City of Alexandria rolls out timeline for massive housing reform project

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The schools have been overcapacity for years the roads are impossible to travel on now in the city. City officials have seriously lost their minds. When city council was asked about class sizes and overcapacity issues years ago and asked what their plans are with all the 10 newish affordable housing buildings the literally sat there and blinked. You can't make this incompetence up.


Impossible, you say? So everyone is just sitting at home? Or, if you mean impossible to travel on by car, how come there are so many cars on the roads?

My son has a weekly physical therapy appointment 1.3 miles from our home in Alexandria. Due to traffic congestion, it takes 25 minutes to get there in the evening by car. It would take the same by bus.

In that case, if it were me, I would take the bus. Less stress, fewer miles on the car.

It's unfortunate how much car traffic slows down buses, though. We need more dedicated bus lanes.

FORCING people to take the bus is not a great plan for most.

Democrat politicians don’t care.
The “15 minute city” is their top priority.

How terrible it would be to be able to have all of your daily things (grocery store, drug store, coffee shop, library, restaurant for take-out when you don't want to cook, etc.) within a 15-minute walk!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Don't worry, nobody will stop you from spend many hours in the car running errands, if that's what you want. I can't understand why you would want that, but that's ok, different people have different preferences.

But that's not possible. I live in an apartment on the east side of the city but the doctor's offices, swim lessons, etc are all a 15 minute drive away. The only things I can walk to within 20 minutes are the FoodStar (which doesn't even have basic necessities like peanut butter without additives), the library, and the public elementary. Once we had to take the bus to the pediatrician when our car was in the shop and instead of a 15 minute drive, it took us an hour. There aren't any pediatricians within a 15 minute walk. There's also not a church from my denomination within the city limits. Plus I have two small children and a permanent knee injury from sports. I can't carry heavy grocery bags and push a stroller uphill to my building. Anti-car policies just make my life harder and more inconvenient.

Let's make it possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The schools have been overcapacity for years the roads are impossible to travel on now in the city. City officials have seriously lost their minds. When city council was asked about class sizes and overcapacity issues years ago and asked what their plans are with all the 10 newish affordable housing buildings the literally sat there and blinked. You can't make this incompetence up.


Impossible, you say? So everyone is just sitting at home? Or, if you mean impossible to travel on by car, how come there are so many cars on the roads?

My son has a weekly physical therapy appointment 1.3 miles from our home in Alexandria. Due to traffic congestion, it takes 25 minutes to get there in the evening by car. It would take the same by bus.

In that case, if it were me, I would take the bus. Less stress, fewer miles on the car.

It's unfortunate how much car traffic slows down buses, though. We need more dedicated bus lanes.

FORCING people to take the bus is not a great plan for most.

Democrat politicians don’t care.
The “15 minute city” is their top priority.

How terrible it would be to be able to have all of your daily things (grocery store, drug store, coffee shop, library, restaurant for take-out when you don't want to cook, etc.) within a 15-minute walk!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Don't worry, nobody will stop you from spend many hours in the car running errands, if that's what you want. I can't understand why you would want that, but that's ok, different people have different preferences.

But that's not possible. I live in an apartment on the east side of the city but the doctor's offices, swim lessons, etc are all a 15 minute drive away. The only things I can walk to within 20 minutes are the FoodStar (which doesn't even have basic necessities like peanut butter without additives), the library, and the public elementary. Once we had to take the bus to the pediatrician when our car was in the shop and instead of a 15 minute drive, it took us an hour. There aren't any pediatricians within a 15 minute walk. There's also not a church from my denomination within the city limits. Plus I have two small children and a permanent knee injury from sports. I can't carry heavy grocery bags and push a stroller uphill to my building. Anti-car policies just make my life harder and more inconvenient.

Let's make it possible.

This. You see, they do not care about you or your children. They will shove their widely view down your throat and you’ll like it! JFC, stop voting democrat or whatever they call themselves these days.

[Anonymous]

Widely show worldly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The schools have been overcapacity for years the roads are impossible to travel on now in the city. City officials have seriously lost their minds. When city council was asked about class sizes and overcapacity issues years ago and asked what their plans are with all the 10 newish affordable housing buildings the literally sat there and blinked. You can't make this incompetence up.


Impossible, you say? So everyone is just sitting at home? Or, if you mean impossible to travel on by car, how come there are so many cars on the roads?

My son has a weekly physical therapy appointment 1.3 miles from our home in Alexandria. Due to traffic congestion, it takes 25 minutes to get there in the evening by car. It would take the same by bus.

In that case, if it were me, I would take the bus. Less stress, fewer miles on the car.

It's unfortunate how much car traffic slows down buses, though. We need more dedicated bus lanes.

FORCING people to take the bus is not a great plan for most.

Democrat politicians don’t care.
The “15 minute city” is their top priority.

How terrible it would be to be able to have all of your daily things (grocery store, drug store, coffee shop, library, restaurant for take-out when you don't want to cook, etc.) within a 15-minute walk!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Don't worry, nobody will stop you from spend many hours in the car running errands, if that's what you want. I can't understand why you would want that, but that's ok, different people have different preferences.

But that's not possible. I live in an apartment on the east side of the city but the doctor's offices, swim lessons, etc are all a 15 minute drive away. The only things I can walk to within 20 minutes are the FoodStar (which doesn't even have basic necessities like peanut butter without additives), the library, and the public elementary. Once we had to take the bus to the pediatrician when our car was in the shop and instead of a 15 minute drive, it took us an hour. There aren't any pediatricians within a 15 minute walk. There's also not a church from my denomination within the city limits. Plus I have two small children and a permanent knee injury from sports. I can't carry heavy grocery bags and push a stroller uphill to my building. Anti-car policies just make my life harder and more inconvenient.

Let's make it possible.

This. You see, they do not care about you or your children. They will shove their widely view down your throat and you’ll like it! JFC, stop voting democrat or whatever they call themselves these days.

Me: Let's make it possible for people to accomplish their errands without having to spend hours in the car.
You: See? They hate you and your children! They will force you to have the option of accomplishing your errands without having to spend hours in the car!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools have been overcapacity for years the roads are impossible to travel on now in the city. City officials have seriously lost their minds. When city council was asked about class sizes and overcapacity issues years ago and asked what their plans are with all the 10 newish affordable housing buildings the literally sat there and blinked. You can't make this incompetence up.

I was present at the meeting during the PY (Potomac Yard) build out where he stood up when asked where the new school for the new neighborhood was going to go.

He said, paraphrasing, "These are mostly smaller apartments and people in apartments don't have kids."

ACHS/TCW is literally the single biggest HS in the entire state at 4800 students. It's 15% over capacity right now and the kids that 'don't live in apartments' will be hitting HS in 3 years.

This sounds like a nightmarish repeat of the Bethesda plan. Fight it, people! All lies. I lost faith in local government after going through the planning process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone explain to me like I am 5 how there is a housing crisis in Alexandria when the last report on homelessness said there were 152 people in the City experiencing homelessness in 2023 - down from 198 in 2019?

I will concede the large influx of undocumented immigrants to our sanctuary city may need housing, but I truly doubt they will be renting the $3.5k a month apartment in the six-plex built on Loyola avenue with no parking spot for their unmarked work van. And why would a young couple choose to live in that same six-plex when they can move into The Porter and get happy hours in the lobby? So maybe that couple would move into a $1million duplex built on that same lot, so the removal of SFH zoning has now increased housing capacity by 1 for that lot. And not anything affordable. And not a speck of grass remaining.

My favorite talking point of the council is removal of SFH zoning is desegregation - not even hiding behind the implication that POC cannot afford SFHs so something lesser needs created. What a pessimistic view.

https://housingmatters.urban.org/research-summary/addressing-americas-affordable-housing-crisis
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2023/50-mayors-us-cities/housing/
https://nhc.org/two-issues-define-americas-new-housing-crisis/
https://www.fanniemae.com/research-and-insights/perspectives/us-housing-shortage
https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/priced-out-the-state-of-housing-in-america
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/05/business/single-family-zoning-laws/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/14/1109345201/theres-a-massive-housing-shortage-across-the-u-s-heres-how-bad-it-is-where-you-l
https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/nowhere-live-profits-disinvestment-and-american-housing-crisis
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/upshot/housing-shortage-us.html

But in the City of Alexandria, right now, where is the crisis? Where are the droves of Residents (the Council's constituency) that are in "a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger" over housing? Unfortunately financial inequities exist, and they always will even in countries purporting to be socialist / communist (look at the immigrant populations in Sweden and France). Alexandria need not destroy itself so DINKs can buy Del Ray townhouses or the Hill staffer can rent an apartment in Potomac Yard. Weirdly, there are plenty of apartments available in the West End - there are 46 units available right now at The Sherwood at Southern Towers, so they are at 89% occupancy. Right --- that developer who will make a cool million knocking down that perfectly good SFH to build three townhouses doesn't get a dime if we just encourage occupancy of the existing housing stock. So it is a crisis of not getting the house one wants or thinks they deserve - what if one wants a SFH, do they not deserve that?

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there aren't roads here that can support more density than the 12,000-13,000 people we already have a square mile for the city thanks to the mayor and his "road diets" and bike lanes. Please have your voice heard at one of the community meetings.

September 14: Community meeting, Location coming soon.
September 23: City Council Public Hearing, City Hall.

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/08/24/city-of-alexandria-rolls-out-timeline-for-massive-housing-reform-project/

Cry me a river. We've added 40,000 to Southwest DC in the last decade without doing jack shit in terms of infrastructure - and with nowhere near the space that Arlington has. I'm MORE THAN SURE you can absorb people.

lol too bad they're not talking about Arlington they're talking about TINY city of Alexandria. RANT FAIL lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there aren't roads here that can support more density than the 12,000-13,000 people we already have a square mile for the city thanks to the mayor and his "road diets" and bike lanes. Please have your voice heard at one of the community meetings.

September 14: Community meeting, Location coming soon.
September 23: City Council Public Hearing, City Hall.

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/08/24/city-of-alexandria-rolls-out-timeline-for-massive-housing-reform-project/

Cry me a river. We've added 40,000 to Southwest DC in the last decade without doing jack shit in terms of infrastructure - and with nowhere near the space that Arlington has. I'm MORE THAN SURE you can absorb people.

lol too bad they're not talking about Arlington they're talking about TINY city of Alexandria. RANT FAIL lol

The tiny city of Alexandria has 15.0 square miles of land. SW DC has 5.8 square miles of land.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there aren't roads here that can support more density than the 12,000-13,000 people we already have a square mile for the city thanks to the mayor and his "road diets" and bike lanes. Please have your voice heard at one of the community meetings.

September 14: Community meeting, Location coming soon.
September 23: City Council Public Hearing, City Hall.

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/08/24/city-of-alexandria-rolls-out-timeline-for-massive-housing-reform-project/

Cry me a river. We've added 40,000 to Southwest DC in the last decade without doing jack shit in terms of infrastructure - and with nowhere near the space that Arlington has. I'm MORE THAN SURE you can absorb people.

lol too bad they're not talking about Arlington they're talking about TINY city of Alexandria. RANT FAIL lol

The tiny city of Alexandria has 15.0 square miles of land. SW DC has 5.8 square miles of land.

14 but lol lol Move the goal post YOU ARE STILL WRONG

You CHOOSE to LIVE IN SOUTHWEST DC lol lol You can't make this up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But in the City of Alexandria, right now, where is the crisis? Where are the droves of Residents (the Council's constituency) that are in "a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger" over housing? Unfortunately financial inequities exist, and they always will even in countries purporting to be socialist / communist (look at the immigrant populations in Sweden and France). Alexandria need not destroy itself so DINKs can buy Del Ray townhouses or the Hill staffer can rent an apartment in Potomac Yard. Weirdly, there are plenty of apartments available in the West End - there are 46 units available right now at The Sherwood at Southern Towers, so they are at 89% occupancy. Right --- that developer who will make a cool million knocking down that perfectly good SFH to build three townhouses doesn't get a dime if we just encourage occupancy of the existing housing stock. So it is a crisis of not getting the house one wants or thinks they deserve - what if one wants a SFH, do they not deserve that?

The idea here seems to be that there is no housing crisis if vacant units are available. But there are always going to be vacant rental units available, just like there are always going to be units available for sale. People move in, people move out, people die, people combine households, people separate households...

Also, let's look at those units at The Sherwood at Southern Towers.

391 sf studio, 7 available, starting from $1498/month
514 sf studio, 10 available, starting from $1499/month
653 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 1 available, starting from $1690/month
721 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 8 available, starting from $1678/month
725 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 10 available, starting from $1755/month
884 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 2 available, starting from $2238/month
928 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 4 available, starting from $2290/month
1450 sf 2 BR/2 BA, 2 available, starting from $3013/month
1250 sf 3 BR/2 BA, 1 available, starting from $3002/month

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly there aren't roads here that can support more density than the 12,000-13,000 people we already have a square mile for the city thanks to the mayor and his "road diets" and bike lanes. Please have your voice heard at one of the community meetings.

September 14: Community meeting, Location coming soon.
September 23: City Council Public Hearing, City Hall.

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/08/24/city-of-alexandria-rolls-out-timeline-for-massive-housing-reform-project/

Cry me a river. We've added 40,000 to Southwest DC in the last decade without doing jack shit in terms of infrastructure - and with nowhere near the space that Arlington has. I'm MORE THAN SURE you can absorb people.

lol too bad they're not talking about Arlington they're talking about TINY city of Alexandria. RANT FAIL lol

The tiny city of Alexandria has 15.0 square miles of land. SW DC has 5.8 square miles of land.

14 but lol lol Move the goal post YOU ARE STILL WRONG

You CHOOSE to LIVE IN SOUTHWEST DC lol lol You can't make this up.

I don't live in southwest DC. I am providing numbers. What is lol about the numbers? The City of Alexandria has 2.6 times as much land area as SW DC. For comparison, Manhattan (22.8 square miles of land) has 1.5 times as much land area as the City of Alexandria, and a population of 1.7 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh yay, the anti-SFH missing middle kooks are at it again. The MoCo YIMBYs are over here trying to convince local politicians that we should model ourselves after the new zoning policies in PORTLAND of all places, touting the decrease in average property values there…of course, with no idea how much of that decrease was due to the decrease in quality of life and not just an increase in “affordable” housing. At least it’s comforting to know that they have infected Virginia, too.

Haha I wish I were sitting in that meeting so I could stand up and show them pictures of Portland that look like they are straight out of the walking dead. Yeah great policies going on there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But in the City of Alexandria, right now, where is the crisis? Where are the droves of Residents (the Council's constituency) that are in "a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger" over housing? Unfortunately financial inequities exist, and they always will even in countries purporting to be socialist / communist (look at the immigrant populations in Sweden and France). Alexandria need not destroy itself so DINKs can buy Del Ray townhouses or the Hill staffer can rent an apartment in Potomac Yard. Weirdly, there are plenty of apartments available in the West End - there are 46 units available right now at The Sherwood at Southern Towers, so they are at 89% occupancy. Right --- that developer who will make a cool million knocking down that perfectly good SFH to build three townhouses doesn't get a dime if we just encourage occupancy of the existing housing stock. So it is a crisis of not getting the house one wants or thinks they deserve - what if one wants a SFH, do they not deserve that?

The idea here seems to be that there is no housing crisis if vacant units are available. But there are always going to be vacant rental units available, just like there are always going to be units available for sale. People move in, people move out, people die, people combine households, people separate households...

Also, let's look at those units at The Sherwood at Southern Towers.

391 sf studio, 7 available, starting from $1498/month
514 sf studio, 10 available, starting from $1499/month
653 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 1 available, starting from $1690/month
721 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 8 available, starting from $1678/month
725 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 10 available, starting from $1755/month
884 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 2 available, starting from $2238/month
928 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 4 available, starting from $2290/month
1450 sf 2 BR/2 BA, 2 available, starting from $3013/month
1250 sf 3 BR/2 BA, 1 available, starting from $3002/month

And building more high rises like that will decrease these prices - that’s the idea, right?What is the incentive to a developer when there is a bottom line and actually building the apartments would be a significant cost. The economics make no sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

But in the City of Alexandria, right now, where is the crisis? Where are the droves of Residents (the Council's constituency) that are in "a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger" over housing? Unfortunately financial inequities exist, and they always will even in countries purporting to be socialist / communist (look at the immigrant populations in Sweden and France). Alexandria need not destroy itself so DINKs can buy Del Ray townhouses or the Hill staffer can rent an apartment in Potomac Yard. Weirdly, there are plenty of apartments available in the West End - there are 46 units available right now at The Sherwood at Southern Towers, so they are at 89% occupancy. Right --- that developer who will make a cool million knocking down that perfectly good SFH to build three townhouses doesn't get a dime if we just encourage occupancy of the existing housing stock. So it is a crisis of not getting the house one wants or thinks they deserve - what if one wants a SFH, do they not deserve that?

The idea here seems to be that there is no housing crisis if vacant units are available. But there are always going to be vacant rental units available, just like there are always going to be units available for sale. People move in, people move out, people die, people combine households, people separate households...

Also, let's look at those units at The Sherwood at Southern Towers.

391 sf studio, 7 available, starting from $1498/month
514 sf studio, 10 available, starting from $1499/month
653 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 1 available, starting from $1690/month
721 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 8 available, starting from $1678/month
725 sf 1 BR/1 BA, 10 available, starting from $1755/month
884 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 2 available, starting from $2238/month
928 sf 2 BR/1 BA, 4 available, starting from $2290/month
1450 sf 2 BR/2 BA, 2 available, starting from $3013/month
1250 sf 3 BR/2 BA, 1 available, starting from $3002/month

And building more high rises like that will decrease these prices - that’s the idea, right?What is the incentive to a developer when there is a bottom line and actually building the apartments would be a significant cost. The economics make no sense.

It's quite baffling. The only explanation is more federal funding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh yay, the anti-SFH missing middle kooks are at it again. The MoCo YIMBYs are over here trying to convince local politicians that we should model ourselves after the new zoning policies in PORTLAND of all places, touting the decrease in average property values there…of course, with no idea how much of that decrease was due to the decrease in quality of life and not just an increase in “affordable” housing. At least it’s comforting to know that they have infected Virginia, too.

So in a meeting at George Mason Univeristy, the head planner for the City of Portland (who grew up in Arlington) said that in the last 20 years of up zoning in Portland, 5,000 of the projects were Accessory Dwelling Units that people built in their back yards for family members or rentals. She dashed the dream that the townhouses, semi-detacheds, and 3 to 6 plexes that Arlington approved in July will not take existing housing out of the stock and replace it with affordable owner occupied housing. The YIMBYs lead by the Alexandria renter who styled himself "An Arlington refugee" who couldn't afford to live in Arlington and that's why he wanted Expanded Housing Options in Arlington. Now switching to Alexandria up zoning, he is a loyal son of Alexandria.

So far this has what has happened in Arlington: Buiilders have applied for 22 EHO permits. Fifteen of them are for three to six plexes which are high likely to be rentals because it will be too expensive and difficult to have condo ownership with a small number of units. The remaining semi-detached and townhouses have projected prices of $1.3 to $1.5M. Only two of the projects are in neighborhoods that are not already mixed use.

YIMBYs wanted this type of housing in Arlington so that they could have cheaper access to North Arlington schools. It will be interesting to see if anyone want to have cheaper access to any Alexandria schools.

Why would it be bad if they were rentals?

Also there are plenty of condo associations with a small number of units. I don't know why it would be harder to do that in Arlington than anywhere else.

DP. Because the stated point of MM was to create homeownership opportunities. Virginia has much more stringent requirements for condos in DC where smaller condos are located. Please let me know one three to six unit condo in Arlington.