Alexandria Living Magazine
This home and several others in the Seminary Road area west of Beauregard Street would be demolished to make room for the new Upland Park development.
A new proposal for the Upland Park development in Alexandria's West End calls for less density and more open space.
At a meeting of the Beauregard Design Advisory Committee (BDAC) on Monday (July 27), Chris Bell, a representative of Hekemian & Co., proposed changes to the 2013 approved plan for Upland Park. The project is located in West Alexandria off Seminary Road, between N. Beauregard Street and Echols Avenue.
Compared to the 2013 plan, which proposed a mixed-use of residential, office, hotel and retail, the new proposal calls for 4-story townhouses and more open space instead of a 6-story multi-family development. The new proposal would also keep Fairbanks Avenue in its current location.
In a presentation of plans for Phase 1, developers proposed increasing the number of for-sale townhouses from 29 in the previous plan, to 92 in the new proposal. They also discussed the creation of a park space to anchor the project and draw in members of the greater community. A multi-family apartment building, parking, additional open area, retail and a hotel could be part of future phases of development on the 7 acre site.
Jack Chudovan, an architect with NVR, Inc. spoke about the potential design of the proposed townhomes. Each unit would have 5-6 townhomes with rear-loading garages on the ground level. The top level of each townhouse would have a 12 by 16 ft. outdoor space, as opposed to older townhome designs which normally have decks off the main level. The rooftop outdoor space is the current trend and allows homeowners more privacy and distance from the busy main road.
In keeping with nearby existing communities, he proposed a mix of brick, siding and color variation. For the sides of the building he proposed all brick end caps or parapets, some of which would face Seminary Road.
Matt Renauld, a landscape architect with Mahan Rykiel Associates presented plans for the outdoor space, which would provide a large grassy area as well as more private seating spots. A curbless street between the park and the townhouses would make the area feel larger and could be closed off for events, farmers markets and food trucks. A central promenade would link the Phase 1 section of the park to the Phase 2 portion which could include a dog run and area for community gardens.
Members of the BDAC expressed gratitude for the proposed plan and the sense of community it will bring to the area as part of the larger Beauregard Small Area Plan.
They addressed concern about parking and traffic. Developers explained that each townhouse would have two private parking spaces as well as access to 50 public, on-street parking spaces. Traffic patterns and plans for the nearby ellipse intersection are currently being reviewed by the city and would be the subject of future meetings on the project. Both committee and general community members expressed concern that the new design for the townhouses was too institutional and did not blend well with architecture of nearby neighborhoods like Seminary Park.
The DSUP will be filed later this summer, followed by more community meetings in the summer and fall of 2020 before the project is reviewed by the Planning Commission and City Council at the end of 2020.
