Tower Villas Letter by Ben Axleroad
As a resident of Tower Villas, I appreciate the opportunity of sharing with you, my fellow residents, some information about the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association of which I am President. The Association offers individual residents avenues for making their opinions heard in a meaningful way concerning community issues which may be important to us both in our neighborhood and in Arlington County as a whole.The boundaries of the BVSCA are Glebe Road on the west, Kirkwood Road on the east, Route I-66 on the north, and Wilson Boulevard on the south. Our community is primarily residential with just a few office buildings and locally oriented commercial enterprises. We embrace a number of condominiums and apartment houses ranging greatly in size, as well as some older single-family homes and also townhouses.
Our Civic Association participates in public meetings on important issues affecting our neighborhood. For example, we participate actively in County Board meetings, Arlington County Planning Commission meetings, Arlington County Civic Federation meetings, and County legislative hearings. The Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association sponsors increased public participation in our community. Some of the ways we do this include undertaking formal surveys of our members on community issues and hosting candidates' night debates. The next of these will be held in the large meeting room of the Central Library on Wednesday, October 17th at 7:30 pm.
We also provide presentations of proposed site plan and development projects, which are a prerequisite of their presentation to the County Site Plan Review Committee. The next of these will take place on Tuesday, September 25th in the meeting room of the Ballston Park Condominiums, 1050 North Stuart Street at 7:45 pm. This will concern a zoning change proposal involved with the plans of the Hecht Company to occupy the Ballston Mall site of the former Penney Company. At our regular bi-monthly meeting we provide a forum for discussing community issues (e.g., crime, taxes, bonds, parking/traffic problems, pedestrian safety concerns, aggressive panhandling, and County spending priorities).
We have posted a web page that contains additional information, as well as copies of past newsletters with links to other civic associations. The BVSCA home page is located at http://www.bvsca.org.
Regular BVSCA meetings are held bi-monthly on the last Tuesday of the month. At present these usually take place at the Stuart Street site mentioned above. Occasionally a special meeting is held elsewhere as at the Library or another convenient site, and this is publicized well in advance.
Our Civic Association welcomes new members. Dues are $10 a year, which entitles to a single or family membership as the member chooses. Please make checks payable to BVSCA. You may remit in an envelope and put in my box, #205. Please include of course name and address plus E-mail, and your reference of medium for receiving our bi-monthly newsletter: regular or E-mail. Also indicate if you wish to volunteer help, e.g., monitoring meetings. If you prefer, you may mail directly to our Treasurer: DeAndra Beck, 1301 N. Taylor St., Arlington 22201.
Do join us. We need you, and think you'll enjoy your involvement.
Ben Axleroad, President, BVSCA