Alexandria’s development plan for the waterfront park at the base of its main retail corridor will have to be scaled back to win approval from landowner Old Dominion Boat Club. The city’s planning staff says the boat club, which has a marina and parking lot at the base of King Street, has not agreed to move its parking lot to allow for an open plaza connecting the street to the Potomac River and Waterfront Park. Because of the stalemate, Alexandria likely will nix a restaurant building and modify the originally planned entrance from King street to the waterfront.
The waterfront draft plan released in February cites a “clear [resident] consensus that there should be more waterfront dining options at the Strand [Street].” But on Monday, proponents of the plan said that since the boat club refuses to agree to the proposed underground parking garage along Strand Street, keeping the restaurant building that would have been built above the garage wasn’t necessary.
Alexandria Planning Director Farroll Hamer said the restaurant partly appeased the community’s request for more dining options directly south of King Street’s waterfront. But it also served to cover up the relocated parking lot.
“The staff feels it is still a good idea,” Hamer said. “But the fact of matter is a lot of people objected too because it took up part of the park. And also … to have both the [surface] parking and the building there, people felt that would be too much.”
A boat club employee said the organization does not speak to reporters.
The new planning staff recommendations, which the city planning commission will consider next month, call for outdoor pavilions and kiosk space to house seasonal vendors and a farmers market.
Staff is suggesting two alternatives to the original draft plan for King Street’s waterfront. One version creates a walkway from the base of King, running behind the boat club parking lot along the water and connecting to an existing path at Waterfront Park.
The second version changes the parking lot shape from a rectangle between the water and Strand Street to an “L” shape, with the short end of the “L” at the base of King, but leaving some land available for an entrance and view to the water and park.
