Many people who live in Arlington seem to hate what's happened to neighborhoods like Lyon Village:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/northern-virginia/1184186-arlington-has-height-restriction-5.html

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The worst in my opinion: the gigantic, blue house off of Sycamore Street in North Arlington/East Falls Church area.

What is the cross street for the blue house. For the life of me, I cannot picture which one you are talking about.

This one! This is the most bizarre house. It's like one giant room inside!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It isn't New Urbanist design, FFS, because it is an older area. The point it, the streets's narrowness is a feature, not a bug.

The point is that, what might have remained a virtue had people left well enough alone, is a bug when people build homes that are too big for the lots and many streets have cars - whether of residents, visitors or both - parked on both sides. LV still has a great location, and that trumps other factors for some, but the bloom is off the rose.

Correct. Real estate really is 'location, location, location'. You can't build location. The proximity of large SFH (not rowhouses or condos) in a safe city-atmposhere a block to metro/shops/restaurants, less than 2 miles from dc and great public schools all the way through HS is the reason it has remained a hot neighborhood for over a decade and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It will be really interesting to see what the changing streetscape/homes do for the neighborhood in the future. I gather the county figures it can get more $ in real estate taxes which is why they are lax to put in place stricter regulations. I am also thorougly convinced some of these builders are making shady deals which is why their monostrosities pass while permit requests for seemingly inocuous changes by homeowners are often turned down.