(Updated at 1 p.m.) An out-of-control driver’s flipping car nearly struck another driver overnight near Columbia Pike.
The crash happened around 1 a.m. this morning on S. Glebe Road, a few blocks north of the Pike, on the border of the Alcova Heights and Arlington Heights neighborhoods.
Sparks fly as the car crosses the center median and rolls over before apparently coming to rest upright.
A driver heading northbound narrowly avoids the crashing vehicle as it crosses over from the southbound lanes. Local public safety watcher Dave Statter posted a video (below) of the near-miss later Monday morning.
“No indications of injuries,” Statter noted.
Watch this one: Just after 1:00 this morning a car overturned on southbound S. Glebe Road south of 7th Street. Look how lucky the northbound driver was. The video feed from Arlington reset before the car crossed back over the median. It appeared to be upright. No indications of… pic.twitter.com/c56kY1v7Aq
— Dave Statter (@STATter911) October 23, 2023
A proposed senior living facility on S. Glebe Road is teed up for Arlington County Board approval this Saturday.
Sunrise Senior Living proposes redeveloping a church in the Alcova Heights neighborhood with a 4-story, 99-unit building with 120 bedrooms and 53 parking spaces.
The public and county review of its plans kicked off this February. During a meeting last Wednesday, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended the Board adopt the proposal from Sunrise.
If the project is approved and construction begins on schedule, the project at 716 S. Glebe Road would be the first new senior housing project since the 1980s, per Arlington’s Commission on Aging. In 2020, the County Board approved an assisted living facility along Langston Blvd, but it languished and was recently sold to another developer.
While pleased that Sunrise is picking up the senior housing baton, some planning commissioners were dismayed Sunrise may only end up committing one unit for affordable housing or making a roughly $226,000 cash contribution to affordable housing. They were also disappointed Sunrise is aiming for LEED Silver certification rather than LEED Gold.
The commission approved motions urging the County Board to ask staff and the applicant to keep exploring ways to add more on-site affordable units and make the building more energy efficient.
“This is a really great opportunity to do something different,” said Planning Commission Vice-Chair Sara Steinberger. “I don’t want to lose the opportunity here because we can’t move fast enough.”
Representing Sunrise, land use attorney Kedrick Whitmore said the developer has take significant steps on sustainability and has long wrestled with its affordability commitments.
He told commissioners to temper their expectations for these areas, arguing they are skewed by developers who deliver LEED Gold certification and on-site affordable units in exchange for bonus density. Sunrise does not want more density because it has to do more for fewer residents, he said.
While excited at the prospect of new senior housing, the Commission on Aging is “very disappointed that the developer has not committed to setting aside some units as affordable units,” says member Cynthia Schneider.
“Both Alexandria and Fairfax County have policies where assisted living facilities set aside a certain number of units as affordable,” she said. “We would like to see this project have a similar commitment.”
Arlington County currently has no formula for calculating senior housing contributions, Whitmore said. It considers rent when calculating how many committed affordable units a developer should provide, whereas senior housing has more comprehensive housing costs to consider, Whitmore said.
“We’re staring into a black box and have trouble committing, at this point, to doing an on-site unit,” he said.
There is ample time for the issue to get sorted out, Commissioner Tenley Peterson said.
“We’re a couple of years out from when this building is going to get built,” she said. “We don’t need to figure it out until we get to the certificate of occupancy.”
Goodwill of Greater Washington and AHC Inc. are teaming up to build affordable housing above a new second-hand store and donation center on S. Glebe Road.
DC Urban Turf first reported the news.
The national nonprofit has not embarked on something like this before, writes land-use attorney Andrew Painter, in application materials filed with Arlington County.
“The proposed redevelopment would be the first such project for the organization as it seeks to further its nonprofit mission and values,” Painter said. “The proposal will also deliver a modern and efficient retail store and donation processing center for a successful nonprofit organization that provides important services and benefits to Arlington County’s disenfranchised populations.”
The nonprofit proposes to demolish the existing store at 10 S. Glebe Road in the Alcova Heights neighborhood and build a five-story, mixed-use building. There will be a Goodwill retail store and child care center on the ground floor, a donation processing center on the second floor and 128 apartments above that.
All of the units will be offered to households earning between 30-60% of the area median income for a period of 30 years, though the exact unit mix will be finalized during the financing process. About three-quarters of the affordable apartments consist of 2-3 bedroom units.
The units units will be available for a single person earning up to $63,300 and a family of four earning up to $90,420, according to the county.
AHC, which Painter says is Arlington County’s largest non-profit affordable housing developer, is its joint development partner and will oversee the apartment side of the building’s operations once construction is done. AHC will also choose the operator for the child care center.
“AHC hopes to replicate the success we’ve had in other communities,” AHC spokeswoman Jennifer Smith tells ARLnow. “That means bringing a mission-aligned childcare partner to the new Goodwill site, with priority enrollment for onsite residents and Goodwill Greater Washington employees, then availability to the larger community.”
Parking for residents, childcare, employee and overflow customer parking will be located in a 152-space underground garage. Retail, visitor and future resident parking will be in a 16-spot surface parking lot.
In preparation for the temporary closure of the S. Glebe site, Goodwill is currently negotiating a lease for an alternate donation drop-off location close by. That is expected to open in 2024.
Meanwhile, Painter says, Goodwill encourages its customers to shop or donate at its 20 other area locations, including a store on Columbia Pike.
(Updated at 5:25 p.m.) A new Ethiopian market has opened along Columbia Pike.
Afomia Organic Market at 4105 Columbia Pike opened its doors late last week, co-owner Shah Feyisa confirmed to ARLnow.
The market is in a shopping center near the corner of S. George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike in the Alcova Heights neighborhood. It is two doors down from Papa Deeno’s, a family-owned halal pizza shop that opened last year. Afomia is in a 960-square-foot space that was formerly occupied by a hairstylist and beauty salon that has since moved to S. Glebe Road.
The market stocks a large selection of spices, grains, meat, and groceries “from home,” Feyisa said. Plus, everything is organic.
“Afomia Organic Market is a small, family-owned business that sells injera, bread, herbs, spices, clothing, coffee sets, traditional coffee, and accessories, from Ethiopia. We additionally sell vegan cakes, which can be ordered for special occasions (by our email: [email protected]), and also vegan cookies and sweets! We also have non-vegan treats as well,” reads the business’s Yelp page.
The decision was made to move into this location because there’s a large population of Ethiopian immigrants living along the Pike but there are few markets to meet the demand, Feyisa noted. Plus, more and more people are becoming vegetarian and vegan, he said, and the market provides plenty of choices for them as well, he continued.
There are at least a couple of other Ethiopian markets in the area, including Ayana Ethiopian Market a half mile west on Columbia Pike and Lideta Gebeya about a mile away, on S. Glebe Road.
A local preschool operating in North Arlington church will soon shut its doors — but another childcare center is already lined up to replace it.
Overlee Preschool, a cooperative, parent-led school out of the Church of the Covenant (2666 Military Road) will close next month. Children’s Weekday Program — currently operating out of Redeemer Church of Arlington in the Alcova Heights neighborhood — will take over.
Founded in the 1940s by a group of mothers, Overlee Preschool is closing after reduced enrollment complicated by Covid. The school weathered the pandemic by moving fully outdoors.
“We are very sad to be closing the doors of an organization that has played such a significant role in the lives of many, many Arlington families,” school president Melissa Farrar told ARLnow.
“The times, however, have changed, and the fully cooperative model — which requires every family to spend time in the classroom and have a school ‘job’ — has been more difficult to market to local families, who have a multitude of competing pressures on their time,” she continued.
Farrar thanked the teachers, particularly Louisa Stetekluh, who taught for more than 20 years and is “the beating heart” of the school.
“Her charisma, depth of experience, and gentle and respectful connection with our children has drawn family after family to Overlee,” she said. “It is impossible to speak of Overlee’s successes and what makes us special without mentioning her in the same breath.”
If there is a silver lining here, she says, it is that another preschool will replace Overlee.
“While our story is coming to an end, we will be glad to still hear the laughter of children on the playground as we walk by, and we wish the incoming tenant every success and growth in the coming years,” Farrar said.
Children’s Weekday Program intends to more than double the number of children for whom it can care. It has applied for a use permit to serve up to 71 children — a 136% increase over the 30 children Overlee Preschool was permitted to serve. The Arlington County Board is scheduled to approve the permit during its meeting this Saturday.
“We are really excited about the new space and look forward to moving into the building in August,” Children’s Weekday Program announced on its website. “CWP’s doors will open in September 2023 for Meet the Teacher events prior to the first day of school.”
Registration is ongoing for new and returning families, per the website.
County staff says the site can accommodate this proposed capacity increase with two indoor and outdoor play areas, divided up based on age, and a proposed staffing level of 16 employees. The program will operate on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The report says approval is recommended because the new school will not have negative impacts on the neighborhood, and the local civic associations either support it or have expressed no issue with it.
Arlington has long had a childcare shortage problem and the tight demand helped childcare programs survive the pandemic. The county has tried to encourage more daycare centers by loosening zoning regulations and helping people find options via a website and provider map.
(Updated 03/29/23 at 4:30 p.m.) The next batch of neighborhood-level improvement projects is headed to the Arlington County Board for approval.
These include installing new LED streetlights along 35th Street N. in the Rock Spring neighborhood, fixing a missing sidewalk link along a street in Alcova Heights, and improving two parks — one in South Arlington and one in North Arlington.
The four were winnowed down from nearly 60 prospective projects. Of them, one — improvements to Baileys Branch Park in Columbia Forest — meets new equity criteria that the Arlington Neighborhoods Program says it has started using to evaluate worthy projects.
For decades, this program has served as a community-driven process by which residents can identify small-scale infrastructure projects that are vetted and then recommended to the Arlington County Board for approval. A long-standing criticism has been that this process favored wealthier neighborhoods where residents had the time, resources and connections to be more civically engaged.
Last year, the Arlington Neighborhoods Advisory Committee struck “conservation” from its name, saying it connotes exclusivity, and added equity criteria to how it evaluates projects. At the start of this year, the Arlington County Board welcomed these changes to “embrace equity.”
The new criteria are two-fold: first, whether the neighborhood has a high population of people of color, and second, whether it has high rates of poverty and lower rates of higher education, homeownership and English proficiency.
“The equity considerations are a work in progress and will be evaluated and refined as needed over time,” per the report.
More details about the project are as follows.
- 35th Street N. from Little Falls Road to Williamsburg Blvd, in Rock Spring, is going to get new, “cobra-style” LED streetlights for $268,710. Road safety is a particular concern in this part of residential North Arlington. This stretch is a few blocks from where Washington-Liberty High School student Braylon Meade was killed by a teen accused of drunk driving.
- Bailey’s Branch Park (990 S. Columbus Street), a 2-acre park with a playground and green space in Columbia Forest, will get $750,000 in improvements, including the removal of invasive plants, additional native trees and plantings, new site furnishings and park signage.
- After invasive plants are removed from Thrifton Hill Park, new site furnishings, a picnic shelter and potentially, a dog run will be added. This will cost $985,000. The park at 2814 23rd Street N. in the Maywood neighborhood has trails and provides access to Custis Trail.
- A missing sidewalk link, with crosswalks and ramps that are accessible to people with disabilities will be installed along a 200-feet stretch of 7th Street S., near where it curves and intersects with 8th Street S. in the Alcova Heights neighborhood. This street improvement will cost $342,741.
The recommended projects went through the standard public engagement process for Arlington Neighborhoods Program, according to the county report, described as a “collaborative effort that seeks input from residents and civic associations on concept designs.”
The Rock Spring and Alcova Heights projects went through a two-step petitioning effort for affected residents and received the necessary support to qualify.
“The Columbia Forest and Maywood park projects were approved by their civic associations at one of their advertised meetings,” the report says. “All four civic associations continue to support each of the projects in their respective neighborhoods.”
Since last fall, residents in the 22204 zip code, which includes a large swath of south Arlington around Columbia Pike, say they’ve been getting their mail two to three times a week or not at all.
“Our mail delivery in 22204 had been irregular, sporadic or often non existent for past 5 or so years,” writes resident Nancy Miller. “Frustration abounds! Meanwhile in other Zip Codes in Arlington, mail delivery has not been a problem.”
While this wave of complaints started last fall, Douglas Park neighborhood in particular has had a history of spotty service. Problems back in 2015 are the same problems the neighborhood has today: staffing and topography. Many of the residents who spoke with ARLnow for this story live in that area.
There have been reports of “perennially” bad service in the Ballston and Virginia Square neighborhoods as well, supposedly because it is considered a training route.
“U.S. Mail delivery is in crisis in Douglas Park, after many years of inconsistent service,” resident Rebecca Kraft says.
The issue can, in part, be chalked up to staffing, says Aaron Fritschner, Deputy Chief of Staff for Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who has been engaging with residents about the mail issue for a number of years.
“The main issues leadership at Arlington branches have raised to us recently are hiring and retention,” he said. “They specifically point to losing workforce to private competitors because of differences in pay and benefits. Rep. Beyer cosponsored legislation to boost recruitment and retention for this reason.”
Recruitment and retention might be expected to be a more widespread problem, resulting in mail delivery issues in other neighborhoods, but the complaints ARLnow has seen online were mainly concentrated in certain neighborhoods within the 22204 zip code and at the post office at 1210 S. Glebe Road.
The intractable problem has to do with topography, according to Douglas Park resident Thomas Schaad. The last house on a hilly, residential route with few businesses and apartment buildings, he said when they did receive mail, it was late in the evening.
“The postmaster basically told us the routes are antiquated in terms of how they’re laid out, but they can’t be changed,” Schaad said. “As a result there are some routes that are good, and others that are considered ‘bad,’ the ones nobody wants.”
Another neighbor, who just wanted to be referred to as Molly, said “we’re pretty much chopped liver.”
Mail carriers bid for their routes based on seniority, and the more difficult routes, with more houses or hills or walking, are typically assigned last. Improving the routes requires a study with recommendations, which may happen but likely not until the end of this year, depending on funding. A study was planned for 2020 but got axed due to Covid.
“Until the last two weeks, when it improved to daily delivery, we were getting someone who had completed their route and had come back and been told to finish this route,” Schaad said. “During the Christmas holiday season, they couldn’t hire anyone… the employment pool was being absorbed for the holiday rush by private entities, and the post office suffered in terms of hiring.”
Arlington County has accepted a site plan application for a senior living facility proposed to replace a church in the Alcova Heights neighborhood.
Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean-based senior living provider, proposes to demolish a church building at 716 S. Glebe Road to build a four-story, 60-foot-tall building with 108 assisted living units, 55 parking spaces, common and service areas, a covered porch and an outdoor garden.
Kedrick Whitmore, the land use attorney representing Sunrise Senior Living, says the development would add sorely needed assisted living facilities in Arlington County.
“This facility would provide or coordinate personal and health care services, 24-hour supervision, and assistance (scheduled and unscheduled) for the protection general supervision and oversight of the physical and mental well-being of aged, infirm, or disabled adults,” he said. “The current supply of such facilities in Arlington County is insufficient to meet the current demand.”
So far, the applicant isn’t looking to go beyond base density, and proposed community benefits include streetscape and sidewalk improvements, utility and affordable housing contributions and sustainable design, per application documents.
As the change in use would displace two child care programs, county planning staff are urging Sunrise to incorporate child care into the development.
“The County has a need for child care services,” county planner Leon Vignes said. “Please consider the possibility of collocating a child care use with this development to maintain an existing use.”
There are two programs operating inside the church, Children’s Weekday Program and Rainbow Road Preschool. County staff said one of the programs in operation there does not have the necessary approvals to do so, but did not specify which.
“A previously approved use permit for childcare uses affiliated with the existing Methodist church was discontinued with the operator noting the potential to resume operation,” associate planner Anika Chowdhury said in staff comments on the application. “A revelation confirmed by the applicant was that an existing daycare is currently operating at the existing church. There is no valid use permit approval on file for this operating use and a use permit is required for child care use(s) per the ACZO.”
If Sunrise were to consider incorporating a child care center, it would have to request changes to how the property is zoned, Chowdhury says.
County planner Matthew Pfeiffer, meanwhile, urged the applicant to increase the number of trees it will plant and make the architecture appear more historic.
“Recommend altering architectural style to match existing historic properties, such as Colonial Revival,” Pfeiffer said. “The most important site design aspect will be ensuring that there is a strong vegetated buffer on the western property line to screen The Alcova,” a historic property next door.
The building’s owner, Arlington United Methodist Church, sold the property to Sunrise last year, leaving a different Christian congregation that meets there, the Redeemer Church of Arlington, the child care programs and a clothing bank in search of a new home.
Sunrise has two other senior living centers in Arlington, in the Glebewood and Boulevard Manor neighborhoods.
(Updated at 1:15 p.m.) An Alcova Heights church has sold its building to a senior living provider, leaving organizations that rent space there in search of a new home.
Arlington United Methodist Church recently sold its building at 716 S. Glebe Road to Sunrise Senior Living, a McLean-based senior living provider.
Paul Mandell, the real estate agent who facilitated the deal, told ARLnow he believed the buyer — whose identity he declined to confirm — planned to demolish the building to build a senior living facility, but deferred to the buyer for confirmation.
Sunrise is unable to comment at this time, spokesperson John Chibnall said, but will likely share information on the project in the coming weeks.
There are several organizations operating out of the church’s building, including the Ronda Gilliam Clothing Bank affiliated with the First Presbyterian Church of Arlington, the Redeemer Church of Arlington, Rainbow Road Preschool and others.
The organizations now have about 4-6 months to look for a new space, said Annette Reilly, manager of the clothing bank.
“We have no definite plans yet,” she said.
She found out about the sale about two weeks ago after the building was on the market for about a year, Reilly said. Other offers could have kept the clothing bank and other organizations in place, she said.
“If they had sold it to one of the churches, [an] existing tenant that wanted to buy it, then the use of the building would have continued the same,” Reilly said.
She hoped the clothing bank would be able to relocate elsewhere in Arlington. Otherwise, it would have to close, she said.
There have been previous instances of churches selling to be redeveloped as housing. The Central United Methodist Church in Ballston was torn down and is being rebuilt as an affordable housing complex. Jefferson Apartment Group took over another former Ballston are church building last year, with plans to build an apartment building.
The Arlington United Methodist Church, which still listed as the owner of the property, could not be reached for comment. The assessed value of the building in 2022 was $5 million, according to the county.
Thieves are continuing to prowl parts of Arlington for unlocked vehicles.
The most recently reported incidents happened in the early morning hours of this past Thursday, in the Rock Spring and Alcova Heights neighborhoods.
In Rock Spring, a group of suspects stole two vehicles — at least one of which was taken via a key found in another unlocked vehicle — and tried to break into a house.
More from an Arlington County Police Department crime report:
GRAND LARCENY AUTO / ATTEMPTED BURGLARY (series), 2021-06100036 / 06100047, 3400 block of N. Edison Street. At approximately 5:37 a.m. on June 10, police were dispatched to the report of a grand larceny auto just occurred. Upon arrival, it was determined that at approximately 5:20 a.m., the victim was alerted to noises outside and exited his residence to see four vehicles idling in the street. One of the four vehicles was the victim’s 2011 Ford Explorer bearing VA license plate 745186, which the suspects had gained entry to through keys found in a nearby unlocked vehicle. The victim shouted in the direction of the four suspect vehicles and they fled the scene at a high rate of speed. The investigation determined that another one of the four vehicles, a 2013 Infiniti SUV bearing VA license plate XCM4640, had also been stolen earlier in the night from the 3400 block of N. Edison Street. While investigating the two stolen vehicles, it was discovered that four other vehicles in the area had been tampered with. During one of the tamperings, the suspects unsuccessfully attempted to use a key located inside a vehicle to gain entry into the victim’s residence. Suspect One is described as a male wearing dark clothing and tennis shoes at the time of the incident. There are no other suspect descriptions. The investigation is ongoing.
Also on Thursday, police responded to an incident in Alcova Heights in which at least four vehicles were broken into and an unlocked Mercedes was stolen from a home’s garage.
LARCENY FROM AUTO (series), 2021-06100069, 3500 block of 8th Street S. At approximately 9:30 a.m. on June 10, police were dispatched to the report of a larceny from auto. Upon arrival, it was determined that the unknown suspect(s) entered the victim’s unlocked vehicle and rummaged through it. No items were reported stolen. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the suspect(s) entered and tampered with three other vehicles in the area and attempted to enter an additional three vehicles. While investigating the tamperings, a witness flagged down an officer and stated that a vehicle had been stolen from a residence in the 3500 block of 6th Street S. Officers made contact with the owner of the vehicle and it was determined that the suspect(s) entered the victim’s garage and located the unlocked vehicle, a 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLC bearing VA license plate UKT2082, with the keys inside. There is no suspect(s) description. The investigation is ongoing.
Last week ACPD said it had “increased police resources” in response to a spate of home burglaries north of I-66, in which thieves found keys in unlocked vehicles and used them to steal items from homes.
The police department continues to encourage residents to lock their homes and vehicles, and to keep valuables out of view. Arlington has experienced a wave of crimes of opportunity involving unlocked and unattended vehicles over the past year or so.
Queen Mother’s Fried Chicken from Chef Rahman “Rock” Harper has gotten a considerable amount of press since landing in Arlington nearly three months ago.
But it hasn’t altered how the chef does business.
“It hasn’t changed anything other than we’ve been blessed with more customers from a wider range of audiences,” Harper tells ARLnow. “We just have been busier.”
In early December, Queen Mother’s moved into the restaurant incubator Cafe by La Cocina at 918 S. Lincoln Street, right off of Columbia Pike, in the Alcova Heights neighborhood.
The menu is relatively compact. It includes four variations of fried chicken sandwiches — all cooked in duck fat and canola oil — including classic, Nashville hot, Virginia honey butter, and spicy mambo.
As sides, there are seasoned waffle fries and two different kinds of coleslaw. Homemade sweet tea and lemonade are offered as drinks. For desert, brown butter chocolate chip cookies.
Harper first got attention as the season three winner of the Fox competition show Hell’s Kitchen. He’s been an executive chef at Las Vegas and D.C. restaurants, an author, a podcast host, and has made numerous return trips to television. He also previously collaborated with another restaurateur on the short-lived, sausage-and-beer restaurant Fat Shorty’s in Clarendon.
Queen Mother’s is Harper’s first go at a restaurant he owns and controls himself. It was previously based at a virtual food hall in D.C. before making the move across the river.
“I’m from Alexandria… I’m a Virginia guy,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to ‘restaurant’ on this side of a bridge, so to speak.”
Growing up a neighbor, he notes his familiarity of Arlington and how he’s continuously overwhelmed with the support the community has provided Queen Mother’s.
“You know, people saying ‘Hey, we’re glad you’re here’ and ‘We need more things like this in the neighborhood, right down the Pike,'” he said.
The restaurant is named after his mom, Carol Harper.
“She’s affectionately known as a mother to her children… and to most of the people in my neighborhood,” he says. “And she’s a queen.”
Harper says he also named it as such to shift the conversation around Black food and Black women.
“Instead of going down the road that we’ve gone down in years past with the negative or stereotypical names, it’s my responsibility to put positive energy towards our culture and food,” Harper says. “And fried chicken is what I’m using.”
Recently, there’s been a movement around reclaiming chicken as a symbol of pride in the Black restaurant community.
Harper set up shop at the Columbia Pike-based incubator Cafe by La Cocina because the barrier for entry was significantly lower than taking on his own brick and mortar, particularly in the midst of a pandemic.
“One of the barriers to opening up a restaurant is all of the money, infrastructure, and access,” he says.”With these shared spaces, [the incubator’s owners] assume a bunch of the risk.”
It’s a win-win for the incubator as well, being able to offer a number of different concepts in the same space, he says.
There are challenges and drawbacks, Harper admits. It’s not a dedicated space, he and his employees need to be mindful of others working around them, and not all decisions fall into his hands.
He cites setting up the patio for outdoor seating as an example, saying he would love to have done it this week with the mild temperatures but the incubator makes that decision.
But for him, the collaboration with others makes it all worth it.
