So I poked around the City of Alexandria proposed amendment for the redevelopment plan of Potomac Yard. This is the adjacent site next to Potomac Yard shopping mall where it housed some of the big box retailers like Target, Barnes and Noble, PetSmart, Old Navy, etc. (Previous posts here and here).
Via New Homes Trekker.
Two nation's big developers, Centex Homes and Pulte Homes, teamed up to redevelop the former railroad tracks off Route 1 a.k.a Jefferson Davis Highway within the City of Alexandria boundary. It will be a mixed-use development sits on approximately 167 acres, south of Potomac Yard shopping center. The famous Del Ray neighborhood is walking distance from this project. The proposed plan will offer a combination of retail, office, residential and a hotel with 300 rooms. This project will be one of the largest projects for the City with 1.8 million square of office, 135,000 sq. ft. of retail.. this is in addition to 600,000 sq. Potomac Yard shopping center, 1,973 residential units and a hotel with 300 rooms.
The redevelopment plan is divided into 8 land bays with target of residential 1,927 units, commercial and office space 1.9M s.f. and retail 720k s.f.
The focal point for Potomac Yard will be a town center much like Reston Town Center, Shirlington Village, with variety of uses for people to meet, gather, and offices. The plan is for taller buildings along the street corridors. From proposed amendment plan also reallocate office use. There is a plan to transfer 765k s.f. of office density to land bay (LB) H (see plans above) from LB J and LB H. Along with it, it will designate LB H as a mixed-use and allow up to 110' height for four buildings and 82' for the remainder.
The most important part of all this, is the traffic analysis. Route 1 is going to be the major road for this development. Even now, some days traffic backs up from passing through traffic on Route 1. On the existing plan, the analysis shows that there would be an est. 1624 peak hours car trips AM and 1954 cars during peak hours PM. The proposed amendment calls for 1625 cars peak AM and 1955 cars peak PM. (That sounds like a lot of cars). The solutions looking to use traditional grid pattern with intersections. The plan shows there is a total of 16 intersections slated for this new neighborhood.
Everything looks nice and dandy, except there's nothing in the proposed plan mentioned about feeder buses to and from Metro stations, or other alternative plans for transportation. The last thing residents want is to spend extra 15 mins just to get out of the complex. They've got to make it easy for workers, residents and shoppers alike to go in and out of the neighborhood.
What they're counting on, really, is to get Metro to agree for a possibility of extending the line to Potomac Yard. Financing it is the stumbling block. (But, with everyone trying to save money on gas, think Alexandria has a case.) If that's the case, they're looking at a possibility of taking 15% of external traffic density.
With gas prices skyrocketing, the use of mass transit or other alternative method of transportation like car or bike sharing, the City should encourage the use of alternatives.
** UPDATE: A reader Route 1 Transit commented that Arlington county and Alexandria teamed up to provide bus services along Route 1. The Federal Transit Administration has approved the transit improvement in Crystal City and Potomac Yard. See map here.
images: City of Alexandria
