Ordinance would create Historic Broad Street Arts District

The art of compromise shaped the arts district that has been proposed for downtown Richmond.

After months of talks with Mayor Dwight C. Jones' administration, City Councilman Charles R. Samuels introduced last week an ordinance to create the Historic Broad Street Arts District for much of the area that is being revitalized by the monthly First Fridays Art Walk.

If approved, the district would cover about 27 blocks generally along Broad, Marshall and Grace streets from Belvidere Street east to North Seventh Street. It also would include portions of North First, North Second and North Third streets in Jackson Ward to take in properties such as the newly renovated Hippodrome Theater.

"I'm trying to show support for the existing businesses who took a big chance on this area of town over the past decade-plus," Samuels said. "Also, I hope this ordinance, in conjunction with (the mayor's program) ArtBusiness Richmond, will encourage new redevelopment downtown and specifically within the district."

The ordinance would allow arts and cultural venues in or facing the district boundaries, including theaters, galleries, museums, dance studios, music halls and historical sites, to qualify for certain benefits, including reduced or waived fees and priority review of building permits.

Samuels said he was surprised, based on prior agreement with the city administration, that the ordinance was introduced without Jones listed as a co-patron.

Jones this year offered but later withdrew a proposal that would have created an arts district for a much larger area of downtown — at least twice the number of blocks that Samuels is now proposing.

Despite its vision for a larger downtown arts district, the Jones administration decided to work with Samuels "in the interest of moving an ordinance forward expeditiously," said Tammy D. Hawley, the mayor's press secretary.

The administration also plans to ask the General Assembly to authorize the city to have more than one arts district, and it also could look in the future to expand the boundaries currently proposed by Samuels, Hawley said.

Officials said they were already implementing the ArtBusiness Richmond program by targeting millions in loan and grant funds for arts-oriented development projects, such as live-work studios.

Backed by some in the arts community, Samuels pressed to focus on a smaller area and to include targeted financial incentives. However, the incentives now being offered do not include several that had been considered, such as exempting nonprofit organizations from the city's 7 percent admissions tax and providing a temporary exemption of business-license taxes for arts-related businesses.

"I pushed really hard for those to be included, especially the waiver of the admissions tax, but hit a plain old brick wall with my arguments," Samuels said.

He added that he plans to propose as part of the fiscal 2012-13 budget review "either a complete or partial repeal of the admissions tax or at least a total exemption for the city's nonprofits."

As proposed, the ordinance would provide for qualifying venues:

• reduced or waived fees from the city's revolving loan program;

• marketing and promotional support for the arts district subject to annual appropriations by the city; and

• unspecified assistance to create residential space attached to the venue for occupancy by the owner or operator.

In addition, the ordinance would provide additional benefits from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2016, including rebates of building-permit fees and priority review of building-permit applications. Officials said they have been unable to estimate the fiscal impact of the ordinance.

Christina Newton, a spokeswoman for First Fridays, had favored Samuels' approach to establish an arts district that would focus on a limited, targeted area. She said in a message that she had not had an opportunity to review the plan.

Samuels' proposal is a disappointment for the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia at 00 Clay St., about one block outside the district boundary.

"The boundaries' brief extension to Leigh Street (between North First and North Third streets) makes the exclusion of the Black History Museum even more pronounced and problematic," said Executive Director Maureen Elgersman Lee

The council is scheduled to consider the ordinance after a public hearing Nov. 28.