The Alexandria Planning Commission will review a three-year extension in October for a controversial 180-unit apartment building near the Braddock Road Metro station that has faced years of delays and community opposition.
In June, the city council deferred a decision to extend the DSUP for the one-acre project at 727 N. West St. until its city council public hearing on October 18. The deferral gave developer West Street Acquisitions several months to discuss stormwater issues with the city and conduct more community conversations with neighbors. The plan will first go to the Planning Commission for review on Oct. 9.
The West Old Town Citizens Association has opposed the project since it was approved in 2021. The project was initially denied by the city council in March 2021 but was approved two months later. It was delayed by a legal battle with a neighbor and a lengthy litigation with Lincoln Lodge #11 to include club space in the plan.
The parcel has been vacant since the demolition of the single-family houses on the property was issued in 2022, according to the city.
Casey Nolan, attorney for West Street Acquisitions, told the city council in June that his client has installed 650 linear feet of underground sewer piping for the project, as deep as 30 feet underground.
“This work is done, and it benefits the community and the city,” Nolan told the city council.
City staff recommend approval of the extension.
The project meets full compliance with State water quality removal and City green infrastructure requirements. Staff has conditioned the applicant to provide stormwater quantity controls designed to ensure post-development stormwater runoff does not exceed 70 percent of the existing runoff quantities for both the 2-year and 10-year storm events in order to preserve existing conditions in the area surrounding the site. The applicant will be achieving this requirement by utilizing stormwater runoff reduction methods as well as the installation of a stormwater vault. Staff believes the storage provided with the proposed stormwater facilities is sufficient to offset the volume of displaced stormwater this development would create.
Also in June, Dino Drudi, president of the West Old Town Citizens Association, told the city council that the area is prone to quick flooding.
“That area floods,” Drudi said. “The West Old Town Citizens Association does not believe that it is safe from a public safety standpoint to put all that development and all those additional people into an area that very rapidly floods, where vehicles, including emergency vehicles, have stalled out because of the flood waters, traffic jams, etc.”
City staff said that the developer will also contribute:
- $145,000 to the Braddock Community Amenities Fund
- $942,000 to the Braddock Open Space Fund
- $20,000 contribution to the City’s Capital Bikeshare Fund
- $531,927 to the affordable Housing Trust Fund, in addition to 14 dedicated affordable dwelling units
- A contribution to the public arts fund of at least $53,985
