Old Town Civic Association

P.O. Box 21333

Alexandria, Virginia 22320

December 13, 2005

The Honorable Mayor and Members of Council

City of Alexandria

301 King Street

Alexandria, Virginia 22314

Dear Mayor Euille, Vice-Mayor Pepper, and Members of Council:

Old Town Civic Association notes with appreciation the inclusion on tonight’s City Council docket of two items relating to the preservation of Alexandria’s historic resources, and commends them to Council’s positive consideration.

Working toward the preservation of the historic and residential character of Old Town was the central purpose in the founding of our association more than fifty years ago, and we are proud to have served as a champion of the Old and Historic Alexandria District ever since. Without Alexandria’s unparalleled architectural, social and cultural history, our City would lose much of its unique character, and perhaps its most important asset would be grievously devalued.

But we also recognize that our efforts and those of others interested in protecting that historic heritage would be of little effect if they remained static—frozen in time and space—rather than cognizant of the value of historic resources throughout the City (not just within the formal boundaries of the Old and Historic District), and through our entire history (not just the 18^th century).

It is for this reason that we applaud the report of the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission and the staff report on Historic Preservation as important steps toward a comprehensive review and strengthening of the City’s strategies for preserving its historic heritage.

The HARC report (Docket Item #13) summarizes a number of specific recommendations that the Commission has advanced over the past seven years. It might be very worthwhile for Council and staff systematically to review those recommendations to ascertain which have been fully accomplished, and what specific actions would be required in the future to accomplish those others which are determined to have merit but which have not yet been implemented.

The staff report on Historic Preservation (Docket Item #21) summarizes several elements of staff’s initiative to review and strengthen the City’s ability to protect its historic resources, including regulation of historic preservation within the existing historic districts, possible expansion of the districts, updating the 100 year-old buildings list, and analyzing the impact of

existing zoning regulations on this objective. OTCA salutes this important initiative. We are pleased to have participated in the initial discussion of the initiative with the Planning and Zoning Department, and look forward to its continued progress.

As we noted in our statement on the historic preservation issues involved in the proposed demolition of a portion of a building in the 1500 block of King Street, the present regulatory framework, developed in steps over a period of decades, may not be adequate to our needs going forward, and may have important gaps. In particular, we questioned the logic of including buildings on one side of a city block within the full protection of the regulatory regime of the Board of Architectural Review, while buildings across the street—which may be of the same or comparable historic vintage or architectural merit, and which will in any event closely impact the protected buildings-might have no protection at all.

Just as physicians endeavor to “first, do no harm,” we urge that the City’s policy should strive to assure that the history of its old, existing structures—wherever they may be located—is fully understood and has been carefully evaluated before they are demolished. The approaches described in Manager Hartmann’s report seem to us to be important steps toward that end, and we applaud this initiative.

Thank you for your consideration.

Yours truly,

Old Town Civic Association

Michael E. Hobbs, President