I'm going to get it. Councilman McGarry, can you hear us? Councilman McGarry? Can you hear us? the Councilman Gary, can you hear us? No, he doesn't seem to be able to hear us. All right, all right. Well, you guys can work on that. We're going to go ahead and get started. Councilman Gary, one more time. Can you hear us? I'm going to call the Saturday. What is today? October 19th. Can you hear us? I guess not. We can see them. I don't know why. He clearly can't hear us. Yeah. We've got to work on the audio. Okay. We will work on that. I'm going to call the Saturday. What is today? October 19th, public hearing to order. Madam Clerk, please. Hi, it's morning. Good morning, guys. I'm here. Um, that was my case. We are. I'm at the office. I'm going to join the room in a second. Thank you. And I can hear you, Abdy. Thank you. Thanks. All right. All right, Councilor McGarry, can you hear me now? Oh, still not, still not there. Okay, sorry. Okay, Mayor Wilson, vice mayor Jackson, Councilor McGarry, Councilmember Bagley, Councilman Chapman, Councilwoman Gaskins, Councilman McPike. Here. Okay, we have a quorum. I imagine Vice Mayor Jackson is on her way. Councilman Geary is going to be participating electronically. Hopefully. Let's see because we need to do to adopt a resolution. Councilman Geary, can you hear us now? He cannot hear us. All right. You guys can continue working on that. Is there a motion to approve the resolution that authorizes Council Member Geary to participate electronically? A motion by Council Member Pike, seconded by Councilman Chapman. Any further discussion? Hearing none, is there a roll call? Madam Clerk, please call the roll. Council Member Pike. Council Member Chapman. Mayor Wilson. Aye. Councilmember Geary. Councilmember Bagley. Yes. Councilwoman Gaskins. I mean, yes. Wow. We're October. Wow. Yeah. We're out of sink here today. All right. Resolution is adopted unanimously. Let's try one more time. Councilman McGuirey, can you hear us? I can hear you guys. Can you hear me? Perfect. All right, there we go. All right, we got you. All right, great. All right. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us. We are happy to hand this. For the technical difficulties there. We are going to start with our agenda. We are going to start with the public discussion period first. We did have more than 15 speakers signed up. So just reminding people how that goes. We will hear the 15 speakers who have signed up at the beginning. And then the remaining folks who are on the public discussion period. And we have a total of 31 speakers signed up for the public discussion period. The remaining speakers will be at the end of our agenda. We do not have a long agenda. So if you are one of those 16-31 speakers, feel free to go grab your breakfast or whatever else you would like to do with your day and come on back. All right, so we are gonna start with Dean Lawrence and followed by Eve Anderson followed by Mike Rodriguez Jeff Roberts and Mike Doyle Hello and feel free to use both podiums here and Yes, you have three minutes. So hello Hi, I'm Dean Lardson. I'm a resident of Alexandria and also a board member for Alexandria families for safe streets. And I'm here to advocate for three projects, the Eisenhower Avenue Transportation Project, the Duke Street and Taylor Bike Projects, that is under discussion, and the South Pickett Street Project. Connected bike networks provide safe and comfortable access for all ages and abilities. under discussion and the South Pickett Street Project. Connected by networks provide safe and comfortable access for all ages and abilities. Users strongly prefer protected lanes when they are using bike lanes and unprotected bike lanes discourage use generally. Lime recently released a study where they compare 2019 versus 2024 ridership and trips during the summer. And they found that on streets with new bike lanes, trips were increased by more than double streets without protected bike lanes. 40% of trips on lime scooters in the district took place on protected bike lanes, which make up only about 10% of city streets in DC. So users strongly prefer and use much more those roads that provide protected infrastructure for bikes. They're more comfortable, they are safer, and they're more usable. And so if we want to see bike usage we need to protect those users. Right now the city is poised to create a truly connected built protected bike lane. With Duke Street, Pickett and Eisenhower and the planned 2028 bridge from Bandoorn Street over the railroad tracks, I will be able to go from King Street down Duke Street, connect to Pickett, turn South on Pickett, cross to Bandorn, and then bike back along Eisenhower until I head Holland, and go North until I hit King Street. This is a great backbone for the city. It's accessible. It will provide access for people who are living in those neighborhoods to go to, for instance, old town to access two metro stops. However, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. And any gaps in this infrastructure, any point where we are forcing people to ride with cars is going to discourage ridership, is going to reduce trips, and is going to tell bikers that they are not welcome or that the access that we promise in the city is not there. So to build this infrastructure, I encourage and urge the City Council to support this. If we adopt the traffic and parking board recommendations, build the protected lanes, we will meet our transportation and climate goals. If we fail these riders, then we have only ourselves to blame if ridership doesn't meet our expectations. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Next speaker is Eve Anderson, followed by Mike Rodriguez, Jeff Roberts, Mike Doyle, Adam Dibler. Hello. Good morning. My name is Eve Anderson, and I am the president of the Taylor Ren Citizens Association, TRCA. I'd like to express our gratitude to the council members who have met with us on site, even in the rain, and for listening as we voice our concerns about the introduction of a slip lane and the conversion of the Duke Street Service Road to one way from Hilton Street to Cambridge Road. TRCA in conjunction with the Longview Hill Association remains committed to preserving two-way traffic from Hilton Street to Cambridge Road, as two-way access is critical to our community. We urge City Council to vote against the one-way conversion and engage outside consultants to bring forward a new design, one that thinks outside the box and looks beyond. The current design before a permanent change to our community is approved. TRCA supports Duke Street Emotion and we welcome the city's plans to think creatively about reliable access and multimodal options for moving around our city. We feel safe using all modes of transportation along the service road today because in its current state, it is protected and separated from Duke Street. The changes instituted over the past seven years through mitigation programs have vastly improved the safety, traffic patterns, and functioning of this little stretch of Alexandria. Our community is grateful for the work that has already been completed and solves the problems that plague dust for decades, simply stated the current configuration works. When this next phase of our intersection was presented, our community asked for a design without a slip lane and Explain the need for bi-directional traffic. Council members met with us and listened to our community. We sent emails. We wrote letters. We spoke at meetings and we took surveys. TRCA is vehemently opposed to the traffic and parking board's decision to ask you the community and the staff Recommendations and instead approve a plan to convert this service road into a one way street. More than 140 community members signed a petition opposing this proposed change. As we step back and look at some of the details for the current plan for this intersection in the service road, there are so many moving parts being introduced, literally. Vehicles entering an exiting telegraph road, adding a slip changing the direction of the road moving the bus stops the pedestrians crossing the intersection spike scooters and walkers both going east and west at the same time so much more on this very little stretch one tenth of a mile of a service road in response to the most recent letters and emails our community sent staff has informed us that once the plans are implemented they will continue to monitor the travel behavior to determine if additional measures to be implemented. This is not an acceptable response. We know that these proposed changes will adversely affect us and quite frankly may bring back many of the issues with cut-through traffic and safety that this program was originally designed to mitigate and has successfully done so. TRCA has been working with staff for many years to provide relief from cut through traffic. We are grateful for the relief, but once again, the mitigation will come in the future and that is a hard peltissuello. As the representative of my community, I acknowledge the complexity of the situation and I ask you to vote against the one way road. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Anderson. Next speaker is Mike Rodriguez, followed by Jeff Roberts, Mike Doyle, Adam Bibler, Asa Orren Brown, Lori Cooper. Mr. Rodriguez. Morning. Long time was near first time caller. My name is Mike Rodriguez. I'm going to go to the next floor. Good morning. Long time was near first time caller. My name is my Rodriguez. I live on the west end of town in Seminary Valley. I happen to be president of Seminary Valley Civic Association but I want to make clear that I'm appearing here before you today in a personal capacity. I don't like of work everywhere in the city yet. But I do that a lot more now than I did a year ago. That's because of the philosophy the city has approached to enabling multimodal transit. That's something that I appreciate as a West and resident. That's something I know that fellow neighbors and citizens in my community appreciate. We feel cut off from the rest of the city and we feel that Duke Street and Eisenhower and the picket plans will enable connectivity that is sorely lacking on our end of town. I can tell you anecdotally that neighbors on my street have elected to choose bike transit instead of vehicular transit because of the ability to get from A to B without having to get behind the wheel of the car. As a city that has five metro stops, a regional rail station, we have a responsibility to make the most of those facilities. Part of that entails enabling non-vehicular transit across the city. So just as a citizen of the city, I want to say thank you to staff and leadership for pointing us towards the future and helping us bike and walk there. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rodriguez. Next speaker is Jeff Roberts, followed by Mike Doyle, Adam Bibler, Ace Orbrown, Laura Cooper. Lori Cooper can notice his Daydredd. Mr. Roberts. Do we have Jeff Roberts? I don't see him online. Online, not on person. All right, then we'll go to Mike Doyle, followed by Adam Bibler, Ace Orbrown, Lori Cooper, Ken notice Zach Daydredd in, Alison Maltz. Good morning. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. I'm the founder of the city council member. We had Northern Virginia families for safe streets. We have three chapters, Arlington Fairfax, and most importantly, Alexandria. We have about 1,800 members, but 1,000 members are part of our Alexandria group. Members, somebody on our mailing list. We don't charge anything by the end of the day. We are a pedestrian focused organization. So we are concerned about safety features for all vulnerable road users in particular pedestrians, but cyclists, people that are handicapped, et cetera. I'm here to talk right now about the Duke Street Taylor Run proposal. We believe that that side road one way for the cyclist will improve safety, reduces conflicts. It's part of the longer term proposals to make vision zero, Duke Street and Motion, that many of you voted for long time ago. But I could tell you it was a crash survivor. One thing is talking about safety, the other thing is experiencing it. Not only me, but Ryan Brown, who in 2017 was at that intersection of Taylor and Duke Street. And by the grace of God, he survived. But unlike me, Ryan is still permanently crippled and cognitively crippled, so physically and cognitively. Not only did it affect Ryan, it affected his entire family. He was two little boys who were now teenagers and going off to school, but they lost their dad for those years. And the wife, my family went through some of that, but I'm lucky. But it was a conflict of that road design. And yes, the side street and having a one way bike lane, that will be an inconvenience for the neighbors. And I'm sorry about that. But if it's weighing down on the issue of safety and avoiding conflicts, please think of Ryan Brown when you go to vote later this month on that issue. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Doyle. Next speaker is Adam Bibler, followed by Aso, or Brent Orin Brown. Sorry, Lori Cooper can notice that day. the city of New York. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be here. We have a lot of people who are going to be a little bit more careful. Great. My name is Adam Biblir. I wanted to voice my support today for the improvements to Duke Street that Mike Doyle is just discussing. I understand these improvements have been recently approved by the traffic and parking board and will be considered later by council. I am a father of two little girls. I frequently get stretch of Duke Street and question. I go there every week for Goldfish Academy swim lessons. I think the traffic and parking board adequately, the considered the many issues surrounding staff's proposal for Duke Street, including the dedicated bus lane and conversion of the service road to one way. I urge the council to support their recommendations and thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Bivler. Next speaker is Aselor and Brown. Lori Cooper, Ken notice. Thank you so much. I live along Duke Street. And two years ago, I actually started a project kind of in my own capacity. When the Duke Street in motion was being considered in the advisory group was meeting about it. I was attending those meetings and I started riding Duke Street every day. I stopped after I got hit. I was hit at that same intersection. So at telegraph and Duke Street, I was taking lane, a car trying to zip around me, hit my mirror. They were about a quarter inch from taking me out completely. Had they, I might not be standing here in front of you today. There is a real problem when you build infrastructure for bikes and then you put a gap in it. So by leaving this gap, it's a critical gap between Old Town, King Street Metro, and all of the West Dent. There are a lot of us who live over there. So I really hope that you will support the one-way conversion. I think the traffic and parking board did a really good job of analyzing the risks and suggesting a plan that will actually mitigate them. If any of you were paying attention, you may know that back when this was at the advisory group level, I actually spoke up a number of times against the slip lane in the first place. I still don't like slip lanes. I think they're pretty dangerous. But if we're going to add the slip lane, which I think is necessary, I agree with TNES's analysis that to make street motion work, we need to get the turning traffic off of Duke Street. So if we're going to make that slip lane, then we really need to make sure there aren't conflicts with it. And either of the other plans that TNS came up with create a conflict either between cyclists and scooters who have also been hit as you've heard and then there were the scooters that I've written to you about last year that were run over on that same section of roadway. But anyway, the only plan that avoids the conflict as Mike Doyle was saying is this one-way conversion. Otherwise you're going to have cars running into other cars or running into cyclists or running into people on scooters. The other thing I wanted to mention is I strongly support the elimination of the one piece of the Clover Leaf on Telegraph. I have almost been hit there when coming downtown walking with my teenage daughter. There was a charter bus when the whole construction project was happening at Braddock Metro that was shuttling people back and forth that didn't stop for us when we were there in the crosswalk. And I have many times observed vehicles almost hitting people in that crosswalk. So I'm glad that we're fixing that one problem with this plan. And I really hope we can also not create a new problem by adding the slip lane and instead do the one-way conversion, which is the one safe option. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Warren Brown. Next speaker is Lori Cooper. Followed by Ken Notis, Secretary Jardin, Allison, Maltz, Samar, Naja, and David Sterling. Do we have Lori Cooper? There we are. Hello. Hi, Mr. Mayor. I'm speaking on behalf of Longview Hill. So I'd like to invoke the five minutes. All right. Thank you. I'm Lori Cooper from Longview Hill Citizens Association. With my community and Taylor Run Citizens Association, we've met with six of you at least twice. But we remain troubled by the short-sightedness we're witnessing with respect to the Citizens Association. We've met with six of you at least twice, but we remain troubled by the short-sightedness we're witnessing with respect to the proposed changes in the service road between Hilton and Cambridge roads. We're troubled by neighborhoods being pitted against each other and by cyclists being pitted against drivers. We would like to really ask that you show your leadership to us and help move beyond the limited outreach to the communities involved, beyond city staff collaboration with neighborhoods who offer no dissent, and beyond the pitting of those neighborhoods against those who do not offer dissent by city staff. We are urging you to vote no on the current proposals make the service road one way westbound with two lanes for bikes, scooters and other non-wheeled, non-auto-wheeled vehicles. It is possible to achieve a better design. I'll quickly recap the top five reasons. One, long view hill residents and homeowners over 1,500 people will be reduced to one way in and out of our neighborhood, seriously compromising our safety and quality of life on a daily basis. Two, the 30 businesses and the pediatric clinic who attract over 300 patients daily will be reduced to one exit compromising their safety and patients who come from all directions will face increased wait times coming to and leaving the offices. Pediatricians have voice concern about getting timely responses from ambulances who are called for emergency transport. For pedestrians who walk, pull grocery cart, or stroll their kids to the nearby grocery and drugstore, urgent care, or restaurants and shops, we'll continue to struggle on a two-narrow sidewalk because no plans have been discussed to widen the sidewalk, which was urged in a meeting with city staff in September of 2023. We were told it required a code change. 5. Cyclists deserve safe roads and choice. So do members of families and households who happen to drive and cycle. Cyclists on viewpoint road who commute more than 200 days a year report that the service road is the safest part of their commute. There's a way to accommodate drivers and cyclists. The current proposal is not it. We are asking City Council and Clover College Park and Regional and National Advocacy Groups for pedestrians and cyclists to stop thinking in terms of either or and consider solutions that are both and. Both and approaches problems by recognizing that two opposite things can be true and finding a way to balance them. Please provide the both and leadership that you know this complex problem demands. Those staff would have you believe that times up, council has time to do the right thing, to request a workable design that is both and, and vote no on this proposal as it stands. I also want to offer a petition with over 160 signatures, which I will provide to the clerk. And it's, these signatures include cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers, and some people who are all three of those things. And they agree and urge a no vote. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cooper. Next speaker is Ken Notis, followed by Zach Day Jardin, followed by Allison Maltz, Samarnaja, David Sterling. Thanks to Council to staff and to the traffic and parking board recommendation for the conversion. I would like to note the slip lane, I'm not a big fan of slip lanes, but the slip lane and some of the other changes are part of the larger picture of changes in this area, and the busway. It is a complicated situation, which is almost inevitable when you have a neighborhood so close to Old Town, so close to Metro, and so close to Major Material. Given that there is going to be a slip lane, and I don't think spending a lot of money on another study that will end up with the same result is a good use of funds. The best solution is the conversion, which will separate cyclists, from drivers, make it easier for them to get past the slip lane entrance, provide a buffer for pedestrians on the sidewalk. I'd love to see sidewalks widen, but when they can't be, bike lanes can be used as buffers. And sometimes are walked in by pedestrians. This is not merely a short section. It is part of a four mile stretch from landmark to old town for walkers, for runners, for bicyclists, for scooter riders. And having a gap would not be a good thing. It is also a way to improve walkability to bus stops for people who use transit and need to use that area. It is, this is in fact a both-hand solution. Cars will still be able to use this road. They will still be able to access every place they can access now, but will also provide better safety for, again, for walkers, for users from mobility devices, for cyclists. Some cyclists are comfortable riding in traffic in a service line. I often do. But children, less confident riders, less confident scooter users, often or not. So again, as a citizen, as Chair of Alexandria Beepack, I urge supporting the traffic and parking board recommendation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Notice. Next speaker is Act A. Jardin, followed by Allison Maltz, Marnaja, and David Sterling. And then after Mr. Sterling speaks, we, at the end of the agenda, we will pick up with the remaining speakers. Mr. Jardin, see you on the next morning. There you are, I can hear you. I'm here to talk about the Duke Street West Taylor Run and Cambridge Road Safety Project. I appreciate staff and City Council's work on this project thus far. There are Council not to throw out all the work that has already been done in favor of the deal that's in the future. I support converting the entire lines of the server boot one way to get a two-way by then hope you both board next month. The City Council approved by the pedestrian master plan calls for a full length and hands vessel record or along to the street ranking at the fourth system at a almost a hundred projects. We have a client action that calls for emissions fractions by a recent drive by encouraging people to walk right a bike. We have a client that calls for emissions, fractions, where we're seeing direct, by encouraging people to walk right a bike. We also have vision zero plans to reduce crashes. There's a lot of support and our past and incur plans for this project. To street emotion, provides an opportunity to create a four mile long haul ages and all abilities bikeway, linking our fabulous and Nova hospital, a new and Nova hospital with the King Street Metro. They have approved in all abilities bikeway, linking our fastest in the know of a hospital, a new in a know of a hospital with the King Street Metro. They have approved next by you next month, the South Picket Street, prop gets another half mile spur. And there's another opportunity to potentially, even for either further out with a pencil road. But fortunately, the cyclist has to share the road with drivers merging on and off the street half mile between Cambridge Road and Hills Street will off those new connections to batting the East end from the West end. For the tail of the run segment, how many riders at all age as holidays will be able to share the road with 100 to 200 drivers per peak hour in direction? How will they be the same facility as it may if we have us coming on through the street. The street must also encourage a heck of a lot more people to take the bus. Money that was right is have to walk new stops. Will they have to walk along five foot sidewalk with no buffer to that same 200 drivers per peak hour. We'll have to walk on protected way, providing a buffer space between them and traffic. Making tough traffic officers a challenging part of being an elected official. Never fond of saying no to the neighbors we care about. On one way option, when headed westbound, just thirds residents per peak hour, who live on East Taylor Run, monkey to drive and people have to go up West Taylor Run, down East Taylor Run when they're driving. But when headed eastbound, they'll be able to turn directly on to East Taylor Run, a slave half-cortriff, then they'll go on weight they have today at the West Taylor Run traffic light. Yet, when this project came to traffic parking board in May, a single resident from the East Hedler Run Neighborhood testified against the bike lane, rather several tests with an in favor. For a resident's thing between West Hedler and Cambridge Road, three quarters have already drive in the direction that the staff proposed to keep. By resident requests, the staff, the staff, the state, a partial one option, but found it made no difference. And everybody is in training on underused service road and for a two-way bike lane is an easier decision, especially as the overall college for the citizens association also supports that. Thank you. Thank you for day-to-day time as expired. I want to correct myself. I miss counted here. So we had a couple that were in the system twice. So, math is not my strong suit. I just want to, there will be actually a couple other speakers. So here's the full list of the remaining 15. So after Mr. Daydard in, we will have Alison Malz, Samar Naja, David Sterling, Alison O'Connell, Glenn Pine, and Amanda Eisenhower, Amanda Eisenhower will be the 15th speaker, and then we will pick up with Rose Esper at the end. So Miss Maltz is next, followed by Samarnaja. Do we have Miss Maltz? Hello. Yep, I'm John. Hello, we can hear you. Hi, members of the City Council. My name is Allison Maltz, and I'm a homeowner in the Longview Hill neighborhood. I thank you for the opportunity today to speak regarding the Duke's Creek service road. I am asking you to vote no on the conversion of the service road to a one-way street westbound. For my neighbor's health, safety and quality of not life, we need to continue to have access to West Taylor Run Parkway, restricting our egress and ingress to our homes to one outlet is untenable. Since May 2023, when we discovered this plan, my neighbors and I have tried to advocate for a two-way access on the service road. I spoke last June at the 5-hour City Council meeting. This was the first time I ever spoke at a city meeting. My neighbors and I have met with city staff multiple times. We've voiced our concerns to the parking and traffic board to the Transportation Commission. And I appreciate that we have spoken with almost everyone on this day as at community meetings in our neighborhood. Yet here we are still fighting this fight, a year and a half later to be heard. We are told that the purpose of this project is for the greater good to find room on Duke Street for a center running bus lane that will keep Duke Street moving and that the Cambridge intersection is needed. Yet the data projections tell us that we are looking at only saving two minutes of time on the entirety of the Duke of Duke Street westbound. Is this potential two minutes of time with the hours of time my neighbors and I walked to sit in traffic due to unpredictable unmitigated Bishop Arton High School traffic at the Cambridge intersection or the potential lives that could be lost. If our one method of egress is blacked due to a car accident and don't forget that this involves removing the no right turn on red restrictions at the intersections effectively turning the quiet service road into a fast moving to street artery. This is not the correct plan for our neighborhood service road. As much as my family and I like riding bikes, my son and I just wrote home from a car throng the service road last week, but a two lane cycle cycle track to know where's not the most pressing need for my neighborhood. The logney home neighborhood skews young and old. My next door neighbors have lived in their homes 30, 40, 50 years. They're not able to jump on a bicycle to go to the store. The young families with all their gears would also have a difficult time only traveling by bicycle. So as my neighbors and I have said before, the service roads are only method of egressing and grass to our homes. This is an issue of health, safety, and quality of life for us. Again, I ask that you won't know on this issue. Thank you, Ms. Maltz. Next speaker is Samar Naja, followed by David Sterling, Allison O'Connell, Glenn Pine, Amanda Eisenhower. Morning. behind Amanda Eisenhower. Good morning. Good morning. I come to you as a Palestinian. My grandparents and mother were exiled from their country in 1948. They lost everything, their homes, their business, their citizen status, their family cohesion. Everything, they built them, everything, they built. Everything they had, they lost, and they built it again, another country that didn't want them. For the last year, we have seen something so much worse, so much more brutal, with the finest American weapons money can buy, and the most well-tallow-vised, well-documented genocide you can imagine, and ethnic cleansing under your noses. The Human Rights Commission came to you six months ago and asked you to approve a ceasefire resolution and you declined. When I see the rising body of Shaban Erdelu as he burned to death with his IV sticking out of his arm in hospital because Israel bombed the Laxah hospital, I think of you, all of you. When I see the shredded body of Sidra Hassuna hanging from the wall of a residential building where she lived, without any legs, I think of you, Mayor Wilson. These were done with Alexandra's tax dollars. When I hear the fearful pleas of Hendra Jab, seven years old, hiding in the car next to the bullet-ridden body of her cousin, as the Israeli tanks approached her, and after they shot to death the paramedics that came to save her. I think of you. Israeli tanks ended up springing the car until the life was enough out of her. Medical researchers, as far back as July, are saying 186,000 are dead in Razeh. 8% of the population, two-thirds are women and children. And when I think of these numbers, I think of you. Every time I see a child without an arm and a leg, without a face, because their skin has been melted off with U.S. made weapons, I think of you. Raze is now home the largest cohort of child amputies in modern history, says director of financing and partnerships divisions of the Office of the Coordination coordination of humanitarian affairs just last week. Many of these children had their limbs amputated without anesthetic. Gazans watch daily their children torn into limbs. There's a word in Arabic called Ashleil, which means body pieces. The great, most moral army blows up children in schools and mosques and leaves bodies so dismembered that they have to put the limbs in small trash bags and they call them a shlale. And then they have to weigh them to see how many constitute one body. Never mind the identification. We have our tax dollars to think of for that. You can no longer claim ignorance because we have educated you. You can no longer claim ignorance because we have educated you. You can no longer claim this is just a federal issue. At least I was. Next speaker is David Sterling, followed by Alice and O'Connell, followed by Glenn Pine, followed by Amanda Eisenhower. Do we have Mr. Sterling? Not here. All right, that means we'll jump another one down on the list here. Mr. Sterling. Not here. That means we'll jump another one down on the list here. Next speaker is Alison O'Connell, Glen Pine, Amanda Eisenhower, Rose Esper. Miss Esper will be the last one for this period and we'll pick up with Nicky Infield in the final section. Miss O'Connell. Miss O'Connell. Miss O'Connell, all right? So, we'll jump another one. So, Glenn Pine, Amanda Eisenhower, Rose Esper, Niki, and Field. Good morning. Good morning. Yesterday I watched a new video of a child who is real headshot in the legs from a drone lying in the dirt road waving for help. Family members and others rushed out into the street and immediately fell to their knees, sobbing over the child and frantically trying to help. This went on for a few moments until Israel fired an explosive into the crowd that was trying to help the child, leaving only their scattered remains. Multiply seems like this by 100,000, literally, and that's what you have for what Israel enabled by the United States has been doing over the past year in Gaza and Alabama and beyond as well. Presumptive mayor elect Gaskins, you're on record in the Washington Post that you oppose passing a ceasefire resolution. That's permanent now, and for the rest of your life, you will be on record as having opposed to ceasefire resolution during a full year of one of the greatest atrocities in world history. And I hope that you can feel the full weight of that. Presumption of Maryland Gascans, all you said in public is that Jews and Palestinians should both feel like they belong here. While I was speaking with a Palestinian friend who lives in Alexandria just yesterday, someone who's not speaking today. She said that many of Alexandria's Arabs and Palestinians quote, have lost hope in your council because we've been demanding this for a year, and we don't see change. That's the opposite of belonging. But how else could they feel after all of you have sat complicit for a year, opposed to even a symbolic ceasefire resolution, little on material divestment in the face of genocide of their people? As a Jew, I certainly don't feel a sense of belonging either from this council, which doesn't distinguish between Jews and Zionists. Zionists like Joe Biden and Donald Trump are overwhelmingly Christian in this country, and they are genocidal, and Zionists in Israel are also deeply ethnodationalists. In fact, nowadays there's nothing more anti-Jewish than Zionism. I'm terrified of how the conflation of Zionism and Judaism has led to rising anti-Jewish sentiment around the world and here in the US. As utterly disappointing as this council has been, it's not too late to change. It's never too late to start doing the right thing. It's never too late to decide the politics and elections and partisanship aren't games and that you can be brave. My message today is simple. Stop being bad can be brave. My message today is simple. Stop being bad. Be brave. Stop arming Israel with Alexandria's money and divest. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Pine. Next speaker is Amanda Eisenhower, followed by Rose Esper, followed by Mickey and Field. Morning, Council. Morning. I don't particularly want to be here either. There are so many other things we could be doing on a Saturday. But I'm back in front of you all because not one of you was interested in my and my friends and comrades and colleagues requests for a meeting regarding divestment. Not one of you engage substantively with any of my fellow community members or outrage at their local tax dollars, are not only funding genocide at the federal level, but invested locally in companies that are killing their family members. So I'm going to repeat our argument, and the hopes that it resonates this time, and perhaps someone might respond to my meeting request from August. Alexandria is invested in genocide in apartheid in at least three ways. First, Alexandria manages in a fiduciary capacity its own supplemental pension funds, including the city's supplemental retirement plan, OPEB trust composite plan and defined benefit plan, worth over $790 million combined. Through those various investment vehicles, including those funds, the city invests its employees payroll contributions and to public equities from companies that profit off of genocide and occupation. Among our top ten investments is Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons manufacturer. Lockheed Martin sells millions of dollars with fighter jets and ammunition to the IDF for use against civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, and since the last time I spoke, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. These include health fire missiles, notable for their use of blades to slice through flesh, including at the August 10th massacre of over 100 people during morning prayer at the Al-Tabin School. Children's remains were so thoroughly dismembered that the death toll had to be approximated by weighing plastic bags of unrecognizable human flesh. As Samar told you. The city also voluntarily invests over $345 million of our cash reserves into the local government investment pool, where reserves are pulled with those municipalities across the state. The LGIP is invested in companies like Caterpillar, which is supplied the IDF for decades with the notorious D9 bulldozer used to raise homes, schools, infrastructure, in order to displace Palestinians and violently enforce the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Remember, this is a voluntary investment. We are not required by law to invest in the LGIP. Finally, the city invests over $144 million into the Virginia retirement system. The R.S. invests in a slew of weapons manufacturers, including Northrop Grumman, Palantir, Raytheon, General Dynamics, and Boeing. The U.S. also invest directly into Israeli bonds and financial institutions further into England, our state and local tax dollars, with genocidal apartheid Israel. The city could take meaningful action to divest itself in genocide in apartheid, at the very least, through the funds we directly control. The city could also use its legislative package to urge our state legislators to dismantle the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. Yet another way that Virginia tax dollars are diverted to support Israeli weapons manufacturers. The city council's mandate extends only to local issues. Then our city councilors should be doing everything in their power to ensure that the local dollars interested in their care are invested responsibly, rather than in apartheid and genocide. I sincerely hope you have the more courts do so. Please meet with us. Thank you, Ms. Eisenhower. Next speaker is Rose Esper, followed by Nikki Infield. Good morning. The International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024 that Israel is in apartheite state, imposing racial segregation. A partite is a crime against humanity. The court also ruled that Israel's sufferings on occupied Palestinian land are illegal and must be dismantled. The court placed responsibility on the United Nations and all states, including the United States, to end Israel's violations of international law. Alexandria is invested in companies, manufacturing weapons that are used by Israel to exterminate the Palestinians in Gaza and the entire society, culture, and history of 2.5 million Palestinians. Do not ignore the negative mental and physical effects Israel's genocide is having on Alexandria's residents with family and friends in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria like me, or in other countries where US and Israel's Israeli weapons are killing their families and friends, including Iraq, Iran, Somalia, and Yemen. Everyone seeing this genocide live streamed is negatively affected. Do not ignore the dangers to each of us because the United States and Israel are destroying the rules-based order by violating international laws, yet demanding that other countries abide by international laws, do not ignore the dangers to the lives and mental health of the US troops who are on the ground participating in genocide and defending Israel's apartheid and military occupation and violation of international laws. Alexandria must incorporate human rights in environmental justice screen for all city investments. Our city should not be investing taxpayer dollars in any entity violating international laws or destroying the environment. If you support international human rights laws, the city of Alexandria must divest from all investments in Israel, which is violating international laws daily. Divestment is the only correct moral and legal argument to take for our city. Do not repeat Alexandria's past crimes against humanity by continuing to invest in a partied genocidal state. Thank you Miss Asperg. Next speaker is Nikki Infield. Miss Infield's the final speaker of this portion of the public comment period and we'll pick up with Nicole Rache at the end. Do we have Miss Infield? She's on the line. Yes, can you? Yep. Can you hear me? Yep, we can hear you. OK. I've been struggling all week with what to say here today. The only thing that kept coming to mind was the overwhelming sums of exasperation over the fact that you are all such unserious people. I really have nothing more to say to you. Because if you did not understand that all liberation struggles be it black equity, queer rights, women's equality, more to say to you. Because if you did not understand that all liberation struggles, the Black equity, queer rights, women's equality, Indigenous land back workers rights, etc, etc, etc, that all of these efforts are inextricably connected. Then I have nothing more to say to you because you are not a serious person. If you do not see that capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and its darling offspring Zionism, Western imperialism, and the patriarchy are all just different heads of the same hydra, and that it is this hydra that is the root cause of all of our inequities that I have nothing more to say to you because you are unable to see reality clearly. If in the 20 years since our collective war crime known as the Iraqi invasion, you have learned nothing about how our corporate capitalist imperialist media deliberately manufactured consent for this continued state slaughter of black and brown bodies both at home and abroad, then I have nothing more to say to you for you are clearly not paying attention. If it is not as clear to you today as it was to queer and civil rights leader James Baldwin over 40 years ago, that quote, the state of Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews. It was created for the salvation of Western interests. Then I have nothing more to say to you for you are simply not able to admit the truth. And if you are someone who is okay with your liberation, rights, sense of security, or comfort, coming at the expense of someone else's very existence, then I have nothing more to say to you because you are a terrible person. And if you don't understand how everything I've here to forementioned comes to a head in the current fight for Palestinian freedom, and how this is our era defining moment and that where you stand today will be studied by your grandchildren than I have nothing more to say to you, because really, what more is there to say? Do not continue to be one of those people who glorifies every past liberation struggle, who will happily attend the Labor Day picnic or Juneteenth Barbecue or European Holocaust Remembrance Day, while actively working against the current struggle for liberation. Stop spending my hour tax dollars on murder. Diveast our city from genocide. Diveast our city from Israel. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Enfield. All right, so as I said, we will pick with Nicole Radsha and Colin Brinkman. They were the next two When we reach the end of the doctor. All right, Madam Clerk number four. World call consent calendar number four. Okay, we have the roll call consent calendar. Is there a motion to approve the roll call consent calendar? Motion by now that was really a close call. That's so good. Come on, that was legitimately a close call. Motion by Councilwoman Gaskins. Seconded by Councilwoman McPike, just to make sure I reflect that side of the day. Any further discussion? Councilman McBagley? I don't want to belabor the point. I do want to just call attention that this again is a modification of our CPS program in an effort to increase usage and access of the CPS program. And I just wanted to uplift to anybody in our business community, to anybody who has needs investment for a project and wants to find ways to green and improve sustainability to their project, we are revising our program in an effort to increase involvement and participation and just wanted to highlight that, that that's what this item is, and I'm strongly in support of it, and I'm really hoping it leads to some investment and some sustainable projects in the city. Okay, we have a motion in a second. Is there any further discussion? So, a roll call, a Madam Clerk. Please call the roll. Councilwoman Gaston. Okay. Councilman McPike. Hi. Your roll, Sun. Hi. Councilman McGuirey. Hi. Councilmember Bagley. Hi. Councilman Chapman. Okay. The roll call consent calendar is approved unanimously. No. 5. Public hearing and consideration of an appeal of the traffic and parking boards July 22, 2024 decision recommending roadway safety design changes of Eisenhower Avenue between South and Doran Street and Humvee's around trail. Okay. and Doran Street and Humve Surround Trail. Okay, so here's how we're gonna do this one procedurally here. We are gonna have staff repeat part of the presentation. If you don't have to do the whole thing, if you don't feel like it's necessary. There's any questions of staff. And then we have a number of speakers signed up. Most of those speakers will be, or all those speakers will be on the normal three minute limit. However, we'll allow someone representing the appellant to speak and kind of present. And so they'll go first, and then we'll get to the rest of the speakers. So, and I'll allow the appellant to state their case. I'll be it judiciously as far as time is concerned. So, let's turn it over to our staff first, and then we will get to the appellant. Good morning, Mayor Wilson, Vice Mayor Jackson, members of council. My name is Alex Carroll. I am the Complete Streets Program Manager for the city's Department of Transportation and Environmental Services. I am joined here this morning by Hillary Orr, Deputy Director of Transportation for Tess and Ryan Knight Division Chief of Transportation Engineering for Tess. The item that we're presenting to you all today is consideration of an appeal of the traffic and parking boards July 22nd decision related to the Eisenhower Avenue corridor improvements project The board considered staff recommended changes at their July 22nd public hearing and unanimously Approved that staff recommendation Subsequent to that public hearing petition was filed to appeal the board's recommendation to City Council, which is what brings us here today. So the project location is Eisenhower Avenue, the western end of the corridor between South Fandorn Street and Holmes Run Trail. This is a minor arterial roadway that provides east west access across the city and is home to a variety of uses including some residential but mostly commercial and industrial uses along the corridor. It is also adjacent to the Van Dorn metro rail station. So I want to provide a little bit of background so you'll understand how we got here today. There are a number of relevant adopted plans that are pertinent to this project. We have the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan, which was adopted by City Council in 2015. That included a number of recommendations for the corridor, but mainly created a vision for Eisenhower Avenue that would make it more mixed use, walkable, vibrant, transit-oriented. And specifically included a recommended cross-section for Eisenhower Avenue. And that is what's shown here on this slide. So just to kind of dissect this a little bit, the recommended cross section for Eisenhower Avenue, and this is looking west towards Van Doren street, is to have one general purpose travel lane in each direction. And then the outer curbside lanes would have a dual purpose. They would function as peak hour transit lanes and off peak parking lanes. In addition to that, there is a recommended multi-use trail on the north side of Eisenhower Avenue behind the curb that is expected to be provided through redevelopment. The Alexandria Mobility Plan also has recommendations for expected to be provided through redevelopment. The Alexandria Mobility Plan also has recommendations for Eisenhower Avenue specifically and enhanced bicycle facility, but there are also some larger goals for the city's transportation system as a whole that are pertinent here. Those include mitigating the impacts of cut-through traffic on Alexandria streets and providing a safe, comfortable and connected walking and biking environment and increasing safe access to transit. Additionally, the city's vision zero action plans set a goal for eliminating fatal and severe crashes in the city. In a recent city wide crash study found that approximately 70% of our fatal and severe crashes in Alexandria happened on just 70% of our fatal and severe crashes in Alexandria happened on just 10% of our streets. And Eisenhower Avenue, particularly this section of Eisenhower Avenue, is part of that 10%. All of this led us to engage with the Virginia Department of Transportation where they provided technical assistance to perform a corridor study on Eisenhower Avenue to do a deeper dive into the corridor to identify issues and challenges areas of opportunity and identify solutions in accordance with all of these adopted plans. And so through that process, which started last summer, we identified a number of key issues through data collection and community feedback. Those include high vehicle speeds, limited pedestrian and bicycle facilities. So, you know, there is an existing multi-use path for people walking and biking and scooting on Eisenhower Avenue on the eastern end of the corridor, but as you head west to that multi-use trail tapers off and disappears. There are also minimal crossing opportunities throughout the corridor, so we do see some mid-block crossing, which can be pretty risky considering that the corridor is currently four to five lanes without ample crossing opportunities. And then there is also a missing sidewalk adjacent to immediately adjacent to the Vandorn Metro Rail Station. All of this makes it difficult to access transit naturally. And then the other key issue that we noted was traffic congestion, particularly at the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and South Vandorn Street. So we took all of these issues and worked to develop some concept designs, which I will get into in a moment. But it's also worth noting that earlier this year, the city applied for grant funding through the Virginia Department of Transportation Smart Scale program to fund improvements on Eisenhower Avenue. So I'm going to take the concept piece by piece. I want to start specifically with the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and South Fandorn Street because this one is kind of unique and different from a little bit different from the rest of the recommendations for the corridor and has some unique issues that we needed to take into consideration. So just to orient you all, this is, you know, true north is up. So South Fandorn Street is here going north south. Let me see if I can use my cursor here. north is up south Vandorn Street is here going north south. Let me see if I can use my cursor here. There's a little bit of leg. And then we have Eisenhower Avenue going east and west. And then connecting Eisenhower and Vandorn is another street metro road, which is adjacent to the Vandorn metro rail station, which has entrances on the south side of Vandorn and then the north side over here. And so as I noted, traffic congestion at this intersection of Eisenhower and Van Dorn was a significant issue. We often see very long backups, particularly in the afternoon peak hour on both Eisenhower and Van Dorn, but particularly bad on Van Dorn. And so what we recommended through this project was to relocate the left turns from the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and South Vendorn Street to Metro Road. So I'll break that down a little bit today if you are going westbound on Eisenhower Avenue and you wish to make a left on South Endorn Street to head towards the Beltway or Fairfax County you would just come up to the signal and make a left. It does take a very long time and so instead of doing that you would follow the blue arrows shown on this slide so if you want to make that left, you would turn right onto Metro Road, follow that around. My cursor is playing catch up. And then take the exit ramp onto South Fandorn Street and make that movement instead. Similarly, if you were heading Southbound on South Fandorn Street and you want to turn left onto Eisenhower Avenue to head towards Old Town. You can do that at the signal today, but again, it does take a very long time. Cueing is pretty bad. So instead of doing that, what we proposed is that you would instead, if you want to make that left turn, enter the ramp onto Metro Road, follow this red arrow, go around Metro Road, and then instead make your left turn at the Eisenhower Avenue and Metro Road Traffic signal, which has a lot more capacity to be able to accommodate those turning movements. And so this does a couple of things. First, it drastically alleviates congestion at the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue and South Van Dorn Street. The left turning movements, both on Eisenhower Avenue and on South Van Dorn take up a significant amount of the signal cycle timing. And so by removing those movements from the signal cycle, we can then reallocate that time that was previously dedicated to those movements to keeping South Van Dorn Street moving. So if you're going through on South Van Dorn Street, you would get more time to get through the signal than you do today. Additionally, at the intersection of Eisenhower and Van Dorn, there is currently what we call a split phase signal timing approach where the westbound direction of Eisenhower Avenue So, if you're going to be going to be going the signal timing by removing those left turns from the equation. You would still be able to make all of the other movements that are at these signals today, the only movements that you wouldn't be able to make are those two left turns. So if you're heading westbound on Eisenhower to Van Dorn Street, you can still go straight, you can still turn right, as shown by this green arrow and similarly on South Van Dorn Street, you can still go straight and you can still turn right. The only movements that would be removed are those left turns. The other thing that this does is it gives us a whole lot of extra space at the intersection to be able to provide other important roadway features that are currently missing and are recommended in our future plans. So the sidewalk that I mentioned before that is currently missing on the south side of Eisenhower Avenue next to the metro station. The space that's dedicated for the left turn lanes would go away. And so then that space, that physical space, could be repurposed to provide that sidewalk. It can also be repurposed to provide the two-way multi-use path on the north side of the street as recommended in our small area plan. When we analyze this, we found that the operations would significantly improve at the intersection of Eisenhower Avenue with overall intersection delay decreasing by about half. And then with the delay at Metro Road and Eisenhower Avenue remaining at a very manageable about 30 second delay. So now I'm going to talk about the rest of the corridor once you get beyond Metro Road. And that's looking at a general corridor cross-section for Eisenhower Avenue. So again, these cross-sections are, if you can imagine, section for Eisenhower Avenue. So again, these cross sections are, if you can imagine, standing on Eisenhower Avenue and looking west towards South Fandorn Street. So there's three cross sections shown on this slide. We have our existing conditions, which is two general-purpose travel lanes in each direction and a center turn lane. This current configuration contributes to a lot of the issues that we've identified and heard from community members that are challenges in this area, particularly the crash history, the speeding, the difficulty crossing the street, all of those things. And then I'm going to jump down to the bottom one, which is a reminder of our small area plan recommended long-term design, which is one general purpose travel land in each direction, and then the off-peak, off-peak bus lane slash parking. And then that multi-use trail on the north side of the street. Now this part is important because this is recommended in the small area plan. It's recommended in our Alexandria mobility plan, but this is something that's going to take a very, very long time to materialize if we wait for redevelopment. And that's really the only way that we can get this because we don't currently own the land. And as we know, development often happens in a piece-neil manner. And multi-utrials aren't very useful if they're not continuous. And so what we recommended instead to address all of these issues while still keeping the small area plan goal in mind is an interim design and that is one travel lane in each direction which is again recommended in the small area plan repurposing some of that space to provide the an interim multi-use trail in the street, which can then subsequently be replaced by this in the long term as it, as development, materializes on the corridor and that this is provided through development contributions. And then on the south side of the street, we would have generally a parking lane but could also function as other features as well. We could have curb extensions to shortened pedestrian crossings. We could have bus bulbs to make transit more efficient. We could have, sorry about that, trying to move it without clicking it. You know, we could have parklets, things like that. So there are opportunities there for the space on the south side of the street. But after reviewing this and following all best practices, this design would address all of the issues that we identified throughout the project. So for a traffic summary, Eisenhower Avenue ranges in the amount of volumes on the corridor. It can be as low as 8,000 vehicles per day. And in some areas goes up to about 17,000 vehicles per day. And so I know that's just a number. So I tried to include comparison just for context. King Street between Janice Lane and Chinkapin Drive is about 17,000 vehicles per day. And that corridor has one lane in each direction with the center turn lane, which is what we're proposing for Eisenhower Avenue. When we performed our traffic analysis for this recommendation, we found that the corridor does operate under capacity. There wouldn't be any significant delay compared to today. And certainly, as I mentioned, the intersection operations at Eisenhower and Van Dorn would significantly improve. We've been doing this project for about a year and so throughout that process we've had multiple touch points with the community to first hear their concerns, to get their feedback on potential options and then engaging directly with key stakeholders throughout the process. We also put out multiple online feedback forms to make it easier for folks to engage with us. We heard over 400 responses to those online feedback forms and through that process the top issue that we heard from folks was vehicle speed. We also asked folks what they thought about the various proposed treatments along the corridor. And overwhelmingly, people were either supportive or neutral about the key elements of this project. So relocating the left turns to Metro Road, providing the sidewalk next to the Metro station, and providing the two-way protected bike lane slash multi-use trail. So that's all the background. Coming back to the petition and why we're here today. Again, the petition was filed after the traffic and parking board public hearing. We did receive a request from 37 households to appeal the decision after engaging with the appellant and with this community. We understand that their concerns are primarily related to traffic congestion and impacts to Metro Road, how that might impact safety and operations. And I also understand that there are some broader concerns with the project as well, but the primary concerns appear to be with the impacts to Metro Road. So I want to talk about that for a moment. So again, Metro Road is this street that connects Eisenhower Avenue to South Vandorn Street. By relocating the left turns to Metro Road, it would add about 400 to 600 peak hour vehicle trips. Even with those additional trips, Metro Road would operate at less than 20% of its capacity. That being said, we understand that particularly the summer's growth neighborhood residents from this neighborhood have residents have concerns about what this would mean for them. And so we are working with them to identify potential solutions to mitigate those concerns. Metro Road is scheduled to be repaved this fiscal year so that is an opportunity for the city to implement treatments to address the key concerns that they have. And so we haven't identified specific treatments yet, but there are tools in the toolbox to address some of the things that we heard. So, you know, they're one of the concerns was site distance coming out of the neighborhood. We could certainly redesign the roadway to improve site distance for people coming out of summer's grove. We can improve crossing opportunities, make the crosswalks much safer than they are today. There are tools in the toolbox and we are committed to engaging with them throughout that project. So with all of that being said, the staff recommendation is that City Council concur with the traffic and parking boards recommendations for Eisenhower Avenue and deny the appeal. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Carroll. Any additional questions for staff or any questions for staff at this point? Probably wait until after. All right. So I believe we have Ms. Harrington who is representing the appellance. So as I said, I won't hold you to a time limit, but I ask that you be judicious on that. And then after you are done, we will go to the public speakers who are signed up and we have a number of speakers signed up. So Miss Harrington. Yeah, thank you. Before we start or start the clock, I'd like to see by a show of hands. We pre-submitted. We don't do the show of hands things. Oh, well, whatever. Whatever what I want to know is how many of the council have actually read. We don't do a question and answer. Just continue with your remarks. Okay, because what I get to say orally if you haven't read our 14 page. I did read your your your your memo. Thank you. All right. So the members of Summers Grove and a lot of other surrounding communities that we know of are vehemently opposed to this entire plan here. We think it's ill-conceived and it's going to create a lot of disaster for our area. To start with, we did meet with the TES staff in June. They showed us this concept thing and we asked at that time for the the actual underlying raw data to see the traffic analyses and everything that's under pending this whole road changes stuff. We have yet to receive any of that from them. They told us while there was something done years ago and V dots working on something and that was it. So there's been no transparency, no understanding. We're very suspect because all the logic that we know from driving on these roads tells us this is not going to save time by rerouting this traffic through Metro Road. Let me do some general recommendations beforehand. One is city councils should not make any decision on this until the detailed traffic analysis studies with the methodologies, the raw data, when they were collected, how they were collected, how the analyses were done are made available to the public and we have time to review this to see how valid these studies are to underline this drastic road change. It was going to have huge impacts for us on us. Secondly, we're saying, you know, irrespective of this hypothetical modeling done to date, the city should first install adaptive traffic lights on Van Dorn from the Eisenhower intersection all the way up to Edselroad. That's four traffic lights. They're worried about vehicle delay times. If you, there's supposedly this adaptive traffic light program that's supposed to purchase lights, I guess next year they were saying that you should first install it before you make these huge drastic changes here in rerouting and everything, which I'll explain why it's a bad idea. Put in the adaptive traffic lights. Let that run for a year. See in real time actual changes and collect data on what the traffic flow patterns are and what the delayed times are from adaptive signals. Secondly, and in the overall grand scheme of things, especially for Eisenhower road, is rather than this kind of road diet, you know, dedicated bicycle plans and all that they've been proposing here and on Pickett Street and all this one-size-fits-all everywhere. Alexandria would really benefit by taking a look at what Arlington's done on their roadways. A good example is George Mason Drive. If you look at that from Arlington Boulevard to Wilson Boulevard, that's two lanes in both ways. They have shared bicycle lanes. The speed limit's about 30. It's 20 in the school zones. They have a lot of really, really good pedestrian crosswalks all along there. This roadway has got houses all the way along it right up to the sidewalks. It's got schools and everything else. And you can, the vehicles can cruise along there, but it's safer pedestrians. It's safer bicyclists. This is a much better approach. One, it would be cheaper because you don't have to completely reconfigure Eisenhower. You've got two lanes in every direction and you're not going to be backing and and adjusting traffic, which right now we all know that Eisenhower is a main artery to get from the West End to Old Town. As they stated there's what 10,000 average but like 8,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day traveling on that with all the development that is currently and in the future going on in the Eisenhower corridor as well as nearby places on Van Dorn with the Volkham Materials site and the landmark mall site, those are just near-term. The amount of vehicle traffic we know is going to increase dramatically even more in the future. And Eisenhower is a main artery to go from the west end to old town. The last thing we need is a road diet and turn this into a one-lane-each-way roadway. This is going to increase traffic congestion, it's going to slow it down, it's going to increase the vehicle emissions and it's going to create more accidents. Furthermore, along this area there is a lot of truck traffic. As we know, the Coventa plant is down there, the trash trucks are going there all the time, there's a FedEx, a UPS delivery. In addition, on Metro Road is the ethanol transportation where they have large heavy-duty fuel tanker trucks coming in and out of there. So with that, so those are kind of the general things. The last general thing is before you start spending tens of millions of dollars on these road diets and all these changes on Vandorn and Pickett and Eisenhower and these local roads, we really recommend instead the city redirect your budget, redirect your focus to put in the multimodal bridge from Pickett over to Vandorn that everybody's been talking about and putting the Farrington connector on that west end of, you know, on the other side of where the Eisenhower intersection is. We know that's going to cost a lot more money than they thought years ago when they did the West Area Plan. But if you take these tens of millions you're going to do on each of these streets. They're talking about, and this is old numbers, $14 million I saw cited in one of these presentations, just to reconfigure that few hundred feet from the Vandoran intersection to Metro Road on Eisenhower. That doesn't count playing with Metro Road in the paving and whatever they're going to do there. So if you take all that money, redirect it there, and then again, go for grant money or co-sharing money from the state, from the federal and other sources. You can create this multimodal bridge and the Ferenton connector, which is going to alleviate traffic a lot more. It's going to help you with all the plan development you've gotten this area. My understanding is those were two underpinning projects that were supposed to be done for this landmark, landmark mall development as well. So those are kind of just the general solutions that in lieu of this kind of plan, you could easily implement in this area. So let's start with the left turn lane issue. It is really incredulous to us who live there and travel this road. That TES thinks that this is a good idea to triple the amount of traffic on Metro Road, make it up to 1,000 cars an hour at the peak times, and run it through that Metro Road Loop. Now, some of you I handed out that present sheet there with my diagram on that to help speak to that. Several things. What it's nice to look at that map, but if you live there, you know this is a, that loop around there from Vandoren to the transfer station is very, very steep. It's really sharp. That curve there. This is not the nice flat straight line that we have on Eisenhower getting to that intersection. This traffic here, I drive it a lot myself because I live at Somersboro and it's a cut through for me. You can't with a sedan car. You can't do more than 20 miles an hour on that loop or you're in trouble. You put cars, buses and trucks on there, they're going to go even slower. Now also what the TES staff has failed to mention because they're saying, oh, we're worried about safety and crashes and everything. They failed to mention and I put it on the diagram that you have on that loop, V dot, on their crash date, on their GIS, that we've looked it up. They show, in the last few years, there's been four crashes on just that little piece of the loop. Two of these were head-on crashes, one involving a large truck, and two were people who drove off the road, one hit a pole, and one hit a bunch of trees. So this is a really, I mean, the locals that drive it, we kind of know we've got navigated slow. This is a really dangerous, difficult road. A heck of a lot more dangerous than coming up Eisenhower on that nice straight flat to get to that intersection. Also there's a lot of truck and bus traffic, not just cars already on there. As I mentioned, the ethanol transfer station is there. You got those heavy duty tanker trucks coming out of those fuel trucks. They run through there. We've got quite a few buses. There are shuttle buses coming from area apartments and everything to go to the metro station as well. There's trash trucks that run through there for local pickup and also they all deliver to the Coventa plant just down the road on Eisenhower, the refuse burning power plant there. So when we asked the TES staff when we met with them last June because they just gave us a count. They said, oh, well, there's 350. We said, well, what's the distribution of trucks cars and buses on that? Well, we don't know. So it seems to us that all their doings are collecting total vehicle count data. They're not really looking at the distribution of the types of vehicles there, which is extremely important on a road like this that is so curved and steep. And really doing a proper analysis. Now you heard them today to tell you what they're proposing. This classic change is a concept that they have. We've yet to see real analysis. We are convinced with this extra congestion that you've got here on this road, there is no way you're going to save time over going through the current intersection. And it's going to be a lot more dangerous. It's going to get backed up the roadway onto a van d'Orn where they're trying to get onto Metro Road and probably backing up on Eisenhower where they're trying to get onto to Metro Road and probably backing up on Eisenhower where they're trying to get on to Metro Road in the other direction. And you're going to have a lot more vehicle accidents. Now, second point on that map, you're going to see some those big stars. There's two two existing traffic lights on there already right at the Metro Road entrance and that's across the street from the summer's growth exit from Summers Grove, and then the one on the corner of Eisenhower and Metro Road. TES staff is proposing to add that yellow star you see on the map, another traffic light on Vendorne to let the traffic come out of Metro Road, which right now, they just, they only merge right onto the lane now. By the way, understand, this is about a hundred feet from the intersection of Eisenhower and Van Dorn. They're proposing to put another traffic light there and allow left turns on that. There's already three traffic lights from Pickett Street to Eisenhower. Now you're gonna have four traffic lights on that bridge and somehow this end with left turn and somehow they're saying that this isn't going to speed up traffic that's incredulous to us. Now secondarily I mentioned about the the field transfer station with the big trucks coming out of that also just just a 50 feet from that is the metro station parking lot and across the street is the Pearson Lane exit from the Summers Grove Housing Development. Excuse me. There are no traffic lights there but since there isn't a lot of so much traffic people navigate that make the left turns there pretty well and if you'll note V dot data is their crash data they've shown no crashes and they currently, and no crashes right where people enter the metro station at the summer's Grove exit too. So this road has been pretty safe so far, and we think that's due in large part to the fact that there is not a huge volume of traffic. There is adequate pedestrian crosswalk signals there, by the way, there's no more improvement that they can do over what's there as far as a pedestrian crosswalk signals there by the way. There's no more improvement that they can do over what's there as far as pedestrian crosswalk signal. However, because of those entrances, those two entrances where the red star is, with this amount of extra traffic, you are going to have to put traffic lights there so that those trucks and cars coming out of the ethanol transversation that are's a parking lot and the Pearson lane exit of summer's growth so they can get out and make left turns. When you've got a thousand cars an hour coming through there and you don't have a traffic signal, we're not going to get out of there. Now, conversely, the other problem with that is, okay, now I can make left turns, but one of the other problems there is you're coming around that loop that is very curved and steep right at the bottom of that. Now you're going to have to have true traffic lights that, unless you really know and drive that street every day, you're not going to know about. And that itself is an accident waiting to happen to try to stop suddenly when you're coming around a blind, steep curve. So there is absolutely no mitigation with or without a traffic light by increasing the volume of traffic on this road. Now, additionally, as we all know, because the metro station there, this is a primary pedestrian crossing on Metro Road to get to the metro station. Right now, and if the V.Data also shows, there's been no pedestrian hits on that Metro road area right there. And that again is because there is a good crosswalk signals and the low volume of traffic. You triple the amount of traffic that are even with the crosswalk signals. This is just an accident waiting to happen with pedestrians at that site. So for all these reasons, we just, you know, how can the city think that it's better to save what dubiously may be a few seconds at the safe Van Dorn Eisenhower intersection to make left turns? And you're going to reroute 1,000 cars an hour through that dangerous curve steep road on Metro Road, which in the winter and when it's wet, it's even more fun to drive that. I don't even take the loop when in the winter and when it's wet myself. I go down on the intersection. Because for me, just coming south on Van Doren, I can loop around and go right into summer's growth normally, because I live there. But this is, you know, if we're worried about safety, this is not the solution. Again, this is a concept for them and yet they want to implement it. If anybody gets out there and, you know, some of you live in that area and you know what this road is like. We who live there really know what it is like. OK, the next thing is the road diet. As I mentioned, Eisenhower is an artery. It's got 10,000 to 18,000 cars a day on it already. You restrict this down to one lane. This is going to be ridiculous with all the development going on there in the future. It's going to get worse. So what's driving this road restriction, this road diet on Eisenhower? It is the TES's one-size-fits-all solution on all the roadways around here. They want to put in dedicated bicycle lanes. We are all for sharing with the bicycles. What, use again the model on George Mason Drive in Arlington, put in shared lanes on each, you know, in the same direction with the traffic there. And then put, good, no, you know, put the markers on the roadway, so, so, you know, motor vehicles know that they're sharing their lanes with the bicycle. You can lower the speed limit from 25 to 30 like they do on George Mason Drive, which is very, very effective there. And if you do that, then you don't have to do this road diet on there. The other reason for the road diet is for, we're still not clear why they want to put in 200 on street parking spaces on Eisenhower just down the road. There's a lot of businesses there. They got parking lots and everything. So we don't know why they want that. But additionally, here's another safety issue. In order to put the parking spaces, that also is driving this road diet. Now you're going to have all these drivers getting in and out of their cars right into the single lane of oncoming traffic. How is that a safety issue? And then the third reason they want to do the road die is to extend the little piece of sidewalk from on the south side of Eisenhower, from Van Dorn to the eastern bustle on the entrance of the metro station. Now, I will tell you the people that are coming from Van Dorn East. They cross the road right there at the crosswalk, they go into the closer metro station, which is on Metro Road. Why am I going to walk another quarter mile down the road to the other bus only entrance, which is less pedestrian friendly. It doesn't have sidewalks coming out, it's really for the buses. Instead, it's going in the Metro Road entrance. So, granted, if you're running a baby stroll or something, you can't walk that. But me, I'm in my 70s. I've walked down that on the grass. You can walk that. What should be done in that area is the sidewalk that does go from Metro Road to Vendorn on that south side. It is in horrible disrepair. It hasn't been paved and I don't know how long it's mostly grown over with grass. So paved that at least, it's a better walkway from there. And also, you know, if we're so concerned about safety, there are the safety metal ballards that run along that south side there, and that this sort of metal chain fence in there. There's several of those ballards right near that metro road across the street from there that must have got knocked down by a vehicle. They've been laying on the ground for years. They're so old laying on the ground, unrepaired, that where they broke off is all rusted out. So additionally, the pedestrianwalk pedestrian crosswalk signal at the intersection with Metro Road and Eisenhower, that signal was broken for I don't how long. And it wasn't functioning. So if you press the button, it doesn't change the crosswalk, doesn't change the lights or anything. So we informed the TES staff about this. And then finally, after our petition miraculously, that traffic signal has now been fixed. But that's been broken for, I don't know how long. Now there was one pedestrian hit on that crosswalk intersection on the V.Data. I don't know if the signal was working then or not. But if the signal wasn't working, that can explain why you're getting a pedestrian hit there so Last things sorry everything so long, but there's a lot of points to bring up here addition with the shared with the shared vehicles we really Recommend that the city really do a study and really focus on looking for an off road bicycle path as continuous as you can be, you know, down, you know, to get down to all town, you know, look along Backlick Run and the other stream run there was a Cameron run. And then, you know, where you're minimized the amount of times they got across the road or maybe a few places you may have to share a bit of the road to make the bike pass continuous. The TES staff already said this is like an interim measure. These dedicated bike lengths is eventually their plans are to have some off-road bicycle paths anyway. Do that now. Do that ahead of time. And in the interim, you have shared bicycle lanes. You don't have to have road diets. You don't have to congest traffic. You don't have to increase accidents. And because in this area, yes, bicycle access is, you know, says, well, bring people and they want to be in the area. But if you want all this development in the area, but you've got massively congested roads, nobody's going to want to move here. And realistically, people are not going to give up their cars for bicycles and buses when they move here with all this intense delivery. You know, intense thing. Just the very last point I want to make is that we don't think it's a good idea to reduce the speed limit on Eisenhower from 35 to 25 miles an hour because there are spears there. That's not the solution is not to reduce the speed limit. The solution is to enforce the existing 35 mile an hour speed limit. We recommend putting speed cameras in there like they've done on Beauregard Street that have been very, very effective, although we know there's no schools there, and maybe state regulations doesn't allow you that, but petition for a waiver for this. This is one of these transit, you know, pilot studies here, and put in speed cameras there. Believe me, I travel Beauregard a lot, and people are doing that speed limit now, or they didn't use to with those speed cameras. Speed cameras are very effective. In the interim, increase the amount of patrols there. This is an enforcement issue. If you lower the speed limit to 25, the speeders are still going to speed, meanwhile, the rest of the traffic is going to be slowed down so much we're going to get congested more. And it's a good roadway, Eisenhower. 35 miles an hour is a very, very good speed. If you do shy, shared bike lanes, I would recommend you lower it to 30 miles an hour like they have on George Mason Drive in Arlington. You do want to slow down the traffic a bit because the bicyclist is sharing only on that. So with that, I try to talk as fast as I can. I'm a New Yorker. I appreciate your talk. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harrington. Are there any questions from Ms. Harrington before we get to the public speakers? Councilmember Bagley. Just some clear. Are you advocating to lower speeds or not lower speeds on it? What we're advocating is leave the speed limit at 35. But if you put in the shared bicycle lanes lower to 30 like they have on, like I said in Arlington, George Mason, a lot of theirs where they have shared lanes, it's 30 which is a good balance. If you do it to 25, it is ridiculous trying to do 25, you know, many times. I was listening and taking notes, but I thought I heard some. But what we're saying is the problem, you know, and again, that was another thing we had, this TES data, the TES for the raw data on the speeding, because they showed some graph and we said, well, your peak, which is like at four in the morning, was like 43 miles an hour, I can't remember exactly, but it was very not much over 35. And they said, oh, no, well, that's the mean, you know, that we said, well, let's see the raw data, you know. And I don't know what the raw data is. Maybe there was one person doing 80, which would make the mean look huge. But again, this is more data. We keep asking them for this stuff, and there's just been no visibility. So we think at the very least, nobody should be making decisions on these things until the public has had full transparency. And what's the underlying basis of this? And they confirmed today, the basis for this metro road re-routing is a concept. Oh my God, you're to make this much more dangerous, much more congested on Metro road. Plus the impact on the summer's growth residents. This is going to increase the noise levels, increase the congestion, make it harder to get out of there. This is going to lower our property values for this 191 townhouse community, definitely to make a mess like this. Plus the noise levels on that side of our site, unlike the other sides on the Vandorn and the Eisenhower side of the Summers Grove development, there's not as much space with the roadway, so there's not much space to put the dense trees. We have on the others, which acts at a really nice sound barrier. That's why we don't get too bothered with the Eisenhower and Vendorne traffic. We will get greatly already. Anybody who lives on that metro roadside on Somersgrove, you sit out there with the trucks and everything that go by there now. It's already pretty darn noisy, but you start putting a thousand cars an hour in there with trucks, buses and cars. the noise levels are going to be ridiculous. And it's going to be almost impossible to mitigate because there's not that much base there to really put, like, we have kind of a dentistry line, you know, inside and outside our fence on the other sides. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Ms. Herrington. I want to get to the speakers. I do want to know the traffic study is on the city's website. I just pulled it up. It's there. I'm sorry because you made some comments regarding information that was not responded to. I'm talking, Ms. Herrington. Thank you. I know there was a number of messages sent to you with a lot of information. I have copies of the emails from June where all the studies were provided to you directly. So if there's some specific information that you did not receive, please send me an email. I'll make sure you have that information. But you made a number of comments about our staff not being responsive. I've seen a lot of messages that our staff sent and a lot of information that they provided you with. So perhaps it's not exactly what you wanted, but there was a lot of information. So I just want to make sure that that's not left out there. So, all right, next speaker is Dan Lourdeson, followed by Nicole Radshaw, followed by Acer Orn Brown, Sonny Piaistrofa, and Carl Leonard. Good morning. It's still morning, I think. I'm gonna keep this brief here and just reiterate a lot of what I spoke about earlier. Protected bike lanes are the gold standard They are safer they draw more riders We see more than twice as many riders with protected bike lanes versus something like sheriffs Where they are implemented in places like DC we can accept expect the same return on investment Removing lanes will improve safety on Eisenhower. It will visually narrow the road. It will slow down cars. And it will provide less crossing distance for pedestrians to use. This is an incredibly dangerous area for pedestrians. It is not safe right now. So as a board member on Alexandria families for safe streets and Nova families for safe streets as a resident who is excited to potentially use this network, the safe comfortable network that will draw bikers in. I urge this council to adopt the interim Eisenhower project. It's a great way to operate within the constraints of space that we have and provide the protection for bicyclists and pedestrians in an area that is simply not safe and it is consistent with a longer term redevelopment of this area by providing people options other than vehicles that they can take. And if they wish to take vehicles, that option is still present in this design too. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Next speaker is Nicole Radshaw, Aston Orn Brown, sunny Pistroff. Carl Leonard, Ken Notis, Secretary Jardin, Kent Taylor, Charles Paul. Hello. Hey. Good morning. I'm Nicole Radshaw. And as many of you know, up there, and maybe you don't know, out there, on Halloween of 2016, I was hit by a car sharing the lane on seminary road. So I was sharing a lane, a biker, and a 2000 pound car hit me. So I am here at every opportunity to advocate for a separated and protected bike lanes on Eisenhower. And so I bikes on Eisenhower here, but I biked from Holmes Run Trail, took a left and came east. And that trail needs winding and improvement, you know, there's bumpy, but I was on the trail, not in the road. I'm not gonna share the road there with cars. I never turned right on Eisenhower from Holmes Run Trail towards the Van Doren shops and businesses. There's no safe place for bikers to go. The one time I did, I was on the sidewalk, I got a flat. And I was planning a bike brewery tour for my birthday to go to Aslan Port City and Miyazah down there. But I got a flat, so we didn't go there. I didn't bring, I was planning it. So we didn't bring my crew of bikers and drinkers and we didn't get to spend our money. And I also don't bike down to upcycle or the restaurant outlet. And honestly, I don't drive there either. And so while this plan would help create an Alexandria bike brewery trail, you know, focused on the West End, more importantly, it would be connecting the West End neighborhoods to the East End. Folks who stay in the hotels, over by the metro, might be interested in heading west and shopping along the way through a safe and connected bike pedestrian trail. And folks who live, you know, we can we can make our infrastructure in Alexandria for people, you know, over by the eyes and our connector, they could walk or bike through there to get down to the, the van-dorn area. Slower cars are safer and space separated protected space for pedestrians and bikers are safer. And that's all I got for you today. Thank you so much. Please support the Eisenhower traffic plan that was approved by the traffic planning board. And thank staff for all the hard work and all your listening. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Bradshaw. Next, because Aissa Warren Brown followed by Sunny, Piaz Draught, Piaz Draff, I will be corrected on that, please. Hello. Thank you so much. I will be corrected on that, please. Hello. Hi. Thank you so much. I already sent a letter around this, and I imagine you've all read that. So I'll try to keep it brief here. I actually did attend a city-sponsored event to learn about eBikes about three years ago. In since then, I sold my car, and I used the eBike, and then we have one shared car that we use as a family now instead of having two cars. So actually I did switch from using a car to riding an e-bike every single day in our city. I actually have my e-bike situated for work outside. It's how I came down here to do a photo shoot before this meeting. I ride on Eisenhower constantly, oftentimes for six times a day after I got hit on Duke Street. I switched to using eyes and how we're exclusively. I'm lucky to live off of homes run trail so I can cut through in the back way. I go east all the time. I very rarely go west and I never go west with my kids because it is completely unsafe. The east section has problems. I did a survey of that with my daughter this summer. There are literally hundreds of ADA noncompliant trip hazards. We sent those to the parks department, and I'm working with them to try to get a grinding done to improve that, but to the west is much, much worse. I was riding at the other day, and I saw blind man walking in the street with his cane, because that was actually the safer option than trying to use the sidewalk over there, which was remarkable to me. I actually stopped and talked to him because I couldn't believe what I've seen. And at first he was defensive. He was expecting that I was going to yell at him. I assume because he's been yelled at by other people for being in the street, which is the only spot he can be right now. So I strongly support this plan. I think it will do a ton to improve things from multimodal users and especially for pedestrians and people with disabilities on the side. It has a strong history of support from the small area plan, the 2016 mobility plan. It also has support from the businesses on that section of Eisenhower and will do a lot to better connect them to the rest of our city, which I think will make that whole area just a lot nicer to use. I also look forward to that West End brewery tour. I will help lead it. So when all this is done, I'm glad to be there, connecting all the breweries over here in Old Town along the Eisenhower corridor with Port City and Aslin and everything to the West. So thank you so much, I appreciate your consideration. Thank you, Mr. O'Brien. Next speaker is Sunny Preetra Fessa, followed by Carl Winner. Luke, was it closed the last time? Sorry. I got almost there. My name is Sonny Piotr Fesa, and I'm here representing the Cameron's Station Civic Association. The association supports our neighbor's summer's growth and their valid concerns regarding traffic congestion, with the implementation of the current plan for Eisenhower Avenue. The association is and has always been very concerned about the severe traffic congestion on South Endorn Street. Indeed, the city's current analysis states that the quote intersection of Van Doren Street and Eisenhower Avenue is at capacity and consistently blocks upstream traffic. The city's traffic analysis earlier this year showed that the traffic congestion will be increased with the Vulcan bill out. Let me just give you an idea about the Vulcan bill out. There will be over 300 dwelling units, 256 hotel rooms, and a six-acre park. This will not only increase traffic in the area, but there are school buses, there are city buses, there are shuttle buses that serve the communities to the station, the metro station. So this has not taken into consideration, and I think it should be because we're trying to look forward to anticipate the needs of our city. There's also going to be a much higher density residential area there and there will be a need for crosswalks and for traffic lights or safe distances for people to be able to cross the street and get to where they need to go. We're very concerned about the current plans because we think they will cause more of a backup on the intersection from South Endorn to Eisenhower Avenue. Sometimes we lose a lane because people are trying to get into that left lane to take the turn on Eisenhower. Diverting the traffic to Metro, and I think my colleague, wherever she is, had a good point about the depth of the metro road. And there's really no room there for, let's say there is an accident, the road will be blocked. There's no sidewalk, no area where they would be able to pull over to deal with the accident. We think that it's also gonna cause a huge amount of traffic for summers grow and the people that live there. And it's thought there is going to be the exit and the entrance to Metro Road is just going to just make traffic more congested. The vendor bridge expansion is now what we need. We need the multimodal bridge that was required by the West End or by the Eisenhower Development Plan. And we don't think this is, we think that this is only not going to reduce traffic. It will increase traffic that's non-vehicular, but it's not going to decrease the traffic. It will only increase the congestion that occurs along the road. So we would ask that you defer passing this plan, the current plan, the city status plan, so that we can work with the city and surrounding communities to come some sensible way to lessen the traffic on South Endurance Street. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is Carl Leonard, followed by Ken notice, followed by Zach Day Jardin, followed by Kent Taylor, Charles Paul, Aaron Warnocky, and Mike Doyle, who's the final speaker on this item. I'd like to say that I'm in 100% concurrence with the representative from Summers Grove and from Cameron Station. I'm against these changes to Eisenhower in that area. But the area I want to discuss is, of course, the relocation of this left turn lanes through Metro Road and the Van Dorn Exchange. There are three things I wanna discuss. Any one of which I hope you'd pause to consider, but the combination of which I think could result in an unfortunate situation that perhaps the models that they're using in the count for. First I'm against the elimination of the left hand turn from Southbound Van Dorn onto Eisenhower. Given our growth as a city, it's best to retain the two paths of exit off of the congested southbound Van Dorn road on Eisenhower. Having the option to take the right or left hand lane to leave that congested area can be a lifesaver. If there are accidents, road worker, other obstructions that block one of those paths, being able to look ahead and choose an alternative makes a big difference in reducing the congestion on Van Dorn. And that's what we're trying to address here. If we remove the left-hurt, left-turn lane at that light, how is convining two exit options to just one single hairpin turn punctuated by multiple stoplights supposed to reduce congestion? If anything, it's going to slow things down, because drivers are fighting across a dense traffic just to get the right lane to exit the bridge. And once there, that single lane is going to back up and overflow right back on the van door and again, creating congestion. I'm telling you, that turn, they brought it up. It's not ready for rush hour density traffic. But before you decide, I invite you to actually take that turn, it's very narrow, confining shock turn, any accident, any breakdown will block that road solid, and there's no room for passing or emergency vehicle access. So please don't remove that van-dorn left-hand turn exit on the Eisenhower. That's item one. But let's say they go through with this. The second thing I want to talk about is the townhouse community of Summers Grove is 190 units there, but notices unusual configuration. The whole community depends on only two entrance exits and entryways that terminate on the same side of the complex, kind of like a capital C. The two entrance exits are only 200 feet apart and on the same road, metro road. So the same road they're trying to funnel all of this exiting van Dorn traffic on to is going to block those residents. The single lane around that hairpin ends up directly at that entrance and it's going to impact the entire community. They're going to significantly impair their ability to begin in and out of that property. And those residents forced efforts to try to get out. It's probably going to increase the likelihood of accidents and congestion at that spot. But if those two concerns aren't enough, my third and final concern is, hey, there's an ethanol offloading facility that happens to be at the exact same location. Trains fill up the tanker trucks of flammable ethanol fuel, which are diverted out of that location and distributed to parts of the known. The site has had fires, it's had spills, and the city saw fit to build a fire station just two blocks away with the chemical handling capabilities to address ethanol. But this proposed plan thinks it's a good idea to mix the tanker trucks, neighborhood traffic, city buses, and delivery vans all in the same row. So again, in conclusion, the proposed plan eliminates driver's choices, reduces the number of lanes while concentrating rush hour traffic. Thank you. Thank you. I just think it's a bad decision. Thank you. Please help. You'll take this in a consent. I'm expired. Thank you. Next speaker is Ken Notis followed by Zach Dijardin, followed by Kent Taylor. Hello. So I've lately been making a lot of donations to Upcycle. By bicycle, it is absolutely frightening to ride on Eisenhower on that section. It looks like it's frightening to walk. I do occasionally see a jogger there. And you're gonna hear something. You seldom hear from me. Parking in the area is inadequate. And I've heard that from businesses at the Traffin Park and Board meeting. There were people who go to sports rock and saying, you know, they have to walk across that very awful street to get there because there is not enough parking at those businesses on the south side. So yeah, parking there is actually a benefit as well as the improvements to Vandorn Street. This is a classic both-and. This will help walkers. It will help bicyclists, but it will also help motor vehicle traffic and help parking. People asking for both and, that's what this is. I want to specifically address North George Mason. I have a doctorate VHC, I have bicycled up North George Mason. It is a terrible place to bicycle. Sharrows do nothing for cyclist safety. It looks like it's also a bad place to cross the street. As far as I know, the only reason Arlington has not done a road diet there is because the traffic volumes are much higher than they are in Eisenhower or in the many other places where Arlington has done road diets. They also do road diets wherever they possibly can. In fact, in some cases, more aggressively than we do, that's largely a matter that they have more staff, but that's another issue. So I heartily recommend approval of the staff plan, which was supported very strongly by traffic and parking board. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Notice. Next speaker is Zach D. Jardin, followed by Kent Taylor, followed by Charles Paul. Good morning, Jonathan. I'm so cute to be a a Singaporean work on this project and listening to residents. I strongly support staff's recommendation to put on eyes and how we're having to want to road diet. This is a great well thought out product. I've written my bike on eyes and how we're having to do quite a bit as my friend her win lives in the exchange condos. We read a tandem bicycle together as he's visual impaired. I've written my bike on Eisenhower. I've read quite a bit as my friend or wind lives in the exchange of condos. We read a tandem bicycle together as he's visual impaired. Eisenhower revenues the worst part of our rides as we have to show the ride 40 mile an hour plus traffic. I'm constantly listening and looking to wonder whether it's also loaded down and go around or not. Well, we could run in the sidewalk. It's not in great ship. You know, we'd be in the bull to drivers turning in and out. Safety is an issue as I won't end there with my toddler, which is unfortunate as we'd like to visit some of the shops as well as my friend. Not only was the traffic and parking and the unanimous in their support of this project, all 16 of the speakers at the the shellage and parking board meeting were to, no one spoke against the project. If you read the voluminous written fee of that was provided to the trafficking and bargain board, 26 people were organization supported the project. No one trafficking and bargaining board hearing opposed the project, no one wrote in against it. If people were willingly opposed, why didn't I show up? Why did I write in? Just briefly, the sense of what can be here today is that an international trap long cup to just want to share a little bit about how he uses eyes and our nose of blind person. He uses a white cane to walk to the mandor metronauts to get to his job. The side walks narrow and occasionally went head so many obstacles in it. He walks in the street. And he's also a aspiring per athlete. He often runs a long street too. Compliening this section of the home trim and trail would also improve our ability to get to Fairfax County. One of the few travel points by the Claremont connection. Lastly, our two-them fiscal master plan makes Eisenhower an average of 18th-ath-96 projects and proposals and enhanced bicycle quarter. This project is a great opportunity to fulfill that vision and to our least save streets into one of our safest. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Dajar Dinn. Oops. I'm going to get it up on the wrong side there. All right. Next speaker is Kent Taylor, followed by Charles Paul, followed by Aaron Warnocky, followed by Mike Doyle, and then we also had RJ here in 10, and he's the final speaker. So Mr. Taylor. Good morning, Mayor, council members, and distinguished yes here in the audience. I am a recent resident of Summers Grove. I just moved there a couple of weeks ago. Okay. Thank you. I do like Alexandria. I am an occasional bicyclist and pedestrian. I currently work as a safety manager. I have 16 years experience in safety management. I currently work on the Washington Navy Yard, where they're adamantly enforcing the bicycle lanes. One thing I've noticed about when this lane reduction or the Washington Navy Yard, where they're adamantly enforcing the bicycle lanes. One thing I've noticed about with this lane reduction or the road diet as they call the buzzword, traffic and emergency vehicles cannot get through, because they have nowhere to go. The vehicles who are stopped at the multiple traffic lights they're on the M Street going up to 11th, blocking the road oncoming accidents happen because emergency vehicles have to go into oncoming traffic in order to get past that intersection at M and 11th. So as a resident now mayor I know you mentioned that you're not good at math. I'm not so good at math either but I'm gonna throw you some math numbers here The intersection route that they're talking about Metro Road is actually 2,136 feet long from their intersection on Van Dorn to the intersection on Eisenhower. An average car is 14.7 feet. So that means 145 cars. Bumper to bumper will fit on Metro Road. That's not counting the 39 feet average bus length or the 72 foot average semi-length that vehicles travel up and down that road. And the numerous number of vehicles from FedEx and others that are counting that. So if you think that routing through Metro Road is going to save time, it won't, because there's going to be traffic. And let's talk about people who violate the law. I have seen, even yesterday, people who pull into the intersection and stop in the intersection, I'm sure you've all seen it. They run the red lights, they pull through the intersection. There's very little, if any, traffic enforcement for the current laws that we have. So rerouting traffic means people are going to be pulling into Metro Lane or Metro Road and blocking that intersection. A single lane of traffic on Eisenhower is going to double the length of cars trying to get through. Now, if we have 15,000 cars on Eisenhower per day, estimated that 80% of those run through during rush hour traffic, that means approximately 1,714 cars per hour over 3.5 hour period for the morning hour rush. There are numbers, I don't know where they came up with 300, but if you do the math of what a number of cars and number of length length vehicles are, it doesn't work out that way. People are not going to be able to get in and out of Metro Wade, the ones of us who live at Summers Grove. And they're also talking about putting a bicycle lane on the north side of Eisenhower. That means they have to cross Metro Lane and that intersection. So what bicycle and what pedestrian is going to be safe when all that traffic is crossing through that intersection? Thank you Mr. Taylor. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Next speaker is Charles Paul, followed by Aaron Warnke, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by RJ Herrington. Do we have Charles Paul? He's online and just needs to unmute. Paul, you need unmute. Hello, is this Gunther? Yep, we can hear you. Perfect. Hello, my name is Charles Paul. I'm an Allen Santerly resident and homeowner. I'm here to speak in favor of the traffic and parking boards recommendation. I live in the Carlisle District and walk to take Metro Meryl from the Nearby King Street station every day. I feel comfortable doing this because we have wide sidewalks design streets that encourage safe driving in the Carlyle neighborhood. This isn't this case everywhere, even within my neighborhood walk. There is a section in Holland Lane, which feels extremely unsafe to walk along as people drive very fast. I understand traffic and parking board has also approved changes to the Holland Lane which I strongly support. Feeling unsafe like this is backed up by data. Studies have shown that road design decides how drivers behave and driving behavior influences road mortality. TES knows this, traffic and parking understands this, you all understand this. You're everyone in this conversation is more well-read than me on this issue, but I wanna raise it because it reinforces the point that we can make changes to driver behavior and we can make changes to street safety by making these structural changes. Some of the other speakers have had good points about traffic enforcement being a difficult issue and one of the best things we can do to enforce street safety when we don't have enough traffic enforcement availability or capacity is to design the roads in a safer manner. I strongly support the efforts on Eisenhower Avenue on Hall and Lane and the other things. You know that I didn't say that I talked about my experiences of pedestrian and I was a bicyclist. I don't cycle in Alexandria very much because I don't feel safe doing so. When my work flies me out to California, I cycle around all the time every day. I love doing it because they have separated bike lanes, bike lanes where I feel safe, and I look forward to the possibility of feeling the same way and having the same experience in my beloved home city of Alexandria. Thank you all very much for your time. Have a good day. Thank you, very much for your time. Have a good day. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Paul. Next speaker is Aaron Warnakee, followed by Mike Doyle, followed by RJ Harrington, is the final speaker on this item. Good morning, my name is Aaron Warnakee, and I am in favor of the protected byg lanes and rogue diet on Eisenhower Avenue. I know that it is quite a terrifying experience to have to share the road with an impatient SUV driver. It's the reason why I am in favor of the protected by lanes. And it will also serve as a useful extension to the home's run trail. So I also personally reviewed the line drawings that the staff presented online. And I'd actually ask if you could implement protected intersections for bikes and scooters. So you might notice the intersections they are protected. So if you're on a bike going east or west on Eisenhower and you wanna make a left turn or a right turn, you know, trying to do that is very difficult. So I just ask that the staff considers implementing protected intersections for bikes and scooters. And that concludes my portion. Thank you, thank you, Mr. Warnock. We appreciate your comments. Next speaker is Mike Doyle, followed by RJ Herringt. My name's Mike Doyle. I'm the founder of Alexander of Families for Safe Streets, as well as the other chapters in Fairfax and Arlington. As I said before, we have about 1,000 people on our mailing list on behalf of our board of in the Alexandria families for safe streets we unanimously support the traffic and parking board recommendations on Eisenhower because they improve safety for multiple road users. As part of the Arlington board, we take exception that the George Mason drive with the shared bike lanes is the ideal. It is not the ideal proposal. We have an opportunity to do something here to make it ideal. Our perfect is not, I mean, better. That's not ideal. It's not perfect, but it's better. So we unanimously support the traffic and parking board recommendation on this, as well as you, we unanimously supported the Duke Street side road that we talked about earlier today. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Doyle. Next speaker is RJ Harrington. There's a final speaker on this item. Good morning. I'm a resident of Somersgrove neighborhood at the west end of Eisenhower where it meets South Endorn. Let me start by saying that I agree with the much needed improvements along the Eisenhower corridor. However, my concern mainly takes issue with the removal of the two left turn lanes at the Eisenhower Vandorn intersection, enforcing all that traffic on the Metro Road. Using the pipeline, using the Project Pipeline report, NV23-07, city of Alexandria, and the traffic data that was collected on 7 June, 2023, during the peak hours, below are a few of the concerns that I have to address on my three minutes. According to that data, the Westbound Eisenhower left-hand turn lane had 186 left-turned-ing vehicles in the AM peak period and 234 vehicles in the PM peak period. While the right turn lanes have approximately 700 vehicles in the AM and PM peak periods. The complete street program manager says there is a significant amount of time dedicated to this left turn lane and its removal will dramatically improve congestion. It is unclear how removing the left turn lane and routing it onto Metro Road will improve this intersection because the data shows the traffic on westbound Eisenhower is not from the left turning vehicles but from the right turning vehicles. Neither the project pipeline report or the transportation studies show how the traffic lights are currently operating, whether it is inductive loop infrared sensors, cameras or if they aren't synced with nearby signals. Nor does the study show how the lights will be modified with the rerouting of metro road traffic that can demonstrate an actual improvement to this intersection. Any purported significant time is just being relocated to the new light on Vandorn, and that same southbound traffic will still have to wait with no improvements to congestion. Additionally, the south Vandorn light will most likely put more of a burden on the Vandorn and Southpicket intersection, and this increased congestion has not been addressed. Other issues that I don't have time to address are as follows. There are alternatives to removing the left turn lane from South Vandorn to Eisenhower. There are opportunities to improve the signage, so more drivers are aware that Metro Road as an alternate route to Eastbound Eisenhower while still keeping the left-hand turn lane. The public survey could be in favor of changes because most respondents won't be affected by the Metro Road traffic increase. As it stands now, summer Grove residents struggle to make a left-hand turn out of our northern neighborhood exit. This is mainly due to the many vehicles that speed on Metro Road heading towards Eisenhower. Adding all the left turn vehicles onto Metro Road will make it virtually impossible to exit our community from this northern exit. There has been no mention in any study on the impact of entry and exit of the 191 homes in Summers Grove neighborhood. Please reconsider the approval of the Eisenhower and Vandorn intersection conceptual design, specifically around summer's grove, until the traffic and environmental services can visually demonstrate how this reroute can improve congestion and increase safety with minimal impacts on summer's growth's ability to utilize our exits. Thank you. What's visually demonstrate mean? So I believe Councilman Aguirre asked last Tuesday for them to demonstrate that when this light goes green what is red? It isn't isn't that the isn't that the study and all the data and the modeling that they've done. I'm trying to understand what a visually demonstrate means. You want to know pilot? You want to animate an animated diagram of the intersection showing, here's the traffic during the peak hours. When this light goes green, this traffic is held, so this traffic can clear. They have a distance to that because if you take the left hand turn lane and you make everybody go on Metro Road to merge with the Southbound Vandorn. Mr. Mayor. The significant time isn't saved with the southbound vandorn. Mr. Mayor. The significant time isn't saved because the southbound vandorn still has to stop. They're going to stop for the through traffic to Farrington and they're going to stop again to let Metro Road merge. It's another stopping twice instead of once. Okay. Councilman McGarry. So I was not asking for an animation what I was asking for was just an explanation specifically at the intersection of Van Dorn and Eisenhower and why by eliminating the left turn, we actually facilitate a smoother transition of the right turn onto Northbound Eisen Van Dorn. As the gentleman said, he didn't see why if the majority of the traffic is making right turns on to Van Dorn, how eliminating the left turn helps that. That's exactly why. That's what I wanted staff to elaborate on to show why that is actually the case that it will facilitate that. All right. Thank you, Mr. Rang. Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Motion by Vice Mayor Jackson, seconded by Council Member Bagley to close the public hearing. Further discussion and closing the public hearing? Hearing none. All those in favor, please ignore your saying aye. All opposed. Aye. The public hearing is closed. We'll now go to questions of our staff. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Could we go back to the cross section, aside? Thank you. And these are facing west. Correct. So Thursday night, I had the opportunity to attend the Alexandria Beautification Awards, which if folks haven't gone, you absolutely should. It's a wonderful commission of our city that awards and recognizes beautiful architecture of all types and sizes throughout Alexandria. And because it was at the Garden ALX along the Eisenhower, which is 3.2 miles from my house, and the weather was absolutely beautiful, I decided to take my bike, which I normally wouldn't do. I normally would take my bike, which I normally wouldn't do. I normally would take my bike down Jordan Street, down Holmes Road Trail, two eyes and how are, I'll turn left to go to Old Town, instead of turning right to go to places along the western part of the street, because it is terrifying. And as I was riding my bike west, along Eisenhower, I was going about 20, 25 miles per hour, and the traffic was zipping past me at a point that I had to get off the street at certain points and wait for traffic to pass by because it was so risky and so dangerous to be out there riding my bike. Even though I had a helmet, not to have a helmet. And going back, it was dark and similarly fast, and I was very happy when I got to home join trail. I was able to head north in that protected infrastructure. How would a Cheryl change my experience on that road if I was biking along it? Not by much. Sheros are really only appropriate for very low volume roads, where there isn't that pressure from high volumes of traffic and high speed traffic. They primarily serve to connect disparate bicycle facilities. So if there are two bike lanes that don't connect and maybe there's a short on-street connection that needs to be made on a lower volume street. Sharrows can be appropriate there. They can help provide wayfinding, but aside from providing safety benefits, they do not do that on a high volume road. As Council Member Bagley mentioned during our conversations regarding Bradley shopping center a couple of weeks ago, Sheros aren't infrastructure. They're basically signage. And we already have speeding along Eisenhower road. We have people cars going beyond the speed limit. Yes. We have signs indicating the speed limit. Yes. So people are already ignoring signage and driving unsafely along this road, despite the fact that we have signage up on speed limits. Yes. And as you said, basically, Sheros are our bicycle infrastructure of last resort. Correct. And I think it's really important, as we look at this, we're not getting to the full build out plan, the smaller a plan, which was debated and discussed with the community and went through a number of processes before being approved many years ago. Designed anticipates here, but we are getting closer to it with a proposal that you have here. Correct, but it does not preclude it. Does not preclude it, right? In fact, it kind of gets us halfway there and you're just sort of shifting a couple of elements to get to that smaller airplane, when more funds become available. Correct. And is funding the reason that we're going for this modified plan as opposed to the full smaller area plan build out? Yes and no. So the primary reason is that the development has not occurred along the corridor if the pace anticipated in the small area plan. So currently there isn't a demand for as much parking as the small area plan recommends and for the frequency of transit. And we do not have the physical space for the proposed multi-use trail that is currently private property. So we need to get that as sort of a concession from developers as they re-know. Correct. Yeah. Throughout the city we basically have rows that relate out across decades in patterns that were only thought about the needs of drivers and cars. And now we're trying to go back and retrofit a bike network into it. Yes. And sometimes we have to make modifications and choose between safety for pedestrians and biking and just the sheer number of travel lanes we can have for cars. Yes. And if I was writing to the beautification awards of the Garden ALX in a few years and this plan had been implemented, how would my experience biking west be different? Your level of traffic stress would be significantly reduced. It's generally influenced by volume, by speed and by the type of facility available. So you'd have your own dedicated space and wouldn't have to worry about really interacting with vehicles except at intersections. And I appreciate that because it was actually quite fraught to travel the other day. And looking at this, I wouldn't be relying upon the goodwill or the observational skills of the people sharing the road in front of me to have my safety. I would actually have barriers and infrastructure separating me not just signage. Right. Safe driving would be reinforced by the design. Right. And as a benefit, those drivers wouldn't have me going 20 miles per hour in front of them in a lane where they can drive 25. Right. OK. Well, I really appreciate the thought that you put into coming up with a solution that gets us closer to the end goal of the Small Area Plan here, but gives us a lot of the benefits of it. As we develop this corridor, we want people to move to this corridor knowing that they're moving to an area where biking and pedestrian access have been taken seriously seriously where they can buy a rent, a home there, even if they don't have enough cars for their family, and they do rely on an e-bike, do rely on pedestrian infrastructure. And when this is done, this is gonna be a corridor that connects the vandour metro station all the way down into Old Town, correct? Correct. So it's gonna be an incredible east-west connectivity on bikes, pedestrian and for cars and buses. Correct. Well, I appreciate your support. I know that my college probably have questions about other elements at the plan, but I did wanna have that recent experience discuss the bike safety improvements here because I do think that they are much needed in this area. Okay, thank you Councilman Gaskins, then Vice Mayor Jackson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, staff, and thank you to everyone who provided comments today. I did want to just, I know sometimes that we hear, well, you guys don't live here. You don't live around these roads. So while I recognize my experience will never be the same as those who live in Summers Grove, I did wanna share, I live very close to here. I am a Cameron station resident. So we've heard Picket, we've heard Eisenhower, we've heard Van Dorn, these are my streets every single day. And a kid goes to daycare on picket. So I literally take that twice a day. Most of our doctor's appointments, Walmart, everything is in King's Town. So I hate being stuck in traffic at the intersection of indoor and in picket. I used to take Metro Road every day on the careman station shuttle to get back and forth to the Metro. Now I take it regularly to get to Scramble because it's the lifesaver that we use to keep my kids busy as well as co-working at the garden and other things. So I take the cut around Metro Road when I don't want to sit at the light. I'm stuck in traffic with you, so I just wanted to share that I am thinking about this not only from the perspectives that you have shared, but also I probably sit in traffic or sit on these roads more than many who don't live as close to these intersections. I had a couple of questions. Some just kind of clarifying what I heard from the speakers and also what was in the staff presentation. So I wanted to start there. In the documents that we received from this Harrington and the neighbors of Summers Grove, the first recommendation was that the council should delay until the V. Study and report has been completed. But when staff started off their presentation, they mentioned that the V. Study has already occurred. I just wanna make sure we're all on the same page and talking about the same studies. So can you just start with what has been V. Role in this project, what has been completed to date, and is there anything outstanding that we are weeding at this moment on? Thank you for that question, Councilwoman. So V.O.T.R.R. roll in this project has been essentially providing technical assistance to the city. They have a program, project pipeline program, where they provide technical assistance for various projects around the state. And they tend to prioritize corridors that they also see as priorities so that are not just local priorities. Eisenhower was selected in collaboration between the city and V.OT because it is a priority for us, but it is also a top priority corridor for safety for V.OT. So their role was they have a traffic consultant who performs these studies. They provided the consultant to us to complete the study. So when we talk about the V.studies, there's one study that happened as part of this project and that started in summer of last year and concluded in summer of this year. So we're not waiting on any additional information. The study has been completed. They've delivered the analysis results. They supported us with the grant application. There is nothing else that we are waiting on at this time. Okay. Thank you. The other question I had, I think in those documents and also in a few of the letters we received were comments about the city's budget and what is being allocated to this project. Can you speak to how is this being financed? Yes, so the project pipeline program, V.Funds the entire process. So we have not dedicated any funds to this project to date. It has all been funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation for the future design and construction of this project to date. It has all been funded by the Virginia Department of Transportation for the future design and construction of this project. We applied for Smart Scale funds, which does not require a local match so that would also be fully funded by the state. We also applied for a safe streets and roads for all. Federal grants to implement the remaining treatments for the rest of the corridor all the way to homes run trail that does require a 20% local match which I believe was matched by NBTA funds. So again, not really local city funds. Now we will be dedicating local funds to design improvements on Metro Road. So that is being repaved. So any additional treatments that are implemented as part of that project would be funded out of our local CIP budget. Can you, that's really helpful. Just kind of, I think sticking with the financing for a little bit, can you explain more of the process? Like, why have those grants already been applied for? And if we don't get them, then then what happens? So, with grants, they operate on a very, very strict timeline. Smart scale grants were due in August of this year. We get opportunities to apply for Smart scale grants every two years. And when we apply, we are applying for funds six years from now. So every year or two that we wait, the longer we delay the implementation of these improvements and the more expensive they will be. And so we work very hard to try to coordinate our public outreach components of the project alongside points where decisions are being made, alongside grant application deadlines. We did have the traffic and parking board public hearing in July where the concept was approved and then we submitted our full application in August. So that is how we have tried to coordinate the safety streets and roads for all application was also do around the same time. And if we don't, if we don't move forward with these designs, we would end up having to rescind our applications to those programs. And that can make us competitive for grants going forward. The other question I had was related. There were a couple comments from the speakers about development in the area And I think we know some things have been approved already some things, you know are in the small area plan or things that are proposed Can you just talk about how Plan developments or proposed developments are factored into traffic analysis? Sure, Ryan Knight with the transposition engineering division. So with any traffic analysis we So, what are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? What are the future conditions that we're going to be doing? year would be or a year analysis would be, but we gather information from development, nearby developments, and what the trip generation they bring to the network, and also future population growth. And then also we utilize, if it's a far ahead, future year, we use the M-Cog model. The M-Cog model takes different small area plans from different jurisdictions and then puts it in a big model and then it shoots out what we think the network would behave in how many vehicles and how many volumes are on the network. So with all that being said, with this, the pipeline study, the M-Cog model was used. So any development within the area that was part of the M-Cog model, and also that was pointed out from the city to V-dot to say the model should include this, then it was included. So, Vulcan site was included. And again, with the big overarching M-Cog model, all the other major developments were included as well. So in some cases, even developments that have not been approved thought of are still factored in and might even be factoring in additional population that we might not even see or potentially be expected. As long as it was approved in a small area plan, then yes, it would be within the MCAR model. I guess another question related to that. I want to sit with how we measure road capacity for a little bit. And it's been a while since I've sat in a traffic planning class. But I remember very complex formulas that were much more detailed than just the length of the road and the size of the car Can you just talk a little bit about how that process works? What are all the factors we're looking at in capacity? And also kind of what that means in this case where as people talked about there are multiple types of vehicles using this road from delivery trucks to shuttles to the Transverse like all of that. How are we actually factoring in that planning? Yeah, so as you noted, it's very complicated, so I'll try to simplify it a little bit. But there's a number of factors that go into road capacity. It could be, like you said, the number of lanes, the length of the road, the volume of the road, and then also different factors like the gaps that we anticipate within between the cars and things of that nature. So with all that said, we typically look at the peak hour for capacity within the road. And then within that peak hour, we say, OK, this is probably the peak of the peak of which we would anticipate the number of cars using the roadway. So it doesn't mean that within that peak, it doesn't mean that there's 1,000, and I'll use an example, 1,000 vehicles within the peak hour. It doesn't mean that there's a thousand, I'll use an example, a thousand vehicles within the peak hour. It doesn't mean that's every hour. It just means that's the peak of the peak within that time slot. So every other hour would be reduced and that is far less than the capacity that we are measuring from. So the capacity that we're measuring from is the peak hour, and we are assuming that it is solely for the peak hour, and it's the peak of the peak and not throughout the rest of the time. What time are we looking at for peak hours, and how do those times overlap with the transfer stations hours, which I think are like one to two, I mean, one a.m. to what's the overlap between the peak and their operations? Yeah, so with any traffic analysis, we start off with peak periods. What we know to be true as to when most people are using the roads. So that's a window within, you know, in the A.M. peak period, the window between seven to 10 or six to nine sometimes, it kind of fluctuates depending on the roadway. And then in the PM, it's around 4 to 7 or 5 to 8. So that's kind of the peak period that we play with or that we kind of start off with. And then we kind of narrow it down based off of the data that we collect. So within this general area, the peak hour for both Eisenhower and Van Doren were within the 730 to 830 timeframe in the morning and then in the afternoon around the 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock timeframe in the afternoon. Well, we know from the operation of the transfer center and any of those industrial areas, is that majority of their trips are taken within the off peak hours. So there are not a lot of trips coming out of that, those access points during the peak hour sessions. Imagine that's for safety reasons and other things we do to coordinate with them. I had two more questions. I brought this up when we were talking about the Vulcan site, which is the multimodal bridge. I know my neighbors that this is something that we've been talking about advocating for for a really long time. What is the status of planning for that bridge and would any of these improvements prevent that from being implemented in the future? Thanks for the question, Hillary or Deputy Director for Transportation. The right now there is no funding for the multi-metal bridge. It is still on the books in our long-range plans, but nothing that this project is doing would preclude that from happening in the future. However, what we are seeing with this project is the traffic benefits that we do get from this project, potentially help push out the need for the multimodal bridge because we are seeing such improvements along Vandorn Street. And there's also a number of other projects that we're doing on Vandorn Street to help traffic flow. And in thinking about kind of the cost of this project versus the multi-modal bridge, we want to utilize our existing facilities first to see if we do still need that. But right now, the multi-modal bridge is still within the Eisenhower West Mall area plan. There was, I think there was an earlier comment by one of the speakers, like why couldn't we just take this money or these grants and start applying for the funding we need for the multimodal bridge? So the funding for these grants are very specific to these projects. And most of our grants are evaluated based on a cost benefit. So the funding for the multimodal bridge is potentially 10 times more than the funding we're looking for for this project. And we actually have had conversations previously about different types of funding for the multi-modal bridge and what we have heard from the funders is that at the current rate, they would not be very competitive because of the high cost of the bridge versus the benefit of that it is bringing to the community in terms of traffic. And then there were a number of concerns mentioned by the neighbors. I know some of you talked about their tools and the toolbox to address those. One thing that I didn't see a tool for was related to noise. I'm just wondering if you could specifically talk to like what options would we have to reduce no noise impact? And are there resources available to do that? I can start and then I'll pitch it over to Ryan because I'm sure he has a piece of this to add. So in terms of roadway design itself, you know, if we re-evaluate what Metro Road looks like in coordination with the community on this, we could potentially push the travel lanes further away from the summer's growth neighborhood to create more of a buffer space between moving traffic and the neighborhood. In a temporary fashion that might look like pavement markings, but in a longer term fashion if we were to build that out that could be an opportunity to build like a grassy buffer and stalled trees along the corridor as well. And then I'll pitch it over to Ryan for the other point he was going to make. Yeah, and there are those options that we could do, but just want to kind of point out as well that I did talk to our noise and air quality team within tests. And they didn't foresee an issue with noise with the additional, as well as more, a looting to the fact that the existing conditions, whether that it's adjacent to Eisenhower, whether it's adjacent to Vandorn, whether it's adjacent to all these industrial facilities and adjacent to the metro station, with all those components, you wouldn't see a noticeable difference for the added trips within the metro Metro station or on Metro Road. No, I hear you and I hear with the data saying, I do want to be mindful that we are talking about much more number of cars. And so whether that's people honking or whatever that looks like, I think there's still, it may not be a measurable difference, but I would feel as a resident there that you probably do notice and it experience that. Okay, thank you. That's all I have for you now. Thank you, Councilwoman Gaskins. Vice Mayor Jackson, Councilman Chapman, Councilmember Bagley. Thank you. With the estimated number of cars creating congestion if this sort of move forward. How has our city staff, M. Cog, met with our emergency personnel here in Alexandria to tell us what they think? Thank you, Vice Mayor Jackson. That's a great question. We work with our emergency responders throughout conceptual design plans to make sure we're hearing their input early. We actually received a letter of support from the Alexandria Fire Department and the Alexandria Police Department. I think it's a bit of a common misconception that road diets impact emergency services. What really benefits emergency responders is having the center turn lane that they can use to bypass any vehicles that are in the through lanes. And this project includes that. So both agencies were supportive. Isn't there a median down Van Doren? So specifically speaking about Eisenhower Avenue. OK, so what about Van Doren? So Van Doren is essentially going to remain unchanged, except for the removal of that left-turn lane. Right, but that's where a lot of congestion will happen. Right, and so what we're showing in our traffic model is that congestion on Vandorn is going to increase, excuse me, because of this project, so emergency responders would be able the first time we've been able to do that. And I think that's a great reason to be able to do that. And I think that's a great reason to be able to do that. And I think that's a great reason to do that. And I think that's a great reason to do that. And I think that's a great reason to do that. And I think that's a great reason to do that. And I think that's a great reason to that could be used by emergency services to bypass any traffic as needed, because otherwise it's just empty space. Okay, and we've taken into consideration that Vandorn is basically, you know, 395 except through our city. So we're already congested on Vandorn, and this will increase that. No, it will not increase congestion on Vandorn. So emergency vehicles will be able to get through congestion on Vandorn. They will be able to get through Vandorn similar to or better than today. Okay, so you would replace the median? Vandorn? Is that what you had? Oh. No, sorry, the median is not changing. The left turn lane is going away. And so that space that's currently dedicated. The left turn lane is going away. And so that space that's currently dedicated to the left turn lane could be used for multiple purposes. It could be built out as a median. It could also just be striped out to just have pavement markings saying that no one else is allowed to drive here, but emergency services could use it if needed to bypass traffic. Okay, so we are thinking about implementing another part of this plan so that in case there is congestion We need something another lane for emergency vehicles to get through. That's always something we're planning for with the fire department and with police With any project. Okay, but that was an initial part of this plan until I asked the question No, we have been coordinating with I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. And then in terms of, and I apologize if you've already, if this has been asked and answered, I asked previously about Green Hill and the partnership. Have you come back with any information concerning their thoughts on this? Yes, so the Green Hill development, I believe the question was asked at the legislative meeting, whether that was part of the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan or the landmark plan. So there's two Green Hill developments. There's Green Hill South, which is part of the Eisenhower West Small Area Plan and then there's Green Hill North, which is part of the landmark plan. But regardless, as Ryan had mentioned before, all approved developments in small area plans, approved uses are fed into that regional model, which then gives us an idea of future growth in the area based on those approved uses, and that future volume from that model was used in this project. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Vice-MagEx Jackson councilman Chapman Wanted to start kind of with the Reasoning behind the 200 parking spaces on Eisenhower Thank you councilman Yes, so Looking at the so I guess we have the cross sections pulled up so looking at the future plan cross section for Eisenhower Avenue does include, it's not as clear on this slide, but it does include that curb side transit slash off peak parking lane on both sides of the street. Right now there isn't demand for that much parking, but we did hear comments from businesses and through the Eisenhower Partnership that there is parking demand here, particularly on private uses, where there are lots of very small and people end up having to park elsewhere to get to those destinations. So they were very interested in seeing additional parking. I will be clear there isn't demand for 200 parking spaces, but we're also in a position where we're trying to determine how that space is used, because that's just space that can be used for a variety of things. So it could be parking. There could also be locations where we have curb extensions to make pedestrian crossing safer. There could be bus bulbs to make transit more efficient. They could also be used for dedicated turn lanes at particular intersections that may need it. So it was the traffic of parking board approved, not 200 parking spaces, but up to 200 parking spaces. And what you said, if I remember correctly, we said in the long term recommendations, we do have parking on the Eisenhower, is that correct? Yes, it is off-peak parking on both sides, similar to Washington Street. I wanted to, I think, my concern with looking at parking at this point is, I certainly understand the concerns of the private businesses, but, you know, in looking at one of the staff reports from, I think, the latest one that we approved in that area, actually back in 2019. In looking at the planning or the staff recommendations on that, I think there was, and we probably had some discussion within the council meeting kind of the idea that parking frankly would not be the issue. And so, you know, I don't know if we were just totally wrong on that and totally wrong on the various businesses that we put there. But I'm not super excited to try to put parking on Eisenhower at this point, even in response to that, because we've said as we approved each of these businesses that they were to share what they had, and that was really it. We weren't going to allow for additional opportunities elsewhere. We weren't going to try to make them do offside parking and whatnot. And so I'm not necessarily excited about the idea of putting parking at this point. And I wasn't excited about it in the long-term design of the corridor. I think for me, I've tried to be pretty standard on this. I think we do have a number of arteries within the city. And I think in trying to get people east to west, which has historically been a concern in the city, trying to shrinking those artilier roads is an issue. And I think, and again, this is for everybody's purposes. This is obviously not the small area plan discussion, but I do think in looking at future development, we probably need to look at our conversations with developers to look at some exchange of property or land to to make it multimodal because I don't think necessarily shrinking our our children's roads is necessarily the way they go, especially if we know And hope that there's going to be redevelopment along the corridor. There may be redevelopment at something like Victory Center. So it might be we've also had recent discussions with folks at Restaurant Depot and probably could have had a conversation about them about some of their roadway and right of way as well. So that's one of my issues. I'm not necessarily excited about that. I will say I did have a question on something's come up in terms of kind of I want to understand Stasphilosophy around redundancies. I think it was brought up. You know, what happens if, you know, right now, people can use Metro Road to get to that part of Eisenhower right now. But they can also use the left hand turn. And it's talking to me about the value of redundancies, whether it's in this project or other projects that we have. Yes, thank you. Redundancy is very important. I think Councilwoman Gaskins be in that transportation planning class talked a lot about network porosity and network density and intersection density and all of these things that make it very easy to get around because if one option is not available, you can use another option. So that is important and that is something that we are continually striving for. Many of our small area plans including this one proposed introducing additional streets. So parallel streets to be able to provide people other ways to get around so that they're not funneling all onto the same street. That being said, sorry, I just lost my train. That being said, we do feel like this is going to help the situation. Conjection is the biggest issue at this intersection. And so we are seeing that by relocating those turns that we are seeing a congestion benefit there. locating those turns that we are seeing a congestion benefit there and then additional street network development through redevelopment through the implementation of the small area plan would only further that. Sorry, one other question. Now I've lost my trade. It's contagious. Come back to me. I'm sorry. I can't remember. Bagley and Councilman McGuery, then we'll come back to Councilman Chapman. It means, remember. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate actually the thoroughness with which so many of my colleagues. I've been actually checking off my own list of questions. So I won't go back over some of them. But I did, I think it's important because we've had public speakers and we've had lots of journalism on this point. I do want to ask it again, even though it was asked. Did the Alexandria Fire Department and the Alexandria Police Department sign off on these concepts? Yes. Thank you. The, This is awkward, but many times today you guys have answered questions by saying we feel that. We don't think that. And what I'd like to do is actually take a minute to separate out what you're actually saying when Alexandria Carroll head of our safestries program says we feel, or when Ryan and I, you know, transportation planner says, you know, I don't believe that that's what's going to happen. What I'm, what I hear is no offense, not what Ryan Knight thinks. What I hear is what I assume is report studies, methods, certifications, training, education. And so, because I think my colleagues have done a really nice job sort of poking at I think the specifics of this project, I think it would be valuable for the community because like you did it just then, Alex and I don't mean to pick on you but you said we don't feel that's what's that you know that the lack of redundancy here is a problem. What I'd like to do is just ask each of you genuinely to just share with us, but also just to everybody participating today. Truly, what it is, either that you studied or have done professionally before taking this position. What do you bring to the table and when you do this job and when you answer a question like that, well, we don't feel, what's the qualifications and background that are leading you to say those things. So I don't want this to feel like a cross-examination, but I think it could be a valuable moment for the community. I hope. Sure, and I can start and then we can just go down the line. So I have a master's of urban and regional planning from the University of South Florida. I'll just list my resume. I previously worked at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida. I worked under our Safety and Corridor Access Management team for a number of years and did case studies and research across the country. I also worked as the Active Transportation Planner for the Alamo Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is sort of a sister organization to our cog the regional organization and and worked with them on their vision zero action plan and development of a multimodal network there. I will say that and this is this is just an add-on Alamo area MPO is in San Antonio. It is a place where they have invested heavily in building streets for cars and cars is what they get. And they have 65 pedestrian fatalities a year in that community. It is very difficult to walk, it is very difficult to bike, it's very difficult to take the bus. Safety is an enormous issue and there is still congestion. It's very difficult to walk. It is very difficult to bike. It's very difficult to take the bus. Safety is an enormous issue, and there is still congestion. Despite building wide highways, double-decker highways, it's still a problem, and it's one of the most congested areas of the country. So I say that to say that we can't build our way out of congestion. We have to think differently about how we move people. We're not just moving cars. We're moving people from place to place and how do we shift people to other modes. That's not to say that we want to force people out of their cars by no means, but people want to have options. I think we've heard from many of our community members over many years and many planning efforts that people want to have options for how to get around and if we don't design our streets for them to have options then they will default to driving. Great. I'll go next. I have a Masters of Public Administration from Syracuse University. I have been doing transportation transit traffic planning and engineering for 18 years. I started off working in New York City, at their Department of Transportation, where we focused on high crash locations, where we were seeing significant pedestrian deaths at intersections. We created a program to redesign those intersections for safety, and that's really where I dove into learning how we think about our streets and the safety implications of roadway design. While I was there, I also created the Safe Streets for Seniors program as well as the Neighborhoods Lozone program in New York City. I came back to Virginia. I'm from Virginia. I moved back here and worked for Fairfax County for a year and a half as their Transportation Demand Management Program Manager and realized I wanted to work where I lived. It was in the city of Alexandria. So I've been here for 12 years doing transportation planning. And I think that the, you know, being here for 12 years, you all have been around for a while too. And we hear a lot of the same concerns. I hear a lot of the same concerns that I heard when I started doing this work. And we're doing a lot of the same type of projects, and it's great to be able to see on the streets some of the projects that we did and have these same conversation, you know, eight years ago and now seeing how they work and how they function. And I understand a lot of the concerns that the community has, but when we do use the data and look at best practices and designing our roadways, we're seeing even here in our city that it has benefits and a lot of those concerns are not materialized. So when we say we believe we are using data, but we're also looking back to a lot of the projects that we've done in our own community. So I just have a bachelor's. I'm not about that master's life. So I have a bachelor's in simple engineering for Virginia Tech. Go Hokies. And after graduation, or after I graduated, I did traffic engineering. I was a traffic engineer for the city of Roanoke. So 45 minutes outside of Blacksburg, Virginia. For about three years, then I'm going to get a lot of boost from this too. I've shifted to Fairfax County Department of Transportation for about three and a half years, where I worked on several big projects, including the Frontier Extension and several projects within Rest Inn and Tyson's areas. And then I came here with the City of Alexandria, I've been here for going on six years now. And just kinda add to industry standards. I believe I was probably the last class or maybe the first class depending on how you look at it. I will admit that traffic engineering has been historically vehicle-based. Our within our industry is how do we move traffic, how do we, you know, congestion is the worst thing that we could do. How do we move cars more efficiently as possible. However, there has been a shift in the industry to not only focus on, obviously not downplay the congestion, but then also prioritize safety. So that's kind of where I'm also coming from is kind of teetering that scale is that, how do we still address congestion and still keep the users of the intersections moving, but then at the same time, you know, it doesn't it doesn't matter if they're moving if they're you know, hurt or injured or in the process. So how do we prioritize the safety as Spectat as well? So, you know, I'm definitely a Trafficking engineer nerd. I love that data, I love the numbers, I love looking at models, but you know, the only models can only tell you so much. So tend to focus on safety and try to, you know, save lives in the process. It counts from a regularity of, there's no shame in the only bachelor's degree? Yeah, I was going to say. It's all good. It's more than any of that. High-falutin masters degree people are just full of it. All right. Councilmember Bagley. What's up? You are welcome too. Councilmember Geary, I think wanted to get in as well, but all right, Councilman Geary. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So as my colleague just mentioned, our other colleagues have parsed out and punched holes here and there and plugged holes and made all the questions. So I'm just gonna kinda go through what I agree with. So I do believe that we are making a bunch of safety improvements, even though there are some that don't believe that these safety improvements are being made. In terms of speed, you know, one of the folks that made comments said that vehicles will be going 20 miles per hour on Metro Road along that that turn. Well, that's what we want. If we want them to go going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to be going to I mean, out of summer's grove. I made the comment at the last meeting, if we're gonna go with dedicated bus lane during peak period, we need to actually have a bus that's gonna be running and it in it. So there needs to be funding for the 32 to make it more frequent. And again, with the future designs that we have to bring in more population, we want folks to feel that the bus is a credible option to get them to the Metro so that they don't have to hop in the cars. Again, as Alex Carroll said, we are in no way telling folks not to drive or not to came their cars, what we're trying to do is provide options and reliable options at that reliable safe and frequent options. I do believe this plan will help the flow along Vendor to keep things moving. Oh, the Metro road. I also believe we'll have enough capacity to deal with this. Whatever we see as we view what these changes make, we can adjust and adapt if we need to put speed bumps in, if we need an hour of the road, if we need to narrow the pedestrian crossing, if we need to add an additional light, whatever we need to do, we'll be tracking that to make sure that we do it. Disagree strongly with a comment that was made that George Mason and Arlington is a good road, but this has been covered multiple times. I just wanted to reiterate my own personal opinion on that. It is not a good example. People are zooming on that road. It is not safe for bikers, and the crosswalks are extremely long for pedestrians to cross. It's a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a little bit more of a safe that there's going to be accidents all over the place. We've made some of these changes across the city, and we've seen the improvements. These changes have been made in other places in the region and across the country. I was back home in Los Angeles a couple weeks ago. I remember they did a road diet along one of the main drives that I grew up on. At that time when they were doing it, I didn't think it was a good idea, but I go back now and it's made a huge amount of difference in the community that I grew up in, which honestly was not very pedestrian or bicycle friendly and now has made a huge difference. So I do believe in the changes that we're making here. I do believe they are concurrent with our plans and what we're trying to do moving forward. And I'm sure that there's more questions We're going to take a break after this vote. We're going to have a lunch break and then we're going to come back with the next item and the remaining speakers. So just to give everyone a schedule, we're going to have a lunch break and then we're going to come back with the next item and the remaining speakers. So just to give everyone a schedule, we're going to have a lunch break and then we're going to come back with the next item and the remaining speakers. So just to give everyone a schedule update. Councillor Member Bagley. No, I want to just take a moment though to just again thank everybody who came out to speak today. It's encouraging I think the degree of dialogue we're having in the community about road design and we're all getting smarter along the way, which I appreciate also Mr. Nye pointing out that there has been a shift in how it's being taught, you know, and what our goals are. Like throughput was the goals for a long time and to Ms. Carroll's point we're trying to now I'm sure when this stretch was built, it was built to move cars as fast as possible and as effectively as possible and I'll just add this here. I was sort of waiting to be got past the motion stage. Ironically, this is the one place in the city where I drive consistently because my dog goes to dog stay out, which is about a mile down the road from here. And so quite seriously, this is the road that I drive on the most. I have a 90 pound dog, or otherwise, you go on my bike. But so I appreciate it. I just want to express that. I know I'm known as the cyclist, and the truth is, I do ride everywhere. But this is a road that I experience in my car from both ends. And I can say I experience really high speeds because it is flat and straight. And there's no other users on it, slowing it down. To Ms. Carroll's point, sheros are most effective on low-stress streets. And Pitch Street is a nice example of that. I ride on Pitch Street on a Shero and it's really wide and it's 25 miles an hour and people can get by me. None of us are going that fast, even the cars, and they can get by me without stressing me out and stressing them out. That's in lieu of anything else, that's where a share was most effective. So I just wanted to put that into the general consciousness that I do drive this road, that I share the idea that I am putting my faith to some extent in the people who have studied this type of work, and are telling us what their data and analysis is telling them. And then I also just want to somebody, a speaker today referenced a Lyme study, and I want to just encourage anybody who's here today or watching or taking an interest in this to like Google Lyme study Washington, DC, because what they studied was two really important things. One was usage, but the other thing that I think Mr. Litz and Dittin mentioned is accidents going down, where bike and infrastructure has gone up, lime has seen accidents and injuries go down because usage is up, but it's up in lanes so people are getting hurt less. And so they actually studied that in DC and I think Bloomington, Indiana, which is a very different place than ours. So it's a really useful study if anybody's kind of hearing this today and intrigued. So I just wanted to add those comments, appreciate everybody who spoke today and the depth of passion with which they spoke. And that's it. Thank you, Councillor McGregor. Vice-Miragely. Vice-Miragely, Vice-Miragely Jackson. Thank you. And thank you for the presentation. I think that although this is well-intended, and we know that the grant money is always, it's six years out that it would be implemented. So no implementation would start like in the next two years, right? We haven't even received the grant yet, but it was applied for for 2030. Right, okay. So here are my concerns because I understand the well intention of this and the safety measures. But I'm thinking of the flip side also of the developers coming in that do not like this idea, right? Green Hill is concerned. Businesses are concerned that you're trying to drive them out of business. Our residents are concerned with this change. The congestion, we don't know what's going to happen in the next six years. We don't know if we'll have dedicated bike lanes on Van Dorn Street at all. And for as much as I know that this is not written in stone and that it would help, the flip side is as in six years, we don't know what we're going to need. And I know they're going to be naysayers up here that are about, but we have to plan for the future. Yes, we do. And that's the hard part about grants and going after the grants when we don't know when we're going to need them or what we're going to need them for. And I mean this has been, you know, one of the bans of my existence up here for the last six years is actually saying, why do we need that grant and when are we going to use it for road diets and anything else? But I have a real concern when I'm hearing that Green Hill itself that is going to start development, does not like this plan. They don't like it. And then my concern is, will they not build? Will they not develop? Because this plan is now in place. So for as, again, much as it's well intended, my concern is what is the other side to help I feel a few? I feel like we let down a community in doing it because there are so many people here in this room and who have written us that have said, you know, what about us? You know, this is our livelihood. This is where we live. This is where we have our businesses. This is where we've been and they are not feeling heard. So I appreciate the presentation but I will probably not be voting. Madam Vice Mayor, you referring to some communication we received from Green Hill? I've not received any communication. I've done my own research. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. We'll hold on to it. I just want to be clear. Like, we have received no communication from Green Hill about this project. So I'm. Well, everybody up here is able to talk to everybody. I understand. But like, we don't, that's not the way we make decisions up here. But okay. Councilman, can I talk into the community? Well, no, Mr. Mayor, this just doesn't make sense to me. To make claims that Green Hill is against us when we received no communication. I want to specifically know if the vice mayor spoke to someone from Green Hill that perceived an email or she'd contact them directly. We can't just make things up on the dias with nothing to back it. All right. Any additional comments? that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that's going to be a project that was approved years ago is not currently under construction or proceeding to veto transportation improvements on the part of the city. That's not the way we make decisions up here. And I wanna be crystal clear about that. And whether developers proceeding or not, years in the future, I have never heard a developer in many meetings that I've had with developers. Tell me that a pedestrian designed a project that is going to improve pedestrian safety and accessibility next to a large metro station is a reason that they would not be able to finance and construct a development project. So that is a ludicrous suggestion. I've never heard that and we certainly have nothing in writing to suggest that. So, all right. Are there further important issues or conversations? Yeah, I did have a quick question. As we look at the, it'll be the western part of Vandorn as you turn on to Metro Road to head back if I'm making that right and folks are going to be coming the other way. As you head off of Vandorn to head back, are there any opportunities to do any kind of cut back of foliage there or kind of clearing to add to the view shed that folks might have is that within Grand dollars or is that something that we'd have to do separately? We could do that in the near term. We don't have to wait for the grant to do that. All right. Thank you All right any additional questions Right hearing none we have a motion in a second to deny the appeal if there's no further discussion all those in favor of the motion All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. back, it's 12.30, we'll be back at one o'clock. I'm going to have to say something. I'm going to have to say something. I'm going to have to say something. I'm going to have to say something. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm going to go to the next room. I'm sorry. I'm going to go to the bathroom. 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I'm going to go to the next floor. I'm going to go'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. All right. All right. Let's go ahead and get started. Thank you all for, for bearing with us. For a lunch. All right. Madam Clerk number six. Development special use from it. 2024-1006. 5725 and 5755 Duke Street. Planning Commission Action approved 6 to 0 with Commissioner Ramirez using herself. Okay. Thank you Madam Clerk. We'll do a short Staff presentation. We have two speakers one of whom is the attorney for the applicant and We will get to public testimony. So hello Hello, council members. Thank you for having us today. I'm Maggie Cooper with the development division within planning and zoning And we're here to talk about the Townhouse Project within the Western Landmark Redevelopment. So for some site context, so we have blocks L2 and M, which are on the southeast side of the Landmark Redevelopment. The first, against context, blocks E, G, I, and K have all come before you and have been approved as well as the infrastructure plan, the original CDD for all of the redevelopment and the open space plan. So this project is proposing 110 townhouse units, 44 which will be on block L2 and 66 which will be on block M. The entire project is completely consistent with all of the requirements outlined in the original CDD that was approved by City Council. A couple of small things to point out are that L2 is directly adjacent to the transit facility that we'll be going in in the next couple of years. And the block M is adjacent to the Paseo playground. They are before you today asking for a development special use permit to construct the 110 townhouses, and for a special use permit to allow for more than eight units in a row of townhouses, and they are proposing nine in the townhouse block that is right beside the playground at the Paseo. We have here some of the architecture. They have worked really well with staff to come up with some creative layouts for both the buildings and the architecture. The two different types of architecture that are seen throughout the project to appear a bit of a larger scale. So these would be areas that face the larger multi-use buildings, multi-family buildings that are in the development. And then the individual fronts, which appear more like individualized townhouses. And those areas face the more of the public open space that is on the project. And this just goes into a little bit more detail about how the placement of different individualized architectures used throughout, again enhancing certain areas that are more visible versus the end units that are less visible because of their locations within the site. There was extensive community engagement throughout the entire CDD project. There were there of constant communications that have been going on about the redevelopment updates at the West End through pre-construction meetings and at the Eisenhower West landmark van Doren implementation advisory group. And the city and the developers have had regular updates on the websites. Some of the benefits are that they will be providing 50,000 square feet, roughly, of publicly accessible open space. Again, 110 new units. They will be making a public art contribution of $90,000. And that contribution is required to be spent within the small area plan and likely would be spent within the West End redevelopment. The infrastructure in stormwater are all addressed through the infrastructure plan. There's a DSP that was approved in 2021. And through that plan, they addressed all infrastructure and storm water for the entire project. And that will reduce runoff by 18%, and we'll have a 45% improvement in phosphorus load reductions. Again, I mentioned that it is adjacent to the new transit hub, and so there will be many transportation opportunities here. It will have 13 new students, a number that has, was come up with in terms of the regular formulas that the city and the school district come up with. And all of the affordable housing for the entire redevelopment was addressed again in that CDD. There are no affordable units specifically for this site. However, that was planned from the beginning, and there are going to be 15 discounted home ownership units in the first condo building that comes through. And there are 74 onsite committed affordable units throughout the other multi-unit buildings. And there is also plans for the affordable building that will be built at Block J above the fire station. And planning commission recommended approval 6-0. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. Okay. Are there any questions for our staff? Councilmember Bagley. Just a simple one which I asked in my briefing, but I just want to reiterate for the public, the reason we're at a DSUP today is simply because that's the process we established in the CDD. It's not necessarily because something is being asked for beyond the bounds of the original CDD plan. That is correct. Yes. And then the SUP element. I know you had the slide on it, but again, this was something I asked because I wasn't aware. It's because we have a limitation on quite literally the number of townhomes that can be in a row. And that is right. And the particular layout and design here, the applicant seeking nine versus eight. Exactly. Yes. So I'm building L, which is on the top right side, red and red and red word types, that has nine units instead of eight. So that is the only reason they need that issue, Pete. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. If there are no further questions, let's go to public testimony. We have two speakers. One speaker is Phoebe Koi followed by Ken Wires, the attorney for the applicant. That's quite. All right. Good afternoon, members of Council. As a homeowner in landmark and a member of the leadership team of Yimbe's of Northern Virginia, I enthusiastically support the proposed townhouse development at the landmark mall site. I live a quarter of a mile from the former landmark mall site, and so I'm so excited to support all the new housing in my backyard. The townhouse development will add 110 desperately needed new homes, and together with the apartments and condos planned for the site, we'll help address our regional housing shortage and we'll help keep older homes in landmark affordable. The development will also benefit neighbors like me with publicly accessible open space and a new transit facility. I do want to just reiterate as councilmember bagley just discussed that the only reason why this development requires a special use permit is so it can build nine townhouses in a row instead of eight. And so it sounds like there may have been a process where development at the landmark site requires a DSUP no matter what. But according to the documentation on the city website in general, if a project does not require a special use permit, it goes through a different process called a DSP where it's just approved by planning commission. So if that was, you know, if we were maybe at a different location, it may not even have to go before you for a boat, if not for the requirement to limit the number of townhouses in a row to eight. So this is another extreme government overreach that delays our ability to address our urgent housing shortage. And I hope you will consider eliminating this restriction and other restrictions on housing like it as part of the next phase of zoning for housing, which we hope will be very soon. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Koi. Next speaker is Ken Weyer, the attorney for the applicant. Mr. Weyer. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and members of City Council. Ken Weyer representing Van Meter. With me this evening are my clients Nick and Denise, they have the project leads for Van Meter on this project. Ms. Cooper, we go back to the site plan for a second. I appreciate all staff to work. The reason you have a quiet hearing today, we've been at this for many, many years. This is exactly what the city asks for. We go to the community, the number one question we get is house construction going and I'm surprised and pleased that the comp complaints have been relatively low Out there giving the magnitude of work in the West End and landmark area I do want to give a minute to thank staff townhouses if you don't do them for a living they appear pretty simple We spent a lot of time with staff laying these units out figuring fire access, figuring out crown coverage in open space. And of course, delvetailing the best we can with the BRT station, the trans station, rather that's shown in that blue area. So I'm happy to report. We have no questions, no comments. We are completely agreement with staff. I want to thank you in the community for your efforts supporting the west end. And when I was here two years ago, we were hopeful that the development of townhouses would catch up with the rest of the project and so far so good. So thank you. Thank you Mr. Wire. Any further questions from Mr. Wire? Is there a motion to close the public hearing? Motion by Vice Mayor Jackson seconded by Councilman McPite to close the public hearing any further discussion and closing the public hearing hearing none all those in favor I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. I have a question. Have a great weekend. All right. We are now going to return back to our public discussion period. We had a number of speakers signed up who did not get to speak earlier. So we will return back to them. So we will be hearing from Nicole Racheff, followed by Colin Brinkman, followed by Daniel Roth, Patty Riley, Marge McNotten. It's Racheff. I feel like we've seen you before tonight. by Colin Brinkman, followed by Daniel Roth, Patty Riley, Marge McNotten. That's red shot. I feel like we've seen you before tonight. Yeah, yeah, you're not seeing double. It's just, again, thanks for the lunch break. I needed some food. So I'm here to speak and support of the One Way Conversion on the bike pedestrian path for the Duke Street and Taylor One segments of the Duke Street emotion. And so I had some prepared marks, but I'm just going to add in that my son's got a soccer game at Witter tonight, but my husband and I are going to see whatever professional players play. So my tie you get into the game. And he's like, I was like, OK, you have to take the bus to the game. And I got him a ride home from the game. And he texted me, he's like, no, I want to take the bus home. So he's going to walk from winter after playing Golly in a very stressful game that I hope they don't lose. And he's going to take the bus back along Duestreet to the West End where I live. So I'm excited for Duestreet Emotion. And it's important that the area around that intersection widows right across from Taylor Run, that these kids and adults and everybody have safe places to get to these bus stops and bike lanes. He's not, he only bikes to his girlfriend's house. Anyway, so thank you to staff for all their hard work on this project and others that are not here. So this Duke Street Emotion Plan provides a safe and protected and connected lane as well as these are travel for drivers. And Asa and Zach spoke to the details of why one way is better than two lanes. And I'm just going to speak to kind of experiences in different biking and driving in different cities real quick. So my day job, I teach third graders how to ride bikes. So first to establish useful bike infrastructure, it needs to be adequate for all ages. Many kids and often adults are not confident in biking in sheros and especially busy you know, busy, busy Sharrow's, busy lanes. I mean, so a protected lane right here in this section would be great. My recent travels took me to Murphusboro. There were no bike lanes there. I had to drive everywhere. Murphusboro, Tennessee, for soccer. I only went to grocery stores and like team dinners. I didn't go to any of the other shops. So, so I equate that actually. There's a lot of soccer tournaments that come to Alexandria. It's just one last weekend. If these people, right, they want to walk across and spend their money, there's not going to be any extra stopping along Duke, maybe at the New Afghan grocery store. They're just going to go to team dinners and giant or safe way. So that's with no Blake Lane. So in Denver, my husband and I went and we rented scooters. And he is a aggressive, confident cyclist out there. But he didn't really like the scooters. There was a painted path, but all of a sudden, it dumped us into Sheros in an intersection and we quickly got off and stopped. So if you want people to spend money, sorry. Make bike lanes protected and connected. Thank you, thank you, Miss Ratchaw. Next speaker is Colin Brinkman, followed by Daniel Roth, followed by Patty Riley. Mayor Wilson, council members. I'm Colin Brinkman and I live on Viewpoint Road in the Longville Hill neighborhood, Longview Hill. I'm speaking today to urge the council to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to be able to make sure that we have the right to be able to several light cycles to clear the Westbound service road. Staff has characterized this congestion as lasting only 20 minutes a day. We think it's an underestimate. But would you accept 20 minutes of not being able to leave your home via car every morning at the most likely time you might need to leave? The conversion would deprioritize our access even to the Cambridge intersection behind subplane traffic from Duke Street that would have the right of way. This is not an issue of inconvenience, but one of basic functionality for us. The benefits of the conversion mostly applied to other road users and some are only projected and may not be durable. In the FAQ document, staff acknowledges that their models cannot predict all behavior or results. Our reduced access would be certain and permanent. This is a service or access road, and while it does not belong to our neighborhood, its primary purpose is to facilitate access to homes and businesses from Duke Street and vice versa. So I'm dubious of a plan that compromises that purpose. We asked staff to consider and study retaining partial two-way traffic between the medical plaza and West Taylor, but staff abandoned the concept as they didn't see a benefit. We do. Having two egress routes, hedges against accidents or heavy volume at one one intersection and opens up multiple branching routes from the alternative intersection. Staff have also told us that there are few trips traveling eastbound and thus closing the route east is not a significant reduction in access, but those data appear to have been extrapolated from cars counted headed east at the Cambridge intersection, missing trips between Taylor and Longview that never touched that intersection. Our preference would be for further study and for staff to develop alternative plans that maintain our access and improve the utility and safety of the road for all users. Failing that, I note that the current extreme emotion FAQ document advises that deferring curb features is a potential cost-saving option. If Council was unwilling to devote time to developing other options, I'd ask that you consider retaining at least partial two-way traffic on the service road and disfurring full conversion until we can see how the new complicated Cambridge intersection performs. I also note that the Duke Street Advisory Board's final recommendation stated on some service roads improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities may be accommodated using public street space to allow for separated bicycle and pedestrian facilities or as a shared slow street while ensuring access to homes. The service road as a shared two-way slow street is consistent with that advice and I suggest you consider reducing the speed limit on the service road to 20 miles per hour. Similar to the Lynn Havens Slow To Zone pilot project making shared facilities safer for all users. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Brinkman. Next speaker is Daniel Roth, followed by Patty Riley, Marge McNaughton, Sonny P. Struth, Peter Fessah, sorry. Katherine Schollman, Lisa Byers-Candlin, Alex Goyette, Dorit Lawson, Melissa Elbert, John Revstock, Janice Grenadier, Mariam Creedon, who's the City Council. My name is Dan Roth and I'm a proud board member of Friends of Duncan Library. Next week is National Friends of Libraries Week and I'm gonna take a moment to tell you the story of this book and the dice in this bag and how they illustrate the work that the Friends of Libraries are doing in our city. Successful libraries need three strong pillars, strong city investment, passionate and committed library staff and a supportive community willing to supplement that investment. In September, patrons checked out more than 25,000 books at Duncan Library. Now library staff purchases these books using taxpayer dollars and dollars donated from friends groups. The Delray Citizens Association chose friends of Duncan Library as the beneficiary of their home and garden tour this year. Part of that donation has gone to purchase nearly two dozen high demand titles for the library system. We have added close to a hundred popular books, including this one called Intermezzo by Sally Rooney, to the city's library collection, and these books are available for all Alexandria patrons. City staff identify in-demand books, purchase them, and quickly put them into circulation. And the result? Reduced wait times for popular books, helping insurers our libraries remain relevant and popular. And this work goes beyond books. Nearly 2,300 people participated in a program at Duncan Library last month, including one called Duncan and Dragons. The program started in January when library staff identified the opportunity to engage young people in a creative, safe, and fun space. Five young teens were at the first group last winter, and the attendance has grown exponentially so far this year. Today, three groups, two for youth and one for adults gather weekly, and one group gathers every other week to engage in collaborative storytelling and role-playing through tabletop games. Now, Friends of Duncan Library supports the program by providing the funds for the resources like visual aids, maps, tokens, and these dice, which range from six-sided die to 12-sided die, that allow the participants to immerse themselves fully into the creative process and help them visualize their stories and enhance their engagement and sense of belongings. But the results go well beyond the game. Parents have shared that the programs are helping their teams build confidence in themselves and their public speaking and making presentations. Now, these examples are only two of the countless that friends groups across the library systems are doing to enhance the library experience. And I think Winnie the Pooh summed it up best. A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside. And Alexandria is breasted with amazing friends of the library who provide additional funds to help our libraries pay for books and programs that make our libraries just a little sweeter. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Roth. Also well timed. Well done. Next speaker is Patty Riley, followed by Marge McNaughton, followed by Sonny Petrophessa. Good afternoon, Mayor Wilson and City Council members. Thank you for the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about Alexandria's libraries. My name is Patty Riley, and I'm president of the Friends of Duncan Library, and I'm here today to talk about the four libraries here. Beatley Barrett, Birken Duncan. They're more than just places to borrow books. They're cornerstones of our community's well-being, their hubs for learning, connection, and safety. Spaces where citizens of all ages come to explore and engage. This year has been particularly exciting. We've seen a rise in patronage across the board from registered e-borrowers to an impressive in-library computer usage. Duncan Library alone welcomed 144,000 visitors last year. That's a 19% increase over the last year. But the number that makes my head spin, I do love this one. 25,000 babies, toddlers, and preschoolers came to Duncan last year to 10 programs. That's an amazing staggering number that people don't understand, but it's true. It's clearer residents value our libraries and all they have to offer. But the reality is that many of these programs and necessary resources are not fully covered or covered at all by the city's budget. In honor of National Friends of Libraries Week, I want to acknowledge the indispensable role that the Friends of Alexandria's four libraries pay in supporting these resources. Every year, our friends groups fill the gap between what the city budgets and what our libraries truly need. If you visit any of our branches, you'll see firsthand how they all volunteer friend support is making a difference. Toddlers and caregivers clapping and that that wildly popular story time, fiercely intense Lego competitions, high demand best sellers ready for checkouts, and outdoor reading garden, picnic tables, comfortable furniture everywhere, the friends pay for these. All of this would not be possible without the friends. And in closing, I want to stress that the high expectations our citizens have for their libraries are met because of the friend's contributions. We take great pride in working hard to ensure Alexandria's libraries thrive and have what it takes to serve every single resident. Thank you for your time and your continued support. Thank you, Ms. Riley. Thanks for your support for our libraries. Next speaker is March MacKnotton, followed by Sunny Petra Vasa followed by Catherine Schoenman, Lisa Byers, Scanlon, Alex Goya. Hello everyone. My name is March Macnotton. Hello, can you hear me? Yep, we can hear you. Oh good. My name is March Macnotton. I have lived on Upland Place for the last 14 years and I appreciate the opportunity to speak about current West Taylor run and Duke's big service road inter-speaching project. I have an observation, a suggestion, and how to fund it, and a plea. The observation, first, the engineers and designers did not have the considerable body of knowledge from those who have traveled through that intersection thousands of times. Second, the engineers did not have the data from the positive effects of the closure of the WTR ramp on the self-telegraph or from the institution of adaptive signal. Ask any tax driver, they'll tell you how good it is. Third, the designers did not have enough field data on the new configuration to recognize its impact. Collecting field data is crucial to work in conjunction with the BISM computer modeling, computer modeling, and field data have to work together. Second, the suggestion. Why not engage two independent traffic engineering companies to offer fresh designs on this intersection in conjunction with Duke student motion and with the people who know that intersection best. I'm not trying to be dismissive of the current design, but it just has too many wiggling parts that don't seem to come together into a hole. They become separate issues. They're looking at one way, two way. Slip plane or not. No right turnling, whitebling. These tailor run for cut through traffic to name a few. This do not design is not working as a hole. Now how to fund it? Why not use the money from the grant, which is entirely consistent with the purpose of the grant awarded to fund outside of the futureorge. If it was a smart scale grant awarded, when the city filled out the smart scale grant application, it was full of exploratory language. Possibly, you do this, explore that, study this, and set that. The smart grant guidelines allow for hiring outside personnel. Here's my plate number three. Please, please, please include in the design the early levels of the stages of design representatives from the people who live with the intersection. I mean we're all the PhDs and interception. Taylor Runnabers, a reasonable people with wisdom to share. I don't believe any person wants to be an opposition to this city. But we wouldn't be here if that collective wisdom wasn't drawn on in the very beginning, even though it's probably six years. The extreme motion is not the issue. It has to succeed. Buses need to run on time. If he needs to be insured and so on. Redesign would not interfere with the project. It would rather enhance it so that everything works together. Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Mignatin. Next speaker is a sunny Petrofessa, followed by Catherine Schoenman, Lisa Byer Scanlan, Alex Goyette, Dorit Lawson. Do we still have Sunning? All right. Catherine Schoenman. Do we have Catherine Schoenman? Catherine Schoenman. Do we have Catherine Schoenman? Yes. You don't know Catherine Schoenman. All right. Lisa Byer Scanlan. Let's see. She is on. Hi. There you are. Can you hear me? Yep. We can hear you, Lisa. Awesome. Thanks. So I live in Taylor Run. And I am the past president of Taylor Run Citizens Association and I've been working with the city and he asks for decades literally and trying to get our neighborhood to be a safer place for everyone. And we had a terrible problem as you know on West Taylor Run and East Taylor Run and all of our cut through streets, Montcarr, and you guys fixed it. You did an awesome job and you closed that ramp and now we have no more cut through streets, Monk here. And you guys fixed it. You did an awesome job. And you close that ramp, and now we have no more cut through traffic. However, if we were to institute the slip lane and the one way, we are literally inviting all of that cut through traffic that we just got rid of back into our community. And we do not want to do that. We just got rid of it. It is now a safe place, safe or place. In fact, I have two kids that go to Bishop Ierton and they ride their bikes every day or their scooters every day on the frontage road up, you know, so they don't have to get on to Duke Street. And I feel completely confident with them going there. I have another kid that goes to school in ACPS in Old Town. And I don't feel so confident with her riding on King Street on her bike with even with the bike lanes there. So having a bike lane is not the end-all-be-all solution. That, but I do encourage bike lanes and I do encourage sheros where they're safe. And that frontage road has a very low car drivership every day and and it's the safest part. I am a scooter person myself and I scoot almost every single day either up to Alexandria, your comments to the grocery store or down to old town, down to the river. And I can testify that that frontage road is the safest part of Duke Street in the whole city and that is what we should be shooting for. We should be aiming to make it all as safe as that by putting in the slip line and by making it one way I'm no longer going to have access to my house coming home if I'm eastbound. I'll have to go all the way up West Taylor run down Janice and come back around when I can really just come right home right now. And as it as a one way, it's also going to add like he said at the next 20 minutes on to our rides every day. We're already at at at at rush hours. We already can't get down King Street. So we can't get out that side of our neighborhood. And now we won't be able to get out of the other side of the neighborhood. So I just implore you to please go back to the drawing board, work with city staff, city staff did not want this to become a one way. Please listen to them and go back to the drawing board and find a new way to make this a safe street. And really, this is what you want all of us to be able to do. So that's my time and thank you for listening. Thank you, Lisa. We appreciate your comments. Next speaker is Alex Goya, followed by Dora Lawson, Melissa Elbert, John Rebstalk, Janice Granadier, Mariam Creven. Who's the final speaker. Do we have Alex Goya? Hi, can you hear me? Yep, we can hear you. Thank you. I'm a speaking favor of the traffic and parking board recommendation on the Duke Street services road. I wanna speak to my personal experience as a patient who frequently accesses the medical offices located there, both for myself and for my children. The current configuration is simply not safely accessible for anyone accessing the offices here outside of a car. That's a problem anywhere in the city, but it's especially problematic when we're talking about someone trying to access medical care. The first time I had an appointment at the clinic here, I took the bus. After walking across Duke Street, I walked up the narrow service road sidewalk up the hill to my appointment. And this felt extremely unsafe. The sidewalk is completely buffered. It's right next to traffic that travels much faster than it should be on a service road. And you're also a pendant on the opposite side by the retaining wall. So there's really no room for error. For me, that's a matter of comfort when I'm traveling by myself, but when I'm going to my kids' pediatrician appointments here, that's very different. Walking with a stroller with a toddler would be a nightmare here. It's also a problem for the elderly and sick and disabled patients who need to access the same clinic that I'm going to from my medical appointments. And for that, I'm more serious than discomfort or inconvenient. It's a matter of safe access to medical care. From end of the appointment, after that experience walking, I biked instead thinking it was a service road. It felt safe enough. I bike on service roads pretty frequently. But because of this road really being end in by the retaining walls on either side and by that narrow sidewalk, there's no room for cars to pass you safely. For this appointment, I was not on an e-bike, so trying to pedal uphill, I was going pretty slowly. This led to the driver behind me, veering into an incoming traffic to gun it around me and nearly causing a collision as a car came the opposite direction down the hill. So with my kids pediatrician office located here, that's really exciting for me. It's a new office, it's relatively close by compared to where their old offices were. And so if you know my kids, if you know me, we love getting around on the bike on the bus whenever we can, but there is no way I would take them to their appointments on the bus or the bike with the service road's current configuration. It's just not safe. I'm lucky. I have the option to drive whenever I need to. I'll be driving them to their well visits next Wednesday. But that's not the case for many Alexandrians who can't drive for every trip. Cars are expensive and so low-income folks often may not have access to one or maybe especially sharing one among multiple family members. So even if they usually drive, that's not available to them for every trip. Many Alexandrians don't have the ability to drive due to disability. That's particularly the concern for folks who are trying to access healthcare at the clinics here. And many folks can't ride because of age,, that's particularly a concern for folks who are trying to access health care at the clinics here. And many folks can ride because of age, whether that's because they're too old to drive safely anymore, or they're just too young to have access to a license. So I understand that this project comes with a lot of trade-offs relatively small number of drivers who use this street for part of the day when it gets clogged up versus physical safety and accessibility for patients who are trying to reach their healthcare offices. Making the service road one way would I agree in convenience some drivers and that's not great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Your time has expired. Thank you. Next speaker is Dorit Lawson, followed by Melissa Elbert, followed by John Repsdon. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Councillors. I'm Dorit Loeson, President of Bethel Hebrew congregation, speaking on behalf of the majority of Jewish Alexandrians who support Israel's right to exist. I am here to address you today on the topic of divestment from Israel. Contrary to the accusations leveled at you earlier, I know that you are serious people here to do your best by our city, and I address you in that spirit. After the vitriolic harassment to which we were subject when we addressed Alexandria's Human Rights Commission, our community has been scared to come forward. So I hope that you will hear me a speaking for the many who fear to speak for themselves, and that you recognize that number of speakers isn't always a good proxy for breadth of support. While I speak as a representative of Alexandria's mainstream Jewish community, my professional expertise are also relevant. In my day job, I am co-CEO of an impact investment firm. We use divestment as part of our toolkit and circumstances where we believe it can be effective. This is not one of those. While my remarks today should not be construed as financial advice, I want you to know that I speak both with expertise on divestment and from the perspective of the impact of the Boycott divestment and sanctions movement or BDS movement has on the Jewish community. The BDS movement claims to be a Palestinian human rights movement modeled on the successful campaign to end apartheid in South Africa. In 2016, Jonathan Chanser, a terrorism finance expert, gave congressional testimony clearly linking leaders of the BDS movement to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. BDS is not a human rights movement. Its goal is not peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. It is a thinly-failed movement to eradicate the state of Israel and replace it with a Palestinian state. Even if the BDS movement were actually a nonviolent peace movement, divestment is neither effective nor responsible. Economic research on the South Africa divestment movement suggests that divestment had little or no impact on the share price of companies targeted. A report released last month found that over 10 years, a portfolio divested from Israel would underperform its benchmark by about 1.8%. Across the hundred largest university endowments, this could yield losses of $33 billion. There is no reason to think Alexandria's portfolios would perform differently. Divestment would therefore neither affect positive change in Israel, nor be responsible stewardship of the city's resources. If you exceed to the demands that I've asked, you would be supporting the BDS movements attempts to delegitimize Israel. You would be signaling that you support the terrorist actions of Hamas over legitimate and effective efforts towards peace. You would be signaling that making political statements is more important than responsible stewardship of Alexandria's resources. You would be signaling that Alexandria's Jews are legitimate targets. I don't believe you want to signal any of these things. I hope that you will make the responsible decision and decline to act on the divestment demands. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Alson. Next speaker is Melissa Elbert, followed by John Rebs, followed by Janice Grenadier, followed by Mariam Creed, who is the final speaker. Hi. Hello. My name is Melissa. I was born in Alexandria. I'm a first-generation American Latina Jew. My grandfather was barely a man when he escaped the pogroms to South America, leaving behind his sister and parents who were killed in the Holocaust. My Palestinian neighbors have and are experiencing almost a mirror image of my grandfather's trauma. I have family spread across the planet because just as my parents did, they had to escape political persecution, torture, and murder that would have not been happening without American foreign policy. The military thugs who terrorized hundreds of thousands of people were trained by American tactics and American people in order to fill up, fill American objectives. I have family in Israel. My uncle took his family and fled there to escape death and his homeland. I even have a nephew in the idea, shamefully. I shouldn't have to legitimize my anger with my background to speak on the topic of genocide because I'm a human. But we all know the accusations fly even in this room when it comes to criticism of Israel or support of Palestine. Have you all been following what has been happening in the north of Gaza? A United Nations envoy has referred to the campaign of forced starvation and mass murder of violently displaced families as a genocide within a genocide. Right now, as we sit in a room discussing traffic patterns, there are multitudes of exhausted, malnourished people who have been forced out of yet another school shelter besieged by the IDF next to another targeted hospital, the Indonesian hospital. Right now, you can see American tanks rolling through the rubble as they round up blindfold and kidnap people. They are demolishing buildings while families are inside. This is all made possible by everyone in this room. I am trying to rat my head around the fact that the city of Alexandria and the state of Virginia can invest in the most criminal profiteers of this genocide. We invest in Lockheed Martin, the biggest weapons manufacturer in the world. Lockheed Hellfire missiles were developed by the CIA instead of exploding the missile shreds its target as in living humans with flying blades. There are mountains of evidence that the IDF has been using these missiles in Gaza. Last night, I watched a video of a wounded Palestinian child on the ground desperately waving his arms for help. And then he was hit by one of these missiles. And the brave men ran towards him to try to collect his body and then they were bombed and murdered too. You can see this on your phones right now. I am not here to ask you nicely to divest from the slaughter. Thank you. Mr. Smith, how could you not divest? Thank you, Miss Albert, your time has expired. Thank you. Next speaker is John Rebsdock, full by Janice Grenadier, full by Mary and Creeden. My son is a soccer player on the 2006-2007 MLS next team. He's a goalie and he's also plays for the St. Stephen's Boys Varsity Soccer team. You all literally can't do anything right. You were just congratulating yourselves at North Potomac Park this morning for opening a public the park. I'm going to be going to be completed constructing just a simple fence around Winterfield. Evidently took over 10 years to get done and I'm not sure it's it's completed yet. The drainage of Limerick field is an absolute joke too. That soccer pitch opened about nine or 10 years ago. Alexander Enu. Renew I assume built it. It can't even create a simple soccer field with working drainage and I assume you know, Alexander Alexandria knew is their thing is sewage and drainage, but they can't even do that right. My name is John Reffstock. I've been an Alexandria resident for about 23 years. I live between Summonery Road and Duke Street on Fort Williams Parkway. I'd like to discuss the quote unquote climate change hoax Wednesday night at Charles Houston Rec Center. There was a debate for the 9th City Council candidates, which I attended the red haired Childless Cat Lady before us was continuously rambling about green energy session We're not gonna we're not gonna do that. We're not gonna do that. Okay. Thank you Next speaker is Janice Grenadier followed by Mary and Creighton is the final speaker All right. And we have Miss Crete. All right. All right. That's the final speaker of the motion by Council Moont Pike, seconded by Vice Mayor Jackson, to close the public hearing. Any further discussion hearing none? All those in favor, please recognize saying aye. Aye. Aye. Public hearing is closed. Motion by Council Moont Pike, seconded by Vice Mayor Jackson I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. I'm going to be able to hear your comments. Okay. Thank you. you you you you you I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna go for it. The The Become a member of a nationally accredited police department. Accept the challenge. Answer the call. Join our community. The Alexandria Police Department, recruiting now. You're beautiful, right? No, no. You're beautiful. I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... I got bullied for... You know you're beautiful, right? You know that? You're beautiful. I got bullied for wearing glasses. Share if you're against bullying. We put it out there. Just took off. Three million people have shared this post. Don't let bullies get you down. 3 million people have shared this post. Don't let bullies get you down. I stand with you. I hold families wearing glasses. I wear glasses and I'm proud. I even have the army of my kids. All the kind comments about my child joy. I don't feel thank you as enough. That's... I'm sorry. I think most people just kind of see Call Click Connect and maybe the mayor and some city council issues but choose but choose.