RICHMOND, Va. — A coalition of housing nonprofits led by Housing Opportunities Made Equal held a news conference Tuesday to advocate for allowing more duplexes to be built to help address Richmond's housing crisis.
Richmond is updating its zoning regulations to create more living options for low- and middle-income residents through a process called Code Refresh.
The current draft of the plan would allow duplexes to be built on single-family lots, but only with a special permit. Advocates say this is a costly and time-consuming process.
The original Code Refresh draft would have allowed such construction up to a certain size.
Instead, the second draft offers a "preservation bonus," which only allows for a second dwelling behind the home if the original building is preserved.
Housing advocates say that is no way to significantly increase affordable housing.
"I like to see more people become homeowners, especially affordable homes. I know myself firsthand, renting out town homes and apartments. It just gets high and high, and eventually it gets unaffordable. So I would like to see more, especially single parents purchasing homes that they can afford, where they have money left over to buy groceries, to do things with their children that they ordinarily wouldn't do," Cassandra Harris, a Habitat for Humanity new homeowner, said.
While the comment period for the second draft of Code Refresh has closed, the public can offer thoughts on the plan at the Zoning Advisory Council's meeting next Wednesday, April 8, between four and 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
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