Arlington’s police and fire unions are vying for more funding in the county’s proposed $1.62 billion budget to fix compensation issues they say fuel attrition and vacancy issues.
County Manager Mark Schwartz, meanwhile, makes the case in the 2024-2025 budget that the county has been and is committed to meeting these problems with funding while balancing other budget priorities.
Since Arlington County authorized collective bargaining in 2022, the unions representing police, firefighters and paramedics have focused on tackling how members are paid, blaming it for driving employees to work for other jurisdictions in the region with higher compensation.
Currently, the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2800 has 25 vacant uniformed positions, for a 7.5% vacancy rate, while ACPD has 72 vacancies, for a 19% vacancy rate, according to presidents for both IAFF and Arlington Coalition of Police (ACOP). IAFF says this is more than twice the number of vacancies in 2018, while police vacancies appear on par with ARLnow’s last report in the fall.
Last budget cycle, the county committed to a three-year effort to fix these problems for first responders. Union leaders say the county has contributed enough to change its pay system to one where salary increases track with years of service. Still, they say, it has not set aside enough to ensure all members are paid according to their years of service.
“Last April, the County Board identified addressing pay compression for firefighters as a priority for FY25 but our members are still waiting for relief,” IAFF Brian Lynch said in a statement. “Meanwhile other communities are responding to the nationwide shortage of firefighters and police officers by increasing wages across the board, and our people have been voting with their feet.”
The 2025 budget proposes a 2% increase over last year’s budget for ACPD, for a total of $85,839,546. The fire department’s budget is unchanged from last year for a total of $76,023,512. The budget includes step increases for ACOP and IAFF employees in line with their collective bargaining agreements.
“Our employees are the foundation of all the great work that we do in the County,” Schwartz says in his budget message. “This budget continues our commitment to the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) in place and provides pay increases for non-bargaining employees… We will continue to evaluate various job classifications and contribute to the increases in healthcare costs.”
Still, the 2025 budget acknowledges that understaffing is impacting public safety metrics, at least for ACPD. Between 2020-23, received cases increased from around 6,800 to north of 8,400, but assigned cases hovered around one-quarter to one-third of these totals. During the same time, the percentage of successfully closed cases dropped from a high of 60% to a low of 48%, attributed to an understaffed Criminal Investigative Section.
The fire department’s budget section does not discuss understaffing impacts. It does note that the total number of incidents has and will continue to increase, partially driven by more hospital transports and public service non-emergency responses.
These trends may fuel intradepartmental shortages. Lynch says this spring ACFD will lose 13 personnel to an accelerated paramedic training program and six to teach a new class of recruits. Vacancies in emergency services will also increase by 19 as ACFD pulls firefighters from the field to train them to also be EMTs and medics.
“That’s with no one leaving the department,” he said. “That is over 13% of the bargaining unit — an unprecedented lack of personnel.”
The Arlington County Board is considering a potential property tax hike that could be even higher than what County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed.
Board members yesterday (Tuesday) voted 5-0 to advertise hearings on a maximum property tax rate of $1.038 per $100 of assessed value, a 2.5 cent increase from 2023. That is 1 cent higher than the increase of 1.5 cents that Schwartz proposed in his $1.62 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025.
County Board Chair Libby Garvey said she hopes to whittle down the possible tax hike during upcoming budget discussions. She introduced the motion to add a penny because Arlington Public Schools still does not know how much state funding it will receive.
In the worst-case scenario, Garvey said APS could have a substantial budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty this year when it comes to budgeting,” Garvey said in a statement. “I’m very concerned about our schools and whether the state will do the right thing and provide the level of expected funding — or if the state will leave APS short millions on top of the cuts already made. Hopefully, the state will come through, and this extra penny will not be needed.”
Schwartz’s proposed budget already includes $10 million in additional funding to APS to help close a projected $30-35 million budget gap. Superintendent Francisco Durán is scheduled to present APS’s proposed 2025 budget tomorrow (Thursday).
If adopted in April, a 2.5-cent increase would cause the typical Arlington homeowner to pay an additional $472 in taxes, based on the average home value of $824,700, per a county press release. That’s in addition to rising fees for stormwater management, waste collection and other services.
In total, the average Arlington homeowner would see their total fees and taxes increase by $582 if the Board adopts the 2.5-cent tax rate increase, the county says.
Arlington County held its property tax rate steady during the pandemic, though rising property assessments caused the average homeowner to pay some 4-5% more annually anyway.
Board members noted that a higher advertised tax rate will allow for more flexibility in discussions about funding for housing, mental health and public safety, with a focus on the county’s detention facility.
“I think there’s just too much unknown at this particular moment for us to box ourselves in,” said Board member Maureen Coffey.
The Board can still choose to adopt a lower rate, but not a higher one.
Rising taxes and property values are also expected to put upward pressure on rents, as apartment assessments are expected to increase by an average of 6.6%, or $215 per unit.
The proposed $1.62 billion budget would eliminate 33 county staff positions — many that are currently vacant — in various departments, saving about $10 million, according to Schwartz. The budget includes a 4.75% salary increase for all non-union county employees.
There is also additional funding for teen programs intended to help combat the teen opioid crisis, mental health and substance abuse programs, affordable housing and eviction prevention and environmental initiatives.
Arlington’s police and fire unions have called for further tax increases to fund raises for first responders and reverse staffing declines, particularly in the police department.
The Board will conduct a series of budget work sessions in March, followed by a pair of public hearings on the budget and the tax rate on April 2 and 4, respectively. The final budget adoption vote is scheduled for Saturday, April 20.
Looser parking requirements could encourage more gyms and shops to fill Arlington’s commercial real estate vacancies, the county believes.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday unanimously voted to have staff research possible changes to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance and advertise requests to amend it. In addition to slashing parking minimums for gyms, the county is considering whether to allow parking lots to designate more spaces for compact cars.
Public hearings about these requirements are scheduled to take place in April. The county argues some of the regulations — set decades ago — may be outdated and an aggravating factor for Arlington’s rising commercial vacancy rate.
For instance, Arlington fitness centers must offer five times more parking spaces per square foot of floor area than other retail or service businesses. This is more restrictive than requirements in Alexandria and Fairfax County and, according to a report, a holdover of transportation patterns from the 1960s.
“The minimum parking ratio for athletic and health clubs is a standard set decades ago and does not reflect current land use and development patterns, public transportation access or regulations in Arlington,” the report says.
County staff noted that many potential office tenants look for nearby fitness facilities when selecting a location. Fitness centers also tend to attract establishments such as spas and physical therapy centers.
“Minimum parking ratios… can derail an athletic or health club from filling high demand, ideally located vacant space,” the report says.
The document also argues that the county should reconsider a 2002 regulation that disallows compact car spaces in areas “that were assumed to have a high turnover.” This includes retail stores, grocery stores and medical and health care facilities, as well as anywhere “where there is likely to be a large number of elderly [people].”
“Staff believes this prohibition is worth reexamining,” the report says.
Finally, another county report argues that loosening off-street parking requirements could help some shopping centers and small commercial sites attract new tenants. It notes that current parking regulations, as well as insufficient shared parking within commercial and mixed-use districts, can create barriers for businesses.
“This is especially true when multiple businesses are required to use the available parking on-site with limited capacity,” the document says. “Expanded shared parking regulations can be an effective measure to help address similar on-site parking deficiencies.”
All of these initiatives are part of a larger effort to combat Arlington’s high commercial vacancy rate. In another bid to boost Arlington’s commercial resiliency, the Board authorized public hearings for April about whether to loosen restrictions on large media screens in outdoor areas.
Later this year, the Board is expected to discuss guidance on office-to-apartment conversions as well as potentially simplifying the major and minor site plan amendment process, which landowners must navigate when repurposing or renovating large development projects.
Within the next several months, Board members are also expected to consider plans to facilitate changes of use within existing buildings and adopt a more flexible ordinance around signage.
Other possible ordinance changes concern storage uses at office buildings as well as the process for repurposing underutilized parking spaces.
The Arlington County Board is considering whether to authorize county-run firearm buyback events.
Buybacks would provide residents with cash, gift cards, vouchers or other payment in exchange for guns, according to a proposed ordinance. The voluntary events would be open to residents of Arlington and Falls Church.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday authorized a request to advertise the potential amendment to the county code. The item is scheduled to return to the Board for discussion on March 16.
“The purpose of this ordinance is to create a safer community and prevent firearm violence by creating a mechanism by which citizens can surrender unwanted or unneeded firearms,” the ordinance says.
The change would give the County Manager the authority to establish a buyback program. Police officers would oversee buyback events and Arlington’s chief of police would be responsible for destroying the guns.
Each event would require 15 officers, each of whom would receive $75 per hour in overtime pay, according to a county report.
The county could enter into agreements with private entities to fund or sponsor this program.
“The County may issue receipts, certificates or vouchers in exchange for surrendered firearms, which may be accepted or exchanged for things of value by any entity wishing to sponsor or otherwise participate in the firearms buyback program,” the proposed amendment says.
People could ask that a dealer auction off their firearm instead of destroying it but the county could deny this request. Machine guns, sawed-off shotguns and sawed-off rifles would not be destroyed, nor would firearms that federal law prohibits transferring.
The ordinance notes that the advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America collaborated with county officials on this initiative. The group did not respond to a request for comment.
Gun buybacks are a well-established concept both regionally and nationally.
Last year in Prince George’s County, two mega-churches sponsored a buyback program in collaboration with the county police department. The Interfaith GVP Network likewise is scheduled to sponsor an event next month in Montgomery County.
Buyback events also took place in Richmond last year and in 2022.
These events, which date back at least to the 1960s, often allow people to hand over both legal and illegal guns with no questions asked. Empirical evidence for their effectiveness is limited but proponents argue that any effort to curb violence by removing unwanted guns from a community is worthwhile.
The Arlington County Board and the Human Rights Commission are at odds over whether commissioners had the right to request an investigation into possible human and civil rights violations at the county jail.
Earlier this month, the commission sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, voicing concerns over reports that inmates at the jail lack adequate healthcare, a situation they argue could put them “at risk of death and severe harm.” This follows up on letters to the County Sheriff’s Office and the DOJ from the Arlington branch of the NAACP and its national organization, asking for an investigation after hearing from former and current inmates.
In response, County Board Chair Libby Garvey told the DOJ in a letter last week that the commission’s request “does not represent the position or opinion” of the Board, though she did not elaborate on the Board’s position on either the commission sending the letter or the conditions within the jail.
For County Board member Matt De Ferranti, there are at least grounds for procedural concerns. Before the commission approved the letter, he told them via email that state law requires County Board approval before “seeking assistance with the prevention or relief from discriminatory practices from external enforcement authorities.”
The commission argues it was not requesting the enforcement of a specific violation; rather, it wants the agency to look at the general policies and practices of the jail, Arlington Human Rights Commission Chair Bill Rice told ARLnow.
“We’ve been hearing reports of widespread discrimination in this area and asking for like an investigation into that, but that second part doesn’t necessarily result in like some type of enforcement action — it usually results in some type of report,” Rice said.
The Board’s response, meanwhile, has left Rice and other commissioners confused about where the Board officially stands, as no members have openly objected to the substance of the letter.
“The County Board knows about it already, or it should know about it already,” Rice said. “It’s been in the news, people have raised it with the County Board members before, and the NAACP has raised the issue with numerous people before. Sending the letter to the County Board would just be telling them something they already were aware of.”
Last month, ARLnow reported the Arlington County Sheriff’s Office is under pressure from personnel, inmates and the NAACP to improve conditions at the county jail amid claims of inadequate healthcare and chronic staffing shortages leading to excessive confinement and mismanagement.
Deputies have highlighted the safety risks associated with staffing shortages, and several former inmates, including John Parker and Moika Nduku, have since come forward to support these claims.
“I was there for 20 months… We came out a handful of times, literally seven or eight times, that we came out for food, to perhaps talk to our lawyers, over months and months at a time,” Nduku said during a special Human Rights Commission meeting held last month. “We’ve experienced something that’s way past inhumane, denying our basic rights.”
The Arlington County Board could approve a new sewer plan for the first time in 22 years tomorrow (Saturday).
The proposed Sanitary Sewer Collection System Plan is designed to prepare the county for continued growth through 2045. Despite the surge in development planned for the county over the next two decades, the plan does not call for expanding Arlington’s current sewer infrastructure.
Instead, according to a county report, the most substantial change would be an increase in how often the county cleans out small-diameter sanitary sewers. Flushing pipes of 12 inches in diameter and less every five years would cost $330,000 annually, increasing the average household’s water bill by about $2.11 each year.
The Arlington County Board is scheduled to vote on the proposed plan at a meeting tomorrow morning.
The reason the county does not need more sewer lines, according to a staff presentation to the Planning Commission last week, is that plumbing fixtures and appliances have become more efficient over time. Every day, Arlington uses about 5 million gallons of water less than when the county approved the current sewer plan in 2002.
This is despite the fact that the county has about 46,000 more residents than it did 22 years ago.
“The trends are going the right way,” Planning Commissioner James Lantelme said last week. “We’re using less water.”
Population growth between now and 2045 is expected to increase Arlington’s water usage by about 27%, or 6 million gallons per day, according to the presentation. This is still less than the county used in the late 1990s.
At about 20 million gallons per day, the county currently uses about as much water as it did in the 1960s, when it had 73,000 fewer people.
“Adding additional neighbors to our county is something that we can support,” Lantelme said. “Our infrastructure is robust enough that we can add all these people comfortably and safely.”
Arlington’s water-use projections contrast with allegations from some residents that the county lacks the infrastructure to keep up with projected growth. For instance, a lawsuit filed last April claims that the county violated state law in passing its Missing Middle zoning code changes without fully considering possible impacts on infrastructure, including sewer systems.
In March 2023, the Arlington County Board approved changes to the zoning code allowing up to 6-unit dwellings on lots previously zoned only for single-family homes. The Board also approved a set of limitations intended to control the pace and impact of development, including parking minimums, permit caps and tree planting requirements.
But Arlington Neighbors for Neighborhoods, a group that issued a press release on behalf of the plaintiffs, claims that was not enough.
“State law requires that zoning ordinances consider needs for transportation, schools, parks, recreation, and public spaces, as well as the conservation of natural resources,” the statement said. “The law also requires consideration of a locality’s comprehensive plan, which addresses stormwater, sanitary sewer, water distribution and more.”
While the revised sewer plan does not recommend expanding current infrastructure, it calls for continued improvement projects such as relining the county’s existing pipes, many of which are between 75 and 100 years old. The county has been working on relining projects for a number of years and so far has relined 58% of the sanitary sewer system, according to the county report.
Photo (top) via Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services/Flickr
A proposed county contract aims to incentivize Arlington residents to resume buying as many solar panels as they once did.
The Arlington County Board on Saturday is set to consider whether to approve an agreement with Solar United Neighbors (SUN), which runs the Capital Area Solar Switch program, a co-op that provides financial incentives to people who buy solar panels from local vendors.
A county report argues that the county’s failure to enter into such an agreement last year caused a precipitous drop in solar installations.
“Until 2023, Arlington County was first, regionally and supra-regionally, in program performance,” the report says, noting that 401 residents registered for Solar Switch in 2022 and 26% had panels installed.
That all changed last year after SUN asked participating counties to enter into memorandums of understanding with the company, pledging to work with SUN to conduct public outreach about the program.
“Absent a full MOU, SUN advised that its ability to provide full outreach, marketing, and promotional services would be limited,” the report says. “In 2023, execution of an MOU with SUN did not occur.”
This had consequences for Arlington.
While program registrations surged in Maryland’s Montgomery and Frederick counties, which signed MOUs with the company, Arlington’s numbers slumped. Just 148 residents registered for the co-op last year — and of these, only 11, or 7%, went through with actually installing solar panels.
“Arlington County’s active participation with SUN’s annual solar co-op ‘Capital Area Solar Switch’ directly impacts the resulting number of rooftop PV solar that is installed on residential roofs in the County each year,” the report says. “In 2023, however, the marketing, outreach and promotional support to the County from SUN was [minimal]… While the County conducted promotions to educate residents and promote the solar co-op, SUN focused its time and resources where MOUs were in place and diverted their services and resources to those jurisdictions.”
Under the proposed memorandum of understanding, the county would agree to provide information about Solar Switch on its website, in blog posts and on its newsletter. The county would also agree to share social media posts, help with a “public launch” of the program and allow the company to use the county logo on some materials.
The contract notes that this is not a joint venture but rather, “an agreement between the Parties with the goal of furthering their respective missions.” The agreement would expire Dec. 31 unless the parties extended it.
Arlington’s Community Energy Plan seeks to have all of the county’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2035, with the goal of becoming fully carbon neutral by 2050.
That effort will require more significant buy-in from residents, advocates say, as all Arlington County operations have relied on renewable energy since early 2023. More than 80% of that power comes from offsets generated by the Arlington-Amazon solar panel farm in Pittsylvania County, which opened in 2022.
Photo via Arlington DES/Flickr
State-funded safety improvements to the Mount Vernon Trail are one step closer to getting underway.
The Arlington County Board is set to review on Saturday a memorandum of agreement with the Virginia Department of Transportation, the National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration governing the roles of the respective agencies throughout the project.
Some five miles of trail between Rosslyn and Tide Lock Park in Alexandria are set to be widened so that users have 5.5 feet of space in each direction, as opposed to the current 3.5 feet. One bridge near Theodore Roosevelt Island, the infamous wood plank Trollheim Bridge, and two bridges in Alexandria will also be rebuilt and widened.
Lastly, the S-curve at Daingerfield Island and four intersections — near Theodore Roosevelt Island and the Humpback Bridge, Crystal City connector and Four Mile Run trails — will be realigned to reduce conflicts. Construction is set to start in the 2026-27 fiscal year.
Four years ago this May, NPS, which administers the Mount Vernon Trail, released a study detailing its current conditions and recommending substantial upgrades. The study found that pedestrian and cyclist conflicts are significant along narrow and congested portions of the trail through Arlington County, particularly near Rosslyn and Crystal City.
The study also determined the intersection with the Four Mile Run Trail has high crash potential and recommended straightening the sharp S-curve at Daingerfield Island.
A few months later, the Arlington County Board gave the green light to apply for state funding for some these recommended upgrades. In 2021, the state awarded the project $29 million from its discretionary transportation capital funding program.
NPS will chip in $4 million to cover the difference between estimated project costs and the state’s allocation and will cover any budget overages. Already, it has conducted public engagement on the project and will continue to do so as the project progresses through the conclusion of design and into construction, the county report says.
The agreement set for review this weekend must be approved for NPS to access the funding, according to the county.
As part of the agreement, Arlington County will appoint a project manager tasked with making sure the project stays within the scope of what the state approved. The county will also approve the final designs, which are nearly 30% complete so far.
Additionally, the County Board will review a separate agreement that includes Alexandria, pertaining to the trail portions that fall within its city limits.
(Updated at 12:30 p.m.) Arlington County is home to one of the busiest Goodwill donation centers in the country and this location, on S. Glebe Road, is now being teed up for redevelopment.
Last week, Planning Commission members recommended the Arlington County Board approve plans from Goodwill and affordable housing partner AHC to redevelop its storefront with a 6-story building consisting of a new retail and donation center, 128 units of affordable housing and space for a child care center.
The Board is set to review the proposal — which includes requests to rezone the property and label it a “revitalization area,” a designation intended to boost AHC’s application for low-income housing tax credits — on Saturday.
Still, some criticism over pedestrian safety for elderly residents and children tempered that enthusiasm, as did questions to affordable housing partner AHC Inc. about its ability to manage an affordable community following livability issues residents and advocates revealed at the Serrano Apartments on Columbia Pike.
“There’s just so much to love about this project,” said Planning Commissioner Leo Sarli. “We cannot have enough housing… childcare or upcycling — which is what Goodwill does — which again, keeps things out of landfill and has a massive environmental impact.”
Despite all this, he had lingering pedestrian safety concerns around the site entrance, given all the foot and vehicular traffic that apartments, retail and childcare are expected to generate. This led him to propose that the Planning Commission recommend the County Board defer its approval until Goodwill addresses them. While other commissioners likewise stressed their pedestrian safety concerns, his motion failed 9-1, with one abstention.
They later supported a resolution from Vice-Chair (and Arlington County Board candidate) Tenley Peterson to recommend county staff continue to work with the applicant to design streets around the building that use “pedestrian-forward design practices.”
“We don’t want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” she said. “This project offers so much value to the community.”
Land use attorney Andrew Painter said the proposal actually improves pedestrian safety by separating donor, resident and retail traffic, reducing surface parking from 54 spaces to four accessible ones and closing one of two existing site entrances.
County staffer Kevin Lam, meanwhile, assured Planning Commissioner members that transportation staff thoroughly reviewed the proposal and do not believe the site poses a significant safety issue, though it is a “conflict point between pedestrians and vehicles.”
Like Peterson, the Transportation Commission approved the project, though several had pedestrian safety concerns. Chair Chris Slatt said commissioners hope these are addressed post-approval and commended Goodwill for transportation upgrades it has committed to, including one-way parking access, fewer surface parking spaces and a wider, raised sidewalk across the driveway.
With ranked-choice voting now the go-to method for local primaries in Arlington, the County Board is also considering using it for the November general election.
This Saturday, the Board plans to hold a public hearing to decide whether to use the voting method, also known as RCV, in the County Board election this fall to fill Chair Libby Garvey’s soon-to-be-vacant seat — the only one expected to be empty.
Five candidates are currently vying for Garvey’s seat, including first-time candidate and Planning Commissioner Tenley Peterson, second-time candidates J.D. Spain, Sr. and Natalie Roy, first-time candidate Julie Farnam, and former State Senate candidate James DeVita. To win the nomination, a candidate must get a 51% majority.
A county report argues that using RCV in November will allow the Board to assess how well the new electoral system is received and decide on its potential expansion in future general elections.
If adopted, RCV — a process in which voters rank candidates by preference — would not apply if more than one County Board seat is up for grabs. More time is needed to introduce, clarify and debate RCV as an election method for two or more open seats, the report says
Arlington County piloted RCV in last year’s primary after a 2022 survey showed majority support among residents. The Virginia General Assembly approved a measure in 2020 that allows localities to adopt RCV for elections to a county board, board of supervisors or city council.
In December, the Board endorsed ranked-choice voting as the default for Arlington’s primary elections.
Despite positive feedback from voters about the new system during the June 2023 primary, the Board chose not to use it for the 2023 general election. Members cited concerns over the quality of outreach to voters about the new system, particularly among communities of color, renters and young people.
The county plans to use its current voting machines for the County Board primary this June, but has allocated $2 million in the 2025 budget for new machines capable of handling more than three ranked-choice options.
(Updated at 12:35 p.m.) Even in the era of Missing Middle, some duplex projects in Arlington have to go to the Arlington County Board for approval.
A proposal to build two side-by-side homes for sale at 1129 N. Utah Street, a few blocks from the Ballston Metro station and Washington-Liberty High School, is one such project.
Although the 2-story, single-family home set for demolition is in a “townhouse district,” only a single-family home can be built by right. McLean-based developer BeaconCrest Homes must go through the county’s longer, more intensive review process — typically reserved for larger-scale projects — to obtain approval for its proposed semi-detached home. It will have two 4-bedroom, 4.5-bath homes, each 2,600 square feet, with private outdoor spaces and 2-car garages.
“Given the property’s location and immediate surrounding uses, we felt it deserved to be more than a single dwelling and chose to pursue the 2-unit, semi-detached route,” said BeaconCrest representative Derek Huetinck. “Wrapping up, we continue to believe that the project before the Planning Commission is a better fit for the neighborhood, and more closely aligned with the county’s housing needs than the by-right option.”
It is a quirk that may come down to how the neighborhood and county zoning codes developed.
The brick home at 1129 N. Utah Street was built in 1948. While the first mention of “townhouse dwelling districts” appears to be Arlington’s 1969 Zoning Ordinance, it was not until the 2002 ordinance that the designation “R15-30T” — the type of townhouse dwelling district this home finds itself in — entered the code.
The 2002 code says this new district responds to the need for more transit-oriented development. Still, the code requires site plan approval by the County Board for 2-unit semi-detached homes and 3-unit townhouses, meaning these was never a by-right option, though the district’s name suggests a preference for this housing.
Today, several townhouses, along with some 3-story apartment buildings, line N. Utah Street, except for the “hold out” property in question, as Planning Commissioner Daniel Weir described it last week.
Now that property owners can build 2-6 unit homes by right in what were once single-family-home-only districts, the added hoops in a townhouse district — unchanged by the Missing Middle ordinance — prompted staff and the Planning Commission to give the N. Utah Street project an abridged process, with targeted outreach to immediate neighbors and more informal meetings.
The developer worked with neighbors who had critiques regarding the façade, which BeaconCrest worked to address, per a county report. Only one person, the president of the Ballston-Virginia Square Civic Association, expressed concerns about the shortened process.
Last week, Planning Commissioner Jim Lantelme lobbied for zoning code revisions to streamline this process even more.
“The process really is not the way to go for small projects. It just unnecessarily adds a lot of expense for both delay and money,” he said, asking county staff what the commission and county can do to make this process more efficient.
He recommended that the Planning Commission Chair and Vice-Chair voice support for tasking staff with streamlining the process for these districts. That discussion should take place, he said, during an upcoming work session when the Board, Planning Commissioners and the county’s planning division meet to discuss priorities for this year.
“It’s time,” he said. “I mean, we need housing.”
County planner Matt Pfeiffer said it is possible that denser residential districts as a whole will be revisited at as part of a planned Multifamily Reinvestment Study, “when and if that comes forward.”
“That’s something that we can take back and think about some more,” he said.
Addressing BeaconCrest, Lantelme said: “I’m glad you’re doing this but you shouldn’t have had to go through this. The expense just is not worth what you could if if you built the same thing in a [low-density] district… by right. And that just doesn’t make any sense to me.”