City Council Meeting, 3/17/2026

parking must be St. Patrick's Day.

Real stiff fines and strict enforcement on parking.

That's what we got on the back.

Everybody, happy St. Patrick's Day. And we are definitely a lively bunch today.

I see everybody's so wound up and ready to go. Um, so obviously I'm not Bobby Dyer, guess you couldn't tell, but uh, uh, the mayor is on some very important business for the city, uh, out of the country on economic development. So, we wish him well and that he brings home lots of good stuff for us. Um, and I think everybody else is here. So, Mr. Manager, I'm going to turn the meeting over to

you. Vice Mayor, thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to be here today. And the first presentation will be from Brent McKenzie, who's here in action in Virginia Beach, and he'll give city council a general assembly overview in terms of where we are as we wrap up the general assembly session. So, go ahead, Brent. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Manager, and good afternoon, Madame Vice Mayor, and members of council. It's a pleasure to be here with you this afternoon. Uh today we are going to provide our uh last in-person briefing on the general assembly session. Uh we'll talk a little bit about the post session schedule status of our legislative agenda items which uh there's nothing has changed since the last time and then we're going

to roll through some of the legislation of interest that we've been following throughout the legislative session.

[gasps] So um the general assembly session concluded this past Saturday late in the evening about 7:30 or 8 o'clock. It was a really long day. Um they will come back into session on April 22nd for what we call the reconvene session. And just as a reminder, basically what happens is all the legislation that passed in the um last week of the general assembly session. All that legislation gets uh

wrapped up and sent to the governor. The governor has 30 days uh to either uh sign the legislation, she can amend the legislation, or she can veto the legislation. So on April 22nd, the general assembly comes back to deal with all of the amendments and vetos. Uh following the reconvene session on April 22nd, they have sk scheduled a special session to begin on April 23rd to deal

with the budget as hopefully you saw in my emails and probably through the news saw that they did not come to a budget agreement uh on time and said they're going to come back on April 23rd to deal with that. Uh the major sticking point uh as the general assembly session was concluding revolved around the debate over the data center exemption uh tax exemption and that provided a little

over a billion dollars in additional funds to uh spend that was included in the Senate budget. Uh House conferees did not want to include that. They were looking at some other ways of dealing with data centers and so u they were unable to come to an agreement there at the end. But sounds like things are moving in the right direction and they're pretty confident that they will uh have this wrapped up by April 23rd.

Uh our legislative agenda items, uh nothing really changed here. All three of these items went uh were sent to the governor. Um our election system items are in effect. And um the uh legislation carried by delegate as you that in its original form was uh trying to deal with some of the SAV issues and it's um it's version that passed creates a kind of like an oversight committee for some of

these hard to uh permit projects and um will will hopefully help uh lead us to a solution but it does not provide a direct solution. uh we can provide some more information on that moving forward as that legislation gets enrolled.

Uh so the next few slides just kind of uh provide a quick overview of some of the items that we had included in the policy section of our legislative agenda. Few things we wanted to highlight for you. So the first one is in on affordable housing. And I'm not going to go through all of these.

There's too much to go through. But um we wanted to highlight these for you.

And if you have questions, please let me know. Or if you want more information, please let me know. So a couple things off of this list. Uh the first one, HB4, um creates a framework for localities to preserve affordable housing. Basically, this legislation would allow if there's an affordable housing de uh development in the city uh and that developer was going to sell um said development that

locality would get first right of refusal to be able to help maintain um its affordability. So, that was an interesting piece of legislation. SB74 authorizes any locality in the Commonwealth to provide for an affordable dwelling unit program. Um and then I'll highlight one other one here on this list for you. SB90 from Senator Aired. Um this legislation provides some new authority to local governments. And

it would basically allow that if uh a condition exists in a dwelling unit like in a an apartment complex that is uh a material non-compliance by the landlord with a rental agreement. uh that it would allow the local government to basically um institute an action in court to try and get the landlord to fix the problem. So, that's some new authority that is headed towards local governments assuming that the governor

signs that legislation. On the economic development front, a couple of things that we've been talking about this year.

Uh HB18 establishes an employee child care assistance pilot program. This would be a program where um the state provides some funding and the employer provides some matching funds and would provide some child care for their employees. Um SB25 and HB67 is a program to develop workforce development in the offshore wind industry. That was included in our uh legislative agenda. And then HB275 and

SB10 permits a child 16 years of age or older to serve in an apprenticeship program. Uh this has been an issue that the mayor has brought up multiple times.

The beginning of the legislation as it was introduced would have included uh um almost all apprenticeship and internship programs as it made its way through the legislative process. It encountered a bunch of problems dealing with OSHA and other things. And so in its final version here, it would only um work for apprenticeship programs that are related to culinary arts or information

technology. So, it's a a small step, but it's a nice positive step forward on that front.

Lots of interesting energy policy that came through this year. A few things to highlight for you. Um, uh, HB770 from Delegate Herring. Um, this is legislation that would allow a public utility to provide a discounted service for lowincome um, um, residents.

HB2 similarly requires Dominion Energy to provide energy effic energy efficiency improvements to at least 30% of qualified households. Again, uh trying to target lowincome uh residential households. Um SP250, you may have seen a lot of information in the news about this one. They call it uh balcony solar. basically allows you to get these solar panels that you can just kind of plug into a socket and collect

the energy and help power your home. Uh so that interesting that legislation uh garnered a lot of discussion throughout the legislative session. And then the last one on this list we've talked about a couple of times. SB 659 from Senator Craig uh who represents part of Virginia Beach here uh creates the solar interconnection grant program. This is a really important program that they're

trying to get off the ground here. um as lots of local governments would like to put solar panels on their roofs. Uh the problem we've we and other local governments have encountered is that the uh interconnection fee that the energy companies charge is extraordinarily high and it kind of makes it um not particularly fiscal fiscally possible.

And so this would provide some grants to local governments to help um reduce the cost on those make to make it more possible.

Um the next set on flooding and the environment uh SB 802 from Senator Lockach puts Virginia back in the regional greenhouse gas initiative program. Um and then SB 197 from Senator Williams Graves um made some changes to the community flood pre preparedness fund. As you may remember the CFPF fund is the state's uh biggest grant program to help combat flooding and um some of those sort of issues. And it's over the

years had had been funded by Reggie funds. uh when we were taken out of Reggie, they use general funds to to fund the CFPF, but now it'll all work kind of in conjunction again, but the changes here um would would help local governments with the loans and grant pro grants that they receive and that they wouldn't have to make any of the payments on those any of the repayments on those until after the

project was actually complete. And then I'll highlight the one here at the bottom here, HB 1241 from Delegate Anthony out of Norphick. This is a uh important piece of legislation that will charge the HRPDC with developing an infrastructure u kind of readiness framework. It's basically a study bill that will look at all the infrastructure needs of Hampton Roads from roads to flooding to schools

to transit um and try to develop some sort of priority list and then also try to develop a way to actually fund some of these pieces of legislation. And so this is a really critical uh step forward and trying to find some matching funds for our um some of our flooding needs. So we were excited to see this move forward. Uh on the next one is for public safety. Uh just a couple things

here. Um the first two items were items that our emergency services folks were really uh high on and and wanted to see us support and you'll remember we brought those forward to you guys and you give us permission to support them.

Um but the first one they're both they didn't start as studies but they wound up as studies. But the the first one, HP 169 from delegate ascue directs the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security to establish a work group to evaluate existing emergency management needs. Uh particularly critical with all the changes going on at the federal level. So this will hopefully help fill

some of those gaps. And then SB 635 from Senator McDougall. Um the directs the Department of Emergency Management to assess the feasibility and impact of developing a state of preparedness program. This is uh our emergency management folks thought this legislation was important in that uh often times when there is a storm or an emergency that you can kind of see coming, but it doesn't rise to the level

of a state of emergency, there are often times some uh critical barriers and being able to pull down state support for equipment and personnel um that we're trying to find a way to navigate.

And this legislation will hopefully lead us in that direction.

The next slide is on transportation. Um HB411 authorizes the commissioner of highways to enter into agreements for a term of 5 years with the US Department of Transportation uh regarding state assumption of responsibility for categorical exclusions and surface transportation project delivery program.

uh our public works folks flagged this piece of legislation early on in the process and as they described it to me, the hope here is that the state can take on some of the federal responsibilities for these transportation programs and help move them through the process quicker and so we were happy to see this legislation uh come to fruition. Um HJ28, which we've talked a lot about, the HRT study made it through to uh

conclusion. And then the last uh box there, there were probably a half dozen pieces of legislation dealing with speed cameras that passed on Saturday evening.

We're still kind of going through all of them. But the moral of the story at the end of the day is that uh the programs are intact and we'll continue to move to to operate. That was not always a given and during this legislative session. So, we're happy with that success. Um they put in some pretty interesting or critical guard rails into the into the program including um including um some additional signage and uh

developing a uniform summons which was one of the big problems with the program from a just kind of like an implementation and uh standpoint. So, we're happy to kind of see that move forward and we'll put together all the different moving parts and make sure that all of our departments that are dealing with that legislation get all of the critical details as we're kind of still reading through everything.

Uh, so the next slide, legislation with fiscal impact. Uh, we talked about these four pieces of legislation pretty much every week during these briefings. All four pieces of legislation are now headed to the governor with uh waiting for her response to them including collective bargaining um prevailing wage for public works projects. The good news on that one is that we don't believe

that uh there's any impact of local governments on that there. You may remember in their original form they included all local government projects and then as it moved through the process it changed to uh just being projects that received state funding. Our interpretation of the final version is that it doesn't include that anymore either and it only impacts state projects. Uh and then the last two there

uh paid sick leave and um uh establishing the paid family and medical leave program. Uh the last one there is important and I'll point out that uh on Saturday and I missed it but I've caught it just a little bit ago.

The um enactment date on that one has moved from January 1st, 2028 to January 1st, 2029. And the taxes that will fund that program don't take effect until April 1st of 2028. So um kick the can down the road on that one a little bit.

So, the next slide provides just some additional detail on the collective bargaining legislation that passed. And we're still reading through this. It's an incredibly complex piece of legislation. And uh to be honest with you, from our interpretation and working with the city attorney's office, we believe there are certain parts of it that seem to conflict with its own parts of it. So, we think there will be some

pretty big changes to this legislation moving forward, either through the governor or through um the public employee relations board that the legislation itself establishes. Um and I think maybe the most important thing to understand here at this moment is that uh the Department of Labor has until July 1st, 2028 to kind of promulgate all of the regulations and to work with the public employee relations board. So,

similar to like we were talking about with the paid family leave program, um not a lot of this will be implemented until uh post July 1st, 2028. So, again, uh we got a couple years to try and iron out some of the details and try and get some of this uh complex legislation adjusted. So, uh just a few of the details here. So, the legislation uh include will allow most state and local

government employees to form bargaining units. Uh the legislation spelled out 18 specific bargaining units for state employees, four specific bargaining units for school employees, but it left open uh local governments. It doesn't spell out the specific units that are allowed there. So, that's open to interpretation.

uh to create a bargaining unit would require 30% of a bargaining unit employees to call for an election and then 50% of the employee or a majority of the employees so 50% plus one uh to approve um that they want to move forward with a bargaining unit. Um and then you know it requires the bargaining unit and the governing body to negotiate in good faith. They can't come to an agreement. it goes to an arbitrator to

make a decision and then that arbitrator's decision comes to the governing body. So would be to the city council to um to approve it to approve and fund the final decision. Uh the one caveat to that is that fire and EMS employees have a completely different carveout and a different process that they get to follow and instead of the city council have a final decision, it would be a threeperson panel that would

make that final decision. So, uh, lots of interesting moving parts on that piece of legislation.

Did you want to take questions out as we go or do you want me to wait till Sorry.

Yes, sir. I'm happy to answer questions as we go, sir.

It says that the council would approve the arbitrator's decision. I don't understand what that means. So my understanding of the legislation is uh the so the management and the union would negotiate in good faith on a an agreement, right? That could include things as salary and benefits and um maybe other things as well. Let's just stick with that for now to make it simple for me. Um if they couldn't come

to an agreement, then it would go to an arbitrator. So, um, you know, an arbitrator is it's similar to a judicial process. I'm sure you probably know this, um, but without the the kind of formality of a a judge, right? And so, that arbittor would listen to both sides, collect all the information that they needed and make a conclusion of what the agreement should include, including your salaries and benefits.

And then that uh agreement that was approved by the arbiter would then come to the city council for approval and the council would have to approve it as a whole. They couldn't pick part of it that they liked, part of it they didn't like. They'd have to approve it as a whole. Um and Mark seems to has got some more information for us.

Uh so yeah, it's it's interesting. You have to as the local governing body have to approve it as a whole, but the parties themselves agree on what items within that agreement come to you for approval. All money items come to you and there may be some other items that come to you. But there will be portions of these agreements which the arbitrator will issue the ruling if it doesn't have

a fiscal impact and it otherwise wouldn't require council approval under law. those those elements of the agreement just go into effect regardless of the council's action.

So So I understand what arbitration is.

I understand the process. I just never heard that I I just don't understand how it would work that once the arbitrator makes a ruling now the city council has a say. I only only over the money. If you don't approve that, they can't force you to spend the money necessary to implement those portions of the agreement that require money. But everything else the what the arbitrator says is what the

arbitrator said. It is a as as as Brent said, it is a complex piece of legislation with a lot of moving parts, some of which don't really appear to fit well together.

But then there's a difference for fire and EMS, right? So fire and EMS It goes to a three-party panel and they get to determine the money aspect.

Yeah. The arbitration panel's answer as EMS and fire employees is final final. I don't understand how that's I mean that is in my mind inconsistent with prior law which said that only the local governing body had the power to spend money. But that's what this bill appears to say.

Would that be challenged?

I mean sure it can always be challenged.

I just don't know, you know, it's it's a it's not clear what would happen in that challenge.

And who appoints this secretary now?

The three person there's two different the three person panel was uh the basically the union would pick one, the management would pick one and then the third person came basically through like a list of people who do this sort of arbitration work professionally. And so they would create a list and then everybody gets to mark a name off and whichever name is at the end that's the third person. Um again a bit uh

complicated but that's how they've drawn it up at the moment.

And for the single person arbitrator it's uh if the parties can't agree the employees relations board appoints. I believe I think they just I think what they did was they have an odd number of people that goes onto this list. The union gets to mark somebody off. The city gets to mark somebody off. The union gets to mark and like they literally just go back and forth until there's one name

left and that's the person. Like I think they put five people on this list that do are professional arbiters. Um and and that's kind of how it gets chosen. If I recall correctly.

Well, it's changed. I think you may be right. That may have been the final version.

Yeah. And and look, this thing went this piece of legislation has gone through, I don't know, seven, eight, nine different iterations. Some that got published publicly, some that got passed around for people's thoughts. And um I'll say the city attorney's office has been great in helping to interpret this along the way and um providing quick information. And you know, we've we've

done what we can to provide feedback on how things would work and um offered amendments to try and improve the process and we'll continue to do that.

As I mentioned earlier, the governor has um an opportunity to recommend amendments here and we'll be reaching out to the staff to offer some what we would uh we would turn to be to fixes to some of the holes that we see in the legislation. Michael, two questions. First one uh is very simple. Are constitutional officers included in um Yeah. So I mean and that it's not and that really that's one of

the um when we talk about there are there are parts of the legislation that literally conflicts with other parts of the legislation and the constitutional officer is a part of that. So there's part of it where it says that the constitutional officer themselves would get to decide if their office unionizes, but then there's another part of the legislation that spells out how public safety um units would be able to

unionize. And so for constitutional officers like sheriff's offices, you know, which one of those two uh elements is the controlling element? And and I don't have an answer for you of that today. And I'm not sure that they contemplated that on the last day as they were trying to get this thing through at the end. Um, but that's a perfect example of where some of the complexities and some of the conflicts are live.

Mr. McKenzie, but that's not really an unforeseen challenge. I think the statement that you just made reveals something about the legislation.

When you tell me that you're not sure that that was contemplated as part of the legislation, that's not an unforeseen complication. This anyone [clears throat] who understands the nature and the technicalities of municipal operations would understand there's distinction between the municipal employees and those employees who are um part of state agencies and constitutional officers. So it [clears throat] uh yeah,

you don't have to comment on it.

I I'll just I will just say that, you know, it is a complex piece of legislation went through a bunch of iterations and then at [clears throat] the end they're trying to get it done in a matter of minutes and hours and also this is typical of uh big pieces of legislation like this.

They they believed they had the safety net of it not taking effect for a few years and that they would have time to to make tweaks and fixes to it as um as before it becomes actually implemented and becomes so help me understand that. So that so this the anticipation is that it wouldn't take effect for a few years. So that's right and not until post July 1st 2028 at the at the earliest. it may take

u like they have to um produce a bunch of the regulations of how the employee relations board will operate. Um and so there's there's still work to be done and from a regulatory standpoint that will help with some of the implementation of this and pro provides a a span of time where when we identify issues like this there's an opportunity to hopefully get them fixed.

So if this is a if there's no amendments or changes from the governor's office then I think July 2027 they have to create this board right and between now and when it goes into effect July 2028 this board is supposed to smooth out these kinks and they can make certain changes to the legislation before localities and the other entities that will be part of this process would have to move forward with it if

petitioned or um requested to [snorts] do it by a potential bargaining unit.

One other question, this was the more complex one.

Um I want to so the conditions that elements of bargaining are compensation, benefits, and workplace conditions.

Correct.

Well, I think that that was also um one of the challenges that we foresee with this legislation is that the the code section that they've applied that to um applied it to uh we believe would actually apply it to some of the operational context of a local government as well. Um we're not sure that that was the intention or not but we think that they've kind of cast a wide wide net wide scope on this and

that's one of the areas that we would like to see them operational in terms of equipment capital expenditures potentially other types of things like how structure how management is structured like quite a few things that um we're not sure that would would really fall in line here of what they're trying to do but one thing that concerns me or one thing that let me let me rephrase that. One

thing that stands out to me is the carve out for fire and EMS employees and sending that to a three person panel because I'm wondering where is the accountability to the public.

Each member here is elected. So in every other scenario, [clears throat] the final decision is made by the governing body and then that governing body is judged on their performance whether people approve of those decisions or disapprove of those decisions in the November election every four years.

But what it sounds to me like been contemplated as part of this is a deviation from that accountability for certain employees where according to what you said this threeperson panel with no accountability to the people who are funding these decisions and who are impacted by decisions that are made are this deviation uh directs that that decision-making authority to this three person panel that doesn't

have accountability and some people don't you know some people are you know four years is a long time to get accountability if you're disapproving of your representative but at least there is accountability but what you're telling me is a three person panel can direct us to purchase fire equipment fire trucks um make a building I mean are these is is that what's permissible under you know

um changing compensation That's and that's those are taxpayer funds with with no accountability to the public at all.

Until it gets clarified broadbased on what it looks like, those are those are legit and fair questions.

But until it gets more clarity in terms of what is actually meant by this and what the boundaries are, those are valid and fair observations, sir.

And these are items more, but I could ask more, but I but I think for the time being I've asked enough.

And these are the sort of items that we will be bringing to the governor's staff attention in hopes of finding ways to uh make amendments and get the legislation altered. Uh we'll see how that works. I mean, is there a compar one last question, is there a comparison of that in in other states or other cities where those is that lack of accountability present in in those decision-m scenarios? It's hard

for me to imagine that there isn't some way that a person voter or citizen would have direct line of accountability for people who are making decisions with their resources and on their behalf.

It's not atypical from my experience for um collective bargaining contracts to have domain over otherwise management functions and also operational functions like equipment and things like that you know so it is possible some don't have it or some do have it as well really depends on what locality or the state author arises. Yeah. So, this is really like as Brent mentioned, these

are some of the things that we're going to clarify and try to see if we can get some um guidance on how is this supposed to be interpreted because as you said, it's very convoluted and not clear at this time. Sir, you go on.

Thank you, ma'am. Um, so there were two pieces of legislation that had additional revenue streams that we had uh been following. we've mentioned a few times in our presentations. Go to the next one for me, Andrew. Uh, one is the retail cannabis marketplace. So, this legislation uh passed the general assembly is now headed to the governor.

Just some of the highlights here of things that um impact local governments and um that we wanted to to bring to your attention. So there are seven different types of licenses that will be associated with the retail cannabis marketplace from uh cultivation and growing the the the cannabis to processing it to selling it to delivering it. There are uh again another very complicated piece of

legislation. Um for the retail stores they have set out a maximum of 350 retail marijuana retail marijuana stores throughout the Commonwealth. Uh they've set out that they can have a maximum of 2,500 square feet of retail floor space.

Um couple of other things that are important. You have to be 21 years old to purchase. Uh you can't sell it through vending machines, drive-through windows, or internet cell sales. Um they've put a limit of 2 and a half ounces per transaction per person. um can't be located within 10,00 feet of a hospital school uh higher education or child daycare program. Um that was interesting as that went through a bunch

of different iterations and some of the early iterations it gave local governments the authority to um to reduce that thousand foot threshold but that did not make it into the final legislation. So now it is 1,000 ft. Um the state is going to tax it at 6% in addition to the retail sales and use tax. Um and then they've spelled out specifically how those dollars will get spent, 40% to early childhood uh care

and early childhood education, 30% to the cannabis equity reinvestment fund, 25% to department of behavioral health, um and 5% to public health programs, uh local government authority. So there was no um there's no ability to opt out of cannabis retail sales. Um there that had been in and out of the legislation throughout the process. Uh so we have no ability to prohibit the cultivation, processing possession sale

distribution handling transportation consumption, use or advertising of the legis of uh marijuana sales. um says we can adopt an ordinance that prohibits the use and local public parks, playgrounds, public streets, or any sidewalk adjoining any public street. Uh oddly, um schools is not included in that list, which I thought was interesting, or maybe just an oversight.

Um can uh we can enforce local ordinances to regulate businesses licensed pursuant to um our our typical zoning authority uh and land use requirements and business licens requirements. Um and a locality has the authority to set the hours in which a retail establishment can operate. Um has a local tax. we have a uh we have to have a local tax and that tax can be between 1 and 3 and a.5%. Um so once the

a locality adopts an ordinance that includes the hours and the tax structure, we're required to uh communicate that information to this new authority.

Um, an additional part that had not been included in the legislation throughout the process, but was in the final legislation, I know this has been brought up here a couple times, uh, creates some new regulations around uh, hemp products, including requiring registration to be able to sell those hemp products. Um, requiring packaging and label requirements, including um, like childproof packaging and labeling

of what is actually in the legislation.

and then uh also limits the THC um that is permitted in those hemp products.

The other piece of legislation that we were following in this category uh was on skill games. Again, this legislation passed and is now headed to the governor. Uh cap skill games at 25,000 games statewide. Uh this one does have a a referendum opt out process if a locality wishes to do so. Um each game itself has to have a license through the state and has to be inspected by the lottery board. Uh they

will be t taxed at 25% of their gross profits. Of that 25% 15% goes to a locality. So that comes out to 3.75% of the total. um an additional um and then 75% of that goes to the general fund for the state. It allows three to four games in convenience stores and restaurants and allows two games at establishments with a valid charitable gaming license.

Then my last slide here is some information on that last piece of land use legislation that we were uh following. You may have seen the article in the Virginia pilot. I think it was today or yesterday. Uh this is the legislation that some people call faith in housing, other people call it yes in my backyard. But basically what this legislation does is it allows any religious organization or a 501c3

that is uh has a property tax exemption approved by a local governing body to be able to develop their property as an affordable housing complex by right. So they don't need to go through a reszoning process. Um, a few things to highlight here. Um, we were able to get our AQ's area exempted from this process. So, that was one plus. Um, it also requires the property to be within 500 ft of water and sewer

lines. That should help with some of the blue line challenges that may uh come along with this legislation. Um, it also subjects the property to taxation even if it maintains ownership by the religious organization. But the legislation does not require the religious organization or the taxexempt organization to maintain ownership. So they could develop the property and then sell it and uh walk away. U some of the

other issues that we've kind of we've been talking to folks about allows a density of 20 units per acre. uh building height of 45 feet or the highest or the height of the nearest building within 500 feet 500 feet whichever is higher. Um allows one parking space per 300 square feet. Uh and it allows for mixed use development.

Um that includes religious religious worship space, child daycare centers, health clinics, coffee shops, or other uses that are ancillary to the operation. Um, you know, as I was talking to legislators about this piece of legislation throughout the process, we were really trying to get them to make some um some changes to how this would kind of operate in our neighborhoods. As I described to folks,

I don't know what where churches are located at in like Fairfax and Lowden and Henriiko, but here in Virginia Beach, the vast majority of our churches are in our neighborhoods. And this is going to um has the opportunity to be incredibly impactful on neighborhoods allowing for the opening of a coffee shop. Um you know 45 feet is twice the height of the normal twotory like a two-story house is 20 to 25 ft. Um the

density of 20 units per acre. Um that's that's uh fairly dense. Um I don't know what for what's allowed under normal zoning uh rules. So this has the potential to be pretty impactful. Um we're going to work with governor staff on trying to get some amendments to try and u reduce some of those impacts. But I will tell you that um talking to the legislators, there was just such a clamor for getting more

affordable housing. such a disappointment in that um too many of these sort of affordable housing complexes in neighborhoods do get kind of rejected and this was them um trying to push that forward. So this is where it landed. So this is my last slide in my uh presentation.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you Vice Mayor.

Yes. Thank you Vice Mayor Wilson. Mr.

McKenzie Brown. Thank you Andrew for the dis uh presentation discussion and and work. I've just got four items and I'll try to go through them quickly. Let's go with the last one first. Uh when would the faith in housing be that effect? I know the governor would say the governor signs it in the next would it be July 1st and then is there a definition of affordable housing?

Uh it did have a slightly delayed enactment. I think it's September of this year, but I'll have to go back and double check on that one.

Councilman, I apologize for that. Um, but it did have a delayed enactment. Um, and it does have a definition of uh, affordable housing. It was, and I can get that for you. I don't have it in front of me, but it there was a very, um, prescriptive definition of affordable housing. It was 80% of AMI and there was another piece to that, but that's what I remember.

Just a quick comment on that. I mean, I I appreciate the intent here for sure, but being in the space here locally, to me, it will be very hard for an organization to make the numbers work, but 20 units per acre probably on one or two acres. I know in our city, we have a minimum of three acres for a church uh to operate. So, I guess that will impact that part of our Yes.

And I'm sorry, I should have included it on the slide, but I didn't. But it requires 60% of the units to be affordable. So the other 40% would not have to be and I apologize. I see where you're going with making the math work right and I think that helps with the math.

That helps.

Okay.

I apologize for that for that's a pretty key element that I should not have excluded a lot of legislation. So back on page 10, speed cameras. Just real quickly, they're keeping the same. So right now, if I understand it, speed cameras are for school zones and road construction only. So that's remains the same. It does not go further than that. There was uh one piece of legislation that would

have made a real real real slight expansion of it in what they called uh like these red zones. Basically took like school zones and expanded it a little bit. But uh I'm going to be 100% honest with you. It was in, it was out, it was in. It was only for planning district 8. I'm not sure where that one landed. We're like I said, we're still kind of going through all of those

bills. But the long even if it is in there, it's would be a very slight expansion. Um, and I will say the on the work zone part, they added in a um they passed some one of the clauses in the legislation was that those could only be in effect when the workers themselves were present, not 24/7 the way um a lot of these work zone cameras um are currently. And the city doesn't operate

any work zone cameras, which I think is what I beat the manager to that one.

Correct.

Just two more quickly on cannabis page 14. Is that effect? Retail sales would be effective January one. Did I read that?

Yes, sir.

See that somewhere?

Yes.

So that's you know 9 8 n months from now. And I just turned to my colleague Council Member Luchcci and Mr. Manager.

We're on we're going to be prepared because this has implications for planning for tax collections for a lot of different things that we should be ready for or so I I think um council member Beluchcci Mark um the planning department and myself are actually meeting with the council's task force on this on Friday talk about next steps which is possibly becoming law of the land and then what

steps we would want to bring forward the council in terms of engaging the public and how we best want to regulate it within the bounds that the general assembly provided to us and that their work to initiate that process with um council's approval.

I I just want to follow up to say um I think there's a lot that we have to work through, but I'm grateful to the manager and to the city attorney, my new colleague as a liaison, Councilman Green for um joining the conversation. There's been a lot of leadership on this issue um from the members of the cannabis task force and also in cooperation with the professional staff who are bringing

their portfolio of expertise to the table on that. And I also just want to note that Virginia Beach is the only municipality in the Commonwealth that has um had the foresight [snorts] to establish such a a committee. And as such, I think we are best better prepared than anyone that I'm aware [snorts] of uh to work through these questions. But that doesn't change the fact that we do need to work through

these questions and we need to get in front of it. is going to move quickly.

And um a lot of these decision points are ones that impact uh neighborhoods and shopping centers and businesses and as well our uh law enforcement professionals and our city budget. And we need to be positioned. I think we really need to have a conversation as a body and with the community determine, you know, within the context of what decisions are available to us, which ones we'd like to make and which ones

best suit the city of Virginia Beach.

Thank you.

What did you have?

And just one last bit here, um, public [clears throat] safety page nine. And I wasn't here last Tuesday, but I followed the discussion and I agree. Um, and now that the session is out, you know, one bill didn't make it through this year, House Bill 488 or something like that, and with some public safety events that have happened at the oceanfront recently had suggest or propose that we have a

briefing with the all members of the delegation with the police chief and maybe the Senate city manager and with us or not, and get them up to speed on, you know, what's happened, not just this year, but what's happened over the past three or five years, if not actually 15 years, especially in the spring, and then hopefully we kind of go from there.

Yes, sir, Councilman. And we've had some um productive conversations with our delegation in particular, but also legislators around the Commonwealth on this topic and um you know, it was always a big ask ask in one year. Um uh but we're we're optimistic that we're going to get see some progress on this throughout the interim and some additional discussions. there are um you know other localities that are

interested in this as well that are seeing similar problems in some of their high tourism, high um you know attraction areas where people kind of congregate especially young people. So um you know especially from u Richmond and Newport News and Hampton and uh you know other localities throughout the Commonwealth. So we're optimistic that we'll be able to make some progress on this.

So, [snorts] I wanted to ask on the budget, which I know it's not a done deal yet, but um I talked to you last week. The Nemo Church has got money from both the House and the Senate of $500,000. Is that correct?

Uh yes, I'll go with yes.

the budget is always fluid and a lot of it's just going to depend on um what they do with this data center tax, right? If that's included, then they have an additional 1.2 billion to spend.

If that's not included, then they have to go cut $1.2 billion out of the budget. And so, um if you ask me today, it doesn't sound like that's going to be in the final budget and they will have to make reductions and that puts everything at risk of that, you know, we're we're working towards. Um, and so, uh, I I genuinely don't know where this one's going to go as of today.

And what about the venture waves money?

I'm sorry.

The venture waste money.

Yeah, similar conversation. You know, it was that was included in the House, not in the Senate. Um, so oftent times when it's in one and not the other, that's a an easy place when the negotiators go to start to kind of set it aside. So, we'll see where that winds up as well. Um, I haven't had interactions on that one other than answering a question or two from some of our delegation about it.

That wasn't one of, uh, right our agenda items, so I haven't had much to do with it. But, um, I I would just say the same thing about that as I would say about any item in the budget is that you don't know until until they produce a document and until the conferees. Um, the first question is always how much revenue do we have to spend and then they solve the the rest of the problems.

And until they solve that, how much revenue do we have to spend? Until they come in agreement on that, everything's at risk.

Well, we're really glad to have you back here.

I appreciate that.

In person. Uh, any other questions for Brent?

Thank you very much. Great job.

Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation is going to be your quarterly update regarding the flood protection program. It will be provided by Jeff Waller of our boner frame oversight board as well as the city's program manager, Jacob's Engineering, Lysa Pico.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

Good afternoon.

I'm Jeff Waller. I'm the chairman of the Flood Prevention Bond Referendum Oversight Board. The flood prevention bond referendum includes seven master projects, 21 projects within those. It also includes 10 support projects and 10 active projects. It was passed by the voters in 2021.

There was a resolution following this creating this board, the oversight board that calls for a report from the board every three months. Our December update was cancelled. So the last report to council was in September. So this is the sixth month since then.

Since the last report to city council in September, the board received staff briefings. Kyle [clears throat] Kulb presented on the city's storm water extension program last October.

Travis Davis and Alex Carlson of the Arcadus Group presented on the storm water operations and control center.

November December, Mike Tippen presented on the Pleasure House Point Project.

January, Mike Tippen presented on the construction program and the year ahead.

Uh Jim Milikin in February presented on hydraulic separator technology for water quality. And last month, um, Christina, no, that's this month. It's March. We're still in March. Christina Surles presented on the, uh, storm water modeling reviews across public and private developments.

The city's video education about the flood prevention program is going well.

Um, there's 23 public published blogs, 12,700 views, an average of 555 a uh views per blog. And the two most viewed blogs are the Windsor Woods Tide Gates, the Lake Windsor Tide Gates, and the Boow Creek Stormwater Update.

There are 20 published videos with 177,000 views. And the three most viewed are the Lake Windsor Tide Gates, the Boow Creek Stormwater Park, South Plaza Trail, and Presidential Boulevard intersection.

In social media, the most engaged topics were again the Tide Gate after the September rain event, Boow Creek Stormwater Park, Pleasure House Point, and the Central Resort Project.

The flood prevention program website had 23,000 views in 2025, which is a 40% increase from 2024.

[snorts] The February 2026 status report that you've received uh shows the following construction activities. Bow Creek Storm Water Park phase one is under construction. SeaTac drainage improvements, First Colonial Road and Oceanana Boulevard drainage, Elizabeth River flood plane restoration and the Woodsor Woods, Princess Plaza and the Lakes Bundle.

Also, the Eastern Shore Drive bundle phases 1B through 1E is in the award phase and this is important. Phase 1E is a bond referendum project.

The Bow Creek Stormwater Park section 2 is at 100% design.

Future activities, the board is going to take a second field trip to the Boow Creek Stormwater Park next month in April. And sometime we we want to go back and see the Lake Windsor tide gates and and we're interested to go when the Windsor Woods bundle gets under construction.

Last month the Virginia Lakes and Watershed Association conference was held. The city was well represented. 29 city employees attended.

uh TKR, Jim Milikin, Mike Tippen, Jonas Ellered, Cal Kuba, and Audrey Guzman all made presentations on water quality, flood management, and storm water extension.

KO Aronola is a director on that board of directors for the board association.

Uh our request is uh we will still try to notify council members when we're going to have a project in your district before our meeting so you can attend. Uh the city's been awarded $73 million in grants.

We're going to submit another 44 million and the city received a lowinterest load loan from the department of conservation and recreation for part of the Eastern Shore Drive for $83 million. Our meetings are the second Thursday of the month. They're open to the public. The public can attend. The public can comment. The board the board has a website accessible from the ripple effects website.

There's an email address for public comments.

All the members still look forward to participating in this. And we're going to do something a little different today. The board was uh put together September of 2022. We've been together three and a half years, seven members.

We still have the original seven. And u today, uh Scott Miller, sorry. Scott Miller is going to be here just to give a little different perspective of his activities on the board for the last three and a half years. Scott Miller, welcome and thank you.

Thank you. Uh good afternoon, Vice Mayor Wilson and city council. So, I'm Scott Miller. Uh, I live in Windsor Oaks neighborhood. Um, and I have the honor of serving on the, uh, the bond referendum oversight board. Um, when my family and I bought our home in 2012, uh, we knew flood insurance was required. Um, but we didn't understand why. I had lived in Virginia Beach since 1997 and had never seen or heard of any

real flooding events. Uh, then Hurricane Matthew uh, hit in 2016 and, uh, pretty much everything changed. Uh in a single night, I had more than a foot of water uh in my house and uh into hundreds of homes across the Windsor Oaks and Windsor uh Woods neighborhood. Uh families who had lived there for decades lost nearly everything, furniture, memories, cars, uh in many cases their

sense of security. Uh there were several who didn't have flood insurance because our homes weren't in a designated flood zone. Uh my house uh part of my yard is not in a flood zone, but the rest of my house is. So, that's how uneven the terrain is there. Um, and I'll never forget, uh, one of my neighbors had a flat bottom boat and was driving up and down the neighborhood, uh, as if it was

a canal. Um, and we have a two-story home, so we were able to retreat up to our second floor, but not everybody in our neighborhood was as fortunate. They had, uh, much more water um, and were stuck in their homes. Uh, just a few days later, I attended a pack community meeting at Windsor Oaks Elementary. uh that fortunately had the city manager there uh because originally it was only

supposed to be a staff presentation. Um so a lot of people showed up. Um many were in tears. Uh many were exhausted from cleanup and uh all of them were sharing stories of what they had lost and and basically they were pleading for the city to to do something to act. Um that night of of Matthew made one thing crystal clear. Uh it was a wakeup call that you know we just we couldn't ignore.

Uh that storm, you know, drove the city to uh make some pretty bold and historic commitments to flood protection. Um some immediate action. You know, the city jumped in to do cleanup and we saw garbage trucks making runs through the neighborhoods uh all day, every day. Um there was canal dredging. I believe that was approved almost immediately. Uh that that took place. uh and then ultimately

led to the over half a billion dollar flood bond that uh city residents voted for um overwhelmingly in 2021. Um I've had the chance to speak um with my representative, Council Member Beluchcci, several times uh since then uh sharing, you know, some of the pain that myself and my neighbors experienced. Um concerns about construction projects in in my neighborhood and in the district. Um as

well as the hope um that I hope I I can bring here today. Um, as a Navy chief and now as a DoD civilian department head, I've overseen a lot of large missionritical projects and I knew I needed to be on the board. Uh, especially since my own neighborhood would benefit directly. Uh, I wanted to make sure that things were going smoothly because it would directly affect my home and my family. Uh, one of

the most rewarding parts of of our work is helping the public understand the tremendous value uh in the investment that that they're making. Uh the board receives detailed briefings on the science and engineering behind every project and then we make uh month we make recommendations so that that monthly flood protection report uh that's written by city staff is clear, easy to follow and shows real progress.

It's important to us that it's readable by the the citizens so they know what they're getting.

Uh we also recommend um that the cities uh create short engaging videos and graphics that show the before and after uh views of the completed projects um that show residents simple ways they can help the storm water system work more efficiently. Uh there was one video that was made about keeping stuff out of the storm drains uh and the pipes u and that they take the residents on virtual tours

of flood control work that's happening in the parts of the city that they may never drive through. And our shared goal is to let every resident follow along with the progress no matter where they live. I know um when I first moved to the city, I lived over by uh Little Creek Base and I probably never ventured anywhere near Windsor Oaks, Windsor Woods. So I had no idea and still if I

live there today wouldn't know that any of that work was going on. So it's important that everybody in the city knows uh that these projects are going on and what they're getting uh with their money. Um we've seen impressive momentum under the city manager's leadership. You know, we've seen those large cranes as evidence of the project work. There's been new tide gates, pumps, and uh some pretty dramatic

repurposing of land that's already changing the landscape for the better.

Um we've seen costs uh rise since the original pre-COVID estimates, but city staff has been uh relentless in finding efficiencies and bringing in those grants and loans that we heard about um to reduce the burden on citizens. And one of the things that we really strive to do is make sure that those successes are highlighted in the reports. Um, you know, we all want to see results right

away. Uh, and that's why expectation management is is so important. After the heavy rain last September, um, myself and some of my neighbors, you know, wondered why the the water still flooded the roadways in Windsor Oaks and Windsor Woods after the tiegate uh, and temporary pumps had been installed. Um we I was unable to get to my house until um several hours into the night, not

because of a failure of the tide gate, but because of the volume of the water that fell in the short period of time.

Um there's also still some drainage work that needs to be done in the neighborhood. Uh you know, that'll be addressed later on. Um, but that moment reminded us how vital it is to clearly explain that the projects are designed first and foremost to protect us from major hurricane events like Matthew, not every passing thunderstorm. And that doesn't always uh resonate well with citizens, but uh it's it's definitely

important to get that message out. Um getting that that timely information out there is the best way to dispel negative perceptions uh from residents who may not see the direct value in projects happening across the city. So clear, consistent messaging builds confidence and trust. Uh while our charter limits us to just the projects identified in the referendum, we are certainly interested in uh the overall flood

protection program. Projects like Pleasure House Point, which is not a bond referendum project, but definitely affects bond projects, uh was a situation we were interested in and had to address because of the justification used for the project. uh those wetland credits that were necessary for the completion of projects already underway as well as uh used for future projects.

And despite the long approved but postponed status of the project, many residents obviously were unhappy about the loss of trees and the effect on the wildlife habitat. Uh and they also distrusted the speed at which it was it was funded and carried out. But still, it was a necessary step that creates those critical wetland mitigation credits, allowing the city to move forward on those uh key flood protection

work without those costly delays. It's a clear example of having to weigh difficult decisions for the good of the entire city. And it's just one of the many tough choices council makes to fund projects both in the referendum and beyond. And so as as a resident, I can say I appreciate the um the thought that went into that and making that difficult decision. As uh as a resident and also

as a member of the board, as board members, we believe strongly in transparency. We encourage the monthly flood protection program reports to show exactly where the money is moving and how every grant and partnership is stretching our dollars further. Uh it's really been inspiring to watch city staff move at full speed, turning the commitment born from Matthew into visible on the ground progress, and I'm

definitely proud to be part of uh the oversight that keeps the program on track. Uh so this afternoon, as both a resident and a member of the oversight board, I just ask council to stay the course. Don't give up the momentum. Find ways to maintain funding both the bond and future projects. Continue uh inviting staff to speak at council meetings and town halls. Encourage and plan more in-person citizen outreach.

Keep supporting the videos, blogs, and social media updates. And help us show every part of Virginia Beach the real return on the investment. Safer homes, stronger neighborhoods, uh and a brighter, more resilient future. Uh and I appreciate um and thank you for your continued leadership and support. And I can answer any questions if you have any.

worth just real quickly, Scott. Thank you, Mr.

Miller. Thank you so much for that presentation and for your membership on the committee. I think that was well worth the change up because you're telling us right your personal story right there in front of us and where we are today. So, thank you for coming forward.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much because it was a painful story that you had to tell, but we needed to hear it and the public needed to hear it and why what we're doing is so important. So, thank you very very much for sharing.

Yes, ma'am.

Vice Mayor. Um, yes.

Our program manager, Alicia Pica with Jacobs Engineering, they're going to come and give you a overview of the flood protection program. I've asked them to kind of give us the the program overview, but kind of avoid giving the detailed project breakdowns just so we can get the council back on schedule.

So, it's it's here for council should they need it, but they'll go go through probably about like like probably 10 more slides and avoid the more detailed project specific breakdowns at this time. So, go ahead, Licia. The floor is yours.

Well, good afternoon. It's my honor to be here with you today to give you the update on the flood protection program.

And since we last spoke, we have had four projects that have moved to a different design milestone. As I speak with you every quarter, I show you this graphic that shows you the different phases each project has to travel as it gets to fruition. So, we've had projects transition from PL preliminary engineering into design, projects from design into construction, and we were able to accept the guaranteed negotiate

the guaranteed maximum price for the Windsor Woods, the Lakes, and Princess Sand Plaza mega bundle project. So, a lot of work has been done since we last met.

And the specific milestones that we've met this quarter in the first quarter of the calendar year of 2026 is we were able to get the uh permitting documents ready put together. The NEPA documents were delivered for the Pongo Ferryy project and we were able to get a request for qualifications issued for the central resort district design build project. A lot of a lot of work goes into getting those qualifications

packages put together. We're able to take the preliminary engineering report and get that document put together.

Now, when I talk to you next quarter, you'll I'll be able to tell you some more milestones we've met. And those that are scheduled right now to be met are we have them all across all phases.

As you can see, we're working on planning on the Lake Bradford Chub Lake pump station outfall project. We should have a draft basis of design report for you during the second quarter of this calendar year. [snorts] The design's going to progress continue to progress for Pungoy Road in the Point Sienna pump station projects. We're going to be procuring an NTP in construction for Eastern Shore Drive, which is obviously

something all of you are very interested in. And that includes the 1F phase that um is coordinating with the public works project. And finally, we're going to be completing construction on the SeaTac drainage and the first Colonial Road and Oceanana Road drainage improvements. So, a lot of work is going to continue to make steady progress with the program.

Um talking about steady progress, so far we've spent just under $150 million And you can see through the seven master projects. I won't get into this in great detail, but the longer bars represented the amount that's currently committed for through each project and the shorter bars represent where we've expended the money. Obviously, the most of the money has gone through the Windsor Woods.

You've seen you've heard about that Tidegate project and those neighborhood drainage projects for quite some time since I've been meeting with you. The program estimates have gone down from 1.552 to 1.503 503 and that's due to the negotiations of the Windsor Woods Prince Plaza and the Lakes mega bundle project.

So we were able to get that down about $50 million.

I want to talk a little bit very briefly about what did we accomplish during calendar year 2025. What did the program accomplish? And this is a very consolidated slide to kind of show you everything in a nutshell in one view. We spent $50 million last year. We finished construction on two projects. We started construction on two ma two projects, two major projects. We issued we went

through three procurements and we had three projects that advanced through design that continue to advance through design and we finished two significant preliminary engineering efforts. So, a lot of work continues to be going on.

We're going to be seeing those expenditure dollars increase as we get that mega bundle in towards construction.

You've known all the day from day one that the project is the program isn't just about putting out projects. It's about finding better ways of government making the process that we use to implement and deliver projects more efficient. So we've also accomplished a lot of internal process improvements in 25. We were work and these are opportunities across departments within the city within budget engineering

communications.

Um there are many others procurement and we've met with they've come together in task forces and they've updated the RFQ process. They've updated the permitting process. They've updated how we process change orders, how we evaluate them and approve them or disapprove them. We've gotten a lot of sh feedback from all these different partnerships on the task force. And for 2026, this calendar year,

we're we're finalizing a new version of the project management workflow. So your staff manage these projects including the flood protection projects. So we're providing a refresh. We're providing uh a better more modern tools to to the team so that they can do that. And we'll be providing more training this year so that more people can get uh professional training in engineering project

management. And we're also going to be documenting the progressive design build process and looking for efficiencies lessons that we've learned on the Princess Plaza, Windsor Woods, and the Lakes project so that we can apply those to the next project.

On the stormwater side, you guys have always emphasized that operations is very key to this whole program. So, they've spent $14 million in 2025.

What we did with that money is went towards the lake dredging project. You sure you heard Scott mention that in total, we've spent $15 million of ARPA funds dredging uh two dredging 10 lakes.

We have two lakes that are currently still in process that'll be finishing up this year. We've improved neighborhood drainage in 23 neighborhoods. We spent $32 million. So, that's a significant improvement. And we were able to get some specialized maintenance equipment so that we can tackle anything that comes our way. So, we're able to address keep these canals, keep these lakes in the level of service that your

expectation is from staff.

So, that's where I'm going to stop today. And if you have any questions for me about the program, it's progressing very steadily and very much on schedule with what your expectations were and your direction were to us.

Are there any questions for me?

Worth.

They've been busy.

Yes.

Thank you. And exactly. That's what I Thank you, Vice Mayor Wilson. Thank you.

Peek. I just want to recognize public works on this project. On page 22, you mentioned $50 million was spent 2025.

That equates to a little over uh five pennies on the real estate taxes comes out money comes out of the general fund.

the bul the mill rate stays the same but we are spending a little over 5 cents at least last year towards this project and and when we had the referendum right thank you was 4.1 [snorts] uh cents on the real estate tax we absorbed that and didn't raise the real estate tax should have finished anybody else well as always you do a magnificent job and we you know [snorts] this is

Thank you.

Vice Mayor, members of the city council, the next presentation is going to be a riveting presentation regarding street.

All right. Council knows probably about the last nine months, so almost a year. Um, this came up at our last retreat regarding the focus action plan and also again at your budget retreat where council asked us to put together a recommendation or options for council to consider for you all to determine on where you the council wants to land as a body as it relates to the policies we want to put in place for how

do we put some um organization and how we honor folks that made a tremendous impact to our community in terms of giving them honorary street names. So next poster will be Kathy Warren. to give council an overview of some proposed options for your consideration.

All right. Good afternoon, Vice Mayor, members of council. I am here to provide a brief presentation about honorary street designations and background information about addressing. In this presentation, we will cover the department's responsibility and duties as it relates to street names, guidelines for street naming, history of honorary street naming, and current process for honorary street names.

Recommendations for future honorary designations based on your research on our research, excuse me, will be at the end and then we'll open it for discussion.

So currently there's no criteria for honorary street designations. They are created through city council resolution.

We'll be seeking feedback from the body if you would like to formalize the process and establish criteria for future designations.

The city code assigns the duties related to street names and addresses to the planning director. Our city is addressed using a grid system that was established in the 1960s with the US Postal Service and Planning Commission. The entire city is divided into blocks with the former Norfk Southern Railroad Rightway being the baseline from which all blocks on the north and south are to be numbered

and the Atlantic Ocean being the baseline from which all blocks to the west are to be numbered. The department maintains guideline documents for addressing that were created in 1974 but are updated on a regular basis.

The department has one full-time employee assigned to all addressing functions. The employee assigns addresses to all site plans for new structures as well as assigns addresses for temporary structures such as temporary utility poles, construction trailers, meters, etc. Our staff also reviews and approves all new street names in the city and handle street name and address change requests.

We maintain a database with over 7,700 streets and 100,000 addresses and coordinate with GIS and emergency services to ensure there's accuracy and consistency across the board.

So when we review street names, whether public, private, or honorary, we ensure spelling accuracy and standard formatting. We check for duplicates, both sound alike and spell alike. So an example of this is there was a request last year for a fine avenue in the vibe district and we compared that to existing streets. There was an Alfine Avenue. So where we landed was we settled on Andrew Fine Avenue so there

wouldn't be any confusion there.

We check for inappropriate or names and poor taste which includes checking languages and translations other than English. We maintain a list of over of overused prefix, suffix or words such as those you see on the screen like Lynn, little or ocean. And we discourage use of business name names since the business may relocate or change names down the road.

So it's important to note honorary street names do not change the official street names or addresses of properties.

Street segments are signed with street sign blades for both the official name and the honorary street name. Honorary street name blades are produced, installed, and maintained by public works traffic operations.

2018 was the first honorary street name designation passed by city council resolution for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Virginia Beach Boulevard. One additional honorary designation was approved by city council in 2024 for Zim Company. This is in the Pemrook SGAA.

And four honorary street names were approved by this body last year.

Our current process is as follows.

Honorary street names are requested by city council members to the city manager.

The request is then passed to the planning department to research the requested name and to ensure it can be approved. City council then votes on a resolution approving the designation.

Public works department then fabricates the street name blades. Our departments notify GIS and E911 and other stakeholders of the additional name. And finally, public works installs and maintains the new street blade.

So for recommendations, staff conducted research to neighboring cities and others around Virginia to seek out best practices for honorary street designations.

[snorts] It really was a mixed bag of criteria as you already know, but staff pulled the following recommendations for you to consider for discussion today.

[snorts] Candidates for honorary street name designation must be sponsored by a member of city council.

The individual [snorts] group must have a significant and positive impact on the community or nation. This includes historical significance, a contribution to the city's history or culture.

[snorts] Humanitarian significance, a contribution to the city that bettered the community through volunteering for philanthropic causes. Service significance, contribution to the city with distinction in the US armed forces, public safety, or other public office, or career significance, contribution to the city's local art, science, entertainment, or business community that provided opportunities for others

in the community. Candidates must be deceased or retired from distinguished career.

In addition, staff recommends obtaining consent from the honore, the honor's family, honores estate, or board of directors. [snorts] Limited frequency.

Staff recommends careful consideration of how often candidates are honored, emphasizing the importance of assessing the value they have provided when reviewing the criteria of honores.

Finally, we recommend that planning staff review the list of approved honorary street names every five years and make a recommendation to city council to maintain or consider removing that honorary street name.

[snorts] So again, today we're seeking guidance from city council on formalizing the process for future honorary street designations and to establish qualifying criteria. Michael, thank you. Thank you, Miss Warren, and and thank [snorts] you, Mr. Dehaney, for um the work and time that you've invested in this process. Um there's a lot of, you know, important information to consider here, but if you could go to

the slide with the timeline on it, as you all know and may recall, I not that one, the um slide, yeah, slide seven. Um [snorts] I raised this issue as part of our governance section during the retreat because a lack of uh criteria frankly concern me on a number of levels. Uh one that we're leaving people out who deserve the same type of recognition that some people we've selected to honor have received.

Um and two is the sort of proliferation of this um honorarium that appears to have been occurring. And this slide illustrates it perfectly. I was there in 2018 when the first designation occurred. I remember being on Virginia Beach Boulevard near the intersection of Independence when the designation was um installed for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I don't think there's anyone who would object to well maybe unfortunately I could think of maybe a few but but but putting that aside the the there's great there would be great consensus and his and Dr.

King's legacy and impact has long been established. So for from um 2000 or pardon me from so from uh 1963 I want to make sure I get it right when Virginia Beach was formally created incorporated as a city until 2008 there were no honorary street namings then certainly people were doing wonderful things um and then in 2008 there was a designation of Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard. Then in 2024, the

Zim Avenue honorary street naming occurred and I understand that was part of a economic development incentive.

However, maybe looking back on it, you know, I didn't realize that it was only the second honorary street naming that would occur. But then you can see a four in 2025 and I think the timeline speaks for itself. every single one of those people are deserving of a recognition, but there are thousands of others throughout the history of Virginia Beach who are also deserving of it. So, I think the establishing a

criteria is very important and I actually think it's essential. I don't think it's the most important thing we need to be spending our time on. um which is why we haven't. But I'm glad that um your staff has brought these recommendations forward because we could each name in the community could um propose hundreds and thousands of people past and present who would deserve the same and then we would see

the proliferate proliferation of the blue blades all over the city. I could name for civic league presidents, principles of schools, police officers, firefighters, um teachers, [clears throat] there's just so many amazing people who have done great things. Um and I think we do need a a process. So, um I think this I think this slide tells the story about why it's so needed and necessary

and that we can um honor people in a way that's fair and that um is more inclusive of the portfolio of of contributions that have been made. Um so I think um the recommendations that you provided are good. It leaves a lot of room. council members can still um bring those forward, but I do think it's important that we sort of think about whether or not a candidate should be deceased and or retired from a

distinguished career, and I think that's an appropriate designation. I know at one time we talked about deceased for a number of years, but I think deceased or or retired is appropriate. And and then I'll just say finally the other thing that's concerning about the proliferation is as we've seen in um the national discourse you learn things about people over time and some of those things that we learn

aren't always the most positive and I don't think we want to be in the position of having to I mean the as I mentioned the impact and legacy of Dr.

King has long been established and vetted and known. Um the impact and legacy of other individuals, I'm not speaking specifically to this list, um is is still being revealed in some cases and I think we need to be careful and thoughtful about that um for all of our sake. Thank you.

Cash, I'm sorry. [clears throat] Casey, thank you for doing the work on this and I agree with Councilman Bulichi that you know there has been a proliferation of this this year but um I don't really know why that is except that we have a council that does recognize that we've had some outstanding individuals uh pass through the city and have made significant contrib contributions, you know, uh not to

diminish the contributions or the worthiness of anyone else. I would just say that the [snorts] person that I uh recommended, Admiral Jeremiah Denton, meets all the qualifications recommended by uh the city manager staff and I so I agree with everything that has been put forward and I would like to see us um adopt that. If if anything that I would add for consideration would be maybe

that uh any consideration by uh put forward by any um member of council may be limited to like one one per term, one per every four years. So that uh we you know we don't feel as though we're picking or limiting what any one person could bring forward.

Yeah, I did. Thank you. Um I appreciate your presentation and how you presented it. Council member Luchi, thank you for bringing this to our attention at the retreat. Um I I do want it to be noted that um when you bring in new council members, we bring in new perspectives and new um uh ideals that have been percolating. And I'm grateful that we've been elected so that we can disseminate

that information um very effectively.

And so um call it uh the age of of the um of the internet right and so we are um moving a lot and a lot of information is being given to us because of of social media the presence of of of of AI as well as uh just media in periods. But I will say when it comes to um I think it's page what is it recommendations candidates must be deceased or retired from a

distinguished career. I like the the fact that we we did talk about that I am of the and I'll just make sure we understand.

I think my interpretation would be um I definitely want people to receive their flowers while they're still alive. Um I do think in life happens. So I think we we've we put it nicely where candidates must be deceased or retire from a distinguished career.

they may be still working in that career.

So, I think we need to be careful just with that last bit. They may be 70 to 80. And guess what? We have a population that are seniors that we that are um retirement isn't on their agenda, right?

Um and so I just want us to to maybe think through that one a little bit more. Um because the seniors are now a part of the workforce.

Thank you, Josh.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, and thank you, M.

Warren. Um, I agree with a lot of what's been said. Uh, appreciate the work. It just strikes me that we have other things that we name people after besides just streets. So, public facilities like parks and stages and bridges um and and other things like that where we might um I mean maybe all of this these criteria don't make sense in each of those instances, but just trying to maybe lay

the some of these over top um to to you know to to help I I guess make sure we're consistent across public facilities would be a good idea.

Um, I think it's very important to have criteria and and [clears throat] I'm glad this [snorts] topic came up, you know because one thing we all we all as a group like to be kind to one another and we when someone wants to do something, unless it's something that we're totally against, we would like to to help our colleagues out. And so sometimes we have to put in guard rails to kind of govern

ourselves. And I think this is this is one of them. Um, in the CCSR I there were some other things that were mentioned that are not here and so I guess y'all decided to take those out.

One was I think you had to have continuous being a 25 years of continuous if you had be continuous um member member of the community or or continuous service to a particular thing that they were doing that was in there. So you decided not to include that. Is that correct? I believe that we just made suggestions and wanted to throw those out there for you to consider if that was something you wanted to consider.

And this thing about um being either dead or retired, if you look at it, I mean Jim wouldn't fit in there. Um Andrew Fine wouldn't fit in there.

Timberland wouldn't fit in there. So there's three things that wouldn't fit in there. So, I'm wondering if there's another way we can reconsider that particular item because there may be an occasion, you know, where we might want to not be that strict on it. But I think it's important to have this criteria and we can work on this a little bit more.

Amelia, yes, I agree. Um, criteria is important.

I was part of the Martin Luther King and it's not only one street goes all the way down to New Town and that was literally done at that time because where New Town is is one day where we plan down the road to have also the Virginia African-American Culture Center as related to that history.

that's that happened and first it was a little battle but it finally did get through and it's glad that we have that and the one that's to do with Kimble again was historical because of the street and all the rationale behind it but having a criteria is important and sometimes you will find somebody that nobody thought about back in 25 when [snorts] I brought that up And certainly

we had a bunch of people well we want to name after this after this after this.

So you all have to limit you know what is brought forth and what is important thing when we say historic like the Martin Luther King nationally everybody know his significance and some of the others when they brought up Andrew Fine people talked a lot about what he has done in the um oceanfront side but not only there but other places like the Sandler and so [snorts] forth.

So people know about the history. Nobody has to go and say please remember this person they had that but those things happen.

So like vice mayor said to go back you know review it and come back to us on everything.

There still a little bit more work to be done on it. If I could throw something else out, think about um is sometimes you need an exit strategy. You know, after so many years, people may not know who think like really who knows who Lesnar is from the Lesnar Bridge, right? I'm not really ch ready to change that, but hey, welcome Dave. I'm glad you're here.

But I mean, there's a lot of things that people don't really remember who they are anymore. So, is there some way we can have an an exit strategy if we choose to? If we choose that, this is not in perpetuity, Michael. And then Barbara.

Well, let me say two things and I and I and I'll [snorts] keep it brief because I know I um spoke at some length previously and I'll be plain about it.

It's getting kind of crazy, friends.

It's getting it's kind of getting crazy.

Four in one year, no criteria.

um that proliferation leaves people out. And um the other thing that we need to be honest about is that to vice mayor's point, we like to be nice to each other and to other people.

And so when a proposal is made, it's very difficult to have that conversation in the absence of what I think should be restrictive criteria. An honorary street renaming is a big deal. I consider it as such and it should be treated as as such. And if we can't have we don't ever want to be in a position of appear and I don't I don't I've said this many times before.

I'm not making any commentary on any one of the individuals has been named.

I'm glad to have them shipping in the city of Virginia Beach. Anyways, but we need to be able to have this conversation outside of the context of an individual being proposed with the street renaming because it can be problematic. Maybe not everyone has the same level [snorts] of restraint. It can become political. It can become about I mean I'm just going to be honest. You can imagine the things

it can become about and we want I want I I would like to avoid those scenarios.

Barbara, [clears throat] I think we have to be very careful because it can get out of hand and as you said it can get into a lot of other areas. I think it should be reserved for some issues that are just really at the top because we also have the question of what about the people who live on that street? Are we requiring them to change their address? That gets to be pretty difficult and expensive

and or are we just adding something on to what is already there. We really need to understand the implications of what we're doing so that when we name somebody's by a street, it needs to be extremely special. And you know, as far as saying the exit strategy, I'm not so sure. Maybe if people have forgotten something, you need to find out why it was named that to start with. You know,

that's there's a part of history called forgotten history. And a [clears throat] lot of history is forgotten simply because it was not maintained. and it might be a very important part of history. So, this has got a lot of different angles to it, but the one that I think is is really important is that we don't want to do things that impact the people who live on those streets

in a way that they don't want to be impacted.

Well, these are just it's just an honorary. It doesn't change anybody's real address.

But do they have to change their address? No, they do not.

Honorary Josh, one more suggestion. Um, just consistent with our agenda rules, I mean, I know you said at the request of any one member, but can we [snorts] agree that maybe it ought to be at the request of three members? And then perhaps if the scrutiny ought to be to a higher standard, we can require something more than six of us to approve it. just throwing it out there but [snorts]

work on it and bring something back maybe.

Is this limited to streets or is it other public facilities?

I I mean I would think we would want to keep it consistent at all like public facilities like buildings and streets and parks and stages and all the other things.

Yeah, I think that's good.

Vice Mayor if council desires that we could make it applicable to city facilities, you know, city infrastructure like bridges and stuff like that as well [clears throat] as signs.

Yeah.

All right, Kathy, did you get enough?

I just want to recap a little bit. So, go back to the slide nine.

So, slide slide nine. It sounds like if we [clears throat] were to bring back an amendment, we would the designation must be sponsored by mayor or three council members in line with the the agenda setting rules or is it just three members?

Agenda setting rules. Okay.

And then [clears throat] um where do we council land when the candidates must be deceased or kind of it sounds like that is staying in there or is that amended deceased or retired?

I like it.

I just vice mayor I just am just a little bit concerned about retired from a distinguished career. I just I want people to know and maybe this is the only verbiage that we have currently but I just am advoc I'm I'm I'm advocating that seniors are very much a part of the workforce and just because they retire doesn't constitute uh honor sometimes you have seniors who continue to work and they are uh very

much honored and so I just maybe That's the only wording we have. But I just want people to understand that um you can put a timeline on it like maybe that 25 years of a distinguished career.

Okay. Okay.

Michael, may I just point out though because I I I feel strongly it should be in there.

May I just point out that there are many other ways to recognize the contributions of an individual and or an organization. We have uh proclamations that are issued by the mayor, [snorts] presented in um the public. We have city council resolutions that are presented in a formally in a city council meeting signed by every member of the city council framed beautiful certificate. Um some people I don't know what the

criteria is for the key to the city, but there's a key to the city ceremony that has occurred. So I think to Mrs.

Henley's point, the street renaming is reserved for the most or one of the highest honors that can be provided. And I think that should come from the recognition. And then we still don't know. We still haven't addressed the issue. I mean, I was just googling does he have any streets around the country?

What did he did he did?

I I mean we're It's not funny though. I mean I guess it's the way you said just I know he has more than that.

We should we should be thinking about that.

Well, we had for example, would you like to speak? Yes, I'm good because we had I was here for um Corell when they did the happy and all we did was we went to Princess and had like a little reception students and his former band teacher and council people came out. Um Mayor Cessence was then there and he brought that over. I helped present the um key to him and that was it. It wasn't

expensive. It wasn't a lot of stuff going on. It was a one day, you know, typical just one thing to give him the key and the sound of the happy song. And we kept using the happy song for a while like that. But that was local to, you know, Virginia Beach. Diddy did leave that part alone. But, you know, we didn't go into major expenses. It was something

calm and it was then it was a one day, one afternoon in fact.

Yes.

I I just want to make this point clear and I I understand what you're saying, Council Member Buchcci, but I I'm here to tell you that seniors um it's a different story. Uh there's a new breed of seniors. Um I'm coming up. I'm 52.

And so my ideal of retirement is to continue to work um and still be a part of the um the workforce and may uh take some days and times with families. But it doesn't mean retirement. See, there's a different ideology of seniors from the past and seniors from present. And I think we're going to get those two generations confused. I'm of the generation X. And so there's not retirement for me. There is I work here.

I do this. I have family. I do this, but I always want to be a part of the working class. And so I think we Vice Mayor Wilson said it best about 25 years of service. I think if we we we coin something like that, we don't box oursel into a corner. I understand there needs to be guidelines, but there's a new seniors in town.

I don't agree. I mean, respectfully, I love you and we just see this differently, you know.

Well, I'm don't get me wrong. I know about the seniors. I know about the seniors.

Who would like to speak next?

Stacy.

No one's trying to um diminish or exclude contributions the seniors are making. I think the point that council person councilman Belaluchcci is trying to make and I don't mean to speak for you um but and and that I concur with is that we want to avoid the flavor of the month that somebody bursting onto the scene and saying oh this is the greatest thing that's ever happened and then five

years from now it's like who who is this guy and why they name a street after him. If we give a long duration of time then uh we should be able to look back and say that person is absolutely deserving and maybe in time people will forget their name but uh you know time will will uh validate the selection. So I I do think that we need to have a long

period of time before we jump on naming a street or building or any kind of uh public facility after an individual. So Mr. Dehaney, Mr. Mayor, I was move on to SL um slide 10 to ask if council had a comment on.

So I m I also heard madam vice mayor that somebody talked about something about limiting the frequency and what was thrown out was maybe put a term like one per term for a council member or something like that or is that or we just leave it as is. Okay.

I'm not sure that I would agree with that. [clears throat] All right. Okay. So thank you. Well, I'm I'm sitting here and receiving text messages.

Somebody wants a street Diddy Combs Way in Harlem, New York City, designated 2017.

[snorts] There's another one in uh another city, Mount Vernon, New York.

This is not a joke. This is very serious and concerning and I I think we need to um be well [snorts] aware of it and and and why are we necessarily renaming streets and and go and using uh public funds to install and maintain those designations um when a proclamation would suffice.

proclamation is a huge honor and re and so is a key to the city and I think we have a lot of tools at our disposal and um to council member Henley's point as well how do we what's the process for even consulting what if what if someone didn't want to live on Shan's way in Mount Vernon New York you know even as an honorary um I know they don't want to live on it now

Mr. I think there were a lot of things on there that we all agreed on.

Yep.

Can we go with the ones that we all agreed on?

Yeah. And vice mayor, that's where I kind of got the consensus on that we can include the items that you all agreed on and bring something forward.

I think that's a good start.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Hear from the public a little bit.

Okay.

So, but what you all agreed on excludes the I've got to tell y'all a story if it's okay.

[snorts] Um, back in the 50s when everything was booming and we were building schools every year just constantly. I mean, look at all the schools that were built and what their names were in the 50s. Frank Cox, uh, John B. Dy, Louise Luxford. I mean, I knew these people and I know why they were named those. But we've got a lot of schools at that time that were named for these people who were very active in

education at that time. Well, at that time, my dad was chairman of the school board. And I at one point somebody said, "Well, with all the schools, I guess you're going to have a school named after you next." He said, "Absolutely not. I don't want that." And from that time on there was not I don't think there's been a school named for an individual.

Uh I think they're named for places.

So you might want to go back because we do have a time period there where we were naming everything after individuals. You might go back and say well was this the right thing to do or was it better to name it something that was a place that really applies in broad ways. So just a I couldn't help but remember that when we were talking.

So vice mayor, I'll take it as next step is to bring back the items where there were consensus on and then work with the city attorney's office to draft a a council policy for your review and consideration. Okay. We won't put anything on the agenda. We'll just pass it out and you all can discuss it further.

Thank you very much. Um, so I know I know we want to move on, but I I haven't I have a concern about that because I actually think I think there is consensus around what we talked about. I think there's [clears throat] a dissenting voice here, at least one that I've heard. I haven't heard any others and I think that those respectfully and I think that those I think my would feel more comfortable not excluding an

essential part of the policy that I think protects the city and also protects the citizens and prioritizes the the long-standing contributions of the people who we are going to recognize with such a renaming. So, I disagree with that strategy. Um, respectfully, Vice Mayor, and and I would request reconsideration.

Well, Vice Mayor, why don't you put something together and pass it around and and then we can look at it again?

Yeah. So, this sounds to me like we've had this with other issues before. We'll put together one that contains what there was a consensus for and then if there are items missing, somebody can ask for an alternate draft and that alternate draft and just tell the rest of the council you've asked to have it drafted and we'll draft the you may have multiple versions and then the council just has to choose one.

Are we setting up for conflict when no conflict really exists? I mean, I've heard I've heard in a great with great respect and difference I've heard one dissenting voice the how you all do it is up to you. I'm just telling you how you've done in the past.

If if you want to do things by guidelines, I think this is a good guideline. You know, I respect you and but I just I have a problem with and and maybe this is what I'm saying. I I think everything on the guidelines are good, but I think it's too backed into a corner when seniors have a problem with employment now. And I I don't want that to be retired.

Then that's when we honor them. You there are people who start businesses who are still working in that business and so we can't honor them because they are still working.

Now with the street renaming, but but but what you're doing is is putting seniors in a class and I'm [snorts] trying to keep you from I resent that you weren't like I'm I'm just speaking I'm not speaking I'm just saying the wording and that's why I led with I think there could be a better wording um than saying retired because not all seniors are retired and not all those who were thinking about honor will be

retired. That's that's classifying and saying that we only want to honor those who are retired. you backed yourself into a corner. I just didn't think that's the wrong terminology. Maybe we need to put 25 years of service, but don't put retired. That's a problem in today's society. And I stand for seniors in the workplace.

Anybody else?

All right. Well, let's move on. Um, what does that city council comments?

I I would like to ask the city manager to address the issue about the uh Sandbridge road closure this morning. I think it kind of got in a lot of different areas. If you want to just address and let folks know we were aware of it and so forth. So, Vice Mayor, as C member Henley uh mentioned around 9:30, 9:45 this evening on this morning, there was a transer transformer

fire on a power transformer on one of the Dominion poles that led to several electrical lines going down in the road.

Thus, it closed um Sandbridge Road, both lanes for about an hour. And then after Dominion was able to get on site, working with our police department, our fire department, they were able to open up one lane. So for a period of time for about an hour there was only there was no way to get to a polling station to vote in Sandbridge. Once the road was open the traffic was able to um come

down to one lane so folks could do go down to Sandbridge and do their business to include vote. Um me and Miss Henley received several phone calls and emails regarding can the voter registars's office open up another hour for voting availability for it. a few folks that may have missed the opportunity to vote during that time. We looked into it.

It's not something that the city council can do. It actually requires either the Commonwealth or for a circuit court judge to do, which is something that is not necessarily likely to happen at this time. But we heard about these requests and we did everything that we can to get the road open working with our partners Dominion and um we identify that it's not something the city council can do as

it relates to opening up a polling station for another additional hour worth of a strange thing to have happened and so forth. But I I just want everybody to know that their concerns were looked into and and so forth. And I appreciate this. You're doing everything that you all did. And when Sandbridge Road goes down, it it's a it's a strange situation having one road in for such a

very large area. And when it turns out to be on voting day, then it does get to be another issue, but I appreciate your checking into it.

And I want to add, we got to get vice done. Vice, I want to add one more thing just for clarity as well because me and Miss Henley talk about this every time Sanbridge Road closes. At no given time is the public unsafe because there is a standing authorization and agreement between us and Damn Neck. If we if we need to get a a fire apparatus, a ambulance or police vehicle through Damn Neck, they will

work with us to allow us through. The concern that Damn has is allowing [snorts] the public to go through it as a right of way to get to um to get past San Bridge Road. They'll do that, but it has to be something that's going to lock down Sandbridge Road for a significant period of time. But if we ever need to get a fire apparatus or emergency medical transport or any kind of

emergency vehicle in there, we do have authorization and agreement with Damn to allow us to let city emergency services treat or transport people in San Bridge.

And thank you for repeating that too.

That's important.

It is important. Uh thank you Worth.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wilson. It was a very busy weekend last weekend at the resort oceanfront with a lot of events um at the sports center. We had the division 2 national indoor track and field championships. We had a cheerleading uh conference or um event at the convention center. Um this weekend coming up is the Shamrock Marathon and another uh a lot of big 89 mats uh between the sports center and

the convention center. Lots going on, but I want to do a special shout out to two entities. Um the Hampton Roads Cancer Care Foundation.

Uh the dome hosted a their first uh gayla and just a real shout out to Audra Dement who put it all together uh with the strong support of Virginia Oncology Associates 570 patrons and sponsored uh sponsors attended along with uh Councilman Green, Councilman Schulman, Councilman woman um Ross Hammond and myself. just a real um great situation with the Hampton Roads Cancer Care.

That's not for research, but for citizens enduring, uh cancer treatments, food, transportation, care, and support.

So, shout out to them. And then uh Venture Waves LLC at um Atlantic Park opened is opening a really cool California style boutique uh hotel called the Citio Si TIO and congratulations to them and good luck.

It's really a cool place. I'd encourage the public and colleagues to to please visit. Thank you.

Anybody else? And then I'll well she's I'll call her next but Okay.

Again, piggy backing off what uh Councilman Reik mentioned about theology was really it really showcased the dome.

People who had never been there were busy talking about how wonderful this is. And so, you know, that was good to hear. And we had the one of the ladies who would have featured about her life and her situation with cancer. She was right there on our table. So automatically we kept that kept coming up and she got hugs from all the council people and she says, "Wow, I think she

lives in Northolk or Newport News." She says, "That's how your council people are really warm." And so it was positive. And then um two other things.

I did go up over to um the state executive council meeting and [snorts] um heard how much for the new government from the new governor or um the one that left before how important very few children services are. So lots of money, lots of this budget has been put in for this year for the next year was 28 and also how this year alone we had 16,000 children and you know problems for

health and so forth. We have something new called CHIN which is children in need of services. So that was important to hear about. Um also, oh there he is with the um Mark Reed, uh Councilman Rimik, myself, we are part of the BA250.

And so I brought a little surprise showing from the Ethiopian regiment. And we had someone, his name was Eric Spence, and he was an impersonator of Colonel Ty and read the proclamation and um Craig came and got some photos. So, it was something just interesting for them to see because we're doing a lot all about the revolution, but I mentioned it was important for them to see the group, the Ethiopians,

who also had a major part in that. And so that was a special for that day.

Everyone enjoyed having him there and reading proclamation all dressed like that century.

Yeah, was really nice. Thank you.

Thank you, Barbara. Uh this is the week that agriculture is uh recognized nationally and so forth. And always uh at this time our local agricultural department uh or community recognizes a person for excellence in agriculture. But this year they decided to recognize the city and the city of Virginia Beach for its support for agriculture. and it's being particularly recognized uh I believe

Thursday evening and but I think the fact that they chose to recognize the city of Virginia Beach for your support of agriculture is extremely significant and I appreciate that a lot Josh [snorts] did you have um well uh just to chime in I look forward uh Councilwoman Hley I know a lot of us attend that excellence in agriculture uh banquet down at the 4 so um I look forward to going down there

and and uh I I I want to make sure to do that, especially given the the fact the city won the award this year. I think it's fantastic. Um and I just want to chime in to what you said, Councilman Remick, that new the hotel uh above the way park is just phenomenal. I would really highly encourage anybody to go check it out. There's 20 20 rooms. Each of them are different. Um some of them

cater to families. Um, and they they walk right out into a beautiful view of, you know, 24/7 365 surf. That's pretty neat. So, um, and did you have something about the Did you want to talk?

Yeah, [clears throat] we did you want to talk about the tents at the polling place?

Yeah, there was Yeah, and thank you for allowing me. I I know we have there was some discussion around signs uh at polling places or at the at the voter registars's office. Um, and I think um just some of that conversation turned into turned from signs into tents and whether or not um tents um would be something that we we should or shouldn't allow at that location. Um I think the knee-jerk was

that we we didn't we didn't want any anything there because we didn't we didn't want them to be a distraction and and competing for messaging and space.

And then um and then a couple of us as we were kind of talking about it back back and forth, we we we know the the folks that volunteer for, you know, for causes and for each and every one of us is standing out there weeks and days on end. Um you know, and that it's it [snorts] might be November, but I mean it can still be pretty hot here in

Virginia Beach in November. and if it rains or if you know just the elements uh in general kind of make it difficult if somebody's disabled and they need to take a seat or if they feel um you know winded um in some way shape or form. So um so we we weren't really sure what to do with all of that. um you know, maybe maybe tents ought not have any um

signage or or lettering on them or maybe there ought to be a certain amount of them. But but beyond all that, I think probably the better way to to potentially do this is to let the board of elections and the registar um take a look at the situation. I mean, they're in a brand new beautiful space. I just visited there and voted today. It's I mean, it's amazing. Um I know they're

very very happy. So, um, since they're getting acquainted with the space and they know it better than we do over the last several months that haven't been there, um, maybe maybe we let them, um, look at the issue and then and then give us a couple of recommendations about how to how to proceed and then we can make up our minds. Would that would that be fair?

So, you're talking about the electoral board.

Yes. Yeah. The electoral board.

I think it's a grand idea and I talked to the mayor about it and he really liked that idea. uh because we've all had different opinions just like today with the U street designations and uh so we thought and this was Josh's idea and I think it was a good one to let the electoral board I mean they know the space they have to deal with it every every day um let them to talk about and

come back with a recommendation so is everybody okay with that yes I think that's a good idea idea okay Stacy [clears throat] stop getting recognized.

Um, two things. One, [clears throat] yesterday during the storm there was [snorts] an apparent tornado did touch down on Great Neck Corridor ripped down.

Um, some trees in that area, but uh some very significant damage to two homes in a neighborhood right there. the Virginia Beach Boulevard at Great Neck area right behind that shopping center. One house looks to be totally destroyed. I went by, everybody's okay. They were all Everybody was at home. Uh fortunately, there were no injuries, but the one home is obviously destroyed. The adjacent

home uh hopefully be able to be repaired. The families are being taken care of between the Red Cross and the insurance company. So there's right now there doesn't appear to be any need for any further city assistance, but you know, I'd ask everybody keep them in their prayers because that's a it's a horrible situation.

That would be terrible. I would like to um say that the Southside Network Authority, which I represent the city on this regional board, uh had their meeting in Virginia Beach on Friday. And Patrick, your staff just were phenomenal. They rolled out the red carpet. Everybody said, "Wow, this is amazing." And we just told this is Virginia Beach's way. We're veryospitable. Um, but uh, Deputy City

Manager Amanda Jared and Nancy Helman, they just did a phenomenal job in welcoming the SNA board to have their meeting at Virginia Beach. And I just really want to thank them and appreciate what a wonderful job that they did. So, thank you folks.

Stacy.

Yeah, I want to finish, but I'll I'll finish now. Um, sorry.

Just to let everybody know, having a town hall meeting Thursday night at Cox High School in the cafeteria starting at 6:00. So, anybody else? Okay, then I think we're ready for um count the review of the agenda.

Okay. So, the vice mayor is going to tell me if I'm doing this right or not.

Uh, looking at the ordinances through those and see if there are any that we need to pull.

More discussion.

Ordinances will all be on the consent agenda.

The planning items. one, Julia Ellen Keller, revocable living trust for street closure uh in district five.

Um consent consent Cavalere Golf and Yacht Club. Um I believe we have some speakers on that so that will have to be pulled. Yeah.

Um Shaquaya Verer for conditional use permit change of zoning conditional change of zoning from R7.5 residential to conditional A18 apartment district to develop a multif family development and a variance of the subdivision regulations on lot width and this is in district 4.

So there is one speaker um the applicant.

Yeah.

Okay. So unless there are other speakers, it could be on the consent.

No, we've had uh several of the communities to be heard.

So we would like I would like to have this deferred by at least 45 days.

Yes.

May is about 45 days.

Yes. Defer for 45 days.

So the speaker will be here. The um applicant will be here.

[snorts] Maybe she'll speak. That's what I'm going to do.

She has signed up to speak, but yeah, she defer it.

Yes, we it would be good for us to hear her and then I will mention about the deference.

So, we need to are you pulling it then?

She's the only speaker.

I understand, but she's saying she wants to hear from the applicant.

If he's going to speak after that, I can mention Oh, no. Well, I think if he's going to speak, he needs to be heard to be heard. We don't This would be a different way of doing it.

And do you want to give her three minutes [clears throat] or Yeah, just to hear her hear what she has to say.

The normal three minute.

Yeah. And it's a she Okay. Three minutes. Yeah. Three minutes for her to speak.

And we're not actually hearing it. We're just Well, what I guess we are hearing it. Okay. Uh, item four, Atlantic East Builders LLC, Greenshore LLC for conditional change of zoning from R54 residential resort district to conditional A12 apartment district to construct six condominium units on Greenwell Road and this is in district 9. Yes, that's fine for consent, but if you don't mind, I just I wanted to

acknowledge that there were a couple of emails that we recently received from uh District 9 residents uh with with some concerns about this project. And I wanted to and and I I [clears throat] replied to those residents. I copied all of you. Um just to paint a very quick picture, f uh existing five rather dilapidated uh units. Um two town homes and one I guess addition. Um this will

add one additional unit. So taking the five to the six uh the properties adjacent to B2 uh property zone B2 which is our uh rescue for chick six beach uh volunteer rescue squad. Um this has been through the civic league twice. Um and then through the Bayfront Advisory Commission as well. Um and I think people are a little bit more so concerned about um encroaching multifamily up Greenwell. um this is

this is not precedent setting in that way just because just because it's A12 zoning it's it's conditional on these six units so and would have to go through the planning process to to ever be changed so I did want acknowledge that there [clears throat] were um some some folks in the neighborhood that that um that that didn't feel 110% about this project but um but that we did take our

time and we did it the right way. So So do you want to make those comments out there as well? I think I'm good. I just I just wanted to say them out loud in front of all of you before the uh before the vote took place, but consent is fine.

On the consent.

Yes. Thanks.

Item five, MTSF, Inc. Sadler Materials Corporation for conditional use permit for a bulk storage yard on Parker Lane in District 3.

That's okay for consent.

Okay, consent. Item six, Oceanana Development LLC for a conditional use permit for a bulk storage yard at Progress Lane in District 3.

We have had one person sign up so far in opposition. So, if the applicants here as well, that would be two. So, I guess you I guess we'll hear it. If someone's signed up, then we'll hear it.

We have some We have an opposition signed up. The applicant has not signed up yet. So, when they sign up, that'll be too. So, so we'll pull that. that will be heard and will not be on on consent.

Seven C the Gems LLC/ Richard D and James P. Goldstein for a conditional use permit for bulk storage yard uh at Virginia Beach Boulevard in District 6.

That's been withdrawn.

They're asking for withdrawal, right? They have asked for withdrawal and this is uh applicant has requested it.

Mhm.

Uh, eight, Lonnie Brown for a conditional use permit uh for family daycare on Baker Road in District 4.

Yep. I approve.

That's consent.

Yeah.

Nine. Cosmic Cure/HLASHoldings LLC for a conditional use permit for a tattoo parlor on Virginia Beach Boulevard in District 8.

Consent.

Yes.

Uh item 10, Matt Nelson/Linda Foster Abselon revocable revocable trust for a conditional use permit for tattoo parlor uh seashore shops in district 8.

Consent I'm not hearing. I'm sorry.

Consent uh 11 Vin Lee/Timberlake Shopping Center Association for a conditional use permit for a tattoo parlor on Holland Road in District 10.

consent please.

Well, we're gonna be tattooed up, aren't we?

Justin Brown for conditional use permit for short-term rental on 21st Street in District 6.

Consent, please.

13.

There's one speaker.

There is a speaker. Is it the applicant?

Just one.

It's It's the applicant.

We don't need to pull that.

That's it. That's the applicant. So, it can be on consent.

13. Aaron Hall for conditional use permit for short-term rental on 22nd Street uh in district 6.

Same as applicant consent, please.

Is that the applicant?

I don't know.

Yes, it's it's the applicant.

Okay. So, it can be on consent.

Yes.

14 on this one.

Oh, I love these names. I'm not even going to try that one. Anyway, these folks want a conditional use permit.

shortterm rental on 21st Street in District 6.

Consent, please. Is there speaker practice between now and 6:00?

Do I really?

Okay, I think that's it.

So, um, we're going to recess for now until our six o'clock meeting.

No session.

Not going to close session. Have our dinner.

Good evening everybody and if you have not figured out I am not Bobby Dyer um but he is on very important work out of the country doing uh for the city with economic development and so we hope he brings home the bacon for us. So thank you all for being here and I'm wearing green as a lot of you are because it's uh St. Patrick's Day. So anyway, um [snorts] first thing on the

list is to do our invocation. Could all rise.

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 [snorts] us the patience to listen, the wisdom to decide, and the strength to act. Amen.

And if we could take a moment of silence to think about those that are fighting for us overseas and the men and women that protect us every day and those that have gone before us.

Okay. Thank you.

Oh 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.

Now we can sit down.

U madame clerk, have you done the roll call?

We all present. uh excluding Mayor Dyer.

Okay. And we want to certify the closed session.

There's no certification. You didn't go to close session.

Okay. Um we need a vote on the minutes of the informal and formal session of March 3rd and the special uh formal session of March 10th. And the special formal session of March 12th.

Somebody want to move for approval?

I move for approval. Well, I'll need to abstain on the minutes from March 10th.

Second.

Okay, are we ready for the vote?

One second, please.

The vote is open by vote of 10 to zero ex except for the minutes that um council member Rick abstained on. You have approved the minutes as submitted. Okay.

So the next thing on on the agenda is we have a uh a bid opening. Um pursuant to Virginia code section 15.2-2102.

The chair will [clears throat] will now summarize the bids that have been received for the proposed lease of city-owned property located at 928 South Bird Neck Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia. totaling totaling approximately seven acres and operated as a public pickle bar facility.

Three bids have been received as follows. Number one is all about fitness has bid 10 years term with two five-year renewals and a lease payment at 12% of the gross revenues and city responsible for the capital improvements. Number two is the sports facilities companies has bid no lease with uh terms specified lease payment at 30% of net revenues and city responsible for capital improvements.

Number three is the Virginia Pickle Ball Classic has bid a 10-year term with two five-year renewals, no lease payments to the city uh operator to be responsible for capital maintenance.

[clears throat] Are there any other persons desiring to open submit a bid at this time?

Okay.

Um, there being no other bids, the bidding is closed. The staff will evaluate the bids that have been received and make a recommendation to the city council concerning the proposed lease at a future meeting. Thank you.

Okay.

Um, so we are now going to go to the consent agenda. Um, Mrs. Henley, the consent agenda for ordinances.

Ordinance one, an ordinance to authorize the city manager to execute a lease for 457 plus acres of city-owned property on Northlanding Road for up to five years with Land of Promise Farms Partnership.

Item two, an ordinance to authorize the city manager to execute a lease for 23 plus acres of city-owned property at 3180 Newbridge Road for up to 5 years with Dolly Family Farms LLC.

Ordinance three, an ordinance to authorize a city manager to execute a lease for 69 plus acres of city-owned property at 2865 Indian River Road for up to 5 years with Dolly Family Farms LLC.

Ordinance four, an orth an ordinance to authorize the acquisition of property in fe simple and acquisition of temporary and permanent easements either by agreement or condemnation. Ray Centerville Turnpike phase 2 project CIP 100057 formerly CIP2-49 and 1000452 formerly CIP 6-556 ordinance five and author uh to authorize the acquisition of property in fe simple and acquisition of temporary

and permanent easements either either by agreement or condemnation regarding the Linhaven River Basin Ecosystem Restoration Project phase 2 wetland construction CIP 1 0263.

Ordinance six, an ordinance to amend city code section 21-202 regarding Ray prohibit through trucks and require signage of such prohibition on Regent University Drive. Ordinance seven, an ordinance to authorize an independent audit of the city of Virginia Beach Development Authority and the Atlantic Park Community Development Authority finances and enter into a contract with Cherry Beckert LLC at an

estimated cost of $255,000.

Ordinance 8, an ordinance to appropriate $6 million from the unrestricted fund balance of the riskmanagement internal service fund to the fiscal year 202526 riskmanagement internal service fund operating budget ray unexpected expenditures.

Ordinance nine, an ordinance to appropriate $518,171 from the fund balance of the general fund to capital project number 1000639, Cape Henry Lighthouse Restoration to authorize the city manager to execute an amendment with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities RA renovations to the Cape Henry Lighthouse and to authorize the city manager to accept accept a promisary note from the

Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities Ray payment obligations.

Would like to open up planning?

Okay. for planning items on consent. Item one, Julia Ellen Keller revokable living trust for a street closure ra 15t wide portion of an unimproved unnamed alley adjacent to 622 Surfside Avenue in district five.

Uh item two will be pulled. Item three will be pulled. Item four, Atlantic Eastbuilders LLC, Ray Greenshore LLC for a conditional change of zoning from R5R residential resort district to conditional Green uh to conditional A12 apartment district Ray to construct six condominium units at 2221 Greenwell Road, units C and B, 2223 Greenwell Road, and 22 223 Greenwell Road, unit B, and this is in district 9.

Uh item five, MTSF, Inc. as Sandler Materials Corporation for [snorts] a conditional use permit, Ray Bulk Storage Yard at 207 Parker Lane in District 3.

Item six will be pulled. Item seven, the applicant has requested withdrawal, so this will be consent for withdrawal.

C. The Gems LLC as Richard B D and James P. Goldstein for a conditional use permit rate bulk storage yard at 1361 Virginia Beach Boulevard in district 6. This was deferred from February 17th of 26.

Uh item eight on consent agenda.

Lonnie Brown for a conditional use permit Ray family daycare home at 677 Baker Road in District 4. Item nine, consent to approve Cosmic Cure HL Lass Holdings LLC for a conditional use permit Ray Tattoo Parlor at 3615 Virginia Beach Boulevard in District 8.

Item 10, consent for approval. Matt Nelson and Linda Foster Absilon revocable trust for a conditional use permit Ray a tattoo parlor at 2260 Seashore Shops SC in District 8.

Item 11, consent for approval, Vin Lelay/Timberlake Shopping Center Association for a conditional use permit, Ray, a tattoo parlor at 4239 Holland Road, Sweet 712.

This is in district 10.

Item 12, also consent for approval, Justin Brown for a conditional use permit raise short-term rental at 428 21st Street in District 6.

Item 13, uh, consent for approval, Aaron Hall for conditional use permit, Ray, a short-term rental at 516 22nd Street, unit 200, also district 6.

Item 14, Ray Yapu ready to yien, let me try again. Yi Salin Bendler for a conditional use permit ray a short-term rental at 413 21st Street in District 6 and has consent for approval.

Second.

[clears throat] May May we have the vote, please?

Go ahead. The vote is open by a vote of 10 to zero. You have read the consent agenda as read by council member Henley.

Okay. I would like to read this uh policy uh for the speakers.

I want to remind everyone that the city council speaker policy that allows certain representatives groups to speak for 10 minutes applies only to planning items. All other speakers, whether speaking individually or on behalf of a group, will have up to three minutes to speak on a single item.

Speakers are reminded that comments during the end of the formal session of the meeting must be limited to the subject of the item that is being considered by council at the time you are called. For items placed on the consent agenda, a speaker will have up to three minutes to address any single item. If a speaker wishes to address multiple consent items, the speaker will have a cumulative total of six minutes

to address those items. Again, the speakers must in limit his or her comments to the subject matter of the items that have signed up to address.

Finally, I will call upon all speakers and all persons in the chambers to be civil in their discussions and decorum.

Whatever views you hold and wish to express, the city council wants to hear from you and to ensure that all viewpoints and all persons are respected. We the best way to do the this is for all of us to thrive for civility and and respect.

So I think the first item is number two, the Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club. The first speaker is Lisa Murphy representing the applicant.

Good evening, vice mayor, city council members, uh city manager, city attorney, and staff. For the record, my name is Lisa Murphy, and I'm a local zoning attorney. I'm here tonight on behalf of Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club. Uh I have with me Joe Andrew, who's the general manager and chief operating officer of Cavalere Golf and Yacht Club, as well as David Butler, who's the engineer of record um with Gallup Surveyors.

Cavalere Golf and Yach Club is seeking to modify the conditions of an existing conditional use permit that was granted back in 1997.

Um that original conditional use permit was for outdoor recreation uh and a parking lot. And the reason for the modification of conditions is to expand the facility uh where the there is currently a tennis court to create four covered pickle ball courts and two uncovered pickle ball courts. And that's in the manner uh depicted on the conceptual site plan that you have up on your screen.

Pickle ball, as most of you know, is has rapidly risen in popularity in the last five years. It's driven by its accessibility and its social nature. It is one of the fastest growing sports. Um it mainly because it's easy to play. You don't have to be a particular fitness level or a particular age. Uh anybody can enjoy pickle ball. Uh it's played on a court that's approximately half the

length of a tennis court. So as you'll see um with the city's own tennis courts and at other clubs throughout Virginia Beach, tennis courts have been hald to create uh pickle ball courts. In in my neighborhood, the tennis courts, we have two tennis courts. They've been split in half to create temporary pickle ball. So you've got a um markings on the ground, but you've got uh the net that can be

moved around. Um, it's something that's in tremendous demand. So, as a result, the applicant has decided to repurpose and expand one of its existing tennis courts in order to, as I mentioned, create four covered and two uncovered pickle ball courts. Um, phase one involves redeveloping and expanding the existing tenn tennis court that's perpendicular to and just to the north of the two existing clay tennis courts.

And that's where the um that's the red area with the X on your screen. That's where the four covered pickle ball courts would go. Uh the covered courts will have internal lights, but no additional outside lighting. The structure itself is approximately 33 and 1/2 ft tall, 64 feet wide. There's a picture of it on the screen, and 152 feet long. It consists of a structural seal frame with a white fabric cover.

The new covered pickle ball courts will look substantially similar to the renderings uh that are up on the screen right now. Phase two, as I mentioned, will involve creating two new additional pickle ball courts directly adjacent.

So, if you look at the area to the left of the red rectangle, um that's where the two uncovered pickle ball courts would be. On May 22nd, 2023, the applicant actually obtained a variance from the Chesapeake Bay board uh in order to expand the tennis courts in that area to the left where the phase 2 pickle ball courts will be. The existing fence around the tennis courts will be replaced with a new black coated chain

link fence that will be approximately 6 feet tall, but it'll be shorter and taller in certain locations. Um the Mr. Andrew um did quite a bit of community outreach. Obviously, most of the neighbors are also members of the club. Um and as a result, I think in your staff report, it indicates that the manned hours of operation um would be uh not all of the hours of operation. And so what he's decided to

do is to go ahead and man have the pickle ball courts manned Monday through Sunday 8:30 a.m. to 1000 p.m. Um they'll have internal cameras. And as many of you know, there's a uh a tennis building right next door. So those courts will be manned to prevent some of the concerns I think that neighbors have had about things going on there. um once the lights on the courts shut off and

that'll be no later than 11:00 per the conditions in the staff report, they can't be manually turned on by the members. So, it's it's locked. So, the the courts will be manned, they'll be monitored, and then they'll have that automatic shut off. Um as the staff report indicates, in addition, a material called pickle block will be installed on the western portion of the fence. um that would be part of the

phase 2 expansion. So that line to the left, the dark line, that's approximately 60 feet long and 10 feet high. Pickle block is a pre-fabricated material that comes in sheets. In this case, they'll be green. Um they're attached to the black coated chain link fence and they deaden sound. That's the whole purpose for these um this material. The steel and fabric structure of the covered pickle ball courts will

also help to deaden the sound. Uh as I mentioned, Mr. Uh Andrew has conducted outreach to the neighbors. The changes to the existing outdoor recreational facility with the proposed repurposing and expansion of one of the existing tennis courts to create the four covered pickle ball courts and two uncovered pickle ball courts are relatively minor in scope and consistent with the existing uh prior conditional use

permit. The new pickle ball courts will be operated in the same manner as the missed existing tennis courts and will not result in the need for any additional parking. As the [snorts] staff report indicates, these non-residential uses are complimentary to the existing residential and non-residential uses. Staff and the planning commission have recommended approval with the 10 conditions that are

in uh your packet and we respectfully request that you approve this application. Happy to stand by for questions.

question worth.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wilson. I have a question for you really, Mr. Andrews, and that is when I drove by recently, I noticed there's indoor tennis courts that are not full-time 12 months of the year, but that's a fairly large structure that covers four tennis courts. What's the season for that?

Because those are not outdoor lights.

It's My point here is it's a pretty good size structure that's probably larger than the structure proposed, right? There's already a cover. Mr.

Andrew, do you want to address that?

Joe Andrew, madam vice mayor, council.

Um, the answer to that question is it is from November until April of each year for that enclosure structure structure.

Anybody else?

Thank you.

I think Oh, sorry. Cash Oh, you're all the way at the end.

Sorry.

Thank you. Pickle ball is covered by the city's noise ordinance, is it not?

I believe that's a Mark Styles question.

[clears throat] Any [snorts] any noise source could fall within the scope if it meets certain decibel levels at certain times as measured in designated places. So the so the anticipated uh hours of operation would not be subject to violating the uh noise ordinance as the city and and that's part of the reason for having them manned instead of unmanned that they can keep track of you know

people getting loud and rowdy. Certainly they don't want that to happen on the courts. The um big difference between the uncovered quartz and the covered obviously is because this has that cloth enclosure that comes down about 10 feet on the side, it'll help to dampen some of that noise that you would have if it was just exposed pickle ball courts. Um, in addition, that's the reason for

putting the pickle blocks um material on the western section because one, there are houses across the fairway there, but two, that section, that phase two, will not have the enclosure on top of it that'll deaden the noise. So, that'll have the noise deadening on the side.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Okay. Anybody else?

Okay. Thank you.

The next speaker is David Hodgees.

After Mr. Hodgees is Clara Caps.

[clears throat] Good evening. Uh, as you said, my name is David Hodgson. I live in Birdneck Point. I live a few houses down from the proposed site. Um, I'm here to first say thank you for letting me speak. um and to be a strong proponent of this project. I'd love to see it go through.

Um a couple years ago when the club built the uh multi-use court with pickle ball, um it was amazing how many people came out to play pickle ball. Um as was stated, it is one of, if not the largest growing sport in America. And our membership showed it. They came out in massive amounts of people, hundreds of people, and they're still playing heavily today. Uh unfortunately in Virginia in the summertime it can be

extremely hot. A lot of people concerned of sun exposure and in the winter it can be extremely cold and therefore it limits a lot of our our membership to play in the what I call the Goldilock zone of when it's just right. Um this structure will be incredible because it'll allow these members to play year round which is huge. And we have members that are of all ages that are playing

pickle ball right now. Um, a lot of people that thought they were done with sports, that they've aged out of tennis, have picked up pickle ball and have been playing. And people that have never played sports have realized that pickle ball is a sport that they could pick up pretty quickly. Um, so we're getting a lot of people that are older that are playing. We're getting tons of youth

that are playing. We've got a massive amount of high school kids and college kids that come and play. And I think it's fantastic. I'd much rather have them playing sports than, you know, wreaking havoc in the neighborhood or or uh, you know, out partying. Um, so it's a win for everybody to to increase the amount of play that we can have at the club. Um, and I I know a lot of people

are concerned about the sound of pickle ball and I'm excited as a neighbor that lives close by to have this structure built because it will reduce the amount of noise that that's um produced. And I actually have spoken with the the manufacturer of the structure um who is going to build this if it's approved and they were adamant that this will significantly reduce the amount of noise

pollution as well as the amount of light pollution uh by moving the stadium lights inside. Um so I hope you guys approve this. Uh you're going to make hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people very happy if you do. And thank you again for letting me speak.

Thank you for coming out. The next speaker is Clara Caps. After Miss Caps is Janet Ogrren,

welcome Clara.

Hi, my name is Clara Caps. I live 940 Cardinal Road.

I'm Vice Mayor Wilson and city council.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak on pickle ball court permit. I was told you would receive my two previous letters to planning commission. I will not repeat my previous comments. There is mention of installing pickle block to muffle some sound. Three sides will be open. There is no mention of the height of the pickle block. My research indicates the height of the pickle block

needs to be 8 ft high to be effective.

[clears throat] The proposed concept enclosed quartz canopy is proposed to be 33 feet high with the top onethird occupying fans and lights. The other two/3s will be open on all four sides. The concept plan shows four covered courts. These are presently pickle ball courts modified from tennis courts in 2023.

These are the courts to be covered. The freestanding pickle ball court adjacent to the four courts constructed in 2024 is not being addressed. It was not previously a tennis court. There are presently five pickle pickle ball courts on site.

There are about seven residents um most directly affected by this modification permit. My conversation with the club says the enclosure goes over the previous tennis courts that has pickle ball on it now. The enclosure will be soundproof.

It will be a better situation for all.

Other residents [clears throat] have heard these talking points.

The structure proposal references a covered pickle ball court with the cover extending over the upper onethird of all sides. I don't see how this is going to be soundproof.

The neighbors have experienced noise and loud disruptive languages language for three years coming from the pickle ball courts. Management has not addressed these complaints.

While I am not opposed to the pickle ball courts, I am opposed to the continuation of the lack of oversight by the management. It is unreasonable for the lights to be on until 11 p.m.

allowing young people to be unsupervised.

The lack of qualified staff with authority to address bolsterous behavior and profan profanities in real time contri contributes to the nuisance behavior.

Surveillance cameras are not a substitute for the presence of authority. The use of the facilities it for is for members and guests. Members are held accountable in all other aspects of the club. Thank you for coming. Your time is expired.

Sorry. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Janet Oren and then Renee Hu.

[snorts] It's good to see you, Janet. Thank you for coming out.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, thanks to the city of Virginia Beach and all of the city council for letting me talk today. Um, I'd like to address what was just said by the lawyer um about the pickle block. It's only 4 foot tall is all it's proposed to be, which is hardly only on one side, which is hardly enough to address any sound abatement. Um, my neighbor spoke that he was so glad that

this facility is coming because it's going to be all year round. No, it's not heated. It's not a heated facility. I don't know why he's saying that. So, why build it? But anyway, I'm Janet Ogrren.

My family has lived in our home and Rosemary, I know you've lived in Birdneck Point before. Um, we've lived there 30 years and we've been members of the club since 1997.

a golf course pond, tidal pond, uh I might add, with tons of birds and wildlife and a cart path are all that separates us from these courts.

Uh we love and are members of the club, as are all the people that live around, but we're all a little baffled on why in the heck they would want to build this huge structure. Uh when the club renovated the pool a few years ago, we were so happy they constructed it in a way that we do not hear the sound at the pool um and other noise other parties

going on there. Even the bubble over the tennis court comes down in the summer so it doesn't obstruct anybody's view.

However, this proposed pickle ball roof is a whole different story. It is 34 feet high.

Um, the Cavalere Golf and Yacht Club has 800 members and I I bet about 95% of them have no idea how big this thing is.

Um, it's it's the size of a of a commercial building and it's in a residential area.

Um, it's like a a jet plane hanger. It's a blimp. It's a barn. It's huge. It's 154 feet long, 34 feet high. That's a three-story building. Um, and this is supposed to be built in a residential area. There's eight houses right close in. Um, this is obviously one of the most desirable residential areas in Virginia Beach. Um, so, you know, we object to this monstrosity because our back deck is only a hundred yards away.

It's wrong to put up this tall structure. Um, it will detract from our enjoyment of our home because it will be a big loud eyesore. And yeah, you know, we we knew something was coming, a cover. We we didn't know it was going to be this big and and Joe did not tell us that. So, you know, he hasn't been informing us of the size of this thing.

Um, so to summarize, a 34 foot tall building doesn't fit in this residential area. Uh, we've done research and buildings only need to be max 20 feet high. So, we don't get it. Um, you know, they need to go back to the drawing board.

Thank you for coming out. We appreciate Yeah. And just one last thing I want to say. You all approved Pickle Ball Palace. You voted for it and it's being built on Holland Road right now. That's where pickle ball facilities belong.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Renee Hu.

Good evening.

I appreciate that you let me talk to you. I really didn't think I could come today because um so I wrote a it's going to take me less than a minute. Okay. So I wrote on it to whom it may concerned.

My name is Renata G. Hux and I live on 1301 Stalling Court, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23451.

It's right across the street from that proposed um I'm probably the one closest to the um to the planned course. Okay. I spoke with uh Alexis Bailey on the phone and she advised me what to do. I'm turning 85 years old this year and I'm I didn't think I'd be able to come to talk to you today unless someone gives me a ride and one of my neighbors was kind

enough to give me a ride. I was told by Miss Bailey that they are allowed to play till 11:00 at night.

The young people are very loud and sometimes and I do not agree to some of that expansion because of the noise.

It's the noise what bothers me. I've been recently widowed, so I have no one to speak to. My husband is gone. I've been living in in Birdneck for 15 years, and I enjoy it very much. But my street is right there in front of the club. So, the other people live on the side of me.

I'm right right straight across to it.

But anyway, you can have my letter. It's It's very short. I don't know. Can I give this to anybody?

You can give it to the clerk.

Yes. Thank you so much for listening to me.

Thank you for coming out. That's all the speakers. Miss Murphy would like Would you like to come up for rebuttal?

Hello. Um I just wanted to mention that um and I think I mentioned it in my opening remarks, the pickle block will be 10 feet tall. So there was a question about um four feet and maybe that not being uh long enough, but it'll be 60 feet long and 10 feet tall. So it should uh provide the dampening that I think the speaker mentioned um would be necessary. The other thing I think both

both Mrs. Huck and um um Mrs. Caps mentioned um young people being loud and and u being a little bit rowdy. Again, the purpose for having the um uh having somebody at the facility actually manning the pickle ball courts is to to help deal with that issue and to prevent that. Obviously, the um club is just as interested in having um members and their guests behave and act appropriately. As I mentioned, the um

the lights in the uh conditions uh are required to come off at 11:00. The pickle ball courts, unless there's a tournament going on, will not be used past 10 o'clock. And again, once the lights shut off, they're off. They can't be turned on by the members or anybody else. Um, I'm happy to answer any other questions that you have.

Any questions? Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Murphy. U Mr. Councilman Remick.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Wilson. And first, let me thank the three wonderful speakers who came tonight from the beautiful Brunck uh community. It's a great community. I'm familiar with it.

And I spoke with Mrs. Oberin this week and I understand uh I can actually hear from where I live the pickle ball courts being played on and it's very incidental. I'm pretty far away, but still pickle ball sound does travel.

This is a country club. Um, but I would ask if should this council tonight approve this. Uh, and I do move for approval in a minute, but if should this be approved that the management, the club management take a closer look at this facility and how it's operated and managed going forward. So, with that being said, um, I move for approval.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you. Any uh discussion, Stacy?

Councilman Cumins.

I'll second that.

Okay. Did you have a comment?

No.

Okay. Anybody else? [snorts] Okay.

Are we ready for the question?

The vote is open.

The vote is open.

By vote of 10 to zero, you've approved the application as submitted. [snorts] Okay. Thank you for everybody that came out. Um, next we have on the agenda number six, the Oceanana Development LLC.

I'm sorry, Vice Mayor. We have number three that was pulled as well.

Oh, that's true.

Shaquila Verer, that's in district five.

We have several speakers that have now signed up.

Okay. Uh the first speaker is Shaqula Verer who is the applicant.

After Miss Verer Verer will be Joseph Ricky. Ricky.

So since you're the applicant, you're allowed 10 minutes. Did you want would you like to take advantage of all 10 minutes?

I hope not.

Okay.

Vice Mayor Wilson, I will do my best to be fast but effective.

You have up to 10 minutes.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. [snorts] Good evening, Vice Mayor Wilson, uh, Councilwoman Dr. Ameilia Ross Hammond for District 4, and honorable city council members. Thank you all for having me here this evening and giving me your time. And I also want to thank you for providing a moment of of silence for our service members. Thank you again. My name is Shaqula Verer. I am a retired naval officer who built trust in

the military through leadership, responsibility, and dedication. My goal is to earn your trust and trust of the local community near the proposed development. That goal further entails a strong and vibrant infield development and sets the standard for 2026 future infield development and moving forward future goals. That goal further entails starting with public input and the city's vision. Since May of 2023, over

two years of comprehensive plan, public engagement has occurred. That direction was clear. Build above the green line.

During that time, the 2040 comprehensive plan was shaped by 80 stakeholders, several SpeakUp VB surveys, 10 focus groups, nine open houses, and seven planning commission workshops. residents asked for the following: inward growth, upward density, and SGAA development, and connectivity above the green line.

Hank Morrison, the comprehensive planner, quoted on May 3rd, 2024 that the 2040 comprehensive plan reinforces public driven vision and that future growth will need to focus on infield development such as my proposal. The core message of my proposal is alignment. Alignment with policies, vision, and residential needs. Not asking for something new, just only asking to implement the plan that has

already been created. [snorts] A little bit about my project overview. This is a conditional resoning request for a three-story multifamily low-rise building as recommended by the strategic growth area 4 on page 58 of the SGA4.

On page 58 of SGA4, it also discourages single family home development uses in this area. The comprehensive plan on page 154 also specifically discourages single family home developments, which is why you're seeing my proposal today.

This project is a low-rise as defined by the ICC, International Code Council and IEC, International Energy Conservation Code, for which Virginia uses for its building standards.

This project is not in a core community area. It is considered edge zone as mentioned on page 196 of the comprehensive plan. In fact, not only is it is this parcel considered an edge zone property is also not identified as being a property within Pocahontas Village for the purpose of the comprehens comprehensive plan and resoning. The comprehensive plan with this parcel is clearly identified as a

main part of SGA4 eligible for redevelopment and redevelopment according to the standards of the 2040 comprehensive plan. Planning staff and I have had this discussion and staff is aware of the status of the parcel in question. I think it's relevant that this information be noted for your review today. I also have a copy of the map showing this information if any of you all would like to review it, showing

that this parcel and where it's located and how it's not in the center of Pocahontas Village. It is a edge zone property that should be redeveloped as an infill lot.

Additionally, [sighs and gasps] planning staff acknowledged in their recommendations that the comprehensive plan recommends mid to low-rise developments, which this pro this proposal provides for. And as I previously mentioned, the ICC and IECC sets the standards for building in Virginia. And again, they recognize this property as a low-rise, less than uh less than four stories below. So that is

considered a low-rise. Mid-rise, by the way, is typically 5 to 12. Um high-rise is typically 12 to 29 or so, and anything above 40 would be a skyscraper.

So this is a low-rise development. The human impact um of this development, so I'll give you all an example. My cousin, he was in the military and he came here from Hawaii. He wanted to find a home in Virginia Beach. Um, we like Virginia Beach. We like the culture of fitness here. We like access to uh the oceanfront and everything that the central business district has to offer.

He [snorts] looked for housing and he couldn't find it. So, he moved to Chesapeake. I believe it's Edenberg.

Nonetheless, we lost his tax revenue. We lost local spending that he and his family could have provided. and then we lost any future contributions he could have provided to the city of V of Virginia Beach and [snorts] he is a military officer as well. So this happens whenever there's a shortage of housing or a shortage of affordable housing. We're looking to make this development a great asset for the city.

Additionally, whenever we have housing shortfalls, they're highly related to supply and demand. When there isn't enough housing, then clearly we know that the demand is high and we have inflation and potential price gouging. Governor Spanberger signed an executive order to increase housing supply. Governor, previous Governor Yncan direction was to increase housing supply and reduce regulatory

burdens. Recently, Virginia Senate member Angelia Williams Graves recently said Virginia needs all options to boost housing supplies.

Additionally, cost pressures right now.

Groceries are high, utilities are high, gas is high, rent is high, families need solutions now. We want to relieve that burden by providing some of the additional housing that's needed. And when we ask why this project matters, three units provides a balanced approach to SGA4 density approach. It requires building upward comprehensive plan already supports this solution. Sharon Schoff, housing development manager, we

emailed she also agreed that there's a der of affordable home ownership and the city wants to help potential down payment assistance for those who have families and who qualify. the workforce impaire impact which I'm sure you all are keenly aware of teachers nurses janitorial staff workers are struggling to work within the city and have affordable housing military has asked for more housing and I do understand my

one project will not solve the housing crisis but I also understand that it will be a major contributor and it's going to be a contributor that to what's needed now this is free to taxpayers I have not asked for one cent to develop this three-unit project. This is one less thing that you all have to have discussions on to help provide housing for residents of the city of Virginia

Beach. And lastly, this has been done in the city of Virginia Beach over and over again. I gave planning staff a PowerPoint that had locations. It also had photos of similar lot sizes like this one that locates three-story developments beside one-story ranches.

These residents like those these residences have existed harmoniously in this city of Virginia Beach for years.

The comprehensive cost comprehensive plan calls for diverse housing, multif family and town homes like what I'm like what I am suggesting here today. It calls for utilizing infield developments and creating similar type housing. And then we also realized there's a need that we must adapt and grow and build smarter. Low-rise development approaches, not a high-rise development approach in this area. The reality is is

land is limited. We only get so much. We continue to get more people and seniors are living longer, which you all have done a fantastic job trying to create for senior living. I've watched your meetings. I've watched planning commission meetings. I see all of you in your passion for ensuring that you're creating the housings that's needed for our seniors and I appreciate that. While

this isn't a senior development, it's still a development for affordability for those who can afford it across all income levels.

Lastly, this project advances your vision, the city council's vision and the vision of the many stakeovers stakeholders that I previously mentioned from the comprehensive plan. [snorts] It addresses being resilient and flood protection. This project will be built above the BF base flood elevation. It's going to be built 28 inches above the base flood elevation. What happens is when houses are low built to the ground.

Insurance companies, they actually deny insurance for for homeowners. They get homeowners with low homes. They have rising premiums and then it's risk avoidance of being insured. Sometime they don't even get insured. This project provides safe housing. It protects those investments and it's a future focused design. The flood protection is critical per the comprehensive plan on pages 26 and 79.

Quality of life per the comprehensive plan recommends providing h houses with natural light, open space, balconies, livable design. This project complies with all those recommendations. It has strong connectivity. It connects to the Virginia Beach Trail phase one. [snorts] It is one mile from town center. It has it gives you it gives residents access to jobs and parks in Mount Trashmore.

All facets that are recommended by the comprehensive plan.

Thank you, Miss Vera. You you will have time for a rebuttal.

Okay. Yes, ma'am.

And that'll be after after after these other speakers.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much.

The next speaker is Joseph Richie and then Jason Keys.

Good evening. My name is Joe Richie.

I've moved Virginia in 1981. I purchased this home that I live at, 4880 Uklid Road in 1992.

Um, got married in a church that's on Uklid Road, right in front of my home. I live on Uklid. I've seen and heard the stories of our community in Pocahontas.

singlestory homes 18 feet tall. This property that this, you know, developer would like to put in is 33 feet tall. The h the there's five feet on each side of the property, maybe 7 feet in the back. It's maybe 10 or 15.

Two cars take up the entire width of the unit that they're putting in. This plan is great, but it's like a square box in a illic American community. Ranch houses.

The house that was built on that land was the model home for that community.

It's not outside of it. It's in it. It's the fourth or fifth house down the road.

Um the end of my road past my house floods.

We do not have a retention pond within the Pocahontas community.

We have a water problem. You have it.

You've had it over in where we just developed over there at Bo Creek. We're going to have it in Virginia Beach in my community in Pocahontas. This house takes up that she's proposing. These three houses take up 21% buildable. There's like a zone like a a normal house in our community. We only can do 33% of that land corridor.

They're going out to 21 by zoning this house. And her proposal is a great proposal, but not in Pocahontas, not on the front line on Uclid Road, which is a cutth through. I live on that cut through. It's a idealic community. But when they built this these houses in 1960, when they put the interstate through and removed the farm that was there, the farmhouse is still there on Uklid Road. It's a brick structure,

twotory tall. This structure is 33 feet tall. It is going to look the it's going to flood out the people next to it.

There's no water removal on these lots.

Okay. I lived there 35 years. I know the land. I'm a builder in good standing with the state of Virginia.

This is a good concept for town center, but not in Pocahontas.

We are ranchstyle houses, affordable.

We have a great community.

Mr. Richie, thank you for coming out.

Thank you. Thank you all for serving.

Thank you. And hope Bobby bring back the gold.

The next speaker is Jason Keys and then Justin James.

[clears throat] Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Jason Keys and uh my family and I we reside at 4909 Uklid Road which is located two houses down and across the street from the property in question. [sighs] I'm [clears throat] sorry I'm reading all this. Um my primary concern is that approving this request could set a president's allowing future developers and investors to bypass established community standards. And this could

ultimately alter the essential character of our neighborhood, particularly since the proposed structure would be inconsistent with the existing homes and would stand out as the only triplex in the area.

Additionally, I do not see any evidence of a true hardship on this lot that would prevent the construction of a single family home. It appears that the proposed triplex is driven more [clears throat] by a financial investment and interest rather than a necessity due to the property's limitations.

For these reasons, I respect respectfully argue that you consider the long-term impact on our neighborhood before granting this exception. Thank you for your time.

Thank you [clears throat] for coming out, Mr. Keys.

Next speaker is Justin James.

and then Morin Thomas.

How you doing? Um, Vice Mayor Wilson and Council, my name is Justin James. I live at 4905 Uklid Road. Um, right right across the road, basically a couple doors down from this. Um, first I'm not opposed to the builder investor building a single uh two-story uh residence uh in a residential district in Virginia Beach. You typically build a structure approximately 35% of the building lot.

This developer is trying to build a structure 66% of that building lot. This seems to be way out of the norm for the current building code.

adding uh let's see changing zoning of Pocahontas Village will not result in one residential concept complex to be built but set a precedence for many more to come. This neighborhood is very diverse now with many ethnic groups. I I met many of my neighbors walking around signing a petition which I submitted last meeting and out of 36 homes uh or out of 40 homes 36 were against the

apartment. Um uh also the sign was um has not been displayed properly and has been missing for approximately 2 weeks before the previous meeting and about 3 weeks before this meeting and it's not displayed until about 3 or 4 days ago. I feel like that was intentionally taken down so no one would come. Uh the builder uh touched now let's see um on tax rates last time. Yes. Uh they have

gone down a little bit in the last couple years per $100, but my particular house has gone up $250 this year extra in taxes. So, I don't see how that it makes it that much more affordable. Um, and she wants to add three apartment units with six vehicles going to add more traffic to a very busy road that is difficult to pull out and in your driveway uh during the morning and evening hours.

And um I respect you all. Thank you.

That's all I have to say. Ma'am, thank you for coming out.

Yes, ma'am.

The next speaker is Morin Thomas.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening to everyone. So, my name is Moren Thomas and I've been a resident for 21 years. I live at 4913 Uklid Road right across the street. I did have the opportunity to meet u the developer about a year ago while I was outside cooking on my grill and she had proposed what she would like to do and I had informed her that I thought it was a non-conforming use and maybe she should

speak with the city. The biggest issue that I have with this is that I do look at the hardship um if there is any unique hardship to the lot. This is a quarter of an acre lot that we're talking about putting a threestory at this magnitude is totally out of character for the rest of the homes in the neighborhood. The size of it also is a safety issue. The size of this building and the sizes of

the two adjacent properties to it. when these people are going to for ingress and egress back out of this property. I don't know if they're even going to have clear visibility when they do that because of the magnitude and the size of the triplex. I'm not opposed to building something there that would be a single family. Most of the time these structures are built, if you go down

Bonnie Road, you'll see it was a smaller neighborhood. Pocahontas has 354 homes.

the Bonnie Road where it was a 20 foot wide three-story single family home. They cleared out all of the brick ranches and they built those houses which are like row houses.

Um there those lots are much larger.

This is a quarter of an acre. This property that she is proposing is going to encompass a majority of the lot. Road road is very busy. It is a cutthrough road. My house sits back probably 50 feet and I have done an addition that I had approved with the city. It is still going on. Um but I stayed within those those means of the lot and my lot is about a half an acre. So I definitely

have a concern. I've lived there 21 years. A my mailbox was wiped out one month ago from someone that came by speeding.

He also wiped out my neighbor's fence, drove into the yard. That neighbor is not here. The fence is still damaged. He hasn't repaired the wooden fence. And he fled the scene. By the time I heard the boom, walked outside, he backed up very quickly, and I could hear tires going down the road. So, it is a dangerous road. Safety would be an issue if you're going to have six cars parking and going

in and out. We know they're going to have guests um that would come in. So that could be another third car per unit. It's three units. The size and the magnitude of this is is large for a quarter acre lot. And Thomas, thank you for coming out.

Thank you.

Miss Burner, would you like to come up for rebuttal?

So, thank you again, Vice Mayor Wilson, for allowing me to have a rebuttal. Uh, the first gentleman uh came, he discussed parking, and I'm sorry, I don't remember your name, sir. Please forgive me for not writing that down.

Um, he discussed parking. So, as I mentioned during planning commission, uh this particular proposal, it has three parking spaces for each unit and several others here mentioned parking. So, hopefully I can address those all in one at the same time. Uh we have created parking uh for there to be a garage and also two parking spots outside and we work with transportation to do that to

make sure that we could accommodate accordingly. Uh there are several neighbors in the area who have three vehicles, five vehicles, you name it. Um and they're parked in various areas on the property. It's not they're not in a driveway. So this is a clear and complete plan that we've proposed for parking that adds the proper amount of space to park three vehicles. When it comes to um having guests over, um

again, the current housing that exists, they don't have the parking for guests.

So if that should be compared to what we have already proposed then no one in the area would ever have guessed and that's not realistic. So again um we have provided a better parking plan than what currently exists and in fact um all the residents who would live here they can pull into the property. They can turn around inside the parking lot and they can turn around and pull out onto a 35

mile per hour street. vice currently all the residents they have to back out into a 35 mile uh mile per hour street. So again um if you guys could look at that um there um again they there will be room for them to turn their car around and and pull out into a 35 mile per hour parking. Additionally, the first gentleman mentioned retention pond and water. He said he's a builder. He

mentioned the flood that happened over Bow Creek. Actually I used to live over there um when that situation occurred.

And again, I will go back to and he said he's a builder. So if he's a builder, he knows that we can create drainage and we can grade the home where water will flow away from the property and into a drainage system which already connects to the city drainage. Uh he mentioned farmhouse. He said there's a old farmhouse. This is a old neighborhood.

There's a old farmhouse there. It's still a brick structure. So what I would say is that we all live here in the city of Virginia Beach. We live here for a reason. We enjoy it for a reason. Either we grew up here or we love what it has become. Before Town Center central business district was what it was, you know, uh which was trees and brush things like that. We get the Armada

Hoffers to come and build. We get the Npalitanos to come and build in town center. And that's why it is what it is today because somebody had a vision.

They created a plan and they took action which is what I discussed earlier. So, while this is great that we still have a farmhouse there and thank you so much for your rebuttal.

Okay. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

Uh, Council Lady Ross Hammond, I want to thank both groups for coming up and expressing what they felt their opposition as well as the applicant sharing her views on this. As you can see, this is not a typical easy situation. And what I've done and I'm is going to have a deferral so that we can discuss this further. I'm asking the staff to help set up at one of the schools that's nearby so we can

go over this. I'll ask the staff to come. I'll ask some of the planning commissioners to come and the developer.

So we can sit and I'm suggesting 45 days which takes us to what? May May the 5th ma'am May 5th to May what?

May five. May 5th so that we will have a meeting otherwise we'll be here a while but it's important so we can see whether we can come to a compromise or what because both of you have what you have to say and I've also talked with the applicant.

I've been around the area. I've seen where the um trailers are. I've seen the house on the opposite side that are also twotory and look one a little bit higher but the bottom line is we need to come to a decision. So I'm asking both sides for us to have a deferral.

Thank you.

You want to put a motion on the table?

Yes.

I'll second the motion.

Okay. I move that we have deference for 45 days on this. Do I have a second?

Yes. Second.

Mr. [ __ ] Uh, Councilman Cummings wanted to speak.

I do. I just have a question or a comment for the applicant. So, if you can come back up.

[clears throat]

Yeah, I think your project uh it's a beautiful project. It's fine. My concern is that the zoning that you're asking for calls for 20 thou at least 20,000 square ft and you have about 7700 square ft. It calls for 50% uh buildout. you're asking for 66% build out. [snorts] So in the time that you have between now and May 5th, I would ask you to, you know, address that issue

so that when you come back, uh, you can answer that question directly as to why, you know, we should consider such a large variance, um, for your project.

I have addressed it once, sir. U Mr.

Cummings, and I will readress it within that time frame, Dr. Ross Hammond. Uh basically we wouldn't have requested a variance. We would have just submitted a proposal for commercial A12 or A18 but particularly A12 for town homes and we would have been within the lot coverage per the building ordinance. The only reason why we use this proposal is because we taught the transportation and

they wanted to make sure that we had accurate parking and we ended up doing that. It took a lot more of the the land um but it exceeding it exceeded the parking standards.

Okay. So, if you can just address that with your neighbors and with the uh councilwoman Ross Ammons, and the planning commission, whoever's going to be at that meeting, so that when we get back here, you know, we'll all be on the same sheet of music.

Absolutely. We'll do. Thank you for that.

Thank you.

Right. Thank you. Thank you all. Have a wonderful evening. Thank you.

Anyone else?

S, can I? [snorts] Yes, please.

I want to thank you. Um, you don't live in my district yet. you took the time to call and meet with me and uh that was important. And so I want to thank you for your courage. I want to thank you for your professionalism. Um and um I'm thankful that you have a wonderful council um member who is considered of all sides and that's why this is taking place in a

very fair and balanced way. But I just want to say um from a council member that's outside of the district, you care about the constituents outside of where you live at. And so that means something to me. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you.

And I'd like to say I I enjoyed meeting with you and I was very impressed with you with your background and your history and and your ambition [clears throat] to to do well. And I think this will be a great opportunity to sit down with the neighbors and hopefully work some things out. But thank you very much.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you everyone.

Yes. And before you go, you have someone else. Go ahead.

I was reading through as as everyone was sharing and you know going through the um planning commission notes and all of that and repeatedly it was mentioned how impressive you are in not only uh sharing about this but coming up with no lawyers, no staff but you yourself presenting the proposal. So, um, I want to commend you for coming up here and taking such a big lift.

Thank you. I'm sure my nerves are all over the place, you all, but I appreciate it. Thank you so much.

I can guess you're imagining, but your professionalism, the research you did is important. After listening and going along that area and also hearing from others, I thought it was important that at least you present yourself so we can all hear it. And weighing everything, I decided we need to definitely defer this so we can sit in a different setting with one of the schools right within that serve those families.

Okay.

And maybe we can come up to a compromise. Yes, ma'am. I will be happy to do that.

Are you ready for the question?

The vote is open.

Okay, Councilman Cummings, I will get back with you, sir, on that response.

It's for deferral till May 5th.

So, we're moving by vote of 10 to zero. You have deferred this application to May 5th, 2026.

Okay. All right. Moving along. The last item is number six now. Oceanana Development LLC.

Greg Smith is representing the applicant.

Vice Mayor Wilson, members of council, my name is Greg Schmidt with Kimley Horn. We are a local civil engineering consulting firm uh located at 4525 Main Street in Virginia Beach. Um, today I'm here requesting a conditional use permit for a bulk outdoor storage yard. I think uh, historically bulk outdoor storage yard comes with a pretty negative connotation because it covers a wide range of of potential. Um, this

particular project is to support a local site civil contractor that is looking to grow and expand within Virginia Beach.

They've been in Virginia Beach for almost 15 years. Um, this particular outdoor storage yard that we are requesting the use permit for is intended to have temporary storage of construction materials such as sewer pipe, water pipe, storm drainage structures, and some of the equipment overnight while it's not needed at the construction site. And then the um the storage materials will be taken to

construction sites where they'll be installed. So this is just temporary storage um of of those materials until such time that they're needed um on the on the construction site.

This particular development we spent a lot of time and in kind of trying to massage the layout um to facilitate the needs of the tenant but also to be respectful to the neighbors. There are um three neighborhoods that that back up to the property, the subject property.

Um and we work to locate the use that we are here requesting the use permit for as far as possible from those residential units. The actual building piece in the parking lot is by right in the I1 zoning district. That part of the development is located in in the area of the property that is feasible for that.

[snorts] through some of the um outreach that the applicant had done. There were door hangers hung um prior to application to solicit feedback. We had a few members of those neighborhoods provide feedback directly to the applicant which led to the installation of an enhanced landscape buffer um along the the parking lot that is directly adjacent uh to those residential structures in addition to the

installation of a 8ft tall privacy fence along that same area where there's not as much of a natural buffer. What is shown on the screen in in kind of the lighter green color is all wetland and resource protection area. That area is to remain entirely undisturbed um and remain in in its current state which is heavily vegetated. Um the property was reszoned um originally in 2005. One of the profers for that was

related to the Nodingham Estates neighborhood which is the neighborhood farthest to the bottom of the screen here. Um there was a 100 foot buffer requirement. The nearest portion of the outdoor storage yard to that neighborhood is over two times what was profered at 200 ft. [snorts] This particular tenant that that we are looking to design and and build this facility for um is a growing site civil

contractor. And you might think, oh that's that's a lot of labor type jobs.

It's it's not as meaningful. But the reality of what a a large site civil contractor we are talking about jobs for project accountants, site superintendent, project engineers, and all the support staff that come along with running a business such as that. So we have been trying to keep them in Virginia Beach. This is a parcel that was available to them um to be able to develop this property. And with that, I

would request that we respectfully approve the conditional use permit application. I'll stand by for questions. [snorts] Any questions?

Okay. Any other speakers? We have another speaker. Yes, Martin Dorm.

Good evening, Vice Mayor and Council members. Um, I live in 2452 Bullet Trail. I've been there for 15 years and I bought the property. I'm being selfish because um, I was raised in the forest and kind of my wife wouldn't move to Knots Island.

So, I had to find some reprieve. Anyway, so there's already clearing and in looking at the photograph that was up there, that is not accurate as to what they've done. And uh I would suggest that maybe someone should look at what's already been cleared in its proximity to the wetlands. Speaking to the wetlands, I'm already dealing with the uh um the industrial park that's on the other

side of that neighborhood, which those people are going to now be surrounded by industrial parks.

Don't think [snorts] that's very fair.

I'm already picking up um pollution and waste from that industrial park through the storm water system that runs through a creek in my backyard. So, I'm contending with that. We had a picture up. You could see um in that little strip that runs at the top between the neighborhood and the um proposed site, there is a a valley that runs all the way along behind there and into my backyard.

Literally my backyard, not like some piece of of woodland that you know like people have. I actually own this. And so storm water system, I don't know what they're proposing, but if they don't do anything, that's going to run into that valley, run through my backyard, through that valley, into my creek, and it's going to be going right into the London Bridge Canal. So, I don't know if that was proposed.

if they're going to build at least um address like the operating hours, the lighting, making sure that the poles aren't very tall. Um the light is protected from the neighbors so that you don't have direct view. Apparently, that is an ordinance that has to be adhered to. Noise pollution. They were working at about 7 to 8:00 a.m. on Saturday in the woods clearing. So, dealing with that. Um, ideally for those

that are directly affected as far as like in proximity to the closest portion, fencing in conjunction with adult trees, not small conifers waiting for 15 years for them to mature and protect their property from what they're going to have to contend with. I believe that's all I've got. Believe there's important parts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Schmidt. Did you have to come back up for rebuttal?

Um, I do want to address a few points and I'm not aware of any clearing that's currently going on on this particular parcel. So, um, there's been a construction plan submitted, but there's not been any active permits issued. So, there should not be any clearing. Last time I was out there a couple weeks ago, there was no clearing going on. Um, [snorts] related to the the lighting, there is an ordinance that we are

required to comply with in addition to a condition as part of the conditional use permit that limits the light pole heights to 14 ft um in proximity to the residential units. So, we will be conforming with that condition as part of the use permit and the city's site plan review um related to to drainage and pollution. Um the entirety of of the site um you know the parking area will

be surrounded with curb and gutter to collect any on-site runoff um from the proposed development. The outdoor storage yard itself has been graded.

We've manipulated the earth so that the boundary is the highest portion and everything drains to the middle of the outdoor storage yard where it is collected in the storm drain system and conveyed to the downstream storm water retention basin storm water pond. Um, so any of that treatment, any runoff from the developed portion of the property will be going to an existing storm water

retention pond as it was planned to do when when the industrial park was developed originally. Um, with that, I'll answer any questions you all may have.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilman Baluchcci.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, first of all, I want to thank Mr. Dorne uh for joining us as well as the applicants from Oceanana Development LLC. Uh, I had a chance to speak um with some of the surrounding neighbors um to this application and um they expressed many of the many similar concerns as were presented by Mr. Dorne. Um many of those concerns were also addressed um during the planning process for staff review as

well as during the planning commission process in which I believe there was a 30-day deferral um as part of the process so that the applicant had a chance to respond to many of the concerns that were raised by the neighbors um principally around an enhanced buffer and the um construction of an 8-ft [snorts] tall privacy fence, which I think were very reasonable and um justified requests and I'm and I

appreciate that the applicant um agreed and made those modifications to the plan.

So, um, having addressed those concerns and acknowledging that the underlying zoning is industrial, um, the applicant, as noted, made every effort to move the layown yard as far away from any impacted neighbors as possible. Um, the reality is the alternative here would require that um that entire space could be used uh for industrial purposes. And so given the enhanced privacy buffer,

given the fence, and given the site plan consideration the applicant has made, I will move for deferral. I mean, excuse me, approval.

Move for approval.

The second any other got a quick question that just came to mind. If I could ask planning staff, what is the buffer here and what's [snorts] profered and what's proposed in this? Is there any difference?

Put you on the spot, but any difference in what's I'm trying to get to the root.

So, when the property was reszoned, I think there was profer to have a buffer between the residential neighborhood and the development. I think I heard 200 feet or something like that. Is that going to remain? That's really the question.

Yes.

The 200 feet will remain. It's not going to be encroached.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Anyone else?

Council lady Rouse, did you have something?

Okay. Um, are we ready for the question?

The vote is open.

Council member Henley, she left. No.

Um, by a vote of 9 to zero, you've approved the application.

You make her absent.

So, that's the last item we had to hear.

And so, uh, Council Lady Ross Hammond, would you mind reading the appointments?

Yes. Thank you.

The city council appointments for March 17 2026.

Beaches and Waterways Advisory Commission appointed high school student.

Community Policy and Management Team reappoint Maya Bold representing private child and family provider. The Independent Citizens Review Board reappoint Plet Diaz Reed and Thomas Lewis and the Virginia Beach Virginia 250 committee appoint Michael Cloud Butler as tribal representative.

That's it.

Okay. Is there any um we want to move for approval?

So move second. The vote is open.

By a vote of 9 to zero, you have approved the appointments as read by council member Ros. Okay. Is there any unfinished business?

Any new business?

Well, wishing everybody what's left of this St. Patrick's Day. Have a good night.