County Board members on Saturday (May 10) unanimously approved a developer’s plan to demolish an existing office building in Clarendon to make way for a 309-unit apartment building.
“It looks good. It’s a very nice building,” Board Chair Takis Karantonis said of the project, proposed by Carr Properties, dubbed Clarendon Square.
The plan calls for razing the 40-year-old office building at 3033 Wilson Blvd., replacing it with an eight-story building featuring apartments plus about 6,000 square feet of ground-level commercial/retail space.
The proposal won the support of the Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association, although not without some caveats.
Chad Berwick, who represented the civic association at the hearing, asked the developer to push for LEED Platinum certification, one step above the LEED Gold level currently planned.
Berwick, who served on the site-plan review committee for the project, raised a few other issues, but said that in general, “the applicant has worked toward addressing them.”
Completion is expected sometime in 2028.
“We look forward to welcoming our new neighbors to the community,” Berwick said at the public hearing preceding a final vote.
The building will include eight committed-affordable apartments, split evenly between one-bedroom and two-bedroom units, and Carr will provide $950,000 to the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund.
The existing garage will be retained, with the new building placed atop it.
In order to make the project work, the developer needed county approval for changes to the General Land Use Plan and zoning ordinance, and incorporation of the site into the Clarendon Revitalization District. All requests were granted.
Before arriving for final action, the proposal had won support from the Housing Commission and Planning Commission.
The development approved by Board members totals just under 300,000 square feet, up from 170,000 square feet in the existing seven-story building. The new building will have a floor-area ratio (FAR) of about 4.8, up from the current 2.7, on the 1.45-acre site.
FAR represents total interior space divided by the lot’s square footage.
County Fair beer garden to move: In a single vote, Board members also approved all 42 items on their consent agenda, with none pulled off for later discussion as sometimes is the case.
As part of the consent agenda, Board members approved moving the temporary beer garden at the Arlington County Fair.
In recent years, the beer pavilion has been located on 2nd Street S., just outside Thomas Jefferson Park, where the fair is held.
Board action taken May 10 will allow alcohol to be sold within the boundaries of Thomas Jefferson Park for the fair.
Staff believe doing so will lessen impacts on traffic and trash, but Board member JD Spain, Sr., said he wanted to see how it worked at the fair this August before committing to the change being made permanent.
“It’s something we’re going to have to monitor,” Spain said.
The action added Thomas Jefferson Park to a growing number of county parks where alcohol is permitted, with prior approval, for special events.
Meetings return to Bozman building after flooding issues addressed: Board members were back at their traditional home on the third floor of the Ellen M. Bozman Government Center after two months away while repairs to the Board room were made following flooding due to a pipe break in late March.
“We are very happy to be back,” Karantonis said.
He thanked staff from the county library department, which provided a temporary home for Board meetings and work sessions at Central Library in the interim.
