Seven years after being given a date by the city to clear out of Alexandria’s West End, Virginia Paving Company is asking for a five-year extension.
Asphalt production operations have been at the 11-acre site at 5601 Courtney Avenue since 1960. The proposal would extend the mandated sunset date for asphalt plant operations from January 1, 2027, to January 1, 2032, according to planning documents.
Alexandria will soon be training its 2,000 city employees on how to use artificial intelligence in local government.
The city recently announced a new partnership with InnovateUS to train city employees on AI tools, including data compilation and management. The two-part on-demand AI training series is designed to help employees “build confidence and competency in the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence,” a city spokesperson told ALXnow.
Alexandria’s City Council will soon decide on moving a polling place that’s been active since Aug. 27, 1963.
That’s just one day before the historic civil rights March on Washington. For 63 years, the Blessed Sacrament Precinct at Blessed Sacrament Church (1427 W. Braddock Road) has been the polling place for parts of central Alexandria on primary and election days. City staff will ask City Council at its meeting tonight (June 9) to send the matter to its public hearing docket set for June 13.
Alexandria City Manager Jim Parajon is asking for City Council’s permission to apply for $35 million in state funding for two transportation projects approved in 2024.
City Council will consider Parajon’s proposal to apply for the Virginia Department of Transportation SMART SCALE funding at its meeting tonight (June 9). The funding requests include $27 million in mobility enhancements along King Street between Quaker Lane and Menokin Drive, and up to $8 million for pedestrian improvements on Mount Vernon Avenue at the intersections with Executive Avenue and Russell Road in the city’s Arlandria neighborhood. The city has a deadline of Aug. 1 to submit projects to VDOT for consideration.
The Hotel Heron in Old Town wants to add live DJ entertainment at its rooftop restaurant, according to a plan going before the Planning Commission next week.
The 134-room boutique hotel at 699 Prince Street, near the intersection with S. Washington Street, opened in 2024 and is owned by the Aparium Hotel Group. The hotel’s rooftop restaurant, Good Fortune, opened soon after, and now the hotel owners are asking the city to approve DJ and live music Thursday to Sunday nights.
After two years in development, Alexandria and regional leaders unveiled today (May 28) the newly restored streetscape on Holland Lane in Alexandria’s Carlyle neighborhood.
The Holland Lane Restoration Project has been in the works since 2024 and was completed; it includes repaving and reducing lanes on each side of Holland Lane, new pavement markings, flexible bollards, pedestrian signals and two-way bike lanes. The Alexandria Police Department also announced a high-visibility speed enforcement campaign for Holland Lane, which connects Duke Street and Eisenhower Avenue.
After an 11-hour public hearing with more than 100 speakers Saturday (May 16), a divided City Council upheld the Traffic and Parking Board’s decision to redesign a 0.8-mile section of Braddock Road in Alexandria’s Rosemont and Del Ray neighborhoods.
The 4-3 decision means city staff will continue designing the project into 2027. In 2028, parking will be removed on Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road to make way for new bike lanes. Braddock Road will also be reduced from two lanes to one in each direction between West Street and Mount Vernon Avenue, creating two-way bicycle lanes on one side and a commercial delivery loading zone on the other.
The Alexandria Planning Commission has deferred a plan to implement citywide beekeeping policies, finding that city staff needed to conduct more outreach and research.
On May 5, city staff told the Planning Commission that its community outreach was limited to a consultation with a member of the Northern Virginia Beekeepers Association. There are no existing provisions regulating beekeeping in Alexandria. The city’s plan would have allowed two hives on lots smaller than 5,000 square feet, with an additional hive for every additional 2,500 square feet of property, and 5-to-10-foot setbacks for those hives.
With the closure of the parking garage underneath City Hall, Alexandria is working on several creative solutions for a growing problem — parking in the heart of Old Town.
Sandy Marks, the former chair of the Alexandria Democratic Committee, was sworn in to City Council Tuesday night.
For the first time in the city’s history, Alexandria’s seven-member City Council now has a female majority, as Marks joins Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley and Councilwoman Jacinta Greene. Marks won her seat on council in the April 21 special election for the seat vacated by former Councilman R. Kirk McPike, who won his own special election to fill the vacant 5th District seat in the House of Delegates.
The owner of a small historic home in Old Town wants to demolish and replace it with a three-level townhouse.
The Board of Architectural Review will consider the proposal at its meeting June 3. The one-story building at 1126 Prince Street is only 22 feet wide by 40 feet deep, and its use has shifted from residential to commercial and back over the years. The building was constructed in 1830 and was assessed at $117,855 earlier this year. The 1,700-square-foot lot was assessed at $385,951, putting the total property value at just over half a million dollars.
