The City of Virginia Beach made a forward-thinking decision about 20 years ago and bought Pleasure House Lake from a private land owner. These 8 residential-zoned *underwater lots* very nearly became "Pleasure House Lake Subdivision" after having submitted site plans to the city and getting all of the regulatory permissions to fill in this lake (just like the Wycliffe Development). The city purchased the 4.6 acres to prevent this from happening, recognizing the flooding issues that would occur. Today Pleasure House Lake is the recipient of an outflow pipe that enables the city to drain off water in a flooding event and is an integral part of our city's stormwater drainage system investments.
A principle difference with Pleasure House Lake is that the city did not own a stormwater drainage easement when that developer was getting the permits to fill it in. They DO own a "public permanent drainage easement" through the Wycliffe property and have full rights to prevent building on top of it. We taxpayers have been paying for expansions to and improvements within this easement for decades. We deserve the Return on Investment. Every citizen that owns property served by this drainage easement has the right to it's preservation. That includes home owners, busines owners, and commuters on Great Neck Road. It includes every tax-paying citizen who has to pay for infill mistakes throughout Virginia Beach.
Preventing Lake Conrad 2 in the Great Neck Lakes from being filled in should be as simple as enforcing the city's right to prevent building on top of its/OUR drainage easement. That has not been the direction our Planning Department has been going and now the future of Lake Conrad 2 is being decided by our City Council on November 21st at 6:00PM.
A vote to APPROVE the Wycliffe application is a vote to APPROVE the destruction of a critical component of Great Neck's storm drainage system. If a pipe could replace a lake, the city would have never bought Pleasure House Lake..and we wouldn't be paying for the damage at Ashville Park and Bow Creek. Please write City Council at CityCouncil@vbgov.com and demand they DENY the Wycliffe application which PAVES the way to the Bishard Homes development.