Tomorrow (Friday) is the last day to submit feedback on a proposed 370-unit apartment building in Crystal City.
The design is less than half the height recommended in the Crystal City Sector Plan, but developer JBG Smith argues that it would function on a more “human scale.”
The potential building site is located on “Block W” at 2451 Crystal Drive, near Reagan National Airport.
The lot currently contains a small, JBG Smith-owned workout park, playground and seating area, as well as an off-ramp to an access road. A 7-story building overlooking 35-38,000 square feet of open space would replace the off-ramp and part of the existing park, according to a presentation by the developer.
JBG Smith plans to keep the volleyball courts and might relocate other current park features.
The new development would prioritize 2-bedroom units. The project would come with a green roof as well as a courtyard that residents could access. An area adjacent to the park would be dedicated to retail space.
“While not a high-rise or tower composition, the 7-story design works well within the overall framework of providing human scale in a comfortable, pedestrian environment,” JBG Smith development analyst Karolina Pazdrazdis said.
County staff noted concerns about how the new development proposes to reroute an existing service road in a way that would limit access to the adjacent park. The building is also much shorter than the sector plan recommends.
“The applicant has chosen to envision a building that is 85 feet in height, which is well under the 200-foot building height envisioned by the sector plan,”county planner Krissy Walentisch said.
This proposed building deviates from county guidance in other ways. Walentisch said there is a significant overhang — exceeding sector plan recommendations — between the building’s “tower,” composed of floors 3-7, and the building’s “podium,” or ground floor and first floor.
The county feedback form asks residents to provide feedback on the building placement and design, as well as its impact on the current park.
Following community feedback, a Site Plan Review Committee is scheduled to hold its first meeting on the development proposal next month. After this committee meets twice, the development will go to the Planning Commission and Arlington County Board, though dates for this have yet to be set.
Meantime, other JBG Smith projects in Crystal City are also moving forward.
This week, the developer announced that the final beam had been placed atop two residential towers at 2000 and 2001 S. Bell Street, formerly Crystal Plaza. Both the 25-story West and 19-story East towers are slated for completion in the spring of 2025.
Late last month, JBG Smith also filed a new conceptual site plan proposing to redevelop a Crystal City office building. Application materials depict a 15-story office building divided into three sections, slightly off-centered from each other, at 1800 S. Bell Street.