I'm a place.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Okay, we have a quorum.

Um, so we have two important items on the agenda tonight for our work session.

So I'm gonna go ahead and call the meeting to order.

Um, this isn't I'm still not used for those of you in the room.

I'm not really used to being in this chair.

So chairing the meeting, I ask you to try to bear with me.

Um I know the mayor is sorry to miss this, but he is on an important trip for economic development purposes.

So with that, I'll turn this over to the city manager.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

So uh two items tonight related to our community development programs.

Um, as you know, Chesapeake, uh our vision is to make Chesapeake an exceptional place to live, learn, work, farm, and play.

Um we do a lot of work planning with the community to identify um opportunity areas, preserve the character of the community, and then also uh work towards um economic prosperity initiative.

So we have two presentations tonight.

One is a presentation that we had scheduled for last week.

We had to continue to tonight, and that's the Deep Creek Area Plan update.

And then second, we will have economic development give a presentation on some of the wonderful work that they've been doing with our small business assistance program.

So, first up, I'll turn it over to planning director McDemarrow.

So good evening, and thank you for your time this evening.

We're really excited to share the work that we've uh completed so far with the Deep Creek Area Plan.

I'm gonna spare my words tonight and turn things over to Anna Nagornik, who is our planner with the department, and she's our project manager for the Deep Creek Area Plan.

And also we have with us uh Devin Simpson with Kimley Horn, who is project manager on uh the consulting side.

So turn things over to Anna.

Good evening, Vice Mayor, uh Council members.

Um, like Director McNamara said, I'll be providing a brief overview of the Deep Creek Area Plan tonight, and I'll go ahead and jump into things.

Um this area plan uh looks at the Deep Creek and Camelot planning areas, which cover approximately a 37 uh square mile area, excluding uh majority chunk of the Great Dismal Swamp, which of course is a nationally protected area.

Um this plan will serve as a component of the comprehensive plan and it really seeks to further the goals of enhancing the quality of life, improving connectivity, and strengthening the economic vitality for the Deep Creek and Camelot communities.

A little bit about the plan process.

Um the project launched in the summer of 2024.

Um, the phase that followed exploration, that's really where uh the project team dove into some data collection, some early community engagement efforts.

Um we had several stakeholder meetings at this time, uh, really gathering information in preparation for the plan development, um, moving after that into visioning, uh, which we had additional community engagement opportunities, stakeholder meetings, um, working internally with different city departments as well as externally with community groups, um, really to gather information on the wants and needs of the community.

Uh from there moving into planning, uh, really the development of the plan framework itself, uh, followed by illustrating, digging into the draft document, working on uh renderings, mapping, things like that.

Um and then now we are, as you as you may know, uh moving into this um time moving towards adoption.

Um we did have our first uh city council work session back in January of 2024, um, and then uh we had our presentation to planning commission on January 14th, 2025, where Planning Commission had uh provided a recommendation of approval for the plan.

Uh as one of the early phases I mentioned, uh sort of in that exploration phase, uh we looked at the existing conditions and performed an analysis um of the current context and trends that impact the Deep Creek and Camelot communities.

Um this includes information and data related to uh important demographic trends in the area in the study area, looking at existing land use patterns uh and character, um, existing parks, natural space, open space, um, transportation uh conditions, um, connectivity and safety, uh, historic assets in the area, as well as environmental considerations, um, and then as well as other planning uh efforts and context that sort of set the foundation for this effort as well.

So, as you all may know, um this area is very diverse and encompasses a wide variety of uses and land use character, ranging from commercial areas to residential areas to agricultural areas, historic assets.

Um, really taking a closer look at all of that and understanding that provided the foundation, an important foundation for this study.

A little bit about the community engagement process.

So, from the onset of the project and throughout the process as a whole, um the project team conducted extensive community engagement, including 11 community outreach events, nine stakeholder meetings, several surveys, um, and other interactions with the community, um, along with online outreach, um, along with also regular updates, monthly updates given to the planning commission subcommittee for the Deep Creek Area Plan, um, as well as monthly updates to um and regular pre-meeting updates during planning commission meetings.

So some clear themes emerged from what we heard from the community, our stakeholders, and other parties involved in the community engagement efforts for this plan.

One of those key themes was connectivity.

We did hear a lot about things like traffic concerns, a desire for improved connectivity, walkability, pedestrian and biker safety across the study area, and really a need to improve connections to things like parks, schools, and other areas of and key points of interest for the community.

The second theme sort of being around centered around preservation.

We heard a lot from the community that they really value the character and the feel of Deep Creek and the communities in Deep Creek, and they want that small town feel to be maintained and honored, as well as preserving the unique parks and natural areas that residents in this area value a lot, as well as a desire to honor the history of the area and the existing historic assets within Deep Creek and Camelot.

On the sort of theme of growth, we did hear a desire and a need to channel growth into areas that can support it, such as existing commercialized areas, but also balancing that with a need and a desire for more local businesses, retail, restaurants, places to go eat, take your family, places to gather for residents of this area, and really reduce the need to travel outside of Deep Creek to find those things to do and places to go.

And then finally, we heard a lot on the theme of design, including cohesive design in terms of architecture, residential communities and other communities within the area, and ensuring that the infrastructure and design of infrastructure reflects the needs of Deep Creek over time.

So from this input emerged directly our five guiding principles for the Deep Creek Area Plan.

These underpin all of the recommendations, policies, projects, and work that went into this plan.

And these include preservation, accessibility, connectivity, community empowerment, and balanced and responsible progress.

From there, the plan framework really came together, and the plan framework consists of the character districts for the study area, opportunity areas, which I'll talk about shortly, the mobility plan that really looks at transportation for different modes of access, the open space plan, and then finally the policies and projects for the plan.

So the character district recommendations, this is the same sort of land use model that we use in our comp in our 2045 adopted comprehensive plan.

The Deep Creek Area Plan makes specific recommendations, some of which align with what the adopted plan calls for, and some are additional recommendations that really focus on encouraging complete communities in Deep Creek rather than having them be isolated from the daily goods and services that folks need to access outside of their neighborhoods.

And then the open space plan within the study also identifies opportunities for parks, open space, trails, and water access points.

And these recommendations are in line with other city adopted plans, including our 2050 Trails Plan, the Master Transportation Plan, but it also provides some additional recommendations and additional opportunities to improve access, open space, and park space in the area.

The plan includes 47 policies that will guide investment decision making and drive the vision for the Deep Creek and Camelot communities.

These include policies that apply to the study area as a whole, as well as more tailored opportunity area specific policies.

So in addition to looking at the study area as a whole, this plan includes four distinct opportunity areas that were really identified as areas that are well poised and well positioned for a greater degree of transformation or enhancement over time.

So these include North George Washington Highway, South Military Highway, Deep Creek Village, and Culpepper Landing.

Our first opportunity area, North George Washington Highway is really envisioned to be a hub for neighborhood and community services.

It builds on a lot of the existing uses that residents already access on a daily basis, such as pharmacies, grocery stores, and other key services.

But it's going to include a lot of enhanced pedestrian connectivity and really leverages the waterfront in this area for additional recreational opportunities for residents to easily access.

And it's just one example of what could be possible in this particular opportunity area.

Our second opportunity area, South Military Highway.

This really serves as a reenvisioning of South Military from moving forward from the recommendations of the uh 2005 South Military Corridor study.

Um it envisions this area to be a diverse economic center for locals and the region.

Um but rather than forcing South Military to act like a main street, it proposes that South Military remain a natural thoroughfare as it is now and instead seeks to establish a new parallel main street.

As redevelopment opportunities present themselves on larger parcels in this area bordering South Military, there is additional opportunity for this improved connectivity and linking to the nearby residential and community assets like the major Hillard Library and other key destinations through the area.

So the Deep Creek Village Opportunity Area is envisioned to be a charming village center for the Deep Creek community.

This area is really meant to be a dynamic village center for gathering, dining, and recreation for residents of uh Deep Creek and Camelot.

And this vision takes into consideration the completion of the Deep Creek Bridge and the related traffic improvements to come from that.

In particular, a key feature of this opportunity area includes the old school site, which will serve as an anchor and uh key destination for uh area residents.

Through adaptive reuse, this site is proposed to feature uh dining and commercial space mixed with potential residential as well as a plaza and open green space that would lend itself to uh community events, uh things like festivals, farmers' markets, um, and other local events for the nearby residents and community.

I'll go back.

Um rather than taking additional vehicle trips outside of the area, this area will really help meet that need to have uh a destination somewhere to dine and gather and take your kids to play rather than leaving the Deep Creek area to find those things to do elsewhere in the city or even outside of the city in some cases.

Moving on to our final opportunity area, Culpepper Landing is envisioned to be a neighborhood with a park boulevard.

It's meant to uh better activate a currently underutilized green space and provide additional uh pedestrian and connectivity improvements throughout the area, um, including a pedestrian bridge uh across the canal, which based on some preliminary discussions with the Army Corps and looking at comparable projects like the one in South Mills, North Carolina here, um this proposed bridge could be a real uh possibility for uh additional access uh improvements for this area.

So moving on to kind of what's next for uh uh for the project here.

Um, staff have made final resid revisions to the draft plan based on community feedback that we've received throughout this process and planning commission had recommended approval of that revised draft on February 11th, 2026.

Um next, we hope to present the plan to city council for review in April, you know, prior to having an adopted plan.

Um but again, I thank you all for your time, and I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Um there any comments from council particularly thank you, by the way, for the whole plan.

Mr.

Smith.

Yes.

Uh thank you for the information shared.

I actually live in Deep Creek.

And my one question is in reference to the congested area, how much is being placed in that congested area of um George Washington Highway and when it goes back to White Nursery.

Can you share anything on that?

Good evening.

Um good question.

So one of the things that we didn't mention, so with adopting this plan potentially next month, as Anna said, it will be a subcomponent of the comprehensive plan.

So it will always any site that comes through will come back to you.

We'll go through the public hearing process and we'll then have a traffic analysis.

So any of your traffic concerns will certainly get another chance to be evaluated then.

Um as far as additional development, we're really not looking at going much denser than is there today in the Deep Creek Village site area.

Um so you've got some commercial, the right aid on the corner that's now vacant, um, looking to replace that with something else there today.

And then you've got the Deep Creek Village site.

So as Anna mentioned, a lot of this traffic is going to be traffic already on the road today.

The goal is to bring these residential areas amenities closer to them.

Excuse me.

So they don't have to travel outside of this area.

We heard from a lot of folks, and as you mentioned, you're a resident that folks travel to Grassfield, Green Bar to get whatever they're looking for, to go to restaurants, that sort of thing.

So the idea isn't to bring more people in from outside, but would be folks already traveling on the road.

Um and so from that standpoint, it wouldn't be additional traffic.

However, as any development came in, we would evaluate those one by one for additional trips.

Okay.

And then I have one more question.

Whatever you're putting along military highway, I couldn't define what part or what segment of military highway you're talking about improvements.

Yeah, so this particular opportunity area really looks at a segment of it, sort of from that interchange of George Washington Highway and South Military about to canal drive, I believe.

Um that's that's the boundaries of the opportunity area is defined, although certainly we do have policies and projects that look beyond that segment and at the study area as a whole.

Um I hope that helps to answer that question.

It it didn't cover anything on military highway from what you just shared.

Nothing on military highway.

Yes, yes, ma'am.

I'm gonna actually I'll tell you what, I'm gonna stand for a second here.

Yeah.

So I can't really what you're seeing here on the screen.

You'll see South Military Highway in the bottom left corner here, and it's it's it's taking a perspective.

We're looking from the interchange of George Washington Highway and Military Highway to look at this quadrant here.

Um the road that you see that kind of heads towards the the right side of the screen here, leads towards Major Hilliard Library.

So this would be that new main street that we're talking about.

Uh not necessarily turning our face to military highway as the previous plan called for, but actually having a slower uh lower traffic uh main street that allows you the opportunity to build bring the buildings to that main street and to provide connections to some of those community needs like the like the library and the treasurer's office and other pieces that are down there.

Ms.

Newens.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

Um thank you so much for the information.

Anna, this is a um, I think the Vice Mayor often says aspirational is the word she uses.

Um I really appreciate the renderings, and I think it's it's exciting to see something that is walkable and that the community can utilize.

But I just want to raise some concerns with the density.

I think Councilmember Les alluded to this as well.

There looks like in several of these different um villages or character districts, a they're classified as medium density, but I would say what is medium density to maybe the planning world is probably high density to Chesapeake.

So one of them renders, I think a three-story apartment.

Um I would say that's considered, at least in my opinion, high density to at least Chesapeake people.

So I I would like to see some consideration with less density to some of these areas.

I know we want to have some kind of density because you want to promote walkability, you want people to live where they can go like play, eat, work, play, all the things.

But I do have some concerns, especially with that one interchange with the market.

The rendering is is like a three-story apartment complex from what I can count uh right there by the bridge, which I just think will not work for for that area.

I think that level of density right there is the traffic's already horrific.

Adding a three-story apartment complex is going to be, I think, even further than aspirational, as the Vice Mayor may say.

So I just want us to consider um looking at the density levels, coming up with maybe some alternative plans.

I think there still could be some kind type of density, maybe just not three-story apartments.

I mean, maybe we could take it back a couple of notches, having townhomes or even single family residential, but I just would like to see some consideration for less density given the traffic concerns.

If that's I mean, I'm just one person, but if that's the council's will, I would just like to see that consideration.

Um Mr.

Jeffries, as our second Deep Creek resident, um, would you like to have any comments?

Sure.

Actually, my first uh question was related to uh Councilmember Newman's.

I seem to recall somewhere throughout the discussions and planning, were there proposed roadways for a rear exit from this uh development on George Washington?

It even looks like on the rendering there's some some roadways that are leading north, but it's not along George Washington.

Are you specifically referring to the village site?

Yes.

And you're talking about how they would access it?

Yes.

So we've had some preliminary conversations with public works.

The primary access would be off of Old Mill Road, and that is uh largely based on George Washington Highway there.

We want to keep that as free flow as possible and preserve access.

Um you may need some emergency access points, some handicapped spaces off that enter off of George Washington Highway.

Um, but preliminarily the main access point would be off of Old Mill Road, as you can um it's kind of faint, but you can see it um on this image here.

So the only way the residents can travel north or south is out through Old Mill to George Washington.

Correct.

Or the other direction, but yes, correct.

Yeah, it's a lot.

Mm-hmm.

There may be need to be some alternatives explored there.

And then uh just out of I guess curiosity, because this is obviously a ways into the future, in the back of Culpepper Landing, where would this bridge, the the footbridge is being proposed?

Where would that take residents?

So that would take them um across the canal um looking at um the Soares Mill area, so looking north, I believe.

Um connecting more to that Deep Creek Village area.

But it's essentially gonna that's a pretty major project for people to go on foot to ultimately their destination would be George Washington South.

So a couple of uh community assets are on the other side as well.

So we've got Deep Creek Park that is located there, and there are also plans uh that to extend the uh multi-use trail on that side, which also connects down to the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail.

So again, it's kind of promoting that connectivity uh, you know, from from a bicycle com uh bicyclist and pedestrian standpoint.

I think it's all anyone else.

Okay, that will give me a little bit of uh opportunity to discuss aspirational plans.

Um if I remember correctly, that pedestrian bridge was aspirational in the rezoning of Culpepper Landing, correct?

I believe so.

Oh, you weren't here, were you?

I was not here.

Okay.

Well, that's my recollection.

Is there any additional opportunity to access the refuge when you talk about connectivity?

There was always supposed to be an access in Culpepper Landing.

And there's one access off Martin Johnson Road.

Is there a plan for any other access?

So we called out so at the um Anna had mentioned that we have some policies and projects.

They are generic, but we do have a project in the plan to increase access to the Great Dismal Swamp Refuge, um, particularly along the southern side of Culpepper Landing.

We didn't call out specific locations, but that should be further studied to identify some.

So um it gives you a a gateway for looking into that further.

Okay.

Actually, none of the comments surprised me.

And am I correct in remembering that that whole village area where the old school is is city-owned.

That is correct.

Okay.

Um it also seemed to me in your connectivity aspiration.

Thank you for allowing me to use that word repetitively.

Yes, ma'am.

Like many areas of our city, this area in particular needs a lot of sidewalk improvements.

And the area in the village that gosh has been difficult.

It was difficult from the time that we added lanes and changed lane width there.

Is there even adequate right of way or property to put sidewalks?

So in the village area, it is going to be very difficult.

You would probably need right-of-way acquisition in some areas, particularly for the village site.

Our hope would be that the city owns this parcel right now, even if it was sold off, there would be some right-of-way donation to achieve a larger if we if we can only get it on one side, then hopefully doing a larger sidewalk on the side of the main village site.

But certainly it will be difficult to and there might need to be some compromises in terms of width and that sort of thing to get it in on all these locations.

I'm not sure we haven't compromised to the furthest extent we can on lane width.

So I agree completely with Mr.

Jeffries in access to that site is going to be important.

Again, this is a an aspirational particular layout.

There could certainly be access right in, right out on the frontage here.

I know there's some challenges, particularly as we we approach that uh that that section of George Washington Highway, and we certainly want to uh you know direct all traffic to signalize intersections as much as possible here, but certainly there could be potential for right in right out.

Yeah, I I know that this is kind of the you know, this is what we would like to see in some form.

Now there I have two minutes left, but I'm gonna be super brief.

In the Dominion plan, there were seven policies needed to make it a success.

How many have we done?

I think that there have certainly been some policies that we have been able to implement, and there are certainly some that we have not been able to implement.

Okay, but how many have been written and accepted by counsel?

As far as policies that have been written.

Those seven policies.

I I'm not sure exactly.

Now you know, Mr.

McMahon, I hold you in very, very high regard.

So just go ahead and tell the truth.

None.

You all have accepted what I consider an undue burden by trying to develop policies.

I I'm standing up for you here.

Develop policies application by application, and I applaud you for trying to do that.

Um, but the very thought of 47 policies gives me a headache.

I'm sure you can understand.

So that's one thing that can move an aspirational plan into reality for the things our citizens desire and take that total burden off your department parcel by parcel.

So I would be remiss if I did not make that comment tonight.

Um I hope we can do something about that.

I mean, we can even start with Dominion.

But they've done their very best.

Um it's roadblock after roadblock for the planning department and the rest of the city staff.

So I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't make and you wouldn't, you'd think I'd lost it, right?

Okay.

Any other comments on this before we move on?

The manager wanted to.

Oh, Mr.

Price?

A couple of closing comments.

So these are excellent comments, and we really appreciate it.

And we will take those that feedback as we as we continue to refine our recommendations.

I do want to just give sort of a high-level overview of from city management perspective how we implement these plans.

You've you've mentioned the words aspirational.

We we talked, I think last month about their sort of the it there, it's a guide.

And so we don't know what we don't know.

And I'll give you, for instance, so in the Deep Creek Village, we've gotten a variety of unsolicited proposals for use of the old school buildings.

And there's a there's a range of alternatives for use of those buildings, from demolishing the buildings and putting a big box retailer there to rehabbing the buildings and have them be you know, market-rate apartments or affordable housing, lots of different alternatives.

And so the plan starts with starts with no assumptions, and so they really went out and surveyed the community and said, Do you even want these buildings to stay up?

And it was for a while it was like 50-50.

There was no clear consensus about whether the building should even remain.

So it's really tremendous progress to go from that point to, okay, if they remain, what's sort of a theoretical mix of uses that would add value to that community, not just the city as a whole, but in particular that community.

And so we will use the recommendations in the plans when we receive private development proposals for use of city property, or um entitlement proposals on private property, and in our capital program.

So if you think about, you know, as we look to develop more sidewalks, as we look to um we we we have so many pieces of sidewalks and trails that don't connect to each other, and over time we're trying to do a better job of linking those.

But how do we prioritize which ones to link up?

That's based on these guidelines, aspirational as they may be, but in every budget, every year you see them go from aspiration to reality, and and we advance them as a city and and the private sector advances them through development proposals.

Even the nature of the um the density, and and I think of the what Councilmember Newman said and Councilmember Jeffries echoed about the density in the village, I had the same reaction when I first saw the map.

Um, but and there's no right answer to what amount of density.

And the answer to that question might be different if it's just a standalone development proposal, or if we were to say, if that were a transfer of development rights receiving area, and the outcome was going to be a walkable mixed-use development, and we were going to preserve farmland somewhere else, maybe that would be something that warrants additional density above what we might might otherwise have been comfortable with.

So aspirational is a great word.

Guideline, you know, is is sort of the word we use.

But again, appreciate the feedback, and we certainly will uh take all that and um uh and craft those recommendations as we come forward for council.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

All right.

Um we'll move on then, Mr.

Manager.

Thank you.

So um you recall from last year, we we talked about this uh during the budget session, we talked about this at uh work session and during council retreat.

It's really something that we're proud of in Chesapeake is having an open for business philosophy, and we get um a lot of kudos from the the business community about doing business in in Chesapeake, but the focus a lot of times is on um new businesses that are coming to the city, and a lot of times they are big businesses.

So the things that make the headlines are things like LS GreenLink, the major economic development and investment.

But the huge majority of our jobs are in small businesses.

They're entrepreneurs right here in the community that have started businesses, that are growing businesses, or folks from other communities that are considering expanding their businesses and coming into Chesapeake.

So we have tasked each of our departments with finding ways that they can demonstrate that open for business philosophy.

Um certainly at the forefront of that, but each department has a role to play, and you'll hear some of that today.

Uh Stephen Wright, um, director of economic development and his team have been hard at work really expanding the tools that we have to offer our small business community, and the team wanted to present to council and to the community some of the tools that they have been working on.

So I'll turn it over to Stephen.

Thank you, Mr.

Manager.

Uh Madam Vice Mayor, members of council, uh again, I'm Stephen Wright, Director of Economic Development, very pleased to have the opportunity to come and present to you today.

Uh I'm joined by two members of our business development team.

Uh with us today we have Ms.

Kistine, better known as KP, Christine Plar, and also Ms.

Tanisha Golston, who we affectionately call Sunny because of her sunny demeanor.

As the manager said, we have enjoyed a tremendous amount of success lately, particularly as it relates to large business, particularly as it relates to foreign direct investment coming into the city.

But as the manager said, the majority of the businesses in Chesapeake, approximately 96% of the businesses in Chesapeake are indeed small businesses.

So it's critically important that we stay connected to our small business community and that we help them in any way that we can.

I think many of you have heard me describe economic development as not so much marketing and promotion, but really education.

And there's no area where that shows up more than with our small business development program.

I believe it was back in July of 2022 that we got the resources to really start our small business program.

And it was really important because if you think back to what we experienced during the pandemic, this council was very generous.

You turned over about five million dollars to the economic development department to get that money out into the small business community so we could help that segment of our community.

And in doing that, we learned a lot of important lessons.

What we learned is what our small business community needs more than anything, even more than money, is knowledge, is education.

Many small businesses do not have law departments.

They don't have marketing departments.

They have one or two people that do it all.

So consequently, they need access to information, access to knowledge so that they can truly grow their businesses and work smarter and not harder.

So the crux of our small business program is just that getting information, getting resources, getting knowledge to those small businesses.

And we do that in a variety of different ways.

Mainly we partner with other small business resource providers in the region.

Three of them are listed here on this slide.

The Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads, we have a very long-standing relationship with them.

The SWAM office out of the Commonwealth of Virginia, as well as Eva and the Virginia Procurement Department.

I would also like to give a shout out to Carol Robinson and who is the director of our procurement department.

She does a fantastic job of working with us to make sure that our small businesses are aware of the business opportunities that exist here.

Okay.

With that, I'm going to stop.

I'm going to turn things over to KP and let her tell you about some of the additional initiatives that we've participated in.

Thank you, Stephen, and good afternoon, everyone.

Again, my name is KP.

I'm one of the business development managers.

And so one of the things that I will talk to you about is the programming that has happened since the last update, which was in February 2024.

So we've had a very busy, I would say, two years of programming.

And some of the programs, many of City Council has actually been in attendance, which thank you for that.

But one of the grand events is our small business symposium.

And the small business symposium was held last spring, right around this time at the Chesapeake or Chesapeake Conference Center, and I'll get into more details about that later on.

But in addition to other programming, again related to education, is ensuring that our small businesses have the tools to obtain a SWAM V certification.

SWAM V, small minority and women-owned and veteran service disabled owned certification, and the importance of that certification and how it can be leveraged to grow their business.

And so we have those workshops very often at our offices as well as one-on-one with our SBSD, Small Business and Supplier Diversity representative, so that these businesses can get that certification and leverage that in order to obtain procurement bids.

With that, in addition to local and state procurement, one thing that has been new to our department is trying to provide more information specifically on federal procurement, which had previously not been done.

But we expressed we had a lot of expressed interest from the business community that it was a very difficult task to navigate the federal procurement space.

And so with that, we were able to put together a six-week contracting series, and at the end of that, those businesses felt that they were ready and able to tackle that and to be able to go for those federal contracts and bring more of those federal DOD dollars here to Chesapeake.

So those are the more specific one-off type events.

But one thing that has remained consistent over these two years is having the Chesapeake BizChat as well as one-on-one business counseling.

And some of those happen more often than not in person because being out in the community has been one of the greatest aspects of this job.

And so none of these things are possible without pointing these businesses to a reputable resource.

And so one thing that our department's been able to provide is high quality information at low, low cost of free.

And so none of that is possible without these partnerships.

And as Mr.

Wright mentioned before, the Small Business Development Center is one of our most valuable supporting partners in this, along with the Hampton Roads Chamber and other city departments, such as again the procurement department as well as the Commissioner of the Revenues Department zoning, everyone has had a hand in small business development in the city.

And for the small business symposium, one thing I wanted to highlight is again that it was a collaborative effort.

We were able to put this on because of the support from the procurement department, and they led an entire session on the city's procurement process.

So having that educational piece, but on top of that, having that in-person connection so that the small businesses could meet with the procurement department and understand the process so that it is more easily navigable for them.

So with that, the symposium's theme was around how to do business with the city of Chesapeake and to grow that from not just the local, but also having state and federal contracting representatives available to the businesses in one place.

And this was all accomplished in a half-day workshop.

Of that, you can see we had over 110 attendees, and almost half of them were Chesapeake based businesses, and the ones that weren't, we got their business cards so that they could become Chesapeake based businesses.

And I also wanted to highlight that we had over a dozen of these resource partners.

Most of them were listed on the slide previous, but others include the Port of Virginia, which also has a robust procurement department.

And last, I just wanted to cover again just a few of the programming that maybe is more consistent, something that we do day in and day out, which includes our business retention visits.

And this is something where one or multiple members of our department do go out to visit the businesses and sit down and have a conversation.

It can be very frank, and sometimes it's extremely enlightening, which has helped us shape the small business programming to what it is today, because we are hearing directly from the small business owners and from their staff.

Sometimes it's just that one other person, or maybe it's a few more.

And so we have continued to do those business retention visits, those one-on-one business counseling sessions alongside our business resource partners such as the small business and supplier diversity office.

And then last is again the government contract training, just a one-off, but hopefully this is going to be something that will continue because of the express interest that we got from the business community.

And so with that, I will turn it back to Mr.

Wright.

Thank you, KP.

Um I just want to say the work that we've done thus far has been very, very, very impactful in our community.

Um but you know it it really hasn't been impactful just in Chesapeake.

Um Chesapeake is known as the city that cares.

Uh I can tell you city is all Chesapeake is also known as the city that cares about small business.

Oh, because many times the events that we hold, the sessions, the seminars, we get a lot of people outside of Chesapeake that come in.

Um and they want to uh take advantage of our offering.

So it is really, really important, as KP said, that we capture those individuals.

We understand we get their information so that we can follow up with them.

Uh, because in Chesapeake, we do believe that all businesses are important.

Yes, the larger businesses get a lot more attention, um, but we treat all of our businesses the same with the utmost of professionalism and responsiveness.

And it is our sincere hope uh that when folks from outside of Chesapeake come to one of our events, uh, that it's just a matter of time before we actually get them to actually locate their business here within the city as well.

What I like to do now is turn things over to Sunny, and she's going to tell you about some of the initiatives that are going to be coming up in the future with our small business program.

Good afternoon, everyone.

So with continuing with the wonderful momentum that my team has had up until this point, we are continuing with the educational and workshop series.

Also, we have the Women in Defense event coming up, and that's in partner with uh partnership with Hilary Boyce, and she's the president of the Women in Defense Greater Hampton Roads organization.

Um so that'll be coming up in August.

Uh we'll also have the Hamden Roads Military Business Networking event.

Um a lot of times, uh not only just our small businesses, but our veteran-owned businesses feel like that they kind of get cast off to the wayside.

So we want to make sure that they're just as um important and and supported as any of our other small businesses.

Um and we also have our uh size up launch coming up.

So we are excited about that resource tool.

Um, and that will be coming up soon.

So if you guys want to be a part of that, let us know.

We're happy to um include you into that.

And then we also had our small business portal, um, that launched recently, and our small business portal has a ton of resources.

So everybody needs a toolkit, especially businesses.

So with our um business portal, uh that feature has and it's on our website.

Um, we offer real estate information, transportation information, workforce information.

If you're looking for event, that's going to be listed on our website as well.

Um, different incentives and how to go about making sure you you qualify for them or whatever opportunities coming about.

We have quantity quantitative data such as cost of living and demographics, and we also have again the newest addition to our toolkit, size up.

And then now, oh you guys don't have that.

Uh so our size up resource tool is um pretty much the best tool I think you could have, especially as a small business.

If you're a starting up, if you've already been established, you're looking to grow your business.

It offers um small business insights, different resources, and a shop and eat local tool.

So with the insights, you can measure your performance and compare it to your competitors around um the Chesapeake and as well as the Hampton Roads region as a whole.

Um it also allows you to explore different topics across your journey.

So if you are looking to expand and you just want to see how somebody else did it, but you kind of nervous about having a conversation with somebody face to face, you can read a newsletter from another business with a comparative city.

Um then also obviously we want people to come eat, play, live, farm, and work here.

So we offer um the size up tool offers um the eat and shop local tab where you can search whatever business you're looking for and continue to um pour into our local economy.

And on the back end of size up, so a tool that we can make sure that um we I guess check and make sure we we understand what our businesses are looking for.

So we have um this beautiful pinwheel that um gives us information on what's being searched for most on the size up tool, and then based on the information that we can gather from there, we can kind of cater different workshops and different series and contact different partners to come in and do a workshop for us so that we're providing a full service to our small businesses.

And that is it for me.

All right, thank you, Sonny.

Uh I can't tell you how excited we are about the size up tool.

Uh we did do a soft launch of that tool uh a little while ago, but we are uh anticipating doing a big rollout of this tool uh during small business month, which I believe is in May.

Yes.

Okay.

So uh we're gonna roll this out on a larger level to more of our small business community because we really think it's a valuable tool.

It really gives them insight as to how they can compete uh in the marketplace uh and hopefully get results.

Now I know I said earlier that what businesses need most is knowledge, information, resources.

Um, but they also need money too, uh that's what business is all about.

So I wanted to share with you a couple of the financial incentives that we offer our small businesses.

And I want to again thank City Council because a long time ago, back in 2008, you gave us the ability to broaden uh our incentive program to include small businesses.

Before that, uh only large businesses, uh 50 uh employees or more with five million dollars of investment more or more, those were the only companies that could take advantage of our economic development investment program.

But in 2008, uh we made the change to include small businesses.

Um it was for any business with less than 50 employees, had to be operational for at least three years, but it required a minimum investment of at least a half million dollars, and in addition to investing at least a half million dollars, you had to create five new jobs.

Now, since 2008, we have had a lot of success with this program.

Uh about a third of all of the EDIP grants that have been provided by the City of Chesapeake have gone to small businesses.

Uh but I will tell you, it's probably a less than one percent of the monies have gone to small businesses.

So we really believe that it's it's time for us to look at other ways that we can uh provide some level of financial support to businesses.

Um in addition to the EDIP, though, we also have uh the facade grant program.

Uh that is a program that we uh participate in in conjunction with our planning department.

Uh it's been really successful.

It started uh in uh Great Bridge and it has expanded to South Norfolk and Indian River.

We've done five grants thus far.

Um and while the total amount awarded is a little under 70,000, we feel as though the impact has been pretty strong, particularly in Great Bridge, because we've seen uh some dilapidated bus buildings really improved and become much more marketable, uh and we're looking forward to rolling this program out in an even more robust way in the future.

Um but returning to incentives, um we realize that our businesses, uh some of our small businesses don't qualify with the half million dollar uh threshold or the five new job threshold.

So one of the things that we will be uh looking at and potentially coming to you in the future to discuss is additional financing programs that can help small businesses.

Uh we want to look at grants, loans, maybe micro, micro grants or micro loans where we can help businesses with working capital.

Uh maybe it's helping them learn more about digital marketing, particularly in this time of AI, uh, because a lot of businesses need to be aware of that and they need to know how to leverage those resources.

So, in a nutshell, um I think we have a really strong program thus far, but we want to make it stronger.

Um so we are always going to try to be creative uh and come up with new ideas that we can bring to you that you can support uh so that our businesses, particularly our small businesses, can get the resources and the support they need to continue to grow here in the City of Chesapeake.

And that's all we have for you this evening.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any comments from council members?

Um Mr.

Whitaker.

Thank you, Mayor.

Mr.

Wright, thank you very much for the presentation.

As a small business center myself, I'm very encouraged to see that the amount of tools that are here to help support other small businesses.

Um have no idea what they're doing.

And so to have these resources available is very encouraging.

Uh we I think we all know that small business is the cornerstone and backbone of any uh uh municipality's economy.

So thank you very much for what you are doing and keep up good work.

Anyone else?

I would have to agree having a family experience, not me, of course, of a member of the family being hired as a company's 15th employee.

And when that person retired, they had a thousand employees and offices all over the country.

And it was a blue-collar company.

So they weren't located in Chesapeake.

I'm sorry they weren't.

They tried to be, but that was before the Jordan Bridge was replaced.

Pardon me?

Economic development.

But anyway, you all do a terrific job.

And thank you for the punctuation.

I've always been troubled by the small women without the comma.

I know that's silly, but you know, I I think y'all are doing a terrific job with especially with the small businesses and wish them all the success.

I'd just like to close with, you know, this doesn't happen by accident.

So they've been tremendously successful, but it starts with council making economic prosperity one of the pillars of our strategic plan.

And if you think about the plan, it's it's increasing the tax base, it's diversifying the tax base, it's adding jobs, it's increasing wages.

Um, so we stay laser focused on the outcomes that council is trying to achieve.

And then the conversations we've had with council over the years.

So it's no accident that one of the things we focused on was procurement.

So a few years ago, I believe it was Councilmember Newman specifically asked us how could we make it easier for Chesapeake businesses to do business with the city of Chesapeake.

So we've done a lot of work engaging the business community.

And in fact, our procurement department has a um a session next week and expo with um and we have ninety uh registrants, and so these are local companies um trying to do business um uh with the city.

The financial incentives that Stephen mentioned and the technology and business consulting services, these are things that didn't exist five years ago, but they exist today because council had the vision to say that this is really really important to the community, and then we've had those conversations to make sure we continue to execute that vision.

So I just want to say thank you to council as well.

Thank you.

Anything else council would like to add?

Okay, with that, we'll end the work session and reconvene at six thirty.

Thank you all so much.

I'm going to call the council meeting to order at this time.

Thank you.

Let us pray.

Our father, we give thanks for this day and for the opportunity to serve our community.

We are grateful for the trust placed in us and for the shared commitment to the well-being of our city.

Grant us wisdom as we deliberate, clarity as we speak, and patience and respect for all during discussions.

May our decisions be guided by integrity, compassion, and the desire for justice and the common good.

Bless this city, its residents, families, businesses, and neighborhoods.

May our work today promote peace, safety, and prosperity for all who call Chesapeake home.

Amen.

Under God.

Thanks, buddy.

Madam Clerk, would you call the roll, please?

Councilmember Bunn.

Here.

Councilmember Jeffries.

Here.

Councilmember King.

Here.

Councilmember Newens here.

Councilmember Smith.

Here.

Councilmember Ward.

Present.

Councilmember Whitaker.

Present.

Vice Mayor Dietrich.

Vice Mayor Ritter.

Here.

And Mayor West is excused.

Thank you.

Before we get started, I just like to say, as you can tell from Ms.

Madison, we're also getting used to me sitting in this seat.

And so this will be the first time I've led a meeting.

The mayor is overseas on an important trade and economic development trip.

So please bear with me.

Um as I try to navigate this.

So at this time, we'll have the approval of the proposed agenda.

Are there any changes to the proposed agenda?

If not, a motion is in order to approve the agenda as presented.

We'll move approval.

Do you approve the agenda as present it?

All right.

So I'll take Dr.

King as making the motion and Ms.

Newens as the second.

Right?

Okay.

Dr.

Ward as the second.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

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

Okay.

For informational purposes, the City Council meeting constitutes a limited public forum.

Therefore, public comments must be relative to items on the council's agenda tonight.

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 facts proposed in the agenda.

Further, to strike a balance between maintaining order and honoring the public's right to express themselves, and as established by City Council's rules of order and procedure.

Any speaker that delays, interrupts, or otherwise disrupts the council's ability to conduct the meeting in an orderly manner by disorderly, insolent or disturbing action, speech, or other conduct will be declared out of order.

Madam Clerk, are there any speakers who wish to speak prior to the presentation of public hearing?

No, ma'am.

Thank you.

All right.

Madam Clerk, please present public hearing planning item A.

PLN REZ 2025-009, Viridian Reserve North, Kroll Residential Inc.

applicant, drawn development group, LLC owner, Williams Mullen Agency for a conditional zoning reclassification of approximately 25.3 acres from A1 agricultural district to R8 residential district.

The property is located west of Berkshire Forest, north of Viridian Reserve, and south of Hambury Woods in the Great Bridge Planning Area.

The planning commission commission recommends denial.

A continuous request to the April 21st Council meeting has been received.

Mr.

McCoy.

Sorry.

Mr.

McNamara, could we have the planning staff recommendation, please?

The proposed rezoning continues a compatible residential development pattern while dedicating public parkland, making a critical roadway connection, and preserving open space and opportunity for future pedestrian and vehicular connections.

Staff recommends approval with Proffers Day, January 15th, 2026.

Thank you.

Ms.

Madison, do we have any speakers?

Yes, ma'am.

We have seven speakers.

The first speaker is Grady Palmer.

Okay.

Before we launch into that, would you review with the potential speakers the time allotted to them?

The applicant will be allotted 10 minutes to present, and the remaining six citizens will be given five minutes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Ritter, members of City Council.

My name is Grady Palmer, my business address 22 Central Park Avenue in the City of Virginia Beach.

It's a pleasure to be here to you tonight.

We've been working on this project.

I've been working in this area for many, many years, and particularly Edinburgh Parkway.

And we are very close to closing the gap from Hambury Road all the way to Edinburgh commercial areas.

And so there will be a new north-south corridor for people to travel as an alternative to Battlefield Boulevard.

And so that really is the reason for the continuance request.

And so what we would do over these next 60 days is work with that property owner to obtain the rights to build the road.

And the road is important for two reasons.

One for uh ingress and egress as an alternative to Battlefield Boulevard, but it's also important for public utilities.

There is a very significant public utility improvement that this project will make that will that will create a loop and an alternative to the aging water line on Battlefield Boulevard.

Much of Great Bridge is served by that single uh single line, and so this project uh will produce a loop and an alternative that's an important uh aspect to public utilities.

And so for those two reasons, we ask that you continue this for 60 days.

We will work diligently uh to to get this matter to a conclusion so then I can revise my proffers to commit to Edinburgh Parkway.

And so that's the reason for the continuance request.

I do ask for your approval of that, and I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um prior to calling the other speakers, there has been a continuance request.

Um they have that was submitted only today.

So should you like to speak, you may speak either on the continuance or on the merits of the project.

You've come all the way anticipating that opportunity.

Whether council grants, you know, council likely may grant, and you are certainly welcome to come back at that time, but we will also leave it to you to have the opportunity to speak to the merit should you want to.

And each one will have five minutes.

Ms.

Madison Emma Dabian representing self speaking in opposition, followed by Rhonda Condraud.

Good evening, Council members.

I'm Emma Dabian.

I live on Wisdom Path at the intersection of Edinburgh Parkway.

Um I have two concerns primarily with the merit of the development proposal.

The first of those concerns is the impact on our schools in Great Bridge, specifically for Southeastern Elementary.

As I understand it, Southeastern is already well over capacity.

I do know there is a proffer included in the proposal for a certificate of occupancy for the current expansion at Southeastern.

However, with that expansion and all of the other developments that are currently happening along South Battlefield, we will still be over capacity at Southeastern as it's projected.

We, of course, do not want to impact our students currently or future students or our teachers and resources.

Chesapeake is a place where people come for good schools.

That's why my husband and I moved to this area, and we want to continue to have that kind of reputation in our city.

My second concern is the traffic proposal.

So with the current proposal, the new development would not connect to the other two surrounding neighborhoods, forcing more and more traffic to come directly through Veridian Reserve.

That of course poses safety concerns and impacts us, especially during heavy peak commuting hours with more and more traffic on the roads.

So with all of that, I would say please just consider those two concerns.

My primary thing would be can we have some kind of proactive commitment for our schools and making sure those are not over capacity before moving forward with this development.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rhonda Condra, speaking in opposition, followed by Brooks Spangler.

If the second speaker would come down to the front, it will say some time.

Brooke.

Thank you, council members, for allowing us to have this opportunity.

The first thing I would like to say is that I'm against the continuance.

I think the applicants have had enough time to work on getting the approval from the current landowner who obviously is in opposition to this, in order for them to be here today and present in front of you.

As a homeowner in Viridian Reserve, I was one of the original homeowners.

We built there because we love the beauty.

I'm originally from New York City where you don't see a lot of green and you don't see a lot of animals, and you don't have that nature that we have here.

We moved from Virginia Beach.

We moved to Greenbrier.

Greenbrier became crowded.

When we had this opportunity to come further south, we were told Viridian Reserve was its name, a reserve, a place where you would see all of the beauty that really defines Chesapeake.

Today, we see so many deer, so many beautiful birds.

I mean, I see bluebirds and blue jays and cardinals and everything else in my yard.

But we also see these animals that are now displaced.

I can't tell you how many times in the last few weeks we've seen eagles circling our neighborhood.

We all have small pets, we all have small kids.

But these eagles that typically would stay over by the wooded areas and the farm areas are now circling our neighborhood.

We have animals that are totally displaced that would typically have food sources at these locations where they're currently building.

You guys approved another housing development just north from us.

400 additional homes.

Now we're looking south and looking to build more.

Today, driving to Virginia Beach to get to work takes me almost an hour.

And it takes me forever to get to work.

It is so stressful.

It's also stressful for our children that are learning to drive.

Think about those things we really do want to preserve.

I know it's hard saying no sometimes, but development isn't always a great thing, especially when we're losing what makes us great.

We're Chesapeake.

The beauty of seeing our bird.

You know, seeing that blue heron, going out back and me seeing one flying around our lake.

That's the beauty of our city.

We're not Norfolk, we're not Virginia Beach.

We're not Suffolk.

That's what sets us apart.

And at some point, we have to say enough is enough.

Do we really want citizens moving even further south to Molyac or moving out to Suffolk?

Because they're looking for that reserve.

They're looking for that place they can call home and not have neighbors on top of neighbors are stuck in traffic where you're coming home and it's spending an hour just to get back to your home and you're exhausted by that.

I'll tell you what kind of neighborhood Viridian is.

We just recently on Sunday lost a mother, one of our neighbors.

I'm tearing up because she was very passionate about this.

As a matter of fact, last week, she sent me a video of all the deer in her backyard.

And she said, isn't this a shame?

Because her backyard backs up exactly to where they want to build today.

She passed away on Sunday at the age of 38.

We're all here after just planning to help her family because we knew this was what she was passionate about.

Maria knew that this was not going to be a good thing for her family.

This is the kind of neighborhood we live in.

We pull together, we help each other, we love our community, and yes, we want to preserve that beauty of our community.

So I I plead with you.

Please think about it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Brooks Bangler.

Speaking in opposition, follow by Rachel Johnson.

Good evening.

My name is Brooks Bangler.

I live at 324 Wisdom Path.

I attended the February City Planning Committee meeting and uh observed and watched and participated in that really thorough review of this project and all the components that were considered.

Um and after that whole review, um the committee took into account the environmental impact of this development, uh, the continued overcrowding of our elementary school that will go from 146% capacity to 120% capacity after the new extension opens, and also noted that the significant lack of support from the surrounding communities.

Um based on all that information, the committee voted against uh moving this project forward.

And so my question is what is the point of having a planning committee if you don't take the recommendation to into account?

The Hanbury extension or the excuse me, the Edinburgh extension to Hanbury, I understand is in a in the city planning meet uh plans for 2050, but that does not mean that we need to have a new neighborhood that goes along with it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Rachel Johnson, speaking in opposition, follow by Charlie UN.

Good evening.

I am Rachel Johnson.

I'm at 326 Wisdom Path in Verity and Reserve.

Um I would like to uh respectfully oppose granting the continuance uh for the development behind our neighborhood Viridian Reserve.

Um nothing has changed from the meeting that we had in February to the meeting that were to to tonight, basically.

Um if the decision has already been made um that we want this road.

I mean, I think everybody wants the road at some point or another, like she said, it's already in the 2050 thing.

However, um this development moving forward to the expansion of the Edinburgh Parkway, and then our community um deserves to be heard on how that development takes shape.

At a minimum, we are asking the city leaders and developers to work with us to reduce the impact on our neighborhood.

The currently proposed 10-foot easement that they are uh showing is not sufficient, and we even brought that up when we initially met with them back in December, and not a bit of that was even touched.

Trying to protect our uh privacy, our wildlife corridors, maintain a natural buffer that defines Viridian Reserve.

Expanding this buffer would help provide both the environment and the quality of life for the existing residents.

And we're asking that the overall density of the project be reconsidered, cramming an additional 43, 44 homes into this limited space is going to only intensify the strain on our traffic, our schools, and our infrastructure while further eroding the character of our community.

If development cannot be stopped, it must at least be done responsibly.

That's the way we're thinking right now, with respect for the families who already live here and for the natural environment that cannot be replaced.

We are asking to stop the process, or to we are not asking necessarily to stop the progress.

We are asking for thoughtful balanced growth that does not come at the expense of everything that makes Great Bridge and Viridian Reserve a place where our people call and are proud to be called call home.

So with that, we are asking you to, or I am asking, um, to deny the continuance.

And like I said, if we want the road, we want the road, but it doesn't have to be done at the expense of tearing down all of those woods, displacing at least the 14 deer that we just had in our backyard yesterday.

And when it comes to the traffic, I mean, other than going to Target and Home Depot, nobody goes south unless you're leaving the state.

So it's not helping our traffic.

Everybody is going north.

It is doing nothing to support the traffic of taking anything off of battlefield or the expressway.

And to see that traffic um report absolutely didn't make any sense.

I could keep talking, but I'm not.

So thank you for your consideration.

And we really truly do hope that you deny this and don't let it go any further.

Thank you, thank you.

Charlie, you in follow by Michelle Saunders.

Excuse me, Sanders.

Good evening.

Um member of Council.

Uh thank you for this opportunity.

Um I'm uh Charlie Yuan, living in Meridian Reserve on two sixth um visiting path.

And I respectfully uh oppose the reserve north project, um which you proposed building 47 um homes north.

Um in addition to already approved the South Um project, adding more than 400 homes.

Uh I propose uh with uh four uh reasons uh echo to my uh neighbors.

Uh I emphasize with my personal experience.

Um first of course to talk about the um those land is not empty.

There they are woods um active uh natural uh habit uh as uh our neighbors observed the years other while uh lives depend on this area uh for uh shelter food and uh movement.

Um from China um and my kids today here.

Um why I I moved here because uh personally I observed how China sacrifice uh you know the natural uh habit uh you know those uh um natural resources for you know rapid growth.

So we have to have sustainable you know growth responsible.

So I think uh United States should have made many areas actually made very good choices.

So I hope the city council can you know keep doing the good things, you know, for the uh citizens.

I mean Chesapeake.

Second, um the land also play plays an important role in water management.

Uh personally, in last I believe it was seven years.

Yeah, I moved here seven or eight years, and uh we had the big flooding, you know, in the uh the area.

Uh I observed uh even like uh um Home Depot, you know, like uh um Target uh wal Walmart.

Huge flop.

I was so surprised, and you know how you know close, you know, because uh, you know, we are close to the flooding area because I I checked the you know that my neighborhood actually was not historical flooding Zoom.

And uh the reason I I figure out why, because the I saw the older those shopping area, those no, they're frightening us significantly.

And I learned actually they they uh and you can see that on the map.

So basically, it acts as a natural challenge and uh absorption areas.

That's why a lot of time, you know, we didn't suffer for flooding.

That's good news for us.

We don't want to you know destroy our water, you know, um drainage.

Um the project will increase the risks for the kids because now, as we mentioned, those are souths, the 400 you know, homes in the those big trucks, you know, came here uh every morning, and actually kids actually waiting for for buses there.

Uh oh, because uh during the the daytime, some little kids like the play outside because supposedly we we are there's a no uh you know, this is like uh um suppose this is not like for for the trip, you know, uh through traffic, but now those are heavy um trucks, camel.

Think about it.

This is already it's very for me, you know, bring kids outside because sometimes they just uh you know play off the bulls, you know, you know, chase off the bulls.

If we have another project being the north, there's no place to, you know, for kids to really, you know, have a found time and we really worry about.

Um so uh that's the third reason I concerned uh debris.

Finally, this project that changes the characters of our community as uh our neighbors uh uh concerned.

So many of us actually choose to live here because of the woods, the open space, but now we have to move.

Looks like we have to move the south to the North Carolina.

Uh growth is important, but it must be balanced.

Okay, growth.

Um excuse me, sir.

Thank you.

The final speaker is Michelle Sanders speaking in opposition.

Good evening, everybody.

Um, my name's Michelle Sanders.

I live at Wisdom Path 304.

I've lived there for the last 10 years.

Um I'm a retired Navy nurse and I'm from California.

And so I've had an opportunity to live in many different plates of the United States.

Um, but one thing I noticed about uh Chesapeake or Virginia in general, uh, when we first moved here, I thought, dang, they'll just pop up a neighborhood anywhere.

It didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me.

Uh, but this is actually affecting me now, so I I feel like I have a lot more invested.

And what I mean by that is when I lived in California, oftentimes when they were building new um developments and such, um, the developers would add different taxes, taxes in order to help pay for infrastructure, schools, fire departments, things that help support the people that are coming to move there.

Um, again, like I said, I lived there for 10 years, and the first thing that it did affect me is then you know, we were told we were zoned for hickory.

Then all of a sudden my family got zoned for Great Bridge.

So I was like, okay, my kids were in elementary school, I was still active duty at the time.

I didn't necessarily know that that would affect me too much.

But after I retired, we did decide to stay here in Chesapeake because we do love this environment.

We've um definitely planted roots.

We have a wonderful neighborhood.

I I think one of our neighborhood is one of the most desired, I would say, to actually live.

Um we truly do have an amazing um network of neighbors.

But when I think about it, um my all three of my children have gone through Southeastern Elementary.

My youngest, he's 10 years old, he's in the fifth grade right now.

Um if you haven't seen the portables that they have at Southeastern Elementary, it's absolutely embarrassing.

They look almost tattered, torn.

Um he has 32 students in his class.

Um we talk about overcrowding, that's overcrowding.

Um his teacher, I think she's retiring this year, she's exhausted.

Um, you know, he he talks about how it's cold in the the portable.

It's like in my mind, I'm thinking, why can't we be fixing things like this?

Other things I think about as the traffic.

Um they talk about attaching Edinburgh partway over to Hanbury.

Have you seen Hanberry during the hours of drop-off for the intermediate school at Great Bridge or Grey Bridge High School?

I have a 16-year-old daughter who's just now driving.

It's crazy.

And for the last two years, I would drive to Great Bridge High School every morning.

So the traffic there in the morning alone, it backs up all the way almost to battlefield.

It's like what's the problem?

What's gonna be the fix then?

You can put a light in there?

Well, it's kind of a short distance.

I'm not sure what you're thinking about.

That but that's something to think about as well.

Um, you know, leaving Kegman.

I don't know how many accidents I've seen leaving Kegman, and I think we've been asking for a light there.

That's another safety issue on South Battlefield heading towards uh Kegman.

There they have a turn lane there, and that's part of the reason I feel like there's a lot of accidents.

There's a turn lane and it causes a blind spot for seeing the people who are going straight.

Again, I I wish I had looked up or had the means at this point to give you the statistics for there because that has been numerous accidents there.

I mean, I don't need to belabor the point as far as the wildlife and such, but it is true.

I my son came and grabbed me just the other day.

Mom, mom, look, there was a family of deers.

There was eight deers out there that we saw.

It's amazing.

But um, regardless, I'm in strong opposition of this uh project.

Um, I think you need to think of every aspect of it.

It's not just a matter of the wildlife and the infrastructure and how he's talking about the water and things like that.

But it's also like think about what are you doing to people?

You know, I don't know, and then on Hanberry, if you're if you're on Hanberry, and if you do attach the Edinburgh Parkway, good luck making a left-hand turn there.

You're gonna need a light, like I said, you're gonna need a light there.

There's no way, but it's in the mornings, go drive there in the morning and see what it's like.

Go see.

I live there, I see it every day.

And I think you know, adding another 40, 45 houses or whatever it is, uh, it's just it's ridiculous.

And then the other thing, just as far as our neighborhood, if people are starting to cut through neighborhoods and such, you know, heaven forbid there'll be two cars parked on either side of the road, or it'd be a trash day and there's trash cans out there.

You're literally having to weave in and out as cars are coming because two cars cannot fit down the road at the same time.

So we're just asking for a recipe of a mess if this project gets approved.

And I'm hoping that you consider our wishes and our thoughts, and we really are just trying to maintain a nice neighborhood along with others to come.

So thank you very much.

Okay, um, I'd like to start this off by uh making an inquiry of either the city attorney or the planning director, Mr.

Manager, whoever would like to answer the question.

Um, would you like to elaborate, please, on the necessity for the continuance?

Yes, ma'am.

So I believe that when we look at the continuance here, one of the things that we've talked about with this application is the extension of Edinburgh Parkway with some of the uncertainty with the the final piece uh up in the air.

This uh this uh this item may not be ripe for consideration at this time, it may need some additional time to uh clean up details and get things prepared.

And did these details come about following the planning commission meeting?

Yes, ma'am.

So they were really unanticipated, correct?

That is correct.

Okay, thank you.

Um before I ask for a motion, um, I'd just like to make a couple comments.

One, um I hope that one will provide to the residents several years ago.

We got a memo regarding a stoplight at Kegman and Battlefield.

So if they could be provided with that, I don't think the circumstances of the staff opinion have changed.

Secondly, as to the schools, um, I would ask each and every one of you to please take your concerns to the school board.

They're looking at another um enrollment rezoning.

And yes, they are.

So maybe this is the case, I don't know, but I think they are the controlling interest in limiting school enrollment.

We have no ability to govern on that piece.

So that is my suggestion.

I hope they will be open to listen.

And to Mr.

Palmer, should this be continued?

I hope you'll take into consideration some of the comments that were made, and as you work on the legal issues, um, see if there's some room there.

Okay, at this time I'd like to um entertain a motion for a 60-day continuance of this application.

Motion to continue to the May 19th meeting.

Thank you.

Um is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Jeffries.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Ms.

Newlands.

Thank you, Madam Vice Mayor.

Um count or Vice Mayor Ritter answered or asked one of the issues I was gonna ask for was information on the light at Veridian if we could be provided that if this is continued to the May 19th meeting.

Can council receive that information in addition to the citizens have that for us ready for the item.

Also, can if it is continued, can we have some additional information on the schools?

Um, there was a number of issues brought up regarding school capacity and the expansion.

The current level of service that we're provided in the staff report is only at as Southeastern exists today.

Can we have some additional information on what the level of service is with the Southeastern expansion?

So what the capacity change would be when it is finished, and then what that level of service number would be.

I know it's difficult to get these numbers from the schools.

We go back and forth oftentimes with what how do they come up with these numbers, how they calculate them, but if we can get that additional information, I think that would be fantastic.

Also, something I think that would be of interest is what are our school enrollment trends looking like?

Are we going up?

Are we going down?

I think that's something that council should take into consideration when determining the capacity of a school and what that looks like in the future.

So I do also want to add, as it relates to a continuance, I hear everyone that's here tonight.

I had the same opinion when I first started on council that you shouldn't get a continuance.

Here you are, this has been taking forever.

Why are we continuing it?

But we have found this whole council has found we have a flawed process as it relates to continuances.

So when uh applicants go to planning commission, so when they went before planning commission last month, it is automatic that their item must come to council the preceding month.

So they don't get the option to say, wait, planning commission brought some great issues forward, we need to continue this for 60 days, and then we'd like to go to council with a nice finished wrapped up product.

They have to automatically come to council regardless, waste y'all's time, waste everybody's time to come and say we need a continuance, we have all these issues that we would like to have addressed.

So the council is working on a way to fix this process, but I hear you with the frustration with the continuance, but there it is a flawed process, at least in my opinion, as it exists right now, which is why I am in support of the continuance because I do think we owe it to both sides for them to present the best product forward, and then if council were to approve it or not, uh it's I think it's owed to everyone that they put their best foot forward.

So I will be supporting the continuance, but I certainly appreciate everyone's time tonight.

Your your comments do not go unheard.

I was taking notes as all of you all were speaking, so I appreciate your time here tonight.

Mr.

Smith.

Yes, thank you, madam.

Vice Mayor.

I I want to say to those that came from the community that I hear what you're sharing.

It's very important that you came and spoke if you came forward today.

I'm gonna support the continuance, but I've said what you shared today.

I wrote my notes.

It's on record what you said.

If you can come again, come again.

But we need to give this man an opportunity to see what they can fix.

But I heard you loud and clear, and the last thing I want to say is I'm not present in your community, but I will be your community to see what you see.

Thank you.

Any other comments from council?

Okay.

Um I just have another clarifying comment.

The reason for the continuance is because between Planning Commission and this week, there are legal issues that have arisen that were unknown at the time of the staff report that would pose significant issues, whether this application is approved or denied.

So this will give the applicant and the city staff the opportunity to try to clarify those for the council who will be making the vote.

So I I think that that's important that we have all the information available.

Thank you, Ms.

King.

Just a quick question.

Did these issues come up today?

Did these issues come up today?

I'm sorry, Mr.

McNamara, did these issues arise today?

Yes, ma'am.

So I believe that these issues came to light just recently.

I wouldn't say necessarily just today, but I believe the applicants have been working diligently to try to find solutions.

And when they couldn't find the solution by today, that's that's when the continuance came in.

Thank you.

Mr.

Jeffries.

Yes, ma'am.

I have a question for Mr.

Palmer.

Yes, sir.

Sir, one of the uh concerns that were raised by the residents tonight is that the uh land in question is being held by a property owner.

Uh can you speak to whether that property owner is in favor, is is obstructing.

He's been supportive.

He's I'm sorry.

Supportive.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If there's no further comment, we have a motion on the floor and a second.

Please prepare to vote on the continuance.

Please vote.

Ms.

Madison, please record the vote.

Motion to continue PLN REZ 2025-009, Viridian Reserve North, 60 days to the May 19th, 2026 City Council meeting is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you.

Would you please present public planning public hearing item B.

PLN REZ 2025-011 Elbow Estates Proffer Modification?

Elbow Estates LLC applicant owner.

Williams Mullen Agency for a proper amendment to allow the construction of no more than three single family dwellings in the former right-of-way reservation area for the Southeastern Expressway.

The property is located on Appalachian Court north of the intersection with Teton Court in the Greenbride Planning Area.

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

Thank you, Mr.

McNamara.

The proposed proffer amendment is consistent with the low-scale neighborhood character district and compatible with the existing neighborhood.

It also supports the goals of the housing section of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan.

The staff therefore recommends approval with proffers day of January 22nd, 2026.

Thank you.

We have one speaker, Grady Palmer, representing Alboa States.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Ritter.

Members of the Council, my name is Grady Palmer, my business address 22 Central Park Avenue in Virginia Beach.

Is just to give a little bit of uh explanation here.

So the Southeastern Parkway was long planned to come to start in Virginia Beach and basically be a bypass route from Southern Virginia Beach out to the 464 1684 interchange, and so that was a major roadway that you can kind of see.

If you can back up a little bit there, Jimmy, you can well there you are.

You can kind of see, see the two lakes right there.

That was that was the was the the Southeastern Parkway reservation.

So that land was reserved for the South Eastern Parkway.

And so for many years that this land's been essentially held in a bands uh while that project was uh determined to be viable and or not viable, and it was a couple of years ago, finally decided not to be viable uh to construct that roadway.

And so we've held this uh this land open uh for for many, many years.

Uh the applicant has owned it, uh, waiting for this chapter uh to close.

And so uh that that the final decision has been made on the Southeastern.

It will not be constructed.

We uh that was done a couple of years ago.

The reason that we're now coming to the council to finalize the project is we've been working with staff to try to figure out a location uh of a of a pretty significant walking trail, and it was determined that this location that we're proposing to build three houses was not the right location for that uh for that uh pedestrian connection.

So that then led us to come to you to finally uh finalize this this community and build the final three houses.

So with that, I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any speakers?

Other speakers?

No, ma'am.

Okay.

A motion is in order with proffers.

Move to approve proffers dated January 22nd.

Thank you, Mr.

Whitaker.

Mr.

Smash?

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there any discussion?

Motion to approve PLN REZ 2025-011 with proffers as presented is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you.

Um would you run with item number C, please?

PLN R.

E.

Z 2025-017, Stillwater, Virginia Builders holding LLC applicant, CFG properties, LLC, and Virginia Builders holding LLC owners, Civil Engineering and Construction Services Agency for Conditional Zoning Reclassification of approximately 26.4 acres from R15S residential three acres and A1 agricultural 23.4 acres to B2 General Business District 4.2 acres.

RMF1 multifamily residential district 10.6 acres and R8 single family residential 11.3 acres with the remaining.03 acre being dedicated as right of way.

The property is located at 1733 and 1737, Battlefield Boulevard South in the Great Bridge Planning Area.

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

Thank you.

Are there any speakers?

Yes, ma'am.

We have five speakers.

Okay.

Would you call the first speaker, please?

Sam Barack.

Sorry.

We always forget you, Mr.

McNamara.

I am very sorry.

Just carrying on in the mayor's tradition.

Staff's recommendation is that the proposed request creates a highly amenized and attractive community that reinforces compatible residential development patterns, sets up interchange neighborhood connections, and provides a unique commercial product in the form of a food truck park.

Staff therefore recommends approval to revised Proffers Day in March 17, 2026.

Thank you.

Ms.

Matt.

Sam Barackie is the first speaker speaking in support, followed by James Lefwich.

Vice Mayor Ritter, member of City Council and staff, good evening and happy St.

Patrick's Day.

I am wearing green.

Thank you.

My name is Sam Baracki, and my business address is 5267 Greenwich Road, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

I am here tonight as the agent for this application to proudly proudly present the Stillwater community.

Stillwater is designed to be much more than a conventional subdivision.

It's a thoughtfully planned, design-led community that represents a complete neighborhood concept rather than simply a residential yield plan.

From the beginning, the developer goal has been to create a place that preacherize community life, thoughtful design, and long compatibility with the surrounding area.

It was really a refreshing working with the developers because the first thing they told me, we don't need, we don't want to maximize the yield of the property.

What we want is a community.

The layout was developed through more than 20 design iteration to ensure a clear planning logic and a balanced community structure.

The most active views are positioned at the entrance along Battlefield Boulevard, where the community scale commercial gathering space creates a strong sense of arrival and a place.

The residential component also reflects throughout planning approach.

Still water include a mix of housing type, brownstone, row homes, cottage homes, and executive executive single family homes, all designed with a cohesive architectural vision, the varieties support different life life stage and encourage a diverse yet connected neighborhood.

Equally important, the architecture and streetscape are intentionally people-oriented, featuring such as front porches, walkable street, and carefully arranged homes are designed to encourage interaction between neighbors and create a strong, stronger sense of community.

The commercial component at the entrance further enhance the project place making goal.

It will feature a high-end food truck park, the first of its kind in Hampton Roads, along with a flexible indoor venue capable of hosting farmer market, community event, fundraiser, fine art festival, weddings, and other gatherings.

Ultimately, still water reflect many of the planning principle community seek today.

Thoughtful design, housing variety, walkable spaces, and amenities that serve multiple generations.

Stillwater is designed to create a strong sense of place, foster meaningful community connection, and become a lasting asset for the area.

It is our belief that this project will serve as a shining example of what is possible when thoughtful design, citizen input, planning staff, collaboration, and community vision come together.

It is truly a community for the community.

On behalf of my client, I respectfully request a yes vote for this proposal.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and would be happy to answer any question.

James Leftwich, representing Virginia Builders Holding.

Good evening, uh Vice Mayor Ritter, members of council staff, and uh my name is James Leftwich, my business address is 308 Crime, Chesapeake, Virginia 2322.

And so I won't belabor uh your time, but I would like to associate my comments with Mr.

Baraki.

I have the same impressions and affinity for this project as uh he expressed to you.

What I would like to do is maybe focus on some of the um more concrete information that that I think the council has to consider, and that being the levels of services.

This project does meet all the levels of services, but I want to single out one particular item, and that's the schools.

As I understand it, um the high school and elementary school are way under capacity or well under capacity, and that the real concern with this area is Southeastern Elementary.

This project will generate 16 students uh to Southeastern Elementary.

And once the addition is on Southeastern Elementary, you'll add another capacity of 200 to 275 students at the 275 level with all approved plans, with all approved zonings and plans, Southeastern would be at 104 percent capacity.

With 200 students, it would still be well under 120 percent capacity.

And I'd come and I would mention uh I I didn't discover this.

I'm not gonna take credit for for this uh this uh concept, although I am aware of it having been familiar with the schools at Planning Commission.

Commissioner Barefoot commented that there's not, and I think this addresses a comment that uh Councilmember Newman's uh inquired about there aren't the students in elementary school to backfill South Eastern Elementary once the court cohort moves through, suggesting that the future will cause a reduced demand on student population in Southeastern Elementary.

Um that was made, that comment was made by uh I think a former principal employee of the school system who now serves on the Planning Commission.

Um the second thing I like to mention is that uh this really is a novel concept, is as I understand it.

The closest uh food core to this concept is in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Um Northern Virginia has something somewhat similar, but I would say to Council is you know, we've always heard the term that uh that uh spice is a variety of life.

And as a someone who has five kids and a somewhat large family, sometimes takes us two hours to side where everybody is willing to go to eat.

And I think it is very enticing and um uh inviting to have a place where you can have so many different food vendors in one place where you can everybody can go their separate way, order something, and then come back to a central location and eat, whether it is outside or inside this uh building that they intend to construct, which may also be used uh for birthday parties, public community events, weddings, company picnics, and uh athletic team gatherings, networking mixers, holiday festivals, food festivals, and um like a farmers market.

Um I um uh as I as I look at this project, I think to myself I should have had a V8, you know, why didn't anybody else think of this beforehand?

And I really want to applaud the developer and the builder for bringing this forward and think that it would fit in very well with that community and ask you to look favorably on the application.

I'll stand by for questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Joey Amul, representing Virginia Builders for questions only.

Taylor Grissom, questions only.

And Vic Nichols, representing self speak comments only.

I am in favor of this development.

Yes, I'm not anti-development.

And one of the big things is food trucks, because not only are you bringing in some residential, we're going to have small businesses that can go ahead and come up here and start more of what we used to have here at the City Hall on Saturdays.

If you remember Classic Donuts got their start here, and they are hugely popular all over everywhere.

They bring in lines, there's tons of money that they get.

That also means taxes, guys.

So that kind of thing can also happen with this sort of development.

The only question that I do have, though, is like looking in some places here where it says, you know, certain plans are subject to the approval of the directorate of planning or designee, andor the director of development and permits or designee.

While I understand the need to review things, I'd also like to know how long that would take and how much that's going to add to the cost.

Because here's the thing.

Responsible leaders do three things.

They limit government, cut taxes, and leave the dollars with those who earn it, because that spurs growth.

Okay.

When we live limit government where we're constantly watching what a developer does, the developers know what they're doing, they know their products, and they know their market.

Let's let them get their product to the market faster.

It's going to be cheaper.

And especially in this case, it's really going to bring in something to the city, something that we had was hugely popular, hugely popular.

When it was back in 2018-2019 when we had it.

Let's get something like that again and kind of get this moving instead of dragging them back with having to go back and forth with all these plans and everything.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Nichols.

Before I ask for a motion, I have a question.

We have a very minor proffer change.

So I would like to direct to the city attorney.

If you all will look in your folders, you will see.

And why it is possible to do that this evening.

The change that was proposed to be made was to proffer 7B, which relates to architectural standards for the front, rear, and sides of the homes.

And it had previously said that they could have up to 25% of the exterior could use vital vinyl siding.

They're going to replace that and instead say that vinyl siding may only be used on accents and eaves of the homes.

So it's a kind of a tighter architectural standard.

They were able to make this change at this point in time because they had concurrently advertised the item, meaning that it went to planning commission last Wednesday.

And under the the city zoning ordinance, you can modify proffers up to seven days after planning commission hearing.

So this is a unique case that would not be presented very often.

But in this instance, they were within the seven-day time frame.

They updated and submitted a new final proffer statement, and we were able to provide notice of it prior to the hearing.

And so that is how it is able to be considered this evening.

Thank you.

And thank you for the work on it.

Mr.

McNamara, may I, Mr.

Manager?

Or Mr.

Tetter, whoever wants to respond.

I understand there was some discussion about this at the Planning Commission.

Yes, ma'am.

There was a recommendation that the proffer be made, but as we all know, you can't make changes to proffers on the floor.

So there was an indication that there was going to be a change made between planning commission and city council, which is reflected in the statement that's been provided to you.

So this wasn't the first time it no, ma'am.

Okay.

I just want everybody to know that the change is in your folder, and at this time I'll accept a motion with proffers.

No chair, I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Can we wait until after the motion?

Well, it's along the lines of what you were talking about, but sure.

Okay, thank you.

Is there a motion?

Approval?

With the proper with the proffers.

Thank you.

Ms.

Prophers.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Thank you.

Well, was it Mr.

Wither?

I think we kind of always add it.

I'm sorry I don't have the screen.

No.

Okay.

We have a motion and a second.

Is there a discussion about this?

May I just ask, would you clarify that that's proffers dated for May 17, 2026?

Yes.

Is that acceptable?

March.

March.

I'm just getting excited for spring.

Sorry about that.

Yes.

Let's stick with March.

Yes.

Yes, is it ever coming?

Um, thank you.

Um, Madam Chair.

I just have a question here because what I'm reading in terms of the documentation that you have sent and the documentation here, there's a discrepancy.

So it clearly reads here that there has been a revised proffer, provided that the vinyl siding materials may be used on the exterior of any dwelling.

The 25% was negated.

It does not state anything about accents or eaves.

So is this correct?

The email we received, or is this correct?

The email you received would have had, I don't have what you have in front of you.

But every version that I have of this one, it does have the accent and eaves language.

It does not hear.

Okay.

So it does not.

It it adds in, so that's why that language is underlined.

If you're if you have what Councilmember Bunn just handed to me.

So he struck through the no more than 25% and then added accents or ease and an underlying text to depict the change that was made.

Right, but it's not added here in what's printed.

It does not say anything about accents or ease.

They were well then we have the one that we have the signed proffer statement with this, and then this was emailed out.

I am not aware of what was on the website.

I had looked at it earlier today and it was.

So I'm not able to answer with clarity on that question.

Okay, so I think sorry.

I think before we vote on it, we need clarity.

May I read the new proffer statement in to the record then?

This new 7B.

Would that provide require clarity?

Would that would that negate what we're reading here?

Because we need to know which is correct to vote because it's two completely different items.

So may I the agenda was sent out last Thursday as we do every Thursday afternoon at 4 o'clock.

At that time, we did not have this proffer modification.

It came into debt, came in today, and we re-uploaded to the agenda online.

But you probably would have had no reason to go back and reread the agenda.

That's why you have the printed copy.

It will be changed when it's voted and completed, but Thursday, when the original agenda was sent out, we didn't have this proffer change.

Thank you.

Mr.

Weddick.

Yeah, I do have a question for the applicant.

And uh it's really about the venue.

Exactly how will the venue be managed?

Is it going to be managed under the HOA or the neighborhood?

Mr.

Lefwich, if you'd like to take a stab at it.

I see you were looking backwards.

So uh perhaps uh Mr.

Grissom or somebody can walk up here as I'm I'm responding and fill fill in it if I if I don't get it exactly correct.

I'm going by what was represented planning commission.

It's my understanding that the builder developer intends to uh continue ownership of that front portion of the warehouse building and the pads and be the owner uh and landlord of that area and govern uh the administration and business of that okay I see when your uh colleagues nodding their head yes.

Okay, thank you very much, Mr.

Lepwich.

Any other questions or discussion?

Ms.

Dr.

King, are you satisfied with yes?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

So to clarify your motion would be the proffer as written in the memo we received this afternoon.

Yes.

Is that correct?

Yes.

To the second or second motion.

Thank you.

Mr.

Professors, it's been here.

Thank you.

And the Mr.

Bunn, you look like your I am a I'm a little bit confused.

Uh Mr.

Leffords or Mr.

Grissom, if you can come down.

I'm with um Dr.

King.

I am a little confused about this because when you read the language, it does say that uh planning or destiny provided the vinyl side in etc.

You're marking through no more than 25 percent.

So is it less vinyl, more vinyl?

It's it's less final.

Okay, good.

Yes.

And I'm better.

I think uh the the clerk um was spot on with why there's a discrepancy.

Okay, yeah, because I actually noticed that earlier today myself.

Uh I went on online and read it and uh asked.

We just received this at our desk today.

That's early when I met with uh the um developer.

I could I could have asked it, but just came up.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions, Dr.

Ward?

Did you I'm sorry?

No, I'm just thank you for getting the explanation, and we did discuss this.

So it was this correct one.

So I'm pleased with it.

Thank you.

Um in that case, please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please report the vote.

Motion to approve PLN R E Z 2025-017 with proffers dated 317 2026 as presented as adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you.

Please present planning public hearing item D.

PLN PUD MAPM 2025-002.

Greenbrier PUD Zone 4 Copper Processing Facility.

Economic Development Authority of the City of Chesapeake, Virginia, applicant and owner, Kimley Horn Agency for an accelerated proper modification to modify the Greenbrier Plan Unit Development Zone 4 development criteria to allow for copper processing subject to performance criteria on properties included within the industrial and advanced manufacturing district of the mixed use district in the PUD Zone 4.

The property is located northwest of UPO Court's terminus in the Green Bar Planning A.

Mr.

Mayor.

The proposed request aligns with the comprehensive plan by enabling economic development authority to pursue an economic development opportunity to bring an international copper processing company to Chesapeake in a developed and well-suited site.

Also does not significantly impact any other land uses within the Green Briar Pud Zone 4.

Staff therefore recommends approval with this mid development criteria.

Thank you.

Ms.

Madison, are there any speakers?

Ma'am, we have three speakers.

The first speaker is Randy Royal representing the applicant, followed by Vic Nichols.

Good evening, Vice Mayor Ritter, members of Council, Randy Royal, Kimley Horn Associates, Business Address 4525 Main Street Virginia Beach, representing the EDA on this application.

Thank you for the opportunity to describe more about this accelerator proffer modification being requested by them.

Purpose of the proffer modification is primarily to allow a copper processing facility in this existing M1 industrial zoning.

It's not currently listed in the uses table anywhere.

So we're we're hoping to add it into this with specific criteria.

It's long been established by the Green Bar PUD for industrial use due to the proximity to the existing industrial park, to the highways, to the interstate, and the presence of existing utilities to serve it.

This is in back of the old Mitsubishi plant, the three oaks property is how it's called.

We're proposing a building approximately 128,000 square feet on about 16 acres of this 68-acre total parcel.

We, as you can see from the drawing in the pack, we've got residential to the west of us.

Thus, we had a neighborhood meeting.

We sent mailers to all of the adjacent property owners and also to the president of the Civic League and had a meeting February 23rd at the Central Library.

Didn't get a big turnout.

We did get the Civic League president and another gentleman.

Also had the UPO president and CEO at the meeting.

We heard, in fact, one of the neighbors had a discussion with him about lighting concerns on the UPO site.

And Mr.

Bassett, who was here but has left, uh has already fixed them.

Good neighbors.

Our user is going to be the same, but we're going to put some things in up front, such as lighting, and I'll get to that in a minute.

To fully understand what one of these looks like, we made a trip myself, economic development and uh planning out to Indiana to SD Lafarga, which is a copper processing facility out there.

Virtually noise outside the facility.

Very loud inside, but you didn't hear much outside.

Most notable output was steam from the stacks, but there was no smell generated from the facility.

This was just steam, water.

Lighting was not really noticeable because it was during the day when we were there, but there were no houses nearby either.

Only thing uh somewhat obtrusive that they told us about were trucks.

They had a lot of truck traffic there, which is generally the part of any type of industrial use.

However, this use we've asked them, they have similar facilities overseas, and it appears to be about eight trucks per day, is what they anticipate.

Two to four per day for the raw materials deliveries.

They're bringing stuff there to treat it, two to three trucks per day for finished goods shipments, and then two to three per week for utilities delivery and waste services.

So not that much traffic, but that's the majority of the outdoor noise, and that will occur during hours of 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Uh they have no regular nighttime loading activities planned, so it will be during the day.

The trucks are the noise factor, if you will.

It's not bad.

I'm going to get into that here in a minute.

Uh the sites actually exempt from the noise ordinance because it's an industrial facility.

But we did a noise study to determine how much noise there would be, and we've taken measures to minimize it.

Both visually and from a noise standpoint, we've got a mature tree buffer, a minimum of 65 feet.

And we'll enhance that with shrubbery as necessary.

That's that's in the modifications.

As I said, the truck hours will be during the day.

We are proposing to install a 12-foot sound wall along the back.

And yeah, site plan is up.

We've got numerous places for loading, but the one at the back coming out of that purple building there is the one that would be closest to the residents.

So that's the one that we measured everything from.

We've got other criteria such as height limitations and lighting, varying building heights.

We do have a stack, which is 100 feet.

We have it doesn't show up very well there, but there's a column or a narrow building, which is going to be about 100 feet on the left.

It's only about 38 feet wide, but it's part of the process.

The other buildings are 26 feet, 40 feet, and 49.

They vary in height.

Minimum visibility with trees, though.

We've got, I'm guessing about 50 foot high, mature trees in there, so they shouldn't be able to see much of anything.

Zero foot candle spillover.

That was one of the things that I said the one of the neighbors talked to UPO about, and UPO has already fixed it.

They didn't realize it was a problem until the neighbors told them we're having it in our criteria.

No outdoor storage of raw materials or finished materials.

Similarly, the process will all be indoors.

So we did see that in Indiana.

They had a lot of outdoor bins, kind of ugly.

Everything here will be inside and out of sight.

As far as traffic volumes, there's a total of about 168 employees that will be in three shifts.

So not a lot of folks going in and out of there, but all the access will be via UPO court.

That's the only access to the site.

So it will be through Greenborough Commerce Park.

The Green Bar Area Plan, which was recently approved, calls for production and processing on the character district map, and this use is consistent.

The application supports council's desired outcome for economic prosperity by enabling the EDA to pursue a unique economic development opportunity.

Great tax base, many well-paying jobs.

If need be, Mr.

Wright is here and can speak to that.

Again, the modifications proposed development criteria to safeguard existing adjacent residential uses with enhanced setbacks, sound wall, height limitations, no light spillover, and the use limited to this one area here.

We appreciate staff working with us, both going to Indiana and working on the proper modifications.

So we all understood this very well, and it would not be a negative impact on the neighbors.

Based upon staff's positive recommendation, we hope you'll see fit to do the same.

I will stand by for questions and thank you for the time tonight.

Thank you, Mr.

Royal.

Vic Nichols representing CEP, comments only, followed by Patricia Malone.

Just a couple of things.

Any little more bit, it only takes one thing, and we're completely stuck.

So those are just a couple of things that I would like council to see if they can flesh out a little bit more what those issues are and what can be done to resolve them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Patricia Malone, resident speaking in opposition.

As stated, I'm Patricia Malone.

I own a home at 317 Kells Ridge Drive.

The block that I live on and my backyard butts up against the development site, the railroad tracks, and then the development site beyond that.

Tonight I have four major uh questions and many concerns, a few statements.

One of my main concerns is that this copper wire manufacturing and magnetics facility will lower the property value of my home and my neighbors' homes.

I appreciate the two previous speakers.

The one that was representing the developer and how they're trying to mitigate the noise pollution and the light pollution.

And it was stated that only steam was coming out of the stacks.

What's in the steam I don't know?

I didn't have much time to do research before I got the letter in the mail from the planning department, dated February 27th about how to get supporting materials.

They gave a link to website, and when I tried to find supporting materials, it was very user unfriendly.

So my first question is what will be done to abate the different areas of pollution.

Air pollution, noise and light pollution were already addressed, water pollution.

What abatement is abatements are in line for reducing or taking care of those types of pollutions.

So pollution is a big concern.

That's home to much wildlife.

Before moving to Chesapeake, I owned a home in Charles County, Maryland for 23 years.

And once again, my block and my backyard was adjacent to a site to be developed.

The developer sent a representative twice to our civic meetings, our community civic meetings to alleve some of our concerns, give us their plan, answer our questions.

The first meeting he attended, he promised that the developer would leave a 50-foot buffer.

The second meeting, it went down to a 30-foot buffer.

So I hope you understand if I don't trust developers.

Okay.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

I'd like to ask if after the meeting is over, you could talk to the planning department and the city attorney.

And Mr.

Royal, I think they can address all your questions.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

I would like to have a motion, please, with stipulations.

I would like to move approval with stipulations.

Thank you, Mr.

Whittaker.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Jeffries.

Mr.

Whitaker, would you like to have some comments?

Only to Mr.

Royal.

You're not wearing green.

I'm sorry.

She will have a leaf like saying.

Mr.

Jeffries.

Any other members of council have a comment to make?

I do.

Oh, Dr.

King.

Thank you.

It's hard because I'm sitting right beside you.

But um my question is directed to you as well, if you don't mind.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you.

Mr.

My concern, yes, is the potential water pollution, but my major concern is the water consumption.

Can you comment on water consumption?

That's the first thing.

The second thing is you mentioned that you don't have to comply with a noise ordinance, and that you've construct will be constructing the wall.

Would you be willing to comply with the noise ordinance as well as the wall?

We are, yes.

Okay.

Let me take them one at a time.

Unless you got more.

That's it.

Let's start there.

Okay.

The water consumption I don't honestly know about, but in my discussions with them, there hasn't been any.

We need a lot of water for here.

There's fairly standard water mains that go through there, and they're fine with that.

I didn't see much water use in the facility.

I'm looking at uh Jimmy over here.

It's it was hot, it was like you know, stuff in there, and it it was air-cooled.

There just there wasn't but so much water use.

So I don't think it's going to be a big water user.

Certainly not a water polluter, and we'll speak with Ms.

Malone.

Her husband was at, I believe it was her husband at the neighborhood meeting.

Yes, he is again.

Right.

So we'll we'll speak with her.

The other one, I'm sorry, now for the general, just copper processing does require a lot of water.

So I would be really curious to know about that.

And the steam that is released as well.

I am concerned about what type of contaminants might be in that state.

Right.

There should not be any contaminants, but any thing that is exhaust, they will have to get air permits for to make sure that they don't put anything out there that is bad.

Okay.

And let me go back to the the noise.

Yes, we we are absolutely below what the city requires.

The ambient noise, we measured it at the neighborhood was about 51 decibels.

That's like an air conditioner running.

And that is the average.

There were obviously spikes for airplanes, for the trains going by.

There's a train track at the back of the neighborhood there, but you kind of take the average, and that's considered the ambient noise.

We are reducing the infrequent noise.

The building itself puts out about 65 decibels, and this is based on their other facilities, 10 feet outside the building.

That translates the distance away to only about 35 decibels, where they have a 51 decibel ambient level, just normal noise during the day.

The noise factor that we're mitigating are the trucks, which according to what they told us, there's maybe eight a day that come in there.

The air breaks, the beeping noise when they back up.

So between the distance that you have, you lose some sound to that, and the noise wall.

We're putting up a 12-foot noise wall about 300 feet across the back of this area here, reduces it to 51 decibels, which is the ambient level they have now, just eight times a day or so when these trucks come in.

Otherwise, they're not going to hear, it's not going to be as loud as what they have now.

Okay.

So you're going to have eight trucks maybe coming and going, but in addition to that, I think you said you had three shifts, and you would have 50 some employees coming and going three times a day.

And that yeah, that will be that's not on that back side there.

The you see the parking on the the upper side there, away from the residents.

So that's even further away from the residents.

They all come in UPO court, and I don't know that they will hear anything from those cars coming in.

Okay.

But I was thinking more about the traffic congestion.

It shouldn't be any problem.

I mean, uh Greenborough Commerce Park is set up with larger roads to accommodate the traffic coming in and out and tractor trailers coming in and out.

But with that amount of traffic, that's that's not going to warrant a problem.

Uh or we would have done a staff would ask for traffic study.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Dr.

King.

Is there any other discussion?

In that case, um we have a motion and a second on the floor.

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

Motion to approve PLN PUD M APM 2025-002 with stipulations as presented is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you, Ms.

Madison.

Would you present item E, please?

PLN Use 2025-047, the Morton Academy.

Patricia and Tiana Morton, applicants and owners for a conditional use permit to operate a child daycare as a level two home occupation.

The property is located at 5220 Jones Lane in the River Crest Planning Area.

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

So are we skipping by Mr.

Your choice?

Your choice.

Thank you.

Ms.

Madison, are there any speakers?

Tiana Morton is here for questions only.

And the other speaker is Vic Nichols for comments.

Thank you.

Definitely something needed.

I hope you all will definitely remember us and vote for this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Nichols.

A motion is an order with stipulations, Dr.

Ward.

Move approval with stipulations.

Is there a second?

Second.

Thank you, Mr.

Burns.

Is there any discussion?

Just I'm just delighted to support this motion.

There's such a need.

And as long as all of the everything that has been done is within what's allowed, what's permitted, and what the people need, and we'd be able to need more centers.

And we I think we put in safe guides, a lot of them in the past to just make sure that our um those who are working with our young people are following the guidelines, and I feel comfortable about supporting this.

Thank you.

Any other comments?

In that case, please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

Motion to approve PLN use 2025-047 with stipulations as presented is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Okay, we're going to move to item F, please.

PLN Use 2025-055, Simon Stables, Robin Simons applicant, Linda Simons and Robin Simons, owners for a conditional use permit to operate a horse boarding and training facility as a level two home occupation and request for an alternative parking service.

The property is located at 2104 Elbow Road in the Green Var Planning Area.

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

Thank you.

Mr.

McNamara.

The proposed level two home occupation as stipulated is compatible with the surrounding uses and accomplishes goals of the economic prosperity and growth management in rural area sections of the 2045 Comprehensive Plan to encourage and support the Griffith Small Business Community and promote agricultural businesses.

Staff therefore recommends approval with stipulations dated January 21st, 2026.

Thank you.

Ms.

Madison, are there any speakers?

Yes, ma'am.

The first speaker is Robin for questions only.

Robin Simons for questions only, followed by Vic Nichols.

I have a um couple of horse riders actually who are friends at they definitely would love to see this.

So please say yes.

This is the first time we're ever going to get something like this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Nichols.

Are there any other speakers?

Yes, ma'am.

Linda Tyndale.

Speaking in support.

Good evening.

Linda Tyndall, 1045 West Road.

I am absolutely in favor of the Simmons stable.

Robin and I have been friends since we were teenagers riding our horses down the shoulder of Elbow Road.

Those were the days.

Robin is an accomplished equestrian and a successful local businesswoman.

It takes multiple streams of income to support agriculturally zoned properties.

Her agribusiness of horsebording and lessons will provide a needed opportunity and a safe place to ride in her area.

I would trust her with the care of my horses.

Robin has a beautiful barn and a top-notch arena.

I attended an agritourism seminar hosted by Chesapeake last July.

Roy Flanagan, the Virginia Cooperative Extension Agent, shared some very interesting information from the 2024 Virginia Beach Agricultural Impact Fact Sheet.

Chesapeake does not compile this information.

Keep in mind that Chesapeake has more ag land than Virginia Beach.

The gross income from corn soybeans and wheat combined.

The gross income from corn soybeans and wheat combined on 23,159 acres was 16,491,464 and 97 cents.

16 million.

The economic impact of annual expenses for horses in Virginia Beach in 2024 was 20,453,943 and 62 cents.

This excludes horse sales, truck and trailer expenses, fencing and tractor repairs.

This is just what is spent to feed them and keep them alive and healthy.

This includes boarding stables, lesson barns, backyard owners, ferriers, veterinarians, hay and feed, and saddles and cowboy boots.

Seriously consider a horse center at Frank Williams Farm.

I just gave you 20 million reasons to look into it.

We could bring in and support local, state, and regional events.

Lots of opportunities to support agritourism.

But for tonight, please approve Robin's conditional use permit for the Simmons stable on Elbow Road and Happy Trails.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Tyndale.

Is there another speaker?

Okay, that concludes the speakers.

A motion is an order with stipulations.

Okay.

Dr.

King.

Second.

Made the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Mr.

Jeffries is going to second that.

Okay, thank you.

Is there any discussion with the council members?

Yeah.

Thank you, Mr.

Bunn.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, question on Ms.

Simmons.

When are you going to open a bakery in Chesapeake?

I know you have one of the border of Virginia Beach 17 hands we need you in Chesapeake, so please consider opening the bakery in Chesapeake.

Thank you, Mr.

Another small business that we will certainly welcome.

Thank you.

Um, any other discussion by council members?

Please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

Motion to approve PLN use 2025-055 with stipulations as presented as adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Okay.

We now have citizens' comments on agenda items only.

Um Ms.

Madison, do we have any speakers?

We have one speaker, Sam Baracki, speaking in support of business item A.

I have one more question.

Thank you, Mr.

Brocky.

Okay.

Thank you.

Is there any unfinished business from the council?

Mr.

Bond.

Okay, thank you.

Any other old business?

All right, we'll move to the new business part of the agenda.

Madam Clerk, please present new business item A.

PLN Use 2022-040, Osprey Aerial Adventures Cup Extension.

Clover Downs L C applicant and owner for a time extension to March 21, 2027, as per the Chesapeake Zoning Ordinance Section 17-110B.

The property is located on the east side of Battlefield Boulevard South between St.

Brod's Road and Toll Plaza Road in the Southern Chesapeake planning area.

This item was approved March 21, 2023.

Thank you.

A motion is an order, please to approve the time extension to March 21st, 2027.

Move to approve the extension.

Thank you, Mr.

Widow.

Second.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

Is there any discussion?

Okay.

In that case, please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

Motion to approve the time extension request for PLN use 2022-040 to March 21, 2027 is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you.

Item B.

PLN Use 2022-047.

Yadkin Road Self-Storage Cup Extension.

Yadkin Road LLC applicant.

TB Squared LLC owner for time extension to April 18, 2027, as per the Chesapeake Zoning Ordinance, Section 17-110B.

The property is located at 2816 Yadkin Road in the Deep Creek Planning Area.

This item was approved by City Council April 18th, 2023.

Are there any we already did the speakers?

A motion is in order to approve the time extension to April 18, 2027.

Is there a motion?

Move approval.

Thank you, Ms.

Newens.

Is there a second?

Dr.

King seconds.

Is there any discussion?

In that case, please prepare to vote.

Please vote.

Please record the vote.

Motion to approve the time extension request for PLN use 2022-047 to April 18th, 2027 is adopted by an 8-0 vote.

Thank you.

Um we'll now ask the council members should they have any new business items.

Mr.

Bunn.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Ritter.

Just a brief comment.

Just want to congratulate you.

You did a great job tonight.

Let's give it a round of applause.

Thank you.

Great job.

Thank you all for bearing with me.

I don't think this will be a common occurrence.

Any other new business from council members.

Seeing none, Miss Lindley, do we have a closed session?

No, ma'am.

Thank you.

Um so we have no closed session.

And we will therefore move to the end.

Um as we uh point of personal privilege, enter the basketball.

Sorry.

Conferences, and we all have a great reason to stay home.

Mr.

Wright, I need to ask you a question when the meeting is over.

Thank you.

I'd like to call on council member Jeffries, please.

Yep.

Please join me in prayer.

Almighty God, as we conclude this session, we give thanks for the work accomplished and for the spirit of unity and cooperation we shared here tonight.

May the decisions made today be carried out swiftly and responsibly, and may they serve to strengthen our community and protect its most vulnerable.

Grant us safe travel as we depart, renew our strength for the work ahead, and remind us of our shared duty to serve with humility and purpose.

May our city continue to grow in unity, understanding and hope.

Amen.

Thank you.

The meeting is adjourned.

Electric.