News

A half-dozen affordable garden apartment buildings near Rosslyn are set to be renovated

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

A collection of garden apartments near Rosslyn are set to be renovated this year.

On Saturday, the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing received the last approvals it needed to repair 62 committed affordable units across six garden apartment buildings in the Radnor-Ft. Myer Heights neighborhood.

These renovations are part of a two-phase redevelopment project of The Marbella Apartments along N. Queen Street near Route 50. Two 12-story, 100% affordable buildings will replace a three-story, garden-style complex north of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall while the other 62 units will be renovated.

These units will get updated windows and façades as well as interiors, new handrails and new wells that protect windows that are level with the ground from soil, known as window wells.

The project had nearly cleared the last design and permitting stages when it was discovered that the property does not conform with present-day Zoning Ordinance regulations, per a county report. That meant some of its repairs, including the window wells, could not proceed by-right.

The apartments were built by-right in the 1940s, a decade before the ordinance was enacted. The buildings now do not meet the ordinance’s requirements for how close a property could be to the street nor parking and density regulations.

Arlington County staff and the applicant argued against trying to make the buildings conform with current zoning rules.

“Bringing the existing buildings into conformance with current parking and setback standards would negatively impact existing units, mature trees, and open space, thus compromising the goals of affordable housing preservation and the historic qualities of the garden apartment property,” the report said.

Instead, on Saturday, the Arlington County Board designated the property with the Marbella Apartments as a “Voluntary Coordinated Housing Preservation and Development District.”

The property joins some eight other buildings in Arlington, the report says. They received this designation between 1992 and 2011.

The Board also approved a related use permit. These two moves allow the planned structural changes to the apartments without making them conform to zoning ordinances.

The buildings consist of mostly 1-bedroom apartments, with some studio, 2- and 3-bedroom units. They are available to people earning a mix of incomes up to 60% of the area median income.

Neither the report nor application materials indicated when renovations would begin.

News

County Board salaries may reach six-digits over next few years after Saturday vote

By ARLnow.com
Arlington County Board discussing hike in its own salary cap (via Arlington County/YouTube)

Arlington County Board member salaries may top the $100,000 mark for the first time over the next four years, after a vote this weekend.

Board members were paid a $57,648 annual salary as recently as a year ago, though after a series of votes in 2022 and in April the base Board member salary has been increasing — to $89,851 with the new Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

A vote at the end of Saturday’s Board meeting will provide the Board flexibility to further raise its salary, as soon as next year.

The every-four-year vote sets a cap for Board member pay. The unanimous vote on Saturday brings the cap to $119,833 for Board members and $125,460 for the Board chair, a position that rotates annually.

The cap was recommended by county staff, calculated by taking this year’s average median income for Arlington and raising it 3% annually through 2027.

County Board salary pay cap raise (via Arlington County)

Board members spoke in favor of setting the Board salary at a rate that would allow members to live in pricy Arlington without existing wealth or the support of a higher-earning spouse.

“There ought to be at least some modicum of remuneration for the Board work that can attract people who can afford to do these jobs,” Board Vice-Chair Libby Garvey said prior to the vote. “Being at the AMI for a single person is a close approximation.”

Garvey said the new cap is “reasonable” and, noting that no members of the public stuck around until mid-afternoon to speak about the agenda item, “we don’t seem to have a lot of controversy about it.”

While service on the County Board has historically been considered to be a part-time position, member Matt de Ferranti argued that it’s now essentially a full-time position given its various civic and legislative responsibilities.

“This is not a part-time job, and whatever your convictions are politically, it should still not be a part-time job in my opinion,” de Ferranti said. “We need a situation where everyone who has the skills and wants to serve, financially can be able to make it work.”

“I think it’s an important step for governance and the right thing to do,” he added, “so that it’s not just folks who have means who can serve on this Board, which is the history of Virginia and in part the history of Arlington.”

Katie Cristol, who previously expressed reservations about raising her own pay in 2022, expressed some similar misgivings this time around, noting that Board members will be paid around the same as or more then elected Board members of larger jurisdictions like Loudoun County or Prince William County.

Board Chair Christian Dorsey countered that other jurisdictions have district-based representation, whereas Arlington County Board members are elected at-large and thus represent more people on a per-capita basis.

Even if the Board later hikes its salary up to the cap — the weekend’s vote does not increase pay by itself, it only establishes the maximum salary that the Board can set over the next four years — it will still be lower than the Board member salaries in neighboring Fairfax County, population 1.1 million

“We’re not the highest and we’re not the lowest, and that’s probably a safe space for us to be,” Dorsey said before adjourning the meeting.

Local elected official salary comparison chart (via Arlington County)
Sponsored

Halls Hill native recalls making history with Civil Rights-era lawsuit over voting in Arlington

By Scott McCaffrey

As a 23-year-old voter in still-segregated 1960s Virginia, Portia Haskins was convinced she had followed all the rules in order to cast a ballot in Arlington.

Election officials disagreed, saying she had failed to pay the appropriate poll tax still required in the Old Dominion, maintained in part to disenfranchise Black voters.

Haskins took the county, and state, to court. She won, with her case ultimately being folded into the landmark 1966 Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Haskins was an unusual legal combatant, committed to seeking unity.

“I’m the type of person who wants to bring everyone together,” the Halls Hill native said at a weekend presentation sponsored by the county library system and hosted by the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington.

After her efforts to vote were rejected at the local level, Haskins enlisted support from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to challenge the ruling. She traveled several times to the U.S. District Court in Richmond, then watched as the case and others like it moved to the Supreme Court.

Her reaction at the final outcome? “I was so happy,” she said.

The 6-3 ruling in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections effectively outlawed requiring poll taxes for state elections in those few states, like Virginia, that retained them. The poll-tax requirement for federal elections had been eliminated with ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964.

Lessons from the struggle are still valuable today, said Haskins, now 83.

“Everybody has to come together and fight” when they see injustice, she said. “You have to get together.”

Historical photo of Portia Haskins (via Black Heritage Museum of Arlington)

Haskins is among the Arlingtonians profiled in the “From Barriers to Ballots,” an exhibition marking the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Several versions of the exhibition are on display across Northern Virginia, with one at Central Library running through Nov. 4.

The Arlington Historical Society partnered on the exhibition, and was excited about the Haskins presentation, former president David Pearson said.

“She is someone we really wanted to learn about,” he said, pointing to a renewed effort to “really get out the stories of the complete history of Arlington.”

Haskins has been a member of Mount Salvation Baptist Church near the Glebewood neighborhood since 1951, and in the community she has promoted “the spirit of community and empowerment,” said Scott Taylor, president of the Black Heritage Museum.

Haskins lamented that much of the history of the civil-rights movement is being lost in the public consciousness.

“We went through a lot, but people today don’t know,” she said. Young people in particular, she said, “don’t care because they don’t know.”

Her request to today’s youth? “Let everybody know how you feel” and use the ballot box to create change.

“Voting is important. That’s what everybody really needs to do,” Haskins said.

News

Power outage and road closure after tree falls on utility lines

By ARLnow.com
Reported power outage along Old Dominion Drive (via Dominion)

A hundred-some Dominion customers are without electricity along Old Dominion Drive after a tree fell on power lines.

The outage is affecting the Rock Spring neighborhood in far northern Arlington, including the area around Discovery Elementary and Williamsburg Middle School. A portion of Fairfax County is also within the power outage boundaries, as listed on the Dominion website.

Old Dominion Drive is expected to remain closed near the Arlington-Fairfax County border for at least four hours, as the fallen tree is removed and the lines repaired, according to scanner traffic.

Dominion lists the estimated time of power restoration as between noon and 3 p.m.

The outage comes as thunderstorms are expected in the D.C. area this afternoon.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
Clouds and haze over Westover (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

New APS Redo Policy Approved — “Superintendent Francisco Durán said he has signed off on changes to the middle and high school grading policy at Arlington Public Schools that will allow students to retake or redo assignments and reduce the weight of quizzes or homework on a student’s overall grade.” [WTOP]

Pike Improvements Continue — “Arlington County Board members on June 10 [awarded] a contract totaling just under $35 million to wrap up the final phases of streetscape improvements to Columbia Pike. The funding will support the two segments of the project that currently are neither completed or under construction.” [Gazette Leader]

Slow Go for Rosslyn Commuters — “The situation now appears to be improving after earlier this week Metro riders faced very slow commutes on what were supposed to be ‘express’ buses put in place during a partial shutdown of the Orange and Silver lines in Virginia. As 7News first reported Tuesday, buses that were supposed to save commuters time by making limited stops have encountered major traffic congestion and slowdowns related to numerous construction projects in Rosslyn.” [WJLA]

Beyer Intros Another Helo Noise Bill — “U.S. Representatives Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) and Donald S. Beyer, Jr. (D-VA-08) today introduced the Reduce Helicopter Noise Act to take federal action that would rein in the growing noise of helicopter flights over American communities.” [Press Release]

County Sells New Bonds — “On June 8, 2023, Arlington County issued $187 million in Series 2023 General Obligation (GO) Public Improvement Bonds. The bonds received a total of seven bids in a competitive sale, with Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. submitting the winning bid with a 3.48% average interest rate.” [Arlington County]

‘Temporary’ Lot Back Before Board — “It was November 1983, and those five board members had just approved allowing the owner of a Crystal City parcel zoned for high-rise residential to use it, instead, as a 70-space parking lot on a temporary basis. Thirty-nine years later, the parking lot is still there – and still, 12 amendments to the original vote later, on a temporary basis. Current County Board members on Saturday are being asked to address the matter a 14th time.” [Gazette Leader]

Lexus Driver Rams ACPD SUV — “Someone’s having a bad night. They ran into the back of an @ArlingtonVaPD SUV about 45 minutes ago on Route 50W at Irving Street. No serious injuries reported.” [Twitter]

Police Pride Event Returning — “Engagement events such as Pride with the Police provide a unique opportunity to strengthen these partnerships and hear directly from community members. The 3rd annual Pride with the Police event will take place on: Thursday, June 29, 2023. 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.” [ACPD]

It’s Monday — Showers and possibly a thunderstorm after 8am. High near 78. South wind 11 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New rainfall amounts between a half and three quarters of an inch possible. At night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, then a slight chance of showers between 11pm and 2am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly clear, with a low around 59. Northwest wind 6 to 9 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%. [Weather.gov]

View More Stories