Waterfront Work Group Likely to be Announced Early Next Week

The mayor hopes to announce early next week as to who he has appointed to sit on the new waterfront work group, which is charged with helping City Council on redevelopment plans.

A schedule for the meetings will be released shortly after the group is announced, according to city spokesman Tony Castrilli.

The group was scheduled to start meeting in July.

The Old Town Civic Association has been invited to sit on the group and its president, John Gosling, said he is eager to know who are the group’s other members.

“It’s difficult to plan because I don’t know the dynamics of the group – will it be stacked with commercial operating interests?,” he asked.

Old Town Civic hopes that the work group will put together a policy statement to “take back to the council and see what happens,” Gosling said.

He added that his association wants to see a waterfront plan that has a much stronger commitment to the arts and size limits on commercial development although “a lot of members want controlled commercial development,” he said.

Gosling said side issues such as parking strategies must be addressed in a positive way before the issue becomes a problem.

“This group is going to have to move fast,” he said. “The plan was to meet once a week for four to five hours and to break the back of it mostly in July.”

Andrew Macdonald, co-founder of Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan, said his group has not yet been invited but “we are told we will have a seat.”

However, “given the mayor's support for the plan and comments to the effect that it’s a small group only that is opposed, I have no confidence in the outcome of this selection,” he said. “A number of council members say they want open minded constructive people on the panel. In short, they want it seems folks who agree with them.”

Although Gosling told Patch that he sees the Alternative Waterfront group as most closely aligned with his group’s concerns, Macdonald said, “We formed our group in response to OTCA's somewhat tepid leadership on this issue” but added “OTCA membership is by and large on our side.”

Several of the civic association's board members have attended CAAWP meetings. One is on the CAAWP board, and two are former presidents of the OTCA. 

Macdonald added that “given what has transpired to date, we feel that we must continue our efforts and increase our membership. We are making a great effort to reach out to other civic groups, collect input from citizens and provide them with up-to-date news.”

In addition to a member from the Old Town Civic Association, the mayor is expected to appoint five at-large members and one member from the Waterfront Committee - most likely the committee's chair, Nate Macek. One non-voting City Council member will convene the group.