True Ground Housing Partners has filed plans to redevelop an affordable housing complex in Waverly Hills with even more affordable housing.
The nonprofit developer, formerly the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, filed site plans last week for a 10-story building with 249 committed-affordable units at the current Leckey Gardens site at 2031 N. Woodrow Street.
The two garden-style buildings currently on the site were built in 1949 and are home to 40 apartments, according to property records. The site is a block south of the Lee Heights Shopping Center.
Plans call for building a parking garage with 222 spaces and a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, plus two four-bedroom units. Proposed community benefits include sidewalk improvements, bioretention and a new sewer pipe and stormwater vault.
The site is located off of Langston Blvd and is included in the Langston Boulevard Area Plan, which envisions a total of 2,500 affordable units along the commercial corridor by 2040.
As of fiscal year 2021, there were only around 800 affordable units on the corridor, True Ground representative Garrett Jackson told ARLnow.
“What has become common is that too few residents can remain in the communities they have come to know as home,” Jackson said. “The redevelopment of Leckey Gardens is True Ground’s latest effort to ensure that the residents who make this community so strong and vibrant can stay here.”
If the project is approved, True Ground plans to provide temporary relocation for all residents and then offer them the opportunity to return to the new building once it is completed.
Jackson said factors including the cost and availability of land played a role in the decision to redevelop existing apartments in True Ground’s portfolio, rather than purchase a new site.
“Because of the Langston Boulevard Plan, it makes sense to imagine a better future for Leckey Gardens and the residents who currently call it home, and those who will in the future,” he said.
Photo (5) via The Springs Apartments/Facebook
