The Arlington Children’s Center at 1915 N. Uhle Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Arlington Children’s Center at 1915 N. Uhle Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Arlington Children’s Center at 1915 N. Uhle Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Arlington Children’s Center at 1915 N. Uhle Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The Arlington Children’s Center at 1915 N. Uhle Street (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
When a contractor for Arlington County embarked on work to renovate a county-owned childcare building near Courthouse, it ran into some costly problems.
The county contracted with Landivar & Associates in December to oversee plans to update the Arlington Children’s Center (1915 N. Uhle Street), which has housed a childcare facility for county employees for several decades. It will be updating the building to meet current daycare standards, comply with the Americans with Disability Act and provide an interior refresh.
Work began this April, but with just 10% of work done, the contractor has already blown through half of its allotted contingency funding — nearly $264,000 — “to repair unforeseen structural damages revealed during interior demolition,” per a county report.
Over the weekend, the Arlington County Board approved a $100,000 contract increase to “address additional unforeseen conditions that are likely to be revealed during the remaining 90% of the project,” the report continued.
Now, the total contract is worth $1.2 million, up from $1.1 million.
Although work began this spring, the building closed nearly two years ago. At the time, the county and the childcare service provider — which had been in the building for 17 years — could not reach an agreement over a contract extension with the renovation work pending.
This stressed some parents who found themselves scrambling to find daycare amid a shortage of options.
Arlington County expects the renovation work to wrap up and the facility to reopen in early 2024, according to a project webpage. The county already has a contract with a provider — the nonprofit Easterseals — which the Board approved this January.
“Enrollment preference will be given to children whose parent or guardian work for the County, followed by children whose parent or guardian work or live in Arlington County,” the webpage said.
Julius “JD” Spain Sr. canvassing (via JD for Arlington/Facebook)
Susan Cunningham canvassing (via Susan for Arlington/Facebook)
Jonathan Dromgoole canvassing at Acme Pie Co. (via Jonathan Dromgoole/Facebook)
Natalie Roy canvassing on her bike (courtesy photo)
Tony Weaver and supporters setting up signs (courtesy photo)
(Updated at 11:20 a.m.) They have participated in public fora, gone door-to-door, answered candidate questionnaires and submitted essays asking for your vote.
Now, the candidates for Arlington County Board are in the home stretch. On Tuesday, the polls officially open for the primary to determine which of the six will have the nomination of the local Democratic party — and whose bids come to an end. Early voting ends tomorrow (Saturday).
For this year’s County Board race, some of the top issues have been the fallout over the decision to allow 2-6 units in single-family home neighborhoods — also known as Missing Middle — as well as affordable housing, improved public transportation, sustainability and tackling the office vacancy rate.
One candidate, Maureen Coffey, has picked up the endorsement of Katie Cristol, the first County Board candidate to leave office this year. Coffey already has the support of Matt de Ferranti and Takis Karantonis, and a third-place vote from Vice-Chair Libby Garvey, meaning she enjoys at least partial support from most of the current Board.
Based on candidate websites and campaign finance records, it appears outgoing Board Chair Christian Dorsey has stayed out of endorsing or donating during this race.
Behind Coffey comes Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., who has the support of de Ferranti and Karantonis.
Spain also has the distinction of being one of the top three fundraisers this race, along with Susan Cunningham and Natalie Roy, who Garvey ranked first and second, respectively, on her ballot.
As for campaign fundraising, Cunningham emerged in the lead during the most recent filing period, besting Roy. Since April 1, Cunningham — who ran in 2020 as an independent — raised $41,810 and loaned herself $10,000.
“I am grateful for the broad support across Arlington — donations, volunteers, and early votes for Susan #1,” Cunningham said in a press release. “Voters I talk with every day are enthusiastic about my background and experience and what I can bring to the Arlington County Board.”
She picked up contributions from some 166 donors, per her campaign. She also was endorsed by four D.C. and Virginia organizations, including Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington and Virginia Chapter National Organization of Women.
Roy received contributions from some 120 new donors, according to her campaign.
“It has been incredibly exciting to see the culmination of months of campaigning as voters head to the polls and to hear from supporters as they return absentee ballots,” Roy said in a press release. “Just as I promise to listen to all Arlingtonians as a County Board member, I promise to keep working until the polls close at 7 p.m. next Tuesday.”
This round, a handful of unions led fundraising for Coffey and Spain, donating $9,500 to each. Coffey also received $2,500 from Cristol, whose last meeting as a Board member was on Tuesday. Candidates Jonathan Dromgoole and Tony Weaver trailed in fundraising this round, earning $3,142 and $2,555, respectively.
Campaign fundraising for Arlington County Board (by ARLnow)
A few more endorsements have come in, too. Coffey has the support of Lowell Feld, founder and editor of Blue Virginia.
“Coffey both has her priorities straight and has a positive VISION for Arlington’s future,” the outlet said, adding that she fits its criteria: smart, with growth potential, who share “our progressive, environmentalist values.”
Northside Social in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The makeshift outdoor dining areas that sprung up in the early days of Covid, and gradually took on a more permanent feel, could be here to stay.
On Tuesday, the Arlington County Board voted to hold hearings next month mulling zoning changes that would give most restaurants a way to add outdoor seating areas without special Board approval.
Restaurants were able to do this during the pandemic — adapting to social distancing and indoor gathering regulations — via a special county program that is ending on Aug. 15.
Under the proposed ordinances, temporary outdoor seating areas (TOSAs) that are on private property and on public sidewalks within rights-of-way would be approved administratively. Those on privately owned public spaces, like the patio outside the seafood spot Seamore’s in Clarendon, would require a County Board use permit.
How outdoor seating areas could be approved (via Arlington County)
Restaurants could go to the Board to have parking spots converted to outdoor dining space.
The proposed ordinance changes, which will be discussed in a Board meeting on July 15, have been under development for the last year. The county says the code changes support local businesses, about 100 of which have TOSAs, and account for livability concerns some residents raised.
“This is a huge body of work. A huge thanks to staff, who’ve been working on this comprehensively for a while,” Board Chair Christian Dorsey said. “I know it seems like a simple issue to some, but as you peel layers of the onion, you continue to find more complexity.”
The Board initially approved TOSAs early in the pandemic to help restaurants circumvent the typically lengthy process for getting an outdoor dining permit. These spaces were popular for offsetting revenue lost to closures and social distancing and for creating a safer dining experience.
As the pandemic wore on, the Board allowed TOSAs in common areas, such as plazas, and for restaurants to continue operating them at full capacity once the indoor capacity restrictions lifted.
“It was a life saver for our family and employees and continues to be a large part of our business,” Lebanese Taverna Executive Vice President Grace Shea said during a forum hosted by the Arlington Committee of 100 on Wednesday night.
Now, she says, it brings more people to the restaurant.
“Outdoor seating enhances the streetscape of where the restaurant is. It attracts people by creating a welcoming atmosphere,” she said. “It’s also additional revenue that we do not have to pay rent for.”
In 2021, Arlington County signaled plans to study early a dozen separate policies governing outdoor cafés to figure out how to make TOSAs permanent. That started in the fall of 2022, after a local Covid emergency order ended.
County staff say it heard both support and concerns from the community. One strong supporter is the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.
“The Chamber and the county both agree that we want to make this transition smooth for restaurant owners who want this outdoor dining,” said John Musso, the government affairs manager for the Chamber, at Wednesday’s forum. “We’re looking forward to continuing this conversation.”
Construction workers at Oakland Park in 2019 (file photo)
Arlington County, like the rest of us, is realizing $250,000 does not get you as far as it used to.
With inflation, gone are the days that a construction contract of any significance could realistically come in under that sum, the threshold for a project that requires Arlington County Board approval. Gone too are the days that most professional services contracts, for things like engineering work, would cost under $80,000.
So, on Saturday, the Board adjusted for inflation — and then some — greenlighting a new threshold of $1 million for capital construction contracts and professional services. Contracts under this sum will no longer need Board review and approval.
“Establishing a higher threshold corrects for these cost increases and provides some
insulation against future inflationary pressures, which is prudent given the infrequent nature of these threshold adjustments,” a county report says.
The two thresholds were last set in 2000 and since then, the impacts of inflation in the D.C. area construction market “have been particularly acute,” the report says.
“While different construction market indices reflect varying degrees of inflation, they consistently support that $250,000 in the year 2000 more closely approximates $500,000 [to] $600,000 in 2023,” it said.
Although $1 million is a higher threshold even after adjusting for inflation, the county says it is reasonable.
“The proposed $1 million threshold would still be the lowest among major counties and cities in the Northern Virginia region and among the lowest in the D.C. metro area,” per the report.
How much a contract has to cost in the region for a governing body to need to sign off on it (via Arlington County)
In fact, of all the 70 road, sewer and park projects between 2015 and 2022 that received bids — dubbed invitation to bid or ITB projects — none were under $250,000, the county says.
The majority, 62%, were more than $1 million — the kind of capital construction projects that “also tend to be those with the most complexity and public interest and impact,” the report said.
The cost of various proposed bids in Arlington (via Arlington County)
The Gazette Leader newspaper, however, lamented this as a loss for those seeking a more transparent government.
“The proposal likely will add more fuel to the fire among critics of the government like the Arlington County Civic Federation, which has contended that the government is failing the public on the transparency front,” editor Scott McCaffrey wrote.
The county has a different take, saying projects under $1 million are largely “minor renovations and smaller maintenance projects.” That includes minor sidewalk or park improvements, such as those recently undertaken at Towers Park Playground, Oakland Park and Edison Park.
These projects can generate public interest but, the report says, the county has existing engagement processes to respond to such interest.
A barbecue joint in Clarendon may have its occasional parties go up in smoke.
Arlington County says Smokecraft Modern Barbecue at 1051 N. Highland Street could lose its live entertainment permit because it does not comply with a local initiative requiring restaurants and bars to meet certain alcohol safety standards.
At issue: Since November, Clarendon venues with live entertainment permits need to comply with the Arlington Restaurant Initiative (ARI). One requirement is that establishments have certain written policies and procedures, which the award-winning, list-topping Smokecraft — which opened in 2020 — does not have.
The restaurant and its attorneys say they believe such written policies could make the restaurant vulnerable to litigation, meaning an increase in insurance costs of upwards of $10,000 a year.
“We are a safe establishment. We have been a safe establishment. We continue to plan to do so. Adopting these specific written policies isn’t going to change our commitment,” owner and pitmaster Andrew Darneille told the Board last night (Tuesday).
Further, he said, the live entertainment permit is not actively in use, all alcohol-serving staff are trained in how to serve safely, the restaurant has a “perfect alcohol safety record,” and alcohol only comprises 15% of sales.
Without compliance, the Arlington County Board says it will eventually revoke the live entertainment permit. In May, the county allowed Smokecraft to keep the permit and revisit the issue in a month while the parties cook up a solution.
Last night, the Board was poised to revoke the permit but instead voted to punt on the issue for one more month because negotiations are headed in the right direction.
Still, the patience of Board members appears to be wearing thin. Some seemed annoyed the issue had gotten to this point, where other restaurants found ways to make it work.
“I think you can get there without realizing the apocalypse your representatives see,” Board Chair Christian Dorsey said. “For my purposes, each month that we continue in this dance is another month where you continue to enjoy a permit without adhering to ARI standards — a luxury that the other establishments haven’t had.”
Dorsey said Smokecraft has the flexibility to write policies that meet a “minimal bar for compliance” and work for the business.
“One of the beauties of this is that the policies are not proscriptive — they’re illustrative,” Dorsey said. “It’s not like it’s going to require you to upend your operations.”
In response to the argument that Smokecraft should be able to follow the lead of other businesses, Darneille said that is an unfair argument.
“I recognize 50 other restaurants signed onto this but I can’t speak to why they made decisions to do what they’ve done,” he continued. “We’ve raised a concern here that’s valid for us. We are working to try and resolve that concern.”
He shifted blame to the county for not promptly engaging with the restaurant when these concerns first were raised. Then, after a meeting last month, he said it took two weeks to receive responses from the county.
County Board members did not address this point. ARLnow has previously reported on restaurateurs and other business owners having trouble reaching staff in a timely manner.
A delivery driver on foot in Rosslyn (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)
Chefs in the La Cocina, now Kitchen of Purpose (courtesy photo)
“Ghost kitchens” on the parking lot eyed for redevelopment near the Whole Foods in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
In another bid to encourage business growth, the Arlington County Board has made it easier to open shared kitchens and catering and food delivery operations.
On Saturday, the Board voted to amend the zoning ordinance to allow these uses by right in mixed-use, commercial and industrial zones throughout Arlington County. The changes streamline the regulatory approval process for several food-related uses, according to a county report.
“The outcomes of expanding food delivery to a by-right use support small business resilience by relieving businesses of unnecessary work,” the report said. That includes going before the County Board to seek approval for each use.
The changes are part of a flurry of approvals in the last 14 months to allow more uses by-right in these zoning districts. So far, the County Board has greenlit uses such as breweries, micro-fulfillment centers, podcasting studios, indoor pickleball and other emerging businesses to operate where they previously could not set up shop or needed special permission to do so.
All these updates happened in quick succession because County Manager Mark Schwartz debuted a faster zoning approval process that streamlined community engagement. The intent was to help Arlington respond quickly to changing market conditions and, ultimately, tackle the high office vacancy rate.
Food service was the next candidate for an update because, the report says, local regulations treated delivery operations like it was still 1988. (The iPhone debuted in 2007.)
Per the report, the zoning ordinance “does not account for the present-day popularity of modern food delivery services,” requiring food delivery not to exceed 20% of a restaurant’s sales.
Restaurants were relieved of that kind of provision — borne from a concern about delivery vehicle congestion — during the pandemic, the report said.
Food delivery has become a permanent part of how Arlingtonians eat, even after Covid dining restrictions lifted. This new way of doing business was under threat by the expiration of the Covid-era Continuity of Governance ordinance that relaxed delivery regulations.
The changes approved on Saturday, then, came in the knick of time for new and existing businesses, as the ordinance is set to expire in August — meaning the county would have reverted to 1988 delivery standards.
Businesses would have had to obtain County Board approval to continue delivery, had the Board voted down the zoning change. Some already did — Foxtrot in Rosslyn, for instance, went before the Board earlier this year to continue delivering beverages, ready-made food and grocery items.
Saturday’s vote also is helping another player in the app-based food delivery ecosystem: trailer-based ghost kitchens, the kind of which you might see in a parking lot between Clarendon and Courthouse. Ghost kitchen operators will no longer need certain permits to continue cooking.
Renderings of the Arlington Career Center (via Arlington County)
Renderings of the Arlington Career Center (via Arlington County)
Renderings of the Arlington Career Center (via Arlington County)
Renderings of the Arlington Career Center (via Arlington County)
On Saturday, the Arlington County Board approved plans to redevelop the Arlington Career Center on Columbia Pike.
Arlington Public Schools will be building a new 5-story Career Center building at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive to house students in vocational courses, such as veterinary sciences. Also set to be built: a standalone 4-story parking garage.
Plans to update the building have gone through many iterations over the years and were most recently reprised last February in a process fraught with concerns.
In the end, four of the five Board members voted in favor of the $180 million project, with Takis Karantonis dissenting. The new facility will have capacity for up to 1,619 students.
The vote came after they heard, and in some cases echoed, concerns from representatives of civic associations and citizen commissions, as well as neighbors. Before Saturday, the Planning Commission was also divided, voting 5-4 two weeks ago with the chair abstaining after a weighty pause.
Board members who greenlit the project justified their decision using variations on the saying “the perfect is the enemy of the good.”
“The cost of the pursuit of a delay and the pursuit of a more perfect project are so high and the project brought before us — though not perfect — when delivered in its full vision… is going to be indeed a spectacular addition to an area that I think of as my broader neighborhood,” Board member Katie Cristol said. “And, more importantly, a home befitting of the incredible education happening within it.”
Some of the neighbors who spoke say they support the idea of the project and say they are not seeking perfection at all.
“The current APS plans, while ambitious, cut corners in ways that are unacceptable to the community and contrary to the our shared vision of a safe and equitable Arlington,” a coalition of leaders of civic associations along Columbia Pike said in a letter.
Top concerns from neighbors included the future of open space on the site and the environmental commitments of the proposed building. There were calls for sidewalks, undergrounded utilities and fencing that match those at other schools in Arlington, as well as a more forward-thinking solution to parking than a stand-alone, above-ground garage.
Former Arlington County Planning Commissioner Stephen Hughes said in a letter to the Board that the county should have deferred approving the use permit until APS addressed these issues.
“The Career Center site deserves to be the ‘Jewel of the Pike’; however, any claim of that today is disingenuous at best,” he wrote. “APS has failed for over a decade to address facility planning in a comprehensive way and besides the inclusion of the existing facilities on the [General Land Use Plan], we have no planning guidance to rely on with APS facilities.”
APS and the School Board intend to retrofit the current Career Center for the Montessori program now housed in the former Patrick Henry Elementary School. This building, in turn, would be torn down and turned into a green space.
Some people wanted these commitments included in the use permit that went before the County Board on Saturday. Otherwise, they say, no legal document binds APS to executing this vision and — absent funding and a plan — the Pike will lose a baseball diamond, basketball court and open green space with no commitments to recover them.
The contract for the project stands at about $2.4 million with a contingency of nearly $375,000.
The county currently has a traffic signal infrastructure upgrades program in progress, with a goal of replacing all outdated traffic lights and signals, as explained on the project webpage.
For the three latest intersections, outdated traffic lights will be replaced and pedestrian safety improvements will be installed, the staff report said.
The project webpage notes that traffic signals at many Arlington intersections have “exceeded their intended service life” and that new traffic lights will “meet current Federal and County standards and specifications.”
So far there’s no word yet on when the intersection construction projects will begin. Updates will be provided via email lists, a construction letter, the project’s webpage and NextDoor for interested residents, according to the county.
Units in the Marbella Apartments set for renovation (via Google Maps)
Units in the Marbella Apartments set for renovation (via Google Maps)
An aerial view of the Marbella Apartment buildings set for renovation (via Arlington County)
A rendering of the new Marbella Apartments to be constructed along N. Pierce Street (via Arlington County)
Renovations to the Marbella Apartments in the Radnor-Ft. Myer Heights neighborhood (via Arlington County)
Renovations to the Marbella Apartments in the Radnor-Ft. Myer Heights neighborhood (via Arlington County)
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.
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)
Arlington County Board candidate Natalie Roy (courtesy photo)
Last week, we invited the candidates running in competitive races in the June 20 Democratic primary to write a post about why Arlington residents should vote for them. Find information on how and where to vote here.
Below is the unedited response from Natalie Roy, candidate for Arlington County Board.
I am running to bring new energy, transparency, and responsiveness to the County Board. It is crucial to have someone on the County Board with experience in the trenches, who knows the county well, and tells it like it is. With me, what you see is what you get. I am not shy about asking the tough questions or challenging the status quo. I will focus on improving our public engagement process and bringing people together.
As a 32-year resident in Arlington, I have decades of community experience including serving as the President of my neighborhood’s civic association, as a PTA president, as an active member of the County’s covid vaccination committee, and as the coach of the Yorktown girls’ varsity tennis team for 17 years. I also helped organize opposition to a gun store in our neighborhood.
My wide range of professional executive experience includes running two national environmental organizations, one statewide handgun control group, and working on recycling for a state agency and a municipality. As the recycling director for the glass container industry, I worked with union members at glass plants across the country to promote recycling. I founded and still manage a top-performing real estate business in Arlington, which gives me real-world insights into housing and development. As a lifelong Democrat, I have worked and volunteered on countless progressive national, state, and local campaigns.
At the risk of some blowback from local basketball circles, I am a proud graduate of Duke University. My husband Nikki and I raised three daughters who all went to Arlington County Public Schools. Nikki and I met 42 years ago working for the same environmental group. He is still saving the world, fighting climate change. We both know that reducing our carbon footprint should be a priority at every level of government.
I got out of my comfort zone and launched this, my first run for public office, because I opposed the County’s recent sweeping zoning changes. Although the new zoning changes likely will benefit my real estate business, they would be harmful to the community, and that is my first priority. This election is about whether we in Arlington want unplanned density for the sake of density throughout the County or environmentally sound, transit-oriented development that meaningfully promotes affordability and diversity. I support smart growth and our community.
Far from the isolated issue some claim it to be, Arlington’s current ‘Up-Zoning Everywhere’ approach with no real goals or guardrails, is a central issue. These density dynamics will affect our County’s economy, our environment and tree canopy, infrastructure, transit, schools, and emergency response for decades into the future.
This watershed election is a vote on who has the best vision for Arlington. I have the requisite experience, high creativity, strong leadership skills, and deep community roots to serve on the County Board and hit the ground running on day one. I have no political aspirations other than to serve on the County Board to provide the unifying leadership and transparency critically needed now. I would be honored to receive your #1 Vote.
