Alexandria’s City Council has given final approval to a plan that will develop a vacant lot and replace a one-story barbershop in the Parker-Gray Historic District to make way for five four-story townhomes, where Another Level Hair Studio & Barbershop has operated for 17 years at 728 N. Patrick Street. The council voted to approve the project on October 17, clearing the way for construction at 724, 726 and 728 N. Patrick Street.
The vote was not unanimous. As reported by ALXnow, Council members John Taylor Chapman, Jacinta Greene and Abdel Elnoubi voted against the proposal. Chapman said he wants to keep businesses in the city and that losing economic activity to residential conversion troubled him, according to the outlet’s reporting. The Planning Commission had earlier approved the plan by a 6-0 vote before it reached the full council.
This was not the council’s first pass at the proposal. Last month, members deferred the plan specifically to discuss whether neighborhood-serving commercial space could be retained on the site, a debate that played out during a September 19 vote in which Chapman led a 5-2 decision to delay action, joined by Canek Aguirre, Sandy Marks, Elnoubi and Greene, while Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley opposed the deferral, per the same account.
Owner Says She Wasn’t Told About the Plans
Yvonne Wanzer, who has run Another Level Hair Studio & Barbershop at 728 N. Patrick Street for 17 years, said earlier this year that property owners had not initially notified her about the townhome proposal, according to ALXnow’s March reporting. She first heard of the project when ALXnow contacted her…