The Agenda: Local government briefs for 5.12.25

Mayor Danny Avula presenting the proposed budget to City Council earlier this year. (Screenshot)

Final public hearing on FY26 budget plan on City Council agenda Monday

Richmond City Council will hold a final public hearing and is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 at its regular meeting Monday at 6 p.m.

The budget proposal includes council’s amendments to Mayor Danny Avula’s $3 billion spending plan, which would keep real estate taxes at $1.20 per $100 of assessed value and includes a $1.05 billion general fund, a 5.5% increase over the current general fund.

The budget would raise salaries for eligible general employees by 3.25% or more, and city funding for Richmond Public Schools would increase by $9.6 million to nearly $249 million, a 4% year-to-year increase. The full budget proposal can be viewed on the city’s website.

Also on the regular agenda is a special-use request deferred from last month for a four-story commercial building planned to replace the Westhampton Pastry Shop building at 5728 Patterson Ave.

Business on the consent agenda includes a special-use request from developer Cory Weiner for an upstairs business space and ground-floor restaurant with outdoor dining at 2930 North Ave. Nearby restaurant The Smoky Mug plans to move to the building. An adjacent parking area would be used for the outdoor dining.

The full agenda for the meeting can be found here.

$370M St. Mary’s Hospital expansion on Henrico supervisors agenda

A rendering of the new critical care tower planned at St. Mary’s Hospital. (Courtesy Bon Secours)

Henrico supervisors meet in regular session Tuesday at 6 p.m. Full agenda here.

On the agenda is Bon Secours’ plan for a $370 million expansion of St. Mary’s Hospital. The project would include a new six-level structure with a helipad atop it, renovations of existing facilities and other projects on the campus off Monument Avenue.

Public hearing Thursday on White Oak overlay district, data center guidelines

Henrico supervisors will hold a joint meeting and public hearing with the Planning Commission on Thursday at 5 p.m. at the Highland Springs High School auditorium.

The hearing is on a comprehensive plan amendment for a proposed special focus area and data center development objectives and guidelines for Technology Boulevard in White Oak Technology Park, where an overlay district also is proposed. More info on the proposals is available here.

The Planning Commission will then continue with its regular monthly meeting at 6 p.m. Business includes a rezoning request from Godsey Properties for a 140-home subdivision off Creighton Road. The 52 acres are at the northern terminus of Westover Avenue and the eastern terminus of Waving Meadow Road.

Godsey also is seeking rezoning to allow 99 townhomes where it had originally planned 41 single-family homes on about 15 acres within its 150-acre Landmark development near Sandston. The section is on the east side of Dry Bridge Road between Landmark’s developed sections and Old Williamsburg Road.

Goochland Planning Commission to consider Highland subdivision plan

Markel | Eagle Partners is proposing a new Goochland development. (Courtesy Goochland County)

Markel | Eagle Partners’ plan for a 138-home subdivision at 2106 and 2114 Rockville Road is scheduled to go before the Goochland County Planning Commission on Thursday.

The Henrico-based company is seeking to rezone the 138.5-acre site southwest of Rockville Road and Interstate 64 from agricultural use to a “residential, planned unit development” designation. The land is currently undeveloped.

Called “Highfield,” the development would consist of single-family detached homes, with a density coming out to around one house per acre. No building permit for the homes would be sought until 2027, Markel | Eagle said in the rezoning application.

Markel | Eagle was previously scheduled to present the rezoning request to the commission on March 20. It requested a 30-day deferral due to some outstanding questions in the county staff report, and county staff requested another 30-day deferral to look over any changes made to the application prior to the rezoning request.

Goochland residents have previously raised concerns about the project, in part due to the site’s location along the busy Rockville Road.

Chesterfield recreation center renamed to honor supervisor Holland

Supervisor Jim Holland shares remarks during the ceremony to dedicate in his honor the former Beulah Recreation Center. (Courtesy Chesterfield County)

Nearly two years after a recreation center opened in Chesterfield, the facility has been renamed for the county supervisor who pushed for its creation.

Chesterfield officials dedicated the James M. Holland Recreation Complex at Beulah in a ceremony last week. The community center at 6901 Hopkins Road, formerly known as the Beulah Recreation Center, and the adjacent park that’s under construction were renamed for Supervisor Jim Holland.

The move came almost two years after the recreation center officially opened in 2023. The facility was formerly Beulah Elementary School, which reopened in a new location in 2018.

The rec center was renamed for Holland because, after the school division decided it no longer had a use for the facility, he “convinced his fellow supervisors that the county should make needed improvements and convert it into a community gathering place,” according to a Chesterfield news release.

The center offers programming for children and adults, including fitness classes, therapeutic recreation programs and an open gym. The center is also the parks and recreation department’s administrative headquarters, according to the county’s website.

Holland represents the Dale District and was first elected to the Board of Supervisors in 2007. He’s among Chesterfield’s longest-serving supervisors, and was reelected to his fifth four-year term in 2023. Holland has served as the board’s chairman several times, most recently in 2024.

Zoning for new elementary school in Hanover under review

The replacement Washington-Henry Elementary School would be built next to the existing school, which would then be demolished to make way for parking and recreational facilities. (County documents)

Hanover’s plans to build a replacement elementary school are coming before the county’s Planning Commission this week.

Hanover Public Schools is seeking zoning approval to permit construction of a replacement Washington-Henry Elementary School on the same site as the existing facility at 9025 Washington Henry Drive.

The new school would have space for 550 students, an increase over the existing school’s capacity of nearly 380 students. Currently, 360 students are enrolled at the school, according to a staff report.

The school division’s request is for permission to amend the conditional-use permit that the site is subject to. The project would involve the construction of the new school on the 24-acre property as the first phase. The second phase would see the demolition of the existing school and construction of parking and recreational facilities in its place.

The new Washington-Henry school is slated to open for the 2027-28 academic year.

The commission is slated to vote on whether to recommend approval of the zoning request tied to the project. The Hanover Board of Supervisors would provide final approval at a future meeting.

The full agenda of the commission’s meeting schedule for Thursday can be viewed here.

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