Councilman Justin Wilson sent out a news letter that touched about regulation of small business in Alexandria, along with official proposals to steamline bureaucracy. Some highlights (emphasis is mine):
- Currently, many business uses within the City fall under the purview of our Special Use Permit (SUP) process-which requires an application for a particular business use to be heard first by the Planning Commission and finally by the City Council. This process is often costly, and frequently unpredictable. At any given point during the process, an application may be rejected–sometimes many months after the process was begun.
- For some entrepreneurs, even the prospect of the SUP process is so discouraging that they tend to locate their business outside of Alexandria, or not open their business in the first place. This process can also have the perverse affect of benefitting the larger chains to the detriment of small businesses, as the larger chains have greater capital available during the business inception, and therefore less risk of failure.
- The changes approved by the Planning Commission remove the requirement of the SUP for some uses, require only an Administrative SUP (an SUP approved by the City Staff, not the Planning Commission and City Council) in other uses, as well as change the way minor amendments to existing SUPs may be handled.
- For those with children, you know that 1-2 year waiting lists are not at all uncommon within Alexandria. These changes would allow childcare centers and preschools to locate within commercial zones without an SUP. The proposed changes would also allow childcare centers and pre-schools seeking to locate in existing church or school buildings within residential zones to do so with an Administrative SUP.
- … Staff analysis found that Alexandria stands alone in the DC region in the level of regulatory burden we apply to new restaurants seeking to open with the City. The proposed changes allow restaurants in shopping centers, hotels and industrial buildings without an SUP. In other locations an Administrative SUP would be required for restaurants meeting a specified list of requirements. The Planning Commission did choose to exclude Old Town from these new restaurant provisions.
