Erik Wemple, editor-in-chief of the Washington City Paper, is leaving the alt-weekly for higher ground, City Desk reports.

Wemple’s been tapped to lead a new, all-local online venture planned by Robert Allbritton, the brain behind the Capitol Hill upstart newspaper Politico and owner of local ABC affiliate WJLA and News Channel 8. Allbritton’s new project is estimated to have 50 staffers, some culled from WJLA and News Channel 8 and others brought from outside. Though no date has been set in stone, a launch is expected in late spring 2010. Wemple will officially leave the City Paper in mid-March.

Wemple has led the City Paper since 2002 and has long been known for his withering critiques of the Washington Post. More recently, he was charged with steering the alt-weekly through difficult ownership changes, painful staff layoffs and an awkward shift toward producing more online content. His jump to the new, yet unnamed Allbritton venture won’t be the first time he set his sights beyond the City Paper. In June 2006, he was tapped to take the top spot at the Village Voice, a position he resigned before even moving to New York.