As Arlington prepares to complete Phase 2 of the Missing Middle Housing Study, AHS strongly supports the draft Framework under consideration. We encourage our fellow community members to voice support for adding gentle density to our neighborhoods to re-legalize smaller housing units for our young professionals, smaller households, empty-nesters, and Black households historically excluded from much of Arlington.
Please provide your feedback to the County Board by July 12, 2022.
AHS’s letter submitted to the Board on June 6, 2022 reads:
Dear County Board and Planning Staff:
The Alliance for Housing Solutions strongly supports the Missing Middle Housing draft Framework. Since 2016, AHS has joined with County staff, leaders, and community members to explore the concept of Missing Middle Housing and to understand how it could apply in Arlington. In response to the County’s 2015 Affordable Housing Master Plan, the current Missing Middle Framework presented by staff offers a set of bold and straightforward reform measures to address exclusionary zoning.
Arlington County’s Vision Statement says:
“Arlington will be a diverse and inclusive world-class urban community with secure, attractive residential and commercial neighborhoods where people unite to form a caring, learning, participating, sustainable community in which each person is important.”
During the past decades, Arlington’s rapidly accelerating housing costs have become the primary threat to this vision. A newly constructed detached home in Arlington now costs $2 million on average. New high-rise apartment buildings in the County’s Metro corridors do not meet the needs of many households. Today’s status quo means our County loses middle and working-class residents, weakening our economic viability and our diversity.
As part of Housing Arlington, the County is undertaking many initiatives that will address these spiraling housing costs. The Missing Middle Housing Study is a landmark component in this effort. Only by ending exclusionary zoning can Arlington move forward from the past, toward being a truly “diverse and inclusive world-class urban community.” We understand there are some valid concerns expressed by some in the community.
AHS supports setback flexibility in exchange for tree preservation. We also encourage staff to explore allowing additional height in new missing middle zoning along certain corridors and adjacent to properties already allowing more height. The Missing Middle Framework developed by staff expertly balances the range of community priorities and concerns uncovered during the extensive community engagement process conducted over the past two years.
In particular, AHS supports:
Re-introduction of housing types that will offer flexibility to current homeowners, and new options for smaller households and empty-nesters
Allowing Missing Middle types throughout the County wherever only single-family detached homes are legal today, the most equitable approach to expanding housing options while fitting seamlessly into existing neighborhoods
Reducing parking requirements as a wise choice that will keep costs and environmental impact down, while increasing feasibility on many sites
Legalizing 2 to 8 units per lot, in order to provide smaller, house-scale housing units that are more financially attainable to a wider range of earners
Including 6-8plexes within the framework to provide even deeper affordability, for example, when combined with a community land trust
While staff expect to see approximately 20 lots (or roughly 100 units) converted to missing middle each year, this increase of supply will have a compounding, positive impact over time. The re-introduction of Missing Middle types will remove longstanding racial and socio-economic barriers throughout our community. Even a small annual increase in this supply is very meaningful for each person or household for whom we provide an option that does not exist today.
The simplicity and straightforward approach of this Framework is its strength, which we hope will continue through Phase 3. Over time, these Missing Middle homes will gradually be integrated into neighborhoods. Eventually they will become accepted and even beloved features of Arlington’s housing stock.
AHS fully supports the draft Framework and looks forward to participating in the Missing Middle Housing Study throughout Phase 3.
Sincerely,
Jenny Denney Lawson
Chair, Board of Directors
Martha Bozman
Interim Executive Director