The Fulton Hill green street plan features a mural by local artist Hamilton Glass. (Image courtesy Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay & VHB)
A historically redlined stretch in the East End of Richmond is getting a green face-lift from the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.
The two-block portion near the Fulton Hill neighborhood, from 4900 to 5000 Government Road, will become a “green street” by summer’s end as the alliance leverages grants and partnerships to spend over $700,000 improving the stormwater system, planting trees to increase shade and eliminating concrete surface areas to reduce erosion and stormwater runoff.
Funding comes from groups including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Richmond Department of Public Utilities, Altria Group, Luck Companies, and Wetlands Watch. Work began on May 18, when Christina Bonini, senior green infrastructure projects manager with the alliance, says her team and project partners endured a very wet groundbreaking ceremony.
“It was pouring rain,” Bonini recalls. “The stormwater runoff issues were on full display.”
“This part of the city is served by a combined sewer system,” explains Neal Friedman, green infrastructure projects coordinator for the alliance. “Sewer and excess water combine during overflows. Replacing all this excess concrete will take lots of pressure off the sewer system.”
Innovate Fulton, a 501(c)(3) organization created to revitalize the business district in the Greater Fulton neighborhood, approached the alliance with the project in early 2019. To engage with the community, Chuck D’Aprix of Innovate Fulton, Bonini and others papered the neighborhood with flyers.
There is a public art aspect to the project, as well. Hamilton Glass, who has painted dozens of murals around Richmond, was commissioned for the project. The community also came together to choose a subject for a sculpture: birds moving in a flock together.
“This is an intersection of three distinct neighborhoods: Historic Fulton, Fulton Hill and Montrose Heights,” Bonini says. “What’s great about the project is that it will serve all three communities.”
