At their Saturday meeting, County Board members sent a clear message that bicycles are welcome in Arlington. But residents of two North Arlington neighborhoods said one project isn?t welcome in their back yards, and asked the board to strike a section of the plan.
Board members unanimously declined the request, prompting complaints from several residents that officials were favoring special interests over their constituents. ?The staff is not neutral,? said James Johnson, and board members ?dismissed the strong opposition of the affected neighborhoods.?
Johnson, a member of the North Highland Civic Association, joined eight other residents in opposing construction of a Spout Run pedestrian bridge, which was kept alive under a revision of the county?s Bicycle Transportation Plan.
At their meeting Saturday, March 15, board members approved 11 additions to the county?s network of bike trails, all of which should be funded in the next three years. Construction will add five miles of paved trails for bikers and pedestrians, and 10 miles of bicycle lanes, in the first major revision of the bicycle plan since an update in 1994.
Board approval was the first of two steps toward updating the place, after which the county?s Bicycle Advisory Committee will begin a complete review and revision of the plan, which should take 12-18 months.
THIRTY YEARS AGO, a bridge between the North Highland and Woodmont neighborhoods collapsed, and the replacement was the center of debate on Saturday.
Members of Bicycle Advisory Committee have proposed a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Spout Run at the site of the older bridge. But neighbors opposed the plan, saying that a new bridge would destroy trees and cut into the privacy of nearby homeowners.
Nine Planning Commissioners agreed, and unanimously advised County Board members to strike a footnote that keeps alive the possibility of a bridge in the future, if neighborhood support grows. But board members decided not to accept the Planning Commission?s recommendation, and kept the bridge plan alive.
That decision not only flies in the face of community involvement, said Johnson, it?s also a waste of taxpayer dollars. ?It justifies continuing to devote staff resources to this project,? he said. ?It?s chasing a pipe dream.?
John Brown, a representative of the Spout Run Homeowners Association, called the project ?expensive and unnecessary.? A survey of homeowners in his neighborhood revealed 94 percent opposition to the bridge.
Other residents reported similar sentiments. Johnson said 76 percent of the households in North Highland opposed the bridge, as did 69 percent in Woodmont.
Those aren?t ill-informed opinions, he said. Residents have been hearing about the proposal for a long time. ?It?s a situation where familiarity breeds contempt,? he said.
David Williams, a Woodmont resident, said there aren?t a lot of rational opinions on either side of the bridge proposal. ?Frankly there?s a lot of emotion and not much else,? he said.
WHY KEEP BRIDGE hopes aloft, residents wondered. Johnson said he thought board members personally supported the bridge proposal, despite citizen objection.
Paul Ferguson, County Board chair, said he simply wasn?t prepared to make a decision one way or another on the bridge.
Board member Barbara Favola called the proposal ?harmless,? and said plans for the bridge will not progress unless neighborhood support grows in the future. Support isn?t the only roadblock for the proposal, said Chris Zimmerman, another board member.
He advised bridge opponents to ?go home, go back to sleep,? because funding for a pedestrian bridge won?t be available for at least 10 years, probably 20. ?We have bigger problems, which is that we can?t fix the bridges that are falling down,? he said.