Hank Silverberg, wtop.com
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A redevelopment plan in a neighborhood that has had a lot of changes lately may be catching some local residents by surprise.
The neighborhood is part of the Beauregard small area plan, approved by the city council last week, just off Seminary Road near the Mark Center where there are heavy parking restrictions and more traffic in recent months because of an infusion of new workers.
Developers who own some of the apartments already in the neighborhood will tear down about 2,500 of them and build more luxurious and most likely more expensive ones. But some residents say they don’t know why.
A woman who lives in the Seminary Hill apartment complex, but did not want her name used, says the current apartments are pretty good.
“I’m already paying 18 hundred-something (a month) for a two bedroom so I don’t know how much higher they are gonna go up from there.”
Some tenants groups say as many as 10,000 people could be displaced by the redevelopment over the next few years, but the city disputes that figure.
Adding to the confusion, there’s no timetable for the demolition of the old housing or the new construction.
Developers will be asked to make $66 million in road improvements, construct a new $11 million fire house and spend $12 million on parks and open space as they put up the new apartments.
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