The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

Participants in the forum held by the county's planning division also talked about what grocery store should replace the Glebe Market, about the men who stand on the corner, about safety, about pedestrian traffic, and many other issues. About 35 people other than county staff attended. Many came from Buckingham, Arlington Forest and Ashton Heights as well as from various citizen boards and committees in the county.

Part of the civility may have come from the fact that county staffers who ran the meeting divided the participants into three groups based on where people were sitting. Friends and neighbors sat next to each other as they discussed Use, Design and Transportation at the intersection.

This was the first time that the county has heard from citizens on a large scale regarding this project.

The developer, Georgetown Strategic Capital, is looking to raze and replace a few buildings on the west side of N. Glebe Road at the intersection with N. Pershing Drive (see the map, below). Bob Moore, a principal with the company, said they had met about 13 times with county staff, citizens boards and the community.

But past meetings with Arlington’s Historical Affairs and Landmarks Review Board have largely taken place without regular citizens in attendance. On March 24, the company met with the Buckingham Community Civic Association, but turnout was light, and county staff, other than police, were not there, according to people who attended.

Many people at the meeting, in at least two of the groups, said they did not want a Trader Joe’s grocery store to replace the Glebe Market, which will close when the buildings are razed. They preferred another small, independent grocery that would more closely meet the needs of the largely Latino community.

“Most of us, more than 80 percent of us, are Hispanics, and we use it [the Glebe Market] everyday,” said Johny, a Buckinghamster. A few people in his group said they feared a store like Trader Joe’s would be too expensive or would not have the right products. Johny said he has a petition with 100 signatures of Buckingham families asking that the Glebe Market remain. [Many people left before I could get last names. –ST]

Months ago, Mr. Moore said his company was trying to get the popular, upscale (but low price) Trader Joe’s in the neighborhood. Some people at the meeting last night expressed support for that idea.

However, the county’s Tom Miller said the likelihood of a Trader Joe’s is slim. In an interview after the forum, he said that experiences in planning tell him that Trader Joe’s likely wants space on the Ballston-Rosslyn metro corridor and would not accept a space on the southwest corner of the Glebe and Pershing intersection.

“El projecto es muy bonito,” (“The project is very nice”) said Julio in one group, as a county staffer translated, “but what will be done with the people who currently use that space?”

What will happen with the day laborers? Where will they go? Will the police get them? he wondered.

This is a theme that runs under many discussions in the Buckingham neighborhood. This is a community often divided between the largely white, English-speaking community who own homes or condominiums in the neighborhood and renters who are often Latino, Spanish-speakers.

“I just don’t go there [to the Buckingham Center] at all,” said Stacy in a group different from Julio’s. She said that the graffiti and trash in the bus stops along with other issues keep her from going. Others in her group agreed.

The project will have 190 new market-rate apartments, and that has people from BU-GATA, a tenants association, worried about upward pressure on the rents at the Gates of Ballston and other neighborhood apartments. They say they are already seeing that change.

“It [the project] just plain doesn’t look like it belongs there,” said Patè McCullough a Gates resident and BU-GATA board member who did not support the project. Then she looked sideways at Mr. Moore and joked, “Then, too, if you want to put some affordable housing in there, we can work something out.”

At least two of the three groups said they supported the idea of a police substation in one of the buildings. This is one area of agreement between the English- and Spanish-speaking communities in the neighborhood. Mr. Moore said his company and the police supported the idea of the substation.

[AHC Inc. recently said they are looking for space to put the substation on their Gates of Ballston property. A substation was part of the Gates before its major renovation over the past two years.]

The building that will replace the CVS/Ravi Kabob building on the southwest corner will hold about 23,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor and about 90 apartments on the top three floors, said Scott Matties, of Cunningham Quill Architects. Drawings show the commercial space in the building divided into about 10 storefronts of about 2,500 square feet each. None of the space has been leased yet, Mr. Matties said.

Do Chon said he is planning to open a coffee shop with his father in one of the new buildings. His father, Sam Chon, owns the Glebe Market, but plans to retire assuming the redevelopment moves forward, the younger Mr. Chon said.

The CVS will move across Pershing Drive into a building that will replace two buildings on the northwest corner. The Glebe Market building, and the El Paso building will be razed. The CVS will occupy the corner in the new building and El Paso might get some outdoor seating.

The design brings the buildings much closer to Pershing.

“We’re talking about a urban kind of streetscape” along Pershing, Mr. Matties said.

Ariana Kincaid, the general manager of Woofs! Dog Training Center said she wanted to make sure the signs for her company are more visible from the street. Her company occupies the back half of the El Paso Cafe building. Getting adequate signage in Arlington is tough, she said.

Lois Athey, a long-time activist that works with the BU-GATA tenants association, said, Woofs! is “detrimental” to the neighborhood. A dog training facility without any yard of its own should not be there, she said last night as she has many times in the past.

Participants said they want CVS to remove the walls from behind its windows so that people can see into, and through, the store. Others talked about the need for better sidewalks and accessibility for the disabled, for safer intersections both for pedestrians and bicyclists.

In one group people discussed the idea of using the space around the Post Office building for community events. That side of the street will get only superficial changes according to Georgetown Strategic.

The county plans to compile and analyze the notes from last night. Advisory commissions in the county (such as the Planning Commission) will review community feedback with stakeholder representatives, followed by a formal review of the use permit (Georgetown Strategic has not yet officially filed a use permit).

Other items that staff summarized in bullet form on jumbo sticky notes (the items are complaints, wishes, or ideas):

Labels: georgetown strategic capital, Glebe, pershing, redevelopment

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 1:16 PM