Alexandria Eyes New Metro for Potomac Yard

Just in time to reap some juicy stimulus dollars, the City of Alexandria is now exploring an additional front in their ongoing plans for the redevelopment of the city's former industrial sector, Potomac Yard. This month, the Alexandria City Council formally established the Metrorail Station Feasibility Work Group with the express purpose of "assess[ing] the technical and financial analyses required for a potential new Metrorail Station in Potomac Yard."

Both the Planning Commission and City Council expressed interest in a possible Metro expansion into Potomac Yard back in May 2008, when they undertook a "preliminary analysis of concept." That study resulted in a Washington Metro Area Transit Authority estimate that priced the project at $125 to $150 million with an operating cost of roughly $1 million per year. The hope is that a Metro outlet in the currently barren Potomac Yard quadrant of Alexandria will kick start – or, at the very least, accelerate - the redevelopment effort that aims to add 1 million square feet of office space, 750,000 square feet of retail, 2500 residential units and an undetermined number of hotel rooms to Northern Virginia.

Members of the Work Group include William Euille and Timothy Lovain of the City Council; Eric Wagner of the Planning Commission; Noah Teates of the Potomac Yard Planning Advisory Group; and Jennifer Mitchell of the Transportation Commission. The Work Group will hold its first public meeting on Thursday, February 17^th. The meeting will be held at the Sister Cities Conference Room at 7 PM.

Though the House and Senate versions of the stimulus package have yet to be reconciled with one another, both versions contain large - though differing - amounts for infrastructure spending. Once the money is routed to the State Legislature (and possibly WMATA), these seems like precisely the type of project they'd be willing to explore. Barring, of course, that it doesn't cut into the caviar fund.