Good morning, RVA! It's 61 °F, and today we’ve got a pretty good chance for not only rain but maybe even some pretty intense storms. NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says we could see “downpours with localized flooding” (Twitter) this evening—so keep an eye on the sky, especially if you’re commuting home later this afternoon.
Water cooler
The City has released a new draft of the Shockoe Small Area Plan, which you can view and comment on through Knoveio. I feel like I’ve read through this plan previously, and the Richmond 300 email newsletter tells me that, “The development of the plan began in 2019 but was put on hold in 2022 while a critical Hydrology and Hydraulics Study (H&H Study) was completed. The H&H Study determined what can and cannot be constructed in Shockoe because of the floodway and floodplain.” That study seems pretty important, because a quick scan of the draft plan’s executive summary reveals this bit about the proposed “Heritage Campus” site (which includes Devil’s Half Acre and the African Burial Ground): “The recently completed Hydrology and Hydraulics study shows that the floodplain, floodway, and major stormwater management infrastructure will have a substantial impact on development within the Heritage Campus footprint. Buildings with large footorints cannot be achieved in this area. These impediments will require innovative and creative solutions.” Sounds ominous, and I wonder what impact those “impediments” will have on some of the pretty renderings we’ve previously seen of the future of that space.
Mike Platania at Richmond BizSense reports on an opportunity to rezone three entire blocks of Manchester on Semmes Avenue to TOD-1. Given all of the new development and traffic patterns in that area, I think it’s time to figure out what to do with the section of Semmes between the Belvidere Bridge and the 9th Street Bridge. It’s unnecessarily highwayish and, with some creativity, could maybe better connect a couple neighborhoods in some thoughtful ways. Honestly, taming Commerce Road is probably the bigger need but seems like a much more intimidating project...
Via /r/rva, someone found a tiny coffin for a tiny hamster—the fastest hamster alive—off the North Bank trail.
Today for RVA Bike Month you can attend a public meeting hosted by the Henrico County Department of Public Works to discuss ways to improve safety and mobility on Hilliard Road and the construction of the County’s southern portion of the Fall Line Trail. I hadn’t heard about plans to reduce the number of lanes on Hilliard, and I want to give the County a big high five for considering it. I rode my bike on Hilliard exactly one time and will never again without some sort of dedicated bike infrastructure. I also hadn’t see this level of detail for the planning and construction of Henrico’s portion of the Fall Line Trail, which is really exciting and deserves another high five. A double high five! With construction anticipated on some Fall Line sections as soon as this summer, we could see (small) new segments of the trail opening as early as next October. Incredible! In case you were wondering, these two projects do go hand-in-hand as the northern most end of this segment of the Fall Line Trail ends at Hilliard Road, which, by time of completion, should have fewer lanes and a physically protect bike lane. Cool stuff, and it’s great to see such rapid progress on a project that didn’t even have a name a couple years back.
This morning's patron longread
Why the U.S. builds more three-car garages than one-bedroom apartments
Submitted (first) by Patron Lisa. A handful of people sent me this NPR interview about parking (you can find a similar of version of over on the Fresh Air podcast), and I really like what that says about me and readers of this newsletter. Tap through and give it a read or a listen so you can feel extra good about how Richmond recently did the work to eliminate parking minimums!
I don't think it's that surprising when you start to think about it. I mean, there are more - we build more three-car garages in this country than we build one-bedroom apartments. Almost every jurisdiction in this country requires parking as a part of every single building type. Whether you're building a school, an apartment building or an office or a restaurant, the law requires a certain number of parking spaces. So we have parking minimums in every jurisdiction in this country, whereas for housing, we often have maximums. We say, on this plot, you can only put one unit of housing. You can only put two units of housing. So the fact that we've ended up with a surplus of parking and a shortage of housing is no surprise. In fact, it's by design.
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Picture of the Day
Snapped this picture of the new sculpture at the Science Museum while riding through their new park! Lots of new at the ol’ Musuem!
