Neighbors move to drop lawsuit against VMFA art warehouse plan
After losing a zoning appeal, a group of Museum District residents have moved to drop their lawsuit challenging a Virginia Museum of Fine Arts plan to build an art storage warehouse on a mostly residential city block.
The neighborhood group filed court paperwork last month to drop the suit that had been filed against the museum and city officials.
Construction on the facility was already proceeding after the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals rejected an appeal from the neighbors in early March. A judge has not yet signed off on the motion to drop the lawsuit. Once that happens, it could clear away the last hurdle for the project.
Opponents of the project argued the city had misinterpreted its own zoning rules to allow the museum to construct an industrial building in close proximity to historic homes, which typically wouldn’t be allowed if it were a warehouse operated by a private company.
City officials and the museum said the warehouse was allowed in the residential area because it’s effectively an extension of a government-owned museum. The city’s zoning rules allow public facilities like museums, parks, libraries and schools to be built in areas zoned for primarily residential use.
“The VMFA Foundation will continue, as always, to follow all state and city zoning and building regulations,” the museum said in a statement. “The Grove Avenue Art Storage Facility is vital to safely storing the Commonwealth’s growing world class collection. This project is more important than ever as VMFA expands to share more art, welcome more visitors, and provide more enjoyment to neighbors, Virginians, and visitors from around the world.”
The VMFA has said the new warehouse will help the museum store and move art as it embarks on a broader expansion of the main museum facility. The warehouse would be built across Grove Avenue from the museum, in an oversized alley behind the VMFA’s Studio School building.
The neighbors haven’t given up the fight entirely. One nearby resident, Thomas Courtney, has repeatedly questioned city and state officials how the building can be considered a public project for city zoning purposes, but not a public project in the eyes of the state government.
The VMFA handles some of its real estate matters through a private foundation. For that reason, the state’s Art and Architectural Review Board didn’t vet the building’s design for appropriateness or alignment with the surrounding neighborhood.
“This board previously expressed frustration over being excluded from meaningful dialogue during the VMFA’s larger expansion plans,” Courtney said in a written statement he intended to deliver to members of the state architecture board. “In contrast, this warehouse project avoided you entirely — by claiming it was not on commonwealth property, not part of museum grounds and not state-sponsored construction.”
The 12,000-square foot storage facility is expected to be completed later this year.
Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org
