RC HU H H C I JULY 2014 E L COMMUNITY H L T Newsletter A SS N OCIATIO IN THIS ISSUE Find out more about the p 4 Opinion & Response association and neighborhood p 7 James River Writers p 11 Take Me Out to the Ballgame... p 16 Real Estate Market Update Where Richmond Began p 18 Picnic Pics at www.churchhill.org p 23 Meeting Minutes p 24 Treasurer’s Report ABOUT THE CHURCH HILL ASSOCIATION CHA Board of Directors President, Geoffrey Cooper [email protected] Meetings & nOTICES Vice President, Tom Wilds [email protected] Zoning Committee Meetings Secretary, Charlie Nance [email protected] Held when required on the Tuesday before the Board Treasurer, David Cooley meeting at the Patrick Henry Pub, 2300 E. Broad [email protected] Street at 6:00 pm Assistant Treasurer, Trish Bernal Upcoming meeting: TBD [email protected] Directors at Large: Mark Baush CHA Board Meeting Tish Bergin Thursday, July 3 at 6:00 pm Sandra Horton Location: 2300 Club Karen Jones Geneva Smith Generally held on the first Thursday of every month unless otherwise noted at the 2300 Club, corner of 23rd Past President, John Johnson and E. Grace Street. Upcoming meeting: August 7 Zoning Committee Chair, Waite Rawls 649-1861 x130 | [email protected] CHA Membership Meeting Volunteers Tuesday, July 15, 7:00 pm Church Hill Newsletter: St. John’s Church, Parish Hall Newsletter Editor/Publisher, Kelley Banks [email protected] Generally held on the third Tuesday of every month un- Advertising Coordinator, Celeste Deal less otherwise noted at St. John’s Church Parish Hall. Lead Newsletter Distribution, Upcoming meeting: August 19 South: Tom & Eileen Sanders | 343-7157 North: Sharon Larkins-Pederson | 649-8846 Membership Coordinator, Trish Bernal [email protected] Church Hill Planters, Marion Macdonald | 644-1347 For more information on joining the CHA, please see our website at: www.churchhill.org, or fill out the application included in this publication. CHA Mission The purpose of this organization shall be to promote a sense of unity and common endeavor among all the residents of the St. John’s Church, Church Hill North, and Chimborazo Old and Historic Districts, other residents of the East District, and other interested persons, in order to develop a stable, desirable urban neighborhood. 2 | July 2014 NEWSLETTER CONTENT & ADVERTISING The Editor would like to offer a reminder thatyour neigh- Ad submissions must be received before the 15th of borhood newsletter is in need of monthly content, in- each month for the upcoming issue. cluding: • Informative, educational, historical articles with a SEND MATERIALS focus on Church Hill; Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Send ad • Photographs to go with articles and/or pictures that files to: [email protected] represent the neighborhood (will be printed in black & white, 300dpi, JPEG or TIF file, must be credited, and AD SIZE AND PRICING remain the property of the person submitting); Half-page $60 at 7.5” x 4.75” • Environmental or safety information that pertains to Quarter-page $45 at 3.5” x 4.75” the neighborhood; Full-page $115 at 7.5” x 10” • Letters to the Editor (as space allows, 250 words); Back cover $125 at 7.5” x 10” • And more!! NEWSLETTER AD SPECS Editorial Policy dictates that the newsletter is published Black and white art only monthly except for a combined November/December File formats: 300 dpi, PDF, TIF or JPEG issue. All official opinions of the CHA are found in the Files must be sized correctly minutes of the meetings. All other opinions expressed in MSWord or .DOC files will not be accepted the newsletter are the opinions of the individual author. Borders must fall within the size of ad space Submissions are welcome, however, Editorial Policy does not allow for personal attacks, profanity or anonymous PAYMENTS submissions. Submissions may be edited for space. Final 10% discounts for orders of 3 months or more. Payments approval rests with the Board of Directors. for ad space should be received no later than the 15th of each month for the upcoming issue. No ads will run if The Church Hill Newsletter is distributed by volunteers payment has not been received. throughout the Church Hill neighborhood (North and Payment by check only to: South of Broad Street). We also distribute to several area CHA Newsletter merchants. A total of 1600 issues are distributed monthly. P.O. Box 8031 Richmond, VA 23223 DUE DATES Copy must be submitted by the 15th of each month to CONTACT [email protected]. If you are interested in advertising in the Church Hill Newsletter, please check the website for ad specifica- tions at ChurchHill.org, or email questions to newsletter@ churchhill.org. Graphic Layout Volunteer If you know InDesign (or any other page layout software) and are interested in volunteering for your neighborhood association behind the scenes, the newsletter could be for you! Contact [email protected] for more info. ChurchHill.org | 3 OPINION To: [email protected] Give it up - The CHA organization consistently opposes most development that furthers Richmond City development, as well as venues through which to garner income to support our schools, safety, roads and overall infrastructure. Our city cannot rely upon VCU and developers in the West End, only, to bring in businesses and related tax revenue (which supports inner city schools for example). The CHA consistently opposes development that is at least, if not more than, 10 blocks from the beginning of an apparently “Elitist’ neighborhood (Church Hill). Furthermore, the CHA continues to exercise negative opinions and activities re: develop- ment, etc. that are clearly not in its purview, such as the proposed development at Pear and Canal Streets and the Stadium in Shockoe Bottom. It appears the CHA would rather preserve run-down property, including property in the Church Hill neighborhood, rather than support development that can improve the position of all property owners. Furthermore, The CHA sabotages your own local businesses. The lawsuit that resulted from trying to eliminate the business success of a 10(+) year, 365 day-a-year neighborhood business (i.e. Captain Buzzy’s) in the heart of “Church Hill” is abomi- nable. The CHA should be ashamed of itself and my hope is that Bob Buffington prevails. The CHA should take a lesson from other neighborhoods like Union Hill area, clearly a much more welcoming and thoughtful community re: rationale to sup- port businesses, development, and furthering a truly neighborhood venue/lifestyle. My current residence is the Nolde Bakery Condominium. The developer had to fight with the CHA and bow down to unrea- sonable “historic preservation” which has resulted in unresolved water leakage primarily related to “historic windows” that had to be retained. This is not the way to move forward. Hopefully, the CHA membership will come to the recognition that they live in a city area and should be wise to support the development activities and understanding of the necessary actions that accompany this outcome. I have had the good fortune to grow up and live in a true city, Washington, DC, and never experienced such petty distractions to furthering the ongoing and immense city development. I hope this will be shared with your members, but am doubtful, since the CHA seems to make a practice of sharing only their perspectives, etc. Regards - Beth Sarrett LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT RESPONSE Dear Beth, Thank you for your recent letter. I am taking the liberty of publishing it here in its entirety, and I hope this coincides with your expressed desires. I hope you won’t mind me taking a few minutes to reply. My reply can be summed up with the words, “Beth, you could not be more wrong!”. The views you espouse are those usually promulgated by those with unusual ideologies (i.e. no belief in zoning or citizen’s rights as opposed to property rights), those who are immature and want to act out, or those who are misinformed. I am assuming you fall into the latter category, so I would like to take a few moments to set the record straight. The Church Hill Association is now in its 50th year. We have a long history of supporting development in our neighborhood, and through the hard work of those of us who love this neighborhood, and who have worked tirelessly to support its development, we now have a truly wonderful, historic, and unique place in which to live. Our organization has supported many initiatives in the neighborhood, and has been active in supporting new and established businesses. We are actively involved with the schools, and support neighboring community organizations. We regularly have neighborhood businesses come to our monthly membership meetings to tell us about themselves. Our zoning committee works diligently with developers, and is able to review plans and make comments so that the 4 | July 2014 LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT continued development will fit in well with our neighborhood and keep its historic character. When the process works well, you don’t hear about it. There is a give and take between us and the developer that creates a project that is better for all. Lest you think we are elitist, I might mention that our input regarding the movie theater redevelopment next to the Post Office (which will be 100% rental units) resulted in preservation of the historic theater front, and new retail space as well as allowing for an exciting housing opportunity. We are held in high enough regard by the City, that we are asked to weigh in on issues that are not in our immediate neighborhood, but are nearby. They come to us because we are a rationale and functioning organization.