A proposed sidewalk in the Courthouse area has prompted debate among local residents, some of whom criticize the planned loss of parking spaces and trees.
County Board members on Oct. 17 voted to approve construction of a five-foot sidewalk along two blocks on the west side of N. Cleveland Street between 12th Street N. and Fairfax Drive.
The street already has a sidewalk on its eastern side. Building a companion sidewalk on the west is expected to result in the loss of nine mature trees and nine parking spaces.
Among those voicing concern at the Oct. 17 meeting was Carolyn Welshhans, who argued that removing parking spaces and cutting down trees for a sidewalk would be a senseless loss for little gain.
“Replacing a 21-foot hackberry tree with some seedling is not a replacement. It is not one-for-one,” Welshhans told Board members.
Vincent Blackwood, who also lives in the affected area, canvassed his neighbors seeking to gauge their opinion.
“I just went around and knocked on doors. Everyone I met was opposed — every single person,” he said. Blackwood estimated that only “one or two people on the block support it.”
Proponents of the new sidewalk said that those living on the road should look at the bigger picture.
“We’re trying to increase pedestrian safety,” said Charles Hernandez, representing the Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association.
The stretch of N. Cleveland Street sits several blocks south of Clarendon Blvd. “This is a very busy corridor,” Hernandez said.
At the Oct. 17 meeting, County Board member Susan Cunningham attempted to craft a compromise. She pressed county staff to be “a little more strategic” in engineering the project to provide “options that would improve pedestrian access while not necessarily blowing away all the trees.”
“There is a way to design this for improved pedestrian access,” Cunningham said. “We will leave it to [staff] to do the engineering work.”
“Flexible and nimble” efforts could save some of the nine mature trees, she suggested.
While the plan will result in the loss of parking spaces, the community’s residential parking district — District 6 — typically has sufficient parking availability during the daytime when restrictions are in place, county staff said.
“The only thing you will lose is a few parking spots literally in front of your doorstep, but not the parking capacity of the streets,” Board member Takis Karantonis said. “And the parking spots that are in front of your doors are, by any standard, completely substandard.”
Karantonis said the greater good needed to be considered.
“The civic association and the majority of the neighbors came together and said, yes, we have to fix this,” he said.
The sidewalk installation is part of a larger $1.9 million safety and accessibility project that will also bring improvements to the intersection of Fairfax Drive and N. Cleveland, which all sides seem to support.
“We all support the intersection. That safety does need to be addressed,” Welshhans said. Blackwood added he was “100% behind” intersection improvements.
The overall project had the support of the Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association and a majority of those surveyed by county staff as part of the Arlington Neighborhoods Program. It was recommended for funding by the Arlington Neighborhoods Advisory Committee.
