The mission of Maymont Community Garden, written in 2020 when the garden was founded, is: "To assist the growth of a thriving community space at Riverview Community Park, balancing the three core identities of the site as 1:Skatepark, 2:Community Garden, and 3:Play Space. Growing a community garden that supports skate-park users, playing children, the ecology and biodiversity of the site, and supports deepening interdependence between neighbors in the surrounding neighborhood, with a special focus on neighbors immediately surrounding the Park."

Maymont Community Garden’s members - more than half of the members of which are Maymont neighborhood residents - have always envisioned some form of play space as a part of Riverview Park. We worked for a full year with Urban Planner Haley Keene to create a conceptual plan for Riverview Park which included a playground. We have been involved in playground planning at every stage, meeting with Parks officials, attending community meetings and meeting in person with playground contractors. We provided feedback on the play equipment, materials and design. In late October 2024 we submitted a map to Ryan Rinn, who is leading the design effort for Parks and Rec. Ryan accepted our map, and communicated that this map would be used to guide the installation of the approved playground design.

Maymont neighborhood resident input was collected through a public survey, and demonstrated broad support for the playground.

In Spring of 2025, Maymont Community Garden relocated, at significant cost to the city, and to our small organization, the entire fenced garden to make way for construction. We lost half of a growing season in the process. Most of our volunteer time for months was required to complete this move, which was organized in part to keep the playground on high ground and away from drainage pathways.

At the Maymont Civic League meeting in September 2025, we were assured by Council Liason Amy Robins that the playground would still be built.

In October 2025, we were informed that the project will be delayed, and will have to be re-designed due to Chesapeake Bay watershed area concerns, despite previous approval through the removal of the playground parcel from the conservation easement. We were also informed that nearly ½ of the total budget was going to be spent on administrative costs.

Maymont Community Garden objects to this last-minute termination of a project that has been in the works for 10 years, which has broad public support, which has played by the rules, which is a generational investment in a formerly redlined, working-class neighborhood, and which is on the cusp of completion.

We request that the project move ahead as planned, as approved by UDC, and as designed with our input and our neighbors’ input. We also request that the budget be used more efficiently, with more of the total budget allocated to playground construction.

We believe there's room in the park for everybody, and that there's room for very different communities to do very different things right next to each other. This is the promise of the city and of urbanism, that we can all coexist in close proximity, and that we all benefit from the cross-pollination of difference coexisting so close. We believe in the city.

Sincerely,

Barry O'Keefe, and Maymont Community Garden organizers

Chris Burke, and Richmond Area Skate Alliance organizers