County Board

Arlington sees slightly elevated crime rates compared the region, per new report

By Jo DeVoe
Crime scene tape at shooting scene in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington has a slightly higher than average crime rate compared to the region overall, according to a new report.

The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments recently released its annual report, in which it compiled crime statistics reported out by local police departments, including Arlington County Police Department.

Overall, MWCOG found the D.C. area is seeing 18.3 crimes per 1,000 people involving rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny and motor vehicle theft. This is higher than the 2021 rate of 16.8.

Arlington County’s rate increased from 15.9 to 19.7 and is now higher than the regional average, though the lowest in the region’s urban core, which also includes Alexandria and D.C. The former claims second-highest rate, at 20.8, and D.C. claims the highest crime rate, at 40.6.

Larger, more suburban counties tend to have lower crime rates, including Fairfax County, with a rate of 15.6 crimes per 1,000 people.

“This is something that you didn’t necessarily know the data point but you knew to be true: crime is increasing across the region and, right now, is at elevated levels that we haven’t seen in quite some time,” Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said during a meeting on Tuesday.

Crime rate in the D.C. area (via MWCOG)

Among Northern Virginia jurisdictions, Arlington saw a 25% increase in offenses, the median rise in crime for its Virginian neighbors.

“We’re all struggling and we’re not struggling any more than anyone else,” Dorsey said.

Property crimes drive the trends regionally, according to 5-year trends in the MWCOG report. That appears to be reflected locally, with an uptick of reported motor vehicle thefts: 412 thefts in 2022, up from 313 in 2021.

Property crime trends in the D.C. area (via MWCOG)

Carjackings are this year’s headline-grabbing offense, regionally, one that Dorsey stressed is thorny to tackle.

“There is a lot of interagency cooperation on these issues, but they are also quite difficult for police to bring to a satisfactory conclusion in terms of arrests and prosecutions,” Dorsey said.

Earlier this month Arlington surpassed the total number of carjackings from 2022, according to ARLnow’s count. While the county is seeing more carjackings, they are still less common than in D.C. and Prince George’s County, according to heat maps by the Washington Post.

One crime for which Arlington is an outlier, according to Dorsey, is assaults.

“We experienced a ridiculously huge increase in aggravated assaults in the year and are definitely a regional outlier, and not in a good way, with a 43% increase,” Dorsey said.

ACPD says “aggravated assault” is a category that includes distinct 20 felonies and three misdemeanor charges, spanning a broad range of crimes, including:

  • throwing items at occupied vehicles
  • brandishing firearms or similar-looking objects
  • child abuse
  • malicious wounding

The fact that 23 different charges encompass “aggravated assault” makes it difficult for community members to understand what exactly is happening in their community, says Chuck Miere, a Virginia criminal justice reform lobbyist who dug into ACPD data earlier this year.

“There’s very little transparency as to what gets counted year to year as falling into any of these categories because there isn’t a single ‘aggravated assault’ charge in Virginia,” he tells ARLnow. “There are a bunch of assault charges that can be aggravated.”

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County says it needs new policies to tackle rising office vacancy rates

By Jo DeVoe
A partially vacant office building in Courthouse in December 2022 (via Google Maps)

(Updated at 12 p.m. on 10/19/23) County leaders say Arlington is facing a grim future due to its rising office vacancy rate, which now stands at 21.5%.

Arlington is leading the region with its vacancy rate, which works out to 9 million square feet of empty space, according to Arlington Economic Development Director Ryan Touhill. He predicts the vacancy rate will continue climbing, as AED has determined about one-quarter of office buildings are at risk of sustained vacancies.

Compounding the vacancy issues, many leased buildings have space available for sublease and significantly lower rates of people going into the office, according to Arlington Economic Development Commission.

These conditions are set to have serious impacts on Arlington County’s future budgets, with County Board members and County Manager Mark Schwartz already predicting belt-tightening this budget cycle.

Last week, staff told the Arlington County Board about new strategies and policies they are considering to further combat this issue as part of the ongoing Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative. Yesterday (Tuesday), the county’s Economic Development Commission discussed its own recommendations for dealing with these vacancy rates.

That follows several zoning changes made in the last 12 months — on a compressed community engagement timeline — to get emerging businesses into older office buildings by allowing them to operate without seeking special permissions. This includes micro-fulfillment centers, urban farms, breweries, dog boarding facilities, pickleball courts and podcast studios.

Board Chair Christian Dorsey said Arlington is facing a different challenge than it has before.

“This is a little bit different than some of the elevated rates of vacancy that we’ve experienced in the past,” Dorsey said last week.

During the Base Realignment and Closure process, for instance, the office vacancy rate peaked at 20.1% in 2015 after major Department of Defense offices decamped from the county, per the Economic Development Commission.

Arlington managed to bounce back by landing deals with Nestle, Boeing and RTX — formerly Raytheon — Amazon and Microsoft, Dorsey said.

“But this is a little bit different because this is in the midst of a paradigm shift in the commercial market,” he said, pointing to the impacts of remote work. “And then, of course, there’s a market which is in turmoil, with incredibly low valuations and commercial space, which impacts lending and trading.”

Rising office vacancy rate (via Arlington County)

With a potentially protracted dip in tax revenue from commercial properties in Arlington, residents will have to pay more for essential services, Touhill said.

“Historically, we’ve had that 50-50 split between our commercial and residential tax base,” he said. “But in recent years, we’ve seen that increase to more of a 55-45 split. And this means that our residents are carrying more of the burden to fund our essential services.”

To weather this storm, the economic development commission, AED and the Dept. of Community Planning, Housing and Development (CPHD) intend to streamline onerous county processes and tackle restrictive ordinances.

‘Work flows’ in the second stage of the Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative (via Arlington County)

One under scrutiny will be the major and minor site plan amendment process, which developers and property owners go through to repurpose or renovate large, existing development projects.

“The site plan process’s length and variability are amongst the biggest impediments to redevelopment,” says the commission, which calls for an expedited process for these types of projects. “As these buildings already exist, all that will change is the building’s use.”

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Plans stewarding Arlington’s natural and cultural resources teed up for hearings later this year

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

Two significant county plans — one governing stewardship of trees and natural resources and the other historic preservation — are reaching the finish line.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board set hearings for both plans. Members will vote on adopting the plans at the hearings.

First up will be the Historic and Cultural Resources Plan, set for a Planning Commission hearing on Monday, Oct. 30 and a County Board hearing on Saturday, Nov. 11. The hearings on the plan were approved without further discussion at the start of the meeting over the weekend.

“This is an element of our comprehensive plan but we haven’t updated it since 2006,” Board Chair Christian Dorsey said. “We have been engaged in a multi-year planning process that has resulted in five recommended focus areas: community engagements… incentives, partnerships, regulations, technology, information and tools. This will provide a framework for us to advance the mission and the effectiveness of the county’s Historic Preservation program.”

Next up will be a Planning Commission hearing on Dec. 4, followed by a County Board hearing on Dec. 16, when the Board will consider the new Forestry and Natural Resources Plan.

It “emphasizes equity, a community-wide approach based on education and volunteerism and a focus on reconnecting nature to daily life,” says Dept. of Parks and Recreation Principal Planner Ryan Delaney.

For the first time, he said, Arlington will have a document that views all natural resources “as an interconnected system that covers not only public natural areas and parks but the built environment and private property as well.”

The plan updates and replaces a 2004 plan for urban forests and a 2010 natural resources management plan. It makes several notable recommendations, including the following goals to:

  • reestablish and maintain at least 40% tree canopy
  • ensure 70% of trees are regionally native by 2034
  • direct resources to neighborhoods underserved by tree canopy
  • move from “reactive” to “proactive” maintenance
  • enhance development standards to retain or replace more trees, natural vegetation, permeable surfaces and biophilic elements

The county studied current practices, innovative programs and lessons learned by Fairfax, Albemarle and Prince William counties in Virginia, Montgomery County in Maryland, and Seattle and Richmond, among others, Delaney said.

There is general support for the plan, the DPR planner continued, noting lingering concerns from some about whether the plan treats climate change and tree canopy decline with enough urgency.

Arlington Tree Action Group representative Mary Glass is one such critic. She was the last forestry plan speaker standing after four others did not outlast the lengthy Plan Langston Blvd discussion.

She says the county could “restore trust” with the community if it used newer data on tree canopy levels and adopted more aggressive tree canopy policies.

Glass says the forthcoming plan references a 2016 assessment that found tree canopy levels were at 40%, when a citizen-commissioned study from this year, using 2021 data, found the rate is lower, at 33%, and the situation more dire.

“The important takeaway is, based on these new numbers, which are very accurate, between 2008 and 2021, we lost nearly a quarter of our tree canopy,” Glass said. “It’s a bigger problem than how it may appear reading the plan.”

Caroline Haynes, a member of the Arlington County Forestry and Natural Resources Commission, said people can argue for more tweaks but a plan has to be adopted sometime soon.

“We’ve spent a lot of time developing these policy guidelines and we can always quibble about is it perfect or not but it’s time… we all feel it’s really urgent to get on with this and we really want to move forward on getting toward implementation,” she said.

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Arlington County Board sets hearings for next month on Langston Blvd plan

By Jo DeVoe
The Arlington County Board during its Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023 meeting (via Arlington County)

A document envisioning the long-term development of most of Langston Blvd is one step closer to adoption.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board set public hearings by the Planning Commission on Monday, Oct. 30 and the Board on Saturday, Nov. 11, when members will hear from the community and deliberate the document, dubbed Plan Langston Blvd. The Board will ultimately decide whether to adopt it.

Board members unanimously approved the request to advertise hearings next month after nearly 50 people spoke and the Board asked questions for about an hour and a half.

Renderings of Cherry Hill Road in front of the Lee Heights Shops in the draft Plan Langston Blvd document (via Arlington County)

Board member Matt de Ferranti proposed and received majority support for two revisions before the final document was passed. One is intended to hasten a review of planning for the East Falls Church and Cherrydale neighborhoods and the other removes language calling for the consolidation of community centers.

East Falls Church and Cherrydale were excluded from Plan Langston Blvd because they already have neighborhood plans that have yet to be fully realized. Since this decision was made, however, some community members, Planning Commissioners and County Board members have stressed these communities need a second look — sooner rather than later — as they can help the plan meet its own affordable housing goals.

“This is a burning priority for me and so, this almost rises to level of office vacancy rate for me,” de Ferranti said, acknowledging that in the case of East Falls Church the county will have to keep applying pressure to VDOT and Metro while relying on private developers, too.

“What you see here is an attempt to signal to the community that these two parts of the plan should be considered sooner,” de Ferranti said.

County Manager Mark Schwartz said he will “never say no to the Board” on a request like this but it will require them to reconsider how county staffers prioritize their work.

“I’m working right now on [a budget]… that’s going to have cuts in it. I’m not going to have additional resources available. The team available here, once they finish up with this, they have two to three things to turn their attention to,” he said. “If you want to find additional resources, absolutely, we will move it higher up on the list, but that means something has to move lower on the list.”

The plan’s most recent iteration said community centers should be consolidated to better address the needs of a growing population, a goal espoused in the county’s Public Spaces Master Plan.

De Ferranti, however, argued that the goal is not in the county’s best interest because of the expected population increase. The lone dissenter to de Ferranti’s motion, Board Chair Christian Dorsey, countered that consolidation will not mean a reduction in services.

Much of the Board’s discussion this weekend, like previous discussions by the Board and the Planning Commission, as well as some community advocacy, centered on affordable housing.

The corridor currently has 1,936 market-rate and committed affordable units, said county planner Natasha Alfonso-Ahmed. That includes 1,088 that are affordable to people earning 80% of the area median income (AMI) and 900 are affordable at 60% AMI.

The plan aims to increase the number of affordable units to 3,200-3,800 units by 2075, focusing especially on units affordable up to 60% AMI. Some argue the county does not have the tools to get there nor does this plan consider people who earn 30% AMI or less.

“Many of these low-income residents provide our community with essential services — child and health care, restaurants and retail, maintenance and construction and more,” wrote Anne Vor der Bruegge, the director of grants and initiatives at the nonprofit Arlington Community Foundation, which has also advocated for deeper affordable housing elsewhere in the county.

“If we want to create a truly equitable Langston Boulevard corridor for the future, we need to proactively support creating and preserving homes that serve the lowest income residents,” she said.

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Dorsey: We ‘unequivocally… condemn all of the violence that has been targeted at non-combatants’

By ARLnow.com
Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey speaks at a work session on Oct. 10 (via Arlington County/YouTube)

Arlington’s first public statement on the Israel-Hamas war came during a County Board work session Tuesday afternoon.

Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey spoke about the latest Middle East violence — which has left more than 1,000 dead on both sides of the Gaza border after starting with a surprise Hamas attack on Israeli civilians — at the start of a work session on commercial resiliency.

Dorsey’s full statement is below.

I should also note before we begin our work session this afternoon, we convene under the specter of escalating violence and war in the Middle East. We know that that is something that personally affects many in this community. And while this is not the time or the forum to get into a deeper discussion on factors that are concerning the Middle East, we can say unequivocally that we condemn all of the violence that has been targeted at non-combatants and civilians that has caused many to be kidnapped and many to be murdered, and we hope that the violence de-escalates quickly without further loss of significant life to civilian populations there. That’s all I’m prepared to say at this point, and unfortunately, there’s no great segue to talking about our subject matter today.

Last night the mayors of neighboring D.C. and Alexandria posted photos of a bridge and city hall, respectively, lit up in blue in solidarity with Israel.

Asked whether extra security measures are being put in place in light of the Middle East conflict, Arlington County police spokeswoman Ashley Savage said the department is monitoring the situation.

“There are currently no known threats in Arlington County and our officers are on duty conducting proactive patrols throughout Arlington,” Savage told ARLnow. “We have been, and will remain, in contact with Jewish faith-based communities in Arlington regarding any public safety needs or concerns they may have.”

“Our department continues to monitor the conflict and remains connected with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners on information sharing,” she continued.

Proposed senior living facility in Alcova Heights heads to County Board amid affordability, sustainability concerns

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

A proposed senior living facility on S. Glebe Road is teed up for Arlington County Board approval this Saturday.

Sunrise Senior Living proposes redeveloping a church in the Alcova Heights neighborhood with a 4-story, 99-unit building with 120 bedrooms and 53 parking spaces.

The public and county review of its plans kicked off this February. During a meeting last Wednesday, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended the Board adopt the proposal from Sunrise.

If the project is approved and construction begins on schedule, the project at 716 S. Glebe Road would be the first new senior housing project since the 1980s, per Arlington’s Commission on Aging. In 2020, the County Board approved an assisted living facility along Langston Blvd, but it languished and was recently sold to another developer.

While pleased that Sunrise is picking up the senior housing baton, some planning commissioners were dismayed Sunrise may only end up committing one unit for affordable housing or making a roughly $226,000 cash contribution to affordable housing. They were also disappointed Sunrise is aiming for LEED Silver certification rather than LEED Gold.

The commission approved motions urging the County Board to ask staff and the applicant to keep exploring ways to add more on-site affordable units and make the building more energy efficient.

“This is a really great opportunity to do something different,” said Planning Commission Vice-Chair Sara Steinberger. “I don’t want to lose the opportunity here because we can’t move fast enough.”

Representing Sunrise, land use attorney Kedrick Whitmore said the developer has take significant steps on sustainability and has long wrestled with its affordability commitments.

He told commissioners to temper their expectations for these areas, arguing they are skewed by developers who deliver LEED Gold certification and on-site affordable units in exchange for bonus density. Sunrise does not want more density because it has to do more for fewer residents, he said.

While excited at the prospect of new senior housing, the Commission on Aging is “very disappointed that the developer has not committed to setting aside some units as affordable units,” says member Cynthia Schneider.

“Both Alexandria and Fairfax County have policies where assisted living facilities set aside a certain number of units as affordable,” she said. “We would like to see this project have a similar commitment.”

Arlington County currently has no formula for calculating senior housing contributions, Whitmore said. It considers rent when calculating how many committed affordable units a developer should provide, whereas senior housing has more comprehensive housing costs to consider, Whitmore said.

“We’re staring into a black box and have trouble committing, at this point, to doing an on-site unit,” he said.

There is ample time for the issue to get sorted out, Commissioner Tenley Peterson said.

“We’re a couple of years out from when this building is going to get built,” she said. “We don’t need to figure it out until we get to the certificate of occupancy.”

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Arlington has a sleepy start to early voting compared to elsewhere in Virginia

By Jo DeVoe
A drop-off voting box in Courthouse in mid-May of 2023 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 4:10 p.m) Early voting is underway and the election is five weeks out but, compared to other parts of Virginia, politicking in Arlington is still a little sleepy.

This year is an off-year, meaning there are no federal offices on the ballot to drum up turnout. Some call this year, like 2019 before it, an “off-off-year” because the ballot lacks statewide offices, such as governor, too.

“We’ve been pretty quiet compared to other parts of Virginia,” Director of Elections Gretchen Reinemeyer says.

About 1% of Arlington’s 154,320 registered voters have cast their ballots already and the only early-voting location currently open, Courthouse Plaza, is averaging 101 voters a day, according to the county’s election dashboard.

Turnout is on par with the rest of Northern Virginia, which is seeing less early voting activity than more competitive jurisdictions and Republican strongholds to the south and west, according to data collected by the Virginia Public Access Project.

The local Democratic party chalks this up to the high number of uncompetitive races. Arlington’s GOP committee, meanwhile, says Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s active campaigning for Republicans seeking local office and “vote early” message might be getting more Republicans out to the polls.

For state Senate, for instance, some 1,330 have voted in the 40th District and some 1,860 in the 39th District, currently held by Sens. Barbara Favola and Adam Ebbin, respectively, who are seeking re-election, compared to the 4,500-5,500 votes cast in some competitive or heavily Republican jurisdictions.

Early voting levels by State Senate jurisdiction in Virginia (via Virginia Public Access Project)

At this point in the race, slower Democrat turnout can be expected because more Democrats vote by mail, which comes with a lag time, a spokesman for Arlington County Democratic Committee. Data show 640 of the 13,119 mailed ballots have been returned in Arlington.

He predicts early voting will pick up once more locations open and hours are extended.

Another factor is the seven uncontested races: there are no challengers for Clerk of the Court Paul Ferguson, Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Treasurer Carla de la Pava, Acting Sheriff Jose Quiroz, Commissioner of Revenue candidate Kim Klingler, District 1 Del. Patrick Hope and District 2 candidate Adele McClure.

There are two Republican challengers for Favola and Ebbin — David Henshaw and Sophia Moshasha, respectively — and District 3 Del. Alfonso Lopez faces a challenger in independent Major Mike Webb, who seeks office frequently.

“Almost every race in places like Arlington and Fairfax are uncontested or it’s very obvious the Democratic candidate has a huge advantage,” a local Democratic spokesman told ARLnow. “The reality is that the races in Arlington are all going to be relatively non-competitive compared to others in Virginia.”

Volunteers with Arlington Democrats have been spending their weekends knocking doors in jurisdictions where election outcomes determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the state House of Delegates and Senate, he said. National media note the stakes are high in Virginia this year, particularly for issues such as abortion.

Although it is tougher to beat a Democrat in Arlington, Matthew Hurtt, who chairs the Arlington County Republican Committee, says Henshaw and Moshasha have received “significant support” from the state GOP for their campaign literature, websites and yard signs.

“Gov. Youngkin is committed to being competitive everywhere,” he said, noting the governor’s early voting rallying cry this election. “The Spirit of Virginia came in for every candidate, including those up here who are long-shot candidates.”

It will take that investment until the next off-off year, in 2027, for Republicans to make inroads in Northern Virginia, he said.

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County Board approves additional $200k request for courtroom renovation project

By James Jarvis
Arlington County courthouse on Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023 (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Costs are creeping up for a courtroom makeover in Arlington.

County Board members approved an extra $200,000 this past Saturday to complete renovations in Courtroom 10B, a project ambitiously dubbed the “courtroom of the future.”

The Board had initially approved a $1.9 million budget for the project, encompassing not only tech enhancements and layout modifications but also administrative costs and a $755,000 fee for Michigan-based contractor Sorensen Gross Company. A $135,000 contingency for unexpected construction hiccups was set aside, bringing the contract’s total value to $890,000.

The contingency is nearly gone, county staff said, prompting County Board action. Damaged stonework, deteriorating fabric wall panels and worn-out carpeting all brought unexpected costs and, as a result, additional funding was sought as the project enters its final phase.

Once completed, the oft-used courtroom will feature new capabilities, such as enabling police to upload and display body-camera and smartphone footage, simplified equipment mobility, and compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

Arlington courtrooms have not had a major renovation since 1994, per a 2022 county report.

While construction was initially slated for completion in July, ARLnow saw signs of ongoing work during a recent courthouse visit, including plastic tarp over doors and covered windows.

A county spokeswoman said construction is now expected to wrap up in November.

County Board set to get into the weeds of defining a ‘weed’ this week

By Jo DeVoe
A yard in the Forest Glen neighborhood in October 2016 (file photo)

Gardens with abundant native species could soon have an official definition in county code: “managed natural landscape.”

This definition would protect Arlingtonians who grow the kinds of native grasses, wildflowers and shrubs that make them prone to complaints from neighbors and visits from code enforcement.

While such gardens can “be perceived to be unmaintained or unintentional… they often involve as much intention and maintenance as more traditional landscaping” and bring “ecological, economic and aesthetic benefits,” per a county report.

The change would occur if the Arlington County Board approves the new wording in its carry-over meeting tomorrow (Tuesday). The Board was teed up to approve the changes on Saturday but the proposal was pulled from the agenda for more conversation — a move typically reserved for items deemed at least somewhat controversial.

In March, County Board members heard from local naturalists who urged them to adopt wording to shield residents from complaints that their gardens are unruly. The discussion arose when the Board considered, and approved, mechanisms to hold accountable commercial property owners for unchecked weeds.

The Board ultimately punted on redefining a “weed,” saying the proposed changes ought to be included in the forthcoming update to the Forestry and Natural Resources Plan.

Naturalists argued this prolongs conflict between county code and Arlington’s Chesapeake Bay Preservation Plan and Stormwater Utility Program, which both encourage residents to ditch manicured lawns for native species. They criticized the Board for furthering more than a decade of inaction.

“While we’ve been wringing our hands about this for the past 10-15 years, other jurisdictions have also adopted policies that promote native landscaping and conservation landscaping and have also managed to update their ordinance,” Caroline Haynes, a member of the county’s Forestry and Natural Resources Commission, said in March.

“Arlington hasn’t been able to do that,” she continued. “How difficult can this possibly be?”

After the meeting, county staff committed to prepare updated code language that distinguishes between “managed natural landscapes” and existing requirements to manage weeds on private property.

They also redefined “foreign growth,” “lawn area” and “weeds” and added language enabling county staff to “take action in cases where trees on private property present a risk to the community in the public right-of-way or other public lands.”

In keeping with the Board’s recommendation, Arlington’s parks and planning departments launched a public engagement process on the potential changes in concert with the update.

That included an online survey, in which 124 people participated and nearly two-thirds said they “were comfortable” with the proposed changes.

In July, the Board authorized hearing this month on the proposed changes, now set for tomorrow.

If the changes are made, county staff expect that enforcing the new ordinances will not be a tall order. Some five cases annually are estimated to escalate to the point of requiring one-time civil fines, resulting in $2,500 per year in county revenue, the report said.

Glebe Road ditch eroded by major water main break set for repairs

By ARLnow.com
1/4

A severely eroded ditch along N. Glebe Road near Chain Bridge is set for some restoration work.

The Arlington County Board this weekend is expected to approve a contract of up to $1.2 million. At least part of that will be reimbursed by VDOT, which maintains the road.

The work follows a major water main break in November 2019, which damaged both the road and the roadside ditch.

More from a county staff report:

This project includes the restoration of the existing ditch located along the south side of North Glebe Road (Route 120) that was severely eroded following the 36” transmission water main break in November 2019. Arlington County Department of Environmental Services (DES,) Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and the National Park Service (NPS) have partnered to implement this improvement and restoration project. The restoration includes 500 feet of the ditch downstream of the water main break and stabilization improvements for 1,000 feet of the ditch upstream of the break to be improved with Class II riprap, as well as new guardrail installation to replace a previous guardrail and temporary jersey wall and restoration of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail, which crosses this ditch in the downstream segment underneath George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The work also includes tree removal and planting/seeding, erosion and sediment control, and all other related incidental work described and required in the contract documents. Most of the work is planned to be performed at night utilizing an overnight road closure of North Glebe Road as outlined in the VDOT approved Temporary Traffic Control Plan. VDOT is reimbursing the County for the construction costs of the improvements located upstream of the water main break.

The report goes on to note that the county hired a consultant, Wetland Studies and Solutions Inc., to develop the repair plan.

Additionally, the report says the accepted bid — from Fairfax-based Bright Construction Group — is 13% higher than an engineer’s estimate, likely owing to complications caused by the rugged terrain and the work area being on both National Park Service and VDOT property.

…it is believed that the bidders perceived more risk and challenges in these bid items, which we consider fair given the unique challenges of this project area, where the contractor will be working on an actively flowing stream channel on NPS Lands, as well as within the narrow shoulder of a two-lane undivided VDOT-owned arterial roadway, North Glebe Road (US Route 120), that carries approximately 11,000 vehicles per day. For the work on Federal Lands and in VDOT right-of-way, the contractor will have to comply with restrictive NPS and VDOT permit requirements and perform all restoration as per each agency’s specifications.

The Board is scheduled to vote on the contract during its meeting this Saturday.

Behavioral health specialists could be in Arlington high schools this winter

By Jo DeVoe
The Arlington Public Schools Syphax Education Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

High school-based behavioral health services could be in place by November or December of this year, according to the county.

In the wake of a mini-rash of student deaths earlier this year that included the fatal overdose of a 14-year-old Wakefield High School student, Arlington Public Schools and the county government began devising a joint response to the twin epidemics of substance use and mental health issues.

This included plans to place county therapists in schools. The intent was to make it easier for students to get mental health support from the Dept. of Human Services, overseen by Arlington’s Community Services Board, or CSB.

“Both APS and the County seek to reduce barriers for children and youth to receive services from the Arlington CSB,” a county report says. “This agreement will allow for the provision of outpatient services in the school setting rather than the office setting. It will significantly reduce or eliminate the need for transportation and potential family time away from work.”

As part of the 2024 budget adopted earlier this year, the Arlington County Board approved $520,000 in ongoing funding and four full-time employees for this program. Recruitment of the four employees is underway, per the report.

The county notes the program responds to calls from the community for more services to youth.

“Expanded behavioral health services for children and youth has been identified as a community need by both Arlington Public Schools and the County through ongoing dialogues with stakeholders,” the report says.

The report emphasizes that the School-Based Behavioral Health Program cannot be the single, defining solution for struggling teens.

It “supplements and reinforces families’ efforts to enhance youth mental wellness by teaching and coaching youth to develop coping skills for managing emotional challenges in order to improve functioning at home, school, and in the community,” the report says.

The county and APS spent the summer hammering out a memorandum of understanding permitting the DHS Children’s Behavioral Health Bureau to provide behavioral health support in high schools. This weekend, the County Board is set to ratify the document.

Once the four behavioral health specialists are hired and finish mandatory training, they could begin practicing in Arlington high schools in November or December, the report says.

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