Author: Jo DeVoe

Part of GW Parkway will close for winter weather, NPS warns

By Jo DeVoe
Drivers stranded in the snow on the GW Parkway in January 2011 (photo courtesy Steve Buttry)

The National Park Service is warning commuters of potential shutdowns of the GW Parkway in the event of winter weather

The northern portion of the George Washington Memorial Parkway will close in advance of storms forecasting two or more inches of snow and any amount of freezing rain or ice, NPS said in a press release Wednesday. The road will close four hours before the forecasted start of the storm and drivers will need to seek alternate routes.

The announcement comes amid construction on the ongoing North Parkway Rehabilitation Project, which has resulted in narrower lane widths and a reversible-lane traffic pattern. The work is taking place between Spout Run Parkway in Arlington and the Beltway.

“Bad weather could shift the reversible lane schedule or close the parkway,” the park service said. “The NPS will pre-treat roads, however treating the road and removing snow will take more time because snow removal crews need to use smaller equipment to fit in the narrower lanes.”

Drivers should also expect delays in reopening the northern section of the parkway while crews clear snow and treat other sections of the parkway and park areas, the release noted. NPS urged drivers to follow traffic signs and the 40 mph speed limit.

The rehabilitation project was announced two years ago. The National Park Service and the Federal Highway Administration awarded a $161 million contract for the project “to improve driving experience, safety and water drainage while retaining and reviving the historic beauty and significance of the parkway.”

The northern section of the parkway has seen frequent potholes and other rough driving conditions, in addition to occasional sinkholes prompting full closures. Weather has also prompted closures in the past, stranding drivers during snowstorms and blocking the parkway with fallen trees during summer storms.

More, below, from the National Park Service.

As winter approaches, construction on the North Parkway Rehabilitation Project continues with narrower lane widths and a reversible-lane traffic pattern. Bad weather could shift the reversible lane schedule or close the parkway. Drivers should be aware of the following and plan accordingly. The northern section of the parkway:

  • Will close for storms forecasting 2 or more inches of snow or any amount of freezing rain or ice. The road will close 4 hours before the forecasted start of the storm. Drivers will need to seek alternate routes.
  • Will remain open for storms forecasting fewer than 2 inches of snow and no freezing rain or ice.

The NPS will pre-treat roads, however treating the road and removing snow will take more time because snow removal crews need to use smaller equipment to fit in the narrower lanes. Drivers should expect delays in reopening the northern section of the parkway while crews clear snow and treat other sections of the parkway and park areas. Throughout the project, drivers should observe traffic signs, respect the 40-mph speed limit, expect delays through narrow travel lanes and seek alternate routes. Commercial vehicles are always prohibited from using the parkway.

Where to find more information 

Closure and re-opening information will be shared with GWMP Rehabilitation project news subscribers. Drivers can view construction updates and opt-in to receive emails about traffic impacts, meetings and major project milestones. Updates about road closures may also be posted on social media.

Arlington has a $10M plan to attract more bus riders. Getting off natural gas will be a pricier proposition.

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

This reporting was supported by the ARLnow Press Club. Join today to support in-depth local journalism — and get an exclusive morning preview of each day’s planned coverage.

(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) In the half-decade leading up to 2017, ridership on Arlington Transit, or ART, had risen 34%, or nearly 1 million rides.

Then, in 2018, ridership started trending down, a decline that Covid only sped up — despite the essential workers who continued riding the bus and insulated ART from the pandemic hit Metro sustained.

Today, ridership is on the upswing but still far lower than the 2017 highs. Arlington County is trying to change that — outlining several service changes in a new 10-year strategic plan — all while studying how best to make more expensive investments: buying zero-emission buses.

As for ridership, Joan McIntyre — chair of Arlington’s Climate Change, Energy and Environment Commission, or C2E2 — attributes low numbers to the length of time it takes to reach many destinations in Arlington by bus versus by car.

“Even before the pandemic, ridership of ART and other public transit was largely stagnant,” she told the County Board last month in November. “The reality is that for many in Arlington, you simply can’t get there from here via public transit.”

Arlington Transit ridership numbers since 2014 (via Arlington County)

Surveyed as this plan was coming together, Arlingtonians said the bus needs to arrive more frequently, run for more hours and connect them to more destinations. A 2019 study diagnosing ART’s declining ridership found riders wanted more frequent service, better real-time information and more on-time performance. A 2022 survey had similar findings.

Arlington was not alone in seeing a pre-Covid ridership slump and national studies found contributing factors included the rise of telework, online shopping and ride-hailing services, lower gas prices and higher fares, and in New York and D.C., maintenance service disruptions. (Arlington’s 2019 survey likewise found ride-hailing siphoned off some 19% riders while 51% only rode for work, suggesting telework could be a limiting factor today.)

Arlington cannot control for telework and ride-hailing, but it can make service changes. Areas with growing ridership, Columbia Pike and Route 1, are set to see more frequent service, with more weekend trips and new destinations, such as Long Bridge Park.

Expensive, low-performing routes primarily serving North Arlington will be discontinued or redrawn to connect high-ridership neighborhoods and destinations, such as Waverly Hills and Virginia Hospital Center. Where service is discontinued, it intends to pilot an on-demand “microtransit” option.

On-time performance, however, has more external factors to consider. Recently, this includes public and private construction on Columbia Pike and near the Pentagon, which the county considers “temporary disruptions for long-term gain.” Other factors are traffic congestion on I-395 and in Pentagon City and, for a more positive spin, increased ridership on several routes.

On-time performance (courtesy Arlington County)

To make every change outlined in the 10-year plan, Arlington County would need to spend some $10 million, according to Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers.

This is a fraction of the $130-$180 million estimate from a consulting firm that analyzed the potential cost to convert the entire ART bus fleet to battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell electric buses, though advocates say up to two-thirds of purchase costs could come from state and national funds.

High-dollar investments in buses are not without their controversies. A decade ago, Arlington and Metro embarked on installing new stops on Columbia Pike, leading with the memorable $1 million Pike “Super Stop” plagued by poor inter-agency communication and design flaws.

Pilot projects like free fares, currently being tested out on all routes in peak directions, are also not guaranteed successes. Arlington is currently piloting the change on the heels of some U.S. cities. Earlier European adopters, meanwhile, have reported ridership increases after going fare free but only marginal declines — and in some cases increases — in car use.

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County Board agrees to fund tentative union agreement for Arlington service, labor and trades workers

By Jo DeVoe
County workers fix a valve in Ballston (via Arlington Dept. of Environmental Services/Flickr)

Some county employees now have a labor contract with Arlington County.

This weekend, the Arlington County Board adopted a resolution funding the tentative collective bargaining agreement between the county and the local union representing service, labor and trade workers.

County and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) representatives negotiated a tentative collective bargaining agreement effective July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2027. The union ratified the agreement and the County Board reviewed the potential fiscal impacts of the 55-article agreement this November.

All that remained was to approve a funding resolution, the action taken this weekend. The provisions that will cost the county money will either be funded with tax increases, to the tune of $5-9 per average residential tax bill, or budget cuts — either .1% cuts across the board or the elimination of about four full-time employees.

“We’re very happy that we came to an agreement,” says Anthony Pistone, the president of AFSCME Local 3001, which represents Service, Labor and Trades workers in Arlington and Alexandria. “It’s not exactly what we want but we hope to do better next time and in the next three years.”

He praised both Arlington and Alexandria’s labor ordinances but said they do not go far enough. AFSCME hopes to change them so unionized employees have a greater say in day-to-day operations, Pistone said.

“For the time being, we’re excited for what we have,” he said.

Among other provisions, the contract outlines pay increases in the coming years and moves employees to a step-and-grade model — also recently adopted by the Arlington County police and fire departments — which proponents say better rewards experience and makes raises more predictable.

Pistone says the union is most excited about how the contract establishes committees focused on issues such as retirement, benefits and working conditions.

“We formed these committees because the labor laws in Virginia are anti-labor, and we need them to further the agenda on certain aspects of safety and also for better working environment for the people,” says Pistone, who works for Arlington’s Water, Sewer and Streets division. “It gives us a little more of a seat at the table, which is what matters to the guys on the ground.”

The committees also afford employees to sit down with their direct managers to discuss everything from vending machines to overtime. This structure is experimental and other unions have not adopted it, says Pistone.

“It’s unorthodox but it might work better, so it might be a great thing,” he said.

A decentralized approach was also important to unionized employees and why they chose AFSCME. The national union was instrumental in the initial labor laws that passed at the state level — allowing local governments in Virginia to collectively bargain with employee unions — and yet the organization remains grass-roots, he said.

“We have the opportunity to govern ourselves,” Pistone said. “Even though we’re under the umbrella of AFSCME, we do have ability to have our voices heard in a unique way.”

The ’12 Days of Christmas’ gets a remake focused on Arlington land-use debates

By Jo DeVoe
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It won’t ever beat “All I Want for Christmas is You” on the charts but a new Arlington-specific Christmas song is out, recorded by the group that was on the opposition side of several land-use flashpoints this year.

Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future, a neighborhood group that has advocated against everything from Missing Middle to a new planning document for Langston Blvd, dropped an alternative “12 Days of Christmas” this week.

It mocks the policy changes and projects Arlington County undertook this year — the same policies for which other local groups spent the past couple of years advocating.

The short song, brought to you by the same people who brought tombstones for the “Arlington Way” to the final Missing Middle hearing, reiterates criticism ASF raised regarding heights, environmental impacts, governance or displacement and other predicted outcomes of growth.

And the kicker? A tribute to the paused second phase of Amazon’s second headquarters in Pentagon City: PenPlace, best known for the proposed marquee glassy double-helix building.

The lyrics are below.

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me:

12 story towers,
11 displaced tenants,
10 YIMBYs leaping,
Nine acres bulldozed,
Eight vacant buildings,
Seven cars a-swimming,
Six-plex a-zoning,
Five special GLUPs.
Four homeless birds,
Three lawsuits,
Two lame ducks,
and a PenPlace that never will be.

While this take on the “12 Days of Christmas” had a sardonic edge, the proverbial 10 YIMBYs leaping do see this year as one to celebrate, kicking off with the ratification of Arlington’s Missing Middle policies.

In late 2023, YIMBYs of Northern Virginia saw the fruits of their advocacy in the passage of similar zoning ordinances in Alexandria. In between, organization members were busy responding to engagement opportunities on development projects moving through Arlington County approval processes.

“We are proud to have joined with a diverse set of community advocates to end exclusionary zoning in Arlington and Alexandria, reduce burdensome parking mandates in Fairfax County, support new market-rate and committed affordable apartment buildings, and elect forward-looking leaders across the region who prioritize making their jurisdiction a more inclusive, sustainable, and affordable place to live,” the group said in a statement.

The group invited anyone who shares its “Yes in My Backyard” values to celebrate the New Year on Jan. 14, 2024 from 5-7 p.m. at Makers Union pub in Pentagon City.

County inks funding agreement with Arlington Independent Media amid staff furloughs

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington Independent Media in Clarendon (file photo)

This weekend, the Arlington County Board adopted a new agreement governing how Arlington’s public access station, Arlington Independent Media, can request funding.

AIM has a claim on Public, Educational and Government (PEG) funds that Arlington County receives as part of its franchise agreements with Comcast and Verizon. It competes with Arlington Public Schools and county government initiatives for this pot of money, which is dwindling as people end their cable subscriptions.

The new agreement establishes rules for requesting funds, a heretofore ad-hoc process. It requires AIM to maintain and present a detailed capital budget and make PEG requests only as part of the annual budget process, though emergency requests will be considered.

AIM has to provide a host of supporting documents for PEG requests as well as receipts demonstrating it is not using the funding on salaries, rent and utilities. The county reserves the right to audit the nonprofit’s records or require a third-party audit as often as necessary and will take back PEG funding if AIM uses it improperly.

The agreement was approved as AIM prepares to move its headquarters from Clarendon to Courthouse and, to stay afloat, has furloughed staff and will be selling equipment and memorabilia.

“AIM staff is currently on furlough throughout the holidays and thus only working on critical assignments,” the organization said in an email to supporters today, recapping its annual meeting earlier this month. “This has been structured to minimize producer impact, however we ask for your grace & patience while we transition to our new spaces.”

Periods of unpaid work are not a new issue, according to one source close to a former staff member, who had been asked to work without pay before.

Meanwhile, AIM’s current lease ends at 2701 Wilson Blvd, next to the Beyond Hello dispensary in Clarendon, is up on Dec. 31. The organization will make a new Green Valley satellite location, in a county-owned building at 3700 S. Four Mile Run, its home base until the Courthouse location is set up.

The new “AIMLive!” radio and TV broadcasting space in Courthouse is part of AIM’s goal to have a number of locations across Arlington, “with an eye on a new HQ sometime in the next 2-3 years,” the email said.

Despite the upheavals, Board President-elect Chris Judson remained upbeat in his remarks to supporters.

“This year presents a new beginning after a long effort to reinvent the organization,” he said in an email. “We owe tremendous gratitude to AIM staff for the extensive planning and execution that saw this plan to completion.”

During the annual meeting earlier this month, nonprofit leaders were frank about the organization’s financial status, detailing the furloughs and saying AIM was in survival mode. Still, they dismissed recent criticism over financial management from some people previously affiliated with AIM as a bad-faith attempt to defund the nonprofit.

They also addressed mixed public opinion about the role and importance of a primarily cable TV and radio-based nonprofit going forward, in an increasingly online world. Outgoing board president Demian Perry said he read the comments on ARLnow’s most recent article about AIM and they stung him but they were “nothing new.”

As for the new agreement governing PEG requests, AIM CEO Whytni Kernodle has told ARLnow in several interviews that she has pushed for this document to improve accountability — both for AIM and the county.

“They weren’t giving money to the ‘P’ or the ‘E’ and the PEG. So when I came on board, I recognized that… I’ve been asking for this memorandum,” Kernodle said. “What I’m saying to the county is, ‘You took us out, and now you’re not giving us money, and then you’re acting as though you don’t have to give us money when you have… an ethical obligation to your own public access center.”

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W-L student prompts police investigation after allegedly using a device to turn off nearby iPhones

By Jo DeVoe
Washington-Liberty High School in the snow (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Last month, a peculiar cybersecurity incident derailed class at Washington-Liberty and prompted a police investigation that is ongoing.

Around 10:10 a.m. on Nov. 30, police were dispatched to the school for “the late report of suspicious circumstances,” says ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage.

“The preliminary investigation indicates that between 10:45 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on November 29, a student inside Washington Liberty High School utilized an electronic device that caused nearby iPhones to turn off,” she said.

“Police identified the involved student and the manner of intrusion that impacted the iPhones,” she continued. “Based on the preliminary investigation, there is no ongoing threat to the community related to this incident.”

Although ACPD identified the student involved, no charges have been sought at this time because police are still investigating the incident and any impacts to affected devices, says Savage.

Later that week, on Dec. 1, Arlington Public Schools shared a message from ACPD to the W-L community, seeking to find more potentially impacted phones. The message, shared with ARLnow, advised recipients of the incident and asking anyone whose cell phone turned off while at the school on Nov. 29 to file an online police report or contact the tip line at 703-228-4180 or [email protected].

“Victims have been identified and efforts to identify potential additional victims are ongoing,” Savage said.

ACPD did not provide additional details, such as what kind of device might have been used, citing the need to preserve the integrity of the ongoing investigation. A cybersecurity expert contacted by ARLnow declined to speculate on how a student might have turned off nearby iPhones.

The police department did note that it is not currently investigating any similar incidents. ACPD also shared some general cybersecurity tips.

“Police recommend community members always ensure their electronic devices are up to date with the latest software provided by their manufacturer and/or service provider,” Savage said. “Additional cybersecurity best practices include using strong passwords, thinking before you click on suspicious links, and using multi-factor authentication.”

The unusual incident comes as Arlington Public Schools have seen multiple lockdowns, some due to gun-related threats, particularly this year, while others have been chalked up to “swatting,” or hoax calls to 911 about school threats intended to elicit a large police response.

County ratifies financing plan for Barcroft Apartments redevelopment despite push from advocates for deeper affordability

By Jo DeVoe
The Barcroft Apartments on Columbia Pike (via Arlington County)

Arlington County Board members and advocates were split this weekend on how many units at the Barcroft Apartments should be set aside for Arlington’s lowest-income earners.

Two years ago, the county and Amazon loaned $150 million and $160 million, respectively, to developer Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners to purchase the aging garden apartment complex, located on 60 acres near the corner of S. George Mason Drive and S. Four Mile Run Drive.

The purchase agreement stipulated all 1,335 units would be affordable to households earning up to 60% of the area median income, or AMI, for 99 years, in an effort to avoid displacing the 1,100 resident families who lived there.

After community members advocated for deeper affordability, Jair Lynch developed a financing plan that further commits the county and property owner to keep at least 134 units for households earning up to 30% AMI. This would be the county’s largest commitment of 30% AMI units to date, among the properties in its affordable housing stock, according to a county report.

Board members celebrated the plan, which outlines how Jair Lynch will refinance the county’s loan to cover various renovation and redevelopment phases and try to achieve savings for the county in the long run. During remarks when they approved the plan, members said it documents how this project can be financially viable, despite cripplingly high interest rates.

“There are so many good things that are happening here,” County Board Chair Christian Dorsey said. “The areas where people want improvements are absolutely doable because the partners involved are committed not only to making this a financially viable experience but a good experience.”

He said that Saturday’s discussion was not the time or place to add in a new affordability commitment.

Advocates wanted to see a total of 255 units set aside for 30% AMI households — a single person earning $31,65o or a family of four bringing in $45,210. That number reflects that 255 households at the Barcroft Apartments that reported earning up to 30% AMI in 2021, when Jair Lynch purchased the complex, according to the Arlington Community Foundation.

“Deeper affordability should not expire when the current residents move on,” Arlington Community Foundation Director of Grants and Initiatives Anne Vor der Bruegge said. “We acknowledge the sobering financial dynamics at play and the need to protect the viability of this deal, however, we believe that our goal can ultimately be accomplished using land use and other tools that have not yet been explored.”

Interim County Board member Tannia Talento was not so sure.

“When we look at other committed affordable properties in Arlington that are not able to maintain a good quality of maintenance for their buildings, I just cannot in good mind say, ‘Let’s deepen affordability and we’ll figure it out later,” she said. “I just can’t do it.”

Should market conditions improve or Jair Lynch finds other funding sources, the county and the developer will revisit this minimum commitment, which will hold if market conditions worsen instead, per the report.

“Part of the financing plan is utilizing these potential savings to pay down the County’s debt while still meeting County goals,” a report says. “These anticipated savings are important due to the significant increase in the cost of capital to the County because interest rates have jumped dramatically since the 2021 acquisition.”

Debt service on the county’s short-term line of credit is currently $9 million annually for interest alone — more than four times what was projected in 2021 for the 2023 fiscal year, the report says. The county says this puts a strain on its Affordable Housing Investment Fund, or AHIF, and its ability to take on new projects.

“That is an understatement, considering AHIFs total appropriation for FY 2024 is $20.5 million,” said former independent County Board candidate Audrey Clement, the lone speaker this weekend opposed to the project.

She also said the costs are too high for the first renovation phase.

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A Yorktown alum sold his first startup before he had a diploma. Now he’s onto the next venture.

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring Three Ballston Plaza. 

By the time Arlington native Roger Nowakowski graduated from Yorktown High School, he had already founded and sold his first startup venture.

Nowakowski, who grew up in the Woodmont neighborhood, built an app for people trying to get their hands on the next hot product in the luxury goods market — especially sneakerheads. He founded it at 16, as a high school sophomore when he was stuck at home at the height of the pandemic.

Limited-edition shoes from brands such as Nike and Adidas sell out online within seconds, which he says made it borderline impossible for a human to manually buy the product. His app allowed users to, for instance, purchase a single pair or mass quantities of shoes at the press of a button.

“Sneaker resellers would use my product to buy these hyped sneakers on drop in mass, to then sell on the aftermarket for profit,” he said noting, sneakers can sometimes sell at 10 times their retail price on the aftermarket.

Some 1,500 paying users made more than $1.4 million in purchases through the app before he sold it in 2021, when he was 17 years old. He graduated from Yorktown a year later and went straight into coding for other projects.

“I felt more alive than ever through the pursuit of knowledge out of genuine curiosity in areas I was passionate about,” he said. “After exiting from my first project, I was extremely eager to get back to work.”

For the next two years, he would work with a Miami-based team on a blockchain app for music artists. Now, he is a founding engineer at Waves, a venture capital-backed platform connecting brands looking to advertise with social media influencers.

It launched on the App Store this September, the Denver Business Journal reported.

From left: Josh Jacobs, Allison Swope, Bruce Weaver, Roger Nowakowski and Justin Schwartz (courtesy photo)

“I was the first engineer and employee hire,” said Nowakowski. A colleague referred him to the founder of Waves, Bruce Weaver, when the platform was just an idea.

Typically, brands select leading influencers to make paid promotional posts to market their products. Waves allows people with smaller Instagram and TikTok followings to buy products from participating brands — at a discount — if they make promotional content within two weeks. Brands then pay creators based on how well this content does.

Waves is poised for significant growth next year, Nowakowski said.

“We’re setting ambitious milestones; 100,000 creators and processing over $1 million in total creator payouts,” he said. “We want to expand the creator economy while delivering unparalleled returns on ad spend for brands leveraging [user-generated content].”

Nowakowski credits his computer science teacher at Yorktown for helping him launch his first app — and thus, his career.

“At the time, Mr. [Greg] Rusk made an effort to align what we were learning in [computer science] with what I was building personally,” he said. “Not only was he a great teacher, but given his experience building software, he was easily relatable to, and guided me on the right path in class.”

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County to accept state grant to cover long-term treatment plans for seniors leaving psychiatric hospitals

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington County Dept. of Human Services headquarters at Sequoia Plaza (staff photo)

Arlington County is slated to accept a $95,000 grant to place two older adults with serious mental illnesses in community-based treatment once they leave state psychiatric hospitals.

The money will pay for housing costs, medications, transportation, or other associated costs as part of their treatment plans.

Their discharge, treatment and funding plans are approved by Arlington’s Community Services Board. These county-appointed community members oversee how the county Dept. of Human Services provides services to people with mental health challenges, developmental disabilities and substance use disorder.

The one-time grant funds come from the Virginia Dept. of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Not having this grant would mean longer wait times for these two individuals set to leave a state hospital, says DHS spokesman Kurt Larrick.

“If we did not have this funding available right now, they would need to wait until a slot in the [Regional Older Adults Facility Mental Health Support Team (RAFT) program] became available or clinical staff identified another option,” Larrick said.

RAFT is a grant-funded program that discharges older adults from psychiatric hospitals to long-term care and, where possible, diverts them from hospitals in the first place. Arlington County DHS manages it for Northern Virginia, says Larrick, and partners with assisted living and nursing home facilities throughout the region.

The 10-person team works to provide community treatment options to people ages 65 and older who have a diagnosis of serious mental illness or dementia and who either have been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility or are at risk of hospitalization.

It served 106 clients last fiscal year, up from 73 the year prior, a 45% increase attributed to the launch of a dementia program in January 2023. Through this program, the team helps ensure people with dementia can live at home or with a caregiver by providing specialized dementia training to caregivers.

The team also provides on-call support to assisted living and nursing home facilities to prevent psychiatric hospitalizations or oversee discharge when a client is hospitalized.

RAFT has a 90% satisfaction rate among clients and partnering organizations, according to a recent survey, in which several people shared their gratitude for the program and its staff.

Each year, RAFT receives $500,000 from DBHDS. While the program faces budget pressures, due to factors such as inflation, Larrick says running the program remains tenable.

Individuals who receive treatment through RAFT are asked to contribute what they can to their care, he said. To keep costs down, the program also leverages community partnerships and other resources for older adults.

Stormwater tax teed up for County Board adoption this weekend

By Jo DeVoe
Examples of impervious area that causes stormwater runoff (via Arlington County)

This weekend, the Arlington County Board is set to consider a new tax based on how much hard surface your property has.

Property owners with more hard surfaces that do not let rain soak into the ground — such as roofs and driveways — can expect to pay larger fees than those with fewer such surfaces. Revenue would support the county’s stormwater management fund, which pays for flooding mitigation projects.

The proposed rate would cost residents $258 per 2,400 square feet of impervious area, though this figure could change annually to support the budget, similar to how the county approves other fees and taxes. Property owners can receive credits for steps they take to reduce stormwater runoff.

Like the current sanitary district tax, the stormwater fee will be billed twice a year on the real estate bill, a county report says. The first bill will be sent to property owners in May, due June 15, 2024, and the second bill will come in September, due Oct. 5, 2024.

Homeowners can get a sense of their bill by plugging their address into an online map, which estimates impervious area using satellite imagery. This can range from $154 for a home under 1,600 square feet to some $19,000 for one local Catholic church.

The rate structure for the stormwater utility (via Arlington County)

If approved, the stormwater utility tax would replace the current sanitary district tax ($0.017 per $100 of assessed value on all taxable property) starting in the new year. The county says this is a fairer approach than using property assessments because there is not much of a correlation between property assessments and impervious areas.

“The rationale for using the amount of impervious area on each property, rather than all taxable real estate, is that it directly correlates with stormwater runoff that contributes to the County’s stormwater system,” a county report says. “Under the stormwater utility model, properties with more impervious area, which are therefore contributing more to the stormwater system, pay a higher fee.”

Following state requirements, Arlington will offer credits to customers who reduce the runoff their properties contribute to the stormwater system. In an informal Q&A last week, county staff said the number of credit applications coming in has kept them busy.

Arlington’s credit program rewards voluntary actions such as adding rain gardens. Now through Jan. 15, all property owners can apply for voluntary credits to offset up to 35% of their bill, or about $80 per 2,400 square feet. Details on credit options are spelled out in this county manual.

Properties where owners have added stormwater facilities mandated by statute, around 1,900, will automatically receive credits. These properties add up to about 1% of projected revenue and the county budgeted a total of 2% of revenue for credits.

Staff said the county will evaluate the amount of credits it dolls out each year, against the amount of revenue it needs to generate, to determine rates, and will study its rates every five years.

Senior and disabled residential property owners as well as disabled veterans and their surviving spouses are eligible for total fee relief, as they currently qualify for real estate tax exemptions and deferrals.

The idea of funding the county stormwater program with a tax on impervious surfaces has been in the works for three years. In May 2020, a consulting firm recommended Arlington transition to a utility funding model after researching how such a fee would affect different types of customers and examining different rate structures.

One year later, the Arlington County Board directed staff to do more analysis, engage the community and provide options for a utility fee by the 2024 proposed budget. In April, the Board adopted a resolution signaling its intent to adopt the stormwater utility ordinances.

Ranked-choice voting slated to become the way voters decide Arlington County Board primaries

By Jo DeVoe
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Ranked-choice voting could soon become the default for Arlington County Board primaries in Arlington.

This weekend, the County Board is set to approve the voting method, in which residents rank candidates in order of preference. If approved, next year — when one County Board seat is up for grabs — participants in the June primary will fight to secure a 51% threshold to secure a nomination.

Voters got a taste of the voting method during the County Board primary this June, which featured a full slate of candidates jockeying for one of two nominations from Arlington Democrats. The nominees, Susan Cunningham and Maureen Coffey, were the first to secure 34% thresholds after six run-off rounds that eliminated bottom vote-getters.

In an election seen as a referendum on the Missing Middle zoning policies, local elections buffs pointed to the results as proof ranked-choice voting, or RCV, could better reflect a divided electorate, with Cunningham more opposed to it than Coffey, though both had criticism of its roll-out. Both women went on to win their campaigns this November and will be sworn in next month.

Still, County Board members were not totally on board. A month after the primary, after praising Arlington’s Dept. of Elections for how it handled the roll-out, Board members punted on adopting it for the general election. They expressed concerns about how votes are counted when two seats are up and the quality of outreach to voters about the new system, particularly people of color, renters and young people.

The County Board ultimately decided to adopt ranked-choice voting for County Board primaries only. This was an unpopular opinion among the 2,278 people who shared their thoughts on RCV with the county.

Only 7% said it should be reserved for primaries, compared to 47% who said it should be implemented in every election and 32% who said no elections should use the method.

Ranked-choice voting feedback results (via Arlington County)

Overall, most county survey respondents — about 70% — said their experience with RCV was either “positive,” “exceptional” or “fair,” while 29% said it was “negative.” About 75% reported having heard about it and being familiar with how it worked, and those who did report familiarity overwhelmingly said they learned about it through the news.

(An unscientific ARLnow poll found that 75% of readers reported not being confused by RCV.)

Making the change will cost $2 million, as the county intends to buy new ballot machines that allow voters to rank more than the three choices they can rank today. The current machines will be used in the the June 2024 County Board primary but will be switched out in the 2025 fiscal year.

Should the County Board decide to use ranked-choice voting for a general election, it must formally adopt its use at least 90 days before the election.

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