An anti-zoning changes sign outside a single-family home in Alexandria.
The majority of Alexandria residents oppose Zoning for Housing legislation, according to a survey commissioned by the Coalition for a Livable Alexandria.
The organization is a nonprofit volunteer-based group of Alexandria residents that is "focused on encouraging full and open dissemination of all sides of major issues that affect the welfare of residents in the City of Alexandria."
CLA is planning a demonstration from 2 - 4 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 25 outside city hall.
The survey was conducted by a national opinion polling firm, Alexandria-based Bellwether Research, for the CLA, on Nov. 16 and 17.
Zoning for Housing / Housing for All is a set of zoning reforms that have the goals to expand housing opportunities and affordable housing. The City Council, after months of debate and public hearings, will be voting on whether to pass the set of changes at its Tuesday, Nov. 28 meeting.
The survey asked 1,059 city residents about the zoning changes and other issues, balancing for key factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, and educational background.
According to CLA, key survey findings include:
• The majority of voters (58%) oppose the Zoning for Housing legislation, while just 26% favor it.
• Voters say the following impacts will result from adoption of the Zoning for Housing legislation: traffic will worsen (72%), increased population will make it difficult to live in Alexandria (58%), developers will build expensive but not affordable housing (56%), and infrastructure will be inadequate to sustain new development (55%).
• Only 25% of voters believe that Zoning for Housing will allow for more people to buy a home inAlexandria, while just 19% say it will result in more equitable access to housing for minorities.
• The majority of voters (80%) want the city to slow down and give residents more time to understand the potential impact of Zoning for Housing changes and to study more data before rushing to adoption.
• The majority of voters (57%) are not satisfied that the Alexandria City Council listens to resident input when making decisions.
In addition, about half of those surveyed opposed the proposed changes to single-family housing zones and noted that Alexandria's increased population will make it harder to live in the city. (See full survey results here.)
“The survey results couldn’t be more clear on how voters feel about this misguided proposal to address the housing shortage in Northern Virginia,” said CLA Chair Roy Byrd.
The city did its own questionnaire back in the spring, showing residents supported the ideas of supporting zoning changes to allow more townhomes and duplexes, but significantly less support for more apartment buildings — except for office-to-residential conversions and industrial areas.
