Arlington County Board members have a lighter-than-usual agenda as they plan to gather for their monthly meeting on Saturday (March 15).
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some items worth watching. Among them:
High School to Move (Again): Board members are expected to approve plans providing another temporary home for Arlington Community High School.
The alternative school, run by Arlington Public Schools, offers courses to students ages 16 to adult. Both daytime and evening classes are provided for approximately 300 students.
For the past two school years, Arlington Community High School has operated out of an office building in Ballston. Its previous home on S. Walter Reed Drive was demolished for the construction of the new Arlington Career Center, to be known as the Grace Hopper Center.
Ultimately, the high school is slated to get a permanent home in the PenPlace development in Pentagon City, part of a development agreement with Amazon. But delays in that project mean another temporary home is needed.
Amazon has agreed to provide space at the south building at Metropolitan Park, 1450 S. Eads Street, as a stopgap measure. The Board’s March 15 agenda includes expected approval of a site-plan amendment and use permit to make that happen.
The school system would receive space on the fourth floor, along with a first-floor reception area, exclusive elevator access connecting the two, and 50 parking spaces.
The building is about a third of a mile from the Pentagon City Metro station.
The facilities are “more than adequate” for the school’s needs, county staff said in a report to Board members.
As part of the deal, Arlington Public Schools’ moving expenses and fitting-out costs will be paid by the developer.
The Metropolitan Park space, Arlington leaders hope, will be the last temporary home for the school before it moves to permanent facilities. Under the agreement with Amazon, the 28,600-square-foot PenPlace space will be provided to Arlington Public Schools, rent-free, for at least 30 years.
Park Improvements, Pedestrian Safety: Board members are slated to authorize $1,214,860 in funding for two projects recommended by the Arlington Neighborhoods Advisory Committee.
If approved, the funding will support park improvements, including a modern tot lot, at Slater Park, located on N. Culpeper Street, as well as safety improvements on First Road S. from S. Glebe Road to Old Glebe Road.
Funding comes from neighborhood-conservation bonds approved by voters in 2022 and 2024. After spending the money, the account for such projects will have about $16.5 million remaining.
Wilson Blvd Redevelopment Project: Board members are expected to move the ball forward on a plan to redevelop 6045 Wilson Blvd from commercial to residential.
BCN Enterprises is seeking to raze the three-story, circa-1967 office building and replace it with 16 townhouses on the 0.86-acre parcel.
The project was vetted last year by the Planning Commission’s Long-Range Planning Committee. Saturday’s Board action will be to accept a staff study supporting changes in the county’s General Land Use Plan (GLUP) to permit eventual redevelopment.
Board members on Saturday also are expected to authorize advertisement of as-yet-unscheduled public hearings on the proposal.
The site is located in the Dominion Hills neighborhood just north of the Boulevard Manor community. The current office building is partially filled, containing offices of attorneys and accountants.
Changing the zoning from service-commercial to residential would represent a return to the past on the parcel, which from 1961-75 had been zoned as residential — even though, from the late 1960s onward, it housed office uses.
