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Residents press for more public input as committee forwards Smart Scale applications
Summary
City transportation staff asked the committee to support a slate of 10 Smart Scale Round 7 pre-applications; public commenters and some council members urged clearer community engagement and fuller planning for projects such as the Fall Line Trail, Diamond District work and North–South BRT.
City transportation staff asked the Land Use, Housing & Transportation committee to endorse a slate of Smart Scale Round 7 pre-applications and to forward a support resolution to full council. The committee voted to forward resolution 2026-R010 with a recommendation to approve after questions about project selection and community engagement.
Daniel Wagner, of the newly formed Department of Transportation, said the slate of 10 candidate projects grew from Richmond Connects outreach and high-injury network analysis and is intended to make the city's applications competitive for VDOT's biannual Smart Scale program. "This is early on where we're requesting support from the governing body in order to begin our applications," Wagner said, describing a pre-application deadline of April 1 and a final application due in August. He said the statewide funding pool for the program this year looked to be "upwards of $800,000,000." He also told the committee that, if successful, Smart Scale awards typically fund construction years later (staff projected funding availability closer to 2032–2033 for many projects).
Resident Rich Souser asked where public input fits in the Smart Scale timeline and repeated concerns raised earlier about the Fall Line Trail and Diamond District projects, arguing that first-phase design decisions (bridge crossings and routing) were changed without adequate notice. "When the first segment of the trail was funded in 2024, the plans were developed without the promised public input and with only one day's notice before it went to the urban design committee," Souser said. He raised cost concerns (he cited a 14-mile, $380,000,000 estimate for the Fall Line Trail) and questioned the ridership assumptions for a proposed BRT line.
Several committee members asked Wagner to provide more detailed briefings before finalizing which projects to submit, particularly on high-profile items such as North–South BRT and Diamond District components. Wagner said staff could produce a clearer plan and work with GRTC to align transit elements with the city's Vision Zero/high-injury network priorities.
After discussion, the committee moved, seconded and approved forwarding resolution 2026-R010 to full council with a recommendation to approve. Staff and committee members agreed to provide additional project-level briefings and the fee and scoring materials that will inform final application decisions.
