The Downtown Plan: Second Meeting, First Blush

If you attended tonight's community meeting on Richmond's new Downtown Plan, you're forgiven for thinking it was all a little bit of déjà vu all over again.

The meeting was essentially a do-over, or more politely a way for the city's community development department to reach out to a more diverse swath of Richmond's population than attended the week-long public planning session in July. In that regard it was a success.

Once again, Victor Dover (a principal of the esteemed urban planning firm, Dover Kohl) brought his traveling roadshow and adopted a now-familiar persona -- that of an urban planing tour guide on a stroll through Richmond's downtown. Dover's relaxed presentation was important for about half of the 500 people gathered at the Renaissance Conference Center. For the rest of us, it was, at best, a good refresher.

Tacking on an additional hour of mind-numbing presentations on transportation, economics and housing only helped to clear the room. By 7:30, about 10% of the audience hit the streets -- followed at the next natural break by another 50 people. One lesson the urban planning community hasn't quite learned is how to engage and inspire through presentation.

So, what were the take-aways?

If applause is a measure of the audience's priorities, then Richmond wants more than good design downtown -- it wants bike lanes and affordable housing; it wants someone to fix the schools and to help the homeless; it wants a green city, and a city built around the James River.

From the get-go, Dover emphasized that the maps and slides and concepts being introduced were drafts. Drafts. He scribbled the word on every slide as he spoke, enunciated it, spelled it out, continuously reminded the audience that nothing about the discussion was concrete.

"The word draft is the most important thing you'll see all night," Dover said. "This is soft clay, because we're making changes as we go. The clay is still soft so the input you give us, so that those inputs are taken into consideration."

There were at least two significant threads that bound Dover's comments together -- the James River and a "size ain't everything" philosophy.

Dover continued to hammer home what might become one of the more regrettable phrases of the year -- again and again, describing the James River as "your great, wet Central Park."

His point: "If the James River is the goldmine of tomorrow, if you buy that idea, it is important to protect," he said. Protect the views. Create more ways to get to the river, to walk along the river, to experience the river. Explore ways to transform the privately-owned Mayo Island into a public space, a centerpiece for the James.

Size continued to be another theme, though it wasn't spelled out as a guiding principle.

"During the troubled period of urban renewal," Dover said, referencing the 1960s and 1970s, "we ate big pieces of the city for parking and for mega-structures. A very different approach is suggested here. Let's find the lost spaces ... and show how they can be knitted back together without relying on a single mega-project to make it happen."

As he walked through the six driving principles of the plan (described here) -- the traditional city concept, the significance of the James River, the value of good architectural guidelines, the importance of variety and choice, the idea of a green urban environment and the importance of historic preservation -- Dover flashed through many of the same slides and images he presented in his closing presentation last July. Interspersed were maps and illustrations depicting representations of how each of the downtown neighborhoods could evolve as part of the new Downtown Plan. (My summary of some of those maps is here.)

There was about an hour of question-and-answer toward the end of the session. The good news for the community development department is that many of the speakers applauded the quality of the planning work-to-date, and the selection of Dover Kohl to lead the work. Exit surveys, comment forms and more blank maps for people to cover with ink and idea were also in place to generate more input.

Dover Kohl's team will take tonight's feedback and finalize the proposed Downtown Plan, which will begin to make its way through the community, the city Planning Commission and the City Council in the late October/early November timeframe.

Comments

[John Witherspoon]

Here Here!! I am all for bike lanes in the city to increase bicycle commuting. As my job location just moved smack into downtown and as I am an avid rider it is definitely on my mind. My only problem is...I don't live in the city, so getting to the bike lanes in the city is also a problem. As other city with bike transportation orgs have done, creating lanes for commuters on main thoroughfares that lead into the city center is a large priority. Just something to think about, since I have to commute from the burbs. YAY!! Funny question, what happens when more than 2 people show up to at GRTC bus stop with bikes, and are getting on the same bus. Last time I checked there are only 2 spots on the rack. haha

[bridgette]

Thanks for the great, thorough writeup. Those of us who couldn't make it last night really appreciate it!

[Jennifer Young- Vibrant Landscapes]

I agree it was pretty much of a review, which I understand was necessary, but at night with no dinner...yawn. I could not get hold of a mic, but would like to have heard more specifics about "next steps" and the actual process that will have to be undertaken to get this plan not only reviewed by "the deciders" but also voted upon and (hopefully) adopted and implented. There was only brief mention of implementation at the end of the night, and maybe I'm jumping the gun, but at this point that seems to be an important question. I admit complete ignorance to how these things usually work. But surely it will take some considerable changes to city code/ordinances to get some of the structural changes under way. Then there is our "gold mine" of Mayo Island and along the river banks-- as someone brought up last night again in Q&A, a lot of it does not belong to the city. I wonder what kind of price tag is attached to that process and what is the likelihood of transfer? And if there is no transfer there would have to be some kind of ordinance that would control development and enable public use and access. Seems it may be a long process, but certainly one that is worth pursuing. I hope when it comes to that our government will be at least as committed to the plan as the attending citizens have been.