Happy Holidays! Your support is needed this weekend for a redevelopment plan that will affect a 12 acre portion of the treasured Pleasure House Point Natural Area. You can find more information in the petition and on the city's project page, but here is a summary. In order to construct two pump stations in critical flood protection areas, the city has to create new wetlands in another area or buy them from a qualifying wetland bank. They have chosen to create 8 acres of tidal wetlands out of the 12 acres that will be clear cut. We believe the design plan deserves a comprehensive environmental impact study and redesign based on the recovery it has made in over a decade since the plan was devised. There are said to be roughly 5200 trees that will be removed as part of this project and hundreds of Live Oaks, ironically the city tree. The soil and sand being removed is projected to require 6,000 dump trucks to travel through the Ocean Park neighborhood. The original design was presented to the neighborhood in a civic league meeting in May 2017 and was estimated to cost $3M. The design included a kayak launch, restrooms, and a parking lot, which are not part of this project. Despite that, the costs have increased to $12M now and the only public presentation of this design was at the Bayfront Advisory Commission meeting this past Thursday. There it was revealed that the city's statement that there are NO other wetland banks to draw from was not true. An available bank is ready to purchase credits from to move forward with the urgent pump station project. It will take A YEAR to obtain the credits needed to proceed with the urgent pump station project if the Pleasure House Point project proceeds. That is another hurricane season!

This is slated to be voted on by the City Council January 7th and the excavation to begin in February. Your signature and engagement might help protect this precious property from being bulldozed in just two short months. We truly hope for a better design to be presented that protects the existing trees and nature while also improving the existing wetlands for the ongoing improvement of our Lynnhaven River and Chesapeake Bay habitats. Purchasing the existing credits will allow the pump stations to be built faster than this current plan and will protect Virginia Beach residents and businesses. Thank you for sharing as far and fast as you can! And Happy Holidays to you and yours!! https://www.change.org/p/please-purchase-the-newly-available-tidal-wetlands-credits-refine-phpwmb-plans?recruiter=1313140797&recruited_by_id=fc3acb10-2b9f-11ee-802f-bd90d2c1e320&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=take_next_step&utm_medium=copylink&utm_content=mit-490350453-10%3Av1