Development

Details on the Comp Plan Rewrite

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The County is changing the guiding principles (introduction and goals and objectives) of its Comprehensive Plan (the main "roadmap" for how the County develops).  It may then move on to the General Land Use Plan or any/all of the 12 constituent elements  Read more below and use the June 2025 ASF sample letter to express your concern to countyboard@arlingtonva.us, before they act in February/March 2026.   

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Read ASF testimony to the County Board February 21 and ASF's February 9 letter to the Board about withholding key parts of the plan as we seek to revise it.  Read Board Chair de Ferranti's latest comments to ASF which reveals clear intent to reduce or remove single family zoning.  Read ASF's alternate suggestion for new Comp Plan introduction.  Then write countyboard@arlingtonva.us and urge them to:

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1. Adopt ASF's suggested revision of the Comp Plan introduction by retaining the 1960 Comp Plan intro and goals and adding elements adopted through 2024.  This includes maintaning medium/high density in Arlington's existing transit corridors and low-density development elsewhere;

2. Publish the current Comp Plan intro and ALL sub-elements, including he graphic representation to include the Public Art Plan

3. Renew public engagement to explain real intent regarding balance between high and low-density areas in Arlington.

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Community-Based Development

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Growth Model and the Comprehensive Plan:  Arlington's Comprehensive Plan sets out a framework for growth that is clarified in its General Land Use Plan (GLUP) and zoning code.  The Comp Plan and GLUP since 1979 have stipulated high density would be limited to the Orange and Blue Line Metro corridors, with highest density clustered in bullseyes around Metrorail stations.  In the 2000s the county broadened this "transit-oriented development" (TOD) framework to include two new corridors, one at Columbia Pike and one along Langston Blvd. 

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Arlington like other coastal cities has attracted high-paid jobs but these have made housing more expensive; however Arlington has been more aggressive than most with TOD and has added approximately 29,000 units since 2016, leaving our primary housing gap at units affordable to households at 60% of area median income or below.     

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Current Challenges:  Covid saw a K-shaped recovery that widened gaps between high and low income groups, and a record high commercial vacancy rate that topped out around 24%.  Covid slammed public transportation budgets, posing a challenge for the county even as their two new "transit" corridors are bus reliant, a mode that hasn't typically drawn riders from market rate housing units, which is what the new corridors are providing. Federal Government workforce reductions/relocations present new challenges for Arlington going into 2026, with the fiscal outlook grim. Facing also inevitable climate change, Arlington needs a community-based growth model; but that's not yet on the table with current efforts. 

 

"Vision 2050" - 2026 Timeline for Comp Plan Revision:  The County is changing the Comp Plan introduction and may move then to change the GLUP and the other 11 elements of the Comp Plan.  So far, it is hinting only at more "transit" and more density, see ASF letter to the County Board of June 2025.  Changing the Comp Plan to either hollow out low-density areas, or to pack high-density areas with even more density without adequate infrastructure/services will fall flat as the consequences of that density catch up to the reality of poor planning.

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​Runaway Growth but Inadequate Planning:  The County has approved in the last decade major changes to entire areas of Arlington.

 

• Form-based code at Columbia Pike is gentrifying an area that used to provide market rate affordable units.

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• New zoning and a major infill project approved in 2025 for the 36 acre site at River House opens the door for 12,000 more residents but without schools, parks, libraries, or critical transit in the Pentagon City Sector Plan. 

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• A new skyline at National Landing -- and several development projects -- are being shaped by Amazon (a huge complex opened at Metropolitan Park but the Pen Place HQ2 complex is on hold as of 2026). 

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• Rosslyn is adding structures towering above 25 stories, but has begun forfeiting major community benefits (see late 2025 project One Rosslyn). 

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And the County is adding density outside approved "planning corridors" with "Special General Land Use Plans" (GLUPs). These growth trends adversely affect our taxes (each new resident increases the tax burden), our infrastructure, our demographic/socioeconomic diversity, and our environment. 

 

ASF weighs in on multiple projects each year, asking Arlington's leaders to adopt better fiscal planning for development -- possibly using a proffer system -- or to secure better community benefits and prospective infrastructure financing.    

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Changes We Want to See

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Before changing the Comp Plan or GLUP, approving more intense land use, more bonus density, or denser zoning, the County should:  

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• Adopt available community planning tools (such as the TischlerBise fiscal impact tool) to assess costs and benefits of varied development scenarios.

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• Create a 10-year projected county operating budget for different population and revenue scenarios. 

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