In the chilly November wind, the wood boat chugged along the Alexandria waterfront, past the Old Dominion Boat Club and its parking lot, a gun shop, another parking lot, a marine repair shop and patches of parkland. Boats bobbed in their slips. Cormorants spun off old pilings set in the Potomac River -- remnants of the city's storied past as a seaport -- and into the blue sky.
"From the river, you can see what it used to be and get a sense of what the river offers, all these opportunities for fishing, boating, kayaking," Alexandria City Council member Andrew H. Macdonald (D) said as he piloted the boat along the shoreline. "In a way, it is our biggest park."
The Old Dominion Boat Club is nestled along the Alexandria waterfront. On Nov. 9, the City Council took a major step toward preserving a large portion of the city's land fronting the Potomac.
(James M Thresher - The Washington Post)
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On Nov. 9, the City Council took a major step toward preserving a large portion of the city's land fronting the river, authorizing discussions with the owners of seven parcels south of King Street on purchasing the land for a public park. Macdonald and other council members see the pricey effort -- estimated at $10 million to $15 million "or possibly more" -- as a historic moment for the city.
"It's not the opportunity of a lifetime, it's the opportunity of two lifetimes to do something really wonderful," said Judy Guse-Noritake, co-chairman of the city's open space committee.
Vice Mayor Redella S. "Del" Pepper (D) agreed.
"It really has come to a kind of turning point," Pepper said. "It's our chance to get serious about acquiring land and improving what we have."
The City Council hopes its initiative will finally end decades of hand-wringing, legal battles, proposals and counter-proposals over the waterfront, which has grown piecemeal over the past 50 years from a rat-infested port to a major tourist attraction with the thriving Torpedo Factory Art Center, food court, restaurants and tour boats. The city hopes to have a comprehensive waterfront plan in place by 2006.
Yet critics say the park plan would be too expensive and unrealistic. They note that the waterfront issue has plagued the city for decades and given rise to a host of concept drawings and misbegotten ideas -- long since shot down -- such as a four-building Watergate complex in Founders Park and a floating hotel on a boat, known as the "boat-el."
And hanging over everything, critics note, is the federal government's claim to the 2.1 acres the city wants to purchase, a title dispute that has languished in U.S. District Court in the District since 1973.
"It's just a bunch of hogwash," said former Alexandria mayor Frank Mann, who owns one of the properties the city is targeting for purchase. "It is insulting to the taxpayers to try and get them to swallow this. . . . [The city] has no idea what to do about the schools, traffic problems or terrorist problems. It seems to me that their plate is full already without going after dubious properties on the waterfront."
The strongest opposition has come from the Old Dominion Boat Club, a 700-member private club that has been based off the old ferry landing at the foot of King Street since 1923. The city is considering a purchase of the boat club's expansive parking lot and boat launch, which sits at a prime location, behind a gate and a fence covered in concertina wire.
Members of the boat club, who have turned out en masse to public meetings with "Save ODBC" buttons, say the club won't survive without its parking lot. They fear the city will use eminent domain to purchase the property if they decide not to sell.
"We don't want to move. . . . If you look around, we've got everything we could possibly want," said Gerald "Harry" Harrington, 72, a Falls Church resident and former board president of the club. "Would you like someone coming into your home and telling you you have to move?"
Mann said the city has undervalued the land in its estimates, noting that he has been offered more than $3 million for his one-third share of the parking lot on Strand Street -- about what the city estimates the entire lot is worth.
