In case you did not not know already, the City Of Richmond’s Urban Design Committee did NOT approve Venture Richmond’s amphitheater, wait, sorry, THEATER plan this past Monday. Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association President Jennifer Hancock gave a great speech on behalf of the association, and Laurel Street neighbor Caroline Cox spoke in regard to the parking and noise problems associated with putting an amphitheater directly below Oregon Hill. Pine Street neighbor Bryan Green who serves on the Urban Planning Commission was one of four who voted against the plan.

Tomorrow, the proposal will be at City’s the Planning Commission (1:30pm, on the fifth floor at City Hall).

Venture Richmond, as expected, has threatened that this Folk Festival will be its last if they don’t get what they want and most of the local media is going with their storyline.

Meanwhile, the Overlook Unit Owners Association board has released the following statement:

1. Our Overlook community is made up of a wide variety of residents, including young professionals, working people of all ages, retirees, families with young children, graduate and undergraduate students.

2. We support the work that the City and Venture Richmond has done to develop the Riverfront and encourage more people to visit and live in the city.

3. Our residents enjoy the entertainment and other amenities available downtown, including concerts, festivals, parks, art galleries and restaurants.

4. We frequent and support the Richmond Folk Festival.

5. We believe that it is important that decisions made by the City and non-governmental institutions regarding the use of land be sensitive to the impact those decisions will have on neighbors living close-by.

6. We acknowledge that some alterations of the canal may be necessary. We support restoring the canal in a manner that will be both historically accurate by allowing canal boat traffic from Maymont to Third Street and the use of Tredgar Green as an amphitheater.

7. We prefer that the Tredegar Green area remain green and undeveloped, with only occasional use for amplified performances. We are concerned that a stage at the base of the Lee Bridge would disturb the peace of some members of our community if concerts were scheduled there regularly without restriction.

8. We note that loud events on a stage aimed directly at the Virginia War Memorial would destroy the peace and tranquility of that facility. The Virginia War Memorial is a sacred place for thousands of friends and family members of Virginia’s fallen veterans. We hope that Venture Richmond and the Virginia War Memorial can coordinate schedules to not have events on the same day, with priority going to the Virginia War Memorial.

9. We ask that, if approved, amplified events at Tredegar Green be limited to no more than 15 days per year and not run past 10:00PM on weeknights and 11:00PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

10. If more events are scheduled for the site at the foot of the Lee Bridge, large crowds and parking issues in our neighborhood will move from an occasional inconvenience to a frequent problem. The Overlook development was approved by the City with the assumption that reasonable street parking would be available to residents, supplemented by limited off-street parking on our land. Frequent events that draw thousands to our neighborhood would destroy that basic assumption, resulting in an unfair burden on our residents.

11. We ask that a reasonable volume limit be put on performances at the amphitheater stage.

Also, Laurel Street neighbor Charles Pool, when he has not been researching the history of the Kanawha Canal, has been asking the City a lot of questions. Under the Va. Freedom of Information Act, he requested on Aug. 26, 2013, “Any lease agreements or draft lease agreements regarding the use of City of Richmond property by Venture Richmond for an amphitheater.” His FOIA request was copied to the City Attorney. The use of City property for Venture Richmond’s proposed amphitheater is an item on the agenda of the Sept. 16, 2013 meeting of the Richmond City Planning Commission.

On Sept. 9, 2013, he received a response from a City employee on behalf of city administrator Byron Marshall, that “the City is not in possession of any records responsive to your requests nor is the City aware of the existence of any records responsive to your request.”

After receiving this response from the city administration that the lease did not exist, and after he notified all of the City Planning Commissioners that the lease did not exist, he actually received the lease agreement that someone else had independently received from the city attorney. Here is a link to the lease agreement, which the administration denied existed until two business days before the Planning Commission hearing:

http://eservices.ci.richmond.va.us/applications/clerkstracking/getPDF.asp?NO=2012-153-110

Among other things, this lease agreement is significant because it states that Venture Richmond must maintain the existing city parking for the public except for limited circumstance related to use of the property for an event like the Folk Festival. But Venture Richmond is proposing unlimited use of the proposed amphitheater which would be leased with no limit on the number of events annually.