Representatives will have a total of five minutes to present their position. Finally, the case will be open to public comment with each speaker limited to five minutes. Members of the public must fill out a speaker form for the record. The board may ask questions during any of the presentations. The response to the question does not count against the five minutes. However, speakers are asked to only respond to the question that was asked and refrain from elaborating or restating their positions or asking the board further questions. Once public comment is closed, the board will deliberate on the case during which the board may ask additional questions. As always, the speakers are asked to respond to only the question and not to elaborate or go off track onto other points of discussion. The BZA is a severed member board with a four member quorum. All motions must have four affirmative votes to pass, regardless of the number of board members in attendance. Ms. Critchison, please call the order. Mr. Foley. Here. Ms. Bowman. Here. Mr. Patel. Here. Mr. Velmore. Here. Ms. Evelyn. Here. Mr. Liu. Here. We have a quorum. Velmar. Here. Ms. Evelyn. Here. Mr. Liu. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Do we have announcements for tonight? We do not. Okay. Then we will go unfinished business. We don't have any unfinished business. So we are going to go to new business and go directly to... Would you call the case number please. ETA 2024 0 0 0 3 304 North Pitt Street Public Hearing and Consideration of a request for a special exception to construct additions in the required rear yard. RM residential and the applicant is Karen Conkey Architect. I think we go to staff presentation first, right? Yeah. Good evening, Mr. Chair. Members of the board, my name is Sean Killian. I am one of the urban planners in planning and zoning, and I have the pleasure of presenting to you 304 North Pitch Street tonight. The applicant as Mr. Christian has stated is requesting a special exception to construct one story additions along the existing non-compliant rear wall. Here's a photo of the property. The property is zoned RM, which is our townhouse zone district, and the property is surrounded by other residential uses. The zoning requirement for the RM is a rear setback of 16 feet. The applicant is proposing to construct this addition 0.16 feet from the rear property line on the north side and to construct a addition of 0.73 feet from the rear property line on the south side. Therefore, it's night there requesting a special exception of 15.84 feet for the north side and 15.27 feet on the south side. This is the picture that proposed rear additions. They're both one story in the height on for the north side. Sorry, the south side additional measure at point, sorry, 101.9 square feet with the north side at 150.42 square feet. Included in this proposal is a one-story screen porch. This screen porch does comply with all the requirements of the art and district and measures at about 109.30 square feet. Thank you. And staff recommends approval for the special exception. That is all. Okay. Are there any questions for staff? Okay, I have just one quick question. So if the property is, if they're building that close to the property line, which is very close, how does like maintenance happen? Because they're building so close to the property line, if something has to be done to the other side of that structure, then I guess they have to go on their neighbor's property in order to do something to maintain their house. Is that correct? So if they were going to do that, they would indicate permission of course from the neighbor to go onto the property that's standard with all building permits as well. If the applicant needs to get access, they need to get approval from the neighbors as well. Okay. Do you know if we read a number, I don't know which house it is that's there, and there was a lot of positive feedback from the neighbors. Do you know if that particular neighbor has given the feedback? I do not at this time. Okay, thank you. If there's no further questions from the board for the city staff, we will go on to the applicants. No questions? Okay, let's move forward. Great. Hi, good evening. I'm Karen Conkey. I'm here representing my clients Grace and Liam O'Grady. The O'Grady's have lived here since 2023 and would like to expand their home to spedtersuit their needs on the first floor, possibly allowing them to age in place and stay in Alexandria. We proposed to build a one-story set of additions, one on either side, expanding living space while still maintaining optimum side yard and garden space on either side. The homes, in usual location on the lot has kind of caused our placement of the rear additions. They are, to answer, I'll quickly answer your question. We have retaining walls that are taller than our additions. So we're kind of pushing our additions up against those retaining walls that are on our property. So we kind of have a masonry wall that has been there for decades, probably, that our additions kind of push up against. So maintenance should be minimal because it's no different than what it's been other than we're enclosing up against it. We're requesting a pre-wool of the special exception to allow us to construct both editions approximately in line with the home's rear non-compliant wall. This is a very unusual home in that it's placed centered on a very square lot. Different than what most houses in Old Town are usually justified to one property line or the other, which kind of necessitates why we want to build the additions where we do. We've read the staff report and its findings and we accept what has been presented and thank you for your time and is there any questions for the applicant? Questions. I have just one question. One of the letters that you just brought understand the construction will not extend above the shared retention wall or alter the northern view from our rear home. And then go on this is important to us. As much appreciated. So when I look at the drawings, I mean it looks to me like the the additions do extend above that well at least the way they're represented in your drawings. OK. Can you explain that further? It's possible if we could put the elevation, it's probably the ASK 3.2. Yeah, there we go. There's a brick wall. I'm looking at the image on the left-hand side. There's a little brick wall that's no other side. There you go. Brick wall. And then there's a concrete wall that's post-shade above it. So our addition is below that surface on the opposite side, which is on the north side. So the right side of the left drawing. We are sticking up a little bit, but it's so it's just basically the little piece of the roof that sticks up above that retaining wall. Okay, and so this neighbor, Nicole Mahoney and Omar Chavez, do you know which side they are? They are on the south side. They're on Queen Street and Queen Street would be the furthest left of that left diagram. Okay, so that's the very tall wall that would be. Exactly. Okay. And I don't know how far back their property extends. It's a, if we have our plot, we can look at it. Okay. But I think they're on that southern garden side. Okay, thank you. Mr. Chair. Go ahead. Can you just confirm that there was, was there any other feedback? Good, bad, negative from any of the neighbors. From what I understand, the letters that are in the package, including the one that came in additionally today, is what we have. I think we haven't heard any negative. I'm getting nods, so no negative feedback. So all neighbors surrounding the property were notified. And they have been, yeah, further requirements. Yes. It looks like we have eight positive ones. And then this other one that just came in today, which is maybe a little bit neutral. OK, if there's no further questions for the applicant, I'm going to go to the next slide. Okay. If there's no further questions for the applicant, then we'll go to. With with I'll just make a note that there are no speakers registered. I had the only speaker form. We got Karen Conkey, which she is breathing right now. So that means that there's no other speakers. Public speakers. So then we will move to four deliberations. Mr. Chair, I have a current contract with Karen Conkey to do business with my family. So I'll recuse myself from this conversation because of that financial interest. OK. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. I believe in the future that should be made aware to staff before their proceedings. Isn't that correct? Ms. Christensen? She did let me know, and I just saw to break you to yourself before the board of liberation. All right. Great. Thank you. All right. Do we have any opening remarks? For Mr. Chair, I think today's letter that we received also in I interpreted as positively for the land owners. It doesn't look like any of the neighbors have issues with this specific project. I'm not sure if the government is going to be able to interpret this positively for the land owners. It doesn't look like any of the neighbors have issues with this specific project. Any other comments? I have a question for staff regarding the special exception criteria. The sub back that was originally 16 feet that was moved to, changed to like 0.64 with a special exception. Is that typical for similar properties? Can you just help me understand what is sort of the decision process to sort of recommend approval or denial. When it comes to that distance, Mary, you want me to help out there on this one? So this lot is slightly unique in the block that it's located on. If you look at, can you go back to the site map that shows the rest of the block further back? Yeah. Can you zoom in to that at all? Maybe not. But if you look at that, this lot is not as deep as the other lots on this block because of the way 509 Queen Street projects into this lot. If this lot were as deep as the other lots that front on North Pit, they would not be in the need of requesting a variance. So in addition to the existing condition of that non-compliant wall being located there, that along with this sort of oddly, oddly length of the lot on this block, the combination of those two things. And then there are, I mean, throughout the city, there are several properties in the historic district that run property line to rear property line. Karen also mentioned that this lot is sort of unique, the building is sort of uniquely situated on the lot in that it is centrally located and designed the sort of two like open side garden yards. And you know they have a lot of FAR and placing the additions at the rear preserving that front open garden on each side was an important characteristic for us in that added to our support for the expansion of the rear wall. So as I understand it, the in the RM townhouse zone area, this kind of proposed addition isn't atypical. No, I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It's one story addition. It's modest compared to, and like Mary said, with the position of the rear wall, it's in line with a lot of the neighborhood. Additionally, also a lot of blocks in Old Town have a central rear alley that run behind them that can be counted towards their rear yard setback or half of their distance can be kind of towards their rear yard setback. This block doesn't have an interior alley that runs behind these properties. So that's another sort of unique situation in this block of North Pet. Any further comments, questions or deliberations? Well with nothing further can I get a motion? Yes, I'd move to approve the applicants obligation Do we have a second? second All in favor say aye Aye, aye, aye, aye all opposed same sign All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the docket is the consideration of the minutes from the July 8, 2024 border zoning appeals. Staff did place a corrected set of minutes on the Dias just to correct some typos. Mr. Patel, do you have a chance to review those? Yes. And no objections. Some objections. Are there any objections from anybody about the minutes? OK, so all in favor of approving the minutes or wait, I need a motion. I need a motion to. Question to approve. OK, motion to approve a second. Second. Second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed opposed same sign and opposed the emotion passes to approve the minutes The next item on the docket is a review of the fiscal year 2024 border zoning of peals annual report Okay, so Did everyone have an opportunity to review annual report? Any comments or questions about it? Being relatively new to this board. I was just curious if there's any insight into the dramatic drop-off in cases from 22, 23 to 2 and 24. So you know, I saw that as well and I had a conversation with previous Chairman about this, you know, some time ago. And one of the things that they've noticed is that the number of applicants coming through here has been dropping over the years. But, you know, that's actually, can be looked at as a positive thing because if the zoning gets done correctly and that, you know, there's zoning rules and laws changes, then people don't have to come through here, you know. So that's, that could be positive. It could also be, I think, I had this conversation with some of the staff, because I was thinking of that as well, that what's going on here, it's a big drop. But it could also be the market. Interest rates go up. People have a harder time borrowing money. They can't do the renovations. There's lots of different factors involved in why we would get fewer cases than others. And I had a conversation with the city staff about this and we are going to look to have at maybe one of our meetings in the near future have a review of possibly what could we do, what suggestions could we make to city council about this board in this meeting to perhaps lessen the burden on the city if we're only gonna be having maybe that's decreased in the frequency in which we meet. Maybe it's, I don't know what it is, maybe that's decreased in the frequency in which we meet. Maybe it's, I don't know what it is, but we have to discuss that and discuss that maybe some of the options and things and then run it by legal council, the city's council, and to see if it's legal because this is a you know, a quasi-judicial board. And then, you know, if everything lines up and we can get some good suggestions on the table for what we might do, then we can present that to city council and possibly make some changes. Does that help answer your question? Ms. Christensen, would you like to add anything to that? I don't really have, can get a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a having sort of a more regular caseload, but sort of to touch on what Mr. Fully was saying, you know, for a long time, we were seeing tons of special exceptions for front porches. And it was just sort of coming through and it was like, oh, these are great, they all meet this set of criteria. Like, why are we making these people come through through a public hearing process for something that everyone wants to see more of, which is from porches. So we did amend the zoning ordinance. So that's certain porches, meeting certain criteria that previously had to come to the board or approved administratively now through just a building permit process. So we do look at trends and things that we're seeing a lot of. And figuring out is there a way to carve out the ones that are benign and don't have impacts on their neighbors and things like that that we can make by right to make the process easier for applicants? So we're always looking at those trends, but this was definitely an anomaly of a year where we just didn't have any cases. We'll definitely keep tracking it. But like Mr. Follies said, we do plan to try to set up the time for a workshop to kind of discuss some ideas and see different things that we might be able to do. So I guess with that approaching, then we can all think about that and come up with our ideas. And when that workshop happens, you know, we'll just put everything on the table and see what we come up with. So thank you. So I guess then I will be with no objections from the rest of the board. I will be signing this letter to the Memorandum to City Council. I don't do, oh, let's vote on it. Is this what we do here at this board? to city council. I don't do, oh, let's vote on it. Is this what we do here at this board? So since it's my letter going to the, I don't think I'm allowed to mint motion, but so could I have a motion to, for something on this letter? I move to accept the letter annual report as presented. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed same sign. Okay, with none opposed, I will be signing the letter. And we'll be sending it to City Council. Thank you. Is that it for the business? I did have one other just additional business for the October hearing coming up. It is likely that we will have not have at least two of our members present in person. I know one will be absent, one may be virtual. In order to have a public hearing, we do have to have four members present in chambers. So we'll be polling you probably a little bit earlier than we normally do to check on your attendance. But if you can try to clear your calendars if you can to be available on October 7th, we may also get another board member appointed. I did check with the clerk today. I haven't heard back yet. To see whether or not they've gotten anyone to apply for that position yet. But we will be reaching out to all of you probably in the next week or so to check on your availability for October. Should we also mention that Tim will not be there and I may be virtual, which means we would need another member to run the meeting. So the rules of procedure state that if the chair is not available, then the vice chair would run the meeting. If the vice chair is not able to be here in person, then it defaults to the board members that are present to elect a chair at the hearing. So that would be potentially something that we would need to do at the October hearing. I also will just, because anytime we don't have a full board, we do like to let our applicants know, so that they have the opportunity to be heard by a full board. You know, depending on your responses, we'll communicate with applicants to make sure that they're aware of the situation as well. We cannot have a public hearing without a quorum is required to have four people in person. Okay, with no further comments or questions or agenda items, I will, with no objections, I will close by unanimous consent. Hearing none, meeting is adjourned. Thank you. We have life for our residents and serve as an important draw for tourists. But while they're beautiful to look at, they can be unhealthy to swim or fish in. There are many different reasons for that including stormwater runoff, pet waste, septic systems, and pollutants from streets and alleys, and our communities combined sewer system. That's why we've been doing something about it. 95% of Alexandria is served by separate pipes for stormwater and sewage. And all the sewage flows to treatment plants that clean the water before it goes back into local rivers and streams. Our community is already invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that we have one of the most modern and efficient treatment systems in the region. But in the oldest historic part of Alexandria, 5% of the city remains served by the original combined sewer system dating back to the 1800s. In a combined sewer system, both sewage and stormwater flow through the same pipes to the treatment plant. The problem is that almost every time it rains, the pipes can't handle the volume in a mixture of stormwater and sewage overflows into local waterways. This is allowed under state permits and federal law, but we're still working to change it, and more than 800 communities across the country are working to address similar issues. The overflows occur at four combined sewer outfalls, or CSOs. The first is located at the end of Pendleton Street at Orinoco Bay. The second is located at the end of Royal Street at at Oranoko Bay. The second is located at the end of Royal Street at Hunting Creek, and the third and fourth are along Duke Street at Hooves-Won. All of our waterways lead to the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. And while Alexandria's combined sewer system is only accountable for about 2% of the bacteria in our waterways, that's still 2% of the bacteria in our waterways. That's still 2% too much. For more than a decade, the city has required sewer separation as part of development and redevelopment projects in Old Town. As a result, the private sector has contributed tens of millions of dollars. The city has made extensive structural improvements to the outfalls and taken other proactive steps to address this issue. Our remediation plan includes the store-in-treat strategy being pursued by hundreds of other cities with combined sewer systems because it's less disruptive to neighbors and more cost-effective than other strategies. This involves building massive underground tanks and tunnels, some as big as a football field. They'll store the excess volume of stormwater and sewage when it rains. After the rain ends, the system will pump the storage tanks and tunnels back to the treatment plant. Overflows will only occur a few times a year during the heaviest of rains. Removing as quickly as we can to plan, design and construct these tanks and tunnels. Each outflow requires different complex engineering solutions and the work for all four outfalls must be coordinated simultaneously while adhering to federal and state regulations. Once construction begins, the worker will require the removal of tens of thousands of and simultaneously while adhering to federal and state regulations. Once construction begins, the worker will require the removal of tens of thousands of truckloads of dirt and many months of pile driving. These are also very expensive projects costing about $400 million over 10 years. That money will come from significant increases in the sewer related fees paid for by residents, businesses, and nonprofits. Because this is such a large effort with significant financial and construction impacts, we're especially committed to involving the community in our progress and plans. We'll also do our best to mitigate the inconvenience of this work as much as possible. There's a lot to do in a short period of time, but we're moving forward to promote clean waterways for generations to come. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. Can we get your brothers? Okay. you you you you you you you you It's really how our communities only improve when we do our bit and it's easy and it's fun and you can make a big difference. For many many years, Revealing Together has had volunteers come into this neighborhood here in Hume Springs and provide the free home repairs to the homeowners and it's only a natural extension of ours to do community work. It's so cool to see that some people never came to the park and now folks are coming on a daily basis just because of the rehab. My motivation for helping kids and families in Alexandria is simple. I live here. I want to help kids and families in the place where I live. You know, it makes sense to me to make sure that our kids and families have what they need to be successful. The city gave us a great opportunity to service girls who were in need of to mentoring and that's what we're here to do. We mentor young girls from grade three through six, in cultural activities, educational activities, and social activities, all to broaden their horizons on their society and the world around them. What I hope to see is a long-term result of the partnership. Seeing young ladies thrive, go on to college and be successful citizens and productive citizens of this state, of this country, of this city of Alexandria. A bunch of us got together from the community and we tried to figure out a way we could work with the city, parks, recreation and cultural activities and the Delray Business Association to form a partnership whereby we could raise funds with a lot of the community members and also business owners and then the city would provide matching funds that we could do park improvements. I think it's a park ownership because what we're trying to do is show that we have like a vested interest in this. Part of that vested interest is not only raising money but also devoting time, volunteer work, that kind of thing. So part of this is like stewardship and ownership and I think that's what's key working with the city and the community to get things done. It's easy to sit around and talk about what you want the city to do or demand things, but you got to back up your words with action. I think that's what the Simpson Park Dog owners group does in partnership with the Business Association and the city. So we appreciate that and we look forward to more work ahead. The old tunnel Alexandria Farmers Market is the longest continuously running farmers market in the US. We've been open since 1753 and rumor hasn't that George Washington actually sold his vegetables on site here. We have about 75 different vendors here at the Old Town Farmers Market. Most of our produce is local. We draw farms from Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Going to a farmers market means you're getting it very fresh. It's usually picked the day before. It hasn't traveled hundreds of miles to get here. There's a great deal more variety than what you would find in a supermarket and you can talk to the grower and find out information about how to cook it, what the background is of of the variety, and it's just much more interactive. We have had vendors who have been here for four generations, and remember hearing stories about their parents traveling to market with Corson Buggy. We raise on our farm, and that farm has been in our family for 325 years. My family's had a farm in Hampshire County prior to the revolution. Now it's my grandfather's, great-grandfather that started that. We also have a great contingency of really need arts and crafts vendors. We have all kinds of events. We have yoga events once a month. We also do chef demos, cooking demos. We have kids activities like cooking decorating, face painting, pumpkin carving. So there's always something going on and the relationships that you build are also important. So when you're shopping at a farmer's market you can actually have that conversation with your vendor or with your rancher and ask them how they keep their cows, ask them how they grow their peppers. It's just really nice to have this great community. Plates to see neighbors and get fresh food and beautiful flowers. It's a gathering place for people who live in the area. So it's just part of our life. It's amazing the community and the support that we get here. They're very much so into small businesses, handmade, artisan products. We have poor customers who come back year after year after year. We get to know their family, we get to know their kids and so it's a community thing. It's so important for people to shop local because you really are supporting your community when you shop at the farmers market. The Old Town Farmers Market is open year round, range, shine, or snow from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. We're located at 301 King Street, which is right at Market Square and front No City Hall. you The stormwater happens when it rains and the water runs off a hard surface like a rooftop, a parking lot, or a street. And it doesn't soak into the ground. So what this does is increases the amount of storm water, but also when that storm water runs across those hard surfaces or impervious areas, it can pick up pollutants and this water goes straight to our storm drain system which leads to our local streams, the Potomac River, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay. So this is an important aspect of our lives, and we work hard at the City and the Stormwater Management Program to protect our local streams, to protect the Chesapeake Bay, and to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and meeting our state and federal mandates while we protect the environment. The City has two Vector trucks dedicated to cleaning catch basins. That's important because we have two primary functions. One is to clean the catch basins to prevent pollution from entering our streams and rivers. The second one is to remove the clogging and debris so that it will prevent flooding. And you don't want that to happen. CCTV is a method we use in the city to prevent flooding. We send a camera down to locate water soil and blocks in the soil line. Leif pick up street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, BMP inspections, and a list of discharged detection and elimination are all part of the city's stormwater program. We're building stormwater BMPs like bioretension cells and wet ponds to treat the runoff of hard surfaces throughout the city. The best way to help keep local streams, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay clean is to prevent pollution before it starts. Pollution prevention is critical to the aspect of our daily lives. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. I'm going. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Todd's a great guy. I mean, look at him. What a sweetheart. At a boy. Add a boy. Wait, Todd. What are you doing? How totally selfish and untodd like of you. Come on, Todd. Come on, man. 18 months ago my husband Ryan Brown got hit by a car while he was on his way home from work at the Baton Trademark Office. The injury rendered him immediately unconscious, put him in a coma for about two and a half weeks, and then he was in the hospital for four months after that. 90% of people who have an injury like this never wake up. He has been an outpatient therapy since he got home learning how to basically do everything again speak, walk and regain his independence. My name is Brian Brown. Vision Zero is an all-hands-on-deck approach to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries in Alexandria by 2028. One crash that involves a death or serious injury is one too many. Alexandria is working to make our roads safer for all users and Vision Zero is our road map to getting that done. There was 37,000 deaths on U.S. roadways last year and it's expected to go over 40,000 in 2017. We haven't seen sharp increases like that since the mid-1960s. No one should have to experience the pain and suffering that goes along with an injury like this or a death. We have to change this old mindset that accidents will happen and take them seriously and do our part to avoid crashes. If we do that, we collectively as a community come together and reach zero deaths and seriously injured in the City of Alexandria. We've received over a thousand comments from the community. And what we've heard is that education, enforcement and engineering improvements are key to affecting change, along with working together to change the culture of how we move around our city each day. If there's something that we can do to help prevent this from happening to somebody else, let's do it. It's important to me that if we can prevent an injury like Ryan's or I know there are several deaths in Alexandria last year from happening that that that happened. you you you you you you you you I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back to the place where I'm gonna go 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 the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. You're the only one who can't be a good girl. It calls me Duke of the Eyes. You know you're beautiful, right? No, no. 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. I stand with you. Yeah. I hope family's wearing glasses. Hey. I wear glasses and I'm proud. I even have the army with 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 we learned everything from how IT works with old buildings to the benefits of the historical and archeological kind of digs that the city does. It really helps participants understand how city government and services work while also providing a purpose for the work that they do. I thought it was really cool to learn from and city employees who all are extremely passionate about their jobs and really not only knowledgeable but also we're willing to give their own time to help us understand how our city works and functions and spends money. One of the things I really love about the city academy is the fact that you get a chance to tell the story. I mean it's our wants upon a time and wants the residents hear it when they leave they go out and they become some of our strongest advocates. Fun! Everything! It's fun to come over here and listen and learn. I learned all the details that the city does for their residents. Very interesting. I think everybody, every resident should be enrolled in. As someone who's been through the city academy, I can tell you it was a great way to spend nine weeks learning about the community and meeting some amazing people helping make Alexandria, Alexandria. The fact that you get to meet so many interesting people who care about the city of Alexandria just like you do. One of the benefits of this program is the fact that you've developed some core relationships that can last for quite some time. Since my time in the program I've developed close bonds with people that I still talk to today. Alexandria's waterways are an integral part of our community. They contribute to a high quality of life for our residents and serve as an important draw for tourists, but while they're beautiful to pet waste, septic systems, and pollutants from streets and alleys, and our communities combine sewer system. That's why we've been doing something about it. 95% of Alexandria is served by separate pipes for stormwater and sewage, and all this sewage flows to treatment plants that clean the water before it goes back into local rivers and streams. Our community has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that we have one of the most modern and efficient treatment systems in the region. But in the oldest historic part of Alexandria, 5% of the city remains served by the original combined sewer system dating back to the 1800s. In a combined sewer system, both sewage and stormwater flow through the same pipes to the treatment plant. The problem is that almost every time it rains, the pipes can't handle the volume in a mixture of stormwater and sewage overflows into local waterways. This is allowed under state permits and federal law, but we're still working to change it, and more than 800 communities across the country are working to address similar issues. The overflows occur at four combined sewer outfalls, or CSOs. The first is located at the end of Pendleton Street at Orno-Co-Bae. The second is located at the end of Royal Street at Hunting Creek, and the third and fourth are along Duke Street at Huff Swan. All of our waterways lead to the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. And while Alexandria's combined sewer system is only accountable for about 2% of the bacteria in our waterways, that's still 2% too much. For more than a decade, the city has required sewer separation as part of development and redevelopment projects in Old Town. As a result, the private sector has contributed tens of millions of dollars. The city has made extensive structural improvements to the outfalls and taken other proactive steps to address this issue. Our remediation plan includes the store and treat strategy being pursued by hundreds of other cities with combined sewer systems because it's less disruptive to neighbors and more cost effective than other strategies. This involves building massive underground tanks and tunnels, some is big as a football field. They'll store the excess volume of storm water and sewage when it rains. After the rain ends, the system will pump the storage tanks and tunnels back to the treatment plant. Overflows will only occur a few times a year during the heaviest of rains. Removing as quickly as we can to plan, design and construct these tanks and tunnels. Each outflow requires different complex engineering solutions, and the work for all four outfalls must be coordinated simultaneously while adhering to federal and state regulations. Once construction begins, the worker will require the removal of tens of thousands of truckloads of dirt and many months of pile driving. These are also very expensive projects, costing about $400 million over 10 years. That money will come from significant increases in the sewer related fees paid for by residents, businesses, and nonprofits. Because this is such a large effort with significant financial and construction impacts, we're especially committed to involving the community in our progress and plans. We'll also do our best to mitigate the inconvenience of this work as much as possible. There's a lot to do in a short period of time, but we're moving forward to promote clean waterways for generations to come. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. I'm going to get you a little bit more. Oh, hello. Can we get your father's? Okay. you you you you you you you you you It's really how our communities only improve when we do our bid and it's easy and it's fun. And you can make a big difference. For many, many years, rebuilding together has had volunteers come into this neighborhood here in Hume Springs and provide the free home repairs to the homeowners. And it's only a natural extension of ours to do community work. It's so cool to see that some people never came to the park and now folks are coming on a daily basis just because of the rehab. My motivation for helping kids and families in Alexandria is simple. I live here. I want to help kids and families in the place where I live. You know, it makes sense to, to me, to make sure that our kids and families have what they need to be successful. The city gave us a great opportunity to service girls who were in need of mentoring and that's what we're here to do. We mentor young girls from grade 3 through 6, in cultural activities, educational activities, and social activities, all to broaden their horizons on their society and the world around them. What I hope to see is a long-term result of the partnership. Seeing young ladies thrive, go on to college and be successful citizens and productive citizens of this state of this country of the city of our Alexandria. A bunch of us got together from the community and we tried to figure out a way we could work with the city, parks, recreation and cultural activities and the Delray Business Association to form a a way we could work with the city, parks, recreation, and cultural activities, and the Delray Business Association to form a partnership whereby we could raise funds with a lot of the community members and also business owners. And then the city would provide matching funds that we could do park improvements. I think it's a park ownership because what we're trying to do is show that we have like a vested interest in this. Part of that vested interest is not only raising money, but also devoting time, volunteer work, that kind of thing. So part of this is like stewardship and ownership. And I think that's what's key working with the city and the community to get things done. It's easy to sit around and talk about what you want the city to do or demand things, but you gotta back up your words with action. I think that's what the Simpson Park Dog owners group does in partnership with the Business Association and the city. So we appreciate that and we look forward to more work ahead. The old tunnel Alexandria Farmers Market is the longest continuously running farmers market in the US. We've been open since 1753 and rumor has it that George Washington actually sold his vegetables on site here. We have about 75 different vendors here at the Old Town Farmers Market. Most of our produce is local. We draw farms from Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. Going to a farmers market means you're getting it very fresh. It's usually picked the day before. It hasn't traveled hundreds of miles to get here. There's a great deal more variety than what you would find in a supermarket. And you can talk to the grower and find out information about how to cook it, what the background is of the variety, and it's just much more interactive. We have had vendors who have been here for four generations and remember hearing stories about their appearance traveling to market with Corson Buggy. We raised on our farm and that farm has been in our family for 325 years. My family's had a farm in Hampshire County prior to the revolution. Now it's my grandfather's, great grandfather that started that. We also have a great contingency of really neat arts and crafts vendors. We have all kinds of events. We have yoga events once a month. We also do chef demos, cooking demos. We have kids activities like cooking decorating, face painting, pumpkin carving. So there's always something going on. And the relationships that you build are also important. So when you're shopping at a farmer's market, you can actually have that conversation with your vendor or with your rancher and ask them how they keep their capitals, ask them how they grow their peppers. It's just really nice to have this great community place to see neighbors and get fresh food and beautiful flowers. It's a gathering place for people who live in the area. So it's just part of our life. It's amazing the community and the support that we get here. They're very much so into small businesses, handmade, artisan products. We have poor customers who come back year after year after year. We get to know their family, we get to know their kids, and so it's a community thing. It's so important for people to shop local because you really are supporting your community when you shop at the farmers market. The Old Town Farmers Market has opened year-round, range, shine, or snow from 7 a.m. to 12 noon. We're located at 301 King Street, which is right at Market Square and front of City Hall. I'm going to be a little bit more careful. Thank you. The stormwater happens when it rains and the water runs off a hard surface like a rooftop, a parking lot, or a street. And it doesn't soak into the ground. So what this does is increases the amount of storm water, but also when that storm water runs across those hard surfaces or impervious areas, it can pick up pollutants. And this water goes straight to our storm drain system, which leads to our local streams, the Potelmic River, and eventually the Chesapeake Bay. So this is an important aspect of our lives. And we work hard at the city and the stormwater management program to protect our local streams To protect the Chesapeake Bay and to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and meeting our state and federal mandates while we protect the environment The city has two back-to-trucks dedicated to cleaning catch basins That's important because we have two primary functions. One is to clean the catch basins to prevent pollution from entering our streams and rivers. The second one is to remove the clogging and debris so that it will prevent flooding and you don't want that to happen. CCTV is a method we use in the city to prevent flooding. We send a camera down to locate water, soil and blocks in the soil line. Leif pick up street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, BMP inspections, and a list of discharged detection and elimination are all part of the city's stormwater program. We're building stormwater BMPs like bioretension cells and wet ponds to treat the runoff of hard surfaces throughout the city. The best way to help keep local streams, the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay clean is to prevent pollution before it starts. Pollution prevention is critical to the improvement of water quality in our streams. Strong water is truly an important aspect of our daily lives. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Todd's a great guy. I mean, look at him. What a sweetheart. Add a boy. Wait, Todd. What are you doing? How totally selfish and untodd like of you. Come on, Todd. Come on, man. 18 months ago my husband Ryan Brown got hit by a car while he was on his way home from work at the Baton Trademark Office. The injury rendered him immediately unconscious, put him in a coma for about two and a half weeks and then he was in the hospital for four months after that. 90% of people who have an injury like this never wake up. He has been an outpatient therapy since he got home learning how to basically do everything again, speak, walk, and regain its independence. My name is Brian Brown. Vision Zero is an all-hands-on-deck approach to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries in Alexandria by 2028. One crash that involves a death or serious injury is one too many. Alexandria is working to make our roads safer for all users and Vision Zero is our road map to getting that done. There was 37,000 deaths on U.S. roadways last year and it's expected to go over 40,000 in 2017. We haven't seen sharp increases like that since the mid-1960s. No one should have to experience the pain and suffering that goes along with an injury like this or a death. We have to change this old mindset that accidents will happen and take them seriously and do our part to avoid crashes. If we do that, we collectively as a community come together and reach zero deaths and seriously injured in city of Alexandria. We've received over a thousand comments from the community and what we've heard is that education, enforcement and engineering improvements are key to affecting change, along with working together to change the culture of how we move around our city each day. If there's something that we can do to help prevent this from happening to somebody else. Let's do it. It's important to me that if we can prevent an injury like Ryan's or I know there are several deaths in Alexandria last year from happening that that that happened. you you you you you you you you Thank 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. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come Become a member of a nationally accredited police department. Accept the challenge. Answer the call. Join our community. The Alexandria Police Department, recruiting now. 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. Calls me Duke of the Eyes. You know you're beautiful, right? No, you're beautiful. You're beautiful, right? You know you're beautiful. I got bullied for wearing glasses. Share if you're against bullying. We put it out there. Just took off. 3 million people have shared this post. Don't let bullies get you down. I stand with you. I call families wearing glasses. I wear glasses and I'm proud. I even have no army with my kids. All the concomits and my child joy. I don't feel thank you as enough. Yes. I'm sorry. I think most people just kind of see Call Click Connect and maybe the mayor and some city council issues, but we've learned everything from how IT works with old buildings to the benefits of the historical and archeological kind of digs that the city does. It really helps participants understand how city government and services work, while also providing a purpose for the work that they do. I thought it was really cool to learn from city employees who all are extremely passionate about their jobs and really not only knowledgeable but also what we're willing to give their own time to help us understand how our city works and functions and spends money. One of the things I really love about the city academy is the fact that you get a chance to tell the story. I mean it's our wants upon a time and wants the residents hear it when they leave, they go out and they become some of our strongest advocates. Fun! Everything! It's fun to come over here and listen and learn. I learned all the details that the CD does for their residents. Very interesting. I think everybody, every resident should be enrolled in. As someone who's been through the city academy, I can tell you it was a great way to spend nine weeks learning about the community and meeting some amazing people, helping make Alexandria, Alexandria. The fact that you get to meet so many interesting people who care about the city of Alexandria just like you there. One of the benefits of this program is the fact that you've developed some core relationships that can last for quite some time since my time in the program I've developed close bonds with people that I still talk to today. Alexandria's waterways are an integral part of our community. They contribute to a high quality of life for our residents and serve as an important draw for tourists. But while they're beautiful to look at, they can be unhealthy to swim or fish in. There are many different reasons for that, including stormwater runoff, pet waste, septic systems, and pollutants from streets and alleys, and our communities combine sewer system. That's why we've been doing something about it. 95% of Alexandria is served by separate pipes for stormwater and sewage, and all this sewage flows to treatment plants that clean the water before it goes back into local rivers and streams. Our community has already invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that we have one of the most modern and efficient treatment systems in the region. But in the oldest historic part of Alexandria, 5% of the city remains served by the original combined sewer system dating back to the 1800s. In a combined sewer system, both sewage and stormwater flow through the same pipes to the treatment plant. The problem is that almost every time it rains, the pipes can't handle the volume in a mixture of stormwater and sewage overflows into local waterways. This is allowed under state permits and federal law, but we're still working to change it. And more than 800 communities across the country are working to address similar issues. The overflows occur at four combined sewer outfalls, or CSOs. The first is located at the end of Pendleton Street at Ornoco Bay. The second is located at the end of Royal Street at Hunting Creek, and the third and fourth are along Duke Street at Huff Swen. All of our waterways lead to the Potomac River and eventually to the Chesapeake Bay. And while Alexandria's combined sewer system is only accountable for about 2% of the bacteria in our waterways, that's still 2% too much. For more than a decade, the city has required sewer separation as part of development and redevelopment projects in Old Town. As a result, the private sector has contributed tens of millions of dollars. The city has made extensive structural improvements to the outfalls and taken other proactive steps to address this issue. Our remediation plan includes the store and treat strategy being pursued by hundreds of other cities with combined sewer systems because it's less disruptive to neighbors and more cost-effective than other strategies. This involves building massive underground tanks and tunnels, some as big as a football field. They'll store the excess volume of stormwater and sewage when it rains. After the rain ends, the system will pump the storage tanks and tunnels back to the treatment plant. Overflows will only occur a few times a year during the heaviest of rains. Removing this quickly as we can to plan, design, and construct these tanks and tunnels. Each outflow requires different complex engineering solutions, and the work for all four outfalls must be coordinated simultaneously while adhering to federal and state regulations. Once construction begins, the work will require the removal of tens of thousands of truckloads of dirt and many months of pile driving. These are also very expensive projects costing about $400 million over 10 years. That money will come from significant increases in the sewer related fees paid for by residents, businesses, and nonprofits. Because this is such a large effort with significant financial and construction impacts, we're especially committed to involving the community in our progress and plans. We'll also do our best to mitigate the inconvenience of this work as much as possible. There's a lot to do in a short period of time, but we're moving forward to promote clean waterways for generations to come. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I'm going to get a little bit of a ride. I love you. Can we get your father's? Okay. you you you you you you you you you It's really how our communities only improve when we do our bid and it's easy and it's fun and you can make a big difference. For many many years, Rebellying Together has had volunteers come into this neighborhood here in Hume Springs and provide the free home repairs to the homeowners, and it's only a natural extension of ours to do community work. It's so cool to see that some people never came to the park and now folks are coming on a daily basis just because of the rehab. My motivation for helping kids and families in Alexandria is simple. I live here. I want to help kids and families in the place where I live. You know it makes sense to to me to make sure that our kids and families