Last night (11/14/07) Paul Mulligan and I spoke before the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) to argue against the "blank check" which APS has traditionally been given for use of their properties. We argued that the trailers should be subject to a permit review process. The BZA agreed with our position by a vote of four for, zero against, and one abstaining.

We had suggested a number of justifications for this BZA decision. As one might expect, they chose to endorse the most technical and limited of our arguments: that the trailers should be subject to the permit process because they are used for daycare rather than education. But, so what? ..... The important outcome of this decision is that the new trailers will soon be subject to argument and decision before the County Board.

After the meeting Paul and I talked about next steps. We were joined by Rick Epstein. (Rick was a leader in the recent successful effort to save Quincy Park; he was very helpful in our preparation for yesterday's meeting).

It seems to us that the next steps for the Rosslyn community are:
- focus on the upcoming hearing, and try to develop a community position on reasonable permit conditions for the trailers. A firm time frame for removal sounds like a winner.
- develop permit conditions that would tend to save the whole complex for future use as a school. The conditions should be consistent with continued use of the school for the arts and as a home for the Mongolian School.

Most importantly, we will need to show up at the permit hearing (date not yet set) in substantial, Really Substantial, numbers to show the County Board that the affected community cares about retaining our parkland and public space.

Mark Antell