City Council Meeting, 7/7/2026

Welcome all um you know to our meeting here. Uh before we get started, I just want to make an announcement. Uh let everybody know that captioning in the room is currently unavailable. If anybody needs captioning, it is available on Facebook or by downloading the BB Now app. Please make sure your sound is muted. You may also check uh clerk Amanda Barnes if you need assistance pulling the video up on your

mobile device. Okay, we are ready to roll.

All right, so Mr. Mayor, members of council, the first presentation provided by Brent McKenzie. He's going to brief city council about the steps that we need to make to prepare for the 2027 general assembly legislative agenda.

Brent, go ahead. The floor is yours.

Uh, thank you, Mr. City Manager, and good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Madame Vice Mayor, and members of council. It's a pleasure to be here in front of you again. Uh, feel like we just finished the 2026 General Assembly session, but here we go. Uh, getting things ready for 2027.

Um so um, so today's presentation is very short. We're really just, uh, letting you know that we're kicking off our annual process to create our legislative agenda. So today we're just going to do a a quick general assembly preview. Uh show you the timeline that we are proposing for the establishment of your legislative agenda. Um go through just kind of the different sections that we

have in there to see if there are any changes or additions you guys would like to see to how we lay it out and how we propose the agenda. And uh at the um get the next slide for me. At the conclusion, we'll be looking for your guidance, uh, concurrence on the proposed timeline, guidance on the policy priorities that we set out, and, um, any initial issues that you guys

would like us to do some research on to bring forward in the draft presentation.

So, the 2027 general assembly session will be what we call the short session.

As you will remember, uh, oddnumbered years, the session is 30 days with a 15-day 15 or 16 day extension per the constitution. Uh, even numbered years, they have 60 days. Uh, in the 27 general assembly session, they will amend the fiscal year 2728 budget that they just adopted. Session is scheduled to begin on January 14th, which is the second Wednesday in January, which is where

they always begin. Um, and it will set the stage for the 2027 General Assembly elections. As uh you likely know, all 100 members of the House and all 40 members of the Virginia Senate will be up for election in 2027.

So, here's the timeline that we've laid out. Uh, so in July and August, we will solicit all of our department directors and the council members for agenda request items. um in August and September, we'll take all of those ideas and we will vet them for uh constitutionality and for uh budget impacts, working with the city manager's office, working with the budget and finance team. Um on

October 13th, we will bring forward uh the draft legislative agenda. October 20th, we will hold a public hearing.

October 27th, I'll come back before you to get some final feedback on uh the draft. and then uh November 10th we will bring it forward for adoption.

Uh as you will remember uh I think it was two years ago you guys adopted a city council policy on how the legislative agenda is adopted. Uh so if there's something that you guys would like to see in the draft legislative agenda, it needs to be either proposed by the mayor uh proposed by at least three members of city council or proposed by a city department. and then approved by the city manager. The same

process that we use to get items on the city council um uh agenda for your weekly meetings. Uh and then once we get to the um November vote, the legislative agenda, uh each individual item requires two/irds majority to be included in the final and charter amendments require 3-4s majority.

uh last year, maybe the year before, we added a section to the legislative agenda that we called these policy priorities and we laid out the u nine policy priorities from the council based on the focused action plan. Uh these are those nine policy areas that we have uh used the last two years. Um, just looking for any guidance from you guys on if there's things on here you would

like to see removed or something added, something combined, um, or if you want to stick with the nine items that we have here. So, we'll be looking for that feedback at the conclusion.

And then we always have our three legislative sections if there are any recommended charter amendment requests, any new laws that we would like to see, or any uh, budget requests.

Uh, so that's my uh, presentation today.

As I mentioned, we're looking for uh concurrence on our timeline, guidance on the policy priority section, and then any initial thoughts you all have on things you would like us to do some research on for potential inclusion in the legislative agenda. So, back over to you, Mr. Mayor.

Okay. Thank you. And uh I'd like to bring something up that has to be of the highest of priorities. Unfortunately, last Saturday there was a terrible accident on Samur Road again.

And uh once again this is a situation and you know feeling helpless is not taking care of the problem. Feeling help if this was able to be fixed by this council would have been done a long time ago. And I really think that we really have to get the word out to not only our legislators, but I intend to send letters to both our senators and our elected congressional people that this

has this cannot stand. And uh you know going forward uh you know I I may ask the members of the general assembly to help us lobby uh with the feds for this.

you know, it's hung up, I believe, with uh not only the federal authorities, but uh with environmental groups and things, but we've been dancing with this for, you know, far too long. And I'm thinking, Mrs. Henley, decades, maybe at least.

Yeah.

You know, ever since I've been on city council in 2004, we've been talking about this.

You know, we're at the point with this is enough and enough and we got to take whatever action, you know, it's going to take and that type of thing.

I couldn't agree with you more. This is the second time this just this year that we've had this and I know I spoke with Senator Mark Warner and told this is a national security issue and I tell you what, you know, you put on a fast track, you know, I tell you what, I think maybe we get the Navy involved in this too because that affects their operational officials.

You know, this is going to be all hands on deck thing to do. Uh does anybody got any other questions? Yeah. Okay, let's go with Michael and then Stacy.

Thank you. I don't have a question. I just have a comment and uh won't be a surprise to you uh Mr. McKenzie based on a recent correspondence that we had. But the state established a mass violence fund a number of years ago and um and then funded that uh with $10 million.

And to my understanding, it's also been um acrewing interest during that time.

But the state has not been able to identify an administrative framework for how um victims of mass violence across the Commonwealth um can access that support. So, in other words, it's a $10 point something million dollars now. Um, that was meant to support victims of of mass violence events, including those who were impacted by the May 31st tragedy. Um, but people are not able to

access that because the administrative framework has not been agreed upon. And I don't really at this point know enough about the legislation or the fund, although I have been contacted by people who advocated to establish that fund.

Um, but it seems to me that whether part of our legislative agenda or through our correspondence, we can and should encourage the Commonwealth to develop a framework um that would enable victims of mass violence to access the support for which those funds were intended. So, I hope that we'll be able to look at that as part of this process.

Yes, sir. and uh you know through our correspondence we did some cursory research on that and um glad to do some additional research and bring that issue forward for y'all's consideration.

Thank you.

Okay, Stacy.

So I I'm not sure which one this falls under public safety or transportation but the ebike issue continues to be an escalating problem and I think it falls under both categories but it's something that that we need to be serious about addressing.

Yes, sir. And uh you know, we've uh I've been participating in the eBike task force. We've had uh one general meeting and two subcommittee meetings and um you know, I'm not sure we're close to making a recommendation yet, but I think the recommendations that come out of that group will be um kind of instrumental in us figuring out the direction that's going to go in. But we will keep you

informed and keep that on the on the radar as well.

Thank you. And I thank you for your work on that task force. I appreciate that.

Good to know you're there. Yes sir.

Yes. Stacey, would it be good idea sometime to have a discussion on this an informal too because I I tell you what I am seeing kids like 9 10 years old on these bikes and they're cruising without helmets and you know it's this going to be complicated but I appreciate you bringing that up.

Yes. To do the ebike whenever it breaks down or what they just leave it there.

You'll be driving and seeing about eight ebikes just along the side and you know it looks trashy.

Yes, ma'am.

Anybody else?

Okay, Brian, thank you very much and thank you for that stellar work you and Andrew do.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. We appreciate that. Thank you, sir.

Hey, moving on.

All right, so Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will be given by Deputy City Manager Amanda Jarrett. She's going to brief city council on the latest as it relates to retail cannabis and the legislation that was passed and the next steps as it relates to adoption and um consideration by city council.

Good afternoon, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of city council, city manager Duhaney, and city attorney Styles. Um as the manager mentioned, myself and Hannah Sabbo will provide you an update on the recent cannabis legislation adopted by the general assembly. Um before we start our presentation, I would like to thank um some members of the cannabis advisory board that are here in the audience.

They've been discussing this topic for quite some time and have received a similar briefing um from the planning staff several weeks ago. Um I'd also like to take a moment and thank the city staff that have so quickly analyzed the legislation as as it has changed over the last few weeks and assisted in preparing this briefing today. So, we'll start by giving you an overview of the

cannabis legislation. We'll provide you an overview of the potential zoning regulations that will ultimately come back to you for your consideration to be implemented in the city of Virginia Beach. We'll describe to you the taxing authority that will be available to you and then an overview of next steps, of course, seeking your feedback at the conclusion of the presentation. So, currently only medical cannabis sales

are permitted in the Commonwealth, but the state code change will allow retail sales of cannabis starting in July of 2027. The state application process, as we understand it, is scheduled to begin uh February 1st of 2027 and issuance of any permits would begin in May. So, there is the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority and they have certain designations provided to them. They will

be issuing licenses. Uh they will notify the local government of any preliminary license approval and provide localities with a 30-day window to provide any objection. They also will develop uh regulations such as setting a number a limit of the number of licenses that are available in a locality and potentially the minimum distance requirement between retail establishments or other micro businesses.

So before Hannah walks you through the suggested zoning regulations, we'll walk you through the various categories um that are being considered and permitted in the Commonwealth. So first is the cultivation. So this would provide you a license to cultivate cannabis, label it, and package it. Um there's several tiers that you can see here on the screen and it does require that the lency track the

marijuana um from seed or immature plant to the point at which it's transported uh transferred or destroyed.

Second, you have the processing component. And so this allows the lency to process, label and package the marijuana or marijuana products. And so again, you can see that there'll be state regulations that will require tracking by the lency and all sanitary and security measures to be complied with.

Next, you have your retail component.

And so this would permit the actual sale of the marijuana, the marijuana products, the paraphernelia, and other immature plants or seeds um for consumers to utilize. This also would have state regulations associated with it that would regulate the age of the purchase. So, 21 or older. There would be no drive-thru sales w uh window sales or vending machines. Um no sales of more than 2 ounces during a single

transaction, no internet sales platform that's operated by a third party, and you couldn't um exceed 2500 square feet of the retail floor space.

um continuing this it couldn't be located within a thousand feet of any um hospital public or private or appropriial school um or institution of higher learning.

So then you have your micro business category. This authorizes marijuana cultivation, processing and retail sales. So this is I would consider this a combination of the three categories that we just discussed. Again, you can see that they would be regulated by the state um and they would not be able to hold or control any other license and could only operate on the one licensed premises.

So then you have your transporter category. Now this authorizes the lency to transfer marijuana or those marijuana products or plants um from a licensed facility to another licensed facility.

Again you see the tracking u requirements that are common theme throughout the various uses.

Then you have delivery. So this would authorize the lency to take marijuana or marijuana products from the retail marijuana store or the micro business uh to the individual. So to the consumer at their residence including their temporary residence or a business.

So then you have testing facilities.

This would authorize a lency to develop, research, transport or test marijuana, marijuana products. Um again, sanitary and security standards would be required.

Now um the city of Virginia Beach is um allowed to adopt zoning regulations for each of these uses. We've described to you what the uses are, and now our zoning administrator will walk you through what the suggested regulatory um requirements would be.

Welcome.

Hello. Thank you. Um Hannah Sabo, zoning administrator. So, when we're looking at um how zoning regulates uses, they can be done in a couple of different ways.

Uh the most restrictive option would be to require a conditional use permit within each proposed district. And that would require that every location would have to go through planning commission and city council prior to being permitted. Um we can also add sight specific conditions in that case. The least restrictive option would be to permit these uses by right in each proposed district. Applicants would

still be required to go through an administrative approval and comply with those regulations codified in the zoning ordinance. Um within our zoning ordinance, the city has the authority to regulate uh the following in respect to the use. We can regulate the hours of operation, distance from other uses, which district the uses and permitted is permitted in, and then how that use is

permitted, whether it's by right or with a conditional use permit, the size and type of signage, building size, location on site, and then the security plans.

Um, the next group of slides, I'm going to go over staff's recommendation for each of the uses and related related to cannabis.

So, starting with cultivation, staff's recommendation is to permit cultivation by right within the agricultural and industrial districts. Uh, this map is showing the parcels that are currently zoned, AG1, AG2, I1, and I2. And I know it's kind of hard to read, but I wanted to get the whole city in there. So, the red is showing all of those currently zoned districts, currently zoned parcels.

And with that, the recommended regulations would include restrictions on signage, um, compliance with all state regulations, and then a security plan be submitted to the police department.

Looking at processing, um staff is recommending processing be permitted in those same districts uh by right, both agricultural and industrial uh proximity to the um cultivation was what we were looking at. And then staff's recommended regulations are going to be the same, which is restrictions and signage, compliance with all state regulations, and then a security plan to be submitted to the police department.

Looking at retail, uh staff's recommendation is to require a conditional use permit within the business districts, uh listed B1A, B2, B3, and B4, and then to permit it by right within the industrial districts.

Um on the map, the red parcels are those that are zoned industrial, and then the blue parcels are those that are zoned um one of those listed business districts.

and we were considering which business districts currently allow retail uses and then restaurant uses um is the kind of two uses that we were looking at um when considering where retail would be appropriate.

And then recommendation recommended regulations include restrictions on hours of operation, minimum distance from sensitive uses such as schools and hospitals, signage limitations, prohibition on drive-through facilities, a limitation on retail floor area, and then submitt of a security plan.

And then looking at micro businesses and due to the retail components of that, um staff's recommendation for this use is the same as it is for retail. Uh we recommend a conditional use permit within the four listed business districts and then buy right within the industrial districts.

And with those same listed conditions as we had for retail, which is limiting hours of operation, distance from sensitive uses such as schools and hospitals, limit limitations on signage, prohibiting drive-through facilities, limiting the size of the retail floor area, and of course compliance with all state regulations and a security plan.

Looking at the transporter license, uh staff is recommending that transporter use be permitted by right in the agricultural office, B2, B3, and then industrial districts and the proximity to cultivation and processing centers um is what we're looking at. And then the consideration for the possibility of like a fleet of vehicles um was what led us to these districts.

And the proposed regulations include regulations on signage and the compliance with state regulations and the security plan.

And looking at the delivery operator use, we're recommending it be permitted by right in the business districts. Um, B1A, B2, B3, B4, B4C, and B4K. And proximity to those retail uses, and then consideration again for the possibility of there being a fleet um is what led us to these districts with those same recommended regulations of sign regulations, compliance with all those state regulations, and the security

plan.

Looking at testing facilities, staff is recommending uh that it be by right with a condition by right, excuse me, in the industrial districts and then permitted with a conditional use permit in the agricultural districts and then the 01 and O2 office districts with the uh same uh staff recommended regulations. We're looking at sign regulations again compliance with all those state regulations and the security

plan uh to be submitted and then I am going to hand it back to Mer there's no any questions on those Michael or did you have just a just a few more sir um um so with regards to consumption um despite the changes that we were uh just discussing uh public consump consumption will still remain not permitted in the Commonwealth. The current fund, as we have previously discussed, um is $25.

That will increase to $250 effective July 1st, 2027. Um the city may consider adopting an ordinance that prohibits use in public parks, playgrounds, public streets, or any sidewalk joining a public street. And the locality may um dictate what that violation of an ordinance um would be. um operating a vehicle while under the influence is not permitted in the Commonwealth and consumption would only be allowed on

private property and that is with the owner's permission. Um with these changes, Virginia will be the 24th state um in addition to Washington DC to allow recreational use of marijuana. Um out of those 23 states in DC, all but four do not allow um public consumption. The four that allow public consumption have limited areas similar to what you would find with smoking areas. So, we will be

working on a messaging campaign with our city communications office describing those things that we just discussed with you that while it may be permitted and there are these various businesses and uses new to our community, the public consumption remains not permitted and walk individuals through the um changes as they will be new for everyone that's a resident or a guest in the city of Virginia Beach.

So, it'll be unified messaging. Again, our city communications office has been discussing this um as a result of the changes when we were made aware. We'll develop a timeline and a strategy to provide consistent public updating through as we approach 2027. And we'll be preparing our citizenry for safe, responsible, and community aligned use of cannabis. Um, again, the cannabis um,

advisory board has been discussing this issue for quite some time and um, will be a wonderful resource to push out public engagement and messaging as well.

So, here's an example of some of our campaign tactics that have been discussed include a website, blog, we have very active social media channels, um, flyers, and then um, uh, clearly organized community organization outreach.

Um, we are permitted to tax the use of cannabis. So, the adopted legislation implements a 6% state cannabis tax before July 1st, 2029. And then that rate would increase to 8%. Um, the distribution of the state generated revenue is restricted to the categories that are listed on the screen. Those are associated with early childhood care, um, equity reinvestment fund, department of behavioral health and developmental

services, then other public health programs. localities are authorized to adopt an additional one to three and a half percent local tax. Um and what has been discussed to date is to implement the adoption of a tax rate at 3 and a half%.

And so next steps um we were here today to brief you first. Uh we plan to update various boards and commissions uh with this similar presentation. Ultimately this will go to the planning commission for a vote to amend the zoning ordinance as was just discussed. ultimately coming to city council for your consideration.

Um that adoption will need to be prior to February 1st of 2027 with the new ordinance to become effective in July.

And with that, I'm happy to take any questions you may have.

Michael, then Stacy, then thank you, Mayor. Um well, thank you for the presentation. I want to join you in thanking the members of the cannabis advisory task force who have been working uh diligently for years now um to best uh to best place Virginia Beach in a position to optimize the upside the benefits of this changing legislation cultural practice and mitigate any potential downsides and that was always

the goal. Um and and so uh I I want to join you in expressing my appreciation for their efforts as well as the robust staff support um that has been part of it too. Of course, there have been representatives from planning and the police department and the schools and social services and a wide um variety and array of representation of city services and departments and agencies in support of this work. And as far as I

know, we're the only municipality in the Commonwealth that has been um thoughtful enough to establish such a task force and study this issue in a way that can best position Virginia Beach as a place to absorb these changes. And I think we're seeing the results of that work, the diligent years of quiet work with this presentation and with the conversations that are happening. So I I

do want to just thank everyone who has been involved in that initiative. I was looking back and Councilman Tower and I worked on the resolution before he left office in 2022.

So, it's been it's been quite a it's been quite an effort. Um, with that said, I think that you you presented some really outstanding work here and I do have some questions and observations. Uh the first one is on consumption just to be more specific about it says public consumption is not permitted. That includes things such as bars, consumption lounges, hotel rooms because I think there's a

lot of confusion about that in addition to public spaces like sidewalks, the boardwalk, all of those are considered to be public spaces. So people shouldn't have to worry about a cannabis consumption or have to be thinking about a cannabis consumption lounge as or or smoking in a bar. All that is continues to be prohibited. Correct.

Correct.

Um and then on the tax rate that's one thing I think and I hope we have a chance to talk to the members of the task force. I would have some questions before establishing a tax rate about what are are the neighboring cities, what tax rate will they establish and maybe we know what conversations are taking place about that. Um and then also and I've heard this from um a member of the commission who's very very

uh much an expert on this topic. You know, you you don't want to set it you may not want to set it at the max to be competitive. On the other hand, Virginia Beach is a market and people are going to be here. So, I don't know, you know, it may require some additional analysis.

So, um the the mayor and the mayor and I, we meet quarterly or every two months with the city managers and the mayors of the cities of Hampton Rose and they've indicated that they're looking towards a 3.5 as well. So, there seems to be consensus about 3.5%. That's good to know because a regional approach on that I think and and that and the up part of the upside has always been known is the tax

revenue that could come in that could offset some of the other um expenses that that we know uh exist. And then finally, I just have a question about, and this is just like maybe a personal opinion or um or something I think we should look at, but first of all, how many retail licenses do you anticipate they would be issuing for Virginia Beach?

So, as I understand it, the total number of licenses that will be issued across the entire state will be 350 retail cannabis licenses. Um, I understand that it should be proportionate to how you have ABC stores regulated, but it's 350 retail licenses issued across the entire Commonwealth.

Hard to say.

It's hard to say at this point. Um, that's something that we'll actively track. I do believe it will also be dictated by the interest um because that application process does open February 1st and so they would review those applications again like across the Commonwealth knowing that they can only issue 350 at this time.

So I guess one of the reasons I'm asking that question let's we I don't want to throw out a number but I will anyway. We call it maybe 30 maybe distributed by population trying to do some math that would seem reasonable.

Maybe something like that. I'm I'm just wondering if especially on the retail because people are going to have strong opinions about this and this is something that's been expressed to me even if it's in industrial especially if it's only 30 or 40 or 20 I think it is within the um that we have the capability to review conditional use permits for all retail sales and to me taking a comprehensive and holistic view

at the appropriateness of placing a retail operation in a community or even if it's an industrial place community that we have the capability to do that review and probably should retain that control is is my kind of personal reflection as I sit here today.

Thank you for that feedback.

Thank you.

I am like way out of my realm here. So, forgive me if this question doesn't make sense. But there on the zoning, um there seems to be a disconnect between cultivation, processing, and testing. It seems to me that testing would go hand in hand with cultivation and processing.

But the cultivation processing would in many areas would be by right. But by for the testing would require an SU or CUP and um so I just wonder why the disconnect there.

Yes, thank you. Uh we looked at each of the different licensing types that would be issued. So each of those is a different license that somebody would get from the state. So you would have there may be some locations um where they would want you would want to have cultivation near a testing facility which is one of the things that we consider where we were looking at um these uses and the same with processing

um which is one of the reasons why cultivation and processing we have within those same districts. Um but we do have them as individual uses because that's how the state is issuing those license licenses and we wanted to be able to um regulate them independently if needed. So we considered the impacts of that specific use. So for testing facility, they're not um the impacts may be less on neighboring properties than

it would be for cultivation. You don't have open fields. Um you're not processing. It's kind of a smaller amounts of the of the product that's on site. So those impacts may be less than if you had processing or cultivation, but you would I think a lot of the users would still want it to be in closer closer proximity to the processing sites. So, we took all of those things into consideration

if that helps answer your question.

I don't even know enough to have a followup.

Okay.

Sorry.

Cash work.

Thank you. Um, thank you.

What I want to make clear for the public is that the cannabis task force has been working at this for years. And so civic engagement is at the heart of um the staff's recommendation. And I'm so grateful for the cannabis um task force, those who have spent countless hours giving information.

So this isn't something that has just popped up today. This is very thoughtful, lots of discussions, and then um for the public, it it would be good for us to look at um we're including the police department in all of these discussions. You look on page 17.

We're going to review and submit for Virginia Beach Police Department to review it. 79 uh page 19, page 21, page 23, page 25.

My point being is this is much uh about a community that's working in line with the police.

And so this is very important for us to understand that there's a lot of work that has been done and it is in line with Virginia Beach Police Department.

Thank you.

Hey, Josh.

Thank you very much for the report and uh to the members of the uh task force who've been working on this for so long.

Um a couple of questions just timing wise. How does this fold into or does it with our zoning ordinance updates and is this is this alongside it or is this part of it? So, this would be um considered in advance of that. That project will be starting soonest, but that's an 18 to 24month process. Because the requirements um go into effect in July of 2027, we will need to act on

these um in advance of the comprehensive zoning ordinance rewrite. This is very similar to some of the items you're considering later this evening that are result of state code changes that require implementation. Um and so we'll have to move this process forward while working on the comprehensive zoning update.

Walk and chew gum at the same time.

Yes, sir.

Good. Um so my next question is uh on slide 13 you've got uh some regulation options that um that for just kind of thought and consideration.

Will we have say so on concentration in certain areas? So um I just don't you you know, if if there are certain uh I guess zoning districts that would allow it either via cup or by right. Um I don't I don't know that we would want a bunch of them in one area concentrated.

So I I don't know if that would be an element of consideration.

So I'll start and then ask Hannah to come and explain further. We do believe that the um Virginia Virginia cannabis uh regulatory authority will restrict the proximity from one retail facility to the other. So that will be a part of the state regulations that will be required to implement locally. And I'll ask Hannah to expand if I missed anything.

Yes, we can uh restrict the distance from um the different retail facilities um so that they're not right next door to each other. So, we can do that to limit um that make sure that they're not all clumped together in one area. Um and then of course with the conditional use permit process, you could also look at the proximity to other uh facilities.

Okay. Um so, and the most restrictive option it looks like we have available to us as a cup. There's no outright there's no ban I guess you unless you're talking about a a zoning district that isn't among the enumerated authorized areas. Correct.

Correct. So we would not be able to restrict the any of these uses um or prohibit them completely. We can restrict them using a conditional use permit process but you cannot uh ban them. Um, and by right in certain areas, I've got that same kind of question about concentration and maybe some of the unintended consequences where if we just let it let it let it go un unfettered or or without any kind of

review whatsoever, we might we might have some of those unintended consequences, increase concentration in in areas that may not necessarily be appropriate. So, I just want to throw that out there. Um, or or just let it get away from us a little bit, you know what I mean? Um and then I guess the last question I have is on the the um the state the sales tax 6% does that so

is that six all to the state or do we get the one like like so like ordinary sales tax so then we would do 1 plus 3.5 so as I understand it it would be the 6% to the state and then we would have our additional revenue be received from the locally dictated tax rate. So if we set 3 and 12% 3 and 12% would come to the city. If it was 1% then 1% would come

but the 6% is to be retained by the commonwealth.

I think to be clear as well I think this is an addition to the regular sales tax as well.

Oh yeah. So I think by the time this all said and done I think 20 almost a 20% tax.

As if we look at the other places around us that's how they operate as well.

Okay. All right.

Good work.

Thank you mayor. Thanks for the presentation and for the cannabis task force for your work. I have two questions. Can you go to page 28 the under the influence that's it looks like a zero tal tolerance. Are the police able to determine on the spot? Do we know or is it have to be because in you know alcohol you breathalyzer. How how is that and we don't have to answer that

today but I mean that that would be an important So deputy chief Wilkerson is here. I I would ask him for some assistance with that question. I don't believe there's a way to currently um understand the degree of um cannabis in your system in real time.

That's correct.

Could you come to the microphone?

The microphone.

Yep.

Deputy Chief, introduce yourself when you get up top.

Good afternoon. I'm Deputy Chief Jeff Wilkerson. I command the investigative division which part of that is special investigations which oversee all the narcotics investigations.

So there's no easy answer to the question. We do have drug uh recognition experts within the organization that can finally identify someone who's under the influence of uh something other than alcohol in this case marijuana. But it is difficult to do that in the field. uh it would be in the field for the regular officer more in line with a sobriety uh test or investigation. So, we wouldn't

be able to judge the amount of influence uh that the THC is having on the person, but we'd be able to maybe determine the level of uh sobriety for them to be a danger to themselves or the public.

This is not permitted under any influence. of whether it's a little bit or a lot. That's to me it's zero tolerance.

Well, not permitted for consumption. Uh having it in your body itself is not criminalized.

Okay.

So open consumption like an open container that would be the part that we'd be concerned with. Have ingested in your body at a level of intoxication.

That's not part of the criminalization of it.

So they visibly see you smoking marijuana then that's when this comes in you know but obviously if you're operating a vehicle erratically then sobbrier even comes into it as well. But if you if you have it in your system that's not illegal because it's not illegal.

You're allowed to smoke it in the Commonwealth like in the privacy of your own home or something like that.

But if you're intoxicated and it's visibly intoxicated and we can somehow discern that then that's a different And then just one second question. Uh to me also like it or not I think this also is an economic development opportunity.

And to what degree do we as a city want to be educated on that and you got micro business, you got retail sales, you got cultivation, you got indust light industrial um cultivation and processing. So any I know it's early on but I would just throw that out there.

Um absolutely. So, economic development has been uh staffing and assisting the cannabis task force from day one. And so, representatives from that office um have been working with the task force, are educated on the um state code changes that have currently been authorized and will be working alongside the task force and the rest of the city team um as we implement these uses in the city of Virginia Beach.

Mayor, thank you so much for the presentation.

I'm looking right now at the town center which is know kind of congested in its way and this happening.

How you all going to monitor situation like that? Cuz I'm looking at where you have um plants growing.

Are you going to have a special little group of people checking that for the 21 the sharing is the page you have with the green 21?

Oh, the messaging. Okay. the messaging where you have the growing possession and so forth within that area is not as you know open and you know when we have the new year and so forth things come up so Dr. Dr. And I think um Amanda, you may know a little better than me because you might be closer to it, but some of this stuff would be for the the cannabis control authority similar to ABC, right?

The city doesn't necessarily regulate alcohol um sales and um use or by businesses and stuff like that. That's the ABC. some of that stuff will fall on line that um that entity that's going to be set up by the state to regulate it as well because we see for the big you know how many stores have propped up almost everywhere every corner a lot of work that's going to be done for this

yes ma'am so the manager is correct and that there will be a state authority very similar to the ABC board so the state is in the midst of staffing that group up and providing them with resources. Um this has evolved quite quickly and so that is a process. Um we will be actively engaged with with that team. Um I was able to sit in on a discussion that their current staff had

with our cannabis advisory task force um several weeks ago which was very educating. So there will be the state authority and state regulation again like very comparable to the ABC staff.

Again, it will take some time for the sta the state to staff that office and provide them with the resources necessary, but they will be a controlling authority. And then, as Miss Sabbo indicated, we will have these local processes and ordinances and work very closely with the planning staff and the police department. So, just as when we receive other zoning complaints and staff goes out to check and make sure

that they're in compliance, we'll be doing the same here. um this will be quite quite a learning opportunity for all of us as we work swiftly to implement these guidelines and uh work towards enforcement.

Okay. And I also want to give a shout out and thank you to the NBC the minority business council because every meeting they have someone designated there two of them to report what's going on and they're very diligent about that. I just wanted to share. Thank you.

Okay. And let's go with Josh and then Stacy. I one more quick one that as as uh Councilwoman Ross Hammond was talking, does does anything in the legislation prevent a private property owner from um disallowing that particular type of use in in their leases or in their their private development? So, we might allow it, I guess, by zoning category or classification, but is it up to the

private property owner whether or not they want to have that type of use in their property?

So, as I understand it, the current language indicates that consumption is only allowed on private property with the owner's permission. And so, I would ask for a more broad legal opinion. And I'm happy to follow up with you on that.

And another quick one. Uh, currently the fine is $25, but there it escalates after the second or third offense to a misdemeanor and then go to I guess required um counseling or drug intervention. Is that is that going to be the same with when it goes to the 250? Are there still going to be escalators like that?

Yes, as I understand it, there will be.

So, the fee will increase from $25 to $250.

And then as you receive multiple offenses, the degree of severity will increase.

Okay. Anybody else? Thank you all very much. Attend to leaison. Thank you all for your hard work and it took a while, but we're here.

Okay. If it's okay, um I'll get rolling with the leazison reports. You know, it's uh I mean we're delighted to report that yesterday we had the first meeting of the uh Virginia Beach Safety Task Force and I want to thank Monica Shapiro for putting together a wonderful uh presentation and uh once again we have 19 people on this. We have a delegate and we have a senator and we have an a very eclectic

group that represents the broad spectrum of our city. And yesterday we uh went over the ground rules and I'll tell you what, we have an engaging group of people that I really think it's going to be uh very good. And then toward the end of the month um Dino Miles is going to be hosting uh three external events for community consumption. One is going to be for just pure con uh community, but

then we're going to have another one for businesses and oceanfront, but then another one for civil rights and uh faith-based organizations.

Uh but once again, I think it's, you know, something that's kind of needed right now and uh we're going to move forward with that. Anybody else?

Worth.

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to do a shout out to all the city employees, public safety, uh public staff for an incredible weekend that we just all enjoy the the passing now of the 250th anniversary and birthday of our country.

And I don't know any numbers, Mr. City Manager for the Ocean Front, but I just personally saw a lot of people having a lot of fun. Uh and the restaurants I hear were very uh busy. The hotels were I think had no vacancy. I don't know of any bad I know a couple bad accidents but I just but I just personally saw a lot of people working on city staff supporting this and it's very much

appreciated. And then secondly I want to note and some of you all uh I didn't know Dawson Taylor that well but I know of him very well and he just passed at the tender age of 103 an incredible life lived called Mr. Virginia Beach Mr.

Virginia gentleman, a father, a husband, community booster, founder of Taylor's Do It Center, and a veteran. And uh he'll be sorely missed and appreciated.

Oh, thank you.

Okay.

Sure. Um I did go out to the ocean front. It was really nice. Had about 10 family members coming from North Carolina and from Colombia, that area.

And they really, you know, had a great time. It was hot.

stayed in the patio side, but they were out there. But the only complaints I kept hearing is, "Are you all going to put more parking? Are you all going to have more parking?" Because it was, but it was orderly, so that was good. Also, um, we had a parade. I missed the parade part, but I was over at the picnic at Aragona Village, and that went very well.

And um also Josh and I heard you were there too earlier.

It was just too hot. I came about around about 11 and I think the city should give out to breaks for days like this.

And then two things coming up. Um I have a community day meeting on the 9th and for people to understand it's literally a community day meeting. It's not a campaign event so people will know the difference between that and on the 11th we have the 100th birthday of an Africanamean who is part of the Buffalo Riders and they're having it in Queen City. So, I thank you all for the resolution letter

from the mayor and I'll be out there on on Saturday the 11.

Just want to say I'm having a community town hall meeting on Thursday the 9th.

Seems like me. Yes.

At the uh south building of the aquarium at 6 from 6:00 to 7:30 and love to anyone to come. Thank you. Anybody else?

Okay, how about let's do the uh consent agenda?

Okay, under ordinances and resolutions.

I don't think we have any speakers except for the hearing. Is that correct?

Correct.

So, there's no speakers on anything else on the agenda. Um under ordinances and resolutions. Does anybody have anything there?

Okay. planning then under planning number one John Fran and district six uh consent agenda please two Matthew and Jessica that is district two seems to be okay uh number three you're not alone alone LLC district 6 consent agenda they're not alone um four investments I mean excuse me Westminster Canterbury District 8 there are two revisions to the conditions that we need to incorporate

so we want to pass it with with the amended yes and we we got a handout on those the amended version is that what we want to call it yes So the first one was um the original said that any trees that were taken out had to be replaced by 4 in diameters.

The city arborist has determined that that could cause problems depending upon where they were. So um the wording is going to be changed to 2 to 4 in um as approved by the city arborist where where needed.

Right.

And then uh on the elevated uh pedestrian bridges that the elevated pedestrian bridges could not be uh constructed until they get approval for the encroachment of pedestrian bridges over Starbridge, Starfish Road and Seashore Avenue.

Am I okay with those?

Okay. Um, number five, Emanuel Platon, District 10. That's fine for consent.

Number six, Diane Davis, District 4.

Approval for consent.

Number seven, Andel Guy Tacos LLC.

Approval for consent. Four. Number eight, ordinance to amend the city zoning ordinance, CZO, uh section 401, 501, 901, and 101 um regard the solar facilities as a conditional and accessory use in the agricultural, residential, commercial, and industrial.

Number nine is the ordinance to amend the city zoning ordinance CZO uh section 207 Ray building antennas 10 is the ordinance to amend city zone ordinance section 203 Ray minimum parking uh requirements for residential and mixed uses.

Number 12 is the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance CZO article five regular uses and dimensional requirements in the R2.5 residential zoning district.

Okay. Number 12, the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance CZO section 105 non-conforming mobile homes.

That's it. Everything's on consent except we just have the public hearing.

Okay. Thank you. And we got open mic.

Oh yeah, that's right.

All right. The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exemption to the open meeting lab by section 2 3711A code of Virginia as amended for the following purposes. Uh one number one public contract discussion or reward of public contract involving the expenditure of public funds and discussion of the terms of the scope of such contract where discussion in an open uh session which

adverse adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiation strategy of the public body pursu pursuant to section 2.2 to uh 3711A29 and that's project butterfly and then uh personnel manuals discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance the motion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees

of the public body pursuant to section 2.23 23711A1 and that's council appointments for commissions boards authorities agencies and appointees. So I have a motion moved. Second I hatch.

I hi hi.

Hi.

Okay, we are researching to cling

to order. And if you're willing and able to stand for the invocation, please.

Heavenly Father, you are always with us and beside us. Be with us this evening as we consider the affairs of our great city. Give us the patience to listen, the wisdom to decide, and the strength to act. Amen.

And may I ask for a moment of silence to honor all those who have paid the ultimate price to protect our city and our nation.

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

Okay. Thank you all.

Madam clerk, do we have a roll call?

We do your honor. All present. Mr.

Jackson must be just a few minutes behind.

Could I have a motion to approve the uh to prove the certification of the close session?

So moved.

Second.

Okay.

The vote is open.

Mayor Dyer, may I have your vote, please?

Okay, there we go.

Thank you. By a vote of 11 to zero, you've certified the motion to recess in accordance with you've certified.

Okay.

Be in accordance with a motion to recess.

Okay. And then uh do the minutes and then I have a little announcement. Could I ask for the uh approval of the minutes of the informal and formal sessions of June uh 16, 2026 and the special formal session of June 23rd, 2026?

So move.

Second.

Okay.

Uh Mr. Mayor, I have to abstain from the June 16th meeting.

Okay. Thank you.

The the vote is open.

Mayor, may I have your vote, please?

Stick it today. There we go.

Thank you. By a vote of 10 to zero, uh, you approved the June 6 I'm sorry, 9 to zero, you've approved the June 16th minutes. By a vote of 10 to zero with Council Member Beluchcci abstaining, you've approved the June 23rd minutes.

Okay. Thank you. And before we get started, I'd like to let everyone know that the captioning in the room is currently unavailable. If anyone needs captioning, it is available on Facebook or by downloading the VP Now app. Please make sure your sound is muted. You may also see the clerk, Amanda Barnes, if you need assistance pulling the video from your mobile device.

Okay, at this point, um, once again, we have a special presentation and it was a resolution of recognition for Dr. Judy Jankowski. and we're going to ask my dear friend and colleague to read it for me. Thank you.

Thank you, mayor. And I would like to invite Dr. Djangowski to the podium. And the mayor often begins this part of the meeting by um stating that it's really a pleasure to recognize those who deserve to be honored. And Dr. Dr. Jankowski is certainly among those who's worthy of recognition and our appreciation especially during this um as you'll learn um um milestone in her professional life.

And uh so I want to welcome you and and also um folks from the Ches Bay Academy community to your city hall and it's my honor to read this resolution on behalf of our city council in recognition of your decades of service. Whereas Dr.

Judy Jankowski has dedicated more than 40 years to education guided by the belief that every child deserves to be understood, valued, and provided the opportunity to reach their fullest potential. And whereas Dr. Jenowski began her career in music therapy before discovering her passion for education through her work with children with exceptional learning needs, shaping a lifelong commitment to individualized

instruction and student access. And whereas throughout her career, Dr.

Jenowski has championed educational environments that recognize the unique strengths of every learner, pardon me, unique strengths and needs of every learner while inspiring students, educators, and colleagues through her commitment to lifelong learning, innovation, and excellence. And whereas as head of school of Chesapeake Bay Academy for 13 years, Dr. Jenowski strengthened academic programs, expanded

opportunities for students, advanced research and innovation, and helped establish the school as a nationally recognized leader in specialized education. And whereas under her leadership, Chesapeake Bay Academy developed and expanded innovative initiatives including the Center for Educational Research and Technological Innovation, CadetNet Virtual Academy, and the Make CBA entrepreneurship

program and makerpace, as well as the annual ADHD symposium and numerous partnerships benefiting students, educators, and families. And whereas through her advocacy for ed ev evidence-based practices, specialized learning opportunities, professional development, and educational innovation, Dr. Jenowski has positively impacted countless students and families while strengthening the broader educational

community. And whereas beyond Ches Bay Academy, Dr. Jenowsky has contributed her her expertise and leadership to organizations including the Virginia Association of Independent Schools, the Foundation for Virginia Foundation for Learning Disability Scholarships, and numerous educational and nonprofit initiatives throughout Hampton Roads.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Virginia Beach hereby pauses in its deliberations to recognize and honor Dr. to Judy Janowski for her extraordinary leadership, innovation, and unwavering commitment to students with exceptional learning needs and for the lasting impact she has made on education in Hampton Roads and beyond. And be it further resolved that the city council

extends its sincere appreciation and best wishes to Dr. Judy Djangowski for her decades of service, her enduring contributions to Chesig Bay Academy in the field of specialized education, and the remarkable legacy she leaves for generations of students, families, and educators. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Congratulations. Thank you, the mayor.

and I as long along with any other council members who would like to are going to join you for a photo and then when we get back we'll invite you to say a few words and thank you and congratulations

come I'm going to come by

That was a shame.

If y'all come back here, we can all be in the picture, too.

That's why we did it.

Scooch in. Scooch in.

Yes.

Congratulations.

I know you have a lot to do, so I want to just be brief. Thank all of you for your work. I came to Virginia Beach from out of town and uh was coached through learning this community by so many warm and open individuals that make up this community and I am truly grateful for that. Um, special education is something that I know is close to the hearts of a number of you and given the current

environment, it could not be more important. So, um, I put out there that partnerships across um, school settings are significant to all who participate. I believe strongly in the partnership between independent education and public schools and I hope that I will have the opportunity to continue to contribute to this community and to education for a long time to come. So, thank you.

Thank you and congratulations. Welld deserved.

Okay, folks. We have a very important topic on the agenda uh tonight. We want to make sure everyone is heard. Uh so we're going to change things up and uh madame uh vice mayor, we're going to do the consent agenda first.

We're going to do the consent agenda and then we're going to do our public hearing and it's a very long one, so just just bear with me. Um okay.

Ordinances and resolutions. Ordinance to authorize acquisition of property and fees. simple and the acquisition of temporary and and permanent easement either by agreement or condemnation Ray Virginia Beach Boulevard sidewalk highway safety improvement uh program and that's CIP423.025 025.

The ordinance to modify the boundary of the old donation neighborhood dredging special services district uh and remove one property and authorize the refund of SSD levies. Number three is the ordinance ra the compensation of the city manager effective July 1st to 2026 and that's requested by the city council. Number four is the ordinance of the compensation of the city attorney effective July 1st, 2026 and that's

requested by the city council. Number five is the ordinance to the compensation of the city clerk effective July 1st, 2026 and that's requested by city council and the ordinance as the compensation of the city real estate assessor effective July 1st, 2026 and that's requested by city council. And number seven is the ordinance for the compensation of the city auditor effective July 1st, 2026. And that was

requested by city council. Number eight is the ordinance to add a third and a third student member to the flood uh prevention and uh referendum oversight board. Number nine is the ordinance to add two additional student members to the Virginia Beach Clean Community Commission. Number 10 is the ordinance to amend the attainable workforce housing performance um grant program and authorize certain actions in

further in furtherance thereof.

Number 11 is the resolution to grant a permit to allow Midwest Medical Transport LLC ambulance operate in the city. Number 12 is a resolution to extend the uh transmitt date of the planning commission's recommendation on the proposed amendments in the city zoning ordinance uh to amend the official zoning map uh reuse the oceanfront resort short-term rental overlay district and amend CZO section

241.2 ra short-term rentals. Number 13 is the ordinance to add a article six to city code chapter 31 ray use of expanded uh polystyrene food service uh containers. Number 14 is the resolution to support the city's 2026 round seven uh applications to the Virginia Department of Transportation VOTE RO Smart Scale program. Number 15 is the ordinance to authorize temporary encroachments into city-owned drainage and um

and pondage easement in the rear of 528 Melrose Circle. Reconstruct and in and install a timber wararf rip raft in reventment and maintain an existing timber bulkhead and that is in district 8.

Number 16 is the a ordinance to authorize a temporary encroachment into a city-owned property known as Treasure Canal of the rear of 2022 uh Spre Circle to maintain two existing uh timber floating peers and existing uh existing boat lift with timber piles. uh existing uh minimum personal watercraft uh lift and remove and replace existing timber voting pier and construct and maintain a rep profofession uh replacement

vinyl bulkhead and the return return of walls that is in district 8.

Number 17 is the ordinance to approve $3 million of the open space special revenue fund balance to the FY202627 capital improvement program to amend the scope of uh capital project 1667, the Rudy Loop Park development and authorize the acquisition of property at 310 Atlantic Avenue from 310 314 14 Atlantic Avenue LLC. Number 18 is the ordinance to appropriate $516,923 from the Herds Cove. special service

district special revenue fund and $128,227 from private access basin funds within the FY202627 capital improvement program in capital project 100210 Herds Cove neighborhood dredging. And number 19 is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $6,000 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services um to the FY202627 Police Department operating budget uh to purchase Axon Fuses Core Pro.

Open public hearing on planning.

Yes. Uh the first one is district six number one is forgive me if I butcher this uh John Tran and Lean New Yen Yan New Yen NGO uh B and Tom Van for a variance in section 4 of the subdivision uh regulation lot area and width at 1117 beautiful street. Number two is Matthew and Jessica Ferme for a conditional for excuse me for a modification of conditions in a conditional use permit

rate the home occupant at 1492 Backbay Landing Road. That's in district two.

Number three is you're not alone for modification of conditions to a conditional use permit. Ray short-term rental ray um at 207 29th Street and that is in district 6. Number four is the Westminister Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay for a modification of conditional use permit.

Ray construct a four-level parking structure at 3100 Shore Drive and that is in district 8 and there is a revised uh amendment number five Emanuel A.

Planton uh Glasson proprieties propri property excuse me LLC for conditional change of zoning from conditional you R50 I mean R5D excuse me resident district by conditional light industrial district 8 um conditional use permit and automobile repair uh number Six. Diane Davis and Virginia Hickory Associates Associates LLP for conditional use permits Ray Adult Daycare at 215 and 241 uh Expressway

Court. That's District 4. Number seven is Andel Qy Tacos LLC.

uh Stella Gomez and Bowen Property um Ventures LLC for a conditional use permit to operate a market at 549 New Town Road and that is also in district 4. Uh number eight is the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance CZO section 401, 501, 901 and 101.

uh resolving solar solar facilities as of a conditional and screen accessory use in the agricultural residential commercial and industrial districts. Number nine is the ordinance to amend city's zoning ordinance section 207 Ray building um mounted antennas with small wireless facilities and temporary uh communication.

Almost done.

Um the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance uh 203 ray ray minium uh minimum parking requirements for uh residential and and mixed uses. Number 11 is the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance uh article five ray uses and dimensional requirements of the R 2.5 residential zoning district. And the last one is number 12, the ordinance to amend city zoning ordinance CZO section 105

uh in non-conforming mobile homes and move for approval.

Okay. Any disc? Okay. Any discussion?

Let's open the vote.

The vote is open.

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

Okay. Uh we're going to get ready to go to the public hearings. I'm just going to read a script for speakers. I want to remind everyone that the city council speaker policy allows certain representatives of groups to speak for 10 minutes, but that applies only to plan planning items. All other speakers, whether speaking individually or behalf of a group, will have to three minutes to speak on a single item. You know,

speakers are reminded that the comments during the formal session of the meeting must be limited to the subject of the item that is being considered by council at the time. This case is a public hearing. Finally, I'll call upon all speakers and all persons in the chamber to be civil in their discussion and the quorum. Whatever views you hold and wish to express, the city council wants to

hear from you and to ensure all viewpoints and all persons are respected. The best way to do this is for all of us to strive for civility and respect. Uh the first public hearing will be the proposed ordinance to add a satellite absentee location at Princess Anne Library and remove the satellite absentee location from the Myra Open Doorf Central Library. Are there any speakers?

No speakers, sir.

Okay.

May I make a comment?

Yes.

Uh I would like to thank the uh electoral board for recognizing that this move of the early voting and the uh registration all the way up to Studio Drive left the folks down at Creeds and in the southern part of the city a long way away. Uh and I'm sure was going to have an effect on their uh early voting and and registration. Uh by doing this they have at least uh provided a a place

in the southern part of the city at the Princess Anne Library for early voting and I hope they'll be able to find a place in the southern part of the city for folk will register to vote too because it's a long way from uh creeds to uh studio drive. So I really thank them for looking at this and and trying to work it out.

Okay. Thank you. Moving on now to the de uh declaration and sale of excess property approximately 300 plus or minus acres at 2500 Portman Drive known as Virginia Beach National Golf Course to the Dragus Associates. Uh can you start calling the speakers?

We have a presentation first.

Oh, wait a minute. We have a presentation first. Emily, my apologies.

Problem. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, members of city council. Thank you for having me. This is um similar to the presentation that was presented on June 16th at your informal session with additional feedback um that with additional feedback that we have questions we've received since that time.

Um, so pictured on the right in the image is the clubhouse for Virginia Beach National Golf Course. Um, the golf course is owned by the City of Virginia Beach, the land, and there's a lease VBDA, the Virginia Beach Development Authority, which has a management agreement with Virginia Beach Golf Club, who operates the facility. The operator's term expires at the end of this year in December 2026.

Um, location wise, if you're not familiar, is at uh 2500 Tournament Drive. It's approximately 350 acres. Um, it's used as an 18hole, 7,432 yard course, par 72. There is on the left hand green outline a junior golf campus um run by the YMCA. In February of 2026, council directed the first T be transferred to the YMCA. that subdivision is in process and transfer is pending. Um I'd like to point out in

the red on the image on the right hand side is about 42 acres that is outside of the ITA overlay and noise zone ordinance.

A little bit overview of the golf course in the background.

The city of Virginia Beach leased the property to the development authority in 1997 for the development of the tournament players club TPC. Uh there was a cost participation from the city at that time at 3.5 million for off-site infrastructure and drainage improvements.

The city then uh purchased the course outright from TPC in December of 2006 for about 4.5 million. Uh the VBDA and Virginia Beach Golf Course then entered into that management agreement that expires at the end of this year in 2007.

Fast forward a little bit in October 2023, an audit report was done of the golf course which found numerous items in disrepair, including storm water facilities uh that were given serious or degraded ratings, a clubhouse that had some issues with along the roof line, mold in the restaurant caused by leaks throughout, and a non-functioning HVAC unit system, including one in the kitchen that had not worked for quite

some time. In response to that, the VBDA conducted full facility condition assessments and appropriated about 1.8 million of land sale proceeds to address 7.7 million in capital repairs. Some of them that were uh capital repairs that were identified in those facility condition assessments.

Since that time, BBDA has replaced the full roof of the clubhouse, the complete HBAC system, and recently completed improvements to Lake One, which serves as the outfall for the entire course's drainage system.

Uh on the screen are two sidebyside aerials that show uh the course in 2005 and then in 202025.

The course was designed by preeeminent golf architect Pete Dye, but it's not what it once was. Over the 20 years, you can see the the sand pits or the waist traps or the bunkers um have overgrown to the image on the right. Uh erosion is destabling like erosion is destabilating the lake edges. The car paths are deteriorating and overall golf course has been diluted, lessening the challenge for players and reducing the

overall quality of the course experience.

Uh on the screen are the fin as a financial summary of how the current operation and cash flow works. Uh the operator pays um operation payments to the city and VBDA. Um VBDA uses their um portion, it's about 5% of gross revenues to address capital repairs. And then there are uh profit sharing over $100,000 to the city as well. Uh the middle row you can see the average annual over 19 years of what has come in

or gone out and those total about or average on a 19-year average about 230,000 per year. And then you can see the totals at the bottom which over the 19-year period is about 4.3 million total that has come in to the city. You can see the red up there is that VBD's capital maintenance portion which I mentioned. um they are funding using every bit of those dollars to address the capital maintenance repairs and it's

not adequate for the current level of maintenance needed.

So following mounting capital expenditures and unsolit unsolicited interest from two different parties, city council will authorize the RFP in September of 2025.

The RFP was widely advertised for 45 days seeking proposals to acquire and maintain a publicly accessible golf course. Nine responses were received.

Four of them it had a housing component and five of them were just for new golf course operations.

Uh between December and January of this year, four shortlisted respondents um were uh were interviewed. Um, I'm sorry, were four of the nine were shortlisted, two with a housing component and two with just golf course operations. Those short-listed respondents were interviewed in January and February of this year by review committee and the results were taken to council in February which authorized the

negotiation of turnship with the top ranking respondent.

Um, Dragas Companies was the top ranking respondent. uh their proposals rose to the top based on the team cred team credentials. Of all the proposals, they had the most investment and revitalization of the golf course. They had the greatest fiscal impact and the most diverse and affordable housing types.

Dragus is a known home builder um in the area for um quite some time, but newly you might not be familiar with the Century Golf Partners. They are the green box on the left. They manage over 62 golf courses courses nationwide including PGA West and Walt Disney World Golf Course. Timothy Lydian Associate Orange Box on the right worked with PI for 28 years and has renovated over 53

courses including 30 PI courses alone.

The proposal maintains Virginia Beach National as a public course, restoring it to the PI worldass status and increasing sports tourism potential.

The course a public course remains and no changes may may be made to the use of the course without city council action for 99 years. The project provides positive real estate tax benefits to the city and additional diverse housing types at miss mixed income costs achieving a key city priority.

Uh the proposal is shown on the right. A vastly improved public golf course um is proposed. An estimated $ 38.1 million is proposed to be invested in the course. Um the yellow box, the yellow circles A, C, and B are all parts of the course. I'll dive in a little bit more on in the coming slides, but as I mentioned, it'll be operated by Century Golf Partners and redesigned by um Mr.

Timothy Ley, a protege of Pete Dye.

uh in E right off in NMO on the southern end of the image are is a housing mixed four-cale housing community with 659 units with over half at or below 120% AMI that stands for area median income uh in current prices today about uh 128,000 income for a fourperson family is around 120% AMI for clarity um in D The orange D on the image on the right is a new childcare facility and a

1.8 acre site. Uh F on the left in the green is 48 45 acres of woodlands and environmental preservation that will be maintained. Um there's a lot of blue up there. Those are all the existing storm water ponds and enhanced and new storm water ponds uh facilities as well. The net addition of about 16.5 acres of storm water facilities are there to ensure the city's high storm water standards can be met. the new net

impervious can be addressed and to address the existing storm water issue deficiencies identified in the audits.

And as mentioned, it's a positive a fiscal fiscally positive project with estimated 3.4 million estimated new annual tax revenue per year once constructed and stabilized.

Um, a little bit more about the golf course. 10 holes um will be retained.

Um, the original front nine and the signature 18th hole. Those are the dark blue ones on the screen. The orange ones are eight new or modified holes, including a relocation of two holes on adjacent city land.

As mentioned, it'll be redesigned by Timothy Litty. There'll be no impacts to First T. As I mentioned, that's a separate process is not part of this and no homes will be located on fairways or greens. This will bring new sports tourism opportunities to include new driving ring technology similar to Trackman and around the clubhouse an entertainment lawn and event area, an illuminated 18hole putting green, and

potential for 20 stay andplay cottages as an accessory to the golf course.

A little bit more about the proposed pricing for the new for the re renovated golf course. Um, a projected robust loyalty card program has been proposed to keep locals engaged. Unlike now, VB residents would pay no initiation fee or annual dues.

Uh, Virginia non- Virginia players club card will be offered. And non-membership rates will start about $69 for military, police, and firefighters as shown on the image to the right. um in in season about $49 in the offseason. For comparison, that's about uh current non-membership rates are $99 in season and $67 in offseason.

Century Golf uh partners deployed a similar loyalty program at their Legends Resort in Myrtle Beach and expanded local play by 50%.

Here are some images of the proposed housing types. Um they're not single family homes, but they're not all multif family either. There are garden flats and town homes, terrace homes, and golf verandas.

And they will add to the housing diversity lacking on our market and identified in as one of the goals for the courthouse area in the comprehensive plan.

Um as I mentioned, this is over half will be at attainable units under 120% AMI. um but could be lower compared to what uh Gilford at Spence Crossing community are just up the road on Prince. U more than 90% of homeowners there earn at or below 100% AMI. Uh the graphic on the right shows Dra Dragus' current mixture of residential occupations. You can see professional services working in the military or

healthcare. This is workforce housing.

Uh the developer is experienced in the city's resoning process and is prepared to undertake that process during their due diligence period. Uh the density will be no higher than Southern Pines's apartment community adjacent. They anticipate seeking a conditional A18 resoning which is at or below Southern Pines's adjacent.

Um, specifically on the purchase terms, um, the developer will purchase the property for 17.94 million plus a VBDA comp contribution of 1.82 that'll be utilized for the golf course improvements in addition to an $18.4 million in private investment.

That's the total $ 38.1 million in investment in the golf course I had mentioned. We've had several questions since the June briefing about how that actually works. So the purchase price in VBD contribution will be placed into a uh escrow account at closing an independent third party account and then that could be drawn from after verifiable golf course expenses are submitted on a reimburseable basis. They

are not the only ones to propose this structure. Several of the proposals received had a similar purchase structure where the purchase price would be reinvested in the golf course.

A little bit more about the 99-year repurchase option. The exact wording from the term sheet is that the golf course will be subject to a one-time market rate repurchased should the property cease to be used for a public golf course for a period of more than two years. And the and should it cease to be a golf course, it would be maintained, city has the right to enter and maintain the course if closed for

more than six months.

The term sheet does outline a city contribution for public infrastructure.

These this is for roadway turn lanes uh tournament drive improvements uh that will and you utility relocations, sewer extensions, things uh 4.3 million of which would benefit not just the golf course but the surrounding properties.

There are a lot of unknowns still at this time related to storm water, subsurface conditions and traffic impact. And for that reason, that contingency is being proposed with an upfront risk being shared between the city and the developer. The city at 3.6 million and the developer at 10.2 million.

Should those overages be needed for the contingency, um they will be reimbursed or be taken from the butt for taxes, future realized but four taxes provided in the form of a performance grant for the 10.2 million.

Uh as a reminder, this is a posit uh that would generate 33 3.4 million is estimated in new taxes per year um for this project. That's 88% more than was currently generated or currently remitted to the city uh just in the last year from the golf course.

In table form, uh you can see the revenues at the top. So the sale of the property the 17.94 uh the real estate that would come in upon stabilization and then there would be some for bole um amusement that would be for the golf course sales and potential stay in play and then the money going out the VBDA 1.2 million assess 1.82 million investment the purchase price reinvested in the golf

course the public infrastructure 4.3 contingency cap at 3.6 and the reimbursement grant at 10.2 do if needed.

All that's being asked for preparation is the 7.9 which is the 4.3 and 3.6 upfront and then the future 10.2 will be for future but for revenues if needed. That's a estimated 4.32 million in cumulative fiscal impact and 18 million in net present value. This is a healthy positive rate of return and recouping that return. So the current expenditures, city expenditures are shown in the table at the top. That's

that uh that 3.5 initial uh cost participation in 1999 at 3.5 and then 2006 when the city purchased the course at 4.5 totals 8 million. So if you take what the city has received since 2007, 4.4 million, subtract that from the 8 million, there's still 3.6 6 million that has not been recouped for the city to date from the golf course. It's estimated another six years that would be needed to be recouped that investment

based on the performance of the golf course over the last four years.

That also assumes that no additional capital investment goes into the course in the next six years just to break even.

the proposal at hand, even if all those contingencies are needed, would still be able to recouped by the taxes in under 10 years.

And we would have vastly improved public golf course with that.

We added this slide because we have received a lot of additional questions since the uh prop um presentation in June. A lot of it was asking about that uh 7.7 million in repairs that are needed. So these are from the 2004 facility condition assessments. It's about 5 there's 11 lakes on the golf course and about 5.8 million was estimated in those reports to bring all those lakes up to current standards. And

then also in the facility condition report there are five buildings on the property and it's about 1.9 million to bring all of those into a good state of repair. That 7.7 million does not include other future capital maintenance for the course that um potentially could is is about due, such as the replacement of the 25-year-old irrigation system, bunker green cart path rehabilitation.

Those items alone are estimated to range from $800,000 to 4.9 million based on uh the proposals received that mentioned that's what it would cost to do those things in industry standards.

Um there's been some questions received about what will be the impact to traffic and schools and public services with this proposal.

We receive a lot of unsolicited proposals and a lot of development proposals and there's a normal process of review that has taken place standard through the city. Detailed technical analysis have not yet occurred on the proposal and if passed uh further impact studies will be necessary as part of the resoning process. Another question following up to that is why is the resoning process taking place after the

land sale? The sale is contingent on a successful resoning. If council vots to sell it next Tuesday, July 14th, Drago will not own it on July 15th. There's a year of due diligence that's needed to get the reasoning and do the detailed studies and make sure both parties are comfortable to proceed to closing in about a year's time frame.

Think of it like a home sale. You don't get your home inspection before you put in your offer. You put in the offer, you conduct the necessary studies, and either party has the chance to walk away depending on what they find. Um, they also uh in the term sheet, they have to get full um they have to get reszoning.

They need full site plan approval. All local, state, and federal permits must be achieved before they'll actually close on the property. has mentioned, that's probably at least about a year process um before closing would occur and no significant alterations to the golf course are expected before the fall of 2027 should this be approved.

Um so for council's consideration right now is uh uh letter A up there to accept the terms proposed and authorize the manager enter into a purchase agreement.

There are other options of course available. You could propose different terms. you could reject the terms and negotiate with another offerer.

We could maintain um the golf course as is with a new operator. We did issue a short-term RFP this spring with three viable respondents that could take over operations in January. Um that would still leave the deferred capital maintenance to address and of course other as directed.

Uh there is a website and a QR code up there for um on our hot topics page that answers a lot of the questions and and provides the information that I just went over before you. Um with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Any questions?

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. At this point, I'm going to ask our city attorney, Mark Styles, to make a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um there have been a number of questions propo or posed regarding the uh process by which the council and the city got to this point.

I'm going to address that generally and then more specifically as it relates to this transaction. The transaction for consideration by the city council is for the sale of publicly owned real estate.

A transaction of that type is governed by the provisions of chapters 18 and 21 of title 15.2 2 of the code of Virginia and by article 7, section 9 of the Virginia Constitution.

Those legal authorities impose two primary requirements for transactions such as the one the council will be considering here. First, the city must conduct a formal public hearing prior to the sale. That is what will occur tonight. And second, the council must take a public vote on whether or not to authorize the sale. Under certain circumstances, the Virginia Constitution state code require a supermajority vote

to authorize such a sale. And that is the case here. Any vote to authorize the sale of Virginia Beach National will require a supermajority of nine affirmative votes of the members of council.

Continuing to speak generally, it is not uncommon for the city to receive inquiries regarding the purchase of publicly owned property. The city may lawfully entertain offers to purchase and may elect to proceed with the sale of Israel property without conducting a request for proposals subject to and provided that it does comply with the public hearing and public vote requirements that I just

mentioned. Now, with specific reference to the BB National Golf Course property, as you heard, in October 2023, the city auditor issued a public report identifying significant deficiencies in the condition and capital maintenance of the golf course. Several months after that, two separate entities, the Dragons Company and LM Sandler and Sons, sought publicly available information from the

city, which they used to create and submit unsolicited proposals to purchase the VB National property.

On August 7, 2024, the city and the Draggas company executed a nondisclosure agreement.

The execution of this agreement is consistent with the provisions for protection of confidential records authorized in the city council policy for evaluation of investment partnerships for economic development.

I will note that the Draggas company also requested negotiation exclusivity but the city did not agree to that request.

The non-disclosure agreement that was executed contains specific carveouts for documents required to be provided under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

And the execution of that agreement did not prevent the disclosure of any otherwise publicly available information regarding the golf course to any other interested party. In other words, any party interested in acquiring the golf course could have sought and obtained the exact same information that was provided to the Draggas company.

City staff briefed the city council regarding receipt of the two proposals.

Initially, council directed staff to evaluate those two proposals. However, after further deliberation, the council ultimately directed city staff to issue a formal RFP or request for proposals to gauge the interest of other potential biders.

This RFP was a voluntary action on the part of the city council and was not required by Virginia law.

Although the term RFP is frequently used in the context of the Virginia Public Procurement Act, this transaction is a disposition of real property and therefore is not a transaction that is subject to the procurement excuse me act. Likewise, the internal procurement policies of the city are notic applicable to the proposed sale of this property.

As you heard, the RFP was advertised in open from October 12, 2025 to November 21 202025.

A total of nine responses were received.

As you heard, four of those responses involve the construction of residential units on the portion of the property that lies outside the inner facility traffic area, while five other proposals involve golf course operations only.

Notably, three of the proposals involved the use of some or all of the purchase price to improve or restore the golf course or otherwise requested significant city contributions to do the same thing. The city evaluated the proposals received based on the criteria that were stated in the request for proposals. Those considerations included the completeness of the proposal, the purchase price offered, the anticipated

fiscal impact, the credentials of the respondents, the proposed concept and operational model, and conformity of the proposal to the comprehensive plan, zoning ordinance, and the surrounding uses.

Staff briefed the city council on all of the proposals that were received on January 6, 2026.

City council shortlisted two proposals that included residential development and two that did not. City staff then reinterviewed the short-listed proposers and again briefed the city council on February 24, 2026.

At that time, council directed staff to negotiate a possible term sheet with the Draggas company. Staff did so and briefed council on the progress of those negotiations as they occurred.

Ultimately, council directed staff to bring this transaction forward for a public briefing, a public hearing, which is tonight, and a proposed vote on July 14. And that's where we are at this moment, your honor.

Okay. Thank you. Any questions, sir, the attorney?

Okay, let's go ahead and uh call the first speaker.

The first speaker is Ben Cat Ellswoo.

After Mr. Swarpu is Robert Valentine.

Good evening.

My name is Wanka Tlespu, a District 2 resident, a concerned citizen, and a taxpayer in Virginia Beach. I have some serious concerns about the viability of the draggers proposal. Also, I'm shocked at the rush process without sufficient study. The city claims it's a net present value of $18 million over 20 years, but this is based on some flawed assumptions and incomplete data and analysis. The financial projections

estimate $3.4 million in tax revenues from the new 659 housing units year. But it does but it does not estimate anything for the cost of providing city services to the approximately 1,300 people and 200 school kids who will move here. What about the cost of schools, police firefighters roads storm water? The financial projections Emily Archer made has zero dollars for the cost of city services. Why does this

make any sense? I asked the city, the staff about it, city staff about it. But I was told this impact study will be done after the sale is approved. How is that prudent? Let us do some back of the envelope calculations. The city currently spends $2.8 $8 billion per year or $6,200 per head in Virginia Beach. Even if you take half of that, $3,100 per person, the additional $1,300 people will add $4 million per year in

costs. The net present value to the taxpayers is not positive. My financial analysis shows the true net present value to to the taxpayers is negative $22 million over 20 years.

The taxpayers will lose $22 million over 20 years. I know some of you like Mayor Dar only think of the increase in tax revenues when you add more people. They tout this as a win-win since we are presumably spreading the cost of city services over more people. But this is flawed thinking. This would make only sense this would make sense only if there's excess capacity in the city.

Surely that's not true. Councilman Hutcherson, you know there's an already a shortage of firefighters. Councilman Remick, you know there's a shortage of policemen. You had to close down the beach because you you couldn't assure public safety. What about schools? You will add 200 school kids here in addition to the kids from silo project.

But will there be no need for teachers, additional classrooms? Let us do some honest accounting and analysis. I request that you defer deciding on this project until after conducting an independent cost impact analysis. Why the rush? Please do the right thing.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

The next speaker is Yes, Mr. Mayor.

I have some questions for the second questions for You have a PhD in finance, I believe. So, yes.

So, you're familiar with the terms incremental costs, marginal costs, and for the for the sake of argument, they're interchangeable.

Yes.

Okay.

So, your analysis says that the incremental cost of these people, these 1300 people moving into this development would be $3,100.

That's my approximate okay background calculation because right now the average they spend $6,200 I just took average.

Okay.

I mean half of that right so $6,200 but of the city's $2.8 billion budget 43.5% goes to education. So none of the adults are going to have to be educated. Is that correct?

Pardon me.

None none of the adults would have to be educated.

Correct. So, so there's no incremental cost to bringing the adults in and we're not going to build more parks or recreation centers or libraries or aquariums, cultural affairs.

That's 4.6% of the budget.

That's not going to increase.

We have city capital projects that are on the way that are being funded. That's 4%.

That's not going to increase for the folks that are moving in there.

Then we have the convention of visitors bureau economic development. That's 2.1%. That that's not going to increase.

That's not going to increase the incremental we have. And then the debt service that's not going to increase on the city because of these 1300 people moving in there. So that comes out to 57.2% of the whole budget. So that's a little more than half. But what's the incremental or marginal cost of somebody that moves from Kempsville to the Princess Commons?

Can I answer your question? So really I understand the difference between fixed cost and marginal cost. Uh so really the owner should be on the city to find the difference and my entire point is that you have done no analysis and right now you're doing some back of the unload calculation but even that analysis was not done. You assumed zero surely the marginal cost is not zero. Well, what

what is the marginal cost of somebody that moves from Councville to Prince Commons?

Zero. Surely your estate. So surely a good percentage of the people that are moving into this project are going to be from within the city.

In that case, there's no additional there is no tax. Let me answer your question. There is no in that case there is no additional tax revenue. One person from one moves from one part of the city to the other. There is no additional tax revenue to the city because this assumes there's a net increase in tax revenue to the city. Meaning that means there's a next net increase in the number of

people to the city. Surely you're not saying the tax there are no no increase in the population to the city. Are you okay?

So there's no marginal there for people that are moving from within the city no marginal increase in cost.

Got it. Mr. Cummings you're saying the surely the marginal cost is not zero.

Okay. and zero.

But but yes, that's what they assume this the analysis of the $18 million assume zero marginal cost.

Okay. Excuse me. Yeah, we got we do have to move on. Thank you.

He asked the question.

Okay.

The next speaker is Robert VALENTINE and I'm sorry Mr. Valentine. After Mr.

Valentine will be Usha Usha Elisarpu.

First of all, I oppose the sale of our golf course. our golf course Virginia Beach National to the dragest companies. You should reject the terms which you added several terms since your last slide with that great presentation you have offered all of us. Now choose another one of the respondents. This is not about personally attacking anyone but public trust requires more than saying trust us. Public trust is built

when the process is open, the facts are complete, the alternatives are clear, and the public can see that decisions are being made in the best interest of the community.

Virginia Beach National is more than a piece of a land on a spreadsheet. It is a public access assets. It is part of the city's recreational fabric. And a decision of this size deserves the highest level of transparency. Virginia Beach National belongs to us, the citizens of Virginia Beach. We paid it with our taxpayer money. The process should be slowed down. The full record should be made clear. Council should

review every serious proposal. Residents should understand who benefits, who pays, and what the city is giving up before the final vote is taken.

Residents should not have to file FOYA requests, attend multiple meetings, and piece together documents on their own to understand a transaction involving our public property. Good government should welcome questions. Good government should welcome transparency. And good government should be willing to pause when public trust is at stake. On another note, we have identified what we

believe to be two bald eagle nests on the Virginia Beach National property.

Location of the nest have been documented. The trees have been geotagged and this information has been submitted to the Center for Conservation Biology at William and Mary for review and the inclusion in the CCB nest mapper. At 2:22 p.m. today, the first nest was that was located was added to the CCB nest mapper.

I hold a copy of it. It's fedally protected. Now, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources has also been notified along with region 5 of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Given that bald eagles are protected under federal law, including the bald and golden eagle protection act of 1940, it is crit critical that proper verification and coordination with the appropriate agencies occur before any further action

is taken. Until qualified wildlife professionals have conducted site assessments and confirmed the status, location, and activity of both suspected nests, moving forward with this development proposal proposal be premature. It would be irresponsible of council at this juncture to do anything but defer this project. And some of you on council are asking yourself right now, I saw it in the

meeting June 16th. Is this right? Should I ask a question? I'm telling you, listen to us. ask the questions.

The next speaker is Usha Ellis Pu and then Richard Lu Llau.

Good evening, council members. I'm here to say that building 659 housing units in this low-lying floodprone area is a bad idea. Today, half a billion dollar bond referendum for flood protection has ballooned to more than $1.5 billion.

This proposal will only increase the cost of our flood control efforts. The city spent $3 million to fund the sea level wise study. This was published in 2020 and this was done in partnership with the engineering firm due bearing.

According to this study, Princess Anne Road where this VB National is located is essential for evacuation and for commuting and is at risk and is at is vulnerable to flooding. It also recommended that any new development should be concentrated north of the green line and in strategic growth areas which are located outside of the southern rivers wershed and this is to reduce the flood risk and to protect the

open space. Now storm water ponds may be a useful tool to manage this runoff and flooding but they come with their own disadvantages and um you can we know that what happened recently the tragic accident so it comes with it safety risks to residents it comes with maintenance costs and storm waters generally rely on the natural percolation and infiltration of rainwater to reduce the flood risk but

the soils over here are already saturated filled with water. So this makes the flood risk even higher even if you have storm water ponds.

Now I know the city wishes to increase the housing supply. My suggestion is to change the zoning for commercial and retail areas. Make them mixeduse zoning.

Miami is doing this and make it so that multif family units can actually be built here. Workers in the service sector can actually live close to the retail shops and they can walk to work.

retail and commercial areas will see more foot traffic if you change it to a multi-use um zoning and they'll get more customers too and it'll not only increase the housing supply, it'll reduce the commute, it'll reduce transportation cost, it'll make use of the existing infrastructure. The city then can reduce the need for developing new areas and it doesn't have to spend taxpayers money investing in new

infrastructure. Now, there were four bids that were selected for the VB National. There were ones with housing and ones without housing. Really, we should have been presented with couple of different choices so that we can make an informed decision and the public can be kind of taken through this process.

Instead, now we have a false choice of the draggers bid or a do nothing option.

My request to you is to ask for a deferral, delay this voting on this dragg proposal so you can study this further. Look at all the different options. make an informed choice and that will resonate with the voters much more than this rushed process. Thank you.

The next speaker is Richard Leblau.

After Mr. Leblau is Helen Dragus.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of city council, and other city leaders, uh, and all the Virginia Beach residents here tonight. I appreciate the opportunity to address all of you on the proposed sale and redevelopment of Virginia Beach National Golf Club. Tonight, I urge you all to reject this proposal as constituted and to consider other alternatives. Virginia

Beach Nationals decline as a golf course is indeed noticeable. Like many Virginia Beach residents, I played my first round shortly after Virginia Beach Golf Club began managing the course in 2007.

I was just a kid, but I was blown away by how beautiful the course was. I was also blown away by how difficult it was, and my scorecard reflected that. But it was an incredibly positive experience.

Over time, course conditions have deteriorated. Waist bunkers are overgrown while fairways, greens, and greenside bunkers are consistent inconsistently maintained. Sadly, the course is in need of significant repairs as outlined in the city's presentation just a few weeks ago.

I'm sympathetic to the idea that Virginia Beach National needs to be operated under new management with outside investment to restore the course to its prior standard. With that said, the proposal before council goes too far. If Draus were attempting just to buy the golf course, it would be one thing. Instead, this proposal accounts for 659 housing units on the property, which is a staggering amount for the

area below the green line. This kind of highdensity development, coupled with the city's proposed future development around the Princess Athletic Complex, will generate traffic and storm water issues in an area we are supposed to be protecting and conserving.

One of the best things about Virginia Beach is that you can live in an urban, suburban, and rural lifestyle all in one place. The Green Line exists to conserve that experience.

Future highdensity development should take place north of the Green Line. The city has already outlined potential areas for redevelopment in eight strategic growth areas. Burton Station, Centerville Hilltop Linhaven New Town, Penroke, the resort area, and Rosemont.

Dragus' proposed housing development at Virginia Beach Nationals should be rejected. Not only are they effectively purchasing the property for free as the 17.9 million they are paying is being reinvested by the city, but it further encroaches on the rural lifestyle of our residents of the southern half of the city, poses significant traffic and flooding issues, and ignores the purpose of the green line. In the city's

presentation of this proposal, it highlighted five proposals which were received for new golf course operations.

I strongly urge council to consider one of these proposals and select one that improves Virginia Beach National, preserves the first te and ensures they will be a cornerstone of Virginia Beach community for future generations. I appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you.

Thanks for coming.

The next speaker is Helen Dragas and then Tim Litty.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, and members of city council. I'm Helen Dragas, president and CEO of the Draggas Companies. Thank you for the opportunity to present our vision for Virginia Beach National to you. First, let me say that I agree with Mr.

Valentine. It is a citizen's course and we understand that. But your decision tonight is much more about much more than who owns this property. It's about ensuring that this public asset fulfills its full potential and broadly serves all citizens of our city for decades to come.

Virginia Beach National is a treasured community asset that's very clear. And yet it has boundless untapped opportunity to provide much more benefit to local golfers but also to extend its reach to citizens well beyond the golfing public.

That very potential we that's the very potential we respectfully request that you allow my company and our eminently qualified golf partners Timothy Litty and Century Golf to to deliver to your constituents and our fellow citizens.

Local golfers deserve to have their P dieors reser restored to worldclass status.

Parents desperately need homes I'm sorry people desperately need homes to call their very own. Parents struggle to find highquality affordable child care and the city deserves better than the scant revenue that mounting liabilities that this 350 acre property has produced for decades.

Maintaining a golf course has become increasingly expensive. After nearly 30 years, significant capital improvements are needed. And those expenditures, which would serve only a small percentage of residents, compete with the need to provide city services for all. Our proposal offers benefits a path that benefits all groups. We propose to invest $36 million of private capital to

renovate the golf course, modernize its recreational facilities, address storm water challenges with 16.5 acres of new lakes, expand sports tourism amenities, and establish Virginia Beach as a premier mid-Atlantic golf destination, all while keeping go golf public and affordable.

For residents confined to apartments or living with their parents, we propose home ownership. For working families, we propose safe, convenient child care. For taxpayers, we propose a vastly improved revenue stream. We've assembled an exceptional team to make that vision a reality. We respectfully ask for your support because this proposal represents responsible stewardship. It expands the

property's benefits to many, many more residents and transforms a growing financial obligation into an enduring revenue stream without increasing taxes.

We are very proud of our proposal. We took the initiative to devote thousands of hours to careful analysis and creative planning because we believe in Virginia Beach. We found national caliber partners who also Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Helen. Thank you. Thank you.

The next speaker is Tim Litty.

And then Jimmy Han.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Olson, City Council. Um, I'm a golf course architect from Indiana. Why am I here? Um, worked with Pete Dye for almost three decades. That's why I'm here. Um, over the past five years, I've remodeled restored revamped uh, Pete Dye golf courses in Palm Springs, San Diego, Indiana, South Carolina.

They're all still called Pete Dye golf courses.

Um, a little bit of a story and then I'll I'll get out of here. But um I worked on the original planning for this golf course 28 29 years ago.

So Mr. Dy said, "Come on, let's get out of Indiana. I'm going to take you down and look at the golf course that you worked on the routing and and the golf course." And we walked the golf course in a pouring rain, one of I think Virginia Beach's finest rainstorms.

um and really appreciated the beauty and the aesthetic of the golf course, which takes me to Virginia Beach today.

Um you know, we all know that um a golf course is a living thing. They change, bunkers change, greens change, they they change. So, uh, so I think it's time again, like all the other projects that I've been fortunate to work on with Mr. Dye, is that, uh, to fix this golf course and bring it back to its prominence. And one last thing I'll say that I really love about this

project is it's not just a golf course, but it's a daycare center.

It's it's a chance to help the first te which we all have a strong heart for uh fix the storm water drainage uh and off offer you know needed new housing.

So thank you very much.

The next speaker is Jimmy Han and then Brian Strong.

Uh, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of the city council, appreciate the time tonight. My name is Jimmy Han.

I'm a principal with Century Golf Partners, Arnold Palmer Golf Management.

Um, tonight I want to discuss with you why we are so excited to partner with you all with the golfing community with Dragas Companies on the project of Virginia Beach National. Um, first of all, I'll tell you a little bit about who we are. We were founded back in 2005 to operate daily fee golf courses, uh, resort golf courses and private clubs across the country. Uh, right now we have about 60 properties in our

portfolio, a little bit more than that, stretched from California all the way as far east as is California. Um, a lot of people question Century Golf Partners, Arnold Palmer Golf Management, what what does all that entail? Um, really how that all started is our founding partner, Jim Hinckley, was great friends with Mr. Palmer. uh they ended up forming a bond in which we started working with Mr. Palmer, his companies,

his estate uh for long range planning.

Um because of that and the relationship that was built, Mr. Palmer ended up gifting us the Arnold Palmer Golf Management name worldwide in perpetuity.

Um pretty cool and something that we hold near and dear to our heart. You can see that I I still have the umbrella on my lapel. Uh we always want to be good stewards of the Palmer name. Still connected with his family, Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Arie's Army, and everything they're doing um with the companies.

Again, part of our portfolio as far west is PGA West where we host the uh PGA's American Express Championship. Uh we also have a daily feed club in Phoenix, actually in Chandler, Arizona. uh where we manage for the Hila River Indian community at Whirlwind where we host the LPJ's Ford Championship. Um right down the road at Myrtle Beach, the Legends Resort, five golf courses. We also

manage the the resort business there. Um and then as far souththeast is is Disney Golf, Walt Disney Golf. The reason why I like talking about that is that people might not know golf, they know Disney.

Um and even though Disney is the king of hospitality, they definitely weren't the kings of golf. So, a while back they were looking for a partner that they wanted to work with long term. As you can imagine, the vetting process was massive. It was long. Over a couple year process, they ended up landing on us.

Um, we always try to tell ourselves that we want to out Disney, you've heard of the greatest show on on earth. Um, down at Disney golf, we we call it the greatest show on turf. So, um, something pretty cool and something that we always try to enhance when when when we manage the the clubs. um why we're so excited and sort of our approach to how we do things is all about community outreach.

One of the coolest things that we saw actually was the first T. Uh we are actually trustees of first TE and we think that there's a huge opportunity to really grow and enhance what that's all about. We love their messaging. We love that it's community outreach. We love that it's growing the game and giving people an opportunity to play that normally don't have an opportunity. My

time's running out. I thank you for your time and some of my colleagues will speak to us some of what we do as well.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Brian Stro and then Kyle Morfield.

Uh mayor, vice mayor, council members, city representatives. Thank you for having us tonight. Appreciate it. Uh my my talk is going to be pretty uplifting.

I see such a cool opportunity that faces this city. And so I want to cover a couple different things. um as we talk through this a working with Tim Ly what you're going to get and then also a little bit about Century Golf. So my name like I said is Brian Stromy um with Century Golf. My I'm the senior vice president of aronomy which is turf in and a lay person and no we're not going

to talk about grass all night but afterwards I'd happy to do that. Um, as you saw Tim come up here, um, he's he's modest and, uh, I want to talk about what you're going to get with him and and I'm gonna boast for him because it's it's been such a pleasure as he's walked me through, you know, what Pete Dy sees on these golf courses. So, it's very it's just it's just so exciting. So, you

got two golf courses out there. We're talking about Virginia Beach National.

Um, obviously Pete Dye. You have Alice Dy who his wife designed the the par three course. Uh you you think about this campus, you got this place where you go from the very first swing to just a championship golf course. My daughter's taking her first lesson tonight. I didn't force her into it.

It's so exciting for me that she wants to do golf knowing that what her dad does for work. Uh, so Pete with the with the DY involved, I know that if they could say they they would want Tim protecting their property and restoring this like like Tim mentioned it over time golf courses deteriorate just like everything and we need some capital. We need to restore it and I just it's going to be such a blessing on

the on the entire community. So let me talk about Tim. So Tim and I got to work together out in California on three projects and they're all Pete die golf courses. Uh the first two we actually did 36 holes in one year of of the greens. And so what he did there is restore those greens back to what Pete had there. They had lost it over years and years of just time and different

managers, different companies. Um it just happened. And so he put those greens back. He didn't put Tim Litty Greens in. He put in what what was there, what what the mounting was, what that Peter had already had there. And then we got to move to stadium. Stadium is uh our prize out at at PJ West. It's the the final leg of the American Express, which is our PJ tour event we

host. And so he did a full course renovation on that. And then just to watch what he saw, what he was explaining as I got to watch walk the fairways with him of here's what Pete wanted. Here's same thing at stadium. He just found it that was there. It wasn't Tim Litty putting in stuff. He just found it. So, uh, from Century Golf, I've worked for some, uh, the biggest and best companies in the in the

country. I'm very proud of that. Uh, I've joined Century about four years ago and it's been just a wonderful experience of how they treat their members, how Jim Hinckley, as as Jimmy mentioned, you know, we treat everybody as our partners and um we're here just to say, you know, we would be honored to be stewards of your golf course, but more importantly just to be a part of your community and we think we can do

that. So, we look forward to your to your vote. Thank you.

The next speaker is Kyle Morfield and then Tracy Connor.

Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I appreciate your time and the chance to share my perspective. My name is Kyle Morfield and I serve as the director of sales marketing at the Legends Golf Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Century Golf managed property. I'm approaching my 15th year at Legends and I also live on site at the resort. I see the property from two sides. As someone involved in the operation and as someone who experiences the resort community every day. What I've seen over time is that a successful golf course is not just measured by rounds played. It's measured by whether people feel connected to it. When a golf course is

supported and programmed correctly, it becomes part of people's routine. Locals come back, members build relationships, guests return, and the property starts to feel like part of the community.

This is where Century's support has been important at the Legends. Century gives the local team structure, resources, and guidance while still allowing the property to maintain its identity and charm.

That support shows up through loyal loyalty offerings, member engagement, and programming that gives area residents a reason to stay connected.

Local golfers create the day-to-day heartbeat of the property. They bring friends, know the staff, use the facility, and help create the community feel that makes a golf course more than just a place to play around. From my experience, the strongest golf properties are able to serve both groups without losing their identity. Local golfers create consistency and community presence. Resort and package guests

create demand and bring new energy into the market. Century has done a great job at Legends creating an active property that's welcoming and connected to the people that it serves. Thank you.

The next speaker is Tracy Connor and then Anthony Salvio.

Thank you. I'm Tracy Connor and I am president and CEO for Myrtle Beach Golf Course Owners Association. Our group represents 72 courses along the Grand Strand.

Century Golf has been part of our group for 15 years and they are a true partner not just in our group but in our community. They uh participate on our boards, on our committees with golf course owners as well as the Myrtle Beach Chamber Golf Tourism Solutions.

They brought new innovation to our market, moving our market ahead. They provide great customer service at their counters and their dive courses are impeccable condition. They are an asset to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. and if you give them an opportunity, they will be an asset for to Virginia Beach. Thank you.

The next speaker is Anthony Salivho and then Karen Salivho.

Hello. Thank you for letting me speak tonight. Uh my name is Anthony Sabo. I'm a retired fire lieutenant from Prince George's County, Maryland. and uh I live in the Legends Golf community as a member. Um over the last 11 years, Century Golf has always offered us the members a lot of benefits such as multiple golf tournaments during the year, which are all wellrun. They also have men's and

women's league twice a week. They also are building a new nine-hole par three course there called the Piper, which we're really all looking forward to, and they've done a fantastic job on building that. and they just sprigged it a couple weeks ago. It's in phenomenal shape already. It seems like um it seems like they're all geared towards a place where a whole family can enjoy and I have seen what Century Golf has

done in the last 11 years since I've been there. You know, working on the courses and keeping them up and it's definitely a great business. Thank you.

The next speaker is Karen Salio and then Drew Vos.

Hi, I'm Karen Vanluven Salvo. I have lived at the Legends Golf Resort in Myrtle Beach for 16 years now and I can't imagine living anywhere else. I absolutely love it. I golf probably two to four times a week. Um, we have our five courses there and I love all five of them. I am the um I'm on the Legends Golf Association board. There's five of us and what we do is really fun. We plan

about 15 golf tournaments during the year for our members and we also have a big Christmas party at the end. Most of our people that live in Legends are well a good majority of them are retired and they love golf and that's what we're all about. I am also the president of the ladies legends league and we have about 120 full-time active members and we plan events as well. Our whole goal is just to have fun

and the love of golf is I guess what backs us up. We also have all our courses are very wellmaintained. We have an awesome superintendent Mike Bankard who keeps our courses in great shape. As you know, we have to a lot of maintenance during the year when storms come or whatever. There's always maintaining them and um keeping them up to date and we do a lot of um they do

have a lot of updates to keep them well maintained too and I compare them to any other golf courses around. We have great benefits. Legends and Century Golf love us and we appreciate them so much for everything they do for us. Thank you for your time.

The next speaker is Drew Veos and then M Weaver.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, members of council. My name is Drew Veos, Vice President of the Dragus Companies. I'd like to address the residential portion of our proposal tonight. Featuring exclusively forale homes, all clustered in one section of the property fronting on NMO Parkway.

Our project layout ensures that the golf course will be well buffered from the residential community. Golfers will continue to enjoy the wide openen experience that they always have that makes VBN a special place to play. There are no rental apartments as part of our plan. Of the four styles of condominium homes that we will offer, half will be targeted to households earning at or below 120% of area median income and

half of the homes will be targeted to downsizers and retirees, move up buyers as well as empty nesters. Princess Landing will truly be a mixed income, mixed home style development with residential adjacent to but well separated from the golf recreation space and the dedicated child care site. We've incorporated numerous amenities dedicated to the homeowners throughout the project, including a large resort

style lakefront pool, clubhouse with fitness center, a large trail system, and other park spaces. Residents will be able to enjoy easy walking access to shopping. this municipal center here, the child care site, as well as the revitalized golf course and clubhouse, the first tea program, and other golf amenities that will truly fulfill the live, work, play ideal. We believe that

offering a wide range of home ownership opportunities with unique amenities will help set this project apart from other new housing construction that's occurring across the city. Over the past decade, new home construction in Virginia Beach has shifted almost entirely to rental apartments with nearly 4,000 additional apartment units in the pipeline. At the same time, almost none of the very few approved for

sale home communities forthcoming will be priced within reach of a working household. That shortage affects hiring at our hospitals, schools, and for first responders. It affects military families choosing where to move after service.

and it affects the young adult children of many people in this room who cannot find a home to buy here in Virginia Beach. Some of the many reasons why our population is declining. We saw those very types of buyers every week at our Guilford at Spence Crossing community a few miles north where 69% of buyers were first-time homeowners and included nurses, police officers, teachers,

retirees, and young Navy families. Your endorsement of this proposal would help us deliver a similar community and give other citizens a chance to build equity and establish roots in Virginia Beach.

In addition, over 60% of buyers at Guilford already lived in Virginia Beach. This council, field experts, and concerned citizens have spoken for years about finding opportunities to build new pathways to home ownership for people who work here.

Our proposal delivers them. appreciate it.

The next speaker is Mac Weaver. After Mr. Weaver Weaver is Eddie Bordon.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, honorable members of city council. I'm M. Weaver, vice president of the Dragas Companies. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. At its core, this proposal is about investing in Virginia Beach's future. It's about transforming an aging golf course into a premier public destination. Beyond the golf course itself, the plan includes many recreational offerings, a

dramatically up upgraded clubhouse with dynamic dining offerings, expanded event facilities, an illuminated 18hole putting course, stay cottages that will attract visitors and complement the city's sports tourism assets, 16 and a half acres of new lakes that will address storm water, and a beautified entrance with extensive burn landscaping, trees, and hardscapes. This is the type of transformation that will

elevate the entire market, entire golf market, and help position Virginia Beach alongside destinations like Myrtle Beach and Pinehurst. Secondly, this project is a tremendous win for taxpayers, shifting the cost of the failing storm water infrastructure and the inevitable multi-million dollar renovations to the private sector while the city maintains a 99-year option to repurchase the

course and earns over 10 times its current annual revenue. Finally, this project addresses needs that extend far beyond golf. It creates desperately needed forale housing, alleviating one of the greatest workforce challenges of employers, including the US Navy. A new child care facility will solve a chronic problem for working parents. Tonight, I'm pleased to share that the YMCA has

expressed strong interests to expand their childare operations to this location. With their already active presence at First T, we are delighted about collaborating with the Y to serve the youth of our community in multiple ways. Throughout this process, our team has continually strived for strong public engagement. We created a dedicated website with detailed information about every aspect of the

proposal, including answers to 41 frequently asked questions. We personally responded to each of the 162 emails we received and provided our direct contact information to all. We hosted a widely advertised open house and met with golfers, neighbors, the first staff, and the YMCA. We even extended a hand to other respond respondents who were especially concerned about the future of the golf

course. and we will continue to welcome every opportunity to have an open conversation about our proposal. The Dragas Companies has proudly called Virginia Beach home since 1968. Locally owned and family run since its conception. Myself, many of our employees, and our families have lived here our entire lives. We care deeply about this community because it is our community. We have spent decades

creating beautiful Virginia Beach neighborhoods that our home buyers have built their lives in. We believe this proposal represents a once in a generation opportunity and we respectfully request your support. Thank you.

The next speaker is Eddie Bordon and then Jim Cahoun.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, honorable members of city council, and city manager Duhaney. as a lifelong medio mediocre golfer um who loves every aspect of the game and as a lifelong resident of this unique and wonderful city of ours who has the utmost respect and appreciation for the outstanded outstanding elected and appointed leadership and public servants we have been blessed to have had over

the last half a century. I urge you to accept the Dragas Company's and their outstanding team's superior submission in response to the city's request for proposal. Others have detailed the the information that you all already know about this proposal. I simply come before you and wish to rebut any assertions by some who've made on social media and one gentleman, Mr. Blue Bu who

suggested that this project violates the green line and the city's comprehensive plan.

The simple fact is that including development of another wonderful dragus owner occupied community with with affordable housing for many down here in the catcher smitt outside of the inter facility traffic area to protect NS any ocean that we approved after 20201 B recommended it closure and outside of any noise zone above 65. five, which is what is needed to protect NAS Oceanana, um is exactly what our comprehensive

plan has evolved to and our elimination of three transition areas into one transition area has evolved to over the last 47 years. Witness that's how long we've had it in essence from 1979 with the with the down zoning, which was a wonderful thing that happened and led to the transition areas and the 85 comprehensive plan. We now have Southern Pines Apartments, the Enclave Town Homes, and the Veterans Care uh facility

here in the one of the largest employment centers in Virginia Beach right here town where we are today at the courthouse complex. Everything around it isn't going to have houses. We have lost hundreds if not that many many hundreds and thousands even of potential homes by protecting NAS Oceanana. And that's why this area around the courthouse and the cases has gotten additional attention with development to

in the right place for it. And this is consistent with a comprehensive plan. Um 3 minutes isn't enough time to go into the history. Uh but I would recommend it to anybody. Um I'd be happy to discuss it with anybody but this is consistent with the history and it really shows what a great leadership we've had over the years including a former councilman who's here tonight and one that's sitting on the dis who have been

involved the entire time and it's it's a wonderful thing that we've done and it provides this type of opportunity that's not appreciate it.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jim Cahoun and then Nicole Quinn.

Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, city council members. My name is Jim Cahoun.

I'm an environmental scientist with 30 years of experience right here in Hampton Roads and on some of the most complex environmental issues for projects, including those with significant uh environmental issues such as wetlands and bald eagles. Um, I'm here to answer any questions for you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Nicole Quinn and then Carrie Lock.

Good evening, council members. Excuse me. My name is Nicole Quinn and I'm a Virginia Beach resident and I work just down the road at LifeNet Health. I am a mom of a 20-month-old named Carter and expecting our second boy in just two months. I'm here tonight because I want to speak about one part of Virginia Beach National Proposal that I believe deserves more attention. The new child

care site. When you begin to start a family, there are so many things on your mind. But one that is of the utmost important is finding someone to take care of your child that meets that parent's expectations. In our scenario, it was the care of our three-month-old.

We began our search and when I was just eight weeks pregnant with my son Carter and what we quickly realized is how hard it is to find quality child care. If you're lucky, it will also be in the vicinity of your home or in your workplace. After touring and the referral process, we are met with long wait lists of 18 to 24 months. We had to put our names and deposits on multiple

lists and hope that we could find a spot and in the time that we needed it. and even then there's no guarantee. Knowing all this information, we started the process even earlier when we started to talk about having our second. We were then met with the tough reality that our two boys are not going to be able to go to the same child care due to those long wait lists. The care for your child is

not something you often want to compromise on, but unfortunately you have to as the cost can be overwhelming.

Child care has become one of the largest monthly expenses for many families, sometimes rivaling or even exceeding a mortgage payment. That financial burden affects working parents like me every single day. As someone who works and lives nearby, I know this isn't just a challenge for my family. It's something I hear from co-workers, friends, neighbors, and other parents throughout

this area. The need for additional child care capacity is real and it's growing.

That's why I believe this proposal presents an opportunity to address a need that far exceeds beyond golf or housing. Adding new child care facility would create more options for working families, increase the number of available child care slots, and over time ease some of that supply shortages that contribute to those rising costs.

For employers like Lifenet Health and many other businesses in this part of Virginia Beach, access to reliable child care is also an important workforce issue. To know my sons are safe, in good hands, and that the facility times align with our works work hours is vital for myself and other working parents to succeed in our jobs.

Expanding child care options benefits not only those families, but also the company that rely on us as the parents.

As someone preparing to welcome another child into our family, I can tell you this isn't an abstract policy discussion. It's something my family is actively thinking about right now. And I know I'm not alone. Virginia Beach has the opportunity to invest in families by increasing child care capacity where it's desperately needed. I hope you consider that as a benefit as you Thank you for coming. Appreciate it.

The next speaker The next speaker is Carrie Lockach and then Adam Carl.

Good evening. My name is Carrie Lockach.

I'm a Virginia Beach resident and I've owned my professional uh event planning and wedding planning business for 13 years. I've planned more than 500 weddings and events through our region.

One of the biggest parts of my job is helping clients through venue selection.

They're trusting me to guide them into a place that will give them exceptional service and exceptional experience. To date, Virginia Beach National has yet to garner one of those recommendations.

When I review the current offerings, I see a property with tremendous potential, but one that needs a refresh to become competitive in our local market. Nationally, most successful golf venues have evolved into destinations by combining beautifully renovated clubouses, exceptional golf with overnight accommodations, and activities for guests of every age. The city of Virginia Beach doesn't yet have that

kind of venue. That's why I believe this proposal is so exciting. The renovated clubhouse would create more memorable settings for weddings, corporate events, charity gallas, many other types of events. And the beautifully restored golf course would reestablish the property's prestige. The new 18hole putting course would give wedding guests children families and non-golfers a social fun experience that

extends well beyond the reception itself. Immersive, unique experiences like this are what today's clients are asking for, and it's where they're putting their money.

The addition of the stay and play cottages is another attractive feature.

Overnight accommodations open up many possibilities for all of these types of events.

Another part of the proposal, which is appealing to me, is the increase in sports tourism, opening up new types of service offerings for our planning company, both at the clubhouse and out in the community.

Virginia Beach National could become the premier location for championship banquetss, team celebrations, coaches retreats, alumni gatherings, and sponsor events.

Our city has wonderful beachfront hotels. It has golf, but today it lacks a true golf center destination where people can stay, celebrate, and enjoy a complete weekend experience together.

This proposal fills that gap. I believe this investment has the potential to make Virginia Beach National one of the region's premier event destinations. and I hope that you'll support this proposal. Thank you.

The next speaker is Adam Carl right boils. After that,

good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Uh my name is Adam Carl. the chief operating officer for the YMCA of Southampton Roads and I'm sharing a statement for the record on behalf of the YMCA at the direction of our president and CEO who is previously on a scheduled vacation.

Our YMCA is a nonprofit charitable organization devoted to meeting the needs of the community we serve. That's the spirit which guides our operation at First T. And that's a spirit that also prompted our ongoing partnerships to expand child care in collaboration with Virginia Beach schools and other key stakeholders in Hampton Roads.

We fully support any plan which furthers our charitable mission and impact. Helen Dragas and her team were aware of our desire to expand the availability of child care in Virginia Beach. They approached us in recent weeks to discuss a similar collaborative relationship by which a section of the proposed Princess Anne Landing development would house a child care facility to be operated by

the YMCA of Southampton Roads.

The contemplated program would serve residents of Princess and Landing and other communities in the vicinity.

Although our discussions are currently in the exploratory phase, we are delighted by the possibility of delivering additional child care opportunities to these communities and are grateful for for Dragus Associates support of our charitable mission. The administration's recommendation of Dragus Associates proposal reflects in part an intent for this development to serve broader community needs and we

pledge to pursue this opportunity in interest in the interests of those affected residents. Thank you.

The next speaker is Rick Boils and then Brad Martin.

Good evening, folks. Mayor, vice mayor, council members. My name is, for the record, my name is Rick Bo. I've lived in Virginia Beach my entire life. Run a small business here. Pay the same rising tax bill that everyone else in this room does. Serve as president of two civic organizations. Uh although I do not represent them tonight, I'm speaking on behalf of myself. Um I'm not here

opposing this project, nor am I here supporting this project. What I do want to do is urge you to defer this vote long enough to gather some additional public input. I'm not sure why this is on a rocket docket here. I don't know what the rush is. We've been a year and a half getting here. Another couple of weeks to gather some more public input isn't going to hurt anything.

I do want to share a couple of thoughts with you. We're selling this off as excess property. As as uh city attorney Styles has said, nothing wrong with that. However, excess typically indicates that the property is no longer useful. Um this property takes in about $320,000 a year um to the city treasury.

Um in 2023, Golf Digest named it one of the best public courses in Virginia.

The disrepair that's been talked about is a self-inflicted wound. The VBDA is responsible for any repairs and maintenance over $5,000 in the agreement that they have with this operator. So, if there's a $7.7 million shortfall in repairs, that is a self-inflicted wound by the VBDA andor this body. So, let's let's get that OUT FRONT HERE.

PART OF THE AGREEMENT IS TO keep the um the uh property is a public golf course.

It's already a public golf course. So we're trying to sell this calling it excess property and yet we've conditioned the agreement to remain a public golf course. It's a little contradictory there. I'm having a hard time making sense out of that. We also have a little bit of timing and ethics problem that we ought to talk about. On August 7th, 2024, more than a year before the public RFP, the city signed a

non-disclosure agreement with Dragus agreeing to shield this project from FOYA and not to disclose information quote to any third party including members members of any appointed committees or commissions of the city which would be TAITAA commission planning whoever. I'm also told that the district 2 council member was excluded from these negotiations on the NDA. When did we stop concluding the district council

member on land use decisions?

The council member for district 2 did not find out about this until the RFP went out.

The next speaker The next speaker is Brad Martin. After Mr. Martin is John Moss.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Miss Vice Mayor, members of council, and city manager Du Haney. My name is Brad Martin, and I've lived in Bay Lake Pines up offshore Drive with my wife Tracy and our son Henry for 25 years. Before anything else, I want to thank you for investing in events for our city like the July 4th fireworks at Mount Trashmore and the Ocean Front.

I'm not I'm here today not in any official or volunteer capacity, but instead just as a citizen of our city, one who has played VB National Golf Course dozens of times, and someone very interested in the long-term success and sustainability of the golf course, and more generally the dynamics of our city.

Even though we've only seen concept plans of the proposed multif family neighborhood, daycare center, and rework of the existing golf course, most of us can probably agree that the project checks a lot of boxes. Stabilization and preservation of the public golf course, more than 600 new homes to supplement a severely lacking housing stock in Tidewater, another daycare center convenient to the municipal campus,

ongoing operation of the YMCA first t facility. All of this and a clearly positive financial impact to our city in terms of both operational cost to the golf course as well as a significant increase of real estate tax revenues for the substantial investment in private property improvements which don't exist today. As for the characteristics of this project in particular, I think it's

safe to say the promising project is in good hands with this local developer.

Just from driving around Spence Crossing nearby, Ridgely Manor up off of Wesleyan Drive, and even their Dragus office park on Bonnie Road, you can tell that the Dragus company takes a great deal of pride in their commercial and residential developments. As just a funny aside, I was driving up along Wesleyan Drive to go golfing at Cypress Point, something I've done plenty of times, but it's about a half mile past

Ridgely Manor. Um, daydreaming behind the steering wheel, I turned into what I thought was the golf course, but I soon realized that I was driving into the Ridgely Manor community. The landscaping treatment that the Dragus Companies gives to their residents can be mistaken for a golf course, even when there's not one there. I can't wait to see what they're going to do with VB National.

There are certainly design characteristics to be determined. A long road ahead for reszoning, a preliminary storm water model, interconnections of several new ponds, Akus compatibility, public utilities, schools, traffic considerations. We can all admit that there are important design elements to overcome. But all in all, I think a partnership on this project with the Draggas companies is a wise and

productive collaboration.

Thank you all for your time and your service to Virginia Beach. And thank you to your staff members in the planning department, economic development department, planning commission, and executives on your city manager team for bringing this partner opportunity forward. Thank you.

The next speaker is John Moss. After Mr.

Moss is Holly Martier.

Good evening, Mayor and members of city council. Often when you come to these meetings, people get distracted by the pictures and forget what your fundamental obligation is. Is to make sure that the award that you make, that all stakeholders had an equal and level playing field, that they had a competitive ability that was no advantage, and that the staff retain the ability to what? Impartially judge the

applications.

Now, we know in April of 18 of 2024, Dragus started their intertwined collaboration and partnership with the city to develop the unsolicited proposal which meets none of the state procurement characteristics because the city was an active partner that they submitted in September 25 over a year.

So they had a time and a knowledge compa competitive advantage and they covered it up with a non-disclosure agreement which I suspect many of you were never told about and I would question how you can trust your appointees if that's true. Then you adopt a RFP that doesn't include housing, doesn't include the land that now is on housing, didn't communicate that you were willing to consider reszoning line south of the

green line to permit highdensity housing or financial incentives. So you've made a material change to RFP. You gave a competitive advantage to Dragas. I don't blame them for asking. I blame the staff, the city manager, and who all else up here was involved who gave it to him. You betrayed the public trust. You compromised the impartiality of this council and you have a proposal independent of its merits that violates

a fundamental principle that we celebrated on July 4th that we're all created equal and we have a level playing field to compete on the merits.

They competed on advantage and at least three of you ought to have the common sense, the common decency and virtue to deny an award on a defective process, a defective CIP and compromising public trust. Thank you.

The next speaker is Ella.

The next speaker is Holly Martier. after Miss Martier is Ella Dunbar.

Hello, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council. Um, with all due respect, I do not understand.

Holly, Holly, pull your thing down.

Yeah, I know I'm short. I am short. With all due respect, I do not understand the reasoning behind selling the Virginia National Golf Club to drag companies. My understanding is that the course will no longer remain a true Pete D design course, which would diminish an important part of its history and character. I also do not believe the additional housing belongs on a golf course or near it. More residential

development would likely increase traffic and place greater demands on public services, including police, schools, and emergency responders.

Although I am not a golfer, I know many people who are, and I have heard that Virginia Beach National is considered a legendary course. I would like the opportunity to see it and appreciate it before it's altered. If the city decides to sell the property, I believe Ed Austinine deserves serious consideration. My understanding is that he stated he would invest his own money to renovate and preserve the course

rather than relying on taxpayer funding.

Preserving the course while minimizing costs to Virginia Beach taxpayers would be an important consideration. I hope leaders carefully consider all options and prioritize preserving this unique community asset for future generations.

I also heard that it's going to cost taxpayer the taxpayers about 22 million within 20 years. That's not good. Thank you for listening to me.

And the next speaker is Ella Dumbar and then Suzanne Richmond.

Good evening.

I do not think that we are ready to sell uh property to Draus. Um, when I look at even the housing component, I know that I've attended town halls in my district talking about workforce housing and nobody seems to want to say, "What amount of money are we talking about that the workforce housing is going to cost? Who can actually afford what you're calling workforce housing?" Uh at

the last town hall I went to and I asked that question, my district representative said, "Well, you see, first you get a developer and then you give him uh tax breaks for 15 years and then um in 15 years if he improves his property at all, you give him another 15 years where he doesn't have to pay taxes." To me, that does not serve the citizens of Virginia Beach.

And what I've always what I do believe, I may not know everything, but it makes sense to me that perhaps we don't have so much a housing problem as we have a zoning problem. And I know I've heard that Virginia Beach is running out of places to build, etc., etc., etc.

However, I don't see where it's my responsibility to help multi-millionaires ret remain multi-millionaires.

Is there anybody that can bring a proposal to the city to do something that comes with their own money and they can get their hands out of my pocket? We have one of the best beaches in the in in the in the United States. We are renowned for our beautiful sand and our boardwalk and everything. And it seems like everybody that comes here, they don't come with their own money. They

come with little something something and then they look for us to supply this and supply that and can we talk about Atlantic Park. So why are we funding people to come here? Why can't to me why can't you zone some areas for a partic at a particular price point? If I wanted a shed built in by backyard and I got a price point that I want it built at, I

am sure that I will have several people that will come forward and offer to build that shed. And I don't think that we need to be reinvesting what we make right back into that project, which is really giving my money away. And I say it's my money. And so I think you guys need to slow your roll and maybe you can find a developer that's got enough money or maybe they know some people with some

money that can invest in their project and stop taking my money because I don't think that's the right thing to do. And does the city really have to pay developers to build? So if you don't give them money and this that and the other does that mean that they won't build at all? Build developers do what they do. Thank you.

The next speaker is Suzanne Richmond.

After Miss Richmond is Waverly Woods.

Thank you. Um, good evening. I'm Suzanne Richmond. And when I've appeared before you in previous times, I was advocating for people that I didn't believe had voice otherwise. Tonight, I'm here for myself. I'm here as the taxpayer of Virginia Beach, a single mom on a single income, and I want to know how many more apartment buildings, car washes, and storage facilities are you going to let be put up in our city?

This is not the kind of housing that people want. If you're a family and you have kids, you want a yard that your kids can throw the baseball in. You want a driveway where you can have a basketball hoop. You don't want to live in an apartment building, but you all haven't even done a study.

And the other thing is it's almost impossible for somebody to buy a single family home in Virginia Beach if you have a modest income.

What Mr. Moss was saying, he's right.

Capitalism means that everybody gets a fair shake, everybody can take a bite at the apple, and it's blind. What? This is the pre-chosen person. That's what we call oligarchy. And the American people are tired of the grift. That's what this is. Corporate welfare. IT'S A GRIFT.

The American people are tired of it. I'm tired of it. That's why I'm here is I can't believe, and I know some of you up here, you know me, we've had conversations. I can't believe that you're just going to give away land that belongs to the city of Virginia Beach.

Enough is enough. And you know, some of you claim to have certain values or certain beliefs that you want to do what's best for the city. The land that they want to build on cannot support this infrastructure. I mean, there's so many things that are wrong with this. I don't even know where to begin. So, I'm coming from a place of nobody wants to live in a slum. Nobody wants to live in

an apartment building. If you want to buy a home, you want to buy a house, not one of the condos. And the other thing um that it's embarrassing that Drag has felt the need to bring in so many people who don't live IN VIRGINIA, much less Virginia Beach.

So that should tell you something when they have to bring in a full lineup of outsiders to tell you what a great idea this is, but you're not listening to your own constituents. And guess what?

Those people don't vote. they can't vote here, but all of us, we can.

Um, and another thing, one of my favorite movies is It's a Wonderful Life. And one of my favorite scenes is when George defends his father and stands up to Mr. Potter. I am so tired of the Mr. Potters in Virginia Beach and their slums. People want their own house.

Thank you.

I know that must be confusing. YOU LOOK THE NEXT SPEAKER IS Waverly Woods. After Miss Woods is Wington Web. Well, good evening again, Waverly Woods. I'm the chair of the Virginia Beach Tea Party and Virginia Freedom Caucus. Um, I want to start off with defining the word transparency.

It means openness and uh ability to scrutinize.

We didn't get that.

These documents prove it. And although I appreciate Mr. Styles and all of his $10 words along with his brother, I have no faith that ethics is your stronghold.

That said, Barbara, I understand you're a no vote here. I hope you're a no vote on all that construction they want to do in Lanstown as well, because I was at that June 16th meeting. But your obligation is more than just being a no vote. It is to whip the votes of every one of these people sitting here and get them to understand why this is a problem. That's your obligation to your

constituents. That said, this deal is nothing more than an ugly girlfriend.

You can change her hair, fix her makeup, and buy her a new set of clothes, but she's still an ugly girlfriend. My suggestion is that you vote no. You repeal the meal tax because all we're going to get is these proposals of performance grants and dollar deal leases. Meanwhile, the rest of the business owners pay full wage.

Repeal this deal. Put this deal down.

Pay for the guy. Get the guy that's going to do this on his own dime and not ours. No more construction. No more, you know, special backroom deals. No more of this. We should be getting all of these deals in a referendum. And I appreciate our tax dollars for uh Emily's presentation. It was quite colorful, but that's not going to get us our money back either. You make deals where we

lose out every single time. That wave park, the hotel we bought at the Cavalier. And we're not getting our money back on this either. I hope none of you are financial adviserss in your private life because you are horrible at investing for us. THANK YOU.

THE NEXT SPEAKER IS WEARINGTON Web and then Stanton McDaffy.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, and members of council. My name is Warrington Webb. I'm a lifelong resident of Virginia Beach and the finance associate at the Draus Companies. I would like to take this opportunity to walk through the financial inputs of this proposal. Built at the turn of the century, Virginia Beach National hasn't had a complete renovation since it opened. A golf

course is built with parts that have a shelf life, and this course has quietly run past nearly all of them. The VBDA commissioned studies in 2023 and 2024 that estimated costs needed to rectify storm water and building deficiencies.

Costs have risen dramatically since then, but even using these outdated estimates, the course has $7.7 million of incomplete renovation needs for these two items alone. By USGA estimates, the required additional renovation will cost between8 and $16 million. And every year, this number gets bigger. The responsible thing is to act now.

Our group is putting up $17.9 million to buy this property. That money doesn't come from the general fund. It doesn't exist without this project. It goes into an escro account and it gets released when the developer shows proof of work completed on the golf course property.

Should the renovation costs come in under budget, the city will retain all remaining funds. We also have committed to invest another $18 million into the golf course amenities and support facilities for a total of nearly $36 million in private investment.

Where the city does participate is in the public infrastructure up to 4.3 million to help fund utility and road improvements that benefit adjacent VBDA parcels in first T. The VBDA will contribute 1.8 million from previously appropriated repairs funds and other accumulated revenues. Beyond that, there's 3.6 million overage cap provided by the city for the project. And this money won't get spent at all if the

project comes in on time and within budget like other Tim le renovations recently have. In some the city general fund will contribute between 4.3 and 7.9 million with the maximum being only slightly more than the 7.7 million currently outstanding and far far less than the funds required to complete all overdue renovations. The final piece is the performance grant up to 10.2 million

exclusively funded by the project's new tax revenue. As the name implies, it guarantees performance even in the case of extraordinary development costs, a risk the taxpayers currently shoulder.

In short, the city will exchange an uncapped and growing liability for a defined contribution that produces a permanent stream of tax revenue. I humbly ask for your support. Thank you.

The next speaker is Stanton McDuffy.

And then after Mr. McDuffy is Bill Ronic.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, and members of council. My name is Stanton McDuffy, and I'm a lifelong Virginia Beach resident. I currently renting a home on 43rd Street with two roommates. I'm a commercial real estate broker and a small business owner and I'm proud to do business in Virginia Beach. I'm here to voice my support for the redevelopment of the Virginia Beach National Golf Course and the

construction of new residential housing units on the surplus land. Virginia Beach is currently experiencing a period of major economic growth due to new investment and arts and entertainment such as the surf park, artery district, and vibe district. And I believe that refreshing the VB National Golf Course is the next step for the city to take towards creating a place where young

people want to work, stay, and play. As a young professional, those three things are hugely important to me. Where will I work? Where will I stay? And where will I play? I'm fortunate to have two streams of income from roles I truly enjoy doing. But even though that is the case, I still stress over the thought of buying a home in our city where so many houses are far outside of my budget. I

don't want to leave Virginia Beach, but I also don't want to be a renter forever. This new development will offer an opportunity for hundreds of young professionals like me to become homeowners without having to move to one of our sister cities and leave the beach. Although my golf game may not show it, I do truly love the game.

Identifying a developer who will put equal effort and focus into the golf course rebuild as they will the home building portion of the project is extremely important to me as a current and future user of VB National. Having a publicly accessible and well-maintained course in our city will be exciting for locals like me and visitors from all over. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts this evening and I

hope my words have made it clear that I am a supporter of the proposed redevelopment of the Virginia Beach National Golf Course.

The next speaker is Bill Ronic and then Elaine Fecky.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, uh, Madame Vice Mayor, Council, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. As a longtime golf industry executive, I've been in rooms like this, having conversations just like this many, many times. This is the first time I've had the luxury of doing it in casual attire.

Because tonight, I come as a citizen and not as a business entrepreneur.

Make my residence in Christopher Farms very close to Virginia Beach National.

And I am not here to critique the Dragus Company's bid or the award of that bid.

I think they have put a tremendous amount of time and energy into that process. They have chosen to partner with highly credible and qualified partners to design and operate the golf course post close. And if it gets done, I will look forward to going over there and playing and seeing what it looks like and enjoying uh continued life in Virginia Beach. That said, I do look at the way this process is handled, has

been handled as relatively binary. We either have to keep doing what we've been doing or we have to sell the golf course. As someone who's been around this business for a long time, I can tell you there are other opportunities.

There is an opportunity here, I believe, for a long-term lease with a capital partner that allows the golf course to stay in the possession of the taxpayers of Virginia Beach without necessarily taxing them to subsidize the operation of a course, which we all know benefits only a certain number of people who choose to play golf and does nothing for the people in this community who do not

play golf. I have nothing more to say. I thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to uh hearing how this process concludes. Thank you.

The next speaker is Elaine Fecky.

After Miss Becky is Matthew Hammacker.

Good evening.

Like many of you, this weekend I celebrated the 250th birthday of our great nation. And at one celebration, someone actually read the Declaration of Independence from beginning to end. I want to share one passage because I think it's very relevant tonight.

Governments are instituted by men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Okay, those words remind us that we are a representative government and that begins here at the local level. We elect official we where we elect officials who serve because citizens have entrusted you with that authority. But the strength of that democracy depends not only on electing you but on those

representatives listening to the people they serve before making decisions on their behalf. Tonight you've heard from an amazing cross-section of people. Some spoke as professionals, some neighbors, some simply as citizens who just care deeply about our city. Every one of them chose to spend their night tonight here voicing their concerns and everyone deserves to have their voices heard. I'm

not going to repeat what they've gone through, but I'm encouraging to reflect on those voices and I'm asking tonight you've heard questions about the financial assumptions, the future of a valued public asset, the green line, and differing perspectives from citizens who both support and oppose this approval.

Despite differing viewpoints, one message has been consistent. People are asking to be heard. They are asking for enough time to understand this proposal.

Ask informed questions and know that every concern has been thoroughly considered before this irreversible decision is made because this is an irreversible decision. The bottom line is this land is publiclyowned land. It belongs to us, the citizens of Virginia Beach. decisions involving public access to serve a process that is thorough, transparent, and inspires confidence.

This is not just a district 2 issue.

It's a district. It's it citizens from every district. All of you should be listening to the input and taking it into account, not just waiting for the district 2 representative to do so. It's all of your responsibilities.

Many residents also are viewing this as another attempt to encroach on the green line, which I have to say naming renaming it the courthouse area allowed you to step over that green lines ever so casually with this project. The real estate inventory in the city is actually going up, just so you know. Um, but at this time, what I'm asking for is additional time tonight to listen, take

the time to deliberate because that's not democracy, that's representative democracy. Thank you.

The next speaker is Matthew Matthew Haymaker and then Mr. Worst.

My name is Matthew Hammacker and I was born here and I live here. And unlike these randoms from South Carolina, I'm not a come here and I oppose this deal.

I spent 10 years as a social studies teacher here in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I taught world history, US history, government, economics, personal finance. Politics has been my lifelong passion. And last year, I decided to learn as much as I could about how this city operates. I've watched every city council meeting, every planning commission hearing, and every VBDA meeting in the last 16

months. In the time listening to the citizens of this city, one thing was clear. They are being left behind.

Our political process leaves its people behind because this council, like every council before it, prioritizes making the citizens share in the losses of developers and never their profits. Our our budget our budget is a moral document. It reflects the values and priorities of those who make it. This deal is singular, but many deals made over the course of the year add up and dictate

how we can spend our money. The needs of this city and its people are too great to keep gifting cash to development companies. We need new ideas to help lift up the most vulnerable among us. We have to be a community that prioritizes the needs of the many and not the wants of the few or we may very well lose our status as the most caring city in the country. Perwehub.com.

We have a looming billion dollar budget deficit with the stormwater bond referendum that the mayor has repeatedly called a confrontation with reality. But I haven't heard from him or anyone else up here how we're going to close that gap. I have a few ideas. One, commission an independent report that shows the actual return on investment to the citizens of Virginia Beach for every deal the Virginia Beach Development

Authority has made in the last 10 years to include an accounting of all but for tax revenues that the city has chosen to give up and all infrastructure money the city has chosen to pay on behalf of our richest citizens. Two, an immediate freeze on any deal, including this one, that has any public funding in it.

Period. Trickle down economics is a joke. It's time for trickle up economics. If we can't afford to pay our cops, we can't afford to pay Helen Dragas.

Lastly, a bold idea. I propose we add to our 2027 legislative agenda a constitutional amendment to the state of Virginia that would allow localities the power and flexibility to charge property taxes in a way that is not a flat rate that is regressive among all citizens.

We could charge property taxes less for people who own their homes, people who live in their homes, people only own one home. We could do better. We can build a better city. We can choose joy. We can choose harmony. Or we can choose adversity and anger. We can choose hope because hope is not a condition of the world but one of the soul. Please just choose hope with me and give these citizens something to believe in.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Tim Worst. After Mr.

There are some really smart people in here and I hate to follow that.

A drag speaker said earlier today, my name is Tim Worst. I live in Virginia Beach for 30ome years. Most of you know me. Hello. Uh drag speaker said earlier today that RF this their RFP rose to the top.

I think that's BS.

I think Bobby, Rosemary, and Mr.

Belaluchcci helped them rise to the top.

I don't think it. I know it. With the whisper deal, backdoor deal, and cronyism at its best.

The Draggas people said the homes would be affordable, and now they say there are attainable, which isn't.

This is a declaration and sale of excess excess property. Where in the hell in Virginia Beach do we have 350 acres of excess property?

Again BS.

A declaration now. Why are we doing a declaration now? Because in 2024, you started whispering to the Draggas folks.

My question is the audacity not to include Mrs. Henley, who's been here for 40, 50 years in that deal. How do you not tell the district 2 person about this?

That's pitiful.

That's on you.

Anybody want to raise their hand? Who got money from the Draggas companies for your campaign or directly from Helen Dragas? Anybody?

Anybody want to do that? If you're not on Facebook, it's been on there several times. Mr. Dyer, you've gotten 15 grand from Dragas.

Of course, Eddie Berdon is up here saying that he urges you to vote yes for this. He's getting paid. Every one of these people up here in favor of this thing and almost almost everybody on here is getting paid on social media on the websites for the city of Virginia Beach, which bothers me the most. You downplay how awesome this golf course is. You say it's in disrepair. It needs all this

work. It's awful. Horrible. It's the number one place to play more rounds than anybody else.

And you dare badmouth that? That makes the pro look bad. Makes the maintenance people look bad. All who live in Virginia Beach for a long time. And you badmouth them and you allow Draggas to bad mouth.

It's pitiful.

Of course, this golf course needs work.

It's been 25, 30 years. Look at your face.

Are you the same as 25, 30 years ago?

Thank you, TIM.

The next speaker is Laura Hughes.

After Miss Hughes is Doug Kelly.

I'm sure too.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer and council members.

I also would like to see more time given to this. Unfortunately, only one of your biders had a lot of information.

Everybody else was coming from behind.

A few things that have come up tonight that I would like to address though is that it is hard to claim as Dragas says that we are we desperately need housing.

We constantly hear from council that we need more housing. Yet tonight we also heard that this proposed housing would be filled by people who were already Virginia Beach residents. I I those things can't all be true at the same time.

I'm also hearing that there was poor management by the VBDA. So the VBDA's idea is to just give it away. It seems like it would be better to replace the VBDA.

We have a council that for several years has not listened to the citizens. What we need tonight is three council members who are not tonedeaf, who care what the citizens want. We would appreciate if three of you could step up and be those council members. Thank you.

The next speaker is Doug Kelly.

After Mr. Kelly is Steve Emert.

Good evening. My name is Doug Kelly. I'm a citizen here in Virginia Beach.

I came here tonight had some things I wanted to say, but after listening to everything that's been said tonight, I I find it just incredible that we're in the position where we are. So, let me say this. Virginia Beach is the finest public golf course in Tidewater. It's one of the best golf courses in the state. It's the first choice of the majority of people who come to Virginia Beach on vacation to play golf.

It was designed by Pete Dye. When Pete Dy designs a golf course, he designs it from the first te to the 18th green.

Every step of the way is the story from beginning to end. If you change that, you ruin the story and you ruin the golf course. So right now the proposal is to consider the city council is considering accepting proposal by the draggers company to purchase and alter the 300 some odd acres at Virginia Beach National Golf Course thereby destroying a PI design. Under the terms of the proposal, the city will

give taxpayer money to Draggas company in the amount of $27,660.

As such, one would assume that Dragas would have provided the city with profit projections and the city decided it was necessary to give $27,000 of taxpayer money to Dragas to increase Dragas profits. Since the city is proposing to give Dragas that taxpayer money, DRA's profit projections from building and selling 649 housing units and owning and operating the 18-hole golf course

should be shared with the posit with the citizens and a little bit of transparency. That way, the citizens could understand why our mayor, our city council, and our city manager find it necessary to give Dragas $27,600.

I can't see nor have you provided any justification for paying a private developer to destroy a P die golf course for her profit. Thank you.

The next speaker is Steve Emirates and then Nancy Moly.

this I will adjust.

Your honor, ladies and gentlemen, uh I'm technically a come here, but it was when I was three years old and it was still called Princess Anne County. So, I've been here a long time.

The greatest investor of our era, uh the sage of Omaha was asked once, "What's your favorite time for owning a piece of stock, share of stock?" And he said, "Forever." Because you keep getting paid forever. Virginia Beach National isn't a stock, but it's the same kind of a performing asset. It generates hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for this city.

Now, at first, I thought, why would you want to give something like that away?

This age of Omaha wouldn't do that. I came here thinking that I had to argue against 17.9 million reasons why you'd want to give it away because somebody's going to give you that much. That many reasons are fairly persuasive. And then I learned that you're giving it back.

He's not. The developer isn't paying the money to us. It's paying it to an escrow agent. I'm a lawyer. I know what an escrow agent does. And the escrow agent, $1 at a time, gives it back to the developer who paid it. You're also adding tens of 10 plus million dollars of municipal funds, our tax dollars, to that.

Now, why would you want to do that?

Well, I thought of a couple reasons why you might want to do that. One was something that Mr. Webb told you just a few minutes ago. He talked about a $7 million need for drainage and other kind of work. Mr. Webb may have forgotten that in January the city manager's office told the economic development authority in a public and recorded meeting that this city golf course was not subject to that $7 million. It's not

required because of the age of the golf course. These are new requirements that don't apply to this course. So, if you're if you're basing your consideration here on that potential, the $7 million that doesn't actually exist, you're making your decision based on a false alarm. The other reason that might you might want to to do this is the honeyed words that you've heard first whispered into one ear, then

plastered onto uh PowerPoint slides.

We've heard them again echoed tonight.

Those rhyme, by the way, with the the words that this city council heard back in the 1990s before another developer absolutely ruined Chemical Greens golf course.

What I what I want you to make make sure that you know before I go is that while you hear these honeyed words, while you hear the the beautiful slide point presentations, the people outside those doors aren't hearing that. They're hearing what looks to them like public corruption. It looks like an internal deal with a company that is favored by this board.

It looks like something to be ashamed of. And eventually, you will have to to go back and talk to those people. You'll eventually face those people. The question is whether you will be able to remove the red spot on your hand that that casts a vote in favor of this awful proposal.

The next speaker is Nancy Mobley.

After Miss Mobley is Teresa Langlo.

Good evening everyone. This is my first city council meeting in Virginia Beach since I've become a resident here. Uh usually I sit at home, watch it on TV, and yell at the TV like I'm watching Jeopardy.

I'm not a golfer. Never have been a golfer. Don't desire to be a golfer.

Don't want to live on a golf course. I'm not a developer. I'm not a lawyer. I'm just a 65year-old woman who pays taxes here in Virginia Beach.

No one is subsidizing my taxes.

Why do I expect some I Why should I pay for a millionaire to build her homes on a golf course that I love and it's near and dear to me? My husband, my late husband was a longtime member at VBN.

And now it won't be a secret, but some of his ashes are on a hole that was his nemesis.

But I'd want to know a few things. When was Mrs. Henley informed about this process. When I called her and she answered the phone, much to my surprise and spoke to her about this, she had assured me there were no homes being planned for this land. None.

I took her at her word.

My other question is who among you who took contributions from Dragus are going to recuse yourselves.

The next speaker is Teresa Langl and then Alisa Trent.

Okay, I think you guys have all had enough facts thrown at you and you know what the truth is. So, I'm not going to go there. I just want to read a quote from Thomas Jefferson. He said, "We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.

All tyranny needs to do to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Now that goes for all the citizens. I think all of a lot of politicians count on those that do not participate. But it also goes for you, your citizens, too. And I just want to speak about transparency.

10 years 10 or 12 years ago I started speaking here and I was pretty shocked because the last part the last time that I was involved in government and I think I said this to you all was in another state where we do not have a um we have a different form of government.

We ask this is in New Hampshire with selectmen and we people like you have to ask us how to spend not us begging you not to spend.

It's like backwards here.

So I think that all of you that knew for the last 10 to 15 years that I've been here all the different projects that went on and you any one of you that never informed the public and came open and said what was going on and it wasn't right or in elections where you knew and one that we was just involved in where a chair of a Republican party was gotten rid of

because our vote was overturned and not one elected person stood up for the voter.

So transparency to me tells me a lot. If you remain silent about what's going on, then you are it's as if you're doing it yourself.

It's as if you're doing yourself. that is. And when you have a a a planning commission that's doing all this stuff and then you look at it and you say, "Oh, sounds good. I get this money out of it and blah blah blah."

That to me is taxation without representation.

And we've been there before. We fought for this. This country was formed to stop that. And we're in Virginia.

Um, so that's what I wanted to say is that all of you that are silent, if there were backroom deals that you were part of and you're making a lot of money, if that's true, or some of your friends are making money, I don't care.

You should have stood up.

You should have stood up like with the wave pool.

I've heard about that for years.

And what are they paying like a dollar a?

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Please be honest. Thank you.

The next speaker is Alicia Trent.

Alisia Trent.

Virginia Renick.

Mayor, we'll move to the WebEx speakers now.

Okay.

Oh, are you I'm sorry. Come on.

What's Are you Virginia?

Okay.

and then we'll move to the web speakers.

Okay.

Hi, city council. It's nice to see you all again. I don't want to beat a dead horse. Um I ask you not to listen to the suits in the crowd as they are not the constituents who have voted you in. I ask you to listen to my Virginia Beach locals and deny this. I hope everyone um Thank you for coming out. Thank you very much for coming out everyone. And u

that's all I got to say honestly. Thank you.

We'll move to WebEx speakers now. Clay M. Clay, Matthews, you're unmuted. Again, thank you.

Am I unmuted?

I can hear you, sir.

Thank you.

Uh, good evening, Mayor Dyer, members of the city council.

Um, my name is Klay Matthews. I I live in Richmond and I'm speaking as someone who loves the game of golf.

U like a lot of golfers, I work during the week and I try to play as much as I can on the weekends and and dur during my vacation time.

I'm I'm fortunate enough to have good friends and some of them live in Virginia Beach.

So over the years I look for reasons to make Virginia Beach one of my regular golf destinations.

The truth is it it hasn't quite made the list. In fact, I'm I'm I'm in Myrtle Beach tonight with uh 23 of my good buddies.

Um and we're going to be here for a week.

We're we're here all week. 24 guys.

And when we plan a golf trip, we're usually end up in places like here, Myrtle Beach, or we'll be um you know, in uh Kio or Hilton Head, but there is no reason that I can't have these guys. And they come from Georgia and Texas.

I've got a guy coming in from Philadelphia.

They should be I should have the opportunity to have those dudes come in from uh those places and enjoy a stay and play experience. And dang, Virginia Beach is it's I love Virginia Beach and they don't want to come there because they don't know, you know, it's not a golf destination. They're like, "We got to go to Virginia uh Myrtle Beach."

So um I just think that um if you look at um if you look at um who's backing can we give some respect like we gave you, we have somebody that is talking.

If you if you look at it, it's like uh the dragus firm is not going to they're going to have to live with the decision.

You you don't want somebody coming out.

Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

The next speaker my WebEx is Ra Marsh.

Miss Marsh, you are unmuted and may begin.

Thank you.

Good evening, council members. I've listened to this travesty of a meeting and I just wonder why we have a city council and a city manager that have ignored the procurement ethics policy. It's on the website. It's a known document. It's existed in writing and is dated from October 5 of 2021 and it has very specific procedures and you have not followed that process in giving Dragus a 16-month head start.

Whether you call it an informal conversation or a early RFP, whatever you call it, you gave her 16 months before you told the other people who were doing their RFPs what was going on. And most of them didn't even know what you told her. So, you violated your own procedures.

And the procedures on page two talk about unfair competitive advantages.

Fairness and transparency in the procurement process require the biders offerers competing for a specific project do not derive a competitive advantage from having provided services related to the project contract work assignment in question. And that's in the code of Virginia 2.2-4373.

Participation in bid preparation limitation on submitting bid for the same procurement. A firm and each of its affiliates hired and provide services for the preparation and implementation of the project shall be disqualified from any subseant procurement solicitation to provide goods. if they are given the firm services in advance.

So you have a communication with the bidder dragg that started 16 months before the RFP process. You can't say Mayor Dyier that you're leveling the field because you're not. You're giving Miss Dragus who's invested 92,000 in various campaigns of various people on that dis and you're giving her an advantage. It's not the way the procurement policy is supposed to work.

What's even more upsetting is that you have a principle of ethical conduct that was put into place in November 10 of 2020 by our same $300,000 city manager who signed the NDA with Dragus, Patrick Dehaney. And he talks about Tai.

My next speaker is Teresa Chadwick. Is she on? Miss Chadwick, you are unmuted and may begin.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. My name is Teresa Chadwick. I have proudly called the Diamond Lake Estates neighborhood in district 4 home for 58 years. And I also currently serve as the vice chair of the Virginia Beach Tea Party. But tonight I am speaking to as a concerned citizen and resident. I am here speaking tonight in very strong opposition to the development of town homes and condominiums at Virginia Beach

National Golf Club. The big concern for me is not just the project itself, but the process that brought us here for two for year for nearly two years.

Discussions regarding this proposal reportedly took place behind closed doors between the developer members of this council. The city attorney's office and the city manager's office while the residents and cist rep Councilwoman Henley were direct who are directly impacted were left in the dark.

Transparency and public trust matter.

When decisions affecting an entire community are discussed privately and only brought to the public when plans are already underway, residents have every reason to question whose interests are truly being represented. And I know there's been some concerns about density and I expressed that as well. And there are also some environmental concerns.

Virginia Beach National is home to several resident pairs and nests of the federally protected bald eagle. Any proposal that could impact protected wildlife and their habitat demands consider careful review and complete transparency.

Many of you will ask us voters to trust you again in November as you're up for reelection.

this jur on this proposal. You have the opportunity to show that you are willing to listen to the people who elected who vote with the constituents and I by deferring this issue and demand transparency, full public disclosure and a thorough review of the impacts before taking another step forward. Thank you.

The next speaker and the last speaker is Par Edi. You were unmuted and maybe again.

Okay. Thank you. Hopefully you guys are not getting bad feedback as I was uh even just trying to listen to the speakers.

My name is Pareka. Um, what I believe it all comes down to is an abuse of taxpayer dollars and excuse me one second and an erosion in the public's ability to trust the actions of the people who run not represent as they should but actually run this city and are running it into the ground. I heard one gentleman speak at the town hall last night, Ed Austinine, former owner of Paramount Builders and former president

of the Cavalere and Yacht Club's golf course, who told us that his bid didn't require any taxpayer money at all. So, let me repeat that. No taxpayer funds needed for his proposal and no housing development on the property. He was committed to taking his own money, paying the city the original sale price, which given the deterioration from neglect by the Virginia Beach devel development authorities negligence takes

that burden off of the city to revitalize and restore everything about the VBNGC.

This would be an asset. Um, excuse me, Basma Place.

Okay, sorry.

I apologize.

I'm not familiar with the other seven proposals, but do you think it's just or fair that those companies who spent their time, effort, and a significant amount of money without knowing what had been happening behind the scenes with the Draggas company, the city manager, the attorney, and certain city council members? How much has Helen Draggas contributed to various council members?

I think we've already heard that tonight. And here's here's the truth.

Frankly, we're sick and tired of the bad public private partnership deals the city has made that give whichever developer involved a big win on the backs of the taxpayers. And no one has mentioned that Dragas, well actually y'all did mention that. Why would we accept such a deal where the city basically gives our land away for free, allows Dragas to develop 650 plus condos in the courthouse area, doesn't allow

for the other proposals to even have a chance, all while the Draggas company wildly underestimates the cost of the necessary infrastructure to support such a proposal. But I want to do one thing before I I finish here.

I want to read a review of Dragus Properties, and it's just one of many poor reviews. This is from a a a buyer, Brandy J. Dragas has been a terrible company to work with. They do not hold true to their listed promotions. When they state some restrictions apply, it means you probably aren't eligible for the promotion. The promotion that was offered at the time we bought our house

was a $5,000 design center credit if you use their mortgage company, which we did, but they did not honor the promotion because they said our house was not eligible. And at the time only one house in the neighborhood was eligible. Our house move in date was delayed over a month and because of this we had to cover rent in the old house for an additional month.

Thank you.

Mayor Dyer, that's all the speakers, sir.

Okay. Thank you all. Barbara, are we going to have a chance to just make a few comments?

Um, yeah.

Uh, I I appreciate that. Uh, Mr. Mayor, uh, I could be here all night, and I know you don't want to be, neither do I, uh, asking questions and and trying to figure this stuff out. We had a a proposed term sheet in our agenda that I guess we were supposed to go through.

There's no way in the world we can do without that. Some of these things in this term sheet, I've never seen something like before. So I I think the thing that we really need to do is to say there's no way in the world we're going to be ready to deal with this next Tuesday as it is tenatively now on the agenda.

Um it's only it's tenatively on the agenda for a vote next Tuesday and and there's no way in the world I'm con I'm prepared to do it and and I don't know how anybody else could. I would really like to see I believe there were nine responses to our RFP and the only one I've seen is the Dragus response that was sent by the team that looked at them. I would really

like to see all of the responses. Um just as a starting point. Uh but then we've got this proposed term sheet uh which have I have so many things underlined in here. So, there's no way in the world I'm ready to do anything with this next week if we could just put this off.

Okay. Thank anybody else. Okay. But listen, thank you all for coming and uh you were heard. Thank you very very much.

Okay.

Okay.

So, Mr. Mayor, we want to do the appointments.

Yeah, we can do appointments now.

Okay. The active transportation advisory committee to appoint Kayla Jones. She's a high school student and to reappoint Allison Alred. The advertising uh advisory committee to appoint Brian Pettit the Bayfront Advisory Committee to appoint Marcella Perro High School student and Elena Beaches at high school student beaches and waterways to uh appoint to reappoint uh Michael Aggressi district 5. Patrick

folks could you hold it down please?

Thank you. Patrick Clark, District 4, Steven Gibson, District 6, Lance Leer, District 8, and Daniel Murphy, District 9, uh the Open Space Advisory Committee to appoint Addison Azar as a high school student, and to reappoint Diana McDow, and the transition area ITA uh to appoint Leah Matanovic, who's in high school student approval.

Okay, second. Okay, we got a second. Is that the vote open?

Goes open.

By a vote of 11 to zero, you have appointed those read by Vice Mayor Wilson.

Okay. At this point, is there any unfinished business? New business. Okay.

We are going to adjourn into open mic.

Okay.