Sun Gazette Arlington March 12, 2015

Page 1

INSIDE

Basketball teams start thinking about next season – See Page 23

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DEMOCRATIC FIELD EMERGES FOR COUNTY BOARD; FULL COVERAGE PLUS WE RATE THE CANDIDATES’ PERFORMANCES

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SunGazette

VOLUME 80 NO. 16

ARLINGTON’S SOURCE FOR HOMETOWN NEWS SINCE 1935

Tejada: Progressives Must Keep Faith, Focus on the Future

MARCH 12, 2015

Wilson School Battle Is Moving to County Board

CHAMBER KICKS OFF CAPITAL CAMPAIGN

April Public Hearing Likely, Then Action on an Historic Designation

SCOTT McCAFFREY

SCOTT McCAFFREY

Staff Writer

Staff Writer

Arlington’s political landscape seems to be shifting as economic reality puts the brakes and as various interest groups fight each other for their share of a dwindling financial pie. But departing County Board Vice Chairman Walter Tejada is not buying into the need for austerity or abandoning big ideas in the community. “I have tried to serve as an unapologetic progressive,” Tejada said in a valedictory address at the March 4 Arlington County Democratic Committee meeting. The efforts of collective, liberal leadership “got us to be one of the best communities in the United States,” he said. Tejada announced in early February that he would not seek re-election to the seat he has held since 2003. Board chairman Mary Hynes also has announced plans to retire, leaving two County Board seats open on Election Day for the first time since 1975. In his remarks, Tejada offered a list of issues where he felt he has made a difference, from affordable housing and homelessness to immigration. His overriding goal in office, he said, was to “ensure that the least privileged are heard.” Changing demographics, a new generation of leadership and an electorate that seems to have pegged current County Board members as out of touch are having Continued on Page 11

It’s likely to be an April showdown over whether the Wilson School building in western Rosslyn will garner historic designation. But the sparring could come even sooner. County Board members on March 14 are slated to advertise a public hearing on the proposal to designate the 105-year-old building as a local historic district. Hearings would be held April 6 before the Planning Commission and April 18 before the County Board. But even before those hearings, a public debate could begin. While the request to advertise the hearings is currently on the County Board’s “consent agenda” for Saturday, it could be pulled off by either a board member or the public for consideration the following Tuesday. If so, both sides in the debate would be able to testify. The Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALJoe Prentice and Barbara Nicastro are back as co-chairs of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce’s “Opportunity Works” campaign, and sported 1920s-era garb at last week’s kickoff event. See story, Page 12.

The Wilson School in its heyday in the 1930s, in a photo from the Arlington Community Archives.

RB) supports historic designation of a portion of the site, but the School Board – which owns the parcel – objects to it. Designating the site as historic, which would require preservation efforts, also appears to conflict with the County Board’s own directive to the Western Rosslyn Area Planning Study (WRAPS) task force, which only seeks to incorporate architectural elements of the Wilson School building into the overall development. County Board members purposely left restoration of the building Continued on Page 11

OUR VIEW

There may not be enough of the original building on the site to save – see Opinions, Page 6.

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Sun Gazette Arlington March 12, 2015 by Northern Virginia Media Services - Issuu