Arlington County Civic Federation
January, 2014
Cherrydale Concerns for 2014 and on:
Preserve single family homes and current density. We do not want to be Virginia Squared, Colombia Piked, or Courthoused. 2-4 stories along Lee hwy is our max allowed with more 1-2 than 3-4. Westover would be a preferred model for development.
Beware of Cookie Cutter Approaches – Make policies flexible to fit the neighborhood.
Beware of County FADS
SITE PLANS – failure to listen to the community
County approved 2 which Cherrydale would not approve, both with insufficient parking for retail (Bromptons and Hunters Park). Their businesses are not doing well, just as we warned the County, due to lack of parking. Yet, despite Cherrydale fighting for Dominion Heights Site Plan County turned it down the first time, because it was fully parked. It took 4 years to get it approved, by then missing the market and construction prices rose. This increase in cost raised the price of retail lease making it hard to fill.
Failure of Oversight and Planning - Lee HWY Lessons and Recommendations
In repeated discussions with the County, the CCA emphasized certain important hard lessons and asked the County to incorporate a few new policies based on 4 tours of Lee Hwy with County engineers and representatives of the Manager’s office.
1. The first was to have DES actually show the CCA exactly where it plans to put utilities, specifically so we can avoid the oft-repeated excuse, “O it’s too late we spent all this money planing it here so now we can’t change it”. See photo Lincoln St Poles, utility boxes at I 66 on ramp corner.
2. Second, we asked for onsite walk thru of projects BEFORE starting, in the middle and at completion, so we are all assured of adequate planning and clean up. See Photos jagged metal from removed sign, bricks out of place, bus top glass left on ground for years.
3. Third - we asked that DES inspect contractor work at the end of each day. This way clean up can be assured, damage assigned (e.g. when construction trucks gash hwy trees), and mistakes caught promptly. We even volunteered Cherrydale residents to act as inspectors, if they just give us a heads up. If we know when work is being done we can send officers or neighbors out to examine the work. See photos construction related damage; Empty rusted utility boxes left hanging.
4. We asked that jerryrigging in the field be vetted by a senior county representative and better yet, by the CCA. While we understand engineers want to finish a day’s work quickly, we now have 2 very expensive examples of how “on the spot extemporaneous corrections” have been ruinous. The new walk-light on Pollard and Lee is one example (pole placed in middle of narrow walk) but the more notorious is the 3 large utility boxes placed on the corner of the property by the I66 on-ramp. Here engineers found an underground water sewer, so they created a 3 foot hill over it and then placed the 3-5 foot utility boxes on top. This created an eye sore at the entrance to Cherrydale, a scary place to walk by (too easy for thieves and attackers to hide behind the units just a foot from the sidewalk). It reduced the visibility of the down hill bike path as it connects to the sidewalk. And finally, it permanently blocked the CCA from planting shade trees here on the longest unshaded block in Cherrydale. It is an eyesore and discourages walking on this side of the street. A one day delay in order to plan collaboratively would have saved thousands of dollars and improved the project rather than leave less safe eyesores.
5. Lee Hwy Trees – have been planted and replanted 3 times in 15 years. They keep dying, due to poor choice, poor soil, incorrect planting, lack of water and construction damage. We need our trees to thrive. County is now finally incorporating some recommendations. We shall see. See photos.
6. Our final recommendation had been to have engineers walk their projects while wheeling strollers and or using wheelchairs. Seriously anyone trying either or both actions will have a more appreciative concept of the struggles and the needs of all pedestrians. See photos, wheelchairs, strollers unable to use sidewalk due to utilities. See most recent utility pole again blocking a sidewalk, placed 12/2013
Cherrydale Concerns for 2014 and on:
Preserve single family homes and current density. We do not want to be Virginia Squared, Colombia Piked, or Courthoused. 2-4 stories along Lee hwy is our max allowed with more 1-2 than 3-4. Westover would be a preferred model for development.
Beware of Cookie Cutter Approaches – Make policies flexible to fit the neighborhood.
- e.g. Sidewalks - 5 foot wide sidewalks are great, but should not be REQUIRED in older historic neighborhoods. NC projects have been voted DOWN after years of work on them because the county changed the rules from 3 ft sidewalks to 5 foot. That additional 2 feet would have taken away on-street parking. It means some of our streets will never have sidewalks. Please allow 3 ft sidewalks on older more narrow streets, if this is preferred by the association.
- Handicap Ramps where there is no sidewalk. The current rule that whenever street construction is being done, at least 2 corners must have handicap ramps EVEN IF THERE IS NO SIDEWALK is not merely stupid, and a waste of money, but it destroys mature trees and gardens. The Cherrydale NC plan for 20th and Kenmore is an example. On the NW corner of Lincoln and 20th the county insists on cutting down a tree and installing a handicap ramp though there is no sidewalk. The engineers are doing this all over county. We need to stop this. Another example is the south end of N Nelson as it enters the park. County added a very wide handicap ramp and severely narrowed the park entrance, limiting parking again.
- Traffic Calming – County allowed Site Plan Dominion Heights to add 50 new units, each with cars, but refused to allow speed humps on N Monroe even when developer said he’d pay for it. County to this day refuses to allow stop sign despite CCA and Maywood support and the 30% increase in density due to siteplan.
Beware of County FADS
- Reducing retail parking - The current County fad is to require less parking, forcing people to use alternative transportation. But this is bad for retail. The Cherrydale businesses that are doing well are ONLY those with full parking.
- Narrowing Streets – There is no evidence this is safer, but it is more inconvenient. County fad to narrow streets means more parked cars have their mirrors knocked off, more hit and runs. Yet 20 years ago County insisted on widening N Quebec, to neighbors objections. How about just listen to what the neighborhood wants?
- County decided to widen historic 20th between Monroe and Lincoln, as part of our NC Project. This project was about to destroy property values of 2 homes by removing all off-street parking. NO NC Project should ever lower anyone’s property value. It took intense work to preserve some of that parking. It pit neighbor against neighbor. Listen to the community.
SITE PLANS – failure to listen to the community
County approved 2 which Cherrydale would not approve, both with insufficient parking for retail (Bromptons and Hunters Park). Their businesses are not doing well, just as we warned the County, due to lack of parking. Yet, despite Cherrydale fighting for Dominion Heights Site Plan County turned it down the first time, because it was fully parked. It took 4 years to get it approved, by then missing the market and construction prices rose. This increase in cost raised the price of retail lease making it hard to fill.
Failure of Oversight and Planning - Lee HWY Lessons and Recommendations
In repeated discussions with the County, the CCA emphasized certain important hard lessons and asked the County to incorporate a few new policies based on 4 tours of Lee Hwy with County engineers and representatives of the Manager’s office.
1. The first was to have DES actually show the CCA exactly where it plans to put utilities, specifically so we can avoid the oft-repeated excuse, “O it’s too late we spent all this money planing it here so now we can’t change it”. See photo Lincoln St Poles, utility boxes at I 66 on ramp corner.
2. Second, we asked for onsite walk thru of projects BEFORE starting, in the middle and at completion, so we are all assured of adequate planning and clean up. See Photos jagged metal from removed sign, bricks out of place, bus top glass left on ground for years.
3. Third - we asked that DES inspect contractor work at the end of each day. This way clean up can be assured, damage assigned (e.g. when construction trucks gash hwy trees), and mistakes caught promptly. We even volunteered Cherrydale residents to act as inspectors, if they just give us a heads up. If we know when work is being done we can send officers or neighbors out to examine the work. See photos construction related damage; Empty rusted utility boxes left hanging.
4. We asked that jerryrigging in the field be vetted by a senior county representative and better yet, by the CCA. While we understand engineers want to finish a day’s work quickly, we now have 2 very expensive examples of how “on the spot extemporaneous corrections” have been ruinous. The new walk-light on Pollard and Lee is one example (pole placed in middle of narrow walk) but the more notorious is the 3 large utility boxes placed on the corner of the property by the I66 on-ramp. Here engineers found an underground water sewer, so they created a 3 foot hill over it and then placed the 3-5 foot utility boxes on top. This created an eye sore at the entrance to Cherrydale, a scary place to walk by (too easy for thieves and attackers to hide behind the units just a foot from the sidewalk). It reduced the visibility of the down hill bike path as it connects to the sidewalk. And finally, it permanently blocked the CCA from planting shade trees here on the longest unshaded block in Cherrydale. It is an eyesore and discourages walking on this side of the street. A one day delay in order to plan collaboratively would have saved thousands of dollars and improved the project rather than leave less safe eyesores.
5. Lee Hwy Trees – have been planted and replanted 3 times in 15 years. They keep dying, due to poor choice, poor soil, incorrect planting, lack of water and construction damage. We need our trees to thrive. County is now finally incorporating some recommendations. We shall see. See photos.
6. Our final recommendation had been to have engineers walk their projects while wheeling strollers and or using wheelchairs. Seriously anyone trying either or both actions will have a more appreciative concept of the struggles and the needs of all pedestrians. See photos, wheelchairs, strollers unable to use sidewalk due to utilities. See most recent utility pole again blocking a sidewalk, placed 12/2013
Recent examples of problems:
And more examples from over the years...