Critics might suggest it’s cynical, but would also have to acknowledge maybe brilliantly so.
Faced with a public revolt in some quarters over proposed Missing Middle housing and zoning changes, the Arlington County government has made a big change.
Not to the proposed policy. To the name.
“Missing Middle” has now morphed into “Expanded Housing Options” in county-government parlance. And because nothing happens in Arlington without an acronym, it has already been shortened to “EHO.”
County Board Chairman Christian Dorsey on Feb. 1 gave the new terminology a test drive before the Arlington County Democratic Committee in explaining the board’s recent vote to advertise, for a March public hearing, zoning changes that would pave the way to eliminate, in most neighborhoods, single-family zoning.
Depending on how the final vote shakes out, neighborhoods that are now restricted to a single unit (or single home with accessory-dwelling unit) per lot would be fair game for up to six units in a variety of styles.
That’s actually down from what staff proposed, as the initial plan would have allowed up to eight properties to be shoehorned on a single lot.
While the Missing Middle proposal was first floated five or six years ago as a way to bring more affordable housing to an increasingly unaffordable community, county officials long ago dropped the pretense.
“There are no guarantees for affordability,” Dorsey told Democrats in response to a question about what provisions were in place to ensure a certain percentage of the additional construction would be available to those of lower incomes.
“There are none,” Dorsey said of any guarantees.
“It’s not because we don’t want to,” he said, pointing to General Assembly handcuffs slapped on local governments to regulate what developers can and cannot do.
Dorsey and his board colleague Katie Cristol attempted to advertise, for the future hearing, a more robust set of options for consideration. But they could not convince board members Libby Garvey, Matt de Ferranti and Takis Karantonis to go along, leading to advertising of the slightly scaled-back advertisement.
In remarks before Democrats, Dorsey (who opted against a 2023 re-election bid) seemed to downplay fears by critics that developers would be swooping in, purchasing up lots, razing existing structures and cramming properties (mostly rental units) into once-bucolic neighborhoods where single-family homes often change hands for millions of dollars.
Dorsey said “not a lot” of properties were likely to meet that fate, at least at first. But data from the real-estate-tracking firm Bright MLS show an uptick in the number of homes in Arlington being bought for cash, which often means a developer is involved.
One option to be considered by County Board members would be to cap the number of Missing Middle redevelopment projects to about 60 per year, which would mean no more than 360 homes (if each lot were developed to contain the maximum allowable number). Dorsey said he anticipated no more than 100 actual units to materialize annually, at least in the early years.
County Board members want to hear from the public on the issue prior to the March hearing, Dorsey said. “Use all the channels [of communication] we give you,” he advised.
