Alex 311 (Submit Service Requests to City Agencies)
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Real Estate Assessment Appeals
Any appeal of 2020 Real Estate Assessments must be filed by June 1 for hearing by the Board of Equalization.
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Ordinarily, this is the busiest and one of the more enjoyable times of the year in our City.
The Council is typically in the home stretch for our budget process. The weather is usually quite nice. Our community is full of the type of events that bind us together as Alexandrians.
Yet, this is a year unlike any other. Our schools are closed. All community gatherings have been cancelled. Our public interactions have been relegated to the virtual realm. One event after another has been cancelled or postponed.
There is a palpable sadness in our community and a longing for the return to "normal."
Our City is waging war with the COVID-19 virus that has caused havoc around the planet. Already, 44 of our fellow residents tested positive for the virus. Every resident is at risk. This will challenge every aspect of our community.
At a time of unique and unprecedented challenges, as a leader in this community, I feel an obligation to inform and attempt to find a way forward. It will not be easy. I do not know all of the answers, but I do know this:
- We have a while to go. Most projections show that the peak of infections in the Commonwealth of Virginia is still several weeks off.
- The lives of many members of our community depend on our ability to comply with the guidance of public health experts and direction of our Governor to stay home, distance ourselves and avoid transmitting or contracting this virus.
- Many of our fellow residents are facing sudden food insecurity, housing insecurity and unemployment or underemployment.
- Commerce in our City, particularly for our small businesses, has taken a body blow.
- Our City's finances will now suffer the most significant decline in our lifetimes.
But ultimately we will get through this challenge with the spirit that has made this community the great place it has been for hundreds of years.
The lone bright spot of this experience has been the irrepressible volunteerism and generosity of the residents of our City and the commitment, professionalism and bravery of the women and men who serve in our City government, our school system and our healthcare providers. We will follow them out of this crisis.
ACT For Alexandria has moved up their annual community giving campaign. Spring2ACTion will now be held on Wednesday April 15th. Last year, this campaign raised over $2 million for the many non-profits that serve our City. This year the need is greater than ever. Please join me in giving.
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The City Responds to COVID-19
If you have questions about the outbreak that cannot be answered by your physician, the Alexandria Health Department has set up a hotline staffed during business hours at 703-746-4988. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Health has a hotline at 877-ASK-VDH3.
 The Alexandria Health Department is advising residents to practice social distancing by maintaining 6-feet of separation from any other person and washing hands frequently with soap or hand sanitizer. This is not only to protect your health, but to protect the health of others.
The City's Medical Reserve Corps is seeking volunteers, both with and without medical training, to assist during this crisis. You can sign-up on-line.
The City is working quickly to assist businesses that have been hard hit by this crisis.
Visit Alexandria launched "ALX At Home" to make it easier for residents to support shopping at Alexandria businesses.
We worked with businesses across the City to implement new  delivery and pick-up parking zones in front of their establishments.
All of the utilities serving the City have suspended disconnects due to non-payment, including:
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Starting Over on the Budget
Under ordinary circumstances, the City Council would be knee-deep in an extensive process of receiving public input on the proposed budget. The Council would be beginning to near consensus on a variety of core items in the budget as we sprinted towards budget adoption at the end of April.
Instead, we are starting over. Tonight, the City Manager will deliver revised revenue estimates that will reflect the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the City revenues and expenditures.
To conclude this current fiscal year in balance, the City Manager will immediately institute emergency measures, including:
- Hiring Freeze
- Reduction of discretionary operating costs
- Reduction/freeze of pending capital projects
- Draw-down on contingency funds
These measures will get the City through the current fiscal year, but revisions to the proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget and the Fiscal Year 2021 - 2030 Capital Improvement Program will now be required.
Given the level of revenue deterioration, it is expected that such proposals will be significant, painful to the community and hamper the services that the residents of our community rely on.
The adoption of the $2 trillion "CARES Act" is a positive move by the Federal government. It will provide money to our residents, our businesses, and to state and local governments in a few ways. Yet, even the full impact of these investments are unlikely to prevent painful reductions for our City.
The scale of the reductions now required dwarf what was required during the Great Recession or the period after 9/11. We will need community input over the next few weeks as we attempt to salvage the core services of our government during this unprecedented time.
We will be making adjustments to our budget adoption schedule to provide the community the opportunity to provide input on these difficult decisions.
This outbreak, and the financial impacts, come at a time where the City was finally seeing moderate health in the growth of our tax base.
From 2002 until 2009 the City was enjoying the run-up in the residential real estate market. Our General Fund budget increased by an average of 6.5% per year. The work force in City Government grew from 2,229 Full Time Equivalents (FTE) to 2,660 FTEs during that period.
In Fiscal Year 2010, a decade ago, the bottom fell out as the Great Recession took hold. The City adopted its first negative budget in at least 40 years, reducing spending from Fiscal Year 2009 to 2010 by over 2%. From 2010 to 2019, the General Fund budget increased by an average of 3.7% per year. The budget that Council adopted last year grew 1.7% from the previous year. The work force in City Government is now 2,643 FTEs, essentially what it was a decade ago. That's in spite of the fact that our population has grown significantly during that period of time.
While the impacts of this outbreak are presently being felt on the consumption portion of the City's revenues (Dining tax, Sales Tax, and Transient Lodging Tax), these challenges will eventually impact the City's real estate tax base, which is decisive for the City's financial fortunes.
Twenty years ago, the City Council of Alexandria received its assessment report from our City Assessor. The City Council learned  that between 1999 and 2000, the City's real estate tax base grew by a little over 9%. For the next 6 years, annual tax base growth never went below double digits, as the City AVERAGED 15.3% ANNUAL tax base growth between 1999 and 2006. This was an unprecedented appreciation in our tax base.
From 2006 to 2007, the City's real estate tax base grew by just a little over 4%. For the next 12 years, annual growth in the tax base never again reached 4%. From 2008 until 2019, the City's tax base grew annually by an average of 1.47%. There were two years during this period where the tax base actually shrunk.
In February, the City Council received the City's 2020 real estate assessments. They showed that for the first time since 2007, our real estate tax base has grown 4.15%.
The most important decision the City Council makes each year is the adoption of the annual operating budget and capital improvement program. I have been a part of 9 budget adoptions prior to this one. Working to adopt a budget reflective of our values and the need of this community will be an extraordinary challenge in this environment. Please let us know your thoughts as we work to conclude this process.
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2020 Census
 Today is Census Day! A few weeks ago, residents throughout Alexandria received a census questionnaire. Surveys can be submitted online, by the phone or by mail.
Political representation for our City and Commonwealth as well as millions of dollars of Federal funding will be distributed based on this count.
Please be counted!
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Potomac Yard Metro Southwest Access
On the front page of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Potomac Yard Metro Station are the seals of four entities: Federal Transit Administration, Department of the Interior, WMATA and the  City of Alexandria. Later in the report there is additional input from the US Army Corps of Engineers, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Capital Planning Commission. The breadth of the entities involved clearly demonstrates the complexity of the project. This project is deeply complex and has been challenging to bring to reality for decades.
In 2008, along with then-Councilman Rob Krupicka, I proposed a new start to efforts to bring Metro to Potomac Yard. We included language in the City's Transportation Master Plan explicitly calling for a new station at Potomac Yard. We also tied the construction and funding of Metro to the development occurring in the Yard. The result is a funding plan for Potomac Yard Metro that not only leverages the development activity in Potomac Yard, but also does so without requiring the contributions of General Fund taxpayers. The current schedule calls for the station to open in early 2022.
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Freedom House
Operating from a prominent location, this human trafficking operation brought enslaved African-Americans from the Chesapeake Bay area  to a holding pen surrounding the building, where they were then forced by foot or by ship to Natchez, Mississippi or New Orleans.
Today, known as Freedom House, the building has been owned by the Northern Virginia Urban League since 1996 and is being operated as a museum in partnership with the City.
This property is a significant piece of Alexandria and our nation's history. The history depicted in the museum today, and the history yet to be unlocked in the building is a story that must be told. I believe we must work to ensure this history remains accessible to the public.
I am excited about the opportunity that this acquisition presents for the City to better discover, interpret and educate the public on a vital part of American history.
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Housing for Alexandria's Future
With Council's unanimous adoption of the COG targets, we will increase our current target of 200 units per year to 325 affordable units per year. The COG analysis focuses on the housing production required to meet the economic competitiveness and transportation efficiency goals for the region. Even with increased housing production at the levels recommended, it's unlikely to be sufficient supply to address affordability challenges. The recent Amazon and Virginia Tech economic development announcements have stoked concerns regarding the impacts on  affordability that may result throughout the region. While analysis shows the potential for impacts on affordability, in a region with over 3.3 million jobs, an additional 25,000 jobs entering the market over a decade is not likely to have a dramatic impact. While the paired announcement of Amazon and Virginia Tech presents risks for affordability in the region, it also provides some critical opportunities: In the next 2 years, this includes study of:
When the City attempts to address housing affordability, it is going up against powerful economic forces. Employing market-based solutions to these affordability challenges is where the City can be most effective.
He laid the blame for these challenges squarely at the feet of local policymakers.
Furman writes "Zoning restrictions--be they in the form of minimum lot sizes, off-street parking requirements, height limits, prohibitions on multifamily housing, or lengthy permitting processes--are supply constraints. Basic economic theory predicts--and many empirical studies confirm--that housing markets in which supply cannot keep up with demand will see housing prices rise."
All of this leads us to the fundamental question as to whether Alexandria's efforts to address affordability are helping, hurting or having no effect.
Yet, if Furman and other economists are to be believed, we in Alexandria have rarely tackled the fundamental root of housing affordability. Most of our efforts are aimed at creating or preserving housing that will ultimately be in the public domain or under nominal public control. However, it is through our zoning authority that we can truly impact housing affordability in privately owned housing.
Obviously zoning restrictions have a place and serve a need to protect the quality of life within our community. I would also suggest that we have done some things right in tweaking our current restrictions to improve affordability.
As we work to implement the City's Housing Master Plan, the new COG Housing targets and advance our "Zoning for Housing" effort, we must seek to comprehend and be willing to address all of the factors that challenge affordability in the City. Amazon's arrival and Virginia Tech's expansion doesn't dramatically change the affordability challenge in our region, but it does perhaps give us the impetus to make the difficult decisions to address it.
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 Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room! As Mayor, I am continuing my regular series of Town Hall Meetings.
You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply the Mayor who will hopefully have the answers to any of your questions about our City.
Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest! |
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Upcoming Issues
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Inova Health Plex/Oakville
Oakville Triangle is a 13 acre parcel of land nestled between Del Ray and Route 1, immediately across from Potomac Yard. It holds some of the last light industrial space that remains in the City.
Almost five years ago, the City Council approved the Oakville Triangle and Route 1 Corridor Vision Plan. The site was approved for increased mixed-use density along with expansion and improvement of existing green spaces, new affordable housing, "maker space" to replicate some of the existing light industrial spaces and improvements to the road network in the plan area.
With the announcement of the new Inova HealthPlex arriving in this location, the Oakville Triangle plan is back to life, with planning efforts moving forward.
Landmark Mall Redevelopment
There is no clearer demonstration of the City's financial challenges than the predicament that currently faces Landmark Mall.
At the City's tax rate in 2000, these three sites alone generated $1.25 million in real estate tax. Today, the three properties are assessed at $25.2 million, $14 million, and $12.6 million, respectively. They generate about $500,000 in real estate tax today, less than half of what it used to be. To make the situation even more severe, real estate tax is only a portion of the picture. The reduction in revenues from sales tax,  dining tax, and other business taxes has also been dramatic at this site. While no one should be convinced until they see bulldozers knocking down the existing mall site, there is a lot going on. Landmark Mall redevelopment has been complicated from the beginning, but I believe we can be cautiously optimistic that it is finally coming together.
The redevelopment of the Landmark Mall site has been a long time in coming to fruition. I am optimistic that we are finally making real progress in this effort.
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