Arlington Missing Middle Housing Q&A

[Anonymous]

Are there any existing community covenants that would prevent this from happening in certain areas, for example in Bellevue forest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone ever tried parking on a street with mixed housing? Our friends live on a street that has SFHs and is adjacent to some duplexes and condos. It's a nightmare. One family has three cars, and that's enough to disrupt the entire parking balance. There are cars parked up and down both sides of the street, which means only one car can get through at a time. They cannot park in front of their own house, there is never space for people who come over etc.

Discouraging parking and cars is a feature not a bug. #carfreediet

Oh please. You can’t be “car free in Arlington.” And the push for it hasn’t worked for the past twenty years. Give me a break.

Arlington hasn’t actually done sh** to discourage car ownership. On my SFH street it’s residents of said SFHs who own 4 or more cars who litter the street with their cars. It’s ridiculous. Arlington should tax the hell out of more than one or two cars per household. We have multiple neighbors who have two adult residents, but “garage” their adult childrens’ cars because it’s free street parking not too far from home and otherwise their kids would have to pay $$$$ in their $$$$ condos for on-site parking. Guess which option they’d choose? And we have other neighbors who just get new cars and never get rid of the old ones. Literally, a car that isn’t working just parked in the driveway, just sitting there for years, another working car in the driveway, and then two additional cars parked on the street. Tax the bell out of that nonsense and they’ll stop.

[Anonymous]

So, north Arlington will get the expensive missing middle housing and south Arlington gets the affordable housing. What is new here?

[Anonymous]

Legitimate question here--who really is asking for this? It seems like the YIMBY group is pushing for it and is organized but are regular citizens demanding this?

[Anonymous]

In other nice areas that I have lived in they have had rules that your car can’t be parked on the street overnight. Couldn’t they do that here since so many are so afraid of the parking issues of increased housing density.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are conflating a lot of issues. There are schools in Arlington that are under-subscribed. They tend to be in areas with the biggest lots and have plenty of street parking. I live in one of them. Please build a more diverse variety of houses here. It’s getting a little tiresome see ranchers get torn down for ugly $2m+ McMansion monstrosities that take up the whole lot (and where their owners STILL park their beemers on the street). We won’t die if you put a few duplexes up, even though my neighbors will probably lose their minds over it.

That’s only at the elementary level. And is likely temporary. High school is a looming disaster.

+1 Have you been following the high school debacle? There are 1,300 students that they are looking for seats for.

But there in the same areas with the overcrowded elementary schools that PP is talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Legitimate question here--who really is asking for this? It seems like the YIMBY group is pushing for it and is organized but are regular citizens demanding this?

My guess is that the Arlington County Board is promising to build more housing for Amazon and other big companies that relocate here. The Amazon proposal was confidential. These are likely all backdoor deals that have already happened and the YIMBY folks and “community engagement” are a convenient ruse to make it seem like there was some sort of public process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any existing community covenants that would prevent this from happening in certain areas, for example in Bellevue forest?

Covenants don't trump county laws

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In other nice areas that I have lived in they have had rules that your car can’t be parked on the street overnight. Couldn’t they do that here since so many are so afraid of the parking issues of increased housing density.

That’s common where I grew up. You had to notify police if you’d have cars on the street. But that won’t work here where zoning only requires one off street space, even when you build a 5BR mcmansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Legitimate question here--who really is asking for this? It seems like the YIMBY group is pushing for it and is organized but are regular citizens demanding this?

I think plenty of current renters would prefer to buy in Arlington in they could afford it. Would they buy a duplex instead of a SFH in Fairfax or Loudoun? Maybe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Legitimate question here--who really is asking for this? It seems like the YIMBY group is pushing for it and is organized but are regular citizens demanding this?

I think plenty of current renters would prefer to buy in Arlington in they could afford it. Would they buy a duplex instead of a SFH in Fairfax or Loudoun? Maybe.

Most current renters don’t give a f about local politics because they aren’t rooted in the community. I know I didn’t.

[Anonymous]

The YIMBY North Arlington people with power are pushing this for one reason-to keep low income housing out of Langston Blvd and nice North Arlington neighborhoods.

Prior to the MM push, there was a lot of pressure to build CAFs around Langston and other areas of North Arlington. Very few wanted multi family housing, much less poor people, up that far into North Arlington. So, they put their weight behind MM so that could avoid being seen as opposing CAFs, and still be good democrats.

Sorry folks, that is the truth. MM ensures that multi family housing stays under control, and is not low income. They know the financials for CAFs won’t work on such small lots that don’t expand footprints.

[Anonymous]

I wish I could be a politician. The school overcrowding issue is just ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The YIMBY North Arlington people with power are pushing this for one reason-to keep low income housing out of Langston Blvd and nice North Arlington neighborhoods.

Prior to the MM push, there was a lot of pressure to build CAFs around Langston and other areas of North Arlington. Very few wanted multi family housing, much less poor people, up that far into North Arlington. So, they put their weight behind MM so that could avoid being seen as opposing CAFs, and still be good democrats.

Sorry folks, that is the truth. MM ensures that multi family housing stays under control, and is not low income. They know the financials for CAFs won’t work on such small lots that don’t expand footprints.

You may be right.

[Anonymous]

PP here. I am right. Many not privy to the real planning will try and say it is not so. But it 100% is.

Missing middle housing exists in south Arlington. There are very nice and affordable stacked condos on the pike. The shirlington and fairlington area is loaded with family townhomes that are not high end luxury. The new townhomes on the west pike are not cheap, but they are a lot cheaper then north Arlington.


A lot of homeowners in south Arlington would love to have more of the same MM housing but instead the county only focuses on CAFs and is willing to jeopardize the county’s finances to do so (ie Barcroft). The commitment to CAF is so strong that the county will chose a CAF over MM housing in south arlington, as they did with barcroft and other sites where they had control.

We need CAFs in the real north Arlington, transportation will follow and most living in CAFs have cars (which are parked for many blocks in adjacent neighborhoods.