Is Virginia Beach being flooded with empty promises? 

When our City Council proposed the Stormwater Flood Referendum on the ballot in Nov 2021, they unanimously committed to the following resolution within 3 weeks of the vote. In exchange, over two-thirds of voters agreed to raise their own taxes by 4.3 cents per $100 of assessed value to accelerate the Flood Protection Program designed to insulate us against stormwater and sea level rise problems. The Council committed to:

"Amend the City's Comprehensive Land Use Plan to recommend denial for any project or development that generates a net increase in water discharge demand, and to further require the Planning Department to recommend denial of the same."

City Staff promptly presented the changes to Planning Commission and City Council who voted to put this amendment off for a rainy day...  Only John Moss, Barbara Henley, and the late Louis Jones voted to implement this legislation. The rest appear to have turned their back on their commitment to the voters. There have been no less than 4 opportunities for Council to enact the promises they made voters in 2021. Yet here we are **TWO years later** witnessing new developments on our wetland areas getting the green light to fill in our marshes and lakes to build homes.

While we wait another month for a hearing on the Wycliffe development, the pictured property was sold to a developer Bay Legacy Construction LLC, this company was formed in Feb 2022 (just after the city's first abdication of their resolution). These are seven lots of marshland sold to a developer AFTER their feasibility study was done. They know the permits are theirs...

This City has violated the public trust in the "course correction" espoused by Mayor Dyer in 2021 when they decided not to implement the stormwater resolution. It is time for a course correction on Council. All neighborhoods throughout Virginia Beach are invited to add their story about stormwater issues from new development to the www.NoBuildVBWetlands.com page. Please email gnecivic@gmail.com. We want our stormwater drainage systems protected through the legislation we were promised--we want an end to filling in Virginia Beach's wetlands, marshes, and lakes. 

Please share to all of your neighbors.