Good afternoon and welcome to the Hampton City Council work session.

Madam Clerk, will you call the role, please?

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Present.

Councilwoman Theraby.

Present.

Councilwoman Harper.

Present.

Councilwoman Muggler.

President and Mayor Gray.

President and Vice Mayor Brown had a speaking engagement during the lunch hour.

He will join us a little late for this meeting.

So with that, I'll ask the city manager to introduce the first item.

Yes, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

We are very pleased to have with us today Dr.

Karen Ward, who is the chair of the Hampton Arts Commission, along with many members of her commission and specifically the subcommittee that worked on the public art program guidelines that you asked them to develop.

And I'm gonna have Miss Dr.

Karen Ward come up to lead the presentation.

And I know we all look forward to it.

I will say, as she's coming up, uh Councilwoman Muggler and I were part of the Hampton Roads delegation that recently went to Austin to learn from their Chamber of Commerce and their local government leaders about what makes Austin special.

And one of the things I believe we both took away, I certainly took away, was how much public art made an impact on the aesthetics of the community and just the vibrancy and the sense of community that you got in Austin.

And so we're really excited to hear from Dr.

Ward and the rest of the commission members.

Okay, thank you, and uh good afternoon, Dr.

Ward.

Good afternoon.

Members of City Council.

As chair of the Hampton Arts Commission, I'm extremely pleased to present an update on the public art program initiative.

Today, joining me are some of my fellow commissioners, and I wish they would want them to stand if they would, as well as members of the subcommittee for the public art initiative.

Assisting me, and today is Attorney Tiki Wallace, and you see her standing here beside me.

So she may be commenting as we go along.

First slide, please.

Well, as you're aware, the objective of the public art program is to cultivate a fun, vibrant, and creative community by supporting and expanding the creation of public art throughout the city.

Funding for the inaugural installment is 250,000.

In June of 2025, the commission subcommittee assumed the charge of first recommending a theme and then location for the first public art initiative.

Locations to be considered were Buckrow Beach, Phoebus Library, Downtown Hampton and Hampton University, the Virginia Peninsula Community College Corporate Area.

In addition, in July 2025, City Council forward their charge, which included select statement pieces, a dynamic piece of work for our inaugural piece.

And lastly, begin before winter if possible.

As the subcommittee began theme considerations.

Reflect, embrace, highlight, and showcase.

Reflect who we are as a city.

Embrace the beauty of our city, our waterfront, our history, our diversity of people, significance to uh of our landmarks, highlight our deep ties to the water, and showcase city, a city surrounded by water, fishing and boating traditions, our legacy of exploration and innovation.

Well, after much consideration, deliberation, and as Sisy Council, you will understand this one.

Much, much debate.

The committee agreed on what we should believe to be an all-encompassing theme that would first a theme that ensures cohesion and connectivity between the art that is commissioned, a theme that offers a broad yet unifying vision that artists can interpret, a theme that encourages storytelling throughout the art, and the proposed theme for you is from the sea to the stars, past, present, and possible.

You can apply there.

Locations that were considered included Buckwheel Beach, Phoebus, downtown Hampton, Downtown Hampton at Hampton University, and additional key gateways to that we included were the Neil Armstrong, Mercury Boulevard City Line at New Market, Mercury Boulevard's at Coliseum Drive, and I 64 Rip Rap Road.

The committee took a strategic and systemic approach to selecting their location.

Our approach included reviewing maps of city owned properties, receiving updates on upcoming initiatives from the staff, identifying opportunities to complement and support other improvements, focusing on sites that both foster community and connection, and foster an appealing aesthetic.

Lastly, evaluating sites in which public art would be or have the greatest impact.

Two locations were selected.

The first site was downtown Hampton, Settlers Landing Road Parking Garage.

Please note that this location offers opportunities for exterior murals and an extension into the stairwells.

Now this location offers opportunities for sculptures or installations that animate the space and invite visitors to what?

Interact.

Some other considerations were asphalt art at several locations.

And a site visible from 64.

Next, on to developing the RFP.

We stayed consistent with the commission on the arts process of solicited and unsolicited public art proposals, which included items such as location and theme, size and medium, project costs, ownership and copyright, submission requirements, selection criteria and awarding of a recipient, and timeline.

To jury, the select submissions we put we plan to include city staff, members of the commission and subcommittee, our professionals from all genres of art, an area stakeholders.

Distribution will include, but not exclusive of the Charles Taylor Artists list, the Hampton University Artists List, the Artist Sites, and the Commission Subcommittee.

The Commission will also plans to request assistance for marketing.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for the presentation.

Questions from Council members.

Council Member Campbell.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Wonderful presentation.

Thank you very much.

I would just like to ask the city manager to consider putting monies into the budget for long-term maintenance of these projects.

The bean in Chicago, I think they've got thousands of dollars worth of Windex.

So we just need to make sure that we take care of the paint that it's done or the sculptures that they get damaged and maintenance around it.

So I just asked for that to be considered.

I think that's a great suggestion.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Harper.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Ward.

That was a great presentation.

I have two questions.

One of them is are we looking at some of the public art that may be permanent or temp or temporary, you know, that they will be, you know, drawn out so someone else can be in that place for a certain amount of time.

And about the general public.

And about the general public, you know, I know you had stated you would send you know things out to certain groups, but I was wondering would the general public have a chance, anyone from the general public to may submit um a public art request.

Excellent questions, Councilwoman Hope.

Um, first and foremost, for your first question, for the inaugural pieces, we are not intended for those with the switch out pieces.

Okay.

They would be permanent.

Okay.

And we would upkeep and maintain them.

And those would be our splash pieces that we have um thought about.

Okay.

Um as far as his second question is because absolutely we plan to include the public in both um circulating the RFPs as well as bringing them in to celebrate the um selection and having the artists come in and do workshops in the community, having the artists come in and do receptions with the community and all of our stakeholders.

Absolutely.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you.

Because I know even throughout the city, um, the utility boxes that we have now have you know uh the the pictures and things uh around them, which are really cool.

And so I'm I'm very much looking forward to um the public art piece because I know I I know it's it's it's gonna be great.

So thank you all for your in for your input on that.

Excellent point.

Other questions?

Umgler.

Okay.

Oh I thought you raised your hand.

City manager.

Just one and and I and I apologize if if this is news to Dr.

Ward and the team, and I just want to put this out there for council and them to discuss and make sure you all would be comfortable with this.

Um, you may recall Dr.

Ward, when we had the conversation with the Bloomberg consultants, they had mentioned that sometimes you use nonprofits to help with this process so that you don't have to go through some of the the requirements that you might have to as a city government, like the RFP process.

So I only recently got confirmation that should you choose to, and this would be something we would have you all go back and decide you want to stick with the RFP process, or do you want to have a less rigid kind of application process, but then partner with the Arts Foundation as a nonprofit to do the actual award so that we can make it less bureaucratic and cumbersome.

So because this is a presentation to council and you all are sort of given your permission to begin.

I wanted to get that in the public record so that they have the option as a commission to consider do they stay the course with the RFP process or do they look at you know what I'm describing an application slash partnership with the foundation as a way to do it as the Bloomberg uh arts consultants um gave us a recommendation to consider.

I think that's an excellent idea.

Yeah.

So I just again I'm sorry if I'm blindsiding you with that.

I don't mean to do that.

I just wanted to make sure that we all knew, and then that way you all can go back and talk about how you would best like to proceed if council's okay with that.

Okay, okay.

Uh Councilwoman Farabee.

Um Dr.

Ward and the entire commission, I'm just very impressed and um pleased to see the the your proposal and your plan forward.

My only um I'm very very excited and can't wait to start seeing some of the uh progress.

My only question is regarding next steps to include other areas for consideration.

How do you plan to um spread to other uh areas within the city?

Well, one thing that we are um we have a an excellent subcommittee who is um um a part of the arts commission, and so we are planning not to just stop once we finish with this wonderful project that we have the splash, we're calling it the splash um annual um inaugural exhibit.

Um we plan to continue with that uh with the subcommittee and looking at the other areas that were strongly considered um before we came to the conclusion of the first site being downtown Hampton.

Yes.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Mugler.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I'm sorry you did ask me if I had anything to say in the passing, which I never passed, but I just wanted to I just wanted to actually acknowledge this subcommittee because they're part of the arts commission, but they've met separately as a subcommittee to do this work and uh really spent uh a good amount of time in putting together, you know, solid plan for the process and um and moving forward with the selection of the art.

So they are to be commended with for the work that they've put into this project so far.

So when something does come out of the ground, it's gonna be awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, and uh if I could close with uh a big thanks to you for your leadership on on this uh endeavor, and as well as thanks to the uh other members of the OS Commission and the advisory committee.

I think that public art is going to be a big part of Hampton's future.

Um, and as we do more uh in our city in terms of placemaking and creating uh you know nice and bigger and better spaces for people to come out and enjoy the public.

I see public art really being a pro a big part of it.

So um uh I applaud you for uh at least staying on track with the timeline of trying to get things in motion by the winter time.

So I was very pleased to see that you all have gone a long way toward identifying the locations and uh certainly I think the uh downtown parking garage is a great star, it's low-hanging fruit as I see it, and uh to be able to create something nice within one of the arts district.

So I think we are well on our way, so thanks for the presentation and uh looking forward to hearing about the next steps.

Okay, thank you so much, yeah.

All right, so with that, uh I'll ask the city manager to uh introduce the uh next item.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

You and the council members will recollect, but for the benefit of the public, uh council had asked that staff work to develop some updated guidelines, recommendations, and potential floor plans, um, both exterior and interior for what we call infill housing.

Infill housing is for residential development of substandard infill lots.

And the overall purpose and intent of this was to develop a standards and plan book so that we could ensure that the quality of construction character or sustainability and resilience of homes built on these smaller lots uh do not um cause problems uh for existing um residents and neighbor uh housing and neighborhoods and yet allow people who have that that land to uh develop it as they have a legal right to do.

So we contracted with WPA work program architects, we call them WPA for short to help us about this task, and they are here today to present um some draft recommendations to you all.

I'm pleased to introduce E.

Ray LeClair and Sharon Manana.

I hope I'm saying that right, um, of uh work program architects or WA WPA for short.

Thank you very much, City Manager.

Good good afternoon.

I'm Sharon Manana as city manager stated.

Very happy to be here today.

I'm the director of community engagement, and I'm Ray LeClair, project manager and architectural designer.

So we're going to share an update on the Hampton Infill Housing Plan Book.

A little bit about WPA.

Our mission is to strengthen community through a collaborative design process that builds on social, economic, and environmental resilience.

This is why we're so excited about this project because it really touches on what we care about.

For today's agenda, we're going to talk about what infill housing means.

Um, we're gonna look at a case study in old Huntersville.

We're gonna review some preliminary findings to include the character report, blocking diagrams, and we had a we had some robust community engagement over the summer, so we're happy to share those findings with you.

There's also an online survey that the city of Hampton graciously put up on a landing page.

And then lastly, we'll look at Lucas Avenue.

That sounds good, everyone.

We'll get started.

So, first off, what is infill housing?

Um, we've defined it here as a couple different versions of the same thing.

It's essentially a home that is on an old lot.

So a lot of the lots around here you'll see when you talk about infill, it's either putting in a new home where it fills in the place where it once stood, hence infill fills in.

Um, an older home could be removed, or it could be an existing vacant lot, depending on the neighborhood and the age.

The reason that an in-fill book, like the city manager mentioned, uh, is important to this community is it provides a variety of infill housing plans that have already been reviewed and approved by the city and other and the permit department and other review bodies.

So it incentivizes builders to construct these pre-approved homes that help maintain and strengthen the character of the existing neighborhoods that we're studying.

Um hopefully with this and a couple other zoning updates from the city team we're working with.

We're going to launch um this plan book around mid-2026.

So the first case study we'll look at is an old Huntersville.

Um this was a project about 10 years ago.

We actually walked the community with um residents to understand what they cared about, whether it was a trim, the windows, how they want to interact with the porch, the parking, and over to the left you see some of the floor plans that came out of this.

Um a little bit about Old Huntersville, it's located one mile north of downtown Norfolk.

Um at the time, and these stats are from again a few years ago, but they're over 1,300 housing units, about 30% of the population are homeowners, many vacant lots, um about 300.

And now when you go there, there are over 90 homes that have been built.

Again, attributed to the plan book that came from this.

So in some of our preliminary findings, we were looking specifically at the four neighborhoods in the regions around these that are shown on the screen.

That includes Buckrow, Phoebus, the downtown Hampton region, and with an old width included in there.

Just to give some background on the study area, when we analyze the available lot data for these regions, you can see that there's some existing lot widths that vary in size.

We'll go through a couple of those diagrams in the next few slides.

On one end, they can be as narrow as 25 feet as recorded in some of these neighborhoods, which is much skinnier than what you would see as a typical house lot.

However, the most prevalent lot widths throughout all the neighborhoods are 50 to 60 feet.

Most of those 50 and 60 foot lots have what's called a pre-existing parcel line, resulting in the potential for two narrow parcels per lot to be developed.

So if you see on the diagrams on the side, both are wider lots, 50 and six foot 60 foot lots, but they both have the potential to be infilled with two houses.

So one parcel, one house per parcel.

So in analyzing the rest of the data from these neighborhoods, myself and another architect from our firm, Robert Crawshaw drove through the neighborhoods to capture some of these images that capture the character of these neighborhoods and help us define what some of the styles and the existing character of the community is asked for us to represent is.

So the first one here is the colonial revival style.

These are two example images here.

You may recognize these.

These are from here in Hampton downtown.

I think these are specifically from with.

So typically they are symmetrical front elevations.

We call that a facade.

They have a centered entry, they have porches and columns, they have a steeper roof gable, so that's the end, the A shape on the end of the building there, and they are two or three stories.

So there are some of our taller options.

Another style that the community is very familiar with is the craftsman.

So this would be a lower slope roof, again with porches, and they have this very iconic tapered style on them.

They have exposed rafters at their eaves and a lot of times have decorative kind of ends at the gable.

Again, that A shape at the end.

Another prevalent style here that is not as uh well known is the Dutch Revival.

So similar to the colonial revival, this is the one of the taller options, has a steeper roof, but you can see the roof makes an iconic barn shape.

It's called a gambrel.

Um, and what's really interesting about this style in the Hampton area is that it can be placed both perpendicular to the street and parallel to the street.

So it offers a wide variety of options.

And lastly, we call this the cottage style.

This would be characterized as an asymmetrical front elevation with steeper, irregular roof lines, usually a small porch or sunroom, and one of our taller options at one to three stories.

So taking these styles into account, we then moved to the lot sizes that I touched on briefly before.

We examined all the typical lot widths that were available in the regions that we gathered data from, these four neighborhoods that we're talking about.

Um the diagrams you see represent the maximum infill massing or kind of house shape and size that could go on these various lot widths.

So you'll see as we flip to the next slide, the different variations that occur in these diagrams.

So it's to show how one mass or one house in this case can fit on this lot or how it can be subdivided to fit multiples.

Again, this is those lots are already pre-divided into parcels.

So this is a lot of the current infill housing that's typically happening now.

As I mentioned earlier, we had a lot of robust community engagement.

Here's some photos of what that looked like.

It was really important to the city that we met we gathered where people were, so we went to Central, West, and East Hampton.

We were joined by council member Campbell at um at the East Hampton Saturday morning community meeting.

We had about 10 to 20 attendees come out.

So for the first week, we met with a community, and then the following week we had a building professionals meeting, and that's when the developers came out and met with our team.

There's also an online survey so that everything that we did in person was able to be replicated online on the city's landing page.

And we had over 200 responses online, so it was pretty pretty great.

There were three stations that we had for engagement.

The first one, excuse me, was community vibe.

We try to understand how people and how residents interacted with their homes, with their front porches, are they just waving at neighbors or with a cup of coffee?

Do they want to have small parties where they entertain their friends and their neighbors?

Um, coming out of the pandemic, a lot of folks also wanted to have a lot of do it yourself projects, so having enough of a bench in the front lawn and also looking at parking.

So here's some of the feedback that we heard.

Um, mix of parking preferences.

Some folks preferred on-street parking or parking in their garage, but they don't want the detached garage to be the focal point or attached garage rather.

Front of the house, again, like what would you like to do in your yard?

Would you like to garden?

Some folks mentioned wanting to have enough room for projects so that the house isn't consuming all of that property.

And then with some of the residents living in their neighborhoods for many, many years, they just wanted to make sure that any homes coming in the future would have comparable floor plans.

We had a student from Hampton University attend one of the meetings, and he wanted to make sure that there was some modern aspects to what we're designing so that everything isn't so traditional.

Another one of our stations touched on the existing neighborhood styles that we covered in the previous slide.

So, how does the neighborhood react to these?

How does the community understand these?

What do they like?

What are they not like?

And some of the feedback we heard for that.

A couple different styles that weren't necessarily represented in what we're putting forth were Victorian, Italian, Cape Cod, and one story.

We have added some one-story versions to this.

Again, this note about traditional meeting with modern.

A lot of people want something that doesn't feel like it's trying to copy an old home, but still has a lot of those same nods, traditionalism.

In our industry, we call that contemporary compatible.

Everybody was really interested in developing options within the style.

So we'll cover that a little bit more in the next slide.

What the options for that are.

Important notes about the front door facing the street, houses and their proximity to each other, and then one-story options for multi-generational use.

And then we also talked about the styles and features.

So this is zooming in one more layer to the doors, the windows, the trims, all the kind of finishes that you feel are on the outside of your building and visible from the street.

So what we heard was lots of great feedback in a lot of different directions.

Again, you can see here another note about modern contemporary, how to mix those modern styles with more traditional elements to make something that feels fresh.

Talking about porch options.

There's a note here about proportions, making sure that everything, if you're looking down a street that's full of historic homes and you have an infill home, you know, the proportions in the lines across the facades aren't jogging up and down and making them feel irregular.

And then talking through specific trim and shutter options that can be customized kind of per house.

Eventually moving into the interior finishes, making sure people feel they have options that fit their lifestyle.

We also received some feedback that didn't necessarily finish with those categories, but we wanted to make sure that it was brought forward.

A lot of talk about accessibility on the first floor.

We've added an age in place option, AIP so that there's an accessible bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, as well as ramp and wheelchair options from the front yard.

Low maintenance materials overall, mixing of materials as well.

Again, a note here about modern homes, wanting to bring in young families and making sure that they come to the neighborhood and they stay here and they become part of the community.

A little note here about renovation grants, talking about how we encourage the growth of not just the infill housing, but bringing up whole neighborhoods and whole communities while we do it.

So, like Sharon mentioned, we took a lot of that those great questions that we had at the community meetings, and we were able to work with the city to put together an online survey to make sure that everyone, even if you weren't able to come to the meetings, was heard.

So in the multi-choice section, we were able to discern a little bit more about the styles and what the preferences were.

Colonial revival and craftsmen were the favorite styles with Dutch and Colonial being less favorable and less known, really, less recognizable.

Huge emphasis on front porches, especially for gathering or decorating, somewhere to put your pumpkin on now that it's fall, that kind of thing.

There was a good interest in modern homes and matching historic homes.

So again, finding that blend between the two.

Same with materials for facades, so mixing brick and wood, making it feel traditional, but also bringing in some newer elements.

And then being able to bring depth to the facade.

So detailed or nuanced elevations that have railings, columns, shutters, trim, making sure it doesn't feel flat and one-dimensional.

And these are just some of the responses.

There's a multitude of responses that we're not going to capture in today's.

Yes.

Yes, this is these we would call these kind of the highlights or the summaries that were able to float to the top from the most of the feedback that overlapped.

So for the write-in responses, also a lot to capture.

This is just a summary here.

Again, this idea of these newer homes complementing the existing neighborhood character.

Um, these gambrel or barn roofs, if you remember from the Dutch version that form that kind of barn shape, were not really known, and some people didn't like them, although some people respected how much charm they brought to the area.

It was a bit of a bit of a new thing for a lot of people.

Um, and again, this third point comes up again and again, it's very critical to our work, how to properly scale the new homes in their locations to the adjacent homes in historic neighborhoods.

So they want homes to have unique identity and charm.

I think everybody feels that way about their historic homes.

Um, and again, the note about the garage and making sure that that doesn't become the priority of the front facade.

So after we met with the community, we also met with what we call building professionals.

This was a group of developers and construction teams that would be the ones who were potentially developing this infill housing.

Um, what that looks like is a little bit different than the community meetings.

Instead, we bring drawings to allow them to mark up.

We talk through these items that are listed on the slide here, literally from the ground to the roof, and we talk through what kind of construction makes sense for this location, this region and this market.

We talk about what them and their potential subcontractors are comfortable constructing, and then that helps inform us in building projects that are properly scaled, properly marketable here, and are efficient for the type of construction present.

So to help kind of bring together some of these thoughts, the city asks us to look at a case study location for Locust Avenue, which is over in width.

And you can see here the uh two houses on the left and on the right are existing homes that exist on the street and width.

And in the middle, we've created a case study for two infill homes.

Now, this is the case that I talked about previously, where there's a 60-foot lot that can be by right divided into two parcels.

So a developer could come and build two homes here.

And we've shown with these two sections with these two elevations here, one of the craftsman style, that would be the one on the right, and the Dutch revival style, the one on the left, that by creating different elevations in the facade, pulling and pushing different elements, putting windows and other facade features on there, as well as maintaining a certain roof height, it's able to blend seamlessly into the houses and the community fabric around there and look like it was a complement to the neighborhood.

And you can see that this option that we pulled out here for the Dutch revival, even has options within it, like the community was asking for.

You know, you could have a full front porch, you could have an offset porch that gets you a bay window.

You can also turn this design on its side and have a corner lot option, just in case you know this happens to be a corner lot that faces two streets.

So all of this here that we've talked about is a part of our schematic design phase, which is what uh we're in the process of now and hoping to wrap up by the end of the year.

So, given all of this feedback from the community and any feedback from here today, we'll go ahead and complete our preliminary design phase that gathers all of our research to date and all of our design thinking and formalizes it into some uh drawings for the city.

From there, at the start of the new year, we'll move into design development, which really gets into how we put the buildings together, what parts and pieces do we need, you know, how how do each of these iterations of each type of house start to look and start to be built.

Um, once we're done with that, we'll go back to the community for round two of everything we just described.

So that includes the engagement meetings like we talked about, meeting everybody in the communities that they're in, as well as another round of builders' meetings to make sure that what we've drawn is responsive to the feedback they gave.

Um following that, and that feedback will wrap all of that into our construction document space where we actually start to put together the plans that will be submitted as a part of this plan book.

Um, while that process is going on, we'll work jointly with the city through some zoning and their own kind of permitting process for the plan book itself.

And hopefully late summer, we'll be able to begin rolling out that program as a set of both the plan book itself and also infrastructure instructions about how to access and use the plan book.

So everything that we talked about, you should be able to find on the city's landing page.

Um that's also how the community is able to engage with us if they haven't attended any of the meetings.

So you can scan that QR code or type in that web address.

And thank you so much for having us today.

Any questions?

Okay, questions.

Any questions?

Uh okay.

All right, we don't have any.

Thanks for a great presentation, and we you laid out very nicely the uh next steps in the program.

So we're looking forward to you know continuing down this path of completing the plan book.

So thanks for your work on it.

Thank you so much.

Have a good afternoon.

Mr.

Mayor, if I may, before we move on to the next item, just as a um for the benefit of the public on tonight's consent agenda, there will be an action requesting council to officially initiate those additional next steps that were outlined for you.

Just wanted to connect that for any citizen who might see this presentation and then see the evening agenda item.

Okay, thank you for that.

All right, you want to introduce the next item?

Yes, our next item is um an update on the development of our 2026 General Assembly legislative uh priorities.

As you know, we like to come to you at least a month in advance of when we are planning to ask you to actually adopt a set of priorities so that you have a chance as a body to uh review what staff has put together and if you get any comments from the public, you know, between now and when we adopt it, we have a chance to modify.

So today's presentation basically reflects what we believe we heard from any major uh department, the city attorney's office, the council members, um, the manager's office, things that we thought needed to be addressed.

Um, Mr.

Ed Reed Um, and who is the vice president of two capitals consulting, and is our very capable uh legislative liaison uh during the general assembly session is here to walk through those things that we've heard.

I do encourage that this is a work session, and so please feel free if there's something you think is missing and you want added, or something that you have on that we have put on here that you don't feel comfortable with and you want to talk about it.

We have ample time to make any changes that you might want to see.

With that, I'll turn it over to Mr.

Reed.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of council, city manager, city attorney, city clerk.

It is uh uh a pleasure to be before you today to present the draft legislative agenda for the upcoming session.

Um I will kind of go through what what the plan of the presentation is.

But in today's presentation, I hope to give you an overview of the upcoming General Assembly session, um, set some expectations in terms of timelines, uh, talk through proposed uh policy positions, some that you will be familiar with, some that um have been added as the city manager has alluded to, and we'll talk about some legislative requests and budget requests, and then also get any feedback that you may have at this time.

So, to give you a glimpse of the timeline, we are obviously here today uh to give you the draft presentation.

Uh we've been working over the summer months with your city departments and leadership and you uh to gather ideas for the uh creation of this package.

Um it is our intent to uh have this on your legislative uh agenda or your legislative meeting agenda for November 12th for uh final approval at which point we'll be able to work with members of your delegation to get bills drafted, introduced, um, and budget amendments introduced later this year at the beginning of session.

I also wanted to highlight that the governor uh the outgoing governor gets to introduce the budget uh and so that will happen on December 17th.

We'll get an idea of what agencies have have requested to be as part of the budget, um, and that the session is slated to begin on a January 14th.

And so it's also important that we have uh an election in November, uh, so we'll have a new uh gubernatorial administration, so it'll be a lot of transitions happening over the fall, winter months as we go into to session.

Um also wanted to level set a little bit before I hop into some of the requests and some of the updates, just talking through some of the federal impacts um on the state's budget and some of the revenues.

And so over the the course of the spring and summer, both the House and Senate have created uh special emergency committees to uh take a look at what the federal reductions are and the impacts that they're having on on the commonwealth and localities.

And they've been studying the impacts of HR 1 for a few months, and I think recently those committees have come up with some recommendations that include um potential state actions in the areas of housing, unemployment insurance, workforce development, and targeted economic development uh investments.

And so as a result of the impacts, um the commonwealth is gonna have to deal with um Medicaid and SNAP uh reductions and how the Commonwealth will fund that as well as health insurance, higher education and tax policy, as well as the federal workforce investments.

And so we expect to see a lot of movement in terms of the budget over the course of the 60-day or what we refer to as a long session.

Um the House Appropriations and its Finance Committee staff have um emphasized numerous times now that Virginia's unappropriated balance um provides flexibility for a lot of one-time uh expenditures uh in the upcoming session, but uh we have uh a few billion dollar worth of of mandated um costs that the the commonwealth is gonna have to deal with in the upcoming session as well.

So, all that to say uh there will be a lot of requests in the upcoming session um, but uh things will be tight in terms of the budget uh as we work through the 60 day process.

The first section we'll start with today, um, and I'll walk through pretty quickly here some of the policy positions that we have historically included in the package.

Some of them again will look familiar, others are are some additions.

And policy positions in the package typically are broader issues where if a bill is introduced, we have a little bit of latitude to either support the bill or oppose the bill.

Um we don't necessarily have to come back to you every time a bill is introduced because it's a part of this package.

Um later in the presentation, you'll see some specific requests that are more tailored towards the city of Hampton in which we will engage the delegation to pre-file or introduce a piece of legislation or a budget amendment.

The first section is uh related to resiliency of the environment, natural resources.

Uh so we've got statements supporting uh efforts around the increased local authority for tree canopy.

Um we continue to request the state provide ongoing grant funding for um flood resilience programs, and so this includes updates and revisions to the Commonwealth Flood Preparedness Fund and ensuring a state level coordination to coastal coastal flooding as well.

Um we've seen some tweaks to that program that have uh moved the program more towards a loan program and instead of a grant uh fund, and so um that has decreased some of the revenues that have come into some of the Hampton Roads localities.

Uh a new addition to this section is a support statement for legislation that embraces a humane and effective strategy to stabilize and gradually uh reduce straight cat numbers while improving public health and safety.

And so um this is also known as trap neuter and release.

While this is in the natural resources and environment section, it is also a very much so a public safety issue and public health issue.

You'll also see here um continued efforts around the uh state supported funding for African American cemeteries.

Um Hampton has been uh very successful in several sessions now on on getting additional funds through the Department of Historic Resources for that program.

We've also added a statement here about support for additional investments in the stormwater local assistance funds that are that are going to come due in the upcoming session.

On community development and economic development, uh we have a statement in here supporting the ability to maintain local authority over land use and zoning issues.

Um we always intend to see a lot of bills that are introduced that uh typically attempt to erode local authority.

We are a Dillon Rule state, and that the localities have to ask for permission for a lot of things for the state uh in order to do at the local level, and so we uh stay diligent on protecting your authority at the state level to ensure you have the ability to make those decisions locally, and that of course includes um accessory dwelling units, which uh the city is undertaking the process there and then historically also in short-term rentals.

Uh a support statement for increased funding for the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, which is doing great work uh regionally, um has not seen an increase in funding uh for quite some time.

And then a newly added statement uh here requesting uh the General Assembly adopt legislation that would give additional authority for uh nuisance and safety related offenses in some of our neighborhoods, and that includes um increased parking restrictions for commercial vehicles in city neighborhoods, and again being a Dillon rule state, um, we do have to ask for additional authority for for a lot of those uh those uh those ordinances that you would enact locally.

We've um and then along with that supporting legislation that provides localities with additional tools to fight um blighted properties and address blighted properties across the the city as well.

And uh Virginia First Cities, which of course Hampton is a great member of, uh, they typically lead a lot of the legislative discussions around blighted properties.

We've made some gains in the last few sessions around the vacant building registry, um, ability to regulate clutter and tall greed grass and and weeds.

And finally, in this section, um, continued support for legislation that would provide additional financing and bonding authority uh for um the maintenance construction of uh entertainment related venues and public facilities.

Public education.

Um most of what you'll see here um looks familiar from previous years and sessions.

Um the state has made great strides, I think, in the last several sessions in additional funding for K-12 education.

However, um still lag behind some of the JLARC recommendations on SOQ funding and the needs uh locally, and so uh we we want to support additional investments there.

Um newly added is is the last bullet, which is supporting solutions to address school construction and renovations locally, which I think will um see a bit of movement on that in the upcoming session.

If if some of the uh we've had a bill vetoed uh a couple of of the last sessions that I think um may have some movement in the upcoming session.

Uh the money slide is the next slide.

Um so here we we talk about um protecting a lot of uh your your fiscal authority locally to ensure that the state's not mandating um the elimination of certain taxes or the addition of certain um fiscal burdens or responsibilities that the state's not picking up the tab for.

Um note is um continuing to support efforts to request that the state offset local real estate and personal property tax revenues loss um losses due to the tax exemptions for uh disabled veterans program.

And so we've seen that that program obviously balloon a bit over the last several years, and uh I think a lot of localities are experiencing that.

And so as the state um deals with some greater tax policy uh revisions, particularly maybe in the upcoming session or the 2027 session.

I think we'll we'll see some movement um there as well.

The one new addition on this slide is a support statement uh for the statewide authority for local governments to establish an excise tax on the sale of uh of vaping products that you'll see there on the second column at the bottom.

Public safety.

Uh we continue to advocate for increased commitments for um the 599 local aid to police department program.

We've again seen some movement there, but has not kept up with inflation at all since the the state um enacted that some years ago as well as increased funding for um JO per DMs.

Um what new to this year, and we tweaked the language a little bit there, but the third bullet um which is supporting continued efforts on um regulating the illicit vape cannabis products that you might see in in the communities and giving the the state some additional tools and and allowing for localities to have additional tools to to regulate and and fight some of that and what you're seeing.

Supporting ongoing work to review Virginia's uh barrier crime laws, and so the uh Department of Criminal Justice Services is has been working on this for some time and the impacts of local governments to engage with credible messengers or violence interrupters, uh then supporting the efforts of state level, um local relief to uh for the temporary detention orders and emergency custody order processes, and I understand that we've made great strides locally in reducing some of the wait times, um, and then that subsequently has uh reduced some of the the manpower requests for the Hampton Police Department as well.

So that's good to see, but we always could use additional resources to um to alleviate some of those manpower issues.

The additions to the public safety section this year, um you'll see there's a support statement uh for legislation that deters the reckless use of motorcycles, dirt bikes, and other motorized bikes in public uh areas.

I think Hampton's not the only locality regionally and across the state that's seen an uptick in in some of the dangerous uses of those vehicles.

You may recall two sessions ago, we got additional authority on ATVs and the ability to dispose of those if there were some dangerous and illegal activity occurring.

Uh the next is continuing working with uh Virginia ABC to reduce the local responsibilities related to ABC larcenies.

And um, you might also recall last session we introduced the bill to shift the local responsibilities to ABC on this.

Uh the cost burden on that was was quite heavy on ABC, so the bill didn't make it make its way through the process.

However, we did get a commitment from ABC at the time to to work locally, and and I understand that the regionally those conversations are happening with the with the police chiefs to crack down on some of those larcenies and the and the manpower issues.

And then uh lastly is support efforts to add um municipal park rangers, 911 operators, and animal control officers to the list of individuals who are eligible to receive enhanced hazardous duty retirement benefits.

On um FOIA, and this is uh same statement that was in here last year on supporting transparent government operations, but also opposing any legislation that proposes to increase the financial or administrative burden on localities when requests are coming in.

And then the last section in the uh and the policy position uh portion of the presentation is related to transportation and transit.

Um continue to request that the General Assembly appropriate additional funds toward sunken boat removals supporting sustainable funding for reliable transit services through HRT.

Uh and then the last, which is a gonna be a pretty big hot topic in the upcoming session, or second to last, sorry, is the expansion of speed cameras and the ability to uh advocate that the fee revenue that you receive from these cameras stay locally.

Uh understanding that um it's not a cash cow, but it's used to ensure that you're able to install um and maintain the devices, which I understand are very costly.

And so with without that, um there were some efforts last session to remove that monies locally and go to the state, which would then have put the cost burden on the locality.

Um and then the last bullet here is also a new addition, which is um supporting the creation of a regional um aviation authority to consolidate Hampton Roads airports.

The next portion is related to our specific uh requests on behalf of the city of Hampton.

You will notice that many of the requests this session is a little bit of a flip from others are budgeted in nature, but again, this is a budget session.

Um I think a lot of what we have in here from a budget perspective will be one-time uh funding requests.

And so the first is a carryover last year.

Um we did have legislation introduced um to restore the Hampton Health District.

Um we don't need legislation this session to do that, but we do need a budget appropriation to make that happen.

And so we have continued conversations with the Virginia Department of Health over the spring and summer.

Um that number that you see there is an estimate that would be needed on behalf of the Virginia Department of Health for the creation of this or re-establishment of the Hampton uh health district, and that's $770,000.

That would be a recurring um expense.

So this is one of the one recurring expenses that you will see in terms of a budget asked in the package.

Second is uh funding in the amount of 2.5 million for Hampton through the Safer Communities program.

You may remember that in the early spring um this 2.5 million was included in the General Assembly approved budget.

However, it was uh part of a number of items that were vetoed by the governor at the time.

Um the cities of Chesapeake and Newport News also saw um monies vetoed as a part of this program as well.

So this would be um requesting that that money be put into the the new budget.

Additionally, is a uh one-time request here for the Fort Monroe uh excuse me, Fort Wool, um, supporting the um uh repair and replacement of the Fort's boat dock and tower and um other historic resources there.

So that amount has grown a bit because the the needs have grown, and that's an amount of 4.4 million, excuse me.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation has submitted a budget request to their Secretariat, the Secretary of Natural Resources in that amount, um, which is a very important first step in the process.

So we've got a little ways to go, but that is a needed and very important first step, and so we will continue to support those efforts as um, and so we're hopeful that that um would be a part of the governor's introduced budget in December.

It makes it a little bit easier to keep it in during the General Assembly session.

All right, now we're gonna talk through two items that are legislative requests, um, and and these will be new requests uh to the package.

Um the first here is requesting legislative um adjustments that would enable localities to receive state recycling credits for the disposable of residential household trash delivered from Hampton customers to the NASA Hampton uh waste to energy steam plant.

Um, and so this would require some legislative uh changes to to undertake at the local level.

And then lastly is a new request requesting that the city be added to the list of localities that may have more flexibility on levying a tax on certain real property at a different tax rate, um, mostly around those that might be vacant over uh an extended period of time.

Um, and and so this is sort of fresh to the package and and still doing a little bit of research on this one and the impacts.

And so the last slide that I have here is surrounding our regional community partners.

Others we um typically uh align with on their legislative priorities unless otherwise um noted.

And so with that, I know it's a lot of information packed there in that time, but happy to have any feedback or questions that you might have at this time.

Vice Mayor Brian.

Yeah, thank you, Ed.

Uh just two things on the uh, and this may not be a legislative thing, maybe to the localities, but is there any uh conversation discussion about parking minimums uh for those who develop in our community for developers?

I understand that is part of a conversation from some legislators outside of Hampton's delegation, so it will be on our radar to monitor as part of the the legislative session.

Okay.

Any other piece is with barrier crimes, is a discussion centered around looking at uh barrier crimes in terms of if it deter credible messengers from working in particular positions or tasks.

What is that referencing?

That's correct.

So there's a every every so many years the Commonwealth will update the barrier crime laws to uh depending on what profession um someone might be going into or returning citizen might be going into to ensure that um you know the relevant safety requirements are in place, and so we're just requesting that um localities have a little bit of flexibility there as well, uh not to obviously enroll safety at all, but to ensure that you have some flex flexibility on the violence interrupter piece of it.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Um for the public safety for the vape stores, I definitely want to second the uh ability to limit how many we have in our city or in an area that's being um broadcast loudly from the citizens.

Um also keeping the speed camera funds here local versus sending it to Richmond is uh is a big one.

Um on the transportation side, could you talk a little bit about the regional aviation authority and what exactly the plan is for that one?

I'm gonna defer to the city manager a little bit on that one.

Um that that's a new addition to the the package, and again, that's not necessarily a request that the city would be looking to introduce legislation, but should a piece of legislation come about, that would be sort of a support statement for that that entity.

There is some current conversation um going on.

It is not evolved enough to really go into probably the detail level any of us would want before you would adopt a position in November.

Um, but basically there are conversations that are being led by the Hampton Roads business community about how we might make both airports in our region more competitive and also address things like international air travel as well as the future of aviation because there are a lot of advances going on in aviation.

Um we're not that far off.

It you know, it's gonna happen in our lifetime that there's vertical takeoffs and things of that nature, which basically change the nature of what you need at airports.

And so the notion of a regional aviation authority is to make sure that as a Hampton Roads region, we are maximizing the potential and making sure our region is putting our best foot forward so we don't get left behind economically.

Um right now this is a placeholder because we have not seen any draft legislation about what this new authority might look like.

But um, I I thought it should be included in this discussion because I expect by the time we get to November there will be more uh there will be a formal proposal that's coming to all of the localities.

In concept, you know, as your manager, and I think councils had some of these conversations.

Um we want to make sure that our region thrives and that we don't we're not on the back end of the development of the future of aviation, particularly when we have NASA Langley in our own backyard, and they're able to project where aviation is going.

Okay, thank you.

I just want to make sure that I hadn't missed some legislation wording or something.

No, no, no.

We have I have nothing to show you at this point.

These are general conversations that are happening.

Um Hampton is not directly in those conversations because we don't own an airport, but you know, we are on the periphery as a member of the Peninsula Airport Commission, and also all of the localities have been the managers have been generally briefed to expect something in this regard to help make sure the Hampton Roads area is competitive.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um two questions.

One is um relative to the um humane strategy to stabilize and gradually reduce cat numbers.

Is there currently um uh a groundswell of enrichment for some legislation on this?

Uh not to my knowledge, uh not it not in Richmond, and it comes up every so many sessions.

Uh I know we've added it in uh this year here locally.

I think there was an uptick or or a request to add it in the package this year and in this particular session from a public safety public health standpoint.

Um that's why you you see it in there for the first time this year.

But um I don't know that we'll see too many other localities introduce some legislation in that space.

Okay.

Um and the other um question I have is in regard to the um Fort Wool um piece um and the fact that there is currently some 4.4 million in what looks like will be included in the governor's budget.

And I I know that we have an estimate from engineers and surveys that have been done, and the amount was more like 6.8, if I'm not mistaken.

Um that's a you know, kind of a shortfall of 2.4.

Uh any thoughts on that uh in terms of the strategy?

Yeah, that's a good question.

And so I also wanted to know that it's not a for sure thing, it of course would be in the governor's introduced budget, so the the agency that sort of oversees that is is the Department of Conservation and Recreation and their requests in terms of and I and I think um we'll see a little bit of tweaking in that amount as we even get into session so we can finesse the numbers a bit as we introduce the actual budget amendments.

Um there's a little bit of wait and see with that because if the governor introduces a certain amount, then we need to also introduce a budget amendment to sort of offset those numbers a bit.

So I I think that's why there's a little bit of shifting in the numbers there from a DCR um uh submission approach.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yep.

Other questions, comments from council members.

Um I have a couple of things for you.

Um the uh part of our legislative list is about uh helping uh some help from Richmond in offsetting, you know, the cost of the uh veterans tax exemption.

Um had mentioned this approached you know our staff via ML regarding this because this specifically is not in the VML policy package is more general items regarding you know no no new mandates or taxes coming out of Richmond that impact the locality or reduce the locality's ability to to tax, but they don't specifically have a priority for getting support for funding or helping us to offset the cost of this.

And I think specifically I ask is that we get some assistance with you know the the loss of revenue we have from the exemption, and uh so I I may need your help with communicating to the VM mail policy team that we need to put that in there because when I talked with them, they what they spoke on was the policies that they currently have on the list, which don't specifically address this, is is really talking about future taxes, not what we need help for right now.

So I think what we want to get to is to get them to add this as a and I don't know if that falls on the a policy position or budget item because I'm I'm assuming it's really more of an item that goes to the budget, and that's why it's not uh not listed in their products.

Yeah, may I add to the mayor's comments, Ed.

I know that this is an issue that comes up at almost every city manager meeting.

Every city is now getting crushed by this issue.

Um we are getting more crushed percentage-wise because we're so veteran-friendly, and we have the VA in our backyard, but that doesn't mean it isn't impacting everybody.

And I think you know, there are different ways we've talked about approaching this, everything ranging from the state ideally paying for it all since it was their initiative, to you know, maybe there being some base level that every locality is expected to do, but above a percent certain percentage getting some assistance, so those disproportionately impacted, such as Hampton get some relief and and all kinds of things in between.

But I can tell you, you know, without citing the numbers for each locality and all that.

Some of the smaller localities, um, the loss that they're now seeing, you know, is literally causing them to have to look at double-digit tax increases to offset it, and or you know, wonder if they can even continue to support salary increases for their employees.

So these are these are major crushing issues, and I don't think anybody ever intended that it be that way.

And it's interesting because we were in Austin, as you know recently, and I looked up because there was some reference to that, the way Texas does it, and they have a similar kind of base concept as to what was put forward in the constitutional amendment, but they have a whole different way of structuring it to make sure that the benefit goes to people who truly can't work and thus have income loss as an example.

Um so I'm not suggesting we do that, but because we we've already have a lot of people who have this relief, but the relief has grown so exponentially, far larger than anybody ever intended.

And I think we were copying some other states, but in copying other states, we didn't copy all of their regulations around it, which is why I mentioned Texas.

Um but it it is something that I think is not just important to Hampton, I guess is what I'm saying.

And I appreciate you highlighting it at VML, but I think Ed and his conversations with that team may be able to help them to see that it needs to be on there for everybody, not just us.

Yeah, absolutely.

So happy to have that discussion.

And I know that um in the background VML has also been having some some conversations with legislators about um potential proposals in the upcoming session on how to address that, whether it be legislatively or budgetly or a combination of both.

Um, you know, as I mentioned, I think there's some appetite in Richmond giving um some of the pressures on the budget to um one have additional streams of revenue for the commonwealth and also localities, and some of that will um include um some revisions to our current tax policy, and there are some, and uh and I think rightfully so that want to group this into that bucket to ensure that we're looking at it from a holistic approach um so that we address some of these challenges that localities are having as well.

So happy to have that conversation and you know their legislative meeting is actually on Sunday in Roanoke, so it's perfect timing for that as well.

Yep, I'll and I'll be there so uh prepared to bring that up.

Um city management.

Before you leave the tax policy thing, and I know we put up the vape shops, which was act an active conversation, uh the vape tax, um, is since you mentioned like the potential for maybe some these are my words, not yours, but modernization of the tax structure as we look at these issues.

I just want to make sure we don't forget the telecommunications tax.

Um you may have covered that and I missed it because I had to take an urgent text.

But um that's another one where we've lost so much with telecommunications taxes, people have switched to streaming versus cable, but it's more because there's a modern technology that does the same thing.

And and it it if if if the concept was we were going to have a tax on technology devices and communication devices, we should be keeping up with the new types of technology and communication devices.

I mean, some people may say we shouldn't tax it at all.

Yep.

But I mean, if I think we collectively, and we hear from the community that it's not fair if we tax cable, but we don't tax streaming because it it produces uh an inequity there.

So and it has a big impact on the local government budget because we lose a fair amount of money, and then that forces us to look at cutting staff or raising other revenues to make up for it.

So I just want to make sure that we didn't miss the piece on the telecommunications.

Yep.

And I think I think we'll see some movement on that this session.

We have previously it just not it has not made its way into the final conference report of the budget, but I think we'll see some movement on that.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And then the the other or another item I have here is regarding the, you know, this one's comes from uh HRPDC and HR uh TPO transportation planning organization, and it's regarding legislation to uh increase the sales tax that is um dedicated for road projects, the major road projects in the region right now, the the tax is seven-tenths of a penny, and that is creates the funding stream that for the HRBT project that we toured this morning, as well as the other regional road project, the expansion of the interstate up to uh Williamsburg and uh many of the other projects.

Uh but it's um last year I think the um uh I think delegate glass uh from Norfolk uh introduced a bill to increase uh that uh seven-tenths of a percentage of a penny to a full one percent, adding an additional three percent to the to the uh to the penny and for uh secondary road projects.

And I think the secondary road projects right now, uh the funding comes through, I guess the VDOT smart scale program, and so you know you you counting in competition with others for a limited amount of funding for smart scale projects.

So what's coming back this year is uh additional or coming back with the same request that the General Assembly approved that additional three-tenths of uh of a penny uh to around that up to one percent for secondary road projects.

And I think the problem with it last year is that while the HRPDC and the representatives of the localities uh to on HR PDC and TPO supported that, but in the background, not all the city councils and and the Board of Supervisors supported, and uh so I guess it didn't pass.

Maybe you can give a little background of what occurred in Richmond and the fact that it is coming back this year, and ideally I think Hampton would uh it'd be in our best interest to support that.

Yeah, um you you gave a great overview.

Uh I will say the bill last year was introduced, it got watered down a bit to eliminate the tax portion of it just for the creation of the fund.

Um, and then the bill ultimately was vetoed um at the end of session, and so um that's absolutely right.

And I I think there are discussions um ongoing about um uh the specific language of how the bill might be introduced um in the upcoming session, and so I I'm part of some conversations with some of the other uh legislative liaisons in some of the other localities, and I think as we get through the fall, we'll have a better understanding with delegate glass on what that bill might look like in um a potential Senate sponsor as well, because there was not a Senate sponsor um last session.

And so I think uh the bill might be slightly different than how it was introduced last year, uh, but it's something we continue to monitor.

Um typically with an issue like that, we we would um have it in the uh you know under the regional partners since the PDC and and TPO would be leading, but happy to add that to the transit transportation section if you if you would like.

Well, I I like to do that, but I don't know if council members need additional time, additional information on it before before we agree to add it.

Uh and is there time to do that?

I mean, we're not we haven't adopted yet, but we do we still have time.

Uh would you have time to see what delegate glass introduces before we finalize um our request?

It'll likely be introduced after your November 12th meeting, quite honestly.

Um but it gives us a few weeks, I think, to work and and see what the the language might be before you approve it on uh I think November 12th is when council is have to approve.

All right.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Yeah, that's got a question, Ed.

Uh delegate glass, when she introduced that legislation, did she give any projections of increased revenue?

Going to a four penny.

Uh it was somewhere around 1.1 billion dollars uh if I believe that's right.

Yeah, over a period of time, yeah.

Yeah.

Um and there are a set number of projects, I think, across the region where you know certain roads, secondary roads in the locality would be impacted, and there's a laundry list of that available as well.

And I think it's and that money come back to the locality, or it was just for the the type of um projects, uh road, highway.

It would be regional, it'll be a regional fund, so HR TAC, so the Transportation Accountability Commission would oversee those monies as a mayor indicated, just like they do for projects now on HRBT and things of that nature.

Good.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Just a question of clarification.

The the penny and uh are we talking about sales tax?

Not gas.

Okay.

And and to further amplify on the answer to Vice Mayor Brown's question.

Um, although it would be a regional fund, it would be restricted for secondary roads, so not the interstate, but the other kinds of roads because what's happened is that a lot of the V DOT money has been restricted for congestion relief, which means that some of the secondary roads that our residents and businesses and visitors use that aren't on the interstate may have need for major repair maintenance upgrade, but they don't qualify purely on congestion or other criteria.

And so they're not getting the state funding, and it's very difficult for these large dollar projects for localities to fund them on their own, particularly when historically they've been funded with a mix of state and federal state and local resources.

So the idea was to take that extra little percentage that isn't being used currently, round it up, put it in a regional pot, and then localities would put in their secondary road projects for that pot the way we used to put them into V DOT.

But since VOT isn't funding a lot of those any longer, many localities are finding that their secondary roads are not getting the same treatment they once did.

Okay.

And so I I would, and I'll draft some language to include that in there.

I think at this point it'd be good to make the language a little a bit broader just in case a bills introduced that you know goes a different way, but we'll we'll finesse the language for ahead of November 12.

Okay.

And I will get the the HR TAC and HRPTO presentations on that.

I thought we had sent them, but it's been a long time ago.

I will get the them back out to each of you so you can look at it and see if you have additional questions in the meantime.

And I have one more question, Mayor.

Um so I I think we should support this, but Mayor, would you be the one who rightly let on behalf of the council supporting this, or would we look to add to uh state opposition on it?

I I think what we would want is language in our uh kind of supporting support package that says that we support this coming through HR TPO.

Um but uh I think I should think they did write a letter last year for that, but yeah, and if that was needed, you know, certainly a letter from us to support it would be would be important.

Um then I also want to quit I I got a little bit of angst around the the uh TNR uh legislation uh or presenting the TNR because I'm not sure.

I mean, this came out of uh uh animal control advisory committee, I think, is where it originated.

But I do know that there are a lot of um uh animal advocates in the community that do not support TNR.

And so I'm wondering how much outreach was done in the community on this before it it came back through us through animal control, and then now we're ready to put it in our package.

This came from the um the city uh attorney staff and the led the laws that we have on the books and how they work with the cats, and it they're requesting to make it a little easier for them to work with the cats.

I don't think they specifically said TNR, it was just their ability to work with handling the cats.

Okay, I don't have specifics on the I will I will get clarification from legal with Courtney about what they're specifically requesting.

I do I do want to be clear for the public, just so we don't get people saying we don't support TNR.

Um even those citizens that mayor reference support trap neuter and release to manage cat colonies.

But I think what was being asked for, if I'm not mistaken, and I wasn't at that meeting or with that conversation with councilwoman Campbell and Ms.

Askew, was that there are some advocates that want trap neuter and release broadly, not just to manage cat colonies.

And that's where we have our ordinance currently requires to a manage cat colony, and it was largely done because of an attorney general opinion that issued that localities can't merely abandon animals.

So if we picked them up, had them spate and neutered, we can release them to a managed cat colony with an owner who feeds them, gives them shots, make sure that they're well cared for.

But I agree with you, Mr.

Mayor, that that this is an issue that divides a lot of um passionate cat advocates, and there are some that believe very strongly in trap meter release to the wild, um, and others who believe it should only be happening to the managed cat colonies.

But since um Ms.

Campbell thinks it has something to do with our ability to to help.

I want to make sure that we're not, you know, if legal needs something, we want to support what legal needs.

But my understanding was what your understanding was that it was largely being driven by the the HERT committee wanting a more expansive ability to use TNR and prior legal determinations being that we couldn't support a more expansive use of it because of that legal abandonment issue.

Mr.

Mayor, may I just for a second?

I I just I concur with what uh Ms.

Bunting said.

It's not necessarily that the city attorney's office wants that.

Um I think it's that that's what it would take to be able to have that expanded authority if that is the desire.

So we don't really take a position one way or the other, whether it's something council should or should not support.

But if you want to have this expanded trap neuter and release ability, you would need the legislation.

So I think that is what uh Miss Alexander um was was recommending there.

So obviously it it's up to council whether you want to pursue that or not.

I said the wrong thing.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, but I I guess my question is my question around that was Do we want to do it at all?

Do we want to do it?

Because it was it was it a is it a recommend it doesn't sound like a recommendation coming from the Animal Control Advisory Committee that you know we've talked to people, we had some community meetings, and we with the information we've got, we think that we should uh expand TNR to uh or expand our current ordinance to allow trap newton release citywide.

Um those typically come as a recommendation from the Animal Control Advisory Committee.

But it sounds like someone asked the question, what would it take to change the policy?

And city attorney said, Well, we need to get legislation, so now we're moving to legislation, but we haven't done it through the normal process of the advis advisory committee vetting that and then coming forward with a recommendation to do TNR.

So I that's the concern I have about going straight to the you know, putting this on our legislative package when we haven't uh thoroughly vetted it in uh you know with our committee and the community.

Mr.

Mayor.

Thanks, Mayor Burr.

Yeah, uh, and I agree.

Uh I think we should uh probably if we can defer this or not even send it to Richmond at this time to have more discussion about it in terms of the process, because there are people on both sides of this issue and very sensitive.

So if it can be uh deferred, I would I would move that we did that.

I know it's not a topic to vote on it, but by consensus, I think we should defer this and have discussion and then follow the the proper process where people can chime in, make opinion, suggestions about how this should, you know, really should look.

I'm at your disposal, so whatever the decision of council is.

Any con other comments or questions from council members?

Councilwoman Ferry.

Thank you.

I just for some um thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

For for clarity, are when you indicate that you want to defer it, are do you mean till next year or just to get more information between now and when the package goes forward later this year?

Um well, I again typically changes to uh a local animal control policy get vetted in the animal control advisory committee, and then they come forward with a recommendation that they want council to take up.

And I don't know if it's time to if if it's enough time to do that between now and the time we approve our package, which is next month.

So I mean that would mean that we don't do it this year, we could bring it back next year after animal control has done that, and then I'm not animal control the committee has done that and then you know sent a recommendation for for us to change the policy.

Obviously, if they did it next month, I mean in January, you know, if it requires a general assembly change, we can't do it this year.

We'd have to wait until the next year.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I just wanted to make sure that that was clear.

Thank you.

Well, I I guess you know, I don't know if there's a nod of hedge we want to wait, or we can want to leave it in there, or which one we want to do.

Okay.

All right.

So we'll we'll we'll not include that in the package for this year.

Works for me.

Okay.

And uh last question I had is related to flock cameras.

Uh uh I do I'm assuming we have flock cameras and that requires no additional uh legislation through the General Assembly to expand flock cameras or plan flock clamor use.

Uh are we good with that or does it require anything on our part to be able to expand the use of them?

I guess is my question.

We're good today.

I mean, I there's always, as Ed will probably elaborate um much better than I can, there are always attempts to take away our ability to use these and to further limit.

I think in the last General Assembly session, in fact, they were um successful in and narrowing the amount of time, or maybe they didn't, it got vetoed, but there was an attempt to narrow the amount of time we could keep the data.

So there likely will be further attempts.

And you know, maybe if if if you don't feel like our language covers it, Mr.

Reed, we could add language clarifying that we you know we oppose any steps to restrict the ability to use you know these types of devices in the public spaces to ensure that we have the highest ability to impact law enforcement.

But we currently can do what we need to do.

Yes, I I totally agree.

It will be back again this session.

Um we we did a lot of work to kind of fight off a lot of the attempts to erode some of your uh local authority with license plate readers um generally last session.

So I think we'll see several bills on it again this session.

Um the Department of Criminal Justice Services continues to do sort of a statewide overview of where they are across the state and and different types of safety provisions that need to be put in place, but I think we'll see additional legislation.

I would say it's not covered in here currently, so we would need to add something, and I would recommend adding some language in the public safety section, um, which I'm absolutely happy to do, and and I think would cover um the intent of council and and the city.

Well, as if council members concur, I would like to see us add that as an additional tool for public safety and being able to use those cameras to quickly identify incidents and vehicles in certain situations.

I know people have used them to solve crimes quickly to allocate stolen vehicles and things of that nature, so we're using them and using them effectively.

I think we should be able to continue to do that.

So perfect.

Okay.

Uh any questions or comments uh additional for Mr.

Reed before we close out.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, as you know, but for the benefit of the public, um, throughout the calendar year, we try to bring you updates on the existing strategic plan priorities that the community and you have identified with accomplishments for the fiscal year.

Um, and today, Mr.

Scott Smith and Olivia Askew, the right Olivia, are going to be presenting our accomplishments over the last fiscal year so that you can have that public update.

I do want to note, because we'll be talking in coming months about updating the overall community strategic plan that we always have the opportunity to you know continue to set higher standards and benchmarks for us.

But I think you'll be very impressed with what we have accomplished with the resources that that you and the community have provided to date.

So with that, I'll turn it over to Scott Smith, who is our coastal resilience engineer, and I'm sure Ms.

Askew, who is our coastal resiliency manager, will supplement as necessary.

Thank you, everyone.

Uh today I'll be providing the briefing on the living with water uh strategic priority uh and uh talk about uh how we're addressing coastal resiliency, recurring flooding and environmental sustainability while also enhancing our tax base and quality of life.

So the resilience, the resilience division sits within community development.

Uh and as you can see from this slide, we interact with many of the other departments within the city as part of the resilient Hampton Initiative that uh it is a collaborative effort.

And although our division is small and with us as said uh our resilience officer Olivia Askew, Anna Hammond is uh in the back, and myself meet make up that resilient Hampton team.

We're currently uh interviewing uh a fourth edition to our team.

Um but we're a small group, but as you'll I think you'll see, we do a lot of good work.

We're very passionate about what we do, and hopefully that will be reflected in this presentation.

Uh so we're a driven values-driven uh organization, and we have a commitment to embracing a future where we're connecting with the water while learning to adapt to the impacts experienced due to climate change.

So our mission as you can see is to envision, create, and power Hampton to live and thrive with water and the impacts of climate change through approaches driven by data and values.

The resilient Hampton initiative grew out of the city council's strategic priority, living with water, and we look at water in two contexts.

So addressing that challenge of flooding uh which has various causes, including sea level rise uh and increased precipitation due to uh climate change and treat treating water resources as the assets they are, providing environmental, economic, and cultural drivers for the city.

And the foundation of living with water is our set of guiding principles.

And as you can see here, our guiding principles and these principles are reflected in our projects.

And we can't do our work without partners.

That we recognize that, but at the city level, but then also beyond the city.

We work with uh we have partnerships with the Corps of Engineers, NASA, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, several universities, and several nonprofits.

And over the last year, we engaged with 30 uh community groups as part of our work.

So resilience is a neutral term, and you can respond to challenges in many ways, many different ways.

These goals and values were created through a community engagement process, and the importance of shared values in directing the future of the community, not just an engineering plan, but long range plan for the future of the neighborhoods.

We apply these values, emphasizing safety, equity, the natural systems, heritage, integration, innovation, and adaptability.

Our team works in three different realms, developing plans and policy to guide the city's future, executing projects and programs that have multiple benefits beyond mitigating flooding, and engaging the wider community and to educate them on ways that they can take resilient actions on their own.

Last year was a milestone year for us.

We had three major projects were delivered the Lake Hampton Resilience Park, the Aberdeen Gardens Community Resilience Implementation Strategy, the Bluebird Gab Living Shoreline, and we also advanced several key studies, including the Aberdeen Gardens Drainage Study, the Natural Infrastructure Resilience Plan, and the Billy Woods Canal Feasibility Study.

These studies are the backbone of our future investments, ensuring we have the right data to guide the design, permitting, and preparation of funding applications.

We've been able to leverage over 56 million in grant funding over the last five years.

And in 2025 alone, we submitted 72 million in grant requests and received 12 million in grant awards.

Our collective efforts were recognized last year with three professional awards from the American Public Works Association, the Virginia Water and Environment Association, and the Virginia Lakes and Waterways Association.

These honors reflect the innovation and leadership of Hampton's resilience program.

And plans turn into projects.

So oftentimes, from a municipal standpoint, we hear, at least at staff, all we do is study, study, study, study, never do projects.

Well, the resilient Hampton team is turning those studies into projects, and the studies, our water plans, are actually the pipeline of projects that we developed.

And on the map, you see several of the projects that have come out of water plans that were in the process of executing.

The ones in blue were the came out of the EIB process, which I'll talk about shortly, and those are either completed in construction or underway.

The ones in black have come out of other plans, and then there's other trails and pedestrian loops included.

So we've also done several transformative projects that are underway or through the design.

So the Big Bethel Blue Way is under construction, Butler Farm Wet Pond Retrofit.

This is a project that we've been trying to get funded through D uh through DEQ and recently DEQ came to us and asked us to make sure we were submitting a grant application.

This funding cycle through the state the stormwater local assistance fund, so we submitted that last week.

Honor Park Resilience Park, North Armistead Road Raising was put out for uh it was advertised for construction yesterday, and the Mill Point Living Shoreline, which we'll be advertising in a couple of weeks.

These projects will reduce flood risk, restore shorelines, and improve public spaces, and each project reduces flooding, restores natural systems, and delivers visible benefits to the neighborhood.

And as we said, the studies we've managed, we completed three major studies: the Aberdeen Gardens Drainage Study, the natural infrastructure resilience plan, and the Billy Woods Canal Feasibility Study, and then we also initiated several studies.

So we're working with the Corps of Engineers on the we're in the first year of a three-year study with the Corps of Engineers for the coastal storm risk management study.

We've kicked off the Fox Hill Grandview and Harris Creek Water Plan, and this is part of the city's effort to evaluate flooding in all parts of the city, and it's the third water plan following New Market Creek and downtown Phoebus and the Buckaroe Water Plan.

And these studies are the backbone of future investment, ensuring we have the right data to guide permitting design and funding applications.

And we started looking, has started looking at sustainability, looking at not just the causes of climate change, but also how to help the city operate in a more efficient manner manner.

So we're finalizing an energy assurance plan, looking at what happens when storms come, how we get power back on, an energy efficient efficiency study, which will do energy audits of several of the city's buildings, and a climate action plan.

And these efforts complement the flood resilience, ensuring Hampton is prepared for both climate and energy challenges.

These efforts strengthen Hampton's regulatory and community frameworks to embed resilience citywide.

And then the third realm that we work in is community education and engagement.

And this is also one of the areas where we really excel and are recognized as leaders in the region and statewide.

We engage with the wider community and educate them on the ways they can take resilient actions on their own.

But we engage them during our studies during our project development.

We work with civic organizations, nonprofits, and educational institutions to not only advance the science, but to make it understandable and accessible to our citizens.

So in 2019, we worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Quantified Ventures to create the first environmental impact bond in Virginia.

It was issued in 2020, funded 12 million dollars for three pilot projects in the Newmark Creek Water Plan, which included the Big Bethel Blueway, the North Armistead Avenue Road Raising, and the Lake Hampton Project.

The funding had performance criteria about the amount of storage created, and we are on track to surpass these goals for the amount of storage created on all these projects.

Many of you were at the ribbon cutting in December for the Lake Hampton Resilience Project.

This project includes a half-mile loop trail, including two boardwalks, bioretention and bioswales to increase water quality.

We expanded the berm to increase water storage, added a wetlands bench to provide habitat and water quality, and by disconnecting the lake from the tidal flow.

The Big Belt of Blue Way, as I said, is under construction.

The first phase from Albany to Mercury Boulevard is nearing completion.

We expect to go across Mercury Boulevard in November.

And this project is adding approximately a 6,000 foot linear shared use path, boardwalks, and increased water storage.

And this project will also create additional storage in the median through the use of bioswales.

And the Mill Point Living Shoreline is going to add approximately 2,000 linear feet of living shoreline to the mill point area right across the street here.

It will add the living shoreline and wetlands bench to provide to improve protection from wave energy and storm events and provide habitat for fish, shellfish, and improve the water quality in the Hampton River.

And there's a number of other projects going on in the Hampton River as far as oyster reefs.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation recently completed a reef project to the north, and they're going to be working on some adjacent to uh Hampton University.

Honor Park Resilience Park.

We're completing the design of this project, which is right outside between the public safety building and city hall, and we'll convert the uh existing park into a passive recreational area and water storage facility while preserving the solemnity of the monuments and those who made the ultimate sacrifice in serving the city.

And why it matters Vice Mayor Brown?

Excuse me, Scott.

Vice Mayor.

Um I had a question about the uh on a part resilience park.

Uh you said you're going to convert it into what again?

I missed the last part.

So it's going to be uh that we're looking to preserve the solemnity of the monuments that are out there.

Uh-huh.

So we'll actually create like viewing areas within the the park along the trail.

There'll be actually almost like rooms that are cut out specifically for the monuments because what we heard when we did the initial outreach was maintaining that solemnity, you know, that it's honoring those fallen firefighters and police officers, and we want to maintain that that respect and honor.

So we've integrated that into the design of the project.

Would it have like a water theme or something?

Yeah, so it will create a storage area in the center.

There will be a boardwalk over the there'll be a like a loop trail around, there'll be a storage facility which will look more like a meadow, but during rain events, it will flood and hold water.

Most part it'll be normally like a green area, but during rain events it will fill up with water and then discharge the Hampton River.

Oh, okay.

And we look for that to be kind of a showcase of different resilience actions that we can take that there will be uh permeable pavers in there, and it'll really be a showcase outside of City Hall of the different resilience practices, the trees, the how it all integrates with uh our vision for resilience.

And then finally, uh why it matters uh this was a milestone year for our team, and you know, we protected residents, the economy and infrastructure, we leverage outside resources uh to multiply the local investment, layered public benefits across neighborhoods, and positioned Hampton as a national leader in resilience and sustainability.

And this is why living with water is not just a strategic priority, it is a foundation of our city's future.

And with that, together we want we're building a resilient Hampton that we can live and thrive with water, and thank you for your continued support.

All right, thank you for the presentation, Scott.

Any uh questions, comments from council members okay.

Thank you.

I continue the good work you're doing.

Thank you.

Okay, so that concludes all of our presentations uh for the afternoon.

Um there any regional issues to discuss is there any new business?

Okay, and so with that I'm gonna ask the clerk to read the uh motion required for closed session.

The motion required to convene your closed session today is pursuant to Virginia Code sections 2.2-3711 point A point one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda to discuss the performance of appointees to a local border commission and possible termination of same, and to discuss the performance of the clerk of council.

Point three to discuss the possible disposition of publicly held real property in the areas of Phoebus and Hampton Road Center Parkway, where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiations, negotiating strategy of the city, and point seven and point eight for consultation with legal counsel regarding one assessment of pending litigation where such consultation in public would adversely affect the negotiating or litigation posture of the city, and two council's legal analysis and advice concerning specific transactions and other legal issues pertaining to the city.

Okay.

So moved.

Second.

Councilman Bowman.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Aye.

Councilwoman Campbell.

Aye.

Councilwoman Fairby.

Aye.

Councilwoman Harper.

Aye.

Councilwoman Muggler.

Aye.

Mayor Gray.

Aye.

And uh uh while we do have some many items of discussion closed session, we don't have presentation, so we're going to meet in a Lawson conference room at uh three o'clock.

Meeting adjourned.