2023 Oak Grove Lynx Ventures Advocacy
Over the past year, Oak Grove and other South Richmond neighbors advocated for the following community benefits from a local developer, Lynx Ventures who was seeking a Special Use Permit from the City of Richmond to build an apartment complex at the site of the old Oak Grove Elementary School.
See below for a copy of a letter neighbors sent to city council members in the last stages of this advocacy campaign. Unfortunately, City Council did not vote to delay, and since the Planning Commission had approved the SPU, the development is moving forward.
Neighbors are focusing attention on preventing these kinds of issues from occuring in the future, by meeting with City Council members about requiring community benefits agreements to be in place, and a requirement for SPU approval BEFORE a development is already so far down the line.
Subject: Please Delay ORD. 2023-243
Richmond City Council,
I am writing in regards to the Planning Commission’s approval of the Special Use Permit for 2200 Ingram Avenue, item 10 of the Consent Agenda for the City Council on September 25, 2023. I ask that you remove the item from the Consent Agenda and delay your vote by one meeting until the applicant, Lynx Ventures, has formally agreed to specific features that will benefit the community. On August 8, 2023, Lynx Ventures sent an email to the President and Vice President of the Oak Grove Community Association outlining the following:
Commitment to deed roughly a ½ acre to Richmond City Parks and Recreation for the “ion of a public park or City-owned community building.”
Willingness to apply CoolSeal seal coat on all asphalt surfaces to mitigate urban heat retention
Commitment to dedicating 25 units at the 50% AMI level, with 193 units at 60% AMI and 25 units at 70% AMI
The Special Use Permit does not dictate all of these features and we have not received a formal commitment to implement them. We believe the City Council should delay this vote until we have a formal agreement and commitment from Lynx Ventures to implement these key features that will further benefit our community. Doing so would more effectively honor the original feedback that Lynx Ventures received in April 2023 from Oak Grove residents. To be clear, we are not against the development as proposed but we do believe these aspects will make it markedly better to address systemic issues related to generational poverty and climate change.