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With a December deadline inching closer, a Richmond City Council-appointed citizen panel will set to work Saturday on its review of the $1.5 billion proposal to reshape downtown around a new arena.

The Navy Hill Development Advisory Commission will hold the first of six scheduled public work sessions from 9 a.m. to noon at the Richmond Police Training Academy, 1202 W. Graham Road.

The session will mark the start of three months of technical vetting and feedback-gathering the commission must distill into a set of recommendations for the council by Dec. 23, said Pierce Homer, its chairman.

“In any project of this size, there are significant risks for contractors, for developers, for the city, for taxpayers, and we want to identify those in a systematic way,” Homer said.

The council formed the nine-member commission last December, as it appeared Mayor Levar Stoney would unveil in short order the plans to redevelop a swath of publicly owned real estate that his administration received from NH District Corp., the developer led by Dominion Energy CEO Thomas F. Farrell II. Negotiations dragged on for eight more months, however. Stoney released the plans in August.