The example in the Richmond Times Dispatch article below, represents an existential threat to the Westwood neighborhood in Richmond, with the high numbers of very small lots occupied mostly by Blacks or low income residents. Tucked in behind the former Bank of Richmond building at Patterson Ave. and Willow Lawn Drive, most building lots there are just 20 ft. wide.
In Westwood, three houses can be razed on three 20ft lots, and turned into a 60′ lot with one far larger new home. This would displace three low income families, replacing them with a single high income family in a $1.5 million home.
This practice already in use on Granite Ave. near Libbie Ave., has seen 12 large approximatly 3700 sf. new homes, built on the sites of 900 and 1100 sf. small homes built in the 1940s.
This practice creates fewer available homes and displaces low income, disproportionately Black families if implemented in the Westwood neigborhood near Libbie and Patterson.
The expected eventual demolition of nearly evety home in Westwood will destroy affordable housing for hundreds who need it, displacing them with far fewer homes for the wealthy.
Richmond’s Code Refresh rezoning program if enacted, will enable and exacerbate the catastrophic loss of affordable homes…
EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE FROM THE STATED PROMISES OF MAYOR AVULA, and all misinformed proponents of Code Refresh.
An Entirely Different Story……. From The Other Side Of Patterson Ave.
Quoted From Richmond Times Dispatch Dec. 5, 2025
510 Westview Avenue and 511 Granite Avenue: Two infill projects are underway in a busy section of the city’s West End
By Doug Childers | Homes Correspondent Site
photos by Clement Britt
Infill construction continues to heat up in the area around Richmond’s popular Libbie and Grove avenues, with two projects slated to replace homes that dated back to the 1940s and early 1950s.
Richmond-based Nest Builders Development and Design Co. is building a 3,700-square-foot home at 510 Westview Avenue. And Richmond-based Drumwright Capital is building a 3,500-square-foot home one block to the west at 511 Granite Avenue.
“Pricing is not set for either project yet, but both developers are targeting pricing above $1.6 million,” said Dave Seibert, a real estate agent with Seibert Real Estate and the listing agent for both homes.
Each of the new homes will be substantially larger than the modestly scaled houses they’re replacing. The original Granite Avenue house, which was built in 1946, had 1,148 square feet of living space.
The original Westview Avenue house, built in 1951, had 895 square feet of living space.
It’s a trend the area has seen for the last several years, with older properties being replaced by new high-end residential construction.
The new Westview Avenue house, for example, will sit in the middle of a block that has been radically transformed in the course of the last two years, with 12 new homes slated to line the western half of the street.
…. Dave Seibert said. “The LibbieGrove corridor is really in demand, and new housing with high ceilings and modern amenities like garages is pretty hard to come by. And being one to two blocks from some of the best shopping and dining in the area is hard to beat.”
The bottom line: Don’t expect to see infill construction slow down any time soon.
Infill development is a key component to adding to the housing supply in Richmond,” Dave Seibert said. “Housing inventory is already undersupplied and appears to be trending in the wrong direction. We will continue to see builders looking for any opportunity to create new housing because the market is absolutely desperate for it.
