All right, well, let's go ahead and get started.

Welcome everybody.

My name is Paul Stoddard.

I'm the director with the Department of Planning Zoning here in the City of Alexandria.

And I want to start by saying thank you to investing in evening with us to learn more about what's going on across the City of Alexandria and also inform us through the questions that you ask as we talk about all these different projects and initiatives.

And if we go to the next slide.

So this is the fifth installment of our bi-monthly community meeting series.

And this meeting has a couple different objectives that we're hoping to that we hope it's achieving.

One of the biggest ones is we just want to make sure that people are being made aware of what's going on, not just within their neighborhood, but across the city, and really have the opportunity to learn about a range of projects, whether they are development projects or master plan updates or proposed updates to the to the city zoning regulations.

We want to be making sure we're we're getting the word out broadly about those proposals as they're under consideration.

And then also we want to have the opportunity, of course, for people to learn more.

So you'll see throughout the presentation that we've provided uh web links where people can find more information.

Uh and of course, we'll have a QA session at the end so that people can just ask their questions tonight.

And then before we hop off on this slide, I'll just uh mention one more thing.

Uh if we can go back one in the lower left corner, uh you'll see a web address for Alexandria BA.gov slash planning.

That is the home page for the planning and zoning department.

Uh, and of course, you can find a lot of information uh if you go there.

Uh and one of the things you can find is the web page for this meeting series.

Uh, we do make available on that page the presentation slides that we use of each of these meetings.

We we post the video uh that we record as part of the meeting.

Uh, and then we also type out the QA and post that on that web page as well.

So you'll be able to find that for tonight's meeting as well as the other four meetings we've run prior to this.

Uh, and just in terms of uh timing, we are trying to run these uh approximately every other month.

Uh sometimes holiday timing throws that off a little bit, but we are trying to run these every other month so that people can be uh sort of made aware of what's coming up with uh each series uh planning commission and city council members.

Um the agenda for tonight's presentation.

Uh we got some of the preliminaries uh uh in the first couple slides there.

Long range planning.

We have three different topics that uh we want to touch on tonight.

First is providing an update on the Duke Street uh land use plan, the small area planning process for the Duke Street corridor.

Uh, we also have some colleagues with us uh uh tonight from the Office of Housing.

Uh, we're gonna get an update on the uh uh what's going on with the Housing 2040 plan, which is our master plan for the city.

We're updating that.

Uh and then also from the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services that we know that stormwater is something that people are often worried about when they see construction activity.

And so our colleagues from TAS uh Transportation Environmental Services are going to talk through and provide a summary of what are the things that we look at on every development application and how are we making sure that stormwater is controlled and managed properly.

Uh, from there, we're gonna jump over and talk about development applications that are being considered now.

Uh that includes some of the larger development applications in the city as well as some of the smaller infill projects.

Uh, and we'll also talk about proposed updates to our zoning coordinates.

And as I mentioned on the last slide, we'll close the meeting with QA.

Uh, so as we go, you should be able to see a QA icon, a question mark icon in the bottom center of your screen.

As we go, please do uh type in your questions, uh, and then we'll answer answer all those questions at the end of the meeting.

And anything that we can't get to tonight or need to provide additional information on, we'll do that in that typed QA that we provide on the web page.

Slide.

So this is one uh that I often find helpful to keep in mind because as we go through tonight's presentation, you're gonna hear from a number of different speakers on a number of different projects.

Uh, and this graphic can serve as a reminder of how all the different things that we're talking about tonight are linked and really pointed toward the same goal of delivering uh on the Alexandria vision for the future.

So the vision uh is where this whole graphic starts on the far left of the screen.

Uh vision, objectives, recommendations, and SAP is an acronym uh for small area plan.

This is where uh community members, city council, city staff, uh, advisory boards and commissions work together to come up with a common vision of what they want the future of their neighborhood, what they want the future of uh the city of Alexandria to be.

And that formally gets adopted by Planning Commission as well as city council through a public hearing process.

Once that vision is set, that provides direction to staff to develop to write down the development regulations, which also have to get approved by the city council through a hearing process.

And then those regulations set the rules under which development applications are reviewed.

So you see the acronym DSUP, which is short for development special use permit.

That's the most common type of application for a large redevelopment project here in Alexandria.

And those development applications have detailed information.

How high is the building going to be?

What's going to be inside the building?

What's the architecture, the outside of the building going to look like?

How's Streetscape going to look?

What's the width of the sidewalk?

How many trees are going to be on the property?

How will infrastructure and utilities be handled?

So all of that gets reviewed within the development application, which also gets approved by city council.

And then only if all those things have happened and the project gets approved, does it proceed to the permitting process, which is a technical exercise where the actual construction drawings are prepared by the applicant, and then they're reviewed for technical requirements by our city staff.

And only once that permit is approved is then a project go forward in construction.

But again, all of that activity is guided by what was the community vision that was written down and agreed to in the smaller plan process.

So a graphic that I always like to share because I use it as a reminder for myself about how all these different things work together and how they all talk to one another as these projects and proposals move forward.

And with that, I want to turn it over to our first speakers.

Good evening, everyone.

Thanks, Paul.

I'm Carrie Beach.

I'm division chief for neighborhood planning and community development.

I'm going to give you a brief update on our Duke Street land use plan.

I'm joined by Jeff Barner, my colleague in long range planning.

So one of the first questions we get when we uh start a long-term plan is why even are we planning?

What's the point?

Um, and uh this um really the the short answer is so that we can be proactive about what's going to happen in the future instead of being reactive.

And then on the Duke Street corridor, this is particularly important because this is a corridor that is um framed on the east end by old town and on the west end by the redevelopment of the former landmark wall.

And this creates um economic and redevelopment pressure on Duke Street.

And so our goal with this is to make sure that we're being proactive about the challenges and opportunities that come with that redevelopment pressure.

Things like, well, how do we manage affordable housing and potential displacement of residents, or how do we manage open space and transportation?

So those are the kinds of things that we that we think about with long-term planning.

Next slide.

For context, the Duke Street corridor is about three and a half miles long.

Um we're looking at around a thousand acres.

So this is a very large plan area, as you could see from that previous slide.

We have a very um uh big amount of uh rental housing, market affordable rental housing in the area.

Um, this is a really important resource for the city, and of course, also for the people who are living in these units.

And so that's something that we're thinking about as we as we plan.

There's a lot of um pavement in this area, almost 70% of the commercial and industrial areas are paved.

And so we think about you know, how does that impact stormwater and what are the opportunities with redevelopment in terms of reducing impervious services?

We have a high percentage of rental units here.

Um we also uh there's some unusual elements of this area.

We have a 55-acre city campus, and that includes both office space as well as some of the more kind of um back of house types of things like dump trucks and uh snow plows.

Um we have a high foreign-born population here, 35% as a quote as opposed to about 25% the rest of the city, lots of um public parks, and um quite a high number of small businesses in the area.

Uh we launched this plan or we began work on the plan about a year ago.

Um, and the purpose of that early work or preliminary planning was really to get to know the stakeholders in the plan area, understand what um who they were and how we could best engage them during the process, as well as some of the key existing conditions in in the plan area.

Then the formal engagement began this past summer in June, where we had a community meeting and an online poll and a whole series of pop-up events where we the primary goal was really to gather feedback on what folks think about this corridor, how they feel about it going forward, what are some aspirational objectives that they have for the corridor?

And we took all of that information and developed some draft plan principles that are serving as really the kind of foundation for the forthcoming plan.

This uh winter and spring, we're launching our uh phase three where we're really gonna delve into the meat and potatoes of the plan.

We're gonna be developing a framework for the plan and plan recommendations.

Um, and then by summertime, we should be in the sort of development of the plan document itself with the goal of releasing a draft plan this fall for uh community review and uh plan adoption in December.

And one of the reasons as I mentioned that we we want to understand who is in our community is so that we can develop a community engagement plan.

Um we have had some some really good success so far with participation in the process.

We had more than 1700 folks participate in our online poll.

Um a variety of um community members and business owners, which we felt was really important to represent the business interests uh in the corridor.

Um and we heard uh comments along a pretty common set of themes.

You know, people have different opinions about these themes and how they could be addressed, but um, in general, we had um folks uh concerned about traffic and safety and congestion, as well as uh people who are interested in making improvements for people who want to get around in other ways besides cars, so on their bike or just being able to cross Duke Street is is a challenge now.

And so thinking about ways that that can be approved.

Um housing affordability, as I mentioned, is a real concern of residents out there today.

Um people really love their um their uh small businesses out there and want to see that preserved, enhanced.

Lots of open space that everybody values, um, but they also brought up, you know, I can't, I have a hard time getting to the parks and open space in the area.

So how can we address that?

Um how can we improve uh amenities along the corridor so that we can access them in in close proximity as opposed to having to travel to other parts of the city.

So all of that feedback that we gathered over the first um uh phase of the process was intended to develop these draft guiding principles.

And they're really the as I mentioned, the kind of the foundation of the of the plan.

So establishing the intent and where we're going.

And really everything that we recommend once we've established these guiding principles should be consistent with those principles.

Um they're gonna all of the recommendations, the concepts, the framework plan should all be consistent with the direction that we've established in the beginning.

In addition to being uh informed by all of the community members and community engagement out there, we're also using existing best planning practices that inform these principles, as well as uh working with our partner departments.

So, for example, the Office of Housing or the Department of Recreation and Parks who are who are working on other projects in their offices departments, and uh may have guidance for the direction of this plan going forward as well.

These are the plan principles that were developed with the community over the course of the fall.

I'm not gonna read them.

I just wanted everyone to have access to them.

They'll be posted with uh the presentation online.

But they run um there are five key categories, but above sort of overarching all of these categories was a desire by the community to make sure that we're addressing all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.

Um, this is not just for um, you know, those people who have the easiest time getting around.

It's meant to address youth and and and older folks as well, um, and really addressing overall community health and well-being.

And then the five kind of key categories are land use and design, mobility and safety, parks and open space, housing, and health and sustainability.

And Jeff's going to talk a little bit about how we started to translate those principles into some concepts for the plan.

So good evening, everyone.

As Carrie said, I'm Jeff Farner, Deputy Director of the Planning Department.

And I think just to share, so this is something we also shared with the planning commission this week as part of a work session to get feedback and guidance.

We're sharing it this evening to get feedback and guidance.

And then we'll have an upcoming discussion with our city council on similar slides as well.

So thank you for being here tonight.

And hopefully we'll get some questions, comments, either as part of this process or in the future.

So we took all of those principles and began thinking about how do we begin organizing this corridor?

As Carrie pointed out, this is a very long corridor.

Just to put it in some perspective.

Potomac Yard is talked a lot about in our city.

This is about three times the length of the Potomac Yard, just to put some scale to the entire length of the corridor that we're talking about.

So very large corridor, and how do we begin organizing that?

And what are some of the elements that start shaping some of those principles and the organization of the corridor?

This is a corridor, particularly on the eastern portion where there's a lot of topography, and you can see that here.

There's also quite a few civic uses.

Carrie talked about the city campus, which is where the police facility and a lot of our functional elements are, where we store buses and other elements to make the city work.

We also have libraries and fire stations, which I think are really important civic nodes up and down the corridor, and we heard from the community how important they are.

Carrie talked about small businesses.

And so that led us to thinking about how do we implement those principles in a strategic way.

And so we started thinking about where are the opportunity areas, where are the existing housing resources?

For example, the sort of area three is Fox Chase.

Many of you are probably familiar with that community.

It's one of the largest uh housing resources in our city.

So, how do we think about opportunities?

How do we think about housing uh preservation and retention?

So many of these are market rate units, so they are affordable today, but they are market, so that rent can change and they're at risk, many of them.

And so this was an early diagram, and that really led to the next diagram that we shared in a community meeting.

Again, we had a work session on this item as well.

And it it really zoomed into a couple different categories.

So the opportunity areas are primarily the commercial areas up and down the corridor.

Uh, the shopping centers, some of the commercial areas, some of these sort of semi-industrial areas, a lot of them are um, as Carrie pointed out, impervious.

Um we have roughly 400 acres of impervious area up and down the corridor.

Uh, and again, just to put that in some perspective, that's roughly double the size of Potomac Yard that is just paving.

And so the the challenge with that is we think about some of our sustainability goals or environmental goals and stormwater runoff, which Gavin's gonna talk to you about later.

Um, how do we begin bringing that up to code where we are treating that um and meeting current standards?

So that's sort of an opportunity.

It's also an opportunity to put uh housing stock uh in and around some of the transit stops, which you can see um on this graphic.

So um that's an opportunity.

The other thing we see here is the city campus, small business, and as I pointed out earlier, the housing preservation.

So let's go ahead and jump to the next slide.

Um, so what are opportunity areas?

Those are areas that are primarily commercial.

We think there's an opportunity to add some level of density, some level of height to accommodate the redevelopment.

Uh, we have not decided what that is yet.

We still have to go through a community process, which we're gonna talk about at the end to um have a discussion about that.

But this is the beginning part of that conversation of what we want to see as a city and a community happen on these areas in this corridor.

Um affordability and growth.

Um I mentioned Fox Chase.

I think there are a lot of things we've heard from uh residents of we really love living in this in this portion of the city.

Can we afford to stay here?

That is housing affordability, and I think probably for all of us, I think we're pretty well versed on some of the challenges we as a city are facing.

Um, one of the tools we have to solve that is um density.

Uh we might have other tools, and so that we're certainly open to looking at that through this process.

Next slide is small business.

Uh Carrie talked about this.

If you can sort of remember that sort of area in the center part of Duke Street that's outlined in red, that is an area we're talking about as a small business retention area.

And so Carrie pointed out the number of business owners that we have talked to, which I think I'm very proud of that we have reached out to that many and they've been very clear about some of their needs.

And the reason they're there is the affordability of that space.

And so thinking about land use incentives and tools that we can do to keep some of those businesses there and attract future businesses.

We've heard from folks of we started as a food truck and then we moved into a brick and mortar space.

And the reason we were able to do that is because the space was affordable.

The other thing is the city campus, again, Central Port of the Corridor.

It's about a 55-acre site.

And this is a really an opportunity for us holistically as a city as a community to think about where some of the more public-facing things and where are some of the functional things we as a city need to have and operate to be a city to remove snow and have buses and other things that we as a city need to operate.

Next slide is not necessarily on the themes map, but things that the community has brought up, and Carrie alluded to some of this as well.

But weaving in mobility.

So that is something that's been very clear to us.

And so that is something we'll be addressing through this process, as well as addressing sustainability and health.

Sort of weaving all of these pieces together.

And I think I also probably want to sort of say that, you know, one of the things we've heard from the community through this process is we've heard a lot of concerns and comments, but we've also heard a lot of pride of uh neighborhood and ownership and particular uses and making this corridor better and more planned.

Um I've heard a lot that it feels very haphazard in parts of the corridor.

Um, and how can we make it feel more unified while still keeping individual neighborhood character as you move up and down the corridor?

So those are future discussions I think we'll have as as we continue through this process.

Uh next slide is uh really where we are next steps.

So this is um again, you can see this is beginning to create a framework of where we are.

Uh, there will be community workshops and they're listed at the bottom.

Um hopefully you can attend some of those.

And then our goal is um after those community workshops to have some open houses to begin again, fleshing out some of these concepts and again, meeting number four, probably March April, um, based on the community comments to bring back some more information.

So, this is again the sort of first step based on some of the principles and comments we've been hearing to date.

So, and then next slide.

Oops, sorry, that is the last slide.

So, again, I I would just urge everyone if there, if we could go back on Catherine, if uh if you have questions or comments, uh you have a website at the bottom.

Uh you can reach out to myself, you can reach out to Carrie and Christian, who's our sort of primary lead person is the email address on our website.

So thank you for being here tonight and uh look looking forward to any questions, comments you might have.

So again, thank you.

Good evening to everyone.

My name is Tamara Yovovich, and I'm with the Office of Housing.

Um I'm helping to coordinate the housing 2040 master plan.

Um, as Paul indicated at the beginning of this meeting, the purpose of our plan is to update the city's current housing master plan, uh, which was adopted um at the end of 2013.

And the intent of the housing master plan for those of you who haven't had a chance to follow our process yet, um, is really to take a look at the different tools that we have, programs, services, um, and projects to help address um housing needs, both today, but also during our 15-year time frame.

Um, so Catherine, if you can just advance to our timeline.

So uh this timeline may be familiar to many of you.

Um I'm gonna kind of hone in on that winter 2026 um column and to highlight a couple of major milestones.

Thank you, Catherine.

Uh so we have a city council work session um scheduled for the evening of January 27th.

Um we are also anticipating releasing our uh draft principles, our revised draft principles and goals and full recommendations and strategies approximately around February 20th.

So please be on the lookout for e-news and social media advertising that.

Um and then we also wanted to invite you to our community open house on February 28th.

Um, so that's going to be at the Lee Center.

Um, it will run roughly from 10 a.m.

to 3 p.m.

So you are welcome to join us for that full five hour window, or you're welcome to kind of pop in as well.

There'll be opportunities to learn about our engagement process, what we've been learning, what's been revised since prior drafts have been released.

We will have many presentations on a number of topics.

But I think most importantly, you'll really be able to engage directly with the project managers that are working on this process.

So I think you'll you'll be surprised to see how many of us have actually been involved at different stages in this update.

We are tracking towards the public hearing in June of this year.

However, while the ink may be drying on the draft recommendations, we are only closing out the first phase of our projects.

Should we be successful in getting the project approved this summer, we'll be commencing our implementation as well as phase two projects.

So, Catherine, if you can kind of move forward to the next slide.

So this is a kind of a high-level summary of the major topics that are being considered kind of under our phase one umbrella.

And you'll see that they kind of run the gamut from looking at preservation opportunities and tools and policies and programs that support that, both in terms of the livability, sustainability and kind of quality of our existing housing stock to looking at different ways in which we can strengthen our tenant rights and resources and ways in which we can support our landlords as well.

Um looking at different financial tools and how we can best utilize those to either create or preserve committed affordable housing.

Our common interest communities or condominium communities comprise a very large portion of our housing stocks.

So we've been looking creatively at how we can best support those, kind of building off of some of our existing programs, but also building off of some existing work that's been done at the state level.

As I mentioned, kind of in our in our prior uh in our prior meeting, the demographic that's experiencing the greatest amount of change in the city are seniors.

So we've been um looking kind of with a consultant team at the different housing options that exist currently today and kind of pushing the envelope and seeing um what are different opportunities in which we can support our seniors, whether it's through programs and services that enable aging and police to assisted living and care.

And then we've been working really closely with the health department as they have been implementing the Healthy Housing Initiative and their community health assessment and community health improvement plan and looking at proactive ways in which we can continue to engage with property owners in the city to improve quality of life in our existing kind of older communities.

Um, we talk a lot about our renters, um, we also focus a lot on our on our homeowners and kind of building off of uh the the work that we're doing with our common interest communities.

We're also kind of taking um a closer look at our existing first-time home buyer programs and looking at different ways in which we can continue to expand opportunities for um first-time homu buyers through the development process.

Um, and then kind of our our other umbrella topics include expanding accessibility and sustainability um through through our housing.

And then I've noted here our legislative priorities as they relate to housing.

Um, that is kind of an underlying theme and work that kind of continues not only through the housing 2040 process, but but onwards.

And depending kind of on the outcome of you know legislative changes, our priorities also um uh might end up might end up evolving depending on what happens at the state level.

Um, thank you, Catherine.

And then this is just a way for you to continue to follow us.

If you scan that QR code, it'll take you directly to our website.

And again, I just want to take this opportunity to invite you all to our community open house on the 28th.

Um, and feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thanks so much, Catherine.

Good evening, folks.

My name is Gavin Pelletari and the city's stormwater principal planner here in the TESS stormwater management division, here to talk to you guys a little bit broadly about how we're doing site plan reviews for uh redevelopment projects here in the city.

Um, just a little bit about myself, my responsibilities here at the city include uh administering our programs for um stormwater management, ENS control or erosion and sedimentation control, uh, contaminated lands requirements and our Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act requirements.

Um I'm one of 14 people in our division who uh really are um dedicated to ensuring that runoff is being managed properly throughout our city.

Uh so we've got folks who are plan reviewers, program administrators, water quality specialists, uh site inspectors, uh, flooding and drainage engineers, uh, like I said, who all have the share goal of ensuring that we're managing runoff safely, responsibly, uh, whether that be through uh capital improvement projects or private site inspections or like what we're talking about here tonight with site plan review.

So without further ado, thank you, Catherine.

And so generally speaking, any project that proposes land disturbance equal to or exceeding 2500 square feet is going to require submission of a stormwater management plan and an erosion and sedimentation control plan.

And so these are plans that have to demonstrate how runoff is being managed both throughout the site and as it leaves the site and enters a storm sewer or a surface water.

And generally speaking, they have to meet all city and state standards for both water quality and water quantity criteria.

And so this is all playing against the backdrop of what you're seeing on the right hand side of your screen, this little graphic where at the top left you're seeing a natural ground cover condition where if you can imagine rain falling down in this area, you're getting mostly everything is either getting infiltrated into the ground or it's getting evaporated back into the atmosphere.

And a very low percentage of that runoff is or a very low percentage of that rainfall, I should say, is leaving that site under those conditions as runoff.

And then if you pan over to the right-hand side up on the top right, you'll see the graphic that shows a land cover of about 10 to 20% imperviousness.

And so that's when we really start to see potential degradive effects downstream, both from a water quality and quantity standpoint.

Think of channel erosion, disruption of aquatic insects, mollusks, fish, etc.

So it's really only in that 10 to 20% impervious surface range that we're starting to see some of those degradive effects.

And then if you look down here on the bottom left, you'll see 35 to 50% imperviousness.

That's when you're really experiencing some potential problems, not just from a water quality aspect, but from a quantity aspect.

I'm sure you're those of you tuning in tonight are aware of the flooding issues that we experience here in the city.

And then on the bottom right-hand side, 75 to 50% to 75% to 100% imperviousness over a drainage area represents some significant challenges in the context of stormwater management.

And that is entirely what our division is dedicated to really ensuring that us as a city with 50% imperviousness, that we're doing everything we possibly can to ensure that the runoff that are leaving our drainage pipes and entering the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay are of good quality.

And any private homes, businesses, et cetera, are not experiencing the effects of flooding.

So Catherine, if you could kind of jump to the next slide.

And so generally speaking, how we're reviewing these plans that come into our office, you know, as a typical DSP, DSUP, or that may be a grading plan for single-family homes.

What we're really looking at is how runoff is being collected and treated on the site, and how it is discharging off the site.

And that is again both from a quality and a quantity perspective.

So we're ensuring that these sites are installing best management practices appropriately, that they're siting them appropriately, and then that there are any detention type practices to control that rate of runoff that leaves a site and may enter a downstream storm sewer prior to discharge into a natural body.

And so generally speaking, again, we've got about four things that we're at a high level looking at, and that's BMPs for treatment for quality purposes, detention systems, volumes of stormwater leaving a site at a controllable rate, how these plans are addressing erosion and sedimentation control during the construction process.

And then in the post-construction condition, what are the maintenance and inspection access issues that may be encountered on the site as well?

And so again, that's a general outlook of kind of how we're we're looking at any site plan that comes through.

Um and so if you draw your eyes to the right hand side of the screen, you'll see a typical graphic of um a sheet from a from a stormwater uh plan or a section uh of a civil uh engineering plan that shows kind of what a site is doing to again collect and treat that runoff, uh both for quality and quantity purposes, um, and then providing drainage areas, um, showing how maybe adjacent parcels are being affected, and then the associated uh calculations with that.

Um so some typical plan elements will include site and soil conditions, any existing environmental features like wetlands, streams, um, anything, you know, anything like that.

Um we're looking at runoff discharge locations, so whether or not it's discharging to a man-made conveyance or to a natural stream.

Uh we're looking at uh locations or proposed locations, I should say, of stormwater facilities and their details to make sure that they're um compliant, that they're uh large enough to take in the volume of water during a certain size storm, um, and making sure that they've got adequate inspection and maintenance access in perpetuity for for uh essentially after that project is has been completed.

So if you could go to the next slide, Catherine.

And so generally speaking, what does that mean for um you know the community as a whole and from a from a development community perspective?

Um we're carrying a lot of these things from concept to past um as built stage.

So um we're addressing these things early or making sure that they're addressed early in these site plans from the engineers and the applicants.

Um we're making sure that we're communicating clear requirements and conditions of approval uh prior to public hearing, and then making sure that there's ongoing maintenance obligations that are stated both in agreements that run with the land and within the site plans themselves.

Um that kind of all plays against the backdrop of um our MS4 regulatory program, which requires us as a as a stormwater authority uh to go back to these sites every couple of years to make sure that these things are operating as originally designed and approved in these site plans as they come in.

And so for the residents, um that really means better protection from flooding.

Um living in living in an ever-changing uh climate environment, uh increasing uh storm sizes, uh intensities, etc.

Um, making sure our local waterways are uh of good quality and increasing quality ultimately to the Chesapeake Bay.

And then through our local more stringent requirements for green infrastructure, um, it's really providing uh a number of benefits from climate resiliency to uh native pollinating habitat, native pollinator habitat, um, and enhanced green spaces.

And so um that's all I had for you guys.

Feel free to put anything in the chat, and I'd be happy to answer it when uh when we're done.

Good evening.

I'm Rob Kearns, I'm the development division chief.

And I'm going to Tony and I are going to be going through a series of slides projects uh related to our upcoming public hearing items.

Next slide.

So you can see listed here uh the January and February cases.

I won't uh go through all these because we're gonna go through them in subsequent slides, as well as projecting out you know what we're expecting to see and tentatively in uh the upcoming spring cases as well.

Next slide.

So just uh to refresh uh people's uh thoughts regarding what do we look at in terms of uh development activity and development applications.

Uh first and foremost is Paul said uh a few minutes ago.

The applications are reviewed against the small area plans.

That's the community's vision that we're trying to implement.

But we also have you know a rigorous uh set of review standards, you know, and policies uh for you know everything from height, building massing, stormwater, a lot of technical and construction requirements that need to be met for build up suitable building and then safety, open space and tree canopy transportation, affordable housing, um, and architectural features.

So a full complement of things get reviewed as part of the the act the applications.

And then on the right side of the screen, you can see the a map uh geographic spread of the current uh cases projected uh through the spring.

Next slide.

So the first case in January uh is 220, 224 South Payton.

Uh this is a small infill project uh in Old Town.

Uh it's uh DSP for a mixed-use building, uh commercial on the ground floor and an uh eight one-bedroom uh units on the second and third floor.

It also has private uh ground level open space uh at the point of the triangle on the on the lot, as you can see on the right.

Uh and uh all the units have have balconies.

It's also replacing a surface parking lot uh with an more active uh use.

Uh and there's uh this is a building that has no parking provided on site given the transit rich nature of the the surrounding community here.

The the next project is Colvin Street Garage.

This is an extension, uh an application for an extension of approval that occurred in 2022.

It's for uh a 9500 square foot uh building, uh two-story building, and it's really to build a new building to retain an existing business located nearby.

Moving on to the February cases of the Duke and Quaker uh townhomes.

Uh this is the main intersection there at Duke and Quaker in the city.

Uh and it's a DSUP to construct two sticks uh of townhouse style uh buildings, 11 units total.

Uh there is a rezoning to remove an existing proffer on the site.

Uh they're utilizing bonus density uh and height uh through Section 700 of the zoning ordinance uh and and various modifications and set packs in order to um comply with uh with standards.

And they uh it also includes one four bedroom uh affordable uh for sale uh housing unit, which we don't get that many of these, so this is uh really great for the city.

They're also providing land dedication at the Duke Quaker intersection, anticipating with the Duke Street plan additional uh investment in street infrastructure and and circulation uh uh upgrades at that intersection.

Uh we also have an extension in the west end of the city at Upland Park.

This is near Beauregard and uh seminary uh in the west end.

Uh the original approval was in 2021, so we're looking to um approve extend this for another three years.

The DSUP is currently for 92 townhomes as part of the uh overall tract, as well as corresponding streets and and park.

But we're also amending CDD number 22 so that the concept plan uh for uh this entire tract matches mirrors the the updated recently updated Alex West small area plan.

Uh and then 806 North Columbus Street.

This is a just a development site plan to construct three uh townhomes on an existing parking lot.

Uh and there is also a subdivision to adjust the the lot lines slightly.

Uh this is going to the BAR for a concept review.

Um 300 North Lee and 333 North Fairfax Street townhomes.

Uh this is to look at 32 townhomes uh on a 1.4 acre uh currently uh utilized.

It's it currently has office buildings on this site.

It will include two affordable uh townhomes as part of the overall package.

Uh it is located in the historic district, so there will be um uh review with the BAR looking at context and compatibility with our historic preservation standards.

They're utilizing the cluster development zone that we have in our zoning ordinance to try and get some uh modest open space and pedestrian ways as part of the the townhouse program to um enrich the the pedestrian environment and green space uh in Old Town.

And each unit will have a two-car garage.

Eisenhower East Block 3.

Uh, this project, we've been talking about this for a number of months.

Uh the construction costs and financing environment has led to us having to sort of tweak and look at uh different um different approaches for viability for this large project in Eisenhower East.

It's a 767-unit residential building, 32 stories.

It also includes 40,000 square feet of retail uh and commercial uses on the ground floor.

There are um two large rooftop open spaces also with this project and a 10,000 square foot ground level open space at the corner of Stovall and Pershing.

So uh hopefully this spring we'll be able to bring this project forward.

The same also goes for the power plant site.

Uh we're currently working on the first two blocks, uh blocks B and C and the park, uh, the park elements of the power plant.

Two buildings of 800 units are proposed, as well as 80,000 square feet of commercial space and significant public open spaces on the waterfront and underground parking.

Again, we're sort of working through the market issues and hope to bring this to hearing in the spring.

Thank you, Rob.

My name is Tony Lacola, the division chief for land use and preservation.

I'm going to go through, like Rob said, our docket items for the next couple of months.

Next slide, please.

So the first item we have is for January.

This is a conversion office to residential at 732 North Washington Street.

This is at the corner of Washington and Madison.

The proposal is to convert the building to 20 residential units.

To do this, they are the applicant is asking for a rezoning from CDX to CRMUX, a master plan amendment, and an SUP for the residential use as well as parking reduction.

Each of the units will have parking.

However, several of the parking spaces are tandem and those aren't permitted to be counted as two parking spaces.

They're counted as one.

So technically they'll need a parking reduction, even though there will be plenty of parking on the site.

So they will be going to the BAR at some point in time in the future.

So that goes to hearing in a couple of weeks.

The next item again for January is a zoning text amendment.

This is an office to residential zoning text amendment.

We just saw an office to residential case, and you can see how many requests were being made just to make that conversion happen.

Master Plan Amendment, rezoning, SUPs, what have you.

So what we're trying to accomplish with this text amendment is simplify the process for these conversions.

The 1992 comprehensive plan made a lot of zoning changes.

Particularly it lowered the floor area ratio limits.

So many buildings, a lot of the commercial buildings became non-complying.

They could not be built today at the FARs that currently exists for those buildings.

In addition, many of the zones allow for higher FAR for non-residential versus residential.

So a conversion from non-residential to residential really isn't possible.

In addition, umresidential typically doesn't have setbacks, open space requirements, minimum lot requirements.

So it makes conversion difficult unless they're granted a modification by city council.

Um to convert residential uses with this particular text of the residential uses have to be permitted in the zone, and the changes really can't increase the FAR or the building height.

So what you see how the building exists today would essentially remain the same.

It's what's inside the building that will change from an office to a residential use.

Right now, applicants are often coming in for a SUP for a parking reduction and then asking for modifications to the building.

So essentially, council is looking at something that's not really related.

You know, it's not the conversion itself.

This process will allow council to look at the conversion itself as well as take into account existing SUP considerations, such as health safety and welfare, compatibility, neighborhood impact, master plan conformity.

Um, essentially asking does this align with small area plan goals?

Um, in addition, uh there will be a voluntary housing contribution uh policy uh as part of this.

So when there's a conversion, um, we will ask uh developers to provide a contribution to the affordable housing fund.

Um next slide, please.

In February, we have two special use permits, business related.

The first one is at 211 Yoakum Parkway.

Um this SUP would allow for a restaurant within an existing market, um, essentially to permit uh carry-out service, you're making sandwiches, uh, other types of carryout food um to service essentially this particular residential development.

You see, it's uh multifamily development on the left side.

The other SUP is at 601, 619, South Patrick Street, and this is for outdoor recreation use on the rooftop of the building.

Um the owners of the building would like to install an outdoor track for their members to use as well as install some outdoor workout equipment um on top of the roof.

So they're requesting an SEP to make that happen.

Next.

In February, we have uh a couple.

Well, I think in February we have one uh subdivision that's 102 East Monroe.

Uh that would be a lot split, essentially going back to the original subdivision that was platted many, many years ago.

Um, this would allow for uh semi-detached dwelling to be constructed, um, two families essentially.

And then later in the spring, we have three, eight, three, three Elbert Avenue.

Uh when this area was originally platted, this particular lot had four parcels.

Uh, the applicant is asking to subdivide um this lot into two parcels, I believe it's going to be for two uh single family homes.

Next.

And that will do it for me.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Well, thank you everybody uh for the materials.

A lot, like I said, a lot of ground to cover.

And as we talk through it, hopefully folks kept that four-part graphic in mind about sort of how the long range uh vision gets developed, uh uh staff in the community working together and ultimately presenting that as uh as a plan uh for council's consideration and then development regulations getting prepared and then applications coming in under those uh uh rules and guidance.

Uh we're into our QA session.

Uh as a reminder, there is a QA box uh in the lower center portion of the screen.

It's you may have to hover your mouse over uh for it to appear.

It may not appear unless you move your mouse down there.

So get your mouse down the lower portion and the QA box, it looks like a question mark uh should pop up.

Go ahead and type your question in.

Uh, and I'll read out the questions as they come in, and then we'll get answers out.

Uh so first question in how far north and south of Boop Street will the Duke Street managers plan cover.

Many different small area plans cover Duke Street that establish what type of housing and density as well as traffic is doable.

Many people are concerned that where we could end up is massive density in the form of apartment buildings along Duke Street and far north and south as well.

That will exacerbate traffic and eliminate much needing single family and town homes that are essential as entry-level ownership opportunities.

Will these concerns and the small area plans be given to the analysis?

Sure.

Uh I'll take that one, Paul.

Um Kevin, can I ask if you could go back to the overall map just to uh that shows the opportunity areas?

Thank you.

Um it's probably far back.

I apologize for everyone.

Um, so the first question uh really was how can we take into account um well, what is the scope of this plan?

How far reaching?

Perfect.

Thank you, Kevin.

Um I think this is a good guide as we are thinking about this plan.

Um the opportunities are areas where we um with the community would be looking at potential changes to um the existing zoning to implement the principles of the plan.

Um the beige areas are the affordable housing, as I mentioned earlier, and looking at strategies that we have.

And Tamra talked about the importance of these houses, some of these housing resources and what are the tools we have to save them.

So that's really the scope of what this plan is in terms of geographically.

Um in terms of traffic, uh, we have heard this consistently.

And uh one of the things that uh we need to do with all of our infrastructure, um, sewers, traffic, schools, etc., is to test that and make sure that it can accommodate what's being planned and discussed.

So that will be part of this process.

Um so I hope that answers your question.

Um, and so uh that those are two things that we're uh been looking at.

What's the scope?

Um, this identifies this a little more detail than we have in the past.

And um traffic, uh, if we are increasing density, uh we certainly need to look at that.

So thank you for your comment and your question.

Paul, you're on mute.

Well, that's not going to work then.

All right, thank you, Jeff.

Uh, let's see.

So, next question reads the January PC planning commission meeting was last night.

Uh, why don't you update the viewers with the outcomes?

Um, so that's a good point.

So, as I mentioned uh at the beginning of the uh the discussion, we try to get these uh every other month uh so that we can get these in in advance of hearings.

Uh and uh as a result of the holiday schedule, unfortunately, we had to hold tonight's meeting uh behind the planning commission meeting instead of front.

Unfortunately, we obviously wanted to be and we are in front of the council hearing, which is scheduled for later this January.

Uh one of the reasons we do look ahead three months uh with these presentations is that in the event we do have a uh a calendar challenge, uh we're always able to get the word out before things go.

Uh just to summarize briefly where the planning commission landed last night, uh they did have a series of subdivision applications with the which they approved unanimously 7-0, some on consent, some got polled for discussion.

Uh the Colvin Street Garage application, uh they recommended uh the council they recommended by a vote of 7-0 uh as part of the consent agenda that uh council approved that.

Uh the 220 and 224 South Peyton Street application, they recommended approval of that by a vote of 7.0.

Uh the special use permit, uh the the conversion project that Tony spoke to uh uh at North Washington Street and Madison Street.

Uh they recommended unanimous uh support for that application 7.0.

The zoning text amendment that Tony summarized as well.

They also recommended unanimous support of that.

Um and then the green building plan was uh took up the bulk of the meeting time and we didn't cover it in in this uh tonight's video.

We did cover it at length in uh October's video.

So I do encourage you to check out uh the tape from October as well as the video from last night's planning commission meeting.

Uh, they made a series of changes, uh, which then as a group they supported unanimously and did recommend unanimous approval uh unanimous support for the plan.

Uh and of course, that'll be going to uh the council's hearing uh in January and that date.

Let me pull up for you.

It's January 24th, uh Saturday, January 24th.

So mark your calendar for that.

Uh I it's a it's a good question, and I and I appreciate it.

Cool.

Uh next question.

Let's see, regarding safe EMS and fire services for these new developments, the increase in population is a plus for first responder services.

Do we expect to match the rise in populations and infrastructure?

Uh so I I might take a stab at this one and then I might uh sort of call in some assistance along the way.

Uh but each development application comes that comes forward does get reviewed uh in detail for the ability to respond to an emergency of the site.

Uh that of course includes at the building permit stage, making sure that the building design is safe and then it meets all the modern building code and fire codes.

Uh it also makes sure that the site is safe in terms of how can emergency vehicles access the site, uh, can vehicles get to it, can we get out of it?

Uh, as well as making sure that there's infrastructure in the ground to support it in terms of water pressure and water supply.

Uh so the building is certain and the site are both designed to be safe.

Uh with each uh uh with each small area plan, uh we do an analysis of what are the community facilities needed to support uh the the uh the sort of potential development within the area uh that with each app with each small area plan, we think about what uh what is the housing capacity that's being envisioned uh and what does that mean for uh for schools, for parks, for uh for playgrounds, uh of course for emergency services as well.

We look at response times with our partners and other departments and think about whether we have the right facilities in place.

Uh and then of course, each year when there's a budget exercise uh of developing the budget, which of course we're in the middle in now, uh, that's a time to look at what are the service levels, not just that we need for the immediate future, but thinking about what do we need going forward.

So it it gets reviewed a couple different ways.

Uh, and yes, it does get reviewed with each application, as well as uh when we're working on plans.

Uh let's see, next question reads Ooh, it's specific for Jeff.

Jeff, will the city commit to hiring an independent traffic consultant for beach meeting?

Um short answer for this one, yes.

Uh so we are in the process of uh bringing on our our transportation consultant.

Uh and the city is hiring them.

They are working with us, and uh in the coming months, uh we'll be reporting back to the community with some of the findings.

So that is that is in process.

So thanks for that question.

All right.

Uh oh, let me use the scroll box.

There we go.

All right, so there's another one.

Ooh, this works for me.

Paul, will the public be able to speak at the city council hearing on January 13th regarding the city manager's appeal of the bar decision for the design of the South Facade of City Hall.

Uh yeah, so uh we didn't cover it in this because we generally try to cover things that are moving through the planning commission and the city council dockets.

Uh, but in case folks didn't know, uh the VAR, the Board of Architectural Review, uh recently heard uh uh and uh made a decision on the city's application for uh the renovation of City Hall as well as the the market square.

Uh and that was heard in November.

Um, and the city manager has appeal portions of that.

Uh uh decision by the bar looking for a different set of uh conditions that were set as part of the approval.

The appeal date uh has been set for next Tuesday's uh council meeting.

Normally those are legislative meetings where public comment is a term.

Uh that's it'll be different on Tuesday because of course uh an appeal of the bar is a public hearing item.

Uh so there will be a public hearing portion of that meeting when the council is uh welcome and encouraged to make comment on that.

Let's see.

I'm losing the scroll bar, but I'm not seeing any other questions come in.

Uh let's see.

If there are any other questions, we're happy to take them.

Uh otherwise, I want to say thank you again for investing a Thursday evening with us.

Uh, we always appreciate the opportunity to share what we're doing.

Uh, and we also enjoy hearing from you all what your questions are and your thoughts on these projects and proposals.

I've not seen other uh questions, so I'll wish everyone a good night.

Uh and just close with a reminder that that all these materials, the the video, the typed QA, as well as the presentation slides, will be available uh off of the planning and zoning webpage, which is of course at alexandria.gov slash planning.

Uh thank you all.

Have a good night.