Neighbors fight against planned six-family house near East Falls Church subway station

The controversy surrounding a planned six-unit housing project near the East Falls Church subway station is escalating.

The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) is scheduled to vote tomorrow (Wednesday) on whether to uphold the decision to grant an expanded residential building permit for the property at 2315 N. Tuckahoe Street.

Much of the criticism of the planned three-story, 7,995-square-meter building focuses on cars and parking spaces.

Current plans for the property, which is located just off Langston Boulevard and about a half-mile from the Metro station, call for only three parking spaces. Opponents argue that this is not enough given the size and location of N. Tuckahoe Street.

“Parking on this street will make an already narrow street even narrower,” Todd Newman, who lives near the site, said at a BZA meeting last week. “It puts pedestrians at risk, especially school children on their way to Tuckahoe Elementary School. A crowded, narrow, busy street with no sidewalks and even more parked cars puts our children at risk.”

Neighbor Andrew Soles pointed out that the nearest grocery store is more than a mile from the property and argued, “The county cannot seriously assume that residents of the new residential area will be able to live without a car.”

“People will not abandon their cars because they don't have enough off-street parking. They will simply park them on the street and only abandon them if they absolutely cannot find a parking space within a few blocks of their home,” he wrote in a letter. “Please do not let Arlington become a parking disaster like other cities around the world.”

However, the objection that the BZA is dealing with does not directly relate to parking problems.

Instead, resident Hunter Schloss claims in his complaint that the property should never have been granted an EHO permit because of alleged issues related to tree cover, fencing and proximity to two planning districts.

Schloss argues, for example, that the landscape plan for the property should have called for eight trees instead of the currently planned seven.

County staff and the property owner disputed these claims and recommended that the BZA uphold the Zoning Administrator's original decision to grant the permit in April.

An EHO permit is just one of several permits required to develop the site. Other required documents include building permits, use permits and certificates of suitability.

The dispute over the future of 2315 N. Tuckahoe Street is the latest in a series of controversies surrounding attempts to replace single-family homes in Arlington with multi-family housing.

In January, the BZA rejected a similar appeal on the grounds that EHO permits for two proposed six-family homes in Alcova Heights were not properly issued.

However, a dispute over a planned duplex in Tara-Leeway Heights ended last August with the developer agreeing to build a single-family home instead.

According to a county dashboard, the county has issued a total of 44 EHO permits since the Arlington County Board approved zoning changes for Missing Middle last March.

The outcome of a recent civil lawsuit challenging the legality of the County Board's decision is still pending.