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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Construction of this size tends to shift the boundary for all community. There are other new buildings coming online nearby very soon (e.g. the gigantic apartment building in the landmark block) that is also technically in Innovation zone. There are other sorts of redevelopment plans in Rosslyn as well, if you take a look at the site plans. Perhaps everyone is underestimating how many children will be living in those market-rate apartments and condos, and the number of children from those high density buildings will be enough to balance out the FARM rate of the school. Perhaps not. [/quote]

+1. There are two 30+ story buildings planned for Rosslyn, the Courthouse Landmark building and the old Wendy’s lot across the street, and some other things in the pipes.  Several memos have discussed needing to create 1400 elementary seats for Rosslyn with 2 elementary schools (it’s my understanding Innovation is one the schools, and the second school will be new.  Where?  Who knows.). The FARMS rate may go up at Innovation when Marbella comes online but hopefully market-rate housing will balance it out.  I say “hopefully” because I think it’s better for everyone if a school has an enrollment that doesn’t skew too much towards any one demographic, rich or poor.[/quote]

There are a couple of [i]commercial[/i] buildings in the depths of Rosslyn that exceed 30 stories. But up in Courthouse? And residential buildings? I don't think so.

BTW, Arlington County is projected to have between  65-70k more people in the coming couple of decades, so about 2-3k per year. They have to live somewhere, right? You really think you can just wish them away??? So I would think dense housing on and branching from the Wilson, Langston Blvd, and Columbia Pike corridors is a good thing, right? From there, ensuring a substantial number of committed affordable units would also seem to be good.

In fact, why does Arlington forbid duplexes, triplexes and quads on current SFH lots. You mean to tell me some of those enormous lots near WGCC couldn't accommodate 3 or 4 families rather than one? C'mon. Arlington evolved from farmland to being a suburb, and people seemed pretty happy. Well, times are changing again, and we in Arlington have to change with them.[/quote]

You seem ill informed. Developers do not contribute to the education system, [b]they do not provide land or build schools[/b]. All they do is build housing.

Half of the counties budget is schools.

All schools everywhere are about at capacity. If we start building duplexes and what not in SFH space, the stress and cost of the schools systems will escalate and threatens the financial solvency of the county.

Now, if developers would bear some of the capital cost for education, such as [b]providing some land[/b] or directly funding building schools it might help allow the growth of housing to be metered by the growth of the school system. [/quote]

Actually, in recent years (mid 20teens), developers twice offered land to the County for potential school sites. And twice the County and APS declined.  
APS doesn't want to deal with land they don't already own, except maybe some County-owned land (parks) adjacent to existing schools.  That's why Fleet was built immediately next to TJ.  Developers don't build schools because (1) the County doesn't elicit significant benefits from developers and are too timid to advocate in Richmond for more authority to extract more from developers and (2) APS wants to maintain tight control and build the way they want to build using their usual architect firm buddies.  Maybe some of the APS part can change with the new Superintendent and the retirement of the previous Asst Superintendent for Facilities.[/quote]

What land? The buck property? They offered to sell it to the county because it’s unbuildable because of gas mains running under it. [/quote]
Well, there's that; but that was offered to the COunty, not APS.  I was referring to two proposals that occurred during the time of the south arlington working group determining where to build what is now Fleet.  Dominion Arms apartment building wanted to redevelop and offered a small parcel of land.  Vulcano(?  Don't recall the name....think it started with a "V")  also proposed a small parcel of land in Pentagon City.  Regardless of whether or not anyone believes they would have made good sites for a school, APS and the County didn't even have enough interest in the idea to even consider them - for building a school or for any other purpose, not even for additional park space.[/quote]

Small parcel?  We have excess elementary space, we don’t need small parcels. [/quote]

Vornado was the second developer.  
Anyway, there was no excess elementary space at the time (which is why they were determining a location to build Fleet) and there could have at least been some creative thought about ways to use the parcels...didn't have to be for a 750-seat elementary school. Point is, neither APS nor County had even one second's worth of interest in even receiving the proposals.[/quote]

But they didn’t need the land, they have built fleet and cardinal and now have plenty of elementary seats.  What creative thoughts would you have for a small parcel that would be economical? Another high rise high school, but have to be able to create a compelling program that would draw option students; we have already seen that AT does not have the clamoring demand that HB does so it would be an expensive gamble to invest in land AND a new building.

Developers should be GIVING land to APS because lowering school quality will eventually affect their profits. [/quote]

I'm not getting into a brainstorming session here.  It's another topic of its own and you probably just want to argue about it anyway.  But I agree, developers should be giving land and a lot of money and whatever else to contribute to the schools that will be needed because of their developments.[/quote]

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