In This Edition

Even lesser known is that each month, Bob Nicholson, who has long managed the Planetarium, opens it up for the community for free. 

Reservations are required, but don't miss out on this great resource! 

On Saturday March 9th from 11AM to 1PM, the City will be hosting a Community Open House to solicit input on what a future park should include. 

The parade starts at 12:30PM, and we will see you there! 

If you have items that cannot be disposed of in the trash, please use the City's Hazardous Waste and Electronics Recycling at 3224 Colvin Street. 

The facility is open on Mondays and Saturdays from 7:30AM to 3:30PM. 

any way. Have a great month!

In January 2012, after years of deliberation and spirited discussion, the City Council adopted a new plan for our Waterfront. 

The plan laid out a vision of additional open space, mitigation for flooding, new public access to the Waterfront, an environmentally sustainable naturalization of the shore-line, incorporation of public art and arts as a destination, traffic and parking mitigation, and increased economic vitality.  

With much of the property on the Waterfront currently in private hands, any vision for the future required public/private partnership. The zoning in place today would allow private residential development on the Waterfront--development that would privatize those portions of the Waterfront and cut off public access forever. Avoiding residential development on our Waterfront was a key goal of the adopted plan. 

By allowing additional uses (hotels, museums, schools and cultural institutions) and small increases in density on three development sites, the adopted plan will achieve significant public good while protecting the taxpayers from significant cost. 

With adoption of the plan, a modification of the City's Zoning Code is required to allow the additional uses and additional density. As Council sought to complete that process using a zoning Text Amendment, adjacent residents filed a protest under a provision of City Code that allows for the filing of protests against proposed amendments to zoning map boundaries. Under that Code section, a valid protest would then require that the Council adopt the change via a supermajority vote with at least 6 out of 7 votes. 

At that time, the Planning Director determined that the protest was not valid, as protests do not apply to Text Amendments. That decision was appealed to the City's Board of Zoning Appeals, who overturned the Planning Director's determination. The City then chose to appeal that decision into Circuit Court. That case is scheduled to be heard in April. 

While there is some ambiguity in the language of the City Code, it seems pretty clear that the protest provision was never intended to apply to Text Amendments--only to zoning map amendments. That being said, this debate is unnecessary and is needlessly delaying moving together as a community to implement the plan. 

Accordingly, the City Council asked the City Manager to bring the zoning changes back to a vote before the Planning Commission and later the City Council in an attempt to receive the supermajority that was desired by those who filed the protest. 

While there is still a strong belief that the supermajority requirement did not apply to this situation, in the interest of saving the taxpayers the cost of further litigation, and allow the City to proceed with implementation of the Plan, the Council will be subjecting itself to the higher standard. 

Additionally, the City Council has requested that the Planning Commission and the City Council consider revised language for the provision of the City Code relating to the filing of protests--namely clarifying the situations where the protests are valid and where they are not. 

I believe this course of action provides additional opportunity for public input, and allows the City to move forward with whatever decision comes from the process. 

The Planning Commission will be taking up this issue at its next meeting on March 5th, and if adopted, the City Council will consider it at our Saturday Public Hearing on March 16th. 

If you are interested, please attend either or both of those meetings or drop me a line with your thoughts.

You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City. 

In any year, the most important decision the City Council makes is the adoption of the annual budget. The adoption of our budget is actually the adoption of two budgets, the FY 2014 Operating Budget, and the FY 2014 - FY 2023 Capital Improvement Program. 

This is where the City Council takes its values, priorities and vision, and balance it against the community's capacity and willingness to pay. It is a stark process full of difficult choices. 

As I discussed last month, the revenue picture combined with the increased cost of maintaining current services, left a gap entering the budget process. In the end, that gap totaled $31 million. 

The guidance the City Council provided in January asked the City Manager to avoid the 'easy" options of using one-time dollars, increasing debt, and reducing reserves to balance our budget. Additionally, we asked the City Manager to propose a funding plan for our long-neglected capital infrastructure needs--namely school infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, public safety and recreation.

On Tuesday, the City Manager answered our direction and provided his proposed budget.