I love Harris Teeter and will be a regular!

The issue is not just whether you like Harris Teeter or not. Or dislike the Giant (which severs many lower income residents) or think that Trader Joe's offers too few vegetable choices.

Many nearby residents believe, I think quite rightly, that the store is too large and that the negative community impacts have been underestimated. The project creates no new open space for a cIty that has insufficient open space and a lack of great parks (and now it wants to build on land along the waterfront that could and should be green and public)

Community impact statements should be give the same attention we give potential net revenue benefits, etc. In this instance, zoning rules were bent and changed to encourage development, without full consideration of the costs to Alexandria and Old Town generally.
Andrew Macdonald

I am really sick of people not realizing that we live in a CITY! Yes, parks are important to a good quality of life- AND we will get more parks if the Waterfront plan is passed. This property is currently an eye sore and the what is coming will be worlds better for everyone. if you want acres and acres of open space, go to Loudon County or maybe even further- West Virginia perhaps?

It is because we live in a city that having stretches of park land is so important. Parks are essential for an urban community to live and to breathe. They are the substitute front yards and back yards for people who live in townhouses and condos. Without them, people will become less healthy and more stressed.

I am not much of a traveler, but I have been to London and to Mexico City. Both of these cities, among the largest most densely packed cities in the Western world have large areas reserved for public parks. I even spent a Sunday afternoon in Chapultepec Park near the Mexican archeology museum, one of the most celebrated in the world. If Mexico can afford these things, surely Alexandria should be able to have them on a smaller scale.

There is very little more park land in the proposed waterfront plan , than we would have if we did not rezone. By the way, the only real eyesore on the waterfront is the boarded up building at the end of Prince Street. The city owns that building. It is structurally sound despite its appearance. The city could have renovated it. It chose not to.

Katy Cannady

WHEN will Harris Teeter open? Anyone know?

This will be a great asset to Alexandria. The residents of Alex House greatly exaggerated the potential problems. I've lived in north Old Town for 12 years...near this project. Traffic on Pitt is very light and can easily accommodate this project. Pity the city when it comes time to develop the bus barn site....the Alex House folks will want nothing there. Some folks just don't like change....including Andrew MacDonald.

Thanks Andrew, always appreciate your insights. As for the person saying traffic on Pitt is light, take a drive down Route 1 between 4pm and 6pm.

It's not about not wanting change, it's about wanting intelligent, thoughtful, well-studied decisions being made when that change occurs. The Alexandria City Council has not met a project they didn't want to greenlight in years. Never mind all the increased traffic we're going to continue to see grow on Route 1 without any widening, new Metro station, or plans for mass transit.

I agree with Macdonald and BG in Del Ray. The issues at stake are manifold. While it is perhaps momentarily interesting to get new shopping options, the proposed Harris Teeter is most definitely not an exciting piece of news in the longterm for the environment.

"AlexvaGirl" seems to think that the answer to anyone who resists this new development is to suggest that they want "acres of open space." That is a form of fallacious argument by dismissal familiar from popular Fox News rhetoric: "If you don't like our ways, go somewhere else." By that argument, one might respond, "If you like the City so much, go camp in the middle of a traffic island in Tyson's Corner."

While we all might agree that Giant needs some improvement, why not look at ways to improve what we already have rather than simply jumping on the bandwagon of so-called progress? As BG notes, the love of development is not going to help us in the long run. We need careful plans and thoughtful consideration. More than once I have heard shoppers at Trader Joe's comment upon the fact that they travel weekly from MD to shop at the Old Town Trader Joe's. Wonderful though this may be for Trader Joe's, it is not wonderful for the traffic situation in Old Town. One can only imagine what will happen with Harris Teeter. The variables of traffic are too difficult to project.

We MUST stop our love affair with development. Show some self control, and live with the choices you already have.

I very much look forward to this new store. My biggest complaint about living in Old Town has been the lack of a large grocery store. I am shocked at the remarks that Alexandria's parks are not sufficient. Alexandria has tons of parks for a city this size! And not a one of them is anywhere near half full when I am in them on weekends. Land area wise Alexandria is a rather small city so you are not going to see a park the size of central park in NYC or anything like that here. Ten or more years ago Arlington and Alexandria were considered suburbs. That is not the case today though. I second the comments that if you want open space, green space, to live somewhere that does not have commercial and retail space then move out because this is the city. No on living inside the beltway should ever complain about things like this.

Not enough grocery stores? Isn't Whole Foods large enough? Sufficient park land?

The issue is not about whether or not we have enough park land in Alexandria to support the demands of a growing population, which we don't on either a per capita basis (etc) or from a neighborhood use perspective. it's more about whether this particular (plus 50,000 sf) store should have been located at this particular site in N. Old Town.

Old Town is not Arlington's Ballston's corridor and I think that if we strive to develop like that I think we will lose our identity. I am not 100% against to adding another grocery store to the area, though personally I think we have a lot of choices already.

I'm more concerned that we are making life-style decisions without considering it's larger impact on the community. I don't think this zoning decision was based on what the best location for a new grocery store would be for an entire community.

Unfortunately, this debate has pitted those who want a "larger" grocery store against those who are perceived as more interested in keeping things as they are.

Andrew Macdonald

I just really wish that the people that have all these problems with city things would just please move out to Loudon County! This is the city and if you do not want a grocery store in your neighborhood then move to Loudon County or West Virginia. I can guarantee you that they do not have grocery stores in neighborhoods there and you will have more open and green space than you ever know what to do with!