Friends of the Fall Line – January 2025 Quarterly Meeting

Meeting Highlights: January 15, 2025

  • Funding Status has reached 68% ($281 million of $409 million)
  • Project Updates
    • Hanover Section is nearing completion in mid 2025
    • Ground Breaking expected in Petersburg mid 2025
    • Construction expected in Richmond in 2025
  • Diamond District/Fall Line Alignment conversations have begun
  • Roundabout Plans for Laburnum/Hermitage Intersection presented with conversation regarding two design options

Meeting Transcript

0:21

all righty welcome again to the first friends of the fall line meeting of 2025

0:27

we meet January April July and October each year to for Round Table updates and

0:34

discussions and and uh planning related to the fall line Trail I’m Brantley Tyndall the Director of Bike Walk RVA at

0:41

sportsbackers um the uh organization leading the development of the Fall Line Trail um we are super excited to

0:49

introduce our new hire Natalie rer some of you will have already met her or worked with her in previous roles at

0:55

swim RVA and um the Virginia Capital Trail foundation and she’s actually going to take a a quick speaking role

1:01

later in uh the presentation but Natalie do you want to say anything uh to

1:07

introduce yourself um sure thank you Brantley um

1:12

hello everyone I’ve met many of you already but to those who I have not met

1:17

before I’m just really excited to jump into this work and be involved in

1:23

creating a world class trail with you all all right moving on I uh know up

1:29

updates to this slide uh since the last meeting we have currently raised $281 million for the fall line Trail uh the

1:37

last addition being um a relatively small addition from the Central Virginia

1:43

Transportation Authority for the way finding um uh certainly that’ll be a very um effective amount of money but we

1:51

uh that bumped us from 280 to 281 um as of late last

1:57

year next uh this slide has has changed all that much either but the next few slides will be a bit of an overview that

2:04

Natalie will lead I had um her go out and do some site research for us on the

2:09

development of design build one the northern section from the Ashland all

2:14

the way through Hanover and the northern section of heno County um but just so

2:20

the latest I’ve known and and certainly There’s an opportunity for our vot and locality Partners to um speak up in a

2:25

moment but um the if by all accounts it looks like the

2:31

design build phase one is proceeding uh quite expeditiously and U some sections

2:37

are if not completed nearing completion um and we’re expected to have a

2:44

groundbreaking sometime mid uh the middle of this year for the southern design build uh that’s already in

2:50

process from the contract Administration standpoint uh but a a design build team

2:55

has not been selected yet um no other developments from um a construction

3:02

standpoint on other phases and many are still kind of administratively in progress and we look forward to um

3:09

development on the Brian Park section as the design team continues to evaluate

3:14

various elements of that plan before I go into a slideshow with Natalie and

3:20

other sections um I do have a slide for basically locality updates and vot updates but Scott or anyone else do is

3:27

there anything you want to provide on this slide before we move on hey Brantley it’s Scott um yeah I’ll

3:33

just give a quick update on DB1 and db2 uh as you said DB1 is going great uh we

3:39

knock on wood here so we can keep that momentum but um we uh we set the bridge

3:45

trust um over the Chickahominy once weather warms up we’ll be pouring the

3:50

deck um the project is going great we’re we’re working on a couple of the walls

3:57

right now and um we we are I like to under promise and overd deliver um we’ve

4:03

got a September uh 18th 2025 fixed completion date but don’t hold me to

4:09

this but we are we are tracking to possibly deliver this thing completely

4:15

in June of this year so a few months ahead of schedule um fingers crossed

4:21

like I said don’t don’t hold hold me to that but um everything’s looking pretty good um I mean currently we’ve got the

4:28

entire Pro uh um Trails cleared and we have about 60% of the pavement down the

4:34

intermediate uh lift and yeah as soon as the weather warms up and we can get back

4:40

to Paving uh this thing’s going to really take off even even further um Switching gears db2 I have to be careful

4:48

because this is still in procurement the uh procurement phase um we are

4:53

anticipating an award date of May 20th of this year and we’ve got three shortlisted firms

5:00

and uh that’s alen Myers VHB team the branch timens team and the kosing rcan K

5:07

team so you’ve got all Heavy Hitters going after uh db2 um that one I will

5:13

say is you know that’s 10 miles like you have noted here in the slide but also

5:18

has much more complex Bridges uh we’ve got eight um uh uh I’d call uh major

5:26

bridges that we’ve got have to construct as part of that um project but um so yeah that’s that’s

5:33

going going pretty well right now and we’ll see how uh bids come in with that

5:38

one thanks thanks cot and we’re about to show some some uh examples of your handy

5:44

work so uh feel free to keep your mic on if you want to share anything all right take it away

5:53

Natalie thank you um yeah so yesterday I went out onto the trail s sort of um I

6:01

accessed different sections of the trail on the cross streets and basically um

6:08

just checked on how things are looking and saw what I could see mainly from

6:13

Road intersections it is very very muddy out right now so I didn’t uh do too much

6:21

exploring because anytime I stepped into the dirt I had huge chunks of mud on my

6:28

shoes so um I did see that there is quite a bit of work being done which is

6:34

exciting um we’re going to start from the top um closest to Ashlin and move uh

6:40

towards Petersburg so GUI Church uh road to Cobbs Road could definitely see a

6:47

gravel path is there you can see there’s a ton of ice still on it so that’s um

6:53

the freeze thaw so if anyone’s out there just make sure you prepare to bring a lot of mud into your car with you um um

7:00

hey C can I just interject before you go yeah please do just for everyone’s

7:06

safety please do not access the trail um we have equipment out there and I I if

7:13

you want to come out and get a tour and actually go on it just just give me a call I’ll get my uh uh project engineer

7:20

to um escort you but uh we had a lot of

7:26

um folk trespass onto the project I mean literally while while we’re

7:32

dropping trees um it’s more for everyone’s safety um it’s not like it’s a big secret we’re building a trail but

7:38

um Ju Just just so everyone on this call doesn’t see these slides get excited and

7:44

run out there to start hiking it or biking it so just ask for everyone’s patience on that thank you yeah totally

7:50

that’s a great point and then I will say too that it’s very clearly marked you can see in this photo it’s very clearly

7:56

marked that it is closed so yeah um but here you can see there’s a

8:03

gravel path cut um this was the intersection actually

8:08

um from Kenworth church so basically that’s in between cobs and Cedar and you

8:14

can see it’s paved going north and paved headed south there is a lot of equipment out there right now big puddles it’s

8:21

definitely not complete not ready for traffic but it is

8:27

paved next slide here is the um Cedar Lane to substation

8:34

section there’s a um access road to the

8:40

substation that already existed and then the trail is uh gravel right now but you

8:47

can see where it will go and then this is from um let’s see

8:56

Holly Hill Road facing north uh you can see that is work being

9:04

done just not not very clear to me um the status of that section but

9:09

definitely looks like it’s drivable considering that there is a huge tractor trailer on

9:17

it and then the Winfrey Road Bridge I was able to take a look at from Glenn

9:23

Allen Greenhouse is parking lot and that’s on the next slide

9:30

and here is the bridge it looks like there’s been a lot of progress on the

9:36

bridge itself and then um I believe there’s still a retaining wall that needs to be put in you can sort of see

9:44

maybe uh the beginning of the retaining wall um just north of the bridge there’s

9:50

some blue eye beams there which I imagine is probably where that retaining wall will end up but um they were out

9:57

there working on it and it seemed seems like things are starting to get pretty close to completion there and this is

10:03

where uh Winfrey road is just south of the Chickahominy um would be the access

10:09

road to what used to be Lavender Fields Farm if if you’ve been out there before um we we’re like just a quick inter

10:17

session here like it’s amazing this is like you’re really building it now right look at that yeah it was uh it’s it’s

10:25

pretty impressive I I think it the the weather steel truss really just kind of

10:32

fits in with the uh the feel of the trail um when we first had it um when we

10:38

constructed it you know where we didn’t construct it in place there we lifted it with graines but um it it’s a lot bigger

10:45

than you you you think you know it’s you know 14 foot inside rail to rail

10:52

um almost 130 ft long it’s it’s a pretty substantial bridge but but it it’s great

10:59

because is you’re going to be able to go across a bridge and you can see in the background you’ve got the uh the old

11:04

abutments um from the old Trestle um yeah it’s pretty

11:11

impressive yeah that um for everyone’s who hasn’t been around for this whole

11:16

process the discussion about whether the bridge should be on the old abutments or adjacent has I think vasculated a couple

11:23

of times over the past few years and but when as as we’ve been here even like 5 six years ago

11:29

it’s clear how when you could see this from the road or from the the farm that

11:35

it just begs to be recompleted like this is kind of the part of the origin story of the fall line was people saw this and

11:41

they wanted to reconnect the trolley line to be the trolley Line Trail obviously that’s kind of a part of the fall line now but I’m I’m happy with how

11:48

it landed because now you get to see the the abutments and it becomes kind of a ruins attraction as opposed to being

11:55

hidden by the bridge so um um it’s a I think it’s it’s a great

12:04

design and then the um last section that I viewed was Winfree to Woodman you can see it is paved which is very exciting I

12:11

will say that um on almost all of the sections that I peaked at I saw men

12:18

working I saw a lot of um action being taken so definitely very exciting um

12:25

visit and then also a lot of the people who I saw out side I know some of them

12:30

were probably using the trail inappropriately um but they are all very excited and aware that there is a

12:38

multi-use path going being put in right behind their homes and there’s just a lot of excitement out there people were

12:45

willing to talk to me about how much they’ll be using the trail which was all

12:50

really exciting to hear so there you go thank you Natalie um I

12:58

uh I I would say I’d encourage people to look from the road um if you get the chance we we’ve been I think on a

13:04

monthly basis gone out and checked it out but at every at every turn just for your um your uh sanity Scott we continue

13:12

to amplify the message don’t get on the trail it’s a work in progress you don’t know what work may be done just because

13:18

there’s pavement a tree might be falling they may be doing some grading in the area so just uh be careful and there’s a

13:25

reason why the all these road closure signs are up um and I also want to thank Scott for giving Chad uh John and me a

13:32

tour over the summer and um it’s you might get you might find as you get into

13:39

one of these work areas uh that it goes from quickly from being a paved to it

13:44

being muddy and ungraded and um clearly lots of work had to be done to do uh to

13:50

put in the progress so far so again um I

13:56

I would recommend Scott’s always been great to work with reach out to him if you’d like organize a

14:02

tour all right um I’d love to uh pass the microphone to Emy and anyone from

14:08

Chesterfield to discuss some of your recent uh developments uh Emy why don’t you take it away first um about some

14:14

connections to Carter Park yeah absolutely um so I’m Emy Richards I’m the Parks and Recreation

14:20

manager for the town of Ashland Virginia um so Carter Park is the Northern Trail head of the Fall Line Trail um and we at

14:29

Carter Park for those who aren’t familiar um we have a pretty large outdoor Seasonal Pool um and a lot of

14:35

other amenities there so we anticipate that that parking there is plenty of parking and there’s some restrooms there

14:41

as well um we’ll get pretty busy and so we wanted to make sure that we are connecting Fall Line Trail users with

14:47

additional amenities in town as well as you know bringing tourism into um the

14:54

center of the universe so we are working on a kind of Fall Line Trail extension

15:01

that will take people from Carter Park up north on street is more of kind of a

15:07

quieter residential street and then um into town via a a left if you can

15:15

picture it if you’re familiar with Ashlin roads on Robinson Street which takes you to the back of our Regional

15:20

Library um which is adjacent to the railroad tracks and so um and in the heart of our downtown so really um in

15:27

about a mile uh connects Trail users with our downtown spaces um we are

15:33

planning a public art installation that will serve as kind of a functional piece

15:38

of art um adjacent to the library as like our uh trail head in town um and so

15:46

we’re working with our public art commission and our Parks and Recreation committee to uh begin a RFP process to

15:53

get um some local artists uh interested in developing a piece for us there um

15:58

we’re think some type of like um artsy bench um so it’s both functional but uh

16:04

a very much a placemaking space um other there will be signage of course kind of

16:11

uh directing people up Maple Street um the entirety of Maple Street will have either Trail or we’ve uh or sidewalk um

16:19

and then as I said it’s also very residential um and and by Trail I mean the are the standard 10- foot wide pave

16:26

path which is what you see here um in this photo of Carter Park um and um yeah

16:33

so we’re just very excited that we’ll be able to connect users with uh the

16:39

amenities downtown and um also hopefully alleviate some you know parking issues

16:46

um that we could see on those busy warm summer pool days um with mixed use at

16:52

the park um so it’s a win-win that’s really great and I I didn’t know about the the art too so

16:58

that’s that’s going to be excellent I I will say that I think most once this is all said and

17:04

done a lot of Trail users who are driving to access the part or the trail would likely want to be closer to

17:11

downtown because of the amenity so um I think the coordination and kind of providing good access to the trail and

17:18

then good access to the pool is um is going to work out really nicely agreed

17:26

thanks I um I see a few folks from chest field though I think mostly from the

17:31

park side of things Stuart or um Chris can you speak to the active

17:38

Transportation plan and if not I can share what I

17:46

know all right well um yeah oh go ahead yeah Bradley I I would recommend you

17:52

going ahead I don’t have much information to share at this point just fine um Barb Smith uh who was on uh sort

17:59

of our transportation lead in Chesterfield on the fall line uh we’ve been working with here for the past few months and have known that the county

18:06

has been planning to update its bikeways and trails plan now called the active Transportation plan um the bikeways and

18:13

trails plan originally passed in 2015 is part of the foundation of the fall line overall it uh it allowed us to to look

18:21

at prioritized lines on a map that became the backbone for the fall line um

18:26

that crossed County city lines which is was excellent uh progress that was only made possible 10 years ago and uh

18:33

they’re updating that plan and have started their first round of surveys so if you’re a Chesterfield resident or I

18:39

would say if you have a lot of experience with active transportation and you can uh provide them some uh

18:45

Insight their survey is currently live on their website and if you have trouble finding it I’d love to get it to you uh

18:51

we certainly are working with the county to get the surveys responded to by County residents but also we want to

18:57

make sure we do some public events too whether it’s uh open houses or a happy hour or something get kind of some some

19:04

resident and Community Connection to this process because I think this is only the first of probably two or three

19:10

Community engagement opportunities as they develop this plan out um really looking forward to seeing how this plan

19:17

can really codify and build on the spur study that they did uh at the end of

19:23

2023 I believe to to Really prioritize getting network connections to and from

19:28

the fall line in Chesterfield and I think my next slide is open updates from any of our locality

19:34

Partners or anything we missed at the state

19:42

level I saw Ryan on here um is there do you have any updates about your

19:48

henrico’s administrative um sections hey hey Bradley um Everybody uh really

19:55

update is just hrio county is still working on um kind of the our final RightWay Acquisitions for uh the

20:02

remaining seven sections of the falline trail through hreo County um but we’re

20:07

getting close I think we’re we’re getting close on on several of them and the goal is to um at least get started

20:13

on the the final or I guess the Lakeside pieces um hopefully by kind of the end

20:19

of the spring um and then from there moving northward I think everything kind

20:24

of falls into place after that so um yeah that that’s that’s pretty much the update just trying to lock down that the

20:30

rest of the right way that we need wonderful keep plugging away thank

20:36

you all right well I can move on um I have just a couple of slides here um

20:42

about essentially the coordination of a few Transportation projects and and

20:47

economic development projects in the northern portion of the Ci’s U segment

20:53

of the fall line um it’s probably no secret that we the original alignment for the the fall line as it as it heads

21:00

south from Brian Park um heads East on Brooklyn Parkway and then uses a large

21:06

section of Brook Road as it heads into downtown and about a year or so ago um

21:13

Sports Backers took the opportunity to really coordinate meetings with um

21:18

different departments at the city to to consider the opportunity to realign a section of the fall line to the Diamond

21:24

District and um what I think of a sort of like Brewer old school Brewery Row in

21:29

Richmond or near hardywood um like thinking of that road being um Overbrook

21:36

uh the economic development placemaking kind of the transportation to entertainment districts uh is an

21:42

opportunity that really needed to be considered and that more or less has been incorporated as an option for the

21:47

fall lines alignment some people call it the fall line alignment and some people call it a Spur but essentially both

21:53

alignments are currently live in the design process in the city of Richmond ultimately we’d like for a decision to

21:59

be made that helps to kind of coordinate some of of the administrative and and grant funding opportunities to actually

22:05

build the trail out uh but uh I want to dig a little bit into the the portion

22:11

that would be connecting the fall line to the Diamond District which would um

22:19

uh reroute to use more of Hermitage Road South South of the um five-way

22:25

intersection at what I think of as kitchen 64 but now to call it brick house uh and Westwood Hermitage and uh

22:32

Brooklyn Parkway it would head south on Hermitage Road and cross under

22:38

95 uh across Robin Hood Road and then hit the Diamond District parcel which is

22:45

um where the sportsbackers stadium and our office is right now so this is a

22:50

cross-section taken from the city’s official design standards which were uh

22:57

uh the the VHB was the the design team that took the lead on this um it shows

23:04

essentially that the city’s vision is to put a shared use path whether it’s the fall line Trail or the spur on Hermitage

23:12

Road and the this is facing the crosssection cross-section is facing north so the west side is on the left

23:19

here on the screen um it shows that within the the city’s current ride of way there is room for a 12T shared use

23:28

path which is um the um meets the minimum standards actually a little bit

23:33

more than the minimum standard and the design guide uh with the six foot buffer and keeps the four-lane road on

23:39

Hermitage Road um essentially all parties have uh or essentially this is

23:45

the the city’s official vision for what the fall line should look like on Hermitage Road in this Corridor

23:52

and um we want uh we want to make sure that that gets adopted kind of across

23:58

the city and becomes um if if this becomes the official uh vision for what the city for

24:05

what the Fallen should look like it would incor it would need to necessitate some other

24:10

actions um moving on to that the there

24:15

are two proposed roundabout projects along the fall line alignment uh just

24:21

north of the Diamond District this is the one that’s a little bit farther north uh this one’s been in the works for a long time and has a little bit of

24:28

notoriety because it was where the AP Hill statue was removed two years ago I guess now three years ago um the align

24:37

the after its design process which had a couple of meetings um the the city and

24:44

kimley Horn chose the a roundabout as the alternative that makes the most

24:49

sense for this particular intersection and the I I actually I can’t recall or

24:55

I’m not sure which if the city has made a decision they’ve ch an alternative three as uh there were two other

25:01

Alternatives that I’m not showing here that um uh alternative three round about

25:06

being the ideal um solution to this intersection the C their design has not

25:12

Incorporated the fall line the way that I think everyone understands the fall line to be which is a sh wide shared use

25:18

path on one side of the road um and so we just need to flag additional

25:24

coordination really needs to be added to this in a corridor kind of view because

25:30

if roundabout is the right solution it needs to be moved a little off center in the intersection to make room for the

25:35

fall line so that it’s built right the first time and that we’re not trying to fit the fall line in in an awkward way

25:41

you know at some different time um there I don’t have a screenshot for it but there is another um proposed roundabout

25:50

at that five-way intersection at Westwood Hermitage Brooklyn Parkway that is a quirky intersection as it is it’s

25:56

very difficult intersection to go through as a bike writer um that intersection does roundabout conceptual

26:03

design is not to this level of um of design so I I didn’t really want to show it but every consideration that I’ve

26:10

seen so far also does not have the off- center roundabout so when we think about

26:15

if it’s possible and I think from an economic development standpoint quality of life like creating the kind of

26:21

District that we want to see uh and and really we’re talking about active living

26:27

focused entertainment and and living in this area um uh the the the need there is so

26:35

important I think it’s worth making the recommendation the fall line should go to the Diamond District that’s my opinion if we’re going to do it we need

26:41

to make sure these two roundabouts really get designed correctly and that all of these projects get coordinated in

26:47

a way that supports the necessary work with VT to get fall line under 95 that’s

26:54

going to require its own design process that I’m not an expert in but but I I I

26:59

know it’s called The Stars program um some of that work has already started but because there’s an off-ramp there

27:06

and there’s a narrow Corridor uh the design there is going to be very uh needs to be very intentional and detail

27:12

oriented and it’s going to take probably some time to get that um spun up so I

27:17

just wanted to sort of flag that this is like like a multi- departmental cross

27:22

departmental um uh project that needs to be thought of holistically and instead

27:28

of one little project here and one little project there and recognizing um that we do actually have a lot of room

27:34

to work with currently for the fall line Trail in north side I think that’s my only slide my only two slides on this

27:42

I’d like to kind of seek opportunities in the future for friends of the fall line meetings to kind of show how these

27:48

things need to be coordinated um you know kind of alternatively to the design

27:53

build phases in the North and the South design build and correct if I’m wrong um

27:59

technical experts but design build is designed uh to be used as an efficient implementation process where the um

28:08

built environment supports it because it’s very easy it’s a very easy process this is not an easy place to just put a

28:14

trail and that’s uh we have multiple processes happening with different consultant teams different city leads

28:21

and we want to make sure we’re taking the opportunity to make sure all of our different leaders are coordinated on a

28:27

big vision um so this is kind of where our heads space has been for the past few months related to The Diamond

28:34

District I’m happy to open this up to conversation or questions if you have any before I move

28:42

on hey brownley just to clarify is this this is Ted um is this image uh

28:49

sportsbackers produced or is this the city made this is absolutely not Sports Packers produced this is from the

28:54

official design guide that was um on the design the the city’s design excuse me

29:01

the city’s Diamond District website so uh they call it the design standards and

29:07

um Laura Thomas from the sustainability office was the one who kind of ran point on this the development of this last

29:13

summer when they did a bunch of community engagement that was the the community engagement that happened last

29:19

summer resulted in this document great so it says Fallen Trail right there on it it’s great yeah that’s it does in the

29:26

in the it’s a long document it does describe it in a couple of different ways in the document as either a Spur or

29:31

the trail um but so that is not 100% decided but certainly it’s supported by

29:38

the document yeah cool all right thanks and uh when I get a second I’ll actually

29:43

um I can drop the link to that in the chat just for everyone’s access

29:49

great thank you all right well I’m happy to move

29:56

on okay I just want to do a kind of a quick update on some of the work that we’ve been doing to get the information

30:01

and engagement uh with the fall line Trail um out over the past few months so just yesterday I had the opportunity uh

30:08

to work with or to to present about the fall line to at the general assembly um for the past four years I’ve been

30:14

working as a co-organizer for the Virginia outdoor recreation caucus um it

30:22

has uh it’s this I in 2020 right on the on the cusp of the lockdown for the

30:29

pandemic I presented um a very basic you know at the time we the fall line was

30:35

not up to speed to to the degree that it is today I I gave a a quick presentation about the fall line at this very meeting

30:42

uh and we had about eight people in the room yesterday we had over 50 people in the room and eight of them were uh

30:49

senators or delegates uh we had agency heads from DCR we had uh policy

30:55

officials from V do um our our whole state team was there um it’s I think the

31:01

excitement and the around outdoor Recreations is booed by the Fall Line Trail and there’s some recognition of

31:08

kind of the gravity of the of this project it’s really got a lot of stuff going for it and it’s really uh a bit of

31:14

a moment of Pride really to say like we’ve gotten to this point and I had pictures to show our uh our Senators and

31:19

delegates of progress on the trail and kind of the big picture that we’re trying to achieve with um world class

31:25

amenities and connections and Cat was there Cath one of the co uh has I think also a

31:31

four-year co- planner for this uh Recreation caucus as

31:36

well and we had the fall line Trailblazer now I think it’s its third year um uh every year we do the um

31:46

fundraising Drive associated with some of our fall line limited edition merch

31:51

and uh we also do a a noost walk of various publicly accessible sections of

31:57

the tra we have always committed to at least having one in the northern section one in the southern section and one in the

32:03

middle um so we have a picture from each of those today um in the nor in the the

32:08

top picture we uh actually very appreciative of having Harold Dyson

32:14

who’s the project manager for the for design build one on the vot side as well as Branch civil um on I can’t remember

32:21

the gentleman’s name on the left but the one of the folks on the on the design build team kind of give us a walk

32:26

through of the design build phase one we had about 40 people there on a really

32:32

cold morning uh but it was really cool to have kind of exclusive access to that and appreciate the VT team showing us

32:39

this is at the GUI Church cross section you can see on the upper right hand part of that picture that’s where the

32:44

existing Hanover uh County Park um we actually we’re probably standing where people had previously been able to park

32:50

uh cars and um but they got they got to talk about some of the detail of grading

32:56

and the time lack and as we’re we’re looking North here but as you look South uh from goth

33:03

church it was not paved at the time and I think I’m I’m actually not sure if it’s paved now um from Natalie’s

33:10

presentation recognizing that I think it’s just stone at this point just Stone got

33:16

it uh but anyway thanks Scott for helping to orchestrate that and your team has been great to work

33:21

with um the bottom two pictures are actually from Brian Park or from our middle our middle hike um the bottom

33:28

left is at the um pedestrian hybrid signal so the the push button activated

33:35

pedestrian Crossing or it’s a push button activated red light across Lakeside Avenue um on the kind of the

33:42

distant part of that picture is Brian Park and behind the view is sportsbackers new headquarters in

33:47

Lakeside um and then on the bottom right picture on on this particular hike we

33:53

took the opportunity to both both hike the um the city’s

33:59

um current design of where they the the trail will be planned to go through Brian Park and we also hiked some

34:05

Alternatives that have been proposed by the community this is actually a picture from the alternative walking on some of

34:11

the back roads in the park that are dark not connected anything and I I’m not

34:17

joking at all there were 45 people here who are on this walk with us we had multiple cars drive uh uh through us

34:24

through our group um and I and did not plant them they were related to the uh

34:30

to the big market and people accessing different parts of the park uh for the big Market but um it just uh distills

34:38

the the benefits of the current proposed alignment for the fall line through

34:43

Brian Park um serving pedestrians by building dedicated biking and walking um

34:50

paths through the park that don’t exist now where U pedestrians and bicycles are not currently served uh through the main

34:57

part of the park we uh and that was from October

35:05

also in October we led a uh tree planting in Brian Park uh this is

35:11

actually the tree we planted eight um uh Hardwoods native Hardwoods and this is

35:17

not near the where the fall line is currently proposed because we don’t want to interfere with potential construction

35:24

this year and just have the trees that we plant get ripped out by heavy equipment so this is in a in in direct

35:30

advisement by the friends of Brian Park and um Richmond Park staff we uh we

35:36

chose a spot closer to the main entrance uh in in an area that could use

35:41

additional shade and and storm water retention um but we certainly prop or we

35:48

certainly are prepared to come back after the the construction of the fall line through Brian Park to plant in a

35:54

you know the right orientation and the right distance from the trail uh shade bearing trees for trail users in the

36:01

future um we actually have some of our bike walk champions in here and Natalie is here even before she joined Sports

36:07

Packer staff um she was a bike walk Champion uh and a graduate of our training academy and we have truthfully

36:15

developed really great relationships with the friends of Brian Park and look forward to working with them more in the

36:21

future some up upcoming opportunities we have a happy hour tomorrow which just kind of like a kickoff to the year uh

36:27

want Natalie to meet more of our our our um volunteers and Advocates and and

36:33

folks who’ve gone through our Academy anyone here is welcome to join us we’re at Boston at 5 o’ and uh it’ll be pretty

36:40

pretty casual but you know we’ll talk about kind of our plans for 20125 um our quarterly service program

36:47

we are supporting groundwork RVA at Oak Grove playground um Oak Grove and the uh

36:52

bellme Community Center are very proximal to the fall line alignment in South Richmond and um the we have a

37:01

great working relationship and recognize that the fall Line’s really going to benefit that community in a big way uh

37:07

so the the playground and park around that area um is going to be um a really

37:12

highlighted spot for people to get to Via the fall line and um so we’re happy

37:18

to work with them that’s on Monday and certainly um we have information on our

37:23

social media and website if you are looking for getting involved with that uh and certainly just reach out to

37:29

Natalie and me if you’d like to get involved and our app Annual Bike walk Academy is um open for applications we

37:37

are uh We’ve largely settled on running our our Academy program in the spring so

37:43

this year we’ll run from February to March and um applications close towards the end of this month if you know anyone

37:50

who loves biking and walking advocacy they want to get involved you often hear like hey how can I how can I help this

37:56

bike Lan how can I learn more you know I I have time or I have interest um direct

38:01

them to us because we’d love to help them get plugged in and it’s really the backbone for the success that bike walk

38:07

RVA has had over the past 10 years really 12 years and we wouldn’t have gotten the the original bikeways and

38:14

trails plan past if it hadn’t been for the Academy that we did in Chesterfield in 2015 and uh we want to keep that

38:21

success moving forward we are working on two grant

38:27

opportunities at the moment and uh we actually have someone with our our local um Association of Realtors I don’t want

38:33

to put Samantha on the spot here but um we’ve been happy to work with um with

38:39

the Richmond area Realtors at the opportunity to seek funds from the National Association of Realtors they

38:45

have some funds available if we’re if we’re able if we’re if we’re selected to receive them we would use the funds to

38:52

um pay for placemaking amenities at our office or what we really want to say is

38:57

the like the Lakeside Trail head to the fall line um it could be art it could be benches we have some we actually really

39:03

have some um developing ideas for the art that could be installed at uh uh at

39:08

that site and our meeting with artists and sculptors um on an ongoing basis

39:14

right now and for a second grant program that the National Association of Realtors has we’ like to seek funds for

39:21

Fall Line Trail coming signs uh in all kinds of different modalities so one you

39:26

could get yard signs for people to put them in their yards I think people really love Flags uh this past Monument

39:32

Avenue 10K we gave out 10K flags of people along the Route and people absolutely love them um I think people

39:38

would really get behind having Fall Line Trail um flags and uh a lesson that we

39:45

learned from the Metropolitan Branch Trail is you can actually wrap utility poles with signage and we um we’d love

39:52

to develop some of that um that kind of technique because it’ be very easy to

39:58

get them in sight or on site in various places without taking up um you know

40:03

property or or getting run over by cars or other things like that or blocking pedestrian access on sidewalks so we uh

40:10

we’re hopeful for those for those funds and thanks Samantha for help um kind of lining that up do you want to share

40:16

anything that I that I missed you certainly not you certainly don’t have to no that’s it we love to spend uh

40:22

money that’s available so excited to partner with you guys wonderful and then uh this is a the the one at the top here

40:29

is a much bigger one it’s a Chesapeake Bay trust and EPA Grant with a few other

40:34

big agencies that are involved um we’re going to be applying for and partnering with our a few of our city Richmond City

40:41

agencies a couple of uh partner nonprofits in order to seek up to

40:47

$175,000 for trees and rain Gardens along the fall line alignment um certainly I’m I’m receiving advice about

40:54

where those should be located and how they can get peppered into to existing projects from Department of Public

41:00

Utilities and parks in particular um you know it’s it’s a bit of a uh first step

41:07

of us kind of going for some of the bigger stuff in the fall line Vision plan but you know for year for now two

41:13

years we’ve really been talking about how the momentum and the the opportunity

41:18

for changing the built environment that will come with installing the fall line creates opportunities for new trees to

41:24

be planted creates opportunities for new storm water management projects and one of the great things that we took away

41:29

from Indianapolis is rain Gardens and how many I think they have uh upwards of 20 rain Gardens along their 10 Mile

41:36

section in downtown um they’re beautiful they seem to be effective um and really

41:44

like from a uh when when targeted in the right place can be very effective at at

41:49

reducing storm water which is something that we have some trouble with in some sections of the fall line so it’s going

41:54

to be multifaceted and and we have a couple of months to put that Grant application in but it’s in process

42:01

now if you ever come across ideas like this to be able to seek funds certainly we’d love to either support them uh with

42:08

letters of support or find people to carry them if if if we’re not the right organization to to implement the the

42:14

grant but we certainly see ourselves in a role of coordinating and supporting this kind of stuff for the next uh

42:19

foreseeable future again uh if you are not familiar with the fall line Vision plan uh I

42:26

think we’ve now given out almost all of our paper copies and are about to make another round of them um we gave a few

42:32

out the at the outdoor recreation caucus last night um uh it is the basis for how

42:37

we’re seeking These funds and how we’re picking these projects so um uh just want to kind of reiterate that and our

42:44

next meeting is in April any other thoughts or discussion

42:49

before we close I see your hand Elliot yeah this is just a random

43:01

sorry about that um just because you mentioned sort of Raiden Gardens and trees and stuff like that I spoke at

43:07

there’s a an organization called the ches be Bay funders Network which sounds very much like it’s just a funders

43:14

network of groups that work specifically on the bay but really it’s more like a watershed kind of I guess Vision or view

43:20

they’re they’re pretty small and they’re based out of Maryland but I spoke at their um kind of annual Retreat and I

43:25

think when I talked about trails and sort of their interest in funding Trails not a lot of them are plugged into like

43:33

Transportation sort of funding projects or even sort of recreation but all that a lot of the discussion on sort of

43:39

climate resilience and um you know smaller scale projects like Raiden Gardens Etc definitely seem to Peak an

43:46

interest and a bunch of the funders actually are Virginia based I think there’s at least one or two in Charlottesville and U maybe one or two

43:53

in Hampton Roads so I’ll I’ll put the um the link in the chat but they’re

43:58

definitely you know they’re not going to help fund like big or I don’t think any of those funders are going to help fund

44:03

big like sections of the fall line but I think for a lot of those placemaking and um specifically the kind of climate

44:10

resilience type projects I think they’d be great so I will put that in the chat I appreciate that um I will say the

44:18

uh the the fall line itself is not an environmental project it’s a trail project but we have a lot of

44:24

environmental opportunities and my background is en enironmental studies and I you know I chose active

44:29

transportation to be my kind of personal environmental Focus um there’s work for

44:35

us to do to to kind of forecast things like VMT reduction opportunities that the fall line might be able to implement

44:41

VMT for those who don’t have a technical background in this is vehicle miles traveled it’s a it’s a it’s the metric

44:48

for how much driving is happening and um if people bike more and also if people

44:55

uh live closer to work and live closer to their destinations they kind of like have a more Trail oriented lifestyle uh

45:01

the environmental impact of reductions in VMT is the opportunities are like

45:07

potentially really big and you know it’s no surprise that at the in Brian Park

45:12

environmental issues are kind of being touted as a reason why the fall line should not be built through Brian Park

45:18

the we did a walkr of this in our previous Friends of the fall line so check out that recording if you’d like

45:23

to do um check out kind of our review of of those um concerns but you know I think that it’s

45:30

an area that we could explore uh and certainly we’d love to work with uh you said it was Chesapeake Bay funders

45:37

Network got it yeah um Y and Megan’s the Ed and um uh forgetting the woman’s name

45:45

who runs vcn she and the woman who run yeah Mary and her know each other pretty well and Mary was on the panel as well

45:52

more to talk about solar and and other kind of things but um but yeah they would be great I think Network

45:58

for Sports Backers bwalk RVA to get in front of for sure that’s great hey just to kind of conclude my thought

46:05

ultimately I would love for there to be a Statewide um uh strategic commitment to

46:10

Trails being an environmental benefit right and like the at the moment the

46:16

environmental Community is very much split around this less than a mile section in Brian park there are some environmental people who are very Pro

46:22

there are some environmental people who are very negative I would say that maybe some of those concerns are not not actually environmental and they’re kind

46:28

of in the guise of the environment but the um at at the very least I think that some coordination could happen at the

46:34

Statewide level vcn Sierra Club uh Chesapeake Bay and others um to

46:40

understand like this is actually a major commitment in an in an environmental uh adjacent project and it’s it’s not about

46:47

like the removal of One Tree being bad for the environment so it it’s there’s

46:53

work to be done in that space and we’re working on that so I appreciate that um

46:58

that lead hey Brantley Stuart kuk just want

47:05

to tell everybody I put the link for the Chester fuel active Transportation survey in the

47:11

chat thank you so much and while while I’m at it I will I think I still have it

47:17

up I might not um if you just do an internet search for Diamond District

47:24

design standards it’s the first thing that pops up uh it’s a big PDF that was designed with or put together by

47:30

consultants for the city and Laur Thomas was the administrator for that on on the

47:36

city staff side all right well U hearing no other

47:44

discussion I appreciate everyone’s time this morning I’ll have this recording up as soon as possible I can take time to

47:50

do the rendering and everything but certainly by tomorrow it should be up on the sportsbackers YouTube page and the

47:55

fall line Trail website fall on tral.org have a great

48:01

morning thanks thank you everybody bye

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