Dear Richmond 300 Advisory Council,

Thank you all for your time and consideration over the last several months. We wanted to send some formal comments. As you all are aware, we have remaining concerns with the current draft of the Richmond 300 Master Plan process. I would like to highlight two areas of concerns that both Oregon Hill & Randolph neighbors have brought to our attention.

The Oregon Hill neighborhood is currently listed as mixed use. Only 1% of the neighborhood’s 650 building south of I-195 are businesses, the other 99% are residential. The fabric of the neighborhood is rapidly changing as we see more families moving into the neighborhood and starting families. I echo the neighbor’s concerns under Mix Use regarding height and density. Oregon Hill fought hard in the early 2000s to get R-7 zoning with the 35 foot cap. We would like to strongly state our opposition to the mixed use designation and recommend moving this to Medium Density Residential.

We would also like to call your attention to the Randolph Neighborhood boundaries. They are not properly represented in this current draft. This has been discussed with Mark Olinger and we recommend updating to reflect the true boundaries of the neighborhood. The northern part of the neighborhood is also listed as Mix Use. This entire swath of neighborhood is currently residential and we feel strongly that it should remain so.

In addition, we would strongly recommend moving the VCU node north of Oregon Hill. We also support completing a ‘green way’ map that highlights Monroe Park as the city’s oldest municipal park, among other important denotations for our parks & recreational spaces.

Thank you all for all of your time, work and efforts in crafting this Draft Master Plan. We appreciate you reviewing these concerns and please let us know if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Stephanie

Stephanie A Lynch
5th District Councilmember
Richmond City Council