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ALEXANDRIA, Va - The Alexandria Planning Commission will take up the city's first proposed zoning rules for backyard beekeeping and a development permit for the Old Town Pool replacement at its public hearing Tuesday, May 5, alongside a work session on the draft Duke Street Land Use Plan.
The commission begins the evening with a 6 p.m. work session on the Duke Street plan, which will guide development along the corridor from the former Landmark Mall to Alexandria Union Station. The land use concept for the area was last comprehensively updated in 1992. The work session is open to the public but will not include public testimony or formal action, and will not be livestreamed; a recording will be posted online the following day.
The public hearing follows at 7 p.m. in council chambers at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Drive.
Among the night's marquee items is Zoning Text Amendment 2026-00002, the city's proposed first-ever rules for backyard beekeeping. Staff are recommending the commission both initiate the amendment and recommend approval. The proposal would cap hive numbers by lot size — two hives on lots of 5,000 square feet or less, with one additional hive for every 2,500 square feet above that — and require a 10-foot setback from side and rear lot lines, reduced to 5 feet behind a "flyway barrier" designed to push bees up and over neighboring yards.
Ryan Belmore
The commission will also consider Development Special Use Permit 2026-10003 for the Old Town Pool replacement at 1609 Cameron St., which staff are recommending for approval with conditions. Alexandria's first public pool was built at the site in 1926, with the current facilities dating to a 1977 renovation. The replacement plan would demolish the existing facility and rebuild it with an 8-lane, 25-meter competition lap pool with an integrated dive well, an attached zero-entry family pool with spray features and shade structure, and a larger bathhouse with both gendered and universal changing rooms. Bather load would increase from 278 to 284. The site sits within the Parker-Gray historic district and the Braddock Road Metro Station Small Area Plan.
According to the staff report, the project would increase on-site tree crown coverage from 11% to 43%, exceeding the 25% minimum, and exceed required stormwater phosphorus removal by approximately 4%. The bathhouse would meet the city's 2019 Green Building Policy at LEED Gold or equivalent and Net Zero standards. The project has received $3.27 million in prior Capital Improvement Program funds, with an additional $9.28 million proposed in the FY 2027 CIP for construction. Demolition is anticipated to begin in late 2026 or early 2027, with the pool reopening for the summer 2028 season.
The Park and Recreation Commission endorsed the plan in an April 23 letter to City Council, with two requests: that the city keep construction to a single closed season and that aquatics operations funding be sufficient to staff the larger facility. Commissioners also urged council to consider future aquatics funding for the western half of the city, where they noted some residents have been joining private pools outside Alexandria due to a lack of public outdoor pools and splash parks.
Two other new business items round out the docket. Special Use Permit 2026-00013 would allow construction of a single-unit dwelling on a vacant substandard lot at 404 A East Alexandria Avenue, including a permit for a lot without frontage on a public street. Commissioners will also discuss a separate forthcoming zoning text amendment on substandard lots and outlots.
The consent calendar includes an extension request for a previously approved multi-unit development at 5050 Mark Center Drive (DSUP 2026-10005) and a request to re-subdivide an existing lot into two at 411 Clifford Avenue (Subdivision 2026-00001).
Several of Tuesday's items will move to a City Council public hearing on Saturday, May 16, at 9:30 a.m.
The 7 p.m. hearing will be broadcast on Government Channel 70 and streamed at alexandriava.gov/dockets. Members of the public can sign up to speak in person or via Zoom by completing a speaker's form, or submit written comments to PlanComm@alexandriava.gov.
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