Renew Arlington CRA approves roughly $2.4 million for mandatory compliance grants, grants OED authority to extend deadlines

The Renew Arlington Community Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously to allocate funds to its mandatory compliance grant program and to give the Office of Economic Development authority to apply recently updated program guidelines retroactively to existing grant agreements.

Karen Nasarella, Office of Economic Development staff, told the board that the Renew Arlington program reimburses property owners 100% for costs to bring properties into compliance with mandatory fencing, signage and landscape buffer requirements within the Renew Arlington overlay. Nasarella said the agency packet included a budget sheet showing a remaining balance of $2,401,004.86; a board member then moved to allocate $2,401,468.52 to the program. "On your budget sheet, you will see that there is, a remaining balance of $2,401,004.86 and 52¢, which we are recommending that it be allocated to the mandatory compliance grant program," Nasarella said.

The board recorded a ballot vote of 13 ayes, 0 nays to approve the allocation. There was no public comment.

Separately, the board considered a resolution to allow OED to apply the CRA's amended mandatory compliance grant program guidelines retroactively to older agreements that include an earlier exhibit K with a shorter completion deadline. Nasarella said the board had previously amended the program guidelines, extending the completion window from April 2025 to April 2030, and that some older agreements still reference the prior deadline. She asked the board to grant OED authority to make administrative amendments applying the new guidelines retroactively so staff would not have to return to the board each time a property owner requested a short extension due to supply-chain delays.

Nasarella described a practical limit for administrative extensions: "60 to 90 days after they've had a year to finish is ample time," she said. Councilman Arias asked whether the authority would apply to this case only or to future cases; Nasarella replied it would apply to any agreements as needed. Councilman Amaro said he supported giving OED flexibility but agreed that the agency should avoid indefinite extensions: "I think that the CRA needs this flexibility, so I'm fully supportive of this. I was a little bit concerned about the windows. You don't want it to be ad infinitum." The board then voted 13-0 to approve the resolution granting OED the administrative authority.

The agency packet also included the required quarterly mandatory compliance grant program report and updated CRA financial schedules; staff said they will continue to provide those snapshots to the board. The Renew Arlington allocation and the retroactive-guidelines resolution passed without public comment.