Park At Arlington Ridge

A neighbor’s dog bit me unprovoked, drawing blood, as I was walking down the sidewalk– and The Park did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
The bite happened in December 2014, and it required medical treatment. The dog is still living here in a public area where kids play. The dog’s owners engage in the same behaviors that led to bite. The dog has not been removed as of June 2016.
Two managers have told me there is nothing that can be done. When asked about keeping the community safe, the current manager told me that residents have a responsibility to protect themselves and that the property is not responsible for the safety of residents!!! I was walking down the sidewalk minding my own business!
So, if you are thinking of moving here… remember they:
1. Believe it YOUR responsibility to keep yourself safe on THEIR property, and they have no obligation to keep their residents safe.
2. Would rather allow a dog that bit somebody to stay in the community and do NOTHING to ensure that other residents are safe. If they allow a dog that bites somebody to stay without doing anything, it makes me wonder what they would do if another resident attacked another resident?
This place is advertised as «luxury». I think it is ridiculous to pay this kind of rent to be told that I was essentially responsible for an unprovoked dog bite while I was using a public, common area.
Also, there is frequent management/​staff changeover. There have been three mangers here in the 2.5 years that I have lived here. They are often slow in responding to requests/​emails, and it is not untypical for you to have to contact them a number of times to get an issue taken cared of.
In many ways, it feels as though The Park forgets that residents PAY to live here – not the other way around. They have never cited a concrete Arlington or Virgina statute, clause in the lease, etc. which prevents them from removing the dog from the community. So is it «they can’t» OR «they won’t»??? To my knowledge, they could be held liable if the dog bites somebody else since they are now aware of the dog’s aggressive tendencies – and did nothing.
This issue has been discussed with two managers. I argued my point. They are apparently comfortable in their position of doing nothing to keep the community safe. So, any email responses from management stating «We’re sorry you’ve had this experience…» are just lip service.

I’m a bit confused by these reviews. I’ve lived here for two years and while the place isn’t perfect — what place is? — it is by far the best complex I’ve lived in and so comparatively it gets 5 stars.
I’ve never once had a bad experience with management, and I’ve had plenty of them. In fact, the night manager (I can’t recall his name — so sorry!) went out of his way last year to speak to the leasing manager on my behalf about my lease renegotiation, and I was able to work out something so favorable that I signed for 18 more months and will only leave here when I buy. They have been nothing but kind and accommodating toward my requests.
My maintenance calls have never once not been taken seriously, and have without fail been performed the next day. It’s seriously impressive!
I love my apartment itself. It has a big, beautiful, functional kitchen and I was thrilled to get a washer and dryer at this price point.
Pros of this place are the nicely updated units, the gym, the pool, and the beautiful landscaping. The staff throws really nice resident events. I love the location. The shopping center nearby is really great.
I agree that parking is challenging. I only have one car, though, and I live in one of the easier areas parking-​wise. It’s never been so bad I’ve felt the need to complain. I will also admit that I rarely use the shuttle as I drive to work. I wish people would pick up after their dogs, but that’s not a management problem.
The Park has really taken care of me and I feel grateful to live here!

DONT MOVE HERE. Staff is unhelpful. Walls are thin. Dog poop everywhere. Dumpsters always overflowing with trash.

The Park at Arlington Ridge is a complete disappointment! The Staff is great however the Maintenance is a JOKE! After recently moving in, I realized my floor isn’t leveled. They came out THREE times and it’s still not fixed! Dan, the maintenance Manager, nice guy but his work ethic is horrendous! I’ve been missing a part in the apartment for over a week! Maintenance suck, Parking is terrible! Owners do not pick up after their pets. They hurry you into signing a lease but when it comes to getting answers you literally have to stalk them! Do NOT Rent! Stay Away! It’s NOT worth is!

Great staff is worth everything, apartments are decent too. For the money I pay, it’s unbeatable. Everything is really close too and once you get to know the area it’s amazing. Make sure to have your email updated at the office for notifications and other emails they send out. Street parking can be a hassle so about 40% of the time I have to park at the Leasing office or further, but then again at least it’s free whereas all the other places I looked charged $ 100+ per car.

–You can do better than the Park. The units are okay, but very small. The carpets are very cheap. The one nice thing is the open floor plan.
–You only get one parking spot in the lots. Street parking is very difficult to find after 8 pm.
–The walls are very thin. I constantly hear the people living next to me and above me.
The management staff is what really makes the Park a horrible place to live. The staff is extremely rude and unhelpful. It seems like every time I interact with the management staff I have a bad experience. Don’t be fooled about how nice/​helpful/​responsive they seem when you are touring the buildings and interested in signing a lease. It seems like once you commit and sign a lease, the staff could care less about you. I have complained several times about the people above me making extremely loud noises in the middle of the night. The management staff have done absolutely nothing. They could care less.
The free shuttle bus service is horrible. The drivers are often late, sometimes not showing up at all. The management staff never seems to communicate with the drivers. They don’t even know the schedule. I called the night before Veteran’s Day last year to see if the shuttle bus service was still running. The management staff had no idea and told me I would just have to wait and see if they showed up the next day. WOW.
One of the buses even crashed last year with several residents on the bus. The management staff brushed this incident under the rug and did not inform all residents what had happened. I only know because my friend was on the bus when it crashed. How can you have a shuttle bus that crashes during one of its routes and fail to inform other residents of this? The Park is a joke. Do not live here.

We lived here for ~1.5yrs. in a 2bd/​2ba apt until my roommate moved out of state. These apts are a good value, and I had planned to replace her and stay, but a combination of things caused us to break our lease and move out completely in the end.
— Units are no frills, but very functional, and the wide open kitchen and in-​unit W/​D are major benefits. They are long, so getting the temperature right throughout the apt might take some fiddling with opening/​closing vents.
— Walls are on the thin side and the stairwell echoes (esp. when the front door slams). However, the bedrooms are farther back in the unit so any noise issues were mostly relegated to the living room.
— Grounds are ok. They’re pretty well maintained and very dog friendly. There are some inconsiderate dog owners who don’t pick up after their pups, but you get those everywhere.
— Concierge desk/​package acceptance is ²⁴⁄₇ (very convenient), and they’re generally very courteous and helpful. They have spare keys too, in case you’re locked out.
— Business center is meh — only 3 (I think) computers and one printer which is frequently out of paper.
— I never used the gym, but I’ve seen better and worse.
— Maintenance is ok. Sometimes it takes a week, but eventually it gets done.
— Neighborhood is also ok. It’s walking distance to a shopping center, and there’s a community shuttle to the metro — but it only runs during rush hour. There were some car break-​ins on Army Navy Dr. nearby a while ago, and people frequently speed and blow through stop signs on 28^th St.
— Pool is on the small side and fills up quickly during the summer. They issue one pool pass per resident and you have to pay for guests, which can be frustrating if you live alone, since amenity fees are per unit, not per resident. (Summer 2014 was 1 pass per resident with 2 free guest passes per unit which was much better.)
— Parking can be a nightmare. Each apt (regardless of 1bd or 2bd) gets 1 unassigned, uncovered space. There’s street parking all around, but both the street and the lot fill up extremely quickly in the evenings. I strongly suspect they issue more parking permits than there are spaces. Enforcement of parking policies is spotty at best. At one point, a car with 2 flat tires and NO parking pass was parked in the lot right in front of my building for literally 3+ months. This was a lease violation too, since cars with flats can’t be parked in the lot. We called the office multiple times to report this car and it took them MONTHS to tow it… but my friend mistakenly parked in the lot while visiting and got towed within 2 hours.
— Garage spaces are $ 50 (there are a few uncovered garage spots that are cheaper) but most of the spaces are on the narrow side. Many are marked «COMPACT», but the office staff doesn’t enforce the compact designation. This led to me having to squeeze my actually compact car in between two HUGE SUVs who were assigned the «compact» spots on either side of mine.
— Biggest complaint: the office staff. They’re inconsistent, don’t communicate well, and don’t know their own policies.
– When we moved in, our leasing agent promised some concessions which were never written down or communicated for some reason. He wasn’t there when we showed up to sign our lease, and our lease was wrong. The woman helping us obviously thought we were lying and never apologized for how rude she was when it turned out we were telling the truth.
– We had questions about replacing my roommate vs. breaking the lease, etc., and we spoke to 3 people in the office before finally getting accurate information. For the record, Jeff is the guy to talk to in the office if you have lease-​related questions or issues. I think he’s the finance guy, and he really knows his stuff.
– The staff here don’t seem to care about retaining current residents — maybe because they know they can lease your apt at a higher rate if you leave. I said up front that I was interested in staying after my roommate left, but they showed no concern or desire to keep me as a resident (and I have no reason to believe we were less than model residents). The fee to change any aspect of the lease (even a roommate change) was $ 500, which is obscene. (Most other apartment complexes I’ve checked charge around $ 100 for a roommate change.)
Bottom line: this place is a good value. Decent apts, decent location, decent amenities. (1 yr lease signed in Feb 2014 was under $ 1900/​mo for a 2bd/​2ba, and it increased about $ 50 when we re-​signed for another 2 yrs.) If you never have any issues and never have to break your lease, you’ll probably be perfectly content here. But if you have any sort of uncertainty in your life, I would think twice about leasing here.
3 stars for what was a pretty good experience up until the very end.