City Council Meeting, 9/15/2026

Order, Mr. Duhane, if we can proceed.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the first presentation will be provided by our flood protection um oversight board. It's the flood protection program update. The first person you'll hear will be Jeff Waller who is the chair of the flood protection board followed by Alicia Pika which is the program manager for the project. So at this time Mr. Waller the floor is yours.

Thank you Mr.

Welcome back.

Seems like I was just here. Mr. Mayor, members of council I am Jeff Waller, chairman of the flood prevention bond referendum oversight board. Uh the the flood prevention bond referendum include seven master projects with uh 21 projects identified in the n the 2021 bond referendum along with 10 support projects and 10 other active projects. The resolution creating this board calls for us to come and give an

update every three months. I was here in June and now I'm back.

We recognize the anniversary of Hurricane Matthew from October 2016, so 10 years ago next month. There's some pictures up there.

The upper right, I think, is in Hey, good point. The bottom right is in uh Lake Smith Terrace. These aren't even bond referendum areas, but you can see that we had flooding and we had an active project to help drain Lake Smith to reduce this. I'm not sure where the bottom left picture is. Unfortunately, we had a lot of choices in October 16 of flooded roads we could have taken a picture of.

Between August and October 2016, three named storms adversely impacted this area. Hurricane Hermine, Tropical Storm Julia, and finally, Hurricane Matthew.

They were all intense. Matthew brought more rain than the other two. And our mayor has said several times, Hurricane Matthew was the gamecher.

Um, it was, it still is. The city has a lot going on to be more protective during a similar storm in the future.

Since last month, uh, since last report to council, uh, the board has received briefings, uh, in July from Kyle KBA, who presented, uh, he presented about a presentation he made to third graders at Delhi Elementary School on on storm drainage. And there's a program starting out this year for fourth graders citywide to uh to introduce them to storm drainage.

In August, Lee Shapika presented on cost estimating. And then just a week or so ago, uh, John Tigert and Laa Tolantino presented on procurement, uh, how to make how to go through procurement for the city of Virginia Beach.

The city's video education about this program is going well. Since June, city's posted five blogs with 1981 views. They've published three videos with 17,464 views and posted u 31 social media post.

The web traffic is up 47% in the third quarter compared to a year ago.

You all received the August uh 2026 status report prepared by Jacob's engineering and the active construction projects are Bo Creek Stormwater Park, Elizabeth River Flood Plane Restoration, Elizabeth uh Eastern Shore Drive Bundle, Eastern Shore Drive uh phase 1F a roadway project and the Windsor Woods Princess Anne Plaza Lakes Bundle.

that's getting started and there's a groundbreaking on that uh next week which is exciting.

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

City's been awarded $73 million in state and federal grants and they're pursuing actively $44 million in future grants.

We have uh three student interns on our board. Um, pay Jarantha is a senior Princess Anne. He was with us last year.

He's returning for a second year. And recently council appointed two new student interns. Um, one Sophia Richardson's a senior at First Colonial High School and Aeland UAS is a senior at Ocean Lakes.

The board will advise city council members if we're presenting something at our monthly meeting that is in your district. So you can uh join us if you're able. Um board meetings are open to the public. We've changed our starting time. We used to start at 2:00 on the second Thursday of the month and we've backed that up to two th 2:30 on the second Thursday of the month. Our meeting's open to the public. The public

can comment. The board has a website accessible from the ripple effect website. Email address posted there for anybody who wants to talk to us.

board members are still excited to be part of this. Uh we met for the first time four years ago this month, seven members and all seven members are still on it. They're still excited to be there along with our three students. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to uh Lysa Pika from Jacob's Engineering.

Welcome.

Thank you. Well, I'm gonna talk to you for about 10 minutes today. I'm giving you that heads up because this slide might make you think I'm going to talk to you for about 30 minutes. So, I'm going to give over the highlights. I'm picking up where Jeff left off on what have we done since Hurricane Matthew, how are we in a better place? And if you categorize all the work that's been done

from an infrastructure perspective on how we've reduced neighborhood flooding, strengthened our coastal defenses, and really advanced a lot of long-term planning. There's 10 different categories of projects and types of improvements we've made and I'm going to touch on each one of those briefly.

We've done several projects that are neighborhoods centric that we are working on neighborhood drainage improvements and system upgrades. You can see those projects that are listed here on the right. They include neighborhoods such as Asheville Park, Bellamy Manor, and North and South Lake Holly. We've done a lot of the upgrades under the phase one protection uh FLA phase one flood protection program along

clubhouse road or old Forge Road, South Plaza Trail, Presidential Boulevard.

You've received updates along the with these as we went throughout the program.

In addition to the projects that were capital funded through the phase one flood protection program, the public works stormwater operations team received over $30 million of grant funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, ARPA we call it. And we were able to successfully spend those dollars and we improved the neighborhood drainage for 23 different neighborhoods and they are listed there on the right in

alphabetical order. What we were able to accomplish with that was not only to improve the drainage, but we were able to televise 61 miles of sewers and we actually lined 14 miles of storm sewers.

Very successful use of those grant dollars.

The program has also improved the storage capacity of canals, outfalls, lakes, and ditches. We've dredged canals such as Cape Henry Canal and and Windsor Woods Canal. We've also improved um uh outfalls such as Lake Pleasure House outfall was one of the projects we've you've heard about over the last few years. In addition to the capital program, we also received over $15 million in the ARPA grant funds through

the stormwater operations team and they were able to dredge 13 lakes throughout the city and those are also listed in alphabetical order at the right hand side of this slide. That sounds like a lot of work and it was. is it took a couple years to get it done and in the end we they were successful in dredging over 160,000 cubic yards of materials from those lakes freeing up the storage capacity to

receive storm water. That's equivalent since I'm an engineer I did some comparisons for you. That's equivalent to about 11,400 dump trucks that could be used to fill 1,200 Olympic size swimming pools. So that's a lot of material taken out of the lake so that we have capacity for the storm water system.

We've built tide gate structures at the Cape Henry Canal in Lake Windsor and the oversight board visited the Lake Windsor tidegate installation a couple times.

Those projects have been very successful to stop the tidal flow and protect our storage capacity downstream. That's resulted in reduced roadway and structure flooding. We have additional one additional uh tide gates that'll be coming with the rest of the phase one program and you'll be hearing about those as we move forward. In addition to just the gate structures themselves, we've also invested in a flood AI sensor

network that will be helping us to continue to automate and operate these things very efficiently in the future as we continue to operate them.

The city's invested in major storm water pump stations and the associated conveyance systems. We've put stations in at the Sherwood Lakes neighborhood and Asheville Park neighborhood since Hurricane Matthew. These pump stations are very important. They protect homes, businesses, and communities by pumping out excess water during storm events.

We'll be building 10 large pump stations over the next five years under the phase one program.

Since Hurricane Matthew, we have completed master planning for all drainage basins throughout the city.

They're all listed here on this slide on the right and shown on the map. And what those studies did is they looked at the watershed conditions specific to that drainage basin and identified what are the flooding and drainage risks and how can we mitigate them long term. So we have a whole slew of projects lined up for future phases of the flood protection program.

I also encourage everyone to refresh themselves with the sea level wise adaptation plan that's posted on the flood protection program website. This was a series of technical evaluations that was performed and developed that really talked about the whatifs could happen if sea level rise continues as forecasted by the specialists and experts. So we looked at things like what are the what would the t what it

look like title impacts look like downstream if sea level rise increases?

What would be some of the economic losses that could happen? What are some structural and non-structural protection alternatives? So this is an adaptation plan that's longterm. We have a few of the projects in the flood protection program. Some of them are in the US Army Corps of Engineers coastal storm risk management program, but it's just a really good ideal resilience measures the city could take

to protect itself.

We've done environmental and restoration and nature-based flood mitigation projects. You can see on the left side, that's a picture of the Linhaven River Basin ecosystem restoration. we were able to restore a portion of the oyster reef there and on the Elizabeth River wetland and floodplane restoration project that's currently ongoing and that is um restoring the shoreline and the flood plane along Elizabeth River.

As Jeff mentioned, the city has successfully secured $73.4 million in grant funding. This slide just gives you a little more specificity in the level of effort that it took to get that grant funding. It wasn't one big grant. We got about 27.2 million from the state through the community flood protection preparedness fund for several projects that are listed there. Federal funding,

we were able to get nearly 10 million from the National Fish and Wildlife National Coastal Resilience Fund, 19 million from the United States Department of Transportation, more than 25 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and another 2 million in federal earmarks. And you can see how that 73.4 four is divided amongst the flood protection projects. We're also showing you in this table here that

we're not done submitting grant applications and that the city public works team anticipates submitting another $44 million of grant applications as the program advances.

We've done preliminary engineering reports. Those are the basis for the project defining scope, schedule, budget, and how we're going to implement a project. We've done very detailed reports for Windsor Woods, Lake Bradford, Chub Lake, Central Resort District, Pungo Ferryy, and most recently Westnet Creek Bridge. Those reports are available on the flood protection website.

And finally, construction. We've heard we've shown you pictures throughout the last several years as projects are getting towards construction and we're actually showing progress and being made towards this program. So there are nine projects that we've completed and four that are underway including the ones Jeff mentioned the Bow Creek Stormwater Park, the Eastern Shore Drive bundle in

the Windsor Woods, the Lakes Princess Anne Plaza bundle of improvements along with Elizabeth River wetland and floodplane improvements. So collectively those 10 categories wasn't as bad as you might have thought it was going to be.

Those really represent the accomplishments and they constitute a comprehensive modernization of Virginia Beach's storm water system. Those improvements and accomplishments are restoring our hydraulic capacity throughout canals and lakes. They're expanding our flood control and through storm water pump stations and tide gates. And we're able to deliver neighborhood drainage grade upgrades and

improvements. And all of this information is being embedded with a long-term planning and resilience strategy. So it all fits together really nicely is not just what we're doing today, but what we'll be doing tomorrow.

I'm going to spend a few minutes giving you the third quarter update that I give you every quarter when you see me here.

As you may recall, this is a highle summary of the projects in the phase one flood protection program. Work starts on the left and progresses to the right. I mentioned West Neck Bridge, West Neck Creek Bridgees preliminary engineering recently. As projects advance, they'll go all the way to the right where construction is completed. Now, if you take a look, I'm going to show you compare Q2 to Q3.

So in since Q2 during Q3 we have finished we have advanced Pungo Ferry Road to a 90% design under the design build category. We are currently uh mobilizing for the Windsorwood pump station. So there'll be even more construction crews out and about and the central Resort District drainage improvement bundle or project is in its procurement for a request for proposal for design build contractors.

So summarizing our Q3 milestones that we've met, you can see we've met three design milestones. Projects are continuing to advance on their normal cycle. We've not had any impediments to most of our projects. We're continuing to get procurement. I mentioned central Resort for the Mega Princess Hand Plaza, the Lakes, and Windsor Woods bundle.

We're getting um construction engineering inspectors for three different locations. And I just wanted to give you a shout out reminder that next week on the 23rd is that groundbreaking ceremony for the Windsor Woods pump station.

So the when I talk to you next about fourth quarter, these are the milestones we're anticipating that we're going to hit. We'll continue advancing the design on Church Point, Pungo Ferry, and the mega bundle components. And we'll also be advertising construction for phase two of the Bo Creek Stormwater Park.

Um, getting to the accounting slide, we have spent um, $215 million on the phase one program and we've encumbered or committed an additional 750 million. So that we're really getting into a good season of the program where we're getting a lot of projects are being moved forward robustly.

This is my final slide just showing you the estimates broken down by master project. We're still tracking at 1.549 billion dollars and the change since last time we've aligned uh the Pongo Fairerryy project has been aligned the cost has been aligned with the CIP. So that's my update. I am pleased to be here and answer any questions that you may have about the flood protection program.

Before I get to work, Patrick, didn't we have a conversation with the planning commission recently on Pungo Ferry? Um, yes, HRTPO mayor, they they brought the Punga Ferry Bridge project into their adopted plan which will allow us to unlock some of the federal funds that we received.

Right. You know, I thought that New York was an important update. We're going to go with Worth and Barbara.

Thank you, Mayor D. Thank you, Mr. Mr.

Waller. Especially you, Mr. Waller, for your four years of service now. And uh that's leads to my first question. And also I want to site and thank uh our public works staff that's on this is a major major project for this city. Tony Utterback who's in the audience, Mike Tippen who's in the audience, and of course they're led by the director LJ Hansen, and I don't know how many of staff are working on this daily, but

look at all the progress that's been made here in 10 years. So, my first question is, and I asked it a couple years ago, I thought I'd get a different answer, but I'll ask it again. If this were a nine inning baseball game, what inning are we in now? And then I've got one follow-up question.

Start with the Stars. fourth. You're asking me that we were in the I think we're in and it may not be it's hard to predict.

Maybe fifth inning.

Okay. Yeah, there we go.

Okay. So, always halfway.

So, and that's a hopeful there's no rain.

Yeah.

Or extra innings.

All the above overall or cared over ones. Um, so the more important question, the oversight, this is an oversight board and Jacobs is kind of our owner's rep or an oversight.

Can you speak to again the role that you all play and the oversight board plays because they're trying to help us get this done, but also at a most costefficient. Okay, the Jacob team is continuing to provide uh project control support and that kind of means we're your independent auditor to document the progress and the budget for the projects. So, we're kind of ground truthing everything and making sure

everybody's being accurate. We're reporting you correctly about what's being accomplished. We're also providing support on enhancing process improvements. We've been helping project managers streamline how we advance projects. If you remember, even before the bond referendum, I was here talking to you about why does it take so long to get a project out? Why does it take seven to nine years for us to deliver a

project? And we identified several obstacles and we've been systematically working with staff on eliminating and reducing those obstacles. So, we've improved procurement efficiency, delivery timelines, we've run workflows on procurement, we've evaluated what are the steps in managing a project and getting approvals and internal coordination. So we've facilitated those internal conversations, kind of been the

moderator in the room and getting progress moving forward. Very successful on those. We're also doing the monthly reporting, public facing reporting. And early on we were involved a lot with the communications team. Now you have staffed that up. So you guys are pretty independent on that. But we were help formulated the branding and the messaging that we're still using today on the program. So today our our key

roles are kind of your auditor, your eyes and ears so that you're getting an independent perspective on how the progress is being done. The staff is doing an excellent job of managing these projects. We also identify risks and how we can do risk manage mitigation strategies. We do on every project that we meet monthly with the project team and saying, well, you know what, this happened on that project. Do we think

that's going to happen here? Should we maybe look out for that? So, we kind of we don't kick the tires, but we just kind of poke holes a little bit, give people something to think about. And that's the program team. Now, the oversight board, Jeff, do you want to answer that question about your role?

I need you at the microphone, sir.

You know, we we we look at the whole program and and we look to see one thing I always look at, we have the seven master projects. So, we making progress in in each of these areas and and they're not going to move at the same speed. We're not at the same status in every project, but but we're making pro progress in in every one of these. And we started what was the most ready to go

when we started and and most of them were in district three, Windsor Woods.

And Windsor Woods, we've spent more money there than we have on the rest of them. But Mr. Remick always reminds us, hey, you know, central business district is important. We we just look to see that we're moving forward in all of these districts. And then and then we're also looking at how does the city do this. So we've been briefed on procurement and and we've been briefed on uh the difference between a design

bid build contract and a design build.

Um so we just try to make sure that you know we look to see what's going along.

Thank you.

Okay. Barbara Cash.

Uh Josh and uh Maria, if you look back to slide on 22, uh the project Sandbridge new bridge intersection at 60% design and it's on hold. Uh this is the southern entrance to Sandbridge. There really two entrances to Sandbridge. This is the southern entrance and uh somewhere along the line somebody decided that this new bridge sandbridge intersection should be combined or track with the N07B project.

Um and which means that instead of doing just an environmental assessment, it's got to wait for it in full environmental impact setting. So that project is on hold.

But there's a major problem out there right now. Uh coming into Newbridge Road from Sandbridge. And Newbridge is a horrible road. Very narrow, very crooked and sloppy. And if you come into Newbridge Road from Sandbridge Road, just a couple hundred yards, the road is collapsed into the ditch from the white line over. I mean, the concrete is in the ditch. That's a very dangerous situation. Somebody's driving along

there in the dark tracking the white line is going to be over and he's going to get hurt and we're not going to have to wait for this project to fix that army. This is a repair. That's a major safety issue. So, I would hope that's going to get done now.

Mentally, I talked to staff. It wasn't You just not This is the first time hearing about it. I'll talk to staff to see if they're tracking that. We don't All you got to do is ride out there and you can't miss it.

Yeah. We don't typically wait for repairs.

Somebody's missed it because it's been like that for quite a while. Okay.

But I hope we're going to go ahead and fix that because it's a very dangerous situation.

Yeah. So, if it needs to be repaired, we don't wait for these kind of massive CIPs to get that done. So, if it needs to get repaired, similar to what happened with Indian River Road, we'll get a crew over there to look at it.

Yeah. It's not going to be cheap either.

So, uh I was just afraid we were going to try to hold this off, but it needs fixing yesterday.

Okay. Cash Josh Amelia, thank you for your presentation. Flip mitigation is very important and um so I'm grateful to hear what you're doing for individual neighborhoods when it involves different neighborhoods. You will bring them to the table somehow through their civic league or through the council representative. that is um that is uh forward thinking because we are very much about proactive. I'm

grateful that I looked at ARPA funded neighborhood drainage improvements and I can look here in at Salem Village, right, and Rock Creek. You were able to do some improvements.

That's where I get most of the phone calls at.

And so you are already on top of this.

So thank you for having your grant writers in place. Thank you for being proactive and letting our community know that we are proactive.

So it's more of a thank you.

You're welcome on behalf of staff.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Okay, Josh. Thank you, mayor, and thank you both very much. Um, I it's it's always incredible to see all of the different things going on and uh we appreciate you coming back to us and and keeping us informed and and for you know asking good questions. Uh worth and I have really enjoyed and I've enjoyed joining you as a liaison to uh to the committee. Um I've got a couple uh specific questions about the slides. um

the 20 uh 22 slide 22 and this is with regard to the um the churchpoint thro good BMP phases 1A and 1B. Um Q the Q2 slide shows 1A at preliminary engineering and then 1B at 60%. Um and then if you flip to the next slide uh 23 it shows 1B at preliminary engineering and then 1 A at 60%. I I know I I'm paying real close attention to that project because um just a little

historical um those projects or aspects of those projects were planned before our flood protection program um and because of some of the work that we're doing um in around the lakes and particularly Bradford Chub Lake pump station that's later in the design build there. Um uh we we're we're looking for other ways to store water that may not be so impactful. Um which is I believe

why we split this in between 1 A and 1B.

Um and and 1B I believe is is is a sensitive spot. So I just want to it's a there trees next to the Bayside Rec Center. Um and and I know that we were we separated those projects out. We were going to kind of talk about those separately. So, I I wanted to make sure that that we got the percentage and where in the design phase correct. Um,

and then if you flip to the Q4, I think maybe a couple slides down. There you go. Yeah. So, it's Church Point 30% design 1B. So, I just want to make sure that we're we're right on that. Um, and then the other thing is I want to let people know how hard folks work, especially from public works. Um, these are disruptive projects. I mean, I don't have to tell, you know, Councilman

Berluchcci how, you know, and or any of the rest of us how disruptive some of these can be in the neighborhood. So, um, but but y'all do really make um an effort and our public works team does to minimize those efforts. And I can speak to one in mine uh in my district uh the the prime coastal primary sand dune that we saved at the the northwest corner at Chicks Beach because people um you know

wanted to take a different look and use an existing road when we said we couldn't and we found a way to do it and we don't have to take out that natural defense. I mean um and and the the the tree you know in our public works team does it too with uh road projects. So the the fence around that beautiful live oak at the base of the lesser and and

all the work that we did to save uh trees along phase three and phase 4 and shore drive. So um I I appreciate you highlighting the naturebased solutions in particular the lake Bradford ditch capacity the oyster reef restoration in the Linhaven and the Elizabeth River um wetlands and flood plane work. So, um those are pipes on the ground and gray infrastructure and um and I know that's

been a priority of the public to um find ways to use naturebased solutions. So, um I'm sorry I went off a little bit, but this is close to me and these are things that my residents and all of our residents deal with and I just want to make sure that it was said out loud.

Thank you.

Okay, Amelia.

Well, first of all, thank you again. Of course, I see um Mr. Wallace sometimes twice before he comes because we both go to the same church. But turn to um page eight to see on there where you have the accomplishments since 2016 because I remember going to Asheville Park all the way up to knees and water as people took me through there showing that and so that's a good improvement where you have on um the pump.

Yep. Also on three where you have the uh flood control for Lake Smith as we're going through I'm picking up certain areas in that time and then the people when I go to uh committee or community meetings to mention the road where they're working on the ditches because people always wonder what is that yellow thing going down the I get calls about that and I tried to explain to them what

it is the drainage and it's made a difference because if you come over to Herbert Road where before you could hardly get through with even the busing now it's all paid so when I was there Sunday people are actually listening we have a good educated populace and hearing about this this is something to bring back to see look what we accomplished look what we promised and last thing I want to congratulate you on

having that 73 3 million. It's not easy, but compiling getting those done. Thank you so much. Well, thank you, Rosemary.

This has been quite a journey starting in 2016 with Matthew and then 2021 with our bond referendum that 72% of our voters said they were all in. It was a 4.1 cents on the real estate tax, which we were able to absorb. We had no clue that it was going to triple in price and it's fantastic that we've been able to get so many grants to bring that cost down through some smart

bundling and woods lakes area and it's absolutely incredible to see how far we've come and what a testimony to the city and and all of you but also public works. This is these are a lot of balls to budget. I mean to a lot of balls to put up have in the air and have all these things going on. It's absolutely mind-blowing and overwhelming. So just compliments to all of you and you think

about what a difference it's already making. Um, and of course, Shore Drive, it's in process, all those big pipes that are out there and bumpy roads and all that, but it's going to be these things are painful going through them as disruptive as Josh said, but it's going to be worth it in the long run. So, just a compliment, Patrick, to you and your staff and to the citizens that have

volunteered for this. Hey, Michael.

Agree with so much as what has been said here. Um, just have a couple of reflections and then and then one question. Uh, as the council member who serves the um district 3 which includes winter woods and princess plaza and the lakes neighborhoods that were most directly impacted by hurricane Matthews in 2016. I acutely am aware of the responsibility we all have to be responsive to the um infrastructure and

human needs that exist within that community. Um the impact of the flooding wasn't hypothetical for for those folks as you know. Um and it impacted their families. I think back to people I've talked to who had to spend the better part of a year living in a hotel with their families while their kids uh got rides to school or had to find a way to get to the bus from

a hotel to the school um and do sports and homework and put food on the table and all the other things. I think about the families whose um lifelong collection of belongings was basically out on the street uh the week after the flood uh storm occurred in 2016.

And um and then I think today about the phone calls I receive when um a storm is approaching whether that's a hurricane or a very aggressive summertime thunderstorm as we've experienced. Um, and so I'm glad that we are moving as with every resource that we possibly can put together to be responsive to the needs of of those neighborhoods and others throughout the city as well. Of

course, it's not unique, but this is the area that was most directly impacted and where the greatest need exists and and we're responding and we're doing great work. I think it's important to note that um these uh projects are not complete and these systems um that the projects were designed to support work cohesively as a system. So it's it's uh improved maintenance, it's uh enhanced

um capacity for storm water, it's improved drainage and enhanced preparation. all the things that you mentioned like the AI and some of the technology and um being able to pump water out to prepare for an incoming storm, but in the meantime, we can't guarantee that there won't be some flooding uh that's experienced. And and I and I just want to be uh and I don't necessarily mean in the home, but

but I'm thinking back to pretty much a year ago, as a matter of fact, I think it was September 17th of 2025, we were at a council meeting and um it had been raining all day and um there were um there was a lot of flooding. Cars were flooded. Fortunately, there were no homes flooded. Cars were flooded.

Property was damaged. Um, and that was from a that was from a rainstorm.

And so these neighborhoods, in particular, the those in district three are very much living with the threat of flooding on a daily basis. And um so I thank the council, I thank the community, I thank all of you for the work to u that we that and resources invested in in addressing this to make sure that people can rely um on the idea that their homes won't flood and their car won't be floated down the street

when they when they walk outside in the morning. um and that they won't have to live in a hotel and take take their kids to school from a hotel while it's being repaired. Not to mention all the insurance problems and everything. So, this is a very real and very human um problem that we're facing and and I'm I'm grateful for it. I welcome your comments on sort of, you know, I think

you said the fifth inning or bottom of the fourth sort of where we are, but but I think it's really important to note because there's a sense that there's an expectation that we made so much progress that the risk of flooding is so substantially reduced and it has been reduced, but it's still real. We still, for example, don't have the permanent pumps installed at Lake Windsor. Um,

they're ordered. I think they're being we have a plan to install them, but they're just not there yet. So, those pumps aren't operating at the capacity that they'll be once once in place, but um but we're learning about that every day and and I think it's important to be transparent about that. So, I wonder if you could a make a comment about sort of um where we are in the proc besides the

inning uh thing, but just you know, what can people expect when they have a big storm? We're in hurricane season. We're in the middle of an unusually calm hurricane season now. So So what could residents expect if a storm approaches that's on the scale of Matthew? And and then B um um could you talk about we're about to break ground on a um pump station and and and mega bundle stuff. Could you

talk a little bit about what that project is and and uh what the residents can expect from that upcoming project?

That's I think the ribbon cutting is next. Groundbreaking is next week.

I I'll take a you never know what we got to learn more about if it's if a storm like Matthew came again, you got to learn about the trajectory of the storm. But the city is in a better place because we do have more projects that are accomplished and as um Leicia mentioned some of the maintenance work that we've done has added additional capacity. So we are in a better place.

But it's hard to really predict how all that stuff will perform because it's one system that we're trying to build and it's not fully built yet, but I'm sure Alicia or Mike will say something else.

So go ahead speak to that.

Yeah, thank you. Um I'm Mike Tippen, lead the Stormwater Engineering Center and for the groundbreaking that's for the Windsor Woods pump station. So we'll be starting construction for the actual pump station. That's the 800 CFS pump station. And then at the same time, we'll start working flood walls on South Boulevard and working upwards toward the Failure Creek toward Lake Trashmore. So that whole system would start

construction. We're looking probably four years. It's heavy construction. and it's deep construction and at the same time that's going we're going to start probably a year later for Northland and Ridge Creek. So it's a it's going to be a lot of construction for five years of big heavy construction, a lot of deep excavation. So it's um you know back to what we were saying earlier on some of the disruptions, it

will be a little bit disruptive and we've been working with parks and wreck hand in hand to greatly reduce the disruption. That's one of the busiest parks that we have in the city. if not the busiest park right there.

Oh, it's the busiest.

Yes. Oh, for sure. And I don't know if you had another question on that.

You got Okay.

Now, regarding the second part to a sorry, I had Mike come up. He has a lot more details on that. We've only spent 215 million of the 1.5 billion. So, level setting those kind of expectations is important. But what we have successfully done between since Hurricane Matthew is really have a better understanding of how the city floods. So we're we have a better predictive analytics today and we're

doing a good job of notifying people on specific roadways that this is going to flood, putting the signage out in advance. So I think we'd be able to give people a perspective, a better warning than maybe they had for Matthew at the very minimum because we have sensors throughout this city. We have level controllers. We have cameras. We have all this technology that we've installed

since then that didn't exist at that time. So, I think we have and we understand how each of these drainage basins work. So, we have a better prediction on what's going to happen with that type of storm. And we I think we would have a better warning as we're continuing the construction. Until we get more things built, we actually can't provide the true protection, but we can provide a better warning. Well, but

warning is one thing, but you know, it's I know I don't have to remind you that when you have water in your house, I mean, it is what it is, but it that's not a a warning is good, but we want to keep the water out, right?

But but we do need but we also need a better warning because, for example, the rainstorm that occurred on September 17th of 2025, there was no warning for that. There was no warning for that. And people people not only were their lives interrupted and I'll give you an example. I was on my way home from this council meeting and only because I was on the phone with um neighbor who I

didn't know who called me and was very upset about the flooding experience told me how to get home because there people couldn't even get to their house.

um and they had no idea that was that was going to happen or that was going to and and it really it people are continue to be very upset about it and that's uh that's something that's um rational to feel that way based on the experiences that they have had um and I do I do think that we do need to do improve our communications about what to expect and and because let me give an

example if you remember Mr. Janei, you you and I spoke in great detail last time about claims about drains being clogged, um about what happens if there's flooding in the street and and like you know, mother nature is her own thing, but um but people make begin to make assumptions about things in the absence of information and and I do think we have a lot of room for improvement on. And I

would just caveat like hurricanes, we do get a general sense of when they're coming but when we do have those flush flash rate events like especially that day that we had that king tide and that flash rain that came around the same time, it's hard for us to know that we're going to get like six or eight inches in an hour or two. Yeah.

Okay. Anybody else?

Yeah. I just want to thank you and um this hurricane Matthew was a gamecher and as the major as the manager often says you know we pivoted with our CIP and our percentage of CIP that went into storm water dedication increased uh significantly.

The other reality is that yes, in 2021 we passed a bond referendum for $567 million, but since 2018, uh the cost of building materials went up 99%.

And uh you know, now the same projects cost of 1.6 uh billion, but once again, this is a situation that we're going to have to deal with decades even beyond this, you know. So you know Michael's talking about reality and this is just another factor but you know I think you know the frustrating part for everybody that you know projects of this magit magnitude take time to ripen you know

from design to uh you know all the uh you know boxes they have to check and everything. It takes years just to get the first shovel in the first round in the ground. But once again, I can't tell you how pleased I am and I think we are, but you're seeing the the magnificent progress that has been made to date and the plans in the future are implementable. So once again, I just

want to give you all kudos and uh can't wait to see you next time and we'll get the fourth quarter report.

Sounds good.

You got it.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor members of council at this time of our planning department in particular with going to come and brief the council on exciting news regarding the national flood insurance program and our community rating system. It is exciting news.

You'll see.

God bless you.

Well, good afternoon everyone. I'm going to continue our uh theme of flood presentations and give you all an update on the national flood insurance program.

What? Okay. And the community rating system.

Not sure.

Yep. Um so I am Whitney McMamera. I'm with the planning department and oversee our environmental team as well as our floodplay management program and the community rating system program. So, for this presentation, I'm going to give everyone an overview of our national flood insurance program, community rating system, Virginia Beach's participation in the CRS program, and then um new points that we've earned in

the CRS, as well as areas where we've increased points since we joined, and then next steps, and then have time for some questions.

So, for the National Flood Insurance Program, standard homeowners insurance does not cover flooding. So to address that gap, the National Flood Insurance Program was created in 1968 to help provide a means for property owners, renters, and business owners to financially protect themselves of flooding. In return for fally backed flood insurance, local governments must agree to adopt and enforce a flood plane

ordinance, regulating development in areas prone to flooding, as well as flood insurance rate maps. Virginia Beach was one of the first communities in the country to join the NFIP, joining the emergency program on September 11th, 1970 and later transition to the regular program in 1971. And that's the program we still participate in. Uh Virginia Beach adopted a standalone flood plane

ordinance which is appendix K of city code on November 26th of 2013 and that's periodically reviewed and was last updated in September 2025. Prior to that, flood plane requirements were originally part of the zoning ordinance and then later the site plan ordinance.

Our flood maps are created by FEMA using modeling to determine storm probabilities and potential flood levels and they are updated periodically. Our maps were last updated in January 2015 and at this time I have not heard any indication from FEMA that we are getting an update in the near future.

Properties located in the special flood hazard areas, which are zones A, AE, and ve shown in green on this map, are required to carry flood insurance if they're financed by a fedally backed mortgage, and those are the ones backed by Fanny Mayor Freddy Mack. Uh, currently in Virginia Beach, we have a little under 20,000 flood insurance policies.

So, the community rating system was developed by FEMA in 1990 to provide NFIP flood insurance policy holders a way to get discounts on their flood insurance premiums in exchange for things that the local government or city is doing to reduce flood risk for the community. Participation is voluntary on the part of the local government and there are 18 activities in four broad categories of flood plane management. So

public information includes outreach and other activities that inform residents of their flood risk and actions they can take to minimize their risk. Mapping and regulation is actions that minimize flood risk during development such as open space preservation, higher regulatory standards above the FE FEMA minimum and storm water management standards. Flood damage reduction includes actions that minimize flooding

such as hazard planning and drainage system maintenance. And then flood warning and response is actions in place to alert residents during a flood event.

Communities earn points for undertaking activities in each of these categories.

It's up to the individual community which categories and which points fit their community. And then the discounts on the flood insurance policies can range from 5% to 45%.

And that's again based on which activities the community is participating in.

So, in Virginia Beach, uh, the city joined the CRS as a class 7 community, which is equivalent to a 15% discount on May 1st, 2019.

Discounts apply to NFIP flood insurance policies in all flood risk zones, paying full risk rates. So, again, that's about 19,800 policies citywide.

Um the city participated in a verification visit with FEMA in November 2025. So as a CRS participant, we have to provide certain documentation to certify our ongoing activities annually and then about every fiveish years a verification visit is conducted and this is a full audit and review of our entire CRS program and all documentation has to be provided to re-evaluate our program.

So based on the new activities and increase points, the city will progress to a class 6 community with a 20% discount on October 1st, 2026.

So some of the areas we earned new points, so these are brand new points that we did not previously have was for map information service. We got 90 new points providing residents with flood zone determinations over the phone and via email. And then flood protection information was 56 new points.

Information that's available on the city's website related to flood insurance, flood maps, flood protection, as well as some documents in the city's library catalog. And then drainage system maintenance. Um, a special thanks to Kyle Kuba and public works stormwater who pulled all the information together for this activity. We got 247 points for annual inspection and clearing of channels and storage basins to prevent

localized flooding.

And then for increased points, we earned increased points on outreach projects to help residents understand flooding and their flood risk um through things such as our storm drain markers. some of the road signs that we've put up saying high water, this road subject to flooding, or the actual depth signs that have been put up in some locations, as well as some of the work on social media. Um,

hazard disclosure to help prospective property buyers understand their flood risk and then also higher regulatory standards for development, including requiring elevating the finished floor of a structure to reduce flood risk. A lot of those higher regulatory standards came from a 2022 ordinance update that increased freeboard in the VE flood zone. So those are the areas along the coast subject to wave action to 3 ft

above FEMA's flood elevation. We also required freeboard for mechanical equipment. So hot water heaters, HVAC, that type of thing. And then we um are regulating finished floor height in areas outside of our special flood hazard area. So again, the special flood hazard area is A, AE, and VE. And the areas outside of that are regulated using the city's storm water master plan to help provide additional buffer in

those areas.

So next steps, um, for residents, the CRS discount is automatically applied to all policies in all flood zones paying the full risk rate. So if a resident does not see a discount, they should contact their insurance company to inquire about it. It should be automatically applied. The CRS discount does not apply to a small subset of policies that are paying a discounted rate. Those are mostly properties that

are pre-firm subsidized. So they were paying a artificially lower rate because they were developed before we had flood maps. properties that are grandfathered under an older map and then properties that got newly mapped in under an older map. Um on staff side, we will continue our annual reertification to maintain our rating and we'll explore additional class increases. However, at this point,

because the program was originally developed around the things we were already doing in the city, additional class increases will most likely require programmatic and policy changes to earn those additional points.

And with that, I'll take any questions.

Okay, Stacy, thank you. Very informative. I have um two questions. one, you said if if um people don't see a discount, the raise in the discount, who should they contact?

Their insurance agent, specifically their flood insurance agent.

And then going from 15 to 20 is great thing. My question is, and this is probably um speculative obviously, but the highest discount achievable is 45%.

Given our current status of where we are with storm war, I'm assuming that years from now when this is all complete, we'll have better opportunities. But given our current status, what would what do you think would be our maximum possible discount if we if we were doing everything we could possibly do?

It's Whitney, I think I asked for I think I asked for Whitney when she briefed me on this. I think she's putting something together for us to share with Council Whitney. Go ahead if you want to say something. I was just going to say it's incredibly hard to speculate how high we could potentially go. Um the communities that are class one and I think there's only two or three nationwide that are class one.

They pretty much don't allow development in their special flood hazard area at all.

So then the discounts are going to the residents in the city outside the special flood hazard area because they're prohibiting the development in the special flood hazard area.

Obviously, for a city like Virginia Beach where we have such a close relationship with water, that would be incredibly challenging to achieve. Um, so we're definitely going to keep looking at things, see where points make sense, um, and see where we can progress, um, as possible.

So, we do have a plan to look at areas where we can maybe improve.

Yes. Correct.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Hey, anybody else? tell you good news and once again you know us being proactive you know with the crisis that happened a number of years ago and you know I tell you what I think we had a couple very dynamic reports today Mr. Dehaney good stuff okay thank you Whitney thank you so Mr. Mayor, members of council, at this time we'll be joined by Emily Archer, the econom economic development

director, and Jerry Matthysse, who's the manager of the Hive. They're going to give city council overview of some of the small business resources we provide to our small business entrepreneurs in the city of Virginia Beach.

Great. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of city council. Um, thanks for having us today.

Uh, this is an informational kind of briefing for you to talk about our small business resources that we offer uh incentives throughout through the department of economic development, specifically our hive small business resource center, our uh small business grants opening October 1st, um, facade improvement grants, and our workforce development. But before I jump in, I'd be remissed if I didn't take the

opportunity to introduce the department and our focus on supporting and expanding the city's tax base, spreading job creation, investment, and helping businesses start, grow, and stay here.

Um, the diagram on the right I show a lot. I really like it. Um, it really shows our holistic view of economic development. Um what I mean by that is it connects uh traditional financial growth with commercial and and industrial real estate development in the upper like left with workforce development, the jobs needed to fill the the companies we're bringing and the housing that's needed for those

employees to live in. And then the community development uh driving places of community value that sustain and enhance our quality of life in Virginia Beach, which is the biggest attraction of all.

But back to the focus on small business today, the Small Business Administration, specifically in Virginia, classify small businesses as under 250 employees. By that measure, over 99% of the 39,000 registered businesses in Virginia Beach are small businesses. They are the backbone of our economy, which is why we have a whole resource center dedicated to small businesses.

Uh, I want to turn it over at this time to our uh, hive manager, Jerry Matthysse. Jerry joined us four months ago and has taken it to the next level there. So, I really wanted the opportunity today to introduce you to him so you can hear directly from him and the resources available. Jerry, welcome Jerry. Thank you.

Thank you, Emily. Uh, greetings to our mayor, vice mayor, council members.

Again, my name is Jerry Matthysse. I am the senior business development representative uh for the Hive and Virginia Beach economic development.

Excited to talk to you about the Hive today and what we're doing for our city and our entrepreneurs. So, if you didn't know, the Hive stands for a hub for innovation veterans and entrepreneurship. Uh we opened in 2021.

The Hive helps entrepreneurs and small businesses start and scale in the city.

Um some of the resources that are available are um through our partners.

We have over 60 partners that we work with at the Hive. Um, some of them are featured here like the SBDC, um, the small business applied diversity department through the state and then also our score mentor volunteer program.

The list goes on and on. We work with companies like Retail Alliance, Black Brand, Innovate Hampton Roads, which we have the Virginia Cup coming up on Thursday and the pre-party uh, at the Hive. So, I know our mayor will be there. Um, hopefully everyone can join us. But, um, tons of resources and we help with business formation. So, if you're forming an LLC, escorp, CC corp, what have you, we help with that. Um,

one-on-one coaching, planning, scaling, and finance. Um, industry guidance, government contracting is a huge topic.

Um, we have our SWAM finance office that helps. They did industry day at the hive today. We had over a hundred people that attended that event at the hive from 9:00 to 12. That was this morning. Um, so busy day at the hive. We also have on the state level um with swam certification, Miss Angela Barber who's a valuable resource um at our office and she offices out of the hive and then

also um on the federal level we have our apex accelerator program. So we help at all levels when it comes to to contracting uh financial resources. We know one of the biggest hurdles with starting a business is access to capital and finding the funding that's needed.

So we have partnerships with uh traditional institutions like Truis, Town Bank, Fulton Dollar, but also CDFI partners and a host of other um partners that help when it comes to accessing capital for our small businesses. And we have the small business grant program, which I'll talk about uh here in a second through the city. Um so so far for last year 2526, we were able to host 165 small business workshops. Very busy

at the hive. Uh and then we also had 191 one-on-one client visits. The one-on ones again are different topics. It could be marketing, HR, access to capital and various topics our entrepreneurs are requesting. Uh we are on track to exceed that for 2627. Um we already had 38 workshops so far for Q1 and we're still going strong. Um this next slide here.

Okay. So, for the grant, the small business grant program, just to give you a little background on the program, the department of economic uh development and uh the ID EDIP program is the name of our grant program. Overall, it has different parts to it. The one that we manage through our office here at the hive is part F, which I'll get to specifically. Um the EDIP program provides performance-based discretionary

grants to qualifying businesses that are relocating to or expanding uh in Virginia Beach. So, our small business grant program, um, the grant opens October 1st. We've been hosting pre-application workshops, which I'll tell you a little bit more about those here in a second. Um, the small business grant program provides up to $10,000 in reimburseable funding to help businesses strengthen their operations and grow.

Uh, the website to access that is yesvvergirginia.comsbg for small business grant. All the information is there, the guidelines, FAQs. Again, we are hosting these pre-application workshops. We've had four um so far that we've hosted um at the hive.

Uh I will say the ones that we've hosted, we had 388 uh individuals that have already registered for those. We've already had 119 businesses that have attended the pre-application workshop and we have four more which I have the dates coming up on one of the uh slides.

Uh, in 2024, the city council approved an amendment to the EDIP policy, part F, to create a dedicated grant for small businesses. Part F provides grants through our VBDA, our development authority, in the amount, again, up to $10,000 to small womenowned, minorityowned, veteranowned, or service disabled veteranowned businesses. Um, during the first round we launched in 2024, we were able to award out 17 of

those grants. Um, so that's exciting.

Uh, and those different businesses varied. Um, I have a slide here I'm going to move to next.

Actually, it's coming up in a second, but I'll give you an example of some of those businesses. Um, these are the qualifications that are included. They have to be a micro business with fewer than 25 employees. They have to hold a valid Virginia Beach license, and they have to have held it for at least one year in order to qualify for this grant through the city. Um, current on the

payment of all local taxes and fees.

They haven't received any other grants from us in the last year and does not employ an officer official employee of the city VBDA or our minority business council. As you can see, these are some of the permanent uses uh for the grant.

Uh we tried not to limit it. So, uh we wanted we want to decrease the barriers uh in terms of what was available for these businesses to use the funds on.

So, it includes things like marketing and advertising expenses, equipment supply purchases, working capital for the purchase of inventory or renewables, business expansion, and real estate acquisition. Um, some of the non-permanent uses are things like payroll and lease payments and personal expenses.

Um, here's the slide I was talking about that lists some of the previous awardees. Uh, again, we had 17 that were awarded in 2024. As you can see, there are various types of businesses. Um, everyone from a photo booth to artists, um, sculpturists, um, beauty and cosmetic, uh, estheticians. So, it really ranges. So, it definitely opens up the opportunity for small businesses to really, um, get some funding and help

grow here in the city.

Okay. The last slide I have here is the current application and program schedule. So, we've allocated 150,000 toward this next round um of funding.

So, these are the next um application pre-application workshop dates, September 22nd and September 28th. We hold them at 10 and at 6:00 p.m. Um these are hybrid. They're both virtual and in person. So, we want to make it accessible for anyone to be able to join these workshops. Uh we send out a virtual link um before the actual workshop is held. The application window opens October 1st for everyone. At the

same time, they have 30 days to submit their application. Uh the t we're targeting December 26 uh to present the recommended awardees to the development authority. And with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Emily. Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Jerry. Um, I'd be remiss if we talked about small business today and I didn't bring up our facade improvement grant program. This one, um, opens in January every year, so not quite open yet, but I did want to talk about the success that it has had. It's a, um, matching grant program for small businesses under 50 employees, locally owned and operated. It's a matching

grant up to $10,000 for any significant exterior improvements in any commercially or industrially zoned property in the city. Um it's typical facade improvements, windows on these doors, but also includes site improvements like fencing and landscaping and parking upgrades. Um one of our recipients is on the right there in district 3. This program actually grew out of the vibe matching grant

programs that were first offered in 2018 2019. It was so successful there that city council at the time asked us to take it citywide and we have. So for the past six years, we've awarded almost six the BBDA has awarded over six almost $600,000 uh for 85 different businesses. That in turn has uh with their matching investment, we're finding they don't just match the minimum, they're putting

above and beyond. So it's we keep track of that and it's spurred over $2.5 million in private investment to our commercial corridors throughout the city. It is administered through the VBDA but funded annually through our um department budget. Um I the map on the right is a point of pride. We found um this year that we had the widest geographic uh participation to date.

Eric Severn on our staff is the manages the these efforts and went um to numerous businesses in all 10 districts this year talking to hundreds of people including one pig named Lightning at the Blackwater training post in district 2.

Um also we lastly we do offer a form of support not just for small businesses.

This goes for big or small new or existing. We have workforce development support a dedicated workforce manager within the department to assist with recruitment, talent development and retention of employees. Uh just last year alone they met with 60 businesses uh just on workforce support efforts. Um and they've been increasing their engagement with transitioning military members, over 14,000 that we have in the

city every year uh for workforce programs. Um you can see Eison Moak, our workforce coordinator there at the Langley Air Forcebased career summit recently.

Um we also do a lot of partnering with our workforce programming. Uh this is not an exhaustive list but highlights that we um connect businesses with educational institutions and numerous organizations for that programming to include the Hampton's Roads Workforce Council, uh Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Tidewater Community College, Baton University, and the Hampton Roads Veterans Employment Center. We even

hosted a specific work workforce related event at the Hive in January there on the right.

So what's coming up for us in the next um six months I would say is we're kicking off our economic development strategic plan. This is part of the year focus action plan initiative for us um to position the city for economic success success and ensure alignment of resources and efforts and to stay competitive. Um we've hired a consultant that'll be reviewing our incentive packages and support our target

industries and um there will be opportunities for public input. So stay tuned for that. And then recently at our VBA meetings, there's been a lot of discussion about the EDIP. It was last updated in 2024, but we're thinking about if there could be um more comprehensive part F small business support out there and then refining target industries uh for eligible incentives and inclusion of more tools

geared toward redevelopment spec specifically coming out of the recent comprehensive plan update.

Uh there are QR codes on the screen for the business grant opening soon, including if you want to prepare ahead for the facade improvement grant in 27.

Um thank you and happy to take any questions.

Okay. Can I ask Jerry to go back up there?

Of course.

Uh as a tribute to our economic development, uh Jerry and I attended event last Saturday and could you give some of the details of that event?

Sure. Uh we had the pleasure to attend the diverse chamber uh event where we were recognized for top uh city for small business. So it was an award that we received from them. Uh the mayor and myself were there to accept the award.

It was an awesome event. We had Virginia Beach businesses present. It was on the ocean front. Um so excited to participate, but it was great to receive that honor and to be recognized on a national level for all the work we're doing for small business.

It was on a national level and No, but I'm just saying u you know it's a tribute to the actions that economic development has been doing and when you think about the positive effect of the minority business council and I had the pleasure working with them for 14 years before I became mayor. There is such positive energy and synergy going on uh especially all business but especially

with SWAM uh minority and veterans and uh just small business. You know I think you know last Saturday was uh you know a a tribute to your efforts and I just wanted to thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay. Any other questions? Rosemary. I just want to say Emily and Jerry yesterday and they have such a positive attitude of even though we're doing this is fantastic by the way all the great things they're doing. Uh but always looking at how we can improve and make things better and we talked about putting some of the applications and materials into some of the other languages that people in our city speak.

I think might be really helpful.

Hey, I just wanted to say yeah you can see the the one where the 600,000 gone to the 2.5. What a I mean that's just so terrific. You know, the people are putting even more into it, but we're helping them. But you can see it. I can tell you in West Kimsville and over over against Military Highway and Indian River Road. Um you you see that where there's new facades. I mean, it's it's

definitely uh sprucing up the look and it does help, you know. I mean, it's some parts of of district one are the, you know, the oldest businesses in the city, you know, so it's kind of it's kind of nice that we've given them a a hand. They've paid a lot over the years, so it's nice to help them uh look a little sharper. So, thank you very much.

Thank you.

And, you know, Amelia, I was just going to say as um council me for the minority business council, um Jerry has hit the ground running. is excited when you go to the meetings ready to share this information and everyone's listening. So that shows we're happy to have you.

Okay.

Hey Josh, thank you very much. the presentation.

Um, as we were talking about the facade improvement grants, it, you know, just came to mind that, um, this started out as something that was primarily, you know, offered along Atlantic Avenue at the the resort and over the last several years. this council, I think, you know, rightly so, recognized that um, you know, businesses all over our city are um, equally deserving of of these these

funds to help improve their facades. And I wonder as we look at I mean just like coming out of the count plan how um we've identified corridors as um something that um is you know things that are really important to focus on and centers um how we might be able to potentially expand this program where we have alignment in terms of what we want to see those corridors and centers become. Um because I'm thinking of at

least a couple in my district like Hey, good road for example. Um and uh just generally the independent of our corridor as um as opportunities for things like that. And I'm sure um you know we've got Linhaven, we've got Centerville, we've got Kempsville, we've got other places that um we want to see look different but also um kind of hearken back to like the the the identity they are too and and help

enhance that. So anyway, just food for thought.

Yeah, great idea. Thank you.

Okay, anybody else? Tell you what, we've been doing a number of ribbon cutings.

I' I've attended with all of you over, you know, recent times. And I'll tell you what, there's a strong interest in people wanting to come to Virginia Beach and open their businesses, but also business expansion. And I'll tell you what, kudos to all of you. This is really, really good news. Thank you. All right. Thank you.

All righty. Any uh discussions, initiatives or anything?

Barbara, um yesterday morning I attended presentation at senior resource center on fall prevention.

Um, a fall is an unplanned descent to the surface and it's something that nobody wants to encounter. But unfortunately, it happens to a lot of people particularly as we get older and it gets a little more uh concerning the older you get. You know, a sevenyear-old kid can fall and bounce right back up, but you add a few decades to that, it doesn't happen.

But then last night I was over at the villages at West Neck and um their um community association president gave me this letter. Uh and it's it's sort of coincidental that they are requesting some assistance from the city in looking at their sidewalks. Uh many of the sidewalks have become cracked, uneven, and lifted over time, creating significant tripping hazards for residents. Because our community is home

primarily to senior adults, this poses safety concerns for people who walk for exercise, use mobility aids, walk their dogs, or simply travel through the neighborhood each day. Even small changes in the sidewalk elevation can increase the risk of falls and injuries, and it goes on. but they have been asking somebody from the city to come over and look at the things that they have identified and that they uh feel like

they need some some help on. Um and uh I think they said they've been asking since January. I would appreciate it if the appropriate person could go over there with me from the staff and we could look at the sidewalks over there and see if there are things that we really do need to do when we particularly have a neighborhood like West Neck which is age restricted. Um The sidewalks are pretty important. I

mean, even we look here at our complex, it's so important that we are aware of these tripping hazards on the sidewalks because it can happen in an instant and it's it's can be very devastating to to the person who who is unfortunate. So, if we could look at this with Westnneck, maybe it'll give us some clues with some things we need to do for other neighborhoods as well. But um it's kind

of coincidental that I had two issues with falls in the same day. I hope that doesn't pretend anything.

We had pardon we had to look at the sidewalks in Castleton and they redid a lot of this past last year and also I think courthouse estates.

Yeah, they also did a lot of work in Yeah, we really need to be aware of the sidewalks and just minor things that maybe we can do to make them safer. But uh I would like to have someone go over there to West Neck with me and look at it and we'll see um see what we can learn.

Okay, Barbara, I thank you for highlighting of falls. You know, Virginia Beach is an aging city both in terms of infrastructure and people and being a physical therapist for four four and a half decades. Over my tenure, I worked on a lot of people that have fallen. And we're talking about broken hips, we're talking about broken shoulders, we're talking about closed head head injuries. And back when I was

a district guy in the old Centerville district, uh there was one case where and a lot of times the fire department uh you know responds when somebody takes a fall at home. And there was one individual that uh they were call averaging three times a day having to go to this one person's house because a lot of people have to age in place now. Uh but once again, you know, this is a

problem that's out there and I really thank you for bringing it up. the uh the individual who conducted the program yesterday morning at the senior center actually teaches classes and they have classes right now that are going on over at the um at your um trash in the um center over there. And so having these classes available for having knowing how to prevent falls, how to fall

and not do as much damage and so forth.

And it's something that uh I think we do need to be more aware of particularly like I say as our population is aging and and the fact that um you know we we do have this these issues that we we could help with and maybe we can come up with some fashions that we could but we definitely need to keep an eye on our sidewalks here at the complex. We have a

lot of folks walking around here on sidewalks and just a little elevation higher in one spot can cause a major trip.

But was there a physical therapist named me Melanie by any chance?

No.

Yeah. Okay. You know, because there there are specialties within physical therapy where they go and not teach to Paul Paul, but also the mechanics about getting back up especially when people live alone. Okay. Thank you, Barbara.

Anybody else? Okay, Michael and then Amelia and then Thank you, Mayor. I have a few things.

First of all, last week we um last Friday night we unveiled the latest in the um creative neighborhoods grant program, the latest project that was part of the creative neighborhood grants program.

And that was a partnership between the Plaza Little League and uh the Princess Plaza Civic League and a local artist named Seth Louis Vuitton from Louis Vuitton Murals and our cultural affairs department. They received one of the creative neighborhood grant program grants and um and Seth, the artist, created in partnership with the Plaza Little League and Civic League um two really incredibly beautiful murals um

that are painted on the back of the dugouts at the ball field. And I just want to, you know, provide a followup to the grant program that we established as a community a couple of years ago that um really not only brings beautifification and artwork, original artwork into neighborhoods all across Virginia Beach, but also um connects neighbors and communities in a really real and authentic way around creative

expression and art. And that's really that's really uh I think one of the best things that we can be a part of and there were hundreds of young people. It was the opening of their fall was our fall opening ceremonies and parents and volunteers and all people who were out to um celebrate not only fall ball but also the incredible new murals that were established. So I I I hope you'll get a

ch I'm probably should have emailed you the pictures so I could pull them up on the screen, but I hope you get a chance to see the the murals. really.

Um, I also just want to just share that we're having a District 3 community meeting on uh September 23rd from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Chemville Recreation Center next week. And we'll be talking about a few really important topics including flood protection, which just heard an update about today, about an unbelievably exciting new public art project that's coming to Mount Trashmore

this fall. And um can't wait till I think we're getting an update about that soon.

October 6th.

October 6th. I can't wait till you see that update because it's really an amazing uh art installation coming to Mount Trashmore. So our district 3, we'll get a little sneak peek about that. And then um our sheriff is going to be there to talk about um the really innovative and groundbreaking um mental health programs that he's implementing in the jail and he and his team. So, and

we'll have lots of room for discussion on other topics.

Two more things. Um, you all received a letter from the animal services advisory bureau.

Um, council member Hutcherson and I are both liaison to um to the to the advisory board. I just want to distribute this letter. I think it was supposed to be in the package, but I'm not Oh, you did because I didn't get I I didn't see that in the package.

um what you see here and I want to sort of make a request that's twofold. The first one is um the public has responded the public I've engaged with has responded um very strongly in support of establishing this registry. As you all know, we we did receive uh a memo from u the city manager and the animal services division that um indicates that this could be formulated as part of the the

budget process for for next year. Um and and and I'm agreeable to that as long as um my this would be my request and and please let me know uh if anyone has any thoughts or concerns. But um as you know the budget will be adopted in May. It will be implemented in July. I think we can have a uh I think there's broad support for it. That's the sense I get.

So I think we need to move toward being ready to establish it as part of the the process. And I know that there's a analysis for uh budget and operational impact, but I'm asking if we could maybe perform that analysis sooner rather than later. Uh maybe even get a briefing about it so that we can have a conversation about that. In other words, that we're not waiting until I don't need that information anyway.

Make that Yeah. Yeah. So, I really want to sort of get moving on that. Um that's that's step one. And then I have a step two to this. So does council wanting on it?

October 6.

October 6.

I don't think we get it that quickly. Um yeah, how about the you know next the first workshop in October you do that?

We'll probably try we'll try we'll do it sometime.

Okay. Sometime in October but some mayor you find this.

Yes.

Um and then there's a second part to this. Uh uh we the the advisory board has recommended a legislative um agenda um addition that it be included that municipalities have the option to include misdemeanors as part of the registry and also and this is something I've learned and this is this needs a little research that's why I'm bringing it up.

Um, so their recommendation is that much like Chesapeake that we include that uh misdemeunicities have the option to include misdemeanor crimes of animal neglect and abuse as part of the registry. That's a debate that we could have about whether or not to include that, but at least that we that municipalities received the option for it. And number two, this is something that I didn't know about.

There is a um there's a list a registry of individuals who are banned from possessing companion animals and that's administered by a judge. And so I'm curious if it's possible to include the list of those people as part of the registry. I know we don't have an answer for that now, but that's why I'm bringing it up now because uh there our animal ser services advisory board has made the additional

request and this is this was at the suggestion of a member of the professional staff that those who are who are ordered by a judge to not be able to possess a companion animal should be included as part of the registry. That that is something that's included and I don't think it is now. I think it's only convictions of felony crimes of animal abuse.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Look into that.

I think we need to look into that. And um and and I'll need sponsors as well to um to include that as part of our legislative request.

It'll be okay. Great. Thank you. And then finally, and I'll just maybe if I could defer to you on this, or maybe you were going to talk about it later, that's okay. But many of us um attended a a ribbon cutting for a armed services YMCA that was in district 3. I'm happy to say it's a great location. Serves the whole city. Um and uh one of our one of the most important issues that is facing

families in Virginia Beach and across the country is quality child care and learning. Mayor, since you cut the ribbon, I wonder if you wanted to provide an update about that or uh either now or later in your remarks. I think it'd be great.

I'll just make it brief now. Uh once again, you know, during my remarks, I brought up a meeting that I went to the Pentagon a couple years ago where every under secretary or assistant secretary of defense or or war, the first thing they brought up was housing and child care in terms of military readiness.

uh you know that uh in terms to aid, recruitment and retention, everyone said it is a crisis situation and uh daycare and once again it comes down to a quality of life issue and we are blessed to have so many military but we also have so many other uh you know people are you know public workers and everybody daycare is extremely expensive and is tough to get in and Michael if

I'm not mistaken I think we were told that this place hasn't even opened up yet and they have a waiting list of over 600 people.

Uh and uh and then we we recently opened up a place at uh you know join expeditionary base little creek uh number of months ago and everything. You know, once again, whether it be housing or daycare, this is crisis situation.

And we were glad that they were able to get it right on Santero Way, right off Rosemont, and it's convenient to a lot of people, and you know, it's going to be great addition to district three.

Okay, Josh. And then u Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to I I was hoping that you would uh if you don't mind um just mention what a wonderful time our our uh launching yesterday at Regent University was with the um the leadership series that they they put on.

Um what a bipartisan showing it was. Um there were legislators and community leaders there from both sides of the aisle, independents, uh Republicans, Democrats. Uh there were four governors up there on the stage. uh two Republican two Democrat governors and it was uh it was fantastic event. Um but uh the the um the one thing I also wanted to wish uh in before last week I didn't get a

chance um our Jewish community is celebrating the new year um at Rosha Sha means the head of the year uh and that was on um Saturday and um it's it's a really neat um I mean it's it's our new year celebration. It's a time of family tradition, prayer and reflection. And uh the the tradition is is between now and Yumkapur which is next week uh that's our day of atonement. the the book of

life is open um during that period of time and you know we look inward um and you know as all of us around the table I mean just you know um humility accountability um and recognizing that none of us you know gets it right all the time and um yomapor is our uh opportunity to to repent and ask people for forgiveness and and just uh I I hope uh I hope our entire Jewish community

and and our community at large, you know, just uh reflects how we how we treat and how we talk to one another and and uh just hope hope for a kinder, sweeter new year to come.

Thank you. Before I get to Melia, yeah, at the event yesterday, there's one individual I really want to point out that I thought was extremely inspirational, and that was uh former Governor Doug Wilder, 95 years old, and his her words were so spot on, and I enjoyed talking with him, and uh I tell you what, a remarkable leader, and you know, that's what we were had yesterday with four governors,

both parties and uh you know talking about a different day but once again about the need that we have to come together you know as a community and uh you know sometimes the you know journey starts with the first step. Thank you Ameilia. Yes. And I like also that he mentioned about, you know, he started at rainy day and still important today. And he also said that um he doesn't look at one side or

the other. He doesn't even see a barrier. That was important for everyone who visited. Um what I was bringing up uh visiting Tranquility the Senior Center and I thought about what um Councilwoman Henley just mentioned that um the seniors appalling. They were asking first to have one of those little signs that it may sound funny to others, but it said we're trying to walk around

and the cars are moving so fast like how you have the ducks crossing that maybe has something up that says seniors walking but because some of them trying to go quick or trying to stop fall. And then the second thing that brought up as we talked about affordable housing as you know they had the new building there'll be a ribbon cutting soon. Someone mentioned we need to go back and revisit transitional housing

because some of the people going straight from one into independent living have a gap of where they need a little bit more help and just going straight into independent. So, I plan to mention that to Roof Hill as well that maybe we'll begin to look at some more transitional housing too.

That would be good.

Thank you.

Okay. Good stuff today. Anybody else?

Oh, Cash.

Yes. Um I'm grateful that tomorrow I'll be having my uh town hall at Salem High School. We we're excited to have town hall meetings. So many people wanted to meet me. So, here's your opportunity.

I'm saying on camera, your opportunity to meet me tomorrow at Salem High School at 6:00 p.m. and we're going to go from 6 to 8:00 p.m. But the um I don't know if you know this, but Wang Claim uh is also going to be playing right behind the house at the amphitheater. So I may end early.

Well, it's a big deal cuz my wife is wanting to go and I'm doing a town hall, but my wife wants to go anyway. Um, oh, happy wife, happy wife.

No, that's not that is not I digress. You think I digress.

Town hall very important serious structure. Anyway, thank you. Oh, thank you. Oh, I forgot about um sorry I'm laughing about but September uh 19th for the black street.

Yeah, that we're going to have that um complete unveiling of the sign at 10:00 10:00 a.m.

and it's going to be in district 4. So, we're happy to have them and have the group there.

Sorry, I just remembered here at the end um myself and Councilman Green, we had the COG the COG meetings for deciding on how to do some of the small um small loans, small grants, not loans, grants um to some very worthwhile uh people folks for doing different things for the city that um just had a little just a very little help to them for them to run a lot of programs for us. Um and

our our team did a um yman's job of listening going through multiple like 30 interviews and then uh trying to divvy out not a large pot of money for them but it was it was a good it was a good process.

Say thank you.

You know it's a fair Rosemary you were saying it's a fair process and takes a lot of politics out. Well, it does.

That's why we haven't had the time to, as you see, they really dig into all the details, make these momentous decisions for these different groups. And and these groups go out and make the quality of life so much better for our citizens. So, they're really a good arm of our city where we only give a little bit and they add more to it. It really benefits all of us. And they're not a

they're not a yes group. There's a lot there's a lot of lot of robust discussion on how that's going to be divvied out. And uh I thought it was it was good.

No, no. I would say to piggyback on what uh council member is saying, we were going back and forth. We had some healthy discussions, but ultimately we are there to listen. They are actually voting members of the COG. It it really does it takes the politics out of it. Um and uh we have the right responsible people over your taxpayer your your money. I'm telling you is the chair and she's doing a fantastic

job. It's a it's a it's a good it's a good group.

There you good. And then once again it's a community coming in getting involved and uh you know participating in local government. Very important. And it's also important that you know government can't do everything. and we have all these groups out there that are in the community and outreaching and doing some, you know, tremendous stuff. So, that's really good. Anybody else? Okay, it is time for

Okay, under ordinances, resolutions, is there anything that needs to be attention?

So, under planning, there's two items that are going to be pulled and that's number two and nine. So, we'll go through the other ones. Um, number one, uh, residential that's in district two.

Pardon? No, that's fine.

Number three, Vivy Real Estate LLC, and that is in district six. um asked for consent agenda, but I don't know if the city attorney wants to speak to the subdivision or is there a change to the Oh, this my this came from planning. So, there are there are revised conditions that and a revised uh conceptual plan that are at your places which I believe are to be uh are proposed to be substituted and included

in the approval. Is that correct, please?

That is if that is your wish, Mr. Remy.

Yes, sir.

So, what do you want to So, I'll move for consent agenda as private with the revised conditions and I believe they're primarily it's primarily the addition of uh new condition number three uh and then a changing dates to the applicant.

Okay. Number um 44 449 London LLC for additional use and that's in district three.

That is a um deferral and we're still working on that till October 20th. 28.

Uh, number five, Dogs Real Estate District Two should be on consent.

Number six, uh, number seven.

So, the next four items from planning are district six and our short-term rentals. I'm okay with number seven being on consent. It's in the LIA complex where we have uh approved many more many other to STR. So I move for ask for that be on consent for number seven.

How about number eight? Number eight is also ask for consent subject to the condition that's in front of you and planning uh department director Walsh has worked with the applicant and in front of you is a revised conditions for Raymond Lee Smith and Kristen June Gal again STR in district 6 item to be changed or amended from the planning commission is item number two revised as amended revised ized.

Amended.

Amended by the addition of new condition number two relating to parking.

So to explain this if you want um we voted recently to no longer allow STR applicants to use public parking in our public garages.

This application uh this applicant made this application prior to that vote. So the applicant has agreed to take that part out of this application and go find private parking on their own. And this is this application is subject to that.

Okay, that makes sense. And the last one 10 district Christ

consent agenda, please.

There we go.

Okay, folks. at this point.

Y I was just looking two is the only one that's not on and nine and nine.

Okay. The chair will entertain a motion to recess into a closed session pursuant to the exemptions from open meetings allowed by section 2.23711A Virginia amended for the following purposes. Publicly held property discussions are considerations of the acquisition of real property for public purpose form of the disposition of publicly held property where discussion where uh in an open meeting would

adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body pursuant to section 2.237183 to 37183 and that's district 5, district 6. And then public contract discussions of the award of public contract involving the expenditure of public funds and discussions of the terms or or scope of such contract where discussions in open session would adversely affect the

bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body pursuant to section 2.2 2 3711A29 project flavor and then uh personnel matters discussions considerations or and interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotions salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of any public body pursuant to section

2.237 to 37 A1 11 A1 and that's appointments of boards, commissions, committees, authorities and agencies and appointees. Do I have a motion? So move second.

Council member Hi.

Hi.

Coun.

Hi.

Green.

Hi.

Roman.

Hi.

Hi.

Hi.

Wilson.

Hi.

Dyer.

Hi.

Zero. We are recessing to flow

meeting to order. And if you are willing and able, will you please stand for the invocation.

Heavenly Father, you are always beside us. be with us this evening as we consider the affairs of our great city.

Give us the patience to listen, the wisdom to decide, and the strength to act. Amen. And if we may now have a moment of silence to pay tribute to all those who paid the ultimate price protecting our nation and our city.

And now, 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. Roll call.

Uh, your honor, all present, excluding Council Member Rouse, who is ill.

Okay, thank you. Um, and now at this point, I ask for a motion for the certification of the close session.

Second.

The boat is open.

Council member Jackson Grey, may I have your vote?

I can you hit one.

By vote of 10 to zero, you certify the close session to be in accordance with a motion to recess.

Okay. Now, could I have a motion to approve the informal and formal sessions of September 1st, 2026 and the formal session of September 8th, 2026?

So moved.

Second.

The vote is open.

By a vote of 10 to zero, you've approved the minutes as submitted.

Okay. Um at this point, uh this is time of the mayors and council's presentation where we honor number of people in our city that deserve the honor. And the first resolution will be done by the vice mayor recognition of the Virginia Beach Little League softball Trenton Shley president of the league.

Are you present?

They are.

Okay.

Climb up.

Yep. Come on up. Should bring them all up.

Come on down.

Yeah. Come on. Come on, kids.

Come on down. We want to see you.

Yep. Hey, welcome.

A few of you. Come on. Come on. That side. Balance it out a little bit. There we go.

See how fascinating.

Oh, this is cool. Elena.

Yes. All girls.

Okay.

All right. Whereas Virginia Beach Little League has built a comprehensive youth softball program, providing girls the opportunity to learn, develop, and compete from their first introduction to the game through a through its oldest division. And whereas Virginia Beach Little League has continued to expand its softball program, most recently adding a dedicated softball T-ball division to introduce the game to

its youngest female athletes. Go girls.

We just had Supergirl weekend, by the way.

and create a pathway for girls to begin and continue playing softball within the league. And whereas the growth and development of Virginia Beach Little League softball have been matched by sustained competitive success across multiple age divisions and the local dis district and Virginia state levels. And whereas in 2023, the Virginia Beach Little League 8910 softball All-Star team won the district

championship and advanced to compete in the Virginia State Tournament where the team advanced out uh of pool play and and finished among the top eight teams in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And whereas in 2024, the Virginia Beach Little League 8910 softball star team all-star team repeated the district champion turning uh learn earning its record consecutive appearance in the Virginia state

tournament. And whereas in 2025 within the Virginia Beach Little League 8910 and major softball All-Star team won their uh respective district championships and advanced to compete in the Virginia State Tournament.

And whereas during the 2025 district tournament, Autumn Butler pitched a four inning no hitter, striking out eight batters and reoccurring a shutdown victors that sent the team from the Virginia State tournament in. Whereas in 2026, both the V Virginia Beach Little League 8910 and Major Softball All-Star League again won their respective district championships and distinct and advanced to

compete to the Virginia State tournaments. And you guys are very you did a lot of stuff a lot of stuff here. It just goes on and on. Whereas during the 2026 district tournament McKenzie Neves Nevs and Grace Realel uh combined for a no hitter to secure the 8910 softball all-star team's district championship victory and throughout district tournament play contain uh combined for 29 strikes.

strikeouts and 11 innings while showing just four runs and three walks. And whereas the 2026 8910 softball All-Star team continued its success in the Virginia State Tournament advanced out of pool play and and finished among the top eight teams in the competition on Commonwealth of Virginia. And whereas from 2023 through 2026 and Virginia Beach Little League 8910 softball star program earned four

consecutive district championships and our consecutive appearances in the Virginia State Tournament twice advancing to finish among the top eight teams in Virginia and you guys are wearing me out.

And whereas Yes. Whereas the program's successive extend success extends to the younger athletes with the Virginia Beach Little League 78 softball all-star team winning back-to- back district 8 special games tournament in 2025 and 2026. And whereas Virginia Beach Little League Senior softball all-star teams were also represented the league in district tournament competi comp competition further

demonstrating the continued participation and in development of athletes throughout the program older division. And whereas from softball throughout Through its oldest division, Virginia Beach Little League has established a pathway for girls to grow within the game while building a tradition of competition, excellence, opportun championships, teamwork, and pride in representing the city of Virginia Beach.

One more page.

You did a lot of good stuff.

I know. Aren't they amazing? And they're District Five.

Uh now, therefore, be it resolved, the members of city council, both individually and collectively thereby uh commend the Virginia Beach Little League softball program for its continuing growth commitment to developing young female athletes.

and sustained competitive success across multiple levels at play.

congratulate the players and teachers and coaches whose accompl accomplishments have represented at Virginia Beach at the local district and Virginia State level and pro and recognize the families, volunteers, and entire Virginia Beach Little League community whose dedication has helped build the strength and the softball program. And this has been adopted by the city council of the city

of Virginia Beach the 15th day of September 2026 and present this resolution duly signed by each member of the Virginia Beach City Council.

Really cool.

You just in between the chair. Our photographer

So, need you guys to make sure you can see me with both eyes. You can't shift a little bit. All right.

And I'm going to take like 5,000 photos so that nobody's blinking eyes. Making sure we don't have any rabbit ears or anything.

Okay. Congratulations.

the two stuff with these chairs.

No, I know.

Here, I got you.

Thank you.

Oh, no. We're back.

Okay.

It's like chest.

That was a long resolution.

I never finish it.

Well, okay. Moving on, folks. The next next one is a resolution in recognition for Filipino American History Month. I'm going to ask members of the delegation to come on forward.

Hello everybody.

Welcome one, welcome all. Our council is proud to have this resolution for you.

Whereas Virginia is proud to rank number two in total Filipino population on the east coast behind New Jersey, my old state. Uh Virginia Beach holds the largest Filipino American community in the entire region east of the Mississippi and contributes greatly in shaping, advancing, and enriching our city and the Commonwealth.

Whereas the earliest documented proof of Filipino presence in the continental United States was October 18th, 1587 when the first Luzon Indos set for a Mororrow Bay, California on board the Manila built gallion ship Noristra Senora de Espanaza in the basis of the celebration of Philippine American Month in October. Whereas the earliest recorded presence of Filipinos in Hampton Roads occurred in 1865

when John Bognor, a Philippine American serving in the United States Navy, was hospitalized at the Portsmith Naval Hospital and is buried at the Captain Tim Conway Memorial Naval Cemetery.

Whereas the FilipinoAmerican National Historical Society was founded in 1892 1982 in Seattle, Washington to promote understanding education enlightenment appreciation, and enrichment through the identific identification, gathering, preservation, and dissemination of the history and culture of Filipino Americans in the United States. And whereas in 1992, FN FNHS began commemorating October as Filipino

American History Month. And on November 2nd, 2009, the United States Congress passed a resolution to officially recognize October as Filipino American History Month.

Whereas in this year 2026, the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, PhilFest USA will recognize the Filipino men and women who have made valuable contributions to all areas of life in Virginia and the United States, including government, business, arts and science, medicine, law enforcement, and the military. many of whom he will contribute special momentos or keepsakes and planting a time capsule to be

unearthed in 10 years. And whereas diversity represents one of our greatest strengths and by recognizing the contributions and accomplishments of the Filipino Americans, our city and commonwealth celebrate the importance of the inclusion to build a brighter future for our citizens. And whereas the 12th annual Phil Philf Fest is a 3-day celebration scheduled October 2nd through the 4th, 2026 at Rudy Loop in

Virginia Beach, which is designated to showcase and celebrate Filipino American culture, history, traditions through food, family, faith, fun, and fitness, which is free and open to the public.

Now therefore be it resolved that the Virginia Beach City Council has recognized Philf Fest USA as an annual event to be celebrated in October and pause in its deliberations to recognize Philippine American his history month and encourages citizens to celebrate the heritage and contributions of the Filipino community who aim to provide positive role models for youth. instill the value of education and richness in

their ethnicity and promote broader understanding of the legacy in the United States and attend the 12th annual Philfest USA. And be it resolved further that October 2026 is recognized as Filipino American History Month, given by the City Council of Virginia Beach on the 15th day of September, 2026 and present this resolution dually signed by each member of the Virginia Beach City Council. Okay, coming down.

same thing.

Hey PJ

We need to get your details.

How you doing?

Oh yeah.

I just want to say a few a message uh on behalf of our committee. Last year we we actually did over 3,500 hours, volunteer hours, just our committee and this year almost over 5,000 hours as of date. But it takes a lot of love. It takes a lot of village that makes that happen. But without the city support, we couldn't do what we have done so far. And I'd be remiss that we didn't recognize also um

the the hindsight that Bobby Malotti had had for us as a community. He championed all communities and that's what we love about the city that different people of different color doesn't matter that we all recognize that we together united will bring a lot more together as as a community. So, I wanted to say thank you for recognizing the Philist community and showing that we now have a home here

in the city of Virginia Beach, which we are very excited to say now this is our home base and that we will now be here annually and with much pride and we will bring a lot more to Rudy Loop and to the city of Virginia Beach. So, thank you for that. And we also extend an invitation. Not only October 2nd through the 4th, we'll be at Philf Fest at Rudy Loop, but we kick off at Strawbridge

Marketplace as a collaboration where we will have a t-shirt reveal. Um, our good friend Lee here actually will be at Coastal Edge and we'll do a t-shirt reveal. Coastal Edge has been a great supporter of our event as well.

Chichos's Pizza will create a Filipino pizza and then at Regal Cinema, the Forgotten Island, which is primarily a Filipino movie, um, but all for all ages. So, we welcome you to come out again. That liftoff is September 24th. I want to see all your faces out there.

And then at Phil, please come out either Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or all three days because there'll be a lot for all of you. And we will be proudful to have you there with us. And I do want to make sure that if George and Tina would like to say something also because they are also the without them being our supporters and as part of the city we would not be what we are today George

that this is Naomi Earis our leader. So I just want to make sure they knew who you were. But anyway, evening, mayor, council. My name is George Alcarez, but I just want to say that um the past years, over a decade, we've been all over the 757. We've been uh celebrating our culture, our heritage, and to be here in Virginia Beach and call this our home base. We're so excited. We look

forward to growth, and we look forward to seeing you next month. And uh you know how I love doing events at the beach. So, it's at the root inlet, our best place to have events. So, thank you again for having us uh and having Virginia Beach as our home base. Thank you.

Yeah. But let me say this that Virginia Beach is a great city and it's a high quality of life. And what makes it so great are the people that live here, work here, have their businesses here, but give their time, talent, and treasure. And you, the Filipino community is such a valued member of our community in so many ways. You know, let me say, come out to Philf Fest. A lot of

people will have fun, engage in the community, and once again, we are BB strong and thank you for help making it that way. Thank you and God bless you.

Yeah. Thank you.

Okay. Rosemary has another resolution.

Another busy night for me tonight. And uh if uh Mr. Deer Steinhoff and Dr.

Snowden would come forward,

come on up.

Hey welcome.

Go right behind the podium.

Yeah, stand right behind the lectern so the camera can get you good.

What she say?

Yeah.

Okay.

There you go.

There we go. I just wanted to start out by saying these are two of my very very dear friends and uh deer has besides being a successful businessman has got one of the most amazing train displays in probably the state of Virginia. And Dr. Snowden who's been an educator at Old Dominion for many many years and very dedicated to um the the students and children in in the region but she also was a big supporter

of the students on the swim program and I just want to thank you for that. So we have a little resolution for you. Um whereas deer Steinhoff, a native of Hamburg, Germany, came to the United States in 1984 and founded Acoustical Sheet Metal Inc.

ASI in April of 1994.

Now, whereas ASI began with Mr. Steinoff and three employees working in a small shop behind Witchduck Auto Parts and Recycling. And whereas the company designed, manufactured and installed noise and reduction and fireproof enclosures for emergency backup power generation equipment generation equipment such as diesel and natural gas generators and whereas ASI grew to over eight 100 fulltime

employees designers supervisors foremen, sheet metal fabricators, welders, electricians, and laborers from working in a small shop to building and grounds covering over 8,000 square feet. And whereas Mr. Steinoff did not take role sole credit for the company's success state the company was made up of dedicated and a loyal family of employees and whereas Mr. Steinhoff built more than a successful

manufacturing company he created opportunities for generations of employees to learn skilled trades develop as as leader. Develop as leaders and and lasting careers and to provide for their families, establishing a people centered culture and legacy that continues to influence the company today. And whereas Mr. Steinhoff along with its wife Dr.

Petra Snowden decided to retire in 2019 and sold ASI which has since expanded to over 1,000 employees and continues to operate in the city.

And whereas since retirement, Mr.

Steinhoff built an elaborate Gcale, hope I get this right, indoor model train exhibit with over 100 train engines, steam, electric, and diesel, 100 model vehicles, over 600 600 figures, 300 model houses, and 250 train cars.

so on display which Mr. Steinhoff not consulting not considering this a business but a hobby.

Now therefore be resolved that the Virginia Beach City Council hereby pauses in its deliberations to recognize and extend its sincere appreciation and best wishes to Deer Steinhoff and his extraordinary leadership innovation and unwavering commitment toward a successful company that continues to thrive. And this is given by the city council of the city of Virginia Beach, Virginia, the 15th day of September, 2026.

And present this resolution dually advanced and signed by the each member of the Virginia Beach City Council.

Congratulations.

Sorry.

Focus.

You guys come over to our side every now and again.

It is the dark side.

I'm trying to look right here.

Thank you very

All right. Thank you.

Thank you.

You got to help me.

Okay.

You know my name by now. Good. Um, I'm a native of Germany. I live since 1995 in Virginia Beach. I own the company here before what is sold met employees. They have now about thousand employees.

So I did my share for the city. Maybe they do there.

But I have a hobby today on that. I bought a building in London Bridge on got a train this place here.

So it's free to come and visit me.

anything else you want to say?

So, uh I do want to say a few words because I've been with deer for 29 years. I mean 22 years and been with Acusal now for seven years. I am the current director of manufacturing for Akusa sheet metal and I have seen the company grow from where it was it has been from the junkyard to where we are today and is a lot of it was because of this man the impact and the culture that

we have built in the company is because of how he pushes leaders and how he groom man like myself which started with him when I was 18 and gave us a chance and told us that hey as long as you have the uh the work ethics and the dedication you can go are and he built this culture around myself and other other people and we have we we have done that and that's why

you're seeing the success of Austria sheet metal was because of the the the impact that he has put in a lot of the leaders back then in which we are doing today. So again, we're over a thousand a thousand people now. And we got new two new facility coming up and it would have been possible if it wasn't for his leadership back then and his his mentorship to a lot of people like

myself and we are very proud of what this man has accomplished and I am very happy and proud that he's getting recognized for that.

Oh, thank you and God bless you all.

Thank you.

Makes Virginia Beach great. Thank you.

business cards for the train station.

Okay, there we go.

He has 88.

He's 88.

Yeah.

I'll tell you what, that was wonderful.

Okay, at this point, we're going to go on to the consent agenda, but first I'm going to read the script for speakers. I want to remind everyone that the city council speaker policy that allows certain representative of groups to speak for 10 minutes applies only to planning items. All other speakers, whether speaking individually or on behalf of a group, will have up to three minutes to speak on a single item.

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

If a speaker wishes to address multiple consent agenda items, the speaker will have a cumulative total of six minutes to address those items.

Again, the speaker speaker must limit his or her comments to the subject matter of the items that are signed up.

And finally, I 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. In order to ensure all viewpoints and all persons are respected clapping cheering booing speaking loudly are making other disruptive sounds while a speaker has the floor is not permitted. All speakers

have the equal right to be heard. Any member of the audience who interferes with a recognized speaker's time will be warned. and if the disruptive behavior continues will be required to leave the chamber. Additionally, threats and intimidation of others is prohibited at all times. Uh do we have any multiple speakers?

No, your honor.

Okay. Now for consent agenda, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um an ordinances and resolutions. Number one is the ordinance to authorize the acquisition of an agricultural land preservation ARP easement from Melvin E. Eaton at this 31.98 plus or minus acres. The issuance by the city of its contract obligations and the maximum principal amount of $473,34 in transfer funds and to purchase US Treasury strips. Number two is a resolution to design to designate

October 13, 2026 as National Metastic Breast Cancer Awareness Day and authorize the city manager and eliminate Greenwich overpass with pink, teal, and green lighting. And that's been requested by the mayor Dyer, the uh the vice mayor Wilson, and council members Remick and Schulman. Number three is a resolution to refer to the F planning commission for its recommendation for the proposed amendments to the city

zoning ordinance with CZO to amend the official zoning map to reduce the oceanfront resort uh short-term rental overlay district.

That's requested by Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, and council members Buchcci, Remnick, and Shman. Number four is the ordinance to add the city section 33-114.43 4.3 regard the the National Register Historic District signs.

Number five is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $7 million from the Virginia Department of Transportation State of Good Repair Primary Extension Program to the 2026 27 public works operating budget and transfer funds as pay as PIGO funding to capital project 1007. 734 street reconstruction and land and land transfer available to balance in capital project 1401 street reconstruction to capital project

10734 the road paving projects number six is the ordinance to accept and appropriate a $500,000 um uh firearms violence intersect to prevention of VIP grant from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services to the U Police Department.

Number seven is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $348,4357 from the Virginia Department of Forestry to the FY202627 agricultural reserve pro program special revenue fund operating budget uh to reimburse city for action for portion of cost um to acquire res preservation easement.

Number eight is the ordinance to accept and approve and appropriate $59,498 from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services uh to the FY202627 program services operating budget Ray uh modernization of information uh technology and infrastructure.

Number nine is the ordinance to accept and appropriate $18,000 to the 25 state water rescue program and grant from the US Department of Homeland Security um department for emergency management services to FY25 2627 fire department operating budget. Ray purchased the swift water rescue team replacement uh personal protection equipment and support water rescue training. Number 10 is the ordinance to transfer $25,000

from the general fund reserve for continu for repres contingencies in the upcoming development operational budget and authorize the city manager to execute a resolution a sponsorship agreement uh and black brand to black diamond uh weekend event.

Open a public hearing on planning.

Number one is Croll Residential Inc. and apology Gibson for a variance to section 4.6 of the subdivision regulations for the width of 2540 Intrada Drive. That's in district two.

Number two is to be heard. Number three, and this is going to be um for the revised uh BB Real Estate LLC for a modification of conditional up to a conditional use permit to indoor and and recreational facility at 941 Laskin Road. That's in District 6.

Number four, and this is going to be deferred until uh October 20th.

Uh this is 449 London Bridge London LLC for conditional use of zoning from 810 residential district to conditional I1 agent industrial district and level to develop uh a storage yard for contractors.

Number five is Dogs Real Estate LLC for a conditional use permit residential kennel and that's at 1652 uh Vanguard Lane I mean Flanigan's Lane that's in district two. Number six is Clark Nixon Inc. Virginia Pilot Association for a conditional use permit. Ray uh commercial uh marina and a conditional use permit to dormitories and marine pilots at 3329 Shore Drive and that's in district 8.

Number seven is Mark Moyes, Deavino Moyes, USA Moisen for a conditional use permit uh short-term rental at 304 32 28th Street and that is in district 5, unit 405 and number eight and this is going to be with a revised condition. Um, okay. Raymond, uh, Lee Smith and Christy June Galay for a conditional use permit for short-term rental at 516, 22nd Street, Unit 100, District 6. Uh, number nine is

going to be heard. Number 10 is Christopher Tang Bang Tang and Swallugi Tang for conditional use permit to short-term rentals at 415 20th Street and that's in District 6. Move for approval.

May we have a second?

A second.

Okay, any discussion? Let's open the vote.

One second, please.

The vote is open.

Can you Mr. Remick? I need your vote, please.

Can you Well, go ahead and hit I for Council Remick.

I don't know.

By a vote of 10 to zero, you've approved the consent agenda as read by Vice Mayor Wilson, noting uh planning number three as amended. Planning number four was deferred till October 20th and planning number eight was also as amended.

Okay, thank you. Uh moving on to planning item two, BH Farmhouse LLC, the farmhouse LLC for variance to section 4.4B 4B of the subdivision regulations Ray lot with and conditional change of zoning from conditional B2 community business to district conditional B4 mixeduse districts with development of a 251 multifamily development with commercial space at 1805 Kempville Road District 7.

Rob Beam is the applicant for the attorney.

the attorney for the applicant.

That's that's everybody knows what I'm That's all right.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, members of council. For the record, my name is Rob Deman. I'm a local land use attorney at the Troutman Pepper Lock Law Firm. Here today on behalf of the applicant, BH Farmhouse LLC. I'm joined this evening by several representatives of the applicant including Chris Cobb, JP Highland, and Ben Flood, together with several representatives of the Wood

family, including Freeman Brooks and Shauna Ferman. And we're also joined by a number of folks who live and work in District 7 who have joined us this evening to help support this application who are generally uh seated to my left.

Uh the application that's before you this evening involves approximately 8 and a half acres located just northeast of the intersection of Centerville Turnpike and Kimville Road. The applicant proposes to reszone the property from the existing B2 classification to B4 to accommodate a uh 251 unit multif family residential development. the historic farmhouse building that's on the property would be

preserved and incorporated into the project as a tenant amenity space, but also likely as a a small commercial use, similar to the coffee shop that's currently operating on the site today. I think it's important to note that there's a substantial affordability component to this project. 7% of the units in the community, which is 18 units in total, would be reserved for folks making 100% of area immediate

income or less for a period of 10 years.

Um during the initial hearing on this matter back in August, I did mention that the applicant has conducted extensive public outreach in connection with the application. They've held a number of in-person meetings and also published a website to notify the public um the details of this application. As a result of the feedback we've received during that process, the applicant has made a number of changes to the

application uh including the expansion of the outdoor amenity space adjacent to the farmhouse building by more than 45%.

Making a commitment which is memorialized in our proper agreement to allow neighborhood and community groups to use the farmhouse building for meetings and gatherings. significantly modifying the architectural style shown on the building elevations and also making important changes to the site layout to minimize any potential impacts to surrounding residential properties.

Finally, during the previous hearing, I I also noted that the applicant is committed to making a financial contribution towards pedestrian signalization to help facilitate safe crossing by pedestrians across Kimsville Road from the vicinity of the project to the commercial uses and the bus stop located on the opposite side of the road. Uh after additional consultation with our traffic engineers and with city

staff, the applicant has agreed to increase the amount of its contribution to $600,000, which represents 100% of the um anticipated cost of the necessary signalization. So with that, we certainly appreciate uh council's time and consideration of the application, and our team will stand by for any questions.

Any questions?

Okay. Thank you.

The next speaker is Danielle Schwarz and Miss Schwarz is representing the Brigadun um civic league.

Good evening.

Hello again.

Good evening, mayor and members of city council. My name is Danielle Schwarz. I was here last month for the deferral and I'm here to again tonight representing the residents of Brigadeun. We are deeply concerned about the proposed resoning and redevelopment of this property into a 251 unit fourstory apartment complex. I want to begin by saying something honestly to the dis.

I feel defeated.

Not because we don't believe in our community, not because we haven't worked hard, and not because we don't understand that development decisions are difficult. I feel defeated because many of us have spent months showing up, researching, asking questions, speaking with our neighbors, trying to make sure that the most people affected by this proposal have a voice.

And yet, in conversations with some city officials we have spoken with, we have been left with the impression that the deal is already done. The vote hasn't even been cast. And that's a difficult thing for residents to hear. Because if the decision has already been made, then what is the purpose of this public process? And what's the purpose of our emails, the meetings, the questions, and

the concerns, and even our petition with 6,500 signatures?

Last month, I spoke to you all about my teenage son who has suffered tremendously from the shortage of staffing and resources from our Virginia Beach school system. This month, I bring to light a conversation I had with my son today at school dropoff. I told him, "Tonight's the big night, buddy. I get to go speak at city council for the final vote on the farmhouse reasonzoning." I then told him how I was

feeling defeated.

My 14-year-old son says then to me, "Then what is the point of you going to talk to council about how the community feels if they've already made a decision?" And this made me feel like there's a bigger picture in all of this.

We are teaching our children from a young age that our voice doesn't matter.

We may be heard, but ultimately decisions have already been finalized.

We have more than 6,500 petition signers opposing this resoning and the redevelopment into four-story apartments. Those are not just numbers on a page. Those are thousands of people who took the time to say, "We are concerned. We do not believe this is the right development for this location.

They are parents, homeowners, renters, business owners, and people who have invested their time, their money, and their lives into this community. We expect our concerns to matter before the decision is made, not simply after the outcome is already determined. Our opposition is not about being against growth and I want to make that very clear. It's about whether this particular proposal is appropriate for

this particular location and whether the impacts have been fully considered.

One of the community's biggest concerns is that this development is simply not right for the space. The setbacks being requested and the variance go against the city's zoning requirements which call for 35 foot setback and 20 foot rear setback which would be the Kempsville roadside.

They are requesting reductions to 15 feet and 10 feet. And we understand that the city staff reports supporting these deviations because they align with the urban design criteria in the SGAA plan.

But I think the question needs to be does Westville actually fit the urban environment that these design standards are intended to support. West Chemsville is not an urban downtown. It is not currently a highdensity corridor defined by urban architecture and tightly packed development. Westville has character, it has charm, and it has established neighborhoods with mature trees and open

spaces and a distinct suburban identity, and that matters.

Just because a development can be designed to fit within an urban design concept does not mean that a concept is appropriate for the surrounding community.

The question should simp sorry the question should not simply be can we make this project fit within the criteria the question should be does this project fit west hempsville and I believe that's where this proposal falls short reducing the setbacks to accommodate a larger more intense development also has consequences it can mean less separation from surrounding properties a greater impact on

neighborhood character and the removal of more mature trees It almost feels like the developer is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and the city is going to allow it.

We should not be sac sacrificing the character and charm of West Kempsville to accommodate a development model that may be better suited for a truly urban environment.

We have raised concerns about traffic circulation and access points. At the planning commission meeting, city staff indicated there would be two right turn lanes into the property at both entrances. Yet, when we spoke with a developer, we heard a different description involving only a single taper. When residents hear conflicting information about something as important as traffic access, it raises that

reasonable question. Have all the details been fully resolved? And are the surrounding roads prepared for what's being proposed?

We've also raised concern about parking, storm water, schools, and the cumulative impact of placing a large residential development in this location. And those concerns deser deserve more than a response that the project fits within a plan or that the deal is already moving forward.

At the planning commission meeting back in July, one of the comments from a commissioner said, "This doesn't mean that I love what they're proposing, but I have to weigh what the alternative would be." And I understand that perspective, and I understand that difficult decisions have to be weighed.

But that statement raises another important question. Have we truly examined what the alternatives are or we simply accepted that this proposal is the inevitable outcome?

Mayor Dyer, you recently said, "I helped build 450 apartments at what now is called Infinity, and they have become my neighbors. And once this is done and built, the communities will love it, and the people living there will become your neighbors, too." And I respect that you may have had a positive um experience with that development, but I want to be honest. I myself among other members of

the community will not be going to a community centered space at an apartment complex to hang out. It's just not going to happen.

And that's not to be meant to be disrespectful to the people who eventually live there.

It's just that it is the reality that building apartments does not automatically create a shared community within the surrounding neighborhoods.

A development proposal being financially attractive or generating tax revenue does not automatically make it the right decision for the community. If the city believes this redevelopment is the best use of this property, then I respectfully ask that you show us why with a transparent comparison of the projected tax revenue, infrastructure demands, traffic impacts, public service

costs, and long long-term consequences.

Please do not ask residents to accept that this is simply just the best deal and show us that it's the best decision tonight. I'm not asking you to agree with every concern we have, but I'm asking you to take them seriously. I'm asking you to remember that public service is not just about making decisions about listening. It's about listening to the people those decisions affect and not the residents moving in

after. I'm asking you not to let the residents who have spent months advocating for their neighborhoods feel as though their voices were never part of the process. We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for responsible development, transparency, and accountability. We are asking you to look at the full picture. Not just the number of apartments that can fit on a parcel of land, but the people, the

roads, the schools, the businesses, and the neighborhoods that surround it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Samantha Roin.

Samantha Roquin.

Miss Roquin is uh representing the Charles Town Area Civic League.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer and city council. My name is Samantha Roin and I am president of the Charletown Area Civic League and chair for the Kimsville Coalition. As I stand before you today representing my community, I feel that it's important to share that a large growing number of our residents are feeling deeply disappointed and frustrated with the direction of this local government. People in our

community feel unheard, overlooked, and let down by recent decisions and the lack of transparency surrounding them.

When we look at this particular development and the infrastructure concerns that we have been continuously fighting for since March, we see a disconnect between what our neighborhoods need and what the city council is prioritizing. Residents are tired of the smugality that defines the council's current failing infrastructure plans. History has shown us that these types of concerns are only addressed in

one of two ways. Either the city puts an inefficient bandaid on the problem or the city waits years, sometimes decades, until the issue becomes past the point of detrimental that they must act, often causing taxpayers more money than if you had just worked with the community and the problem from the beginning rather than ignoring it. But then you were always so quick to brag about fixing

these issues once you finally do by adding these accomplishments to your campaign strategies and presenting them as if we should be grateful you took action. Making the public even more convinced that our voices only matter when it's a campaign season and when it's in favor of your decisions and if it isn't then we are silenced. An example, our residents still do not have adequate answers or solutions to the

additional strain this will put on our infrastructure storm water. The development will dig developer will dig a type of reservoir tank, a band-aid.

Overwhelming our schools. The school board estimates only a small number of kids will be moving into these apartments, but our schools can always add trailers. A band-aid. Increasing traffic along Skimsville. The city is expanding just a small portion of Centerville Turnpike, a road that only intersects with Kimville. A band-aid. A band-aid that doesn't actually change the traffic on Kimville.

This expansion was actually promised our community over a decade ago to help alleviate the congestion that we were already facing then by expanding Centerville from Indian River all the way down to just over the Chesapeake line. But now the city is only able to complete a small portion of it where it meets Kimville Road and then the remainder has been cancelled which is a prime example of the city waiting too

long to act. But if there was an issue that Virginia Beach feels needs addressing, like the housing crisis that we all know really isn't the case, well then you're very quick to push developments at every corner, which in a way is its own band-aid. We need to pause long enough to actually address and tackle the current infrastructure instabilities now before we end up so far in the negative that it's too late.

We cannot keep building apartments like these and then hoping it will all work out or waiting years while all of these concerns continuously build up and our community is busting at the seams. We have a chance to address the storm water, our school system and our traffic now and actually create a new and more effective path for the future. Trust is earned through action and tonight we are

right here asking for you as city council to change course. We are asking for better communication, genuine public engagement, and a clear commitment to re-evaluating our strategic growth plan before this development and others are approved.

Please consider the real human impact of your votes tonight and vote against the approval of this resoning. We expect to see the council step up and do better for our city. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Melanie Fitzgerald.

After Miss Fitzgerald is Edward Huitt.

Good evening.

Good evening.

All right. Good evening, mayor and members of the Virginia Beach City Council. My name is Melanie Fitzgerald.

I'm the resident of Br of Brandon and I'm also the secretary for the Brandon Civic League. But first and foremost, I'm a mother to two beautiful children.

I'm here tonight because I strongly oppose the proposed resoning at Back Bay Farmhouse. Brandon is not only one of the largest neighborhoods in this area, yet we do not have a playground for our children, and at least not one within safe walking distance. The only playground is located at Lake James, which is an HOA community. Our children are not allowed to play play there. They have security that will enforce it.

Um, and this is how I came into contact with Councilman Green back in September of 2024. I reached out to you asking for a playground for our neighborhood, and you said you would be happy to help. And now I feel like you're sitting here ready to be one of the first ones to approve this new development in our neighborhood. I've heard conflicting information whether these apartments

would have a playground or not. We've been told they're not marketing it to families, but still somehow our neighborhood is going to be welcome to use the amenities. I don't even understand how that's logistically going to work. Um, where are children supposed to go? Where are they supposed to play?

We already have almost 3,000 residents in our neighborhood alone. City View Park, it is an option. It's not in walking distance. It is always packed.

Um, this development will bring about 251 apartments to our area that we already lack the resources we need. And with that, that brings me to another issue that I'm deeply concerned about as a parent, our water. Both of my children tested high for lead over the past four years. My son's bloodled level was at a 3.5 in April of 2022. It peaked at a 5.9 in December of 2024 for a level three

non-verbal autistic child. That is dangerous and scary. As a parent, we racked our brains for about a year wondering what's wrong. We painted, we cleaned, we did everything we could. We got rid of toys. Come to find out, it was our water. We had to have a reverse osmosis system put under our sink and a whole house filtration system just to give us clean water. Um, so as we sit here discussing new families and

potentially new children coming to our area, address the issues that we already have. This isn't just a development plan. These are families. These are children. I'm asking council to please consider us, the people who already live here. We deserve safe water. We deserve adequate infrastructure. We deserve a green space. But most importantly, our children deserve a safe place to play.

Please don't take away one of the only green spaces attached to our neighborhood Brandon to put a development at that's going to leave us high and dry. I respectfully ask you to oppose this development or at least give us some kind of other options. Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Edward Hewitt. After Mr. Hewitt is Shauna Berman, hey Ed, how are you doing?

Hey, good evening Mayor Dire members of city council. My name is Eddie Hwitt with Back Bay Brewing Company. Back in 2017, we redeveloped the property into the brewery. The Wood family wanted to preserve the farmhouse and the character of the site, and our concept preserved both the family history and a piece of Virginia Beach history. During reasonzoning, we heard many of the same

concerns being raised today. However, none of them proved true. For eight years, we've been proud to serve this community. The support we received with the news of the apartment development reminded us of how meaningful our presence has been. From weddings and retirements to charity events and celebrations of life, we would love to continue at the farmhouse, but it's no longer feasible. Since CO 19, the beer

and alcohol industries have been in decline. Consumer habits have changed and the business simply isn't feasible at the farmhouse any longer. We shared this with the Wood family and understandably they began exploring other options. I know change is hard, but I also know the alternative available to them. It would be far easier to tear down the farmhouse and build a shopping center. I believe this

proposal thoughtfully preserves key elements of the property, the house, the trees, and the architectural character while offering economic benefits and bringing new neighbors to Centerville.

Back in 2017, then Councilman Dyer said projects like ours would help bring attention to the district and today Centerville is no longer forgotten. I hope that this newfound community engagement along with the support of Councilman Green will continue to improve the Centerville district. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Shauna Ferman and then Ashley Malinowski. Malinowski.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Shauna Ferman and I am here on behalf of the Wood family. For the family, this project is about more than development. It is about history, stewardship, and finding a responsible path forward for land that has been in their family for more than a hundred years. This property has already had several chapters in the Wood story. It began as a farmhouse where the family was raised. It later became the office

for the family business and most recently home to Backbay Brewing. With the brewery relocating, the family faced an important question. What should the next chapter look like? They could have sold the property to the highest bidder, but that is not what they wanted. They have never viewed this land simply as an asset. They see it as something that has been entrusted to care for and pass on to future generations.

As the family considered the next chapter for the property, there were a few things that matter deeply to them.

First, the farmhouse has to be res preserved. Second, the property needed a sustainable use that continues to serve its community. And third, they wanted to remain owners so future generations of the Wood family can walk the land and is and know that it is still part of their story. They considered commercial development under the existing B2 zoning, but that path put the farmhouse at risk and did not align with the

family's vision. This led them to Bonaventure. This is the fourth partnership between the two families and that relationship is important.

Bonaventure is not simply a developer they selected from a proposal on paper.

There is a history of working together, a shared understanding of the family's values, and most importantly, a foundation of trust. This joint venture allows the family to remain long-term owners, protects the farmhouse, provides needed housing, and gives the property a sustainable future.

There is also something meaningful about the fact that this land began as a home.

Creating a new place for people to call home in many ways is a natural continuation of that history. The family understands that development brings change, but they do not believe that change has to be something to fear.

Change can create an opportunity to preserve what is meaningful while allowing it to have a sustainable future. For the Wood family, this is not simply about developing a property. It is about stewarding a piece of family history and thoughtfully carrying it forward for generations to come. We respectfully ask for your approval tonight to preserve a piece of Virginia Beach history, honor the family's

legacy, and create something positive for this community. Thank you for your time. We hope that you will support the WID's vision for attain a farmhouse.

The next speaker is Ashley Malinowski and then um what is her first name? China White.

Good evening.

Hi, um, mayor council. My name is Ashley Malinowski and I'm here today in support of attainment farmhouse apartment community. Um, as a committee member of the Virginia management apartment management association, I've had the opportunity to work closely with housing professionals and understand firsthand the challenges facing Virginia Beach's housing market. Most importantly, I see

these challenges every day working in our community. I've worked in the West Chemsville Centerville area since 2018 and I'm very passionate about that area.

During that time, I've seen firsthand how the lack of available housing has impacted residents. When we don't have enough housing supply to meet our demand, prices increase. And we see members of our own community being priced out of the area where they work, raise their families, and want to live.

I looked up the Co-Star numbers today.

Virginia Beach is at a shortage of 67,973 units. 251 units would do a small percentage of what we really need. This isn't simply about adding another apartment community. It's about creating additional housing opportunities in a market that desperately needs them. New housing helps provide choices for residents, helps address the imbalance between supply and demand, and can ultimately help our community more make

our community more accessible to a broader range of people. As someone who works in housing every day, I believe responsible development is an important part of our solution to Virginia Beach's housing shortage. I respectfully ask that you support the Attain a Farmhouse project and recognize the important role that additional housing will play in meeting the needs of our growing community. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss White.

I'm not sure what your first name is, so I'll just call you Miss White.

Good evening.

Good evening.

If you'll just give us your first name.

Thank you.

My first name is Shenia. My name is Shenia White. I am Hampton University graduate and a Navy wife. Um originally from New York, both my husband and I. We specifically sought out the Kempsville area specifically for our son who plays four instruments. and he was really interested in VT tall with band. What this project represents for someone like me is an opportunity as Ashley just

spoke about where there is a housing shortage specifically in the area we want to live in. Um I think I remember earlier um respectfully where someone mentioned a speaker mentioned uh speaking with her son. So I want to go over conversations I have with my son as well. Like I mentioned, we moved to that specific area because of what my son would like to do with his future. So what I ask of you council members,

mayor, is to think about the families like mine who when their husbands are out and they're deployed and the wives and the children are sent before they are able to come home into the communities where we want to live for specific reasons. Not only was I safely able to start our life back here in Virginia Beach at a Bonaventure property, I was also able to transition from a stay-at-home mom to now a general

manager at a Marriott property with the help of Bonaventure. So again, think about these things and when you're thinking about what you would like to vote for families like mine as well and how culture and growth and community will continue to make Virginia a great place to live. Thank you.

Thank you, Patricia O'Brien.

And after Miss O'Brien is Ben Flood.

Good evening.

Good evening. It's um nice to be back with you again. I'm here to really speak about Bonav Venture as a um corporate partner for not just CHIP. I'm the CEO of the Children's Health Investment Program, but other nonprofits well as well. Um, if I look a little blurryeyed tonight, it's because I have been crunching numbers all day for my new federal budget.

Um, and I wanted to share with you that for every every single state or federal dollar that CHIP receives to serve the most vulnerable children here in Virginia Beach and across the 757.

We must raise three additional dollars.

Now, we have some generous foundations in our region and generous individual donors, but we would not be here in Virginia Beach if it was not for corporate donors, and Bonaventure has been a fabulous partner for that. Um, we're serving children and families that otherwise um would fall through the cracks of our system. So without funding from Bonaventure, we don't know where those children will

end up. What we do know is children that do not receive early intervention, we lose that opportunity to sort of change the trajectory of their life. As much as we would love to say it's all heart and effort, it also takes money. and Bonaventure has stepped up and their integrity um and their respect for the community shows through their support of nonprofits. So, I hope you uh are um

voting in favor of this tonight and I'm sure Bonaventure will be a good partner for many years to come in this community.

Thank you for coming and thanks for what you do.

The next speaker is Ben Flood and after Mr. Flood, we have one WebEx speaker.

Good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Dyer, Vice Mayor Wilson, and members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Attain at Farmhouse Project. My name is Ben Flood and I'm a resident of Virginia Beach and I represent Bonaventure as the development or as the developer for this project.

When the Wood family first approached us after hearing that the brewery would uh be looking for a new home, we were honored by the opportunity to partner once again with them uh and to be entrusted with the stewardship of their land. We also understood that a project such as this will have an impact on the surrounding community and therefore we committed to a robust community engagement process. We held numerous

meetings over the course of months with civic leagues, neighbors, business leaders, and other stakeholders in hopes of improving the project. The application in front of you tonight is not the same one that we started with.

It is far better, and that's in part and thanks to the community as well as this council. Some of the adjustments include lowering the density. We soften the edges that abut existing homes by moving our buildings inward to the property. We preserved mature trees, provided privacy fencing, increased screening plantings, and adjusted garage locations to further enhance that buffer to our neighbors. We

reduced the massing of the buildings. We profered substantial traffic improvements. We reserved workforce housing units. And finally, we increased the open space significantly and saved the farmhouse, making it available to local civic leagues and community organizations for use as a meeting space.

But this project also helps address housing attainability. It delivers homes for military families, healthcare workers, teachers. In addition, this development strengthens the city's tax base through increased real estate and other tax revenues. Just as importantly, projects like this put people to work.

We hire local engineers, local architects, local general count, general contractors plumbers electricians framers, cabinet manufacturers. These are real jobs for real residents in the city of Virginia Beach. At Bonaventure, we design, finance, and manage our communities for the long term. We don't just build and sell. The Wood family, after a century on this land, shares that same commitment to stewardship.

That shared vision, paired with the city's own plans for strategic growth in this area and a farmhouse preserve for the community to enjoy, is why we believe this project fits in this location. On behalf of the Wood family, our team, and the folks that are here in support of us, we respectfully ask for your approval tonight. Thank you.

Thank you.

We have one WebEx speaker, Kim Mayo.

Miss Mayo, you are unmuted and may begin.

Good evening. I object to this as proposed. The applicant wants to change zoning to dump 250 apartments, but have you established the development can comply with every applicable Virginia Beach tree preservation canopy, storm water, and Chesapeake Bay requirement?

Have you demonstrated she tree removal is necessary in this Chesapeake Bay preservation area? My district 9 city councilman Josh Schulman was so eager to rubber stamp this project, he did not even agree to defer it at the last meeting. Conserve Virginia Beach endorses Chris Taylor in District 8 and John Moss in District 9. Many residents and civic leaders are tired of what many perceive as corruption on this council.

Josh campaigned on preserving tree canopy that betrayed us.

He's the councilman known for pushing the $10 million project that bulldozed over 5,000 trees at Pleasure House Point, one of the last significant stretches of green space along the Linhaven River, as described by WHRO's Respect a Reporter.

He's also consistently supported projects favored by developers and special interests, including luxury dusty housing along Shore Drive and this project before us tonight. Josh has walked out of public meetings, announced his vote in favor of the curfew before listening to public speakers, and also refused to recuse himself.

He has been involved in the falsification of a public meeting video.

Schulman presented public meeting videos as the meeting as it happened, knowing full well that speakers were removed as covered by Okay, lastly, he sorry, you're off topic. The speaker policy is that you have to stay on the topic.

And I believe this is on the topic.

Okay.

Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I'm sorry. There's a lot of people speaking over me.

Okay. But once again, you are talking about an issue not your main to the to the farmhouse application.

You're talking about other things and that by speaker policy is not allowed.

What's the speaker policy now? I don't speak very often before city council.

Okay. Uh the speaker policy is that the speaker has to be it has to be germanine to the topic that's there. You cannot deviate.

Okay. So lastly, Mr. Schulman was caught taking credit for a walking path that had nothing to do.

No, no, no. I'm sorry. Uh once again, you must step to the farmhouse. That is the speaker rule. I'm trying to give you some latitude. Please focus on the item at hand. Please.

Chemsville.

Chemsville area city, excuse me, Chemsville area city councilman should support his civic leaders who are clear on their message and reject this application. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, Mr. Schman. Um, I just I just want everybody to know if it's raining tonight, um, after the meeting is over, it's my fault.

Okay.

All right.

Mr. I'm sorry, Mayor. Mr. Beam, would you like to come up for rebuttal?

Yeah. Thank you.

Okay. Mayor, that's all the speakers.

Mr. Bean did not want to come up for rebuttal.

Okay. Um, at this point, Mr. Green.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, my name is Councilman Cash Green and I represent District 7. I'm proud to represent District 7. I'm grateful that we have those that came out today on both sides.

One of the gifting of being in this seat is learning how to hear from both sides, even if they're passionate about both sides. And as a negotiator, this is what I do. I take that information and I listen. And it wasn't just me. It was Chief Hutch of District 1. And so it was two brains, not just Councilman Cash Green. I sought help from the community. I listened to you. So don't feel defeated because

there are profers in this agreement. That means we're listening. We've listened to you and because of that changes were made.

So I respect you.

Everyone that's here, those that are for it, I respect you. Those that are opposite, I respect you because in the end, we still have to live like a community. I've got to see you at the grocery store. And that's why I ran. I ran so that we can have different opinions and still respect each other.

And so on this I am going to make a motion.

That motion is based on approving the reszoning of the applicant.

Do we have a second?

Yes sir, I second it.

Okay. Any discussion?

Um, you know, I I have an obligation as somebody who lives in that neighborhood who was the former district person of there to say this. And Briadun is literally one block away from my house.

We are neighbors. We've all been neighbors and we've had development there while I was the district guy. And yes, they are also neighbors.

And you know, but I think once again, you know, obviously recently, you know, housing is a major topic on the minds of many people.

But let me explain the my rationale for what's going on. And I'll say it again and again that back in 2023, our council had a council retreat and we determined that the housing crisis was our four fourth highest priority after uh you know highest priority after storm water, public safety and schools. Be assured, the housing crisis is not unique to Virginia Beach. It is a national crisis. It is a crisis in the

Commonwealth in the 757.

I shared my views there that my views are shared by all the mayors in the 757.

And the other thing is too uh we need that we are short and it was brought out that houses we keep our tax rate the same but the demand on houses is so great that they're getting way above appraised value and that is raising the cost of taxes. And then the other thing is that I mentioned that being part of a military advocacy group, I was at the Pentagon a couple of years ago

representing all the the branches between here and Fort Houston Langley.

Every under secretary or assistant secretary of defense that we spoke to from every branch said housing and daycare were two major crises that the localities had to address for military res uh uh readiness in terms of recruitment and retention and quality of life. And in Virginia Beach we do have a quality of life. We got the great schools and everything. It is a desirable area. But once again, it takes

a courage and conviction. And once again, we understand that anytime a new development comes in, there's going to be opposition. But once again, we have to confront a a situation that we as a council committed to in 2023 retreat.

We cannot ignore a crisis and housing is a crisis. So, at this point, you know, as as a mayor and a former council district guy and as a neighbor, I I honestly feel that this project will be a benefit to our community when all is said and done. Are we open for the vote?

The vote is open.

Okay.

And the motion is uh approve.

Oh yeah.

Vice Mayor Wilson, may I have your vote?

Mr. Remick, may I have your vote?

No.

Okay. Give a verbal.

Yes. Okay. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wilson, may I have your vote?

I It never came up on my screen.

It may need to refresh. Um, by a vote of 9 to one, this application has been approved.

Okay. Thank you all very much.

Appreciate you. Thank you.

Okay, next we move on to planning item 9, Wave Investment Group LLC for conditional use permit, raise short-term rental at 4 4141 19th Street, unit 104.

Mr. Berdan representing the applicant.

Thank you, Mayor Dyer. Vice Mayor Wilson, honorable council members, for the record, Eddie Berdon, Virginia Beach attorney representing Wave Investment Group LLC on this application for a short-term rental uh in a one unit and an 8 unit um apartment building that's 54 years old at 41419th Street. Um is directly adjacent to a 9 unit apartment building on the east side of the property uh that has nine

short-term rentals at 410 and 412. um 19th Street that were approved in January of 2022. Um the properties directly across 19th Street on the south side from on the north side the parking garage um that's associated with the um the wave pool wave park um development and the you know twothirds of a block from the wave park on the east side of Baltic Avenue. the um again, one short-term rental, one-bedroom unit. The

other seven units remain regular um units that are, you know, generally occupied by folks who work at the oceanfront. Uh they're affordable for sure. Um the 20 conditions is recommended by your professional staff and unanimous planning commission uh approval recommendation are acceptable uh to us.

Um, and I understand there's one speaker that signed up. Be happy to answer any questions anybody may have.

Anybody got any questions now? Word.

Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Bordon, the parking situation is um acceptable to planning staff. It's on site.

Yes. Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh the next speaker is Jill Flood.

Yes. Um Mr. Mayor, where may I need you to come to the Sorry.

My turn.

Mr. Mayor, where can I give these photographs that will help you understand what I'm going to say?

Okay. The officer will take it and we'll get it.

Mr. Mayor, city council, my name is Jill Flood. I am the president of the M Baltic Village Townhouse Property Owners Association. I'm speaking on behalf of the owners of the 8 unit townhouse community comprising 416 through 4301 19th Street which is located directly adjacent to the proposed 41419th Street Wave Investment Group LLC conditional use permit for short-term rental. Our driveway, as you'll see from this

photograph, is directly a butts to the 41419th Street property. The two entrance doors to these eight two-bedroom apartments face our driveway and parking lot. The 414 property has only one parking space for each unit, and one of those parking spaces depends on entry and exit through our driveway.

There are no guest or drop off areas for parking. And so consequently, guests, delivery services, moving services, and others use our driveway and parking lot for the convenience of easy access to the 414 property doorways, often blocking our owners access and egress to and from our driveway and parking lot.

On an almost daily basis, I must come out and ask people to leave our driveway or parking lot. I am met with people who scream obscenity at me, tell me how horrible I am, threaten to harm me and ask me to come and engage in a fight with them. They believe that they are entitled to the use of our private property for their convenience. I have had to call or threaten to call the

police to get these people to leave.

They may leave their vehicle running while they run into the apartment so they can come out and move the vehicle before I can have the towing company come. These people have been so brazen as to even park in our parking lot, get their lounge chairs out and cooler out of the vehicle and watch the fireworks from our driveway. The renters loiter, discard cigarettes, sit on our artificial turf, walk through our

parking lot, and look into the vehicles parked there. Their children play in our driveway and parking lot. They have even completed the sale of merchandise while being parked in our lot. These activities increase our risk of accidental injury, exposure to possible illegal activities, and costs to ensure our community property and protect our owners. short-term rentals and short-term rentals will put an increased

stress on our driveway and parking lot and increase adversarial conflict, wear and tear on our property and add to our cost to ensure, maintain, and eventually to replace our driveway, parking lot, and storm water management, which we have to save for. We are opposed to this short-term rental proposal without a solution to these problems. We would see the proposal more favorably if there was

a fence separating the properties along the driveway so that it was not so convenient to access the apartment doorways from our driveway and parking lot. There is a precedence for this type of fence which separates a property from the surrounding properties used in the rental units at 41219th Street known as Atlantic Park Bluffs. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for coming.

Can I ask a question?

Yeah, go ahead.

Excuse me, ma'am. Could I have a question? So, the this f is there a place for the fence that the owner could put up a fence here?

Yes, we would be glad to join in the cost of putting the fence up because it would protect us and it would help to keep us from having these problems.

Yeah, fences make good neighbors.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr. Berdon,

the I'm I'm not really sure what um she's referring to as being their property. There is a if you look at page 10 of the staff's report, you'll see that to the west of the subject property is a 20ft alley. That is a city right ofway. So, um, and there's a curb that's been placed there long time ago. I'm not sure by whom. Um, that is on the or just

just on the alley side of the boundary of this property. So, what I believe is being referred to as their driveway and their parking lot is a city alley that's 20 ft wide. And that's what's shown on here. Um, all of the parking for and this it's a one unit, one bedroomedroom unit. And there are other one-bedroom units in this building as well. There are a handful of two-bedroom units as

well. The parking for this unit is in the parking lot on the north side of the uh property off of 19th Street. Um I I can't speak for the behaviors first I've heard of what being suggested, but there's no short-term rentals there now.

There haven't been any short-term rentals in this property. So, it's it's the I guess the folks who who have units in the property. my clients have bought this within the last um 18 months, but I'm not sure where a fence would go is is my point because based on and I've been out the property. It's all it's all paved. There's no the only grasses on this property on the the subject

property. Uh it's all concrete to the west and I'm not sure where a fence would be able to be placed. And it's certainly you can't fence this 20 foot city alley that's between the properties and the properties that Miss Flood is speaking on behalf of.

Okay. Any questions?

Yeah.

Mr. Berdon, could we defer this for a meeting to figure out if offense could go there or I'm apologize. I I can't I can't hear.

Excuse me.

I'm sorry. Is there any way we could defer this for until the next meeting and figure out there's an answer to this fence question?

It's certainly not there's no urgency on our end. Um so I certainly won't if that's what the council wishes to do. I just don't know how where a fence can go. That's that's my I don't I mean if if the fence could solve the problem we definitely but I don't think there's any fence that'll work. I mean, especially since the opposition even agreed to share on the cost.

Happy to h happy to have a conversation.

That's what the will of the council is.

Consider that.

Were you think Did you say something about deferring it?

Yeah.

Yeah. Let us find out more about it.

Good work.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Bon and Miss Flood. Thank you for coming down here. This is news to me. I didn't see this transcript transcript in the planning commission hearing on this topic, but if Mr. Verdon, if you could I mean 30 days is and I think we should hear them hear this out and see if we can't work this out.

This there was no I mean it was on consent planning. There was no opposition. So if we'll we'll take a 30-day deferral that's fine.

So I move for deferral for 30 days or if we miss Barnes if you could October 20th.

Yeah.

Okay.

20th.

October October 20th is the second.

Okay. Any other discussion on that?

Let's bring it forward to the vote.

The vote is open.

It's just it's way behind. It's okay. By vote of 10 to zero, this application has been deferred till October 20th, 2026.

Okay. Thank you. Do I have any appointments this evening?

We do, Mr. Mayor. Just a few. Um the Clean Community Commission. We'd like to appoint Ryan Turner. He's a high school student. Uh, the Minority Business Council would like to appoint Eric Kamacho and Micah Rivers and the Public Library Board to appoint Tiffany Jenkins and the Wetlands Board to appoint William Serge as a full member.

Move for approval.

One second, please.

The vote is open. By a vote of 10 to zero, you appointed as read by as read by Vice Mayor Wilson.

Is there any unfinished business? Any new business? Thank you all. We are ajourned.