City Council Meeting, 1/6/2026

We'll call this meeting to order.

Welcome one, welcome all and happy new year to everybody.

And uh once again, welcome. And uh Mr.

Dehaney, let's go ahead and get started.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the first briefing from the first session back from break would be from the Atlantic Avenue task force. If council recalls, council um convened this task force to provide options on how best to address the Atlantic Avenue improvement project. And the task force been meeting dutifully for several meetings. And this is where they're they're coming forward with their

recommend recommendations and their suggestions for your consideration. The next voice you'll hear will probably be Julie and she'll kick off the presentation followed by co-chair Mike Mauch.

Welcome.

Good afternoon. Happy new year, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council.

I'm Julie Brenman with Fountain Works and happy to be here to talk about the Atlantic Avenue task force. As the manager just said, the as a reminder, the council um uh passed a resolution to establish the Atlantic Avenue task force to develop recommendations for council.

Actually, I'm looking at this. I think it wasn't actually a council resolution.

It was a mayor mayor task force. So, I apologize. I've read this so many times I forgot that. So, this is a mayor's task force. Um, but the purpose of the task force was to look at how to allocate the 30 to $35 million in capital improvement funds for the Atlantic Avenue capital improvements.

Looking specifically at the appearance, so things like facade, art, and decorative elements of Atlantic Avenue.

looking at mobility and safety. Um those are sidewalks and transportation issues and looking specifically at on street parking on Atlantic Avenue itself. The council um the mayor's task force also was charged with looking at how to allocate funding across the different sections of Atlantic Avenue, breaking it up into three sections. North Beach uh 25th to 40th Street, Central Beach 17th

to 24th Street and South Beach 5th to 17th Street. So the question in terms of how to allocate was do we want to do a little bit of something everywhere? Do we want to concentrate something in different parts of uh Atlantic Avenue?

So the task force was asked to look at all of those things.

The members that were appointed to the task force, several of them are here today. A few had conflicts, but if I can get those in the audience to raise your hand and waved.

Thank you for being here and thank you for your dedication to the task force.

Mike Mch is also here with me. He'll be presenting the task force's recommendations. And um of the seven members on the first meeting, they voted and elected Mike Mch and Bill Graham Bell as co-chairs. Um and Bill is one of the people that had a an unavoidable conflict today, so he's not here. Uh Vice Mayor Wilson and Council Member Remack served as city council liaison, and they were at almost every meeting of

the task force.

In addition to the task force members, we had a tremendous amount of support from city staff. Not everyone was at every meeting, but most of these people were at most of the meetings. Uh so we wanted to highlight that there is a lot of interest and support in the task force recommendations. They served as subject matter experts and were able to answer a lot of questions and provide

details and do some research to answer the task force questions. I'll note we listed Clay Dills um on this page. He's clearly not city staff, but we invited him to one of our meetings to do a presentation and it was um a sort of aha moment for the task force members. So, we wanted to acknowledge his presence.

Um, uh, Fountain Works, me and my team served as neutral facilitators for the meetings to make sure that we provided support and everyone was able to share their concerns openly and no one dominated. The task force met five times between July and November for a total of 20 hours per person. So, that's a lot of time dedicated to this and recognition of the importance of these decisions.

Um you can see the schedule of how how and when we met and we are here today at the presentation to council. We used um human- centered design as a framework in the beginning of the task force to ensure that perspect different perspectives were represented on the task force. So, uh, at the first meeting, we asked task force members, uh, to put on the hat. If you were a member of council, if you were city

staff, if you were a resident visitor, a tourist visitor, a hotel year, restaurant tour, re retailer, what are their different perspectives and what are their interests in Atlantic Avenue?

What do they want out of the renovations, the capital improvements on Atlantic Avenue? In addition, we asked all of the um task force members to bring their own selves to the meetings.

They all were appointed because they represent important constituencies for Atlantic Avenue. Um we also provided a number of opportunities for the task force members to bring in statements or resolutions or just share thoughts from their respective organizations. So there were a lot of opportunities to share their own perspectives, their organizational perspectives, as well as think about the people that come to

Atlantic Avenue as visitors um and residents.

Uh we did go on a tour of Atlantic Avenue. These are a few snapshots from the tour. We um had staff uh design the tour to look at a number of different key points. Uh whether it was some things that are kind of hidden. The bottom right of this slide shows some hidden bad electrical wiring and some of the light posts. Um it also let uh let the task force members see the

differences between the north, central, and south sections of Atlantic Avenue. A lot of the task force members spend a lot of time at Atlantic Avenue, but most of them said they saw things on this tour that they didn't notice. If you don't go looking for some of the the issues, you don't notice them daytoday.

So, the tour was a helpful way to frame and highlight some of the differences between the different sections of Atlantic Avenue. and some of off, you know, some of us look at the ground while we're walking, but a lot of the issues are on the ground and you might not be looking at the ground all the time. So, the tour was an important piece of the task force work. So, with

that as background, the task force um set a vision for what they wanted to accomplish as a task force. And you can see on the screen, they set a vision for Atlantic Avenue as well as a vision for the task force. Their vision for Atlantic Avenue is that they want Atlantic Avenue to be a unique, memorable destination for visitors and residents alike. They want a clean, safe, attractive, and revitalized

Atlantic Avenue. They want it to be easy to navigate for all. So that means the people that are there all the time as well as the visitors. And they want it Atlantic Avenue to be economically vibrant with increased business year round. So not just a summer destination.

The vision for the task force itself for their work was to get consensus on the recommendations and take timely action on the recommendations.

There was a lot of discussion about how many years the the city of Virginia Beach has been working on a new plan for updating Atlantic Avenue. And the task force's most important philosophy and their vision is they want to see action taken and movement going forward. They don't want this to be another set of recommendations that sits on a shelf, but they'd like the the funding to get spent and the um Atlantic Avenue

improvements to be made. They also asked um they set a goal for consensus on on street parking. Uh going into the task force meetings, we knew that on street parking was going to be one of the most contentious issues and it ended up being one of the most contentious issues. But their goal was to come to consensus on what their recommendations should be. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to

the co-chair, Mike Mch, to walk through the recommendations.

Mr. Mayor, Madame Vice Chair, my m Madame Vice Mayor, um, and council, I want to thank you, uh, for entrusting us with taking these responsibilities to allocate and give recommendations on how to allocate uh, the funding for Atlantic Avenue. Um, Atlantic Avenue, as we all know, is uh, one of our largest economic drivers for our city. And I'm going to go back a couple of slides um just for

everybody to see the amount of uh city staff, high level city staff that was in every single meeting that we did. Um and I think for our the task force members, this showed how important this was to you guys to get this right. So we took our uh our job very seriously and we uh tried to get to as much of a consensus and um trying to utilize the uh the the

funding sources as best as possible. So with that I'm going to move into the recommendations.

Um so within the uh 30 to $35 million budget uh we had prioritized what we thought was going to be uh best to allocate towards. So uh road striping, milling and overlay and parking. Um, as we all know, parking is going to be one of the most contentious uh points of this. And um, out of the seven members that we had, we had uh, six that that that voted unanimously voted for this

project uh, to move forward as as we're presenting it. Um, sidewalks and crosswalks to be redone uh, with some raised crosswalks, uh, wayfinding and placemaking. And this one's going to be big, I think, um, as we move forward in the presentation. Uh, I want to put in a real emphasis on this wayinding and placemaking uh lighting landscaping um, and the Atlantic Avenue facade grand improvement. So,

we wanted to make sure that it was uniform up and down Atlantic Avenue so that everything would look very similar and that everything would every portion of Atlantic Avenue uh, would would look the same. And we tried to allocate the funding as needed. Um what we did is we kind of prioritized where we thought that the biggest need was and we tried to move forward from there. So um we

wanted to uh prioritize the central beach uh that that is where the bulk of the pedestrian traffic is. That's where uh the largest conglomeration of people um goes to. And so that one was a number one priority because of the aesthetics in that area and uh some of the deferred maintenance that had that we've that we've lacked on is is most needed in that area. So uh South Beach was the

second priority. Um and then North Beach has had quite a bit of improvement and so that needed less of a priority but it still is going to have uh quite a significant um uh improvements uh as we move forward with this. Uh so again seeking uniformity across all of Atlantic Avenue was our goal. Um we wanted to invest in a wow factor. So and and that really putting an emphasis on

art and um I will get into that in just a little bit. The facade grant improvement um and that that one is so that we can have private investment as well as public investment. So, this the city's taking a large step in and really reinvesting back into the public infrastructure and the aesthetics of Atlantic Avenue and and what the hope the hope is is that the private sector will follow suit and really enhance

their properties as well. And this could be a jump start to help that. Um, and then to pursue other non- capital improvements and and that can be done by a little bit more of um enforcement and a and a focus on certain things. So, um, again, the for the full Atlantic Avenue, these are going to be the things that we have prioritized to do across the board. Um, the with within the

uniformity, it it would we would establish bike lanes uh going on the east side of Atlantic Avenue going north and south. Uh, and what that does is that really dictated what we could do with the rest of the space through resort area strategic action plan, through the resort area mobility plan, uh, and and through all of the public input sessions that we've done uh, in the past uh, over the years, and I say

years, I think we did race starting um, in 2017, I believe. Uh and so it's gone from 2017 to today in 2026 now that we've really been trying to find a way to improve Atlantic Avenue. Um bike lanes always bubbled up to the top of every public input session, every survey that we did. It was always number one.

So the community said that there was a a desire for bike lanes. So, what that does is once we've realized that the bike lanes needed to go on Atlantic Avenue, then we could really design around what the rest of it is. Uh, Atlantic Avenue needs full milling and and overlay of pavement uh just to bring it up to a current standard. Um, there will be raised crosswalks in key sections. Uh what that does is allow for

a little bit of traffic calming and give an understanding of a more of a pedestrian area uh so that the the the traffic can slow down and uh people feel more comfortable walking around. Um so we need to clean and repair the sidewalks. A lot of the sidewalks are in in uh patchwork have been repaired. Uh but we really need to to go through and and put new sidewalks down. uh specifically in central and in South

Beach. Um so implementing wayfinding and placemaking. This is going to be a fun topic that we can get into and and I'll I'll get into that again just a little bit later, but this is a way to identify where you are, where you need to go. Um and and really we can start to brand ourself. We don't have a up until recently we haven't had even the flags that said Virginia Beach on them. who

are just um flags with colors. So, uh branding our city uh so that when people walk up and down the ocean front uh they it just ingrains in their head um that Virginia Beach and it's a fun place and hopefully they'll go and tell their friends. Um creating a uniform light lighting standard. Uh so what we have is we've we've really upgraded a lot of the lighting down at the oceanfront. South

Beach still has the amber lights. So, we are looking for upgraded lights in South Beach. But all up and down is to make sure that the the lighting on Atlantic Avenue is uniform and uh and looks really nice. Um and then implementing enhanced landscaping where possible.

Landscaping is is something that we struggle with down there. Um the salt air, the wind, there's not many things that can grow uh in the the planter boxes that we have. Uh so right now we currently have shrubs that have been trimmed up into small trees uh because the uh area that they can grow in for a small root system uh doesn't allow for something more hearty to grow in there.

Uh, so we've been working with what we've had and in the constraints that we've had for the for the landscaping and there's an opportunity now with doing sidewalk repairs and electrical that we can open up those boxes, make them a little bit bigger and put some uh some more appropriate landscaping in there uh to allow for a better aesthetics in Central Beach uh 17th to 24th Street.

This is uh an area that we have I think everybody understands needs the most uh help. So in in on Atlantic Avenue, this is this is where everybody really comes down and and the pedestrian area of that is is is packed sometimes. And um we want to make sure that this has the biggest emphasis on the aesthetics and has the the biggest wow factor. So uh we're doing the milling and overlay, the replacing

the sidewalks, we're doing the enhanced lighting and electrical, enhanced landscaping, raised crosswalks, wayfinding, and adding a wow factor. The wow factor is a is an extra push for art down there. Um, we're very fortunate to have uh Kate Pitman from the Vibe District as a part of our task force. It was a a a perfect element to have to to show us what could be. I mean, when we walk around the Vibe, you really feel

that you're in a specific place. And so, she helped guide the conversation when it came to uh wayfinding and and placemaking and the wow factor. So going through and I'm going to hit on those uh specific things again uh and go a little bit more in depth, but just a b this is going to be a brief overview of of each area. Central Beach 17th to 24th Street is also going to activate and this is

the big this is the the big idea that we came up with and the vision that we think will help uh propel Virginia Beach to be into another standard. And so what we want to do is is bump out and put into where now the trolley lane is what we call microcommerce areas. Uh and I know that sounds weird, but think parklets. Uh think of an area that has permitted entertainment. Um, so these

micro commerce zones would allow for cafe franchises to move out and so that their customers could sit on the a raised platform that would be tastefully done. Think of places like Montreal. And I I wish we had better visuals for it.

In the top right hand side, if you see, there is a a a rendering of of of something that could be. This is not necessarily what we're what we want, but this was an inspirational picture that was given to us to give us an understanding of how it could be. Um, outdoor cafes, the uh the businesses that are directly in front of it would have first right a refusal uh to go and

and do something out there. Um, and if there were some areas that uh needed space to or needed some something to activate that area, we would try and fill it with uh Live on Atlantic. Um, we have a wonderful busking community down there. and busking for those who don't know is uh people who go out and show their talents whether it's making balloon animals whether it's making art with uh metal um whether it is uh

playing an instrument so I think this gives an opportunity now to embrace the creative community that we have in this city um and give them a space to to show their talent um and so in the central beach area there would be uh no on street parking um some of The concerns that have been raised are where is trucks going to pull in and do their deliveries. Um, so

this is a just a a mockup of where these microcommerce zones uh which would be like parkletits would go. Uh it would allow for the drainage to still remain.

These would be raised and it would be the same level as the sidewalk. So it would be flawless to just walk right off the sidewalk onto these microcommerce areas. And then there would be um clear zones for safety concerns uh with being able to see visually from a vehicle and and being able to take left or right-hand turns, but also there would be empty space uh that would be that

would allow for uh the HRT, the trolleys to go and drop off and pick people up.

It would allow for uh deliveries. Um, and it it could th that this could provide a a wonderful opportunity for our businesses to flourish and for it to be really active. So, moving forward, we have uh South Beach. Um, and this was our second priority. Uh, in South Beach, we want to retain yearround parking. So from 5th to 16th Street, you'd be able to park on street uh on the west side of

Atlantic um all year round with the bike lane being on the east side going north and south. Uh this was uh again going back to the parking, this was a compromise. Uh some people wanted no parking at all, some people wanted parking everywhere. Uh and we felt as though this was the most appropriate place. Uh again, we had all of the people in the room to help us make these decisions where it's most

appropriate and where it wasn't. Um and so, uh parking seemed to be one of the one of the the best area to be able to allow for on street parking year round would be in that uh 16th to fifth street. Now, I would hope that uh with the uh $50 voucher that you guys have have brought up that uh this would be an area where our residents would be able

to come in and use that voucher to be able to uh park and and and utilize our our wonderful oceanfront. Um there would be some restrictions, evening restrict restrictions and uh and anytime that it was deemed necessary that the police department for special events and uh anything else would would have the option to uh kind of pull that up with proper signage and uh and understanding that it's for uh certain

events. Um in our south beach, we're going to do the milling and overlay, replace the sidewalks and and the enhanced lighting and electrical. Um, North Beach has the infrastructure in place.

Central Beach and and this is for the electrical. Central Beach uh has a lot of upgrades, but it's not to the standard where it needs to be. And South Beach needs the most help when it comes to lighting and electrical uh and the infrastructure that's underneath. So, uh, that would be a a full pull up of of all of the sidewalks and and replacing all the electrical and and unfortunately

that a lot of the cost goes towards this just because it's so intensive. Um, enhanced landscaping, we did that across the board. That that's going to beautify our our beach substantially. Uh, raise crosswalks and um wavefinding and and again that wow factor with public art.

North Beach. When we walked Atlantic Avenue, we realized that North Beach was in pretty good shape. Uh there was some things that that was lowhanging fruit that we could really kind of clean up, but uh for the most part, North Beach has has done a wonderful job of of really reinventing itself from the private side as well as um the with that reinventing of itself has allowed for our infrastructure to improve as well

through those improvements on the private side. So, um, we did because of the constraints of the public right away, uh, from 24th Street or at 25th Street, it narrows down. We lose one lane of traffic 25th Street North.

So, um, understanding that there's a a garage on 38th Street that's going up, the 25th Street garage and the 31st Street garage. Uh, we had, um, given the recommendation that there be no on street parking. And again, that goes back to the bike lanes. the bike lanes are going to take up a full full lane uh to allow for that number one uh concern from from the citizens to have biking

down there. Um so uh the uh the parking spaces uh would not be able to be used in the season or offseason uh in North Beach. So there would be no on street parking.

So this is again just a a snapshot of what we just went over of what what's going to be there. Um, so I want to get into the wayfinding and placemaking. Um, our vision for Atlantic Avenue was to make it attractive, memorable, and easily navigable. Uh, and we wanted to implement wayfinding through all the sections. Uh, there would be a one $100,000 allocation for a wow factor and

that would be in the form of public art.

Uh and uh we wanted to prioritize the public private art partnerships in there. Um there's been so many things considered uh through this that we have a real opportunity to bridge a gap with our community and and really make Atlantic Avenue feel like home for the people who live here. Uh not just the people that are down there. And I think that was one of the most important things that we

wanted to do was find a way to make sure that people west of Pacific felt the same as the people east of Pacific. And so we would love to be able to partner with the Virginia Beach school system to get local art from our students and be able to place them on the utility boxes and and all around any anywhere. And again, think of the Vibe District and how they've done it. If

you've seen their utility boxes, they're wrapped in vinyl and beautiful art on it. What a better way to to get our community to come down and see what their children have put on these utility boxes and and and up and down Atlantic Avenue where where we can put it anywhere and everywhere.

um it would create a very community-based environment to be able to have our our our children's artwork as well as local artists down there doing things. So, we've taken a lot of the Vibe District's uh methods and hopefully we can utilize them here in uh on Atlantic Avenue.

Um, let's see the uh I think we'll go on to the next one. Um, so I do want to briefly hit on some of the other things that we we had when it came to the uh milling and overlay. I you all understand what that is. We're going to repave the road and and restripe it and and make everything look uniform and and appropriate. Um, the sidewalks and crosswalks, uh, they're going to remain where they

to pull everything back in to look the same. Uh the landscaping again, I want to hit the landscaping because I think this is an opportunity that uh we have while digging up the the sidewalks and and replacing them. uh we've got an opportunity to open up the planter boxes to put new nice vibrant plants down there uh as opposed to the shrubs that we have. So I'll go back to the

contingencies and in the budget. So, we understand that we were working within uh a budget that was constrained uh once we came back with the the understanding that Atlantic Avenue was going to cost 100 plus million dollars to do it the way that the resort area mobility plan had asked for it to be done. There was just no way that we could do that with the amount of money that was allocated towards it. So, um

we were not numbers people. We were given numbers and these numbers were loosely based off of what we think or what what staff thinks it would cost.

But as you all know with the fluctuation in and pricing for everything at at this moment, uh it still hasn't stabilized quite the way that everybody wants to.

So, uh we came up with a contingency budget for the priorities. If additional funds remain in the CIP after implementation, then we could further the enhanced landscaping uh prioritizing Central Beach and South Beach. Um and then we could enha if we can enhance the landscaping uh in phases. Uh install new light fixtures in North Beach. Um and then if the funds were insufficient to

implement everything that we are looking to do, uh we can reduce the amount of raised intersections. Um and if needed, we could phase in the electrical and the sidewalk replacements in South Beach. Uh but again, that's where it's most needed. And so hopefully we could find a way to make those things work. Um and then utilize the annual mill and overlay CIP funds if we can. Uh we do think that

the um milling and overlay should be a part of the general uh obligations that the city does just for any street. So, uh, if possible, then we could utilize the funds from the city for that and and keep it out of the the the CIP that we're utilizing for Atlantic Avenue, the Atlantic Avenue facade improvement grant program. Uh, we were fortunate enough to be able to have uh, economic

development uh, create a program for Atlantic Avenue uh, and fund it. And I can let economic development uh speak further on the ins and outs of how this looks, but I believe it is going to be going live next week. So they've already got the parameters in which they want to do it and and as you see here, um it would be matching grants of of$10 to $25,000 and it'll be performance-based.

Uh and then the eligibility would be uh anywhere from 2nd Street uh to 40th Street and that would be also wrapping around the corner uh of of each block uh to the the properties that are on Atlantic Avenue. Um and the improvements have to be visible from the Atlantic Avenue right away. Um and and if there's further questions about that, we have staff here to answer those.

So non- capital improvements uh items that we had discussed that weren't necessarily within what we were asked to but we thought it would be uh important to just point out is um provide sufficient resources to enforce regulations. Uh we were very fortunate that this body uh created a resolution uh about the profanity and obscene uh t-shirts that were in the windows. Thank you guys so much. that was a catalyst on

starting what has now become uh a a a big thing for Atlantic Avenue. It's really cleaned it up and then putting an emphasis on code enforcement down there has significantly cleaned it up. Uh and I want to I want to give a a shout out to the private sector as well. Uh a lot of these businesses uh rent from uh some some reality companies or whatever and and they are now implementing within their private

contracts that they're not able to have loot or obscene uh merchandise in view of the public. Um so it was all because of the resolution that you guys passed unanimously uh that really started this.

So, this was a true public private partnership that did not cost a dime.

Um, and that's going to enhance our oceanfront significantly in the future.

Uh, and it already has. Um, and invest in adequate maintenance funds. We just want to make sure that, uh, maintenance doesn't get deferred.

Uh, and and I think we've we've all seen what can happen when deferred maintenance happens. So, this is where we are today. uh address quality of life issues and provide services for those in distress. So, our city is in my opinion one of the best cities uh in dealing with and working with and helping out our unhoused population. And um I I think we just wanted to put this here to

to make an emphasis to say that uh continue these programs to help the uh unhoused and make sure that we can get the the mental help and support needed for for these individuals that are out there. Um and thank you. What you guys have been doing is is wonderful and it's far above what a lot of localities do.

Um continue allocating space uh for permitted activities. And this kind of goes back to the buskers. Right now, we don't have a program for them to to show their talents. So, if there's an opportunity here that we can uh take and uh create some sort of a program to allow for our creative community to be as creative as they want uh in areas that are designated to to be creative, um reinvest the microcommerce zones uh

revenues back into the tip fund. So, as as those uh spaces get uh rented out uh or leased out, um we we would love for the opportunity to have that go back into the tip fund and then uh hold exploratory conversations with HRT about the trolley. Uh so, as we're changing the streetscape of Atlantic Avenue, uh we we want to continue to have the conversation with HRT to make sure that

the need and and and the use is still appropriate for what it is. Should we keep the larger buses? Should we, you know, scale them down a little bit? What what's most appropriate for it? Uh is there new technology out there that we could utilize or um try to try to work with HRT to be a p pilot program to see how it works for them? So, just uh continued conversations to to see what's

most appropriate down there given the landscape change.

So, the recommendations We want to make sure that tourism continues to be a strong economic driver for our city.

We want it to remain safe, accessible, and unique uh to continue to attract visitors and so that we can be economically vibrant down there. Um, the Atlantic A the Atlantic Avenue task force recognizes the need for proactively addressing emerging infrastructure demands and preser and preserve Atlantic Avenue's role as a premier destination for residents and visitors alike. We want to make sure

that we really get the buyin from the community. Uh, our biggest advocate should not be the money that we spend outside of our area to bring people here. it should be our people. Um they would bring us a bigger return on investment than any uh advertising dollars ever could. So we want to make sure that it's someplace that our community wants to come down to and feels comfortable coming down to. Uh

significant time and resources have been invested into making these recommendations going back to 2017 all the way to to where we are today. Um and and these recommendations have strong support. Uh so we would urge you to uh take action. Um and uh we would love to um move forward with this capital improvement project. Uh and with that, I will take any questions.

Any questions? Okay, we're gonna go with Worth and then Stacy.

Thank you, Mayor Dyer. Um Miss Brenman, uh Brenman and Mr. Marsh, thank you so much for all the time. There's a lot of time on this. So, I've got four items I'll go through fairly quickly on page eight on the the vision because I really want to make this a point because you say consensus twice and you know 14.1 million visitors visit the oceanfront every year. 2.8 billion over three billion in indirect direct

and indirect money spent. Um 33 34,000 jobs. $360 million in taxes, state and local. It's a huge huge economic engine in and of itself. So, uh you say consensus here, there are a lot of folks who are participating in all of that. So, um I think this does a good job taking consensus. Uh and also you this vote was six to one only on the parking issue, but seven to zero on everything else. I think that's

Yes, sir.

Okay. So I just want to make that this is a consensus amongst a lot of different stakeholders.

Secondly um utility markings when we did the tour when you go down and walk so I just want to make that mentioned you know we could not this task force could not necessarily address utility markings which really do mess up the sidewalks badly and so there is in our legislative package in Richmond general assembly to take this issue up. So we didn't this task force could not address utility

markings. Um the micro commerce area um we talked about that that's a part of this plan. I think we do need some more discussion and vetting of that. And one concern for example that I have is that if a business is there and they don't want to have a bump out or micro commerce out in front and someone else does that block or inhibit inhibit that 12 month of the year business and so we

just need to have some more discussion I think on that and then um lastly but probably most importantly um price I I saw 30 to 35 million do we have Julie do we have a is it 35 million is that's the estimate including contingency and that money is from the tip fund which I would argue this is should be maybe general fund because this is not a project but we're going to lose that argument um but

this would come out of the tip fund but Julie is it it's it's the tip fund I think it's $35 million that the council has allocated to it is $35 million and it's tip funded that's it thank you okay Stacy Thank you so much for your presentation.

A lot of work shows. So I just have a couple of questions and an observation.

One is uh Julie, you started off by saying that you knew that the uh point of contention was going to be the on street parking. Can you elaborate on what the rub is there?

Um as your neutral.

It's not a soft.

Yeah. as your as your neutral facilitator. Um, uh, many of the merchants, mostly on the western side of Atlantic Avenue, want the on street parking. Um, the hotelers mostly on the eastern side of Atlantic Avenue have parking already for their businesses, their hotels. And so the concern is having easy access to the businesses on the western side of Atlantic Avenue and um concerned that if

there isn't parking right up front that they might lose some business.

Julia, go ahead.

You're you're here so I'll let you Mr.

Manager. So, Julia, were you also going to acknowledge the um the public safety police and fire department concerns with parking?

Yeah. So, the the public safety um police and fire department and EMS have concerns with parking. It presents um problems for access to businesses. So, uh for the fire department, for example, if there's a lot of on street parking, it's hard to get to the the business if they're not able to get close up. Uh for the police department there are problems with uh unruly unlawful activity

particularly in the evenings and they have said if there's on street parking it's very easy for people to hide uh contraband or weapons in their car or easy to get away. So public safety has concerns about on street parking as well.

So I'm assuming though that where we've recommend where you're recommending on street parking that's been vetted by the police and fire and they've signed off on it.

Um I think I wouldn't say that they agreed right if the city if the fire chief and the police chief got to manage the city the city will look totally different right I think what are you saying?

So, so I think they I think this is a this is a compromise, right? No one's happy. The hotel association compromised, the the retailers and the restaurants on Atlantic Avenue compromise and and there's still a request for more compromise. And I think the police department, the EMS department, and the fire department, they're they're they're in a medium of ex of acceptance of the reality and they'll manage around it.

Um then I'd also like to address this the micro commerce zones and one thing that and this might be getting a little bit into the weeds or or maybe out of the purview of what you were uh asked to do but if we are to have these micro commerce zones and I know that councilman uh Ramik had said that we need to explore this a little further.

My hard recommendation would be that those zones would only be offered to retailers whose establishments were 100% in compliance with city standards. And uh because if it if they're not, we don't want them bringing their problems from their storefront to the sidewalk.

So, we want to make sure that it's only offered to people that to to businesses that are uh in compliance and operating uh within city codes. and that came up at the task force and they would agree with you on that and I think u there there would need to be a plan developed for how to operate the microcommerce zones and it would have to come back to council. The task

force wanted to present the concept and move forward with the concept so that staff could then build up that program.

Thank you. Okay, Jennifer, Michael and Josh. Thank you, mayor, and thank you to the task force for all the work that you put into this. Um, growing up, I just know so many people growing up here, but so many people would love to feel something more at the oceanfront when you go to Virginia Beach and you're just standing there and walking around. Um, so I would love to see uh some of these

um updates and these upgrades. I'm just curious about the raised crosswalks. If you can just help me understand the emphasis on raised crosswalks as compared to just cleaner lines across the street. Why?

What is the raised crosswalk and what is that a public safety thing? Is that a what is that?

So the raised crosswalks give an emphasis on pedestrian um so it it allows for traffic calming. So when there is a a bunch of pedestrians uh in one area when a vehicle has to go over a raised crosswalk, they understand that they're in a pedestrian area. Um, so it it slows traffic down. It makes it a little bit safer. Uh, and and it puts more of an emphasis on that pedestrian as opposed to vehicular.

Yeah.

Hey, Michael and Josh.

Um, well, I just would share everyone's consideration of the work that the task force has been engaged in and my appreciation. So, I'll begin there as as others have. U, I have some observations and then and then maybe a question. Um, I think this is really it's really good because this conversation came out of a plan that concentrated this investment and maybe you touched on that, but I don't

remember that being as emphasized that much as part of this presentation going back maybe a year or however long ago.

There was a plan in place that just concentrated this investment into Central Beach. And what it did was it left out the investment in in the other areas. And so while Central Beach would have been very nice, weren't we weren't really sure we had a pathway to what the north and the south um would be would be available for investment there. So I think distributing it um more equally

across Atlantic Avenue is a great way to be really great stewards of the resources that are available and I think um spread that improvement in a very impactful way. And I think you've been very creative based on what I've seen with some of the um some of the uh approaches that the task force has contemplated including and especially public art and what that does for um an area. And to council member Rouse's

point, the kind of excitement and the feel that you get, the placemaking that you get with that, having the vibe involved, I think is a great um asset to your effort. So, I want to take the chance to compliment the vi the vibe and the entire vibe team and bringing that energy to um to this initiative which I think is they you know they know our community they they have are tried and true and

tested in terms of what works for placemaking and creative expression in public spaces and they've been leaders internationally recognized leaders in that and and I so I I I think it's very very good that they're involved in in this. Um, and you're doing some things that I think really, you know, you're talking about doing some things that I think really brings Virginia Beach in to a very strong position to remain a

competitive destination and a very welcoming place for residents. And I think also that's to Council Member Rouse's point, you know, those of us, it's there's a lot of Virginia Beach west of Pacific as you mentioned. and um and the people who all of us pretty much are included in that and we want to be welcome and enjoy um our oceanfront as well. And I think some of the things that you're contemplating really do help

to make it more welcoming for residents.

I think even you talk about partnership with schools or public art if you if if you participate in in something creative there um you're you'll families will go and visit that and experience it and see it and it makes it more there's a deeper investment for all of us u because it is our resort it is our oceanfront and I think that you're a lot of the approaches here help to build that and

strengthen that bond um I I want to note and especially call out the uh photo loca the photo opportunities that you talked about because a lot of great destinations around the country are employing those and um I think that can be very very fun for people to participate in. Um it also helps with branding. I mean, you go to a lot of places and you see they whatever it is,

right? Could be VB or whatever and they take their pictures and they post it and also they have a good time doing it and it becomes people's holiday cards and um it goes on their shelves from their family vacations for ever. So, I think that's really good um and exciting and helps to I think I don't know humanize the experience of visiting the Virginia Beach Ocean Front. So, there's a lot of

good things there. Um, having said all that, I share some concerns and maybe I just don't know enough about the micro commerce zones. Um, all the things that have been said and especially what council member Cummings pointed out about being in compliance and sort of good operators. I don't know how you exactly force what is a good operator and what's not. Those are my words, but that's

something that definitely is should be thought of. And then I'm also thinking of those COVID bumpouts that a lot of cities did and how they aged, right?

And um I maybe you've already talked about that as a task force and it's been on your mind, but I don't necessarily see it as a good investment because I've been to other cities and other cities far and nearby that have continued to utilize those bumpouts. I'm calling them bumpouts and they look tired. I would I would agree with you and I think um this was one of the hardest challenges about

this presentation was getting people to understand what this micro commerce area was and um and and so you know I like to refer to it as more of a parklet like a linear park um and yes I think the idea of a co bumpout is probably the worst thing that we can put in our head um that's where mine went and and I completely understand that we have some localities around us that

still have some and and they are tired.

Uh this would be completely different than that. Um and it would be uniform wherever they are. Uh the city, you guys would be the ones that would be implementing the actual um stages and and and areas for these uh microcommerce zones to be. Uh and it would be it would have full electrical and once we did all the upgrades, everything would would be seamless right into it. Um, and one

really good thing about it is that they they are a permanent yet temporary uh thing. So instead of pushing out the sidewalks, if we see that these these are extremely um efficient in bringing vibrancy into an area, uh then we have the ability to do it further. or if we see that it's working extremely well in one area but the other ones are a little bit uh not as as active as what we're

looking for then we have the opportunity to do something a little bit different in those areas and maybe enhance the areas that it's working well in. So, uh, I think surrendering doesn't do you a lot of justice. Trying to avoid the COVID bumpout analogy, right? I think that's fine. We, you know, one step at a time.

Montreal has a really good, if you get an opportunity in between briefs, uh, to to look at what Montreal has done. Uh it it's it's more of a a very uh intense uh community feeling as opposed to uh this is just thrown out there. Uh it's it's it's well put together and it's it's done in a way that was u um that was uh purposeful and I think that that that's

the vision uh that we would like to see is a a purposeful uh cafe linear park uh parklet area and your um one of your recommendations that 100% of the revenue generated inside those areas is um goes to tip.

No, it would be the the rental of it just like the cafe franchises. Um the cafe franchise when somebody not the not the not the other revenue generated because that was okay. I mis mis misunderstood that.

It' be the the lease of it would go back into it to hopefully repurpose and and keep that deferred maintenance from being deferred.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Hey, we're going to go Josh and Hutch.

Thank you, Mayor Amelia. Uh, Mike, Julie, thank you very very much for and and for everybody who worked on this, thank you all very much for the work.

Um, and many months of work uh and and revisiting it and uh and I thought you did a great job. Um, you know, I went I went somewhere cold over break. It wasn't as cold as Montreal, but um when people when people said, "Oh, hey, where are you from?" I said, "Virginia Beach."

And and everybody's like, "Lucky you."

and and uh and and it's stuff like this that that helps um make us all feel like we're living on vacation, live live like we're on vacation cuz we live here, but also helps uh put our best foot forward to visitors um and um and guests who we want to um have them come back obviously and enjoy themselves. So, um, on the the bumpouts, um, in those areas, I would I

would love to see and I and I was excited to see the, um, enhanced landscaping, um, as an idea. Um, even um, I think safety by environmental design principles would be really good to employ here. Um, you know, big planters to make sure that, um, people in those areas are safe, but also, you know, have it be aesthetically pleasing. Um, other other kind of tactics like that. I guess

to to make it nice looking but also safe for the people are in those places. Um greening it up in general. Um you know uh public art and and those partnerships. I was I was really happy to see um and and really what I liked about some of the original plan as it was laid out is Atlantic Avenue is kind of like a a drag strip, you know, and any of the any any opportunity that we

can to make it a nonlinear feel where you add a little bit of visual interest and you're not just looking straight down the street. I think it'll slow traffic down um much like the the elevated crosswalks like what you're talking about, but also um but also just give it more visual appeal, make it feel busier and more aesthetically pleasing.

Um and uh and the facade improvement grants I'm I'm glad that we're going to keep doing. I was and to the manager, are those only for resort area or are we do do we do facade improvement grants for other commercial corridors in the city? be doing for other commercial corridors in the area in the reconciliation budget. City council carved out a specific portion of EDIP funding funding for Atlantic Avenue, but

there's still the overall citywide um facade improvement grant program.

Great. And I want to make sure that that was said out loud because um we do have aging storefronts not just on Atlantic Avenue but everywhere and that those are available for people. So, thank you very much.

We're going to go down. So, obviously what everybody said, kudos to the hard work. We appreciate it from everybody.

It was uh obviously well thought out. Um a little bit of the public safety part, but before I get there, um I have been fortunate enough to go to some other countries and see the the bumpouts all over. I've seen where they've been fantastic, you know, and then some of them do show some age, but as as council member Luchi was saying, but I also think just like the artwork, you know,

if if at some point we're going to have to update the artwork, we'll have to update the the folks there, you know what I mean? Like either you you got to do a little better or we got to move on, you know what I mean? Or just like we're going to have to repaint a painting that's sitting on the side of a wall at our oceanfront with the beating it's

going to take. So, I think that's just part of our business model that we're going to have to stay on top of. Um, for that part to what uh Councilwoman Rouse was asking, like I'm thinking in my head like 31st Street when you're coming out of the Hilton side and the park side, that's where a raised traffic in my public safety mind would be is right because you've got you got so many

people that are coming out and exiting.

You really want to slow things down. So unless we're going to have PD do some traffic control there, I think that's that's what y'all are kind of thinking is what I'm sort of asking.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, that's would make sense to me. If we could get the money to put one over going to Murphy's, I think that'd be another place. I'm just saying just my headers just, you know, I mean, I'm just, you know, just my two cents. Um anyway, so uh now from some practical stuff though is and has somebody that has grown up maybe once or twice going a little over the speed limit down

Atlantic and a Firebird back in the day.

But um but that was a long time ago and it is different and I'm thrilled that we're doing this kind of stuff, okay, that it's it's going to really make it night. I mean I really am think it's going to be awesome. But when you're bringing a 35 ton ladder truck or the engine and it won't it won't always be the tiller, you know what I mean? We have to put other trucks down there.

They're coming from different parts of the city. You start narrowing things and you start causing us problems like the bike lane. as long as the bike lane is going to be open so that traffic can divert, you know, as we're coming with the lights and sirens, you know, that's that's the kind of stuff that I hope that we're uh that is in there that that the two chiefs agreed to. The other

thing is, and not that it happens all the time, saying that up front, but when the ladder's got to go up, the overhead lighting is beautiful. I know, I know. I love it when I see it places, right? But if you put it so tight that you can't throw, you can't get that ladder up, they're not going to wait. They're going to go right through it. So, we're going

to be replacing that. So, and I I would agree that's what they got to do. I can say that a lot easier now because I don't have to answer to you.

But you know what I mean is is when it's burning or when you're trying to do something or if you just got an elevator, there's all kinds of reasons.

It doesn't have to be a horrible call that they're going to put the bucket up or the stick and that's where it's going to get into something. So, we just got to factor that in that it could be the cost of doing business, which is fine, but we have to know that that's part of business.

Yeah, we we uh we discussed the overhead lighting specifically. Um and uh that was something that if you want to go back to there we go.

The um this was more so the inspirational picture for Yeah. But I like thought processes. I don't think that there was any consensus from public safety at all about having overhead and I haven't even talked to him about it. So that just tells you I do I do know that that was that it's like you had talked with him because it was the exact same word.

I mean you can't help it. I mean I know y'all like we had the one fire at um 26th Street 26th Street that Councilman Worth was at for a while. I know we all think about that one and of course that one we're gonna do what we got to do but there are lots of other times that nobody here would even think about that three in the morning we might be doing something you

know so that's that's where my head is at and it's not all the time I'm not trying to say that but it does happen.

So just the inspirational picture on top had the overhead lighting and we heard loud and clear from public safety that that would be problematic. Um, it also had the little soft ballards by the bike lane.

Yeah.

Um, the lower picture is more realistic, um, but a little less inspirational because it's just pragmatic. So, it shows a buffer between the bike lanes.

So, there don't need to be even those soft ballards. Yeah.

So, that gives public safety access on the eastern side in those bike lanes.

Well, and and just for the public watching that, if you look at that 17th to 24th Street, so the green car and the red car, like if there's cars in those other bikes, they have nowhere to go, right? So, they just pull over and stop.

Well, if the other lane pulls over and stops, now you've got stop traffic and you're trying to get through it. So, you want the bus and the other car to come to the right. Obviously, not on top of the cyclist as being one of them. Um, that's important to me. But you do want them when it's safe to get over. So, you know, it's just those things that we

have to factor in that that is going to happen six or seven times a day down there, right? So, you know, that's just what you got to know.

Yeah. And we were very fortunate to have uh public safety at the table. um that was smart every single meeting. Uh and and they shared their same concerns and again they did say that they would take the direction from council to city manager and implement however it needed to be and they would make it as as safe as as uh they're able to and all for it. I just want us to have I

don't want to have our heads in the sand as far as what could be going on. That's all.

Public safety was been on top of it since the very first second they saw it.

So thank you Mariel. Yes. Again, thank you so much for this presentation. I did have uh to ask when you mentioned the uniformity.

Yes, ma'am.

And then I look at this picture up here where the bikes are going on one side.

Are there restrictions between ebikes and regular bikes?

I I think that's a whole different topic of and you have an ebike task force that's looking at that. I believe your public safety laws currently allow ebikes to go anywhere bikes can go. Um, but your public your ebike task force will be looking at if there need to be some restrictions.

Right. Because I was thinking for safety also with the little places that you have as we mentioned we have the seniors and silver tsunami.

And so you will have look at me when you get old there.

But um I looked at him because he mentioned it first down the road. And so we've got to look at that population coming down there.

Some may not be able to do all the walking. Um if you go to Singapore, India, they have these little mini I don't know if you've seen them. they have like a one person that can drive in the and have people up on the top or right behind them. So that way for those who are handicapped or anything to also have um access because a lot of families as we have a family oriented area will

bring grandma or bring some other family. We don't want to leave them just over to the side, right? So to consider, especially if they want to come and have tea or coffee along here, an easy way for them to get there, maybe having something small like that. The other thing I noticed you mentioned about the trolley, what are you doing to implement that there?

If you want to go.

So there will be uh zones that are open. Am I going the right way?

Uh there we go. So, there will be open areas for the trolley to pull in to be able to pick people up, drop people off, as well as uh deliveries and emergency vehicles to to get right up next to the businesses and be at least close enough, much closer than parking in the in the right away where people are driving.

Yes. Because the people love having the trolley. Yeah, I'm glad you implemented, you know, that into and also from the arts from the placing and Kate Pitman again is excellent at that. But it would be nice if you all had a theme like a beach theme or something so we don't have just any O because then it make it jump, right? You want to make sure since you're doing uniformity around that hearing you want to do

artwork emphasis that and she's open. I mean I've worked with her a long time. We're about to put a mural up on four kids in Chesape through our organization. So just stressing that so whoever she brings in understand what the theme is and how things look.

Yeah. But thank you for the work you're doing.

Thank you.

So, if I could quickly follow up on the theme and ask city manager to ask the resort management office, Bill Kelly, to send out the new branding flags and program that we have, it was presented to the resort advisory commission rack um back in I think November or December kind of as a part of this, but I think the rest of us uh because I think that's going to be up in April or so. May

probably by May but maybe send that out to as a part of this. Thank yeah and if I could add something um you know we understand today's challenges and we also understand that the visitor chooses uh where they want to go differently than they used to 30 years ago. Um we've always been a family beach and that's that's where we want to remain. Uh, a lot of people choose to go somewhere

because of the experience. And so I believe that trying something different and trying something new down there, especially with these micro commerce areas going to give an experience that people will want to come to. Um, and and it's it's a good selling point for our city. Uh again, that needs to be done very intentionally and and and done in a way that it's going to be most appropriate for the the business we

want to bring down here, but not just for the people that we want to bring into our city, but for the locals that that come and visit as well.

Yeah, that's that's a great idea.

Yeah, we wanted to create a vision for the future.

It's important. And I'm glad I've served also with Councilman Remick on that advertising advisory. Yes, ma'am.

Because with what they bring through also impact what all you're doing.

Yes, ma'am.

Michael, thank you, mayor. And I'll make this comment very quick. It was addressed in here and I think someone else brought it up again, but I I really want to try a point, take a moment on this. utility markings.

We're constrained by state law about how the city can regulate or influence the utility companies and how they perform and maintain their markings.

You've heard me say this, some of many of you have heard me say this before.

Some of those sidewalks look look fully like Jackson Pollock paintings.

Yeah.

And it's it's frustrating just to walk down there and and I think Mr. Remick mentioned it as you walk along you can't walk any stretch of of Atlantic Avenue and miss it.

Yeah.

And so I would like to know more not now but as we move forward in this process and this is a public infrastructure that's paid for and maintained by the people of the city of Virginia Beach.

And I understand the utility companies have their reasons. I understand the utility companies have a job to do and it involves safety and I respect all that. But I would like to know more about what level of investment will occur in um renovating re revitalizing the sidewalks. Are they going to be fully done? Is it going to be brick pavers? Is it going to be p you know um concrete?

And I don't need to know all this now, but I mean it's just incomprehensible to me that the city would spend millions upon millions upon millions of dollars on public infrastructure like that and make it look beautiful and then it's effectively graffiti and um with a purpose. It's better than some of the other graffiti. purpose is better than some of the other graffiti I see out there, but um it's something we

need to I really want to emphasize that point in this setting because it's very serious. It's part of our legislative request. The utility companies are very powerful and very influential in Richmond. They consistently ignore the request. I I hope that they will take an opportunity to hear us loud and clear and try to find a way to work with us to protect our public infrastructure.

I agree with you 100% and that unfortunately wasn't something that we looked at but it is something that we saw. Um and it we see it every day. Uh it is it is one of the worst things that we can't do anything about down there.

So any effort by our legislative bodies to to help us out there uh would be significant to creating the aesthetics that we're looking for. Thank you. I wanted to add to that point one thought that Kate Pitman brought to the task force when this was discussed. How do we get people not seeing all the dirt on the ground? And she said, "Lift people's eyes with the art." So, if you have art

and attractive things to look at at eye level, people aren't going to be noticing the the Jackson Pollocks on the ground. So, you still want to address them, but that's a way you can do it within your means.

I mean, I have seen, you know, recently restored and renovated and repaired stretches of sidewalk that the public invested a lot of money into and then here they come painting it up and it stays there for years.

Yeah.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Before I get to Rosemary to close out, let me just make a comment. I think this was a very fruitful conversation you know that we had all and you know let me put it this way we take a lot of prudent advice from you know the task force that we put together you know because we have the people that the stakeholders are actually part of the conversation the

people that live and have their businesses there are the ones that are coming up making you know those fruitful uh recommendations to us but I re I really see this as a real opportunity for the city because I think our our goal that you know once again I think worth pointed out the economic impact of what goes on at the oceanfront. We found out early in co that you know when when

the oceanfront is not clicking on all cylinders. It really affects everybody in this city. But once again that we were able to kind of tread water and come back strong and we had what a $3.5 billion dollar e economic impact. But once again the idea of making the city a yearround destination but not only for our tourists but for the people of Virginia Beach. And me being the district guy for 14 years, how many time

I hear love to go to the oceanfront, but boy, parking's a hassle and, you know, things of that nature. But, you know, thanks to Rosemary resident uh, you know, uh, program that we got going, you know, we're aggressively, you know, doing that. But when you think about the potential, you know, the possibilities, the vision of the sports center, convention center, vibe district, uh,

Atlantic Park now, uh, Rudy Loop coming, but now all of a sudden we just start working up Atlantic Avenue to create those possibilities. Uh, you know, I just think that, you know, this is what we really need because if we're going to go into a yearround destination, I'll tell you what, that is going to be a boom to the local economy and you know, we're Hey, listen, we're going to need

that added revenue. Can you imagine getting rid of the shoulder and winter season, but once again, but giving it a place, the destination where people want to come and feel welcome and, you know, I think uh we're doing that. Rosemary, please close out.

I think it's very interesting that we're having this discussion, especially today because everybody may not know this, but the New York Times just listed us as one of the top 50 places to visit this year.

That's a big deal. Isn't that exciting?

Big deal.

So, get spruced up. Get ready for it. Uh this Mike, you did a fantastic job on the presentation and Julie, we can always count on you. Thank you so much.

But great job, Mike. I I did want to I want to talk about the task force just for a little bit. First of all, they worked really really hard and there were a lot of um different ideas coming in and Worth and I knew that they were going to be a few bones of contention and it's but people really timely came together to to come together to have a great report. um on this list.

I just wanted to say it's it's not I don't think it's quite definitive of for example it's got Harshad is he is city com um chamber of commerce but he was also hotel year so we had two hotel years on there uh Atlantic Avenue that's got Deeppac Nagnani but there were really three people from the Atlantic Avenue association not just one uh everybody on there is a member of RACK uh restaurant association. It was more

than more than Mike. You also had Bill Gamrell. And so just want to make sure that there was a lot of a lot of people representing more than just one section.

So I thought that was really important to say. Um the discussion's been really great. Uh Hutch, we had we did talk a lot about public safety and we we really think with I kind of like that light stringing across. We want people to come and feel like they're they're on holiday, but there's I I think there's ways to get around it like they maybe they can be unplugged, pulled across, not every every street, you know, do

some areas.

You don't want it on every street. That kind of takes away the wow factor. But there's got to be ways that we can kind of work around whether you unplug it and if the worst comes the worst we get a string of lights broken down through.

You know, I think we can we can we can we can replace a string of lights.

Yeah. That's why they give you guys big axes to break through.

But but we think that there's ways to get around it. But and and I appreciate your public safety hat. I really do. and and we we love our public safety and we want to make sure everybody is safe. Um Stacy, you raised some valid concerns just like happened in this thing. Uh Worth and I uh we talked about this ahead of time and he mentioned that we don't want to prolong

this. We really want to get on as you saw this has been going on for nine years essentially.

Let's get on with it. Let's get this done and maybe we can start work on it next fall and get a lot of this work done next winter so next summer some of this can be done. But we would like to have just one more meeting to talk a little bit more about the the bumpouts the micros u commerce just sort of some of the questions that we we really need

to have those answered I think just a little bit more definitive. So, if we could quickly pull everybody together with at the pleasure of the task force, if you wouldn't mind, just have one more meeting and sort of sort of vet just a little bit more so I think some of the questions people have will have a better feeling of it and then bring it to the council. Does Mr.

Dei, does this have to be voted on?

Um, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Mayor, Mr. Council, I I don't necessarily know if it has to be voted on. on the back end. The last comment, it seemed like they wanted us to adopt something, a resolution. I was going to make an amendment. Um, Vice Mayor, I think the task force should, as you requested, should have another meeting to talk about the bumpouts, but I think unless there's like a significant material change,

we can communicate whatever is communicated with the micro um commerce unit areas to council in a in a package in a memo. And then after that, you know, if there's no um no adverse reaction to it, you know, then we can possibly work on bringing forward a resolution to kind of codify some of the um the findings from this um thing in a resolution, you know.

Yeah. But I don't I don't know if there's a need for another briefing, you know, if there's going to be minor adjustments or no adjustments.

I don't see anything major happening. I don't know where but we really need to get on with it.

Nine years is a long time and the country's coming. We need to get ready for them. So, everybody did just an absolutely fantastic job. Really appreciate all the comments. And Josh, thank you for bringing forth that resolution about the t-shirts and all of that. I have to I was a little skeptic.

I said, "Okay, they're not going to do anything." And look, look at the results that it had. Thank you for doing that.

So, this council has worked so well together and I appreciate everyone at this table for what you've done and and we just have one more meeting, Julie.

Yeah. Um I I we serve at the pleasure of you guys and if you guys wanted us to have another uh meeting specifically about the micro commerce. Is that what I'm hearing? Um and and how to what it's going to look like, how to how it's going to be kind of loosely implemented.

we could work with city staff to to see what the parameters may be and then bring Yeah, I think just need to have it define it a little bit more and and and Stacy, you're so right. Having these little um parklets, I think we could control them a lot more than what's there now because right now people bring stuff and put it all on the sidewalks and if and then we find them send they

have to go to court by the time it gets to court. The summer's over and we've had a lot of problems with that. The general assembly hasn't helped us with it even though we've asked them to. But this may help. These little parklets might help with that problem that we've had, but we just we I think we just need to tighten it up a little bit more and so we we have a better idea. You

wouldn't mind doing that, but I you great job. Oh, one other thing. Um, parking is increased. Right now, this parking is only offse.

So what's being recommended is year round down the south end. So that is an improvement on the park as well. So just wanted to bring that to 73 spaces.

Yeah. 73 spaces that will be year round which are only there in offseason now.

So so that's that's a big deal too. Good great job. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Madame Vice Mayor, I wanted to just clarify if the task force meets again, it would just be limited to the microcommerce that we would ask them not to revisit any of their other recommendations. It would just be clarifying the microcommerce.

Let's go ahead and do that. And then all you have to do is during council comments, just give us a quick briefing about what was done and let's move forward with this.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay. Good.

Thank you all. Thank you so much.

Thank you all folks. Good stuff.

All right. All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will give city council an overview of the next items that'll be coming to you all for consideration at your forthcoming council meetings relating to planning items.

No, thank you.

You got it.

Okay, let's go ahead. We got to get the closed.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. I'm here this afternoon to go over the planning items on your January 20th agenda. There are a total of 11 items for consideration.

Looking first at item one, this is a conditional resoning request for property located at 2597 Leroy Road.

This is just southwest of Princess Anne Middle School in District 2. The applicant intends to reszone this 5acre parcel to conditional R10 in order to create four single family lots resulting in a density of 0.79 units per acre. The site currently contains a vacant single family dwelling and lies within the transition area.

In addition to satisfying the density requirements for the transition area, the 3.18 acres of open space exceed the 50% minimum open space recommended in the transition area design guidelines.

Additionally, right-of-way improvements, including curb and gutter and sidewalk, will be installed along Leroy Road with the development of the first lot.

The pictures on the slide here repres are representative of the home styles proposed with this request. They include materials such as vinyl and cementitious siding, brick and stone. This was presented to the transition area interfacility traffic area citizens advisory committee back in October and the committee did vote to support the request. We have not received any opposition and the planning commission

recommended approval by consent.

Item two is another conditional resoning request. This one for 722 New Town Road in district 4. The site is currently splitz zoned B1 and conditional B1 and is developed with a Chinese community center.

The applicant is requesting to reszone the site, which is just under two acres, to conditional A18 in order to construct 18 multif family dwellings, which equates to approximately 9.6 units per acre.

The proposed units will be split across five two-story buildings with a two-car garage and two-car driveway provided for each unit. The 45% lot coverage is within the threshold permitted within the A18 district.

An 11 foot wide side path will be installed along the entire frontage of the site in accordance with the active transportation plan. Due to the residentially zoned parcels to the south and east, a 15 foot wide category 4 landscape buffer is required along those property lines. However, the applicant is requesting a deviation to the landscaping requirement just along the southern property line, which is

outlined in red on the slide there, and instead intends to install a 6-ft tall privacy fence. This is to allow um a small backyard for each of those units along the southern portion of the site.

The image on images on the slide here show the proposed materials and color scheme for the units as well as the proposed privacy fence and sign for the development. We have not received any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Correct.

The next two items are a conditional reszoning request and a conditional use permit for property located along First Colonial Road within District 6.

The applicant seeks to reszone the 2acre site to conditional B2 for the development of a self- storage facility.

This property lies within the 70 to 75 decel noise zone as well as a suburban focus area 5 which is the first colonial road medical corridor. The medical office building currently on the site is proposed to be demolished with this request.

The proposed development includes a three-story 150,000 foot self- storage facility with a small parking lot between the building and first colonial road as well as a loading zone along the side.

The self- storage facility has been designed to resemble an office building with a prim primarily brick facade in shades of brown and cream and a combination of real and storefront or real and faux storefront windows along all sides of the building. The facility will have a maximum height of 35 ft.

Staff has not received any opposition to this request. And while did you have a question? Okay. And while staff does recognize and appreciate the thoughtful building design, which does not look like your standard self-s storage facility, staff is recommending denial of this request due to incompatibility with the recommendations found in the comp plan specific to the first colonial medical corridor, which

calls for priority to be given to uses that complement medical and healthcare activities.

Okay. Worth.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Can I ask staff to put in our package the original application because I think this was changed in the planning commission. So if I could original site plan and building.

Thank so as you just mentioned following the planning commission hearing the applicant did revise the profered concept plan to address comments received from staff and the planning commission. So, this included revisions to the entrance to provide a standard commercial entrance as required by the public works design standards manual, reducing the amount of parking that's provided along the front, which in turn

provided additional green space along the front, and then as recommended by the planning commission. The plan was updated to show possible future connections from the parking areas on this site to the properties both to the north and south. Ultimately, the planning commission did vote to recommend approval by a vote of 9 to1 and we will get you that information with your package.

The next item is a conditional use permit request for a home occupation at 1492 Backbay Landing Road in District 2.

The applicant intends to perform small parts repair within a 200 square foot portion of an existing detached garage on the site. There will be no customer interactions as all parts will be shipped either to or from the site as required by the ordinance. Less than 20% of the total floor area of the home and accessory structures will be dedicated to this home occupation use.

We have not received any o opposition to the request and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item six is a conditional use permit request for an open air market for 1136 Linhaven Parkway. This is to allow the continued operation of a food truck on the site. This is within district 3.

The applicant operates a coffee shop food truck within the parking lot on Tuesdays through Saturdays from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 pm. The primary structure on this site is used for a commercial kennel which is a byright use in the B2 district and is not the subject of this application.

A zoning complaint was issued for the operation of the food truck since there was no um active peddler's permit or a cup for the use. Upon receiving that violation, the applicant promptly filed this application which is before you today. Um there is adequate parking on site to accommodate both the commercial kennel use the food truck and that is excluding the three spaces that is occupied by the food truck itself.

I will note that a portion of the site does lie within the APZ2 in which this use would not be considered compatible.

So that's above that red dash line on the site, but the food truck is located outside of that area. So there is no issue with compatibility or compliance with article 18. We have not received any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval by a 90 vote with one abstension.

Item seven is another conditional use permit request. This is for a bulk storage yard at 525 Viking Drive. This is in district 3.

The bulk storage yard will be used for the storage of materials associated with the landscaping business. So including such things as pavers, plants, and equipment. The site lies within the greater than 75 decel noise zone as well as the accident potential zone 2. And this use is compatible with both.

As seen on the concept plan on the slide, the bulk storage yard is limited to the western half of the property. The existing building, which is shown in gray there, will be used by the company for their office space. In addition to the screening requirements around the entire storage yard, the applicant does has included a the retention of a 40 foot wide tree buffer along Lin Haven

Parkway to further screen the site. Um the applicant has requested to be able to use an alternative parking service surface. So using gravel instead of a hard surface which um staff was amanable to. We just added a condition to require edge treatment along the bulk storage yard to keep the gravel contained. We have not received any opposition to this request and the planning commission

recommended approval on consent.

Item A is a request for alternative compliance to allow for the operation of a temporary commercial parking lot at 2400 and 2402 Pacific Avenue in District 6. I do want to note that since this presentation was put together, we have received an updated concept plan, so you should have a copy of that at your seat.

This property is located within the oceanfront resort district. However, it is not located in an area that permits temporary commercial parking lots and therefore the approval of an alternative compliance by city council is required before the use can con commence.

The applicant intends to demolish the existing vacant 7-Eleven on the site and repave the site to create a commercial parking lot with 30 spaces. This will include a mix of spaces, so regular, compact, and motorcycle spaces.

The existing landscaping on the site will be retained with additional landscaping to be added where needed.

Access to the lot will be from 24th Street and the existing access point on Pacific Avenue is proposed to be closed with this request.

Staff is recommending a condition to limit the approval to three years, which is consistent with the requirements for temporary commercial parking lots within the form based code. This item is scheduled to be heard by the planning commission at their January 14th hearing um next week.

Sorry, Stacey.

Just the use of the slot. Is it for the iFly complex or is this going to be a pay for parking?

They told us it would be a combination.

So use for iFly but also the opportunity to do public parking.

Thank you.

One more question really quick. They they own this property or purchased the property. Is that the I believe I can confirm, right?

All right. So, they're under contract.

Okay, I got you.

Item nine is a conditional use permit request for a short-term rental at 919 Pacific Avenue, unit B in District 5.

This is a one-bedroom unit within the Pacific Place condominiums. There are 33 pre previously approved conditional use permits for STU STR use on the site and um I'm sure you're all familiar, but there's one parking space required and provided on site with Pacific Police.

We don't have any associated zoning complaints or documented stays um relevant to this unit and this was recommended for approval by planning commission on their consent agenda.

Item 10 is another CP request for an STR. This one for property located at 215 4th Street again in district 5.

This is a three-bedroom unit in the Winward Way condominiums. Two of the required parking spaces are provided on site and the applicant has submitted an intent to lease off- streetet parking for a space within the 9inth Street Municipal Parking Garage. And as you can see in the image on the slide there, that is just over 3/10en of a mile driving distance from the unit.

While there was one previous zoning complaint associated with this unit for the operation without a cup, staff at that time was unable to substantiate that claim. Although the site is not currently advertised, there was a documented stay um as recently as August of 2025. We have not received any opposition and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Then the final item on the agenda for the 20th is an ordinance to adopt and incorporate into the Virginia Beach comprehensive plan the park system needs assessment and development strategy.

This was briefed to this body back in December. So I'm not going to go through all of the specifics again. Um but I will just say that should this be adopted into the current comprehensive plan, it is the intention to carry forward into the updated plan when that is adopted. Mayor, that con concludes my briefing and I'll stand by for any additional questions. questions at all.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay, we got to get into close uh pretty soon. Any liaison reports? Rosemary?

Okay. Work.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh colleagues, in the your last Friday package, you got a 2025 towing amendment to city code uh city council staff report from uh the city manager. I am leazison on to the um towing advisory board and that's this is a request from the tad uh the towing advisory board. I know this may not have been read or understood. So um it is a request it is an ordinance request for

the uh January 20th formal session. So right now we need two other sponsors other than me I believe. No no other sponsors are not need. Okay. So it's going to come on please ask me if you have any questions but it makes sense.

Police toes are more more difficult. It could be clean up. It could be a cars mangled or whatnot. So, it's a little bit more involved with a toe versus a towing a car that's in the wrong spot.

So, look at the memo. Um, it's should be self-explanatory, especially the first page. And I'd ask for you all to please consider it.

Okay. Anybody else on liazison?

Yes. I have a couple of things that I've written down. I'm less on for along with uh council member for the arts and humanities. So the arts humanity project grants is now open and due February 6.

These grants fund art projects, performances at our schools, theater, and out in the community as well as art exhibits.

acclaimed speakers and workshops. Also, the second round of the creative neighborhood grants are open and due right around the corner January 16th.

This program is open to all of our civic leagues, nonprofits, or businesses to create community art projects that beautify public spaces, celebrate local culture, and engage residents in an artistic process.

Also, some of you may have gotten to go to it. I did go with my granddaughter, uh, the Nutcracker Matin on December 14th, and it was packed. It went very well. The only complaints were the kids were running out of popcorn.

So that we heard about that. And um wanted to share two more items. Uh Brian and Trisha Roerson, the parents of Mark Roger. He received his wings of gold as the naval aviator and flying F-18s. So at church we're able to bless the little wings in there and wish him well. He will be stationed at Lam more California and I told him don't stay there too long so he can come

back cuz he was from Virginia. Um, last couple of things, the HRT, we had a very good meeting and I want to thank um Patrick Tenny for sending someone from the staff to do with um the traffic or people getting to their employees that they felt we had cut back on the route route 33 and so forth. So we met with the Virginia Beach Hotel Association and also the HRT and they were able to you

know come to some consensus for looking at everything and moving forward. So it was a positive meeting. I am very excited about Batbet Outpatient Hospital that's coming in right off Northampton Boulevard and um the outlet. So, it's going to bring about 600 highpaying jobs in uh Burton Station and that's along um district 4. And the last fun thing was last night on the town. We had about 5,500.

I actually stayed out all the way till about 12:30 to watch the ball drop down. And you were there as well. We took some pictures and someone won a roulette for $10,000. It was more a game and they gave her a bottle of champagne and a gift certificate. So, everyone really enjoyed it and there was no incidents. So, want to thank Jeanie Evan Scott and all those in Town Center, especially the Central Business District

Associations for putting off another great show. and they thank us for supporting them to bring Perry the band Perry people came from all over to come and listen to them so it was really good and I'm glad we supported this and that's it okay Joshua liaison oh I'm sorry I thought it was announcements so any other liaison leaison um council children and I are liaison for the um auditor and the

deputy city auditor has retired and our city auditor um Lyndon has asked that instead of replacing that position which pays in that neighborhood of $130,000 that that position be split into two. uh one with an auditor one position paying about 54,000 and the other with a uh lesser position auditor uh investigative position uh that would pay about 40,000.

So the two combined would be less even when you think even when you consider the the benefits package. So both Councilman Schulman and I uh support that. I spoke with the mayor yesterday also in support. So, we'd like to if there's not a reason for not allowing that to happen, I'd see that move forward.

So, Mr. Mayor, I'll work with the auditor's office and the city attorney's office and we'll work together an ordinance to bring forward for consideration if there's no opposition.

Okay, great.

And I have one more.

Yeah. And then uh as a as a part of the um current year budget, uh the process improvement uh commission was tasked with the um with the project of trying to find ways of having uh more efficiency in the city budget and um so they've done that. They've done a very good job. Again, Councilman Schulman and I are um leers on to that commission. uh they've worked very hard and they've

presented I believe everyone received the package uh received their results in the package but um we would like we would like for them to be able to come forward in next next week's meeting and make a presentation on what what they're recommending.

Yeah, I told my responsor that okay uh wearing my Atlantic uh park uh hat uh chair hat. Little quick uh housekeeping thing if you could do this. Um there's been a public interest in expanding the uh Rosemary's oceanfront residential park rebate parking to the Baltic and 20th Street uh going forward and uh you know back when we decided that the the the garages were not operational and there's a you know some other

information there but just in general uh they weren't online at the time but the other thing is now we got new restaurants and business and everything and then you know once again we just want to create that wonderful opportunity uh to have our public come and you know take advantage of the residential uh you know program. So if there's no opposition, I'd like to ask the city manager and Rosemary if it's

okay with you to work in expanding those two garages into the program.

And if as long as no one objects, we don't have to vote on this. The staff can just do it.

Yeah, just include it in the plan. So is anybody okay with that?

Yeah. So this is just informational and you know hey listen there's going to be some growing pains you know with the you know the magnitude and complexity of the project there and I think this is you know another way of just improving the you know communications and you know getting up and give it the opportunity to become successful.

Okay Michael you had something for um not a leazison report council comments. Yes. Yes sir. Mayor um I have two things. Well, three. I I just really quickly I want to just um follow up on what council member Ross Hammond said about the project grants and the creative specifically though the creative neighborhood grants through arts and humanities. That application is due on January 16th. You can learn more

about it by going to the website and going to our cultural affairs department's website. The amazing thing amazing incredible things are happening through the creative neighborhood grants. It's grants up to $10,000 um that are driven by neighborhoods working with artists and arts organizations. And I'm just seeing um whole civic leagues and neighborhoods coming together around a shared purpose

of making their neighborhood more beautiful and more creative um and better connected. and it's really really outstanding and it's a good program and I hope that um lots of neighborhoods all across the city take advantage of it. Um and then on a more serious note I I just would like to make some comments mayor about um the proliferation of um targeted of graffiti targeted at uh

various um groups and constituencies and communities across our city. Um, first before uh the holiday, before the Christmas holiday, there was graffiti in the Vibe Creative District that was targeting um LGBTQ community. Anti-gay um messages were um sprawled across public infrastructure.

And then uh more recently, I think today or yesterday, um there was anti-semitic graffiti discovered in off of Danne Neck Road. And I say two things about this.

The first and I feel very strongly about this. Um it is very disappointing and it is frustrating to see that to see any person targeted because of something they because of who they are is one of the most objectionable things I think that a person can do. Um, and I'm sorry to see it on public infrastructure that the citizens of Virginia Beach own, operate, and maintain. Um, we we as a community

deserve better than that. And I don't want to overstate it. I'm It's likely that it's young people and, you know, young people make mistakes and do stupid things sometimes and sometimes older people do, too. Um, it's just frust It's just disappointing to see. But as equally as disappointing as it is to see, I also am comforted to know that these actions do not reflect the people

who the vast majority of the people who live and work and visit Virginia Beach.

This is an incredible community of people who love each other, who respect each other, who are connected as neighbors, and who do celebrate differences and don't condemn them. Um, having said that, um, I just want to note a couple of things. As I said, it's frustrating to see. What's also inspiring is the dedication and the responsiveness of um city employees. Uh our public works department has just immediately

um addresses these instances when they present themselves. Uh I personally saw the um public works department working hours past their shift to remove graffiti in the Vibe that was in the Vibe Creative District. Um, and any graffiti is bad, but but um graffiti that's discriminatory that targets people because of who they are is really bad and it needs to come up and it needs to be addressed. And I I'm

just really really happy to see the way that our professional staff and I really credit them and I credit you Mr. Dhaney with um setting the tone for what will for what would not be accepted within the city of Virginia Beach. And then I also want to compliment and thank our police department who are I know are investigating and tracking these instances across the city. Um we know

it's not a reflection of who we are but it needs to be addressed. These instances cannot go without us speaking to them. Just just as Mr. Janei has set a tone within the city organization. I think it's incumbent upon us as elected city council members to set a tone about the type of community that we want to live in and that we that we aspire to be and it doesn't involve hateful hateful graffiti

messages. So every time it happens um we we need to address it in the ways that the city has and also in a unified fashion um condemn those in those actions. So, I just wanted to say a word about that mostly to um to thank and to u express my appreciation for the efforts that the city, the police department and our public works folks professionals have done. And just think about that. The holidays,

they want to get home. It's cold and they're outside with power washers. And I hope the people and I'm sure they're not watching, but I hope the people who um who think of who do these acts, think of those people that have to respond in those ways. the the the men and men in this case who were spending hours during the holidays past their shift cleaning up their mess. Doesn't matter what it

says, they were they were impacted families across the city. That's just one aspect of their impact. So, it's just something to think about. But then on a much happier note, I'd like to introduce Tacier. And Tacier, if you'd just stand up for a minute. Tacier is um doing an internship um with my office.

I'm very lucky to have him. He's a District 3 resident. and um he's a senior at the um Kempsville High School um center for entrepreneurship and business. He had a meeting with um Mr.

Lman today to analyze traffic calming.

So you're in the right place about this.

Oh lord.

You're definitely in the right place if you enjoyed that. And um he's very I mean just a really uh very very smart and um and very capable promising.

young.

What did you say?

I said, "Of course, he's going to Kimville."

Yeah.

Young uh young emerging leader. And so, um you'll see him around for the rest of the month. His internship will end in February, but I I just he's he made it past the first couple months successfully, and I just wanted to um welcome him and and recognize him.

Thanks D.

Stacy. Speaking of traffic, we have a neighborhood uh in the Kings Grant area. Uh on that uh there's a road called Smith Lane. It's a very unique situation. This this road is about a half a mile long, 6 milesi.

It's perfectly straight.

Uh on one side of the road, it's a very narrow road. It's for two vehicles to pass um at the same time, which is problematic. On one side of the road is a ditch and not a a very steep ditch. On the other side of the road are people's front yards, their mailboxes, children's swing sets. Uh on this road, there are 16 houses.

The children from those houses have to walk down this road every single day to get to the bus stop which is not on Smith Lane. They have to uh navigate the entire length of Smith Lane to get to the bus stop. Uh they've been through the traffic calming process twice uh and in neither event did they uh meet the technical aspects of the traffic calming program. However, keep in mind

there are 16 houses on this road and on in both traffic uh uh calming um studies that were done, the traffic count per day was between five and 750 vehicles a day.

This is a cut through from the Little Neck area to the King's Grand area of 5 to 750 vehicles a day with only 16 houses on this road. So, um that there are no sidewalks, there's no alternatives for the children to get to where they need to go. Uh the city staff, including the city manager and the uh director of public works, have have examined the situation, and we're all in agreement that

this community deserves a traffic calming uh you know, the proc the program to be implemented. Um it's does not meet the technical requirements because there's only 16 houses, but uh this is the exception that proves the rule. And I know there would be concern about well if we do it here maybe we're going to have to do it elsewhere or maybe we need to look at other places if they meet these kind of criteria. This

is a pretty extreme situation. So um I'm going to be asking for support to uh have a ordinance to uh put this to put this community into the traffic calming program so that they can address the situation and make it a safe situation for the residents. They there's 16 houses. Uh 14 of the 16 people have all signed. The other two uh the owners of those properties cannot be located uh after an exhaustive search. But

overwhelming support for this and uh so I'm going to bring that forward and ask that we could support include them.

Yeah. No, go ahead and put it on.

Great. Thank you.

You know, if I if I could just comment on that. I I really think that you know we've been talking about this stuff at Lord Denmark for ever since I got on city council and it never raised the level of criteria. I think we got to take a serious look at our criteria.

Uh yeah and Mr. Mayor if the council recalls and as part of your focus action plan this was specifically aligned that you all asked to add at the last retreat. You ask us to look not just at the quantitative data when it comes to assessing traffic coming but also look at the qualitative and lived experience of residents as we look towards addressing traffic common. So this could be the first iteration into that while

we look at the policy overall.

Let's go ahead and do that moving forward. Everybody okay with that?

Yeah.

Okay. Who's next?

Amelia.

I just have two little congratulatory remarks. As you know, Mous is going to be moving over to West M. So, they are having a farewell party this Saturday from 4 to 7. And I think it's important for us to know, I hope some of you can come over and see what they're doing. So, excited that they're still including us as council people even though they're moving over to District 4. But that's a

good announcement. The other congratulations go to that new program that we have the civic 101 academy. I'm sure some of you seen that.

And it's going to include a lot about because our people need to understand what it takes to be here on council to understand all the you know intricacies of it and many don't just see the outside and assume but having that I think you have 20 uh people going through it and one of them who's been through the first session was really excited to see staff coming out to present to

So that's a new step we're taking and an important step. So want to congratulate us as a city for doing it.

Hey, anybody else at this point? Josh, let's do things and wrap it up for you.

Yes, sir. Um, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm happy to join in support. Um, I'm wondering if uh as part of those criteria, we we take into account hopefully uh uh factors like there's no sidewalk, it's a really narrow street, there's only a ditch to dive in in case you're in trouble, those kinds of things. Um, and um I I just want to say thank you to Council Member Berluchcci

and to our public uh work staff and and the manager. Um, and this those those workers stayed late, not not because it was their job to do it. It's because they didn't want to leave until the that that nasty filth was cleaned up off our streets. So, um, and just speaking as a member of our Jewish community, I can tell you how frightening it is, how hurtful it is, and just how bewildering

it is to just think about people hating you for no reason other than just who you are. Um, and I know that's not what this city um is all about. And and uh I just I want to say thank you to the entire council for always um showing up to um spread spread love in the face of hate. Um, and then just lastly, mayor, uh, you the mayor and I were up on, uh,

uh, Little Creek joint joint, uh, expedition area based, Little Creek Fort Story, uh, this morning. and um they opened a new child or broke ground on a new child development center ages 0 to 5 to take care of our military families and their their their kids while um while their families are out defending our our country and and and earning their livelihoods. Um 300 kids will be served there, 120 new jobs. So um and

it'll be a beautiful facility.

Okay, and just to wrap it up, um over the break, we had a manure lighting at the Cavalier uh beach club and it was tremendous outpouring of love and solidarity. Uh Michael spoke some very powerful words, you know, from the heart, but Mr. Dehaney, there was a very strong police presence there that was appreciated by the people.

Okay. Okay. How about agenda review?

Well, oh, okay. Did you have No speakers.

Does anybody need everything?

Everything goes.

All right. The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a close session pursuant to the exemptions from open meetings allowed by section 2.23711A 2 3711A code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes. Legal matters consultation with legal council briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing briefings in an

open meeting would adversely affect the negotiation negotiating or litigating posture of the public body pursuant to section 2.33711A.

And the first is VOTE Holland Road undertaking claim. And the other thing is Shelby Moyer versus Calvin Sykes, City of Virginia Beach. Then on to publicly held property discussions or considerations of acquisition of real property for public purpose or the disposition of publicly held property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the

public body pursuant to section 2 uh 2 3711 A3 and that would be district 2 and then public contract discuss discussion or award a public contract involving expenditures, public funds and discussions of the terms and scope of such contract where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position of negotiating strategy of the public body pursuant to section 2.2 2 3711 A29

and that's the work c work force housing grant application per personnel matters discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance motion salaries disciplining or resignation from the specific public officers appointees or employees of any public body pursuant to section two 2 section 2.3 through 3711 A1 and that's

for council boards, commissions, committees, authorities, agencies and appointees. Do I have a motion? So second, yes.

Hi.

Hi.

Counc.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi.

Okay. We're resistant to close.

And if uh we can uh rise for the invocation.

Thank you all. Heavenly Father, you are always with us and beside us. Be with us this evening as we consider the affairs of our great city. Give us the patience to listen, the wisdom to decide, and the strength to act. Amen. And if I may ask for a moment of silence to honor all of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice to protect our city and our nation.

Thank you. And the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Okay. Thank you.

So, welcome one. Welcome all. Uh, Madame Clerk, do we have a roll call?

Yes, your honor. All present.

Okay. At this point, could I ask for a uh motion for the certification of the close session?

So moved.

Second.

All righty.

The vote is open.

Vice Mayor Wilson, may I have your vote?

Hi.

Thank you.

Can you Thank you. By vote of 11 to zero, you certify the close session be in accordance with a motion to recess.

Okay. Thank you. Now, can we have the uh motion for the approval of the minutes of the informal and formal sessions of December 2nd, 2025 and the informal and formal sessions of December 9th, 2025?

So moved.

Second.

All right.

Mor.

Yes.

I have to abstain on the December.

Yep.

You were having fun on vacation.

I was.

Council member Cummings, if you would just vote I and then I will just note in the minutes that you're abstaining on the 9th.

Okay.

by a vote of 11 to zero noting council member Cummings abstension for December 9th minutes. You have approved the minutes as submitted.

Okay. At this point, we'll have a public hearing and uh the option and there was the only item is the change of polling locations for precinct 0002 and precinct 0108.

change of central absentee precinct and relocate the office of the voter registar in the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Mocha uh to the Virginia Beach Medical School. They gave a 417 to all states Episcopal Church and Virginia Beach Multiple Center 2449 Princess Road building 14 to 500 Studio Drive. Any any speakers?

No speakers.

Okay. At this point, are are there anybody signed up for speakers on the agenda?

No. None for the regular agenda.

Okay. At this point, can we do the consent agenda?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Um, number under uh ordinances, resolutions.

Number one is the ordinance to amend city code section 2-85 ray leave carryover.

Two is the ordinance to amend city code section 2-105 ray reemployment. Number three is the ordinance to authorize extension of the employment contract of the city manager requested by the city council.

Number four is a resolution to provide for the issuance and sale of general obligation public invest improvement bonds in the amount maximum amount of 163 million and provide for the form details and payment thereof authorized public improvements. Number five is the ordinance to authorize one full-time uh pharmacist position with the FY202526 Department of Emergency Medical Services

EMS operating budget. Number six, the ordinance to appropriate an additional $496,432 from the fund balance of the Chesapean Colony Dredging Special Service District Special Revenue Fund to the FY 2025-26 capital improvement program CIP for capital improvement 1277 Chesapean Colony Neighborhood Dredging Ray Design Costs.

Number seven is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $25,283 from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services to the FY202526 human services operating budget grade forensic discharge planning programs. Number eight is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $10,23 from the Virginia Beach Police Foundation to the FY202526 Police Department's operating budget.

Ray K9 facility improvements. Number nine is the ordinance to transfer $375,921 within the Department of Public Utilities from the Water and Sewer Enterprise and reserve for contingencies to the Water and Sewer Enterprise Fund operating budget. Ray Arbitrage rebate payments to the Internal Revenue Service for 2020 revenue bonds. Move for approval.

Do we have a second?

Second.

All right. Any discussion? Let's open the vote.

The vote is open.

By vote of 11 to zero, you approve the consent agenda as read by Vice Mayor Wilson.

Okay. Do we have any appointments tonight?

Any appointments? No.

Okay. U Okay. At this point, do we any unfinished business? Any new business?

Okay, we adjourn to open mic.