Reply to Giving up on North Arligton... Is South Arlington going to improve?

Forum Index » Real Estate

Reply to "Giving up on North Arligton... Is South Arlington going to improve?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We all know that the number of designated affordable housing units in N/S is about equal.  But, citizens do not allow and the county do not build large low income housing buildings (versus set aside units in new buildings) in the north.  Only in the south. That coupled with the concentration of market rate yet cheap housing around the western end of the Pike is the problem both for economic development in that area and more importantly for the schools.  However you categorize it - market rate, affordable, what ever, does not matter anymore for the western Pike.  It is a very poor area and many of the commercial establishments nearby prey on those very people. The schools that serve that area do not have the seats for the kids and they are underperforming - and they are title I schools. So, South Arlington should not be scattering the affordable units across new developments in the county, not concentrating them into pockets of poverty.  
[/quote]

I think you meant to write  should be scattering units across the county and not concentrating them.[/quote]

One potential solution is for the county to change its current approach to affordable housing.  Right now they give the builders of new residential developments a choice: set aside a certain percentage/number of units for affordable housing, or donate an equivalent amount of money to the county for its affordable housing fund.  New developers are choosing to pay, rather than set aside the units.  If the county really wanted to disperse affordable housing units - a different goal than simply providing more units - they could take away the choice, and require all new residential developments to set aside some number of units for affordable housing.

This would not disperse affordable housing units equally throughout the county, of course.  There is lots of redevelopment underway on Columbia Pike now (and it's likely to continue), and there are not likely to be many (any?) large scale residential developments north of Lee Highway.  But the units would probably be more dispersed than they are under the current system, where new affordable housing units are becoming available only in 100% affordable buildings, which tend to be built in areas with lower land prices.

A previous poster made an interesting point that I had not considered: if new developments all have affordable housing units set aside, what happens if the affordable housing residents can't pay the condo fees (or equivalent monthly/annual costs)?  If this is the big stumbling block, surely the County can find a way to address this adequately.  It's not exactly rocket science.

Now is a good time to talk to the County Board candidates about these issues.  They are all on record as supporting more affordable housing.  Let's start asking them different - and harder - questions.  Not just more or less.  Should we disperse the units, or concentrate them?  How will this affect the schools?

I am not opposed to affordable housing (and I live in Alcova Heights - a lovely South Arlington neighborhood right off the Pike), but it seems worthwhile to have a County-wide discussion about how to have an affordable housing initiative that benefits everyone, including the children in (all) our schools and the residents in the affordable housing units.

This is getting too long, but I would like to close by saying that this has turned in to a really interesting and thoughtful thread.  Thanks to you all for that![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics