By Caitlyn Meisner | cmeisner@alextimes.com

City Council affirmed the Board of Architectural Review’s certificate of appropriateness for the development of a multi-family residential building at 301 N. Fairfax St. on July 2 in a 6-1 decision.

Councilor John Taylor Chapman voted against affirming the certificate, which is in line with his previous decisions on this project. At the Jan. 20 public hearing where the project was approved, Chapman also voted against its approval.

A certificate of appropriateness was approved by the BAR on May 15 and is required for “all new construction and exterior alterations in the historic districts which are visible from a public street, way, place or the Potomac River,” the design guidelines for the Old and Historic District document states.

The guidelines also state that any final decision of the BAR can be appealed to City Council and will be heard at a public hearing, which was the case on July 2.

The certificate was approved upon conditions by both the BAR and Council, which state that the applicant must work with staff to revise the design of the main entrance, ensure terrace dividers are minimally visible, use a rainscreen system on all elevations and ensure the color of cast stone elements do not fade.

James Spencer, chair of the BAR, was given the opportunity to speak in front of Council about the decision.

“This project was a tough project for the board,” Spencer said. “The motion that did pass was really about the board really loving this building and loving the architecture of the building. … There were a bunch of architectural nerdy details that we really got into on this project that we really appreciated.”

Spencer said he, the board and Bill Conkey, a historic preservation architect for the city, wanted to make sure the building was “built to last” and would fit into the community both now and in the future.

Nancy Petit spoke on behalf of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit against City Council, the City of Alexandria and the project owner at the public hearing; she stated this project fails to “preserve and protect” the historic interest in Alexandria.

Councilor R. Kirk McPike asked Conkey, the staff representative for the BAR at the meeting, if these conditions in the certificate were normal. Conkey said these conditions were “quite standard” on a project like this.

The planned project at 301 N. Fairfax St. is a multi-family building with 48 for-sale units, two of which are set aside as affordable. There will be an underground parking garage with dozens of spaces as well. The current lot hosts a 1970s office building.

Opposition to this project has been ongoing for more than a year now. A petition, which began circulating in summer 2023, has received more than 900 signatures to date. Due to this petition, Section 11-808 of the city’s zoning ordinance mandated City Council receive a vote of approval by three-fourths or more of Council.

Council agreed to defer a vote on the project until there was a majority of councilors present at a meeting in late December 2023. Councilor Alyia Gaskins, who ultimately voted to approve the project, was not present at the meeting. The project needed at least six votes to pass.

There has since been a lawsuit filed and dismissed in the Alexandria Circuit Court to halt this project from proceeding. The residents, in their lawsuit, stated the Jan. 20 decision by Council was adopted in contradiction to section 5-305 of the city’s zoning ordinance.

The chief complaint of the residents was the increase of the floor area ratio and rezoning the area from “commercial downtown” to “commercial residential mixed use-high”; the developer asked Council to approve a 2.5 FAR – the maximum was 1.25 –and it was approved 6-1.

This lawsuit was ultimately dismissed by Alexandria Circuit Court Judge Lisa Kemler, who ruled the residents were incorrect in their interpretation of city statutes. The same group of residents filed an appeal on June 17 of the Circuit Court’s decision in the Virginia Appeals Court.

One of the plaintiffs told the Times the appeals process is long and a decision won’t come until the summer or fall of 2025. They said it is still in its early stages and the plaintiffs have not yet filed a brief with the court.

“We’ve now appealed it to the Richmond-based appeals court, and it’ll be taken up by an independent panel of judges [who are] far more independent of the political ecosystem in Alexandria than I think the Circuit Court was,” the plaintiff said.