Chris Zimmerman

Mystery Event Revealed, Will Take Place in Ashburn

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) The formal announcement of a “big” new annual Labor Day event along the W&OD Trail took place in Arlington’s Bluemont Park this morning.

Few details about the event were revealed ahead of time, but with the announcement featuring remarks by County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman and local lawmaker Del. Patrick Hope, one could reasonably assume that the bulk of the new event was to take place in Arlington, right?

Wrong.

The “Dominion Trail Mix” Labor Day community event will largely take place in Loudoun County, as it turns out. “The Great Skedaddle” — a bike, run, walk event along the W&OD Trail — and “TrailFest” — an outdoor festival featuring pop-country group Gloriana — will both take place at Farmwell Station Middle School in Ashburn.

A third Trail Mix event — the “Hail the Trail” clean-up event — will take place at eight nine different stations along the trail on the morning of Saturday, Sept. 3. According to the newly-updated Trail Mix web site, the station closest to Arlington will be located at Veterans Common at 507 Little Falls Street in Falls Church. The event will encourage volunteers to pick up trash, perform kiosk maintenance, weed and plant along the trail.

Among those on hand for this morning’s announcement were Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell, Dominion CEO Paul Koonce and Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority Executive Director Paul Gilbert.

Sandwich Board Signs, Sidewalk Cafe Umbrellas Making a Comeback?

By ARLnow.com

At the annual State of the County address yesterday, Arlington County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said action on parts of his Small Business Initiative is coming soon.

Zimmerman said that he expects to see an initial draft of a rewritten sign ordinance next month, with final Board approval by the end of the year.

Addressing the substance of the sign ordinance, Zimmerman said he wants an ordinance that “at a minimum, ends the prohibition on A-frame signs [and] relaxes restrictions on the umbrellas used for sidewalk seating.”

Allowing A-frame — or “sandwich board” –signs would be a victory for business owners in Arlington, who have bemoaned Arlington’s strict enforcement of its prohibitive sign ordinance. The ban on sandwich board signs in makes it particularly difficult to promote restaurants specials and store sales to passersby.

Unadorned sidewalk cafe umbrellas are currently allowed under county code, but allowing branded umbrellas would benefit restaurant owners who want to make their eateries more visible during the warm weather months.

In addition to sign ordinance changes, Zimmerman said he hopes the Small Business Initiative will find a way to improve coordination among the various county government units that handle business matters.

“We heard, again and again, a real frustration with the lack of centrality and consistency of information,” Zimmerman said.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

State of the County Address — County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman delivered the annual State of the County address in Crystal City yesterday. “All indications are that we are well-positioned for the future,” Zimmerman told the crowd. “Demand is both strong and growing for transit-accessible, walkable urban communities.”[Sun Gazette]

Rosslyn Public Art Walking Tour — Take a self-guided tour of the eclectic pieces of public art around Rosslyn, thanks to a map provided by Arlington’s Cultural Affairs division. [Northern Virginia Magazine]

Are Library Lost Item Fees Too High? — An Arlington Public Library user wrote an angry letter to the Sun Gazette after her family lost a library DVD and had to pay about twice as much to replace it as it would have cost to buy it new at Target. “I would greatly appreciate an investigation of the county library finances,” Janet Dorn told the paper. The library has responded to the letter on its blog, arguing that its materials supplier charges more than discount stores, partially because each item comes pre-packaged in a library-specific case with call number stickers already attached. [Library Blog]

‘Big’ Annual Event to Be Revealed Next Week

By ARLnow.com

A new annual community event will be launching later this year in Arlington. Organizers have released a few tantalizing tidbits about the event, but most details will remain a mystery until a formal announcement featuring Virginia First Lady Maureen McDonnell on Wednesday of next week.

The one-day event is expected take place Labor Day weekend along the W&OD Trail in Arlington. It will feature “a sports event with a historic twist, a large-scale environmental action activity (biggest in the park’s history) and a festival featuring a national recording artist which we expect will draw several thousand attendees,” said Chris Browne, Vice President of the Greater Washington Sports Alliance.

“It is going to be BIG and very relevant to our regional community,” Browne added.

Wednesday’s announcement will feature First Lady McDonnell, County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman and Paul Koonce, CEO of Dominion Virginia Power, which is sponsoring the event. The announcement is scheduled to take place at 11:00 a.m. at Bluemont Park (601 N. Manchester Street).

Board: ART Labor Dispute “Must Be Resolved”

By ARLnow.com

County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman says that the labor dispute between a group of unionized drivers and Arlington Transit contractor Forsythe Transportation “must be resolved, immediately.”

In a statement on behalf of the rest of the board, Zimmerman said that the ART bus drivers’ concerns — about sexual harassment and the disciplining of a union leader — “need to be taken seriously.”

Here’s Zimmerman’s full statement.

Since Monday a dispute between the management of Forsythe Transportation, with whom Arlington contracts to operate the County’s ART bus service, and bus drivers represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3001, has resulted in service disruptions and a significant reduction of service on many ART routes. This situation is simply unacceptable.

Drivers have expressed concerns that need to be taken seriously, including allegations of sexual harassment, and the improper disciplining of a union representative. As this is a labor relations issue between a private company and its workers, Arlington County has no authority to intervene in this matter. However, we call on both parties to work together to resolve the issues and quickly restore full bus service for ART patrons. We urge both sides to utilize all available legal mechanisms to work toward resolution of the issues, including mediation services (such as the Northern Virginia Mediation Service affiliated with George Mason University).

It is critical to move expeditiously to resolve these issues and restore bus service at normal levels. We call for an immediate agreement between management and labor that will provide for the prompt restoration of service and an impartial investigation of worker’s concerns and a fair mediation of the matters in dispute.

Since its inception just over a decade ago, ART has been a steadily growing service, now carrying more than 2 million riders per year. It is increasingly important to the achievement of key goals of this community, including improving quality of life by offering more transportation choices, attaining a range of environmental objectives, reducing traffic congestion, and contributing to the vitality of business. It must continue to be reliable. The current dispute must be resolved, immediately.

Revised Sign Regulations On the Way

By ARLnow.com

New sign regulations may be ready for adoption by the fall, Arlington County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said at this afternoon’s board meeting.

Zimmerman said that the board and county staff have been listening to feedback from business owners, many of whom bemoan the county’s sign ordinance as too restrictive. The county is still in the process of collecting comments on its web site and some additional sign focus groups are in the works, Zimmerman said.

County staff will work with a consultant to review the feedback and to review “best practices from around the country on sign regulation.” A draft copy of some of the regulation changes should be ready for review by the board and community groups in July. If all goes well, Zimmerman hopes to have the new sign ordinance ready for adoption “in the fall.”

The goal, Zimmerman said, is to “make business easier to do in Arlington and make the process better for everyone.”

Arlington Holds ‘Sign Workshop’ With Business Owners

By Katie Pyzyk

Changes are coming to the rules that regulate signs in Arlington. The county held a workshop at Washington-Lee High School last night to gather community input on reworking the current sign ordinance.

Many business owners believe the current rules are restrictive and confusing. County Board Chair Chris Zimmerman agrees. He says the ordinance is too stringent and focuses on the wrong things.

The board “can be little more liberal in our approach” to signs, Zimmerman said.

Right now, the county is still in the information gathering process. Staff members believe Tuesday’s meeting was productive in coming up with ideas for improvement, and are impressed with the turnout of around 50 people.

“There are a number of different goals to balance, but the feedback will definitely help to develop the ordinance,” said county planner Deborah Albert.

Business owners presented a variety of examples illustrating how the current rules hurt them. Some cited an inability to draw in customers without proper signage. Others claim developers seek out other areas to build once they hear of the regulations. Many said it simply detracts from their efforts at branding.

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Small Business Owners Decry Taxes, Sign Ordinance

By ARLnow.com

What’s on the mind of local entrepreneurs? A lot, as it turns out.

On Thursday night Arlington County held a small business ‘listening session’ at Clarendon Ballroom. More than 50 business owners showed up to tell county staff what they like and don’t like about how the county treats small businesses.

The event was part of County Board Chair Chris Zimmerman’s year-long push to make Arlington more small-business-friendly. Zimmerman gave the opening and closing remarks at the event, but it was county planning and economic development staff who led the group discussions that were the evening’s main substance.

Among the things business owners liked about doing business in Arlington were the friendly personal interactions with county employees, the frequent county programs that teach you how to create a business plan, and the relative ease of running a home-based business. As expected, however, complaints far out-numbered compliments.

There was discussion of the advantages larger businesses have over smaller businesses when trying to navigate the county’s regulations and talk of loosening regulations preventing small businesses from participating in certain citizen-oriented programs. By and large, however, the discussion focused on three areas: clarity and accessibility of information, taxes and fees, and the county’s controversial sign ordinance.

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Zimmerman Plans Small Business “Listening Session”

By ARLnow.com

Update at 3:30 p.m. — Zimmerman unveiled a new “Business Center” web portal at this afternoon’s board meeting. The portal is “designed to make the County web site work better for Arlington business owners,” according to county spokeswoman Mary Curtius.

On New Year’s Day, County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman kicked off the year by declaring that the board wanted to be seen a “facilitator, a partner to small business” in 2011.

The subtext of his comment was that the county was looking to reverse course from 2010, when a series of mini-controversies over enforcement of county ordinances had some entrepreneurs questioning Arlington’s commitment to small business.

Among the dust-ups: American Flatbread’s request for patio seating was denied in July. Then Screwtop Wine Bar and Bakeshop had their sandwich board-style signs confiscated and thrown in a dumpster by a county employee. Then some soon-to-open businesses began complaining about delays caused by zoning issues. And finally, the icing on the cake was a lawsuit filed by a doggy daycare owner over a mural that the county argued was disallowed under the sign ordinance. (A judge later sided with the county.)

With that unpleasantness behind him, Zimmerman is now organizing a small business “listening session” on March 31. In a letter to business owners, Zimmerman writes that “to make improvements that really work for business, we need direct input from our business owners and those who support them.”

The forum also comes at a time when the county is in the process of rewriting its zoning ordinance, including the sign ordinance, to correct inconsistencies and ambiguities. Zimmerman has also hinted that the board may relax certain regulations.

“Many feel [the zoning ordinance] is overly restrictive and unnecessarily hard to understand and comply with,” Zimmerman said at the Jan. 1 board meeting. “There has to be a better way. In 2011, we’re going to find one.”

See Zimmerman’s letter to business owners, after the jump.

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Meet Your New Sister City

By ARLnow.com

Arlington has a new sister city, and she’s eastern European.

On Friday, county board chairman Chris Zimmerman will be joined by Viktor Anushkevychus, mayor of the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, at a signing ceremony in Crystal City to make the familial relationship official. The signing will be part of the 55th annual Sister Cities International Conference, which Arlington is hosting this weekend.

Ivano-Frankivsk will become Arlington’s fifth sister city, joining Aachen, Germany; Coyoacán, Mexico; Reims, France, and San Miguel, El Salvador.

Ivano-Frankivsk is a historic city located in southwestern Ukraine. It has an extensive public transportation network, an international airport, an “old town” district, six universities and an amusement park.

In addition, Ivano-Frankivsk is home to professional soccer, hockey, basketball and rugby teams. It has four stadiums and two arenas which it uses to host the teams and other athletic clubs.

Photo via UkraineTrek.com

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Zimmerman Responds to HOT Lanes Criticism — County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman is responding to attacks by Fairfax County Supervisor Pat Herrity and the Washington Post’s editorial board regarding Arlington’s lawsuit against HOT lanes on I-395. Zimmerman accuses Herrity and the Post of “distort[ing] both the reasons for the county’s litigation in the high-occupancy-toll (HOT) lanes case and its effects.” [Washington Post]

Bishop O’Connell Fight Continues — A group of residents is appealing the Arlington County zoning office’s decision to allow Bishop O’Connell High School to build a new athletic field. Separately, the county board will hear testimony next month about whether the school should be allowed to install stadium lighting around the new field. [TBD]

Artisphere Name Contest Coming to a Close — The deadline for suggesting names for Artisphere’s new restaurant is noon today. Have an idea? Use this form to submit it.

Surfing Legend Comes to Clarendon — Surfing legend turned author and inspirational speaker Shaun Tomson will be making an appearance at the South Moon Under store (2700 Clarendon Blvd) in Clarendon tonight. The South African will be introducing his new children’s storybook iPhone app and signing his best-selling book Surfer’s Code — 12 Lesson for Riding Through Life, starting at 6:00 p.m.

Photo courtesy Jack Garratt

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