APS Board decides to sell the Wilson School
by Mark Antell, longtime community advocate for Wilson School

Editor’s note-another version of this article was published on the website of Arlington Preservation.

On June 18, the Arlington Public School Board unanimously approved a ‘letter of intent’ to sell Wilson School and Playfield to Penzance Properties (owners of the CVS building next door). As best I can tell, no citizen advocate was aware that this was an agenda item for the June 18 meeting. One had to ‘drill down’ into the web agenda to see any mention at all of Wilson School. So, in a single action the School Board abandoned its own policy on Wilson without effective notice and therefore without a single peep from the public. I’m not sure if the horrible notification was due to APS staff incompetence, or if APS Board members purposely avoided facing citizens that they’d assured, with words and smiles, that the issue was not yet settled*.
At the bottom of this report see documentation of APS Board positions on Wilson.

A few weeks prior, Arlington County staff presented a proposed “Wilson School Special Planning Study” to several civic association leaders. The name of their project has changed to the “Western Rosslyn Development Plan” but the message is the same. I provide a link to the proposed plan below. The County proposal is similar in most respects to a development plan for Wilson that APS put forward … and then withdrew about 7 years ago due to citizen dissatisfaction. Special interests never sleep. If their eyes are closed, it’s because they’re scheming. I provide my review of the County proposal follows immediately below:

- The study area covers the Wilson School and playfield, the Rosslyn Fire Station and parking lot, the Rosslyn Heights Park (tot-lot and basketball court), the path that connects North Rosslyn to Wilson, plus the committed affordable Queens Court apartments.
- The proposed plan calls for “at least” 60,000 square ft2 (1.5 acres) of community space. That’s substantially less than what we’ve got now. I’m unaware that this proposal is informed by any evaluation of the availability and need for recreation space in our surrounding community (ie. Rosslyn). Also, the plan takes little note of the recommendation of Arlington’s Historic and Landmark Review Board that the school and playfields are an historic site.
- The plan involves development (probably high and intense) of two thirds of the site.
- There’s no mention of retaining the existing walkway through the property.
- Wilson School is gone gone gone. Maybe we’ll get a plaque.
- The plan includes construction of 200 units of affordable housing, probably via redevelopment of the existing Queens Court apts. However, the plan disregards preserving other highly threatened, nearby affordable housing (particularly the Crestmont and LeMar apts). So the plan countenances destruction of about 150 units of affordable housing to build 200 units.

The affordable housing lobby is engaged big-time in this West Rosslyn Study. I am reminded of the ‘housing project’ advocates of the 1960’s who focused on construction over all other priorities, including housing preservation or the needs of a healthy community.

If you’d like to learn something about Wilson School and why it should be preserved, the absolute best starting point is “Save Wilson School,” a film available on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JChPyzRBnTY

This APS board decision should be a wakeup call to civic- minded members of our community that our Arlington governance has lost it’s way in the darkness of secret negotiations and deals.

Links:
-Approved motion to sell Wilson at the June 18, 2013, APS Board meeting
http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/98T65N13474A/$file/New%20Business%20-%20Motion%20061813.pdf
-Minutes of the January 31, 2008 APS Board meeting (see pages 6 and 7)
http://www.apsva.us/cms/lib2/VA01000586/Centricity/Domain/176/013108mi.pdf
-Western Rosslyn Development Plan website:
http://www.arlingtonva.us/departments/CPHD/planning/studies/page89886.aspx

Arlington to vote on a housing authority
By Patricia Sullivan, Published: June 14, 2013 the Washington Post
Arlington County residents will vote once again this fall on whether to create a government housing authority to address the persistent problem of lack of affordable housing in one of the country’s most affluent areas.

A six-month petition drive by the local Green Party collected 2,845 signatures, or 2 percent of active voters, which is enough to start the process to get the question on the ballot, said Linda Lindberg, the county’s registrar of elections. It will be the third time Arlington voters have weighed in on the question. The last time they voted, in 2008, the request went down on a 2 to 1 vote, Lindberg said.

“The difference this time is that people have recognized this is a problem,” said Steve Davis, chairman of the Arlington Green Party. “The current policies haven’t worked. It’s time to try something different.”

Davis said that more than 14,000 families in Arlington needed affordable rental housing in 2010, according to the Virginia Tech Center for Housing Research, and the number of privately-owned, market-rate apartments affordable to those earning 60 percent or less of the median income dwindled from 20,000 in 2000 to 5,300 in 2011.

Currently, the county contracts with a number of nonprofit organizations to provide, refurbish or build affordable housing. The 2014 county budget provides about $57 million for all housing assistance.

The Greens say that creating a new government agency would make the county eligible for federal housing funds for which it does not quality, increase access to bond markets and federal housing tax credits and supply workforce housing to county employees like entry-level firefighters, police, teachers and nurses. They point to successes in Fairfax County and the cities of Alexandria and Falls Church, three of the 25 jurisdictions in Virginia that have government housing authorities.

“We think there’s a legitimate role for government intervention here, just to preserve the whole diversity of our community,” David said. “In our view, a housing authority would be more efficient than the current system.”

The County Board is required by law to pass the request on to the Circuit Court, which will put the referendum on the November ballot. Lindberg said the request is well within the Aug. 16 deadline to get a referendum on the ballot.

© The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/arlington-to-vote-on-a-housing-authority/2013/06/14/b5938a2a-d50c-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_print.html

Arlington Housing Authority Referendum Meets Ballot Acess Requirement for November Election,

June 13, 2013

Steve Davis, chairman of the Arlington Green Party (AGP), announced today that the Arlington Voter Registrar has determined that backers of the low income housing authority referendum in Arlington have submitted the required 2,845 signatures needed to place a referendum on the ballot. The referendum will ask Arlington voters to authorize the operation of a low income housing authority in Arlington for the first time. Over twenty five cities and counties in Virginia have such an authority, but Arlington does not.

Davis, and AGP County Board candidate Audrey Clement, and other members of the Green Party led the nearly six-month campaign to get the referendum on the November ballot. He said, “Arlington’s current housing assistance program has failed to stop the loss of affordable housing, and a housing authority would raise funds more easily, lower administrative costs, and provide more affordable rental units.”

Davis also says that a housing authority in Arlington would:
· Make the county eligible for federal HUD funds for which it does not now qualify;
· Increase access to bond markets and federal housing tax credits;
· Reduce the cost of Arlington’s current housing program by consolidating housing functions under one umbrella agency;
· Provide one-stop shopping for Arlington tenants with a centralized housing list
· Supply public rental housing for county employees like entry level firefighters, police, teachers, and nurses to live within the county.

Davis indicated that the AGP discovered that over 14,000 families in Arlington needed affordable rental housing in 2010, according to the VA Tech Center for Housing Research, and that Arlington County had the most expensive rental housing in the Metro DC area except for the City of Alexandria. About 15,000 people in Arlington lived below the official federal poverty level, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many lower income residents were forced out of Arlington as housing costs rose: The number of Latinos living in Arlington fell by 11 percent between 2000 and 2010, mostly because of demolitions and higher rents. The 20,000 private, market-rate apartments in Arlington in 2000 that were affordable to people earning 60 percent or less of the area median income dwindled to only 5,300 in 2011.

Davis says that, “Arlington should follow Fairfax’s County’s outstanding example with a housing authority that provides more affordable housing to more people at less cost.” In 2011 Fairfax County’s Redevelopment and Housing Authority (FCRHA) provided rental housing for nearly 3,000 people with average household income of $20,000 and another 20,000 people with average income of $26,000. It also provides subsidized workforce housing for entry level teachers, nurses, police, and firefighters.