May 2026: Updated SUP Application Submitted to the City
After ongoing discussion with neighbors, community groups, and the FDA, as well as comments from Richmond City Council, we have revised and resubmitted our SUP Application.
We and all the experts alongside us – neighbors, architects, and experts in zoning, transit, historic renovation, acoustics and more – have been hard at work collaborating to adapt our application to blend neighborhood and City guidance. In particular, we have aimed to simplify our SUP application to ensure clarity for everyone on how 1836 Park will (and won’t!) be used as it starts a new chapter as a community space.
We’ve posted our revised application materials here – a brief summary of recent updates is below, and the full documents are available at the bottom of the page.
Notes on May 2026 Updates to the Application
Two major themes we’ve heard are concerns from neighbors about large nighttime events and interest from both neighbors and the City in simplifying the event schedule and guidelines. To respond and adapt to these ideas, we’ve made a key change to the application: Narrowing the limitation on community events to the evening hours. Here is the specific language on events drawn from the updated application:
A. Community Events
(i) The maximum capacity shall be 200 attendees for any Community Event.
(ii) No more than 18 Community Events per year with more than 40 attendees shall end after 6:00 p.m.
(iii) There shall be no limitation on the number of Community Events that end prior to 6:00 p.m.
(iv) No Community Event shall extend beyond 10:30 p.m. No personnel associated with the Community Event shall work on the Property beyond 11:30 p.m.
(v) All Community Events are required to take place on the Property; use of Meadow Park must be arranged separately through the City of Richmond and any Community Events using Meadow Park are not permitted through the SUP.
(And our initial community-driven event requirements remain in place: there will be no amplified sound outdoors and events with over 40 guests will require offsite parking accommodation.)
We believe this simplification addresses the primary concerns we’ve heard. Alongside neighbors’ concern about parking during evening hours, we’ve heard from neighbors that evening events (interest group meetups, game nights, discussion groups and so on) are an important offering for a community space to provide – especially in building community for people who attend school and work during the day. Maintaining but limiting the number of larger evening events would give 1836 Park the flexibility to host some rewarding and fun community uses in the evening (charity receptions, neighborhood gatherings, performances), as well as preserving a revenue stream that can help subsidize 1836 Park’s ongoing availability to the community at large.
As before, we encourage you to download the full submission materials available on this page and we welcome your comments and outreach as this plan progresses.
