Richmond is a place of possibilities. Once known for being stuck in the past and set in its ways, recent decades have shown that our city has another side. Richmond has changed for the better, becoming a more vibrant, inclusive and dynamic place to live.
People want to live in active, affordable, diverse, healthy, sustainable and walkable communities, but we don’t yet have a plan for how to get there. Our region is still defined by choked expressways, segregated neighborhoods and sprawling suburbs that continue to gobble up Virginia’s forests and farmland. How do we find a better path forward?
One way is through Richmond’s ongoing rezoning effort, dubbed “Code Refresh.” Zoning is a legal framework that controls how cities are built. Most great urban neighborhoods, like Beacon Hill in Boston and Bloomsbury in London, were built before modern zoning existed, when it was normal for people to walk between homes, schools, offices and shops. Zoning has its uses (who wants to live next to a coal-fired power plant?) but it has also been used as a tool to mandate racial and socio-economic segregation and car-oriented suburban development…