Henrico County’s planning staff is collecting input from residents in order to draft the county's next comprehensive plan.
Virginia law requires every locality to adopt a comprehensive plan — a guide for growth and development — and review it at least once every five years. Henrico’s most recent plan update, Vision 2026, was first adopted in 2009.
Although some citizens have criticized the county for not offering enough opportunities to contribute to the planning process, assistant planning director Jean Moore said Henrico is just getting started.
“I think the momentum is picking up,” Moore said. “This first phase has already exceeded what we saw in our last revision.”
The county launched its initial process to update the comprehensive plan, HenricoNext, in 2021, by working with Virginia Commonwealth University’s Survey & Evaluation Research Lab to conduct a countywide survey.
Researchers asked about the county’s social services strengths and weaknesses, and which areas the county should improve in order to sustain its eventual growth.
Five thousand residents — 1,000 from each district — were selected at random for the survey, but only 1,148 total submitted responses.
After the survey, Henrico was set to host a series of town hall-style meetings, but delays involving newly elected supervisors, new planning commissioners and untimely cases of COVID-19 halted the process, Moore said.
Climate justice organizations like Henrico Conservation Action Network and Mothers Out Front have pushed the county to give residents more opportunities to speak up.
“It's imperative to actively seek and engage with community voices to address inequitable vulnerabilities and formulate effective policy solutions,” said Melissa Thomas, a senior organizer with Mothers Out Front.
To address those concerns, Henrico is hosting listening sessions in each district where residents can have one-on-one interactions with county officials.
Moore said these in-person meetings are where some of the most valuable feedback comes from.
“I do think the listening session is valuable, because I think it's important for those community members to be engaged to have that dialog that may pose other questions and ideas.”
Moore said. “We’ve had two so far that have been really successful.”
Henrico has hosted listening sessions in the Fairfield and Tuckahoe districts, with around 60 attendees across the two meetings.
The remaining sessions will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the following locations:
- Monday, Aug. 12 at Tuckahoe Area Library, 1901 Starling Dr.
- Monday, Aug. 19 at Varina Area Library, 1875 New Market Rd.
- Tuesday, Aug. 20 at Twin Hickory Area Library, 5001 Twin Hickory Rd.
The county has made tools available on its website for residents who want to give feedback, including an interactive map that allows users to leave notes related to specific locations and instructional packets for community organizations to host their own meetings.
Henrico planner Rosemary Deemer told VPM News the county also reopened one of its online surveys for a limited time to ensure community members had ample time to make their thoughts known.
“It's taken us a little while to get out there with that second round of engagement, but we're started and we’re ready to get the ball rolling,” said Deemer.
County officials say the initial draft of the new plan will likely be completed in 2025.
