Firehouse Proposal Is Endorsed

Plan Would Include Affordable Housing

An Alexandria task force has endorsed a developer's $17.5 million offer to build a fire station and affordable housing in a proposed Potomac Yard neighborhood.

The Potomac Yard Fire Station and Affordable Housing Task Force has recommended that the firehouse be part of the 165-acre development, adjacent to the Potomac Yard shopping center. As part of the plan, the developer, Potomac Yard Development LLC, has promised to build at least 60 affordable housing units atop the station, as part of its $10.5 million commitment to provide affordable housing.

"What the developer proposed is something the city cannot afford to not take advantage of," said John Starcher, vice chairman of the task force.

An attorney for the developer did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The task force will present its recommendations to the Planning Commission on Oct. 3. The proposal will then go to the City Council.

The task force was created in June after the city and developer discovered a major design flaw in the original plans: The streets were too narrow and fire trucks would not be able to maneuver through the neighborhood without risk of scraping the sides of some of the luxury townhouses.

The new plans, however, will not appease everyone. Residents of Del Ray have opposed the plans because the neighborhood will lose its fire trucks to the fashionable new houses a short distance away.

"Del Ray definitely has an attachment to their fire station, but we had to step back and look outside that box and think of what was best for the city and for the public safety of the citizens," Starcher said. "You can understand where they're coming from, but we had to look at what was best for the city."

Justin Wilson, a Del Ray resident and a former president of its neighborhood association, said he is "cautiously optimistic" about the plan.

"The fact is, the fire officials say this is a good idea. The task force looked at the issue at a whole bunch of meetings, and they say it's a good idea," he said. "Conceptually, I like a lot of the parts of this. If there are adverse effects, I'm confident the fire department will deal with it."

Development of the Potomac Yard area, which straddles Alexandria and Arlington County on Route 1, was approved seven years ago. Plans called for the construction of a 235-acre "city within a city" with 4.5 million square feet of retail and office and residential development, including 1,900 homes.

The city approved a wide-ranging plan for a neighborhood to rise out of the bleak industrial wasteland along Route 1. It will be situated southeast of the Potomac Yard shopping complex, which includes retailers Best Buy and Target and a multiplex movie theater.

Back then, city planners envisioned narrow urban streets in the manner of historic Old Town, with a tree-lined Main Street-type boulevard. They hoped to attract upscale retail to a town square that would be like the development in Arlington's Clarendon.

But a hitch arose when the developer showed city officials plans calling for urban townhouses of three and four stories sitting near curbs instead of homes with wider lawns. Officials calculated that larger firetrucks, such as a 56-foot ladder truck or a 32-foot pumper, would hit houses as they tried to turn onto the neighborhood's narrow streets.

Instead of widening the streets or scaling back the townhouses as a solution, the developer gave the city a third option: It would build a fire station in the neighborhood, so the trucks would not have to rush as far. Analysis showed that emergency crews would have a better turning radius going south, instead of north from the existing fire station at East Windsor and Mount Vernon avenues.

The developer also would provide room for 60 units of affordable housing -- which the city desperately needs -- atop the new building. Starcher said other affordable units would be scattered among the proposed luxury townhouses.

While the firetrucks and hazardous materials units would move to the new Potomac Yard station, the existing Windsor Avenue station in Del Ray would remain in use. City officials plan to keep the ambulance units there for another five to seven years, and its outdated living quarters would be upgraded.