Todd Freimuth
The Eleventh Street restaurant and Potomac Crossfit gym on N. Highland Street will be forced out to make room for the redevelopment of the block.
After months of community discussions and numerous architectural revisions the Arlington County Board unanimously approved the construction of a 300,000 square foot office building in Clarendon Tuesday night, Jan. 24.
Since the site plan located at 3001 Washington Blvd began public hearings in September, the Clarendon and neighboring communities have continually raised concerns regarding parking, landscaping and sidewalk space.
The county board addressed those concerns last night and finalized solutions that the development team and Arlington civic associations worked together to unravel.
“The Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association throughout this entire process has wanted to see something that would win for the developer, that would win for the community and that would win for the county,” said CCCA spokesperson Matthew Asada. “What we have tonight is a proposal that does just that.”
The off-street parking for evening and weekend visitors in Clarendon was inadequate in former renditions of the site plan, according to Asada. Through collegial and consensual discussions the developer, Penzance Management, LLC, and architect Noritake Associates Inc resolved that problem, he said.
Penzance will implement a valet service in the underground parking garage when the garage reaches 85 percent of its maximum capacity. By double-parking in the lower levels of the garage, valet service can essentially add more spaces. The service will increase the number of parking to allow over 340 parking spaces during the evenings and weekends.
During the garage’s first year of operation, a space will cost only $2 for the first three hours and $3 for an entire evening. This will encourage use, county staff said. After the first year, the rate will rise to $4, and two years after that, the developer can charge market rates.
The garage will open to the public at 6 p.m. and close at 12 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday. On Thursdays the garage will close at 2 a.m. and at 3 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
In early designs of N. 11th Street, small gardens lined the curb but were taken out after the county felt they would get trampled by pedestrians. The CCCA requested that some form of vegetation be placed on the street so trees in raised planters will be placed down the block.
Sidewalk space along 11th Street N. has also been redesigned to add more room for strolling pedestrians.
“This advances, procedurally, the vision of the Clarendon Sector Plan in that it was done on a consultative basis between the developer and the involved citizens associations and residents of the area,” said Vice President of the Lyon Village Citizens Association Jim Lantelme.
