In the coming years, Inova Alexandria Hospital will move its entire operation to a new, state-of the-art $1 billion hospital and trauma center about 2.5 miles southwest.
The new hospital will be constructed at the current site of Landmark Mall in Alexandria’s West End as part of a massive 52-acre redevelopment.
What will happen to the hospital’s “old” campus on Seminary Road?
At an online community meeting Wednesday evening, attorney Cathy Puskar said the hospital will be requesting a rezoning of its current Seminary Road/Howard Street property to allow a future developer to build single family detached homes and townhomes. The current hospital is surrounded by single family homes and multifamily units.
The rezoning would ensure the value of the property to a developer and make a highly profitable sale more likely.
The new zoning, R-A, would allow approximately 300 new homes on the hospital’s property and adjacent parking lots.
The current zoning, R-8 and R-20, would allow about 150 homes.
“What we are doing here is looking to just rezone the property to change the label on the map,” Puskar said, so the hospital can evaluate the value of the property to sell to a developer as part of the process of moving forward with construction of the new hospital.
Seminary Hill resident Carter Fleming brought up a concern that R-A zoning might allow for multifamily buildings (i.e. large apartment buildings), and questioned why R-B zoning was not considered. In response, Puskar said she would look into the details and options of R-B zoning, which might not allow such development. Puskar said she chose R-A because it would allow townhomes and would allow for increased density while maintaining the residential feel of the neighborhood.
The following slide from the meeting shows the changes in density from existing zoning to proposed zoning:
Slide from City of Alexandria online community meeting, Jan. 6, 2021
Most single-family homes would be on the northeast side of Howard Street where there is currently a hospital parking lot. Townhomes would be put in place of the current hospital and parking lots on the other side of the street.
Slide from City of Alexandria online community meeting, Jan. 6, 2021
“I know that traffic is a very, very big concern always,” Puskar said. A proposed residential redevelopment could actually reduce traffic in the area, according to an analysis by Wells + Associates, a traffic consulting firm.
The following slide shows the calculations made by Wells + Associates regarding neighborhood traffic:
Slide from City of Alexandria online community meeting, Jan. 6, 2021
Since the hospital won’t move until the new hospital is built, no homes will arrive on the old hospital site for several years. Hospital construction is expected to start in 2024, and the permits and construction process for homes on the Seminary Road/Howard Street hospital property may not start until 2028.
Residents on Ivanhoe Road, behind the hospital, will likely lose the scenic easement behind their homes that the hospital agreed to in 2002, since the property will no longer be a hospital. The scenic easement was put in place to buffer the hospital and commercial parking, but without the hospital and parking, a new developer may not have an interest in keeping a buffer there. Residents would have to work with the developer of the new homes regarding this.
Another online community meeting and question and answer session is scheduled for February. City officials will release details about that in the coming weeks.
