An expansion to the second floor of the Del Ray Pizzeria was the center of a Planning Commission controversy. Photo Contributed
Within an hour of returning to session: businesses, the public, and the Planning Commission were at odds. After a two-month summer break, it was business as usual in the Sept. 1 Alexandria Planning Commission meeting, where some big changes for small businesses were proposed in Del Ray. All three of the proposals centered around the growth of businesses and a school in Del Ray.
The first applicant was Hog Thaid LLC, which operates Holy Cow, Pork Barrel BBQ, and The Sushi Bar out of its 2312 Mount Vernon Avenue location. The restaurant hoped to add 12 outdoor seats and to allow live indoor music. More contentious, however, was the three-space parking reduction. There was confusion on the commission regarding the use of tandem spaces.
Ultimately, the Planning Commission approved the proposal, but the issue of increased development in Del Ray was far from settled.
One block away from Hog Thaid’s restaurant complex, the Del Ray Pizzeria was hoping to expand its business to a second floor. The second floor was originally approved for parties and special events in a 2012 SUP. However, a 2014 inspection of the site found numerous violations of the SUP, including offering only four off-street parking spaces instead of the required 10. The SUP also required that the space be used on a reservation basis only, with the applicant representing the project as only being used for special events for private groups or gatherings. However, after the approval, Del Ray Pizzeria began operating the space as second restaurant called “DRP Reserve” with loose reservation requirements. In its proposal to the Planning Commission, the Del Ray Pizaria sought to finalize the second floor’s transformation into the restaurant by removing the reservation seating requirement. The second floor would keep the name DPR Reserve and would operate on a different schedule with a different menu focused more on fine cuisine.
The series of violations of past SUPs was fresh on the mind of many commission members, who threw accusations of manipulation and miscommunication at both the Del Ray Pizzeria owners and city staff.
“If there’s any gaming of the system … it’s with this one,” said David Brown, a member of the Planning Commission. Each of the commission members, in turn, expressed similar levels of discomfort with approving the Pizzeria’s request.
“There’s a history here that makes me very uncomfortable approving this,” said Commission member Maria Wasowski.
In addition to accusing the pizzeria of manipulating the commission, some on the commission pointed fingers towards staff for not catching the manipulation.
“It was advertised as one thing, and now it’s being voted on as another thing,” said Stewart Dunn, a member of the Planning Commission. “Originally it was going to be just for parties, then for anyone who made a reservation, but that’s not what we’re now discussing.”
Karl Moritz, director of Planning and Zoning, said the accusation was unfounded.
“How could you not understand, in June, that there would be some kind of outcry?”
— David Brown, member, Planning Commission
“Staff is not proposing anything different from what the staff report says,” said Moritz. “I’m worried about the thought that we are somehow misleading or misrepresenting.”
Ultimately, the commission unanimously voted to defer the decision on the DRP Reserve and asked staff to reconsider the second floor as part of the entire restaurant to remove any special privileges it might have as a separate entity.
“Making special arrangements for the second floor restaurant is not tenable,” said Commission Chair Mary Lyman.
While the Del Ray Montessori School of Alexandria didn’t fall into the same commercial category as Hog Thaid or the Del Ray Pizzeria, its request for increased enrollment and increased hours of operation, as well as reduction in parking, did cause a stir with the commission. With approval, the school would increase from 64 students to 102 students, all of the 38 additional children coming in as pre-school students. The plan would revise the current student pick-up and drop-off arrangement from 30 minutes to an hour, with faculty meeting students at their cars and walking them to the building.
Sarah Fondriest, director and co-founder of the school, said the school hadn’t heard complaints from the community since it started in 2011, which is why she said she was so surprised to hear a public outcry at the Del Ray land use committee meeting on Aug. 11 against the expansion. For Brown, however, the outcry was completely expected and raised a fair point. The proposal had been submitted to the Planning Commission in June, but no public outreach had been done until the meeting just a month before the proposal was set to appear before the Planning Commission.
“How could you not understand, in June, that there would be some kind of outcry?” asked Brown. “You’re proposing quite a large increase. From what I can see, you filed this application on June 2, and the community didn’t get any word on what was going on until the dead of summer.”
Fondriest’s response, saying that she’d apologized to the community for the oversight and that her actions weren’t malicious, only prompted further rebuke from Brown, who implied that Fondriest was understating the gravity of her error.
“You were inattentive in what you had to see as a problem in the community,” said Brown.
Fondriest was supported during the public comment by teachers and parents from the school, who said that the school was run very efficiently and could easily accommodate the student population increase. Several members of the local Del Ray community, however, urged the commission to consider the effects of the increase on the larger neighborhood, specifically how the longer drop-off and pick-up hours, as well as the increased student population, would impact local traffic. The commission approved the change, but shortened the review of the proposed changes from one year to six months. Overall, members of the commission hoped that future conflicts between the school and the community could be resolved by better communication.
“I hope the citizens concerned about this project aren’t concerned about this outcome, and that the parents of Montessori children aren’t the least discouraged by the fact that there was some community opposition,” said Brown. “I believe strongly in dialogue between the community and the applicant for any land use project … when this matter comes back before us, if you’ve worked out difference between yourselves, we’re going to adopt those changes.”