Taco Bell Withdraws Plan to Build After Neighborhood Uproar in Alexandria

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- It appears that a neighborhood effort to stop a Taco Bell restaurant from being built on Duke Street has paid off. The restaurant's owners have withdrawn their application to add the new location, according to a letter submitted on their behalf to the city.

The Taco Bell was being planned for 4213 Duke St. (see map below):

While residents in the general area were notified of the plans, a smaller group of residents in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood, living adjacent to the property, were slow to hear the news, and when they did, they fought back. The group of neighbors banded together and looked at the diagrams and traffic patterns and attended and spoke up at a planning commission hearing en masse. In addition to worries about traffic (especially on N. Gordon Street) in the area getting worse, some neighbors also said were concerned about property values and loitering; some said they could tolerate the restaurant, but without a drive-through, due to the noise at late hours.

Some of the other objections included:

• reduces the quality of life in the area
• pollution from idling cars
• potential for crime
• anti-walkability
• noise from loudspeakers
• negatively impact property values by 10 to 20 percent
• lighting
• pedestrian safety
• reversing walkability, bike-ability

While their actions did not deter the six planning commission members from voting for the project, a final vote before the City Council was delayed and now the project has been dropped.

The official reason, cited in a letter dated Feb. 10 from a representative of the owners to the City Department of Planning and Zoning:

PHOTO: Rendering of Taco Bell courtesy of City of Alexandria