Arlington’s likely 2025 County Board chairman has economic-development and property-repurposing initiatives atop his to-do list for the coming year.
“One out of four square feet [of office space in the county] is unoccupied,” Takis Karantonis on Dec. 10 told members of Arlington Senior Democrats. “It’s the highest for us ever, and one of the highest in the nation. What is worse, it’s not looking like the business is coming back.”
Arlington leaders will likely seek regional funding for a major pedestrian/bicycle connector trail in Crystal City.
County Board members on Saturday (Dec. 14) are expected to request $8 million from the pool of $25 million to $30 million that will be available next year from tolling on I-395 and I-95.
Construction of the new operations and maintenance facility for Arlington Transit (ART) bus service has come in on budget and ahead of schedule, Arlington government leaders say.
So a victory lap was in order.
Designs for a Rosslyn park, a controversial towing decision and a possible change in Arlington County Fair operations are all going before the Arlington County Board this week.
These items are all on the agenda as the Board holds its last meetings of the year on Saturday (Dec. 14) and the subsequent Tuesday (Dec. 17).
Arlington leaders are seeking help from the state government in boosting efforts to convert aging office buildings to residential use.
“We have some buildings that are great candidates” for conversion, County Board member Maureen Coffey said at a Dec. 3 work session with members of the county’s legislative delegation.
Arlington property owners next year likely will have a number of new ways to claim rebates against the government’s new stormwater fees.
County staff have proposed two additions to existing opportunities to lessen the annual stormwater fee, which is based on a property’s impermeable surface and for residential properties averaged $258 this year.
Ensuring access to affordable, high-quality daycare and early-childhood education has landed near the top of the Arlington County Board’s 2025 legislative wish list.
The cost of child care in Northern Virginia is “more expensive than college,” Board member Takis Karantonis said at the body’s Tuesday (Dec. 3) work session with members of the county’s delegation to the General Assembly.
A recent near-tragedy again has returned the spotlight to safety on S. Carlin Springs Road.
“People after the pandemic are driving like crazy,” Arlington County Board member Takis Karantonis said at a meeting last night (Dec. 2) of the Glencarlyn Civic Association. “There is no way to sugar-coat it.”
Arlington leaders long have suspected a demographic disconnect exists between those who serve on advisory bodies and the county’s population at large.
And now they have the data to back it up.
Plans to build a new apartment building and townhouse development near Columbia Pike have taken a significant step forward.
The Arlington County Board last month approved use permits for two projects, just a few blocks away from each other, with a total of 104 proposed housing units.
Several arts groups appear to have missed out on Arlington County grants this year due to issues in handling paperwork.
A number of groups were left behind when the Arlington County Board recently divided up $366,000 in fiscal 2025 grants to arts organizations and individual artists. Among them were several performing-arts troupes, which in past years had received funding.
Arlington’s current system of government has “served us well,” but might be in line for an update, one expert believes.
John Milliken — who served on the County Board in the 1980s until he was tapped to be Virginia’s secretary of transportation — opined on the topic of Arlington governance changes at the annual meeting of the Inter-Service Club Council (ISCC) of Arlington last week.
