The Planning Commission has put together a big vision for the Potomac Yard shopping center. The North Potomac Yard Small Area Plan reflects over a year of work on a very complex challenge. Three issues that are critical to the success of this plan remain unresolved. Our Mayor and City Council must ensure that these financial and quality of life issues be resolved before approving the Small Area Plan and rezoning the land bay:

In a difficult economic environment for the Commonwealth of Virginia (arguably a crisis) no organization or agency is going to escape their impact – or should they. The issue is one of proportionality.

What’s being proposed by the House Appropriations Committee is not simply a reduction, but an extinction of arts and humanities in Virginia.

Superintendent Morton Sherman presented his recommended operating budget for fiscal year 2011 to the School Board last week. But I confess: I was distracted from time to time during his presentation by a particular group of people in the crowd.

Sitting directly in front of my colleagues and I were a group of TC Williams High School students. To his credit, the superintendent invited these students to come to our meeting to listen and learn about the school division’s budget process.

As part of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) legally mandated Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) program, Mark Center was selected as the new home for the Washington Headquarters Service (WHS), and a number of other DoD agencies. The facility, now owned and currently under construction by the federal government, is on property located at the intersection of Seminary Road and Beauregard Street at the I-395 interchange. The facility, technically considered part of Fort Belvoir, is not subject to local land use regulation, and under Federal BRAC law, must be completed by September 2011.