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ALEXANDRIA, Va - The Alexandria City Council will meet on consecutive nights next week, taking up a three-day tall-ships festival and a $20 million senior housing bond deal Tuesday night during their regularly scheduled legislative meeting before formally adopting a fiscal 2027 operating budget and setting the city's real estate tax rate Wednesday.
The legislative meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 28 in the council chamber at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive. Budget and tax rate adoption follows at 6 p.m. on April 29 in the first-floor community conference room at the same address.
The substantive budget decisions are largely settled. At an April 21 add/delete work session, council reached majority support on all 11 proposals on the table, prompting Mayor Alyia Gaskins to cancel a follow-up session scheduled for April 27. Members dropped a proposal to extend metered parking to Sundays, instead raising the hourly meter rate from $1.75 to $2.75 and parking citations from $40 to $55 to close the same projected revenue gap. Council also voted to raise the Business, Professional and Occupational License tax rate on financial services firms from $0.35 to $0.40 per $100 of gross receipts — the first increase in that category in at least 30 years — to fund a $458,500 increase to the city's emergency rental assistance program. An additional $100,000 from council contingency brings the total rental assistance allocation to $558,500.
Other approved items include a $200,000 reduction from the Sheriff's Office budget to fund an operational efficiency study of the city jail, a $619,920 frequency increase for DASH Bus Line 32, and a reallocation of $350,000 in capital funds from waterfront flood mitigation to improvements on the 200 block of King Street.
City Manager James Parajon's proposed $977.3 million general fund operating budget recommends holding the real estate tax rate flat at $1.135 per $100 of assessed value. In March, council voted unanimously to advertise a ceiling of $1.145, preserving the option of a one-cent increase before Wednesday's vote. Rising property assessments mean most homeowners will pay more regardless of whether the rate changes; the average assessed value of a single-family home in Alexandria crossed $1 million for the first time this year.
Ryan Belmore
Back on Tuesday's docket, the marquee consent item is a first-reading vote on an ordinance to accept and appropriate $376,000 for Sails on the Potomac, a free festival scheduled for June 12-14 at Waterfront Park, 1A Prince St. The ordinance would accept $200,000 from the Virginia American Revolution 250 Commission and $176,000 in sponsorships, donations and projected ticket sales for related receptions. The event is part of Alexandria's observance of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and will feature public tours of four historic tall ships — the Gazela, Kalmar Nyckel, Providence and Sultana — along with family activities, history and art programming and a free fireworks show Saturday, June 13 at 9 p.m. Tours are free but require a timed ticket reserved in advance at alexandriava.gov/Sails250.
The Office of Historic Alexandria, which is organizing the event with the Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities and Visit Alexandria, expects more than 100,000 visitors, making it the city's largest semiquincentennial event, according to a memo from Gretchen Bulova, director of Historic Alexandria. The total event budget is $476,000, with $100,000 in one-time city funding already provided in the current fiscal year.
City officials have noted Alexandria will be the only stop for tall ships in the Washington region this summer.
"When the tall ships come to Alexandria, everybody comes to Alexandria," Charlotte Hall, head of the Old Town Business and Professional Association, said at a February launch event.
Visit Alexandria President and CEO Todd O'Leary, speaking at the same event, said nearly a third of Americans are planning travel around America 250 programming. "At Visit Alexandria, we say that this city's stories are in fact the country's stories," O'Leary said.
Running alongside the tall ships is the 48th annual ALX Jazz Fest, which is expanding to three days for the commemoration. Friday's programming centers on Americana roots, Saturday on American jazz and poetry, and Sunday on Future Sounds of America. The Sails on the Potomac ordinance is scheduled for a public hearing and final passage May 16.
Also on the consent docket, the council will consider a resolution authorizing the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority to issue up to $20 million in revenue bonds to finance the rehabilitation of The Ladrey, the 11-story senior public housing building at 300 Wythe St. The project would preserve deeply affordable housing for 159 senior and disabled households, replace existing studio units with larger layouts that can accommodate live-in aides and add 17 fully accessible units, according to a memo from Helen S. McIlvaine, director of the city's Office of Housing. Construction is expected to begin by the end of 2026.
The bonds would be conduit revenue bonds, meaning repayment is the obligation of the borrower, Ladrey Rehab LLC, and not the city or ARHA. ARHA's board held a public hearing and approved the issuance at its March 23 meeting. Federal tax law requires the city, as the governmental unit with jurisdiction over ARHA, to sign off on the bonds.
Two grant applications round out the consent items: one to the Virginia Department of Education for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Summer Food Service Program for Children, and another to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality's Litter Prevention and Recycling Program to fund the city's Adopt-A-Park litter control program.
As an individual action item, the council will consider the city's draft fiscal 2027 to fiscal 2031 five-year consolidated plan for housing and community development, along with a draft one-year action plan required to unlock federal Department of Housing and Urban Development funding for fiscal 2027.
Parajon is also slated to deliver an oral report on the Potomac River Generating Station site, the former coal plant on the Alexandria waterfront.
The council will also hear oral reports from members serving on outside bodies, including the ARHA Redevelopment Work Group and the legislative subcommittee, both represented by Gaskins and Councilman John Taylor Chapman, and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Transportation Planning Board and the Library Board, both represented by Councilman Canek Aguirre.
City Council is expected to present proclamations recognizing April as National Arab American Heritage Month and as Alcohol Awareness Month.
Tuesday's meeting can be attended in person or accessed by Zoom using webinar ID 968 1203 0857 and passcode 282343; Wednesday's budget adoption uses webinar ID 922 0695 7453 and passcode 929174. Both meetings can be reached by phone at 301-715-8592, will air on government Channel 70, and stream on the city's website. Written comments may be emailed to the city clerk at CouncilComment@alexandriava.gov.
The full docket is posted on the city's Legistar site.
