Author: Ethan Rothstein

Columbia Pike in Line for 229 Affordable Aparments

By Ethan Rothstein
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(Updated at 5:20 p.m.) The Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing is planning on building two, eight-story apartment buildings near the western end of Columbia Pike.

APAH is planning on replacing a surface parking lot at 1010 S. Frederick Street with the two buildings, which will contain 229 units of committed affordable housing. All of the units will be affordable up to 60 percent of area median income, with some units as low as 40 percent AMI.

To replace the surface parking, a three-level underground garage will be built.

The development is on this month’s agendas for the county’s planning and housing commissions, and is expected to go before the Arlington County Board at its meetings later this month. The project would be one of the first of its kind to go before the County Board under the Columbia Pike neighborhoods form-based code, approved in 2013.

Some in the community have expressed concern about a concentration of affordable housing on the western end of Columbia Pike, where this project is situated. County Board member John Vihstadt addressed some of those concerns at the Arlington Civic Federation meeting on Tuesday night.

“Certain people have concerns about an over-concentration [of affordable housing] on the west end of the Pike and not enough on the east end,” Vihstadt said. “It’s something that we’re going to have to come to grips with. I think we all want a mix of income in all neighborhoods as much as possible.”

APAH CEO Nina Janopaul told ARLnow.com that those concerns pale in comparison when compared to the concerns over the lack of affordable housing overall in the county. She said the civic association in which the new project is located, Columbia Forest, has lost 750 units of affordable housing in the last 15 years.

“The Columbia Pike Neighborhoods Plan calls for preserving or replacing the 6,200 affordable units, most of which are market-rate affordable and vulnerable to redevelopment,” she said. “We need to take advantage of the moment now, when the interest rates are low, to build affordable housing that will still be there in 60 years.”

The development, if approved, would add the 229 affordable units right next to APAH’s expansive, 208-unit Columbia Grove apartments. Of those units — on the 8-acre, 14-building campus — 131 are committed affordable housing. Janopaul said the buildings are Columbia Forest’s only affordable housing “at all.”

The project, dubbed “Columbia Hills,” will cost an estimated $85 million, according to APAH’s application to the county. APAH is requesting the county contribute $18.5 million from its Affordable Housing Investment Fund, which, along with the form-based code application, the County Board is expected to debate granting this month.

APAH is also planning to submit a Low Income Housing Tax Credit application next month. If all goes as Janopaul hopes, the federal government would approve the loan in the first quarter of 2016, after which construction can begin.

Image (top) via Arlington County. Photo (bottom) via Google Maps

‘Love the Run You’re With’ 5K Returns Sunday

By Ethan Rothstein

Love the Run You're With posterThe annual Valentine’s Day-themed 5K in Pentagon City, “Love the Run You’re With,” will return Sunday, six days before the holiday.

The race will start and end on S. Joyce Street at Pentagon Row, and take runners down Army Navy Drive just past 28th Street S. The race also doubles as a matchmaking affair, with bib numbers corresponding to racers’ relationship status.

The course is the same as last year’s race, so the Arlington County Police Department will likely shut down the following roads form 7:00 to 11:00 a.m. for the race, which starts at 9:00 a.m.

  • South Joyce Street between South 15th Street and Army Navy Drive
  • Army Navy Drive between South Joyce Street and South 25th Street

Street parking in the area will be restricted, so motorists should be careful if they plan on parking on Saturday night.

Registration for the race is $40 and includes a commemorative blanket. After the race, runners are invited to Champps at 1201 S. Joyce Street for drinks, a free photo booth and karaoke. All runners — those registered as single (“Cupid Stupid”), it’s complicated (“Love ’em or Leave ’em”) or in a relationship (Co-dependent) — are invited to the bar after the race for mingling.

Image via Pacers Running

Four-Story Condo Building Coming to Columbia Pike

By Ethan Rothstein
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(Update at 6:25 p.m.) A new, mixed-use development is in the works for the western end of Columbia Pike.

Pillars Development Group, which built The Berkeley condominium in Ballston, is planning on constructing 78 condominiums and 8,000-square feet of ground floor retail at 4707 Columbia Pike, next to S. Buchanan Street, in the location of the now-closed El Tutumaso Bolivian restaurant.

That restaurant — previously home to a second location of Bob and Edith’s Diner and Sauca, which closed within a year of opening in 2012 — will be bulldozed for the incoming development. Pillars has applied for its first building permit on the site, and Operations Director Marwan Shahin told ARLnow.com today that the company hopes to start digging in May or June.

“We’re hoping we can start having people living in the building 18 to 24 months after that,” Shahin said.

The retail space does not have a prospective occupant yet, but Shahin said the company is looking to sell, not lease, that space to whoever wants to open a business in the first floor. The retail would front onto Columbia Pike and the residential entrance would be off of S. Buchanan Street.

Shahin said there will be a combination of underground and surface parking. The building will be developed (and has been approved) under the Columbia Pike Form-Based Code for commercial districts, which allows some projects to be approved without a hearing before the Arlington County Board.

County Board Chair Hynes Announces Retirement

By Ethan Rothstein

Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes speaks to the Arlington Civic Federation 2/3/15Arlington County Board Chair Mary Hynes won’t seek re-election this November, becoming the second County Board member in a week to announce their retirement.

Hynes, 59, will serve out the rest of her term in 2015 before stepping down. Her decision, along with County Board member Walter Tejada’s announcement last Wednesday, paves the way for the first County Board election with two open seats in decades.

“After nearly 20 years of elected service to our community, it’s time for a new chapter in my life.  It has been a privilege to serve this community, and I am incredibly optimistic about Arlington’s future,” Hynes said in a press release. “Arlingtonians are involved, thoughtful, and hardworking.  I know they always have — AND always will — find ways to make our community a special place for those who choose to live, work, play, and learn here.”

Hynes’ retirement plan is another shakeup in Arlington’s politics, following the groundbreaking election of John Vihstadt in 2014 — the first non-Democrat elected to the Board in a general election in 31 years — and the cancellation of the planned Columbia Pike and Crystal City streetcar system.

Hynes was first elected to the County Board in 2007 and is serving her second term as chair this year. Before that, she served 12 years on the Arlington School Board — including three stints as chair — after winning the first School Board election in almost 40 years.

Hynes said she is retiring to spend more time with her family; she has previously stated that 2014 was the hardest year she’s experienced since being elected to public office. She, along with then-chairman Jay Fisette, cast the deciding votes in canceling the streetcar. Hynes told the Washington Post that “bitter disagreements over spending” did not influence her decision to retire.

Hynes declined to discuss rumors of her retirement this morning, when an ARLnow.com reporter encountered her chatting with a constituent at a Columbia Pike coffee shop. She also did not give any hints about her impending retirement decision while addressing the Arlington County Civic Federation last night.

“This is a county with good, strong bones,” she told the Civic Federation. “It’s one of the best communities in the country by lots and lots of measures. It doesn’t mean we don’t have things to work on. We’ve had a rough couple of years. there’s a lot of external forces at play.”

This year, Hynes has thus far focused her efforts on the new Facilities Study Committee, her effort to refresh “The Arlington Way” of lengthy public debate to reach consensus for big-ticket projects.

After the jump, the full press release announcing her retirement. (more…)

Mountains of Dirt Next to Rt. 50 ‘Aren’t Going Anywhere’

By Ethan Rothstein
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The two large mounds of dirt at the Route 50-Washington Blvd interchange “aren’t going anywhere,” the Virginia Department of Transportation says.

Ellen Vogel, VDOT’s district landscape architect, told the Arlington Civic Federation last night at its monthly meeting that the twin mounds of dirt are too expensive to move.

The mounds are made up of construction debris covered in 4 feet of soil at the minimum. The debris is from the recently completed Route 50-Courthouse Road-10th Street N. interchange project. As for why the mounds never appeared in the plans for the interchange — and residents weren’t told the mounds were to become their new neighbors — Vogel said “nobody knew about it except for the construction folks on site.”

“They cost millions of dollars to move,” she said. VDOT tried to find a suitable location to dump the debris in Maryland but “they didn’t want it.”

With a dearth of landfills accepting that much dirt and debris in Northern Virginia, there are no viable options to transport the mounds, we’re told. It will stay where it is, next to the ramps from Washington Blvd to westbound Route 50 and from eastbound Route 50 to northbound Washington Blvd.

“I guess we have a new mountain in Arlington,” one Civic Federation member said. Many of the dozens in attendance laughed at Vogel’s honest answers about the new mountains’ origins and future. Some expressed concerned over environmental hazards, which Vogel dismissed.

“Most of it is fill dirt and concrete from the bridge,” Vogel said. “There are no toxins, it’s all inert material. It’s unsuitable for road construction, but it’s not unsuitable to plant in.”

The two mounds take up almost 100,000 square feet of surface area between them, and, starting in the spring, VDOT is committing to planting hundreds of trees on the site, including 24 red maples, 47 scarlet oaks and 52 Jefferson elms.

Vogel said there would be no such mounds around the under-construction Washington Blvd bridge over Columbia Pike, another VDOT project. Most of the major excavation work has been done, she said, so there’s no dirt to be piled.

Cherrydale Wine Shop to Close After 50 Years

By Ethan Rothstein

International Wine and Beverage in CherrydaleInternational Wine and Beverage will close sometime before the summer, ending 50 years in business for the Beek family at 4040 Lee Highway.

Husband and wife Leo and Mary Beek opened the shop in 1964 selling typewriters. Mary Beek told ARLnow.com today that about 18 years ago her son, Bob, got into the wine business and led the switch from selling the obsolete machines to wine, beer and cigars.

Leo has passed away, and Mary, Bob and Ashley Beek have decided to retire “whenever we sell all our goodies in here.”

“It’s time to retire,” Mary Beek said. “When it’s time to go, it’s time to go.”

Whenever the Beek family sells the rest of its drinks and smokes, the Cherrydale Veterinary Clinic next door will expand into its space. Dr. Robert Brown has owned the clinic since 1972 and operated it with his wife, Donna. Mary Beek said she was happy that another local, family business was moving in to the space.

Hat tip to Peter Golkin

APS: 100 Students Aren’t Vaccinated

By Ethan Rothstein

Arlington Public Schools logoThere are 100 students in Arlington Public Schools who are exempted from vaccinations, the school system tells ARLnow.com.

The number represents only 0.4 percent of the 24,529 students currently enrolled in APS. There are only two reasons a student is allowed to attend school without receiving proper immunizations: medical or religious reasons.

“For a medical exemption, a letter must be written from a licensed medical provider stating specifically from which immunizations a child is exempt,” Arlington School Health Bureau Chief Marian Harmon said in an email. “For a religious exemption, the parent must complete the religious exemption form for immunizations and have it notarized.”

Childhood vaccinations have been thrust into the national spotlight after a measles outbreak started at Disneyland in California and has spread to at least 94 people in eight states, according to NBC News. The disease had been largely eradicated in the U.S., but since the Centers for Disease Control reported the disease was brought from overseas, children whose parents declined vaccinations have fallen victim to the highly contagious infection.

Politicians from both sides of the aisle have urged parents to vaccinate their children, shooting down controversial reports from years back that linked vaccinations to autism. Those studies have since been debunked, but the anti-vaccination movement is still prevalent enough in the U.S. to contribute to the largest number of measles cases in 20 years.

Harmon says APS tracks which students have vaccination exemptions, and makes sure to notify parents when there is a disease outbreak at the child’s school.

“School Health works with Arlington Public Schools and Arlington County Communicable Disease staff to determine the needs for that student and their exposure risk,” she said.

APS spokesman Frank Bellavia said there are no suspected cases of measles in the county.

Clarendon Mardi Gras Parade Returns Feb. 17

By Ethan Rothstein

2013 Clarendon Mardi Gras paradeThe annual Clarendon-Courthouse Mardi Gras parade is back this year after a snow-induced hiatus in 2014.

The parade is scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m. on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 17, on N. Barton Street. About 40 floats and parade participants have already signed up to take part in the hourlong event, which will run up Wilson Blvd to N. Irving Street.

A snowstorm on Mardi Gras forced the Clarendon Alliance — which organizes the event — to push it back to St. Patrick’s Day. Yet another storm that March forced the 16th annual parade to be canceled altogether.

“Normally it’s a rain or shine type deal,” Clarendon Alliance Executive Director Matt Hussmann said. “But the snow banks were so big on the sidewalks, nobody could watch the parade.”

This year, if the weather cooperates, Hussmann said the “family-friendly” parade should continue to be the biggest and best-attended Mardi Gras parade in the D.C. area. The Ballou High School marching band is back, the Louisiana State University alumni group will again have a big presence, and beads and candy will again be flying around.

“The parade’s got a great feel to it,” Hussmann said. “It’s really a local event. The people in the parade are businesses people go to. Everybody’s yelling and waving and dressed up and they’ve got costumes. The floats are really creative. There’s a lot of music, they’re throwing beads and candy. It’s just home-grown fun.”

Before the parade, Courthouse’s Bayou Bakery will be hosting a “Bayou Gras Block Party.” The New Orleans-themed bakery, at 1515 N. Courthouse Road, is offering $30 tickets for three cajun dishes — like jambalaya and chicken and sausage gumbo — $20 tickets for Mardi Gras-themed cocktails and $15 tickets for three pours of Abita Amber Ale. Children under 12 years old will get a free mac and cheese.

The block party will run from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Tickets can be bought online or at Bayou Bakery.

File photo

Westover Italian Store Opening Pushed Back to Spring

By Ethan Rothstein

The Italian Store under construction, Feb. 3, 2015The much-anticipated opening of The Italian Store‘s location in Westover has been pushed back again.

Owner Robert Tramonte told ARLnow.com today that delays in getting utilities installed in the 75-year-old building — water, gas, electric and Verizon FiOS — have been the cause of the delay. Now, he hopes the 6,000-square-foot location on Washington Blvd opens this spring.

“There is no competition for those companies,” Tramonte wrote in an email, “so they schedule as they see fit.”

When Tramonte announced that a second location of his popular grocery/takeout restaurant business would take over the Westover 7-Eleven in December 2013, he planned to open May 2014. Permitting issues held up the start of construction until the summer, when Tramonte said he hoped to be open before the holidays.

Construction was in full swing on the interior when ARLnow.com looked in on the shop this morning. When the new store does open, it will feature a seating area for customers to eat and drink, an expanded grocery section and an Illy espresso bar. Last August, Tramonte described his plans for the location as “The Italian Store on steroids.”

Crystal City’s Fashion Show Returns This Week

By Ethan Rothstein

Crystal Couture 2014(Updated at 10:25 a.m.) Crystal Couture, the annual fashion show and pop-up fashion boutique, returns this week, starting with a VIP preview Thursday evening.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., 38 area designers will offer deals on their latest fashions, and models will stroll down the runway to show them off. The show will be in the Crystal City Shops at 1750 Crystal Drive and is free to attend.

The designers are offering up to 50 percent off their items, and attendees can drink wine, beer and cocktails from the bar while getting free five-minute makeovers.

DJ Neekola will be spinning tunes and fashion consultants will be on hand to discuss the offerings with guests in attendance.

Those interested in being first in line to see the designers’ 2015 collections can pay $50 to become VIPs. The VIP preview starts at 5:00 p.m. and features an hourlong open bar before the official opening of the show at 6:00 p.m.

Disclosure: Crystal City BID is an ARLnow.com advertiser. File photo.

Columbia Pike Church To Be Sold To APAH, Torn Down

By Ethan Rothstein

Arlington Presbyterian Church (via Preservation Arlington)(Updated at 5:10 p.m.) After more than a year of waiting, the sale of Arlington Presbyterian Church to the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing can go forward.

The church’s congregation voted in November 2013 to approve the church’s redevelopment into an affordable housing building with a 7,500-square-foot worship space for the church in future years. Last week, the National Capital Presbytery — the region’s governing body for presbyterian churches — approved the sale of the church building at 3507 Columbia Pike.

APAH must now gather financing and go through site plan approval from the county before the sale can close. According to church project manager Jill Norcross, the sale is expected to close in July 2016, which is also when the church’s congregation is expecting to need to find a new home.

“The congregation is thrilled,” Norcross said. “For them, it’s been quite a process, a multi-year visioning process where they’ve had to walk every step of the way. They’ve remained committed, so having the Presbytery approve it is a huge step for them, and they’re really excited about it. The next step is figuring out where they will worship when they leave the site.”

When the plans were approved more than a year ago, it was with the understanding that the new building would be the church’s future home when it opened. Now, Norcross said, APAH will own the land and the building outright, and the church and developer would have to agree on a new lease when the building is built, no sure thing.

“The church has given up any ownership stake in the building,” she said. “That’s what the Presbytery wanted. The church might come back as a tenant, but that’s still to be negotiated between now and 2016.”

APAH hopes to gain approval for a five-story, 142-unit apartment building with ground floor retail space originally intended for a coffee shop.

Preservationists have called for the building, which was built in 1931, to be preserved instead of torn down. The church decided the need for more affordable housing on Columbia Pike, and the opportunity to sell to APAH for millions of dollars, outweighed the idea of preserving the church and its rising maintenance costs.

“The affordable housing is desperately needed on the Pike,” Norcross said. The surprise cancellation of the streetcar did not have an impact on the congregation or the Presbytery’s decision, she said.

Preservation Arlington’s Eric Dobson said he hopes something can be done to preserve the church, because once Arlington’s older buildings are gone, “they’re gone for good.”

“That building was so important to the development of the Pike,” Dobson said. “The materials of the stone and its design… other communities would consider those assets, but in Arlington we seem to ignore that.”

Photo via Preservation Arlington

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