The Harrison and Lear application for Rezoning was submitted in November 2025, and approved by the Virginia Beach City Council on March 24, 2026 despite community opposition as well as recommendations for disapproval by Virginia Beach city staff, and the TA/ITA Citizen Advisory Committee.

The Commonwealth of Virginia provides that City Council zoning decisions can be appealed to a Circuit Court within 30 days of the City Council vote. Becoming aware of this limited timeframe, the board of directors of the Browningstone Village in West Neck (“Browningstone”), retained a law firm experienced in the zoning appeals process to advise principally on what steps to take in anticipation of the possible need to appeal (the Virginia Beach Mayor and City Council have been blindly pro-development in recent times which have resulted in some unfortunate decisions that are taking away years of accumulated open space that puts at risk our quality of life, wetland flooding, overdevelopment, increased traffic and the City’s compliance with the 2005 BRAC commitments).

While the majority of the West Neck Community board of directors voted to file an appeal of the City’s zoning decision, due to a technicality which may have been wrongly applied, the West Neck Community Association decided not to file an appeal. With the 30 day window closing, this left it to Browningstone, an aggrieved party based on its immediate proximity to the additional planned housing units, among other things, to make such appeal by filing, on April 23, 2026 with the Circuit Court of Virginia Beach, a Complaint for Declaratory Judgement.

The Browningstone board has agreed to defer certain maintenance in order to fund the approximate $18,000 of legal fees incurred to date. We have been told to expect an additional $30,000 of legal fees to fully see through the appeal process. We have established a GoFundMe website (https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-protect-west-neck-from-rezoning to raise funds needed to see through the appeal.

Thank you to everyone for your help in fighting this injustice.