Very interesting map, courtesy of Urban Institute housing policy analyst – and Virginia Tech alum – Abby Boshart. As Boshart writes:
“Arlington does have a decent amount of area zoned for multi-family housing, but it’s concentrated in the more southern parts of the county. This makes North Arlington completely inaccessible to many and is the source of the county’s geographical inequality…@ArlingtonVA is currently accepting feedback on a new affordable housing initiative, which includes land use tools. Tell them we need to expand inclusive zoning.”
I couldn’t agree more. The bottom line is that “inner suburbs” and transit-oriented communities like Arlington need to increase density big time, or else people will be priced out, the community will become less diverse/more segregated, and environmentally destructive “sprawl” will be encouraged as people move out to the outer suburbs. So yes, by the policies we adopt – or fail to adopt – we can either encourage or discourage sprawl, fossil fuel consumption, carbon emissions and other pollution, habitat loss, etc, etc.
PS I’d love to see similar maps for Fairfax and other Virginia jurisdictions…
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