Making Room | ARLnow.com

Published November 11, 2019 at 2:30PM | Updated October 17, 2022 at 11:27AM

In one of its first concrete votes under the Housing Arlington umbrella, the County Board will consider a proposal on November 16 to revise its incentive zoning program that gives developers additional density in exchange for community amenities, particularly affordable housing or community facilities.

Within this admirable proposal to increase density, however, is a small but troubling indication that County staff may not trust the market to deliver housing for middle-income households.

Opinion

Making Room: Arlington’s Neighborhoods Should Match Our Values

By Jane Green

Published October 28, 2019 at 2:30PM

Your neighborhood is only as diverse as its housing stock.

That is my housing mantra. It is adapted from a line in Henry Grabar’s reporting on the 2018 city council vote in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to end exclusionary zoning and allow up to three-unit buildings on every residential lot. Minneapolis’s bold decision, made in the name of racial equity and housing affordability, has echoed throughout the country and we have started to hear the reverberations here in Arlington.