Friends of the Fall Line Quarterly Meeting – July 2025

Recording of the July 9 Meeting

Meeting Highlights

  • Funding Updates
    • the $10 million funding gap for DB2 (Chester to Petersburg) has been closed thanks to the CVTA and CTB
    • DB2 now approved by CTB and is fully funded
      • Trail is about 70% funded
  • Project Status Updates
    • CVTA Fall Line Working Group has official held its last meeting and dissolved
    • Hanover
      • DB1 now expected to open in August due to construction delays
    • Richmond
      • Bryan Park section is moving forward after big Public Meeting in April
      • Economic Analysis Study now available via Richmond DPW
    • Chesterfield
      • two new short sections (Gettings Lane and Marina Drive)
    • Henrico
      • Land Acquisition underway
      • Park Street named as Honorary Jon Lugbill Drive in celebration of his retirement in June
    • VDOT
      • STARS Study underway for Hermitage Road and 95/64 corridor off ramps
      • DB2 has gone out to bid, design contract has been awarded
  • Community Engagement Updates
    • Ashland Public Art RFP for Fall Line trailhead, public meeting for selection
    • Bike Month: 6,000 participants, 71 events
    • GRTC TAP into Transit Day in July
    • Richmond Zoning Refresh Transportation Panel in June
    • Bellevue Civic Association Meeting Hermitage Road discussion in June
  • Fall Line Placemaking Collaborative
    • June 20 and 26
    • 23 organizations, 30 participating individuals
    • Educational presentations, open conversations, mapping activities, breakout groups
    • Key themes and early collaboration opportunities were extrapolated to guide our work

Meeting Transcript

0:10 All righty. Welcome to the July 2025 Friends of the Fall Line meeting and we can go ahead and get started.

0:18 We have some new updates. Uh this slide has not changed all that much recently, but uh over the past few meetings, but

0:24 thanks to the hard work of the Central Virginia Transportation Authority and VOTE, uh we have raised 10 more 10

0:33 million more dollars for this trail um in order to close the funding gap for

0:39 DB2 design build phase 2, which is from Petersburg at the southern terminus

0:44 through Colonial Heights and into Chesterfield um to route 10 and Chester.

0:50 So that project has been approved by the Commonwealth Transportation Board and is fully funded and um this was presented

0:58 on at the final Central Virginia Transportation Authority fall line working group back in May which was um

1:06 happened during um RVA bike month and we hosted at our office at Sportsbacker’s new headquarters. But,

1:13 uh, at the time, 2 months ago, we weren’t sure the future of DB2. And at this point, it is fully funded.

1:22 Um, that brings our total to $291 million of total fundraising, and that’s

1:28 to be verified by CBTA. Um, Chad has uh he said he would give me a a a more

1:36 verified number, but that’s just adding $10 million to the 281 that we had previously. And if the project overall

1:44 does not uh increase in cost, we’re at 71% of our fundraising. So big thanks to

1:51 people across the state and region for ensuring that that project doesn’t get delayed. In the discussion at the

1:59 fall line working group meeting, it was Mark Rible from VOTE spent a good amount

2:05 of time describing why it was important to build the project even though it was

2:11 $10 million over budget. Um, now and to fund this particular phase instead of sending it back out to bid. But in large

2:18 part because there was zero expectation that it going back out to bid and coming back would actually be a cheaper project

2:25 and all it would do is lose time. So I think it’s worth understanding that uh

2:31 it went through a rigorous analysis before um that was

2:36 uh determined from a project status update. We have I’m moving my on my screen for my

2:42 recording purposes. I’m moving my heads around on the screen. Um the um so

2:49 design not only did they get the funding but the design bill 2 is approved and that means we should be um green lit

2:57 working with our three local partners in VOTE to start working on a uh

3:03 groundbreaking at some point um later this year. So that is an exciting new opportunity. The section in Brian Park

3:10 uh the contract is moving forward. So, we hope to see um actual earth moving. I

3:16 I can’t say groundbreaking because we did that last year, but actual earth moving uh sometime this year.

3:22 Chesterfield has completed a section. It is approximately 400 ft. So, small but

3:28 mighty. Uh but I’m we affectionately around the office are calling this the RB section and I’ve got a picture of it

3:34 on a future slide. uh at Gettings Lane and Route One. There is another section

3:40 um the one of the intersection terminus uh termini of the section is Marina

3:46 Drive that has a contract being executed now and there’s another project in planning phase um near Liberty Gardens.

3:54 So, we got things moving around the region. Henrico County. I’ve got a slide on with some text from their

4:01 previous update, but they’re essentially in the in the phase of acquiring land

4:07and phasing out different construction projects. um unless something has changed, the VOTE or Henrico has all of

4:15their sections designed and funded and it’s just um it’s they’re in the weeds

4:20of actually moving uh you know acquiring parcels and getting these projects um

4:26underway. Those are the main changes there and I think I have oh yeah I have I have

4:32a lot of slides with some pictures but an exciting uh quick presentation that was given at the May fall line working

4:39group and I want to say again that the the central Virginia Transportation Authority has um dissolved that working

4:46group. they feel like they have done their work to get to a point where the CVTA has funded their portion of the

4:53fall line uh at least as so far as um we’ve gotten today and that they don’t

4:59see the the funding authority as playing an administrative and um engineering

5:04role. So I think some of that work that regional collaborative work is going to

5:10need to find another venue. I think part of that can be done here at the Friends of the Fall Line and some should

5:15potentially be done by our regional partners like Plane RVA. It just has not yet been stood up. So, we’ll see where

5:21that goes. But um a one of the presentations at that final working

5:29group um was given by city of Richmond project manager project lead in

5:35department of public works Dyron Clark about the city doing a an economic impact analysis for the fall line in the

5:42city of Richmond. I it’s it’s about six pages and was done by um Timman’s group,

5:48one of their um engineering firms that’s working on the fault line in the city

5:53and it’s city specific. So I think it’s a really uh impressive first step at what really could be a much bigger

6:00opportunity for economic analysis for the fall line but um you know across the region and looking at more in depth

6:07about the various economic drivers that the fall line can contribute to. But some great numbers here in the sense

6:13that um they identified based on model

6:18trails around Virginia the opportunity for local tax development um through tax

6:26uh through commerce and also through the in increased uh land value and where you

6:34see the you’ll see both the importance of regular tax development um on an

6:41annual basis. So like it’s great for budgeting, it’s great for um you know a continued revenue source and reliable

6:47revenue source, but then also looking at the big money is in the increased land

6:53value. And you particularly can look at sections of the fall line in the city that are lower economic um contributors

7:01today like Route One where it could very be in the future be um projected to be

7:08much more economically vibrant with things like the fall line, north south bus rapid transit and other developments

7:15that are going to really transform that part of the city over the next 10 or 20

7:21years. Here’s our RB section. Uh it it in

7:28Chesterfield. It’s you could also think of it as the defense contractor section. It’s where there’s a big airplane

7:33mounted. Um this is but that is on the other side of the road. Uh you can see

7:38it looks like a trail, multi-use trail, and it is the first section along Route One to show how this creates a really

7:46viable biking and walking amenity where there currently is very little if anything. And um I’ve always loved that

7:54adage of it’s you can’t predict how many people want to cross a river by it not

8:00having a bridge. You know how many people are crossing the river today without the bridge. This is one of those

8:05scenarios where you can see people will be able to bike and walk here um in a

8:11much more vibrant way because there is essentially nothing now.

8:17And I learned about this because Barb sent me this picture, which I love. Uh Barb Smith from Chesterfield. I can’t

8:24see the people, the full list, so she might be on the call, but I love seeing our fall line trailblazer shirt out in

8:30the wild. And I would love for you to send me updates from your localities as you start working on this so we can put

8:36your personality behind it and it’s not just a trail being built by, you know, pieces of paper moving.

8:44Uh this is unchanged. So, um I I’ve been chatting with Ryan from Henrico a little bit this morning if he’s on. Um I this

8:52is more or less still accurate, but there’s been some delay to the land acquisition um work. So, it’s still in

9:00process. We’re still um very hopeful of seeing this trail developed just north

9:05of our office um in Lakeside soon. Uh but there’s this is land acquisition is

9:11a tricky business and we’re taking some um uh just having some measured

9:17expectation about the timeline aspect. Did I do a good job Ryan? Great job. Thanks Brantley. I I think uh

9:25yeah that that section in Lakeside is is kind of trickling along but I do feel like we’re getting close.

9:31It’s famous last words but um things there’s positive movement there. Um the other kind of other positive update is

9:38just north of that section. Um I guess from uh Lakeside Avenue up to Pam Road,

9:44which is our Villa Park section. All of those parcels have been acquired. So that’s a big milestone there. So

9:50um and then I guess moving north from there up to the uh the soon-to-be

9:55completed uh DB1. Um that’s our Longdale section, our longest section. um

10:01right-ofway acquisition is is going really smoothly up there. Um so

10:08yeah, I think uh lots of for the most part positive developments and and we do still feel confident, you know, that we

10:14can get the lakeside area advertised in the fall. So that’s that’s what we’re planning.

10:19Wonderful. Yep. Thank you. Some uh some other fun Henrico updates.

10:25So, our building and many of you have had the opportunity to come visit. Um,

10:30it straddles the Henrico city line. Uh, so the fall line trail is in the

10:38Henriiko section and our building is in the city section of the of a singular parcel owned by Henrico County. And

10:44I’ve said a number of times we um are so appreciative of Henrico’s and the city of Richmond’s support for us landing

10:50here in our office. Um, but this is our first Friends of the Fall Line meeting without our longtime executive director,

10:56Don, and it’s so exciting to see the support for him in renaming the street

11:02right out of our outside of our office, Park Street, uh, in honor of him. Uh, John Leville Drive. I I sort of bristle

11:09with it. It’s like, does it have to be so auto oriented? Could we have it not be a car word? But at the same time,

11:15he’s certainly known for his drive and his contributions to active living

11:21infrastructure and it’s no secret that the fall line has primarily

11:26been his concept and baby for such a long time and now he has his name on it um here in Henrico. So very exciting um

11:35and bon voyage to him. He has made it very clear he is uh really retiring and

11:40he’s going to enjoy himself for a while. So, um, if you need to get in touch with them, maybe wait a little bit. And then,

11:48uh, this is not in Hiko, but since I had this slide, Sports Backers just had a

11:53staff outing to the Ashlin section of the existing, um, section of the fall line, formerly

12:00known as the trolley line. Uh Scott from VOTE will have a note about trail access

12:05today, but uh we want to say that the only open section of the fall line in this area is the what I’ve formerly

12:12called the boardwalk section, but it’s uh along Maple Street uh or uh Walder

12:17Lane, excuse me, water lane in Ashland.

12:23The VOTE is conducting a star study. This is a long range um uh network study

12:31and this is in the in North Richmond. You can see some uh the

12:39major intersections have been identified as study uh sections and the fall line

12:45is routed down Hermedage Road right down the center of this map. And at the split

12:51here at Westwood where there are two um kind of intersections identified the

12:56traditional route is being as identified 5 years ago in the um

13:02corridor study goes down Brooklyn Parkway to Brook Road. And the modern

13:10the it’s it’s it’s not the only option that’s being considered, but the sort of modern preference is for the fall line

13:17to continue down Hermitage Road and um towards the Diamond District. And which

13:24is right here at formerly the Sportsbacker Stadium. And you can see

13:29how this intersection is or this this little node is one in going to be

13:37intensively studied by VOTE and it is in this nebula of intersection or on-ramps

13:43and off-ramps, overpasses, underpasses with 95 and the the developments around

13:51the Diamond District, the the VCU Athletic Village just here north of 95.

13:57um formerly the quality in site is going to add a lot of residential, a lot of

14:03commercial and entertainment um destinations in this area. And so VOTE is looking at what recommendations

14:10should they make to improve congestion, improve safety, etc. And on my next

14:15slide here, the this is Herminage Road looking south right at

14:22the 95 overpass. You can see this is the one of this is the off-ramp that forks

14:28here and just to the right would be the former quality end. Um

14:34when I look at this and and andy Clark here from tool our consultant when we look at this it’s clear that there’s an

14:40op option for the fall line to go through this but in order to do so we

14:46have to really study it intensively and because of the on and off ramps there are some big complex factors that are

14:53highly regulated about how what you know what changes can be made here. So the star study is specifically the tool that

14:59does all of that and we’ve already met with VOT to talk through some options and they’re clearly going to be talking

15:04to the city as well. But we didn’t miss this opportunity essentially to bring this concept up and we look forward to

15:11further development from VOTE and um to make this to at least keep this option

15:17on the table because of the the real viable economic development and active transportation potential for the Diamond

15:25District. I’m happy to pause on this if there’s any This usually ends up being a topic

15:30of discussion that people will appreciate. Would anyone like to weigh in on this slide?

15:39Uh Brantley, this is this is Joe Bunes. Hey Joe.

15:44Yeah. Hey, I can’t see where the I can raise my hand, but um yeah, I I’ll just

15:50u add that um I have um u identified several locations where you

15:58do have pedestrian crossings on um interstate um on and off ramps. So there

16:06there is precedence for this. One is in Salem, Virginia off of ID1. Um, and I

16:12saw one the other day and I made a mental note of it and now it’s slipping my mind, but I have seen that done. So,

16:19um, the potential um, or at least the presidents has been said, uh, for, um,

16:25establishing that crossing. Thanks, Joe. I totally agree and we’ve seen it done both well and poorly in

16:33lots of places. And so I think, you know, um I’m I’m hopeful that Liz Mcadori, who I know you work with, um

16:40the the who’s running this plan for the Richmond district, um gets a lot of

16:45those sensitivities. But if you have any insight to share with her, I’m sure that she would appreciate it.

16:51And I can also just anecdotally add that literally hundreds of runners uh will

16:56pass through that area um about this time a year um as they meet at Sports

17:02Backers for marathon training. Um, this is along one of the the uh training routes and so yeah, definitely it would

17:10definitely and you I will say so we’re looking south here and as you make it through this underpass the diamond district will be

17:17on the right so the west side of Hermitage Road and it’s our preference

17:22obviously there’s going to be a lot of of engineering analysis that needs to be conducted but our preference would be

17:27for the fall line to be right here and the so you’re separated from that

17:34off-ramp traffic and I think it I don’t want to say this I don’t have any engineering background to be to say one

17:40thing or the other but I would assume that we could split the north and south

17:46lanes of Herdage Road to go under the unused section of this overpass and that

17:53would require some modification of this obviously you know I this is a concept that we’ve really farmed around for the

18:00past year or so Um, and I think it’s got the gravity that it needs to get the

18:07full analysis at VOTE. I I think I saw my other hand go up. I

18:12My view doesn’t show it very well here, so feel free to just unmute. I got you, Brantley. Uh, this is Grady

18:19Hart, north side resident within the third district. And just while we’re looking at this, I want

18:30Sorry. Yeah, you tell all the stuff, but I’m gonna come up.

18:37There we Okay. Sorry. I wasn’t sure if she was also trying to make a comment. So, um, again, Grady Hart, uh, third

18:44district resident, and I use this particular spot very frequently anytime that I’m getting from my home into, you

18:51know, go to the diamond, go downtown, go to VCU, basically anywhere. It is an

18:56incredibly unsafe spot right now, especially coming from the south to the north. So, kind of the opposite of what

19:02we’re looking at right now. So, I would I’m very very happy to hear that they’ve

19:07included this in that study that you all are a part of that conversation and I would hope that they recognize

19:14that there’s going to be a very strong desire line here regardless of whether

19:20this is the main path for the fall line trail or not. Um, and so doing something

19:26to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists is going to be a necessity, you

19:31know, regardless of exactly what that ends up looking like. Um, the one other thing that I would throw out is I know

19:37folks in Sherwood Park, which is the neighborhood there kind of to the left and you know, behind where this shot is,

19:45um, I know they have posed to the city wanting to even limit this off-ramp to

19:51only going southbound. So instead of having, you know, a

19:57northbound split that takes you up to that weird intersection, the five-spoke intersection there, uh, a lot of people

20:03end up cutting through their neighborhood and doing that kind of thing. So that would be another option, probably a lowbudget option, is to

20:10basically just make it so that half of the road is the fall line trail and half

20:16of it is a southbound lane that takes you over to Robin Hood Road. and anyone

20:21needing to go northbound would then go right on Robin Hood and right on Arthur Ash. Uh or they could go left on Robin

20:28Hood and go around to where it meets up with Brooklyn Parkway um under the

20:34overpass on the other side. So, you know, I’m sure that this has all been thought about and you know, I know that

20:40there have been plenty of considerations on this. I don’t have a real strong preference for what specifically

20:46happens, but yeah, Brantley, just really appreciate that you all are engaged in this conversation and, you know, making

20:54sure that no matter what happens with the main fall line trail route, which I

20:59do hope goes down Herminage. I think it makes a lot of sense to have it connect to the Diamond District, but no matter

21:04what, making it so that that underpass is more accessible to non-auto users.

21:11So, thanks for all your work on this and I think I’ll close out this discussion by saying we have basically

21:17three alternatives. If we if we use Hermedage Road um to at least to Westwood, we can go

21:25uh the what I sort of the older model which is totally

21:31uh diverting around this major entertainment and economic development area. We can go Hermedage Road south or

21:39we can go through the absolute minefield of Arthur Ash and um unless that area

21:46gets significantly re-engineered, it’ be a pretty challenging place to see a trail being developed. So, I think it’s

21:52the best option and it just takes our um our expert engineers at VOTE and the

21:58city to figure out the best way to put that puzzle together.

22:03Um, I actually I think I’m sorry, Scott. I think I missed a slide for VOTE to

22:09give an update about DB1 and DB2. So, um, I’m going to go back a few slides to

22:15our project status page. And Scott from VOTE, um, if you want to give an update

22:20about both of those two. Yeah, sure. Thanks, Frankly. Um, so yeah, DB1 we I I know everyone was

22:28hoping that would be done by July, but uh as you’ve seen, we’ve had one of the wetest springs in the summer to date.

22:36Um, we’re currently finishing up all the shoulder work. It’s like any project

22:41like you do around the house. It’s at last 10% you have to do the the finish work. It just takes forever. um they’re

22:48grading the shoulders and obviously when it’s super wet out they can’t do that work but uh we um so the one hiccup they

22:58did run into was their fabricator had to redo all the railings they fabricated

23:05incorrectly so all the railings on top of the uh retaining walls is being redone that should be done at the end of

23:12the month but I’m hopeful um that we’ll get the um rest of the trail uh

23:19essentially do a soft opening and have everything graded out, be able to open to people um here in the next couple

23:25weeks. Um I would ask that if you know

23:30of people who are out there riding it, um please pass the word that when people

23:37trespass it it it slows us down. It’s it’s very dangerous. We have equipment

23:43out there. Um, if someone were to get hurt, we don’t know. They’re not. Um, I

23:48mean, we’ve had people cutting the safety fence and, you know, they saw, oh, I forget what the guy they call Mr.

23:55Jingles or something up there in Ashlin. He literally like was, you know, squeezing through the locked fence and

24:01pulling his bike through to ride through. Um, he just put down some pavement marking. Um, and people rode

24:08their bike right through it. So, so this cost the contractor money. He has to go back. because I’m not been accepted. He

24:15has to go back, eradicate the pavement markings and redo them. So, um so kind

24:21kind of get the word out to people to um just be patient know I I get everyone’s

24:27excited to to jump on this, but they they just need to give us give us time.

24:32But um so yeah, we’re we’re we’re in the uh we’re we’re almost at the end zone

24:37there. Um, DB2, I’m happy to announce that we’re having our kickoff meeting

24:43tomorrow with the contractor. Um, so yeah, that that was huge that this uh

24:50DB2 is going to be a big project. It’s got eight structures on it. One of the

24:56the you know, the project itself is that bridge going over CSX Railroad. That’s a

25:02that’s a $10 million plus bridge in itself and we have eight structures. Uh

25:08maybe maybe the next meeting I’ll I’ll uh I’ll get I’ll I’ll send you some actually I’ll do it today. I’ll send you

25:14some uh slides and some of the uh enhancements that we’ll be doing on DB2

25:19that essentially um kind of pushed this offer into first place if you will and

25:26they won the project. They’re actually proposing a couple trail heads which was not part of the project. They’ve got

25:34three roadway crossings where they have almost it’s almost like a u a traffic

25:40calming. It’s like a circle on each side of the road. Um so so that cyclists if

25:47they’re you know ping along they actually have to slow down so dart out into traffic and it’s pretty cool. Um

25:53but I’ll shoot those over to you share the next meeting but um but yeah we’re

25:59excited to get going on that one. But um if anyone has any questions, I’ll I’ll be happy to answer them. Now,

26:05do those the the documents you’re referencing, would they live on VOTE’s phone line website?

26:12Yeah. Yeah, we’ll end up posting them up there. Um yeah, it’s little excerpts out of the uh

26:19the um successful design builder uh technical proposal. It’s like little renderings that they uh

26:26they put together. That’s great. And a point that came up over the past couple weeks, which is one

26:33of the things about a design build um administrative process is there isn’t a

26:39full design yet, right? Like we’re that they’re going to start working on that now that they’ve been awarded the contract. Correct.

26:46Right. With with design build projects, we essentially put out 30% plans. That

26:52gives the uh the successful design builder uh something to go off. and you

26:58know we basically give you technical requirements what to follow um but they’ll they’ll submit 60 90 100% plans

27:06as far but I I think they I I know that they’ve already started design uh so I I

27:14think we’ll see advanced work packages um come out and hopefully we start

27:21seeing some tree glaring in u uh in November

27:26but Um, okay. The nice thing about that section is there’s it’s going to be minimal tree clearing. Um, obviously behind VSU

27:34there’s some, but uh um so yeah, I think want to see them start work pretty soon.

27:40That’s awesome. Thanks, Scott. Okay, moving getting back on track here.

27:47Okay, so that’s um all that I have from a community or from a locality project

27:53update standpoint. So, I’m happy to open the floor, Joe or others, if you have

27:58anything you’d like to share. Um, I think those are the these are the active projects that we’ve been talking about, but um, anything else before we move on

28:06from this topic? All right. Well,

28:11oh, sorry, Brantley. Go ahead. I have a quick thing. Um, hi, I’m Emmy Richards, uh, parks and recreation director for the town of Ashland. Um, so

28:19we are working on a spur trail from Carter Park into our downtown. Um, and

28:24we currently have or we had a request for proposals for a piece of functional art um that will serve as a kind of

28:31trail head in our downtown um near our library where we have additional parking for access to the fall line trail. Um

28:38tonight our parks and recreation committee will vote um on a finalist with an intent to award um it’s we have

28:45a some three very cool uh bench pieces that incorporate both the character of

28:51Ashland and the fall line trail. Um so we’re really excited about that and kind of adding to the excitement around the

28:58fall line trail. Um and apologies in advance for all of those people who are using the fall line trail from Ashland.

29:04We’ve been very vocal about the fact that it’s not open yet, but people are going to do what they want to do. Um,

29:11but yeah, we’re we’re excited to uh move forward with this project and um hopefully have a really cool piece of

29:18public art um that both embraces Ashland and uh the falling trail.

29:23I mean, that’s awesome. I look forward to seeing what that ends up being. Art will be a subject of our discussion over

29:29the next few slides. I would love to see your RFP because we we might want to use

29:34it as a model for other work that we’re doing if you wouldn’t mind sharing that with us. Um I think we’ll be working

29:40with many of our local local partners uh to either issue these themselves or we can

29:47issue them in consultation with them based on whatever public land owner that we’re working with. But yeah, I think

29:53we’re going to be spending a lot of time on this over the next few years. Great. Uh, do you have an So, where

30:00where your um you said your public art or parks commission is going to be

30:05selecting a piece of art or the the artist at this space?

30:10Both. So, we put out the RFP and we had 22 submissions. Um, our we had a subcommittee from our parks and

30:17recreation committee and our public art commission work together to narrow it down to three finalists. Um they are all

30:23three finalists are presenting on their pieces um to our parks and recreation committee tonight and then our committee

30:29will pick a final um piece um to with the intent to award through our town

30:37manager and town council. Um all pieces from the original review to now have had

30:44some tweaks and changes. I’m assuming that we’ll probably have more come up through, you know, with our parks and recreation committee tonight. Um but I’m

30:50happy to share that RFP with you or anybody else. Um we used a new platform

30:56to get uh submissions and it was really successful. Um so uh yeah, I mean we had

31:0222 from across the nation. Um and we have three people who are very passionate about this project um coming

31:08to present tonight. So I think that any other localities interested in in our RFP or our process, I’m happy to share

31:15that. That’s awesome. Thanks, Emmy. Okay, hearing no other um administrative

31:22stuff, we’re going to have I have a lot of pretty pictures after this, but I wanted to give a bit of a synopsis of

31:28the community engagement that we’ve been doing over the past few months. I think if you’ve been tuning into these

31:34meetings over the past few quarters, you know that a lot of this has been about engagement around the Brian Park section

31:39and north side Richmond. And we certainly are going to be um kind of expanding that conversation u in this

31:46slide because we turned out about you know I think I should have actually included some pictures based on when I

31:53think our last meeting of this was the morning of that big meeting. So, I missed on that one, but we had about 300

32:00people come to that Brian Park meeting April 9th and uh approximately 250 were

32:06supporters and uh it was a it was a vibrant meeting, a community display of

32:13a lot of support for the trail, a lot of support for the trail’s benefits for people with disabilities or limited

32:18mobility, for people of different backgrounds, and the importance of the trail being in the most valuable

32:26connected place through the park that has amenities and destinations. And we

32:31just really want to thank the city’s leadership, their their community engagement, their cont uh their

32:37consultant and contractors for doing a good design. And we look forward to shephering that project from our role um

32:44as it gets built. So beyond just the Brian Park community engagement, May is

32:50RVA bike month in our 12th year. It’s our by the numbers. It’s kind of it’s

32:55tricky to to measure participants exactly, but we’re down our second highest number of participants for RVA

33:02bike month ever. Uh and tied for the most events at 71 over five or six weeks

33:09if you include some rain delays. Um some of the ones that are the most uh fall lineoriented where we we’ve had for the

33:16third year now a fall lineoriented urbanism happy hour led by um Rich

33:21Saunders who may be on the call here. Um always a really vibrant time. We walked on the accessible open section of the

33:29fall line trail and had a uh vibrant discussion at Carter Park. We’ve done a

33:36cleanup partnering with Virginia Community Voice down at Broad Rock Creek Park, which is a a proximal park to the

33:43section near Bellad. Um we’ve tabled and and engaged people at the Bryant Park

33:49bike races, which are of course um a really highly attended and and

33:55well-loved community event um that’s now more than 50 years old. Henikico uh is a

34:03relatively new program at Henriiko that um is going to culminate in a large

34:08event called Heniko in September at Crump Park, but they had an event at Libby Middle Library because of

34:14ultimately because it rained uh where they gave a seminar on their bike infrastructure updates. We tabled at the

34:20Richmond Speed Symposium and at the Captocap bike ride and we have a we hosted a webinar with some folks on on

34:27the call today about how bike infrastructure is designed. So that lives sort of evergreen on our YouTube

34:34page and helps to reach people that aren’t necessarily prepared to bring a

34:40bike to an evening or or community event. We were um thrilled to

34:46participate in the tap into transit day yesterday with GRTC. We gave a uh we I

34:51was on a panel for one of the evening events for the Richmond zoning refresh

34:57uh community engagement aspect to talk about the fall line and transit oriented and trail oriented development

35:03opportunities. And then uh we continued to engage with the north side communities and there was a special

35:10meeting of the Belleview Civic Association where the fall line was a was on the agenda.

35:16And here are some pretty pictures of people engaging uh with either us or with the fall line. The the bottom and

35:23the right picture are from the fall line urbanism happy hour. Uh it is largely

35:28slated towards the urbanist professional community. So a lot of professional planners and engineers were there. Um

35:35Rich does a great job of working with the uh the Virginia chapter of the

35:40planning association to give extending credits or uh ext um continuing

35:46education credits. And we had some VIPs. We had Ryan from Henriiko. We had um Amy

35:52from New Kent on the CBTA and uh Ashlin of course gave a presentation about some

35:58of the work that they’re doing. They did not talk about the art though, so that was new for me.

36:04lots of events. I I I won’t spend too much time going into each of them, but we definitely have a vibrant community

36:11engaging with the fall line. I will say in the upper right, we

36:16commissioned some art from local artist, Silly Genius. This is a conceptual depiction of the fall line in Brian Park

36:22with lots of different users um using Brian Park in a way that they can’t today.

36:32And that’s the Henikico bike infrastructure seminar is in the bottom left. Brian talking about in particular

36:41the the network connections all the way from Living Mill Library to Lakeside

36:46which would then get people to the fall line to go whichever direction they want to go. Pretty exciting stuff with

36:52Dumbartton and Hillyard Road being two major connections that are underway. Um,

36:58those are both bike lane projects that would connect people to the the main trunk of the fault line.

37:06All right, I’m going to turn this over to my colleague who’s in the one room over here uh at our sports backers

37:13headquarters to talk about a significant effort that we’ve been leading that we

37:19launched last month to really bring community and organizational partners

37:25together to discuss big picture items related to the fall line uh placemaking

37:31and partnerships and everything else. So, Natalie, I’m going to advance your slide in just a moment, but why don’t

37:37you unmute and introduce yourself? Great. Thank you. Uh, my name is Natalie. I’m engagement manager for

37:43BikeWalk RBA. If you receive the BikeWalk RVA emails, they’re probably from me. Um, we have another coming out

37:50soon with our July newsletter. So, uh, keep an eye out for that. Um, okay. So,

37:56the Fall Line Placemaking Collaborative, we hosted these sessions last month. We

38:02had to break it down into two groups on June 20th and 26th. Um we had 24

38:11participating organizations. The slides are going crazy right now, but um we had

38:1723 organizations and about 30 attendees. Um there were some people who were popping in and out, so I think I got

38:23everybody. Um and we broke these sessions down into first off educational

38:29presentations. We had some open discussion. Then we um broke down into

38:34breakout sessions where um members from these organizations were invited to

38:40choose different topics of discussion to dig a little bit deeper and then we closed out

38:48our sessions with a report back um just to bring everyone back to the same page.

38:53So, in attendance, you can see this list on the left side of the screen were the organizations who were able to join us.

39:00And then some super cute group shots from the two days. Um, the top shot is

39:06here at the Sports Backers headquarters. That’s in our old bank drive-thru lane, which is a cool like shady spot on the

39:14fall line trail. And then our first group actually is the bottom photo and

39:21there we were utilizing Libby Mill Library which was great. Um and so you can see kind of the top right um

39:27handwritten photo on this slide is notes from one of our breakout sessions and we

39:34had um three different groups. We had culture, we had people, and then we had

39:39built a natural environment uh breakout groups that allowed these organizations

39:45all work either physically adjacent to the fall line route or like topically

39:52adjacent to the fall line trail. And so it gave us an opportunity to talk about how each of our organizations and the

39:59work that we do touches the trail and how we can continue to make this trail

40:05really community oriented. I think that’s it for this slide. Brantley,

40:12so we took some key themes out from our breakout sessions and I have them listed

40:19here. So the one that really came to the forefront was just the need for a really robust community engagement strategies

40:26particularly with some of the communities that are along Route One and

40:32Commerce Road in Southside of Richmond. There was a lot of conversation about how we can not just engage with them but

40:40invite them to create um like the third bullet point here is grassroots public

40:46art spaces that create culture and letting it be um like a people oriented

40:51trail and allowing some space for people to bring their own belongingness to the trail. U we also talked about just

40:57aligning values and developing some KPIs for how do we make the placemaking along

41:02the trail equitable. We want all sections of the trail to have a consistent personality that aligns with

41:10the fall line trail, but also that each section has its own flavor and to create

41:15some space for the community to be engaged in that process. One um point

41:20that came up that I really liked was the idea of entertainment use and the slow wallet concept. So, a lot of times we

41:28talk about the fall line trail as being recreation and transportation, but I loved the reminder that it also will can

41:35be entertainment and the fact that it is going to run through some urban environments and people might just want

41:42to go on the trail to get to a coffee shop. And the slow wallet concept is basically when people are moving slowly

41:48past a business, either on foot or on bike, they’re more likely to stop and check it out. Um, we also talked about

41:55the overlap of our placemaking strategies with policy and zoning. Those

42:01conversations are already happening in Richmond. We have a zoning refresh. So, um, that was at the forefront of the

42:07conversation. trail building for the current residents and not only thinking about the future, but how can we shape

42:14um the trail amenities to meet the needs of the community that’s already there

42:20and using environmental studies like the Richmond 300 and RVA Green 2050 to

42:27overlap maps that define like heat islands and flooding zones um in order

42:34to define locations for trail amenities that could assist with mitigating those

42:40um challenges like shade structures and rain gardens and bio swala and then also

42:46just some like liinal gathering spaces that are just green areas to hang out.

42:52Um also just collaborating on current trail adjacent projects which we’ll get

42:57to in the next slide. And then the most exciting was just kind of a reoccurring

43:03idea that maybe we should have an advisory council.

43:10So some of the early opportunities that we identified for collaboration, we’re very excited about the Manchester Art

43:17Park. This will be um kind of near um

43:22the Potterfield Bridge along the river. And if you are familiar with the climbing wall that’s down there, there’s

43:28some community efforts by an organization called the Little Giant Society to create a public art space

43:35down there in the park, which will be directly adjacent to the fall line route

43:42over the Manchester Bridge and on Commerce through a spur trail that actually already exists, but it it will

43:48be improved. Um, also we have great ideas about um, investing in some

43:54sculpture and some public art here at the trail head at Spring Park at where

43:59the Sports Backers headquarters is. We also have some community volunteerism

44:06ideas. Um, adopt a trail in Brian Park. We’re excited to have some interest in

44:12that already. We had anou discussion with um the Richmond parks department uh

44:17last month to talk about how we can start to get adopted trail going and um

44:24tree planting in Southside is often at the forefront of our minds, but

44:30definitely engaging with Southside Relief during this placemaking collaborative and groundwork RVA and

44:35Virginia Community Voice really um brought those ideas to fruition. And

44:41then of course we have started some discussions regionally about benches and

44:47how we can have cohesive bench design along the fall line trail through all of

44:53the different areas. And I see Sheree just dropped a message that we she has

44:59some upcoming events for Southside relief. Um so I would definitely encourage us all to try and jump in on

45:06those. Um maybe we’ll give her a second to talk about those and when I finish up here. Um and so the benches

45:13conversation, I think Brantley has already had some regional discussion to talk about can we get some beautiful

45:20fall line themed benches and place them along the trail rather than having kind

45:25of just your standard boring black bench. We want these benches to really

45:31represent the personality of the fall line trail. And it would be awesome if we could have consistent benches

45:37throughout the length of the trail. Yeah, Sheree, I’m going to cue you up to

45:42unmute in a second if you’d like to. Um, but while we’re on the subject of benches, essentially, we don’t have any

45:50benches along the fall line. Now, we have a couple of donors and a couple of projects that are underway that could

45:56have them installed really imminently. and uh what they haven’t been purchased

46:02and we don’t know exactly what to get. And so it it’s really cues the

46:07conversation of now was the time for us to to to determine if as a region we

46:12think there should be a special kind of of look and feel and wayfinding

46:18potential maybe branding potential of the in the built environment along the

46:24fall line that says you know when you’re on the yellow brick road and you’re you know when you’re not on the yellow brick road because in the future when the fall

46:31line is all built there are going to be countless connections to it into neighborhoods into business parks, uh,

46:37into schools. And as we’ve gone on study trips around the country, we’ve seen

46:43that it can actually be kind of challenging to wayfind so many good connections because you don’t know at a

46:49fork which one is the fall line. So, one of the great ways to really visually

46:55solidify people’s experience is to have some consistency in that build’s environment. The lowest hanging fruit I

47:01think would be benches because one bench from the other there’s not a significant cost difference. It may it may be there

47:08may be a cost difference but thinking about um uh benches are all largely

47:13going to be the same order of magnitude in cost and what opportunities are there

47:19for us to have one that is standalone from a typical park bench or benches you might see in other settings. So, um,

47:27some folks on the call have gotten an email. I’ve I did my best educated guess to pick one person, a point person from

47:34each of the seven localities to kind of weigh in on whether we want to make this

47:39choice or not. Certainly, we don’t have to. And a bench is one item in the built

47:44environment that we may all be choosing, but having consistency in some areas

47:50like a bench or trash can and of course wayfinding. I should specify that

47:55wayfinding design has already been completed by the CVTA. So some of that signage is going to be consistent

48:01regardless. Um perhaps uh we can also choose areas where we don’t want to be

48:08consistent and and each locality can pick their own flavor because I think that variety is its own nice um uh

48:15outcome. So, let’s start those conversations and and ultimately I think

48:21that we want to purchase two or three benches by the end of the year and we want to make sure that we don’t set a

48:26standard that wasn’t really discussed previously or choose a bench that then

48:32becomes non-standard immediately when we then choose a standard later in the future. So now is really the best time

48:38and the I look forward to working with you and each of your localities to kind

48:43of figure out what is it that we want. And I think ultimately

48:49we all are driven by the inspiration of of like taking this trail and the

48:54experience that millions of people will have using it to a higher level. Like what makes it world class, you know, an

49:02eye to architecture, an eye to design. people will really appreciate us getting this right now instead of trying to kind

49:09of cobble that together later in the future. So, thanks very much. And uh Sheree, did you

49:16want to add anything about events that you have coming up? I mean, not just to promote events, but

49:22um we like to maximize effort. So, any of our upcoming work days, tree planting

49:27opportunities also, we do like outdoor learning classrooms. So like if there are materials that you would like for us

49:34to disseminate or if you want to come to those events give you know 10 15 minute

49:40introduction just to get in front of new community members we’d be open to that.

49:46Um and I’d be happy to connect y’all to Lisa who’s our outreach coordinator because she does a lot of canvasing and

49:53door knocking in the community as well. So, I just wanted to say that let’s just

49:58collaborate for anything that we have coming up so we can maximize that outreach effort.

50:06Wonderful. I’ll say we part of our outcome, our our desired outcome after

50:11the falling placemaking collaborative was to get some continued insight on what we should put on new outreach

50:17materials. So, we’re we’re going to spend the next month or so really um creating new ones to so that we can meet

50:24that demand. So we we will take you up on that. And actually Lisa, I think was in her first week when she came to uh at

50:32at Southside Relief when she came to work on our fall line vision plan um

50:37initial uh engagement sessions. So she’s been

50:42she’s at least somewhat familiar with what we’re doing and we worked with her at uh the Earnest Road IV cleanup over

50:48the winter. So I’m wrapping up now. uh falling vision plan again is a a

50:53foundation for the work that we’re doing related to placemaking along the the trail and uh it was definitely

50:59foundational to our discussion at the fall placemaking collaborative. It’s available online at our website

51:05fallinttrail.org and our next meeting is in Q3 October

51:118th always the second Wednesday of the quarter.

51:16That’s all I have to present today. Anyone else have anything to share?

51:27All righty. As always, we will upload this to our YouTube page in the next couple of days. And thanks everyone.

51:34Thank you. Thanks y’all. Thanks Brinkley. Appreciate it. Thanks everybody. Take care.