The Chesapeake City Council held a work session at 5:30 p.m. followed by a regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. on June 24, 2025, in the City Hall Council Chamber. The work session focused on proposed amendments to the city's firearms discharge ordinance. The regular meeting included actions on consent items, a firearms ordinance amendment, nominations and appointments to boards and commissions, and a contentious reconsideration request for a Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) compressor station rezoning. Mayor Richard W. "Rick" West was excused from both sessions.
Do you have water hose on it? Because the fire boats are helping cool off requests. I bought a half pressure. And then we'll do that one. I got a nine by twelve. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a quorum. For the thing. Mr. Manager, we have one item, I believe, on the for the work session. Yes, sir. At the request of council, we uh have a an item discussing a proposed uh uh agenda item tonight, which is discharging firearms within city limits. It's a uh small small modification to our existing ordinance. And uh Chief Mark Soleski will give us a rundown, just a couple of slides, and uh then we'll open the floor to have a good discussion. Good evening. Earlier this year, several citizens appeared before council and expressed their concerns regarding the discharge of firearms over property lines. And at that time uh they shared that it had resulted in property damage and safety concerns. So at the May 20th, 2025 City Council meeting, uh city staff was directed to draft an amendment to the relevant Chesapeake City ordinance to address bullets crossing a homeowner's property line without their permission. The police department worked closely with the City Attorney's Office to draft the proposed amendment to Chesapeake City Code Section 46-42 discharging firearms. Staff reviewed several Virginia ordinances and ultimately drafted an ordinance modeled after the law that was adopted in Suffolk. We did that from the viewpoint of balancing the rights of gun owners to hunt and target shoot within the city while also acknowledging the need for the safety of neighboring property owners. This past Wednesday, June 18th, we met with a group of approximately two dozen community members at Hickory High School. Many in attendance had voiced their concerns about the issue and were interested in amending the ordinance even further than what was being proposed. We indicated that the proposed amendment should be viewed as one step in an ongoing discussion and that it would help the police department address their concerns. So basically, the proposed changes would prohibit the discharge of any firearm across the property boundary of another without their written permission. And also have the homeowners have some skin in the game by holding them responsible if they allow persons on their property to discharge firearms over the property lines onto their neighbors' property, and that would result in a $250 civil fine for the homeowners that were present and allowed such activity to take place. So that's in a nutshell is what is what we're uh pro staff is proposing. Uh that's what the ordinance uh changes that are on the agenda for tonight. Um I think it would be uh helpful to just also create an analogy. So right now our ordinance um prohibits BBs from crossing property lines, but it doesn't address bullets. So really this ordinance in a nutshell is is uh treating bullets like BBs as we move forward. Chief, I was interested in your uh comment that uh correct me if I'm wrong, you view this as potentially the first step in in these uh restrictions or these ordinances uh as we get additional information from uh uh citizens and and staff and council about it. Is that correct? That's correct, sir. And that would be a tool in our toolbox that we don't have now, and it would be helpful to address the existing concerns. So your point is we have to start somewhere. Yes, sir. Okay. Very good. Members of council. Questions, members of council. Council Member Whitaker. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um actually goes to Ms. Lindley. Um many discussions I have had with with citizens uh and and uh members of our our police. There's a lot of concern where there has been conversation about berm requirements. And uh could you please elaborate as to why it is not or why it's frowned upon to potentially require berms? Uh yes. In this instance, we did not include any type of berm requirement because obviously we took the exact direction from council. Um and so we took that explicitly to just address bullets crossing property lines.