The Pentagon City Sector Plan, which the Virginia Court of Appeals voided last month due to insufficient public notice, is heading back to the Arlington County Board for another vote.
However, county staff have indicated that they do not intend to make any substantive changes to the plan, suggesting that the construction of several controversial apartment towers at the RiverHouse property is still likely to proceed.
“Staff will be recommending the County Board adopt and approve the exact plan and ordinance materials it approved in February 2022,” county spokesperson Ryan Hudson said.
Meanwhile, a revised development application for RiverHouse, filed last month, proposes reducing the number of apartments from 1,878 to 1,515.
Public hearings on the sector plan are scheduled to take place at Planning Commission and County Board meetings next month, while hearings on the RiverHouse changes have yet to be scheduled.
The sector plan
In last month’s ruling, Judge Dominique Callins wrote that the county failed to adequately detail in its public notices the impacts of the sector plan on the RiverHouse property, especially concerning the increased height and density limits.
Callins noted in the decision that the legal notices “were not descriptive enough to inform the public in any meaningful way about the nature of the proposed changes.”
Critics of the sector plan called for a more moderate approach to density and development at RiverHouse, one of the largest apartment complexes in the D.C. area with 1,676 housing units. In December 2021, a petition with over 2,300 signatures called for a pause in the planning study to “allow for ample, wide and representative community engagement and fully incorporate community feedback.”
Hudson noted that there are no plans for additional engagement before the vote next month.
“The public can participate by sharing live verbal testimony or written comments in advance of Planning Commission and County Board hearings,” he said.
Earlier this month, no public speakers attended a Planning Commission meeting to re-advertise the sector plan — prompting surprise from Chair Sara Steinberger.
“I, for the record, bet wrong on this item. I thought we’d have lots of speakers,” she said at the meeting, which lasted about 10 minutes.
On June 15, the County Board approved the request to advertise a subsequent vote on the sector plan as a consent agenda item. But Tina Ghiladi — a press contact for Dense That Makes Sense, which fought against the original Board vote — told ARLnow that she was unaware of any planned public hearings on the Pentagon City Sector Plan.
“The County’s Pentagon City Sector Plan website doesn’t say anything about upcoming hearings,” she said. “In fact, a banner on that page says that the Pentagon City Sector Plan was approved on February 12, 2022.”
RiverHouse plans
If the Arlington County Board re-approves the sector plan, the development at RiverHouse will be less extensive than initially proposed.
JBG Smith’s updated proposal for the site at 1111 Army Navy Drive includes a total of 3,191 new and existing units, which is fewer than the 3,554 units previously listed on the county’s project page. This reduction stems from modifications to the townhome unit types within Land Bay S and the elimination of the F2 building, which was part of the earlier submission but not included in the original Pentagon City Sector Plan, according to Hudson.
The revised application was filed by JBG Smith just weeks after the court decision last month. Still, the developer maintains the changes resulted from several Long Range Planning Committee meetings and other community outreach events last year.
“As a result of this feedback, we made a number of substantive changes to our plan,” the developer said in a statement. “While these revisions will result in a reduction of density, they will increase the amount of open space, enhance viewsheds, and improve pedestrian connections in and through the neighborhood. We think these changes have strengthened the plan for RiverHouse and we look forward to advancing this project.”
Ghiladi, however, pointed out that current plans would still double the density of the RiverHouse site.
“The perceived reduction in overall units is primarily caused by 1) the townhomes having a more traditional (instead of “stacked”) structure; 2) one of the buildings planned across from Westpost (Pentagon Row) having been slightly reconfigured (I believe to ensure proper fire truck access); and 3) a high-rise that was going to be shoehorned into the corner of S. Joyce St. and Army Navy Drive (right across from Target) has been removed,” she said. “These updates result only in approximately 360 fewer units across the entire site, which is still slated to deliver over 1,500 total new units.”
A Site Plan Review Committee is set to review the revised RiverHouse application and at least five SPRC meetings will take place prior to meetings of the Transportation Commission, Housing Commission, Planning Commission and County Board, Hudson said.
“If the Board approves a site plan project, the applicant may move forward with obtaining permits and building the project,” he said.
