Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Alexandrian Sean Holihan says it's time to move forward and quit the stall tactics.
- OPINION
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Tuesday, January 3, 2012
To the Editor: At the end of football games, when a team is close to defeat from a last-second field goal, the losing team will often call a time-out – called “icing the kicker.” It’s a stall tactic that coaches use to possibly get in the kicker’s head so that he’ll miss and keep the game alive. It doesn’t often work. The Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan seem to be playing by the same rules. Faced with certain defeat, the CAAWP has sought to permanently delay a vote by City Council on the waterfront. Worse, they’ve negotiated in bad faith, pocketing every compromise then complaining that they’re not being heard. It’s been over two years now, with nearly 100 meetings to get input from Alexandrians on the Waterfront …
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Waterfront Plan Work Group releases its final report at a City Hall news conference.
After six months and hundreds of hours of debate, the Waterfront Plan Work Group on Tuesday morning released its official recommendations on redevelopment of the city’s riverside. As expected, it addresses issues such as traffic congestion, parking, development and the environment, among many other things. “The work group did what we were asked to do—lay out the issues presented for consideration. There are a lot of complex issues here and there was never an expectation that the group would come to a consensus,” said Nate Macek, who also chairs the city’s Waterfront Committee. “Our role was to highlight areas of agreement and disagreement.” Among the group’s major recommendations are better quality parks, quick city action to create a more…
Monday, November 28, 2011
Andrew Macdonald, co-chair of Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan, outlines why the CAAWP plan is the only realistic, long-term economic alternative for the city.
- OPINION
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Monday, November 28, 2011
I’ve grown weary of the fight over the waterfront too, though for very different reasons than those espoused by the Chamber’s, Co-Chair Elect, Andrew Palmieri. For one thing I’m tired of a political process that effectively cuts off all real debate and the opportunity for compromise, whether it be along the waterfront or in the West End near the BRAC-133 monstrosity. For another, the waterfront plan that the Chamber and its proxy, Waterfront4All$, supports is a direct threat to a National Historic Landmark District. Mr. Palmieri appears to believe that a process where senior City planners met much more regularly with property owners (and developers) than it did citizens is a fair and democratic one too. Yet it was in those former meetings …
Monday, November 21, 2011
City staff said the plan is not financially or legally sound.
The waterfront redevelopment strategy presented by Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan is neither financially feasible, legally defensible nor responsive to change, according to a new City of Alexandria assessment (pdf). The CAAWP proposal at a price tag of up to $109 million would cost twice that of the city’s draft waterfront plan, said Acting City Manager Bruce Johnson at City Hall on Monday. “We don’t think that’s financially feasible considering the city’s financial outlook for the next decade,” said Johnson, who previously held the title of city chief financial officer. He characterized the group’s plan to minimize costs as “deficient” and said potential revenue from a suggested museum is “drastically overstated.” …
Monday, November 7, 2011
Waterfront4All says plan from Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan is vague and misguided.
A group supporting the city’s most recent plan to develop Alexandria’s waterfront refuted a new report from Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan, calling it inconsistent and vague on funding. “After months of supposed research, the alternative plan is clearly heavy in rhetoric and light on substance,” said a statement from Waterfront4All. “The first hundred pages are dedicated to criticizing the city’s plan. The second hundred pages are partially spent criticizing other city waterfront projects." “With all the criticism, it’s hard to find any legitimate components of their plan,” said Waterfront4All co-founder Dennis Auld. The group slams CAAWP for criticizing the city’s “self-funded” plan “but they have no problem …
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Members of Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan are researching options to city-proposed waterfront redevelopment.
A group of citizens seeking an alternative to a city-proposed plan to redevelop Alexandria’s waterfront are busily crafting a report for the Waterfront Work Group that it hopes can serve as a guide for the group’s decision-making process. Members of the Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan have split into 12 groups, which are focusing on different aspects of the waterfront such as flood mitigation, grant funding resources, and parking and traffic issues. “Some people have painted our group as a group that wants to do nothing and leave everything the way it is,” said CAAWP co-founder Boyd Walker. “We’re trying to prove by doing this work that we’re not for maintaining the status quo. We know the [Robinson] terminal sites …
Karen Gautney
8:51 am on Thursday, January 5, 2012
Attack Sean if you will, Boyd, but he's right. There are many Alexandrians who stand behind our elected City Council and the long, exhaustive process they went through to arrive at the plan. We don't have to go to every meeting to keep up with progress (or obstruction) and we trust the process. I know you don't, and you've been heard. A lot. We are ready to move on, and maybe it's time for us to … more ›