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ALEXANDRIA, Va - Alexandria City Council on April 14 appointed Rosemarie Spano, second vice president of the Rosemont Citizens Association, to a 2-year term on the Traffic and Parking Board, selecting a civic association officer who had testified on her organization's behalf against parking removal in the board's recent Braddock Road decision over a longtime resident with bike-advocacy credentials and a city transit committee member.
The 4-2 vote came six weeks after the council failed to reach a majority on the seat at its March 10 legislative meeting, when Spano received no endorsements and the seat was readvertised.
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley chaired the April 14 meeting, as Mayor Alyia Gaskins joined the meeting virtually. In the rerun, the vote was Spano 4, Jacquelyn Kittredge 2, Marcos Bernier 0. Council did not disclose individual endorsements on this contested appointment.
Spano fills the seat held for the past decade by former Chair Ann Tucker, who reached the board's 10-year service cap and was statutorily ineligible to seek reappointment. Under the board's bylaws, members serve two-year terms with a maximum of five terms. Tucker held her final meeting in March. Spano's term begins in May.
As of Tuesday, the Rosemont Citizens Association's website continued to list Spano as second vice president, two weeks after her council appointment. Under the association's constitution, RCA's officers and board are charged with advancing positions adopted by the membership — and her February testimony was the kind of advocacy the role contemplates. Her parliamentary duty, defined in the bylaws as serving as "parliamentarian and assist the Secretary," is procedural; her broader obligation as an officer is representational. If she remains in association leadership while serving on the Traffic and Parking Board — a body whose enacting legislation directs members to "prioritize safety of all users" citywide — she will carry both duties simultaneously. The Alexandria Brief has asked Spano whether she plans to remain in the association's leadership.
The oath and the board's statutory mandate
Before beginning service, Spano will take an oath of office. Under Virginia Code § 49-1, every Virginia public officer must swear or affirm to support the U.S. and Virginia constitutions and to "faithfully and impartially discharge all the duties incumbent" upon the office.
For Spano, those duties are spelled out in the Alexandria city code. Section 5-8-2 establishes that the Traffic and Parking Board "shall consider matters concerning substantial changes to traffic and on-street parking regulations, and taxicabs," and adds: "When reviewing these matters, the board shall prioritize safety of all users when making recommendations."
Section 5-8-3 lists the board's specific functions, which include providing a forum for public comment on traffic and parking issues; hearing curb cut appeals; considering matters related to permit parking districts and metered parking; and rendering advice and recommendations to the director of transportation and environmental services on changes to "the location and design of parking, general parking restrictions, and restrictions for specific uses"; speed limits; the installation or removal of traffic signals and stop signs; and "[c]hanges to the flow of traffic, including elimination of travel lanes…and turn restrictions." The board also recommends to City Council on changes to the city code that pertain to traffic, parking and taxicabs.
The Braddock Road Corridor Improvements Project, which the board approved 6-0 on Feb. 24 and which the Rosemont Citizens Association formally opposed in part, falls squarely within those enumerated functions and goes well beyond the protected bike lanes that have dominated the public debate. The project includes:
- Reducing travel lanes in each direction from two to one between Mount Vernon Avenue and West Street
- Removing most on-street parking on Braddock Road between Mount Vernon Avenue and Russell Road, with limited retention near specific buildings
- Removing on-street parking on Commonwealth Avenue between Braddock Road and Spring Street
- Consolidating turn and through lanes at the intersections with Russell Road, Commonwealth Avenue and Mount Vernon Avenue
- Shorter pedestrian crossing distances at major intersections, currently as long as 100 feet
- Crosswalk upgrades near the Braddock Road Metro station
- Relocating one disability parking space and adding two new accessible spaces on Hancock and Luray Avenues
- Adding a commercial loading zone near the Yates Corner driveway
- Continuous protected bike lanes with a two-way protected lane between the Metro station and the trails
City staff justified the project under the safety framework codified in § 5-8-2, citing the 2016 Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan, the 2017 Vision Zero Action Plan, the Alexandria Mobility Plan, a 2023 Safe Routes to School audit at George Washington Middle School, and Virginia Department of Transportation designations of the corridor as a "high" and "very high" priority for pedestrian and bicycle safety. The project area saw 17 crashes resulting in 8 injuries between 2019 and 2023, and a pedestrian was killed at the intersection of Braddock Road and Commonwealth Avenue in 2015.
Application filed day after Braddock Road vote
Spano filed her application on Feb. 25 — the day after the Traffic and Parking Board approved the project on a 6-0 vote that came at 1:18 a.m. following a marathon public hearing.
The night before she applied, Spano had testified at that hearing as Rosemont Citizens Association second vice president, conveying the position the association had adopted by member vote. Under the board's rules of order, civic association representatives are allotted five minutes of testimony at public hearings, compared with three minutes for general public speakers. Spano told the board the association "opposes the removal of parking spaces on segment three of the Braddock Road corridor" between Russell Road and Commonwealth Avenue, and "also opposed the removal of parking spaces on segment two" between Commonwealth Avenue and Mount Vernon Avenue. The association took no position on segment one, between Mount Vernon Avenue and West Street.
Approximately 37 of 66 speakers at the Feb. 23 hearing supported the project; 29 opposed it. A fall 2025 city survey of 587 respondents found that the "vast majority" supported the project goals, according to the staff docket. The Del Ray Citizens Association, which Ebbers previously led, voted 72% in favor of the project. The Rosemont Citizens Association voted 61-12 with 3 abstentions in January to oppose parking removal — a tally that, like a November vote of 49-10 on the same project, represented fewer than 2% of the neighborhood's 4,136 residents. Under the association's bylaws, the quorum for membership meetings is 15 members, and family memberships are entitled to up to three votes; non-members residing in Rosemont may vote on land use issues "at the discretion of the elected officers."
Spano's application listed only "Please see attached" in response to the city's statement-of-interest and work-experience prompts. Those attachments were redacted from the publicly distributed packet but are available through the city clerk's office on request. Spano's application did not separately state her own position on the Braddock Road project, and council members did not publicly explain their endorsements. Spano did not respond to a request for comment from The Alexandria Brief by publication time.
A March deadlock between bike advocate and parking-preservation candidate
The Tucker seat first came before council at its March 10 legislative meeting, when five candidates were on the ballot for two open citizen seats. Council reappointed incumbent Annie Ebbers — a former president of the Del Ray Citizens Association — to her seat with unanimous endorsement from all six members.
For the second seat, the vote split 3-3. Council members Canek Aguirre, Bagley and Gaskins endorsed Kittredge, whose application emphasized her work as an ACPS Bike Buddies volunteer and co-leader of the Naomi Brooks Bike Bus. Council members John Chapman, Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi and Jacinta Greene endorsed Joshua Roth, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission employee whose statement of interest focused on "growing parking issues" and "overflow parking that is going into our neighborhoods." Bernier and Spano received no endorsements.
Council deferred the second appointment and asked staff to readvertise. By April 14, Roth was no longer a candidate.
The applicant pool
Bernier, who received no endorsements at either meeting, has served on the DASH Advisory Committee since March 2024, working with the city's bus operator on service and rider experience. He is a part-time master's student in public policy at George Mason University with a focus on transportation and urban policy. His application described him as an "alternative-transportation enthusiast" who walks, bikes or takes transit for "every trip in the DC metro area."
Kittredge's application listed master's degrees in architecture and education, an architectural thesis on integrating sidewalks, bike lanes and a parking garage at the Charlottesville Amtrak station, and current volunteer work as an ACPS Bike Buddy.
Spano's application listed a bachelor of science in civil engineering and employment with the U.S. Department of the Interior. The substantive content of her statement of interest and work history was in attachments not included in the public packet.
What's next
The Traffic and Parking Board's Braddock Road decision remains pending before City Council, which is scheduled to hear an appeal on May 16 at 9:30 a.m. at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center. Multiple appeals have been filed by residents, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church and Community Praise Center.
Spano's appointment came one week before Alexandria voters delivered their first ballot-box verdict on the project. In the April 21 special election to fill the seat vacated by R. Kirk McPike, former Republican council member Frank Fannon, who was running as an independent and the only candidate of three to oppose the project, finished second with 29.22% of the vote (13,890 ballots), losing to Democrat Sandy Marks, who supported the project and won 53.52% (25,443 ballots) in all 32 precincts. Independent Alison Virginia O'Connell finished third with 15.07% (7,167 ballots).
Fannon made the project his signature campaign issue. His campaign distributed yard signs reading "Save Braddock Road / Vote Fannon" with a chart showing the candidates' positions: Fannon "NO," Marks "YES," O'Connell "YES" on protected bike lanes along Braddock Road. At a March West End Business Association candidate forum, Fannon told voters, "I'm not in support of putting the bike lanes out there," citing a petition against the project. Marks, who will be sworn in May 12, will vote on the Braddock Road appeal four days later.
Spano's term begins in May, after the appeal hearing. The board's other six members are Casey Kane, Ebbers, Dane Lauritzen, Ashley Mihalik, Kursten Phelps and Mark Stout. Kane's term expires June 30, opening another citizen seat. The Traffic and Parking Board's next regular meeting is in May.
The Alexandria Brief has reached out to Spano for comment.
