Alexandria’s City Council recently approved guidelines for the creation of new Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), self-taxed commercial areas where a new organization could be dedicated to turning the area into a commercial destination.
The approval comes five years after a proposed BID in Old Town divided local businesses and was ultimately sent back to the drawing board by the City Council.
Auxiliary housing hasn’t taken off like the City of Alexandria hoped, but city staff are hopeful loosening some restrictions — including parking — could kick the housing type into gear.
The goal is to provide a boost to market-rate affordable housing which has been in freefall in Alexandria for years. While auxiliary housing hasn’t been as widespread as city officials might have hoped, a staff report prepared for an upcoming Planning Commission indicated that city staff are hopeful that eliminating parking requirements for auxiliary housing in “enhanced transit areas” could incentivize more commercial property owners to add residential units.
Technically it’s still spring, but with the warm and sunny weather it feels like summer is in full force and locals are hitting the pools.
Alexandria’s city-owned pools opened in late May, though many private pools around town have also opened over the last month.
Updated 10:45 p.m. — The question should read “increased car travel time” rather than reduced.
Alexandria is in the process of planning an overhaul to Duke Street, and while part of the project goal is improved transit
For two weeks, baby formula has been out of stock at many local grocery stores.
Four children got bacterial infections because of formula made at the Abbot plant and two children died. Now more than 40% of the country’s baby formula supply is now out of stock. Many chain stores have been rationing the supplies to ensure more parents are able to access formula, but locals are still having to find other ways to get food.
In a national ranking of fastest-emerging dog-friendly cities, Alexandria took third place.
The ranking looks both at where dog-owners are registered on the dog boarding and walking site Rover and where there are the most page views of pet-friendly single-family home rental listings on real estate marketplace site Zillow.
Like a parachute, a bridge is one of those things you want to be able to rely on, but some of the crossings between Alexandria and Arlington have gotten to such a rough shape that one is now closed to vehicles for at least a year.
The poor state of the West Glebe Road bridge is so well known that federal and state officials from different political parties came together to tour the scene and marvel at the disrepair.
(Updated 10 a.m.) One of the items being considered in the upcoming add/delete section of the budget process would add five speed cameras to school crossing zones.
The new cameras are estimated to cost $490,000, which would be paid for in revenue from tickets.
DASH has been on a roll recently with a variety of factors conspiring to push the bus service up to 300,000 total boardings in March, a 73% increase over ridership last fall.
Some of that’s thanks to changes within the DASH bus system: like eliminating fares and shifting toward a system that prioritizes frequent service in high-density corridors.
Budget season is Christmas for local policy wonks with every week providing insight into where the city is and isn’t investing in its future. But municipal budgets can also be a famously boring topic.
The annual budget can include some insight into the city’s priorities. This year, for instance, the budget finally includes funding for a police body camera program after being proposed as far back as 2015.
The pedestrian zone on the 100 block of King Street has been a hit, so much so that the city is looking to expand the program to the unit block, which prompts the question: what should be the ultimate extent of the pedestrian zone project?
Last year, the City Council voted unanimously to make the closure on the 100 block permanent. The city is also taking a look at ways to make the 100 block’s pedestrian zone “look” more permanent. A new proposal going to the Planning Commission and City Council in April will put a similar pilot project into effect for the end of King Street and The Strand by the waterfront.
