Arlington "missing middle"

[Anonymous]

https://patch.com/virginia/arlington-va/missing-middle-plan-stirs-lenghty-debate-arlington-board-meeting

It's probably too late to save Arlington from its fate, but MOCO can still take control of the "feel good do something even if it's totally wrong" YIMBY narrative if it can build upon some of the realities being introduced below.

Brian Casabianca, speaking on behalf of a group of Ph.D. economists who live in Arlington, told the board that "no serious economic analysis" has been conducted about the Missing Middle housing proposal.

"The few premises put forward do not stand up to scrutiny," Casabianca said. "The plan should be called an increased density plan, not a plan to improve affordability, equity, or inclusion. ... Developers will seek to maximize profit. The result: The prices for existing homes will be more out of reach for those who could have previously afforded them."

Terri Armao, speaking to the board, said the citizens of Arlington County were misled to believe that Missing Middle would provide homeownership opportunities for middle income earners and would retain and increase diversity."

"We were expecting this plan but didn't get it," Armao said. "Instead, diversity means the type of housing and not actual people."

Missing Middle and Climate Change
Another speaker, Mete Uz, argued the county should take a more gradual approach, perhaps by initially allowing by-right construction of townhouses and multifamily dwellings only in single-family zoned neighborhoods near Metro stations in the county.

"My concern is if we do this all at once for everywhere, that is going to be a policy we can never change, and then we might see unintended consequences, like buyers of a small property having to compete with builders who can pay higher prices because they can spread the costs of those higher prices over multiple units," said Uz, who works on climate change issues as a federal government scientist.

"So it might actually end up hurting the buyers we want to incentivize rather than helping them," he added.

[Anonymous]

Arlington doesn’t want a middle class.

North Arlington (looking at you, Lyon Park) wants to be rich people only, and they want their domestic help living in South Arlington.


There’s no room for the rest of you peasants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington doesn’t want a middle class.

North Arlington (looking at you, Lyon Park) wants to be rich people only, and they want their domestic help living in South Arlington.


There’s no room for the rest of you peasants.

Lyon park?? LP straddles south arlington.

It’s the large lots in 22207/22213 where these monstrosities would go, and those homeowners are pissed!

[Anonymous]

North Arlington - we are only liberal when we could put up a yard sign or add a frame to our FB profile

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington doesn’t want a middle class.

North Arlington (looking at you, Lyon Park) wants to be rich people only, and they want their domestic help living in South Arlington.


There’s no room for the rest of you peasants.

Lyon park?? LP straddles south arlington.

It’s the large lots in 22207/22213 where these monstrosities would go, and those homeowners are pissed!

I live in 22207, and not everyone is pissed. But the pissed homeowners are very loud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:North Arlington - we are only liberal when we could put up a yard sign or add a frame to our FB profile

What’s liberal about wanting an 8-Plex in backyard?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know much about this plan but I am sceptical of an economist who says increasing the density and amount of available housing will drive housing prices up.

[Anonymous]

It’s an ill conceived increased density scheme. It will only make ownership less affordable, because properties up for sale will be much more attractive to developers, who may split and sell but also may split and rent. More rentals, with a more transient population less invested in the county. Dumpsters and college parties next door- hooray! Strain on schools with no more room to build. More traffic. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, though, what is the solution?

Everyone wants to cram into a handful of school districts. Unless you make the schools less desirable aka bussing you won't impact the value of housing to equalize across the county. But I'd argue that even south Arlington isn't affordable anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know much about this plan but I am sceptical of an economist who says increasing the density and amount of available housing will drive housing prices up.

Have you read the plan? Someone on here linked to it before, and even the 8-plex units were like $500K each and the townhomes were around $1.5 million. It's definitely a plan to increase density because housing at those prices won't do anything for low-income workers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know much about this plan but I am sceptical of an economist who says increasing the density and amount of available housing will drive housing prices up.

Have you read the plan? Someone on here linked to it before, and even the 8-plex units were like $500K each and the townhomes were around $1.5 million. It's definitely a plan to increase density because housing at those prices won't do anything for low-income workers.

Just to follow up, this article has the slide with expected pricing. Examples:

$520K to $670K for an 8-plex
$1.1 to $1.4 million for a duplex

Good luck to the non-profit workers who think this will benefit them. Plenty of inventory out there already that is more competitively priced than this MM housing would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know much about this plan but I am sceptical of an economist who says increasing the density and amount of available housing will drive housing prices up.

Have you read the plan? Someone on here linked to it before, and even the 8-plex units were like $500K each and the townhomes were around $1.5 million. It's definitely a plan to increase density because housing at those prices won't do anything for low-income workers.

Just to follow up, this article has the slide with expected pricing. Examples:

$520K to $670K for an 8-plex
$1.1 to $1.4 million for a duplex

Good luck to the non-profit workers who think this will benefit them. Plenty of inventory out there already that is more competitively priced than this MM housing would be.

Link here: https://dcist.com/story/23/01/20/arlington-county-missing-middle-housing-plan/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know much about this plan but I am sceptical of an economist who says increasing the density and amount of available housing will drive housing prices up.

Have you read the plan? Someone on here linked to it before, and even the 8-plex units were like $500K each and the townhomes were around $1.5 million. It's definitely a plan to increase density because housing at those prices won't do anything for low-income workers.

Just to follow up, this article has the slide with expected pricing. Examples:

$520K to $670K for an 8-plex
$1.1 to $1.4 million for a duplex

Good luck to the non-profit workers who think this will benefit them. Plenty of inventory out there already that is more competitively priced than this MM housing would be.

Link here: https://dcist.com/story/23/01/20/arlington-county-missing-middle-housing-plan/

That’s actually a really interesting thoughtful article. I think it makes the point that yes developers are going to build expensive homes but the question is whether encouraging that in the long run pays off.

No one should expect these units will immediately become the missing middle but I think increasing the amount and density and types of housing is going to bring down costs over time.

[Anonymous]

It will very quickly bring the price down on the houses surrounding a newly built multi-unit building.

[Anonymous]

Many of the huge new homes could almost be four-plexes. Absurdly huge and leaving a few inches of grass on the lot.