County Board adopts $5.2 billion 10-year Capital Improvement Plan

Published on July 26, 2024

The Arlington County Board voted Tuesday, July 23, 2024, to adopt a $5.2 billion FY25-FY34 Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). The plan was informed by more than 3,100 community members who weighed in on their top priorities. The CIP is the County’s 10-year plan for building, maintaining, upgrading, or replacing County facilities and infrastructure.

"Arlington has and will continue to be a wonderful place to live, work, and recreate, and that's largely due to the major investments we have made in our infrastructure," said Chair Libby Garvey. "I have been a part of over a dozen CIP processes now, and it is always so rewarding to see the "seeds" we planted years ago mature to meet the growth and needs of our community."

The Capital Improvement Plan is prepared every two years, with any adopted general obligation bond referenda presented to voters in November of even-numbered years. The plan includes major infrastructure investments such as community facility infrastructure, environmental resiliency, parks, transportation, stormwater management, utilities, and more.

Examples of major priority areas covered in the adopted CIP include:

• Arlington Neighborhoods and Economic Development: $100.1 million toward the Arlington Neighborhoods Program (ANP) and Economic Development projects. ANP funding totals $97.9 million across the 10-year period for investments in neighborhood beautification, street improvements, residential traffic management, park enhancements, street lighting and landscaping projects. The remaining $2.2 million will go toward projects related to maintaining the County’s public art program.
  
  
• Metro & Transportation: $2.25 billion, which includes $398.5 million for Metro. The other $1.86 billion will provide for significant investments in projects that include bridge renovation, the Columbia Pike Multi-Modal program, Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yards Streets program, Metro station entrances, ART facilities, Columbia Pike transit facilities, and numerous other safety and accessibility projects throughout the County.
  
  
• Local Parks & Recreation: $308.8 million in funding for park trail and bridge modernization, parks capital maintenance, synthetic turf replacements and parks master plans.
  
  
• Utilities and Stormwater: $1.21 billion for water and sewer infrastructure and stormwater management. $879.9 million was included for maintenance capital, wastewater treatment improvements, and drinking water redundancy and resiliency projects, while $334.4 million is for capacity improvements, stream and water quality projects and maintenance capital; and
  
  
• Other Critical Areas include investments in public facility infrastructure, energy management, and technology. The County owns and maintains 89 buildings with over 2.3 million square feet of space. The CIP increases its renewable energy and electrification commitments by providing electric vehicle charging, solar installations on County facilities, electric HVAC replacements, and various other energy resiliency investments. CIP funding also provides for other investments in buildings that facilitate a wide range of public uses, such as renovations to the 29-year-old Courts/Police building to make upgrades to courtrooms and technology infrastructure, and for a new fire station on the west end of Columbia Pike. The CIP also reinvests in public safety technology by replacing equipment in the County Courthouse and the Detention center, as well as providing for the purchase of public safety radios, Emergency Call Center (ECC) equipment, mobile data computers, and Fire/Police/Sheriff records management systems.
  
  
• Arlington Public Schools: $691.06 million for kitchen improvements, entrance and vestibule renovations, security improvements, moving the Montessori program to the Career Center, and synthetic turf field conversion at Kenmore Middle School.

Guidance to the County Manager

In adopting the Capital Improvement Plan, the County Board also provided guidance to the County Manager, outlining the thought and intention behind some of the items added to the Manager’s already strong proposed CIP. These include:

• Accelerating progress on community energy plan and stormwater management plan goals, and enhancing reporting on CEP goals through: additional funding and staff support for space utilization studies and analyses of County-occupied properties; direction on research and development of the Lubber Run Resilience hub; and, the continued phased replacement of the bus fleet by breaking out the estimated $134M cost for replacement and expansion in the CIP to better inform future CIP discussions and planning.
  
  
• Enhancing transportation safety and community accessibility efforts through: $500K in additional funding to support Carlin Springs Road Safety Improvements; directing staff to consider capital costs associated with increasing transit ridership opportunities in future CIPs and to use the funds, if needed, on transit stop upgrades; and, directing that an additional $250K in funding be used to evaluate four community facilities for potential installation of adult changing stations and plan for at least one installation in FY26.
  
  
• Highlighting the need for continued caution with assumptions of revenue growth by: encouraging the County Manager to continue considering what additional changes to reserves and debt service guardrails may be warranted in future Operating and CIP planning; directing staff to consider contingency plans for lower than assumed revenue growth; and managing cost risks associated with Arlington Public Schools and WMATA projects.

Read the full Board guidance to the Manager here.

Adopted 2024 Bond Referenda

The Board also approved $272 million of new bond referenda, including $174 million for County projects, $14 million for Utilities fund projects, and $84 million for Arlington Public Schools.  The referenda, if approved, will allow the County to issue general obligation bonds to pay for many of the improvements planned in the CIP over the next few years. The five referenda questions will be put to Arlington County voters in the upcoming November election.

The following items will be included in the referenda:

• Community Infrastructure: $76,150,000 for projects and programs such as the Arlington Neighborhoods Program, Courts/Police building improvements, and other general County infrastructure projects; 

• Metro & Transportation: $72,405,000, which includes $44.3 million for Metro, $22.0 million for paving, and smaller amounts for various transportation maintenance needs; 
   
• Parks & Recreation: $25,770,000, for construction of Drew Park, the Emerging Uses and Natural Resiliency programs, trail and bridge modernization, land acquisition, and various park renovations and improvements; 
   
• Utilities: $14,220,000, primarily for the County’s capital contributions to the Washington Aqueduct and for various smaller water and sewer maintenance projects; and
  
  
• Arlington Public Schools: $83,980,00 for the Arlington Public Schools’ own Capital Improvement Plan.  

View this item's Board report by going to the main agenda webpage, selecting the July 23rd Recessed Meeting agenda, and scrolling down to Item 55.