Arlington Board OKs $1.5M for Improvements in Leeway, Columbia Forest and Williamsburg

The Arlington County Board on Saturday unanimously approved spending $1.5 million on neighborhood improvement projects in the Leeway, Columbia Forest and Williamsburg communities.

For nearly 50 years, the county has allowed neighborhoods to submit such projects to elected officials for potential funding by voter-approved bond referenda.

The Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee considered 25 projects and recommended funding two new projects and the second phase of an existing one, all of which were ultimately approved:

• Leeway: Sidewalk, curb and gutter street improvements on 24th Street North between North Illinois and North Kensington streets ($781,082).
• Columbia Forest: LED street lights along South Edison Street from George Mason Drive to 11th Street South ($159,751).
• Williamsburg: Traffic lane reduction, bike lanes, ADA-compliant ramps at intersections and landscaped medians for tree plantings along North Sycamore Street from 26th Street North to Williamsburg Boulevard ($521,409).

"Arlington's Neighborhood Conservation program is a great example of planning from the ground up," Arlington County Board Chairman Walter Tejada said in a statement. "No one knows what it takes to make a neighborhood safer and more beautiful than the people who live there. Neighborhood Conservation is key to ensuring that Arlington's neighborhoods remain the best in the nation."

The latest projects are funded from an $11 million community conservation bond that voters approved last year.

Since October 2012, the Arlington County Board has approved a total of $6 million in neighborhood conservation projects.

The Neighborhood Conservation Advisory Committee recommends projects for funding approval twice a year.