Monday’s opening session of the Henrico Board of Supervisors’ weeklong review of the county’s proposed budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year offered snapshots of several county initiatives, programs and planned investments in services.
The Board will continue its review of the proposed $1.35 billion spending plan Tuesday with an examination of budgets from the departments of Public Works and Public Utilities as well as human services agencies.
Highlights of Monday’s reviews included:
- The Department of Building Construction and Inspections has issued close to 8,200 building permits for commercial and residential construction so far in the 2024-25 fiscal year, which ends June 30. Those permits represent a construction value of $1.6 billion, including more than 30 commercial projects each valued at $12 million or more. In the prior year, the department issued about 15,000 permits at a value of $2.1 billion.
- Building Inspections has issued certificates of occupancy for 212 new single-family, detached dwellings about two-thirds of the way into the 2024-25 fiscal year. The average construction cost of these homes – not including the cost of the land on which they were built – is $245,000. On average, these homes contain 2,700 square feet.
- Inspections continue in a rental inspection district created in late 2024 to support residents of the St. Luke Apartments community. Inspectors are finding an average of six building code violations per unit inspected; violations range from issues with insects and rodents to nonfunctioning appliances.
- The Department of Planning reports that about 4,000 new apartments have been built countywide since 2020. That represents a significant increase for the decade from 2010-19, when about 1,200 apartments were constructed. For comparison, about 9,000 apartments were built in Henrico in the 1970s, the historical highwater mark for apartment construction in the county. This represents a normal development cycle in the life of a community, according to the department.
- There is an 18-year supply of lots in the county, with about 15,800 buildable and potential lots in the development pipeline, including about 4,200 in the subdivision process and about 8,250 zoned.
- Three developments have been approved to receive funding through the county’s affordable housing trust, which was created in May 2024 and will be funded over five years with $60 million in real estate tax revenues from data centers. The developments – two in the Tuckahoe District and one in Varina – will produce 50 affordable units combined. Applications for two additional developments are currently being reviewed.
- More than 6 million people visited Henrico’s parks and recreation facilities over the past year, led by Deep Run Park, with 450,000 visitors, and Taylor Farm Park, which attracted more than 380,000 guests in its first eight months of operation.
- The Division of Recreation & Parks is investing in technology to support security at parks, including license plate readers and video monitoring equipment.
- The division has enhanced fitness programming at Deep Run and Dorey Park recreation centers over the past year and has experienced a leap in membership, from 379 to more than 1,600.
- Recreation & Parks will expand summer camp programming in 2025 from six to eight sites and from 900 to 1,200 camper slots; camps also will be expanded to full-day service. In addition to funding to support the expansion, the division’s budget includes funding for a therapeutic inclusion specialist position to support access to camps as well as the division’s programming throughout the year.
- The division also will expand staffing to maintain its 13 multipurpose synthetic turf fields, including fields at Henrico County Public Schools facilities. The number of fields – which support the county’s sports tourism initiative as well as athletic events for county students – will grow to 18 later this year with the addition of fields currently under construction at Glover Park.
- Another planned addition for Recreation & Parks is a 17-foot by 10-foot mobile LED video screen. The county’s first “jumbotron” will enhance signature events, such as Juneteenth and Red, White and Lights and also will support outdoor movies and other activities.
- Speaking of Juneteenth, the 2024 event is a finalist in the outdoor festival category of Style Weekly’s Best of Richmond contest.
- Confirming its exemplary facilities and services for Henrico’s residents and visitors, Recreation & Parks earned five-year reaccreditation from the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
More information on the budget is available online. The Board will hold a public hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 25 in the Board Room at the Henrico County Government Center, 4301 E. Parham Road.
