NEW: Realtor to launch County Board campaign tomorrow

A realtor who says she has doubts about the current Missing Middle proposal has emerged as an Arlington County Board candidate.

Realtor Natalie Roy, founder of the Bicycling Realty Group, is vying for one of two seats on the County Board that will be left open after Katie Cristol and Chair Christian Dorsey step down. She is running for the Democratic nomination in the party’s June primary.

Roy is the second Democrat to launch a campaign this week, following Tony Weaver, a local businessman and an Arlington County Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission member.

The two will face off against three others who have already announced their bids: Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr.; Maureen Coffey; and Jonathan Dromgoole.

She tells ARLnow her tagline is “I would love to be your Bicycling Board member,” as she bikes everywhere for her business. She is a 32-year resident of Arlington, where she and her husband raised three daughters.

Roy says she believes “the Board needs an energetic and experienced community activist who will serve the entire county.”

In listing her key issues, below, she said she supports “a more community-supported, planning-oriented approach” to housing than the “sweeping” Missing Middle proposal, which is up for an initial vote this weekend.

• Protecting our environment, by increasing green space, bringing back glass recycling, and protecting Arlington’s tree canopy;
• Promoting affordability and diversity in our neighborhoods through a more community-supported, planning-oriented approach than the County Board’s current sweeping proposal;
• Forging new partnerships between the Board, the school board and APS;
• Improving public transit throughout the County and creating more protected bike- and pedestrian-friendly routes;
• Enhancing Arlington’s fiscal sustainability and economic vitality; and
• Promoting our health and well-being by providing exercise opportunities for everyone, from the most focused competitor on the soccer field and pickleball court to the casual stroller.

Before starting her real estate career 10 years ago, Roy says she worked for ran and worked for various national and state organizations, advocating for clean water, pollution prevention, clean beaches, recycling and gun control.

She has served on and led the PTAs of the local public schools her daughters attended and recently retired from a 17-year stint coaching varsity tennis at Yorktown High School. She is active in the Lyon Park Civic Association and the Lyon Park Board of Governors, which manages the Lyon Park Community Center, owned and maintained by the neighborhood.

Roy graduated from the county’s civic leadership program, Neighborhood College, and served on the Arlington Sports Commission as well as the county’s Complete Vaccine Committee.

For several years, she played on an Arlington mature women’s soccer team, the Speed Bumps, whose motto was “We might not beat you, but we will slow you down.”

Roy will officially launch her campaign for a seat on the Arlington County Board tomorrow (Friday).