To the editor: Your recent article on historic preservation in Arlington [“County’s Efforts on Historic Preservation May Be Recalibrated,” May 11] misplaces the responsibility for lack of historic protection of important sites in Arlington in recent decades on the General Assembly and the current state historic law than rather on the real culprit, which is the Arlington County Board.
County Board members value greedy developers above all other community values – like keeping history, open green space and parks – and therein lies the problem.
The county’s historic-preservation ordinance is based on the state law on preservation; this ordinance gives clear written criteria for the historic-review board to make a reasoned decision, but it has been the County Board and/or county manager at the behest of the board that sandbags historic-preservation efforts like the preservation of the Febrey-Lothrop-Rouse estate that had a rich history.
The County Board refused in this case to accept unanimous recommendation of the local Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB), the support of thousands of residents who wanted preservation, and the rich written history of this unique property and house.
Nearly 10 acres of open land with trees that could have become a park was lost.
The state law was clear; the HALRB was clear in why the property needed protection, but the County Board just listened to the developer interested in building $2 million houses over a Civil War graveyard. The developer’s threat to sue was just a smokescreen and not credible, given the clear state law and Virgina Supreme Court rulings.
About seven years ago, I filed a separate petition to have Westover Village designated as a historic district I filed the petition because many existing garden-apartment rental buildings that date from the 1940s were being razed to put up million-dollar townhouses.
HALRB accepted my petition and affirmed that Westover Village met at least the minimum number of the requirements to begin a full investigation.
The County Board then simply directed staff and the review board to stop the whole process and allowed further demolitions. So much for the County Board faithfully following the state law and county ordinance on historic preservation.
The culprits are not our excellent county historic-preservation staff, HALRB or state law, but rather County Board members who favor developers above all others in our community.
The fault with our historic preservation in Arlington, my friends, lies not in the stars nor in Richmond in the General Assembly, but in the County Board members who value developers’ money over our community.
John Reeder, Arlington
