Public Invited to Forum on Downriver Improvements to Lehigh Terraces Area
Richmond, VA – Mayor Dwight C. Jones and the City’s Department of Planning and Development Review invite the public to a meeting to discuss the next round of downriver improvements to the Lehigh Terraces area of the Richmond riverfront. The meeting is set for Wednesday, August 3 at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, located on the 2nd floor, of City Hall, 900 East Broad Street.
Hargreaves Associates will provide options for the area surrounding the former Lehigh cement plant, Intermediate Terminal Dock, and observations on proposed improvements to the greater East Riverfront. The objective of the meeting is to review and discuss the options to influence the downriver portion of the riverfront.
The presentation starts at 7 p.m. with the balance of the meeting open to questions and comments from attendees.
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RT @chpn: Riverfront meeting Wednesday https://t.co/3ace2F1n7D
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I keep seeing Echo Harbor sprinkled on that map, so to speak. Don’t suppose anyone’s heard any new news? Or is it still pretty much in limbo?
This is terrible,moving the Capital Trail away from the River so it goes by the beer garden also taking away parking for the bikers.
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CHA and Partnership for Smarter Growth each asked for the city to do a broader planning process to include the Echo Harbor site, Fulton Gas Works and Fulton so that all planning options/issues could be considered in one process. Many CHA members also spoke up at the kickoff riverfront meeting to ask once again about viewshed protection and the potential for the Echo Harbor site to be part of a continuous riverfront park. The owners of the site still have approved zoning for three office buildings (7, 9, 11 stories). We’ll have to see tonight, but I don’t think the consultants were allowed by the city to look at the EH site or consider it for a park as proposed in the Downtown Master Plan. Other issues: the Dock/Main Street location and the proposed 400 parking spaces for the Stone Bistro, will mean a lot of tree loss along Dock and Main — something that may not have been evaluated. So, I hope people can attend tonight. It’s important to see what’s proposed and what’s missing.
@3 Steven, as always, thanks for your PSG perspective. Can you report on the meeting Wednesday night? What did you like/not like about the plans. What is great and what is missing. Thanks!
Sorry – #3: if the owners of the echo harbor site have “approved zoning for 3 office buildings”, how exactly do you envision that land becoming a public park? Or are little things such as “private property rights” of no consequence to you? Some of the things you people write on here or the way you think is straight out of a communist fantasy land. My mind is blown.
All: Here’s a link to the three scenarios they showed last night: http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/richmond.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/9/d4/9d4f691b-57a2-54bd-8fb2-67cbabd384d2/57a2939718836.pdf.pdf The full presentation will be posted soon.
The overwhelming focus of Planning Director Mark Olinger and the consultant was on the Lehigh Cement site and the area in front and just east of Intermediate Terminal including the Sugar Pad. Brief mention was made about the possible trail up Gillies Creek and that the city was going to study/design a safer crossing at Williamsburg where the steps come down from Libby Hill.
To answer Elaine’s question — I think that for planning purposes they should have offered concepts that included the Echo Harbor site. They are trying to satisfy a lot of different activities and uses at the other two sites and the larger park would give them more room to work. In particular, some raised concerns about the subsistence fishermen being displaced. A larger park would make possible for fishing and some limited parking for fisherman and non-motorized boat drop-off. Others noted that more investigation of the rich history of the area was needed to inform how the parks might be designed. In terms of viewsheds, they did one simple view analysis that shows the low-lying park design doesn’t affect the view. That’s very true. But tree clearing for parking lots and the Dock Street elevation could be significant and wasn’t shown in the images – so more viewshed visuals need to be generated. And of course the lingering development proposal for Echo Harbor (7, 9, and 11 story buildings) will directly impact the viewshed. The new elevated roundabout includes the access above the floodplain that will allow the Echo Harbor site to shift to residential and increase the likelihood of development. Groups are seeking private funding to purchase the site iaw the goals of the Downtown Master Plan. The Gillies Creek trail connection will be challenging (and maybe more expensive that it otherwise would have) because of the Stone parking lots and ped bridge. I had hoped that detailed provisions for the trail would have been part of the Stone approvals and could even have been built by the contractor who prepared the site and built the brewery. Lastly, Mark Olinger noted they plan to make Williamsburg a “complete street” with better sidewalks, safer crossings, and bike lanes. They should also investigate if it can be made one lane in each direction. However, city transportation and Henrico County may be considering expanding Hatcher St/Newton Rd/New Osborne Turnpike into a four lane road past Cox Construction and the new Triple Crossing Brewery with a new high bridge over the CSX tracks. This might shift more traffic to Williamsburg Ave., affecting the goal of better connecting Historic Fulton and Church Hill to the river.
Re Confused: We all support private property rights, but they have never been absolute. Comprehensive planning creates concepts for all property including private property all the time, and zoning which affects property rights was long ago determined to be constitutional. Like the Echo Harbor parcel, privately owned Mayo Island is also proposed in the Downtown Plan and Riverfront Plan as land for a potential public park that the city should seek to purchase. In the case of Echo Harbor, as a result of the last city approval they do have an established property right for their office development. But like any other business deal private parties can come to an agreement for purchase by private parties to save it for a park. Or (less likely) the city could use eminent domain to purchase the property at fair value for public use as a park.
#5, Confused: Check out the constitution, 5th amendment. It’s an extreme communist-fantasy-land document.