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Planning commission recommends closure and conveyance of slip lane to Richmond Waldorf School amid neighborhood concerns over parking and safety
Summary
After public testimony from neighbors and the applicant, the commission voted to forward ordinance 20-26-109 to city council recommending approval of closure and conveyance of roughly 11,105 sq ft of right-of-way to Richmond Waldorf School, conditioned on site-plan approval and payment; neighbors warned about pedestrian and traffic-safety impacts if a 34-space parking plan proceeds.
The Richmond Planning Commission voted to forward ordinance 20-26-109 to city council with a recommendation of approval to close and convey roughly 11,105 square feet of city right-of-way adjacent to Richmond Waldorf School, subject to conditions including site-plan approval and payment for the property.
Department of Public Works staff said the slip lane has been physically closed for safety reasons since 2023 and that removing it formally would allow safer pedestrian connections and sidewalk improvements. "From public works point of view, it works," a DPW representative said, describing the closure as part of a larger Brooklyn Parkway bike-lane safety project.
Laurie Markham, who identified herself as a parent volunteer for the Richmond Waldorf School, told the commission the school seeks to acquire the parcel to improve pedestrian safety in front of its campus and to provide additional parking for events. "I think the price that we would pay the city is around a $100,000 for this portion of land," Markham said, and she described follow-up institutional master-plan and site-plan reviews that would set the details of future improvements.
Several nearby residents urged caution. Laura Stevens, a Sherwood Park resident, said she supports closing the slip lane but opposed finalizing the conveyance before seeing a parking or site plan: "I don't have a problem with closing the slip lane... I have a problem with what happens in this ordinance," she said, citing pedestrian-safety and traffic-circulation concerns if cars exit onto Robin Hood Road near Brooklyn Parkway. Robert Hood and other speakers raised historic-preservation and open-space concerns about converting a pocket park into a large parking area.
Chris Banks, an online participant who said he is a neighborhood resident, asked that the item be moved from consent to the regular agenda so neighbors could comment, saying the ordinance mixes the closure and conveyance in ways he believed should be evaluated separately: "I am unable to support this resolution as written because I feel that it combines 2 distinctly separate actions that should be independently evaluated," he told the commission.
Staff and DPW clarified that the ordinance is conditioned: conveyance would require payment (discussed as approximately $100,000), site-plan approval and other improvements; if the conditions are not met, the right-of-way would not be closed. DPW also said certain conditions must be satisfied within an 18-month window.
After deliberation the commission voted to forward the ordinance to city council with a recommendation of approval. Commissioners noted broad agreement on closing the slip lane but expressed continued concern about future ingress/egress, parking counts and preservation of historic boulevard character. The matter will return to the commission at site-plan and institutional master-plan review stages as required by the ordinance conditions.
Key facts from the hearing: the ordinance concerns approximately 11,105 square feet of right-of-way; the applicant (Waldorf School via a volunteer and staff work) proposes to pay ~ $100,000 to acquire the parcel; attachments mention a 34-space parking scenario that staff said is not a binding condition in the ordinance itself; a formal site plan and institutional master-plan amendment are required before development can proceed.
