Envision Richmond
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact Your City Council Member
Contact your Planning Commissioners
Write a Letter to the Editor
Join the PSG Richmond Core Group to mobilize support for the petition
Volunteer to circulate the petition among your neighbors and friends
Forward a link to this webpage to your email list
MORE INFORMATION:
The Downtown Master Plan Timeline
The Seven Foundations of the Downtown Master Plan
Form Based Code: Legal Aspects
RELATED ARTICLES
A New Vision for Downtown - 11.26.07
Richmond Plan Draws Objections - 12.3.07
Richmonders Applaud City Plan - 12.4.07
Richmond Planning Official Criticized - 1.22.07
Leaders Look to S.C. - 2.11.08
Citizens Must Endorse Vision of the Future - 2.14.08
Community Participates in City's Evolution - 2.17.08
River Development Debated - 2.20.08
Downtown Plan is Moving to Next Phase - 3.2.08
QUESTIONS?
Leighton Powell, Exec. Dir.
(804) 643-8439
email@scenicvirginia.org
Sheila Sheppard, Coordinator
(804) 225-1902
psg@psgrichmond.org
David Herring, Exec. Dir.
(804) 422-2148
dherring@richmondneighborhoods.org
Stewart Schwartz, Exec. Dir.
(202) 244-4408
stewart@smartergrowth.net
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION TO SUPPORT RICHMOND'S DRAFT DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN
VOICE SUPPORT
For a more vibrant Virginia Capital.
Think of the James River with its white water rapids amidst beautiful landmark architecture. Scenic beauty in an urban landscape. A growing arts community. Revolutionary War and Civil War historical sites. And let's not forget the great loft condos, restaurants, Farmers' Markets, theaters, and historic neighborhoods that are a testament to the City's vigor. But Richmond has suffered from a lack of a cohesive vision to fulfill the potential of its remarkable assets.
VOICE SUPPORT
For the City of Richmond's Draft Downtown Master Plan.
Responding to this disconnect, the Department of Housing and Community Development hired the planning firm of Dover Hohl to engage citizens in determining a vision for their city's future : The Downtown Master Plan.
VOICE SUPPORT
Because this plan is ours.
The planners persistently gathered and carefully listened to citizens' comments - from business owners' parking nightmares to parents' safety concerns, from developers' insights to preservationists' pleas. This inclusive, open process has helped to garner broad public support for the resulting draft. It builds on Richmond’s strengths and maps ways to embrace green infrastructure, alternative transportation options, and mixed-use and mixed-income development to enliven and connect our Capital City.
VOICE SUPPORT
Because we can't let special interest opposition weaken this vision.
Resistance has emerged from special interest groups who do not support parts of the plan that do not meet their singular needs. The plan must be adopted in its entirety.
VOICE SUPPORT
Because elected officials need to hear from you.
Let our officials know that you applaud this optimistic, realistic, and equitable plan. Let them know you care about preserving and enhancing the beauty and community character of Virginia's Downtown.
We must ensure that the Planning Commissioners weigh our support when they discuss priorities for the plan's implementation on April 21, 2008. We must ensure that the City Council hears our voices when they vote to adopt the plan this summer.
VOICE SUPPORT
Because this is our city, our vision, our future.
Join the chorus of hundreds of Virginians and Richmonders who have been waiting for this blueprint for a better city. Now we have to make it happen.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION
PETITION IN SUPPORT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND’S
DRAFT DOWNTOWN MASTER PLAN
We, the undersigned citizens of the City of Richmond and the Commonwealth of Virginia, believe in the hopeful yet realistic vision presented in the draft Downtown Master Plan, created by the citizens of Richmond. We support the Plan’s Seven Foundations (Variety and Choice in Housing, The Traditional City, Green Qualities, The River, Urban Architecture, History, and Mixed-Income), and we specifically recommend inclusion of the following:
- Increased public access to the James River through the creation of new riverfront parks on Mayo Island, Chappel Island, and the parcels east of Intermediate Terminal to Rockett’s Landing; as well as the preservation of the historic viewshed from Libby Hill Park in Church Hill that is the basis for the naming of Richmond.
- Creation of a state-level Architect of the Commonwealth to offer expertise to the Governor, his Cabinet and Agencies, and Virginia’s legislators concerning best practices for the future uses of state-owned buildings and property.
- Creation of safe, inviting, human-scale streetscapes to encourage walking and bicycling; conversion of Richmond’s unwieldy system of one-way streets back to two-way; additional on-street parking; replacing unsightly surface parking lots with parking decks featuring ground-floor retail on the exterior; and improving signage to better serve residents and tourists.
- Addition of Form-Based Code -- zoning that focuses on the relationship of buildings to each other and the street -- to the City’s Zoning Ordinance to reflect the design of Richmond’s historic districts, streets, and buildings.
- Development of a model for a trolley or Downtown circulator to connect our historic Downtown neighborhoods, with a plan to expand beyond Downtown in the future.
We urge our public officials to support this vision for a beautiful, vibrant and historic capital city -- “Virginia’s Downtown.”