The concept of creating a foundation to support county parks is coming a little closer into focus.
“It’s a really good time to talk about those options and to think about what might be the best way to move forward,” said Jane Rudolph, director of the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation, at the Nov. 18 meeting of the Park and Recreation Commission.
County Board members have set public hearings next month on increasing taxi fares, expanding a Green Valley Park and designating a home as a local historic district.
The Board also set a hearing on possible changes to the county’s residential parking program, adopted a meeting schedule for 2026, approved an office-to-residential conversion project in Courthouse and approved a contract for new pedestrian bridges in two parks.
A key county advisory panel likes the proposal to ban gas-powered leaf blowers countywide, but doesn’t want to get too far into the weeds on specifics right now.
Members of the Arlington Park and Recreation Commission on Oct. 28 agreed to send a letter to County Board members, expressing support for the concept of outlawing gas blowers.
An government advisory panel may ask Arlington officials to increase funding to tackle invasive plants in county parks by up to 10 times current spending levels.
“We’re in crisis. The longer we wait, the less easy it’s going to be,” Park and Recreation Commission chair Jill Barker said at the body’s Sept. 23 meeting.
The Rosslyn Business Improvement District is seeking to bolster its neighborhood’s public amenities with a new pop-up park that opened yesterday (Wednesday).
NOW, which the Rosslyn BID installed, is a new half-acre public park located around a pair of offices at 1401 Wilson Blvd and 1400 Key Blvd. Slated for eventual redevelopment, the revamped site includes urban gardens, a terraced event space and “pet relief area.”
There’s a new wrinkle in the quest for a foundation to support Arlington County’s parks.
As Arlington’s Park and Recreation Commission considers the possibility of creating a nonprofit foundation for Arlington parks, Paul Gilbert, executive director of NOVA Parks, urged members to consider his organization’s experiences.
An Arlington County commission is throwing its weight behind a proposal to have the state government take over operation of Virginia’s national parks during federal shutdowns.
The Park and Recreation Commission agreed last week to include that recommendation as part of its 2026 package of state legislative priorities. The advisory body’s list will be forwarded to County Board members for final consideration.
A former truck depot on Columbia Pike that became a sudden and unexpected bus stop in 2019 could take on a life as a miniature park.
A property at 4110 Columbia Pike, currently home to a 7-Eleven and previously the site of a Penske truck rental, is one of three planned locations for “mini parks” included in the Barcroft Apartments development project.
The County Board is considering purchasing two single-family homes in Arlington: one for open space, the other for stormwater management.
Board members on Saturday are expected to consider purchasing one property at 1922 N. Upton Street for $1.1 million, and another at 6915 29th Street N. for $218,536.
With summer on the horizon, “spraygrounds” across Arlington are set to reopen tomorrow (Saturday).
Arlington is home to seven parks with splashing and water features. These will reopen from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. this Memorial Day weekend, with the exception of Penrose Square, which is closed for repairs.
Arlington officials are considering whether it would be worth establishing a community foundation to supplement funding for local park facilities and programming.
So far, however, there’s no firm consensus on the Park and Recreation Commission on whether this would be a good step to take.
Arlington’s parks are still among the best in the country — but they don’t rank quite as high as they used to.
For the first time since 2017, Arlington County’s parks failed to rank among the top five in the nationwide “ParkScore” rankings. They fell from No. 5 last year to No. 7, in between San Francisco and Seattle.
