Residents expressed concerns about flooding and road impacts around the Braddock Road Metro station at a public hearing Monday on the proposed reconfiguration of the kiss-and-ride lot to accommodate future development.
The Braddock Road Metro station, which opened in December 1983, has a bus bay loop and kiss-and-ride area with bicycle parking on Metro-owned property. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is proposing to move the kiss-and-ride area to the street and reconfigure the bus loop, making room for future mixed-use development.
City Councilman Canek Aguirre, an alternate director on WMATA’s Board of Directors, led the public hearing at Charles Houston Recreation Center Monday (April 20). WMATA is accepting public comments on the proposal through 5 p.m. April 30.
After the public comment period, a WMATA draft staff report incorporating feedback will be released over the summer and include a two-week comment period. A final staff report will go to the WMATA Board of Directors for approval in the fall. The public will be able to comment again at the WMATA Board of Directors meeting in D.C. this fall, as well as the city’s development review process once a developer is selected.
The transit agency’s development vision stems from Alexandria’s 2021 amended Braddock Metro neighborhood plan, which recommended rezoning for high-density mixed-use development. WMATA identified the Braddock Road Metro station as a priority location for joint development in its 10-year strategic plan in 2022.
In November 2025, Metro’s Board of Directors authorized a public hearing on the proposed changes, with a target of soliciting a developer by 2028.
The reconfigured one-way bus loop would include one space designed to accommodate longer buses and two new bus layover spaces, according to Andrew McCray, a project manager at WMATA’s office of real estate and development. However, the bus recirculation lane would be removed, which McCray said will require buses to recirculate on public roads. A traffic signal is proposed at the bus loop exit on E. Braddock Road.
The relocated pickup and drop-off spaces would be on E. Braddock Road and N. West Street. McCray said the future developer will coordinate with the city during the design processes to determine the exact number of spaces — likely between 14 and 18.
“Shifting to curbside pickup drop-off is consistent with Metro’s approach in other urban areas and settings,” McCray said. “In fact, most of Metro’s 98 rail stations have some form of curbside pickup drop-off.”
The curbside parking lane proposal would require some roadway changes. WMATA’s proposal would remove the slip lane on the northwest corner of N. West Street and E. Braddock Road and implement a road diet to reduce N. West Street from three to two lanes. Traffic impacts would be analyzed further in the city’s development review process.
“A reduced N. West Street is expected to be able to handle existing traffic volumes, addition of bus circulation, any traffic generated by future development on both sides,” McCray said.
McCray noted that WMATA’s rendering of a mixed-use building on the site is only an example, as no developer has been selected and no design has been finalized.
“The scale of buildings will be similar to recent proposed developments in the neighborhood,” McCray said.
Flooding, parking and traffic concerns raised by residents
Several speakers said flooding concerns near the Braddock Road Metro station should be addressed before development on the WMATA-owned property.
“It is mitigated only by the fact that there aren’t many people living here,” Dino Drudi, president of the West Old Town Citizens Association, said. “But if you want to pack more people into this space and have more activity and more people using the Metro station, and especially renters who may not be familiar with the idiosyncrasies of that intersection the way the homeowners are, then WMATA has to include in its plan … something that will relieve the flooding in that intersection.”
Anderson Vereyken, a resident near the station, also raised concerns about flooding on Wythe and N. West Streets.
“[We] need to make sure that that gets taken care of,” Vereyken said. “Maybe a proffer by a developer that’s happy about the site is going to be a good way to do that.”
Aguirre said City Council is well aware of the flooding issue and that he has informed WMATA staff about the severe flooding issue near the station.
“We are taking that very seriously. We’ll be trying to address it as a city as well,” Aguirre said.
McCray said Metro is aware of the flooding at E. Braddock Road, N. West Street and Wythe Street after rainfall.
“Metro will look for ways to improve flood mitigation around the station per Virginia code and coordinate the joint development project with the city’s efforts to resolve the flooding,” McCray said.
Other residents raised concerns about traffic flow and parking.
Margaret Janowsky, a W. Braddock Road resident and Del Ray business owner, called for the kiss-and-ride to remain off street. She suggested incorporating a traffic circle into the plans for the site.
“It’s going to be like going to the airport during rush hour, and everyone’s going to be trying to get in and out and in and out, and the traffic’s already horrible at that intersection,” Janowsky said. “If you’re going to build on this site, which I don’t personally object to, you need to accommodate all the [road] users.”
Jennifer Williams, an Old Town North resident who travels to the station, said she and her husband use the kiss-and-ride when they can’t take DASH or walk. She said moving the kiss-and-ride further from the station entrance creates difficulties during inclement weather or when experiencing injuries.
“The traffic situation around that whole area, with Braddock and West and Wythe is fairly dicey already,” Williams said. “Having parallel parking there, with the buses rotating there and the regular traffic seems to me like a pretty big traffic mistake.”
David Anspach, who lives near the station and describes himself as a “YIMBY” supporter, said developers should be upfront about whether the development could provide parking.
“My only concern is if they’re not going to provide parking for this development in the metro, and they’re concerned about traffic that they consider advertising the residents [that] the residence is there for those who do not own cars. Consider a car-free development for those who live near the Metro station,” Anspach said.
Vereyken voiced support for more housing but asked officials to carefully plan the N. West Street intersection with Madison Street, where a parking garage lets out cars.
“It can be pretty dicey right there, especially if you’re taking a left,” Vereyken said. “Street parking means that it’s often difficult to see cars when you’re getting ready to make that turn … I really want to emphasize that if we want to make sure that nobody gets hurt after this gets built, we really need to make sure that that spot where Madison [Street] is intersecting with North West [Street] is carefully planned and carefully designed so that folks can see when people are driving from the left.”
Ransom Smith, an Alexandria Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee member, shared concerns about directing all bus traffic out the E. Braddock Road exit where the Metro Linear Trail runs. Smith called for a solution to preserve a north-facing bus loop.
“Funneling all of those bus line bus departures into one gives me some concern about creating a chokepoint where we have a lot of multimodal transit and then people crossing as well on foot,” Smith said.
In testimony, Councilman John Taylor Chapman said city has been in discussions with WMATA about development on Metro sites and expressed support for the momentum on the Braddock Road station. He called for WMATA to consider developers that can address issues mentioned by the community.
“There are significant infrastructure issues that need to be addressed,” Chapman said. “Not every developer can develop what needs to be done on this site, somebody that has the resources and connections to get that done so it is a quality project and handles the issues that are already there, we know historically on that site.”
WMATA has completed an environmental analysis of the bus bay and kiss-and-ride relocation, though it does not cover the environmental impacts of future development. According to the report, removing the bus recirculation lane will add one to two and a half minutes of bus travel time depending on the time of day.
The analysis found no major air quality, stormwater or noise impacts from the transit changes, although construction could cause temporary dust, erosion and equipment noise.
