We will have three projects going on at the same time over a two year period at the same end of King Street. Not only will Metro be changing the King Street Metro which will remove 35 parking spaces, we will have the destruction of the Naval Reserve Association Building to be replaced by a 124-room hotel, with a 90-seat restaurant, we will also have a new 6-7 story condominium at the end of Harvard Street behind the strip of townhouses on King Street. With the removal of the Naval Reserve Association building, we will lose five on-street parking spaces. This is a total loss of at least 40 parking spaces at this end of King Street. Before the new Jefferson Houston School was built, the parking lot by the Durant Center had been open to the public after school hours.
For some reason, some insane reason, once the new school was built, the signage was changed in the parking lot expressing the lot was now only to be used by the school, the Durant Center, and the swimming pool visitors. To keep this lot closed to the public during non-school hours is too restrictive, especially with the loss of so many parking spaces in the immediate area.
When the new field was built, the field was open to more game activities which means more vehicles that need to park. As it is, we previously had 126 parking spaces, now there are only 124. The configuration of the parking lot does not make it easier for people that use the field to park close to the field to load and unload children and equipment. People from all over the DMV come to our city, they park on our streets. Most of them park for free because they avoid the meters, they avoid the parking lots. We, the residents, pay to park near/in front of our homes so we are charged for parking. Each year we renew our residential stickers. Also, the new hotel with 124 rooms will only have 55 underground spaces, with none provided for their employees. Where do you think they will park?
Bea Porter
Alexandria