Arlington County Government, VA Up Close, 26 Sep 2013

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From YouTube: James Hunter Park

Description

"Community led consensus " is the phrase that best describes the process of renovating James Hunter Park in Clarendon. The community had to decide what kind of park they wanted? Who should it benefit? Should it be for dogs? Should it be for people? The process was thorough, and the result, as you will find out, is pretty unique.

It's an amazing park, it's open from sunrise to 10pm every day, with the canine area closing at 9pm. The dog area will also close from 10am to noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for staff to clean and maintain it. To find out more about the James Hunter Park visit Arlingtonva.us/parks.

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Community-Led consensus is the phrase that best describes the process of renovating james hunter park in clarendon. The community had to decide what kind of park they wanted. Who should benefit? Should it be for dogs or should it be for people the process was thorough and the result is, you will find, is pretty.

B

Unique 2006 there was a clarendon sector plan was passed and that specifically designated this space to become a park.

A

So now the community could plan to renovate the park which had been used exclusively as a community canine area.

C

It was basically, you know a dusty lot. It was like we were calling it. The ok corral.

A

Former president of the hartford condo association, larry shaw, got together with residents from lyon village, the clarendon dogs association and the arlington county planners to decide how the james hunter park would take shape. Consensus between the various stakeholders took time.

C

It was months months and months. I mean this. I think the dog park process is probably six years in the making.

B

There seemed to be a desire working with a lot of different stakeholders to find up creative solutions to continue to have the dog park, but also open up this really great open space for other other uses as well.

C

What we were involved in was trying to make sure that the various viewpoints were represented in the park. People who had dogs, people who didn't have dogs people who wanted just a place to sit out.

A

County planters were very aware of the population that the park would serve and it wasn't just the residents.

B

There are 8 000 people who live in that area and another. I think 15 000, who come in every day to work so already, there's just tons of people who just walk here from the neighborhood, but because it's also in the corridor. It can attract just not people who can get there from their neighborhood, but can come from all over the county.

C

The county did a great job of trying to listen to everybody's point of view. Manage everybody's point of view, speak to everybody's point of view, but in the end, there's only so much park.

B

Well, when the community went through this planning process- and there was a lot really in-depth community process in it, there was a decision that 50 of the park would be for the dog park and the dog owners, because it's not really a park just for dogs, but for the people who own those dogs as well and then also the 50 would be for access for everybody else. The idea of having a lawn to play on and then I think, an idea of having really progressive and interesting environmental components.

B

The park was of interest to the community.

D

What is crucial is our distance here fly foot yeah.

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Task with a design brief that would fulfill the community's needs and maintain arlington county's green standards, landscape designer aaron wohler incorporated a host of sustainable features at.

D

The heart of the park is what we call an epic, epic or environmental, passive integrated chamber system and we're collecting all the rain water from the site. Virtually every surface within the park is permeable and the water goes into the chambers.

D

The chamber, the water is distributed out throughout the park, and the plants are allowed to take up as as much or as little water as they as they want, which is really unique from a horticultural standpoint, because we're able to pretty much plant a wide variety of plants and not necessarily have to pay attention to their water needs, because the plants are allowed to take up as much or as little water as they need.

D

These solar voltaic panels will be offsetting our use for the park and we're going to get credits for what we use. These panels are bifocal, which means that not only will they collect energy from the sun coming from the top, but whatever filters through and reflects back up underneath will also be collected, so they're super efficient and, as you can see in the background, we have light poles. These are unique light poles in that they are completely off grid, and these actually have the panels wrapped around the pole.

C

Even when they finally came up with a design, um it changed because we got to comment again and still continue to hone the design to what it is now.

D

Throughout the design phase, uh we found out from community that they wanted more and more lawn space and and ended up growing and growing until we essentially just uh expanded the the lawn area from one side of the park to the next, and then we have the wall for community canine area or cca, and then on the opposite side. We have a sound wall to help attenuate sound and noise from the dogs.

A

Also helping to cut some of the dog sounds: is the white noise created by multi-purpose water feature.

D

Although the water feature is uh double-sided it'll, the water will just trickle down the pedestrian side, but it's actually going to be more of a waterfall situation and have a pond in the cca itself. So the dogs will actually have a little ponding area that they can play in and then on the opposite side. We'll have a gathering area and a picnic area where pedestrians can sit down and just enjoy the space.

B

We see this place as being 365 days. We see it where families might go on weekends, to relax, have a cup of coffee with their kids. We see this where office workers, we hope, will come, have lunch or maybe work outside or have a meeting outside, and then we also see it as a place where we think dog owners will probably come every day. We.

C

All spoke up, we got heard, they listened to us, it's not perfect for everybody, but it's a good design because it accommodates.

A

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An amazing part: it's open from sunrise to 10 p.m. Every day with the canine area closing at 9 pm, the dog area will also close from 10 a.m, to noon on mondays, wednesdays and fridays for staff to clean it and maintain it to find out more about the james hunter park. Visit arlington, va dot us parks.

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