Arlington’s efforts to take a privately owned property on Columbia Pike are attracting mounting criticism.
An Arlington County Board candidate, the Arlington View Civic Association, an anti-Missing Middle group, and the property’s conservator have all taken aim at ongoing eminent domain proceedings at 1802 Columbia Pike.
The county hopes to demolish the home for traffic and pedestrian safety improvements at the intersection of S. Rolfe Street and Columbia Pike.
The house has been vacant for over a year after its owner suffered severe injuries, conservator Sandra Fortson told ARLnow. But she says her family has been there since the early 1900s and has spent over $70,000 in renovations.
Fortson doesn’t want to sell the home — which she asserted is one of the few remaining Black-owned properties in the historically Black neighborhood of Arlington View — for any amount of money, let alone the $627,000 that the county has offered.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “They really should be ashamed of themselves, because they know darn well you cannot get a house in Arlington for $600,000.”
County Board candidate Natalie Roy and Arlington Neighbors for Neighborhoods — a local organization bankrolling a lawsuit against the county over Missing Middle — condemned the county’s actions in press releases this week.
“The situation at 1802 Columbia Pike is distressing and shameful,” Roy said. “The County Board needs to listen to its own residents and stop the eminent domain proceedings to forcibly take this property.”
The Arlington View Civic Association initially sent a letter in March supporting a unanimous County Board vote to consider exercising eminent domain. The group referred to safety benefits of a new crosswalk and alleviation of “traffic woes.”
But a May 2 letter from the same civic association struck a very different tone.
“Arlington View is a very close-knit community, and every resident contributes to its vibrancy and character,” the group said, “We understand the necessity for development and to address the vehicle and pedestrian safety concerns of the AVCA. However, it should not come at the expense of taking property from longtime residents when they are adamantly opposed to giving up their property.”
Board members offered no substantive response to Fortson’s comments on Saturday because the county is still negotiating with her. The original offer was based on a tax assessment and an appraisal of the property, county staff previously said.
Some 2,500 households currently rely on a single crosswalk at the intersection in question, which many school-children cross when walking home from their bus stop, Vice-Chair Takis Karantonis said in March.
Chair Libby Garvey said at the time that she was particularly conflicted because of Arlington View’s history. Many Black families were forced to move to the neighborhood when the federal government built the Pentagon, she said, and it’s now boxed in by Army Navy Country Club and I-395.
“I just want to recognize the hard spot it puts us all in, and it’s not necessarily right,” Garvey said. “It’s like two injustices, and we’ve got to balance out… where we’re going to go.”
Though the County Board authorized eminent domain negotiations in March, it did not commit to any final course of action. The county is on track to act in the next 30 to 45 days, Fortson said.
She plans to file a lawsuit if she loses the property.
“If they do take it and I’m not able to stop it, at least I can say I fought them,” said Fortson.
