A proposal to redevelop a Walgreens on Langston Blvd as a 12-story residential building is moving toward consideration by the Planning Commission and County Board.
County Board members authorized the advertisement of future public hearings on plans for 3130 Langston Blvd at a meeting last night (Tuesday).
Rooney Properties is seeking to construct 296 residential units and 8,600 square feet of ground-floor retail on the 1.68-acre site.
It is the first major project in the vicinity of the Langston Boulevard Area Plan to move forward since Board members adopted the plan in late 2023. The plan envisions more density along portions of the five-mile corridor that runs from East Falls Church to Rosslyn.
The vote to advertise changes to the General Land Use Plan and zoning on the site did not set the timing for future consideration. But the project already has been through a site-plan review committee process, a key step on the way to moving into review by county advisory bodies.
Jackie Snelling, representing the Lyon Village Citizens Association, spoke at the meeting to lay out some ongoing concerns about the project, including its overall massing.
The Langston Boulevard Area Plan seeks to combine smaller parcels into larger ones for future redevelopment. Rooney Properties had unsuccessfully sought to purchase the adjacent property, occupied by a pawn shop, which would have added about 25% to the existing site.
Snelling questioned going up to 12 stories without that additional land.
A discussion of concerns “will be played out in greater detail” as the project continues through the review process, Board member Susan Cunningham said.
The Walgreens on the site closed in November 2024. All employees were retained and were offered positions at other locations, a spokesman told ARLnow at the time.
Also at the Jan. 27 meeting:
Update on governance process: Board member Julius “J.D.” Spain, Sr., gave his colleagues an update on the first month of work setting the stage for a potential future consideration of governance changes.
“We’ve been working on our work plan and organizational tools,” Spain said.
Spain and Cunningham were tapped in December to serve as liaisons between the Board and staff on the governance-change issue. At the same meeting, Board members voted 5-0 to put off a final decision on creating a committee to study potential changes until the summer.
Board Chair Matt de Ferranti said an update “most months” between now and then would seem appropriate, asking Spain and Cunningham to keep their colleagues apprised as the preparatory work moves forward.
Spain said the goal was “making sure we’re all swimming in the same lane, or at least rowing in the right direction.”
If a governance-change panel is created later in the year, it is likely to be asked to tackle issues including the optimal number of Board members, changes to the current election cycle, potential conversion to city status, the role of the county manager and whether the Board chair should be separately elected.
Any recommendations then would be considered by county leaders and the community. Some changes would likely require action by the General Assembly to be enacted.
Board meeting goes ‘virtual’ due to storm: Board members held their Jan. 27 meeting online, owing to ongoing recovery from the weekend’s snowstorm.
“It’s been a while since we had a virtual meeting — I hope people will bear with us. I’ll try to get the rhythm down,” de Ferranti said.
Online-only Board meetings were commonplace during Covid but otherwise have been rare.
In the evening portion of the meeting, presentations by some applicants couldn’t be shown due to technological issues. Mason Kushnir, clerk to the County Board, said they would be added when the meeting was posted online.
To open the Jan. 27 meeting, Board members ratified the declaration of local emergency issued by Schwartz in advance of the storm. Among its other facets, that declaration allowed the meeting to be held virtually.
Remembering victims of airline-helicopter collision: Board members also held a moment of silence for the 67 victims of the Jan. 29, 2025, collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter near Reagan National Airport.
