The Alexandria City Council reaffirmed longstanding rent increase guidelines after debating the value of the unenforceable rules.
Last night (Tuesday), City Council members voted in favor of keeping guidelines capping rent increases at 5%, but not before arguing over the point of the “symbolic” guidelines, with one member jokingly offering to lower the cap to 1%.
Alexandria Declares Climate Emergency — “On October 22, the Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted a resolution declaring a climate emergency, recognizing that climate change poses a grave threat to everyone in Alexandria and around the world.” [City of Alexandria]
City Council Passes Refugee Resolution — “The Alexandria City Council unanimously approved a resolution to notify the federal government of its continued support for resettling refugees in Alexandria. The action was taken in response to Executive Order 13888, issued on September 26, which provides that the federal government ‘should resettle refugees only in those jurisdictions in which both the State and local governments have consented to receive refugees.'” [City of Alexandria]
Favoring the Planning Commission’s decision over staff’s recommendation, the Alexandria City Council has told the Virginia Paving Company it has seven years to vacate its West End property.
The requirement comes as the city is working to transform the Van Dorn Corridor — today an industrial and car-heavy stretch from the Van Dorn Metro station to Landmark Mall — into a more residential-focused area.
Alexandria officials have voted to allow mobile carriers to start installing what’s billed as a faster, and smarter, cellular network.
The Alexandria City Council voted during its meeting this past Saturday, October 19 to approve a 5-year agreements with Verizon and AT&T, allowing the company to install small wireless equipment on street poles to boost 5G cell networks to the city.
(Updated 4/5/21) Elena Delle Donne from the Washington Mystics has had two big wins this year.
The team won the WNBA championship last night (Thursday), but earlier this summer Delle Donne won city approval to bump the fence of her Old Town home further into the public right of way.
Alexandria City Councilman John Chapman and Monika Jones announced via a music video, posted on social media, that a baby, John Jr., is on the way.
The baby, nicknamed J.T.C. II, is expected for a February 2020 debut.
Car-Free Block of King Street Planned — “Members of Alexandria’s City Council Wednesday night OK’d a proposal by City staff to begin laying the groundwork for a pilot program that will see a part of lower King Street closed to cars on weekends, beginning in April. The pilot project would close the 100 block of King Street to traffic on weekends through October.” [Alexandria Living Magazine, Patch]
For Sale: Historic House With Notorious Past — “The nonprofit organization that owns the site of one of the most notorious slave pens in the nation has put the building and its basement museum up for sale, after struggling for years to pay for the mortgage, property taxes and repairs. Freedom House, a registered National Historic Landmark in Alexandria, Va., is being advertised as an office or residential property priced at $2.1 million.” [Washington Post, WTOP]
In response the June 6 shooting at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Alexandria is preparing to install tighter security measures at City Hall in Old Town.
A suite of new security measures was approved at the Sept. 24 City Council meeting, less than two weeks after the City Council prohibited firearms on city property.
Over 200,000 trips have been made on e-scooters in Alexandria this year, but a sticking point with local officials is equitable access to scooters throughout the city.
Now the City Council is considering pushing scooter companies to ensure more scooters are available in parts of Alexandria outside of Old Town and Del Ray.
With a new special use permit in hand, the first iteration of Virginia Tech’s planned campus in Potomac Yard is one step closer to reality.
The plans were approved as part of the consent calendar at the Sept. 14 Alexandria City Council meeting.
In a rare joint meeting of top Alexandria and Arlington officials, the two communities laid the foundation for a closer collaboration on affordable housing.
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson and the City Council met with the Arlington County Board last night (Tuesday) at Arlington’s Gunston Community Center after Wilson’s proposal to meet on a flotilla of lashed-together kayaks in Four Mile Run was shot down. There was very little set in stone at the meeting, but the gathering allowed both organizations to set priorities for policy goals as they prepare for Amazon’s HQ2, the new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, and a new George Mason University School of Computing.
