A Master Plan for Courthouse Village - College of Humanities and ...

ARCHITECTURE & PLACE DESIGN
Equally as important as the designation of the Village center, itself, is the
implementation of proper design guidelines, which will determine the look and
placement of buildings and ultimately, the atmosphere within the core. Growth in
the Village should be directed by a distinct set of design standards (see following
design guidelines) in order to guide the aesthetic quality of development.
According to citizen feedback presented in June of 2002, the overarching
recommendations included the desire for implementing design guidelines for the
Village that includes sidewalks, trees, bike paths, buildings built to a pedestrian
scale, relegating off-street parking to the rear of buildings, narrow, connected
streets and speed control inside the Village.
Goal 4: The Village center provides a feeling of enclosure and is
a unique and distinguishable place
Objective 4.1: Decorative gateways will be established at key locations to signify
entry into and exit from the Village center (see Figure 16)
Gateways create a point of transition from one type of place to another and can
take many forms, including elaborate signposts, statues alongside the road, or
banners hung across the street. Gateways are an effective means of not only
alerting people of this transition, but also of creating a strengthened, more vivid
and memorable impression associated with a place.
Implementation
Encourage residents and business owners to form a Village Association, which
would be in charge of establishing a Courthouse Village Improvement Fund
comprised of voluntary contributions from members of the association to provide
funding for this and other improvements.
Timeline: July 2006 – July 2007
Objective 4.2: Good landscaping will be incorporated to enhance the public
sphere within the Village center (i.e. through the planting of appropriate trees
alongside the road)
Objective 4.3: Sidewalks and village-themed streetlights will continue to be built
alongside roads to provide safety and coherency through the Village center
Objective 4.4: Buildings fronting Rt. 522/6 will be built at uniform height (between
two and three stories), are built of similar building materials (brick and stone) and
have minimum set-backs and lot requirements
A Master Plan for Courthouse Village Page 56 of 96
Spring, 2006
Goochland County