Hello all,

I am writing to inquire if there are any plans for the Rosslyn Highlands Park to be renovated, and if not, how we can push for the county to allocate funding for this?

This is the park I'm referring to:
http://www.arlingtonva.us/Depa...ynHighlandsPark.aspx

Currently, it has only a small, older playground and a basketball court. This park and Dawson Terrace are the only parks with playgrounds in North Rosslyn, and the Dawson terrace park is across Lee Highway and not as accessible to those of us south of Lee Highway.

I believe the community would very much benefit from a renovation of this park, particularly given the lack of much open space in Rosslyn and the number of families with small children. I've seen many Arlington county parks renovated in the past several years, and the Rosslyn Highlands park remains one of the oldest ones I have seen in my personal experience. It lacks some basic amenities like swings, picnic benches, etc and the equipment is fairly old at this point.

Many families (ourselves included) will actually leave Rosslyn to go to nearby, better Arlington parks, but all except for Dawson terrace require driving.

Please let me know how to best go about pushing for this, if there are not yet plans in place. My wife and I can forward this information on to other families and try to get as many people involved as possible.

Thanks,
Neal Desai
(resident/owner of Highgate townhome)

Dear Neal:
Rosslyn Highlands Park will be part of the upcoming "Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study" or "WRAPS" that will examine the parcels comprising the Fire Station, the park, and the Wilson School site along with the site on Wilson Boulevard where the CVS is (owned by the developer Penzance) and the Queen's Court Apartments site (owned by APAH). The county hs issued a charge containing its goals for the combined site and we are expecting a series of meetings to be held, but as yet nothing has been scheduled. More information on WRAPS is in our folder for Wilson School on the forums page.
As far as near term renovation of the park, the basketball court was recently refurbished and the BID made some improvements to the small green area with refurbishment of seating and plantings in that area of the park. More should be done, particularly in the "tot lot" area.
NRCA would appreciate (and back with any political power we might have) an effort by residents to refurbish the park and update its equipment in the short term. Perhaps the BID would assist in this effort, since it has been effective in making improvements in other sections of the park.
Thanks,
Jennifer

I agree with this gentleman. It is a shame that families have to travel so far out of Rosslyn to visit a park.

Highland Park needs to be renovated, especially the playground, which is too small to meet the growing number of children who use it, and the equipment is outdated.

We all need to push the county to utilize the Wilson School grounds to be a real park and play area, and incorporate it into Highland Park. Other than Wilson School, there are no areas left in Rosslyn for children to have a play area that is accessible, free from traffic and other constraints, and enjoy being a child.

Gateway Park just does not offer what the Wilson School grounds could, and should offer for a decent park in Rosslyn for all age groups to enjoy.

Hello Neal -

I tried a few years back to start an initiative and apply to get the county to redevelop the park area, but I did not have much luck. Here is the initial correspondence, basically after Jason got in touch with me, I reached out several times and never got a response.

HERE IS THE EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE:
ARLINGTON COUNTY INITIAL RESPONSE:
Jennifer -- As promised per our phone conversation today, I'm cc'ing Lyndell Core, Park Manager for Rosslyn Highlands. He'll know the park in much more intimate detail than I would and might be able to give you a sense of the issues he faces. I'm also cc'ing Lisa Grandle, who oversees the development and design of Arlington County's Parks.

Lyndell and Lisa: We received a GRAM from an inquiry Jennifer made about proposed improvements to Rosslyn Highlands Park. I called and spoke with her today and suggested that she talk to you about her proposals. I've copied her original email below for your reference. I will close the GRAM and let the County Manager's Office know that we are in touch with Jennifer. You will see in her email below that she asked about bringing her proposals to the County Board on October 18th. I suggested to her that she speak with you first before moving forward so that she could have all of the relevant information regarding this particular park. Jennifer's contact info is:

Jennifer Berenbaum
jdlocke75@gmail.com
703-593-2544

Jennifer--thanks again for writing us with your proposals and for taking the time to make Arlington a great place to live. It is your kind of commitment to community that will enable us to continue to thrive. Please don't hesitate to call or write me should you have have further questions. In the meantime, you are in good hands with Lyndell and Lisa.

Regards,

Jason
Jason Harrison
Communications Coordinator
Arlington County Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services
(703) 228-3333

MY INITIAL INQUIRY:
Good Morning Arlington County Board Members,
My name is Jennifer Berenbaum and I am a resident of the Highgate community in Rosslyn. I am writing to you on behalf of many families in the Rosslyn area who have expressed an avid interest in improving the playground/park located off of N. 18th St behind the Rosslyn Fire Station and Wilson School. Last spring the basketball court where the firemen regularly play was resurfaced, but the playground adjacent to this basketball court is in dire need of improvement.


With the recent influx of young families in the Rosslyn area there is much more demand on this small playground area and there are several things we would love to do to improve the area and make it more diverse for children of all ages. I've included some of the suggestions from our neighborhood meetings:
- resurface the playground area with a safer/ cleaner material
- add a swing set with 2 baby/toddler swings and 2 regular swings
- add a sand box
- add 1 or 2 picnic tables under the tree area
- replace current playground set with a new set that would maximize the play space


As you know this is the only playground area in our immediate neighborhood that accommodates hundreds of families in the Highgate Community and surrounding single family homes, as well as all of the immediate condo and apartment buildings. I know that there is a huge amount of support for these improvements from the local families and neighbors in our area, and we would love the opportunity to talk with you about how we could make this happen.


Please contact me to let me know the next step in submitting a formal proposal for improvements. I know that you have a board meeting coming up on Tuesday, October 18th, would this be the appropriate venue to bring up these playground improvements?


I look forward to hearing from you soon.


Sincerely,
Jennifer Berenbaum
jdlocke75@gmail.com
703-593-2544

Sorry - also meant to add to my post - that I would be happy to reach out again - or work with those who would like to try to make this renovation happen.

Thanks for the all the feedback and support.

I've read about the WRAPS project and am particularly excited about the plan for a 60,000 sf open space for the community. I hope this would include a playground for children. My concern is that it is still a "study". What is a realistic timeframe for such a redevelopment? I also wonder how the recent news of building a new school instead of a multi-use commercial building on the Wilson School site will alter the timeline?

I have to imagine that such a project will take several years at minimum. I wonder if my children will still be interested in a playground by the time this is all done?

I would like to see the county invest right now in improving the playground and to have it meet the quality of playgrounds throughout the remainder of the county. Perhaps any new equipment could be reused when the WRAPS project actually gets put into place.

I'll follow up with the links and e-mails some of you have provided and will update the forum on any additional information I can get.

Thanks,
Neal

I studied the economic impact of public parks in 2008 as part of my MBA at Wharton. It is well established that parks have many benefits, including financial, to the surrounding community. Removing Rosslyn Highlands Park would be a serious detriment to our community and to our property values. Especially with the significant increase in density for the adjacent new middle school, it will be even more important to maintain a neighborhood park in this location. Shared use of school fields after hours does not have the same benefit as a dedicated community park.

This article shows that the County is proposing Rosslyn Highlands Park as one of four new sites for affordable housing developments, and that this is "already in the planning process." This is in addition to the redevelopment of the Key Boulevard Apartments, and seems to preempt the WRAPS Study process that is supposed to start next month.
http://www.arlnow.com/2014/05/...-county-owned-sites/

This link describes the financial and social impacts of parks. It is the most brief explanation I could easily find, but there are many studies showing economic impacts to nearby property values. (3-page PDF)
http://www.planning.org/citypa...nomicdevelopment.pdf

Also, note the underlined changes in the link below for the WRAPS Working Group Charge made on May 13. Changes include open space of "at least" 60,000 SF changed to "up to" 60,000 SF, "which could include athletic field(s) and interior space within the school to be used jointly." Also, "public park" was removed, and changed to "passive and active recreation areas."
http://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaw...Charge_2014-0513.pdf

We will need to be persistent in working with Arlington to keep our only neighborhood park -- in order to maintain its positive impact on both our well-being and our property values.

Great comments, Laura, and I could not be more disheartened by these developments. I would like to also bring up the fact that my apartment building (Metro Rosslyn), which currently includes ~35 market rate affordable units, will soon be eliminated without the blink of an eye. It upsetting that we would upend our only park space to build affordable housing, blocks away from where we let affordable housing be wiped away without uttering a word of protest.

Also, I am prepared to draft a note to the County Board, outlining our grievances noted above. I'm guessing I have support from NRCA to do so? Let me know if you want to collaborate or have objections.

Katie, I just received the Public Notice this morning about the proposed re-zoning of 1401 Wilson Blvd and 1400 Key Blvd. thank you so much for taking our concerns to the Planning Board.

Although I have followed these proposed plans from the beginning, reading the Public Notice today I felt suddenly like I was reading a description of the well planned public execution of Rosslyn.

I am newly disgusted to realize how easily it will all disappear, the Rosslyn Community, the Rosslyn Metro Apartments, and how easily it will be replaced by Manhattan on the Potomac. The new New York. with the air pollution, massive traffic jam, cars and pedestrians, all will pile up at Key Blvd and Nash. It will all happen so easily, but I also say NOT thoughtlessly because it has been so well planned, by Arlington County. See all the pretty pictures in the Rosslyn Vision pamphlet if there is any doubt at all.

Even despite many other concerns of safety, of air quality, of noise, presented to all of us who live here, who try to work here, to walk in, to shop in, what was once a very desirable Rosslyn community....

No more. Suddenly, all I could think about was Watergate, yes, no kidding, Watergate, it was like, to paraphrase John Dean, "there's a cancer growing on Rosslyn," and yes, after all these years, I could still hear the echos of "Deep Throat," whisper "just follow the money."

In Rosslyn today, "just follow the money" translates to just increase our Arlington County tax base, no matter what it costs.

Thank you, Marsha Turner Rochow

Dear friends,
Thank you for drawing our attention to all this and to the implications. I support our trying to influence things to the extent we can. All this sky-scraper obsession is quite disturbing and does indeed have noise, sun and traffic implications to all of us. Ultimately, Arlington will lose out if it drives residents away: it's one thing to work in a Manhattan-like environment (structurally speaking), but who wants to live there in a metro area generally blessed with low-rise/sunshine and open space?

I sent this e-mail to Lyndell Core whom I believe is the park manager for Rosslyn Highlands and also to "countyboard@arlingtonva.us". I will update the forum when I hear a response.

hi Lyndell,

I'm hoping you can give us some additional information regarding the Rosslyn Highlands Park as a planned new site for affordable housing. An article regarding this was posted on ARLnow here:

http://www.arlnow.com/2014/05/...-county-owned-sites/

There has been some additional discussion and strong opposition to this on the North Rosslyn Civic Association forum here:

https://community.northrosslyn.org/ev...20933373#64320933373
This plot of land is part of the WRAPS study (Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study) and is adjacent to the Wilson School which is currently proposed as a site for a new school. However, this is the first we have heard of the park to be removed. There is no information as to whether a new park would be constructed.

This park is the only green space in North Rosslyn. Although it is outdated compared to other parks in the area (as I discussed in the forum), we value it immensely. The loss of the only green space and park in the neighborhood would be a tremendous loss to the community. I believe it would significantly decrease the quality of living and could even negatively impact property value. I would love to see the park redeveloped into a better green space for the community, along with a playground for children. An attractive, central green space could be utilized by residents and workers in the area alike, and would be a boon for adjacent retail.

Please provide us with more detail regarding this plan as soon as possible. I will do whatever I can to prevent us from losing this park, and will rally my fellow residents and the NRCA in support of this.

Even Manhattan has Central Park!!!
On board for "Occupy Highlands"?

I received the following response to my e-mail from Arlington County (below). I've also attached the WRAPS charge which he sent to me.

Mr. Desai:

The attached Working Group Charge lists a number of goals to be achieved through the Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study (WRAPS), including a new school, a fire station, affordable housing, and recreation and open space. The Working Group will be considering how to balance all of these goals. For more information about the process, please visit the County’s WRAPS web page:

http://projects.arlingtonva.us...dies/land-use/wraps/

The process will begin with the Working Group’s Kickoff Meeting & Walking Tour on Saturday, June 21st from 9AM – 12PM at the Wilson School. The planning process is anticipated to run though next spring, when final recommendations will be forwarded to the County Board.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact me.

Richard J. Tucker
Principal Planner
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY PLANNING, HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT
2100 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 700
Arlington, VA 22201
703.228.3525; 703.228.0069 (direct)
www.arlingtonva.us rtucker@arlingtonva.us

WRAPS_Charge_-FINAL_May_2014.pdf (320 Kb, 269 downloads) WRAPS charge

Based on the WRAPS charge, it seems to me the ARLnow.com article oversimplified the situation by saying that the Rosslyn Highlands Park/Firestation are to be used as sites for affordable housing.

The WRAPS charge lists many identified goals and parameters to be studied:

"Recreation and open space that is up to 60,000 square feet in size; which could include athletic
field(s) and interior space within the school to be used jointly by the school and the community, and
other open space that replaces the existing playground and basketball court located within Rosslyn
Highlands Park or provides similar needed passive and active park and recreational amenities for use
by the community;"

"Open Space. The location and general use of up to 60,000 square feet of passive and active recreation
and open spaces within the study area.
- What are the types of recreational amenities to be included in the Study Area, and how do they
meet the area’s park and recreation needs?
- How are the open spaces throughout the site connected to the surrounding neighborhood and
how do they relate to each other?
- Where should the recreation and open space be located and how should it be configured?"


I am concerned about the vague language used to define recreation and open space. The language currently includes interior space within the school to count towards the 60,000 sf, and also describes joint use of open/recreation space by the school and community.

I would like to see the goal for recreation and open space to be limited to outdoor space only. Clearly, interior space cannot substitute for park/outdoor space. As currently written, we could lose substantial park and outdoor space depending on how it is planned out.

I would also like to see a defined goal for outdoor park/recreation space that is designated to Arlington County parks, and is not shared with the school. In fact, the current outdoor park space designated to Arlington County parks should not be decreased in any way. As Rosslyn becomes more urban, preservation of park space becomes more important for the community. Shared recreation space with the school would limit access to this space by the community given typical scheduled school activities. I don't think that outdoor recreation space for a school and outdoor recreation space for a community are necessarily overlapping goals.

Finally, I'd like see a playground listed as a defined goal for the outdoor space. There is no other playground in North Rosslyn. Given the increasing number of small children in Rosslyn, it is crucial that we don't lose this asset.

Please share your thoughts. I'm also asking for input from the experienced and very involved members of the NRCA on how to best push for the goals of the community regarding the WRAPS project.

Thanks,
Neal

Some thoughts on useful action to modify plans for intense development of Wilson School and Rosslyn Highlands Park.

The Arlington Public School (APS) Board is now planning development at the Wilson School site that would remove the Wilson School and most of its green/rec space to build a mega-sized ‘urban school.’ Meanwhile, Arlington County is considering long term plans for Rosslyn Highlands Park to perhaps include affordable housing and commercial development.

I think now would be a good time to speak out. Here are some suggestions:

A number of middle school parents whose children would likely be affected by the mega-school, have prepared an on-line petition to the APS Board. Their petition includes many of our concerns. Three days after its intial posting almost 500 Arlington citizens have signed this petition. Please consider adding your voice.
http://petitions.moveon.org/si....em.cp&r_by=10703771

Another thought: it’s easy to write to the Arlington Public Schools (APS) Board and the County Board. Some addresses:
- school.board@apsva.us
- countyboard@arlingtonva.us
I think it a good idea to post a copy of your note to our NRCA Forum.

A spoken statement may be more effective than a letter. Both boards allow short statements from the public about agenda or non-agenda items. There’s also a lot to be said for simply raising the issue among friends, or on Arlington news sites like nova.com or arlnow.com, or perhaps on social web sites.

The APS Board is scheduled for decision-making on Wilson School at their June 16 special meeting on the Capital Improvement Plan. They will meet at the Education Center on Quincy, starting at 7:30. This is probably the venue to focus on just now. APS will accept written comment prior to the meeting, or, better yet, verbal comment at their meeting.

Wanted to make sure the neighborhood knew about the WRAPS kick-off meeting and walking tour this Saturday, 6/21, from 9am-noon. This is our chance to be a part of the process to determine what uses are planned for this site.

http://projects.arlingtonva.us...dies/land-use/wraps/