Fw: Bicycle access through Army Navy Country Club on Saturday's Arlington County Board Agenda

[Dave Levy]

FYI.  For those who bike in Arlington and would like support this.



----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Mark Blacknell, Chair of Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee(BAC)
Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010
Subject: Saturday's County Board Agenda: Bicycle access  through Army Navy Country Club

Saturday's County Board Agenda: Bicycle access through Army Navy Country Club This is an action item, and I’m asking for help on an item that Rob Swennes has very helpfully outlined as follows:

1. The BAC has been pressing for over a decade to get bicycle-pedestrian access across a corner of the Army Navy Country Club (ANCC) to connect Army Navy Drive on the south side of Shirley Highway (I-395) with a street in the Arlington View neighborhood north of I-395. Such a connection would allow cyclists heading south on the new paved bike trail along Washington Blvd. at Route 50 to continue across Columbia Pike, past the Hoffman-Boston school and ride on under I-395 to the Pentagon City area. ANCC has long resisted giving an easement for this Hoffman-Boston trail connection.

 2. However, the country club is now before the County seeking a zoning change and use permit that will allow for enlargement of its clubhouse. County staff has extracted from ANCC agreement for the needed bicycle-pedestrian easement as one of the conditions for approval of the use permit. The item comes before the County Board for action this Saturday afternoon. Approval of the club's use permit by the Board is not certain due to a number of other issues. But from a cyclist's perspective, this is a moment we have been waiting for for many years.

 3. BAC members are encouraged to contact the County Board to urge for approval of this agenda item so that Arlington's cyclists and pedestrians can gain a valuable new route to transit between north and south Arlington. Email messages can be sent to the Board at countyboard at arlingtonva.us. Note in the subject line Board Meeting item # 37 -- Army Navy Country Club. If you prefer to call the individual board members, the County Board's central number is 703-228-3130. The most impact, of course, comes from direct testimony at the Board's meeting on Saturday. This item is unlikely to come up before noon. You can see the Board's meeting schedule at http://arlington.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=308. You will find the bike-ped ROW mentioned on pp. 5-6 of Report 37B (attached). The web site has a hot link to the full report.
 
 4. If you have not testified at the County Board before, the first thing you need to do is submit a speaker slip to the clerk. The slips are available outside the Board room on the 3rd floor of Courthouse Plaza. The clerk is seated on the left side of the Board dais at the far end of the room. She has a box beside her in which the speaker slip should be placed. They MUST be turned in BEFORE item 37 is taken up by the Board--otherwise it is too late! Rob Swennes of the BAC will be at the Board meeting to speak on this item.

 5. If Arlington is able to secure this trail right of way, we will still have challenges in designing and obtaining the funds to build the Hoffman-Boston connector trail. But without the initial ROW, we have nothing.

The BAC discussed this item at May’s meeting, and agreed that this – already listed as a priority in the Bicycle Element of the Master Transportation Plan – is an item that deserves our continued support. 
Thanks,

Mark Blacknell
Chair, Arlington Bicycle Advisory Committee


      
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