Manassas City Council approves plan for downtown

By: Kipp Hanley | Inside NoVA
Published: June 17, 2008

The Manassas City Council approved a downtown sector plan Monday after concluding the second of two public hearings on the matter.

In all, the city has eight goals as part of the sector plan study, which range from improving the retail core in Old Town, enhancing adjacent neighborhoods and encouraging the protection of the city’s historic character.

Also included in the plan is a re-design of the land use map, which could make future re-zoning easier.

The plan was developed by city staff, business leaders and residents over the last year and a half. Now that the plan has been approved, the city staff will maintain contact with its residents and business leaders through community forums likely to be scheduled by this fall.

Two such forums will be held with members of the Prince William Street community as well as the Liberty Street/Douglas Street corridor. Some of the items to be discussed will be maintenance and traffic issues.

Many representatives of the largely black community on Liberty and Douglas streets came to the first public hearing last month to express their opinions and to listen to the overall plan presented by Community Development Director, Elizabeth Via. One of those concerns was keeping the neighborhood residential in nature, which the approved plan does.

The city will reconvene its parking task force approximately six months after the Virginia Railway Express/City parking garage opens this summer, Via said. Also, city staff will be meeting with Battle Street store owners to discuss parking issues before going back to the Land Use Committee for further review.

The plan for Battle Street — which Via calls at this point just a “pretty picture” — would make the Old Town street one way from Church Street to Prince William Street while widening the sidewalks on either side of the road.

Via said the city’s public works department will be collecting parking data and determining the location of utilities before construction can begin on the street.

The 2009 fiscal budget includes $325,000 for Battle Street improvements.