Category Archives: trees

Seeking Healthier, Greener Richmond (Including Monroe Park)

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Tomorrow night, the VCU Institute For Contemporary Art is hosting the following event:

Artist’s Choice: Art + Science
WEDNESDAY, SEP 19
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

As Richmond strives to adapt to climate change this conversation, led by artist Jon-Phillip Sheridan, explores a number of related questions. How do we make our community healthier? How can we rectify social environmental injustice? What changes can be made to zoning to stop creating areas that are substantially hotter, have more air pollution and are food deserts?

Join Sheridan and urban farm activist Duron Chavis, bioengineer Stephen Fong, forest ecologist Chris Gough, and sustainability manager Alicia Zatcoff as they explore green urbanism and grassroots strategies to mitigate pollution and the urban heat island effect.

Audience members will receive native plant seed packets provided by Enrichmond Treelab. After the conversation, learn more about how you can get involved and enjoy free snacks and a cash bar at ICA’s Ellwood Thompson’s Cafe.

Jon-Phillip Sheridan is Assistant Professor at VCUarts Department of Photography and Film. Sheridan deconstructs photographs and found images, creating meticulous, kaleidoscopic arrangements that question materiality and the paradox of the picture plane itself.

Duron Chavis developed and organizes the McDonough Community Garden, an 8500 sq ft community garden located in a USDA denoted food desert in southside Richmond. He is the Manager of Community Engagement at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where he coordinates initiatives around the topics of urban agriculture and food security.

Stephen Fong is Associate Professor of Chemical and Life Science Engineering at VCU. His research group works on systems biology, computational modeling, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and microbial evolution. Recently, Dr. Fong started SustainLab as an undergraduate research group focused on sustainability/quality of life topics.

Chris Gough is Assistant Professor of Biology at VCU. His research focuses on how climate, disturbance, and management shape forest, wetland, and urban ecosystem interactions with the climate system through their effects on atmospheric greenhouse gases. Chris is an advocate of open science and education resources, arts-sciences inte

Alicia Zatcoff is the first Sustainability Manager for the City of Richmond. She founded and developed the city’s sustainability and energy management program, focusing on improving the economic and environmental performance of city government and making RVA more livable, competitive, and resilient.

Sounds great. But here is something very important to consider- the VCU administration is responsible along with the Monroe Park Conservancy for the destruction of over 576 inches DBH of healthy mature trees in Monroe Park (the equivalent of 165 newly planted trees). Make no mistake about it, using the private-public partnership of the Monroe Park Conservancy, VCU officials have successfully connived their way around the desires, needs, and demands of City residents after previous attempts to do so failed. The problems with the Monroe Park ‘renovations’ have been documented. It is clear that the Mayor and City officials are determined to ignore them, but it is imperative that shade trees be replaced in this oldest of city parks to mitigate air pollution, storm water runoff and to reestablish wildlife habitat.

Here is the Feb 2017 tree exhibit that was presented to the City’s Urban Design Committee as part of the “Pavilion presentation”. It shows where the two replacement trees were supposed to go as well as the location of the “allee” plantings. As fence around Monroe Park FINALLY comes down, and tree planting season approaches, City Parks Director Frelke and other officials have a duty to make sure that VCU and the Conservancy add promised replacement trees, even if they will never make up for what was taken.

Sierra Club: Terminate the Monroe Park Conservancy’s Lease, Remove Board President Massie

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From the Sierra Club Falls of the James press release:

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 6, 2018
CONTACT
Joe Brancoli, Chairperson of the Sierra Club Falls of the James Executive Committee

Sierra Club: Terminate the Monroe Park Conservancy’s Lease, Remove Board President Massie

RICHMOND, Virginia – At the May meeting of the Sierra Club Falls of the James (SCFOJ) Executive Committee, a vote was taken to update and republish last year’s public letter by the SCFOJ Executive Committee to the Mayor and City Council which called for an end to the lease agreement with the Monroe Park Conservancy. (Note: a copy of the 2017 SCFOJ letter can be found at this link: https://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2017/01/sierra-club-falls-of-james-letter-to.html, please do review its statement of facts.) This new resolution follows multiple, unanswered requests for meetings with elected officials, despite their pledges for more public oversight. The new resolution also makes the additional request that City Council ask the Monroe Park Conservancy to remove Alice Massie from her position as the president of the Conservancy.

The past year has seen growing public outrage against the Monroe Park Conservancy for its actions. It is worth noting that, after being closed for 19 months and with none of the previous projected finish dates being met, the Monroe Park renovation is ridiculously behind schedule and over budget. The renovation has used over 4 million dollars in public taxpayer money and it is not apparent where additional funds will be found to complete the renovation. The problems are legion:

We are concerned that granite curbstones adjacent to sidewalks were not reset properly after the sidewalk was removed, as well as shoddy brickwork overall. We are also concerned about the renovation of the Checkers House, which is listed as contributing to the Monroe Park Historic District, because alterations may affect its inclusion on the National Registry of Historic Spaces.

We agree with near-by neighborhood associations that the signage that the Monroe Park Conservancy has proposed for the park is inappropriate. Superfluous signage clutters the sight lines in the park and detracts from the natural beauty. The Monroe Park Conservancy has once again applied to the Urban Design Committee to place a large (3.5 foot high) billboard for corporate donors in a prominent position at the main entrance to the park across from Sacred Heart Cathedral. Despite most of the funding for the renovation has come from taxpayers, this sign would prominently advertise corporations/institutions such as Dominion Energy and VCU at this area of our city’s most historic park, overwhelming the Department of Historic Resources’ highway marker that cites the park’s listing on the National Register of Historic Places. There are alternatives to this billboard such as engraved pavers that would not detract from the park’s natural sight lines. Alice Massie, President of the Monroe Park Conservancy, mislead the City Planning Commission by stating that permeable pavers cannot be engraved.

An ugly electrical control station was placed right next to the World War II memorial in Monroe Park, blocking it. This disturbed the site lines and sanctity of the elegant memorial, which was designed by famous landscape architect Charles Gillette in 1951 and is listed as a contributing structure to the Monroe Park Historic District as included on the National Register of Historic Places. The Memorial, renovated to U.S. Secretary of Interior Standards circa 2005, consists of a masonry structure with limestone sheets upon which names of the city’s World War II war dead are inscribed and is adorned with 2 brass eagles and features two black granite benches which were donated by A. P. Grappone and Sons, Inc. stone works, at the time of the renovation. Original 2009 work documents had located two electrical control stations in the eastern portion of the park near Belvidere and near Pine and W. Main Streets, and, while it is not apparent who ordered the change, it appears to have been done to accommodate surrounding private development. Veterans and their families have publicly complained about this insensitivity of this clunky station placement.

In December 2016, 15 healthy mature trees were destroyed without the city seeking or gaining a departmental variance. A project supervisor applied to the Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission for approval after the trees were destroyed but both bodies refused to approve the destruction post facto. Since then, more old-growth trees have been destroyed despite requests from the public and the City’s Planning Commission that the Monroe Park Conservancy consider alternatives. The stated goal of the Conservancy is for the park to serve as ‘a green living room’ that is completely self-sustainable. With trees playing such a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming, and so much of the historic tree canopy now destroyed after having been declared in conflict with the mechanical bio-retention feature in the park, the environmental logic behind the Monroe Park restoration project is flawed.

Recently, in the location of the destroyed trees, a huge corporate tent was erected for a month that further damaged and monopolized a whole portion of the park, killing all of the vegetation beneath it. This block long tent “feature” is being actively marketed by the Monroe Park Conservancy and the management of the Altria Theatre for paid functions, effectively displacing the larger community from using this public green space.

On the same fateful evening that the Conservancy was awarded the lease to the park, City Council also unanimously approved Resolution 2014-R64-64, which called for the Conservancy to diversify their board with community stakeholders and neighborhood representatives within 60 days. Alice Massie, who is the current president of the Conservancy, signed this agreement with Council. But in the 4 years since signing this agreement, the Conservancy has consistently refused to add neighborhood representatives to the Board. The community volunteers listed on their website do not represent or report to their respective neighborhoods. The refusal to honor this agreement is especially troublesome because the 2008 Master Plan, overseen by Rhodes and Harwell, and which was celebrated for the transparency and public participation that went into it, has been ignored and altered, including the removal of a children’s resource area in order to place the huge corporate “tenting” area.

There are reports that the Monroe Park Conservancy has submitted a set of rules dictating use of Monroe Park but this draft has not been made available to the public. These rules must be approved by Richmond City Council, but the public should also have the opportunity and time to review and comment on these rules before they are arrive before City Council. Supposedly, this is currently under the purview of the City of Richmond’s Capital Projects, and (possibly) Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Departments. The public eagerly awaits a chance to review these rules. The Sierra Club urges free and unrestricted use of this PUBLIC park at no cost by all individuals
and community groups, as has historically been the practice in Monroe Park.

Given the abandonment of a publically-approved plan, the obvious desecration of historic and natural features, the cost overruns and long-extended construction timeline, and the continuing embarrassing eyesore of a stalled construction zone in the center of Richmond, it is clear that the Monroe Park Conservancy has failed to meet its responsibilities to the City and must be held accountable for this travesty. In closing, it’s not often that the Sierra Club calls for the removal of a non-elected, non-government official, but in this egregious situation, it makes sense to demand more accountability. For this reason, the Sierra Club is asking again that the Mayor and City Council terminate all agreements with the Monroe Park Conservancy, and demands that City Council ask the Conservancy to remove President Alice Massie as a demonstration of no confidence. The Monroe Conservancy may yet accomplish a decent, renovation of Monroe Park, but it is very clear that the wooded, historic, Victorian, PUBLIC park that citizens cherished and loved has been irreparably and callously destroyed. The responsibility falls squarely on City government to correct its lack of oversight in regard to this very flawed ‘public private partnership/development’, and the Sierra Club is joining Richmond citizens to demand immediate action.

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Monroe Park’s Slow Disaster

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It’s been heartbreaking for neighbors to watch the slow destruction of Monroe Park. The Monroe Park ‘Conservancy’ has succeeded in fulfilling VCU’s desire to get rid of the park’s trees. During the park’s period of significance circa 1904, there were 362 trees of 26 species in the park. Less than a third of that now thanks to 3North and the “Conservancy”. Sadly, this situation is not all that unique when you consider that U.S. cities are losing about 36 million trees a year.

Of course there have been many other Monroe Park matters as well. Recently it was discovered that a new electrical service unit was installed right next to a World War II memorial that contributes to the Park’s historic significance.

Expect an announcement by the Sierra Club Falls of the James on this topic soon. This comes after the organization has already tried to meet with Mayor Stoney (and was ignored) and publicly called for the termination of the Conservancy’s lease.

Monroe Park Conservancy Shortfall And Tree Removal

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Neighbors are still very disheartened by the Monroe Park Conservancy. They keep contacting City Council members about their actions.

From Cherry Street neighbor and Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association president Todd Woodson:

Dear Councilman Agelasto,

As you know, I recently sent a list of concerns/questions to Councilperson Gray and MPC president Alice Massie regarding the renovation of Monroe Park which is scheduled to be completed in Spring of this year. Although the request for information has not been responded to, the MPC website has just been updated not only to include a new board chair for Dominion Energy, but also the revelation that the Conservancy is now short $1.5 million to complete the renovation “with all amenities”. You may have noticed that work in the park has slowed to a crawl.

The City of Richmond has already made up well over $800,000.00 in shortfalls for the park redo in addition to over $3 million in infrastructure and “soft” costs.

The Falls of the James chapter of the Sierra Club has already called for the termination of the lease to the MPC and I add my voice to that end. Monroe Park is Richmond’s oldest and most historic city park and although the MPC doesn’t get control through the lease until after the renovation, they have meddled constantly with changes to the master plan to include a most unfortunate destruction of much of the old growth tree canopy as well as other historically inappropriate park “features”.

Details of the shortfall may be found here:
https://www.monroepark.com/about/monroe-park-conservancy/

Other concerns include inconsistencies of the design changes with approved master plan and work documents.

The current situation is extremely troubling as is the persistent lack of transparency and community involvement with the project. Please take action on behalf of your constituents.

Thank you,

Charles T. Woodson.

He followed up with this:

In addition to the MPC previously having posted their completion of fund raising on their website, they, along with Dwight Jones, made this press release in 2016 on the completion of the fundraising for the park renovation.

https://www.monroepark.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/PressRelease-9-21-16.pdf

The “amenities” they refer to in the update on the shortfall are garbage like the gazebo and the “rill” that the citizens have spoken up against time and time again. I’ve heard you use the meaningful phrase “get back to basics” in reference to city government policy. I truly believe we need to get back to basics and restore the park as the community vetted master plan envisioned, not with architectural detritus and treeless corporate campgrounds. Ms Massie has not approached the public for financial support because she doesn’t care what the community says and prefers her corporate funds. Instead, she has fomented non transparency and divisiveness and she has indulged in back room shady corporate deals and unnecessary features/alterations of the master plan. I know you see this. Hopefully, now that there is another substantial shortfall the rest of council will see the wisdom of getting back to basics and honoring a historically sensitive renovation of the park. Please terminate the lease, especially now that there is a real parks director.

Thanks again.

And if that was not enough…on February 18, Todd added this:

Although the planning commission requested that the Monroe Park “Conservancy” consider alternatives to the destruction of a beautiful healthy and mature Magnolia as well as a nearby Maple, this is what is left of the Maggie. It was destroyed over the last two days…

The lack of coverage in the local media is troubling.