City Council Meeting, 6/23/2026

one. Welcome all. And uh to get things started, honorable members of city council in accordance with the Virginia Beach City Code 2-21 and by the authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach uh city council.

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2026 at 2:30, City Council conference, room 2034, building 1, 2nd floor, 241 courthouse drive. The purpose of this special formal session is to allow city council following its regularly scheduled formal session as listed in the attached agenda to convene into a close session for the following matters. uh personnel matters, city council appointments, boards, commissions committees authorities

agencies, task force, and appointees and city council appointee evaluations.

At the conclusion of the uh close session, the city council will reconvene into an open session for the purpose of certifying the close session. The special formal session will be broadcast on cable TV virginia.com and Facebook live. Sincerely, yours truly, Bobby Dyer. Okay, I'm ready to go. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the first briefing will be provided on the flood protection program. It'll be

started by Jeffrey Waller, who is the chair of the flood protection oversight board, followed by Lisa Pico with Jacobs Engineering, the program manager. So, go ahead, Mr. Waller. The floor is yours.

Thank you.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, Mr.

Dehaney, uh I'm Jeff Waller, chairman of the flood prevention bond referendum oversight board. The the oversight board, uh the bond referendum project includes seven master projects, uh 21 projects within those master projects along with 10 support projects and 10 other active projects. The the resolution that created this board calls for report to council every three months. It's been three months and here

I am. Uh since the last report, the board has received staff briefings. Uh in April, we took a field trip out to uh um the Boow Creek Stormwater Park, which is coming along nicely.

Um in May, Mike Tippen presented on the integrated title and storm water management and how Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza, and the lakes all work together. And in June, Cal Kbal presented on Virginia Beach and flooding.

Um, the city's video education about the uh protection program uh is going well.

Since the last meeting, there's been seven published blogs with 1,776 total blog views. Um, 254 average view per blog. The most referred ones referred to the ripple effect. Eight projects are down, making real progress in the flood pro protection program. The city council members hosting community events and the spring renewal that begins at the Pleasure House Point uh wetlands project.

There are four new published videos.

This brings the total videos up to 50 and the four had 10,06 video views. The most viewed ones were the flood prevent flood protection program progress and how it works and underground system protecting our waterways from the May status report. Um projects under construction now include Boow Creek Stormwater Park phase one Colonial Road, Oceanana Boulevard drainage, Elizabeth River flood plane restoration,

the Windsor Woods Princeand Plaza and the Lakes Bundle, Eastern Shore Drive bundle, and the Eastern Shore Drive phase 1F roadway projects. And also the Boow Creek Stormwater Park section two is at 100% design. So it's making progress.

Future activities, we want to go back to Lake Windsor and we want to see the the Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaza, and the Lakes Bundle mega bundle construction when it starts next year.

As we try to do, we advise council members when uh some topic is coming up at the board meeting that's in your district, invite you to join. Uh the city has re been awarded $73 million in state and federal grants and will submit for another 44 million in the future.

One of our student interns, John Laro, who I tried to get to come here today and he's out of town. He has graduated from high school. He's off to the College of William and Mary. Our second intern this past year, paying Jeran Rana is a rising senior, Princess Anne. He'll come back with us next year for a second year. And I understand that city council has appointed a new student intern to

this board for the upcoming year.

Our board meetings are available to the public. We meet on the second Thursday of the month at 2 o'clock in Town Center. Our meetings open to the public and the public can comment. The board has a website accessible from the ripple effect website and our email address is posted there for the public to comment.

All the members of the board are still pretty excited about being a part of this whole effort and we look forward to continuing. And with that, here is Lysa.

Thank you, Jeff, and good afternoon. and I'm pleased to be here to give you our second quarter update on how the projects are progressing for the flood protection program.

This is um as you may or may not recall last quarter I presented to you the status of the projects and just to refresh your mind this is showing you our key milestones as projects advance throughout the program. They start on the left where we do preliminary engineering. They then progress through several different design milestones. A 30% design, a 60%, a 90, and a 100% design. After the design, we then go

through a procurement phase where we're advertising for construction bids. And we do have a separate column in here that shows the design build projects that have kind of have their own path.

And then we identified which projects are in construction. And then the ultimate goal is to get all the way to the right showing you projects that have been completed. This was the status last quarter when I was presented to you. I'm going to show you the status this quarter. You can see the changes in blue, the things that have have changed since um Q1 and Q2. We've advanced Pungoy Road to a 60% design and the

Point Sienna pump station has advanc advanced to 100% design. We've started construction on the Eastern Shore Drive bundle and that phase 1F roadway project Jeff mentioned. We also finished construction on the SeaTac drainage improvement project and we're anticipating finishing construction for the first Colonial Road Oceanana Boulevard drainage improvements this month. So things are continuing to progress

from a milestone perspective. We just talked about most of these, but just showing you quickly, we know these projects are continuing to progress per your direction. Things are proceeding through planning for Lake Bradford. We got the final preliminary engineering report this quarter and then the design projects continue to advance and then we are working towards quick resolution for

all the projects. Now, when I come and see you for the third quarter update, this is what we're anticipating. It's our schedule that we'll be showing you what's changed. Lake Bradford will have gone from a preliminary engineering to a 30% design and the Church Point phase 1B will be at 30% design and Pungo Ferry Road will go from 60 to 100% design.

We'll be in the process of advertising the Point Sienna pump station for construction and the on the mega bundle the big uh Princess Anne Plaza the lakes and Windsor Woods we'll be starting construction for the early earthwork and portions of the Windsor Woods permanent pump station. So all the work will continue through Q3.

Now let's talk a little bit about finances. We talked about schedule.

Let's talk about budget. You can see we're almost all the way up to $200 million of expenditures and those are the main master projects. Most of them are going towards the Windsor Woods Lake Princess San Plaza mega bundle and the Eastern Shore Drive has got its encumbrance is now too. Um the project estimate overall has increased by four million since Q1. when I talk to you and that's because we've had some slight

adjustments on the mega bundle in the Eastern Shore Drive, but we're still running right around 1.5 billion dollars of our total estimate and it aligns well with what our current benchmark is.

So that was my very brief update on the projects on the progress report. We're continuing to progress them very steadily without any incident. Do you have any questions for myself or Mr.

Waller today?

Any questions at all?

Okay. Uh, thank you very much and I tell you the work you're doing is very important because it lets the public know that things aren't okay. But this is a good news kind of a bad news situation where you are doing stellar work right now. But the $567 million um Patrick I understand is now at around 1.5 1.6 6 billion to do with inflation.

And as we look forward beyond this, uh we're going to have a tremendous uh burden of responsibility, even going farther with these projects in in the distant near and distant future. But the fact that we got things rolling, they're on the way. Uh the bond referendum, you know, is working as planned. But once again, this is going to be the first step in a long journey.

Josh, Mr. Mayor, I wasn't gonna say anything, but since you had mentioned good news, bad news, and a lot of these projects do obviously have trade-offs, um, tremendous benefit, um, tremendous multi-generational investment and and in our grandchildren being able to live here. But um I want to at least share with uh the public and and those of you who haven't um shared with some good

news about um one of these projects that um caused some concern for me uh early on. Uh it's the uh Chub Lake um pump station and outfall. Um the original design as proposed involved um building a road essentially on top of a coastal primary sand dune um in order to construct and maintain that facility. Um we we didn't we we we weren't able to achieve uh access from the uh Navy for

security reasons. So left us with kind of limited options and um you know got we met out there with a neighborhood uh and the affected residents. uh LJ came out there uh in person. Our public works director, we uh the neighborhood just simply asked for a a a routing analysis, independent routing analysis that it be done and and they determined that instead of plowing through a coastal

primary sandune, we can use the existing road. Um it will be cheaper, it'll be faster, it'll be less impactful to the environment and to the to the neighborhood. So, um I just, you know, a lot of these do have, uh, like I said, negative consequences, but I just give credit to our staff and the contractors and and folks who who gave gave the time to give it a second look so that um, you

know, we could respond to the concerns that were out there.

And thank you. And Mr. Dehaney, as we often said over the years, after Hurricane Matthew some years ago, you know, there really was an active pivot that put more money into the CIP, you know, that addressed these issues. Can you touch on that just for a little bit?

So, Mr. Mayor, I think before um Hurricane Matthew, I think stormwater probably was less than 10% of the city's CIP. I think roughly now it's about a quarter to a third of the city's CIP, you know. So definitely this is um shown as a a marquee priority of the city in terms of the focus of our council in terms of the work that we do but also the dollars that we spend.

Yeah. And this and the other thing and motivation is that you know as we look to innovate adapt and overcome enduring a tough economy uh we're going to have to find new revenue sources to help fund the current and the massive future obligations. That's going to be a responsibility we're going to have.

Thank you very much. Really appreciate it.

So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will be a briefing provided to you by our CVB department.

They're going to talk to you about our campaign as it relates to our marketing efforts and just a general update. Oh, sorry.

I'm sorry, Miss You didn't ask a question, but can I answer it anyway?

you talked about the whole program and and we re I recently went through the selection process to hire to select an intern and and the one I selected I was talking to her and I said well have you applied to other boards she said I may have just by filling out the application but she says the environment's important to me it ought to be important to everybody this is the one board I want

to be on I talked to her for 30 minutes that's the only answer I remember so so there are young people out there that uh care a lot about this and we value their input. Believe it.

Yes.

Thank you and thank you for what you do.

Really appreciate it.

You're welcome.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time, Nancy Helman, director of CVB, will give city council update on our marketing update for our destination and tourism. Go ahead.

Okay. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, Mr. Duhaney and Mr.

Harmier. I'm excited to be here today and joined by our vice president of marketing and brand strategy, Anna Stone, to give you an FY26 year-to-date look at our marketing and advertising plan, which is designed to promote Virginia Beach as a year-round destination of choice for travelers worldwide.

As you can see, we have a significant agenda to get through today, but we'll move through things quickly. Because our advertising, marketing, and public relations activations are done out of market, we thought it would be great to give you a look at some of the exciting things that have taken place this fiscal year.

Before I begin, I'd like to thank the members of the advertising advisory committee, some of whom are here today, and the dedicated city council liaison, Dr. Ross Hammond and Mr. Remick. This group of professionals has been dedicated, engaged, and fully supportive of our efforts.

Like our destination, our advertising and marketing program is always on every day, all day. It's funded by the tourism advertising program fund. And in FY26, that budget was approximately $13 million.

In partnership with our advertising advisory committee, our advertising agency of record, and our public relations agency of record, our team creates a very targeted and measurable media plan that's executed throughout the year. Yes, we focus on advertising, social media, paid advertising, and more. But what I'm going to highlight today really shows our targeted approach to reaching travel planners and vacation

That's what this funnel depicts. The meat of our advertising program is our Happiness is campaign. It was launched in FY24.

and Visit Virginia Beach's Happiness is campaign drove brand awareness across all leisure and divisional marketing.

The third and final iteration of the Happiness is campaign launched in the spring of 2026 and is sent to come to a final conclusion at the end of Feb at the end of February in 2027.

Year to date, the Happiness's campaign has driven more than 341 million impressions across all digital media platforms, 65 million impressions across the paid Meta placements, and more than 500,000 clicks on meetings and conventions and sports tourism Google ads placements. New for FY27, a brand new campaign is already in the works and we're already looking forward to coming back to tell you all about it.

Our public relations efforts headed up by Aaron Goldmire, our CDB director of media relations, has produced several high visibility earned media placements, including stories in the New York Times, USA Today, Southern Living, Travel Market Canada, Canadian Travel News, and more. The highlight was when the New York Times named Virginia Beach as one of the 52 destinations to visit in the world in 2026.

That announcement alone got us 54 additional placements and more than 1 billion impressions. As you can see from on the screen, our PR efforts earn us more than three billion impressions and an advertising equivalency value of more than 27 mil 27 million.

The new visit Virginia Beach destination website launched in July of 2025 to an 88 compliancy score of 100%.

Industry standard for a good website is between 80 and 90%. The visit Virginia Beach website also won the 2026 IA award for best travel website, breaking barriers at the beach. Along with achieving the perfect ADA compliance score, the website has been the primary driver of visitor traffic with more than 8.4 million page views. Traffic across the website was produced from 220 countries worldwide as well as all 50

states.

Another new program that we're excited about is our content creators. Beginning in the fall of 2025, Visit Virginia Beach contracted with multiple contract creators and influencers to drive destination awareness and engagement with several targeted feeder markets.

Over the past six months, we've hosted more than 10 influencers in market, which has in turn produced 47 published pieces of content and 470,000 impressions year to date. The influencer content has amplified awareness of Virginia Beach's key brand pillars, highlighting its family-friendly shoreline, delicious food and beverage scene, vibrant surf culture, creative arts, community events, and much more.

Launching Launching these creative partnerships has also grown our following on our social channels. Our Instagram platform has grown grown from 43,000 to 77,000 just from our content creator program. So, we're really excited about that.

Anna's team created a truly memorable experience and a marketing activation.

The Philadelphia activation called The Drop debuted in Dworth Park in Philadelphia City Center to highlight Virginia Beach as the ideal beach getaway for Philadelphiaians to come to Virginia Beach and it was held over Memorial Day weekend. We literally brought Virginia Beach to Philadelphia.

We partnered with an artist from the Vibe Creative District who spent the week building excitement by painting a huge shipping container on site in City Center while an enormous clock created a countdown. Once the clock struck zero, a fullblown Virginia Beach Street party erupted. The sides of the shipping container opened up to a live band. Sand sculpture artists were on site. Local food and beverage was served.

Interactive activities were taking place. And of course, we invited social media influencers, travel writers, and all of the interest interested spectators to join in. The first video that you're going to see is the setup of the drop.

We are here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in Dworth Park in the heart of the city. I'm going to be painting a mural today in my true Kendi art style, a couple of trippy waves. So, really excited. We're hoping to build the energy with the crowd today and get them curious about our event.

And the second video that you're going to see is of the actual activation.

Hence the cups. Now you know, right?

And the last video is part of the ongoing engagement. A video like this one is still playing in Dworth Metro Station and will run through the summer and capture foot traffic from the America 250 events as well as the FIFA World Cup.

To date, the drop has produced more than 150,000 impressions. And just in case you're wondering, the shipping container was also sent back to Virginia Beach and is currently on display at our Virginia Beach Sports Center. So, please come by and check it out.

As part of the Visit Virginia Beach spring push, which infused additional funds into the marketplace targeting summer travel, Visit Virginia Beach partnered with largescale vendors including Disney Plus, CBS, and SXM.

These high impact video placements built awareness by showcasing Virginia Beach as a family-friendly beach destination and resulted in more than 7.3 million views and a video completion rate of 98% in our feeder markets. The first video is from the television show television show series Survivors 50th anniversary season premiere.

We're seconds away from Survivor 50 on CBS New York. The game is about to change forever. Don't miss a second of the adventure. Tonight, Survivor 50 is sponsored locally by Virginia Beach.

Happiness is whatever you want it to be.

Happiness is finding your rhythm between the roar of the ocean and the echo of friends laughter.

It's the exhilaration found in renowned cuisine and shopping.

It's the inspiration of sublime arts and nature.

Find your happy in Virginia Beach.

Light your torch. Tonight's action begins in 3.

And so the second video you're going to see is from Zootopia 2's launch on Disney Plus.

Happiness is finding your rhythm between the roar of the ocean and the echo of friends laughter.

It's the exhilaration found in renowned cuisine and shopping.

It's the inspiration of sublime arts and nature.

Find your happy in Virginia Beach.

Thank you.

Um, this is an example of how we partner with the Virginia Tourism Corporation and come together as a Commonwealth. In September of 2025, Visit Virginia Beach partnered with BTC as part of a Philadelphia takeover. Um, there were activations in the metro stations, the Phillies game. We had a a mail out to more than 850,000 subscribers to Major League Baseball.

Um, radio spots, retargeting campaigns, and more.

Having this first activation in Philadelphia, we saw immediate growth from the marketplace and web traffic to our website.

So, our CVB is a data-driven decision-making organization. This fiscal year, Visit Virginia Beach added several business intelligent tools including Symphony by Tourism Economics, AirDNA, Amadeus BI, Pace, Hootswuite, Amadeas Travel for airlines, and more.

By adding additional data sources, we've been able to drive strategic marketing decisions and make smart decisions targeting our visitors with the information that they want where they are.

This slide shows the holistic approach we're taking to marketing and unifying all of our marketing strategies. This is an example of how we partner with one of the events when they come to Virginia Beach and highlight our brand placement.

So, a very special thank you to city council for providing the additional funds we needed to infuse the market with reminders to our potential guests that Virginia Beach is a family-friendly resort destination filled with fun. The surge marketing campaign was launched as an immediate response tactic um to the oceanfront incidents that occurred in April of this past year, ensuring that Virginia Beach could

quickly stabilize visitor confidence and protect it protect its peak season tourism economy by rapidly deploying targeted advertising dollars across key market drive and fly markets. The campaign amplified positive fact-based messaging about our city's safety, family friendliness, and fun visitor experiences. The surge campaign is live and in market now, and the final results will be available at the end of the

summer, but we're tracking performance, and we'll look forward to coming back to share that with you. And this slide is an example of some of the items that are in market as part of the surge campaign.

As I mentioned earlier, we currently deploy and use sophisticated tools to help analyze data and make strategic business decisions. We follow that data closely. While we are very targeted in our approach and fiscally responsible with a goal of maximizing return on investment, as you can see from this chart, while some of our competitive set outspend us, our team works incredibly hard to outperform them. And I'm very

proud of the results. Which leads me to performance.

This slide gives you a snapshot in time, an overview as to how the destination is performing year-to date. The fiscal year data below is from STAR and Amadeus, the reports as of June 15, 2026.

As you can see, we're trending positively in all categories year-over-year. And Virginia Beach's hotel look outlook for the remainder of 2026 is strong with occupancy out occupancy pacing at 7.6% ahead of last year. According to Amadeus, before I conclude today, I'd like to give special recognition and a special shout out to the CVB's marketing and public relations teams who make all of

this possible. I'm available for questions if you have any.

Okay, any questions at all? Oh my god, we're on a roll today.

Awesome.

No, but I'll tell you what. Um, I was down at the ocean front over the weekend and it's amazing the logistics that go into putting on a weekend and we got to the point where you folks are so proficient. You can have multiple activities down there now. Uh, you know, you have Point Break, you have Shoot the Pier, you had the JST at 24th Street, but you know, just that when my wife and

I walked around, uh, you know, way before the concert and just see the way everything was set up and the people that you had in the control center, coordinating police, uh, EMS, and, you know, and then, you know, the people that really, you know, got the beaches groomed and cleaned and everything. It was a remarkable achievement and from what I understand from a lot of people it was a remarkable weekend but then

again you had a number of remarkable weekends in a row haven't certainly been backed.

Yes.

Okay. All right. Thank you very much.

Yeah. Stacy to piggy back on that. You know my kids blew me off on Father's Day to go down to the reggae.

Sorry. But they were they were blown away with how well organized it was, how everything went so smooth. And um so I hope we wrap up early because we're celebrating Father's Day tonight.

Oh, your kids called. They said all right. Good enough. Yeah. Okay. I just want to say before you leave, happiness is absolutely wonderful thing and thank you.

All right. So, M. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time, we'll be joined by Caitlyn Alcott. He's going to give city council overview of the pending planning items come before you for July 7th and July 14th.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. As the city manager just stated, I will briefly run through the planning items that are on your July 7th and July 14th agendas. I also have the zoning administrator Hannah Sabbo here with me. She will cover several of the text amendments that we have on the July 7th agenda. So, looking first, item one on the 7th is a subdivision variance

request for 1117 Beautiful Street and that is in district 6.

So, the subject parcel was improperly created by deed in 1954 at a time in which a subdivision plat was required to legally create a parcel. The property, which is zoned R10 residential, requires a minimum lot area of 10,000 square ft, a minimum lot width of 80 ft and a minimum street line frontage of 64 feet.

As this parcel is deficient in all three areas, a subdivision variance is required before a plaque can be put to record.

The existing single family dwelling which was constructed in 1940 prior to the adoption of the city's zoning ordinance or subdivision regulations is proposed to remain on site. While deficient in lot area width and frontage, the parcel is comparable to other residential lots in the surrounding area. Staff has not received any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item two is a modification of conditions request for 1492 Backbay Landing Road in District 2.

A conditional use permit for a home occupation was approved by this body in January of this year to allow a portion of the detached garage to be used for small parts repair. The applicant has come back to request a modification to add gunsmithing activities in addition to the small parts repair. The proposed hours of operation are remain unchanged and are shown on the slide here.

The applicant intends to use the same 200 foot area of the garage for both uses. And while firearms will primarily be mailed to the site, the applicant may allow customers on site on occasion by appointment only. While the applicant will be required to obtain a federal firearms license through the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, City approval is required before the um applicant can apply for

that FFL. Staff has not received any opposition to this request and again the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item three is another modification of conditions request. This one for 20779th Street Suite C. This is in district 6.

The cup for the STR was originally approved by the city council in 2020 and that approval limited the use to two of the three bedrooms on the site. Um that was due to a concern that one of the proposed parking spaces though located within the driveway was within the right ofway and there was concern that it might impede a three and a half foot sidewalk that bisects the driveway. The current applicant is seeking a

modification to allow use of all three bedrooms for the short-term rental use.

The three parking spaces within the driveway are highlighted in orange on the slide here. It is the policy of the zoning division to permit parking within the right of way so long as the spaces do not interfere with vehicular or pedestrian traffic which can be met with this parking plan. I will also note that there is approximately 27 ft between the edge of the existing sidewalk and the pavement of 79th Street.

With the 2020 approval, a condition was included to require the installation of a no blocking sidewalk sign. You can see that in the yellow square next to parking space 2 on the slide there. This sign was installed and has been maintained since the CUP was approved, and staff is recommending that that condition be carried forward. While staff has received three prior zoning complaints for operation of a short-term

rental without a cup or STR permit, those claims were unsubstantiated as the applicant has maintained both the CUP and the STR permit since approval. We have not received any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item four is another modification of conditions request. This for 3100 Shore Drive in District 8.

The site which is home to the Westminster Canterbury campus has received numer numerous council approvals for a home for the aged, disabled, and handicapped with that initial approval being granted in 1977.

The current modification request would allow a four-level parking garage to be constructed on the site within the southeast corner.

The structure will contain 340 parking spaces and will be constructed within the same footprint as the existing 110 space surface parking lot. A deviation to the front yard setback is included with this request to allow a 9.79 foot setback where a 35 foot setback is required. Due to the curved design of the parking garage, this is the closest point that the structure would be to

Shore Drive and it does as you go to the east and the west it does go back to meet that setback requirement.

At its tallest point, the structure is 53 feet 7 in and it incorporates architectural materials and design to complement the existing campus.

According to the applicant, the construction of the garage is planned to commence in November of this year if approved with a target completion date of August of 2027.

All existing vegetation along Shore Drive is proposed to be retained and supplemented with additional trees. The applicant has received support from the Bayfront Advisory Commission contingent upon two recommendations. One being that all live oaks be either retained or if they're not unable to be retained, they be replaced and maintained for a period of at least two years following construction and then that any

replacement trees shall have a minimum caliber of 2 in at the time of planting.

Staff received one letter of opposition to the request noting concerns with the size of the structure, construction impacts, traffic, and flooding.

Ultimately, the planning commission voted to recommend approval of the request with the additional conditions as recommended by the Bayfront Advisory Commission.

They did make one slight change, which is highlighted on that third bullet there, to require replacement trees have a minimum caliber of 4 in at the time of planting. It is my understanding that the applicant may request a slight change to that. And um instead of saying 4 inches, say between two to four inches at the time of planting. The reason being that there are certain locations

on the site that the hole that would be required for a 4-inch caliper tree would be too large that it might damage the root structure of existing trees on site. So, they just want that flexibility should they have to replace any of the trees.

The next two items include a conditional reszoning and a conditional use permit for 3288 Dam Neck Road in District 10.

The applicant is proposing to reszone the property from R5D residential district to conditional I1 light industrial district and a CUP for an automobile repair garage. The 1.7 acre site does lie within the 70 to 75 decel noise zone and is subject to a Navy restrictive easement.

The company 8 Series Auto Services currently operates on Cleveland Street and they are proposing to relocate here due to business expansion. The proposed repair repair repair facility will be just under 19,000 square feet with 69 parking spaces provided on site. They are also proposing a rideway dedication with this request to accommodate a right turn lane to serve the facility.

Consistent with the city's active transportation plan, an 11 foot wide side path is proposed along Dam Neck Road. They are also requesting a deviation to the 25- foot landscape buffer that would be required along the northern property line adjacent to the existing R5D parcel to the north and instead are showing a 10- foot wide category 6 landscape buffer with a 6ft tall privacy fence. Um, since this

parcel to the north is subject to a grant of easement acquired by the United States of America in 1981 through the Department of the Navy, it does restrict how that parcel to the north can be used for residential purposes. So for that reason, staff and the planning commission were okay with that deviation request.

As proposed, the building has a max height of 22 feet 2 in. A total of 20 employees are anticipated. And then the hours of operation are shown on the slide there.

And this just shows some renderings of the signage and proposed fencing and dumpster enclosures. We have not received any opposition to the request and the planning commission recommended approval on consent.

The next two items are both CUP requests. This is for two suites within the Expressway Court Commerce Center in District 4.

So, each request is a CUP to operate an adult daycare facility um within two existing suites. Each suite is anticipated to provide support for up to 10 individuals with each facility operating with a license from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.

The applicant was unaware of the need for a CUP and has operated in each location for several years. Um, all participants, they do not drive, so they're all transported here through a private transportation company. Um, generally dropped off around 8:30 and then picked up between 2:30 and 3:00 um, Monday through Friday.

Adequate parking is provided on site.

There is no known opposition to this request and again, the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item nine is a CU request for an open air market for 549 New Town Road. This is also in district 4. Specifically, the applicant is seeking approval to continue operating a food truck on the site. It's within the parking lot of the existing commercial center. Previously, the applicant has operated here with a valid peddler's permit that expired in May of 2026. So, they're required to get

the CUP to continue operating. Hours of operation are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

daily. Maximum of two employees per shift.

I wanted to mention that very well, very clean and have their little picnic benches out there.

There is adequate parking on the site to accommodate not only the uses in the commercial center and then the space occupied by the food truck. Um, we have not received any opposition and the planning commission did recommend approval by consent. I will now turn it over to Hannah unless there's any questions on any of those items.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, council. Um, Hannah Sabo, zoning administrator. The next five items are updates to the zoning ordinance to bring it into compliance with the bills that were approved by the state legislature during the 2026 session. Item number 10 is an ordinance pertaining to solar facilities as a conditional and accessory use. This update is in response to House Bill 711 and it codifies an existing

interpretation that permits accessory solar equipment and adds solar facilities as a principal use with a conditional use permit required in the agricultural, business, and industrial districts.

The change to state code now requires that localities permit solar facilities in certain districts. And this ordinance amendment adds that use to those districts, but does require a conditional use of permit. Solar facilities would have to comply with all district screening and setback requirements from the base district and any conditions that are added to that conditional use permit. Uh due to that

short turnaround here, uh this amendment does not include codifications of any specific conditions. Um so we will be coming back with an update to add those to the ordinance. But staff can still add any conditions to a conditional use permit that come in for this use. In the meantime, I have a piece of property that the solar folks are so anxious to buy, so I assume I have a conflict in dealing with this ordinance.

I I'm not going to sell it to them, but sure. just the very fact that I get about three applications a week or three calls a week or something, but this is a hot item in the agricultural area. So, you folks need to pay attention to it.

Okay. So, so we'll we'll get with you and and do the right disclosure. It could be that you're a member of a group which is that there's similar interest among many people in the community. U but we'll we'll get in touch and draft the appropriate documents.

This amendment also codifies an existing interpretation that does allow solar panels as accessory structures. On roofs, they must meet the height requirements and then ground mounted equipment must comply with the accessory structure setback and size limitations for accessory structures. Staff is unaware of any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval on consent.

Item 11 is an ordinance to amend section 207 of the city zoning ordinance pertaining to building mounted antennas, small wireless facilities, and temporary communication towers. This amendment is in response to House Bill 876, which provides specific requirements and limitations for how a locality can regulate these temporary wireless structures. Temporary wireless structures are monopoles or other

wireless communication facilities that are used to provide wireless transmissions with a um within a designated area. they do not have a permanent foundation.

These temporary facilities are to be permitted during times when an increase in wireless coverage is needed. So for example, during a city permitted special event, during wireless testing, outages or during an emergency. They are approved for 180 days initially with an option to extend for up to two years if the event or incident continues. The wireless provider is required to restore

the site within 48 hours of removal.

Staff is unaware of any opposition to the request and planning commission did recommend approval on consent.

For item number 12, it's an ordinance to amend section 203 of the city zoning ordinance pertaining to minimum parking requirements for residential and mixed uses. The amendment is in response to House Bill 888 and adds a parking reduction option for residential uses within 1 half mile of a public transportation facility. Um, so this map is showing the bus stops within the city and then the ones with a blue circle

around them that is showing the half a mile radius on those stops that do have a physical structure.

The parking requirements uh would be half a parking space per dwelling unit for multif family or mixeduse development and one space per dwelling unit for one and two family and then townhouse uh uses uses. If adopted, staff will send out a PCD notice to the development community to notify them of this change and will also be putting that bus uh bus stop shelter on the map for on the city map for ease of access.

Staff is unaware of any opposition to this request and planning commission did recommend approval on consent.

Item 13 is an ordinance to amend article 5 of the city zoning ordinance pertaining to uses and dimensional requirements in the R2.5 zoning district. This amendment is in response to House Bill 1212, which required localities to have a district which permits single family dwellings on lots no less than 30 feet wide and then 3,000 square feet. So, our existing residential district, the R2.5 district,

does allow for lots of that size and it permits duplex duplexes, but does not currently permit single family dwellings. And so, this amendment would add single family dwellings as a byright use to that district. Uh, for lots this small, the ordinance does propose a 20 foot front setback, 20 foot rear setback, 5 foot side setback with a minimum maximum lot coverage of 40%. Uh, that provides a 1,200 foot building

footprint on the first floor.

And so Virginia Beach already does have some small lots uh where single family are developed. Um here we have an example of a 30- foot wide house that was constructed within the past year.

And then an example from 1984 um which is also on a 30- foot wide lot. When we were looking at setbacks, we also considered corner lots which do have a less of a buildable area. Um but even with these setbacks applied, it has a 700 square foot square foot buildable area on that first floor which is considered developable. Uh staff is unaware of any opposition for this request and planning commission did uh

recommend approval on consent.

And item 14 is an ordinance to amend section 105 from the city zoning ordinance pertaining to non-conforming mobile homes. Um this ordinance is to comply with House Bill 1463.

A mobile home is a one family dwelling designed to be transported on its own wheels with plumbing and electrical connections for attachment outside systems. It arrives on site complete and ready for occupancy except for some minor assembly operations and utility connections. Uh mobile homes are regulated by HUD and the zoning ordinance uses the term mobile home and manufactured home interchangeably. Um

these are different from modular homes um which are not designed to be transported on their own wheels.

So, what this ordinance does is that for mobile homes within a mobile home park, the amendment codifies the existing interpretation that if a mobile home park is legally non-conforming, a mobile home can be placed on any of the lots regardless of if that individual lot um was vacant previously. Uh for mobile homes not within a mobile home park, the amendment says that a mobile home can be

replaced with a current mobile home regardless of occupancy during the preceding two years. Staff is unaware of any opposition to this request and planning commission did recommend approval on consent. And that's the last of my items. If there's no questions, I will hand it back to Caitlyn.

All right. So now we will jump into the July 14th agenda. There are a total of seven planning items on that agenda.

So, looking first at item one, this is a request to reszone a city-owned parcel along Upton Drive in District 5.

More specifically, to reszone the parcel from R 7.5 residential district to P1 Preservation District. This request is in response to input from adjacent property owners who expressed a desire for the parcel to remain undeveloped. As the ordinance requires a minimum lot area in the P1 district of five acres, a deviation request or a deviation is requested with this as the subject parcel is 1.68 acres.

At the planning commission hearing, there was discussion about the ability for this parcel to be developed for residential use. Um, I do want to note that there are several easements on the site. There's a 30-inch storm water pipe that bisects the property. All of which would make development of the property a little bit complicated. We did get one letter of support from the Southshore

Estate Civic League and they also had a representative from the Civic League speak in support at the planning commission hearing. We have not received any opposition and the planning commission recommended approval on consent.

The next two items are related to three parcels located at the southeast corner of Shore Drive and Marlin Bay Drive.

This is in District 9.

The applicant is requesting to conditionally reszone the site from PDH1 to conditional B4 mixeduse district along with the CUP for multif family dwellings. The CUP is required due to the site's location within the shore drive corridor overlay. The proposed development includes 52 a 52-unit condominium development resulting in an overall density of just under 24 units per acre. In addition to the residential

component, the applicant is also proposing approximately 2,00 to 2500 square feet of retail space.

The buildings range in height from 3 to five stories and includes a mix of two, three, and fourbedroom units. At the request of the Bayfront Advisory Commission, the applicant did include a on-site pet relief area um to minimize impacts to adjacent uh neighborhoods.

Um, and then as proposed, this development would meet the required parking.

There are two deviations included with the request. The first is related to the 30-foot setback that is required along Clipper Bay Drive. The second is related to the maximum height of 35 ft that is permitted for any structure within 100 ft of a residential dwelling. So, with regards to the setback along Clipper Bay Drive, the applicant is seeking a 15- foot setback to allow for various

building projections and balconies to encroach in that area. And then for the building height, the applicant is requesting a deviation to allow a height of up to 43 feet. This would be specific to the um stairwell structures to allow access to the rooftop area. It would not include the kind of primary building which has a height of 33 and 1/2 ft.

Various pedestrian and landscape improvements are included with this request. A few of which include a 10- foot wide multi-use trail along Shore Drive, a 5- foot wide sidewalk along Marlin Bay Drive, and then streetscaping along both Shore Drive and Marlin Bay.

The proposal was presented to the Bayfront Advisory Commission who were supportive of the request contingent upon the recommendations that are seen on the slide here being incorporated into the final design. So the images that you see here, the one on the left shows what was presented or was submitted initially and presented to planning commission. And then the one on the right shows how it was been modified

since planning commission. And so that just shows how that corner area has been reduced um by 10 feet, kind of pulling that height down to um limit the perceived size of the building. They have also profered that certain uses, so bars, nightclubs, um liquor stores, uh facilities that sell vape products have been profered out as the Bayfront Advisory Commission expressed a desire not to have those uses there.

A couple other images here. So, um again, the one on the left is how it was initially submitted and the one on the right shows how it's been revised between planning commission and city council. Uh again, this was in regards to the Bayfront's comment to kind of have more horizontal articulation to reduce the perceived building mass.

And this is the view from Marlin Bay.

Staff did receive two letters of support and there were two speakers in support of the item at the planning commission hearing. Those in support were noting that they appreciated that they were for sale versus for rent units. um noted the aesthetic improvement over what is there currently and how it could contribute to the um economic benefits and kind of the stability of the area. Also noting that

any new development here would have to meet storm water requirements um of today's standards. So there should be an improvement there. We did have three letters of concern, 57 letters of opposition and then seven speakers in opposition at planning commission. They expressed concerns related to the height of the structure, environmental impacts, an increase to traffic and kind of spilling over into the surrounding

neighborhood, and then potential increases in flooding. Um, ultimately, the planning commission did recommend approval of this by a 91 vote with one abstension.

Item four is a CU request for a short-term rental at 40421st Street, Unit A in District 6.

The applicant is seeking approval to operate a two-bedroom short-term rental within an apartment unit on the site.

This property also has, in addition to the two-unit apartment building, which is seen here. There's a single family dwelling um that fronts 21st Street.

That single family dwelling was granted a conditional use permit back in 2025 to allow a three-bedroom short-term rental.

A total of seven parking spaces are required to support all the uses on site. Six are provided on-site and then there is a seventh that is leased from a um commercial parking lot immediately to the east of the site. It's that kind of third u rectangle there that's off to its itself.

While staff did receive a complaint for the operation of a short-term rental without a cup for this location. We were unable to substantiate that at the time.

The site is not currently advertised and the last documented stay was back in August of 2022. We did not receive any opposition to this request and the planning commission recommended approval by a 10-1 vote.

Item five is another short-term rental request. This is for 513 20th Street in District 6.

The applicant is seeking approval to operate a two-bedroom short-term rental on the site, and the two required parking spaces can be accommodated within the on-site parking area.

There are no prior zoning complaints or documented stays associated with the site. Staff did receive three letters of opposition and there were two speakers in opposition to the planning commission hearing who expressed concerns with the number of short-term rentals in the area and impacts to long-term residents.

Ultimately, the planning commission did recommend approval by a 10-1 vote.

Item six is another conditional use per request for a short-term rental. This is at 511 20th and a half street in District 6. So, the applicant is requesting approval to operate a four-bedroom short-term rental. Four parking spaces are required, two provided on site within the driveway, and then there's an intent to lease two off- streetet parking spaces at a private commercial lot, which is shown

there at the corner of Arctic Avenue and 21st Street.

Again, no zoning complaints or violations, no previous advertisements or documented stays. Three letters of opposition, two speakers in opposition at planning commission. same concerns about the number of short-term rentals in the area and impacts to um long-term residents. Uh planning commission did recommend approval by a 10-1 vote. Item seven is the exact same um so this is the adjacent unit. So 509 28th and a

half street, another four bedroomedroom um unit. Four parking spaces required, two on site, two intent to lease from a commercial parking lot at the corner there. No complaints, violations, documented stays, three letters of opposition, two speakers in opposition again with the same concerns also was recommended for approval by a 10-1 vote.

And that concludes the briefing.

Okay. Worth.

Thank you, mayor. Thanks u for the presentation. Those last four items, uh, STRs in my district, district six, the opposition, uh, from that area is from homeowners who live there for a long time, who have chosen to live there. And so the number of STRs are we that's funneled into that area because of this is in the overlay area is of concern to me and a lot of residents. And so that

this is where we're looking at considering we the planning it's in the plan before the planning commission right now perhaps putting this taking this out of the overlay area after you know maybe we approve these but it's and I'll get the numbers at the at our meet at our when this comes forth but it's like every almost every other home there is an STR on that street.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Hey thank you for your stellar work.

really appreciate it.

Okay. Any council comments?

Yeah. Rosemary.

Well, it's very exciting. Looks like there's going to be a state budget after all.

So, I think we're all happy about that.

And I publicly would like to say thank you to Delegate Ascu and Senator Lucas for the money from the church. That's going to be a really wonderful thing to help preserve that property. And I guess we've had it on an indefinite deferral and we were waiting to see if this came through. Of course, it's not totally done yet.

Probably won't be truly done till Monday, but it looks pretty good. Uh so if that's done, what do we do about the the item that we have deferred?

Um, it's going to stay deferred unless council wants to bring it back.

You repeat that.

It's going to stay in its deferred status indefinitely unless the council wants to bring it back and and act upon it.

So, we don't have to do anything.

Correct.

Okay, that sounds good. Thank you.

But wouldn't they hasn't the church asked to have it deferred? I mean, wouldn't they need to ask us to consider it because I don't think this totally covers all the costs.

So, so one route would be for them to request it to come back. Another would be the standard city council agenda process where the mayor or three of you could ask for that.

So, I mean it's still kind of up to them if they want to proceed.

That that is correct. And and they'll be a partner with us in um whatever requirements the state has forou or what have you to to deal with the money.

Okay. Anybody else? Okay. We're going to go Josh and Amelia.

Um thank you mayor. I just wanted to um you know offer my thoughts and our thoughts uh as a council uh to areas on the bay, the neighborhood that suffered a a fire um this past I believe it was Thursday in the in the evening. There were a bunch of people out there watching sale 250 and happened right at the time of day that everybody was kind of coming out of those narrow streets

and um our fire department got there in 6 minutes um from the time they had to down gear to the time they arrived on site which is amazing. Um, unfortunately there were, I believe, four homes that were impacted. Uh, and and um, I was able to get out there on Friday and meet some folks and, uh, they were just incredibly grateful for the emergency response and, uh, thank goodness those

winds weren't blowing. Um, or else it could have been a lot worse. So, um, thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you, Mayor. I want to report at least three that I saw the 250 tall ships went out there go up onto one of them and meet different people and it was hard to get a souvenir shirt. I did get one and I had to order the rest of them but it was really well done. So I enjoyed going out there. The other thing is um there was a good retreat held by our minority business

council that went well. And then the other thing that is ongoing, this is our last week on that for the HRT.

We are busy doing interviews because William Harold as of July 1st will retired and we did the applications asking for people like to we got 185.

Wow.

That's a whole lot.

And there eight of us working on this.

So we're able to bring it down to seven.

And as of this coming Wednesday, they will interview the last two and then just decide whether they're the finalist or one person. But as you can see, it's not much time between that. But so far, it's going good. And that will impact all of us when we get a new president and CEO cuz he's been there about 17 years. So that's what we're doing. Almost done.

Great. Barbara, uh we had a umformational piece in our agenda package that I think we need to kind of look at uh dealing with the uh facility safety as far as fencing is required around storm water ponds. Um I think this is certainly a concern. uh we have to address it in some fashion whether it's fencing or not but we are getting an awful lot of these storm water ponds and and they obviously are a

an attractive nuisance I guess we would say for children especially uh fencing maybe is not the answer but at least I think we have to do something educationally to I I'm thinking that in the winter when these things are iced over that they're really going to get to be the the attraction that we have to be concerned about. So, this isn't something we can ignore. I think we have

to look at it and see if there are things that we need to do or could do to make it safer.

Okay. Thank you, Barbara. That's a very good point. Anyone else? Uh yeah, Ameilia brought up the sale 250 and I'll tell you it was a spectacular event and uh the amount of preparations for this.

It was 6 years in the making and a number of cities, a number of states participate in this. Uh you know, Virginia Beach in this region is historical in so many ways. Revolutionary War and you know on and it was really amazing and we actually had the kickoff uh with all the boat captains and everything at the Wesner in and you know worth was there and uh you know we got to give

opening remarks but we were profusely thanked by the organizers of this for Virginia Beach's participation uh in it and uh you know as I told our friends in Nor yeah you you're having the big party here in Norolk but they had to go through Virginia Beach to get here, didn't they? Yeah, they sure did.

And uh but but once again it was a once again another regional collaborative effort. You know worth if you'd like to comment on that too.

Well it just brings up all the history here and even going back to first landing which is in our great city. Of course, it's also District 6, but it's in Virginia Beach. That's 1607. And like you say, so a lot of people uh the end of the Revolutionary War, the Battle of the Capes, the French helped us bottle the the British Navy up and that when we won the Revolutionary War. So all the

history, a lot of it is with our city and our region that goes way back. And of course, the Civil War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War and then of course World War II, the buildup. We're very proud we still have military in our in our DNA here as you say. So it all comes back. The tall ships are beautiful. I mean it's just gorgeous.

But you know the other thing and I'll end this on a you know really positive note. you know, uh, spoke to a lot of, you know, worth and I spoke to a lot of military, uh, you know, we're talking about admirals, generals, and really upper echelon folks and quite a few comments on how well they enjoyed living in Virginia Beach, love their schools, work.

Yeah. So, a lot of the West, where do you live? I live right down the street.

A lot of them in your district, Stacy, um, district 8, but their their job is in Norfick, of course. And uh it's it's amazing how many they folks do live in our city.

Yeah. And uh you know the uh supreme commander when I met him a couple years ago they say they cited the quality of life and our school system as a reason a lot of folks want to live there. It's you know really kind of cool. Okay.

We're ready for a close. Before you close, I must mention something I saw.

Sheriff's, police, something Virginia Beach were all also working together for this and I thought that was important just like how we have our sheriff and police working together and so forth for this this incident. It was good to see.

No, it was a beautiful coordination effort by so many people. Yeah. I mean, we're talking about all the way Baltimore and you know, this was an undertaking and it was a tremendous success.

Okay. The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exemption of open meetings allowed by section 2.2 3711A code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes. Discussions, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion performance demotion salaries, disciplining or resignation of public officers, appointees or employees

of public body pursuant to section 2.2371A1 23711A1 and that would be a council appointments for boards, commissions, committees, authorities, agencies and appointees and also today's council appointee evaluation. I have a motion.

Second.

I

Okay, we are recess.

to close session. So second

I hi rouse.

Hi.

Hi Wilson.

Hi Mayor Dyer.

Hi session.

Thank you all. We are returned.

Get home safe, everyone.