View from the street of Alfred Street Baptist Church. Photo Contributed
On Sundays, Alfred Street Baptist Church, one of the city’s oldest black churches, is one of the most popular spots in Alexandria’s Historic District. According to Deacon James Garrett, the church has added more than 3,000 new members over the last eight years. If all goes according to plan, it’s going to get a little more spacious inside Alexandria’s historic Alfred Street Baptist Church, but some residents are concerned it comes at the cost of crowding their neighbors.
“[We’re] in the early stages of a development program to expand the church,” said Garrett. “We’re at the point now where we need new space, but nothing is happening any time soon. We plan to break ground in 2020, so we’re at least four years out. It could be five or six years before we complete a project.”
The new project would raze existing affordable townhomes adjacent to the site and redevelop them to expand the existing church with approximately 181,151 square feet of church space, adding 955 new seats and bringing their total up to 2163.
The biggest concern for most local residents is how the increased size of the church will impact local traffic and parking. Currently, on days with services, the streets are packed with parked cars edging out the residents.
“They’re more than doubling the size of the sanctuary, and it’s hard to even imagine how much worse it can get,” said local resident Joe Davis. “The neighborhood is up in arms over the parking and congestion. Nobody can imagine what doubling that will look like. We want to nip that in the bud. Alexandria politics have a way of becoming a done deal before there’s even a discussion.”
“We've seen the parking issue get worse and worse as the majority of the parishioners come from Washington D.C. or Maryland,” said local resident Andy Taylor in an email, which included a video attachment of a parallel parked car pulling out and hitting both the cars in front and behind it. “Poor parking outside our own properties that is then compounded by the church attendees trying to squeeze into spots before dashing to church. We've seen on numerous occasions cars being bumped backwards and forwards as church-goers damaging and scratching our vehicles. The church attendees responded … saying it should be expected in an urban area. This is residential Old Town — not Manhattan.”
Currently, the church generates 1,486 trips on the average weekday and 3,602 trips on Sunday. But contrary to neighborhood concerns, Garrett says the church expansion will help solve that parking problem. The church will be adding a new underground parking garage, with two levels below grade on the side, adding 226 spaces, with 465 spaces total available on the site.
“There’s been a traffic study, and the study did not find any major issues,” said Garrett, though he said with the current ongoing negotiations he was unable to release the study. “The big thing is, we’re taking cars off the street. Right now, when people come there during the week, they park on the street. During the day, we have a lot across the street. Once we build, there will never be any reason for anyone to park on the street, except for the weekends. The requirement is that you have one parking space for every five seats. It’s not something we speculate on, these are the rules.”
Rob Kerns, division chief for development with the Department of Planning and Zoning, said that city staff is currently reviewing the concept plan and looking at how it will impact the neighborhood.
“They are looking at parking, at circulation around the site, on Route 1 and the neighborhood streets,” said Kerns. “Staff is very aware of the sensitive nature of the neighborhood streets there. That is definitely a priority in our thinking.”
With the project so early in development, all sides are being reserved about details that are still to be determined, but a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by the neighbors offered insight into the city’s bargaining process with the church, including hopes for a contribution to the bikeshare program.
“I think we should ask for a bikeshare and see what they say,” wrote Hillary Orr, Complete Streets program manager, in one of the emails obtained by the neighbors in a FOIA request. “Not sure how to determine the amount as we don’t have institutional uses — maybe retail? I assume they are going to be using this monstrosity for things other than Sunday services.”
Kerns said, with the building being located in a historic district, the staff is also looking into whether the plans are compatible and have minimal impact on nearby residential buildings.
But the neighbors across Duke and Wolfe streets aren’t the only local residents impacted by the church expansion. Residents in the 22 affordable housing units neighboring the existing church, homes that will be razed to make room for expansion, will be forced to find new housing in Alexandria’s already scarce affordable housing supply.
“We’re looking at replacement housing,” said Kerns. “Not on that site, but those families will be taken care of in terms of providing housing on another location once this site is redeveloped. That’s also an important part of this process.”
Garrett explained that the church’s 40-year contract for the affordable housing ends in 2019, right before the church plans to break ground on their new expansion. The church bought the affordable housing properties in 2009.
“Although we’re not required to, we are planning to make sure that those people will be able to continue to have affordable housing,” said Garrett. “We’re working with the city as well as Alexandria Housing Development Corporation to assure that we have replacement units.”
At this time, Garrett says the church is unsure where the housing would be, though he said it would still be inside Alexandria. The church is meeting with local tenants the evening of Feb. 11 to discuss redevelopment plans.
Currently, Kerns said the project is in the Concept 1 stage, with significant amounts of reviews and community discussion to be done. After this, Kerns said the church will need to discuss the plans with the various civic and neighborhood groups impacted by this project.