October 14, 2006
7th District Town Hall meeting
Coucilperson Delores McQuinn held a Town Hall meeting this morning at Mount Olivet Church. On the agenda were the plans for 25th Street and Nine Mile, the Echo Harbor project, an update from the First Precinct, and the East End Teen Center.
About 40 people were in attendance, including school board candidate Delores Murray and of course Delores McQuinn. Wric8 and another TV camera were both present.
RRHA 25th Street
RRHA has spent 3+ years aquiring property at 25th Street and Nine Mile, towards getting the property commercially developed. At this time, no developer or specific plan has been set. Residents envision a grocery store, a bank, a better post office, a bakery, and the like.
No specific timeline is currently available, though the project is intended to be underway sooner rather than later - more towards 2 years than 5 or 10. An audiance member pointed out that a similar clearing had happened in Fulton Bottom 40 years ago, and that there was still vacant land.
Echo Harbor Development Project
Echo Harbor is envisioned as a mixed-use development on Dock Street. The bulk of project would be 240 condos, along with a restaurant and a health club. The condos are to be priced at $360/sq.foot and up, with an average size of 1800 square feet.
Seeking rezoning to gain extra height, the developers are high-lighting the potential benefit of the project to the surrounding community. The developers describe the project as bringing activity to the river front and canal, an extension of the canal walk, and also connecting Church Hill and the river. The developers also claim that the project would lead to the development of 350 jobs, 115 those directly at the site and the rest in other businesses meeting the needs of the new residents. They also promise funds to improve and maintain Libby Hill Park.
One of the potential controversies is that the development would impact the view from Libby Hill (more about dock street, 10/10/06). The proposed design is for 2 3-tiered towers west of the current cement towers. The 3 tiers would be 90, 166, and 206 feet high, with high tower away from historic view.
The developer showed a renderings of the proposed development, including a view from Libby Hill Park, but would not allow me to photograph the renderings. They also stated that the images are not available online or in other propmotional materials.
Richmond Police Department
The police representative did not show.
East End Teen Center Update
The East End Teen Center is a development aimed at renovating the old Rialroad Club into a teen center. The goal is to have somewhere compelling for older teens to go after school. Central to the project will be a recording studio. Renovation should be complete in the next 6-8 months.
See also:
East End Teen Center to get early face lift (5/13/05)
student essays honered (10/30/05)
I’m sorry, but I am APPALLED that Reverend McQuinn or any other sitting member of Council is allowed to send out taxpayer funded mailings less than 1 month before an election. The mailing she sent to “inform” her constituents of this meeting was clearly political and as a taxpayer I just don’t think it’s right.
Well, I went to the meeting and it was not political at all. The meeting was very informative and was well attended. Every council member has quarterly meetings. Regardless of what you think, the 7th distirct is on the move. It’s about time.Thank you Rev.Mcquinn and a special thanks to the community as a whole.
B… I’m with you. McQuinn is trying to have “presence” in the district now that she knows her seat on Council is in jeopardy. Make sure that your frustration translates into a vote against McQuinn on November 7th.
What effect did Echo Harbour seem to have on the Libby Hill view in the rendering from Libby Hill the developer showed in the meeting?
In the rendering, the develpoment was prominent but not necessarily view blocking. They really should make the rendering more public.
Hold on now, John M.
The rendering by the Echo Harbour developers minimized the views that would be blocked, but a different one done by some Church Hill Association members showed there would be massive blockage of the views.
Futhermore, I was shocked to learn the the tallest section of this development would be almost TWICE AS HIGH as the cement building. Just stand at the edge of Libby Hill and you will get a sense how massive in scale these buildings would be.
This is why they should release the image publicly. They may be showing different images around to folks.
As I said earlier, I saw the presentation twice. Once at the 7th Distict meeting and another at the SBNA meeting. Both were the same renderings. As I understand, most of the view from Libby Hill of the river at the site is already blocked by trees. The rendering shows a gap between the towers to allow view of the river that is currently visible past the trees.
Renderings? Geez, what turnip truck did you folks fall off of? You want to know what the towers will look like and how much of the view they’ll block, go to Libby Hill Park with a map of the proposed development and take a look for yourself. Personally, I think the towers would be a gigantic eyesore, but I implore you all to go and look for yourselves rather than rely on a “rendering”.
Though others here may disagree, I think the renderings are an important part of this proposal and also think that the developers did themselves a disservice by not having a better presentation for the public. I was at the Church Hill Association meeting and saw the developers’ rendering and the homemade version that was put together by some local residents. They obviously showed very different versions of what the skyline would look like with the buildings, but I had to question them both. I question the homemade version, because it was just that, homemade. It was just some photos taped together to show a panoramic view from the park with the approximate location of the building sketched on them. These images wouldn’t be corrected for lens distortion and only approximate the size of the buildings in the distance with no ability to provide any scale relative to the real world. It’s just not a reliable way to discredit something submitted by an architecture firm. But then again, with all of the technology available to the developers they should have had a 3D rendering on screen so they could show what the skyline would look like from any perspective on Libby Hill. These guys are supposed to be pros and it makes me wonder why they didn’t do this unless A) the didn’t want to show more than the one view for a reason B) they are not the pros that they should be. Jeez any nerd in the neighborhood could put together a 3D model of the buildings in Google Earth and share it for the neighbors to see.
Archie - a “rendering” is an artists interpretation of what the finished product will look like based on the information (deminsions, material,etc) given by the architect and developer. It is a very standard part of development.
I know what a rendering is.
I find it hard to believe that someone who also knows what it is (i.e., “an artist’s interpretation”) would accept it at face value. Face it, a rendering is nothing more than marketing.
Let me repeat, feel free to make your own decision about the impact of the towers, but please have the good sense to actually visit Libby Hill Park and to see what the impact will be in reality rather than some artist’s fantasy.
Even in a rendering based on the nominal dimensions of a building, it’s easy to manipulate the perspective to make the scene look very different from how it would look in reality.
If someone is showing you a rendering that makes a 200 foot building look not so much taller than a 30 foot tree (and refusing to make the drawing widely available), they may be doing exactly that.
I also encourage people to go to the park and see for themselves. There are a number of warehouses near the foot of the hill for handy reference. Try to imagine buildings three times the height of the warehouses and only slightly farther away.
and filled with hordes of yuppies….creating a drain on our society, invading our parks for their children’s games of “soccer” and refusing to let us walk our dogs anymore because the poo might ruin their scenic park… We should lynch them all.