The 10th and 11th WRAPS meetings will take place this week and next. These will be the first meetings since the Radnor/Ft. Myer Heights Civic Association and NRCA jointly submitted a letter requesting the County Board revise aspects of the charge pertaining to open space and historic preservation. In addition, the Historical Affairs and Landmarks Review Board approved historic district designation of the Wilson School on January 21, 2015.

If you would like to continue following the WRAPS process, please consider attending these meetings. There may be an opportunity for public comment, but these are often limited.

Additionally, if you have thoughts or ideas you wish to have conveyed to the staff or WRAPS chair, please let me know.

Historical Affairs Board Votes Historic Desgnation for Wilson School

From: Stan Karson, Jan 25 at 11:31 AM

On November 15, twelve of us sent a formal request to the County's Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) asking that the 1910 Wilson School building be given historic district designation. This past Thursday, the HALRB met on our request.

In almost three hours of discussion, in which APS staff spoke at length against designation, while several of us from the community asked for approval, the 12 members of the HALRB voted unanimously to designate the Wilson School as a historical district. All members spoke, many with feeling, in favor of historic designation, and many too voiced strong criticism of the School Board for ignoring the historic value of the school and forgetting that APS is primarily a "steward"of the property which is basically owned by Arlington citizens.

Of course, this now goes back to the School Board.

I thought you would want to know the outcome of this important HALRB meeting.

Stan Karson

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Note from Mark Antell:

In my opinion, reactivation of Wilson School (plus use of the school and grounds for community activities in non-school hours) would be far preferable to any other plan that I've seen.