City Receives Waterfront Zoning Appeal

City Council will not vote on key zoning language related to the waterfront small area plan on Tuesday now that the Board of Zoning Appeals voiding a protest petition filed by riverside landowners.

Council will vote on the waterfront small area plan on Tuesday, as scheduled.

On Jan. 21, City Council to redevelop the waterfront and some zoning changes after a marathon 11-hour hearing taking public comment on the matter.

A group of landowners displeased with the city's plan to allow new zoning rules permitting structures such as hotels along the waterfront sought to file a petition before council voted on Jan. 21. The petition would have required a supermajority, or 6-1, vote to pass the plan and its amendments. However, the petition was rejected and an appeal of that rejection was not filed properly at that time, according to the city.

Because the Waterfront Small Area Plan is technically an amendment to the city’s Master Plan, city code requires that council now vote again on both the “text amendment” relating to the rezoning and the plan itself.

City attorney Jim Banks explained that the Jan. 21 vote was brought before council to approve “conceptually.” Council must vote again on both portions, as it must vote again whenever a change is made to the city’s Master Plan.

“What we’re doing here is just formal procedure that is set up by the General Assembly through its charter,” he said. Tuesday is expected to see the first reading and introduction but the second reading and final approval is scheduled to take place during the next Saturday public hearing.

The rezoning language was taken off Tuesday’s City Council docket “now that there has been an appropriate filing of an appeal with the BZA,” Banks said.

The BZA likely will hear the petitioners’ case around April, but it could be as early as March or as late as May, according to Banks.

If the BZA denies the appeal, the zoning ordinance will be put back on the docket at some point. Banks said he does not believe the appeal has merit, but if the BZA overturns the determination made by the Planning and Zoning director “there are many possible things that could happen.”

For example, the BZA has the authority to reverse the planning director’s decision or it could “split the baby,” said Banks, “by deciding that some parts were right and some were wrong.”

Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan Co-Chair Andrew Macdonald called the decision to split the vote “a sign of how desperate the current Democratic majority on the City Council are to approve this waterfront plan before the fall election.”

Meanwhile, Banks said the city has , which is now winding its way through Alexandria Circuit Court.