June 12, 2002

Residents sound off on CIP

By Jim Silver

With only one shot at speaking out, about 20 people came to last Tuesday's public hearing on plans for county bond money over the next six years.

The number of speakers, small for a public hearing before County Board members on county spending, made it easy to discern certain themes during the June 4 hearing.

There were dissenters, of course, complaining about the size of the county's proposed $156 million bond request, due on this November's ballot. But almost half of those present came to speak on two issues: plans to renovate Greenbrier Park, near Yorktown High School; and plans to combine a number of small-scale programs funding work in Arlington's neighborhoods. The County Board approved a preliminary design plan for Greenbrier Park at its May 22 meeting, and County Manager Ron Carlee included money to fund design plans on the park in the current Capital Improvement Plan, which budgets bond money for the next six years.

Carlee also included plans to combine a number of programs in the county's Community Conservation program. The three conservation programs fund repairs to curbs, gutters, parks and streetlights in neighborhoods around the county, and also include programs specifically funding sidewalk improvements at the request of Arlingtonians.

The combined programs would require all Arlington neighborhoods to join the Neighborhood Conservation Program, which requires specific improvement plans for each neighborhood.

Member neighborhoods submit funding requests to the program, and money is allocated, subject to County Board approval, by the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Commission, made up of officers from civic associations-that belong to the program.

GENERAL CRMCISM OF CARLEE'S CIP proposal came from Wayne Kubicki, a member of the county's Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission.

"It's already very large - it has bond referenda for this fall of $162 million, $33 million more than was projected just two years ago," Kubicki said. The $162 million figure decreased on Thursday, June 6, when the school board adopted a school CIP $5.4 million less than a proposed $85.3 million CIR

But that $5 million decrease didn't change the tenor of Kubicki's comments. Even an increased cost of $28 million makes projections for bond requests in 2004 and 2006 suspect, he said. "Why the concern?" Kubicki asked

"Simple. The CIP as presented begins to stretch the limits of our borrowing guidelines in out-years." Beth Wolffe, a school board candidate running against current School Board Chair Mary Hynes, echoed Kubicki's comments, but targeted the school CIP.

"I urge you to question closely the school system's appetite for debt,' she said. The school board adopted a $79.9 million CIP last week and the lower figure still represents the largest bond request by the schools in 14 years. "I said it to the school board," Wolffe said. "I say it to you, because ultimately, you are the body issuing the bonds funding the schools.

PLANS TO UPGRADE sports facilities at Greenbrier have met with criticism from Yorktown's neighbors, sparked by an early plan to buy and knock down four houses north of the park.

While neighbors gave tentative approval to the preliminary designs, they also asked the county to ensure that neighborhood concerns were addressed during the design process for the park. Many supporters of improvements to the park came to last week's hearing - all five speakers on the topic asked the board to accelerate plans to renovate the park. While most speakers came from county sports groups, new support for the stepped up timetable came from Tobin Smith, chair of the county's Parks and Recreation Commission.

Smith asked the board to move design funding for the park onto the 2002 bond, and to fund the construction phase with the 2004 bond. If approved, Greenbrier design would increase the 2002 bond by $500,000, and accelerated construction would put a $134.5 million bond before voters in 2004.

SMITH'S SUPPORT CAME as a surprise to Sandi Berenbaum, president of the Yorktown Civic Association and a leader in calls for neighborhood input on the project. 'I'm surprised that parks and rec is taking a position on this," she said after the hearing. "It was not a piece of the public meeting they held back in May."

Stepped-up work on the park didn't mean automatic opposition from Yorktown neighbors, she said, but they still had concerns about how the project would proceed. "The design piece in and of itself is not a major concern," she said. "Really, the timing of the construction has unanswered questions."

Until she had answers on the timing of construction, Berenbaum said, she didn't know how neighbors would react to an accelerated Greenbrier construction.

COMMUNITY CONCERNS ABOUT Greenbrier have been well-documented. Less seen, until last week's hearing, was opposition to a plan by Carlee's plans for the Neighborhood Conservation program.

But several members of the Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Commission showed up to voice their dissatisfaction with the specifics of Carlee's plans, especially a timetable that would roll all three conservation programs into one by the beginnin of the next fiscal year, in July 2003.

There are several obstacles in the way of Carlee's combined program, said Lewis Bromberg, chair of the NCAC: the timetable, the requirements of the Neighborhood Conservation program and a lack of funding from the county. 'We want two things.- a two-year hold on this, to discuss it with the neighborhoods, and $9.5 million in the 2002 bond, half a million in [capital projects funded by the budget] - $10 million total" he said. In Carlee's proposed CIP, the Neighborhood Conservation program would receive $7.8 million in funding for next year.

In addition, Bromberg said, the county would need to add two staff members added to the current four person Neighborhood Conservation staff.

Carlee's proposal also creates a problem for neighborhoods that are not currently part of the Conservation program, Bromberg said.

CURRENTLY, ANY COUNTY resident can call county staff and ask that the county consider funding, among a few other projects, sidewalk improvements to their neighborhood. Under the combmed conservation plan, such requests would have to come through the Neighborhood Conservation program.

"They want to have the NC plan as the Bible of the neighborhood. We agree from a philosophical standpoint," Bromberg said. But at present, about 15 county neighborhoods do not belong to the Conservation program, would be left out in the cold under the combined Conservation plan.

That's not the message the county should be sending, he said. Instead, it should look at Neighborhood Conservation as one of its best publicity tools and reach out to neighborhoods that aren't members. "I'm concerned about disenfranchisement," Bromberg said. "New immigrants are trying to put food on their tables. They don't have time to form neighborhood committees."

The county's goals can be met, he said, but it will take time. That's why NCAC members asked the board to delay any decision on combining Conservation programs for two years, he said: To give Neighborhood Conservation volunteers and employees time to reach out to the community, to give all Arlington neighborhoods a chance to improve their surroundings.

"I'm not talking about cutesy little projects," he said. 'We're talking about infrastructure improvement, streetlights, curbs, gutters, sidewalks. These aren't niceties, these are necessities."

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