Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026 recess meeting of the Arlington County Planning Commission. I am Commissioner Nia Bagley, Chair. Tonight, we conclude our hearings with the following items. Biophilic Arlington, an informational item, and Site Plan Amendment, the election that includes an ordinance of vacation. A few pointers before we get started for participants. Presenters and speakers joining the meeting through Microsoft Teams Please keep your phones and other electronic devices muted until you are called upon by the clerk. Please turn off the sound to any devices around you to minimize interference and keep your cameras off until the clerk announces your name to speak. When called upon, you must unmute yourself by clicking on the microphone icon that is in the meeting command bar at the top of the screen. Neither the moderator nor the clerk have the ability to unmute your mic. Once you have spoken, Please mute your mics and turn your cameras off. If you are dialing in by phone to join the meeting, please press star six to unmute. Public speakers will be called upon by the clerk at an assigned time. Pre-registration with email confirmation is required to speak at tonight's hearing. We cannot accommodate additional speakers. All speakers, virtual or hybrid, will receive two minutes to comment as an individual. Only representatives of a county board-appointed advisory group, committee, and or commission will receive three minutes to comment. A timer will be displayed on the screen if speaking virtually, and speakers in person will follow the timer stationed on the podium. Audio for tonight's meeting is available via phone. If commissioners, presenters, or speakers lose internet connectivity, please reconnect by phone. However, if you are dialing in by phone and unable to see the screen, we will provide an audible 30-second warning to wrap up your comments. You will be muted when your time has expired. The meeting chat is active for presenters or commissioners who need technical assistance only. Please do not use the meeting chat for discussion, public comments, questions about agenda items, or requests for further information. All public comments must be shared verbally for the record during the assigned public testimony period. Tonight's meeting will be available for review through the YouTube platform. A link will be provided on the Planning Commission website 24 to 48 hours after the adjournment of the meeting. Although the meetings will no longer be a live broadcast, the meetings will be available for review with closed captioning on Comcast Xfinity channels 25 and 1073, as well as Verizon Fios channel 39 and 40, 24 to 48 hours after the adjournment of the meeting. Lastly, this is a public forum. Tonight's meeting will be recorded and posted to the county website via a link to YouTube as stated. All information associated with tonight's meeting, whether written or spoken, is subject to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act requirements. Commissioner Johnson is joining us virtually. Very good. Thank you. Madam Clerk, please call our first agenda item.

Thank you. Our first item is entitled Biophilic Arlington, a Natural Approach to a Healthy Urban Future. we have our Forest and Natural Resources Commission member, David Howell, to present this item this evening. Thank you.

All right, thank you very much.

Are you ready, Matt? Okay. Turn your mic on, Mr. Howell, please.

I think it's on, but let me, okay, there we go. Thank you. Is it possible just to dim the lights a tiny bit in here so that the screens are visible, or do you all have your computer? You got it, okay. All right, great. Thank you very much. So slide two. The definition of biophilia is from the Greek, and it's basically love of life. Eric Fromm first coined this term in the 60s and 70s as a psychological attraction to everything that's alive and vital. And then E.O. Wilson, who many of you may have heard about, in his biophilia book, discussed it as being potentially genetically based. So in general use, now we're talking about the strong connection and affinity for nature that all humans have. Next. But let's just go back to some basics. We connect with nature in very many ways. We can observe it, study it. We use it as a design motif. Sometimes we imitate it. Sometimes we totemize it. But we're all aware of nature every day. We know nature can be beautiful. We know nature can be majestic. We know nature can be captivating. And it can be your calendar, although this sugar maple might confuse people as to which month it is right now. Nature can also be enlightening. You can both see and hear a bullfrog croak. Notice the sound waves on the surface tension of the water around his jaw and body. You can see a dragonfly's vivid light shadow. You can learn a physics lesson. Here, this spider, six-spotted fishing spider, which has all the legs attached to the cephalothorax and the abdomen is cantilevered out the back, you can see the distribution of the weight with the surface tensions, depressions made by each foot. So the ones in the back are more pear-shaped and the ones in front are circular and smaller. And nature, of course, can just be quiet, which sometimes we all need. But that's not the whole story. And now we get into the thick of biophilia. The urban paradox is that we evolved in and with nature, and we're still innately attuned to nature. Humans perceive natural stimuli, sights, sounds, smells, tactile sensations through all of our senses. These stimuli cause genetically based responses that are both measurable in the nervous system and also the endocrine system and the circulatory system. we've also of course adapted to live in large concentrations i think we're now expecting in by 2050 something like two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities urbanism is a dominant feature of contemporary human existence but urban life and urban development can separate inhabitants substantially if not entirely from nature so the biophilic city concept is where an urban jurisdiction recognizes the importance of natural spaces and places for its residents and intentionally designate nature as a priority in planning, development, and public infrastructure. This is both intentional in the sense of wanting to do it and planning to do it, but also making it an everyday experience. And so we have the biophilic community, which is a place where natural space is everyday space and opportunities to experience nature is readily available and regularly practiced. Leaders and residents are increasingly aware and appreciative of the value and vulnerability of urban natural space, and many cities are formalizing their commitment to urban nature as an expression of identity and as a guideline for land use and development. So what are the fundamentals for a biophilic city? Well, the first is that nature needs to be a key element in any strategic vision plans, policies, It also needs to be a priority in investment, including protection of natural spaces, land acquisition, and adding value to county and facilities infrastructure through biophilic design. And of course, educating the public and encouraging actions to enhance natural features in the built environment as well, so that nature and biophilic design elements are included in private developments and in residential landscapes. Biophilic Cities Project was founded in 2012 by Tim Beatley at the UVA School of Architecture. It provides a whole variety of reports, forums for discussion, professional resources, films, partner city profiles, and a variety of other resources. And it's a very good resource to have for anyone who's curious about the subject. It's just biophiliccities.org. Right now, the Biophilic Cities Network has quite a few cities from around the world already signed up the way Arlington is, having submitted an application to become a biophilic city and be a partner in the network. Arlington got the start with the Public Spaces Master Plan adopted in early 2019, where one of the recommendations was to explore this and consider doing an application. Biophilia matters because it's human-centered. It's validated by extensive research, including new concepts and data on the intricate relationship between humans and their habitat. And it creates a multiplier effect for urban communities' quality of place goals. And this covers quite a few of our comp plan elements in one way or another. And it also brings quality of life benefits to each individual resident. I'm going to go through quickly in the next few slides, these six categories and talk a little bit about how that works. Health and wellbeing is at the center of it because the conduit for the connection between nature and human wellbeing is through our physiological and psychological systems. The direct health benefits are attributable to to being immersed in nature for all individuals. Measurable and documented research is expanding in quite a number of different areas. Beneficial effect on blood pressure, cortisol levels, and heart rate. These are all related to stress and stress reaction. And so nature can provide resilience to stress and anxiety and fatigue, especially cognitive fatigue. Mental focus is promoted and cognitive restoration and resilience. These have implications all across all walks of life, from schools to workplaces. And in healthcare situations, medical patients benefit from more rapid recovery, reduced need for pain medication, and better emotional state. One of the earliest studies on gallbladder patients was able to show that because of views of nature out the patient's window, hospital room windows, there was a something like 20%, 17%, I guess it was, reduction in the amount of time that people stayed in the hospital and a reduction in the number of pain medications they requested. But of course it also benefits family members of patients and medical staff in a high stress job. There are also beneficiaries of natural indoor and outdoor biophilic stimuli. All of this translates into medical system costs that can be reduced with shorter patient stays, less staff turnover and less absenteeism and and more retention. Education, child development. Biophilic space indoors and out can enhance educational outcomes. Nature provides opportunities to explore and discover, which you can't get from electronics and other kinds of educational devices. And because of its dynamic and complex nature, from fractals to rhythms and patterns that can't be replicated other ways, it creates an opportunity for better cognitive development and curiosity. Regular outdoor activity also reduces problems with attention deficit and anxiety, improves mental focus in many, many students. Awareness of nature also helps teach stewardship and responsibility. And urban nature is, as we all can imagine or know directly, a very effective lab for many classroom subjects. Climate energy and environment is a big topic these days with the Climate Action Plan under development and the resolution last year. Biophilic features support achievement of climate and environmental goals, but they also bring direct benefits to residents in providing more livable environment and encouraging climate friendly choices in daily activities. And that, for example, would translate directly to something like the way we approach finishing the transportation plan update, where people can choose to use other modes of transportation because the environment for doing so is acceptable and rewarding, and they're not using cars as much to, just to escape being out in the hot sun or taking roots that are not satisfactory. So this covers a lot of different areas, biophilic design and development, basically using natural vegetation, native plants, creating natural spaces, all the way from street trees little mini parks and improves air quality, heat island reduction, stormwater mitigation, soil conservation, light pollution mitigation, sand pollution mitigation, and climate resilience. Nature being closer to people means that people are closer to nature and that brings awareness, discovery, learning, and appreciation. And that promotes caring and stewardship, which is key to conserving the quality of our space and making sure that it's appreciated. Biodiversity is a key indicator of ecological and environmental health. And so that matters both to the residents and to science. And it helps maintain real-time knowledge of our natural resources. Economics and business. Presence of nature has significant economic value that can be measured in the workplace context. Employee performance is improved and so is student performance. It can foster profit enhancements due to improved recruitment, excuse me, retention, absenteeism, presentism, and productivity. Biophilic development boosts community attractiveness for new investment in corporate location decisions. Natural space can improve retail sales and customer satisfaction, both in the sense of willingness to pay and also in the sense of being attracted to come into places, and that includes street trees outside retail establishments. There's been a recognition for decades that nature sells, but we didn't have really a science-based explanation for it for a long time. All you have to do is look at TV ads, how many of them, regardless of the product, from cars to pharmaceuticals are taking place, in a wilderness that has maybe nothing to do with the product, but that's there. And nature is quantifiably beneficial to property values and tax revenue. Your former colleague Elizabeth Guerin and Bill Ross, former chair of the Park and Rec Commission, did a paper on that, which is on the Park and Rec website. Social cohesion and community participation. Nature sharing promotes common interest and local pride. Natural spaces and places with natural features are preferred for many activities and natural walkways, paths and parks encourage walking and biking. The value of nature stimulates community engagement about our county and its livability and valuing nature promotes volunteerism and stewardship, which improves the outcomes and also lowers direct public costs.

Excuse me.

So why does biophilia matter to us? we have a desirable place to live and work. And our natural heritage is a significant part of that. But we have serious challenges balancing expected population growth, development, and climate change with a commitment to residents' current and future for natural spaces that they need and want. You know some of this already, but the basic changes are population growth. As much as 25% by 2050, Numbers are from the county website. Density will rise 27%. It won't be evenly distributed. That density will be quite a bit higher near the corridors. But much of it will happen across the county, depending on how we arrange that. So climate change, transportation, housing, education, and health are all current challenges that would benefit from natural solutions and biophilic design. And we must continue to incorporate biophilic principles of nature into the plans and policies that we have. I'll just pause here for a minute and let you glance over this. These are the indicators that Arlington agreed to when it applied to become a biophilic city and was accepted by the network in 2020.

OK, so the rest of this is some resources and examples.

This is the home page of the biophilic cities. Website if you. There is under resources. There is a journal. But among other things, of course, film inventory and some other things under network is a is a tab called the partner cities and under the partner cities is the Arlington page, which is the one the image below. And you can look at that and see what we have on that website for Arlington. This is the Arlington County website. Just type in biophilic Arlington. There it is. It's got a number of buttons you can push for different categories, subcategories. And it is also an excellent resource focused on what we're doing here. I want to go through quickly a few of the plans that we have that are already following that example of including a biophilic commitment in our comp plan elements. You see that 2.4 in the energy plan says use the principles of biophilic design to harness the ability of nature and mitigate our need for energy. There's also quite a few points in there about why this matters and how it matters. I just want to single out one that we often talk about street trees and the importance of the trees and the tree pits and all of that in the SPRCs. But the fourth item down there talks about the soil is also a substantial storage location for below ground carbon. In addition to the 180,000 metric tons of carbon stored in all of our other trees. But that matters, and the health of the trees and the ability to grow is all about the quality of those tree pits. The Pentagon City Sector Plan has a really excellent section on biophilic design, and it talks about prioritizing the human connection with nature. And in the second paragraph, just to note that it's about having frequent interactions with nature because it's omnipresent, not just because it's a destination that you would be able to go to on a weekend when you have time. This also has a very good diagram that shows how sustainable design, resilient design are symbiotic with biophilic design and overlap quite a bit. Forestry and Natural Resources Plan Of course, it's all about how do we create this in our spaces, whether it's the built spaces or the unbuilt spaces, and gets into some of the mechanisms about what's involved in terms of tree canopy, natural areas, biophilic features. And again, this is about where the goal is for all Arlingtonians, regardless of where they live, to have regular frequent interactions with nature. like symbol if our earlier plan also has similar language including integrating the elements throughout the the five sections of the of the entire plan and basically including the same set of features as the depending on city plan but it's of course it's a different It's a different environment and it also speaks particularly to the transportation network. Cultural Resources Plan also talks about this because if you're going to have spaces that recognize the importance of culture, of history, you have to recognize that those places existed at a time when nature was more of a part of everyone's life. and so to design with that some other examples chesapeake bay preservation plan speaks to the connection and the transportation plan as it's in development it's also started out with a vision talking about connecting with nature and access to nature in one of the goals here are three primary books that are out for for the public that summarize the basic biophilic connection and mechanisms. Many of you might have heard of Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv, and this is a later book that talks about it for all people. Florence Williams' Nature Fix is a very good read, pretty easy. The Nature in the Mind is a little bit more science-based. This is an essential read for anyone in development and planning. It's 100 pages. But this converts the studies about the impact, the positive benefits of biophilia of nature in different contexts, and then converts those to key performance indicators, and then converts that to financial. impacts. And, you know, I think anyone who's doing any development or planning in Arlington hasn't looked at this is going to be more on the cutting edge of 2005 than the cutting edge of 2030. So here's some other resources, biophilic planning and design. Bird Friendly City, both by Tim Beatley, who founded the Biophilic Cities Network, and then Doug Tallamy's book, Nature's Best Hope. It's one of several he's done about this one focusing on how everyone, if they do a little bit in their own space, all together, it creates something like a hybrid national park. Some of you may have heard of some of the 14 patterns of biophilic design. And we'll go to that in just a minute. But biophilia, keep in mind, and we have some examples in Arlington, is on the inside as well as the outside. And two examples are Cardinal Elementary and also the LeBron Community Center, where natural materials and Arrangements and views from from inside to out bring nature in. For the 14 patterns of biophilic design, this is now a sort of a tool that designers use. Talk about the three basic categories nature in the space. That is what is natural. That is bringing nature in to you, whether it's visual connections or non visual connections. Airflow water. light, all those things that affect the interior environment or the exterior environment. Natural analogs is about how we can try to have nature when we don't actually have natural things per se, like forms that replicate natural forms, organic shapes, and even if it's not natural materials. And Then some of some of the design complexity in order, some of the design elements that replicate natural design, even if it's not. Natural materials and the nature of the space has to do with. Where the structure or where the facility or or whatever it's being designed, how that fits into the overall. Landscape and where whoever is in it, where they see themselves in the broader context. So this includes things like prospect, refuge, mystery, risk. And you notice that they've updated this to 14+. They kept the 14 patterns of design, but they added awe because awe is something that when you experience it, it changes your perspective. So here are just a few examples. Natural analog, an art project in the Bloomingdale neighborhood during an art festival a few years ago. Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water and the LeBron Community Center. Here's some in the county. One is Gateway Park, which has recently been approved. and the Long Bridge Aquatic Center with the parks around it. This is the interior of Love Run Community Center looking out. Natural materials and also prospect, that is the view outside, and the Heights APS building. Here are some that have been approved but not yet completed. Land Bay Sea in Crystal City, 2500 Wilson. Of course, I have to include the Helix uh in the park around that if it gets built soon and then the arva at pershing and 50 which was approved a year and a half ago i think the last slide here is i would say let's not whine too much about what can't be done this is a 26 story building with substantial balconies and uh I'm not saying it's cheap, but it is a true vegetated building. So just to wrap up, living in proximate nature makes us happier, healthier, and more productive. And having urban nature requires proactive efforts to preserve and enhance natural spaces. so doing that brings tangible and proven benefits for a sustainable county and nurturing habitat for all of us and the county board in 2019 demonstrated visionary leadership and that must be invigorated as we as our climate and land use challenges threaten to diminish the quality of place and quality of life and i thank you very much

Thank you so much, Mr. Howell, for taking time out. You are kind of our expert on some of these things in the county, and I think oftentimes applicants and others may or may not be aware of the resources that are free through this to contact him, ever have questions and things. He's also our pretty much expert on bird-friendly glass, And I did want to recognize the chair of Forestry and Natural Resources Commission, who is also here tonight, Carolyn Haynes. So I'm going to open this up to questions for anybody who might. I thought it was important that we all kind of be reminded of this presentation. We constantly, whenever a site plan comes in, we're always asking for more green and biophilia, but it's not really defined as such. Again, this will be recorded so you can go back and look at these things. You can certainly email David. Yesterday, he emailed me a beautiful picture of a great heron that he saw down in Four Mile Run. So as you saw, most of those pictures there were his. So anybody have questions, comments, things for either one of them? And also, just for those who don't know, former Planning Commissioner Elizabeth Guerin was extremely instrumental in helping with the biophilic resolution. So I don't want to leave her out. She was the one that kind of, for those of us who've been here a while, she was the one that educated us. So I want to make sure as chair that we educate the future here and that it isn't something that, oh yeah, what is that again? Biophilia means green. Yeah, that sounds good. So no. So questions, comments? Yes. Commissioner Torres.

Thank you so much for your presentation. That was very thorough and very, very interesting. I have been studying this for a very long time and you actually taught me a few things, so thank you so much. Thank you for including falling water and if anyone hasn't been to falling water, it's really close. It's beautiful. It's a great example of what can happen when design meets nature and site selected properly. So this gives me a little bit of hope and I hope we could see this more in the future.

Mr Strider, yeah, I was gonna say that that was just such a calming presentation. I felt like I was. I was like being guided on the boat or something. It was just very. I love it and very educational and I have like 9 books I need to read now, but I just I thought that was very informative, very helpful and and you know, Chair Bagley was mentioning, this is this is something we always talk about doing, but I think it would benefit all of us if we had more articulate language to express this desire to have more greenery in the county here. And, you know, we see the benefits and, you know, Met Park wins wins awards and, you know, it draws acclaim and people come here and it's just it has it has It's more than just feeling good. It has real tangible economic benefits here, and I think that's just an important thing to remember.

Mr. Peterson, I also just wanted to say thank you, Doctor Howell and also our public library system has some of the books that you recommended and I have already downloaded the audiobook for the nature fix. So thank you. Start that tomorrow morning on my community.

Mr. Lantell me.

And I can see the evolution over the years, because thank you for the shout out to Commissioner Guerin, because she was extraordinarily influential in making these things happen. Things that we routinely talk about now at SBRCs and our planning commission meetings didn't come up originally. Things like bird-friendly glass, native plantings, not just canopy trees, but also understory trees, water features, green walls. such as like, you know, you see in the Wendy. None of those were really raised not too long ago. And now they are a routine part of every SBRC. And sometimes we're more successful than other times, but it is always raised. And that's because of the work of those who preceded us and you and, you know, those other commissions that raised the consciousness of all of us and put it into every one of our projects. going forward. So definitely thank you. And this was well-timed to remind us of everything that it means. So thanks.

If I could just mention, yeah, and thanks for bringing up Elizabeth. She was invited to join us, but she had a conflict that she couldn't get out of. So unfortunately, she wasn't able to be here.

Awesome. Hearing no other comments, I also have asked him perhaps to return in the fall to talk about bird-friendly glass, since that is something that we struggle with almost all the time. And so we'll talk more about that in the future. Thank you again so much for joining us, you and Chair And thank you for the assist over there by Mr. Pfeiffer and his calling the slides. Thank you so much. Madam Clerk, can you call our next item?

Our next item is Site Plan Amendment SPLA 25-00025, Site Plan 173, located at 2015th Street North, the Alexand. As we change over, we have our principal planning staff, Courtney Badger, to present this item with an ordinance to vacate by Mike Lepsky.

Good evening. Thank you for your patience as we shuffle some chairs and get the slides pulled up here. So good evening commissioners. My name is Courtney Badger and I'm here to give the staff presentation for the Alex in courthouse site plan project. We have the item before you tonight has two parts. The site plan amendment for the construction of a new 19 story residential building with some requested modifications and a vacation for public street and utility easement subject to the reservation of sidewalk and utilities easement. The site we're discussing is two blocks to the east of where we sit tonight at 2015 Street North. It's east of the Arlington County Detention Center, north of the Telus Apartments, which were approved in 2010, west of the Odyssey Condominiums, and the Prime Apartments. Here are some images of the existing conditions of the site. There's currently a nearly vacant 10-story office building with a triangular footprint on the site. I'm just going to note just a couple of things here. When standing on the corner of Troy and 15th Street, you can see there's an existing curb cut into a parking garage. And then along North Shore Street, there's a staircase. It's a little bit hard to see in this picture right against the sidewalk there. The applicant is proposing to demolish the existing office building and construct a new 19 story residential building. with 394 units and the parking ratio of 0.65 spaces per unit. They'll also be constructing a new 2,700 square foot pedestrian connection through the site. There are requesting modifications for additional density, density exclusions, reduced residential parking ratio, and additional height. Here are a couple aerial drawings of the proposed building. And this is a graphic showing the proposed vacation of the existing public street and utilities easement in Blue Hatching. It's approximately 5,800 square feet of existing public street and utilities easement is proposed to be vacated, subject to the reservation of a public sidewalk easement over approximately 4,600 square foot of the vacation area, which is shown in the red crosshatching. Additional easements beyond the sidewalk and utilities easement reservation that are required as part of this project will be dedicated through the site plan process. So the site that we're talking about today is categorized as high office apartment hotel on the general land use plan. That designation corresponds to the existing CO mixed use zoning district. The applicant is not proposing to change either the GLUP or the zoning with this application. The site is also subject to the courthouse sector plan and the courthouse sector plan addendum. There are two recommendations for this block that's referred to as the SRA block in those plans. First, it calls out a east-west pedestrian linkage through the middle of the block. The courthouse plan imagines a network of linkages throughout the area that provide alternative pedestrian paths throughout courthouse. And second, the plans recommend a view corridor to the National Mall is preserved. Other plans and policies that we looked at during the review of this project include the resolution of concern regarding building heights related to the National Capital Mall access. We worked with colleagues in the National Capital Planning Commission to evaluate the additional height requested in the context of views to and from the National Mall. We also evaluated the policy on transforming commercial office buildings in Arlington, which states that decommissioning of underutilized office supply is a public priority. and the residential parking guidelines that identify minimum parking for the site to be 0.3 spaces per unit. So digging into some of our analysis, I'm going to walk through a handful of things that the applicant is proposing that staff believes will improve the design and safety of the site. The site is designed to have the loading and parking and trash access points consolidated and located off of North Taft Street. Staff supports this consolidation and location because it eliminates the existing curb cut on 15th Street North. It limits the conflict points between pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles, and it limits potential conflicts with driveways and maneuvers with the county justice and detention centers to the west of the site utilizing Troy Street. At the southern portion of the site, the applicant is proposing a public access easement over a pedestrian connection that ties into an existing connection on the property to the south. This will link Troy Street to the west and Taft Street to the east to create a more intuitive connection through the block. The applicant will also be relocating an existing crosswalk along 15th Street North to a safer location and a more convenient location outside of their first floor bike room, creating a safer desire line route. for pedestrians to cross 15th St. They'll also be buffering a portion of the bike lane along 15th St. North to create a safer bike environment. Taking a look at the building height, the applicant is proposing a building of approximately 194 feet. The CO zoning district calls for a maximum height of 180 feet measured from average site elevation to the topmost portion of the building. The zoning ordinance does allow this to be modified. The greatest Building height for this project is concentrated along 15th Street North. There are two wings that step down to a height of 166 feet and then down to 58 feet. The courthouse sector plan calls for a preservation of a view corridor through this block. On the left-hand side, you can see a view looking from the County Justice block, which is west of this site, through to the Washington Monument in the blue circle. On the right is that same view with a mock-up of the proposed building. There are no noticeable negative impact to the view corridor identified in the sector plan. Additionally, staff believes that the proposed height is appropriate at this location as it generates more housing units closer to the metro. We also worked with our colleagues in the National Capital Planning Commission to review how this project would impact the Arlington skyline from the National Mall. You can see just a couple of the mockups that they prepared and analyzed during the review. The pink building is the Alexan building that we're talking about tonight. The yellow is for context comparison. It's the courthouse landmark block building just a block away from here. That yellow building is at a higher elevation and a higher building height. They deemed that there would be minimal impact on the viewshed and as such they didn't have any opposition to the project. As a part of the project, the applicant will be dedicating approximate 2,700 square foot public access easement to improve the pedestrian connection from Troy Street to Taft Street. On the left, you can see the applicant's proposal and its existing conditions overlaid on a Google map view. You can see the existing public access connection that's on the Telus property. It's in blue. To go from Taft around to Troy, you have to go around the building close to the Telus apartment, and then out onto 14th Street or out onto Troy here. With the construction of the applicant's connection, you'll be able to get from Troy to Taft in a more direct route. So the applicant is proposing over 400 square feet of residential gross floor area. They have 239,000 to use a round number GFA for their base density. With that, they're expected to Improve the streetscapes. Implement a transportation demand management program. Contribute to the utility underground fund. Achieve their base affordable housing requirements, either through a cash contribution or provision of units. Public art contribution and in building wireless. To earn the additional density, they will be either making a $5 million contribution to the AHIF fund or providing non nine on site calf units. They'll be dedicating a 2,400 square foot public easement and constructing that public passageway and participating in the county's green building incentive program. Excuse me. This project fulfills many county goals. It reduces the supply of underutilized office space and makes significant contributions to affordable housing, both through their base requirement and through earning of additional density. It implements the courthouse sector plan's vision of creating a series of pedestrian linkage networks throughout the courthouse area. It makes transportation improvements by updating streetscapes, creating safer crosswalks across 15th Street North, and adding buffers to a portion of the bike lane. And it also participates in the Green Building Incentive Program committing to a LEED Gold building. Additionally, this project was reviewed through an equity lens. We had 16 groups represented on the SPRC. This project furthers equity goals by creating more housing and transit rich area, contributing to affordable housing, and making transportation improvements. This project went through an SPRC process where we discussed land use, density, site design, building height, open space, and transportation. It was also heard at the Transportation Commission last week where they voted to recommend approval. With that, staff recommends that you recommend adoption of the site plan amendment ordinance and that you find that the proposed vacation is in accord with the comprehensive plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Badger. And now we'll hear from the applicant.

Great. Thank you. And I'll ask if Ms. Badger wouldn't mind sharing our presentation because we often have some lag when we do so in this room. So thank you.

Great.

Well, thank you, Chair Bagley, members of the Commission. Good evening. My name is Kedrick Whitmore. I'm a land use and zoning attorney with Venable LLP, and we're excited to bring you our proposal for 2015 Street North. On the next slide here, you can see the properties located in the heart of the Arby corridor between Courthouse and Roslyn. And then on the next slide, we zoom in a little bit to show you the proximity of the project site to the Courthouse Metro there to the west. And finally, on the next slide, looking even more closely at the block itself, you can see that it's improved with an existing office building, the triangle building there in blue. Courthouse Plaza is just to the west and the Telus Apartments to the south, as well as the view that was mentioned earlier to the east. These are three of the animating principles that we've built our design around. On the next slide, I wanted to provide you with some more information about the existing conditions on the site. One of the big physical constraints here is the grade. And you can see on the left hand side, there's approximately a 22 foot drop off between the Northeast and the Southwest corners of the site. In the existing condition that's necessitated some large retaining walls, interrupting the pedestrian environment. I would call them foreboding in some cases as a result of this grade. And that's driven a lot of our decisions, the grade issue here. So then on the next slide, thank you. This is the same existing condition view. Again, a lot of walls, not extremely friendly. Some elevated, where there is green space, it's elevated and not where the pedestrian is. So then on the next slide, you can see here, this is the view that Ms. Badger mentioned earlier. Again, that's a recommendation from the courthouse sector plan addendum, and that's the existing view today looking east. And we have carefully designed our building to maintain those views in accordance with the plan. So on the next slide is some information about our proposal. We will propose to tear down the existing office building and replace it with a new residential building with 394 units, as well as a large reduction in parking versus what's there today. So the next slide has a little bit of information about our massing strategy and how we designed the building. We started with the donut, which is essentially the maximum density and mass that could be achieved on the building. We then carved that into a horseshoe to provide some relief and some open space in the middle. We then in step three there, we set back the two bars to provide some additional distance between the buildings and make that open space that we're going to talk about in a little while more viable. And then finally we pulled down the two bars, um, to help provide both interesting massing and to help preserve that view to the east. So, um, on the next slide here are some of the renderings of the site from a number of different angles. Um, I won't spend too, too much time on these and obviously we can go back to those if folks want to. So some isometric views. And then on the next slide, uh, we can see a couple of, uh, hero shots of the building so you can get a sense. of the scale at the base and middle and top of the building. Next slide, please. Shows the entrance here at 15th Street, and you can see we've tried to preserve that pedestrian scale here, and we think it's a big improvement over what's there today. Next slide is that same view kind of curving around the block to the east side of the building as well. That's where the parking and loading is consolidated, and we'll talk about that a little more in a moment. So on the next slide, this is, again, that view looking east. The left view, again, is the existing view. On the right is a rendering of the building with its skin on it to show you what that's going to look like in the proposed condition, again, preserving that view as we go to the east. So on the next slide, there's an additional view here from the National Capitol Mall, and you can see that There is very little impact from the proposal. On the left is the proposed view. The right shows both at the top the existing and at bottom proposed. You can't tell much of a difference at that scale and distance, and I think it actually does provide a little more variety and a little nicer skyline than what exists there today. On the next slide is some information about the transportation environment. Obviously, we are very well served by transit here, not only as a result of proximity to Metro, but a significant number of bus lines and a robust pedestrian and cycling network. The next slide gives you a little more information about circulation at the site. It is not changing dramatically from what's there today. There's a square there today, and that's going to be a square in the future. But a few things to note. We've tried to consolidate our pedestrian entrances on 15th Street, which is going to be the kind of main corridor there. And again, you'll see on the next slide, we've consolidated the loading and parking on that southeast side of the building. We've dropped the number of curb cuts from two to one. There's currently a curb cut on 15th Street that is now gone. So we've essentially got the main 15th Street frontage as the main pedestrian and bicycle access while we're moving the loading and parking around the side to the east of the building. I'll also mention there was a question at Transportation Commission about cargo bikes in the bike parking. and there will be accommodations for that. Our architect will be happy to talk about that more if folks want to. Speaking of the parking, on the next slide, it's a little more information about that. Again, you can see that bicycle room there in the purple on the north side along 15th Street, and then kind of an outline of the garage. And again, you can see those entrances over on Taft Street at the southeast portion of the building, again, consolidating those in one location. Next slide. We are, despite not making huge changes to the overall transportation flow here, we are making a significant number of improvements to the area. We're happy to talk about any of those in greater depth, but again, I'll point out the pickup drop-off area dedicated on the east side of the building, as well as once again, those consolidated loading and parking entrances. So the next slide is, little bit difficult to read. It is the list of our community benefits. Ms. Badger went over this in her presentation, so I won't dwell on it for too long. This encompasses the base, the bonus, and the green building incentive program. You can see our sustainability elements here, including bird-friendly glass. You can see the site improvements that include the enhanced streetscape and the public open space that was discussed. For affordable housing, as Ms. Badger mentioned, we have optionality not only with the base density, which is typical because that's what's in the ordinance, there's also optionality with respect to the bonus density as to whether we would do onsite CAFs or a cash contribution. And then we would have our standard suite of transportation management items and the typical public art contribution as part of our base density. So the next slide is a little more information about one of the things we're really excited about, which is that additional open space. what we've done here we've zoomed out a little bit so you can see both our site and the telus property to the south and what you see here are the existing conditions again i use the word foreboding kind of the opposite of inviting uh what's what's here today there are entrances there are ways to get to that open space both the existing and the area we've got proposed but they're not the they're not the most friendly ones um on the next slide here you can see what that area looks like today as you access the um the site from the west side um this is this is something that you know it's sterile it's hardscape it's rectangular um and then the next slide uh shows you the view from taft similarly it's pretty dated looking green space is walled off from people and in planters but i do want to point your attention to the bottom right hand corner that's the staircase with with the r marked on it that area which is shown on the right here it's part of a poem that reads and this is detailed on the next slide, sorry. It's a poem that reads, be noble for you are made of stars. And that's located on the east side of the connection here on the TELUS site. And you can see where that's located in the zoom in there on the top. And what we're proposing is that on the west side, the space, part of that open space, we're going to have the corresponding portion of that poem, be humble for you are made of earth. I earned an English degree many years ago, so you can imagine my excitement at the first time I've been able to use poetry in a development project in my career. So on the next slide here, this is the area that rendering of what that view is going to look like in the future. And I was really glad Dr. Howell presented just before this because I feel like we've incorporated a lot of those principles that he mentioned. I was writing things down as he was talking because I felt like there were many corollaries to what we had here. Bring nature in. using natural analogs, using curvilinear shapes, making the green accessible and taking an area that, while not huge and relatively urban, we can provide some of those biophilic design principles. And this continues on the next slide as we move farther to the west. You can see the entrance here and the accessibility to that open space, again, really living those biophilic principles. And then on the next slide is just a comparison of what that entrance looks like today. with the scary stairs here versus an at-grade pedestrian entrance really living those biophilic principles. So with that, last thing I want to note is that there is also going to be a huge transportation improvement. Currently, you can get through the block from Troy to Taft through the middle of the site, but it is an extremely long walk. With this addition, we will be able to cut off about half of the time, make some true porosity in the superblock. With that, I'll close. Thank you for your time. We're here for any questions you might have.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have any public speakers?

We have three speakers this evening. Our first speaker will be John Musso.

Good evening members of the Planning Commission. John Musa, Government Affairs Manager at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of the Chamber, I wish to urge all of you to please recommend the adoption of the Site Plan Amendment As noted in the presentations earlier, this would lead to the replacement of a severely underutilized and functionally obsolete office building and replace it with close to 400 new units of housing in a vibrant, extremely connected neighborhood that is courthouse. We feel this is a tremendous win for the courthouse neighborhood, for Arlington County as a whole, and also for our specific goals of trying to reduce the quantity of obsolete or functionally obsolete office space in Arlington County. We just believe that this project is very thoughtfully and effectively designed to meet the neighborhood and both of its needs and what it could be in terms of being a even greater vibrant residential neighborhood. And we believe that it's additional community benefits beyond just providing housing in terms of public space and so forth would make it a very positive project for the county in the years to come. So we strongly urge you to please recommend it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Musso. Our next two speakers are virtual. We have Bernie Byrne and Roberts Alcott. Mr. Byrne. Yes, can you hear me? Yes, we can.

Okay, thank you. The main building is not biophilic, despite that presentation earlier. It does not have a green roof and only perhaps a small green walls and plants don't hang from the roof or climb from the ground. However, The plant pallets in this project's revised conceptual landscape plan do conform to the County Board's 2016 Modern Pledge and the County's Urban Forestry and Urban Resources Plan. The plant pallets contain about 40 species of trees, shrubs, and perennials. All plants are native to all organic vicinity, with only two minor exceptions. There are no cultivars except for a pair that will improve pollination and fruit production. because one has male flowers and the other has female flowers. The pallets do contain common milkweed, which is the only plant on which monarch butterflies prefer to lay eggs that thrives in all its natural areas. The applicant has made many changes to the pallets in response to my suggestions during the site plan review process. The revised pallets can serve as examples that other applicants can follow, as can the county's own landscape architects. For this, I thank the applicant, a landscape architect, a land designer of Alexandria. As I said, this is very unusual, and people should recognize that land design did a very good job on this. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Byrne. Our next speaker is Robert Alcott.

Mr. Alcott, you'll have to unmute yourself. You can't unmute yourself. No? Can we get him to call in, possibly? No, you can't call in. Yes, you can call in.

I'll send you the confirmation again, and it'll have instructions on how to call in. There's a PIN number involved.

Okay. I think I'm now able to. Oh, there you go. Oh, there we go. OK, well, I couldn't click on the microphone and so the instructions about the control ship then worked. Well, thank you for the opportunity to speak to the Planning Commission. I'm Rob Alcott, president of the Odyssey Condominium, which is located at Caddy Corner to the to the north or to the northwest of the proposed project. we have conducted a survey of owners and provide the following input our concerns are really around the increased traffic that's going to occur along 15th street and the safety there is a walkway directly between the proposed project and the odyssey to our park and the concern really is around pickups and drop-offs The applicant says that the pickups and drop-off area will be on the North Tap Street side, but the concern of Odyssey owners that responded to the survey is that quite often the rideshare food delivery folks will just pull over right on 15th Street, which will create a safety hazard not only for pedestrians that are crossing at that location, but also for bicyclists who are coming down the proposed bike lane. That's a pretty big hill headed down 15th Street. Bicycles are gonna be traveling at a pretty high speed. So you've got the intersection of pedestrians, auto traffic, as well as bicyclists right there at the entrance. I'm not sure what the plan is to try to direct pickup and drop offs onto the North Taft Street side. But I think anyone that's lived in Arlington for any period of time knows that Uber drivers, whether it's for picking up passengers or food deliveries, will pretty much pull over where they want to. So I would encourage the Commission to consider consider the traffic and the safety issue at that particular location. We, at previous meetings, had suggested and wished that the applicant had built a sort of a circular entryway there so that cars could actually get off 15th Street and drop pedestrians or make food deliveries at the entrance. We think this is going to be a major problem. It's likely there's going to be an accident there. It's just a question of when and whether it involves a pedestrian or bicyclist. In addition, the concerns expressed by Odyssey residents, the height of the new project, 19 stories versus 10, even during summer solstice, will create a large shadow over the west side of the Odyssey.

Thank you, Mr. Alcott. Your time is up. Thank you.

Okay. Now, thank you for our public commenters. The matter is now in front of the Commission. Do we have any Commission reports?

As was mentioned earlier, this was before the Transportation Commission last week, and it was well received. Our discussion It covers things like, you know, we were pleased that there are no longer any curb cuts along 15th Street North, that the mid-block pedestrian path is substantially shorter and more pedestrian friendly than the one that exists there now. We like that there is, as now mentioned, we did raise the provision for e-bikes and cargo bikes, which the applicant has mentioned has responded to. We also like the general bike facilities that will be built on 14th Street, though we did continue the philosophical discussion about where the bike lane should be. Should it be between the curb and the parking, or should it be outside of the parking? That is going to be continuing, I think, for just about every project we have that has a bike lane along it. We did vote on it, as mentioned, nine to zero to recommend the site plan. And we also voted nine to zero that the proposed vacation is consistent with the master transportation plan. And that's the report for the Transportation Commission. Thank you.

Thank you. And I want to thank Commissioners Rivera and Robertson for co-chairing. And Commissioner Rivera sent out her report a little earlier today. And would you like to speak to that? Thank you.

The project was generally really well received by members of the community. They welcomed the fact that it's going to turn an obsolete office building into residential dwellings right next to a public transit, readily available public transit, excuse me. IT'S ONE OF THE CONCERNS THAT SOME OF THE COMMISSIONERS BROUGHT UP IS THAT THERE'S NO RETAIL PROPOSED. THEN OTHER COMMISSIONERS MENTIONED THAT IT'S BETTER THAN HAVING VACANT SPACE THERE. SO COMMISSIONER EMMA DALE SUGGESTED TO JUST HAVE A LITTLE MORE VISUALLY APPEALING ACTIVE AND ARTICULATION ON THE GROUND FLOOR SO THAT IT CAN SEEM A LITTLE BIT MORE BUSY. for, let's see, transportation, I won't go over it. Parking seemed adequate given the proximity to public transportation. The green building, they're participating in the green building incentive program, so that was welcomed. Although C2E2 did say that they wanted full electrification, however, the applicant did say that they were doing all electric HVAC cooking and a couple of other items. As you guys heard as well, they're doing bird-friendly glass. So that was another thing that was welcome. A lot of folks were concerned about and mentioned that they preferred to have on-site affordable housing that are family-sized. And let's see. I think you received the biggest compliment of all from Dr. Bernie Byrne. Congratulations. If that's I think that's amazing. And then as a former English major as well, I appreciated the be humble, you are made of earth, which is very in line with a biophilia presentation that we had. So overall, great project and people really liked it.

Thank you. So we will limit some of the topics that we'll talk about just because they were not discussed as much but if you feel as though we need to do some more we can certainly add that so the first one will be land use and design any comments questions okay hearing none let's move on to transportation any comments uh commissioner peterson

This is mostly directed to staff, but I just wanted to echo comments I've said previously about putting the bike lane in between the parked cars and the sidewalk so that it's a natural barrier of protection. I know this isn't current county policy, but I do think it would offer an extra layer of protection for cyclists so that we'll get more people, including mothers and children, riding their bikes through Arlington. So thank you.

A staff question. In response to Mr. Alcott's question about traffic and safety on 15th Street, is staff satisfied and confident that the changes that are being made there will afford more safety than perhaps we have? Not as much traffic, obviously, because the building is vacant, mostly vacant, but in your view, I would just like to hear that. Thank you.

Thank you for the question, chair. Yes, staff does believe that what's out there on 15th Street. Let me see if I can just propose or share my screen. Let me see. Oh, OK. We believe that what's being proposed on 15th Street, which is keeping the parking that's there today is actually the best design at the moment. I know some type of protected bike lane facility would be great too, but it would require removal of the parking on 15th Street. And as the Odyssey members said, motorists, when they're dropping off either food or future residents, they will probably try to find whatever space is available. So for now, both sides of 15th Street do have on-street parking available, but as the applicant proposed, along Taft Street, there will be three pickup drop-off spaces, which are close to the lobby. In the past, the applicant had proposed two, so now we've increased it to one, and we do believe that should be adequate, but also there's still parking available on 15th Street.

Thank you. I guess my question now to the applicant is for the PUDOs. Will there be, and again, it's out of our control, you know, people, you know, the least path of resistance is what they're going to take out there. But will you be educating not only your residents, but, you know, perhaps signage? This is where you're supposed to do that just to try to keep it. And then of course, If anyone sees abuse, they can certainly call the non-emergency number for the police, but anything that we can do with communication to possibly head off, I would like to see. Thank you. Sure. Commissioner Torres.

Thank you so much for your presentation. I really do love the alley garden design. I love the rhythm in the facade of this building. However, I would like to echo the concerns of increased density and increased traffic. So I would encourage you to please look at ways to maybe do maybe a carport lobby entry with a car. I think it would be beneficial, not just to the community around, but also just to you because it makes the building feel a lot more elegant and special. Even the residents would be able to wear to wait for their Uber in a safer environment, and I could potentially see that being as very beneficial to you when you're trying to rent or sell this building.

Anything else on transportation? OK, and the last one, unless there's other questions or comments you'd like to make community benefits. Commissioner Steinberger, then Commissioner Steiner.

And maybe I'm just not following clearly enough, but I understand there's a debate between whether it's going to be on-site affordable units or a standard kind of contribution. Can you just walk me through the thinking on that and what's going to be the deciding factor and, you know, if there's anything that this body can do to encourage the on-site units, because that's generally what we would rather see. Okay, thank you.

Sure, and as you know, every one of these is a discussion with staff and it's always a moment in time, right? And policies change and thoughts change about what's the most effective. I've heard a number of different arguments that are both persuasive for having them on site as well as to use cash, right? That a cash contribution to the AHIF fund will allow the county to more strategically allocate larger amounts and make administration simpler, but the onsite units allow for folks who are in affordable units to be in more places and not kind of isolated and put into one spot. So we had a number of discussions with county staff about this and can see both sides. To be candid, we'd initially looked at doing units here, but then there was some discussion about the cash as well. And so where we ended up with this was essentially to say, look, this is something we will decide down the road. It's something that gets decided down the road on the base. Now, to be fair, the base is it's based on statute and so it's a it's a formula that usually leans in favor of cash i think where we've ended up here on the bonus is one that's much more kind of even keeled where i think it could kind of go either way and it allows us to to respond to market conditions and and what is you know the need both from the financial side for the developer as well as the need of the community right whether those those dollars are better spent on creating new units versus versus a cash contribution um You know, in terms of what the commission can do, I think it's an ever-evolving question, right? I mean, I've seen enough of this that I've seen this go through cycles, right, where there's desire for cash, there's desire for units, and that tends to change. And I know that y'all's input has a lot to do with where staff and the applicants end up on these items.

I certainly appreciate that. I understand it's not a one-size-fits-all solution scenario, pick your word. I do think that, I'll speak for myself, although maybe others on the commission will want to weigh in as well. I do think that we do find a strong value in having some onsite affordable units and whether there's sort of a split the contribution situation here where you get some units onsite and some cash contribution, what have you. I know county staff obviously has a voice in this and an interest in coming to the best solution and what the county is looking to do. But I do think that that's something that we've consistently emphasized as a Planning Commission body and I expect we will continue to do so. So thank you. Oh, also, if we're going to do on-site affordable units, we would want to make sure there's a mix of sizes so it's not just one bedroom units. So that's, I recognize that also plays a factor in how, you know, these decisions get made. So I didn't want to forget to say that. Thank you.

Mr. Steiner.

So I want to say ditto to everything Commissioner Steinberger said, and I also want to add in my own view that the off-site units in terms of the raw numbers are also an attractive option for me because you're getting more units, even if they're not necessarily at this particular building, but they're still in, you know, other buildings in the area. Is this an appropriate place to bring up sort of green roof sustainability lead contributions and all that? I noticed on the sort of lower of the two wedges here, there was a sort of green greenery on the roof and, you know, I think in the spirit of our discussions tonight, I think any sort of exploration that can be done to incorporate that biophilic design, the green roof on the taller of the two would be great because, you know, the building, you've got the pool on the one end, you've got the green roof on the other, and you've got this big gray slab on the third piece. And so I think any explorations that can be done at this stage to incorporate, you know, that green up there, even if people don't get to see it, there's still benefits that come from it. also on the uh sorry one more um on the um on the alleyway i think this came up during sprc as well um you know we talked kind of about how there was a lot of hardscape in the sort of core path of it and so i think there's a preference at least by me and i know a couple of my colleagues to add more of that pervious surface landscaping into the sort of main pathway not just along the sides and i guess that kind of falls in community benefits so that's kind of I'm stretching it, but that's all I have to say on this one. I really like this project.

Commissioner Peterson.

Thank you. This is a question for staff about our affordable housing master plan. Does it include direction about where we want our affordable housing units? I know every time we have one of these conversations about if it should be an AHIF contribution or if it should be onsite, And there's benefits to each approach. So I'm thinking if there's like a strategic recommendation that we know like we're looking for X number of units in the county and 25% should be along the corridor or 25% should be within a certain distance from Metro, then we can actually look at where are we currently, how far are we from our goals, therefore we should do AHIF here or therefore we should do on-site here. So do we have metrics like that?

So I'll jump in and let Matt Pfeiffer correct me wherever I'm wrong. I'm not sure about the exact policy about targets in specific areas. I do know that when we evaluated this project with our housing staff, they did recommend an AHIF contribution here. And the reason behind that is when they were studying it, the $5 million that would go to AHIF would be able to be leveraged to subsidize an average of 43 off-site units around the county at about $150,000 per unit. So as they were doing that calculation, the HAIF contribution was more beneficial to them, but they also recognize that there is benefits to having on-site units in this building. And so that's why we're comfortable giving the choice. The applicant will have to decide before the first above-ground building permit And we're comfortable because we do see the benefits of having on-site here, but also having that cash contribution where we could put that money to where it's needed in the county. Thank you very much.

And I'll just jump in for the record very quickly and say that in terms of location, I don't think that that is necessarily addressed by the Affordable Housing Master Plan. Generally, that's addressed in individual sector plans. So for example, we have very specific recommendations about on-site versus cash and like Roslyn and Crystal City. In this case, this is a very old sector plan area and so I don't think we had the same type of guidance on cash versus on-site.

Okay, but since Roslyn is right next to courthouse and we have a recent plan in Roslyn, we could probably envision that if we were doing an update to the courthouse sector plan, we probably would request on-site. So, or no, that's not what was decided.

Yeah, I don't feel comfortable making that assumption because when we did evaluate this, our housing staff was fairly adamant that cash contribution would be the preferred thing here. However, given the applicant's desire to have on-site units, and we do recognize that there is some benefit to that in this location, we were comfortable with the choice.

Of the plans that have been approved in like the last five or ten years, what percentage of them advocate for on-site affordable units? Like Roslyn, Pentagon City, Langston Boulevard, all of them say on-site, right?

It's a mix, and I would say that there's flexibility and options built into these plans. And I think there are a lot of factors that go into it. Land value is one of them. And so, you know, we mentioned Roslyn and Crystal City. I think there's also guidance in Langston Boulevard. Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Commissioner Lentomi. Yeah. Correct if I'm wrong, but my understanding is the AHIP fund is sort of running on fumes right now. So I really didn't have a concern about trying to decide or letting the decision be postponed as to whether to do a cash contribution or an onsite because the cash is usable, as others have said here. So it's not something I'm going to weigh in one way or another. That's, I think, a decision better made closer to a final approval by the county board. For the overall building, I will say this, the existing building Overall, there's basically nothing in that building right now that fits what we want in a plan for a site. I've walked down 15th Street, I don't know how many times, and it's really a very sterile, almost creepy walking along it, especially at night. I didn't even know there was a passage between the other apartment building and this site because it is so uninviting to pedestrians. I didn't even realize it was there, and I'm lived here for a long time. Pretty much everything about the proposed building is not just an improvement, but a substantial improvement over what exists there now, given that virtually nothing that exists there now fits with the plan that we want for courthouse. So, as mentioned, this was well received at the SBRCs, and I think that's pretty much why. It pretty much meets what we have envisioned with the courthouse sector plan. Thank you. Commissioner Torres.

Did you want to say something?

Sorry, I'm not going to say anything that we all don't know. However, I will say, and I don't mean to do this every single time, but I am going to challenge the county and you guys to maybe get a little bit more information on the percentage of affordable housing that's being built on the north side of Arlington versus the south side of Arlington because we're seeing a discrepancy in where affordable housing is located, and that affects all of the future residents in many ways, including schools being diverse and being able to have access to a wide variety of, unfortunately, There's a discrepancy of how much funding some schools get and some don't. And on top of that, we're starting to see projects, or at least I'm starting to see projects where we just had a wonderful presentation of biophilia, but biophilia is starting to get privatized. So we're seeing these projects on the north side of Arlington or on the Langston Roslyn area then have a lot of more biophilia and a lot more beautiful designs with trees and access to these things. And we don't get to see that much of that in the light side of the Columbia Pike corridor or south of Arlington. So you're starting to design the county as separate entities and kind of giving a, does benefit, I don't know if that's the right word, to certain populations, which I don't think is what we want.

Commissioner Garcia.

Yeah, thank you. No, I would like to align myself with the comments made by, you know, many of my colleagues here. And I do know and would like to add, you know, in the Pentagon City area as part of the sector plan, you know, the Crystal City Council, Crystal and Pentagon City Council does work to track affordable units. And so maybe that would be a good exemplar. And I think, you know, I understand getting more bang for your buck on the resourcing and contribution, but I think it's really important to have onsite housing. And I think we all just, you know, talked about whether it's a balance of contribution and onsite, but this location is so close to public transit and so close to, you know, a lot of amenities, it seems it would really be unfortunate not to have kind of diverse incomes and, you know, I guess, residents in this area.

Commissioner Caller? Yeah, cool. Okay.

Well, I think both of you stole my thunder, so thanks. Ms. Kedrick, as you know, I've been a huge proponent of onsite affordable units, especially as my other commissioners have mentioned how important it is to have diverse incomes, particularly in North Arlington. And I do understand staff that, you know, we have to do a balance. So I think doing that mix that you're suggesting would be, you know, pretty adequate because I do think we really need onsite units. So I want to echo that.

Yeah, I'll just align myself with the comments that have been made, but generally by this point in the process, we know what they're going to do, which makes it easier for us to then make our recommendation to the county board. So this is kind of different for us that we don't get that. So again, I know that Mr. Pfeiffer in your comments and the staff or the letter from commission to the county board that you will elaborate that you know this is a concern for us that we you know it we have a beautiful neighborhood up here and you know it should be open to everybody and right now it's not so whatever we can do to help with that that's you know we can't change it permanently but we can little steps to help so thank you Seeing no other hands, no other comments, anything else? I believe you have a motion for us.

I move that the Planning Commission recommend to the County Board to adopt the attached ordinance to amend site plan number 173 to permit the redevelopment of the site with a new building containing up to 394 dwelling units located at 2015th Street. RPC number 17-014-00 with modifications of zoning ordinance requirements, including additional density, increased building height, reduced parking requirements, density exclusion, and other modifications as necessary to achieve the proposed development subject to the conditions of the attached ordinance.

Second. Second. Commissioner Robertson was the second. Okay.

And we will vote alphabetically.

Commissioner Garcia.

I'm going to vote to support, but before I do that, and I should have said this earlier, I didn't realize we were moving to a vote. I did just want to also point out that I am a bigger fan of open space that is accessible to all. I know in the center there's open space that is private and just kind of would like to voice that. I think open space that is public is preferable.

Kind of moving forward, but I I say OK. Commission revire. Commission land tell me I Commissioner Peterson I Mr Robertson I Mr Steinberger I Commissioner Steiner I Mr Torres I. And I will also vote aye. So that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Nine ayes. Right?

Right? Is Commissioner Johnson online?

Did she get online? No, we do not have her. Yes. Thank you. All right. Before we do the vacation ones, your one that you put on the screen is different from the ones that were on the staff report. So which ones do you want her, or one, do you want her to read? I just, before you go in.

The one in the staff report. On the staff report.

Thank you. So you have, you have those. I gave those to you, the two that I gave them to.

Okay, great. I MOVE THAT THE PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMEND TO THE COUNTY BOARD TO ADOPT THE ATTACHED ORDINANCE TO VACATE AN EASEMENT FOR PUBLIC STREET AND UTILITY PURPOSES ON PROPERTY OWNED BY PBE COMPANIES LLC AND CEDAR HILLS LLC KNOWN AS 2015 STREET NORTH ARLINGTON VIRGINIA RPC NUMBER 17-014 dash 005 with conditions and authorized the real estate bureau chief department of environmental services to execute on behalf of the county board the deed of vacation and all the other documents or deeds necessary to effectuate the attached ordinance of vacation subject oh are we supposed to do them separately sorry no those are actually the county manager's recommendations oh okay sorry the motion would be the planning commission recommendation they'll find that the attached order okay so i did them together my apologies um do you want me to do it yes okay all right i move that the planning commission recommends to the county board to adopt the attached ordinance to vacate an easement for public street and utility purpose oh Okay, sorry. The Planning Commission finds the attached ordinance to vacate an easement for public street utility purposes on property owned by PBE companies LLC and Cedar Hills LLC, known as 2015 Street North, Arlington, Virginia, RPC number 17-014-005 with conditions. Am I stopping there? Okay, good.

I'll second.

That's Commissioner Lantellmi, seconded.

Would you like to speak on this for clarity?

Yeah, I think you missed the last clause. You stopped at with conditions, and it's substantially in accord with the applicable portions.

Should I stop on the first one? Okay, sorry.

And Authorized Real Estate Bureau Chief, Department of Environmental Services.

Sorry, it's just finishing.

I'm so sorry. It's late.

Okay, this, what does she have? Maybe you can put it on the screen. Yes, thank you. Because we're reading, I mean, this is what we pulled off this.

Yeah, that's what, I think that's why she was asking.

That's why I asked, because I thought, pardon our reorganization here. We're reading the recommendation there, so she needs to read that.

SO SHE NEEDS TO READ THE PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION NOT THE COUNTY MANAGER ONE OKAY GREAT SHE'S GOT IT WE HAVE IT WE GOT IT THANK YOU WE'RE GOOD NOW HOPEFULLY LET'S SEE THIRD TIME'S A CHARM FIND THAT THE ATTACHED ORDINANCE TO VACATE AN EASEMENT FOR PUBLIC STREET AND UTILITY PURPOSES ON PROPERTY OWNED BY PBE COMPANIES LLC AND CEDAR HILLS LLC KNOWN AS 2015 STREET NORTH ARLAND TO VIRGINIA RPC NUMBER 17-014-005 with conditions is substantively in accord with the applicable portions of the comprehensive plan. OK, good.

Second second, who seconded? OK, OK. Commissioner Peterson seconded. Alright, so alphabetically Commissioner Garcia I. Commissioner Guevara?

Aye.

Commissioner Lantellami? Aye. Commissioner Peterson?

Aye.

Commissioner Robertson? Aye. Commissioner Steinberger?

Aye.

Commissioner Streiner? Aye. Commissioner Torres?

Aye.

Commissioner Bagley, that's me, and that should be nine, and we're good, right? Fabulous. We don't have any other motions, anything else. I want to thank the applicant and particularly, again, congratulate you for making Dr. Byrne, who is a tough, I think this is awesome. Congratulations to you. I mean, Dr. Byrne takes the time out every meeting to be here and to really not talk about what's important for him personally, but for little butterflies and really for the rest of us to have a beautiful environment as per the presentation this evening. So thank you so much for that extra effort. We look forward to seeing this building built. And thank you for our public speakers who came. Thank you so much to staff. And thank you again to our co-chairs. So with that, we will now conclude our meeting with Planning Commission Business. So the rest of you don't have to suffer through this day for that. Just a couple of quick things. And I know we'll be so happy to get out of here at a reasonable hour tonight. Any staff updates, Mr. Pfeiffer?

Oops, no staff updates. Thank you.

Thank you so much. LRPC.

Yes, thank you. Last month, Commissioner Steinberger led a meeting on the comp plan update. That went very well. Thank you. And later this month, Tuesday, June 23rd, we will have our Tier 2 Special GLUP meeting on 1401 Langston Boulevard. So I encourage everyone to come. Thank you.

Awesome. Thank you. I also sent out an email earlier today with tentative dates. Those are tentative, so there's a couple meetings on there, particularly July 13th for the Kensington site. That has not been confirmed. As you know, they don't get publicized for two weeks before. We try to give you an advance just so you have a heads up. And I also sent out a SPRC chair's roster so you can see what's going on. I do want to call your attention to if you haven't seen it, please take a look at Mr. Fuserelli's memo that he sent out about the how the budget affected basically the, you know, CPHD and yay that we were able to freeze the one position again. Thank you. Mr. Commissioner Striner, anything for?

He's so cool. Yeah, we have a meeting on the 16th that should. Yeah.

We do have a meeting.

We do.

Because we talked, Mr. Pfeiffer and I talked about that yesterday. We weren't sure. So what is that meeting about?

Some conformities with the Code of Virginia updates that have been made. So it should be very riveting in the discussion.

Very invigorating.

Okay, great. And then just additionally, you won't have to go to it, but we have a transportation plan update meeting on the 30th. I'll be there, but we're going to have basically, if I'm understanding it correctly, we're very close to the end. actually getting this thing cooked up. So there's going to be a big old transportation plan coming your all's way sometime in early July for comments and questions. So I will be sending that around to just have that in the back of your minds.

Awesome.

But that's all for me.

Okay. I believe we have a roster. Yes. And this is for the Kensington site. And I want to thank Commissioner Amadeo and Commissioner Peterson for chairing that project. So I will ask for unanimous consent of this roster. There you go. Okay, I love it. We don't have anything that I know of for form-based code. We don't have anything for PFRC. Are we set, Madam Clerk, for the July County Board meetings? Have you heard from everyone?

Before we get to that, we need to approve the May.

I will approve those, yeah.

Okay.

Okay. I just want to encourage everybody, please, please, please let her know if you're coming because we're going to try to keep the dates on the 6th and the 8th, but it's super important that we know that we have quorum. For the May meeting minutes, can I ask for unanimous consent for the approval?

Good, that's good.

And I want to thank Commissioner Steinberger, who will represent us at the county board on June 13th, right? Uh-oh. That's what it said on the thing, so I just was like, okay. Do you have that? You don't have it? Okay, very good. Okay. Following weekend, yes, the 13th. Okay, very good. Did I miss anything? I don't think so. No. Okay. So thank you to staff for keeping this running. You're welcome that you're out before nine tonight. So with that, we are adjourned until July. Thank you. Thank you.