Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future

Earlier this week, on September 30, ASF held a discussion forum with four of the five announced County Board candidates -- the Democratic incumbent, one Republican and two independent challengers. Running 80 minutes, the candidates answered three detailed questions previously provided, which covered Arlington’s approaches to planning, housing and zoning. Subsequent questions from the audience were then posed covering the Langston Boulevard Plan -- related to stormwater and traffic, repurposing of vacant commercial spaces, parking, possible spot zoning and overall density.

The entire event was recorded and may be accessed here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Jxv4TEmoWaYpmQtjt1Ky8ope0mTXQ2k75IjpWo1qqkjhhTOKJOL5ldYCs4rVA17t.aXJ19dPkGawfYamw?startTime=1759273558000

ASF's County Board Candidate Forum is TONIGHT at 7 PM
Please join ASF's public County Board Candidate Forum TONIGHT from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM!

The meeting is being held via Zoom. The link to join this meeting is:

Topic: ASF County Board Candidate Forum
Time: Sep 30, 2025 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82234815549?pwd=2VDQo2q1kawIwyrxtspABb64b5Jt7b.1

Meeting ID: 822 3481 5549
Passcode: 790464

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

Tomorrow, September 30, 7-8:30 PM, please join ASF for a public Candidate Forum with the five County Board candidates.
The meeting is being held via Zoom. The link to join this meeting tomorrow evening is:
Topic: ASF County Board Candidates Forum
Time: Sep 30, 2025 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82234815549?pwd=2VDQo2q1kawIwyrxtspABb64b5Jt7b.1
Meeting ID: 822 3481 5549
Passcode: 790464
We look forward to hosting you via Zoom tomorrow.

On September 30, 7-8:30 PM, please join ASF for a public Candidate Forum with the five County Board candidates.
The meeting is being held via Zoom. The link to join this meeting on Tuesday evening is:

Topic: ASF County Board Candidates Forum
Time: Sep 30, 2025 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82234815549?pwd=2VDQo2q1kawIwyrxtspABb64b5Jt7b.1

Meeting ID: 822 3481 5549
Passcode: 790464

Why you should join this September 30 Zoom

ASF’s Zoom forum will highlight the County’s plans to rewrite our Comprehensive Plan (“Comp Plan”) which guides all elements of development in Arlington. The changes will ultimately result in revisions to our General Land Use Plan, or GLUP, as well as the other 11 elements of the Comp Plan.

Arlington’s current Comp Plan guides the County to “concentrate high density development within the Metrorail Transit Corridors and preserve lower-density residential areas throughout the County.” This core principle appears to be in jeopardy.

Several presentations by County staff over the past year, including the most recent briefing to the Board on September 16, broadly indicate intent to move away from this 40-year “compact” that limits medium and high density to the Metro corridors (and the two other transit corridors that are still in early stages of infill: Columbia Pike and the Langston Blvd. Area).

If the draft Comp Plan, which has still not been fully revealed, severely reduces or eliminates low-density zoning (i.e., currently restricts density in “single-family” neighborhoods to less than 10–15 housing units per acre), Arlington will be setting a density precedent not seen even in New York City (that preserves lower density in boroughs other than Manhattan).

ASF first will ask the 5 candidates for their positions on these extremely significant policy changes to the Comp Plan. ASF’s questions will focus on how the candidates would ensure appropriate funding for new services and infrastructure to meet the increased demand that will come with higher land use. Zoom participants can propose additional questions via the Zoom chat which will be posed to the candidates if time permits.

We look forward to seeing you on Zoom on Tuesday, Sept 30, at 7:00 PM.

Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise cloud communications.

ASF's Arlington County Board Candidate Forum will take place via Zoom on Tuesday, September 30, from 7- 8:30 PM

Mark your calendar now so you don’t miss it!

ASF's Arlington County Board Candidate Forum will focus on issues relating to housing, planning, and zoning. The first three questions will be asked by ASF's moderator. In the time remaining, questions posed to the candidates will be submitted by the audience via chat in Zoom.

Prior to the candidate forum, we will provide the Zoom link via email. This County Board Candidate Forum will be held via Zoom only; there is no in-person venue.

ASF is a non-partisan organization, so we will not be endorsing any candidate, but we will record the candidate forum and publicize a link to the recording.

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW AND JOIN US ON SEPTEMBER 30!

Court considers the role of developers in Arlington ‘missing middle’ housing suit
https://wamu.org/story/25/07/24/court-considers-the-role-of-developers-in-arlington-missing-middle-housing-suit/
“My take on it is that the three-judge panel must have learned something during that oral hearing that they hadn’t realized before, some new information,” said Peter Rousselot, an Arlington resident who leads Arlingtonians For Our Sustainable Future, a group that opposes ‘missing middle’ development. “That must have been the reason that they so quickly completely reversed themselves.”
Lawyers for the plaintiffs have argued that Wilsons Ventures missed filing deadlines — a contention the appellate judges did not buy in the June order — and said that the developer hasn’t proved that its presence in the lawsuit would add any new facts or arguments to the case beyond what the county has already presented.
Supporters of the plaintiffs like Rousselot and Creedon have a different take. They blame the county for paying to defend itself against the legal challenge.
“The county has spent $1.3 million of Arlington taxpayer money on this lawsuit,” Rousselot said. “If they keep up their appeal, they’ll be spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands more of our taxpayer dollars at a time in this country and in Arlington when there are many more serious problems.”

Court considers the role of developers in Arlington ‘missing middle’ housing suit The Virginia Court of Appeals will decide whether a developer who has built ‘missing middle’ housing in the county should be allowed to join the lawsuit.

Virginia court reverses decision on Arlington's EHO zoning, declaring it invalid again

Virginia court reverses decision on Arlington's EHO zoning, declaring it invalid again The Virginia Court of Appeals has reversed its previous order, reinstating the ruling that Arlington's EHO zoning is invalid.

Appeals Court Reverses EHO | Missing Middle Decision; Homeowners Appeal; the Next Day, Court Says It Will Reconsider. Also: Trial Court Tosses Charlottesville’s Version of EHO.

On June 24, the Virginia Court of Appeals reversed the trial court order that voided Arlington’s EHO/Missing Middle rezoning (decision here). Ostensibly, if it stands, developers will be able to build up to 6-unit buildings on single-family lots throughout Arlington, regardless of transit access. Two days later, however, Arlington homeowners asked the court to “stay” (i.e., pause) its decision. On June 30, they asked the court to reconsider its ruling. The next day, the court said it would reconsider its decision and hold oral argument.

For now, the County Board has been working to re-start EHO. However, at any time, the appeals court could put a hold on its June 24 ruling. Homeowners have three chances to reverse it—the judges who decided it could reverse themselves; the entire appeals court could reverse it; or the Virginia Supreme Court could reverse it. If the June 24 decision survives those challenges, it goes back to the trial court to decide what to do. If it’s reversed, the appeals court must then deal with the County Board’s appeal on the substance of the case, which is being pursued separately from this June 24 case.

What happened?

Importantly, the appeals court did NOT review or decide anything about the substance of the County’s legal failures on EHO, including the trial Judge’s finding in September 2024 that the County failed to plan adequately for the impact of new density. Instead, it sided with a lone developer who argued he was not part of the lawsuit but should have been because he owns land in Arlington and had an EHO permit. The appeals court agreed, based on a 3-step test.

In their appeal of June 30, the homeowners say the appeals court examined only one of 3 steps to determine if the developer’s case had merit (i.e., whether he had a material interest in the outcome). They concede he did, just like the 27,000 landowners who the County Board rezoned. The other two requirements, they say, favor them. Namely, that it’s impractical or impossible to add all affected landowners to the lawsuit (step 2), and (step 3), the County adequately represented the developer’s views on EHO at trial.

Indeed, ASF’s FOIA requests show the County has now spent $1,353,000 on outside lawyers charging up to $700/hour to defend EHO. Those same lawyers just lost again—on June 30, a court voided Charlottesville’s Missing Middle upzoning when they missed a critical deadline.

Missing Middle Units Get Built and Reality Lays Bare that It’s Not About Affordability: Half the House at Twice the Price

Of note, land records show the developer who won the appeal on June 24 bought his property after homeowners filed their case in April 2023. He is reportedly looking to sell a duplex for $1.2 million per unit, more than double the cost of the house he tore down to build them.

ArlNow recently profiled another duplex on sale for $1.8 million per unit; also double the cost of the home torn down to build them.

New report: housing grows 3x faster than population, '20-'25. Yet density fails to cut costs; prices up >24%. https://www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/projects/documents/data-and-research/profile/profile_report_2025_final_4_2_25.pdf

Arlington's outside lawyer fees for suit reach $1,352,053.35. Same firm just lost its case defending Charlottesville's upzoning case after it missed a filing deadline https://communityengagement.substack.com/p/june-30-2025-judge-worrell-voids

Please fill out the county survey on the Comp Plan which will close on Monday, June 30! https://publicinput.com/p50064

ASF has highlighted deep concerns about the County’s ongoing efforts to revise the introduction of the Comprehensive Plan and the General Land Use Plan which are the key guides to future development in Arlington. A first draft of the revisions is projected for winter 2025-26. Clear signals point to a major overhaul that could allow the County Board to shift the current concept of concentrating high-density development along four approved transit corridors to allowing it much more widely, perhaps universally. This means we could see medium to high density zoning approved – without much further public debate -- along every one of Arlington’s main arterials, authorizing 6-10 story buildings everywhere. That means the end of “low density” commercial or residential development that has been the norm and a measure of Arlington’s success as a geographically small but diverse community of renters, homeowners, multi-family, two-family and single-family dwellers, with smaller commercial enterprises thriving alongside much larger ones.

ASF lays out more details on the implications of these impending changes in its letter to Arlington County Board of this month:https://www.asf-virginia.org/_files/ugd/a48bae_70af40846b4d428b8228ed19842d9cc2.pdf ; we urge you to also weigh in with [email protected], before a new draft may emerge in the fall/winter.

Most important, PLEASE COMPLETE the county survey on the Comp Plan [https://publicinput.com/p50064] which will close on Monday, June 30. You may want to use ASF’s sample reply which you can cut and paste into the county interactive form.https://www.asf-virginia.org/_files/ugd/a48bae_c9da35f3c00245a09d9a7c6c5b2f9bcd.pdf

www.asf-virginia.org

Arlington 2050: Guiding Our Path

County Pursuing Medium-to-High Density Development Countywide
Weigh In via Civic Federation Vote June 10, Letter to the Board

Summary and Call to Action. Arlington County continues its single-minded drive to increase allowable density countywide, with signs that a Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) update is being used to kill low-density neighborhoods and make Arlington fully urban beyond Metro corridors. Such a strategic change would presumably encompass the types of zoning changes ASF has consistently argued need a better foundation of county- or developer-funded infrastructure and services, including better systems to preserve or provide affordable housing and sustainable finances.

Last year, the county launched an update to its Comprehensive Plan (now titled “Arlington 2050: Guiding Our Path”), a planning process mandated by Virginia law. The Comp Plan guides future development and contains 12 sub-elements, among which are the General Land Use Plan (GLUP), 2007 Master Transportation Plan (MTP), and Stormwater Plan. “Guiding Our Path” will first amend the Comp Plan and then amend the GLUP (which projects allowable land use and density.) Revisions to the MTP – rebranded as “Arlington’s Transportation Future” – are in process now.

For Arlington 2050, the county is seeking public inputs for a survey on the county’s weaknesses, strengths, challenges, and opportunities. Questions are vague and open-ended, but we ask you to engage using ASF’s replies as a guide (https://www.asf-virginia.org/_files/ugd/a48bae_c9da35f3c00245a09d9a7c6c5b2f9bcd.pdf); survey closes June 30. While you may also engage County Board members directly at Open Door Mondays or at regular County Board meetings, we ask you most urgently to take two additional steps:

1. ask your civic association to approve the June 10 Civic Federation resolution to improve county planning and zoning, pressing the Board for more clarity on the Comp Plan/GLUP revisions https://www.civfed.org/newContent/2025-05/2025-05%20ACCF%20P%26ZComm%20Res%20Improve%20PZ%20Planning%20and%20Processes%20DRAFT%2020250530.pdf; and
2. send a letter (see sample here https://www.asf-virginia.org/_files/ugd/a48bae_70af40846b4d428b8228ed19842d9cc2.pdf) to [email protected].

15 Months of Staff Work Yields Zero Substance
County officials have not outlined any definitive changes of the Comp Plan or GLUP – other than vague mentions of transit focus. So ASF was hoping that updates in May/June 2025 would clarify the direction of new policy. However updates from May 2025 (new webpage and a brief to the Long-Range Planning Committee) only revealed that staff would now rely on concepts (more “buzzwords”) from the American Planning Association as it moves forward! Several concepts do not track with our current Comp Plan and would set up extensive overhauls that likely could not be completed in the plan timeframe. Staff also said that “newly-created Arlington County Guiding Principles” will “replace the existing Comp Plan/GLUP goals with ‘people-centric’ ones” — a term that no one will define. Staff told us not to expect draft language until “Winter 2025-26.”

Promising “people-centric” outcomes centered on lofty planning precepts does not help us understand why staff or the board thinks a major overhaul is needed (we have weathered Comp Plan updates every 5 years without incident or major overhauls, as our zoning code remains inherently flexible for more or less density as needed), nor how current plans fall short on centering people, nor what prescriptions are planned. Focus groups convened by the county have been closed to the public. The process is designed to obscure final intent and outcome.

Arlington’s Commitment to Transit-Oriented Development is in Jeopardy
Indications from staff in March 2024, as well as the June 2 Planning Commission approval of a Draft Vision and Goals (slide 20) for the new transportation plan -- have foreshadowed possible changes:

• Adding medium to high density – both residential and commercial and mixed-use options – along arterial roads (i.e. connector roads like Wilson Blvd., Glebe, Washington Blvd, George Mason, Rt. 50, Four Mile Run, Yorktown Blvd., Carlyn Springs);
• Expanding “walkable” to Metro definition for higher density from ¼ mile to ½ or even one mile;
• Eliminating the “bullseye” concept that requires tapering of height between Metrorail stations, i.e. increasing heights to a standard along the length of the Metro corridor;
• Eliminating or greatly constraining GLUP goal 4 (see p. 6) that specifies the county must preserve low-density residential and commercial areas.

Civic Federation Weighs In
Arlington County Civic Federation (CivFed) is working to keep Comp Plan and GLUP changes in the spotlight and on June 10 will vote on a Resolution to Improve Planning and Zoning Policy and Processes that seeks more info on the Comp Plan update. ASF strongly supports the resolution; see related action item above.

Density Without Infrastructure and Meaningful Planning?
Arlington has consistently downplayed the need for new infrastructure and revenue to support added density. ASF has objected to the county’s planning malpractice with regard to Missing Middle/EHO, Plan Langston Blvd., and a host of Special GLUP studies and site plans including Amazon’s Pen Place. Most recently, ASF raised objections to the Hotel Pentagon site plan amendments allowing for 531 residential units to be built outside transit corridors. This fundamental flaw will be exponentially magnified if Arlington sets up a framework to alter low-density areas (both residential and commercial) by increasing allowable density.

Major changes seem likely and therefore responsible public engagement must include ASF, CivFed and other civic groups now, to have a genuine community discussion about concrete issues in Arlington and before any revisions proceed.

www.civfed.org