Missing Middle Opponent Natalie Roy To Run For Arlington County Board

ARLINGTON, VA — A local Realtor launched a campaign Friday to fill one of two seats on the Arlington County Board that will open after Chair Christian Dorsey and member Katie Cristol leave office at the end of 2023.

Natalie Roy, CEO of the Bicycling Realty Group, held a launch party Friday to kick off her campaign for the Democratic nomination for county board.

One of Roy’s top campaign issues is her opposition to the Missing Middle housing proposal that the county board is considering.

Roy, who has lived in the Lyon Park neighborhood for 32 years, acknowledges that the county needs to do more to create affordability and diversity.

“However, the county’s Missing Middle housing proposal will not achieve those goals,” Roy said Saturday in response to the board's consideration of whether to advertise public hearings on the proposed housing zoning code changes.

Roy joined a growing list of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for the two spots that are opening on the board. Julius “J.D.” Spain Sr., Maureen Coffey and Jonathan Dromgoole announced their candidacies in early January.

Tony Weaver, former president of the Arlington Rotary Club, announced his plans to seek the Democratic nomination earlier this week. Weaver is also a member of Arlington County’s Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission.

Roy is the only candidate among the five Democrats to come out against the Missing Middle housing proposal.

In November, Cristol issued a statement saying she would not run for re-election in 2023. Last month, Dorsey announced he would not seek re-election. Cristol and Dorsey are finishing up their second four-year terms on the county board this year.

At Saturday's county board meeting, Roy said the current framework for the Missing Middle proposed by the county does not have clear goals.

"It is pinning its hopes on developers and real estate investors to build affordable housing, senior residences, and homes that serve our nurses, firefighters, police officers and teachers," she said. "I do not find that credible, and many of my neighbors do not find that credible."

The changes under consideration for advertisement are part of the third phase of the county’s Missing Middle Housing Study, a multi-year planning process on how a wider range of housing types could be integrated within areas of Arlington that are currently restricted to single-detached housing.

The proposed zoning changes would allow the construction of duplexes, three-unit townhouses and multifamily buildings with up to six or eight dwellings on lots of up to one acre in Arlington’s lower-density zoning areas.

At the very least, the Arlington County Board, before approving the Missing Middle proposal, should launch a pilot program to evaluate the impacts and outcomes of allowing by-right construction of these multiple units in areas of Arlington currently only zoned for single-family homes, Roy said at Saturday's county board meeting.

The Democratic primary to pick the candidates for the two county board positions will take place on June 20.

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