Volunteers gathered in on Sunday to help clear vegetation for the proposed Bensley Agrihood in Chesterfield County.
According to the Urban Land Institute, agrihoods are “single-family, multifamily, or mixed-use communities built with a working farm or community garden as a focus.”
Duron Chavis works with the nonprofit Happily Natural Day, and says the project can help meet multiple community needs.
“Nutrition education, affordable housing… access to healthy food, climate resiliency - like all of those things can happen at once,” Chavis said.
The development would sit on a little more than seven acres of land and include 10 single family homes affordable at 80% of the area median income. According to HousingForward Virginia, 80% of the AMI in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area is $64,450 for a household of two.
As its name suggests, the agrihood would include a greenspace for farming or gardening, split up into four plots to be managed by farmers. Residents of the agrihood would be involved in a cropshare program, giving them access to food from the farm plots and others managed under the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons.
One goal is to “create homeownership and wealth building opportunities for Black women,” according to a story map on the Bensley project.
Chavis said the plots are best suited for new farmers who want to learn the trade at a small scale - but they’ll also be open to experienced farmers who work on a plot that they don’t own or have long-term access to through a tenure agreement.
“We can give them three to five years to really boost their ability to get their own land,” Chavis said.
Black ownership of agricultural land collapsed during the 20th century - Black farmers lost 90% of their land by acreage. Governments and institutions contributed to this by utilizing discriminatory lending and credit practices, blocking Black farmers from federal support and failing or refusing to stop racial violence.
The agrihood would also include a wellness center, which Chavis said would offer classes on farming and creating value-added products with the produce from the greenspace.
Girls for a Change and Maggie Walker Community Land Trust are also working on the Bensley Agrihood.
The project requires rezoning and a conditional use permit from Chesterfield County. Three hearings on the project have been delayed since January.
“There was a procedural issue as it relates to the advertising and a change that we had all anticipated making in the case during the public hearing process and at the advice of council… we needed to make sure the case was advertised correctly,” said Bermuda District Planning Commissioner Gib Sloan during the commission’s April 16 meeting.
Sloan continued: “unless something unexpected comes up, we expect to run this one up the flagpole next month.”
County officials did not reply to a request for comment by publication time. The next meeting of the Planning Commission is scheduled for May 21.
