The Clarendon Sector Plan in Arlington County, Virginia, was first designed in 2006. Over the past 14 years, a lot has changed, and the county is considering making changes to the plan as well.
“When the plan was adopted in 2006, the working assumption was, then, that Fire Station 4 would be relocated because of some other changes in fire station locations. That’s proven simply not to be true. As a matter of fact, we have greater demand there,” said County Manager Mark Schwartz.
The county is also getting requests from those who want to redevelop the area, asking for a reconsideration of beneficial development.
Arlington County Planning Director Robert Duffy said the George Mason University Center for Digital Innovation has asked the county to do what it can to find a place for people who want to come and visit and stay in a hotel, because, they said, there’s nothing nearby.
Already, three residential redevelopment projects have been approved: the American Legion, 1122 N. Kirkwood and Clarendon West. Another application, the Joyce Motors site, has been filed and is awaiting approval.
“Applications for the Silver Diner and the Wells Fargo site, we anticipate, will be coming in the year,” Duffy said.
They also anticipate applications for redevelopment of the St. Charles Church and YMCA sites down the road.
But first, the planning department is recommending the county review the overall plan and make sure it still makes sense before they begin reviewing those applications.
“This gives us an opportunity to really revisit the sector plan recommendations and see how we can realize, primarily, the public facilities that we’re less certain and specific about how they would remain in the Clarendon area, while we’re also contemplating private development
to round out the western edge of Clarendon,” said Clarendon Sector Plan
Coordinator Jennifer Smith.
“We have some highly specific sector plan recommendations that were also codified in the zoning, so it will be important for us to go back and look at updates to the sector plan, which will have direct impact on the zoning as well.”
