Richmond is betting that getting developers in the room with city staff earlier will mean fewer headaches later — for everyone.
The city’s Planning and Development Review department now offers free pre-application meetings that bring together representatives from eight different city agencies in a single virtual session. The goal: help developers understand what they’re getting into before they’ve spent thousands on plans that don’t meet code.
The program functions as a regulatory preview. Developers can bring preliminary site plans and surveys to get feedback from zoning administrators, urban foresters, traffic engineers, fire officials, and public utilities staff all at once. It’s a significant departure from the traditional approach, where applicants often ping-ponged between departments for months, discovering new requirements at each stop.
For a city that has struggled with development delays and a reputation for bureaucratic complexity, the pre-application program represents an attempt to front-load the hard conversations. The participating agencies read like a checklist of every department that can kill or delay a project: Planning and Development Review handles zoning, policy, land use, permits, inspections, and urban design. Public Works weighs in on urban forestry and traffic engineering. The Fire Department reviews safety compliance. Public Utilities covers stormwater, sanitary sewer, water resources, street lights, and gas infrastructure.
The city explicitly frames the program as a way to “help lower adverse impacts on the environment & neighborhoods” — language that suggests these meetings aren’t just about making life easier for developers. Staff can flag potential community concerns before projects become public controversies.
Notably, the program is tied to Richmond 300, the city’s master plan that’s supposed to guide development through 2037. Pre-application meetings give staff a chance to ensure proposed projects align with that vision before formal applications land on their desks.
The virtual format is a pandemic-era holdover that stuck. For developers juggling multiple projects across the region, not having to physically shuttle between city offices is a practical advantage.
Whether the program actually speeds up Richmond’s notoriously slow approval process remains to be seen. A pre-application meeting doesn’t guarantee approval, and developers still face the full gauntlet of public hearings, commission reviews, and council votes for significant projects. But knowing upfront that your stormwater plan won’t pass muster — or that traffic engineering has concerns about your proposed driveway cut — could save months of back-and-forth on the backend.
Developers interested in the program can contact the city at PDRpreapplication@rva.gov or 804-646-6304 to request the required pre-application form and fire checklist. Preliminary site plans must be submitted as PDFs under 10 megabytes.
- Pre-application meetings are free and conducted virtually
- Eight city agencies participate including Planning, Public Works, Fire, and Public Utilities
- Program designed to align projects with Richmond 300 master plan
- Developers must submit preliminary site plan, fire checklist, and survey if available
Public records reporting · April 15, 2026