Arlington Missing Middle Housing Q&A

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Arlington county board is selling out homeowners... why? No one asked for this.

Let me take a stab at some reasons. Spoiler alert: none of them are good.

Without any more buildable land, ACB's only metric they care about is maximizing "tax revenue per acre". Basically, the county is one big spreadsheet to them where they just want to see the numbers go up. Screw education, parks, basic infrastructure, etc.

ACB wants to increase the number of renters at the expense of owners. Renters are generally more transient, younger, and poorer. All of these demos skew heavily Democrat, consolidating their hold on power. Democratic voters also generally are more likely to be in favor of tax increases for a variety of things (see that "maximizing revenue per acre" thing above). Renters also follow county politics less, allowing ACB to get away with a lot more stuff.

MM is a fantastic virtue signaling exercise. Plus coating it in the language of progressives (zoning is racist, blah blah) ensures less pushback from a Democratic voter base.

MM is a long term way to decrease desirability of schools (due to the obvious eventual overcrowding in the short/medium term), meaning no need to invest more in ACB's biggest expense. If they get really lucky, there will be long term enrollment decline (because renters are younger, and the schools have become not great), so they could even cut funds! Education is an expense. ACB wants revenue only.

Typical white guilt/savior complex

And before someone complains, I've voted Democrat for as long as I can remember. So please spare me the "omg you're a Trump lover" rhetoric please.

[Anonymous]

MM is a fantastic virtue signaling exercise. Plus coating it in the language of progressives (zoning is racist, blah blah) ensures less pushback from a Democratic voter base.

This has always seemed the most likely answer to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Arlington county board is selling out homeowners... why? No one asked for this.

Let me take a stab at some reasons. Spoiler alert: none of them are good.

Without any more buildable land, ACB's only metric they care about is maximizing "tax revenue per acre". Basically, the county is one big spreadsheet to them where they just want to see the numbers go up. Screw education, parks, basic infrastructure, etc.

ACB wants to increase the number of renters at the expense of owners. Renters are generally more transient, younger, and poorer. All of these demos skew heavily Democrat, consolidating their hold on power. Democratic voters also generally are more likely to be in favor of tax increases for a variety of things (see that "maximizing revenue per acre" thing above). Renters also follow county politics less, allowing ACB to get away with a lot more stuff.

MM is a fantastic virtue signaling exercise. Plus coating it in the language of progressives (zoning is racist, blah blah) ensures less pushback from a Democratic voter base.

MM is a long term way to decrease desirability of schools (due to the obvious eventual overcrowding in the short/medium term), meaning no need to invest more in ACB's biggest expense. If they get really lucky, there will be long term enrollment decline (because renters are younger, and the schools have become not great), so they could even cut funds! Education is an expense. ACB wants revenue only.

Typical white guilt/savior complex

And before someone complains, I've voted Democrat for as long as I can remember. So please spare me the "omg you're a Trump lover" rhetoric please.

Honestly, I don't think Trump could have come up with something as devious as what the ACB is doing to benefit developers. Arlington Democrats will continue to support the ACB until they are forced to move from Arlington because of ever increasing prices.

[Anonymous]

I want to know how they are going to enforce the .5 cars per household in these multi family houses and also the limit on kids- since they are saying about 13 kids will go to APS for about 100 units built. We know young people without kids have no reason to want to move to a single family neighborhood without amenities or metro… these buildings will all be full of kids! Why else would you move to the neighborhood!

[Anonymous]

Depends on the neighborhood - we definitely have houses being rented by recent college grads in our neighborhood. You can tell by the four cars parked outside and 2-3 electric scooters on the sidewalk.

[Anonymous]

Arlingtonians for a Sustainable Future will be holding a rally on Saturday, June 18 at 8:15am at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. this is one of our last opportunities to oppose the plan.

[Anonymous]

Any lawyers know if it will be possible to tie up MM in court?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to know how they are going to enforce the .5 cars per household in these multi family houses and also the limit on kids- since they are saying about 13 kids will go to APS for about 100 units built. We know young people without kids have no reason to want to move to a single family neighborhood without amenities or metro… these buildings will all be full of kids! Why else would you move to the neighborhood!

The county-wide K-12 student generation rates are .206 for townhomes and .326 for duplexes in the most recent projections. Why are they using such a low rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any lawyers know if it will be possible to tie up MM in court?

Seriously? This has been going on for years. People act like the CB is springing it in you. Why did you not start opposing 2 years ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any lawyers know if it will be possible to tie up MM in court?

Seriously? This has been going on for years. People act like the CB is springing it in you. Why did you not start opposing 2 years ago?

Because this is the first time that the county board has presented a plan to the public.

[Anonymous]

I happily welcome renters, FRl children, duplexes, triplexes, etc… to North North Arlington and Lee Highway. Unfortunately I fear al this will do is increase million dollar townhouses for DINKS.

Living in Arlington has turned me against Democratic votes for local races. Arlington is so fake woke. All are welcome except in my neighborhood.

Don’t want those apartment cooties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any lawyers know if it will be possible to tie up MM in court?

Seriously? This has been going on for years. People act like the CB is springing it in you. Why did you not start opposing 2 years ago?

I asked about lawsuits because you cant sue based on a theoretical concept. Can't someone related to environmental impact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonians for a Sustainable Future will be holding a rally on Saturday, June 18 at 8:15am at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. this is one of our last opportunities to oppose the plan.

What a wonderful event this was!!! It was great to gather together and then storm the County Board meeting. It felt like 2010 when so many people turned out at Democrat town halls to give those reps a piece of our mind. Then we turned them out that November.

Well we were even more vicious on Saturday morning because this is OUR community, OUR way of life. We hit them hard, and it felt great to boo them and blow off their artificial rules against our free speech. And it’s working, we’re making it really tough on all of them. They can look all across Arlington north of Lee Highway and see a wall of furious, motivated homeowners. How do you feel confident you’ll win elections when block after block you see owners throwing down and saying SFH now and SFH forever!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any lawyers know if it will be possible to tie up MM in court?

Sort of like Lyon Village’s lawsuit to block affordable housing at the church? Lyon Village lost and there is no meaningful difference in that neighborhood. Lots of hysteria for nothing. MM is the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlingtonians for a Sustainable Future will be holding a rally on Saturday, June 18 at 8:15am at 2100 Clarendon Blvd. this is one of our last opportunities to oppose the plan.

What a wonderful event this was!!! It was great to gather together and then storm the County Board meeting. It felt like 2010 when so many people turned out at Democrat town halls to give those reps a piece of our mind. Then we turned them out that November.

Well we were even more vicious on Saturday morning because this is OUR community, OUR way of life. We hit them hard, and it felt great to boo them and blow off their artificial rules against our free speech. And it’s working, we’re making it really tough on all of them. They can look all across Arlington north of Lee Highway and see a wall of furious, motivated homeowners. How do you feel confident you’ll win elections when block after block you see owners throwing down and saying SFH now and SFH forever!

New here. Is this….. sarcasm? Bc I actually like the descriptions!! Would be disappointed to learn otherwise.