Table of Contents
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - After more than two years of community meetings, surveys and three rounds of draft revisions, Alexandria's Housing 2040 Plan is one step from becoming the city's housing blueprint through 2040.
The City Council approved the plan at its June 13 public hearing, closing the hearing and adopting the Planning Commission's recommendation. According to the city's Office of Housing, the approved plan will be considered for adoption at the council's June 23 Legislative Meeting.
The plan would replace the 2013 Housing Master Plan as a chapter of the city's Comprehensive Plan, formalized through Master Plan Amendment No. 2026-00001. The Planning Commission voted 7-0 on June 2 to initiate the amendment and recommend approval, calling for Housing 2040 to supersede the older document, which was set to guide city housing policy only through 2025.
But the plan itself makes clear that adoption is a starting line, not a finish. Housing 2040 organizes the city's housing work around 10 goals spanning supply, preservation, tenant protections, affordable rental and homeownership production, condominium communities, senior and disability housing, housing quality, economic mobility and sustainability — and most of the heavy lifting comes next.
The targets come after adoption
One of the plan's most consequential pieces does not yet exist. Housing 2040 calls for new affordability and preservation targets to be set as part of its first phase of implementation, replacing the prior goal of creating or preserving 2,000 units, which the city has exceeded. Those targets, and the indicators used to track them, will be selected after adoption and posted on an online dashboard.
In other words, the headline number that will define success for the next 15 years still has to be written.
A long to-do list, much of it dependent on others
The plan's implementation matrix assigns each of roughly 100 strategies a lead department, a timeframe — short-term meaning one to five years, or longer-term meaning six-plus — and flags whether it carries fiscal, legislative or regulatory implications. Many of the most significant items are studies, explorations or advocacy rather than immediate action.
Inclusionary zoning is a clear example. The plan calls for completing a feasibility study and then pursuing state legislative authority "if and when appropriate" before any mandatory program could be adopted — a multi-step path with no guaranteed endpoint. Mandatory monetary housing contributions from developers similarly remain something the city is still seeking authority from Richmond to require, a goal it has pursued since 2021.
Because Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, the plan repeatedly notes the city's authority is limited to what the state grants it. Several tenant-protection measures — from "good cause" eviction protections to caps on fees — are framed as legislation the city will support, not powers it currently holds.
Some wins are already in hand
The plan does reflect recent legislative gains the city can act on. In 2026, the state adopted legislation enabling localities, including Alexandria, to exercise a Right of First Refusal on existing committed affordable properties — a preservation tool the plan now directs staff to build out. A separate 2026 law expanded the city's authority to enforce habitability standards under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, with the plan noting the city will develop enforcement policies "in the near term."
Those tools matter against the backdrop the plan documents: market-affordable units fell from roughly 18,000 in 2000 to 6,900 in 2025, a 62% loss, and about 2,100 committed affordable units have affordability restrictions set to expire by 2040.
Studies and partnerships coming first
Several near-term efforts are already underway or imminent. Findings from the Senior Housing+Care Study were presented to the Alexandria Housing Affordability Advisory Committee on May 7, and the plan calls for an implementation strategy to follow. Continued partnership with the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority — including an updated memorandum of understanding to support repositioning at least 1,150 publicly assisted units under Resolution 2876 — is flagged as a priority for the plan's first years.
How progress gets tracked
To keep the plan from sitting on a shelf, it recommends an online dashboard and five-year implementation check-ins with the City Council to report on progress and adjust priorities or actions as resources, community needs and state authority shift.
The full plan is available at alexandriava.gov/HousingPlan.
