City Council has cleared the way for the re-start of a shut-down subdivision that is to bring 122 affordable homes to North Side.

The decision was made during the Jan. 8 meeting in which the council also approved support for cooperative regional efforts to help deal with opioid addiction.

The council approved an agreement between City Hall and the Better Housing Coalition that will enable nearly $7.3 million in city funds to flow into the Highland Grove development in the 500 block of Dove Street in Highland Park.

The funding will pay for installation of new utility lines, streets and alleys and other infrastructure for the first phase of the development that will fill a large portion of the 40-acre site where Virginia National Guard was once housed.

Better Housing Coalition had contractors begin work in the spring, but was forced to shut down in August when the city halted funding to ensure an agreement was in place.

The development and sale of the single-family homes would help complete the Highland Grove development that got its start 16 years ago during Mayor L. Douglas Wilder’s tenure and began with the removal of the former Dove Court public housing community and ramshackle apartments across the street.

Development of new income-restricted apartments was completed in 2013 but plans for the new homes remained on hold until BHC was tapped eight years later to handle that phase. BHC is partnering with other nonprofits, project:Homes, the Maggie Walker Community Land Bank and Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity, on the development.

Greta J. Harris, BHC president and CEO, said she expects infrastructure work to resume by March. The first phase is to include 97 homes, with an additional 25 in the second phase, she said.

BHC has developed hundreds of rental units and previously renovated homes that it sold or leased. Highland Grove will be the group’s first new home subdivision.

In other votes, the council approved the development of a new West End office building and endorsed the administration’s plan to participate with Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico counties on two programs involving opioid addiction.

One program involves funding an analysis of the gaps in programs and support for addicts who are pregnant or parent children.

The second would expand an initiative that places peer recovery specialists with first responders to offer assistance to people who overdose. The new funding would allow more peer recovery specialists to be hired.