Alexandria planning and zoning officials are preparing to unveil their plan to give the Old Town Alexandria waterfront a major face-lift. The project would include repairing damaged city docks and seawalls, providing better service to the dozens of recreational boats and water taxis that use the marina and making improvements to existing parks and open spaces.
While officials have spent the last two years sculpting their draft plan, Farrell Hamer, director of planning and zoning, said the city is finishing a process that started decades ago.
“It’s really been a work in progress for over 30 years,” Hamer said. “Many years ago in the ’60s and ’70s we had plans, and a lot of those were completed. The old manufacturing and warehouse industrial waterfront is long gone, so this is really second or third wave of improvements to the waterfront.”
Current draft plans show a pathway stretching from Daingerfield Island in the north to Jones Point Park in the south and redevelopment of the park at the bottom of King Street. Among other things, officials want to build a pier along that park that would allow a large ship to anchor along the Potomac River.
“Where King Street, which is Alexandria’ great main street, meets the Potomac River, it’s not really a place where people go to celebrate Alexandria. It’s a small park there that doesn’t have a great river view and doesn’t have anything to do,” Hamer said.
City planners envision the marina and the waterfront parks as a place to promote more recreational opportunities and commercial activity in the area, improvements that could be a boon for the waterfront as a tourist destination.
At the same time, locals want the waterfront’s historic maritime heritage to be preserved, and recommend that the city consider the waterfront as a destination for its own residents, too.
To that end, the city has been undergoing a series of public hearings on their redevelopment plans, a process that culminates with a meeting to discuss accessibility and parking issues on Monday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Mary M. Gates Learning Center.
A major complaint city planners have received is that the waterfront is difficult to get to, either by foot or by car, Hamer said. Project planners will unveil several changes to the draft plan that would address those concerns.
