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It’s your mayor, Danny. This month, we launched the third draft of the refreshed zoning code, or Code Refresh, and I want to spend this month’s letter sharing with you what I told partners, residents, and advocates at the press conference itself. |
Why a refreshed zoning code?
If you’ve been following the Code Refresh process, you know a couple important things:
- You know that our current zoning code was adopted in 1976, over 50 years ago. And for the decades prior to that, the zoning code was used very explicitly to keep people of color out of some neighborhoods and in others. Our zoning code cemented much of the racial and socioeconomic segregation that we see across the city today, concentrating wealth in some communities, and poverty in others. The rules that govern how we design and build our city matter tremendously, and we are long overdue to write new ones.
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You also know that the challenge of housing affordability is one of the most significant facing our city. On the campaign trail, and as I talk to people now, I hear everyone—from long-term generational residents of neighborhoods like mine, to college students, to working class families—sharing how difficult it is to create and stay in a home in Richmond.
- You probably also know that so much of what contributes to the health and wellbeing of a community (like safe and affordable housing, green space, making neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable, increasing access to mass transit) is actually baked into the rules that a community creates to define the built environment: our zoning code.
I get that the zoning code won’t make anyone’s top ten list of what they love about Richmond, but it is one of the most important tools we have to shape our growing city into a place where everyone can thrive.
It’s why Richmond 300, the city’s master plan adopted by our City Council back in 2020 after award-winning community engagement, explicitly named rewriting our zoning code as the first and most important of the six big moves Richmond must make to ensure that the future development of our city reflects our values and our shared vision.
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Get to know the new version of Code Refresh
Our updated zoning code will help us build:
More homes for more people, so that as we welcome new neighbors, we’re protecting opportunities for longtime residents to stay, by
- Encouraging increased density in nodes and along major transit corridors throughout the city;
- Improving the existing accessory dwelling unit (ADU) regulations by increasing the allowed size of ADUs to 1200 sq feet, while also requiring ADUs to better fit the context of the lot;
- And evenly distributing zoning districts across the City, spreading new development equitably.
Connected, vibrant neighborhoods and a diverse economy, by
- Allowing neighborhood-appropriate, small-scale office and retail uses to better connect neighbors to goods and services;
- And bringing existing homes and businesses into zoning compliance, actually legalizing the unique character that already exists in so many of our neighborhoods.
Beautiful communities, that preserve the character of our existing neighborhoods and the distinct aesthetic that makes so many places in Richmond special, by:
- Maintaining City Old and Historic Districts to ensure the longevity of Richmond’s most architecturally significant neighborhoods;
- Establishing contextual heights, setbacks, and step-backs so new development better complements the existing built environment;
- And creating a framework for new Design and Demolition overlay districts, giving neighborhoods the ability to set development standards that are important to them.
A sustainable city, by:
- Expanding amazing parks and green spaces into every corner, by creating a new designation of open space zoning;
- Establishing citywide vegetation space requirements, meaning no new parcel in the City can be developed without some percentage of green space;
- And setting minimum tree canopy standards, which protects trees that are growing here today, and requires the planting of more trees to improve the city’s overall tree canopy.
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How did we get here?
The process to get to Draft Three of Code Refresh has been an exercise in listening well. This draft is better because people engaged with it.
Across all nine council districts, through pop-ups, town halls, office hours, work sessions, public meetings, and conversations with everyone from long-time homeowners to renters to neighbors brand new to Richmond, we heard so many diverse perspectives — and that diversity of perspective allowed us to land on a set of thoughtful recommendations.
I want to highlight a few important examples:
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First, we heard residents’ concerns about the number of units that should be permitted by right in residential districts. As a result, this proposal maintains the “1+1” concept: the right for homeowners to have one primary dwelling and one attached or detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU). We are recommending improvements to the effectiveness of our ADU regulation by increasing the allowable size of the ADU to 1200 sq feet and adding contextual requirements. This is a change, but an incremental one. The proposal should allay concerns that Code Refresh will dramatically change the character of neighborhoods while creating a better solution that provides more housing options.
- Second, we heard lots of concerns from Southside residents about new development in a part of our city that has retained more suburban zoning since it was annexed. It has not received the investment needed to help integrate it into the city. The proposed updates allow more investment in corridors (in accordance with our master plan), while still requiring special use permits (SUPs) for more intense development in neighborhoods.
- Third, SUPs and community involvement in our land-use decision-making are NOT going away, but they are getting right-sized. We want to make sure we’re not adding time and cost to projects that clearly fit the context of a neighborhood, but have just not yet made their way into our 50-year-old code.
- Fourth, we’ve corrected inequitable overzoning in historically African American communities, like Westwood, protecting some of our most resilient neighborhoods.
Getting here hasn’t been easy, but rigorous debate and challenging compromises are the essence of our democracy, and the hallmark of how I want our administration to lead Richmond forward.
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Thank you!
I am so grateful for the incredible amount of work by our Planning and Development Review team, the ongoing engagement of Richmond City Council members, and the time, input, and perspective thousands of residents have brought to the Code Refresh process. This work has been made better by your involvement.
Please explore the code firsthand on our website: rva.gov/coderefresh. There’s been lot of misinformation out there and this is important enough that you go and see for yourself what’s in the proposal. There are even hard copies of the draft you can check out at any public library location in Richmond!
And there’s a lot more to come. A zoning code is a technical document, and so our teams have been charged with breaking it down and answering questions at town halls and community events all over the city over the next couple of months.
I’m asking for your support as we present this to City Council for their further discussion, consideration, and I hope ultimately, adoption. Because this is a roadmap for a future Richmond that reflects our values and our shared vision -- more homes for more people, connected neighborhoods, beautiful communities, and a sustainably city built for generations to come.
-Danny
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