County Board - Regular Meeting

Hi, welcome to the Arlington County Board meeting. We're so glad you've joined us. Before the meeting gets started, here are a couple of things you can expect. The Arlington County Board meets monthly with the exception of August. Meetings are typically held in two sessions. Saturday regular meeting and a Tuesday recess meeting. These meetings are where the board makes decisions, hears updates, and receives public input on community issues. Today's regular board meeting includes three parts: public comment, consent agenda, and regular agenda. Public comment is for new business. These are items that are not already on the agenda, items that have not already been heard, and items that do not already have a future scheduled hearing. Public comment begins at 9:30 a.m. Speakers are limited to two minutes with one speaker per topic. Opposing viewpoints are considered separate topics. Following public comment is the consent agenda. These are non-controversial items voted on as a group such as board minutes, grant applications, use permits, or advertising future hearings. There is no public hearing for these items. If you'd like to speak on a consent agenda item, please notify county board staff as soon as possible. They will be located outside the boardroom and are happy to assist you. Hi guys.

Some items may be removed at the request of a resident while others require board approval. Removed items are scheduled for the Tuesday's recess board meeting. Regular agenda includes staff presentations, public hearings, and a full discussion from the county board before a vote. If you are signed up to speak, please note your speaking category. Individuals may speak for two or 3 minutes and representatives of civic organizations may speak for two, 3 minutes or 5 minutes. Remain seated until your name is called. The clerk will call the current and next speaker. When called, come to the podium and use the button on the right to adjust the height. You can also adjust the microphone. A timer will be visible on the podium. Please stay within your allotted time so that everyone has an equal opportunity to be heard. For virtual speakers, keep your camera and microphone off until your name is called. When acknowledged, turn on your camera and unmute. Your timer will appear in the team's meeting and will begin once you're recognized. If you need a reasonable accommodation, please speak to county staff outside the boardroom or the clerk at the dis. If you have any questions, staff are happy to assist you. Thank you for being here and sharing your voice with the county board. Have a great meeting.

You're all set, Mr. Clerk. Is that right? Okay. Good morning, Arlington County Board Board's April 18th, 2026 meeting is now in session. You got uh I'm Chair Matt Duranti. We have vice chair Morin Coffee, board members Susan Cunningham, Julius JD Spain senior, and Takis Karantonis. Only thing I would add to the video you've heard, most all of you have been here before, is that if you agree with another speaker there, we ask that you do one of two ways to show you agree while also letting us proceed with the meeting, which is either stand in support of that person or do the s the sign language uh for applause. So, those are the two steps. I'd like to take a moment per our custom over the last year. Well, two uh one other thing uh for those listening and for those in the audience who have not voted, you can vote and many people are voting right behind you right now until 5:00. You can also vote at the Madison Community Center until 5:00 today and the Walter Reed Community Center until 5:00 today. And then you can vote on Tuesday. Um whatever choice you make, it's very important that you vote in this election. uh voting is such a critical part of our democracy. Uh I'll also next turn to what we have been doing over the past year to highlight resources for our federal workers and immigrants. I believe there's a slide that the clerk may be able to pull up. Mr. Kushner, is that coming along or already there? Um I encourage everyone to visit the the links that you'll see in just a minute um for information and please also share this with those who might have particular concern. We've heard just in the last yesterday, we heard uh directly via an email from a federal employee who feels that they were um improperly laid off, which many do. And um the the financial pinch that that person was sharing uh was uh poignant and important

for us to hear as we think of our community and the many that are uh facing challenges right now as federal federal workers and also our immigrant community and families. So if you have a question you want to print out of these slides, they're available in the lobby as well as with Mr. Kushner in the lobby. just ask for either M miss uh either of our two colleagues out front can help you. Uh we will with that we'll now begin with public comment. Mr. Clerk, will you please call the first two speakers? Of course. Our first public comment speaker is Mr. Shane Ray Martin followed by Miss Kashi Mahulakar. Mr. Martin.

And just as a note to everybody, I may need just a moment to pull slides up today. We've got some technical issues. I'm working across a few computers here. Thank you, Mr. Kusher, for prov providing that context. Is that applicable in this in Mr. Martin's? Yes. Does he does he have slides? So, if you just hold a second so we can get your slides up. We'd appreciate that, Mr. Martin. Uh, actually, I don't have slides. Oh, here we go. I do have slides. We're getting there. We're getting there. The preparation in Arlington is amazing here.

I think that'll work. Go ahead, Mr. Martin. In 1908, the Wright brothers came to Arlington and taught the world to fly. I'm here this morning because Arlington is ready to do something just as historic. Good morning, chairman Matt Vice Chair Coffee, Memory Cunningham, Spain, and Keratonis. My name is Shane Ray Martin. I'm a VC investor, company builder, husband, brother, friend, and above all else, a peacemaker. What I know is is that war is expensive. It's estimated that violent conflict costs the world $19 trillion a year and nobody is building technology to prevent it until now. Starting May 11th, the Peace Tech Accelerator launches right here in Arlington. Peace Tech is AI built to prevent violent conflict before it starts. Defense Tech puts out the fire. Peace Tech stops the fire from starting. This means early warning systems, AI to see crisis coming, tools that catch misinformation before things get ugly. Peace tech is not anti-defense tech. It's actually a compliment to it. Most soldiers I know who went to war don't hope for more of it. I don't really see this as a left or a right thing. I see it as a red, white, and blue American thing. This program is 12 weeks, zero cost to founders, a billion-dollar company in Salesforce, Carta, Row, Finrat, and Arlington Economic Development are founding sponsors. Graduates of the program will raise VC capital and pitch live on demo day on July 30th in front of 20 investors right here in Arlington. They will then go on to hire locally, create new jobs, and build here in Arlington. We are already turning away founders. demand is 6x what I can currently accept. I did not expect to have I did not expect peace to have a wait list, but here we are. In conclusion, I'm here to partner with you

to do something the world has not seen. In 1908, Arlington gave the world wings. Today, I'm asking Arlington to give the world peace. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Next speaker. Of course, our next speaker is Miss Kishwori Mahulakar, followed by Wilson Bender. And for all speakers, I know you know, but for Mr. Martin and those who have not spoken here before, at the end of all of the speakers, we will provide brief responsive remarks. So that should be, I would guess, 15 minutes or so. Go ahead. Yeah, I have slides.

Yep. And same as before. Just a moment, please. Ready?

With budget season coming to a close, I'd like to bring back to the foreground the Arlington Aparth divest campaign and highlight the demand I find most urgent, adopting a public ethics policy for Arlington economic development. Next slide. Every month we come to this meeting to spotlight Arlington's complicity in Israel's mass extermination of the Palestinian and now Lebanese people. This complicity is not acceptable and among Americans, it is broadly unpopular. No one wants their legacy tied to a foreign country's genocide and no one wants to spend hard-earned money on the destruction of people abroad, especially when our own community is in need. Our ethics policy asks for AED to end any business with entities complicit in genocide as Israel is specifically ending any partnership with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. Next slide. We know that AED has been in collaboration with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board throughout Israel's mass extermination campaign, exchanging emails and collaborating with them. It's despicable. ViAB also isn't helpful for Arlingtonians. It seeks to give Israeli businesses a competitive advantage over Virginia businesses and also brings in Israeli weapons companies to profit off of mass murder to Virginia. We've been discussing Arlington's collaboration with BIAB for you for a year now. You have asked us to gather more information about Biab and we can. But first, I ask you to answer these questions. How come VAB is the only state advisory board that is funded by Virginia taxpayer money? How come Arlington Economic Development keeps taking BIAB's phone calls, especially when they know Israel has been committing a genocide? What will it take for AED to end their communication with Biab? How many more people have to be killed? How many more Virginia businesses have to suffer? And how many more bombs have to be dropped? What will it take for Arlington to take the moral, ethical, and responsible stance on behalf of the county and suspend communication with them once and for all? And by the way, AI therapist peace bots are not the counterweight for the victims of the bombs manufactured

with Arlington support. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mahulakar. Next speaker.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Wilson Bender, followed by Mr. Edward Garcia. Mr. Bender, are you online, Mr. Bender? Okay. I suggest not seeing him and not hearing you tell me he's online that we go forward and if we need to come back and if he he comes we will we can certainly loop back to him. Um our next speaker then is Mr. Edward Garcia followed by Audrey Clement. Mr. Garcia.

Good morning. Uh my name is Edward Garcia and honestly I really would not like to be here this morning. However, uh I'm here because my family and my neighbors in my neighborhood are being swindled out of thousands of dollars by the Arlington County public uh utilities right now because of their back billing policy. About a month ago, each of us woke up to an extraordinarily high uh water and consumption bill. And when we asked the uh the department as to why we had thousands of dollars in back charges, there wasn't a cons a clear and concise answer. Uh they classified it as a as a reclassification of our uh of our housing facilities and our dwellings. That happened 36 months ago without our knowledge. And then when we called them out on and asked what who approved this reclassification of our properties, uh they changed this the subject and said it wasn't a reclassification even though I have a letter that says that they they said it was an it was an accounting issue uh that that the Arlington County messed up 36 months ago. And now I'm being charged over $1,800 for a mistake that they've made in the past. And I'm not the only one. Imagine a landlord coming to your door and saying that, you know, 3 years ago we mispriced your rent and now you owe us $3,000 or we're going to put you in collections or we're going to add 6% uh uh billing a late fee on that property, you would rightfully be upset and you'd probably make be making speeches and supporting your constituents. But when our own county is doing that to our residents, we sit here silent. I've CCed all of the members of the board on my communications with the Arlington uh util utilities department and I have seen received no response and so I I stand here today unwillingly

that didn't didn't want to be here but I stand here today and ask you guys that this policy is not law. You were you were we were not notified. You did not vote on it and I asked that this uh fee be waved for our residents. Thank you, Mr. Garcia. Next speaker. Yes. Our next speaker is Audrey Clement followed by Alan Kalibari. Miss Clement,

welcome members of the board and the county manager. I'm Audrey Clement, independent candidate for county board. At the March 14th, 2026 county board meeting, Ryan Ner took issue with the newly established high-tech Innovation Quarter in Crystal City to promote partnerships among lead defense and AI corporations, said Ner. Quote, "We are now three weeks into an illegal and unprovoked war, one year into a cruel and arbitrary detention regime, and two and a half years into a genocide. Black rain falls from the sky in Tyrron as mothers and fathers mourn the loss of 170 school girls wiped off the face of the earth by a US tomahawk missile. What has been the county's response to this? Supercharged the defense industrial complex as we watch our world crumble around us. Arlington Economic Development sponsored the launch of Innovation Quarter backed by a veritable rogues gallery of defense and AI firms. end of quote. Nowhere in Ner's commentary is mention of the more than 30,000 Iranian civilians killed in the latest uprising, nor of the hangings and rapes of those in custody. Yet, estimates that the bloodthirsty Iranian regime killed as many of its own civilians in two days in January as Israelis are alleged to have done for two and a half years in Gaza is remarkable. On this subject, commentator Micah Danzig says, quote, "Large parts of the anti-Israel self-described pro Palestinian movement are not engaged in a human rights campaign. They are engaged in a selective political project that ignores abuse when it is inconvenient and amplifies and lies about it when it is useful. If human rights were the standard, the Iranian

regime would be at the center of their outrage. It is not. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Clement. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Alan Calibari, followed by Matthew Altamer. Mr. Kalibari. Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Uh, Mr. Kalibari, can you just come a little closer to the microphone so everyone can hear?

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. I've already submitted a written statement and this is to highlight the major points. I'm here to ask for your help in enforcing a zoning ordinance which requires a 10-ft buffer between properties. A notice of violation was issued on January 7 with compliance date of February 14, 2025. The violators have been working with the zoning to find a workaround and avoid compliance. They have submitted a new survey plat that shows a 5-ft strip of land on my property and suggests that it is the required buffer. This is the epitome of misrepresentation. The enforcement process is spelled out in article 17 of the zoning ordinance. It takes about four months for the penalties to reach the $5,000 threshold and become a criminal case. It is now 14 months past the compliance date and the only uh thing that the zoning has done is to issue one citation for $200. Doubtful if you know even that was paid. Is this incompetence, misconduct, corruption, cover up or what? How do we hold the zoning accountable?

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Khalibari. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Matthew Altamer, followed by Don, excuse me, Dr. Ellen Fitzenriter. Hello. This is Mr. Alameir. Can you hear me? Okay. I had to dial in when my teams crashed. Yes, we can.

Okay, I'll get started. Thank you. Uh, good morning. My name is Matt Alamer. My wife and I have lived in Douglas Park in South Arlington for nearly 10 years. Unfortunately, we will likely be leaving Arlington because of our experience with the expanded housing option permit process. Nonetheless, I'm speaking this morning to offer several concrete recommendations that can help other families avoid what we've gone through. First, we urge the board to pause new EHO permits until the Virginia Supreme Court rules. The legality of this ordinance is actively being litigated and homeowners, neighbors, and even developers deserve certainty before irreversible construction proceeds. Continuing to issue issue price during active appelllet litigation creates risk for everyone involved. Second, lower the EHO appeal fee. The current fee of over $1,200 is a significant barrier for ordinary residents trying to exercise their statutory appeal rights. An appeal fee should cover administrative costs, not function as a deterrent to public participation in land use decisions. Third, require written notification to adjacent property owners of both the application and approval stages. We received no notice that a six-unit three-story building had been approved immediately next door to our one-story home. Adjacent neighbors are the most directly affected parties and basic due process requires we be informed. Fourth, prioritize larger corner lots for EHO development. Corner lots have two street frontages, greater setback flexibility, and are far better suited to absorb the increased parking traffic and masking that comes with a multif family development without overwhelming narrow interior lots surrounded by single family homes. Fifth, measure transit corridor proximity by actual walking or driving distance, not absolute radius. A half mile as the crow flies is meaningless when a resident has to walk a mile around highway fences or other barriers to reach the stop. Real world travel distance is what determines whether reduced parking standards make sense. Thank you for your time and your consideration for these recommendations in this issue.

Thank you Mr. Al Al Mary. Next speaker. Yes our next speaker is Dr. Ellen Fitzenrider followed by a scene. Dr. Fitzen confirming you can confirming you can hear me. Okay, we can. Go ahead.

We can. Okay. I am an Arlington resident and business owner and a frequent pedestrian in the area surrounding Arlington Memorial Circle. This space is not simply a traffic feature. In the central and symbolic part of the corridor connecting Arlington Memorial Bridge and Arlington National Cemetery, while this land is federally controlled, Arlington County has a legitimate role as the local jurisdiction as the and as the representative voice of the community most directly connected to this landscape. I respectfully request that the county board consider communicating with relevant federal agencies to advocate for a transparent, multiconcept, and publicly engaged review process. Such a position would not advocate for or against any particular outcome, but would reinforce the principles that places of this importance should be approached with care, openness, and respect for both their history and public they serve. I would like to suggest that Arlington County consider taking a formal position, not on any specific proposal, but on the process by which decisions are made for this site. For places of this level of national and local significance, there is a long-standing expectation that planning is conducted with transparency, deliberation, and meaningful public engagement. Federal guidance supports this approach. For example, section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act gives the public the chance to weigh in on those matters before a final decision is made. Similarly, the Commemorative Arts Works Act calls for consideration of alternative sites and design concepts and federal planning guidance emphasizes public involvement and evaluation of alternatives early in the process. These are not abstract principles. They reflect a consistent expectation that nationally significant landscapes are shaped through thoughtful, inclusive processes. In that context, it would be appropriate to ask that any proposed changes to this site include clear communication of intent and scope, consideration of multiple design concepts and alternatives, opportunity

for public input at an early and meaningful stage, and engagement with preservation design and community stakeholders. This is ultimately about ensuring ensuring thoughtful consideration. Okay. Thank you for your time. Thank you Dr. Fitzen Ryder. We will respond. We have I believe one more speaker and then we'll respond in order to everyone. We do have Mr. Wilson who has joined us as well. So I will next move to uh our speaker AIM and then with chair's permission I will circle back to Wilson Bender next. I see. Go ahead. Morning. Uh I did have slides. John got them kind of late though. Uh I am not in receipt of those slides. Did you submit them in the online form? Yeah, John just came by like a few minutes ago asked I sent it to him. Oh

yeah, Mr. Root, what I suggest is so that we pull it up. Can we have Mr. Bender and then once we got the slides, we'll go to you. Is that okay? Yeah. Thank you. All right. We'll go back then to Mr. Wilson Bender and then once slides are available, come back to Mr. Wood. Mr. Bender, what's up?

Hi. I wanted to speak on something that happened in my neighborhood a little bit while ago uh collically known as the Penrose Flag Ripper. It was something that affected all of us. Um, two of my neighbors, they felt harassed. Um, and yada yada yada, the corporate got caught and uh, for a group of left-leaning people, we definitely wanted blood, maximum punishment, but uh, in came on, you know, old slap on the wrist Parissa and we all wanted blood. Uh, but I gave the benefit of the doubt and I wanted to see what would happen. And somehow, I don't know, like magic, everything kind of turned out for the better. the kid cuz young, dumb, and drunk is a thing. Got a second chance. Our neighbors didn't feel harassed, and we collectively felt that justice was served. Come to find out, it was some type of pilot program, which is originated in Arlington or close or something. I don't know. I'll have to look that up more. But I looked into more of the Commonwealth Attorney's Office of the Arlington County in the metropolis of false church and I did find out that they picked up all the fire DOJ lawyers that had prosecuted the J6 insurrection at a 100% conviction rate. That's like pretty much impossible. So, I've always thought that no one would throw away such a storyried career to imprison me for a crime I didn't commit or more like most likely making fun of a pigheaded politician at the behest of probably someone who's on the Epstein list. So, finding out that that pilot program is not only good for philosophical reasons, but for economic reasons, too. Nipping problems in the bud before they start. I listen to the work sessions. So yeah, I just wanted to speak on that and I yield my time.

Thank you, Mr. Bender. We'll respond to you as with all. How are we doing on We have slides. So whenever you're ready, Mr. Mr.

and it's before just a moment. I'll get them loaded. All right, whenever you're ready. Cool. Good morning. Our county's vision is only true in so far as as its subjective interpretation by our leaders. Diverse except for the marginalized who have been displaced and continue to be displaced. Inclusive, caring, sustainable, but only for those who are privileged enough to afford it. Next slide. Subjectivity is structurally built into the county government. Mr. Just one second. It's here, but not here for us.

Okay. If it's upstairs, if it's there, everyone else can see it. We'll do our best. That's all. Okay. Thank you. Oh, and thank you, Mr. We now have it on our screens. Let's go. Go ahead.

All right. Subjectivity is structurally built into the county government. We are governed by five at large board members versus a more geographical representation that we used to have. The Arlington we see today was shaped overwhelmingly by wealthy white leaders for decades who have been disconnected from our most vulnerable communities. This subjectivity dictates what morals, ethics, and values our government fights for. Next slide. However, we've seen the county fight and stick up for our communities in select instances. In Arlington v. White, despite losing the court battle, the county decided it was worth the fight to stick up for the rightful benefits of its employees despite or because it was the right thing to do. It was consistent with our morals, ethics, and values. Next slide. Despite claiming not to engage in foreign policy, the board condemned Russia in 2022 because it reflects our morals, ethics, and values. It was the right thing to do regardless of our sister city connection. Next slide. Despite a mountain of legal challenges and threats from a small but vocal, wealthy, privileged minority, the board still pushed to eliminate single family zoning because it's the right thing to do. It's consistent with Arlington's morals, ethics, and values as it relates to equity and economic justice. Next slide. Despite an opposing Yncan administration, state legal restrictions, and possible retaliation from an openly hostile Trump administration, section 7 was ended. Community shamed most of you into ending cooperation with ICE, forcing you all to align our government with our morals, ethics, and values because it was the right thing to do. Something some of you hypocritically take credit for. Now, there's a clear precedent for advocating for Arlington's morals, ethics, and values despite legal challenges and federal, state, local, and corporate opposition. Where exactly do you draw the line? When exactly are morals, ethics and values, when do they matter and when are they worth fighting for?

Thank you, Mr. U. Thank you, Aim. We'll now uh I believe that's the last speaker, correct? No further speakers.

Okay, we'll now um just uh briefly respond and then I'll give colleagues once I've offered uh responses uh the opportunity to share their thoughts as well. Um Mr. Martin, uh I think yes, you're still here. Um, thank you for coming and sharing this idea. Um, you said it's not a red or blue issue, it's an American issue. And, um, there's certainly, as we just heard, there's could be healthy and vigorous debate regarding peacees history in the American experience. And there's we are not perfect by any means. And our ownership of our mistakes, serious mistakes, is not as great as it could be. There is the it is adjacent but not the same. The peace institute in Washington is something I've followed quite a bit. I also think that it is it is and should be within the within the bounds of the American experience. So I I just am very grateful for your coming and highlighting this. I'm we we heard about it earlier. We got a report on it over the last week. Uh we're thrilled that Arlington Economic Development is engaged with it while while not giving the credit goes to those who are leading the effort. So, just thank you very much for bringing this forward and I'm hopeful uh that we can learn lessons and those lessons will come back. Whether I'll be one of the last six, I doubt, but I do uh think it's important and I think the whole board will want to hear uh the results of that. So, thank you. Thank you very much for coming in. Miss Mahulakar, thank you for coming in. Um, and thank you for your email, the meeting, and your email as well, providing I've been saying I I don't have I haven't yet had context on on the Virginia Israeli Advisory Board, and thank you for that. Um, I don't want to minimize the strength of your critique um and uh and and want to hear it fully. I will ask um the clerk if he can share

your slides with all the board via a separate email so that we have them and can can take a a look. Um we uh and and we'll have to continue to consider uh the critiques that you've made. I I don't have answers beyond that at this moment, but certainly am grateful for your engagement and um so that's that's what I have to say. I'll leave to colleagues to add if they have additions to add. Mr. Garcia. Um, there's really two things I can say. One is a matter of public record, which is we have res Mr. Weinshank has responded to your comments. That's not sufficient. But you mentioned that none of us have emailed you back directly. The the concern seems to have been most focused in the last 3 weeks. I hear the strength of your concerns. Beyond that, it is this is under review and a staff member will get back to you after that review is complete. And um the only other thing I'll say is I I think none of us on the board would want that review to take an overly extended amount of time. Other than that um you can imagine this is the sort of thing where there's we have to review it review it fully. Thank you for coming in uh today. Uh, Miss Clement, thank you for your comments. Um, thank you for coming in and sharing your concerns about another speaker's um, comments. Mr. Khaled Bari, um, this also is under review. Um, this this is a detailed matter about which there could be also legal considerations. I think he's still here. Is he? Yes. My my apologies. I can't say at this stage more than that because of that process have to let I have to let

that we have to let that play out. Um Mr. Mr. Alum Altamar Mari um I think you're still there virtually I'll respond. Yeah.

Good. I'll respond briefly anyway. Um it is not the first time that someone has said they are leaving Arlington. often it is for affordability, housing affordability reasons. And I think for each board member that is a painful truth to hear. Um I guess I would ask as we seek to learn lessons, colleagues may have gotten each of your five or six um points down. I'm guessing from the way you shared your points that you had them written. If so, if you could email them to us, that would be helpful. I would say um beyond that I would say um I respect the views. I do feel that I think most people believe who own single family homes believe that the space along the curb in front of their house is sort of almost their property. That is actually not the case. It's public property and but at the same time um having a place to park near your home is a huge concern. Uh, for my part, if I I still believe that if you um I think parking is a relevant concern. Of course, I still believe that if you can fit a single family home in a space, I I believe in our policy as a whole. But the details of your points and the lessons that we can learn, I think, are best served through, if you're willing, emailing us so that we can seek to try to absorb them and make sense to the specific points that you've made. Thank you for for sharing your thoughts. cannot walk the road that you are on in your home, but I do hope and and maintain personally um that I think it's appropriate that if a sixplex uh came up next to my home, I hope I would walk over and welcome new neighbors. Dr. Fitzener, thank you for a very thoughtful uh approach to what is clearly a um a bigger issue politically and a bigger

issue in general. Um uh in light of the other speakers who have commented on uh and Mr. frankly Mr. Route and the different pieces um I want us to be narrowly tailored in how we respond and section 106 of federal code which you you mentioned. I guess I would also say if it's possible if you can email us not just to sign up but your specific comments. This is one where I'd like to I've done that already. And there's also an exhibit of four different statutes and acts that support.

Great. Great. So, um, thank you for sharing. Typically, it's more mostly for better, for worse, it's mostly the board now pontificating and speaking, but you've done it. We will look at it and we will engage on it. It has to I I think that it has to be consistent with the rubric and the criteria that we apply to other situations. But my honest candid uh input is that the process uh concerns that you have raised would apply in other circumstances. So I want to look look at it in more detail. Mr. Bender, thank you for coming in. I really appreciate it's not always typical that we hear uh someone come to the comment section and say a good news story. You're the second this morning, at least by my count. Um, thank you for um researching um the the restorative um practices. In our budget on Thursday, we put 100 150,000 in ongoing funding towards uh restorative practices. We believe in this um and we're grateful. I would take issue with only one com one piece of your comment, which is that Falls Church is a metropolis. I just think it's the littleer city than that. Um and they call themselves the little city. not a better bike.

But I will say thank you very much. And if you followed this the story of the problems with the flag and what occurred, it is both simultaneously in my view reasonable to have to have been um angered or upset and also thrilling that the result at the end of that um is a story that at least gave me hope when I read it in Arnold. Now um Mr. you have put together a series of slides that is um thoughtprovoking and I find um challenging and and and helpful um and I guess the space that I am in is seeking there's a whole body of work and forgive me but there's in the law there are elements there's rubrics and and series of elements that you apply to whether how you act with respect to a charge for criminal or whether there's a contract. I think that that is the place that I'm in at this moment of trying to have those elements to apply our broad visionary statement and try to do so in a uh explainable and rational basis or rational sort of way. And so um I don't deny your piece that will I'm sure colleagues will will speak to several of your slides. um uh you know they stand on their own as important points and challenges as we continue to wrestle with this. That is all that I have. Colleagues, over to you if you have concerns, vice chair coffee,

great or thoughts.

Uh I'll try and stick to our our rule of not repeating uh things you've already covered. I think um the one main place uh I would just have some additions on expanded housing options. I think I just want to be very clear that the adoption of the policy is intended to make these small multi-unit buildings um go through the same process that any single family home did. And so the the same levels of of notification, the same levels of communication, the same rules around um appeals that we apply to our single family homes apply to these small multi-unit buildings, noting that they still have to fit within the footprint of what any possible single family home can provide. And um that is an intentional policy choice. uh and then on the memorial uh circle situation I think we are still awaiting sufficient detail to understand what is even being proposed or what is happening there. Um I think we will be uh acutely sensitive to getting those details and figuring out what to do with that. um we have many plans, particularly transportation plans that are very important to us and um that I personally would not want to see disrupted and so whatever level of review we can have um is something that I would personally be interested in. Um and from there I'll pass on.

Thank you, Vice Chair Coffee. Colleagues, is there anything I I don't always apply. There's certainly everyone speak their truth, but the standard of, you know, not repeating every piece. You certainly added uh something I missed on expanded housing options. Appreciate your comments, vice ch excuse me, Miss Cunningham. So many vice chairs.

Thank you. Um I would just add uh to amplify your opening statement about voting. Um, it is important to vote either today before 5 or tomorrow or Tuesday when the uh all of our polling places will be open. I voted this morning and it I timed it. It took 5 minutes from my the lobby to voting to sitting here. So, it'll probably get a little longer as the day goes on. Uh, but please take advantage of of that, especially those who are here in this room. Uh secondly on Memorial Circle um you know I think our engagement pro process here in Arlington is robust and typically does really improve uh the projects. So I do hope that the federal government who is in the driver's seat here um will uh ensure that their own process is robust and and does include community engagement. Uh we will certainly participate fully as a government um on your behalf as well in that. And then finally on on EHO, um I am so sad to hear that you may leave Arlington because of the uncertainty and and concerns that you have raised uh around the 2023 boards by right EHO policy. Um I think as as many in the community know, I share many of your concerns and hope that our courts will be able to conclude their work just as soon as possible so that this board may revisit your feedback and other uh lived experience in the community. Thank you, Miss Cunningham. Mr. Spain.

Well, thanks, Mr. Chair, and I'll do my best to um not repeat uh in detail everything you talked about, but I will first say, you know, for those that have been watching this board, uh we're not we're not a monolithic group of thinkers to start with. And from that point of reference, I believe it could be one subject whereby folks can have different opinions on and that's important.

I will say that um you know to the memorial bridge, the memorial piece that is really striking and I hope we continue to monitor that. I think not only there are transportation issues, but there are also you know FAA and flight issues with that type of buildout should that happen. So I look forward to uh of us engaging on that. Um I also will say to you know some of the the conversations we're hearing about transparency basically uh fairness and accountability. We hear this every month. um to the ethics policy and more pointantly I think the jury is still out on that and that we are uh you know here as a board at least I am for one looking at ways to uh what we can do here as the county what more we can do because it's critically important to what I believe in as it relates to human rights as one of five board members and with that I just want to thank everyone for coming out um and stating their opinions this morning um ready to get to work

thank you Mr. Mr. Spain, with that, we will move forward. And those who have come for public comment, as I've said before, you can stay, but you don't have to. It might not light you up to talk about the zoning two cases that we have, but it might be of interest to you. And so, all of you take your time and and I will not mind if while I'm talking about the consent agenda, you wish to to to leave. There's one other note that I think is very important um that I think I would like to flag um with respect to the second of our two agended items which is uh loosely Waverly Ridge. I think it is strongly strongly likelihood that we will defer that item and so legally and fully if you want to speak to that item our laws require that we give you an opportunity to speak. However, we will you give you an opportunity to speak next month in all likelihood when we next take up that item. We will defer. There will be very abbreviated conversation about that. And so my advice to you is do whatever you it's your choice but I would say if you wish to uh to to not hear the next 30 minutes to hour of conversation you are in fine standing to do to do so on the second of our two regular agenda items. Um with that I and so that's a piece of it. If you have any question whatsoever about that comment I would either go to our clerk Mr. Kushner or our deputy clerk um uh out front. Um so Mr. Davis. So um with that, we're ready to go to the consent agenda. Mr. Clerk, has have any of the consent agenda items been pulled?

No items have been pulled. Okay. Um I uh I'll talk about them briefly after we do this, but I move that the county board adopt the county manager's recommendations for all items on the consent agenda. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Karen Tonis. All in favor of the motion say I. I.

That passes unanimously. Um we will hold we will also have discussion coming up. But we'll turn now to the consent agenda summary. Um the vote board just voted to approve the consent agenda which includes minor site plan amendments, use permit requests, ordinance amendments, requests to advertise, and more. These items were put on the consent agenda because they were considered non-controversial. But that is not the same as saying they are not important. They many of them they are important. Want to take a few brief minutes to highlight several items very briefly and I believe there is a uh couple of slides that can describe them. So if we can go to the next slide. Um this is very important to all of us. It's amendments to the Columbia Pike neighborhoods uh formbbased code with respect to barraftoft apartments. Um, we approved use permits, loan documents, and covenants associated with ren renovations at Barcraftoft apartments. This was done to establish consistency across all seven Barcraftoft renovation use permits to comply with the Barcraftoft amendments phased development use permit and to address unforeseen circumstances such as construction delays that resulted from the January 24th uh January 2024 landslide. The revised conditions are summarized in pages four to six of the published board report. They include removing references in conditions and plan sheets to existing parking garage that were destroyed and have been removed by the landslide. Incorporating bofilic pathways on plan sheets consistent with the uh planning bofilic pedestrian network plan and conditions 21 and 22 of the um phased development use permit. and also revising the unit mix in building number 47 by changing one two-bedroom to a to a onebedroom and one two-bedroom unit in the basement of

n number 47 was converted to meet building code egress requirements. Next slide. Revising the fee schedule for art and star. This um is uh quite important with respect to our ongoing efforts to best serve the most vulnerable. Um we have had a program that exempts lowincome individuals from fairs for art and star but it is not as systemic and we thought it best to move to the to use the metro lift program which is you also used across the region um to allow customers enrolled in SNAP to ride art for half the price of a regular fair once enrolled in the metro lift. program that is so that our hungry can get around more cost effectively. Um, next slide. Item 11, temporary relocations for precinct 135. 13. Precinct 135's polling location uh has been located at Madison Community Center. Madison Community Center will be closed beginning this summer for approximately one year uh for renovations, hence the need for these changes. The temporary location will be at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 4250 North Glee Road. The temporary voter satellite absentee voting in person location, which is very important, will be located at the Langston Brown Community Center at 2121 North Co Pepper Street. Changes will go into would go into have and will go into effect on June 1st, 2026. Last, Green Valley's NOA. On the next slide, we have the board approved 80,000 in awards for four recommended recipients as part of the Green Valley Neighborhood Partnership Initiative grant awards. This funding is one time and was designated in the fiscal year 2026 supplemental budget

guidance for the purpose of supporting community engagement, community building programming, economic development, and other projects in the Green Valley neighborhood. The recipients and related amounts of these grants are challenging racism for $36,000 for a four-part initiative to foster uh dialogue as you can see on the slide, the Latino Economic Development Center for 23, and 700 dollars for a three-monthlong bilingual empowerment course, Arlington Thrive for quarterly nutrition education focused on the healthy healthy lowcost cooking for the amount shown on the slide, and Macedonia Baptist Church to serve as a convenor and community builder in collaboration with other proposals. Those are my comments on the consent agenda. Colleagues, if you would like to make comments on the consent agenda remarks open for you, you do not have to make up comments if you do not have them. Mr. Karen Tonus, I see your light.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I just want to highlight uh for for the uh the Green Valley outcome. I know that the neighborhood has been waiting on this for way too long and the initial idea was to uh and that's already more than two years back. The initial idea was to uh uh figure out ways to to jumpstart some some uh neighborhood activity that that would bring neighbors together, activate small businesses, create an environment of civic engagement and and civic uh uh inter inter exchange in in the center of the neighborhood. Um the uh the NOA has attracted a lot of of interest was widely uh wildly uh overs subscribed at the end uh for the relatively modest amount of money $80,000. I want to um just to say the following. I don't I'm not going to say that the outcomes are ideal but they are good outcomes. uh uh after all they they provide a a a plethora of options of programs of approaches from uh what challenging racism will be offering uh to uh a program that I personally I'm very interested to see how it will land and how it will produce the the Latino economic development um uh center the LEDC program which is an economic empowerment program which I believe is very fundamental for the neighborhood for a neighborhood that has seen stagnant outcomes in in retail in the ability of uh people to start their own businesses to have their entrepreneur entrepreneurialship um uh to see that supported etc. And I

also think that Arlington Drive is uh is going to be uh a significant addition to the uh type of civic activity that we see in the neighborhood. What I want to say is that for me this is not the end of action here is the exploratory beginning of it. Uh so I want to see uh I want I'm really interested in the feedback we will get from the community and from the organizations who have been awarded these um this money uh to see how how they fared and and what they accomplished in the neighborhood. Uh that means for us uh we have the work work cut out for us and we we need to stay the course and um and and lean in into uh the neighborhood and and the larger environment there that has been uh so uh neglected in the past uh and not anymore. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Mr. Karen. Mr. Spain.

Yeah, sure. Uh thanks, Mr. Chair. And I I too want to lift up the NOA and I just want to be quite pointed on something. Um I often say we make a mountain out of a hill of beans and you know it's taken a long time um for $80,000 to be placed into Green Valley. Um honestly that's is just that's too long. Um, and also to be quite pointed, I mean, what $80,000 is going to yield is to what, uh, board member Karan Tonus just stated, uh, just some ideas of where we may want to go next as a county. Um, you know, I've been here 19 years and I can tell you that over those 19 years, uh, communities like Green Valley have not only historically been marginalized, but but has not seen the level of investment that other communities have. And so, if we want to talk about equity and we want to talk about injecting ourselves some economic stimuli or however we decide to do this in programming, $80,000 is just a drop in the bucket. But we'll see. And I look forward to with my colleagues and down the road to see what yields of this and what next what does next look like because there's going to have to be a next if not this is just performative. But thank you very much.

Thank you Mr. Spain. With that um we are done with our consent agenda and we will uh we're ready to move to our regular agenda items. Uh Mr. Clerk, please call the first item.

Certainly. The first item on our agenda today is item number 29. items associated with the 3130 Langston Boulevard or Walgreens site redevelopment. It's a two-parter. The first are general land use plan amendments to change the land use designation of the property from service commercial and public to medium office apartment. The second is a reszoning of the property from C2 commercial community business district to CO2.5 mixeduse district. Pardon me. The third is the site plan number 481 to permit the construction of a 13-story building with residential units and ground floor retail with modifications to zoning ordinance standards for additional density, density exclusions, loading spaces, coverage and placement and other modifications as necessary to achieve the proposed development. Part B of the proposal are vacations and a site plan amendment. The first is ordinance to vacate portions of a 204, excuse me, foot public storm sewer easement, 10-ft public storm sewer easement, and an easement for public sidewalk, bus stop, and utilities purposes. all at subject address 3130 Langston Boulevard and then that is it.

Thank you Mr. Kusher Institute the manager for the staff presentation. Thank you Mr. Chair. With me this morning to present is Matt Feifer who will have the lead on that. He is going to be assisted by Bryce Johnson and Dan Neighbors from and Mikei all from DEES. So I'm going to turn it over to you Mr. Feifer. Mr. Fe.

Thank you Mr. Manager. Uh thank you Mr. Chairman. Good morning members of the county board. My name is Matt Feifer with the Department of Community Planning, Housing, and Development. As the manager said, we have uh Bryce Johnson and Dan Neighbors from the Department of Environmental Services and Mike Halooki from the Real Estate Bureau. So, uh, the items we're discussing today are a general land use plan amendment, reszoning and site plan, uh, and an ordinance to vacate, uh, an ordinance of vacation to facilitate the redevelopment of the 3130 Langston Boulevard site, also known as the Walgreens site. Uh, so this site is located, as I said, at 3130 Langston Boulevard. It is bound on the north by Langston Boulevard, uh on the east by the famous pond site, on the south by Kirkwood Road, and on the west by the I66 off-ramp. So here we can see the development potential of the 1.68 acre site. Uh the site could accommodate 12 single family dwellings, 122 hotel rooms, and 109,000 uh square feet of gross floor area by right under its existing zoning. The site could also accommodate 12 single family dwellings by right under CO2.5, which is the requested zoning district. So, the site is currently identified on the general land use plan as service commercial. While the current map shows the public designation, uh staff research has identified that this is a remnant from when VOTE was acquiring right away for I66, given the long-standing C2 zoning, the correct designation is service commercial. Uh the Lynxen Boulevard area plan does identify the site as recommended for GLUP amendments uh when redevelopment does occur. The applicant is proposing to amend the general land use plan designation to medium office apartment which is consistent with the Langston Boulevard area plan recommendation and

will facilitate redevelopment in accordance with the plan recommendations. So the site is currently zone zoned C2 as said uh and the applicant proposes to reszone the site to CO2.5. This is consistent with the proposed medium office apartment hotel glop designation. So the site is located within the boundaries of the Langston Boulevard area plan which was adopted by the board in 2023. If approved, this will be the second site plan subject to the guidance of the area plan. The area plan provides a series of policies and implementation strategies to guide future public and private development decisions. And ultimately the plan will help transform the predominantly car oriented strip commercial and residential corridor into a green mixeduse main street that provides safe and multimotal access and is rooted in environmental resiliency, economic sustain sustainability and equity. site is located within area 5 west which is as the area closest to metro will see the most growth in mid and high-rise mixeduse development and also is supported by extensive green infrastructure that enhances access to nature and reduces flood risk. So this slide will provide an overview of the key guidance from the Langston Boulevard area plan uh that applies specifically to the site. Uh as mentioned in the previous slide, the site is located within area 5 west uh which is within the spoutrun activity hub. This area it is envisioned to include the greatest scale of development given its low topography and proximity to I66 as well as proximity to Rosland and other transit corridors. Um the building heights here are recommended for 12 stories or 136 ft. The Langston Boulevard area plan recognizes this area as an area of significant flooding and so recommends storm water management measures including overland relief. Specific storm water management approaches are to be engineered at the time of site plan

review. Finally, the plan recommends a new public space at the southwestern corner of the site which is to be a park plaza hybrid space. Okay. Uh so the applicant uh is re is proposing to demolish the existing commercial building on the site and construct a new 13story building containing 300 residential units uh roughly 7200 ft of ground floor retail uh and 361 parking spaces in a four-level parking garage which consists of one level below grade and three levels above grade. and they are proposing modifications from zoning for additional density, density exclusions, loading spaces, uh set back on Kirkwood Road and all other modifications. Okay. So, the applicant is also uh proposing two separate vacations of existing storm sewer easements which will be uh tied into the new development um when ready. Uh they are also proposing vacation of a public sidewalk, bus stop and utilities easement uh which will again will be reconstructed by the new development. So storm water management was a major focus of staff's evaluation of the subject site plan. It did have a major effect on site design and building placement. The Langston Boulevard area plan recommends an overland relief corridor along Kirkwood Road, but it also notes that specific overland relief and storm water management strategies are determined at the time of site plan. Through analyses of multiple alternatives, it was identified that the intentional overland relief pathway should be located on the eastern side of the site. This along with a new covert system to be installed by the applicant effectively mitigates flooding impacts to neighboring properties. The design of the project has changed significantly throughout the course of the review. Uh the applicant originally proposed mason units lining Kirkwood Road. They did have to remove them due to the shift in building placement and

impacts on parking efficiency uh due to um the storm water management engineering. Another design change I want to draw to your attention is uh that staff worked very hard with the developer uh on the Langston Boulevard frontage. uh we worked with them to in uh implement flood proofing measures to ensure that the building is protected given the site's location. Uh the result of these floodproofing measures was that the building slab was raised to an even 180 ft which had the effect of disconnecting the retail from the public realm via a series of ramps and railings. The applicant worked with staff on building designs to integrate the building better into the public realm. The applicant is proposing a Loia system where the building facade is recessed under an arcade. This design improves retail visibility and accessibility and integrates the public and private elements in a more deliberate manner. So staff supports this change. The Langston Boulevard area plan recommends a 12-story building in this location. The Langston Boulevard area plan has a dual approach to height recommending a maximum number of stories and a height envelope in feet. In this case, the subject site is recommended for a maximum of 136 ft. Technically, the applicant is proposing a 13-story building due to a mezzanine parking level that corresponds to the volume of the double height retail space. When viewed from Langston Boulevard, the building appears as 12 stories. However, other vantage points where the garage level is visible, uh, the building appears as 13. Nevertheless, the building does meet the recommendation for a maximum of 136 ft height envelope. Um, the applicant is proposing a public space in the southwestern corner of the site. This space was discussed extensively during the public review process and the image above shows the evolution of the design. Final design incorporates a mix of planted space, decking and hardscape and tree plantings that provide both casual and active uses. Um the applicant in addition is providing a public access easement for a walkway in the western side of the building that will link Langston Boulevard to the public space.

portion of the site does encroach into the resource protection area. As a result, the applicant requested an exception from the Chesapeake Bay preservation ordinance. This request was heard by the Ches Bay preservation ordinance review committee on March 17th. They did grant an exception uh subject to conditions which include a phosphorus load reduction of49 pounds per year over current conditions uh and planting five canopy and three understory trees within the RPA. Uh and these conditions are reflected in the site plan conditions in front of you. So the applicant is proposing a community benefits package that provides affordable housing, community facilities, and sustainable design elements in conformance with zoning ordinance sections 15.58 and 15.59. The applicant is complying with standard site plan conditions to mitigate impacts of the development that are related to streetscape improvements, public art, utility fund contributions, a transportation demand management program, inbuilding wireless infrastructure. Um, they will also build a recommended bike lane on Langston Boulevard, rebuild an an existing bus and excuse me, rebuild an existing bus stop on Langston Boulevard. The applicant is also providing the county overland relief easements on all site frontages. And so in order to comply with zoning ordinance section 15.58, the applicant will be providing 19 on-site committed affordable housing units. These will consist of seven one-bedroom units plus six two-bedroom units at 60% AMI. Uh and three one-bedroom units and three two-bedroom units at 80% AMI. The applicant is providing the following community benefits to earn the requested 114 units of additional density. This includes a $1.77 million cash contribution to the affordable housing investment fund, construction, maintenance, and easements for the public space, a new 8x8 box covert and easement for storm water management and

detention, uh, and participation in the green building incentive program at the 35 F level. So, the applicant will be providing a new development that meets the county's equity goals by providing a greater housing mix than exists today, a new public space achievement of the Langston Boulevard area plan tree canopy target and enhancing the existing transportation network with improved pedestrian, bike and transit facilities. So, the site plan was reviewed at two SPRC meetings, site plan review committee meetings. Uh the major topics of discussions included uh storm water management, site design and building placement, uh landscaping and tree canopy and public space design. Um we also heard a lot about transportation and pickup and drop off. There were four civic associations that participated in the review process. uh and they've provided correspondence to staff, the commission, and the county board expressing concerns related to transportation studies and the timing of those studies as well as the lack of site consolidation and perceived impacts to building bulk and site design. As mentioned previously, the project was reviewed by the Ches Bay Ordinance Review Committee on March 17th. They did grant the exception to the Ches Bay preservation ordinance subject to conditions. Uh the transformation transportation commission heard this item on March 26. They recommended approval of the Gulup reszoning and site plan unanimously. They also uh passed an amending motion recommending that the county board direct staff to expedite the Langston Boulevard area 5 study. The planning commission uh heard this item on April 6th. They also recommended approval of the Gupponing and site plan unanimously. They passed the same motion passed by the transportation commission uh again which was to uh expedite the Langston Boulevard area plan area 5

study. Uh and then the housing commission heard this item on April 10th and they recommended approval of the Glock reszoning and site plan unanimously. I am going to hand uh the uh this the presentation over to my colleague Bryce Johnson in dees who is going to present the next two slides. Bryce. Okay. Thank you Matt. Uh as Matt said, the commissions and members of the public have been expressing interest in addressing transportation safety along Langston Boulevard. That is with and or without the site plan. I would like to provide context for the work currently being done and planned for the corridor. Here is a map of the Langston Boulevard corridor with the Walgreens site marked by a yellow star. Based on the recommendations of the area plan, the county has been further studying the corridor for safety improvements. This additional study has been split into two main phases. The first is the multimodal intersection study for areas two and three of the plan. This study is focused on intersections identified within areas two and three as shown on the graphic. The study began last spring and is expected to finish by the end of this year. Following the completion of that study, the county will then begin the corridor study for area 5 in which the Walgreens site is located. This study is scheduled to begin early next calendar year.

Bryce, can you just put your mic a little closer? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. And I like first names, Mr. Fiper and Matt. Thank you. Go ahead, Bryce.

Thank you. Um, where is So, the area 5 study is scheduled to begin early next calendar year. The study cannot begin earlier because the county needs time to complete prior studies such as the areas 2 and three study as well as Arlington's transportation future. However, the county has other projects which will then feed into the area 5 study. First, I will note that the county is conducting speed studies all along Langston Boulevard marked via the dashed yellow lines as being done this year. This will allow the county to work with VOTE to assess where vehicle speeds uh can be lowered to reduce um or sorry to increase safety. Second, the county's Vision Zero program has identified a portion of Langston Boulevard as part of the county's high injury network marked by the double dash black line from North Oakland Street to North Barton Street. This includes the segment of Langston Boulevard directly adjacent to the Walgreens site. The county will be conducting an audit of this area in summer of this year. The audit will then produce recommendations for safety improvements. Finally, the county has requested VOTE conduct a strategically targeted affordable roadway solutions or STARS study for a portion of Langston Boulevard shown on the screen. This study will also produce recommendations for safety improvements. That study is expected to be complete by the middle of this year. One other item I want to note on the screen is that the county has been working on intersection improvements at Langston Boulevard, Spoutrun Parkway, and Cork Cirkwood Road for about 10 years now. These improvements include um upgrades to the signal equipment, ADA ramps, and pedestrian signals is expected to be complete by the end of this month. Uh Matt, if you can go to the next slide, please. So, here we have an additional slide listing out the studies and projects I covered visually on the prior slide. This includes the ongoing intersection and signal upgrades, the star study and speed studies occurring this year, the safety audit scheduled for the summer, and the multimodal and corridor studies. I do want to draw your attention to the final final item which is the area 5 corridor study. As I

mentioned, this is scheduled to begin early next calendar year. However, the other studies will feed into that study by having some overlapping work already completed. These earlier studies may also be able to identify easier short-term solutions that can be implemented ahead of the area 5 study completion. I also want to note that the area 5 study is expected to take about 18 to 24 months. That timeline allows the county to coordinate with VOTE. Unlike other parts of the county, Langston Boulevard is owned and maintained by VOTE and that additional coordination requires extra time. Uh we offer this as context for the work being done to address existing concerns about transportation safety along the corridor. As you saw in the previous image, uh the transportation network is much larger than just the Walgreens site and therefore it requires a more comprehensive analysis outside of just the site plan. However, when we assess site plan applications, we do seek to align our recommendations with the pending any pending work as well as the area plan. And for the site, we did find that the project is aligned with the goals and strategies of the area plan, which I'll let Matt speak to. All right. Thank you, Bryce. Um, so this slide shows um the how the project implements county goals and objectives. So we do find that the project is in general conformance with county plans and policies and specifically advances many important objectives from the Langston Boulevard area plan. So the plan implements Guppin zoning J changes that are recommended by the plan. It delivers land use mixes and housing produ production in line with Langston Boulevard area plan objectives given the site's location within the spoutr run activity hub. The plan delivers 19 on-site calf units and provides one a $ 1.77 million contribution to AHIFF as well as the base contribution. The plan delivers the recommended streetscape, bike, and bus stop improvements from the plan. It delivers a new privately owned public space. It effectively mitigates

storm water at the site through overland relief pathways and a new culvert system that will allow for future expansion of the countyy's storm sewer system. The plan achieves tree canopy targets on a very constrained site and the plan will participate in the green building incentive program at the 35 F tier which demonstrates advancement of the community energy plan. For these reasons and more, staff recommends adoption of the resolution to approve the club amendment, the ordinances to approve the resoning and site plan uh as well as authorization for the vacations uh to facilitate redevelopment of this site. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Matt. We'll next move to the applicant for your presentation, Mr. Williams. Morning, Chair Dante and members of the board. My name is Zach Williams. I'm a Venal representing the applicant. To kick us off, Cassie Guy is gonna say a few words on behalf of Rooney Properties.

Good morning. Uh my name is Cassie Guy. I have given this spiel several times over the last couple of years, so I will keep this brief. Uh Rooney, I'm here representing Rooney Properties. Rooney is a small local family-owned and operated real estate developer here in Arlington. We're actually located just about a mile up from the project site itself. Uh Rooney being a small shop uh really has the ability to focus on highquality mixeduse and residential projects. Um Rooney being a long-term holder. We pride ourselves on integrating into the community. Um as we you know in so few words will become part of the community and maintain part of the community. Uh it has been a long road to get here. Uh, but we've worked closely with staff and the community and I'm really excited to be here today to present the final product to you all. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Sky. Back to I think to Mr. Williams, but you guys team, I suppose.

And I now have our presentation up, which looks good. Okay, we are u very excited to be here today. This is the first uh site plan filed under the new Langston B Boulevard boulevard area plan. It was filed back in August of 2024. Uh it's been a long road. Um but we're excited to hear be here today to to consider it. Um we have our whole team here today. Um they're all here and available for Q&A. I think staff did a great job with the presentation. So I'm going to go through this pretty quickly and then like I said, we're we're here for for questions if there are any. Um going over some of the uh the highlights of the project. Um I I will highlight it is the first it is not the first project now to be approved under the plan but it will be the first market rate project uh is if it were to be approved today. Um and so that's a huge milestone for the lang our area plan. Um and you know this has been uh quite an effort and we'll talk a little bit more about that on part of staff the community and the development team. Um one thing I want to highlight here um is the tree canopy coverage. um that 35.1% that we are meeting um we are very proud of that. That is something that we worked very hard on, we were literally working on this up until a few weeks ago trying to get the right trees uh figured out and we we managed to hit it. So that that's a goal that's been a very hard goal to meet as um I think a lot of folks know, but we were able to hit it and we're proud of that. Um another thing I wanted to highlight, I think staff did a good job of it, but the a little over $2.6 6 million contribution to AHIFF um is obviously a significant contribution in addition to the 19 calfs on site. So I think this project is really hitting and realizing some of those affordable housing goals that are so fundamental uh to the plan. Um and we'll walk through the rest of this as I go through the presentation. Community engagement um as we are going to see on any Langston Boulevard project, the community engagement is extremely important. It's important on

every project, but particularly in this community, these civic associations are very engaged. We had no less than four civic associations um that were adjacent to this site, and all four of them played an important role uh throughout the process. Um this slide just highlights the sort of formal meetings that we've had. We've had many, many other meetings, calls, emails with the community throughout the last several years. Um we've met with Langston Boulevard Alliance. um they have been a great liaison in terms of helping us get the community engaged. We've met with every civic association individually as well as collectively multiple times um and it's been great um and I think it's it's been a collaborative approach and the project was improved as a result of that. So, walking through um some of these slides here. I'm not going to linger too too long on these to to in the interest of time, but this is sort of the central elevation of the building looking at it uh from Langston Boulevard. Um it is a uh from this angle a 12-story building. Um I'll talk a little bit about that mezzanine story. Um it's been really intended to be a 12-story building from the beginning. Um the mezzanine is important for mainly for parking. If we were to lose the mezzanine, we would lose about 80 spaces, but the building would look exactly the same. It would be the exact same building. You just wouldn't have 80 parking spaces. Um, what we did do is we ensured a double height retail frontage along all of Langston Boulevard. So, the building when you when you when you look at it, when you approach it, when you see it from Langston Boulevard, its primary face, it's a it is a 12-story building. It will read as a 12-story building. It will be a 12-story building. Going around the corner, there is a partially uh elevated a partially above ground parking garage that will be screened, which you can see here, and I'll talk a little bit more about that. That was the subject of a lot of conversation. Pawn shop site. I I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this. Um there's been a lot of interest. Why Why didn't you get the pawn shop site?

Why didn't you consolidate with the pawn shop site? We tried. Um, and uh, I think we we'll probably talk a little bit more about this. Before we even got off the ground, Rooney Properties attempted to buy that land. Um, and uh, made an offer on it. Unfortunately, National Pawn, which is a national company, came in and exercised a right of first refusal and bought it. So, Rooney was preempted from buying it that as a result of that, and we weren't able to get it, unfortunately. Um, so that pollen shop site will will remain as is for now. Um, and the project fortunately we were able to figure out a way to to proceed with the project even without that that site. Here's a bird's eye view looking at the building across Langston Boulevard just to get a better sense of the massing of the building and how you'll be able to see it not just from the Langston Boulevard side but also from I66. Looking down on the building, this shows that elevated courtyard, which we'll talk a little bit more about. It's going to be extensively landscaped with trees, landscaping. It's going to be an important amenity for residents. Um, the other thing about it is you can see to the right the those are homes on Langston, I'm sorry, in Lion Village. They're really up on a hill. It's hard to understand the grade from this angle, but those homes, at least during the winter time, will be looking out over the say, and what they'll be looking at is this lush courtyard. Um, so we did that um for a couple reasons. We thought that will help to buffer really, so the heightened density, which will be oriented towards 66 and Langston. Um, and the the part of the building that those folks, those residents will be looking at is frankly the prettiest part of the building. um and with the greenery, the courtyard, um the most active activated part of the building. So, uh that was that was deliberate. Uh going back to ground level, um we did work to screen that garage as best we could with architectural elements as as

well as biofilia. That will be live bofilia, the greenery there. That was something that we changed. Um we implemented that the result of feedback with the community and with staff. That's a little bit better view of the way that the biophilia and architectural elements will screen some of that parking um as you're walking there. Turning the corner along Kirkwood. Uh this is um the entrance the corner of the building at Langston and Kirkwood. This will be where the retail is located. You do see those stairs there. That was a change that was made late in the process to accommodate flood concerns. Um and so we ended up elevating that. Now, what's interesting is that this was not part of the plan for most of the review. It came in at the very end, but I we really think it improved the overall experience of the retail um and the way that this folks will address the building at street level and particularly in the way that we incorporated the Loia, which is what you're looking at here. This is how you will access the retail along Langston Boulevard. We we had to do it this way because um well, this was in collaboration with staff. Otherwise, we would have had sort of a two tier um sidewalk with a sidewalk to address the retail and then a sidewalk to walk along. And it was a little awkward. Now, we have the Loia. And we like this because as I think a lot of folks know and will hear today, this portion of Langston Boulevard is not particularly pedestrian friendly. It's a pretty noisy, wide area of Langston. And this will help to buffer those retail bays. It'll make it more inviting for pedestrians. Um, and we think overall it will go to the benefit of the community and the project. Taking a look at that little bit closer look on that um, courtyard. I was not kidding when I said it's going to be extensively vegetated. Um, and it will be. Um, this helps us to hit our tree canopy. It helps us to ensure that we have that landscaped up there. Um, so it's an inviting space not

just to look at, but to actually use. Here's an uh, a rendered site plan. Um, and this just gives you a sense of really how much of the site is going to be greened up. Um, obviously you have the tower, but most of the site is going to be greened up either at the street level or on that courtyard level. Um, and so this just gives you a good sense of that from the overhead. Now, we're going to walk around the site. This is the plaza park hybrid. This is an important community benefit from the plan. This is something that um you are looking at seventh or eighth ninth version of this park plaza park hybrid right now. It doesn't look anything like it when we first um submitted it and that is a result of extensive collaboration with the community and with staff. Um what we arrived at here is ultimately a quaside decked area that we think will be inviting uh for the public as well as serve as a transition area for residents. This will be the secondary entrance will be accessed from the building. Reality, it'll probably be more like the primary entrance in the way that it's used. So, this will be a pretty activated place. Um, and this Plaza Park Hybrid is intended to serve both the public as well as building residents. It's not just that corner though that's going to be inviting from a pedestrian standpoint. All corners of the building have been programmed by our expert landscape crew who are with us here today from Land Design. Um, the intention here is we really want this building to feel safe. We want it to feel inviting. We want it to feel like a place that you want to be. And I think those these renderings highlight that. Along the other sides of the building, Crocord Road, you're looking at partially some streetscape improvements as well as the overland relief corridor, which I'll talk about in a minute. Um, again, not just um aesthetically pleasing, but also serving important role for overland relief. This is uh another view of the Kirkwood sidewalk working walking along that along the side of the building.

And here's a little closer view as well. So, a huge change that we made um just a few months ago um was to move the building uh back by about 10 ft off the pawn shop, I'm sorry, 10 ft off the pawn shop property line and we moved it forward 10 ft on the Kirkwood line. We did this for the purpose of ensuring that everyone could get comfortable with the flood concerns on this site. Um, and this was something that we talked about for months with Bryce and Matt and their teams to make sure that we were putting this overland and what turned out to be underland relief in the right place. Um, where is the water actually going? And that's what we did. We we so we we moved the building very late in the game here to allow enough space along that buffer between the building and the pawn shop site because we determined that's really where the water is going to be going. So by moving that building back we were able to do two things. We were able to install planned installation of another box coververt which will run parallel to the existing two coverts on the pawn shop site that will provide underland relief if you will uh in uh periods of high flooding. We also have overland relief in that area as well as around the site. So that buffered area is serving multiple functions to to uh mitigate flood risk. Um it was something that um we probably spent more time on this than anything else throughout the review process to make sure we were getting it right. Um and I think everyone is comfortable that while there was a lot of time spent on it, we got it right. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Williams. the the uh well next we appreciate um trying to keep it brief as and give us time for questions um and uh we will go turn to our commissions. We will we may have well have questions for you and so we'll come back to that. First is Mr. Lantel from the planning commission. Good morning Mr. Lantel.

Uh good morning Chair Dante and members of the board. Um as mentioned I am Jim Lantel and I am representing the planning commission for this matter. Uh the planning commission held its public hearing for the Walgreens site on April 6th and the commission voted on the three recommendations of the county manager and that's a change to the GLUP designation, a resoning ordinance and approval of the site plan application. All three were approved by the commission by unanimous votes with one recru one one recusal. Um the vacations were not before us. The commission also voted unanimously with one recusal to recommend that the county board study the Langston direct the county manager to begin preparations this fiscal year for a study of the Langston Boulevard from Rosland to I66 to reconfigure it as a complete street consistent with the goals of the master transportation plan and the Langston Boulevard area plan and to commence that study in the fiscal year 2027. The commission heard from nine public speakers and from other county commissions. Opposing the application were five speakers who had objections based on density, height, insufficient biophilic design, and failure to sufficiently comply with all elements of the Langston Boulevard area plan. Two others, uh, the CH Chamber of Commerce and the Langston Boulevard Alliance support the project. And two commenters raised the need for immediate transportation related improvements to the design of Langston Boulevard. Most of the discussion at the planning commission focused on transportation followed by density, storm water management, sustainability, and affordable housing. This project and now three others proposed for the eastern end of Langster Boulevard, area 5 bring to the four the need to redesign the boulevard as envisioned in the area plan. Right by this project are the intersections with the I66 ramps and the spout run. Both discourage pedestrian crossings with Spout Run. um in particular being the the site of

frequent crashes and is one of the county's vision zero hotspots. Um if approved, this if built, this project will add 200 plus residents to a site that right now has zero residents. And those people will all all pretty much want to cross that street to get to the supermarket, the CVS, the you know, and other services that are right there and easily walkable. put for the way Blankster Boulevard is designed. Um, I know all five of you have walked the site and know the challenges that it is presenting. Um, from discussions at the SBRC, the transportation commission and the planning commission, it's clear that this project alone cannot address the problems, but rather the county and VOTE need to step up. You're no you no doubt have noted that this issue is addressed in the joint letter to you from the surrounding civic associations and from some of the other commissions that have opined on this project. The reason why why we're pushing to move up this and as was noted by uh dees a study is coming um but it's starting sometime next year. what we're trying to do because delays compound and because this is a major study much more so than the improvements that were made. You noted that to make the improvements that are just wrapping up now which are new traffic lights and some ADA ramps um that took 12 years. We're talking about a major rethinking of I of Langston from Rosland to I66. It could be 2040 before things are implemented, we're talking about something that is of the magnitude of what we did in Columbia Pike. The reason we're pushing this is that even though stuff is in the works, we absolutely acknowledge that is that again delays compound and we're talking about a huge number of time. We have four projects that are already in the pipeline for

this area of of Langston Boulevard which will bringing will literally be bringing thousands of new residents. all of whom will want to be crossing Langston Boulevard because these projects are on the other side. Um so we we really feel that speed is going to be of the essence and we do want to take advantage of any any speed where we can anytime we can cut some time on moving forward on this we think is to the advantage of the county and to the residents and it's a safety issue. Um, moving on, staff did walk us through how the density of this site was determined and how the failure for the hopes for lot consolidation factors into that. And as mentioned, that consolidation failure was completely outside the control of either the applicant or the county. Um, storm water management is a big consideration for this site. The applicant made substantial modifications to their initial plan to add both an overland relief path and a new box culvert. The Spoutrun Langston intersection is notorious for flooding. This project is one step forward in better dealing with this flooding, but it's not a complete solution. That is beyond the scope of this one site plan and again points to the need for the county investment in these these infrastructure issues. We also addressed affordable housing and while we always wish for more, the number and the type of on-site affordable units is good. Uh we recognize that the project is substantially consistent with the components of the comprehensive plan including the glo and the el the area plan and as mentioned above so voted to recommend that the recommend the county manager's motions. Um and also as mentioned above the planning commission voted to urge the county to move up those plan studies for the redesign of Langston Boulevard from I66 to Rosland. Um, and this is something you will no doubt be hearing about as those other projects along Langston Boulevard come before you in the coming year or two. So, uh, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Tell me if you'd be willing to stay close enough should we have questions. We'd much appreciate that. She'll do so. Great. Thank you. The next and I believe last commission that we have present on this is the housing commission represented by Jason Jason Schwarz. Is Mr. Schwarz here virtually? Believe virtually. testing, can you hear me? We can hear you a little light, but yes.

Okay, I I'll speak up. Um, good morning, county board members. The housing commission was briefed on the site plan in our December 2025 and April 2026 meetings. Overall, members of the commission found this submission to be a positive development with overall good community benefits package, including a committed affordable housing contributions. There were some inquiries on site access and transportation safety, as the site will be a ped, bike, transit trip generator. Capital investments in the multimodal transportation network in this area will be welcomed. Overall, the commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the site plan. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Schwarz. Brevity is much appreciated in that report. Um, now we will turn to our public speakers. Mr. Clerk, would you call the first public speaker?

Certainly. Our first public speaker on this item is John Muso, followed by Ginger Brown.

Mr. Muso. Uh good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the county board. John Misa, government affairs manager at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of the Arlington Chamber, I wish to express our strong support for this project, and we urge you all to please adopt the GLUP reszoning and associated amendments regarding this project. This proposal reflects a significant positive investment into the Langston Boulevard corridor and really helps advance so many of the goals that the proponents and staff and drafters of Langston Boulevard area plan and vision for this specific area. As mentioned, this would generate 300 units of housing along Langston Boulevard, including 19 committed affordable units, more than 7,200 ground floor square foot of ground floor retail, in addition to a host of very positive community benefits, as mentioned with additional green space in the park plaza hybrid, pedestrian infrastructure improvements, bus stop enhancements, bike lanes, storm water mitigation, and so forth. This project before you represents a tremendous investment in the goals for Langston Boulevard and specifically this space in area five of spat run Kirkwood and Langston Boulevard of becoming an activity hub of vibrant mixeduse development and the project before you really greatly advances that and we please support it and we look forward to the implementation of this and ultimately the imple implementation of similar projects in this area and throughout Langston Boulevard and realizing the vision that we want so badly for this corridor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Muso. Miss Brown.

Hi. Good morning, Chair Deferanti and members of the county board. I'm Ginger Brown. I am the executive director of the Langston Boulevard Alliance. We've been working for many years on developing the Langston Boulevard Area Plan, and we are very pleased to be here to discuss the first plan, the first site plan that was uh filed under uh Langston Boulevard Area Plan. This is an especially important project and site because it is location located located in one of our commercial centers and it will serve as a neighborhood center of activity. Uh the project delivers many required community benefits as you've already seen today um such as significant storm water infrastructure, affordable housing, tree canopy, pocket park. It offer it also offers appealing architecture and retail opportunities. LBA was pleased with the applicant's willingness to engage with the community uh for over two years and negotiate with staff for for a very long time and we are very um pleased to support the project and hope that you will urge you to approve that today. Uh however, this project abuts one of the most problematic and accidentprone intersections along Langston Boulevard. Even after a decade spent planning Langston Boulevard, transportation studies for this dangerous intersection are still um far away. We want to make sure that they don't slip and that they actually start moving forward. Um it's we ask that the county board join the planning commission, the transportation commission, the community, LBA, and uh take quick and decisive action to transform the intersection to a safe, walkable place that was envisioned in the Langston Boulevard area plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Brown. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker. Joining us virtually is Mr. Mark Cooblins, followed by Miss Claire Jacobson. Are you there, Mr. Cooblins?

I am. Hello. Thank you. Good morning. Uh, chair and members of the county board. I'm Mark Cooblins, president of the Maywood Community Association. I want to focus on this site and the impacts on safety and everyday mobility along Langston Boulevard. As you know, this is one of the most dangerous corridors in Arlington already. residents are facing real risk in crossing the streets, biking, and even making short local trips safely. And now we're asking about adding hundreds of new residents at this exact location, which makes multimodal transportation the central issue. If we're serious about vision zero in the Langston Boulevard area plan, we cannot add this level of density without accelerating safety improvements. That means moving the corridor study and prioritizing near-term fixes. make to be clear, we're not against the uh site plan, but we want to make sure that it's done safely and considering all these transportation impacts. At the same time, the project's going to set a precedent for the neighborhood hub. It must fully deliver on community benefits, not nearly, but fully uh through safe site design and meaningful public space. A hidden pocket park, for example, within the shadow of the new building is going to help the immediate residents of that building, but doesn't seem like a real community benefit for the larger community. Even though it's public, it's it's not realistic. Storm water and flood mitigation is required, but should not count as a community benefit. In the same way, this is only the first or second major project here, and getting it right matters because it's going to set a real precedent. Looking ahead, there's a lot of sites nearby along Langston, including likely across the street. That's likely going to be the subject of future development. And what happens at this Walgreens site absolutely will set a precedent. Growth without safety isn't is a choice. And today we're asking you to choose safety. If you don't, it gets more and more difficult with every subsequent site that comes under development. We cannot afford to miss this opportunity here. Vision Zero and the area plan are meaningless if they're not followed at this point. I thank you for your

consideration and we appreciate this and also working with the developer as as they've noted for the last two years. uh the community associations including Maywood have appreciated that coordination and we hope that we can get it right now to ensure that this building can Thank you, Mr. Collins. Thank you, Mr. Collins. Our next speaker is Miss Claire Jacobson followed by our three minute speakers beginning with Miss Jacqueline Snowy.

Miss Jacobson. Uh good morning chair and uh community uh Arlington County members. Uh my name is Claire Jacobson and I live in Line Village. Although I am not against this uh redevelopment of the Walgreens site. I do have several concerns actually serious concerns be regarding the scope of the development. Uh my biggest problem is density and the height of the building. We are now at 13 stories which is to me ex excessive. It's it's a small lot and we're putting a lot and I do mean a lot in that very very small lot. So I would again I'm expressing my concerns actually opposition objection to that type of size of a development in such a small lot. Also, it clashes with the surrounding neighborhood residential area of of Lion Village. It it clashes with that especially especially the building height. So, and I have expressed those reservations and concerns at the SPRC meetings also at the latest uh community uh planning uh planning commission meeting, but it appears my concerns or objections are falling on deaf ears. So I am hoping against all odds that there would be a reook at the project at the development. As I said I am not against it but that there would be a reook at the development with a view to scale down the size of the development. Thank you.

Thank you Miss Jacobson. Next speaker. Yes. Our next speaker for three minutes is Miss Jacqueline Snelling followed by William B. Lawson Jr. Miss Snelling. Good morning all. Morning.

Right now, the vision for Langston Boulevard is an important aspiration for a new development corridor for our future. So, as someone said, as important as the Columbia Pike, it will be a significant challenge requiring your leadership to take the guidelines seriously to change this busy commuter highway into the vision of an attractive and engaging green main street. That's a big challenge. This project, the first for the hub in the valley, will substantially determine if we are serious about meeting the challenging guidelines to achieve the vision or if we are just about the rush to build more units. This is the decision that is in your hands today. As you have heard, the project required more ground space than was anticipated to address the flood risk. So late in the process, the building was moved with cuts to required or guideline elements at the ground level. This included the cuts to the public space from 5,000 to um uh 4,300. It included um re reducing the setbacks from Kirkwood. It included reducing the pudo. It included ground level space for mature trees. Yes, they met it through the second level, but that's not the same as ground

level. and staff now conceds that the revised project only quote nearly meets of guidelines. If we want a chance of changing Langston Boulevard to a gracious main street, we have to start by fully meeting the guidelines for these important features. Storm water, as has been said, is going to be an issue for the projects in the rest of this hub in the Spoutrun Valley. It can't be an excuse for not meeting these critical guidelines for the vision. We ask you to send this project back to staff and the developer for revisions to fully meet the guidelines a um and vision and if necessary to make a small reduction in the bonus units to the vision. Meet the guidelines first then the bonus. We want this project to lead the way with a balanced, spacious ground plan rather than settle for building that is squeezed next to the highway and road into a space that is not sufficient and too small.

Thank you, M. We have confidence that if you ask them, this team can fully achieve this goal together. Thank you. Thank you, Miss. Our next speaker is Mr. William B. Lawson Jr. followed by Bernie Burn. Mr. Lawson,

uh, good morning. Uh when I was a a young child, I can remember uh my father parking the vehicle on top the hill and we were watching cars literally float down the stream due to the flooding. At the time this was a hot shops and when I uh turned 19 I worked with Martin Gas and they uh solved uh as best they could at that time uh the flooding and they put in these pipes that were big enough that I could walk upright and we sealed uh the joints. uh this property after hot shops to the best of my recollection it was a storage yard for I think it was uh Dominion Power and they stored their trucks there. Uh the site was then bought by Mry Mount University and they were going to put a satellite c campus there. Uh but uh in in the meantime they bought uh the site in Boston and they sold this to Holiday and Holiday planned to do housing for the elderly uh at this site. Uh but then Eert Drug came and made them a an offer that uh they decided to go with what could go there by right. So uh that's what they ended up doing. Um, a real estate agent uh named uh Rosemary Trant Lauer came to me and she had the pawn shop and I took it to uh Greg with Rooney and they put a contract in and we went to work uh then to acquire this site. Um to our astonishment, the tenant exercised their right of first refusal and so we lost the pawn shop. Now the reason I'm boring you with all this is in the real estate development industry uh sometimes we say a site

doesn't know what it wants to be and all kinds of uses happened here and uh in the meantime you know what 10 years ago whatever it was um the Lee Highway Alliance began their work subsequent Langston Boulevard Alliance and thanks to Ginger and all the others that devoted all these hours. We now uh know what this site wants to be. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Lawson. Next speaker. Yes. Our next speaker is Bernie Burn, followed by Michael Foster. Mr. Burn, are you there virtually? Can you hear me? We can. Go ahead, Mr. Burn.

Yes, thank you. Uh despite the pretty pictures that Mr. uh Williams showed you, this frack project lacks a shapilia. There is no green roof. No plants hang from the roof or clar trelluses. Further, the roof lacks solar panels. Where are these? A ledge above a ledge above the third floor will contain trees and other plants. However, that is not enough. The applicant should reply install native perennials that support pollinators in all tree trenches and other available spaces near streets and sidewalks. The conceptual land use plan shows examples of these. However, the plan does not show that the applicant will actually install them. Uh the the public space has too much imperial from pavement and too little green space. And here we are at a flood area. And so why isn't this almost all green space with a small path? The plant schedule does not contain any milkweed. The applicant should add common milkweed to the plant list. Common milkweed is the most important food plant for monarch caterpillars in all and its vicinity. Although common milkeed spreads through its roots, the spread is not rapid. Routine maintenance needs to uh and mowing can remove it from places where it is not desired. You can't uh you can't really achieve your the 2017 Monic pledge without adding common milkeed. The plant list contains three cultivars that are no more resistant to disease than their parents are. October glory maple uh durat river birch and wildflower tut wild wildfire tupelo. Many cultivars do not feed pollinators because they are sterile or have deformed flowers. The applicant should replace these cultivars with their

parents or with native trees that have similar characteristics such as height, width, and leaf color. However, probably the worst part about this project is that unlike all recent site plants, the conceptual landscape plan for this plant project does not identify the species of any shrubs, perennials, or ground covers. It only describes trees. the uh the the county zoning administrator, Arlova Vanum, therefore asked the applicant to submit a draft plant pallet just like all other projects do. However, in a response stated um uh June 20th, 22025, Mr. Williams refused to provide this uh this project, citing some legal objections that may be legal but don't hold water. the uh the the public is therefore unable to evaluate and comment upon the suitability of any such plants. Some of these plants may be invasive or worse may be toxic to the humans, animals, dogs or especially dogs. Staff may not recognize this. We're reviewing the final landscape plan. to ensure public safety

to ensure public safety need to deploy approval. You need to deny approval of the site plan. Please conclude. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burn. Next speaker. Yes. Our next speaker is Mr. Michael Foster, followed by our five minute speakers, beginning with Aaron Roberts. Mr. Foster.

Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the county board. My name is Michael Foster. I'm a resident, neighbor, and business owner within a few blocks of this building. I actually moved to this neighborhood about 35 years ago. And one of the first things I did after noticing what amazingly wonderful neighbors I had is I wondered why it was so ugly. So I called the county and talked to a young planner named Gabrielle Akira who's a young planner in the office before she was an assistant county manager and she shared with me a portfolio of sketches, beautiful ideas that she had prepared for the county. That was 35 years ago. Nothing happened. Then my college roommates Vic Dover and Joe Cole did a study about 20 years ago to see a vision of transitoriented densification and nothing happened. And for the last 15 year or about 15 years ago, Sandra and Ginger walked into my office at courthouse and we're starting this Langston Boulevard or back then the highway but L Boulevard lines and I bet I've worked on two or three dozen projects or more on Len Boulevard over 15 years. and various members of the county said, "Mike, I know you're right. You got the exact right answer. Give us 18 months. This will be solved."

18 months. I've been hearing 18 months for 15 years. So, I'm not here to complain about that. I'm here to demonstrate perspective, a little bit of humor and levity, and to thank the county staff for working so thoughtfully and carefully on this site to make it better and to thank this community and the efforts of the NS Boulevard alliance and the neighbors to make this better and and the applicant for spending no small sum to make it better because nothing is perfect but perfect is the enemy of good and this is a symbolic project to be approved now before the applicant runs because it's a very expensive effort and um I want to congratulate you all on the success and the symbolism of the first commercial project that will serve density Transportation and Environment. Thank you all.

Thank you, Mr. Foster. Our next speaker, yes, our next speaker for 5 minutes is Aaron Roberts representing the North Highland Citizens Association, followed by Andrew RDE representing, excuse me, representing the Lion Village Citizens Association. Mr. Roberts.

Hi. Thank you all. I'm Aaron Roberts here for North Highland Civic Association. So, thank you all for your time. And I'd like I'd like to suggest that the the interesting question before you today is not whether to approve or to deny this project. The interesting question is what is the county going to do to enable important projects like this one. This is ultimately a question about building walkable streets. This is ultimately a question about transportation safety. There is no dispute about the danger of this site. The only questions that arise are in the last half decade, is it the fifth or the third most dangerous in the county? I spoke recently to a first responder uh who described a crash so gruesome in the early as that paramedics removed pieces of humans from the crash site. These are all preventable tragedies completely preventable tragedies. We just need to act. So, it helps to reframe how the Langston Boulevard area plan was messaged to our communities. As you all know, the simple message was clear and compelling. The county would signal to investment capital that they could expect to unlock certain increases in the value of their lots and in exchange we would see private investment in public goods. And for this site, we're seeing some of that. We're seeing important affordable housing ah contributions critically important in a moment of deep affordability crisis for our community. We're seeing box cover culverts. We're

seeing lots of different things. What's missing, what is scandalously missing is a comprehensive plan for how to keep our residents, our friends, our neighbors out of the hospitals. Critically important, not just because of this site because of but because of all the other sites that will go up in the immediate environments around this site. And so I stand before you today to ask that as you're deliberating about the future of this site. Please align yourselves with the recommendations of two commissions, the transportation commission and the planning commission. Study not just this site, but this this five area 5A and B corridor from Roslin to I66. no later than fiscal year 27. And perhaps more importantly, because this is not an academic exercise, commit to funding the recommendations of the study. And so that this has teeth in it, please, please, please consider adding this as an instruction to the county manager and his staff as you prepare to approve this site. Thank you so much for your time. Sorry to take time, but I think it's important. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Roberts. Next speaker. Yes. Our next and final speaker is Andrew Rude with the Line Village Citizens Association.

Uh good morning. Is it still morning? Yes, it is still morning. Uh thank you for this opportunity to speak. Uh I'd also like to thank the members of the county board who took their life in their hands. uh to tour the construction site and I understand for at least uh one member of the board is actually quite a close call getting across uh Langston Boulevard. So I appreciate your concern. I'd like to echo uh some of the things that my uh colleague said and I hope you had had the opportunity to read the letter that the four civic associations had sent to you uh which made uh three simple asks. Uh one is is that the site fully meet the requirements of playing plan, Langston Boulevard or the Langston Boulevard area plan. I'm afraid that if it doesn't, other following developers will also fail to meet all the requirements of the plan. So therefore, I think you are not only not realizing the full objectives of the of the plan, but actually you're setting the plan on a path to failure. Uh secondly, I would like to uh thank uh my neighbor Jim for the mention of the need to study the safety not only on this intersection but elsewhere in the boulevard and the long timeline required to put

programs in place. what 12 years for the ADA compliant sidewalks and the traffic lights now under development in Langden Langden Boulevard. So, we asked three things in our letter. One, the site fully comply with all the terms of the of the Langston Boulevard area plan that a traffic study that's being that was proposed by the trans that by the planning commission be undertaken and that steps be taken to put in place safety measures at that intersection. It's not only necessary for this intersection I but I think for the long-term success of the Clinton Boulevard area plan. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. RDE. No further speakers on this item.

Thank you. Um so the conversation is now with the board. Um I propose uh I think it's certainly we had that we have discussion and then without current plan unless there's extended discussion. I think that as far as buckets we we will move in due course to a to a motion I believe but for me there's transportation is at the heart of what uh residents and commissions have wrestled with. Um and so I'll I propose that we start there. I'm happy for others to jump in, but I will start to sort of filibuster so you can get your questions revving um or rolling um with asking there's one slide that is repeated both in the regular section and the vaunted backup slides that colleagues uh much enjoy. And I don't know the regular page of the presentation, Matt, but it's page 40 in the backup slide. it's on transportation and um I want to sort of tease out we've had conversation we've been briefed by by staff on this and uh so once we pull that up I just like to to sort of focus in on that a little bit in the in the following sense um the that slide mentions I want to see if my I don't know the full answer to all the questions I want to see if my my sort of going through there's the study that many have mentioned, many of the speakers mentioned and then there's the audit which was part of your presentation but not necessarily to my ears deeply touched on by by speakers. It's my impression

and I tried to sort of pre-check this that can you describe to me and I apologize for not Google mapping it Oakland Street to North Barton Street. It's broadly about area 5. Is that is that fair or is it much bigger and this may be for Bryce. Sorry. I hand this over to Dan Neighbors. Sure. Mr. Neighbors,

is that working? Okay. Yeah, Mr. Chair, uh to answer your question, it is broadly uh the area of that is we label as area 5. It's a little bit outside of it, which includes the interchange area that we discussed with 66

um and includes that intersection of Kirkwood um and Langston Boulevard as well. Um great. And there is a map too if you kind of go I think to the previous slide that shows the the overlapping area. So the actual um highendry network safety audit that we are proposing to conduct this summer is actually that dashed line area you can see that

overlaps for a few hundred feet with the area 5 study but it is that central area around that Walgreens uh site. Great. And so, and now I'm recalling that in the 2 by twos, you did mention the dash. I apologize, but my impression, my takeaway on the audit is that that there would be some analysis and there would be consideration of smaller type adjustments to help with safety. Can you say a little more? Is that accurate? And can you say a little bit more about what might be considered there? It's sort of my impression that many of the the the chain the the the steps that we would need to take for this area as a whole could be quite costly. Um but there are some smaller efforts that we could move on and that the audit would attempt to sort of consider. Um and those smaller pieces might or might not require uh VOTE engagement etc. Do I have it broadly? white right and if not contradict and clarify what I've got wrong.

Sure, Mr. Chair. Um you do have it broadly correct. Um we are looking at um doing the safety audit to look at what the lowhanging fruit is. What are the things that could be done in a short term before the study um you know has results? What can we do to improve safety? And we have done this process for the last 5 years on other quarters which we call on our highendry network. The results of that are um often um you know signing and marking changes uh sometimes signal phasing changes things of that nature that uh provide an incremental approach to addressing safety. Um this uh safety audit we do will also feed into the larger study, the area five study. It will be an important piece to get VOTE notification of some of the things we're finding on from a safety standpoint that will be incorporated into that study and to begin working with VOTE on some of those items.

Great. So the cost do we have any ballpark of the cost of the study andor the types of improvements once you for me just not getting to you know precise dollar amounts but if you were to get to improvements that were more than a than a that were in the more than $2 million I'd be surprised and if you were the study were to be more than $500,000 I'm just spitballing but do I have magnitude of the cost in terms of staff time and or if there's any consultant pieces that you would do within existing contracts and or types of cost of uh what the audit would be like in terms of um what you're doing.

Yeah, for the for the um the area five study, I think your figure is is pretty good. Um in terms of the um safety audit and the cost of that, that is done internally by staff. uh the things that come out of those safety audits are what we do through the vision zero plan. And so a lot of the things you see on the street, the turn hardening, which you know we've found to be effective in reducing speeds as vehicles traverse intersections, those are low cost. You know, typically a few thousand per intersection. Those are the types of things that could come out of the high injury network safety audit. The larger study will look at, you know, what are the more comprehensive changes that is kind of more fitting with the long-term vision of the Langston Boulevard plan. Um, all these things though, I will say will have to require VOTE concurrence. And when it comes to the study, the area five study, the reason that the study is we we say it's as long as it it is is because it has to work through some of those more difficult things with Vita.

Great. Thanks. I feel like if it's okay colleagues, I'll now sort of open it after one concluding comment on the audit because if we take the audit and then maybe next the whole issue and I don't want to do too much of the questions but um there's a road old Dominion that you know is finally a judge had had a car land in her you know front yard like six times and many other people and they're ballards are ballards and sort of those are those the type of things that could emerge from the audit or because of the the road here would that not emerge um from the audit?

Our our hope is again the caveat is always working with VOTE but our hope is those types of elements are things that could come out of the road safety audit. Great. I'll pause kick it to folks for questions on the audit andor moving us forward to the full study. Um and I I saw vice chair coffee and then Mr. Karen Tonus.

Great. Thank you. And um Mr. Neighbors, I know that this is not nearly our first high injury network zone that we we are taking a look at. Um I'm wondering if you could share a couple of the places we've already done and um kind of to Mr. DeFront's point, a little flavor of what were the investments that we were able to make in response to what we found when we looked at those areas. um so that people so that we can all understand really what the level of expectation can be here with you know the asterisk around V dot of course um but I think I think it'd be helpful for everyone to get a a picture of what are the types of things we've done elsewhere that could maybe be in the mix here

yeah absolutely um so uh we have actually done a hydra network safety audit on the eastern part of Langston and one of those things that came out of that was putting in some rectangular rapid flashing beacons. Um, so those are things we we just finished one at John Marshall this within the past 12 months which was uh, you know, one of those things that we looked through one of the safety audits. Um, we've also looked at Walter Reed. We have some projects coming there. Um, a lot of our quick builds that we do come out of these safety audits. And sometimes the quick builds are made with these temporary materials, meaning the flexible posts, um, some of the the concrete separators if you're talking about a a bike lane. Um, so things of that nature, the the RFBs. uh on on Walter Reed, we're going to see um uh RFB that comes out of that as well where there was no um controlled crossing previously. Um, we're also going to see in terms of the the little bit longer term quick builds, um, you know, some curb bumpouts, some curb extensions to reduce crossing distances for pedestrians, to reduce vehicle speeds as they're turning corners, to make things ADA compliant for pedestrians that are trying to navigate these roadways. So, those are some of the things that we've looked at and and a few examples of things from the past.

Great. I think that's really helpful. I think, you know, there's re-engineering our streets, which often needs to happen, but there are pretty impactful things that we can do to this um in the meantime. And I think, you know, I also just highlight for we'll talk about budget later, but this is part of why it's really important to keep funding the PGO section of our um street investments. Um so happy happy to make those connections there. um because as much as these projects are not the million-doll multi-million dollar bucket that we're going to get to down the line, they are also not free uh to install. So, I really appreciate that. Um and then I think, you know, we know that as you do as we as we approve site plans and things actually get built, we always have followup transportation analysis and we don't just let things get built and let it go. Um what is the intersection though between that transportation followup which is usually around utilization and and mode split and and are we hitting our TDM targets with also the vision zero team and safety because I think um I think usually when we're talking about that transportation follow-up it's it's a little bit of a different thing but it seems critically important here that there is also that vision zero conversation as part of the followup.

Yeah, I'll try to answer that. Um, you know, the the vision zero program looks at things from a lot of different lenses. Um, obviously our objective is to reduce all uh serious injury or uh fatal crashes on or before 2030. So, we're always doing these analyses where we find, you know, what are the um the action spots and a few of the speakers mentioned um you know, the intersection of Kirkwood U and Langston as being one of those those action spots. We're looking at the high injury network, but we're also doing systemic analyses too to see where there's um you know similar characteristics between different sites um and if there are crashes in one of those sites but not the other, we do some sort of systemic measure that looks at addressing things in a proactive nature. So those are the types of things that would come into play here that we would look at some of those proactive elements um particularly at intersections because we know that's where most of our crashes occur. Um so that's where I would say the the our focus would be um as things change and redevelop. We look at um how we apply things in a systemic nature.

Great. Thank you. I I think it's just important for us to all know that you don't just leave things alone once you look at them once. And so um I will have more concluding comments on transportation around what I think you know we all agree we can commit to and then my other two buckets of questions would I have one land use one storm water and then closing comments. So sure. So um thank you. I propose I mean I think let's work transportation a little bit and and we can have broader questions on transportation. I was sort of appreciate you helping us work through the audit piece. Mr. Kennis,

thank you Mr. Chair. Uh to be honest uh as well I have more concluding comments than questions. This has been extremely thorough vetted and etc. I have one one question and I am so happy to see you here Mr. Neighbors and Mr. Johnson. Um so from my perspective and from my experience uh so far this is the experience I have scoping both audit and transportation or trans you know studies of the circulation transportation configuration on a on on a tough place with the highway feeders uh uh immense enhancement of lanes where you know if it's a foggy day you cannot see across etc. So it needs some focus. I mean in what way uh I mean we see here the uh community saying this is an unsafe intersection. We don't like it. But there are more things there. For example, I read from the comments uh we actually want to be able to walk to our neighborhood retail where it's not only that I want to be safe, I want it to be convenient, too. Uh we want to see bike lanes. We want to see uh uh you know dedicated or about to be dedicated bus lanes. We want to see public transit playing a a bigger role. I want to see a different completely different type of connectivity and feeling there. So at what part of this process do we invite the community to really steer our scope and how do we do that?

You mean of the study correct? Study. Yes. Transportation study. Yes. I think it's to Mr. Neighbors.

Yeah. So um again where when we have that programmed is for um beginning next year in 2027. Um so engagement will be very similar to like we do a lot of these studies. You know they'll be um we'll we'll show what the analysis shows and we'll have an engagement cycle that we invite feedback to um see what the community concerns are. Before that though, we'll be able to take uh you know look at the community's feedback through the safety lens when we do the Hindrew network safety audit this summer. So that'll be the the first point for the community to engage on that important topic. So there going to be multiple touch points through the different things that we have programmed on Langston Boulevard for the community to engage and provide feedback.

Thank you, Mr. Neighbors. You good? Mr. Spain.

Sure. I I'll thank you, Mr. Chair, and my colleagues for uh some thoughtful input around transportation and also to uh everyone who's come to uh voice their concerns and I can appreciate uh from the Langston Boulevard area plan space is that this is this sets a standard for others to have perhaps emulate down the road. All that being said, you know, I played great attention to what Mr. Foster stated when he said, "Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good, but also to Mr. Roberts who uh you know, Robert said, you talked highly about transportation safety." So, my question to staff, and I think you've heard this from our my colleagues, I want to understand a little bit about what it would take to move up the area five study. uh from 27 what would it take in you know potentially with staffing funding even procurement I know you're going to go into an engagement cycle you said 27 I don't know what month that may be in 27 is you know is that December 2027 I doubt it but can you give us some idea what that may look like given everything else that is that's going on this summer

yeah I'll try to answer that so first the the last point in terms of when in 27 we're talking about starting ing data collection in early 27, like the first quarter, and then the engagement would follow right after that. So, we're talking about the first half of 27, um, kicking off the study. Um, can I pause you for a second? May I pause you for a sec? So, you're saying definitively that between January and March of 2027, we're going to launch this. We're going to begin data collection and engagement shortly after that. Yes. Good. All right, go ahead. Um, so what would it take to move? It is I think your other question. Um,

you know, we have Arlington transportation futures planned.

Um, you know, we have staff trying to complete that and wrap that up this fall, which gives us the big picture of where we want our priorities to be um in the county. So uh you know that's where our our staff is is you know spending time to do that the right way first before you know be jumping into this other project. The other thing too is um you know looking at doing what can be done in the immediate future to help advance the lowhanging fruit. What are the things that can be done in that short term and how does that feed into the larger study? And so that's why I think, you know, having that uh that high injury network safety audit occur over the summer and working with the community to that on that and having that feed into the the larger area 5 plan is is really critical. I I feel an important piece of that.

Yeah. I guess for me I'm thinking there's several studies going and I'm wondering what is it potentially we will learn in 2027 that perhaps could have help informed us uh in the in the scope of what we're doing with this particular site plan. So, I understand there's additional studies coming down the road, but you know, once we start something, right, um, coming back later on, I don't want to, you know, it it may be too late, maybe not, but, uh, what we're hearing, right, what I'm hearing from our commissions, what I'm hearing from the community is that there's a unique and and serious concern about this particular area and and um, uh, intersection. So that does not pass me by, but I understand this is a very also a critical important uh project for us to get started. So thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. Miss Cunningham. One of my favorite Arlington Historical Society um articles is about this intersection that used to be called Dead Man's Hallow. So we've come a long way from when uh robbery and murder were the issue to uh but we still have a long way to go on on the transportation safety. Um, I have a couple real quick questions. Uh, one is on ownership. Uh, I know there's been interest by the community in could we take back Langston uh to be owned by the county. I know some studies been done there and and if we could just briefly answer where we are on that.

Well, that is something that we uh looked at. Um and you know there in part of that research we see that there's obviously a co cost associated with ownership but there's also a lot of uh constraints we see we've had multiple discussions in VOTE and trying to understand what would ownership of Langston be from our discussions we see that it wouldn't be as cut and dry as like Columbia Pike or even uh you know Fairfax Drive which used to be Virginia 23 37, right? Um that you know, Langston Boulevard is part of the national highway system and so VOTE treats it differently and they would always retain some sense of of ownership um because that would still remain as part of the national highway system. Uh the other difference in the roadway that you know when you really kind of drill down to a microscopic level that you see is there's a lot of intersecting VOTE roadways that would obviously be retained by VOTE including the intersection with a spout run um including the ramps which are you know part of I66 and that um you know uh jurisdiction of the Federal Highway Administration. So, um, you know, I think this is something that we're always willing to revisit. I I think certainly understanding, um, that there would be a lot of, for lack of a better word, baggage that we would, you know, have to carry that we wouldn't really have control over and VOTE would retain control made it um, seem as, you know, not an easy take right now. Um but we're exploring other things and other ways that we can you know partner with VOTE to uh ensure the vision, ensure that we

are effectively collaborating on some of the things that we want to see to really change the nature of of Langston Boulevard and and in addition to some of the things that you know we've been talking about um we see you know just uh looking at how people drive the corridor is obviously important too and While uh speed limits don't totally define the roadway, at least having those where we think they should be and working with Vita on those speed studies is a very important element of that as well. That will all um the intention is for all those to happen and occur before we do the area 5 study.

Great. That's really helpful background. Thank you. On the quick builds, um is there any constraint in doing them? you know, the pavement markings and ballards because it's a V dot road, you know, is does that slow things down typically uh or make it impossible?

Well, you know, it I I can't speak that um in terms of what VOTE thinks, you know, um obviously there's things that we do in a timeline that um VOTE's timeline doesn't match ours, right? Um, our hope is always that we're we're able to do things as as quickly as possible. Um, spec particularly the lower hanging things um and that we would be able to get those through fairly quickly. Um, you know, we just completed a a restriping um at the intersection of Langston and Scott that provides a a connection to the the Custous Trail and to, you know, a lot of students that bike to HB Woodlon, for instance. Um, that took us a few years. So, um, we weren't thinking that that scale of a project would, you know, take that long, but um, we're working effectively with FedOT. I think you know working um to do things in a timely manner.

Great. Thank you. And then I had one specific question about the plaza. We may need to pick the put the picture back up, but it looks like as it shifted in the last couple months, it kind of looks like you could have a vehicle come up onto that plaza. Can you share a little bit about what buffers, if any, are in place to avoid intrusion? Yeah, thank you. is that so it looks if I'm understanding that correctly that's Langston Boulevard in the bottom. Is that right? That's Kirk. That's the back. That's okay. So then that is less of an issue. We're moving on.

Um last two questions is pickup drop off I think has been raised as a continued concern. Could you just highlight where we landed on that and why there's no additional opportunity? Uh Matt uh Matt, could you actually bring that picture back up? That actually works pretty well for the pickup and drop off. Um so the applicant is proposing two on street pickup and drop off spaces next to the plaza. This is the southwest corner of the site on Kirkwood Road. Um it is near one of their residential lobbies. They have two, one on Kirkwood, one on Langston. Um they did previously propose some additional spaces uh to the east of this on Kirkwood. However, those were removed when the building was pushed back. um closer to Corkwood Road for the overland relief. Um so that that was the reason for those being lost. Uh we're staff is generally comfortable um or not generally, we are comfortable with the proposed um on street parking. Uh there is existing on street parking on both sides of Kirkwood Road uh to the east. Um and the applicant I'm sure would be happy to speak to that they do have some internal circulation available because there is retail um so there would be um spaces internal to the garage as well. And so that's like two spaces there. Three spaces

correct at the two. Two. Okay. Uh thank you. I think that's all of that.

Great. So I appreciate the efficiency there. I was just sort of thinking that we would do a motion. We can have it. There may be a couple of additional questions. Before we do that, I'd just like to keep showing our math. We we we had in mind the glory of ending at noon and so hopefully we'll get a motion out by noon, but it is time does not matter. you have an earnest group of board members and and and hopefully I'm still earnest being uh older or you know whatever. So the the question not older but but uh you know gray on this one whatever you want to call it. So back to to page slide 40 if we can or whatever the the coterminus one in the in the main presentation um that has the list of transportation improvements. I'm trying to I I just want to sort of share a few thoughts that came from the 2 by twos and try and align them with the civic association and some of the comments. So um it's April 18th, 6 months from now is October 18th. that is not when precisely when Dan suggested that the the study data collection but it's you know if you think that the month of December is not the most efficient month for work I suppose I at least from my standpoint the combination of the audit being done and the study then being planned to initiate in the first um quarter of the next year is seems closeish to me I've just teased that out to Mr. Spain's point and m and and Mr. Neighbor's response regarding moving this up. My conversations have indicated there is the mass transportation study which I feel like takes all of our a lot of our energy and so that would be would need to be moved through first. Um to my knowledge this

is high high priority and perhaps there is one other and I'll just be transparent. Um there have been significant Carlin Springs South Road has been a burning priority for a long time and I just respecting the need to prioritize all parts of the county. We have made significant improvements on Carlin Springs Road South. So the timing for a a full study which we're working going to work towards on Carlin Springs Road South and this it's my impression that those are the two highest priority studies. I'm not on on transportation after the master transportation uh study and that co-terminus work could occur but it's but there may be some relationship in terms of staff time between getting those done at precisely the same points but is there anything is this sort of broadly correct we have the resources in terms of staff we have the money um have I described a little bit of the various factors involved uh other than a discussion of CIP that are related to this study. I think it's for you, Mr. Neighbors.

I think uh your description is is is good in terms of, you know, what you outlined. Um those are our top two studies that we've prioritized, the South Carlin Springs and and the Langston Great Boulevard area 5.

Great. And then the other questions we did have enough conversation that the actual study might produce thinking of spout run might might produce ton there's a variability in the amount of costs that the study would could lead to in terms of recommendations just as you outlined the importance of a and I think the whole community would all say eventually a costbenefit analysis of Langston Boulevard led some who are advocates to say let's prioritize this narrow uh area 5 as opposed to a full you know whether or not we we seek to take control from VOTE. Um similarly uh we will talk about this in the CIP I have zero doubt. Um but you know if we were to commit to all of what we don't know the study will produce in terms of times in in the CIP that uh much as I like to be I just think that would be premature for us to do. So that's uh sort of me trying to show what is my sense of math on the transportation piece and hopefully now I would share let's put a motion on the table and then let's then we will have questions on all of the areas but I hope this has helped on transportation. So I think it's share coffee.

Great. Um and this uh there are two motions associated with this item if we proceed with the first motion. Um, I move that for agenda item 29A, the county board 1 adopt the resolution attached to the board report attachment number one, namely to approve the general land use plan amendment GLPA24-00004 to change the designation of the property from service commercial and public to medium office apartment located at 3130 Langston Boulevard. Two, adopt the ordinance attached to the board report attachment number two, namely to reszone ren 24-00004 the property from C2 service commercial community business district to CO2.5 mixeduse district located at 3130 Langston Boulevard and three adopt the ordinance attached to the board report. Attachment number three, namely to approve a new site plan SPLN 24004 to permit the construction of a 13-story building with up to 300 residential units and 7,228 square ft of ground floor retail gross floor area with modifications of Arlington County zoning ordinance standards for additional density, density exclusions, loading spaces, coverage and placement, and other modifications necessary to achieve the proposed development located at 3130 Langston Boulevard.

Second. Thank you. Um uh the question a little bit is to our county attorney because there's also a 29B and I'm proposing to try and get all of those on the floor if we can. Um and then vote on all of them. Is that permissible? So there's a motion and a second on 29A. Um, and then can we also put 29B for consideration and get a second and then finish the conversation on both parts? If you were to do so, I would recommend conditioning approval of the motion on 29B on approval of 29A. I think we can just wait. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Let's turn to the broader Thank you very much, Mr. Attorney. Yeah. Uh, go ahead. Did you want to speak? What I I'm trying to interpret what you you two just said. My instinct now would be for us to have all of the conversation and then at the end do 29B and vote on it and I would foreshadow that at that point we would not have conversation on 29B. I hope that is amendable to all colleagues. Motion's been made and seconded and vice chair coffee. Do you want to speak to your motion or and then we'll have discussion and questions as there are.

I do. Thank you. Um I'll start with comments. I alluded earlier I have two remaining questions. Um but I'll start, you know, I'm I'm really thankful to Rooney for being an applicant um who's been really as committed to our plans as we are. I think uh you all have been willing to work with everyone, including coming on multiple walking tours and um really being present, spending probably uncountable hours talking to so many different stakeholders who all have their own very strongly held opinions. Um and I I just I do really appreciate that. I think it sets an important example as we uh go through the Langston Boulevard plan process um of implementation that we have partners willing to come to the table and really commit to um working together. So I just I'll start with that. Uh I think one of the areas of of interest to me around land use is you know this was planned for consolidation with the the pawn shop site. Uh I understand for sure why that was not able to happen and I think you know we've worked through most of the associated problems there. Um but for our planning staff, you know, is there any form of guidance considered for if in the future that kind of now secondary site ever moves to redevelopment? I think we have um split these off understandably, but you know, it it I it seems like something we ought to be thinking about particularly uh with the recent experience around the in of Roslin where those two sites were hoped to be developed together. They split off and then we ended up with kind of a weird situation where the planning guidance didn't really work for what we had.

There we go. Um yeah, thanks for that perspective. I I think that's uh generally right. You know, the the we have to follow the planning guidance that that we have. Um there's no requirement for consolidation. So, I think we judge this site based on does it achieve the goals and objectives of the plan and and we believe that it does. Um, for the pawn shop site, of course, we we can't evaluate a hypothetical, but um I think that we would evaluate under the same framework. Um, although we recognize that there are probably lots of constraints uh to redeveloping that site.

Yeah. Okay, that's helpful. So the the general planning guidance that applied to the whole site would be the lens through which we would look at any future very constrained, deeply constrained um potential development on the smaller site. Okay, that's helpful. Um and then for our applicants, um we haven't bothered you a whole lot thus far. Um I really appreciate the storm water commitments. I think that is one of the biggest challenges to this location in particular. Um, and I know that we were asking we were asking a ton from this site as far as storm water goes. Uh, I think the hard infrastructure commitments that you've made are really important and and very much appreciated. Um, and I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about, you know, some of the softer things on the landscaping side because we know that those are also really important to managing storm water, particularly overland relief. Um, and if there's anything you can say about how landscaping and choices with that are being also potentially used as storm water features. We're going to invite Andrea Crosset with Land Design to speak to that. Sorry. Hi everyone again. Um Andrea Crosset with Land Design. um you know as we work I think we really work in tandem with with civil right as we progress forward as we if we're able to progress forward and we go to like the C process those elements of making sure you know there's a lot of regulations to make sure that we're meeting all those requirements to help with overland

relief and you know just mitigating um that that bigger issue Right. So, as we go forward in terms of species selection, all of those things will be very much organized and and in coordination with with the civils. Great. Yeah. No, I really appreciate that. I think I just want to make sure you know we we've got all the hard infrastructure built into the plan and making sure we really complement that and enhance that frankly with everything else that we do. So, um, great. I will have concluding comments but I will pass along for now. Thank you Mr. Spain. Oh I'm sorry. I'll come back later. Okay. Uh so colleagues um

I there you are Miss Cunningham. Go ahead. Slow. Um is this our last round before everything comments? Okay. You can either do questions quickly or but I think for me this will be the last round. So okay. Um so last round. Uh I think we've heard from the community members that they would prefer that the plan guidelines be fully met rather than nearly met. And so if you could comment on what it would take to get there and why um staff is comfortable where we are.

Yeah, I think um you know I respectfully don't agree with some of the comments we heard about nearly met. I think we believe that this plan uh achieves the objectives and the goals of the Langston Boulevard area plan. Uh as far as some specific things, you know, there is a target in the plan for a 5,000 square foot open space. Uh we're a little bit short of that. That uh adjustment was due to moving the building forward to accommodate overland relief pathways. That being said, in terms of the descriptions of the type, design, and programming of the open space, it meets the objectives of the plan, and so we're comfortable and support it moving forward. That's one thing. Um secondly with a couple of um minor um uh I don't want to call them deviations but minor differences with the uh proposed massing and stepbacks. There is an area on along the Kirkwood uh road uh side of the building where uh it doesn't it meets for roughly 85 to 90% of the frontage the um stepbacks except there's one small encroachment into the 35 ft uh step back zone above the 7th floor. uh in this case we don't think that it is a um very perceptible difference in the scale relationship of the building to the ground plane and so for those reasons we're supportive of it.

Great. Um that is very helpful. Thank you. Um I think beyond that just looking make sure we hit all of these. I will just tag one other item um which we talked about in the the first site plan to make it through um when we did Lucky Gardens recently. Um I think we have identified that the Langston area boulevard plan the uh height I can tell you page you had it in the presentation the I think it's page 13 in the presentation the the height chart in the plan um continues to be a bit of a a tension point because it is different when the than what the community um thought they were getting I think. Yeah, there you go. So, and I I think we talked about this a little bit with Lucky, but I I think the impression was that this was an uh you had to do both of these. And in fact, it's you have to do either of those. And so, I think this is one area that I want to continue to raise up as the the table itself, I think, was not understood by the community at passage and perhaps by the board at passage. And so this is essentially a 13-story building on some angles um instead of a 12-story building because of the height being under 136. And so I really do think this board needs to take that up and consider whether there whether any changes needed um because it is not what the impression was in in the passage of the plan. So just wanted to highlight that. Um and otherwise maybe I'll just do my closing comments too for efficiency which is you know this um Langston Boulevard is is truly been a generational effort. I've lived on the quarter for 30 years and which is sort of the definition of a generation and this has been a long time coming. So it's really really exciting. Um and I'm thrilled that that Rooney is

with us. I know it's been a you've you've paid the price a little bit of being early. Um but uh you're a hometown company and we really appreciate you making that investment in our community and others may forget to thank you in the future. Um but you you deserve that. Thanks. Um likewise to our community members who for about 20 years have been working on this plan in various forms and in various thousands and thousands and hours of meetings. Um, a huge thank you to to your vision, to your persistence to getting to this place. Um, and I know we have some tweaks to do over time, but it's a really really exciting uh step. Thank you all.

Thank you, Miss Cunningham. So, we're now over to concluding comments if there are burning questions. Certainly, Mr. Spain.

Well, Mr. Turonus, you took your light off and that's okay. I was No, I'm ready. I'm going to go ahead and conclude, Mr. Chair. um to what my colleagues have already stated. Thank you uh to the entire team on both sides, both from the the developers, the the county staff um for your work in this uh this project. Uh having lived right there on um Langston Boulevard for 9 months when I first came to to Arlington and my family and I in 2009, I'm I'm very knowledgeable about this this uh this area. But I will say as a person who I try to do my due diligence to listen to the community. Um there is a central concern that still remains and that is you know uh the community feels that we are advancing perhaps faster than transportation and safety infrastructure uh is needed still here in on the Langston Boulevard. But I think we found the right mix. Um, and as the liaison to the Langston Boulevard Alliance, I'll tell you uh why I support this and it's because it is a step in the right direction and we're moving forward. uh realizing that the Langston Boulevard area plan while it's not perfect, you heard, you know, some comments about that today, it does achieve, in my opinion and that of many others, a very thoughtful approach uh between how we're going to work in this very dense area with housing, uh our environmental design, uh economic vitality, uh walkability, storm water, the whole gamut. It's not perfect, y'all. But I think this is we're setting we have the right mix and moving forward. But I also want our commissions more personally to know and thank you for being here that we hear you and we thank you for your due diligence and the questions that came up because they're duly noted and if you read anything from what I'm saying is that I'm I'm

monitoring a lot of these projects because historically we say a lot of things upfront and we tend to and I say we we need to be careful. the board in the past has somehow forgotten what they've said or the commitments we've made. And I think as we set this condition moving forward, we're going to have to stay focused on it and ensure that you know, especially uh with transportation and safety that we don't you lose lives because of our um you know failure to act appropriately. And that's important. It's important to this community now. it's important to other areas in our community u where I've seen projects that were were lifted up and so um I am fully supportive of where we're at. This is a strong project. Again, u the contributions to AHIFF, many of you know what's going on with our AHIFF funds right now. They're dwindling, but so we appreciate that from my placemaking. Like I said, our storm water, all of that looks good. And um lastly, I would say thank you to Ginger Brown. uh she's not with us right now, but I I want to give her a personal shout out as the executive director of Langston Boulevard Alliance because uh she's put a lot of work into this and many others in the community, but she leads LBA and we've talked quite a bit about this particular project. So again, thanks to the entire team, thanks to my colleagues, let's move this forward and uh hence is why I'm supporting and why I second it.

Thank you, Mr. Spain. In this case, Vice Chair Kov, I'm going to go to Mr. Karen Tonus and come back to you if if that works, Mr. Santos.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I am going enthusiastically to support the motion to approve the project. Um, let me tell you one thing that uh you not always hear here. I I uh I think the architecture of the building is really good and this doesn't happen very often here. I uh I was quite impressed uh by the fact that the facade composition both on Blangston and facing I66 and facing Kirkwood most importantly is extremely thoughtful and it's really a fresh a breath of fresh air here in Arlington. Uh I will start from by the fact that you know you chose on the most civically important parts of the building to do round corners. Uh this handshakes were the first significant building on Colombia Pike in 2009 which was the then holstead but the George Law Corporation built and it had also the challenge of do round corners. round corners uh insignificant corners is a is a very big reference to civic perception there. Um and they are difficult and expensive. I I know that. Um the second thing is that you chose a a very modernist edge on Kirkwood. when you will be walking or biking up at Kirkwood to reach Langston, you will see an almost, you know, American modern uh uh composition of a vertical with the white uh balconies uh like you know a vertical key. Uh this is

an excellent presentation of the corner and uh if there is a part that I not I didn't like but I understand it was impossible based on the fact that you're on a podium uh on a parking podium. Uh, I would love to see this little plaza that you have in this corner that you didn't have a different corner, but I would love to see that being, you know, close to something that would look like a kiosk or something or, you know, some some retail there. Maybe this could come at some point in the future. It will be difficult but not impossible to retrofit. I I think that this place will be a respit and a very nicely done one. Uh I I think that you gave a lot of thought of how to design this place to make it uh make it available and inviting and in general the building actually um shows I mean it's a very nice street to Lion Village. the the transition of the building to Lion to Kirkut Park and to Lion Village is among the most the soft I mean an exemplary in my opinion an exemplary transition. I mean you put a lot of green on the mezzanine the amenities you you uh you you basically you handshake with the with the wooded area that you have across from Kirkwood. This is really nice. Uh I would la would have loved to see a green roof on this building. I hope that the load capacity is still there to may maybe retrofit it at some point. Uh one thing that this building has it is a west building. It will have a lot of solar gain. I think it it is a great opportunity for some solar architecture or or some retrofit with shade etc. Uh it will save you a lot of maintenance issues and a lot of energy in the

building. later uh just from the orientation. Um I think that the lodger is an absolutely great idea. Brilliant. Thank you for that. I do think that it's a narrow lodger uh to give you I mean in Arlington we haven't grown up yet in our urbanism, but we at sometimes we get things right. Uh there isn't a lodger that you can see in action. It's here in North Edgewood Street uh in Clarendon. uh it's wider than yours and it's usable for this businesses. It's not just a a buffer zone. It's actually usable space. This give this is an enormous uh benefit from the for the businesses and the retail that you will have have there. And I say that as somebody who who was a very uh uh you know frequent uh patron of Tarbush uh it's a nice corner to be. So, uh the um uh a few other things. Um this is a we now begin to understand and and I thank the the community for bringing the transportation issue up. I think that the transportation issues issue the discussion encapsulates a lot of things. Number one, it encapsulates the yearning of the community to see the vision of the uh Miss Nelling said that very eloquently, the vision of the walkable, green and and civically vivid boulevard. This is a a a activity hub which means retail and and community and neighborhood retail. And for retail, you need two things, three things actually. You need proximity which is given there. You need um attractiveness which you contribute a ton to that because others will have to match your the quality of your delivery and you

need connectivity and I believe that when we talk and of course safe connectivity we talk about walking and biking etc. So I think that this will this uh should motivate the community right now and especially Lancome Boulevard Alliance uh to be a booster and a first uh you know uh a front frontline advocate for uh these improvements. Um, in my opinion, make no mistake, engineers doesn't change transportation. They make it safer. They make it more usable. They they they know what they're doing. Who changes the uh the feeling of the place are people. And and this is why the Langston Boulevard alliance is so critical in this process. Uh and I agree with my colleague, Mr. Spain. I mean, congratulations to Miss Brown, but to to the entire Langston Boulevard alliance because this is also a a project that they accompanied for so long. So, thank you for this. Um, last but not least, um, uh, this is a I I fully agree with Mr. Foster. Uh this is uh a I hope that this really breaks the curse for Langston to see that as what it is which is a boulevard that houses people rather than it is a traffic sewer conduit for cars. Uh we are seeing starting from Rosslin all the way up we are seeing now the civic delivery of urbanism on Langston. It's not anymore just a plan. It begins to materialize and thank you Run for doing that.

Thank you Mr. Karen Tonus Vice Chair Coffee.

Great. Just concluding comments. Um you know I think there was a point where I and a lot of us were not sure whether this site plan was actually going to be able to come together. We ask for a lot on every single site across the Langston Boulevard plan. And sometimes it starts looking impossible to achieve it all and fit all those puzzle pieces together when we are asking for for truly a lot out of every single project. Um, affordable housing though was such a critical goal of the plan for Langston and I'm really proud of this application bringing forward a really strong contribution in both dollars but then also those onsite units that are so hard to find and help us bring geographic diversity into our committed affordable housing stock that that is going to be um just critically important as we continue to move forward on additional plans for Langston. Uh, and I think this is certainly a great example of how our processes can get us to a good outcome. Not perfect for everyone. Um, but we are really getting a great project here given every dimension that we're trying to improve and and shove into a relatively small amount of land. Um, and I hope that the community can see the impact that they've had in shaping this from the beginning of the project with the initial application through where we are today. uh we've had changes, we've had um you know voices heard, criticisms made, responses to that. And um again, we're not we're not getting perfect, but I think we are getting a great building out of this project. And we do have work to do on the transportation part of this um surrounding the site, this specific site, and this is going to continue to be a challenge for our Langston Boulevard project. This is this is a known thing. This is something that this board has spent a lot of time talking about and it's really challenging to

figure out how to align all the timing of these different things all at once when we don't know who's ready when and we don't know um we don't know what we don't know frankly and I think uh I was thinking yesterday we were down in Crystal City for uh a milestone in the in the second metro entrance down there and I remember in 2023 or so being in Crystal City was a very different experience than being down there today. And I remember thinking at that point in time like, "Oh my god, like what did we do to this place?" Um because it just there's construction everywhere. The sidewalks weren't right. The streets weren't right. The bike lanes weren't there. Everyone was kind of like I I have plenty of friends who live in apartments down there and they were like, "What is happening to my neighborhood?" And now if you're down there today, you can really see that vision that was there the whole time that as each piece coming together, it may feel really messy and like it doesn't make any sense and it doesn't fit. Um but as those different different parcels, different developments, different investments in our streetscape and in our public transit and um all of the different modes of transportation that we encourage start to finish and come together. you can see what we were going for. And I I think Langston is going to have that experience at some point too because we have to we have to do this site by sight and block by block basically. There's there's you know starting with one is really really important because it gets us going. It also can't solve every problem for the entire corridor from day one. And I think sometimes things look a little out of place when you make those investments on one block or one sidewalk and the other side of, you know, either side of it has nothing and it's kind of like what are we doing here? Uh but over time

reaching that vision and so you know on the transportation I'm committed to figuring out how we continue to prioritize the study and implementation of safety investments to the extent um possible. And I think uh I think we are all in in agreement that this is a priority. This intersection is going to continue to be a priority. Um and we will talk a lot about the funding available for infrastructure projects like this during our CIP process. Um we've got a a busy year ahead of us as this board. Um, and then just in general, you know, I'm really grateful to all the work from staff, the applicant, our community that has gotten us a a truly well-rounded project that advances our community goals on just so many different elements. So, thank you.

Thank you, colleagues. I'll try to not repeat. Folks have spoke well to this. Miss Jacobson, I was trying to think through the history of the phrase your concerns and deaf ears. I feel like we have from the dis mentioned the concern that you raised, at least I think Miss Cunningham alluded to them and more broadly. Um I'm not quite in a space of where I I do think that this is a location where and the the project is appropriate, but I do want to know you to know that you're heard. I think Miss Snelling Snelling you had a specific request regarding moving forward. I guess I am in a space where it's the followup on transportation that is my standard for where I'm I'm sort of that I think is going to be key and that's going to be needed from our board and Mr. Spain alluded to that. And finally, um, Mr. Roberts, I hope that the three different pieces that you've asked, while our answers might not have been, uh, fully satisfactory, I hope at least we have alluded to trying to be responsive. Um broadly I do think that this is um a project where um this is an investment that I think is going to help us move towards uh realizing the plan and I'm happy to support it. So with that the question is on 29A which has been moved by vice chair coffee second seconded by Mr. Spain. All those in favor say I.

I. Okay that passes 50. Now we're over to the 29B motion to Vice Chair Coffee.

Great. I move that for agenda item 29B, the county board one, approve the ordinance attached to the board report, namely to vacate portions of first, a 24 foot public storm sewer easement. Second, a 10-ft public storm sewer easement. And third, an easement for public sidewalk, bus stop, and utilities purposes on all property owned by RP Langston 1 LLC located at 3130 Langston Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia, with conditions. and two, authorize the real estate bureau chief to execute on behalf of the county board the deed of vacation and any other documents necessary to effectuate the ordinance attached to the board report subject to approval of all documents as to form by the county attorney.

Thank you vice chair co. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Spain. Colleagues, all in favor say I. I.

That passes 5-0 to Miss Guy as well as Mr. Williams and the team. Congratulations to our neighbors and the concerns mentioned. I trust and know that you will be back to hold us accountable for the followup and follow through which so often is the key to everything that's that that we seek to do. Folks, you guys can stay. You do not have to. We're almost basically finished. We do have one other item that we have to defer as I mentioned earlier, but you don't have to worry about rustling papers or making any noise because we're not going to make history uh with what's likely to be made. Although we will take action. Um, Mr. Kushner, would you call the next item, please?

Yes. Item number 30 is the site plan amendment to site plan number 452 to construct 47 townhouse units with modifications for lot coverage front and excuse me, front and sideyard setbacks and other modifications necessary to achieve the proposed development located at 2134 North Taylor Street.

Thank you, Mr. Kushner. Mr. Manager, uh, and Mr. Lamb, full and full respect. I did check with the county attorney. He has indicated that we can hold the presentation should issues come up in public speakers. Um the direction we're headed is a full deferral to next month and so we will get to see you again. My apologies for I I do think it's appropriate that we were prepared but I would move that we hold the presentation and reserve the ability and right to loop back to that. The same is true with respect to the applicant presentation. Although I do not see online that it may be that Mr. Cummings is online. Are you there online Mr. Cummings or no? I am

got it. So I will ask the same thing such that uh we hold any presentation from you. Um but I would offer the opportunity with the right that you would do something uh to do a more wholesome presentation. Is there anything succinct in the form of a sentence or sentences less than five that you would like to describe as to your position or just I'll I'll simply say that we have enjoyed a lot of public support on this and I want to thank everybody who has been offering that to us. Um we are working on the issues that remain and I look forward to building consensus and coming back next month ideally with unanimous support from everybody. Um we will work to build that and we will see what happens.

Thank you Mr. Cummings. I think you made it just under five. Very grateful for that. I do appreciate it. Hope you can tolerate that little uh piece. With respect to commissions, Mr. Lenti, thank you very much. We're going to hold your presentation as well. We will now hear from our public speakers as that is required uh by law and you have a choice as to how you handle this. We will hear you. We will also hear you next month. And so uh Mr. Kushner, could you call the first public speaker? Uh excuse me, Mr. Davis. I didn't look over. No worries. No worries. We will call the first speaker is Mr. Robert Senolu. Are you there, Mr. Are you there virtually, Mr. Sandaloo?

I don't see him on the line virtually. So, we can come back to him if you're okay with that. Sure. We now turn to in-person speakers and you may wave away your opportunity. You may come up. It is truly your choice. Mr. Muso, what's your preference? Thank you, Mr. Musa. We are grateful for that for sure and we will have a full opportunity. Is Mr. Jay Hicks there virtually? I don't see him online either, Mr. Chair.

Okay. Next, we'll turn to Mr. Bernie Burn. Mr. Burn, you also have the full right to speak now, but we will also allow you the full right to speak next month, assuming we take the subsequent action. Well, I'm not sure, of course, what they'll come up to, but I will speak at this time. Okay.

Uh, this project does not align with the Langston Boulevard area plan. As a result, it has several features that the area plan recommends, but are not appropriate to the proposed project. Because it is residential, this project needs more green space to accommodate trees and low vegetation. Green space supports butterflies and other pollinators. It also increases livability. The area plan recommends a public space containing a paved plaza and a lawn. These are needed to support the large population. The area plan recommends for a project in this site. However, a project as small as this one does not need a plaza or a lawn. The applicant should remove a lawn from the public space. Lands provide little habitat for pollinators. They also create storm water runoff. Most lawn grasses are invasive non-natives. Their mower uses energy and creates air and noise pollution. The applicant needs to replace the lawn with native trees, shrubs, and perennials. To its credit, the plant pallet contains common milkweed. This plant feeds many monarch butterfly caterp. However, the plant pallet also contains 10 species that are native to North America but are not native to Arlington and its vicinity. These include a tree s of the magnolia, shrubs such as ink berry, summer sweet and American bay beauty berry, a perennial, purple cone flower, and two ornamental grasses tufted hairrass and prairie drop seed. Native pollinators may not recognize these. They may not feed on the plant's nectar. The applicant should replace all non-natives with plants that are native to Arlington, Kansas City. These should have similar characteristics of non-natives that is planning to install. The site presently contains a woodland that provides many benefits to the

environment. If the applicant cannot pro provide the type of project that the area plan proposes, the county should purchase the property at its assessed value, preserve the woodland, and make it a park. I am sure that the neighborhood will appreciate this and I hope maybe the the applicant of the county board can discuss this at the next meeting. This if you can't if the applicant can't provide what is needed, buy it as a and make it a park and save that woodland. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Burn. Um, are there any more speakers on the list for us to call to give the opportunity should they wish to speak? Yes, we do have Mr. Paul Holland on the list. I am not sure I am seeing him in the room.

I neither see Mr. Holland in person. I I think he might not be there virtually, but I do not see him online either. Got it. So, last call is with respect to named speakers who have not come virtually because I or in person because I do not believe there's anybody else who listed to speak who has not. Is that And we're just making sure we're being thorough. Okay. With that, uh, the conversation for today is with the board and I will move that the county board defer agenda item 30 to no later than the May 2026 county board meeting. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Mr. Karen Tonus. All in favor of the motion say I.

I. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Clerk. Is there are there any other items to come before the board?

There are not. Colleagues, I do have one um sort of local US public service announcement. We did get the glory of markup. It turns out that there is guidance too that we must write and so um I will be working during nap time over the next couple of days to add my thoughts. We do have Monday and Tuesday, but go to the document. It is a shared document and go to the document and help us. Emotionally, it certainly feels like we are done and cooked three times over, but the guidance is super important and I want everyone to have the chance and there's a lot for us to help Ariel with. And so that's just a public service piece. I do need to talk to you, Mr. Attorney, briefly. Um, and colleagues, I may need to find you uh for short phone calls over the next uh I think it can wait till Monday, but that's enough of me blathering on. Colleagues, with that we are not adjourned, but we are recessed until Wednesday, April 22, 2026 at 3 p.m. I will end it with one thought. There is a couple of people in the back and Miss Cunningham made this thought. It's worthwhile. Who have I voted stickers on vote? Tuesday is a voting opportunity. We're not telling your choice on how you vote. Please vote. Thank you. We are recessed. Thanks for cutting it off.

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