"Blue Goose" building in Ballston (photo courtesy Preservation Arlington)The developer that plans to demolish the “Blue Goose” building in Ballston has agreed to contribute more than $6 million to community improvements for the Ballston area.

The proposed site plan amendment for the project will go before the Arlington County Board at its meeting this Saturday, Jan. 25. The Shooshan Company hopes to bulldoze the distinctive blue building at the corner of Fairfax Drive and N. Glebe Road and replace it with a nine-story office building — to be used to house the Marymount University programs now in the Blue Goose — and a 15-story residential high-rise.

The request for increased density comes with a proposed donation of $1.15 million toward the Ballston beaver pond restoration project and improvements to the Custis Trail, and a $4.57 million contribution to the Ballston Metro west entrance project.

County Planner Samia Byrd said the contributions would connect the Custis Trail to a cycle track that the developer plans to build along Fairfax Drive. The final designs for the improvements “are still under review,” Byrd said, but they could include building a planted buffer between the existing sidewalk and Fairfax Drive and making the sidewalk smoother for pedestrians and cyclists.

Rendering of proposed development on "Blue Goose" siteThose improvements would first have to be approved by the Virginia Department of Transportation, but Byrd said they would effectively extend the Custis Trail to N. Glebe Road.

The contribution to the Metro entrance is just one chunk of the proposed $75 million project. The entrance, which is partially designed and planned for the intersection of Fairfax Drive and N. Vermont Street, still has no timeline for construction, according to Byrd.

The Ballston Pond restoration project is already underway. Logs were removed that were holding the water in the pond and it drained completely by November. Construction on Ballston Pond to improve the habitat for wildlife is expected to begin in the spring.

The redevelopment, and demolition of the infamous building, drew criticism from historic preservation group Preservation Arlington, which named it one of the most “Endangered Public Places.” The developer has since agreed to keep some of the blue panels as elements in the new buildings, while others will be donated to local museums.

The “historical attributes” of the 1960s-era building will be “incorporated into the design of the proposed office building and landscaping in the public plaza and courtyard,” according to the county staff report.

Other community benefits proposed in the site plan include a $75,000 public art contribution, a $106,000 utility underground fund contribution, a $567,000 Transportation Demand Management contribution over 30 years, a public plaza and walkway, a $258,000 contribution to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund and LEED Gold certification.

Construction will remove the surface parking lot on the site and, because the office building will be largely used for education purposes, the Shooshan Company has requested a reduced mandatory parking ratio. The residential building includes 3,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 267 units, some of which will be committed affordable housing.


Arlington Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in Arlington County.

If you’d like to see your event featured, fill out the event submission form. Also, be sure to check out our event calendar.

Thursday

Beer Tenders flyerRed Rocks Beer Tenders Series*
Red Rocks (2501 Columbia Pike)
Time: 5:30-8:30 p.m.

The latest installment of the Beer Tenders series features Baltimore brewery Heavy Seas. Beer tastings of Heavy Seas — whose alehouse opens in Rosslyn soon — come with a take-home pint glass.

Metro "inner loop" designLecture: Arlington’s Role in Metro’s Future
George Mason, Founder’s Hall (3351 Fairfax Drive)
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.

WMATA Director of Planning Shyam Kannan leads a discussion on Metro’s future, including two new Arlington stops and a Rosslyn-Georgetown tunnel.

Friday

Justin-Trawick-groupLive Music: Justin Trawick Group
IOTA Club & Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd)
Time: 8:30 p.m.

Singer-songwriter Justin Trawick and his backing band are playing their annual birthday concert. Tickets are $12 at the door.

Saturday

Potomac Overlook Park entry circle signThe Evergreen Scene at Potomac Overlook
Potomac Overlook Regional Park (2845 N. Marcey Road)
Time: 1:00-2:30 p.m.

A Potomac Overlook naturalist takes visitors on a tour of the different species of evergreen trees. The event is free to the public. Call 703-528-5406 to make a reservation.

Sunday

St. Ann School Open Houses*
St. Ann School (980 N. Frederick Street)
Time: 10:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.

The Pre-K-8th grade private schools is open for prospective students and parents to take a tour and ask questions. Another open house is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

IBIS Chamber Music quintetLive Music: IBIS Chamber Music*
Clarendon United Methodist Church (606 N. Irving Street)
Time: 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Three principal musicians from the Kennedy Center orchestra presents “The Americas: Music for Flute, Viola and Harp.” The concert, featuring Canadian, Argentinian and traditional Jewish music, is free.

*Denotes featured (sponsored) event


Pines of Italy at 3111 Columbia PikeCounty planning staff are recommending the Arlington County Board revoke the live entertainment and dancing license for Pines of Italy (3111 Columbia Pike).

The restaurant/nightclub/hookah bar was approved for the permit in March 2013, but, according to the county staff’s report, its owner never scheduled a meeting with the Arlington Heights Civic Association, which was a requirement of the permit. In addition, the restaurant was allegedly operating with live music on Thursday nights, which was not allowed by the permit.

The permit was scheduled for review in March, but because of the lack of compliance, as well as issues with the police and the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, staff recommended the Board review the license two months early.

“The applicant has demonstrated a lack of compliance with the conditions of approval and other state and county ordinances,” the staff report says. “Operation of live entertainment and dancing at this site will continue to generate issues given the combination of greater numbers of patrons drawn to the business by live entertainment and the applicant’s lack of compliance with use permit conditions and other laws, and lack of communication with the surrounding community.”

Pines of Italy has generated neighborhood controversy since it opened, with neighbors complaining about noise and crime generated by the business.

Before being approved for the live entertainment permit last March, Pines of Italy’s owner had applied for the permit in early 2012. The application was deferred twice — first because of “police and community issues” with the last restaurant in the space and again because Pines of Italy conducted insufficient community outreach — before its ultimate approval.

Arlington County Police Department has reported six calls for service at the restaurant since the use permit was issued, including “use of the premise for residential purposes” and serving alcohol when the kitchen was closed.

The County Board will review the permit during its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 28.


Jogging trail along McNair Road on Ft. Myer (photo via Google Maps)The jogging trail along McNair Road in Ft. Myer has closed for good.

Officials at Joint Base Ft. Myer-Henderson Hall announced last week that yesterday, Monday, the trail, which runs from the Old Post Chapel to McNair Road’s intersection with Marshall Drive, would be closed.

The trail is closing to accommodate the expansion of Arlington National Cemetery with its “Millennium Project.” Besides the closure of the trail, more than 700 trees are set to be removed for the cemetery expansion, a plan that rankled local activists when the expansion was discussed in March.

The $82 million expansion is expected to add in-ground and above ground burial locations, columbarium space, committal shelters and infrastructure to support it. It will take over a parcel of undeveloped land next to Ft. Myer. The expansion is needed, according to cemetery officials, because the cemetery could run out of burial space within 12 years.

A new jogging path to replace the closed one is expected to be constructed after the project’s completion in spring 2016.

Photo via Google Maps


Frank Ceresi (via SABR)Former Arlington Family Court judge Frank Ceresi, who left the bench in 1996 to curate a sports memorabilia museum, died earlier this week. He was 64.

Ceresi was hired by the late Abe Pollin — former owner of the Washington Wizards — to be curator of the MCI National Sports Museum, according to the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

The National Sports Gallery closed in 2001, but afterwards, Ceresi decided to continue his career away from law with collectibles and sports artifacts. He was recently named curator of The National Pastime Museum, an online baseball museum.

Ceresi grew up in Alexandria and moved to Arlington in 1975 after graduating from University of Richmond law school. According to SABR’s obituary, he went into general practice before being appointed a Family Court judge in 1987.

From SABR’s obituary:

Ceresi’s contagious enthusiasm and his passion for historical artifacts led him down a fulfilling new career path.

Over the next two decades, until his death of pancreatic cancer at age 64 on January 14, 2014, Frank Ceresi became a respected expert in sports memorabilia and appraisals, consulting and acquiring artifacts for museums and auction houses, and authoring many articles on baseball history. He also acquired for himself many “national treasures” — as he liked to call them — including a Shoeless Joe Jackson “Black Betsy” bat, Mickey Mantle’s first home run baseball, and a vast collection of scorecards dating back to the 19th century.

When the National Sports Gallery closed in 2001, he and longtime partner Carol McMains established FC Associates, a business specializing in museum consulting, appraisals, and legal services. He also co-authored and contributed to several books, including Baseball Americana: Treasures at the Library of CongressBaseball in Washington, D.C.; The Washington Nationals and Their Grand Tour of 1867; When Baseball Went to War; and Deadball Stars of the National League, where he and McMains wrote the SABR biography of catcher and World War I veteran Hank Gowdy.

Photo via SABR


Got plans for the holiday weekend? If not, this could be a great time to go check out some open houses around Arlington.

See our real estate section for a full listing of open houses. Here are a few highlights:

1301-n-courthouse-road1301 N. Courthouse Road
1 BD / 1 BA condominium
Agent: Kathryn Loughney, Keller Williams Realty
Listed: $319,000
Open: Sunday, Jan. 19, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

3226-s-utah-street3226 S. Utah Street
2 BD / 2 BA condominium
Agent: Ali Khazai, Fairfax Realty
Listed: $449,995
Open: Sunday, Jan. 19, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

1020-n-highland-street1020 N. Highland Street
2 BD / 2 BA condominium
Agent: Daryl Judy, Washington Fine Properties
Listed: $629,000
Open: Saturday, Jan. 18, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

4042-35th-street-n4042 35th Street N.
3 BD / 2 BA single family detached
Agent: Kathleen Fong, Keller Williams Realty
Listed: $789,000
Open: Sunday, Jan. 19, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

1109-21st-street-s1109 21st Street S.
5 BD / 3 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Jake Sullivan, Re/Max Allegiance
Listed: $1,100,000
Open: Saturday, Jan. 19, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

3710-military-road3710 Military Road
5 BD / 5 1/2 BA single family detached
Agent: Diane Lewis, Long & Foster Real Estate
Listed: $1,399,000
Open: Sunday, Jan. 19, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.


Your Beermonger logo

Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).

This week was supposed to be about some tasting notes I have (and we’ll get to a couple in a moment), but I wanted to write about something I’d been thinking about this week first.

It’s a little “inside baseball” but I think it’s worth getting into: I had an interesting conversation with one of my distributor representatives early this week. Now such an occurrence may be column-worthy in-and-of itself, but that’s not what I needed to talk about. The conversation veered from general “shop talk” to comparing the roll-outs of new breweries in Virginia over the past year or so, and the differences between those debuts that were more successful and those that weren’t.

I’ve noticed a convergence of factors when it comes to new breweries entering this market that I suspect affects others as well. One factor is the “grass is always greener” line of thinking that develops among us beer geeks: craft breweries grow regionally, eventually garnering national attention and building expectations. I hear often from folks who’ve gone to visit other areas of the country and reporting back how the big local craft brewer there was only “OK.”

There are just so many good breweries all over the country (over 2,700 breweries in the United States, with no signs of any slowdown in openings yet); it’s too easy to be underwhelmed even when a brewery’s entire lineup is good. The other major factor is overreach by breweries that buy into their own hype and the chatter among beer enthusiasts.

Over the past year alone I’ve seen breweries either enter the Virginia market with too many beers when only one or maybe two had the buzz to truly be successful, or at too high a price point across their lineups because they can sell their wares for that price in their local market.

The reality of the beer retail in Northern Virginia in 2014 is that while the craft beer bubble hasn’t burst yet, space is becoming tight as far as styles go (with the exception, it seems, of IPA: no one’s losing money making a great IPA). When a brewery overreaches with regard to the demand for its full lineup, beers sit that otherwise would better serve their home market and the availability of their most popular beer is limited.

When a brewery overreaches on price, they alienate consumers and retailers, regardless of the quality of the product. There is no one right way to open a new market, but it seems right now that the slow roll, allowing one great beer to build a fanbase for the rest of a brewery’s line, is the smartest move. If nothing else, it allows for the natural growth of a brand, as opposed to massive roll outs that can feel forced and overwhelming. (more…)


A young deer (photo via Wikimedia Commons)At the end of the month, Arlington residents will be asked to spend a half hour counting the deer in their community.

Arlington’s Department of Parks and Recreation is organizing its first “Deer Day” on Tuesday, Jan. 28 from 5:30 to 6:00 p.m. Parks officials are attempting to take “a snapshot census of the deer population in Arlington.”

Arlington Natural Resources Manager Alonso Abugattas said if residents can “go to the nearest park” or just spend a half hour looking through their backyard and count the number of deer they observe, it will help Parks and Recreation officials estimate the number of deer in the county.

The deer census is conducted in line with the county’s Natural Resource Management Plan, according to Abugattas. Deer is just one of the species Parks and Recreation will attempt to inventory.

“It’s important to know what we have,” Abugattas told ARLnow.com in an email. “It’s a snap shot in time and will cover as many of our parks as possible, targeting some particularly sensitive natural areas in particular. These one-day snap shots in time will hopefully ensure we don’t count the same animals twice since we will be at multiple parks at the same time. We may repeat this exercise several times if we see that there is good participation and results.”

Abugattas said January is the best time for the exercise since there is less leaf cover and it gets darker earlier, so volunteers don’t have to be out as late. Abugattas said he will use “multiple methods over a long period of time” to try to get the most accurate county possible.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons


New elementary school proposed for the Carlin Springs/Kenmore campus(Updated at 1:15 p.m.) The Arlington School Board is reconsidering the plan to build a 600-seat elementary school at the Kenmore Middle School site in Glencarlyn.

Despite voters approving $4.5 million in design costs for the school in a 2012 referendum, the Board is looking at diverting that investment to prepare for middle school overcrowding in the coming years, which is projected to be more serious than the capacity issues in elementary schools.

School Board Chair Abby Raphael, in a letter sent to parents and community members who have inquired about the issue, says its updated projections call for elementary schools in Arlington to be 3 percent over capacity in FY 2019, while middle schools are projected to be 16 percent over capacity in the same time period.

Raphael also referenced the objections from Glencarlyn residents from 2012 as a reason to re-evaluate building the school in the neighborhood, saying “the community raised significant concerns about the traffic and transportation issues” surrounding a new, 600-seat school in the area.

APS is revisiting the plan in advance of their next Capital Improvements Program for FY 2015-2024, which will be adopted in June. Raphael wrote that no decisions have been reached on what schools to build, if any, or if the School Board elects to construct additions onto existing schools.

Civic activist Monique O’Grady is trying to organize a campaign against the apparent backpedal. O’Grady said she’s disappointed that APS is considering abandoning its plans.

“The numbers still show that south Arlington will face more than an elementary school’s worth of overcrowding, so I believe the plan should move forward,” she wrote in an email. “I believe middle school should be addressed, but it shouldn’t come at a cost of 770 South Arlington elementary students being in trailers and with yet-to-be-mentioned programs being moved.”

O’Grady said the school should still be built while APS comes up with creative, cost-effective solutions to address anticipated middle school overcrowding.

“I worry that increased development in South Arlington, especially of apartment buildings and condos, will result in more students than currently projected and that South Arlington schools will become even more crowded than anticipated,” she said. “This is not a time to pull back from researched, planned and approved permanent elementary capacity in South Arlington. I think it is important for the South Arlington community to stand up and ask the school board not to turn South Arlington into a trailer park.”

APS acknowledges it does not have the finances to build capacity to accommodate 100 percent of the projected growth. No matter what comes out of the CIP, trailers will still be used as classrooms. The elementary school in Glencarlyn was originally slated to open in 2017.


From left, Peter Fallon, Cord Thomas and Alan Howze at the Arlington Young Democrats County Board debateEncouraging young professionals to stay in Arlington and future transit options were prime topics for the three Democratic Arlington County Board candidates during their second debate of the month.

Alan Howze, Cord Thomas and Peter Fallon debated for an hour and a half in front of a standing-room only crowd of Arlington Young Democrats in Ballston Wednesday night. AYD President Max Burns told ARLnow.com that it was the largest crowd at an AYD meeting he could remember.

Howze and Fallon advocated for the Columbia Pike streetcar as an economic engine and as a long-term, visionary transit plan while Thomas, who in the first debate said he was “not a fan of the Columbia Pike streetcar,” advocated for Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) instead.

“We need to focus on a robust BRT system like our neighbors in Fairfax and Alexandria,” Thomas, 31, and a co-founder of EnviroCab, said. “At the end of the day, people just want to get where they’re going. If you can have something that’s state of the art, at one-fifth of the cost, why wouldn’t you choose that?”

Democratic County Board candidate Cord ThomasHowze — an Arlington native who said he remembers when the Orange and Blue lines were built — said that despite the up-front costs, the streetcar is a sound financial investment.

“If you go back and look at the conversation from 40 years ago, you hear echoes from this debate today,” Howze said. “When you look at the life cycle cost, there’s a strong argument to be made that streetcar is cheaper than buses in the long term.”

Fallon, in addition to speaking out in support of the streetcar, said the county needs more north-south transportation options and says the ART bus’ schedule should be expanded for later service. His primary focus during the debate was on affordable housing; he was touting his record as a planning commissioner in creating more than 1,000 units of designated affordable housing.

“The price of admission to Arlington is very high,” Fallon said. “The people who are here, you end up losing them, unless you’re able to capture them.”

Arlington County Board candidate Peter FallonFallon said he wants to re-examine Arlington’s incentive policies for asking developers for affordable housing units or funding. Fallon believes developers should be asked to contribute more than they already are, saying, “we need to get more bang for our buck so we have more of these units available.”

Moderator Gordon Simonett asked the candidates if they were worried about Arlington’s young population moving to cheaper, neighboring communities like Falls Church and Fairfax. All three candidates answered “yes,” but with varying degrees of concern. Thomas said there’s a reason so many young people are in Arlington in the first place.

“My friends constantly talk about moving somewhere” less expensive, Thomas said, but “Arlington’s a terrific place to be when you’re young.”

“There’s definitely a wonderful sense of young people, entrepreneurs and really young professionals here,” he said. “That’s why when I got here, it was really the place for me. Falls Church might be a little bit cheaper, but it doesn’t have what Arlington has.” (more…)


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