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Note: The complete Newsletters is distributed by email only to paid members. Newsletter No. 10, 2018 October 2018 Website: http://www.crystalcitycivic.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crystalcitycivic/ Arlington to Study Dockless Bikeshare Bikes, Scooters Inside this Issue: Civic Association Issues Pedestrians Watch Your Back (Editorial) Next CCCA Meetings ART Bus 20th Anniversary Uber/Lyft Parking Lot on S. Eads Street Arlington Public Library’s New Logo New County Resident Ombudsman Crystal City Development and Planning Issues NOVA’s First African-American Female Battalion Chief (Editorial) Crystal City Development Paralyzed Arlington Gauging Community Satisfaction (Editorial) Save the Full 18th Street Park Where to place the Arlington County car Decal? Voting Precinct 006 Finds a Home! Arlington Schools Make a Connection that Counts Crystal Drive two-way conversion Permanent Drug Take-Back Boxes Clark Street demolition update Arlington Tourism Revenue Hits Record $3.3B in 2017 ART 43 schedule changes effective Sept. 30 USS Arlington Sails on Eve of 9/11 Anniversary Amazon's goal Police Community Outreach Teams Quarterly Meetings Jeff Bezos on HQ2 Save the Date: Opioids Epidemic Community Forum Update on VRE Station (Editorial) – Decision on New VRE Location Other News: Painted Bikes and Twirlers National Project Journey Update Café Italia Reincarnated: Federico Ristorante New Dulles facial recognition system Metro contracting team for Potomac Yard station Arlington Neighborhood Village October Events New Pentagon Fashion Center Stores Foster Care Parents Needed Crystal City Store Closings Multifamily Recycling and Waste Management Survey Tenant and Homebuyer Fair Arlington County Issues Cong. Beyer’s 4th Annual Women's Conference Absentee In-Person Voting Begins Sept 21 Arlington Fun Ride is Saturday, October 13 County Manager Warns of Tough Budget Year Boundary Stone Bike Ride (Editorial): County’s Financial Situation EcoAction Arlington EcoExtravaganza Energize Arlington The Connection Library Medicaid to Cover More Arlingtonians Crystal City BID Updates NEWSLETTER NO. 10 – CRYSTAL CITY CIVIC ASSOCIATION 2 would take 12-14 months, including underground utility For Quicker Updates on Issues and Events survey, potential easement, design, VDOT review, and Like our Facebook page for notifications and check out construction. A new website for the project will be the website. available some time in the next week and available here. Civic Association Crystal City Issues Development and CCCA Meeting: September 26 What a great meeting this was! Arlington County’s Planning Issues unofficial historian Kathryn Holt Springston gave a slideshow presentation on the history of the Crystal City (Editorial) Crystal City Development area: “Crystal City: from swamps, forts and brickyards Paralyzed While Waiting for Amazon to skyscrapers. This was not dry history, it was an Decision engaging, informative demonstration of how the area has changed over the years, including the outline of the Most Crystal City residents are aware that our area is in Potomac River and the swamps that became Crystal City the running as one of Amazon’s finalists, when they expect and Long Bridge Park. When the URL becomes available choose a headquarters location by the end of the year. of the full slideshow, we will share in on our website. While an arrival of Amazon would also create demand for residential buildings, the first priority for land-owners is to The second half of the meeting focused on What’s be positioned to convince Amazon that there is plenty of Happening in Crystal City. Details will be posted on the existing and near-term office space that would match their website later on. needs. So right now, land-owners are hedging and, above Uber/Lyft Parking Lot on S. Eads Street all, holding off on committing existing and new buildings After months of public pressure, the County finally agreed to other types of use. to hold a community meeting on the traffic congestion As the main example, the plans for converting the office caused by vehicles exiting and entering the airport building at 1750 Crystal Drive to an exciting building for Uber/Lyft Lot on S. Eads Street. The three civic residential use, after a one-year approval process, have associations in the 22202 zip code--Aurora Highlands, now been halted. JBG Smith may come back and Crystal City, and Arlington Ridge--had been urging since resuscitate those plans during the next five years, but for May the closure of the entrance/exit on S. Eads Street and now they are instead focusing on renovating the existing the reopening of the old gate on Route 1. As background, building, both internally and through ‘reskinning’. (The in April 2018 the Metropolitan Washington Airports plans for a grocery store and a movie theater in the same Authority (MWAA) began operating a dispatch lot for block are not affected). Similarly, the expected action on Uber/Lyft vehicles on South Eads Street, near Fort Scott the approved tall residential tower at 23rd and Crystal Drive. MWAA relocated the lot to the Eads Street site to Drive, which we reported about last year, has quietly been make room for their “Project Journey” construction project, halted. And while plans for low-rise residential buildings in but the move has resulted in increased traffic congestion in the PenPlace parcel (opposite WholeFoods) are being this area. Representatives of MWAA and the Virginia pursued, they are known to be a ‘Plan B’, which would Department of Transportation officials also attended. quickly be dropped if Amazon were to appear and then The PowerPoint presentation showed that the County has quite likely have an interest in the entire PenPlace block. made progress with two phases. Phase I is a temporary fix (Editorial) Save the Full 18th Street Park (for about 50% of the problem) to open the Route 1 gate For a long time now, JBG-Smith has pursued plans for for left-bound traffic to the airport ramp, by means of a introducing a specialty grocery store and an Alamo cinema temporary span-wire signal control on Route 1. VDOT has drafthouse on Crystal Drive between 15th and 18th Street. issued a permit and work is expected to start the first week This has the full support of our Civic Association. Their of October and take 1-2 weeks. Phase II would solve preference to hold off on existing plans for converting the another 20% of the problem but cost $250,000 in funds office building at 1750 Crystal Drive to a residential that are not now as a capital improvement project. It NEWSLETTER NO. 10 – CRYSTAL CITY CIVIC ASSOCIATION 3 building, is also fully understandable, given the apparently then implicitly would be supporting a reduction of valuable imminent decisions from Amazon. Modified plans were open space!’ approved at the Site Plan Review Committee September We will continue to oppose that part of the plan since they 17, with approval by the County Board to be requested at can construct the interior improvements of 1770 Crystal their October 20 meeting. Drive without impacting the open space. HOWEVER, all along, we have resisted an additional part Voting Precinct 006 Finds a Home! of the overall package which is totally inappropriate in For those voters in the north part of terms of both substance and process. The existing plans Crystal City, it’s been a frustrating for Crystal City underscore that experience to locate our voting precinct “open space” is the scarcest aspect in the last few years. Following in our community. Thus, we renovation of our long-time venue in enthusiastically support creation of Waterpark Towers (1505 Crystal Drive) an 18th Street park, which was and a temporary move to Crystal Place envisaged in the 2010 Crystal City (1801 Crystal Drive), Management decided not to Sector Plan. Yet, JBG-Smith has accommodate our precinct any more. So we spent a stubbornly insisted on occupying a year in the Crystal City Underground Gallery where we large and prominent part of the were welcomed but which caused great confusion with open space in the park at the corner Precinct 50 in Crystal Plaza for voters in the southern of Crystal Drive and 18th Street with part of Crystal City. a two-story “retail building” over the proposed second entrance to the Metro station with a Now, thanks to an agreement between the County and building that will be unsightly and disruptive of the view JBG-Smith, voters got a notification in August that our from Crystal Drive--without providing any satisfactory new (and hopefully permanent) precinct location is 251 justification other than their economic interest. This 18h Street. This is the red-colored Wells Fargo building building was never envisioned in the 2010 Crystal City which you can access from the plaza, two doors facing Sector Plan and will definitely cut into green space. The the Metro, and from an elevator in the Underground loss of the midblock open space park on the second level across from the restrooms near Rite Aid. above the Crystal Square Apartments Building, which will Construction contract approved for final disappear for construction of the Alamo Drafthouse, phase of Crystal Drive two-way conversion th makes preservation of the full 18 Street proposed park This month the County Board approved the construction critical, at least in the short term, given there are no funds contract for the Crystal Drive two-way conversion's final for park design and construction for the planned second phase, which will convert Crystal Drive between 26th Metro entrance. and 27th Streets South to two-way operation. Moreover, JBG-Smith has refused to provide the kind of Construction is expected to begin in late 2018 and last transparent outreach process to our community which has approximately nine months. always been offered for such open space projects.