Discontent over changes to the Bicycle Advisory Committee has continued, with some members now appearing in open revolt against County Manager Mark Schwartz.
At a Nov. 3 meeting, some went so far as to suggest the BAC no longer serves a clear purpose, given its reduced role.
With election season in the rear-view mirror, Arlington’s civic and political leaders are again turning to potential changes in the county’s form of governance.
But while several local organizations have given the concept their blessing, a key state legislator who supported efforts in the 2025 legislative session has said she wants to hold off in 2026.
Falls Church officials plan to start looking into options for limiting or banning the use of gas-powered leaf blowers within city limits.
Among the issues remaining to be determined, likely early next year, is whether city leaders already have the power to enact a prohibition — or if they must wait for approval from the state government.
The 2026 General Assembly session could bring another political tug-of-war between some County Board members and a state legislator representing the local community.
The past two years saw debate over the appropriate sequence of events in tackling any major change to Arlington’s governance structure.
The tennis courts at Bluemont Park are getting a multimillion-dollar overhaul aimed at creating a regional showplace for the sport.
County Board members unanimously approved a $6.5 million construction contract on Tuesday for a project that began the planning phase in 2018 but was halted during the pandemic era before being restarted. While advocates spoke to the need for improvements to the crumbling facilities, the vote also earned flak from a local pickleball enthusiast.
A proposal to designate an Arlington Mill garden-apartment complex as a local historic district will not move forward following opposition from the property owner and neighborhood civic association.
Members of the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) voted Oct. 15 not to embark on a staff study of the historical significance of the 1940s-era Haven Columbia Pike apartments. The vote concluded a three-year gestation period after the proposal was submitted by local activist Bernie Berne.
Some members of two Arlington advisory bodies are unhappy with changes being imposed on their groups’ responsibilities.
A joint meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Committee and Pedestrian Advisory Committee last week offered a chance for the groups reporting to County Manager Mark Schwartz to lay out the new ground rules that Schwartz has requested. But the general sentiment on those advisory groups was that the changes could be costly to transportation planning in the long run.
Missing Middle’s critics are launching another round of opposition as Arlington County returns to accepting permit applications for this kind of construction.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit over Arlington’s Expanded Housing Option filed an emergency motion yesterday (Monday) in the Supreme Court of Virginia. They’re seeking to block a Virginia Court of Appeals order that allows the county to resume issuing permits for multifamily construction in previously single-family-only neighborhoods.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia’s Democratic candidate for attorney general has apologized for widely condemned text messages from 2022 that revealed him suggesting that a prominent Republican get “two bullets to the head.”
The texts put the Democratic challenger, Jay Jones, on the defensive in what has been a hard-hitting campaign. Early voting is well underway in Virginia ahead of the November general election.
Members of Arlington’s reconstituted Human Rights Commission are seeking to clarify what they can do when county staff’s attempts to mediate disputes fail.
It’s a rare circumstance, to be sure. Most formal complaints to the county’s human rights office are settled, dismissed or withdrawn at the staff level, and over the past year, county officials said there was just a single case where the complaint was found justified but no settlement could be reached.
Should Arlington Public Schools bring back school resource officers? Candidates running for School Board have starkly different opinions.
School Board candidate James “Vell” Rives IV used the Sept. 2 Arlington County Civic Federation candidate forum to press for a return of resource officers, known as SROs, which were removed from county schools four years ago.
An Arlington School Board member is cautioning Democrats against arguing with voters about the school system’s policies on transgender students this election season.
“Please don’t engage — you don’t need to get into a debate,” School Board member Zuraya Tapia-Hadley told attendees at an Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting on Wednesday.
