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An Analysis on Urban Development Decisions and the Role of Community Resistance in Navy Hill

 

By Meghan Z. Gough, Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Studies and Planning at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Kathryn Howell, Executive Director of the National Center for Smart Growth and Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Studies and Planning at the University of Maryland

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Before becoming the name of a controversial redevelopment project in 2017, Navy Hill was a thriving Black neighborhood just outside of downtown Richmond, Virginia (USA) into the early twentieth century. The focal point of the neighborhood after the Civil War was the Navy Hill School, a primary school and the first public school in Richmond to employ Black teachers (Richardson, 2007). A symbol of social advancement, in a neighborhood with growing visibility as a center for Black civil society, the Navy Hill School was known for its high caliber students. However, like many of Richmond’s Black neighborhoods Navy Hill was destroyed by government-funded renewal programs and interstate highway construction that made way for the Richmond Coliseum, government buildings and an expansion of the VCU Medical School, displacing families and making invisible the place history of Navy Hill.

 

Richmond Coliseum under construction, looking east at what was Navy Hill, 1970s. (Source: Valentine Museum)

Between 2017 and 2020, a fight over the redevelopment of Navy Hill, driven by a mix of community organizers, smart growth advocates, school board members and affordable housing advocates, would illuminate both the erasure and violence of the neighborhood’s destruction, as well as the city’s desperation for development. In this paper, we use Marcuse’s (2009) “exposing, proposing and politicizing” framework for critical reimagining the future of cities. We argue that organizers exposed the roots of the problem, including the neighborhood’s critical legacy of Black self-determination, as well as the racist destruction in the 1960s and 1970s. They used this to start a conversation about what is needed, and in doing so help to propose the necessary action, which included a community-based planning process and meaningful reparative action. Finally, they were able to effectively politicize the work using the history and proposed futures using direct action, political process and bureaucracy. 

In the case of Navy Hill, mid-twentieth century history did not repeat itself; communities of resistance united to demand that city leaders pause and demonstrate how public-private, taxpayer subsidized redevelopment supports liberated reform that begins to reconcile racist planning history and promise more equitable services. Indeed, in 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown public spaces around the world, the Richmond City Council voted to not approve the deal, setting the stage for a new way of thinking about development and the city’s history. 

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2025 State Housing Need Assessment Released

Read the full DHCD press release and the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment

On July 24, 2025, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) announced the release of the 2025 State Housing Needs Assessment. This update to the 2020 Maryland Housing Needs Assessment explains how the lack of affordable housing in all geographic regions of the state is placing an increasing burden on both renters and owners. Research and analysis for both the 2020 and the 2025 State Housing Needs Assessments were conducted by the National Center for Smart Growth  Research and Education (NCSG) at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Kate Howell, Director of NCSG, issued the following statement:

“The report brings together a range of federal, state and local data sources, methodologies and subject matter expertise to expose the multi-sector challenges facing Maryland’s affordable housing supply. While the challenges may look different across different regions, age groups and communities, this report underscores the need for creative policy solutions and new partnerships.”

The 2025 Maryland Housing Needs Assessment consists of three studies and an executive summary.

  • The Housing Production and Zoning Capacity study analyzes Maryland’s regulatory landscape, recent trends in housing production, and zoning capacity related to the state’s projected housing growth through 2045.
  • The Housing Gaps study analyzes the challenge of housing affordability in Maryland for all residents, with a special focus on vulnerable populations.
  • The Housing Needs of Older Adults study analyzes housing needs and trends for Maryland’s older adult population.
  • The Assessment’s Executive Summary presents several recommendations to address Maryland’s housing needs.

NCSG is thankful to the many faculty members and graduate students who helped produce the 2025 Assessment.

  • Nicholas Finio, Ph.D.
  • Casey Dawkins, Ph.D.
  • Kathryn Howell, Ph.D.
  • Wideleine Desir
  • Sophie McManus
  • Rebecca Garman
  • Caila Prendergast
  • Cole Shultz
  • Alex McRoberts
  • Sarah Kamei Hoffman

For more information about this study contact Nicholas Finio, Ph.D. at nfinio@umd.edu.

Read the full DHCD press release and the 2025 Housing Needs Assessment

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PALS 2024-2025: Year In Review

NCSG’s Partnership for Action Learning in Sustainability (PALS) connects the experience of UMD faculty and the creativity of UMD students with government, non-profit, and community partners to solve real-world problems. Each academic year, PALS works to match partner jurisdictions, agencies, and other organizations with relevant university coursework. Since 2014, PALS has connected 2,400 UMD students to more than 300 projects across the state of Maryland. 

This academic year, PALS completed 34 projects. These projects ranged from a middle housing policy study for Maryland to a paper that examines changes in Korean population trends in Beltsville, Maryland, and Prince George’s County, Maryland (both by the School of Public Policy) to an assessment and forecast of 911 service demand by the Robert H. Smith School of Business (final report forthcoming). In addition to a final presentation and a report to the client, students and faculty participate in an annual showcase in May that is open to the public. 

UMD students presenting their PALS project, Live! From Prince George’s County: Exploring the History of Music and Place, a historical analysis of live music venues in Prince George’s County.

The collaborative university-community partnership delivers recommendations, strategies and tools to address a community’s most pressing challenges, providing a road map for creating sustainable, thriving places to live, work and play. In the 2024-2025 academic year, PALS worked with 21 partners on 45 projects. This year’s partners include: 

  • Brookeville, Maryland
  • Cecil County
  • College Park Department of Planning & Community Development
  • College Park, Maryland
  • Community Forklift
  • Defensores de la Cuenca
  • Evensong Natural Building Lab
  • Frederick County
  • Frederick County Division of Parks and Recreation
  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation
  • Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development
  • Maryland Department of Natural Resources
  • Maryland Department of Planning
  • North Beach, Maryland
  • Prince George’s Community College
  • Prince George’s County
  • Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation
  • Prince George’s County Department of Planning
  • Purple Line Corridor Coalition (PLCC)
  • Resilience Authority of Anne Arundel and Annapolis
  • Terps for Bike Lanes

 

Presentation on PALS project, Defensores De La Cuenca Interactive Web App, supporting environmental stewardship in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

In the 2024-2025 PALS Survey, partners reflected on their experience…

“We’ve worked with PALS in the past and have always enjoyed how enthusiastic and engaged the students are and how helpful they are in answering any questions we have as part of the analysis of their data.  They take the time to understand any goals or outcomes we are specifically looking for and try to accommodate those.  It has been a very successful project each time.”

“It was a complicated project with many moving parts, and the final result exceeded expectations. It could not have been possible without students’ input and labor and faculty leadership.”

“The students were very knowledgeable of the subject and provided great feedback.”

 

In the same survey, students shared….

“I think the aspect of the project that was most successful was that the client seemed excited to be able to potentially implement our recommendations because that means the work we did was data-driven and can have a real impact on Frederick County.”

“This project was an excellent opportunity to see how impactful our work in the university is for the community. Sometimes what we learn in the classroom seems abstract and very specific for only certain purposes, but having the possibility to apply what we learned in class to contribute to the understanding of the structure of the dune in Assateague State Park and how that can help direct efforts to protect both the dune and the infrastructure of the park was great!

“I realized that I like working on smaller-scale projects that directly impact the community. It is great seeing all our hard work come to life in an event that brought joy to the community.” 

 

Lastly, faculty commented…

“Working on these projects has generated research ideas and opportunities for me. I have developed research projects, written papers and book chapters, and presented materials derived from PALS projects at national and international conferences.”

“It was fabulous to be able to offer students a living, breathing, ready-made experience of community to supplement our activities inside the classroom and their readings and assignments at home. It’s one thing to learn “about” community from discussions and textbooks; learning “with” and “from” community takes all of that to a new level!”

“The students were inspired to learn by serving the community.”

 

Students sharing their PALS project at the 2024-2025 showcase. 

This spring semester, PALS hosted its annual showcase, where students shared their work at a public event with experts, practitioners, and community members in attendance. Images from the 2025 showcase can be found at https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCdXof.

 

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