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Description
Arlington County Board Member Erik Gutshall's New Year's remarks at the County Board's Organizational Meeting, held on Jan. 2 2019.
A
Mr.
Getchell
Thank
You
mr.
chair
and
and
and
thank
you
Katie
for
your
awesome
leadership
in
2018,
look
forward
to
continuing
to
working
with
all
of
you
and
welcome
everyone
this
evening,
really
actually
a
who's
who
out
here,
I
think
of
our
Arlington
activists
and
crowd.
So
it's
great
to
be
here
so
our
wildest
dreams
and
our
worst
fears
faced
with
a
grueling
budget
cycle
and
the
arrival
of
Amazon,
like
the
opening
of
a
Dickens
novel
2019,
begins
for
Arlington,
with
both
awesome
opportunity
and
daunting
challenges.
A
A
A
A
manager
and
our
amazing
citizen
volunteers,
to
meet
the
challenges
posed
by
our
worst
fears,
with
the
optimism
and
vision
that
have
long
been
the
hallmark
of
Arlington's
dream.
I
will
continue.
My
focus
on
three
primary
fronts:
first,
missing
middle
housing:
recognizing
that
we
can't
subsidize
our
way
to
mass
affordability.
I
am
eager
to
build
on
the
modest
improvements
to
our
zoning
ordinance.
This
board,
enacted
in
2018,
with
a
laser
focus
on
modernizing
our
zoning
to
allow
market
driven
housing
forms
for
the
middle
class
with
board
support.
A
A
missing
middle
directive
will
provide
coherent
direction
for
our
staff
to
leverage
the
opportunities
of
existing
efforts
like
housing,
conservation
districts
and
plan
Lee
Highway
to
develop
the
zoning
and
financing
tools
needed
to
deliver
2700
ownership
units,
affordable
to
households
between
80
and
120
percent
of
area,
median
income.
That's
roughly
a
500
K
price
range
by
2040.
That's
our
goal,
our
wildest
dream,
and
it's
in
black
and
white
in
our
affordable
housing
master
plan,
and
it's
entirely
within
our
control
to
achieve
it.
A
Colleagues,
as
we
embark
on
a
multi-year,
visioning
and
planning
effort
to
develop
a
long-range,
comprehensive
schools
and
community
facilities
plan,
such
a
plan
would
allow
us
to
look
beyond
our
ten-year
capital
improvement
plan
cycle
to
coordinate
both
County
and
school
needs
farther
into
the
future.
Thus
moving
away
from
crisis
management
toward
more
thoughtful,
efficient
and
equitable
outcomes,
rather
for
a
40,000
student
system
eventually
or
more
future
tax
revenues
from
a
balanced
commercial
residential
tax
base
restored
by
Amazon
will
pay
for
new
schools.
If
and
when
we
need
them.
A
A
I'm
particularly
excited
by
the
prospect
of
merging
our
environmental
principles,
with
our
intentional
focus
on
the
value
of
equity
I
proposed
that
Arlington
join
the
growing
green
New
Deal
movement,
a
big,
bold
transformation
of
the
economy
to
tackle
the
twin
crises
of
inequality
and
climate
change,
supported
by
43
and
Counting
members
of
the
new
Congress
and
hundreds
of
grassroots
organizations
like
the
Sierra
Club.
A
green
New
Deal
recognizes
that
economic
stability
is
not
independent
of
environmental
sustainability.
The
trade-off
between
the
environment
or
the
economy
is
a
false
one.