As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, it’s the perfect time to go solar. There are many reasons to convert your home to solar energy, such as:

• Reducing your monthly electric bill
• Avoiding rising energy costs
• Increasing your home’s value, and
• Benefitting the environment by reducing
       your environmental impact

Thanks to the power of solar group purchasing programs such as Solarize VA and Capital Area Solar Switch, it can be easier and less expensive for homeowners to make the switch. These programs offer free assessments and access to qualified solar professionals that take the guesswork out of going solar.

Additionally, you can take advantage of federal tax credits and incentives offered by Fairfax County and the federal government Right now, the permit fee for solar applications is being waived, solar panels receive zoning flexibility, there is a local tax exemption for installation of solar equipment, and there are federal solar tax credits.

Plastic Free July is a global movement to get more people involved in the solution to plastic pollution – and create cleaner streets, oceans, and communities. You can take the plastic free pledge and join others who are taking steps to reduce plastic waste. 

Recognizing the impact plastic bags have on the environment, local governments in Northern Virginia — including Fairfax County — adopted ordinances requiring grocery stores, convenience stores, and drugstores to collect a five-cent tax on every disposable plastic bag used by a customer at the point of sale.

Revenue from the taxes is used to fund environmental cleanup and waste reduction programs and to purchase reusable shopping bags for recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Women, Infants, and Children Program
(WIC) benefits.

Watch a recording of the Healthy Plate, Healthy Planet webinar, a Green Breakfast event held on May 27 that featured Maryam Dadkhah, registered dietician and nutritionist with EatWellGuru LLC. Dr. Dadkhah discussed nutrition and its interaction with the health of the planet, major chronic diseases and how a healthy diet can help, and ways to transition towards a healthy plate for a healthy planet.

The Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District facilitates these bi-monthly gatherings on Saturday mornings to discuss environmental topics in a casual setting.

The next event on July 8 will be a sustainable garden tour in Alexandria, where attendees will also have the opportunity to meet with NVSWCD staff to learn about valuable gardening resources and programs available to assist in their own garden journeys. This Green Breakfast will be held in person and registration is required.

Fairfax County is the latest locality to join the statewide Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program. The county’s Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to Chapter 127 of the Fairfax County Code to allow the county to opt into and conform to the statewide C-PACE program, which launched in 2022.

C-PACE is an innovative clean energy financing tool that provides 100 percent upfront capital to property owners who want to upgrade their commercial and large multi-family buildings with energy efficiency, renewable energy and water management systems.

The county established its own C-PACE program in 2019 but has not yet completed any projects under the program. By opting into the statewide program, Fairfax County will be part of a more uniform system instead of one of many different local programs, and this is expected to make C-PACE projects more attractive for borrowers and lenders.

C-PACE is administered by the Virginia PACE Authority with support from the Virginia Department of Energy (Virginia Energy).

Fairfax County’s Department of Planning and Development is updating the regulations for parking lot landscaping, transitional screening, barrier requirements and more, and they want to hear from you!

The proposed changes to Section 5108 of the Fairfax County Zoning Ordinance include, but not limited to:

• Increase the percentage of interior parking lot landscaping from 5 to 10 percent.
• Create specific shade requirements for parking decks. The current proposal is 10 percent.
• Add shrub requirements for peripheral parking lot landscaping to combat vehicle headlight glare.
• Encourage the use of existing vegetation by allowing a variation in the mix of evergreen and deciduous trees if a certain amount of existing vegetation in the transitional screening area is retained.
• Introduce a new concept called street frontage landscaping.

This Zoning Ordinance Amendment (ZOA) was presented to the Board’s Land Use Policy Committee (LUPC) on May 16 and the Planning Commission’s Land Use Process Review Committee on May 25. Moving forward, staff will draft proposed text to be presented at the Board’s LUPC on July 18.

Public comments on these proposed changes can be submitted now via email to dpdlandscapingandscreeningzoa@fairfaxcounty.gov

Fairfax County’s first experiment with self-driving public transportation has ended. After more than 2 1/2 years in operation, the autonomous, electric Relay Shuttle ceased operating in the Mosaic District on June 23.

The shuttle – the first of its kind in Virginia – was a partnership between Fairfax County Department of Transportation, Dominion Energy, EDENS (Mosaic), The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Virginia Department of Transportation, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute and George Mason University.

The pilot program was meant to test a driverless, public transportation option to evaluate its effectiveness and safety and see how it can be used as a “first and last-mile” transit option to “relay” riders and help connect the community, activate neighborhoods and attract businesses. Since launching in October of 2020, the shuttle provided over 350 trips.

Project leaders are now reviewing lessons learned about the potential challenges of benefits of using this technology for future public use.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) will begin offering reduced fares to low-income riders through its new “Metro Lift” program, which launched on June 20.

The program offers a 50 percent discount for travel on Metrorail and Metrobus for customers in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia who are enrolled in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Fairfax County leaders, transportation officials, and bicycling advocates are celebrating the opening of portions of the new I-66 Parallel Trail.

he 18-mile shared use trail is being built as part of the Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project. While some portions of the trail will be directly next to the highway and some portions behind sound walls, gaps between sound walls will allow for connections with residential neighborhoods along the trail. 

The trail is opening in sections throughout summer 2023. So far two sections of the trail are open: between Vienna Metro Station and Cedar Lane and between Blake Lane and Route 123. Once complete, the trail will eventually run between Dunn Loring and Centreville.