Plans for Zip Lines Across James River

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Last night at the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association meeting, most of the discussion was about Venture Richmond forcing a 10,000 person theater upon the neighborhood, with no restrictions.

There was also a short presentation by Kern Smith on a business plan to put zip lines across the James River in several places, including a site near the Lee Bridge on Oregon Hill’s side. It remains to be seen if this will be considered an acceptable use under the James River Park Conservation Easement.

Here is a video of a zip line, similar to what is being proposed, in action in San Francisco:

Burglaries on 100 Block of S. Laurel

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Although Oregon Hill has not experienced the violent crime that other neighborhoods have had very recently (knock on wood and keep your eyes peeled!), we have had two burglaries on the 100 block of S. Laurel.

From Richmond Police:

4th Precinct
BURGLARY
9/17/13 8:50 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
100 block of South Laurel Street
An unknown person(s) broke into the residence and stole several items.

4th Precinct
BURGLARY
9/17/13 2:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.
100 block of South Laurel Street
An unknown person(s) broke into the residence and stole several items.

Planning Commission Votes For Venture Richmond’s Theater

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On Monday, the City of Richmond’s Planning Commission voted in favor of Venture Richmond’s theater proposal, despite strong opposition by the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, preservationists, and other interested parties.

Excerpt from what OHNA President Jennifer Hancock said at the meeting:

Venture Richmond is using the threat of losing the Folk Festival as a stick to beat the residents of Richmond into agreeing to a plan that many of us have serious reservations about. As the closest neighborhood to the amphitheater, Oregon Hill will be the neighborhood most impacted by the project. Neighbors have already expressed concerns about increases in traffic and noise, and the impact on already limited parking. We have asked for, but not received, an agreement describing yearly limits on the number of events and night-time curfews for evening events.

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.

The People’s Library: Where Your History Becomes Part of the Main Library’s Permanent Collection

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The Main branch of Richmond Public Library continues to reach out to the surrounding community. PLease consider this event on September 20.

From FaceBook event page:

After many months of workshops and endless help and support from the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library (especially the incredible teens!) the People’s Library is opening to the public! What does that mean? It means you can check out one of our homemade books, write your history in it and return it to the library to be included in their permanent collection! It’s all free, all you need is a library card. But come out for the opening for food, friends, and brainstorming sessions on how to allow the project to continually to evolve and expand!

The People’s Library is a highly collaborative, sustainable and interactive public art project. Since February 2013 community members have been working together to design and build a library authored by the community. During a series of workshops participants transformed discarded books into hundreds of blank books for anyone to write their histories in. Every book will be included in the library’s permanent collection at Main.

On September 20th, from 5-7:30 at the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library, the blank books will be available for any community member with a library card to check out and take with them. The books can then be filled with histories, photos, drawings, anything. Once they checked back they’ll become part of the Main Branch of the Richmond Public Library’s permanent collection. The books can then be checked out by anyone in the community creating a real and symbolic meeting place for our diverse state.