COA Contact Us - City of Alexandria

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RATIONALE:
--My family
and I are thrilled to have Mr. Anderson coming to Del Ray. We have lived
in Del Ray since 1998 (with two children in Alexandria public schools)
and--as is the case with most residents who have lived in this neighborhood
since that time (or earlier), we are very aware of the importance of smart
business investment in creating the neighborhood that Del Ray has become.
Everything we have heard about Mr. Anderson indicates that he is continuing
the Del Ray tradition of smart and responsible business investment, and we
could not be happier about his addition to our neighborhood.
--As active
supporters of Del Ray businesses, we also are aware and appreciative of the
need for small businesses to be able to survive economically. Those
businesses that choose to locate in Del Ray do so (in our opinion) with
good reason: this is a neighborhood that can and does support local
businesses, and it is not hard to understand why Mr. Anderson finds Del Ray
an attractive location for his new restaurants.
--Our concern is that.
with operating hours extended beyond those voted on by the Planning
Commission and recommended by their professional staff (1 lpm weeknights,
midnight on weekends), these new restaurants will set a precedent that
could detract from the neighborhood character so carefully created and
maintained over the last two decades. There are two aspects of precedence
that concern us:
(1) The hours Mr. Anderson has requested would be
unprecedented relative to other businesses in the neighborhood (with no
apparent compelling reason to create new precedent).
(2) These new hours
would create a new precedent--it is difficult to believe that other
restaurants in the neighborhood would not immediately make the same request
(and it is reasonable to expect that future businesses will push for even