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Planning commission backs Ronald McDonald House lodging permit, asks council to limit use to current operator
Summary
The Richmond Planning Commission voted to forward a conditional-use permit recommendation for a lodging house at 505 West Lee Street — the proposed Ronald McDonald House — with direction that the permit be legally limited to the current owner/operator.
The Richmond Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to forward to City Council a recommendation to allow a lodging house at 505 West Lee Street, the proposed Ronald McDonald House campus, with a condition recommended to limit the conditional-use permit to the current owner/operator.
Planning staff said the application requests a conditional-use permit for a lodging-house use in the R73 multifamily residential district in Jackson Ward and that the use is allowed only by conditional use. Cheyenne Trump of planning staff clarified the size and scope of the request during the meeting.
Trump told commissioners she believed the request covered 50 lodging units. A representative of the applicant, identified in the record as the CEO of Ronald McDonald House in Richmond (name not stated in the transcript), said the organization has operated in Richmond for decades and is seeking additional capacity to serve families of hospital patients. “We have been operating in Richmond for 45 years in our main house on Monument Avenue, and we are at capacity,” the CEO said.
Commissioners asked whether the permit could be limited to the current operator. The applicant said they had no objection to a legally appropriate condition that the permit be limited to the organization. The commission then voted to forward the matter to council with that recommendation.
The commission’s roll call showed unanimous support. Planning staff will forward the application, the recommended conditions, and the transcript record to City Council for its consideration.
What happens next: City Council will consider the commission’s recommendation and may adopt, modify or reject it. The commission’s recommendation includes the legal direction that the special use be limited to the current owner/operator in a manner consistent with Virginia law and the Richmond City Code.
Speakers quoted in this article are recorded in the commission transcript and are listed in the article’s speaker section.
