Arlington County could soon acquire a Columbia Pike home as part of an effort to improve an intersection.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday is set to consider whether to make a $627,000 offer to the owner of 1802 Columbia Pike.
Acquiring the property would allow the county to realign the intersection of S. Rolfe Street and the Pike, making current plans to improve the crossing safer and more efficient, according to a county report.
A proposed resolution comes with a threat of the county forcibly claiming the home, which has been vacant since January 2021. If the landowner and her legal guardian were to refuse the county’s offer, county staff are seeking permission to exercise eminent domain to take the property and compensate its owner.
The resolution declares that acquiring the property is “a public necessity” for the sake of improving “public safety, convenience and welfare at said intersection.”
“The County has been in discussions with the Conservator regarding voluntary acquisition of the Property since January 2023,” the report says. “Discussions to date have been unsuccessful.”
For years, according to the report, the county has been in talks with residents of the Arlington View neighborhood about improving transportation access and safety issues. The only way out of the neighborhood is through three intersections on the Pike, and only one of these intersections has a traffic signal.
The county’s original plan for improving S. Rolfe Street and Columbia Pike calls for a split-phase traffic signal, which would allow pedestrian crossings only on the east side of the intersection. Acquiring this house would instead let the county build an additional crosswalk on the Pike, making the intersection less hazardous for foot traffic and reducing delays for motorists by about 30%.
“A more efficient single-signal design will create a safer, direct crossing of Columbia Pike for bikes, pedestrians, and vehicles on S. Rolfe Street,” the report says. “This will benefit all modes of travelers on both Columbia Pike and S. Rolfe Street, and will particularly improve access for residents of the Arlington View neighborhood.”
Changes to this intersection are part of the Columbia Pike Multimodal Street Improvements project, a $114 million initiative partially funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Photo (top) via Google Maps
A planned apartment complex is set to have even more affordable housing.
Speakers at an Arlington County Board meeting on Tuesday were divided in their thoughts about the Board’s unanimous vote to approve 88 units of additional affordable housing at 1900 S. Eads Street, in the Crystal City area.
Most spoke in favor of the change, which will make 743 of 844 planned units at Crystal House Apartments affordable.
Area resident Ben D’Avanzo said many of his neighbors are seeing high rent increases and struggling to make ends meet. While he said the neighborhood “wasn’t thrilled” with the original approval process for the apartment complex, D’Avanzo has since come on board with the project.
“This is something that is incredibly important to approve and I urge you to do so,” he said.
But Stacy Meyer, vice president of the Aurora Highlands Civic Association, has had no such change of heart.
She pointed out that the complex’s planned affordable units lack previously proposed amenities such as full balconies and a rooftop pool — a shift that she sees as “unfair to its future residents.”
Meyer argued the county’s approach to updating the Crystal House site plan, initially approved in 2019, circumvented additional opportunities for input. By pursuing changes to each building as separate minor site plan amendments, she said, the plans did not receive additional oversight from bodies such as the Site Plan Review Committee.
“The county appears to be working without regard to the future residents, fiscal transparency, the neighborhood income impacts or equitability in schools,” she said. “It’s a heavy-handed approach that we believe needs tempering.”
A letter from the AHCA to the county argues this approach “leads to the slippery slope that produced the failed inequitable public housing of the last century.”
It also took shots at the design, saying it “looks like an economy hotel.”
“When it comes to publicly financed buildings, low-income housing residents deserve the same building quality as the market, just as low-income students deserve the same education and low-income patients deserve the same medical treatment,” the letter says.
To make this development possible, the Board approved a $12.2 million low-interest loan from the Affordable Housing Investment Fund to the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH).
Board member Maureen Coffey noted that most of the planned units are for families and very low-income people, which she believes is key to meeting community needs.
“This is a really impressive and really important thing to do, to get that deep affordability, not just in a one-bedroom or a studio,” she said.
Amazon, which has its HQ2 near the Crystal House Apartments, has played a prominent role in this development project.
The company put up $381.9 million so that the nonprofit Washington Housing Conservancy could purchase the 16-acre site in late 2020, stabilize rent for the 828 existing units and build more than 500 new units.
The purchase was part of its commitment to create and preserve affordable housing as rents rise amid its growing presence. Amazon later donated the land and development rights to the county.
Last January, the county selected APAH and Bethesda-based developer EYA to oversee construction of Crystal House Apartments’ new buildings. Construction is slated to begin in spring 2025 and finish by the end of 2027, per the county presentation this week.
Traffic signal upgrades and more pedestrian-friendly crosswalks may be coming to several Langston Blvd intersections.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday is slated to consider a $1.5 million contract for improvements to the intersections of Langston Blvd at N. Adams Street, N. Cleveland Street and Spout Run Pkwy.
Traffic signals at these intersections currently hang from wires, a county report notes. Sidewalks are narrow, pedestrian crossings are long and curbs lack wheelchair-accessible ramps.
“The proposed sidewalks, ADA curb ramps, high-visibility crosswalks, and traffic signal upgrade will provide safe, accessible, and user-friendly intersections,” the report says.
Arlington County has been gradually replacing older, hanging traffic lights with those mounted on sturdier mast arms.
The contract with Ardent Company, LLC includes $1.3 million plus $200,000 as a contingency for change orders or increased quantities.
The county noted that it will keep surrounding communities informed about the project through a variety of channels.
“Staff plans to provide updates to the community and stakeholders a few weeks prior to construction via the existing email group list, the construction notification letter, the project webpage, and the social networking service known as NextDoor, as well as providing periodic updates during construction,” said the report. “Impacted properties were visited in person to discuss minimal impacts and will be updated as the project goes to construction.”
The initiative is part of the Langston Blvd Intelligent Transportation Systems Improvement project, which seeks to improve intersections along the road from East Falls Church to Rosslyn. Construction along Langston Blvd is anticipated to begin this spring, according to a county webpage.
The county is also pursuing ITS projects on Glebe Road, Washington Blvd and the Crystal City and Pentagon City corridor. All of these projects are funded through a grant from the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority.
Five arterial streets north of Route 50 could see their speed limits drop from 30 to 25 mph.
This weekend, the Arlington County Board is set to authorize public hearings to lower speed limits along these roads, which have “high volumes of pedestrian crossings and higher density land development,” a county report says.
They include:
- Military Road from Nelly Custis Drive to Langston Blvd, through the Donaldson Run and Cherrydale neighborhoods
- N. Carlin Springs Road from N. Glebe Road to N. George Mason Drive, through Arlington Forest
- N. George Mason Drive from N. Carlin Springs Road to Arlington Blvd, through Buckingham
- Fairfax Drive from N. Kirkwood Road to I-66 ramps, through Virginia Square
- 10th Street N. from Washington Blvd to N. Kirkwood Road, near Clarendon
Arlington’s Dept. of Environmental Services recommended 25 mph limits on these roads after looking at “speed statistics, collisions, traffic volumes, current and anticipated pedestrian and bicyclist activity, adjacent land uses and development patterns, future projects and roadway characteristics,” per the report.
Since adopting its Vision Zero policy in 2021, the County Board has taken steps to its goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2030 in part by lowering speed limits around schools and along several road segments throughout the county.
“The Arlington County Vision Zero policy supports the reduction of drivers’ speed,” it continues. “The Vision Zero Action Plan notes that speeding contributes to about a quarter of both fatal and serious crashes.”
Most of the intersections teed up for lower speeds share two conditions: significant pedestrian and cyclist activity, particularly at uncontrolled crosswalks, and relatively high crash rates, according to the county.
Military Road from Nelly Custis Drive to Langston Blvd has relatively high pedestrian crossings at uncontrolled crossings in the school zone for Dorothy Hamm Middle School. The crash rate in this segment is higher than elsewhere on Military Road, with 14 crashes in six years.
On N. Carlin Springs Road from N. Glebe Road to N. George Mason Drive, there were three pedestrian-involved crashes in six years.
N. George Mason Drive from N. Carlin Springs Road to Arlington Blvd, which carries approximately 22,000 vehicles per day, passes by Barrett Elementary School, the Lubber Run Community Center and medium-density apartment buildings — resulting in a high number of pedestrian and bicycle crossings at uncontrolled crosswalks. This segment includes the crash-prone intersection with N. Park Drive set to get a traffic light later this year.
Although actual driving speeds along Fairfax Drive from N. Kirkwood Road to the I-66 ramps are below the posted 30 mph speed limit, the county still recommends lowering the limit to 25 mph. Of the 162 crashes on this road in six years, 18 involved pedestrians and six caused severe injuries.
The roadway segment of 10th Street N. from Washington Blvd to Kirkwood Road are not part of what the county calls a “High Injury Network” but saw nine pedestrian-involved crashes and three severe-injury crashes in six years. This area is set to receive transportation upgrades also intended to improve safety for road users.
The county reviewed but is not recommending speed limit reductions for the following intersections:
- Nelly Custis Drive from Lorcom Lane to Military Road
- S. Carlin Springs Road from Arlington Blvd to Columbia Pike
- Williamsburg Blvd from N. Glebe Road to 29th Street N.
- N. Roosevelt Street from 17th Street N. to the Falls Church City line
- N. Sycamore Street from Williamsburg Blvd to 17th Street N.
- N. George Mason Drive from Yorktown Blvd to Arlington Blvd
- S. George Mason Drive from Arlington Blvd to the Fairfax County line
- N. Westmoreland Street from Arlington County line to Fairfax Drive
To add new signage will cost about $700 per corridor, for a total of $3,500.
Undocumented low-income residents might someday become eligible for housing grants in Arlington.
The county is “almost done” reevaluating immigration status requirements for its Housing Grants Program, Arlington County Board Vice-Chair Takis Karantonis said at a Board meeting late last month.
“Stay tuned,” Karantonis told Nady Peralta, an attorney from the Legal Aid Justice Center, who advocated for the change. “This is coming very soon, and I believe that you will like what you will hear.”
Until recently, Arlington maintained that it legally could not offer housing subsidies to undocumented applicants under Virginia law. However, according to a county study published last month, county staff reversed their position following a letter from the Legal Aid Justice Center outlining ways this could, in fact, be legally possible.
“The County Attorney’s Office… determined that there is a viable legal argument for Arlington County to be able to provide Housing Grants to undocumented households,” the study says. “This marks a significant change in the program and is currently still under review for a final decision to be made by the County Manager and County Board.”
The county did not provide an estimate of how many fully undocumented households would become eligible for support under revised requirements but the study noted that an extra 50 households would cost around $421,800 each year.
The change would also increase subsidies to homes with mixed immigration status. As of last month, 54 such households received grants and altered documentation requirements could increase additional yearly housing subsidies by a total of $143,920.
Not everyone supports this proposal. Fewer than half of respondents to a telephone survey (40%) agreed with lifting documentation restrictions, according to the county study.
Peralta, by contrast, argued that restricting housing-grant access tends to force undocumented and “under-documented” families out of Arlington as rents increase.
“Housing subsidies directly reduce housing cost burden and help people stay in their homes, neighborhoods and communities,” she said. “These subsidies are key to preventing displacement as more long-term housing supply is built.”
Peralta told ARLnow that undocumented households are “particularly disadvantaged by the cost of living in Arlington, even as compared to non-immigrant low-income families.”
Arlington’s police and fire unions are vying for more funding in the county’s proposed $1.62 billion budget to fix compensation issues they say fuel attrition and vacancy issues.
County Manager Mark Schwartz, meanwhile, makes the case in the 2024-2025 budget that the county has been and is committed to meeting these problems with funding while balancing other budget priorities.
Since Arlington County authorized collective bargaining in 2022, the unions representing police, firefighters and paramedics have focused on tackling how members are paid, blaming it for driving employees to work for other jurisdictions in the region with higher compensation.
Currently, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2800 has 25 vacant uniformed positions, for a 7.5% vacancy rate, while ACPD has 72 vacancies, for a 19% vacancy rate, according to presidents for both IAFF and Arlington Coalition of Police (ACOP). IAFF says this is more than twice the number of vacancies in 2018, while police vacancies appear on par with ARLnow’s last report in the fall.
Last budget cycle, the county committed to a three-year effort to fix these problems for first responders. Union leaders say the county has contributed enough to change its pay system to one where salary increases track with years of service. Still, they say, it has not set aside enough to ensure all members are paid according to their years of service.
“Last April, the County Board identified addressing pay compression for firefighters as a priority for FY25 but our members are still waiting for relief,” IAFF Brian Lynch said in a statement. “Meanwhile other communities are responding to the nationwide shortage of firefighters and police officers by increasing wages across the board, and our people have been voting with their feet.”
The 2025 budget proposes a 2% increase over last year’s budget for ACPD, for a total of $85,839,546. The fire department’s budget is unchanged from last year for a total of $76,023,512. The budget includes step increases for ACOP and IAFF employees in line with their collective bargaining agreements.
“Our employees are the foundation of all the great work that we do in the County,” Schwartz says in his budget message. “This budget continues our commitment to the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in place and provides pay increases for non-bargaining employees… We will continue to evaluate various job classifications and contribute to the increases in healthcare costs.”
Still, the 2025 budget acknowledges that understaffing is impacting public safety metrics, at least for ACPD. Between 2020-23, received cases increased from around 6,800 to north of 8,400, but assigned cases hovered around one-quarter to one-third of these totals. During the same time, the percentage of successfully closed cases dropped from a high of 60% to a low of 48%, attributed to an understaffed Criminal Investigative Section.
The fire department’s budget section does not discuss understaffing impacts. It does note that the total number of incidents has and will continue to increase, partially driven by more hospital transports and public service non-emergency responses.
These trends may fuel intradepartmental shortages. Lynch says this spring ACFD will lose 13 personnel to an accelerated paramedic training program and six to teach a new class of recruits. Vacancies in emergency services will also increase by 19 as ACFD pulls firefighters from the field to train them to also be EMTs and medics.
“That’s with no one leaving the department,” he said. “That is over 13% of the bargaining unit — an unprecedented lack of personnel.”
The Arlington County Board is considering a potential property tax hike that could be even higher than what County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed.
Board members yesterday (Tuesday) voted 5-0 to advertise hearings on a maximum property tax rate of $1.038 per $100 of assessed value, a 2.5 cent increase from 2023. That is 1 cent higher than the increase of 1.5 cents that Schwartz proposed in his $1.62 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025.
County Board Chair Libby Garvey said she hopes to whittle down the possible tax hike during upcoming budget discussions. She introduced the motion to add a penny because Arlington Public Schools still does not know how much state funding it will receive.
In the worst-case scenario, Garvey said APS could have a substantial budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty this year when it comes to budgeting,” Garvey said in a statement. “I’m very concerned about our schools and whether the state will do the right thing and provide the level of expected funding — or if the state will leave APS short millions on top of the cuts already made. Hopefully, the state will come through, and this extra penny will not be needed.”
Schwartz’s proposed budget already includes $10 million in additional funding to APS to help close a projected $30-35 million budget gap. Superintendent Francisco Durán is scheduled to present APS’s proposed 2025 budget tomorrow (Thursday).
If adopted in April, a 2.5-cent increase would cause the typical Arlington homeowner to pay an additional $472 in taxes, based on the average home value of $824,700, per a county press release. That’s in addition to rising fees for stormwater management, waste collection and other services.
In total, the average Arlington homeowner would see their total fees and taxes increase by $582 if the Board adopts the 2.5-cent tax rate increase, the county says.
Arlington County held its property tax rate steady during the pandemic, though rising property assessments caused the average homeowner to pay some 4-5% more annually anyway.
Board members noted that a higher advertised tax rate will allow for more flexibility in discussions about funding for housing, mental health and public safety, with a focus on the county’s detention facility.
“I think there’s just too much unknown at this particular moment for us to box ourselves in,” said Board member Maureen Coffey.
The Board can still choose to adopt a lower rate, but not a higher one.
Rising taxes and property values are also expected to put upward pressure on rents, as apartment assessments are expected to increase by an average of 6.6%, or $215 per unit.
The proposed $1.62 billion budget would eliminate 33 county staff positions — many that are currently vacant — in various departments, saving about $10 million, according to Schwartz. The budget includes a 4.75% salary increase for all non-union county employees.
There is also additional funding for teen programs intended to help combat the teen opioid crisis, mental health and substance abuse programs, affordable housing and eviction prevention and environmental initiatives.
Arlington’s police and fire unions have called for further tax increases to fund raises for first responders and reverse staffing declines, particularly in the police department.
The Board will conduct a series of budget work sessions in March, followed by a pair of public hearings on the budget and the tax rate on April 2 and 4, respectively. The final budget adoption vote is scheduled for Saturday, April 20.
Looser parking requirements could encourage more gyms and shops to fill Arlington’s commercial real estate vacancies, the county believes.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday unanimously voted to have staff research possible changes to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance and advertise requests to amend it. In addition to slashing parking minimums for gyms, the county is considering whether to allow parking lots to designate more spaces for compact cars.
Public hearings about these requirements are scheduled to take place in April. The county argues some of the regulations — set decades ago — may be outdated and an aggravating factor for Arlington’s rising commercial vacancy rate.
For instance, Arlington fitness centers must offer five times more parking spaces per square foot of floor area than other retail or service businesses. This is more restrictive than requirements in Alexandria and Fairfax County and, according to a report, a holdover of transportation patterns from the 1960s.
“The minimum parking ratio for athletic and health clubs is a standard set decades ago and does not reflect current land use and development patterns, public transportation access or regulations in Arlington,” the report says.
County staff noted that many potential office tenants look for nearby fitness facilities when selecting a location. Fitness centers also tend to attract establishments such as spas and physical therapy centers.
“Minimum parking ratios… can derail an athletic or health club from filling high demand, ideally located vacant space,” the report says.
The document also argues that the county should reconsider a 2002 regulation that disallows compact car spaces in areas “that were assumed to have a high turnover.” This includes retail stores, grocery stores and medical and health care facilities, as well as anywhere “where there is likely to be a large number of elderly [people].”
“Staff believes this prohibition is worth reexamining,” the report says.
Finally, another county report argues that loosening off-street parking requirements could help some shopping centers and small commercial sites attract new tenants. It notes that current parking regulations, as well as insufficient shared parking within commercial and mixed-use districts, can create barriers for businesses.
“This is especially true when multiple businesses are required to use the available parking on-site with limited capacity,” the document says. “Expanded shared parking regulations can be an effective measure to help address similar on-site parking deficiencies.”
All of these initiatives are part of a larger effort to combat Arlington’s high commercial vacancy rate. In another bid to boost Arlington’s commercial resiliency, the Board authorized public hearings for April about whether to loosen restrictions on large media screens in outdoor areas.
Later this year, the Board is expected to discuss guidance on office-to-apartment conversions as well as potentially simplifying the major and minor site plan amendment process, which landowners must navigate when repurposing or renovating large development projects.
Within the next several months, Board members are also expected to consider plans to facilitate changes of use within existing buildings and adopt a more flexible ordinance around signage.
Other possible ordinance changes concern storage uses at office buildings as well as the process for repurposing underutilized parking spaces.
The Arlington County Board is considering whether to authorize county-run firearm buyback events.
Buybacks would provide residents with cash, gift cards, vouchers or other payment in exchange for guns, according to a proposed ordinance. The voluntary events would be open to residents of Arlington and Falls Church.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday authorized a request to advertise the potential amendment to the county code. The item is scheduled to return to the Board for discussion on March 16.
“The purpose of this ordinance is to create a safer community and prevent firearm violence by creating a mechanism by which citizens can surrender unwanted or unneeded firearms,” the ordinance says.
The change would give the County Manager the authority to establish a buyback program. Police officers would oversee buyback events and Arlington’s chief of police would be responsible for destroying the guns.
Each event would require 15 officers, each of whom would receive $75 per hour in overtime pay, according to a county report.
The county could enter into agreements with private entities to fund or sponsor this program.
“The County may issue receipts, certificates or vouchers in exchange for surrendered firearms, which may be accepted or exchanged for things of value by any entity wishing to sponsor or otherwise participate in the firearms buyback program,” the proposed amendment says.
People could ask that a dealer auction off their firearm instead of destroying it but the county could deny this request. Machine guns, sawed-off shotguns and sawed-off rifles would not be destroyed, nor would firearms that federal law prohibits transferring.
The ordinance notes that the advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America collaborated with county officials on this initiative. The group did not respond to a request for comment.
Gun buybacks are a well-established concept both regionally and nationally.
Last year in Prince George’s County, two mega-churches sponsored a buyback program in collaboration with the county police department. The Interfaith GVP Network likewise is scheduled to sponsor an event next month in Montgomery County.
Buyback events also took place in Richmond last year and in 2022.
These events, which date back at least to the 1960s, often allow people to hand over both legal and illegal guns with no questions asked. Empirical evidence for their effectiveness is limited but proponents argue that any effort to curb violence by removing unwanted guns from a community is worthwhile.
The Arlington County Board and the Human Rights Commission are at odds over whether commissioners had the right to request an investigation into possible human and civil rights violations at the county jail.
Earlier this month, the commission sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, voicing concerns over reports that inmates at the jail lack adequate healthcare, a situation they argue could put them “at risk of death and severe harm.” This follows up on letters to the County Sheriff’s Office and the DOJ from the Arlington branch of the NAACP and its national organization, asking for an investigation after hearing from former and current inmates.
In response, County Board Chair Libby Garvey told the DOJ in a letter last week that the commission’s request “does not represent the position or opinion” of the Board, though she did not elaborate on the Board’s position on either the commission sending the letter or the conditions within the jail.
For County Board member Matt De Ferranti, there are at least grounds for procedural concerns. Before the commission approved the letter, he told them via email that state law requires County Board approval before “seeking assistance with the prevention or relief from discriminatory practices from external enforcement authorities.”
The commission argues it was not requesting the enforcement of a specific violation; rather, it wants the agency to look at the general policies and practices of the jail, Arlington Human Rights Commission Chair Bill Rice told ARLnow.
“We’ve been hearing reports of widespread discrimination in this area and asking for like an investigation into that, but that second part doesn’t necessarily result in like some type of enforcement action — it usually results in some type of report,” Rice said.
The Board’s response, meanwhile, has left Rice and other commissioners confused about where the Board officially stands, as no members have openly objected to the substance of the letter.
“The County Board knows about it already, or it should know about it already,” Rice said. “It’s been in the news, people have raised it with the County Board members before, and the NAACP has raised the issue with numerous people before. Sending the letter to the County Board would just be telling them something they already were aware of.”
Last month, ARLnow reported the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office is under pressure from personnel, inmates and the NAACP to improve conditions at the county jail amid claims of inadequate healthcare and chronic staffing shortages leading to excessive confinement and mismanagement.
Deputies have highlighted the safety risks associated with staffing shortages, and several former inmates, including John Parker and Moika Nduku, have since come forward to support these claims.
“I was there for 20 months… We came out a handful of times, literally seven or eight times, that we came out for food, to perhaps talk to our lawyers, over months and months at a time,” Nduku said during a special Human Rights Commission meeting held last month. “We’ve experienced something that’s way past inhumane, denying our basic rights.”
The Arlington County Board could approve a new sewer plan for the first time in 22 years tomorrow (Saturday).
The proposed Sanitary Sewer Collection System Plan is designed to prepare the county for continued growth through 2045. Despite the surge in development planned for the county over the next two decades, the plan does not call for expanding Arlington’s current sewer infrastructure.
Instead, according to a county report, the most substantial change would be an increase in how often the county cleans out small-diameter sanitary sewers. Flushing pipes of 12 inches in diameter and less every five years would cost $330,000 annually, increasing the average household’s water bill by about $2.11 each year.
The Arlington County Board is scheduled to vote on the proposed plan at a meeting tomorrow morning.
The reason the county does not need more sewer lines, according to a staff presentation to the Planning Commission last week, is that plumbing fixtures and appliances have become more efficient over time. Every day, Arlington uses about 5 million gallons of water less than when the county approved the current sewer plan in 2002.
This is despite the fact that the county has about 46,000 more residents than it did 22 years ago.
“The trends are going the right way,” Planning Commissioner James Lantelme said last week. “We’re using less water.”
Population growth between now and 2045 is expected to increase Arlington’s water usage by about 27%, or 6 million gallons per day, according to the presentation. This is still less than the county used in the late 1990s.
At about 20 million gallons per day, the county currently uses about as much water as it did in the 1960s, when it had 73,000 fewer people.
“Adding additional neighbors to our county is something that we can support,” Lantelme said. “Our infrastructure is robust enough that we can add all these people comfortably and safely.”
Arlington’s water-use projections contrast with allegations from some residents that the county lacks the infrastructure to keep up with projected growth. For instance, a lawsuit filed last April claims that the county violated state law in passing its Missing Middle zoning code changes without fully considering possible impacts on infrastructure, including sewer systems.
In March 2023, the Arlington County Board approved changes to the zoning code allowing up to 6-unit dwellings on lots previously zoned only for single-family homes. The Board also approved a set of limitations intended to control the pace and impact of development, including parking minimums, permit caps and tree planting requirements.
But Arlington Neighbors for Neighborhoods, a group that issued a press release on behalf of the plaintiffs, claims that was not enough.
“State law requires that zoning ordinances consider needs for transportation, schools, parks, recreation, and public spaces, as well as the conservation of natural resources,” the statement said. “The law also requires consideration of a locality’s comprehensive plan, which addresses stormwater, sanitary sewer, water distribution and more.”
While the revised sewer plan does not recommend expanding current infrastructure, it calls for continued improvement projects such as relining the county’s existing pipes, many of which are between 75 and 100 years old. The county has been working on relining projects for a number of years and so far has relined 58% of the sanitary sewer system, according to the county report.
Photo (top) via Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services/Flickr