Arlington’s Board of Zoning Appeals has rejected a neighbor’s attempt to stop two proposed Expanded Housing Option developments in the Alcova Heights neighborhood.
An affiliate of local homebuilder Classic Cottages proposes building two side-by-side six-plexes at 4015 and 4019 7th Street S., bordering Alcova Heights Park and a couple of blocks north of Columbia Pike.
Thomas Peters and his wife Natalie found the perfect home in Arlington — one that already had an elevator that Thomas would need to get around in his wheelchair.
It did have one downside, however. The trees on his neighbor’s property, which is at a higher elevation, block natural light from reaching his backyard.
(Updated at 6:15 p.m.) Seven years ago, Les Garrison bought a two-family home in the Aurora Highlands neighborhood so that his son’s family could live in one half and the other could be rented out.
He had always intended to renovate the home near Crystal City, which consists of two apartments, each with two bedrooms and one bathroom. He also wants to modernize it, making it accessible to people with disabilities and adding solar panels.
County Board members enthusiastically and unanimously passed six amendments to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance intended to open up more elder care housing in Arlington.
Developers can now build elder care facilities across 18 zoning districts, after being limited to a handful of possible location for such facilities before.
The Arlington County Zoning Committee (ZOCO) is recommending the county open up more areas for potential use as elder care facilities.
During a meeting last night (Tuesday), ZOCO urged the county permit elder care facilities across 18 zoning districts, citing a growing elderly population and prohibitive restrictions on where such facilities can currently be built. The loosened regulations would let developers build nursing homes, assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, and continuing care retirement communities.
Arlington officials could soon advance zoning changes designed to make it easier for more childcare providers to open up shop in the county, as part of a lengthy push to increase access to daycare options for local parents.
County leaders have batted around a variety of potential changes for months now, but they finally seem ready to pass a suite of zoning tweaks impacting both large childcare centers and smaller “family daycare” homes. The proposals will go before the Planning Commission’s Zoning Committee for the first time tonight (Wednesday), and could make their way to the County Board sometime later this spring.
In a statement, released after ARLnow.com first reported the resignation, Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development Director Robert Brosnan called Artman “a dedicated and talented public servant.”
“She brought a high level of professionalism and a strong sense of fairness to her work,” Brosnan said. “She arrived in Arlington at a time when the Zoning Office was beginning a transformation into a higher performing organization and she has helped shape the office and the work of the staff in a very positive way. We thank her for her service to Arlington County, and wish her the very best as she embarks on this new challenge.”
But that may be changing.
Tomorrow night, the county’s zoning committee will meet to plan a comprehensive rewrite of the zoning ordinance. The meeting, which will run from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Room A of 2100 Clarendon Boulevard, is open to the public, although the discussion will be confined to the committee.
Neighbor will be pitted against neighbor at the Arlington Zoning Committee (“ZOCO”) hearing tomorrow night. The issue: parking recreational vehicles in the county.
Currently, the county’s RV parking policy is too stringent for some, who want to be able to legally park large RVs in their driveway, and doesn’t go far enough for others, who see RVs as an ugly, property-value-reducing blight on Arlington’s residential communities.
