The City of Alexandria planners took on a big project recently focusing on taking the old look of Duke Street, running it through the modernization process, and publishing the “Duke Street Land Use Plan,” released Sept. 29. Now there is a 90-day period to look at it and make comments before the Nov. 13 deadline. https://www.alexandriava.gov/DukeStreetPlan
The plan includes many neighborhood-friendly steps to make the four-mile corridor a place for pedestrians to shop, ride bikes, sit in the shade and relax, and take time to pause and connect, it said. Currently the Duke Street corridor lacks continuity, and this plan is partly designed to pull it all together and synchronize the elements.
The plan was paid for with federal funding provided by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration’s Pilot Program for Transit-Oriented Development Planning which was awarded to the City in Spring 2024, the city information said. A year later, the city held their first public planning meeting where attendees voiced their opinion on areas of concentration, and those ideas were formulated into a working meeting in February 2026. “We discussed the community ideas we received,” it said on a project video, calling it a “collaborative effort.”
In the plan, the four-mile corridor is divided into 12 districts where they ask people to gather their thoughts considering five guiding principles. Elements some would like to see include grocery and retail serving neighborhoods, addressing congestion, unified corridor steps, housing affordability and support for local businesses. According to the latest slideshow, the plan has been presented at 10 community events, over 70 pop-ups and 250 businesses where it was viewed by over 5,000 people.
The Cameron Station Civic Association has been actively monitoring the plan for Duke Street for some time, said president Sunny Pietrafesa. It was the topic of their discussion at a meeting on Oct. 7.
The timeline for the parts of this project vary depending on a number of factors but planners are keeping their sites on 20 years out. The first activity that anyone will see in the near term will most likely come from property owners going through the permit process. In conjunction with that, some of the intersections along the corridor will experience improvement as well.
Comment Period
Find out more at https://www.alexandriava.gov/DukeStreetPlan
Comments can be submitted on the Engagement Hub https://alexandriava.mysocialpinpoint.com/draftplan or via email or phone to Christian Brandt, Christian.brandt@alexandriava.gov, 703-746-3859 until Friday, Nov. 13.