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       The 10 Arlington homeowners who sued their Northern Virginia county earlier this year over a controversial rezoning plan have argued those changes violate state law or existing court rulings on seven different counts. But at a lengthy court hearing Tuesday, a lawyer for the county suggested their lawsuit, which seeks to restore single-family-only zoning in this Washington suburb, is grounded in a single, much simpler objection.

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       “They want to overturn a public process that took years because they did not like the result,” Arlington County Attorney MinhChau Corr said. “What you have here is a group of citizens who disagree with their government” and that is “not enough” to potentially win a lawsuit.

       At issue, say the homeowners, including a prominent conservative political pundit, is whether the “missing middle” policy that county lawmakers adopted in March will harm them by leading to higher tax assessments, clogged sewers, and overcrowded streets and schools. They also argued in court filings that the county ran afoul of state law by failing to properly initiate the zoning change, to advertise the plan, to study its potential impact or to share public documents.

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       While they have asked a judge to stop missing middle from being implemented, the judge must first decide whether the homeowners have the legal standing to sue. The missing middle policy makes it easier to build residential dwellings with as many as four, and in most cases six, units in neighborhoods that had for decades been set aside for only single-family houses.

       Residents sue Arlington County over ‘missing middle’ zoning change

       For more than a year, missing middle prompted a fiery debate in Arlington that largely pitted single-family homeowners like the plaintiffs against a coalition of renters, racial-justice advocates and urbanist groups. In lengthy government meetings, social media chains and dozens of civic forums, they clashed over whether the policy will overwhelm their neighborhoods or help lower housing costs in this expensive county. (The median home price in Arlington was just under $700,000 over the past year.)

       The lawsuit has pushed that fight into a new arena: the court of law. Before a judge, as well as a small crowd of fervent advocates for or against missing middle, lawyers sparred in Arlington Circuit Court and rehashed earlier aspects of the debate. “The public was all over the place because the county was all over the place in terms of what was being proposed,” Gifford Hampshire, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said. “That is just not right.”

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       Part of the lawsuit alleged that county officials had not properly made public records related to the plan available to residents. The lead plaintiff, Marcia Nordgren, took the stand to testify on her experience seeking the thousands of emails that had been sent to county lawmakers ahead of the vote, which were not posted online.

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       But Corr said county planners had carefully examined potential impacts, even if separate studies had not been published, and noted that the county is not required to post those emails online, only that they be made available in some form under public records law.

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       What is ‘missing middle’ housing? arrow left arrow right

       “Missing middle” housing is a term that refers to small multiunit residential buildings like townhouses, duplexes and garden apartments. It covers a range of housing types that fit into the “middle” between detached single-family houses and high-rise apartment buildings, in terms of scale, form and number of units.

       Local laws have made it difficult or impossible to build this type of housing in many neighborhoods. That is why advocates say it is “missing.” Indeed, many suburban neighborhoods in the United States were developed under zoning rules that allow for only one house with a yard on each lot. This is sometimes known as “single-family zoning.”

       A growing list of governments, including Minneapolis and Oregon, have in recent years voted to roll back their zoning rules and make it easier to build missing middle housing. Several localities in the D.C. area are following suit: Arlington County passed a similar policy in spring 2023. Alexandria and Montgomery County are not far behind.

       Changes like the missing middle plan still allow for the construction of single-family houses, which take up most of the county’s residential neighborhoods. But in Northern Virginia and other communities around the country, this idea has generated a heated debate, including political pushback and legal action.

       Many longtime homeowners say more homes and more density could ruin their single-family neighborhoods. They worry that missing middle will crowd schools, clog sewers, remove trees and make it harder to find parking. Critics also say the idea will not create housing for residents being priced out and will only benefit real estate developers instead.

       Advocates who support missing middle say this concept reverses racist zoning policies and create more affordable housing options. New duplexes or townhouses will still be expensive, they say, but will still cost less than single-family houses. That will add supply to the real estate market and bring down skyrocketing housing costs.

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       Corr also noted that missing middle, formally known as Expanded Housing Options (EHO), does not guarantee a duplex will be built next to each of the plaintiffs. “No one has to develop under EHO,” she said. “It is an option.” Arlington County spokesman Ryan Hudson declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.

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       The hearing had been delayed for months after all the judges in Arlington Circuit Court recused themselves. The Virginia Supreme Court appointed David Schell, a retired Fairfax judge, to preside over the case. Schell told the courtroom he expects to rule on the case on Oct. 19. Since missing middle went into effect on July 1, plans for eight properties, most of them six-unit buildings near Metro stations, have already been approved, while county officials are reviewing plans for another 19 projects.

       Arlington is far from the only place in the United States that has explored missing middle as a way to tackle soaring housing costs. Similar zoning changes have been debated or approved by a growing number of local governments across the nation and the Washington region, including in neighboring Alexandria. At least four states have passed their own versions of missing middle.

       However, as those efforts generate their own intense debate and controversy, critics in Arlington and elsewhere have pointed to one recent development in what is arguably the birthplace of missing middle. Such news has no direct bearing on the Arlington lawsuit, but they said it adds momentum to their cause of opposing missing middle and similar policies. In Minneapolis, which in 2018 became the first major city to eliminate single-family-only zoning, a county judge ruled earlier this month that the city must halt that policy.

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