The City of Richmond is receiving its 17th Tree City USA award from The National Arbor Day Foundation. The award will be given during a ceremony that will include a Tree City flag presentation, a tree planting and a give-away of free tree seedlings to festival attendees by the Virginia Department of Forestry.

The award ceremony will be held Saturday, April 19, 11AM, at the City ShowMobile Stage, 2nd and Decatur streets, during the Richmond Earth Day 2008 Festival in Manchester.

Richmond.com alerts us to the soon-to-open Savor, in the Corrugated Box Building, 201 W. 7th St. The restaurant’s focus will be on breakfast & lunch (pastries, salads, sandwiches, etc), but they’ll also offer dinner to go.

Opening is projected for next week (paperwork pending, ‘course).

The ever-changing Manchester on the James/City View Towers development goes before City Council tonight, for discussion of changes in the SUP. The residents of Springhill, who by-and-large don’t oppose development on the site but are wary of the changes in this plan, invite everyone out to the meeting tonight.

Today at noon, the city will unveil the first draft of the new downtown master plan. Expected to focus heavily on River District neighborhoods, the plan will be available for review on the City Website, all Richmond Public Libraries locations, Community Centers, and City Hall rooms 110 and 510.

Between his engineering and production work at Sound of Music and his live performances with the likes of The Broken Hips, Bryan Hoffa is one of Richmond’s best-known musical forces. Bryan’s suffering from a particularly nasty illness, so some of his musical brethren have set up a benefit show to help offset some of the medical bills.

The Bryan Hoffa Benefit Show, featuring performances by Spokane, Tulsa Drone, Marionette, and Mammy, will be Saturday, Nov. 17 at The Expansion Joint (211 West 7th Street).

Crosland Development has submitted a plan of development for a parcel of land on the south end of the Lee Bridge (roughly defined as everything north of Stonewall Ave between 19th St and Cowardin). At 4 stories, it’s a much smaller development than the tower once known as “Manchester on the James” that was originally intended for this site.

RichmondCityWatch has a rendering, and there is reportedly a meeting today at the offices of Williams & Mullen (no idea of a time, though) for community discussion.