Landmark Mall Redevelopment
One of the top economic priorities for our City for at least a decade has been to spur a redevelopment of the Landmark Mall site.
The decline of economic activity on that site costs the taxpayers of our City tens of millions of dollars of lost tax revenue.
We are now finally seeing some activity.
The new owner of the Mall, the Howard Hughes Corporation has submitted application to the City for demolition of the two-story central portion of the Mall, and replacement with a mixed-use residential and retail complex with 250,000 to 300,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, along with approximately 350 to 400 multi-family apartments. There will be a public meeting on Monday April 8th at Landmark Mall (2nd floor Community Room on Level 2 near Bath & Body Works) at 7PM to begin the community vetting of this proposal.
Please let me know your thoughts.
|
Give us Your Opinion!
As we continue the City's What's Next initiative--designed to improve our public discourse, the City is requesting your input on the proposed Principles of Civic Engagement.
From now until April 9th, a survey is available to collect your feedback.
The next Community Dialogue will be on April 30th at a location to be determined!
Make your voice heard!
|
Alexandria Earth Day
Alexandria's annual Earth Day event is scheduled from 10AM until 2PM at Ben Brenman Park (4800 Brenman Park Drive) on Saturday April 20th.
This is always a fun and educational event for children and adults!
I'll see you there.
|
Eisenhower Avenue Widening
The Eisenhower East Plan--adopted a decade ago, identified the need for widening Eisenhower Avenue between Holland Lane and Stovall Street, in order to create a multi-modal environment and improve safety.
Using a combination of Federal, State, and a small bit of City funds, a portion of this project is now slated to begin in 2014.
To conclude the planning, the City is holding a design public hearing. It will be held at the Lee Center (1108 Jefferson Street) on April 4th at 7PM.
|
|
The facility is open on Mondays and Saturdays from 7:30AM to 3:30PM.
|
|
 |
|
|
With the weather finally feeling as though Spring might be here, our community is coming to life with activities.
We are now in the busiest time of the year for the City Council--as we confront the stark decisions necessary for the budget process, and continue to grapple with
difficult land-use decisions.
The Council came together near the end of March for our first Retreat--focusing on long-term strategic initiatives. It was a good discussion that I hope will continue throughout this term.
Please let me know if I can assist you in any way. Have a great month!
|
Budget Process Hits Its Stride
Over the last month since the City Manager proposed his FY 2014 Budget, the City Council has been hard at work collecting public input, posing questions to the City Staff, and developing opinions about proposed spending and revenue levels.
On March 11th, the City Council held a Public Hearing, and received 4 hours of testimony focusing on concerns and suggestions residents had with the proposed budget.
As City Council goes through the budget process, the City Staff delivers Budget Memos in response to questions posed by individual members. For residents, this can be a useful way to understand the issues being focused on by Council members  during this process.
At this point in the process, the Council makes its very first decision, when it's required to "advertise" a real estate tax rate for adoption. Under the Code of Virginia, when the Council adopts the tax rate, it cannot exceed the number that was previously advertised, but it may go lower.
As mentioned last month, the City Manager's proposed budget included a 2.5 cent real estate tax increase, coupled with an additional 3 cents for supplemental capital projects--with a total increase of 5.5 cents.
The Council chose to advertise a 4 cent rate increase--which, if adopted, would mean the average single-family homeowner would pay an additional $448 during 2014, and the average Condo homeowner would pay an additional $168. You can watch the City Council's discussion by selecting Docket Item 10--or scrolling over to the 39:00 mark. My remarks start at the 49:00 mark.
With many households in our City, including my own, experiencing the impacts of the Sequestration, and the lingering impacts of the economic downturn, I share the sensitivity of many of our residents over the proposed level of taxation.
Some of the very same factors affecting our residents' household budgets are also imposing impacts on City spending. Rising costs, increased demand for services, and reductions in revenues from the Federal and State governments are hindering our ability to fund services for our community.
Most of all, decades of underinvestment in our basic infrastructure is forcing our City to face large capital needs--needs for our schools, our roads and bridges, our sewers, our public safety services and our recreation facilities. These are not needs that go away with delay. These are needs that get more expensive with delay.
While every jurisdiction deals with different circumstances, it can be useful to look to our neighbors and their planned capital investments for comparison.
On a per person basis, in the upcoming fiscal year, Fairfax County will spend $678 on capital expenditures per person. Arlington County will spend $1,381 per person. Loudoun County will spend $799 per person. Prince William will spend $611 per person. Alexandria's proposed capital spending is $467 per person--the lowest of that group.
Furthermore, at current growth levels, we have a structural imbalance. Put simply: our expenditures are growing at a rate that exceeds the rate in with which our revenue is growing. That is true even when we assume the millions in cuts to services in the budget proposed by the City Manager.
This is not a problem that we easily grow our way out of. In every budget, we have a section for Forecast Scenarios, where the City Manager makes his projections of how spending and revenues will look in the future. Even at the "medium" growth scenario, the Council is facing a $14 million gap in FY 2015, and a $25 million gap the following year.
To demonstrate the stark choices ahead, as well as to give the Council additional expenditure reduction options, I requested a list of reductions that the City Manager considered, but ultimately did not include in his proposed budget. While these reductions were not proposed in this budget, it is safe to assume that they will come back for consideration next year, and subsequent years.
I am commited to taking actions in this budget that make our challenges in the future smaller, not bigger. If we are to raise additional revenue, adding to our Operating budget only makes our challenge for next year more steep. Addressing necessary capital improvements helps relieve the pressure on future budgets.
Deferring those capital improvements may reduce taxes today, but they make more significant tax increases necessary in the future.
I need your input. Please review the budget, as well as the memos that have been delivered , and let me know your thoughts.
The Council will have one more opportunity in a Public Hearing format--when we accept public testimony on the proposed Tax Rate at our Public Hearing on Saturday April 13th at 9:30 AM.
|
Making Massages More Relaxed
In Virginia, in order to provide massage services, you have to become a Certified Massage Therapist--a certification issued by the Board of Nursing. There is a series of requirements that include 500 hours of training and passage of a national examination.
Prior to the State becoming involved in regulating massage, Alexandria adopted its own regulatory system for handling massage. Today, the City's regulation layers on top of the State's.
Our regulation includes a provision that requires a Certified Massage Therapist to seek a permit from the Vice & Narcotics Section of the Alexandria Police Department in order to perform in-home massages. This permit needs to be issued for each home that they wish to do business in.
While I believe the local regulation served a purpose when it was adopted, I believe the state regulation, coupled with changes in our City, make the local regulation largely unnecessary. As such, I have proposed that we consider scaling back this form of regulation.
In 2011, our neighbors in Arlington repealed their version
of such regulation, and shortly we will consider making similar changes.
|
 Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room! My regular series of Town Hall Meetings--in your living room, are back!
We have two scheduled in the next few weeks, and I'm looking to get more.
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.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest! |
|
Upcoming Issues
| |
Beauregard Re-Zoning
In June of 2012, the City Council adopted the Beauregard Small Area Plan, which laid out a vision for a 395 acre swath of land constituting a major portion of the City's West End.
As in much of the City, the landowners in the Plan area had millions of square feet of development permitted (5.5 million constructed, 10 million permitted) under their existing zoning, but not currently developed.
Through the planning process, the City attempted to use the  incentive of additional development to provide significant public amenities as well as to encourage land-uses other than additional townhomes.
The approved plan provides a funding formula (including developer funding, tax increment financing, and City Affordable Housing Trust Fund dollars) for the creation of at least 800 new units of commited affordable housing, funding for a new fire staiton, a new "ellipse" at the intersection of Seminary and Beauregard Roads, a new transitway, additional tree canopy, and 44 acres of new open space.
In total, the Plan provides for $150 million of developer-funded public amenities.
Tomorrow evening, the Planning Commission will be considering the approval of the zoning ordinances necessary to implement this Plan. If sucessful, those ordinances will be coming to the City Council this month.
My focus moving forward is to ensure the realization of the substantial community amenities and minimize displacement of existing residents. Please let me know your comments on the proposed zoning conditions.
The Future of Alexandria Pools
With little new financial resources devoted, and mounting capital needs, the City closed Ewald, Lee and Colasanto over the past five years, and the proposed budget now proposes to close Warwick.
Continued inaction on the City's part will be a policy decision in and of itself. That decision will be that municipal aquatics has no future in our City.
The result is series of recommendations about how to better utilize our existing aquatics properties, and make strategic capital investment to ensure that Alexandria's pools are not a thing of the past. Those recommendations come with significant costs, and those costs will be a central point of discussion during the Council's on-going budget process.
I believe that we can be more entreprenuerial in how we run our  pools, and generate revenue from them. I also believe there is opportunity to partner with existing or planned private pools.
While there are some of the recommendations from the Study that I support, there are other proposals that I believe need further consideration.
In recognition of the constrained resources, a new organization, Advocates for Alexandria Aquatics has been formed to leverage private resources to partner with the City in moving forward.
On Wednesday, at 6:30, the City Council will be having a worksession on this Master Plan, as we work to define the future for these facilities. Let me know your thoughts on the future of aquatics in Alexandria.
Parker-Gray District Changes
Alexandria has two historic preservation districts--the Old & Historic District and the Parker Gray District. Both of these districts have a Board of Architectural Review charged with preserving the historic fabric of each area.
 In 2011, the Parker-Gray Ad Hoc Design Guidelines Work Group w as formed to streamline the approval process. expand the use of more modern materials, and reduce the fees.
This group has agreed upon a series of recommendations that are now awaiting Council's action over the next 2 months.
I believe that we need to continue to strike the right balance betwen an indivdual homeowner's rights to their property, and the desire to protect the historic heritage that make Alexandria such a unique place.
|
|
|
