AHA to Hear Report on County's Historic Preservation Plan April 23

Arlington's long-awaited Historic Preservation Master Plan is finally under way ! Mary Means and Associates was awarded the contract to develop this planning document. County staff anticipates that it will take 10 months to complete the plan. An Advisory Committee has been formed to ensure good communication between Mary and all interested parties.  Members of AHA's board are part of this committee, which held its initial meeting in February. Mary will meet with the AHA Board on April 23. All members are invited to attend. If you can join us, please contact our Chair, Laura Bobeczko (703.241.0626), for further information.

Friends of Forts Ethan Allen, C.F. Smith, and Arlington Line Gets Under Way 

The second meeting of AHA's Friends of the Forts subcommittee was held March 17.  We were all pleased to learn that the Old Glebe Civic Association requested funding in their recently completed Conservation Plan for the establishment of a Fort Ethan Allen Room in the Madison Center. We presented the AHA brochure developed this winter, The Arlington Line: Arlington County's Unrealized Opportunity for Economic Development In Heritage Tourism, that we hope will increase awareness of the forts and encourage the development of heritage tourism by tying them into the Civil War Trails and other means. We discussed ways to distribute the brochure and expand on other topics and activities. Much of the meeting focused on the Grand Opening of Fort C. F. Smith on April 26 and 27, as we were joined by two members of the Parks and Recreation Department staff, Lynn Everly and Scott Deibler. They shared more specifics about their plans to fund interpretative programs with potential excess revenues generated from the newly renovated rental facility. While they indicated that the County Manager was committed to developing an interpretative plan for this fort, no funds are currently budgeted for this. We expressed deep concern that when the fort reopens, there will be NO interpretive program in place, even though this was budgeted for in the park's cultural resource management plan. That funding was used in the renovation of the rental facility instead. This does not make for an auspicious reopening of what is a prime historic resource. At our next Friends meeting later this spring, we will talk about grants, additional brochures, and other strategies to promote and protect the forts.

County Board Adopts Columbia Pike Redevelopment Plan-Pluses+Minuses

The County Board's adoption of the Form-Based Zoning Code for Columbia Pike on February 25 is hastening the redevelopment of the Pike. The first draft of this new type of zoning code was released in late November 2002, after which all concerned parties were finally able to review it. The County Board was anxious to adopt the code, and the allotted review period was brief. Although AHA was pleased that the code included preservation as a tool for successful revitalization, we were alarmed with the small number of buildings specifically identified in the Columbia Pike Revitalization Plan-the master planning document for the Pike, which was the result of much time, effort, and public comment.

Columbia Pike continued....

The HALRB also expressed this concern and, as a result, the final draft identifies most of the historic buildings in the revitalization areas of the Pike. Another important change in subsequent drafts of the code is the required review by HALRB of any project that affects an identified historic building. While we would have preferred to have a few more buildings identified in the code, it was clear that certain historic building owners had protested their inclusion. We do intend to support a National Register Historic District Nomination that the County Preservation Office plans to prepare for Columbia Pike, and will encourage them to include all historic buildings. One interesting aspect of the Form-Based Code may be its ability to combat insensitive residential infill. The code places restrictions on building mass and height and requires certain setbacks. As these restrictions apply to some residential streets in the older neighborhoods surrounding the Pike, the code was designed to encourage appropriate new construction for the historic streetscape. We understand that several communities are investigating the application of such form-based code in their own neighborhoods to combat the inappropriate infill housing-sometimes referred to as McMansions

or Teardowns-that is happening in many of our

historic neighborhoods throughout the County.

historic designation sought for swanson school and reevesland farm

AHA Chair Laura Bobeczko testified before the HARLB March 19 meeting in support of two Local Historic District designations: Swanson Middle School and the house, outbuildings, and remaining acreage of the Reevesland Dairy Farm, adjacent to Bluemont Park. Both are prominent and deserving sites that reflect on important aspects of Arlington's educational and agricultural heritage.

Swanson is a 1939 local landmark, the most architecturally and historically significant middle school in the County, outstanding for its Colonial Revival architecture, the degree to which the core building remains intact, and its commanding and relatively unchanged setting

in the heart of Westover. Reevesland is the sole remaining portion of the last operating dairy farm in Arlington and a significant link to the County's not-so-distant agricultural past. AHA, with the Bluemont and Boulevard Manor Civic Associations, requested that the HALRB consider Reevesland's buildings and two-acre site for designation after the County purchased the property in 2001. As an outstanding reminder of the County's agricultural heritage, we urged designation of the full remaining property without delay to ensure proper interpretation. HALRB voted for designation.

At the same meeting, we urged denial of a request by the County for a CoA to place a decorative precast concrete medallion at Fort C.F. Smith in the walkway near the gun platform, rather than by the main house, as called for in the original interpretive plan. The new location would be an intrusive feature in the historic district. HALRB denied the request, and said they will approve no CoAs until they are part of a written, approved interpretive plan.

AHA presents budget requests

Shannon Bell, AHA Vice-Chair, testified at the County Board Budget Hearing on March 25. We requested financial support for the County Historic Preservation Program, so that the staff may continue preparing new National Register nominations and improve their outreach with the property owners that these designations affect.  Secondly, we requested funding to establish interpretative programs at our County-owned Civil War forts-$25,000 for an interpretative walking trail at Fort Ethan Allen, and $30,000 for an interpretive program at Fort C. F. Smith. 

coming up . AHA's most endangered property list! do you have suggestions?

Watch the local papers and our Web site (www.arlingtonheritage.org) for the May release of our Third Annual Most Endangered Properties List. If there is a site you feel is endangered, please contact Chair Laura Bobeczko with your nominations.

Other Events

Join the May 10 Neighborhood Day illustrated talk and tour of Fort Ethan Allen at 11:30 a.m. sponsored by the Old Glebe Civic Association and AHA, at the Madison Center, and led by Civil War Historian Wally Owen, author of Mr. Lincoln's Forts.

Historic Preservation Week: May 5-12, 2003