Missing Middle Townhouses Approved On Lot Uphill Of Flood-Prone Area

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County approved its first three expanded housing option permits that will allow developers to move forward on building a 6-plex housing unit, a three townhouse complex, and a two-unit project.

The multi-unit projects will be built on lots in different parts of the county previously zoned for single-family housing. One of the projects approved by Arlington County is located uphill from an area in the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods in which the county is taking measures to address flooding issues, such as buying homes in order to tear them down.

The permit for the 6-plex building was approved in the Aurora Highlands neighborhood, while the three townhouses were approved on a lot in Cherrydale and the two-unit project was approved on a lot in the Claremont neighborhood near Route 7, according to EHO Watch, a newsletter edited by local Realtor and former Arlington County Board candidate Natalie Roy

"The County appears to be fast-tracking the EHO approval process this summer," Roy wrote in the Aug. 20 issue of the newsletter. "Given all this news on a quiet Friday in August, EHO Watch will be keeping its eyes open on the Friday before Labor Day."

Arlington County began accepting permit applications for EHO housing development on its Permit Arlington website on July 1. The new zoning reform, passed by the county board in March as part of its Missing Middle Housing study process, allows the by-right construction of up to six housing units on certain residential lots.

READ ALSO: Arlington Begins Accepting Missing Middle Housing Permit Applications

For the first five years under the new zoning law, an annual cap of 58 permits for Missing Middle housing units will be in place. The 58 Missing Middle permits will be distributed by zoning district: seven permits for R-5; 30 permits for R-6; and 21 permits total for R-8, R-10 and R-20 housing. Lots sized 5,000 square feet, for example, are classified as R-5, and 6,000-square-feet lots are R-6.

The 3-unit townhouse project on N. Taylor Street in Cherrydale was approved on Aug. 17 in an R-6 zoning district. The permit application was submitted by BeaconCrest Homes of McLean.

According to Arlington County tax records, the house was sold in 2022 in an off-market sale by Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Diocese of Arlington, which had been gifted the house, to a limited liability company formed by BeaconCrest Homes called 2005 N. Taylor LLC for $950,000.

The home on N. Taylor Street is located about 10 houses uphill from an area of the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods prone to flooding. According to the Risk Factor website, the homes at the bottom of the hill from the N. Taylor Street home are at "major" or "severe" risk of flooding over the next 30 years.

READ ALSO: Arlington Approves Deal To Purchase Home For Flood Relief Purposes

Less than three blocks away, downhill from the N. Taylor Street home, are three houses that Arlington County has agreed to purchase as part of its voluntary property acquisition program to reduce flood risk.

Those three homes, on 18th Street N., are located in an area that has been hit hard by recent flooding events, such as the floods seen in July 2019.

The activities occurring in the Cherrydale and Waverly Hills neighborhoods highlight two top priorities of Arlington County: creating greater housing density, which is likely to produce less permeable surfaces in former single-family neighborhoods, and tearing down homes in these same neighborhoods to mitigate the risk of flooding due to severe stormwater runoff problems.

"The problem is the county permitting system is based on silos. The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing," Roy told Patch. "No one is looking at the bigger picture. Add the EHO density program into the mix, and it was inevitable that it would create an even bigger mess."