Alexandria on the Cusp of Eliminating All SFH Zoning

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe people voted for this and don't see Wilson for who he is (someone waiting for Beyer to retire so he can run for Congress).

This entire proposal BS was pushed as an answer to workforce and affordable housing. Only recently have the proponents pivoted with their win-win-win stance. Upzoning and adding ADUs to everyone's yard will not decrease housing costs and increase the supply of affordable housing. You know it, I know it, and to argue otherwise is so disingenuous. Just admit and be upfront with what you are.

I own a triple lot. We will probably sell within the next 5 years once the kids graduate from college. For the last 18 months I have been bombarded with texts, letters and calls asking me if I am interested in selling, all from developers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Failing schools, imploding commercial real estate, and murders are not quite enough to destroy Alexandria, so the Council is a freight train about to vote on Tuesday to eliminate all SFH zoning. Yay.

Hooray!

Don't worry, OP, they are not eliminating detached one-unit residential buildings. They are simply eliminating zoning that bans everything except detached one-unit residential buildings. Property owners - like you - will now have more options for your property.

Oh, yes. Don't worry, no one will force demotion of your single family house.

What this means is that if you live on a street currently zoned for single family homes, your neighbor can sell their house to a developer who could throw up a multistory, multiunit apartment building as a matter of right.. There would be no review, no consideration of impacts, and no process in which you can submit a comment.

This is false and misleading.

The proposal allows up to 4-plexes on what would currently be single family lots, and they can't be any bigger than the single family home you would otherwise have been able to build there.

I get why you're lying, because the thing I just described simply isn't scary enough to gin up the fear you need to get people to oppose it. But you need to stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Failing schools, imploding commercial real estate, and murders are not quite enough to destroy Alexandria, so the Council is a freight train about to vote on Tuesday to eliminate all SFH zoning. Yay.

Hooray!

Don't worry, OP, they are not eliminating detached one-unit residential buildings. They are simply eliminating zoning that bans everything except detached one-unit residential buildings. Property owners - like you - will now have more options for your property.

This!

You know what pays for all the stuff you want, OP? Property tax dollars. From incremental smart development like the ones in this package of reforms.

You can keep your SFH but when you go to sell it, it may sell for more because there will be more options for what it can become, and that will lead to both more tax dollars and more residents as one large house becomes four smaller ones in some places, especially places that support transit. Win-win-win-win.

NP here. I thought the entire premise of upzoning is that it will increase the supply of “affordable” housing and decrease the average price of housing, thereby making housing more affordable. At least that’s what several members of city council ran on and the mayor has been pushing. And now PP is claiming that upzoning is for increasing the collected real property taxes.

Which is it?

You are willfully conflating the value of the overall land, which will certainly continue to go up, because Alexandria is and will continue to be desirable, with the value of any one individual unit, which can go down or at least flatten out when you allow for things like building four of them on the land you currently require for one, and not requiring you pave 8 parking spaces in perpetuity to do it.

An acre of Alexandria land is not going to lose any value under this plan, in fact they will likely gain value as they gain optionality in terms of what else can be built there. But the value of an average unit sold in the city could - because the mix of units might be fewer SFHs and more condos, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot believe people voted for this and don't see Wilson for who he is (someone waiting for Beyer to retire so he can run for Congress).

This entire proposal BS was pushed as an answer to workforce and affordable housing. Only recently have the proponents pivoted with their win-win-win stance. Upzoning and adding ADUs to everyone's yard will not decrease housing costs and increase the supply of affordable housing. You know it, I know it, and to argue otherwise is so disingenuous. Just admit and be upfront with what you are.

I own a triple lot. We will probably sell within the next 5 years once the kids graduate from college. For the last 18 months I have been bombarded with texts, letters and calls asking me if I am interested in selling, all from developers.

And the problem with this is...?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn't going to make any difference whatsoever to housing prices. This is just politicians selling gullible voters on easy answers to hard questions.

Building more has never made any difference to housing prices anywhere in DC. If anything, it's driven prices up.

[Anonymous]

People in Arlington thought that same thing. In the end they got <200 permits over 5 years and now there is a pending lawsuit which might at least beat it back a little more.

I think the that lesson here is to get your lawsuits ready and learn from the experiences in other areas in preparing those lawsuits. What works, what doesn’t, what is an acceptable compromise….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Failing schools, imploding commercial real estate, and murders are not quite enough to destroy Alexandria, so the Council is a freight train about to vote on Tuesday to eliminate all SFH zoning. Yay.

Hooray!

Don't worry, OP, they are not eliminating detached one-unit residential buildings. They are simply eliminating zoning that bans everything except detached one-unit residential buildings. Property owners - like you - will now have more options for your property.

The developers have more options and the economy of scale favors apartment buildings so that's what will be built. If you bought a SFH in a neighborhood of SFHs, tough luck. This will destroy the charm of Del Ray.

But Del Ray is already one of the most architecturally diverse areas in the city. You can have an apartment complex next to single family homes next to a duplex. It's one of the few things that I find appealing about Del Ray.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't have an issue with it if: 1) they still required one parking space per unit and 2) they demonstrated that it would be possible to have traffic flow out of Rosemont/Del Ray during rush hour. I don't think people will be giving up cars for local travel (to and from work, sure, people metro). I have nothing against having different types of people/housing in the area, but as it is, it takes me 25-30 minutes to get my son to his weekly OT and PT appointments, which are 1.3 miles away, and I can't imagine that worsening.

[Anonymous]

Huge SFHs are already replacing bungalows in Del Ray. This zoning change just makes it possible to replace them with something other than giant SFHs. Do nothing and it will all be McMansions. As the PP stated, the mix of housing is why Del Ray is so popular - and because it's currently illegal to replicate that style of living elsewhere, so expensive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Failing schools, imploding commercial real estate, and murders are not quite enough to destroy Alexandria, so the Council is a freight train about to vote on Tuesday to eliminate all SFH zoning. Yay.

Hooray!

Don't worry, OP, they are not eliminating detached one-unit residential buildings. They are simply eliminating zoning that bans everything except detached one-unit residential buildings. Property owners - like you - will now have more options for your property.

The developers have more options and the economy of scale favors apartment buildings so that's what will be built. If you bought a SFH in a neighborhood of SFHs, tough luck. This will destroy the charm of Del Ray.

But Del Ray is already one of the most architecturally diverse areas in the city. You can have an apartment complex next to single family homes next to a duplex. It's one of the few things that I find appealing about Del Ray.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't have an issue with it if: 1) they still required one parking space per unit and 2) they demonstrated that it would be possible to have traffic flow out of Rosemont/Del Ray during rush hour. I don't think people will be giving up cars for local travel (to and from work, sure, people metro). I have nothing against having different types of people/housing in the area, but as it is, it takes me 25-30 minutes to get my son to his weekly OT and PT appointments, which are 1.3 miles away, and I can't imagine that worsening.

The more people use walking, biking, or bus for their short trips, the fewer people will be on the roads to delay you on your short trips. I don't know about your son's mobility and the route between your home and the OT/PT appointments, but typically, it's possible to comfortably walk in 25-30 minutes to destinations 1.3 miles away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Failing schools, imploding commercial real estate, and murders are not quite enough to destroy Alexandria, so the Council is a freight train about to vote on Tuesday to eliminate all SFH zoning. Yay.

STOP!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!!

[Anonymous]

We're voting with our feet and leaving the city of alexandria. It's like a crazy nightmare of backwards world we're leaving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're voting with our feet and leaving the city of alexandria. It's like a crazy nightmare of backwards world we're leaving.

ok?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't have an issue with it if: 1) they still required one parking space per unit and 2) they demonstrated that it would be possible to have traffic flow out of Rosemont/Del Ray during rush hour. I don't think people will be giving up cars for local travel (to and from work, sure, people metro). I have nothing against having different types of people/housing in the area, but as it is, it takes me 25-30 minutes to get my son to his weekly OT and PT appointments, which are 1.3 miles away, and I can't imagine that worsening.

The more people use walking, biking, or bus for their short trips, the fewer people will be on the roads to delay you on your short trips. I don't know about your son's mobility and the route between your home and the OT/PT appointments, but typically, it's possible to comfortably walk in 25-30 minutes to destinations 1.3 miles away.

Arriving at work hot and sweaty in the summer or freezing in the winter sounds just great!! Thanks for the tip!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't have an issue with it if: 1) they still required one parking space per unit and 2) they demonstrated that it would be possible to have traffic flow out of Rosemont/Del Ray during rush hour. I don't think people will be giving up cars for local travel (to and from work, sure, people metro). I have nothing against having different types of people/housing in the area, but as it is, it takes me 25-30 minutes to get my son to his weekly OT and PT appointments, which are 1.3 miles away, and I can't imagine that worsening.

The more people use walking, biking, or bus for their short trips, the fewer people will be on the roads to delay you on your short trips. I don't know about your son's mobility and the route between your home and the OT/PT appointments, but typically, it's possible to comfortably walk in 25-30 minutes to destinations 1.3 miles away.

Arriving at work hot and sweaty in the summer or freezing in the winter sounds just great!! Thanks for the tip!!

I think you're posting on the wrong thread.