It took a while, but it finally got done.
City Council adopted the new Eisenhower East small area plan following public input Saturday at City Hall.
"Approximately 80 people have attended each of our community meetings," said Eileen Fogarty, the city's planning director. "Our consultant took their comments and integrated them into this final product."
The plan was endorsed by community activists and civic association leaders. "I urge you to adopt this plan in its entirety," said Ellen Pickering from the Taylor Run neighborhood.
Poul Hertel, from the Northeast Citizens Association, agreed. "If you start picking it apart, I am very concerned that its substance will not remain intact," he said.
The only people who seemed to oppose the plan were the five members of Alexandrians for Sensible Growth Inc. (ASG). They sent out fliers and e-mails urging citizens to "Please attend City Council's public meeting on Saturday, March 15, to oppose the Eisenhower East Plan."
Tom Parry, the husband of Ginny Hines Parry, ASG's president, spoke at the meeting. "This plan is a jewel," he said. "We would like Council to defer action until there is a comprehensive transportation plan that looks at the impact of this type of development on the whole city."
Both Mayor Kerry J. Donley and Councilwoman Claire Eberwein thought his comments and the flier's message were confusing.
"The flier encouraged people to oppose the plan, and now you are telling us you support it," Eberwein said. "I hope you intend to clarify this to all of the people who sent us e-mails opposing this plan."
THE PLAN ITSELF looked at development along Eisenhower Avenue from Holland Lane to Telegraph Road. "Originally, we were looking at about 34 million square feet of development along this corridor," Fogarty said. "This plan calls for about half that, and most of that development has already been approved or is by right and is going to happen. This plan will allow us to control the way this part of the Valley looks and how it is built."
The plan uses seven strategies: (1) create an urban street grid; (2) locate uses adjacent to Metro; (3) balance the mix of land uses;(4) create a 16-hour, seven-day community with services to reduce secondary trips; (5) reduce the development intensity; (6) manage the parking resources; and (7) establish an aggressive transportation management program.
That transportation management program will reduce traffic significantly from what it would be if the plan is not approved, according to Tom Culpepper, the deputy director of the Department of Transportation and Environmental Services.
"Right now, with the approved level of development, we can anticipate a maximum of 13,458 automobile trips per day during peak hours. The adoption of this plan will reduce that number to 10,135 automobile trips at peak hours," he said.
"We believe that 50 percent of the automobile trips into and out of the Valley will be via the Beltway at Telegraph Road," said Culpepper.
EISENHOWER AVENUE will become a boulevard. "We want Eisenhower Avenue to become a destination address," Fogarty said. "It will be a place to live, work and play, with green space, urban plazas, retail, office and residential."
Developers will be given incentives to have aggressive parking management plans and to encourage transit use. "The Eisenhower Metro station is the most underutilized station in the Metro system," Fogarty said. "By planning density around the Metro station, we hope to change this."
Developers who generally support the plan were nonetheless concerned about soil conditions. "The soil conditions may make it prohibitively expensive to build underground parking," said Jonathan Raq. It is already known that there are pockets of methane gas on many of the sites. Further testing is required to determine the extent of the problem.
The Seminary Hill Civic Association and ASG asked that the city look at reducing the parking that will be permitted. "We of course want the staff to continue to look at this and see if we can't reduce it," Donley said.
In the end, Council passed the plan unanimously. "As many others have said, I hope this will be used as a model for planning Eisenhower West and other parts of the city," said Vice Mayor Bill Cleveland.