A Virginia Beach Neighborhood Association Founded in 1944
Huge thanks to our neighbor, Tina Morey for a very enjoyable evening of wine, snacks and sensory experience! Thank you to our neighbors for joining in and to our volunteers who made it happen! Thank you to our beautiful Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Center !
Lucky us! We have such wonderful neighbors and members! Let’s get 2025 dues taken care of! It helps the civic league so much to have dues paid on time for planning! 👉Please if you haven’t had a chance to remit 2025 $25 dues yet- do it today! Easy peasy- do it online! Get a sticker- we have a few left!
Many folks have their dues set up to renew in April when our first Members Only event Spring Fling happens (April 26 this year! music and great food at Taste!). But did you know that according to the bylaws dues are meant to be paid in January since they are annual dues to be paid at the beginning of each calendar year. Here we go for 2025! Pay today! (save time at Spring Fling! No line! ok.. a shorter one)
Article IV – DUES
“Yearly dues shall be established by the OPCL Board of Directors (BOD) with notification to the general membership and will be due to the Treasurer in January. “
Sunday, March 30th, from 4:30 to 6:00 PM is an exclusive wine tasting experience at the picturesque Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Brock Environmental Center for only $45 per person.
Our talented certified neighbor sommelier, Tina Morey will again lead a tasting of curated wines paired with savory bites. Whether you’re a seasoned wine enthusiast or just curious to explore, this open-house-style gathering is the perfect opportunity to relax and mingle with neighbors!
This event is for current OPCL members: Pay your OPCL 2025 membership dues $25 for the year! (if you are unsure about your membership status contact: treasurer@opcl.org
The BAC meeting on March 20th included several updates:
The COVB Public Works Dept spreadsheet of PW projects shows current status of Public Works projects along Shore Dr. Updates are in red.
BAC Chair Bob Magoon shared that the working group established by Councilman Joash Schulman has had several meetings to monitor the PHP Wetlands project and address concerns and look for solutions. Lynnhaven River NOW was invited to the BAC to share concerning the efforts to save saplings and grasses.
Ms Pullin related that they have consulted with a professor from the College of William and Mary, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources staff, and the Wetlands Institute in New Jersey to develop a plan for a barrier to prevent diamondback terrapin from entering the excavation and construction area. “This barrier system has been used effectively on the Eastern Shore and on the New Jersey shore to keep terrapin off roadways and safe from cars. We have confidence in this system but will also be monitoring it regularly throughout the construction period.”
The meeting was well attended and many members of the public voiced concerns in particular about protections for wildlife during the project time. Fencing should now be in place to prevent turtles from entering the area as they come out of winter brumulation. Wildlife rehabbers have been on call but so far no cases of wildlife needing assistance have come up.
Ms. Pullin related that more information on the project at the Brock Center. There is a binder that the public can view at the Brock building.
In a recent update, Karen Forget from Lynnhaven River Now gives this update:
“As you know, there is a very healthy oyster population in Pleasure House Creek including on the 11-acre reef that was completed only three years ago by LRNow and CBF. We are committed to protecting the oysters in the creek from any sediment runoff from this construction. We will soon have a page on our website devoted to water quality monitoring in Pleasure House Creek including current, or baseline, monitoring of water clarity, also called turbidity. Throughout the construction period, we will monitor turbidity and post those results for you to see on our website.”
As always we came for the treats! Cornbread and chocolate muffins! Thank you, Mary Faust as always for baking for us! Just kidding- we love to keep our nature area clean!
Lots of trash collected by our great volunteers! Winner in the Big Stuff Found category is Howard Weinberg! A dog house!
The Ocean Park Civic League has been the sponsor for the Adopt-A-Spot(Park) program for Pleasure House Point since the city opened it as a park. Suzi Walton, the civic league president at the time, saw to it that, as the community was so instrumental in the process of discouraging the development of the natural area and fight for its survival, that we (the Ocean Park community) should be the designated sponsor. And as she was formerly an administrator in the city’s Parks and Rec department, she was able to claim it for us. She conducted the first cleanups and had enormous support from the board, many of whom showed up to participate in the removal of an enormous amount of refuse.
Mary Faust has organized the cleanups of PHP for many years. She reminds us that the city does not undertake any cleanup responsibilities for PHP since it is a ‘preserve’. The work that the community does to clean up trash and litter at Pleasure House Point is enormously important so that it will be a beautiful natural place for all to enjoy. Mary has it all organized: grabbers, gloves, trash bags and SNACKS!
LRN Director Karen Forget gives an update on LRN efforts to mitigate effects on wildlife, trees and water quality.
Additional information from Councilman Joash Schulman and the Dept of Public Works in response to questions from the community about the Wetlands Project at PHP.
Comment 1: Credits exist from three banks servicing the Lynnhaven Watershed (02080108), why doesn’t the city purchase them from these banks instead of building the PHP Bank?
Answer 1: We are aware of these banks but only one has tidal wetland credits, and those tidal wetland credits have only become available recently. The existing non-tidal and tidal banks are as follows:
Comment 2: The City has the opportunity to purchase credits right now, from banks servicing the Lynnhaven watershed (02080108) per the USACE. The City has purchased credits from New Mill last year.
Answer 2: As noted above there is only one bank with tidal wetland credits and that bank has 5.27 tidal wetland credits to serve the Elizabeth River watershed, lower James River watershed and the Elizabeth River Watersheds. (The credits are needed in the Lynnhaven Watershed).The City has not only the needs of the Windsor Woods Pump Station and the London Bridge Creek flood gates and pump station projects (approximately 2.7 credits) to mitigate in the future, but other City projects that will have a need for tidal wetland credits as well. Even if the City could somehow purchase all the credits from that bank, it may not satisfy all the City’s future need for credits. Additionally, purchasing credits well in advance of the formal permit application process is counter to the federal regulations.
Specifically, credits are not to be purchased before the proper permit applications are submitted, reviewed by the necessary federal and state agencies and those same agencies verify that impacts to tidal wetlands are minimized to the maximum extent practicable, and only then can discussions about credits be discussed in detail. The only exception is unless the applicant owns its own mitigation facility. By the City owning its own mitigation bank, it is sure that those credits are 1) available when needed in the future and 2) will be accepted by the agencies when the time comes that they are needed. Otherwise, the City is now not even at the point to discuss use of the New Mill Creek Tidal Mitigation Bank with the Federal and State permitting agencies.
While the New Mill Creek Tidal Mitigation Bank has credits available, that does not mean that the City can automatically rely on their availability in the future when needed. Additionally, there is a second set of decisions that must be made by federal and state regulators, and which can only be made at the time of permitting; namely, whether a bank with credits to sell is the appropriate mitigation for a project, and that project’s watershed. The problem the City of Virginia Beach has is that the City has a very large project (Windsor Woods, Princess Anne Plaze & The Lakes Flood Protection Project (Megabundle Project), with large projected impacts to tidal wetlands within the Lynnhaven River Watershed. That permit application has not been submitted yet, and will be decided on by federal and state agencies about 1.5+/- years from now. The City cannot risk finding out 1.5+/- years from now that the agencies disallow use of the New Mill Bank , which could occur because it is not in the Lynnhaven River basin. The risk is that while the credits are coming from the Elizabeth River watershed, there would still be a large net loss of wetlands in the Lynnhaven River Basin. If the agencies were to decide that is not appropriate, they would notify the City that the City needs to proceed with constructing the PHP Bank as it is located in the Lynnhaven River watershed and thus would offset the impacts occurring in the Lynnhaven River Watershed.
The agencies know the City owns the PHP Bank, and has secured all the City, Federal and State agency signatures needed on the Banking Agreement. If the City were to wait 1.5 years and learn then they needed the PHP Bank, it would cause enormous delays to the schedule of the Megabundle Project, risk another flood event to those communities, and cause substantial monetary impacts to the Contractor and the City. It was too great a risk to the City and the flood protection project and is why City Council voted unanimously on January 7 to fully fund the PHP Bank.
Additionally, the agencies do not want cities or any persons to acquire wetland credits in advance of the formal permit application process for the reasons noted above. Those regulatory agencies are the arbiters of when purchasing or using mitigation credits is appropriate, and that cannot be decided until approximately 1.5+/- years from now for the Megabundle. It is simply too much of a risk to wait that long to find out the answer when the City has a fully approved mitigation banking agreement in place for the Pleasure House Point Bank. This same situation will repeat itself in the future for each subsequent City project impacting tidal wetlands in the Lynnhaven watershed.
Lastly, the City has a public interest in maintaining tidal wetland acreage and water quality in each of its watersheds. The Lynnhaven Watershed is one of the most highly developed watersheds in the City and has experienced significant historical tidal wetland loss. One of those losses was the filling of tidal wetlands at the City’s Pleasure House Point Natural Area during the 1970s+/- with dredged material from the Lynnhaven Inlet. The City does not want to have additional net losses of tidal wetlands occur in the Lynnhaven Watershed, let alone have a net loss of tidal wetlands in the Lynnhaven Watershed due to a City project(s). This is in part why the City initiated the Pleasure House Point Tidal Wetland Mitigation Bank in 2012+/-.
Calling all bakers and snack friends! Sign up to bring a plate of cookies, a pan of brownies or a snack to the General Membership Meetings! Or contribute a door prize! Sign Up Genius Link is here!
Ocean Park Civic League 