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Candidates were asked about a range of issues at the forefront of the Arlington business community's concerns, including housing, office vacancy, Arlington's regulatory and permitting environment, and how the County can maintain a competitive tax environment while funding core services.
A consistent theme across candidates was the need for a more efficient, business-friendly permitting process. "I would make sure that there's a government employee whose job it is to ensure that the permitting process gets done, and ideally see it be a one-day process," said James DeVita, emphasizing the impact that permitting delays and lack of communication can have on businesses.
Julie Farnam offered her assessment of the regulatory process for businesses as "unnecessarily complex and inefficient." She continued with identifying "When you're building, the land disturbance activity permit and the building permit are set as consecutive, not concurrent. Those could be done concurrently," she said, adding: "When we ask for information, businesses should not have to submit the same information twice."
The conversation continued to how the County competes for business investment against neighboring jurisdictions. Audrey Clement mentioned the competition between Fairfax County and Arlington for occupancy and adaptive reuse of their office buildings, but argued that Arlington "should compete with Fairfax County based on the relative livability of its residential neighborhoods, as well as its relative proximity to the nation's capital."
On housing production and frameworks, David Sisson emphasized directing growth toward transit-served corridors. "We have these dense urban corridors where people want to live, and we have a good mass transit system, so we need to structurally look at where the development can best be completed," said Sisson. When asked about projects that deliver housing while not being in full alignment with a sector plan, he added that "if it's an edge case around a Metro station, we have to say, okay, this is the best option," pointing to housing as a broader community benefit.
The discussion moved to the Arlington County budget, and candidates were asked how Arlington should balance funding core services while maintaining a competitive tax rate. Incumbent Matt de Ferranti provided context on the County Board's budget decisions, noting that "if you look at our tax increase, it was almost all public safety to our police and fire," and characterized those investments as the product of difficult but necessary choices. He added that he "will stand with investing in the Affordable Housing Investment Fund, [and] I stand with investing in public safety."
DeVita, de Ferranti, and Farnam are running in the August 4 Democratic primary election. Early voting is underway and will continue until August 1. Clement and Sisson, as Independents, will face the winner of the Democratic primary in the November 3 general election. Both the primary and general elections will use ranked choice voting.
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