An aerial view of Scott's Addition, with the Hofheimer Building in the foreground, as seen on the cover of our October 2017 issue (Photo by Jack Greve)
Conversations about the Richmond 300 master plan for development focused this week on one of the city’s fastest-growing neighborhoods: Scott’s Addition.
Although the plan is in the nebular stages, participants in a July 23 meeting at the Science Museum of Virginia agreed that the undeveloped tracts of land along Arthur Ashe Boulevard should be handled carefully.
"We want to make sure that anything that goes up along the Arthur Ashe Boulevard is quality development," says Trevor Dickerson, president of the Scott's Addition Boulevard Association. "This is one of the largest undeveloped tracts of land left in Richmond."
Residents and officials attending the meeting agreed that any development of the land must include a large amount of open space. Previous developments in Scott's Addition made little use of open space, resulting in sprawling impervious surfaces and a lack of shade or vegetation. This combination has led to a double-digit increase in temperature in some parts of Scott's Addition and various environmental concerns.
Jeremy Hoffman is the chief scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia. (Photo courtesy Science Museum of Virginia)
"Urban design and climate science go hand in hand," says Jeremy Hoffman, the chief scientist at the Science Museum of Virginia. "Impervious surfaces cause runoff, which pollutes the river; green areas prevent erosion."
Named for the city's 2037 tricentennial, the Richmond 300 plan is on schedule to be drafted by December and presented for adoption in the spring of 2020.
Despite rapid growth in areas such as Scott’s Addition and Manchester, Mark Olinger, director of Richmond’s Department of Planning and Development Review, challenges the notion that the cityscape will change drastically in the next quarter-century.
"Time moves slowly in city development," he says. "It's really about how you deal with incremental changes."
Projects in Development
According to U.S. Census data, Richmond has just experienced its first 20-year period of population growth since 1930-50. And yet, there were 3,840 people per square mile in 2015, compared to 1950, when there were 5,800. In other words, says Olinger, there is still room to grow comfortably.
"I've worked in growing cities, and I've worked in declining cities. It's much better to work in a growing city," he says. "The places where change can occur in Richmond are greater Scott's Addition, greater Manchester, downtown and along our Pulse corridor."
Greater Scott's Addition includes the undeveloped land surrounding the Diamond. Plans for a new baseball stadium are centered in this area, and both the Richmond Flying Squirrels and Virginia Commonwealth University are interested in turning the space into a sports campus with a green space, tennis courts and practice fields. There is also discussion of restructuring the Interstate 95 interchange off of Arthur Ashe Boulevard so that North Side residents can walk safely to Scott's Addition and the Diamond.
Another priority is an increase in the number of parks available to residents. The city owns 3,000 acres of park land, but only 6 percent of residents live within a 10-minute walk of parks.
The plan identifies several "nodal use" areas, a land use term referring to a center of activity that is beginning to form but does not yet exist — i.e., a vibrant street corner where people might naturally gather. Olinger envisions a plan that incorporates open space into these nodal use areas.
"Open space should not be the last thing we do, it should be the first," he says. "Think about Monroe Park: it functions as the center of that area."
Interested residents can attend a working group summit meeting on the Richmond 300 plan next Monday, July 28, at Richmond Public Library’s Main branch, 101 E. Franklin St., from 4 to 7 p.m. On Aug. 8, from 8:15 to 10 a.m., members of the Richmond 300 advisory council will join a panel from VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs to talk about the process at Studio Two Three, 3300 W. Clay St. For more information, see richmond300.com.
