Xmas came early for #NavyHill! Commission report released this evening, and will be presented to #RVACouncil in January. Some initial impressions:
#Thread 1/
The commission took an interesting tack, offering a color-coded "scoresheet" of issue areas to try to sum up commissioners' feeling on each issue
2/
Not a lot of positives: TIF assumptions, mixed use, street grid, VCU involvement, minority goals all get "green" coding for generally supported by the commission (though TIF by a 5-4 vote) 3/
Most areas are yellow, which means not validated due to mixed feelings on commission or "insufficient evidence" - from impacts to benefits, lots of questions still here 4/
Most negative issue areas? risks to general fund and school funds, and especially project oversight from the city, which was even a concern for project defenders on commission 5/
Each commissioner provided "worksheet" with individual responses, which should provide more detail and insight into each commissioner's approach (and fun reading over the holidays) 6/
Also included: individual suggestions for changing ordinances, which developers and/or city admin could try to incorporate to win over critics on #RVACouncil 7/
Not to downplay hard work of #NavyHillCommission but I'm almost more interested in seeing developers' response, which almost certainly will attempt to de-legitimize the report; how strong a response may indicate how desperate they are feeling 8/
In anticipation of that response, it's worth noting that the Commission was never going to answer every Q. It provided a flawed but almost heroically open democratic process through which questions about the project could (finally) be raised by citizens and experts. 9/
Considering the powerful players involved in this development project, and how much of a pain in the ass this commission was for those players, this report = a goddamn miracle 10/
No matter what, developer/admin pressure will now move to #RVACouncil. More #NavyHill to come in 2020 - until then, happy holidays, all! 11/End
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