The largest barrier to more affordable housing in Arlington is the lack of available, affordable land on which to build that housing . . . and there is no magic wand to produce it.
One thing that we can do, however, is to ensure that, wherever feasible, public land is used for affordable housing. AHS supports the recent recommendation of the Arlington Housing Commission that the County Board adopt an official “Public Land for Public Good” policy. This would require careful review of whether affordable housing could be a part of proposed construction or rehabilitation of public facilities.
Kudos to the Arlington New Directions Coalition, whose work on the issue goes back five years. ANDC did a major review of publicly-owned properties, presenting its findings to the Housing Commission about a year ago.
Link here to the AHS recommendation to the County Board on the public-land-for-public-good policy. Link here to an overview of general issues involving publicly-owned land and affordable housing.
