Church and Housing Provider Vindicated in Clarendon Case

A church's involvement in affordable housing subsidies by the state doesn't violate the Constitution. So says another court in the ongoing battle at The Views at Clarendon, which has cleared yet another legal hurdle in its battle to build an apartment building heavily subsidized by the government in place of the First Baptist Church of Clarendon. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit this week upheld a ruling, issued last May, that found that Arlington did not violate the state or U.S. constitutions by subsidizing the church-led project.

The struggle may finally wrap up 5 years of lawsuits 7 years after the Church hired the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) to advise on an affordable housing project. The Church later sold the land to The Views at Clarendon Corporation, a non-profit, for $5.6m, with plans to build 46 market-rate and 70 affordable apartments. The Church retained 3 of 7 seats on the board, and will retain two floors within the new structure and a small building on the side. That lead to a neighbor arguing in Peter Glassman v. Arlington County, et. al that the subsidy amounted to unconstitutional support to a church, an argument that has been repeatedly rejected by both state and federal courts.

The news is a relief for the housing provider, not least because it began construction on the project last January (tearing down) and has just now begun building the 10-story structure, and the courts have refused to enjoin construction. While the case could be appealed - back to the same appellate court or to the U.S. Supreme Court - "further appeals are unlikely to be successful" says Raighne Delaney, an attorney Shareholder with Bean, Kinney & Korman, a law firm representing the non-profit. With plaintiffs having exhausted all automatic appeals, further appeals would be heard only at the discretion of the court.

"The county got a great bargain here," said Delaney. The nature of the bargain was a $13.1m loan the county gave to the developer, for which it got 70 subsidized apartments, with the feds kicking in a $14.5m loan and $20m grant for the project thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. "Constitutionally, the only thing that mattered here was what the church got out of it. Even if it was a bad deal, the government is allowed to make bad deals," said Delaney, who stressed that the transaction is unbeatable for the county. Delaney said the real test is not whether the state is doing business with the church, but whether there is any "excessive entanglement" with the church. "The answer to that really is no. The state is not disallowed from doing business with the church, prohibiting regular business with the church would be a sort of anti-religious bigotry, and that's not allowed either."

Arlington Virginia real estate development news

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Bethesda Church Moves Forward With Development, Receives Council's Blessing

Twice the Montgomery County Planning Board had approved the plans of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bethesda-Chevy Chase to build a 107-unit residential building combined with a six-story church and community center. And twice Hearing Examiner Martin Grossman had recommended denial of the proposal, citing a lack of "compatibility" with several nearby rows of single family homes. The Church's development team had reduced their mixed-use development plans from 53,000 s.f. to 25,000 s.f., as well as offered more dramatic setbacks and reduced massing in an effort to appease naysayers. But although Grossman called the augmented plans a "much closer call" he still predicted

the development to "dwarf the nearby single-family detached homes." Nonetheless, last week County Council became the "ultimate decider," settling the dispute with a 6-2 vote in favor of the Church's plans.

Virginia-based MTFA Architecture is the project architect, and seem to be busy with several church-residential combo projects, as another of their client's in Arlington (The Views) recently emerged in tact after a similar drama. The Church project will occupy two-acres, currently inhabited by a church building and attached community center, several single-family homes and a surface parking lot, all of which will be razed. Parking needs will be satisfied by two levels of below-grade lots. The complex will cover a college-size indoor athletic field for community use, public green spaces, affordable residences serving the elderly, transitional housing for the homeless, and a range of other social-work programming.

While Councilman Mark Elrich "was frankly appalled" at the plans to essentially box in the contesting enclave of residential homes, others saw this sort of development as inevitable, and not much of a change in the grand scheme of zoning in the area, as many other large projects nearby have already been approved. Councilman Roger Berliner seemed to take a less reactionary stance, and painted a broader picture in which he concurred that "substantial compatibility" was present in this proposal give the urban nature of the immediate area.

But Church representative Barry Lemley said there is still about a year before construction can be expected, as preliminary site planning and securing building permits should take a significant amount of time. Having originally partnered with Bozzuto in 2006, and then left the agreement to tackle planning and approval process on their own, the Church will once again look for private development partner to see the plans through.

Lemley says they remain undecided on whether to release a RFP immediately, or sit on the approvals until the market further stabilizes. "For an urban infill project like this, in this slow economy, some of the bigger firms that passed on it originally, may have an interest now," Lemley said. And even though construction might be further down the line, and delivery probably won't happen for "two to three years," Lemley and his church are relieved to have the support of County Council. "We always thought we had a unique project here," he explained, "and while some people thought that it was too much, others thought that it was just what the community needs."

Bethesda, MD Real Estate Development News

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Clarendon: Urban Planners Taken with New View of Urban Churches

Late last year, the Views at Clarendon emerged unscathed from a cloud of lawsuits and officially kicked off construction. Now one of the region's more intriguing mixed-use projects is on schedule, and attracting national attention as a model for unique partnerships. The Views at Clarendon Corporation's mixed-use, mixed-income building will hold 70 affordable apartments and 46 market rate apartments, not so outstanding by itself, but that it was done through the auspices of the church is turning the heads of urban planners around the country.

As the First Baptist Church of Clarendon faced a budget shortfall a decade ago, it could have reacted in the typical fashion, selling out to a developer and moving to a cheaper, less urbanized community. That would have shut down the church's daycare center and local mission. Instead, the church chose to protect its historic building, stay local, keep the daycare center and double down on its mission by setting up a non-profit corporation to run an affordable housing project. First Baptist - now the Church at Clarendon - sold its air rights to the non-profit, of which it held 3 of 7 board seats, allowing the non-profit to cater to low-income and disabled residents, consistent with the church mission. Other urban churches have retained a portion of the new structure after selling its land, but the model of expanding its influence is a new one. Architect Michael Foster, a principal of Arlington's MTFA Architecture, thinks of this as a paradigm shift. "This has really been watched closely, and nationally, for mixing an existing church at the base of the building in this way. Most mixed-use is office-retail-residential. One that's dominated by public housing is not totally unprecedented, but as a land-use model, it helps us all think a little differently about preserving the role of churches and communities."

Not all the attention has been positive. Local groups tried to stop the in-fill project, then protested that Arlington's subsidies for the new non-profit Views at Clarendon constituted an Establishment Clause violation, and the organization found themselves twice in the chambers of the Virginia Supreme Court and several times the subject of Washington Post news fodder. Vindicated by the courts, the non-profit has now nearly finished excavating the site and underpinning the church, and expects to start building up by next month. The church "sandwich" will give them two floors as a condominium and a 3-floor building on the side, the non-profit will own the apartments above and the parking garage below.

Of the 70 affordable apartments, the majority will be priced at 60% AMI, six of the apartments will be 100% accessible (visitable and adaptable), 12 units will have "support of services" provided to those with disabilities, and six of them will be offered to families under 50% AMI. The church will continue to operate the 180-child daycare center, Arlington's largest, as well as expanding its urban ministry, all within a block of Metro. Foster, the project architect, thinks this will help churches remain active in the social fabric, and that the importance of this should not be underestimated. "This represents a dramatic change in how the church engages the community," and that planning organizations are taking note. "We've been getting many calls about this" says Foster, whose firm is also working on a similar type of project in Bethesda, with the church as developer rather than outgoing owner. The non-profit Views has hired Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing (APAH) as a consultant to help them achieve their affordable housing vision.

The old steeple will remain the tallest structure, with the new building rising just below the steeple height by design. Foster says the building is meant to adapt a mid-rise to colonial architectural style. "The base of the building is designed to fit in with the colonial heritage with the church steeple and remaining school. Its not really meant to be pure colonial, and not meant to be neoclassical, but it does represent what remains on site and the compatibility with the adjacent neighborhood."

Arlington, VA Real Estate Development News

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