Reply to Arlington "missing middle"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To be clear, let's say you bought a row house in Georgetown that's been around for 200yrs.  You shouldn't be upset if they tore down the houses across the street to build a high rise office building?  Our neighborhood has been single family homes for 80yrs.  This is different from changing school boundaries.  It's fundamentally changing the character of a neighborhood.

You'd like us to think it's no different but living next to a 4-unit apartment IS different from living next to another single family home also with a yard and driveway.  I get that you're okay with this, and clearly our county board is as well, but not all of us are.[/quote]

You can be upset all you want. Your feelings are your feelings. You should feel your feelings. Plus, generally, people don't like change.

However, your feelings are not necessarily the basis of good housing policy. Especially when your feelings are: I am upset when things change, therefore things should not be allowed to change.[/quote]

MMH isn’t the basis of good housing policy. [b]850k houses that could go to families are going to be torn down by developers to build one bedroom six plexs.[/b] Which we don’t need more of. MMH was initially sold as missing 2-3 bedroom housing opportunities for families to put their kids in North Arlington schools or for empty nesters to stay in the town they have lived in their whole life. EHO/MMH is NOT that. It’s just increased density for people that already have plenty of options in the vacant apartment buildings by the orange line. It’s going to be mega mansions or six plexs - goodbye normal sized, affordable homes and the families that would live in them.[/quote]

The alternatives are:

1. Tearing down the 1,700 sf existing houses and replacing them with new single-unit 5,000 sf McMansions with 6 BR/6BA that sell for $2 million
2. Tearing down the 1,700 sf existing houses and replacing them with new six-unit buildings where each unit sells for $850,000

I think that alternative #2 is better.

The alternative you want - single-unit 1,700 sf existing houses that sell for $850,000 - does not exist.

And the position that people who live in apartments, or want to live in apartments, should just go live in the big apartment buildings 'by the orange line"? That's exactly what "missing middle" is about. Why should the only apartments in Arlington be in big apartment buildings?

[/quote]

In historic districts, it's much more difficult to tear down contributing structures for either McMansions or pseudo-"affordable" missing middle developments.[/quote]

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