Langston Blvd Redevelopment Plan Approved By Arlington County Board

Find out what's happening in Arlingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In his comments to the board on Saturday, Stephen D’Alessio, who supported the Arlington County Board’s adoption of the plan, said he hoped officials will prioritize climate change measures.

Noting that Langston Boulevard is home to many multistory residential buildings, D’Alessio said he wants the county to commit “to rehabilitating existing multistory buildings to avoid the carbon emissions from demolition and new construction.”

Lander Allin, another speaker who expressed concern about the climate impacts of development, said he supports the plan and that “there is a lot to like in it.” But Allin also said the plan failed to address the rapid warming of the earth.”

“Our way of life is going to change dramatically. Everyone will be affected,” Allin said. “This is not something that might happen; it’s already begun to happen.”

“Global warming is going to eat our lunch, whether or not we want to admit it,” he said.

Arlington and the rest of the country “must change the way we live and build if we hope to survive,” which includes increasing the supply of housing along Langston Boulevard and minimizing the use of cars.

At the board meeting, Grace Hjerpe, a lifelong Arlington resident who is planning soon to move to Washington, D.C., said in support of the plan that “this is the kind of community that I could see myself moving back into in five or 10 years when I move back to Arlington.”

Hjerpe, who serves as vice president for Arlington of YIMBYs of Northern Virginia, a group in favor of the development of more and denser housing, emphasized that “denser development is better for the county budget, it’s better for the environment, and it creates a more livable community.”

“I just want to see in the future our leaders acknowledge that development is good,” Hjerpe said.

Jane Green, president of the YIMBYs of Northern Virginia, expressed her support for the plan because the area “deserves to be a showcase neighborhood” and the people who live along Langston Boulevard “deserve to have integrated schools.”

As it stands now, though, the Langston Boulevard corridor and its schools already boast great diversity. From young families to seniors planning to age in place to residents who immigrated to Arlington from many countries around the world, the corridor is home to diverse and inclusive neighborhoods.

The corridor is also home to Halls Hill, a neighborhood that began as home to many freed slaves but was kept separate by white leaders from neighboring communities.

At Saturday’s meeting, Wilma Jones, who grew up in Halls Hill and serves as president of the John M. Langston Citizens Association, noted her neighborhood has the most diverse community along Langston Boulevard. She called on the county to limit building heights to four stories along the south side of Langston Boulevard that borders Halls Hill.

Click Here:

“Many of the residents who have spoken to us in the citizens association have said that they felt that five stories would again make our neighborhood feel walled in,” she said. “And I know that you as a county board know the history of the Halls Hill/High View Park neighborhood and the segregation walls that our neighbors had to endure.”

In response to the neighborhood’s concerns, the Arlington County Board on Saturday agreed to change the plan to lower maximum heights from five stories to four, and transitional heights from four stories to three stories on Langston Boulevard adjacent to Halls Hill.

Langston Boulevard is widely known as home to the first school to integrate in Virginia, and is remembered for its important role in the civil rights movement. Looking back nearly 65 years ago, Stratford Junior High School, a school along Langston Boulevard, which was then called Lee Highway, became the first school to integrate in the state after years of resistance by state and local officials.

READ ALSO: Arlington Sit-Ins Sparked Desegregation Of Lunch Counters Across NoVA

As for the expected addition of thousands of new residents, including many children, current residents expressed concerns about Plan Langston Boulevard’s impact on Arlington Public Schools. During its deliberations, Arlington County officials failed to consult with Arlington Public Schools about the planned redevelopment and how schools would be affected.

Arlington resident Jane Zimmerman said that while the plan embodies aspirations that many residents support such as affordable housing, outstanding public schools, and a diverse and inclusive community, the final plan “blithely ignores” Arlington Public Schools and has “no plan for Arlington schoolchildren as it adds 15,000 to 20,000 new residents to the Langston corridor other than converting community centers into schools or even senior living.”

“In fact, the Planning Commission on Nov. 1 did not respond to residents’ questions and concerns about APS,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman, in her comments, also asked why Arlington County Attorney MinhChau Corr did not recommend that a member of the Arlington County Planning Commission who also serves as president of the Langston Boulevard Alliance, a business-led nonprofit group, recuse himself from the planning commission’s final vote, where it recommended approval of the final draft of Plan Langston Boulevard.

The county attorney “had no issue with a planning commissioner voting on this final draft while he’s also chairing the Langston Blvd Alliance,” Zimmerman said. “His fiduciary responsibility to the alliance is to serve its members like Amazon, Coakley and Williams Construction, and JBG Smith’s law firm Venerable.”

Audrey Clement, a Westover resident who ran for Arlington County Board last week but lost, argued that the Langston Boulevard Area Plan “is a far-reaching scheme … that has been hijacked by the YIMBYs of Northern Virginia and housing nonprofits like VOICE.”

Arlington resident Anne Bodine, speaking on behalf of nonprofit group Arlingtonians for our Sustainable Future, said Saturday that she fears the plan delivers transit-oriented density “without mass transit.”

Packing in 10,000 to 16,000 new residential units along Langston Boulevard could have harmful effects on many aspects of county services, Bodine said.

“Residential development, on average, results in more spending to provide expensive services and infrastructure than residential development contributes in revenue,” she said. “Counties need to build schools, libraries, ballparks for residents that are not required for office or hotel occupants. In short, commercial properties pose less fiscal burden. Yet advocates of this plan have said, against all evidence, that newcomers will pay for the new infrastructure.”

“I wish we had the same concern about legacy residents that we’ve heard today about legacy businesses,” she said about the possible rise in taxes and living costs to pay for the new services and infrastructure.

Among the members of the public who spoke before Bodine was Arlington resident Wells Harrell, who was speaking on behalf of the Arlington branch of the NAACP. Harrell spoke about the future of “legacy businesses” as Langston Boulevard undergoes redevelopment and how “we should do everything we can to help our beloved legacy businesses, who I could spend the rest of my time just naming here, as they make that transition.”

“That also means directing the county manager to prioritize the preservation and relocation of legacy businesses along the corridor, including our minority-owned businesses that are so beloved within the community and form such a pillar not just for their customers but also their employees,” Harrell said.

Arlington County should give these “legacy businesses” the resources they need and work with developers to make sure they “have a fair shot to compete for space in the new developments and don’t simply get squeezed out in favor of more convenient national chains,” Harrell said.

RELATED:

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.