Richmond Green Infrastructure Assessment

As traditional patterns of urban development have been replaced with urban sprawl, holes of disinvestment in urban neighborhoods have diminished community life. These vacant sites can be viewed as opportunities to retrofit a green infrastructure network back into the urban landscape, providing recreational venues, community gardens, outdoor classrooms and habitat.

The purpose of the Richmond Green Infrastructure Assessment is to identify vacant parcels that could add significant value to the city’s open space portfolio in the form of a green infrastructure network. This report presents the results of the assessment: a potential citywide green infrastructure network and strategies that can be applied at the neighborhood scale to improve habitat, recreational access and water quality. This report provides a tool that can be used to:

• Inform future planning,
• Leverage public and private development,
• Prioritize acquisition, conservation and restoration,
• Target sustainability pilots,
• Secure implementation funding,
• Enhance the tree canopy,
• Increase pedestrian and bicycle connections,
• Improve stormwater management strategies, and
• Promote Richmond as a sustainability model for other municipalities.

This report was published December 2010.
For more information on this project, see our page on Richmond: Multi-Scale Planning for a Healthy City.