Council OKs condos for Church Hill
Council OKs condo development for Richmond's Church Hill
A 33-unit condominium complex can be built on the eastern edge of Church Hill, despite protests from residents who argue it would erode the character of their historic neighborhood.
The Richmond City Council voted 8-0 with one abstention last night to overturn a decision of the Commission of Architectural Review. The review commission had rejected the design for the Oakwood Heights project, saying its scale would be incompatible with the two-story homes on the block and with the rest of the district.
Afterward, residents pledged to challenge the decision in court. One resident said she may also run in this fall's special election for the council's 7th District seat.
"It's definitely a voice that has not been heard tonight," Church Hill resident Deanna Lewis said of the opposition. "We have one developer as opposed to an entire neighborhood" being listened to.
Seventh District Councilwoman Betty L. Squire, who was appointed this month to represent the Church Hill area, voted for the development but said she sympathized with the residents who lined up 30-deep to speak against it.
"I know my constituents are hurting," she said. "When one hurts, we all hurt."
Squire and other council members said they voted for the development in part because it was endorsed by former Councilwoman Delores L. McQuinn, now a state delegate. They also said they were swayed by property-rights concerns.
Some residents questioned McQuinn's endorsement in light of the $2,000 in campaign contributions she received from the Oakwood Heights developer and her company.
Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell abstained from voting, saying she would have supported a delay in hopes of reaching a compromise.
Margaret Freund, owner of Fulton Hill Properties, urged council members to overturn the review commission's decision, saying its objection to the project's scale was effectively an objection to the 33-unit zoning allowed under law. Oakwood Heights would be built to two stories on East Broad and East Marshall streets but would rise to four stories away from the streets as the property slopes downward.
After the council's decision, Freund said, "We really did try [to address design concerns]. If we didn't feel there was a fundamental opposition to the density, we would have kept trying."
Oakwood Heights is planned at the end of Broad and Marshall, overlooking Gillie Creek, in the Chimborazo Park Old and Historic District. The commission is tasked with helping to preserve Richmond's old neighborhoods by reviewing plans for building renovations and construction in designated historic districts.
In other business, the council:
The easement is co-held by the Capital Region Land Conservancy, the Richmond Recreation and Parks Foundation and the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or
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Reader Reactions
Your’e right James, and they have. Unfortunately, their credibility was lost when they created the CORD group to show how they could create a “responsible” plan of development for Shockoe Bottom and find developers willing to implement it. Five years later, they haven’t had a bite.
The neighborhood people are just NIMBYs. They would have objected to anything. People like that are a waste of time and the Council rightly dismissed them.
I wonder whether there will be any immediate impact on the area considering the lousy real estate market. Are developers lining up to begin construction of more overpriced condos that won’t sell?
You bring up some good points, DickTracy, regarding the numerous eyesores and bungled developments that our dear city has pulled off in the past. Now I ask you: What ideas for new development would you suggest as the city ‘surges’ forward into the 21st century? Ones that could hopefully avoid the shortcomings and/or second guessing that have seemingly plagued the past projects that you’ve just listed, of course.
Condos on Church Hill—a baseball stadium or some such in Shockoe- (does anybody recall 6th Street Marketplace
the mall to nowhere that became a hang out for bums…) And then there’s One of the ugliest buildings ever created
in town that greets drivers as theyenter the city from the 14th street bridge—like something out of a bad Hong Kong film—Richmond is always trying to assume a posture of worldliness and it is the developers who always destroy the landscape. (Developers are good old boy contractors who got a better education—that’s all-)What looks good on
paper or in theory never—ever is the same in reality. The one very great
and good thing the City has done for itself has been to preseve the James River Park for eternity—but…they will probably end up wrecking that too in some stupid way. The City of Richmond has a history of wrecking great buildings and putting up bad ones…They thought of wrecking old City Hall in the 1870s (the second one that is now a historic landmark)
they destroyed the first one by Robert Mills. They—were on the verge of destroying the Marshall House and the
Confederate White House—until the enlightened stepped in.It took millions to repair the new city hall put up in the 70s—like the old health dept building—a junky clunky
monolith. That was the decade the City manager declared “Richmond—a City on the Move” and proceeded to destroy all of Fulton Bottom creating a wasteland and to top it off tried to pave over Monument Avenue—but Helen Taylor stood down the trucks… We are still there…except in a different form. Get used to it Richmond—Get a good last look at the River from Libby Hill—because the boats they are a commin
and so is the money.
Unfortunately, this is what happens when a neighborhood association always says “no”.
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