Muddled Process: Wycliffe Church Property Vote at City Council

The Virginia Beach City Council vote on the Wycliffe Church development was a mess. The presentation that came before the City Council was materially different from what came before the Planning Commission in March and had been altered just three days before the City Council meeting giving residents and neighborhoods almost no time to review the new proposal. In the new proposal the developer will build five houses, there are no guarantees that the lake will be preserved and supposedly another church will buy the remainder of the property, though it only has 20 parking spaces, a concern raised by the Great Neck Estates Civic League President Derrick Copeland. Councilman Chris Taylor, in whose district this project is located, made a motion to deny the application and was seconded by Council Member Rouse. Before any discussion could take place-which given the substantial changes that the proposal had undergone would have made sense- a substitute motion was made by Council Member Ross-Hammond and seconded by Council member Rosemary Wilson. In making her substitute motion, Council Member Ross-Hammond could not even articulate what her motion was. Mayor Bobby Dyer called on the applicant’s attorney “Eddie, help us out” to reword her motion. The city attorney provided some more changes and her response was “what he said”. The result is that a decision was pushed through without the discussion and consideration it deserved and without the residents given the opportunity to review it. Council Members Henley, Rouse, Taylor and Wooten voted against.