Tuckahoe Park expansion planned to West Broad Street

Tuckahoe Creek Park in Henrico’s West End, is undergoing an expansion that will connect the existing boardwalk to West Broad Street.

According to county officials, the expansion will add length to the boardwalk while allowing for more public parking.

“We have Tuckahoe Creek and the James River but there is no public access, except in the eastern part of the county,” said Tuckahoe District Supervisor Pat O’Bannon.

A master plan for the park has been in development since 2016, and the work currently being done is part of the final phase of the project, said O’Bannon.

“The end goal is to have a linear park along the edge of Tuckahoe Creek, where someone could walk from Broad Street to Patterson Avenue,” O’Bannon said.

Parking is one of the primary issues this expansion hopes to solve, said O’Bannon. While there is a public parking area, it only has space for about 10 cars. Considering that 13,913 visitors that attended the park between July and September, that presents an obvious dilemma. County officials are still working on purchasing property to build a parking lot south of Ridgefield.

“It’s very well-used by people in the county, and it’s a beautiful location,” O’Bannon said. “You can go fishing, kayaking, or picnic. The pictures don’t even do it justice”

According to officials, 2003 was the first time the park appeared on a bond referendum, when Henrico purchased pieces of land adjacent to the creek between Patterson Avenue and Ridgefield Parkway. Due to a lack of specificity on the bond referendum, county officials were not able to purchase some pieces of land on the creek.

When the land became available for purchase again in 2016, $5 million was allotted to Phase I and Phase II of the project as part of a bond referendum. These phases included more than 1,500 feet of boardwalk, a neighborhood pedestrian access at the terminus of Ridgefield Parkway, and additional trail space.

Officials intend to allocate an additional $5 million to Phase III of the project as part of the 2022 bond referendum, which voters overwhelmingly endorsed Nov. 8. As part of this phase, county officials still are working to acquire missing segments of land to provide continuous access across this entire section of Tuckahoe Creek, said Cari Tretina, chief of staff to County Manager John Vithoulkas.

“The longest part of any capital project involves land acquisition, especially if it’s on private property,” Tretina said. “We are in active conversation with additional entities to acquire more property along the actual Tuckahoe Creek near Patterson.”