Inova's Alexandria hospital campus is now zoned to allow for future residential development, after city council voted 7-0 to allow the rezoning to make it easier for Inova to sell the Seminary Hill hospital land to a developer.
Inova plans to build a new hospital at the former Landmark Mall. The new hospital, trauma center and cancer center is part of a larger redevelopment of 51-acres of prime real estate surrounding the closed Landmark Mall in Alexandria's West End. The Inova Health System says it needs the money from the sale of its current hospital in Alexandria to partially finance the building of the new hospital a few miles away.
The hospital in the Seminary Hill area of Alexandria will remain operational until about 2028, when the new hospital opens, making this an unusual rezoning situation: Normally, a rezoning request comes with plans for a redevelopment, but this rezoning request has no specific plans attached to it.
Inova's Seminary Hill property, as of Saturday, is zoned "RB" — a residential designation meant primarily for townhomes and single-family homes — in the hopes that the already-rezoned land will be attractive to a developer.
However, residents are concerned that whoever buys the Inova Alexandria hospital campus on Seminary Hill could simply request another rezoning to allow for apartment buildings or other, much more dense uses. The reason seems to come down to Inova's decline to put in writing a commitment to ensuring its future land buyer will respect the RB zoning.
About 20 years ago, Inova wanted to add space to its hospital, and in doing so Inova reached an agreement with the Seminary Hill Association — later put in writing, notarized and filed with the City of Alexandria — to not request another zoning change for at least 25 years.
When the opportunity to build a new, state-of-the-art hospital at Landmark Mall presented itself before that 25-year-period expired, Inova discussed its need to end the previous agreement. In exchange, Inova agreed to RB zoning instead of the denser RA zoning it had originally planned to request. However, when SHA requested that Inova put the new agreement in writing, including their verbally stated intention to sell to a developer who would honor that RB zoning, Inova declined.
Seminary Hill Association president Carter Fleming told City Council Saturday morning that rumors about the association trying to "sabotage" the hospital's move to Landmark are not true and the association has voted to fully support Inova's building of a new hospital at Landmark.
In answering her own question — 'What's the problem if both parties agree to RB zoning?' — Fleming said, "Inova will not be the developer of this property and has made it clear they will have no control over the property once it's sold. A developer can come back to city council and apply for different zoning, and Inova can say they have no responsibility. This does not give our neighborhood the security we would normally get if this rezoning were proceeding in a normal fashion...."
In addition, Fleming said the original agreement from 2001 between the Seminary Hill Association and Inova Alexandria Hospital that requires that future amendments be put in writing and signed by both parties. Inova declined to do so, leading Fleming to say on behalf of her association, "We do not understand why this is such a problem for Inova if they are sincere in their desire to commit to the RB zoning."
Attorney Cathy Puskar, who was representing Inova, said she did not believe City Council should be bound on rezoning by what was a private agreement between the hospital and the civic association. In addition, the association and the hospital had multiple discussions about the rezoning earlier this year, including discussions about the 2001 agreement, and putting additional information in writing isn't needed. Puskar said the hospital did not want to agree to tie its own hands for an additional period of time, or tie a future developers' or city council's hands "on the ultimate outcome of the property."
After some discussion, City Council did approve the rezoning to RB by a unanimous vote, and the Seminary Hill Association will decide in the future whether to take additional legal action regarding their agreement with Inova.
