National Guard Expansion at Arlington Hall
June 2011
Following our meeting in June, President Pat Williamson sent a joint email with Alcova Heights Citizens Association President Marie Van Ness to Congressman Moran's staffer who attended:
From: Pat Williamson and Marie Van Ness
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011
To: Christopher Gaspar, Office of Congressman Jim Moran
Subject: Re: Barcroft Meeting on National Guard Bureau Growth (Thursday June 2 @ 7:30 PM)
Chris -- thank you so much for attending the Barcroft meeting last night. Sorry the rush hour travel was so awful. We hope you will come again!
Pat Williamson
President
Barcroft School and Civic League
Marie Van Ness
President
Alcova Heights Citizens Association
We would love to join you when you go to meet with Arlington Hall staff if it would be appropriate. Just let us know. Pat W
And we received this reply:
Hello Pat and Marie, I had a chance to be briefed on, and tour, Arlington Hall this morning. I found the brief informative and the National Guard staff very forthcoming and willing to help address the transportation issues raised by the community.
I’ve attached the briefing slides, and would encourage you to distribute the slides to your respective group members. Any questions and comments are very welcome.
I will be sitting down with Congressman Moran this week to discuss next steps. I have a few things in mind and will keep you two appraised of everything that we do. All the best,
Christopher Gaspar
Contact Info from the June Meeting
From: President Pat Williamson
Thanks to all who attended the Barcroft meeting last night. As promised the contact info is posted below for the National Guard and State Dept. projects.
- Mike Harris, National Guard: 703-607-1111 (Leave a detailed message and your contact info)
- Joe Sorrell, State Dept: (Did not attend this meeting) sorelljl@state.gov
Additionally please contact the folks below who work for Arlington County with traffic safety and parking permit issues. It is planned to have both of these departments represented at the October 4 regular monthly meeting of BSCL.
- Sarah Stott
Arl Co Parking Dept.
703-228-0592
sstott@arlingtonva.us
- Captain Brett Butler
Arl Co Police Dept
3rd District Commander
703-228-4234
bbutler@arlingtonva.us
The BSCL sent this letter to Congressman Moran about
the impact of new National Guard personnel on Barcroft.
You may need: The Neighborhood Permit Parking Process
The County has a page up with links to information on how permit parking works and how to apply for your block.
National Guard Report issued in 2008
The National Guard issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for their expansion on Arlington Hall. They ignored our comments on the delay in constructing their parking garage. Here is a copy of the draft. On December 9, 2008 they broke ground for the new office building, still without funding for the garage to park the cars the new space will generate.
The first shot over the bow in 2007
On April 19, 2007, the National Guard held a meeting to announce to citizens of the neighborhoods surrounding Arlington Hall that they have begun planning a major base expansion.
The Guard has 1200 staff there now, and will be moving 900 more in when the new building and parking garages are done. At present they have people scattered around in office buildings, and the new Base Realignment and Closure security guidelines require them to move. The solution they are considering is a big add-on to the south end of their building, and two parking garages. One parking garage will be to the south of their new building, coming all the way down to the boundary of their parcel, and the other will be either on George Mason just below the Masonic Lodge parking lot or on the other side of their current building, emptying out onto Arlington Blvd.
There are no architectural plans yet for anything, just some squares drawn on a map as indicators. Here are the two options they are thinking about. And here is their info sheet as of April, 2007.
The Guard is in the preliminary stages of planning the project and wants early community input.
I let them know that we were concerned about the parking spaces and about preserving our underpass under George Mason for the eventual construction of our trail to Glebe Rd and TJ. Here is the writeup on that project from the County's list of Bicycle Projects included in the Master Transportation Plan.
"An east-west connection would be provided between Glebe Road at Second Street South and South Pershing Drive at Arlington Boulevard. The trail would traverse Arlington Hall, use the existing underpass of George Mason Drive, and connect to the Arlington Boulevard bikeway and the Thomas Jefferson Community Center via local streets. A gate opening on the east side would be minimally sufficient (Arlington, Foreign Service Institute) (1.1 mile, 1.8 km)"
The square indicating the Guard's new parking lot on the map is right up against the exit from the underpass.
Unfortunately the land is under Federal control and the do not have to conform to the County's smart growth zoning rules. Arlington zoning would never permit the density the Guard is developing there outside of a Metro corridor. Barcroft will get more traffic on George Mason from the project.
County staff is reviewing the zoning issues. They would probably prefer a transit-oriented solution to the parking spaces question, with shuttles to Metro, fewer parking spaces and zone parking permits in the neighborhoods to restrain the parking outside of the Guard lots. The Masonic Lodge rents their parking lot to Guard personnel now. The UU church could probably do that too. Lots of Guard people park in the lot on the park on the Barcroft side of George Mason.
This page was revised on: July 19, 2011.
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