The 200-page document has been years in the making. (City documents)
As Richmond leaders make the rounds with the latest draft of the Code Refresh zoning ordinance rewrite, other amendments related to the city’s master plan have crossed the finish line after approvals from city council last week.
Councilmembers last Monday adopted the Cultural Heritage Stewardship Plan, Richmond’s first citywide guide for preserving its cultural resources.
The 200-page plan establishes an approach for identifying cultural resources in the city and planning for potential growth around them.
Such resources are defined as above-ground assets such as buildings and landscapes, below-ground resources like archaeological sites or cemeteries, and intangible resources such as lost sites and oral histories.
The stewardship document stems from the Richmond 300 master plan and is now part of that larger growth guide.
The plan builds on existing preservation efforts such as Richmond’s Old and Historic Districts, which are regulated by the Commission of Architectural Review and require its approval for exterior changes to buildings in those districts. While those districts cover specific areas of the city, such as Shockoe Slip or Monument Avenue, the plan is considered the first citywide guide to approaching preservation.
Richmond’s Old and Historic Districts are shown in purple and design overlay districts in green.
Developed over two years starting in early 2023, the plan initially received pushback from critics who argued that it could add costs to rehabbing old buildings to convert them into housing, or to building new homes in parts of the city where the plan could require archaeological or architectural surveys. The concerns led the planning commission to send the proposal to a subcommittee for further review.
By the time it came back last November, however, a majority of commissioners were supportive and recommended approval by an 8-1 vote. Several said city planning staff had assured them that the plan is not meant to be a regulatory document, and that any regulations that might come from it would require subsequent approvals from the commission and council.
Despite the advancement, the plan did not get to council until last month, when it was introduced and referred to council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee.
Kevin Vonck, the city’s planning and community development director, told BizSense that the delay allowed staff to coordinate the proposal to council while also working on Code Refresh, the comprehensive update to Richmond’s zoning code that’s meant to implement the vision of Richmond 300.
The third draft of the rewrite rolled out in August, and Vonck and other officials have been making the rounds to present it at various city meetings and councilmember district meetings. A public comment period for the draft that started last month and was set to end Friday was extended to today (Monday).
As for the preservation plan, Vonck said no changes were made to it since it was recommended for approval last November. He said the timing around Code Refresh also allowed staff to lump the plan together with two other amendments to Richmond 300: the Richmond Connects transportation equity plan; and the Richmond INSPIRE parks-and-rec vision plan.
Both of those plans were also adopted by council and are now part of Richmond 300.
Previous amendments to the master plan have included the City Center Innovation District Small Area Plan, the amended Priority Neighborhoods Master Plan, the Shockoe Small Area Plan and the Oak Grove Hillside Bellemeade Community Plan.
Cyane Crump (Photo courtesy Historic Richmond)
At the council committee meeting last month, Cyane Crump, executive director of Historic Richmond, thanked the planning department for its efforts on the cultural heritage plan, which she described as a four-year effort.
“This project went through extensive community engagement and six months of detailed study by the planning commission,” Crump said, adding that the plan had broad support and the department had received over 180 pages’ worth of support letters from citizens.
“We think it’s a very helpful plan. It provides a lot of tools that could help communities,” Crump said. After the meeting, she added to BizSense: “It’s been a long time coming, and there’s a tremendous amount of community support for the plan.”
The city went in with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to hire Commonwealth Preservation Group, a Norfolk-based consulting firm, to develop the plan. The effort was co-funded through DHR’s Survey and Planning Cost Share Grant Program, which assists local governments in historic preservation planning initiatives.
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