Management and Use of Ft. Ward Park: Problems and Recommended Actions
Prepared by J. Glenn Eugster for the Homeowners of Marlboro Estates
September 10, 2008
Area citizens believe that the City needs to be more respectful and responsive to the taxpayers who live near Ft. Ward Park in the management and use of the park. The City should make a commitment to manage the park and provide for regular opportunities for public input prior to making major changes. The following summary provides background information and a list of recommendation actions.
Background: Early in September 2007 residents complained to the City’s Mayor, Deputy Mayor and City Council, Police Department and Parks & Recreation Department about overflow crowds, crime, drug use, loud music, and other issues concerning Ft. Ward Park and Marlboro Estates. The Police Department responded promptly to calls and helped with new patrols and safety tips. In January 2008, the Police Department and the City Parks & Recreation Department also responded to a neighborhood petition highlighting the concerns of residents. The City responded to this petition through the following actions:
· Assigning Walter Powell as the Ft. Ward Park Manager.
· Increasing Police patrols in Ft. Ward Park and Marlboro Estates.
· Removing two garbage disposal containers and a transfer station from the Ft. Ward Park maintenance yard.
· Erecting a fence to visually buffer adjacent residential properties from Ft. Ward Park maintenance yard activities.
· Placing and periodic staffing a Ft. Ward Park entrance booth to manage park use on weekends and holidays.
· Designating Roger Blakeley, Deputy Director of the City Parks & Recreation Department, and Captain Hassan Aden of the Alexandria Police Department, as the points of contact for Marlboro Estates-Fort Ward Park communication.
The City’s responses have been helpful and greatly appreciated by residents in neighborhoods near Ft. Ward Park. However, since April 2008 neighborhood residents, individually and as a group, have contacted the Police Department and the City Parks & Recreation Department about continued issues related to:
Noise: Throughout the summer the City has approved permits for amplified music that exceeds the City’s Noise Ordinance. In addition, the Police Department has had difficulty enforcing the City’s noise ordinance because of its lack of clarity and a lack of equipment to measure noise levels.
Overuse of park picnic pavilions: As only one example among many, on August 30,
2008, the City authorized 30 to 50 people to use the park for a specific celebration, but a crowd of 700-1,000 people joined the event without regard to the permit. City Police officers, apparently working privately for Parks & recreation or for the event sponsor, made no effort to enforce restrictions on the number of people and may not have known that only 30 to 50 people were originally approved. A huge tour bus that brought part of the crowd was parked and idling on a grassy area in the park for several hours. In addition, this was the second year that this same abuse of park privileges by the same group has occurred. Loud, amplified music contributed to the chaos. In general, this pattern of regular and special event overuse has resulted in amplified music noise, traffic congestion, safety concerns, and excessive trash--especially liquor bottles, in and around the Park and surrounding areas including Braddock Court, Victoria Lane, Louis Place, Lynn House, and Saint Stephens/Saint Agnes School and Marlboro Estates.
Proposals for two larger picnic pavilions: While the City has not been able to effectively regulate the use of its existing park resources, the City indicated that it plans to expand two park picnic pavilions, an access road, and a parking area adjacent to residential houses. Partial construction of the new road to one picnic pavilion has already started. These plans are being made without the input of homeowners or the public and apparently in the absence of any overall plan designed to balance the interests of the City, the park users, and the nearby residents.
Unavailability of a Ft. Ward Plan: Residents have tried since June 2008, with no success, to get a copy of the City’s Plan for the use, management, and policies related to Ft. Ward Park. From discussions with City park managers it is unclear whether there is a current plan, and if so, whether it guiding park use and new facilities.
The City’s autonomous actions and lack of response to identified and continuing problems are disrupting the quality of life in Marlboro Estates and surrounding West End neighborhoods, damaging the nature and culture of the park, and potentially damaging the property values of homes adjacent to the park.
Suggestions for City action related to the use and protection of Ft. Ward Park: In general, the City managers need to be a good neighbor to those people who live adjacent and nearby Ft. Ward Park. The City should develop a clear, concise, effective plan for managing its parks, including Ft. Ward Park. It is extremely important that the City include citizens as an integral part in developing such a plan. Citizens’ rights, needs, and concerns should be fully recognized at each step in its development. The plan used to manage the park should address citizens’ concerns about the upkeep of the park as a park, excessive levels of usage causing noise, destruction of park values, and other problems, and the current lack of penalties for abuse of park privileges. The present situation, in which it is unclear whether there is a management plan or not, needs to be remedied. More specific suggestions are provided in the following sections:
1. No new permits for groups larger than 35 people should be approved for any event at Ft. Ward Park until permit new protocols and procedures are approved and in place. In addition, the eventual protocols should specify the maximum number of people permitted at each pavilion with input from the citizens of Alexandria in determining this number. Clear procedures for Police enforcement of these numbers should be established, including remedial measures such as removal of groups from the park in the event of abuses of their privileges. The person responsible for each group should be clearly identified and informed of the rules that must be obeyed and the penalties that will be enforced if the rules are disobeyed. For example, the lack of any actual penalties at present accounts for the repeated abuse by the same group two years in a row.
2. The City Parks & Recreation Department should develop, in cooperation with the City Permits Office and the public, new protocols and procedures for preventing and handling inappropriate uses and activities in Ft. Ward Park in the future; the Department should also coordinate park crowd control and enforcement issues with the Alexandria Police Department.
a. Consideration should be given to moving the Ft. Ward Park
Permit application, approval and enforcement process to the Park Manager of Ft. Ward Park. Appropriate staff, with expertise, should be added to Ft. Ward Park to manage and enforce these guidelines.
3. The new protocols and procedures should be consistent with the existing approved master/ management plan for Ft. Ward Park. If no up-to-date plan exists, the City should prepare a plan for approval by the Council. The planning process should include input from adjacent and near-by homeowners and neighborhood groups.
4. The roles and relationships between the Police Department, Parks & Recreation Department, and the Permits Office, for activities related to and within Ft. Ward Park need to be determined to reduce the duplication and confusion (i.e. finger-pointing) that exists now. The integration of these City services is needed.
5. There should be a written notification process to the West End neighborhoods, including Marlboro Estates, Braddock Court, Victoria Lane, Louis Place, Lynn House, and St. Stephens-St. Agnes School, when a large event is approved and scheduled.
6. The City should determine the most appropriate way to implement Alexandria’s Noise Ordinance in Ft. Ward Park. The people assigned to enforce the ordinance should be trained and provided with noise decibel meters. The city should also determine whether it can and will prohibit the use of amplifiers and boom boxes powered by portable generators or vehicles. Such amplifiers constitute the core of the noise problem and will cause continuing complaints from residents adjacent to the park, if the amplifiers are not prohibited or managed more effectively by City authorities. In addition, clear penalties should be prescribed for exceeding noise levels, including fines or loss of privileges in the park.
Closing: City action, and a more neighborly approach to managing Ft. Ward Park, will be met by neighborhood support and cooperation. Action is needed now!
Prepared by J. Glenn Eugster for the Homeowners of Marlboro Estates
September 10, 2008
Area citizens believe that the City needs to be more respectful and responsive to the taxpayers who live near Ft. Ward Park in the management and use of the park. The City should make a commitment to manage the park and provide for regular opportunities for public input prior to making major changes. The following summary provides background information and a list of recommendation actions.
Background: Early in September 2007 residents complained to the City’s Mayor, Deputy Mayor and City Council, Police Department and Parks & Recreation Department about overflow crowds, crime, drug use, loud music, and other issues concerning Ft. Ward Park and Marlboro Estates. The Police Department responded promptly to calls and helped with new patrols and safety tips. In January 2008, the Police Department and the City Parks & Recreation Department also responded to a neighborhood petition highlighting the concerns of residents. The City responded to this petition through the following actions:
· Assigning Walter Powell as the Ft. Ward Park Manager.
· Increasing Police patrols in Ft. Ward Park and Marlboro Estates.
· Removing two garbage disposal containers and a transfer station from the Ft. Ward Park maintenance yard.
· Erecting a fence to visually buffer adjacent residential properties from Ft. Ward Park maintenance yard activities.
· Placing and periodic staffing a Ft. Ward Park entrance booth to manage park use on weekends and holidays.
· Designating Roger Blakeley, Deputy Director of the City Parks & Recreation Department, and Captain Hassan Aden of the Alexandria Police Department, as the points of contact for Marlboro Estates-Fort Ward Park communication.
The City’s responses have been helpful and greatly appreciated by residents in neighborhoods near Ft. Ward Park. However, since April 2008 neighborhood residents, individually and as a group, have contacted the Police Department and the City Parks & Recreation Department about continued issues related to:
Noise: Throughout the summer the City has approved permits for amplified music that exceeds the City’s Noise Ordinance. In addition, the Police Department has had difficulty enforcing the City’s noise ordinance because of its lack of clarity and a lack of equipment to measure noise levels.
Overuse of park picnic pavilions: As only one example among many, on August 30,
2008, the City authorized 30 to 50 people to use the park for a specific celebration, but a crowd of 700-1,000 people joined the event without regard to the permit. City Police officers, apparently working privately for Parks & recreation or for the event sponsor, made no effort to enforce restrictions on the number of people and may not have known that only 30 to 50 people were originally approved. A huge tour bus that brought part of the crowd was parked and idling on a grassy area in the park for several hours. In addition, this was the second year that this same abuse of park privileges by the same group has occurred. Loud, amplified music contributed to the chaos. In general, this pattern of regular and special event overuse has resulted in amplified music noise, traffic congestion, safety concerns, and excessive trash--especially liquor bottles, in and around the Park and surrounding areas including Braddock Court, Victoria Lane, Louis Place, Lynn House, and Saint Stephens/Saint Agnes School and Marlboro Estates.
Proposals for two larger picnic pavilions: While the City has not been able to effectively regulate the use of its existing park resources, the City indicated that it plans to expand two park picnic pavilions, an access road, and a parking area adjacent to residential houses. Partial construction of the new road to one picnic pavilion has already started. These plans are being made without the input of homeowners or the public and apparently in the absence of any overall plan designed to balance the interests of the City, the park users, and the nearby residents.
Unavailability of a Ft. Ward Plan: Residents have tried since June 2008, with no success, to get a copy of the City’s Plan for the use, management, and policies related to Ft. Ward Park. From discussions with City park managers it is unclear whether there is a current plan, and if so, whether it guiding park use and new facilities.
The City’s autonomous actions and lack of response to identified and continuing problems are disrupting the quality of life in Marlboro Estates and surrounding West End neighborhoods, damaging the nature and culture of the park, and potentially damaging the property values of homes adjacent to the park.
Suggestions for City action related to the use and protection of Ft. Ward Park: In general, the City managers need to be a good neighbor to those people who live adjacent and nearby Ft. Ward Park. The City should develop a clear, concise, effective plan for managing its parks, including Ft. Ward Park. It is extremely important that the City include citizens as an integral part in developing such a plan. Citizens’ rights, needs, and concerns should be fully recognized at each step in its development. The plan used to manage the park should address citizens’ concerns about the upkeep of the park as a park, excessive levels of usage causing noise, destruction of park values, and other problems, and the current lack of penalties for abuse of park privileges. The present situation, in which it is unclear whether there is a management plan or not, needs to be remedied. More specific suggestions are provided in the following sections:
1. No new permits for groups larger than 35 people should be approved for any event at Ft. Ward Park until permit new protocols and procedures are approved and in place. In addition, the eventual protocols should specify the maximum number of people permitted at each pavilion with input from the citizens of Alexandria in determining this number. Clear procedures for Police enforcement of these numbers should be established, including remedial measures such as removal of groups from the park in the event of abuses of their privileges. The person responsible for each group should be clearly identified and informed of the rules that must be obeyed and the penalties that will be enforced if the rules are disobeyed. For example, the lack of any actual penalties at present accounts for the repeated abuse by the same group two years in a row.
2. The City Parks & Recreation Department should develop, in cooperation with the City Permits Office and the public, new protocols and procedures for preventing and handling inappropriate uses and activities in Ft. Ward Park in the future; the Department should also coordinate park crowd control and enforcement issues with the Alexandria Police Department.
a. Consideration should be given to moving the Ft. Ward Park
Permit application, approval and enforcement process to the Park Manager of Ft. Ward Park. Appropriate staff, with expertise, should be added to Ft. Ward Park to manage and enforce these guidelines.
3. The new protocols and procedures should be consistent with the existing approved master/ management plan for Ft. Ward Park. If no up-to-date plan exists, the City should prepare a plan for approval by the Council. The planning process should include input from adjacent and near-by homeowners and neighborhood groups.
4. The roles and relationships between the Police Department, Parks & Recreation Department, and the Permits Office, for activities related to and within Ft. Ward Park need to be determined to reduce the duplication and confusion (i.e. finger-pointing) that exists now. The integration of these City services is needed.
5. There should be a written notification process to the West End neighborhoods, including Marlboro Estates, Braddock Court, Victoria Lane, Louis Place, Lynn House, and St. Stephens-St. Agnes School, when a large event is approved and scheduled.
6. The City should determine the most appropriate way to implement Alexandria’s Noise Ordinance in Ft. Ward Park. The people assigned to enforce the ordinance should be trained and provided with noise decibel meters. The city should also determine whether it can and will prohibit the use of amplifiers and boom boxes powered by portable generators or vehicles. Such amplifiers constitute the core of the noise problem and will cause continuing complaints from residents adjacent to the park, if the amplifiers are not prohibited or managed more effectively by City authorities. In addition, clear penalties should be prescribed for exceeding noise levels, including fines or loss of privileges in the park.
Closing: City action, and a more neighborly approach to managing Ft. Ward Park, will be met by neighborhood support and cooperation. Action is needed now!
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