To the Editor:
Old Town Alexandria’s build out can only be called volcanic. Rated the densest city in Virginia for the past 10 years, Alexandria’s dubious distinction has new meaning. Old Town alone will experience an estimated 72 percent increase in population when all the approved and anticipated construction is complete. All these new people will be occupying the same space we now live in, drive on same streets, rely on the same waterlines, and contribute to an already overloaded combined sewer system.
The city’s own web information and that of various business publications show that Old Town is not only dense, it is so hardscaped that the National Flood Insurance Program rating has downgraded stormwater management and open space preservation. Mitigating the effects of stormwater runoff and replacing the decrepit combined sewer system in Old Town will not go forward with the build out, but lag behind it for several years. It’s fair to say we can anticipate many more water main breaks, rats in our toilets, sewer gas in our basements, and flooding on Union Street and other low lying areas.
It’s time to make some contingency plans and anticipate the impact or simply limit the density levels of each development. In particular areas adjacent to the waterfront will bear the brunt of this massive, rapid construction boom. The ARHA property selloff and development alone will contribute an estimated 1,700 new residents on the blocks directly behind Oronoco Bay Park. This is also very near the future site of the hotel, restaurant, residences, and retail expected to replace the now low impact Robinson Terminal North site. The combined sewer system for most of this new development property empties into Oronoco Bay Park.
The names of these developments are familiar by now: the Health Center Building, Harris Teeter store and apartments, the Madison, 515 N. Washington, the Oronoco, and scattered developments totaling about 2,200 new residents. Even before the cold weather stressed water lines, Old Town suffered three water main breaks in the short period of a month. In a downpour the drainage system is overwhelmed and trash floats in the streets.
The impact of adding almost 4,000 new residents to Old Town … now 5,500 residents … is alarming. The fact that the city is very aggressively pursuing a tourist campaign and waterfront “activation” program to bring in extra bodies with no capacity planning studies is just irresponsible. What is urban planning for but to ensure that the people who live there enjoy a high quality of life, one that creates a stable community?
It is incumbent on the city to layout how this astonishing increase in people in a landscape that is already heavily trafficked by both residents and flow-through vehicles, characterized by narrow roadways and sidewalks, filled with service businesses that require regular deliveries and large trucks, tourist buses that have been problematic for years, can remain a place that maintains an attractive and historic neighborhood.
So far, the piece meal mushrooming of whole-block build outs has masked the effects, but the waterfront and ARHA property developments have made it impossible to deny the reality. We may have a Master Plan but it has never been informed by a capacity and infrastructure plan. The base of the pyramid is built of clay.
Kathryn Papp, Alexandria