Planners guiding the future of Arlington's public parks took some criticism from local residents Tuesday during a forum at the Central Library on the county's Public Spaces Master Plan.
The plan, three years in the making, is still being formulated through feedback from Arlingtonians. It is an update to the Open Spaces Master Plan adopted in 1994. Putting it together, according to Robert Layton of Design Concepts, a consulting firm hired for the project, has taken a long time because planners had to rethink just what the document should address.
"We had some hiccups along the way because there is so much you can include under the idea of public spaces," said Layton. "We have no agenda other than to help the community as best we can."
The current draft of the plan is its seventh version. It emphasizes improved management of Arlington's current parks, environmental preservation, developing arts and cultural resources and improving access to parks for local residents. Yet local residents took issue with some of its contents and some topics that are not included.
"I find this plan disappointing," Michael Nardolilli, vice president of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust, told planners.
Nardolilli said that although the plan calls for further inquiry of enviromental protocols at public parks, it fails to specify any kind of action.
"It's sort of a plan to make other plans," said Nardolilli.
The plan also lacks an inventory of private lands the county could acquire or use after seeking agreements from the owners. That inventory, Nardolilli said, was included in the 1994 plan.
"The 1994 plan gave the county a roadmap for what properties it could try to acquire," he said. "There's no roadmap here."
Nardolilli compared the plan to one adopted in Alexandria. That plan, he said, included the creation of "green crescent", an interlocking web of green spaces allowing local wildlife more habitat and increased mobility around housing developments and roadways. That concept is not a part of Arlington's plan.
RESIDENTS ALSO VOICED ecological concerns over the plan's support for a rowing facility along the Potomac's shorelines near the Key Bridge, land that has been preserved for years.
"This would be like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge," said local resident Bernie Burn.
On improving the managment of Arlington's parks and recreational facilities, a key point is cost recovery. According to Teresa Penbrooke of GreenPlay LLC, a second consultant hired to oversee the plan's formulation, Arlington recoups about 16 percent of the parks' operating costs right now, through fees and other sources of revenue. That figure, she said, is low compared to other communities nationwide but it goes hand-in-hand with the high level of satisfaction residents express when it comes to park services.
"It goes along with living in a highly educated community that has high expectations," she said, adding that in many way Arlington's parks lead the nation when it comes to incorporating concepts like space for dog parks, lighting at night and the use of synthetic fields.
A recent survey, she said, reveals that 80 percent of Arlingtonians are pleased with the county's parks. But increasing that rate of recovery, she said, is a priority.
The study calls for the completion of plans for a new recreation center on the North Tract, a swath of land along the Potomac, near Crystal City. Most of it is now an unused industrial site.
"Go," Penbrooke said. "Get it done. People want it."
The study also reccomends the formation of a task force to examine the relationship between Arlington's public parks and lands controlled by public schools. Turning to arts and cultural resources, the plan proposes a new county arts center in the Courthouse area. But its location, according to Arlington resident Rachel Pierson, should be reconsidered.
"I'd like to see it built in the Columbia Pike area," said Pierson.
The new arts center, she said, could play an important role in economic development for Columbia Pike or some other region of the county that is less developed than the one surrounding Courthouse Plaza by bringing visitors.
On the North Tract, Pierson said the plan needs to include more accomodations for the arts community than the display space allotted for it in the county's current designs.