Despite opposition from neighborhood residents, the Henrico County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 last night in favor of rezoning property to allow a 30-home development to be built next to Maybeury Elementary School. “This was a difficult case,“ said Three Chopt District Supervisor David A. Kaechele, who made the motion to rezone. He pointed out that the county staff supported the rezoning requested by Patterson Investments Inc., which owns the property at Maybeury Drive and Patterson Avenue in western Henrico.

The new owners of the Ukrop’s supermarkets are giving the stores a multimillion-dollar makeover. The renovation project also will mean that four of the chain’s 25 stores will shut down a week at a time to make the changes.

Americans have an obligation to help poor children around the world, according to two-thirds of those who responded to a survey sponsored by ChildFund International. According to almost a third, it should be the nation’s top charitable priority. “I was heartened to hear that,“ said Anne Lynam Goddard, CEO of the Henrico County-based agency formerly known as Christian Children’s Fund. “It’s backed up by the response to Haiti, how Americans opened their hearts and purses to answer that need.“

Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. is planning to invest about $32 million to consolidate its two Henrico County container plants into a single facility. The consolidation will cost about 150 people their jobs, but the Chicago-based paper products company will get some state incentives if it meets the investment target. The company’s plants near Richmond International Airport employ about 300 people. County officials said this week that Smurfit-Stone plans to move into a single, consolidated plant that would employ about 150. The location of the consolidated site has not been disclosed.

A local insurance holding company has raised $80 million in capital and is starting operations as a specialist in business coverage. Kinsale Capital Group’s new Kinsale Insurance Co. subsidiary is selling commercial insurance in 31 states and the District of Columbia, CEO and President Michael P. Kehoe said yesterday. The company will provide liability insurance to professionals, such as accountants, architects and engineers, as well as medical malpractice insurance and coverage for biomedical businesses and oil and gas companies, Kehoe said.

A ranking of Virginia’s most transparent local governments finds most of the Richmond area doing comparatively well at providing information on the Web. In a recent report, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy—a nonpartisan research and education organization in Springfield—scored localities on budget and expenditure information available online.

Henrico County officials may vote tonight on a rezoning request that has led some parents at Maybeury Elementary School to ask for an amendment to the county’s 2026 Comprehensive Plan. Patterson Investments Inc., owned by Henrico-based Gumenick Properties, has requested a zoning designation that would allow the construction of 30 homes on a 6-acre parcel at Maybeury Drive and Patterson Avenue, next to the school. The current zoning allows for up to 18 homes at the site.

During the early 1950s, when the fashionable and convenient place to set up a medical practice in Richmond was the Lee Medical Building on Monument Avenue, Dr. Leslie William Rose Jr. headed for what was then the relatively rural far west end of town. “He decided to be adventurous” and built a two-part modern building at Patterson and Maple avenues, said a son, Dr. Leslie W. Rose III of Richmond. His office occupied the front of the building and his home the rear.

A fatal house fire yesterday in western Henrico County started in the kitchen, a fire official said. The name of the victim has not been released pending an autopsy. The Henrico Division of Fire responded to the 11000 block of Thorncroft Drive about 2 a.m. The home is off Sadler Road, near the Innsbrook Corporate Center. The roof and all rooms in the single-story, brick rancher were destroyed, authorities said.

Notice cracks in your home’s foundation? Need replacement windows or landscaping help? All this and more were at your fingertips over the weekend at the Richmond Raceway Complex. It was one-stop shopping for every home and garden need during the three-day Richmond Home and Garden Show. And there was something for everyone among the hundreds of vendors.

When most guys imagine sitting back watching a little SportsCenter and getting pampered, chances are they aren’t picturing themselves sitting in a hair salon. SportClips is trying to change that. “We’re really all about getting guys through the doors,“ said Linda Kostek. Kostek, along with her husband, Keith, owns the franchise rights to SportClips in Virginia.

Henrico County school officials are preparing to change nontraditional programs that serve at-risk students. A review of the school system’s Department of Nontraditional Programs found that the General Educational Development program needs restructuring to be in compliance with state guidelines. The department needs to clearly define the purpose for Virginia Randolph Community High School, an alternative school that provides credit recovery, GED and career and technical education classes to students.

A Kansas firm with ties to the data center and technology industry wants to buy the former Qimonda memory-chip manufacturing plant in eastern Henrico County for $12 million. It is unclear what plans the firm, Richmond Semiconductor LLC, may have for the 210-acre campus, which features 1.36 million square feet of administrative offices, clean rooms and manufacturing space.

The Children’s Museum of Richmond is branching out—to Short Pump. Richmond’s hands-on learning center for children will open a second location in June at the West Broad Village development in western Henrico County. In a first-in-the-nation initiative, the innovative museum plans to tap into the populous western Henrico and Chesterfield County markets to make enough money to maintain its city location and support future growth.