Danny Murphy comments for 13news now story: Virginia Veach residents-voice concerns about city roads

As President Danny Murphy mentioned at the OPCL meeting: the city is seeking input on a future traffic plan. You can provide feedback on the online interactive map. You can add trouble spots or you can ‘like’ ones that are already noted that you agree are trouble spots. Click on the examples below:

On Monday, November 6th, the committee from the civic league met with John Peterson, Delceno Miles and Mark Rosenfield representing the McLeskey and Browning families who want to develop the Marlin Bay property. Councilman Joash Schulman organized the meeting which included Mr. Bob Magoon, Design Chair for the Bayfront Advisory Commission, civic league board members and Ocean Park residents including subject area professionals: developers, architects, realtors.

The main outcome of the meeting was that the McLeskey and Browning families will not consider options which include developing for eventual sale. They have excluded commercial, single family and townhouse development. Their intention at this time is to move forward with the original project plan of 227 apartments. This of course flies in the face of all promises of ”community engagement” since the main concern of the community has been the high density of the project. The last proposal of the project which was withdrawn in October 2021 was for 197 apartments so this is a return to the highest density.

On Wednesday, November 8th, residents gathered at the Bayside Rec Center to give their input on the update to the Comprehensive Plan. On the plus side, residents heard about the themes and place types which yielded Big Ideas which came out of earlier focus group meetings: Innovative-Sustainable Businesses, Enhance Community Centers, Neighborhood Walking & Biking connections, Mixed Use & Walkable Corridors,Multimodal Corridors, Enhance Natural Areas, Linear Park System, Preserve Rural & Agricultural Lands, Protect existing Homes & Neighborhoods.

Each table was asked to discuss these and using sticky dots identify which big ideas they felt were the most important. In effect, the audience was being asked to rate pre-selected material. It was clear that people had come with questions and concerns and wanted an opportunity to voice those not just choose from a preselected menu. A limited number of questions etc were allowed before being cut off so the planned program could proceed. In practice, the room was too small for the number of attendees so discussion was difficult. Each group did report out and every single group identified the same two big ideas as the most important: Preserve Rural and Agricultural Lands and Protect Homes and Neighborhoods.

If you have comments on the process or substance of the Comprehensive Plan development, email the City Council.

Links for more information:
Virginia Beach Existing Conditions: Demographics, Land Use, Housing, Sea Level Rise,Transportation, City Services.

Huge thanks to all who brought donations to the meeting! They were delivered to the 3rd Precinct on Independence to join in their campaign.

Or a monetary donation is greatly appreciated: “monetary donations allow us to purchase food that is needed but not always donated such as meats and fresh produce. Your monetary donations help provide balanced meals to our community!” DONATE now.

On Thursday, November 9th we heard a very informative presentation about what we face as a community as we face Sea Level Rise. Our thanks to Mr. Mike Mundy!

We postponed several agenda items to the December meeting: 2024 Budget, Board of Directors Slate. Join us on December 7th!

Our Holiday Party has been moved to Friday, December 1 at Froggies.

Huge thank you to Froggies and Care-A-Lot for a great prizes, give aways and a fun event! See pics on OPCL Facebook.

Beautiful evening.. great music-thank you to Lewis McGehee!! .. great food-Thank you Pollards! Thank you to our oyster shuckers and First Landing Seafood .. thank you to the GREAT PEOPLE of Ocean Park! .. thank you local businesses for supporting us with great prizes for our raffle! Thank you to our beautiful Brock Environmental Center and Liz Gathagan! Special thanks to Kevin O’Hara for his tribute to our much admired and soon to be missed Rita Salazar and for his awesome photos! Thanks to all for coming and sharing the evening!

Huge thank you to all the volunteers who made it happen!!!!

WOW: The Virginia Beach Council of Civic Organizations Call: the Latest.
Also: Listen to Council member Henley discuss the ramifications with John Moss

The vote was TUESDAY, October 17. The call was to fill the auditorium. The answer is: yes we can! The question becomes: does the City Council care to listen (outside of Ms. Henley and Mr. Chris Taylor who did listen to the people)?

Appropriate development, appropriate redevelopment, appropriate infill development which fit with the surrounding neighborhoods can find support with neighbors but apparently NOT with seven members of the city council: Mayor Dyer, Joash Schulman who made the motion to approve the project, Mr. Berlucchi, Ms. Wooten, Dr. Ross-Hammond, Mr. Remick, Vice Mayor Wilson. Who, in spite of the unprecedented crowd that filled the auditorium, in spite of the hours of speakers who included city appointed advisory commissions, civic leaders and citizens from many districts, chose to approve the project which allows inappropriate density and allows transfer of development rights, exempts the developer from providing adequate parking, exempts them from following height restrictions and from including green space.

Four Planning commissioners cited a number of reasons why they would not support it. One commissioner said that since several city advisory boards-ITA (Interfacility Traffic) Commission, the Agricultural Commission (since the parcel is below the Green Line )and the Active Transportation Committee spoke against it, they would not support it. Another said they were persuaded that this development did not fit with the Comprehensive Plan and also did not agree with transferring development rights which this project does in order to achieve an effective density of 58 units per acre. One commissioner was concerned with the appearance of money (campaign contributions) playing a role. The Franklin Johnston Group has made substantial contributions to several Mayor Dyer’s and several council members’ election campaigns.

What gets developed in one part of the city directly impacts what can be developed elsewhere. When precedents are set, they can be used by other developers to justify development along the same lines. Fairness, as imposed by court cases or council decisions, will require that subsequent developers be allowed the same latitude to transfer development rights, manipulate density calculations to include land that cannot be built on to inflate total density, and the other accommodations being offered to this developer in this project. 

Ocean Park may soon face similar questions about the Marlin Bay development. Residents should have a say in what their neighborhood looks like, how crowded and congested it is allowed to become.

The choices are frequently framed as all or nothing. Since Virginia Beach has a need for more housing, supporters of this project say that the questions and concerns raised about this development should not be addressed but the only choice is to approve it. Why must we be offered only the option of developments that are super sized?  Why can’t reasonable, appropriate development be encouraged? Residents are not saying ‘don’t build anything’. Over and over again, the people who live in Virginia Beach say: build what is appropriate for the space. A good example of appropriate and reasonable development is the Kempsville Crossing Development. Not one person spoke in opposition when it finally came before the City Council and it was approved. True community engagement by the developer resulted, after a few months of negotiation, in community support of the project.