⬚ figure
Hunting Creek Area Plan
SUPPLEMENT TO OLD TOWN SMALL AREA PLAN
The City of Alexandria, Virginia Department of Planning and Zoning
OCTOBER, 2005
⬚ figure
SUPPLEMENT TO OLD TOWN SMALL AREA PLAN
The City of Alexandria, Virginia Department of Planning and Zoning
OCTOBER, 2005
As adopted by Ordinance 4426 October 15, 2005
City of Alexandria Department of Planning and Zoning City Hall, Room 2100 301 King Street PO Box 178 Alexandria, VA 22313 (703) 838-4666
City Council Mayor William D. Euille Vice Mayor Redella S. Pepper Councilman Ludwig P. Gaines Councilman K. Rob Krupicka Councilman Andrew H. Macdonald, PhD Councilman Paul C. Smedberg Councilwoman Joyce Woodson
Planning Commission Chair Eric R. Wagner H. Stewart Dunn, Jr. Donna Fossum Jesse Jennings John Komoroske Richard Leibach J. Lawrence Robinson
City Manager's Office James K. Hartmann, City Manager Philip Sunderland, former City Manager Mark Jinks, Assistant City Manager for Fiscal and Financial Affairs
Department of Planning and Zoning Eileen Fogarty, Director Kimberley Fogle, Division Chief, Neighborhood Planning and Community Development Jeff Farner, Division Chief, Development Pat Mann, Urban Planner Tom Luebke, former City Architect Peter Smith, Urban Planner
Hunting Point Area Planning Advisory Group Lori Arrasmith-Quill Cyndy Kaufman Gary King Frederick Kroesen Laura Lantzy Bryan O'Sullivan Lee Weber Yvonne DeBruyn Weight
Members of the Public While a number of members of the public regularly attended advisory group meetings and contributed to discussion, the following individuals are recognized for their effort in providing specific assistance, advice and recommendations during the planning program. Danny Abramson, Ardith Dentzer, Nicholas Martin, Martha Paschal, Walter Webdale
Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project Ronaldo "Nick" Nicholson, Bryan J. O'Sullivan, VDOT Alex Lee, Potomac Crossing Consultants
Other City Departments Melodie Baron, Division Chief, Landlord-Tenant Relations, Office of Housing Pamela Cressey, City Archaeologist Mildrilyn Davis, Director, Office of Housing Bob Eiffert, former Deputy Director, Office of Housing John Hall, Department of General Services Kirk Kincannon, Director, Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities Jim Maslanka, Division Chief, Transit Services, Department of Transportation and Environmental Services Aimee Vosper, Landscape Architect Supervisor, Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities Reed Winslow, Woodrow Wilson Bridge Project Coordinator, Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................ ii Introduction and Summary .......................................................................... 1 1.1. The Planning Area ............................................................................ 2 1.2. Issues................................................................................................. 3 1.3. Guiding Principles ............................................................................ 4 1.4. Summary ........................................................................................... 5 Existing Environment.................................................................................. 7 2.1. The Planning Area ............................................................................ 7 2.2. History .............................................................................................. 7 2.3. Existing Development ...................................................................... 10 2.4. Urban Design.................................................................................... 11 2.5. Affordable Housing........................................................................... 15 2.6. Development Potential..................................................................... 17 2.7. Circulation......................................................................................... 21 Plan Recommendations............................................................................... 25 3.1. Principles........................................................................................... 25 3.2. Land Use and Land Development.................................................... 27 3.3. Historic Resources ............................................................................ 30 3.4. Affordable Housing........................................................................... 31 3.5. Circulation......................................................................................... 33 3.6. Natural Environment ........................................................................ 35 Implementation............................................................................................ 37 4.1. Land Use and Land Development.................................................... 37 4.2. Historic Resources ............................................................................ 37 4.3. Affordable Housing........................................................................... 37 4.4. Circulation......................................................................................... 37 4.5. Natural Environment ........................................................................ 38 Design Guidelines........................................................................................ 39
FIGURES
TABLES
Visiting the Hunting Creek/Jones Point area is about as close as you can get to wild nature in Alexandria. Although the Beltway din sounds behind you, and cloudy plastic bottles "pook – pook" between the driftwood logs and poles lolling along the muddy banks, you can still see the eagles, ospreys and egrets hunting the Potomac waters here as they must have have when the area’s first humans settled in along these flats more than a hundred centuries ago.
⬚ figure
The Potomac shoreline at Hunting Towers.
The Place. The shores of Hunting Creek and Jones Point are the southernmost extension of the City of Alexandria. They are where one enters the City from the open spaces of George Washington Memorial Parkway traveling north from Mount Vernon. In the mile before reaching Alexandria, on the right one passes Dyke Marsh, Belle Haven Park and Marina, and the parklike setting of the Potomac shoreline. On the left are the greens and fairways of the Belle Haven Country Club. The Mount Vernon Trail parallels the roadway on the Potomac side, sometimes back in the park and sometimes along the road. Joggers, walkers and cyclists are common on this stretch, taking advantage of parking provided near the marina.
The City is reached with the crossing of Hunting Creek on the stone Parkway bridge. Its low walls reveal the shallows of Hunting Creek on the left and Jones Point and the open waters of the Potomac on the right. Egrets and gulls are usually foraging in Hunting Creek, and eagles and herons are frequent visitors to the flats of the Potomac.
These waters and open spaces are the defining features of the planning area. Together with the Beltway to the north, these waters to the south form its boundaries. Without the water and the connection to this chain of open space, the Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers apartments here would be much like others built in the 1940s and 1950s in Alexandria.
Small Area Plans. The City’s small area plans establish the framework for the future physical development of the planning area their boundaries encompass. The overarching purpose of planning this physical framework is to enable the local society and economy to sustain a high quality of life for the
residents of each neighborhood and the City as a whole.
Plans provide a measure of certainty about the character and quality of the future that encourages and protects investment. Plans and their implementing policies, guidelines, programs and standards make it possible for the community as a whole to sustain itself over time. Plans help protect things the community values and permit the community to achieve common goals in a way that would not be possible if each property could be developed at any time based on the latest whim of the current owner.
The planning area is occupied by Jones Point Park, the Capital Beltway and Route 1 right-of-way, and three residential developments: Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio. Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace are owned by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), which has named the combined properties “Hunting Point on the Potomac,” taking the name from Hunting Creek. The projects were purchased by VDOT in 2001, and approximately one-third of the original residential units in each demolished, in order to permit VDOT to construct the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and related Route 1 interchange improvements.
The northern boundary of the planning area is the Capital Beltway. To the south, the area extends to the Alexandria city limits on Hunting Creek. Including the Beltway right-of-way and the area that will be under the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the planning area includes about 85 acres of land, of which the three residential developments make up about 22 acres.
South of the City is Fairfax County. In the areas along the George Washington Parkway, Fairfax County has designated the area for suburban residential use at three dwelling units per acre.
⬚ figure
Figure 1. Planning Area. The planning area is that area of Alexandria south of the Capital Beltway and east of U.S. Route 1.
The area is developed as a park and golf course. Along the west side of the Parkway is Belle Haven Country Club. On the east side, owned by the National Park Service, is Belle Haven Park and Marina, with the wetlands of Dyke Marsh south of the marina.
The following principal issues were raised during the planning process:
Affordable Housing. The Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace developments now provide workforce housing for Alexandria. Rents in these projects are affordable to some households with household incomes below the median household income in the region. If either project is demolished for new development or converted to condominiums after being returned to private ownership as market-rate housing, the housing needs of many of the current residents could not be met affordably in the replacement units. These units would be expected to rent for substantially more than their current rents, or to have sale prices that would not be affordable to many of the current residents.
An issue in part related to housing affordability is the relocation of existing residents if either Hunting Towers or Hunting Terrace is substantially rehabilitated, converted to condominiums or redeveloped. While many renters expect to be short-term tenants in a particular unit, some people in these projects have lived there for many years. Particular concern was expressed for senior citizen residents who may have few options, and find relocation and locating suitable replacement units a particular hardship because of age, income or infirmity.
Land use, density and intensity of new development. Jones Point Park is owned by the National Park Service and will remain in park use. Porto Vecchio is an established condominium constructed in the 1980s that is expected to remain.
Both Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace are of an age at which many structures become obsolete as a result of changing needs, tastes and economic conditions. They are at an age when major building systems often require significant maintenance or replacement to remain functional and economical. While the physical structures are apparently in good condition and have an indefinite future life provided they receive attention to some deferred maintenance items and have regular maintenance in the future, the characteristics of the individual units and the building systems that support them make them less desirable in the marketplace than new developments in similar locations and of similar density.
Because VDOT intends to sell these properties in 2005, their immediate future depends on current local economic conditions and the intent and decisions of the purchaser of the properties. Once sold, either or both of the properties may be maintained in their current status, be refurbished or substantially rehabilitated, or be demolished and redeveloped.
⬚ figure
This stone bridge over Hunting Creek on the George Washington Memorial Parkway is the southern entry point to the City of Alexandria.
Character of new development. The environment and location of the sites at the entrance to Old Town and on the George Washington Memorial Parkway make high density and high-rise development inappropriate. A lower physical form with emphasis on open space, views, and architecture appropriate to the Parkway is more suitable to the local and historic context.
Historic resources. The preservation of our historic heritage is one of the City’s most important goals. Historic architecture and urban structure define the physical environment in historic areas of Alexandria and give it a uniqueness that is genuine. The area is rich with
symbols and lessons from significant people and events of the past.
The Old Town Small Area Plan, and the development standards of the Old and Historic Alexandria District, both of which encompass the Hunting Point and Jones Point area, are intended to preserve as much as possible of this character while providing for a vital local economy in a modern metropolitan area.
The planning area is within the Old and Historic Alexandria District established by the City to protect the historic character of Old Town and the George Washington Memorial Parkway. George Washington Memorial Parkway is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the character of development in the planning area is important to maintaining the Parkway's historic and memorial character.
The Jones Point Lighthouse and District of Columbia corner marker are on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register. The Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers buildings in the planning area are more than 50 years old; old enough to qualify for historic status. However, they do not have the historic architectural merit or association with historic events or people that of many of their contemporaries in Alexandria and other parts of the Washington, D. C. metropolitan area possess. They have been evaluated and found not to qualify for individual listing on the state or national registers of historic places.
City Gateway. The Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio properties are on a significant historic gateway to Alexandria. The gateway along the George Washington Memorial Parkway is particularly significant because of the historic status of the parkway, the memorial character of the parkway, the open space character of the south gateway on Washington
Street, and the importance of Washington Street as a significant historic street in Alexandria's Old and Historic District.
Thus this gateway must fill many roles, and the character of the public gateway and the private gateway at its margins is of great concern to the City. Among the aspects of this gateway that are important to the plan are the nature of the transition from the natural areas south of the City to historic Old Town, and the scale, character, design and use of buildings along the parkway.
Open space and trails. The historic Mount Vernon Trail passes through the planning area. The City's trails plan (Bicycle Transportation and Multi-use Trail Master Plan for Alexandria, Virginia, City of Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities, 1998) calls for the ultimate location of the Mount Vernon Trail to be along the water side of Porto Vecchio and Hunting Towers, continuing the connection to the Potomac that exists along the trail to the south. The temporary routing of the trail along the water side of Hunting Towers presents an opportunity to implement this relocation on the Hunting Towers property while the property is in public ownership.
The guiding principles for the plan emphasize protecting the best of the existing character of the Hunting Creek and Jones Point area, and taking advantage of opportunities for affordable housing, open space and trails, and enhancement of the southern gateway to Alexandria along George Washington Memorial Parkway. The principles guiding the plan are:
area to nearby areas of Alexandria visually and physically.
The plan does not recommend substantial changes from the existing City policy for the planning area. The plan recommends the adoption of specific measures to implement existing policies in the event existing structures are demolished or substantially changed in the future.
The following are the principal plan recommendations. The details of these recommendations are set forth in Section 3, and the implementation measures are outlined in Section 4.
This section provides background on the existing conditions and current development policy in the planning area. It provides the context and some of the rationale for the plan’s recommendations.
The planning area has two important subareas: Jones Point Park and the Hunting Towers/Hunting Terrace/Porto Vecchio residential area.
Jones Point Park is owned by the National Park Service and operated by the City under a lease.
The Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio properties are multi-family residential sites along the historic George Washington Memorial Parkway and Mount Vernon Trail.
The southern boundary of the planning area is established by the southern city limits. One crosses this boundary as one crosses the stone bridge over Hunting Creek.
Alexandria’s Old Town area has a rich history evidenced in a number of existing structures dating from the mid-1700s through the present day. Archaeological findings in the planning area include evidence of prehistoric Native American occupation and extend through recent industrial development of the City’s waterfront.
Jones Point Park is the site of the District of Columbia south corner marker from the period of 1791 through 1848 when Alexandria was part of the District of Columbia. The Jones Point Lighthouse is the oldest surviving inland lighthouse in the nation. There are a number of other historic features at Jones Point that are to be interpreted in the plan for the park to be implemented after the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project is constructed.
Great Hunting Creek is a landform that is mentioned and mapped often in deeds and other historical records of the area.
The area occupied by Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio was apparently once known as Broomilawn Point. The Fireside Sentinel (published by the Lloyd House, Alexandria Library) for July, 1987 has an extensive review of its history. It reports that “situated below St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, [Broomilawn Point] encompassed about 22 acres and was bounded by Royal Street on the east, Great Hunting Creek on the south, and Alfred Street on the west.”
The point was reported to be a frequent destination for local residents who held picnics and barbeques there.
Part of the site was leased in 1794 to Robert T. Hooe, Alexandria’s first mayor. The Alexandria Gazette for January 15, 1801 and July 6, 1802 report that Hooe had trouble with trespassers. He purchased or constructed a tavern on the point sometime after 1800. The farm and tavern were purchased by James Hewitt Hooe, a relative, at public auction after Robert Hooe’s death in 1808.
In the 1850s, the Manassas Gap Railroad constructed a railroad cut separating the point from St. Mary’s ceme-
⬚ figure
Jones Point Lighthouse dates from 1856. On the lighthouse grounds is the District of Columbia corner marker.
tery. This cut later became the location of the Capital Beltway. During the Civil War, the trees on the point were cut by Union military authorities.
A brick works was constructed in part of the site in 1884, and a wharf for the brick works in 1885. The Alexandria Gazette for September 16, 1893 reports that the Alexandria Brick Company had the capacity to make 60,000 bricks a day, and employed 50 men. The brick works remained in operation until 1919, when a fire destroyed the engine house and sheds. The article reports no other activity on the site until the construction of the Hunting Terrace apartments in 1943.
HISTORIC DISTRICTS
Figure 2 below shows the historic districts in and near the Hunting Creek planning area. Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio are within the boundaries of the City's Old and Historic District, established by ordinance in 1946. Although these structures are within the physical boundaries of this district, they do not share the predominate character of the district, which has a two and three-story urban form with townhouses and small shops, most of which front di-
⬚ figure
Figure 2. Historic Districts. Historic districts in the area near Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace include the Old and Historic Alexandria District, the National Register Alexandria Historic District, and the National Register George Washington Memorial Parkway Historic District. The George Washington Memorial Parkway historic district includes only the Parkway right-of-way. The National Register Alexandria Historic District does not extend south of the Capital Beltway west of Royal Street, but does include Jones Point Park.
rectly on the sidewalk and form a continuous street edge. These sites are included in the historic district to protect the historic character of the George Washington Memorial Parkway in any future development or redevelopment of the sites.
Hunting Terrace was developed in 1943-44 and Hunting Towers in 1950. While the structures are of the minimum age (50 years) to qualify them as historic under the age criteria of national and state historic registers, designation of such recent structures to registers of significant historic places normally requires association with a historic person or event, or some specific cultural significance, such as exemplary architecture.
EXEMPLARY HISTORIC GARDEN APARTMENT DEVELOPMENTS IN AND NEAR ALEXANDRIA
For example, the Parkfairfax housing development in north Alexandria is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register. Parkfairfax is a garden apartment district constructed between 1941 and 1943 by Metropolitan Life. These apartments were master planned with mostly four- to ten-unit two- and three-story buildings on a curving network of local streets, a number of common green spaces, and extensive landscaping. Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon and other well-known politicians rented here in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Parkfairfax was sold in 1977 to PIA/IDI. Under the direction of IDI's Giuseppi Cecchi, the developer of Porto Vecchio, Parkfairfax was converted to condominiums in a major rehabilitation program. Over 80% of the existing residents at the time of the conversion purchased condominium units in the project. (Laura L. Bobeczko, A Study in Decentralized Living: Parkfairfax, Alexandria, Virginia. Historic Alexandria Quarterly, Spring, 1997, Vol. III, No. 6.)
Other notable garden apartment developments in the area include the Buckingham, Fairlington and Colonial Village developments in Arlington County, all listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register.
HUNTING TERRACE
Although apparently well maintained, Hunting Terrace does not share the character, the planning, the landscaping or the environment of the much larger Parkfairfax project. While the structures fronting on Washington Street have pitched roofs, the buildings behind have flat roofs, detracting from both the unity of the project and its residential character. Landscaping is minimal, with few large trees and a scattering of small shrubs found on the grassy lawn. Overhead wires cross the green spaces, and utility upgrades over the years have resulted in unsightly horizontal and vertical runs of pipe, conduit and gutters along the brick exterior of the buildings front and back. The buildings are placed somewhat randomly to fill the site, which has surface parking lots around the perimeter. The buildings are substantially larger than those at Parkfairfax, with 210-foot-long articulated facades that step back to entry courts with multiple stairwells leading to the apartment units. Parking in the courts of the buildings fronting on Alfred Street further detracts from the character of the street. There is little exterior evidence of any feeling of community in the Hunting Terrace complex such as might be encouraged by an outdoor gathering or recreation space, organized landscaping, or gardens.
⬚ figure
Hunting Terrace. Structures facing Washington Street have pitched roofs, with portions of the structures set back from the street.
⬚ figure
Hunting Terrace. Sparse landscaping and utility retrofits contribute to a low-budget aesthetic without attention to common uses or community activities.
HUNTING TOWERS
The mid-rise Hunting Towers project is a simple brick-skinned reinforced concrete framed tower with a cruciform plan. Similar to Hunting Terrace, the site has little landscaping and few mature trees, and is dominated by surface
parking. A swimming pool, picnic benches and barbeque grills are provided as a common recreation facility, but this project also shows little sign of a spirit of neighborhood or community in the development or use of the grounds.
In its assessment of historic resources for construction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and related improvements, VDOT conducted a review of the structures and in consultation with the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office concluded that the buildings did not meet the standards of eligibility for individual listing on the National Register. While the City supported a finding that the buildings were of historic merit at the time, the documentation justifies a finding that the Hunting Terrace project does not share some of the key features that resulted in the nomination of other structures from this era to the State Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS.
Recognizing the high potential for finding evidence of past human occupation of the area, the City's Zoning Ordinance requires archaeological investigations for projects that would include ground-disturbing activities in the Hunting Creek planning area.
Hunting Terrace. Hunting Terrace, on the west side of Washington Street, consists of five apartment buildings containing a total of 115 residential units. Structural and condition information provided here is based on Hunting Terrace Garden Apartments, Alexandria, VA, Baseline Structural Assessment, prepared by Potomac Crossing Consultants, dated November, 2003, supplemented by field observations by City staff. The conclusion of this report was that the structures "are in good condition and do not appear to have been damaged by the adjacent demolition or construction activities associated with the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Replacement Project" (p. 3-3). The report noted the need for a number of specific repairs, primarily to prevent damage to the brick. This damage could ultimately result in structural problems with the brick veneer if the repairs are not made in the near future.
The structural system of the buildings is a cast-in-place reinforced concrete frame with brick veneer exterior and masonry infill walls. Interior floors and roofs are of wood frame construction. Floors are sheet vinyl in maintenance areas and kitchens with ceramic tile in entries, building hallways and apartment bathrooms.
The buildings have a basement or crawl space with two floors of apartments above grade. Some of the structures have a third level of residential units in part of the structure. Basements contain the mechanical room, electrical room, laundry room and storage rooms. The two remaining buildings fronting Washington Street have pitched roofs, while the three buildings behind have flat roofs.
Hunting Terrace is currently developed as garden apartments in two- and three-story structures with substantial grassy open spaces. The density of the Hunting Terrace property today is approximately 16 dwelling units per acre based on the area of the site above the high tide line, which defines the lot area in the City's zoning regulations. Of the 7.2-acre area above the high tide line, approximately 15% is devoted to structures, 20% to surface parking and internal circulation, 7% to a wetland mitigation easement, and the remaining 58% to lawn, walkways and shoreline areas. Using 1000 square feet of floor area per dwelling unit to estimate the total building area, the project has a floor area ratio (FAR) of approximately 0.36.
On the Hunting Terrace site, a substantial part of the parcel is below the high tide elevation, and an additional area is in the 100-foot resource protection area (RPA) buffer established by the Chesapeake Bay Protection Ordinance, reducing the development potential of that site well below the legal maximum density. On the Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio sites, development closer to the permitted maximum would be possible because nearly all of the parcel area of these sites is above the high tide line. Reconstruction of the existing buildings would be possible under code provisions permitting reconstruction of existing legal noncomplying structures provided that the degree of nonconformity with current regulations is not increased.
Hunting Towers. Hunting Towers includes two apartment buildings and a garage. Structural and condition information provided here is based on Hunting Towers Apartments, Alexandria, VA, Baseline Structural Assessment, prepared by Potomac Crossing Consultants, dated November, 2003, supplemented by field observations by City staff. Each apartment building includes a sub-basement, basement, and eight floors above grade. The sub basement contains the boiler room, electrical room, and storage rooms. The basement level is considered to be the ground level of the building with apartments, business offices, laundry area, fitness room and storage rooms. The remaining levels are devoted to residential apartments. The parking garage is a one-level cast-in-place concrete structure with continuous walls, interior columns and slab ceiling and floor.
Each building is a cast-in-place reinforced concrete framed structure with brick veneer exterior, masonry infill walls and cast-in-place concrete roof and floor framing. There are 248 efficiency, 212 one-bedroom, and 70 two-bedroom apartment units in both buildings, with 470 surface, 53 underground garage and 12 motorcycle parking spaces for both buildings. Units are organized in an equal-armed cross with central hallways in each wing, and an elevator lobby near the center of each floor. A total of 64 balconies exist in both buildings. Interior walls are finished with plaster, and the floors in the apartments are wood parquet or wall-to-wall carpet, with ceramic tile in the bathrooms, and sheet vinyl in the kitchens.
The overall conclusion of the structural assessment report was “the structures are in good condition and do not appear to have been damaged by the adjacent demolition or construction activities.” A number of minor repairs were recommended in the short term in order to prevent more costly deterioration and damage to the structures. An overall cleaning, repairing and repointing of the brick veneer for the entire structure at a cost of over $400,000 was recommended within the next few years in order to maintain the integrity of the brick and prevent deterioration and eventual spalling of parts of the brick veneer.
Porto Vecchio. Porto Vecchio is a midrise condominium development of 170 dwelling units on a 4.8-acre site, constructed in the mid-1980s. The development has a density of approximately 35 dwelling units per acre.
Urban design, like architecture, is a term applied both to a design discipline and to a set of characteristics of a place. Architecture considers buildings. Urban design considers the physical form, character, structure and function of the built environment of human settlements at the scale of the block, neighborhood, and district.
⬚ figure
Hunting Towers. Mid-rise brick in a parking field.
⬚ figure
Washington Street looking south from Wolfe Street toward Wilkes Street. Structures form a street wall at the rear of the sidewalk.
⬚ figure
The Gunston Hall Apartments show the pattern south of Wilkes Street. Here broad front setbacks and large open courtyards open the margins of the roadway and provide a spacious feel before one enters the denser commercial district of Old Town a few blocks to the north.
⬚ figure
It is urban design that gives Old Town's cobbled townhouse streets their comfortable intimacy, and the Capital Mall its grandeur. The size of open spaces and the mass and scale of buildings, the character of architectural detailing, the rhythm of separate buildings, windows and doorways, the length and character of vistas and their margins and their terminations, the presence or absence of trees and grassy expanses all help define our response to these places.
The figure at left shows the pattern of existing structures in the Old Town area along Washington Street from Hunting Creek north to Queen Street. South of Wilkes Street, the strong pattern of a nearly continuous wall of buildings at the street to the north begins to transition to a pattern of greater setbacks, greater separation between structures, and open spaces extending to the street. This pattern is particularly true of residential buildings. South of Franklin Street is a pattern of garden apartment buildings with substantial setbacks, some with deep indentations in the façades. The Hunting Terrace apartments, with their setbacks and center indentations, have a pattern at the street similar to these apartments just north of the Beltway.
The Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review recognize this transition and call for future development to reflect this character along Washington Street in the area from Wilkes Street to Hunting Creek.
Figure 3. Structures along Washington Street in Old Town. This figure shows the change in character of the street along Washington Street as one moves south from the center of Old Town's commercial district at King Street. From Queen Street at the top of the figure to Wilkes Street near the center, buildings form a strong, continuous line along the street. At Wilkes Street and farther south, the streetscape transitions to one with larger spaces between structures and greater setbacks from the street.
The Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio buildings, midrises set in asphalt and turf with no relation to the street except as an access point for cars, are a completely alien building form in this setting, and have no counterparts in Old Town.
The figure to the right shows the plan for the southern gateway to the City at Hunting Creek, together with the pattern of landscaping that ties this point on George Washington Memorial Parkway to the urban deck crossing the Beltway. On the following page are details of the urban deck, showing the way the deck protects pedestrians from the noise and disruption of the Beltway below. The view along the Parkway is emphasized, reinforcing the north-south connection between the planning area and Old Town.
The figure below shows the landscape features of the gateway landscaping. These features are intended to link the gateway to Mount Vernon and the history of George Washington while they form an attractive entry to Alexandria from the rural and pastoral areas along the Potomac to the south.
⬚ figure
Figure 4. Gateway Feature. This illustration shows the landscaping proposed following the reconstruction of Washington Street between the Beltway and Hunting Creek.
⬚ figure
Figure 5. Section through gateway landscape feature. This section of the proposed Washington Street entry feature shows the design of the City entry point with trees to be used in the design.
⬚ figure
Figure 6. Urban Deck: Section. This illustration shows a cross-section through the urban deck over the Capital Beltway. Landscaping will take attention from the freeway barrier and emphasize the connection along Washington Street to Old Town.
⬚ figure
Figure 7. Urban Deck: Plan. This drawing shows the concept for the urban deck as seen from above. The wide bridge and landscaping are intended to help mitigate the effect of the greatly increased separation of this area from Old Town to the north as a result of the roadway widening.
“Affordable Housing” means different things to different people. Some use the term only to apply to housing that is subsidized through tax credits, rent supplements or public ownership for low and moderate-income households. Others apply it more generally to housing that is available at a price that meets a typical household’s budget.
Housing is generally considered “affordable” to a household if the direct housing-related expenditures of the household (commonly including utilities for water, electric power, heating, cooking and sewage disposal), and ownership costs such as taxes and insurance, are no more than 30% of household’s gross income. Ownership housing is generally considered affordable by lenders if the cost of principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and, if applicable, condominium association fees, does not exceed 35% of a household’s gross income. Many lenders may accept a higher percentage if there are compensating factors.
The City of Alexandria’s Affordable Housing Policy (November, 2002) expresses the City’s specific affordable housing objective to achieve a broad range of housing for households with incomes up to $53,580 for a four-person household.
Table 1 City Income, Sales Price and Rent Limits (Effective February 25, 2004)
Income limits for City homeownership assistance programs
| Maximum Gross Household Income | Sales Price/Loan Limits |
|---|---|
| Two or fewer persons | Three or more persons |
| $68,700 | $79,500 |
Income Limits, Set-aside Rental Unit Program (based on 60% of Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Area Median Income):
| Household Size | Income Limit (as of 2/11/05) |
|---|---|
| 1 | $ 37,500 |
| 2 | $ 42,840 |
| 3 | $ 48,240 |
| 4 | $ 53,580 |
| 5 | $ 57,840 |
| 6 | $ 62,160 |
| 7 | $ 66,420 |
| 8 or more | $ 70,740 |
Rent Limits, Set-aside Rental Unit Program (based on federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program rents allowed in the City for households at 60% of Area Median Income):
| Unit Size | Gross Monthly Rent Limit (as of 2/11/05) |
|---|---|
| Efficiency | $ 937 |
| One-bedroom | $ 1004 |
| Two-bedroom | $ 1206 |
| Three-bedroom | $ 1392 |
| Four-bedroom | $ 1554 |
| Five-bedroom | $ 1714 |
⬚ figure
The graph above shows the range of 1999 household incomes in the census block groups including the Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers projects. For Hunting Towers, the census block group includes only Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio. Approximately three-quarters of the units in this census block group were in Hunting Towers. For Hunting Terrace, the Hunting Terrace site includes approximately one-quarter of the units in the block group. The area includes other apartments, duplexes and townhouses in the area bounded by Washington Street on the east, Patrick Street on the west, and Jefferson Street on the north.
The graph shows that of the households living in the Hunting Towers block group, the median household income was somewhat below the median for the region as a whole. The graph shows a bimodal distribution, probably reflecting in part the different income distributions of the Porto Vecchio luxury condominiums with a peak above the areawide median and the Hunting Towers apartments with a peak just above 60% of the areawide median. Approximately one third of the households in the census block group had incomes lower than 60% of the areawide median, indicating that if they met other qualifications they would qualify for the City's affordable housing programs.
This analysis shows that Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers provide a valuable resource of affordable housing at rents that cannot be duplicated in new construction projects except through subsidy. These units provide what is traditionally called "workforce housing," for moderate and middle-
income households in technical and professional occupations, and for those of low and moderate income in services and a variety of entry-level positions. Both of these groups are increasingly priced out of market-rate housing in Alexandria by continued employment growth and strong housing demand in the Washington, D. C. metropolitan region.
The development potential of a site under the City’s development regulations is determined by the size and conditions of the site and the limitations of zoning and building regulations.
Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio are zoned RC, High Density Apartment, to permit up to 54.45 dwelling units per acre and a floor area ratio of 1.25. The RC district normally permits development with a height of 150 feet. However, because of the 50-foot height limit in the Old and Historic Alexandria District and the development restrictions including parking requirements, setbacks, and open space requirements, new development to the maximum permitted density is not likely to be feasible if the existing structures are demolished.
Ability to redevelop. In the Old and Historic Alexandria District, demolition, modification or reconstruction of existing structures requires the approval of the Board of Architectural Review (BAR). The Board of Architectural Review is charged with preserving and enhancing buildings and neighborhoods with special historical, cultural, artistic and architectural significance. In the case of sites with structures that contribute to the character of the historic district, therefore, the development potential of the site may be limited by the requirement to preserve existing structures.
An owner may demolish such structures if the City has denied approval of demolition following appeal if the owner has made a bona fide offer to sell the property at fair market value for a specified period (one year for all properties of substantial value) to someone who will retain the structure, and no contract for sale has resulted.
The City recently denied a demolition permit for the Gunston Hall Apartments, a garden apartment just north of the Beltway along Washington Street. This project was constructed a few years before Hunting Terrace and was designed around a central open space. Exterior features of the structures recall the design of the Gunston Hall plantation house.
Permitted density and intensity of development. The City’s Zoning Ordinance establishes limits on the total density and intensity of development permitted in each of the zoning districts established in the City. Development standards such as height and setback limits may prevent an owner from developing a property to the maximum density permitted by zoning.
Density of a site is the number of dwelling units per acre of property. Density is limited in the zoning ordinance by establishing a maximum number of dwelling units that may be constructed per acre of site, or by establishing a minimum parcel area per dwelling unit. For the RC, or High Density Apartment, Zone, the maximum density permitted for multi-family development is one unit per 800 square feet, or 54.45 dwelling units per acre. For townhouse development, the maximum density permitted is one unit per 1600 square feet, or 27.22 units per acre.
Intensity of Development. Intensity of development of a site is described by Floor Area Ratio, or FAR, the ratio of building floor area to parcel area of the site. For example, a building which has
100,000 square feet of floor area constructed on a site with an area of 50,000 square feet has a floor area ratio of 2.0. If the same site were developed with only 25,000 square feet of floor area, the floor area ratio would be 0.5. The RC zone permits a maximum FAR of 1.25, or about 1,000 square feet per dwelling unit at the maximum permitted density.
Development standards. While the density and intensity of development standards establish upper limits on the number of dwelling units and floor area that can be developed on the site, projects must also comply with development standards that limit height of structures, require setbacks from property lines, require parking and open space areas. These development standards are found in the requirements for the zone and in the regulations of the Old and Historic Alexandria District.
Building Height. Among the specific limitations that apply to the Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio properties is a 50-foot height limit established by the City's height districts. The height district supersedes the height that is otherwise permitted by the RC zone designation.
Setbacks. For multifamily structures, the RC zone requires a side yard setback of 16 feet or 1/2 of building height, whichever is greater, and a rear yard setback of 8 feet or the building height, whichever is greater. For townhouse end units, the minimum side yard setback is the greater of 8 feet or 1/3 of building height. These setbacks are from the property line. No front yard setback is required by the zoning ordinance, though BAR guidelines for this portion of Washington Street call for front setbacks.
Resource Protection Areas (RPAs). Resource Protection Areas are established in the City by the Chesapeake Bay Protection Ordinance, enacted under provisions of the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Protection Act. RPAs are buffer zones along shorelines and wetland areas in which development of structures or impervious surfaces is severely restricted to protect the natural features and functions of shoreline areas. Resource protection areas are found along the Hunting Creek and Potomac shorelines throughout the planning area.
Open Space. Development in the RC zone requires 40% open space, or 320 square feet per unit for multi-family development and 800 square feet per unit for townhouses, whichever is greater.
Noncomplying Structures. Noncomplying structures are structures that were legal at the time of construction but do not meet standards for height, floor area ratio or other standards adopted after construction. The City's zoning ordinance permits the reconstruction of noncomplying structures if the density, height and floor area ratio are not increased or the degree of noncompliance with current regulations is not otherwise increased. The Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio structures are noncomplying with respect to the current height limit.
MARKET DEMAND
A 2004 study of development markets in Alexandria conducted to provide background information for evaluation of potential changes to the City's Affordable Housing Policy found that the new development markets for townhouses and condominiums were strong, but that office and apartment developments were in general not feasible in Alexandria in the speculative marketplace.
While individual owners, businesses or organizations may have strong incentives to locate in a particular area of the City of Alexandria, and may have projects constructed to suit, there is little market demand for new apartment or
⬚ figure
Figure 9. Resource Protection Areas (RPAs) and Wetland Mitigation Easements. This figure shows the approximate location of resource protection areas and wetland mitigation easements on a 2004 aerial photograph of the Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio sites. Resource protection area locations are based on a 100-foot buffer from shorelines and wetlands. The actual locations must be determined through field surveys to identify the limits of wetland areas in the wetland mitigation sites and the location of the shoreline. New construction of structures or impervious surfaces is generally prohibited within RPAs. Wetland mitigation easements must be maintained in a way to that sustains wetland quality.
Table 2 Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace Summary of Site Characteristics, Applicable Development Standards and Guidelines
| Site Characteristics and Potential Development | Hunting Terrace | Hunting Towers |
|---|---|---|
| Site Area (total/above 3’ elevation) | 12.5/7.3 (estimated)1 | 11.8/10.0 (estimated)1 |
| Existing dwelling units | 115 | 530 |
| Existing density, units per acre, based on estimated site area above high tide level | 16 | 53 |
| Maximum permitted density | 54.45 units/acre multi-family<br>27.2 units/acre townhouse | 54.45 units/acre multi-family<br>27.2 units/acre townhouse |
| Maximum permitted dwelling units | 397 multi-family<br>198 townhouse | 544 multi-family<br>272 townhouse |
| Floor Area Ratio, estimated based on 1000 sq ft per dwelling unit | 0.36 | 1.22 |
| Parking provided | 138 surface | 454 surface, 53 garage,<br>(507 total auto) +12 motorcycle |
Permitted Height: 50 feet maximum
Setbacks Required: Front yard: none Side yard: townhouse: greater of 8 feet or 1/3 height Multifamily: greater of 16 feet or 1/3 height Rear yard: 8 feet or building height
Open Space: Multifamily: greater of 320 sq. ft. per unit or 40% of lot area Other residential: 800 sq. ft. per unit
Off-street parking: Single-family dwellings: 2 spaces/unit Multifamily dwellings: Efficiency, one-bedroom unit: 1.3 spaces per unit Two-bedroom unit: 1.75 spaces/unit Three-bedroom unit: 2.20 spaces/unit Parking spaces 9 feet x 18.5 feet, aisles 22 feet wide
Washington Street Design Standards
Washington Street Guidelines
Estimated based on interpolation between 2-foot contours in City GIS supplemented by VDOT 2-foot contours and estimate of probable additional area below 3 feet elevation in wetland mitigation areas. Precise determination of the location of and area within the 3-foot elevation line would require a site survey. ↩ ↩2
office development for the general leasing market.
Real estate markets are cyclical, and it is likely that office and apartment devel- opment will become feasible in the fu- ture. Apartment demand is suppressed by the recent sustained period of un- usually low interest rates on mortgages. This low interest translates to a low cost of purchasing at high prices that en- courages new construction of owner- ship housing and limits demand for rental housing. Current housing market conditions have resulted in the conver- sion of a number of apartment projects in the area to condominiums, and have limited new applications for apartment construction, particularly in the last two years.
Based on inquiries received by the Vir- ginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), interest has been expressed in acquisition of Hunting Terrace primar- ily for redevelopment, while interest in Hunting Towers has been primarily for conversion to condominiums.
Site Development Potential. The expe- rience of VDOT is consistent with the Planning and Zoning Department’s investigations of the development po- tential of the sites. Although a detailed site design was not prepared and tested against the City’s development stan- dards and all criteria that might be used in evaluating a development pro- posal, potential site layouts based on patterns of recent development showed that substantially more apartments or condominiums than are there today could be developed on the Hunting Terrace site if demolition of the existing structures was approved by the Board of Architectural Review.
With 530 existing dwelling units, the Hunting Towers site is currently devel- oped at nearly the permitted maximum density in the RC zone. The 50-foot height limit, open space requirements and other development limitations such as the BAR guidelines may prevent the
maximum density permitted by zoning from being achieved in a practical plan for redevelopment of either the Hunt- ing Terrace or the Hunting Towers sites.
Thus the development potential of the Hunting Terrace site is substantially greater than its current density, while the development potential of the Hunting Towers site is likely to be at most approximately the same number of units as now exist on the site. A pur- chaser would be expected to have more to gain from redeveloping the Hunting Terrace site than redeveloping the Hunting Towers site. The purchaser’s decision would likely then be based on whether the value added by redevel- opment or rehabilitation, determined by expected rents and operating costs or by expected sales prices, would jus- tify the cost of the proposed develop- ment.
Washington Street is the only roadway providing vehicular connections to the project site both to the north and to the south. Access to properties on the west side of Washington Street is provided by Alfred Street and by Terrace Road, which operates as a frontage road along the Hunting Terrace property. Terrace Road provides layby parking for up to four buses beginning and ending their schedules at this point and a conven- ient location to turn around. Emer- gency access to the planning area is available under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at Royal Street in the event that Washington Street is blocked.
MOTOR VEHICLES
Washington Street is classified as a major arterial through Alexandria, and provides important regional connec- tions for Alexandria and the area of Fairfax County along the Potomac River east of Richmond Highway (U.S. Route 1). It has a 2004 traffic volume estimated by VDOT at 28,000 vehicles
per day (average weekday daily traffic, or AWDT) at the south city limits of Alexandria in the planning area. The volume at Duke Street is estimated at 32,000 vehicles per day, and by King Street the volume has risen to an estimated 37,000 vehicles per day.
Washington Street has two moving lanes in each direction through the planning area, with left-turn lanes northbound and southbound at Alfred Street at the south entrance to the Hunting Terrace site and the entrance to Porto Vecchio. Parking is not permitted along Washington Street through the Planning Area. Two signalized intersections with Washington Street are provided to serve the planning area. Just south of the Capital Beltway, the intersection of the South Street, the access road to Hunting Towers, is signalized. A second signal is provided at Alfred Street opposite the entrance drive to Porto Vecchio.
North of the planning area through Old Town, Washington Street has three lanes in each direction. Parking is prohibited on one side of Washington Street during morning and afternoon peak commuting hours, providing a third moving lane in the peak direction that operates as a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane.
By comparison, Route 1 at the south city limits has an AWDT of 72,000 vehicles per day, including substantial traffic on Route 1 headed to and from the Capital Beltway that does not continue north into Alexandria. Route 1 is divided into a one-way couplet on Patrick Street and Henry Street through Old Town from Wilkes Street to the Monroe Avenue Bridge. VDOT reports a volume of 44,000 on the couplet at King Street as traffic leaves Route 1 onto the Beltway and into Old Town. By the northern city limits, traffic on Route 1 has increased to 63,000 AWDT.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Bus transportation is provided to the planning area with stops southbound on Terrace Road and northbound on Washington Street by DASH and WMATA buses.
DASH route 4 provides weekday morning and evening peak period service via Braddock Road Metro Station to the Pentagon and hourly service all day Sunday.
WMATA routes 9B, 10A and 10E, and 11Y serve Hunting Towers. Route 9B terminates at Hunting Towers and serves the Crystal City Metro station via Washington Street and Jefferson Davis Highway. Route 10A originates at Hunting Towers and serves the Pentagon. Route 10B originates at Hunting Towers and serves the Ballston Metro station in Arlington via Shirlington. Route 11Y is a limited peak period express service originating south of Mount Vernon and connecting to downtown Washington, D. C. with a stop at Hunting Towers.
Metro Rail stations are beyond the limit of a typical walking commute from the planning area, but good bus service is available to the Braddock Road Metro station from the planning area in peak commute periods. The nearest Metro Rail stations are at King Street (Blue Line and Yellow Line, 1.75 miles), Braddock Road (Blue Line and Yellow Line, 1.9 miles), Eisenhower (Yellow Line, 2.25 miles) and Huntington (Yellow Line, 2.25 miles by car or 1.75 miles on foot or by bicycle via planned multi-use trail).
PEDESTRIANS
Sidewalks are provided on both sides of Washington Street to the north of the planning area. Once the reconstruction of the overcrossing of the Beltway is completed, a substantially improved pedestrian connection will be provided across the Beltway to Old Town. The
⬚ figure
Figure 10 Pedestrian and Bicycle Circulation
connection, shown in Figure 7 on page 14, will have substantial landscaping and sufficient width to significantly reduce freeway noise experienced by pedestrians making the crossing, although the sidewalks are proposed to be relatively close to the moving lanes on Washington Street.
⬚ figure
This photo of the north end of the Hunting Towers site shows how the raising of the grade of Washington Street, first to create the Beltway crossing, and more recently for the new design of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge approaches, has changed the parkway character and created an obstacle to pedestrian movement between residences and the sidewalk. Entrances to buildings are set far back from the sidewalk at Hunting Towers, in an auto-oriented site layout.
The raising of the grade of Washington Street south of the Beltway to provide for the original construction of the Capital Beltway, and the additional raising for the recent Beltway widening for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project, have created an obstacle to pedestrian movement between Washington Street and Hunting Towers and the north buildings of Hunting Terrace. Steep landscaped slopes and retaining walls along Washington Street mean pedestrians walking to Old Town now must walk a substantial additional distance out of their way to reach Washington Street.
Additional pedestrian connections to the north and east are provided under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at Royal Street. To the west, a pedestrian and bicycle connection will be provided along the south side of the Route 1 ramps to reach Route 1 in Fairfax County.
The Mount Vernon Trail provides a pedestrian and bicycle connection to the south on the east side of Washington Street. No sidewalk or paved trail is provided on the west side of Washington Street or George Washington Parkway south of Hunting Terrace, though there is space for people to walk on the shoulder and the margins of the roadway. Because pedestrian destinations on this side of the roadway are few and distant, there is little pedestrian traffic on the west side of Washington Street south of Hunting Terrace.
Pedestrian connections to shared activities help to define neighborhoods. Maintaining good pedestrian connections is important to maintaining the feeling that this island of development is part of the City of Alexandria, and will encourage people to walk or bicycle to their destinations in Old Town and beyond.
BICYCLES
The planning area is an important connection point for bicycle trails. The Mount Vernon Trail runs from Mount Vernon to Roosevelt Island along George Washington Memorial Parkway. The trail takes quieter streets through Alexandria's Old Town to avoid urban traffic. A pedestrian/ bicycle trail is to be constructed between Virginia and Maryland across the Potomac on the north span of the new bridge. This route will connect to other trails at the Washington Street crossing.
The City's trails plan calls for the Mount Vernon Trail to run along the water side of the Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio properties. During the Woodrow Wilson Bridge construction, the trail has been routed temporarily along the water side of the Hunting Towers site. The temporary alignment and the current ownership of Hunting Towers by VDOT provide an opportunity to make this connection on the Hunting Towers property.
This section details the planning principles for the plan, and outlines the City’s long-range land use, design, transportation and housing objectives for the planning area.
Create and reinforce neighborhoods.
Retain existing residential uses.
Preserve existing historic scale and character of the Old and Historic Alexandria District and the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review. Provide for an appropriate transition from the rural and pastoral character of the Parkway to the south and the Old Town area to the north as envisioned in these guidelines.
Enhance and celebrate the historic character of the southern gateway to the City along the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Maintain the availability of affordable workforce housing, and take advantage of opportunities to assure the continued availability of affordable housing for all economic segments of the community.
Enhance public access to and enjoyment of waterfront areas.
Enable convenient access to and from the Hunting Creek and Jones Point areas by a choice of circulation modes including automobiles, public transportation, bicycling and walking.
propriate to the parkway landscape design from Alfred Street to the south City Limits on the west side of Washington Street.
Protect and enhance the natural habitat value of the City’s natural open spaces. Provide physical and visual access to natural open spaces where access is consistent with protection of natural resource values.
The widening of the Capital Beltway has substantially modified the planning area since the previous plan for the area was adopted.
The planning area is currently fully developed. However, the economics of the housing market and the age of the existing structures may combine to encourage the redevelopment or major rehabilitation of the Hunting Terrace or Hunting Towers projects in the near future. The plan’s recommendations for changes in land regulation are intended to reflect the new transportation use of the widened Capital Beltway, to retain residential use in areas now used for residences, and to encourage redevelopment in a way that is consistent with the character of the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
Figure 11 illustrates the existing zoning in the planning area and adjacent areas of Alexandria. Recommended changes to zoning for the planning area are illustrated. These changes are as follows:
In addition to these zoning changes, specific design guidelines and a landscape concept are proposed for development of properties along George Washington Parkway in the planning area. The primary purpose of these guidelines is to implement the Washington Street Design Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review with specific recommendations for these sites.
The existing Waterfront Park and Recreation (WPR) zoning for Jones Point Park should be retained.
⬚ figure
Existing Zoning Designations
| Zoning District Boundaries |
CL Commercial Low OCM (50) Office Commercial Medium RC-X Medium Density Apartment RC High Density Apartment RM Townhouse UT Utilities and Transportation WPR Waterfront Park and Recreation
Recommended Zone Changes
1 Recommended rezoning, RC and OCM(50) to UT, Utilities and Transportation. All areas within VDOT ownership for ultimate Route 1 and Capital Beltway right-of-way.
2 Recommended rezoning OCM(50) to RC, High Density Apartment, areas not intended for Capital Beltway right-of-way.
Figure 11 Existing Zoning and Recommended Zone Changes
CREATE AND REINFORCE NEIGHBORHOODS
The plan proposes to create and reinforce neighborhoods in the planning area by promoting a pattern of development that encourages common uses and activities, and connects and relates to adjoining areas of Alexandria.
The widened Beltway and its related ramps, frontage roads and noise barriers form a 700-foot barrier between the residential areas south of the Beltway and the community center for this neighborhood in Old Town. Overcoming the increased isolation resulting from this separation is a challenge the plan addresses through quality pedestrian connections and design for expressing the linkage and common character between the planning area and Old Town to the north.
Given this barrier, it is important to make the pedestrian connection as strong as possible and to provide a clear, consistent and pleasant pedestrian connection between Old Town and the planning area.
RETAIN EXISTING RESIDENTIAL USES
The Hunting Towers, Hunting Terrace and Porto Vecchio projects are all residential uses. Minor commercial activities including a convenience market are located within the projects, but these uses are intended to serve primarily those who live within the residential developments and those passing by or visiting for other reasons, not as destinations that draw others into the area.
The construction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and related improvements has reduced the land area devoted to residential uses in the planning area and has increased the separation of the residential areas from the areas of Old Town to the north. Both of these factors make the development of commercial uses beyond those supported by the immediate residential areas or at most the surrounding neighborhoods in Old Town inappropriate.
Maintaining residential use means protecting residential uses from adverse effects of the traffic on the Beltway and George Washington Memorial Parkway. Both the George Washington Memorial Parkway and Capital Beltway produce traffic noise and disruption that need to be considered in design of adjacent residences. In particular, new development or redevelopment of residential uses should consider traffic noise and external noise barriers in site design and building design. Among the principles of design in a roadway noise environment are:
Use sound insulating windows, doors, and exterior walls; baffling of ductwork, and other methods of reducing transmission of high exterior noise levels into dwellings.
Use patio door designs that provide secure closures to eliminate noise pathways.
Orient noise-sensitive rooms away from noise sources.
Use sound-absorbing interior materials and finishes.
Orient buildings to protect outdoor open spaces from noise effects.
While landscaping that hides noise sources has a psychological effect that can reduce annoyance compared to that of unshielded sources, landscaping of less than 100 feet of heavy vegetation has little effect on measured noise levels. Trees above a noise barrier actually scatter noise, resulting in a small but measurable increase in noise levels immediately behind the barrier.
LAND USE AND LAND DEVELOPMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
3.2.1. Rezone areas within the Capital Beltway right-of-way to UT, Utilities and Transportation, consistent with their use as roadway.
3.2.2. Rezone those remainder areas designated for office development to RC, High Density Apartment, consistent with the zoning of adjacent residential uses.
3.2.3. Adopt design guidelines for future redevelopment of the properties along Washington Street to provide common features and common areas that encourage shared activities and create a neighborhood.
3.2.4. Adopt design guidelines for future redevelopment of the areas along Washington Street that protect residential from noise and other adverse effects of traffic on the Capital Beltway and Washington Street, and take advantage of views and natural open spaces that contribute to the unique character of this area.
PRESERVE EXISTING HISTORIC SCALE AND CHARACTER
The Old and Historic Alexandria District regulations including the Washington Street Standards that apply to the planning area call for development compatible in scale and character to those areas of Washington Street north of the Beltway in Old Town.
The Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review provide additional direction with respect to the transition between Old Town and the more rural areas along George Washington Memorial Parkway south of Hunting Creek. These guidelines call for the following pattern of development that differs from that in other parts of the Old and Historic District:
Scale and character. This sector of Washington Street is largely residential in nature with considerable setbacks from the roadway. Projects are specifically encouraged to retain the open feeling of this area. . . .
Spacing Between Buildings. . . . For example, in this sector it is appropriate to have a considerable separation between buildings.
The existing structures at Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio are not consistent with these guidelines or the standards of the Old and Historic District. However, future development or redevelopment (except as a replacement of an existing noncomplying structure) of these sites would be required to return to this more pedestrian-friendly scale and character of development.
Although the buildings at Hunting Terrace are not consistent with the Washington Street Standards of the zoning ordinance, they do reflect the more open character called for in the Board of Architectural Review guidelines for this sector of Washington Street.
Specific design guidelines are recommended for the Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace sites to implement the Washington Street Guidelines for these sites if they are redeveloped in the future.
These guidelines set forth such conditions as setbacks from Washington Street, landscaping along the Parkway, location of surface parking, frontage roads, and physical and visual access to open space.
WASHINGTON STREET ENTRANCE GATEWAY
The City and the Virginia Department of Transportation have agreed to a plan for development of the Washington Street south entrance gateway to the City as part of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project. The City should implement those portions of the gateway plan within its responsibility.
HISTORIC RESOURCES RECOMMENDATIONS
3.3.1. Adopt site planning and design guidelines for the planning area along
George Washington Memorial Parkway that implement the Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review.
3.3.2. Work with the National Park Service to protect and interpret the historic resources of Jones Point Park.
3.3.3. Construct the proposed gateway landscaping along Washington Street.
3.3.4. Adopt design guidelines for gateway landscaping along the Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace properties to continue the gateway theme between the urban deck and Hunting Creek. In redevelopment of properties along the George Washington Memorial Parkway, bring areas adjacent to the roadway up to the grade of the parkway where it has been raised to cross the Capital Beltway, restoring the parkway character to these areas.
The plan's recommendations for affordable housing in the planning area are intended to preserve existing workforce housing and to provide some long-term affordable units for low- and moderate-income households.
The Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers developments provide housing at rents affordable to households with incomes substantially below the median household income for the region. Rents were kept at their 2001 levels for prior tenants during the construction period through the first quarter of 2005 as a result of an agreement with VDOT. Rents may be raised after this date by VDOT or by a new owner once the projects are sold.
By virtue of their age, design and amenities provided, these projects cannot command the rents or purchase prices of newly constructed housing of similar size and location. Although rents in the projects will probably be raised in the near future, these projects are likely to continue to provide affordable workforce housing unless a new owner undertakes major rehabilitation, condominium conversion or redevelopment.
The City's affordable housing programs include a variety of strategies and programs for preserving existing affordable housing and providing affordable housing in new construction. The Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC) has recently been established to purchase, rehabilitate or construct affordable housing in the City.
A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY AND CHALLENGE
The fact that the Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace projects are currently in public ownership and are to be sold presents an opportunity to convert at least some of the residential units to guaranteed affordable housing for low and moderate income households. However, the current intent of VDOT to sell the units in 2005 means the window of opportunity is a small one. Because the property is surplus from a previous condemnation, the prior owner has right of first refusal if the property is sold rather than transferred to another state agency.
After the initial sale to a private owner, the range future options for affordable housing will be narrowed in a subsequent transfer, since tax credits for some types of projects are not available for properties that have been sold in the past 10 years except by a public agency.
The options available to the City to obtain affordable housing through this sale include:
Partner with the prior owner to purchase the projects at the time of initial offer by VDOT, based on a plan that provides for affordable housing.
If the prior owner does not purchase the projects, purchase the projects for resale to a partnership including an affordable housing provider.
The following discussion provides background on these options.
In new construction projects, the City's Affordable Housing Policy calls for a voluntary $1.00 per square foot contribution to affordable housing programs. Developers are encouraged to provide on-site affordable housing as part of this program. Recent increases in development costs and housing prices have increased the cost of providing affordable housing, so the $1.00 per square foot contribution provides the City with far fewer affordable housing units than anticipated when the target contribution amount was established. The program is currently under review with the objective of providing more affordable housing units.
Alexandria's assisted rental housing stock is typically available to households meeting federal income criteria (currently not exceeding $58,000 for a four-person household). A number of apartment projects in the City provide rental housing affordable to the higher income households in this group.
Based on current housing prices, only older condominiums and a very few older, small duplex units provide ownership housing at prices considered affordable to those at 60% to 120% of median income. Unless they have sub-
stantial savings, households in this income range must typically look to more distant suburbs for affordable housing, particularly if they seek townhouse or single-family detached units.
If the Hunting Terrace or Hunting Towers projects are converted to condominiums, some residents are likely to qualify for City assistance in financing the purchase of their unit.
The City operates a number of programs that help make housing more available to low- and moderate-income households seeking housing in Alexandria. In addition, the City provides support to the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation (AHDC), a recently established nonprofit corporation that funds affordable housing construction and rehabilitation.
In addition to these programs, the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) operates public housing for low-income households, and the federal government provides tax credits for affordable housing construction and supplemental housing payments to low-income households through the Section 8 program to help meet housing needs that are not met by the normal housing construction market.
Many new affordable housing construction or rehabilitation projects are the product of multiple programs, commonly including tax credits, other federal subsidies, local housing programs and donations. These combined funding sources permit non-profit and for-profit affordable-housing developers to compete for land and existing housing units with market-rate housing developers in the right circumstances.
The right circumstances may exist in the case of Hunting Towers for a non-profit housing developer or partnership. Through AHDC or another af-
fordable housing developer, alone or in partnership with a conventional housing developer, a mixed-income project involving the rehabilitation of Hunting Towers could be feasible. Conversion of the existing project to condominiums, with reservation of a substantial fraction of the units as affordable for sale or rental units, is one method by which an affordable housing developer could provide affordable housing.
While a similar program could work at Hunting Terrace, the more likely reuse of the Terrace, according VDOT's right-of-way manager, is redevelopment for new housing. The current zoning and development standards applied on the Hunting Terrace site would permit development of substantially more apartment or condominium units than currently exist on the site. In today's market, either a condominium or townhouse redevelopment of the site is likely to yield more value to a new purchaser than continued operation of the site's 115 apartment units or development of new apartments.
In a project in which the existing buildings are demolished and new housing constructed, only a very few affordable housing units are likely to be provided under the City's affordable housing policy.
RELOCATION
Federal relocation payments are not required to owners or tenants who may be dislocated indirectly when a public agency sells a project like Hunting Towers or Hunting Terrace to an owner who later chooses to modify or demolish the project. If federal, state or local government funds are used in the construction or conversion, relocation payments may be required.
Some protection for tenants, in the form of extended notice to tenants and small moving expenses payments, is provided by state law if owners choose to convert an apartment building to condominiums. Current tenants must also be offered the exclusive right to purchase their units at the publicly offered price for at least 60 days. In addition, the City has a voluntary program of small relocation payments in the case of condominium conversions.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING RECOMMENDATIONS
3.4.1. Retain housing as the primary use of the existing residential areas in the planning area.
3.4.2. Attempt to obtain a substantial number of affordable housing units in the planning area by working with VDOT, the prior owner of the Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace Properties, the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation, other non-profit housing providers, and for-profit housing developers as appropriate to preserve existing units or provide affordable housing if either of the projects is substantially rehabilitated or redeveloped.
3.4.3. In order to retain affordable and workforce housing in the City, the City may consider a zoning text amendment or zone change to allow additional height and density with setbacks appropriate to the project and the site, and in conformance with the Board of Architectural Review's Washington Street Standards and Guidelines, with SUP approval, if the project provides for extraordinary affordable housing, including but not limited to the acquisition by the City, or by a nonprofit housing corporation, of units at the project.
Circulation recommendations of the plan focus on strengthening pedestrian connections within the planning area and from the planning area to Old Town, linking the Mount Vernon Trail along the water side of the Hunting
⬚ figure
A Metro bus waits at Hunting Terrace
⬚ figure
The construction alignment of the Mount Vernon Trail is in the location sought in the City's long-range trail plan.
⬚ figure
The Mount Vernon Trail crosses Hunting Creek on the parkway bridge south of Porto Vecchio.
Towers property, and ensuring convenient access to public transportation in the planning area.
The Hunting Terrace, Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio sites are located on George Washington Memorial Parkway, a designated arterial roadway providing excellent regional access. However, the planning area has no alternate public access in the event that this route is congested or obstructed. Each site currently has direct access to the roadway.
Hunting Terrace is entirely served by surface parking, while Hunting Towers has limited garage parking, and Porto Vecchio provides nearly all its parking in a ground-level garage beneath the structure.
The economics of new development mean that future development or redevelopment of the sites will be served primarily by structured parking, probably beneath residential units.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
Both DASH and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) provide regular bus service to the sites with stops on Terrace Road southbound and Washington Street northbound. Hunting Towers is the terminus of a number of bus routes, and the continued availability of a place for buses to turn around and lay by at the beginning of their next run is important to providing good public transportation service to the planning area. Any redevelopment in the area should retain this capability by retaining a bus stop and layby area along Washington Street or by providing a separate bus turnaround. Bus shelters should be provided at both bus stops to encourage transit use.
MOUNT VERNON TRAIL
The Mount Vernon Trail runs continuously along or near the George Washington Memorial Parkway for 18 miles from Mount Vernon to Roosevelt Island. The City’s trails plan calls for ultimate alignment of the trail along the water side of the Porto Vecchio and Hunting Towers properties. The ownership of the Hunting Towers site by VDOT and the temporary location of the trail along the water to avoid construction provides a unique opportunity to permanently relocate the trail to the water side of this parcel.
The City is currently working with VDOT to provide for an easement for the trail, and to work out the details of any changes required to wetland mitigation for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge project that may result from the permanent alignment of the trail through this area.
Any future redevelopment of these sites should provide for the location of the trail on the water side of these properties. The trail should be designed and landscaped in a way that clearly delineates the public trail easement area from the private areas of the property. Excellent examples of how public ways can be related to private development in waterfront areas are provided along other sections of Alexandria’s waterfront. This area is one of the few remaining gaps in a continuous waterfront trail system that runs from the north to the south end of Alexandria.
CIRCULATION RECOMMENDATIONS
3.5.1. Acquire an easement for the Mount Vernon Trail on the water side of the Hunting Towers property.
3.5.2. Limit access to properties from Washington Street south of the Capital Beltway to existing signalized intersections and a single bus access point on each side in order to minimize interruptions of arterial traffic and pedestrian ways.
3.5.3. Provide a strong and continuous pedestrian-oriented streetscape and a strong pedestrian connection between the planning area and Old Town using sidewalks, landscaping, street trees, and street design and crosswalk materials to create a pleasant pedestrian experience.
3.5.4. In site design guidelines, emphasize convenient pedestrian connections within sites, to pedestrian corridors and to public transportation. Raise the grade of areas adjacent to the Parkway to the grade of the Washington Street sidewalks where the grade of the parkway has been raised to cross the Capital Beltway, to eliminate the obstacles to pedestrian movement caused by this grade difference.
3.5.5. If the Hunting Terrace site is redeveloped, ensure that a suitable bus turnaround is provided in the planning area for bus lines that now use the Terrace Road bus stop to turn around.
The natural environment of Hunting Creek and the Potomac shoreline is the most important character-defining feature of the planning area that distinguishes it from other areas of the City. Natural environment recommendations focus on protecting and enhancing that environment and making it more a part of the experience of living in and visiting the planning area.
NATURAL ENVIRONMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
3.6.1. In design guidelines, emphasize natural open space features and connections to them as an important theme of development.
3.6.2. In design guidelines, emphasize public physical and visual access to natural open space areas where access is compatible with retention of open space and habitat values.
3.6.3. Provide visual and physical access to Jones Point Park, waterfront areas, and conservation easement areas where such access is consistent with conservation of natural resource values. Ensure that such access is provided in future development or redevelopment of properties adjacent to these sites. Provide interpretive information appropriate to the setting to increase public awareness and appreciation of the natural environmental features of the sites.
The following actions are recommended to implement the plan’s recommendations. Agencies involved in implementation are identified, with the lead agency shown in bold type.
Adopt a zoning text amendment to reflect the design guidelines of Section 5 as they implement the Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review for redevelopment of the sites along Washington Street in the planning area. Through these guidelines, work with owners to ensure that future redevelopment respects the historic and memorial character of the George Washington Memorial Parkway and the southern gateway to Alexandria. (P&Z, BAR)
Adopt a zoning text amendment to implement the landscape concept outlined in Section 5 to provide continuity of landscape from the gateway at Hunting Creek to the urban deck over the Capital Beltway. Implement these guidelines in future public or private development in the planning area. (P&Z, T&ES)
Work with VDOT, the prior property owner, non-profit housing providers and potential for-profit developers to take advantage of the opportunity to provide affordable workforce and low- and moderate-income housing as a permanent use in the planning area. (CMO, OH, P&Z)
Work with lenders, owners and tenants to provide information on the City’s homeownership programs to enable tenants to purchase their units if the apartments in the planning area are converted to condominiums. (OH)
Acquire an open space and trail easement along the shoreline of Hunting Towers to provide a water side alignment of the Mount Vernon Trail. (RPCA)
In the event of future development or redevelopment of Porto Vecchio, obtain a similar easement to provide a shoreline alignment of the Mount Vernon Trail at Porto Vecchio. (RPCA)
CMO – City Manager’s Office
OH – Office of Housing
BAR – Board of Architectural Review
RPCA – Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities
T&ES – Department of Transportation and Environmental Services
Protect public pedestrian and bicycle access under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge at Royal Street as critical local and regional connections in these circulation systems. (T&ES)
Provide an enhanced pedestrian-oriented streetscape and a strong pedestrian connection between the planning area and Old Town to reinforce the connection of the planning area to the rest of the City. (P&Z, T&ES)
Include the requirement for a bus turnaround in design guidelines for the Hunting Terrace site. (P&Z, T&ES)
Provide bus shelters at the bus stops on Terrace Road and Washington Street in the planning area (T&ES).
Adopt a zoning text amendment implementing design guidelines for the planning area to retain and enhance physical and visual access to natural open space features of the area in any potential redevelopment. (P&Z, BAR)
Encourage recovery and enhancement of resource protection areas (RPAs) in any future redevelopment in the planning area (P&Z, T&ES)
Continue to work with the National Park Service to manage Jones Point Park for its historic, cultural, natural environmental, and recreational value to the community, the region and the nation. (RPCA)
WASHINGTON STREET HUNTING CREEK AREA DESIGN GUIDELINES
PURPOSE. The purposes of the Washington Street Hunting Creek Area Design Guidelines are to (1) protect, enhance and restore the historic character of the margins of the George Washington Memorial Parkway at the southern gateway to the City of Alexandria from Hunting Creek to the Capital Beltway in accordance with the agreement between the City and the Nation al Park Service, (2) preserve the views and connections to the natural environmental features that are uniquely important to the character of this part of Alexandria, and (3) encourage the development of a stronger sense of neighborhood and a stronger relationship to nearby areas of Alexandria through strong linkages and compatible design as sites are redeveloped.
APPLICABILITY. These guidelines apply to all property adjoining Washington Street south of the Capital Beltway in the City of Alexandria. They supplement and implement, but do not replace, the Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review and the Washington Street Standards of the Old and Historic Alexandria District.
PARKWAY LANDSCAPE BUFFER. A Parkway Landscape Buffer is established along Washington Street extending 80 feet from the right-of-way of Washington Street, or 140 feet from the centerline of Washington Street, whichever is closest to the centerline of Washington Street. No structures other than those specifically provided for herein shall be constructed within the Parkway Landscape Buffer.
SITE ACCESS. Access through the Parkway Landscape Buffer buffer to adjacent parcels should be limited to existing signalized intersections and a bus access way on each side in order to minimize the visual effect of interruptions in the landscaped buffer and rows of street trees, and to minimize interruptions to pedestrian travel along the parkway.
LANDSCAPING. Any development plan shall provide for the regrading and landscaping of the Parkway Landscape Buffer and areas between the buffer and structures closest to Washington Street to provide a continuous broad parkway appearance. This area shall be landscaped with appropriate design and plant materials. The area between the roadway and buildings closest to Washington Street shall be raised to approximately at the grade of the sidewalk on Washington Street between the intersection at the entry drive to the Porto Vecchio and the urban deck over the Capital Beltway on both sides of Washington Street.
Landscaping shall be provided in the Parkway Landscape Buffer in accordance with the concepts illustrated in the Landscape Concept for Washington Street and Parkway Landscape Buffer, Figure 16.
Variations to the landscape plan to provide for appropriate site access for a specific development plan may be approved by the Director; however, only one vehicular access point through the
Parkway Landscape Buffer in addition to those at the existing signalized intersections just south of the Capital Beltway and at the entrance to Porto Vecchio shall be permitted between Hunting Creek and the Capital Beltway.
The key concepts of the landscape plan are:
The intent of raising the grade to that of the roadway is to provide and restore a broad, parkway appearance to the margins of the Parkway entering Alexandria, particularly where the grade of the roadway has been raised higher than its historic level in order to cross the Capital Beltway. Raising the grade of this area will serve to maintain and restore the character of the Parkway, and will remove obstacles to pedestrian access, improving pedestrian connec-
tions and convenience within the planning area and between the planning area and nearby areas of Alexandria
TRANSIT STOP AND LAYOVER AREA. A transit stop and layover area shall be retained within the Parkway Landscape Buffer on the west side of Washington Street, or in an alternate location within the property approved by the Director. A city-approved shelter for transit riders shall be provided conveniently located to the transit stop and layover area.
The roadway within the transit stop and layover area shall be set back no less than 24 feet from the Washington Street right-of-way, and shall have a curb-to-curb width no greater than 24 feet. Access to the transit stop and layover area may be provided through the Landscape Buffer Area. Such access shall have a maximum width of 24 feet curb-to-curb at the pedestrian crossing and shall provide one-way entry to the site only from Washington Street.
Exiting from the transit stop and layover area and from the property on the west side of Washington Street shall be only at the location of the existing signalized intersections serving Hunting Towers and Porto Vecchio.
SITE DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES AND STANDARDS. Site development is governed by the Washington Street Guidelines of the Board of Architectural Review and the Washington Street Standards of the Old and Historic Alexandria District. These additional design guidelines in the Hunting Creek Area Plan provide specific guidance to implement the Washington Street Guidelines for the area south of the Capital Beltway.
SITE DEVELOPMENT FOR HUNTING TERRACE SITE. On the west side of Washington Street, a public street or public access easement shall provide access along the south side of the developed part of the site as shown in the
Hunting Terrace Site Development Concept, Figure 15. No structures for human occupancy other than accessory structures for maintenance, enhancement and interpretation of wildlife habitat areas, wetlands and resource protection areas shall be permitted south of this street. The intent of this requirement is to maintain public visual and physical access to natural habitat areas along Hunting Creek.
SURFACE PARKING. Surface parking shall not be permitted between Washington Street and those structures on the site that are closest to Washington Street and generally aligned with Washington Street.
⬚ figure
Figure 12. Parkway Landscape Buffer. An 80-foot setback from the property line provides a parkway buffer that permits the character of the entry gateway landscaping to carry through the site to the urban deck over the Capital Beltway. This setback implements the theme of the Board of Architectural Review’s Washington Street Guidelines for the area south of Wilkes Street.
⬚ figure
Figure 13. Parkway Landscape Buffer Cross-Section. In order to establish a broad parkway character for Washington Street, the guidelines call for raising the grade of the area between Washington Street and the closest buildings to that of the Washington Street sidewalk. At the north end of the site, the site elevation is now 8 to 10 feet below that of the sidewalks on Washington Street on both the Hunting Terrace and Hunting Towers properties. This significant difference in grade has resulted from the raising of Washington Street to cross the Capital Beltway. This introduced grade difference substantially detracts from the historic character of the parkway and disrupts pedestrian access to Washington Street, to transit and to the rest of Alexandria.
⬚ figure
Figure 14. Parkway Landscape Buffer and Street Wall. This figure shows the concept of an interrupted street wall along the front setback line. All areas between the first structures and Washington Street should be brought up to the approximate grade of the street and landscaped in a way consistent with the Gateway Landscape Concept (Figure 16). Surface parking is not permitted between Washington Street and the first row of structures along Washington Street as shown by the shaded area in the figure.
⬚ figure
Figure 15. Hunting Terrace Site Development Concept. This figure shows the principle for location of development in relation to the south access street. A public street or public access easement on the south side of the developed portion of the site separates the open space from structures and protects public visual and physical access to open space areas.
⬚ figure
ALEXANDRIA GATEWAY EDAW APRIL 14, 2005
Figure 16. Landscape Concept for Washington Street and Parkway Landscape Buffer. The landscape concept for the gateway along Hunting Towers and Hunting Terrace provides for a continuous tree row in addition to street trees in the wide parkway setback on each side of Washington Street to carry the entry point landscaping between the gateway entry feature just north of the Hunting Creek Bridge to the urban deck over the Capital Beltway. Setting bus stops behind the street tree line provides greater continuity to the tree-lined parkway edge.
⬚ figure
City of Alexandria Hunting Creek Area Plan