City Council Special Formal Meeting, 10/28/2025

Ready?

Welcome one. Welcome all session and honorable members of city council in accordance with Virginia City Code 2.21 21 2-21 and by authority vested in me as mayor of the city of Virginia Beach, I hereby call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday, October 28th, 2025 at 3 p.m. City Council conference room 2034, building 1, City Hall, second floor, uh 2401

Courthouse Drive. The purpose of this uh formal session is to allow city council to convene into a close session at the conclusion of the regular schedule formal uh formal uh session where following matters will be considered. Um that's personnel matters council appointees council boards commission appointees authorities agencies task force and performance of council appointees boards members and commission

as the conclusion of the meeting the council will reconvene in open session to um purpose of uh certifying the close session. Okay. Uh madam clerk do we have the roll call?

Yes.

Okay. Don't be running a little behind.

Okay, Patrick, we're ready to roll. All right, so Mr. Mayor, members of council, the first briefing will be will be provided by Laura Baxter, executive director for the Armed Services YMCA of Hampton Roads. This briefing was requested by several members of council and she's going to brief the council on the early childhood education program at the Y. Awesome.

Good afternoon, council members. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share the Armed Services YMCA story. Um, today I'd like to highlight how we're going to or how we strengthen our military families through impactful programs with a focus on early childhood learning programs. And additionally, I'd like to uh I'll be asking for some assistance in helping us expand our service to more

military families. Um, our mission is simple.

Uh, we were actually started, just a little bit of history. We were we were started in 1861 by the National YMCA. A group of volunteers for them uh decided that they wanted to help the wounded, ill, and injured on the battlefield during the Civil War. Word got out about all the wonderful things that they were doing and the movement grew to the point where the National YMCA created an arm of the

YMCA called the armed services YMCA of the USA. Next slide please. And that's what you have today. So, um the the red is the national YMCA um of the USA and the Armed Services YMCA headquarters. Our headquarters is in Woodbridge, Virginia and we the Hampton Roads location are one of only 12 branches in the entire country. Um very no um we have we're not affiliated with the regular YMCA. We have no gym, no fitness

equipment. Um we actually our mission is to for lowcost and no cost programs for active duty members with focus on young junior enlisted families E5 and below because a lot of times those individuals fall below the radar. they don't know the resources that they have available.

Um, just we also do not receive any funding uh from the DoD, the national YMCA or the local YMCA. So, I just like to put that out because a lot I always get a lot of questions on that. Next slide. Um, there are two AS YMCA locations here in Hampton Roads right now. Uh the first one is actually um managed by our headquarters that is uh in partnership with the DoD and it's a

CDC that's specifically focused on taking care of that weight list that is on installation. They work very closely with them. Uh it's a totally separate program to what we offer. Our location, the armed services of Hampton Roads is located in um the Virginia Beach area.

It's right down the road from Gate 5 Little Creek off of Independence Boulevard. Um we cover numerous programs there, including a prek program, um our before and after care and a Patriots pantry. those are specific to that location, but we spread far out into the Hampton Roads area in terms of all the services that we provide. And I want to focus on those bless you on those um individual programs right now.

The first one is our operation little learner. This is our largest program.

We have uh it's a 13-week program, a parent and me prek prep 18 months to five years old. Um they're offered between 15 and 18 locations throughout the Hampton Roads area. The majority of our locations are in military housing because what we know is that with young junior enlisted families, usually it's a onecar family and that car goes on to installation and that military family doesn't have a vehicle

in order to provide other services, go shopping, go to preschool, things of that nature. So we take that program to them and we are in those um communities.

In addition, we get very creative in terms of where we're going to hold where we hold those programs at chapel, um, at libraries. Um, and it's a parent and me program. So, the the premise of this program is that that child gets to learn their ABCs, letters, numbers, symbols, colors. But in addition to that, because the parent is there with them, we help mentor that that individual family member to be

their child's first teacher because we know the parent is always the child's first teacher. So, we help them with that process. We have story time. We read a story, but we engage the child.

So, it kind of ultimately we're teaching the parent how to teach the child. Um in addition to that that not only the academics that they receive but the social and emotional skills of bonding with other children but the parents as well. This was one thing that I didn't realize until I actually looked at the program and had conversations with military families is a lot of times these families will transition into the

area and active duty members off on deployment or doing workups and they have no support system whatsoever. This program provides that support structure.

The worst thing that could happen is one of our family members had mentioned that her child was having a birthday and she didn't know anybody in the area um and she didn't have anybody to come to her child's birthday party. Well, the Operation Little Learner team rallied together and those parents went to her house and had a wonderful birthday party for her child. So, it builds the

community. It builds the village that military families direly need.

[clears throat] The other one is our five uh star prek program. Uh we know that a lot of times military families transition in the spring.

They will come into our um market and we know that the weight lists are huge in public school prek programs. So when those military families come in, they're put on that weight list. Now, everybody tries to get as many pe as many children as possible to get into the preschool program on the public schools, but a lot of times that doesn't happen. So then what happens to our military families?

Well, the officers and the higher ranking military families can go out and actually pay for a private preschool program. Our young junior enlisted don't have that capability. They don't have the income available to do that. So that family and that child already falls behind because they cannot afford uh a private preschool program. This program gives our young junior enlisted families

children the same opportunity as a civilian counterpart. Uh we are an accredited school. Um we are a purple a purple star school. We are NECPA accredited and then we are also a Pearl School for uh Linhaven River. So I will tell you that a lot of families that come to our program and then transition to the kindergarten, they come back to us and just say how valuable the education was that they had

in our program when they went to the kindergarten, the public school kindergarten. Um it is a um we get subsidy free tuition for a lot of these programs. I will tell you that 38 of our 48 military children receive a subsidy and that subsidy is as low as $5 a month for a prek a preschool program to $250 a month. And our young junior enlisted families can afford that.

Next slide please.

Um this is a before and afterare program. I'm not I'm sorry, um an afterchool program that we utilize in the public schools. Uh it's called Operation Hero. A lot of times we know that military life can be extremely challenging not only for an active duty member but the military family as a whole. uh we jokingly say, but it's very true, is the active duty member volunteered, the military family was

volunttoled and especially with a military child. Um everybody talks about how resilient military families are, military children, but at the end of the day, they're not born resilient. They have to learn how to cope, coping mechanisms. And what we provide in this program is are those coping mechanisms.

We talk about deployment. We talk about bullying. We talk about um self-esteem, respect, things of that nature. So that at the end of this nine-week program, they really feel good about their service to the military because they are also serving. We have uh an example of a um when I actually was observing, I went in and they were talking about deployments and that one child just broke down crying because he was upset

that his dad was going to be away for his birthday and another little boy put his arm around him and said, "It's okay.

It's okay." And that that we call it our small group therapy. It's only 12 kids and they talk amongst themselves. they realize that I'm not the only one having these emotions and we've actually brought in active duty members to talk to them and just say, you know, you might be feeling mad or or upset that your parent is not here for your birthday, but they're feeling the exact same way. So, um it

helps again strengthen and build that military community, and that's what the ASYMCA is here for.

These are some additional programs that we offer. Our before and after care, our summer camp. We hold five events throughout the year. And then uh after COVID, we opened up a patriot pantry that is open to all active duty members.

That is also in our physical location.

Um and as you can imagine, um the need has been great recently. It continues to expand as uh as um the word gets out that we have that pantry available.

These are our points of service. We've grown substantially over the last five years. Um 93,000 points of service. Uh the need continues to be grow is growing and and we're ready to grow with it.

And this is where we could use your help. Um, we are looking for a location for a second site. Um, it doesn't necessarily need to be a new build. It could be commercial property. It could be um any vacant locations that you could see that would have the capability of geographically located near Oceanana or Chemsville. And the only reason I put those two locations in there is because

we have done testing that those are child care deserts. Um and so that particularly that particular area is really where we want to focus. Um centrally located to serve child care needs with uh elementary schools and middle schools nearby located near military housing communities. Um, we're looking at an estimated square footage of about 10 to 12,000 square feet. Um, and we're looking at a capital campaign.

Decisions are being made about that, but I think our first baby step is going to be finding a location um where we can expand quickly to serve more military families.

Next, please. This is just this is a um a statement that was made if uh some of you are aware of the 2024 the blueest star family survey. that's uh nationwide. Uh this is uh a comment that resonates. While many Americans believe the public truly appreciate military families sacrifices, few military families agree.

Um so together uh we can ensure that Virginia Beach remains a beacon of support for those that serve.

Questions comments?

Okay, let me start real quick and then we'll get to Jennifer. You know, I've had the pleasure of being out at your place a number of times over the years.

And the one thing Virginia Beach does, you know, we take pride in the fact that Virginia Beach is a city of heroes and that the military is part of the DNA.

And you know, ingrained into our communities are the families of, you know, the many military people that, you know, serve with distinction, you know, to protect our great nation. And often, um, people are deployed for months at a time. And, you know, families are in need of essential services. And you should be very proud of what you do, you know, with your limited resources and

things of that nature. Uh but once again I just want to say kudos to you uh for what you continue to do and I'm delighted to hear uh that you're talking about you know expansion and uh you know let me tell you you know when you work with people sometimes you go to a doctor's office and uh you know the person takes your blood pressure say oh yeah my hus uh husband's been uh

deployed for the last nine months. You know, I'll tell you what, you people don't realize the sacrifices that so many people make and you know, just having folks like you available and I often say that what makes Virginia Beach so great, a good community defines itself and how it helps people in need.

And like I say, kudos to you for what you do. Jennifer, then Rosemary.

Thank you, Mayor. And just same, so to add on to it, incredible programs that you all offer. Um, I got to tour and read to the kids and it's and I was sharing because y'all know I had a baby.

I cried and [clears throat] I was like, "Oh, get it together." But to see these, some were getting ready for nap time, so like you had to be quiet cuz they were like on their little mats and then others they were reading and you saw, you know, all the adults doing what they in the space it's tight and so I can see wanting to expand because there were lots of kids but they were being so well

taken care of. Um, and seeing the pantry and just knowing how important this work is. um I thank you for and I would love to see how we can support them and ensuring that they can continue offering these services to these families and to these children um because it's it's very important and very special. So, thank you.

Thank you. I was remiss in introducing my vice chair um US Navy retired Captain John Malfetano. So, he's here to help support too. But we have a wonderful board um and wonderful community support too. Um, but now is the need that we have. You know, both of you were in our building. You can see we're like maxed out, but we know that the need is great.

So, thank you for that recognition.

And uh, John used to be a magnificent helicopter pilot back. Yeah.

And uh, I tell you what, I've known John a long time and I think I was at your retirement if I'm not mistaken. Yeah.

Rosemary, please know how much we appreciate you coming and sharing all of this information because, you know, we don't always know all the great things that are going on inside the walls. And I'm I can speak that I was a military child and enlisted and we had my stepdad had very long deployments, nine months at a time. And how hard that was on on my mom and and you Yeah,

it was it was it was really tough. So, I I can personally speak to how important this really is. And have you been in touch with economic development about this space that you're needing?

I have. Um we had someone come by and um I gave them my um you know, scope of work and I have a copy of that. um and they came back and then they also um made a recommendation for me to talk to another department and I apologize I'm not thinking of what that department was but what the first one was to uh talk about maybe the possibility of getting a grant to kind of help kickstart

um looking at another facility and that wasn't available as a nonprofit profit, but there's some other opportunities that might be available through the city that we could take advantage of.

H just a quick question is um just I'm not 100% [snorts] clear. Are you when you talk about this as far as with the building whether you build or are you looking also to just maybe rent some space to make this happen? you're kind of all open to whatever whatever can can be.

I think originally it was like pie in the sky or we want to do a huge capital grant. We want to put this wonderful building up. You know, we're a little envious of the regular YMCA that has all those wonderful buildings, but we see that we have to start working as soon as possible to open up some of these programs. And as much creativity as we've had in the past with the military

housing, um, you know, community centers and some chaplain chapels and libraries, I think if we had a location where we could have, you know, eight classrooms that we can utilize for different programs. It would make us um kick off very much much more quickly.

And it would be a rent situation for now. [clears throat] Okay. Anyone else? All right. Let me uh conclude by thanking you. But I'm also just saying I I work with the military advocacy group that deals with all branches between here [snorts] and Portis Langley. And when we were up at the Pentagon, every under secretary for assistant secretary of defense that we spoke to said the primary uh need of

military is for affordable housing and daycare and help with the kids.

[clears throat] And to put it in context, this was essential for military readiness, you know, for recruitment and retention of personnel. So what you're doing is some pretty high priority stuff. So but once again, thanks again.

And our headquarters is they opened up that one location in Norfolk. They will be opening in May of 2026 um right off of Rosemont Road, another 200 child care facility that again is in partnership with the DoD um to help. I think their focus is going to be infant and toddler because that's really where the greatest need is. Those are those are ages that we don't we don't oversee.

But thank you so much for the opportunity.

Great job.

Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will be provided by Deputy Director Emily Archer with economic development. She's going to give city council a briefing on a exercise that was part of your pre of your current focus action plan regarding looking at current city land to identify opportunities for industrial or business development needs.

Great. Thank you. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. Thank you for having me.

So we are going to cover um the completed staff work from this um focus action plan initiative from your um the 2425 focus action plan. Um we'll talk about how we went about this task um give you an overview of what we found and then the next steps for your consideration.

So there's 2.21 is the one we're focused on today. that's identifying potential land plots that are ideal for industrial or business development opportunities.

But it couldn't have happened without 2.5, which was also an envision initiative that was public works completed developing a comprehensive list of all city-owned property. So what we did was take the 2.5 findings which totaled 2,144 parcels and 12,692 acres of city- owned land and came up with a scoring criteria for those that looked at location and accessibility, zoning, uh the context, the size, and

the configuration of the parcel. We're looking for at least three acres um to start with. Um the 2.25 25 land had everything from pump stations to schools. So, this really kind of narrowed it down. Um, infrastructure and utility availability and environmental considerations. Um, we cast a wide net.

Anything that had a any potential or passing score was advanced. Um, but we were um very much aware that there were ones that were just not suitable. So you'll see on the right, this is an um a 7.5 acre property in district 1 that was eliminated because it was completely surrounded by residential directly adjacent to the property lines and was just not suitable for industrial or business development.

Um so then after we went through that scoring criteria, we did an internal review and vetting with other city departments that have anything to do with land in the city. So, public works, public utilities, parks and recreation, the city attorney's office, all had a chance to look at what we found and provide us additional feedback on legal restrictions, lease considerations, easement considerations we weren't aware

of or their own projects they had going on. Another [snorts] one that made it to that round on the right is 6.5 acre parcel in district 7 um that was in Centerville that was eliminated because it was 6 and 12 acres which met the criteria, but you can see it's a long linear parcel which was impacting its developability. It's part of a landfill, so there's environmental considerations

that doesn't make it very developable.

And then also we learned during that second vetting process that the center turnpike project um would need some of that city land. So that one was eliminated.

So what we did find was approximately 9% of that city land had some potential at all and it was really limited to the council districts. the CUC there.

District two, the majority is in the ITA. Uh the current ITA plan does not support industrial or business development um expansion and will need to be determined through that update process. Um district three, I think in your packages on Friday, we had one area identified. We've actually there was an oversight. There are two I'll cover in a minute. Um district four, the majority

is in Burton Station. District five, the majority in Corporate Landing Business Park. and district 6. The majority is around the um convention and sports center, the parking lots that you're aware of from the central beach area plan. Remember, this is for industrial and business development. So, any kind of economic development purpose, not just industrial. We're not proposing to put that around the convention and

support center.

And I should note too, these are just total acres of the parcels we found, right? So, these aren't there would need to be further vetting for what's actually developable on that parcel.

These are whole whole numbers here.

Um, I am going to give you an over view by district, but I'm not going to go through every single one. So, if you're um wondering what happened to the one partial in your district, we're happy to look into that further um if we can't answer it here today.

So, an overview of district 2 just so you know what you're looking at. Um the blue lines you see are the district boundaries. The orange parcels you see are the properties identified. Um, there [clears throat] are the yellow kind of faint yellow outlines. That is city- owned land that's identified. You can kind of see a purple line that goes from the top of the page right to the left.

That is the former southeastern parkway.

A few of the parcels we found have to do with that land. Um, and then you can see the green line on district 2 as well.

Um, I mentioned the ITA plan that it's going to have its own separate process, but one area that we did find outside of the ITA and the transition zone along the parkway along Indian River Road um is a 9 acre parcel um off of Indian River Road at 39 3924 Indian River. Uh this is part of the Southeastern Parkway alignment. Um and we're pretty sure there's wetlands on the northern part of that.

So any kind of future action would have to think through future active transportation if the southeast Asian is not coming through or those potential environmental considerations.

Uh so district three the two areas identified we um I want to point out we had over had oversight of the Kempsville quadrant. So historic Kempsville on the very left of the screen is there at the intersection of Witchduck and Princess Anne where the city's been assembling property on that northeast quadrant. Um, a lot of them were individually less than three acres, so you had to look at

assemblages as well to see that chunk.

And then on the right, we found one that almost got eliminated. This is at um, off of Robert Jackson Drive right around the bend coming off the interstate at Linhaven Parkway. Um, there are overhead utility easements. You can see Big Dominion ement coming across that. There are access challenges you can see off of Robert Jackson Drive to residential homes that would not support kind of

business development um or industrial development and it's zoned residential but it does have a lot of high visibility and it is acreage so we wanted to at least bring it to your consideration.

Moving on to district 4. Uh you can see Burton station up in the far upper left of the screen. And then the other one in district 4 it was uh VBDA's 110 South Independence. the former circuit city site which uh VBDAS is actively exploring redevelopment potential for that Burton station is not contiguous right there's a lot of um disperate parcels there totally in about a 20 acre conglomeration um it would

definitely need further kind of study it's lacking a lot of infrastructure um including area partnerships with the land owners around that including the airport potentially Um, district five, you can kind of see Corporate Landing south of Damne Neck Road, um, to the south there. And then if you see that purple line, that was the former Southeastern Parkway I mentioned. If you follow that up,

there's another one along Oceanana Boulevard. um I wanted to bring to your attention we are um I wanted to mention that VBDA is considering uh marketing corporate landing more than they really have ever before in the past including with videos and specific postings on CoStar for parcels available.

But the one north of there off at Oceanana Boulevard we found um for formerly part of the Southeastern Parkway alignment. It is zoned R 5D and mostly in the back but there is zoning for B2 in the front. There is a Navy restrictive easement, but it is 22.8 acres in a high noise zone um right at the intersection.

Then lastly, district 6. Um a lot of these are also known quantities. So, we have um 1040 Alaskan Road, which is uh currently um being solicited for an RFP with proposals due um November 21st. You can see them all on our website through the QR code. The surfing parking lots, as I mentioned, around the convention sports centers. Um we had at least two active solicitations following the

Central Beach SAR plan for there. One that's due for action sports December 5th. But then in the very south of district 6 um came to our attention one off of uh Birdneck Road. This was a pro uh formerly part of the Alice Creek master plan a while ago. Um it was acquired from the Commonwealth with uh use restrictions limited to municipal uses or tourism purposes. Is zoned P1, but it is 12.7 acres. Um,

again, we wanted to make you aware of lots of next steps for consideration, but one idea we had is we could do something similar for privately owned land. Uh, following the comprehensive plan adoption once those areas identified for growth in the city are um finalized. Uh, further lots of further analysis on what we did find could take place where it's not already taking place. similar to master plan efforts or

further environmental site assessments like Burton station for instance um market studies appraisals um economic impact analysis to understand ROIs on these RFPs as we're currently doing for some and then more stakeholder input as well um or other as directed any questions okay any questions discussion Thank you so much, Emily. Can you go back to district?

Sure.

Because I'm looking at um buildings.

Yes.

Doesn't go all the way through.

Correct.

And then we're talking about possible pump station.

How much would that take away from the 20 plus acres you left?

So on the screen it would cut through um 1784 kind you can kind of see where it ends at the culde-sac. I'll step over.

Okay.

When you say cut through is are you talking about the Taliba road?

Yeah. The CIP uh was to extend Hall of Road over the railroad tracks all the way to Arow Avenue and kind of a semicircle. So, a lot of that required privately owned property as well as a smaller portion of city- owned property.

It was a little of both.

Okay. So, to put them all together, you obviously will have to also talk with some of the private own.

Correct.

Yes. And the railroad as a stickler.

Okay. But thank you for um this is great to know.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you, Josh and Pouch.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um Emily, this is great information. Um part of me is surprised how much property you were able to locate. Um and then the most of the rest me is not really surprised by how much property there isn't available.

Um after going through a multi-year analysis through thousands of parcels, correct? Um, I would be really interested in the the next steps that you had talked about to try and also see where some do do an analysis on privately owned lands. Um, especially where there's adjacencies to the publicly owned lands. Um, and then perhaps maybe take the five largest property owners in the city of Virginia

Beach and kind of see where, you know, where there's an overlay or, you know, I mean, if if say, you know, there's a say a couple people who we have it's inevitable that we're we're we're going to deal with them at some juncture or another because they happen to own a lot of property. It would be helpful to know um maybe maybe they have a diff more more difficult piece of

property that that that could help us in some way that that could avoid maybe development concerns and could potentially maybe help in situations where people are talking about flood resiliency and conservation of open space. So it'd be nice to know what other people have in relation to what we have.

Great. Thank you.

Yeah. And then Michael.

So thanks. It was good. Um and obviously appreciate all the work that went into that um went into all this with everybody but um I have two two questions. One is uh the one in district one um you don't need to go back to it but um has that uh you you were saying um at the beginning I'm sorry I probably could have looked at it and found it but these the two purposes that you were

looking at all these properties was what again?

So business industrial or business development.

Okay. But if we wanted to do some if there was a developer out there that you just pointed this property out to that could be used for workforce housing per se, this would be a pretty good parcel, wouldn't it?

I know I'm asking you to switch hats.

But yes, no. [clears throat] So we could do something similar to look at more housing appropriate parcels, right? So that could be another avenue we could look at um because we didn't have quite that lens. But yeah.

Yeah. But okay, we can talk offline. I just was while it was fresh in my mind. The second thing is so uh and it's along the sort of the same lines is with the bird neck road uh piece of property. Um did you say that we bought that with a stipulation of what again?

So that was acquired.

Sorry. Thank you.

From the Commonwealth with use restrictions limited to municipal uses or tourism purposes.

Okay. So municipal would fit a FEMA warehouse or need a right. I mean, is that is that something either either either way, you know, is it I just kind of keep it on the forefront here.

Correct. Um, we do believe there's high noise zone restrictions here. So, as long as it could fit, we could definitely look at that with these.

Yeah. I'm not talking about the shooting range. You're running likely you're running into the same restrictions for Lita that you would, but it possibly happens that could possibly be used for FEMA warehouse. And as um Council calls, we're asking the Navy to give us the determination for that one as well.

Oh, you did ask for Oh, I'm sorry. Okay.

Thank you.

I should have known.

Yep. Thanks.

Okay, y'all. Appreciate it.

Okay, we're going to go with Michael and work.

Uh thank you, Miss Archer. And um you know I was just reflecting as you were going through here and and I just want to take a step back because there's been much discussion about the land use conversations that are underway throughout the city. And I think what you did here is to present us a very dispassionate inventory of what's available um that the city controls um and how we can

begin to advance conversations around um how we make these decisions together about land use and moving forward. not just for those of us who are here today, but for me very much I'm thinking about the next generation and the generations that follow and and I think we need to try all of us I guess just a reflection more than it is a question but um to turn the temperature down on these

conversations and and for me it's just one of the things I think a lot about is what type of community we want to shape and what opportunities will be here for the future. Our migration is one of the largest challenges that we face as a region. our best and brightest minds are often leaving for other competitive marketplaces and um we want to turn that tide and so responsible land use

decisions can be part of that initiative um that people have access to economic prosperity and economic opportunity and upward economic mobility in Virginia Beach and they're not stuck in jobs that don't provide opportunities for them or their children. And so we continue to [clears throat] grow and enhance our economy and be open to new and emerging technologies and industries that may

present themselves for opportunities. So um and that we continue to develop an economy that um can produce a a relief on the residential rateayer and b to fund the services that we all rely upon as Virginia Beach residents. And so for me, those are the among the factors that I'm being considerate of when making these really consequential and um important land use decisions. And we need to do all of that with the

balance toward economic protection, ecological protection, and [clears throat] preserving open space and those other elements that we've heard about too. But I just think it's really important that we work together to find that balance. And I think that's what your presentation does. And I just want to take this opportunity to emphasize the importance of that and to kind of try to reduce the some of the

tensions around land use that we've experienced and and share at least what's on my mind as we make these decisions. It's a balance between where [clears throat] we are today and the type of community that we're tasked with hopefully shaping for future generations. And I talk to th those young people and emerging professionals a lot and they do want to stay here.

They want to be part of um the economy here and community, but they also want to have a chance to have access to good jobs, to be entrepreneurial, and to thrive here for themselves and for their children and for their children's children for generations to come. And that's what we have to figure out how to do here um in a respectful, cordial, collaborative way.

Very good, Michael.

Thank you, mayor. Uh, thank you, Miss Archer, for the presentation. And I agree with you, uh, Councilman Burluchcci and Hutcherson. So, this does tell us a lot about a lot of things, economic development, but I want to take off the commercial hat for a minute and say a couple of these slides and and opportunities to me should be also be considered by perhaps the open space committee

um for open space around the city that is not applicable like perhaps SL uh slide six, the uh excuse me, slide four, the first one that you let off with because it is surrounded by residential on both sides. So either my thinking out of the box, could that be open space?

That's a prime parter there, Lin Haven Parkway or affordable housing. Um because it's res it's residential on all sides. Yes, sir. Mr. Man, I think that one used to be the former Linhaven boys home.

Was that it or was it the the former Linhaven boys home? So that one recently got vacated. There used to be a boy home there. So, I think that recently got vacated and I think staff in public works and housing and neighborhood preservation are looking at that to see if it makes sense for an opportunity for but this one recently like probably like a little bit after co um when the boys

home vacated this property. I think I'm pretty certain that's a I wasn't sure if it was that or it was the old parks and wreck original built like long long ago. It's one I I think the house is right there on the front. I think you're right. Yep. I think they were shared like I think Parks and Wreck was there. [snorts] So the boy was there too as well.

I think there was a pottery thing there from Parks and Wreck from years ago.

Yeah, I know. One of the challenges we got with this one is like we're figuring out uh internally we're working on a demolition plan for some of these properties as well cuz a lot of especially the boys home is in really bad repair.

Yeah. A lot of those buildings back there really were in bad shape.

[clears throat] And you know, yeah, they had a boy's home at first, but then uh contractor changed it to a halfway house for uh you know, people that were parrolled and then there were some robberies up at the Walmart there and everything. And you know, you know, we we had to change direction [snorts] of [clears throat] that house.

And just comment on corporate landing if you want to go to that slide. So while that is I1 uh zoning, there's use there's um covenants and restrictions there that do not allow for for example acoustical sheet metal. If they want to build a metal building, they could not go in that park because that's that park I believe the design restrictions do not allow metal building. So that's and it

in general industrial probably is not in fact I don't think it's pretty much allowed in that park in general. So it's it's really more of an office always has been and intended to be an office part.

Um but I think in general this tells us too was I read Virginia Business Magazine and see Pharma landing on three parts of the state of Virginia. Pharma meaning Astroenica and Eli Liy and some others billion dollar plants. We don't have land for that here and that's just reality right now. So, we do in other parts of the region, but um this tells us we don't have it.

Okay. Anyone else? Ameilia, I'm just wondering as you're talking, have you included any of the different malls or anything that are now we're trying to repurpose? Are they involved in what you've given us? Yes. No.

So, no, because there's no specific city-owned. This is all city-owned land.

That's what I was saying. kind of like the next step could be to look at that privately owned land with a similar lens based on the growth envisioned in the comprehensive plan areas of the city.

We would suggest that council if council wants us to explore that that comes after the comprehensive plan adoption because then you'll you in that plan you'll identify the different uses in the different areas of the city, you know. So we would we would anticipate that if you all wanted to do that, we would do that after you all um handle the adoption and the review of the comprehensive plan.

Then second question, how far along are you for any um other developers who may want to do not just the regular business, but you have both areas sit with you.

So by both areas, do you mean um residential and business?

Yes. So, especially around the uh in district six around the convention sports center, there's interest in both kind of mixed use in that oceanfront area, the town center area, 110 South Independence, there's interest in mixed use. Um and even Burton Station, there's interest in residential, but um a lot of that zoned industrial right now as well.

So, I saw the Columbus that you mentioned in here as well.

Correct. So, anything that even had the mixeduse component for business as well was considered.

Thank you.

Anybody else? Thank you again very much.

Most appreciated.

All right. So, Mr. Mayor, members of council, the next presentation will be given by Deputy City Manager Monica Rosski. It'll be an overview of your draft focus action plan for the years fiscal year 25 through 27.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Man, Mr. Mayor and Mr.

Manager. Uh, vice mayor will be back and city council. Um, excited to be here.

This is the kind of stuff that I really enjoy, so I'm looking forward to it. Um, let's see. Where we're headed at the end of this presentation is really to get your feedback on this draft plan to see what resonates, what doesn't, are there any edits or revisions that you would want. Um, and the presentation I do want to go over what the focus action plan is, why we do it, um, a little

background on how it's developed, and then I will highlight some of the elements of the proposed plan.

So focus action plan is what we call it.

Other places might call it a strategic plan or a business plan. I think Emily's presentation was a great example of why we do it. Uh what's in the plan gets done and that's done very intentionally.

Um the manager has been very thoughtful and building an infrastructure to make sure that that happens. I think one of the criticisms of government is that we do a lot of planning, but folks may not feel as though where's the action and do these plans sit on shelves and collect dust? That does not happen with this plan. Um, some of the things that we do is each of the DCMS we're over the key

focus areas and we work with the office of performance and accountability. We call it OPA and they have monthly meetings with us and the departments who have initiatives within the plan and we talk about progress. We talk about challenges. Council member Hutcherson, you probably remember being on the other side of these. Um, and then quarterly the DCMS and the teams, we get before our city manager and we talk to him

about our progress, our challenges. And then twice a year we provide a report to city council and the public that walks through the steps we've taken to implement the initiatives. Um, another aspect of that are we call them DPPS, departmental performance plans. If you have an initiative in city council's focus action plan and the manager may want more visibility into it, then it

rolls into your department plan. Uh all of those department plans are on our website so that anybody can see them. Um the city manager has quarterly meetings with the department, the department leadership, OPA and the DCM that's over that department so that we could talk about the progress there. So the point is is that this is just not a fairy tale plan. and it's very intentional structure behind making sure we make

progress on your priorities.

So, how do we develop the focus action plan? We spent a lot of time talking about your retreat behind the scenes. We work really hard as staff with your facilitator on trying to design a retreat that's going to be fruitful. Um, but a lot should be said about all the work you all do year round so that when you show up at that retreat, you're representing uh the voices that you've

heard as you have interacted with your constituencies, all the presentations you all get here every Tuesday. Um, you bring that to the retreat and the facilitators do a good job of walking you all through your priorities, your thoughts. Um, at this past retreat that you had in August 26, 27th, uh, there's a screenshot of how your expressions of interest, we don't call them voting, uh, came out. Economic development,

affordable housing, public safety, environment, and tax um, payer affordability were some of your top priorities.

What we do next is we want the community to give us feedback. Um, so obviously the plan is developed by your leadership and your vision. Uh, we also want to hear the community's voice in the plan.

Uh, this year is special because we had two opportunities to really hear from the community. The first one is a speak up VB survey that we put on the website.

It's not a social science standard research, right? Standard. It's on the website. Anybody can take it. If you want to take it twice, you could take it twice. Um, so but the point of it is to get feedback from the community. uh resounding response we got this year when we did this the first time last time we had about 515 responses this time we had 1,263 people participate in this survey just

amazing um I'm sure our comm's department did a lot to help get the word out um so amazing response uh very simple survey uh we give folks I guess we give them about 10 12 themes and give them the opportunity to fill in themes of their own and we asked them over the next 24 months, how much focus should city council and city staff give this topic? And it ranges from this should

receive the most focus to I don't think this should receive any focus at all. So you can see what the top uh candidates were. They will be familiar because they were also on your list. public safety, flooding and environment, education, a lot of comments um about teacher pay and the condition of schools, city budget, housing affordability, and optimizing city resources. Um in the survey, folks

could also leave open-ended comments. We had over a thousand open-ended comments, which is interesting for a survey.

Usually don't see as many open-ended comments as you see the easier check the box. Uh most of the comments and we gave those comments to you. Most of those comments really reiterate the top themes. Uh some outliers were in the open comments, land use and development were top feedback that we got even though it didn't make the top five in the closed session as well as issues around mobility, transit, traffic. Um

people are very passionate about speeding around town and in neighborhoods. That's a hot topic in uh the open-ended comments.

The second opportunity we had to hear from folks uh this past spring we had a random sample demographically representative statistically significant survey. So this is gold standard social science uh standard research. Um, and one of the questions in that survey that ETC administered for us asks folks, what are the top five most significant issues you think we're going to face over the

three years? Very similar outcomes. Uh, affordability of services, housing affordability, public safety, flood protection, homelessness. So, you're starting to see themes between the things that you're saying, what the open survey said, as well as the social science research says, which is what you want with the triangulization of like methods. you want to see um themes because that lets us know we're on the

right track.

So then what's staff role and the focus action plan is to really listen. We take what we hear from you, what we heard from residents and our job is to develop initiatives and performance measures that advance your interests and the areas that you want to focus on. So this year when we took all of that into consideration, what we're proposing for you is a focus action plan that focuses

on people, places, and partnerships. And in each of these key focus areas, we are focusing on our focus, our actions, and our progress. Um the our actions really are the initiatives that we're going to do to advance um the focus area. our progress, our performance measures that will help us know if we're moving the needle. Obviously, the areas that we're trying to address are really big issues,

really big areas. So, moving the needle is going to take more than 24 months, but the point of performance measures are to be an invitation for conversation so we can have intentional dialogue about are we making progress? Are we moving the needle?

So, I'm going to briefly highlight um the key focus areas and some of the initiatives within them. Um I know the manager prefers that I not read from the slides, but I think that these focus statements are important enough to read because they let folks know what it is we're intending to focus on. Uh the f first one is people and it's people are our foundation of the city's public

service. Whether it's the residents and visitors we serve or the dedicated public servants who serve them, we value our people. We are interested in hearing from them, addressing their concerns, and using their feedback to inform our service delivery. We strive to provide highquality services in a fiscally responsible manner. From empty nesters who have decided to retire here to young

families putting down roots, we seek to listen, serve, and support the diver diverse community that makes Virginia Beach special. And some of the initiatives initiatives in this key focus area deal with deal with public safety. Um, so at the retreat, you all talked about making sure that they have the vehicles they need to respond and support the community. You all talked about vacancies. So there's initiatives

and progress measures that will get uh to those areas of interest. Uh a good bit of initiatives around centering residents voices not only in engaging them but in our service delivery. Um so our traffic calming program both in the comments in the open-ended survey as well as your comments here around this table. We got to figure out an opportunity to make sure we're appropriately balancing industry

quantitative standards with residents lived experiences. So there's an initiative in there that talks about that. Taxpayer affordability service level expectations, opportunities for cost savings. So there's initiatives in there that talk about continuing that discussion that you all are having. Um there's an initiative that talks about working with your city council appointed process improvement steering committee

to establish an ongoing way of working with departments to examine opportunities for optimizing how we deliver services. So how do we do that in a more intentional thoughtful way on a long uh long-term basis. Uh so those are some of the initiatives in that one.

The next one is places. People are our foundation, but people need some place to live, work, and ideally recreate. Um, so we got to have some places. So this one says, "We strive to be a place of choice for families, businesses, and visitors. To achieve this, we recognize we must offer places that can support a strong economy, housing options that are attainable for various income levels, and a built environment that

appropriately accommodates these goals while aligning with community values.

neighborhood integrity and the protection of our natural resources. We will continue to be a place of choice by being strategic and transparent in our land use endeavors. So in this places category we have your economic development tourism because people need places to work. Um uh we also have your attainable workforce housing. uh some of the initiatives in here at your retreat.

You talked about how do we keep affordable units affordable. So initiatives on scanning to see what peers are doing. Uh you all talked about eviction predict uh prevention and reduction. There are places people doing things around the country that are pretty intriguing. Whether we'll be allowed to do it in a Dylan state, we don't know, but that's what we're going to find out. So there's an initiative around that.

uh economic development. Good conversation about are we being strategic about where we're focusing our attention. Uh so there's an initiative in there about economic development finishing their strategic plan in making sure that we're aligning where we focus and what we're trying to attract with what the strategic plan says. Um there's things in there about the environment.

You all recently adopted an urban forest management plan. So, let's go back to that plan and pick out some of those recommendations and actually operationalize them. So, there's an initiative around that. Um, let's see that last line. Uh, just want to be transparent. Those are all specific places council has had discussion on, but just because they're all on that same line, I just want to be clear that

they are all in different stages of council's consideration, right? They're in different phases, but there are very specific initiatives in the plan that talk about them individually and what potential next steps are for those very specific sites and plans. Um, flood protection is definitely in there. Um, and that's where the land use items are also.

And then lastly is partnerships. Um, city can't go it alone. Uh you all know that we have limited resources and just quite frankly like this says the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. We recognize that partnerships allow us to expand our reach and increase our impact. We seek to serve the comm community, bolster our economy and prepare for our future by appropriately leveraging the strengths of other

agencies and entities.

And this key focus area is talking about working with the schools to make sure that we continue to have collaboration around their CIP. How do we fulfill the advancement of their CIP in a fiscally responsible manner as well as learning more about their vocational um tech program? Uh there's an initiative that talks about apprenticeships. We need trades just like every other organization. We need plumbers,

electricians, um carpenters. we should be working with our educational institutions um to do just that. We just had a great event at the Bush um company and they were talking about their apprenticeships and how they're working with high schools and such. So, we want to make sure we're tapping into the space. So, there's an initiative on that. Uh the public private partnerships, you all have an

economic development guidelines um and you all have been talking about revisiting that to either reaffirm it or make changes if necessary.

um and doing a review of the current ones that we have. So there's initiative around that. Homelessness, mental health, these are big societal issues that we are not going to be able to address alone. Making sure that homelessness is brief, rare, and non-recurring is going to require us to continue our relationships. So there's initiatives in there about that. Um and finally, arts and culture. making sure

that we partner with our uh cultural arts institutions as well as local artists through the program you all recently established. How do we u make sure we continue to do that and also evaluating the program to see if there's opportunities uh for improvements um to make sure that we continue to extend the reach of arts to residents all across our city. Um but we recognize doing it through partnerships is the more

appropriate and efficient way to do that.

So that's your draft. Um people, places, partnerships. Um just quickly, we'll get to the point of today is so that we can hear from you. Again, this is a iterative collaborative process.

But on deck, we have November 12th. Uh any feedback you give us today, we'll go back, make those changes, get it back out to you all, and then hopefully on November 25th, you all would um schedule a vote on your focus action plan. so that we as staff can get to work on um realizing that plan. I'm going to go back to the slide because visually I always have to give kudos to the

communications team. I get these very specific thoughts in my head of how I want things to to look and they never fail of making it come. Um so I'm going to end on this slide, not the discussion slide because I just loved visually how this looks. So with that, Mr. Manager, I don't know if I anything you think I should elaborate on or bring to their attention. Other than that, I'll invite council's discussion.

I think we um Mr. Mayor, the floor is okay.

Thank you so much for presentation. Can you go to slide five?

I can.

Not that we don't love that slide, but Yeah. Yeah. I just had to get off of it.

Ah, no. I'm not kidding. I And I'm only making this point for larger clarification.

Okay.

when over here when we say speak up Virginia survey results.

Yes.

And the very last item we have is tourism, recreation and culture. And so that right away that jumped out at me like tourism is not recreation and culture.

Tourism is economic development. And I think that this one of the great misunderstandings that I see that our citizenry has is they see us putting money into tourism and attracting people coming to the beach and they think of it as you know spending money at the oceanfront and you know for the for the citizens down there and tourism is really economic development. But then you go to slide eight and

yeah. So then you talk about um economic development and then you lump tourism in with it. So I I just I think that and whenever we talk about tourism to me it needs to be identified as economic development not in not not confused with recreation or culture or other things.

It's couldn't agree with you more. I think we agree um and you'll probably see that standardization more. Um so leave it to you to pick up on that. But what's interesting though is when you go to the comments, you can see the different views and perspectives that residents have on that. Like some folks see it as increase tourism so that y'all need less money from me. Um so it's very clear

that some folks are able to make that connection. Um so I think being intentional on helping folks make that connection absolutely is something that we should be doing. So agree 100%. And and then I would also include in that to a degree. No, keep keep on sliding.

Okay.

When we go down and we start talking about VB trail and Rudy Park, I think those are other items that maybe less directly, but also um have an [snorts] have a bent towards economic development because Oh, yeah. The Rudy Park again. And I mean, I I hope our citizens do go and take advantage of it and it becomes a great local attraction, but I really see Rudy Park as economic development. You know, that that's going

to redevelop that whole area for, you know, on the economic development side.

And we're hoping that the VB trail does some of that also.

Yeah. Double duty serving as places for our residents and opportunity to bolster our economy. Absolutely. I I would just like to see us put an emphasis or or just more of a highlight on some of these things do have double duty and they do have a bent towards economic development and that's why they're so important uh to to certain people here on council.

Couldn't agree with you more.

Hey Josh and Barbara.

Thank you Mr. Mayor Monica. Thank you very much. Looking forward to the another strategic exercise. We always do a great job. Um, and the, uh, comment made by council member Cummings kind of struck me too as I was looking at the SpeakUp survey results and it's hard not to see that the economic development and the tourism are like the ways that we pay for all the things that are up above it. Um,

and um, and that and that is all important. Um, and the only the only comment I have just initially here is, uh, when we talk about partnerships, um, I didn't really see anything about regional partnerships. Um, and you know, considering we are the largest city in the Commonwealth and we do have a role to play there in regional leadership, I think, um, looking for opportunities. We

just joined the BV RIFFA. um you know we we send you know a half a half a dozen people to the PDC meeting every quarter and um have a good strong presence there TPO um you know and u and and just even direct direct engagement with our neighboring localities like we we do all the time um so we'll definitely add that a lot of what uh Stacy was talking about

um I picked up on page three of this uh report on the economic development portion. And what really jumped out is that city council has identified economic development as its top priority, but the citizens in SpeakUp Virginia Beach ranked it 10th out of 12th.

And the citizens in the 2025 resident survey ranked [clears throat] economic development or [snorts] job opportunities and business recruitment 83 of ninth.

So obviously we have some different thinking between what we're thinking when we're talking about economic development and what the citizens are talking about. And I think it's something we might want to spend some time on to make sure we all are understanding what we are talking about.

because as you said uh well for example the whole issue with sports tourism is very much an economic development factor as well as a recreational factor. So it's not just I mean I I I don't like seeing our departments looking like they're in competition parks and wreck in competition with economic development.

That's not right. parks and wreck. And what they have in their plan, as we saw that Chad Morris came up with, are factors that are great tools for attracting tourists. And that is an a development for all of our hotels, our restaurants, and all of those businesses that are already here. That that's economic development, too. So, I think we really have to take some time to see what we're talking about when we're

talking economic development. and what we really mean because I think we've lost our public if we're just using the words economic development and if I may I'm so intrigued by that because there is something there right like it's they want the outcomes of economic development and I don't know if it's the term is I don't want to say an empty term but something's not resonating when we say economic

development so there is something there to make sure that we're talking the same language with our community because we all want similar outcomes um But words ma I'm one of those people where words matter. Um so there is a there there that I am intrigued by as well. Council member Henley I think Mr. Mayor if you look at it folks always tend to score affordable attainable housing pretty high and then

also job opportunities and in essence that's what economic development is and also you know tourism development as well. So I think to Miss Hel's point and to Monica's point, it's something that Monica and I were talking about. There's something there because folks when you pull them apart, they they are okay with it. But when you say economic development, there's some connotation,

maybe some industry jargon there that I think doesn't necessarily resonate with people and you think about it as something sometimes a negative versus the opportunities that it opens up and the revenue that it brings to help keep the tax base um tax rates low and also to increase our tax base. it work.

Thank you, mayor. Thank I just want to join in the conversation about economic development. To me, it's all the above.

It's office, town center, Lhaven Parkway. It's tourism at the oceanfront.

Also, um Sandbridge and it's hotels, it's restaurants, it's beach cottages.

It's industrial development. Many of our jobs are industrial development. Bush that was a expansion. A lot of our businesses here are want to expand. we have to have places for them to expand into. So, it's all the above. Um, and of course retail, which is restaurants, um, [clears throat] clothing, but both Lhaven Mall, well, the malls are starting to morph into different things now. So, that's the retail world is

changing, but it's all the above. And I also think in terms of where people's priorities, I've always believed that public safety is the first and foremost.

I we all want to be safe first and then we need to be able to afford where we live. I mean, that's all and education.

Those are the three. Economic development is going to always go south of that.

Thank you.

Yeah. Let let me just say I think you know I think this was a very robust conversation and uh there's a fact of that you know to achieve affordable housing to achieve uh you know tax rates that are good economic development is the key because unless we create those new revenue sources going forward uh you know the burden's going to come on the taxpayer both commercial and residential and uh

you know let me to say that you know when we talk about um you know the ocean front you know we've always had a concern about all lot of money going to the ocean front but I think what happened that we found out when we shut down during co when the ocean front shut down um now every homeowner was looking at a uh perhaps a $1700 uh delta that you know we had to pay the

bills somewhere along the line and the cash flow And I think one of the things that we're really trying to encourage as we get the ocean front becoming more uh yearround and you know get rid of the shoulder season and the winter seasons that the economic development is going to be positive. that's going to help every uh homeowner, you know, in the city going forward as we bring in those new revenue sources.

And um you know and but once again I think that um you know one of the goals that I think we have of building new garages you know and you know be me being a district guy for 14 years people [clears throat] were adverse to coming to their oceanfront because of parking and you know things of that nature and you know we're trying to overcome that and you know by the development of the

sports center in there, but also the vibe district uh you know what we're going to be doing with uh with Atlantic Park uh with Rudy Loop, you know, this is we're doing a lot of this stuff where people uh are, you know, to you know, come and partake. Uh so but once again I think people have to realize that economic development is the uh engine you know that keeps government going as

our demands for infrastructure of what we're talking about what we're confronting with storm water you know once again uh our $567 million referendum now 1.5 and you know we're going to be paying that in perpetuity you know keeping current uh with salaries for public safety and schools and things of that nature. Um, economic development is going to provide those opportunities.

And before I get to Barbara, there was one other thing. I did a um looking on the MSN website and they named the five bestrun cities in the country. We came in at number nine, but in the little sidebar where they listed the various things, I think we were number two in terms of satisfaction with city services. You know, there's something we can look into. Uh but, you know, for the

most part, you know, a lot of people are very happy uh living here. Uh you know, we're identified it's a great place to live. Number you know, some places say for retirement and everything. We're confronting the same building uh uh you know challenges every city with affordable housing [clears throat] and homeless and everything. This is not unique to Virginia Beach, but I think

we're doing a pretty good job. Barbara, this section has the comments from the public is not readable.

Um and I know that it would take a lot of paper to make it readable. Maybe you can just supply us each with a magnifying glass. I would really like to read these comments if there's some way that we could Yeah, I'll look on it's an extract from the system so I can work with folks who are a bit more technologically inclined than I am um to get you because I wear

contacts and council member Henley, you are not joking. It's small font. So yeah, we'll we'll work something out.

Yeah I I think this is important for us to know. Thank you. Yeah, Barbara, trust me, I have to have when I do some proclamations sometimes a large things because I am a impaired and there are over a thousand of those comments. So, yeah.

Yeah.

So, I got regional partnerships. That's something that we need to add. Were there any other things that you felt were missing?

Amelia.

Well, the military.

Okay.

Okay. and partnerships of continuing and that's one that we pride ourselves on.

That's a good one.

Yeah, I think we got to identify because you know, you know, uh we really have a stellar relationship with all the military. We meet with uh um you know, Little Creek and Oceanana Quarterly and the feedback that we get from the military hireups about the relationship with Virginia Beach is key.

And uh I think we found out during de desert storm when the squadrons left and everybody went home.

Oh yeah, you know they're they're important. Michael, I I don't want to belver it, but I think we really struck on something today when the discussion around economic development came up and uh Mr. Dhaney I think appropriately noted that it's job opportunities and that's how I look at it. I also look at it, you know, as we discussed in the last item, economic opportunity. So to Mrs. Henley's point,

if you frame it in one context, there are connotations that come with that that some people approve of or disapprove of, but when you if you if framed in another context, we all support economic opportunity, economic mobility, job opportunities. And I think that's what we have to start talking about more. in order to be more transparent about what we're doing. Um, it's for it's for creating pathways to

opportunities and to mobility for more people so that we can lead lead better lives. That's what we all are here to do in every sense of the word. And the role that that economic development of that economic opportunity plays in our city is essential and it's vital and it's up to us to make sure that we're transparent about the role that it plays and also what we're doing in order to

support that and to let industry let the private sector and all the creativity that comes with that be unleashed in Virginia Beach and for Virginia Beach.

So, I think we need to do a little bit more work on that. I think we really struck on something today.

And Michael, ever since I've been uh blessed to be on council since 2004, I always hear about families say, "Boy, I wish when my kids graduated from college, I could get something here."

That's always Well, you you have a saying, right, Mayor?

Oh, yeah. People don't let their friends knew move to Northern Virginia. We'll find you a job here.

Yes.

Yeah. Patrick, so Mr. Mayor, we'll work on the themes and um the guidance and the advice that we've received here. Our intent, similar to last time, is to work towards the end of um November to bring this to council for council to adopt it, you know. So, we'll make sure we get an updated plan to you all and our goal will be the last meeting in December for council to vote towards affirming um the focus action

plan.

That would be great. You know, Monica, great job for you.

Thank you all for always being so engaged in this. So, thank you.

All right, moving on. All right, so Mr.

Mayor, the last um briefing will be a briefing from our planning department and specifically Catelyn Alco regarding our pending planning items. And these will be the items that will come before you at your November 18, 2025 council meeting.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council. As the city manager just stated, I'm here this afternoon to go over the planning items that are on your November 18th hearing.

There are only a total of 10 items on that agenda. So, starting first with item one, this is a request for a change in non-conformity for property located at 1029 Hillview Boulevard in District 1.

The applicant is requesting to construct an addition on an existing legally non-conforming dwelling that was constructed in 1965. At the time of construction, the rear yard setback was 10 ft. However, when the zoning ordinance was updated in 1988, the rear yard setback for R10 parcels was modified to 20 feet, making the dwelling and many other simil similar dwellings in the area legally non-conforming structures.

The existing dwelling is located 16.9 ft from the rear property line. The area shaded in green there on the slide shows the portion of the existing home that lies within that rear yard setback. The proposed addition will be 18 feet from the property line with only 14 square feet shown in purple there encroaching into that rear yard. Staff has not received any opposition to this request

and the planning commission did vote to recommend approval on their consent agenda.

Item two is another change in non-conformity request. This one for 20375th Street in District 6.

The existing home was built in 1945 prior to the adoption of the city's zoning ordinance and is non-conforming with regards to the required 8-foot sideyard setback and that's on the western property line and then the 20ft rear yard setback which is to the north of the property.

While there are several additions proposed to the dwelling, this particular request pertains only to a small 13 square foot portion shown in orange on the slide since that is the only proposed addition that encroaches into the rear yard setback. All other proposed improvements adhere to the dimensional requirements of the zoning ordinance. As you can see on the slide, the proposed addition is in line with

the existing structure and does not extend further into that rear yard than the original dwelling.

The subject parcel acquired portions of an adjacent unimproved public rideway in 2020 and 2024 through the street closure process. As a condition of that approval for both closures, a public drainage easement was required over the entire closure area.

While the proposed detached garage shown in green on the slide does meet the 10-ft setback required in the zoning ordinance for accessory structures, it does encroach into that public drainage easement. and as such this body would need to approve an encroachment agreement prior to permitting and construction.

While the applicant has not finalized the color scheme for the home, samples of the materials and color combinations that they intend to choose from are shown on the slide here. The applicant did present the project to the North Virginia Beach Civic League who provided a letter of support for the application.

Staff has not received any opposition to the request and the planning commission recommended approval on their consent agenda.

Item three is a modification of conditions for two parcels along Indian River Road within District 2 that are owned by the Catholic Dascese of Richmond.

As many of you may recall, a conditional use permit was approved for this site in November of 2024 to allow for a cemetery. The original approval included a small office building, cremation gardens, a columbarium, and two mausoleiums.

The applicant is now seeking to replace the cremation gardens and m mo mausoleiums with a 2700 square foot funeral chapel. The chapel will be used solely for funeral and interament services, as well as occasional graveside services that are moved inside due to inclement weather. A total of 51 parking spaces are provided to support the use.

Since the site is located within the 70 to 75 decel noise zone, the proposal was reviewed by the joint process group who determined the use to be accessory to the cemetery and therefore compatible with article 18. Staff has not received any opposition to the request and the planning commission recommended approval by consent.

Item four is another modification of conditions request. This one for 772 Lord Dunore Drive in District 3.

A conditional use permit for a mini mini warehouse facility was initially approved by the city council in March of 2022 for an out parcel of the Fairfield Shopping Center. The three-story self- storage facility is currently under construction as you can see in the photo on the slide there. When it was approved in 2022, signage on the site was limited to external illumination only.

With this modification, the applicant is requesting the ability to have either internally or externally illuminated building mounted signs, provided that no illuminated signs would be permitted on the west elevation, and that's the side that fronts Lord Dunore Drive. And then there are residential properties on the opposite side of Lord Dunore Drive.

Additionally, the applicant is proposing a freestanding sign that would complement the primary structure and be limited to external illumination only.

The Fairfield Civic League provided a letter of support for the request. And while staff did receive three letters of opposition in July from residents on the opposite side of Lauren Dunour Drive, they noted concerns with light pollution from this site. The applicant has worked diligently with the residents. Um, and an additional condition was added to require that interior lighting adjacent

to the windows along both Lord Dunore Drive and Providence Road would not be illuminated between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. We did not have any speakers at the recent planning commission hearing and the planning commission recommended approval of the item on their consent agenda with one abstension.

Can I just jump in to really compliment all parties involved? I've been tracking this very including um planning staff, the applicant the applicant's representative, the civic league, plan planning commissioner Anderson.

We've all been in contact throughout this and it's a great example and I just want to say this now so I don't have to say it next week when the consent agenda comes up. Uh because I'm sure it'll be on consent as far as I know. Um it's a great example of everyone working together collaboratively to resolve these concerns and to live in peace and harmony. And that's exactly what happened. There were some legitimate

concerns. The applicant was responsive to them. The planning commissioner Anderson did a great job and in working with all of those and um looks like everything worked out for all parties involved and that's really good. Thank you.

[cough and clears throat] All right, item five. This is another modification of conditions. This is for a religious use located at 1000 North Great Neck Road in District 8.

More specifically, the applicant is requesting approval for the continued use of two existing modular classrooms that were originally approved in 2017.

As a part of that 2017 approval, the use of the classrooms were subject to a 5-year renewal period. and those classrooms are used to support the church's youth programs and then religious classes.

There are no other changes proposed with this request. Staff did receive one letter of concern regarding an RV that was parked on the site and the planning commission at their hearing last month did or this month did add a condition that would require removal of that RV on the site within 30 days of approval.

With that added condition, the planning commission recommended approval by unanimous vote.

Item six is a request to conditionally reszone 2421 Pleasure House Road from R 7.5 residential to conditional A12 in order to develop seven multif family units.

The resulting density, if approved, would be just under 12 units per acre.

The site, which is located within district 9, contains a vacant single family dwelling and lies within the Shore Drive corridor overlay.

The seven units will be spread across two three-story buildings and each unit will contain a twocar garage. As seen on the conceptual plan on the slide, a landscape puff buffer is proposed along the northern property line as required by the ordinance and then the applicant is proposing a privacy fence along that southern property line.

Additionally, a 10- foot wide rideway dedication is proposed with this project that would provide adequate space for the Pleasure House Road CIP project, which is scheduled to begin construction in 2031. As a part of this development, the applicant is profering to install a 6 foot wide shared juice path along the frontage of Pleasure House Road.

While the maximum height permitted within the A12 district is 35 ft, the applicant is requesting a deviation to permit a height of 37 feet for the dwellings. Though not required, the applicant intends to provide 2 feet of freeboard for the structures to make the units more flood resilient, but that is what necessitates the need for that additional 2T in height.

Since the site is located within the Shore Drive corridor, the applicant did present the project to the Bayfront Advisory Commission in June and they found the proposal proposal to be consistent with the area and voted to support the request. Staff did receive two letters of opposition noting concerns with environmental impacts, safety, increased traffic and parking, and then similar concerns were stated by

a speaker at the planning commission hearing.

In response to some of the initial concerns raised when the applicant application was first submitted, the applicant did modify the request from the initial A24 zoning to conditional A12 that is before you today.

Ultimately, the planning commission did vote to approve the request.

Yes.

I I just like uh Council Member Beluchcci just did. I wanted to take another opportunity here to commence that and the neighborhood so I don't have to do it next week. But um this started out just like what you said, A24 and um it it got worked through the Bayfront Advisory Commission and it got kind of slowed down, brought through the neighborhood so that the neighborhood had input and knocked it down from A24

to A12, which um which made everybody very happy and um and and it's and it's a it's a much better use on on the street. Um and um I I just wanted to say good job. So, item seven is a conditional use permit request for a car wash facility at 1373 North Great Neck Road in District 8.

The applicant intends to repurpose a vacant ride aid utilizing half of the structure for a car wash and the other half will be converted to an indoor vacuum area. Hours of operation are proposed from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm daily and there is adequate parking provided on site to support the use.

The car wash can be accessed from both Popular Point and North Great Neck Roads. In response to opposition received, the applicant did modify the site layout slightly so that the pay stations and car wash tunnel can be accessed from both of those access points.

As previously mentioned, a portion of the building will be utilized as an indoor vacuum area with eight vacuum stations. And then there will be three additional vacuum stations provided outside the structure. In order to buffer the site from the residential properties to the south, a 15-oot landscape buffer with a 6ft tall privacy fence is pro proposed. The image on the slide there shows the green clean

location at 3112 Virginia Beach Boulevard and just gives you an idea of the buffering that's proposed with this site.

Only minor um exterior changes are proposed with this to include signage and installation of two vehicle bays with awnings.

Staff did receive four letters of opposition to this request expressing concerns about the incompatibility with nearby residential noise and traffic generation as well as safety concerns.

While staff is recommending denial of the request due to incompatibility with the comp plan, specifically the commercial area pattern book, the planning commission did move to recommend approval of this item by a unanimous vote.

Item eight is a conditional use permit request for a tattoo parlor at 977 Chimney Hill Shopping Center, unit 103.

This is in district 10. The applicant intends to operate a traditional tattoo parlor with three employees. Hours of operation are 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Monday through Saturday by appointment only.

Staff is unaware of any opposition to this request, and the planning commission voted to recommend approval by consent.

Item nine is a request for a conditional use permit for a short-term rental at 303 Atlantic Avenue, sweet in District 5.

The applicant is requesting to operate a two-bedroom short-term rental within the Dolphin Run Condominiums. One parking space is required and provided on site.

There are no documented stays or zoning complaints associated with the unit and staff is unaware of any opposition to the request. Planning commission voted to recommend approval by consent.

And then the final item on the agenda for November 18th is an ordinance to adopt and incorporate the 2024 park system needs assessment and development strategy into the 2016 comprehensive plan. If this ordinance is approved, the needs assessment and development strategy would carry forward into the 2040 comp plan.

The needs assessment and development strategy is a long range planning tool for the city's parks and open space with a 15-year implementation time frame. The document provides an inventory of existing city facilities by type and their location and distribution throughout the city. Prioritize it prioritizes improvements for un and underdeveloped parks throughout the city. Um provides opportunities for

potential parkland acquisition and water access points. Provides detailed cost for the proposed improvements and acquisition. And then provides potential funding strategies. You may recall back in April of 2024, staff from parks and recck did brief the council on this in more detail. Um, planning commission did recommend approval of this by consent and the mayor. That concludes my

briefings. I'll stand by for any other questions.

Michael, final question on the park assessment. Um, I don't have a current copy of that.

Will that be included in our package on Friday? Okay.

Um, one of the things that we hear often from uh the people we serve is about the need for community parks. I know I just received uh one recently um and they're right.

There is no park in that particular area. Um and so I I think um I need to re we talked about this in April and I appreciate the time we've had to review it. Um and I'm not asking at this time for a deferral or anything like that, but I just have a question. So if we So it includes recommendations, prioritizations.

How does that I know we can adapt to those recommendations, but we're going to memorialize something in a plan. I think we should all make sure that we're on the same page about what that prioritization looks like. And for me, I need a little time to plug back into that and I'll have the weekend, which is good. Um, but I think on that and I know like we just changed that prioritization

in some ways by accepting the open space from the schools in the in the park the well it's called an open space. Um, but we're we're sort of always being responsive to emergent needs and um I don't know about anyone else, but h not having discussed since April, I think we need to take a little time to review that if we're going to set that as a pathway for the prioritization.

Yeah. And m mayor, I just I was I want to clarify when council adopted that property or accepted that property from the schools or if you're going have we already accepted it? I think we already accepted it.

Jericho Jericho last year last week.

So when council No, they already accepted it. Yeah, but still probably working on the contract. When council accepted the term accepted the property, it didn't leaprog it above any other property. So it basically ended up on the back of the list, right? You know, basically how this works is as um organic additional funding is freed up in a parks and wreck fund, they can use that towards addressing the next park to

bring it to a developed state, right?

But it doesn't prohibit council from changing that priority order or prioritizing um some some other opportunities as well, right? And this does not have a funding.

It doesn't appropriate council's funds, right? So basically, if a park's getting funded, it gets funded through the regular budget process as well. So I just don't want council to think that by doing this, you tie yourself to any kind of budgetary action. And also to clarify that Jericho property didn't leapfrog other underdeveloped parks in other parts of the city as well. That only

happened if council actually passes something.

And if I said something that implied that it did, it didn't. But we did accept a new open space.

Mhm. um as part of the portfolio of properties that Parks and Wreck will manage.

Um like I said, there's an open space that I, you know, that folks have been recently requesting to be developed into a park in one area. another area I had a chance to be work with a constituent for a park [snorts] that had been under served and underm um and so even as we go about I think it's fair to say I even as we go about our daily course of constituent [snorts] responses bless you um

we learn something new about these open there's so many open space we learn something new every day it seems or every week or every month and um I don't know I having said all that and not having discussed it since April, I'm not sure I'm ready to vote on this. I need to take a little I don't know how anyone else feels, but I I'd like to chance to

have another copy of it and to to have time to digest that and how it impacts the parks and the open space because it's not just come online and the and the and the uh in the budget be part of the normal process. It's emerging parks, new parks, and then you have parks like Redwing Park or Mount Trashmore Park that people are constantly requesting additional amenities and investment in.

So, we have a lot of that's actually a pretty robust conversation and just have a conversation, a briefing in April and then in November we vote.

Um, thank you, mayor. And um I mean I'd happy to talk more offline or online, but um that park needs assessment and development strategy was was um was really just an awesome piece of work they did. Um and and it and it has a heat map on it incorporated into it to show where, you know, the underserved areas are that are not within a walking distance to a park and and are don't

don't have open space amenities nearby and and such. Um, and I think we found out um that a lot of those um you know [snorts] um red red dots, the bigger the red dots are um they're they're in our um you know minority opportunity districts, underserved parts of our community um parts of uh even even in my district which is not a minority opportunity district. some of the some of the more

underserved parts of mine and I'm sure yours too, particularly along the NOFK Southern Rideway, but um [clears throat] I know that that it's it's online uh that report and it really is a good piece of work and it also we wouldn't have I wouldn't have made or none of us would have made a suggestion about that particular prop property if it didn't already fit into there's a big old red blob sitting right on top of

Oregon. So, um so that's it. It definitely helped justify I guess and describe some of the um I have no issue with that. I never didn't mean to express that. I did.

parks and open space is one of the most um engaged the people I serve seem to be and and I just want to make sure we're when we vote on this that I've had a chance to study it carefully and I realize that it was briefed to us in April but I haven't we've had a lot of other things come up between now and then.

Okay. Station.

Um, actually it was briefed in April of 2024, so I won't I don't want to speak for the newest member of council where by seven minutes.

Um, yeah, I I really have no idea what I would be voting on and I if we can't get I'd feel more comfortable if I got a briefing and I don't know speaking the rest of council but it seems so a refresher wouldn't be right a bad thing Patrick I think a refresher yeah and council's done this so I remember was it last year when urban force yeah council you know got briefed

and they said hey before we adopt this again let's pause and let's get briefed So we can do that. Yeah. And it it was all it also was coming for November. So you got it more than a month in the way, but we can defer it. There's no timeline on when you adopt this. So we can have them brief in November, December, and then Costco take it up after that.

Yeah, let's go ahead and do that.

All right.

Okay. Great job.

[snorts] I miss there's no more briefings.

Okay. Any council comments or leazison reports? Let's go. Jennifer Cash and Barbara.

Okay. Two liaison reports. Uh, invitation to all the council and the public. So, many of you saw the email and probably have seen on social media.

The Clean Community Commission is partnering with the Virginia Beach Education Foundation for a freef fall community clothing swap. Um, so they have drop off opportunities for uh clean, new, or gently used clothing, all genders, all sizes, all ages. um today and tomorrow at Cox, Kellum, [cough and clears throat] Ocean Lakes, Princess Anne, or Tallwood from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or at LR now from 9:00

a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Um and then on Saturday, November 1st is the community swap. So people can show up and shop uh without um any money. Just take what looks interesting and it's um uh not only a cost savings, but zero waste. So, um, a way to, uh, to repurpose and reuse, um, items that are still have a useful life. Um, so, um, check your email for that. I know some of you have

shared it on social media. I'll share it, too. Um, and for the public as well.

And then secondly, the Minority Business Council. Um, you all and the public are invited to the NBC Expo and Conference on Thursday, November 6th. It's at the Virginia Beach Convention Center from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Uh, the theme is building success one block at a time.

and the guest speaker is Anthony Williams, uh a franchiser. Um and so if you have uh time on Thursday the 6. So the next couple weeks our uh commissions are busy doing some really great public facing community things. So thank you.

And I'll tell you, the minority uh business expose are a lot of fun and they have a lot of vendors that go there. And I'll tell you what, the presentations that they have are really, really good. And we're proud of the fact that we have a minority business council. And I'll tell you what, there's been a a seamless continuum of excellence of leadership and participation, you know, with that

community that really, you know, has taken us a long way. So, thank you to the liaison of the minority business council for, you know, continuing that, you know, interaction. Cash, what have you got today?

Yes. Well, thank you. Uh I do apologize.

I was late because for a good reason. I was uh on our senior initiative is on Arbor Drive and there we have three complexes um that our seniors are housed in. And so I was at the village. Um the village is the um new uh title for the old Beth Shalom that's on Auburn Drive and it houses three different departments of our seniors. They um celebrated their harvest um festival where we brought cookies and music and

uh joy to our seniors. The oldest senior uh is 97 years old.

And uh um we just spent some time, my team, we spent some time um getting to know what they like. Uh they liked Elvis Presley. Uh they wanted me to bring some goulash. Uh the next time I say goulash, so these are new words for me. But um but we had such a good time, right? uh Goulash and and Elvis Presley. Um and uh they're just a lovely bunch. And so I

was so grateful to tell them that we represent them. They are not forgotten.

And they were so grateful for for us being there um in a time of joy uh bringing in the harvest festival.

No, that's really cool. And uh you know when I was home care physical therapist, spend a lot of time there. And I'll tell you what, you know, take taking care of our elderly right around there. And you got a number of places that do that. And you know, plus right on Auburn Drive, you got a remarkable gourmet popcorn.

Woodies gourmet popcorn.

Yeah, I did. I did the ribbon cutting there. Ameilia.

Yes. I just wanted to uh mention, as you know, I serve on the um Hampton Rose Transit that the Hampton Rose Transit is pleased to announce that we will once again offer free rides on all transit modes on election day, Tuesday, November 4th 2025.

And this includes bus, light [snorts] rail, ferry, parat transit, and ondemand ride share.

So for everyone to be aware of that three and then the second thing which is interesting last uh Thursday um we have a new uh commissioner now so we have two for a while I've been it but we now have his name is Mr. Jameson Jameson and he was obviously appointed by the governor. So he just got a board to be a part of the commission. So we have two now for Virginia Beach.

Okay. Outstanding.

Barbara, I've um spent a lot of time this past week on this um staff report that we received in our package last week, October 17th, and it's the subject is the ITA master plan update process.

This is going to be big for district 2.

And I I just can't emphasize how big it will be and how important it is. several issues about it. The stakeholder engagement um this is describing it as being I guess the consultant and this will be a uh community planning urban design and landscape architecture consulting firm will be retained to oversee the update of this ITA plan. So, I'm assuming they're going to be pulling together this uh

concept scenarios received in the first quarter of 26 and then making just briefings to all of these groups. That's not what I consider public engagement.

when we did the first two plans, the one in 2010 and the one in 2016 which updated it, uh the the people were a part of developing the plan, not just getting a briefing on what somebody else put together and decided to brief them on. So, I hope that we will be using the process that we used when we did the original plans because the people need to be a part of it. this is their area

and if you want to have buyin from the public, the public has to be a part of developing the plan. So the first thing I'm going to say is let's really look at how this is going to be pulled together and um what the uh stakeholder engagement process is going to be. Um, I was looking just at what we got today with the overall land that the city owns. And the first thing on the list is

that in district 2, the city owns 874.2 acres. Well, it says the majority is in the ITA. Well, you're right because the way it was acquired was by the money that the city had to spend to buy property to protect Oceanana. That's why we own all these thousands of acres in the ITA.

And I think what we're planning to do with the ITA has got to have a lot of investigation.

You don't read very many pages in these plans that you don't hear something about the way the soils are terrible and drainage is a problem and high water tables, high uh uh all of this is a part of it. And I I just really can't imagine that we're planning on putting an $82 million public building in the middle of a place that's going to flood. But the ITA is very much susceptible to

flooding. Uh as a matter of fact, the plan that was put together by the development authority says that we've got to put like 163 acres in storm water retention. Um, so if you're going to be putting a third of your property into storm water retention and overcoming the uh drainage problems, you're not using your land very well.

There are a lot of issues with this that are going to have to be looked at. I know that when we updated the 20 plan in 2017, it was because we had become the owner of so much of the property and it changed the way we had to look at the property from when it was privately owned to when it became our property.

And so that was the big change that precipitated the update in 2017.

It appears to me, I guess, that the reason it's being updated now is because we have the question of are we going to change from this longtime plan for it to be recreational and preservation and make it become an industrial park. That seems to be what is driving this update.

uh is it going to be this or is it going to be the 700 acre industrial park that is getting a lot of attention these days? And if and I just want to uh emphasize that this is going to be big for district 2. It's not going to be just a little something that we're going to be looking at. This is going to be the gamecher for everything below the green line. And

when we talk about changing that area to be an industrial park, um I I hope that you all are looking at this uh and we'll be I'll certainly be talking about it a lot. Uh, but this um this plan uh this uh that we received last week got a lot of my attention and uh like I say, I'm um I I I can't emphasize enough how much it needs to be done with complete

input from the citizens as well as a lot of attention to the whole city and what it's going to change. uh for the future. So that's my u my take on this and this focused action plan and so forth is all a part of it. Of course, we're doing the update of the comprehensive plan at the same time. So we're going to have a lot on our plate the first of the year.

Patrick and then um Mr. Mayor, member council, members of council, obviously staff goes where you all send us and where you direct us to.

Um to me the guidance that y'all gave us in the um retreat was pretty clear.

We're to amend the current plan to reconcile three uses. Um active passive recreation sports tourism uh municipal uses in particular incorporate the lead facility there as well and also to see what it looks like for um expansion for economic development light industrial um purposes. Right. So that's in essence what we're proposing is that we engage a consultant and then brief the different

stakeholder groups on that specific thing. We didn't really get it from and if I missed it I apologize but I didn't really get direction from you all to reconstitute a whole planning and revi and come up with a whole brand new plan on that. It really was to amend those plan to reconcile the 4,400 acres to incorporate three uses. Right. Active passive recreation, sports tourism was already there. Um,

municipal use was already there. We're going to I mentioned how it's going to work for Alita and also to incorporate an expansion for industrial economic development purposes, right? I didn't get that. We were supposed to come up with a whole brand new plan.

No, I that was the direction you were given. Well, I think a lot of clarification needs to be given because there's a lot out there now that maybe has uh we've really got to find out what the intent is and where we expect to go with this.

We'll come to that conclusion.

Okay. Hutch.

Yeah. Just first I would like to reiterate what you just said. I feel that's pretty clear of what we've said.

So I appreciate the effort. Um changing gears. Uh how I'm on the housing uh committee. Um it's called the acronym is beach. Um and it stands for bringing in to all city homelessness. And so we had the meeting today and that as uh councilwoman Rouse likes to do there's some stuff here and that's very sobering you know that we have to pay attention to now. um it's you know it's coming

home is uh and there's a lot of acronyms and I'm going to cut them out so I'm not gonna be able to give you the whole phrase but the continuum of care money that we get every year uh it's passed through from the fed and um I'm giving y'all the firefighter version not the empirical data version okay so let's just be clear I'm not trying to say this is exact numbers but um it was

over two 2.3 million last year. Um, next year they're they're hoping hoping to get $79,000.

Um, yeah, that's a that's a wall up.

Big cut.

That's a big cut. Um, so when you when you take that into consideration and then you know some other acronyms that I'm learning, the AMI, the area medium income, right? um they take that into consideration on when they're um maybe doing assistance or what it means to be we had a long discussion uh mayor about the difference between affordable attainable and and uh workforce.

There's some very blurry lines there as to what that means. I still can't say I 100% understand it, but I'm going to use a city uh four family of four. Okay. So, uh, just take like about $106,000 to afford, uh, a a attainable house for rent. I'm not talking about purchase in Virginia, Virginia [clears throat] Beach. But when you drop down to where assistance would be, it would be if you make um, well, if

you make $32,000, you have to pay you have to pay $780 in rent a month. So that leads to um to problems and we talk about one of our issues was housing and homelessness. Well, I think we do need to at least start forecasting what it's going to look like for a homeless population to go up. Um they're doing all they can as DCM Krosky called it to

keep it brief and um not as as short or non-existent as we can, but there are uh there are some real issues. And one of the things we talked about, and I'm not placing blame on either party, um I think it's good enough actually to go around to both. Uh with shut with the shutdown, there is no movement on this.

So, we don't even have any information coming in of what the plan may be um moving forward for how these funds are supposedly going to be made up. So, I it I don't know. It got my it got my attention this morning. Um, and then I figured it needed to be shared. The one last thing I will say is that under the emergency shelter program, um, we do quite well with length of

stay. We, this is, u, you know, they've done some audits, so this is pretty pretty empirical. Um, we keep people most times in shelter less than 60 days.

So, as we get this feeling of homelessness, we think of people that are chronic and that's not what we end up that's not a majority of what we have in the city of Virginia Beach, which is a real positive. So, I thought y'all would be interested in that. 60 days or less. Um, with 100% of the shelter participants have a housing plan for how to get back out of housing within the first 72 hours

of being there, our staff's assistance to do that. and um 85% of shelter participants are document ready to move into a an apartment um within 45 days.

So I thought that was pretty pretty positive as well. The last thing [clears throat] um not to end on a negative note, but the um you know SNAP has has been uh pretty much we're done, right? Um until they open back up or whatever. Now, the governor has asked for an emergency declaration, but we haven't been told what that means yet on what we're trying to get. So, go ahead. I'm finished. So, go ahead, Patrick.

Mr. Mayor, um, so I just got a brief on that before this um before the council meeting.

Yeah, cuz I told him I was coming to talk about it.

I think it's because the govern So, our staff met with the um the state office. So, it looks like um the Commonwealth um through Governor Yncan is declaring an emergency so that the governor can free up some emergency funds to cover the cost for residents in the Commonwealth or citizens of the Commonwealth to get access to their EBT benefits, right? So, it looks like the the [clears throat] state's going to

cover that what [snorts] they would have otherwise gotten from the federal government for a period of time. don't know how long that's going to be, but we know probably for the next month it's going to be covered. Um what we don't have clarity on is the reimbursement. So roughly about $4 million each month of um human services payroll is covered from reimbursements from the from this

from the state for this program from the federal government to some extent. Um we're not there's no clarity on that.

They told us to continue with business as usual. um they anticipate that, you know, shutdown will end and that all reimbursements will come, but um we're monitoring it right now, but the best thing that the best news that came out of that is that there's going to be um SNAP food benefits provided to the residents of the Commonwealth for at least another significant period of time, at least 30 days.

Okay, I just had one last thing that we're sad in our district pool business association executive director. You know, Jenie losing her husband. So, we sympathize with her.

Yeah. Judy Emmers.

Yes.

Bill Cox died yesterday.

Yeah. I tell you what, she's been a very influential and a loving member of our community that really has engaged and uh you know, she's Yeah.

If you describe a mover and a shaker, that's really great. Okay. Yeah, Rosemary, thank you for bringing that up, Amelia.

Um, so last Thursday, yeah, last Thursday I met with BJ Bowman and we all know that Rockefellers is going to be closing and behalf of the council. I gave her a city pen and a small token of Jefferson Cup to recognize her service that she's given to this city for so long. and we're going to be having a proclamation written up to for her to present to family and friends and supporters uh in

the near in the near future. Uh the other thing I want to mention is I'm going to be having a town hall meeting and I'm going to be copying my good friend Michael Balocci and we're going to do a self-defense with the sheriff's department and uh that's going to be November 12th.

You won't be sorry.

No, I'm really excited about it and it's going to be at the Princan Rec Center.

In fact, when we sent out to all the civic leagues and all this was coming up, Atlantic Shores wrote us back and said, "Can you bring this to Atlantic Shores?" So, I've got to clear that with the sheriff, but Atlantic Shores really would like to have it as well. So, it's really catching on. So, you really started something, Michael.

Thank you.

Hey, anybody else want to do it?

Okay. Thank you all very much. At this point, the chair will entertain a motion to recess into a close session pursuant to the exemption of the opening allowed by section 2.2 371A code of Virginia is amended for the following purposes.

Personnel matters discussion uh consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointments and motion performance motion salaries disappointing or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of the public body pursuant to section 2.2 to 3711A1 and that is council appointees for boards commissions committees authorities, task force and employees

and also performance of council appointees to boards, commissions or committees. Do I have a motion? So move second I

may I there are session to

The order ask for a motion to approve the close session. So move second.

Yes. Present here. I Hi Wilson.

Thank you all. We are return.

Yeah.