(Updated 4/21/22) Alexandria’s City Council has finalized a list of priorities with some inclusions that could shape city policy in the coming years.
The city announced the adoption of the priorities yesterday (April 19), though their origin goes back to the Council retreat in January and the vote to approve them took place in March.
The city government could be opening up new swaths of Alexandria to taller buildings and more affordable housing.
Currently, the city trades bonus density in developments for more affordable housing, but only in areas with a height limit of 50 feet or above. Developers are allowed to exceed established height limits to a degree in exchange for affordable housing units or an equivalent contribution to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
(Updated 7:15 p.m.) For a while now, there’s been a fairly straightforward trade between the City of Alexandria and developers: if you want more density, you need to build affordable residential units.
New development in Old Town North, however, has thrown a wrinkle into that system by opening up a second option. Now, developers can also get bonus density by opening up sections of new development to arts use — part of the city’s efforts to establish Old Town North as an arts district.
The City of Alexandria is hosting a community meeting for a plan to allow additional bonus height in new zones in exchange for affordable housing.
Currently, developers can only apply for bonus height in zones with height limits of 50 feet. The new ordinance would take that down to allow developers to apply for bonus height in zones with 45 foot high limits. It’s a relatively minor change on paper, but it opens new density options across the city as well as more opportunities for affordable housing.
Alexandria non-profit Community Lodging has announced plans to significantly expand affordable housing in Arlandria-Chirilagua with the redevelopment of a 1940s apartment complex.
Elbert Avenue Apartments, a set of three three-story buildings constructed in the 1940s, currently has 28 units affordable for renters making 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI) — the standard applied for evaluating affordable housing. But these buildings are in rough shape after what Community Lodging called years of “Band-Aid fixes”.
Alexandria kicked off a discussion of the FY 2023 budget with a public hearing last night (Monday), where climate and housing advocates pushed for the city’s budget to do more to address these issues.
There was little feedback from the City Council in the 45-minute session as the floor was mostly turned over to public speakers.
New affordable housing developments have a positive — if very slight — impact on housing values in Alexandria, according to a new report prepared for the City of Alexandria by the Urban Institute.
The report was presented to the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee at a meeting earlier this week. The findings were presented by Christina Stacy, principal research associate for the Urban Institute. The presentation did start, though, with a notable disclaimer that Stacy is a board member at the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC), one of the most active affordable housing developers in Alexandria.
A 14-story Arlandria apartment complex has been acquired by the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation, the latest move in an effort to preserve affordable housing in an area facing significant development pressure.
AHDC recently announced that it bought the Park Vue of Alexandria apartments from Florida-based ZRS Management with support of $51.4 million from the $2 billion Amazon Housing Equity Fund, and conditionally will reman affordable for at least 99 years.
A new acquisition will preserve some affordable housing in Alexandria’s Arlandria/Chirilagua neighborhood for nearly 100 years. Wesley Housing has acquired the six-building Parc Square Apartments buildings.
Wesley Housing will now make immediate safety repairs, with a long-term plan to redevelop the property. The 1940s-era properties were acquired after Wesley Housing got a $2.3 million grant from the Amazon Housing Equity Fund, and conditionally will reman affordable for at least 99 years.
At Planning Commission and City Council meetings next month, the city is looking to amend the zoning ordinance to allow for more co-living units to be built.
Co-living units are a type of shared living arrangement where individual bedrooms have shared amenities, like communal kitchens or bathrooms. These are usually rental units, for short or long-term stays. It’s the individual bedroom rented out, rather than the unit as a whole, in a co-living arrangement.
The city is looking for public feedback on fair housing in Alexandria, with plans to incorporate that feedback into a larger effort to secure federal funds to make housing more equitable in the city and its neighbors.
Fair housing, in this context, refers to the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which prohibits the sale, rental and financing of housing based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. The meeting will gather public responses to see what difficulties or barriers still exist in regard to fair housing in Alexandria.
