Please Send An Email/Letter For Oregon Hill

Dear Oregon Hill friends,
On Monday, Aug. 15th, the Richmond City Planning Commission will vote on a wonderful amendment to the master plan that will simply acknowledge what we all know: that Oregon Hill is a Residential neighborhood, Please send a short note in support of this master plan amendment, which has already been unanimously approved by City Council.

Below is a draft letter for your consideration, and please feel free to elaborate on your love of Oregon Hill, which has been a Residential neighborhood for over 150 years. Send your comment to: PDRLandUseAdmin@richmondgov.com

Dear Members of the Richmond Planning Commission,
I urge you to support the common-sense amendment to the master plan (agenda item CPCR.2022.094) that would designate the future land use of the Residential R-7 zoned area of Oregon Hill as Residential. Oregon Hill’s master plan amendment (2022-R033) has already been approved by the unanimous vote of the Richmond City Council.
Within Oregon Hill’s R-7 zoning, 99% of the buildings are two-story Residences. The two- story Residential future land use designation is appropriate for Oregon Hill and will allow the Oregon Hill neighborhood to continue to thrive.

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME and ADDRESS

Trash/Recycling (Might Be) Tomorrow

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which hopefully means trash and recycling pickup. I say hopefully, because the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority has struggled to maintain its schedule due to a shortage of workers and has missed some pickups recently and had to reschedule. That said, as neighbors, we should do our best to help.

One tool that might help ameliorate the situation if pickup does not come is this online form:
https://cvwma.com/programs/residential-recycling/recycling-service-request-form/

Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, mattress recycling! Troy, VA company Van der Linde Recycling has a new program for mattresses, box springs, carpet, and carpet padding.
Roughly 40 million mattresses and box springs end up in landfills each year. About 75% of mattresses are recyclable. Each mattress is $25 to drop off, unload, and recycle.

Also, the company Autocar has begun a program of field testing on two cabover refuse truck alpha units featuring a zero emission, all-electric powertrain. The two E-ACX electric cabover refuse trucks, also known as battery-powered electric vehicles (BEVs), are going through a strict validation testing process to ensure the trucks are built to handle the same challenges and requirements as its diesel and CNG counterparts.
Electric could mean quieter trash/recyling pickup!

Pool’s Presentation To Planning

On July 18th, neighbor Charles Pool, on behalf of the Oregon Hill Home Improvement Council, made a presentation the City’s Planning Commission.












Since that presentation…

The Planning Department is tasked with drawing a revised master plan land use map to correspond with the Res. 2022-R033 that was unanimously approved by City Council in advance of the next August 15th meeting of the Planning Commission.

Please provide a copy of this revised master plan land use map as soon as possible so that we can check to be sure that your map accurately represents the unanimously approved Resolution of City Council 2002-R033.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

Charles Pool

Trash/Recycling (Might Be) Tomorrow

This Wednesday is a “Red Wednesday”, which hopefully means trash and recycling pickup. I say hopefully, because the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority has struggled to maintain its schedule due to a shortage of workers and has missed some pickups recently and had to reschedule. That said, as neighbors, we should do our best to help.

One tool that might help ameliorate the situation if pickup does not come is this online form:
https://cvwma.com/programs/residential-recycling/recycling-service-request-form/

Please go over what can be recycled. Ideally, rolling recycling containers are stored and deployed in the back alleys along with trash cans. Please make sure you pick up containers after pickup tomorrow night.

If you have not done so already, don’t forget to sign up for your Recycling Perks.
In order to take your recycling to the next level, read this: 10 ways to improve your recycling.

In recycling news, the City of Chesapeake, Virginia ended its curbside recycling program, but now has overflowing dumpsters at its drop-off recycling centers.

In more positive recycling news, folks in Northern Virginia are working on more glass recycling.

Even if recycling glass isn’t profitable on a large-scale basis, “doing it this way is affordable,” said McMullen.

”I don’t want this to become a business,” she noted. “This is just me wanting to help people out of my garage.”

She was inspired to provide the assistance, she said, upon realizing that “we live in a county full of breweries and wineries,” yet there was no way to recycle the bottles used for their products.

Examples of R-7 and R-48 with Residential future land use in Richmond 300

At the Planning Commission meeting on Monday, the Planning Director stated that the Residential future land use designation in the Richmond 300 master plan was not appropriate for R-7 or higher zoning. But a quick look at the zoning map indicates that they have designated an R-7 zoned area on Southside with the Residential future land use designation. And a large area of Randolph is zoned R-48 with the Residential future land use designation. (Please see attached maps.)

Apparently, these arbitrary rules apply only to Oregon Hill!

(Oregon Hill residents continue to strongly urge the Richmond Planning Commission to adopt Councilperson Lynch’s amendment to the Richmond 300 master plan (Res. 2022-R033). This would wisely amend the master plan to indicate that the area of Oregon Hill already under the Residential R-7 zoning would be designated with the appropriate Residential future land use.

In no way does this amendment undermine the integrity of the Richmond 300 master plan, The Residential future land use amendment for Oregon Hill is the same future land use that was approved for our sister Randolph neighborhood.

Before approving the Richmond 300 master plan, the Richmond City Council was assured by the Stoney administration that their voice in amending the master plan would be respected. In the unanimous vote, the City Council has made it crystal clear that it is the desire of the city’s elected City Council that this amendment be approved by the Planning Commission.)