Plans to rebuild a Clarendon office building as an eight-story, 309-unit multifamily building are about to reach the Arlington County Board.
Developer Carr Properties aims to raze a nearly 40-year-old office building at 3033 Wilson Blvd and replace it with a development called Clarendon Square.
Current plans call for about building 6,000 square feet of ground-level commercial/retail space and eight committed-affordable units, while reusing 323 spaces in an underground parking garage.
They also call for referring Láylí Mediterranean to Arlington Economic Development “for information on available commercial space in the County, business counseling services, appropriate business workshops, and assistance in leasing.”
Láylí opened last June in the former Bar Ivy space at 3033 Wilson Blvd. The restaurant had announced plans to open in March 2024, two months before ARLnow first heard about possible redevelopment plans last May.
The proposal thus far has won unanimous support of the Transportation Commission and Housing Commission. It will be reviewed tonight (Monday) by the Planning Commission and is on the County Board agenda for Saturday.
In recent public meetings, concerns over the proposed number of affordable units have emerged as one of officials’ few sticking points.
While the Housing Commission voted 11-0 to support the project, both commissioners and members of the public questioned whether Carr Properties could provide more apartments for people making less than 60% of the Area Median Income.
“I think you could afford to do a few more — it’s reasonable to ask,” commission member Bryan Coleman said.
Building eight affordable units meets county guidelines. The original proposal called for building only seven committed-affordable units.
While thanking the developer for the increase, Alice Hogan of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance requested more.
“I do think you could probably go to 10 or 12,” she said at a public hearing conducted by the Housing Commission.
“We’re desperate for any kind of supply,” Hogan said of the Clarendon area. “That particular neighborhood really lacks [affordable housing].”
Veteran civic activist June O’Connell, who also testified, said Housing Commission members had little choice but to recommend approval of the project, given that it meets set guidelines.
But she asked commission members to “put a marker down” and include in their recommendation a request for more affordable units.
“You could express some regret that they have not exceeded their statutory obligations,” O’Connell said.
Representatives of the developer countered that the project’s community-benefits package had been finalized, making it difficult or impossible to change it now.
Housing Commission Chairman Kellen MacBeth did not fault the developer, but the timeline of the review process, for that.
“It’s really kind of set in stone by the time it gets to us,” MacBeth said of development plans.
Going forward, “the process needs to change,” he said, so the commission could have input on development proposals earlier.
The Housing Commission vote did not include any reference to additional affordable units as O’Connell sought, but the matter could return when Planning Commission and County Board members take up the matter.
The proposal by Carr Properties calls for a building totaling just under 300,000 square feet with a floor-area ratio (FAR) of about 4.8.
FAR represents total interior space divided by the lot’s square footage. Under existing zoning, the site would be limited to an FAR of 3.
The current seven-story office building contains about 170,000 square feet of space, with a resulting FAR of 2.7 on the 63,000-square-foot (1.45-acre) parcel bounded by Wilson Blvd, North Highland and North Garfield streets.
To allow for the more dense development, Board members are being asked to amend the General Land Use Plan and zoning, and incorporate the site into the Clarendon Revitalization District.
Among the proposed changes: Increasing the maximum allowed height on the parcel from 75 feet to 85 feet.
The housing units would be grouped around a private courtyard.
The developer plans to retain the existing underground garage. In making her request for more committed-affordable units, O’Connell said the developer would be “saving big bucks” by not having to build a new underground garage.
In the 1990s and 2000s, the county leased the existing building at 3033 Wilson Blvd to house its Department of Human Services. That agency later moved to space on Washington Blvd, and the building since has been filled by commercial and retail tenants.
