Mr.

Manager, we have a work session, two great topics, two great important groups, our land bank authority and our hospital our airport authority.

So I'll turn it over to you, sir.

Thank you.

I'm very pleased to have uh both uh authorities presenting tonight.

I'm not sure how much uh people are aware that um we have hundreds of citizens on on boards and commissions that work with our staff and our elected officials to really make Chesapeake a better place.

And you know, our staff there they have technical expertise in a lot of uh disciplines, but our citizens are really experts in the community and working together.

I think you know, we often do very great things.

And so we have two presentations um tonight uh relative to two of our authorities.

And first up is our Chesapeake Land Bank Authority with their uh FY25 annual report.

Turn it over to John Harbin.

Could you make a distinction before we start for people who are listening between an authority and a board slash commission?

Yes, ma'am.

So authorities are created uh often by the um Virginia General Assembly for a specific purpose.

So we have economic development authority, which is uh created specifically to help facilitate um economic development transactions, airport authority, hospital authority.

Um they are um sort of single purpose um units to do public business, but things outside of the traditional scope of uh what the local government would do.

Boards and commissions often are advisory, so they're providing advice either to staff or to city council or both.

So examples there would be things like the uh planning commission or historic preservation commission.

But we also the economic development authority executive director is a department head, unlike the other authorities that are not department heads for your uh position.

Yeah, so authorities each have an independent um executive director, um, and then the boards, uh the boards and committees generally operate um with um you know an appointed um uh chair from their own ranks uh with with uh staff support from city staff.

All right.

Well, good evening, everyone.

Um my name is John Harbin.

Uh it's a pleasure to be here this evening to present uh the Chesapeake Land Bank Authorities FY25 uh annual report.

Um in addition to this, we're also going to be presenting something we've been working on for the last six or seven months, which is a new strategic plan.

Um I'm happy to have two colleagues here to help me with that part.

We have Kim Grazanani from the Center for Community Progress and Nora Daly from the Center for Community Progress.

Um just to jump into things quickly.

Uh, we're gonna talk briefly about what is a land bank.

Um at its core, a land bank is a public authority, as we just kind of discussed, focused solely, really hyper focused on the conversion of vacant, abandoned, and tax delinquent properties.

And we focus on the conversion of the of those properties into a productive use that's in alignment with community goals.

Uh often what's in our the city's planning documents or what's desired by the local community.

Uh land banks exist throughout the country, as you can see here on the map with uh the blue states that have enabling legislation for land banks.

Here in Virginia, land banks are relatively new.

Uh we are one of one actually we are the only land bank authority in the Commonwealth of Virginia at this time.

Um and in Virginia, we have somewhat limited powers compared to some other land banks in other parts of the country.

But we can acquire properties through multiple mechanisms.

We hold those properties tax-free, and really most importantly, we have uh greater flexibility with how we dispose of those properties.

And we dispose of those properties in alignment with community goals.

Um there's more information on this uh particular slide on page eight of your strategic plan document.

So what makes the land bank authority unique compared to some of the other authorities that that the city has that deal with real estate and land?

Really at the core, the land bank is again acquiring, assembling, and disposing of those vacant, abandoned, and deteriorated properties in support of community goals.

Uniquely, we also administer what's known as the South Norfolk residential rehab grant program, which focuses on rehabbing historic homes in the South Norfolk Historic District.

We acquire land and we uh expeditiously try to get it back into the tax rolls, but we can temporarily or or strategically hold on to land to assemble it for longer term development goals.

And the bottom line there under disposition, we have the greatest flexibility in terms of how we can dispose of land.

Again, whether it's for monetary compensation or other considerations, such as who we're transferring the land to and what the end land use result is.

And this chart here is on page 15 and 16 of the strategic plan if you'd like to take a closer look.

So the land bank authority is really uh overseen by you all, city council.

City council appoints our board of directors, uh, which then oversees uh the citizen advisory committee, which is a committee of 10 residents from throughout the city that advise the land bank on really any matter that comes before the board.

Uh so identifying properties, identifying suitable uses of those properties, policies, procedures, all of the like.

Um, they advise the board of directors on, and then you have myself as as a director serving not only the board of directors but the citizen advisory committee as well.

Um, our board of directors, we have seven members.

Uh we have a great board of directors.

Uh, we have several of them in the audience this evening.

Uh if you wouldn't mind standing up just to be recognized for a moment, we have Amy Dull Dudash, our chair, we had Mr.

Jojo Su, our vice chair, uh, Mr.

Joseph D.

Miles, Mr.

Mike Coss, and uh Mr.

John Kish as well.

So thank you all for your service to the land bank and to the city of Chesapeake.

The board meets on a monthly basis on the first Wednesday of the month.

These are public meetings.

Uh we often have members of the public attend.

We all also often have members of city staff attend from the city manager's office, planning department, development and permits, the kind of departments that we work most closely with, and we have constitutional officers attend as well on a regular basis.

We met 11 times in the past fiscal year.

Our citizen advisory committee, again, as I mentioned, is a uh committee of 10 residents from representing each of the 10 planning areas throughout the city.

Uh, they advise the land bank on really any matter that comes before it, uh, and they meet on a quarterly basis.

Um, on the third Wednesday of the month, we actually have a meeting tomorrow, and those are public meetings as well.

So, just going into some milestones from the previous fiscal year, again from July 1 of 2024 through June 30th of this year, looking at uh our vacant abandoned and deteriorate deteriorated properties.

Again, those are the properties that we are really laser focused in on.

Uh, we have 18 of those in our inventory right now, nine in our South Norfolk target area, seven in Great Bridge, two in Indian River, and then we've returned five additional parcels uh into productive use, and that can be a variety of things, and we'll talk more about uh those five parcels in just a moment.

So, in terms of property acquisitions this year, uh we had a very busy year.

Uh, we acquired several properties in the South Norfolk target area, again, Great Bridge, Indian River.

Um, each of these properties really has a unique story behind it.

I could go in and talk about each one for five or ten minutes each.

Um, but the important thing to note here is that uh you know, each of them were identified to the land bank in a unique way, whether it's through our citizen advisory committee, uh, a civic league, uh, our code enforcement staff or just land bank board members.

Uh we went through a negotiation with each one and the acquisition process is a little different for each one as well.

Um, some of these properties on this list have already been uh you know put into the land bank inventory and then already disposed of back into the private market, and I'll talk about that on the next slide or two here.

So, some of our property dispositions, um, our Liberty Street project is probably our biggest one to date.

Um we acquired this property as four parcels uh in South Norfolk along Liberty Street.

We acquired it two years ago and went through a due diligence process to remediate some potential contamination on the property.

It had sat vacant for decades because of that and went through a land use and design process.

We worked with the surrounding community.

The property was zoned for a business, but the site was really too small to accommodate a business, and the surrounding neighborhood really wanted to see something similar to what was already established there, which was single family dwellings.

So we went through a rezoning process and subdivided those four parcels into two new buildable lots.

We issued a request for proposals and selected balanced builders to build on those lots, two new high-quality dwellings, and required them to be occupied by owner-occupied buyers.

Another unique disposition that I'll just highlight quickly is 3703 Bainbridge Boulevard.

This was actually a surplus city owned property that the city had for over a decade or so, and the adjacent business owner needed some additional land to accommodate a business expansion.

Because the land bank has flexible disposition policies, we were able to the city was able to transfer the property directly to the land bank, and then we were able to do a direct sale to the adjacent property owner through our side lot disposition program.

This allowed that property owner to increase the size of their lot to accommodate a business expansion, promote assemblage of the parcels and development potential, and put this property back on the to the tax rolls as well.

So going into our South Norfolk residential rehab grant program, this is a program that we've administered for the last three or four years.

So just an overview of the grant program.

We help owner-occupied homeowners do a variety of home improvements, think about kind of the core systems of the home, the HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, and then exterior work, foundation, roofing, siding, exterior painting, trim, windows, you know, porches, decks, and the like.

So the homeowner will receive a grant award for half of the total project costs, and then they provide the other half.

We do have an income-qualified financial hardship as well.

So if a particular homeowner is unable to perform the home improvement work themselves, they can apply for that, and the grant can cover up to 100% of the total project costs.

This is really important for some of these older homes and folks on limited means to be able to complete the necessary home improvements to preserve the existing housing stock and protect the historic resources there.

Some terms of the grant, like I said, that the property has to be owner-occupied.

They have to adhere to the historic districts design guidelines, and there's a maximum grant award.

So over the last fiscal year or last three fiscal years, excuse me, we've seen tremendous success with this grant program.

In fiscal year 23, we had six applications, and fiscal year 24, we had 19, and this past one we had 29 applications.

The board, the board of directors reviews and considers each and every one of these applications very carefully.

They look at the criteria that we use to evaluate them, including the need for the work, the financial capacity of the homeowner to fund the work, whether it's consistent with the design guidelines and how it will impact the overall neighborhood as a whole.

Just recently in fiscal year 25, we awarded 276,000 in grant funds because this is a matching grant that leveraged a total investment of 416,000 in the historic district just this past fiscal year.

So just to highlight a couple of those projects, uh we completed nine new roofs in the historic district.

The vast majority of those are replacement of the existing uh oftentimes a hundred-plus-year-old metal roofs.

Uh, the cost of a new metal roof is significantly higher than what it would cost to do an asphalt shingled roof.

So the grant really helps to bridge that gap uh and help homeowners to uh re-roof their home and also maintain the integrity of the historic district.

Uh another project, a grant project that we're particularly proud of is uh on Seaboard Avenue.

This homeowner um was subject to code enforcement because their front porch was uh deteriorated to such an extent it was about to fail, and they would lose access to the property.

There were mobility challenged and of limited means.

Um, and so working with code enforcement, uh the planning department uh and the architectural review board, we were able to design a project that not only met uh the the historic district's design guidelines and actually improved um the kind of a historic integrity of the home, but also met the parameters of our grant program.

Um and that you can see the completed um image on the right uh with a brand new rebuilt front front porch, uh uh new siding on the front facade of the house and a new front, new front door.

Uh so I'll just end quickly on some organizational milestones.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, we initiated a strategic planning effort uh earlier this year, and which we'll talk a lot more about here in just a moment.

Uh we went through a procurement process uh with the assistance of the city's finance department, we're very appreciative of their support for that uh to find a new uh provider of banking services.

Uh we supported some key zoning amendments that will help uh redevelopment efforts, and we're active participants in the city's planning efforts, uh, the comprehensive plan being uh the primary one and then the new South Norfolk Historic District design guidelines.

Um I think we're we're at a point where we're really established the land bank as an integral part of the city's revitalization efforts.

Um really really excited about kind of our next chapter, uh, which I'll turn over for Kim to give you a brief overview on.

Thank you, and good evening.

My name is Kim Graziani with the Center for Community Progress, and I'm joined by my colleague Nora Daly.

Um we have had the great pleasure of working over the past six or so months with the uh Chesapeake Land Bank, and I should probably start by saying who we are.

So we are a national nonprofit, we have offices across the country, and while we work with the vast majority of land banks, which there's about 330 land banks across the country, um, we've worked with over 300 of them.

We really work with communities all across the country helping them figure out strategies to deal with these vacant abandoned properties that are costing local taxpayers and local governments a lot of money.

So we've spent a little over six months interviewing a lot of folks.

Many of you are up there right now.

We interviewed over 40 folks.

We came out here and saw a lot of projects that are on the ground and had some in-person conversations, uh, drafted the plan, and now we are here to present it.

Um the plan, which hopefully you all have a copy of, is I would say a strategic plan on steroids.

It's not your typical plan.

It has a lot of information that really tells the story about the land bank.

One thing we heard loud and clear, particularly from some of the city counselors, is why what makes the land bank different, right?

What do the laws allow a land bank to do?

How does this land bank compare to the other 300-plus land banks across the country?

So we tried our best to include that information in the strategic plan.

And then the other thing I wanted to mention is we took a lot of time to do an implementation plan with key performance indicators.

We've probably all been part of a strategic planning process where there's a lot of money that gets spent to put it together, and then it just sits on a shelf and nobody's accountable to it.

So we really wanted to make sure that that doesn't happen.

So some of the themes that we heard uh with the over 40 people we talked to is just the leadership and the collaboration and the support from City Council.

I can honestly say I have worked with almost 300 land banks, and I'm not saying this just because I've been invited here.

It is very unique and very inspirational to see the level of commitment from city council in terms of funding, support, Councilman Whitaker being on the board.

That doesn't happen very often.

It should happen a lot more.

So I hope that not only is it a model for other land banks in Virginia, but also I hope we can tell your story to land banks across the country.

Some of the challenges, I'm sure probably are not going to surprise you.

There's some capacity issues.

Given how successful the grant program has been in South Norfolk, not as many people know about the land bank outside of that community.

And we heard loud and clear that there was a real interest to prioritize more ways to get properties, to dispose of them, to support city priorities, and then also to diversify funding sources.

And I am gonna try to summarize this slide in a minute or less.

One of the things that we really wanted to look at is what is the potential inventory for the land bank?

What are the properties that are causing the most harm in Chesapeake?

So, as you'll see here, the map to the left are vacant tax delinquent lots, so no structures that are eligible for tax foreclosure.

And you'll see all of those, there's about a hundred of them, a third of which are tax delinquent for 10 years or more.

So that's sort of one potential pot of inventory for the land bank.

The other to the right are vacant structures, so not lots, structures with code violations.

This map shows about 200, and a third of which are also tax delinquent.

I want to emphasize that there was a lot of work that went into gathering just this data.

This was a true collaboration between the treasurer's department, uh, development and permits and the land bank, and there's still a lot more to do.

What we're hoping though is that while it's a lot of time spent and effort, everybody wins at the end because the ability to get a property back into taxpaying status or transfer to new ownership is a win for everybody.

So I'm just gonna very briefly talk about the five goals, and as you'll see in the plan, we go into very, very uh intense details about it.

So the first goal is to really support the continued development of a comprehensive strategy.

This really pertains to the land bank, the treasurer, and develop and permits, continuing to work together to collect that data and try to get some of these properties into the inventory of the land bank.

Goal two is intended to build off of the success of the South Norfolk grant program.

We identified some potential other neighborhoods and communities that could potentially benefit from this type of a residential rehab program.

We also recommended a land depository program, and what this is is that folks outside of the city, so nonprofits, developers, could deposit land into the inventory of the land bank for things like attainable workforce housing.

This allows the land bank to hold those properties tax-free for a minute minute of time, but to also make sure that those properties are used to support public goals like attainable housing, small business development, all things related to economic prosperity.

Goal three was to expand the acquisition and disposition strategies, um, to really provide a little bit more transparency and prescriptiveness into what the priorities are.

So, for example, we heard loud and clear that a big concern was out-of-town landlords that were coming in buying houses and not doing anything with them.

While by no means we're recommending for the land bank to say no to anyone outside of Chesapeake that wants to buy a property, but in the case that there are two applications that are competing, the ability to work and select somebody who maybe lives in Chesapeake could be an option.

Making sure that if the property is sold to an out-of-town landlord, that there is a local manager that is here available to make sure that that property is cared for.

For example, two years ago in Ohio, they received 200 million dollars in brownfield funding dedicated just to land banks, and that was based on all of the land banks in that state advocating with one voice.

The last goal is about strengthening relationships with residents.

And what I'll point to is the citizens advisory committee right now is based on uh residents from all of the areas uh across Chesapeake.

And what we're recommending is to think about making sure that there are residents on that committee that live in the communities where the land bank works the most.

The residents that are most impacted by these vacant and abandoned properties.

And so I would say our key takeaways are continue doing what you're doing.

I think it's a really exciting time for the land bank.

I kept on saying this to John and the board that this foundation has been built, and now it's time to sort of expand and take a little bit more risk and to have more impact and to work in more places, but to make sure that you don't lose sight of the people who live in these communities that um deserve a safe, prosperous place to live.

And if you are interested in learning more, we have a ton of information on land banks on the website, and I'd be happy to answer any questions, and I thank you again for your time.

Thank you.

Very interesting.

Open it up for questions, Mr.

Bond.

Thank you, Mayor West.

A couple questions.

First of all, thank you for your presentation all with you.

Um Mr.

Harman, just for the audience that might be listening in, um, can like an investor or flipper qualify for a land bank grant?

No.

So the South Norfolk grant is not open to uh investors, flippers, any anyone like that.

Excuse me, it's only available to owner-occupied structures.

Okay, good.

And then the um other question I have for you is is there a minimum time that the um resident has to live in the house before they sell the house?

Following the receipt of the grant.

Uh we don't have any uh ability to require them to live in the property for a period of time after, but they have to reside in the property for at least half a year before applying.

And the final question um Mr.

Whitaker helped me with uh uh a friend that was in our 80s, and when they got the packet it's pretty extensive.

Do you have a staff member that would assist in the filling out of the applications?

Absolutely.

Yep.

Uh that staff members me, and I'll be happy to uh walk them through that application process.

We we do that often.

All right, yep.

Thank you so much.

Mr.

Whitaker, would you like to make any additional comments?

Uh well, since you put it that way, I might as well.

Yes.

No, I'd just like to thank John.

John has done a phenomenal job with the land bank.

He is kind of like the one-stop shop, you know.

He is uh he's doing the job of multiple people and uh has certainly impacted um uh certainly South Norfolk, but not just South Norfolk, but other areas that that we have done acquisitions and uh and also revitalization.

I think is a very important part of what the land bank's done.

So Mr.

Harbin, thank you very much.

Can't remember how many years ago we started talking about the use of the land.

Ms.

Ritter, you may remember that, but uh it seems from what I've heard tonight or actually hearing the concept that we talked about many years ago being put into practice.

So thank you all for making it happen and all the work that you're putting into it.

We really truly do appreciate it.

Ms.

Ritter?

Thank you.

I I do have some questions.

And thank you for providing us with this ahead of time.

Most appreciated.

Um I had to read it twice.

But I have a couple of questions and a couple of requests that you really don't need to answer at this moment, but if you could provide us with a breakdown of each year and what grants you gave and for what purpose and what amount.

And also did the completion of that work increase the value of the house.

I think that's a way to demonstrate whether or not you're getting a return on the grant.

Um secondarily.

I mean, we had $78,000 that went into the grants.

And I'd like to just give you some food for thought about Mr.

Bunn's question.

I forget what year it was, maybe 2009, when the mayor was first on council.

Maybe it was a little bit later.

We did make a visit to a home, and that's where the idea of the grant came up.

Someone had rehabbed a multifamily house that was broken down into several apartments into a single family.

The house next door, which was eventually demolished, he wanted to buy and rehab it.

And just the cost even of the foundation work was so much.

So those would be the investor flipper.

And then I've had a couple calls from members asking about the policies for the grants.

Some of these that you've outlined seem to me to be maintenance as opposed to a fence or an HBAC, as opposed to foundational work or a roof replacement.

So if you all would take a look at your grant criteria, and maybe you want to make some changes.

So if the authority members believe that the policy should be amended in any way, I hope that you all would discuss that and send a proposal.

I assume via the planning department to update or change the policy if you feel that it needs council approval and take a look at that.

I did have a couple concerns with your report.

Where you identified threats to the success of the land bank, it's in direct contravention to public opinion in the city, and I it concerned me a great deal.

One is the resistance to development in the rural areas.

So to identify that as a threat is of concern to me.

The second one is zoning amendments to that would produce substandard infill housing without identifying those.

Can you send us examples of those changes in the zoning ordinance?

I can't think of a single thing our staff's ever proposed that would produce substandard infill.

And then recently, as we're working on the Deep Creek Plan.

Is that you, Mr.

McNamara?

Boy, my eyes are getting really bad, or you're hiding.

There's a lot of discussion, and perhaps you want to have a discussion about the city's property on George Washington Highway, and I believe it's old mill.

It was a school property.

Um have some conversation about that.

You know, it it's a difficult thing for the community.

You have a building that's essentially falling down that's boarded up, it's an eye sore, it's adjacent to well-used athletic fields, but on the other hand, it has a real community tie.

But on the other hand, it has a real community tie.

So you juxtaposition the opposite feelings of the community, but it might be worth taking a look at and exercising with some of the partnerships that you outline that would be positive on what might be able to happen.

That is city-owned property.

So that would be one.

And my only other concern, and I guess this would be for the attorney's office, and in your collaboration with other agencies, the CRHA particularly, is on your give it up portion of the fix-it-up.

We do need to remember this is Virginia.

And the taking of properties must meet certain criteria, and they are very difficult without it serving a major public purpose like a road.

I mean, I know you have included the conditions of the rights of way.

But this is a very good outline.

And I guess the manager will be considering any budget considerations or funding options.

But I would encourage you all.

If you believe that some of these policies need amendment, and you believe that that is the responsibility of the council as opposed to the authority, please get together, bring those forward.

And wherever you can collaborate, you've got your liaisons.

Well, you don't have the EDA, but I'm sure they're going to provide you with one.

But you have Mr.

Kish from CRHA, which should be an excellent partner.

And see where we don't want mission creep, but we do want collaboration.

So thank you all.

Very interesting document.

For me to read something twice, it has to be really interesting.

So thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr.

Miller.

Any other comments or questions from council members?

We are all done from this side?

Thank you again.

Appreciate your input presentation.

Thank you so much.

As we transition to our next team, I just want to say on behalf of city staff, John's really transformed the organization.

You know, we we got off to a little bit of a slow start, but um fantastic addition.

Uh the authority is really strong.

Uh John's uh very strong, um, very actively engaged with the city's team members, and it's really seamless operation in terms of executing council's desires when they created the uh the authority, so very much appreciative of all their hard work.

And we are happy to have him back after his um secured route to come back.

That's true.

He like you started in the planning department.

Boomerangs, that's right.

Um so next up uh we have uh discussion about the Chesapeake Regional Airport Authority, and I'll turn it over to Preston uh Wilhelm, Deputy Director of Economic Development in a moment, but just to lay the groundwork, Council might recall that during the budget session earlier this year, um I had very significant concerns about the uh level of subsidy that we're providing to the airport and not just the level of subsidy, but the um unsustainable nature of the increase in that annual subsidy.

And so I had considered not including funding for the airport authority in this year's budget.

Ultimately, um I chose to submit a budget with uh partial year funding, so so for the first six months of the year with the expectation that the airport authority would work with our team to conduct a financial feasibility study and really take a look at over the next few years how to become more self-sustaining and you know continue the um the great work that they do, but become less reliant on city resources over time, which is really the goal of all of our authorities is to do the work you know with and maximize revenues outside of um city general fund revenue.

So um you're gonna hear a presentation tonight, a little bit about where that work stands, and then um I'll close with some recommendations on uh follow-up work that still needs to be done.

So now I'll turn it over to Preston.

Great.

Thank you, Mr.

City Manager.

I appreciate it.

Uh good evening, uh, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of council.

Thank you for your time tonight.

And I know we just heard from a fairly new authority, and so this presentation is going to be from a slightly older authority, that the Chesapeake Airport Authority and Chesapeake Regional Airport was formed in 1966 by the General Assembly.

Uh and uh as the city manager indicated, what we're here to tonight to hear about is essentially a business plan uh for the for Chesapeake Regional Airport, and you may hear us refer to it as CPK, which is the FAA identifier.

And so part of that process, it's been a collaborative process with all of the member uh of various members of city departments and city leadership, and Bob Geis has been participating as well as Brian Solas, and of course, Chris Strantz, uh the manager of the Chesapeake Airport, my colleague Kistine Plarr, and then of course, members of their board are here, our representative of the Chesapeake Airport Authority are here tonight as well.

So it's been a collaborative effort.

Uh it it's been a very uh interesting exercise.

And again, I think our main focus for tonight's presentation is to take a look at the capacity for the Chesapeake Regional Airport to generate revenue.

As Chris said, in an effort to for financial self-sustainability.

We want to look at maybe enhancing the ability uh to generate revenue at CPK.

This is not, we are not alone in the city of Chesapeake.

Mr.

Scott Denny, who is with the Virginia Department of Aviation, is here as well tonight.

There is a push both at the federal level and the state level for general aviation airports to come up with a strategy to determine the best practices to again achieve a level of financial self-sustainability and self-sufficiency.

And so that's what we're going to hear from today.

Um, you know, our great city is in an interesting position because we have not only one general aviation airport, but two.

And to make that even more interesting, especially for city leadership, one of those facilities is privately held, and one is is publicly uh controlled.

So it it's a unique position, and again, there are very few communities that have the benefit of two regional airports, but again, it does present a balancing act uh that that our staff is is and I know the Chris Strantz and his team is is are constantly trying uh to to create that balance.

Um to the importance of this initiative, we have brought in a couple of uh consultants here and our advisors uh to help us through this process.

We are not aviation experts.

I think you know the team at at CPK is very familiar obviously with the aviation sector, but not all of us on city staff are.

So the purpose of of what we're gonna hear tonight is really twofold.

It's a refresher for for uh you know the assets at Chesapeake Regional Airport and the operations.

I think it's always, you know, we sometimes we take for granted what's in our own backyard uh so to speak.

And so we're gonna review that.

And part of that will be uh an economic impact analysis, as as Chris said, uh a financial feasibility study to determine uh to take a look, a snapshot of uh again the impact that the the financial impact that the CPK has.

Moving forward from there, we want to we want to look at the recommendations uh both from uh a 30,000 foot level and from experts in the aviation sector to look at how we might begin to increase operational revenues at CPK.

Again, the goal being to for more financial uh sustainability and self-sufficiency.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our uh our team here, and I'll introduce Mark Kokenauer first.

He's with Wolper, and every I think most of us are familiar with Wolpert, more probably on the civil engineering side, the land planning side, but they do have a fairly robust aviation uh division as well.

And they've brought in Randall Wiedemann and Randall uh also has his own firm, but has had a significant uh experience in the aviation sector.

So with that, I'll turn it over to them and they'll uh run through the presentation.

Yeah, thanks, Preston.

Uh it's a pleasure to be with you here uh tonight, Mr.

Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, Mr.

City Manager, and and council members alike.

Um as Preston alluded, uh I'm with Wolpert, uh big company, a lot of different uh diverse services.

I'm in the aviation market, and even within then I I have kind of a niche uh practice of doing economic impact studies for airports specifically.

So I do these for airports and state aeronautics agencies across the country.

So that is one of our first objectives of the financial feasibility analysis is to identify the economic impact of CPK, as we'll call it tonight, today in 2025, and compare it to the last economic impact study, which was done by the Department of Aviation about 10 years ago.

The other piece of it, as Preston so eloquently stated, is to look at the financial picture of the airport, identify ways to improve it.

That's going to be Randall's job.

He's got the he's got the easy part.

Just kidding.

So let's just start by uh identifying what what takes place at CPK.

So this is what you see on this map.

This is a one-year snapshot of FAA flight records to and from CPK.

Uh you can see there's quite a bit of reach.

There's flights that have come from as far away as San Diego.

There's some international traffic from looks like the Bahamas, maybe into Canada.

Um obviously a lot of reach into the Midwest, all up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Uh the yellow circles represent intrastate travel, so from one Virginia airport to CPK or outbound from CPK.

So what this what this represents is is commerce.

This is economic activity uh coming to your region here through CPK.

This is business getting done.

This is you know, supporting the businesses that are both at the airport and in the local economy as these uh you know visitors spend money in a local economy that generates stimulates the economy, creates jobs.

So part of our charge here is identifying, you know, what is the direct and total uh impact of of CPK.

Also want to start by saying, you know, economic impact studies are really useful and valuable tools that airports across the country uh do on a regular basis.

States do them every five to ten years.

Uh and what does that do for you?

Well, in the in a simple sense, it helps you quantify the jobs and payroll and output associated with airports.

Um you can do those over time and can it kind of benchmark changes as an indicator of of the health of your economy uh or your airport, uh, can help you justify investment decisions, help you in inform policy, or at a really basic level, it can just kind of improve community relations.

So these these studies can be used a multitude of ways.

Um but a picture speaks a thousand words, and this is you know kind of a good a good representation.

And also want to note that the way the FA records uh flight data, uh, we know that this is some of the operations.

The real answer is much larger, but they aren't all recorded, uh, but this is a good baseline of known operations to go off of.

Uh looking on the ground at the airport, um, we've got a 55 by 100 foot all-weather runway.

That's kind of about the size of a runway you need to accommodate mid-sized business jets, which the airport does serve quite a few of.

Got a full parallel taxiway, which uh the FAA and the state uh prioritize as a kind of a critical safety uh feature of an airport.

Um we've got a big apron with a whole bunch of tie-downs, so it accommodates a lot of aircraft, sells a lot of fuel.

Uh we've got 88 T hangars, so those are kind of the smaller aircraft that are parked in in small, I guess, garage spaces is uh a nice way to put it.

Um there's a a waiting list of about 80 aircraft.

Looks like the text is not visible there, but it's about 80 aircraft on the waiting list, which means there's demand to base for aircraft based at other airports to relocate to this airport.

Uh there's space to expand uh and build additional T hangers.

Um we've got a modern terminal building that's 6,000 square foot.

It accommodates, you know, uh flight planning and flight-related activities as well as um you know, it can be used for meeting events for general purposes.

Um we've got two uh major businesses, Horizon and Epics, one is an FBO and one is a major maintenance outfit.

And you know, it's not just maintenance taking place on small aircraft, these are uh major airframe and power plant um maintenance activities that are really critical for medium-sized business jets.

So this is a a really big service that the airport offers.

Um these planes come from all over the country to get serviced at this airport.

Um there is also interest in corporate hangars.

You know, general aviation in general is moving away from the smaller aircraft and more towards medium and larger size business aircraft.

Um there's interest uh in two 14,000 square foot corporate hangars that uh could be built at the airport, which would improve the financial picture, both from you know the day-to-day operational perspective and also the economic impact.

Um so yeah, that we've got 123 based aircraft, and it's estimated that there's other over 50,000 total operations.

One landing is an operation, one takeoff is a landing.

So if those are round trip flights, that would be about 25,000 of those, and a variety of uh services as I kind of covered already.

So we'll advance here.

Uh as uh Preston alluded to, the airport has been around for quite a while.

Uh the Chesapeake Airport Authority was created by the Virginia General Assembly uh as part of the 1966 Act of Assembly.

Uh it meets the definition of a municipal corporation and is held held as a political subdivision uh of the commonwealth, which basically means it's a it's a political entity and it has the autonomy and authority to operate it's uh on its own, um, acquire land and uh build.

So it is a political entity with agency of its own.

Uh the board consists of nine members appointed by the city council, so there's there's local oversight.

Um as I mentioned, there's the flight schools, one uh with connection to Liberty University with FAA uh examination authority.

So the airport is serving a role in training the next generation of pilots.

Uh there are maintenance businesses, as I mentioned, that uh serve uh a wide swath of the country all up and down uh the coast.

It also serves as a cross-jurisdictional training facility for uh police, fire, and uh military.

These in-kind services are estimated at about $4,000 annually.

So that's a little bit of background on the airport.

Um as you might expect, uh, you know, the day-to-day operation of the airport, you know, there's revenues, there's expenses.

Randall's gonna cover all of that stuff.

Uh but when we look at the facilities on the ground, you could imagine it takes a lot of capital to uh build and maintain those those features that you saw on that that aerial image.

Uh so since the airport has been around uh about 50 years now, since 1975, it's received a total of 42 grants uh through various programs that the the FAA and the state have, and those total 23.4 million dollars.

And on top of that, you know, there's a local match requirement for some of those grant programs, and that uh local match uh totals about 881,000 dollars over the last 50 years.

So, in terms of uh getting a good value, good bang for your buck, uh the airport is taking advantage of those programs.

Um the state uh classifies CPK as a reliever airport, specifically intended to relieve general aviation traffic at Norfolk International.

The FAA classifies CPK as a regional airport, specifically uh to support the regional economy in this area.

Uh so all of the grants here that it's received that are reflected here uh kind of demonstrate that fact that it is a kind of a critical piece of transportation infrastructure.

Um those grants have gone towards uh planning, environmental land acquisition, obstruction removal, all sorts of things.

Okay, so that's a little bit of table setting on the airport.

Um to talk about the economic impact.

Uh as I mentioned, these studies are done for airports all across the country.

Um for this study, we if we could advance, uh we want to kind of identify where we look to identify those economic impacts.

So we start by uh looking at airport management and the sponsors function.

Uh there's there's jobs associated with that, payroll and spending.

So we we look at that.

There are businesses at the airport with employees, payroll and spending.

Uh we identify those business tenants that have activity.

Uh as I we saw on the previous slide with the capital investment uh during the planning and design and construction phases of those projects, that generates jobs.

Uh so we've identified that, those jobs based on actual spending data.

Um and then as I alluded to earlier with kind of the flight map, um, when visitors come to the region uh through CPK, they stimulate the economy through you know hotel stays, uh restaurant, uh retail entertainment, lots of different spending um patterns that occur.

Um so we can estimate that using FA data and conversations with uh people at the airport who understand kind of the nature of visitors that generates 36 jobs in the local economy.

So at the airport alone, there if you combine those first two line items, there's 62 people working at the airport.

And when you consider you know, kind of the off airport impact, it adds another 36 uh people.

FTEs, that's uh an abbreviation for full-time equivalents.

So 116 uh FTEs or jobs are directly attributable to the airport.

And uh for those of you who might be familiar with economic impact studies, um a common criticism is oh, it's just a black box, it's it's voodoo magic, you know, we've heard it all.

Um these are jobs that we can point to.

Uh we do these studies by building them up with a bottom-up process.

We collect the data piece by piece to build up the answer.

Uh we are not saying, okay, well, since the last study was done in 2016, you know, GDB, GDP and uh the consumer price index has changed, so here's what the answer should be.

That's not how we do it.

We build it up brick by brick to get to the answer.

So these 116 full-time equivalents, they have payroll, uh, and there's output associated with those.

So just wanted to kind of set the stage that you know, we're starting with the direct impacts.

Uh this follows FA methodology to first identify the directs.

After that, then we uh run it through what's called in plan, which is kind of the industry standard for uh you know, doing economic impact studies, not just for aviation, but for um industries of all sorts.

That can tell us our multiplier effects.

So as those jobs, that payroll uh and that output enters the economy, it gets re-spent and respent uh getting a little bit smaller each time.

So implant helps us estimate those multiplier impacts.

Um so we've got a little little graphic representation on the bottom right of your screen.

Um just a very basic, you know, the airport employee uh takes his paycheck, spends you know $50 at the vet.

I wish it was that cheap.

Uh 150 dollars at the grocery and 200 at the physician, you know, you're also spending money for your car repair, and there's lots of different things.

So that supports additional payroll um and jobs in the local economy at each of those you know services that this airport employee spent their their hard-earned income at.

Um businesses at the airport also purchase uh supplies, uh services and goods.

So that also uh contributes to the multiplier impacts.

Um the chart, the bar chart that you see, the blue bars at the bottom of those those columns, uh, those are those direct jobs uh that we identified on the previous slide.

116 direct jobs.

When you factor in uh the multiplier effects, those 116 jobs generate an additional 78 multiplier jobs, uh kind of that multiplier or spin-off effect.

Uh and so we have a total of 194 total jobs that are attributable to CPK.

Now, the big answer uh for the airport, if we consider okay, what's the total annual impact for CPK today in 2025?

As we just kind of covered, there's 194 total jobs, 8.6 million dollars in labor income, and the total output of 21.4 million dollars.

That's an annual figure.

Um so if we look at the last study, uh economic impact figure that was done for the airport, that was done by the Department of Virginia Department of Aviation in 2018 based on 2016 numbers.

Uh so if we compare that, those are gains of 44% for jobs, 23% for payroll, and 17% for output.

Um it's important to note that we did adjust the 2016 dollars dollar figures for inflation.

So those are real dollars.

Uh if you were to look at what's printed in that you know, 2018-2016 report, those numbers would be lower.

Um, but it was important to kind of adjust for a reality.

You know, inflation is is a real thing as we all feel every day.

Uh so that is that concludes the economic impact uh component of our analysis.

I'm gonna pass it off to Randall.

He's gonna talk about the financial self-sufficiency analysis.

Uh thank you, Mark.

Um, I'm Randall Wiedemann, R.A.

Wiedemann and Associates, glad to be here, glad to uh address you tonight.

We've done uh over 100 business plans at airports similar to this across the country, so we have sort of a feel for you know what goes on at airports and how they do financially.

Uh I wanted to start with sort of the problem statement.

Problem statement here is the city funding for the airport.

If you look at what's gone on in the past, um, you know, there's you know, there's some bars here that are that are growing, and the a lot of that growth is uh due to capital uh spending.

The the blue is the operating uh airport operating uh cost subsidy, the contribution, the uh the yellow or gold is the uh contribution for capital projects to maintain the airport and so forth.

Um 2016 and 2017, they didn't split the numbers in the out, but though that was the level there.

As you can see, there were a couple of spikes in uh 2022 and 2024.

When we compared the operating expense at the airport to the city uh contribution, you could see that um that expense was growing faster than the contribution.

So you know, what to do.

Uh, you know, uh call Ghostbusters or whatever.

This is this is a case where we had to had to look at a couple of things.

And the way that we the way that we do this is we examine uh sort of the baseline forecast, um, and that is what happens if you don't change anything.

If you just keep doing what you're doing, what would happen?

How would it look?

And then uh the second option that we look at, you know, once we have that that benchmark is to try some enhanced revenue forecast targeted actions to see if you can move the needle uh in the positive direction.

So the first thing that we're gonna look at are those baseline forecasts.

And you can see, I mean, you don't need to look at the numbers, you can look at the bar chart there, and this is uh from 26 to uh 31 to 2031, you know, this essentially six-year period, uh, if nothing happens differently, you know, the uh deficit grows.

Um you know, simple reason is revenues are growing slower than expenses.

And so um, you know, there's a number of things that drive that.

You know, there's the dreaded stormwater fee that you really can't do anything about, the maintenance and utilities, all of those things uh go to increase the deficit.

Now, I would just say that you know we were intentionally conservative on the revenue side here in the baseline just because we wanted to highlight you know the differences for you know doing revenue enhancement type things.

There's uh several areas that we looked at, and you know, one of the most immediate would be um the pricing of tea hangers.

That there's only two ways that you make money at an airport.

You're either a landlord or you're making money through operational type things.

And at CPK, you're mostly a landlord.

So one way that you can and and you own these these hangars outright.

Uh there was a recent price increase at the airport in July of this year.

And so um we believe that you know you need to give people a little rest from that before you start the next round.

But we believe that in a couple of years uh there's a stage program to get the tea hangers to about, you know, we we set a target of 475 a month because that's competitive with other airports in the area.

Um because you do have a waiting list, if you happen to lose some people because of that um, you know, the the in perceived uh increases, then you could fill those uh hangers, we believe.

Another area is um is ground leases.

Um I'll talk about this in a minute, but uh uh one is if if you don't build the hangar, but you want more hangar space, a lot of airports will lease ground to hangar developers, and they will build the um facility uh under a long-term lease, and uh you would collect a ground rent from that.

Well, that that rent differs by you know how the condition of the property, as you can imagine.

We looked at an appraisal that was done out at the airport and land that is you know perfect, ready to go, shovel ready, right beside the runway is about 50 cents a square foot, and that goes down to if if there's nothing done if it's raw land and you need access and so forth, it's about nine cents a square foot.

differs by you know how the condition of the property as you can imagine we looked at an appraisal that was done out the airport and land that is you know perfect ready to go shovel ready right beside the runway is about 50 cents a square foot and that goes down to if if there's nothing done if it's raw land and you need access and so forth it's about nine cents a square foot but you know you have out there at the airport probably a hundred acres of developable well of that of a hundred acres of property that you have that's vacant probably 80 acres of that is developable we also believe that because of the success that you've had with the two existing corporate hangars there's demand for other corporate hangars at the airport so we we uh programmed a couple of those in you know those are would be about 12,000 square feet but you need another sort of equal side in the lease for the uh paved area out in front of the airport and there's parking around or the hangar and there's uh parking around it and so forth and then you know the other area that you could increase in terms of pricing would be the fuel fees but those are set by lease right now and I the first time that you could probably do something is around 2031 relative to the leases.

So our task was to see what the airport itself could do.

We didn't look at the debt service we didn't look at the capital program we looked at the operating revenues and expenses at the airport and that's to see you know what the airport itself could generate in terms of surpluses or you know deficits as it were if the airport can't generate a surplus then you know the subsidy gets larger if the and and it it won't be able to pay off debt service it won't be able to pay off you know other you know borrowing or you know bonds or whatever that you might want to do.

If it can generate a surplus then you can begin to program some of that surplus money into these capital things.

So our focus is on what can the airport itself generate how how is it going to do what sort of toggles and switches can you move to make this thing work better and you know so instead of saying for example that you need to go build two 12000 square foot hangers go into debt you know recommend to the authority they go into debt build this and make sure that you got a tenant that has a letter of intent that would pay off the debt service and 20 years when you got that paid off then you would be making all this money you know instead of you know let's say a dollar a square foot by then you know maybe you're making $20 a square foot because it would you know your debt service would be paid and so forth.

Instead of that's the long term what what we were tasked with was to try to make the airport financially solvent in five years by 2031.

So rather than go into debt and and do go that route we're focusing on ground leases where there's immediate cash flow even though it's much lower there's immediate cash flow it doesn't detract from you know the airport's you know ability to go into debt or that the cities for that matter but it it also would help the airport uh immediately so that was one of the things that we did the the other thing that we recognize and I'm sure you recognize this too is if you want um non-aviation development or even aviation development out there water and sewer uh to the north ramp in that area which would serve that 80 acre area um upgrades in in in power and if it was even possible to get spur access to route uh 17 Dominion Parkway that would be awesome um we in our pro forma because there's 80 acres and let's say that you wanted to have that uh developed in 20 years let's say uh that works out to about four acres a year we said it's probably going to take a few years to get it ready but if you started in 2028 you could probably by 2031 you could probably get up to 16 you know we targeted like 16 acres to be developed you could probably do better than that you know given the the incredible push that you have from uh the metro area for development you know down uh in this region um but that's you know that's what we were targeting in our pro forma this one again if you if you sort of look at the bar chart you'll see that um there's a few things that stand out and make this uh more feasible um for example I let me I'll just move here um a couple of the the reasons that you would move from you know 2024 you had a minus 228 thousand dollar um uh deficit uh we're saying that that uh moderates uh next year to about 59,000 and then grows from there uh all positive starting in 2027.

Um for example, let me, I'll just move here.

Um a couple of the the reasons that you would move from you know, 2024 you had a minus 228,000 um uh deficit.

Uh we're saying that that uh moderates uh next year to about 59,000 and then grows from there, all positive starting in 2027.

What causes that?

Well, there's a couple of things.

One, there you have two existing hangars out there that are in the process of being leased up.

So that in itself adds about $220,000 to the annual revenues, one of which we're saying could happen next year, the other would happen in 2027.

There's the ground lease absorption that we just talked about and increased in uh tea hangar rates, those are the main things that would that would push the airport into uh solvency.

Okay.

So with that, I think we can open it up to uh questions and comments.

So before I ask counsel, I would like uh to have any questions or comments.

I'd like to go to City Manager to uh offer a reaction.

So just conclude the presentation with where I started.

So I I believe that um the team has answered the call in terms of what we requested during the budget.

So to develop a plan um for uh to move towards self-uh uh sustaining nature.

Um my recommendation will be that we authorize and release the remainder of the funds for this fiscal year.

So they're funded through um the end of December.

We will recommend that they receive funding um through the end of June next year.

Um, I I want to caution, as with any economic impact analysis, there's a lot of you know um rosy expectations and projections, and this will be um a challenge and an opportunity to prove it, right, to show progress on executing and implementing the business plan.

And the proof will be every year in what is the budget request, right?

It's it's it's dramatically increased year over year every year.

I think when I first started, we might have been south of $200,000.

This last fiscal year was in excess of $400,000 in operating um expenses uh over and above debt service and capital requirements.

So very um significant and unsustainable increase there.

The second thing I would say is any subsidy that we provide, there's an opportunity cost associated with that.

So if you remember during the budget budget discussions, we couldn't fund all of our public safety needs.

We had to defer fire stations, for example.

And so we don't have the resources to do core government services.

And so council and staff will have to ask ourselves is this the next most important allocation of resources?

Um so again, I think the work is going to be tremendously valuable to have that business plan to um to make that question um hopefully moot uh within within five years.

But long term, there's opportunity cost of using that land for an airport, right?

So the land is well situated for a variety of uses, and so again, the challenge and opportunity for the airport is to really go out and execute on this plan so that it doesn't become a question.

It's clearly uh a sustainable asset and something that's unquestionably value-added for the community.

And so I think the team's done excellent work, it lays the foundation.

Uh however, we will come back to you during the budget next year to to sort of monitor um you know where we're at in the initial stages of execution and then make any recommendations uh um moving forward then.

With that, I'll ask for any questions from council.

Okay, have any quick questions?

Our time is running uh slim, so we can move along Mr.

And then Mr.

Smith.

Uh two quickies.

To the city manager.

On page 18.

Um they've identified city and utility.

I'm not sure I like this word enablers.

I think the word contributions might be more positive.

But we are currently, are we not working on the water and sewer?

Could you just very briefly?

Yes, ma'am.

We have a utilities project that will deliver utilities uh to the airport and the business park that that the currently the airport uh authority serves.

So I'm I can't speak for the airport authority, but I know that's a business line, that's not their core business line, so I think that it will be a big relief to the airport to be able to get those uh public utilities down there, and we're moving expeditiously to make that happen.

Right.

So that is currently underway.

And I think that's a significant contribution from the city.

Additionally, um I hope Mr.

Wilhelm, we're gonna start looking at uh how landings west, the adjacent possible business park can work in tandem.

You know, that's been sort of pushed off and forgotten, but not by me.

Certainly.

Uh thank you, Vice Mayor.

And that has been part of the discussion in our business plan, and certainly we're working with the property owners uh determine the developable acreage.

And I think the for lack of a better term, the access to 17 that would be uh via uh the landing west property.

So we we recognize that as the potential for uh certainly economic development opportunities and and you know potentially uh large scale.

So we're we're excited by that prospect.

And with the ongoing water and sewer, uh we're confident that we're gonna have a very markable economic development property here in the very near future at Landing West.

So and you'll keep us up to date on that, I assume.

Of course.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And the one final.

Um how aggressive are we being on trying to get um West Road direct access to 17?

Well, if Mr.

McNamara is still here, I might uh defer to him.

And are are you referring to Oh, this is trouble now if it we have to go to the are we working with?

I'll I'll say in the interest of time, we'll dispatch an answer to council.

Thank you.

Okay.

I I mean I that is something that comes up over and over and over again, both for the business park and the airport.

So I hope we are aggressively pursuing that with B Dot.

Aggressively means sometime in the next 50 years.

Thank you.

Mr.

Smith.

Yes, yes.

My question would be in reference to the revenue coming in.

You say land use.

Is it to have land use for planes, for warehousing, for retail?

What would that be?

Are you talking about that hundred-acre plot that we're talking about?

Yes.

That that can be split into two different you know, two aviation and non-aviation.

The aviation obviously would be near the runway with access.

The part that could not, it was not be accessible would be ideal for industrial or commercial development.

They're both compatible uses of the land.

You'll where a lot of times when you see an airport, you'll see that type of land use beside it.

But this would be an ideal use of that to in terms of revenue production.

Thank you.

Mr.

Mr.

Bond?

Thank you, Mayor.

Well, I suppose we're very brief.

Um you can bring back the answers to these questions.

Just curious, just I'm just curious to know how many members of the authority actually have their own private planes at our at the airport.

And then also how many planes do you have in the hangars now?

Could you said you have a waiting list?

Just curious to see what the numbers are there.

Thank you.

We're going to come back with that.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right.

We'll just start.

Any other comments or questions?

We certainly do appreciate you your report.

Very enlightening.

We appreciate all the the airport authorities doing and uh, Chris, what the job you are doing.

Thank you.

Keep up the good work and hope we can see some good results.

Mr.

Jeffries, I apologize.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh I just have one question, and it can be provided in the future.

But what what roadblocks or obstacles prevented these increased revenue options before now?

I I'm not sure of the history of of what's going on what has happened in the past.

I know that there's been movement.

In other words, there was a price increase in July.

I think, you know, the this was sort of the first significant price increase.

And I'm I would imagine that that was to answer, you know, this problem that you know had had uh of imbalance in terms of the uh revenues and expenses.

So but I'm not I'm not certain of what other uh issues were uh creating obstacles for that.

Okay.

I'll talk to you about thank you.

Okay, council meeting will begin at 6:30, Ms.

Hello.

Hey, this is an interview anyway.

All right.

I'm going to send you out.

So just put your phone on mute until you hear everybody talking.

It should be going in a little bit.

Thank you.

And congratulations.

Oh, thank you.

How are the order of the sleepless nights going?

Oh, they are definitely sleepless, that's for sure.

Talk to you later.

Thank you.

Council is now in session.

I'd like to recognize Councilmember Ward at this time for the invitation and the leaders into a pledge of allegiance.

Dear God, we ask a special blessing on this council meeting tonight.

We are approaching Thanksgiving, and God, we ask that we be thankful for all that we have, but we also pray for those who are less fortunate, and we want to make sure hopefully everyone will have a pleasant Thanksgiving and have food and hopefully jobs.

And we just finished Veterans Day celebration.

And at this point, we do want to say thank you, Lord, and please continue to press our veterans, our active duty military, our police, our fire, our first responders, and all those who sacrifice daily to help keep us safe and free in our great city.

May God be asking all these blessings in your precious and holy name.

Amen.

Please join me as we pledge allegiance to the American flag.

I pledge allegiance.

Here.

Roll call for council member newwins will be taken later in the agenda if remote participation is approved by City Council.

Councilmember Smith.

Here.

Well, I'd like you to provide the language.

I have the language.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Um I would move pursuant to the Virginia law and city council's adopted remote participation policy.

That we ratify the remote participation of council member Amanda Newman's in tonight's meeting.

Councilmember Newens notified the mayor that she is unable to attend in person due to a medical condition, and she has requested to participate electronically from her residence.

Seeing none, please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Next is the approval of the proposed agenda.

Are there any changes to the proposed agenda?

Ms.

Ritter.

Yes, thank you.

Um I would ask or move that we take item F, which is a request for withdrawal.

Thank you.

Could I have a second, please?

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Any discussion.

Please prepare the vote.

Please vote and record, Madam Clerk.

Motion to approve the agenda as amended is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Next is applicants' agents and citizens' comments on public hearing items.

The City Council meeting constitutes a limited public forum.

Therefore, public comments must be relevant to the items on council agenda.

When speaking on an agenda item, please make sure your comments directly relate to the merits of the application, which means you focus on the details and the facts of the proposed agenda item.

Focusing comments on the merits of the application will ensure that the public hearing serves its intended purpose for gathering relevant information for the voting body.

Further, to strike a balance between maintaining order and honoring the public's right to express themselves.

And as established by the City Council's rules of order and procedures, any speaker that delays, interrupts, or otherwise disrupt City Council's ability to conduct this meeting in an orderly manner by disorderly insolent or disturbing action, speech, or other conduct will be declared out of order.

Madam Clerk, do we have any speakers who wish to speak prior to the presentation of the public hearing items?

We do have two speakers, but I would like to acknowledge Councilmember Newens.

Are you available?

Yes, ma'am.

I'm available.

Thank you.

The first speaker is James Young, representing the Historic Preservation Commission, followed by Waylon Wakefield.

Greetings, uh Mayor West, Vice Mayor Ritter, and the rest of the uh City Council members.

Uh my name is James Young, 608 McRolland Way, Chesapeake, of course, and I'm here in opposition of PLN use 2024 TAC 024 dwellings farm.

I'm the um chair of the HPC.

So we sent you guys a letter, but I thought it would with the listening audience, what we do reading the whole letter would be more give them more thoughtfulness of what we do as a commission.

So uh as you may be aware, the City of Chesapeake's Historic Preservation Commission was established to act as as an advisory capacity to City Council and Planning Commission to implement the historic preservation plan dated January 19, 1996 as amended.

After careful consideration and thoughtful discussion held at our October 9th, 2025 meeting, the HPC rights at this time to make recommendation that the City Council deny dwellings farm LSLC's request for conditional use permit or PLN use 2024 TAC 024 dwelling farms bomb.

We did not reach this decision lightly.

We recommend denial of this application based on the proposed conditional uses in consistency with the city's current comprehensive plan and perhaps more relevant to our duties as HPC members.

The Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Staff analysis of the proposed conditional use, which showed it may have a deliberate impact on the Northwest River Basin Rural District.

We believe the preservation of the unique rule identity of this historic area was precisely what the city was has strived for under the current 2035 comprehensive plan as it pertains to historic resources.

The project could have the potential to irreparably irreparably harm tangible historic resources, both documented and undocumented in the Southern Chesapeake.

Pursuant to the comprehensive plan, the HPC continues in its effort to survey and nominate properties, districts determined to be historic significance to the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Register of Historic Places as residents and neighborhoods express interest.

In some the residents of the area value, the historic characteristics of the community and the HPC has endeavored and continues in its effort to preserve and highlight those characteristics, but it is discussed below.

The proposed use has the potential to threaten irreplaceable historic resources as redemption as residential and commercial development continues in southern Chesapeake.

The historic ecosystem of this area grows more fragile.

With regard to the proposed conditions use potential impact on the district itself, this project may threaten the integrity of the district itself, thereby undermining years of work towards preserving the historic character of the surrounding area and obtaining national recognition of the same based on the presentation by the applicant through their agent at the October 8, 2025 meeting of the Planning Commission.

Development of an event venue in this historically significant area has the potential to threaten the likelihood of the district securing a place on the National Register of Historic Places, which not only impacts the applicant's property, but a swath of rural southern Chesapeake totaling 40,000 acres.

The amount of the acreage is non-sequenter.

As we consider and discuss applications such as PLN use 2024 TAC 24, we continue to evaluate the capital historic, cultural, and economic impact surrounding each application.

In this case, we are finding that the historic and cultural capital are more valuable than the potential economic capital to be generated by allowing for proposed conditional use.

Therefore, we at the HPC again recommend council deny this application.

Thank you, Mr.

Yaga.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Whalon Wakefield.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members.

My name is Waylon Wakefield.

I live at 2351 Bomb Road here in Chesapeake.

I want to speak on the dwellings farm matter.

I appreciate you hearing me early.

I wasn't sure I could stay long enough for the uh matter to be tabled.

But I do want to come out tonight and speak in support of the project in support of my neighbor.

I am the closest property to Dwellings Farm if you're looking at it from bird's eye view on the property to the left.

I've had the pleasure of knowing the owners for a number of years now.

I've watched them, you know, buy that old farm, rehab it, bring it back to life.

Um they do a good job hosting weddings, special events, things like that.

You know, right now they've been doing it, you know, just kind of one permit at a time type thing.

Um, you know, most of the time it's it's small gatherings, you know, during the day.

I can only speak for myself as the closest neighbor.

I've never had any adverse impact, and to the extent that I ever would, I pick up the phone and call Michael or Jessica, and you know, I know it would be resolved.

Um, you know, they're not some far away, you know, corporation or developers.

They live on the same street on the couple houses down on the other side.

Our kids go to school together.

Like this is a really positive thing for the community, and I I support it.

I hope you all do.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

That concludes the speakers.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Would you please present uh item A?

PLN REZ 2024-014 saw your property.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

We we we uh move to consider item F request for redrawal first.

Um, would you present item F?

Betty?

Okay.

PLN PUD MODICACARING ACLERATE Proffer Modification 2025-001, Green Briar Pud Zone 4 Food Processing Facility, Economic Development Authority of the City of Chesapeake, applicant and owner, Kemley Horn Agency, for an accelerated proffer modification to request to modify the Greenbrier PUD Zone 4 development criteria to allow food processing in wholesale quantities of meat, seafood, poultry, vinegar, or yeast.

The property is located northwest of UPO courts terminus in the Greenbrier Planning Area.

A redraw withdrawal has been requested by the applicant.

So we are gonna uh well, I'll ask the Mr.

McNamare.

Do you have any objection to the withdrawal withdrawal request?

Staff supports the withdrawal request.

Thank you.

We can call speakers uh that would wish to speak to the withdrawal.

Should it fail, then we will hear the uh the merits of the application.

So any speakers that would like to do we have any speakers that are we have one speaker, Vic Nichols.

We agree with the withdrawal.

Thank you.

Could I have a motion, please?

Move to accept the um request for withdrawal of the PLN PUD Modification 2025-001.

Thank you, Mr.

Miller Doctor.

Mr.

Wedderc, Mr.

Wedaker.

I'll second that withdrawal.

Okay, thank you.

Any discussion?

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Madam Clerk.

Motion to approve the request to withdraw PLN PUD M APM 2025-001 is adopted by an 80 vote.

Now we can do item A.

PLN REZ 2024-014 saw your property.

J and L saw your holdings, LLC, applicant and owner, Williams Mullen Agency, for conditional zoning reclassification of an approximate 22-acre portion of a 72-acre parcel from R 15S residential and A1 agricultural to R 10 S residential district and R 15S residential district.

The property is located at 1917 Elbow Road in the Greenbrier Planning Area.

This item was continued from the October 21st, 2025 City Council meeting.

The Planning Commission recommends approval with the proffers listed in the official agenda.

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamara.

The proposed rezoning is consistent with the low density residential and conservation designation on the 2035 land use map and accomplishes City Council's desired outcome of connectivity by providing multiple vehicular and pedestrian connections to the existing developments to the east and a future connection opportunity to the to the west and future connection opportunity to the east.

Staff recommends approval of the request with proffers.

And do we have any speakers?

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker, Grady Palmer, followed by Vic Nichols.

Good evening, Mayor West, Vice Mayor Ritter, members of City Council and City Staff, my name is Grady Palmer.

My business address 222 Central Park Avenue in the City of Virginia Beach.

Here tonight, as you know, as you recall, we continued this item from October.

We were in the midst of a conducting a uh historic cultural resource study.

Uh and that was recommended by the city staff.

Uh there was some uh elements that were in the area.

Uh and so out of an abundance of caution, we completed that study.

Uh we actually did a what is called a phase two study, which is a very uh in-depth excavation uh scientists go out.

I've submitted the report to the planning department, uh, and it came back.

Uh no further action uh is recommend recommended.

Um as it stands right now, we're comfortable moving forward with the rezoning.

Um we hope that you would support the rezoning.

This is just a reminder, this is basically basically an extension of the Haven at Centerville community.

Uh this is all single-family for sale uh uh homes that that meets the rigorous design standards that the city has uh now.

Uh so we think this is a good project, it is 43 lots.

Uh we need single family homes in the city desperately, I think, not only in the city but everywhere.

But uh so this is certainly needed.

Uh meets all of your policies, uh, your your land use plan, your existing comprehensive plan, and your and your your future comprehensive plan uh that you are look looking to adopt in um January.

One other thing I just wanted to bring up.

I know Council uh member member Smith asked about this uh in October.

Uh the city is doing a significant project on Elbow Road.

Um there is there will be a left turn that will be installed uh on Elbow Road into the project that will be done uh by the city, but in the event that something happens, uh we have a stopgap measure in in the proffers that we would install the left turn lane if something uh were to happen in the city not move forward with with the Elbow Road project.

Um but that's uh out of an abundance of caution we have agreed uh to to do that.

So I do ask for your approval.

Uh this is a this is a good project, and we've worked hard.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Mr.

Poller.

Next speaker.

Dick Nichols This is nice.

Greenbrier is actually getting some um single family homes and not just apartments built on apartments.

The only issue I have with it is we still don't have any commitment from council on infrastructure.

I've spoken about this for years.

Okay.

The problem is that's another 86 vehicles, not including Lake Thrasher, that when I brought that up, that mess, um, what's going to happen?

Because the problem is wherever you are in Greenbrier, you have to sit there and look where are we going to be moving people out to the interstate.

Green buyer already cannot take that level of traffic.

It is a mess.

People will be sitting there now on Eden Way North and they're backed up to the lake to the Volvo and Eden Way North connection.

All it takes is one accident, and I've already seen somebody who's flipped their car up.

Don't ask me how they manage that one, but they did.

That screws up everything there for a long time.

Volvo is still two ways.

Okay, we keep building, building, and building, but we haven't done anything about the traffic, the roads, the lights, and especially the infrastructure.

You already know that there has been problems on some of the infrastructure that's going to cause Green Bar Parkway to have to have a little bit of work.

And that's going to be a problem.

Y'all need to start taking a look at these little bits, little bits, little bits, they all add up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Nichols.

That's all the speakers.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Motion is in order with proffers.

Mr.

Whitaker.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'm I'll move to approve with the proper.

Thank you, Mr.

Wedaker.

Second.

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Any discussion on this item.

See none.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Madam Clerk.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

I vote in the affirmative, Madam Clerk.

And on the last item for the withdrawal, I also vote in the affirmative for the record.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PLN REZ 2024-014 with proffers as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Thank you.

Next item.

PLN REZ 2024 001, Sykes Landing, KG LLC applicant.

Weatherington Inc.

The heirs of James William Fayson owners, Williams Mullen Agency for conditional zoning reclassification of approximately 43 acres from A1 agricultural, 34.6 acres, and R 15 residential, 8.5 acres, to R 10S residential.

The property is located at the west side of the Johnstown Road, south of Sykes Drive in the Grassville Planning Area.

The planning commission recommends approval with the proffers listed in the official agenda.

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamara.

The proposed rezoning is consistent with the low density residential designation on the 2035 land use plan and the density prescribed for the suburban overlay district.

It includes sidewalks throughout the interior roads and along Johnstown Road, as well as a trail around one of the stormwater ponds, which provides pedestrian connectivity and utilizes Smart Grove Principles as it features a walkable connected site design, attractive building elevations that feature high quality materials and amenities for the community.

Staff recommends approval of the request with proffers dated September 16th, 2025.

Thank you.

Do we have any speakers, Madam Clerk?

We have three speakers.

The first speaker is Grady Palmer, followed by Vic Nichols.

Thank you again, Mayor West, uh Vice Mayor Ritter, members of the council, uh Grady Palmer for the record 222 Central Park Avenue, uh City and Virginia Beach.

Um this is this is a project that is that is really close to my heart.

I've lived uh in 13 years, I lived in Stonegate uh neighborhood.

And I want to thank the Stonegate Civic League for for meeting with the development team uh for working with them and for identifying what I think is is was a significant issue uh that was the uh potential opening of September Lane.

If you if you look at the site plan there, um Stone Gate is off to the left.

Um so if you look down at just below the right angle there uh is the terminus of September Lane, and it's a small cul-de-sac.

I think there's maybe six or seven homes uh that live in that cul-de-sac.

And so the the first plan that we we submitted to the city, uh you know, we all had our uh our you know what are the city goals and one of the major city goals is interconnectivity.

And so we had submitted the plan uh with a full vehicular opening there, and then uh we were reminded that that was probably not the best idea for people that live on September Lane.

And so working with your staff, we came up with a with an opportunity to do a pedestrian connection instead of a full vehicular uh connection.

And so that's one of the things that with this project I'm really proud of, uh, is it will basically connect two independent communities.

Stonegate uh in the Sykes Farm, which is just to the top of the site plan there, which is I think about a 19-home uh community that was built with stub streets and now uh Sykes uh Sykes Farm, uh Stonegate will all have uh pedestrian uh opportunities through this property.

And so one of the things that's happening on the east side uh of Johnstown Road, and if you if you recall if you if you've been out there over the years, I mean that was a very isolated and you almost took your life in your hands if you wanted to walk up Johnstown Road uh to Greybridge High School.

And so now uh there is a multi-use path on the east side of Johnstown Road that basically starts at the uh entrance of Stonegate or just maybe north of the entrance to Stonegate.

And so people now will be able to via a crosswalk that this project will do across Johnstown, will be able to safely cross Johnstown to get to that multi-use path to get up to Olaz Landing and to Greybridge High School, you know, down Hanberry Road.

So whereas you when you rode your bike ten years ago on Johnstown Road, you rode it through the grass uh in between the edge of the pavement and the ditch.

Uh now uh and in in the in the very short future, you'll be able to ride your bike from Stonegate across Johnstown up the multi-use path into Olaz Landing, sidewalks, all the way to Greybridge High School.

And it's one of the very, very interesting things that is gonna be that we're working on right now uh is a connection to Edinburgh Parkway.

And so eventually you'll be able to ride your bike from Stonegate to Edinburgh Parkway down to Edinburgh and back, all on a sidewalk or multi-use path.

And so that's something that's coming into the future.

It's a really exciting thing to see uh coming together.

I want to compliment your staff uh for coming up with a small area plan uh that a lot of us on on this area of the city have been working off of and I believe that it will come together sooner rather than later.

But I think this is a critical piece uh that will allow two distinct communities to be joined into one community uh uh sidewalks, walking trails, um, and it I think it will be a very, very dramatic improvement uh for existing residents in Stonegate and uh Sykes Farm.

And so I'm here tonight with the Georgios, uh the Copassus, uh the Sykes family here uh have been gracious enough to work with us.

They've owned the property for for many, many years.

Uh and the city's kind of come to them.

And so uh they farmed the the land for a number of years, and so uh that that time is up.

Um, but they're here tonight in support of us, and we really appreciate uh them working with us uh for the I think for the last couple of two years we've been working on this.

Um one of the things I just want to address just briefly because I know it's important.

Uh we one of the proffers that we have uh uh have committed to uh is to it is to do a tree save um during uh site development.

And so basically there will be a very variable width buffer along Stonegate uh because there's a number of homes there uh right now that that back up to trees, and we know that's important to preserve those for people.

And so what we will do is during site development, we will do a survey out there and we will determine what trees can be saved and what trees need to be planted.

Uh so a combination of existing trees and new tree uh plantings will be done along the entire buffer of Stonegate.

And so that's that's to preserve the view shed that that Stonegate has, and to me that was that was very important.

So that's something that will be done if this project is approved as well.

Um and so with that, I I stand by for any questions.

I do ask for your approval uh with the profers tonight.

Uh and I want to thank staff for all the work that they've done uh and and coming up with a small area plan uh and and and helping us to stick to that plan.

So sometimes that's uh sometimes that's difficult to do, but in this case, I think it will it will really pay rewards uh to the city uh in the future.

And so with that, I do want to say thank you for the the Johnstown Road improvements that were recently completed.

Uh you you did a lot to to get a dedicated left turn lane onto Waters Road.

Uh that's gonna be important uh for all those high schoolers coming out of Greybridge High School.

So with that, I stand by for questions and I thank you.

Thank you.

We have two speakers.

Oh, I'm sorry, Mr.

Whitaker.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

Um I have a personal I have a personal interest and disqualified from participating in plane planning public hearing item B because I provide professional services to the applicant.

As my client may benefit from this transaction, I'm disqualified from participating pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3112A.

Thank you.

Okay, I apologize, Mr.

Whitaker.

I thought you were looked what I do a motion later, so I was you were just being premature.

Thank you.

Uh next speaker.

Dick Nichols.

Moving on.

Christina Harris.

Hi, my name is Mr.

Harris 1321 Johnstown.

Yeah, you have a speaker's not on.

You've got a button there.

Is that better?

You got it.

I'm Christina Harris.

I live at 1321 Johnstown Road.

I grew up in Hickory, down by Hickory Elementary School, and we recently moved back into the home that my husband grew up in.

I just wanted to come up and say that I oppose the Sykes Landing, and I'm I can appreciate where the people are coming from, but the feeling of Chesapeake has changed so much since I was a little girl.

It's sad to me to see what my kids are having to grow up with.

The gentleman keeps talking about walking.

My husband rode his bike to Cedar Road to Great Bridge High School without any sidewalks, without anything all throughout his life.

So that was what, 30 years ago.

I'm sorry, I lost my place.

About two months ago, we um saw that Sykes Landing was up on the planning commission.

We came here to speak out against it, but it was sad to me because it seemed like the way the gentleman was talking that the planning commission and everybody had been working with them to make this happen.

So it feels very sad that our considerations aren't taken taken seriously.

It feels like the decisions have already been made, which has made me even guess or second guess myself coming and talking tonight.

Um I think she spoke about the way that the roads are just terrible.

I can either be in Great Bridge in three minutes or I can be in Great Bridge in 25 minutes from where I live with all the road work and the new developments that have come along.

Um let me see.

I just think with the overpopulation of schools and all around, we're building hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of houses.

We're becoming Virginia Beach, and I hate to see that happen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That concludes the speakers.

Thank you.

Motion is in order with proffers.

We need a motion, please.

Mr.

Mayor, I move approval with proffers.

Thank you, Ms.

Newens.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Any discussion?

Ms.

Newens, did you want to make any comments?

No discussion.

Thank you.

Okay.

Mr.

Smith.

Yes, how many homes would be in this community?

So the proper maximum is 105.

I don't know that we'll get there, but proper maximum is 105.

All right, thank you.

Any other discussion?

Yeah.

Ms.

Vaughn.

Thank you, Mayor West.

Um a question to the uh planning department.

Um a number of neighborhoods um have already been approved.

How does that affect the schools?

And also, I know the number um that you were that you've given us for this development doesn't exceed the school limits.

Can you please so the level of service policy dictates how we measure uh uh the the school capacity uh including approved site plans uh in the area?

So any time you have that approved site plan, those uh of of a 50 or more, those are included into the projected numbers.

So in this case, the school report which has been provided to us uh shows a projected level of service capacity based on preliminary and approved site plans and this application showing numbers of Great Bridge primary at 92.3 percent, Great Bridge Intermediate at 87.4 percent, Great Bridge Middle at 112 percent, and then Great Bridge High at 90 percent.

And per the policy, anything that is below 120 percent is deemed to be uh passing level of service.

So these numbers uh you provided us um do include the neighborhoods that are not yet developed.

They include include any neighborhoods that have preliminary preliminary approved plans in this application.

Ms.

Redder.

Um just to clarify that, Mr.

McNamara.

That's approved site plan, uh site or subdivision plans.

Yes, ma'am, that is correct.

That does not include rezonings that have not had approved um preliminary site or subdivision plans.

Yes, ma'am.

And as as a matter of reference in the staff report, we do provide a map that shows where those rezonings have taken place and where those approved plans are included as well.

Right.

And while the map is a little difficult, it's pretty full there.

You also have a table for the public if you're looking at the package.

A table of what has been approved, what's been built, what hasn't been started.

Correct?

Am I correct on that?

Yes, ma'am, that is correct.

So I would encourage the public who has very definite views on this to take a look at the background package, which you can access through the city website.

And all of that information is readily available to you.

If you can't read the map, don't worry.

I have trouble doing that myself because it's pretty condensed, but the table is very helpful in case anybody would like to go take a look at that.

We do have a motion for Ms.

Newans to approve this item, seconded by Mr.

Smith.

If there's no other discussion, please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Councilmember Newans, how would you like to vote?

I vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PLN R E Z 2024.

Next is item C, Madam Clark.

P L N R E Z 2025-C R12, 960 Bells Mills Road, Cohen Residential LLC applicant, Garden Homes, LLC owner, MASLD development service group agency for conditional zoning reclassification of approximately 5.5 acres from M2 General Industrial to R 10S residential, 1.1 acres, and C1 Conservation District, 4.4 acres.

The property is located at 960 Bellsmill Road in the Great Bridge Planning Area.

The planning commission recommends approval with the proffers listed in the official agenda.

Planning staff recommendations?

The proposed rezoning is consistent with the low density residential designation on 2035 land use map and supports the industrial waterfront study by expanding conservation of low-lying banks and naturalized areas of the lower southern Elizabeth River by preserving sensitive natural habitats and wetlands.

Staff recommends approval of the request with proffers date August 28, 2025.

And do we have any speakers?

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker, Sanford Cohen.

Representing Cohen Residential Mm.

Thank you very much.

Good evening.

Members of Council.

My name is Sandy Cohen.

My company is currently residential.

We are the developers for 960 Bellsmill Road, and I just want to be here to answer any questions should they arise.

I want to thank the city staff for their cooperation and assistance.

We had quite a con quite a conservation area to deal with and I think we've worked out a great plan.

It's going to leave four and a half acres, basically untouched in perpetuity, and I think that will be a great uh great thing for the city.

Um we'll put two houses on the front, roughly one acre.

Uh so we're here to answer any questions if the if anyone has any concerns or comments.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Cullen.

See if someone has a question, we'll call you up.

That's all the speakers?

Yes, sir.

And uh do we have a motion with proffers?

Move to approve.

Thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Bunn.

Any discussion on this item?

Mr.

Redder?

Just one question to Mr.

McNamara.

Um we had this discussion earlier to make sure I'm sure the applicant understands this is the first step, and the next step would be the Chesapeake B.

Yes, ma'am.

This property does have C BPA RPA features the resource protection area on that.

Uh and as a matter of practice, we typically bring uh discretionary actions before City Council prior to going to other boards.

So in this case, there will be additional action that will be required to get an exception to build within that resource protection area.

So this is an environmentally sensitive area, but it gets another look for, and I'm sure the applicant knows that and understands, but for the public, there will be a second look that um further protects the sensitive area, correct?

Yes, yes, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We do have a motion on the floor.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record Madam Clark.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

I vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PLN R E Z 2025.

Motion to approve PLN REZ 2025-012 with proffers as presented as adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next is item D.

PLN REZ APM 2025-001, Battlefield Fuel Supply and Car Wash, 512 Battlefield LLC, applicant and owner.

Kenzer, Lefwich, and Kale PC agency for an accelerated proffer modification request to amend profits related to the preliminary site plan, signage and building elevations, and to eliminate service functions associated with a convenience store.

The property is located at 512 Battlefield Boulevard North in the River Crest Planning Area.

The Planning Commission recommends approval with the proffers dated October 17, 2025, as listed in the official agenda.

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamara.

The proposed proffer modification will not adversely impact adjacent and surrounding properties and promotes City Council's desired outcome of economic prosperity by providing an opportunity for business growth.

Staff recommends approval with proffers date, October 17th, 2025.

Thank you.

Madam Clerk, any speakers?

The first speaker is Jay Lefwich.

Followed by Baflosh, Vavesh Patel.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of Council, staff.

So this item really goes sort of in tandem with item E.

Item E precipitated the proffer modification and is really just intended to make the proposed use and item B consistent with this intended purpose.

Happy to stand by for any questions.

Council may have thank you.

Babosh Patel.

Followed by Vic Nichols.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members, and all the other staffs.

My address is 500 Battlefield Boulevard North, which is right next to this car was and gas station is being built.

My concern is I want a convenience door right next to it.

There is already a store there.

My oppose is to, I see it in the drawing that they are trying to get easement access using my parking lot.

As you can see in the drawing on the bottom, there is easement access that they are requesting, which we are opposing to.

Sometimes it takes a few minutes to get out of the store parking lot because of the entry exits are very tight over there.

So if you want to know more information or how they are trying to um you know use the in and out entry using our parking lot and what is going to benefit us from having that over there, because if not, it is just going to flow a lot more traffic into our parking lot.

Ums the car was in the gas station.

Um as far as the gas station, we don't have any opposition having them car was gas station there.

The main concern is the easement that they're trying to get access through it.

Um a second oppose that we have is I see something, I just noticed something in the paperwork says something about convenience tour.

Um I believe the drawing doesn't show anything about convenience tour, which I believe if they don't have a convenience store, we don't have any problem with it.

But if they have a convenience store already there along with the other convenience stores around right next door to it, uh we would like to get more information on how they um how you guys are looking at that as a business standpoint.

Um that's about it.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Vic Nichols.

Based on planning um statement that um they're doing this for economic prosperity and for business growth.

I could support this, but I'd also like to see that if you are going to do this at Kemptsville, Great Bridge, Battlefield, that that section.

Um Greenbrier has absolutely zero car wash and gas stations there.

That would be wonderful to have that on Green Bar because we have none.

And in other words, you're taking all of Greenburn having to take them through Volvo or somewhere else onto battlefield.

Or going up Kemptsville and hitting it that way.

Think about it.

That concludes the speakers.

Thank you.

Yes.

Ms.

Ritter.

I just have a technical question, if I might, prior to the motion.

Go ahead.

Mr.

Patel's comments, I believe would be directed towards the use permit, and I don't believe towards this proper modification.

So how would you guess we should proceed on that?

Am I correct on that?

Yes, ma'am, you are correct, but I can certainly address those questions now if it would uh help council with their deliberations.

I'll leave that up to the chair.

Yeah, I think that would be a good thing for you to do.

Okay, so as you can see on the exhibit here, we do have a cross-reciprocal access easement that's located at the bottom here.

That is not uh necessarily punching through at this point in time.

What we're doing is setting the property up so if at some point in time in the future that that property were to redevelop, they would have access through this property uh as well.

Uh and and particularly from a from a traffic standpoint, we have Jay Tate here who could certainly ask answer the traffic questions, but I think it's uh pretty common knowledge that we do have some it some intersection issues here uh located at the intersection of Battlefield and Great Bridge Boulevard.

So locating locating those entrances further away if the this property were to redevelop in the future would help out for with safety improvements as well.

Excuse me.

When you say redevelop, you mean redevelop further?

If if this property were to redevelop further, so if if the owner of the other parcel had were to decide at some point in time that they wanted to change use on that property, uh at that point they would have cross-reciprocal access across this property to provide additional access at that time.

But this is not forced at this time, so there will be no necessarily uh connection at this point.

Mr.

Patel, yes, in the future.

Okay.

I just want to make sure I understand.

I'm sorry, Mr.

Redder.

I didn't mean to interrupt.

Okay.

Uh just uh thank you very much for the explanation.

And I think if there are questions or more discussion, they would more appropriately go following a motion on item E.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So I would therefore make a motion um to approve the accelerated proffer modification in the version dated October 17.

Thank you.

Do we have a second?

Thank you.

Dr.

Ward.

Any just further discussion?

Mr.

Dr.

Ward, you know.

Uh Mr.

Smith.

Yes, Mr.

Wedaker.

For Mr.

Leftwich, could you say tell me where this property is on battlefield?

Is it at the intersection next to the 7-Eleven?

Uh yes, sir.

Uh so this property is just to the north of the old 7-Eleven on the corner of Great Bridge Boulevard and Balfa Boulevard.

So if you're driving towards Interstate, Mr.

You're going to pass go past Kimstall Road and Great Ridge Boulevard.

The 7-Eleven would be on on your left.

And it's the parcel just past that 7-11.

It's now vacant.

So is the 7-11 still open?

Uh 7-11 is for my understanding closed.

Yeah.

Mr.

Changed hands through a through a uh a sale or an auction.

Okay.

My clients actually were interested in buying it and doing the whole thing, but couldn't get it.

I understand where we are now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Wedger.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh Mr.

McMirror.

Um regarding the ingress egress.

I believe it's a freedom art.

Is it a freedom art?

The formerly known as 70%.

We need to hold that discussion to the next part.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

We'll come back to that.

We're coming back to that.

Yep.

Any other discussion?

Questions?

Comments?

We do have a motion from Ms.

Ritter and Dr.

Ward for approval.

Please please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Adam Clark.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

And vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PLN R E Z APM 2025-001 with proffers dated October 17, 2025, as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next is item E.

PLN use 2025-021 battlefield fuel supply and car wash 512 Battlefield LLC applicant and owner, Kinzer Lefwich and KLPC agency for a conditional use permit to allow a car wash and a motor vehicle fuel supply.

The property is located at 512 Battlefield Boulevard North in the River Crest Planning Area.

The planning commission recommends approval with the stipulations listed in the official agenda.

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamara?

The proposed conditional use is compatible with the adjacent and surrounding properties and promotes City Council desired outcome of economic prosperity.

Staff therefore recommends approval with stipulations dated September 17, 2025.

Thank you.

Do we have any speakers?

No, sir.

Just the gentleman that spoke earlier.

Mr.

Patel.

Did you get your questions answered, sir?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Can I have a motion, please?

Thank you.

Dr.

Ward.

Not a second.

Thank you.

Mr.

Whedaker.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Whedaker.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr.

McNamare.

So regarding Mr.

Patel's concern with the ingress egress.

And looking at that, it looks like there is going to be an additional ingress egress there further north on Battlefield Boulevard, and it looks like further west on Great Ridge Boulevard.

Wouldn't that indeed make it a safer ingress egress for both properties?

If I could, I I, Mr.

Manager, if I could refer this to Jay Tate, if he could come address this.

Yes, sir.

So following up on your question, I understood it is we're looking at the entire intersection and entrances that are the closer to the intersection or the more hazardous.

And so we have minimum spacing distances, and the old 7-Eleven has significantly non-conforming entrances that really create a uh increased hazard because it is almost a channelized free-flow movement on that right turn.

So the long range plan is if the old 711 ever redevelops, they would have access through this proposed site that's being constructed now, and it would be much farther from the intersection itself.

Also farther away from the intersection.

So indeed, by connecting both these properties or the drive through, indeed makes it safer.

Yes, it will make it safer in the future.

The initial accommodation is with the existing develop or with the proposed development.

We won't change Mr.

Patel's site.

If he ever redevelops, that's when it would be available.

Now, if at some point he wanted to connect to it, he could.

He might find out, you know, his customers are served better by having access to the car wash, but we won't require his site to change until he comes in with some future development or some other proposed modification of their site.

Okay.

Thank you, Mr.

Tate.

Thank you, Mayor.

Before you go.

Oh, Ms.

J.

Mr.

Tate.

Could I simplify that?

I'm sorry.

Could I simplify that?

Oh, certainly.

Okay.

I'm going to do that by asking you a couple questions.

Number one.

The access for this application is not through the convenience store parking lot.

Correct?

Yes, ma'am, that's correct.

They have their own access.

In the future, if there is redevelopment or any changes desired by the owner of the convenience store, in this case, Mr.

Patel, that would be a private negotiation with the owner of the other property for access for an action the city might require.

Actually, the right would already exist, so he wouldn't have to negotiate with the car wash.

It would just be between his proposal and the city's review of his proposal to require him to utilize that access so that he would have a safer site upon redevelopment.

Okay, so that access would be preserved to the benefit of any redevelopment of that site.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

You're good, Mr.

Pond?

No, I have a question.

Yeah.

So I don't know the applicant or our Mr.

McLamor, if you want to answer this, though, but one of the concerns brought tonight from one of our speakers, Mr.

Patel, was the concern about a convenience tour.

That's not in the plan.

Is it?

Thank you, Councilman Bunn.

For the record, Jay Leftwich 308 Seal Lake's Drive, Chesapeake Virginia 23322, representing the applicant owner.

So a former application proposed a convenience store and gas pumps, and that was abandoned for only a car wash.

So this application is asked to add pumps to the car wash.

There will be no convenience door.

All clear?

All mine is clear?

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

I vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PL in use 2025-021 with stipulations as presented as adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next item, please.

PLN use 2025-012 Perry Street House, SNBOD, SN Business Overlay District.

Chesapeake Land Bank Authority, Applicant and Owner for conditional use permit to allow one single family detached residential structure in the South Norfolk Business Overlay District.

The property is located at 1332 Perry Street in the South Norfolk Planning Area.

The planning commission recommends approval with the stipulations listed in the official agenda.

Mr.

McNamare.

The proposed use is compatible with the objectives of the responsible growth and quality of life sections of the comp plan as it will provide needed affordable and quality housing that is suitable to the traditional context of the existing neighborhood.

Staff recommends approval of the request with stipulations dated September 19, 2025.

Are there any speakers, Madam Clark?

John Harbin is here for questions only.

Thank you.

And no other speakers?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Motion is an order with stipulations.

Move approval with stipulations.

Thank you, Mr.

Whitaker.

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Bond.

Any discussion.

Seeing none, we do have a motion for approval.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

Vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PLN use 2025-012 with stipulations as presented is adopted by a 9-0 vote.

Next item.

Madam Clerk?

PLN use 2025-024 dwellings farms bomb.

Dwellings farm LLC applicant, Jessica Diffenbach, trustee owner.

The property is located at 2349 Baum Road in the Southern Chesapeake Planning Area.

The Planning Commission recommends denial.

However, the stipulations listed in the official agenda have been submitted to council for consideration.

Before I ask Mr.

McNair to give staff's recommendation and recognize Ms.

Redder.

Thank you.

For the past two years, I have abstained from a number of items due to a professional relationship with someone who has been involved in those applications.

I believe there was no official or legal conflict involved.

It was for the appearance of any possible impropriety.

Since two years have passed, I will now be voting on items that are represented by that individual, with the exception of any that have previously come before the council that I have abstained on.

So I wanted to make that clear in case there were any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamare.

The proposed use is inconsistent with the quality of life section of the comprehensive plan and incompatible with the adjacent and nearby residential uses that will be impacted by additional traffic, noise, and lighting associated with the proposed use.

The substantial impacts from this use cannot be adequately mitigated by administratively feasible stipulations.

Staff recommends denial of the request.

Thank you, sir.

Madam Clerk, how many speakers do we have?

We have 11 speakers.

Would you call the speakers, please?

How much time will they have?

The applicant will get seven minutes, and each speaker will get three minutes.

Thank you.

Call the speaker.

Proceed.

Pardon?

Brian, call the speakers?

Yes, please.

Okay.

Brian Plumley, agent.

He will get seven minutes.

Madam Clerk, can we verify that it's seven minutes just out of curiosity?

I thought it referred it to five.

I apologize for interrupting.

Do you have the rules?

That would be awesome.

Do you need five, more than five?

We'll get that answer later, but who I think he's gonna take five.

Take five.

Go ahead, Mr.

Pobley.

Sorry.

Am I am I off?

Now you're good.

Thank you.

Mayor West, Vice Mayor Ritter, Honorable Members of Council, Councilman Jeffries, I'm Brian Plumley.

Nice to meet you.

It's my pleasure to represent these folks.

The Banquet Hall on this farm provides our residents a chance to have a rural experience provided by a very nice family, and this will provide them some revenue so that they can take action to preserve land.

That's the intent of this application.

I've represented property owners for some 30 years, and I can tell you that Michael and Jessica are some of the nicest people.

They're young, they're hard working.

They're raising three boys, nine, seven, and five, and they want to do so on a farm.

That is their intent.

Just information you don't need.

I grew up on a farm.

I know what it's like, I know the experience, and they want it.

They're raising pigs and cows, chickens, goats, they gather eggs.

This property is separate from the Ansel property that you approved some months ago.

That's a larger parcel for larger gatherings.

This is a smaller parcel for smaller gatherings.

It's a 41-acre parcel.

They have a much larger farm with many, many more acres.

But this particular parcel is 41, 36 of these acres are in civicultural production.

It has a designation by the USDA as farm number 2475.

They received approval from our zoning department for business license to host picnics, uh pick your own activity, hay rides, the sale of farm goods at this location.

The event space, I think the staff report shows is not close to homes.

The closest homeowner came and spoke.

That's Mr.

Wakefield.

He spoke in favor of it.

The next closest home is 350 feet away.

The next home after that is 550 feet away.

Our clients agree to the restrictions to keep down noise, to shorten the hours to make sure they accommodate their neighbors.

There's been a lot of community outreach.

The state law says unless there is a significant impact to health, safety, welfare cities do not regulate agritourism, and that's what this is.

What this application does is strikes a balance between what state law says and what the city code provides to make sure there is fair restrictions over this site, so these folks are under the city's guidance.

I know some of the complaints get pretty excitable, but this is part of the comprehensive plan.

Comprehensive plan encourages economic development of agricultural and rural enterprise.

These folks have already put 32 acres in a preservation easement.

They want to put more land in the preservation easement.

This discourages the kind of development the folks have come out here to oppose.

It discourages that.

It slows it down.

It allows some revenue to hold this property in their ownership.

So I don't want to speak on and on.

I I want to make it clear that these are good people.

Some of you have had a chance to see this location and to see this site and understand that they are very nice people, and I'm here to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker.

Okay, the speakers will we'll get three minutes each.

The first is Jennifer Knight speaking in opposition, followed by Michael Duffenbach.

Greetings, I'm Jennifer Knight, and I live on Ballahack Road.

The zoning process exists to protect current residents.

We've heard ad nauseum about the applicants' dreams and vision.

But what about those of existing residents?

This very process aims to protect.

Has anyone visited the Smith, the Gob or the Peace families?

Certainly, having event venues in their backyards was neither their dream nor their vision.

Do we know how these event venue applications have impacted their health and safety, or if these established residents are having difficulty accessing their own property?

Since the July 15th approval of the Ansel Road venue, rubber stamping hundreds of vehicles to travel down that road.

Has anyone followed up with Chesapeake Public Schools to also allow young Miss Peace's school bus to access Ansel Road so she can get to and from school?

Do we know if these event venues have impacted the current residents' property values?

We know the event venues are incompatible uses in the rural overlay district, hence the condition conditional use permit.

Neither of these applications meet the established criteria for a COP, which states that the conditional use must be incidental and subordinate to an agricultural one.

At the October Planning Commission meeting, Mrs.

Diffenbach affirmed, we are not farmers.

The applicants point to silviculture as equating to an agricultural use.

But in the Commonwealth of Virginia, that's not true.

The only agricultural use of trees is Christmas tree farming.

All other uses are forestral purview of the Department of Forestry.

There is a disconnect between pulling a farm affidavit while maintaining you're not a farmer on the heels of being featured in the Farmville Herald as PUD or Planned Urban Developers.

This application does not meet the criteria for either a CO or even a farm.

Due to this application's incompatibility, opposition from nearby property owners, dangers to public health, safety and welfare, threats to historic and cultural resources, and the potential for dangerous negative human to wildlife interactions.

As William Shakespeare once penned, there is no legacy so rich as honesty.

Let's be honest with all the citizens for whom this process was created, and vote to deny this event venue that doesn't come close to qualifying as a conditional use on an A1 property, affirming the good work of the planning department and the planning commission, both of whom recommend denial.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Speaker.

Michael Giffenbach is in support for questions only, followed by Ernest Smith in opposition.

Ernest Smith.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name's Ernest Smith, and I own the property next to the application before you this evening.

Dwellings Corporation has constructed everything on this parcel under false pretenses, with the intended use has always been an event venue.

Yet everything has been constructed under a farm affidavit with no plan review and no inspections.

The applicant is a builder who built over 30 homes per year of custom homes throughout the city.

He knows how to pull permits and what is required for plan submittal.

The fact the property has several active violations prior to submitting this request means that if this is approved, any conditions set forth by this body will likely not be followed.

The developer intends to hold as many events as possible to fully maximize the profits that they can gain, regardless of how it negatively impacts the quality of life of surrounding homes.

We live in a quiet rural neighborhood, which is the draw of Southern Chesapeake.

The driveway the driveway for this venue is on a legally recorded ingress-egress easement, which we share.

The police have been called on this before.

The vendors bring in food trucks, bounce houses, install large tents, which require permits, yet again, none have been pulled.

The council has approved another conditional use permit for their other property, which is less than a quarter of a mile away on Ansel Road.

Do we really need to have two events venues with hundreds of people less than a quarter of a mile from each other owned by the same development company?

They also stated at the previous council meeting that both venues could be operated simultaneously.

The amount of traffic flowing down these rural roads were not built to withstand this increased levels by two events, venues in a rural community, not to mention that Northwest River has an event venue in itself.

I simply ask the council to listen to the planning commissioners, the staff recommendation of denial of this conditional use permit, and to protect the quality of life of the rural Southern Chesapeake.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next speaker, please.

Jessica Diffenbach speaking in support.

Followed by Connie Smith.

Is it already on?

I think so.

Good evening, Mayor West and Council members, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Jessica Diefenbach of 2441 Bomb Road, and I own dwellings farms at 2349 Baum Road in Southern Chesapeake.

Our 41-acre USDA certified farm includes over 30 acres of silviculture and the care of livestock, chickens, Nigerian dwarf goats, and highland cows, all raised and tended daily on site.

Every part of our farm is actively used for agriculture.

We're here tonight to ask for your support in allowing us to host small private agritourism experiences and events, things like picnics, photography sessions, birthday parties, and micro weddings.

The draw is simple.

Our animals are wooded acreage in the authentic farm atmosphere.

We've built this farm for our family and children to grow up close to the land, and we want to share that experience with others.

Our long-term goal is to keep this farm sustainable for future generations, ours and our communities.

Agritourism gives us a way to do that while promoting Chesapeake's agricultural heritage.

The barn is a farm building built using the farm affidavit, and per city and state code is permitted to host such agritourism events within the structure and surrounding area.

On site, we post numerous warning and safety signs to include the agritourism warning sign, farm building exemption sign, and domesticated animal sign, all in alignment with the Virginia Code.

What we're proposing isn't a commercial venue, it's a private, peaceful setting for smetting for small gatherings that align perfectly with the city's comprehensive plan to preserve rural character.

We've hosted small groups, family reunions, local clubs, and even a blacksmithing group that meets among the animals.

Guests love feeding the goats, asking questions, and learning about farm life.

These genuine hands-on experiences connect people with agriculture in a way that's rare today, and we'd love to extend that to 4-H clubs, school groups, and community organizations.

We're not asking to make major changes or build a banquet hall, just enhancing what already exists.

We hope to add educational features, UPIC opportunities, and more farm-based activities that deepens people's connection with agriculture.

Our farm fits both the spirit and zoning of the area, and we believe projects like this help landowners and the city work together to preserve farmland and resist development pressures.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

We hope you'll support us in continuing to grow dwellings farms as a place where our family and our community can thrive.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Connie Smith speaking in opposition, followed by Milton Studemeyer.

Good evening.

Um, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Connie Smith, and I live at 2165 Ansel Road.

I'm here before you to express my urgent objection to the approval of another event venue adjoining my property in our rural area.

The builder behind this project has a documented violations, and with one event venue already approved on the opposite side of my property.

I'm now facing the real possibility of being surrounded by high-impact commercial activities in an area that is supposed to remain rural, quiet, and low density.

The applicant has numerous active building and zoning violations.

This history shows an inability or unwillingness to comply with regulations, which is unacceptable for any new land use request, particularly one as disruptive as an event menu venue.

A major unresolved issue is who will be responsible for enforcing attendance limits and event restrictions.

Without a clear enforcement plan, the conditions of a conditional use permit are effectively unenforceable.

Rural roads, emergency access, noise levels, and public safety all depend on strict adherence to approved capacity limits.

If the city cannot provide proactive monitoring, the permit conditions will be ignored as they have been in the past.

Without a clear enforcement plan, the conditions of any conditional use permit are meaningless.

With one event venue already approved on one side of my property, allowing another one on the other side would create an unreasonable concentration of commercial activity in a designated rural area.

This is inconsistent with the land use principles that protect rural living, preserve open space, and prevent over commercialization.

No homeowner should be forced to endure high traffic, high noise venues directly bordering them.

This creates a significant and unfair burden on my property value, quality of life, safety, and peaceful enjoyment of my home.

Given the builders' history of violations, the burden of monitoring compliance will inevitably fall on neighboring residents, which is neither reasonable nor lawful.

Based on the above, I respectfully request the denial of any pending conditional use permit.

I ask you to uphold planning and city staff recommendation of denial.

Thank you.

Next speaker.

Milton Studemeyer speaking in support, followed by Linda Tyndale.

Mr.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today.

I live in 100 Marshall Street, Norfolk, Virginia.

I am the site manager at Dwellings Farms.

I have spoken in length of what that place has meant to me over time.

Also the experiences and the recognition that the farm has gotten from guests that have rented our place and had memorable moments.

There's not much more I can say outside of the Defenbox first day that I started working there told me that they are neighbors first, business second.

Everything that has been done, neighbors have been taken in consideration.

Anything that we talk about, the neighborhood has been taken into consideration.

We want to be able to share these experiences that we get to share every day because I spend most of my time at the farm.

We want to be able to continue to share these experiences with other people that sometimes needs that break from the city hustle and bustle and noise and sitting in the office all day nine to five.

Um, and every day.

Thank you for taking up the time to consider uh approving this application.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Linda Tyndale speaking in support, followed by Mark Brown.

Good evening.

Linda Tyndale, 1045 West Road.

I have heard comments questioning the legitimacy of the dwellings being a real farm.

I can help to clarify this.

One, they lease arable acres to a local planter.

Crops are grown and harvested on their land that's zoned A1.

Two, they are managing established forest for silviculture.

The trees can be harvested, protect the ecosystem, and provide habitat for wildlife.

Three, the United States Department of Agriculture recognizes properties used for the maintenance of livestock as farms.

Michael and Jessica are growing and providing forage for their livestock and have dedicated pastures for grazing, housing, and exercise.

Their animals are living in wonderful conditions.

The dwellings is listed by the USDA as farm number 2475.

The dwellings is a farm.

Other Chesapeake farms are open to the public, providing entertainment and can be reserved for private events.

Greenbrier Farm, Burgess Dairy, Hickory Ridge, Triple R Ranch, and Deep Creek Campground and Stables come to mind.

Agro tourism is helping to keep them afloat.

I've been approached by many to use my farm for private events.

Sadly, the noise and dust, lights and traffic from the commercial rezonings and developments and the high school adjacent to me now have my farm completely surrounded.

My rural oasis is gone forever.

Had I known that my home and rural community would be overrun, I would have either moved or fought harder to save it.

I wish the city planners and property owners had chosen agritourism instead of rezoning and urbanization.

It takes multiple streams of income to support agriculturally zoned open spaces and farmland.

I admire this young couple for having the vision and forethought to invest in and to protect the character of their rural property for generations to come.

I wish they had been my neighbors.

I have been to several meetings that were hosted at the dwellings.

It is a very nice place.

Have all of those speaking in opposition tonight even visited the dwellings?

I highly doubt it.

Please approve the conditional use permit and help this family to preserve a portion of rural Chesapeake.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mark Brown speaking in support, followed by Cindy Williams.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council members.

My name is Mark Brown.

I live in Blackwater at 5905 Blackwater Road, which is just right around the corner from the Dwellings Farm.

I also own a farm located at 5917 Blackwater Road called Wild Acres Farm.

Our farm is on the Virginia Beach side of Blackwater, and we were just in City Council for a youth recreational training facility on our farm, which was approved.

Our farm is very similar to the Deefenbox farm.

We built our farm to produce goods for ourselves and our family.

Our family hasn't purchased eggs, vegetables, and some fruits from a store in many years.

Some people don't think of our properties as being a farm because it is not massive in size or selling produce to grocery stores.

The definition of a farm does not have any requirement of size or the amount of goods produced.

Owning and operating a farm for your own use of goods instead of purchasing these items from a grocery store is a way of life.

Our land as well as the Defenbox provides for us and our families, which by definition is a farm.

With that being said, what Defenbach is trying to do on their farmland falls directly under an agritourism activity.

Under the State Code 3.2400 definitions, agritourism activity means any activity carried out on a farm or ranch that allows members of the general public for recreational, entertainment, or educational purposes to view or enjoy rural activities.

An activity is an agritourism activity whether or not the participant paid to participate in the activity.

Dwellings farm is a farm.

Their chickens and livestock provide goods for them.

The agritourism activity definition states farm or ranch.

And the definition of a ranch is a large farm where cattle or other animals are raised.

The dwellings farm has multiple farm animals on the property.

In fact, my family and I have been to a couple birthday parties at their farm, and my kids enjoy feeding the goats, the pigs, the cows, and chickens.

By state code, the deaf the Defenbox can do what they are trying to do on their land, farmland without any restrictions.

I feel the city should approve the conditional use permit and take advantage of the fact they are willing to operate with guidelines from the city.

Thank you for allowing me to speak in support of the Diefenbach Family Farm.

Thank you.

Cindy Williams, followed by Jennifer Economy.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Cindy Williams.

I live at 2433 Baum Road.

I'm here tonight to speak in full support of the Diefenbach family and their request to use their farm as a small event venue.

I recently hosted a small event there, and uh Milton took care of everything nicely.

So he parked cars, he made sure the noise was like it was supposed to be, he made sure people were taking care of the animals, nobody was doing anything that they weren't supposed to do.

Um he did a very nice job.

Um the Deefenbach have gone out of their way to be considerate.

They have people ending events early, limiting attendance, and they're hosting neighborhood gatherings, not only to entertain their neighbors, but to have conversations with their neighbors.

They have conversations about what their concerns might be, and then they talk about how they can help and how they can get around it and they can compromise.

And I think some of the folks that are here that are speaking out against this family have never spoken with them or taken advantage of that invitation to have a conversation.

So that's just it's a little discouraging to me that there's people that that don't want to have those adult conversations.

Um this family is trying to do something different than I ever expected on my road.

But I also didn't expect to have a dirt bike track next door for 10 years, and I did.

I also didn't expect to have uh multiple bonfires and fireworks, but I did.

I chose to live in the country, and people that live there respect each other and what they want to do.

It's not all about me, it's about people and their choices.

They want to host small events, they're taking their family, their neighbors into consideration.

Um I think they're doing a great job.

And um I hope that I hope that you'll vote in support of this family and this venue.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Jennifer Economy.

And that concludes the speakers.

Good evening, Mayor West and City Council members.

My name is Jennifer Economy, and I live at 2708 Cedarville Road.

I hope that you all had a chance to read the email I sent last week regarding dwellings farms.

I'm here tonight in strong support for their conditional use permit.

I met the owner of the property last year at a Southern Chesapeake comp plan update meeting.

He shared his vision with me, and I was excited to visit this property as I have not seen much movement in promoting agriculture since I moved here in 2013.

Since then, I attended a handful of events at this property and was quite impressed with the land, the barn, and of course the animals.

The family is welcoming and exudes hospitality.

The closest neighbor to this property was also present at these events and was very supportive as well.

The owners have done their due diligence trying to reach out to the community despite opposition from a select few, demonstrating that they are ready to be responsible partners with the city of Chesapeake.

This family-owned small business offers guests a peaceful rural setting for such things as weddings, birthday parties, celebrations of life, 4-H events, and educational workshops.

I feel the merits of this project align with our comprehensive plan and strengthen our community by not only ensuring that agriculture land is preserved, but also providing economic growth by creating jobs, supporting local vendors, and bringing agritourism revenue into our city while not putting a strain on city resources.

According to the Chesapeake Agro Tourism Workshop I attended a few months back, hosting events on farms has become increasingly popular, and growth in this industry will continue due to rising consumer interest and experiences that connect people with nature and a more traditional lifestyle.

Many Virginia localities have become increasingly supportive of agritourism.

Dwellings Farms represents a commitment to maintaining our agricultural character while adapting to modern needs.

Dwellings takes concerns seriously and has agreed to reasonable profits to minimize disruption to neighbors, such as limiting activity hours, number of guests, and providing adequate parking.

This demonstrates thoughtful planning and community collaboration, resulting in a vibrant low-impact rural event space.

City planning should be encouraging these types of businesses by using regulations to address concerns and not using them to deter these businesses from operating.

Dwellings Farms will be a positive contributor to Southern Chesapeake, and approving this permit ensures that this Ag Zone land remains protected from unchecked development, which I is what I've experienced a lot of since I moved to the Cedarville Sanderson area of Hickory 12 years ago.

Agritourism is responsible growth.

I'd like to see.

Please approve this application.

Thank you.

That concludes the speakers.

Thank you.

I want to thank all the speakers for uh speaking to the pros and cons and your opinions and so forth on this application.

It really does help us to deliberate.

At this time, I would like to ask for a motion with stipulations and a request for an alternative parking space.

Mr.

Whitaker.

Yes, I would like to uh I would like to move approval for discussion.

Thank you.

Mr.

Jeffries.

I was gonna second, but he has discussion.

I'm sorry.

No, he's he's he's asked for he's a asked for the motion.

You're second.

Yep, thank you.

Now discussion, Mr.

uh Whitaker.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um you know, hearing people in favor and and people in opposition.

I've heard comments about is this a farm, is this not a farm?

Some 10 years ago, I lived in I lived at Wilson Heights just across the street, and I moved to Ballaheck Road to give my children the same experience that you are giving your children.

So we bought chickens, we had no idea what we were doing.

We bought goats, had no idea.

We bought pigs, dealer will be bought pigs.

Had no idea what we were doing.

I almost wanted to call it Google Far.

So I tip my hat and commend you for what you are doing.

Mr.

Dippenbot, if you could come up, please.

Got a couple questions.

I figure I call on you because your wife had uh come up once before.

Sounds good.

Um but anyway, so my question for you is my concern really is what happens if you are granted this CUP, what happens when you move or when you sell?

Uh and I don't even know.

I'm gonna have to ask the city attorney next, but if uh would you be open to making that a stipulation that your CUP not be transferable upon sale or uh Yeah, that's definitely not a problem.

I mean, because again, this you know, this property is for what our dream is, what we want to do there.

Um, and you know, the connection that we have with everybody there.

Uh we plan to be there uh, you know, till the day that we're not a long time from now, and so I have no problem with that at all.

Okay.

And also uh understand that you have put some property in preservation before.

Uh were you wanting to put more or upon approval of this, more of this property into preservation?

Um that's definitely something that we're uh open to doing.

Um, I don't know what particular part or where, but you know, we do own a bunch of different property, just speak Virginia Beach, all that, you know, from this one to the Ansel Road, Indian Creek.

Um so we certainly have, you know, plenty of property that we would be open to do some kind of uh conservation on for sure.

Okay.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um Ms.

Lindley, is it outside of the uh possibility?

I don't even know.

I'm asking for something, I don't even know if it is legal.

But it can we limit a CUP and make it to where uh it's only good with these owners and it's not transferable upon sale or uh going to another party?

Yes, you can do that, and if council wished to modify the motion, you were the maker of the motion, it could do so to add a stipulation, essentially limiting the use permit to the applicant only um dwelling farms LLC.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

So you want to do that, add that to your motion?

I would like to add that to my motion, but I wasn't sure if somebody else had other comments.

You're good.

If you're willing to do it, you're added to the motion.

And Mr.

Jeffries, you seconded the motion, you are okay with the addition?

No.

Not.

Okay.

Um, I'm not sure what we do about that.

Uh you want to talk about your objection?

Sure.

I I just don't feel it's appropriate when seeking approval to put new conditions on the spot.

I support the original motion.

Okay.

Uh withdrawing.

Yes.

Okay.

Uh that we need a second.

I'll second it.

Thank you.

With the additional stipulation.

Thank you.

Mr.

Buddh?

Yeah.

Okay.

Um couple questions, a couple of concerns I have.

So reading this.

You can say you have questions for him?

Um not not so far.

You can sit down.

Thank you.

So reading the staff's report, um, page four, it says the proposed use is compatible with agricultural open-space land use, however, the encroachment of parking areas, otherwise um, and to the conservation is designated as discouraged.

And then also in the report, same page, economic development and agricultural and rural enterprises should be fostered and promoted.

If the plan that can you tell me like what um is the planning department's objections, like what so I can compare the pros and cons.

So when we evaluate your applications, there's a couple things that we look at.

We look at uh consistency with the comprehensive plan, and there are certainly strategies listed in the comprehensive plan that speak to supporting these types of uses.

However, the other thing that we look at is compatibility.

So we look at the property, we look at the surrounding properties, we look at the conditions around those properties, and we make recommendations based on those conditions as well.

Given the fact that this is a high-intensity use located between two single family residences, we thought that the the intensity of the use was incompatible with the surrounding properties, and therefore recommended denial.

Okay.

And just um on page 11 of the report we have received two.

This is a concern that I have that's a little bit of a red flag to be very honest with you.

The applicant has been reluctant, reluctant to comply with the city code requirements, the building permitting for the event venue.

That's a little concerning for me.

Um another concern would be I think one of the speakers brought this up too, we we did approve the adjacent property for events, and then if we approve this, there will be two.

Do you guys plan on having events at the same time, possibly, or sure, whoever?

That's fine.

Thank you, Councilman Bund.

Yes.

There will be times of the there will be events at both locations, but very rarely.

The reason for this location is for the small events, uh, very low intense events.

Um the other location is for larger wedding parties.

Um they are separated quite quite a distance from one another.

What is imagined is that if you had a wedding in the larger space, you might have a rehearsal gathering in that same weekend at the smaller space.

It is more envisioned that there will be gatherings, birthday parties, small, smaller size gatherings at this location.

It may occasionally happen that there would be at both sites an event, but that is not the purpose to max out the events at both of these locations.

The purpose is this is a smaller site with the accommodations to walk around the animals, see the animals, pet animals, that sort of experience at this location.

Okay.

Do you have any idea what the maximum persons that you you guys plan on having for the larger parcel?

Because it's that has something to do with how I have met tonight.

The maximum of the other side is 175.

That is the cap under that conditional use permit.

The max at this side is 125.

But what is envisioned at this side is much smaller events.

Uh uh on the on the typical interaction with the public, it's going to be probably 50 or less for the most part.

That is what's been going on, in which they have been requesting a special permits each time.

And that's why zoning said you should go and seek a conditional use permit since you want to do this on a regular basis instead of coming to us for these individual permits.

Okay.

Are you done, Mr.

Butt?

Yeah.

I mean, I'm a part to recon tourism background.

Um there are some concerns I still have, though, like the timing is I mean, 10 p.m., is that correct?

That's the maximum time.

And you said we can't make any uh modifications or another motion that stop it at 6 p.m.

or 7 p.m., 8 p.m.

That's more reasonable.

Yeah.

You could?

Oh, we can't.

Okay.

Okay, I'm gonna make a secretary motion if that's possible, Mr.

Mayor.

Okay.

Okay.

I'm gonna move for approval with the stipulation that with all the other stipulations that are in the um report with the maximum time being the event has to end by 7 p.m.

Um everyone out until 8 p.m.

Cleanup and everybody out by 8.

Because 10 p.m., you're talking about people leaving being out by midnight.

Um I just think that it's not safe.

And it does affect the folks that are adjacent to that property.

I did take the opportunity to meet with the applicants.

It's a beautiful property.

I'm all about the tourism aspect of it and the smaller you know, amounts of um events that you could do and it has some good and bad.

Do we have a second to the uh secondary motion?

Can you clarify where we are with these motions?

Well, we have a uh a motion that added uh along with the what are already in the stipulations, added the it would not transfer uh to it it it the it doesn't go with the land.

The uh CPU does not go with the land.

So if they were to sell or move or whatever, then uh that the next person, if they wanted to do the same activities that have to come back to council and get approval.

That's the first thing.

Now, Mr.

Bunn is asking a second thing to reduce their hours of operation, but we don't have a second on that, so that's not under consideration until we get a second.

Mr.

Jeffries.

I thought there was an additional request made by uh Councilman Whitaker regarding donating additional land.

No, that was just a discussion.

He just asked that question.

Were they going to he didn't throw that in as the motion, did you?

No, I was just asking.

Yeah, he was a question.

That is not supported the motion.

That's not part of the motion.

So again, is there a second to Mr.

Bunn's motion?

Seeing none, we will go back to the primary motion.

Any discussion on the primary motion?

Shouldn't be text.

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

Mr.

Mayor.

What did you say, Ms.

Ritter?

Please recognize Councilmember Newens.

I'm sorry, Ms.

Go ahead.

Ms.

New and Mayor, I just madam Park.

I have a question for the applicant about the additional condition that's been proposed under the amended motion for Mr.

Pumley.

And I apologize, I can't see when he comes forward, but if Mr.

Pumley could comment if that's acceptable as it relates to the legality of having it under the LLC only.

So for example, if the LLC dissolved or if God forbid something were to happen to the owner to the LLC, is that sufficient for his client's interest, that is say under the LLC only?

My clients have indicated that it's acceptable to them that it be in the applicant's name, which is the LLC, and that it that if that goes, it can't be sold to a third uh company, third-party uh entity that's not part of this application, that it has to operate dwelling farms LLC at that location for the unless otherwise they'd have to come back for conditional use permit.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thank you.

That was the only question I had.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Mr.

Smith?

Yes, I I thought it would be easy to vote in favor of this petition.

After listening to everyone, after listening to the Historic Preservation Commission, uh their opposition in reference to it as it impacts the Northwest Northwest River, uh listening to this family back here as far as uh them having festivities on both sides of their property.

Uh that disturbs me to a certain extent.

Um we have no control to monitor their activity.

There's been several instances, instances of violations in reference to the activity that has currently going on on the property.

So those things pretty much shares to me that I can't vote in favor of it, but I thought it would be easy to vote in favor of it, but I cannot for those very those said reasons.

So that's my point I want to make.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Smith.

Any other Ms.

Ritter?

Thank you.

Um this is an interesting issue.

A priority of the City Council is to preserve and protect and support agriculture and open space.

It's a priority for our citizens.

It is a priority for the City Council.

Part of that is finding the balance to allow property owners not to succumb to the necessity or desire to sell their property, but to have what I call my own simple language, value added to their property.

And one way to do that is through agro tourism.

I can't remember.

I think it was Ms.

Tyndall brought up Green Barms.

Greenbar Farms is a historic place.

It's called historic Greenbrier Farms.

When its original use permit came forward, then it was a very quiet rural area off a very narrow rural road, Seinpine Road.

And some of the neighbors objected, and the council passed that.

I have to say I didn't support that.

And in the years since, Greenborough Farms has come to be a destination, not for small gatherings, for huge gatherings.

Never has there been a complaint about what goes on at Green Bear Farms.

That surprised me actually.

But I listened to the Planning Commission meeting.

By the way, Mr.

Covey, the audio cut off for a significant portion of it.

Good thing I can read lips.

Anyway, I watched that with great interest.

And what became clear to me, Mr.

Titter, were some of your comments on the fact that there is a lot of gray area that exists between the state codes and regulations and the local.

And it's open for great interpretation.

If agritourism and preserving agriculture in this city is actually a priority, then we need to work on developing a clear policy for the city.

This is a way to allow landowners to continue on their own property and not succumb to having the much more invasive residential development that has pretty much overtaken the city.

That we are working towards a goal that is one of the citizens' stated priorities.

But because someone likes to drive in the rural area, can't necessarily be what guides a landowner if they need to use their property.

However, uses like this, carefully done and considerately done, can certainly give a landowner the comfort of keeping their land.

We need to be clear what we allow here, what we support, and be careful, be judicious.

It doesn't mean every single application will be approved, but it does mean that we are going to give consideration, we're going to clear up this gray area.

I've seen the application.

I wish it had been in ours, where it clearly signed off.

To the best of my knowledge, whether they're violations or not, if you have applied for an actively seeking either a rezoning or a conditional use permit, or if you're going to the Board of Zoning Appeals, enforcement is held in abeyance.

So one other thing, I have a limited amount of time.

But I understand Ms.

Newan's question.

I appreciate that.

And I thank Mr.

Whittaker for bringing that up.

I say this quite often.

What an experience.

I am the first person who had a conditional use permit that was given to me as a landowner as opposed to going for my land for my showdog kennel.

So that was many years ago.

I I don't have the kennel anymore, but I did experience that.

And I do think it's a show of good faith that someone says, yes, that will go with me.

If someone else wants to conduct these activities, they will have to go through the same process.

So I understand.

I understand about enforcement.

I think we can all go through the city and find each one of us can find 50 use permits where enforcement is difficult.

So I'm reminded of the words of my predecessor, may or may not fit here, but they fit for me.

Um we don't want the perfect to get in the way of the good.

And if we can, Mr.

Manager, I very much like to have us start clearing up what the people of Chesapeake and the City Council believe is the best path to defining how we see agritourism.

There are a lot of things these folks can do.

Um, if it were I, which it's not, um I'd offer some land to the master gardeners to do a community garden and provide it either to a food bank, uh farmers market, or sell it from your property, but um that's just me.

I look out my back, uh, I can figure out a quarter acre really quick or a half an acre.

That's a lot of land a farm.

I I can tell you that would be a lot of produce.

So I'll end there.

Um I do support this.

I I think as with any application for a use permit.

I I know the neighbors particularly will be watching, they'll be vigilant, and I hope they can all work together so this will be a positive experience for the city.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Ms.

Ritter.

The uh I I too am in favor of this project for three re four reasons, maybe.

Uh first of all, going out to the property.

There's it seems to be a conception that the perception that they're these two are side by side.

It's a big difference distance, I think, from the property that you're utilizing now for weddings, and then where what you're proposing, it's they're not side by side.

Uh secondly, I've met the couple and I have a great deal of faith in their good intentions.

Thirdly, I have seen other applications in other places similar to these.

Closest one was uh friends of mine did a wedding venue in Pungo that had a lot of resistance because there were uh concerns, but they haven't had a single problem since they've been there, and they've been there two or three years now, I believe.

And also in my son's uh residence in Montgomery County, Maryland, these kind of events are everywhere near near homes and and the atmosphere with these type of events really does give you a sense that this place has somehow found a way to preserve good stuff while they're you know in a suburban area that is under pressure to build, build, build.

They have been able to do with development rights sales and and agritourism events such as this to really create a uh a real just very positive feeling.

So I'm very much in favor of this application.

So I think everyone's had a chance to speak, and we do have a motion.

Uh would you read the motion?

Madison.

The motion is to approve PLN use 2025-024 with stipulations and the request for an alternative parking surface as presented, an added stipulation to limit the use permit to the current owners only.

Thank you.

So we do have that motion.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

Vote in the affirmative.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next item.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Uh next item, please.

PONU's 2025-035, Dozier's Corner Pump Station Replacement, Hampton Road Sanitation District Applicant and Owner.

Garnet Gannett Fleming Inc.

agency for a conditional use permit to replace an existing pump station.

The property is located at 1109 Keats Street in the River Crest Planning Area.

This concurrently advertised item was heard at the Planning Commission on November the 13th, 2025.

Staff and Planning Commission recommend approval with the stipulations listed in the official agenda.

Mr.

Backner.

The proposed use supports the replacement of existing infrastructure when deteriorated or obsolete and aligns by incorporating adaptive low impact design techniques, relocating the pump station outside the RPA buffer, and elevating the bypass pump to mitigate flood risk and enhance resiliency.

Staff recommends approval of the request with stipulations dated October 14, 2025.

Thank you, Mr.

McMayer.

We have speakers, Madam Clerk.

We have one speaker, Kyle Logue, representing HRSD for questions.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Motion please, but step is in order with stipulations.

Move the stipulations.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Thank you.

Mr.

Smith.

Mr.

Whitaker, I'm sorry you were next on the list.

Any uh discussion?

See none, please prepare to vote.

Please vote and record Madam Clark.

Councilmember Newens, how would you like to vote?

Any affirmative.

Thank you.

Motion to approve PL and use 2025-03.

This display says presented as possible by 903.

Thank you.

Next item.

PLN text 2025-003 parking requirements amendment.

An ordinance amending appendix A of the City Code and Title Zoning, Article 19, Sections 19, 404, 405, 410, 411, and 412, and enacting Article 19, Sections 900, 901, and 902 to provide for appropriate reductions of and flexibility in required parking.

The Planning Commission recommends approval of version dated August 29, 2025.

Thank you, Mr.

McNameyer.

The proposed text amendment allows City Council to evaluate parking needs on a case-by-case basis and relies on objective research and properly balances the need to provide adequate parking and safe traffic circulation with City Council's stated goals of preserving open space and creative attractive in creating attractive communities through good site design.

Staff recommends approval of the amendment version dated August 29, 2025.

Thank you.

Any speakers?

Yes, sir.

We have one speaker, Vic Nichols.

How would this affect handicapped parking?

Here's why I'm asking.

If you have fewer spaces, what happens with handicap parking?

And not just that, but if you only have one or two spaces that are handicapped parking and they're taken, and a handicapped person comes in, I I take two spaces.

Sometimes three.

I can't get my door open.

Hey, the legs don't sit here and do this.

So has anybody looked at that viewpoint for people who have mobility problems and can't get in and out, how that's going to work?

Thank you.

Thank you.

A motion, please.

Move approval.

This is version dated uh August 29th, 2025.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Uh Mr.

Smith.

Thank you, sir.

Uh any discussion.

I will ask Mr.

McMayer.

There was a question about the handicapped parking.

Is uh could you address that?

Do you mind?

Yes, sir.

Those are federal requirements.

Uh so typically right now when you look at the federal requirements.

If you have one to twenty-five parking spaces, one is required.

Up to 50 at that point, you'd require two spaces, 75, 3, 1004.

So those those requirements are not changing.

Those are still federal requirements.

Now the number of the spaces may rede reduce, but the the ratio remains the same.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

We do have a motion for approval.

Do we not?

Who did that?

Um Dr.

Ward and the President.

Dr.

Ward, Mr.

Smith, okay.

We do have a motion for approval.

Please prepare to Mr.

Ritter.

This planning night, so I always have a lot to say.

I I am concerned about that.

If you significantly reduce parking, particularly at a multifamily.

How does the ratio you're going to have fewer handicapped spots?

Correct?

Because it's not by ratio, it's by number of spots.

That's right.

That is correct.

No, that's not ratio.

Yeah, so it it's the total parking spaces, the amount of spots will not change.

So the numbers of minimum accessible spaces required would remain the same.

So if we reduce, for example, if there was a development that required 150 spaces at uh at current levels and it was reduced down to 125, you are still required the same number of spaces.

If it drops below 101 at that point, you would be required to have the four spaces that are required.

So there could be some, but like I said, these these um these changes are not necessarily dramatic enough to see you know wholesale changes in the number of handicapped spaces being reduced, in my opinion.

Okay, but we don't have any, we're not sure about that.

Um secondarily, under what circumstances does an application that goes through, does it only go to the council?

Um or would certain aspects of an application go through the whole process?

Yes, ma'am.

So the parking tables have been aligned, so some of those numbers have been reduced, and those would be uh done at zoning review.

The case for a special exception uh in case where we were looking to reduce parking uh beyond what the what the parking tables required would be uh going through the planning commission and city council process.

Okay, I uh that isn't quite clear.

If it goes through the rezoning process, so regardless during rezoning, the council could amend.

Is that would this allow for that?

I I think we have two situations here.

We are looking at the parking tables, which are the required parking.

So if the applicant is not asking for any relief for what the parking tables would call for, then they would just have to abide by what they what the code requires.

If they are asking for reduction below what what is required in those parking tables, that is when council has the discretion to either approve their request to go below or to to not approve that request.

But this text amendment actually changes the requirement.

Yes, ma'am.

Does it not?

I I see the value in that.

I mean uh particularly the value to whoever is developing the property.

Um they can do it on a smaller piece, they can ornate things differently, but it's almost saying, you know, if you are allowed one space per unit, then you're not allowed to have two cars if you live there.

And I know I saw the thing about extra spaces, I saw that.

I I'm just not quite ready for this.

Um I think it needs some refining really just to allow the reduction.

So I I'm sure I'm probably the one contrarian here, but um I I had a family member that lived in a single family detached condo HOA thing, and there was never enough parking.

You you couldn't have visitors, and that's of concern to me.

So thank you for the good work.

Um I'll just take my contrarian route and go home happily, but I do hope at some point we talked about this.

You all will come back with an allowance that if we're gonna have some increased density, and people are saying I'd like mixed-use density, but we know the retail is never going to work.

It hasn't worked yet, except at summit point.

So to consider having that lowest level or lower two levels be parking, which can be considered commercial, and I think that would alleviate a lot of the concern about reduced parking.

So it's not a bigger footprint, it's the same footprint as the building coverage, and you're not having so much impervious surface, and it would, you know, if you have a higher density development, it would be a terrific amenity and serve a commercial purpose.

So I hope at some point we will look at adding that provision.

Thank you.

Mr.

McMahon we you brought this up because there were cases where obviously there were there was uh the requirement one one size or one rule doesn't fit all and so I I don't think the purpose of this is to give developers opportunity to do less uh spaces it's more to find the right fit for whatever the application is is that correct yes sir we we took a look at uh over 20 localities to uh look at our parking ratios and in a line with those to see where we fell on the spectrum uh you'll see some changes in the parking tables based on that research and where we are at uh typically when we look at uh jurisdictions that are in similar stature as we are with a similar uh land use pattern so that is what you'll see is yes you'll see the the reduction in the parking table for certain uses based on uh based on that research and then the second thing is a uh the the vehicle that's created to petition city council for a special exception to reduce that number lower if there's good evidence showing that that they can accommodate the the parking on site with studies thank you Madam Clerk would you read the motion motion to approve PLN text 2025 003 version dated August 29 2025 as presented thank you please prepare to vote please vote and record councilmember news how would you like to vote in the affirmative thank you motion to approve PL and text 2025 003 version dated August 29 2025 as presented is adopted by an 8 to 1 vote thank you next item please pln text 2025-008 subdivision plat and size requirements an order to submending chapter 70 of the city code in title subdivisions article two section 70-28 to update the medium and size requirements for final subdivision plants in accordance with changes to regul regulations promulgated by the Virginia Library Board the planning commission recommends approval of version dated August 12th 2025 Mr McNamare the proposed text amendment to the subdivision ordinance complies with state law and is consistent with the regulations promulgated by the Virginia Library Board staff recommends approval of the amendment version date August 12 2025 thank you are there any speakers Madam Clerk no sir.

Thank you a motion please urgent dated August 12th move approval second thank you Mr Wedaker and Mr Ward Dr.

Ward I saw three names but then I then one disappeared so sorry we have a motion for approval please prepare to vote please vote and record council member new ones how would you like to vote in the affirmative thank you next is unfinished business do council members have any unfinished business say none new business any council members have any new business Mr.

Smith yes thank you uh Mr.

Mayor what I would like to share is is from the standpoint of a report I would like to get a report from staff regarding LaTeX housing tax credit housing in the Deep Creek current corridor uh this is up along military highway I've had conversation with Reed about my housing and reference to possible sites and possible builders so I was trying to see if that could be done by staff within the next two to three months thank you any other new business items see none I would call on council I mean excuse me city attorney Lindley provide the language for a closed meeting topic a meeting to conduct a close a motion to conduct a closed meeting to discuss the acquisition and conveyance of certain real properties located in the Southern Chesapeake planning area and the Deep Creek planning area where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body as permitted by section 2.2-3711 A3 of the code of Virginia motion please move approval thank you Dr.

Ward thank you Ms.

Redder please prepare to vote please vote and record councilmember new ones how would you like to vote in the affirmative thank you motion to conduct closed meeting is adopted by 90 vote.

It is 839 council will be going in the closed session

Okay, okay, we'll do it with another thing.

Mr.

Landla, would you please provide the language of certification for closed meeting?

A motion is certified that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion committee in a closed meeting were heard discussed or considered.

Motion please.

Motion to certify the closed meeting is adopted by an eight oh vote.

One more.

Yes, the other motion.

A motion to conduct a closed meeting on Tuesday, December ninth, twenty twenty-five at four PM in Cheswick City Hall to discuss, consider interview prospective candidates for appointment to city boards, commissions, and authorities for the purpose of considering candidates for the planning commission, the audit committee, human services advisory board, the Chesapeake Land Bank Citizen Advisory Committee, and the Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Health Advisory Board.

Please vote and record.

Motion to conduct a closed meeting on December the ninth at four o'clock is adopted, but not eight o' vote.