Vika Virginia, LLC for Monday Properties
A conceptual rendering of a possible new building at 1900 N. Beauregard St.
Three Alexandria West End organizations and a current Beauregard Urban Design Advisory Committee (BDAC) member have independently contacted Alexandria elected officials, staff and the city manager and expressed their opposition to a new Monday Properties residential development proposed for 1900 North Beauregard Street.
Seminary West Civic Association, Seminary Heights Condominium Association, Seminary Park Home Owners Association and BDAC committee member Bud Jackson have all called on city officials to discourage the developer from submitting the proposal as an application for review by BDAC.
BDAC reviews development applications for compliance with the city’s Beauregard Small Area Plan, recommends modifications to applications and considers applicant requests for Beauregard Small Area Plan (BSAP) exemptions, and then delivers a recommendation to the city’s Planning Board and City Council.
1900 N. Beauregard St.
“This proposed development seeks to avoid key provisions established by the Beauregard Small Area Plan (BSAP) and, if allowed to proceed, goes back on promises made to the Seminary Heights community – including promises made that are now memorialized within the BSAP,” wrote BDAC member Bud Jackson. “For me, this plan is dead on arrival and should not even be presented to BDAC in its current form. It asks our city to hand out special use permits like candy without regard to the neighborhood, abutting neighbors, and the loss of benefits our city should expect in return for the privileges being granted.”
Monday Properties is hosting a public meeting Thursday, March 23 at 6:30 p,m. at 1800 North Beauregard Street.
“On behalf of the Seminary Heights Condo Association and its Board of Directors, I am writing to notify you that our community vehemently opposes the newly proposed redevelopment of Monday Properties’ 1900 North Beauregard Street which immediately abuts our entire community,” wrote Seminary Heights Condominium Board President Dodi Baker.
“The Seminary West Civic Association (SWCA), a community of approximately 600 townhouses and detached homes in the immediately adjacent neighborhood, urges the City to reject this proposal,” wrote Owen Curtis, SWCA president. “Trying to turn North Beauregard into something that resembles Crystal City or the Carlyle or any other dense urban neighborhood is wholly inappropriate.”
“The Seminary Park Board of Directors has voted to oppose [the proposed 1900 North Beauregard] consideration by the City,” wrote Seminary Park President Les Jackson.
First reported here (by Alexandria Living Magazine) and disclosed on the city’s website here the property owner, Monday Properties, is proposing to replace an existing office building with 340-350 residential units. In addition to asking the zoning to be changed from office to residential use, the applicant is set to ask the city for several more special use permits that include increasing the current height restriction, reducing a set back and parking requirement, and increasing a portion of the property’s boundary.
One permit reportedly seeks to reintroduce a controversial parallel road that city residents successfully fought to have removed from the Beauregard Small Area Plan. The original Beauregard Small Area Plan (BSAP) included a “parallel road” that ran the length of the Seminary Heights community property line. Residents lobbied hard to have the plan modified to eliminate the road, given concerns about noise from vehicular traffic. City Council agreed and passed City Ordinance 5781 to permanently remove the road from the BSAP.
“This proposal seeks to break promises made to our community by inserting a parallel road we fought to have removed from future city planning,” said Seminary Heights president Baker.
“The parallel road behind the proposed building is in direct conflict with agreements struck prior to the construction of the Blake and must not be allowed,” wrote Seminary Park president Jackson.
“The bottom line here is that the City must keep its word, honor its promise to the residents, and not allow the developer to bring back this road, which was explicitly eliminated from the BSAP,” wrote SWCA president Curtis.
An additional aggravating factor is that Monday Properties recently redeveloped the adjacent 2000 North Beauregard Street, also changing the property’s intended use to residential and after receiving special use permits to build a 300-unit residential development with a building “The Blake” that exceeds originally intended guidelines and effectively walled off the abutting neighborhood, the civic associations argued.
“During the winter our homes loses direct sunlight for a number of hours due to the low azimuth of the sun being blocked by the The Blake building, wrote Seminary Park President Jackson. “This issue will surely be the same for Seminary Heights when 1900 is constructed. One owner sold and moved away earlier than she had planned because she felt 'walled in' by The Blake.”
Les Jackson added that units in Seminary Park located near The Blake development have on average sold as much $30,000 less than units farther away on the opposite side of Seminary Park.
Similarly, at 1900 North Beauregard Street, lifting “the height restriction would wall off our community, reduce our natural light, and decrease our privacy,” Baker wrote.
Should the 1900 North Beauregard proposal move forward next door to The Blake more than 640 new residential units of density will have been added within two blocks. In addition, across the street from The Blake and 1900 North Beauregard developments on Seminary Road, more than 95 additional residential units have been approved to be built in the “Upland Park” development.
Nearly directly across from North Beauregard Street and adjacent to the Alexandria Hilton, 367 more residential units have been approved for construction as part of “The Rutherford” building. And only a few more blocks away on Seminary Road, an office building was recently converted from office space to 212 residential units. When combined these developments total more than 1,300 new residential units within several short blocks and developed within a shared compressed time period.
“We believe that the current concept plan should be DOA, and not submitted to the BDAC for its review until it is significantly amended or replaced with a plan that is not only fully in keeping with the BSAP, but also consistent with the way commercial properties adjacent to residences in our City should be sensitively developed,” wrote SWCA president Curtis.
“Monday Properties is already allowed to build residential units at this location. Underlying zoning allows them to do so. But it does not allow them the density they desire to achieve maximum profits. To that end, this proposal demonstrates an intention to exploit the BSAP as a tool to maximize profits,” wrote BDAC member Jackson.
“The impact on traffic and to the character of our neighborhood has yet to be realized,” warned Seminary Heights president Baker.
