RICHMOND — About $100 million will be needed annually over the next 10 years to address Richmond’s growing infrastructure needs, according to a new report presented to the council Tuesday.
“I know we’re asking for a lot of money, but the challenges are not that small,” said Public Works Director Daniel Chavarria during a Richmond City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Already slated to be finished by the end of fiscal year 2024-25, the city plans to paint new crosswalks, lay down pavement, plant greenery and renovate community centers as part of a list of 88 projects that are expected to all be completed by the end of fiscal year 2027-28, according to a report presented by Public Works staff.
But as dozens of projects are completed, plenty more demand the city’s attention – everything from road repairs to building upgrades.
According to the Public Works report, a minimum of another $82 million is needed annually to cover the cost of the city’s vast infrastructure needs. After accounting for inflation, the cost of maintenance, grant management and a public arts fee, that price tag rises to $100 million.
That’s on top of the millions the city is already spending on the initial 88 projects and a $27-million project budget shortfall, Chavarria said.
“These are preliminary numbers. As plans come to life, these numbers will be fine tuned, but we believe when you add all these together … you’re roughly speaking $100 million every year,” Chavarria said.
Richmond currently uses a project-by-project approach when addressing infrastructure needs. Chavarria is pushing for that to change into a programmatic approach in which projects would be grouped together, improving the city’s chances of accessing grant dollars.
Chavarria also advocated for hiring someone whose sole job would be to seek out and apply for grants to cover already identified city projects rather than continuing a practice of finding projects that meet the requirements of what grant dollars the city can obtain.
More information and data is still needed to fully flesh out and prioritize where money should go but by following existing plans adopted by the city council, Chavarria said the city could largely address community needs.
“This is basically how we should work,” Mayor Eduardo Martinez said during Tuesday’s meeting. “We should look at things holistically and we should dream big and then scale down to what’s possible. I feel that’s what we’re doing here.”
Some key projects, such as a complete rebuild of Fire Station 66 and upgrades to Fire Station 63, were missing from the report while others that had already received some funding, such as improvements to the city library, were listed, councilmembers noted.
Councilmember Soheila Bana pressed the importance of maintaining fire access roads, especially ahead of fire season next summer.
Councilmember Cesar Zepeda raised questions about street safety measures to prevent sideshows after noticing two projects were already on the list. A separate street safety and sideshow abatement item Zepeda put on Tuesday’s agenda was postponed for a future meeting.
Councilmembers agreed to revisit the list in the near future to reprioritize projects. They also requested that staff be open to accessible ways for residents to request projects such as through councilmembers or at council meetings. Chavarria said staff is developing a form for residents that would then be reviewed with already identified needs.
Despite their concerns and suggestions, councilmembers lauded the presentation as a much needed complete look at the city’s infrastructure priorities.
“I think this is brilliant, I really, really do,” Councilmember Doria Robinson said. “I think a ton of work has gone into this. I’m sure there’s more work to come, and if we can hold ourselves together and move through this process, we’re going to have a much, much better city.”