Seminary Hill Association

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Last Updated: 03 May 2022

In a week where April showers have been the norm, we are fortunate to have thus far been spared the terrible weather that has done a great deal of damage to areas south of us. Spring finally appears to be taking a more permanent position now, and it is fun to see the daffodils and early flowering trees in bloom all over Seminary Hill. This is in sad contrast to the sight we see on the Karig Estates property where clear cutting has left the landscape shockingly barren. It seems incredible to me that none of the large trees whose trunks we see piled in huge heaps was deemed worthy of protection by the city.  

As always, there are meetings ahead that I want to bring to your attention. The first meeting is a virtual Community Meeting on April 12th regarding a proposed text amendment that would lower the height threshold to be granted 25' of bonus height under Section 7-700 from zones having a 50' heigh limit to zones having a 45' height limit. This height bonus would be in exchange for providing some affordable housing. The Planning Commission had a discussion about this item on Thursday, April 7th and I would encourage you to listen to the recording of that meeting if you want to learn more about the potential impact of this change. Here is the link to register for the April 12th meeting:

Registration Link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j5_uYHTKTm20LEWfLILQlg

Zoom Audio Conference:

Dial in: 301-715-8592

Webinar ID: 931 2631 4644

Password: 301653

While lowering the height by 5’ down to 45’ in order to be allowed to take advantage of the 25’ height bonus in Section 7-700 may seem like a minor modification, it is important to note that 45’ is the allowable height limit for townhomes, while 50’ is a totally different zone for larger structures, such as apartments and multi-family buildings. By lowering the height bonus into the 45’ height zone, this will open opportunities for far more density, and thus more housing production, by allowing developers to increase the height of structures in a residential townhome zone from 45’ to 70’ if they are providing some affordable housing. While this is unlikely to be used to retrofit existing townhomes (though that could be possible), the change is targeted for all residential developments in the city that are currently zoned RA, RB, and RM. It is important to note that  the Inova Hospital site on Seminary Road is currently zoned RB and would be subject to this change to allow townhomes to go from 45' tall to 70' tall if affordable housing is provided, which the city will most certainly require on this site when it is developed in 2028.

Further explanation of the evolution of this zoning change and the other recent zoning changes we have seen can be found in my April 6th SHA email to our listserv. If you have not signed up to receive our monthly emails, please go to the Home Page of this website and sign up in the lower right hand corner.

Clearly, this text amendment has enormous potential impact to Inova's large tract of land, and we must fully understand its consequences for the Seminary Hill area, and other areas of the city where it will be applied. As usual, we are playing catch-up with city plans that were agreed upon with little public input. On February 8^th, the Federation of Civic Associations sent a letter to the City Council and the City Manager raising concerns about the level of proposed density in our city, and suggested that it is time to hold a series of community-wide discussions about the impacts of density on our quality of life. We await a response to this letter. 

Another important issue for our area is proposed physical improvements at Fort Ward Park. This Saturday, April 9^th, at 10 am, there will be an on-site meeting at Fort Ward at the current picnic shelter parking area (Picnic Area 2) to discuss the upcoming accessibility improvements to the Picnic Shelter area that are slated to begin the week of April 26^th. Construction will close this area to the public from April to September.

As you may be aware, the city is planning to move the current playground area to a site near the front of the park to comply with ADA regulations, as the current site is not accessible. Concerns have been raised by the descendants of those who lived on the site of Fort Ward after the Civil War (known as the Fort community) until the city seized the property for a park. Descendants fear that adequate study has not been done regarding possible gravesites on the proposed location, and have asked the city for more detailed studies. City staff is planning to host a site walk with the community to review possible locations for the playground on May 21^st at 10 am. The city is also planning a virtual community meeting after the site walk on June 9^th. More details about these two events will be provided in the coming weeks. I think this outreach to the community is a positive step in resolving the questions that exist about the city’s commitment to preserve the history of those who lived in the Fort community for generations.

Another event at Fort Ward will be on Saturday, May 7^th, from 11 am to 4 pm. Descendant members of the Fort community will participate in a living history event. Civil War re-enactors will present a U.S. Colored Troops (USCT) encampment and educational program. Information about the history of the community will be presented, and several USCT soldiers who were ancestors of the Fort residents will be highlighted. This is another positive step by the Fort Ward Museum and the city to tell the full story of the Fort community that lived on this land.

I am saddened to note the death of our Seminary Hill board member, Loren Needles. Loren had been in declining health, but remained optimistic about his ability to recover. No formal announcement of his death or any services has yet been made public, so I have no details to provide at this time. He will certainly be missed by both the Seminary Hill and Seminary Ridge communities. He had been very active in environmental issues, especially in trying to protect the Karig Estates.  

Our monthly Seminary Hill meeting will be held on Thursday, April 14^th, at 7 pm. This will be a hybrid meeting. Those who wish to attend in person will meet at our usual location at the Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill Parish Hall at 3606 Seminary Road. Our program will be a presentation by staff from AlexRenew to bring us up-to-date on the massive RiverRenew infrastructure project, which is now beginning actual construction for the next several years. The agenda will be posted on our Seminary Hill website: www.seminaryhillassn.org. Our meeting will also be available via Zoom (assuming our technology at the church will work!).

The information for the link to the meeting is:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84246914662?pwd=SFVUZnRTNjYxMUU4VUdTYS9wRm1WZz09

 Meeting ID: 842 4691 4662

Passcode: 860583

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+13017158592,,84246914662#,,,,*860583# US (Washington DC)

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        +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

Just to note a change in our normal meeting schedule, SHA will have its monthly May meeting on the first Thursday of May, May 5^th, rather than our normal meeting date of May 12^th, due to schedule conflicts. Information about that May meeting will be provided later.

Again, I thank you for your interest in Seminary Hill and the issues that have potential impacts on our community.  I wish you a joyful Easter or Passover if you celebrate those holidays.

Carter Flemming

President, Seminary Hill Association

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Last Updated: 08 April 2022

Happy Spring to all, even if it doesn’t quite feel like it every day!  I have just a few updates to share with you.

Our next Seminary Hill Association meeting will be Thursday, March 10^th at 7:00 p.m. It will be a virtual meeting.  The Zoom link for the meeting is below.  We hope to resume in-person meetings at our April 14^th meeting. We plan to offer a hybrid alternative where residents can be on Zoom if they cannot attend in person. More details about that will be forthcoming later. Our speaker at our March meeting will be representatives from Alexandria City Public Schools to provide an update on the High School Project at Minnie Howard. We will see staging and construction activity beginning on the playing field at Minnie Howard starting next month.

Here is the Zoom link for our meeting:

Topic: Seminary Hill Association Zoom Meeting

Time: Mar 10, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84524117435?pwd=ZHVQd3FaQnpaSGVHcUFEWWZDNzdoQT09

Meeting ID: 845 2411 7435

Passcode: 810619

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+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

Another development project is scheduled to begin this month. The developer of Karig Estates has indicated their construction staging will begin on March 11^th.  The day before this staging begins, a walking tour will take place with residents who have been very concerned about the removal of trees on the property in order to identify which trees will be removed. As you may remember from my last email, there will be 4 houses on the site. The first house will be built at the rear of the property. These will be large, luxury homes of 7,000+ square feet and will sell in the upper $2 million range. If you want to see what they will look like, drive down Quaker Lane toward Duke Street and on the right, you will see a new house that is white with black trim windows. This developer built that house, and the Karig Estate homes will look very similar. According to the sign on the fencing the name of the development has been changed to Franklin Hills. Once the site clearing begins, the truck haul route will have the dump trucks turning right onto Seminary Road, then right on Quaker, and then left on Duke Street to access the Beltway. The developer expects the development to be completed in 2-3 years.

As I indicated previously, I am serving on the Stream Restoration Advisory Committee for Taylor Run and Strawberry Run. We have had our first meeting and our second meeting will be later this month. The mediation team from UVA is conducting interviews of key individuals who have been involved in the controversy over the use of Natural Channel Design in these locations to better understand where the city process failed. Our committee has had frank conversations with the UVA team about the frustrations experienced by residents during this process. We were heartened to hear the mediators say that the city has said that Natural Channel Design is now off the table for these two streams. We hope that will prove to be the case, as this would be a major victory in protecting these forested areas.

On Tuesday night, March 8th, City Council will approve the creation of an Ad Hoc Advisory Committee for the Duke Street Transitway project. This committee will be composed of 9 individuals whose role will be to represent the views of their respective communities and provide a recommendation for the design alternative for the corridor. As you may remember, the city has been awarded $87 million in grants to improve bus transit along Duke Street from Landmark to the King Street Metro Station. Residents and civic associations along the corridor are concerned about the loss of access roads and travel lanes if a dedicated Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane is created on Duke Street, as you see it has been on Route 1 near Potomac Yard.

The Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations is sending a letter to City Council this weekend asking that the membership of this committee currently proposed by city staff, which will include 3 members of existing city commissions (Planning, Disability, and Transportation), as well as a representative of the development community, be changed in favor of adding more residents of areas along the affected corridor. While the proposed committee currently includes seats for a representative of the Federation, and 3 at-large community members, none of those at-large community members are required to live in the affected area. The Federation asks that these at-large seats be allocated to representatives from civic associations and homeowners associations that are located directly along this corridor. The Duke Street Transitway project is a transit project, not a development project, and the inclusion of a developer and a Planning Commission member puts unnecessary emphasis on the potential development aspects of the project, which should and will be considered later in the process. We will see what Council decides on Tuesday night.

The meetings on various parts of the city’s 2023 budget are ongoing and you can listen to the Council discussions.  Go to https://apps.alexandriava.gov/Calendar/?sc=325 and you will find the calendar for these meetings. It is important to note that on Tuesday night Council will set the maximum tax rate for this budget. The City Manager’s budget does not include a real estate tax increase, but Council has asked for data on what additional funding would be provided with a 1 and 2 cent tax increase. It will be interesting to see if Council decides to set a maximum tax rate that allows for an increase, if Council decides that is their preference.

Last month, SHA heard our new City Manager, Jim Parajon, speak about his perspective on his role in our city and learn what issues are important to us. This morning, he spoke to the West End Coalition. In both cases, he stressed his belief that the engagement with residents is paramount and such engagement must start earlier in the process than it has at times in Alexandria. He stated that he is making this very clear to his staff, and we are optimistic that our voices will be heard early and often. Even if the outcome is not always in agreement with our position, it will be a positive step to feel that our views are valued and considered. Mr. Parajon indicated his interest and willingness to come to different neighborhoods and walk with residents to see first-hand what their concerns are.  Several civic associations indicated their intention to take him up on that offer.

I will hope to see many of you on our Zoom meeting Thursday night. Thanks for your interest in Seminary Hill.

Carter Flemming, President

Seminary Hill Association

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Last Updated: 06 March 2022

Happy February to all! Do we actually believe the groundhog’s prediction that we will have an early spring?  Let’s hope so after this cold winter.

Seminary Hill will host its monthly meeting virtually this Thursday, February 10^th at 7:00 p.m. Our guest speaker will be our brand-new City Manager, Jim Parajon. We look forward to hearing from him on a range of topics. The board of Clover College Park Civic Association will be on the Zoom, and a few other civic association presidents are likely to join us as well. We are very pleased that he accepted our invitation, as I think this is the first civic association meeting he will appear before. After he speaks, we will have our normal business meeting, and the agenda will be posted on our website later this evening. I will provide everyone with a written summary of what Mr. Parajon said after the meeting is over. The link for our Zoom meeting is:

Topic: Seminary Hill Zoom Meeting

Time: Feb 10, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83346320478?pwd=WmN0UTJJT2hQTk15YmVHL2czeDVsUT09

Meeting ID: 833 4632 0478

Passcode: 993016

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+13017158592,,83346320478#,,,,*993016# US (Washington DC)

Since our last communication, we had a virtual meeting with the developer of the Karig Estates property, Mr. Ibrahim, on January 25^th. While Mr. Ibrahim stated he was ready to begin construction, there are still several city permits involving demolition and hauling that he must obtain before clearing can begin. Mr. Ibrahim indicated that he expects the land clearing/development to take 3-6 months. Then the construction of the first house will begin at the rear of the site. Each house will take 8-10 months to build. Mr. Ibrahim expects to be totally out of the project in 2-3 years. Construction employees will park on the site, so there should be no neighborhood impacts with parking. The haul route will be Seminary Road to Quaker Lane to Duke Street to the Beltway. The construction hours will be 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Friday. Saturday hours will be 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. No work will be done on Sundays, or federal holidays or religious holidays, due to the proximity to the Beth El Hebrew Congregation.

We are in Week 6 of the Duke Street Traffic Mitigation Pilot. Hillary Orr, of T&ES, has provided updates to us on what they are seeing. She encourages all of us to submit comments and feedback on our experiences on Duke and the side streets using the feedback form that you can find at https://www.alexandriava.gov/tes/info/default.aspx?id=124460.  Ms. Orr reports that travel time using Quaker to Duke is consistently lower than if drivers use the side streets. She reminds us that the pilot hours are only from 4-7 p.m. on weekdays. While we all experience other problems on Duke outside of those hours, the feedback they are seeking from us should be limited to what you observe during the weekday 4-7 hours.

The City Manager will present the FY 2023 Proposed Budget at 7:00 p.m. on February 15^th.  For more information go to: http://apps.alexandriava.gov/Calendar/Detail.aspx?si=38097. Given the Mayor’s recent comments about how hotel revenue is substantially down and that will have to be made up in other ways, I think all of us should pay close attention to the budget process. Our assessments have apparently gone up about 6%, so that increase combined with the predicted pay increases required for our public safety employees, will clearly mean tax increases for all of us.

Finally, I want to provide you with an update on the stream restoration plans at Strawberry and Taylor Run. The city has hired a mediation firm from the University of Virginia to set up a civic engagement process. There are 7 residents who have been appointed to what is being called the Advisory Group for the City of Alexandria Stream Health Improvement Projects. The role of this group is not yet clear, but the first meeting will be held this Thursday morning, February 10. I have been asked to serve on this group, and have accepted. I will provide updates to you as I learn more about our purpose and responsibilities. From what I know now, we are not providing any technical or scientific input, but rather assisting the firm in setting up the engagement process. After that, I hope that there will be others who will work with the city to find alternatives to Natural Channel Design, which is the city staff’s preferred option. It would be a wasted effort if we go through this whole process, and in the end, the city staff continues with its plans to change these forested resources into meadows, given that the soil samples showed far less levels of pollutants than the city had asserted were present in the streams.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all. As always, thanks for your interest in Seminary Hill. Please do not hesitate to contact me or other board members with any issues you would like the Association to address.  Thanks to all who have made contributions to SHA. If others wish to do so, please go to the homepage of this website and find the button to donate. 

Carter Flemming, President, Seminary Hill Association

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Last Updated: 08 February 2022

Happy New Year to all.  We are certainly in the grasp of winter now.

Our monthly SHA meeting will be held virtually on Thursday, January 13th at 7:00 p.m.  Our speaker will be Hillary Orr, Deputy Director of Transportation.  She will provide an update on the pilot project to change the timing of traffic signals on Duke Street to reduce the gridlock at the Telegraph Road interchange. Other topics will be covered during our meeting and you can find the Agenda on the Agenda tab of this website.  Here is the link for the Zoom meeting:

Topic: Seminary Hill Association Zoom Meeting
Time: Jan 13, 2022 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89602194173?pwd=L01NOXRBSGtjWG9Qano0NGhHUUZnUT09

Meeting ID: 896 0219 4173
Passcode: 370855

Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)

I want to draw your attention to an online community meeting about Fort Ward Park on January 24^th from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  The community will be asked to provide input on recommendations on the Ft. Ward Park and Museum Area Management Plan and the Ft. Ward Interpretative Plan. The staff will give a presentation about historic resources, upcoming projects, and archaeology. One of these projects is the relocation of the playground. As you might remember, SHA has urged the city to work with the families of the descendants of those who lived on the land, and take scientific measures to make certain no gravesites are on the proposed playground site. We will find out at this meeting what the city’s plans are. I encourage you to join this meeting if you can. The link to register for this meeting can be found at: https://apps.alexandriava.gov/Calendar/Detail.aspx?si=38495.

On December 18^th, 2021, City Council approved the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation’s development plans for the site on Seminary Road adjacent to the fire station. 31 affordable for-sale townhomes will be built, along with a multifamily building with 5 for sale affordable condos, and condo units to be owned by Sheltered Homes of Alexandria to provide housing for intellectually disabled adults. SHA worked closely with AHDC and adjacent neighbors to ensure that this project will fit into the character of the neighborhood.

The City Council will be taking up several projects of interest to our neighborhoods in their upcoming meetings. Among those coming up are the High School Project at Minnie Howard, and the Parc View II massive redevelopment on Holmes Run Parkway which will build a new apartment building in the current parking lot of the existing building and create a 127% increase in the number of units there. Among the items to be considered for the High School project is an increase in the height of the lights for the sports field from the originally-proposed 60 feet to 77 feet. Those of us familiar with the stadium lights at the former TCW knew that the 60-foot lights would never be realistic at Minnie Howard. Apparently, the engineers have now come to the same conclusion. We will continue to follow these and other issues in the coming year.

At the the installation ceremony for the new City Council earlier this month,  Mayor Wilson stated that previously he wanted Alexandria to be “a small city that does big things.” But now he indicated that he sees Alexandria as a city “that does less things, but does them better.”  He stated that our basic services are strained and now Council must come to a “reconciliation of the role the City has.” We will be closely monitoring what these statements mean for all of us.

As always, thank you for your interest in Seminary Hill.  Do not hesitate to contact us with any issues or concerns you have.

Carter Flemming, President, Seminary Hill Association, Inc.