,” developed in response to issues identified in an organizational assessment of the department completed earlier this year by the Titan Group, a human resources consulting firm.

“This action plan presents the men and women of the Fire and Rescue Department with the opportunity to strengthen our organization. Accomplishing the goals and initiatives presented will take hard work and determination and we will not accomplish them overnight," said Bowers. "However, I know that we are up to the task and committed to making a lasting positive imprint that will serve our department today and into the future.”

The organizational assessment was based on the perceptions of FRD members who participated and it identified five core themes of the department’s culture: dedication; leadership; bullying/harassment/discrimination; conflict management; and hiring/promotions.

The action plan focuses on the organizational climate and cultural change, centered around five corresponding goals: enhancing and sustaining dedication and creating a safe, positive and welcoming workplace environment; enhancing and sustaining effective leadership and professional development; reviewing and enhancing policies, education, training, reporting, compliance and investigative/accountability practices to ensure zero tolerance of bullying, harassment, discrimination and retaliation; developing, enhancing and providing effective human relations and conflict resolution training, policies and strategies; and reviewing and ensuring effective, fair and equitable hiring, retention and promotional opportunities, processes and practices.

The plan is intended to be a “living document” and will require revisions as work progresses.

Preliminary objectives and initiatives have been developed for each goal through a collaboration among Bowers, FRD senior staff, topic-specific workgroups and an Executive Review Committee including Fairfax County Executive Ed Long and Deputy County Executive for Public Safety Dave Rohrer along with representatives from various county agencies including Human Resources, Human Rights and Equity Programs and the County Attorney’s Office.