Despite being a little too wide, Richmond’s newest fire station finally gets full occupancy approval

Richmond’s Board of Zoning Appeals seems to have taken to heart the old saying that to err is human, to forgive divine — at least when it comes to new fire stations. 

On July 2, all five members of the board voted to grant Fire Station 12 on West Cary Street a certificate of occupancy even though the zoning administrator found the final structure was wider and longer than the approved plans allowed. 

“Unfortunately, it just didn’t fit,” said board Chair Rodney Poole, although he quickly added, “Was it a mistake? Yes.” 

Richmond began rebuilding the Cary Street facility, the city’s oldest operating fire station, in 2022 and held an official ribbon cutting for its completion June 25. But when building officials came to inspect the new station in May, they discovered that an exterior staircase and a generator butted out farther into the building’s rear and side yards than the project’s special use permit allowed.

While the approved plans called for a 3.6-foot setback on the building’s southern side, the final structure left only 1.76 feet of space. On the eastern end, only 4.88 feet remained instead of the specified 5 feet. 

“I’m not here to try to make any excuses. I want to put that out there. It was a mistake that was made,” L. Dexter Goode, Richmond’s construction projects manager, told the board. 

Goode offered no definitive explanation for what had gone wrong with the building’s construction. The builders had made the exterior staircase as narrow as possible while still complying with codes, he said, and had relied on multiple survey reference points in siting the structure. 

Still, things didn’t end up exactly where they were supposed to be, leading to the zoning administrator’s May 15 refusal to give the station its necessary certificate of occupancy. In the meantime, it has been operating under a temporary certificate. 

“I always tell people that it seems like this station was cursed, because we had a lot of things go on that created delays,” said Goode. 

According to him, no neighbors have complained about the encroachment, and none of the overruns affect an adjoining alley where cars and trash trucks drive. 

“We're not encroaching in the alley,” he said. “We're actually, I guess, encroaching in the setback that was provided to us that we were supposed to stay within.” 

Running through the criteria the appeals board considers in deciding whether to give someone an exception from the normal rules, Poole determined the finished station safeguards health, safety and welfare, doesn’t unreasonably limit light and air for the neighbors, doesn’t increase congestion — and “clearly doesn’t increase public danger from fire.” 

“Those are all the criteria. So I think you’ve done a really good job of meeting the criteria,” he said — “with a little small exception.” 

Contact Reporter Sarah Vogelsong at svogelsong@richmonder.org