You are the residents of Virginia Beach and beyond who cared to lend your heart and your voice to a community's concern about a lake being filled in for development. The attention you brought to the matter stigmatized the project in an election year. When you go to cast your ballot, we hope that you will carry with you the knowledge of who was on the side of residents and who promoted the interests of the developer. 

In October 2022, our city Public Works department attempted to transfer $1,360,000 from a fund intended to clean up the waters of Lake Conrad 2 to a "cost participation agreement" with the developer. The original funding of this CIP came from state and federal funds originating in 2017 when the city was mandated to  improve water quality going into the Lynnhaven River. If they had been successful, the public works department would have the full authority to negotiate and execute an agreement that would benefit a developer in filling in a natural waterway in Virginia Beach. We felt the transfer of these funds to the direct benefit of a special interest party and the detriment of a community was improper and objected before city council. Because we did, these funds remain in the account and Public Works removed the water quality project that it was slated for. To date, the commitment has not been honored to install a water filtration system for Lake Conrad 2 of the Great Neck Lakes.

Virginia Beach has a history of serving special interests over residents. It is high time to vote for candidates who seek what is in the best interests of residents, businesses and the health of our city, both economically and environmentally, rather than what is best for the special interest campaign donors. If you are interested in seeing who donates to a campaign, visit www.VPAP.org search local elections, and review the top donors of a candidates name. Check out who the candidate pays for services as well but searching Expenditures under a candidate and then choose the "Payee" tab. When a company is listed, you can discover who the company is owned by usually by looking it up at https://cis.scc.virginia.gov/

In the district that was affected by this application, we have two city council candidates who became engaged with the issue. Phil Hines received our endorsement for the manner in which he conducted his interest in the topic. He called to learn about the subject, appeared at our rally to talk to more residents, contacted the developer, wrote a letter to city council supporting the community, attended and spoke in favor of a deferral when the developer requested approval of a revised plan that did not provide all details for public scrutiny. The other council candidate Stacy Cummings showed up unannounced to our rally with a videographer, campaign manager, and photographer, told us he would speak with his friend the developer, and then called the following week to share information that we already had. Subsequently he has told the public that he was responsible for keeping the lake from being filled in, which is thoroughly untrue. We oppose this as an acceptable way of representing the public. 

We are grateful for the continual access to information and advice that was provided by Candidate for Mayor John Moss, his attendence at both of our rallies, and the multiple times our issue was featured on his podcast. We are also grateful for the advice to create this petition as well as the vote to deny the development by Councilman and Candidate for Mayor Chris Taylor. Candidate for Mayor Sabrina Wooten never accepted our multiple invitations to tour the property.

Thank you for your continued attention to the way our elected officials and candidates conduct themselves. We hope you will reward the right ones with your vote! If you need more information, please contact us at yourneighborhoodnext@gmail.com.