The Arlington County Board on Saturday April 20, accepted the Fairlington-Shirlington Neighborhood Conservation Plan, a community-based update to the area’s 1987 plan that identifies needed services and improvements for these neighborhoods.
To qualify for funding under the county’s Neighborhood Conservation program, neighborhoods must first develop a Neighborhood Conservation Plan. The Fairlington-Shirlington plan covers approximately 338 acres of the Fairlington-Shirlington area, located in the southern corner of Arlington County and surrounded by Alexandria. The two neighborhoods are separated by I-395.
Fairlington, with 8,000 residents, feels like a small town. It began as a publicly financed defense housing complex built for defense workers and their families during World War II.
Shirlington, with about 1,500 residents living in high-rises, is a mixed-use, walkable village with ground-floor retail.
The Fairlington-Shirlington Neighborhood Conservation Plan Update has 35 recommendations; 21 are services-related requests; 14 are neighborhood improvements. In the coming year, county staff will be working with the association and residents to help identify priority improvement projects for funding.