Like many communities across the country, Richfield saw rapid growth after World War II. But the cycle of change didn’t end there: Richfield has continued to change the city to fit the residents’ needs. The city has invested in important community amenities to help residents of all walks of life — and they’ve done this with broad community support. Richfield’s history is one of change for the good of the community. Their future is, too.
Richfield’s arterial improvements were done without the use of special assessments; arterial streets are shared amenities that benefit the whole community, and it has been Richfield’s practice to avoid special assessments for these streets. This has resulted in a high-quality network of bikeways and ever-improving pedestrian space.
The city’s first generation of arterial streets were four-lane, undivided “stroads” with 35 mph speed limits, no bike space and barely-usable sidewalks. The resident-led Transportation Commission and professional engineering staff worked together to change this approach, and saw the first tangible results in 2010 when they transformed one of the city-owned streets from four lanes to a two-lane roadway with bike lanes, grassy boulevards and improved sidewalks.
Since then, their progress has accelerated. The city fully reconstructed 7.1 miles of arterial streets, restriped, lowered speed limits and done other retrofits on an additional 7.7 miles of arterials. Richfield has also added eight roundabouts on arterial streets since 2008, and have an additional five planned by the end of this decade. This has reduced the need for multilane intersections and improved safety for all users.
In 2016, Richfield installed the longest protected bike lane in the region, with 2.75 miles of 66th Street featuring one-way protected bike lanes. The new 66th provides safe access to 16 parks within a quarter-mile, including the city’s swimming pool. The city plans to utilize a similar design in the city-county reconstruction of Nicollet Avenue in 2026. They have also continually improved these designs to enhance pedestrian comfort based on user feedback.
Richfield continues to make progress on reducing surface parking requirements to ensure that they are at or below market norms, and they continually review and reduce requirements in response to market changes. The city imposes parking maximums to dissuade excessive parking.
Within the last two years, Richfield reduced parking requirements for houses, apartments, restaurants, and museums and libraries. The last change allowed local library to reduce its parking lot nearly in half, granting for more green space in a major park — and less unsightly, unnecessary pavement. City leaders will be considering additional reductions to parking requirements — including the possibility of elimination — downtown and along major transit lines through policy work planned for 2025.
Thinking ahead, Richfield’s parking requirements do not only serve cars; in recent years they have included requirements for electric vehicle charging, and adopted a comprehensive bicycle parking strategy — including support for e-bikes, sheltered parking in new housing, and creating a standard that prioritizes bicycle parking at bikeable/walkable businesses. Richfield’s mixed-use zoning districts discourage the use of excessive surface parking, and nearly every major redevelopment has included structured parking.
Like many American cities, Richfield’s largest era of growth was post-World War II. As late as the 1990s, Richfield’s zoning changes prioritized competition with newer suburbs. This was not financially sustainable.
In the last 15 years, Richfield has diversified its approach, adding over 1000 new housing units, and updating the comprehensive plan and zoning code to allow a greater diversity of housing choices. This included expanding areas where apartments can be built, re-allowing duplexes by-right, and allowing smaller lots that were already common in parts of the city. The city also allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and it was one of the first cities in the Twin Cities metro to do so.
The changes in Richfield’s approach on housing development aren’t only on the ground, but in philosophy: the most recent changes have prioritized having clear, universal rules for development by right. This contrasts with many peer cities that have highly restrictive zoning codes, and allow for most development only through extensive use of planned-unit developments (PUDs), or many variances. Simpler rules promote fairness and predictability, and allow smaller developers to develop in the city more easily.
Richfield uses resident boards to study policy changes in detail and engage with the City Council and the community at large. Many of these boards are unique to Richfield, like the Transportation Commission that helps co-create new street designs with engineering staff and residents who use the street. The city has worked to make more information about council meetings available online and ensured apartment residents receive the same information from the city as homeowners. And city staff and council members are present at many community events, both ones led by the city as well as privately organized festivals.
This collaborative approach means the city can respond quickly to resident needs. In 2021, Richfield worked with residents to preserve the Woodlawn Terrace manufactured home park. While many of these parks have come under predatory ownership that priced out existing residents — or leveled entirely for redevelopment — the residents, the park, and the city worked together to preserve this unique for-sale ownership opportunity. The city committed $350,000 to utility improvements, and even revised its down payment assistance program to help residents buy a manufactured home. Now under cooperative ownership, land rent is stable and this community has been preserved for the future.
