The Diamond and nearby Sports Backers Stadium. (BizSense file image)
MLB-required upgrades to The Diamond on City Council agenda
The Richmond City Council meets Monday starting with a budget workshop at 2 p.m. and an informal session at 4 p.m. Full agendas for the meetings can be found here.
Business on the 6 p.m. regular meeting agenda includes an allocation of $3.5 million from the capital maintenance reserve fund to the current fiscal year’s capital maintenance budget for improvements to The Diamond that Major League Baseball is requiring before the start of the baseball season in April.
The required work includes repairs to the concrete stadium’s roof and supports, construction of a second batting and hitting tunnel, and renovations to both team locker rooms. MLB is requiring the upgrades despite the city’s plan to replace The Diamond with a new stadium in two years as part of its Diamond District redevelopment project.
Special-use permit approved for VUU tower signage
One of the illuminated logo signs on Virginia Union University’s Belgian Building. (File image courtesy WTVR)
At its Feb. 13 meeting, the City Council approved a special-use permit (SUP) to allow four illuminated “VUU” logo signs to remain on Virginia Union University’s campus bell tower.
The university placed the signs in 2019 without required approvals from the city, which has been looking at how to permit the signs after the fact. The signs also violated a preservation easement that VUU established in 2010 with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which is finalizing an agreement to keep the signs up while mitigating their placement on the 1930s-era tower.
The council last year granted an appeal from VUU that reversed a decision of the city’s Commission of Architectural Review and awarded a required certificate of appropriateness. The SUP was required to allow the sign’s size, which exceeds what’s allowed in institutionally zoned districts. City staff has said sign and electrical permits also need to be approved.
The agreement between VUU and DHR has yet to be signed. A proposed agreement last year included an annual payment of $35,000 that the university would be required to pay every year that the signs remain up.
Two commissioners appointed to RRHA board
Kyle Elliott
The City Council appointed Kyle Elliott and Gregory Lewis to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. Both will serve four-year terms that started in November.
Gregory Lewis
Elliott is general counsel and chief legal officer for Virginia Community Healthcare Association and previously was an assistant city attorney. Lewis is senior vice president and CFO of business affairs at VUU and is a certified public accountant.
Elliott and Lewis join a nine-member board that includes Chairman Barrett Hardiman, Vice Chairman Bill Johnson Jr., Veronica Blount, Eddie Jackson Jr., Harold Parker Jr., Charlene Pitchford and Patrice Shelton.
$14M contract for Creighton Road upgrades on Henrico agenda
A map of the planned Creighton Road improvement areas, shown in orange. (Henrico County image)
Henrico supervisors meet in regular session Tuesday at 7 p.m. Full agenda here.
Business includes award of a $14.2 million contract to Glen Allen-based Abernathy Construction Corp. for construction of the Creighton Road Improvements project. Abernathy’s bid was the lowest of three received in response to a solicitation.
The project includes a realignment of Creighton Road to include a half-mile-long, four-lane divided roadway with sidewalks on both sides and curb-and-gutter and storm drainage improvements. The project will relocate the Dabbs House Road intersection approximately 500 feet west to eliminate sharp curves in the road and improve the intersection at Sandy Lane.
Work is scheduled to begin in April and last two years. The improvements include a stretch of Creighton Road beside the closed Glenwood Golf Course, which is slated to be developed into two residential subdivisions totaling 290 homes.
Henrico proposes second consecutive 2-cent real estate tax credit
Henrico County is proposing a real estate tax credit for residential and business property owners to help offset rising real estate values and assessments. A similar credit was approved last year.
Property owners would receive an amount equal to 2 cents per $100 of their real estate’s taxable value for 2023. A single-family home with an average assessed value of $367,000 would generate a credit of just over $73. The county’s 2023 assessment notices have been mailed and the updated values are reflected online.
Property values have continued to rise across the region due to a sustained demand for and a limited supply of housing, the county said in a release. The value of Henrico’s residential tax base, excluding new construction, increased by 13.6 percent in 2022. If approved, the tax credit would return to property owners $11.2 million that otherwise would go to the county’s general fund.
The Board of Supervisors will consider the credit this spring during its review of a proposed budget for fiscal 2023-24. The budget will be formally presented March 14 and based on the existing real estate tax rate of 85 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Hanover’s proposed budget would keep real estate tax rate level, invest in school projects
Hanover County Administrator John Budesky pitched his budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 to county supervisors earlier this month.
The proposal would keep the real estate tax at its current rate of 81 cents per $100 of assessed value. The budget would also allocate funding toward the replacement of school facilities and recommends salary increases for county government and school division staff.
The recommended budget would also tee up five years of capital investments. Under the proposed budget, Hanover would replace Battlefield Park and Washington-Henry elementary schools, and renovations would be slated for Beaverdam Elementary School among other capital projects such as the replacement of three county fire stations, according to a county news release. A third elementary school would be teed up for replacement in FY28.
The budget proposal recommends a 5 percent merit raise for county government and school district employees. It also suggests funding be allocated toward market-based salary adjustments, per the release.
The general fund, which is the primary operating fund within the overall budget, for FY24 is anticipated to be $354.8 million, a 10.3 percent increase compared to the general fund of the current FY23 spending plan, according to the FY24 budget document.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to consider adoption of the FY24 budget in April. The full budget can be viewed here.
Youth soccer complex proposal advances in Chesterfield
FC Richmond’s proposed soccer complex near Moseley. (Image courtesy of Chesterfield County)
The Chesterfield Planning Commission voted last week to recommend approval of a proposal by FC Richmond to tweak its plans for a youth soccer complex in the western part of the county.
FC Richmond’s long-planned youth soccer complex is expected to break ground this year. The proposal is seeking zoning approval for changes to the project’s master plan and development standards, as well as a slight increase to the size of the project site to 84 acres.
The zoning request now goes to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors for approval.
Powhatan supervisors to get briefings on property assessments, broadband internet
The Powhatan Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet Monday. Full agenda here. On the docket is a staff presentation on real estate assessments on properties in the county as well as an update on broadband infrastructure efforts.
The Diamond and nearby Sports Backers Stadium. (BizSense file image)
MLB-required upgrades to The Diamond on City Council agenda
The Richmond City Council meets Monday starting with a budget workshop at 2 p.m. and an informal session at 4 p.m. Full agendas for the meetings can be found here.
Business on the 6 p.m. regular meeting agenda includes an allocation of $3.5 million from the capital maintenance reserve fund to the current fiscal year’s capital maintenance budget for improvements to The Diamond that Major League Baseball is requiring before the start of the baseball season in April.
The required work includes repairs to the concrete stadium’s roof and supports, construction of a second batting and hitting tunnel, and renovations to both team locker rooms. MLB is requiring the upgrades despite the city’s plan to replace The Diamond with a new stadium in two years as part of its Diamond District redevelopment project.
Special-use permit approved for VUU tower signage
One of the illuminated logo signs on Virginia Union University’s Belgian Building. (File image courtesy WTVR)
At its Feb. 13 meeting, the City Council approved a special-use permit (SUP) to allow four illuminated “VUU” logo signs to remain on Virginia Union University’s campus bell tower.
The university placed the signs in 2019 without required approvals from the city, which has been looking at how to permit the signs after the fact. The signs also violated a preservation easement that VUU established in 2010 with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, which is finalizing an agreement to keep the signs up while mitigating their placement on the 1930s-era tower.
The council last year granted an appeal from VUU that reversed a decision of the city’s Commission of Architectural Review and awarded a required certificate of appropriateness. The SUP was required to allow the sign’s size, which exceeds what’s allowed in institutionally zoned districts. City staff has said sign and electrical permits also need to be approved.
The agreement between VUU and DHR has yet to be signed. A proposed agreement last year included an annual payment of $35,000 that the university would be required to pay every year that the signs remain up.
Two commissioners appointed to RRHA board
Kyle Elliott
The City Council appointed Kyle Elliott and Gregory Lewis to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners. Both will serve four-year terms that started in November.
Gregory Lewis
Elliott is general counsel and chief legal officer for Virginia Community Healthcare Association and previously was an assistant city attorney. Lewis is senior vice president and CFO of business affairs at VUU and is a certified public accountant.
Elliott and Lewis join a nine-member board that includes Chairman Barrett Hardiman, Vice Chairman Bill Johnson Jr., Veronica Blount, Eddie Jackson Jr., Harold Parker Jr., Charlene Pitchford and Patrice Shelton.
$14M contract for Creighton Road upgrades on Henrico agenda
A map of the planned Creighton Road improvement areas, shown in orange. (Henrico County image)
Henrico supervisors meet in regular session Tuesday at 7 p.m. Full agenda here.
Business includes award of a $14.2 million contract to Glen Allen-based Abernathy Construction Corp. for construction of the Creighton Road Improvements project. Abernathy’s bid was the lowest of three received in response to a solicitation.
The project includes a realignment of Creighton Road to include a half-mile-long, four-lane divided roadway with sidewalks on both sides and curb-and-gutter and storm drainage improvements. The project will relocate the Dabbs House Road intersection approximately 500 feet west to eliminate sharp curves in the road and improve the intersection at Sandy Lane.
Work is scheduled to begin in April and last two years. The improvements include a stretch of Creighton Road beside the closed Glenwood Golf Course, which is slated to be developed into two residential subdivisions totaling 290 homes.
Henrico proposes second consecutive 2-cent real estate tax credit
Henrico County is proposing a real estate tax credit for residential and business property owners to help offset rising real estate values and assessments. A similar credit was approved last year.
Property owners would receive an amount equal to 2 cents per $100 of their real estate’s taxable value for 2023. A single-family home with an average assessed value of $367,000 would generate a credit of just over $73. The county’s 2023 assessment notices have been mailed and the updated values are reflected online.
Property values have continued to rise across the region due to a sustained demand for and a limited supply of housing, the county said in a release. The value of Henrico’s residential tax base, excluding new construction, increased by 13.6 percent in 2022. If approved, the tax credit would return to property owners $11.2 million that otherwise would go to the county’s general fund.
The Board of Supervisors will consider the credit this spring during its review of a proposed budget for fiscal 2023-24. The budget will be formally presented March 14 and based on the existing real estate tax rate of 85 cents per $100 of assessed value.
Hanover’s proposed budget would keep real estate tax rate level, invest in school projects
Hanover County Administrator John Budesky pitched his budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 to county supervisors earlier this month.
The proposal would keep the real estate tax at its current rate of 81 cents per $100 of assessed value. The budget would also allocate funding toward the replacement of school facilities and recommends salary increases for county government and school division staff.
The recommended budget would also tee up five years of capital investments. Under the proposed budget, Hanover would replace Battlefield Park and Washington-Henry elementary schools, and renovations would be slated for Beaverdam Elementary School among other capital projects such as the replacement of three county fire stations, according to a county news release. A third elementary school would be teed up for replacement in FY28.
The budget proposal recommends a 5 percent merit raise for county government and school district employees. It also suggests funding be allocated toward market-based salary adjustments, per the release.
The general fund, which is the primary operating fund within the overall budget, for FY24 is anticipated to be $354.8 million, a 10.3 percent increase compared to the general fund of the current FY23 spending plan, according to the FY24 budget document.
The Board of Supervisors is expected to consider adoption of the FY24 budget in April. The full budget can be viewed here.
Youth soccer complex proposal advances in Chesterfield
FC Richmond’s proposed soccer complex near Moseley. (Image courtesy of Chesterfield County)
The Chesterfield Planning Commission voted last week to recommend approval of a proposal by FC Richmond to tweak its plans for a youth soccer complex in the western part of the county.
FC Richmond’s long-planned youth soccer complex is expected to break ground this year. The proposal is seeking zoning approval for changes to the project’s master plan and development standards, as well as a slight increase to the size of the project site to 84 acres.
The zoning request now goes to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors for approval.
Powhatan supervisors to get briefings on property assessments, broadband internet
The Powhatan Board of Supervisors is scheduled to meet Monday. Full agenda here. On the docket is a staff presentation on real estate assessments on properties in the county as well as an update on broadband infrastructure efforts.