Majority of City Council asks Mayor Stoney to send Navy Hill plans back to drawing board

Five out of nine City Council members submitted a formal request to Mayor Levar Stoney on Monday afternoon to send plans for the $1.5 billion Navy Hill project back to the drawing board ahead of a planned final vote on the matter in February.

The non-binding request, patroned by Kimberly Gray of the 2nd District, Vice President Chris Hilbert of the 3rd District, Councilwoman Kristen Larson of the 4th District, Councilwoman Stephanie Lynch of the 5th District. and Councilwoman Reva Trammell of the 8th District, was rebuked strongly by Mayor Stoney as quoted in the Richmond Times-Dispatch Tuesday, saying, “Honestly, I think if this was 2019 or 2021, we would be doing this today,” Stoney said. “But guess what? They’re thinking about their elections more than anything. They should be thinking about the city of Richmond and the future.”

NH District Corp., the formal entity behind the Navy Hill plans, echoed these sentiments in a news release:

“It’s unfortunate that instead of looking for ways to improve the Navy Hill proposal, these council members are putting their heads in the sand and hoping that the city’s problems resolve themselves,” according to the statement. “We proactively sought to sit down with each of these five members to ask them for their ideas, amendments and recommendations to make this the best possible deal for Richmond, to which they have offered nothing.”

Among the asks that Council made in the request are a more robust public engagement strategy and an appraisal of the city-owned land and buildings part of the plan.

Councilwoman Kim Gray says that she’s simply “responding to the wishes of the people,” while Vice President Chris Hilbert says the plans should be a regional effort supported by the surrounding counties.

A final vote on the matter is expected to take place at the February 24th City Council meeting.

We’ll continue to follow this developing story as more details emerge.