City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: FEBRUARY 5, 2020
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
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Update on the Planning Process for Arlandria and Del Ray.
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ISSUE: What did we learn from the fall community listening sessions and several months of outreach in the Arlandria and Del Ray neighborhoods and how will that shape the rest of the planning process?
RECOMMENDATION: Provide feedback on the fall engagement activities and guidance on the proposed planning process.
BACKGROUND: The Department of Planning and Zoning is partnering with the Office of Housing and other City departments to update the Plans for Arlandria and Del Ray (including the 2005 Mount Vernon Avenue Business Plan and the 2003 Arlandria Action Plan, as shown in Attachment 6).
For the initial stage of the plan update process, staff launched a process to engage the community early to hear about their issues and concerns, and ensure that engagement was inclusive, equitable, and conducted in a variety of different formats and geographic locations. Prior to that outreach, the City reached out to stakeholders and invited community and neighborhood organizations and businesses in and around Arlandria and Del Ray to help shape fall community conversations.
Staff's proactive approach to engaging the entire community was based on a bilingual experience with all outreach and engagement done in both Spanish and English. This included the project webpage, eNews notifications, flyers, questionnaires, meetings, pop-ups, and mobile engagement. In addition to utilizing in-house Spanish language speakers, the City hired a communications consultant with experience presenting to and engaging the Latinx community and developed community ambassadors early to ensure effective outreach.
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DISCUSSION: Over the course of the fall engagement in Arl...
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