What protection is there?

The question was posed multiple times by a small group of neighborhood representatives at the meeting with the developer. It came from many directions, yet the developer's team didn't seem to understand the question at all. They even made incredulous faces and mockingly repeated the questions back. Yet this question permeates through the bloodstream of this long-established Virginia Beach neighborhood and echoes through the entire city.

What protections?

You've heard this before. Windsong Apartments. Westminster Canterbury. The Silo. A community says they want protection from increased traffic, from density, from pollution, from transience, from commerce in their neighborhoods, from degrading what has value to them and their families. 

They look to city leadership to provide that protection. They look to zoning ordinances, Comprehensive Plans, state and federal standards to guide those decisions. They look for cooperation with the developer to modify their plans when they hear of a community's concerns. But the developer can't understand what "protection" means because they are solely concerned with protecting their profit. Its the nature of the beast.

In this case, the developer proposed a plan that would fill in a lake that has always existed as a natural waterway in Virginia Beach, so that he could maximize his profit on the land the church wanted to sell. The city's planning staff approved of the project, but the public outcry made the plan unpalatable politically for the city council. 

The developer then re-designed the project around the lake at the approval of the planners once again, despite numerous concerns expressed by the community. "The lake is protected!" they exclaim. But when you ask how is it protected, there is no answer. The uplands that filter, absorb, and drain 37 acres of runoff from Great Neck Road, or 53,500 cubic feet of water, will be replaced with impervious surfaces including five home sites and a private road running along the head of the lake waters. The home sites have no mitigation responsibility for the lake because the developer is proposing to separate the lake from the residential properties and the business-zoned property. The attorney stated "There will be more water associated with this than comes off the property as grass...but won't overload the pond by any stretch of the imagation." When the city council of Virginia Beach refused to implement the stormwater resolution of 2021 that requires no increase in discharge by new developments, what protection is there for a community?

In an effort to put as many homes onto a lot that can be fit, the city planners are allowing the front yard setback to be used as the backyard setback in this new development that will be right on Great Neck Road. What protection is there for a community paying attention to the way developers can bend the rules in our city?

The developer, a business enterprise concerned with maximizing profits, has proposed a new office zone that includes the lake. No mitigation for the additional water runoff from the new development of additional asphalt roofs, driveways, firepits, patios, and a private road has been included. In fact, the city is only requiring the developer to provide a 10' vegetative buffer around the lake, which is less than half the miminum standard provided by the state. Yet our politicians profess that Virginia Beach's standards are stricter than the states... 

When a developer and his attorney tell the city leadership that a property has been operated as a business for "decades" when that is not true, what protection is there for the community?

In truth, this property was operated as a church outreach to the special needs community, which evolved into therapy for infants and young children paid for by the city's Health and Human Services Department. Three to five cars of volunteers and parents would be seen on a once a weekday basis--one trip in, one trip out. The church benefited by the taxpayer-paid improvements to the property and the wetpond, Lake Conrad 2, and lowered stormwater fees, while also having an outreach opportunity to the families. The church was paid only enough rent to make a lease agreement legally binding. This was not a profit-making enterprise, whose success is dependent on more traffic. The developer's attorney said he expects the new office to generate traffic that is "much more significant than that." When a developer states "if your basis is no traffic, that's not realistic at all," what protection is there for the community?

When a developer's attorney says "It's not going to attract a huge amount of rent" while the builder says, "It's a marketable marketplace property that we have to do something with in the market...that is it's highest use," what protects the community from a change in proffers that puts a 3 story office park where a small church and lake used to be? A community asks, what protects the lake from being filled in by the business that will later own the lake? City staff said that is not currently being proposed. When it is, which it surely will be, what protection is there for the community?

When a city planning department allows the removal of ALL open space required of the new development and the existing one in exchange for a payment made to the Parks and Recreation Department to be used elsewhere in the city, what protects the value of a neighborhood? "It's too small for a swingset." Did you think the city's subdivision requirements that require a developer create open space would protect the quality of neighborhoods in Virginia Beach? 

As the developer's attorney states, "That is what's proposed, and I am confident that is what will happen." Why is this? A community has provided state standards that are being ignored, Comprehensive Plan objectives for the Suburban Areas that are being cast aside, and Zoning Ordinances that are being circumvented by our Planning Department. All of this activity has been happening over the course of two years of active involvement from the community. Citizens en masse are writing the city leadership their opposition to this current design that ignores the best interests of the community, but are being told that it's a done deal...

When a developer says "What are you looking for protection from?" the answer is very clear to the residents of Virginia Beach.

Contact Planning Commission and City Council to share your opposition. For email addresses and more information about how you can help, please see NoBuildVBWetlands.com.