City Recommends Modifying Plan to Redesign Alexandria's Waterfront

The director of the city’s Planning and Zoning Department has sent a memo to the planning commission outlining recommended changes to the latest proposal to revamp the waterfront as heatedly debated .

Department Director Faroll Hamer also mentions in the memo that discussions with the Old Dominion Boat Club have indicated that the club’s parking lot “will not completely move but may be reconfigured or reduced to improve public access to the river and/or to Waterfront Park.”

The boat club owns a parking lot in a key area that is integral to the city’s plan for waterfront redevelopment.

The ODBC has suggested building a walkway about 10 feet wide from the foot of King Street adjacent to the river running across the ODBC parking lot, which would remain in place. That walkway would then connect to the existing walkway along the river at Waterfront Park. In exchange, the boat club is asking for the city to grant it the city-owned pleasure boat pier with 28 slips in front of the Torpedo Factory as well as a boat storage facility.

The city has suggested an “Option B,” which would change the ODBC parking lot from its current rectangular shape to an L-shape starting at the river then turning at a right angle toward the boat club. It would eliminate the current gap between the actual club and its parking lot. In exchange, the ODBC would transfer to the city about 50 feet of the top if its current parking lot as access to Waterfront Park.

Separately, responding to comments made during the Apr. 5 meeting that the plan did not pay proper homage to Alexandria's history in its waterfront plan, Hamer said the plan recommends a number of elements that are specific to Alexandria. “The most important is to preserve and adaptively reuse all existing historic buildings,” including obvious 18th and 19th century structures as well as some early 20thcentury buildings like the Beachcomber “whose cultural significance may be greater than it’s architectural merit.”

Among the recommended changes which are outlined in the memo dated May 3:

• Eliminate a Waterfront Park restaurant building and add language to a revised plan supporting an active park “through other means”;

• Add the cost of Windmill Hill Park implementation to the overall cost of the plan;

• Strengthen the connection of the plan’s recommendations to a plan focusing on the history of Old Town Alexandria;

• Provide more flexibility in the spending of $3.6 million included in the plan budget for a civic or cultural building;

• Clarify that proposed piers can be a different length or design that those initially proposed;

• Reduce the square footage of restaurants to 50,000 from 109,000 square feet, which would result in annual net tax revenues of $4.1 million; and

• Add language detailing how restaurants and hotels would be reviewed to determine if they have unacceptable off-site impacts.

The department plans to hold a hearing May 3 on the plan although public comment will not be taken. Citizens who wish to express their thoughts on the city’s redevelopment plan will have that option at the City Council meeting May 14, according to the memo.