Plan Langston Blvd — a sweeping document outlining the future development of the corridor — is teed up for a vote by the Arlington County Board on Saturday.
The vote would culminate years of grassroots activity, followed by a county planning process that included about a year of public engagement. Despite the long lead time, the plan was recently criticized during County Board campaigns and commission meetings for introducing too many last-minute changes, which the county maintains were largely technical.
Although these tweaks have had time to settle, longstanding concerns continue to arise, pertaining to affordable housing, retail, building heights and park space. The Planning Commission addressed some of these earlier this month when, after voting to recommend the Board adopt the plan, members added in a few recommended changes.
On affordable housing, the Planning Commission, residents and community groups asked the County Board and staff to push for more committed affordable units.
“We don’t ask enough of our developers,” Commissioner Elizabeth Gearin said, per meeting minutes. “I hope we’re looking at how to get more on-site units. We should identify tools to where the County doesn’t need to outlay money. We haven’t fully exhausted this issue.”
Plan Langston Blvd projects to create 2,500 committed affordable units along the corridor by 2075, while the county’s 2015 Affordable Housing Master Plan previously called for the creation of those units by 2040. A sticking point for affordable housing advocates, the breakdown is because the Affordable Housing Master Plan, or AHMP, “was a projection, not necessarily a goal,” county planner Natasha Alfonso-Ahmed said, per meeting minutes.
“We’ve done extensive analysis of development capacity, and at the end of the day, the building envelope is set,” she said. “The result based on the recommended building envelopes is somewhat less than the AHMP projection.”
Planning commissioners approved a motion articulating their support for a countywide effort to “identify new tools and strategies to preserve and achieve more affordable housing related to a review of the Affordable Housing Master Plan,” according to the minutes.
Rev. Ashley Goff and Pat Findikoglu, representing VOICE — Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement — wrote that the Board has a vested interest in doing this.
“You have consistently shown your support for housing affordability for Arlingtonians across the income spectrum in many other areas of the County,” they said in a letter to the Board. “Now you have a chance to make clear that the North Arlington Langston Boulevard corridor, like all the other areas, also has a significant role to play in ensuring future housing opportunities for a broad range of residents.”
Attachment to the Lee Heights Shops — a one-story retail strip that includes an independent wine store, a salon, restaurants and a toy store with distinct colored awnings — also generated buzz.
Longtime Arlingtonian and local leader Cecilia Cassidy passed away yesterday in Frederick, Maryland, at the age of 75.
In Arlington, she was best known for her housing advocacy and her leadership of two local organizations: the Rosslyn Business Improvement District and the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, now the Columbia Pike Partnership.
“Cecilia was a connector and leaves many friends, old and new,” her obituary says. “She will be missed.”
Cassidy was born in Brooklyn, New York on Aug. 20, 1948, and grew up on Long Island. Cassidy got her start in journalism, reporting for the Susquehanna Sentinel in Oneonta, New York, and went on to have articles published in The Washington Post, USA Today and Newsday, among other newspapers and literary journals.
She lived in Arlington for 45 years. She kicked off her housing career tenant organizing in Arlington Village, where she lived along Columbia Pike, during a condo conversion in the 1980s, according to her obituary. Together with Arlington County, she helped establish the first limited-equity housing co-op in Virginia and she later went on to head up community relations for the affordable housing developer AHC, Inc.
Cassidy was also instrumental in standing up the Rosslyn BID — Arlington’s first such organization — and serving as its executive director for more than a decade.
“It was her work that really made the BIDs work here in the county,” County Manager Barbara Donnellan said when Cassidy retired from this post in 2013.
Cassidy then served for three years as the interim leader of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization after the sudden resignation of former executive director Takis Karantonis, now an Arlington County Board member. She retired from CPRO in 2018, after overseeing the organization’s largest period of financial growth in 30 years and the adoption of a strategic plan, per a press release at the time.
“CPRO is grateful for Cecilia’s leadership and her contributions to the organization but even more grateful for the spirit, enthusiasm, and friendship Cecilia has shared with us,” then-board president John Snyder said at the time.
Cassidy was a member of the Leadership Arlington Class of 2000 and was named to the board of directors of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, or APAH.
But her other great love was to travel, according to her obituary.
“Her junior year abroad had her hitchhiking all over Europe,” it says. “She did her first of many cross-country trips at the age of 21 in a refurbished telephone truck with Tara’s playpen in the back and her sister Carol sharing the wheel. Over the years she visited friends in Poland, Russia and Puerto Rico, and after an extensive genealogy search, found long lost relatives in Ireland.”
Cassidy moved to Frederick in 2019 to be close to her daughter, Tara. Cassidy is survived by three siblings, her daughter Tara and a grandson and four nieces and nephews.
In lieu of flowers, people can make a donation in Cassidy’s name to APAH, AHC, the Writer’s Center in Bethesda or the Wroxton College of Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she studied abroad.
There will be a public viewing on Saturday, Nov. 11 from 2-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. at Rollins Life Celebration Center in Frederick. A service will be held the following day, Sunday, from 12-1 p.m. followed by a repass in the hall. The service will also be livestreamed.
A memorial Mass and inurement will be scheduled sometime next spring or summer at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Arlington.
A proposed senior living facility on S. Glebe Road is teed up for Arlington County Board approval this Saturday.
Sunrise Senior Living proposes redeveloping a church in the Alcova Heights neighborhood with a 4-story, 99-unit building with 120 bedrooms and 53 parking spaces.
The public and county review of its plans kicked off this February. During a meeting last Wednesday, the Planning Commission unanimously recommended the Board adopt the proposal from Sunrise.
If the project is approved and construction begins on schedule, the project at 716 S. Glebe Road would be the first new senior housing project since the 1980s, per Arlington’s Commission on Aging. In 2020, the County Board approved an assisted living facility along Langston Blvd, but it languished and was recently sold to another developer.
While pleased that Sunrise is picking up the senior housing baton, some planning commissioners were dismayed Sunrise may only end up committing one unit for affordable housing or making a roughly $226,000 cash contribution to affordable housing. They were also disappointed Sunrise is aiming for LEED Silver certification rather than LEED Gold.
The commission approved motions urging the County Board to ask staff and the applicant to keep exploring ways to add more on-site affordable units and make the building more energy efficient.
“This is a really great opportunity to do something different,” said Planning Commission Vice-Chair Sara Steinberger. “I don’t want to lose the opportunity here because we can’t move fast enough.”
Representing Sunrise, land use attorney Kedrick Whitmore said the developer has take significant steps on sustainability and has long wrestled with its affordability commitments.
He told commissioners to temper their expectations for these areas, arguing they are skewed by developers who deliver LEED Gold certification and on-site affordable units in exchange for bonus density. Sunrise does not want more density because it has to do more for fewer residents, he said.
While excited at the prospect of new senior housing, the Commission on Aging is “very disappointed that the developer has not committed to setting aside some units as affordable units,” says member Cynthia Schneider.
“Both Alexandria and Fairfax County have policies where assisted living facilities set aside a certain number of units as affordable,” she said. “We would like to see this project have a similar commitment.”
Arlington County currently has no formula for calculating senior housing contributions, Whitmore said. It considers rent when calculating how many committed affordable units a developer should provide, whereas senior housing has more comprehensive housing costs to consider, Whitmore said.
“We’re staring into a black box and have trouble committing, at this point, to doing an on-site unit,” he said.
There is ample time for the issue to get sorted out, Commissioner Tenley Peterson said.
“We’re a couple of years out from when this building is going to get built,” she said. “We don’t need to figure it out until we get to the certificate of occupancy.”
A new development with affordable apartments, a church and childcare, across from the Ballston Metro station, is set to debut early next year.
Nearly two years ago, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing broke ground on the long-delayed, $84 million project to replace the old Central United Methodist Church building at 4201 Fairfax Drive with an 8-story building with 144 committed affordable units.
Dubbed Ballston Station, the project received $19 million from the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund and $9 million from an Amazon-funded state housing grant. Approved in 2017, APAH took over in 2019 and received a construction extension until it could get started.
As of now, construction is 88% complete, APAH Senior Project Manager Ryan Nash tells ARLnow. The project is on schedule and on track to finish next January.
Work has turned to the final finishes within each unit, such as flooring, but other site work — such as sidewalks — remains as well, he said.
“We’ll open right after we’re done and right after we get our certificate of occupancy,” he said.
The project had to weather increasing construction costs — including sky-rocketing lumber prices — as well as high interest rates, Nash said.
“It was day-to-day watching lumber prices,” he says. “Other supply chain issues remain: a big thing these days is electrical switchgear and appliances, but we timed it well and got things procured and ordered in time so it wouldn’t impact our schedule.”
APAH has a list of prospective residents who could move in as soon as the occupancy certificate is inked, said Nash, projecting the building could be fully leased by June.
Future tenants, who mostly reside in Arlington right now, range from those in affordable housing to those leaving “rapidly disappearing” market-rate affordable units, he said.
“Because it’s so close to Ballston Metro, and has a low parking ratio, it will be catered toward residents who would have a car-free diet,” he said.
Ballston Station will have a mix of one- and two-bedroom units. There will be 15 units for people earning up to 30% of the area median income (AMI), with 60 units for those earning 50% AMI or less and 69 at 60% AMI.
The church, meanwhile, will have a series of celebration events starting with Easter on March 31, says Rev. Sarah Harrison-McQueen.
“In the weeks after Easter, we’ll have a variety of open houses and mission events to culminate with a building dedication worship service,” she told ARLnow.
The CUMC congregation currently meets at a church in the Arlington Forest neighborhood. When it returns to Ballston, it will have a revamped church space with a dedicated commercial kitchen to support its food distribution ministry, providing hot breakfast, lunch and groceries, medical care and referrals to more than 200 people.
The childcare provider, Kinhaven School, is set to open next spring with capacity for 115 children — a significant increase from the 67 permitted in the original building, says Director Amy Hitchcock.
Kinhaven School was co-located with CUMC for nearly 50 years until 2017, when construction on the new development was initially expected to start.
It relocated to St. George’s Episcopal Church in Virginia Square and the school now plans to keep that location for a half-day preschool serving 2- to 5-year old children. The Ballston Station location will enroll infants through school-aged children.
“The Ballston Station project is exciting as each of the three partners contributes to Arlington’s vitality: APAH and its stellar approach to housing; CUMC’s commitment to addressing food insecurity as a lived mission of their faith; and Kinhaven’s pledge to participate in the Virginia Child Care Subsidy program and offer non-traditional hours to support working families,” Hitchcock said.
Plan Langston Blvd — a sweeping document envisioning a tree-lined, walkable Route 29 with apartments over retail — is gearing up for final discussions and eventual approval.
The newest draft landed last Thursday: two business days before a Planning Commission meeting on whether to advertise hearings on the plan. It contained a slew of changes county staff explain are policy clarifications, responding to recent feedback from citizen commissions, the Arlington County Board and residents.
In a 3-hour meeting Monday, some Planning Commissioners objected to the timing and moved to delay hearings one month, though this failed. They instead unanimously recommended hearings by the commission and the Arlington County Board in November. The deliberations echoed this stage of the Missing Middle hearings, last Thanksgiving, with commissioners noting this step simply sets what can be considered next month.
“I do think that it is an unfortunate timeline,” Planning Commission Vice-Chair Sara Steinberger said. “[This] document would be a struggle for most people to get through in that period of time. And I think that we should aim to do better because I think that’s important for the community to trust the process.”
Steinberger, who made the failed motion to delay hearings on Plan Langston Blvd, or PLB, had backing from Commissioner Nia Bagley.
“[Steinberger] was a little bit more polite than I probably would be,” Bagley said. “I hope we never do this again. I hope we give this more time in the future.”
Commission Chair Devanshi Patel said she understands the concerns of her colleagues but, sometimes, making real-time changes cannot be reconciled with giving ample time for people to review them.
“I think that staff did the best job that they could do by getting a comprehensive plan together with up-to-date information, reconciling the comments that they’ve been hearing from every single meeting of this body and other bodies, and being able to provide it in advance of this meeting as possible,” she said.
Agreeing with Patel, Commissioner Daniel Weir did say he and others have been “harping” on staff to return to the pre-pandemic days when meeting materials were published seven to 10 days before meetings.
But, he continued, “just because this form of the document wasn’t published before a certain day out, I don’t think it follows from that that there hasn’t been a full and robust public process… at least for the purposes of moving forward on the [request to advertise hearings].”
Recalling yet another controversial plan, the Pentagon City Sector Plan, Commissioner Jim Lantelme said changes were made “literally up to the final Board meeting.”
“If we’re not thrilled with something, it’s okay, because the idea is to get everything out there,” he said. “We can cut it back later. We can’t add to it, but we can cut it back later.”
County planner Natasha Alfonso-Ahmed assured commissioners that Monday’s decision still leaves time for them and other residents to review the changes.
That the draft came out on Thursday “doesn’t mean that there isn’t any time to process and to continue to review this draft that’s out before you,” she said. “We have another four weeks or five weeks before this goes to the again to you all for review.”
(Updated at 12 p.m. on 10/10/23) A church in Clarendon could be redeveloped with senior housing, pending the outcome of a forthcoming county land-use study.
Over the last year, Clarendon Presbyterian Church and Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, or APAH, have been developing plans to tear down the 75-year-old church at 1305 N. Jackson Street and build a 92-unit affordable apartment building for seniors 55 or 62 and older.
The church would move into a new 8,000-square-foot space in the building, with design elements and programming specifically geared toward LGBTQ seniors, says Pastor Alice Tewell. The Clarendon Child Care Center — which a parent co-op board runs from the church — would also move in and have space for up to 58 children. It has that capacity now but currently serves 40.
The process is in its early stages. This summer, Clarendon Presbyterian and APAH asked the county to embark on a special General Land Use Plan (GLUP) study to determine if the property can be redesignated from “semi-public” to “low-medium residential.”
The county granted the request and scheduled a “Tier 1” review to begin later this fall, though no meetings have been scheduled. In this stage, the Long Range Planning Committee would review whether it is appropriate to consider the property for a new land use designation.
Removing the “semi-public” designation would lay the groundwork for this project, located a 5-minute walk from the Clarendon Metro station. The project would require rezoning, too, as the site is zoned for single-family homes — and now 2-6 unit homes, with the approval of ‘Missing Middle’ changes.
The church is located next to older garden style apartments and new, market-rate apartments.
If the Arlington County Board approves the designation change, the church and APAH would then file a site plan application subject to public review. It will be a few years before the duo has the approvals they need to obtain financing from federal tax credits and commercial, local and state loans, says Tewell.
Should all this happen on schedule, the church could open its new doors in 2029 or 2030 after a two-year construction period. That means a few more years in a church building that is too big and too old to serve the congregation and community effectively, according to the pastor.
“Our current building of nearly 75 years — built for 450 people and now serving a congregation of less than 80 — is literally falling apart with massive annual repair costs, and we will soon no longer have the resources to maintain it and continue serving the Clarendon community unless we redevelop and create a new and much smaller worship space for the congregation,” Tewell said.
The congregation identified the need to redevelop in 2021 and a year later voted to work with APAH, she said.
During this time, the church sunk more than $100,000 into HVAC, electric and plumbing maintenance, according to a letter to Arlington County. The letter foretells the church moving, possibly from Arlington, in five to 10 years if the expenses continue to mount with no redevelopment option.
Should the church leave, it says, childcare, community programming and monthly food and toiletry drives would go with it, and would be “a sore loss for the entire Arlington community.”
But not everyone is on board. A petition to “save” the church and “preserve our residential neighborhood” has north of 640 signatures to date.
Arlington resident Hung Do has big hopes for a curiously shaped lot he owns in Green Valley.
This month, he was on the brink of closing on a deal to sell the triangular land plot at the corner of S. Monroe Street and the S. Four Mile Run Drive access road, next to a sizable townhouse development.
The buyer, however, had second thoughts, citing high costs to obtain a variance to build on the 1,381-square-foot lot.
Property records indicate Do bought the land for $1,900 in 1988 from the state of Virginia. The Commonwealth had obtained it a year prior by escheat, a common law process by which land reverts to the state on the death of an heirless owner. Its assessed value is now $113,200, per 2023 assessment records.
The owner withdrew the listing this week and says in his retirement, he plans to spend more time figuring out next steps himself.
He expressed optimism the Board of Zoning Appeals may be amenable to allowing a variance to build on the lot, which is too small for by-right construction of a home, per the zoning code.
“I do like the idea of using it to build low-income housing to sell outright or as rental,” he says. “It seems like, maybe, now is the chance to do something with the land.”
Do acknowledges the configuration of the lot makes designing a home more difficult, and he would need ”a creative architect” to devise a solution.
In the listing, he called the property “an architect’s dream.”
“You can be creative and let your imagination come up with a plan for a beautiful home,” the listing said.
Do says his ultimate goal is to “help someone less fortunate stay in the area and [find] good employment.”
Photo (1) via Arlington County
Construction could start on the redevelopment of Crystal House Apartments in Crystal City late next spring.
Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (A, which is spearheading the project along with D.C.-area developer EYA, expects to kick off construction in May or June of 2024, APAH spokeswoman Elise Panko tells ARLnow.
Arlington County selected the two companies build more affordable housing on the Crystal House apartment property after Amazon granted the county development rights to the vacant land, worth approximately $40 million. APAH and EYA have plans to construct 844 units on this empty plot, of which 655 will be designated as affordable.
Meanwhile, existing units will be kept affordable through a separate loan from Amazon. In an effort to mitigate the impact of its move to Arlington on the local housing market, the tech giant loaned the Washington Housing Conservancy money to purchase and stabilize rent at the complex, located at 1900 S. Eads Street, just one block from its second headquarters.
Several months after being selected to lead the project, APAH has requested the county’s permission to amend the previously approved development plans for the site, aiming to incorporate affordable housing, according to recently filed application materials.
APAH began by redesigning the project’s first phase, dubbed “Crystal House VI,” which is set to be located at the corner of 18th Street S. and S. Fern Street.
When the project was approved in 2019, the “Crystal House VI” was envisioned as a five-story building housing 63 units. However, APAH now intends to pivot towards affordable senior rentals, which the developer says is necessary to secure additional financing.
The developer requested permission to increase the number of units to 80 and halve the number of parking spaces.
It also requested different façade materials that “maintain a high quality and appealing design while reducing construction costs,” according to land-use attorney Nicholas Cumings.
According to a letter from Cummings, the increase in units can be achieved without changing the building’s overall footprint. The units will be smaller than the originally planned market-rate condos.
“The proposed minor site plan amendment represents a significant milestone in realizing the county’s goals,” APAH Executive Vice President Carmen Romero wrote in a letter of support to the county. “Creating these homes requires the approval of this minor site plan amendment in order to make the design compatible with an affordable senior rental project.”
Once construction starts next year, Panko says APAH anticipates Crystal House VI to be done in the fall or winter of 2025.
“This phase will reconnect the streetscape to the surrounding community as well as provide carefully crafted amenities for our seniors that foster a sense of belonging and enhance the overall quality of life for residents,” Romero said in her letter.
When asked for a timeline of the other projects in the pipeline, Panko said “there are two buildings on the site that will remain occupied, so the development will be phased to accommodate existing operations.”
A proposal to redevelop the Red Lion Hotel near Rosslyn is beginning its journey through the Arlington County approval process.
Local development group Orr Partners took over previously approved plans from 2019 to replace the hotel and the Ellis Arms Apartments in the Radnor-Fort Myer Heights neighborhood with a 10-story condo building and 12-story hotel.
After taking over, Orr expanded the scope of its project. Now, it intends to build on a 2.2-acre site composed of the hotel, formerly the Best Western Iwo Jima hotel, which opened in 1958, as well as the Ellis Arms and Williamsburg apartments, which were built in 1954.
Instead of a condo building and hotel, it proposes building a 446-unit, 8-story apartment complex at 1501 Arlington Blvd, bounded by Fairfax Drive to the south and the Parc Rosslyn Apartments and Belvedere Condominiums to the north.
“We think it will revitalize this neighborhood and bring critically needed housing to Arlington County,” Tyler Orr of Orr Partners said in a video. “Our company has been honored to deliver numerous projects in Arlington County over the last 35 years. In all our projects, we seek to enhance the fabric of the surrounding community, be considerate of our neighbors and give something back with any new community we deliver.”
In exchange for razing the two 14-unit apartment buildings, Orr says the company will provide on-site affordable housing.
That has to amount to at least 28 units or the same square footage lost to redevelopment, according to county planner Adam Watson. He said in a video that Orr is held to this standard because it is building on a site that is mostly designated a “special affordable housing protection district.”
Watson said county staffers are working with Orr on an affordable housing plan that replaces the lost housing.
Presentation materials from Orr say the proposal mostly includes a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, though there are 15 two-bedroom “junior” apartments and 12 three-bedroom units, which are at a premium in Arlington County.
Orr Partners intends to reach LEED Gold certification and plans to include three courtyards as well as at- and below-grade, at a rate of 0.57 spaces per unit.
“Architecturally, the base of the building is scaled to respect the heights of the residential developments along the Arlington Blvd corridor,” architect Chris Gordon said in the Orr presentation. “The design incorporates various techniques to break up the massing, through alternating materials, use of color, textures and providing interior courtyards out to Arlington Blvd beginning at third-level amenity terrace.”
He notes the structure is shaped to capture “primary views of the Capital mall” and to bring together amenities so “all residents to engage in this terrific location.”
Orr Partners is also leaving enough space in its development to allow Arlington County to reconstruct the Arlington Blvd Trail that is across street, says county planner Adam Watson. Base engineering for that project is in progress.
The county is asking for feedback on the proposal related to land use, building form, architecture, transportation, landscaping and public space and community benefits.
After the feedback form closes later this month, the first Site Plan Review Committee meeting will be held in September, followed by a second in October. Meetings for commission and Arlington County Board approval have yet to be scheduled.
A small cohort of dedicated volunteers is stepping up to help support low-income homeowners, performing home improvements at no cost.
Since 1988, the nonprofit Rebuilding Together Arlington/Fairfax/Falls Church has worked to ensure low-income homeowners in Arlington and elsewhere in Northern Virginia have safe and accessible living spaces.
The group, a branch of the national organization Rebuilding Together, is based in the city of Fairfax but lends support to area nonprofit housing organizations, including Choice. Respect. independence, which aids people with disabilities. Last year, the volunteers spent 6,924 hours helping repair 100 homes across the region, according to the nonprofit’s website.
Volunteers are often involved in multiple projects each week, ranging from installing grab bars to new dryers. Typically, these projects involve a team of five volunteers and are completed with a budget of $500 or less.
Daphne Lathouras, communications manager for the local nonprofit, shared an anecdote with ARLnow from one homeowner who said, “I’ve been going up and down these stairs for 57 years and I can’t believe the difference two handrails make.”
Recently, in Arlington, volunteers also helped renovate a new building for the Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, which has recycled more than 3 million pairs of eyeglasses for people in need.
Rebuilding Together’s local Northern Virginia affiliate heavily relies on the dedicated work of volunteers, some of whom provide year-round support.
“The key [to our success] is the incredible volunteers,” Lathouras told ARLnow.
The local organization receives funding from several sources including the Arlington County government, faith and corporate partners as well as individual donors.
“I want to thank the wonderful group with hearts of gold that came to my aid when I really needed it,” a homeowner said when giving feedback to the organization.
Additional information, as well as the volunteer sign-up link, are available on the nonprofit’s website.
Plans to renovate some of the buildings within the Barcroft Apartments complex on Columbia Pike cleared an important hurdle on Tuesday.
The Arlington County Board approved a use permit enabling renovation plans for 93 homes at the corner of S. George Mason Drive and S. Four Mile Run Drive on Tuesday. These will occur concurrently with long-term planning for how to redevelop select parcels within the sprawling acreage.
Board Chair Christian Dorsey said property owner and developer Jair Lynch is taking “virtually unheard of” steps to meet with residents and inform them of the project, sending monthly reports of these meetings to the county.
“I don’t want you to necessarily give them applause but understand there is a structure in place by which more information is learned, that they can share, and there is a vehicle to share it,” he said. “We’ll be watching. We’ll be monitoring. It’s really been working pretty well this far.”
Jair Lynch acquired the property in December 2021 using a $150 million loan from Arlington County and a $160 million loan from Amazon.
The terms of the agreement preserved the affordability of the 1,334 units for residents earning up to 60% of the area median income for 99 years. Jair Lynch is exploring making some units affordable to residents meeting lower income thresholds.
Since then, Jair Lynch has been meeting with residents to seek input on the changes and assuage them that legacy residents — those who Jair Lynch identified as living at the complex before the property was purchased — will not be displaced.
It is working with county staff to plot out redevelopment and renovation work and how it will pay for these changes, submitting a development and financing plan last October, which is currently under review. This fall, Jair Lynch and the county will discuss the mix of affordability levels on the site.
After the renovations, the number of homes will remain at 93 but, using bump-outs, 14 homes will become 3-bedroom and 4 will become 4-bedroom units. There will be landscape and site improvements, including to garages for tenants, and the buildings will incorporate environmentally friendly amenities and features.
The renovations may require residents to be temporarily relocated elsewhere on the site, for which Jair Lynch will pay. After the units change size, legacy residents may seek to live in another unit on-site, Melissa Danowski, the county project coordinator for Barcroft, confirmed for the Board.
A resident meeting explaining next steps was held this April and information will continue to be shared with residents to give them time to prepare for any disruption. Those who will be relocated will get a 120-day notice.
Ahead of the meeting, there was some discussion among Planning Commission members about whether the sloped site can be made more accessible to people with disabilities, as some areas are only accessible by stairs and at least one building does not have an elevator.
Project representatives said that making accessibility upgrades will be difficult. Modifications could be made to the rest of the site to add accessible units, per a summary of the discussion shared with the Board.
Commissioners also discussed what would become of the tree canopy on the site.
Jair Lynch proposes removing trees where they conflict with construction or stormwater facilities or if they are in poor health or are invasive species, a report said. The developer plans to exceed tree replacement numbers.