Letter to the Editor: The Waterfront Planning Commissioner Is Wrong

Six Facts About Alexandria’s Waterfront Plan Commission Chairman’s Six Myths

by Michael Peck, a response to a letter to the editor from John Komoroske, Alexandria's Planning Commission chairman

Myth 1. The Waterfront Plan calls for “mega-development,” akin to National Harbor and Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The Plan will choke the eight-block waterfront area from Robinson Terminal North through lower King Street with another economically prohibitive and architecturally ugly hotel (think waterfront Crown Royal redux), more tour buses, no parking, congested sewer systems, exponential tourist litter in Founder’s Park, clogged up bike paths, and other amenities that those of us who actually live in that area (unlike any of the Planning Commission members or their staff) already suffer through but which will be greatly enhanced by this “commercial development at any cost” back-room eminent domain strategy masquerading as a plan for all citizens. It’s not about the size of commercially developed and ruined waterfront space already disenfranchising Alexandria’s citizens, it’s about the marginal impact of adding one more square foot of commercial development to what is already one of the ugliest and most poorly developed waterfronts in the nation, thanks to this Planning Commission and Mayor who have disserved Alexandria for many years while mouthing platitudes about social engineering but made a lot of developers really happy.

Myth 2. There wasn’t sufficient input from the citizens.

The Planning Commission approach was to reinstitute Bill Murray’s “Groundhog Day” role in Alexandria. Two years and 100 eventual meetings of the process with an open mike session saying exactly the same things despite all of the repeated and consistent objections from local citizens amounts to a pure case of “dialogue of the deaf.”  This was a pro-forma performance only, for the record so that the development luau could proceed on time and on track and especially as  property values righted after the Great Recession.  Believing in quantity over quality produces an awful lot of garbage, exactly what we will get literally and figuratively if the Planning Commission/Washington Post plan goes forward.  Again, we’ll match the Planning Commission citizen for citizen about who heard whom and what and where and when.

Myth 3. Hotels on the waterfront will add congestion and traffic.

The Planning Commission and its staff, and in particular its chairman obviously live in another parallel universe Alexandria. They certainly don’t live along the waterfront and get to count the tour buses (only five decamped yesterday on North Union), tourists who park in our driveways, delivery trucks at all hours of all evenings and early mornings, cars endangering pedestrians by exceed the poorly posted and non-enforced speed limits by a factor of three, human garbage strewn all over the streets and parks that require picking up as a full time job – and this is just the beginning.  When bureaucrats and self-serving politicians point their fingers and attempt to administer for others what they are not willing to live through themselves, then we have taxation without representation and real tea parties that tip the scales between social justice and extraterritorial chicanery. We residents like other residents strolling around our common neighborhood – it’s how social comity and common cause are reached. What we don’t like is “do as I say, not as I do-ism” and garbage avalanches of all shapes and sizes brought to us by those who pitifully don’t even know better.  For every citizen the Planning Commission can drum up to say that they like living next to hotels, we can muster 20 who will say just the opposite.  I invite all of the Planning Commission members and staff to go live next to hotels for awhile before they adjudicate this condition for others and put their experiences on YouTube.

Myth 4. The Plan will add 14 new restaurants, a massive impact on the neighborhoods. 

The Plan recognizes commercial benefits in three years and scenic, open-access, and historical benefits over the next 20 years.  Many of us will be dead by the time that occurs and the Planning Commission and its intrepid staff will be missing in action in terms of any accountability but the developers will be all paid up. Let’s get as much of the scenic, artistic, cultural, open-access, nature-focused, and historical benefits up front now, see how we like them, and then decide if we want to put a hotel in their midst.  Of course, that will never happen.  The cheese on how we pay for this as been moved so many times by this Planning Commission and their staff that finally the truth, according to the Planning Commission Chair, is that the waterfront will have a hotel whether we want one or not, whether we need the revenue or not, just so that we don’t “privatize” the waterfront.  Sadly, this is the ultimate privatization strategy – putting a supposed boutique hotel on the city’s most expensive real estate will cause room prices to soar as well as food and drink prices at this establishment that only the very wealthy and connected among us will be able to enjoy.  Everyone else can enjoy this space by maybe getting a job there. 

Myth 5.The Plan should instead purchase the development sites for a museum.

The development trick here is to zone the three aging waterfront warehouse spaces as tightly and as low density-use as possible. This way, Alexandria’s citizens will not be at the mercy of “benevolent” developers who have not lived up to any past historical beautification or open access promises to date.  This way, more enlightened organizations, for example, The Nature Conservancy, might be inspired to afford to help us turn these historic sites into free access peoples’ parks, museums, and creative spaces in keeping with Alexandria’s commitment to the arts, complete with all the tour bus and tourist parking amenities the City has never been able to provide.

Myth 6. The Plan is just a revenue source for the City/The Plan just doesn’t bring in enough revenue.

Existing zoning law prohibits hotels at this site – let’s keep it that way.  The Planning Commission’s “need more revenue” argument is now OBE (overcome by events) because the Old Dominion Boat Club parking lot option is no longer going to happen (too expensive, land swaps are too complicated, and better yet the Boat Club just won its legal protection against the City’s underhanded moves in court).  Bottom-line, we don’t need the hotel revenue at North Robinson terminal to afford what we’re not going to do at the Old Dominion Boat Club.  Conclusion: the Planning Commission’s revenue justification is gone, baby, gone.

Michael A. Peck, North Union Street, Alexandria, Virginia