Thursday, May 9, 2013
Alexandria Planning Commission OKs proposal to raze market to build a four-townhome development named after Kate Middleton.
The days are numbered for the Royal Market, as a plan to raze the Old Town convenience store and an adjacent shuttered laundromat and replace them with a group of residential structures with a similarly regal name has received the go-ahead. Alexandria’s Planning Commission approved plans Tuesday for The Middleton, a row of four, three-story townhomes named after the duchess of Cambridge because of its location at the corner of Royal and Princess streets. Applicants Scott Mitchell and J. Lawrence Hirsch plan to consolidate the market and the laundromat parcels, then subdivide the new larger parcel into a site plan for four homes. The streetscape will be restored with sidewalks and street trees. According to the planning staff’s report on …
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Alexandria Planning Commission Chair John Komoroske and past chair Eric Wagner explain the March 5 voting on two text amendments.
To the editor, On Tuesday, March 5, the Alexandria Planning Commission approved two text amendments to Alexandria’s zoning ordinance after public hearings where most of the speakers opposed the amendments. Those opponents may think Commissioners disregarded the concerns of those who testified. That is not the case: all Commissioners heard and carefully weighed all of what was said. There is a distinction, however, between understanding the arguments made by the speakers and being convinced that the points they advocated would be good for the City of Alexandria. We thought it would be useful to explain our votes on these two issues. The first hearing was on zoning ordinance amendments to permit the development envisioned in the Waterfront…
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
City Council will consider waterfront measures at March 16 public hearing.
The Alexandria Planning Commission approved two zoning text amendments in a meeting that ran into early Wednesday morning that will allow the city to circumvent pending litigation and begin implementing a long-debated waterfront redevelopment plan, provided City Council signs off on the measures later this month. • See: Alexandria City Council to Vote Once Again on Waterfront Plan Opponents of the plan, who have spent more than two years expressing their concerns over new development on the Old Town waterfront, stated old worries and some new ones to the commissioners. Andrew Macdonald, a former vice mayor who ran a failed campaign for mayor last year largely built on opposition to the city’s waterfront proposal, told the commissioners the…
Friday, March 1, 2013
Carr Hospitality to build 109-room boutique lodge near King Street Metro Station.
Alexandria City Council approved plans last week to build a six-story hotel at the corner of Prince Street and Daingerfield Road in Old Town. The project plan, submitted by Carr Hospitality, will remove the existing parking lot at the site and replace it with a 54,013 square-foot hotel with 109 rooms and a small on-site restaurant. The building will have a five-story wing along Prince Street and a six-story wing along Daingerfield Road. The hotel will also have meeting space, a rooftop pool, sundeck and green space. • See: Planning Commission Approves Prince Street Hotel The room count would put the hotel on par with The Lorien Hotel on King Street. Nearby residents expressed concerns about the hotel’s impact on parking in the neighborhood…
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Maria Wasowski, Nate Macek and Derek Hyra appointed to influential board.
Donna Fossum, a member of the Alexandria Planning Commission for more than two decades, was voted off the prestigious board on Tuesday night. Three new Planning Commission members were appointed by City Council—Maria Wasowski, Nate Macek and Derek Hyra. Longtime commissioners Larry Robinson and Jessie Jennings stepped off the influential body, which makes recommendations to council on special use permits, requests for vacations or encroachments of public right-of-ways, rezonings, master plan amendments and other requests. Members also represent the Planning Commission on other city boards. “I didn’t get a single vote after 23 years on the Planning Commission,” Fossum told Patch. “I didn’t get a thank you. I have no idea of why. … Don’t …
Friday, February 8, 2013
Sotheby's plans office for space currently occupied by Elder Crafters.
Alexandria’s Planning Commission paved the way for the sale of city-owned building located at 200 N. Royal St. in Old Town Tuesday as part of the city’s plan to dispose of surplus property. TTR Sotheby's International Realty submitted a bid of $1.35 million for the three-story property. Sotheby’s intends to use the building as office space. The company’s bid was the largest of three the city received, exceeding the property’s appraised value of $1.2 million. Elder Crafters, on a month-to-month lease from the city, currently occupies the ground floor of the building. The two upper floors previously housed administrative offices for the Office of Historic Alexandria and facilities for Information Technology Services. Alexandria’s …
38.80578
-77.043379
200 N Royal St, Alexandria, VA
/articles/city-prepares-to-sell-royal-street-property
/locations/8766088
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Carr Hospitality is proposing to remove existing parking lot and replace it with 109-room boutique hotel.
The Alexandria Planning Commission approved plans Tuesday to build a six-story hotel at the corner of Prince Street and Daingerfield Road. The proposal will go before City Council later this month. Applicant Carr Hospitality is proposing to remove the existing parking lot at the site and replace it with a 54,013 square-foot hotel with 109 rooms and a small on-site restaurant. The building will have a five-story wing along Prince Street and a six-story wing along Daingerfield Road. The hotel will also have a rooftop pool, sundeck and green space. The room count would put the hotel on par with The Lorien Hotel on King Street. The new building will include one level of below-grade parking with 45 spaces that will be exclusively valet …
38.80541
-77.05873
Prince St & Daingerfield Rd, Alexandria, VA
/articles/planning-commission-approves-prince-street-hotel
/locations/8760624
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
First-time councilmembers granted revote after initially voting against Reed Avenue complex.
Alexandria City Council approved plans Saturday to construct a new affordable housing complex at the corner of E. Reed Avenue and Route 1 with a vote that was conducted twice, after the two dissenting council members asked to vote again so they could support it. The project submitted by nonprofit AHC calls for a three- to five-story building with 78 affordable housing units that will be marketed to residents with incomes up to 60 percent of the area’s median income for 60 years. The hang-up for Vice Mayor Allison Silberberg and Councilman John Chapman—two members of council serving for the first time who both campaigned for more affordable housing in the city—was on parking at the complex. As part of a financing package for the project, …
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
City secures $30,000 donation for traffic-calming measures in adjacent neighborhoods.
Alexandria City Council approved plans for a 370,000-square-foot office for the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in Potomac Yard Land Bay G Saturday. The office is the first non-residential complex to be approved for the development. The structure, which is located just south of the Target, is expected to be the focal point of a new town center in Potomac Yard. Keeping IDA in Alexandria was seen as an economic development priority by councilmembers. The agency currently works out of an office near BRAC-133 in the West End. The new structure will be composed of two, eight-story towers built on a connected ground floor. It will have a 580-space parking garage consisting of one level below grade and four levels above grade. The 1.88-acre …
Monday, December 17, 2012
New chapel at Virginia Theological Seminary will replace sanctuary that was lost in 2010 fire.
Alexandria City Council gave permission Saturday for the Virginia Theological Seminary to build a new chapel to replace one that burned in 2010. The new, 20,000-square-foot chapel will be certified LEED Silver and have a 100-foot-tall steeple. The seminary also has plans to renovate and build a 900-square-foot addition to Packard-Laird Hall, which serves as its welcome center. The new chapel will be built between the welcome center and the Federal House. The plan also includes improvements to the Seminary Road entrance, reconfiguration of some parking spaces and traffic circulation improvements. The chapel’s design incorporates the architectural history of Anglican churches in Virginia and includes elements of Georgian and Romanesque …
Carl Stewart
1:09 pm on Sunday, May 12, 2013
I'm glad to see this market going. I live up by the Old Town Grocery and Carry Out and have been told by local police as well as local politicians that Royal Market was a barometer for other similar enterprises in 22314. The carryout has been busted for fencing stolen goods out of the store itself and for food stamp fraud, all allegedly (until convicted) perpetrated by the sons of the woman who … more ›