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City sustainability office details "Cool the City" tree‑canopy effort and new authority to set canopy requirements
Summary
Sustainability staff described a USDA‑funded Cool the City program to plant thousands of trees in heat‑vulnerable neighborhoods, previewed a draft urban-heat mitigation "Richmond Cool Book," and said state law passed in March 2025 enables local tree‑canopy requirements and a developer tree fund.
Laura Thomas, Director of Sustainability, and Tara Wharton, Sustainability Manager, briefed the Land Use Committee on Richmond’s urban tree‑canopy initiative aimed at reducing extreme‑heat risk and improving stormwater outcomes.
Wharton summarized a data‑driven approach that combines the newly completed Richmond Resilience Assessment and a draft Richmond Cool Book, the city’s first urban‑heat mitigation strategy. She said the assessment maps where climate vulnerabilities and social vulnerabilities converge and…
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