Opinion

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.

By Ralph Johnson

This past December, the Arlington County Board voted to establish 12 Housing Conservation Districts (HCDs), from areas in Westover and Penrose to portions along and near Lee Highway. The expressed intent was to “preserve and enhance” market-rate* rental housing in Arlington. Apartments in these districts are no longer allowed to be replaced “by right” with townhouses.

The County Board promised to develop “incentives” to the owners of these apartments for removing the “by right” option, such as the relaxation of some zoning requirements to allow an increase in the size of existing units or additional density to the site for in-fill and bump-outs. If the owner uses one of the options, the owner would be required to commit a number of his market-rate affordable units to become “committed affordable” units, with direct county oversight and guaranteed lower rents.

These apartments are market-rate affordable because they are old (many 75 years old), functionally obsolete buildings, with small units and few, if any, amenities. The infrastructure of the apartments is rapidly deteriorating and market rents are not keeping up with the expense of maintaining them. It is highly unlikely that a private owner will invest money to build new units that will be attached to his old structure. And, his reward for doing this is to give up some of his market units to become committed affordable units. This is not going to happen.

With this plan, the county is punishing the very owners that are now providing low-income housing. The “incentives” being discussed so far do not provide an adequate trade-off for loss of the “by right” option.

Having your apartment building placed in one of these districts reduces the value of the property. The townhouse “by right” option was the exit strategy for the owner and the lender as well. As the apartments age, the value will fall, continually and inexorably.

The owner can still apply to build townhouses on his site but now he must go through the onerous and costly site plan process, leaving him little if he comes out on the other side of this long process. He could replace his old apartment with a new building but most, if not all, of these old apartments were built prior to current zoning regulations. Under current zoning regulations for a new apartment, the owner would end up with significantly fewer units than he owns now.

So what can be done to preserve market-rate affordable housing while still ensuring property owners in HCDs can operate cost-effectively?

County staff have been working this spring and summer to recommend incentives beyond bump-outs and in-fill, and a citizen group has been advising them. Staff and the citizen group are looking into the idea of awarding TDRs (transfer of development rights) to property owners if they agree to maintain their apartment rents at or below 80 percent of Area Median Income (AMI). TDRs are a tool to help preserve a special condition (such as open space or affordable housing) on a parcel of land by “transferring” its density and other development rights to a different parcel.

Here’s an example of how TDRs could work. Six years ago the County Board approved a plan that would award TDRs to owners of a historic designated apartment building if they would agree to permanently preserve the apartment building. With the sale of the TDRs to a developer, the owners were able to pay off their debt. The preserved apartment building in question faced a huge plumbing replacement job this past year but, because there was no debt payment, the owners’ cash flow was sufficient to meet this challenge.

The buildings were preserved, 84 market-rate affordable units were preserved and the means to maintain the old buildings was set. This is the kind of innovative idea that must be incorporated into the HCD program if it is to be successful.

Without creative and aggressive incentives and options for apartment-building owners in HCDs, the plan will be nothing other than an effort to hold back the tide — a futile effort and a prescription for a slow death of market-rate rental housing in Arlington.

* Market-Rate Affordable Units (MARKs) are owned by the private market, with apartment rents that are affordable (generally at 80 percent of Area Median Income [AMI]) to low- and moderate-income households by virtue of the age, location, condition and/or amenities of the property. Rents in Committed Affordable Units are generally at or below 60 percent of the AMI.

Ralph Johnson is a longtime Arlington resident who has owned and managed apartment buildings in Arlington for 45 years.

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.

By Laura Saul Edwards

Skyrocketing enrollment is forcing Arlington Public Schools (APS) to build new schools at a time when the international trade situation is driving up steel prices and a persistently high commercial vacancy rate at home is affecting revenue.

It’s the perfect time for innovation to squeeze the most from construction dollars. One way is through zero-energy buildings that produce more electricity than they consume. In the process, the buildings generate savings for the school system while battling climate change and revolutionizing learning.

The first of these certified zero-energy schools in Arlington is Discovery Elementary School. Designed to reduce energy use intensity as low as possible, the materials, siting and massing of the school did much to lower its energy consumption. The 1,710 photovoltaic solar cells atop Discovery further lowered energy consumption to the point that the building produces more electricity than it consumes.

These solar panels arrayed on Discovery’s rooftop play a major role in lowering the school’s annual utility costs by approximately $100,000 in comparison to a typical APS elementary school of similar size, according to John C. Chadwick, Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Operations.

It cost nearly $1.6 million to install the solar panels and an online energy dashboard that displays the resultant energy data in real time. It is estimated this amount will be paid off in 15 years. The evidence so far shows the return on investment is considerable and worth replicating across the school system.

Discovery’s surplus energy will soon be even more valuable to the school system. Thanks to legislation introduced by Del. Richard “Rip” Sullivan, Jr. (D-48) and signed into law by Gov. Ralph Northam (D), Dominion Energy will launch a pilot program next year that allows the school’s surplus energy to offset utility costs at other schools. In effect, the program will reimburse the school system for its energy-efficient school. Discovery’s surplus electricity could earn approximately $9,000 per year for APS.

Two more zero-energy schools will soon follow — Alice West Fleet Elementary School in 2019 and a new elementary school at the Reed site in 2021. These two schools are part of an APS vision in which a network of solar panels and energy dashboards exist at every one of its schools.

What is remarkable is how zero-energy design transforms a school building into a teaching tool.

Discovery’s energy dashboard is a tool for teaching math, science and sustainability. Teachers collect data from the dashboard to formulate homework and test questions, teach graphing and analytics, and use in writing prompts and art projects. Students also collected data from the dashboard to complete an audit that earned the school a Zero Energy Certification award from the International Living Future Institute in April 2018.

In addition, four of the school’s solar panels are on a rooftop learning lab. Through it all, students and staff take control of how their actions impact the world around them and use that information to become responsible stewards of the planet.

Perhaps a recent American Institute of Architects report said it best, noting “Discovery offers a positive example of a solution to the global crisis of climate change — and along the way emboldens students with the expectation that they are creative participants in those solutions.”

The age and condition of some existing Arlington schools mean that reaping the benefits of zero-energy design will require creativity and time. This is why APS is poised to enter a Power Purchase Agreement to lease roof space at schools to vendors who will install solar panels on them. The vendors will sell the power they produce to APS at lower rates that the utility company charges, reducing acquisition and utility costs for the school system while mitigating exposure to long-term increases, said Chadwick in May. Five schools have been selected and the resulting savings will fund zero-energy upgrades at other schools.

Zero-energy schools will also help Arlington generate 100 percent of the power it uses through renewable, sustainable means like solar by 2035, as outlined in the Community Energy Plan.

APS deserves credit for its drive to transform school buildings into zero-energy facilities. The long-term benefits outweigh criticism that might be levied against investing in such far-reaching innovation during a period of tight budgets. These facilities will generate long-term savings and income, fight climate change and make a lasting and positive impact on teaching and learning. That’s a lot of bang for the buck.

Laura Saul Edwards has lived in Arlington since 1994. She serves on the School Board’s Advisory Council on School Facilities and Capital Projects (FAC) and is an APS 2012 Honored Citizen.

 Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Vivek Patil

The Virginia economy has extraordinary untapped potential. Arlington and other municipalities could tap that potential in ways that bring prosperity to regions lagging behind and that allow those already doing well to secure their future.

Unleashing that potential will require a statewide approach that nevertheless remains sensitive to local needs. Such an approach would take advantage of the synergies that result from bringing our urban, small town and rural areas together under a common strategy — a strategy that creates jobs that pay well and stay put in an increasingly globalized world.

But what would such a strategy involve? Part of the answer is expanding clean technology industries, which provide products and services related to renewable energy, energy efficiency, advanced batteries, and state-of-the-art energy monitoring and control devices. Another part is sustainable agriculture, forestry and ecotourism.

These areas represent emerging strengths in the Virginia economy. They could make the commonwealth a clean technology center for the world and a path-breaking player in the management of sustainable natural resources. Developing these strengths would align the Virginia economy and its people with powerful sustainability trends that are now shaping the future across the globe.

Clean technology investments alone are expected to reach $6.4 trillion worldwide between 2014 and 2023, according to the World Bank. Sustainable agriculture and forestry bring premium prices for the food and fiber they produce. Ecotourism helps preserve Virginia’s natural beauty by making it profitable to safeguard.

Let’s explore the possibilities more concretely. Let’s imagine that an Arlington high school graduate develops a novel clean technology invention such as a next-generation battery while attending Virginia Tech. Let’s imagine he or she is supported with the financing and commercialization assistance necessary for a new enterprise. Let’s imagine a partnership with rural communities in southwest Virginia that with state incentives manufacture these next-generation batteries for the world market.

Similarly, let’s imagine a rural entrepreneur who establishes a statewide agricultural supply network that provides sustainable produce and livestock products from southern Virginia to food cooperatives and specialty grocers in northern Virginia’s high-density urban corridors.

Realizing this economic vision will require listening to what communities actually want. Conversations with Virginia’s communities would guide the development of critical economic infrastructure. That infrastructure might include a joint university-community college consortium to educate the needed workforce and a public-private coalition of clean technology investors.

So how would we summarize the untapped potential that will underpin such a strategy? Virginia has exceptional, but underutilized advantages that include:

• Locales remarkable for their diversity and high quality of life.
• A low-tax, business-friendly environment.
• Agricultural and forestry resources ready for expanded sustainable development.
• Natural beauty that attracts tourists.
• Universities and colleges ranked among the nation’s best that are the key to a highly educated and trained workforce.
• Synergies that come from linking businesses with the federal government, the military and leading global nonprofits in northern Virginia and the District of Columbia.
• Proximity to major federal innovation centers at the Department of Defense including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Energy including the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy.

By thinking broadly about Virginia’s possibilities, we can pursue a unified strategy that will allow us to develop many more homegrown businesses while persuading out-of-state and foreign enterprises to bring operations here.

If we can succeed in building a clean technology economy, there might come a day when Virginia ships batteries to carmakers throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

If we can succeed in expanding sustainable agriculture, forestry and ecotourism, we can ensure wise stewardship of our natural resources that will then provide long-term jobs to Virginians.

These outcomes exemplify a winning combination worth pursuing for the sake of all Virginia and for the world beyond us. If we Virginians make the right moves, “Made with Love in Virginia” could become an emblem of forward thinking and innovation across the globe.

Vivek Patil, Ph.D., is a biotech entrepreneur and a Director at PerkinElmer Inc. He is a member of Arlington’s Economic Development Commission and co-founder of BuildingBridgesVA and Ascent Virginia, two social impact ventures focused on bridging the social, political and economic divide in Arlington and across Virginia.