The list here.

So we'll go ahead and get going.

We'll start with a welcome and thank you everyone for spending a Tuesday evening with us.

Appreciate everyone's interest in what's going on in and around the community.

And obviously happy to share information with you all and also take your questions at the end of the meeting.

Just by way of introduction, my name is Paul Stotter.

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

And very happy that we've been running this series now.

I think we're coming up on the one year mark, and I think it's been a great success in terms of getting information out and making more information available as we go through this.

If we could jump to the next slide.

So this is part of our bi-monthly meeting series.

And the target is that we run this every other month.

Sometimes conflicts with other meeting dates mean that means that shifts a little bit.

But in general, what we're aiming for is about six meetings a year spaced out every other month so that we can give people a heads up about what's what's happening in the city.

In these in these meetings, we do try to cover a pretty uh wide span of things that are happening.

We talk about uh long range planning efforts uh that are underway or getting started.

We talk about some of the larger development applications that are scheduled for formal consideration, public hearing uh at upcoming planning commission and city council meetings.

Uh, we talk about uh proposed changes that are under consideration to development regulations, the zoning laws within the city, uh, and then of course, throughout, we provide links to additional information.

And I'll make a plug for the first link here on this page.

In the lower left corner, you'll see Alexandria VA.gov slash planning.

That's the main landing page for the planning and zoning department.

And from there, you can actually find a link to a lot of information we have, including a page just for this meeting series.

Uh, you can catch uh recordings of of this meeting as well as past meetings.

We also post all the slides from these meetings uh as well as the QA.

Uh so that's one of the great things we like about this series is that people can catch it live or they can catch it uh at a different time if that works well.

In terms of materials where we cover, we do try to be sort of sensitive to everybody's time and we try to get you out of here by seven o'clock.

Uh and uh so between now and seven, uh we'll try to cover uh uh long range planning.

We'll talk about uh what's happening uh with the Duke Street uh land use plan.

Uh we'll talk about a community viewer where you can look up easily uh look up and reference information from uh small area planes across the city.

Uh we'll also talk a little bit about uh the city's approach to transportation planning uh and that uh sort of look at transportation planning is as part of something we're embedding in this meeting series.

We know there are topics of interest to the community, things like how is stormwater managed, how is transportation reviewed, uh, how do we review for open space and tree canopy?

And so in this meeting series, we're adding uh information about each of those topics of interest as we'll go throughout the year.

Uh we'll then talk about uh we'll then pivot uh from long-range planning to active applications.

We'll we'll highlight uh applications that are coming out for planning commission and council consideration in the next two months.

Uh and then we'll talk about a few uh uh zoning ordinance uh updates that are being considered uh and will be coming up for formal consideration.

Uh and then at the end of the night, we'll have time for QA.

Uh it's Zoom, so you may have to hover your mouse near the bottom of the screen.

Uh, but if you do that, you should be able to find uh a box that looks like that.

It's a question mark with the letters QA under it.

Uh as we go throughout the presentation, please do type your your questions in and we'll answer those all at the end of the night.

And then before I turn it over to the first speaker, this is a graphic we use in all these uh presentations, and it's designed to show the connection of the different things we're going to be talking about.

So they're all different kinds of things, but they're all related and they're all pointed at the same goal, uh, which is delivering on the community's vision for the future of the city.

Uh it starts uh as arrows do, right?

They're they're flowing in one direction from left to right.

So it starts with the box on the left.

Uh, and that's where staff in the community and the council work together to establish a vision for what they want the future of the city to look like.

Uh and that's written down in formal planning documents, our small area plans, our other uh master planning components.

Uh those components are then used as the basis for developing um uh regulations um uh for real estate development for development projects.

So uh those zoning regulations set the rules for uh how tall can a building be, what are the allowable land uses?

And if we housing can be retail, be a hotel.

Uh it sets the requirements um uh for the developments of each of the the sites across the city.

Once the rules are in place, uh applicants, developers can apply uh to construct buildings under those rules.

The most common application type we have is the development special use permit, the DSUP.

That's really our first opportunity to get a detailed look at what someone's proposing for a site.

That's where we see the proposed mix of land uses, building heights, uh architectural styling of the building.

Uh that all gets formally considered by council.

And then only if it's approved, uh, can an applicant proceed to the building permit stage, and that's where they come up with the technical drawings that get reviewed for total requirements.

Uh and so again, this is showing that how all these different pieces are connected and all delivering on the community's adapted vision for the future.

Uh, with that, I'll turn it over to our first speakers.

Good evening, everyone.

And uh, as Paul said, thank you for joining us.

My name is uh Jeff Farner, I'm deputy director of the planning department.

And today uh walk you through sort of a status update of our Duke Street land use plan.

We've had a lot of um feedback so far, and we are at a really important point in our planning process in terms of next steps.

So we wanted to share with you sort of where we have been, uh, where we are now and where we're going.

Um, and you can see we've had a lot of um interaction with the community.

We've had a lot of feedback, we've had a lot of guidance along the way, and we are sort of now in um sort of phase two.

Um in particular, where we're going, I think we're at a really important point where at our next meeting uh in April, we're gonna start talking about, I think a lot of things we've heard from the community, land use, building height, open space, connectivity, um, and how we build that into the planning process based on everything that we've heard to date.

So a lot of feedback, we're at an important point.

So thank you for joining us tonight.

Hopefully, you can also join us at our April meeting.

Again, we're getting into sort of the really fundamental pieces of this land use plan.

So, next slide is really about what we've heard.

Uh, and we are in the sort of middle of this process right now.

We've had a lot of community comments, and we are trying to incorporate as many of them as possible if they are feasible and consistent with what we've sort of set out to do together as part of this planning process.

You can see 75%, 50% we've already included, 25%.

We're looking at whether they're feasible.

So we're in that process now.

I think our goal is if it's feasible, we're going to include the community comments in the plan.

Um, and then 25% sort of fall into maybe outside the scope.

Um, or uh elements that we're not really looking at as part of a land use plan.

For example, there were comments about Eisenhower Avenue and Metro stations, and that's not necessarily what we're looking at as part of this planning process.

So the goal is to include as many of those comments to date.

Uh, and hopefully, as part of our next iteration, you see that comment and hopefully see some of your comments in the in the plan revisions as well.

So, next slide is uh we shared this at our last community meeting, and uh this is really our first attempt at organizing this overall plan area.

It's certainly one of the longest and biggest small area plans that the city has done and undertaken.

And one of the things we've heard along the way is um, and I I've shared this a lot at some of our community meetings.

We've heard a lot of pride of people who live in various neighborhoods and various communities, and a lot of desire to make Duke Street better and different ways to do that.

Um, design, making it feel more connected, addressing safety, thinking about architecture as we think about redevelopment, thinking about housing affordability, et cetera.

And so this was our sort of beginning attempt at organizing those um that Duke Street corridor into what we're calling districts or or sort of smaller neighborhoods.

And uh we've talked about the fact with the community is one of the great things about our city is that we are very much a collection of neighborhoods, and you really sense that sort of moving in and around our city.

And I think that's part of our our DNA as a city.

I think that's one of our strengths is uh we are a collection of neighborhoods.

And so, how do we begin framing the concepts around individual neighborhoods up and down Duke Street?

It's still meeting the vision and the principles and goals that we've heard from the community as part of this process.

So this is beginning part of that conversation.

Um you can see it's very much still in draft form.

Next slide is um really where we're going.

Next slide is um really where we're going, and this is uh what we are in the process of working on as we speak of how do we take all of those planning principles, how do we apply them to the Duke Street corridor?

And these are the fundamental pieces of a land use plan.

Uh, of course, land uses um circulation, building heights, parks, and open space, and those are elements that we are working on right now for the April meeting.

And so we're trying to gather all the comments we've heard uh to date uh as part of our processes to make sure we were listening and hearing and addressing the things we've heard as part of this process.

So very sort of high level.

That's what we are anticipated submitting as part of the discussion as part of our April meeting.

Happy to respond to any questions or comments, but that's sort of the intent of the upcoming community meeting.

So would urge you to participate.

Um then the other thing that we're thinking about as part of this process is having an online forum.

This is a big corridor.

So we've used sort of different digital platforms where people can look at the map and they can zoom in and they can provide comments.

Um, I care about this individual space or this individual park.

Um, and so in previous plans, we've used uh different tools to do that, and we will certainly be doing that here as well.

Uh next slide.

And again, this is just a reminder of where we are.

I think it's I think one of the things we heard very early on in this process that I heard very early on in this process is make sure you provide a roadmap for the community to make sure when and how decisions are being made and which decisions are being made at individual meetings, and then ultimately when is this anticipated to go to hearing?

And you see a lot of information here, but it's really uh framework elements on in April.

In May will be uh housing and uh health, and we're thinking probably also a follow-up to the framework elements in May based on the comments we receive, and then in June, um transportation, parks, and sustainability, and then in July uh draft recommendations with the goal of getting a plan in front of the planning commission and city council in December.

So that is our sort of overall roadmap, and um uh if you um are interested in any of these items, please attend uh any and all.

And uh, we also have a contact on our website if you'd like to contact uh staff directly to um engage uh that way as well.

So thank you for being part of this conversation, and uh please be involved in in the next meeting and series of meetings as we move through the process.

So thank you for being with us tonight.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Carrie Beach.

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

And uh just wanted to introduce a new tool which we are launching.

Um, you can go to the next slide.

Um, this is our we're calling it the Master Plan Explorer, and it's it's an um in response to City Council, some conversations at uh various um discussion items over the past year.

You know, we're talking about how it can be difficult/slash overwhelming for um member of the community to kind of understand what planning is, how all the pieces fit together, um, what the different uh elements of plans are in different parts of the city, and so um they charged us with coming up with a way to make that better for our community members and um so we did.

We are working on or we were launching this um kind of simple user-friendly interactive tool, and it's summarizing uh the general elements of each of the smaller aid plants.

Next slide.

I'm gonna go over kind of the main um functionality of uh different elements of the functionality of this tool quickly.

It is online now, and I'll I'll show tell everyone how to get to it near the end.

But I'm gonna go through each of these.

So when you first come to the um landing page of the tool, you see this map, which is really a map of all the small area plans in the city, and it allows you to put in an address and find out um what small area plan you live in or your business is in, or your child school is in, etc.

And um, when you click on that, it will it will bring you to a link to the actual small area plan.

Uh next slide.

Um, there's also a uh section of the tool which talks a little bit in a little bit higher level about kind of um the overall, how all these plans fit together in terms of say, for example, um focusing uh density around metro stations and existing or future planned transit, um kind of how that fits together in context with the rest of the city.

So you can zoom in and out.

This is very interactive.

You can go in and out and see kind of what that what that density looks like.

You can learn more, like if this is your first time with the term density or FAR, you can learn about what that means and get more information.

Next slide.

This is a key part of our master plan, which is how do we make sure that they become reality over the course of the kind of life of the plan, which is tends to be around 15 to 20 years.

So implementation is a really important of what we do.

And each year we report out on how we're doing.

So we look at each of the small area plans and look at different both private and public investment that is helping to implement the goals of the plan, whether that's implementing a trail or a transit way or a private development site and kind of the gamut of scale of items in between there.

And so each of these reports is posted online, but you can learn about how it happens and what some of the variables are in implementation happening more quickly or more slowly in different parts of the city.

Then you also have the opportunity.

So the small area plans are documents unto themselves, and but you also have an opportunity to get a summary of the small area plans.

So you get to kind of see what are the key objectives of the small area plans.

And in some of the small area plans, they're the same, you know, or similar, but in some uh areas they are uh more tailored to talk about you know what are the strengths or challenges of a different area and focusing in on those.

This is an example of Eisenhower East, for example.

Next slide.

You can also look at so you can look at what the uh what the area looks like today, what the existing kind of footprint of buildings is and and what the landscape looks like today.

And then you can we in many of these we have a slider that shows you what the future potential framework of the plan looks like going forward.

So what the building um where the buildings and the framework streets might be, where the open space is planned for, and you can scroll through each of these, each of these maps.

Um, as Jeff was mentioning, we have um in our small area plans, we have kind of use framework maps and land use is one of the key ones that we start with.

And so this is an example of the land use concept for Old Town North.

And each of their building heights, there's open space, mobility, et cetera, for for each of the small area plans.

You can also look at we've basically highlighted in each of the small area plans some of the recently completed or approved or planned projects.

And again, this is kind of speaking to the implementation of the plans.

So these are things that could be public investment or uh public-private partnership.

Um, for example, like the North Potomac Yard Trail is a recently completed project that we're all very proud of.

And so we give you know some photos of the of the project as well as a description of it.

So our goal with this um this tool is to update it on a relatively on a quarterly basis, possibly sooner if needed.

Um, but we really want to rely in addition to us looking at usability and you know, just making sure the tool is updated in terms of information.

We also want to rely on the community to help us make it better.

So we have a in multiple places along the in the tool, you'll see uh a link to share your feedback.

We take all of that really seriously.

It helped us build this tool to begin with.

So that's an important element of continuing to make this, you know, the most valuable and robust tool we can.

Um, and then uh kind of over the longer term, we're looking at opportunities to possibly look at incorporating data or elements from other chapters of the master plan related to transportation, for example, or housing.

Um, but this is a way that we get the full scope of the master plan.

So we'll be looking at opportunities to improve it.

The link to the tool is right there, Alexandria VA.gov/slash masterplan.

And there's also on the tool, you'll find a very brief tutorial kind of video for if it if it's not making sense to you, which hopefully it does because it's meant to be intuitive.

But if it isn't, there's a little tutorial.

And there's also a link to someone that you can email for any questions you might have.

That's it.

Oh, Chris, you're uh muted there.

Classic Zoom mistake here.

So good evening, everybody, and thank you very much for joining.

And first off, I want to wish everybody happy St.

Patrick's Day.

But um, in terms of transportation planning, uh, I wanted to start uh with a simple principle that essentially shapes how the basis of transportation planning works, which is how we get around is strongly influenced by our communities uh and our built environment.

Um the the distance between homes, jobs, and schools and everyday services like grocery stores plays a huge role in determining which travel choices are actually practical and convenient.

Uh what that means is that when destinations are close together and connected by safe infrastructure, people have real choices in how they get around.

So they might walk, they might bike, they might take transit, or they might drive.

Uh but when things are very far apart, uh, or when only safe infrastructure is designed for cars, then driving becomes the only realistic operation.

And so that's why transportation and land use decisions have to work together.

Um, next slide.

So when development patterns are spread out, uh, people need to drive more because obviously, because things are farther apart and places are less connected.

But when you have areas that have different uses like housing, jobs and services like you know, hardware stores or restaurants, and when transit is well integrated into those areas, then trips are usually shorter.

Uh and this makes walking, biking, and taking transit a lot more viable.

Now, in addition, infrastructure plays a big role in also shaping behavior.

So if sidewalks, transit, and bike options are safe and convenient, or if they exist at all, people use them.

But if streets are only built to move cars, then driving becomes the default, uh, even if where you're going is right nearby.

Um next slide.

So that leads to the question.

Uh, what is the role that streets play in our communities?

Well, streets are not just conduits for vehicles, uh, and in fact, they actually serve multiple functions at the same time.

So they support mobility, uh, which most people think of is uh by moving people and goods.

You know, they support safety or they should support safety uh by making sure everyone can travel or without being hurt or killed.

Uh they support access, uh, which means helping people get to things like homes, jobs, businesses, and services, like doctor's appointments, and they provide a sense of place by shaping the public realm.

So when we design streets with multiple modes in mind or multiple ways of getting around, a lot of things improve.

So, first off, safety improves because different uh because different users have their own dedicated space.

Uh, transportation choice expands, uh, which means people have alternatives to get around, whether it's driving or walking or taking transit or biking, and the overall efficiency of the network improves because trips, you know, and then especially short trips and trips along transit routes can then shift to the most appropriate mode.

Now, we recognize that most trips today in Alexandria are made by car.

And you know, and you know, for better or for worse, a lot of these trips have to be made by car.

But when other options are available and are safe, convenient and enjoyable, then the whole system works better.

Next slide.

Um, another principle that we think about a lot is who the transportation uh who are transportation investments meant to serve.

So at the local level, our transportation system should uh primarily serve residents, workers, and local businesses.

But when streets are designed primarily to move regional traffic as quickly as possible, it uh can undermine local mobility and safety goals, and it often creates cut-through traffic on residential streets.

Now, communities function best when streets can balance local access and regional movement.

But the starting point has to be serving the community first.

And at the same time, though, we can't ignore the regional dynamic.

So when changes in the broader transportation network happen, uh, you know, whether that's like a new new developments or road construction projects uh or changes in nearby jurisdictions, travel patterns can shift.

And when that happens, regional traffic can move on to local streets.

And this can create a lot of challenges, you know, which which I'm sure some folks on the call are working with right now.

You know, for example, more congestion on streets that weren't designed for a lot of traffic, new safety risks, you know, especially for people walking and biking, and in some cases, uh reduced quality of life for nearby residents.

So that this is why cities have to think very carefully about how corridors are designed so that they can continue to serve local needs, but still manage regional travel demand.

Next slide.

Now, this slide and this uh idea is is no surprise to almost everybody in the call, but um thinking about regional traffic and transportation is a particularly relevant idea in Alexandria.

So, you know, obviously most people know Alexandria sits within a very highly connected regional network in the trans in the Washington metropolitan area, uh regional traffic and not just vehicle traffic, but also transit and bicycle traffic, they have to move through several corridors within the city.

So the risk is that without careful planning, local streets can slowly become cut through streets for regional vehicle traffic rather than streets that primarily serve the surrounding communities.

Next slide.

So that's why successful corridors and corridor planning require alignment among three primary elements.

So land use decisions, which we heard about in the Duke Street land use plan, transportation investment, um, which you know, if we take Duke Street as an example, the Duke Street Transway, and then obviously the the needs of the community, uh, which are considered at every step.

So when those elements are aligned, the outcomes are very powerful.

So you see walkable neighborhoods, you know, where daily needs are very close together.

You see reliable transit that connects people to jobs and services and uh you know, like movie theaters and things like that.

And then you also see local economic activity like coffee shops and grocery stores, which are supported then by the streets that are very welcoming and acceptable.

And just as importantly, you see safer streets for everyone who uses them.

So next slide.

So ultimately, the goal is not just to move vehicles efficiently, um, but also to design transportation streets or streets and transportation corridors that also support how communities actually live, work, and move every day.

Thank you.

Sorry, my button wasn't working there for a minute.

I'm Rob Kearns, and I'm the development division chief in planning and zoning.

And I'm going to be going over some of the current development cases for you this evening.

Next slide.

So as you can see, over the next uh several months, we have laid out uh uh a schedule of of cases.

Uh and I'm gonna walk through uh each of these cases in the in the coming slides.

So I won't um go through go through them here on the list, but uh you can see we project out about three months uh here ahead so you can you can get a good idea uh what is coming up um in your community.

Next slide.

So you can also see spatially um the current cases they're spread throughout the city.

We're we're active across the city with various uh types of projects.

Um and these applications when they come in the door or are reviewed against their respective small area plans that Jeff and Kerry were just talking about previously, and so you can see where they're located in the in the various plans um on the map to the right.

And we do rigorous review against standards uh and policies that have we have worked on with council that are you know implementing the the community's vision, as we we've said earlier, you know.

So we're looking at height and density and setbacks from streets or neighbors, stormwater management and environmental uh impacts, provisions for open space and healthy tree canopy, transportation planning, which Chris just uh walked through quite extensively, affordable housing, as well as architecture and and and design um and how a neighborhood and and its buildings um appear together.

Next slide.

So starting uh the first cases uh for uh up coming up in April.

Uh we have a case uh 4801 Eisenhower Avenue.

Uh this is a townhouse project, and you can see a picture of one of the sticks on the on the bottom right.

Uh we're looking at uh 37 townhouses and then 80, what we call back to back, uh they're an attached product um uh dwellings uh in this in this proposal.

Well, they're also providing uh half acre of publicly accessible open space, so that's 15% of the site, um which is um good for a proposal like this.

Um it continues the street grid per the SMARA plan.

Um and it also continues Cumberland Avenue, which is along the top of the site plan.

You can see in Cumberland Avenue is meant to extend all along parallel with Eisenhower and the Eisenhower Valley to connect various um various housing clusters and and and community centers together um throughout the the Eisenhower Valley as part of the Smario plan process.

And then it's also going to significantly improve the Eisenhower streetscape uh per the Smario Plan, including utility undergrounding, new street trees, um expansion of the uh the bike ped trail.

So these are all benefits the community will be seeing.

Um jumping to the west uh to the east side of the city, uh, another case 300 North Lee and 333 North Fairfax Street townhomes.

Um, this is a project, it's 32 townhomes on one almost one and a half acres.

It's currently an office site in Old Town.

It also includes two affordable town homes, which are rare uh in this part of the city.

So that's that's an important um benefit to the city.

Um it is located in the actual historic district, so there's been additional review with the BAR and looking at how it fits into the context and supports the historic district.

It has publicly accessible walkways and even a small pocket park in the middle to as a gathering or a meeting point for neighbors, and each unit will have a two-car garage.

701 South Van Dorn Street.

There's new street names that are coming uh online with the Vulcan redevelopment site.

You can see the development stats uh on the side here of what's uh happening in that uh large uh project that has previously been approved.

But we have the street names of Black Jack Gold and May Breeze Street, as well as uh Snake Root Street.

Uh these are uh uh ones uh names that have been submitted by the developer, and they've been run uh through our um review process to make sure there's no conflicts uh and no objections with the names, so they will be forwarded for approval uh by the planning commission.

3908 Albert Ave.

This is an extension of a current of a uh previously approved um affordable housing project due to some financing delays in the market.

Um so it's an all-affordable six-story residential building.

Uh, it has 91 units uh uh in the project, and it will serve between 30 and 50 percent of AMI.

Uh so this is an important um addition to the housing affordable housing stock within the city and the the neighborhood of Arlandria.

It has a private terrace on the second floor, which will be nice uh for open space privacy for the the residents of the building, and a ground floor parking garage for 60 spaces as well as a loading space.

1609 Cameron uh Street, the old town pool.

Uh, here we're gonna see a refresh of the old town pool.

Uh there's a construction of a new uh over 3,000 square foot uh pool house, a new larger eight-lane 28-meter pool, and dive well, zero entry pools, uh family pool and spray features, um, all of the uh things to uh modernize this this pool facility as well as shading deck and a flexible event uh area and construction is expected to begin on this project uh in the winter spring of 27 uh through the summer of 2028.

50-50 Mark Center Drive.

This is also an extension.

Uh number of these extensions were through due to due to COVID uh timing and the pandemic.

Um, this is again a first extension uh on this project, and it has 367 units, 25 affordable units, uh ample parking underground and 40% open space.

So that you know, lots of uh benefits to this redevelopment and right-of-way dedications for the transit the West End Transitway.

We're also expecting uh to uh the power plant um in North Old Town is expected to come before planning commission and council uh in June.

Uh so that's the PRGS site, as we call it, and it's looking at two of the blocks uh in this overall neighborhood blocks B and C as well as two parks, the uh railroad um railroad park as well as the waterfront uh parks are the two open space approvals.

But there are two buildings with over 800 units uh with these approvals, 100,000 plus square feet of uh commercial space, two public open spaces as I mentioned, as well as uh underground parking.

Uh so this this would be will be an exciting addition to Old Town North.

And a small uh uh infill project uh in uh old town again, the Pizano Building edition, uh 1019 Cameron.

This is a long-standing business uh and it's been it's an office consolidation uh of that business in historic Alexandria.

They're looking at an above grade second and third floor edition of over just over 5,000 square feet.

You can see it outlined in red uh in the bottom picture.

Um so we're we're we're welcoming this expansion and growth of this uh this business uh in Old Town.

Uh and it's we'll also have some improved pedestrian streetscape and street trees to improve the pedestrian realm around the project.

And now I'll turn it over to our next speaker.

Yes, uh Sam Shelby here.

Um a principal planner with land use and preservation.

And I'm just gonna quickly go over some of the projects that we're expected to see or that are scheduled for the um April and May public hearings.

Um, like the other development projects that uh Rob was just mentioning, these are reviewed for consensus consistency with the master plan.

So each of these small area plans has um you know, uh envisions uh certain levels of activity in certain areas.

Um, and so these cases are reviewed for consistency with those sort of small area plan goals.

Um and they're also reviewed for neighborhood compatibility in general, sort of like um for a new building, it would be whether or not the the size of the buildings um it you know in scale with the neighborhood in the case of subdivisions, whether the lots sort of match the surrounding lot configurations, and also for um for use-based permits.

So if somebody is asking permission to operate a business, um it would be reviewing whether or not the impacts of the business would would have any uh what impacts the business would have on the surrounding neighborhood and how to adequately address those.

So for um April, we have 411 Clifford Avenue.

This is a subdivision with an existing house where the applicant intends to keep the existing 1920s house on the property and construct um a dwelling that it that will attach to it on the on the new lot.

This site is about a half a block from uh Route One, where uh Glebe Road intersects with Route One, and as you can see, there's a uh multitude of other semi-detached and some kind of funny lot configurations over here too.

Um, and this is scheduled for the uh for now for the April Planning Commission hearing.

I would just quickly note that subdivisions only go to planning commission unless they're um appealed, and then they are also considered by city council.

Coming back to us in May is 404 East Alexandria Avenue.

This is a request from an applicant to use a lot without frontage, and so that means a parcel of land of uh somebody's property that does not have uh access to a street directly.

So this property is but located behind some townhouses, and it's surrounded on three sides by public alleys, and this is over by Matt and Tony's and off um just about a half a block off of um Mount Vernon Avenue.

And this was previously considered by council and um council denied the special use permit requests, and the applicant the zoning ordinance requires the applicant to wait a year to be reconsidered, and so that time is passed now, and the applicant has come back with this proposal.

And again, this will go to the May Planning Commission and City City Council hearings.

We are also working for this is for the, I believe, for the April hearing, um, a second round of commercial uses text amendments.

So periodically we look at the zoning ordinance, and I almost look at it as like we're laying track in front of a train that's moving along.

The zoning ordinance is a very old document and keeping it sort of up to date with council priorities and uh what's best for the community sort of takes kind of an ongoing is an ongoing effort.

Um the background here is that we had at the end of 2025, staff took forward and council approved a set of amendments to that are sort of essentially small business friendly changes to the zoning ordinance.

And it's it's a it's all a balancing act of figuring out what's best for our businesses and what's best for our residences or residents.

And so December was when restaurants uh before the December changes required full hearing special use permits.

So that means if you wanted to open a new restaurant in the city, you were generally going before planning commission and city council.

That is now a permitted use.

And the conditions that would typically end up with an approval, conditions of approval for a special use permit are now housed in the zoning ordinance directly.

Most of those kind of use limitations, things about noise and outdoor dining and those kind of things are in the ordinance itself.

And this uh kind of this regulatory approach is going to continue to move uses from requiring special permission to being permitted subject to specific standards, that these these uses are allowed as long as they they meet these um use standards in terms of uh neighborhood impacts and that kind of thing.

And if any business is uh exceeding any of those or not meeting any of those standards, that's when a special use permit would be required and the the case would go before again for planning commission and city council.

And I kind of touched on this already, but the oops, sorry, Catherine, can you go back real quick?

The purpose is just to increase predictability for applicants and residents, creating a uniform and enforceable operating requirements.

Those are the use limitations I mentioned, focus really focused special use permit reviews on higher impact operations, and again, protecting the neighborhood from impacts while sort of being small business and community or business friendly.

No.

Okay.

So for the April uh set of uh the April set of amendments, um, council asked us to go a little bit further with outdoor um fitness and health clubs.

Uh that we they were previously or currently, right now they're required a full hearing special use permit.

And for those paying attention, there was a there was a case recently on South Patrick Street in the old or current um uh West Marine site where a uh a business or gym is going in there with a rooftop uh facility and that required special use permit approval.

The idea with this concept and this proposal is that the this use would be permitted again without special permission, without special use permits, subject to the following use limitations that you're seeing on the screen here.

So these are things about hours, where the where the outdoor facility can be located, lighting, these are the kind of impacts that we're talking about that are being going to become if the if this a new business wants to come in and do an outdoor recreation or health club, then they would all be subject to these rules unless they are asking for special permission from city council to to not do these things.

The same sort of concept again with indoor live entertainment.

The the move here is to make them permitted again, subject to these use limitations.

That again, the hours are limited.

There's things about how to manage patrons and how to disperse before and after events or to disperse after events and things about the building, that the windows can't be opened during performances.

Um, and again, just these are these are standards that end up in the ordinance that will be enforced by the zoning team.

So the business would get permission to open an indoor live entertainment facility, and it would be the zoning team's job to make sure that these well, really, it's the business's job to make to abide by these rules and the zoning team's job to make sure that uh to enforce these regulations.

And again, you know, any time we open an old book and look at what needs updating, we find other things that need clarifications.

So again, this this use limitations concept is a new concept, and this is going to be formally established with this set of rules.

There will be standardized language for these use limitations about how to train new employees, designating neighborhood liaisons, and um requiring an action plan, a control plan if there are more than three violations of the same of the same rule.

If the same rule has been violated more than three times, then there's there needs to be a formal plan that is endorsed by this by city staff to ensure that that doesn't keep happening.

And as I mentioned, just some uh minor updates to these uh use terms to make sure that they fit and they reflect all the uses that we or all the businesses that we see out there.

And the last thing is the that council with the last set of updates that I was mentioning at the end of December of last year.

We moved from the the city moved from allowing uh uh school trailers, temporary trailers from needing these special permissions that I'm talking about to a uh fully administrative, no no hearing required uh process.

And council asked us to um expand that also for uh the city's private schools.

So those would also be permitted without special permission from council.

Whoops, there we go.

All right, happy to take this one.

Um uh thanks to all the presenters.

Uh, really a great summary of uh what's going on across a number of ranges.

And as I mentioned, um, hopefully folks were keeping that graphic in mind of really starting the community conversation with what is the vision, uh, what is the community want the city to be in the future?

Uh, how do we set the rules to make that happen?

Uh, and then what are the investments, the developments that are coming along in support of realizing that vision.

Um, along the way of things that matter, uh, if you don't know already, um, uh, want to make sure you're aware that the budget process is is underway.

Uh, and of course, uh budgeting within any municipality is it is an annual exercise.

So we're working on the fiscal year 2027 budget, which would go into effect on July 1 of this year and run through the end of the fiscal year, which is uh June 30th, 2027.

Uh, and major components of the budget, of course, uh funding for things like education, public safety, housing, transportation, uh, other core city services, um, uh things like wreck and parks, uh, uh uh youth camps.

Um, these are all the things that people rely on day in, day out, and one of the things that local governments are so good at providing.

Uh the budgeting process uh will run through uh the end of April when city council is expected to make their vote on the budget, uh, which I uh as I mentioned would then go into effect July 1.

Uh if you want to learn more about it, uh please do uh get to our budget page.

Uh you can use the QR code on the right, uh, or you can go to Alexandria BA.gov slash budget.

Uh the link is listed there in the um the banner in the lower left of the slide.

And um, as I said, we have a course time for QA and and we did cover a lot of materials.

Uh and so uh happy to stay and answer questions.

Um, and of course, we'll we'll type up all the questions as well as our responses and post those on the web.

Uh and again, uh the the web page where you can find this meeting series, uh, if you go to Alexandria VA.gov slash planning, and you can navigate there to the recording from this as well as prior videos, the slides, and the QA.

All right, I will read the questions and then turn over to our experts for the responses.

Uh, first up, Carrie, this might be one for you.

Uh, question is Does the tool, uh, and this is the the plan viewer, uh, reflect amendments that have been made to SAP small area plans since they were first adopted.

For instance, the amendments to the old town north uh SAP or height increases that have been approved in the past few years.

Yeah, good question.

And uh the short answer is yes.

Um the any amendments, basically our master plan needs to be any time there's a master plan amendment that gets approved at uh city council, um, we update the overall master plan.

Every chapter that needs to get updated gets updated.

And then we've pulled any of that relevant information forward into the into the uh explorer.

So yes.

Right.

Uh and then we've got another one, which is a comment, and I'm happy to read this one out.

It says, Thank you for the updates, exclamation point.

Very informative as always.

Um thanks for tuning in.

Uh, and this is uh, you know, if you've got other folks that are interested in in um planning and zoning and development in the city, please do make sure they they know sometimes word of mouth is the best way to get word out about things like this.

Uh let's see, next question.

I can take this one.

Uh question asks, uh, is this presentation available online for review?

Uh the answer to that is yes.

Uh, if you go to Alexandria VA.gov slash planning, uh, that's our planning and zoning web page.

And if you scroll down, uh maybe towards the middle or bottom of that page, you'll see a graphic of these uh sort of raised hands and the comment cards.

Uh that's where you can find uh the link to this presentation as well as the past presentations.

All right.

I don't see uh any other questions typed into the chat.

Uh so I want to say thank you again uh to everyone for joining us here on Tuesday night and investing in the evening uh with us to learn about uh what's going on in the city and of course to um uh provide us your feedback through your questions.

Um always good to know what what folks are interested in and and what we can do a better job of sharing information on.

Um so with that, I'll wish you a happy rest of your Tuesday, and uh we hope to see you for the next meeting.

Thanks all.

Bye.