The Downtown Plan: The TD on the River (and Bonus Links)

Trapped in Washington, DC, with spotty Internet access last week, I was apparently remiss in posting about the TD's coverage of last Tuesday's public discussion on the James River portion of Richmond's proposed Downtown Plan. (I did, however, find myself compelled to post my own coverage of the session. Funny, that.)

What I like most about the TD's coverage is that if you scroll down a bit on the page, you'll discover a series of links to most of the articles the paper has published on the Downtown Plan. Alternately, you can just head to the Buttermilk & Molasses official Downtown Plan summary page and desalinate your eyes there.

Here's how reporter Kiran Krishnamurthy saw things last week:

Richmond needs to capitalize on the James River. There was no quarrel on that last night.

But how best to do that was up for debate at a meeting on the city's draft Downtown Master Plan.

"Not everybody wants to hike a secluded trail," Paul Hammond, who lives on Franklin Street, said at the meeting held by city planning officials. "We need to maximize the economic benefit the river can give us without damaging it."

Future development along the river is a controversial part of the draft plan -- some of the land denoted as riverfront parkland is now in private hands.