God bless politicians for they have given us a spectator sport more enduring than the Indy 500 and more exhausting than a null score World Cup soccer match. In Richmond, we call it the Downtown Master Plan process.
Oddly enough, it started as a participatory sport -- pulling hundreds of Richmond residents together to envision their best sense of a new downtown in a series of meetings during the summer of 2007. Somewhere along the way, its orbit changed and it became a bureaucratic football that has been kicked around City Hall for more than a year now.
Last night, Richmond City Council decided that a few more months of review -- considering the incorporation of changes emanating from the planners and from a council member -- were in order. Will Jones at the Times-Dispatch has more on a well-attended, but ultimately drama-free, evening downtown:
Also last night, the council reopened discussion of the Downtown Master Plan by offering a series of amendments that, if adopted, could help the prospects of Echo Harbour, a proposed condominium development along the James River east of downtown. The project has been controversial because of its potential to block river views from Libby Hill Park.
With last night's 7-2 vote, the council forwarded the amendments to the Planning Commission for consideration before they are sent back to the council for a final vote.
The decision came despite an outpouring from residents who urged the council to keep the plan intact and river views protected. Richmond founder William Byrd II is said to have named the city after observing the James from what is now Libby Hill Park and being struck by similarities with the River Thames in the English borough of Richmond upon Thames.
"It's as important as any view in the entire country," said Joe Carr of Church Hill.
One amendment would designate the Echo Harbour site for future development with details to be determined. The Downtown Master Plan, adopted by the council last October, shows the site as a city park or a private development with public access to the waterfront.
James E. Ukrop, chairman of Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. and First Market Bank, urged the city to move aggressively to buy the property and develop it as a park. "Future generations will look back and applaud our actions," he said.
As soon as someone around Richmond actually acts, they just might.
