Arlington Missing Middle Housing Q&A

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Why isn't this being proposed for Bethesda, Chevy Chase or NW DC?

Because you do not have a Commonwealth's Attorney who is bound and determined to provide housing to every criminal she slaps on the wrist as part of her catch and release program. Come to Arlington, cut out a hundred air bags and sell them on the black market, get free housing.

Here they are! I knew the racists would show up soon. Don’t worry, criminal brown people probably can’t afford the $1.2m duplex anyway.

If they're good enough criminals they can afford a $1.2 m duplex.

That would make them republicans!

Nah, the republicans would buy the duplexes and rent them to the GS-12s who still won't be able to buy in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Arlington needs to increase their park and rec offerings before they encourage more population growth. The competition for camps, swimming lessons, gymnastics, etc are already cutthroat. It’s crazy to pretend like we have capacity to absorb more people without expanding parks.

If they added more options, would you support the proposal? Asking because many posters are complaining about specific effects (for example, parking) as if the county would gain their approval by fixing it.

Arlington did listen and addressed concerns about the size of multi-family housing. Structures must adhere to the same setbacks and heights as single family homes. But let’s get real—new complaints will arise each round because there are people who will not support missing middle housing in their neighborhood under any circumstances.

And that’s fine. Just be honest and say that. I’d rather the county focus on real concerns than trying to please people who will never be happy.

I agree with you, but both sides need to be brutally honest. The county equally needs to say, “Look, the schools are going to be a lot more crowded and we don’t have space money for more big parks. Housing is the priority and we will do what we can about the rest.” It needs to be said and the people fighting for these changes really need to understand and internalize the consequences. Stop pretending like we can have everything.

Bingo!

Arlington County creates all these groups to determine what should be done in Arlington. People who have time to participate are the retired old white men and women who likely worked for the government or had a middle class job. Only younger people are the true believer YIMBYs who internalized some social welfare policy during graduate school. Until something "bad" happens like you next door neighbor tearing down a house to build 4 duplexes, many people don't care. Then it will be a fait accompli. It's like the schools. Many parents paid cursory attention to the schools as long as their kids seemed to be doing okay and teacher conference reports were good. It was only when virtual school occurred during the pandemic that people realized their kids were not learning what they had learned at the same grade levels. Those who could put their kids in private or parocial schools. It almost feels like a policy to relieve overcrowding by making APS worse, thus forcing parents to other alternatives.

We are moving fast toward a County with those who can have a nice house and send their kids to private schools, the middle class who will inhabit the duplexes and send their kids to deteriorating schools, and the lower class who will live in crappy subsidized housing and know that any education their kids is better than it would be elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Two points I haven't seen brought up by anyone in this whole debate:

1) Arlington doesn't exist in a vacuum - the housing stock exists within the NoVa region. So while MM supporters are correct that only increased supply can bring prices down, what they don't realize is that increase in supply will simply draw more demand from the outer suburbs into Arlington. Net result is that Arlington is just as expensive as before, at higher density, while the real price advantages show up in Fairfax, etc. Which may be desirable for the region, but not Arlington county. As an aside, I find it disingenuous that supporters of MM ignore this point while making this exact same argument against car-centric development ("induced demand", ie more freeways don't reduce traffic)

2) I also find it disingenuous that supporters of MM try to frame it as a libertarian angle - "the government isn't restricting what you can do with your own property! Isn't that great?". Well, ok, does that mean I can buy a lot next to a SFH and build a prison? What about a casino behind a school? A strip club? "Oh no", MM supporters say, "we just mean you can now build duplexes/triplexes with the same setbacks". Well, ok.....but.....that's still zoning. We're just now having a discussion around what limits of zoning are appropriate. Don't pretend MM is putting forward some libertarian utopia.

+100 - that is why I don't trust the staff and politicians on this issue, it is a handout to developers and will not reduce the costs of living in Arlington - just some lessening of prices in the far-out suburbs.

Your +100 squared. The planning staff and commissioners are seemingly doing everything for the benefit of Arlington's dwindling middle class; in reality, they are making it easier for developers to make more money at the expense of the middle class. Collateral damager or unintended consequences -- take your pick.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Has anyone ever tried parking on a street with mixed housing? Our friends live on a street that has SFHs and is adjacent to some duplexes and condos. It's a nightmare. One family has three cars, and that's enough to disrupt the entire parking balance. There are cars parked up and down both sides of the street, which means only one car can get through at a time. They cannot park in front of their own house, there is never space for people who come over etc.

Yes I do this on my street. Sometimes I or guests have to walk a block. Parking issues occur near commercial areas or in lower income areas (think Arlington mill neighborhood). This would not be the case in most of Arlington where missing middle housing could be added.

Of course it would. One SFH means two cars on the street. One duplex means 4 cars on the street. One triplex is 6 cars on the street.

Why is a SFH putting ANY cars on the street? You have at least 4,000 SF of land regardless of where you are. Get the curb cut permit and put in some stones. Stop making parking for your cars and people who don’t even live in the neighborhood everyone else’s problem.

Do you really live on a street in Arlington without anyone that parks on the street? I sincerely doubt it. People do it all the time. I think it’s annoying and I park in my own driveway but people park on the street ALL THE TIME.

NP - I agree with you. But while I agree parking in general is a concern throughout Arlington, I don’t see how the proposed housing would be any worse. In our neighborhood, many of the tear downs have split lots and created long skinny homes. If people don’t use their garages to park, they only have 2 spaces, so they park on the street. A 6 or 8 unit building would require a parking pad; duplexes would just have 2 driveways, like a SFH.

The plan is looking to waive many of the parking pad requirements per unit. And I live in an example of missing middle housing in 22207. They clustered all of the THs together, and didn’t put in enough parking. It’s a nightmare, as we dont have driveways, tiny one car garages, and not a lot of street parking on a narrow street. There are other THs and apartment buildings that had their parking requirements reduced that don’t have any street parking at all. Once some of the THs are rented with three bedrooms, there are at least four cars per unit. We are not on top of the metro or have grocery stores in walking distance. It’s a disaster. And while there would be some room in the upper reaches for some cars, there’s no reliable public transportation. So I’ve seen how it works and even with all that, there’s no way you could call my TH affordable. Mine may not be up at $1million yet, but it’s not far off.

They also,delete feedback from the public inputs. My neighbors and I have all noticed that our feedback, input in the places we were directed to do so, never makes it into the reports or is on the website.

[Anonymous]

We live less than a mile from 2 metro stations and recently bought a second car because our younger child is now old enough to do sports and activities. It’s just not possible to participate in soccer, basketball, baseball, etc without a car. Most people in our neighborhood with apts, condos, and townhouses have at least one car per household. The idea that people are going to live with zero to 1 car per unit in non-transit oriented neighborhoods is crazy talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Arlington needs to increase their park and rec offerings before they encourage more population growth. The competition for camps, swimming lessons, gymnastics, etc are already cutthroat. It’s crazy to pretend like we have capacity to absorb more people without expanding parks.

+1 new long bridge pool is overcrowded, you need to sign for swim lessons within 10 mins if registration opening

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Arlington needs to increase their park and rec offerings before they encourage more population growth. The competition for camps, swimming lessons, gymnastics, etc are already cutthroat. It’s crazy to pretend like we have capacity to absorb more people without expanding parks.

+1 new long bridge pool is overcrowded, you need to sign for swim lessons within 10 mins if registration opening

We have plenty of parks. An insane, gold-plated level of parks. Parks next to Metro stations where it doesn’t make sense to have parks. But I agree with you in the amenities - everything feels like hunger games here and I’m sick of it. There is demand - either increase the number of classes to match the demand or increase the prices to be more in line with private offerings to reduce the demand, or just give up and give us our money back so we can use it elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

People are conflating a lot of issues. There are schools in Arlington that are under-subscribed. They tend to be in areas with the biggest lots and have plenty of street parking. I live in one of them. Please build a more diverse variety of houses here. It’s getting a little tiresome see ranchers get torn down for ugly $2m+ McMansion monstrosities that take up the whole lot (and where their owners STILL park their beemers on the street). We won’t die if you put a few duplexes up, even though my neighbors will probably lose their minds over it.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s much needed in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are conflating a lot of issues. There are schools in Arlington that are under-subscribed. They tend to be in areas with the biggest lots and have plenty of street parking. I live in one of them. Please build a more diverse variety of houses here. It’s getting a little tiresome see ranchers get torn down for ugly $2m+ McMansion monstrosities that take up the whole lot (and where their owners STILL park their beemers on the street). We won’t die if you put a few duplexes up, even though my neighbors will probably lose their minds over it.

That’s only at the elementary level. And is likely temporary. High school is a looming disaster.

[Anonymous]

Okay the less parking than 2 per unit allocation, how do we kill that. These projects need to build underground garage parking with at least 2 per unit

Metro is dying. We need to plan for a future where more people will be driving.

[Anonymous]

Any plan to upzone needs to be conditional upon an approved (and budget allocated w/o raising taxes) plan to address HS overcrowding, pools, classes and camps capacity, traffic, traffic mitigation, parking, etc. Cannot upzone IMO, no matter how virtuous(-sounding) the reason without addressing EXISTING overpopulation issues!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are conflating a lot of issues. There are schools in Arlington that are under-subscribed. They tend to be in areas with the biggest lots and have plenty of street parking. I live in one of them. Please build a more diverse variety of houses here. It’s getting a little tiresome see ranchers get torn down for ugly $2m+ McMansion monstrosities that take up the whole lot (and where their owners STILL park their beemers on the street). We won’t die if you put a few duplexes up, even though my neighbors will probably lose their minds over it.

That’s only at the elementary level. And is likely temporary. High school is a looming disaster.

+1 Have you been following the high school debacle? There are 1,300 students that they are looking for seats for.

[Anonymous]

Arlington Co. residents currently have until May 27 to provide feedback to Arlington County via an online form:

https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Programs/Housing/Housing-Arlington/Tools/Missing-Middle/Community-Engagement

[Anonymous]

Comment on the public form instead of on DCUM!!!!