|
The deadline to register or change your registration to vote is October 17th.
You may vote in person at 132 N. Royal Street, Suite 100 on any business day between 8 AM and 5 PM.
Saturdays from now until Election Day will be available from 8 AM until 5 PM.
Beginning October 27th, absentee voting will begin at Beatley Central Library at 5005 Duke Street.
|
Art on the Avenue Today!
From 10 AM until 6 PM, Del Ray will be filled with arts, food, music and 70,000 of your closest friends.
I'll see you there!
|
Fall Native Plant Sale
Orders can be placed
online or in person at the Buddie Ford Nature Center at 5750 Sanger Avenue between now and October 30th.
Pickup of all trees will be on November 5th between 10 AM and 1 PM.
|
Halloween Parade
Free for all ages, the parade features prizes for the best decorated homes, strollers, businesses and pets.
It starts at 2 PM. I'll see you there!
|
Family Fun Fesitval
With scarecrow making, facepainting, arts and crafts, pony rides, puppet shows, and much more; this event is not to be missed!
Tickets are $5 per person, and $15 per family.
|
Drug Take Back
Saturday October 22nd is the City's Drug Take Back.
If you have unwanted or expired prescription drugs, please take the time to drop them off at one of our three locations:
All locations will be open from 10 AM until 2 PM.
|
|
The program begins with a free assessment from the program installer. Sign up today!
|
Car Tax Due On Wednesday
Payments for the Vehicle Personal Property Tax are due Wednesday, October 5th.
|
One of the little known treasures of Alexandria is the Planetarium at T. C. Williams High School.
Even lesser known is that each month, Bob Nicholson, who has long managed the Planetarium, opens it up for the community for free.
Reservations are required, but don't miss out on this great resource!
The next show is Tuesday, October 25th, at 7 PM.
|
Request a Bike Rack
Know a good place in the City where we should place a bike rack?
Racks are installed on a seasonal basis and cannot be installed on private property.
|
|
 |
|
Alexandria is a unique community. It's not accidental. It's through the hard work of volunteers who make our City work.
We lost one of those committed volunteers last month with the death of Stewart "Stew" Dunn.
After service in the Army and alongside an impressive career as one of the best tax attorneys in the country, Stew found the time to give back to Alexandria.
With stints on the Human Rights Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Historic Alexandria Foundation, Hopkins House Board of Trustees, Old Town Civic Association, and finally over 20 years on the City's Planning Commission, Stew was an integral part of nearly every decision made in our community for decades.
He was the consummate gentleman and an endless source of wisdom and friendship. I'll certainly miss him.
With Fall finally here, the Council calendar is filling up. I've tried to provide updates below on some of the many issues facing your City Council.
|
Last month in this space, I wrote about the recent academic performance in our schools. I noted that our children are only in school for 32.5 hours a week. So much of what determines their educational attainment and ultimate success in life occurs during the hours when they are not inside a school building.
Along with the Mayor, the School Board Chair, and the School Board Vice Chair, I serve on the City Council/School Board Subcommittee. Under the auspices of that committee, we have spent the past few years focused jointly on the times outside of the classroom. Our work has been designed to leverage those times to improve educational outcomes for our children.
In June, the Council and School Board
held a joint worksession to focus on the after-school experience for students around our City.
Today public, private and non-profit organizations provide after-school services. The programs range from extensive homework assistance and tutoring to unstructured gymnasium time.
Our goal must be to improve the outcomes for our children by improving the coordination, quality, and availability of these services.
The first phase of this effort has been to catalog the existing offerings. This phase worked to document the locations, funding, capacity, and gaps that exist today.
The second phase of the effort worked to define what our goals
 for after-school must be. This phase looked at best practices, how to align with academic programs, and the financial implications of changes.
Our final phase will be to make policy proposals to implement an integrated and aligned system that will support success.
The
data collection efforts showed clear discrepancies in the availability of after-school services in the west end versus the east end of the City. It also showed wide variation in the types of services offered to youth as well as the grade levels that the programs serve.
The policy recommendations for improving after-school will come to the Council near the end of this year. I'm hopeful that we will be able to advance policy changes that will fully leverage our investments in after-school activities to improve the academic outcomes for our kids.
|
|
Broadband Update
For years, Alexandria has sought new private investment in broadband infrastructure. For most of our residents, we have one
 company providing Internet connectivity and television. Regardless of the performance of that company, technological innovation and reliability thrives on competition.
This is an issue that affects not only residents but also our businesses and the ability of our community to attract commerce.
Our efforts to bring new broadband infrastructure to Alexandria are entering a new phase.
Last July, the City took a significant step forward in our efforts to bring new broadband options to Alexandria. The Council had supported the idea of issuing a Request for Information (RFI). This RFI solicited concepts from the private sector for partnership with the City in expanding broadband options, availability, and capabilities.
By
leveraging E-Rate funding from the FCC, achieving operating savings from the costs of the existing agreement, and the potential for private leases of our infrastructure, the effort may be able to pay for itself.
Three years ago, one of the core components of the original proposal I made was that the City
adopt a "Dig Once" policy. Essentially that's a policy that makes the City more efficient by leveraging existing underground infrastructure work to also make broadband infrastructure investments. With hundreds of millions of dollars of sewer and transportation work scheduled over the next decade, we should sequence and combine that work to be the most efficient.
As we now begin the City's municipal infrastructure build-out, we are going to do just that.
This is an exciting project and one that gives the City the best chance to leverage its assets to bring new broadband services to our residents and businesses.
|
|
Future of Public Housing
The
Alexandria Redevelopment & Housing Authority (ARHA)
is an independent entity, with a City Council-appointed Board, but separate from the City, that utilizes Federal funding from the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) to provide housing to low-income residents of Alexandria.
ARHA directly manages and controls 1,079 units of affordable housing. In addition, ARHA manages the City's Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program, which utilizes Federal funding, to provide assistance for another 1,906 low-income families to reside in privately-owned housing units. This is approximately 4% of the City's housing stock.
At the federal level, we have seen dramatic changes in how public housing is managed and developed. In the past, the Federal Government had been a proactive participant in bringing about the redevelopment of public housing. This was demonstrated in Alexandria when the City utilized
HOPE VI funding to redevelop 100 units of Public Housing into
Chatham Square. This mixed-income development incorporated both market-rate and public housing.
Now in 2016, the Federal Government is forcing changes in public housing with its inaction. Today, HUD only funds 73% of every dollar required to operate Alexandria Public Housing units. The balance of revenue that ARHA collects as rent is not sufficient for sustainable management of their properties, and with the effects of sequestration, this is likely to get worse.
With aging properties sitting on valuable land, ARHA is now looking at the highest and best use of its land to preserve housing for low-income residents in our City.
Over 30 years ago, the City Council adopted
Resolution 830, which committed the City to the replacement of any public housing unit that was displaced by redevelopment. In past redevelopment efforts, replacement units have been obtained and created throughout our City.
In 2008, the City Council adopted the
Braddock East Master Plan, which called for redevelopment of several aging public housing properties. By allowing additional density near existing transit, it was designed to encourage private partnership in the redevelopment of this housing.
Today, aligned with this Plan, James Bland Homes
have become Old Town Commons. This redevelopment activity has proven successful in providing a sustainable model for mixed-income housing in our City.
In the fall of 2014, with these experiences and lessons behind us,
As they have continued through the process, ARHA narrowed the number of properties down to five: Andrew Adkins, Samuel Madden, Hopkins Tancil, the ARHA Headquarters building, and Cameron Valley.
Ramsey Homes was constructed beginning in 1941 and acquired by the Federal Government for defense housing. Maps from the time describe it specifically as a home for African-Americans. In 1953, ARHA purchased the property and it has been operated as public housing since that time.
The property is not in good condition and requires significant renovation to meet current standards. There is consensus that
 without replacement or renovation, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will no longer provide financial support for the units in the near term.
Obviously, without permission to demolish, the redevelopment could not proceed, and ARHA would either have had to renovate or close down Ramsey Homes.
As such, ARHA appealed the BAR's decision to the City Council. In September, the Council heard the case and voted to overturn the BAR by a vote of 5-2. In doing so, the Council requested that ARHA explore alternatives to full demolition.
Since that vote, litigation was filed challenging the Council's decision to allow demolition. Additionally, City staff analyzed the ARHA proposal, as well as an alternative with a few less units and some preservation.
Under the City's Charter and Zoning Code, neighbors of the Ramsey property signed a petition protesting the potential rezoning. With the protest deemed valid, the City Council is required to have six votes in order to pass the amendment to the master plan.
The day before the hearing, ARHA requested deferral of the Development Special Use Permit, but still requested approval of the master plan amendment and the rezoning.
However, that was not the end of the story.
As the dust settled on the vote, my colleague Councilman Smedberg made a request at the next Council meeting to rescind the vote. That request passed unanimously, which essentially wiped the slate clean.
In March, the zoning and master plan amendment were back before the Council. This time, Council approved them both unanimously.
While Ramsey will return for final Council approval this fall, the Work Group has now turned its attention to the remaining five properties contained in the original RFP:
Andrew Adkins, Samuel Madden, Hopkins Tancil, the ARHA Headquarters building and Cameron Valley.
ARHA has now chosen development partners for each of the five remaining properties:
Andrew Adkins: Alexandria Opportunity Housing, LLC, an affiliate of Clark Realty
Samuel Madden: Alexandria Opportunity Housing, LLC, an affiliate of Clark Realty
Hopkins Tancil: EYA/Penrose/JBG
ARHA Headquarters: EYA/Penrose/JBG
Cameron Valley: Bozzuto/Wesley Housing
Each of these redevelopment efforts will rely on
Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) and will need to compete successfully for those funding sources.
Given resource constraints at the staff level, as well as the need for Federal tax credits to make redevelopment feasible, these projects have now been sequenced.
The proposed sequence has Andrew Adkins and Samuel Madden proceeding first, with the redevelopment approvals tentatively planned to be before Council and the Planning Commission in December of 2017. After Adkins and Madden, the ARHA Headquarters site and Hopkins Tancil are proposed to proceed to approval in June of 2019. Cameron Valley would proceed last with the development approval in December 2020.
As ARHA begins this effort in cooperation with the City, we will have a historic opportunity to partner with the private sector and provide new housing for a variety of income levels near existing transit in our City. This effort will also provide financial stability for ARHA in the face of continued change at the Federal level.
Let me know your thoughts!
|
Bringing People to Alexandria
That equates to over 6.5 cents on our real estate tax. Tourism in our City essentially saves the average homeowner $338 per year.
The City achieved a 72.9% hotel occupancy (compared with a 65.5% national average) and the highest ever revenue per available room with $110.
Visit Alexandria is the City's public/private partnership to increase tourism. I serve as the Council's representative to their Board of Governors.
In our most recently approved budget, the Council increased the budget of the
Visit Alexandria to provide new resources to capitalize
 on the PBS "Mercy Street" show as well as providing resources to update the digital marketing content.
Yet our City cannot rest on its laurels. During difficult times, communities around our country and particularly our region are working to offer unique experiences to visitors.
Designed to showcase the best of Alexandria, this new marketing effort draws on our residents and businesses to attract visitors from around the country to our City.
|
New Districts for Our Schools
For the first time since 1999, our School Board is conducting a
 redistricting process. With the exception of the newly rebuilt Jefferson-Houston Elementary School, each Alexandria City Public School utilizes at least 92% of its existing capacity with some schools at 152% of their capacity. While redistricting can help arrive at more straightforward attendance zones, it will not resolve our capacity challenges.
While this effort falls completely in the purview of our elected School Board, it is a highly visible effort that we as a community are now involved in.
The School Board has been advised in the process by a
review committee of residents representing each school as well as community and student representatives.
ACPS has set up a form to accept questions and comments on this ongoing process.
|
SafeTrack Follow-Up
Once the crown jewel of the Washington, DC region, Metrorail is experiencing a very difficult time. While the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has numerous challenges, the most serious and pressing are related to safety.
Metro is a basic building block of our region's economy. If there is a perception that the system is unsafe, then that awareness can be crippling to the region.
 Advancing this work requires expanded time when the system is not operating. To make this happen, extended weekend hours have been discontinued, new mid-day maintenance will occur, and most importantly, a series of "surges" will occur across the system.
While WMATA is certainly analyzing the success of their repair efforts, the City is reviewing our mitigation efforts.
During the surges, bus ridership in the corridor doubled and ridership on the Route 1 Transitway tripled. The shuttle bus operation carried 17,000 trips a day during Surge 3 and 25,000 trips a day during Surge 4. On DASH, ridership increases were between 26-31%.
We saw a 92% increase in usage of the Potomac Yard Trail, an 89% increase for the Mount Vernon Trail. Those were coupled with a 27% increase in Commonwealth Avenue bike traffic.
While these shutdowns certainly had negative impacts on our residents, they also allowed the City and its partners to experiment in our responses.
Let us know your thoughts as we prepare.
|
Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room!
My regular series of Town Hall Meetings continue!
You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest!
|
|
Upcoming Issues
|
Fiscal Year 2017 just began on July 1, yet we're getting ready to discuss Fiscal Year 2018. While it will still be a few more weeks until the City Council begins to get a picture of what revenue growth for our next budget will look like, we are starting to get some sense of the challenges that face us.
Faced with this reduction of revenue, that state is now forced to dip into its revenue stabilization fund (the so-called "Rainy Day Fund") and defer planned salary increases. With those changes, there is still additional spending to be cut in the upcoming General Assembly session.
The City receives over $46 million in General Fund revenues from the Commonwealth along with another $69 million in non-General Fund revenues. This is not an insignificant portion of our revenue.
Within City Government and within the Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), the engagement to develop the next budget is now commencing.
Disposing of City Property
In 2007, a blue ribbon commission of residents and business leaders in Alexandria, formally known as the "Mayor's Economic Sustainability Work Group,"
made their report to the City Council.
One component of their report related to City-owned properties. The report urged that the City create a good accounting of the property we own and dispose of properties that were no longer required to provide municipal services.
After adopting this recommendation, the City hired the national real estate firm Jones, Lang, Lasalle to perform such a review. The review looked at the full inventory of 300+ properties owned by the City. These properties ranged from tiny slivers of land that were completely inaccessible to large multi-block tracts.
In 2009, the Council adopted these recommendations and began to pursue disposition of the properties that were designated as surplus.
Today, only one of the eight properties that were designated for surplus remain in City ownership. All of the properties are listed below with their disposition:
401 E. Braddock Road (corner of Braddock & Mount Vernon Avenue): This was sold in 2011 for $280,500.
716 - 718 N. Columbus Street (former residential care home): This was sold in 2012 for $662,000.
3600 Jefferson Davis Highway (corner of Jefferson Davis & Reed): This was transferred to AHC Inc. (an affordable housing non-profit) to support a new affordable housing development.
200 N. Royal Street (Elder Crafters): This was sold in 2013 for $1,250,000.
509 N. St. Asaph Street (old Health Department building): This was sold in 2014 for $5,230,000.
1505 Powhatan Street (corner of Powhatan & Slaters Lane): This was sold in 2014 for $4,400,000.
0 Prince Street (Beachcomber Restaurant): This was exchanged in 2014 as part of the land swap with the Old Dominion Boat Club.
We will still need to select a buyer, determine how to ensure the existing parking is not lost, and proceed with the normal development approval process.
The net proceeds from the completed sales have generated $115 million of one-time funds that we have used to fund our Capital Improvement Program. Beyond that, these sales have taken properties that were non-taxable and placed them on the tax roles, easing the tax burden on residents and business owners throughout our City.
|
|
|