The Richmond Fire Department’s plan to replace 2 acres of park land at the Hickory Hill Community Center with a new fire training center has run into a surprising roadblock – zoning.

The South Side community center on Bells Road and the nearby area are zoned R-4, a residential designation that would not allow the Fire training facility department’s project, according to city’s current zoning map.

That is why top city officials, including Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders and Fire Chief Melvin D. Carter, are headed to the Board of Zoning Appeals in hopes of getting that roadblock removed.

The BZA, which has authority to allow projects that would violate the zoning classification in which they would be built, is to consider the fire training center at its next meeting 1 p.m. Wednesday, June 7.

However, should the board uphold the zoning and decline to authorize the project, the Stoney administration would face the embarrassing prospect of either appealing that decision to the Richmond Circuit Court or finding a new location.

A court appeal is considered a long-shot since a judge would need to find the board’s decision did not follow the law and was “arbitrary and capricious.”

The zoning issue first surfaced when William “Chuck” Davidson, the city zoning administrator who serves as secretary to the appeals board, issued the agenda for the upcoming meeting.

The Stoney administration has known for months about the zoning issue. To get this matter on the BZA agenda for the June 7 meeting, the administration had to file its appeal on or before April 14.

A review of documents indicates that neither Chief Carter nor the planning staff nor other City Hall officials, including Mr. Saunders, disclosed the zoning issue as the Fire Department’s request moved through the approval process. Staff did not mention the zoning issue in briefing the Urban Design Committee, which recommended rejection to the City Planning Commission. The issue of zoning was missing from the public discussion before the Planning

Commission also voted to reject the proposal. Both the Planning Commission and the Urban Design Committee voted to disapprove the project on the grounds that it signaled a retreat from the city’s stated policy of expanding green space in South Side and particularly in Black and Brown communities like the ones around Hickory Hill that rate high for pollution and chronic diseases like asthma.

Community advocates who battled against the new training center also were unaware that Hickory Hill was not properly zoned because they never raised the issue in speaking against the project at the UDC and the Planning Commission.

The issue of zoning also never came up when City Council considered the fire training center in committee and at the May 8 meeting before overruling the Planning Commission and allowing the project to proceed.