The project is expected to generate renewable electricity for municipal operations and reduce the amount of electricity the City purchases from Dominion Energy. Based on preliminary projections, the installations are anticipated to produce approximately 7.75 GWh (7,750,000 kWh) annually and result in an estimated net energy costs savings of $19.4 million over 25 years. Final savings will depend on the engineered system design and the future pace of utility rate increases. 

“As a father, a pediatrician, and Mayor, I believe our local government has a responsibility to build a more sustainable Richmond for generations to come. I’m excited for the practical way this program helps us do our part to address the climate crisis, lower our energy costs, and be smart with taxpayer dollars. The due diligence that we've put into building this out over the past few months will be worth it," said Mayor Danny Avula. 

In addition to projected energy savings, the proposal supports the City’s broader efforts to improve the performance and resilience of its facilities. Investing in renewable energy at City-owned buildings can help reduce exposure to changing energy costs while demonstrating how municipal infrastructure can support long-term environmental and fiscal goals.

Aligning with Pillar 6 of the Mayor’s Action Plan (MAP), “A thriving and sustainable built environment planned for future generations” the proposed ordinances provide meaningful ways to support a more sustainable, resilient, and forward-looking city.

“This introduction represents a major milestone in the complex balance between lowering energy costs and ensuring appropriate protections for the City from unnecessary risks and liability,” said Chief Administrative Officer Odie Donald II. “This legislation represents significant reduction in costs that would’ve ultimately been passed along to residents, as it offers us an opportunity to make strides toward our sustainability goals, while also giving us new grounds to demonstrate our commitment to continuous quality improvement.” 

The proposed ordinances also advance the goals of RVAgreen 2050, Richmond’s Climate Equity Action Plan, which establishes targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The plan identifies buildings and energy as a key pathway for improving energy efficiency, performance, and resilience.

“Exploring the installation of solar panels on these city-owned buildings represents an important opportunity to advance Richmond’s sustainability goals while taking a thoughtful look at the long-term value of our public assets, said Laura Thomas, Director of the Office of Sustainability. “By evaluating how renewable energy can be incorporated into our facilities, we can identify opportunities to reduce energy costs, strengthen resilience, create local clean energy jobs, and support a more sustainable future for our city. This potential project reflects our commitment to finding innovative solutions that benefit Richmond residents for years to come.”

The proposed installations remain subject to City Council consideration and approval, as applicable. Additional project details, including final site assessments, system capacity, implementation timelines, contracting arrangements, and projected financial savings, will be provided as the ordinance advances.

Moderator: When Run Richmond comes around every year, people ask “Why Richmond?” Why do you feel that Richmond is the place for this run, and why does it bring people together in a way that may not happen in other spaces? 

Mayor Avula: You can't tell the story of Virginia, of America, of Blackness in this country without coming through Richmond. There's a harsh reality of the place that Richmond has in history. This effort of Run Richmond 16.19 has to be anchored in the reality of that history. There is something special about being in those spaces, about actually walking and running through these places of history, where horrific things happened, but also amazing things happened. Being able to touch and feel and smell those things is important, as we build our memory and build our vision of where Richmond and our country are heading in the future. Richmond has a very unique place in that history  

Moderator: I want to go deeper on something the Mayor just said around our responsibility in telling these stories, and the responsibility of Richmond. Richmond carries some of the most painful chapters of American history, alongside extraordinary stories of Black achievement and resistance. What responsibility does the city have to tell that full story? 

Mayor Avula: I don't think we can achieve true healing and true forward progress without being honest about the fullness of our history. We need to delve in and make sure that people know that history so that we can then move forward. The reality is that today, we still see the trappings of that history. In 2026, we still see significant disparities in health outcomes for Black Americans and in wealth accumulation for Black Americans. We see rampant residential racial segregation in our neighborhoods across the city and across the country. Those are all a result of intentional policies and practices that have been layered on for years and years in the history of our country. Our responsibility is to make sure that we know that story, that we're telling that story, and that we're translating that knowledge into the active untangling and dismantling of policies and practices that have gotten us where we are. 

Moderator: What does it take for a city to turn history into a living community experience rather than something we simply commemorate? We keep hearing this word ‘commemoration,’ but how do we get beyond simple commemoration?  

Mayor Avula: It takes events like Run Richmond 16.19. It takes these communal events that bring people, not just from Richmond, but from all over this country, together to be exposed to and to learn this history together. It takes the actual physicality of the race and walking through neighborhoods and walking through history to take in the power of what happened here. It takes cultural institutions, like BHMVA, to continue uplifting and telling those stories, to be able to weave the public narrative, the narrative arc of Virginia history and of Black history. In our strategic plan, we have seven pillars. The seventh pillar is we want to be a city that tells its stories. The importance of that storytelling, the importance of uplifting examples of incredible resistance, resilience, excellence, is healing. It is knowing where we come from to know where we're going. It is healing the atrocities of our past. 
 

A huge part of my job over my time as a public health doctor was really looking at the health and well-being of communities, looking at why it is that certain communities have longer life expectancies or higher rates of hypertension and diabetes. As you start to peel back the layers of what contributes to those disparate outcomes, it is our history. It is the redlining and why certain neighborhoods were inaccessible to Black folks. It is the adoption of a racialized zoning code back in the 1920s.
Richmond was the second city in America, second only to Baltimore, that actually had explicit language in its residential zoning code saying that Black people cannot live in these neighborhoods. We have a lot of work to do today to fix that history and to unwind that zoning code. That's why the 7th pillar of telling our stories keeps it in the consciousness of our community, so that we know we have policies to solve.
We have investments we need to make. We have work in neighborhoods that still needs to be done because we haven’t solved this. 

Moderator: I’m going back to commemoration. I want to spend some time on the 250th anniversary of our nation. I want us to connect what feeling you want the runners to get out of it this year, specifically as we commemorate the 250th anniversary. If you could sum it up in one word, what do you want the runners to feel this year? As people are coming into Richmond specifically, what do you want them to feel? 

Mayor Avula: I want them to feel the groans of history. I want them to feel hope for the future. My greatest aspiration for this city, and I think events like this really help us move there, is that we are somehow able to participate in the redemption of Richmond’s story. I hope that the history of being the capital of the Confederacy, of being the birthplace of the domestic slave trade in this country, of hundreds of years of oppression, has given birth to amazing regenerative things. I think the story of Virginia Union is probably one of the best examples of that. The fact that Lumpkin slave jail, one of the most brutal slave jails in our country, where thousands of enslaved people came through and were brutalized on their way to being sold and sent further south. That slave owner, Robert Lumpkin, married a Black woman, Mary Lumpkin, one of his slaves. When he died, that property went to her. She had befriended a pastor in town and said, “let's do something good with this,” and she started leasing it to him. That was the origin of the seminary that became Virginia Union University. I think that story is such a vivid example of how this horrific place could be redeemed for a beautiful addition to our community and something that has deep history and significance, not just in Richmond, but across the country. My hope is that Richmond follows that arc, that it would become a place that is known internationally as a place of hope and healing.  

Moderator: Five years from now, what do you hope Run Richmond 16.19 will have changed here in Richmond, and how people have engaged in Black history or how people feel connected to Black history? 

Mayor Avula: Djimon often talks about this race, and this city, as a place of pilgrimage. Sesha mentioned that one in four African Americans can trace their history back to Richmond. It really does have a unique place in this country's history. My hope is that 5 years from now, that this event and this place have gotten so much national and international attention that people see this as a pilgrimage, as a way to come back and to know their story. I think that's true for Black Americans, but I'm not Black, and I care deeply about the city, about the story. Some of that comes from growing up as an immigrant kid and feeling othered. It comes also from learning the story of our country and realizing how intentional and terrible our history has been for Black people in this country. It comes from this fundamental belief that the tapestry of humanity is not an accident. I really believe our creator did this with intention, with hope, with a nod to the beauty of what humanity can be. As Djimon talks about reconciliation, that is what I hope for this race, for the city, and for our country in 5 years, that this is a place of healing, a place of pilgrimage, and a place of acknowledging the beauty that is humanity. 

Good afternoon friends!

For most of my career as a public health doc, my charge was to improve the health and wellbeing of communities.  Over time, as we came to better understand what moves the needle on health outcomes, we focused our efforts on addressing the social determinants of health— things like access to quality education, stable living wage employment, family and community support systems, and housing and the built environment.

It was this broader understanding of health that ultimately compelled me to run for office, and on the campaign trail, where i spent 6 months spending every day talking to thousands of Richmond residents about what was important to them— the theme of neighborhoods and housing was central. 

Most pointedly, the challenge of housing affordability, as everyone-- from long-term generational residents of neighborhoods like mine, to college students, to middle aged working class families-- expressed how difficult it is getting for them to stay in the city.

Richmond has undoubtedly been on the rise over the past decade, and as a result, people from all over the country have discovered what we have all known for years about our city—that Richmond is an amazing place to live. 

All of that attention has led us to a housing crisis, as tens of thousands of new residents have found their way to Richmond.  The problem is that we haven’t built tens of thousands of new homes, and that has driven the cost of housing up precipitously.   

Back in January, I announced a comprehensive plan to address Richmond’s housing crisis built around two goals: more homes for more people and helping residents stay in their homes.

And when I look back over the last 7-8 months, I can see how, together, we’ve made some really remarkable progress.

• Working with City Council, we established predictable funding for the affordable housing trust fund, setting aside 2.5% of real estate tax revenue for the construction and preservation of more affordable housing for more people. 
• We continue to strengthen the administration of our anti-displacement tools, from owner-occupied home repair and rehabilitation programs to crisis-response funds to real estate tax relief for older adults and people with disabilities.
• And we are building a stronger, more resident-centered partnership with RRHA, including a new framework for the redevelopment of Gilpin Court that will serve as a template for how we will work together to accelerate redevelopment in ALL of our public housing communities.

Now, it is time to finalize another important piece of the work.  As we plan for the future of our city, it turns out that so much of what contributes to the health and wellbeing of a community-- safe and affordable housing, green space, making neighborhoods more walkable and bikeable, increasing access to mass transit-- is actually baked into the rules that a community creates to define the built environment-- our zoning code.

Our current zoning code was adopted in 1976, over 50 years ago. And for the decades prior to that, the zoning code was used very explicitly to keep people of color OUT of some neighborhoods and IN others. Our zoning code cemented much of the racial and socioeconomic segregation that we see across the city today- concentrating wealth in some communities, and poverty in others.

We’ve also seen how concentrating commercial, automotive and service business zoning to major corridors on the Southside has limited the kind of attractive, walkable, human-scale growth that we’ve seen in other parts of our city, further driving inequity.

The rules that govern how we design and build our city matter tremendously, and we are long overdue to write new ones. 

Listen, I get that the zoning code won’t make anyone’s top ten list of what they love about Richmond, but it is one of the most important tools we have to shape our growing city into a place where everyone can thrive.

It’s why Richmond 300, the city’s master plan adopted by our City Council back in 2020 after award-winning community engagement, explicitly names rewriting our zoning code as the first and most important of the six big moves Richmond must make to ensure that the future development of our city reflects our values and our shared vision.

So today, I am excited to release Version Three of Code Refresh — the update to our outdated zoning code which:

• Helps us build more homes for more people, so that as we welcome new neighbors, we’re protecting opportunities for longtime residents to stay. We have heard people say they want “density that makes sense.” And we totally agree. This version does this by: 
  • Encouraging increased density in nodes and along major transit corridors throughout the city.
  • Improving the existing ADU regulations by increasing the allowed size of ADUs to 1200 sq feet, while also requiring ADUs to better fit the context of the lot,
  • And by evenly distributing zoning districts across the City, spreading new development equitably.
• It helps us build connected, vibrant neighborhoods and a diverse economy by:
  • Allowing neighborhood-appropriate, small-scale office and retail uses to better connect neighbors to goods and services.
  • And by bringing existing homes and businesses into zoning compliance, actually legalizing the unique character that already exists in so many of our neighborhoods
• It helps us build beautiful communities that preserve the character of our existing neighborhoods and the distinct aesthetic that makes so many places in Richmond special by:
  • Maintaining existing City Old and Historic Districts to ensure the longevity of Richmond’s most architecturally significant neighborhoods
  • Establishing contextual heights, setbacks, and step-backs so new development better complements the existing built environment,
  • And by creating a framework for new Design and Demolition overlay districts, giving neighborhoods the ability to set development standards that are important to them.
• finally, it helps us build a sustainable city by:
  • expanding amazing parks and green spaces into every corner, by creating a new designation of open space zoning
  • establishing citywide vegetation space requirements, meaning no new parcel in the City can be developed without some percentage of green space.
  • Setting minimum tree canopy standards, which protects trees that are growing here today, and requires the planting of more trees to improve the city’s overall tree canopy,

The process to get to today’s launch of Draft Three of Code Refresh has been an exercise in listening well. This draft is better, because people engaged with it.

Across all nine council districts, through pop-ups, town halls, office hours, work sessions, public meetings, and conversations with everyone from long-time homeowners to renters to neighbors brand new to Richmond, we heard so many diverse perspectives — and that diversity of perspective allowed us to land on a set of thoughtful recommendations found in version 3.

I want to highlight a few really important examples:

• First, we heard residents’ concerns about the number of units that should be permitted by right in residential districts. As a result, this proposal maintains the “1+1” concept: the right for homeowners to have one primary dwelling and one attached or detached accessory dwelling unit (ADU). We are recommending improvements to the effectiveness of our ADU regulation by increasing the allowable size of the ADU to 1200 sq feet and adding contextual requirements. This is a change, but an incremental change that should allay concerns that Code Refresh will dramatically change the character of neighborhoods, while it creates a better solution that provides more housing options
• Second, we heard lots of concerns from Southside residents about new development in a part of our city that has retained more suburban zoning since it was annexed, and it has not received the investment needed to help integrate it into the city. The proposed updates allow more investment on corridors (in accordance with our master plan), while still requiring SUP’s for more intense development in neighborhoods.
• Third, special use permits and community involvement in our land-use decision-making are NOT going away, but they are getting right-sized. We want to make sure we’re not adding time and cost to projects that clearly fit the context of a neighborhood, but have just not yet made their way into our 50-year-old code.
• Fourth, we’ve corrected inequitable overzoning in historically African American communities, like Westwood, protecting some of our most resilient neighborhoods.

Getting here hasn’t been easy, but rigorous debate and challenging compromises are the essence of our democracy, and the hallmark of how I want our administration to lead Richmond forward.

And so, what we are proposing today is a result of listening well, making changes, and finding compromises.   

I am so grateful for the incredible amount of work by our PDR team, the ongoing engagement of our council members, and the time, input, and perspective thousands of residents have brought to the Code Refresh process. This work has been made better by your involvement.

So here it is! Draft 3!

I invite you to explore the code firsthand on our website: rva.gov/coderefresh. There’s been a lot of misinformation out there and this is important enough that you go and see for yourself what’s in the proposal.

We also will be launching our education campaign— there’s a lot of technical stuff in the zoning code, and so our teams will be distributing information, breaking it down, and answering questions at town halls and community events all over the city over the next couple of months.

Richmond, I’m asking for your support as we present this to City Council for their further discussion, consideration, and I hope ultimately, adoption.

Because this is a roadmap for a future Richmond that reflects our values and our shared vision -- more homes for more people, connected neighborhoods, beautiful communities, and a sustainably city built for generations to come.

Thank you.

Good morning, friends! 

This is a super exciting day in our city.
It is a joy to welcome people from far and wide. I know throughout the course of this weekend, we will have many visitors from the region and from beyond. We also have these crews from Norfolk, from Baltimore, and all the way from the Netherlands. Let's welcome our guests and thank them for coming here for these celebrations. 
 

The James River, in so many ways, is the lifeblood of our city today, but it has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. It has played an incredibly important role in the history of our Commonwealth and the history of our entire country. This whole year, as we acknowledge the 250th anniversary of our country, that means a lot of things here in Richmond. It is part celebration.
It is part wrestling with the complexity of our past. It is part inspiration for how we continue to form a more perfect union for the next 250 years. I have lived here in this great city of Richmond for 26 years, and a huge part of what has fueled my love for this place is the way that Richmond does not shy away from its past.
Our city is steeped in history. I think the greatness of our city, our beauty, our diversity, and the richness of Richmond are a direct result of the honest reckoning that we have done and been doing for decades here.  

SailFest is yet another example of how we grapple with the fullness of that history and ultimately become a stronger city because of it. As we stand here on the banks of the James River, we celebrate the fact that we would not be here had it not been for the arrival of ships like these so many years ago. We also recognize that the history of ships sailing up the James River here to Richmond is really complicated.  

When Captain Christopher Newport sailed here from Jamestown in 1607, he planted a cross on the hill, and with that began years of persecution of the land's original inhabitants, the Powhatan. Centuries before the Europeans arrived on these shores, remember that dugout canoes carried families and food and tools and traded goods between villages and tribes. We must remember that when these ships first sailed up the James more than 400 years ago, this land was not a wilderness waiting to be settled. It was already a vibrant network of relationships, of economic activity, and of community. Just like today, our river connected people. The Powhatan welcomed these new European settlers in their most vulnerable moment and taught them how to survive in this new environment. Ultimately, as greed gave way to war and violence, within a generation, most of the tribes between the York and the James River were decimated. Too many of the land’s first inhabitants in the place that we now call Richmond were lost to history.  

In the years to follow, the James River would carry thousands of enslaved Africans into the city.
Right across the river here, thousands of kidnapped men, women, and children arrived at Ancarrow’s landing, and walked along the riverbank, eventually making their way to Shockoe Bottom, where they were confined, tortured, and sold into a life of slavery. In the 19th century, Richmond became one of the largest slave hubs in the United States. So many enslaved Africans came through Richmond, that even today, it is believed that one in four Black Americans can trace their roots back to our city.  

Throughout all of this time, the river and the ships that traveled along it were also a source of commercial development for Richmond, and of freedom. George Washington oversaw the building of the Kanawha Canal along the James River, which was the first operating canal system in the US. That canal connected Richmond and other Eastern cities to the Western United States, and it expanded travel and commerce from our city and for the nation as a whole. In the years to follow, Black and Irish laborers would endure dangerous conditions to expand that canal and grow our city's economy by helping transport flour and tobacco and coal and people, both free and enslaved, up the treacherous falls of the James and ultimately around the world. 
 

If you look at our City's flag, you will see a faceless boatman, a boatman that represents the unsung heroes -- the boatman of the James -- that transported goods along the river, and were such an important part of our city's early economy. It's believed that, at one point, up to 98% of these boatmen were men of color, and that the river was actually a source of freedom for these men and their families, both figuratively and literally. Not only did the river provide an avenue for enslaved boatmen to travel without the harsh supervision of their masters, but they were also known to help transport slaves to freedom by picking up freedom seekers along their journey, and taking them to ships here in Richmond that would ultimately carry them north.
I think these Black boatmen were the epitome of our country's founding ideals of liberty and justice for all. With great bravery and wisdom, they turned the same river that brought their ancestors into a life of slavery into a pathway to freedom. I'm so proud that they are represented at the center of Richmond's flag, which is a representation of their legacy, but also of our aspiration to live up to it as a city. 
 

Now, while the tall ships that we see today aren't the same vessels that ushered in the difficult parts of Richmond's conflicted past, they do allow us to reflect on that past, and to celebrate the progress that we've made, but also to acknowledge the work that we have yet to do. We have been working to live up to that promise of freedom and equality for 250 years, but we are still working on it. The work to create a truly democratic nation rooted in equality remains unfinished. 

I welcome you all again to SailFest, because this is an incredible once in a generation opportunity to tour these beautiful ships, to learn from live performances and reenactments and exhibits that will allow us to engage with and reflect on our complex history over the last 250 years. This event has come together with the work of many, many hands. I just want to say thank you to Sail Virginia, to the crews of these fantastic ships, the Oosterschelde, the Pride of Baltimore, and the Virginia.  

I want to say a special thank you to Jamie and your team at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. 
We are so grateful for the work that you all do for our city and for the entire state, telling the fullness of Virginia's story. I want to offer a massive thank you to the United States Army. It took so much coordination and effort to get these floating docks out here so that these ships could dock. I want to thank the Army certainly for their involvement in this event, but more importantly to your sacrifice and service to our great nation. Lastly, I want to thank my colleagues here in the city of Richmond, who, along with Sail Virginia and the History Museum, put in so many hours of planning and physical labor, and set up the infrastructure that's needed to bring the tall ships here and to make this event a success.  

I cannot wait for thousands and thousands of Richmonders to get to experience this over the next few days, and then to see how that work will seed the future of Richmond, to make us a stronger and more resilient and more beautiful city over the next 250 years. Thanks so much, everybody.