The president of the newly formed Potomac Yard Arlington Civic Association says the organization is ready to make its mark in one of the county’s fastest-growing corridors.
The association was incorporated last fall and has applied for membership in the Arlington County Civic Federation, President Dorian Adeyemi told ARLnow.
“We’ve been focused on building a strong foundation by holding regular meetings every two months, establishing our organizational structure and beginning outreach to residents within our proposed boundaries,” he said.
The civic association’s coverage area is bounded by:
- To the north, Virginia Route 233 (26th Street S.)
- To the south, Four Mile Run
- To the east, George Washington Memorial Parkway from 26th Street S. to Four Mile Run
- To the west, S. Eads Street from Four Mile Run north to a point between 31st Street S and 33rd Street S., then crossing Richmond Highway (U.S. Route 1) and continuing north along Crystal Drive to 26th Street S.
“We’re expanding visibility, growing participation and starting to define the role we want to play to represent the neighborhood,” Adeyemi said. “We’re close to completing our first draft of a Neighborhood Plan.”
Civic Federation president Nicholas Giacobbe told ARLnow the proposal for membership is moving through the normal process.
“They’ve already discussed it with the adjoining associations — Aurora Highlands and Crystal City — and the borders are looking good,” he said. “Once the membership committee reviews the material, then it will go to our executive board and then for a vote at a general meeting.”
“I’m excited to see a civic association forming in this growing community in the vibrant National Landing area,” Giacobbe said, adding:
“They have assembled a group of members who want to tackle the important issues facing the community, such as the upcoming project on one of the last remaining vacant parcels, the noise and disruption from the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority fourth-track project and what will happen with the large retail space vacated by Harris Teeter. We look forward to welcoming PYACA as active members of CivFed.”
Boundaries of the new civic association do not encroach on any existing associations. In addition to the central Potomac Yard corridor in Arlington, it includes adjacent parcels, such as the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority bus-maintenance facility near Four Mile Run.
“While other civic associations in the 22202 zip code represent Crystal City, Pentagon City, Aurora Highlands and Arlington Ridge, our neighborhood hasn’t had a dedicated voice,” Adeyemi said.
“This matters because the issues in our community are distinct,” he said. “We are now better placed to collectively engage on these issues and advocate for practical solutions with the county and other stakeholders.”
Adeyemi said the time was right for a civic association to take root:
“Residential development has been ongoing in this neighborhood since the initial construction of the Eclipse in 2006, but the pace has accelerated significantly in recent years,” he said. “In the last five years alone, we’ve seen four new apartment buildings come online, and there was a proposal just last month for a 398-unit apartment building on the last undeveloped parcel in the community.”
“As a result, roughly half of the residences in the neighborhood have been built in the past five years, making this a uniquely young and rapidly evolving community. But at the same time, there is a core of longer-term residents who haven’t had a dedicated civic association representing their interests. It’s this combination of rapid growth and lack of formal representation that makes this the right time to move forward.”
There already is a Potomac Yard Civic Association on the Alexandria side of the corridor. Adeyemi said there were areas on which the two groups could work together.
“We see the potential to collaborate with our counterparts in Alexandria on both policy-related issues and community-building efforts,” he said. “We are tracking short and mid-term plans for residential and commercial development, the Virginia Tech campus and the future Crescent Park and its relationship to Short Bridge Park.”
Anyone interested in reaching out can contact the new civic association at [email protected] or [email protected].
