In This Edition

In partnership with the Del Ray Business Foundation, a reward fund has been established to assist our police in solving this murder. 

While we cannot bring back Ron, please join me in contributing to bring closure to this sad loss for our community. 

The next event is scheduled for Friday January 17th and includes events for kids of all ages! 

A year ago, the City Council approved Jackson Crossing, a new development at the corner of East Reed and Route 1, that will create 78 units of affordable housing. This housing will be reserved for families earning 60% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). 

This effort was the result of collaboration between the City and AHC Inc., a non-profit affordable housing developer based in Arlington. 

This summer, the project successfully competed for Low Income Housing Tax Credits from Virginia Housing Development Authority. Those tax credits, coupled with public land and a loan from the City, will bring this project to life. 

This project will now break ground next month with an expected completion 18 months later. 

Last month, the City Council approved a private development on Slaters Lane that utilized a provision of the City's Zoning Code allowing additional density in exchange for affordable housing.

These two efforts are examples of the City employing the full array of tools available to create and preserve affordable housing. These tools are key components of the City's Housing Master Plan, which was approved by the City Council last month, after years of effort. 

In approving this plan, the Council also chose to adopt a new 10-year goal for the creation and preservation of 2,000 units of affordable housing. 

While we will continue to have debates about the most effective ways to create and preserve affordable housing, I join with the City Council in my desire to ensure that this is a community that all of our children will one day have a place to live. 

As I wrote about a few months ago, the City finalized its Legislative Package for the 2014 General Assembly Session.

While the session will not convene until Wednesday January 8th, there have already been developments as we work with Richmond to serve our community. 

Governor McDonnell, as the outgoing governor, proposed a biennial budget as well as suggested priorities for the surplus in the existing budget, for consideration by the General Assembly. 

Of particular note to Alexandria, the Governor proposed $1 million of new state funding to address the City's Combined Sewer Overflow system. While this is just a small fraction of the significant cost required to address the requirements of our recently renewed permit, it is an important recognition of the unique challenges the City will face in addressing this very aged infrastructure. 

I am hopeful that not only will the General Assembly and Governor-Elect support this funding, but that additional resources will be available both in this year and future years to make this important investment in clean water. 

The Governor has also proposed additional funding for the Alexandria City Public Schools, our Police Department, and Mental and Behavioral Health programs. 

Moreover, the Governor proposed additional funds for the Opportunity Educational Institution. This new state agency, created by the General Assembly during last year's session, is designed to bring struggling schools under state control in an attempt to improve their performance.

The City has passed a resolution opposing the Opportunity Educational Institution as an affront to local control of education, and it is currently being challenged in the courts. I am hopeful the new Governor and the General Assembly come together to pass education reform initiatives that will help improve student achievement. 

One of the unfortunate realities of scarce parking is parking enforcement. City Parking Enforcement is expected to collect $3.9 million in parking fines across the City during this current budget year. 

For a little over a decade, the City has contracted with an outside company to adjudicate the appeals of parking citations. 

As a cost-savings measure in the recently approved budget, the Council approved the elimination of the parking adjudication office, which will allow the City's General District Court to begin handling these appeals. 

Effective today, any appeals of parking tickets can now be submitted to the Court for hearing and adjudication. This change also allowed the City to extend the amount of time for appeal of a ticket to three years.  

In May of last year, the City Council voted to commence the Eisenhower West Small Area planning process.

The adoption of this plan will place the final puzzle piece in a new vision for our City's West End, that has been developing over the past several years. Together with the approved Beauregard Small Area Plan and Landmark/Van Dorn Plan, adoption of the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan will complete the blueprint for the next 20-30 years of our City. 

This planning process represents one of the more unique plans we have done in recent years in that there are far few constraints on the ultimate result than we have seen in other plans. 

Transportation will clearly play a central role, as it does in most plans. Yet in Eisenhower West, we will grapple with the role of heavy industrial uses in our City, economic viability, environmental sustainability and open space. 

This largely undefined planning process requires good community leadership. The Council voted last month to create a Steering Committee to guide this process to completion. Applications will be accepted for membership on this Committee until tomorrow morning at 9AM.

The City Manager will be making the appointments, and I am hopeful we will get a broad representative group of creative thinkers to help shape the future of this important swath of land. 

Carr City Centers is proposing the construction of a new 5-story, 120-room hotel on the Cummings/Turner Block. The Cummings/Turner block is bounded by South Union Street on the east and The Strand on the west, between Duke and Prince Street. A one-story warehouse is currently on the site. 

This is a project that has undergone significant changes during the years that it has been before the community. 

The Planning Commission will hear public comment on this proposal at its January 7th Public Hearing. You can sign-up to speak online. 

It will then be presented before the City Council at our Public Hearing on Saturday January 25th at 9:30 AM.