The Alexandria City Council is going to court to challenge a decision made by its Board of Zoning Appeal, but city officials said they see no need to give the zoning board a lawyer to defend itself. The council is challenging in court the zoning board’s decision to side with residents who were fighting the council’s redevelopment plans for the city’s iconic waterfront. The zoning board approved a petition from residents that would require the council to vote again on the plan, this time requiring six of council’s seven members to vote for it before the plan could advance.
The city initially shot down that same petition from residents, only to have the zoning board rule that the council was wrong.
Now, the city is going to court over the matter, and zoning board members, who normally rely on the city’s attorney for legal advice, say they’re worried that they don’t have a lawyer even though the board is named in the suit.
“We felt like we had an attorney, but now the city attorney can’t help us do our job because he’s helping [the city],” said zoning board Chairman Mark Allen.
Council members insist they’re not suing the board, but simply appealing its decision. In a memo issued to the city council and obtained by The Washington Examiner, city manager Rashad Young said the zoning board doesn’t need a lawyer.
“The only role for the [zoning board] in the lawsuit is to produce the record of its proceeding to the court,” he wrote. “That function will be performed by the staff for the BZA.”
City attorney Jim Banks said he was “surprised at the level of misunderstanding we’ve been hearing about this,” and spent most of a meeting with the zoning board waving away board members’ demands for a lawyer. “There’s really no adversity between the city and the BZA,” Banks said.
Still, the zoning board voted late last week to ask council for a lawyer.
