Former EPA Administrator Urges City to Reconsider Waterfront Plan

Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Reilly, who is also a long-time property owner in Old Town, wrote a letter this month to Mayor Bill Euille and City Council urging the lawmakers “not to approve a high-rise hotel conference complex on the waterfront.”

“The high rise hotel is the kind of project that looks good on paper and counts on public investments for roads, sewers, and other services and infrastructure, without guarantee of a return to the public,” he wrote in a Nov. 18 letter, adding that today’s economic boon could be tomorrow’s white elephant.

“The waterfront is among Alexandria’s most treasured features, reflecting on the town’s historic riverside character, assets that can distinguish the city in a highly competitive global economy.”

Reilly also urges city officials to consider the effect of global warming and the potential of a rising sea level that could flood built-up areas.  “Open space is the best answer,” he writes.

Reilly, who now manages a private equity fund, also commended the report put together by Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan.

“The report offers examples of creative, visionary, economically sound thinking that have benefited a wide range of citizens.”

Reilly served as head of the EPA under George H. W. Bush and in 2010 was appointed by President Obama as a co-chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.