We recently invited the candidates running for local office in the Nov. 3 General Election to write a post about why Arlington residents should vote for them. Find information on how and where to vote here.
Below is the unedited response from David Sisson, who is running for County Board.
I am running for the Arlington County Board because I believe children, parents, and grandparents should be able to afford to be neighbors in Arlington.
Today, that future is increasingly out of reach. Housing and childcare costs strain family budgets, rising taxes pressure homeowners, and young adults struggle to remain. We need a plan to address these challenges.
Arlington cannot build its future on the assumption that our pre-pandemic economy will return. Before COVID-19, businesses generated about 60% of County real estate tax revenue, our largest revenue source. Today, that share is closer to 40%. Remote work and DOGE (I was DOGE’d, by the way) have structurally reduced demand for office space and associated tax revenue. In response to budget pressures, the County has raised property taxes, the meals tax, and fees, shifting more of the tax burden onto individuals.
We must adapt to the economy we have, not wait for the one we had. My long-term goal is to reduce Arlington’s tax burden toward pre-pandemic levels, when it was among the lowest in the DMV. That requires a more diversified tax base, responsible budgeting, and policies that encourage investment and economic growth. Housing policy is central to that effort and better transportation is a complement.
Housing and Affordability
Arlington needs more housing options for young professionals, growing families, and older residents who want to remain in their communities. I support allowing dense, mixed-use development throughout the R-B corridor between Metro stations, rather than limiting it to areas within a quarter mile of stations. We should prioritize converting underused office buildings into housing, expand where we can build dense housing, reduce parking minimums, and streamline façade reviews.
More housing will not solve affordability overnight, but it will help reduce, or at least stabilize, rents. New development also expands the real estate tax base, helping fund public services and distributing the tax burden more broadly.
I understand homeowners’ concerns about development, namely traffic and school capacity. While every project requires review, we must also weigh the cost of inaction.
Arlington renters face some of the highest rents in the country and Arlington families face the highest childcare costs in the country. Limited housing and ground floor real estate exacerbate these costs.
We should also look to see if the negative impacts of additional housing have occurred. County data shows that traffic has actually declined alongside increased development. Arlington Public School enrollment has remained around 27,000 since 2017, even as the County’s population grew by more than 10,000. Meanwhile, the number of children under five has fallen from roughly 14,000 in 2019 to 12,000 two years ago.
We are not seeing the feared impacts of development. Instead, we see that costs are squeezing young families out of our community.
Transportation
Our transportation system should serve the people who live here, not just those passing through. I want to improve ART bus connections between North and South Arlington, so ART better serves those in the County, rather than increasing East/West services that help those going through the County. Better transit will also reduce the need for residents to have a car, making the community more affordable for some and reducing cars on the road.
Qualifications
My experience prepares me to tackle these challenges. I spent five years at a real estate consulting firm working extensively with WMATA, and I now work at JLL managing a large corporate employee shuttle program on the East Coast. I also serve as Vice Chair of the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance (NVAHA), a nonprofit, and on Arlington’s Transportation Advisory Committee. Housing and transit are issues I know through both professional experience and advocacy.
Summary
When you vote, I ask you to consider whether the next generation will be able to call Arlington home.
We are pricing out young people, and children are making up a smaller share of our community because of it. I think it would be a social failure if our budget problems solved themselves because we lost enough young families that we had to close schools. Some might call it fiscal success or the free market at work. I am not among them.
I recognize that housing is divisive, development takes time, and no single policy will solve every affordability challenge. But refusing to adapt carries its own costs: higher rents, continued increases in childcare costs, greater dependence on individual taxpayers (i.e., tax increases), and a community increasingly out of reach for the next generation.
