From the Sierra Club Falls of the James press release:

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2018
CONTACT
Joe Brancoli, Chairperson of the Sierra Club Falls of the James Executive Committee

Sierra Club: Terminate the Monroe Park Conservancy’s Lease, Remove Board President Massie

RICHMOND, Virginia – At the May meeting of the Sierra Club Falls of the James (SCFOJ) Executive Committee, a vote was taken to update and republish last year’s public letter by the SCFOJ Executive Committee to the Mayor and City Council which called for an end to the lease agreement with the Monroe Park Conservancy. (Note: a copy of the 2017 SCFOJ letter can be found at this link: https://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2017/01/sierra-club-falls-of-james-letter-to.html, please do review its statement of facts.) This new resolution follows multiple, unanswered requests for meetings with elected officials, despite their pledges for more public oversight. The new resolution also makes the additional request that City Council ask the Monroe Park Conservancy to remove Alice Massie from her position as the president of the Conservancy.

The past year has seen growing public outrage against the Monroe Park Conservancy for its actions. It is worth noting that, after being closed for 19 months and with none of the previous projected finish dates being met, the Monroe Park renovation is ridiculously behind schedule and over budget. The renovation has used over 4 million dollars in public taxpayer money and it is not apparent where additional funds will be found to complete the renovation. The problems are legion:

We are concerned that granite curbstones adjacent to sidewalks were not reset properly after the sidewalk was removed, as well as shoddy brickwork overall. We are also concerned about the renovation of the Checkers House, which is listed as contributing to the Monroe Park Historic District, because alterations may affect its inclusion on the National Registry of Historic Spaces.

We agree with near-by neighborhood associations that the signage that the Monroe Park Conservancy has proposed for the park is inappropriate. Superfluous signage clutters the sight lines in the park and detracts from the natural beauty. The Monroe Park Conservancy has once again applied to the Urban Design Committee to place a large (3.5 foot high) billboard for corporate donors in a prominent position at the main entrance to the park across from Sacred Heart Cathedral. Despite most of the funding for the renovation has come from taxpayers, this sign would prominently advertise corporations/institutions such as Dominion Energy and VCU at this area of our city’s most historic park, overwhelming the Department of Historic Resources’ highway marker that cites the park’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. There are alternatives to this billboard such as engraved pavers that would not detract from the park’s natural sight lines. Alice Massie, President of the Monroe Park Conservancy, mislead the City Planning Commission by stating that permeable pavers cannot be engraved.

An ugly electrical control station was placed right next to the World War II memorial in Monroe Park, blocking it. This disturbed the site lines and sanctity of the elegant memorial, which was designed by famous landscape architect Charles Gillette in 1951 and is listed as a contributing structure to the Monroe Park Historic District as included on the National Register of Historic Places. The Memorial, renovated to U.S. Secretary of Interior Standards circa 2005, consists of a masonry structure with limestone sheets upon which names of the city’s World War II war dead are inscribed and is adorned with 2 brass eagles and features two black granite benches which were donated by A. P. Grappone and Sons, Inc. stone works, at the time of the renovation. Original 2009 work documents had located two electrical control stations in the eastern portion of the park near Belvidere and near Pine and W. Main Streets, and, while it is not apparent who ordered the change, it appears to have been done to accommodate surrounding private development. Veterans and their families have publicly complained about this insensitivity of this clunky station placement.

In December 2016, 15 healthy mature trees were destroyed without the city seeking or gaining a departmental variance. A project supervisor applied to the Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission for approval after the trees were destroyed but both bodies refused to approve the destruction post facto. Since then, more old-growth trees have been destroyed despite requests from the public and the City’s Planning Commission that the Monroe Park Conservancy consider alternatives. The stated goal of the Conservancy is for the park to serve as ‘a green living room’ that is completely self-sustainable. With trees playing such a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, and so much of the historic tree canopy now destroyed after having been declared in conflict with the mechanical bio-retention feature in the park, the environmental logic behind the Monroe Park restoration project is flawed.

Recently, in the location of the destroyed trees, a huge corporate tent was erected for a month that further damaged and monopolized a whole portion of the park, killing all of the vegetation beneath it. This block long tent “feature” is being actively marketed by the Monroe Park Conservancy and the management of the Altria Theatre for paid functions, effectively displacing the larger community from using this public green space.

On the same fateful evening that the Conservancy was awarded the lease to the park, City Council also unanimously approved Resolution 2014-R64-64, which called for the Conservancy to diversify their board with community stakeholders and neighborhood representatives within 60 days. Alice Massie, who is the current president of the Conservancy, signed this agreement with Council. But in the 4 years since signing this agreement, the Conservancy has consistently refused to add neighborhood representatives to the Board. The community volunteers listed on their website do not represent or report to their respective neighborhoods. The refusal to honor this agreement is especially troublesome because the 2008 Master Plan, overseen by Rhodes and Harwell, and which was celebrated for the transparency and public participation that went into it, has been ignored and altered, including the removal of a children’s resource area in order to place the huge corporate “tenting” area.

There are reports that the Monroe Park Conservancy has submitted a set of rules dictating use of Monroe Park but this draft has not been made available to the public. These rules must be approved by Richmond City Council, but the public should also have the opportunity and time to review and comment on these rules before they are arrive before City Council. Supposedly, this is currently under the purview of the City of Richmond’s Capital Projects, and (possibly) Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Departments. The public eagerly awaits a chance to review these rules. The Sierra Club urges free and unrestricted use of this PUBLIC park at no cost by all individuals
and community groups, as has historically been the practice in Monroe Park.

Given the abandonment of a publically-approved plan, the obvious desecration of historic and natural features, the cost overruns and long-extended construction timeline, and the continuing embarrassing eyesore of a stalled construction zone in the center of Richmond, it is clear that the Monroe Park Conservancy has failed to meet its responsibilities to the City and must be held accountable for this travesty. In closing, it’s not often that the Sierra Club calls for the removal of a non-elected, non-government official, but in this egregious situation, it makes sense to demand more accountability. For this reason, the Sierra Club is asking again that the Mayor and City Council terminate all agreements with the Monroe Park Conservancy, and demands that City Council ask the Conservancy to remove President Alice Massie as a demonstration of no confidence. The Monroe Conservancy may yet accomplish a decent, renovation of Monroe Park, but it is very clear that the wooded, historic, Victorian, PUBLIC park that citizens cherished and loved has been irreparably and callously destroyed. The responsibility falls squarely on City government to correct its lack of oversight in regard to this very flawed ‘public private partnership/development’, and the Sierra Club is joining Richmond citizens to demand immediate action.

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