County Board | ARLnow.com

Morning Notes

Published April 18, 2011 at 9:03AM | Updated April 18, 2011 at 12:08PM

Capital Bikeshare Stations Launch in Rosslyn — Four Capital Bikeshare stations were quietly installed around Rosslyn on Saturday. There were no public notices or proclamations before the installation — unlike earlier in the week when officials announced that four stations were to be installed on Wednesday. The county followed up that announcement with a notice that the installation was delayed indefinitely. Update at 12:05 p.m. — See info on the installations from Bike Arlington. [Patch]

Humpback Bridge Work Nears Completion — The National Park Service expects construction on the Humpback Bridge reconstruction project to wrap up in mid-June. The final construction phase will allow a full merge from I-395 onto the northbound GW Parkway. [WTOP]

News

Board Approves East Falls Church Development Plan

By ARLnow.com

Published April 17, 2011 at 7:00AM

The plan calls for the creation of a mixed-use “neighborhood center” with open spaces, a public plaza and ground level retail. Some of the new development will be built on the Metro Park and Ride lot. The single family neighborhoods surrounding the station, meanwhile, will be preserved.

The height of the new residential buildings — a major source of concern for East Falls Church residents — will range from nine stories along I-66 to three stories closer to the single family homes. Lee Highway, Washington Boulevard and Sycamore Street will be redesigned to add bike lanes, on-street parking, trees and pedestrian improvements. The plan is also expected to add 100-250 units of committed affordable housing to the East Falls Church area.

News

Board Approves New $1 Billion FY 2012 Budget

By ARLnow.com

Published April 16, 2011 at 3:00PM

The budget is 5.1 percent higher than its previous budget, but yet contained no tax rate increase. Rising property assessments allowed the board to keep the property tax rate steady at 95.8 cents per $100. The personal and business property taxes will remain the same. Trash and recycling fees will decrease by 5 percent.

“Taking into account increase in real estate assessments and fee changes, the overall tax and fee burden for the average Arlington homeowner will increase 1.4% — or about $7 a month — an increase less than the current Baltimore-Washington region inflation rate of 3%,” the county said in a statement.

News

Green Party Official Plans Run for County Board

By ARLnow.com

Published April 14, 2011 at 1:46PM

“I do plan to run for County Board as a Green,” said Audrey Clement, a state Green Party officer and a national Green Party committee member. “However, I have not yet set up a campaign committee and filed my paperwork with [State Board of Election]. So I am not officially a candidate [yet].”

Clement’s campaign platform focuses on spending, housing and environmental concerns. On her web site, Clement says she wants to “focus funds on essential community services” like libraries, public safety, schools and the safety net, while “halt[ing] spending on wasteful building projects that we cannot afford” like the Columbia Pike streetcar and the Long Bridge Park aquatic center. She also criticizes the use of county funds for the Artisphere.

News

Budget Will Add Funds for Libraries, Lubber Run, Safety Net

By ARLnow.com

Published April 14, 2011 at 11:37AM

The County Board has allocated $258,000 to allow each branch library to stay open for an additional three hours per week. The funds will also support longer Sunday hours at the Shirlington and Columbia Pike libraries and allow the purchase of additional books and e-books.

The board is providing an additional $370,000 for park maintenance, Friday hours at the Lubber Run Community Center and for the restoration of seasonal programming at the shuttered Lubber Run Amphitheater. An additional allocation of $100,000 will fund early stages of restoring the amphitheater.

News

BREAKING NEWS — Budget Will Hold Tax Rate Steady

By ARLnow.com

Published April 13, 2011 at 11:26AM | Updated April 13, 2011 at 12:13PM

At a work session yesterday, the board instructed County Manager Barbara Donnellan to hold the tax rate steady at 95.8 cents per $100 in the final budget.

“They’re sticking with their initial guidance of no real estate rate increase,” county spokeswoman Mary Curtius confirmed this morning.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published April 12, 2011 at 8:31AM | Updated June 29, 2018 at 2:52PM

More Funds for Long Bridge Park — The county board is slated to decide whether to spend an additional $4.7 million to move forward with planning for an aquatics facility facility at the future Long Bridge Park, near Crystal City. [Sun Gazette]

Man Arrested in Metro Bomb Plot Sentenced — An Ashburn man who thought he was helping to plan a bombing of the Metro system was sentenced to 23 years in prison yesterday. Farooque Ahmed, 34, was accused of providing undercover federal agents with sketches, photos and videos of the Pentagon City, Courthouse, Arlington Cemetery and Crystal City Metro stations in what he thought was a plot to bomb the stations. [Washington Post]

News

Major Items on Board Agenda This Weekend

By ARLnow.com

Published April 11, 2011 at 11:16AM

First, the board is scheduled to vote on its FY 2012 budget, which has been the subject of numerous work sessions, public forums and community discussions. Then the board is scheduled to vote on the controversial East Falls Church development plan, which is several years in the making.

A significant amount of citizen input is expected for both items.

News

Lyon Village Parking Restrictions In the Works?

By ARLnow.com

Published April 6, 2011 at 10:03AM

Last week, residents of N. Danville Street and several other Lyon Village streets noticed county staff measuring street widths. Staff were reportedly checking to see if the streets were too narrow for trash trucks and fire trucks, as was the case with N. Edgewood Street in Lyon Park.

According to Lyon Village Citizens Association President H.K. Park, the county is considering restricting parking to one side of Danville and other neighborhood streets that county staffers have deemed too narrow. On Monday, the LVCA will meet to discuss the possible parking changes with county staff.

News

Artisphere Visitor Revenue 75 Percent Below Expectations

By ARLnow.com

Published April 1, 2011 at 11:39AM

In a presentation to the county board yesterday, county staff revealed that Artisphere admission and ticket income is projected at $174,202 for the financial year ending on June 30, 75 percent below the $789,912 in revenue that planners expected.

The shortfall was first reported in the Sun Gazette Editor’s Notebook blog.

News

Lubber Run Amphitheatre Supporters Question County Study

By ARLnow.com

Published March 30, 2011 at 2:00PM

Earlier this month Arlington County released a decidedly pessimistic study of the 43-year-old amphitheater and its surrounding grounds. The study, conducted by Neale Architects, concluded that bringing the amphitheater up to current code standards would require $2.5 million for an extensive renovation or a $3.5 million for a completely new facility, not including significant costs associated with Americans with Disabilities Act, Resource Protection Area and floodplain compliance.

The study “found a number of existing conditions that represent a hazard to public safety, including open trenches; steep grades; deteriorated benches; tilting walls; crumbling paving,” according to the county’s Lubber Run Amphitheater web site.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published March 25, 2011 at 9:14AM

Tax Rate Hearing Sparsely Attended — Compared to the three-hour, 75-speaker bonanza that was the March 22 budget hearing, last night’s County Board tax rate hearing was an intimate, low-key affair. The board heard a half hour of testimony from two polar opposite sides: those who want the tax rate lowered and those who want to see the tax rate raised. [Sun Gazette]

DCA Controller Suspended — An air traffic controller suspected of snoozing on the job while two planes landed has been suspended by the Federal Aviation Administration. While some are calling the incident a major safety failure, one retired pilot says the air safety system worked as intended when a regional air traffic controller stepped in to guide the planes. [Christian Science Monitor]