The new Shirlington Transit Hub, county's first enclosed bus transfer station, is officially open for business. The station located at 2975 North Quincy Street next to Shirley Highway/ I-395. This station should complement the already hip Shirlington Village that offers lots of community amenities, such as anchor grocery store like Harris Teeter, Busboy and Poets, Capitol City Brewery, etc.
As you probably know Arlington has 11 neighborhoods designated as 'urban villages.' Seven of those have access to metro station. A few of those, like Shirlington doesn't have direct access to the metro station. The closest metro is Pentagon City but that is not something walkable. So, having an enclosed bus transit (helpful in the winter time) is a plus for the hood.
As the principal transfer point for Metrobus and Arlington Transit (ART) bus service in South Arlington, Shirlington Station connects thousands of regional commuters via 11 Metrobus and ART bus routes to locations throughout Northern Virginia.
Oh what's cool about the station. It has indoor waiting area equipped with customer seating and restrooms.
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The county also OKs two projects: Monument View and expansion of Arlington Mill Community Center. Monument View project, is that off-and-on land swap deal with Monument Realty. Via BizJournal.
The board voted 4-1 Tuesday night to approve the deal, which transfers 28 acres of county-owned land to Monument in exchange for 5.5 acres. The county will build the multimillion-dollar sports complex, while District-based Monument plans a $250 million mixed-use site with 343 residential units and 326,000 square feet of office space.
Monument View
Arlington Mill community center
Arl. Mill community center site plan
The 4.71 acre site is bordered by I-395 on the West, George Washington Parkway on North and East and southern edge of 10th Street South. The project is slated for 8-story office building with ground floor retail and a four-to-seven story building for the residences (condominium?). The two buildings aim to achieve to be on the green: LEED for building and homes.
Arlington Mill Community Center is a private-public partnership development aim to expand the community center and transform it to a mix-use development with homes, shops, public plaza and parking. When they say, public-private partnership in which part of the funding will come from bonds (for gym, community center, plaza and parking) financed through county voters, then there is $11M through Fed income low-income housing tax credit program and some $3M from upfront value of land lease to support the 61 affordable housing units.
The plan calls for adding supply of affordable housing desperately needed for the county. Furthermore, according to the county.
"The plan also calls for a 159-unit residential building on the northern portion of the site and a six-story mixed-use building on the southern portion that will house the community center, ground-floor retail and 33 residential units. In addition,an underground parking garage to serve the entire project and a new public plaza facing Columbia Pike are planned. The Board approved a use permit under the Columbia Pike Form Based Code. The mixed use community center will have a LEED Silver certification. The residences will achieve either the LEED Homes certification or the Earthcraft certification."
It will also provide 192 residential rental units in which 61 of those will be set aside for people who are earnings at or below 60% area median income which means that the rent for the affordable housing approx. between upper-$900 to upper-$1400.
