diff --git a/Packages.props b/Packages.props
index 80e19e34..8cf50b09 100644
--- a/Packages.props
+++ b/Packages.props
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient.AlwaysEncrypted.AzureKeyVaultProvider" Version="1.1.1" />
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SmoMetadataProvider" Version="170.12.0" />
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx" Version="162.0.34-preview" />
-		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects" Version="162.1.3-alpha" />
+		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects" Version="162.1.6-alpha" />
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.Azure.Kusto.Data" Version="9.0.4" />
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.Azure.Kusto.Language" Version="9.0.4" />
 		<PackageReference Update="Microsoft.SqlServer.Assessment" Version="[1.1.17]" />
diff --git a/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.3-alpha.nupkg b/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.3-alpha.nupkg
deleted file mode 100644
index 95a66db6..00000000
Binary files a/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.3-alpha.nupkg and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.6-alpha.nupkg b/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.6-alpha.nupkg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..de16d788
Binary files /dev/null and b/bin/nuget/Microsoft.SqlServer.DacFx.Projects.162.1.6-alpha.nupkg differ
diff --git a/src/Microsoft.SqlTools.ServiceLayer/SqlProjects/SqlProjectsService.cs b/src/Microsoft.SqlTools.ServiceLayer/SqlProjects/SqlProjectsService.cs
index 5224c827..64a26aaf 100644
--- a/src/Microsoft.SqlTools.ServiceLayer/SqlProjects/SqlProjectsService.cs
+++ b/src/Microsoft.SqlTools.ServiceLayer/SqlProjects/SqlProjectsService.cs
@@ -531,9 +531,8 @@ namespace Microsoft.SqlTools.ServiceLayer.SqlProjects
         {
             await RunWithErrorHandling(() =>
             {
-                SqlProject project = GetProject(requestParams.ProjectUri, onlyLoadProperties: true);
-                project.SqlCmdVariables.Delete(requestParams.Name); // idempotent (won't throw if doesn't exist)
-                project.SqlCmdVariables.Add(new SqlCmdVariable(requestParams.Name, requestParams.DefaultValue));
+                SqlProject project = GetProject(requestParams.ProjectUri!, onlyLoadProperties: true);
+                project.SqlCmdVariables.Update(requestParams.Name, requestParams.DefaultValue); // won't throw if doesn't exist
             }, requestContext);
         }