Business owners air frustrations as completion schedule announced at GRTC Pulse town hall

A crowd of move than 50 people showed up to a Town Hall meeting held Wednesday afternoon at The Broadberry held by Richmond City Councilwoman Kim Gray, representative of the 2nd District, to give an update on construction of the GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit project.

Many in attendance were business or restaurant owners and a number vented frustrations about the project, saying loss of parking and construction activities resulted in year-over-year losses. Gray had originally proposed compensating businesses for those losses, using a $3 million incentive bonus contractor Lane Construction would have received had the project wrapped before the end of 2017. Those funds, however, came from a federal level and can’t be used for such purposes, she said at the meeting, resulting in frustrated remarks from attendees, many of whom also felt misled about the project’s end date and the fact that the completion of work in 2017 was merely an incentive.

Another pot of money, $700,000 earmarked by the city for GRTC to operate the bus rapid transit line this year, was also cited as a potential revenue source to compensate business owners for losses. GRTC spokeswoman Carrie Rose Pace, also in attendance, said a portion of that money had already been spent on hiring and training drivers on the specialized way the busses must “dock” to the stations in the median of W. Broad Street. The exact figure was not specified.

Gray proposed exploring other options to compensate businesses, including dipping into state or local funds, providing tax abatements, or arranging grants. No further details were available at press time, but she promised constituents to “leave no stone unturned” when it came to compensation options.

“You are not going to be able to reimburse the losses,” said Scott Garnett, owner of Lift Coffee Shop & Café in the city’s Arts District, adding that “it’s not a money grab.”

Trevor Dickerson/RVAHub

A representative of sister restaurants Max’s On Broad and Tarrant’s Café, both in the Arts District and not far from Lift, spoke without providing his name for the record, stating the restaurants’ sales dipped more than 25% year-over-year in 2017 versus 2016–a loss of approximately $200,000. However, he also cited the city’s closure of Brook Road in front of Max’s and the construction of the Maggie Walker statue last year as contributing factors as well. He didn’t mince words, saying the city “has screwed us” and compared the meeting to an episode of former NBC sitcom Parks & Rec.

The new GRTC busses will use smart technology to communicate with newly-installed traffic signals to prioritize their passage as they cross 53 intersections along their 7.6 mile route from Willow Lawn to Rocketts Landing. The service will run from 5:30 AM until 1:00 AM on weekdays; service begins at 6:00 AM on weekends.

While no official launch date has been announced, Pace says the new bus lines should enter a testing phase by the first week of April, with passenger service beginning by the end of June. Lane Construction’s contract on the project expires June 30th, 2018.