The Downtown Plan: Take Back Your City

Now that Richmond's Planning Commission is wrestling with the social and political hot potato we call the proposed Downtown Plan, it's time for the public to step forward and speak up. (Yes, once again, public.)

I know, I know. You went to the public sessions last summer and got magic marker ink all over your sleeves. And then you came out to the make-up session downtown in September -- only to hear the same mind-numbing traffic presentation and eat stale cookies. If that wasn't enough, you turned out -- not once, but twice -- to speak in City Council chambers about the proposed plan.

Here we go again.

The city's Planning Commission is inviting property owners and interested members of the public to continue to conversation on the draft Downtown Plan at a series of sessions focused on specific downtown districts:

• A discussion on the Manchester District will be held on Thursday, January 31, from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Bankuet Place at 1129 Hull Street.


• A discussion on the VCU and Downtown neighborhoods (including Monroe Ward, Oregon Hill and Carver) will be held on Monday, February 4, from 6 until 8 p.m. at the William Byrd Community House at 224 South Cherry Street.


• A discussion on the Shockoe District (including the Bottom and the Slip) will be held on Thursday, February 7, from 6 until 8 p.m. at Main Street Station at 1500 East Main Street.


• A discussion on the Broad Street and Jackson Ward communities will be held on Tuesday, February 12, from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Jackson Center Building at 501 North 2nd Street.


• A discussion on the James River (the river, islands and riverfront area) will be held on Tuesday, February 19, from 6 until 8 p.m. at the Main Library at 101 East Franklin Street.


• A discussion on the City Center (VCU Medical Center, Capitol Area and Central Office District) will be held on Wednesday, February 20, from 6 until 8 p.m. at City Hall's 5th floor conference room at 900 East Broad Street.

Triteness aside, these might well be among the most important public conversations on the Downtown Plan since more than 300 people filled Plant Zero for the public kick-off session in July.

Important for two reasons.

Reason the first -- the public conversations to-date suggest that many members of the Planning Commission are ready to err on the side of caution, practicality and those with big pockets. These six sessions create a space for the public -- especially residents and small business owners in the neighborhoods in question -- to step forward once again and share their dreams for the community.

Reason the second -- apparently the chairman of the Planning Commission is under the impression that there are 12 people who keep showing up to the Downtown Planning sessions, not some 1,200 people. And that the hundreds who have carved time out of their busy lives are mostly developers -- not the teachers, parents, businesspeople, students and homeowners that I remember seeing turn out to dream about a future Richmond. Here's what Bob Mills told the Times-Dispatch:

Mills says it's important to recognize that the hundreds of people who turned out for workshops on the draft, many of them preservationists, do not represent all of Richmond.

It's about time the voters and taxpayers of Richmond step forward and reclaim their city from tunnel vision leadership. Our chance to lead the conversation starts on January 31.