Amid the pandemic, Arlington County is sifting through which planning processes are ready to continue moving forward and which ones are being delayed.
The County recently announced that it is still moving forward with plans for updating guidelines for development in Pentagon City, a relatively time-critical issue with Amazon’s permanent HQ2 under construction nearby.
Four major transportation projects in Arlington will receive tens of millions in regional funding, the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority announced today.
The projects, all of which are in the planning stages, will bring multimodal upgrades to Crystal City and Rosslyn, as well as to the W&OD Trail. In all, the NTVA is providing more than a half billion dollars in funding to 21 projects around the region.
(Updated at 10:55 a.m.) The Arlington County Police Department has released its annual report, which paints a mixed picture of rising overall crime with decreases in certain types of offenses and a shrinking police force.
ACPD’s 2019 Annual Report says that crime in Arlington “remains historically low,” but the county “experienced an overall increase in 2019 which was marked particularly by vehicle-related property crimes.” Over the past year police have responded to a string of vehicle break-ins around the county, but have also been making arrests.
Arlington’s rate of new coronavirus cases continues to rise.
Fifteen new COVID-19 cases were reported overnight, bringing the county’s seven-day trailing infection rate to 82, the highest point since June 20.
Arlington Gets Federal Arts Grant — “Arlington Cultural Affairs will receive a $35,000 Art Works award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)… [Arlington] will use the grant to support a multi-cultural artist residency project serving the Columbia Hills and Columbia Grove affordable housing communities.” [Arlington County]
Justin Trawick to Play ‘Secret’ Show — “We just got approval from Arlington County to present ‘Common Good on The Block’ benefiting the Arlington Food Assistance Center. Join ‘Justin Trawick and The Common Good’ for a secret street show with the full band on August 1st. This will be a socially distanced event and there are only 60 tickets available.” [Twitter]
About 1,750 Dominion customers are without power on a steamy July afternoon due to an outage in the East Falls Church area.
Dominion lists the reason for the outage as an “equipment problem” and estimates restoration between 7-10 p.m. tonight (Thursday).
(Updated at 4:1o p.m.) Arlington County is launching a new planning study to determine how best to shape the new density coming to Pentagon City.
As nearby Crystal City and Potomac Yard undergo new development spurred by Amazon’s second headquarters, the new study is intended to shape development around Pentagon City, where the permanent HQ2 campus will be located.
The final plans are in for a trio of road projects in Arlington, and two out of three involve the removal of travel lanes.
The projects — in Rosslyn, Dominion Hills and Crystal City/Potomac Yard — are all part of the county’s 2020 road repaving schedule. Each has been singled out for changes to the lane striping via the county’s Resurfacing Projects for Complete Streets program, which aims to make streets safer for drivers, cyclists and pedestrians via inexpensive means during the regular repaving cycle.
Seattle Tax Could Advantage Arlington — “It wouldn’t shock us if Amazon started encouraging more of its executives to up and move their teams to HQ2, or a neighboring city in Washington state, now that the Seattle City Council has passed a progressive tax targeting the wealthiest companies in the city.” [Washington Business Journal]
Analysis of County Board Special Election — From @A_Hendel on Twitter: “Takis Karantonis received most of his share of the vote from South Arlington… In fact, almost no precincts north of I-66 cast 50% or more of their votes for Takis.” [Twitter]
Byrd, a long-time county employee who previously worked in the Department of Community Planning, Housing and a Development, will oversee work “to inform the County’s development of its plan for addressing race and equity issues.”
A University of Virginia graduate and Hampton, Va. native, Byrd said she is looking forward to the challenges ahead in the new role.
Arlington’s drive-through coronavirus testing site is back in business after a brief hiatus.
The testing site, across from Washington-Liberty High School, closed around the end of June but reopened on Tuesday. Quest Diagnostics is now partnering with the county to conduct the testing, taking over from Virginia Hospital Center.
(Updated at 12:30 p.m.) A road was closed in Crystal City this morning due to a suspicious package investigation.
Police blocked off 26th Street S. between Crystal Drive and S. Clark Street, and are also working to block Crystal Drive.
