A longtime Arlington resident has filed suit against the county, claiming that a plan for apartment buildings to be constructed above a church is a violation of the First Amendment.
Peter Glassman, a 20-year resident of the county, has filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The development in question is the Views at Clarendon, an eight-story housing complex that would sit atop two stories housing the site’s existing occupants, the First Baptist Church of Clarendon and a day care center. The development is also slated to create 120 underground parking spaces.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the complex was held in October. The development includes 116 residential units — 46 at market rate and 70 affordable-housing units.
When the original plan was passed in October 2004, Arlington also approved a tentative $4.5 million loan for the project from the county’s Affordable Housing Investment Fund, conditional on the county attorney’s ensuring the project did not violate federal or state laws. In the suit, Glassman alleges that the county and the church have been too intertwined throughout the process.
“The County’s support of the Church project is so intertwined with religion that the County’s affordable housing mantra rings hollow; such an unprecedented and irresponsible use of affordable housing dollars suggests that the County, at worst, actually acted with the purpose of establishing and promoting religion or, at best, its actions have the perceived and actual effect of advancing religion,” the suit alleges.
The Arlington County attorney’s office has filed responses on behalf of the county board members named in the suit. McLean-based lawyer Stephen Cochran, who is representing Glassman in the case, confirmed last week that he had received the responses.
The plan for the Views at Clarendon has had a long, tumultuous history since it was first approved five years ago.
Nearby residents have balked at the plans for a 10-story, 97-foot-tall building, arguing that it would overshadow the surrounding residential area. In 2006, the Virginia Supreme Court overturned the plans, ruling that the county skipped a step in its rezoning process. Arlington then amended its ordinance to allow the development to move forward.
