Code Refresh is a city project to rewrite Richmond’s zoning ordinance, which regulates what can be built and where. While some changes have been made to Richmond’s zoning over the years, the last comprehensive rewrite took place in 1976– half a century ago. Our zoning ordinance guides the city’s growth and affects what kinds of housing are available in what parts of the city, as well as how close each person might live to their work, transit, or amenities like grocery stores. 

Code Refresh has been in the works since the city adopted the Richmond 300 Master Plan in December 2020. Richmond 300 identifies a zoning rewrite as one of five “Big Moves” the city should undertake to become a better place for its residents to live. Chapter 5: Inclusive Housing states the city should “encourage more housing types throughout the city and greater density along enhanced transit corridors and at Nodes and Priority Neighborhoods by amending the Zoning Ordinance.” One Richmond, the city’s equitable and affordable housing plan, recommends the same changes to improve affordability and prevent displacement, and Mayor Avula also identified zoning reform as a priority in his affordable housing plan.

Renters are hardest hit by our housing crisis. Since 2021, Richmond rents have risen nearly 48%, a trend that continues even as rents are falling across the country. Renters are more likely to be cost-burdened, and as fewer people can afford to buy a home, our greatest housing need is for affordable rentals. More than half of city residents are renters, yet 57% of Richmond’s land is zoned exclusively for the housing type least accessible to them — detached single-family homes. That mismatch has real consequences for people's lives, restricting the amount of housing available, driving up prices, and severely limiting housing choice for a growing number of residents. Code Refresh could make renting more affordable and expand housing options for renters in different neighborhoods by allowing more housing to be built.

Current planning processes also tend to privilege homeowners, who are notified of zoning changes and often influence what projects get built — or if they are built at all. Code Refresh is an opportunity for renters to participate in long-term planning decisions that impact how much they pay for rent, what kind of housing is available to them, and where in the city they can live. And as the Mayor said, the city wants more input from renters in the process.

The process has not been rushed. Richmond 300, which serves as the basis and guiding document for Code Refresh, was the result of an extensive community engagement process. The city began Code Refresh in February 2024 with a year-long study of Richmond’s buildings and neighborhoods to lay the groundwork for a code that fits our existing built environment. The city then released two drafts in 2025, with a third planned in spring of 2026. With each draft, the city has engaged residents to provide public input and continues to track resident engagement and incorporate feedback. Each public comment period has been extended to allow more time for engagement. The Zoning Advisory Council (ZAC), a subcommittee of the planning commission made up of Richmond residents, has been meeting since June 2024 to advise the Department of Planning and Development Review (PDR) on the project. Once the final draft is released and reviewed by the ZAC, the Planning Commission will review it and hear further public comment before making a recommendation to the City Council, who will vote on whether to adopt the new code. Public feedback is essential, but we should be mindful that further delay will worsen our housing crisis.

No. The proposed rewrite is being written by the Department of Planning and Development Review (PDR) with the help of Code Studio, an Atlanta-based consultant team that has worked on other zoning projects in Virginia, such as Charlottesville’s zoning ordinance and projects for Spotsylvania, Virginia Beach, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. Concerns that developers are writing the new code center on the makeup of the Zoning Advisory Council (ZAC), which was expanded in late 2025 in response to resident concerns. Two members have had to step away from the committee, leaving a total of 19 active members. Ten have no obvious ties to for-profit development. Of the remaining nine, five work directly for or with developers, three are current or retired real estate lawyers, and one is a realtor. All 19 are Richmond residents.

Notably, the ZAC does not have decision-making power. They meet once a month to review parts of the proposed code and provide feedback to PDR and Code Studio, which the city may or may not incorporate. All ZAC meetings are open to the public, and recordings and meeting notes are posted online.

Through its history, single-family zoning has been intertwined with racism. It is an example of “exclusionary zoning,” which is the practice of using land use rules to restrict who can live where by controlling what kind of housing can be built. Exclusionary zoning became widespread nationwide in the immediate aftermath of a 1917 Supreme Court ruling that banned explicitly racial zoning, and research has found that it increases segregation by reducing the quantity of affordable housing throughout cities. One of exclusionary zoning’s greatest apostles was Harland Bartholomew, who in 1919, as St. Louis’s city planner, completed a zoning plan to discourage movement into “finer residential districts… by colored people.” Richmond later hired him for a major zoning rewrite in 1942, which became the basis for the zoning we have today. Bartholomew planned for the destruction of Jackson Ward, created single family zones around existing white neighborhoods, and relocated industrial uses to Black neighborhoods. As a result of his work, more than half of residential land in Richmond today is reserved for single-family homes, many neighborhoods remain segregated, and wealth and opportunity are concentrated in majority-white areas.

Reforming our zoning to allow more kinds of homes throughout the city is not the only step needed to overcome the impacts of Jim Crow era housing policies, but it is a necessary one. In fact, federal fair housing law requires localities like Richmond who receive HUD funding to undo their exclusionary zoning.

Allowing more housing types won't guarantee every new unit is affordable, but restricting them makes building affordable housing nearly impossible.

Richmond's current zoning code makes it complicated to build anything but the most expensive kind of housing on most of its land. Allowing more homes on a single lot would reduce the cost per unit, and "missing middle" housing types like duplexes and townhomes can offer options affordable to moderate-income residents without tax-funded subsidies. Many cities across the country are making zoning changes to increase density; research shows that these localities, after adding more housing, have seen slower rent growth. In cities like Portland, zoning reforms have also created new homes that cost significantly less than newly built detached single-family homes.

Restricting the types of housing that can be built also hampers subsidized affordable housing. Why? Zoning restrictions drive up the cost of land, which is often the biggest expense in building an affordable home. Rigid rules also force nearly every affordable housing project through a lengthy Special Use Permit process that can add prohibitive costs for nonprofits operating in a complicated and expensive environment.

Research shows that strict zoning raises housing costs in low-income neighborhoods and fuels displacement and gentrification. In other words, zoning restrictions don't lock people in – they force them out. 

Zoning reform alone isn’t enough to prevent displacement, but it's an essential piece of a larger strategy the city must build out. Solutions to prevent displacement fall into three categories: housing production, preservation, and neighborhood stabilization. Zoning can have the greatest impact on displacement by increasing production. Allowing more homes city-wide and especially in more affluent areas is vital for improving affordability while reducing pressure on low-income neighborhoods, where new development tends to concentrate today.

High-impact strategies for preservation include keeping unsubsidized affordable housing available, and removing housing from the speculative market through cooperative ownership and community land trusts. For stabilization, tools like rental assistance, home repair programs, anti-rent gouging, right to counsel, and "just cause" eviction protections help residents stay in their homes. In January 2026, the city began inventorying its existing anti-displacement programs to identify gaps and strengthen capacity. The city must continue to develop a comprehensive displacement mitigation strategy in combination with zoning reforms to ensure existing residents can continue to afford to live in Richmond.

Current law limits the city’s ability to do so. In the 1970s, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that localities can’t force developers to build affordable housing without compensation, which is a version of inclusionary zoning. Ten years later, the General Assembly allowed a small handful of cities to offer incentives in exchange for affordable units. Another state law passed in 2005 became the basis for Richmond’s affordable dwelling unit program, though it is widely considered overly prescriptive and ineffective. A bill that would reform state law to expand broad powers of incentive zoning to localities statewide, including Richmond, is on track to pass into law, though it would not take effect until 2027.

While changing our zoning can help provide more affordable kinds of homes and stabilize housing costs, families with very low incomes need additional support in the form of public investment. In February 2026, City Council adopted an ordinance to invest 2.5% of the city’s annual property tax revenue (around $12 million in 2026) into the creation and preservation of affordable housing using its Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The city is also donating city-owned land and using tax rebates to encourage the creation of deeply affordable housing. The latter has been particularly successful, with over 3,000 new affordable rental units in the works since its adoption in 2023.

Still, more investment is needed at all levels of government to address the scale of the problem. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition estimates that there is a gap of over 33,000 units affordable for very low-income households across the Richmond region. As homes become increasingly unaffordable for even moderate income residents, increasing our overall housing supply while also incentivizing and investing in affordable housing can help maximize limited funding for households with the lowest incomes.

No. Outside investors and existing landlords benefit from housing scarcity. Owners of apartment buildings uniformly cite new construction as a risk to their business, because they have a harder time raising rents when there are more competing properties for tenants to choose between. It’s true that developers make money building new housing, but if we don’t allow more multi-family housing, developers will instead make money building luxury single-family homes and flipping older homes, which provides less housing and drives up prices.

Code Refresh is also proposing many new requirements that developers would have to meet, such as providing bicycle parking, building sidewalks, and planting trees. In important ways, Code Refresh is proposing zoning that would regulate corporate developers more—not less.

It could also present an opportunity to locals who want to help build Richmond’s future. Our zoning is a barrier for small builders and non-profits who can’t absorb the cost and risk of the Special Use Permit Process the same way big developers can. Allowing a variety of small-scale multifamily housing with clear standards would make it easier for people who live in our communities to contribute to building them. Projects in other cities have shown that less restrictive zoning can promote local control and participation in community development.

Ultimately, the people Code Refresh should benefit the most are residents who need more housing options and want vibrant, connected neighborhoods.

It's complicated. Here’s what we know. Strict zoning is strongly associated with higher land values and housing costs. Under our current zoning, Richmond property values have risen rapidly, with some neighborhoods seeing increases as high as 19% last year.

Exactly how upzoning impacts property values depends on local context, the scale of reforms, and the length of time studied. Upzoning individual parcels or smaller areas is more likely to cause speculation and drive up property values without prompting more construction. City-wide rezonings, on the other hand, tend to spread out development pressure and result in more construction, which moderates property values over time. One short-term study in Minneapolis found that property values did increase after land use reform, but less than the change in permitted density. Other studies indicate that the least-developed properties are most likely to see a jump in value, while developed properties may see less or no change, or even a decrease in value.

Bottom line: If done right, zoning reform can help moderate property values over time, while strict zoning will likely keep pushing property values up over time. Compared to spot upzoning, city-wide rezonings are more successful at distributing growth, discouraging speculation, and encouraging more housing.

Code Refresh would allow incremental change across the city and focus density and mixed use in areas designated by Richmond 300. In Draft 2, buildings more than four stories tall are limited to major streets and activity hubs called “nodes,” or in areas that already have buildings of similar height. The plan also includes contextual height limits and setbacks in residential districts to ensure that new buildings fit into the neighborhood around them. At the end of the day, changing the zoning does not force anyone to build denser housing. The zoning ordinance works like a speed limit: it describes the maximum of what can be built at a property, but homeowners and builders are free to build less if they choose.

Current zoning incentivizes developers to build the two kinds of homes that are the least likely to fit into existing neighborhoods – large apartment blocks and McMansions. Code Refresh is an opportunity to reintroduce the mix of housing types that historically defined Richmond and built many of our most desirable neighborhoods– until they were outlawed by exclusionary zoning. Small increases in what is allowed everywhere also helps distribute change throughout the city so it grows organically and slowly over time, rather than concentrating growth in one neighborhood all at once.

Code Refresh will preserve all existing Old and Historic Districts and design overlays, which are important tools the city uses to support preservation efforts. That means current restrictions on demolition, design, and building in designated areas will remain in place, no matter what happens to the underlying zoning. It will also maintain the existing process for creating a new district, which requires a majority of residents in a neighborhood to opt-in because they can limit individual property rights.

No. While there has been an increase in new housing development in Richmond over the past few years, we still are well behind the demand for additional homes. Housing production in Virginia has not kept pace with population growth since before the Great Recession, even as shrinking family sizes demand more housing per person. Richmond currently has a shortage of nearly 18,000 rental homes, far exceeding the 7,200 new multifamily units permitted since 2020-2024. Additionally, nearly 15,000 new residents have moved into Richmond since 2020, increasing demand for new and existing housing. Apartment vacancy rates also remain low, dropping by 3% in the past year.

People will have the opportunity to drive less and drive fewer miles if we build more homes close to jobs.

Development patterns shaped by our zoning contribute to car dependency and increased traffic by putting homes far away from where people work, go to school, and get groceries. In other words, every person who can walk, bike, or take the bus to work means one less car on the road during rush hour. The EPA found that infill development reduces traffic congestion and car emissions, and studies indicate increased proximity often results in a decrease in traffic. 

For neighborhoods that were built before cars became widespread, permitted parking may be needed if demand for street parking increases. But more dense housing may require less parking than one might expect. Residents of multifamily buildings tend to drive less and require fewer cars per occupant compared to single-family households. One-car households are also becoming increasingly common, and research shows that when parking becomes more restricted or expensive, it encourages people to drive less and take public transit instead.

The city is also making significant investments in expanding public transit, which is key to reducing congestion and easing parking challenges long-term. Richmond buses are fare-free, and the Pulse bus line has been so successful that the city is introducing accordion buses to accommodate more riders. Planning for a new North-South Pulse is also well under way, with construction expected to be completed in 2031.

Creating a more dense, walkable and interconnected city is one of the biggest steps Richmond can take to fight climate change. Research from UC Berkeley has found that population-dense areas contribute significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than suburban areas. Larger detached single-family homes are among the largest contributors of residential building greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. And multi-family homes use significantly less energy over time compared to detached single-family homes.

The second draft of Code Refresh introduced tree canopy standards that our current zoning does not have. To the extent permitted by state law, these would require a percentage of trees on a lot to be maintained or replaced if they are cut down during construction. Environmental advocates understand that stewardship of our environment and building homes are compatible goals that must go hand-in-hand. 

Yes. The city’s population is currently lower and less dense than its peak in the 1970s, so we have room to grow. Department of Public Utilities Director Scott Morris has stated that the city can handle denser development, and the zoning recommendations outlined in Richmond 300 were vetted and approved by the utilities and public works departments. For projects that require some type of upgrade – such as a pipeline expansion – those needs will be identified during the permitting process, and the cost will be borne by the developer. Studies have shown that not only are infrastructure costs lower for apartments than standalone houses, but denser urban development reduces per-unit costs overall, lowering infrastructure costs for local governments.

However, it is true that our water infrastructure is old, and needs to be maintained and replaced over time. The Richmond water crisis in January 2025 underscored the need to improve the city's water and wastewater infrastructure. The city has estimated this will require an investment of $1.3 billion over 10 years. Mayor Avula has approached the state for $80 million total for fiscal years 2027-2028 to begin making improvements. As of February 2026, the General Assembly has committed $50 million in the state budget for improvements to Richmond’s sewage infrastructure, with an additional $20 million allocated for water infrastructure in the Senate budget.

While the City must prioritize infrastructure investments to support the well-being and health of residents, there is not adequate evidence to suggest that additional and incremental housing density will lead to system failures.

Absolutely, housing is a regional issue. Two of the localities bordering Richmond have already overhauled their own ordinances with the goal of modernizing their zoning and making it easier to build housing. Henrico completed a comprehensive zoning ordinance update in 2021, and Chesterfield County followed in September 2025 when it adopted ZoMod, a rewrite that lowered barriers to building multifamily housing and homes on smaller lots. Henrico also established a $60 million affordable housing trust fund in 2024 and adopted a 5-year affordable housing plan the following year aimed at preserving and rehabilitating existing units of affordable housing and providing down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers. Every locality must do its part to contribute to solving the housing crisis, including Richmond.