Braddock Metro Neighborhood Plan (2008)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CITY COUNCIL Consultant Team Interdepartmental Team Mayor William D. Euille GOODY CLANCY ALEXANDRIA EcONOMIC Vice Mayor Redella S. Pepper David Dixon, FAIA DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP Councilman Ludwig P. Gaines Phil Goff Stuart L. Litvin, CEcD Councilman K. Rob Krupicka Ben Carlson Stephanie Landrum Councilmember Timothy B. Lovain Martina Ruhfass ALEXANDRIA REDEVELOPMENT Councilman Paul C. Smedberg Ganesh Ramachandran AND HOUSING AUTHORITY Councilman Justin M. Wilson Steve Wolf Roy Priest, Interim Executive Paul Santos Director PLANNING COMMISSION David Curran Eric R. Wagner, Chair Agnieszka Siuda ALEXANDRIA TRANSIT COMPANY (DASH) John Komoroske, Vice Chair Sandy Modell H. Stewart Dunn, Jr. KRAMER & ASSOCIATES Al Himes Donna Fossum Robert Kramer Jesse Jennings Andrew Bing OFFICE OF HOUSING Mary Lyman Edward Thomas Mildrilyn Stephens Davis, Director J. Lawrence Robinson Helen McIlvaine KITTELSON AND ASSOCIATES CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE Yolanda Takesian POLICE DEPARTMENT James K. Hartmann, City Manager Brandon Nevers David P. Baker, Chief Mark Jinks, Deputy City Manager Phill Worth Captain David Huchler DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING RETAIL COMPASS RECREATION, PARKS & CULTURAL AND ZONING AcTIVITIES Heather Arnold Faroll Hamer, Director Kirk Kincannon, Director Aimee Vosper Richard Josephson, Deputy Director W-ZHA, LLC Kathleen Beeton, Division Chief, Laura Durham Sarah Woodworth Neighborhood Planning and Mary Stephenson Community Development TRANSPORTATION & ENVIRON- Jeffrey Farner, Division Chief, MENTAL SERVICES Development Richard Baier, Director Thomas H. Canfield, NCARB, Thomas Culpepper City Architect Yon Lambert Carrie Beach, Urban Planner Sandra Marks Andrew Spurgin, Urban Planner James Maslanka Valerie Peterson, Urban Planner Special thanks to Rhae Parkes from Abt Associates for graciously volunteering her time to make a presentation on public housing issues during Community Workshop #1. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Executive Summary 1 2. Community Vision 11 3. Principle 1: Create a sense of place with neighborhood identity, 17 vitality, and diversity > HISTOricaL INFLUENCES > LOcaL AND NatiONAL RECOGNITION > DiVERSITY > SUStaiNABILITY AND GREEN DESIGN 4. Principle 2: Provide walkable neighborhoods that are secure 35 and feel safe > WALKING StrEETS > ADDITIONAL WALKING ROUTES > INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS 5. Principle 3: Establish a series of community-serving, 43 usable open spaces > NEIGHBORHOOD PARK > METRO PLAZA 6. Principle 4: Encourage community-serving retail and services 47 > REtaiL NEEDS > REtaiL GUIDELINES 7. Principle 5: Promote mixed-income housing and follow an 53 inclusive process to deconcentrate public housing > NEIGHBORHOOD OPPORTUNITY > EXISTING PUBLIC HOUSING > REDEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES > DECONCENtratiON OF PUBLIC HOUSING > NatiONAL EXAMPLES > CHALLENGES > NEXT StEPS 8. Principle 6: Manage multimodal transportation, parking, 67 and road infrastructure > BacKGROUND > TRAFFIC IMpact ASSOciatED WITH FUTURE DEVELOPMENT > TRANSPOrtatiON DEMAND MANAGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS ■ i 9. Principle 7: Achieve varying and transitional heights 87 and scales > UrBAN DESIGN FRAMEWORK > UrBAN DESIGN CONCEPT > BUILDING HEIGHT AND MASSING > LaND USE, DEVELOPMENT, KEY REDEVELOPMENT SITES 10. Implementation Strategy 115 > IMPLEMENtatiON ADVISORY GROUP > COMMUNicatiONS > CITy’s InTERAGENCY BRADDOCK IMPLEMENtatiON TEAM > FUNDING PUBLIC AMENITIES > CAPTURING REVENUE FROM NEW DEVELOPMENT > PLAN RECOMMENDatiONS BY CHAPTER Appendix A–Design Guidelines 127 Appendix B—Braddock Metro Neighborhood Plan Process 149 ii ■ | March 2008 Executive Summary The Braddock Metro neighborhood contains nearly all of the ingredients of a great traditional neighborhood: an existing network of walkable streets and small blocks; a surrounding fabric of human- scaled, historic row houses, small apartment buildings and churches; a brand-new community center; a riverfront and downtown commercial core within easy walking distance; and a rail transit station that can 1 whisk riders to the heart of the nation’s capital in twenty minutes. This Plan is about writing another chapter in the story of this great neighborhood. It focuses on preserving and enhancing those aspects of the neighborhood that are beloved—its traditional scale and character and walkable streets—while at the same time helping the neighborhood adapt to emerging opportunities and challenges—the changing nature of its diversity, the increased importance of transit, Historic rowhouses in the Parker-Gray Historic District and the evolving value society places on sustainability. All of the Plan’s recommendations are designed to achieve this integration and balance. In addition, the Plan takes two important steps forward: investing a portion of the fiscal benefits from development in implementing the Plan’s recommendations and initiating a new partnership with the community to oversee implementation. GUIDING PRINCIPLES While general, the principles point the City and the community in the right direction for the future. The principles The seven principles that emerged also establish the organization and from the stakeholder interviews and framework for this Plan, as each one community comments early in this is the subject of a separate chapter and planning process represent the com- discussion. munity’s aspirations for finding the right balance between preservation and change. The principles are: NEIGHBORHOOD IDENTITY • Create a sense of place/neighborhood identity, vitality and diversity. As an overarching theme, the issue • Provide walkable neighborhoods that of identity emerges in any discussion are secure and feel safe. of the Braddock Metro neighborhood. • Establish a variety of community- There is a sense that this vital neighbor- serving, usable open spaces. hood, with its rich history and charm- • Encourage community-serving retail ing residential streets will become just and services. an anonymous part of Alexandria’s • Promote mixed-income housing urban expanse and an afterthought to and follow an open, fair and inclu- Old Town unless steps are taken to af- sive process to deconcentrate public firm its individual character and bring housing. its diverse residents together. This Plan • Manage multi-modal transportation, confronts this clear message with a parking and road infrastructure. series of recommendations. First, it rec- • Achieve varying and transitional ommends a robust program to preserve heights and scales. and publicize the neighborhood’s ar- ■ | MARCH 2008 chitectural and cultural history through an enhanced historic preservation program and new interpretive signs or markers along a walking route on the most historically significant streets in the area. Carefully considered public gathering places, including both parks and retail and community services must be created so that residents have places to meet and know each other. New mixed-income communities on the site of current public housing de- velopments will be an opportunity to bring people of various income levels together. and private automobiles. The Plan The Braddock Road recommends both improved pedes- Metro station BRADDOCK trian connectivity to the site—through METRO STATION urban design, lighting, signage, and crosswalks—and putting this land to A chief organizing feature of the neigh- more appropriate use with mixed-use borhood and this Plan is the Brad- redevelopment, ground-level retail and dock Metro station. It and the general an open plaza. Redevelopment would close in location of the neighborhood also include the enhancement of adja- have led to increased property values, cent Braddock Road and West Street, pressure for new transit oriented de- turning them into prime locations for velopment, and the ability to achieve community-serving retail to help create increased density without excessively activity and a gathering place for peo- increased traffic. ple who work and live in the Braddock Metro neighborhood. In fact, it is the proximity of two Metro stations, both within a 10-minute walk WALKABILITY for most residents, which reinforces the connectivity and competitive advan- The Braddock Metro neighborhood tage of the neighborhood. With easy features a traditional grid of streets and connections to Reagan Washington regularly-sized blocks, giving the neigh- National Airport, Arlington County, borhood a human scale and making it and downtown Washington, Metro is walkable. Buildings ranging in height the travel mode of choice for nearly from two to three stories fill most of half the neighborhood’s commuters. the area’s blocks. The low scale and Braddock Road station itself, however, historic architecture of the Parker-Gray does not integrate well into the neigh- Historic District reinforces the area’s borhood physical fabric, separated as livability. Where the grid has been lost it is from the rest of the area by a two- to large “superblocks,” particularly acre swath of land dedicated to load- in Andrew Adkins and the Northern ing, moving, and storing buses, taxis, Gateway, walkability and a strong sense CHAPTER 1 | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ■ of place – key FUTURE DEVELOP- components of the community’s MENT AND DESIGN vision for the GUIDELINES neighborhood – can be strength- The land in front of Braddock Road ened by restor- station is one of several sites likely ing the grid and to undergo redevelopment over the enhancing the next five to 20 years. Because of the streets with gen- neighborhood’s proximity to Potomac erous sidewalks Yard, a once bustling rail yard, it has and greenery. numerous warehouses,

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