Reply to Alexandria City Building Height/ Hyundai SUP Approval.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Today in Alexandria, builders building in areas zoned for 50+ feet can apply for an additional 25 feet of height (up to 75 feet) if they are also addressing low income housing needs in those proposals (it's not by right, just an option to apply for that has to go through a whole exception process).  This Bonus height text amendment (BHTA - which is currently deferred) would lower it to 45 feet - which potentially brings parts of Del Ray and Old Town into that program.

The hyundai thing makes no sense to me in the context of the city's goals, master plan, or the del ray area plan.  But I think the logic behind the scenes is this (I'm much more familiar with del ray than old town so focusing there). It is still difficult to develop here - mainly because our lots are strangely shaped, and because homes are right off the avenue.  So that hyundai lot...the right thing for the city (and I think the neighborhood too) is for it to end up as dense mixed use, but within the current restrictions it could also just end up empty.  I think this outcome was the city balancing those two concerns (with a heavy dose of we also LOVE the owner)

In 10 years, I suspect (and hope) that a fair number of Del Ray's NIMBY contingent will have... uh... died out.  And the new neighbors will be much more amenable to that kind of density (especially under the BHTA, assuming it passes, these types of projects get much more economically viable).  But we shall see....  [/quote]

Nothing is dying out. People are dropping 1.5 million dollars on a house. They don't want 300 poors looking down on them from the tower next door.

Alexandria is botching this. Imagine if they allowed this in Old Town in the 70s; it wouldn't exist as it is now. There would be no reason to visit.

Del Ray can be charming, quaint, and "where main street still exists" or it can be Harlem. It can't be both.[/quote]

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