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From YouTube: Community Facilities Study #7 Part 3 of 4: Case Study #3
Description
The third of three public facility siting and programming case studies. No. 3: Proposed elementary school at Thomas Jefferson Site. Carrie Johnson, Chair, Thomas Jefferson Working Group. Recorded May 13 2015 at Washington-Lee High School, Arlington VA.
A
Good
evening,
all
by
way
of
introduction,
my
lived
in
Ashton
Heights
since
1979
was
on
the
Planning
Commission
for
almost
two
decades,
I'm
still
involved
in
site
plan
review
and
a
lot
of
open
space
planning
and
I'm
really
allergic
to
whatever
is
blowing
around
out
there
today
and
so
I
apologize
in
advance.
For
that.
A
This
is
the
an
outline
of
what
you're
going
to
hear
from
me
in
more
or
less
the
next
15
minutes
of
both
basically
an
overview
of
how
the
TJ
working
group
was
created.
Who
was
on
it?
What
we
did
of
how
far
we
got
I
want
to
take
a
detour
then,
and
to
give
you
some
thoughts
about
particularly
about
collaborative
processes,
which
is
what
we
tried
to
emphasize
and
then
finally,
where
we
got
and
where
things
stand
now
on
a
case
that
is
still
open.
A
Basically,
a
number
of
people
in
this
room
were
involved
in
the
TJ
process.
Would
you
all
raise
your
hands?
If
you
were
okay,
you
guys
can
take
the
next
10
minutes
off,
because
you
know
all
this
already.
The
rest
of
you
I
will
try
to
run
through
it
fairly
quickly
and
for
details.
We
do
have
a
really
good
website,
full
of
information,
both
about
ApS
capacity
issues
and
Thomas
Jefferson,
a
number
of
other
related
points,
including
some
really
sophisticated
traffic
studies.
So
if
you
want
those
details,
that's
where
you
go
for
them
now.
A
A
It
also
called
for
a
final,
citing
decision
by
january
thirty,
first
of
this
year
and
stated
that
if
Jefferson
was
not
approved,
the
alternative
would
be
additions
at
to
South
Elementary
to
south
arlington
elementary
schools.
Those
schools
were
not
named
at
the
time
they
were
identified,
last
fall
as
Randolph
and
barcroft.
A
Now
the
reason
that
this
in
front
folded
as
it
did,
goes
back
to
the
original
creation
of
Thomas
Jefferson
as
a
joint
middle
school
and
a
community
center.
This
was
done
in
the
early
70s
back.
Then
you
could
still
acquire
27
acres
in
the
middle
of
Arlington
and
you
could
still
build
a
middle
school
and
the
huge
gym,
I'm
sure
you
all
know,
and
the
rest
of
this
facility
for
a
combination
of
county
and
school
bonds
of
something
slightly
over
six
million
dollars.
Well,
just
let
that
settle
in
for
a
minute.
A
At
that
time,
also
the
population
of
Arlington
is
given
at
a
TJ
brochure
was
175,000
people.
The
area
was
26
square
miles.
Your
instant
quizzes,
which
of
those
numbers,
has
not
changed
right.
You
got
it
Bernie,
head
of
the
class.
Therefore,
when
the
school
was
built,
the
even
though
the
school
is
a
shared
facility.
The
property
was
divided,
as
you
see
on
the
map
here,
with
the
pink
or
salmon
colored
area
in
the
middle,
which
is
eight
point,
six
acres
controlled
by
the
APS
and
the
two
green
areas
on
either
side
controlled
by
the
county.
A
The
charge
also
called
for
the
group
to
work
collaboratively
and
to
engage
in
fairly
extensive
community
outreach
in
a
very
short
time.
A
preliminary
report
was
due
the
board
about
Thanksgiving
and
final
report
in
January
in
order
to
enable
the
board
to
make
his
decision
in
accord
with
the
school's
timeline
by
the
end
of
January
of
this
year.
The
membership
of
the
group,
which
was
appointed
in
September,
was
quite
large
and
diverse,
including,
as
you
can
see,
representatives
of
all
the
civic
associations
around
the
site.
A
Several
County
Advisory
Commission's
groups
such
as
the
Thomas
Jefferson
PTA,
and
the
facilities
Council
and
the
fair
board,
and
each
of
these
in
a
bound
up
having
several
hats,
we
had
members
from
advisory
Commission's
who
were
also
parents.
We
had
parents
in
the
civic
associations
who
also
had
expertise
in
various
areas.
It
was
a
really
dynamic
and
fully
engaged
group
of
people,
and
I
would
say
that,
even
if
some
of
them
weren't
here,
because
it
really
was
a
very
lively
group.
In
addition,
we
had
encouraged
because
of
the
compressed
time
frame.
A
We
encouraged
everybody
to
an
alternate
to
choose
that
person
at
the
beginning
to
treat
them
like
an
understudy,
so
that
the
alternate
would
come
and
be
fully
prepared
to
step
in.
If
the
member
wasn't
there
and
that
worked
very
well,
we
had
a
number
of
extremely
engaged
alternates,
who
were
also
great
contributors
to
the
conversations
we
had.
Mary
Heinz's
county
board
liaison
and
Emma
veal
and
Sanchez
as
school
board
liaison
both
of
them
came
to
as
many
beatings
as
they
could.
A
A
A
That
framework
was
partly
set
forth
in
the
county
schools
memorandum
in
2011,
which
has
been
referred
to
several
times
here
already,
which
sets
up
the
framework
for
considering
schools
use
of
county
facilities.
Those
criteria
include
not
only
future
flexibility
of
program,
operation,
cost
effectiveness
and
things
like
that,
but
also
encourage
ly
the
ability
to
continue
county
services
and
I
quote
this
line
at
a
comparable
or
greater
level.
A
Now,
in
all
of
this,
the
key
factor
again
was
that
the
proposed
new
use
did
not
get
priority
over
what
was
already
there.
The
question
and
I
think
it's
going
to
be
a
key
question,
and
everything
we
consider
from
now
on
is
whether
and
how
the
elements
of
that
new
additional
use
could
fit
with
what
was
there,
without
damaging
or
displacing
either
community
resources
or
programs
and
the
county
board
and
is
charged
to
this
group
brought
that
home
to
the
site.
A
With
these
site
specific
goals,
these
were
set
forth
in
the
charge,
as
you
can
see,
they
address
not
only
the
usual
concerns
of
neighbors
and
community
members
about
an
intensive
use,
but
also
specifically
retain
part
of
the
park
that
people
were
most
concerned
about,
because
it's
natural
and
therefore
not
easily
replaceable
and
no
net,
no
significant
loss
of
green
space,
no
net
loss
of
recreational
programming.
As
you
know,
this
also
plays
into
the
wider
issues
involving
other
uses
of
park
space.
A
Although
we
tried
very
hard
to
keep
the
dialogue
confined
in
this
case
to
this
site.
So
how
did
we
do
this?
We
started
with
an
inventory-
and
this
gives
you
some
images
showing
outline
in
general
where
the
fields
and
the
courts
are
the
trees.
County
did
a
tree
inventory.
There
are
over
500
trees
worth
counting,
including
some
very
interesting
ones.
A
A
This
gives
it
a
very
open
edge
and
a
very
inviting
kind
of
edge
for
the
neighborhood,
and
there
was
enormous
view
in
the
group
that
we
didn't
want
to
mess
with
that.
We
didn't
want
to
obstruct
that
by
putting
a
building
along
second
street,
so
we
spent
some
time
on
all
of
that.
We
also
were
given
fairly
close
to
the
beginning
for
concepts
that
ApS
was
putting
forward.
I
would
emphasize
that
these
are
concepts
what
they
called
schemes.
These
are
not
at
the
level
of
architectural
drawings.
We
were
not
doing
design
review.
A
A
Then
we
had
an
open
house
which
was
attended
by
over
130
people
and
produce
a
lot
of
comments
at
which
all
of
the
boards
were
up
and
people
could
walk
around
and
a
comment
and
talk
with
the
transportation
consultants
about
their
transportation
issues.
For
example,
they
came
up
with
a
wonderful
huge
map
with
all
kinds
of
annotations
on
it
and
collect
information
that
way
we
had
a
questionnaire
at
the
end,
we
had
comments
through
the
website.
A
What
you
see
here
is
the
non
TJ
Park
part
of
the
site
highlighted,
including
both
the
building
and
the
current
west
side
parking
lot.
It
was
relatively
easy
for
the
group
to
focus
on
the
west
side
location
and,
if
you
think,
back
to
the
APS
slides
location
in
the
far
west
corner
of
that
site,
as
probably
the
generally
best
place
to
put
a
new
school.
A
If
there
was
going
to
be
one,
it's
not
a
big
site,
and
so
we
did
emphasize
that
in
order
to
fit
there,
you
would
have
to
design
something
that
did
not
displace
the
parking
you
needed.
The
site
is
pretty
well
park
as
it
is,
but
you
don't
want
to
lose
any
and
that
doesn't
interfere
with
the
entrances
to
the
middle
school
and
the
theater
which,
as
you
know,
if
you've
been
there,
are
on
that
side
of
the
building.
This
means
that
the
new
school
would
have
to
be
multi-story.
A
It
would
have
to
be
fairly
compact
and
it
would
have
to
have
structured
parking
with
either
one
or
two
levels
of
parking
and
a
green
roof
on
the
parking
where
you
could
put
the
dedicated
play
space
for
the
elementary
school.
This
became
important
because
we
didn't
want
to
have
elementary
school
playgrounds
which,
as
you
know,
are
exclusive
to
the
school
during
the
daytime
displace
the
playground
that
is
there
now
that
is
generally
open
to
the
community.
A
We
got
to
that
point
fairly
easily
with
some
outstanding
issues
about
traffic,
which
we've
addressed
a
little
later.
However,
if
you
go
back
to
the
charge,
you
notice
that
it
asks
us
not
whether
a
new
school
could
fit,
but
whether
it
should
you
probably
have
heard
that
we
didn't
quite
get
to
consensus.
On
that
point,
the
group
was
divided
as
to
whether
schools
should
be
built
now,
in
line
with
the
collaborative
approach
to
the
group.
We
did
not
take
any
votes
on
anything
and
we
wound
up
reporting
ourselves
as
divided
now.
A
How
building
at
Thomas
Jefferson
would
affect
the
future
of
Patrick
Henry,
which
is
about
half
a
mile
away?
I
have
a
map
I
forgot
to
click
TJ
is
there
in
the
middle
Patrick
Henry
is
in
blue.
The
two
schools
proposed
for
additions
are
the
yellow
ones,
and
one
of
the
issues
that
we
didn't
quite
hear
enough
about
was
how
building
at
Patrick
Henry
would
relieve
pressures
at
that
green
dot,
which
is
oakridge,
which
is
the
most
overcrowded
school
in
south
arlington.
It
is
several
miles
away.