Your article on the Planning Commission (“Courting Controversy” Aug. 24) was most intriguing, particularly the comments of Commissioner Nathan Macek that it was neighborhood concerns that “watered down” a good Waterfront plan and has led to stalled development. As the British would say, that is “tommyrot.” Plans for the North Terminal development were severely flawed from the outset since they did not take into account the stench from the sewer outfall nearby, nor the need for the city some day to put a sewage holding tank on the land. Developers are rightfully skittish about prospects at the site.
In this case, it was city staff and the Planning Commission that failed in diligence — not the neighbors. I have been dealing with Alexandria Planning Commissions since 1980 and have testified before that body more than three dozen times over the years. The current commission is the worst I have encountered for its treatment of citizen concerns. Members seem convinced that the developers know best — and the rest of us should shut up.
Chairman Mary Lyman expressed dismay that citizens often are concerned with their neighborhoods and “not what’s good for the city as a whole.” Such a comment ignores the fact that Alexandria is made up of neighborhoods and that they are key to its welfare — a concept recently adopted as part of the city’s strategic planning process. Nor is it always clear what is good for the city as a whole. Case in point: The utter failure so far of the Beauregard Plan, adopted over the objections of many neighbors.
Instead of courting more controversy, the Planning Commission should be looking at what has caused the lack of progress on the Waterfront, in the Beauregard Corridor and at Landmark. It may find that it bears more than a little responsibility for its rubber-stamping of developer plans. It also may discover that listening to residents might have been a better strategy.
Jack Sullivan
Alexandria