Anonymous wrote:There's lots of affordable housing north of Lee - check out the Courthouse area. But the idea that you're going to put one random AH building up by Chain Bridge is insane. The problem is location. I live in a townhouse just off of Lee Highway that by its nature should be a very middle middle class kind of housing, but the location means that yes, I have a lot of money to be able to afford it. My house is currently zoned Glebe/Williamsburg and now will go Glebe/Stratford and I'm thrilled. I don't want my kid in the rich white kid school. I went to one and know what goes on there.

You simply can't social-engineer this issue with some middle school boundaries. And trust me, if they finally redevelop this somewhat run-down area of Lee Highway, it's not going to ultimately wind up with more lower income people. They built an apartment building behind me, which while it has a few AH units, has jacked up the prices and set ridiculous rents. And people are paying them. You pay $150 a month for the first space in the building, so now our local streets are jammed with cars so the homeowners in the townhouses - which do not have multi car garages or functional driveways - have nowhere to park. The only option the county gives us is to take our street private so they can weasel out of maintenance and upkeep. AH without the proper infrastructure is insane. So I just want my kid to walk to school - I don't care that Williamsburg is a Richie Rich school.

It could, if the developers pursued the property for all CAF. No reason it's less possible here than anywhere else in Arlington.

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Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

You have no clue, do you. Let's say they manage to snag a full quarter acre in one of those neighborhoods. Great, they have a quarter acre. Maybe sometime in the next ten years an adjoining lot will come up for sale. Maybe the county will get it, or maybe the owner will sell to a developer willing to pay more. But maybe they get it, then they have a whole half acre. Yay! So they put a few garden apartments there, but oops, there's not enough parking because there's no space for a lot and the street won't accommodate that many cars, and the people living there need cars because there's no ART bus service that far back into the neighborhoods.

Yeah, that will get some affordable housing built right quick.

ART bus lines can be run anywhere, but I was talking about ON Lee Hwy, just on the north side. The Discovery, Nottingham, and Taylor boundaries extend all the way to Lee Hwy. Jamestown would be a bit trickier, but a minor boundary adjustment incorporating Lee Hwy might do it. Also, I don't give a fig about your parking. Why should I? There are a bunch of apartment parkers all over the SFH neighborhoods along the Pike and everywhere else because they don't build adequate parking anywhere. Not sure why you think your neighborhoods are so special that you can't accommodate exactly what the Pike and other neighborhoods have been asked to accept.

Seriously? Plenty of us have been saying to build on both sides of Lee Highway, I was giving you benefit of the doubt that you meant you wanted to go further north into those areas. But no, you were just making up some ridiculous strawman that people are only willing to have development on the south side just to maintain your own sense of victimhood. I can't believe I wasted time responding to this nonsense.

I was not the person who said it would only be built on the S side of Lee Hwy. Frankly, the way Glebe is going, that wouldn't be a bad thing either. Build it on both sides. And further into the neighborhoods. That's going to be more difficult than along a major transit corridor, but not impossible.

Moving the units S of Lee Highway away from Williamsburg is unconscionable. I'm super disappointed in staff.

There's lots of affordable housing north of Lee - check out the Courthouse area. But the idea that you're going to put one random AH building up by Chain Bridge is insane. The problem is location. I live in a townhouse just off of Lee Highway that by its nature should be a very middle middle class kind of housing, but the location means that yes, I have a lot of money to be able to afford it. My house is currently zoned Glebe/Williamsburg and now will go Glebe/Stratford and I'm thrilled. I don't want my kid in the rich white kid school. I went to one and know what goes on there.

You simply can't social-engineer this issue with some middle school boundaries. And trust me, if they finally redevelop this somewhat run-down area of Lee Highway, it's not going to ultimately wind up with more lower income people. They built an apartment building behind me, which while it has a few AH units, has jacked up the prices and set ridiculous rents. And people are paying them. You pay $150 a month for the first space in the building, so now our local streets are jammed with cars so the homeowners in the townhouses - which do not have multi car garages or functional driveways - have nowhere to park. The only option the county gives us is to take our street private so they can weasel out of maintenance and upkeep. AH without the proper infrastructure is insane. So I just want my kid to walk to school - I don't care that Williamsburg is a Richie Rich school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

You have no clue, do you. Let's say they manage to snag a full quarter acre in one of those neighborhoods. Great, they have a quarter acre. Maybe sometime in the next ten years an adjoining lot will come up for sale. Maybe the county will get it, or maybe the owner will sell to a developer willing to pay more. But maybe they get it, then they have a whole half acre. Yay! So they put a few garden apartments there, but oops, there's not enough parking because there's no space for a lot and the street won't accommodate that many cars, and the people living there need cars because there's no ART bus service that far back into the neighborhoods.

Yeah, that will get some affordable housing built right quick.

ART bus lines can be run anywhere, but I was talking about ON Lee Hwy, just on the north side. The Discovery, Nottingham, and Taylor boundaries extend all the way to Lee Hwy. Jamestown would be a bit trickier, but a minor boundary adjustment incorporating Lee Hwy might do it. Also, I don't give a fig about your parking. Why should I? There are a bunch of apartment parkers all over the SFH neighborhoods along the Pike and everywhere else because they don't build adequate parking anywhere. Not sure why you think your neighborhoods are so special that you can't accommodate exactly what the Pike and other neighborhoods have been asked to accept.

Seriously? Plenty of us have been saying to build on both sides of Lee Highway, I was giving you benefit of the doubt that you meant you wanted to go further north into those areas. But no, you were just making up some ridiculous strawman that people are only willing to have development on the south side just to maintain your own sense of victimhood. I can't believe I wasted time responding to this nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who proclaims affordable housing is what will save Arlington’s diversity has missed the point. Our diversity comes from having people from all walks of life and all income levels. The way the county is going, we have an increasing divide between ultra poor (AH) and ultra wealthy. We are losing middle class families and part of the reason is that our county is hyper-focused on AH instead of how to keep middle class families, as well as our teachers and other community helpers living in the county.

The new MS maps are less gerrymandered than I expected, but they are sad. I, too, would have liked to have seen better economic diversity; however, AH is not the answer. Instead of buying up houses and turning them into parkland, how about the county renting those houses at a market-rate? All of the seniors who get property tax relief and call for AH should rent out their homes at market rate when they leave their houses instead of cashing in and selling out to the developers.

Uh, there is no way to stop this. We're either going to be exclusively wealthy or wealthy with some AH set-asides. Good luck convincing people who inherit an estate to give away their inherited wealth. Not going to happen. But what will happen if we continue to concentrate AH in communities where many homeowners are minorities is that we will damage their ability to create wealth in the same way that white families have for generations. It's bad policy. It's racist policy.

If middle class people want to live in Arlington, there are affordable homes in south Arlington. No one is entitled to live in North Arlington.

Anyone who proclaims affordable housing is what will save Arlington’s diversity has missed the point. Our diversity comes from having people from all walks of life and all income levels. The way the county is going, we have an increasing divide between ultra poor (AH) and ultra wealthy. We are losing middle class families and part of the reason is that our county is hyper-focused on AH instead of how to keep middle class families, as well as our teachers and other community helpers living in the county.

The new MS maps are less gerrymandered than I expected, but they are sad. I, too, would have liked to have seen better economic diversity; however, AH is not the answer. Instead of buying up houses and turning them into parkland, how about the county renting those houses at a market-rate? All of the seniors who get property tax relief and call for AH should rent out their homes at market rate when they leave their houses instead of cashing in and selling out to the developers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

Oh, please! You do realize that our teachers, firefighters, nurses, police and other community helpers all make too much to qualify for AH. Furthermore, most people living in Arlington AH don’t even work IN the county. AH has turned into a campaign slogan for Democrars and a way to line the pockets of developers.

What? Who said anything about teachers and firefighters and cops? No s*** they don't live in subsidized housing. They wouldn't even if they could qualify. Who are you talking to? I know who lives in AH. I still think if we're engineering our population in this manner, we could do it in a smarter way. A way that reduces historic patterns of segregation rather than reinforcing it. I don't think it's "smart" to engineer school zones so that 80% of the students qualify for fr/l. Unless we want to increase the likelihood of intergenerational poverty. If that's the goal, we're doing a fine job.

Here is the study that shows the occupations and place of work for AH. Only 37% of people in AH work in Arlington. Our teachers can’t even qualify!

https://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/02/Occupations-of-Tenants-of-CAFs-Feb-2015.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

Oh, please! You do realize that our teachers, firefighters, nurses, police and other community helpers all make too much to qualify for AH. Furthermore, most people living in Arlington AH don’t even work IN the county. AH has turned into a campaign slogan for Democrars and a way to line the pockets of developers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

You have no clue, do you. Let's say they manage to snag a full quarter acre in one of those neighborhoods. Great, they have a quarter acre. Maybe sometime in the next ten years an adjoining lot will come up for sale. Maybe the county will get it, or maybe the owner will sell to a developer willing to pay more. But maybe they get it, then they have a whole half acre. Yay! So they put a few garden apartments there, but oops, there's not enough parking because there's no space for a lot and the street won't accommodate that many cars, and the people living there need cars because there's no ART bus service that far back into the neighborhoods.

Yeah, that will get some affordable housing built right quick.

ART bus lines can be run anywhere, but I was talking about ON Lee Hwy, just on the north side. The Discovery, Nottingham, and Taylor boundaries extend all the way to Lee Hwy. Jamestown would be a bit trickier, but a minor boundary adjustment incorporating Lee Hwy might do it. Also, I don't give a fig about your parking. Why should I? There are a bunch of apartment parkers all over the SFH neighborhoods along the Pike and everywhere else because they don't build adequate parking anywhere. Not sure why you think your neighborhoods are so special that you can't accommodate exactly what the Pike and other neighborhoods have been asked to accept.

There are plenty of places to build affordable housing in Taylor, Jamestown, Discovery, Nottingham & Tuckahoe school zones. I am sure we could find a place like : Stewart Park, Tuckahoe Park, Minor Hill, East Falls Church Metro Parking, Lee Recreation Center, the old Lee Lex Service Center, Jamestown Elementary, Upper Pimmit, Madison, Gulf Branch, Taylor Park, Mulch Facility - 26th St N & Yorktown Blvd, Watertowers at 24th St North & Wakefield.

Arlington needs to cut some ribbons and start building.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.

You have no clue, do you. Let's say they manage to snag a full quarter acre in one of those neighborhoods. Great, they have a quarter acre. Maybe sometime in the next ten years an adjoining lot will come up for sale. Maybe the county will get it, or maybe the owner will sell to a developer willing to pay more. But maybe they get it, then they have a whole half acre. Yay! So they put a few garden apartments there, but oops, there's not enough parking because there's no space for a lot and the street won't accommodate that many cars, and the people living there need cars because there's no ART bus service that far back into the neighborhoods.

Yeah, that will get some affordable housing built right quick.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You guys...
Democrats just swept the election. We all vote liberal! What more do you want from us. We would totally welcome low income housing in those areas. It’s so sad they haven’t moved forward with any.

No one in the areas we are talking about (Discovery/Jamestown) welcomes affordable housing in their area. They ask for it on Lee Highway knowing full-well that those students will end up at Glebe.

Where else are you going to put affordable housing north of Lee Highway? Should they tear down a community center to do it? It's not like they can use eminent domain to take a bunch of SFH lots and turn them into apartment buildings.

They can just purchase lots as they are available and then rezone. If they can build hundreds of units on top of a polluted old gas station lot into a hillside next to another building on Columbia Pike, they can figure out how to build some on the north side of Lee Hwy in the Nottingham and Discovery zones.

You can't build an apartment building on a quarter of an acre, which is on the bigger side of the lots they might be able to get north of Lee Highway. And that assumes they'd be willing to pay more than the builders for the lot. Unless you're advocating for them paving over Chestnut Hills, I don't know what you think they're going to find. Other than the Williamsburg Shopping Center, I'm not even aware of any commercial areas that far north that they could tack a building onto like they did on the parcel you cited.

Come take a look at the Shell, then tell me they can't build something north of Lee Hwy. They
Might need two lots rather than one. They can find a way. Will it cost more to produce the same number of units? Possibly. But there are others costs to building AH next to AH in the former parking lot of the AH building across the street from yet more AH. I don't care about how much they build--it will never be enough to actually meet demand. I care where they build.