ART bus

County drops lawsuit against civic association, residents over attempt to block bus parking

By Jo DeVoe
ART buses move through the Quincy site in the Virginia Square neighborhood (via BVSCA)

There is a new twist in the stand-off between Arlington County and neighbors over bus parking on a county site in North Arlington.

Arlington County recently dropped litigation against three neighbors and the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association, who tried to use the Board of Zoning Appeals process to block the county from parking 29 Arlington Transit (ART) buses on a county lot near Washington-Liberty High School.

The parking is a temporary arrangement while a new ART bus facility is built in Green Valley. The Arlington County Board allowed this when it approved a special exception use permit in the spring of 2022.

Nearly two years ago, the county zoning administrator determined the Dept. of Environmental Services could park the buses on the site — a requisite step for obtaining a use permit. One resident appealed the decision but a county staff member rejected it. A week later, the county sued him, his wife, a third resident and the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association, alleging he used the BZA process improperly to block the parking use.

The defendants say the county sued them preemptively and that the bus activity would seriously undercut their property values and quality of life.

“This could and should become a case study in how not to run a county government and then considering your role you and not considering your unique role as owners of the site and how your actions may affect neighbors,” said Maurya Meiers during public comment on Saturday, when the Arlington County Board reviewed the special exception permit for the site.

A BZA appeal had been filed on Meiers’ behalf two years ago and she is named in the lawsuit, per meeting materials and court documents.

Some residents came to the defense of their neighbors and their legal plight.

“It’s a SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation] suit: a use of superior resources to haul citizens into court wear them down and demoralize them, perhaps even beggar them lest they become too vociferous and their concerns about pollution, noise and other avoidable nuisances, such as those which this permit enables,” said neighbor Thomas Viles. “So far your lawsuit has accomplished nothing expensive as it was it proved insufficient to shut these voters up.”

Indeed, Arlington County says it dropped its suit because the BZA is now set to hear the appeal case built by neighbors who live in homes overlooking the parking lot. The hearing will determine whether the county zoning administrator acted properly or if her decision runs afoul of zoning ordinances, a site plan and a 1985 deed of covenant.

Viles says the BZA agreed to take up the appeal after hearing about the suit in ARLnow.

“When they did learn, however, the BZA repudiated [county government] for having kept them in the dark,” he said.

This fracas is obliquely referenced in a resolution the BZA passed last September, directing the zoning administrator to avoid this situation again by sharing all appeals with members regardless of their merit.

“The BZA has never authorized any person to decline to accept an appeal on the BZA’s behalf,” the resolution says. “County staff did not consult the entire membership of the BZA before declining to accept any appeals of a zoning administrator determination, nor did County staff inform the BZA of its communications and actions in regards to any appeals filed between March 7, 2022 and the date of the adoption of this resolution.”

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GW Parkway closed, bus schedules curtailed as snow continues to fall

By ARLnow.com
Snow falling on Wilson Blvd in Bluemont

Today’s snowfall — the second significant snowstorm of the week after none for two years — is overperforming.

More than two inches have fallen so far and another 1-2 inches is expected through this afternoon, according to the Capital Weather Gang. A Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect.

VDOT and Arlington County crews are out treating local roads. Owing in some combination to the snow crews and the salt already on the roads, major and arterial roadways in Arlington appear to be in relatively good shape on traffic cameras.

“Crews started mobilizing early this morning as areas of snow returned across Northern Virginia,” VDOT said. “Please give them plenty of space on the roads as they work to keep them clear. As always, residents are asked to monitor forecasts, limit nonessential travel, and be aware of the potential for icy spots as freezing temperatures are forecast today into the weekend.”

The under-construction portion of the GW Parkway, meanwhile, was temporarily closed earlier today — as it was earlier this week — in anticipation of the snow.

“The George Washington Memorial Parkway, from I-495 to Spout Run, is closed due to the forecasted severe winter weather in the area,” the National Park Service said. “This closure is necessary to ensure the proper treatment of the roadway and to restore the parkway to safe travel conditions. Crews will work diligently to treat the roadway for safe passage of motorists.”

“Motorists should anticipate delays in reopening the north parkway as crews are required to use smaller equipment than usual to accommodate the lane widths and configurations,” NPS added. “Please plan to use alternate routes. A follow-up alert will be distributed once the parkway has reopened.”

As previously reported, Arlington Public Schools is closed today, while the federal government is opening on a two-hour delay. Arlington County government, however, opened on time.

Metro and ART bus schedules have been curtailed as a result of the snow.

“Arlington Transit will be shifting to severe service level, only routes 41, 45, 51, 55, 77, 87, 87A and 87P run during this service level,” ART noted just before 9 a.m.

Metro is on a “moderate” snow plan.

“Under the Moderate plan, service will be suspended on some routes and buses detour around roads prone to hazardous conditions, including many neighborhood streets,” WMATA said in a press release. “Customers are advised to travel only if necessary, as snow and ice may create dangerous conditions, causing delays and increased wait times. If snow is blocking the curb, customers are advised to wait on the sidewalk instead of the street until the bus arrives.”

Deicing and snow removal operations are underway at National Airport, but runways are open and flights continuing to arrive and depart.

Arlington has a $10M plan to attract more bus riders. Getting off natural gas will be a pricier proposition.

By Jo DeVoe
Passengers board an ART bus on Columbia Pike (file photo by Jay Westcott)

This reporting was supported by the ARLnow Press Club. Join today to support in-depth local journalism — and get an exclusive morning preview of each day’s planned coverage.

(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) In the half-decade leading up to 2017, ridership on Arlington Transit, or ART, had risen 34%, or nearly 1 million rides.

Then, in 2018, ridership started trending down, a decline that Covid only sped up — despite the essential workers who continued riding the bus and insulated ART from the pandemic hit Metro sustained.

Today, ridership is on the upswing but still far lower than the 2017 highs. Arlington County is trying to change that — outlining several service changes in a new 10-year strategic plan — all while studying how best to make more expensive investments: buying zero-emission buses.

As for ridership, Joan McIntyre — chair of Arlington’s Climate Change, Energy and Environment Commission, or C2E2 — attributes low numbers to the length of time it takes to reach many destinations in Arlington by bus versus by car.

“Even before the pandemic, ridership of ART and other public transit was largely stagnant,” she told the County Board last month in November. “The reality is that for many in Arlington, you simply can’t get there from here via public transit.”

Arlington Transit ridership numbers since 2014 (via Arlington County)

Surveyed as this plan was coming together, Arlingtonians said the bus needs to arrive more frequently, run for more hours and connect them to more destinations. A 2019 study diagnosing ART’s declining ridership found riders wanted more frequent service, better real-time information and more on-time performance. A 2022 survey had similar findings.

Arlington was not alone in seeing a pre-Covid ridership slump and national studies found contributing factors included the rise of telework, online shopping and ride-hailing services, lower gas prices and higher fares, and in New York and D.C., maintenance service disruptions. (Arlington’s 2019 survey likewise found ride-hailing siphoned off some 19% riders while 51% only rode for work, suggesting telework could be a limiting factor today.)

Arlington cannot control for telework and ride-hailing, but it can make service changes. Areas with growing ridership, Columbia Pike and Route 1, are set to see more frequent service, with more weekend trips and new destinations, such as Long Bridge Park.

Expensive, low-performing routes primarily serving North Arlington will be discontinued or redrawn to connect high-ridership neighborhoods and destinations, such as Waverly Hills and Virginia Hospital Center. Where service is discontinued, it intends to pilot an on-demand “microtransit” option.

On-time performance, however, has more external factors to consider. Recently, this includes public and private construction on Columbia Pike and near the Pentagon, which the county considers “temporary disruptions for long-term gain.” Other factors are traffic congestion on I-395 and in Pentagon City and, for a more positive spin, increased ridership on several routes.

On-time performance (courtesy Arlington County)

To make every change outlined in the 10-year plan, Arlington County would need to spend some $10 million, according to Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers.

This is a fraction of the $130-$180 million estimate from a consulting firm that analyzed the potential cost to convert the entire ART bus fleet to battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell electric buses, though advocates say up to two-thirds of purchase costs could come from state and national funds.

High-dollar investments in buses are not without their controversies. A decade ago, Arlington and Metro embarked on installing new stops on Columbia Pike, leading with the memorable $1 million Pike “Super Stop” plagued by poor inter-agency communication and design flaws.

Pilot projects like free fares, currently being tested out on all routes in peak directions, are also not guaranteed successes. Arlington is currently piloting the change on the heels of some U.S. cities. Earlier European adopters, meanwhile, have reported ridership increases after going fare free but only marginal declines — and in some cases increases — in car use.

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County changes course on HOV and bus-only lane on Langston Blvd through Rosslyn

By Jo DeVoe
Langston Blvd headed eastbound from N. Veitch Street to N. Lynn Street (via Google Maps)

Arlington County has scrapped plans to make a dedicated high-occupancy vehicle and bus-only lane on Langston Blvd.

Instead, it will take a new tack to improve bus reliability on the corridor, says Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors.

This winter and spring, the county will reprogram select traffic signals to give buses more time to clear an intersection, known as transit signal prioritization.

The county would deploy technology that detects when buses are approaching an intersection. If a bus arrives at a red light, the signal will turn green sooner; if it arrives just before the signal turns yellow, it will stay green longer.

Arlington had long mulled building a dedicated bus and HOV lane on Langston Blvd. It would have run eastbound from N. Veitch Street, near Courthouse, to N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn during peak morning hours and westbound from N. Oak Street to N. Veitch Street during the evening peak period.

When the county dug into the finer details, however, staff found that the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) grant it received two years ago to fund the work would not be enough.

“The funding awarded from NVTC’s Commuter Choice grant program wasn’t enough to cover both the analysis required to reassign a VDOT lane and the implementation costs,” Pors said. “We have returned the money to NVTC.”

The transit bureau of DES instead pivoted to transit signal prioritization. Public transit advocates point to this type of upgrade as low-cost, yet high-impact, increasing bus speeds up to 15%.

With a few months before work starts, county staff are picking which intersections should have longer or earlier green lights, says Pors. The county could switch between the two, depending on how reprogramming the lights impacts traffic patterns.

Transit signal prioritization is one mechanism the new Plan Langston Blvd initiative says will improve bus speeds, reliability and convenience — encouraging ridership on the car-centric road.

The goal of Plan Langston Blvd, which ramped up in the last two years, is to articulate a long-term vision for how the corridor develops.

The plan describes how the county can achieve affordable housing, sustainability and transportation goals along the corridor through policies, private redevelopment and county-led projects.

This month, the Arlington County Board is teed up to approve a request to advertise hearings on the comprehensive plan for neighborhoods along Langston Blvd, also known as Route 29. If approved, hearings by the Planning Commission and County Board would be held on Monday, Oct. 30 and on Nov. 11, respectively.

If and when the plan is adopted, Pors says the transit bureau will take another look at the corridor and the plan’s recommendations before determining next steps for improving bus reliability.

Free rush-hour ART bus fares in peak directions start today

By James Jarvis
An Arlington Transit (ART) bus outside the Ballston Metro station (staff photo)

(Updated at 3:25 p.m.) Starting today, morning ART bus rides into Arlington and evening rides out during weekday rush hours will be free until the end of December.

The initiative is designed to ease I-66 congestion by encouraging the use of public transit, according to a county press release. It is funded by the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) Commuter Choice grant program.

“Skip the driving, save money on gas and tolls, and get to your destination stress-free,” the county says on the ART bus website. “When you ride instead of drive, you’re taking single-occupancy vehicles off the road, reducing both traffic and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time.”

Free fares will end on Christmas Day, per the release. To ensure passengers do not accidentally pay, fare boxes will be covered on buses headed in the direction with higher demand during rush hours.

Arlington received $1.35 million from NVTC, about $566,000 of which pays for free fares, Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors said. The rest funds activities by Arlington County Commuter Services, which educates commuters and employers about sustainable transportation options.

The grant funding applies to routes along the I-66 corridor. Three ART routes outside the corridor will be free during the same period “for a seamless experience for all ART riders,” Pors said, noting the county’s transit bureau is paying $19,000 for these fares.

The county says it also supports expanding the free-ride initiative to include routes beyond the I-66 corridor. Funding for free fare initiatives comes from revenue from the Express Lanes on I-66, I-395 and I-95, which help finance various transit projects across the region.

ART already offers free transfers for rail riders who transfer from Metro to bus within two hours of taking Metro. Rides are also free for Arlington Public School with registered Student iRide SmarTrip cards.

In addition to the free bus initiative, NVTC funds are also supporting a proposed west entrance to the Ballston Metro station.

A list of free bus routes and times is below.

Free fare routes on ART through Dec. 25, 2023 (via Arlington County)

Arlington County buys electric buses for its fleet

By Jo DeVoe
The Gillig bus rolls through Ballston (courtesy Dept. of Environmental Services)

(Updated at 9:30 a.m. on 8/23/23) Arlington County’s efforts to electrify transit just jolted forward.

Arlington’s transit system, ART, is getting its first batch of battery electric buses, or BEB, as it pursues carbon neutrality by 2050, according to a press release. The vehicles will be deployed in late 2024 after work wraps up on the new Operations and Maintenance Facility on Shirlington Road.

With $3.3 million in state and $1.2 million in local funds, the county is buying four American-made buses by the company Gillig, which drivers and riders tested out along with other options over the last year.

“Delivering transit service is at the core of who we are and what we do, when it comes to realizing our vision of smart growth that is environmentally conscious and sustainable,” Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said in a statement.

Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers said in a statement that this purchase is the county’s second step toward a “greener, healthier future for Arlington Transit.”

“The first step began with our public vehicle demonstrations of BEB technology,” she said. “The partnership with Gillig points us in the right direction for a reliable and resilient zero-emission transit fleet that contributes to a cleaner, healthier County.”

The release says the battery electric buses are part of an effort to test out new technologies while maintaining current reliable levels of service.

Arlington’s Transit Bureau could also be testing out advances in fuel technology for 15 buses it is buying to replace aging vehicles within ART’s 78-bus fleet.

Unlike the four electric buses, these 15 will be powered by compressed natural gas — essentially compressed methane — like the rest of the ART fleet. While compressed natural gas produces fewer emissions than petrol, is still considered nonrenewable because underground reservoirs make up its largest source.

For the 15 new buses, the transit bureau is looking at using renewable natural gas, or methane that has already been used or captured from landfill emissions, Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors told ARLnow.

Meanwhile, the county is outfitting its forthcoming bus operations and maintenance facility with electric charging capabilities.

Initially, the county aimed to get electric buses operating from the facility in 2025, but the 2024 deployment date means it is ahead of schedule.

“The facility is projected to reach substantial completion in 2024 — a little faster than initially expected, and we are expecting to receive revisions of the 100% design for BEB infrastructure in the fall of this year,” Pors said.

County solicits feedback on 10-year plan to improve ART bus service

By Jo DeVoe
Passengers board an ART bus on Columbia Pike (file photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington is looking to operate buses more frequently and expand service with more off-peak and weekend service.

These are just some of the recommendations that could be implemented as part of an overhaul of the municipal bus service, called Arlington Transit, over the next decade. The changes are part of an update to Arlington’s Transit Strategic Plan, which it is required to have by state law and update every six years.

As part of the update, Arlington County will be redesigning service in North Arlington and enhancing service along Columbia Pike, in Pentagon City and Crystal City, and around the under-construction Shirlington Transit Center. The proposed changes also include closing down some underutilized routes, adding service to community destinations such as Long Bridge Park, and ensuring schedules use easy-to-remember time intervals.

This update comes as ridership continues to recover from being slashed in half by the pandemic.

From July 2022 to this March, the most recent ART Bus ridership report available, monthly ridership increased from 130,299 to 164,516. Today, the highest concentration of riders is taking the bus north-south between Columbia Pike or Shirlington and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor or east-west along Langston Blvd.

Still, there are gaps in service and barriers to bus use that this update is intended to address. In preparation for the strategic plan update, the county says it heard from users that their biggest asks are reliability, frequency and efficiency, as well as a better user experience.

“People want more direct routes with fewer transfers, taking less time to make their trips… [as well as] a better user experience (clean buses, safe and accessible waiting areas, and high levels of customer service and transparency) overall,” the county said.

Right now, reliability can depend on which route users take. ART bus data from March, for instance, shows that on-time performance is higher from Rosslyn to East Falls Church and from Crystal City to Courthouse but lower from Columbia Pike to Rosslyn and Courthouse. The Columbia Pike routes, however, see four to six times the number of riders.

The county tracked where bus service and demand are mismatched, plus researched popular places people congregate and want to go to — but currently cannot get to easily by bus. County staff specifically looked at places with higher concentrations of people without cars, seniors and people with disabilities or limited English proficiency, among other socioeconomic factors.

It found the following communities, circled in the graphic, could benefit from expanded service.

Areas where service could be improved (via Arlington County) 

New routes serving these identified neighborhoods include a new ART 43 providing a “one-seat ride” between Clarendon, Courthouse, Rosslyn and Crystal City — a potential time and cost-saver compared to Metrorail — and a new ART 85, linking Shirlington, Long Branch Creek, Aurora Highlands, Crystal City and Potomac Yard.

These have the support of transit advocacy group Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County (SusMo), which evaluated each of the proposed route changes on its website.

“We’ve looked at the proposed route changes in detail and have a bunch of recommendations, both for routes that need improved frequencies, as well as for routes that are overly meandering, duplicative and should not be a priority in this constrained fiscal environment where both buses and bus drivers are at a premium,” SusMo said.

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ACPD: ART bus driver seriously hurt after being assaulted by rider

By ARLnow.com
ART bus (file photo)

An ART bus driver suffered serious injuries last night after being assaulted by a rider along Columbia Pike, police say.

The driver was reported to be bleeding from the mouth when police and medics were dispatched to the intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Dinwiddie Street just after 10:45 p.m. Sunday. It’s unclear what led to the attack.

The suspect was “leaving a public transit bus when he assaulted the driver,” according to today’s Arlington County Police Department crime report. “Following the assault, the suspect exited the bus and fled the scene on foot. The bus driver sustained serious, non-life threatening injuries and was treated on scene by medics before being transported to an area hospital.”

Also in today’s crime report, several security guards were hurt at the Pentagon City mall Friday evening after a suspect tried to steal handbags, then fought the security guards and brandished a knife.

The incident happened on the third level of the mall near the entrance to Macy’s, according to scanner traffic.

From ACPD:

ATTEMPTED MALICIOUS WOUNDING, 2023-04280202, 1100 block of S. Hayes Street. At approximately 6:17 p.m. on April 28, a patrol officer was flagged down by an individual reporting a fight in-progress. Upon arrival, the officer observed loss prevention attempting to detain the suspect and assisted with taking him into custody. The investigation determined the suspect entered the store and allegedly removed handbags from a display case. A loss prevention officer then confronted the suspect who pushed the loss prevention officer to the ground and physically assaulted him before fleeing the area. Two additional loss prevention officers located the suspect outside of the business and attempted to detain him, during which the suspect assaulted them and brandished a knife. Medics evaluated the loss prevention officers on scene for minor injuries. During a search incident to arrest, credit cards not belonging to the suspect were recovered. [The suspect], 30, of Washington, DC, was arrested and charged with Attempted Malicious Wounding, Robbery, Assault and Battery (x2), Credit Card Theft (x3) and Possession of Burglarious Tools.

Arlington aims to have electric buses operating from forthcoming Green Valley facility by 2025

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

As work continues on a new Arlington Transit bus facility in Green Valley, Arlington is taking steps to make it work for electric buses.

Electrifying buses is part of the county’s goal to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. To reach that goal, it needs to buy battery-powered electric buses and have a place to charge them.

Construction is currently set to wrap up next fall on a new ART Operations and Maintenance Facility at 2629 Shirlington Road and the county aims to have electric buses on-site by 2025. Meanwhile, Arlington is testing out different buses to see which to add to its fleet, piloting buses from two providers last year and possibly testing some from up to two more manufacturers.

With work progressing on both these fronts in tandem, plans for the facility moved forward with partially baked designs for charging infrastructure. This has set the county up to need to amend its design and construction contracts associated with the $96.6 million project as it learns more about what it needs to build.

This weekend, the Arlington County Board is set to tack on almost $585,000 to an existing $4.5 million design contract with Stantec Architecture to fully flesh plans to add up to 46 charging stalls that can accommodate up to 63 buses.

“As [Battery Electric Bus] concept plans were developed, the County proceeded with the 60% design for BEB charging infrastructure,” Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Alyson Jordan Tomaszewski said. “The design scope expanded as the 60% design progressed and as more details about the County BEB requirements were identified.”

Once these designs are 100% complete, the county will update its construction contract with Turner Construction, authorizing it to purchase and install the charging equipment needed for the initial BEB pilot program, per a county report.

“The 100% design will provide capacity to add additional charging cabinets and equipment when additional BEBs are purchased,” it says.

Right now, something of a placeholder contract says the contractor has up to nearly $11.9 million to spend on above-grade charging equipment.

“This includes the necessary switchgear, transformers, chargers, and associated equipment to charge an initial increment of electric buses,” per a 2022 report. “It also includes canopies and solar panel over the canopies.”

That sum is on top of the $66.4 million contract to build the facility and below-grade charging infrastructure. These plans were approved with the expectation that the county would be buying electric buses sometime this spring.

While operating electric buses from the facility seems to have long been the plan, some neighbors had advocated for more fully baked plans for charging capabilities when the project was being developed.

Instead, designs stayed vague “to accommodate future fleet electrification” but be flexible enough to incorporate future technology, per a 2021 community presentation.

Slide from a 2021 presentation on the ART bus facility (via Arlington County)

Construction on the facility continues apace and the county is still targeting a fall 2024 completion, Tomaszewski said.

“The erection of the steel structure on the Operations and Maintenance building was completed on March 17,” per the website. “In the next few weeks, crews will work on completing detailing of the steel, placing the metal deck, and completing the roof screening wall.”

Construction started last year, with a groundbreaking in June.

Buses are temporarily being stored on a property across the street from Washington-Liberty HIgh School, near a collection of homes. The county and some residents are embroiled in a lawsuit about whether the operations have impacted their quality of life.

Arlington County sues civic association and residents over attempt to block bus parking

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

(Updated at 11 a.m.) Arlington County is suing three residents and the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association over their attempt to stop buses from being parked near their homes.

The county charges that they used the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) process improperly to prevent the approval of a special use permit to allow 29 Arlington Transit (ART) buses to park on a county lot across the street from Washington-Liberty High School while a new ART bus facility is built in Green Valley.

The county says the BZA doesn’t have the authority to hear their case and, without an allegation of harm or potential harm not shared by their neighbors, the residents are not “aggrieved parties” and are thus improperly using the appeal process to block the county’s plans.

“The Applicants sought their appeals simply as a way to undermine the County Board’s authority and to prevent the County Board from approving a special exception use permit for the Subject Property, thereby weaponizing the stay required by Va. Code… and in effect usurping the legislative power of the County Board,” per the lawsuit.

But the residents, who live in two of the five homes on a ridge overlooking the parking lot, argue the county is suing them preemptively while running afoul of its own zoning ordinances. Further, they say the bus activity will seriously undercut their property values and quality of life and suggest the county should buy their homes.

The lawsuit says that one resident’s BZA appeal asked the body to “compel the County Board to purchase some of the Applicant’s properties.”

Both the county and the residents declined to comment to ARLnow on the ongoing lawsuit, set for a hearing in Arlington County Circuit Court later this month.

Arlington County bought the largely industrial site, also known as the Buck site after its previous owner, in 2015 for $30 million to serve a variety of needs.

Arlington Public Schools parked “white fleet” vans there and, as part of an agreement in 2022, the county moved the vans from a part of the site zoned for “light industrial” uses to another zoned for “mixed use,” and park the ART buses in the “light industrial” zone.

This violates an ordinance, a site plan and a deed of covenant governing the property dating to 1985, the civic association alleged in a letter to the County Board in May 2022. The letter says county staff made procedural and substantive missteps that should have invalidated the county’s special use permit application and subsequent action to abandon the right-of-way of a former street on the site.

The civic association alleges that this change came after the county already violated zoning ordinances related to parking and landscaping by conducting motorcycle maneuvering training and storing dumpsters in parking areas while, in landscaped areas, letting trees die and English ivy take over.

As for the new use, they say the noise is unbearable, emissions from the Compressed Natural Gas-powered buses are “toxic,” and vibrations shake nearby homes — leading to their properties becoming “unmarketable” and “uninhabitable.” The BVSCA posted the following video of an ART parking exercise on the site last year.

 

 

Residents say the county’s real estate office proposed reducing their property assessments by up to $190,000 and heard from four realtors who say they’d be reluctant to list these properties.

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Workers laying foundation for new ART bus facility in Green Valley

By Jo DeVoe
1/2

(Updated 3:40 p.m.) Work is ramping up on a new Arlington County bus maintenance building and parking garage in Green Valley.

Crews are set to wrap up laying the foundation for the Arlington Transit (ART) Operations and Maintenance Facility at the end of this month, says Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Alyson Jordan Tomaszewski.

“The facility will perform regular preventive bus maintenance, repairs and other unscheduled maintenance work,” per a project webpage. “It also will include administration and operations functions and parking for buses and staff.”

Then, passers-by may notice a crawler crane on site, which will be used to install steel columns. That work is set to last until sometime in March, according to the project webpage.

Meanwhile, work on the foundation of the parking garage is planned to start at the end of January, she says.

Construction began in June 2022 and is expected to be completed in the fall of 2024.

“We have experienced both weather and supply chain delays with the ART Operations and Maintenance Facility,” she said. “However, we are still on track for completion in fall 2024. To mitigate the supply chain issue, we are expediting material approval and procurement as best we can.”

The Green Valley Civic Association welcomes the new facility.

“The county used to park about 60 ART buses right in Jennie Dean Park, next to the basketball court,” Robin Stombler, community-affairs chair of the civic association, tells ARLnow. “Moving the buses into a new operations facility adjacent to I-395 is not only a welcome change, but should mitigate noise and light disturbances on the residential community.”

Still, the civic association has some lingering concerns.

“We were vocal on the need for improved environmental conditions. This meant a state-of-the-art facility outfitted for a future electric bus fleet, better stormwater management and bioretention ponds, and lit signage that does not face the residential part of Green Valley,” Stombler said.

“The new county bus campus will house a staff-only, multi-story parking garage,” she continued. “We need some creative thinking to make sure this amenity is shared with the rest of the neighborhood.”

Next door, the general manager of the Cubesmart storage facility tells ARLnow that the county has “been very sensitive to the fact that we have traffic flowing in and out of there and has done great job keeping the road clean.”

The Cubesmart opened a second facility near the construction site back in March 2021. Between the original building, now “The Annex,” and the new building, there are nearly 2,400 storage units, she said.

This construction project follows on the heels of other recently completed ones in the Green Valley neighborhood, aimed at realizing a community vision of an arts and industry hub. The new John Robinson, Jr. Town Square, with a towering sculpture, as well as the renovated Jennie Dean Park opened with great fanfare this spring.

The County Board approved the purchase of the three parcels in Green Valley to build the ART facilities back in 2018.

“This project is essential for ART’s long-term sustainability and will address the current and future needs for parking, operations and maintenance of the County’s growing ART bus fleet,” according to the project webpage. “ART has significantly increased its number of routes and hours of service during the past 10 years and plans to continue growing during the next 20 years, supported by a fleet of more than 100 buses.”

The total cost to buy the land, plan and design the project and construct it is $81.2 million.

Work hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday through Friday, with some weekend work occurring between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m.

This article was updated to add comments from the Green Valley Civic Association.

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