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 The last proposal of the project which was withdrawn in October 2021 was for 197 apartments so this is a return to the highest density.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!!!!