Author: Jo DeVoe

County to enforce zoning violations in Ballston public alley used by Advanced Towing

By Jo DeVoe
Advanced Towing tow truck outside the company’s lot in Ballston (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 8:45 a.m. on 7/4/23) Arlington County says it is enforcing some wayward fencing and gates in a public alley abutting Advanced Towing and American Service Center.

It all started because of complaints about tow trucks for the Ballston company parking in front of “the most famous fire hydrant in Arlington County,” so named by public safety watchdog Dave Statter.

Over the last year, an anonymous Twitter account dedicated to the hydrant has made Freedom of Information Act requests to ascertain the alley’s ownership and highlight the county’s responsibility for overseeing how it is used. This inquiry sparked several complaints about illegal parking last fall.

This week, the information requests unearthed an update: the county said it owns the 5th Road N. alley, off N. Quincy Street in Ballston. It said it is working with Advanced Towing to remove a fence and American Service Center, which operates the Mercedes-Benz dealership, to remove the gates.

The owner of the “Advanced Towing Fire Hydrant” Twitter account, says highlighting the zoning code issues was not because of an ax to grind with the towing company. Instead, it was to highlight the degree to which enforcement decisions lie with the Office of the County Manager.

“You shouldn’t have to crowdsource outrage on Twitter to get the government to enforce existing parking regulations,” the account owner, who wants to remain anonymous, told ARLnow.

In a statement, county spokesman Ryan Hudson confirmed the enforcement would begin and traced the move back to citizen complaints.

“Zoning started enforcement due to the fact that these two businesses are encroaching on public land,” he says. “The genesis was a complaint about illegally parked cars in front of the fire hydrant. That led us to become aware the fence didn’t meet the clearance of 3 feet and didn’t have Zoning approval.”

The fire hydrant account posted about the wayward fence earlier this year.

A spokesperson for Advanced Towing confirmed the company is complying with the request.

“We have been in touch with the County and our fence will be open tomorrow,” an Advanced Towing spokesperson said in an email, adding that the company never put the fence up and it has been there for well over 20 years.

Arlington County approved a certificate of occupancy for the tow company but that did not amount to permission to occupy the alley, according to a copy provided to the Advanced Towing Fire Hydrant Twitter account.

While the company can occupy the alley, Hudson says the fence has to be moved back because it is encroaching into a 10-foot wide public alley. Fences on private property are allowed with proper approval — just not in a public alleyway.

“The County, not adjacent property owners or tenants, will determine how to operate and maintain the public alley,” the county spokesman said.

The alley adjacent to the American Service Center property, meanwhile, is a public alley not owned by the auto repair company.

“Gates need to remain open because they are obstructing public use of and access to the public alley,” Hudson said.

A spokeswoman for American Service Center told ARLnow she was directed “not to discuss anything with anyone.”

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Public review process kicks off for hotel redevelopment proposal near Rosslyn

By Jo DeVoe
1/5

A proposal to redevelop the Red Lion Hotel near Rosslyn is beginning its journey through the Arlington County approval process.

Local development group Orr Partners took over previously approved plans from 2019 to replace the hotel and the Ellis Arms Apartments in the Radnor-Fort Myer Heights neighborhood with a 10-story condo building and 12-story hotel.

After taking over, Orr expanded the scope of its project. Now, it intends to build on a 2.2-acre site composed of the hotel, formerly the Best Western Iwo Jima hotel, which opened in 1958, as well as the Ellis Arms and Williamsburg apartments, which were built in 1954.

Instead of a condo building and hotel, it proposes building a 446-unit, 8-story apartment complex at 1501 Arlington Blvd, bounded by Fairfax Drive to the south and the Parc Rosslyn Apartments and Belvedere Condominiums to the north.

Existing conditions at the Red Lion Hotel site (via Arlington County)

“We think it will revitalize this neighborhood and bring critically needed housing to Arlington County,” Tyler Orr of Orr Partners said in a video. “Our company has been honored to deliver numerous projects in Arlington County over the last 35 years. In all our projects, we seek to enhance the fabric of the surrounding community, be considerate of our neighbors and give something back with any new community we deliver.”

In exchange for razing the two 14-unit apartment buildings, Orr says the company will provide on-site affordable housing.

That has to amount to at least 28 units or the same square footage lost to redevelopment, according to county planner Adam Watson. He said in a video that Orr is held to this standard because it is building on a site that is mostly designated a “special affordable housing protection district.”

Watson said county staffers are working with Orr on an affordable housing plan that replaces the lost housing.

Presentation materials from Orr say the proposal mostly includes a mix of one- and two-bedroom units, though there are 15 two-bedroom “junior” apartments and 12 three-bedroom units, which are at a premium in Arlington County.

Orr Partners intends to reach LEED Gold certification and plans to include three courtyards as well as at- and below-grade, at a rate of 0.57 spaces per unit.

“Architecturally, the base of the building is scaled to respect the heights of the residential developments along the Arlington Blvd corridor,” architect Chris Gordon said in the Orr presentation. “The design incorporates various techniques to break up the massing, through alternating materials, use of color, textures and providing interior courtyards out to Arlington Blvd beginning at third-level amenity terrace.”

He notes the structure is shaped to capture “primary views of the Capital mall” and to bring together amenities so “all residents to engage in this terrific location.”

Orr Partners is also leaving enough space in its development to allow Arlington County to reconstruct the Arlington Blvd Trail that is across street, says county planner Adam Watson. Base engineering for that project is in progress.

The county is asking for feedback on the proposal related to land use, building form, architecture, transportation, landscaping and public space and community benefits.

After the feedback form closes later this month, the first Site Plan Review Committee meeting will be held in September, followed by a second in October. Meetings for commission and Arlington County Board approval have yet to be scheduled.

A crane lowered a reclining Statue of Liberty in Virginia Square this morning

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

Bright and early this morning, Lady Liberty in repose rolled into Arlington on a flatbed truck.

Then, the turquoise lady was lifted by a crane onto the front lawn of the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (MoCA), the county’s recently rebranded art museum at 3550 Wilson Blvd.

“Reclining Liberty,” by New York City artist Zaq Landsberg, is inspired by traditional Asian art depicting the reclining Buddha on his path to enlightenment, appearing serene at the knowledge of his imminent death.

The artwork is intended to invite passers-by to contemplate the ideals of liberty and freedom embodied by the Statue of Liberty — put in conversation with Buddhist enlightenment ideals, Arlington’s military architecture and nearby national monuments.

“Recontextualizing ‘Reclining Liberty’ in Arlington makes sense for our current moment. Placing it within a few miles of Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, the National Mall, etc, adds a new layer onto the work,” Landsberg said in a statement earlier this summer.

There will be a public event on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to celebrate the sculpture’s arrival with an artist talk, food, art and other family-friendly activities.

The museum is also planning a series of accompanying talks and conversations, in partnership with Arlington Public Art, which will address issues related to the work: the role of monuments and memorials in public life, immigration and democracy. A schedule is forthcoming.

“Reclining Liberty” will lie in repose there until July 28 of next year. Prior to her immigration to Arlington, she had year-long stints in Harlem and Liberty State Park in New Jersey.

Available offices on the rise in Courthouse due to aging buildings

By Jo DeVoe
A vacant office building in Courthouse in December 2022 (via Google Maps)

(Updated at 5:15 p.m.) One pocket of Arlington County has the most office space on the market and seeking tenants in the D.C. area, according to a new report.

A submarket made up of Courthouse, Clarendon and Virginia Square tops the charts for its “availability rate” — which includes any offices that can be leased now or in the next year — because of its high concentration of older office buildings.

“There are a number of dated 1980s-constructed buildings that sit idle as tenants continue to re-evaluate their office needs and often move to newer or renovated buildings in different submarkets,” says Ben Plaisted, vice chairman at commercial real estate company Savills, which produced the report.

In this submarket, Arlington Economic Development staff says 80% of offices were built more than 20 years ago.

“National and regional trends show that new leases tend to prefer buildings built in the past 10 years,” the county’s economic development arm said in a statement. “As a result, submarkets with newer product tend to have lower availability and submarkets with older product tend to have higher availability.”

Across Arlington, vacancy is concentrated in older buildings: about 75% of vacant square footage is within buildings at least 30 years old, says AED.

In response, why Arlington County is trying to infuse old office buildings with a mix of emerging businesses, such as research and development, artisan workshops, breweries and distilleries, and even pickleball courts.

Office availability rates and rents in the D.C. area (courtesy Savills)

AED provided a few caveats to the report.

It says Savills combined Courthouse, Clarendon and Virginia Square into one submarket, while another real estate company, CoStar, only combines Courthouse and Clarendon. That changes the overall availability rate.

Without Virginia Square, Clarendon-Courthouse has the second-highest availability rate in Northern Virginia and the D.C. area, behind Herndon, according to July 2023 data from CoStar, AED said.

Including Virginia Square means adding one major construction project to the mix: George Mason University’s FUSE building, says AED. The new facility has over 100,000 square feet listed as available for tenants.

The economic development division also says availability rates should be taken with a grain of salt.

“Availability rates can mask available square feet, as submarkets vary greatly in size,” AED said. “Therefore, the same amount of available square footage would appear as much lower availability rates in larger submarkets.”

Like other parts of the nation, Arlington is seeing tenants seek out smaller offices in higher-quality buildings, dubbed the “flight to quality.”

Overall, the report notes Arlington has some of the highest rent prices in the D.C. area, which is due to building quality plus proximity to D.C. and Metro. Over 60% of Arlington’s office product is listed by CoStar as Class A, or those built recently with attractive amenities and high rents, among other features.

“[Tenants] are willing to pay top dollar for high quality space but by reducing their footprint, they are not increasing their overall real estate costs,” Plaisted said. “The war for talent continues to be prevalent in the market and occupiers are looking to incentivize staff to be at the office by upgrading their physical location and space.”

Not everyone is reducing their footprint, however. AED says a half-dozen Arlington-based firms, from consulting firms to to government contractors, expanded their offices over the last year.

Meanwhile, a handful of British tech firms recently opened outposts in Arlington, while shipbuilding company Huntington Ingalls moved some of its offices from D.C. to National Landing.

Arlington has scored some commercial real estate wins with retention of tenants. The only notable tenant that AED says — to their knowledge — fully moved out of Arlington over the past year is the tech company Ostendio, which is now fully virtual.

Photo via Google Maps

Arlington Independent Media is in a financial hole. The county says it should look elsewhere for more funding.

By Jo DeVoe
The future home of Arlington Independent Media in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 5 p.m. on 7/3/23) Arlington Independent Media is Arlington’s public access TV channel, its community radio station, and a media training provider.

Under its current leadership, AIM — which was founded in 1982 — is trying to broaden its reach and uplift diverse residents. Reaching this goal, however, is hampered by messy finances: audit reports from 2018-19 show it has been losing money, while its 990s are behind schedule and staff are not getting paid on time.

Bringing Arlington Independent Media, or AIM, into the 21st century, increasing its name recognition and charting a new financial course is slow going.

Arlington County has chipped at AIM’s operating expenses recently to lessen its reliance on tax dollars — though cuts in 2018 were partially restored after public outcry, on the condition the organization would up fundraising. Meanwhile, the organization has to watch a once-reliable cable franchise agreement, which provides funding based on local cable TV subscription numbers, become increasingly unpredictable.

Arlington pays for AIM’s operational budget while revenue from the cable agreement, dubbed Public, Educational and Government (PEG) funds, go toward its capital expenses. As cable subscriptions dwindle, though, Arlington County has to decide where to prioritize funding.

Recipients for PEG funding include AIM, the broadcasts of county government meetings and work sessions, the county’s dark fiber network, and certain Arlington Public Schools initiatives.

“Our approach has been to review and consider all eligible expenses submitted to the County by AIM and other eligible entities,” spokeswoman Bryna Helfer said.

It is unclear how many people listen to and watch AIM. It has 322 paying members, down from 577 in 2019, while broadcasting metrics are too expensive and radio analytics efforts for WERA 96.7 FM are nascent, according to its CEO Whytni Kernodle. She says a better metric is its several community-based partners and its work to center diverse voices, including a scholarship for budding journalists whose parents do not speak English at home or are low-income.

“We are an outside organization that is attempting to use the power of the people to really uplift the community in general by focusing on the most marginalized,” she said.

With the operational and capital funding sources each drying up, AIM should do more fundraising, the county insists. Kernodle counters that the county controls the PEG funding and could give it to AIM but is funneling it to other initiatives and creating a backlog of PEG-eligible expenses.

“The problem is not lack of available funds or that the request is not an acceptable one under the guidelines, but that the county has other priorities for future usage of those funds,” she wrote in a March memo to the county. “This is clearly inequitable and alarmingly questionable as to appropriate usage of funds managed, not owned, by the County.”

Arlington County Board Chair Christian Dorsey told ARLnow that AIM received $660,000 in PEG funding last year. That’s actually an increase from years past, Kernodle said, chalking it up to her persistent requests — but she thinks more is warranted.

“We’re attempting to do the best we can,” she said. “What we’re trying to do is create a situation where something formed in 1982 can thrive now, and for those running it 40 years from now.”

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Community events around Arlington aim to improve safety and tackle gun violence

By Jo DeVoe
A police officer plays a game of pickup basketball with local kids in 2018 (flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf)

This evening, several neighborhoods and organizations are hosting events in an effort to make their communities safer.

The events from 5-8 p.m. tonight will feature food, lawn games and activities for kids. Arlington police officers, firefighters and other county personnel will participate in the “National Night Out” events, which are also happening across the U.S.

“National Night Out is a community-building campaign that promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer and improve quality of life,” a county webpage says.

“During the event, residents in neighborhoods throughout Arlington County and across the nation are asked to turn on their porch lights, lock their doors and spend the evening outside with their neighbors, police officers, firefighters and other County personnel,” the page continues.

A smattering of civic associations, community groups, affordable housing nonprofit AHC Inc., and live music venue The Renegade in Clarendon are putting on events this year, according to the website.

Organizers invited ACPD and other organizations to attend and engage with participants, says police spokeswoman Ashley Savage.

She provided the following rundown of what some events will be providing.

  • Arlington Village: Lawn games and refreshments
  • Cathcart Springs Homeowners Association: Barbecue
  • Cherrydale Public Library: Food and games
  • Gates of Ballston: Bingo, kids activities and music
  • Green Valley Civic Association: Food, kids activities, games and educational tables
  • Lyon Village Citizens’ Association: Refreshments

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Green Valley Civic Association hosted another event tailored to fighting gun violence.

Around 350 people attended, including three D.C. area mothers who lost sons between the ages of 8-35, says Portia Clark, the civic association president. Some 200 participants signed pledges to keep guns out of fights.

The impetus were recent reports of shots fired, a stabbing and some fights. These and similar public safety concerns over the last year have also prompted the civic association’s Public Service Work Group to meet regularly about ways to address violence in the community.

“This event was a way to help build relationships across the community and to get the community to pledge that they would not use weapons like guns to solve any disputes,” Clark said.

Coordinated by Tekhanna Hall-Harris and Javon “Blue” Harris, the event featured live bands and entertainers from Arlington and Alexandria, speakers, a prayer and a school supplies giveaway by Kingdom Fellowship Church in Alexandria.

It was a “great, family-friendly experience” and “no violence occurred,” Clark noted.

The ‘Guns Down Stop the Violence’ event in Green Valley on Sunday (courtesy Portia Clark)

Local leaders hope second Crystal City Metro entrance can help further revitalize and connect neighborhood

By Jo DeVoe
1/10

(Updated at 9:40 a.m. on 8/1/23) If you build it, they will come.

That is the philosophy guiding the planned construction of the east entrance to the Crystal City Metro station, for which Arlington County inked a contract earlier this month.

First floated in 2002, the idea of a second Crystal City Metro entrance remained on the local radar before becoming one of the suite of transportation projects the county and state agreed to deliver in order to secure Amazon’s (recently opened) second headquarters in Arlington.

This month, Arlington approved a contract with JBG Smith and Clark Construction, which together agreed to build the second entrance for no more than $117 million. Design work is not yet complete, however, and the new entrance may not be ready until 2027.

The new entrance will be located at the northwest corner of Crystal Drive and 18th Street S., a couple of blocks from the current entrance.

Although a few years away, project proponents say the project will bring visitors closer to Crystal Drive, a part of Crystal City undergoing significant change, and will create a “transit hub” connecting people to rail (VRE and Amtrak), buses and the airport. Doing so, they say, will make using Metro more convenient and, thus, encourage additional ridership, which remains below pre-pandemic levels.

“This east entrance really brings transit where it belongs, into the heart of a commercial district,” says Tracy Sayegh Gabriel, the president and executive director of the National Landing Business Improvement District.

“Crystal Drive is a commercial spine and there are many enhancements and new destinations that will deliver soon and will seamlessly connect to the entrance,” she continued. “In 2024, we will realize a truly reinvisioned Crystal Drive.”

The Crystal City Water Park, set to reopen this September with a number of food vendor stalls, would be across the street from the new entrance. A retail strip with Mah-Ze-Dahr, Tacombi, and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is steps away, while two dozen other retailers are set to move into Crystal Drive over the next year, including a new restaurant called Surreal.

Construction upgrades at the Crystal City Water Park are nearly complete (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Proponents say the second entrance will facilitate connections to other transit modes. Getting between VRE and Metro, for instance, can be a confusing hassle, says local civic association president Eric Cassel.

“Everybody who is a tourist or something like that, they have a hard time finding it currently, it’s kind of hidden away,” he said. “People don’t take transit as much because it’s difficult to transfer between that and buses and everything else. One of the reasons to make a focal point of a transit hub is to get people who would otherwise drive to take transit.”

The new station will also make hopping on the Metro a bit less of a slog for people who live or work in the neighborhood.

“This new entrance would save me and others 5 minutes of walking up the hill to get to the current entrance,” says Jay Corbalis, public affairs vice president for JBG Smith.

“That doesn’t sound like a lot to some people, but when you think about that every day, twice a day, for thousands of people, it starts to add up why it’s an important project,” he continued. “It changes the geography of National Landing. It brings that many people closer to the rest of the region.”

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County solicits feedback on 10-year plan to improve ART bus service

By Jo DeVoe
Passengers board an ART bus on Columbia Pike (file photo by Jay Westcott)

Arlington is looking to operate buses more frequently and expand service with more off-peak and weekend service.

These are just some of the recommendations that could be implemented as part of an overhaul of the municipal bus service, called Arlington Transit, over the next decade. The changes are part of an update to Arlington’s Transit Strategic Plan, which it is required to have by state law and update every six years.

As part of the update, Arlington County will be redesigning service in North Arlington and enhancing service along Columbia Pike, in Pentagon City and Crystal City, and around the under-construction Shirlington Transit Center. The proposed changes also include closing down some underutilized routes, adding service to community destinations such as Long Bridge Park, and ensuring schedules use easy-to-remember time intervals.

This update comes as ridership continues to recover from being slashed in half by the pandemic.

From July 2022 to this March, the most recent ART Bus ridership report available, monthly ridership increased from 130,299 to 164,516. Today, the highest concentration of riders is taking the bus north-south between Columbia Pike or Shirlington and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor or east-west along Langston Blvd.

Still, there are gaps in service and barriers to bus use that this update is intended to address. In preparation for the strategic plan update, the county says it heard from users that their biggest asks are reliability, frequency and efficiency, as well as a better user experience.

“People want more direct routes with fewer transfers, taking less time to make their trips… [as well as] a better user experience (clean buses, safe and accessible waiting areas, and high levels of customer service and transparency) overall,” the county said.

Right now, reliability can depend on which route users take. ART bus data from March, for instance, shows that on-time performance is higher from Rosslyn to East Falls Church and from Crystal City to Courthouse but lower from Columbia Pike to Rosslyn and Courthouse. The Columbia Pike routes, however, see four to six times the number of riders.

The county tracked where bus service and demand are mismatched, plus researched popular places people congregate and want to go to — but currently cannot get to easily by bus. County staff specifically looked at places with higher concentrations of people without cars, seniors and people with disabilities or limited English proficiency, among other socioeconomic factors.

It found the following communities, circled in the graphic, could benefit from expanded service.

Areas where service could be improved (via Arlington County) 

New routes serving these identified neighborhoods include a new ART 43 providing a “one-seat ride” between Clarendon, Courthouse, Rosslyn and Crystal City — a potential time and cost-saver compared to Metrorail — and a new ART 85, linking Shirlington, Long Branch Creek, Aurora Highlands, Crystal City and Potomac Yard.

These have the support of transit advocacy group Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County (SusMo), which evaluated each of the proposed route changes on its website.

“We’ve looked at the proposed route changes in detail and have a bunch of recommendations, both for routes that need improved frequencies, as well as for routes that are overly meandering, duplicative and should not be a priority in this constrained fiscal environment where both buses and bus drivers are at a premium,” SusMo said.

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YMCA may ditch tennis courts in Virginia Square redevelopment project

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

The YMCA may be ditching tennis courts when it redevelops its property in Virginia Square.

The organization plans to tear down its facility at 3400 13th Street N. and build a new recreational facility with an aquatics center, a multi-purpose gym with workout rooms, and a “diversity and inclusion center.”

There will also be a seven-story apartment building with 374 units, as well as open spaces and footpaths through the site.

Tennis players, however, have watched the eight existing courts get cut in half in the plans — and now axed — just ahead of the next project planning meeting set for today (Thursday). After this meeting, the project will head to the Arlington Planning Commission and County Board later this year.

In a letter to members sent last week, and in comments to ARLnow on Tuesday, the organization says it must change course because planning guidance prevents it from building a structure tall enough to accommodate courts.

Without support for the taller heights from Arlington County and neighbors, it says the courts will be scrapped and it plans to work with Arlington to contribute to tennis amenities elsewhere.

“Over the course of multiple reviews of the site plan with the county and the community, the Y and our development partner came to the conclusion we had to reduce the overall footprint of the building,” said Alison Risso, the communications director of YMCA of Metropolitan Washington. “Tennis courts require a substantial amount of horizontal and vertical space while only typically serving two to four players at a time on a court.”

The decision shocked some tennis players, including Janet Barsy.

“The eight Y indoor courts are the last public indoor tennis courts in Arlington,” she said. “They are well used by Arlington and other Northern [Virginia] residents for personal and organized tennis and provide a venue for many popular adult and children’s clinics.”

Barsy says she is dismayed by what she feels is a lack of meaningful engagement with players, who were not pleased by the initial plans, which proposed a reduction in courts. Early public feedback included comments from several tennis players advocating for more courts and fewer bells and whistles.

“Early and honest engagement would have been in keeping with the Y’s four stated core values: caring, honesty, respect and responsibility,” she said.

Risso, however, notes tennis membership “has continued to decline over the last decade,” perhaps replaced by pickleball fever. The proposed facility’s multi-purpose gym includes three indoor pickleball courts and convertible courts for squash, handball and racquetball.

For the county’s part, communications and engagement specialist Elise Cleva says staff flagged that the proposed site layout was “inconsistent with what was envisioned” in a planning document guiding redevelopment along Washington Blvd and N. Kirkwood Road.

The document was precipitated by plans to redevelop the YMCA facility as well as the American Legion and Mill Creek Residential sites to its south.

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Arlington County considers senior care-related zoning changes in Pentagon City and on Columbia Pike

By Jo DeVoe
The RiverHouse apartments at 1111 Army Navy Drive (staff photo)

Arlington County is considering changes to its zoning ordinance to encourage the construction of more senior care facilities.

The proposed changes include increasing the maximum building heights for elder care facilities in Pentagon City and allowing the construction of elder care facilities along the Columbia Pike corridor, per a county report.

The report says these changes are needed to ensure the existing zoning code supports the vision of the Pentagon City Sector Plan, adopted last year. During an initial review of proposed redevelopment projects, staff said they identified inconsistencies between the two related to building height codes for elder care facilities.

To address these issues, staff have proposed an amendment clarifying where elder care facilities can be built in areas of Pentagon City that are zoned for multifamily uses — and how tall these buildings can be.

The amendment targets the part of the neighborhood within a “coordinated redevelopment district” within the boundaries of 16th Street S. to the south, S. Lynn Street to the west, Army Navy Drive to the north and S. Eads Street to the east.

This appears to map onto the site of the RiverHouse complex, which is set to be redeveloped with new apartments, including senior housing. The report does not mention this planned redevelopment specifically but it does note that recent redevelopment plans revealed the inconsistencies staff are trying to resolve.

The Pentagon City Coordinated Redevelopment District and where RiverHouse is located within it (via Arlington County, edited by ARLnow)

Doing this analysis, staff discovered that existing ordinances excluded the construction of additional elder care facilities along Columbia Pike, per the report.

To resolve this issue, the report says the amendment also “introduces assisted living facilities, independent living facilities, nursing homes, and continuing care retirement communities as allowable forms of residential use” on Columbia Pike.

The amendment comes several years after the county initially proposed the possibility of opening up some areas zoned for multi-family and commercial buildings to senior centers in 2019.

Some members of the Zoning Committee of the Planning Commission and Crystal and Pentagon Cities Council expressed concerns about whether increasing the height of elder care facilities would complicate evacuation in the event of an emergency, according to the county report.

Other members argued there are a wide range of examples of high-rise elder care facilities, as close as Tysons Corner.

Staff said any new construction would still need to comply with “appropriate” building and fire code standards. Staff did note in the report that they plan to conduct a comprehensive analysis of permitted heights for elder care facilities in other zoning districts and special planning areas.

“Clarifying zoning language… will ensure buildings with elder care uses can be properly considered throughout the County and redevelopment in [multifamily]-zoned properties and property owners/developers can propose uses consistent with recommendations adopted in earlier planning efforts,” the report said.

These changes are set to be discussed during a public hearing by the Planning Commission on Sept. 11 and the County Board on Sept. 23.

Renovation plans for 93 units at Barcroft get thumbs up from County Board

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

Plans to renovate some of the buildings within the Barcroft Apartments complex on Columbia Pike cleared an important hurdle on Tuesday.

The Arlington County Board approved a use permit enabling renovation plans for 93 homes at the corner of S. George Mason Drive and S. Four Mile Run Drive on Tuesday. These will occur concurrently with long-term planning for how to redevelop select parcels within the sprawling acreage.

Board Chair Christian Dorsey said property owner and developer Jair Lynch is taking “virtually unheard of” steps to meet with residents and inform them of the project, sending monthly reports of these meetings to the county.

“I don’t want you to necessarily give them applause but understand there is a structure in place by which more information is learned, that they can share, and there is a vehicle to share it,” he said. “We’ll be watching. We’ll be monitoring. It’s really been working pretty well this far.”

Jair Lynch acquired the property in December 2021 using a $150 million loan from Arlington County and a $160 million loan from Amazon.

The terms of the agreement preserved the affordability of the 1,334 units for residents earning up to 60% of the area median income for 99 years. Jair Lynch is exploring making some units affordable to residents meeting lower income thresholds.

Since then, Jair Lynch has been meeting with residents to seek input on the changes and assuage them that legacy residents — those who Jair Lynch identified as living at the complex before the property was purchased — will not be displaced.

It is working with county staff to plot out redevelopment and renovation work and how it will pay for these changes, submitting a development and financing plan last October, which is currently under review. This fall, Jair Lynch and the county will discuss the mix of affordability levels on the site.

After the renovations, the number of homes will remain at 93 but, using bump-outs, 14 homes will become 3-bedroom and 4 will become 4-bedroom units. There will be landscape and site improvements, including to garages for tenants, and the buildings will incorporate environmentally friendly amenities and features.

Bump-outs at Barcroft Apartments to increase the size of 17 units (via Arlington County)

The renovations may require residents to be temporarily relocated elsewhere on the site, for which Jair Lynch will pay. After the units change size, legacy residents may seek to live in another unit on-site, Melissa Danowski, the county project coordinator for Barcroft, confirmed for the Board.

A resident meeting explaining next steps was held this April and information will continue to be shared with residents to give them time to prepare for any disruption. Those who will be relocated will get a 120-day notice.

Ahead of the meeting, there was some discussion among Planning Commission members about whether the sloped site can be made more accessible to people with disabilities, as some areas are only accessible by stairs and at least one building does not have an elevator.

Project representatives said that making accessibility upgrades will be difficult. Modifications could be made to the rest of the site to add accessible units, per a summary of the discussion shared with the Board.

Commissioners also discussed what would become of the tree canopy on the site.

Jair Lynch proposes removing trees where they conflict with construction or stormwater facilities or if they are in poor health or are invasive species, a report said. The developer plans to exceed tree replacement numbers.

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