County Board Meeting Roundup

In case you wanted to enjoy Saturday morning outside rather than spend it inside watching the first county board meeting following the summer break, here’s a summary of what happened.

• The board responded to public criticism of reduced library hours. Chairman Jay Fisette said “difficult choices had to be made.” The Sun Gazette has more.
• The board approved an amendment that authorizes the Arlington Mill Community Center project to move forward without an originally-approved residential component. A developer initially wanted to build a mixed use and a residential building on the site, but ran into financial difficulties. Instead of a five-story building that would consist of apartments and a 39,000 square foot public community center space, Arlington Mill will now be a five-story, 64,500 square foot stand-alone community center. The ground breaking is scheduled for the spring of 2011, and the community center is expected to open in the spring of 2013.
• The board approved a sign plan for the TD Bank at 5510 Lee Highway that included two lighted wall signs frowned upon by county staff. In his presentation to the board, a TD Bank representative spoke of the company’s frustration with the county’s stringent sign plan process. It took nearly two and a half years from when the initial design for the bank was approved to Saturday’s approval of the sign plan. That’s despite the fact that the signs were present in the bank’s initial design and received no objections from the local civic associations.
• A landlord withdrew its request to convert retail space in Crystal City Shops into office space.
• The board voted to protect six “specimen trees” at the request of four Arlington residents.