A new directive to focus more on big-picture advocacy and less on specific projects has Arlington’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee seeking more guidance about its role.
Some committee members say they understand the reasoning behind County Manager Mark Schwartz’s request last month. However, they don’t want to give up entirely on providing input about individual projects or policies — which they see as an important public service.
“I don’t think we should stop with that,” committee Chair Eric Goodman said at a meeting last week. The goal, he said, is “figuring out who in the county government is the right person for that level of feedback, now understanding that it’s going to fall on deaf ears if we send it up to the county manager.”
Schwartz told committee members last month that they need to change their focus. Instead of evaluating and providing input on particular initiatives, he said they should look more broadly at issues impacting pedestrians across the county.
David Patton, who serves as the county’s liaison to the committee, reinforced that edict on April 9.
The directive “requires the committee working together in a very different way,” he said.
The committee’s past practice had been to look, at times microscopically, at individual planning efforts. Schwartz appears to believe that’s not an efficient use of anyone’s time.
Patton drove the point home. “There’s a plea, almost, from my professional colleagues: ‘Don’t keep bugging us about how we do our job,'” he said.
Some on the committee said they see the logic in that.
“What [Schwartz] said was reasonable,” PAC member John Armstong said. “I can understand he doesn’t want the minutiae.”
However, Goodman added that he feels in need of more guidance.
“We need to … hear from the county on what they would like to hear from us,” he said.
The point-person for the committee is likely to remain Patton, who said he was appreciative of members’ work and that of those on other transportation-related advisory committees.
“I have spoken up repeatedly and I think strongly for the role of the people on the committees who have been doing this long-term — folks who have been dedicated to watching out for these issues,” he said.
PAC member Pamela Van Hine said the body already has been doing the kind of high-level oversight sought by Schwartz. She pointed to input made on the redevelopment of Gateway Park and planning for the CC2DCA bicycle/pedestrian trail to connect Crystal City with Reagan National Airport.
“These are key projects for us, and we deserve real engagement,” she said.
Committee colleague Eric Malpeli worried that if the committee’s input is limited too much, its concerns might be “drowned out” in the broader discussion.
At the March meeting, Schwartz suggested he might want to merge the Bicycle Advisory Committee and Pedestrian Advisory Committee. Hine said she had heard that the Transit Advisory Committee also might be merged into a combined panel.
Unlike full-fledged commissions like the Transportation Commission, which have a direct, statutory pipeline to County Board members, those three transportation committees report to Schwartz.
