The March 2026 newsletter is linked below. If you have any comments or questions, email editor@ashtonheights.org.

Our Diverse Community Benefits Us All
By Scott Sklar, President, AHCA 

Spring is around the corner, and I have to say “good riddance winter.” I am hearing scores of birds and my window box birdhouses are teaming with chicks. Arlington has all kinds of life – squirrels, raccoons, possums, foxes, hawks, garden snakes and field mice, along with their evil cousins, rats.

And oh yes, we have people – all kinds from all over the world here in Ashton Heights with a healthy mixture of diversity.

What brought me to this subject was an innocent exchange on the AHCA listserv (now 727 AH residents) on February 20 regarding housing types. In the Arlington County zoning and land use brouhaha on missing middle/EHO, tree canopy and storm water – we may forget we have all types of housing in Ashton Heights. And while we think we are only single family homes, we are not. Ashton Heights has multifamily houses, duplexes, rental housing and apartments, condominiums, and also commercial, non-profit and government structures. We are diverse. I want to point out as your civic association president for nearly 14 years, we embrace all of us in this community.

But let us not forget, that while we live I hope, in absolute harmony, AHCA has staked in the ground an overlying vision or character of the Ashton Height Community – many small parks, robust and growing tree canopy, walkable and bikeable communities which merge neatly with Arlington County’s vision.

I have responded many times on our listserv, to County Board members, and Arlington residents – if your goal in your community is absolute higher-density – move to Washington, DC, Baltimore, or my home town of New York City. I personally moved here to be close to a major metropolitan area, but live with less cement, more trees and parks, outdoor cafes, and paths and bike ways. My view since I bought my house in September 1984 has not changed – but now is even more strident.

The Arlington County Board voted on March 22, 2023, to adopt “Missing Middle” zoning changes (officially known as Expanded Housing Options, or EHO), which allow for multi-unit residential buildings (up to six units) in formerly single-family-only zones, reducing setbacks and allowing for larger, denser buildings closer to property lines. 

This is contrary to what the Arlington County Board voted on in November 2005 and reported in The Washington Post (11/15/2005): “The Arlington County Board voted last night to adopt strict limits on house sizes, in response to citizen complaints about the number of oversized houses cropping up in established neighborhoods. “It was dramatic because we took an action targeting the most egregious McMansions we’ve experienced,” board Chairman Jay Fisette (D) said of the 4 to 1 decision.”

The dueling visions, I believe can be reconciled a bit. Duplexes can be sited appropriately while also maximizing tree canopy, and stormwater collection is possible without the carte blanche approach the County Board voted on a few years ago that now has them tangled up in the courts. As a college professor in the GWU graduate urban studies program, and a businessman with a 25-year-old global sustainable energy business, I’m well aware that “affordable housing” has been handled successfully in other cities and counties without increasing building footprints, allowing McMansions, or reducing tree canopy.

Many have set-up nonprofit coops or investment trusts to purchase bungalows, where they upgrade to newer building codes with water and energy efficiency & renewable energy generation, and re-sell at lower prices to the actual “missing middle” – young families who are teachers, healthcare workers, and first responders, as well as to lower income residents. So why aren’t we sticking with the original goal with a less-disruptive approach?

Getting past the discourse, we need to be clear that in Ashton Heights all who live and work here are welcome: homeowners, renters, coop, multifamily and duplex residents, and small businesses. Ashton Heights benefits from the diversity and vitality they all add. 

We need to recognize that local redevelopment, even at the level of individual lots and small parcels – can affect livability. Larger building footprints mean less natural habitat and noise buffers, more impervious surfaces and storm runoff issues, and higher surface temperatures. We should seek to balance livability and density.

I bid you all a happy spring.