📋 At a Glance

• Budget: General Assembly adopted Gov. Spanberger's full budget, including a new data center energy tax and record school funding — effective July 1.
• July 4th: Stop by the CFGF tent at the Village Green, 10:30 a.m.–noon.
• Annual Report: CFGF's first-ever Annual Report is out — a year of advocacy on zoning, schools, sanitation, and more.
• Data Centers: Prince William staff now recommend against the 43-million-sq-ft Dulles South data center near Catharpin — Board votes July 7.
• Legislative Roundup: 2027 General Assembly will likely tackle data center water/power/noise and local zoning — start watching now.
• Land Use & Zoning: Lot-by-lot teardowns and infill are quietly reshaping Great Falls' tree canopy and character — no rezoning hearing required.
• Power Blips: Why your lights flicker in storms even after tree trimming, and how to protect your HVAC and appliances.
• Transportation: A new 20 mph speed-limit pilot starts this summer — Georgetown Pike's commercial section didn't make the first phase.
• Great Falls Parkout: A nearly 100-year-old Saturday trash/recycling tradition, run entirely by volunteers — new members welcome anytime.

ANNUAL REPORT

A Year in Review: CFGF's Inaugural Annual Report
From the Difficult Run to Data Centers — Our First Year of Advocacy

Citizens For Great Falls has published its first-ever Annual Report, covering July 2025 through June 2026, the organization's founding year. CFGF organized in April 2025, incorporated under Virginia law, and its Board of Directors took office on June 5, 2025. Annual membership dues remain $20. Highlights below; the full report is available now in the Documents Library at citizensforgreatfalls.org. Or, if you are reading this online click this link: 2025 - 2026 CFGF Annual Report.

• Environmental Protection: Pressed DEQ on groundwater monitoring after a 2,600-gallon gasoline spill into the Difficult Run Tributary (case now closed). Now focused on oversight of the 54-mile Potomac Interceptor sewer line after a January 2026 Maryland failure released 243+ million gallons of sewage, and flagged a county proposal to fold EQAC, the Tree Commission, and the Wetlands Board into one new Environmental Commission.
• Land Use & Zoning: Opposed by-right battery storage (BESS) near homes and pushed for 500-foot substation setbacks (Board adopted 100 feet). Opposed the county's 300-plus-page Policy Plan rewrite, adopted in December 2025 over CFGF's objections. Raised concerns on ALU permitting (projecting an 18% rise in subdivision wastewater flow). Also involved in the Grey Gables pickleball dispute and the Lift Me Up! equestrian center approval.
• Transportation & Safety: Advocacy on the Walker Road bridge's high-accident curve and the Georgetown Pike S-curves near Difficult Run. Began documenting a traffic diversion pattern at I-495/Georgetown Pike's Exit 44, and is tracking the new speed-limit pilot alongside rising 2026 accident rates.
• Waste & Sanitation: Helped slow the county's roughly $1 billion Unified Sanitation District proposal by hosting a public forum; deferred indefinitely in August 2025. Criticized a follow-up "HOA Leadership Forum" format as too limited for public input.
• Education & Schools: Pressed for transparency on the School Board's $150 million purchase of the former King Abdullah Academy and on the BRAC boundary-review process (concluded January 2026, no changes to the Langley Pyramid). Submitted a targeted-reductions proposal identifying roughly $30 million in potential savings without touching classroom instruction.
• State Legislative Advocacy: Secretary Jennifer Falcone helped lead the No Fairfax Casino Coalition; the Board adopted formal opposition, though the House passed SB 756 in March 2026. Published a Legislative Scorecard ahead of the 2026 session, and President John Halacy opposed a budget provision that would have repealed Virginia's campaign-finance audit law.

Looking Ahead: Year Two Priorities

Comprehensive Plan/ALU implementation, the Unified Sanitation District, school boundary transparency, the Georgetown Pike speed pilot and Exit 44, Potomac Interceptor rehabilitation and EQAC dissolution, the FY 2027 budget proposal, and casino/data-center policy. We're grateful to every member, volunteer, and board member who made this first year possible.

ANNUAL REPORT

A Year in Review: CFGF's Inaugural Annual Report
From the Difficult Run to Data Centers — Our First Year of Advocacy

Citizens For Great Falls has published its first-ever Annual Report, covering July 2025 through June 2026, the organization's founding year. CFGF organized in April 2025, incorporated under Virginia law, and its Board of Directors took office on June 5, 2025. Annual membership dues remain $20. Highlights below; the full report is available now in the Documents Library at citizensforgreatfalls.org. Or, if you are reading this online click this link: 2025 - 2026 CFGF Annual Report.

• Environmental Protection: Pressed DEQ on groundwater monitoring after a 2,600-gallon gasoline spill into the Difficult Run Tributary (case now closed). Now focused on oversight of the 54-mile Potomac Interceptor sewer line after a January 2026 Maryland failure released 243+ million gallons of sewage, and flagged a county proposal to fold EQAC, the Tree Commission, and the Wetlands Board into one new Environmental Commission.
• Land Use & Zoning: Opposed by-right battery storage (BESS) near homes and pushed for 500-foot substation setbacks (Board adopted 100 feet). Opposed the county's 300-plus-page Policy Plan rewrite, adopted in December 2025 over CFGF's objections. Raised concerns on ALU permitting (projecting an 18% rise in subdivision wastewater flow). Also involved in the Grey Gables pickleball dispute and the Lift Me Up! equestrian center approval.
• Transportation & Safety: Advocacy on the Walker Road bridge's high-accident curve and the Georgetown Pike S-curves near Difficult Run. Began documenting a traffic diversion pattern at I-495/Georgetown Pike's Exit 44, and is tracking the new speed-limit pilot alongside rising 2026 accident rates.
• Waste & Sanitation: Helped slow the county's roughly $1 billion Unified Sanitation District proposal by hosting a public forum; deferred indefinitely in August 2025. Criticized a follow-up "HOA Leadership Forum" format as too limited for public input.
• Education & Schools: Pressed for transparency on the School Board's $150 million purchase of the former King Abdullah Academy and on the BRAC boundary-review process (concluded January 2026, no changes to the Langley Pyramid). Submitted a targeted-reductions proposal identifying roughly $30 million in potential savings without touching classroom instruction.
• State Legislative Advocacy: Secretary Jennifer Falcone helped lead the No Fairfax Casino Coalition; the Board adopted formal opposition, though the House passed SB 756 in March 2026. Published a Legislative Scorecard ahead of the 2026 session, and President John Halacy opposed a budget provision that would have repealed Virginia's campaign-finance audit law.

Looking Ahead: Year Two Priorities
Comprehensive Plan/ALU implementation, the Unified Sanitation District, school boundary transparency, the Georgetown Pike speed pilot and Exit 44, Potomac Interceptor rehabilitation and EQAC dissolution, the FY 2027 budget proposal, and casino/data-center policy. We're grateful to every member, volunteer, and board member who made this first year possible.

LAND USE & ZONING

Great Falls' Quiet Pressure Point: Infill Development and the Future of Our Tree Canopy
 

Drive down almost any street in Great Falls long enough and you'll pass it: a lot that, not long ago, sat shaded behind a deep tree line, now stripped to dirt and sod with a much larger house filling most of the buildable envelope. No rezoning case. No public hearing. No vote. Just a permit, a demolition crew, and a property that looks nothing like it did before.

This is Great Falls' quiet pressure point: small-scale infill and teardown-rebuild development, happening one lot at a time. It rarely makes a Board of Supervisors agenda, and no single project ever looks big enough to fight. But for a community defined by its wooded setting, larger lots, and rural feel, this lot-by-lot churn may matter just as much as any major rezoning — precisely because it's so easy to overlook.

What's Actually at Stake

The concern isn't that homes are changing — homes always change. It's what tends to go with that change: mature trees removed, green buffers thinned, impervious cover expanded, and the visual rhythm that makes Great Falls feel like Great Falls quietly worn away. Even a fully compliant project — one that checks every box in the zoning ordinance — can still leave residents feeling like something irreplaceable was lost. That gap between what's permitted and what's preserved is the real fight here.

Why It Adds Up

A single redevelopment can look minor in isolation. But these projects don't happen in isolation — they happen across hundreds of lots, year after year, and the effects compound: altered drainage, lost privacy, a different roadside appearance, a creeping sense of enclosure replacing openness. And unlike most planning fights, this one comes with a one-way door. Once mature trees are cut and a lot is built out to its edges, no ordinance, no mitigation plan, and no amount of landscaping brings back what took decades to grow.

The Real Question

The larger question for Great Falls isn't whether change happens — it's whether change happens on our terms. That means staying engaged on site design, tree preservation requirements, setbacks, and stormwater controls, and watching closely for any policy shift that touches lot-by-lot redevelopment. It also means recognizing that "preservation" in Great Falls isn't only about historic structures or large protected tracts — it's also about hundreds of ordinary, individually unremarkable decisions made on individual parcels, permit by permit.

Staying Vigilant, Not Reflexively Opposed

Great Falls doesn't need to oppose every teardown or every new build to protect its character. But it does need to stay alert to the kind of change that happens quietly, incrementally, and permanently — the kind that never trips a rezoning hearing but adds up to something irreversible. In a community built around its landscape, losing mature trees and open space one lot at a time isn't just a design question. It's a community question.

Noticed a redevelopment in your neighborhood that concerns you? Let us know — these are exactly the patterns CFGF wants to start tracking.

COMMUNITY IMPACTS (POWER BLIPS)

Why the Lights Flicker During Storms — And Why It's Still Happening Even With All That Tree Trimming
 

It's that time of year again — if you live in Great Falls, you've probably seen this during a storm: the lights blink off and on three times fast, then either stay on or go out completely. That's not random — it's Dominion's equipment automatically trying to fix the problem before it knocks out your power for good.

Here's the frustrating part. Dominion has been running an aggressive tree-trimming program in our area for years, and many residents still feel like the blinking and outages happen just as often as before. We hear this from neighbors constantly, and it's a fair question to ask: if crews are cutting back limbs all the time, why are we still losing power so much?

What's Actually Happening

When a tree branch brushes a power line, or lightning strikes nearby, it creates a brief short. To deal with this, Dominion's equipment automatically shuts the power off and back on — up to three times in a few seconds — to see if the problem clears itself. Each one of those tries is a "blip." It's a deliberate safety feature, not a malfunction. The goal is to avoid a full outage that would take hours to fix.

Why Great Falls Gets Hit So Often

Even with regular tree trimming, Great Falls is naturally one of the toughest areas in Fairfax County for the power grid to handle. We have heavy tree cover along roads like Georgetown Pike, Old Dominion, and Walker Road, plus the Difficult Run stream valley. Our neighborhoods are also served by long stretches of line with few backup routes, so one tree limb or one lightning strike in the wrong spot can affect a lot of homes at once. Trimming helps, but it can't eliminate the risk — branches grow back, storms get more intense, and there's only so much crews can cut without removing healthy trees people want kept.

What These Blips Can Do to Your Home Equipment

Most things in your house can handle a quick blip just fine. A few things are more sensitive:

• Air conditioning / heating units (HVAC): A fast off-on cycle can force the compressor to restart while it's still under pressure, which can trip it offline or wear it out faster.
• The control board in your HVAC system: This is the small "brain" that runs your thermostat signals. It's sensitive to power blips and can blow a tiny fuse — this is likely why some neighbors' systems stopped working after the last storm.
• Refrigerators and freezers: These usually have a built-in delay that protects them, but repeated blips can still cause hiccups.
• Well pumps and sump pumps: These can stall or shut themselves off as a safety measure, especially during heavy rain when they're already working hard.

What You Can Do to Protect Your Home

• Install a whole-house surge protector to guard against lightning-related spikes
• Ask your HVAC company about a "hard-start kit" to ease the strain on your compressor
• Consider a low-voltage protection device that keeps your HVAC offline for a moment until power stabilizes
• Use a battery backup (UPS) for routers, computers, and smart thermostats
• Have your HVAC system checked after a storm if it blows a fuse or starts acting strange

Why We're Sharing This

Understanding how the grid behaves — and why tree trimming alone hasn't solved the problem — helps us advocate more effectively for better infrastructure in Great Falls. It also helps residents protect their own homes in the meantime. As storms keep getting more frequent and intense, these power blips aren't going away soon. Knowing what to expect, and taking a few precautions now, can save you a repair bill later.

CFGF is dedicated to preserving the character, quality of life, and community values of Great Falls, Virginia.

www.citizensforgreatfalls.org

Email us at: CitizensforGreatFalls@gmail.com

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