new planning for Rosslyn

The Arlington County Board has endorsed a new planning effort for Rosslyn.  This effort recognizes Rosslyn's rising status:

No longer just a collection of office buildings served by streets meant for cars, not people, Rosslyn already is a more balanced neighborhood, offering residents and visitors shopping, recreation and cultural activities.  New towers have added homes and hotels to the core and brought after-hours life to the streets.  The County opened Artisphere, a new kind of arts center, in the heart of Rosslyn in October. Central Place, a tower that will include both a publicly accessible observation deck and a central public plaza, has been approved and is soon to be built. Improvements are underway on the Rosslyn Metro Station.

But the County, and the community, believe that Rosslyn can become even better with a more refined planning framework in place.

The Ode Street Tribune does not favor overly refined work.  Excess refinement, fastidiousness, and preciousness are inappropriate for Rosslyn developing bohemian culture, avant-garde artistic sensibility, and cutting-edge new media.

The new Rosslyn planning effort plans to focus on four issues:

• Creating an urban design framework
• Refining, improving transportation options
• Recommending a building heights strategy
• Developing a more cohesive, functional parks and open space network

These are worthy areas for planning.  An additional area where vision and planning are needed is community communications infrastructure.  Some relevant issues:

• What are the long-range plans and targets for capabilities and accessibility for wireless communications infrastructure in Rosslyn?
• When will all Rosslyn residents have access from their homes to high-speed fiber optic communications connectivity?
• What are Rosslyn's plans for encouraging and promoting local community media, such as informative and entertaining neighborhood news sources?