THE PLAN

Fonticello Park has seen decades of deferred maintenance due to budget shortfalls and an understaffed Parks department.

The main priority of the Friends of Fonticello Park is to advocate for the city’s maintenance of Fonticello Park’s amenities to create a safe and equitable green space for the families of Southside.

THE PARK CONCEPT

The application to the Urban Design Committee Review stated that the purpose of these improvements would be to “1) prioritize the safety and security of residents and park visitors and 2) better align park programming with a community-driven vision” (Application for Urban Design Committee Review).

Current Park
Option A
Option B

In July 2019, Timmons Group conducted a site visit and project kick off meeting with the DPRCF, followed by tabling at a National Night Out event in the park and the completion of a site inventory and analysis. The first public meeting was held September 10, 2019 to facilitate discussion on the community’s vision. A survey was distributed both at the meeting and online. This feedback drove the two initial master plan concepts which were presented at a subsequent meeting on October 22, 2019.

Based on further feedback, a final master plan was submitted December 2019. This final plan was again put before the community where several suggestions were made for a dog park and to retain the tennis course, but the DPRCF elected to not include those amenities (Application for Urban Design Committee Review). According to the Application, the City did not at the time of the application have any funding for the proposed improvements and no construction was currently planned, nor was their a timeline for completion of the project. The application stated that full implementation would likely take upwards of three years to achieve.

The application was recommended for approval with conditions by the Urban Design Committee (UDC) on May 7, 2020. According to the Action Details from that meeting, the UDC recommended the pedestrian bollards not be utilized within the park, the applicant consider previous paving in the material selection for sidewalks and paths, and that new signage be sensitive the character of the surrounding historic neighborhood. On May 18, 2020, the Planning commission approved the plan as well.

PROJECT TIMELINE

PLAN History

Download the Master Plan

In 2020, the City of Richmond Parks and Recreation department was working with the Timmons Group to develop and gather feedback on a conceptual Master Plan for the park. In March 2020, the pandemic shut down the world and all forward movement on updating the park came to a halt. On May 7, 2020, the Urban Design Committee did recommend approval with conditions to the conceptual location, character, and extent review of the Fonticello-Carter Jones Park Master Plan. On May 28, 2020, the Planning Commission approved the plan. (Richmond Virginia Legislation) No further movement on updating the park occurred. The Fonticello Food Forest and weekly free farmstead continued.

The playground was closed and some structures removed in November 2020 due to safety concerns from previous vandalism. On January 23, 2021, Chris Schwartz from the City of Richmond’s Parks, Recreations, and Community Facilities (PRCF) Department held a virtual meeting with community members to discuss and review possible replacement designs of the playground equipment in Carter Jones/Fonticello Park. Another meeting happened in March 2021 onsite in the park.

In February 2022, the rest of the playground was locked. In March 2022, parents held a meeting with Deputy Director Shamar Young to once again discuss the timeline for the playground. The Parks Department maintained that the procurement process continued to delay the process.

As a result of the earlier meeting with Parks (details in post from Amy Robins on Facebook Friends Group), another survey was distributed to the community in July 2022 to gather feedback on the proposed plan, possible changes, prioritization and the needs of the park. In August 2022, the benches at the pavilion and then the remaining playground fencing and seating were removed.

In May 2022, VCU student Molly Mallow published her dissertation, “Spatial Disparities Analysis of the City of Richmond, Virginia’s
Neighborhood Park Amenities,” found that Fonticello Park was in the worst condition of any of the neighborhood parks in her study.

Crumbling bath house and removed benches
Removed Playground

From this meeting, at the urging of neighbors, Parks and Recreation dispatched electricians and technicians to fix the lighting in the park. The community was starting to see movement on their needs. On September 21, the first official Friends of Fonticello Park meeting took place in the park, led by Laney Sullivan. Both Shamar Young and Josh Feola, the City of Richmond Maintenance and Operations Superintendent were also in attendance. Meeting notes are here.

The Big AnnouncEment

Thanks to the advocacy of City Councilperson Stephanie Lynch and Council Liaison Amy Robins, Mayor Stoney earmarked $1.75 million in the 2023 budget for Fonticello Park master plan implementation.

The Infrastructure Committee suggested amendments to the current master plan that better reflect the changing desires of the community. As of Summer 2023, the following priorities have been identified and communicated to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities in the following order:

  1. The bath house renovation and addition of a splash pad (as PRCF indicated those were already in the works). As of April 2023, this project has been approved by the UDC and the Planning Commission.
  2. Expansion of the skate park: Reshaped placement so that it takes up part of the current basketball courts closest to the cellular tower and up to the first set of goal posts. The new skate placement would extend all the way to the alley and over the horseshoe court as well as pushing further east towards the large cut elm tree. The FOFP are working with Maury from Venue to design the space.
  3. Basketball Courts: Utilize the two basketball courts closest to Perry St and resurface.
  4. Tennis Courts: Keep two of the tennis courts but remove the far tennis court along the 29th street side. We could contribute native landscaping in that area and the work to install it after the tennis courts are complete!
  5. Removal of the outer-field fence in the eastern ball field to open up that space as a multi-use field. We ask that as the city transitions the field that they replace the clay with grass. Doing so will stop clay erosion along Bainbridge Street. As of December2023, the fence has been removed.
  6. Testing the spring and accessing the spring water to water the new trees and plantings.
  7. Installing a dog park: Location TBD.
  8. Walking Path throughout the park.