RVA Design Coalition: Code Refresh Neighborhood Position Statements, Signs, and Neighborhood Conversations.

Neighbors joined for a neighborhood-association-led program to answer community questions in May.

The latest neighborhood positions on Code Refresh have been published!

(If YOUR neighborhood has taken a position on Code Refresh, please send them to me!)

Historic West Grace Street

The Board of the Historic West Grace Street Association fully endorses the positions of the Fan District Association and Warsaw Condominium's concerns about Code Refresh.

Position of Historic West Grace Street Association:

Historic West Grace Street is an integral part of the Fan District, containing numerous fine homes that have been carefully restored and maintained by their owners. In addition, West Grace has many properties that provide housing to renters, including families, retirees, and college students. The Historic West Grace Street Association (HWGSA) is closely tracking the City of Richmond’s Zoning Code Refresh (Code Refresh) initiative as it relates to Historic West Grace Street and the City of Richmond at large. As a neighborhood association, we fully endorse the position of the Fan District Association (FDA) that the first and second version of Code Refresh does not support the Richmond 300 as approved.

As Historic West Grace Street is a border of the Fan District AND a designated historic neighborhood, Historic West Grace Street merits additional consideration.

1. HWGSA supports additional housing opportunities but allowing SIX units per original home in addition to an ADU by right returns West Grace Street to the rooming house neighborhood of the 1970’s and 1980’s, which negatively impacted our neighborhood (for reference, review the plethora of city zoning complaints still on record during that time that clearly document rooming house transgressions).

Currently, approximately 40% of our neighborhood are buildings with rental units. The average home has approximately 8 rooms. Allowing 6 units per home fosters locked single rooms along hallways with one bathroom. After World War II, many of West Grace Street’s properties were divided up to accommodate increased demographic growth and, in the 1970s, a growing number of VCU students. With single room occupancy, crime grew along the street in the form of illegal sex work and drug sales. Residents worked hard to eradicate the criminal activities while lobbying successfully to convert West Grace into a quiet, cobblestoned two-way street with stop signs. As a result of this extraordinary advocacy by West Grace Street residents, today we are one of the city’s most vibrant and heterogeneous neighborhoods.

Historic West Grace Street adamantly opposes any removal or change to the definition of family, and that only three unrelated people may reside in a home.

2. Mandatory shadow modeling must occur for any 3+ story new builds adjacent to existing communities to ensure the city does not violate solar net zero opportunities, the Richmond 300, Climate Equity Action Plan, and Net Zero 2030 commitments. “Balcony solar” or “plug in” solar panels received approval by the Virginia legislature and was signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger in April 2026, to allow renters and homeowners affordable opportunities to lower utility bills and embrace greener energy. These benefits to residents must be protected.

Code Refresh proposes building heights from five to thirteen stories along the south side of W. Broad Street from Lombardy Street to Arthur Ashe Blvd. The construction of towering buildings across the narrow alleys of West Grace would compromise decades of progress in making West Grace a vibrant, inclusive, and distinctive neighborhood. Further, the 4-story building limit on West Broad from Lombardy to Strawberry, and the 5-story limit on West Broad buildings from Strawberry to Arthur Ashe that HWGSA negotiated with the city during the PULSE Corridor Plan MUST be honored.

3. RM-A and RM-B are inappropriate for quiet West Grace Street and should be zoned RA like the rest of the Fan. Current zoning minimum lot sizes, building coverage percentages, heights, stepbacks, and setbacks must be maintained to ensure resiliency for our community.

11% of adults and 8% of children have food allergies, often undiagnosed and life-threatening, so it is further inappropriate to zone residential Grace Street RM, especially when Broad offers food/business opportunities one street over but far enough away to not harm residents.

HWGSA looks forward to the opportunity to work with the City’s elected leaders to ensure that thoughtful, targeted goals of Code Refresh are achieved while supporting the Richmond 300.

Signed, Historic West Grace Street Association