It is a long-term community-directed roadmap that informs decision making for the entire Parks, Recreation, and Community Facilities (PRCF) department. City departments have limited budget and resources, so the system plan will assist PRCF with how and where to focus their limited resources and inform their Capital Improvement Program (CIP).

The final plan will be a tool used by PRCF and the community to understand how to have meaningful, positive impact on the parks and recreation system.

• It is not a detailed design or proposed immediate improvements for a specific park, neighborhood, or facility.

• It is not a method to approve specific city purchases, expenses or increase the department budget.

The City of Richmond’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities received funding support as part of the American Rescue Plan Act with the support of the Mayor and City Council to conduct our first comprehensive Master Planning effort in a generation.  

As outlined in our City’s Comprehensive Plan, Richmond 300, our city is growing and changing rapidly, and thus careful effort must be made to plan for this growth in an equitable fashion. Richmond INSPIRE is an outcome of our City’s Master Planning process and will be informed by other successful planning efforts over the last 5 years including: The James River Park System Master Plan, Richmond Connects, RVA Green 2050, RVA H2O, and the Mayor’s Equity Agenda. 

This plan will help us identify solutions for decades of deferred maintenance, curate programming to meet the needs and wants of our residents, make targeted and equitable capital investments, connect our residents to and between parks, prepare for a climate resilient future, and provide better parks and recreation experiences for Richmonders. 

Richmond INSPIRE will also help our department, our friends groups, our volunteers, and our city leadership as we make decisions and improvements to our parks and facilities in the coming years.

The process will take about 15 months total. The process started in early 2024. There will be a 6-month public conversation with you, staff, partners, stakeholders and other local experts starting in July 2024 that will lead up to planned city adoption in early 2025.

There will be several opportunities to have your voice heard and provide feedback on the draft plan. Check back in to this website regularly to see materials and to find information about upcoming events.

See the Get Involved section to learn more!