123fakestreet

First thing I found interesting was Chamberlayne is a definite. Of the 5 options through the city, how can they not use 9th street? 1. Lombardy - this is kind of a side street that puts the route too far west and duplicates too much of the Broad St route. 2. 14th street just seems dumb, who uses 14th st? That's not near anything anyone goes to. 3. 2nd street is just kind of in the middle, either pick Belvidere or pick closer downtown. 4. Belivdere works, but IMO there should be 2 different routes, Belvidere and 9th. 5. 9th St. INSANE to not use 9th, with the transfer plaza, MCV, City Hall & State Gov't buildings, convention center not far away. 9th is dead middle of downtown near everything. The southern 3 routes, again I think there should be 2 routes, 1 due south on Jeff Davis and one down Hull to Midlo. Staying on Hull all the way down I don't think works, it's not nearly dense enough. repost of my model for the BRT I made like a year ago, I still think this is a very realistic model and what we need. It could be constructed based on the options GRTC just presented other than GRTC using Belt blvd to get from Hull to Midlo. https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=15FE9aRK0aSbZC8B6VZTA-Fwh2LYyAmvI&ehbc=2E312F

https://www.henricocitizen.com/articles/grtc-seeking-input-about-proposed-north-south-pulse-routes/ Interactive map so you can see routes up close https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/3411912a876c4607b7a797ff88a09b42/page/Map/?views=View-2

BOOM. If VUU can get its act together on their gateway building this corridor thats long been a major opportunity area could be completely flipped from blight to nearly 100% redeveloped in just a year or 2.

They should cap this off by eliminating that tail end of Seminary. No reason for the road to continue there. That's more land that can be put to use and taxed, and less maintenance for the city.

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/10/03/six-story-mixed-use-building-gets-initial-nod-for-northside-intersection/ Development at Chamberlayne and Lombardy moving ahead. Glad to see this as I was beginning to worry it might be one of those that gets announced then you never hear anything again (like the one up the street at Chamberlayne and Tazwell). The stretch of Lombardy between Brook and Chamberlayne *really* needs a kickstart, and this development is like a full 20% of that entire corridor.

There are a LOT of vacant lots in MW. If you want every one of them to have a skyscraper they're going to be vacant for another 50 years. I'm fine with *something* almost anything going there that isn't a vacant lot.

totally agree, those look pretty cheap. just 3 steps is fine, gives it a more elegant look and as you noted is functional as well. you don't want to be right down on the street level in a city.

That address is the CarMax building that was just redone... I imagine this isn't that, so where is it?

this is great density but really wish it was going up a few blocks at Cutshaw & Sheppard instead.

What I found a bit funny was her new job is going around educating local governments who don't know about grants and services HUD is able to provide. The implication being she had a lot of experience educating people in that regard with her time in Richmond....

https://richmondbizsense.com/2023/09/18/city-deputy-planning-director-pechin-leaving-city-hall-for-federal-job/

Exactly. "how can you be against green space!?!?!" Because when it's not properly implemented it goes completely unused and it's just a silly waste. We get these big developments and to sell it they say it has green space. The casino is even selling that. Whether you are for the casino or not, literally no one is EVER going to use green space off of Bells Rd next to a casino. If it's city owned then it costs money to maintain, or it goes to crap and there's just weeds and trash everywhere. The only real nice, utilized urban park in the city is Monroe Park. SA and Manchester probably need parks because it's dense and people actually live there, but the city won't do it because there's higher land value there. So instead they throw a park over off of Leigh where there's already a football field and then say "here, see we are pro green space, we gave you a park." And then no one ever uses it because no one lives there and it's not convenient. People aren't going to get in their car and drive to the park, it should be 1-2 blocks away from where they live.

Yes, it's a nicely developed area and doesn't need upgrading while plenty of other places do. Agreed. The issue is that it's not *really* a park right now, but if they designate it as a city park, it will FOREVER be a park, the city is never going to take a park and sell it to a developer.

Ugh, as if there won't be that huge park in the DD a block away, AND the newly completed park a couple hundred feet away in front of the Children's Museum. Just stupid, but people will support it because no one wants to be against green space.

This thing is moving along, seems like they announced it less than 6 months ago, fencing went up, site work started. I wish every project went like this. We've got quite a few that were announced 2+ years ago and not a thing has been done at the site.

Agree, I'll take greencity, the plan looks nice. Just ridiculous how bad the nimbys in this city are that they killed Navy Hill - an excellent plan- because they couldn't understand what a TIF is. I had someone tell me TIFs are a "mess" and have led to lawsuits in Chicago. Yes, there were lawsuits in Chicago because TIFs were so successful and popular some groups sued that their neighborhoods were being left out. . Also the total ignorance of NON RECOURSE bonds. It's literally in the name. The city is not on the hook if the projected taxes don't meet the debt service. Can you tell I'm still iritated? The anti development people and their lies are infuriating how they hold this city back.

Still holding on to my fantasy this gets scrapped and a downtown arena is back on the table

I guess the best thing I can say is very little of the parking fronts AA

Some serious work being done today at the church conversion project right by 6 Points, the whole road was closed off for several blocks. The apts on BPB also finally had some work done after sitting there for months. The pad was poured the other day. Of course now it's just sitting there again. But there was *some* progress.

FINALLY. This is a *major* development that will completely change the face of AA and SA. But in the meantime the development site looks like a total dump right along a major "gateway" area of the city. Had been wondering when this would get going.

looking at the development, the green is the large project already completed, the yellow are nice currently used areas I don't see them redeveloping, and the red is all to be developed. I imagine they will close Marshall and the southern portion of Meadow and and have some pedestrian only streets areas between the buildings to replace them, while possibly connecting Clay all the way to Allen and north Meadow to Leigh (or continuing Dineen).

I think you're reading too much into that frame. That's a very generic - and ambitious - rendering "selling" the concept of the development. Even the street level drawing is pretty generic, the only thing they specified they do want to do is the art deco building. Everything else right now is just a general concept for the area, not a firm plan.

I said over a year ago about the development in this area I see most of it as going to be very suburban strip-mall-esque because it's catering to vehicle traffic off of 95. I know that's not at all what people want, but I think that's going to be the reality.

Went to the Wawa on AA today. I don't go there a lot, but whenever I do that place is slammed. I imagine a Sheetz or other similar competitor has got to be itching to get on that stretch of AA ASAP.

Commonwealth is literally just what some states choose to call themselves, has absolutely no bearing on legislation or the way the govt functions.