FAQ’s about Membership:

• When should I pay my dues? 2024 dues must be paid in 2024. Dues paid at Fall Fest last year were in 2023.
• Is it $20 per person? No- membership is a wonderful bargain! $20 for the whole household!

Thank you to all who paid 2024 dues!!! Join your neighbors! If you are a resident or property owner in Ocean Park please consider supporting the Ocean Park Civic League with your $20 membership or renew your membership for 2024! Join or Renew OPCL today-only $20 per household! We have more than 1300 households in Ocean Park and in 2023 we had 335 paid memberships. Let’s get to 400 in 2024! We will not raise dues but our costs: IT costs and event costs have gone up like everything else. We really need our neighbors to support the civic league. If you can give more than $20- that helps so much!

What does your membership pay for? The civic league budget pays for the costs of getting information out – website costs, email blast Mailchimp services, snail mail post office box, IT services. We make contributions to Lynnhaven River Now, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and we give a four year $1000 college scholarship every year. With your membership you will also have free entry for your household to our Fall Fest (October 15th this year!) and Spring Fling– a great opportunity to meet your neighbors! Please help support your neighborhood civic league!! If you are new to the Ocean Park neighborhood- welcome! We look forward to getting to know you!

What a great turn out for the second annual Easter Egg Hunt at Loch Haven Park by the Brock Center. Special thanks to our volunteers!! We had generous donations of candy, prizes, decorations (loved the garland and bunny feet)and of course time and effort!! Thank you to our beloved Easter Bunny! The kids love him! Thank you to Beach Built for collection donations for us!

There are more pieces of the puzzle out there! We would like to include more stories! The plan is to include new chapters in an addendum to the book and republish an anniversary edition. If you or your family have information, documentation, memories, photographs or are interested in working on the project: please contact communication@opcl.org. Talk to your neighbors! We have identified some interesting new resources!

In 2024 the Ocean Park Civic League marks the 80 year anniversary since its founding on Nov. 28, 1944. As a part of this celebration, we would like to continue the work of The Ocean Park Story: a soft cover book published in 2015 by a committee headed by Nadine Isaac Hook Costenbader after five years of work piecing together the history of Ocean Park with articles, documents, photographs and oral history from residents and descendants.

On Thursday, March 21, the BAC met at OPVRS. Vice Chair Bob Magoon had raised concerns with the new beach access being constructed by Westminster Canterbury that will ultimately be turned over to the City of Viriginia Beach. The ramp construction is being built into the dune. To answer the concerns brought up by Mr. Magoon, Mr. P.J. Scully from the Dept of Planning and Community Development and Mr. Seth Edwards, P.E. Development Services Administrator joined the meeting. Mr. Scully related that the city has not accepted the ramp as constructed and mediating work is being undertaken. There is a suit brought by a citizen in regard to the ramp.

Derek Dubay presented his plan to restore the Ocean Park Baptist Church and turn it into a wedding and event venue. He addressed concerns of noise and parking as he had at the Ocean Park Civic League meeting on March 7. The plan will require a zoning change from R5b to B-2 and require a conditional use permit restricting use for assembly only. Mr. Dubay is working now with the city about proffers and expects that the plan will be reviewed by the Planning Commission and then the City Council in June or July.

Discussion of the update to the Shore Drive section of the Comp Plan was tabled until the next meeting.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, a representative from the Active Transportation Committee noted that approval for bike racks at some beach accesses had come through including several in Ocean Park.

We collected 25 pounds of trash! Thank you to all who helped and especially to Mary Faust who organizes the effort and bakes the chocolate muffins and cornbread! YUM! Next clean up will be Saturday, April 20 9-12 am.

Thank you to all who paid 2024 dues!!! Join your neighbors! If you are a resident or property owner in Ocean Park please consider supporting the Ocean Park Civic League with your $20 membership or renew your membership for 2024! Join or Renew OPCL today-only $20 per household! We have more than 1300 households in Ocean Park and in 2023 we had 335 paid memberships. Let’s get to 400 in 2024! We will not raise dues but our costs: IT costs and event costs have gone up like everything else. We really need our neighbors to support the civic league. If you can give more than $20- that helps so much!

FAQ’s about Membership:

• When should I pay my dues? According to our bylaws membership dues are for the calendar year and are due in January. Dues must be paid and current to attend members only events like Spring Fling (coming up on Saturday, April 20!).
• I always used to pay my dues in the summer. Have things changed? Many residents pay at events at different times of the year. During Covid when we didn’t have any events, we strongly urged folks to pay electronically and it especially helps if people pay membership dues at the start of the year so we know what funding we will have for events. Bylaws state that dues are for each calendar year and are due in January.

What does your membership pay for? The civic league budget pays for the costs of getting information out – website costs, email blast Mailchimp services, snail mail post office box, IT services. We make contributions to Lynnhaven River Now, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and we give a four year $1000 college scholarship every year. With your membership you will also have free entry for your household to our Fall Fest (October 15th this year!) and Spring Fling– a great opportunity to meet your neighbors! Please help support your neighborhood civic league!! If you are new to the Ocean Park neighborhood- welcome! We look forward to getting to know you!

Residents and Neighbors heard some important and interesting updates at the well attended March 7 OPCL meeting at the Brock Center:

Councilman Joash Schulman announced that the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp would be gated at night as a temporary solution to the “public safety hazard” that has been an ongoing concern. He asked the City Manager to instruct the Parks and Rec Dept to proceed to close the gate at night. He noted that there were logistics that must be worked through including addressing the concerns of the boating community. He said he was happy to talk about any concerns and promised a “robust engagement with stakeholders” adding that “public safety is #1”. He urged people to call him directly with concerns. jschulman@vbgov.com 757-840-1291.

Officer Schonbach, VBPD Public Liaison, also provided some interesting information in his update about the LBR. In response to residents’ complaint that calling about activity at the LBR entailed a long phone interrogation, he said that callers do not need to stay on the phone. Operators are trained to get as much information as possible and will continue to ask questions as long as a caller will answer. He advised callers to say that there is a disturbance involving reckless driving (or whatever) and an officer needs to check it out and then to say “I’m sorry I can’t stay on the phone.”

Officer Schonbach also detailed the drawbacks of the newly installed cameras. Police can’t give a ticket to a car: they must be able to identify the driver. Coming soon is a Realtime Crime Center which could pull up live feed of a camera IF there is a call for service. The police do not have the manpower to monitor all the city cameras 24/7.

Officer Schonbach addressed some misconceptions about which violations are chargeable on the LBR property which is city property that is open to the public. Some violations like running a stop sign can only be charged on a city street. BUT reckless driving is absolutely enforceable.

Derek Dubay presented plans to preserve and restore the historic Ocean Park Baptist Church. His father and he have restored properties in Chic’s Beach (in slide presentation) and have a record of responsibly restoring old buildings. Derek described the Ocean Park church built in 1949 as having details such as 6 over 6 windows and woodwork that make it appealing. He has already talked to many city departments about the project: Planning and Zoning and has had a very positive response from the city. A zoning change to B-2 with conditional use restricted to assembly use is required. In response to questions, Derek gave some further details. The capacity of the church is 125-130. He will work on cross parking permits with Bucketheads. Currently there are 35 parking places and 70 would be required. A shuttle could be run from their offices a short distance away for additional parking. Care would be taken to ensure the live oaks on the property would be preserved.

Derek mentioned that the immediate area of the church is also unusual because it is one of few intersections in the city where all four corners have original buildings standing. He is pursuing inclusion on the local historical register. He described the passion he shares with his father for saving old buildings of which we have few in Virginia Beach in general and not too many in Ocean Park. Comments and questions are welcome! president@opcl.org

Guests enjoyed a wonderful time at the Brock Center on Sunday at the first ever Wine Tasting presented by our neighbor and professional sommelier Tina Morey. Tina showcased natural wines and delighted her audience with her humor and very informative commentary on biodynamic wine, organic wine, orange wine and Pet-nat sparkling wine. Wines from Oregon, the Loire Valley in France, Austria and California made up the program were accompanied by a beautiful charcuterie array to stimulate senses.