The Arlington Housing Commission is considering whether to study possible ways to revive Missing Middle zoning changes.
The Expanded Housing Option is currently off the books following a circuit court judge’s ruling this summer.
The Arlington County Board is appealing that decision, but has argued that adopting a revised ordinance “is not feasible … based on the legal construction and substance of the judge’s ruling.”
However, “that doesn’t mean the commission can’t look into the issue and make a recommendation based on what the commission thinks the Board should do moving forward,” Housing Commission chair Kellen MacBeth said at the body’s Dec. 5 meeting.
MacBeth argued that the county potentially could move forward, yet stay within the court ruling, by scrapping the staff permitting process for EHO development and eliminating the cap on how many projects could be approved each year.
Commissioner Jason Schwartz expressed doubts about embarking on such a study during an active lawsuit.
“There’s not much really we can do until the ruling is done — whenever that’s done,” he said.
But Schwartz and other commission members in attendance all agreed to give the idea more thought and come back to it.
MacBeth said that while it is unlikely county staff would work with the commission on crafting possible workaround scenarios, “we can invite outside groups to come talk to us.”
“We’ll mark is down as something to consider,” he said. “We’re just brainstorming ideas and we’ll make a final decision next month.”
Also at the Dec. 5 meeting, Housing Commission members discussed a recent County Board report showing that the demographics of advisory-commission members were disconnected from the county’s overall population.
“Is that something we should be concerned with?” commission member Karen Serfis asked.
Ultimately, it is the County Board, not commissions themselves, that typically makes the final determination on membership, MacBeth said.
“I don’t know that I’d want to take that on — that’s really a County Board thing,” he said.
The Housing Commission currently has one vacancy in the process of being filled, MacBeth noted.
