Missing Middle: Take A Survey On Arlington's Decision To End Single-Family Zoning

ARLINGTON, VA — When the meeting where the Arlington County Board approved its Missing Middle Housing plan adjourned Wednesday night, supporters of the major zoning decision stood up and applauded the board’s 5-0 vote to eliminate single-family zoning in the county.

On the other side of the room, opponents of the Missing Middle plan sat or stood silently, with a few holding signs that read, “R.I.P. The Arlington Way,” a reference to the community engagement and consensus-building process that Arlington officials have held up as unique to the county.

"I'm so happy with the results," Jane Green, president and co-founder of YIMBYs of Northern Virginia, a group that supports reducing zoning restrictions on home building, said after the vote. "It's not everything I wanted. It's not everything it could be. But considering where the politics are at, this is about the best outcome we could have expected."

Many supporters of the Missing Middle proposal had hoped to include eight-plexes in the final version of the plan. But the board ended up approving a plan that would allow buildings with up to six units on single-family lots.

Take Patch's non-scientific opinion survey on the decision.

"We lost eight-plexes — for now," Green told Patch. "But I think this is beyond what I expected. But it's where Arlington needs to be. Because you cannot have attainable housing in Arlington if you're not doing six-plexes."

In its final vote on Wednesday, the Arlington County Board approved the by-right construction of buildings on single-family lots, from duplexes to six-plexes, depending on lot size, with the units capped at four on certain smaller lots.

The approved plan also comes with a temporary cap: 58 permits for the new structures per year, for five years, geographically dispersed by zoning district.

In his comments after voting to approved Missing Middle, board member Matt de Ferranti cited the racist elements of Arlington's past housing policies, including the banning of row houses, a housing style popular among African Americans, which remained in effect into the 1960s.

"As soon as this is effective, it will end exclusionary zoning," de Ferranti said, referring to the July 1 effective date of the Missing Middle plan. "None of us today is personally at fault for the county decision on row houses from the 1930s to the 1960s. All of us have a responsibility as Arlington residents to live our ideals of equal opportunity and inclusion."

Some believe the board's unanimous vote to pass the Missing Middle plan will sway how Arlingtonians vote in the upcoming primary election for county board.

Maureen Coffey, a candidate for Arlington County Board and a supporter of the Missing Middle plan, said the board's vote on Wednesday to change the county's zoning laws is a step "in removing de facto discrimination in Arlington."

In establishing zoning decades ago, Arlington's leaders "exploited the racial wealth gap by creating single-family home neighborhoods to prevent people of color from moving in next door without explicitly mentioning of race," said Coffey, who is seeking the Democratic nomination.

"These choices still impact housing today. We have to actively work toward equitable housing to repair the damages of the past," she said.

Natalie Roy, who is also seeking the Democratic nomination for county board in June, said in its current form, the Missing Middle plan approved by the board will leave everything up to developers.

"It's a gift to developers," Roy said. "I don't know any developer, without any incentives or prodding, who is going to build affordable housing. It's not going to do anything for diversity."

Arlingtonians for Upzoning Transparency, or AfUT, an anti-Missing Middle group, noted its disappointment with the board's vote on Wednesday. "But county board members at least had to acknowledge the widespread opposition to the proposal, noting the many speakers against and the very many emails critical of it," the group said in a news release.

“The fight about EHO [expanded housing options] is not over,” AfUT's David Gerk said in a statement. "This will continue at the ballot box and at the Courthouse. For EHO proponents, this is just the beginning, too. They have already signaled that they will be pushing for larger seven-and-eight-unit buildings, greater height, more lot coverage, no parking minimums and other ways to further increase density and its resulting negative impacts."

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