1. N.Va. officials fear grocery tax repeal will derail region’s transportation funding
2. Parking Reimagined - Updating Fairfax County’s Parking Regulations
3. Metro’s Yellow Line bridge over Potomac will close for about eight months beginning this fall
4. Part of Columbia Pike to close next year as cemetery expansion project ramps up
5. Senate passes bill to avert shutdown, extend $14 billion in Ukraine aid
Welcome to FIVE FOR FRIDAY: A weekly roundup of Public Policy Issues and Headlines from around the Northern Virginia Region, the Commonwealth and on Capitol Hill.
1. N.Va. officials fear grocery tax repeal will derail region’s transportation funding
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has made repealing the tax a key part of his agenda, and it is all but a certainty in the state budget.
2. Parking Reimagined - Updating Fairfax County’s Parking Regulations
Fairfax County’s Parking Reimagined project is reviewing and updating regulations for off street parking and loading, in an effort to modernize parking and loading requirements and create greater flexibility in the provision of parking for current and future land uses. While some changes to off street parking and loading regulations have occurred over the years, overall rates and regulations have not been comprehensively reviewed since 1988. Parking Reimagined includes an in depth evaluation of off street parking and loading rates and regulations. Community participation is an important part of the Parking Reimagined project and your thoughts are welcome! To learn more about this project, get details for upcoming community engagement opportunities, and watch previous meetings, please visit the Parking Reimagined webpage.
3. Metro’s Yellow Line bridge over Potomac will close for about eight months beginning this fall
Metro will shut down a four-decade-old tunnel and the Yellow Line bridge spanning the Potomac River for about eight months this fall to repair and rebuild the infrastructure.
4. Part of Columbia Pike to close next year as cemetery expansion project ramps up
A portion of Columbia Pike near Pentagon City is set to be closed and re-routed to side streets early next year due to work to expand Arlington National Cemetery. The work, which will add 60,000 burial sites and space for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center, will also involve moving Columbia Pike closer to I-395, so that gravesites can be placed where it currently curves around the Air Force Memorial. Grading work along the new planned path of the Pike has already started, as have some occasional lane closures.
5. Senate passes bill to avert shutdown, extend $14 billion in Ukraine aid
The measure now goes to President Biden for enactment. It would fund U.S. government operations through September and provide new humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. Democrats and Republicans secured the money in tandem with a $1.5 trillion bill to fund key federal agencies and operations. Its successful advance after months of bipartisan talks marked a significant legislative victory in its own right, averting a shutdown that would have occurred after midnight Friday in the absence of congressional action. The House approved the spending package a day earlier.