A sign of the times—and Richmond's zoning fight—on East Broad Street

By any credible metric I’ve seen, Richmond needs more housing. Most people seem to agree. But opinions differ wildly on how to address this shortfall, as the heated debate over the city’s ongoing “Code Refresh” process has demonstrated over the course of the past year. Mayor Danny Avula recently announced that the city would extend the deadline for public comments on the second version of that document to March 1st, citing complications from January’s winter storm.

For the past month, Avula’s visage has been making another announcement to motorists and pedestrians traveling East Broad Street between Shockoe Bottom and Church Hill. Next to the mayor’s headshot, a sign on a vacant lot on the 1900 block of the thoroughfare blares (all [sic]):

Below it, another sign reads “all new MX zones,” a reference to the mixed-use designation in the city’s proposed rezoning scheme. “call your broker,” it advises cryptically.

I first learned of this sign—an oddly shaped custom plywood job—in a January 21st email from an unfamiliar address that contained a photo of it, and nothing else. Earlier that month, The Richmonder’s Sarah Vogelsong had reported that the Richmond Civic League (RCL) had bought 14 actual billboards all over the city opposing the code refresh. One of the group’s concerns, according to its chair, former city councilmember Marty Jewell, was that the code refresh would allow “unlimited rooming houses with unlimited numbers of unrelated persons, all over the city.” (This is not true; more below.)

The homemade sign on E. Broad St. bore some resemblance to those billboards, especially with its odd syntax and font/color choices. But the sender—who later identified himself as Bill Laffoon, an architect who lives in Ginter Park—told The Lookout that he’s not a member of the RCL. He just supports their efforts, and decided to use the vacant lot he owns at 1906 E. Broad St. to advertise his own opposition to the code refresh.

“[D]o you know what your zoning designation will be with code refresh?” he emailed me in response to my follow-up on his photo. “[W]hat about the neighborhood zoning designations, what does the neighborhood? [Okay] with rooming houses in MX zones?”

The notion that making allowances for “group living” building usage in some parts of the city will lead to seedy flophouses on every block is well-trod criticism of both Richmond’s proposed redraft, and housing-oriented rezoning efforts across the country. To Joseph Carlisle, co-lead of housing advocacy group RVA YIMBY (“yes in my backyard,” a counter to anti-growth “not in my backyard” activists), it’s a bad-faith argument that smacks of classism. “Every neighborhood in our city should help house people in need,” he told The Lookout in a recent text exchange. “A neighborhood’s affluence shouldn’t designate where the other people can live.”

Though the city’s proposal does not allow group-living usage by-right—i.e., at the property owner’s discretion—in residential zones, it is permitted by-right “group living” usage to MX zones. As currently drafted, the East End would get ~120 such parcels along the Jefferson Ave./N. 25th St./Nine Mile Rd. corridor, as well as a few clusters near commercial properties. (The northerly block of Oakwood Ave. near James L. Christian, Jr. Park that Taco Vegana calls home, for example.) That doesn’t mean that those parcels would immediately be converted to “group living,” a designation that includes senior housing, co-living, and, yes, even sober homes. Or that they ever would. It only means that it would be up to the property’s owner what to do with it.

To critics like Laffoon, that potential latitude is just one affront among many in the code refresh. Similar to Jewell, the objections he relayed to me center around a premise that the code refresh will change the nature of Richmond to the detriment of current residents—and maybe worse, to the benefit of real-estate developers. “[W]hile the city says it is about affordable housing, equity, sustainability, carbon footprint, greenspace, and all the other trending buzzwords, forget it,” he told me. “[T]his is about money.”

It’s probably true that real-estate developers would gain financially if Richmond adopted a less-restrictive zoning code. Whether that’s a valid argument against doing it really depends on how much you hate real-estate developers. But in principle, if there are more opportunities to build houses, the people who make money building houses are in line to make more money. Sure. But it’s also probably true that if the city doesn’t move aggressively to modernize its code—which, Carlisle notes, has remained more or less the same for half a century—it will lose out.

I’m not just talking about financial loss, though that’s certainly part of it. After all, property taxes are the city’s biggest and most important revenue stream, and underdeveloped property (vacant lots, for example) means an underdeveloped tax base. But there are also social and cultural losses at stake. The breadth, depth, and availability of housing in Richmond dictates, to no small extent, the types of people that can afford to live here. It’s The Lookout’s considered editorial opinion that Richmond in general and the East End in particular should be home to as many creative, offbeat, down-to-earth residents as possible. A vibrant urban community is made up of people from all walks, and crucially, places they can reliably cover a rent or mortgage. Make no mistake, there’s room for them. Data from the Federal Reserve Economic Database puts Richmond’s population in 1970 at 249,431, nearly 15,000 residents more than our current headcount.

In other words, the limit isn’t space; it’s political will. Or, to borrow Laffoon’s interrogative style: Okay with change, Richmond? We’ll find out soon enough.

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

❄️ DPW issued few warnings for unshoveled East End sidewalks

A couple weeks after Richmond’s Department of Public Works gave The Lookout a no-comment regarding the number of citations it had issued for uncleared sidewalks throughout the city, Samuel B. Parker at the Richmond Times-Dispatch got us a little closer to an answer with a report this morning. Via public-records request, he found that DPW’s Community Enhancement Team sent 310 warnings to occupants and property owners citywide. According to the city’s official data, there are 76,808 individual parcels in Richmond, meaning less than half of one percent (0.403%) of them received warnings, despite widespread shovel-shirking. That’s an anemic rate of quasi-enforcement on pedestrian infrastructure maintenance by DPW—especially given that these letters were just warnings about fines, not actual fines.

“Officials were not immediately able to answer questions as to how many of the notices eventually translated to fine collection or sidewalk treatment on the part of the city,” Parker reported. If I was a betting man, I would take the under.

Parker’s findings include just 42 letters sent to addresses in the East End, with 38 of them concentrated in a single subdivision in Fulton Hill. In Church Hill proper, Parker’s map initially appeared to show that Grisette received a letter, which struck me as odd, because I observed firsthand that the restaurant did its civic duty in last month’s storm. Further, Grisette owner Donnie Glass confirmed to The Lookout that the restaurant had received no such letter from DPW.

A closer review reveals this to be an error in the city’s dataset—albeit a very funny one. Grisette’s street number on E. Marshall St. is 3119, but the address on the pin that tags the restaurant on Parker’s map reads “529 Frite St.” There is no Frite St. in Richmond, but it appears eight times in the dataset Parker obtained from DPW, which he showed me. There is a Fritz St. in North Side; DPW appears to have made, then replicated, this typo in its spreadsheet eight times. Why Google Maps would assign a pin for a North Side address to a Church Hill restaurant? When you plug “529 Frite St.” into a standard Google search, it pulls up a map result for the Grisette—possibly because the restaurant’s reviews on the platform contain many reviews for its beloved steak frites.

🤦🏻‍♂️ “ICE-Free Communities Act” was just an act

With the General Assembly back in session, Virginia’s GOP lawmakers have been trying to find ways to signal support for the Trump administration from the minority without tying themselves too closely to the historically unpopular president or his deeply unpopular mass-deportation doctrine. This delicate dance demands mealy-mouthed messaging bills and a pliant media. And lo! Wouldn’t you know it:

As a reminder, The Lookout’s standard coverage will always be free, but bonus features like this one, Mad Enough to Blog It™️, are exclusively for paying subscribers. Thanks to everybody who has purchased a subscription so far!

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• Dead serious: Dead People’s Stuff is bringing its popular vintage market back to Triple Crossing Fulton Saturday (2/21) and Sunday (2/22), indoors and outdoors from 12-5pm both days. Peep the flyer.

• Cozy up: Keep Virginia Cozy is hosting a Montrose Heights trash pick-up on Sunday at 12pm. More info here.

• Mahj-or news: RichMahj is hosting a day of beginner mahjong lessons at Coflow on Sunday at 2pm. Tickets are available now and include “sips and snacks.” More info. 

• It’s gonna be Chile: Actually, Blue Atlas is going to be Chilean on Wednesday evening (2/25), when it hosts a five-course wine dinner with Viňa Siegel. Info and tickets here.

• District-ly speaking: There may be a 7th District Community meeting on Thursday (2/26) from 6-7pm at 2500 Nine Mile Rd. No link, but it’s on the CHA’s calendar, so.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.

1  Correction 2/21/26: A previous version of this edition misstated the surname of Grisette’s owner. It is Glass. The Lookout regrets the error.