Empowered by a new state law, the Richmond City Council expanded where speed cameras can be put in the city.
The vote during Monday’s meeting permits the city’s police department to install cameras at high-risk intersections — based on a law passed in 2024 that gave localities the authority.
The criteria for these areas:
- a highway not more than 1,000 feet from school property that's part of or adjacent to an intersection containing a marked crosswalk
- the site of a traffic fatality since Jan. 1, 2014
Drivers can be fined $50 if caught going at least 11 miles per hour above the posted speed limit by the cameras. Any additional violations after the first 30 days comes with a $100 fine.
Funds from speed camera fines first go toward maintaining the city’s enforcement program and then for implementing efforts to bolster roadway safety in Richmond.
The speed camera proposal was one of the items on the council’s consent agenda Monday, which was approved unanimously.
Among the other proposals, the city council accepted nearly $2.4 million from the Virginia Resources Authority to fund the private customer portion of full lead service line replacements, as well as a $2.6 million agreement with VRA to pay for the city’s portion.
Richmond’s water treatment plant supplies drinking water to the city and portions of Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield counties. A preliminary inventory from the city’s Department of Utilities indicates that pipe material on over 57,000 service lines is considered “unknown,” per city documents.
The money will speed up Richmond’s lead service line replacement “by allowing for a more targeted approach to prioritize replacements by geographic areas and vulnerable populations,” according to city documents.
Funding will also allow the city to further develop an interactive service line inventory map that will be updated and resubmitted to the Virginia Department of Health each year “until all water service lines are classified as non-lead,” city documents say.
According to city documents, the money to replace the city’s portion is a 1% loan over 20 years and the private portion is “provided as 100% principal forgiveness or grant funds.”
The council also voted to transfer $500,000 from the city’s reserves to the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society for overseeing Richmond’s Right-to-Counsel for Evictions Program. Marty Wegbreit, CVLAS' former director of litigation, praised the city’s effort to ensure tenants facing evictions have attorneys.
Council approved an ordinance to allow the city to finalize a grant agreement with 2811 Rady LLC, to build an affordable housing development at 2811 Rady St. According to the ordinance, grant payments will be limited to incremental real estate tax revenues the project generates, and the development must have occupancy and rents at 60% of area median income for 30 years.
Council also signed off on a resolution from Mayor Danny Avula’s administration, allowing the city to seek federal money — and commit to matching 20% of the funds — to replace the Mayo Bridge.