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While it’s only presented as a temporary solution, the city of Richmond has submitted site plan for new landscaping that will replace the empty field and fencing around Lee Circle on Monument Avenue.
The plans, according to city records, calls for planting small trees and shrubs similar to what’s been installed at other traffic circles where Confederate monuments were removed over the last two years. The project is anticipated to cost about $100,000, with work expected to begin later this month.
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landscaping samples
Chris Suarez
State officials originally placed the fencing around the former location of the Robert E. Lee statue in January 2021, about six months after then Gov. Ralph Northam and Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney ordered the removal of Confederate statues from the historic avenue.
Above, a photo taken by drone shows Monument Avenue without the massive Robert E. Lee monument. After its removal, the statue was conveyed to the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
The fencing remained after the state took down the Lee statue one year ago.
It has left some people feeling distressed after activists and local residents transformed what many saw as an off-limits shrine to the Confederacy into a public gathering place with community gardens, a makeshift basketball court and musical and artistic performances during the 2020 protest movement.
landscaping site plan
Chris Suarez
While the movement was in large part spurred by the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, local residents informally renamed Lee Circle after Marcus-David Peters, a 24-year-old teacher who was killed by Richmond police in 2018.
Aerial view of Monument Avenue without the Robert E. Lee statue which stood for over 130 years. Photo taken on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
The Northam administration in 2020 proposed plans to “reimagine” Monument Avenue and Lee Circle with $10 million in state funding pledged to it, but the initiative stalled after the state transferred ownership of the circle and the Lee monument to the city last winter, days before gov. Glenn Youngkin was sworn into office.
“The larger, more permanent process to reimagine Monument Ave has not started, and we do not have a timeline for that work as of this writing,” 2nd District Councilwoman Katherine Jordan wrote in her weekly district newsletter Friday. “Per previous communication from [the Department of Public Works]once the landscaping work is completed, the state will remove their fencing.”
Planning documents say that the city intends to begin the landscaping work at Lee Circle later this month once the plan is approved by the city’s Urban Design Committee and Planning Commission.
The committee is slated to review the plans Thursday. The plans will then go before the Planning Commission for a final vote on Sept. 19.
It remains unclear what will happen to the monuments that have been removed. City officials have also released little information about its long-term plans for Monument Avenue and Lee Circle.
“Please remember that the city has always stated that we would take a breath before engaging the community in meaningful conversations about reimagining the circle,” said city spokeswoman Petula Burks. “That hasn’t changed.”
In December, the city announced that it would transfer the Lee monument and the rest of the statues to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, which will work with the Valentine Museum to determine what to do with them.
The city is also still in the process of working toward the removal of the AP Hill Monument at the intersection of Hermitage Road and Laburnum Avenue. Complicating the matter is that Hill is buried in the monument, meaning that a special court order is required to move it.
The city has filed suit to donate the monument to the Black History Museum and move the buried remains to a cemetery in Culpeper, but a group claiming to be indirect descendants of the Confederate officer have laid claim to the monument.
PHOTOS: Monument Ave. without Robert E. Lee statue
Although the statue of Lee has already been removed, the pedestal that held it has continued to stand.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue as downtown Richmond is shown on the background on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
Monument Avenue is seen without Robert E. Lee statue as downtown Richmond is shown on the background on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
An empty pedestal, that used to hold the Robert E. Lee statue, is seen at Monument Avenue in Richmond on Monday, September 13, 2021.
Daniel Sangjib Min/TIMES-DISPATCH
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