The three Democratic candidates for County Board are all in favor of extensive community input on a proposal for a new behavioral health facility in Glencarlyn.
“You need to listen — it needs to be community-first,” challenger Julie Farnam said at a debate hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation on Tuesday.
Farnam and James DeVita are challenging two-term incumbent Matt de Ferranti in the Aug. 4 Democratic primary. The winner moves on to the Nov. 3 general election.
VHC Health and LifePoint Health are seeking county approval for a 146-bed, 131,000-square-foot facility on a 5.8-acre site at 601 S. Carlin Springs Road. Concerns have been raised over impacts on the surrounding communities, as well as on broader transportation and environmental issues.
County Board candidates Matt de Ferranti, Julie Farnam and James DeVita (screenshot via Civic Federation)
At the Civic Federation forum, DeVita joined Farnam in pressing for more public involvement. De Ferranti likewise demanded more responsiveness to issues that community members have raised.
“The fact that your concerns have not been addressed yet is enough to drive you crazy,” he said, urging local residents to “ask inconvenient and tough questions.”
“We’ve got to work to get them right,” the incumbent said.
The county’s formal review of the proposal began with an April 20 community open house. Evaluation by a site-plan review committee is approaching, with the first meeting set for Monday, May 18 and the final one likely to be held in June.
After that, the project heads to a variety of county advisory bodies, then the Planning Commission and eventually the County Board. Final consideration is expected sometime before the end of the year, but no earlier than September.
VHC Health official Adrian Stanton listens to community feedback at an April 20, 2026, open house on the S. Carlin Springs Road project (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)
The S. Carlin Springs Road site previously was home to the former Northern Virginia Doctors Medical Hospital. In 2019, the county government acquired the property from VHC Health as part of a land-swap agreement.
Four years later, the health-care organization asked to purchase or lease back part of the parcel to provide behavioral health and rehabilitation services.
At the time of that 2023 announcement, the proposed timeline anticipated groundbreaking on the new facility in 2024 and completion of the project by 2025-26.
Under current planning, approval of the project by the County Board by late 2026 likely would result in an opening by sometime in 2029.
The hourlong Civic Federation candidate forum touched on a number of issues but involved few verbal fisticuffs. Farnam and DeVita, who in the past have been critical of the county government, did not go directly on the attack against de Ferranti, the Board’s senior member.
The Arlington County Democratic Committee plans to hold a forum for the three contenders at its next monthly meeting in June.
None of the three candidates is a stranger to County Board races: De Ferranti in 2018 defeated John Vihstadt and subsequently won re-election in 2022, while Farnam is making her second bid and DeVita his third for the Democratic nomination.