A judge on Friday rejected The Family Foundation’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the sale of a city-owned property to the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood.
Attorneys with the religious organization last month filed a lawsuit against Richmond on behalf of Dr. Sheila M. Furey, a Chesterfield County psychiatrist who says she was denied an opportunity to bid on the 4929 Chamberlayne Ave. parcel. The former Brook Hill School was sold for $10 to Planned Parenthood.
The sale was unanimously approved by Richmond’s City Council members on July 22.
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Attorneys with the Richmond-based Family Foundation say officials failed to “issue or publish any invitation for bids or request for proposals” for the site in violation of city code.
Attorneys had sought a restraining order to block the sale while they litigated the claims. On Friday, Richmond Circuit Court Judge Tracy W.J. Thorne-Begland denied that request, allowing the project to continue, Mayor Levar Stoney’s spokesperson Gianni Snidle told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“The restraining order ... would have paused the sale,” Snidle explained. “The judge dismissed it.”
While the complaint against the city is still active, Snidle said the project — a $6 million women’s health clinic — “can move forward” while the suit progresses.
In a statement, Stoney said he was “pleased to see the judge side with the City of Richmond.”
“Access to affordable, quality healthcare, including reproductive services, is essential to the wellbeing of our residents,” he said.
Stoney added that the city’s North Side, where the tract is located, is a “health care desert” and that the addition of a Planned Parenthood clinic will “meet Richmonders right where they are.”
“We will continue to move with this project and look forward to delivering a new clinic in Richmond,” he said.
Planned Parenthood operates two Richmond-area centers that provide abortions, women’s health care and other services.
Rae Pickett, communications director for the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood, said she could not immediately comment on the suit, but said the organization is “excited to be able to continue to move forward with the city.”
Representatives for The Family Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The foundation is a nonprofit organization that says it advocates for legislation based on biblical principles.
In a previous statement, The Family Foundation’s Founding Freedoms Law Center spokesperson Victoria Cobb called the sale a “sweetheart deal” with Planned Parenthood that came at the expense of Furey’s practice, which offers “educational brain training services to children and adults with autism, brain injuries, and dyslexia.”
The move also cost the city “over a million dollars” in real estate revenue, according to Cobb.
The property in January was assessed at a total value of $1,246,000, records show.
The 6,500-square-foot building and site were acquired by Richmond Public Schools when the area was annexed from Henrico County in 1942.
The Family Foundation was founded in 1985 as a Christian conservative lobbying group. Last month, it organized a rally to protest the Chesterfield County School Board’s inaction on adopting new policies that roll back protections afforded to transgender students.