Alexandria city staff rejected a local group’s alternative proposal to redevelop the city’s waterfront, calling the plan financially unfeasible and legally indefensible. But Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan say they’re ready to pursue “any action,” including a lawsuit, if the city goes ahead with its own plan to redevelop the waterfront with boutique hotels and residential buildings.

It’s the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between the city and the citizens group, whose members say the city’s plan will increase density and mar the historic character of the waterfront. CAAWP members drafted a 200-page alternative waterfront plan in late October that calls for the city to buy plots of waterfront land on which it can build museums and parks instead of the privately developed hotels the city’s plan envisions.