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Alternate plan proposed for Shockoe

01/02/2014 10:44 AM by

Style Weekly has the details of an alternate to Mayor Jones’ proposal for the development of Shockoe Bottom.

The plan, put together by Ana Edwards, Phil Wilyato, Waite Rawls (executive director of the Museum of the Confederacy), Randolph Bell (former president of the First Freedom Center), and “a group of Church Hill residents and some black activists”, calls for increased emphasis on the history of the area and does not include a baseball stadium.

From the proposal (PDF):

The District itself would form a coherent whole, symbolizing the fact that at one time Shockoe Bottom was an integrated commercial district serving the slave trade, while at the same time providing vital public park/green space for this highly dense urban area.

One new element in this plan is a linear water feature: the Shockoe Creek Canal Extension. This waterway would run along the east side of the present-day CSX railroad tracks. In addition to being an attractive new feature to the Bottom and illustrating the historic connection between Shockoe Creek, the Kanawha-Haxall canals and the James River, this feature would satisfy the EPA and Chesapeake Bay Act mandate to separate storm water and sewer management.

[…]

The Vision Plan basically replaces the RRP’s Shockoe stadium with a memorial park, while keeping all other elements of the mayor’s alternative plan. This would allow the anticipated collection of the new tax revenue the mayor has described, while adding new tax revenue realized by greatly enhancing Richmond as a tourist destination.


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