City Council - public_hearing

A1 and A6 to discuss the performance of the City Council appointees and to discuss or consider the investment of public funds where competition or bargaining is involved. We've made public initially the financial interests of the city would be adversely affected.

Okay, there has been a motion. Is there a second? Second. There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Vice Mayor Bagley to convene in closed executive session. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. We are now in executive session and we'll reconvene at 7.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

I stand, I stay focused. Thank you.

Yes. How come you can't get it?

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have.

Thank you. Thank you. I do appreciate all.

Yeah, it's like all bad.

Thank you.

Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, move to reconvene in open session.

Okay. There has been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilman Chapman to reconvene from closed executive session. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it. We are now back. Thank you to all of you who have joined us for tonight's public hearing. Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of a proclamation recognizing National Night Out.

Okay, we have two proclamations tonight. The first is on National Night Out, and I have asked Vice Mayor Bagley to read that proclamation. If you are joining us in celebration of National Night Out, we ask that you please come to the front over here on the right at this time.

Is this on?

All right, good evening everybody.

I'm gonna get started and let this impressive wall of officers and affiliates join me here. So I'm gonna read the proclamation and ask maybe one or two people to speak a little bit about National Night Out and the other officers can introduce themselves.

All right.

Whereas National Night Out is an annual community building campaign that promotes police community partnerships, neighborhood camaraderie, and public safety efforts throughout the city of Alexandria. And whereas National Night Out provides an opportunity for residents, businesses, community and faith organizations, and public safety personnel to come together in support of safer, stronger, and more connected neighborhoods. And whereas the City of Alexandria is committed to fostering trust, collaboration, and meaningful engagement between community members and those who serve them. And whereas the Alexandria Police Department works alongside residents, businesses, schools, faith communities, and civic organizations to address public safety concerns, prevent crime, and enhance quality of life through relationship-based policing and problem-solving partnerships. And whereas National Night Out demonstrates that public safety is a shared responsibility and that strong relationships among neighbors and between the community and public safety professionals contribute to safer, more resilient neighborhoods. And whereas under the theme, one community, one night, one Alexandria, National Night Out celebrates the unity, diversity, and collective spirit that define Alexandria, bringing together people from every neighborhood in a shared commitment to public safety, connection, and community well-being. And whereas on Tuesday, August 4th, 2026, neighborhoods, businesses, and faith communities throughout Alexandria will participate in national night out events that strengthen relationships, foster trust, and reinforce the partnerships that help make Alexandria a safe city for all. Now, therefore, I, Sarah Bagley, on behalf of Aaliyah Gaskins, Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Virginia, do hereby proclaim Tuesday, August 4th, 2026 as National Night Out in the City of Alexandria and encourage all residents, businesses, community and faith organizations, and visitors to participate in neighborhood events, connect with one another, support local public safety efforts, and embrace the spirit of one community, one night, one Alexandria. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Alexandria to be affixed. Well, it says this fourth day of August 2026, but we won't be here that day. So in anticipation of the 4th of August 2026, Mayor Leah Gaskins. With that, Chief McGuire, if you could say a few words.

Thank you very much, Vice Mayor, for that proclamation. Mayor and Council, thank you for just recognizing National Night Out. Just from a historical context about National Night Out, in 1981 there was a gentleman in West Philadelphia that acknowledged that across the United States there were a significant amount of crime watch groups that were forming and that were joining in protection of their communities. And in 1981 that gentleman established the National Town Watch. Fast forward in 1984, America saw its first national night out event. There were approximately 2.5 million residents across the United States, across over, I think it was 23 states that started to celebrate national night out. And so that is the origin of where it came from. And as it was stated in the proclamation, that origin really defined that it was so important for community and police to establish partnerships before crime happened and occurred as it relates to problem solving. And so I'm so honored tonight to not only encourage everyone that is watching and that is here in the room to ensure that you sign up for National Night Out, but I'm also fortunate to have community members here who have been pillars of National Night Out here within our community and also our officers and our leadership that make sure that this event is successful here in Alexandria. I'll close by saying we had over 50-something events citywide last year. We were recognized nationally, and our goal is to break that record this year and continue to do it year after year. So some people in this room have a lot of pressure mounting on them, but I know that we can further obtain the goal at a greater level this coming year, and we're so honored to be recognized. I'll pass it on and just allow you all to introduce yourself.

Hi there. My name is Alejandro Lopez. I'm the head trustee over at Alexandria Free Methodist Church. We've been doing the national night out on our property for many years, and it's just been a wonderful ability to just get the community together and just spend time together, so.

I'm Pastor Ben Talley of the Alexandria Free Methodist Church. And one of the neat things was this was about to die in our neighborhood, but they came to the church and said, hey, can you shepherd this for a while, which we have done. And what's really exciting is it's going to go to the Patrick Kennedy Center this year, which is a much better facility, and we're going to still help out with it. And because of last year's, I got to meet some fine guys here and got to know the police. And then also during the whole ice storm, I got to help neighbors out that I didn't know before. Clear their driveway, so it's a wonderful event Good evening.

I'm Alan Lomax I chair the substance abuse prevention coalition of Alexandria and our goal is to really make sure that Prevention is provided for youth who may be thinking about or starting to use substances We could not be successful in what we do without the police department and all the support they give to us and we've been participants in national night out for I think about a decade since about a decade and we wouldn't miss it because it's so important to be there meet with the community members talk about how important the police department are are to our involvement also we'll talk about how important the community members are to involvement so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to do that good evening everybody i'm tony moore alexander city police department um please register we're happy to come to your communities and share and break bread and we're going to break the record this year so

I'm Sergeant Lawrence, Community Engagement Division. This will be my third time working on this event. I look forward to having another successful one.

Hi, I'm Officer Abby Mishler, also with the Alexander Police Department, Crime Prevention Unit. And, yeah, we had a great time last year, so look forward to it again this year.

I'm the one that Chief looked at when he said there's pressure. I'm Captain Ladislaw. For counsel, I've seen a lot of you guys for years at the events. The thing I love the most about these events are the ability for you guys to ask the questions you've always wanted to ask the police. that you're too nervous to ask because we're in a much different setting. We're not doing a traffic stop. We're not out on a crime scene. We're in line waiting for a hot dog just like you guys are. And you can turn around and say, hey, I always had a question. Why do you park like this or what do you do here? Last year we had someone who had an issue with a street sign and we were able to get that fixed and they just didn't want to bother us. It's never a bother for you guys to tell us what's going on in your community. Because we can help. And what we've found over the years is a community that knows each other and that is willing to include us will always be successful. And so please sign up. If you only think you have four houses that want to do something on your street, we'll do it. And we'll send someone out to come see you. We'll come see the kids. We'll talk to them about crime prevention. We'll talk to them about safety. And hopefully you get out there and you can get over that hump where they say most people can't name five of their neighbors. And so getting together with your neighbors, you can know your neighbor's names. And when you see them, it's not just the polite wave. It's a. Hey Sarge, how you doing? And you can have that conversation. So please sign up. If you go to Facebook after this, there's going to be a post for you guys to be able to link in and be able to register if you want to do it. If you have any questions, crimeprevention at alexandrovva.gov is the email address that you can send anything about National Night Out or any questions you have. The group up here gets that email and we'll be able to get back to you as quick as we can. Thank you.

Sergeant Anderson, also with these guys for a community engagement. Like Sergeant Lario said, third time doing National Night Out, and I had the pleasure of riding bikes with Ms. Bagley here, so I've been training the last year. So hopefully this next time I won't be as winded, as sweaty when I meet you guys. So I'm excited to see.

Put the officer on the spot again. No, but to that point, I think we got stopped on our bikes by people walking by, to your point about how when you change the dynamic and the feel, people were quick to sort of wave at us and ask us to come over. So I will see you again on the bicycle, sir. I know you guys have those fancy new e-bikes, so I was very excited to see that. no thank you all for all you contribute I'm very proud when I travel the country to talk about how many events we have and how welcome everybody is and I've already gotten my first invitation to Taylor run so they're first on the board but we invite everybody else to send them send their invites with that mayor Gaskins I move the proclamation okay there has been a motion is there a second okay there has been a motion by vice mayor Bagley and a second by councilwoman green is there any additional discussion

Well, I will just say, let me put a finer point on it. But at the end of the day, this night is about building relationships and celebrating our community. And so I would just echo what has been said here and encourage everyone, whether you're in a community that's hosting its own event or there's a neighborhood that you've never spent time in, go out, get to know your neighbors, get to know our men and women from APD, but also our community partners. It's fun. There's dancing. There's games. Everyone is a little bit different, but I think it truly represents what is best and special about our community, which is when we come together, when we get to know each other, we really show the power of love and being good neighbors. So with that, there has been a motion and a second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it, and the proclamation passes. Thank you. Madam Clerk, next item.

Presentation of the Annual Commission of the Year Impact Award.

Okay, next we have a very special celebration, and this is the time of year when we do our presentation and celebration of the Commission of the Year. And so I have asked Councilman Chapman to present the award. And if you don't know already, I think you might have guessed by some of your neighbors in the audience, but this year's awardee, or I guess awardee, I'm not sure how you say it, this year's commission that is receiving the award is our Stormwater Commission. And so I see our chair, vice chair, some other leaders. You're here. We ask that you please come to the front at this time. And Councilman Chapman will talk a little bit about the process and why this commission was selected.

All right. Good evening, everyone. Several years ago, a number of us kind of thought about the impact that our boards and commissions have on city council. We have over 70 advisory committees that give us advice about any and everything under the sun. And it takes a number, at this point, hundreds of dedicated residents and business leaders, parents, young people that give of their time to make recommendations, sometimes caution, counsel on things that we're doing. And they do this for the grand salary of $0. And so we have a number of boards that have been doing this work and doing it to such a level, a high level of significance, that we thought it would be not only a great opportunity to recognize people, but also an opportunity to showcase the good work that some of our commissions are doing. how they're doing their work. And so for the last three years, we have been taking nominations of boards and commissions that are operating and giving us quality advice on a number of different issues. And I am pleased that one of the greatest committees in the city, has gotten awarded this year. I was at the beginning of this commission, so it gives me great pleasure to have them here this day. And on the heels of opening up Alex Renu, that is going to be doing some great work. So I've seen John earlier today, I'll see him NOW, BUT THE WORK OF THIS COMMISSION AND GOING TO A NUMBER OF THESE MEETINGS, THE QUALITY OF THE CONVERSATIONS, PARTICULARLY WITH OUR STAFF, HAVE BEEN AMAZING. ALL OF US, PARTICULARLY IF YOU'RE AN ENGAGED INDIVIDUAL HERE IN THE CITY, YOU CONNECT WITH OR HAVE TALKED WITH CITY STAFF, SOMETIMES WE AGREE. Sometimes we don't, but the level of conversation has been excellent at the Stormwater Commission because everyone knows what they're there to do and how to try to get this job done together, whether it's taking resources, whether it's talking about communication, All of that has risen to an amazing level over the last several years. And so, again, it is exciting to award you all. I will unveil the award as you all introduce yourselves and maybe talk a little bit about your experience very quickly because I know we have some stuff to do. Very quickly about your experience on the board, and then I'll give these to you.

That's it.

Well, first, thank you very much to Council and others for nominating us. I'm John Hill and Chairman of the Stormwater Committee. The thing I'll say is really thanking Council for maintaining the commitment to the flood action program that was set in 2021. And throughout the years, even though we've had many dry summers, you've maintained that commitment. So thank you.

Hi, I'm Katie Wainick, and I am vice chair of the commission, and I want to echo what John has said. Just sincere thank you to everyone here, to everyone on staff, both here in the room and those that are not here in the room. If you had told me when my home flooded in 2020 and 2021 with sewage, And I got started on just being loud that this is where we would be a few years later. I would have just not known what to say or do. So the amount of communication, as you said, the level of just what we are able to do, bringing residents, staff, council together has been incredible. And I'm just so proud of everything that's been accomplished and the continued support through all of it.

I'm Dino Drude. I'm the Federation of Civic Associations designee on the Stormwater Utility and Flood Mitigation Advisory Committee. Every twice a year, folks have to pay their stormwater utility fee, and the fee is intended to help rectify the inland flooding all over the city. we have found that rectifying it is proving to be a much bigger challenge than I think folks realized at the outset. And so we have been working diligently to try to get to solutions that are apparently more difficult and perhaps more expensive than we originally thought.

Well, thank you. I'm going to give not only this to you, but also the award to the chairman. And we do have, it is. I'll give that to our clerk. She picked it. And we do have certificates for each of the members in recognition of a little bit of thanks that you guys have been Doing in terms of hard work on this commission.

So thank you very much and congratulations And if you guys could come together I think we're gonna try and get an official photo here in the center We're gonna face our deputy clerk Kia waters. Oh Thank you, and congratulations again. Madam Clerk, next item.

Public discussion period.

Okay, we are going to go into our general public discussion period. As a reminder, our public hearings are for the purpose of conducting business. We ask that if you have signs, please be mindful of your neighbors and making sure that everyone has a view and is able to see the proceedings that are going on. We will not tolerate disruptive behavior, so I will give a warning. And if I need to give a second warning, then we might ask our officer from APD to have you escorted. Additionally, you are able to snap, but we ask that you please do not clap because it's a smaller room and the sound reverberates, and it's very hard to then hear the next speaker. We will ask that you speak here at the podium. I will call several names at a time, but please do not line up. We will wait until that person is finished. I just like to give the name so that you know where you are in order. There is a timer that will begin as soon as you start to speak, and then you will hear a beep as soon as your time is over. With that, we actually have three speakers for this item. The first is David Brickley. The second is Rushton Turner. And the last is Nancy McCormick. If we could have David Brickley, please come to the podium.

Madam Mayor, thank you very much, and council members, and city manager. My name is David Brickley. I'm with the September 11th National Memorial Trail Alliance. And I've got to tell you right from the start, it is so good to be in a building named after Del Pepper. A generation ago, a lifetime ago, I served in the General Assembly of Virginia for 22 years, and I chaired and put the legislation in for the Virginia Railway Express. And I cannot thank your predecessors for the support that they gave in making that vision a reality. So thank you. It's great to be here among friends. I'm here today because the General Assembly just several days ago, when Governor Spanberger appropriated funds for the September 11th National Memorial Trail, we've got a, I don't know whether your slides we gave up, do they work or not? We don't. Okay, well, they were sent slides. That'd be fine, though. Gave funding for the 9-11 trail and also a million dollars in funding for working on the construction of the new visitor center at the Pentagon Memorial, so I feel good about that. This is the 25th anniversary of 9-11. The congressionally designated September 11th National Memorial Trail is a 1500-mile trail and greenway connecting the three 9-11 memorials over six states and the District of Columbia. You've got the brochure in front of you. This pretty cool map to show you where it goes. It hits all those states. It actually starts from from Mount Vernon going up through Alexandria, Arlington, into the Pentagon Memorial, and then up to DC, and then heading all the way around. And so our vision is to make sure that people realize what a special event happened 25 years ago and to not forget that. The 9-11 Trail serves as a living memorial that honors the victims and heroes of September the 11th. while promoting the remembrance, education, resilience, and community connection among all of us. You also have in there just a letter that I had sent a while back to Mayor Gaskins, a resolution from the Northern Virginia Community or Regional Commission supporting it. Federal legislation designating and authorizing the September 11th Memorial Alliance and specifically allowing and promoting some type of signage. Each jurisdiction, each locality is going to be different on that. In Pennsylvania, the governor has decided to have signage along the entire stretch, going from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, along even each locality. New Jersey is doing basically the same thing. But each locality is different. And we're just asking that you consider having signage of some sort. You see a picture of when the legislation was passed with then Congresswoman Spanberger in it. And I see my light's giving me time to go, so I'll not get too far. But one of the last things I put in that package was showing what the National Park Service is putting in. They're going to be doing signage at very distinct places that have a particular significance to 9-11 and that community. There are those same specific places in Alexandria. And I hope that we can work with you, with the city manager, and your staff to be able to have those specific places be recognized for the September 11th National Memorial Trail. Thank you very, very much for your courtesy. Have a great summer. Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for your time today. And we will follow up. I'll coordinate with the manager to follow up with you on the request, but also making sure that you know about our annual memorial and so making sure that we can also talk about the trail as part of that as well. Thank you. And I didn't know if you noticed, but Ms. Pepper is here in the audience tonight. Oh, my gosh. Oh, she is right over there. Oh, my gosh. It doesn't always happen.

I'm going to go around this way.

Okay. Well, while you're going that way, I am going to ask Rustin Turner to please come.

She's online.

Okay. We can hear you. I guess if you could. Can you hear me? Yes, there we go. We can hear you.

Awesome. I'm so sorry. I don't know that I am on the right docket number. I might have submitted wrong. I'm here to talk about parking on the 200 block of Fairfax Street. and would love to give a comment.

Yes. You are on the correct item.

OK. Awesome. Sorry about that. I know that our parking on Fairfax Street has come up multiple times in the Transportation Board. But I would like to raise that there have been multiple different city decisions that have affected our residential parking, from the King Street shutdown to the renovation of City Hall to the additional bus stops and the loading zones are still here. Ultimately, we're losing all of our parking on the 200 block. It's particular to me. I have a newborn. I'm not able to get of the parking when I come home, and then I cannot get my newborn out of the car. So just wanted to raise that we keep raising these concerns. I think all of these decisions have been made separately, but in aggregate is very much affecting the North 200 block. So would love to know if there's an appellate process or any sort of process that we can. I know there's a transportation board meeting at the end of the month. which I will also try to raise these concerns. But I really wanted to bring it up and ask that it be reevaluated in some sort of manner. At least the loading zones, we can take those ways somehow. But it's significantly affecting our way of life here.

Well, thank you for your time today, Ms. Turner. I'm going to ask our Director of Transportation and Environmental Services, Ms. Riley, to follow up with you directly. And what we can do is sort of look at each of those decisions, because each decision would have a different type of process in terms of appeals or when they were approved and deadlines. But what we can do is put it together in a summary and have a conversation about what might be a path forward. So thank you for your time. Understood. Thank you. Our next speaker is Nancy McCormick.

Good evening, Mayor Gaskins and Council. I am Nancy McCormick. I ask for your patience with me as I was not able to attend the May 16 public hearing on the Braddock Road project as it was my grandson's second birthday. I live at 817 Little Street, Alexandria, Virginia 22301 for 50 years. For 50 years, I have sat on my porch, not every day, every hour, and observed Braddock Road for 50 years, and never, ever have I seen the bicycle traffic you have based on your vote on, Madam Mayor. This leads me to believe you did not do any research, which means you were negligent. Did you drive up and down Braddock Road to observe bicycle usage? Did any of you? Did you come east on Braddock Road? during the school year and see the school buses who use the left tourney lane to go to GW Middle School between 8.15 and 8.30 a.m. This vanity project by the traffic department is completely a lie. There is no data. Both John Porter and Dana Lawhorn asked for supportive data and none was provided. Now you base the vote on a capital improvement project without supportive data. Sounds more like the federal government workings at this time in our history than city governments who have every responsibility to show care and sensitivity to their constituents. This vanity project should never have been considered by you, Madam Mayor and City Council. You cannot turn this city into Denmark. Which one of you on the council would vote to lose parking in front of your home or your neighbor's homes? Should parents with an ill child have to park two blocks away to walk their child into their home? Should a cancer patient who's coming home from chemo treatment park two blocks away? Someone who is home with any surgery, should they park two blocks away? Bicyclists in these cities, in this city, do not stop at red lights. Do not stop at stop signs. Do not walk their bikes across crosswalks. basically very bad drivers on their bikes because they are vehicles with whose those laws are there to obey. You voted to award bad behavior with this vote. If you do consider the basic human needs of safety and confidence along Braddock Road is more important than one to three bicyclers a week, you can go back, you can stop this, and you will be remembered for writing a wrong decision when it was time for reelection in 2027. Or you can be remembered for being negligent, uncaring, and self-absorbed in the next election. You can turn this around. After all, I am sure you do not want this city to be on the news reporting a 74-year-old woman who has sat down in the middle of Braddock Road when the destruction was to begin. And it is destruction on every level with no ounce of improvement. Thank you for your time. And in the words of Spike Lee, do the right thing. Thank you.

Thank you for your time today. To your question about whether or not I walk the road, spent time on the road, drive the road, yes, not just for this project, but regularly, because I live in this city as well. And I'm happy to sit down with you and go through all of the ways that I approach this project, as I'm sure others would as well, and the data that I consider. So thank you. At this time, Madam Clerk, please call the next item.

Motion to second.

I will take the motion from Councilman Kanak Aguirre and a second from Vice Mayor Bagley to close the public hearing. Is there any additional discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. Madam Clerk, next item.

Action docket roll call consent item 7 through 20.

There's a motion to move the consent docket, and I have a motion from Councilman Aguirre, and I will take the second from Councilman Alnubi. Is there any additional discussion? Councilman Chapman.

I had to find the number, but I wanted to pull 15.

Okay. Actually, so we have an adjustment. Councilman Aguirre, would you amend your motion to move items 7 through 14, skip 15, and then 16 through 20?

Yes, Madam Mayor, I move that we approve roll call consent with the subtraction of item number 15.

Okay. And I have a second from Councilman Aguirre. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman El-Nubi. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye.

All right. The ayes have it. Madam Clerk, next item.

Requests for release of contingent reserves for jail operational efficiency study.

Councilman Chapman. Thank you, Madam Mayor. I don't have any questions. Just to be consistent with my current position on this item, I need to pull it.

Madam Mayor.

Councilman Aguirre.

Move approval of item 15.

Second. There's been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley to move approval of item 15. Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley.

Aye.

Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Councilman Chapman.

Nay.

Councilman El Newby? Aye. Councilwoman Green? Councilwoman Marks?

Aye. All right. The ayes have it. This time, I'm going to ask for personal privilege and see if there can be a motion to take item 23, the health department update, out of order. Councilwoman Marks?

Aye. Move to take docket item 23, public health update, out of order after a roll call consent items, which we just did, and before the public hearing. OK. There's been a motion. Is there a second? Second.

A second by Councilman Chapman. Any additional discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Well, actually, no. This is a regular vote. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it. At this time, if you are here for the presentation for our health department update, please come to the front. And Madam Clerk, can you please officially call the item?

Health department update.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right. Is Dr. Rose?

Good evening. I'm sorry I cannot be there in person and unfortunately can't feel the energy of the room, but very pleased to be here this evening. Again, for the record, I am David Rose. I am the director of the Alexandria Health District, and I am pleased to be here as part of this presentation on the health department updates on our community health improvement plan and other project healthy homes. I don't know if it's serendipity or providence or just dumb luck, but we happen to be here on the one year anniversary of our state of the health presentation to council last year, where we talked about the community health assessment. We talked about the importance of place in the determination of health. how that impacted our planning for the next iteration of the plan, and some activities that we thought would be useful in terms of engagement and making sure that we have the community involved in planning moving forward. And so tonight in the room, you have Natalie Tallis, who's the population health manager for the Department of Health. And I'm going to leave her to conduct the discussion. And just please, Natalie, take it away.

NATALIE TALLIS, POPULATION HEALTH MANAGER FOR THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, THANK YOU, DR. ROSE. GOOD EVENING, MADAM MAYOR, MEMBERS OF COUNCIL. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE OPPORTUNITY TO PROVIDE THIS UPDATE TONIGHT. AS DR. ROSE SAID, I'M NATALIE TALLIS, THE POPULATION HEALTH MANAGER FOR THE HEALTH DEPARTMENT, AND WE'RE GOING TO BE PROVIDING SOME BRIEF UPDATES ABOUT BOTH THE COMMUNITY HEALTH IMPROVEMENT PLAN AS WELL AS OUR HEALTHY HOMES INITIATIVE. AND I JUST WANT TO QUICKLY NOTE THAT A BIG PART OF OUR ABILITY TO DO THIS WORK is having the right staff and partners in place. So not just Sean, who's going to speak shortly, and Alan Lomax from the Partnership for a Healthier Alexandria. But I want to quickly acknowledge a few other members of our staff who aren't here who have been doing an incredible amount of work, including Maria Salvatierra, our community health worker who has been doing incredible community organizing work for the Arlandria Coalition. as well as Andrea DeSantis, our community engagement manager, whose role was just made permanent through this recent budget cycle. And then also thanks to Council's Investment in Healthy Homes, Warda Ali, our other community health worker, who has had an incredible role within the Healthy Homes efforts that I'm going to be sharing tonight. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to Sean Curry. SEAN CURRY, All right.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak about this. My name is Sean Curry, I'm the public health planner here for the city of Alexandria. We can go to the next slide. And so I'm going to go through a couple of these early slides pretty quickly. This is just a recap of what this process looks like with our health improvement planning. So this is a larger process that takes place over a few years. Back in May of 24 through April 25, we conducted a community health assessment that we presented to you all last year, collecting all kinds of different data, both the quantitative and the qualitative. We analyzed those findings, and we're now at the point where we are building that action plan. for us to be implementing here at the end of the year through 2030. Next slide, please. And just a quick refresher of what the health report found. So across the board, Community Voice came through that mental health and mental wellness is a top priority that we want to work on. in our city, both across demographics, but also across geographies. And any other way that you spliced it, we found that being a top priority. So we're focusing there across the city. And then the other thing that we found through the quantitative data especially is that there were some specific neighborhoods where we identified if we focus our efforts there, we can make a whole lot of impact. And so we focused our efforts in Arlandria as well as the landmark Van Doren neighborhoods. And what we've done is we've formed these community coalitions for each of those three priority areas. Next slide, please. And this slide is just to demonstrate some of the progress that's been done so far. Some of the key takeaways I'm hoping that we get from today is that these are community coalitions. This is a community created process. What that means is sometimes things don't go all at the exact same pace, and that means that each of these coalitions, they're going at the pace that the community members are able to go at to make sure that we are having everybody included in the conversation, and we're moving forward in a way that's effective for everyone. And so, you're good. You can go to the next slide.

There we go.

Yeah. And just to highlight a couple of the progress updates. So starting with the Mental Wellness Coalition, which has been the coalition that's been going along the furthest. It's been a way for us to also learn along the way. We've been adapting based on those learnings. And so one of the things that we did early on was doing a visioning activity to identify from our community members what does a more mentally well or what does a healthier Landmark Van Doren look like in the year 2030. And so our Mental Wellness Coalition came up with this vision. of Alexandria is a community where everyone can feel safe, connected, and supported because mental health and wellness are prioritized, accessible, and part of everyday life. Next slide, please. And so building off of that, and what we're doing within each of these steps is each step is building off of one another. And so building off of that vision, we asked the community coalitions then, okay, what are those things specifically within mental wellness that we want to work on? What are those focus areas? And we got over 100 ideas that came forward. And those got condensed into 19 different options that then were voted on. And we have our five here that are being focused on now. And there's a work group for each of these five focus areas. And what we're doing now is we're building out that plan for each of those areas. And when I say we, I'm really focusing on those work groups. Our work groups are led by community members as well as other organizations or city agency members. It's not just me, Natalie, and Alan that are leading this process. We're there to provide the important support that's needed so that way the community can continue moving things forward. Next slide, please. And then also just to cover about our Landmark Van Dorn neighborhood. So this is over on the west end. Picture here is actually an action shot of one of the visioning activities that took place over at Patrick Henry. And they also came up with their vision, the same similar process as we did with mental wellness. And so they found that Landmark is a community where everyone has what they need to thrive. It's a neighborhood rooted in hope, strengthened by cultural richness, and connected by opportunities that lift every neighbor. Next slide, please. And so this specific has identified their three focus areas. And they're listed up here about opportunities for youth outside of school, more community safety, and more green space and recreation opportunities. And so one of the other learnings that we had as we were moving forward with mental wellness was we, as the Health Department of Partnership, something we can do to provide support is really providing a good landscape of all the information, what plans are going on in this neighborhood that are relevant here, what other work is being done. What's available? What opportunities are there for youth outside of school in this neighborhood? And so we're putting together that landscape now, so that way the work groups are able to hit the ground running here in the next couple weeks. One of the other things I want to highlight here about neighborhood outreach, Natalie mentioned about our community engagement manager. Well, her team is doing a lot of this outreach, so they've been really, really important as we've been moving forward, especially in these neighborhoods, to get the word out and get our community members being a part of this process. Pictured here we have some door hangers that you might see hanging around some of those apartment buildings and we also have some yard signs too that you might see as you drive around. Next slide please. And then just to wrap up about our third coalition, our Alandria Coalition, what's been really important with this group is our community organizations that we've been working with. So some of those community organizations like Casa Chirilagua and Community Lodgings have co-hosted some of these community meetings. And so that's been really valuable in building that trust and also encouraging more people to be a part of this process, not just as listeners, but also as putting together and leading this process along the way. And so this one thing too about the Arlandria Coalition is that it's actually a Spanish first to be more representative for this community. So this has actually been transferred from Spanish to English, the vision here. So it's a community where all people, regardless of their background or income level, have access to general mental vision in dental health care, and where unconditional support fosters safety, connection, opportunities for growth, and fair wages that allow for a better quality of life. Next slide, please. And just to wrap up about Arlandria, I mentioned about the Spanish first. And they're actually voting on their focus areas right now. We actually started it. at last evening's community cookout was the first night that they started doing some voting so maria like natalie mentioned is helping lead this work she was out and about with some other folks uh getting those that were at the cookout to provide and weigh in on what they want to see to be worked on in this neighborhood and here's just a yard sign so if you see this either city council or everyone in the audience if you see these yard signs around This is what this is. It's community health improvement plans. So next slide, please. And I'm going to pass the mic over to Alan.

Thank you, Sean. One of the things that's really important is that this is highly collaborative. We've already had experiences with two community health improvement plans in the city. And every time we do it, we learn more and enhance one. So the health department and the partnership have been collaborative from the first one to today. But what we've done is we've increased that collaboration. So every work group has a co-lead, have co-leads. But we decided as well as there would be actually a health department staff member or a member of the partnership steering committee who would serve as a supporter for that work group. And those conversations, so each of us groups have those supporters. We also have conversations at the monthly partnership steering committee meetings about how things are going, what more the health department needs, and what we can do. We actually provide brainstorming sessions. We test some of the wording to see how things are going and work together to make it better. But we know there's a lot going on in the city, not just this. And what we're trying to do is make sure that there are linkages between the work groups and the things that are going on that are really important to them. The major highlight, though, is that the Children and Youth Community Plan is being developed, being redeveloped, as well as the ACPS five-year plan. We have a planning and implementation work group. We had it under the last system. We have it under this system. We're actually doing the planning process and the implementation process. We actually share a lot of data and information back and forth. So we're not hitting community members with the same question from one plan to the next plan to the next plan. And we make each of those plans richer. So for instance, I will say the Children and Youth Community Plan has put a lot of youth voice into development of this Community Health Improvement Plan as well. So we talk about these things. We make sure there's connections. As a matter of fact, as you know, just recently, the police chief had the Alexander Safety Plan. I was here that night when the chief released it. I attended the public safety forum. I've had conversations with the chief and other members. So because, for instance, when our coalitions are talking about for safety, FOR INSTANCE, WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THEY KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON WITH THE CHIEF'S PLAN AND HOW THE TWO MIGHT INTERACT. AND THE BIG THING IS NOT TO DUPLICATE ANYTHING, BUT TO PLAY OFF OF EACH OTHER AND MAKE EACH OF THEM STRONGER. SO THAT'S THE BIG THING. SO MY JOB HERE TONIGHT, HERE AT THE PART, BEFORE I TURN IT OVER TO NATALIE, IS TO ASK A COUPLE THINGS OF YOU. ONE OF THE THINGS IS THAT AS YOU'RE OUT IN THE COMMUNITY AND IF YOU HEAR PEOPLE ARE TALKING ABOUT THEY HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT THE PLAN OR THEY WANT TO GET INVOLVED, PLEASE SEND THEM TO NATALIE, SEND THEM TO SEAN, SEND THEM TO ME SO WE CAN GET THEM INVOLVED IN THESE WORK GROUPS. IF THERE ARE INITIATIVES THAT YOU WERE THINKING ABOUT OR THAT WE HAVEN'T HEARD ABOUT YET THAT YOU SAY, HEY, YOU GUYS ARE MISSING THIS ONE, PLEASE LET US KNOW ABOUT THAT. AND THE OTHER THING IS IF YOU HEAR ABOUT GRANT OPPORTUNITIES, THAT WOULD BE REALLY HELPFUL. In the last plan, I'm proud to say the Partnership for Health of Alexandria provided over $193,000 through its own fundraising to nonprofits in the city to advance the tactics in the plan. We intend to continue that grant process in the next five-year cycle as well. But we still need more money in order to make these things more successful. So anything that you hear that you think we should think about, we really appreciate it. And again, if you know of some subject matter experts in one of our focus areas that we haven't tapped into yet, please hook us up, let us know, and we will connect and get them assigned and get them involved as quickly as possible. And with that, I'm going to turn you over to Natalie to hear about Healthy Homes.

NATALIE SCHMIDT- All right. Thank you. So first, quickly, even though I am the one presenting this tonight, I really have to shout out the amazing staff at Code and Housing. because the three agencies have been working so incredibly closely on everything healthy homes, as well as partnership with the 311 team, Climate Action, as well as ARHA on this. So I just want to make sure you know that even though I'm speaking, it is really coming from all of the work for many agencies putting in a lot of effort here. So as you know, our recent Healthy Homes Action Plan, which is our second one in the city, was released last year, last spring. And as part of that, we wanted to first prioritize work on mold in 311, because that is one of the biggest issues. If you could just go back one slide, please. Thank you. And as part of our Healthy Homes Action Plan, our big priority was not to come up with our own strategies, but to really lift up the resident voices who are experiencing these issues. And they were the ones really who crafted the strategies here. And so you can see this resident developed action plan strategy around mold was to really focus on improving the awareness and access, whether that's for legal resources, other services, remediation support to identify and fix mold. Now, when we started diving into that work, what we immediately found is that there is a ton of misinformation when it comes to mold in our community, including residents feeling as though they had to pay for tests themselves to get things done before their landlords were willing to act, or that there is a certain amount of the right kind of mold that it's OK to have in your home. if it's not the dangerous type. So we found that we had to really focus on education and getting the facts out there when it comes to mold and how to address it and what the laws are in Virginia that are supposed to be protecting our tenants. when it comes to those issues. And so by doing that, we hope to have these impacts that you can see, that residents are able to access the necessary legal resources, that property managers and landlords also have the proper information to act on, and that there is an increase in tenant education, and ultimately, really importantly, that fewer residents are experiencing mold-related health issues. We can go to the next slide. So a little bit about our progress since then. So I mentioned we worked closely with the 311 team to create a brand new mold moisture category that didn't previously exist. It was kind of bundled under a lot of other landlord-tenant complaints. We have not publicized widely this new category. And even without publicity, it's already been getting a number of complaints very quickly in this sort of soft launch format for that. And so we're also working on a mold playbook. Because what we really found throughout all that information about there's a lot of misinformation, people don't have accurate insights, was that we really need to have a more uniform response to mold in Alexandria. that people reaching out directly to council and people reaching out through 311 or directly to an agency should be getting the same information and the same sort of customer service that we want everyone to have. And so we are working right now on working with the National Center for Healthy Housing on developing an interagency playbook on the best responses to these mold complaints that we get. So that'll also be a partnership with ARHA as well. It'll have guidance and tools for our code inspectors when they're out in the field in terms of checklists, in terms of language and guidance to use to educate residents there, as well as educating those landlords themselves on those underlying causes of moisture. Because that's really what we should be looking at is those root causes of water intrusion that hasn't been fixed, intense humidity, those other things that lead to the mold. Because if you just clean it, it will come back unless you fix the issues. And that's really what we want to emphasize. And so that is in progress right now. That is being developed with VDH ARPA dollars is how we are paying for the development of that playbook. And then we have also developed a comprehensive mold website. You can see a snapshot of that to the right. Thank you. So this has not been publicized widely, this website. It's been in soft launch, although by talking about it today, it is out. But really, the goal of this website is to empower our residents with accurate information. That includes everything from template emails that residents can use to send messages to their landlords in writing about the problems they're seeing, how to upload pictures, what sort of language is in the Virginia tenant code about what they are entitled to, and then how to follow up with the city 311 in code if there's further issues. And we also have links and resources to pro bono legal resources and those affordable tools as well. The reason we didn't do a big splashy release yet is we've been in sort of soft launch. to navigate what are the challenges that people are still experiencing to make sure that we get it right before something big and splashy. We've done testing of this website with various community partners and community organizations. And it's continuing to be a work in progress. And once we have this playbook ready, and we're going to be working also on a training for a lot of internal staff on that mold playbook, then we are excited to do a big, formal, splashy launch of this mold effort. Next slide. And then lastly, so I mentioned the launching of the MOLD website. We take ongoing feedback and monitoring of our work really seriously. As the health department, we capture a lot of data. And so we take constant feedback. And then we're looking at, what are these 311s that are coming in? How are they being resolved? Again, working with code and housing on that to identify if it's going well, or do we need to make tweaks? in our response constantly. The other big thing, as you can see this cute little critter here, is pests are a big issue in Alexandria. We know a lot of residents are having concerns, whether it's insects or rodents. And so we're able to take a lot of the lessons learned from the mold work we've been doing for the past year and apply them in the development of our pest work group, where we are really trying to apply that data-driven practices, as well as education best practices, so that residents know the things that they can do to prevent pests, as well as we are working with property managers where we're seeing hot spots of a lot of rodent complaints to try to address those hot spots as well. And then the final thing I'll mention is that later this fall, we are working to get a Masters of Public Health intern with us to work on cataloging better accessibility data when it comes to housing for people with disabilities. So folks may know that if a property was built prior to the ADA, they did not have to really have accessible housing there. They're grandfathered in. So we are trying to have a more robust catalog or compilation of properties that are both those affordable, market-affordable properties that also have accommodations for people with disabilities. So more information about that. Thank you guys so much. We're happy to answer any questions.

Thank you all for your presentation this evening. I guess before I go to questions, I will just say the data that you guys are providing, I just want you to know how we are using it. I will say seeing the earlier presentations on the health assessments, one figure that's always stood out for me is about heat and the fact that it is always hotter on the west end of our city than it is on the east end of our city, particularly in the Van Doren landmark area. And so this week when we were looking at our cooling plan, One of the things we were able to do is adjust and now put cooling resources on the west side instead of just the east side. So we're going to be rolling out, I think later this week, I'm looking at the manager for confirmation, but a cooling bus over there. But also your data has pointed out just the lack of... Every part of the West End does not have a library, does not have a rec center. And so how are we planning differently so that everyone has those opportunities for health? So just want you to know that these plans are also making their way into our decision making. Are there questions from the council? Councilman Chapman, Councilman Green, Councilman Marks.

And I appreciate the mayor's comments. I think one of the things that she was talking, one of the things I was thinking about, and I think we've talked about this in prior iterations of the work that you all have done, is how are we connecting with property managers? I mean, I think that's really the key, particularly on the West End where you have number of privatized communities and so your outreach efforts your data collection obviously the education pieces and work that you're doing is really going to kind of fall on those property managers to take take in use disseminate and so how are those kind of connections being made relationships hopefully being created is that going well is there Is there stuff that the city organization, policymakers, others can do to kind of help if that's not to where it needs to be?

Yeah, thank you for that question. And I think that really goes back to the power of community health workers. To be honest, they have been doing an incredible amount as well as our part-time ARPA-funded community bridges who have been repeatedly going to these buildings, building relationships where now we know who those folks are who work the front desks. And we're building those relationships to allow us to go in and hang up door hangers and to be able to place these yard signs right out front. And we're able to work with the business owners that are in these different communities as well to do that. I think part of the other reason that we're able to build that is that we are offering something in addition for their residents. We have our care connection hours that our community health workers offer in some properties, such as in Brent Place, at Southern Towers, at Mason Van Dorn, where we literally have a community health worker set up in a lobby for two hours. And residents come talk with them about whatever help they need. They need help filling out a SNAP application. They need help figuring out finding a new place to live. They need help navigating, finding back to school information. We help guide them. So we look at it as we're trying to provide a service. And in exchange, we're getting more access and building those relationships.

Thank you.

Councilman Green.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you all for the meaningful work that you do in our community and for the presentation. A couple of things. The first is I was truly excited to see that there was going to be an update on healthy homes. And I look forward to the mold website being implemented. I think that would truly help residents in reporting the issues. that are happening and getting faster help with remediation. And then looking forward to also fighting for it again, advocating for it, excuse me, in the next budget season. And then for the community health improvement plan, you mentioned Landmark Van Dorn and you mentioned Casa Chirilagua, but I was wondering, similar to what you're doing with ARHA for Healthy Homes, are we focusing on the ARHA community For that as well, is that a next step? Are we focusing just on two right now and then moving on to others or adding others on?

For the community health improvement plan?

You mentioned Landmark at Van Dorn and Casa Chirilago, the work groups.

Yeah, so for the five-year community health improvement plan at this time, we are focusing on those two neighborhoods, just the Landmark Van Doren as well as the Arlandria, which does include a number of voucher holder properties with ARHA. This is something new that we haven't done before, this sort of place-based approach to community health improvement plan work. And so we're hoping this could possibly be a model for the future. that after the completion of these plans, we can look at other geographies, other parts of the city where we can really focus, which could include something like a North Old Town where we have that higher concentration of Aarha properties. Or it could be, for example, the Beauregard Corridor, which is also a census track area that we saw a lot of health concerns. So this is kind of our test ground that we hope this model works and we can show some impacts and outcomes and then ideally move on to other places.

Is there... a reason why they weren't considered for this go-round in the five-year plan? I'm sorry, I didn't, you know, I don't know from when it was presented the last time if that question was asked.

Yeah, so really when we were looking at bandwidth of being able to take on different locations in different neighborhoods, two was kind of our max number of neighborhoods to take on. And so we were following... So a lot of things happen. So we were just following the different data of the census tracts of where we saw the biggest health concerns. I will say that one of the challenges about the North Old Town neighborhood is that sometimes the health disparities that can happen within ARHA properties are hidden because it's a very gentrified area. And so you can see that the health outcomes, which can be higher and better in the wealthier parts of the town can kind of hide in the census tracts. You don't always see that. But these are the things we have to think about when we move into our next cycle of community health improvement plans.

Yeah, and I will just say that part of the learning lessons that we had over the years across the board for multiple issues doesn't have as much impact as if we more focus where the disparities are higher and we can devote more resources to that. But it's also important that we do that community-wide mental wellness city-wide. So ARHA residents are involved with that and whether they're FOR SERVICES OR NEEDS OR WHATEVER. SO THAT'S KIND OF THE WAY WE KIND OF SPLIT IT UP THIS TIME TO TRY A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

THANK YOU.

COUNCILMAN MARKS.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING HERE. I'M REALLY INTERESTED IN YOUR PURSUIT OF THIS PLACE-BASED STRATEGY AND EMBEDDING ON ITS JUST ABSOLUTE SUCCESS. I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN THE END WHEN YOU REPORT FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF IT. SO THANK YOU FOR BEING CREATIVE and pursuing this are really genius in thinking about the mayor's concern with the heat map we know that that is a literal heat map and we know that there are some more figurative heat maps that show health care disparities everything from you know allergies and asthma to more severe indications i guess you could say what i'm interested to know is as you're talking about the healthy homes program We have talked a little bit about it, but can you tell the public the kinds of things you're doing in home and the kinds of remediation work and the kinds of education you're doing related to asthma and other health care disparities that are taking place where the heat map shows the intensity of not just heat, but also health disparity, income disparity, and other inequities?

Yes, thank you for that question. Yeah, I touched mostly on our Healthy Homes Action Plan big picture. But a big part of what we do at the health department is also our ALX Breathes program, which is where our bilingual community health workers are going directly into the homes of folks who have reached out who either have a diagnosis of asthma or COPD. And they have these harmful home conditions that create these flare-ups, sending them to the ER or urgent care or other issues when, really, if we get that under control, They don't have to have those poor health outcomes. So at this point, I think we've had more than 50 families participate in this program. We've done an initial evaluation of the program, and we've had a lot of really positive success in terms of reduced number of work days missed from people having asthma, reduced days of school being missed because of asthma attacks, better sleep at night because of people better able to manage the home issues such as reductions in mold and other pest issues and dust and clutter. We provide green cleaning supplies, air purifiers, as well as those education and advocacy to their landlords. So at this point, we've done an evaluation. We're making some tweaks to the program based on what we've learned, but we continue to promote this initiative and we hope more people sign up. There's not a wait to participate. Some people may not know that. It's a free program. There's no wait to participate. We can probably get to see you within a week after you apply.

Thank you so much. I hope you're all really proud of this quantifiable work that you can see. So thank you.

Well, I'm going to go ahead and move us forward, because I know we have several other things to get to. One last thing I did want to say, though, I would love, Mr. Manager, if you could follow up, if it hasn't been shared, the lack of dental care and affordable dental resources continues to come up in the community. It did come up in our budget conversation, and we had asked for a memo on what might be some of the options. So it wasn't Arlandria-specific, but more citywide. But I think if that data can be shared and we can be thinking, it would be great for the council to have a – set of recommendations on what would it take to truly make sure everyone has dental access here in our city. With that, thank you so much for your time. And we're grateful for the presentation and the work that you do every day. Thank you. Thank you.

Madam Clerk, next item. Special use permit 2026-00019, 1010 and 1020 Princess Street and 331 North Henry Street. Planning Commission action. Recommend approval 6 to 0.

WE WILL BEGIN WITH A BRIEF STAFF PRESENTATION AND THEN WE HAVE TWO SPEAKERS ON THIS ITEM.

GOOD EVENING, EVERYBODY. THIS IS SAM SHELBY WITH PLANNING AND ZONING. THIS IS OUR FIRST CONVERSION WITH THE NEW SPECIAL USE PERMIT POLICY FOR CONVERSIONS THAT COUNCIL APPROVED EARLIER THIS YEAR. NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE. YOU CAN GO TO THE NEXT SLIDE. SO THIS IS A REQUEST TO CONVERT This is a request to convert an existing office building to residential. And we've recommended approval because it reactivates an underutilized office building and because the yard and open space reductions that are associated with the request would not create offsite impacts. So just a little bit of background. It's a modest office building that was designed to look like townhouses. And it was built in the 1980s. It's zone commercial low. It's in the Braddock Road metro area. And it's surrounded by a mix of uses. There's residential, and there's office, and there's retail, and there's actually a place of worship just around the corner. And it's right at the intersection of North Henry Street, Route 1. So again, this is a special use permit request to convert the existing office building to a four-unit multi-unit dwelling. The applicant has requested yard and open space modifications with this request. The building was constructed as an office. And it does not provide setbacks, because offices don't have to provide setbacks, and residential buildings do. So in order to convert the building, the applicant has had to request relief from these requirements. The building would provide rooftop open space. Each unit would have access to about a 230 square foot rooftop terrace space that would be individual to each unit. And the applicant also proposes some minor exterior changes to the facade, the exterior of the building. and those changes I just mentioned to convert the existing roof to open space. There would be otherwise no change to the building height or footprint. And the applicant would provide four off-street parking spaces on site, which are accessed by the alley right off of Princess Street there. We found it can be consistent with the small area plan. The small area plan kind of envisions an active but lower density mixed use residential neighborhood, mixed use and commercial and residential neighborhood. As I mentioned, there would be really no change to the neighborhood feel because the building is going to look basically the same as it does right now. The open space and the side yard modifications are necessary because in order to provide setbacks and compliance with the zoning ordinance, they'd have to demolish, partially demolish or fully demolish the building. And the rooftop can't accommodate any more open space. And so they've sort of done all they can to meet the requirements. So we're finding that the reductions are necessary to allow for the conversion. As I mentioned, the open space will be provided on the rooftop. And given the size of the site and the number of units proposed and the open space provided on the roof, that we're anticipating minimal to no offsite impacts to infrastructure. So that includes parks and other public facilities. BECAUSE THIS IS A CONVERSION ENABLED BY A SPECIAL USE PERMIT, THE APPLICANT HAS VOLUNTEERED ABOUT A $12,000 CONTRIBUTION TO THE HOUSING TRUST FUND AND THAT'S BASED ON THE OFFICE RESIDENTIAL CONVERSION POLICY THAT COUNCIL ENDORSED A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO. AND THIS CASE ALSO INCLUDES A STANDARD CONDITION ABOUT BASICALLY PROTECTING FUTURE RESIDENTS FROM NOISE. AS I MENTIONED, THIS IS RIGHT ON ROUTE ONE. And so the applicant might find later on, based on this noise study requirement, that there may need to be changes to the building to ensure that residents aren't overly exposed to loud noises. An office building constructed in the 1980s and office workers have different expectations for noise exposure than residents might do, especially since there's going to be sleeping and stuff like that that doesn't happen in an office. So Planning Commission recommended approval, 6-0. And I'm here for any questions anybody has.

Are there any questions of staff at this time? Councilman Chapman, Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I was reading the staff report, and I noted the conversation that happened at Planning Commission around the number of units and the give and take. Does staff find, if there was a desire to lean towards, with future conversions, lean toward the higher number of units, does staff find that we have put the correct policy in place to kind of do that? Or are we leaning too much in one area? Not to say that any area is bad per se, but are we leaning too much in open space and that then allows us or then negates the opportunity to create additional units. I didn't get a chance to see the video, and so I didn't see the depth of the conversation. But that really intrigued me to go from a potential of 11 units to four is a significant loss.

Yeah, so we do feel that the policy, you know, it's just our first case, but we do kind of feel the policy is working the way it's supposed to because it sparked the conversation beforehand. Without this special use permit that we all created together, it might have been a little bit more difficult to have the conversation about how the open space is going to be provided on site, whether or not it's going to be provided, or if there's going to be some sort of contribution in lieu of open space on site. So that was part of the conversation with the applicant, is when they originally proposed the 11 units, there was no open space provided on site. And we're grappling with that. how that could be a supportable project. Because then there would be more residents and then potentially more impact on the open space in the neighborhood. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Bagley. Can you just speak briefly as to why we require setbacks on residential properties and not for office?

So the zone that this is in is a CL zone. And it's commercial low. I think what they were trying to do was incentivize office, because it's just easier to build and there's less expectations for privacy and looming of buildings and that kind of thing, that when you're in an office building, you're going to be in an urban environment that's closer together. And residential, there's expectations for yard space. That's not just the minimum required amount. but also just open space in excess of that. The CL zone is a little bit not a great match in the old town, in the urban core of the city. And so that's also part of it. CL is also meant to apply to shopping center areas. So that's part of it, is that when it was rezoned in 92, this was an industrial area, or parts of it were industrial. And so they were They weren't anticipating this kind of intense, not intense, but closer together urban residential in the neighborhood.

CARRIE LAURENO- No, I appreciate that. There are situations like this in other places in Old Town. where housing, residential facilities do not have setbacks that we would otherwise require. Is that a fair statement?

Right, yes. Townhouses and other smaller, yeah.

Yeah, and so this is coming up here because of a rezoning that happened in our view towards commercial low and now converting it back to residential. But it won't be otherwise visually or dramatically out of step with other housing within blocks of this facility, potentially.

Exactly. Like a lot of the residential over here, hardly any building provides a complying setback in the neighborhood.

Yep. What I was inarticulately trying to get at is, despite this one needing this exception, it's actually going to look very similar to other things around it. Yes. OK. Thank you.

OK. Seeing no additional questions for staff at this time, I'm going to go to our public hearing. And our first speaker is Dino Drudi.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm president of the West Old Town Citizens Association, which has, not only is this your first one under the new policy, it's the first office to residential conversion in the West Old Town neighborhood. And perhaps also the first townhouse to townhouse type conversion, maybe in the city, certainly in West Old Town. As a consequence, the West Old Town Board of Directors has done extraordinary due diligence on this project. It would be different if they had gone forward with 11. We have looked at this extensively. We see no issue at all with the four. The developer's attorney has worked with us very closely and very constructively, which we greatly appreciate regarding this project. However, there is an issue here with the process. When we looked at the staff report going to the planning commission, we noted that there were still documents from the 11th. So on June 18th, which is the Thursday, the eve of the Juneteenth, WE MET WITH STAFF, AND LATE THAT AFTERNOON, STAFF ISSUED A CORRECTION TO THE PLANNING COMMISSION, WHICH WAS MEETING THE NEXT WORK DAY. AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE STAFF REPORT, IN THE PLANNING COMMISSION THERE IS REFERENCE TO MY STATEMENT WHERE I POINTED OUT ERRORS. Instead of listening and taking into account those errors and fixing it. The same errors were carried forward in the staff report that you have received. So I provided yesterday the city clerk with my communications with the developer's attorney, which I believe were also sent to the city, the planning and zoning staff, addressing those points. And I would ask that you incorporate those corrections into the action that you pass. Frankly, until recently, planning and zoning gave the Federation of Civic Associations the courtesy of a briefing several times a year of the cases that are coming up because it takes a while to work with the board of directors of this, to decide how we're going to put it out to the membership, to stand up a meeting if it's needed, to send things around, to collect comments, to have back and forth. And many of these problems that we identified at the last minute could have been fixed Had we had that kind of briefing but planning and zoning has decided it's not going to do that anymore It's going to attack another meeting on sometimes we have two or three meetings a night We're meeting out that will be for everyone. That's fine But it would be greatly helpful if planning and zoning could resume briefing the Federation of Civic Associations on upcoming projects every two or three months. And I think this is an example of what happens when you don't do that. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your time today, Mr. Drudy. Our next speaker is Duncan Blair.

Good evening, Mayor, members of Council, Duncan Blair, Dwyer Gill, I'll be glad to answer questions. The mistakes that Mr. Drude pointed out, Microsoft decided to put a check mark in the application form, will alcohol be sold? There was also a clarification on hazardous materials. And I think the real issue is that the form for the special use permit was prepared for restaurants and a variety of uses. And the questions really don't deal with a residential conversion. So when I said no to hazardous waste, will hazardous waste be stored, used, and manufactured here, the answer is no. But will someone use Drano occasionally?

Perhaps.

So the form itself really could be updated. Since we don't have restaurants getting SUPs anymore, I think it would be helpful for me and my colleagues to potentially work with staff to come up with a universal application that addresses all situations. Because you do feel funny writing not applicable on something. when you could rationalize maybe it is, but not necessary. With regards to the application, this is a business owner-owner building that's decided that, like many things, it does not need the space anymore. It is, my law firm went from 5,000 to much less, and we're operating fine. The owner has decided to sell the building. It was marketed, and my client has decided to make it a townhouse residential project, which will fit in the community, put it back on the tax roll, and as I said, the Planning Commission, hopefully some very nice people will move in and be part of the neighborhood and participate in National Night Out.

Are there any questions for the applicant at this time?

Move to close the public hearing.

All right. There's been a motion to close the public hearing and a second by Councilwoman Marks. All those in favor of closing the public hearing say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it. I did have a quick question. If Director Stoddard could come forth. Thank you, Mr. Blair. You can sit down.

Okay.

Well, thank you. My understanding was that the discrepancies that were mentioned by the first speaker have been corrected for the record. I just want to clear that.

Yeah, that's correct, and staff has confirmed with me just now while they were speaking tonight that there were errors that were identified as part of the posting in the Planning Commission docket. Those were corrected before the Planning Commission's hearing, and the corrected materials are what are available for your consideration tonight.

Okay, thank you. I just want to confirm that for the record, and we can talk about it. Are there any additional questions for staff at this time or discussion from the council? Vice Mayor Bagley.

I don't have questions for staff, but I'd put a motion on the floor and obviously see what discussion that invites. I'd move to approve the Planning Commission recommendation on this item. I think it's in line with the community. I think it's more housing. And interestingly, I think to the point made by the speaker, it is an interesting townhouse conversion that I don't think we've seen a lot of yet. Most of our conversions have been into apartments. And so this is sort of an interesting, different dynamic. And I'm curious to see how it plays out and what it will mean just creatively and architecturally for other opportunities throughout the city to create housing at different price points and different sizes for residents. So with that, I would move to approve the Planning Commission.

OK. There has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second. Is there any further discussion? All right. I will just say I think this is a really good project. I think what is exciting here, you mentioned the townhouse opportunity. is the ability to create more ownership opportunities. And I think we haven't seen as much of that with our conversion policies. And so I'm excited to see what this tool allows. Also recognizing the new policy that allows for the contribution to our housing trust fund. I think it allows us to help build housing and support our housing ecosystem on many different sides. Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Can you please call the roll?

Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman El-Nubi. Aye. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Marks. Aye. All right, the ayes have it. Thank you all for your time.

Madam Clerk, next item.

Special use permit 2026-00019, excuse me, wrong one, 18. 5601 and 5603 Courtney Avenue and 7720, 730 and 750 South Van Doren Street. Planning Commission action recommend denial six to zero.

OK. We will, same process as last time, begin with a brief staff presentation, and then we will turn directly to our public hearing.

Good evening. Rachel Drescher with the Department of Planning and Zoning. So this is a request to amend the SUP for an asphalt production facility at 5601 Courtney Avenue to extend the sunset date from January 1, 2027 to January 1, 2032. Oh, next slide. So the site is located at 5601 Courtney Avenue off South Van Dorn Street and spans roughly 11 acres. It sits significantly below grade of the South Van Dorn Street Bridge and is bordered by backlit run and rail lines. Three-quarters of the site sits within the floodplain and portions are designated as a resource protection area, and the property is zoned industrial. Abutting the property is the former Vulcan Materials site, which was approved for redevelopment by Lenar Homes into residential and commercial spaces, and then other residential properties nearby at Cameron Station and Summers Grove. along with commercial uses and industrial uses, including public storage, UPS shipping, and re-rolled waste to energy facility. Next slide. So the asphalt plant began operating with a special use permit in 1960. In the early 2000s, the city started to receive some complaints. And during investigation, we found that the Asphalt plant had nighttime truck traffic, which was not permitted as a part of their SUP So they came back to City Council to receive approval to work at night and At this time City Council added extensive conditions related to noise odor air quality and stormwater and landscaping in addition They added a condition that after the Eisenhower West small area plan was adopted that it would be rereviewed If it was the use was still consistent with the plan After the small area plan was adopted in 2015, it was brought back to council in 2019, and at that point, council set a sunset date for closure on January 1, 2027. Next slide. So the applicant is requesting to operate for five more years, and in staff's consideration of this extension, we reviewed the uses compatibility with the small area plan the current market and site conditions, along with the projected timeline of development for surrounding properties and the compliance history and public benefit. In regard to the compatibility with the small area plan, the use does continue to be inconsistent with the long-range vision for the area. The Eisenhower West small area plan designates the future land use of this site as office, residential, and retail, and notes these uses would be more compatible so close to a metro station. Staff did look at the foreseeable redevelopment and the economic realities in the current state of the site. So currently, the surrounding uses of the site are unchanged since 2019. Redevelopment has progressed slower than anticipated due to market conditions, increases in construction costs and interest rates. The site's location within a floodplain along with the environmental remediation does make construction, especially residential, more challenging. Enclosure of the site is unlikely to trigger immediate redevelopment. The property is zoned industrial, and so this would open the site up to other by-right industrial that could locate here. And currently, this current use is under a time limit and the highly regulated SUP control. Across the street, the Vulcan material site is expected to begin construction within the next year. In terms of compliance history, there have been no violations of the SUP. And with public benefit, additionally, the facility does offer employment within the city and serves local and regional paving needs. Next slide. So if approved, staff is recommending some revised conditions. These include reduction in the asphalt production caps to reflect what their recent production has been in the last few years. The next condition would be that they could not produce asphalt when air quality is on code red days or worse. Condition 60 is related to the improvements that are being made to the South Van Doren Street Bridge. There's plans to would need to clear out part of the landscaping that is around the bridge as a part of that widening. And we would like to require that that landscape buffer is maintained. As a part of the sunset date condition, we are asking to require a closure plan, asking the applicant to provide a closure plan two years prior to sunset to explain what steps they are making to meet that closure date. CONDITION 70 IS IMPROVEMENTS TO COURTNEY AVENUE, AND THIS IS RELATED TO THE LENAR SITE, IMPROVEMENTS FOR COURTNEY AVENUE FOR THE PUBLIC INCLUDING SIDEWALK AND LANDSCAPING. AND THEN CONDITION 71, INSTALLING DOORS ON THEIR ASPHALT LOADING FACILITY JUST TO REDUCE EMISSIONS. So staff and planning commission differed on their recommendations. So staff is recommending approval. While the use is not consistent with the small area plan, we recognize the small area plan is a long-term vision and redevelopment of a site is not always feasible. So staff finds that this extension allows an interim use of a property under a highly regulated SUP while construction occurs across the street. and marking conditions approved. Planning Commission recommended denial of the request. They weighed heavily that the use is not consistent with the small area plan and found that any continued operation of the industrial use would impact redevelopment of nearby sites. Staff is happy to answer any questions at this time.

Are there any questions for staff at this time or do we want to move just right to the public hearing? I have Councilman Aguirre and then Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Steph, could you tell me how much tax revenue this site generates currently?

It's roughly annually, it's around $320,000.

And if they move out, how much would we be collecting from this site?

It's about half that for property taxes.

And so I'm doing some quick math in my head to try and figure out half of 320, 150, 160. And one of my concerns is that another group could just come in. If they were to come in, what would be some of the industrial uses that they would be able to do by right?

So manufacturing would be allowed, storage. What else do we have up here? Bottling plants. Yeah, kind of look up here.

Some of these being noisy or polluting? And now it's a wide variety. It's an open-ended question.

It's a wide variety, yeah. Yeah, there would be more of light to medium industrial by right. Anything that's more heavy would require a special use permit.

Would their hours be capped so they wouldn't be able to work past a certain time?

For by-right uses, there would not be any hour capped. The noise ordinance would still be in effect.

OK, thank you.

Okay, Councilman Chapman.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm just going to pick up where my colleague left off. You know, as we talk about the by-right uses, I just want to be clear with colleagues and staff and the public. You know, we do have, and staff, correct me if I'm wrong here, that you've got the Norris ordinance that would probably create a closure type of environment at a certain time, and then If there is pollution, if they're manufacturing something and there is pollution of that, what kind of opportunities do we have to regulate that?

So they still would have to comply with any sort of local or in-state environmental quality regulations. So the Department of Environmental Quality would issue any sort of air quality permit that would be required for use.

And so if there was another buy-write use, as staff already stated, it would most likely be a lesser, a lighter one. And I think obviously we don't know, depending on what that may be, we'll probably have some revenue generation or tax revenue generation as well. And I think the question I have, and this is purely speculative for staff, is Given some of the examples we've had in the past, how long do we think a site like this might sit until we get something that's comparable to what we are seeking for our plan? I think that's something that council probably has to weigh. And so do we have any idea what staff kind of is thinking on that, especially as they've kind of thought about what their recommendation to council would be?

It's Paul Sautter, Director with Planning and Zoning, and I'm happy to take the question. This site does have some challenges that its neighbors do not. The Vulcan site, which is currently under development, of course, had environmental remediation that it had to deal with. This site does as well. The two sites are different in that Vulcan was already lifted out of the floodplain by prior actions. This site is not. They're also limited by what they could do to fill the site and get acreage out of the floodplain. So it's both a technical challenge as well as a financial one. In general, we're not seeing the kind of sort of mid-rise and certainly not high-rise development in the west end of the city that the plan calls for. When it does occur, for example, the Inova site, it's being done with an anchor tenant that's pre-signed to the project to help it along. So I think that the time to wait until we can realize the planned vision would be a number of years, certainly, for at least an economic cycle.

I think that I appreciate that answer because I think one of the challenges for me is kind of an answer that's been given and what I've seen on paper because the things that you're talking about as hurdles or problematic to the site don't change over time. Those are going to be there if we let the site sit for 5, 10, 15 years. And cost of development is probably going to go up just as it naturally has. I think, and this isn't probably forecasting my vote, but it seems that some of these things that aren't going to change or probably get more expensive don't kind of push us to a place where waiting for five, 10, whatever years actually does us any good if we're talking about redevelopment and the scope of what we want to see in actualizing this plan.

Thank you. I guess as we're talking about just the challenge of the site, those same challenges exist. I know we've had this conversation about another buy right use coming in. They still have to evaluate the site for the same type of reasons given the industry that they would be in as well, correct?

Right, yeah. And it would depend on the use. If it's industrial uses versus a residential use, there's different remediation at the site or If it's with the floodplain, residential is a little bit more challenging to construct versus a commercial and industrial use.

Thank you. I'm going to take Vice Mayor Bagley, and then I do want to get to the public hearing, because we have so many speakers. OK, then let me go with Vice Mayor Bagley, Councilman Green, and then let's go to the public hearing, and we can come back to questions. Vice Mayor Bagley.

Question for Director Stoddard. The same year that this last SUP extension was given with this sunset, that was 2019. And that's the same year that Greenhill had their CDD granted. Is that right?

They're around the same time, yes.

Yeah. And what work has moved forward on that CDD in the seven years since?

So staff and the Greenhill group have continued to have conversations, but there's been no formal application to move that development forward.

And comparatively, when did the CDD get approved on the Hillco site, for example?

The CDD for the Hill Coast site. Oh, gosh, that was several years ago. I'm sorry, I don't have that number right off the top of my head.

If I said it was 2022, would that be helpful? I think that was 2022. And what has happened since? What can you speak to in terms of DSUP infrastructure?

For HRP, certainly, there's been a significant amount of work on the HRP side. Of course, you all just approved the entitlement for Blocks B and C not too long ago.

uh and so of course they were doing significant due diligence around engineering for the site planning for the site economic studies uh and of course several years of review for the development applications themselves so hilco went from cdd approval in 2022 to infrastructure dsup to recently we passed several dsups at the site and that's in a span of about four years okay and just wanted to reconfirm that timeline that's all for now thank you thank you okay councilman green

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Could we go back to the slide with the conditions on it? There you go. Thank you. So you were saying that the company met all of the, I guess, did everything that they were supposed to do with their SUP, correct? OK, they met that. Was there a condition in there, similar to what you put in here, that an exit plan would have to be submitted? Was that in the SUP from 2019?

There was a condition requiring them to report on their relocation plan. So they provide an annual report to the city every year. And what they provided was very minimal. Basically, they were looking for sites. We did, as a part of this request, follow up with the applicant, kind of asking what is Can you give us a little bit more here? And what they've provided is more likely they would not relocate. It would just be a shutdown of the facility.

So that plan never happened. We really didn't get a thorough plan or an exit strategy.

There wasn't a requirement for them to provide a closure plan. It was just a requirement.

What are you going to do type of thing. OK. And so they met all of those requirements. Right. Right. OK. And do we know how many people work at this plant?

I believe the applicant has said roughly around 70. OK.

Thank you. And if it was to close, they would all be moved to another site? Or do they lose their jobs?

That I would defer to the applicant.

OK. Thank you.

OK, I'm going to move us to the public hearing. We have 17 speakers signed up. I'll call probably two at a time. Again, don't line up for fire code reasons, but get ready if you're next in line. So our first speaker is Sasha Impostado, followed by Martin Menez.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of council. My name is Sasha Impostato. I'm here as a homeowner in Cameron Station. I believe strongly that this SUP needs to be enforced. The sunset needs to be enforced January 1st, 2027, and I got the Planning Commission to back me up on that. There is no dispute even by the applicant that the plant must relocate given the vision set forth in the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan. City staff and a number of businesses have made it abundantly clear that the continued presence of the asphalt plant has and will continue to impede redevelopment. Virginia paving, contrary to what staff says, has not complied with the sunset provision. Number one, that's a violation. It hasn't complied with condition 63 or 75. Virginia Paving already received a four year extension by council back in 2019 and apparently has done absolutely nothing to relocate. If and only if there are significant legal impediments of the city enforcing the SUP, By not being able to either purchase the property or promptly rezoning it to mixed uses, the city should recommend a one-year extension to January 1, 2028, with the additional SUP conditions that I outlined in my submission. The two most critical are these, since we know they will not go away. An immediate rezoning of the property or an immediate agreement by Virginia Paving to apply to rezone the property by June 30, 2027 to a mixed-use residential to take effect on January 1, 2028. Noncompliance of this provision is to result in immediate and severe monetary penalties. A quarterly closure plan that sets forth A, what has been done to find a suitable location to relocate the plant and an anticipated date to complete same? B, what has been done to facilitate the moving of personnel and equipment to a new location and an anticipated date to complete same? C, how many bids for the property were received? D, what Virginia Paving has done to solicit bids? E, whether or not his board has voted on any bids? Bids have already been received by this plant and they've done nothing. They've just sat on them. And the bids they've received are from people that are residential developers, not heavy industrial uses. What the city can expect by granting Virginia Paving's request is a continuance to evade compliance with the sunset provision while reaping the benefits of its land increasing in value over time and making profits from selling asphalt. Please enforce the SUP as Planning Commission announced that we did. Let's not kick the can down the road again to the detriment of residents. Please help us. Thank you.

Thank you. Our next speaker is Martin Menez followed by Elliot Waters.

Madam Mayor and Councilpersons, thanks for having me here. My name is Marty Mendez. Mr. Stratter, thanks for fixing my name this time around, the spelling of it. It was Mendez on the Planning Commission report. I wish I could say I was happy to be here, but I'm really not. Sasha has just talked about the facts and circumstances, some of them at the highest level. I'd like to just attack this from a different standpoint. A LITTLE BIT SOFTER MANAGEMENT SKILLS IN TERMS OF COMMITMENT AND LEADERSHIP ON THE PART OF YOU ALL, THE COUNCIL. COMMITMENT, FIRST OF ALL. SEVEN YEARS. WE'VE BEEN AT THIS WAITING FOR SEVEN YEARS. WE'RE NOW IN THE SEVENTH MONTH OF THE SEVENTH YEAR. THAT'S OVER 90% OF THE WAY INTO THIS. ONLY NOW, THIS HAS COME UP IN THE LAST COUPLE OF MONTHS. WITHOUT STEALING MS. DEL PEPPER'S THUNDER HERE, HERE WE ARE AGAIN. I CONSIDER THE TIMELINE ESTABLISHED AS A COMMITMENT, A COMMITMENT BETWEEN THE CITY AND OUR COVENANT ACTUALLY, CITY AND THE APPLICANT. WE ALL LIVE BY DATES AND SCHEDULES. MY LIFE IS A BALLET LIKE YOURS OF THAT SORT OF THING. I SPENT MANY YEARS IN UNIFORM AND I ALWAYS USED TO ASK MY FOLKS, WHEN DOES THE 0800 MEETING START? I see no good reason to not fulfill the original commitment and a number of reasons to do so. I won't go into those. Again, you'll hear that from other folks. So second point, leadership. I voted, of course, as many did, for the council members to get stuff done and move things forward. AND NOT AS WE HAVE JUST HEARD KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD. WE, THE CITIZENS OF CAMERON STATION, AND BY THE WAY, I FAILED TO MENTION THAT I'M SPEAKING AS A CITIZEN OF CAMERON STATION, NOT AS A MEMBER OF THE CIVIC ASSOCIATION, WHICH I ALSO HAVE A RULE IN. We have a conflict between the citizens' interest and the commercial interests of the applicant, and I would just ask you to think hard about that. The city has other sources of asphalt, and we in Cameron Station are sitting right next to the facility right now with all the attendant environmental and noise and things like that, complaints that you probably heard tonight. So in the absence of a compelling argument to extend, I would ask and recommend that the city council do not extend it at all. Thank you.

Thank you so much for your time today. Our next speaker is Elliot Waters, followed by Sonny Petrufisa. I'm sorry, that came out really wrong. But Sonny, you're up next.

Good evening. I've lived on the West End for next to 25 years, and I haven't always enjoyed being a neighbor to Virginia paving. But recently, having interacted with members of their staff and done some research work of my own, I would classify Virginia paving as an unrecognized pearl in our midst. What I'd like to do is essentially point out 10 reasons that I think they should remain as our neighbor. First, as I just mentioned, they're an unrecognized pearl. They are recognized locally as well as globally in many environments in their field. Next, people travel all over the world, the globe, to come here to learn how they're doing their business because they respect them as an expert in their field. My question would be, why do we want to close them? I fully understand the sunset provision. But we don't live in a perfect world. We have to remain flexible when it suits our interests. And I believe that there is an interest that benefits the city. Truth be known, the pavement company attributes much of its success over the years to we Alexandrians, especially the HOA as well as the civic neighbors. We have functioned, they say, as a microfiber cloth to their pearl, helping to rub it from time to time, helping it to shine more brightly. Now they seek a reset. And we have resets in our culture, especially in businesses, et cetera. They want to reset in their community and business partnership with us as bonafide good neighbors, a subtle recognition maybe that they haven't always been good neighbors. In my opinion, they are really asking us to be a forgiving, forward-thinking, action-oriented city. Six, I believe that we can do that, that we can become a model for other communities willing to preserve a facility destined to have immense historical value. And not only does it pay good wages, but it is a leader in paving innovation and is emerging as an education asset that rivals our Titan pride as a family. We may quibble in the future, as families do, but it should be rooted in a spirit of goodwill, helping one another be the best that we are created to be. Based on his rich history and achievements, I plan to begin working on finding ways to thank you. Thank you so much for your time today.

Our next speaker is Sunny Pietrofessa, and then followed by Louisa Ward.

Good evening. I am Sonny Pietrofesa. I am the president of the Cameron Station Civic Association, and I'm speaking on its behalf. And I respectfully request that I be given five minutes to speak.

You have been given the five minutes.

Great. We strongly urge you to deny the five-year extension requested by Virginia Paving and instead to enforce the current SUP, which requires it to vacate its current location by next January. This requirement was unanimously recommended by the staff in 219 and the Planning Commission and adopted by the City Council. In fact, council tacked on a bit over four years to the sunset provision, which gave the ESMO plant more time to operate and plan its requirement to do so. Prior to that, in 2015, Council adopted the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan that envisioned a plan for the area through 2040. The area includes Ben Brennan Park, Hensley Park, and Claremont Park, as well as Cameron Station, Covanta, and the Van Doren Metro Station. The plan was intended to address how to take advantage of its location near transit and regional roads and to improve connectivity in the quality of life in the area. Council considered this in 2019 when Virginia Paving requested an extension of its SUP and determined its continued use was inconsistent with the direction, policy, and goals for future transportation, environment, housing, and does not protect existing neighborhoods. Consequently, the SUP adopted included a firm date for the VAP to relocate. It also gave Virginia Paving plenty of time to plan its exit as required by one of the conditions under the 2014 SUP. It required also that VAP issue a written report with the relocation projects. However, Virginia Paving has done nothing to comply with this provision. As far as we can determine, it failed to market the property or solicit any bids and has not reported any efforts to do so. Contrary to its assertion that it has not received any bids, they did receive bids as far back as five to six years ago from Greenhill Capital. Greenhill never received even the courtesy of a response to their bids. We do know of a second company that also bid on the property, but we don't have any more information. We contend that the paving company had no intention of leaving. And as one commissioner put it, and it's been quoted by others in the meeting during June 22nd, this amounts to them just kicking the can down the road. It's not their first request for an extension to have the SUP extended. The commissioner agreed with some members of the community about this and the negative impact of the continued operation and found an extension to 2032 was incompatible with the West Area Plan. And they recommended, as you know, to deny the application. THEIR JUSTIFICATION FOR THE EXTENSION IS SUPPORTED AMONG OTHERS BY STATING THAT REDEVELOPMENT HAS NOT PROGRESSED AS ANTICIPATED. THEN IT STATES THAT ITS CONTINUED OPERATION ENSURES PRODUCTIVE USE OF THE PROPERTY UNTIL DEVELOPMENT IS FEASIBLE. REDEVELOPMENT IS OCCURRING AND THE VIRGINIA PAVING STANDS IN THE WAY OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT. IT ALSO SUGGESTS IT MAY SUBMIT YET ANOTHER EXTENSION FOR ITS SUP IN 2032. Furthermore, as noted by the Planning Commission, there are six other regional Virginia plants in the area. This includes Lorton, Chantilly, and Sterling that can provide services to the area. Should Council decide it's unfeasible to close January 1st, we propose a one-year maximum extension for the relocation. If so, it should include additional requirement to issue quarterly reports and steps that is taken to market the property. This will put pressure on Virginia Paving to comply with the SUP. All right, it should also include the requirement to apply to rezone the property to mixed use development that would be in effect in January 1st, 2028. In conclusion, I think the city should honor the commitment it made to the community in 2019 that the asphalt plant relocate by January 1st, 2027.

Just under five minutes. Yes. Thank you. Our next speaker is Louisa Ward, followed by William Blumberg.

Good evening, Mayor Gaskins and members of council. My name is Louisa Ward. I live on Holmes Run Parkway. I've lived in the West End for close to 20 years. And I have a degree in civil engineering. And I've previously served on the Alexandria Transportation Commission. I can appreciate how difficult these land use and infrastructure decisions can be. This Virginia paving special use permit is not a difficult decision for you. Why? I used to live several hundred yards from the facility, and I know that we did the hard work on this issue 20 years ago. The process for sunsetting asphalt operations may not have been perfect, but it was followed. And Mayor Gaskins, I know from your comments last Sunday that the process is very important to you. Under section 11-504 of the zoning ordinance, a new special use permit authorizing asphalt production in 2027, a right that does not exist at this time, cannot be granted unless the use substantially conforms to the city's master plan. On this aspect alone, this application should not be approved. The Planning Commission, by a vote of six to zero, found that this new special use permit does not conform with the city's planning goals. The legally supported path is straightforward. Rely on the Planning Commission that you appointed to review this record and deny the SUP. But even setting aside the master plan issue, two other standards would require far more process and far more evidence than this record appears to provide. To approve this SUP, Council would need a detailed record showing that asphalt production, starting in 2027 through 2031, would not adversely affect health or safety, including air quality, dust, emissions, truck traffic, pedestrian cyclist safety, and cumulative impacts on a community that has changed dramatically over time. Council would also need evidence that the use will not harm public welfare or injure neighboring properties including nearby residences, businesses, property owners, and future redevelopment in this corridor. The SUP process is supposed to mean something. It's supposed to allow the city and the community to ask hard questions and evaluate the impacts of the special use. If Council were inclined to consider approval despite the Planning Commission's unanimous recommendation, then the responsible course would be to require more process first, a fuller record, CLEARER FINDINGS AND ENFORCEABLE CONDITIONS THAT DIRECTLY ADDRESS THESE STANDARDS. BUT ON THE RECORD BEFORE YOU, THERE IS NO NEED TO STRETCH TO GET THERE. THE PLANNING COMMISSION ALREADY FOUND THAT THE SPECIAL USE PERMIT DOES NOT CONFORM WITH THE CITY'S PLANNING GOALS. THAT ALONE IS ENOUGH. THE QUESTION TONIGHT IS STRAIGHTFORWARD. DOES THIS PARTICULAR USE AT THIS PARTICULAR LOCATION UNDER THESE PARTICULAR CONDITIONS SATISFY THE CITY'S SUP I respectfully submit that it does not. I urge you to deny the Virginia paving SUP.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you.

All right. The next speaker is William Blumberg, followed by Scott Corzine.

I am Bill Blumberg, and that's Blumberg, not Bloomberg. I just want to make that point. I appreciate the opportunity to address the city council and Madam Mayor. I'd like to pick up on something she just said because it's a perfect fit to what was said by the health department about air conditions, asthma, breathing, all those kinds of things, COPD. So here we are discussing a plant that pollutes, very much pollutes. Okay. Okay. I'm going to be blunt about this. If this plant wasn't profitable, we would not be here tonight. This thing would have been closed. It's that simple. I'm speaking to you as an MBA with an MBA in accounting. It's profitable. And as Del Pepper said, enough is enough. Also, this is a quality-of-life issue. The proposed improvements that total about $2.5 million, if amortized over the proposed five-year extension of the SUP at 350,000 tons annually, that would amount to about $1.79 per ton. At 400,000 tons per year, That cost goes down to $1.25 per ton. The June 2026 VDOT published liquid asphalt price per ton, liquid asphalt price index per ton is $778 per ton. That price affects what the city pays, it affects what everyone pays, and it's gone up over the last three years by over 50%. This shows the proposed improvements have very minuscule impact on prices. And in my opinion, this is simply a cheap way to buy off the city. Let's call it for what it is. It's a cheap way to get the city off its back and extend what's a profitable plan. They agree to this, to shut it down. This issue has existed in some form for 20 years. Virginia Paving seems to treat this almost as a surprise. The 2019 SUP creates a closure date at the end of 2026 with no contingent events to postpone this action. This date is only tied to the passage of time.

Thank you so much for your time this evening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Scott Corzine, followed by Linda Bolton. Do you have Scott in the room, or is he online? He's online?

He's online.

Mr. Corzine, you can begin whenever you're ready. You just need to unmute yourself.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

Good. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Councilmembers. I'm Scott Corzine. I live at 300 Queen Street, and I'm speaking tonight on protecting the credibility of the process. I believe that special use permits already represent generous zoning exceptions and as such should be binding and enforced as granted. to introduce elasticity to the SUPs so they can potentially be manipulated negatively affects the integrity of the SUP process and violates the public trust, especially if it's based on the pure speculation as to the timing of future light manufacturing or residential use in this case. If SUPs become moving targets, then no one can plan effectively as the goalposts move and predictability disappears. The January 1st, 2027 sunsetting of the SUP enjoyed by Virginia paving, I think should be enforced as originally planned and no further extensions granted. My view is that any positive tax argument in keeping an asphalt operation at this site is outweighed by its incompatibility with the Eisenhower West small area plan and likely redevelopment in the area. I'm unaware of any compelling reasons that are in the public interest to extend this SUP in light of the thoughtful neighborhood opposition we've heard tonight. Thanks very much. Okay.

Thank you for your time tonight. Next speaker is Linda Bolton, followed by Christina Williams-Matthews.

Hello, everyone. My name is Linda Bolton, and I have been working at the Alexandria plant since 1985. That's 41 years. This place and the people hold a very special spot in my heart. There have been a lot of changes in those years, a lot of growth around us, and we have improved our operations. to be more environmentally friendly and a better neighbor by adding controls to reduce odors and landscaping buffers. Our employees maintain many of the roadways you travel on. Don't you just hate it when you get caught up in the work zone? I know I do. But we are essential to keeping the public moving. And this plant is a big part of that. Our employees depend on this plant to provide financially for their families, communing farther to another Virginia paving site, would add undue costs, require more time on the road, and less time with their families. And we have always been active in community, sponsoring food drives, participating in stream cleanup, Earth Day, and First Night Alexandria events, and providing foster care for homeless dogs and cats. Local 5K charity races know they can count on our support every year. The impact of taking this away would not only adversely affect our Virginia paving family, but also our plant is important to many of the contractors who find the convenience of this location essential to providing the products that they require. to complete their paving projects efficiently and economically. Without this plant, contractors would be forced to travel farther to pick up the product they needed. Congestion would increase on already crowded roadways, and end customers would see an increase in costs. We stand united in requesting an extension of the current SUP. Thank you for listening.

Thank you so much for your time tonight. Our next speaker is Christina Williams-Matthews, followed by Richard Greenberg.

Good evening. Oh, my name is Christina Matthews and I'm the environmental manager at Virginia paving. And I have the opportunity to speak on behalf of the dedicated men and women who operate our Alexandria facility. Behind me are people who have built their lives through honest work. They have bought homes, raised families, and earned careers that they're proud of. The facility doesn't just produce asphalt. It produces opportunity. It puts food on tables, pays mortgages, and gives people the chance to build a good life through honest work. Many of the employees here have built their lives around that opportunity. Closing the facility doesn't just eliminate jobs, it changes how people live. It replaces stability with uncertainty and disrupts lives that have been built over decades. And this isn't just about the employees who are here today. For generations, the facility has offered good paying careers to people coming straight out of high school or those who choose a different career path than college. It gives people the opportunity to learn a trade, earn a living wage, and build a future through hard work. If this facility closes, those opportunities disappear for the next generation. What makes this especially difficult is that when the city asked us to improve, we did. Through the special use permit process, we invested in significant improvements to our operations. Today, we are proud to be an Energy Star certified, placing us among the top 25% of facilities nationwide for energy efficiency. We've demonstrated compliance with our emissions requirements through our stack test results, and we continue to operate responsibly. Our commitment extends beyond our property. I have the privilege of leading the spring and fall stream cleanup events where our employees volunteer their time to help protect Alexandria's waterways. We don't just work here. We strive to be good neighbors and active members of this community. This decision is about more than a facility. It's about the people who have spent years helping this business succeed, the families who depend on these jobs, and the opportunities that future generations deserve. We have adapted, we have invested, we have complied. We've worked to be the kind of neighbors the city asked us to be. So I respectfully ask you, if we've done what was asked of us, invested in improving our facility, and demonstrated our commitment to this community, why should this facility be forced to close while other industrial operations continue to exist? Thank you for your time, your consideration, and for listening to the voices of the employees that I'm honored to represent.

Thank you again for being here. Our next speaker is Richard Greenberg, followed by Pamela Opiella.

Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening. Rich Greenberg with Greenhill. Appreciate everyone's time this evening. As you may recall, I sat in front of both the Planning Commission and City Council back in 2018-2019, working towards the approval of our two CDDs that encompass 23 acres of land adjacent to the Virginia paving site. In 2018, 2019, as we went through the process, we had several requirements that were put upon us per the plan that we adhere to. That said, today in 2026, we're in a different world than we were in 2018, 2019, and some aspects of our plan may not be applicable as they were back then. We have been in the city of Alexandria since 1989 when we first built Van Dorn Station Shopping Center. We've been a phenomenal partner, we believe, with the city providing both jobs and tax base. We are actively in conversations with multiple interested parties, whether they're users, investors, developers, et cetera, within our site. And while there are several aspects to those conversations, the one that continues to ring consistently is that of Virginia paving, its eyesore, excuse me, it being an eyesore, the pollution, et cetera. And nobody at this time is really interested in making any kind of capital investment towards our project given the current conditions of the Virginia paving site. Again, we've been in the city for 37 years. We've not cut and run. And in fact, we made not one, but I believe two offers to purchase the Virginia paving site through our attorney, Mary Catherine Gibbs at that time. And I believe as somebody mentioned earlier, we really had no response to those. Um, we anxiously await the outcome, uh, of the Inova site up at Landmark Mall, as we believe that may actually, uh, change some of the requirements, uh, of our site. Uh, but again, those conversations continually come back to Virginia Paving and its, uh, its current situation. We do not believe that a five-year extension should be granted. That said, we would be in support of a one-year extension, provided that in that approval, that in writing, that there will be no more extensions applied for, granted, et cetera. Uh, we would like to see our site move forward.

Thank you.

But at this time, thank you so much for your time this evening.

All right. Our next speaker is Pamela Opiella followed by Hernando, Hernando Garzon.

Good evening. My name is Pamela Opiela. I live in the neighborhood adjacent to the existing Virginia paving plant and not far from Samuel Tucker Elementary School, which is also adjacent to this same paving plant. Please note, I mean, I was shocked to hear that we only heard from the planning department's recommendations on this application. And we did not hear from the commission, the planning commission, that a week and a half ago tore apart each one of those recommendations. They rejected the recommendation that the planning department made that claimed that it was unlikely, this site was unlikely to be redeveloped. They also made a request that the process be started for rezoning this plot, among other things. The Virginia Paving Company's continued existence directly adjacent to neighborhoods with thousands of Alexandria residents and a stone's throw from an elementary school is completely incompatible with the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan, as well as other City of Alexandria planning goals, including air quality and environmental goals. Further, the planning commission that worked on the Eisenhower West planning plan anticipated a zoning change in order to allow and attract more compatible development on this site. Virginia Paving has had seven years to plan its exit, but it didn't bother to submit an exit plan. Instead, in the 11th hour, Virginia Paving wants an extension. While others have expressed interest in purchasing this site, Tonight, the city council needs to honor their agreement. The health, safety, and quality of life for residents is important to our city. And the paving plant is harmful to us and has been a bad neighbor that has not even been honest with the city's planning department, which came out actually in that planning commission meeting. And it did not act in good faith No city, no quality city can have an asphalt paving plant next to an elementary school. This is unethical. I ask the city council to honor its agreement and to close the asphalt plant with no extensions. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your time today. We have next speaker is Hernando Garzon, followed by Michael Hogan.

Good evening.

My name is Hernando Garzon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the decision makers in the city of Alexandria. I'm an economist by training. I have worked in 40 countries and more than 300 cities around the world. So this topic is not new to me. And I'm very surprised with those who ask for an extension. In urban development, the property tax benefits tremendously. So one question here is, how many millions of dollars does the city of Alexandria has to give up yearly preventing urban development in this area. That arithmetically should be done. As an economist, I believe in cost-benefit analysis. So we have to look at the benefits, the potential benefits. And of course, the implicit cost of staying with the status quo. Another question here. In addition to the, well, this question is, isn't it in the best interest of the city and its residents to protect the quality of the environment in our neighborhoods? Obviously it is. So if that is the case, then it is in the best interest of the city to enforce the sunset date of Virginia paving, especially use permit. No extensions. Another point. Consistent with the above, isn't the best interest of the city to unblock urban development in the area, allowing Eisenhower West Area Plan to go ahead without the substantial negative effects and risk factors for future investors? Now. Summarizing, as of now, the operations of BP constitute a negative externality for urban development in the area, aggravated by the significant opportunity cost to the city finances, while the beneficiary is only one private activity. Thank you.

Thank you for your time this evening. Our next two speakers are Michael Hogan, followed by Mark Sullivan.

All right, good afternoon, council, and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. So unfortunately, I didn't bring any written comments, so I'm just going to kind of speak from the heart and kind of what I've heard. And so I certainly can't match a lot of what you've heard already. I think, to me, the facts are very clear. And so when I joined this community roughly about seven years ago, just as moving around from town to town as part of the military and retiring here, I thought I really found home and I love the community. I love the, the engagement, and kind of the neighborhood, and just kind of that sense of belonging. And so one of the things that gave us pause when we wanted to move here was Virginia paving. And so we did some research, and we looked at that, and we saw that there was a sunset. So I thought, OK, that's great. And so a couple of things that I learned in my time serving was bad news never gets better with time, right? So it was a little bit concerning when I was walking home from the metro a couple of weeks ago and saw the notice saying, here it up is for revoting and renewing. And it kind of shocked me. And I thought, why are we here? They've already agreed to this. So what's going on? So I started doing some research, looking into it. And it was a bit concerning to find out that they hadn't done any of the things that they had followed through. And again, the conditions now are very, very minuscule compared to the profits and their incentives. So when I listened to some of the conversations today, talking about how such a good neighbor they are. A good neighbor doesn't strive to do the minimum. A good neighbor strives to be engaging, to do some of these sort of things. It was a shock to me to learn that they have not done anything that they promised that they were going to do to move towards that. It's not that we're saying that them as a company needs to go, but just that it doesn't fit here. Something that they agreed to seven years ago, and now they want to abandon on that. It makes no sense to me, and so I strongly urge that you would deny this application. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony tonight. Our next speaker is Mark Sullivan, followed by former Councilwoman Del Pepper.

Madam Mayor, members of the city council, thank you for waiting. My name is Mark Sullivan. I live at 400 Cameron Station Boulevard in Alexandria. And I'm here tonight to express my opposition to the extension of the paving company's continued use until 2032. My wife, Joyce Sullivan, was here last week along with me and several other neighbors with the Planning Commission meeting, and she spoke about our concern about the odor that is emitted from the plants on a regular basis. throughout the year, and the way that it really affects the quiet enjoyment of our property as individuals. She also talked about her concern about the health and well-being of the families and people who use the parks and playgrounds around Virginia Paving, and particularly the students who attend Tucker Elementary School. We moved here in 2017. And we leased our condo at first. And then in 2019, we purchased that condo. And as part of our decision-making process, we really had to come to grips with the whole issue of Virginia paving and the issues that it brought. So we reached out to several, on an informal basis, we reached out to several members of the city council and to the mayor. And we were continuously reassured that Virginia Paving would be out of there by the end of 2017. This is because of the 2019 agreement. And so we purchased our property, partly based upon that information. I think tonight is a real opportunity for the City Council to stand up and show that it supports the people of the West End of Alexandria and that it's going to commit to closing down Virginia paving as of January 1st, 2027 because This is the way that neighborhoods should be treated. They should not be subject to pollution and other kinds of traffic and other problems. So I would urge you to vote against the extension of this operation by Virginia Paving until after January 1, 2027. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much for your time this evening. Our next two speakers will be former Councilwoman Del Pepper followed by Mindy Lyle.

Eat your heart out. You all did get to do this. As I said at the Planning Commission, I'm really very pleased with the docket item and the preparation that went into it. It's easy to understand. And I appreciate also that you tried very hard to be as well balanced as possible. And I do appreciate that. Virginia Paving, I appreciate the fact that you have been, those members who spoke, you have been involved in the city and in the city's activities. There are many companies where their workers come and at 5 o'clock they're out of here. But you have made some investment in the city, and I appreciate that. But getting now down to the brass tacks, because she may cut me off here any minute now. Virginia paving should be recognized for all those things. I was part of the city council that voted to give Virginia paving a five-year extension. We never meant for them to come back and ask for another extension. That was it. Five years, final. No more. Close the doors. Amen. I understand what planning staff and Virginia Paving are saying, namely that given the present economy, developers won't be coming forward making bids on this side. So we might as well give Virginia Paving a five-year extension so that we'll at least have some income coming out of it. If this extension is granted, we will be in the same situation as we are right now, only we will have lost five years. Maybe I'm an optimist, but I think that the economic situation will not be as severe. It will be improving. It will continue to be as upside down as it is now. Even so, look at the developments. Even though this is a rotten economy at this time, look at the developments that's going on. Look across the street just to Vulcan. Now, I realize there are different kinds of ground there. But nevertheless, look what they have done. It is amazing. They're just blossoming with all new projects. And look at the development in and around the new hospital and elsewhere. Look at the plans for roadways all over that area and for the bridges improvements that we're expecting. I have lived in Alexandria, Virginia, in the West End, for 58 years. Can you top that?

Can I have two sentences?

Anyway, I'm quiet. I'll be quick. Okay. This is I think Virginia I think Virginia paving is trying to be good neighbors But an industrial use is not the city's best interest and neither is the five-year extension that they have asked for tonight

Thank you so much for your testimony this evening. And I only cut people off to keep it fair so everyone has the same amount of time. Our last two speakers are Mindy Lyle and then Ken Weier, who is the attorney for the applicant.

And I have to follow that. I became involved in Eisenhower West in 2009 with the first industrial use study. I then chaired the 2015 Eisenhower West small area plan. The one mistake we made with that plan was it was the first plan in the city that we did not do a rezoning of all the properties included. Every other plan before, we rezoned when we approved the small area plan. That was a mistake. What I'm asking you to do tonight is not extend this any more than one year and institute a rezoning of this property so that we do not end up with an industrial use that's a buy-right use that lasts for 20 or 30 more years. Ms. Bagley, I've given multiple developers tours of the Green Hill site in Eisenhower West, which is zoned for 900 units. The last one asked if we would be willing to go up to 1,000 units. But guess what? Their one question, what is that and what is happening with it? The answer, I don't know. And that's the answer we've had to continue to give. When we voted in 2019 at Planning Commission and City Council, It was to sunset in 2007. A two-year plan was supposed to be filed, has never been filed. So the closing plans have never seen the light of day with city staff. And I personally doubt that any more closing plans will be filed. If you're going to extend no more than one year and immediately start to rezone this property. Thank you.

Thank you for your time this evening. Our last speaker is Ken Weier.

Good evening. Madam Mayor, members of City Council, City Manager, I appreciate the opportunity to speak tonight. As many of you know, I have been representing Virginia Paving for all of a couple months. However, I've been involved in Eisenhower West for over 20 years. I first met Del Pepper and Ms. Lyle working on what was then the Landmark Van Dorn Plan. And we eventually carved out Eisenhower West. That started in 2013 when a bunch of developers got together and actually funded the plan because nothing was happening. It was viewed as a part of the city where we overlooked it, and we had a metro station that was underutilized. So we went forward with the plan, and we came up with what you saw today. In 2015, giving density away was the move forward. We were in a meeting once, and the planning staff handed out clickers. And they said, who's opposed to anything less than 200 feet near the metro? And nobody clicked on it. I leaned over to my client and said, man, this community wants something different. They want to see change. We're not here to argue that. Virginia Paving participated in that small area plan, and they signed off on and supported the plans you see today. The challenge is, as staff laid out very clearly in their staff report, an 11-page staff report addressing the requirements of 11-500, that it was predicated upon immediate redevelopment pressure in the area. Virginia Paving would love to sell their property and redevelop. Verbal offers that are so far below market and speculation for future developers who aren't here, you won't find that sentence anywhere in Section 11-504. What you're tasked with is, does the small area plan have general compliance with the use being sought? The use being sought does actually beat Del Pepper. It's been here for 66 years. It had an SUP back then that had no time expiration on it. We brought it forward in 2006 and cleaned up, which was known violations, and made it tighter. That was revisited in 2019. There was an argument then about when was the sunset provision. Was it seven years after the plan adoption or seven years after a certain date? Let's see if this thing works here. Give me one second. So the question about what has changed in the neighborhood, that was a key conclusion of city staff on page five of their staff report. As you see in this plan, As you see in this area from 2010, the plan is pretty much as it is today, with a wrap pile up against Van Dorn. I'm going to wait for someone to get their directions worked out. And then we're going to fast forward here to 2019 and 2025. I spent almost my entire career focused on this area. What you see that's different here is you see the Madera Tempo across Pickett Street, and you see Cameron Park up on the right-hand side in the far right-hand corner. What you don't see is the vision proposed by the 2015 coming into action yet. The reason is we have empty sites on top of the Eisenhower Metro. We have empty office buildings. We have buildings selling at $0.10 on the dollar for office development. Those aren't moving. So we have a challenge here to go forward. It's not for lack of will. It's for lack of market conditions. That's not my fault. That's not Virginia Paving's fault. That's not the community's fault. That's just the reality. Here's another reality. When you stand on the site and you look to the south, that's what you see. A lot of the blame today is focused on Virginia Paving for the ills of the area to go forward. It's not just us, it's the industrial nature of this area. 163 times in the small area plan we mentioned industrial uses. 163 times. In those meetings over two years, we talked about how do we transition a neighborhood from an industrial past to a mixed use future. We didn't know exactly. So this crazy chart I'm showing you here, I want to point you to the bottom three columns. It talked about economic development in terms of short term, zero to seven years, midterm, seven to 15, and long term, 15 to 30. In this chart on the left-hand side, we thought the Transportation Security Administration was coming, and that was going to spur development. We were all very excited about that. They're miles down the road in Springfield. They're not here. The development other people talked about, That was behind, down the road, 5001 Eisenhower. He took a tax abatement, Amazon investment, to convert that. That was a project that sat vacant for 20 years. In order to see that, you have to look around the power plant, look around the transloving facility. It's down the road. That is a significant emitter of discharge to the area. And we are obviously doing the same thing in our plant, but a scale that's much lower. Our project roughly runs four to five hours a day. Virginia Paving also, let me go forward here. So the assumptions, I'm going to go back for a second. The assumptions were there was a sunset clause for 2027. I reject the notion that we are not allowed to come back and ask for a change. Everybody who lives in this community, whether they served in the military, whether they're an economist, you're allowed to come forward and ask for things. This is a design of the system, not a fault. We could have been back in 2026, said, you know what, we'll stay around forever, good luck, we'll let it be a nonconforming use and there's no review. But we as a community decided to come back and revisit this. And it is not a forced closure of the plant. There is no forced closure of the plant. This is not rough New Jersey-style politics. We either can make asphalt here or we can't. So should you cease the SUP, Virginia Paving still owns the property. They still have employees there. They still have trucks. They'll still fix their trucks. They just won't make asphalt. The 2026 reality. It's not fair to characterize Virginia Paving as sitting around doing nothing and then walking at the last hour. In September of 2025, we approached planning staff and said, we have a problem. We had a vision for this area that's not coming forward. A couple offers from a guy who lives across the street and gives us an offer that wasn't anywhere close to market does not necessitate a response. That's OK. We don't have to sell it to below market offers. We said, there's another problem. The floodplain, which we're currently considering rewriting, is actually going to increase the floodplain requirements. 10 out of 12 acres approximately are in the floodplain. That is a very challenging thing, whether you approve this SUP or not. The vision of the site to be 10 stories of office surrounded by retail, someone needs to say it's not viable. So what do we as a community do with it? Whether you approve this plan tonight or not, we still have a problem to figure out. So what did that allow us to do? What that allow us to do is to come forward and talk to city staff and say, we're not naive. We knew these people would be here. They didn't want us to go forward. Yes, Virginia Paving was there when their homes were built. Yes, Virginia Paving was there when the elementary school was built. But they don't want to see it anymore. We understand that. The site, however, has direct rail access. So somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 trucks a day that would be coming to the city to deliver gravel are now coming by rail car. So there is a reduction in utilization of this plant that's unique. It's valuable to us because we have rail car access. And that is a valuable thing to us going forward. As any developer looks at the property going forward, we have to figure out whether you approve this or not. What do we have left? We have a currently industrial zoning. We have a floodplain. We're down in a hole. We're next to a trans-loading facility and next to a power plant. That's a tough neighborhood to be in. So what we want to do, what we're going to offer today, and we will continue to do, is continue this conversation tonight, tomorrow morning, with planning staff to figure a way out. Director Stoddard calls me constantly on this site as we've been talking about this with the community. He heard the Planning Commission's recommendation, and he's probing at edges. Does this work? Does that work? How do we figure this out? There's an easy answer. I would be up here proposing something different. There's not. So what we would like to do is actually do what you're tasked to do tonight. It's not us versus the city. It's not residents versus workers. You have a singular goal. 11500 and the zoning ordinance ask you to determine whether or not the SUP conditions we're proposing ameliorate the extent of our ask. It's not whether we're recruiting someone else. It's not whether future development will never happen. It's not whether we've gotten good offers. And it's not whether we've acted fast enough. I would direct you to the staff recommended conditions. We've worked with them. We've actually proposed to acknowledge the development across the street for the Vulcan site by extending Court and Avenue. That's an expensive project to make that a proper city road looping around from the bottom of Van Doren to the top. setting back from Van Dorn Street, putting in new roll-up doors to reduce the smells even further from the property. So there's a lot of things we could go through tonight. I don't necessarily want to go point by point. I just want to sort of close with the task in front of us. It's not whether there's another development that's better. There's not whether the small area plan only had one option. The question is, have we done a good job of ameliorating our uses and the totality of the impact both from economic, workers, and the neighbors, is incompatible. It's worked okay for 66 years. A few more years to figure this out is not antithetical to the small area plan. As I showed you before, it talked about transitions over 30 years, not over seven years and not over six. So I'll pause there, Madam Mayor. Happy to answer any questions you have. We look forward to having to work with you on this property regardless of your decision tonight.

Thank you, Mr. Weyer. Are there questions for the applicant at this time? One. Thank you. One question. Councilman Chapman, followed by Vice Mayor Bagley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. The question I had was from what staff testified today around, because I want to understand kind of the transition from the idea that there's an ongoing conversation about, like you said, kind of not necessarily closure initially, But I guess the idea where, and I'm losing my point, so I apologize. So initially in 2019, we talked about not giving additional time in that the company was going to come forward, talk about possibly moving. And so as staff talked today, they said that changed from, moving to closure or non-closure. Talk to me about what happened there in that conversation, because I think in watching and re-watching the video from 2019, we did not want to get at this place. We did not. We thought the idea was going to be some movement of the company. We understand you can move operations of asphalt. Sure. Right. And so talk to me about the conversations that happened with staff where moving was taken off the table and the idea of closure first came on the table. And now we're looking at extending and not closing.

Right. So that is a complicated question in layers. And it actually is the question. So when the small area plan was approved, Virginia Paving saw 10-story buildings in their property, did some math, and said, that looks great. I hope it works. And that was the basis to move, because there's a value to that plan. They're employees. It's been there for 66 years. And there was a value on that. So if any offer came in above that value, any reasonable company would sell, because they would make more money than the value of the property there today. The problem is, we all know what the market's done. Cost of outpaced income. You all know that. You're all affordable housing advocates. You've seen that the ability to build these and deliver these buildings has outpaced the ability for people to pay rent. So what's happened is, in this past seven years, we've drifted further and further away from the plan. That's been the challenge. So could we relocate? Well, if you do deny this application, we'll stop making asphalt here. And to make asphalt, we'll have to go several miles down the road. Asphalt will still come to the city. It's going to need to get paved. People will come in. Doesn't mean we're moving. This is not a conversation of forcing a business out of town. This is a conversation of a narrow aspect of the industrial zone and the special use permit. So will our long-term vision change? Of course it will. We hope it does. But there's very severe technical issues that are changing under our feet, including the floodplain and the changing ordinance right now. So this is probably one of the last sites to redevelop, not one of the first. And that's the feedback we've gotten from the market. That's what I'll tell you. And you can look around and see it. There's people zoned right across the street that were zoned the same time we were. They haven't done anything.

OK, Vice Mayor Bagley.

My colleague essentially covered the question. An element that kind of wasn't touched on in your presentation, or apologies if I missed it as I was looking at the image, there are conditions related to further investments in the property. And there's been comments from the public tonight about if no to five, give one. talking with colleagues, there's always conversation about, you know, if not this, then that. Can you just give us a little bit of framing on, if not five, but something else this evening? Is there anything else that makes sense from a, we have to spend X to do Y, and it only makes sense under these circumstances? Because what I don't want to engage in tonight, just for full transparency to my colleagues, is some dialogue about something less than five. Right. And you, from a business, you know, your client from a business perspective says, Well, you know, 18 months doesn't change my math about making investments I have to make now.

That's a great question. I apologize. If we could go off my slide and go back to staff's presentation, I think that's a better, more concise structure to go through the proposed conditions. Five was for a couple of reasons. First is we hope it's outside this current awful business cycle. So hopefully we can sell the property and move forward. We did reduce the tonnage. That stays on the table no matter what, because we are understanding our demands going down. You all aren't paving as many streets, so moving that down, that stays on the table. We're also happy not to make asphalt on code red days. That's a further example of staff tightening our compatibility with the neighbors. We're certainly happy to do the landscaping removal of the trees. And we're also happy to increase now reporting out and having a closure plan are two different things. It's crystal clear now. We're going to continue the dialogue with Plan Director Stoddard and ADP to figure out what do we do next because we're going to need some help on the site. We're going to need to clarify the floodplain and work things out. The biggest question we have is a Courtney Avenue improvements to the general public. That loop, that is not insignificant to do. If you deny us, then, frankly, the city has to make that improvement. Could we shave a year or two off? Yeah, probably, and keep that. But to 18-month scenario, we'd have to revisit some of these cost implications because it's, frankly, not worth it. If you said, keep all these on there and be open for a year, we'd probably just have to close. So we'd rather, and I think staff is doing this, they're pushing us with their shoulder closer and closer to the master plan by using our desire to stay in return for these improvements to make the public realm better. So I hope that answers your question. A year or two we can keep this way, but if it's more than that, I have to go back and talk to my client in the back.

No, I appreciate that. I'd move to close the public hearing if there are any other questions. I just had a quick follow-up question.

I just want to make sure I reiterate it as clearly as possible. So if there's a proposal for a one-year extension, that does not matter because either way you'd be looking at closing. Is that the way I heard that?

Well, with these conditions. I'll have to look over at my client. If you want to erase all the conditions and say status quo for a year, that's not as good, but we could do that too.

Okay.

Thank you. With that, there has been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilwoman Green to close the public hearings. All those in favor of closing the public hearing, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it.

Thank you for your time. Happy to answer questions. Thank you.

Are there any initial questions or discussion? Councilman Marks, followed by Councilman Alnubi.

I recognize and want to acknowledge Virginia Paving's efforts to be good neighbors. I hear that. And also, I think it's clear that this SEP extension just factually does not substantially conformed to the city's master plan. I am an optimist, too. So for me, this decision is about whether or not we are committed to our vision. And so I'm inclined to learn from our predecessors to move us forward and bet on Alexandria. So therefore, I move to support the Planning Commission's decision and deny based on discussion at the hearing.

There has been a motion to support the Planning Commission's decision to deny this SUP extension and a second by Councilman Chapman. Is there any other discussion? Councilman Aguirre. Actually, yes, I did have you. Councilman Al-Nubi, Councilman Aguirre, Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley.

Thank you. Question to staff. How would the rezoning that was raised in the planning commission work? Usually it comes from the applicant, but I believe the city can initiate a rezoning. How would it work in this scenario if council were to direct staff to do a rezoning? Is that something that's possible? How would it work? Can you talk to me about that?

Paul Starter, planning director with the city, happy to take the question. You're correct that most commonly when we see a rezoning, it is in coordination with a development application. That puts the council, the staff, the community in a good position to understand what's being proposed and how to properly regulate the proposed development. It is possible for the community to move forward independently with the rezoning. That is something that we would want to do with due care and consideration. I think what we would probably take into consideration is what is the vision within the small area plan, what are the proposed uses, the proposed heights, the densities. We would look for a closely matching zone. The other thing we would want to be cautious about is making sure that we always leave them with some economical use so that we're not at risk of pushing them into our regulatory takings.

Got it. OK. That makes sense. OK. That's my question. I'm in support of my colleague's motion for some of the reasons that were stated. Also, I was watching the meeting last night and some of the things that were said by former Mayor Wilson and former Councilwoman Pepper that we, at the time, they didn't want to be here again. And I'm just paraphrasing. And for me, I don't want to be here again. It was mentioned that this is incompatible with the small area plan. There are certainly some health impacts. So I personally don't think it's in the best interest to continue to approve this SUP. So I will be in support of the motion on the floor. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank You councilman a new bay before I go to councilman Aguirre our city attorney is waiting to get in Thank You madam mayor.

I just wanted to clarify for the record about the initiation process Director Sautter did mention I think what he was intending to say was that that council can initiate a rezoning So it's typically an applicant can do it or or the council or Planning Commission Thank You councilman Aguirre Thank You madam mayor

This one isn't easy. And being one of the council members at the time that voted for this extension and understanding that we aren't in the same economic situation that we were back in 2019, that's not... To put aside what the compatibility is, the environmental benefits, or what the possibilities are, if we had someone chomping at the bit to build something at this site, I'd have no hesitation. And the city has a clear reputation for moving away from these industrial uses with the Robinson Terminal, with the waterfront, with the Hilco site. with the Vulcan site right across the street. But we also have a history of sites sitting unused for literally decades, whether it's the Victory Center, whether it's Landmark. And that's kind of what gives me pause. And it's frustrating, because we also have another site that in my mind, is one of the most optimal sites inside of the Beltway, right next to a metro station in Potomac Yard. We're having a lot of difficulty trying to develop something there. And this is another example of a site that's inside the Beltway, right next to a metro station. And it's going to need some work. There is going to be some remediation and other things that have to go into it. I WISH WE WERE BETTER POSITIONED IN THIS SITUATION. THAT'S HOW I FEEL. I JUST WISH WE WERE MUCH BETTER POSITIONED. SOMETIMES THINGS WON'T CHANGE UNLESS YOU MAKE THEM CHANGE. SO WE'LL SEE. OKAY.

THANK YOU, COUNCILMAN AGHARI. VICE MAYOR BAGLEY.

As I sit here tonight and listen to the motion and the second and some other comments, I wish this is the council that had heard the Hyundai request that came before council in 2022, if I'm being honest. I voted against that as that use is completely non-compliant with the vision of the Mount Vernon small area plan. It does not require remediation. It is in a prime stretch of retail and housing and I suspect would be I know Ms. Puskar went back and read a little bit about that hearing. And I know Ms. Puskar, who was the counsel for the applicant at the time, sort of scoffed at staff's vision and showing really tall buildings. But is the reality that somebody would build on a parking lot in Delray on the avenue? I believe so. So I start my comments by saying I voted against that parking lot for many of the reasons that many of you enunciated tonight. So we are not philosophically, I'm not in a philosophically different place with many of the points that have been made tonight about small area plans and visioning and redevelopment and what is our vision for our city. I hear all that and I went down swinging on that issue there and I'd like to think that if that lot came before this council and the comments being made tonight, there might have been a different outcome. And we might not have a big asphalt parking lot that's disruptive on Mount Vernon Avenue in one of our prime sort of retail and residential corridors. So I come into tonight sort of balancing that, having fought hard for this idea that we redevelop and we are mindful of small area plans. And yet I find myself coming into tonight weighing many of the things that Councilman Aguirre has raised as well, which is the vision that was contributed to that 2019 small area plan has not moved at the rate and pace that was hoped for and that I would want to see. I mean, I'm an urbanist. There's no hiding sort of where I generally come from on these things. and would hope to see development. I have voted for the 5001 Eisenhower abatement and the TIF at the power plant and the things that that takes. So what I'm really weighing tonight is very much my past vote on the parking lot that did not conform with that small area plan, the acknowledgment that this use does not conform with the current vision in the small area plan, But the recognition that the prior counsel I served on weighed the situation and said, yeah, we get that this doesn't comply, but we're going to approve it anyway. And so I came into the night with that same open-minded sense that, yes, something cannot comply. That's why we have this process. And we're here today with that open mind. sort of frame for everybody that came in here tonight talking about small area plans to remember that those small area plans also have a lot of density in them, also have a lot of height, also have implication for roads and other uses. And so if we're all in on these visions, then we have to be all in on everything that they mean and everything that comes with them. So, I mean, and that, I think I'll, In 2022, when we voted on that non-conforming use, we gave that use 20 years. And I clawed back, I think, a 15-year, let's look at this again, that night because of the reasons I'm expressing tonight. So this is much shorter than that that was coming to us. It was only five years. And as I indicated in my question to the applicant, is there something even less that would still incentivize you to make the Courtney Avenue improvements, serving the long-term vision, to do other things. But that would still have you ramping down and ultimately departing the corridor for our shared vision. I don't really hear from my colleagues an interest in something in that space. So I'm not even going to propose it or put it on the floor. But that is why I asked the question. The last thing I'll note is there's been There were letters submitted and speakers tonight who seemed to indicate that but for Virginia paving, we'd have hotels and 900 plus units on these sites and in process. And to that I say, bring it on. If the vote goes as the motion on the floor and is approved, I hope 18 months from now we are voting on DSUPs in that CDD. You know bring that bring that forward. I hope that Marriott who submitted a letter to Planning Council speaking about the two hotels They envisioned in this corridor. I hope we see that that that SUP I hope we talk about you know, the AC hotel that Marriott envisions for the corridor I share those same goals but bear in mind those letters are in the record and this council is indicating its commitment to the small area plan vision and And so I look forward and hope to see, you know, that movement now, if this motion is successful tonight. Um, so I genuinely appreciate, um, the, the time, the hours I've spent with some of you, you know, at talking about this, I appreciate the workers who are here tonight and the 66 years you've given to our community, um, both in the products that pave our streets and in the five Ks and the, and the food banks that you've supported. If ultimately I vote in line with the motion by my colleague, it is in recognition of my fundamental belief in the small area plan and the vision that it has laid forward.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Bagley. I guess what I would just say is I intend to support the motion by my colleagues. And there's two reasons why. And it goes to what you were talking about, the small area plan. I keep looking at my phone because there's been this picture that stands out to me every time I flip through the Eisenhower West small area plan. And it's one of those big word picture walls. And if you haven't looked at it in a while, it gives me so much energy and hope for the vision that we have all set forth for the west end of our city. And I believe in that. And I get energized by it. And I know it is still possible. I recognize this decision is hard for all of the reasons that have been listed. And I'm not going to repeat them. But everything from the economics we're dealing with to the very real workers who are sitting before us. And I don't take that lightly. I think just because things are maybe not moving as fast as we want them to doesn't mean that we can't still hold out for them to be happening. And I just feel like if we were to extend this further, in some ways we are saying to our residents in the West End, like, you got to keep waiting and keep waiting and keep waiting. And I don't want to be a part of doing that. I'd rather be all in with you and whatever that takes to then put resources behind to market these properties, to do whatever we need to do, then let's keep doing that. But let's not give up on the vision. I also think, too, I've been trying to, and I asked our resident attorney here to make sure I was reading it right, but I have been going over and over and over again what it says are the criteria that we have to weigh when we're doing this. And one word that stands out to me is it uses the word, you know, all. And so I'm looking at the things that fall under all. And one of those things is will it substantially conform to the master plan of the city? And I think we've seen in slides from staff, we've seen in reports that we have read, we've seen in previous documents, that no matter what, it is still an incompatible use. And so I can't get to all if not all the boxes are checked. So for me, I intend to agree with the Planning Commission's decision on this one. So with that, there has been a motion and a second to uphold the recommendation by the Planning Commission to recommend denial. Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilwoman Marks. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman Aguirre. Abstain. Councilman Elnubi. Aye. Councilwoman Green.

Aye. All right. The ayes have it. Thank you all for your time this evening. At this time, the other items are for discussion, but we do need to go back into executive session. Vice Mayor Bagley. Or actually, I'm sorry. Councilman Aguirre. Aye.

No, no, we did not say we just reconvene into open session. Yeah Madam mayor, I move that we reconvene into closed session As stated previously, okay, there has been a motion and a second all those in favor say aye.

All right the eyes heaven Oh

Thank you.

I hear every time, and I'm like, this is bad.

Thank you.

Oh, Eliana was born.

I was having a baby.

She was having a baby.

Why do you think I got the baby? If people accept that, then.

Yes, ma'am.

Just sit down. We don't want to leave you alone.

What are you going to do?

Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, move to reconvene in open session. Second.

All right, there has been a motion and a second to reconvene from closed executive session. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, the ayes have it. Councilman Aguirre.

Madam Mayor, move the City Council adopt the resolution regarding the closed executive session that was previously circulated to the Council. Second.

All right, there has been a motion by Councilman Aguirre and a second by Councilman Chapman to approve the resolution previously circulated to the council. Any discussion? Seeing none, Madam Clerk, this is a roll call vote. Please call the roll.

Councilman Aguirre. Aye. Councilman Chapman. Aye. Mayor Gaskins. Aye. Vice Mayor Bagley. Aye. Councilman O'Neill. Aye. Councilwoman Green. Aye. Councilwoman Marks.

Aye. The ayes have it. Is there a motion to adjourn? So moved. There's been a motion by Vice Mayor Bagley and a second by Councilwoman Green to adjourn tonight's meeting. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. The ayes have it. This meeting is adjourned. Happy summer, folks.

I respect my friend Blake for being such an honest and caring man.

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I respect my mom because she raised me to be the person I am today. I show respect by listening to others when they need it.

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