In 2023, planning commissioner Brent Finnegan invited geoaccounting analyst Joshua McCarty to give a presentation to the Harrisonburg Planning Commission about how we can improve our land use policies. McCarty’s analysis showed a clear spike in land value in the downtown central business district where the zoning is mixed-use by-right and there are no off-street parking requirements. His analysis reinforced what Livable Harrisonburg, a Local Conversation, has long pushed for: citywide parking reform and the legalization of incremental housing development.
Downtown’s north end is already seeing the type of change the advocates are championing. Kirsten Moore, who owns a local diner and coworking space, pioneered an adaptive reuse project, revitalizing old buildings in what’s informally known as “the bird district.” Beyond fixing up older structures, efforts like this unlock possibilities. And that’s what Livable Harrisonburg is eager to see.
That’s why the Local Conversation, in partnership with the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, hosted Charles Marohn last year to discuss The Housing Trap with local leaders, developers, and advocates. This conversation helped spark a new housing coalition that is now drafting policy proposals and pushing for zoning reform and a dedicated affordable housing fund. The coalition brings together a diverse range of stakeholders—from homeless services organizations and business groups to environmental advocates—all united in the goal of making housing more accessible and affordable in Harrisonburg.
These advocates aren’t waiting for change—they’re driving it. They show up at Planning Commission and City Council meetings, championing missing-middle and mixed-use developments like the Bluestone Town Center. Through op-eds, news coverage, and direct engagement with city leaders, they’re ensuring that zoning reform stays front and center. Their dedication runs deep—on the night of a crucial public hearing, they stayed until 3 a.m. making their case.
Their stance is clear: allowing city-wide by-right incremental development will produce the least resistance and the most expansion of housing options. Keeping single-family zoning untouched only tightens the squeeze on affordability and fuels car dependency.
Although Harrisonburg still observes mandatory parking minimums in most of the city, the downtown central business district is exempt. And there’s hope with the city’s Downtown 2040 Plan, which lays out a vision for a Harrisonburg that’s friendlier to people traveling by foot and by bike. In fact, the city is already building out a protected bike path running the length of downtown on Liberty Street.
The city’s Local Conversation, Livable Harrisonburg, is playing a big role in educating the city’s leaders about parking mandates. For example, they teamed up with the Sierra Club to bring Professor Andrew Mondshein from the University of Virginia to educate City Council members and Planning Commissioners about the long-term impacts of parking minimums.
The group is also a regular presence at city hall. One of their more notable appearances was when they addressed the developers of the 900-unit "Quarry Heights" project, trying to convince them to reconsider the scale of their parking. As a result, the development will now feature traffic-separated shared-use paths to encourage modes of transportation other than driving.
Harrisonburg is beginning to make progress toward reprioritizing people over automobile speed in the city. The city’s Public Works department has implemented the neighborhood traffic calming program in three neighborhoods, with plans to expand to others. The Public Works Department has also been adding bike lanes and reconfiguring lanes to reduce the amount of road space dedicated to automobiles. The city took an incremental quick build approach to addressing traffic safety concerns on Federal Street downtown, eventually reconfiguring the street to restrict car traffic to one direction, with a separated two-way cycle track. The Downtown 2040 Plan lays out a vision to do the same sort of separated bike lane reconfiguration on Liberty Street, a major thoroughfare downtown.
Harrisonburg Downtown Renaissance, the local Main Street America program, sponsors events that close downtown streets to car traffic so local vendors and artists can perform or sell their work to a local audience. The local Strong Towns affiliated group, Livable Harrisonburg, has organized and co-sponsored a number of public events since 2022 to educate community members about the need to prioritize safety and housing over automobile speed and storage.
Harrisonburg is regionally known as a bike destination, thanks in large part to the work of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition, which organizes the annual Bike-Walk Summit. The summits bring together local leaders, cyclists, city staff, and pedestrian safety advocates to work on improving safety on our streets. Those many years of advocacy are paying off. Harrisonburg now has three shared-use paths that connect parks and schools. In 2023, Icelandic bicycle company Lauf opened an assembly plant in downtown Harrisonburg. While “The Friendly City” still has a long way to go, work is already being done to reclaim street space from cars to make the city more walkable and bikeable.
Harrisonburg is a designated refugee resettlement area, accepting up to 200 refugees each year. In 2015, a group of local refugees identified transportation as a major challenge. Many did not have access to cars, and decades of car-centric development made getting to and from work difficult.
Local realtor Ritchie Vaughn created a volunteer initiative called Bikes for Refugees, which refurbished used bikes to give to refugees, and trained participants on bicycle safety and showed them how to navigate the city safely by bike. The initiative was later adopted by the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) and renamed Bikes for Neighbors. In 2024 SVBC announced that the coalition added Ben Wyse, owner of a local bike shop, to become the full-time leader of its Bikes for Neighbors program.
