Proposed new zoning districts unveiled at ‘Code Refresh’ open houses
Midway through a multi-year rezoning process, Richmond is holding a series of open houses this week to introduce residents to potential new zoning districts.
The process, which will run through the end of the year, will ultimately seek to overhaul Richmond’s zoning code for the first time since 1976, and is guided by the Richmond 300 master plan.
The current zoning code has 30 districts, while the new proposal has 23. In June the group tasked with providing zoning recommendations will unveil a map that will apply the new zones across the city, ultimately handing that work off to City Council for formal approval.
Residential density remains a priority
City Council allowed most homeowners in single-family dwellings to build an accessory dwelling unit starting in 2023, and the new code goes a step further by allowing duplexes on almost all residential lots, which the open-house materials said “allow for gentle increases in density.”
One other major change would allow more commercial use on the ground floor of multi-story apartment buildings in select areas, which will be referred to as “residential mixed use.”
The conversation on these proposals will continue during a panel discussion on March 11 at 7 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School.
The city has hired Code Studio, a consulting firm, to lead the rewrite. The group has held monthly meetings, seeking to prioritize getting input from a diverse sampling of residents. At a Tuesday night event held at Huguenot High School, there were Spanish-speaking staff members available.
In the Richmond 300 planning process, a number of neighborhood “nodes” were identified, which are areas where future growth is projected, and where the zoning rules will seek to encourage and manage that development.
Those nodes are identified by black circles in the Richmond 300 map.
Updates on the process are being posted to the city’s website.
Contact Michael Phillips at mphillips@richmonder.org.
