Del Ray and the DRCA: Change and continuity

By Bill Hendrickson, President
Del Ray Citizens Association

This month I leave office after serving two one-year terms as DRCA president. This is the second time I have headed the DRCA. I was president for two years between 2000 and 2002.

When I became president in 2000, Del Ray was on the cusp of but not quite the hot neighborhood it has become today.

In the ensuing years, Del Ray has changed as younger, more affluent, and very busy professional people have moved in. Busy people typically have little time for civic activity, especially if they have children. Not surprisingly, participation in the DRCA has fallen.

We would have more involvement if we had a major problem or issue facing us. But we don’t. We are a stable, prosperous, and amenity-rich community.

Also, when I became president in 2000, there did not yet exist the plethora of Web-based information sources, or the many devices to access that information, that we have today. Back then, the printed DRCA newsletter and membership meetings were primary sources of neighborhood news and information.

Despite the new information sources available today, the DRCA continues to play a valuable community role in providing information and education. To maintain and enhance our quality of life, the DRCA keeps tabs on many aspects of civic life, including land use, public safety, transportation, parks and recreation, and housing. We monitor city activity, interact with city staff, and attend key meetings to advocate for Del Ray. We make sure you know about issues affecting our neighborhood.

Perhaps the biggest concern during the past two years is a perennial one: vehicle traffic. Howell and Custis Avenue residents are concerned about increased traffic on their streets from the Potomac Yard project. Residents of East Glendale and East Luray are concerned about more traffic because of the soon-to-be-opened street connection to Potomac Yard at Glendale.

Such concerns are understandable, given the urbanizing nature of Alexandria. We are becoming a much denser, more populated city.

One of the greatest increases in density is happening immediately to the east of Del Ray. The 1999 Potomac Yard plan allowed about 6 million square feet of development, and the 2010 North Potomac Yard plan added another 7.5 million square feet. Now, a developer is proposing about 1.5 million square feet of development at the Oakville Triangle industrial park.

We will need to continue to closely monitor these projects and work to ensure they not only do not degrade our quality of life but also actually enhance it. One exception to the drop in neighborhood civic participation in recent years has been heartening: There appears to be a strong interest in preserving and enhancing Del Ray’s essential historical character.

In November 2012, nearly 150 people attended the Del Ray Historic Preservation Conference that I organized. Because of this interest, the city agreed to develop a number of initiatives aimed at preserving our historic structures. A kick-off meeting for this project in March was very well attended.

The DRCA has long been the leader in historic preservation in Del Ray. We provided the initial research funding for the application to make part of Del Ray a national historic district. Today, we promote historic preservation by selling plaques to owners of contributing structures to the Town of Potomac National Register Historic District.

It’s important that we remain vigilant. I worry, for example, about the rare mail-order church at 2707 Dewitt Ave., where we held a DRCA membership meeting in March 2013. The pastor told me at the time that the church may move and that he has received inquiries from developers who would demolish the historic structure and build housing.

We must remain vigilant, too, to threats to valued community services. We have fought (somewhat successfully) for more evening hours at one of our great neighborhood hubs, Duncan Library. We supported keeping the Warwick Village pool open, a key resource for families and for less-advantaged children who need to learn how to swim.

The DRCA has also been a leader in maintaining and enhancing our parks and public open space. Last year, we forged a partnership with the city to continue the implementation of the community-supported design of the pocket park at East Del Ray and Commonwealth Avenues. Construction is scheduled to begin soon.

The DRCA also provided input into the recently approved improvement plan for Del Ray’s Simpson Park. But most of those improvements are unfunded. The DRCA will need to be a strong advocate of implementing this plan.

In addition, dedicated volunteers led by Jim Snyder and Cindy Clemmer continue to pick up trash in six neighborhood parks and open space areas, earning money for park improvements under the city’s Adopt-a-Park program.

I would like to thank some of the people who have helped me during the past two years and who help to keep the DRCA and Del Ray strong.

Incoming DRCA President Jay Nestlerode has provided leadership in dealing with concerns about vehicle traffic in the neighborhood. He also organized the DRCA’s first annual chili cook-off as well as our National Night Out event.

DRCA treasurer Tim Herbert has provided a major service by designing a new, user-friendly DRCA website, and, with the valuable assistance of Jon Quandt, making it work.

Virginia Amos and Elise Reeder, co-chairs of the DRCA’s Del Ray House and Garden Tour, were clearly truly inspired this year, and the results showed, with our most successful tour ever.

Thanks to board members Danielle Fidler, Meg Schiffman, Rob Blumel, and past DRCA president Sean Crumley for their contributions and to Lisa Quandt and Danielle Fidler for their work as co-chairs of the Land Use Committee.

Thanks to David Fromm, past DRCA president and longtime former board member, for his continued help, especially in providing valuable background of past DRCA actions that everyone else had forgotten.

Finally, thank you to my wife, Laurie MacNamara, who read and copyedited the DRCA newsletter, for her strong support for all my endeavors. My eight-year-old daughter Fiona was occasionally dragged to DRCA membership meetings this year. But she found ways to compensate. Case in point: the red velvet cupcakes that showed up as refreshments at May’s meeting.

Finally, the DRCA works only because individuals volunteer and take the initiative to do something. I urge each of you to step up and help keep Del Ray great.