Image courtesy of West Street Acquisitions, LLC
A request by West Street Acquisitions, LLC to build a large multifamily residential building across the street from the Braddock Road Metro Station were denied in a 4-3 vote by City Council on Saturday.
The project had been deferred multiple times before finally making it onto Saturday’s city council docket, due to issues surrounding the ownership of two alleys on the site, plus stormwater and sanitary concerns.
Additional concerns about the scope of development and outreach to neighbors led four council members to vote against the project, which would have brought 180 housing units (14 affordable) to the neighborhood.
City staff determined that the alleys are publicly owned, and the developer agreed to take steps to make expensive stormwater improvements and sanitary sewer adjustments. This included the diversion of sanitary sewers from the Commonwealth Interceptor sewer to the Potomac Yard Trunk Sewer,
The final building design was described as “beautiful” multiple times during the meeting by members of the council and the public. The 95-foot building would have provided 14 affordable units, flexible retail space and a new home for Lincoln Lodge, a local fraternal order which is currently housed across Madison Street from the proposed development site.
Judy Noritake, representing the Braddock Metro Citizens Coalition voiced support for the project at the meeting. “This is a great a great building, it’s really handsome. The development team also took our suggestions about some design aspects and some aspects of the site so we felt like they were really responsive and we would like to throw our support behind this project in its entirety. It’s a great addition to this neighborhood.”
John Craig, a resident of the Braddock area spoke in opposition to the development. “As a resident, I don’t think it’s a good idea to allow any new development in this area until the stormwater sewers are fixed,” he said. He presented photos of extreme flooding in the area from storms in 2004, 2017 and 2020.
For decades, the City has not addressed the flooding in that immediate area. The stormwater issues there are a $10 - 50 million issue that affect a much larger watershed than that taken up by the less-than-an-acre site proposed for development with this project. City staff determined that it was unfair to make the developer pay the tab for such a large issue.
Mayor Justin Wilson and Councilwoman Del Pepper agreed the project was not perfect but thought the merits of the project outweighed the negatives. “I think this is not everything I would have wanted on this site, no question about it, but I think it’s an improvement and helps us achieve in small part some of our city aims and goals and so I think that’s a positive,” said Wilson. He acknowledged the flooding issue in the area and said the City will need to find a way to bear the cost.
Concerns over the stormwater and sanitary sewers, flooding, limited public outreach and overall development in the area proved too great for some members of council.
Councilwoman Amy Jackson thought the development needed more work. “I will probably not be supporting this right now. I don’t think it is ready to go forward for a lot of reasons concerning the pipes, the sewers, the sanitary sewers, the stormwater. I just don’t see why we are building more density right now.”
Councilman Canek Aguirre thought the building was well designed and appropriate for its location near the metro. His issues were with minimal public outreach and lack of coordination to develop the adjoining site with Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority. “I will not be supporting this because I will be voting out of protest due to the fact that essentially the folks that are going to be most impacted by this are the abutting neighbors... [who] have in my opinion been ignored. There have been attempts, I think they’re mild attempts. We’re talking about putting a 7-story building right next to 2-story structures, maybe 3-story.” He expressed disappointment that the entire block was not being redeveloped together after an attempt to do so fell through in 2018.
Jackson and Aguirre along with Councilmen John Chapman and Mo Seifeldein voted to deny the developers application. Wilson, Pepper and Vice-Mayor Elizabeth Bennett-Parker voted in favor of the application.
