Plan Langston Boulevard

Plan Langston Boulevard History

In 2012, grassroots efforts to plan Langston Boulevard began. Civic association president breakfasts, walking tours, community meetings, and the establishment of the Langston Boulevard Alliance (LBA) resulted in the development of guiding principles, a preliminary community vision, and recommendations to create an adopted County plan for the corridor. The vision called for Langston Boulevard to become a walkable, urban main street with a string of neighborhood activity centers between Rosslyn and East Falls Church, with new transportation and housing options, better public spaces, and more.

In 2019, recognizing community support for a new corridor vision, growing market pressure, and the opportunity to realize County goals through reinvestment, the County initiated a planning study. Plan Langston Boulevard built upon the work of the previous community visioning efforts.

Plan Langston Boulevard Vision

The Langston Boulevard Area Plan envisions economic sustainability, environmental resilience, and equity as its foundation, connecting the key planning elements into a cohesive roadmap of the corridor’s future. This plan will enable future growth that works to realize the vision of an equitable Arlington where all are valued, educated, healthy, and safe regardless of race. New development along Langston Boulevard will reflect a sustainable and equitable approach to land use planning, leveraging proximity to transit and existing activity centers to reduce travel times and carbon emissions and meet the housing needs of increasingly diverse residents and household types.

Implementation of this plan will promote long-term climate adaptation and resiliency. Adaptation and resilience are complementary—adaptation allows a place and people to thrive in a changing environment while resilience is the ability to anticipate and recover from adverse impacts. Long-term resiliency includes thoughtful strategies for enduring competitiveness, desirability, and quality of life; a welcoming ecosystem for businesses and residents; public health and safety; and optimizing the cost-effectiveness of government services, operations, assets, and infrastructure. A new plan for the corridor will enable more meaningful development than what is currently permitted and guide future development in a positive, purposeful way.