The core of residents’ concern is the density of the project. It is too many people in too small a space. Interestingly the high rises in Ocean Park were built before the Comprehensive Plan and the Shore Drive Design Guidelines were adopted by the City Council and before the council established the Bayfront Advisory Council. In these planning guidelines, which the BAC references in their opposition to the project, the city very clearly went a different path from those high rises and instead laid out a vision where the density was kept low and most especially that anything that was built would be consistent with what surrounds it-in this case townhouses and single family homes. They chose NOT to sanction more high rise buildings and high density development.
The owners of the Marlin Bay properties-the McLeskey and Browning families -have held this property for decades and are responsible for the condition it is in now. Residents should not be penalized with unwanted overdevelopment as a result of their poor stewardship. Residents are not against all change. They do not wish to preserve the boat trailer storage. They do not wish to block any or all development of the property. They are only asking that the zoning not be changed to allow a project of this density to be built which is not in compliance with what the city itself has adopted. It is currently zoned B2- so develop it as a business. The rest is zoned PDH1-so develop it as housing at that density. Don’t change the rules on the residents .
Ocean Park Civic League 
THANK you. I should think that current zoning laws would prevent the construction, unless a ‘variance’ was approved. Where I moved from [Haddonfiled NJ] any variance needs to be approved by a majority of affected residents.
I would like to know, as exactly as possible, how many individuals would occupy these proposed 197 units, and the number of persons who would be using City Water on a daily basis. We get our water from a mixture of local surface water, and water pumped in from Lake Gaston,NC, via a 76 mile pipeline. So many more people using this water supply could put a significant strain on Virginia Beach’s water availability. And these people would not have access to well water..
Also, MANY of the houses in the development across the street, between Shore Drive, Jefferson Blvd & Rookery Way, have had terrible problems with their sewage and water drainage..
This area is obviously similar to the Marlin Devt site. I would like to know information about the depth of the water table and how sewage storm water drainage would be environmentally safely taken care of.
I read in the NYT that FEMA and our US Govt will stop ALL Flood Insurance supplements/ payment/ to ALL houses & other construction within the 100 year flood zone as of October 1, 2021. In the past, govt flood insurance subsidies have encouraged developers – but now they can no longer offer this potential benefit to potential buyers of construction in these 100-yr flood zone areas.
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Thank you so much for your thoughtful questions. These are all serious concerns. The owners of the properties: Cheryl McKleskey (2626 Virginia Beach Blvd Virginia Beach, VA, 23452-7610), Mr. Browning and the developer of the project: John Peterson from Terry Peterson are the ones who should provide answers. Please consider writing to the City Council members to make them aware of your concerns: CityCouncil@vbgov.com. You can suggest that they defer further action until there are answers for these important questions.
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