Mayo Island conservation easement approved by city council

An overhead view of Mayo Island. (Images courtesy city documents)

Mayo Island’s transition into a city park took a step forward earlier this week. 

Richmond City Council voted Monday to approve a conservation easement for the James River island at 501 S. 14th St.

The easement prohibits the city-owned 15-acre landmass from ever being developed, and its approval allows the city to recoup $9 million in state grants to put toward the island’s conversion into a public park within the James River Park System. 

Parker Agelasto, executive director of the Capital Region Land Conservancy, the local nonprofit that will hold the easement with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, said that once the deed of easement is recorded in the city records next month, “the island is permanently protected.”

“Getting council approval was pretty important. Now the easement will be able to be signed and recorded, and once it’s recorded, that’s when the permanent protections of the island go into effect,” Agelasto said. “It took a lot to get to this point.”

Under the easement, Mayo Island Park will always have to be made available to the public and can house only those structures that “support or enhance educational, scientific, or recreational activities.” 

The exact design of Mayo Island Park is still being finalized. In the spring the city’s Urban Design Committee approved preliminary plans for the park that include a trail network, boat launches, fishing nodes and a roughly 50-spot parking lot. 

The city is aiming to have the park open by the fall of 2026. 

“I think once people get out there and start to see it and experience it, I think they’re going to really begin to see the huge value of it,” Agelasto said. 

The easement’s approval also clears the way for the demolition of a pair of brick buildings and the parking lots on the east side of the island, which Agelasto said he anticipates will be completed by the end of this year.

Most of the rubble will be cleared, but some asphalt will remain temporarily as a staging area for construction of the new Mayo Bridge, which itself is a major project currently being planned. 

Though the city owns the majority of Mayo Island, one small piece of it remains privately owned. 

Louis Heindl has owned a quarter-acre lot on the island since the 1970s. He put the property up for sale last year, not long after the city bought the bulk island for $15 million.

Reached this week, Heindl said his lot is still for sale and he hasn’t heard anything from the city. A 1,300-square-foot building is on Heindl’s property, which he previously used as a food truck court. In years past he ran his concrete business out of the building before leasing it to Reynolds Metals and Wise Recycling, the latter of which operated there for decades. 

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