I’ll be blunt, at the risk of alienating some of my constituents. As a local government elected, particularly representing the Three Chopt district, my biggest obstacle in combating the housing crisis is opposition to density. And I get it. It would seem that at some point a decision was made that Three Chopt would be the “high-end” part of the county with larger lot sizes and bigger houses, and many of you made sacrifices to invest in homes here because of that. And you don’t want the character of your neighborhood disrupted by multifamily units that may impact aesthetics, traffic, demands on infrastructure. I know this because I constantly hear “please don’t approve any more townhomes.”
And trust me, I have no appetite for the $750k+ townhome projects that typically cross my desk. It defeats the purpose of density if they are still priced out of reach for “missing middle” buyers.
But I am gently asking for your help, for you to consider the role that each of us can play in alleviating this crisis. The crisis that prevents our teachers from living near the schools they teach in, our first responders from being able to live in all areas of the county, our children and grandchildren from being able to live near us or the neighborhood that they grew up in, the crisis that locks empty nesters into homes they’ve long outgrown because it would be more expensive for them to downsize to a smaller place.
As a Henrico Board, we have the political will to try innovative things, explore creative solutions to tackling this critical issue. We have knowledgeable and dedicated staff who will work diligently to make logistics work. But we need your support.
Three Chopt, I need your support. I understand your concerns, and I still believe that we can figure out a way to balance maintaining the character of our communities and everything you love about this district with taking the necessary steps to turn this crisis around.
I had a housing Town Hall last year, and I am more than happy to revisit that again. Let’s have robust discussions about how we got here and how we turn the tide. Together, I believe we can truly be leaders for other localities in how we can get this done.
