Waldorf school plan to buy land off Brookland Parkway for parking lot riles neighbors 6%
By Sarah Vogelsong0%
7/30/2026, 2:55:04 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 9 faulty reasoning types, including Self-Serving Bias, Appeal to Authority, and Hasty Generalization, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 12.9% saturation with 116 hits. Analysis detected 426 faulty-reasoning hits from 902 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 21.5% and a BS Rank of 6% (21,063 of 22,405 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.00% of the article peer group.
Since 2022, a turning lane from Robin Hood Road to Brookland Parkway in Richmond’s Northside that wraps around two sides of the Richmond Waldorf School has been blocked off with temporary posts.
The aim, said city spokesperson Jensen Gavulic, was “to improve safety by reducing vehicle conflict points near the school crosswalk and helping to better manage vehicle speeds through the intersection.”
With no plans to reopen the lane, the Waldorf School last year asked the city to formally close the right of way and sell it to the school, along with an adjoining triangle of grass that had separated the turning lane from the two streets.
Altogether, the lane and triangular space comprise about a quarter of an acre.
Waldorf offered roughly $100,000 for the land, equal to the city’s assessment of its value when accounting for a utility easement.
With the extra room, the school wants to construct a parking lot with up to 34 spaces that representatives say would provide a smoother system for parents picking up and dropping off their children.
In addition, Waldorf has said it would construct new public sidewalks to replace existing ones and add landscaping around the perimeter.
The school’s current pickup and dropoff lanes along Brookland Parkway “do not function the way that they should,” Lory Markham, a planner representing Waldorf on the project who also has three children there, said this July.
“So instead of asking the city to spend your limited resources on fixing these two lanes of pavement in front of our front door, we have gone through this extensive process to try to acquire the property so that we may fix it ourselves.”
Initially, the school appeared to have support for its plans.
After Waldorf Executive Director Andrew Ross proposed the concept to the Sherwood Park Civic Association in April 2025, then-President John Gass wrote a letter noting the presentation had “concluded with a near-unanimous show-of-hands vote by the neighbors for the Waldorf proposal team, an indication that, for those neighbors attending, there was clear approval of the proposal as presented.”
That is no longer the case.
While no one wants the turning lane reopened, at Planning Commission and City Council meetings this spring and summer, a number of Sherwood Park residents have turned out to oppose the plan to sell the land for the construction of a parking lot on the site.
“Please do not let them acquire this green space and permanently mar the history and beauty of our neighborhood,” said resident Robert Hood.
An aerial view of the site in question.
The parking lot in the lower right is part of Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU Brook Road Pavilion.
(Google Maps) Several have argued that getting rid of the triangle of land, which contains grass and one tree, would irreparably harm a landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the acclaimed landscape architect behind New York City’s Central Park who also laid out Brookland Parkway .
The Olmsted Network, a national group devoted to “championing Olmsted parks, places and principles,” has written a letter asking the City Council to reject the sale.
“It’s part of the original Olmsted design,” said David Maier, who characterized the triangle as a “city park.”
Councilor Kenya Gibson, whose 3rd District contains the site, is hoping a compromise can be reached.
(Sarah Vogelsong/The Richmonder) Other Richmond residents have worried about the addition of an entrance and exit to the proposed parking lot on Robin Hood Road or about the idea of selling land to be used for vehicles when the city has prioritized other modes of transportation.
“We’ve heard from many neighbors who don’t want a parking lot in a front yard on a city-designated great street,” Gass told the City Council in explaining his new stance this July.
“We’ve heard from local bike and pedestrian advocates who see an already dangerous intersection threatened by another busy curb cut on Robin Hood Road, which will be a major route to and from the Diamond District.”
For its part, Waldorf has appeared bewildered by the shift in opinion.
“We’re disappointed in the pushback from the neighborhood after receiving their initial voice of support for it,” said Markham.
Ross has argued that the school is uniquely impacted by the closed turning lane, which he said covers about 300 feet of the school’s perimeter.
“There is zero interest in reopening this road,” he said.
“It is directly on our doorstep, and we will invest and make the necessary steps and continue to work with Sherwood Park, as we are their neighbors.”
Some Waldorf parents have also written to the city calling the plan “a straightforward win: safer drop-off and pick-up for kids, a nicer streetscape for the neighborhood, and revenue for the city, without asking taxpayers for a dime.”
Councilor Kenya Gibson, whose 3rd District contains the site, is hoping a compromise can be reached.
At the July meeting, she asked for a vote on the proposal to be put off until September to give the parties more time to negotiate.
“I love representing the Northside because residents are really informed and active,” she told The Richmonder.
“We are lucky to have many wonderful schools in the district as well.
Advocacy and democracy isn’t always easy, but I’m hopeful that the civic association and school can find some common ground.”
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