Here’s a recap of the top stories for the week of November 21, 2025:
Richmond officials release revamped zoning and road improvement drafts
Reported by BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers
Maps containing Richmond released maps related to its’s Code Refresh programzoning ordinance were released on Tuesday, as the two-year process tof rewritinge the city’s existing zoning ordinances continues.
Most of the city’s existing zoning code dates to the mid-1970s. The rewrite is meant to clean up and consolidate the city’s existing zoning districts and create new ones that help guide growth in accordance with the Richmond 300 master plan adopted in 2020.
Officials began the initiative as a means to improve safety and infrastructure throughout the city by creating new zoning districts, land designations and revised mapping.
The rewrite could also clean up and consolidate the city’s existing 30 zoning districts, the bulk of which dates to the mid-1970s.
Officials also held a design hearing at Main Street Station on its Shockoe Valley Streets Improvement Project, another yearslong effort aimed at improving roadways near the Oliver Hill Way area.
The Code Refresh with the goals outlined in the Richmond 300, the 20-year master plan adopted in 2020 that recommends future land use in the city through 2037.
The latest draft can be viewed on the city website’s Code Refresh page. The public is encouraged to review both plans and provide feedback online.
Henrico County petitions courts to reverse state racing commission decision
Reported by BizSense’s Jonathan Spiers
Henrico County has filed a lawsuit challenging the Virginia Racing Commission‘s decision to grant a gaming license to the Roseshire gaming parlor.
The county, assertings that the commission exceeded its legal authority when it approved the license in September.
The county also’s complaint further argues that the license approval improperly relied on a decades-old referendum that approved only off-track betting on horse races — not the slot-machine-style terminals present at Roseshire.
Henrico contends that the facility’s terminals are akin to slot machines and thus fall outside the parameters of the referendum that originally permitted only traditional off-track horse‐betting parlors.
Tensions between the county and the Roseshire’s operator, Kentucky-based gaming company Churchill Downs, hasve been brewing over the last few months, with bothas local residents and elected officials have expressed feeling sidelined inthroughout the project’s approval process.
The county asserts the company circumvented the appropriate local process that would have allowed for public comment and community input. The Roseshire location opened for customers at the end of September in the Staples Mill Shopping Center in Henrico.
The county had attempted to stop the opening via the commission but was unsuccessful and now asks the courts to declare the commission’s licensing decision null and void.
The Virginia Home breaks ground on improved living facility in Hanover County
Reported by BizSense’s Jackie DiBartolomeo
The Virginia Home, a local nonprofit that provides housing and community services for people living with physical disabilities, held a ceremonial groundbreaking for a newits multimillion– dollar facility to be built near the intersection of Pole Green and Bell Creek roads in Hanover County.Project costs will cost around $128 million and construction may be complete in late 2027.
The anticipated 196,000-square-foot complex will replace tThe Virginia Home’s existing six-story headquarters nearlocated around Byrd Park in Richmond, where it has been located for nearly a century. It will also increase the facility’s capacity from 130 beds to 160 beds, while shrinking to one story to make movement and access easier for residents.
The project is slated to cost around $128 million, and construction could be complete in late 2027.
The Virginia Home’s new facility will also increase its 130-bed capacity to 160-beds as well as offer increased room sizes, wider hallways, and reduce the nonprofit’s multistory home to just one-story allowing easy access for its residents and caregivers.
With the added capacity, the nonprofit will also launch a 60-person day program for those who are disabled and want to participate in the social recreational activities offered by Virginia Home.
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