Good afternoon, everyone.

The code refresh work session for the Richmond City Council will now come to order.

And if we can have the chamber emergency evacuation plan announcement, followed by the provision of the general procedures for today's work session will get underway, Ms.

Reed.

Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the north or south stairwells outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Do not use elevators or escalators after exiting the building.

Security will direct everyone down 9th Street to the fenced area located between Clay and Lee Streets.

Able persons should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building.

And Madam President, for the record, all members of council are present this afternoon with the exception of counselors Breton and Abu Bakr.

You do have a quorum.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Clore.

Council Chief of Staff RJ Warren, if you would come forward to provide general info regarding procedures for today's work session.

Yes, may it please the council, uh, city administration and the mayor's office have requested this work session to present you all information on code refresh and the update and the work being done to update the city's zoning ordinance.

Uh we will start off with the administration uh presenting in full, followed by which we will have two rounds of remarks, five minutes per council member per round.

So you'll have similar as we did the budget work sessions.

So you'll have a total of 10 minutes.

Uh use that time as you see fit for questions, perspectives, or you may reserve your remarks.

We will adjourn after the second round, and there is no public comment at this meeting today.

This is a work session between council and city administration.

Any follow-up questions, including those you didn't have time to raise during the first two rounds, may be directed at me.

I'll forward them to city administration.

Council staff will compile all questions and responses from today and any follow-up after this meeting, and we will provide those to members and the public, and I will work to get those posted online for everyone to see.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Warren.

At this time, I'll invite Dr.

Vonk up to begin in terms of the presentation.

Thank you.

Kevin J.

Bonk, Director of Planning and Development and Review.

Um, here to work with you this afternoon, and appreciate uh covering out some time to be able to do this.

So, purpose and objectives.

Uh, we've been at this two years working on an update of our zoning ordinance.

Uh what we'd like to do, uh we are uh in the process of moving from draft two to draft three of the code.

Uh, we've done a lot of engagement, and we thought it would be appropriate to engage uh with the elected and appointed bodies.

So today uh working with city council, tomorrow working with Planning Commission, and on Wednesday, working with the zoning advisory committee to really get in uh to some specific questions uh that we'll talk about today, uh, and really get an understanding of what is needed in terms of additional information uh to help you as a body make good decisions as we move forward on this process.

Uh I want to to frame today's discussion and all right.

All right, we exited the matrix.

All right, uh, and and framing some discussion to uh provide some feedback to us uh so that we can work on incorporating uh additional changes into draft three or providing information that would be helpful in terms of making decision uh on on draft three.

And again, I wanted to frame uh today's discussion, and I've said before, there's no right answers, there's no wrong answers.

We're looking to get towards some answers of what we'll be putting together in our final code.

Um, I have lost the ability to navigate on this.

Alright, great.

So, why code refresh?

Our 50-year old zoning code does not align with our master plan.

Uh Richmond 300, a document many of you and the community is very familiar with.

It does not align with our goals for housing choice, neighborhood walkability, economic vitality, and climate resilience.

So we need a new zoning code that helps us or allows us more residents to build the type of housing units that fits their needs.

It allows for greater mixing of uses at the proper scale and in the proper places.

It facilitates new development that complements our most significant cultural, historic, and natural assets, and it simplifies standards and procedures.

How does code refresh align with Richmond 300?

This is a super important question because I think ultimately, right, Richmond 300 says who we want to be as a city, and it told us to make some big moves in it.

And the first one is to rewrite the zoning code.

And so it's very important and actually legally required that the zoning ordinance help implement that master plan.

And so when it comes to the zoning code, in particular, it talks about three things.

One, equity, expanding opportunities for all Richmonders.

Talks about sustainability, and so whether that be transportation or energy production or protection of the environment, and it talks about beauty.

Richmond is a very special place, it's very unique, and the goal is to be able to again conserve, maintain, preserve what we have moving forward.