Community Engagement Phase Two Summary

 
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The Office of Sustainability set ambitious engagement goals to drive our commitment to equitable and representative community participation in the RVAgreen 2050 planning process. 

The COVID-19 pandemic made engagement challenging throughout April 2021. Despite these challenges, we saw an increase in the number of participants from the 2020 baseline engagement period, and importantly, there was greater representation in this participation. Our engagement in April reached a higher percentage of people of color and people from across income bands and educational levels. 

Moving forward, we aim to not only continue making inroads in communities that better represent the City of Richmond, but also to deepen the quality of our engagement with them. We learned through our survey responses and conversations with Richmonders that the barrier to entry-level engagement with climate action planning is too high. This lesson will help us better craft our engagement in the fall and make RVAgreen 2050 a more accessible process in which every Richmonder is comfortable and motivated to participate. 

Thinking about April 2021, Richmonders provided feedback on our draft vision, objectives, and strategies. Feedback was gathered in three different ways: through a 10- or 30-minute online survey, via direct commentary on a Konveio document of the draft plan, and by paper survey distributed by members of the Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Roundtable. The map on the right shows where these responses came from and will help inform our future engagement efforts. Responses from all three sources of feedback were reviewed by Office of Sustainability staff and aggregated to inform progress towards our community engagement goals. To communicate engagement opportunities to residents, the following methods were used:

  • Promotion during Mayor Stoney’s weekly press briefings on 4/7/21 and 4/22/21

  • Presentations to local non-profit organizations and university classes by the Engagement Coordinator, Office of Sustainability 

  • Direct community outreach by the members of the Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Roundtable

  • Weekly newsletters with updates on engagement results and demographics

  • Weekly RVAgreen Gabs, with presentations and Q&A facilitated by members of the technical working groups and community representatives 

  • Social media 

  • Informational print and digital flyers distributed across Richmond with a QR code

 

Summary of April 2021 Engagement Activities

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 Community Feedback

The Office of Sustainability individually reviewed all feedback to the draft vision, objectives, and strategies provided via the online surveys and the Konveio document. To see the community feedback as well as our responses click here. 

We asked survey takers to rank our draft strategies in order of importance (“Which of these are most important to help achieve your vision for a climate-neutral and climate-resilient Richmond by 2030?”). The top ten highest-ranked strategy areas include:

1. Green Spaces & Trees: Partner with the community to increase outdoor space and natural resources access, and reduce impacts of extreme heat

2. Planning & Operations: Maintain existing and create new public outdoor space

3. Urban Agriculture: Increase access to healthy foods

4. Air Quality: Identify air pollution sources and opportunities for reduction

5. Complete Streets: Improve and increase pedestrian infrastructure

6. Composting: Create organic waste diversion programs city-wide (i.e. food waste and yard debris)

7. Environmental Justice: Eliminate the impacts of illegal dumping and industrial pollution on neighboring communities

8. Connectivity: Increase pedestrian infrastructure that connects people to jobs, schools, business, etc.

9. Resilience Planning: Prioritize historically disenfranchised communities in planning for climate impacts

10. Engagement: Increase resident engagement and access to outdoor space

The Office of Sustainability staff and RVAgreen 2050 Working Groups are reviewing and considering community feedback during our summer working sessions in May, June, July, and August before another round of public engagement in Fall 2021.