At its November 16th meeting, the Arlington County Board approved the following two initiatives to advance the County Manager’s Commercial Market Resiliency Initiative (CMRI) related to adaptive reuse of obsolete office buildings:  

Adaptive Reuse ACZO Amendments: The County Board adopted a text amendment to the Arlington County Zoning Ordinance (ACZO) that creates a streamlined Administrative Regulation 4.1 Site Plan amendment process for “Adaptive Reuse Amendments” to convert obsolete commercial buildings to alternative uses.  

The new process requires County Board approval and establishes criteria to qualify for the streamlined process including, but not limited to, a requirement that the existing building be at least 50 percent office, more than 50 percent of the office use would be converted, and that all prior 4.1 Site Plan conditions were previously satisfied. 

The new process cannot be utilized for increases in roof height (except for new rooftop amenity spaces), increased gross floor area with additions greater than two stories above the finished grade, vacation or amendments to existing public easements, and reductions in prior 4.1 Site Plan commitments. Conversions utilizing the new process would be exempt from having to provide the base affordable housing requirement.  

Adaptive Reuse Policy: The County Board adopted a new policy document, The County Board Policy on the Transformation of Commercial Office Buildings in Arlington, which is intended to provide guidance on tools to reduce, replace, and/or reposition obsolete office supply.  The draft policy sets forth broad goals pertaining to: (1) adaptive reuse of obsolete office buildings; (2) repositioning of existing office buildings; and (3) redevelopment. The draft policy characterizes proposals which reduce or reposition obsolete office supply as a “public priority” that should be incentivized in County regulations, including through the awarding of Bonus Density for 4.1 Site Plan projects.  

Adoption of these latest initiatives positions Arlington as a leader in redressing commercial office vacancy rates. They continue the trend of CRMIs first authorized in April 2022, which seek to respond to changing economic conditions in the face of increased office vacancy and decreased commercial property tax revenue. 

The staff report for the two initiatives may be found HERE.

The adopted adaptive reuse policy may be found HERE.

This article was prepared by Andrew Painter of the Land Use & Zoning practice group of Walsh Colucci.