More than 100 residents filled the auditorium at The Hermitage retirement community Saturday, both learning about and providing feedback on the redevelopment of the Landmark Mall property.
Saturday’s Community Workshop was the third of four events allowing residents to get involved in with the plans to completely reconstruct the 51-acre site in Alexandria’s West End.
The City summarizes on its information page at www.alexandriava.gov/Landmark: “After lengthy delays as a result of changes to the Landmark Mall sites' ownership structure, changes in department store ownership and economics and the overall real estate market, The Howard Hughes Corporation, partial owner of the Landmark Mall site since 2010, recently indicated their readiness to move forward with redevelopment, which requires an update to the Landmark Mall framework plan and Landmark/Van Dorn Corridor Plan (2009).”
Howard Hughes now owns or controls all sections of the property, allowing the entire site to be reenvisioned as a mixed-use destination. Possible uses include retail, offices, hotels, spaces for art, civic uses and more, along with improved site access from the surrounding streets – Duke Street, North Van Dorn Street, and potentially even I-395.
The Proposed Timeline
The next community meeting will be at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27 at a to-be-determined location. After that, plan recommendations will go then the Alexandria Planning Commission and the City Council for public hearings.
City officials want to ensure the planning process and recommendations take into consideration planning and policy documents put in place after 2009 when a plan for Landmark’s redevelopment was first proposed by property owners. Those documents include Complete Streets, the Transportation Master Plan, Smart Mobility, and Vision Zero.
Then, various pieces of the puzzle will come together with permits, building and street designs, infrastructure improvements and more. The City will need to Tear-down of the current mall building may not start for a couple of years, with redevelopment taking places in phases over the next decade or more.
Working Draft Recommendations
During Saturday’s workshop, residents had the opportunity to give their opinion on a series of “working draft recommendations” – outlined principles that would guide the development of the site.
Some of the key principles included:
Providing 3.5 acres of publicly accessible open space over the entire site. In addition, provide a total of 25 percent open space at or above grade. While the 3.5 acres of publicly accessible space will likely be one large space, additional spaces may be additional large areas, pocket parks or even rooftop terraces. Some of those will be public and some may be private for residents or tenants of the buildings.
The area will include an urban transit hub to serve as a stop and transfer point for bus rapid transit (BRT, part of the planned West End Transitway), DASH bus service and Metro bus service.
The area will use Coordinated Development District zoning to implement the recommendations. This allows zoning rules to apply only to the Landmark area and not affect buildings outside the redevelopment.
There is likely to be incorporation of one or more community facilities or institutions, such as a fire station, school, recreation center or something similar.
In addition, residents were asked to react to a large number of new draft recommendations, including:
- consideration of a variety of building heights (allowing some buildings as high as 250 feet in some portions of the development)
- require a minimum of 20 percent commercial usage of the 5.6 million maximum square feet of development
- improve and enhance Duke Street and North Van Dorn Street frontages
- improve sidewalks and design streets to balance multiple types of uses (pedestrians, cyclists, transit and cars)
- reconsider or remove the Duke Street flyover ramp into the Landmark property
- work with the Virginia Department of Transportation regarding access to and from I-395 with pedestrian improvements
- consider pedestrian and other improvements at the intersection of Duke and Walker streets.
Residents also discussed affordable housing and how it can fit into this development -- whether through setting a target percentage or through allow "bonus density" in the development to create it.
To see the Working Draft Recommendations and more on Landmark Mall redevelopment, go to www.alexandriava.gov/Landmark.
To comment if you are unable to attend the Feb. 27 meeting, contact Ashley Labadie, Urban Planner, at ashley.labadie@alexandriava.gov or 703-746-3801.
