ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Alexandria Chamber of Commerce wants the city to plan for a large event venue, preserve parking at 206 The Strand and weigh a project's effect on businesses before redesigning streets, according to the 2027 legislative agenda it unveiled Thursday night.
The chamber released the agenda at its annual Legislative Reception, held Thursday evening at The Alexandrian Hotel and presented by Transurban. In a post on Instagram, the chamber said more than 100 people attended, including elected officials from City Council, the General Assembly and Congress.
The chamber's event page listed eight officials as confirmed as of Sept. 1: Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va.; state Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, D-39th; House Majority Leader Charniele Herring, D-4th; Del. Kirk McPike, D-5th; and City Council members John Taylor Chapman, Abdel Elnoubi, Jacinta Greene and Sandy Marks.
The agenda lays out the positions the business group will press with City Council, the General Assembly and the federal government in the coming year. It is an advocacy document; none of it takes effect unless elected officials act on it.
In an email to members Thursday evening, the chamber described the agenda as "crafted by our members, for our members." The document's introduction, written as the chamber marks 120 years, says the economic landscape presents "both new challenges and new opportunities."
Growth and the tax base
The agenda opens by calling for a larger, more diverse commercial tax base, using "strategic incentives" to attract new businesses and keep existing employers. It asks the city to benchmark its policies against neighboring jurisdictions and to avoid "disproportionate taxes on specific industries," though it does not name any.
The request comes as the city's office market remains soft. The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership's mid-year report, released Tuesday, put citywide office vacancy at 18.8%, down from 21.6% a year earlier. More office space was still vacated than leased, a net loss of 160,400 square feet, and Old Town's vacancy rate is rising.
The chamber wants the city to focus on developing "large capacity event space somewhere in the City" so organizations based in Alexandria can hold events without leaving town. The agenda does not propose a site, size or funding source.
It also calls for a short- and long-term development strategy for Potomac Yard, including continued investment in National IQ, the innovation district that spans the Alexandria-Arlington line, and the Potomac Yard Innovation Lab. National IQ named its first chief executive, Michael Manuccia, on Tuesday. The lab is planned with $800,000 from a $3.93 million GO Virginia grant awarded to National IQ in June. A specific address has not been announced.
The agenda urges timely completion of Robinson Terminal North, WestEnd — the site of the new Inova hospital — and the former Potomac River Generating Station site, along with investment in arts infrastructure, parks and public spaces. On data centers, it says development "is not currently a significant issue for Alexandria" but asks that any future rules be written with business input. It makes a similar request about autonomous vehicles.
At the state level, the chamber asks for more investment in tourism and sports tourism. Visit Alexandria told council Tuesday that hotel revenue per available room had swung from down 9.9% year over year through January to up 3% through June, a turnaround it credited to the World Cup, America 250 events and a new marketing campaign. The fiscal year that began July 1 has neither event.
Doing business in the city
The chamber urges the city to carry out ALX Forward, the economic development strategy council adopted in January, including a single, easy-to-find online list of business resources and more efficient zoning, licensing and permitting. It also asks the city to "eliminate or combine" multiple reviews of major projects by different boards and commissions, without specifying which.
Other local requests include resources for micro and small creative businesses, continued planning for an arts district, streamlined minority business certification and partnerships between minority- and women-owned firms and other firms on government contracts.
Housing
The housing section pairs support for more supply with opposition to rent regulation.
The chamber backs zoning reforms and fewer regulatory barriers to building and preserving housing, and it encourages the city to follow through on examining a second phase of its Zoning for Housing reforms. It credits Alexandria as a leader in converting obsolete office buildings to homes.
But the agenda says the chamber does not believe that limiting a housing provider's ability "to set rents according to market conditions" will relieve affordability pressures, and argues such limits could deter development that would add affordable units. In its list for the General Assembly, the chamber asks lawmakers to oppose allowing localities to regulate rents or to "lengthen the eviction process for residents who have violated their leases." It also asks the state not to allow new conditions to be added after a previously agreed affordability commitment ends.
At the same time, the chamber asks the General Assembly to create a state rental assistance fund and housing vouchers "to supplement, or replace, federal programs like Housing Choice Vouchers."
Locally, the agenda asks the city to keep engaging housing providers as "valued constituents" and to weigh business perspectives alongside resident feedback as work continues on Housing 2040. Council adopted the plan, the update to the city's 2013 Housing Master Plan, earlier this year, and the Office of Housing is carrying it out. On Thursday, the city named Aspasia Xypolia, who had led that office on an acting basis since May, its permanent director.
Two state grant programs
The state requests are the most detailed part of the document.
The chamber proposes opening the Virginia Business Ready Sites Program, which under current law is limited to sites of 100 acres or more, except brownfields, to smaller sites and to uses such as sports and entertainment. It says that would better match the program to urban and suburban jurisdictions.
It also proposes speeding payments from the Virginia Economic Development Incentive Grant. The agenda says those funds are not granted until the third year after a company meets its investment and hiring targets, and it proposes accelerating that timeline for higher-cost jurisdictions while adding clawback provisions to protect taxpayers.
Other state requests include continued funding for the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, the Virginia Jobs Investment Program and the G3 community college grant program; money for local school divisions to attract and retain teachers and to pay for counselors and social workers; continued childcare investment; and strategies to protect access to health care and safety-net services. The agenda ties the health care request to "substantial changes in health policy at the federal level."
Workforce, schools and public safety
The chamber supports a citywide workforce development strategy that includes reskilling, "particularly for former federal workers," and training in artificial intelligence, while noting that many jobs will not rely on it. Federal workforce reductions and contract cancellations have moved through Alexandria's private sector over the past year.
The agenda says the chamber stands ready to partner with Alexandria City Public Schools as the division "navigates a period of transition." ACPS is searching for a new superintendent.
On childcare, the chamber credits Virginia with steps forward in 2026, including a new employer-supported childcare assistance program, and asks the city to align its rules for childcare businesses more closely with the state's, particularly for daycares that share space with other businesses.
On public safety, it asks for a fully staffed and fully funded public safety system, more patrols near retail businesses to deter theft and a role for businesses in the police department's new Public Safety Plan.
Parking and transportation
The chamber supports preserving "strategically located" parking such as 206 The Strand, which it says serves Old Town businesses, along with existing and expanded valet operations. It opposes "the unnecessary loss of parking without viable replacement solutions."
On city streets, the agenda asks officials to seek feedback from businesses along any corridor being considered for lane reductions or traffic pattern changes, and says whether a project supports commercial activity should be a metric in evaluating it. It cites the Duke Street Land Use Plan as an example. It also asks the city to study congestion fixes, including closing selected streets to through traffic, limiting turn lanes and retiming signals, and to make sure low-income households and people with disabilities benefit from transportation investments and are not burdened by them.
Regionally, the chamber backs funding for Metro with "appropriate accountability and oversight," more Amtrak and VRE service, including off-peak and weekend trips, and completion of the regional express lanes network, which it says should be free for carpools and transit vehicles.
Its two federal requests are both about transportation. The chamber says the federal government should contribute to Metro in proportion to federal workforce ridership, and it opposes any change to the slot and perimeter rules at Reagan National Airport.
Who is behind it
The document lists the chamber's board and its government relations committee, which is chaired by Lauren Augustine of Virginia Tech. The committee includes two representatives of the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, as well as representatives of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, Transurban, VRE, Dominion Energy, Amazon and Inova Health System, among other businesses and organizations.
The full agenda is available at thechamberalx.com. The Alexandria Brief is a member of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce.
Ryan Belmore is an Alexandria resident and the founder and publisher of The Alexandria Brief. Send tips, feedback, and story ideas to ryan@alexandriabrief.com.
