After nearly five years of development, the Henrico County Board of Supervisors approved the county’s 2045 comprehensive plan Tuesday, along with several amendments to the long-term land use document.
However, some residents still carry some concerns over details of the planning guide.
Community activist Aileen Rivera asked the board to delay the plan’s approval so that residents have additional time to review the document and have their voices heard.
“Residents have repeatedly asked the county to postpone the vote on the comprehensive plan until September to allow more time for public review and participation,” Rivera wrote to the board. “Instead, the final draft is moving forward on an accelerated timeline.”
Rivera urged a delay, saying future amendments to the plan would “receive far less public attention, limiting opportunities for meaningful community input.” But Varina Supervisor Tyrone Nelson stood by the county’s process.
“I feel pretty confident in the five-year discussion we started,” Nelson said. “We’ve had several public meetings about this, and I really feel like the misnomer we are rushing, I don’t fully understand.”
During a presentation to the board Tuesday, county staff provided more insight into their public engagement process.
Development of the 2045 HenricoNEXT comprehensive plan began in 2020, but was initially delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. County Planner Rosemary Deemer told VPM News that by July 2026, the county reached around 9,000 residents through survey, 1,950 people through community visioning exercises and 270 during listening sessions held in 2024.
County staff also hosted 14 information sessions, sent out over 7,500 emails, and sent mail to close to 209,000 households and companies as the plan reached its final stage, according to Deemer.
Through the public engagement process, residents emphasized their desire for safer, well-connected infrastructure; a commitment to environmental stewardship; and a strategy for sustainable growth throughout the county.
The comprehensive plan — a document localities use to guide their development and building processes — outlines these priorities, identifying key corridors and roadways for improvements. It references several secondary guides with specific design guidance for developers in areas like Best Products Reimagined — a 320-acre site anchored by the now-demolished Best Products property and the nearby Brook Road corridor.
Early iterations of the comprehensive plan also included an overlay guide for the Lakeside Avenue corridor, but that addition was removed on Tuesday in response to concerns by residents.
Henrico Planning Director Joe Emerson told VPM News that more of residents’ concerns became clear as the process bore out.
“The primary pushback, or the primary concern raised, really was the change in the zoning districts,” Emerson said. “I’m not surprised at all to have to have heard from those individuals that are residing in our own impacted properties.”
Two major points of contention were the county’s plan for a land designation in Henrico that would limit the intensity of developments in rural parts of the county, and its commitment to an environmental justice strategy.
The Prime Agricultural and Rural Conservation land-use plan aims to balance county growth by discouraging expansions of commercial developments, increasing residential lot acreage and encouraging private conservation of land.
“The idea is to try to preserve some area of the county where we don’t have any real plans to extend water, sewer and things like that into that area,” Emerson said.
Under the proposal, the county would introduce an additional zoning classification for agricultural land that would severely limit the amount of housing density in some areas. The proposed A2 zoning classification would maintain a lower-density rural character in specific parts of the county by raising the minimum lot standards for housing developments from one unit per acre of land to one unit per five acres.
Residents raised concerns that the new zoning could devalue their properties. After receiving feedback, Henrico’s planning commission recommended at its July 9 meeting that the A2 zoning measure be removed from the comprehensive plan for further study, a recommendation the board followed.
Supervisors also reaffirmed their commitment to residents to provide a tangible environmental justice strategy guide. They approved a measure to assemble a study and report that will outline the county’s identification of environmental justice and fenceline communities, as well as objectives and policies connected to environmental stewardship.
Henrico’s environmental justice strategy must be completed and made available to the planning commission and public within 12 months of hiring a consultant to perform the work. County staff will also prepare a long-term public utilities and services plan examining Henrico’s long-term water usage needs in the coming months.
Three Chopt Supervisor Misty Roundtree said these elements of the comprehensive plan were made better by residents’ involvement. She expressed her gratitude for the advocates and residents who’ve been engaged in the comprehensive planning process.
“Advocates have shaped what we’ve been doing in this county,” Roundtree said Tuesday. “Sometimes it feels like a tense relationship, but you guys are appreciated. … I hope that you guys can get a sense that this document that we’re getting ready to vote on really is a product that’s been shaped throughout all of this discourse and dialogue.”
