Joe Sestak, a former Congressman and naval officer, wrote an excellent OP-ED about the future of the Torpedo Factory and the City of Alexandria's misguided plans for it.
The strength and excellence of this piece elicited a response from City staff. Below is a synopsis of Mr. Sestak's point-by-point rebuttal.
Several have asked for a synopsis of the memo I sent on April 23 (attached below). It provided a counter-point to comments Mr. Johnson made in the paper he sent them on April 20 regarding my OPED, No Higher Honor. Mr. Johnson’s main argument is that there are no plans to remove artist studios. Mine is that City Council voted to implement the “Action Plan”, eliminating 30% to 39% of the studios. All references for the statements below are in the attached memo.
Synopsis
On February 20,2021, Council voted to implement the “Action Plan for Vibrancy.” The Plan’s eight pages specified ten “actions” to be taken. One was to “re-design” the first floor for “public-facing” features. Examples ranged from a gallery for traveling exhibits to “Make-it” spaces. A second action was to “repurpose space” on the third floor to accommodate more than 100 people for functions that generate rent. On October 19, 2021, City briefed the Waterfront Commission that these actions would remove 39% of artist studios, with diagrams showing elimination of all studios on the first floor with the remaining being eliminated on the third floor. $845,000 was put in the FY 2022 city budget “for implementation of the Action Plan items, including the first and third floor renovations.”
On December 14, 2021, Council voted to re-affirm its direction to implement the Action Plan after it was briefed on the identical options as the Waterfront Commission regarding the first and third floor (a third option that kept the Torpedo Factory “as is, in good working order” was not part of the “Action Plan” that the Council voted to implement).
Under the preferred option of the Action Plan, it stated that the FY 2023 Capital Investment Plan would include “Proposed Funding for Engagement/Planning/Design.” The briefer said the design and planning for the renovation would be done in FY 2023 and 2024 so that the renovation itself might be able to start mid-2025.
In January 2022, $3.2 million dollars were put in the budget, spread over FY 2023 -2025. The budget stated the funding could be used for the implementation of the Action Plan. It also included $745,000 not yet spent of the original $845,000 for the first and third floor renovation.
The attached memo below also provides answers, with references, to other items commented upon by Mr. Johnson.
Respectfully,
Joe Sestak
The longer, more detailed reply can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1kVnzwI2JsdtBDyebMt_Gs_JhGKx-Ej7w?usp=sharing