Group to Present Alternative Framework to City's Waterfront Plan

A group of citizens opposed to the city’s proposed waterfront plan is scheduled to meet at Founders Park on Saturday to present an alternative framework that better embraces Old Town Alexandria’s history and preserves public access to the waterfront, according to plan organizers.

“We’re going to lay out a different path that we believe has not been properly evaluated and explored by the city,” said organizer Andrew Macdonald, who is also former vice mayor of Alexandria.

Concerns outlined by the Old Town Civic Association at a recent public meeting where the city heard public comment on the plan are at the seed of the alternative framework.

However, the board of the Greater Alexandria Preservation Alliance, which is hosting Saturday’s 10 a.m. event, has put some “additional nuts and bolts” on the civic association’s concerns, according to Macdonald.

The city seeks to build several hotels on the waterfront including at least one at the Robinson Terminal. “We think this is not the right place for dense commercial development and will not create a great public space,” reads a call to citizens to join the Saturday campaign kickoff at the foot of Oronoco St.

“We will announce an alternative vision and plan that is based on the town’s history…We support greater public access to the waterfront and Potomac and uses like a maritime museum, NOT hotels and restaurants,” it continues.

Macdonald added that from a “financial and revenue point of view” a hotel may bring in more money for the city, but a longer-term view is needed that pays homage to more of the city’s cultural attributes. He cited the Torpedo Factory as an example of how the city can entice visitors through culture, not commercialism.

Macdonald is considering a run for mayor probably as an Independent and said the waterfront issues prompted him to become more involved in politics again.