Around the corner today;
We have some egg on our face from a few facts we got wrong on the food truck citations occurring on Solutions Drive. After some discussion with Fairfax County, vendors, some of our readers, and a bit of independent research into our County code it looks like we have a grey area which allows these tickets to be handed out. Here are the facts. Solutions Drive is indeed a county road, Route 6054, and is therefore not on the Cassidy Turley property which encompasses SAIC and Booz Allen. It is legal to park a standard vehicle in conjunction with Code 82-5-37 and 82-5-38, as well as Appendix R of the Municipal Code. However, Municipal Code 82-1-30 states;
It is illegal to park any vehicle from which any merchandise is being sold upon any street. Also contact Fairfax County Consumer Protection for information concerning peddlers.
That’s pretty clear cut right? Here is the part where it gets tricky. Fairfax County is providing permits to these food trucks with the understanding that primarily these trucks sell goods from street sides, as long as parking is allowed. We talked to Brian Worthy, Public Information Office for Fairfax County.
“During their Jan. 29 meeting, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors asked county staff to look comprehensively at the regulations affecting the operation of food trucks because they are becoming more prevalent around Tysons and elsewhere in the county. The board directed staff to look at everything from parking to zoning to health to tax issues, and staff report back on their findings by no later than this spring.”
The good news for food trucks is this conflict in intent and code will likely be resolved with the Board decision. Based on previous acceptance of food trucks after strict controls by Arlington County shifted many of them into Fairfax it is likely that we will see a positive decision for the vendors. Unfortunately the board decision may be a few months prior to a resolution, leaving many of these small businesses in a legal grey zone.
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We spoke with Arbor Row developer Keith Turner with Cityline after we had noticed some construction activity around the site. “What you are probably seeing is the beginning of a Fairfax Water project where they are going to be putting a 24″ water line under the Beltway to improve and connect parts of their water distribution system together.”
So the construction ultimately will help support density that will be created from the redevelopment of Arbor Row, but is not specifically tied to it. Construction on Arbor Row is not likely to begin until later this year. We’ll follow up with Home Properties, Hanover, and AMT to see if they can provide more specifics.
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Washington Examiner continues to spread false information about crime being harbored at Metro Stations. Other than the fact that logistically it doesn’t make sense to commit a crime and then wait on the notoriously unpredictable WMATA headways (something Washington Examiner also likes talking about) it is devoid of the statistical reality. Just this month the Tysons Corner area had the following crime, which mind you is actually a smaller blotter than many parts of NOVA that are not anywhere near metro also. Police Blotter
Ok that is a significant number of crimes, about 11 if you remove the repeat at same location items. The Vienna Patch recently released this data which shows only 20 (all of which were petty thefts) crimes occurred at the Vienna Metro Station in all of 2012, making it the 3rd highest crime station in Virginia.
Let’s review once more, there are about 10-20 crimes per month in almost every small town in NOVA. In fact if you are in parts of Leesburg, Woodbridge, and Herndon, all of which are no where near metro stations those statistics double. So the idea that Metro stations harbor crime are complete and total BUNK. So why does the Washington Examiner keep saying it? Well one, because they are GOP backed and the GOP hates all things transit now and days. Who knows why, Reagan never had this kind of hatred towards efficient transportation. Mostly though it is playing into the fears of their readers against… you know… “those people”.
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Fairfax Times has a very good summary of what we can expect from the State as far as funding. Some of it will be good some of it will be bad, but atleast we are still receiving some scraps from the Richmond table. (Fairfax Times)
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Urbanism Anti-Story of the day
Greater greater Washington has a great take on AAA (for some reason considered unbiased on transportation) and their demands for more free parking. Free parking is the number 1 destructive element of urbanity and good transportation design. What it creates is a donut hole of void space where the central business districts must become holding zones for people’s cars, using up valuable real estate, and forcing development horizontally outward from the core. Everyone from Libertarian Market Urbanism to “radical urbanist” Richard Florida have talked about the danger of this land slide. Which only makes me wonder again, why is Fairfax County pushing for MORE parking in Tysons?