About 400 people met to discuss
Richmond’s downtown master plan
Thursday night at the Renaissance
Convention Center.
At the community meeting, cityplanning
specialists, residents, business
representatives and government
officials discussed their visions for the
expansion of downtown Richmond.
Residents have been involved in
the planning process since it began
in July 2007. Audience members,
especially those who were hearing
the plan for the first time Thursday
night, were urged to contribute their
thoughts and ideas.
“Your participation is critical,” said
Rachel Flynn, director of community
development.
The six foundations for change,
used as starting points for discussion,
included viewing Richmond as a traditional
city, making use of the James
River, renewing urban architecture,
ensuring a variety of housing and
retail options for residents, expanding
in an environmentally sustainable way
and understanding and preserving
Richmond’s history.
Before planning began, associates
from town-planning, landscape-architecture
and sustainable-development
firms from Florida, Virginia and New
Jersey gathered input from Richmond
residents by conducting interviews
and holding meetings.
Since July, the plan has undergone
numerous revisions, all heavily based
on input and ideas from residents.
“Now we have a soft draft, and we
came up with these six big ideas,” said
Victor Dover, principal for town-planning
firm Dover, Kohl and Partners.
To re-establish Richmond, the
city needs to be inviting to walkers,
Dover said.
“Pedestrians are No. 1,” Dover
said.
After a resident asked about building
bike lanes, he said, the city
also should seek to accommodate
bicyclists.
“We need to stop accommodating
the cars,” Flynn said. “People come
(downtown) for the restaurants and
activities . not for the parking.”
The plan does include some ideas aimed to serve
drivers. Plans to restore a two-way traffic pattern and
create more public parking were seen by some as
beneficial for both drivers and pedestrians, because
two-way streets bring more people, cars and businesses
downtown.
“There is better retail on a two-way street,” said Rick
Hall of Hall Planning and Engineering Inc., a transportation,
planning and engineering firm.
“With increased foot traffic, you must reduce
speed,” Hall said.
Hall presented a chart showing the decrease in
pedestrian deaths in areas of town with speed limits of
25 mph or lower.
Regardless of automobile traffic, Dover said, pedestrians
do not want to walk among empty lots and
blank walls. These are what he considers “lost spaces”
that detract from the unified feel of a city.
“Let’s find the lost spaces and show how they can
be knitted together,” Dover said.
One area that can easily unify downtown is the
James River, Richmond’s “great, wet, central park,”
said Elliot Rhodeside of Rhodeside and Harwell, a
landscape-architecture and planning service.
Plans to re-open Mayo Island and make the river more
accessible to pedestrians include constructing footbridges
and walkways similar to the Canal Walk downtown.
“The James River rivals any open space anywhere in
the country,” Rhodeside said.
It is important to focus on the little things that make
a town special, Flynn said. Other plans have not given
as much precedence to the river, she said, which is
why this plan is different from others.
“(We must) refuse to copy our failures,” Dover said.
This means learning from our mistakes and rebuilding,
he said.
Blank walls, sterile facades and open, un-used spaces
detract from Richmond’s hometown feel, he said. Dover
proposed some common architectural threads, such
as upright windows, elevated porches and doors that
face the street, as ways to unite the area, making it
more attractive to walkers.
Another solution to eliminating the sterile, concrete
look of parking garages is to put shops with pedestrian
access on the ground level of parking complexes.
This creates a buffer from the dull look of a garage,
Dover said.
Shops need to be affordable for all citizens, an
audience member said. He feared downtown would be
turned into a large version of Richmond’s Carytown
area, conflicting with a key focus to ensure that
residents of different socioeconomic levels have access
to housing, shopping and entertainment.
But Dover said access will be provided through a
wide range of transportation options. He proposed a
possible steel-wheeled streetcar system.
“Richmond had the first successful electric trolley
system,” said Stew Schwartz from the Coalition for
Smarter Growth, a company that plans smarter sustainable
city growth.
The plan needs to not only expand housing and
transportation options, but it also needs to provide basic
“demographic support” in the housing market, said
Laurie Volk of Zimmerman/Volk Associates, a company
that analyzes sustainable development.
Volk predicted 16,050 households move to Richmond
annually, and, she said, this growth includes people from
both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum. This expands
the need for the city to provide housing options, such
as apartments and townhouses, for rent and for sale to
support a wide range of residents, she said.
In addition to being mindful of all levels of income,
the city also needs to consider its effects on the environment
as it expands, Dover said. The city’s expansion
needs to be done in a green way, he said.
“It’s not easy being green, but we should do it,”
Dover said.
Re-greening efforts include planting long-lasting
shady trees along streets, expanding and connecting
the park system, constructing low-impact drainage
systems for storm water, planting gardens on rooftops
and ensuring that architecture is environmentally
friendly.
One audience member suggested the city provide
utilities for electric, battery-powered and hybrid cars.
The downtown master plan includes Oregon Hill,
Monroe Park, Jackson Ward and similar areas rich
in Richmond’s history. The planners see this history
as not only important to the city’s identity, but also
as a big business draw, too.
“There is lots of money to be made (from Richmond’s
historic sites),” Dover said.
The plan needs to protect and preserve historic
resources, he said, while attracting residents and outof-
towners to the area. Also, new architecture needs
to be deemed worthy to be among the area’s historic
buildings, he said.
But one audience member was concerned that
too-stringent regulations on architecture will stifle
the creative nature of Richmond’s architects. Another
resident pushed for more youth-oriented, creative
business outlets, such as a skate-and-BMX park, to
draw youth downtown.
On the other end of the spectrum, one resident said
the city needs to ensure there is ample housing for
elderly residents. Other audience members called for
a heightened awareness about gentrification and race
relations in areas included in the plan, as well as in
areas such as Gilpin Court, which are outside the plan’s
boundaries.
The planners said they will use the suggestions of
the residents and continue to finalize the draft, with
hopes to release another draft in November.
In the meantime, residents can look at the current
plans and mock-ups online at: richmondgov.com/departments/
communitydev/downtownmasterplan.aspx