Strip club cited for anti-ballpark sign

By: Will Jones | Times-Dispatch
Published: February 05, 2009

The debate over a ballpark in Shockoe Bottom is getting louder, especially at 15th and East Main streets.

A large, bright yellow sign, exclaiming "No Stadium in Shockoe," hangs from the side of the building above the neon-lit Club Velvet strip club.

Richmond inspectors slapped the building owner with a zoning-violation notice last week, saying the sign exceeds size limits and was not approved.

Club Velvet is allowed 175 square feet of signs along Main, and it has 14 days to appeal to the Board of Zoning Appeals, according to the notice.

Samuel J.T. Moore III, owner of Club Velvet, declined to comment but has indicated plans to appeal on the basis that the sign falls under the city's exemption for "political campaign" signs, said Rachel Flynn, the city's director of community development.

According to Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, Moore could have a case, because there's little to distinguish a sign that backs a candidate for elective office and one that supports -- or opposes -- a ballpark.

The flap comes as city officials are considering Shockoe Center, a $363 million development that would include a minor-league ballpark, hotels, offices, restaurants, retail businesses and residences.

The sign at Club Velvet underscores the city's choices for keeping Shockoe Bottom as gritty as it is or trying to improve it, said Pete Boisseau, a spokesman for the group led by Highwoods Properties.

"Sometimes, you're fortunate who your opponents are," he said. The sign is "indicative of how bringing baseball and family entertainment will be transformative to the Bottom."

But critics see the center proposal as unproven -- if not unrealistic -- and they fear it could backfire on taxpayers.

The ballpark would be financed through the sale of tax-exempt bonds that would be repaid using state and local tax revenues generated by the ballpark and new, attached development.

Critics also foresee problems with traffic and parking, as well as argue that a ballpark would be inappropriate given Shockoe Bottom's role in the slave trade -- an issue underscored by the recent discovery of remains of the Lumpkin's slave jail.

The Alliance to Conserve Old Richmond Neighborhoods, a nonprofit preservation group, cited such concerns this week in announcing its opposition to Shockoe Center.

The developers said they've shifted their plans to avoid the historically sensitive areas and are committed to working with the city and its Slave Trail Commission.

This week, real estate investor Charlie Diradour started a campaign to keep baseball on North Boulevard, which is home to The Diamond.

He started a Web site, Baseballonthe Boulevard.com, as well as a pro-Boulevard support group on the social-networking Internet site Facebook.

He and others have argued that Boulevard has superior access from Interstate 95/64, as well as question whether there's a market for the private development envisioned for Shockoe Center.

Brian Fowler, who set up a Facebook site supporting baseball in Shockoe Bottom, said he's part of an influx of young professionals who see opportunities for Richmond.

"I think native Richmonders often don't see the immense potential this city has," he said in an e-mail. "They are sometimes too blinded by the failures of the past."

Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.