Arlington County is considering changing its zoning rules to allow homeowners to rent out their basements, garages or other livable space as separate apartments.
Officials hope the move will boost the county’sdwindling supply of affordable housing and aid its growing elderly population.
“It helps people be able to afford to live in the county, and it can help a homeowner afford to keep their home,” said Arlington County Board Member Jay Fisette. “This is something that some of us have been talking about for years.”
The board’s new chairman, Walter Tejada, included the issue in a Jan. 1 speech highlighting his 2008 agenda, calling it “a new form of affordability for Arlington,” even as some neighboring jurisdictions move to crack down on such units in an attempt to tackle housing overcrowding and noise issues. Fisette said the county estimates that about 28 out of every 1,000 homes would seek or receive approval to add the units.
In December, the county’s housing commission, which is made up of volunteers, recommended the board approve a measure allowing the units.
A county task force assigned to prepare recommendations for dealing with Arlington’s growing elderly population also supported the measure, which would allow seniors to build accommodations for live-in caregivers.
“If you’re sick, right now you can’t have a place that a caretaker could live in, so this would allow that kind of capability,” said Larry Mayer, president of the Arlington County Civic Federation, which soon will consider a resolution to support the measure.
“But there are a whole set of concerns with this,” he said, citing neighborhood parking issues and the need to set limits on the number of people who could live in a unit.
Fisette said the county would make approval of individual units contingent upon the availability of parking and it would set a limit on the number of renters in a unit.
“The data doesn’t show that it changes the nature of single-family neighborhoods, and we’re going to put in enough provisions and protections to ensure that it doesn’t,” he said.
