Politics & Government

Alternative Waterfront Plan Group Says City Misinterprets Its Position

Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan says in a letter to Acting City Manager Bruce Johnson that no, it does not agree with the majority of the city's plan.

Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan says the City Manager’s Office has misinterpreted some of the spirit and intent of suggesting options to the city’s plan for redeveloping a swath of land along the Potomac River.

Acting City Manager Bruce Johnson issued a Nov. 1 memo summarizing his review of the Oct. 30 CAAWP report (pdf) “Parks, the Arts, and Museums: The Key to Rediscovering, Revitalizing and Protecting Alexandria’s Waterfront.” In that memo and by Nov. 15 “prepare a comparison and analysis of the report for use by the Waterfront Plan Work Group, as well as by  Council and the community.”

In that memo, Johnson says he is comforted that “the CAAWP report agrees, or does not take issue, with the vast majority of the recommendations” contained in the city’s draft Waterfront Small Area Plan.

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However, CAAWP Chairmen Andrew Macdonald and Boyd Walker sent Johnson a Nov. 14 letter saying that the Nov. 1 memo “misstates CAAWP’s position” when it claims that the CAAWP report agrees or “does not take issue” with much of the city’s plan.

“Please note that we disagree strongly with the level of commercial development proposed in the city’s plan…The City’s Plan does not increase public access to the waterfront and river in a meaningful way,” reads the CAAWP response to Johnson’s memo.

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CAAWP says the “history elements of the City’s Plan seem to be an afterthought and not central to any development of the waterfront. Parking and traffic issues are not addressed in a comprehensive manner and the data we need to understand the traffic problem and solutions do not exist.”

Additionally, CAAWP says the city’s plan doesn’t adequately protect the environment or the Potomac River.

CAAWP also believes the city is viewing the CAAWP plan as a means to preserve the status quo, which CAAWP says is incorrect.

The group’s plan “is a policy of creative change…In our view, this alternative strategy will create a more vibrant, attractive and world-class waterfront. In fact, what we propose amounts to substantial change relative to what exists today on the waterfront.”

They also posit that the city has made little effort to compare the costs and benefits of the various alternatives. “The City has not carefully examined many of the financial underpinnings of its own plan. Let alone any other alternative.”

Lastly, the letter makes efforts to reiterate to the city that it does not see anything illegal with the city’s 1992 zoning ordinance “which we support.”

“We are not proposing that the City take development rights. Instead we are saying that the City should purchase additional land along the waterfront as they did along The Strand for public and public/private uses that increase public use, and enjoyment of the waterfront and Potomac. There are willing sellers, such as the Washington Post, whom the City should contact. The 1992 zoning allows significant development along the river and NO hotels," argue the letter's authors.

The letter to Johnson concludes by saying that given the differences outlined between the CAAWP report and the city’s draft waterfront plan, “we believe it will be difficult for City staff to complete a full analysis by November 15 that is anything more than a critique of our plan.”

Macdonald and Walker suggest that it would make more sense for the city to work with CAAWP to develop a shared community vision for the waterfront.

CAAWP had made a 15-minute presentation to the , which outlined the findings in its new report.


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