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.
County Board members on Saturday (May 10) unanimously approved a developer’s plan to demolish an existing office building in Clarendon to make way for a 309-unit apartment building.
“It looks good. It’s a very nice building,” Board Chair Takis Karantonis said of the project, proposed by Carr Properties, dubbed Clarendon Square.
One of the few remaining pieces of an abandoned railroad in East Falls Church is about to receive public recognition.
The Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) on March 19 approved the design of a commemorative marker to be located adjacent to remnants of a train trestle next to Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park.
A lack of commercial properties in Arlington’s development pipeline is having a negative impact on the community’s tree canopy.
The Arlington County government’s Tree Canopy Fund last spring had “essentially run out of money” and was being kept alive by a one-time, $250,000 appropriation from County Board members.
An Arlington government advisory body seems generally supportive of advocacy efforts to preserve mature trees along the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
But, cognizant of what happened to another advisory panel when it took too aggressive an advocacy stance, members of the Arlington Park and Recreation Commission on Dec. 10 opted to take more time before deciding how to proceed.
Plans for a four-sports-field complex on the campus of Kenmore Middle School have started working their way through the county government’s advisory process.
One of the key challenges still to be worked through as the process moves forward: How to manage parking issues around the new facility.
