Arlington Missing Middle Housing Q&A
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Anonymous
Proponents of MMH keep telling us that MMH will increase property values, which I believe. I also believe it will result in gentrification. So PO’s argument that opponents of MMH are “pro-developer in some cases and anti-developer in others, but the reality is you don’t actually care about developers or affordable housing or the tree canopy. You care about your property value and now that you’ve got yours, exclusion is your priority.” DOESN’T make any sense. |
Anonymous
MMH would be subject to current zoning for setbacks and stormwater regulations. I’m concerned about the flooding due to oversized homes on tiny lots, something that won’t change under MMH. The problem is current zoning applicable to SFHs. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
What is wrong with the zoning applicable to single family homes? There is R-5 to R-20 zoning in Arlington. Are you thinking of lot coverage? |
Anonymous
This is the typical YIMBY argument of "you got yours and I want what you have but I can't afford it." The YIMBYs think everyone in North Arlington lives in a swanky McMansion with a three car garage and a 7,000 square foot home. The reality is that most of the housing throughout Arlington was built primarily between the 1930s and the 1980s. A smaller version of McMansion began to be built in Arlington in the 1990s, and the McMansion building increased in 2010. The reason McMansions are being built is market demand. The YIMBYs and those of there ilk are such minimalists/purists/aesthetes that they cannot imagine someone wanting more than an 800 square foot apartment with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath to house a family of four and their cargo bike. I watched a meeting of the YIMBYs the other night, and it was as if all of them have ADHD. But their progressive philosophies are so frightening to the ACB board that they will get their way with Missing Middle Housing It is like the brattiest kid gets the parents attention because they have to be mollified for peace. I have a basic colonial in Arlington that we were going to expand until the pandemic hit and we realized that Arlington schools were for either high achievers or low achievers. We place our children in private schools and will use the addition money to educate them. The pandemic also showed me some major flaws in the APS schools. A number of late teen to early 20 kids returned to our neighborhood because their schools were closed or they were laid off from jobs. It was surprising to me that many of their parents had Ivy League or top state university educations but they were going to mediocre schools and not even doing well. The ones that managed to get through some college had jobs that were fairly dead end, like restaurant servers or low level office jobs. The parents paid a lot of money to live in Arlington for schools, but the schools didn't deliver for these kids. Many of them are still at home, and the only one I think survived well was one girl who dropped out of college and started a lawn service. She found some laid off construction workers and started with them cutting lawns. Then when they were called back to work, she had their cousins, brothers, friends continue the work and added things like tree and shrubbery trimming, and gutter cleaning. My DH set up her books for her because she had no concept of how to run a business. Her mom -- a retired Fed lawyer -- is now her bookkeeper. Bottom line for me is that Arlington is not providing what we thought it would. We are here for the proximity to DC jobs only and now the commute to our kids' school. We will do only basic maintenance on our house and get out as soon as we can. It is not just the MM but also the sense of entitlement in traffic, at grocery stores, gas stations, and any place where basic courtesy should exist but just doesn't. This is not the Arlington we moved to 21 years ago. |
Anonymous
Lot coverage is determined through zoning. The loss of permeable surface area has contributed to flooding. The primary cause is tearing down old homes and replacing them with McMansions. |
Anonymous
You will have the same storm water management issues with missing middle housing as you have with single family new build. Arlington mage buikders use drainage boxes and sriram water management for new houses about ten years ago. Until recently, when people substantially expanded houses, they did not have to use the same storm water management but they created the same problems. Same with new townhouses and multi family buildings. All have contributed to the flooding, not to mention new schools, rec centers, and the natatorium. Lubber Run Rec Center cost millions extra because the architect the county used to understand that Lubber Run is an a townhouse e body of water that had to be controlled. The reason the satires at Westover were built where they were because of an active spring. That’s why it will be impossible to do much more with the Lyon Village shopping center because Spout Run flows under it and no underground parking can be done. I know it’s sport to rail at the new houses you can’t afford, but they are a tiny part of the flooding issues in Arlington. The vault at Cardinal Elementary school shoukd have been done when they changed Walter Reed ES to the Children’s Center. Had that been done, the Westover floods not have occurred. Similarly on 19th Rd in Waverly Hills. The county ignored an easily repaired problem until it was too late |
Anonymous
It's good that you've acknowledged that APS are not up to par. For the amount of wealth in the county, it is pretty shocking how mediocre the schools are. People on this board get unnecessarily defensive when this issue is raised, which is unfortunate, because denial of the problem doesn't help the situation. |
Anonymous
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I sincerely hope hope the MM passes.
It’s exactly what SFH’s in N Arl deserve for creating a Democrat stranglehold on everything. This is what they voted for, this is what they created, and it’s amazingly awesome to watch all the phony liberals freak out over MM 😂😂 |
Anonymous
LOL! That’s so funny! They can be voted out. Of course you would just be voting in another Democrat board so they continue doing the same thing. 😀 |
Anonymous
Could you please retype this without all of the typos? Satires and vaults and sriram ... what is that? |
Anonymous
DP and of course you don’t agree and it doesn’t change the truth. You are a Republican at heart. This is where you have to put your money where your mouth is or in your case where your sign is - you welcome everyone right? there’s no hate here right? Oh except for those who can’t afford a 2M home to tear down and rebuild, and no way do you want some people who could only afford a $400k 1 br condo. You didn’t sign up to live with the poors. And besides you’re worried if maybe if one of those Hispanic family moves in they might bring their relatives and geez what would that do to the neighborhood … |
Anonymous
MM++ -- I am a SFH owner in N Arlington and support MM. Requiring SFH zoning has been shown to be historically racist. Let's fix that. |
Anonymous
Too bad MMH isn’t fixing the racial disparity with home ownership in Arlington. That is just a strawman MMH proponents like to use. Again, this is simply about providing more million dollar homes. |
Anonymous
+1 I'd like to see more restrictions on new construction in general re: parking, trees, lot coverage, but that's not specific to MM. I'm good with MM itself. -SFH owner in $$$ neighborhood |