Carlin Springs Road

Gun Violence Victims Honored With T-Shirt Memorial

By Ethan Rothstein
1/6

An Arlington, Va., church has hung 176 T-shirts on its front lawn, with each shirt representing someone shot to death in the D.C. area last year.

First Presbyterian Church, at the intersection of N. Carlin Springs Road and Vermont Street, steps from Ballston Common Mall, displayed the shirts on Saturday. Each garment shows the name of a victim, the victim’s age and the date in 2013 that he or she died.

Eighty-two white shirts represent people killed in D.C. Victims in Northern Virginia are honored with 31 yellow shirts. And 63 blue shirts were hung for people in Maryland. The display was coordinated by Heeding God’s Call, a faith-based nonprofit with a mission to end gun violence.

“Each [victim] is a human being, a child of God,” a flier the organization is distributing at the memorial reads. “Each one deserves to be remembered. Each passing deserves to be noted and mourned.”

Heeding God’s Call is trying to grow support for its efforts to combat “straw purchasing” done when someone legally purchases guns to re-sell them, sometimes to people who cannot legally purchase a gun because they have a criminal record, a mental illness or are too young. The group says the cemetery-like display is designed to be a reminder that straw purchasing is how many guns “end up illegally in the hands of those who use them to destroy countless lives.”

“Unlike a cemetery, this memorial isn’t behind trees and gates where no one can see it,” the flier reads. “It’s on public view where folks driving, biking or walking past not only can see it but can be reminded of the violence that happens day in and day out in the Greater Washington area and, yes, throughout the country.”

The memorial will be on display through Sept. 27.

Hat tip to @ipadreporter

Board to Consider ‘The Springs’ Affordable Housing Proposal

By Ethan Rothstein

The Springs Ballston rendering‘The Springs,” a proposed five-story, 104-unit affordable housing building to replace the Carlyn Springs apartment complex, could be approved this Saturday by the Arlington County Board.

County planning staff is recommending the Board approve the site plan amendment, rezoning and General Land Use Plan amendment required to increase the housing density from 27 garden-style units on the site to a 104-unit mid-rise building.

The proposal, in the Buckingham neighborhood on the corner of N. Carlin Springs Road and Thomas Street, calls for two levels of underground parking with 110 total spaces and more than 5,000 square feet of office space, which will serve as the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing’s (APAH) new office.

“The proposed General Land Use plan amendment, rezoning and site plan follows the guidance in, and implements the vision of, the North Quincy Street Plan Addendum for this particular site and adheres to good urban design practice,” the staff report states. “The siting and design of the proposed apartment building is sensitive to the transitional nature of the site, and 71 net new committed affordable housing units are being created within walking distance to a Metro station.”

Overhead diagram of The Springs apartment building proposalAccording to the staff report, the size of the building allows for a transition from the high-rises of Ballston to the north to the townhouses and small apartment buildings to the south. In addition, the proposal would widen the existing sidewalks on Carlin Springs Road and Thomas street from 4-5 feet wide to 13 feet wide on Carlin Springs and 11 feet wide on Thomas Street.

Of the 104 units, 98 are projected to be committed affordable housing, and 80 of those affordable units will be two- or three-bedroom apartments intended for families. The developer also agreed to negotiate a public access easement adjacent to the building intended for a future mid-block park.

The Buckingham Civic Association raised some opposition during community meetings, according to the staff report, claiming the redevelopment is inconsistent with the Buckingham Neighborhood Conservation Plan.

Committee to Examine Affordable Housing Development Proposal

By Katie Pyzyk

The Springs Ballston renderingA proposed affordable housing development near Ballston will go before the county’s Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC) tonight.

As announced in August, the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) plans to replace the existing 3-story Carlyn Springs apartment complex with a new 5-story complex dubbed “The Springs” at 4318 N. Carlin Springs Road. Part of the building’s first floor would house offices for APAH’s headquarters. The offices would have an entrance on N. Carlin Springs Road, separate from the residential lobby and community room entrance on N. Thomas Street.

The proposed building would be 5-stories tall, offering a transition from other high-rises in Ballston to nearby low-rise residences. It would consist of 104 units.

The development would have two levels of underground parking, accessible from N. Thomas Street. The developer is requesting 104 spaces for residential use and seven for office use. Although 10 office spaces are required, special permission for a reduced number has been requested. The developer contends that the spaces will be shared between residents and office workers, so office workers will be able to use open spaces during the day while residents are at work.

Currently, sidewalks surrounding the property measure four to five feet wide, with a two to three foot treeless green strip. The development plan recommends expanding the sidewalks to 11-13 feet wide, with adjacent tree pits.

One issue the SPRC hopes to work through is the 26 foot setback area at the south side of the building, which is proposed to be a recreation area and play space for residents. The developer wishes to locate an above ground transformer at this location. County staff suggests moving the transformer vault inside the building or underground in the parking garage.

Although it may come up at future SPRC meetings instead of at tonight’s, county staff is expected to further discuss construction of a pedestrian/bike path to break up the “superblock” at this site. The path would also provide access to a park proposed for the area.

The developer has proposed building ground level apartment units, and county staff has encouraged the developer to consider stoops and street entrances for these units. That would give residents direct access to the proposed pedestrian/bike path, should the path be built.

Tonight will be the second time The Springs has been addressed at an SPRC meeting. There’s no word so far on exactly when the $35 million redevelopment proposal will be ready to go before the County Board.

Construction Begins on Glebe Road Pedestrian Improvements

By Katie Pyzyk

Construction at Glebe Road and N. Fairfax DriveWork has begun in Ballston on one of the three Glebe Road intersections slated to receive safety upgrades this year.

Last week, workers began construction on the intersection of Glebe Road and N. Fairfax Drive. The improvements are part of a pedestrian safety improvement project along Glebe Road that will spread to the Wilson Blvd and Carlin Springs Road intersections later this year.

The upgrades include installing new traffic signals, pedestrian crossing signals, street lights and trees. The intersections will also be reconfigured to improve safety. For example, the pedestrian “pork chop island” will be removed in front of Marymount University’s “Blue Goose” building, according to Tom Hutchings, Capital Project Manager with Arlington’s Department of Enviromental Services Division of Transportation.

“It tightens up the crossing distances at each intersection,” he said.

The red light camera that monitors northbound Glebe Road traffic at Fairfax Drive will remain in use during construction. Although the timing of the traffic lights will not change immediately, it will be evaluated later and tweaked as necessary.

“The timing is continually analyzed with every project we do,” Hutchings said. “It will be studied upon completion of the new lane geometry to optimize the intersection.”

Construction at Glebe Road and N. Fairfax DriveThe new traffic lights that were strung over the intersection last week are temporary; the permanent lights will be mounted on upgraded poles with mast arms. The previous poles were based on standards from the 1970s and did not meet the electronic wiring and mast arm standards in the current codes.

The improvements at the three intersections are part of a $2.5 million VDOT project that is locally administered by Arlington County. About 80 percent of the funding comes from federal and state sources, and about 20 percent comes from the county.

Although a number of pedestrian-vehicle accidents have occurred along this stretch of Glebe Road in recent years, such as the deadly cab accident last July, the intersections have been the subject of extensive studies since 2000.

“It is precipitated from acknowledgement of the high level of pedestrian activity in the area,” Hutchings said. “It’s to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety along Glebe Road where a lot of development has occurred over the past 10 years, and pedestrian use of Glebe Road has increased.”

According to Hutchings, the addition of a bike lane for eastbound cyclists on Fairfax Drive occurred during an earlier phase of this project, as did the installation of traffic lights last year at N. 9th Street and N. Vermont Street.

Work on the Fairfax Drive intersection is expected to be finished by mid-June. The Wilson Blvd. intersection should be completed in August, and Carlin Springs in October.