In 2022, Richmond City Council adopted ONE Richmond: An Equitable Affordable Housing Action Plan, which calls for zoning reform to expand housing supply citywide. The plan explicitly directs the City to amend the zoning ordinance to allow accessory dwelling units and two- and three-family homes by right in all residential districts. Additionally, it emphasizes the Richmond 300 land use visions for density around transit corridors and activity nodes.

A Step Backward in Draft 2

Draft 1 of Code Refresh advanced these goals by allowing duplexes by right on every residentially zoned lot and by allowing for more buildable space for housing near transit routes and activity nodes.

Draft 2 blunts that progress by converting the second unit into a “preservation bonus,” allowing it only if the existing structure is retained. This shifts a baseline housing allowance into a harder-to-meet or, in some cases, unworkable condition, maintaining the types of arbitrary barriers ONE Richmond sought to remove.

Draft 2 also saw the watering down of allowed density along transit corridors and within select neighborhood nodes.

What ONE Richmond Requires

ONE Richmond does not condition housing allowance on preservation bonuses or discretionary thresholds. Instead, it calls for:

• By-right allowance of ADUs in all residential zoning districts
  (Executive Summary, pp. 8–9, 42)

• By-right allowance of two- and three-family dwellings in all residential zoning districts
  (pp. 8–9; reiterated on pp. 42, 46–48, 50–52)

• Zoning that enables greater density and diverse housing types along transit corridors and neighborhood nodes.
  (pp. 44, 48)

These are not pilot ideas or optional recommendations — they are adopted policy commitments rooted in Richmond 300, the city's master plan.

Our Ask

We urge the Planning Commission to request that Code Refresh:

• Restores two units by right as a baseline in residential districts

• Maintains ADUs by right on all residential parcels

• Ensures zoning near transit corridors and Richmond 300 nodes allow additional space for housing beyond the existing built context.

These policy commitments were adopted to increase housing supply, reduce displacement pressure, and align growth with transit and services. Code Refresh should implement, not skirt around them.

"We are facing an affordable housing crisis inherited from an intentionally discriminatory system that we must now be just as intentional about dismantling and replacing with a more just and equitable one. Our Equitable Affordable Housing Plan is intended to do just that."

- ONE Richmond: An Equitable Affordable Housing Action Plan

👉 Sign the petition and call for zoning that reflects ONE Richmond’s adopted housing goals.