County Board - Regular Meeting

our May 4th, 2026 county board town hall meeting. Uh I think almost everyone in the board chair D Faranti, this is vice chair Morin Coffee, board member Susan Cunningham, board member JD Spain, and board member Tacus Karanus. And we um welcome you here uh for our meeting in the central library auditorium. And then there will be some who will participate remotely through teams. Um just a few announcements before we begin to today. These will sound familiar to those who've been to many of our meetings, but we are trying to um engage you in conversation. First, per our custom over this last year, we will highlight resources for federal workers and immigrants. And we have the slide, I think, handy from Mr. Kushner. Uh we have our county manager here, uh Mr. Schwarz and uh Mr. Kushner, our clerk. Um when you have a chance to pull up the slide, I'll just trust that it's coming. Um and um this is also the these slides are also

for those for those of you

you who may have um may yourselves be impacted or know people who are impacted certainly pass along this information. Print out these slides is available uh up front if you'd like. Um, when you get a chance, please come to this microphone right here. Speak clearly so that everyone can hear you. If you're submitting documents as part of your testimony, hand them to the clerk, Mr. Kushner, with your name and contact information on all documents. For remote speakers, you may know the drill. It's keep your microphones muted and your cameras off until you called on to speak. You will need to unm mute using star six if you are on the phone or by clicking the microphone button on the toolbar if you're using teams on an app or a browser. A Spanish language interpreter is available for entering requiring assistance. Could our inter interpreter introduce themselves in English and in Spanish please? Is our interpreter Yes. My name is James by so far.

Sure. Thank you so much for being here and offering your services and if there's anyone in the room who needs his his help, please find him. It is very important us to us to be inclusive and to make sure that we are hearing everyone who is interested in participating. Two items to note regarding the facilities. If you um the restrooms will be unavailable for a few minutes from 7:55 to 8:10. That's so that they can be cleaned. They've been recently redone. And so um library staff will work to close those up for the evening. The library itself closes at 8 and the build the elevator outage in the building. access to the garage. If there's anyone brave enough to raise their hand that they parked in the garage or if there's anyone who did park in the garage, just um you need to know that um the garage will close at 8:00 p.m. Members of our staff are on site to assist you. We had a few folks outside uh who can help to gain access, but at 7:30 we will need to make a general reminder for you to relocate your vehicles if needed. I'm sorry about that, but there will be, I imagine, spaces if you need to relocate and we will see if we can move expeditiously so that everyone can speak and also have a chance for others uh for all of us to give you thoughts and response. Um we're ready to hear from our public comment speakers. This is an opportunity that's a little different from our regular public comment. Um this is in part a response a thought of all of us as we have heard concerns about one speaker per topic rule which um we kept as part of our procedures but added two town halls in order to hear from our community. Um this is unique. There's no one speaker per topic rule here. Um but there will be there is of course at the

regular monthly uh county board meetings our we I want to note that representatives from county managers constituent services team are joining us here today and are available to speak to you out in the lobby if there's any specific concern or inquiry that you have. Of course there are many other ways to get in touch with us as we um tried to emphasize through our budget process. Writing us at countyboard arlingtonva. us is one way. Open door Mondays are a way to have a more dynamic conversation and deeper exploration of your concerns and uh you can also email us and ask for an individual meeting and um typically we will have a chance to meet with you. There's more information available on our website. See our clerk or staff if you have any questions. So uh with that we're ready to hear from our first public comment speaker. There's one last note that I'll have. Um once everybody is done speaking, I think we have about 30 speakers or so, we will each of us will share thoughts with you. We will um and this is hopefully not uh a surprise that's too rough on colleagues. We'll apply it to all of us. We'll give ourselves five minutes to try or less to try and respond to those who shared their thoughts tonight. And that's part of the what we see is consistent with this forum, which this is our first town hall that I'm aware of in the time I've been on the board and before. And so um we will have five minutes to share our thoughts with you once you're done with that. Mr. Kushner, are you ready? And can you call the first two speakers?

Indeed. Just a moment. All righty. Our first speaker, Sam Leverson, followed by Cynthia, excuse me, Cynthia Hilton. Mr. Lavson. And just a note, green on that microphone means you're speaking as opposed to our boardroom. Okay. Wait. Say one more time. Green means a hot mic. This is different than at the county board. County board. Green here. Yeah. Needs to be green. Press the button in the middle. All right. There we go. Yep. Go ahead.

All right. So, I'm going to start with a trivia question. What is the only political state that Virginia has its own advisory board devoted to? Is it Switzerland, Kenya, Nepal, Israel, or Ecuador?

Hey, the answer is Israel and it's called VAB. The Virginia Israel Advisory Board. There's no Virginia Nepal Advisory Board or VANAB, right? There's also no Virginia Ecuador advisory board or VAB, but there is a VAB. And as you all on the county board have heard many times, we have seen a number of examples of Arlington Economic Development collaborating with VAB collaborations that have involved companies like Elbit Systems, which produce weapons that fuel the genocide, aparttheid, and occupation of Palestine. Some people still seem to be of the mindset of, well, you know, we need to devote economic development to Viab and weapons companies and get returns on our investment so that years down the road, Arlington will finally be prosperous enough to be able to fully fund community needs like healthcare or environmental services. But again, in reality, not only is any good that ViAB and these weapons companies provide far outweighed by the bad, and not only are our community needs current, but will any gains from working with Viab and the War Machine actually go towards community needs even 5 years down the road? Or will those gains instead go straight back into even more weapons and surveillance development? And again, it all feels kind of like one giant pyramid scheme. So let's make a paradigm shift in this county away from collaborating with VAB or putting economic development towards weapons companies and instead put it directly into any number of key community needs like healthcare and environmental services. Let us as Arlington County be a role model for every locality in this country anywhere from Florida to Alaska. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And uh we'll go to the next speaker. I would ask if folks can either stand in support of someone speaking or use the sign language. It's just is going to help us get to have a better interactive conversation. I would ask that with respect, but go ahead, Miss Hilton.

Okay. So, the trick is you push the little button. It's got to be green on the bottom. Yep. Whatever. Can you can hear me, right? You can't try one more time or we'll hop up and try and help you. I'm so sorry. No worries. It's working. I will also say each speaker can just leave it green if we just don't touch it. That's probably our best bet. Go ahead. Um, thank you.

Um, thank you. Uh on behalf of the Cheredale Citizens Association, thank you for this opportunity to share feedback on some priorities, beginning with cheers for saving the Cheridel Library and soon replacing the Bates trash contract. Challenges remain, including the failure of for-profit company Medical Facilities of America, the LEI that provides skilled nursing services on county property in Cheridel to manage commercial traffic at the site. As you know, the for-profit has been operating here for 50 years. All land related and property management functions were overseen by a county board citizen advisory committee until 2025 when patient care responsibilities were shifted to a new non-board committee leaving only board members to oversee land management at the site. Uh meanwhile, the for-profit has approved to provide Medicare Medicaid services and pursued opportunities to expand medical services and add beds to care for sicker, shorter stay patients despite substandard ratings from health inspections and staffing. In 2023, the overload of commercial traffic was exacerbated when a Glenn Ynan appointee overrode a Department of Health denial for the for profits request to increase bed capacity 17% because only the company's bottom line would benefit with no discernable public value within the next 5 years. Last year, NFA was given permission by the board to provide dialysis services despite community opposition due to no corresponding improvements to accommodate the escalating frequency and size of commercial vehicles required by the current patient population. The good news is that you have promised a plan to address these concerns this month. NFA, not county taxpayers, should pay for needed improvements, stopping the company from externalizing the cost of truck, truck, traffic, noise, pollution, safety, and health risk to Arlington citizens. There is a need for skilled nursing in Arlington. The board should hold NFA accountable for how those

needing these services and the communities that host them are supported. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Hilton. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is a semirut. Give me just a moment. I'll pull your slides. Mr. Wait. Want to get your slides? Slides. Yep. So you let us know m when you're ready, Mr. Kushner, because I don't have a head on a swivel that perfectly. [snorts]

Ready when you are.

All right. So, let's start off with why we even have a town hall here today. We are here because of your pathetic, subjectively enforced one speaker per topic rule. Our progressive free speech elected leaders have granted their constituents with a singular town hall that was barely publicized. Thank you. Great job. Next slide. Now, a bit of a recap. We've been coming to the board for over a year now. We've laid out the clear collaborations Arlington has had with Israel and businesses that profit off of what many of you have belatedly acknowledged as a genocide. Next slide. Even as we continue to make our case, Arlington continued promoting and facilitating the businesses, the business of companies that profit off war, deportations, genocide, surveillance, and apartheid. Next slide. Your collective response has been on brand with the corporate do nothing Democrats. You acknowledge it's a genocide, but tell us we have no choice. Arlington just has to promote these companies that profit off genocide. That's just the way things have to be. Here we have a foyer response where Arlington is withholding further records between AED and VAB under an exemption that suddenly only now applies. It certainly didn't apply to the 477 page response we got last year. What exactly is going on? Next slide. Here we have a foyer request for the county's mentions of Arlington for Palestine. Over 800 emails and attachments over the past year. It's nice that you're talking about us. And look at that. The old Arlington way. Transparency and freedom if you can afford it. Next slide. Now, I've shown this graphic before, specifically for Libby Garvey's exit as she demanded that Arlington continue cooperation with ICE. Moderates who are completely devoted to an unjust order. If this is where you want to stand, just be honest. Tell us that you actually like promoting businesses that profit off war, genocide, deportations, and apartheid. Next slide. The primaries are proving Palestine as the litm as the litmus test that it's always been. If you actually care about

morals, ethics, values, and working toward a just order, work with us. We've laid out a clear path to prove prove yourselves. Grow a spine, show some backbone, and even with the federal government on our backs about our sanctuary policies now, don't give them an inch. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, [applause] Mr. Fisher. A moment please. Our next speaker is Samir Hassan followed by Steph Webster. Mr. Hassan, I think remotely if I saw correctly joining us virtually. Correct. Go ahead. Mr. Hassan, I'm here. Can you guys hear me? Yeah, we can.

Okay, give me one second. Okay. What is Arlington Economic Development or AED? It is the lead governmental department responsible for fostering an economically competitive and sustainable community in Arlington County. AED's work focuses on so-called business investment, cultural affairs, and tourism. The current industries they prioritize include quote unquote defense, aerospace, and cyber security. These industries have a history of harming communities around the world. AED's budget in fiscal year 2026 is almost $10 million which is funded in part by Arlington taxpayers. The Arlington for Palestine has spoken about AED to the Arlington County Board for over a year now. They already know how complicit a lot of the companies they attract are, especially in crimes against humanity. And instead of AED divesting from these companies that traffic in death and destruction, we are taught through AED and the county board's actions that the economy of Arlington must come first and nothing, not even life itself, can stand in the way of economic development. So this message isn't to the board. We already know where they stand. This message is to the people that are listening to this town hall. More and more residents of Arlington are realizing that their taxes are being used to commit crimes against humanity. We are beginning to see the ramifications of our elected officials moral apathy. The weapons and software we export around the world will come back and be pointed against Arlingtonians if we don't draw the line here and hold this board and AED accountable. I need audience members to join Arlington for Palestine and join our coalition pushing for divestment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hassan. Next. Nick, I've asked once. I've asked once. If you want to stand or you want to clap like this, that's that's the preference. And we've we've made a lot of progress in that regard. I'd asked if we could continue. Go ahead, ma'am.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, good afternoon. I'm here to talk about Arlington Economic Development's extensive and ongoing collaboration with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. VIA is the equivalent of Apac at the state level. Their main objective is to provide preferential and unconditional funding from our state and local governments to Israeli business projects with the goal of entangling Israeli industries and to Virginia's industries and government. I understand that the board wants to avoid getting political, but working with the Israel lobby is nothing if not political. Choosing to provide economic incentives and support to businesses profiting off genocide, war crimes, death, and destruction is absolutely a political choice. On the basis of international law and from a basic human rights standpoint, how can Arlington support a lobby that works on behalf of a genocidal state? A recent Pew Research poll found that 60% of US adults have an unfavorable view of Israel. Many Americans also understand that Israel and the Israel lobby are a large reason why we entered the extremely unpopular war with Iran. There aren't a lot of other issues with such a strong consensus. Why would the county work with Viab if residents likely wouldn't support it? I'm also curious whether AED works with Virginia's other advisory boards as much as they do with VIA. Virginia also has an Asian advisory board, Latino advisory board, African-American advisory board, and an LGBTQ plus advisory board to name a few. Notice that all of these advisory boards help with economic development on behalf of communities within Virginia. While VIA is the only one here on behalf of a specific foreign state, one that Americans don't support. So, in conclusion, I'd like the county to reconsider its decision to work with Viab, including all of the baggage that comes with that decision. Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks. I asked twice. Thank you for using the hands. I appreciate it. Next speaker. [clears throat] Good evening. Thank you.

I'm Anita Walgrren. I've lived in Virginia Square for 20 years, and I'm happy to be here tonight to talk about a long-term vision I've had for maybe 20 years. I'd like to see a community center, a new community center in the Rosland Boston corridor. And I think the ideal location is right here, co-located with the central library. Good examples of nearby colllocated new community centers with libraries are in Wheaten, Maryland. I urge you to check it out. And Lorton, Virginia. Closer to home, of course, Arlington has co colllocated municipal facilities at Arlington Mill and Aurora Hills. As you know, the RB corridor is densely populated and was planned to be continues to plan to be densely populated. 10 years ago, it had more than 20% of all the total population of the county and 8% of the land mass. And I'm sure it's much more dense in the last 12 years. As this area shifts, also we're seeing shifts from commercial to residential. And we are seeing on the streets in this area more young families, school buses, people who are living and staying here after 5:00. Of course, older adults, adults continue to increase aging in place. And since CO and many governmental changes, all kinds of people are working from home. All at this Quincy Street location, the RB corridor could have a great community center and central library that would be walkable easily from two two metro stops and several bus routes. Quincy Park on a day like this is a major place for outdoor gatherings and pleasure. People can't come inside though to a

suitable indoor recreation facility. We need spaces indoors now to complement Quincy Park and the central library. This long range goal could be and should be incorporated now into Arlington County plans. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Walgrren. Next speaker is Dixie Duncan, followed by Keshori Maholikar. Miss Duncan.

Thank you to the board and the staff for being here tonight. My name is Dixie Duncan and I'm here to inform you about the most dangerous road in Arlington County, Carlin Springs Road. Most of you are familiar with the road, but there are several factors that make this road and area unique. The road is home to three schools that are within 610 of a mile of each other, and 2,000 students and parents travel this road daily. The road is only 40t wide. I measured it yesterday from the intersection of 50 to 5th road. Most roads should be 48 to 60 feet wide. There are only five ways to exit from the intersection of Highway 50 to Fifth Road. There are two traffic lights, one on third and one on Fifth. There are no turning lanes in that intersection. It is about from Highway 50 to Fifth Road is about 3/4 of a mile. Traffic backs up during school hours and rush hour. There is no way for the traffic to move. Is there if there is an emergency in Glen Carlin, which is where I live. There are no medians. There are no ways to get off the road if traffic is in four lanes for any vehicles. I have contacted the fire department to find out what their solution would be in this situation and I will inform you later as to what they think their solution would be. Widening the sidewalks and lowering the speed limit will help minimally, but this road has been in the news for 15 years. I've only lived there for 12, but a little research will show you that the most dangerous road in Arlington.

Only is going to get more dangerous with VHC and two new turf fields at Kenmore. I didn't come just to complain. I gave you a list of recommendations and I think many of these would be cost effective. Thank you, Miss Duncan. Your time is the last concluding remarks. Thank you, Miss Duncan. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Koshori Mahulikar followed by Alice Hogan. Hi. So, I can just start. I don't have to press anything, right? Nope.

Okay. [snorts] All right. Have you ever wondered what a mass extermination campaign looks like on the inside? From what I can tell on the outside, it is starvation, violence, desperation, illness, and despair. It's leaving your tent while starving yourself and getting shot waiting in line in waiting in line for a bag of flour to feed your family by the thugs employed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. It's falling sick and having no hospital to turn to because Israel bombed them all. It's getting blown up in your tent with your whole family because you are a reporter trying to tell the truth. It's a six-year-old girl getting shot 355 times in a car by the IDF. You are making a conscious choice to remain complicit, to pass money and resources onto this atrocity by remaining apathetic. Even something as simple as a asing AED to end collaborations with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board would make a huge difference. What is the point in AED taking their phone calls? The Virginia Israel Advisory Board serves Israeli interests. No wonder no other country has a state advisory board in Virginia. Please stop collaborating with them. It's not needed. In addition, I am asking you because we saw in the news today that the Trump administration is asking you to stop our sanctuary policies for our neighbors. Please don't give them an inch. I know that this is hard to do because the Trump administration is going to put a lot of pressure on you all, but it is the right thing to do and that is why we keep coming back. Nothing is going to deter us from showing up and convincing you to do what the polls show a majority of the country wants to divest from Israel and genocide and to protect us from ICE. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Mahulakar. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Alice Hogan followed by Kate Matts. Good evening, Miss Hogan.

I'm Alice Hogan. I'm lifelong Arlingtonian of love this place and I'm speaking on my own capacity this evening. Um, I've seen many changes and so and benefited from so many um so many things in Arlington over my life and now my kids' lives too. And so I just want to speak to county staff, county manager, county board. I think you guys just need to settle down a little bit. 2025 National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Parks and Recreation Management for our park system and creative programming and top 10 for the past 10 years. Achieved 100% on the Human Rights Campaign's 14th annual equality index for inclusive policies and services for our LGBTQ plus residents. National award for our countywide composting program. recipient of the 2024 safe routes to school award for our vision zero program for youth. You really got to ease up a little. Helping feed hungry families. Promoting all kinds of transit options and bike lanes across this county. Using an equity lens in county decision-making, upholding our trust policy to protect our immigrant neighbors even in the face of federal harassment. initiating free after-school programming for our atrisisk youth and supporting festivals and international celebrations year round, supporting an array of nonprofit organizations in the county that are enhancing our community and its many subgroups. You really got to slow down on all these amazing community initiatives. But if you must overachieve, I know you we could really use some permanent funding for the AHIFF, our affordable housing investment fund. Thank you for all you do and I hold out hope. Have a great night.

Thank you. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Kate Mattis followed by Susan Cample. Miss Mattis.

Hello. Um I'm just speaking for myself tonight uh not for my civic association. Uh first of all, thank you for the forum. I think it's a good idea and bravo to you. Uh I just have to once again compelled to talk about lot size uh before it disappears. Uh there's some confusion as to what's going to happen with it. Does it disappear into low res? That to me is a problem because low res that study is really a storm water study. It doesn't get to the lot size issue. A couple of other things that um I've been concerned about is how the approach is about the uh in terms of zoning, not in terms of the actual lot size. So, I've got a little house on a little lot and right around the corner is a much bigger lot and yet we would be considered in the same uh zone. So, I'd like some thought wherever the county board and staff ends up to uh making it a little bit more tailored to the realities we are we have on the ground. Sunlight and height. Height matters. I know it's been put on the side. I know it's not being discussed. I'm going to discuss it. Uh it blocks sunlight. There causes u uh problems with buildings around it. So, I'd like that put back on the table and reconsidered. I know there was some talk about reconsidering at a later phase. Let's make it earlier rather than uh than later. And then finally, on the low res study, I understand it's supposed to come out in June. I would like a lot of clarity about what it is and is not, what it will and will not do. And I think that

the communications around that and lot size have been very murky. Um that is probably because there's a lot going on and there hasn't been time to tease that out. But it needs to be really clear so that people on the ground in their homes looking at development can understand what is the point of view of the board. Where are you? Your time has elapsed. Concluding remarks. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Miss Mattis. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Susan Campbell followed by Terry Arme. Miss Campbell. [clears throat]

Hi. Hi there. My topic is the Virginia Hospital Center Behavioral Health Center. Um I've been on the working group and we've been talking about it for the past three years. And what's funny is like I've been to meetings for years since I moved to Glen Carlin about the nature center or the library talking at midnight about crickets because what I call is like the this quadrant of the county where you might not see as much representation. I call it my like the quadrant which is basically Arlington Mill, Glen Carlin. You hear a lot from Glen Carlin, but you might not hear from all the neighborhoods because a lot of people are working two and three jobs. Um so, and then there's the park. Now, with this Virginia Hospital Center um site plan, there's a lot of environmental issues. There's a lot of traffic issues. Um but you know and I've always come back to the RPA the uh resource protection area and very first meeting I said what are we going to do about the historic spring? Are we going to make sure it's protected? There's an RPA for this for the stream and the one for the spring is not on the maps because they only update those maps every 20 years. It's a USGS survey problem but it's there. We need everything 100 ft away from the historic spring, which means that the opening to the neighborhood for overflow traffic and parking needs to be eliminated. So, um, it's you've heard about it and I know you've heard about it and we have it in writing and all those things. And I do realize all of you board members after JD came to our meeting, he explained how

many thousands of issues you guys hear every year and how you could possibly, you know, do anything but skim the surface. I understand that. We waited in November. We saw the site plan. Since November, it hasn't changed at all. So, the staff hasn't looked at any of these environmental issues, any of these traffic issues. Mr. Campbell, your time has elapsed. Concluding remarks, please. And nothing has changed. So, what worries me is that no matter how much we jump down now, we know what's going to happen. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Next speaker. Next speaker is Terry Aro, followed by Brendan Dresnner. Miss Aro is virtual. Uh, joining us in person, but [clears throat] I'm not seeing her. I don't see Miss Aro.

We can circle back. Our next speaker is Brendan Dresnner followed by Audrey Clement. Mr. Dresnner.

Hello. Go ahead.

Thank you for hearing me today. I [clears throat] have a question for the board, but first I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Brendan Dreser, and I am an Arlington resident. Um, I was raised in Vienna and went to school at Marshall Road Elementary. Um, the adults taught us important lessons like it is good to be nice to each other and that if someone did you wrong that two wrongs don't make a right. I remember learning about Anne Frank, a little girl whose diary we read. A little girl who was killed in a genocide committed by Nazis. Never forget and never again. A good moral a good moral resolution to prevent such horrors from being repeated. As Americans, we pride ourselves on being the nation that stopped Hitler. Never forget. Never again. We know about the horrors of the Holocaust thanks to the photo and video evidence as well as firstirhand accounts from survivors. The genocide in Gaza has photo and video evidence. It is overwhelming. Here is my question to the board. How bad does it have to get for you to end relations with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board? How many journalists need to be killed, assassinated? How many doctors need to be killed, assassinated? How many nurses? How many volunteers? How many humanitarian aid workers? How many children need to be killed for you to say that it is enough? How many dead Palestinians is too many dead Palestinians for you? That is my question. I've heard people say that American support for Israel is complicated. But what is complicated about shooting a child who needs food? How many atrocities can you tolerate? It's never too late to do the right

thing. Make a resolve today to end all ties with the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. Do it the first chance you get. Thank you, Mr. Dresnner. Thank you. Our next speaker is Audrey Clement, followed by Scott Donaldson. Miss Clement,

welcome members of the board and the county manager. I'm Audrey Clement, independent candidate for county board and in veterate biker. The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, NVTA, has announced funding for three trail widening projects in Arlington, including the 4.24 mile Custous Trail that runs along I66 from Rosland to Westover Park. Arlington County wants 2.4 million for the design phase of this project, which will which will ultimately cost 29.9 million. As per Virginia code, NVTA's mission is to quote, "prepare a regional transportation plan that includes transportation improvements of regional significance and those improvements necessary or incidental thereto end of quote." In addition to projects listed in the regional long range transportation plan, significant projects include quote other highway, rail, bus, and techn technology projects that could make a significant impact on mobility in the region end of quote. Virginia code further requires NVTA to give priority to selecting projects that are expected to provide the greatest congestion reduction relative to the cost of the project. Nowhere in Virginia code are trail widening projects defined as significant. Nowhere has it been demonstrated that the Custous Trail project will provide significant congestion relief along I66. Thus, it appears that Custous Trail widening does not meet the funding requirements of Virginia Code. There is also the question of cost. Arlington just completed repaving 2.5 miles of the Custous Trail between Rosland and Hayes Park at an estimated cost of $3.9 million. Since widening the trail would likely require tearing up more than half of what was just repaved, this project is a complete waste of taxpayers money and constitutes the definition of waste

in the well-worn phrase waste, fraud, and abuse. Thank you. Thank you. M m Miss Clement, next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Scott Donaldson followed by Frank McDermott. Mr. Donaldelson.

Hi folks. How are you tonight? Uh my name is Scott Donaldson from uh 817 22nd Street South. I'm here on behalf of multiple residents in the 700 and 800 block of 22nd and 23rd Street South. Um it's definitely a local issue here. Um, we have several issues with the multi-unit missing middle projects approved at 80022nd Street South next door at 80123rd Street South. And there's also one plan across the street at 8012nd Street South. And uh, all three of these are in a row in uh, right on Hayes. The uh the two approved are Z26-2 and 03 presumably the first second or second third projects approved this year. Um the real issue is not the projects. The real issue is when we tried to Oops. when we tried to um uh when we tried to approve when we tried to appeal with our issues to the boring zone appeals per the per the guidance the county uh offered up the cost to appeal each one each one was 1,200 over $1,200. Now I did you know this? Did anybody know this? Okay. Um I I certainly am one to understand this. Maybe maybe you can offer some explanation, but it appears to be an an effort to squash the issues with this contention subject approvals. Um, and and I would like to know how you as board members can get this fee lifted so that the residents can be heard in a democratic process and open up the comment period again for these units that expired on the 26th of April.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Donaldson. We will, as with all, we will respond when we get to the end of all the comments. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Your next speaker, Frank McDermott, followed by Jay Hamilton. Mr. McDerman.

On January 19th, 2026, we all got a wakeup call when 72 in section of the PTOIC interceptor sewer collapsed. Uh leaving 240 to $300 million billion gallons of raw sewage into the PTOAC on the Maryland side. It was a wakeup call for me. I I had no idea that that there was such a thing as the PTOAC interceptor, which is under the PTOAC River that carries raw sewage from the Dulles area, Vienna, parts of Fairfax, uh to the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant. The interceptor is 3,000 ft long, 78 in wide, taller than me, and carries 60 million gallons of sewage under the river. every day. Um, this was the result of a public law that was passed uh in 1960 uh law 86-515 presumably because of the uh the construction of Dulles airport which required uh an additional sewage capacity and since then uh that entire area around Dallasos has participated in the uh in this sewage uh that that flows under the PTOAC. I have a couple of questions for you guys. Uh is the board alarmed at the potential for our water supply uh being in jeopardy because of the interceptor? That's the first question. Uh the second question is has there been any discussion uh on construction of an additional sewage facility for this part of Northern Virginia uh which feeds this incredible

uh potential problem. Um that's that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McDermott. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Jay Hamilton, followed by Natalie Roy. Mr. Hamilton. And just a moment I'll load your slides. Have a couple slides. Right. Okay. Jay Hamilton with Neighbors for Neighborhoods. Uh we've been uh firm supporters of maintaining single family neighborhoods. Having said that, I come bearing a report that has been put together by former county officials of accountants, real estate agents. That's a before and after of what's actually been happening with EHO. You want to go to the first slide? Yeah. I'm pulling them up three.

Okay. Pause my time. [laughter] Um, we start on Choice Street North, which was one of the first builds to go through and be sold. And, uh, while we're getting the slides up, uh, we'll just keep going. Um, this was a $863,000 single family brick home. Beautiful, modestly priced home. As I understand it, the developer outbid two young couples looking to buy their first home. And there's um, North Troy. There's Troy Street there now. Um, leveled the house. um built two duplexes, built a duplex with two units that both sold for $1.6 million each. Um far out of reach of the middle income uh households that we were believed were the missing in the missing middle, you know, the teachers, firefighters, and police. Um I'll take you around the county a little bit. Uh next slide. Just up the street, um we have 14th Street North, which sold for $913,000 and became a sixunit apartment rental. Just went on the market over less than a month ago. Each unit um renting out for $4,350 a month. Then over to 25th Street South, um a really great modest home for $560,000. Um duplex sold for $1.2 million each. Again, these are figures that um are undisputable. You know, comes from uh what that place sold for, what happened to it, and in each case, uh there's nothing affordable about what happened here. Um next slide. And so when we look at the the demographic we were hoping to help with missing middle, uh the expanded housing option, you can see that uh there's nothing available for anyone that makes under $100,000. that this program itself has become so divided, so divisive. Um,

and you know, one of the board members talked about the lack of trust. And I think that for now, uh, let's pause. Let's take a look at pausing the permitting, taking a look at how we can avoid any more costs that are going to court cases, which of course the county has spent $1.5 million in taxpayer money on outside legal fees. Mr. Let's take a pause and we will um pick it up again and involve the whole community. Mr. H. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. [applause] Thank you. Same applied before. If you want to stand, go for it. If you want to do applause, I saw some of you. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Natalie Roy followed by Ryan Arnold.

Miss Roy. Thank you.

Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening. County board members to Mr. County Manager and also neighbor. My name's Natalie Roy, a resident of Lion Park for more than 35 years. No good deed goes unpunished. We were promised that our community would be a showcase for transitoriented de development. A promise that was made and built upon the past 50 years. This is where we would have major hubs and density around transportation corridors and protect our lowdensity housing stock, parks, tree canopy, and open space. And now this county board is erasing the hard-fought victories of half a century with no clearly stated rationale. Whether the reason is tax revenue or just to jam more people in our neighborhoods and one of the most densely populated counties in the country, planning has become an ugly word. It is not too late to stop the damage of the deceptively named Missing Middle, the cynically named Faith in Housing, or just the random rubber stamping of the most hairbrain development proposals. It's time to listen to the neighborhoods, which includes everyone from Lime Park to Green Valley to Boulevard Manor, Lee Heights, and Douglas Park. Time to stop the pave the ar pave Arlington movement and return to the thoughtful planning approach that made our community a national model. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Miss Roy. Next speaker. Next speaker. Thank you.

Next speaker is Ryan Arnold, followed by Wilson Bender. Hi everybody. Well, so as many of you know, I have a green light and I um I actually really love the way Arlington planning has turned out. I came here in 19 well uh when I was three years old. I won't date myself too much. And um I left to go to high school in California uh job in Michigan, later grad school in Michigan. came back, you know, a couple decades later, um, almost, um, because in large part I knew that the way we've developed in Arlington would allow me to live the way I want to, which is so rare in the rest of the country. And I'm so glad to live in a place where we can set a good example for pure communities all over America where, you know, you have to get in a car to drive everywhere you go. That means you're contributing to climate change. You're putting your neighbors lives at risk. Uh, low risk, but high consequence when it happens. if you know what I mean. And there is still a lot more that we can do as as as much progress as we've made in being so pedestrian friendly and proud of it. Thank you very much. Um there's still more that we can do and I've got several ideas. I'm just going to focus on one in the next minute and that is when we have a construction project on a even here in Boston uh a very transit-rich place where there's a lot of walking going on. Um down here on Fairfax, there's one site where a tall condo has closed off a whole block of sidewalk on the south side of Fairfax and there are signs on either end that say sidewalk closed. Use the other side of the street. That's not fair. That's not safe and that's not a good reflection of our values. Now, the easy thing to do would be to establish a accessible pedestrian lane where the parking lane is. Or if people want to keep their parking lane for some reason, there are two driving lanes that are still open. Take one of those. Um there there are solutions that we can continue to let

people walk with safety and dignity um [snorts] without, you know, crossing the street, putting their lives at risk. That's something that I'd like you to think about. Uh by the way, that particular project will be done in June. And I just found out that's great news everybody. Thank Thank you, Mr. Arnold. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Wilson Bender, followed by Joshua Handler. Mr. Bender. Hey. So, um, actually, I didn't know what a town hall meeting was, so I just kind of signed up and showed up. So, I didn't actually write anything,

but uh, my name's Wilson. My wife is a teacher. I, uh, work, uh, in Arlington. I actually went to art school in Arlington. I don't know if everyone knows that, but we as a family love that the widen Custous Trail and hope it widens more. We also like the fact that Missy Middle could bring more housing uh that we could actually uh afford. Um what I did come here to speak one day today is I just was going to bring an idea because that's what I thought town hall meetings were. Um I went to the Spark out of the Arts Commission art space down there. Very cool. Like it good start. One thing that I get an email about uh every month is automatic because I did the last one a few years ago in DC. They did it a few times in Crystal City. I only remember in 2007 at the old patent and trademark office. It's a really really cool idea. It just brings a whole bunch of artists from the whole region. It'd be better to have it on this side of the bridge as opposed to, you know, the other or in Alexandria. Um that said, I get the email and they their required is 90,000 square feet. That's metro accessible. When they came to talk about saving the gymnastics, I put made some posters and put them on dumpsters. Other people came up with like a whole entire app that showed there's very very capable people here that could figure out how to get 90,000 square feet that's metro accessible. I mean, just Arlington elite. I mean, I believe this place is elite. So, I just wanted to present that because it's actually a really cool idea and it uses an abandoned building. So, all right. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Bender. Next speaker. Thank you. Our next speaker is Joshua Handler followed by Adam Theo. Mr. Handler. Good evening everybody.

Good evening. I'm Joshua Handler. Um I'm here to talk tonight because I'm concerned about the various proposals to upzone and densify Arlington. Proponents argue there's a housing shortage and producing more housing will moderate housing costs. It does not fit with the slogan earring, but to the contrary, Arlington does not have a housing shortage. The 2026 Arlington profile shows once again Arlington has thousands of more housing units and households. 126,000 units to 120,700 households. Arlington is on the way to meet its 2040 20 240 affordable rental housing goals for 60% or less AMI households. The county's report on the implementation of the affordable housing master plan concludes there was substantial progress over the last 10 years increasing the share from 9.3 to 12.8% of housing affordable to households with such incomes. Building housing is not like mass-producing trinkets with inexpensive inputs. Land is expensive in Arlington. New construction housing will be expensive. If we want more affordable homes, we need to conserve the less expensive existing single family homes we have. If we want more affordable new housing, we will need to cross-subsidize it. But how much more can our taxes cross subsidize housing in Arlington? Some 10% of the county's non-school budget is for housing support. Our main leverage for new lowerc cost housing is from the site plan review process. However, neither the EHO upzoning or the recent faith and housing bill provide such leverage. I'm concerned other efforts that could mitigate new housing construction costs are being ignored. The low residential lot coverage study should be used to limit the footprint of new construction homes both for storm water management and to constrain housing costs. Finally, the comprehensive plan review should keep denser development focused along corridors where the site plan review process provides leverage to obtain below market rate housing. The comprehensive plan should preserve Arlington's green space which all of our

residents enjoy from which they all benefit and which makes which makes Arlington a great place to live. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Handler. Next speaker. I've asked twice. We asked before. Let's keep going. Thank you. Next speaker. Our next speaker, Mr. Theo. Followed by Jason Short.

Hey there. I really want to talk about EHO, missing middle housing because it's a great thing. Desperately needed in this county. Thank you very much for passing it years ago and for sticking by it. But I am going to stick to my originally chosen topic which is supportive of housing and that is our public amenities. Like Miss Anita Walgrren, I also believe that we desperately need more libraries and community centers along the metro corridors including especially the Rosland Boston corridor. I think uh the metro corridors of Rosland Boston and the Route One Richmond Highway accounts for a little over onethird of our county's population. Yet it only has what one full-sized library. I barely count the courthouse annex one and I also barely count the Aurora Highlands. It is just a 10-minute walk from the Pentagon City Metro Station, but it is on the other side of a park and within a single family neighborhood right now. But I do look forward to that being renewed uh and redeveloped into a better library and recreation center in the future. Hopefully, fingers crossed with Arlington County and our metro corridors. the I mean by the population alone we should have something like three out of the nine libraries as opposed to just the one and a half and we should also have four at least out of the 13 community centers whereas the closest we have is Lubber Run which is a almost a mile walk from the Boston metro and far away from the um the urban development that we have there. So please, as the comprehensive plan continues and you're reviewing it, uh

keep the urban residents along the metro corridors in mind for public amenities. This also goes for the sector plans as they continue to be updated and uh for site plan reviews. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Theo. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Jason Schwarz followed by Barbara Taylor. Mr. Schwarz, and I do have your slides. whenever you're ready.

Okay. Um, hi, I'm Jason Schwarz. Um, sorry, slides. Okay, next slide. Um, Arlington's housing shortage is driving a demographic collapse. Over the last decade, our population, 20 to 34, has dropped 6% and our under five population has plummeted an astonishing 21%. We are hemorrhaging our tax base, losing our workforce. Case in point, only 15 out of the 200 staff in our sheriff's office actually reside in Arlington. Next slide. Look at Austin, Texas. After facing a massive spike in rents, they allowed for an aggressive home building effort that successfully crushed rents back to below prepandemic levels. Next slide. As we update our comprehensive plan, greatly increased our zone capacity is essential, but it isn't enough. Zone capacity only dictates the quantity of new housing produced when prices are indefinitely high. Our new comprehensive plan must cultivate highly elastic supply to serve allonians. We need to be like the blue line, not just the uh orange line. Next slide. EHO proves that upzoning lowcost areas creates this necessity elasticity. Our very first EHO sixlex located just blocks from here has brand new three-bedroom homes for 3500 a month or 268 a square foot. This is less than the median threebedroom in all of Arlington and the lowest threebedroom on the RB corridor to deliver in over a decade. Meanwhile, just a couple blocks away, we have um Moda Clarendin, which rents are over 5,800 square feet. Next slide. Oh, sorry, this slide. Um, uh, to solve our housing shortage, we must fundamentally shift our comprehensive planning approach. We need to enshrine growth as as a core comprehensive plan goal backed by appropriate upzoning and process streamlining required to achieve sustained development that is highly elastic to demand. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Schwarz. Next speaker. [snorts] [clears throat] Yes, our next speaker is Barbara Taylor, followed by Mr. Jones. Miss Taylor, thank you. Go ahead, Miss Taylor.

Hi. Uh, thanks very much for doing this. Um, I've been following um and engaged with the EHO effort from the very beginning, but there are some things I still don't understand. Why did the county initially sell Missing Middle as family-sized housing affordable to first responders, teachers, and young people when it clearly isn't and it can't be as long as rational developers seek maximum returns on their land investments. The four EHO units that have sold or under contract range in price from 1.2 to $1.6 million, more than the average value of Arlington's single family housing stock. Rental EHO apartments are listed for more than $4,000 per month. A family would need an income of at least $350,000 to afford any of these units. Why are the county board and staff okay with seeing relatively affordable houses, those in the range of 500 to 800,000 torn down and replaced with units costing three or four times more than the houses they replaced? Why aren't efforts being made to pres to preserve these houses? Why is the argument still being made that EHO buildings are preferable to expensive single family new builds? First, they're much larger than those houses with even greater environmental impacts. And second, where whether the unit is an EHO ho house uh unit costing 1.6 million or a single family house costing 2.5 million, it's still not affordable to the audiences that the county and EHO supporters are supposed to be concerned about. And finally, I I worry that EHO actually incentivizes tearowns by making multif family structures even more profitable for developers than single family houses. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. That's enough. Thank you. If you'd like to stand, you're welcome to. Thank you. Next speaker.

Hi, I'm Spencer. It's not It's not just Jones. I'm not I'm not I'm not like Madonna. So, I want to talk about a buzzword that's taken over uh our whole Commonwealth and kind of the whole country, and that's affordability. And we're all on the county board. Uh we're all Democrats and and Governor Abigail Spanberger just won an election on affordability. So, what does affordability really mean? Right? On one hand, it's a buzz word. It's like synergy. You can kind of just wave it around. But to make it hyper local to here in this neighborhood and you walk down the street and you see the kids from Well playing baseball, there's 18-y old kids. They're about to graduate from high school. Where are they going to live next year, right? They're going to graduate from high school. The average new single family house here in Arlington costs $2.4 million. So I said the the average new single family house in Arlington cost $2.4 million.

Thank you. Let him speak. So, if we continue to knock down houses and build new $2.4 million houses in Arlington, it's not really going to work so well for the 18-year-old who's playing baseball right now. If they manage to find an apartment, which I hope they do, maybe in a few years they're going to want to have a kid. Child care in Arlington is the most expensive in the country. Uh that's from a study last year from the Wall Street Journal. What are we doing here? Right? like we're we're the most expensive child care in the country. How how is this a success for the you know the vision of our county which is traditionally affordable place for federal employees to to raise their families? Uh I don't think we're doing a very good job. So make it make it local. Think about child care. Think about housing. Think about energy. Think about healthare. As a county board, what can you do to make those things cost less? We don't have enough money to subsidize all of them for everyone. How can we make the costs go down? I encourage you to think about that.

Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Jones. Next speaker. Our next speaker is David Willard, followed by Janet Valenuela.

Good evening. Uh my name is David Willard. I'm also here to talk about affordability and more specifically the housing crisis and housing supply in Arlington. And yes, I do actually think it's a crisis. Um actually sometimes the crisis seems so uh massive and so chronic that we forget it's also an acute crisis. It's affecting people every day. Uh the people I talk to, they're trying to decide where they want to live. Some of whom live in Arlington now and want to live here next year, 5 years, 5 years from now, 10 years from now, but they're making these decisions based on whether they can afford to do it. And a lot of them are saying, uh actually we can't. they're just totally dissuaded by the cost of either buying or renting here. Um, I just want to make sure that when we have these meetings, someone is speaking up for the perspectives of people who want to be here, want to be Arlingtonians, want to be in this room, but they can't because they can't afford to live in Arlington. Um, a previous speaker just mentioned WL. I actually went to WL. I was one of those kids across the street. Um, I'm not uh very sporting. I wasn't playing sports, but I I went to most classes and stuff. Um, but the people I went to school with, even the people like that are in my family, um, they feel so many of them feel that they can't afford to live here. Like I, uh, ended up being able to buy a house here. Um, and I live close to my parents. I live close to my brother. But my own sister, she feels that she can't afford to live in Arlington. She lives outside of Richmond. It's a great neighborhood, but you know, it's not Arlington. It's far away from her family. It's far away from her friends and the people she grew up with and the place that she loved uh and and the people that she loves. Um I send my sister I send my sisters-in-law real estate listings. One of them lives in Houston. Again, you have to drive everywhere. They feel that they can't afford Arlington. I'm trying to get them to consider it, but they just they get sticker shock. So, the only way out of this crisis is to build.

uh we need to build and I hope that we all keep that in mind as we move forward with new plans and uh in particular the comprehensive plan update. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Willer. Next speaker, Janet Venuela. Miss Venuela.

Good evening all. I stand before you today to speak about the crisis we are living in a social and economic crisis that is waiting waging heavily on the most vulnerable members of our county. Every day I heard our neighbors who are reaching a breaking point. This includes our seniors living on fixed incomes, families in our lowest income brackets, and those who are working multiple jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. I understand that we cannot solve every problem overnight and I know that the budget is incredibly tight. I wanted to sincerely thank you for the intensive work you have done this fiscal year. We know that budget season is a time of impossible choices. And while not everyone will be happy erh with every line item, we see the dedication you have put into identifying the county's priorities and your efforts and investment to support our most vulnerable neighbors. However, I must share that there is a shadow of grief and pain in our community right now. Please, people are tired and they are worried. They worry about the fluctuation in the economy. They worry about the raising cost of necessities like food, rent, diapers. And they worry that their voices are not loud enough to hear in this room. But even in this pain, there is a reason for hope. We are incredible fortunate to live in a county as diverse as good as good hearts of Arlington. I see neighbors helping neighbors, sharing that little that they they can and standing together in solidarity. We are a community of resilient, compassionate people as you continue your work over the next fiscal year. I ask you to keep those unheard voices at the center of your hearts.

Thank you again for your hard work, your long hours, and your dedication and investment to all residents of this county. God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Valenuela. Next speaker. Yes. And Mr. Chair, if I may, real quick before our next speaker, time check. If you are parked downstairs in the garage, it will be closing in about 20 minutes. Um, now would be a good time to relocate your vehicle. We do have members of staff who can help you find your vehicle and find surface parking. Just wanted to put that out there. The gates will come down right about 8:00. With that, our next speaker is Katherine Mweeny, followed by Clear Lamb. Miss Mweeny.

Good evening. I'm Kathleen Mweeni and I'm speaking on behalf of the board of the Arlington Democrat Latino Caucus. Um we also want to um associate ourselves with the comments made by Miss Valenzuela. Um first we want to thank you for the support you provided in the fiscal year 2027 budget to nonprofits uh that provide humanitarian aid. The past year has been hard on so many of our families and our community. We've seen a steady rise in evictions and in food insecurity. I would like to also thank you especially talk Mr. Ken Tonis for hosting the Latino round table this year to listen to the needs of the Latino community and we hope it continues. I encourage you each to reach out to all communities across Arlington since the hardship is not isolated to any one community but it does hit our immigrant communities the hardest. It may be necessary to find additional sources of funding to support uh the mutual aid and nonprofit support networks that are a critical part of our community safety net here in Arlington in the coming year. I really hope you'll think about it and you will find some funds to be even more generous. Um thank you also to um the county manager and county staff um and especially for working late tonight. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Mcweeny. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Claire Lamb followed by Richard McNamera. Miss Lamb.

Good evening. I want to thank uh Chair Deferanti and board member coffee for talking with me about this issue before and I appeared before you in March. Um I am here on my own behalf but also as co-chair of Nova Catholic Community which has made its home in Arlington for 58 years now. um committed as a community of faith um to the principles of Catholic social justice. We are very active in with various efforts in Arlington to support the poorest of the poor, the people that Miss Valenuela spoke about. Our biggest effort is through an emergency rental assistance fund for Arlington County students households who do not qualify for additional county assistance. These requests over the last 18 months or so have more than doubled. And so this is very much this is an urgent need. This is a crisis. Um this is an economic development issue. If these families cannot afford to stay in Arlington, we're losing an entire new generation. And these are the people who are providing services, who are providing child care, who are providing home health care services. They are valuable members of our community and we want to keep them here. We have asked and we continue to ask the board to refocus on the needs of those earning 40% of AMI or less. Um to maintain the current funding level for housing grants to those households, but also to use the funds from a from AHIF as you pledged to do in 2011. Um thanks very much.

Thank you, Miss Lamb. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is Richard McNamera followed by David Ches. Mr. Mcmare.

It's good to see you again. Thank you. Um, let's see. My name is Dick McNamera and I'm a longtime Arlington resident, a former vice president and president of the civic associations. And I want to speak to you about opposing missing middle. Um, I opposed it several years ago. I did some studies. I did leg work. I did a I did a a survey of at least the Woodmont area. results came back four to one against it. Um but even those who were against it wanted to be able to see uh affordability. Uh excuse me, they wanted to do an economic study, an environmental study. These are things that the county bypassed when you shove this down our throat. And so I would suggest that you take a good look and actually accomplish those things. The the best data that I've seen has not come from county. It's come from some of the opposition where they've done that. Um, overall, Arlington's a great place to live. Uh, I've been here a long time. Unfortunately, my four kids can't afford to live here. Okay, now they they're close enough so we can get together, but my point is is you have a chance to take a look at it, look at it, and get the proper homework done before you make the decisions. And uh, and that didn't happen last time. And I think about uh that's what we ought to be able to do this time. And um I'd like to see you really attack that uh vacancy, commercial vacancy. You're taxing every you know everybody the taxes on the rental properties are going to be going up. Uh I think it was in the one of the articles was 12 312 bucks. Uh I don't know whether that was a year, but but when the property taxes go up, that affects renters the same way that it affects homeowners. So that's my point to you. Uh take a look at this. It's never too late to revisit it. I think

the damage and harm that you have seen in the individual neighborhoods today uh warrants you taking another look at it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McNamera. Next speaker. [applause] Our next speaker is Dave Shutz, followed by Doug Nichols.

Mr. shoots. Thanks for having us here tonight. Uh, I'm not going to have trouble with my two minutes because mostly I'm here to appreciate that you guys are initiating study of Arlington's former government doing what looks to be a thoughtful process to move this forward. And this is one of those things that is never a crisis, but if you don't do it for 30 years, you've had 30 years of bad of of of nonoptimal government. So, it really is time to to address this and thank you so much for doing it. Thank you, Mr. Shutes. Next speaker. Our next speaker is Doug Nichols, followed by Sam OD.

Mr. Nichols,

good evening. I'm a 75year-old resident of Arlington. I'd like to associate my remark associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Hamilton and Mr. uh McNamera. It was a bogey on missing middle. We've had a chance to see the result. It was not the intended consequence that you were looking for. It's time to pause. Stop paying the legal fees. Take another look, do your analysis, and if you've got to start all over again, which you could have done without spending a million5, do it. And in that, I would hope maybe you would open the discussion to having district voting in Arlington County. Then we'd have some diversity.

Thank you, Mr. Nichols. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, our next speaker, followed by Michael. Next speaker is Sam OD, followed by Michael Beer. Sam,

hello there. Um, I'm a long-term resident of Arlington, Virginia. I live, work, and heavily invest in this county. I think it's a great county doing a great job. Uh, I'm not I'm born and raised in in America. Um, but my family's from northwest Jerusalem, Palestine. And in 197 in the 1970s, my family was ethnically cleansed, dispossessed, and expelled by the IDF to make way for Israeli only Israeli only settlements. And uh living in America and seeing organizations and people coordinate, invest with the state of Israel who did that to my family just brings a sadness to my heart because I know America is a great country and um it's a dark time in the world right now. what's going on in South Lebanon, Palestine, Iran, and etc. Um, but my plea to you all is to reconsider your relationship with the Virginia Israeli Advisory Board. Um, supporting the state of Israel during its ongoing genocide is uh is is uh terrible and disgusting and we got to do everything we can to not support um a country that's currently committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in Palestine and Lebanon. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Next speaker, [applause] Mr. Beer. Thank you.

Hi, my name is Michael Beer. Thank you board for your work and uh Mark for your your service. Uh I want to thank you for [clears throat] the 2% increase uh uh twocent increase in the taxes, the max that we can do. And I want to associate my uh remarks to um uh Ms. Valenzuela who I thought spoke very eloquently of our need to try to serve those at most at risk. I'm here mostly to talk about um the needs here for Arlington to to uh have a ethical investment and development policy. Um we do have many uh pressing issues here but we do have a responsibility as global citizens to do what we can at our level to fight against apartheid to fight against existential threats of nuclear weapons of genetic engineering of climate change. We've done pretty good job on climate change we need to do more but we do not want to be investing in Exxon which has done so much to destroy our children's future. We don't want to be investing in Israeli bonds or in working our development system with Elbit systems or with um other companies that are are making money on the death and destruction of so many others. So I would like to uh encourage you to take a look at a perhaps a public ethics policy. Um you know we've done apartheid in the past. We did South Africa we spoke up about apartheid. United States has a big and Virginia has a big apartheid history here in particular. we should be not supporting a partad here anywhere else in the world. Um but these uh issues um around public ethics we want to rep prioritize what our key target industries are and I think it is important to try to continue to get community input on what our investment and economic development policy should be. So thank you.

Thank you Mr. Beer. Next speaker. Yes. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jackie Snelling followed by John Odenberg. Miss Snelling.

Good evening. Thank you for holding this town hall. It's a great thing and I hope you do more of them. I'm here tonight to support the Virginia Hospital Center behavioral health facility. This is a an important and critical service. Right now we do not have spaces for youth and adults with behavioral needs and they get sent all around the state and have to wait for spaces. So I want to support that. But it's also critical that these services are delivered in a way where the transportation and the traffic is safe. And right now, um, 601 Carlin Springs Road in this area, as Dixie has, um, detailed for you, is a very dangerous highway for pedestrians as well as for, um, vehicle traffic. I'm asking you as a board and as a manager outside of the site plan process just as you we asked you with the car with the uh Walgreens site to look at the traffic here from a county perspective of what you can do now so that you're not trying to deal with this at some future time when we're already well into the site plan. There are some very specific things like for example not having to add another driveway into it wi-i which need to be addressed and um so that's what I'm asking you to do is to please take this on as a board and as a manager separate from site plan so that the children who walk to these three schools and their parents and and all of the people driving there will be safe. Thank you very much.

Thank you Miss Snelling. Next speaker. Yes, our next speaker is John Oenberger. Openenberg, excuse me, followed by Paul Fischer. Mr. Obenberger,

thank you for your service and your time. Appreciate you being here tonight. Uh, I've written several times and recommend that you eliminate and drop the missing middle housing everywhere. uh you've got the zoning already in place that accommodates more than one dwelling unit on many of the parcels in Arlington that can be covered appropriately. U making sure you got the appropriate setbacks, parking and uh can meet the uh the density and context of the current neighborhoods where that zoning is already in place. You've built those neighborhoods around the infrastructure around which you put sewers, electrical, water, streets, parking in place. So, your missing mental housing is going completely against uh everything that's been planned to date. Um, also recommend and suggest that you stop your illegal spot zoning everywhere that you're doing, especially with the uh excess density that you're approving. An example is the recent uh um Walgreens site down on Langston Boulevard. um instead uh you need plans to assess the impacts of the proposed development you've got along that entire corridor. And that's just one example of where you're approving density that's going to greatly adverse impact safety and livability around that entire corridor. Uh while you may say it's going to build more housing and it's going to help people, it's not. staff buried at the initial draft stage. Severe congestion at every intersection along that area. Traffic would divert through all the neighborhoods. You don't know what the actual costs are for infrastructure. Uh and you're not, as your plan says, getting money from developers to help pay for the needed improvements. Rather, you're adding density and and giving it to affordable housing. Okay. For additional height.

Um, so if you don't develop the plans, assess the impacts, and if you don't require it as a board, you've got to get rid of the county manager and the senior staff and the planning office to do the plan. So, you've got the budget, you got the capital improvement program in the future to pay for the needed improvements for everybody to have a livable environment that's safe for accommodate current and demand.

Thank you, Mr. Oenberger. Our [snorts] next speaker is Paul Fischer followed by Rebecca Deedert. Mr. Fischer, thank you very much. Today, Arlington County has a housing crisis. Arlington County housing costs about a quarter more than the DMV area as a whole for comparable units, which is more than twice the national average. Why are we here? because we haven't built enough. Over the past five years, we've built barely over 2,000 new units of housing, which is contribute to to the continued shortage of housing. Tonight, we've heard a bunch of complaints about missing middle housing with various numbers quoted. For example, 2.4 4 million is the cost of a average new build single family house here according to the Eli real estate group a local realtor and examples shown show that a new build duplex is 1.6 million and a new build sixplex is 700,000 per unit. One of those is a lot cheaper than the other because when we build high density housing higher density housing more units on the same amount of land it gets cheaper. It's why the average single family used house sells for 1.4 million whereas you can buy a condo around the corner from here for about 650,000. So what's the solution? Build more midrise sixlexes and other missing midrise housing types here. Missing Middle has been a small victory. Provided some homes that are cheaper than the multi-million dollar mansions that currently cover most of our streets. But we need to move further to think bigger because we are the Brooklyn

of the DMV and we need to build a housing stock that matches that. So everyone who wants to live here can live here and have the homes that our metro system deserves. support and expand missing middle housing and make it mid-rise. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Our next speaker, pardon me. Our next speaker is Rebecca Deedert, followed by Bernie Burn. Rebecca Miss Steer.

Good evening. Nice to see you all. My name is Rebecca Deer and I'm the Virginia Housing Advocacy Specialist with the Coalition for Smarter Growth. For decades, Arlington has been a leader in transit oriented development. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to begin my professional career in a community where I can take the train to work and walk to the grocery store. That is extremely rare in the vast majority of urban areas throughout the United States. However, like most in our community, I have seen housing costs steadily rise during my time here. This year, we were grateful for the board's approval of the Leki Gardens and Riverhouse affordable housing developments and hope to eventually see the same for Melwood. We also hope to see [clears throat] eventually a permanent source of funding for the affordable housing investment fund to make more of these developments a reality. While we must continue to aggressively fund and advocate for committed affordable housing for our lowest income neighbors, I would also like to emphasize the importance of expanding the range of housing options available in our extremely transit oriented community. Missing Middle actively reduces market pressures for the county's highly coveted land, promoting walkability and providing a more diverse range of housing types that would otherwise be far more expensive and difficult to develop. This past weekend, we hosted a missing middle walking tour in Boston. Many thanks to county board member Daty Spain for being a featured speaker. During this tour, we met the tenants of the new EHO Sixlex on 14th Street. Three students who were very happy to find attainable housing within walking distance of the metro. The EHO unit they are renting is actually priced below the median for a three-bedroom in Arlington, showing the promise of the EHO ordinance. They are benefiting from the choices this board has made to promote access to housing and transit. I urge the board to stay the course as

we begin the next phase of the comprehensive plan update. Let's continue to build an Arlington that is defined by its inclusivity and its commitment to smart, sustainable growth. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Deeder. The next speaker. Yes. Our next and final speaker of the evening is Bernie Burn. Mr. Burn, are you there? There you are.

Last month, you approved the fiscal year 2027 budget without providing funds for a temporary park ranger position that I requested. The county manager had not placed these funds in the proposed budget. That position previously permitted the public to visit the interior of the Wuhan junction caboose during weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day. However, you removed these funds from the budget during the C co e emergency which is now over. I have requested the restoration of these funds dur during your considerations of the county manager's proposed budgets for FY2 26 and 27. However, you have refused my two requests despite the fact that the caboose had many visitors when it was open. The caboose display contains displays and information about the history of the county's railroads and trolleys as well as about the junction. Your refuses were your refusals were pennywise and pound few foolish. During the 1900s, the county spent about $80,000 in CIP funds to bring the caboose to Arlington and install it at Blummont Junction. That was more than $100,000 at today's rates. The only purpose of spending that money was to provide indoor space for the county staff to develop a historical exhibit and explain it to the public. Staff did this. The caboose has no other purpose. It as it was built after the WOD railroad closed. It has no historical value to Arlington. You will continue to waste that $80,000 if you not restore if you do not restore refund funding for the range of position in the next budget or instruct the parks and recreate recreation to fund the position during the summer. Really, this is this is what management is all about. You don't build payund $80,000 to bring something in there and then not not provide funds for people to

go inside use it. think this over and I hope the county manager does too because it nice if we really approach it in the next budget. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Burn. I believe that is our last speaker. Correct. Mr. Mayor will not be joining us. No further speakers. Got it. So um in an unscientific poll I got the glory of going first and providing five minutes of remarks. You could say that means I get the short straw, but I also if there are lights burning and others want to go first. Please.

Got it. Okay, I'll take it. I started the clock. So, we had a number of speakers come in to speak about the Virginia Israeli Advisory Board. There are various comments, individual comments with which I agreed and some with which I disagreed. Um, I would say we did a pretty rigorous process actually to invest a lot of money in community needs through the budget. And um, I'm mindful that our focus as local government um, necessarily is most focused on what we can most control. I'm not a pacifist. I'm not immune to the concerns that you have raised. I do respond best to thinking in nuance. So for example, the PowerPoint that was shared last month on as we wrestle with the different issues that have come up. You mentioned aparttheid, Mr. Beard, there have been, you know, we have the challenge in Ukraine. These are all issues that we might be mindful of and we also have to balance as we think them through. I feel like it's a little bit overroad to say that our taxes are used to commit crimes against humanity. That's not where I am. I do take your point that you know saying things political are political does not just make them so. You don't get to avoid responsibility. This is not an easy issue. Um and I you know I think nuance is important. We are not for example a sanctuary city. We cannot guarantee the safety of our immigrant community. We can do all we can within the law, but our public safety has sworn an oath and they cannot uh obstruct the efforts of federal employees, federal efforts. We have done a lot and in our last budget, to Miss

Valenuela's point, we did seek to add 50,000 to specifically address the families and you may not even know this of those who are in need. I think that covers I'm not here to avoid the moral questions that Mr. Dresner you you asked, but it is certainly a challenge. I I I will go on from there because there are many other topics. I'll leave Miss Hilton your comments on Cherrydale. Uh perhaps I'd hope that Miss Cunningham can help me a little bit on that. Miss Wall Green and one other speaker talk talked about Boston, Mr. Schwarz, and we will have our capital improvement plan discussion. We don't frankly have within our 10 years enough money to rebuild this site completely. It is a challenge, but it is on our minds. That's a place for the capital improvement plan. Miss Duncan, I have made it and we have made it a focus of ours to work on that road. We have not yet scheduled the the followup that Miss Coffee and I have been designated to do, but we will and we have acquired all the easements on one side. We will widen that road. Now, our question is what can we get from the other side? Your specific solutions here are very helpful and I don't know today that I can commit to any ones of them, but I'm grateful for them. Miss Hogan, it's not bad to hear some good things about our community in addition to all the critiques. There are plenty of that those. I do appreciate Miss Mattos uh and those who've applauded the forum that we're doing. There's detail on lot size. Ultimately, I don't think the tool that is best used is is on affordability and preservation of affordable housing or preservation of housing affordability doesn't just happen naturally over the next 50 years. The homes that have been built that are ramblers will deteriorate and so we will have to invest. Um the BHC hospital center, I'm grateful for those two of you who came in to speak on that. It is a huge need. Uh I'll mention NBTA is something that we need to follow up on. Mr. Donaldson and those who came in on missing middle and expanded

housing options. So, sort of a reminder of how hard this conversation was. I'd asked for grace on all sides of this. I think you can notice that those who spoke in support of expanded housing options were mostly younger than I am. I'm 52. Those who spoke who are against it were mostly older than than I am. Candidly, those of us who may still be in apartments might one day wish to be in something closer to a single family home. It is a fact. It is a fact that renters are more than 55 up to 60% of the people in this community. They don't vote as much as single family homeowners. But to Miss Valenuela's point, we have a duty both to represent those who vote and to think about those who aren't in this room and whether the American dream is is possible for them. To that end, I would submit that there is a difference just as there was a difference between 600,000 and a million dollars. There is a difference between more expensive and single family home level of expensive homes. Beyond that, I would say that the scope of our disagreement is not as large as one might argue because the number of units that we are approving is by far bigger in the in the corridors and even those in my experience closest to that issue uh closest opposed to expanded housing options most said that we were in uh that they supported the transitoriented development that is there. respectfully. I think one speaker I disagree there. Um that I do think that that is that is a good place to go. I've missed a few. I'm over five minutes. I'll ask for your grace on that and I'm sure that I haven't um responded to everything is there. I'll let colleagues follow up on

that. Thank you for the opportunity. I'd ask that even as strongly as we might frustrate or infuriate you, this is civility. This is our democratic process and we need your help. I didn't mean to be rough on the ends of speaking times, but we have to ask for grace and we have to try to coexist even when we strenuously disagree. And so I'd ask that you give the same grace to my colleagues as you have to me in listening to my two cents. And I'll stop there and offer it to any red light that's or green light that's that's that's gone. I see Miss Vice Chair Coffee. Go ahead. And I would say for the record, Mr. Kushner, everybody gets their six minutes and 30 seconds because I was not five minutes. Go ahead.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Debronte. And and thank you to everyone that joined us here today. As Matt said, this is a new thing that we're doing. Um I don't know that we got it 100% right. It's the first time. We'll learn. Um I think we'd appreciate your feedback on on how it went and what we can do better. There's another one planned, I believe, for October. Um, and hopefully we turn this into the norm. So, we appreciate that. Um, in thinking about how to do responses, I think initially I kind of thought this all normal public comment where we try and go through point by point, but um to the to the timing point, I'm not sure that's really the best thing. And so I I kind of want to start with a broader discussion um unsurprisingly uh that this town hall brought out around affordability and housing and planning and what are we doing um because I think that that is uh the primary job of this board is to figure out all those questions. And I um appreciate how many different thoughts there are on every side of this. And I think that there are infinite ways for us all to go about this. I [sighs] am really proud of the work that we do in Arlington. And I think that um for for everyone who disagrees with a particular decision or site plan or project, there is still overwhelmingly good things that we are doing when it comes to development in Arlington. Um and and Mr. Dr. Handler, I know you you listed out a number of the the goals that we have hit over recent years and I would just ask, you know, if we hadn't had a history of being so supportive of development, would we have hit those goals? And I think the answer is no. And so those who are coming to say we've done too much, we're doing too much by by doing what we've done is how we have hit our goals. And if we don't continue to do those things going into the future, we will stop hitting those

goals. Housing production is a is a cumulative process. It is not a oneanddone. It is not you approve everything one year and then nothing ever again. We have to keep doing continuous and ongoing work. And that doesn't mean we don't plan for it. It doesn't mean that the one of the very first votes that I took on this board wasn't to approve the uh sewer master plan update um which was as glamorous as it sounds but also taught me that because of some of the environmental efficiencies because of the better appliances and plumbing that we have today we are lo we are using less water and less sewer capacity now than we were in the year 2000. And so when we think about planning for infrastructure, there are things that are challenges. There are things that we have to confront. We can't just say, you know, build baby build, as some in this room might say, without also saying what comes along with that. I think that's really important. Um I think Anita Walgrren has has left. I haven't seen her in a while, so it's good to see her here. But um I do think that one of the things that we are behind on is community facilities planning. Um, I think that we have given a lot of our capital dollars to schools, which is a really good thing. Um, and I also think that as the metro corridors developed, um, there was this idea that the younger transient renter population would just get their more community space by paying for it, by going to the gyms that cost you money, by going to the bars and the restaurants and the places that you can gather that cost you money. And that at the time was kind of the ethos that that was an acceptable substitute for community space. And so we planned our public facilities to be in our lower density residential neighborhoods. Well, now 66% of our population lives on about 30% of the land. Um, and we don't have walkable community centers. We have a couple of

libraries. Um, but we have a lot of work to do on that. I think this location is such a huge opportunity. I think there's a handful of other places that we know of in the county. Um, but planning for it and figuring out how we get there is going to be really hard because public facilities these days are are very deeply expensive things. And so, um, that's a conversation I'm really interested in having because I think it really matters. And I think part of the way that you build community amongst the cor the metro corridors and you get people to invest and to stay and to be really part of Arlington, part of the fabric of this community is by giving them good places to go where they can interact with their neighbors and they can invest. And so um that's something I'm really passionate about. Um the VHC Behavioral Health Center, I appreciate the the rising perspectives. Um we heard from one speaker concerned that nothing has happened since the site plan was submitted in November. We just had the kickoff uh last week. Miss Cunningham and I were there. Um and so from here forward is where we should anticipate to see changes. Um I will I will go on record right now saying that that second driveway entrance is not a thing I'm fan of. Um we are spending a lot of money on Carlin Springs to make it safer. Uh and the idea of adding another potential collision point is not something I'm thrilled about. Um and so we also have accelerated two uh transportation studies um that are larger re-engineering studies and that is at the Walgreens site and that intersection on Langston. And then our our uh other priority study is South Carlin Springs Road. And so those are two places that we are actively actively prioritizing and I appreciate that. Um it is a a huge overall priority to have traffic safety. Um, PTOIC interceptor sewage spill. Very interesting topic. Um, we are lucky that where it is located is downstream from the Washington aqueduct. So, we don't

have to worry about uh impacts on our drinking water. Um, the Washington aqueduct itself is another interesting topic that uh the federal administration is starting to get themselves involved in and there's a lot of conversation there. Um, and I'd be happy to follow up because I I do find it to be um, an interesting local government topic. Um, there is a lot here and I am approaching very quickly 6 and a half minutes. Um, and so I think I will just conclude by saying um, I don't agree with the foreign policy of the United States right now and I also don't have the power to change that from where I am. I appreciate that we continue to have this conversation. I'm not saying no. But there are there are limits to what we as a local government can do.

Thank you. And because I'm going second and so it's not in my self-interest, I'd ask that folks just give Miss Coffee a brief round of applause for at least trying to answer answer the the comments. And you can actually clap in this case. [applause] So that's decently for the record, not me uh self-interested there. I will say I'd pass it to Mr. Spain if you're ready. Okay. All right. Talking with notes. Okay. Miss Cunningham and then Mr. Karantis.

I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you for being here to my colleagues who were on time. Uh, and I was almost um to [clears throat] all of you who took time away from your families and your work and all the things that you could be doing on this beautiful, beautiful evening to be here with us and to engage in this messy, messy work of democracy. So, thank you. Just thank you for being here. I am always just so inspired by how Arlington shows up and how we can hold views that are different but we can do it together and in so doing build our community a bit stronger and each of you is a huge huge part of that. [snorts] Um I will try to be pretty quick since I'm going third which is um just a couple of topics. I think I'm going to focus on the community amenities and services. It's it's hard to be sitting here in central library. I've got library books that are not quite overdue that have to be returned at the end. Um to not just celebrate all that Arlington is and what we've built together over the decades of a community that thrives on being together on investing in services that serve all whether that's recreation or sidewalks or amazing libraries. Um we are at a generational inflection point where um you know I would differ a little bit with Miss Coffee in terms of how we planned our libraries and recreation centers. They happened where the the centers of population were a long time ago and where we happen to acquire um facilities and it's hard to let go of stuff um and it's very expensive to buy new things. So, you know, we kind of have to work from where we are um to invest more as we've done in the courthouse library, for instance, as we will someday, and this will be a huge topic in the CIP. Uh this parcel and the adjoining um APS properties, but those community venues, how we staff them, what happens in them,

where they're located, how you get to them, which we've actually made a lot of great progress on, um is really, really important to us. And those issues will vary over time. We just came through a fairly bruising operating budget conversation that had a couple of those um facilities up for discussion. We'll have more of that discussion in CIP. It's not free to keep things we once had and we we sometimes need to be able to change to move into a future that we hope for. So we'll we'll work through that. Um but overall I think you know I am proud to be the liaison to the VHC site. It's been a good decade I think since uh JFAC was created and we first identified actually the community facility study before that identified that we are behind in investing and planning around community facilities. It's not easy because we're not a green field site. We got to work with what we have and build from there. Um, and I'm thrilled to to be on the VHC piece. And I agree that there's some improvements like every SPRC. There's a lot of work that uh will make sure that we get the the spring right, we get the transportation right, and hopefully we get the the lighting pollution right as well. So, more to come on that. Uh, and then finally on housing. Um so I I think you all know that there's some diversity of opinion here about how uh missing middle fits into a spectrum of housing solutions that we need and I think it what what is there is not disagreement about is that we need a full spectrum of housing solutions and some of those are ownership some of those require state level support to enable more condos some of it are how we do land use some of it may be the BZA appeal fee which is generic for everyone and not just VHO. Um, and so we don't get it right the first time every time, but it's important to zoom out and think about, you know, we have to have housing. It's the most fundamental need. We have

housing for everyone from the day they come home from the hospital to the day they leave us and move on to another uh sphere. And that's at all income levels and all stages of life. And that's not easy. Um and oh, it's not all a local government [laughter] um controlled issue, right? The federal government has huge impacts on that. The state government as well, but we as a community need to continue to show up and to uh you know, work through that. And I I think with EHO, as we get soon, I hope on the other side of the the legal opinions, we will be able to come back together and say, what do we what do we have here? What's working? What can we do a little better? Are there fees that need to change? Um but fundamentally some of the pressure points are related to the former board's um opinion to move forward with this as a byight um approach which has pros and cons but we're feeling some of the pros and the cons right now and we have more to do to digest that. Um and then I'll just finalize I think I heard a few people mention the comp plan. Uh next week I believe we'll begin to see the the kind of draft principles of the comp plan that came out of the impact input from the last year. Please pay attention to that. It will first hit the long range planning commission I think uh next week. It's it's May. It starts with a one. Maybe it's the 15th or the 13th or something like that. Um and then we will be as a board hearing from you and trying to figure out how much more do we want to do? how much space do we want to make for input? Um, and we would anticipate that there's a lot of conversation about that. So, please pay attention and help others notice that it's going on. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Cunningham. Those who wish, please give Miss Cunningham a hand. And thank you for covering so much so quickly. Really appreciate it, Mr. Karen.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Everybody, thank you so much for taking the time uh and coming here uh to discuss and I have two things to say. I will I will start with the things that struck me a little bit on the negative side. One is gosh fox nobody talks about climate except for what personal problem. uh the second thing but I know that most of you uh you know one or the other way you refer to that in indirect ways. The second thing was uh what our chair mentioned uh very politely as in civility when we disagree we disagree very politely in Arlington and we should continue to disagree politely. Um the you know when I can understand that uh things can touch different people very differently and they may react uh kind of from the gut. But we need to uh return always to a place where we accept the discourse in our community in a diverse community. And uh this is for me uh the the session today uh the testimony today shows how we have evolved as a community that initially was thought uh to be you know kind of a delivery device for an amazing public service sector uh federal employees with steady jobs etc. uh our military community etc. to a living breathing community with a ton of different opinions with a ton of different vectors with a ton of different demands and different pressure points. Uh and that's uh actually a very good thing because it

makes us a community that's more responsive to uh modern problems. Um one thing that stood out for me as well colleagues uh is uh the discussion of public facilities. It is absolutely clear and we heard about the Roslin Boston corridor today a corridor where we should have thought a little bit earlier. I mean this library is still in the middle of the Roslin Boston corridor and is available uh and walkable distance. Uh but uh I believe Mr. Theo said that the next biggest investment is up in Labberan which is not exactly you know close to the majority of population. Think about our newest uh and most one of the most populous parts of Arlington which is Crystal City and Pentagon City the National Landing area. uh there is a minuscule library at the very edge of that place and we and uh it's not only that we have some legacy locations that need to evolve based on how the population has evolved in national landing there are more than 55,000 people living uh on my on my corridor on Columbia Pike there are more than 40 uh thousand people living so uh we need to match uh population with proximity to services and proximity to uh recreation and proximity to public space and this is what the comp plan actually wants to achieve. So it's a good moment to think about these things also things have changed our era of smart growth or rapid growth with high uh development gains is now in the past. So we need to think of other ways to extract value from uh you know economic activity including development but not exclusively development uh to uh fund the uh quality of life that we have

here. Uh we are doing that already massively by funding our schools. So we need to expand this uh approach to to uh public facilities as well. on each show we hear a lot about uh I mean I always appreciate the critical stance of uh those who have been opposing that for the last three years. I want to remind everybody that we have just begun to uh to find an angle of attack and what Miss Cunningham um uh mentioned as trying to find options that fit very different uh layers of ability to pay for housing. Right now we are lacking these options. Housing is too damn expensive. Uh it is a crisis out there and it's a crisis that uh bites back because it uh makes our economic development uh even more difficult. We cannot sustain jobs here. We cannot offer to these baseball playing uh high school graduates uh jobs that pay enough to keep them here. So uh from the very beginning think about uh what EHO already has uh produced on paper because we had a very small uh uh you know time to actually get no I believe there are more not more than 60 built to begin with in a in a sea of 28,000 lots. So the average the average square footage of an ano is 1,600 square feet. I think that this is good middle class housing. It is expensive, but because it's new. And to Miss Taylor's uh question, who can afford that? I can tell you who can afford that. A family can afford that who today is living in older housing that could be available to another family that can afford less.

When we build new housing, we make the rent and the cost of older housing more affordable. There is huge evidence about that and it's now accumulating uh most AOS I mean the absolute majority is two and three bedrooms uh 1,600 I told you that at the same time we produce over 200 single family homes they are over the average is over 5,000 square feet and five bedrooms all of them so you see this is not a balanced market this is not going very well uh if you uh I I with every policy that we have, we may have issues to polish, but we have to let the policy first work. So I hope that we will see that in the next uh uh few years. And here we are. We'll continue this conversation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Karen Tonis. Thank you, Mr. Cunningham again, and to Mr. Spain to bring us home.

Six minutes. Um, so good evening everyone and it is a pleasure for those who came out and and stuck with us here uh tonight at our first town hall. You know, as a junior member on this county board, it it gives me great pleasure to see everyone out in central Arlington on a Monday night. Even you, Miss Tia Alfred. You know, I'm going to call you out because you give me that look. But uh look uh I just want to kind of level set here in the time that I have and I was taking some notes and and want you to know that if you don't already know for me that I am grounded in a couple things. Uh civil rights, human rights and that in of itself is what kind of shapes how I listen, how I make my decisions. And I think ultimately it's our responsibility here as a board, not only to you, but also to one another uh to make sure we do things also in a very moral way. What I'm hearing tonight, what I've heard tonight is that uh whether we grow large or whether we grow small that there's a lot of conversation. And one thing I've learned in being in Arlington in 19 years, everyone's smart. We're one of the smartest localities in America. And when you're in an environment like this, everyone has strong opinions and everyone thinks they know what's right. As a single family homeowner on the south side of Arlington with three adult kids, I can sympathize and empathize and all those things with individuals who have children, adult children now, who cannot in many cases call Arlington home. Why is that? Some will say because wages haven't kept up, but others will say because there's just not enough housing. That's what they'll tell you. they can't find the housing. Now, people have talked about, well, there's a lot of rentals out here, right? Well, yeah, there's rentals going for $4,000 a month. And I I'll tell you, it is a challenge in Arlington. When we think about housing and when we think about uh what's going on here today,

I want us to also kind of think about um the commitments in the communities here in Arlington that's going on for decades. Think about Halls Hill. Think about Green Valley. Think about Johnson Hill that actually experienced real harm uh through past decisions of this board as it pertains to housing. And guess what's happening in 2026? A lot of those families have been displaced intentionally because of policies that this board put in place years ago. They don't have the opportunity to play catchup. And what we find right now as as we try to balance this out here in the county, at least I do, it's also equity. How do we ensure right that everyone can move together, right? And and something that you know, you've heard here, we have a large number of renters here in the county. We have a large number of single family homeowners, but you know who comes to the dis. You know who writes to us the most? It's the single family homeowners. A lot of times it's the renters. Everyone deserves to be heard. And as the board, we have to make a decision a lot of time on how do we move together at the pace of need. Not just because you're the loudest in the room or the group and you have access to the county board, who's not being heard. And that for me is very important as I make decisions. So when we think about history, we also got to think that history cannot be separated from these conversations that we're having here tonight. I heard about housing and land use. We heard about affordability and community well-being. We heard a lot about ethical uh investment and economic uh development. Uh I just want you to say, and I've said this on the record, that as a civil rights and human rights uh leader, that ethical investments are something that, you know, we talking about public dollars, I want to be clear that I hear you and that these concerns are real and they're valid and they

deserve to have not just a passing response from the board. I believe at the same time we need to operate in some level of framework within the confines of state and federal law to see what we can do perhaps to uh take this on because you you can't in one vein sit here and say from a moral compass that you know what's going on wherever whether it's Ukraine or whatever we are global citizens we have people who are being impacted around this globe who live in Arlington and if taxpayer dollars at the end of the day quite frankly are somehow going indirectly or directly to a place or to an area where people are being killed. That's problematic for me and I'm just one board member. All right. So, I think we need to really think about that and and again keep that within the framework of local and state and federal law. So, look, we got to ask ourselves at the end of the day, y'all, that let's not forget the lessons. This is not our first time in this space as a county. Uh the takeaway from tonight should be balanced growth, smart growth, environmental impacts, uh history at at the same time. Are we meeting today's needs? How are we building a more fair Arlington for the future? Because ultimately our decisions that we make here are not just about what we build, but whether we're building quite frankly, my friends, a community that is fair, that is inclusive, and for everyone, not just the well-connected. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Spain. [applause] Thank you all colleagues. I'm mindful that um there were questions, concerns who that may not have been addressed. I hope you guys everyone has good evenings. I would ask that we all keep in mind that everyone who shared an opinion

uh is probably a child at one point, a parent or a sister or a brother. And so let's give space to each other to speak and have their truths. And if you want to follow up with individual board members, you can do that. Thank you and good evening.