AHCA Newsletter November 2009

Agenda:
. Guest speaker: Emma Whelan Marketing Manager of McGinty's Public House
. Election of Officers
. Membership Renewals (see page below for renewal information!)
. Discussion of the 40 year plan for Crystal City
. Reporting on activities (Boo Ha Ha, Missing Links and much much more!)

Childcare will be provided.

We are hoping to do another holiday potluck with the Firehouse and hope you will join us for some fun and holiday cheer with our local fire fighters. Hopefully this year we will have clear weather.

Marty King will be taking over coordination of the AHCA newsletter Advertising space and coordinate with Mike Dowell and Cory Giacobbe. For interest in Ad space, please contact me at brucecameronahca@gmail.com and I will pass you along to Marty.

Membership Renewal: SEE BELOW for details
Key points about membership, the more official members we show, the more we can demonstrate community concern on key issues with county leadership. Point two: like anything in life, having a decent size savings account helps has fight our battles and hold neighborhood social events and creates opportunities for us to leverage small amounts with scarce county resources for improvements we want.

Neighborhood superheros and villians, pirates and princesses, witches, vampires, clone warriers, bears, fairies and bumble-bees came out for the 2nd Annual Boo Ha Ha in Virginia Highlands Park on Halloween Saturday. The moonbounces, tot lot, popcorn stand and face-painter [Lynn from SparkleLynn Designs was amazing] were packed all afternoon. It was a great opportunity to chat with friends, make new friends, and marvel at the costumes.

And thank you to Sergeant Pfieffer and Katie Thomas, you two as individuals as well as the groups you represent, are yet more reasons we have such a great neighborhood area, bar none.

A special thank you to Barbara Favola for spending time with us (and helping pick the little chick costume) and continuing to engage with our neighborhood. While many of you may not realize it, she has been quietly assisting with our concerns and finding ways to make sure our concerns are factored into the county process.

County and School Board budget situation for the upcoming fiscal year. Friends and Neighbors, if last year seemed tough, this year will be worse. We will face both a cut in services as well as a likely tax increase. You have a vital stake in this process and you need to be engaged. Aside from the big picture, let's consider neighborhood specific items at risk. Aurora Hills Library will be a target for a partial or full budget cut back. The Neighborhood Conversation Program, which funds neighborhood improvements, could be frozen, Wakefield rebuilding schedule could be pushed back further, Oakridge, Claremont and Gunston could face reduced services and functionality, park maintenance could be deferred. And we already have one of the least functional community buildings (aside from the Senior Program) in the county. Meanwhile, the Waste Water Plant expansion will continue with no neighborhood benefit and the Crystal City Plan continues on with little community set aside. So, let's just be clear, we WILL face reduced services, higher taxes, meanwhile while sitting next to the #1 commercial tax generator in the county and while sitting by the only truly county wide resource (that being the waste water plant) which has impacted our neighbors without benefitting our neighborhood with any neighborhood set aside. And before anyone questions me about using the #1 commercial tax generator reference, even a senior representative of a major property owner in Crystal City will make this point. WE ALL HAVE SOMETHING AT STAKE IN THE UPCOMING BUDGET CYCLES. We as a neighborhood need to be organized and thoughtful in our participation in the process. We have too much at stake not to participate. Neighbor Bill Gillen is a member of the Fiscal Affairs Committee for the County Budget process, Bruce Cameron is on the Budget Advisory Committee for the school system, Brenda Pommerenke is the Chair of the Budget Advisory Committee for the school system, Greg Super is on the Facilities Advisory Committee for the school system, and James Lander will be on the School Board starting in January. Also, note on Arlington Education Fund can be a great resource in these challenging times. The Mission of the Education Fund is to enhance the community by providing grants to educators and nonprofit organizations for innovative projects that supplement and enrich the learning environ-ment for preschool to adult students in Arlington. For more information about the Arlington Education Fund http://www.arlcf.org/

For all the issues facing our neighborhood area, over the past few years we collectively have made progress on many issues and have shown that we can make a difference in the County Process and in the quality of our every day neighborhood:
The tally references both the Arlington Ridge and Aurora Highlands area. None of this was done by one person or one group, but together we as neighbors have all made a difference and obviously there is more that could be on the list, especially if we include all the support for our schools

The LRPC (the Long Range Planning Committee of the Planning Commission) will be further discussing this sector plan on November 19th, 2009. Mike Dowell and Bruce Cameron are the two AHCA reps included in the LRPC for this discussion. Chris Mailander, Patty Joyce and Chick Walters are the ARCA reps to the LRPC for this discussion. This plan has potential long term consequences (good and bad) on our neighborhood areas. Please come and be part of the discussion [please, if you live in Aurora Highlands or Arlington Ridge please come] at our November 11th meeting, so that we be sure AHCA and ARCA reps carry appropriate comments back to the LRPC and County Board on this plan. Right now, while the goals talk about preserve and protect the neighborhood to the west of Crystal City and appropriate building heights for commercial buildings that will border the single family area, there is little other mention of our area. Nor does the CC plan (what is now being called a sector plan) recognize the historic designation the county spent staff time and tax dollars on to award to much of the Aurora Highlands (and Aurora Hills) part of the larger neighborhood. That designation includes Restaurant Row, which is now overlaid by both the CC Plan as well as the CC Business Improvement District (CCBID).

This is a complex discussion and worthy of your time, given its likely impact over the next 40 years on our area. We will review what the community as a whole has done to date to feed into the process. Go to http://www.arlingtonvirginiausa.com/index.cfm/11250 to see all the plan info.

[Editors Note regarding the following neighbor: We can discuss the request and decided whether to support or not support this request. However, it's one of those funny stories about our neighborhood I'd like to share. I do not know the Grenells, I only just met Burt at the October monthly meeting for AHC when he asked if we could put his on the agenda. What he didn't know, I had planned a few months earlier to give them a verbal °�good neighbor°¨ award in the newsletter as they are the family at the corner of 19th/Ives that plants the beautiful flowers outside their fence along the sidewalk for the rest of us to enjoy. Now is my chance to recognize them. It's one of so many little stories in our area that makes us all love to live here. And so funny how life works that then for the first time Burt approached me about the variance request at the last meeting]

Aurora Highlands Civic Association

P.O. Box 25201 - Arlington, VA 22202

"The Association is a non-partisan organization of community residents formed to work in the overall community interest in promoting civic pride, enhancing the quality of life in the community, preserving the character of the community and planning for the orderly, safe, and humane development of the community" (AHCA Bylaws, Article II). The AHCA meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month (unless specifically noted) in the Aurora Hills Recreation Center (735 S. 18th St.) at 7:00 p.m.

Items for the newsletter: Send items in e-mail messages (not attachments) to the newsletter editor, Bruce Cameron at brucecameronahca@gmail.com

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