Thursday, November 12, 2015

New Urbanism 2.0 'Community Facilities Study' Released


Hey Yupette,

County Board met with Parks and Rec Tuesday afternoon and discussed Parks and Rec's 'vision' for the next few years, essentially new 'pocket parks' across the county that would serve new residents of massive new mixed-use redevelopment.

County Board and School Board also met Tuesday night and discussed APS's latest demands for more classrooms and more tax dollars. Also, a new Lubber Run mixed-use facility, which would include office space for Parks and Rec, Pre-K classrooms for APS, and a small amount of indoor recreation and meeting space for community needs. Oh, and a much larger parking lot.

But the main event was the release and discussion of  the County's New Urbanism 2.0 'Community Facilities Study' by the County Board and School Board.

Chair of the Community Facilities Study Committee which produced the report is New Urbanist John Milliken who served on the Arlington Planning Commission during the 1970's, served on the County Board from 1981 to 1990, and served as Vornado's outside legal counsel from 1993 until he retired last year. So he spent the past 10 years helping Vornado figure out what to do about all those vacant buildings Vornado owns that he planned and voted to construct while he was on the County Board. LOL.

Vice-Chair of the Community Facilities Study Committee is New Urbanist Ginger Brown, the Planning Commission member who is tasked with imposing New Urbanism 2.0 on the Lee Highway corridor.

Usual group of non-resident New Urbanist County Staff who will not move to Arlington no matter how much they are paid and, therefore, suffer no consequences of New Urbanism, facilitated the Committee.

The Committee's Final Report is another New Urbanist charade. Reality was, is, and always will be that a small group of New Urbanists makes all the 'planning' decisions for the County in secret, together with New Urbanist developers, REITs, consultants, law firms, etc.

Arlington Community Facilities Study Final Report is on-line, just do a Web search.

Susan, 22201