What's in Henrico's proposed $343-million Capital Improvement Program?
Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas is proposing a $343.6-million capital improvement program as part of his overall $2-billion Fiscal Year 2027 budget, and last week he provided an update about the proposal to the county's planning commission.
The CIP is a funding plan for longer-term (and typically more expensive) projects that usually involve major infrastructure improvements, such as the construction of new facilities or the expansion of existing ones.
Vithoulkas first laid out the total spending proposed for FY27, which begins July 1, along with infrastructure requests running through FY36. The county is required to plan in 10-year cycles but updates that plan every year and funds the CIP only one year at a time.
He cautioned that the odds of every requested project being funded in those 10 years – a total of nearly $7 billion worth of projects – was “pretty close to zero. Requests will outweigh available resources and then when we go through the review process, some projects really, quite frankly, don’t rise to the level where they’ll be recommended for funding.”
His proposed CIP budget for the coming fiscal year recommends funding for projects spread across 15 county agencies.
Some big items focus on Henrico’s population growth and concerns regularly raised by citizens. After the Richmond water crisis of last year, water infrastructure is another major area of infrastructure investment.
Key projects recommended for funding in the new budget include:
• Education – $40 million to build a new elementary school in the Fairfield District and $6 million for design and planning of another new elementary school in Highland Springs.
• Transportation – $27 million for road projects, $7.75 million for pedestrian and bike infrastructure designed to improve walkability, and $1.5 million for new streetlights. Director of Public Works Terrell Hughes also noted that these sidewalk improvement projects would include bus shelters in some high-traffic areas.
• Water and sewer improvements – Another $50 million to help fund a multi-year effort to build a 13-mile water main connecting Eastern Henrico with the county's water treatment facility in the West End, along with $11.4 million for water infrastructure and $36.45 million for sewer infrastructure.
• Recreation and Parks – $2.5 million for planning and design of a park on Kain Road in the Three Chopt District and $500,000 for planning and design of a park in the Tuckahoe District, next to Maybeury Elementary School.
For details, visit the county's budget website at henrico.gov/budget/proposed-budgets.
