The 100 block of King Street has been closed to cars for over a year, and now the city is looking to make the change permanent.
At an upcoming meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 5, the Planning Commission is docketed to review a proposal by city staff to permanently turn the 100 block of King Street between Lee Street and Union Street into a pedestrian zone.
Alexandria is moving forward with a proposal to make it easier to build housing that allows several unrelated adults to share amenities. While that sounds an awful lot like “having roommates” — which is allowed, in case you’re renting an apartment in Alexandria and started to panic — city staff outlined some of the distinctions in the new policy at a Planning Commission meeting earlier this month.
According to a city report, a co-living unit is defined as:
Update 9/21 p.m. — A previous version of the article had a typo in Division Chief Carrie Beach’s quote
Housing preservation is a central pillar of the plan to save Arlandria-Chirilagua from the anticipated gentrification stemming from Amazon’s HQ2. Last week, city staff told the Planning Commission that effort will likely require at least $100 million from public and private sources to preserve or expand affordable options in the area.
What an interesting week in Alexandria. Here’s the rundown.
World champion sprinter Noah Lyles brought home his bronze medal from the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday. In a frank, TED Talk-like speech at Alexandria City High School, Lyles talked about the importance of mental health as he struggled to perform at the games.
(Updated 9/8) Alexandria has many charming, attractive neighborhoods — the Mark Center isn’t one of them. But while it’s unlikely the highway-adjacent office park will be competing with Del Ray or Old Town anytime soon, a new pair of land-use changes could open the door down the road to the start of something of a transformation for the area.
Two parcels in the Mark Center Coordinated Development District (CDD) are headed to the Planning Commission on Thursday, Sept. 9 — the Hilton Hotel site at 5000 Seminary Road and the IDA site at 4880 Mark Center Drive. The applicants are asking for changes to open up some of the allowable uses on the site for future commercial and residential development.
Alexandria was spared from significant flooding this week after remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through the East Coast. The only flooding found was on lower King Street in Old Town, where businesses laid sandbags at windows and doorways.
“We’re open inside, but if you want to eat you’re probably going to have to come barefoot,” a hostess at Mai Thai told ALXnow on Wednesday.
At a meeting on Thursday, Sept. 9, the Planning Commission is scheduled to review a proposal to extend certain boons to local businesses set up during the pandemic into next year with the possibility of some changes being made permanent.
The list includes an array of changes aimed at making life a little easier for businesses that took a hit during the pandemic. The changes are currently scheduled to expire on January 1, 2022, but staff is looking to extend that to April next year.
At an upcoming meeting on Thursday, Sept. 9, the Planning Commission is docketed to look at over a new policy that would open up more “co-living” across the city.
Co-living, as defined by the city, is a residential use which allows housing where private bedrooms can be connected to shared spaces, like kitchens, bathrooms and living rooms. Suites can have private bathrooms, but no private cooking facilities are allowed in individual suites or bedrooms under this use.
Three years after Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School opened in a former West End office (1701 N Beauregard Street), Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) is moving forward with plans to purchase the rest of the office block for eventual conversion into school space.
ACPS is headed to the Planning Commission on Thursday, Sept. 9, to review plans to purchase the office building for conversion into an educational space. What exactly that will entail, though, still remains to be determined. In the short-term, the building could be used as swing space for schools undergoing modernization, but could eventually become its own 600 student school.
A new five-story residential development in the Parker-Gray neighborhood is moving forward this fall.
The 805 Columbus Street development led by PT Blooms LLC is docketed for review at the Planning Commission on Oct. 5 with a handful of requested zoning modifications — like an increase to the maximum building height, an increase in density, and a parking reduction.
A proposal to turn a vacant Mark Center lot into a potential residential or commercial use — rather than office — could signal the start of a planned overhaul to the West End office center.
In a new master plan amendment for 5000 Seminary Road and 4880 Mark Center Drive filed by CRP Mark Center Hotel LLC and Institute For Defense Analyses, the vacant lots could be turned into a variety of non-office developments. The overhaul of the site is closely tied with plans to install a bus rapid transit (BRT) system called the West End Transitway.
