The Buckingham Herald Tribblog

Representatives of Harris Teeter, Goodyear, and the American Service Center have been meeting with each other over months to discuss possible redevelopment options in the 500 and 600 block of N. Glebe Road. The potential changes—a long-shot at best—would completely change the look of the block, especially the section north from the Harris Teeter grocery store to the Goodyear Tire company at the corner of N. Carlin Springs Road. The ideas floating would move or expand the businesses, creating underground or garage parking, retail space and apartments.

This is according to Terry Serie, an Arlington County Planning Commission member who spoke at the Buckingham Community Civic Association last night. (He actually was invited as a member of the Bluemont Civic Association, and was not speaking officially for the Planning Commission last night.)

The companies have been speaking on their own, and the Planning Commission hopes to get all of them in the room together this summer to see what, if anything, would be worth pursuing, Mr. Serie said.

“I’m expecting that nothing will happen,” he said, given the complexity and scope of a project like this.

He said that last year’s proposed redevelopment of the Goodyear and the small house on N. Carlin Springs next to the tire company is currently off-line, but that has nothing to do with the discussions with the other companies, he said.

The Planning Commission is a citizen advisory board that helps the elected county board with "orderly development of the locality" the county's web site says.

The topic that Mr. Serie actually came to speak about, however, was the newly approved outdoor seating at the Union Jack’s pub, located on the ground floor of the Ballston Commons Mall with a store-front on N. Glebe Road. The outdoor space allows for 54 seats, but many more people than that for standing room. Couple that with Rock Bottom Brewery’s Wednesday night outdoor kegger next door, and the noise, especially in the evening is a bit much for people living in the townhouses across the street from the mall, said Mr. Serie, who lives in one of the townhouses, part of the Bluemont Civic Association.

That civic association only learned last week about the proposed expansion of the outdoor seating, too late to mount an effective campaign. Plus, the company scaled back its plan so that it did not need the complicated Site Plan review or an Arlington County Board vote. County staff could OK the project on their own, consulting only the Ashton Heights Civic Association where the mall is located.

Bluemont Civic Association voted to write a letter to County Manager Ron Carlee, asking that Bluemont receive notices of decisions being made in the 600 block of N. Glebe Road that face the Bluemont, even though the mall and garage property are inside the Ashton Heights neighborhood.

The BCCA voted to write a similar letter.

Also speaking at the BCCA meeting was Tom Hutchings, an Arlington County planner who ran through the $2.4 million renovations of three N. Glebe Road intersections at Fairfax Drive, Wilson Blvd., and Carlin Springs Road, called the North Glebe Road Pedestrian Improvements Project. This has been years in the making, and much of the construction has already been completed.

Wider sidewalks and skirts on the Exxon gas station and Goodyear corners has been completed, as has been shrub removal —allowing greater driver/pedestrian visibility—on the median just south of the intersection.

The most heated of the discussions among the people was how best to calm traffic entering and exiting the Ballston Mall parking garage.

Mr. Hutchings explained that planners tried to place raised crosswalks across the entrance to the garage, but the Virginia Department of Transportation would not allow it.

“We were hoping the bump-up would slow the cars down,” he said. VDOT also would not allow 10.5 foot traffic lanes, insisting instead on 11 feet.

People talked about getting better signs alerting drivers to watch for pedestrians. Mr. Hutchings said he would ask, at the request of the BCCA, that the entire corner, and especially the exit from the mall, be made “no right turn on red.” No promises in that, though.

This project started in 1999 and was projected for completion at least six months ago. Last report put the project at $1.9 million.

Finally, BCCA President Pat Hope made official what was clear to many: he will not seek another term as BCCA president. Mr. Hope is running as a Democrat in the 47th District of the Virginia House of Delegates. As a Democrat, he is widely expected to win the race and will not have time for both positions. He can serve until November, he said at the meeting. The BCCA will pick up the search for a replacement at the September meeting.

Proposed Mixed-use Building for Goodyear Site

A Decade for New Lights and Curb Cuts

I am still on summer hiatus, but the news was just too big to ignore at last night's meeting, so I thought I'd give a quick post. More on this in the fall, no doubt. --ST

Labels: asc, ashton heights, bluemont civic association, goodyear, harris teeter, pedestrian, redevelopment, traffic

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 6:01 AM 0 comments

THANKS for your great community news and information -- so valuable to our community.

I'm writing, as a 15-year Buckingham resident, requesting you to post a plea, reflecting not just my own sentiments but many that I hear from neighbors: Please CLEAN UP and SLOW DOWN, Arlington!

Our local streets are filthy with litter, a lot of it cigarette butts. Please don't litter -- so very inconsiderate -- and clean up the debris surrounding your residence, including the gutters and sidewalks. Our neighborhood is really becoming a mess due to the carelessness and laziness of a few.

And please obey the speed limits, especially on the secondary streets that may not have posted the legal speed limit of 25 MPH. The speeders are endangering the lives of our residents and their pets.

Thank you,
David Giger
Buckingham

The Sun Gazette reported about a week ago that the Arlington County board plans to write a letter to Gov. Tim Kaine asking that he use some of the federal stimulus money to fix the Glebe Road bridge over Arlington Blvd., pieces of which broke off and disrupted traffic earlier in the month.

The letter, which is not finished, will only ask that the state fix the bridge, not that the state fully redevelop the bridge, as has been planned for almost a decade. Nor did the county include a request to redevelop the bridge when they submitted a more formal request to the state for stimulus package monies.

According to county federal liaison Brian Stout via email, “The short answer is no, we did not include the [full] project in our submissions online for stimulus funding. As currently designed, the project would not be eligible for stimulus funding.”

The project is not far enough along to be eligible for the funding said the county’s Pat Carrol, adding that projects have to be ready to go at the time of funding.

“The project is currently planned as a replacement and enhancement project, has an estimated cost of $14 million, and is likely to go to construction in 2012. The full project will improve auto, transit, pedestrian and bicycle access the area – an important point for Arlington,” Mr. Stout’s email said.

The redevelopment of that bridge and the intersection has been in the plans since 2000. The plan is to widen the bridge and the exit ramps from westbound Arlington Blvd. In an earlier plan the First Class Auto used car lot at that intersection (across N. Glebe Road from the McDonald’s) was scheduled to be taken over and torn down to allow the ramp to expand.

In 2002, the county planned $25 million for improvements along Arlington Boulevard and Columbia Pike, “including bridges on...Glebe Road at Arlington Boulevard,” a release at the time said.

A February 2007 VDOT inspection gave the bridge a 5 of 9 “fair” rating, which despite the bad sound of that did not concern professional inspectors.

“Five is normal, very, very ordinary,” said a federal official in October 2007.

Buckingham Bridges OK. (October 2007)

Labels: arlington blvd, bridges, Glebe, traffic

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 3:52 PM 0 comments

My wife and I just read with interest your survey about how to redevelop this corner [the corner of N. Glebe Road at N. Pershing Drive]. We're keenly interested because we live just three blocks away, and partially bought the house two years ago because of the convenience of the Glebe Market: We LOVE walking to the grocery store. (We like the El Paso, the dollar shop, the post office, etc., but the market is the most important by far.)

So, for our late two cents: YES, put in a grocery store, any grocery store. I'll help you twist [Trader] Joe's arm to get him to move in. We shop there (on Rt. 7) all the time, but are also afraid of the Rt. 7-like traffic it would bring. Keep it as small as possible!

And yes, we would love a hardware store; [a] non-Starbucks coffee shop [is] OK, but they're really all the same.

We don't like the idea of more high-rise housing: Who would want to live at such a busy intersection anyway? Why don't they just put offices above the retail? We don't like the idea of large shops or housing on Pershing that will bring more traffic to Pershing (we're just two houses from the corner, on Oakland). We want to keep Pershing as a residential street, and would like the speed limit to be 25 mph, like similar streets in Alexandria and Falls CHurch.

Thanks for reading our opinions!

Ken Moskowitz

PS: We've also considered retail attractions. We would like a DVD rental shop. If there has to be a coffee shop, make it Caribou [Coffee]. If there has to be chain restaurant, we would welcome Panera Bread.

Finally, The Survey Results

Labels: Buckingham, retail, traffic

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 10:59 PM 0 comments

Two of the three have “Satisfactory” ratings. The Glebe Road bridge over Arlington Boulevard has a “Fair” rating. That’s nothing to be concerned about, said Doug Hecox with FHWA.

“Simply put, it means it’s not in any danger….It’s normal,” he said. In the 1 to 9 rating system, 9 is pretty much a new bridge that has seen little traffic, and below 5 is when the bridge starts to need more attention. “Five is normal, very, very ordinary,” he said.

The Glebe Road bridge is scheduled to be torn down and widened. This has been a long delayed project, which included a new exit ramp on west-bound Arlington Boulevard. In one earlier plan, the used car lot and its purple office building were to be taken over to allow for a merge lane.

“Efforts for replacement and widening of the superstructure, previously begun in 2000 and 2001 and then postponed due to a lack of funding, are again underway and the project is currently scheduled for advertisement in 2011 to 2012,” wrote VDOT’s Nicholas Roper in an email.

View Larger Map

"Usually they do like a one hour block” during morning and evening rush-hours, said Lt. William Griffith, of the police Special Operations Section. The special detail grew from citizen meetings with county staff about pedestrian safety at that intersection.

Certainly police presence slows drivers down, but when do the drivers speed up again?

“As soon as they don’t see [the police],” said John Townsend, of AAA MidAtlantic, and then he chuckled a little. With selective enforcement of speed, “the benefit is short-term.”

He cited a couple traffic studies to support his claim. One, written by researchers at the University of Maryland’s medical school earlier this year, reported that citations do not stop people from continuing to speed.

“Our findings indicate that a single speeding citation has limited effects on changing drivers’ likelihood of receiving subsequent speeding citations....this study suggests that speeding citations have inadequate deterrent effects in the context of the current law enforcement system,” the report stated. "Drivers who received a speeding citation during May 2002 had almost twice the risk of receiving a speeding citation during the follow-up period [one year] than drivers who did not receive a speeding citation during that month.”

The other, written by medical researchers in Ottawa Canada in 2003, found that speeding tickets lower the mortality rate for drivers significantly, in the first month or two after the ticket is given, but the benefit is gone after about three months.

Still, the Maryland study seemed to point to the idea that people slow down if they fear the police are nearby. The report stated, “The severity of the punishment does not seem to be the deterring factor to slow speeders; the deterrent seems to be whether the driver thinks he or she will be caught at all.”

"We try to go back and spot check as well,” said Lt. Griffith. "How often we go back, I don't know."

“The problem with the county is that we get flooded with requests" to have the motor unit come out on a special detail, especially for speed traps, he said. The officers in the motor unit, however, tend to go back to places, such as the intersection of Glebe and Carlin Springs, if they think they can “be seen, make a difference,” he said.

"They enjoy writing tickets," he said, laughing.

[I don't intend to imply that the studies mentioned are the last word on this. The link to the Stanford study only references a press release since the only copy I could find of the full study was in my college’s library database. For readers here to see that copy, I would have to give all of you my login name and password. The college frowns on that. –ST.]

Labels: pedestrian, Police, traffic

// posted by Steve Thurston @ 8:58 AM 0 comments