September 2020 Newsletter

[View the printed-format newsletter here]

SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

 

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Monthly Meeting Reminder Wednesday, September 9, 7-9pm ** VIRTUAL EVENT **   [Note – the order of the agenda may change] 7:00 Police / Crime Update. Arlington County Police will be on hand to share current crime statistics and answer questions you may have about recent crimes and police activities. 7:30 Legislative Update. State delegate Mark Levine will share progress made in the special legislative session dealing with issues such as budget shortfalls due to the coronavirus pandemic, housing, criminal justice reform and policing policies. Find out what’s been done and come with questions and feedback for your state representative. 8:30 Open Floor. Raise any topic for brief discussion. September’s meeting will again be virtual only. Please REGISTER NOW to receive a confirmation email with details about joining the meeting and the option to add a reminder to your calendar. For those unable to use Zoom, we expect to also stream the event live to Facebook @aurorahighlands (no app or Facebook account required). Our Arlington Ridge and Crystal City neighbors are welcome to attend and join in the police and legislation discussions. If you are unable to attend, but have questions you’d like raised for any agenda items, please email them to info@aurorahighlands.org and we’ll do our best to address them during the meeting.

GOOD TO BE BACK

We are excited to return to a print newsletter for September. Our volunteer deliverers may not all be available yet, but we’ll do our best to deliver to as many households as possible. If you’d like to help or be the contact for your apartment or condo, contact info@aurorahighlands.org.

Arlington County Police provided a brief email update on the recent uptick in crime, indicating they are providing increased investigative resources to incidents in the area and requesting assistance from residents with actions to help prevent crimes and reporting suspicious activity. For the full statement and tips, see https://aurorahighlands.org/news/police-sept2020/

ACPD will be present at our monthly meeting on Wednesday to provide more information and answer your questions, followed by Mark Levine providing an update on various state legislation.

COMMUNITY NEWS

AHCA Officer Nominations

Ready to give back? The Civic Association is the community’s public face in meetings with the County, on everything from development, crime, housing, schools and parks. Each year we work on new issues critical to the future of our neighborhood, so consider volunteering!

See https://aurorahighlands.org/about/ to learn more about positions and contact info@aurorahighlands.org if you are interested. If you know someone else you think would be a great community asset, let them know too! Nominations are due before our October 14th monthly meeting.

Airport Noise Mitigation Study Survey

The virtual community kickoff meeting on Reagan National Airport airplane noise was held on August 17. An online engagement survey will be open until September 21st. For a detailed summary, video, and the survey, see https://aurorahighlands.org/news/airplane-noise/.

Uber lot moved back to airport

With COVID, the Uber lot at Eads and Fort Scott has been quiet, but as of September 1st the lot has officially moved back to the airport side of the GW parkway permanently, and the old lot is remaining closed 24/7. https://ubr.to/2DuU4wS

Parking Permit Enforcement Resumes

Residential enforcement was suspended in March, but is resuming Sept 16. You can still get your permits at https://rppp.arlingtonva.us. For questions, call (703) 228-3344 or email park@arlingtonva.us.

Virginia Highlands Park Community Use

More safe, socially distanced community-led events and casual use activities continue through September:

• Enjoy new chairs, lawn games and other elements courtesy of JBG Smith. Thank you!
• Thank you also to Extreme Pizza Pentagon City for providing free pizzas to the volunteer musicians. Saturday live music and picnic in the park with local musicians Gary Chambers, Jim Sheats, and newcomers The Carter Farm Boys. Saturdays 6pm-7:30pm
• Food trucks will be at the park for music; KOVI Asian street food (9/12) and Jaleo’s food truck “Pepe” (9/19).
• Exercise with fun and socially distanced Zumba classes led by our local volunteer instructor, Natalia Gomez. All ages and levels are welcome! Saturday mornings 10:30am. Pending Tuesday evenings, 6:30pm-7:20pm.
• Enjoy origami art installation throughout the park. Locate 17 different pieces including butterflies, cranes, rabbits, and even a cat and a turtle! Be sure to tag your findings with @peijisan_art

All events are free, but please consider a $5 tip for our volunteer performers and instructors during the events.

** WE NEED YOUR VOICE! The ability to rely on unhindered access to this space has made all of this possible. Other community-led events and activities are being considered, however it’s not certain that we can use even the open space at all during the weekday evenings for the next 8 weeks as County-wide programming ramps up. If you’d like for the park to be open to the public to use every day as open space and for community events, please take a minute to write to info@aurorahighlands.org to tell us why you are enjoying the park and events, so we can work with the County to make sure that they continue!

For event updates and information follow us on social media at @aurorahighlands and visit aurorahighlands.org/events

Ives Park Community-led Beautification Progressing Slowly

In July, members of AHCA’s Ives Park Committee spoke with the County about the beautification design of the park and their Adopt-a-Park application for the space.

DPR has reviewed and provisionally accepted the beautification effort including the chairs and plantings and will create a dedicated County webpage. Members of the group will continue to work with the county on ways to manage or remove the ever-encroaching bamboo, adding native shade trees and hopefully adding a water source to care for plantings, which will be funded by the community.

This small park beautification effort is entirely organized and funded by your fellow neighbors. If you’d like to donate $20, $30 or more to the Ives Park beautification for chairs, gardening tools and hopefully to provide a water source, please visit https://aurorahighlands.org/ives-park-working- group/, which also provides progress on the beautification.

Contact us if you’d like to be part of the group to help plant and beautify the park this fall at info@aurorahighlands.org.

Temporary Dog Park on track for 2021 opening

Arlington County has been working with Pentagon City Dogs (www.PentagonCityDogs.org) and AHCA to create a temporary dog run with separate sections for small and large dogs at Virginia Highlands Park. The County will perform full public engagement and outreach in mid-September. Once public engagement is complete, any necessary design tweaks made, and county approval, the construction can begin and is expected to take approximately 3 months, weather permitting.

Potential Plastic Bag Tax

We have a very exciting opportunity to make Arlington an environmental leader within Virginia. This year, Governor Northam signed SB11, which allows counties to impose a 5 cent tax on plastic bags. Arlington could be the first county in Virginia to pass this tax. Plastic pollution ruins the beauty of nature around Arlington, harms human health through contamination of our air and water, and releases substances that contribute to global warming. The tax can encourage the use of reusable bags which are better for our environment because they do not generate such harmful plastic waste. Reusable bags are safe to use during the pandemic and the funds from the tax will be used to provide reusable bags for low-income individuals. Become a part of this movement by signing the online petition at http://bit.ly/arl-bag-tax to show the Arlington County Board that it is time to take this step for our environment and community! And also check out EcoAction Arlington representatives discussing the tax on the Sustainable Scoop at http://bit.ly/ahca906.

Livability 22202 Updates

AHCA has been working in collaboration with the Arlington Ridge and Crystal City Civic Associations through our Livibility22202.org initiative to make our community more livable including connectivity, transportation, open space, housing, the Crystal City Underground and more. Contact info@livability22202.org if you’d like to be part of the action.

Highlands Urban Garden

Livability 22202, in partnership with the Friends of Urban Agriculture (FOUA), the National Landing BID, and Arlington Parks and Rec, is planning to launch an urban agriculture demonstration project in Virginia Highlands Park, the Highlands Urban Garden (HUG).

Scheduled for installation in early Fall 2020, the HUG will showcase multi-season, sustainable agriculture principles. Illustrating modular, biophilic design principles, sustainable water management practices, and smart technology, the HUG will engage visitors in new ways to creatively imagine growing food in an urban environment.

This project requires volunteer support! This is a great project for families to get involved with and for teaching students about plants and growing food. To sign up for more information about the project, and learn how you can get involved, visit https://urbanag.social/projectHUG

Route One Discussion & Survey

The Livability 22202 Route 1 Working Group held its first virtual community engagement on August 26th. This very informative session covered project goals, the relationship between the our community and Route 1, and the VDOT feasibility study of bringing Route One down to grade compared to leaving the existing road or following the Crystal City Section Plan, which does not recommend bringing the highway down to grade.

A community vision of 6 possibilities for reinventing Route 1 was presented – from markets underneath the highway to parks and even high-rises on decks over the highway, along with a survey to collect information on how the community currently crosses Route 1 and which crossings are avoided.

The video is viewable at https://livability22202.org/videos. Please watch the presentation, and then complete the online Route 1 survey at http://livability22202.org/route1-survey by Thursday, September 10. Send us your comments on the draft goals, visions, current challenges with Route One, and anything else you’d like to share.

The next community meeting of the Working Group will be Sept. 30 covering the BID Reimagine Route One proposal, an analysis of the survey results, and hopefully an update on the VDOT proposal.

Development Updates

Site Plan Review Committees

101 12th St S: Three online opportunities have occurred; comments from the last round are not yet posted. The followup virtual SPRC is scheduled for 7PM Monday, Sept. 14; https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/101-12th-st-s/

2250 Crystal/223 23rd & 2201 Clark: Crystal & 23rd is a site plan amendment and new site plan to construct a new residential building and a new office building. Crystal & Clark is redevelopment of an existing office building into two residential towers with ground floor retail. These projects would require rezoning and revisions to Block Plan M. The online presentations and comments are over. Comments not yet posted. Next step is the Long Range Planning Committee (see http://bit.ly/ahca903), 7 PM Sept 10. https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/2250-crystal-drive/ https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/2001-clark-st/

Met Park 6/7/8 (HQ2) Construction Update

The site is approaching key milestones, including tower crane erection and concrete operations in September and the completion of mass excavation in October. To support these and other upcoming operations, additional trades and craftworkers will begin mobilizing on-site in the coming weeks. This will spur increased activity on and around the project. Visit https://www.metpark678.com/ to stay updated on all details and sign up for email updates.

Pentagon Centre (Milton) Construction Update

Work continues on 15th, Hayes, and on the project site: Telecom work on 15th St – COMPLETE
Storm sewer work on 15th St – through Oct 22.
Pile driving work – through March 1, 2021
Excavation sheeting and shoring – through Apr. 26, 2021 Footing to grade – through Sept, 17, 2021

From grade to completion – through Mar. 20, 2023 Demolition of parking lot and curbs on the project site continuing.
Continued modified pedestrian and vehicular travel on 15th and Hayes. Watch for posted directional signage

For questions, call 301-220-0100. Next month Kimco will be launching a website to provide monthly communications.

Dominion Substation Expansion Feedback

Share your thoughts on the Hayes St substation expansion that is moving forward with Dominion & is expected to go to the County Board for approval in November. Visit the County’s project page at https://projects.arlingtonva.us/projects/crystal- city-dominion-substation/ for details and feedback opportunities. Please also share your thoughts with us at info@aurorahighlands.org so we can advocate most effectively for the neighborhood.

Get Ready, Get Set, VOTE!

A lot is on the November 3 General Election ballot; in addition to federal races, there are County Board, School Board, and several constitutional amendments and bond issues. See https://vote.arlingtonva.us/elections/ for details.

You can vote absentee by mail, early voting, or in-person voting in your precinct on Election Day, November 3. But do not wait! Check that you are registered before Oct 13 at https://vote.elections.virginia.gov/VoterInformation. The deadline to request an absentee ballot to be mailed to you is Friday, October 23. For the full run-down, see https://aurorahighlands.org/news/vote2020/

Curbside Yard Waste Pickups Resume

Starting Aug. 31, curbside yard waste collection resumed in Arlington — and there’s a credit being issued. http://bit.ly/ahca907

Census Deadline Approaching Fast

Arlington is working hard to get as complete a count as possible, but time is running out. Go to https://2020census.gov/ to fill out your form or for more info. You can also volunteer for a Census Pop-up to help reach hard-to-count members at https://topics.arlingtonva.us/census-2020/ of the community. Census validators are now going door-to-door. The deadline is September 31.

FREE County Activities for 55+

The County is offering free Outdoor Programs for 55+ Members at Aurora Hills/ VA Highlands Park including Tai Chi, Line Dancing, a walking group and a needlecraft group. To view the program schedules and register, visit https://parks.arlingtonva.us/programs-in-the-park/

New Restaurants & Businesses

Despite tough times, new restaurants and businesses are opening!

Bowlero has been open since July. With health and safety top of mind, there are rules in place including a limit of 4-6 guests per lane, no sharing of bowling balls between guests, and self-ordering of food and beverage.

Wild Tiger BBQ, an Asian-American ‘cue concept, launched in August at Pentagon Row. For the opening weekends, the menu is limited to family-style platters that serve three-to-four diners ($79). http://bit.ly/ahca904

Chick-fil-A and Chase Bank are under construction, and will joining the recently- opened Wiseguy Pizza on the ground floor of the Whitmer apartment building at the corner of S. Hayes Street and 12th Street S. http://bit.ly/ahca905

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Category: Uncategorized