(Updated 4:15 p.m.) A conversation around a hair salon’s paint job forced Alexandria leaders to confront the question: should Old Town stay a red brick town?
At a meeting on Saturday, the City Council voted to overturn an earlier Board of Architectural Review (BAR) decision and will allow Glynn Jones Salon (720 King Street) to keep its painted yellow exterior.
An update to the city’s special events policy intended to make the process simpler wound up creating some confusion at the City Council this weekend.
At a meeting on Saturday, Diane Ruggiero, deputy director of the Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, talked the City Council through some of the changes. Among the changes to the special events policy are allowing large events (500+ people) on consecutive weekends and a requirement to file a notice of intent with the City Special Events Committee at least 180 days prior to the event.
Alexandria planning staff are recommending that City Council reverse a ruling by the Board of Architectural Review and allow a hair salon to keep an after-the-fact paint job on its exterior.
In May, the city was notified that the Glynn Jones Salon at 720 King Street painted a large portion of its exterior the color gray. On July 6, the Board of Architectural Review unanimously voted to deny the salon a certificate of appropriateness for the work.
Alexandria’s Eve Capps says she’s more surprised than anyone that she’s lived this long. The 100-year-old was born in Sacramento, California, in 1923, and with an acute memory fondly recalls her childhood during the Great Depression.
“My father worked for the railroad, and we went from living in a big house to a shack,” Capps told ALXnow. “But I was just a little girl and I thought it was fun.”
Alexandria and Arlington officials celebrated the ribbon cutting for the renovated West Glebe Road bridge today.
The nearly 70-year-old bridge suffered severe deterioration over the years and fully closed last summer, and partially reopened in March.
The Alexandria Fire Department wants to replace a 42-year-old burn building used for training in Old Town.
AFD’s proposal to demolish the three-story, 4,600-square-foot building with a new four-story, 6,400-square-foot building goes before the Planning Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 3 and City Council on October 14.
Galactic Panther Art Gallery has hosted live music and paid events since opening in 2021, and now its owners are asking the city for approval to host them.
Galactic Panther’s 1,900-square-foot art gallery has hosted comedy, improv, sound baths, yoga, open mic nights and live music for more than a year, and their proposal to continue with the events goes to the Planning Commission on October 3 and City Council on October 14.
After a busy spring and summer, the Alexandria City Council will consider permanently changing its special event policy to allow for large events with 500+ people on consecutive weekends.
City Council approved a waiver earlier this summer, as well as last year, allowing for large events on consecutive weekends. They will consider the permanent change in a meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 12).
The Zoning for Housing/Housing for All project turned out to be less of a revolution in Alexandria’s zoning and — for better or worse — more of a gradual evolution.
After extensive build-up and public discussion, Director of Planning Karl Moritz debuted zoning changes to a mixed response from city leaders.
Dozens of protestors rallied against Alexandria’s zoning for housing plan in front of City Hall on Monday.
The rally was spearheaded by The Coalition for a Livable Alexandria, a group founded this year by residents to talk about complex issues. If approved, the zoning plan overhaul would reshape a number of zoning ordinances, including a bonus height amendment that incentivizes developers to add affordable housing to projects in exchange for two additional stories of construction in areas where height limits are 45 feet or more.
It’s been a scorching week in Alexandria, punctuated by two major crime events.
Someone was shot multiple times in an alley several blocks east of the Braddock Metro station last Saturday, followed on Monday afternoon by the city’s fifth homicide this year — the fatal shooting of a 29-year-old man on W. Glebe Road in Arlandria.
