Translating the 54 recommendations in our Neighborhood Conservation Plan into reality requires (in many cases) a source of funding. The FY2002 Arlington County total adoped budget for county, school, and community activities purposes is $706,460,791.* This might seem like a hefty sum for our county of around 191,000 residents; and you would think that it wouldn't be too difficult to divert some of these funds back to our community for projects that are important to the taxpayers that live here.

If you think that, you would be wrong. Laying our hands on a few hundred thousand to fund just two of our recommendations (and then only partially!) has taken us well over a year! This is partly because community improvements (traffic calming, parkland) are woefully underfunded. The budget for traffic calming is a case in point. Arlington County budgeted only $350,000 for traffic calming in FY2002, according to the FY 2002 - General Capital Improvement Program.

Right now, we have only a limited array of choices when it comes to funding:

• Neighborhood Conservation
• Neighborhood Traffic Calming
• Safe Routes to School
• Small Parks Grants
• Arlington Tree Initiative

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*The FY2002 adopted budget can be found by clicking here. The FY 2002 county budget resolution, which summarizes the total budget for county, school, and community activities can be found by clicking here.

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