patching...
Breaking: Police Interviewing Arlington Sheriff's Deputy in Suspicious Death Case »
Welcome back, Patch Blogger!

Eric Wagner

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Old Town's Royal Market Preparing to Abdicate

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 …

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 ›

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Letter to the Editor: Komoroske and Wagner on Waterfront and Petition Process Amendments

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…

Comment_arrow

oldtowner

5:51 pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013

to Ms. Gibney: Contrary to your statement, I did not belittle a reporter "because he writes for a local newspaper." The reporter in the past has mischaracterized the details of the waterfront plan.....I believe he has referenced it as "massive" and also indicated it would triple the allowable density. That's simply not true. I expect reporters to report facts....fairly and accurately. I believe …   more ›

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Planning Commission OKs Waterfront Rezoning

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…

Benny

10:31 am on Friday, March 8, 2013

Can we now please start redeveloping the Del Ray area?! The single family homes are wasting space suitable for high density development! Alexandria needs more hotels and high rise condo buildings and Del Ray is a prime location for it.   more ›

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Planning Commission Approves Prince Street Hotel

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 …

Doug

2:12 pm on Thursday, February 7, 2013

Good. It's about time that gravel lot was used for something. I wonder how long until my fellow OT'ers comment and demand that the city turn the lot into a park or museum? t-minus.........   more ›

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Alexandria Officials: High-Dollar Transit Projects Beneficial to City

Agenda:Alexandria held a forum on the city’s transit plans Monday night.

Alexandria city officials laid out the city’s plans for improved transit options Monday night at a forum organized by Agenda:Alexandria, a local nonprofit. Panelist Eric Wagner, member and former chairman of the Alexandria Planning Commission, called city staff highly competent but added he is at times skeptical of plans presented to the commission. The question before the city is, he said, should it not pursue transit initiatives due to cost? “That view would suggest that we somehow should push back against all of the forces that we don’t control and preserve a status quo or an improved status quo of that status quo, an improved version of today,” Wagner said. “But I don’t think that’s actually possible, or necessary desirable, for the …

Katy Cannady

12:24 pm on Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Because I am a chronic meeting goer, I attended the meetings of the transportation master plan committee that Poul Hertel, George Foote, and Eric Wagner all served on. That was some years ago now. The plan Mr. Hertel and Mr. Foote promoted was to give the advantages to the transit rider, not the automobile user. If corridors were created according to the Hertel-Foote plan, we would not be …   more ›

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Officials to Discuss Three Potomac Yard Metro Station Alternatives

A public meeting is scheduled for April 19 at Cora Kelly Recreation Center.

The City of Alexandria and the Federal Transit Administration will hold a meeting on April 19 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Cora Kelly Recreation Center to discuss the status of the Environmental Impact Study process for a proposed Potomac Yard Metrorail station serving the blue and yellow lines. The FTA and the city, in cooperation with the Washington Metro Area Transit Authority and the National Park Service, have narrowed the station plan to three alternatives all located just east of the Target at Potomac Yard Shopping Center. Thirty-six options were analyzed and whittled down to three zones. Officials then determined the best station design and configuration for each zone with an eye on minimizing adverse impacts. “Alternative A” is an at-…

Comment_arrow

Phillip Cide

10:45 pm on Thursday, April 12, 2012

Two of the past potential Potomac Yard projects that would have paid for the Metro were the Red Skins Stadium, and the Patent and Trade Office.   more ›

Got a Hot Tip?
 
 

Videos