Politics & Government

Council Pushes Action on Waterfront Plan to Fall

Smedberg, Donley express concerns over tone of citizen correspondence on the proposal

The Alexandria City Council agreed Tuesday to push a second public hearing on the controversial $50 million waterfront plan until September with a vote expected later in the fall.

Councilman Paul Smedberg suggested the move with the Council’s July and August recess looming.

“I think we need to do that as a community considering all the comments we have received, the emails,” Smedberg said. “It’s important that we continue to work and do not start from scratch.”

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City staff will work with citizens to re-examine the plan over the summer recess.

Smedberg and Vice Mayor Kerry Donley expressed concerns over the tone of correspondence from citizens on the issue. Donley characterized the dialogue as “vitriolic.”

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“This kind of discourse isn’t very becoming of us and it’s something to be mindful of,” Smedberg said. “The information provided to the community and groups is factual—it’s not half-truth, half-fact.”

The city spent two years formulating the waterfront plan. The Council has held three on the issue. The Planning Commission recently held two hearings. and will now hold a second in the fall.

“We have spent a lot of time on this,” Donley said. “We’ve spent more time on this 160,000 square-foot development… than we did over at Potomac Yard, which is 8 million square feet. … We’re doing it because we care.”

Mayor Bill Euille said the decision to hold the second hearing in September isn’t locking the Council into voting on the issue that month, but he did hope to vote on the plan “in the next decade.”

Citizen concerns on the waterfront plan have involved parking and the potential creation of hotels. The Council is also looking for ways to incorporate more open space into the plan.

“We need to take a hard look at what we want and want we can be doing,” Councilman Rob Krupicka said. “I hope we can layout a process to really problem-solve.”

Clarification: This article has been edited to reflect that last Saturday's City Council meeting on the waterfront redevelopment issue was a work session and not a hearing.


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