February 18, 2009
Church Hill Association Says No To Shockoe Development
2 Comments »Church Hill People’s News has a summary of the Church Hill Association meeting last night. In the meeting the vote was 62-44 against the Shockoe Center Development. There are some interesting comments some of which address the “hint of scandal” below.
While the discussion was more civilized than much of the recent online dialogue, the evening did generate a hint of scandal: there were allegations that some of the evening’s new members had their dues paid by the developer or another interested party and had pledged to vote in favor of the development.
Though skewing older, wealthier, and whiter than the more broad “Church Hill”, the Church Hill Association has traditionally been taken as a bellwether for the opinion of area. It will be interesting to see if the other civic associations in the area reflect similar divisions.
It was also interesting that the main
reason given by residents for voting against the project was the funding behind the project, $70 million in sales and property taxes to be collected to pay
back the bonds in the future. Also, the
problem of the City’s moral obligation to
step in to pay back the bonds if the venture fails and even the sale of the
baseball park will not cover the bond
debt. Taxpayers will be on the hook as
in so many other ventures.
City Council needs to think long and hard
and give some well-supported financial
plans before they approve this “sweet
deal” for the developers. See this week’s Style magazine for an extensive analysis of the ballpark’s funding.
Also, read the discussion on the blog
site, Buttermilk and Molasses. If you
want to hear a presentation by the devel-
opers, go to the meeting next Tuesday,
2/24, at Albert Hill School, 7-8pm.
The Coliseum, Marriott, Sixth Street Marketplace, Champions Sports Bar.
Remember when those, individually and collectively , were going to “save” downtown Richmond.
It was ironic that once of the developers (I assume he was anyway, I missed the introductions) was on Doc’s show on WRVA radio today bashing the Coliseum, claiming that structure was one reason Richmond is not a “sports” town.
It wasn’t so long ago when other developers were singing a different tune.
TvNB