Civic-minded Alexandria residents who want to help lead their city have an opportunity to serve on a board or commission, and the deadline to apply is approaching soon.
Applicants must be city residents, and otherwise a special waiver will need to be approved by City Council. Committee assignments can last between two and five years, and residents can only apply for one committee at a time. The online application deadline is 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, and the following openings are available:
The Alexandria Waterfront Alliance proposed moving Alexandria’s controversial flood mitigation pump station from Waterfront Park to the long-vacant building at 1 Prince St., according to presentation materials from Tuesday’s Waterfront Commission meeting.
The unsolicited presentation to the Waterfront Commission included detailed architectural renderings showing how the pump facility could be integrated into the existing structure while creating space above for a maritime museum, education center or commercial development. The group argued the location would preserve the park while utilizing the building’s existing deep foundation piles.
Alexandria’s Waterfront Commission is gearing up for its yearly walking tour of the Old Town North waterfront on Saturday (June 21). This two-hour public event will showcase recent developments and ongoing projects along the Potomac River.
The tour kicks off at 8 a.m. from Oronoco Bay Park, covering key spots like Canal Center, the new TideLock project, and the Potomac River Generating Station redevelopment site.
City officials are preparing to showcase updated designs for the ongoing Waterfront Flood Mitigation Project at a series of public meetings scheduled throughout May and June.
Residents will have multiple opportunities to view and learn about the latest plans for protecting key areas, including Point Lumley Park, Waterfront Park, and the King Street waterfront area, starting with a presentation to the Board of Architectural Review on May 7th.
While City Council usually has the final say over big decisions, much of the city’s future starts taking shape in Alexandria’s boards and commissions. After two years of those meetings going online and recorded for public viewing, many of them are starting to go offline again.
The Waterfront Commission, for example, has been where many of the details about flooding in Old Town have been hashed out. The 7:30 a.m. meetings have historically had fairly light public attendance. With the start of the pandemic those meetings were recorded and published online until last month, when the group stopped recording meetings.
The city of Alexandria is getting ready to drop $102 million to fix flooding along the waterfront.
A proposal by the Waterfront Commission’s Flood Mitigation Committee, pitched to the Waterfront Commission at their April 19 meeting, outlined the potential pump stations, underground stormwater detention chambers, and streetscape and other stormwater infrastructure improvements for the ongoing efforts to implement the Waterfront Small Area Plan.
Almost exactly four years after archeologists recovered three 18th-century ships from under the Old Town Waterfront, Alexandria is planning on sending at least two of them back to Davy Jones’ Locker.
Three ships were discovered under the Robinson Landing construction site in March 2018. While the most intact of the trio was sent to Texas A&M for study and will get a new Torpedo Factory exhibit next month, the other two have sat in water tanks in the DASH bus barn. At a meeting of the Waterfront Commission, City Archaeologist Eleanor Breen said that sometime this year the city will start moving the ships out of their 12×24-foot tanks and out to Ben Brenman Pond (4800 Brenman Park Drive).
The City of Alexandria is still mulling over what to do with the Torpedo Factory, but one way of paying for the expensive additions could lie in a program started under FDR.
At a meeting of the Waterfront Commission, representatives from the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership (AEDP) outlined one potential path to financing the Torpedo Factory overhaul as part of a “public real estate entity.”
Alexandria could be converting another block of King Street to a pedestrian-only zone this spring.
At a meeting of the Waterfront Commission earlier this week, city staff presented both plans for a pilot to close the waterfront end of King Street and examined the future of the 100 block of King Street, which has been permanently closed and converted into a pedestrian zone.
After taking some flack for not having the financial impacts at-hand; Diane Ruggiero, director of the Office of the Arts, returned to the Waterfront Commission on Monday with pricing for modernizing the Torpedo Factory.
Julian Gonsalves, assistant city manager for public/private partnerships, talked through the cost estimates for the Torpedo Factory overhaul. Continuing as-is, with relatively minor building repairs funded over time with artist space being left mostly untouched, was priced at $16 million.
The Torpedo Factory plan took a direct hit from the Waterfront Commission as Commissioners criticized staff for a rushed timeline that gives little room for public and commission feedback.
Plans are in the works to potentially overhaul the structure of the Torpedo Factory, with options like new cafe space on the first floor or artistic changes like a new glassblowing studio all being considered. But at a Waterfront Commission meeting earlier this week, the group unanimously voted to sent a letter to the City Council warning about the inadequate time given to considering public feedback at the end of the process.
