Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor: The Affordable Housing Case for Streetcar

By ARLnow.com

The following letter to the editor was submitted by former Arlington County Housing Director Ken Aughenbaugh.

I recently returned to private consulting after thirty years with Arlington County Government’s various housing programs. From 2003-2013, I served as Housing Division Chief/County Housing Director – charged with leading and managing housing policy, program and project initiatives under direction of the County Board and County Manager. I had previously served with District of Columbia non-profits, and as a training and course development consultant under contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). During my 35-year career in affordable housing, I have worked with dozens of jurisdictions across the US on housing-related initiatives, ranging from energy conservation to homelessness and transit-oriented development. It is from this perspective, I now feel compelled to share my views on Arlington’s planned streetcar lines and, especially, why it is of critical importance to preserving thousands of affordable homes along Columbia Pike.

Thirty years ago when I moved across the river from DC, Arlington was still a relatively sleepy, primarily residential “bedroom” community. The commercial base consisted of high-rise office buildings in Rosslyn and Crystal City. The retail zones in the Rosslyn-Ballston (RB) corridor were declining. Housing was relatively cheap, and owners were happy to work with the County to rehab and commit a unit at affordable rents for five years in exchange for a $5,000 matching grant. Owners could make a profit, the County was able to use only its federal Community Development Block Grant Funds – no local tax funds were needed.

As Metrorail took hold along with the County’s effort to revitalize the RB corridor, the goal of a 50/50 mix of commercial to residential tax revenue was achieved. This helped Arlington to achieve the lowest real estate tax rate in the region, and maintain its “triple-triple A” bond rating. The unintended consequence of this success, however, was – and is – the intense pressure on housing affordability. As the job base grew, and our great location lured more businesses and residents – real estate values and rents grew exponentially. Our County programs could no longer attract owners to partner on affordable housing. Owners could do better by charging market rents without government “strings.”

In 1988, the County Board adopted several game-changing initiatives, including bonus density if developers included affordable housing in residential “Site Plan” projects, and cash contributions from commercial projects. The County also created the Housing Fund Contingent, now known as the Affordable Housing Investment Fund (AHIF) program using local tax revenue to assist non-profit and willing for-profit developers with low interest loans to help write-down the costs of affordable housing projects. To date, these efforts have created over 6,600 units of affordable housing or roughly 15% of the County’s total rental housing stock.

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Letter to the Editor: Why the Streetcar Will Benefit All of Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Rendering of a streetcar along Columbia Pike

The following letter to the editor was submitted by David DeCamp.

Sometimes when you fly into National Airport you get a perfect view of the buildings that comprise the Rosslyn-Ballston (R-B) corridor.

The tallest buildings are clustered around the metro stations and then taper off to garden apartments, single family houses and lots of trees. This is my “visual” for a turn-around story of epic proportions, and a template for why I am sure the streetcar system will benefit all of Arlington.

In the face of economic decline and even a shrinking population in the late 1960’s and 1970’s, visionaries like Arlington County Manager Burt Johnson boldly campaigned and cajoled naysayers to get the Blue and Orange Lines routed through Arlington with nine or ten stops inside the County. Then enlightened urban planning processes, starting with a document known as “R-B ’72,” articulated the tapered bulls-eye build-out around the future metro stations. The Blue Line opened in 1977 followed by the Orange Line in 1979. Arlington started to grow again. Because the urban planning and the rail-transit investments were coordinated early on, Arlington got more economic return out of Metro than any other jurisdiction.

How much more?

Consider this. I was fortunate enough to be part of a development team that built a mixed-use project on most of a city block near the Clarendon Metro Station. When we bought the parcel in the early 2000’s, it looked like a typical part of today’s Columbia Pike (a two-acre parking lot surrounding an old grocery structure). The annual real estate taxes were $100,000. Now that the ten-story Station Square project is built and occupied, it produces over $1,500,000 in real estate taxes each year. That’s an astounding 1,500% increase. Arlington collects this payment year after year and the occupants use almost no county services.

Take this one example and multiply it by about 200 other buildings in the transit-oriented development corridors that pay us a handsome annual dividend on our investment in transit and that is “The Arlington Miracle.”

As a result, Arlington’s businesses and residents enjoy the lowest tax rate in Northern Virginia and arguably the highest quality of life. We have more office space than downtown Dallas or Atlanta. Forty-nine percent of all tax receipts in Arlington come from businesses. Our businesses pay enough taxes to cover Arlington’s entire annual transfer payment for our high-achieving public school system. Believe me, when it costs around $18,000 a year for each student in the public schools, and most single family home-owners in Arlington pay less than $8,000 in real estate taxes, we need to encourage a robust and growing business tax base in Arlington.

The streetcar routes planned for Columbia Pike and continuing through Crystal City are using the same tried-and-true combination of coordinated urban planning in conjunction with appropriately sized transit investments. The transit and the enhanced development are inextricably linked. You can’t have one without the other. Scores of new buildings, comprising millions of square feet, have been planned through extensive community processes and scaled to suit the aspirations of the neighboring stake-holders. Buses alone do not have the required characteristics or capacity to move the projected growth.

And note: while the density increase is significant, the planned buildings for the Pike are not even half as large as those found in Rosslyn or Ballston. However, harkening back to The Arlington Miracle, early indications show us that we can expect the streetcar corridors to induce new transit-oriented buildings that yield a 500% increase in real estate taxes on re-developed sites. The Arlington streetcars will pay us back with a handsome and increasing return on investment.

Quoting retired Virginia state Senator Mary Margaret Whipple, from her April 2013 Washington Post Op-Ed, “Metrorail turned Arlington around, streetcars will keep it moving forward.”

David DeCamp is a real estate developer and sales agent. He is the immediate past-Chair of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and serves on the board of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization (CPRO). David is a 2004 graduate of Leadership Arlington. According to DeCamp, he owns interests in commercial property in North Arlington but has no financial interest in any real estate in South Arlington. His views are his own.

To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected]. Letters to the editor may be edited for content and brevity.

Letter to the Editor: Aquatics Center Will Benefit Older Residents

By ARLnow.com

In addition to benefiting residents with disabilities, supporters of the Long Bridge aquatics center say the facility will serve the needs of older residents.

Rising costs have led critics to push for the aquatics center to either be scaled back or scrapped altogether. In a letter to the editor, one Arlington resident says that an aquatics facility — even one downsized from the current plans — should still be built so those who can’t afford private aquatics facilities can enjoy the year-round fitness benefits of swimming.

Swimming is one of the few sports that people can continue well into their dotage. Yes, there is a need for the new facility because it offers pools that are warmer for both lessons and for older muscles that cramp in colder water. Providing active recreation that keeps joints functioning decreases the demand on other County facilities to care for elder clients.

Many older folks are long term residents of this county. For years we have paid for schools, park activities, and fields that we didn’t use with little complaint. It is our tax support that has created the County you now enjoy. Private year-round facilities are out of many retiree price range or do not offer activities that we can use.

It is not asking too much to afford older residents the opportunity to swim in a “subsidized” pool when they have paid and continue to pay County taxes with little other use of County facilities.

Too many younger, upwardly-mobile new residents of Arlington think of themselves and their desires with little concern for others in the County. They make the assumption that anyone who is not in their earning pool and who needs subsidy are the takers of society. Now where have we heard that mindset before? Hopefully, most residents of Arlington still believe in some form of economic equity that allows all county residents to enjoy the bounty of Arlington regardless of their income bracket. No one can tell when the advantaged become the ones who need assistance as many of us have experienced.

Yes, we need a new aquatic facility in Arlington, not a lavish facility, but one that offers all-day the capabilities to satisfy a wide array of ages and physical needs. Yes, building in Arlington is expensive but we can reassess construction needs and build with the funds already allotted. Yes, this facility did not come out of the blue nor was it designed in a vacuum. The public committee that has worked with County staff on the planning of this facility for over ten years has expressed their willingness to return to the planning process and produce yet another set of plans that have a better chance of meeting cost constraints. Let’s give them a chance to work with the County to produce a product that meets aesthetic as well as practical needs.

— Suzanne Bolton, Claremont

To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected]. Letters to the editor may be edited for content and brevity.

Letter to the Editor: St. Charles School Closing Handled Poorly

By ARLnow.com

Last week, St. Charles Borromeo Church, near Clarendon, announced that it will be closing its private K-8 school after this school year.

Administrators say the decision is due to low enrollment — only 117 students are currently enrolled at the school, about half of its capacity. Still, parents are upset with the decision, and wondering whether anything could have been done to save the school.

Here’s a letter from one such parent.

My daughter’s school, St. Charles Borromeo in Clarendon, announced suddenly January 13 that it was closing the K-8 portion this June and “restructuring” as an Early Childhood Center.

“So what?” you must be thinking; Catholic schools have been closing at an alarming rate all over the country.

But it’s not that St. Charles Elementary is closing — it’s the process by which it is closing.

We received an email the morning of the 13th that there was an important letter in our child’s backpack for us. I didn’t give the email another thought until I went to pick up my daughter from extended day, when I saw the stricken faces of other parents. I thought maybe that someone in the school community was very ill or had died. Little did I know it was the news of the school closure.

A letter like that should come at the end of a long fight to save your school — after you have done everything you could think of to raise both enrollment and necessary operating funds. Why were parents not even given the opportunity to try?

We were never afforded the respect and dignity to be invited into the process. We were never given financial information or analyses. We were never notified of the warnings that were apparently delivered from the Diocese to the school. We were never rallied and given a goal to try to attain. We were never given a chance to go down swinging.

We were led to believe that everything was fine. We have an active PTO. We have an active enrollment management committee. We have a brand new, engaging, motivated principal who this school year alone brought in 10 new students.

Look — we are not naïve. We understand the economics of private education in this area and the struggles in trying to compete with the fabulous public schools in the region. Maybe in the end, after fighting the good fight, we would not have succeeded. Then we would have been sad to receive the letter, would have licked our wounds, and at least known we did all we could.

But for things to end this way is unacceptable and disrespectful.

In his letter Father Horace H. “Tuck” Grinnell stated “What defeated us in the end was our low enrollment.” I beg to differ. I believe it was a lack of leadership.

So now St. Charles Elementary — the most diverse Catholic elementary school in the diocese and a shining example of Dr. Martin Luther King’s hopes and dreams — is closing. There is no written transition plan, only vague assurances that families will be welcomed with open arms, and current teachers and staff will be given priority for jobs, at other Catholic schools in the area. I only hope this is the case.

I hope the new St. Charles Early Childhood Center will be a success. Those of you in Arlington looking for a preschool would have the joy of working with Principal Angela Rowley and her staff. She is the finest example of Christian love and charity and will educate and care for your children like they were her own. If she can’t make this new center a success, then no one can.

But learn from our situation — demand transparency and participation at all times. Demand accountability from the parish, the superintendent of Catholic schools at the diocese, and from the bishop himself. Maybe then something good will come out of St. Charles Elementary’s untimely and unnecessary death.

In the fall my daughter’s third grade teacher read the class the children’s version of Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea.” On their own the class decided to raise funds for Pennies for Peace, the charity supporting schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. They set a goal of $400, and to be honest, I didn’t think there was any way they could raise that amount of money. I thought it would be a great learning experience that sometimes you can’t meet a goal you set.

The kids raised almost $900. Just imagine what their parents could have done for St. Charles Elementary if only we were given the chance.

Kayleen Fitzgerald
Falls Church

To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected]. Letters to the editor may be lightly edited for content and brevity.

Letter to the Editor: When Did an Aquatics Center Become a Need?

By ARLnow.com

The following was sent in response to last week’s letter to the editor, “The Case for Long Bridge Park Phase 2.”

I am an Arlington resident and have been for 15 years. I would like to respond to Eric Cassel, President Friends of Long Bridge Park. First he makes the case that the target audience for this lavish facility is increasing in Arlington County. Target audience? Elementary school age children — I have lived in six states while I was growing up. In not one state was there a swimming facility for us to learn how to swim. How did this become a necessity for elementary school children? At what point did “we” decide that my elementary schooling when I was a child was lacking?

My parents took me to the YMCA to learn how to swim. We have one of those very close to the Pentagon City / Crystal City area. Why is it the tax payers responsibility to teach others children how to swim? Second, young urban professionals. We have gyms with pools in this area already. I belong to sport and health. The pool is rarely crowded. They can well afford to pay a gym membership. Again, why is it taxpayers responsibility to subsidize young urban professionals’ desire to swim? There are also the Arlington County high school pools that they are free to join at a great discount to them! Thirdly, the elderly. See my comments about the young professionals. In addition, not well-off elderly receive subsidizes from the County already. Why suddenly a “new need” for them to swim at taxpayer expense.

We already have Hayes Park for events of all sorts and a soccer field, basket ball courts, and tennis courts. Is this not enough? Why must the taxpayers now foot the bill for an overly expensive facility that supporters are attempting to portray as a requirement and entitlement?

George Sarkees
Addison Heights

To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected]. Letters to the editor may be lightly edited for content and brevity.

Letter to the Editor: The Case for Phase 2 of Long Bridge Park

By ARLnow.com

Renderings of the future Long Bridge Park Aquatics, Health & Fitness FacilityNews that rising cost estimates and construction bids have put the Long Bridge Park aquatics center in danger of being downsized or scrapped has been gleefully seized upon by critics of the planned facility this week.

With construction bids well exceeding the $80 million projected cost — of just the first phase of the aquatics and fitness center project, also referred to as Phase 2 of Long Bridge Park — critics says it’s too grand a project for Arlington County, with its eroding commercial tax base. However, supporters say it’s well worth the investment.

Here’s a Letter to the Editor from Eric Cassel, President of the Friends of Long Bridge Park organization.

Many facts about Phase 2 at Long Bridge Park have been forgotten in the past few weeks and as everyone takes a breath, it would be timely to restate the great need for the next phase and three of the reasons why it has been proposed.

1) Three major groups will use the pool and each group is projected to increase greatly in the coming years.
Elementary age children, local young adults and the elderly are the primary target audience for the Aquatics center. All three groups are projected to increase significantly in the next 20 years.

First, the schools have made a great case that elementary school students are already increasing and creating a demand for facilities. That means the number of small children who need a place to play and a location to learn to swim have and will increase. Having tons of elementary school kids ‘playing’ in the high school pools cannot happen. The two age groups have significantly different needs (for example water temperature) and significantly different type of pool needs. Thus the increasing demand from elementary students will not be able to be accommodated by the high school pools.

Second, in the Crystal City/Pentagon City/Rosslyn area the number of households is expected to increase in significantly more than the rest of the county. The increase in housing units near Metro stations is almost all condo/apartments. These units are very attractive to the Young Urban Adult population. To give everyone an idea the following table shows the dramatic increase in housing units near Long Bridge Park:

How much additional time can the local schools schedule in the high school pools for this additional young adult activity? Or is the county going to ignore the recreational needs of young adults?

Lastly, the Center will also provide aquatics and fitness facilities and times for the fast growing older adult population. Currently no facility in the county provides a lazy river for seniors to walk against the current. In addition, the classes for seniors are offered when the schools can provide time in their pools—not at other times that seniors would prefer and even at these restricted times, the few classes are waitlisted. Lastly there is no public therapy pool in the county for classes and health of seniors. Arlington County should provide these recreational and wellness facilities for seniors.

Thus, all three groups: elementary children, young adults and seniors are the target audiences for the facility.

2) Main Swimming Pools

The Arlington County Master plan specifically recommends that the park be developed and was based on a comprehensive and expert analysis of the physical assets and the demand for services. Instead of looking at just a few individuals’ anecdotal opinions, it is important to gather the facts, and look at the demand/supply balance. Expert data and research have shown the demand for swimming is significantly greater than the supply. Demand and supply studies, information from the county on demand for pool time and the class demand all show a supply/demand imbalance that Phase 2 has been planned to address.

As a result of this study and an impressive community input process with almost 100 public meetings, the proposed phases of Long Bridge Park were developed. These phases were designed to be complementary and increase the value of the park over time.

3) Outdoor Facilities at Long Bridge Park

One of the features of the park is the increased space for events, passive recreation and pedestrian/bike access to the Mt. Vernon trail. These outdoor features are part of the cost of the park and provide a significant increase in the facilities for the county.

The park will be the site of medium sized events, like ethnic festivals, sporting events and smaller local concerts. No place in the county will be able to hold such events with the ease that will be possible at Long Bridge Park. The site is being equipped for events by having outdoor electric outlets, additional bathrooms and physical support facilities.

The increased length of the esplanade will provide joggers, walkers and bikers with a longer, better views of the monuments, the airport, the trains and the Potomac River and more outdoor features. All of these outdoor features are part of the cost, upkeep and resources that the county should provide its residents. We cannot be a world-class community, without providing some basic outdoor recreation to our residents.

The three reasons for Phase 2 are:

  1. The target populations are increasing and currently underserved,
  2. The demand for the main swimming pools has been shown to be greater than the supply,
  3. The outdoor facilities provide needed recreation and open space

The next phase of Long Bridge Park is necessary to fulfill Open Space Master Plan and to offer needed recreational, fitness and wellness needs for the full range of populations and ages in Arlington County.

Eric Cassel
President, Friends of Long Bridge Park

To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected].

Letter to the Editor: Italian Store Could Spur Unwelcome Development

By ARLnow.com

Westover 7-Eleven closesJudging by the deluge of views and comments on our article about the Italian Store planning to open a second location, in Westover, most residents are excited about the opening.

But not everybody thinks the Italian Store will be an all-over positive development for the neighborhood.

Here’s a letter to the editor from former Westover resident Kyle Herchert:

I live in Rosslyn now, but from 2005 to 2012, I lived in the same house in Westover. (Tara Leeway Heights if you want to be a stickler).

I still remember the day I discovered the Forrest Inn. It was like a scientist who haphazardly stumbles upon a whole new species. I couldn’t believe there was a place like that in Arlington! It was amazing to me. I loved the fact that there was still a place that had remained unscathed amid the rapid growth we’ve all experienced living in Arlington over the last decade.

In many ways, all of Westover is like the Forrest. The entire strip had managed to retain its sleepy town feel even amid the hustle and bustle of the biggest little county in America. I’ve always enjoyed that feeling. It’s the feeling you get walking out of Pete’s Barber Shop, where I still get my hair cut, to stroll down to the Beer Garden just to check out the vibe. Westover just felt like home.

On the surface, the introduction of the Italian Store seems like a natural fit to the area – and in almost every way it is. It’s a mom and pop shop opening in the quintessential mom and pop town. However, the undeniable popularity of the Italian Store will undoubtedly attract huge numbers to the area. Once that happens I think it’s just a short time before investors realize that they can have success in the Westover area as well. How long will it be before the Forrest becomes a Boston Market or even worse, and Palm Beach Tan.

Maybe I’m being paranoid, I guess only time will tell.

— Kyle Herchert

A new weekend feature in 2014, ARLnow.com is now publishing letters to the editor. To submit a letter to the editor, please email it to [email protected].