Category: Virginia

Joint Letter: Comments in Support of PA 2018-II-1M WFC TSA

Joint Letter: Comments in Support of PA 2018-II-1M WFC TSA

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth, the Audubon  Naturalist Society, the Northern Virginia Affordable Housing Alliance, the Sierra Club Great Falls  Group, Friends of Holmes Run, and Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions. We write to express  our support for the redevelopment of the West Falls Church Transit Station Area and urge you  to consider our recommendations below and vote in favor of the comprehensive plan  amendment (CPA) (2018-II-1M). 

The proposed plan amendment will help realize Fairfax County’s vision of providing a network of  transit-oriented development (TOD) along its transit corridors. This vision is outlined in the  County’s Comprehensive Plan guidance, which calls for development close to transit stations to  focus on reducing dependence on driving and increasing transit ridership. 

Event: Envision the Future of Lee Highway

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

Arlington County wants to hear from you as the community lays out a vision for the Lee Highway corridor! The Plan Lee Highway team is hosting a community meeting this Thursday, May 27th to present and get feedback on corridor-wide and neighborhood area plans for the Arlington East Falls Church, North Highlands and Lyon Village neighborhoods.

You are also invited to join the Plan Lee Highway team for a walking tour on June 12th to discuss visions for the future. Walking tours are a great opportunity to think about how we can transform commercial corridors into more walkable, sustainable neighborhoods.

Plan Lee Highway Community Meeting
Arlington East Falls Church – North Highlands – Lyon Village
May 27, 2021 at 7 pm
Join the Meeting

Walking Tour
June 12, 2021 at 10 am
Join the Walking Tour

Community members’ input helped to shape the preliminary land use scenarios for five neighborhood areas. The scenarios offer different land use mixes to provide diverse housing options, enhanced open space and stormwater management, safer streets and better transit. Feedback will be used to help develop a preferred Concept Plan.

Thursday’s community meeting will focus on Neighborhood Areas 1 and 5 including Arlington East Falls Church, North Highlands, and Lyon Village neighborhoods. Two other community meetings were already held for Neighborhood Area 2 (John M. Langston, Yorktown, Tara Leeway Heights, Leeway Overlee), Area 3 (Waverly Hills, Donaldson Run, Old Dominion, Glebewood, Waycroft Woodlawn), and Area 4 (Cherrydale and Maywood). The recordings and presentations for all the meetings are posted on the project website here. 

You can provide feedback for all neighborhood area and corridor-wide concepts via an online survey through June 20th. 

For more information about the Plan Lee Highway process, visit the project website. 

Take Action: Help Fairfax develop a strong climate plan!

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

Fairfax County is holding two virtual public meetings next week to get input on the goals and strategies recommended in its Community-Wide Energy and Climate Plan (CECAP). This is the last opportunity to provide feedback before the plan is finalized and presented to the Board of Supervisors. The meetings will be held Tuesday, May 18 and Thursday, May 20, from 7:00pm – 8:30pm. Both will provide the same information so you only need to attend one. 

Learn More and Register Today

Your input is critical to ensure Fairfax adopts a bold plan that not only addresses green buildings, renewable energy, and electric vehicles but also includes walkable, bikeable, transit-oriented communities as a core climate solution.

Transportation is the leading source of climate emissions in the county, but cleaner fuels and even electric vehicles won’t be enough. We must reduce how much we need to drive and to make that easier we need our communities to be easier to walk, bike, and use transit to meet daily needs. 

Please make your voice heard! Attend one of the public meetings ensuring the plan includes reducing the amount we have to drive by investing in transit, walking, biking, and more homes in walkable, transit-accessible communities. You can learn more about the meetings and register on the CECAP public engagement page.

For more information on the climate and smart growth connection, you can check out this CSG report and presentation.

CSG Comments on ALU proposal in zMOD

Posted on by Emily Maurer

March 9, 2021 

Fairfax County Board of Supervisors 

12000 Government Center Parkway 

Fairfax, VA 22035 

CSG-comments-on-zMOD-1Download

RE: Testimony in Support of Accessory Living Unit Provision of zMOD

Chairman McKay and Members of the Board: 

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), the leading organization in the DC region advocating for walkable, bikeable, inclusive, and transit-oriented communities as the most sustainable and equitable way for the Washington, DC region to grow and provide opportunities for all. CSG appreciates Fairfax County’s efforts to update its zoning ordinance. Our comments focus primarily on the proposed accessory living unit (ALU) provisions, which we fully support. CSG has become a leading expert on Accessory Dwelling Units through our work in DC and our just-released DC ADU homeowners manual. 

We also support the liberalization of home-based businesses — particularly in view of the advantages we have seen for home-based work during the pandemic. Home-based businesses would be a great benefit to stay-at-home parents, people with disabilities who have trouble traveling, and the Fairfax economy. 

The need: Housing in the county is expensive, shutting out young adults, downsizing empty-nesters, essential workers, teachers, firefighters, and many more. Prices are high and smaller homes can be hard to find. If this pandemic has shown us anything – a home is vital to our health and well-being. Now is the time for Fairfax County to prepare for the future and ensure people have affordable places to live in our county.

Accessory living units can offer less expensive housing options than renting or buying a single-family home because of their smaller size and provide housing opportunities in communities that might otherwise be too expensive. ALUs can also offer a stream of income for homeowners, including lower-income homeowners and retirees on fixed incomes. 

Changes proposed are modest and should not be weakened as the Planning Commission proposes: While Fairfax County staff has proposed some positive changes to the ALU policy, which is a step in the right direction, they are very modest and do not go far enough to truly make ALUs a viable housing option in the county. The Planning Commission is proposing to weaken these further by keeping the special permit process in place for interior units for several more years. This will further delay the wide ranging response the county needs to apply to the affordability crisis we’re facing. 

Supporting ALUs is in line with Fairfax County’s goals. The Communitywide Housing Strategic Plan developed in 2018 at the request of the Board of Supervisors recommends that the zoning update modify the county’s accessory dwelling policy, now known as accessory living units, and to explore zoning districts for missing middle housing types. However, this zoning update does not tackle ALUs robustly enough and does not consider missing middle housing options at all. 

Looking at the comparison chart in the ALU fact sheet provided on the zMOD website, you can see that Fairfax County is lagging behind other local jurisdictions that are doing more to embrace accessory dwellings as a tool to provide more housing options. Meanwhile, Arlington, Montgomery, and DC are all taking steps to study and expand missing middle housing. 

Recommendations: CSG supports the county’s proposal to remove the current age and disability requirement for all ALUs. No other local jurisdiction has this requirement. Removing the age and disability requirement is more equitable so people of varying ages can take advantage of these types of apartments. It provides greater flexibility to a homeowner to provide a home for an adult child and other family members or friends needing a moderately priced apartment.

Streamlining the process for interior ALUs located within the main home by allowing for administrative approval will make the process less burdensome and costly for homeowners. ALUs, like the principal home, must meet all required building and zoning codes and are subject to inspection. According to the ALU fact sheet on the zMOD website, Loudoun, Arlington, Montgomery, and DC have moved to allow ALUs by administrative approval. 

The 2-acre requirement for detached units is unfortunate and retains an inequitable requirement by only allowing detached ALUs for those who can afford 2 plus acres. It also puts these detached units in car-dependent locations. Homeowners throughout most of the county should have the right to build a detached unit on their property. 

In fact, Fairfax County should particularly encourage detached ALUs near transit stations and transit-rich corridors. This can be done by removing the 2-acre requirement for detached accessory dwellings and allowing them on smaller lots closer to activity centers and transit. In addition, removing the parking requirement when ALUs are within a mile of frequent transit helps to remove another regulatory and cost barrier and incentivizes housing in the right places. 

The Board should accept the staff recommendations for ALUs and home-based businesses, and reject the Planning Commission’s proposed rollbacks. The county can then monitor the implementation of these changes as part of a more robust study to expand the creation of ALUs and evaluate missing middle housing needs and solutions. 

Conclusion: We encourage the County to take the necessary steps to further expand opportunities for accessory living units and missing middle housing in the county as a way to make more affordable homes available in our communities. Creating more housing opportunities near transit and jobs is essential to ensuring an inclusive and economically prosperous Fairfax County where people are able to live near their work, helping to reduce long commutes through the county, and contributing to a diverse and vibrant community. 

Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sonya Breehey 

Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager

RE: Support for Accessory Dwelling Units in Alexandria

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

January 23, 2021

Alexandria City Council
301 King Street
Alexandria, VA 22314


RE: Support for Accessory Dwelling Units in Alexandria

Dear Mayor Wilson and Members of City Council:

Please accept these comments on behalf of the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), the leading organization in the DC region advocating for walkable, inclusive, transit-oriented communities. CSG appreciates the City of Alexandria’s efforts to develop an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) policy and writes to convey our full support of the proposal. CSG has become a leading expert on ADUs through our work in DC and our just-released DC ADU homeowners manual.

Accessory dwelling units can offer less expensive housing options than renting or buying a single-family home because of their smaller size. They are great for an aging parent you are caring for, offer a home for your recent college graduate, or a young professional just starting their career. ADUs can also offer a stream of income for homeowners, including lower-income homeowners and retirees on fixed incomes.

CSG is enthusiastic about the strong provisions being proposed that will help make the City’s program a success, such as allowing ADUs citywide, and enhance their feasibility and affordability by not requiring off street parking in our transit-rich, walkable city, and not requiring owner-occupancy on site.

An owner-occupancy requirement lacks flexibility for the homeowner and may limit one’s ability to build an ADU. It can make it difficult for homeowners to finance an ADU. This may serve to exacerbate income and racial inequities by limiting the ability of homeowners to construct ADUs to those with sufficient equity in their homes. An owner-occupancy requirement would also be limiting to people who must move on short notice, such as military and diplomatic families, who often choose to rent out their primary residence. We also note that single-family homes today are already frequently rented out by owners who are not living on site. The owner-occupancy requirement would be a barrier to constructing ADUs and undermine the goal of increasing the supply of ADUs in the city.

We encourage the city to include requirements for regular review, reporting, and recommendations by city staff on refinements to the program. This could include creating an affordability program for low-income renters or buyers, assessing size limitations and setbacks and their impact, whether or not the program has exacerbated or improved racial and income inequalities, and recommendations to address any other barriers towards creating new housing through ADUs.

We understand that some Alexandria residents who are opposed to ADUs and previously opposed the Seminary Road safety project have attacked CSG and our supporters as being outsiders. CSG is a longstanding, 24-year-old regional organization advocating for transit, safe streets, transit-oriented development, and affordable housing throughout the DMV and were honored with the Council of Governments’ (COG) Regional Partnership Award in 2017. Our staff live in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and DC and work with local advocates in each jurisdiction. We sent emails about the ADU program to our Alexandria members and subscribers encouraging them to participate in the ADU study process and to contact the City Council, and we remind our supporters that the emails on Alexandria issues are focused on Alexandria residents. At the same time, local elected officials meeting at COG have agreed that housing, like transportation, is a regional issue, requiring shared effort by every jurisdiction.

CSG believes the proposed ADU policy is a bold step forward in establishing a strong program that will help provide more housing options in Alexandria. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Stewart Schwartz
Executive Director

Sonya Breehey
Northern Virginia Advocacy Manager

Take Action: Show your support for missing middle housing

Posted on by Ayesha Amsa

Dear Sonya,

There are just two days left to provide your input on Arlington’s Missing Middle Study. You will find the presentation thought-provoking about the housing challenges facing Arlington, and by responding to the questions you will help us all think about the impact of high housing costs and options for addressing Arlington’s housing needs.

View the presentation and provide feedback  

What is missing middle housing? “Missing middle” refers to the range of housing types that fit between single-family detached homes and mid-to-high-rise apartment buildings. Having different types and sizes of homes helps provide more options at different price points. Examples of missing middle housing include duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes. These images are some examples shared in Arlington’s Missing Middle presentation.

The opportunity to provide feedback ends December 31. Visit Arlington’s Missing Middle Study website for more information and to provide your input today!