Meanwhile, affordability advocates would like to see the county do more, and do it quickly, before the Amazon effect drives up home prices. Johnson likes the idea of tax breaks for owners who keep garden apartments affordable—which would be repaid when the building is sold, creating an incentive for landlords to hold onto lower-income properties.
The menu of solutions also includes something called transfer of development rights (TDRs). In this scenario, developers are permitted to build new projects that exceed the usual density limits in exchange for paying landlords like Johnson a fee to fix up or build cheap housing.
But introducing more density in someone else’s neighborhood isn’t always a popular solution. Where to add that density is the No. 1 question for residents, Cristeal says. “Okay, you want to create more housing options, but where are they going to go? Is it going to be next to me?”
Whatever the solutions, there will inevitably be ruffled feathers and pushback. Developer John Shooshan says county leaders need to step up and make affordable housing a priority, even in the face of “not in my backyard” opposition. He and land-use attorney Jonathan Kinney both think that Arlington needs to streamline the process for approving housing.
Kinney suggests the county could create rules to expedite smaller developments. “We have the same standards for a 30,000-square-foot building on Lee Highway as a million-square-foot project in Rosslyn or Crystal City,” he says. That leaves developers of smaller projects taking on a lot of risk to propose buildings that are too small to promise big payoffs. “It’s probably better than buying a lottery ticket but not a whole lot better.”
Arlington also could bolster its supply of “workforce” housing for residents earning around 80 percent of AMI, he says, by granting developers a 25 percent increase in density if the units are affordable for that income level.
As things stand, a family in that income bracket can be earning close to six figures and still struggle to find homes they can afford in an area where $1.5 million houses are ubiquitous. Cristeal calls it the “missing middle.” A detached single-family home in a lower price range? “You’re not going to find it here in Arlington,” he says.
Fees are another area building experts see as ripe for reform. Some affordable housing developments would be more feasible, Kinney says, if the county waived the usual fees for expenditures such as its underground utility fund and arts fund—the rationale being that the affordable project would already be providing an important public good.
Janopaul agrees. As an example, she cites a 229-unit building called Columbia Hills that APAH is building just off Columbia Pike, for which the nonprofit developer paid $700,000 in fees.
Shooshan feels the tide has been going in the wrong direction—with the county increasingly foisting on developers costs for amenities like curbs, parks and roads that used to be funded by the government.
Is there a place for affordable housing solutions in the county’s most suburban enclaves? Possibly. Elected officials are now looking at ways to integrate more innovative housing types into areas that were previously off limits.
Density increases needn’t always be dramatic. In 2017, the county board green-lighted the creation of interior accessory units—modifications like mother-in-law suites with full kitchens—inside single-family homes. Now the board is considering giving the okay for small exterior “accessory dwelling units,” such as efficiency apartments built on top of single-family garages.
The county also is looking at alternative land-use setups to allow compact housing types such as duplexes and clusters of cottages. When the land price on a single lot is $500,000, the economics don’t work to build affordable housing, says county board member Cristol. “How can we look at our low-density neighborhoods and figure out land-use changes so you can build [more] than one house per lot?”
Christian Dorsey, the new Arlington County Board chair, is optimistic that even the fiercest defenders of the single-family neighborhood model will see the merits of efficient land use and a more diverse housing supply. Current zoning rules have led to monster homes that dwarf their neighbors, he points out. Smaller housing types could serve as an antidote to that problem.
“People are ready to have that conversation because the current way is not meeting with favor,” Dorsey says.
He feels it will be incumbent on Amazon’s development partner, JBG Smith, to contribute to affordable housing solutions. A moderate-income housing production fund might be a way to do that. “They recognize it’s to their benefit,” Dorsey says. “They want to make sure their major partner is able to attract talent.”
JBG is, in fact, already working with a nonprofit to set up the Washington Housing Initiative, with a goal to create and preserve 2,000-3,000 units of affordable workforce housing in the region over the next decade.
Arlington can’t solve the problem alone, Dorsey qualifies. Other local governments need to create housing too, and Amazon could be the catalyst to get businesses and governments working together on the issue.
Cristeal agrees. “Amazon has provided the energy,” he says. “We have an opportunity to funnel that energy into ways to expand affordability.”
Tamara Lytle wrote about NIMBYism, public sector redevelopment and the Arlington Way in the January/February issue.