Statement of Jay Fisette

Chairman of the Arlington County Board  

January 1, 2005

First, my congratulations to Barbara on a terrific year in 2004. You rose to many challenges and lead this Board with skill and panache. Thanks to all my colleagues for your support in selecting me as Chair, and I look forward to working with each of you in 2005.

When I last had the opportunity to chair this Board, I identified technology as the strategic issue for Arlington. That year we launched a multi-year effort that led to a substantial upgrade of our IT infrastructure and enhanced web-based services. Technology is now ingrained in who we are and how we do business.

As I enter the chairmanship in 2005, I want to focus on the most important strategic issue facing us: Managing the maturing of our vision as an urban community.

I arrived in Arlington in 1983. It was a different place. I shared a rental apartment in Pentagon City for four years. Each weekday I walked through a barren field, on a dirt path we created to reach the metro station. Today Fashion Center Mall and Pentagon Row occupy this space. In 1987 we bought a home in AshtonHeights. We shopped at the Giant in Ballston for our food and around back, at the PT Moran pet store for Snapper's food. There was no compelling reason to go to Clarendon. The Sears automotive center and the former grocery store turned antique bazaar, both with vast surface parking lots, sat in the middle of Clarendon. Today, the Market Common with its tree-lined streets with active retail and restaurants has transformed Clarendon into a destination.

Arlington is a dynamic place. We are a work in process, faced with multiple tensions, competing interests and difficult trade-offs. We continue to reinvent and improve ourselves. So what is our plan? Where are we going? What is our vision?

A few years ago we refreshed our Vision Statement which continues to guide the decisions of this Board. It reads:

Arlington will be a diverse and inclusive world-class urban community with secure, attractive residential and commercial neighborhoods where people unite to form a caring, learning, participating, sustainable community in which each person is important.

To some this is a collection of words. To others, these words provide a framework and aspiration that gives meaning to the changes taking place around us. I believe this is a lofty yet useful and compelling vision.

I want to identify four challenges we face, however, in executing this vision which will be the focus of my attention in 2005, as well as to propose some ideas to help us meet these challenges. Each of these challenges reflect on specific elements – or words – in our vision statement.

Grow Smart. If we are to be a world-class urban community, we must continue to grow smart. Arlington has achieved our successes through a land use plan that limits urban densities to only 8% of our land. Another 14% is devoted to open space and parks. The remainder of Arlington is protected for low density residential and neighborhood business areas.

In the early days of Arlington's development, we were anxious to merely attract development. As our community matures, our expectations have increased. Each new high rise now competes with the high rise next door. Each subsequent project becomes more challenging. Between 2000 and 2003, over 3.4 million square feet of new commercial office space was built and we created over 6700 residential units – as much as the entire decade of the 1990s.

While we are no longer in a position to have to accept any project that comes our way, we cannot retreat from our vision. A community that becomes stagnant is a community that is beginning a decline.

As we manage the maturing of our urban community, we should demand high quality projects with substantial community benefits, we must continue to protect the residential neighbors, and we must proactively educate the residents of Arlington about our plans and vision.

In 2005 we must target the following three specific strategic investments: (1) ConferenceCenter in PentagonCity; (2) CourtHousePlaza, and: (3) Central Place in Rosslyn. Additionally, we must remain committed to the implementation of the strategic development plans for Columbia Pike and Nauck.

Be Inclusive. We are a community that respects and celebrates our diversity and differences. However, the most challenging unintended consequence of our success is the pressure brought to bear on persons of modest income and small businesses – on their ability to participate and share in the broader success.

A stark fact: Between 2000 and 2004, we lost 47% (9,300 of 19,700) of the rental units in Arlington that were affordable to households with incomes at 60% of median. In 2005, we must continue our aggressive efforts to retain and create affordable entry level housing. We can not shrink from complicated and creative efforts such as those this board recently supported.

Several years ago I proposed an incentive stipend for county employees to purchase a home in Arlington – thus to Live-Near-Your-Work. This modest program has been very successful. I propose to make every effort to encourage major private sector employers in Arlington to establish similar support for home ownership in Arlington by their employees. The more people that live and work in the same community, the healthier that community becomes and the fewer long distance commutes clog the roadways.

Our success also poses a challenge to small and local businesses. Arlington now boasts a blend of national chains and home grown businesses – without the presence of big box stores. Small business adds character to our community. To open new opportunities to benefit both entrepreneurs and the community, I will be asking staff to work with the Ballston Partnership, Clarendon Alliance and Rosslyn BID to develop policies and explore locations for permanent kiosks to house street vendors in high pedestrian areas where they can enliven the street and offer amenities to pedestrians. Travel to other world cities and you will what I mean – news stands in Paris and flower stands in Amsterdam.

Promote Health. To be a healthy, sustainable community, requires that all three sectors – public, private and the people – need to be vibrant, engaged and healthy. Today, I want to focus on individual's opportunity and responsibility to be healthy – specifically the need to produce less pollution with car trips and increase their use of transit, walking and biking. Walking is also good for your health.

Research is beginning to show that where you live matters when it comes to walking. A report from the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, “Obesity Relationships with Community Design, Physical Activity, and Time Spent in Cars” shows a strong link between time spent driving and obesity: every additional 30 minutes spent in a car each day translates into a 3 percent greater chance of being obese. The same study also found that people who live in neighborhoods with a mix of shops and businesses within walking distance are 7 percent less likely to be obese.

Another national study found that people who live in the most sprawling communities walked less and were more likely to be overweight, obese and to have high blood pressure.

Arlington is an award-winning smart growth community. We have made significant investments in our network of sidewalks, bicycle trails, and pedestrian safety improvements throughout Arlington. We were recently recognized as the “safest place for pedestrians” in Northern Virginia. We now have outdoor cafes and retail areas – both in the metro corridors and in neighborhoods - that have become wonderful destinations for walkers.

It's time to do more walking. Governor Warner recently kicked off his Healthy Virginians Initiative and the Arlington Public Schools recently began a similar walking initiative. Our existing WalkArlington effort is substantial, and will be expanded to further encourage Arlingtonians to walk instead of ride. Check out the website at www.WALKArlington.com. As a motivator, we will distribute pedometers to hundreds of lucky Arlingtonians in 2005. And in the fall we will promote our WALKArlington efforts with special loop walks within each quadrant of the county, highlighting our trails, neighborhoods, and retail amenities.

As for biking, Arlington is one of 29 bronze rated Bicycle Friendly Communities in the US. We aspire to a silver rating. In 2005 we will host a new event - our first Family Bike Day. This will be a family event in the spring to encourage people - especially families with children – to get out and enjoy our many trails and on-street bike lanes. We live in a serious part of the country, with lots of type-A personalities. Even though the word fun does not appear in our vision statement, a world-class community must also be a fun place to live.

Ensure Value. Our vision statement reflects a deeply held set of core values that distinguish this community and this board from many others. It is our responsibility, as well, to ensure that our values-based policies are coupled with value-based performance.

People measure value differently. For some it's the lowest price or lowest tax rate. For others, it's the best quality product or service. For some value is measured in the short-term and for others the long-term – is it a sound investment? For some Arlingtonians, value comes from a large choice of restaurants and entertainment, by the availability of ESL programs, by the quality of our schools or by the safety of our streets.

Personally, I want top notch quality and reliability at the lowest possible price. I choose to balance reasonable tax policies with needed long term public investments. As a former GAO auditor, I hate to waste anything – including money. I want a good value.

In 2005, I propose to establish a Committee on Program Performance comprised of two Board members, the CountyManager, the Commissioner of the Revenue and a citizen – the chair of the Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission. This Committee will institute a more comprehensive review of external and internal audits and will create a new program of third party, independent performance audits.

Key to our success as a community is that the people of the community have confidence in the government and are assured that their tax resources are being used effectively. In the recent citizen survey, our constituents told us clearly how satisfied they are. We should never take this trust for granted.

In conclusion, Arlington is a special place with a talented county staff and engaged residents. We are a healthy community by many key measures:

• Our public schools are top notch;
• We enjoy the lowest tax and fee burden of any major jurisdiction in the metro region, and maintain a AAA/Aaa bond rating shared by approximately 20 jurisdictions in the country;
• We are a safe community, with crime continuing to decrease;
• Our unemployment rate is 1.6%, the lowest in the region;
• We have a thriving arts community, and our neighborhoods are strong.

As we wake up on the dawn of this new year to yet another story of the catastrophe being experienced on the other side of this planet, as the death toll rises daily - possibly to equal the full population of our own county - we must count our blessings. We must recognize and respect the interdependent web of all existence, of which we are a part. We must reaffirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the fragility of the earth that sustains us. We are global citizens and part of a global humanity – and I encourage all Arlingtonians to step forward and claim their global citizenship – by making a personal contribution, however small, to the relief effort. We will facilitate that by providing a summary of reputable options.

At a time when our hearts weep with empathy for the victims of the East Asian tsunami, we can feel a special pride in the values and vision that sustain our own community. We are well-off, yet we care. We have faced our own tragedies and challenges, and have responded well. And with your help, we will continue to accomplish remarkable things together in 2005.