Public Affairs

News Highlights

• County receives 2017 Governor's Technology Award for efficient, innovative use of big data and analytics.
• County's Democratizing Open Data program makes open data more useful to the public through infographics.
• This program was also honored in July at the National Association of Counties 2017 Achievement Awards.

Fairfax County has been honored again for innovation with the 2017 Governor's Technology Award for innovative use of big data and analytics in recognition of the county's Democrating Open Data program, which aims to make open data more accessible to the public. Receiving the award on behalf of Fairfax County were Chief Technology Officer and Department of Information Technology Director Wanda Gibson and Anne Cahill, manager of economic, demographic and statistical research.

Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson and Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth Nelson Moe presented the award on behalf of Governor Terry McAuliffe at a special ceremony at the Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) in Richmond on Sept. 6.

“Every year, our Virginia agencies and localities receive national recognition for their innovative use of IT,” said Jackson. The Governor’s Technology Awards program recognizes public sector information technology (IT) projects that have improved government service delivery and efficiency. Winners are determined by a panel of government IT experts.

The primary goal of the county's Democratizing Open Data program is to make open data usable through powerful, yet intuitive, interfaces. County businesses, community based organizations and residents often seek information to inform them about demographic and economic changes occurring in Fairfax County.

The Democratizing Open Data program helps to bridge these gaps by working in tandem with conventional open data portals to provide selected data in a more user-friendly format. Many users do not have the expertise to extract and interpret the information they need from large open data files.

Interactive data visualizations enhance the ability of county staff, residents, community organizations and businesses to:

• Understand patterns, trends and challenges.
• Plan for service needs, programs and facilities.
• Evaluate services and programs.
• Obtain customized data for the purposes of business development, policy making and grant writing.

Cahill shares that "the Democratizing Open Data program has helped create efficiencies by putting more current and comprehensive information into the hands of our managers and program planners. The applications have been built to make updating the data extremely resource efficient while enabling users to retrieve publicly available information by themselves." 

In addition to an interactive demographic mapper, available interactive data visualizations include:

More Information:

• Demographics Unit
• GIS Open Data
• Transparency Portal
• Fairfax County Awards

News Highlights

• Columbia Crossroads will bring up to 370 apartments to mid-rise building at the corner of Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue, helping to revitalize this area in Bailey's Crossroads.
• The approved rezoning allows for the apartments, three townhomes and a possible county office building.
• The county’s existing Bailey's Crossroads Community Shelter will remain until October 2019 when  a new permanent shelter opens at a commercial property a quarter mile away.

About a year ago, it looked likely that Bailey’s Crossroads would see a 375-unit apartment complex erected at Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue.

However, developer Avalon Bay withdrew its application last year, leaving the site’s revitalization uncertain. The vision became a reality today when similar plans by the site’s new developer Weissberg Corporation were approved.

The Board of Supervisors signed off on their rezoning application on Tuesday, along with conceptual development plans. The rezoning covers a 7.39-acre plot that includes property owned by the corporation and the county, and it allows for up to 370 apartments or condos, three townhouses and a possible county office building.

 “The Columbia Crossroads development has been a long time coming, but a thoughtful, patient community process produced a proposal - new housing, transportation connections, and a future office building - that will be a vibrant addition to historic Bailey's Crossroads, an extraordinarily diverse area of Mason District and Fairfax County,” said Supervisor Penny Gross.

 While the development plans are still conceptual, they call for a single, multi-family building at the corner of Columbia Pike and Moncure Avenue. It would feature a “donut” design, wrapping itself around a parking garage and an open space ‘court yard’ in the center. About 43 of the total units would be provided as workforce housing.

 The plans also allow for street-level retail or restaurant option, and the developer also has possibility to include an independent or assisted living facility in the building.

 Just south of the new apartment or condo, the overall development could include three, townhouses with two-car garages and driveways.

The approved plans also offer an option to add three additional units in its multi-family building instead of building the townhomes. In this instance, the location for the townhomes would become open space.

The future apartment or condo building would rise up on the site where the county’s Bailey’s Crossroads Community Shelter sits today. Under a real estate deal the board approved in March, the county will exchange this land for an adjacent 1.49-acre property owned by the developers.

 As a key part of the approval, the existing shelter will remain open until October 2019 and when a new permanent shelter is built on a commercial property a quarter mile away at 5914 Seminary Road. This property was the site for an old vet clinic that has been demolished to make way for the new 52-bed shelter and transitional housing facility that’s expected to begin construction spring 2018.

The rezoning also allows the county to use its property that’s next to the future apartments to develop an 180,000 square-foot office building. 

However, the board’s zoning approval allows the office building to include other uses too, including a child care center, independent living facility, medical office, restaurant, retail, bank and a public park.

The potential office would be located on a site that includes Landmark Atlantic’s aging office building. The county bought this property last week for $6.3 million, as the initial step of realigning Seminary Road envisioned by the Comprehensive Plan and to allow for development of the entire site in a more comprehensive, cost effective manner.  With the Landmark parcel, the county’s holdings will total approximately 2.76 acres.  The county will tear down the existing office building to leave an open site for sale or future development.

The overall development plans include building out a local street grid that will help spur future revitalization efforts in the area, especially from Center Lane to the southeast. The plans will create two new roads, including a future connection to Seminary Road.

Developer Weissberg will build a new public road that will run parallel to Columbia Pike off of Moncure Avenue. This street will be south of its new residential building, and it will eventually be extended along to intersect with a future road the county will build to connect to Seminary Road.

A new private road that runs north to south will also be constructed, helping to carve the developer’s and county’s properties into two distinct blocks.

Before Weissberg can move forward, it still must get approval on its final development plans which it expects to submit to the county in 2018 or 2019.

This project supports the county’s strategic Economic Success Plan, which calls for creating higher density developments in revitalization areas and realizing the value on county land. The future development will be located in the heart of the revitalization district for Baileys Crossroads.

The economic plan also seeks to use public-private partnerships, like this joint-venture, to maximize the return on investment potential for all county assets, including land and facilities, by leveraging partnership opportunities with both private and public partners to construct and operate infrastructure and facilities throughout the county.

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There are an estimated 80,000 military veterans who live in Fairfax County, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Their service to our nation ranges from World War II to the conflicts in today’s news. We provide and support a number of veterans services and programs.

At its meeting today, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors appointed nine members to serve on the Police Civilian Review Panel. The panel was established by the board in December to serve as another way for residents to submit complaints concerning allegations of abuse of authority or misconduct by a Fairfax County police officer.

Appointed to serve were:

• Hansel Aguilar, Fairfax
• Kathleen Davis-Siudut, Springfield
• Steve Descano, Springfield
• Hollye Doane, Oakton
• Douglas Kay, Fairfax
• Randy Sayles, Oak Hill
• Jean Senseman, Lorton
• Adrian Steel, McLean
• Rhonda Vanlowe, Reston

All panel members are Fairfax County residents and have some expertise and experience relevant to the panel’s responsibilities. More details about the individual members can be found on Board of Supervisors Chairman Sharon Bulova's announcement about the panel.

“The Police Civilian Review Panel will act as an independent portal for residents to submit concerns or complaints regarding the county’s Police Department, and will serve to promote further transparency and openness in community policing,” said Bulova.

Panel members will serve three-year terms with a two-term limit, although some inaugural members will serve for less time to allow for staggered terms.

The panel will have the authority to request and review completed Police Department internal administrative investigations regarding a civilian complaint against an officer. It may also hold public meetings to review police administrative investigations and walk through with members of the community how the investigation was conducted, including findings of fact, evidence collected and witness statements.

"This is a fantastic group of diverse Fairfax County residents,” said Braddock District Supervisor John C. Cook, who is chair of the board's Public Safety Committe. “Our residents can have added confidence in our police knowing that this highly qualified group of people will be providing civilian review in a constructive fashion that will help our excellent police force become even more responsive to community concerns.”

The Civilian Review Panel was a key recommendation of the Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission, which delivered 202 recommendations in November 2015.

In recognition for his years of exemplary community and volunteer work in Fairfax County, Robert "Bob" Meredith was honored by the Board of Supervisors with the 2017 Barbara Varon Volunteer Award during its meeting October 24. The award, named to honor the memory of Barbara Varon, former chairman of the Fairfax County Electoral Board, was established to recognize a Fairfax County resident’s dedication to improving the community through volunteer service.

This year’s Barbara Varon Volunteer Award recipient was nominated by The League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area. Mr. Meredith joined the League in 2015 and has been very involved in leading voter registration and education booths in the county. Last year, Bob oversaw and participated in more than 35+ voter drives. As a Fairfax County resident, Bob demonstrated a strong appreciation for the diversity of our community’s population, and because of his fluency in Spanish, he has assisted non-English speaking citizens from Hispanic communities with voter registration and election education throughout the county.

This year, Bob became the Voter Registration Chair, which requires hundreds of volunteer hours. Bob has already led two voter registration training sessions at the Packard Center for 40 new League members and will host and oversee many more in the future.

For more information, contact the Office of Human Rights and Equity Programs at 703-324-2220.

News Highlights

• Board of Supervisors can approve a lower rate when it adopts the budget, but not a higher rate.
• Public hearings on budget and tax rate begin Tuesday, April 4.
• Residents are encouraged to attend the Board of Supervisors’ Town Hall meetings

Resources

• Proposed FY 2018 Budget Information
• Information on Real Estate Tax assessments
• Real Estate Tax Calculator

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors authorized advertisement of a real estate tax rate for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 of $1.13 per $100 of assessed value, which is the current FY 2017 rate.

Advertising an increase in the rate does not prevent the board from lowering any advertised tax rate, but a higher tax rate cannot be imposed without advertising the higher rate.

The value of a penny on the Real Estate Tax Rate is $23.75 million in FY 2018.

Public hearings on the proposed FY 2018 Budget and tax rate are held in the Fairfax County Government Center Board Auditorium:

1. April 4, 4 p.m.
2. April 5, 1 p.m.
3. April 6, 1 p.m.

Those wishing to speak at a public hearing can sign up online  to place their name on the speakers list or contact the Office of the Clerk to the Board at 703-324-3151, TTY 703-324-3903. The public hearings will be held in the Board Auditorium, Fairfax County Government Center and will be shown live on Fairfax County Government Channel 16. Email your feedback and comments to dmbinfo@fairfaxcounty.gov through mid-April. (Please note that due to the volume, individual responses will not be possible).

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