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Wilder offers five-year plan for City of Richmond
BY DAVID RESS
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Mayor L. Douglas Wilder announced his "City of the Future" plans last night at a Richmond City Council meeting.
BRUCE PARKER/TIMES-DISPATCH
Mayor L. Douglas Wilder last night made his bid to change the face of Richmond with a plan calling for 15 new or renovated schools, a renovated Carpenter Center and a new law-school campus downtown.
To pay for it, he wants to try what plenty of Richmonders do but what the city has never tried: arrange for a credit card.
The program, which Wilder called his "City of the Future" plan at last night's City Council meeting, would cost at least $250 million over five years -- but if business leaders contribute the $50 million they said they'll try to raise, it could reach $300 million. The additional funds would go toward a major push to fix the city's roads, long a sore point with many businesses.
"I have waited all of my lifetime in politics to have the opportunity to make all this happen in my native city," Wilder said. "I know the trend in current politics is to tinker at the edges and do little things that can be portrayed as big things. I reject this approach as good for those in office but not for the people."
Wilder wants City Council to act on the plan by July, the start of the city's next fiscal year.
His school plans include two specialty high schools -- one for the arts, and one for sciences and math. He hopes to have work completed on all the schools within three years.
And, in addition to modernizing the Carpenter Center, Wilder's plan calls for improvements to the Landmark Theater and a city contribution to moving the Virginia Aviation Museum from the airport to a site near the Science Museum of Virginia on Broad Street.
"By doing this, we give the downtown business community what they wanted -- a modern Carpenter Center as fast as possible," Wilder said. "We also give them the kind of community-revitalization program and educational program that will help provide the level of trained personnel they have also said is needed to foster the progress of Richmond."
The plan calls for renovating the old Murphy Hotel -- a decaying architectural landmark -- to become a downtown law-school campus involving a partnership between the University of Richmond Law School and Virginia Commonwealth University.
The city can pay for all this without raising taxes or having to rely on the kindness of state legislators and federal agencies, Wilder said.
"We've been tin-cupping it around here for so long," said Wilder, adding that his plan looks to the city's own resources.
"We're talking about what we have that we can do," he said.
The idea is to borrow money the way many people do these days.
Instead of trying to get all the money needed right away, the way the city does when it sells bonds or homeowners do when they arrange a long-term mortgage, Wilder's plan would set up a line of credit -- basically the same thing as a credit card.
The city would draw money as needed for specific projects, which means it would pay interest on smaller sums than if it borrowed the $250 million in one lump.
But since interest rates on bonds tend to be lower than credit cards, the idea is to eventually refinance the debt as those smaller sums accumulate. At the time, some big sources of revenue the city does not now receive should start kicking in.
The biggest: real estate taxes on properties whose owners had received abatements.
In addition, Wilder said he expected to find $7 million a year in savings -- mainly from the school system -- to help repay debt incurred for the program. His plan also uses the 1 percentage-point increase in the city meals tax that was set aside to pay for the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation's proposed downtown performing-arts center. That plan, except for the Carpenter Center renovation, is on ice as a special committee appointed by Wilder reviews it.
"I think it's very, very bold," said City Council President G. Manoli Loupassi. "It's obviously a massive undertaking."
William J. Pantele, chairman of the council's finance committee, agreed.
"Now we have to get down and roll up our sleeves and see if it will work," he said.
"My reaction is: Show me the money," said School Board member Carol A.O. Wolf, adding she was disappointed that Wilder didn't talk about making city schools accessible to the disabled. Some 56 school buildings do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, a School Board study found last year.
But School Board member Evette Wilson said: "I think it's wonderful. South Side will benefit. . . . I'm excited."
Contact staff writer David Ress at dress@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6051.