Category Archives: Overlook

UDC Did Not Approve Of Venture Richmond’s Proposed Theater; Planning Commission Decides Tomorrow; Overlook Condos Releases Statement, and Oh Look, There Is A Lease!

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In case you did not not know already, the City Of Richmond’s Urban Design Committee did NOT approve Venture Richmond’s amphitheater, wait, sorry, THEATER plan this past Monday. Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association President Jennifer Hancock gave a great speech on behalf of the association, and Laurel Street neighbor Caroline Cox spoke in regard to the parking and noise problems associated with putting an amphitheater directly below Oregon Hill. Pine Street neighbor Bryan Green who serves on the Urban Planning Commission was one of four who voted against the plan.

Tomorrow, the proposal will be at City’s the Planning Commission (1:30pm, on the fifth floor at City Hall).

Venture Richmond, as expected, has threatened that this Folk Festival will be its last if they don’t get what they want and most of the local media is going with their storyline.

Meanwhile, the Overlook Unit Owners Association board has released the following statement:

1. Our Overlook community is made up of a wide variety of residents, including young professionals, working people of all ages, retirees, families with young children, graduate and undergraduate students.

2. We support the work that the City and Venture Richmond has done to develop the Riverfront and encourage more people to visit and live in the city.

3. Our residents enjoy the entertainment and other amenities available downtown, including concerts, festivals, parks, art galleries and restaurants.

4. We frequent and support the Richmond Folk Festival.

5. We believe that it is important that decisions made by the City and non-governmental institutions regarding the use of land be sensitive to the impact those decisions will have on neighbors living close-by.

6. We acknowledge that some alterations of the canal may be necessary. We support restoring the canal in a manner that will be both historically accurate by allowing canal boat traffic from Maymont to Third Street and the use of Tredgar Green as an amphitheater.

7. We prefer that the Tredegar Green area remain green and undeveloped, with only occasional use for amplified performances. We are concerned that a stage at the base of the Lee Bridge would disturb the peace of some members of our community if concerts were scheduled there regularly without restriction.

8. We note that loud events on a stage aimed directly at the Virginia War Memorial would destroy the peace and tranquility of that facility. The Virginia War Memorial is a sacred place for thousands of friends and family members of Virginia’s fallen veterans. We hope that Venture Richmond and the Virginia War Memorial can coordinate schedules to not have events on the same day, with priority going to the Virginia War Memorial.

9. We ask that, if approved, amplified events at Tredegar Green be limited to no more than 15 days per year and not run past 10:00PM on weeknights and 11:00PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

10. If more events are scheduled for the site at the foot of the Lee Bridge, large crowds and parking issues in our neighborhood will move from an occasional inconvenience to a frequent problem. The Overlook development was approved by the City with the assumption that reasonable street parking would be available to residents, supplemented by limited off-street parking on our land. Frequent events that draw thousands to our neighborhood would destroy that basic assumption, resulting in an unfair burden on our residents.

11. We ask that a reasonable volume limit be put on performances at the amphitheater stage.

Also, Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool, when he has not been researching the history of the Kanawha Canal, has been asking the City a lot of questions. Under the Va. Freedom of Information Act, he requested on Aug. 26, 2013, “Any lease agreements or draft lease agreements regarding the use of City of Richmond property by Venture Richmond for an amphitheater.” His FOIA request was copied to the City Attorney. The use of City property for Venture Richmond’s proposed amphitheater is an item on the agenda of the Sept. 16, 2013 meeting of the Richmond City Planning Commission.

On Sept. 9, 2013, he received a response from a City employee on behalf of city administrator Byron Marshall, that “the City is not in possession of any records responsive to your requests nor is the City aware of the existence of any records responsive to your request.”

After receiving this response from the city administration that the lease did not exist, and after he notified all of the City Planning Commissioners that the lease did not exist, he actually received the lease agreement that someone else had independently received from the city attorney. Here is a link to the lease agreement, which the administration denied existed until two business days before the Planning Commission hearing:

http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/clerkstracking/getPDF.asp?NO=2012-153-110

Among other things, this lease agreement is significant because it states that Venture Richmond must maintain the existing city parking for the public except for limited circumstance related to use of the property for an event like the Folk Festival. But Venture Richmond is proposing unlimited use of the proposed amphitheater which would be leased with no limit on the number of events annually.

Lanie Kruszewski Memorial Ride Set For Sunday

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From WRIC:

RICHMOND, VA—A group bicycle ride in memory of Lanie Kruszewski is set for this Sunday.

Monday marks the one year anniversary of the night the 24-year-old was struck and killed while riding her bicycle along River Road.

Elias Webb, the Richmond man convicted of felony hit-and-run in connection with the July 29th wreck, was sentenced in July to three years behind bars. In February, it took a jury of four men and 10 women just less than three hours to reach the verdict.

A group bike ride to remember Kruszewski is set for the evening of Sunday, August 4.

The 14-mile ride will go to the corner of River Road and Bridgeway Road, where a memorial for Kruszweski has been set up.

Riders are asked to meet Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Oregon Hill Outlook where Laurel Street meets the river.

Overlook Trail Work Coming up

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There was a meeting with contractors and City staff on site yesterday at the ramp below the Overlook at Oregon Hill. The paving of the area and addition of handicap railing will begin soon. Work is anticipated to begin within the next week to week and a half.

Please be aware that this area will be a construction site and not accessible during the project.

This work stems from state greenway grants that the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association previously applied for and won with the help of Napi Ippolito.

Breaking News: James River Skyway Announced

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This morning an Italian-Japanese conglomerate, Fuki-Trani Ltd., announced plans for an exciting new riverfront project, a high-speed cable car crossing the James River. The preliminary design would have one side of the crossing originating at a station on a portion of Oregon Hill near the Overlook townhouse complex, with heavy duty cable going over the James River and the Belle Island park to the other terminal station on top of the Riverside Apartments building on Riverside Drive on the south side.

Example of gondola lift/skyway at Sulphur Mountain in Alberta, Canada:

Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones and Councilperson Parker Agelasto were beaming as they briefed a few media members on the outline of the deal in the first floor of City Hall late last night. “This represents a fantastic opportunity to leverage Richmond’s natural assets and create jobs,” said Mayor Jones. “What a beautiful way to connect the opposite sides of the James River, the City, and the 5th District,” added Councilperson Agelasto.

The amount of investment by the Fuki-Trani group is estimated at between 8 and 10 million dollars, and the City of Richmond is putting in $2 million into the project initially. Dominion Resources had to approve of the project in advance because it will use airspace above their riverfront headquarters facility. The Oregon Hill station will require zoning changes as it adaptively re-uses the land where Overlook construction ceased and there are a few town home foundations. (Residents may recall at one point a developer from Cleveland was considering them a few years ago). According to preliminary plans, the station would operate from 6 am to 11 pm and employ 2 to 3 people with a small walk-up snack bar. Rides would cost between $5 to $8, though a commuter/student discount may be possible. Some nearby residents along the Oregon Hill Parkway have already expressed concern for noise from the station.

Fuki-Trani spokespeople offered few other details at this time, though they did say that they were already looking at possible future skyways in other parts of Richmond. Here is some additional information on gondola/cable car lifts, courtesy of Wikipedia:

While gondola lifts are traditionally used for ski resort purposes, in recent years they are finding increased usage in urban environments as seen in the installations of the Metrocable (Medellín), Portland Aerial Tram, Metrocable (Caracas) and Cable Aéreo (Manizales). The Metrocable systems in Medellin and Caracas are fully integrated with the public transit network which provides passengers the ability to seamlessly transfer to the local metro lines. London, UK, has built Emirates Air Line (cable car) for the 2012 Summer Olympics.
In terms of urban gondola systems for the future, TransLink in Metro Vancouver has proposed to build a gondola up Burnaby Mountain to Simon Fraser University in an announcement in September, 2010.
In late 2012, a widespread aerial gondola system was proposed for Austin, Texas in an effort to expand mass transit options in the rapidly growing city.