The Downtown Plan: A Coalition Emerges

Almost a year since the first public conversations began to circulate around a new Downtown Plan for Richmond and just weeks before the draft plan should be migrating through city bureaucracy to City Council, a new advocacy group has emerged to make a case for a Downtown Master Plan that is transformational.

Envision Richmond is an alliance between the Partnership for Smarter Growth, Scenic Virginia, ACORN and the Coalition for Smarter Growth. They'll be throwing their first public event tomorrow night -- an Envision Richmond rally to support the proposed Downtown Plan. The educational and inspirational event starts on the patio at Penny Lane Pub (422 East Franklin Street) at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, May 5, and continues at the Times-Dispatch's Public Square conversation on the James River at 7:00 p.m. (happening just across the street in the TD building).

The timing couldn't be better.

For much of the past year, the creation and refinement of the new Downtown Plan has been a exercise in public engagement and conversation. As awkwardly as it began last summer, the conversation may well be one of the more public, more energetic and more creative processes ever experienced by residents of the city -- inviting thousands of people into a new conversation about the future.

In recent months, as the draft has moved toward adoption, things have become more political. Hard questions about the future relationship between VCU and the City of Richmond -- and between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the City of Richmond -- have emerged. The tension between private developers and public access of the James River has been heightened.

Despite the natural move toward politics -- what is government policy, if not political, really? -- the 10 month journey of this plan has been surprisingly smooth. It helps that it is visionary. It helps that it has had champions at a grassroots level. It helps that it is the very sort of process that the Richmond region is beginning to realize is essential to public engagement.

 

Take some time to visit the Envision Richmond website and learn about ways that you can get more engaged in the creation of a vibrant future for the City of Richmond. And welcome them to the conversation. It's only going to get better and better.