Document Type
Professional Plan Capstone
Original Publication Date
2021
Client
Virginia Community Voice
Location
Richmond Highway Communities in Richmond, Virginia
Date of Submission
May 2021
Abstract
This professional plan supports the work of Virginia Community Voice to organize with neighbors advocating for equitable development of Richmond’s Southside neighborhoods along the Richmond Highway (formerly known as the Jefferson Davis Highway Corridor). Virginia Community Voice is a community-based non-profit organization with a mission to equip neighbors in historically marginalized communities to realize their vision for their neighborhoods and prepare institutions to respond. As redevelopment rapidly increases, Virginia Community Voice seeks to create an “equitable development scorecard” that reflects the desires and needs of residents for housing and business development along the Richmond Highway in the City of Richmond. Virginia Community Voice will use the scorecard to equip neighbors with tools to prevent displacement, hold policymakers and developers accountable, and retool the power structures at play with community development to better allow the neighbors’ visions of their community to lead development decisions.
This plan identifies opportunities for neighbors to take control of development in their own community and formulates a strategy for ongoing organizing and community collaboration. The analysis explores gentrification and displacement, community development practices, and envisions examples of community change building from the desires of current community members. Utilizing an asset-based and radical-planning approach to create a people-focused equitable development plan that represents the neighbors’ vision of their community, Virginia Community Voice and community members can influence the direction of development on Richmond’s Southside along the Richmond Highway Corridor.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects