Tag: City of Alexandria
Alexandria City Council Approves the Innovation District and Launches Development in North Potomac Yard
On October 17, 2020, the Alexandria City Council unanimously approved the latest in a series of land use applications, submitted by a partnership of JBG Smith and the Virginia Tech Foundation, to allow Phase I of the long-anticipated redevelopment of North Potomac Yard. These landmark approvals will facilitate the transformation of a 19-acre site, currently occupied by a movie theater and a surface parking lot, into a 1.6 million square foot mixed-use development anchored by the Potomac Yard Metro Station and the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus.
Known as the Innovation District, the new development will become a vibrant hub of activity that will serve as an economic engine to drive North Potomac Yard and the City into the future. The approvals allow JBG Smith to deliver four office buildings and two residential buildings – all with ground floor retail – and enable Virginia Tech to construct the first of three planned academic buildings in its new Innovation Campus. Designed by five different teams of architects, the buildings achieve a variety of innovative architectural expressions, while maintaining a sense of cohesion across the Innovation District as a whole. In addition to the buildings, the Innovation District will have a network of publicly accessible open spaces connected by a network of pedestrian-focused streetscapes, bicycle paths and shared use paths. The open spaces include Market Lawn, Metro Plaza, and a 4.5 acre extension of Potomac Yard Park that will be considered at forthcoming public hearings in December 2020.
Consistent with the Small Area Plan’s vision for North Potomac Yard as an environmentally sustainable community, sustainability was top-of-mind throughout the project design and application process. Sustainable elements were incorporated into all aspects of the project, ranging from solar-oriented architectural features, porous pavers in the streetscape design, and green stormwater management technologies. The project team worked in coordination with consultants at Sustainable Building Partners to develop an Environmental Sustainability Master Plan for North Potomac Yard – the first of its kind in the City. The ESMP will serve as the sustainability roadmap for future development in North Potomac Yard by establishing goals, targets and a variety of strategies designed to advance the City’s sustainability goals over the 20 – 30 year buildout of North Potomac Yard. As a living document, the ESMP will be updated in future phases of development to incorporate new strategies and technologies in the rapidly-evolving field of sustainability.
The Innovation District will provide a number of significant community benefits to the City. Tax revenue generated by the Innovation District will help fund the Potomac Yard Metrorail Station, and incentives provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia associated with the Virginia Tech campus include the allocation of additional funding for the southern entrance to the Metrorail station. During the application process, the applicant worked with the City to augment its contributions to affordable housing through the dedication of additional land to be used for a school collocated with affordable housing. With these contributions and additional community benefits to be generated by the development, the Innovation District will achieve a number of the City’s objectives.
The Walsh Colucci team of Cathy Puskar, Caroline Herre and Bob Brant navigated JBG Smith and its team of consultants through an application process that resulted in approvals of a Master Plan Amendment, Coordinated Development District Concept Plan Amendment, Preliminary Infrastructure Plan, a Subdivision, and Development Special Use Permits for six individual buildings in a period of under twelve months. In addition to extensive coordination and negotiation with City of Alexandria staff, the application process involved substantial community outreach, including six community-wide town hall meetings, over a dozen meetings with the Potomac Yard Design Advisory Committee, and meetings with the Environmental Policy Commission, Park and Recreation Commission, and the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee. With the guidance of the Walsh Colucci team, the proposal was met with widespread community support throughout the application process.
The Innovation District approvals represent the first step in realizing the vision set forth in the North Potomac Yard Small Area Plan, and will serve as a catalyst for the remaining 6 million square feet of development to come in future phases of North Potomac Yard. The Innovation District sets a new bar for future development in the City and the region, and pushes the envelope in terms of innovative and sustainable design.
Market Lawn – Source: OJB Landscape Architecture
Metro Plaza – Source: OJB Landscape Architecture
Block 10 -Source: Hickok Cole
Block 19 – Source: Hord Coplan Macht
Block 14 – Source: COOKFOX Architects
Team Spotlight: City of Alexandria, Land Use & Zoning Team
In this month’s Employee Spotlight we would like to highlight and congratulate the City of Alexandria Land Use & Zoning team.
The dynamic team, Cathy Puskar, Bob Brant, and Caroline Herre, received unanimous approval for the redevelopment of the existing Potomac Yard Regal Cinema site into the Virginia Tech/North Potomac Yard Innovation District. They each took on key roles in the project and ensured that every step represented the client’s best interests through the approval process.
Congratulations Cathy, Bob, and Caroline!
Cathy Puskar
Having joined Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh in November 1998, Cathy Puskar’s practice focuses on land use and zoning matters in the City of Alexandria and Arlington County. With an in-depth knowledge of the law, process, politics, and people required to achieve her clients’ goals, Cathy has successfully represented a number of clients in obtaining the necessary entitlements for a variety of projects including major residential, commercial, and mixed-use developments. Cathy represents major landowners with development approvals in significant planning areas within the City of Alexandria, including North Potomac Yard, Potomac Yard/Potomac Greens, Beauregard, and Eisenhower East. In addition, Cathy has the distinction of having represented clients in the approval process for the majority of the Arlington County Columbia Pike Commercial Revitalization and Neighborhoods Form Based Code Projects that have been developed to date.
Bob Brant
A long-time resident of Northern Virginia, Bob joined the firm in 2015 and works in the firm’s Land Use & Zoning practice group. His practice focuses on securing zoning and land use entitlements including rezonings, special permits, and special exceptions.
Caroline Herre
Caroline joined the Firm as a Land Use Planner in 2017 after completing her graduate degree in Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia.
Good Deeds – Michael Coughlin
Source: Susan Lynch
On Saturday, April 29, Mike Coughlin will take a break from his busy eminent domain practice to lead a group of volunteers who will be repairing and rehabilitating homes for community members in need in the City of Alexandria. For the past four and one-half years, Mike has been a member of the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together Alexandria and over the years, has participated in National Rebuilding Day. On National Rebuilding Day in 2016, more than 700 volunteers donated time and materials to Alexandrians in need.
Mike looks forward to National Rebuilding Day each year saying, “It provides me the opportunity to give back to the City of Alexandria, where I live, by assisting with home improvement projects.” Several of the homes Mike has worked on in the past are within walking distance of his own home, and, as he points out, he is lucky to now know several neighbors. Last year, through his work with Rebuilding Together Alexandria, Mike was part of a team that helped a former City of Alexandria bus driver complete much needed health and safety related repairs throughout his home, including major repairs like installing new windows and other significant work like installing a microwave and light in the kitchen. Mike found it especially rewarding to give back to someone who had previously served the City of Alexandria.
Although National Rebuilding Day is its biggest annual event, Rebuilding Together Alexandria also provides services to residents of the community year round through other programs. The Safe and Healthy Homes Initiative strives to make the homes of low-income homeowners in the City safe and healthy through renovation projects, completed at no cost to them. The goal is to help members of the community who are elderly and/or living on a fixed income to remain in a safe and comfortable home. Another initiative, the Community Strong Program, partners with the City to improve public spaces including parks and school areas. Through the Home of Your Own Program, Rebuilding Together Alexandria purchases and renovates homes with the goal of selling them, at cost, to first-time homebuyers. The Community Strong Initiate partners with sponsors and City of Alexandria agencies to improve community spaces like parks and playgrounds. Rebuilding Together Alexandria also hosts an annual fundraiser, Raise the Roof, at Port City Brewing Company, which the firm has sponsored in past years.
Mike has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together Alexandria and helped establish the development committee responsible for fundraising. The skills Mike has honed as an attorney, and through his eminent domain practice, including his commitment to fostering client relationships, have helped him to attract new sponsors to Rebuilding Together Alexandria.
Mike sees his involvement in Rebuilding Together Alexandria as a logical synergy of his skills and interests and the firm’s clients. As Mike points out, “Lawyers have a unique set of skills that can help serve and improve the community, non-profits, or other organizations. We owe it to our communities to draw on those skills and give back.”
To anyone interested in contributing to National Rebuilding Day, Mike assures me that if you can pick up a paintbrush, you can help. To anyone who would like to contribute but is unable to participate in person, funds can be contributed in the form of a sponsorship.
