Speak back to plans to ‘develop’ the Wilson Site.

The Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study (WRAPS) has proceeded over the past year toward its pre-designated conclusion to develop the Wilson site (School, Park, Playfields). The WRAPS recommendations are terrible for our community: preservation is dismissed, most of the site would be intensely developed with access roads and tall buildings; and very very little open space would be preserved for park and recreation.

Upcoming on Saturday (tomorrow) starting at 8:30 AM at Key Elementary, county staff will lead a four and one half hour (!!!) presentation of WRAPS plans including some limited opportunity for citizen comment.

Rather than sitting through hours of power-point nonsense, a few of us plan instead to stand at the entrance handing out printed notices bearing statements like:

“Preserve Wilson School and Fields”

“Develop our Park ?? That’s Nuts !”

“Preserve our limited Green Space !”

I recommend people come to the meeting timely; grab a sign; hold it up awhile once you get inside; and then leave. You’ll do something to save our park, and you’ll save your Saturday for family and personal responsibilities.

Mark Antell

See the article below discussing 'Arlington County Civic Federation' response to current County government initiatives to develop public green space.
Mark Antell, NRCA board member

----------------------------

Civic Federation wants Arlington’s ‘Public Land for Public Good’ process to start over
by SCOTT McCAFFREY, Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, December 3, 2014 8:00 am
Published in the Arlington SunGazette, and InsideNOVA.com

http://www.insidenova.com/news...73-27f281aa5601.html

A nearly unanimous Arlington County Civic Federation on Dec. 2 voted to recommend the county government go back to square one on its Public Land for Public Good initiative, this time incorporating a community process from the outset. Civic Federation president Michael McMenamin said the 51-2 vote represented a triumph of “trying to find some consensus and common ground” among competing factions of his organization and the broader public. “This has been a difficult process, to say the least,” said McMenanim, who spent much of the past two months cajoling various Civic Federation committees to come together to “speak with one voice” on the issue.

The vote appears to be another nail in the coffin for the county government’s Public Land for Public Good effort. A week before, the Long Range Planning Committee of the Planning Commission also recommended the process be halted to provide for more community input.
A year ago, in response to pressure from affordable-housing advocates, County Board members directed County Manager Barbara Donnellan to compile a list of sites that could be used for new facilities ranging from affordable housing to schools. Donnellan’s draft list set off a firestorm of protest, largely from those who feared open space would be sacrificed for other uses – something housing activists denied would happen.
The effort also drew complaints that it was circumventing “the Arlington Way” of community dialogue and discussion early in any planning process.

The Civic Federation resolution “recommends basically a planning process that would look at all potential needs and uses, reviewing everything,” said Jackie Snelling, who chairs the organization’s public-service committee. It proposes, she said, “a process for planning and coming up with a plan.” Such a lopsided vote would have seemed unlikely just a month ago, when multiple Civic Federation committees weighed in with often contradictory recommendations. Wielding the powers of office, McMenamin said the matter wouldn’t be brought back up until all committees agreed on common language – which they did. “This is a consensus position. We can go forward with it, and be proud of it,” said Kathryn Scruggs, who chairs the federation’s housing committee. “It takes us to a point where there’s plenty of discussion and plenty of community input.”
From the outset of the Dec. 2 meeting, McMenanim discouraged efforts to dilute or amend the consensus position. “I don’t want this to be a ‘Robert’s Rules’ kind of gamesmanship,” he said. “I do not like that. We worked very hard to get to this point, to be on the same page.”

Yet Robert’s Rules of Order did come into play when federation delegate Bernie Berne proposed a substitute resolution, focusing solely on the impact of affordable housing on the public-lands process. Berne complained of the generality of the consensus resolution.
“There’s no meat,” he said. “It’s so broad the County Board will never, never, never approve it.” McMenamin ruled Berne’s motion out of order. Berne challenged the ruling, but delegates backed the president on a 44-6 vote before moving to adopt the main resolution.
“It may not be perfect, but it goes a long way,” delegate Peter Olivere said of the compromise that was adopted.

The discussion and vote was another indication that county residents – those involved in the planning process, at least – are increasingly willing to push back against the county government. County Board members last month derailed the Columbia Pike/Crystal City streetcar proposal due to a lack of community consensus, and earlier in the year postponed consideration of the Long Bridge Park aquatics center over cost concerns.
Even if the county government embarks on a full-fledged community dialogue on the Public Land for Public Good initiative, there’s no guarantee various interest groups will be willing to work toward a compromise. But McMenamin said a better chance at forging consensus would result from “taking a step back to see if the process up to this point has been the right process.” “It seems it hasn’t,” he said.

Thank you for sharing this, it gives hope with regard to this and other unnecessary loss of public space issues.

It is urgent for NRCA area residents to stay involved and responsive to the County's outreach efforts. I'm trusting the NRCA will alert us when our feedback is needed. Thank you for posting the Civic Federations report. I found their website to be helpful as well: http://www.civfed.org/

Demolition of Wilson School, and construction of a mega school which would largely cover the entire site, comes up for an Arlington Public Schools (APS) Board vote on 12/18.

Is the mega-school unstoppable? Well, until a couple of weeks ago, the Columbia Pike Trolley was a certainty. Now it’s derailed. So, perhaps expensive, harmful projects aren't inevitable unless we give up.

I encourage NRCA members to write to the APS Board at school.board@apsva.us
to tell them that plans for the Wilson site should not ignore local community needs.

We do have allies among civic activists throughout Arlington. In 2007, the Arlington County Civic Federation (CivFed) adopted a resolution on the “Use of the Wilson School Grounds.” The resolution recognizes the site to be “the only athletic field in ... an areas with more than 15,000 residents,” and calls for preserving greenspace and active recreation areas: CivFed reaffirmed its position in November of 2013.

The CivFed 'Use of Wilson School Grounds' resolution can be found at:
http://www.civfed.org/resparks0704.htm
Feel free to cite it in letters to APS

Mark Antell
NRCA Board, and Co-chair CivFed Parks Committee