Arlington County Government, VA Parks and Recreation, 26 Sep 2013

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From YouTube: Arlington Mill Community Center

Description

After years of development and community input, the new Arlington Mill Community Center has opened its doors on Columbia Pike. This building, a beacon in the community, will provide something for everyone, of every age and every culture. As Columbia Pike continues to grow, this community center will help to foster a main-street environment and a stronger sense of community.

Some of the key features and programs of the new community center include:

• Combining high quality, multi-purpose community center and affordable housing on the Pike. In one of the county's most ethnically and economically diverse areas, Arlington Mill will provide a wide range of courses, classes, recreational and sports opportunities to the community. The center will offer something for everyone, from pre-K to seniors.
• The county board's long-term effort to transform the Pike into a more transit-oriented, walkable, bikeable street that provides high-quality transportation options, ground floor retail, and great public spaces for residents, while preserving the stock of affordable housing and encouraging small business.
• The project came in on budget, and plans to serve a large portion of the population on a consistent basis. Services from DHS and DPR will be served out of this facility and the center has been built to grow along with the community and their needs.

To learn more about Arlington Mill Community Center, hours of operation, and all of the programs offered, visit the county webpage at arlingtonva.us and search Arlington Mill.

A

After years of development and community input, the new arlington mill community center has opened its doors on columbia pike. This building a beacon in the community will provide something for everyone of every age and of every culture as columbia pike continues to grow. This community center will help to foster a main street environment and a stronger sense of community.

B

This is one of the most exciting events happening in south orleans and really for our community. It's been long in the makings. It is a the point of focus for our diverse community in in arlington. We, you know sometimes refer to that area as the world in zip code, because we have people from all walks of life.

B

The island meal community center will be the group that will hold together a neighborhood, that's been in a little bit of transition, but that desperately wants to hold on to the routes that have been established here, that we as a government have the obligation to facilitate.

C

Arlington mill community center is a multi-generational facility right in the heart of columbia. Pike. That's going to offer programs for everybody of all ages, we're going to have senior center here we're going to have teens coming and hanging out here after school and we're going to have just a wide variety of other programs, such as head start for the little ones and in general it's going to just be an open center from 8 am to 10 pm for the community here and we think for all of arlington before this was renovated.

C

It was a previous grocery store, safeway that had been converted into an 8 000 square foot community center, but where we are today is nothing like the old grocery store. This has just gonna be able to serve so many more people. Every day of the week.

B

Well, as we continue the realization of the columbia bank area, which has been decades in the makings- and there are many components we know, the modern streetcar line system will be a major part of it, but also we have to have redevelopment of some of our facilities for public use, and one of those is the community center.

C

For me, when you just drive down columbia, pike or you're, coming by here, this iconic building that has arlington mill community center on it. It's just such a beacon for the community. It's going to be lit up. It's got this gorgeous plaza.

C

So even if you don't come into the center, you can have a place where you can meet a place where you can just walk over and see your neighbors a place where you can work out, take a class or just sit and have a cup of coffee, because we're even going to have a great retail space attached to it have a bakery. So what it really means for us is a way to take.

C

You know all this wonderful energy, that's happening along columbia, pike and pull it all to one building that could hopefully be a heart of the community.

B

What I'm most excited about is how we have been able to put all of our arlington values together, and that means that not only are we serving a ethnically racially economically diverse population and everyone in arlington can come and use this, and we welcome that, but also we're putting into place our values for energy efficiency, the use in the public land for public good, which means adjacent to it as well. There is an apartment, complex of affordable housing, 122 units that would assist in our addressing our crisis of the shortage of affordable housing.

B

So I'm excited that our values for energy efficiency- smart growth planning, are have been put into play to work here.

D

Well, sustainable design is an integral part of any project we undertake for the county. The building is designed to meet the criteria for a leed silver certificate mill, particularly with its large-sized gym, its full kitchen and the like.

D

Had the capability to become an emergency center should we have a long-term power outage, or some disaster in arlington that required, offering housing for the general public.

A

The project was not without its challenges when the economy began to suffer. It looked as if funding may not be available for the revamped community center. Well,.

B

You know this did not happen overnight. In fact, it has been. You could say decades in the makings and has been delayed for the longest time, and it came very close of not moving forward also as the economy tanked back in the mid 2006-2007, or something like that, 2008 there were possibilities that we might not be able to build it because it may not be the financing or we might not be able to put the funds together that we needed.

D

The authorized budget that we had to work with was 36 million dollars, we're in under budget just a bit over 35 million dollars. It was funded by a variety of bonds in, I believe, 2006.

D

a parks bond for rebuilding the audience and milk community center for 26 million dollars was approved in referendum.

D

We also supplemented that with 2 million in infrastructure bonds that were residual after we completed the westover library, the board passed an ida, industrial development authority, bond of 5 million, I believe in 2010, and then we received three million dollars in close-out funds, split between 2009 and 2010 close out. All that brought us to the 36 million dollar value.

C

Well, this whole uh building the arlington mill. There was a you know, an extensive community process. This wasn't just the county building this space, but we worked with the community to find out what they wanted and one of the things they really wanted was to have some sort of cafe or restaurant attached to the building. So they can create that living room kind of feeling that you could come here and work out. You can come here for a meeting. You can also get a cup of coffee as well and that's unique to our community centers.

C

We haven't built that before I.

B

Think that part of what helped here was the community determination. A diverse, very ethnically rich community deserves to have the same type of community center than everyone else. We have in the county with the same policies and the same type of services, and as we enhance them as why not also increase our level of service people.

C

Are going to be able to get here by bike by car by foot by scooter by bus, we're going to be installing a bike share docking station here, so you can come from one end of the county, drop off a bike and pick it up to take yourself home. So this has a real urban feel that there's just multiple ways that you can get here.

A

And while the community center may appear complete on the outside, the county made sure to build a facility so that it has room to grow.

D

On the third floor, we reserve for future use that floor is empty right now and after we've run the center for a year or so have a better feel for where the community interests and demands will be. We'll. Take a look at what programs go on that.

C

We're really excited to get the center open and get it filled and get it moving with people. We are going to wait at least a year to kind of see what people want and then we're going to take another look at the spaces and evaluate what could be added.

B

It's a work in progress, but we've we've come a long way and it's more than about time here everybody's excited about the community center. I know our youngsters particularly are, and I I join in their enthusiasm and looking forward to enjoying this community center for generations to come.

A

To learn more about arlington mill, community center hours of operation and all the programs offered visit the county webpage at arlingtonva.us and search arlington.

A