Zoning Reform · Norfolk, VA
Ghent's HC-G2 district has some of the most beautiful residential architecture in Hampton Roads — and some of the deadest streets. Zoning is why. We're changing it.
Read the Policy Brief →The Problem
Norfolk's HC-G2 district was designed to protect Ghent's historic residential fabric — and it does. But it also prohibits virtually all street-facing commercial activity by right. No café, no corner store, no bookshop, no neighborhood bar can open on Colonial Avenue without a Conditional Use Permit. That's a $1,080 city fee plus legal consultants, a six-month wait, a public hearing, and a gamble that City Council says yes.
The result is what you see: a neighborhood of extraordinary houses behind dead sidewalks, with the only retail being a 7-Eleven and a Harris Teeter. The pedestrian life that should naturally attach to Ghent's dense, walkable grid simply isn't there — not because residents don't want it, but because the zoning code makes it nearly impossible.
Across town, Colley Avenue and 21st Street are alive. They have Pedestrian Commercial Overlay districts. Their ground floors produce tax revenue, foot traffic, and neighbors who know each other. HC-G2 does not. That's a policy failure, and it's fixable.
Start Here
Policy Brief · No. 1
The legal and planning argument: what the zoning code says, what it should say, and the exact text amendment language.
Policy Brief · No. 2
Revenue model: property tax uplift, meals tax, BPOL. What the city is leaving on the table — conservative to aggressive scenarios.
Zine · No. 1
Plain-language explainer for neighbors, renters, and anyone who has ever wondered why Ghent feels more like a suburb at 8pm.
Zine · No. 2
Colonial Avenue vs. Colley Avenue. Same city, same era, same type of neighborhood. Wildly different streets. One rule explains it all.
Blog
Long reads for activists and urbanists: process reporting, comparable cities, and arguments for the hearing room.
Action
Show up at hearings, write letters, print zines, talk to neighbors. Here's exactly what to do.
From the Blog
Blog · Urbanism
A close reading of Table 3.6.11 and what it actually permits — and prohibits — in HC-G2.
Blog · Precedent
Colley Avenue and 21st Street have it. Why doesn't Colonial?
Blog · Equity
Vacant commercial frontage concentrates unhoused populations. Active retail creates safety through presence, not surveillance.