Our next AWE2 meeting will be held on Saturday , July 19th from 9-11 am at CAFE SAZON on Columbia Pike. The café is Bolivian, and owner Adrianna Torres, her sister Claudia and their mother will be providing us with Bolivian breakfast items, as well as coffee, orange juice and champagne (for those who would like a mimosa).
Our topic is transportation planning in Arlington, which will feature a presentation by the Mobility Lab and a presentation of facts about the planned streetcar for Columbia Pike, along with an opportunity for Q&A.
Plan to car pool, if at all possible. There is parking in the front of the café and on the side of the building (near Goodwill).
Monday, June 2, 2014
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Sign our letter to the School Board
A few of us have been following the APS Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) fairly closely, and have written a letter to the school board listing a few of our concerns about the process.
We invite you to sign on to this letter, if you agree. We are not proposing a specific site or solution; rather, we are asking the School Board to improve the transparency of the process, and to directly include the impacted neighborhoods in the conversation. We have also requested that there be more detail on the costs, transportation and other impacts of the sites being proposed.
We would like to send the letter prior to the next school board meeting, and will be accepting signatures until JUNE 5th at noon.
To sign, follow this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/
We invite you to sign on to this letter, if you agree. We are not proposing a specific site or solution; rather, we are asking the School Board to improve the transparency of the process, and to directly include the impacted neighborhoods in the conversation. We have also requested that there be more detail on the costs, transportation and other impacts of the sites being proposed.
We would like to send the letter prior to the next school board meeting, and will be accepting signatures until JUNE 5th at noon.
To sign, follow this link: http://www.ipetitions.com/
Notes from our April 2014 Meeting - Topic: Schools and County Planning Processes
In April, approximately 40 of our members met at Lyon Park to hear how the Schools and County conduct their planning processes. We had two excellent presenters who are deeply involved in the planning process for the County and Schools, respectively.
Inta Malis gave a succinct yet thorough overview of County planning : what it is, why we do it, what we hope to achieve and some recent examples of large community planning processes. Arlington County has a site devoted to current Projects & Planning on the web: http://projects.arlingtonva.us/plans-studies/
Todd McCracken provided the recent history of APS planning, and provided a backdrop for how the current capacity situation has created a need to look at planning a bit differently on the School side. There was a recognized need to move beyond the regular two-year CIP planning cycle to a longer timeline. He explained the genesis of the new Master Planning Process that began this year, and its recent expansion into three groups with broader staff and citizen involvement. Information on the work of these groups can be found here: http://www.apsva.us/Page/25416
After both presenters were done, they fielded questions from the group. During the question and answer period, the organizers tried to capture the areas of consideration being raised by the group.
Todd McCracken provided the recent history of APS planning, and provided a backdrop for how the current capacity situation has created a need to look at planning a bit differently on the School side. There was a recognized need to move beyond the regular two-year CIP planning cycle to a longer timeline. He explained the genesis of the new Master Planning Process that began this year, and its recent expansion into three groups with broader staff and citizen involvement. Information on the work of these groups can be found here: http://www.apsva.us/Page/25416
After both presenters were done, they fielded questions from the group. During the question and answer period, the organizers tried to capture the areas of consideration being raised by the group.
As a community, how do we balance the following:
- Educational programs drive use/needs for facilities
- Recognize the link between County planning and demographics
- How big schools should be in Arlington? Parents value small class sizes and schools, but our capacity issues and limited space for schools is at odds with this stated value.
- How do density increases drive/change demographics?
- How does the current CIP impact into the master planning process (CIP decisions being made in June)? Why is the CIP being decided this year prior to the expected report from the Master Planning Committees in September?
- How to develop multi-purpose programs and site when we have limited land/ resources?
- Not all of the County's plans have visibility, though they exist. How to publicize their existence to the citizenry, and prioritize the goals of each when making planning decisions?
- What about educational links?
- Could schools be considered a community benefit from developers? Will the development community be asked to house schools in their sites? Long term leases?
- Discuss vision in tandem with realistic goals.
- Hot button planning happening now:
- update of Rosslyn sector plan
- Courthouse Govt Center and Plaza
- WRAPS (West Rosslyn Area Planning Study)
- Lee Highway
- Affordable Housing Study
- How diverse/ representative are the perspectives on the Master Planning Groups? Is it transparent?
- With long-term planning, how does the County communicate about vision and plans so that newer Arlingtonians are aware of them, educated on the goals and aren't surprised when some actions to further the plans are taken?
County and Schools Web Resources
Our April meeting explored key County and School planning processes now underway. One emergent theme was the need for better County-School joint planning and information sharing. Collectively, many of us are active on these processes, or at least follow them. Most have good websites for meeting info and documents:
- Schools CIP—a ten-year plan to build new schools, renovate existing schools and related-issues like boundary changes. http://www.apsva.us/moreseats
- County CIP—ten year plan for infrastructure, parks and other investments—paid for by general obligation bonds approved by ballot. Due to be adopted on July 19th. The public hearing is June 10, 2014 @ 7pm. Advanced sign up through the website is possible. http://budget.arlingtonva.us/
capital-improvement-program/ - Schools Master Planning Capacity Planning Project—meeting dates announced through June; on a fast track http://www.apsva.us/Page/25416
“The Master Planning committee was created to ensure that APS assesses all significant and potentially feasible future options for capacity planning for the District. To break down the work into more manageable pieces, three working groups were created to further explore, investigate and analyze particular topic areas. The results of these working groups will then be brought back to the overall committee for synthesis, conflicts, synergies, and scenario development.”
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