The mottled complexion of Alexandria’s waterfront is about to get a face-lift.
City planning officials expect to release in coming months a 30-year master plan for the redevelopment of Alexandria’s river real estate. The City Council could approve that plan as early as December, according to Nancy Williams, Alexandria’s principal planner. “We’re trying to wrap up some loose ends on the implementation and financing chapters of the project, but we should release the final planning document this September,” Williams said.
Alexandria officials recently released a final “concept plan” for the waterfront’s future, which includes new pedestrian walkways and plazas, expansions and improvements to the city’s riverfront parks, and a new pier extending from Union Street out over the Potomac. City officials have said the development could cost up to $100 million, but Williams said that figure was not final.
The waterfront, which stretches about three miles from Daingerfield Island to Jones Point Park, has undergone a sea change during the past three decades. Parks, marinas, cultural attractions and shopping centers have replaced the riverfront’s old industrial and manufacturing sites.
But years of piecemeal additions and improvements have left the waterfront’s properties jumbled, and its bike and pedestrian paths disconnected.
Alexandria’s planning officials want to ensure “continuous public access to the entire shoreline,” according to the concept plan.
Planning department documents also describe a new “waterfront gateway” to the city, which would open up vistas from Old Town Alexandria’s King Street onto the river. The plan’s crown jewel is a new “world class” pedestrian pier that would extend up to 450 feet out onto the Potomac.But long-standing disputes among the many public and private entities that own rights to the waters and land along the Potomac River could block some of the city’s plans.
Ongoing disagreements between the city of Alexandria and the Old Dominion Boat Club, in particular, have stymied the city’s desire to open up all of the shoreline to pedestrians.
The boat club has for decades been wrapped up in litigation with the federal government regarding ownership of the club’s riverfront property, and that litigation complicates things for Alexandria’s planning department.
Deputy City Manager Mark Jinks told The Washington Examiner that discussions between the city and the boat club are ongoing.
“We’ve been negotiating with the boat club for five years, and we’re still working through those negotiations,” Jinks said, declining to provide specifics.
