Fast on the heels of the release of the waterfront plan work group’s recommendations for the city’s Potomac shoreline, resident Joe Demshar unveiled yet another proposal for the riverfront.

Demshar’s proposal, sent to Alexandria City Council on December 22, calls for redeveloping the Robinson Terminals as mixed-use retail and residential or office buildings, with conservation easements granted along the river granted to the city.

At the Cummings and Turner properties, the city would exchange increased density at newer buildings for rehabilitation of the historic structures. The bottom floors would boast retail space with the upper floors slated for residential units or offices.
The existing ban on hotels along the waterfront would be upheld under Demshar’s proposal.

It’s not a perfect proposal, Demshar wrote, but is meant to show city officials better alternatives to their plan exist.

“I do not believe that the proposal presented here is an end point but is presented as a start from which better, more thoughtful and publicly supported options can be developed,” he wrote. “The proposal presented herein is meant to show that alternate better solutions are easily achievable; therefore, [city council] should not approve the current inferior plan.”

The waterfront work group unveiled their recommendations for the shoreline on December 20 after months spent debating the city’s proposal, approved by the planning commission in the spring. City Council is set to discuss the plan and the work group’s recommendations January 10 and could vote to adopt a final draft by January 21.