By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 15, 2006; VA14
There are city gateways that ooze charm, boulevards that welcome visitors with wide sidewalks and the kind of town center appeal that boasts slick architecture and charming fountains that twinkle at night. Done right, they lure and seduce, making visitors feel as if they've arrived -- even if it's just to buy a cup of decaf.
Then there's Alexandria's Jefferson Davis Highway.
Just north of Old Town, the traffic-packed four-lane roadway, also known as Route 1, is neither dazzling nor delicate. Punctuated by gas stations, auto lots and warehouses, Route 1 has earned a reputation for being largely a means to get somewhere else. Crossing on foot is an act of courage. Enduring the sea of brake lights on the road each weekend is an exercise in patience.
But with major development underway on the corridor, which snakes south into Alexandria past the Potomac Yard shopping center, and even more work planned in five years as the area adds thousands of houses and more than a million square feet of retail, city planners have fixed their gaze on the thoroughfare.
It is time, officials say, to make the stretch from Reed Avenue to the Monroe Street bridge more functional. A little flair, they acknowledge, wouldn't hurt either.
"This is a gateway to our city, and you want to come in and know that it's a gateway," said Eileen Fogarty, director of Alexandria's Department of Planning and Zoning, who recently presented a study of the Route 1 corridor to the city's Planning Commission. "You want to know that you've arrived in Alexandria."
City planners agree it will be a big job, and one fraught with challenges, mostly in terms of space. But with major changes already planned for the road -- the addition of dedicated lanes for bus rapid transit, the $50 million reconstruction of the Monroe Avenue bridge and a massive build-out of the Potomac Yard area in Alexandria and Arlington -- officials say it's time to start mapping out a vision tying everything together.
"Route 1 had been the long-neglected street into the city," said Jay Parker of the landscape architecture and urban design firm ParkerRodriguez, which has a contract with the city to begin working on the transformation. Speaking last week before members of the Planning Commission, Parker noted that a recent trip he took to Paris was rife with reminders that a high-volume roadway such as Route 1 can still have function and charm. Changes, he said, are needed now.
"It feels dangerous," Parker said. "The overhead utilities are noxious. There's a lack of a unified streetscape. . . . Route 1 is a barrier. It lacks any kind of character."
"Route 1 is never going to look like the Champs-Elysées," Planning Commission Chairman Eric Wagner said. "But it could be a lot better than this."
In the coming months, city staff members will meet with the community, the Planning Commission and the City Council to craft a plan.
The issues city planners and engineers will consider are many, starting with the most basic: How will the street look and function as dedicated-lane bus service is added along the Route 1 corridor from East Glebe Road to the Monroe Street bridge. Planners are still trying to decide how the lanes will be aligned -- whether on the shoulder of the road or in the median. Officials said they are confident that existing lanes will not need to be eliminated to accommodate the buses.
In her presentation to the Planning Commission on June 6, Fogarty told officials they have a significant opportunity to create a future for the corridor but stressed that it is time to start planning, emphasizing that Alexandria has a chance to capitalize on physical changes developers will be making to the roadway to accommodate the build-out of Potomac Yard.
With the roadway in a state of construction flux, Fogarty said, planners need to decide how much space will be devoted to sidewalks, which many agree need buffering from fast-moving traffic, and how much commercial and industrial development Alexandria wants on its would-be boulevard.
Currently the western side of the roadway is chock-full of commercial warehouses and retail stores specializing in the likes of custom glass and tires. Although some of the more run-down lots have been cleaned up in the last few years, including one property that was stacked high with junked cars, the roadway -- with its narrow sidewalks and lots caged off with chain-link fences -- holds little appeal.
"It's still a mess," Wagner said as he crossed the busy roadway, taking particular care not to be hit by turning vehicles. "It's a hostile environment."
Trying to inject some personality into the corridor will mean making decisions about whether the stretch of Route 1 will one day have any industrial property. Some officials have suggested that such a change would help to bring the east and west sides of the street into harmony.
Redevelopment "is going to displace some things," Wagner said. "The question is, have [industrial properties] outlived their usefulness" on this stretch?
Fogarty said there are a host of questions facing planners. For instance, is a median on Route 1 necessary to give pedestrians a refuge as they cross the street? Should utility lines be buried to make way for a street tree program?
"What is the vision to tie it together," Fogarty said. "How do you create a great boulevard?"
Perhaps the most complex issues center on the build-out of Potomac Yard. Plans call for the land south and east of the mall, which was once a bleak rail yard, to be transformed into a neighborhood with a main street, shops, a hotel, office space and more than 1,600 houses.
The Arlington portion of Potomac Yard will be radically transformed, too, officials said. Just north of the mall, the National Gateway project would ultimately have six office buildings and 2.85 million square feet of office space. Two 11-story condominium buildings are rising there, and a third building, with condominiums and retail, is planned.
Planners said they would like to coordinate the development of retail south of the mall with the eventual redevelopment of the Potomac Yard shopping center, which is expected to be transformed in the next decade into a much slicker urban shopping area, with underground parking, high-end shops, restaurants and a town center feel.
"It's all about creating a sense of place," Fogarty said.
