To the Editor:
I am writing in response to a letter written by Ann Liddle in the Alexandria Gazette Packet about the new Jefferson-Houston school building. The school does fall under the Parker Gray BAR and I am one of the board members. The architectural design team held many public hearings about the design where community input was solicited and taken
into account in the final design. The design of the school when through countless iterations with the city staff and we as a board reviewed it three times officially. All of this information is public knowledge and the city staff reports can be found on Alexandria's website. You can also watch video of each of the hearings where the design for the school was
presented. Many residents came to these public hearings and spoke both for and against the design and we took all of this into consideration. I encourage everyone to look through the public record and see the evolution of the design and then form an opinion.
I also encourage Ms. Liddle to look through the recent changes to the BAR regulations as she will find that in the past year the Parker Gray BAR has greatly reduced the burden on citizens when it comes to review requirements for alterations to their properties.
Purvi Irwin, Alexandria