Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting, October 14, 2023.
County Board and a host of non-profits have the back of NOVA YIMBIES, despite its questionable objective, which is densification for the sake of densification, and its unsubstantiated claims about how much density is actually needed.
At an October 2nd Planning Commission meeting, YIMBY spokesperson Jason Schwartz deplored the fact that Plan Langston Boulevard “calls for less than twelve hundred net new committed affordable units by 2040, which is less than half the twenty-five hundred unit goal” set out in the 2015 Affordable Housing Master Plan.
Since 2015 there have been 3 major developments in Northern Virginia that render the County’s housing projections obsolete: 1) the extension of the Metrorail to Fairfax and Loudoun Counties with 6 new Metrorail stations for the express purpose of transit-oriented development; 2) the advent of remote work; and 3) the adoption of Arlington’s EHO ordinance.
With fewer people commuting to DC and better, cheaper housing available elsewhere, the need for all this density has evaporated. To meet residual demand, the EHO together with rewriting the GLUP to convert single family neighborhoods to apartments will dramatically increase housing throughout the county.
The Arlington EHO Permit Tracker reports that since July 1, 121 EHO permits have been or will soon be awarded. Taken together with the likely approval of a massive 92-unit APAH apartment complex at the site of Clarendon Presbyterian Church, it’s obvious that the sky is the literal limit for new housing development in Arlington County. Why then the need for 2500 additional units along Langston Blvd?