Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Board OKs BV3 Affordable Housing Plan
The meeting of the five grew mildly tense at times, when county board member Chris Zimmerman attempted to understand if the rental units and the condo units could be readied for occupancy at the same time, and board Vice Chair Jay Fissette quizzed county staff about the lack of detail concerning geothermal heat pumps as a possible green alternative heat source for the redevelopment. In the end, the board unanimously approved the affordable housing plan—something never really in question—but will hear more about the geothermal plan during their July meeting. This allows Telesis Corp. and National Housing Trust, the new owners (with others) of the Village 3 complex, to get their financial ducks in a row for the August 5 opening of the Virginia tax credits competition.
The affordability of these units works best if certain federal and state tax credits are received. There is a finite amount of money in the Virginia tax credit hopper, which is doled out starting August 5, so it helps to be the first in line. On the rental side, the county has paid about $14.9 million for the purchase of the land and will receive about $10 million back during the long-term lease with Telesis. That leaves about $4 million of county financing in the project, or about $110,000 per rental unit, reported David Cristeal, a lead county planner in the project. He said that the cost to the county for the condominium would be nearly $7 million or about $143,000 per unit. The county may receive some of this money back as the units are sold. He said last night’s decision required the board to vote so that the company would “sufficient time to meet the time frame of early August.”
Only one of the 10, or so, civilian speakers last night was negative. Long-time county activist Jim Hurysz wondered if the price tag of $110,000 per unit was too expensive. “Are there better options [to purchase affordable housing] like buying old duplexes” or small apartment buildings at $50,000 per unit, he wondered aloud. He did not give an example of where or how many of those might exist in the county. In the past, county board and staff have said they liked the idea of saving so much affordable housing all at once, in Buckingham, and of saving the community itself, allowing as many people as possible to remain in the neighborhood while renovation and redevelopment takes place. If all goes as planned, renovation of the units—all 140 in Village 3 will be renovated—begins next spring. Mr. Zimmerman focused on making sure the rental units and condo sales happen together since that would mean the least disruption for people who want to buy but are currently renting in Village 3. He said that developing the home ownership segment while maintaining the community is a large point of this project. If the county and Telesis get the home ownership segment moving, but the people in the neighborhood who might have bought have already left, then what is the point, he wondered. Many of the exact details of how the home ownership would work are still to be worked out. Mr. Cristeal said that there were site plan concerns with the condo and parking concerns along with setting up the purchasing assistance program for the potential buyers. As well, the county has to sell the section of the property that the condo will own. “We ought to be able to expedite those,” especially the site plan and housing assistance processes, given that they are under county control, Mr. Zimmerman said. But then there’s the problem of phased redevelopment—how does Telesis keep people in some units on the property while renovating others? Perhaps they don’t, Mr. Zimmerman said, offering that they could move people to apartments elsewhere in Buckingham. That has happened during the renovation of The Gates of Ballston and Historic Ballston Park. Now, Buckingham Village 1 has the new Madison at Ballston Station with units that rent at affordable rates. “One of the obstacles to getting the timing of the ownership units on line with the rental units…was the difficulty of trying to maintain people on site,” Mr. Zimmerman said. Aimee McHale of the National Housing Trust, explained, “There’s an astronomical cost with relocating people off-site. We should have said that up front.” They plan to renovate one or two buildings at a time and shuffle people around on the property as they do so. Mr. Zimmerman wondered if perhaps some fraction could move off-site if that meant the condo renovation would keep pace with the rentals.
“We will look at that. Clearly we have a lot to do with respect to phasing. We’ve been focused on the housing program so that we can be ready for the 9 percent tax-credit application that’s due on August fifth,” said Scott Kline, vice president of the National Housing Trust. “We do have a lot more work to refine our renovation plan.” When board Vice Chair Jay Fissette had his opportunity he wondered why the plans for the use of geothermal heat pumps were conflicting and inspecific. “[W]hen I read this, I get really mixed messages from the memo,” he said. The use of the pumps which use naturally-occurring heat deep in the earth to heat the apartments would require Historical Affairs and Landmarks Review Board approval, and might interfere with old-growth trees which might have to be removed, and the initial installation is expensive. But the use of the heat-pumps might still be worth it if it meant that the people who lived in the units would have much lower utilities bills long into the future, Mr. Fissette said. “We can’t always being thinking about affordable housing without thinking about the context of affordable living,” Mr. Fissette said. He couched his argument for the geothermal heat pump in the idea that people should only be encouraged to buy and rent units if they can also afford to live there long-term. Lowering utilities bills would help that, he said. In the end, he was willing to draft the motion to approve the affordable housing program while asking for more information about the geothermal program at next month’s meeting. Labels: affordable housing, buckingham villages, BV3, redevelopment
Click the lines for more information. View larger map
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
County And Telesis Prep for June Meeting
The Arlington County Board met with senior staff and members of Telesis Corporation yesterday primarily to discuss whether to make Buckingham Village 3 all-rental or rental with some ownership. If there is ownership, the consensus, with some balking, was that it should be a condominium, not a co-operative. This is the last meeting of these groups before the board votes on the issue at their June meeting.
Telesis, with an impressive packet of information, recommended condominium ownership of 48 of the 140 units in 16 buildings, with the other 92 units renting at different levels of affordability.
The cost to the county for this is $14.5 million—or almost $17 million if buyers use the county’s Moderate Income Purchase Assistance Program. That’s about $103,000 to $120,000 per unit, according to the documents.
Under this plan, all the units would be fully renovated.
The county board, however, was not sure that the mix of 92/48 was the best and questioned Telesis about that ratio. Perhaps the best ratio would be rental on all 140 units.
Bert Mason, a principal at Telesis, ran through the numbers, explaining that full rental would mean the project would lose some tax incentives.
And the question of co-op versus condo was the point of largest contention, though “contention” might be too strong.
Board member Chris Zimmerman is a proponent of co-ops because the lower purchase costs generally associated with co-ops would make the units more affordable. Plus, the Latino community most likely to take advantage of the purchases are more familiar with the more communal co-op structure rather than the condo.
“I do think it’s a tool we should have in the box,” he said after the meeting, but he admitted that the financial structure in this country gives the advantage to condos.
“A co-op would be more helpful to us in achieving the goals we set in the first place,” Mr. Zimmerman said during the meeting. Those goals include keeping the entire Village 3 affordable, and allowing as many people who already live in Buckingham to stay in Buckingham.
County board Chair Barbara Favola said, however, that a condo, which would appreciate more than a co-op, would potentially allow more families to move up the economic ladder.
Mr. Mason estimated an additional $3 million would be needed from the county if the project went co-op. As well, the financing for a co-op is a couple percentage points higher than that of a condo, he said.
Board member Walter Tejada reiterated the need to keep the community together and wondered how likely it was that people would buy.
Mr. Mason said a “substantial number” in Buckingham wanted to buy. “I don’t think we’ll have any trouble selling these units,” he said.
In the end, the board seemed satisfied with the rental/ownership ratio and that the condo was the best option, but they asked that Telesis provide a more clear comparison of the differences for their June meeting. Ultimately, Mr. Tejada expressed what seemed to be the feeling at the table. “Let us not get that point lost,” he said, that a large number of affordable housing units are being saved by this measure. That the board was helping to save a housing complex built in the depression during the worst economic downturn since that time was significant, said Mr. Zimmerman after the meeting. “On so many levels, this is exciting.” Village 3, a six acre site, sits on N. Pershing Drive between N. Thomas St. and N. George Mason Drive. This is part of project that started in 2006 when the county entered a memorandum of understanding with Paradigm Development Corp and its partners, the former owners of the property. In that agreement, Village 3 fell under the protection of the county’s Historical Affairs and Landmarks Review Board; its redevelopment and that of Village 1, across N. George Mason from Village 3, has fallen under a great deal of county scrutiny. Labels: affordable housing, BV3, redevelopment
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Sneek Peek at the Madison at Ballston Station
One hundred of the 234-units in this building are priced affordable, that is, within range of people making less than 60 percent of the area median income (about $60,000 for a family of four). People can rent 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartments (there’s one efficiency at market rate). I’m sure part of what impresses me is that the building is new; everything inside is clean, the paint is fresh. More than that, though, they feel roomy, especially for apartments in Buckingham. Each has a walk-in closet attached to the main bedroom (the closet is about as big as the kitchen in my Buckingham townhouse. How often do you find that?.) The two bedroom that I toured had some unexpected angles, but they were used well. I really enjoyed the walk-through. All of the three-bedroom, and some of the two-bedroom units have two bathrooms, another rarity in this just-barely-north Arlington neighborhood. Lots of windows, some balconies; there’s a lot to love.
What’s more, the apartments are the same for both the people who rent at market and those who rent affordably save for the countertops: granite in the market-rate units, laminate for the affordable ones. "That's the only difference," said Micheline Castan-Smith, the manager of the project for Paradigm Development Corp., the developer of the site. The countertop choice was a decision made with the county government which loaned the developer about $7 million to be put toward the affordable units. They each have microwave ovens, laundry and dishwashers in the units.
The carpets are a light tan, and the ovens are electric, what had been two sore points for some of the residents of Gates of Ballston after that property went under renovation. The Latino population in Gates complained that the electric was not as good as gas for cooking slowly with large pots over long periods of time. The carpets in some units were quickly soiled, especially by children and by the bicycles that many of the residents use to commute.
Ms. Castan-Smith said “People really struggle with how to decorate,” and the neutral color of the carpet makes that easier. Plus, she said, with 80-some bike racks secured in the basement, “They don’t really need to bring their bikes into the units.” During the site planning, they decided to go all electric with the appliances because gas at the time was so high, she said. About 20 apartments have been rented so far. And quite a few people are in the application process. For people wishing to rent affordable units, especially, the process is a long one, requiring renters to prove that they make less than the income limit per household, which shifts depending on the number of adults and children living in the household, according to HUD and Fannie Mae. This is all part of the large redevelopment plan worked out between Paradigm and the county over the course of a year that ended during the summer of 2007. The redevelopment of Buckingham Village 3 (on the northeast corner of N. George Mason and Pershing drives) is a part of that process as well. Next up for the project is to move all the people out of the buildings along N. George Mason Drive and N. Henderson Road so that those buildings can be razed to be replaced by another large apartment building, a small county park, and a couple lines of townhouses. The relocation process is ongoing, with some of the people who live in those buildings taking units in the new building, Ms. Castan-Smith said. People who rent the affordable units must complete a lengthy application process.
The Madison at Ballston Station was built by Paradigm Development Company and is managed by their management arm. Labels: affordable housing, buckingham villages, BV1, paradigm
Related stories…
Friday, October 31, 2008
No Lease for Outreach Center in New Gates Community Center
At the grand opening of the new Gates of Ballston Community Center on Saturday, Arlington County Board Vice Chair Barbara Favola said, “The county is the proud sponsor of most of the programs in this building.”
That is almost true, but not quite yet.
The county sponsors the Buckingham Community Outreach center which has space in two conjoined apartments at the Gates of Ballston. But the county and AHC, Inc., the affordable housing developer which owns the property, have yet to sign a lease that would move the program onto the second floor of the new Gates of Ballston Community Center, where empty offices await.
Price is the problem, officials have said, though people on both sides were not overly dismayed by the delay.
“It’s taking more time than we thought it would,” said Catherine Bucknam, an AHC spokesperson, adding, “We want them [the Buckingham Outreach Center] there…It’s important to provide those services. That’s what a community center is all about.”
For his part, David Cristeal, in the county’s housing division, said "I think we were expecting to have [a lease] but we didn't, so we're working through it."
"I don't think the amount of space is at issue, it's just how much for that space," he said.
Ms. Bucknam added that AHC wants all outside organizations to have a lease for the space they use. The Child and Family Networks Center, which is running a day care facility on the second floor of the community center building, has a lease, she said.
For the past several years, the county has run the Buckingham Outreach Center from various apartments on the property; currently it is on 4th Street across the parking lot from the new building.
The outreach center offers computer classes, career counseling, English as a Second Language classes, and conducts other social work activities.
Although Ms. Bucknam was sure that the county was paying something for the use of the property, she was not sure how much, or if there was a formal lease anymore.
The Community Center building houses a day care center, management offices for the Gates of Ballston, and an office for the tenants association. As well, it has a community room for gatherings and other amenities.
No word as to how much longer it might take to ink the lease.
Related stories…
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, gates of ballston
Friday, December 14, 2007
BRAVO to Kip Laramie
He’s an affable man with a gap-toothed grin, and it is just hard not to like him.
Last night at his Santa Fe Café, 1500 Wilson Blvd., he hosted a fundraiser for the non-profit organization, BRAVO, Buyers and Renters Arlington Voice.
Fifty percent of the receipts went to BRAVO.
In an industry where success is clearing 10 to 12 percent, “I don’t make any money tonight,” Mr. Laramie said.
“We’re doing better than last year,” he reported, and then surveyed the tables to estimate the take. “I’m hoping we’ll give them at least a grand, maybe twelve hundred” dollars.
This is the second or third year that he has hosted this event, he said. He got involved with this through BRAVO’s president, Charlie Rinker, a well-known Arlington housing activist and a regular with his wife at the restaurant.
“We do that [host fundraisers] for certain groups we feel we can be supportive of,” he said. He hosts these events for Food and Friends and A-SPAN, among other groups, he said. He is the chair of the Homeless Services Committee of Rosslyn neighborhood BID, a business group.
BRAVO’s executive director, Caridad Palerm, said, “It’s going pretty well, actually.” Not only does BRAVO get half the receipts, she said that people will come in and write checks. Last year they received $700 or $800 that way.
“At the same time, all the affordable housing people get together here,” she said.
People chowed baskets of chips and fajitas and washed them down with margaritas and Dos Equis.
Charlie Rinker was there with his wife, Lora, the former executive director of the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network. Mimi Oziel, the director of the Buckingham Youth Brigade was there, as was Edgar Aranda Yanoc, an immigration attorney, and Sara Melèndez, a consultant in philanthropy.
The newly initiated were there, too, including Ivette Estrada an Arlingtonian who is a neophyte on BRAVO’s board.
“Had it not been for Cari [Caridad Palerm] I probably never would have heard about it,” Ms. Estrada said.
BRAVO works closely with Buckingham Villages and Gates of Ballston tenants. This fall, Ms. Palerm sat on the Buckingham Village 3 Working Group, and is on the committee that will review proposals regarding that block’s redevelopment and sale.
Rosa Briceño, the family involvement coordinator at K.W. Barrett Elementary School, drank a beer with Ms. Melèndez and talked about how the Buckingham neighborhood has changed in recent years, how most or all of the Bangladeshi families are gone, and how Latinos now make up a much smaller portion of the neighborhood.
“Affordable housing has always been important to me," Ms. Briceño said.
In the interest of full disclosure, I drank two Dos Equis (or XXXX) draughts, and paid $20 for them. –ST
Related stories and sites…
Labels: affordable housing
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Letter: Writer "Very Happy" with RFP Process.
I can tell you that I am very satisfied with the RFP language. It took a while to come up with something that actually satisfied all people participating in the process but I think the County did a great job addressing our concerns in the last version of the RFP. We are hoping to receive very creative responses to this RFP. The community is also satisfied with the language included in the RFP.
Regarding the Review Committee, we will have community representatives in the selection committee which is great, not as many votes as we (BRAVO) would like, but on the other hand we will have good and committed people participating, which is the most important aspect of the selection process.
Overall I can tell you that, as a tenant representative, I am very happy about the entire process –the community could effectively voice its needs and concerns and the County was very responsive to them. Kathleen McSweeney was a great leader in all this process.
Hope this answered your question; there is a confidentiality agreement in place to guarantee a fair selection process.
Take care,
Caridad Palerm
I had emailed the writer for a response to the RFP posting story (click here), and though the email did not come in time for that, I thought her response was worth posting here. She is the Executive Director of BRAVO (Buyers and Renters Arlington Voice).--ST
Labels: affordable housing, BV3
Thursday, November 29, 2007
HeraldTrib Today: Nov. 29, 2007
Then on Sunday, I came down with something that kept me in bed Monday, and on Tuesday afternoon I was shooting photos of the big trees coming down in Village 1:
But in my rush to bring you the best coverage of that day's work, I stepped in a hole and sprained my ankle (one of those where you hear and feel things grind and crunch). I remembered, after about 20 seconds of shooting a video with my cell phone, that the microphone was on, catching every curse and vulgarity I could spew as my ankle ached. I figured you didn't want to hear it, so no video.
One interesting thing about the tree coming down was the sound of the tearing as branches and roots broke, followed shortly thereafter by the smell of turned soil. The machines took the tree down in less than a minute.
Earlier today I shot this photo of some of the removed old-growth trees:
I also clicked this new view from the north side of the site. Last week, I wrote about seeing the trees and rear courtyard from the street for the first time in 60-odd years, now you can clearly see to The Chatham (high-rise in the background) and to the Arlington Oaks Community Center (the smaller, peaked-roof building in the foreground).
NO POLICE NOTES FOR BUCKINGHAM--two weeks in a row. Can we make it three?
One story since last week's update; scroll down to see it. The county has issued the Request for Proposals for the redevelopment of Village 3.
Labels: affordable housing, BV1, BV3
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Village 3 RFP Is Out
The RFP asks for, “an experienced development team to partner with Arlington County to rehabilitate the existing 140 units at Buckingham Village 3 and to design and implement an affordable housing program that encompasses home ownership and/or rental opportunities for a range of income levels.”
Village 3 sits inside the square of N. Pershing Drive, N. Thomas Street, N. 4th Street, and N. George Mason Drive.
View Larger Map
The RFP not only asks for companies to redevelop the units within the limitations of historic designation and with sales and lease in mind, but to “explore opportunities to increase the number or size of units while delivering a minimum of 140 affordable units." “Bump out” additions to some buildings are mentioned in the RFP—five locations have tentative approval. In the past, housing advocates have said using basement space might be a possibility.
None of the 16 buildings can be destroyed, and any additions or subtractions (from “tot lot” playgrounds to trees) must be approved by the county’s Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board.
As well, tenants on the working group, which produced the RFP with county staff, have asked for:
Some of these items (such as the color of the carpet and the gas stoves) have come in as a reaction to the renovation of Gates of Ballston, which uses electric stoves and beige carpets. Residents there have complained of the stoves which overheat, they say, and of carpets that are too easily soiled.
“The County will retain ownership of the land in order to guarantee affordability for the long-term,” the RFP states. However, due to state law, the county cannot own the buildings; however, it can own the “lease structures” David Cristeal, in the county's housing division, has said in the past.
The proposal will be evaluated on “Vision,” “Housing Program Concept,” “Proposed Financial Plan,” and “Experience and Qualifications of Developer and Development team,” the RFP states.
Although the RFP states there will be a time for public input, it does not list who will be evaluating the proposals, which was a mild point of contention between the residents on the Village 3 Working Group and the county staff.
Deadline for the proposals is Jan. 18, 2008.
Labels: affordable housing, BV3, redevelopment
Friday, November 02, 2007
Draft RFP for Village 3 Topic of Discussion Today.
The RFP will be the topic of conversation today at 1 p.m. between the county manager’s office and the co-chairs of the Buckingham Village 3 Working Group, which drafted the RFP.
Neither Caridad Palerm nor Kathleen McSweeney, co-chairs of the working group, know exactly what the topics of the meeting will include, and the county does not want to discuss its ideas until after meeting with the chairs.
Ms. Palerm and Ms. McSweeney had some ideas.
“It [this RFP] makes them nervous on two fronts,” Ms. McSweeney believes. “It sounds expensive. Obviously, that’s a concern. [And] we’re used to the whole rental thing.” The county knows how to manage affordable rental housing plans, but she said, “The fact that we’re asking for some elements of home ownership…at an affordable rate, I think is new.”
Since the RFP is a draft, it was not released, but Ms. McSweeney said some of the other items got into the details of what the inside of the units would look like, including installing gas—not electric—stoves, and having separate water and power meters leading to each unit.
Developer representatives at a working group meeting a couple months ago said they preferred an RFP with that sort of specificity; it makes their jobs easier, they said.
However, Ms. McSweeney acknowledged that they are asking a lot, and the county might be worried that no developer would step forward to take on the challenge.
Ms. McSweeney, who twice said how grateful she was that the county set-up a working group to help with this, hoped that the county only had modest, “wordsmithing,” changes to the proposal.
Ms. Palerm wondered if the county was worried about the make-up of the selection committee, the committee that will select the winning bid. She is Executive Director of BRAVO, a tenant group.
The current make-up of the selection committee is this: Save Buckingham Coalition, and Arlington New Directions Coalition together have one vote. BU-GATA and BRAVO, tenant organizations, together have one vote. Individual tenants from Village 3, who participate through the whole process of reviewing the proposals fromdevelopers will have one vote in the block. The Arlington County Housing Commission has 1 vote.
Three county representatives have one vote each. Each of the three county offices, Housing, Management and Finance, and the county attorney have one vote a piece.
“We are concerned with the composition of the group because in the end, those are the people” who will choose which company redevelops the neighborhood where these people will then live, Ms. Palerm said. “It’s basically because we think that people who are living there should have more votes.” She is not sure if the county management agrees with her on this.
The Buckingham Village 3 Working Group stemmed from the agreement, finalized last June, between the county and Paradigm Development Corp, the owner of the property. In that agreement, Village 3 became part of the Buckingham Historic District while Village 1 is set to be torn down. Village 3 sits on the northeast corner of N. George Mason and N. Pershing drives.
Labels: affordable housing
Monday, October 29, 2007
Breakfast with Walter at Rinconcito
He apologized for missing my emails regarding a “Meet-n-Greet,” and I apologized for not pursuing him more fully. We each ordered a #1 off the lighted sign over the grill—eggs over, fried plantains, refried beans, and a baked corn tortilla of some sort, crispy. I had to admit to not being a huge fan of Guatemalan food, although I love a good fried plantain. I was surprised by the beans, very good. Haven’t been in years, but I plan to go back.
We had a nice conversation, for about an hour. His responses appear in the story below. As always, the questions are edited to get to the point (I’m known to ramble), and the responses are all quotes, with “ums” and “ahs,” unnecessary asides or repetitions removed.
Labels: affordable housing, election, politics, tejada
Thursday, September 13, 2007
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the ANDC Meeting…
Gene Betit, self-described as retired from military intelligence, and now a social justice outreach minister with Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Church (according to his business card), called for the impeachment of both President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at the latest Arlington New Directions Coalition meeting. This was an odd request for a group primarily concerned with affordable housing, economic fairness and diversity in the county, and other quality of life issues for people of modest means. Although some at the table may have agreed with Mr. Betit, the general consensus was that the ANDC generally did not involve itself with impeaching the president.
Then John Reeder, of the Arlington Green Party, made a pitch for the ANDC to support the creation of an Arlington Housing Authority. Mr. Reeder passed around a handout outlining the top 10 reasons for creation of the Housing Authority while he explained that a housing authority would give the county more power to conserve affordable housing by buying and selling property. It would even allow the county to “condemn and take housing.” That raised eyebrows in the room.
Mr. Reeder with the Green Party (and their candidate for county board, Josh Ruebner) has gotten the AHA’s creation onto the Nov. 8, 2008, ballot. They were trying for Nov. 6, 2007, but the county board meeting where the referendum was to be considered for the ballot came a day after the deadline for adding it. (Those decisions are off to court.) The last time it came to a vote was 1982.
My take: Why can’t a group that has the signatures (on the correct form, please) advance a referendum that they create directly to the Circuit Court? It seems that the step of giving it first to the county board, where a board could delay action (I’m not saying that happened here) or in other ways interfere, and then moving it to the court gives power to officialdom when the act of creating a referendum is a grassroots thing. I don’t want to have us govern like California with everything on ballot initiatives, but it would seem to me removing the middle man might help. From what I understand, the state fears the referenda of the people. And John, I wouldn't use the "condemn and take" line too much in the stump speeches.
Labels: affordable housing, andc, bush, cheney
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Market-Rate Landlords Have Mission and Independence
Dr. Fowler’s report highlighted interviews conducted with seven landlords who rent some or all of their units at rates affordable to people with incomes that fall between 60 and 80 percent of Area Median Income.
She produced the report for the Alliance for Housing Solutions of Arlington and summarized it at the ANDC meeting. (Click this link for the report, but the document that pops up at the AHS web site only says that it will be posted Sept. 8.)
“There is a sense of mission to some of these owners,” she said. They see their business mission to offer rental units, but also to provide a community service.
However, “Control over their property was of paramount importance,” she added. These property owners do not want to take on the work, and potential hassles, of designating their units affordable, which might require government oversight.
The problem is that the market-rate rents can rise above the affordable limits and many of the buildings are very old, and the units are small, with little storage. The affordable units often are only one- or two-bedroom units, she said.
The owners reported that often the people who rent the affordable units are not in need of the assistance, but might just be trying to save rent, she said. Buckingham Villages and the Gates of Ballston, before the major changes of recent months and years, were considered market-rate affordable units.)
Many of the buildings that Dr. Fowler studied are very old, and though the owners said they can maintain operations of the buildings, the buildings themselves are often in need of major renovations, she said. Also, many of the owners who have the sense of mission are aging and are looking to children or others to take over operations, and the children might not have the same attitude toward mission, she said.
Property tax abatement, density transfers that would help the owners of multiple buildings, the “right of first refusal” for the county to buy the buildings, and other possible solutions were raised and discussed around the table of nearly 20 people. All the ideas met with concerns.
Labels: affordable housing, ahs, andc, buckingham villages, gates of ballston
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Letter, McDonalds
To the editor:
John Reeder raises some interesting points about affordable housing in his email to the Arlington New Directions, which was reprinted in the Buckingham Herald Tribblog yesterday. [Scroll down to the June 20 post: "Sham Deal: Bham Unaffordable"--Steve] I would like to make one correction: AHC, a developer and owner of affordable housing in Arlington for more than 30 years, is not a partner with Paradigm in the Buckingham project. We own the Gates of Ballston, a 464-unit rental property, which is next door to the Buckingham development. The Gates is currently undergoing a major renovation which will be completed later this fall. When the renovation is finished, 348 of the apartments will be affordable to families earning 60% or less of the area median income ($56,700 for a family of four). AHC is doing what it can to increase the supply of affordable housing (see our website for new projects at www.ahcinc.org) and we are open to new ideas that will preserve affordable housing in Arlington. Walter D. Webdale ++++++++++
President and CEO
AHC Inc.
McDonald’s Drops Request to Supersize Their Signage
The McDonald’s at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Arlington Boulevard has dropped a request to supersize the total square-footage of its signs, the county said. The restaurant, under current county regulations can have about 270 square feet of signs, and they were asking for more than 300 square feet as part of an image and marketing change, county records show. The decision should have been made at the June county board meeting, but had been withdrawn. They will make changes within current standards, county staff said.
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, Buckingham, mcdonalds, paradigm, signs
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Bham Deal is Sham; Loitering & Drinking Meeting
- Letter: Bham Deal is a Sham
- Loitering and Public Drinking to Be Topic of Meeting
- Police Notes for Buckingham (and just yesterday I wrote it looked like a crime-free week...)
From earlier in the week:
- Just a Note to Say "More to Come" (and there will be soon).
One last note: I'll be out of town at a conference for much of next week. I won't be posting then. However, I will try to have a bunch up before I go.
Letter to Editor: Sham Deal—Bham Unaffordable.
[Editor’s note: This letter originally came to me as an email on the Arlington New Directions List Serve. I’m reposting it with the permission of the writer. Also, he originally wrote that Buckingham Villages had 560 units, which was wrong. Others on the listserv pointed it out, and he asked me to make the change before posting the letter here. –Steve]
I am going to enter my dissent on the demolition and gentrification of Buckingham: I think it was a disgrace, a cop out, and a sorry statement—I don’t see how keeping perhaps 100 of the original 460 apartments as “affordable” is a good deal for anybody.
As to the question of purchasing condos, I fail to understand how a one bedroom, renovated apartment costing $300,000 minimum is a good deal for anybody. Condo prices are dropping like a stone; interest rates now exceed 6.7%. Getting someone making a $40,000 income into making monthly principal, interest, condo fee and tax payments of $2,300 for a one-bedroom condo is not "affordable housing" in my opinion.
The best outcome for Buckingham would have been the County Board to have designated it as an historic property, then condemned and taken the entire three villages and then sell them to a nonprofit housing group to continue to operate as basic rental housing for the many people who make less than $30,000 a year—including the elderly, and disabled. It also would have historically preserved a unique apartment complex, now largely destroyed.
One of the 20 fresh ideas for affordable housing in Arlington was the creation of a new Arlington housing authority which would both own says the 460 units now destroyed at Buckingham and have the financial resources to directly finance the purchase of such apartments. This authority would directly own and preserve these apartments as RENTAL housing!
Arlington existing non-profit housing groups, particularly AHC is a partner with Paradigm Development Company the Buckingham owner and developer, have become housing developers rather than housing preservers. I do not trust AHC to preserve and maintain Arlington's historic garden apartments.
The Arlington Green Party has decided to endorse the creation of an Arlington Housing Authority through a voter referendum on the November ballot. We hope that those of you interested in affordable housing in Arlington will support the creation of the housing authority.
If Arlington had a housing authority at the time of Paradigm proposed to demolish historic Buckingham Villages 1 through 3, the housing authority could have both financed and owned the units which would have been kept for the roughly 1,600 tenants evicted.
We of course would have needed a County Board with both a backbone and a genuine commitment to affordable housing that the current one has never demonstrated.
--John Reeder
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Loitering and Public Drinking to Be Topic of Meeting Next Week
Long-time Buckingham resident James Vandeputte has spoken to--it seems like--just about anyone who would listen regarding the courtyard behind his apartment at Arlington Oaks and the loitering he sees around the CVS at the corner of N. Pershing Drive and N. Glebe Road.
The courtyard at night turns into a bit of a “beer party.” There’s public drinking, urination, defecation and littering, he said. He said he sees similar activity around the CVS and Glebe Market.
He has spoken to management at Arlington Oaks. He’s spoken to local and regional managers at the CVS, and the sales office of Buckingham Commons (the new townhouse development going in to Buckingham Village 2 at the corner of N. Henderson Road and N. George Mason Drive). He’s spoken with Arlington County Police Officer Lutz.
“This neighborhood is changing into a slum, ghetto, Skid Row,” he said in a recent interview. Mr. Vandeputte has lived on the 4300 block of N. Pershing Dr for about 12 years. He has lived in the neighborhood since 1974, he said.
This courtyard becomes a "beer party" Mr. Vandeputte said.
He has spoken with Marlene Oronao, the code enforcement officer for the Historic District of Buckingham, which includes the Gates of Ballston and the Historic Ballston Park apartments and the commercial strips at the corner of Pershing Drive and Glebe Road.
She’s been working with management of the CVS to clean up the litter on their property and has been happy with the results in that area, but she knows that more must be done to stop public drinking and other problems that come with that, she said.
For that reason, she has convened a meeting of about 10 or more local leaders and mangers for next Wednesday to discuss what can be done, to get people to the same table to talk, she said.
Some of the problems are code enforcement, and she said she wants the owners and managers to know what their responsibilities are. She said the police will be there to discuss the legal matters, such as trespassing and public drinking and urination. This meeting is not intended to be an open, public meeting. Ms. Oronao said she would normally just do all this by telephone, but getting everyone together at one time was important to her.
[One note: I cannot be there--I'll be out of town--but I will have coverage the following week, after I get back. --Steve]
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Police Notes for Buckingham
June 18: Burglary, 300 block of N. George Mason Dr. Between 1:30 and 10a.m., someone entered an apartment through an unlocked door and took a wallet and clothing.
Labels: affordable housing, Buckingham, BV1, BV3
Monday, June 11, 2007
Bham Villages to Begin Relocation
Eighty-four households in Buckingham Village Apartments are facing relocation before the year’s end as Paradigm Development Company works to implement the redevelopment plan OKed by the Arlington County Board in a five-to-nothing vote on Saturday.
Paradigm plans to open their relocation office next Monday to begin helping families and individuals, said Micheline Castan-Smith, Paradigm’s project manager.
“Phase One” of the redevelopment includes razing the buildings along N. Pershing Drive west of N. George Mason Drive. Obviously, that cannot happen until the apartments are emptied, Ms. Castan-Smith said in an interview. Relocating the families will take until late November or early December, she estimated.
Paradigm is enlisting the help of AHC Inc., an affordable housing company based in Arlington. AHC owns and manages the Gates of Ballston in the Buckingham neighborhood and 18 other properties in Arlington. [For more on AHC, see the June 2 post, below.] Ms. Castan-Smith said other companies will be involved with the relocation.
As I wrote in the Feb. 28 post, eight buildings, between Culpepper Garden Apartments and N. George Mason Drive will be destroyed to make room for construction of “Building A,” a four-storey, 234-unit apartment building with pitched roof, a cupola atop, and a parking garage underground. The building will be a mix of market rate and affordable housing.
This is the facade of "Building A" on the side facing the "Common Green." (All images here were developed by Paradigm and are taken from plans shown at various Site Plan Review Committee meetings over the last 10 months.)
The plan for the property, “Scenario 8,” was the product of months of discussions between county staff, Paradigm, and residents throughout Arlington.
Village 1 in Scenario 8 includes two large apartment buildings, a "Common Green" between them, and rows of townhouses along N. George Mason Drive.
The affordable housing, open space and streets will cost the county about $49 million. What does this buy the county?
As reported in the Dec. 3 post (click the link then scroll down to “Village 3 Co-op-eration” under the Dec. 3 post), Village 3, on N. Pershing Drive just east of N. George Mason Drive, will be sold to the county and turned into a condominium or Co-operative. The details there are still to be worked out. The county cannot buy the property itself, but must work with another company to do so. They have two years to find the company to help them buy, said JoAnn Cubbage, the chief of the county’s Housing Services Sector. Purchasing Village 3, reported March 21, will be about $32 million, plus interest of up to $4 million.
The county will pay $14.8 million for the land on Village 1 to make street extensions of N. 3rd Street and N. 4th Road as well as a community open space just smaller than a football field on the extended N. 4th Street, David Cristeal in the county’s Housing Division said in an interview. Another $1.5 to $2 million will cover the cost of developing that space into a park.
The "Common Green" will be a public park in Village 1, including, (from left to right), a tot lot, gazebo, sculpture (or something similar), and flags.
Finally on the capital side, the county is loaning $7 million from the Affordable Housing Investment Fund and the Housing Reserve Fund to help Paradigm build 100 affordable apartments in the new buildings. That money will be paid back with interest, 3.5 percent, once the project is “stabilized,” Mr. Cristeal said, meaning that the building has been built and the units have been rented. That might take as much as five years, he said.
A couple hundred thousand more will be spent helping with tenant relocation and other assistance, Mr. Cristeal said.
In all, 300 units of affordable housing will be saved. All 140 units of Village 3 will remain and will be sold at below-market rates. (Some plans even call for adding units in basements and in other spaces.) One hundred units in the two new buildings will be affordable at the 60 percent of the Area Median Income, which will qualify Paradigm to receive tax credits on those units.
The final 60 units will be found somewhere in Buckingham. These units will be affordable at the 80 percent of AMI. Many households make more than the 60 percent AMI to qualify for the lowest-rent units, but they do not make enough to rent apartments at the market rate. This attempts to fill the gap, people involved in the negotiations have said.
“It’s an effort to assist those people. If they wanted to stay in the neighborhood, they could,” Ms. Cubbage said.
Where these units will come from has not been planned completely. Most likely they will either be found in the new buildings or taken from the market-rate units in Historic Ballston Park, Ms. Cubbage said.
Labels: affordable housing, ahc, Buckingham, buckingham villages, county board, financing
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Plan for Bham is Official
The county board committed itself to preserving about 300 units of affordable housing in the Buckingham Neighborhood, at their Saturday board meeting. For now,
read the press release, and I’ll have more on this on Monday, late.Sorry, I could neither go to the board meeting, nor could I watch the video live on-line. My only hope is that the county will put the segments of the video on-line quickly. That’s been a very handy gadget for people like me.
Labels: affordable housing, Buckingham, BV1, BV3, housing
