To the Editor:
If what we witnessed at the Alexandria City Council’s public hearing recently is an indicator of what we can expect in the next three years, we have reason to be greatly concerned.
Twenty-four citizens were part of a citizen’s appeal concerning the Board of Architectural Review (BAR) approval of the Certificate of Appropriateness for the Robinson Terminal South development. Of those 24 speakers, about 20 of them were in favor of the appeal, which meant that the developer (EYA), would need to start the entire BAR process again.
Moreover, three members of the BAR filed a minority report citing a number of reasons why the proposed development did not “fit in” to the architecture of the Old and Historic District. Wayne Neal, the vice chair of the BAR presented their case, assisted by Margaret Miller, who is another member of the BAR.
As one of the 24 speakers, I presented my reasons for the appeal but how discouraging to see that Justin Wilson and Paul Smedberg were laughing and seemingly could have cared less about what we was saying, since they were not paying any attention.
However, it soon became evident why they did not need to listen to the citizens and BAR minority members. Mr Wilson hastily read his prepared motion to override the appeal, thus approving the Certificate of Appropriateness for the development. Since they were just re-elected, there is no need to curry favor with citizens, so the council voted 6-1 and 5-2 against the two appeals.
If this were a football situation, the developers would be going to the playoffs, while the citizens have been relegated to the minor leagues, and the BAR to the bench. I cannot overstate the importance of the citizens to become stakeholders in the democratic process, and to demand that the City Council become more responsive to citizen (and some BAR members) concerns. If this does not happen, our new mayor will be overridden every time by essentially the same bunch of out-of-control council members who are constantly at odds with the citizens, the neighborhoods, and the ultimate good of this great city. If this continues, one hopes that the City Council members will heed the words of Abraham Lincoln, one of our greatest Presidents, who said: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
Townsend A. “Van” Van Fleet
Alexandria