Presidential Primary Absentee Voting
The Virginia Democratic and Republican parties will be holding their Presidential Primaries on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.
Applications for absentee ballots can now be made by mail, online or in person. However, ballots will not be mailed until the 15th.
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Get Ready for Kindergarten
If you have a child who will be starting Kindergarten in the Alexandria City Public Schools this fall, a series of open houses are being scheduled for you!
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Patrick Henry Process Continues
The City and Schools recently constituted a community group which has already held the first meeting on December 9th.
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The installation ceremony will take place at 6:30 PM in the T. C. Williams High School Auditorium.
Congratulations to new School Board members Hal Cardwell, Veronica Nolan, Margaret Lorber, Cindy Anderson, and Ramee Gentry.
They join returning members Karen Graf, Chris Lewis, Ronnie Campbell, and Bill Campbell.
I look forward to collaborating with the new Board as we work to ensure the success of every child.
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Confederate Memorials & Street Names
The Committee was now had its membership constituted and will hold its first meeting on Wednesday January 27, 2016 at 7 PM.
The meeting will be held in the Sister Cities Conference Room at City Hall.
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Celebrate Community 5K/1K
On Sunday, January 17th at 9AM, the Agudas Achim Congregation will host the 2nd Annual Celebrate Community 5K/1K race.
The race will begin and end at the US Patent & Trademark Office on Eisenhower Avenue.
This year, the race will benefit ALIVE and collect food for ALIVE's Emergency Food Distribution.
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Happy New Year!
A few hours ago, a new Council term commenced.
Allison Silberberg is now our new Mayor and we have added Councilman Willie Bailey.
I am excited to tackle the issues before us.
I hope you can join us for both the installation and the reception that follows.
In addition to the administration of our oaths, the City Council will elect the Vice Mayor and designate Council representation to a variety of City Boards, Commissions and regional bodies.
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Housing Affordability, Are We The Problem?
Despite being just a short trip across the Potomac River, it's rare to see Federal policymakers directly engaged in the day to day challenges that face us in local government.
In doing so, he laid the blame for these challenges squarely at the feet of local policymakers.
Furman writes "Zoning restrictions--be they in the form of minimum lot sizes, off-street parking requirements, height limits, prohibitions on multifamily housing, or lengthy permitting processes--are supply  constraints. Basic economic theory predicts--and many empirical studies confirm--that housing markets in which supply cannot keep up with demand will see housing prices rise."
All this leads us to the fundamental question about whether Alexandria's efforts to address affordability are helping, hurting or having no effect.
Yet, if Furman and other economists are to be believed, we in Alexandria have never tackled the fundamental root of housing affordability. Most of our efforts are aimed at creating or preserving housing that will ultimately be in the public domain or under nominal public control. However, it is through our zoning authority that we can truly impact housing affordability in privately owned housing.
Obviously zoning restrictions have a place and serve a need for our community. I would also suggest that we have done some things right.
The City has aggressively utilized our land-use authority to
- limit density
- increase open space
- create new retail
- improve architecture
- improve transportation infrastructure
- preserve historic structures
- develop new public facilities
- create affordable housing
- improve basic infrastructure
- improve public art
- and more
At some point, the question becomes whether those efforts are ultimately self-defeating; particularly as it relates to housing affordability?
My view is that we must first comprehensively inventory and assess the City's land use requirements. Once we understand the full scope and cost of the City's requirements, we can appropriately prioritize the impact moving forward.
As we work to implement the City's Housing Master Plan, we must comprehend all of the factors that challenge affordability in the City. Let me know your thoughts!
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Fire Station 210 Fully Staffed
The Council identified $16 million of capital funds to construct the new station and in Fiscal Year 2011, a contract was issued for construction of a new station with new training facilities.
The grant covers the salaries and benefits for new firefighters. However, after two years, the recipient is required to pick up and maintain the expenditure, a so-called "Maintenance of Effort" provision.
In January 2014, the City was awarded a SAFER grant to cover the firefighters necessary to open Fire Station 210. At that time, the City Manager came to the Council indicating his decision to reject  the grant due to the obligation of the "Maintenance of Effort" provisions, and the City's precarious long-term financial outlook.
Later that year, the City Manager provided a second recommendation for staffing the new Fire Station 210. In this proposal, he proposed moving the Peak Medic Unit and the fire engine at Fire Station 204 (Powhatan Street) to Fire Station 210.
In rejecting the City Manager's recommendation, Council did give direction that the Fire Station 210 fire suppression staffing would be included in the FY 2016 budget when it was proposed.
In the fall of 2014, the City's then new Fire Chief came to the Council with an entirely new model for cross-trained firefighter/medics. With the versatility offered by this new model, the Fire Chief believed the plan would allow staffing of Fire Station 210 last year.
Based on analysis of the call volume since the medic unit was placed at Fire Station 210, the existing unit was also moved to Fire Station 203 on Cameron Mills Road, where it is most needed.
I am pleased that we now have the appropriate public safety capability in place at Fire Station 210, and I am confident that the men and women of the unit will protect the safety of their neighbors for years to come.
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Data Drives Good Decisions
Providing accountable results to the residents of Alexandria for their tax investment is an obligation of government. To support that accountability, government must have good data. We have now made another large step forward as we work to better collect more relevant data to measure how we provide City services.
The previous City Manager, Rashad Young then created the Office of Performance and Accountability (OPA). OPA was designed as an internal consultancy to implement performance improvement and efficiency throughout city government operations.
While identifying the metrics to measure the services we provide is an important innovation, we have a long way to go. We must improve the quality of our data, increase the frequency of when it is reported, and use the data to make better decisions about how we allocate resources. I look forward to continued progress in this area.
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New Broadband Infrastructure for Our City
In July, the City took a significant step forward in our efforts to bring new broadband options to Alexandria. As I wrote in May, the Council had supported the idea of issuing an Request for Information (RFI). This RFI would solicit concepts from the private sector for partnership with the City in expanding broadband options, availability, and capabilities.
For years, Alexandria has sought new private investment in broadband infrastructure. For most of our residents, we have one  company providing Internet connectivity, and television. Regardless of the performance of that company, technological innovation and reliability thrives on competition. This is an issue that affects not only residents, but also our businesses and the ability of our community to attract commerce.
In 2009, the City made great strides in bringing Verizon FIOS to our City. Unfortunately, Verizon made the decision to cease any new deployments of FIOS nationally and Alexandria was left out.
This is an exciting project, and one that gives the City the best chance to leverage its unique assets to bring new broadband services to our residents and businesses.
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Potomac Yard Metro: Signed, But Not Yet Sealed, and Not Yet Delivered.
For decades, the City has discussed, planned, and just plain hoped for a Metro Rail station at Potomac Yard.
In May, the City Council unanimously adopted Alternative B as the site of the future Potomac Yard Metro station. We have now moved from discussing Metro at Potomac Yard, to designing and building Metro at Potomac Yard.
In 2008, along with then-Councilman Rob Krupicka, I proposed a new start to efforts to bring Metro to Potomac Yard. We included language in the City's Transportation Master Plan explicitly calling for a new station at Potomac Yard. We also tied the construction and funding of Metro to the development occurring in the Yard.
The result is a funding plan for Potomac Yard Metro that not only leverages the development activity in Potomac Yard, but also does so without requiring the contributions of General Fund taxpayers.
It is designed to use the development in Potomac Yard to pay for Metro in Potomac Yard, not the City's General Fund taxpayers.
The Planning Commission will consider this change next week, and it will come to the City Council later this month, when we consider whether to approve the zoning for the overall Oakville Triangle plan.
Once the Environmental Impact Statement process concludes with a Record of Decision, the construction efforts can commence. The Record of Decision is the formal federal document that outlines all of the agreed upon mitigation to any potential impacts that will result from the project.
As the City focuses on efforts to erase the structural imbalance in our budget, the successful completion of this project is a key component in that effort.
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 Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room! My regular series of Town Hall Meetings continue!
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! |
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Upcoming Issues
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In many ways the adoption of our annual budget is actually the adoption of two budgets, our operating budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and the adoption of our Capital Improvement Program (CIP).
This year, we are adopting an operating budget for Fiscal Year 2017, which begins July 1, 2016 and concludes June 30, 2017. We are also adopting a CIP for Fiscal Years 2017 through 2026.
As I wrote about last month, we are working as a city to address a  chronic under investment in our infrastructure. Nowhere is that under investment more apparent than in our schools. While crumbling infrastructure would be bad enough, the challenge is exacerbated by rapidly growing enrollment.
It includes new modular classrooms at Polk Elementary, a rebuild of Douglas MacArthur Elementary, a modernization of Cora Kelly Elementary, a rebuild of George Mason Elementary, classroom expansions at Minnie Howard School, and a new specialized secondary academy in leased space.
The Board has proposed an ambitious plan to address the significant challenges that we are facing. It is creative, and I certainly support the general direction. Yet the plan has a very steep price tag at a very challenging time.
In the next fiscal year alone, there is a $12.5 million gap between what the City included in our CIP for this year and what the School Board has requested. Over the next five years, that gap is $78.8 million.
Bridging a gap of that size will not be an insignificant undertaking for both the City Council and School Board. While the Council and Board have made good progress in narrowing the gap over the past few years, ultimately some very difficult decisions await us. A penny on the City's real estate tax rate in the current fiscal year was roughly $3.6 million. Increases in debt must be very judicious, given the impacts this can have on debt service.
Subdivisions are Divisive
As in most communities, property throughout Alexandria is classified by a series of zones. Each of the zones have certain rights and restrictions that the landowner possesses along with the property. Plots of land are also divided in lots, which depending on the size, characteristics and zoning give the landowner certain rights.
City Council is typically a policy making body. But there are a few situations where the Council is thrust into a ministerial role, where we must apply a law in a literal form. The ability of landowners to subdivide a lot is one of those situations. Lately this has been an area of growing controversy for our community and the Council.
An application to subdivide is a simple request, to take an existing lot and make it two or more lots by shifting and adding property lines. Once application is made by a property owner, the Department of Planning and Zoning will make a recommendation to the Planning Commission, and the Planning Commission will apply the City's subdivision ordinance and decide whether to allow the subdivision. The Planning Commission's decision can then be appealed to the City Council by those unhappy with what the decision might be.
A little over a decade ago, the owner of a property on N. Latham Street applied to the City to subdivide a property so that he could build two homes where there was one. The staff supported the application, albeit with some conditions. The Planning Commission heard the case and decided instead to deny approval of the subdivision due to concerns about how the subdivision would change the character of the neighborhood.
At this point, the applicant appealed to Circuit Court. On motions the Circuit Court initially ruled in part for the landowner in saying that the City could not consider the future structure that could be built in deciding whether to approve or deny the subdivision. At trial the Circuit Court ruled in favor of the City on the remainder of the dispute.
As I said when I voted to deny the appeal, it is my view that this area of the City's zoning code needs more work. If we are to both comply with Virginia law and provide our property owners with the protection they are requesting, we need to adopt an ordinance that is more straightforward and predictable. That will not be an easy undertaking.
Neighborhood Parks
Upon the conclusion of the Citywide plan, we began the process to plan our Neighborhood Parks, which range from a half an acre up to 10 acres.
Exciting Finds on the Waterfront
A key component of the approved Waterfront Small Area Plan was the Alexandria Waterfront History Plan. The History Plan documented the rich history of the waterfront and laid out a framework for inclusion of that history in the next phase of Alexandria's waterfront. Central to that plan was an archaeological plan to ensure that the landowners of the three waterfront development sites engaged  professionals to assist in the reclamation of history that might be found during excavation efforts. With the development work at 220 S. Union Street underway to create the new Indigo Hotel, the efforts have yielded exciting findings from Alexandria's history. Most recently, excavations have yielded a ship's hull, which appears to have been buried during the late 18th Century. That is in addition to the previous find of a 1755 warehouse that was built at the behest of the Trustees of Alexandria. The City has engaged professionals from around the region to assist with the excavation, analysis, and conservation of these finds. It is expected that additional waterfront development work will yield other exciting reminders of our history.
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