Alexandria is experiencing an affordable housing crisis, city officials say, and that means using school property to try to address the crisis should remain on the table.
School officials, however, are reluctant to rush through plans for housing at schools currently set for redevelopment.
City Manager Mark Jinks said at a meeting last night that he still wants the city’s public school system to evaluate possibilities to co-locate affordable housing options on the grounds of schools slated for renovation.
“The most important thing is looking at the site and saying what’s possible and what’s not,” Jinks said. “Every single unit makes a difference.”
At a contentious joint meeting between city and school officials Monday night, school staff were asked to evaluate the feasibility of adding workforce and affordable housing to two concept plans under consideration for Douglas MacArthur Elementary School before the school board votes on a plan on Feb. 6.
Mayor Justin Wilson said that any plan proposed by staff that would negatively impact schools or their construction timelines should be shelved.
“But if we can have some consideration quickly — it sounds like in the next month or two — let’s see what’s possible,” Wilson said.
School Board Chair Cindy Anderson said that she and her colleagues were unaware that the city was contemplating such measures.
“I think we want to have our ducks in a row on this, but we’re not the housing administration, we’re the school system,” Anderson said. She recommended that the board’s work session with council in March be devoted to discussing the issue.
“I don’t think that rushing through some sort of process at this point is going to really help either the city or the schools. I think it would potentially damage and taint any process going forward,” said Anderson.
The issue created controversy last week when a feasibility study for George Mason Elementary School was mistakenly released, and included a four story apartment complex with 60 units on school grounds.
The decision about co-locating housing on ACPS property is ultimately up to the school board — the city council can not lawfully determine what goes on school grounds, City Attorney Joanna Anderson said.
Jinks said that any potential plans to co-locate affordable or workforce housing on school grounds will not have a “transformational” change to concepts that the school board approves down the road. He encouraged the school board to go ahead with their vote on MacArthur on Feb. 6 and said that city staff will be working with ACPS staff to determine if there is any opportunity to explore housing options between now and then.
Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings, Jr., apologized for the lack of publicly-available information leading up to the discussion. He said that it will be difficult for the school system to approve a concept plan and then alter it to accommodate housing options.
Suggestion of Affordable Housing at School Sets Listserv Ablaze — “A contractor for Alexandria’s public schools set off an online firestorm by accidentally including a rendering of an apartment building with affordable units in a presentation about modernization plans for an elementary school… the mistake occasioned a ‘3 day+ rager‘ about affordable housing, racism, and–because this is Alexandria–dockless scooters, the halal chicken slaughterhouse, and a ‘road diet’ imposed on a different leafy neighborhood.” [Washingtonian]
Pushback on (Actual) Affordable Housing at School Proposal — “Members of the MacArthur Advisory Committee and the community were left scrambling last week after the city indicated it would be exploring affordable housing on the Douglas MacArthur Elementary School site. The announcement that the city would not only be exploring co-location options, but also providing funding to Alexandria City Public Schools for an architectural exploration of potential housing options, surprised members of the advisory committee.” [Alexandria Times]
Neighbors Decry Church Expansion Plans — Nearby residents are speaking out against and appealing Alexandria Presbyterian Church’s expansion plan, expressing concerns about the size of the planned building and the possibility of increased traffic. The proposal, however, does not go beyond what standard zoning allows for the site and thus is unlikely to be nixed on appeal. [Patch, Alexandria Times]
Alexandria Glass Drop-off Deemed a Success — “Fairfax County said this month that the glass coming from dedicated collection bins in Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County and elsewhere in Northern Virginia has been of sufficiently high quality that, in addition to being crushed and used as construction materials, some is now going to a processing facility and is being recycled into new glass products, like bottles and fiberglass.” [ARLnow, Fairfax County]
Child Car Seat Inspections This Weekend — “Come this Saturday’s (Jan 25) FREE APD Child Car Seat Safety Inspection (from 8AM-12PM). Make sure your child’s car seat is installed properly! Open to everyone–you don’t need to be a Alexandria City resident. There will be covered parking in case it rains.” [Twitter]
Old Town Restaurant Makes Mag’s Top 20Â — Nasime, at 1209 King Street, is No. 13 on Washingtonian’s 100 Very Best Restaurants list. The magazine wrote: “This sliver of a Japanese dining room in Old Town serves a single five-course menu — a great value — each night.” [Washingtonian]
The Alexandria School Board is scheduled to work on narrowing down the site plan for Douglas MacArthur Elementary School to two potential designs at its meeting tomorrow (Thursday) night.
The meeting is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. at the Alexandria City Public Schools headquarters (1340 Braddock Place).
The two concepts — called “Y” and “Forest” for certain elements of their design — were narrowed down from an original field of five options.
The Y option puts the new school close to Janneys Lane, mostly along a long central corridor, with athletic fields and play areas located behind the building near a heavily wooded area. At the western end of the hallway, it splits with a gym at the north end of the school — giving the building its Y shape.
The Forest option would put most of the school closer to the wooded area, with the play and athletics areas located on the east end of the site.
At a community meeting last week, parents and community members expressed preferences and concerns regarding the proposals. Some said they believed the Forest design would make the athletic and playfields more accessible for public use when school isn’t in session, while others said the accessibility and proximity to the street was concerning. Staff said whatever design was chosen would have fencing around the building.
At its meeting, the School Board will also likely discuss co-locating city facilities at the site, something city officials have pushed for in recent years but which has received some pushback from local residents.
“Options for co-location could include additional recreation space, affordable or workforce housing, or added health services, co-located on the site with Douglas MacArthur Elementary School,” ACPS said in a press release. “ACPS and the City intend to explore feasible and appropriate co-location opportunities within the chosen concept, although the ACPS educational program for the new school will take priority.”
The final vote on the concept for MacArthur Elementary is scheduled to take place at the Thursday, Feb. 6 School Board meeting.
Carpenter’s Shelter Getting Amazon Donation — “A nonprofit that is building a $2 million facility for the homeless in Old Town Alexandria says it has reached its fundraising goal after receiving $300,000 from Amazon, Inc… The donation from Amazon is the latest example of how the retail giant is trying to be a good corporate citizen in Northern Virginia.” [Washington Post, Patch]
Digital Plaudits for City — “Alexandria has been ranked the fourth top digital city of its size in the United States, according to the 2019 Digital Cities Survey… This is the 15th consecutive year Alexandria has been ranked in the top 10, including two years in first place.” [City of Alexandria]
MacArthur Students to Relocate to Henry — “Alexandria City Council has given the green light to Alexandria City Public Schools to use the old Patrick Henry Elementary School facility as temporary swing space for Douglas MacArthur Elementary School students, potentially reallocating $60 million dollars and speeding up the delivery of the new school.” [ACPS]
Closures Planned for Thanksgiving — “All City of Alexandria government offices will be closed on Thursday, November 28, and Friday, November 29, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.” [City of Alexandria]
The community engagement process for a new Douglas MacArthur Elementary School project has kicked off.
The new, more modern Douglas MacArthur Elementary School (1101 Janneys Lane) is scheduled to open in January 2023. Students will start using swing space in the former Patrick Henry Elementary School after the current, 1940s-era MacArthur Elementary is demolished in June 2020. The new project has a total budget of $56.6 million.
The manager of the project spoke at a meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 29. One of the recurring topics from people in attendance was greater community use for the building, including “space inside for community use” and a suggestion that “the school needs to feel like a community asset.”
The commentary comes as the City Council and School Board have been engaged in a long-running discussion over how much space in school projects should be used for non-school purposes, like administrative offices or affordable housing. The discussions have grown more urgent over the years as the city begins running out of space to locate new projects.
A timeline at the Tuesday meeting showed the school’s concept design finishing up at the end of the month, with the rest of the design phase running from December 2019 to the end of 2020. Construction of the new project is scheduled to start in September 2020 and finish November 2022.
Some parents at the meeting expressed confusion that other school projects had been finished in one year, or slightly over, and wanted to know why construction for MacArthur was expected to take nearly two years. Staff explained that the extra time accounted for working through the city approval process with some time allotted for demolition at the start of the project.
Another community discussion, intended to help shape the ultimate design of the school, is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9, from 9 a.m.-noon at the MacArthur Elementary library.
(Updated 10/31/19) Alexandria City Public Schools are moving forward with plans to use Patrick Henry Elementary School as swing space with some new aspects that aim to ease concerns about traffic
By September 2020, ACPS plans to have to schools open on the lot where the former Patrick Henry Elementary School currently sits (4643 Taney Lane). The plan use the former Patrick Henry building for Douglas MacArthur students while the Douglas MacArthur school is under construction, with the new temporary school called Douglas MacArthur on Taney Avenue. The school will remain there until the new Douglas MacArthur opens in 2023.
The plans have controversial in the past, with some nearby residents expressing concerns about the new levels of traffic the schools would bring to the nearby two-lane Latham Street, and Peacock and Polk Avenues.
“It was adversarial before the vote, but after everyone has shown up to these meetings trying to find solutions and figure out how best to make this work,” staff said at a meeting last Thursday. “I think it’s been helpful and a lot of that collaboration is happening.”
The project will include staggered start times for the two schools, with the Douglas MacArthur School opening and closing a half-hour after Patrick Henry Elementary to safely allow bus traffic from one school to exit before the other arrives. ACPS currently faces a bus driver shortage, as noted by almost daily warnings on the school system’s website, staff said the schools will ultimately have to look for additional contractors.
School staff also recommended a two-way circulation system at the school’s single, central loop. Parents dropping off or picking up children at Patrick Henry would travel counter-clockwise at the outer level of the circle while pick-up or drop-off for Douglas MacArthur would run clockwise at the inner ring of the circle.
Approval for the use of the existing Patrick Henry facility as swing space, while construction is underway on the new facility, is scheduled to go before the City Council for approval next month. The Douglas MacArthur design kickoff meeting is planned for tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School (1101 Janneys Lane).
Image via Alexandria City Public Schools
