1 week Ago
Lynchburg City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the Diamond Hill Neighborhood Plan, a vision and a strategy aimed at preserving the neighborhood’s historic elements and promoting business vitality. City staff worked with Diamond Hill residents and heads of churches, businesses and nonprofits in the neighborhood for more than a year in developing the plan. In August, the Lynchburg Planning Commission recommended city council adopt the Diamond Hill plan.
“The whole Diamond Hill area has such rich history that we need to continue to embrace that and continue to do what we can to support that,” Ward II Councilman Sterling Wilder, who lives in the neighborhood, said in support of the plan at Tuesday’s council meeting. Wilder, who noted there’s no funding attached to the neighborhood plan, encouraged residents to lobby councilmembers to support the appropriation of city funds for projects that will further improve and revitalize the Diamond Hill neighborhood. At-large Councilman Martin Misjuns, who drives his son to R.
S. Payne Elementary School in the neighborhood every day, said he cannot support public funding of projects recommended in the plan. “When it comes to funding millions of dollars of streetscaping, I’m not going to support that,” he said.
“But I support the vision, and I support the plan. And I want our community to get out there and get to work and raise the money to make it a reality because I know you can do it.” Misjuns said spending money on upgrading city schools in disrepair should take priority over the projects highlighted in the Diamond Hill Neighborhood Plan.
Because no city funds are attached to the plan, Misjuns agreed to support it. Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts The Diamond Hill Neighborhood Plan focused on “anchor” institutions such as its churches and schools, along with community streets, housing, markets, and parks and historic resources. The city identified the neighborhood’s anchor institutions as the Parks and Recreation Neighborhood Center on 17th Street, Diamond Hill Baptist Church, Payne Elementary School, Dunbar Middle School and the Hunton-Randolph Community Center.
“The Diamond Hill Neighborhood Plan offers strategies to guide policymakers, staff, stakeholders, residents, investors, developers all in realizing the potential of the Diamond Hill neighborhood as a strong and healthy neighborhood,” Charlotte Lester, a city neighborhood planner who worked lead on the Diamond Hill Neighborhood Plan, said at Tuesday’s meeting. Diamond Hill, home to about 2,050 people, is unique due to its proximity to downtown, the Lynchburg Expressway and the Kemper Station Transit Hub. Diamond Hill also is home to two local historic districts: Diamond Hill Historic District and the Pierce Street Renaissance Historic District.
Sixteen community organizations that serve Diamond Hill participated in the plan’s development. “They should continue to support the plan recommendations through advocacy and action,” the final plan says. The plan identifies potential funding sources at the local, state and federal levels to improve access to transportation, sustain historic preservation and upgrade infrastructure in the neighborhood.
For example, the campus of Dunbar Middle could be used as a community space. Seventy-five percent of Diamond Hill residences would then be within a 10-minute walk of a park at the site. The Dunbar campus is more than 16 acres in size, spans more than six blocks and includes multiple access points, according to the plan.
“The wheels are already turning on some of the plan’s catalyst projects, which are thoughtfully designed to improve daily life for residents today and in the future,” the plan says. “With the support of policymakers and City staff, Diamond Hill stakeholders will help to drive the full implementation of this plan and ultimately see it through.”.
