Chesapeake City Council Meeting: Work Session and Regular Meeting - October 24, 2023
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Chesapeake City Council Meeting: Work Session and Regular Meeting - October 24, 2023
The Chesapeake City Council met on October 24, 2023, for a work session at 5:00 p.m. and a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall Council Chamber. The work session featured a presentation on demographics and housing market analysis, while the regular meeting included public hearings, a consent agenda, citizen comments, appointments, and a land bank authority update. All votes were unanimous except where noted.
Consent Calendar
- Resignations accepted: Morris Barco (Chesapeake Interagency Consortium, effective Oct. 31, 2023), Melissa Gilliam and Camille Lewis (Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Healthcare Board), and Kimberly Koelsch (Chesapeake Bay Preservation Area Board).
- Grant Contingency Transfer: $24,886 from FEMA to the 2023 Port Security Grant Program (Fire Department).
- Resolutions to apply for funding:
- Virginia DOT Revenue Sharing Program for George Washington Highway Widening and Southgate Bridge projects.
- Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation Community Flood Preparedness Fund for Deepwater Drive Road Elevation and Battlefield Boulevard Road Elevation projects.
- Ordinance amending Chapter 66: Replaced authority over the Sign Sweeper Program from the Director of Public Works to the Director of Development and Permits.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Paul Ezieme (applicant, Currie Ave Tow Yard) spoke in support of his conditional use permit, pleading for allowance to bring existing equipment onto the lot before final site improvements due to financial constraints.
- Vic Nicholls (self) spoke in support of City Manager Item 5 (Sign Sweeper ordinance), stating “hopefully y’all will approve our nice new outfit and everything to make the city look better.”
- Non‑agenda speakers:
- Vic Nicholls commented on various items, including removal of resignation letters from the published agenda, concealed carry fees, and red light cameras.
- William Mercer (fifth‑generation farmer) opposed agricultural loopholes and overdevelopment in Southern Chesapeake, citing water supply strain and urging closure of the “ag loophole.”
- Katherine Howell raised concerns about the housing crisis, mental health services, and disability access, stating “disabled people matter.”
- Jennifer Knight demanded immediate rural relief, criticized economic development’s role in land use, and questioned the industrial rezoning of 1,500 acres for Coastal Virginia Commerce Park.
- Jeff Staples called for fairness to existing residents regarding water/sewer hookups and increased transit funding, noting unemployment in the 23324 zip code is more than double that of the 23322 zip code.
- Linda Tindell opposed overdevelopment, alleging that council members have received $451,128 in campaign contributions from real estate developers and construction interests.
- Dennis Cobb criticized the “unprofessionalism” of the Scenic Heights meeting and defended the city’s 1% growth rate.
- Jennifer Economy (resident of Southern Chesapeake) asked for rural relief during the comprehensive plan revision, citing overcrowded schools, dangerous roads, and diminishing farmland.
Discussion Items
- Demographics and Housing Market Analysis (Work Session): Consultant Abby Ferretti presented population trends (255,000 residents, 94,000 households), a 17.4% population increase projected by 2045, and a housing supply mismatch. She noted that 55% of households are one‑ or two‑person, but the housing stock is dominated by large single‑family homes. Rents are rising rapidly with vacancy rates below 5%. The analysis recommended compact development, mixed‑use, and redevelopment to preserve open space and reduce infrastructure costs. Council Member Ritter requested a future work session to discuss the report’s implications.
- Chesapeake Land Bank Authority Annual Update (New Business): Executive Director John Harbin reported FY2023 accomplishments: acquisition/disposition of 1116 Poindexter Street for public parking, initiation of rezoning on two properties, 12 new applications for the South Norfolk Residential Rehab Grant Program ($78,000 awarded, leveraging $40,000 in private investment), and development of a new strategic plan. Council Member Ward asked about ensuring homeownership (not rentals) for land bank properties; Mr. Harbin noted they are exploring deed restrictions.
- Currie Ave Tow Yard Conditional Use Permit (Planning Public Hearing): Staff recommended approval with 14 stipulations. Council Member Carey moved to amend stipulation #8 from a “wooden opaque fence” to a “chain link fence with sufficient opaque netting or lattice.” After debate (Council Member Bunn argued wood is better for screening), the amendment passed 7‑2 (Bunn and West voting no). The main motion, as amended, passed 9‑0.
- School Resource Deputy Sheriff Positions: Council approved appropriating $828,000 from Chesapeake Public Schools (using one‑time ESSER grant funds) to the Sheriff’s Office and establishing eight new School Resource Deputy positions. Council Member Newins asked about future funding; City Manager Price explained the city is not committing to supplement the grant.
- Rural Relief / Comprehensive Plan: Council Member Ritter asked for a report on rural stakeholder conversations. City Manager Price stated the final stakeholder meeting is Monday, and a report will be compiled. Council Member Ritter also requested a comprehensive list of major school renovation/replacement projects prior to the Nov. 2 joint meeting with the School Board.
Key Outcomes
- Ordinance #23‑O‑099: Authorized issuance of $39,225,000 in General Obligation Public Improvement Bonds – approved 9‑0.
- Ordinance #23‑O‑100: Amended C‑PACE financing program to adopt the statewide program – approved 9‑0.
- Ordinance #23‑O‑103: Assigned the Sidera Networks/Lightower Fiber franchise to Crown Castle Fiber – approved 9‑0.
- PLN‑USE‑2022‑049: Conditional use permit for Currie Ave Tow Yard approved with revised stipulations (October 18, 2023) and amended stipulation #8 (chain link fence with opaque netting) – approved 9‑0 after amendment passed 7‑2.
- Consent Agenda: Approved 9‑0.
- Regular Agenda Items 6A & 6B: Appropriation of $828,000 and establishment of eight new School Resource Deputy positions – approved 9‑0 each.
- Appointments:
- Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Healthcare Board: Reappointed Ayisha Buggs and Chrissy Nieves; appointed Alfred “Keith” Chapman, Sr., Angela Corprew‑Boyd, and Tracy Spurlin‑Saravanan (family member); one vacancy continued.
- Human Services Advisory Board: Reappointed Atarra Collins; one vacancy continued.
- Library Board: Reappointed Amy Asel and Amy Harman; appointed Kenneth Luxhoj; all three approved.
- Natural Event Mitigation Advisory Committee: Reappointed Judith Hinch and Markiella Moore; appointed Emma Jones (Planning Dept. rep); remaining vacancies continued.
- Parks, Recreation and Tourism Advisory Board: Reappointed Paula Faivre, Phil Johnson, Patricia McCambridge, and Michael Williams; appointed Edward Bradley; remaining vacancies continued.
- Closed Meeting: Council convened a closed meeting at 7:56 p.m. to consult with the City Attorney regarding interpretation of an existing ordinance (Section 2.2‑3711(A)(8) of the Code of Virginia). The meeting was certified and reconvened at 8:11 p.m. – motion to certify passed 9‑0.
- Future Work Session: Mayor West requested a future work session to discuss the Demographics and Housing Market Analysis report in depth.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome everyone to our work session, October twenty fourth, twenty twenty-three. This time I'd like to ask our attorney, Miss Lindley, to please read the language for a close session. A motion to conduct a closed meeting to discuss the acquisition and conveyance of real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body as permitted by Section Two Pet point two dash thirty seven eleven A three of the code of Virginia. Motion to conduct a closed meeting is adopted by a nine oh vote. Oh no, we don't have a different thing. So it was a once again, welcome to our closed session. Once again, welcome to our closed session. Mr. Manager, uh Tom is of an essence here. Do you want to uh at the work session followed? We have a consultant team here for the planning items, so I'll turn it over immediately to the planning department for the uh demographic and housing analysis. Okay. In the interest of time, I'm gonna introduce Ms. Ferretti, who will be going over our uh our uh presentation for this evening. Very good, thank you. I'll be reviewing the demographic um and the housing needs and an overview of the real estate trends, and then Anita, my partner will be talking about the future growth policy recommendations as they relate to keeping Chesapeake's economy um stable and growing into the future. So when we think about the demographic trends, uh we looked at what's going on in Chesapeake. Obviously, the population is reached about 255,000 folks, and that represents about 94,000 or a little less than 94,000 households. But those households are about 55 percent of which they're small households, they're made up of one or two persons, and that's really important. We're gonna talk about that more in the future, but that's just one of those things I like to point out. We also notice that Chesapeake's become more diverse. It's similar to the racial and ethnic mix that we see in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. And we notice that as we look at folks that are aging in place, we see that those over the age of 65 continue to make a large share of our population here in Chesapeake, and in fact, the senior population increased by about 15,700 people over a 12-year period from 2010 to 2022. Nothing that we don't see in other communities throughout the U.S., but something to be made note of here in Chesapeake. When we looked at these population projections, we just didn't look at what had happened over a period of time, but we looked out into the future into 2045, and you can see that it's going to grow to about 299,000 people, which is a 17.4% increase over uh the 2022 level. It's sort of an important point when we look at that. But for our purposes as economists, Anita and I come in and we always take a look at what's the temperature, what's going on in terms of the economy. So we look at the regional strengths, which here in the Hampton Roads area, uh obviously the defense activities, which account for roughly 35 to 40 percent of the gross regional product, but we also think about um the port activity and tourism. Chesapeake itself has some competitive advantages. It's got the same uh regional military presence and the strength of the port of Virginia being nearby, but the coastal location and the skilled labor force make up what we consider some of the other strong economic attributes. Chesapeake's unemployment rate uh when we looked at it in comparison to the region, it's about 2.9% in 2022, which is lower than the Hampton Roads average, which is about 3.2%. And in fact, when we look year over year, we see that Chesapeake is continuing to recover from the pandemic, with um an addition of 4,000 jobs that were lost during COVID being recovered currently. We looked at the residential conditions for the residential landscape, kind of taking a picture of what's the existing marketplace and the the nature of the suburban development in Chesapeake, which really has maintained reflects this single family detached housing, which represents more than two-thirds of your housing stock. When you add in townhomes and condominiums, you get another 12%. But when you compare this to your neighboring jurisdictions, you'll see that Chesapeake's multi-family housing units, if you were just to look at those that are in five units or more in a building, is about 13% of your total stock. That compares to like a place like Port Smith that'll have 18%, Virginia Beach at 19%, or even Newport News, where 31% of their stock is multifamily. So you have a lot less than other locations. When we look at the building permits, we looked at 10-year trend, we tried to understand well, what's happening? What are people building? What are folks out there doing? We see that the housing mix um really is more about single family development. And in fact, if you look at the last five years alone, you can see that about an average you'll have a thousand units being built every year compared to only about a hundred units of multifamily built. So you can see on this graph here, the little bit of gray on top is your sprinkling of multifamily, which you don't have very much. You're having much more single family. Obviously, multifamily responds more quickly to changes in a city, and the advantage is that it spreads that land cost over more units and it helps reduce the rents and the prices over time. So you want to have a mix of both in any community to be successful. We looked at the trends for residential. So we considered what was happening with the for sale market, and here is the map that just kind of breaks down the sales that we see throughout this city by zip code to get a sense of where you see some of the price points grumping up. What jumps out to us as economists is that Chesapeake's median sales price for single family homes reached about 400,000 in the spring of 2023, which is about a 25% increase from what it was three years previous. If you look at townhomes, they're reaching upwards very close to that point.
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