Last month, City Council approved a request from our School Board to provide funding to support the ACPS purchase of 1703 N. Beauregard Street to be swing space for future rebuilds as well as eventually a permanent school. This building, an office building next to Ferdinand Day Elementary School, will provide an opportunity for another adaptive reuse of an under-utilized building.

In May, City Council unanimously approved a 10-year capital improvement program for the Alexandria City Public Schools including $551.5 million over the next decade. This provides the funding for both new and renovated facilities, as well as non-capacity infrastructure investments. Only 8 years ago, the 10 year capital improvement program for our Schools was less than half as much at $203 million. 

Two years ago, the City Council unanimously approved land-use modifications to allow the old Patrick Henry Elementary School building to be temporarily used at "swing-space" to facilitate a rebuild of Douglas MacArthur Elementary School. In September of last year, the City Council unanimously approved the rebuild of MacArthur. That rebuild is now under way.

At the beginning of last school year, 15,588 students started in the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS). That constituted a 2.95% decrease from the previous year or about 474 fewer students. 

While the enrollment numbers are greatly impacted by the pandemic, last year year marked the first time in 14 years that we have seen a decrease in enrollment. During that period of growth, ACPS added over 5,000 students. The last time we had this many children attending our schools was nearly 50 years ago in the early 1970s.

On Tuesday August 10th, ACPS will be hosting a community meeting to provide updates on the planning for the rebuild of the Minnie Howard campus of Alexandria City High School. Last month, the City Council agreed to allocate funding to ensure that a pool facility would be incorporated in the rebuild of this campus.

In June, feasibility studies were released by ACPS to inform planning for the new school buildings for George Mason and for Cora Kelly. Both reports examined the question as to whether "swing space" will be required during the construction process.

Over eight years ago, the City convened the Joint Long Range Educational Facilities Work Group. The group was given the essential charge to understand our recent increase in student enrollment, better project enrollment growth in the future, and to decide what to do about it. 

In June of 2015, the City Council and the School Board adopted the Joint Long Range Educational Facilities Plan. The Plan is the culmination of the group's work in conjunction with the efforts of both ACPS and City staff. The Plan looks at each elementary school building in the City, assesses the facility's educational adequacy, and provides a roadmap for increasing capacity and addressing deficiencies. 

Two years ago, the Council and School adopted phase two of this effort, planning for additional capacity at the high school level and in pre-school. 

Almost three years ago, ACPS opened the first "net-new" school building in nearly two decades with the opening of Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School on the West End. Over two years ago, ACPS opened the newly rebuilt Patrick Henry K-8 School. Both of these new buildings added badly needed capacity in areas of the City with rapidly growing enrollment. 

In June we learned that our City Manager, Mark Jinks, will be retiring at the end of the year. We will have the opportunity later this year to properly recognize Mark's dedicated and impactful service to our City, but at the moment this leaves a significant task before the City Council. We must make the most important personnel decision in City government: selecting our Chief Executive Officer.

Last month, the City Council formally launched a national search for our next City Manager and we want your input in this process. There is an online survey posted seeking feedback and we will have further input opportunities in the fall.

If you know the right person to help lead our City government through the incredible opportunities and challenges that face our community, please encourage them to apply prior to the September 17th deadline.

Last month, the City Council unanimously adopted Alexandria's plan to allocate the first tranche of $29.8 million, from the City's allocation in the American Rescue Plan.

In March, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law. This sprawling and comprehensive piece of legislation provides significant resources to Alexandria's residents, our businesses, our schools and our local government.

After surveying the community, we received an enormous amount of ideas and concepts for how Alexandria could best deploy these resources to improve our City.

Alexandria's government will receive a total of $59.4 million from the legislation, divided into two allotments, one that was received in May and the other to be received in May of 2022. All funds must be spent by December 31, 2024.

Beyond what the City will receive, the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) will receive $34.8 million from this legislation. This is in addition to the $15 million ACPS received from the Federal legislation that was enacted before the end of last year.

ACPS has provided a plan for public comment for their expenditure of these funds and they will be holding a public hearing for comment on the plan on Tuesday evening.

The Treasury Department recently released an "Interim Final Rule," which ultimately provides detailed (151 pages!) guidance to localities as to how we can expend these dollars.

I believe we should use this money to create sustainable structures that will not only help us recover, but benefit the City for decades to come. Furthermore, given the substantial resources that ACPS, the Commonwealth and many Federal programs will be receiving, I believe that Alexandria's expenditure of these combined resources should be closely coordinated to ensure the maximum benefit for our community.

In May, the Governor and the leadership of the State Senate and House of Delegates announced shared priorities for the expenditure of $4.3 billion that the Commonwealth will be receiving directly from this legislation. The Governor has now called the General Assembly back into a special session beginning this week to enact these priorities.

Over the past few days, the Governor has continued to roll out specific policy proposals for the expenditure of the Commonwealth's Rescue Plan revenues. Many of these proposals, if enacted, have significant benefit for Alexandria.

Additionally, the House of Representatives is bringing back what used to be known as "earmarks" and will now be called "Community Funding Requests." In May, Congressman Don Beyer released his funding requests under this new program, including several priorities that were requested by Alexandria's City Council on behalf of our community.

Long sought, this arrangement was recently named by the Washington Business Journal as the 2020 Real Estate Deal of the Year.

Days before Christmas, the City joined with a few partners, some familiar and some new, to announce the future of the Landmark Mall site. The new development plan will move Inova Alexandria Hospital from its home for the past 58 years on Seminary Road to a new modern facility on the site of Landmark Mall.

The site, one of the largest sites inside the Beltway awaiting redevelopment, will see a billion dollars of new investment, including a new Level II trauma center, medical office buildings, residential, retail, parks, a new fire station replacing Fire Station 208, new committed affordable housing and a new transit hub anchoring the City's new bus rapid transit network, DASH and Metrobus.

In June, the City Council unanimously approved a master plan amendment and rezoning of the site of the existing Inova Alexandria Hospital. This land-use decision was the first legislative action required to bring this plan to reality.

Conquering those obstacles requires a unique partnership and financial arrangement. A local firm, Foulger-Pratt is leading a joint venture in partnership with Howard Hughes Corporation, the current owner of the mall site, and Seritage Growth Properties, the owner of the Sears site. They were able to bring Inova Health System into the arrangement to anchor this redevelopment.

Nearly 55 years ago, then-Virginia Lieutenant Governor Mills Godwin Jr. (later Virginia's 60th and 62nd Governor) came to Alexandria to open Landmark Mall. Today, the work to restore the Landmark Mall site to a productive use of real estate for our City is a top focus for our community.

In June 2013, after taking over ownership of the mall site, the Howard Hughes Corporation received approval by the Planning Commission and City Council for a redevelopment of their portion of the site . A slower than expected leasing market slowed their intentions to redevelop. 

In 2015, Howard Hughes Corporation was back at City Hall to apply for very minor amendments to the approval that was issued in 2013. These changes were approved by City Council in April of 2015.

Sears spun-off a new Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) in 2015 called Seritage Growth Properties to maximize value out of their remaining real estate.  The Landmark Mall Sears store property is now owned by this REIT.  

The Howard Hughes Corporation later announced that it had purchased the Macy's store site. 

The Howard Hughes Corporation subsequently announced that the existing mall site is closing. 

Over two years ago, Council approved revisions to the Master Plan to advance a comprehensive redevelopment of the site.

Two decades ago, when the ownership of the properties at Landmark Mall received their tax assessments from the City, the actual mall site was assessed at $76.4 million. The Sears store was assessed at $19.7 million. The Macy's store site was assessed at $17 million. 

For Alexandria, this is an issue that impacts our community more than most. In our city, we have 57 high-rise residential buildings that are over 40 years old. We did higher-density residential development long before other jurisdictions in Virginia. A 2007 Virginia Housing Commission survey of Virginia localities indicated Alexandria has most of the older high-rise residential buildings in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

The good news is that we have no reason to believe these buildings are unsafe or at risk of anything similar to what occurred in Florida. Our Code Administration Department works to implement and enforce the uniform statewide building code.

Yet I do believe this is an opportunity for policy improvement and refinement to ensure transparency and safety for Alexandrians relating to these buildings in the future. To advance that effort, last month I sent a letter to Governor Ralph Northam requesting a new statewide study be authorized in the upcoming special session of the Virginia General Assembly.

A little over 50 years ago, the New York Times ran an article reviewing the concept of a guaranteed basic income and featuring a guaranteed income program that then-President Nixon had brought to Congress.

The program was championed by Donald Rumsfeld, who was at that time Nixon's Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity. Rumsfeld was assisted in managing this program by Richard Cheney.

The concept was relatively simple: what if we cut out the bureaucracy of public assistance programs and instead provided a guaranteed monthly income to lower-income populations, without any strings attached? It was driven at that time by a belief that in addition to being costly, the bureaucracy that had been developed to administer our public safety net programs was reducing efficacy of the programs themselves.

Fast forward a few decades, and there is now a network of municipal governments around the nation experimenting with the concept.

Alexandria will now join this effort. The City Council approved the allocation of $3 million from a portion of the City's American Rescue Plan money. The City will provide 150 families with a $500 per month debit card. This program will last for 24 months.

To gauge the result of this effort, the City will provide case management and engage a research partner. Ultimately, the goal of the effort is to improve the economic stability of lower-income families.

I am hopeful that the City can also glean lessons from this experiment to better guide how we administer other programs designed to alleviate poverty in the future.

In partnership with our friends from Senior Services of Alexandria and the Successful Aging Committee, the City is looking to honor our Centenarians.

Last week, the City's new Energy and Climate Change Task Force held their second meeting. This group is designed to turn our Environmental Action Plan into concrete steps the City can take to make progress.

They have posted a survey looking for feedback from the community as they approach their important work.

Three years ago, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change again sounded the alarm. Their report gave the world about 12 years to take meaningful action to mitigate catastrophic impacts of rising temperatures.

It was two years ago that the City Council adopted the latest update of our Environmental Action Plan . This ambitious plan does not commit or appropriate money, but it does set the strategic direction to: 

The City released a comprehensive report of the accomplishments achieved during 2020, including reductions in GHG emissions, new programs to make commercial buildings more sustainable, transportation initiatives, new green building standards, expanded recycling, and more.

In April, the City Council approved our new Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Readiness Strategy. Earlier this year, the Council approved the City's first Alternative Fuel Fleet Policy to accelerate the City's deployment of these vehicles.

DASH recently added its first electric buses to its fleet. They are now serving our City on scheduled routes.

Last year, the Council unanimously approved our new Green Building Policy. This new policy reflects the collaboration of a Task Force that met for several months to arrive at this new direction.

Last year, the City Council voted 5-2 to create a C-PACE program in Alexandria. A C-PACE program will allow commercial property owners to make improvements to reduce energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability, financed by repayments collected as part of the property's real estate tax payment.

The City has again partnered with the Northern Virginia Regional Commission to bring back Solarize Alexandria. This program partners with residential property owners to conduct assessments on the feasibility of solar power installations.

Buildings account for 39% of total energy use, 68% of electricity consumption and 38% of all carbon dioxide emissions. When buildings are built efficiently, redevelopment can be a powerful force to reduce our energy demands and improve our environment. 

Led by an incredibly motivated and knowledgeable group of residents, the City vaulted to the lead among local governments by adopting the Eco-City Charter over a decade ago. The charter defined a comprehensive vision for our City to improve environmental sustainability. 

The Eco-City Charter then led the City to adopt the Environmental Action Plan. The plan laid out specific actions the City should undertake. It detailed how we should measure success and it began to define the next phase of our Eco-City evolution. 

In 2009, the City Council adopted Alexandria's first Green Building Policy. The policy laid out a series of expectations of the development community, including LEED Silver for non-residential development and LEED Certified for residential development. The policy included flexibility so that developers could utilize other standards to ensure environmental sustainability of their development. 

The new policy proposes to raise the bar, with all private development being requested to meet a LEED Silver standard, and and all public development being required to meet a LEED Gold standard. In addition to LEED, the proposed policy also allows for alternate certification options, including Green Globes and Earthcraft, with a process for use of alternate standards. 

While the task force supported the notion that public construction activity to lead the way in sustainability, there was some disagreement as to whether LEED Gold was sufficient or whether the City should set Net-Zero construction as the goal. Ultimately Council chose to set Net Zero as the goal for public facility construction. MacArthur Elementary School, which is now under construction, will be our first Net Zero building.

On Tuesday the 10th, the City will be hosting a virtual meeting to introduce our new "Flood Mitigation Pilot Grant Program." This new program will provide matching reimbursement grants to property owners making flood resiliency improvements. This is one of the components of our comprehensive approach to addressing the flooding that has impacted our community for decades.

The newly constituted Ad Hoc Stormwater Utility and Flood Mitigation Advisory Group will hold its second meeting later this month. This new committee will help advise the Council and our staff as we work to implement our flood mitigation plans. 

Earlier this year, the City Council unanimously adopted an an ordinance to double our Stormwater Utility Fee. to significantly increase the resources available for investments in our storm sewer infrastructure. This increase will cost a condo owner an additional $39 annually, a townhouse owner an additional $58, a small single-family homeowner an additional $140 and a large single-family homeowner an additional $233.

Recently enacted state legislation, sponsored by Senator Adam Ebbin at the City's request, gives the City the flexibility to use these resources to address all of the challenges facing our residents.

This increase will bring in an additional $8.5 million annually and support a newly accelerated 10-year program of investments. While these funds will address many smaller "spot improvement" projects, this funding will allow the City to undertake 11 of the top priority storm sewer capacity projects over the next decade:

In November, the City Council received the initial output from our recently-formed interdepartmental team working to address these challenges. You can watch the full worksession online.

In June of 2018, property owners in Alexandria paid a Stormwater Utility Fee for the first time ever. The creation of this fee was driven by the need for additional revenue to comply with the City's MS4 Permit. The permit reflects Alexandria's obligations to reduce pollutants contained in storm run-off which makes its way to the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways.

The fee applies to all properties (regardless of their taxable status). For commercial properties, it is assessed based on the impervious surfaces on the property. For residential properties, there are four tiers (apartment, townhome, small single-family home and large single-family home). There is a credit system in place to encourage actions that assist the City's storm sewers. Essentially the fee is structured to be a user fee for the City's stormwater handling.

For over 3 decades, Alexandria has designed and planned for our storm sewer system to withstand a "10-year" storm event. Said another way, a storm that is expected to have a 10% chance of happening every year, is the designed capacity of our system.

Alexandria spends a significant amount of money on infrastructure designed to manage water. In May, the City Council approved a $2.6 billion, ten-year Capital Improvement Program. Of that, over $320.5 million is to address stormwater and sanitary sewer infrastructure. Alexandria Renew Enterprises, the City's sewer authority, plans another $593 million of capital investments over the next decade, primarily the RiverRenew project to remediate the Combined Sewer (sanitary and stormwater) system that serves Old Town.

Together, nearly a billion dollars is planned for water investments. This spending dwarfs planned investments in schools, transportation and other major priorities. Only a decade ago, planned investments in water infrastructure were less than 10% of this total, but addressing these challenges will require a sustained increase in that investment level of a long period of time.

In 2016, the City conducted a comprehensive Storm Sewer Capacity Analysis. This exhaustive study looked at each of the City's eight watersheds (Backlick Run, Cameron Run, Four Mile Run, Holmes Run, Hooff's Run, Holmes Run, Potomac River, Strawberry Run and Taylor Run) and identified problem areas where current capacity does not meet our 10-year storm design standard.

From the maintenance perspective, it is also clear that we have work to do. The City is currently undertaking a $2 million effort to clear approximately 7,000 feet of the Hooff's Run Culvert. This 70+ year old urban culvert is designed to be "self-cleaning." After the July 2019 flooding event, the City commissioned a firm to do a robotic assessment of the condition of the culvert. That assessment showed an average of 5% obstruction across the culvert and some areas of 15-20% obstruction. The clearing of the culvert commenced last year and is expected to conclude soon. It does not appear to have been done before, certainly not in recent memory.

For development, whether large-scale, mixed-use development or a small residential addition, Alexandria's stringent stormwater requirements stipulate that conditions after development to be the same and oftentimes better than they were. As a consequence, the flooding we have experienced in the City is typically in established neighborhoods, areas of our City where we have not seen new development (aside from infill) in decades. Yet, there may be options to further strengthen these existing requirements. We have sought additional authority from the General Assembly for these expanded requirements.

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