Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) has filed a preliminary redevelopment proposal with the County for the American Legion Post 139 located at 3445 Washington Boulevard. During this preliminary stage, county staff will review the draft application to ensure that they meet technical filing requirements. APAH has shared their Architectural drawings submission with us and are linked below.
This application proposes to demolish the existing building and replace it with a new 160 unit residential building that would also provide ground floor space for the American Legion post. The proposed building is seven stories in height with a couple of stepbacks in the northwest corner above the third and fourth levels. The facility will be accessed by a new alley coming off of Washington Boulevard leading to a one-level underground parking garage accommodating 96 vehicles.
APAH and Legion representatives presented their proposal at our July 23, 2018 Membership Meeting. Neighbors had the opportunity to give initial feedback on the proposal to the applicants.
Applicant’s Preliminary Architectural Plans (June 26, 2018)
Applicant’s Updated Images (July 24, 2018)
Neighbors are encouraged to continue reviewing these preliminary plans and to formulate additional questions and feedback and send them to: info@BallstonCivic.org.
Neighbors are also encouraged to compare and contrast the applicant’s proposal with the recently approved county planning study and concept plan for the area that includes the subject site.
Project Description & Neighbor Comments from July 23rd Meeting minutes:
- The Legion has partnered with APAH to propose a 6,000 sq. foot facility for the Legion on the ground floor and a 160 residential unit, all affordable housing building with 96 parking spaces (of which 20 are for Legion use).
- In recent years, APAH has been partnering with non-profits and churches in “transit-orientated” projects.
- They focused on three main principles from the GLIP-
- Modernizing civic institutions
- A diverse rate of market and affordable housing
- Evolution from auto orientated to pedestrian focus.
- Their intention is to provide for 20% veteran preference for the site.
- It is an “F” shape building that is meant to make use of the small site so they utilized lots of “tricks” to breakdown the scale.
- They are proposing a courtyard on the second floor.
- Step back of 5-7 feet. Current building is 12 feet from property line, so they are moving to 55 feet which is the measurement from building to building. Its 47.1 feet from property line to building.
- Building design has a proposed change in materials every 3 feet or so with dark materials envisioned for floors 1, 6 and 7 and light material for floors 2-5.
- One area for loading for both residents and the Legion.
- Parking is a concern for the neighborhood and questions were asked about their rationale for the proposed number of parking spaces. The developer stated that affordable housing and bonus density is the rationale.
- There is disagreement between neighbors’ interpretation of the roads outlined in the GLUP drawing and the interpretation that the developer has of whether there should be two roads as the current plans only propose one “alley” with a fire easement in the back.
- The rendering also has 26 feet from houses currently but the GLUP anticipated 50 ft.
- The plan also has three stories in the portion closets to 12th St.
- For the North side alley, they want walkability, pedestrian traffic, bikes, and fire access. They see using a grass like material for the road itself and are planning 25 ft and expectation that the Y will do 20-25 feet also.
- A question was raised about how the veteran preference will work and they stated they are in discussion with the intent of at least 20% going to veteran or active military who qualify.
- The Legion does intend to have a commercial kitchen and the plan calls for two event areas that will have a movable partition. There will be a small bar but that is not their focus and there will be no smoking in the facility.
- A question about parking for events was raised and they don’t have a plan at present. They want to have discussion with the County. When asked if they had talked to Mala Tang about parking as they currently use the Legion parking lot, they said no.
- A question about bike parking was raised and their current plan meets Arlington County bike parking minimums. They also stated all residents will be provided with a bus pass.
- It was suggested that the neighborhood did not envision during the GLUP how much of the building would be in the back part closest to the neighborhood and suggestions were provided on how they might consider revising the plan to have more units up toward the front of Washington Blvd. Similar site plans were provided for the architect to look at for inspiration.
- A question about energy efficiency elements was asked. They plan on a green roof and LEED is still in process.
- A question on sidewalk size was asked and they stated the sidewalks on Washington Blvd will be 17 feet.
- Questions about uber and other drop off services was asked, and they stated they wanted cars to turn around at the end of the alley. The neighbors expressed their concern about increase in exhaust and noise near single family homes.
- A question about timeline was asked. They are currently waiting on funding from the County. A decision is expected in August. If they get it, they would then apply for tax credits in March. The best-case timeline would be a June 2020 ground breaking.
- They have also been working with the Veterans Administration from whom they received credits (the 1st to receive in Virginia).
- For the site plan, they have filed a preliminary site plan and the County has until August 10th to provide them with comments. They anticipate a Sept/Oct site plan review start.
- A request was made to have them revise the renderings so that the modeling over white houses is removed and the real houses are shown. They agreed to revise the context graphics for the street intention.
- It was agreed that BVSCA would collect and compile comments from the neighbors and provide it to them.