I don't know if they can hear me.

Oh, yes.

How do you do that?

You just push on time.

Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth.

Folks who are watching online, I want to welcome you all to our public work session for today.

Also I want to acknowledge our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, our city attorney, Vonda Graham Williams, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Wanna thank the city staff, of course, and everyone who's participating today.

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant, present Dr.

Datson.

Here.

Mr.

Hugel.

Present.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

Here.

Mr.

Tillage.

Here.

Mayor Glever.

Here.

I see Mr.

Carter is over there smiling.

I don't know if he's smiling because the work session is starting.

Of course.

Because you have something good to share.

Sir, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

Uh welcome, council, mayor, vice mayor.

Uh have a couple of presentations this evening.

Um both I think will generate a little discussion.

Uh very first one uh will be uh short term rentals.

I think she's here.

Dr.

Russell.

Yes, she's here.

All right.

Uh it's gonna be followed by our new CFO and uh uh budget director, Mr.

Frey.

Uh Burton, they're gonna talk about uh budget outlook.

So first of all, we have Dr.

Russell.

You've got to get the hot topic started.

Good evening.

Happy Tuesday to everybody.

Yes, ma'am.

Um our week goes downhill from here, so the night.

Starting amending.

All right, we're going to um at the request, I believe it was um from counselor Mr.

Carter shared with me on our trip to Greenville that she wanted some information about short-term rentals and Portsmouth regulation of short-term rentals in comparison to uh how our um neighboring localities in the region uh regulate this use.

Um what we're looking for this evening is just some feedback from council relative to how we proceed uh with amending our ordinance to regulate this use.

Uh we're gonna start um with some discussion about why it's even a topic.

Um with respect to short-term rentals, um, oftentimes uh when I think about it, and I'm a user of short-term rentals.

Um when we take our fall girls trip, we like to stay in properties that we could not afford personally.

It is a lot of fun.

Uh but I do recognize that it can be a nuisance to neighbors and adjacent property owners uh for a couple of reasons.

So not just personally, but professionally what um neighbors and adjacent property owners experience is noise.

Um parking, uh often lots of vehicles on the subject property as well as on adjacent public rights of way.

Um and then safety, but let me describe safety in the context of neighborhoods.

When you live in a community or when we live in communities, there is some comfort that comes with knowing who is coming and going, right?

What's routine and even if it's not routine, if it is a blip and it's every now and then someone has a um uh larger than normal gathering at their home, that is tolerable if it's not every weekend, every month, every um holiday season.

And that becomes the nuisance sometimes for short-term rentals.

And why you feel the pressure as uh a locality and appointed and elected members of a community to provide some relief to property owners.

We have to be neighborly, right?

So in context, what is it?

So the short-term rental is the rental of a dwelling for a period that's less than 30 days.

But at the very beginning of the meeting, uh speaking with some of our citizens that supported this statement that it is a growing activity in the city of Portsmouth, and it is raising concerns about noise and parking and trash and safety.

But aside from that, there is some issues relative to fairness.

Your occupancy taxes, your franchise fees, and things of that nature.

And so one of the comments that was made recently is that we have to consider the stakeholder interest, and stakeholders are both the proprietors, the property owners of short-term rentals, as well as those adjacent property owners and neighbors who live adjacent to those properties.

Okay, so Portsmouth currently does not have any prescriptive regulations for short-term rentals, and so we defer to a provision in the code of Virginia that stipulates that if a property owner lives in the property, then they are able to also use it dually or as an accessory use to offer residency for periods of less than 30 days to uh other parties for that reason.

Um nothing is required, there is no business license that's required, and it's my understanding that the commissioner of revenue has has administratively made that decision.

If you'll recall one of the comments that I made last night is that the in the administration of the Portsmouth zoning ordinance, if a use is not prescriptively outlined and regulated, then it is not permitted.

And because this use is not prescriptively outlined, our local ordinance is silent, we don't regulate it, but the code of Virginia requires that we permit it by right as long as the property owner lives in the property, and so many property owners in the city of Portsmouth are moving forward under those guidelines.

You'll also recall that last night I commented that I want to go back to the vendors.

And so and trying to get a feel for what is the impact in our community.

What I was able to determine is that if the entire property is offered, all of the bedrooms, all of the bathrooms, the pool, the you know, then that means that the property owner is operating outside of the stipulations of the code of Virginia, and we could enforce non-compliance through our zoning officers and our um that my office, the provisions of the ordinance and my office.

That would be difficult though, and incredibly burdensome because we do not have prescriptive requirements in our ordinance.

I did speak with our zoning staff, um, and I and I'll just be frank with you.

What we were told is that we have only had six um property owners that are operating short-term rentals that have come in to get a zoning clearance.

Um, and then I also shared with you that for Airbnb and Vervo, there were more than 20 pages of listings, right?

On in Portsmouth for they offered the entire property.

So that um anecdotally does suggest that we have a problem.

We have a problem.

Uh and without redress, that's a problem that will probably bubble up and get worse.

So what is happening regionally?

Uh we have a uh our regional partners, I would say, with the exception of Suffolk, uh all of our regional uh partners, neighboring communities have some provisions for the regulation of short-term rentals.

Umport News prescriptively does have um matches the code of Virginia where the property owner does have to reside uh in the property, maximum of six lodger uh persons that can be in the property for short-term rentals, and then they have a parking standard that's um uh for every uh two persons or two bedrooms, there has to be one parking space.

We have we uh have just begun to look at this in terms of benchmarking uh what would fit in Portsmouth in comparison to the region.

So we don't have specific recommendations right now, but I would say that you that is a common practice, planning practice.

You look at what's going on in the region.

So I I'll give you a perfect example.

So I I learned this many many years ago.

At 1985, in fact, at Virginia Tech that has a drill field that separates the campus, and so as a planning study, we had to determine what were the best ways to put paths across the drill field to the administrative offices, right?

And what we decided to do was just see where the paths were worn, where the grass was worn, and that's where the the sidewalks that cross the drill field went.

And so you can apply that standard even to this.

What is going on in the community?

Where are our Airbnb short-term rentals predominantly located in the community?

What are some of the problems in those areas as we're hearing from our citizenry, and then do we want to address those and permit them in those areas?

Um Chesapeake, for example, only permits short-term rentals in their agricultural and historic overlay districts.

Nationally, when we benchmark and looked at uh planning advisory service, the recommendations to put them where your visitors and tourists are located, so in your entertainment areas and those venues rather than community-wide.

And then there's some other communities that have distance requirements for how frequently they would be in an area.

So those are some things that we should consider.

Almost all communities that have regulations do require registration and licensing requirement for the short-term rentals, and that's an opportunity to capture missed revenue as well as is regulate uh locations.

So uh occupancy taxes, inspection fees, registration fees will help with the burden of enforcement that comes along with regulating the use.

All right, next step.

So this is important, all of it's important, but this is especially important, especially that last bullet for time frame, is uh six months by the end of the year going to meet the expectations of our council, the expectations of our manager.

Um we heard very clearly uh last night that um the council uh embraces community engagement and stakeholder engagement as we develop any and all of our regulations, and um that's important too, and it's a best practice in planning.

Uh it will lengthen the process.

However, um we would like feedback from the council regarding um the feedback that you're gleaning from our citizenry for short-term rentals, uh, what you desire in terms of how we move forward, and we'll take that, prepare draft ordinance, uh, and outline the pros and cons of various aspects of the ordinance, share that with our stakeholder groups, tweak those um draft ordinances as many times as necessary to reach consensus before we would bring it forward for public action.

And so at this point, um we are interested in gathering your feedback and we are listening uh attentively.

Question Moody.

I would I would add parking uh to one of the uh the problematic uh areas and also uh neighborhood character.

I think whether you have a lot of uh these short-term rental places coming into a community, it it can literally change the character uh of the neighborhood.

Umso uh hotels when you check into a hotel, you gotta register with your legal name, uh show identification, uh, contact.

I think there should be a requirement for the same thing because uh really uh air B B or short short-term rental is a hotel for that period of time.

So that there should be some registration vehicle for those as well.

So that's my two cents worth.

I'm I'm glad we're addressing this because it has become a problem in in Portsmouth, and we've had instances where uh there have been shootings involved uh with parties uh at short-term rentals.

Uh there have been uh uh evidence that uh uh places were rented to uh underage uh uh folks uh and drinking was going on, so there's uh uh litany of things that have come to my attention via uh communication back from citizens who had to experience the impact of uh short-term rental places.

So that's me.

That's my opinion.

Well, Vice Mayor, thank you for kicking it off.

We'll go to uh council woman Thomas next.

Well, the Vice Mayor at the last part of your uh comments was going to be my comments, Dr.

Russell.

I'm glad we're addressing this because I do believe there's a balance that we want to strike.

So some putting some you know, some type of ordinance together.

Um my concern was with the um any crime issues that we've experienced where we have kind of off the books um short-term rentals that have been rented for parties, like the vice mayor said, and that have led to some some crimes or so forth in the neighborhoods.

Um that was my concern, and if we could maybe if we even if we had some data about some of those that are currently on the books that have experienced those type of issues, I know of one, but um I'm sure there might be others.

All right, almost there.

And if I could add just to add to your point, uh if if my recollection is correct, I think we had a situation in property in old town where there was a fatality.

Because I remember I remember doing the walk, so it was a young person uh involved in a fatality at a short-term rental, and and so there were a lot of questions behind that right in Old Time.

Um so that's a very serious concern.

Yeah, yeah, agree.

Councilwoman Brand, you have a floor.

Thank you, Dr.

Russell, and thank you, Mayor.

Um definitely I agree with Councilwoman Thomas's points that point that it's about balance because we do want people to feel welcome coming here, um, particularly with something like America 250 coming up, and we we have hotels in the works, but not here yet.

So um, I do agree it's about balance.

This may be a question that's hard to answer, but maybe something I'm curious about how the short-term rental supply, I guess for lack of a better word, impacts our housing supply.

So, for example, if there's a house in a neighborhood that is a nice family-sized house, affordable house, or what what do we call that the middle, the missing middle kind of house?

If that's an Airbnb, that's a missed opportunity for someone to bring their family here, invest here, grow here, um, be part of our schools here, part of the community here.

So I know you said Dr.

Russell, there's pages and pages of entire houses that are not that that are available on short-term rentals, but um something maybe just to keep in the back of our minds, how is that impacting our housing supply?

Might be insignificant, might be significant.

Yeah, the information the research uh didn't really speak to that, it spoke to increasing rental um property rates for you know long-term leases.

Um would think that as long as it's operated so that it doesn't appear to function any differently than from a um single-family residence or family uh occupied residence, it would not impact values as long as adjacent values, as long as it's maintained, I guess, but we can certainly look into it.

But we can certainly look into it.

Yeah, and and you're absolutely right.

I think I guess what I'm kicking around in my mind is the point that you made earlier, which is if it's a family or uh someone living in the home, they're investing in the community in other ways besides being here temporarily, so um something to think about.

Thank you.

Councilman Hugo and then Councilman Dodson.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

Um so first the question and then some thoughts.

Um so on the second slide you've drawn a picture with somebody next one.

Yeah.

So the person in the bottom floor there on the left-hand side.

So does owner occupied mean that when the guests are there, the owner is also there?

Yes.

Or is it I own the house and I'm gone for the weekend and I can let somebody come in and rent the house for the weekend.

I'm occupying the house 99% of the time, let's say, but but when I'm not there somebody else is in there.

The def so I'll give you Newport News definition.

Okay.

180 six days out of the year, the owner has to reside in the property.

So okay, that doesn't necessarily mean the owner's in the house while the guests are in the house.

No, it can it could operate either way.

Okay, all right.

So then maybe the fact that you found 20 pages where every bedroom in the house is listed doesn't necessarily mean that they're not complying with the code if they're leasing the house, the whole house for Saturday and Sunday while they're out of town or something.

But I'm willing to bet not all 20 pages are in that category.

Probably in that right-hand category, and we just haven't captured them.

Okay, so um kind of going back to the discussion we had last night during the work session about how can we learn from what we've just been through.

Um I think we said we want to make sure we give ourselves time, enough time to do the work that the code writers need to have to be able to do the work without without painting ourselves in a corner to to rush.

Uh we certainly over and over said we gotta stay engaged with the community, and and as soon as this came up on the announced agenda for tonight, we started receiving emails from the community.

Uh I'm told that there's already a group in old town that's been kind of uh uh stood up to take a look at short-term rentals in in old town.

Uh uh I think without prescribing that we use something like that.

I uh I I think manager the recommendation ought to come from you, how do we get the benefit of getting the voices of those people who have been studying this for a while because there are folks out there that are way more knowledgeable about short-term rentals than certainly than I am, and so we do want their opinion, but then as I said last night, we also want the opinion of the neighbors, so it's not just the people that are in the business, it's the people who are affected by the business, and so whether we put a task force together for you all to work with to bounce ideas off, and then the the other thing that I'll I'll suggest uh so a couple of months ago I forwarded to the rest of council the uh uh playbook that that the mayor and I got from uh a briefing that we went to that was done by the Airbnb uh local outreach group that basically outlined these are the things that you should consider when you're in the process of of doing what we're now getting ready to do.

You might expect because it came from a short-term rental business, uh, that they were gonna make things as easy as possible on the on the folks who are are working as clients of theirs inside our city.

But in fact, I thought it was a pretty fair thing because kind of coming back to the discussion about parties, they have a rule that you can't rent a place to have a party.

And they put that rule in place because their reputation's on the line for uh, you know, I rented Airbnb and look at the mess I created in the neighborhood because I had a big party and things got out of hand.

So that I felt like that playbook was a at least a good starting place for the kinds of questions that we should be wrestling with as we work to uh draft the ordinance and it addressed, you know, how do you let the rest of the neighbors know that your house is gonna be Airbnb or short-term rented for the weekend?

Uh who do they contact if there's an issue uh what what are the noise uh limits, the parking limits, the uh how do you take care of of those issues that that you've listed uh as part of that playbook, and and I think uh again they were pretty fair in addressing or suggesting that each of those issues be thought through and addressed in the ordinance.

Um then uh while I appreciate that uh the we have several other Hampton Road cities that have uh gotten out there ahead of us.

The good news is they are out ahead of us and are sharing now the lessons that they've learned and and maybe the things that that they did that aren't working very well for them or the things that are working really well, so we need to uh continue to have those dialogues uh with with our neighbors here in Hampton Roads uh to take the best of of what's working for them.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Boss, sir, yeah, yeah.

So I've been intimate with uh Airbnb for a while as a host and as a user um and run into some of the problems that we've had.

Um one of the things we restricted with our rental was no parties.

Um we also turned it into a two-day rent minimum rental, which knocked out almost all the parties because all the parties wanted it for a one-night rental.

Um that might be one of the restrictions that we have is that if if somebody with a house that has the space for it might want it as an enter entertainment venue where they want to have it, and that should I think be restricted by us to say you can't do that, we restrict it's restrict it in certain neighborhoods out there.

But there's some specialty houses out there, uh, and m my next one will be one, a very specialty rental, uh, with very unique experience.

And I look at sometimes the density that we might be considering and saying, well, wait a minute, you're you're you might restrict me from having mine because for over density, which is very specialty rental that only couples are gonna use uh for special occasions.

Very very quiet venue along those lines.

I believe that the Airbnb and all the other services can collect taxes on these four from us.

I don't know what the state law allows us to put a special tax on these like the hotel taxes, but I do know that some of those services will forward that tax to us if we have the right to collect it.

I don't know.

Do you know whether we have the right to collect that or not?

Uh like a hotel tax on the city.

And what I saw, um, collecting them the same way they do for motel hotels in uh neighborhoods.

What is called the biggest problem though I yes, I see is enforcement of that, and we we're seeing enforcement problems all over.

So my biggest thing to that that I'm gonna ask is ha when we get to the point of looking at it is how are we gonna enforce it and are we gonna be able to do that how?

Um and I don't know.

I'm I'm sort of looking around the city going, we're having a big problem with manpower and attention to the uh items that we already have.

Um as far as the owner on site, uh there's another way of doing it, and that is a manager available um also too.

A local contact.

Yeah, a local contact that must be available.

Um and there's also things we can consider, like if they do have a noise violation or something that they are then uh restrict restricted on that if there's so many violations for it too.

Uh I am not in favor of a density, but especially because these are a popular item, they're a cultural becoming a big cultural item for us.

So it'd be nice if we could keep them calm and say, you know, no parties, no more people.

The biggest thing that I saw that helps us out though is that the person renting it is the person that checks in.

Must be the person staying there because sometimes you'll get a parent renting it for a high school high school group to get together.

And I'm not sure that I would ever want that to happen on my property where somebody rents it for somebody else.

Also restricted a lot of the um undesirable activity on the property.

Um also if we do form a committee on this as a person who's done both sides of it, I'd very much like like to be participant in that um activity.

Very good, sir.

So we got council people going.

Just one other point.

Um, I think short-term rental, we're always thinking about places for people to go spend the night.

But there's also uh some one of those services that's a short-term rental for your swimming pool in the backyard.

I know we've we've had uh some too.

Yeah, so uh sowing pool, motor home, whatever means so we we gotta make sure that our short-term rental ordinance because uh if you're renting a swimming pool, you ain't running it for the weekend for a party and we've had more than a few emails from swimming pool rentals that went haywire with people parking in people's yards and and some of that stuff.

So we need to maybe look at that collection of uh proprietors that you had on your list there, Dr.

Russell, and see what else fits in the category and how has our language covered all of the versions.

Yeah.

So I I have a couple of questions.

Um based on your data or any research that you've done, and I don't need the answer tonight.

How does how does these rentals impact or do they impact property values?

Do they uh are they seen favorably in most communities?

I understand people are using them.

That doesn't mean they're they're seen favorably because people are using them.

But at the end of the day, how is there any data that suggests that it impacts the values in a community or the quality of life in a good question?

Um I would say I uh my honest response is I don't know the answer to that.

Yeah, and so it's just kind of anecdotally.

If you don't know what it is, and if so what we call a uh curb side survey, that it just looks like operates like a single family house, it should have no impact at all.

Um but if it does, it would be impactful just as if you had way work tenants that live next door.

And that's that was part of our thought process.

Also, I'm very concerned that it seems to me that in our city we we we we challenge with regulating things that speak to the quality of life in our city, and and we get ourselves caught up in a situation, perhaps, where we have to do these things, and it's important that we do, but but we really need to those fundamental things that make a city strong like this, um, and I'm not against business owners and folks wanting to participate in this opportunity.

In fact, I had a number of emails, one of them was from some individuals that don't live in the city of Porchman.

Actually, they live out of state, they have a home in Mount Herman, and they explained to me in their email that they rent their home out, but but to the point.

I I didn't get to respond back to them, but a valid point that Mr.

Dotson brought up.

Where is the continuity?

If if something were to happen at that residence, who's going to deal with that locally?

And and so there are a number of different questions that I would have.

Uh and and I know we're gonna get there.

I'll be honest, I think six months is a long time.

I don't think we need six months.

I think that this is an important challenge, but we need to go to work on it as soon as possible, and we need to put a framework in place.

Um, certainly look at best practices, but more importantly, as Mr.

Carter frequently says, we need to begin to set a standard in our city.

We welcome these types of opportunities for people to participate in, but they have to come with regulations.

And at the same time, I think it's it's fair to require that they participate in the process.

Look, when they use short-term rentals, they use our services, city services.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

So if they use city services, they should be paying for it.

And that should not be prohibited, and it should be an expectation.

So my thought is let's let's move with with all deliberate speed on tackling this challenge so that we can do it the right way and have the right expectation, and also inform our citizens that we're doing it the right way because they're the ones who are enduring the challenges within their communities.

And that's not fair to them.

I'm sure I'll probably have some in my community.

I don't know.

I didn't pull up the list.

But at the end of the day, it's important that we do it the right way.

And everybody participate.

If there are taxes to be gathered or to to be collected, we need to collect taxes.

Everybody needs to pay their way.

That's just my two sense.

Councilman Donson.

So there were some uh emails sent out to the council this week from uh Greg Garrett and Tony Goodwin.

Were you um made party to those emails?

Mr.

Goodwin's yes.

Okay, so there they are there is an ad hoc committee in the area.

Are you aware of that one?

That was a Mr.

Goodwin's email.

Okay, good.

Which wouldn't be another group to along with the public as Mark is suggesting to participate in the process.

So you have a floor.

My question is have we been collecting taxes on short-term rentals?

Or do we know?

Don't know for sure, but I think the answer is no.

And that you know that substantially a lot of lost revenues.

Some of these short-term rentals are like a thousand dollars a night.

There's one in Churchland that rents for that.

Uh so we do we definitely need to make sure that's part of the equation.

Well, Councilwoman Thomas.

Thank you.

I just had a follow-up question on the tax.

So through Airbnb, if I'm an Airbnb host and uh Dr.

Dotson, you said you are a host.

Do they collect tax from the host that then goes to the city?

Oh, it goes to the state.

Okay.

So that's why we would not be getting the tax revenue right now.

Is that why two different taxes?

Two different taxes.

Okay, so we need to be the occupancy tax or some type of tax that's local lodging tax.

Okay.

Right.

Okay.

That and that's what we could enforce once we have some sort of ordinance if through this process.

Is that correct?

We should probably defer to the commissioner of revenue.

That's a fee, so we can have a registration fee, your annual inspection fees that those would be paid locally and help defer the cost for enforcement and regulation.

Okay, all right.

Um, yes, that's something that we should definitely look into.

Um because yeah, we have a uh there is a need for Airbnb short-term rentals in Portsmouth, um, like everyone is saying, so finding some type of regulation in the ordinance board, it's is definitely a priority.

I believe we should move forward with councilwoman brand.

Thanks mayor.

Um question, probably for you, Miss Graham Williams.

If we create a new ordinance addressing this, would it that be a similar situation as we had with entertainment venues and restaurants where they're already existing, they continue to operate, or would this apply to I think it's a little bit different than that uh situation because we're talking about regulations specific to a continuing use, which is very different than I'm already vested.

So the day after this is passed, your next client will fall under the regulations that we issue.

So it'll be a little bit different.

Okay, and then what you were talking about, mayor with enforcement.

What would what would that look like given that there are all these Airbnb short-term rentals that are in place?

What would the work be?

Would you try and pull them up, track them down, notify them?

Is that we just try and find where they are and then what we can, what we've sorry I have some thoughts.

Uh and it's around the area that I don't regulate.

Okay, so the annual requirement for the business license requires a business zoning clearance.

So we would have that, and then that is taken to the commissioner of revenue for the business license.

And so we would through that process build the inventory for the um want to use the right word, the legally permitted um operators in our community.

So my thoughts are that it would be our next cycle of business license um issuance after the ordinance is adopted.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thanks, ma'am.

So to this business license question, you mentioned that the commissioner revenue isn't issuing business licenses to short-term rentals now because of administrative burden.

Is that ultimately his call, or can we write in the ordinance that a business license is required as a means of registering the business so that we know who's operating in the city?

It would just need to be congruent with our zoning so that all of that plays into it properly.

So it is allowed under the statute that um they've isolated, but it just needs to be congruent.

So we have to figure out how that okay.

So I have a couple question and a couple statements.

First one is when we talk about short-term rental, short-term rental, short term rentals are not just limited to Airbnbs and those type of companies.

But it's also uh inclusive of people that may let somebody stay at their house for two weeks or three weeks.

Um so I think it's important that we define that in the ordinance on what a short-term rental is, uh, because I feel like that would open up a situation that is uh unintended situation.

Um in addition, I agree with my colleagues on finding a balance to support support uh quality of life, but also supporting business as well.

Um, and with that being said, I think that it's important that when we get the ordinance that we do have an enforcement plan with it, but I hope also that uh putting in a budget request because you're gonna need a lot of people uh to help enforce uh start with all the ordinances and things of that nature.

Uh so I think having a plan and then having what's gonna take for your department uh to enforce these things to a budgetary expense, I think is also crucial uh as we consider all of those.

Thank you.

Can I jump in here?

I'm not sure who's vice mayor.

Um crucial piece that's one of my notes that I wouldn't bring up.

Uh but uh the first thing I want to say is let's don't paint all short-term rules with the same brush.

Okay.

Uh short-term rules is not inherently bad.

Um absolutely some associated with bad things, bad things happen, everybody get a bad name from it.

But just inherently short-term rules is not a bad thing.

Um we talk about what it actually is, uh what it does for us is a couple things.

One it gives us more large lodging capacity in our city.

We're challenged with decent lodging capacity in our city.

These are this is a way to absorb some of that and get people in our city that would not normally come to our city just because of the capacity of lodging that we have in our city.

We've proper regulation taxing and enforcement that could be a revenue source for our city that we're not currently capturing.

What are the things that we're gonna talk about in our next presentation?

Is the rate of revenue growth versus rate of expenditure growth?

Those gaps are getting wider.

That's right.

So we're gonna have to figure out a way to close those gaps.

Uh, this by itself will not do it, but this is one of the things that can help us along that path.

Uh but it also provides some proper uh some entrepreneur opportunities for our citizens.

Uh I have no idea who the people are that are doing this at this point.

But I will tell you that once we start trying to regulate this particular industry, right?

But I will tell you that once we start trying to regulate this particular industry, there's some unintended consequences that's gonna happen.

Every everything that you vote on is gonna have an unintended unintended consequence.

Some of you have heard me say this before, but what we really got to be comfortable with is creating winners and losers.

Every ordinance you pass is gonna create somebody that hey, that that's a great thing, and great for me.

And on the flip side of that, it goes to some people that it's going to be destructive for them in whatever they're trying to do.

But what we're trying to do is minimize the negative effects as much as we can.

Having said that, the more you have citizen engagement, uh you know, how many times do you want us to go back to that world for more information?

Because the more we go back, the longer this process is gonna take.

So that has to be not just a uh a happy medium in how we how we regulate this, but it needs to be a happy medium in how we gather information, and at some point we just gotta move forward.

So uh those are the points that I want to bring up just to make sure that uh but most importantly, just don't paint all Airbnbs or short-term rentals, rather, with the same brush.

They they are they're not inherently bad.

Maybe I just point out a couple things that thank you, Councilman Tillage pointed out.

I think that there also has to be some discussion about the economics of regulation.

Um this is a big project that you're taking on.

I know you probably have uh encounter that when you're looking at other jurisdictions that have tried this, but it is a big part of the effectiveness and what happens when you have regulations on the book that aren't in force, it creates a negative impact, an even worse impact on the community.

So the economics of the regulation really should be addressed, so we know exactly the cost of what this is going to entailment that balances with the benefit that we're seeking, which is regulation, and so we need to be sure that that's that's considered.

I would say and and and we move on after this, I I would agree, but but as we all know, um there's a cost to not do something to the truth of the matter is for many years when these things come online.

We we we've been coming to the table late, and so we kind of create a situation in a scenario where we are uh today, and I'm sure there has to be a cost need benefit analysis done on this, but at the end of the day, we we've got to do a better job of making sure that these things come up front that we're prepared to deal with, and you're absolutely right, and I think we're doing that.

I think our management team is definitely uh engaged, and I'm grateful that you guys are spending time on this.

It's important to our community as we build our community and as we move forward and making this the best place to live apparently and raise a family.

All these things are important, and I'm not gonna look backwards and say, well, what happened in the past?

We're here now, and we've got to deal with it as a team and as a group, and as you said, Mr.

Carter, there's always a winner and a loser.

But I don't think it has to be winners and losers.

We don't have to look at it in terms of winners and losers.

I think you look at it in terms of creating an environment where people can come and participate in the process, have goals and responsibilities as that takes place, but at the end of the day, we've got to have rules and rules have to be followed because that brings credibility to the process.

Thank you guys.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you, Dr.

Russell, Mr.

Carter, you have the floor, Miss Jeanette Fernandez, Craig Burke, they're the next presenters this evening.

We're gonna talk about uh some budgetary outlooks.

I guess Trey's gonna start.

I'm gonna start.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

All right, thank you, Trey.

Good evening, Mayor Glover, Vice Mayor Moody, members of city council.

This evening we will be providing an overview of the fiscal year 2025 general fund expenditures and revenues, financial outlooks for the general fund, factors that may positively or negatively impact the financial outlook, and pose to you some questions regarding the city's values and priorities.

Factors that may positively or negatively impact the financial outlook and pose to you some questions regarding the city's values and priorities.

Before I move to the next slide, I want to provide a big flashing disclaimer.

All the information provided in the upcoming slides are not audited and are going to change over the coming months.

There may be, probably will be substantial revisions to the to the numbers in any direction.

So it could be better, could be worse.

And as such, these slides are only for discussion and consideration purposes.

Looking at our general fund revenue performance through June 30, 2025, we can see the comparison between budgeted and actual revenues across various categories.

The good news is that overall revenues are tracking the budget.

We've collected 313 million dollars to date against a budget of 316 million dollars.

It's about 2.8 million dollars or within 1% of the budgeted projection.

Highlights include real property taxes performing at 124 million against 130 budgeted personal property taxes at 32 million dollars against 37 million budgeted.

With these as mentioned before, with these property taxes, we do expect that there will be appruals or delinquent payments that come in that may moderate some of the shortages.

State categorical aid performed robustly at 34 million, significantly above the 25 million dollar budget.

This is almost entirely due to VDOT.

That came in much higher than we projected.

The bar chart on the right, there was our three-year trend, 2023 total revenues were 297 million in 2024, 318 million dollars, and in 2025, um 317 million dollars.

We did this does seem like a reduction, however, that's mostly almost entirely due to one-time funding of notably the Hampton Roads regional jail closure in 23 and 24, where we had a rebate come back.

We did not get that this year.

Moving to our expenditure analysis by function for fiscal year 2025.

This chart shows both budgeted amounts in gray and year to date actuals in blue.

The portion of public school contribution continues to be our large expenditure category at $76 million.

Public safety expenses follow at $72 million, and most of the surplus there is being driven by unfilled positions in the police department and associated savings with the size of the force being low.

General services spending, excuse me, general government spending is at 28 million, judicial expenses are at 26, and public works, general services are at 23 million dollars.

Most departments are tracking at or below their budgeted amounts, which is typical and kind of expected if you have a budget, you can't really go over it.

So you'd expect it to be either at or a little bit below.

The rate portions above the blue bars represent the remaining budget authority or unspent budget at the end of the year.

This slide provides a comprehensive view of our fiscal year performance on a monthly basis.

The chart on the left shows the cumulative revenue and expenditures totals by month, with the benchmark line being a month by month, equal equal revenues by month, and it accumulates steadily and tracking the bench, excuse me, and revenues are accumulating steadily and tracking the benchmark line, which is what we which is what we want.

The right chart breaks down personal property receipts and our net of revenues and expenditures, showing the typical spike at the end of the fiscal year when most payments are due.

You'll see in May and June, there's $23 million collected on that.

And with that, you see we go from a an all-year deficit, and then in May, all of a sudden we're we're in the black again.

Um as I said, you know, you just kind of had to expect that there's going to be a lag through the year, and that gets made up in the last two months.

With that, I will introduce the city's CFO, Miss Jeanette Fernandez, and she will take us through the rest of the presentation.

Good evening.

Hi.

Um good evening, Vice Mayor, uh Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, City Attorney, and City Manager.

Uh, first, I would like to say and express my gratitude to be here.

This is my first time presenting to you all.

Uh, gratitude to you all.

Uh, I do find public service to be a calling of sorts, so I feel both humbled and honored to be able to present alongside Trey on the City of Portsmouth's financial uh outlook.

Uh what you have before you is a general fund operating budget trend analysis and forecast.

Trey and I reviewed historic spending uh revenue and data going back to FY 2021.

We then use that data to forecast for the period of 2027 through 2030.

We looked at, it's important to note we looked at multiple forecasting methodologies, including rolling averages, exponential triple smoothing algorithms, three year averages, five year averages, before landing on the one that is in front of you.

What we found was that the rate of growth on the expenditure side outpaced the rate of growth on the revenue side over that period of data availability.

Just a little taste or a nugget of data, you know, between 2021 and 2025, for example, expenditures grew by about 11%, revenues grew by 6%.

So those relative paces are what construct the visualization before you, where a growing deficit is shown in the shaded region created by the dashed lines.

In fact, most governmental jurisdictions face this exact problem, and that's because the drivers of their cost really have almost no relationship to revenues.

So let me so as we think about the drivers of our cost, it's important to note, and again, this is true for many governments that these drivers of expenditure growth are items that many would consider to be must fund items or categories of spending that we cannot evade.

That includes things like our debt service, our contributions to our pension systems, or they are items that are accepted as the cost of doing business, such as our personnel services and our utilities and fuel.

All of these spending drivers, and they're listed here by order of magnitude, are generally items that we we can exercise pretty limited control over.

And so and I reiterate that this is not an uncommon trend.

This is pretty widespread, and we see it as our job to help you all devise a thoughtful approach to navigating those trends and tempering excessive cost growth where it makes sense.

So as any time I do a forecast for you all, I will always present you with you with, you know, I will highlight, underline in bold the fact that it is just a forecast.

There are it's our job to navigate those trends, but they are just estimates.

And the reality is that a myriad of unforeseen circumstances can take hold and pivot any trend in a different direction.

We we just witnessed that with the pandemic.

As part of acknowledging that these are only estimates, I will always also try to make known to you the factors that could improve our financial outlook and the factors that could worsen it.

Um to that end, on the on the end of factors that could worsen our financial trends.

The first among them is the decline in federal contributions to the social safety net programming.

This is both speculative but also somewhat concrete, as we saw with the one big beautiful bill.

And it does appear that this is an ambition of this administration to shift the cost burden of social services back to the state and local governments.

The next item is our labor market volatilities, and while the labor market tightening is dissipating a little bit, there remains some pretty intense skills gaps.

And those skills gaps they constrain not only the city of Portsmouth's ability to deliver on your all's goals, but they also constrain our contractual staff as well.

So it's widespread regionally and nationally, those skills gaps occur.

The next three items are much more speculative in nature, but the by uh their order of magnitude, I think they're worth mentioning, and they of course include any economic contraction, uh, declines in population, and of course, revenue volatilities.

Now, in terms of things that can improve our financial trends, the good news here is that a lot of the things on this list are things that are already being done.

Uh the chief among them, or the first among them is revitalization.

And I want to point out that revitalization is tricky because its effects can't really be forecasted in something like the presentation that we showed and the and the data that we showed.

Um, although we do love to revel in the revenues once they're realized, we can't really uh project the multipliers with a level of accuracy.

Um the next item though is of course continuing our discipline in the limited use of and contribution to our reserve funds.

Uh third is our investment into operational efficiencies and including the adoption of new technologies, the strategic adoption of new technologies.

Uh I believe our continued discipline in maintaining manageable levels of borrowing are going to carve out a path towards a triple A rating.

And then of course, uh revenue growth and diversification will always improve our financial outlook as well.

So as we shift to a mindset of solutioning, we wanted to prompt you all with some key questions that we would like to shape your thinking here.

And we know that your aspiration for the next retreat is to define clearly some strategic goals to support that mission.

And as we think about that, I would encourage you all to head into that retreat, asking not just what are our strategic goals, but what time horizon do those goals lock into?

The long term or the short term.

What operational capacity do your goals necessitate?

That is, what do city departments need in order to effectuate your goals?

What existing programs or services might need to be reconsidered to fund your goals and your strategic initiatives?

And of course, selfishly, I include on there.

How do we prioritize financial sustainability through periods of growth and contraction in both revenue and in spending?

And with that, I'd like to say thank you one more time and can open it up to questions.

Councilman Dowson said, So I've received some data from y'all's office that uh uh to try and construct a mathematical model of our city, and I'm not having a lot of success with it.

Okay, but the model is and what I'm trying to say is what of these ideas that you just listed on that last page can generate this money for us, and and how much can each of these generate.

In other words, our housing market, if we have more low-end housing, it doesn't contribute.

If we have more high-end housing, then we can generate these revenues.

How much high-end housing can we get, and is it worth our time to give it to give it attention?

Same way with business.

Do we want you know single little small car washes, or is there a larger manufacturing business that we bring in?

And how much will that generate?

So when we go into our retreat, it would be nice to know if there is some way of generating this model to say here's where we can give our attention that will get us the most bang for the buck.

And I don't know that any of us on this council have that expertise to generate that information.

I'd love, I don't know if the council's interested in it, but I know I would be interested in sitting down and seeing is there some way to bring that data to the council so that we can define a focus in our retreat to say these are the areas that would bring us the best biggest bang for the buck.

Um the holiday inside development uh depending upon how that could could generate twice two times.

I mean the range of what that can generate in tax revenues uh without consuming services.

Um I think we need to give that attention which which of these generate revenue without consuming services, and can we as a council affect any of that and get our biggest bang for the buck?

I'd love to see if we can get that some of the retreat, and if there's any way uh that uh I can arrange to sit down with you and talk with you uh and see if that's possible to bring that data.

I'd love to have some time to respond.

Yes, uh manager Carter, so you have a fold.

You know, Ms.

Fernandez is our CFO, right?

She's gonna quartch all the numbers appear at her.

She's not the one that's gonna do the economic outlook for us.

That's that's uh that's a different group for uh we absolutely said that we could talk about some of these things, but she she's not the one to put that burden.

Okay, that's where it's what I'm trying to feel out, is where where and that's a good point.

To your point, you know, when when our when we had our review from our rating agencies, they came and gave a real good economic overview of what drivers, what industries, uh, what we need to look at.

I would I would also add that economic development is the place that we need to go to understand what our strategy is in terms of revenue attraction and bringing businesses to the city.

Um that is where we need to have that conversation with the manager, and and he understands that.

So I I I agree with you.

I think that that's where we start in terms of looking because we've had the discussion already about clustering different industries.

What do we wish to and desire to attract to our city to make our city grow and provide additional revenue?

So I think that's a conversation.

Would you agree, Mr.

Carter?

Absolutely.

I'll I will also uh as a young lady that works in uh the PDC.

Uh she's an economist.

She came and did a presentation for us a while back.

Yeah, she will be a great asset for the exact thing that you're talking about.

That's what she does all day.

You know what I mean?

So I I can point you at her.

I remember I remember the presentation.

We need to get we can get it.

Right.

I I would just add, I I I do know I am familiar with some of this.

It is always hard to define multiplier effects of revitalization and economic development.

Thank you.

That's what I'm talking about.

I will say one thing that could be very helpful is just building a profile of your city.

Starting there, and as you all have discussed, um rating agencies are usually very good with building that profile and then looking across the country to see where similar things exist and how um investments played out in those cities.

Um but it is is very speculative.

Uh so it's it's never gonna be uh you know, one to thirteen, right?

You invest one dollar here, you're gonna get 13.

It's it's not quite that uh scientific as much as we would like it to be, but there are some rules of thumb too that we can we can investigate.

Thank you.

And thanks for the presentation.

Yeah, so I'd like to say, Ms.

Hernandez?

Ferdinand is what is in Frank, yeah.

Okay, we got you now.

One of the things that that I often think about when I look at the budget, and I I appreciate this, what you just shared with us.

Our revenues are not growing to the level of our expenses.

And he's just gonna response.

Part of our responsibility when we talk about adding new programs, new services, collective bargaining, and all these things that will have a financial impact on our city.

We have to understand that what's in the best interest of the whole because we can't print money, as Mr.

Carter says.

So we've got to be very thoughtful of how that's going to play out.

Because to your point, we can't sit here and make decisions.

I know my colleagues like to say, well, we won't be here and we want to put things in place.

Well, the things that we want to put in place, we better ensure that they're not a burden on our financial situation, because at the end of the day, those dollars are not just going to grow on trees.

And so I just want us all as we think through these processes, it's good when folks come and tell you that they want certain things, but we all know that certain things, most things come at a cost.

And it's not just the financial cost when we look at some of these things that we want to spend money in.

When you make significant changes enterprise-wise, that's a people cost, and it ultimately ends up being a financial cost.

So municipalities, we don't always have the latitude, perhaps.

And in a city like Portsmouth, where 52% of our revenue we derive from our property tax, that's a big deal.

And a lot of our land we don't get revenue from that, so it's important as we always go through this process to know some things, as Mr.

Carter says, we're gonna have to make some tough decisions.

But the tough decisions have to be in line with ensuring that our city is financially sound so that we can do the things that we need to do for our people.

Thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you both for the brief.

And thank you for numbering the slides.

Absolutely.

The rest of your staff could take a lesson numbering slides because now I can say, could you pull up slide six, please?

Yes.

I think they do that so you can't say that.

So then no back, no one look forward.

So it would be helpful, I think, as we're preparing for the retreat to understand what assumptions you all made for those two dotted lines.

So for instance, if you assumed somewhere in there, the holiday insight comes online and the revenue stream suddenly appears.

What did you assume?

So as we're talking about when's when should we be pushing to get that thing online?

If you assumed it's gonna happen in 2029, well then gonna work for us, maybe.

So to understand your assumptions would be helpful.

Um and then on slide eight.

So I get labor market volatility as you say uh tied to skills gaps.

So this is an important conversation that we need to be having with the school system because it if there are assumptions or if somebody has insight and more than just our intuitive insight of where the skills gaps are, then we need to be having the conversation with schools around what what are we doing to address those skills gaps so that it's our people that are being trained to go plug those plug those gaps.

Um and again that's not you guys, but there's somebody out there that you all got this information from that we maybe ought to invite to the retreat to have this conversation.

And then similarly over on the right hand side for revenue growth and diversification, uh what are the ideas from outside of the collection around the table uh that and who can we invite in to kind of toss around those ideas that knows enough about the city to know uh and we're not gonna bring a BMW plant inside the boundaries of Portsmouth because they're in the real estate to bring a BMW plant in here, but but given kind of the landscape that we have, what are the the realistic revenue growth opportunities that we ought to be pursuing?

And I know the economic development folks have that kind of insight, so that's a piece of it, but there's some folks outside the city that that probably know us well enough to to make some recommendations or things that we uh that we ought to be pursuing.

Could I I would just to address if that's okay, a couple of the items um on the core assumptions.

We can certainly share with you uh the core assumptions used throughout to give you a flavor of what we did.

We looked at these different methodologies and we picked the one that seemed to be the most realistic.

So sometimes when you do a triple smoothing estimate, it just looks really, really rosy, and then other times it looks like our costs go, you know, way off the rails.

And part of that is because you all have had big one-time revenues and big one-time expenses in the last few years, which can kind of mess with how the TATA looks.

And so some of what we did was to manually tamp down the projection in the out year to put something in front of you that was a little more um a little more realistic.

So I just I wanted to address that.

I know the other items on skills gap and revenue growth are we'll take that.

Yeah, thank you.

And then I guess one other point.

So I get it that this is general fund, but there's a whole CIP out there that is its own elephant that we have to eat and understanding how much debt we're gonna incur or what other strategies we I mean, we've talked about some strategies to pursue CIP outside of just incurring additional debt, and so I think that's another important piece of the discussion.

It's kind of the other half of the discussion, if you will, that we need to have uh when we when we retreat.

So there's uh several other funds besides the general fund.

This is this is the ones that the tax revenues are funding.

All right, this is the fund that I describe it as you spend money on but don't make money.

That's right.

Now we have some other funds that uh we have around the general fund that we also need to take in consideration as we look at the the entire uh financial picture of the city.

Um this is just one element of it, but it's it is the one that that affects most people.

Councilwoman Thomas, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Very helpful, thank you.

Um Mr.

Carter, something you just said maybe we have a question.

You said this represent things we spend money on that don't make money.

Yes, ma'am.

But there is a for example for public education, we spend money on public education.

Does it bring back dollars per se, but there is some sort of cost benefit that we get from that that we can associate with a dollar, not a revenue, but there's uh some sort of cost benefit.

Is that taken into account when we do the projection for the future?

Because today's investment in for example education can lead to some of these factors that were listed in that table that can improve financial trade.

Do we account for dollar?

That's the cost.

Okay, is there some type of um some sort of cost factor that is associated with investment today equals dollars tomorrow?

I'll try this one up.

Yeah, go ahead.

Okay, it maybe those two different things, but when you said it made me question it, okay.

What happens with those intangible type things?

Absolutely, they factor into what happens in our future.

All right.

But when we do budgeting, we do budget on real dollars just here today.

Okay.

Uh absolutely schools are we we cannot function as a community without schools.

Schools don't bring in revenue to that budget.

It has a factor on hey, we can grow our city, we can build better houses, we can get more employers, we can uh raise our tax base.

All those things are things that we hope to happen as a result of our investment in schools.

But as a entity that supplies a dollar amount back into that budget today, that's not it.

That's what I'm talking about.

But there are other things too that's like that.

That's what I'm saying.

So okay.

All right.

I I got your point.

I just wanted to make a clarification on that based on the looking at this table right here of like factors that can improve all of these things will require some sort of investment.

I just wanted to make a clarification there.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, absolutely.

Uh this is the kind of stuff.

Well, this is the kind of stuff I love to do.

Uh I could sit at an Excel spreadsheet all day and be energized by it.

So that's people like you.

Absolutely.

Great man.

Thank you all.

I'll like this chair.

Mr.

Carter.

Well, thank you, Mayor.

Uh, that concludes the presentations that we have for you this evening.

Um, as a summary of what we're about to get into.

Uh we have four uh public hearings.

Uh one for uh the innovation district, one's on Harper Avenue, one's on West North Road, and one's on Victory Boulevard.

Uh all four of those will uh be before you this evening.

As we get into the city manager's report, we have uh a total of five ordinances all dealing with uh budget appropriations uh from the different entities around our state.

Uh victim woodness program appropriation of 564,882 dollars from DCJS.

Uh PFS, PFAF uh settlement funds, approximate 150,714 for 3M settlement for public utilities water testing, uh supply testing and treatment, regional logical emergency preparedness program, uh 1,000 dollar V DEM uh grant to support training and equipment, hazardous material, emergency response funds, approximately $30,000 from uh VDAM to support Portsmouth leadership as the South Side Regional Hazmat Response Team, and finally the a another opiate settlement appropriation.

Uh we're going to accept 194,168 in opiar settlements for behavior health services to use for approved abatement purposes.

Those are the items uh that will be before us this evening for your consideration.

Thank you for your time and attention to Steven.

That's all that I have for you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Carter.

Um now moving to council liaison reports.

Do we have any reports at this time?

I do, Councilman Hugo.

Thanks, Mayor.

So uh a liaison report related to our crime and gun violence task force.

I had a chance uh this morning to attend a briefing uh that was hosted by the Virginia Center for Public Safety was in our police headquarters at 206 High Street.

Uh the presentation was done by Joshua Horwitz, who works in the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University.

Uh you may remember, Mayor, that our youth leadership development group, our Saturday morning group, uh last year took a trip to Johns Hopkins to talk with uh uh Dr.

Horwitz and and his team uh about gun violence and the challenges that gun violence poses.

Uh he reciprocated by coming to town today and spending time with us to talk about the research that Johns Hopkins has been doing around gun violence, the the causes, some of the effects, and and some ideas on things that that uh should be looked at at the uh state level at the local level uh at the organizational level.

So now I'm talking about uh grassroots organizations, churches, uh so thank Portsmouth United.

Uh and and so it was uh uh a really engaging conversation, and uh and I want to thank Dr.

Mark Hayes uh who is uh runs our youth leadership development program made the connection to Johns Hopkins uh and invited uh uh Josh to uh to come and and speak with us today.

Good insight on tackling uh this very challenging problem also real quick wanted to give give acknowledgment to uh our wonderful nonprofit here in the city of Portugal mercy chefs on last Friday have national attention.

Come to the city of Portugal good morning America the governor showed up and presented Gary LeBlanc and Anne LeBlanc with a proclamation for the amazing services that they provide not only to our city, our region but to our state and the country and the world I think it was over thirty million meals that they have served uh since they have been in business and the important part about that is is there an organization that really brings hope to people and really makes it different in folks' lives one of the quotes that I made and and Gary ended up putting in on a t-shirt um dignity should never be a casual tea of a disaster and so we're grateful that Mercy Chefs is right here in the city of Portsmouth and if you get a chance to see any of those volunteers that work for that organization.

Councilwoman Thomas joined me at the Good Morning America presentation we were proud to represent so just wanted to let everybody know thank you okay that concludes our meeting we do have a need to go into closed session so if I could ask a vice to read the closed session motion I moved to go into a closed meeting pursuant to Virginia code subsection two point two dash thirty seven eleven A1 for the purpose of discussing and considering appointments to boards and commissions second Madam Clerk would you please go on the road yes Ms.

Bryant yes Dr.

Dotson Mr.

Hugo Mr Moody Yes Thomas yes Mr.

Glover yes ladies and gentlemen we are in closed session

Good evening, citizens of Portsmouth.

I want to welcome you all to our city council meeting on today, September the ninth.

Want to acknowledge all of the citizens who have shown up tonight, also our city staff who is present with us today, invited guests.

Thank you all for being here.

In addition to that, I want to take a moment to acknowledge our city manager, Mr.

Stephen Carter, our city attorney, Miss Levanda Graham Williams, and our city clerk, Miss Deborah White.

Sir, you have the floor and follow the invocation will be the pledge of allegiance.

And Lord, let these decisions and these contemplations reach the families which we serve.

Stir up all in all of us, the imagination to craft solutions and the complex problems.

Help us to be to express the humility to listen deeply to one another.

Where there is disagreement, grant understanding, where there is division, grant reconciliation, and where there is despair, grant renewed hope.

Unite leaders and communities alike so that we may labor together for justice, for opportunity, and for the flourishing of all who call this city home, the place we love.

We pray now that you will let this be so in your name.

We pray through the graces you give.

Amen.

And amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.

Thank you again, Reverend Colvin, for that prayer.

I would now ask my colleagues on council to please note your attendance electronically.

Seven members of city council are present.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And we have the minutes of a called meeting on August 25th, 2025, a called meeting on August 26, 2025, and a regular meeting on August 26, 2025.

Do we have a motion to approve the minutes?

Move adoption.

Second.

Please vote electronically.

The minister adopted 70.

Thank you, ma'am.

We're now moving to our um our city council speaker rules.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the speaker rules?

Yes, sir.

Ladies and gentlemen, city council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will notice the timer.

At the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red light here beep, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum and should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or demeaning fashion.

All remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than to any particular member of council, staff, or the audience, and should be limited to matters that only the Porson City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to observe this basic rule of decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Now moving to our agenda item public hearings.

Item 25-252, public hearing on the honorary street designation and use permit applications.

Item A.

Madam Clerk, would you please read item A, the resolution we are considering for this public hearing?

Yes, sir.

Innovation District.

Resolution granting the request of M.

Hill for an honorary street name designation to designate a portion of King Street between Chestnut Street and Elm Avenue as Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt Way in recognition of Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt's contribution to the city of Portsmouth.

The future land use map of the Bill 1 Porsche Comprehensive Plan designates this property for transportation.

Planning Commission recommends approval.

The actual resolution reads a resolution designating an honorary street name of Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt Way for the portion of King Street located between Chestnut Street and Elm Avenue.

Is the applicant present?

If you would come forward, ma'am, please state your name and address.

And you will have 10 minutes.

I reside at Five Cosby Court here in the city of Portsmouth, and I stand before you on behalf of New Mount Olivet Baptist Church.

That the Mount Olivet Church was founded in 1922 by Dr.

Clergy Summerville to request an honor Rarerie Street naming for the fourth pastor, Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt, who served our ministry for 35 years as a pillar of strength and guidance, formed the church into a center for the community and outreach along with empowerment.

Reverend Dr.

Blunt founded and led numerous youth membership mentorship programs nurturing generations of leaders, scholars, and citizens.

Reverend Dr.

Blunt initiated GED programs, after school tutoring enrichment programs given under-resourced youth access to academic support and life skills training.

Reverend Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt advocated for social justice and equality, served as voice for the voiceless, a bridge between city leadership and underserved communities.

He embraced and supported candidates, city council, and school board to share their views to move the city forward.

A few of Reverend Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt's affiliations are past president of the TIE Water Metro Ministers Conference, the Sharon Missioner Association and Allied Bodies, past President of the Victor Ridge Square, Senior Apartments, the Martin Luther King Junior Leadership Steering Committee, Church and Community in Action.

As you see, the portion of King Street is between Chestnut and Elm Avenue.

There will be no residents affected.

The senior complexes are the Fevers and County Street addresses in which the citizens will use.

And the vacant lot to the left is owned by Mr.

Alvin Kills, who gave his blessings for this request.

Supporting this request and the honoring of the naming of Dr.

Milton R.

Bluntway present, standing with me is our interim pastor, Dr.

Cordell Petillo, church members, local pastors, and community leaders, and I would like for those who are present to stand.

The honorary destination would serve as a visible and lasting tribute to a man who gave selfishly to uplift and promote unity service and education in our community.

And it is our prayer that this request be granted.

And I thank you for your consideration and allowing me this time.

Are there any questions?

Are there any questions for the applicant?

Seeing none, thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

You are not required to sign up in order to come speak on this public hearing item.

If you do decide to come up and speak, you will state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

My name is Dr.

Cardel Patillo, interim pastor of New Mount Olivet Baptist Church.

Ms.

Hill did an amazing job.

I just wanted to also echo some of her statements and say that one of the hallmarks of Pastor Blunt's life was his compassion for those in grief for in grief in our city.

When families were bereaved and had no church to turn to, Pastor Blunt opened the doors of New Mount Olivet Baptist Church.

He provided a sanctuary for mourning, a place of dignity, and a reminder that in most of the most difficult times, no one should ever have to walk alone.

Renaming a portion of King Street in his honor is more than a symbolic gesture.

It's a testimony to a man who embodied what it means to be a servant leader and ensures that generations to come will know that right here in Portsmouth stood a pastor, a community leader, and a humble man with a genuine heart whose life made a lasting difference.

How fitting that we will honor Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt along that very same very path, a man who, like King, gave his life to service for others.

On behalf of New Olivet Baptist Church, our friends and our family, the many lives touched by Pastor Blunt's ministry and leadership.

I respectfully urge the support that so you support this renaming.

Let us inscribe his legacy not just in our hearts, but also in the very streets of this city he loved and served so well.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Once again, ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this public hearing item, please come forward, state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor, City Manager, Council members.

My name is Pamela Wilkins, and I live by the Westbury community.

And I come to stand and say I'm in agreement with naming the street after Reverend Blunt.

He was very helpful when the Westbury Civic League just started.

He he allowed us to come to the church and have our meetings.

And once we got big enough that it was, you know, it was too small.

We had to find someone else.

But he's been a very active person in our Westburg community doing what he could to help us out and all.

So I'm in agreement with Navin Street after him because he's done great work.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Thank you.

I'm Arnette D.

Love McSwain, one of your school board members, and also the niece of Pastor Milton R.

Blunt.

I come before you because everybody can tell you what he did on the public side.

I want to tell you what he did personally as a family member, what I was taught as I worked under him, what I witnessed from him.

I mean, everything he did, he did for the city, for the citizens.

I mean, anything that he can do, he would go out his way to do it.

I mean, he was giving money to people out of his pockets, had me doing the same thing.

Now y'all that know me know um that's something.

So I mean, he was a person that would always give his very last.

And a lot of people can't say that.

And I think I spoke before when I said when I used to work directly for him, we would do all of the funerals for the individuals that did not have church homes, that did not have the money to hire a pastor, hire well have a um venue for their church.

Um we would do the funerals if they needed to use the overflow area where our um additional church was, fellowship hall, he would arrange that at no charge.

And this is a type of person he was.

Um, he would also, you know, weddings and everything as well.

Um he was always the type of person that would go and do things that a lot of people wouldn't do without a monetary value attached to it, even though I tried to get him to attach a monetary value against a lot of things.

Um, that's when my lesson came in because he made sure that I knew that everything that we did as servants, we could not charge.

And so um for me to stand here before you is a big deal for most of you know, um, but what's right is right, and what's earned is earned.

And I know that Pastor Milton R.

Blunt, my uncle, Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt, has really earned this this legacy um to be able to have at least a portion of what he served the most at New Mount Outlet Baptist Church, named in his honor.

So I'm asking you to please consider this.

Um, take away anything that is not valid in your decision, and um base it on the service that he gave to the people of Portsmouth for all those many years.

I thank you in advance.

Thank you, ma'am.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this public hearing item, please come forward, state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

My name is Claudette Blunt.

I'm Milton's Blunt wife.

I live 4600 Staghorn Drive in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

I am here to say thank you for even allowing this to come forth.

I'm here to say that Pastor Blunt, my husband loved the city of Portsmouth.

He grew up here, he pastored his home church, what he grew up in, and he gave his all in all to the city of Portsmouth.

He is a hard worker, he was, he was a hard worker.

He is dearly, dearly missed.

But at the same time, we will be looking up at a street sign every time we go to New Mount Olivet that says Dr.

Milton R.

Blunt's way.

Because he gave so much to this city.

He loved this city.

Nothing, nothing ever stood in his way.

I used to say to him all the time, I think you live in Portsmouth because you never at home.

But he was always here doing the job, working to make sure the citizens of Portsmouth and his congregation was always justified with righteousness and made sure that they got everything that they needed, even when he had to go in his own pocket.

Thank you for letting me speak this time.

Thank you to the city of Portsmouth, and thank you to the city council for just allowing this to come forth.

Yes, he is dearly missed, but he put a mark on this city that will never be forgotten.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

You you have a comment.

You have the floor.

Yes, thank you, ma'am.

Um, I just wanted to comment.

I I was gonna recognize uh First Lady Claudette Blunt before she spoke, and Caden and Crystal.

Um it's a pleasure to see you all here and um and interrupt Pastor Cardell Patello.

Um I just want to personally say I am proud to vote for this um honorary street naming for Dr.

Milton Blunt.

Um a lot of times, you know, we have a the saying of Portsmouth is we have a church on every corner, right?

But it's so impactful when those churches are an integral part of the community, and that's what Pastor Blunt made sure his church was.

Anyone in that community surrounded community and Portsmouth knew that the doors of that church were open to anyone at any time.

And Pastor Blunt just wasn't a faith leader, he was a community leader as well.

So I'm proud to vote um yes for this um street renaming, honorary street renaming.

So thank you so much.

Councilman Dotson, sir.

You have the floor.

There's people in this world that have passion, and there's other people that really have passion, and the people that have extreme passion, like Pastor Blount did.

You either are very much agree with him or you very much disagree, but they contribute so much to our society.

And this was a man of passion.

I don't know that there's any any of us in this room that had the passion that that man had for the city of Portsmouth.

So, yes, my vote's yes.

Ladies and gentlemen, once again, this is a public hearing.

If you want to come and speak on this item, please come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing item is closed.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move adoption.

Any further discussion?

Hold on before we take a vote.

I do have a comment that I would like to make.

Pastor Milton, Reverend Dr.

Milton Blunt was my friend.

And we spent a lot of time together talking about how we make our city better together.

And I can personally say through that interaction, um, we had some tough conversations sometimes.

But one thing I will never ever forget is what he shared with me that you're here to serve the people.

And don't ever forget that's what you're here for.

And so I miss him.

I miss the conversations, I miss his friendship.

But um, these things happen in our lives, uh, we can't stay forever.

But I want Miss Claudette to know, and I want the New Mount Olivet family to know that Milton Blunt meant something to our city.

He was a member of the Portsmouth family, and so that's that's really what I wanted to convey to you tonight.

And is there any more discussion on the side?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

The next item.

Item UP-25-06.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the resolution we are considering for this item?

Yes, sir.

Harper Avenue resolution granting the request of D.

Simpson with Kimley Horn for use permit to operate a parking facility at 2000 Harper Avenue in the industrial zoning district.

The property is owned by Metro Machine Court.

The future land use map of the Bill 1 Portsmith Comprehensive Plan designates this property as heavy industrial.

Planning Commission recommends approval with conditions.

And the resolution reads a resolution granting a use permit UP 2506 to D.

Simpson to operate a parking facility at 2000 Harper Avenue.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Is the applicant present?

If you will come forward, state your name and address, ma'am.

You will have 10 minutes.

Good evening.

Devin Simpson with Kimley Horn Business Address 4525 Main Street Virginia Beach.

On behalf of the owner, we are requesting a use permit to construct a surface parking lot on Harper Avenue to support operations at the existing General Dynamics NASCO site, also located along Harper Avenue.

Amongst other activities, General Dynamics NASCO supports the Navy with fleet maintenance and repair.

When a naval ship is in the yard, NASCO needs to have adequate parking in order to support the ship's personnel.

Their current parking supply limits the size of ships they are able to support.

With the construction of this new parking lot, the facility will be able to expand their naval support to include the maintenance and repair of larger vessels.

As part of the parking lot construction, there will be two access points.

Both will be ingress and egress along Harper Avenue, and each will have a right turn lane entering each access point.

A sidewalk will also be constructed that will extend approximately a quarter mile from the proposed parking lot site to the existing General Dynamics NASCO facility on Harper Avenue.

So that sidewalk will be along Harbor Avenue.

We have completed a traffic impact analysis assessing the increase in traffic due to the additional personnel that will be visiting the site.

And as part of that analysis, we'll be conducting those two right turn lanes entering the parking lot.

And then we will also be making off-site improvements at the intersection of Harper Aven Lee Avenue, which will include delineating so striping a separate right turn and through left turn lane.

There today it's just a single lane, but enough pavement width to stripe two separate ones.

So delineing those, delineating those separately will allow some better traffic flow at the intersection.

So we thank you for your consideration.

We are happy to answer any questions that you all may have.

Thank you, ma'am.

Are there any questions for the applicant from my colleagues on council?

Seeing none, ma'am.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this public hearing item, you are welcome to do so.

Please come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing is closed.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

To adopt seconds.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next item, item C, UP-25-07.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the public hearing resolution we are considering for this item?

Yes, sir.

West Norfolk Road resolution grant granting the request of R.

Hartman on behalf of City Switch for a use permit to construct a freestanding telecommunication tower at Zero West Norfolk Road in the General Residential Zoning District.

The property is owned by 4740 Cell Tower LLC.

The future land use map of the Bill 1 Porsche Comprehensive Plan designates this property for transportation.

Planning Commission recommends approval with conditions.

Thank you, ma'am.

Is the applicant present?

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have 10 minutes.

Thank you.

My name is uh Rick Hartman, and my business address is 5845 Wide Waters Parkway, East Syracuse, New York, 13057.

Um so I'm I'm here on behalf of the applicant in City Switch, uh which is a tower company is proposing to construct a 195-foot monopole telecommunications tower.

Uh Verizon will be the first uh carrier on the site.

Currently, as you can see, the parcel uh right now is it's mostly woods.

There's nothing else, nothing nothing else on the parcel.

We are proposing to um construct a driveway off of um old Coast Guard Road.

It will be a uh black top driveway leading back to the site, about a 20-foot long driveway leading back to a fenced-in wood compound, uh wood fence compound, and we are leasing approximately 3600 square square feet from the the landowner.

Um those are the basics of of the you know the the site and what we're uh proposing to do.

If there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer.

Thank you, sir.

Councilman Dotson, sir.

You have the floor.

I think my questions is for um so if if you could uh address the question uh to to Mr.

Carter and so that Mr.

Carter can call forward.

I think it starts out with if your question is for a staff member, Mr.

Carter.

That's who you want to go to.

Thank you, sir.

My question starts out with asking the fall area.

It's a hundred and how many tall feet?

195.

195.

And that fall area that if I was draw 195 circle around this property, would be outside the property.

Is that correct?

Uh well, it's definitely outside of the lease area.

Um I would have to double check if it's outside of the property itself.

Um we had a Mr.

Manager, we had a uh I had a piece of property in Suffolk that we were constructing a tower on, and the restrictions limited us to the fall area had to be within the property that it was.

So that's where my question goes.

Do we have a uh building zoning code that covers or are we relying on state uh to cover this?

Because I I I I saw this preliminary and I was didn't see any of that information presented.

You have a you have the floor, Mr.

Manager.

Thanks, sir.

But I would prefer um if our professional would uh give do you have an answer for that or do we need to defer that question?

Um thank you, Mr.

Carter.

I don't have an answer for it.

I believe Mr.

Miller, our assist uh building assistant building official is present.

Okay.

Mike, do you have a uh can you address this now?

Come come up for it.

Please come to the microphone, sir.

Come on, Mike.

The question is the fall radius of the tower.

Is it is it going to if it would to fall, would it be maintained inside the footprint of the property?

Oh, I don't know at this point based on what's what's shown here.

Okay.

And if and if or do we have any regulations concerning that particular item?

Not right now.

I'm not aware of one off the top of my head.

It's the regulations on communication towers and communication buildings differ from the everyday building code.

So it's a little different type of thing to look over.

But I can research it this week and give you a report back on it.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

The reason for my concern was that fall area might impact building on adjacent properties.

Yes.

Um, and would those other property owners have some restrictions because of that that they didn't anticipate in for this hearing.

Um check into it.

Okay.

Sir, sir, sir.

Do you have a response for that answer to the question?

Uh I do.

So, and it's it's a fair question.

Um, there are no structures within 200 feet.

In fact, the closest structure is probably four to five hundred feet away.

Um, our our site is the nearest residence is over six hundred feet away.

Um, so from uh from a fall zone perspective, we're not gonna land on any structures.

Um, currently, but um, what I'm concerned about is should somebody else want to build within that radius, would they be restricted as is where I'm concerned?

Sir, um not not for you, but for my colleague, that's not a part of the discussion under the use permit.

So if there's another discussion, we could have that at another time.

But the item we're dealing with today is the use permit for the tower.

That's what we're dealing with today.

So do you have any other questions regarding the use permit for the tower?

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Are there any other questions for the applicant?

Seeing none, thank you, sir.

Okay, thank you.

This is a public hearing item.

If you wish to come and speak on this public hearing item, come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing item is closed.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 7-0.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next item, item UP 25-08 D.

Madam Clerk, would you please read the resolution we are considering for this public hearing item?

Yes, sir.

Victory Boulevard resolution granting the request of K Owen for a use permit to develop a multifamily dwelling at 4054 Victory Boulevard in the mixed, excuse me, general mixed use zoning district.

The property is owned by Varsity Development LLC.

The future land use map of the Bill 1 Porsche comprehensive plan designates this property for commercial use.

Planning commission recommends approval with conditions and the actual resolution granting excuse me, a resolution granting a use permit UP 2508 to K Owen to construct and operate a total of not to exceed 144 multifamily dwelling units at 4054 Victory Boulevard.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

And we have the applicant present.

Ma'am, if you would state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

I mean 10 minutes, excuse me.

Good evening.

My name is Aaron Carter.

Um address 5222 Forestale Drive.

Um, and I want to say good evening to the rest of council members and the city manager and staff.

Um I am one of the co-founders of our city development.

Um the other co-founder is Dorian Finney Smith, who as you know is a native sign of Portsmouth, um, who has went um to go do great things.

Um we purchased this property um with the desire to do something to uplift the city.

Um we're currently seeking a use permit for multifamily to construct 144 apartments um located at this site.

The apartment complex will be market rate housing that will feature one, two, and three bedrooms, with um more than 50 percent being two bedrooms.

Um as you guys know, this nation is currently in a housing crisis.

Um every city, every state, you know, across the country, we're all dealing with housing issues, you know, the lack of affordability, the lack of just products um to offer everyday citizens, and we're hoping that this could be just a drop in the bucket.

We know it won't solve the crisis across the nation.

Um, but in Portsmouth, we're hoping to do great things.

Um, I did wanted to highlight some of the economic impact this project will have.

Um, it will provide more than 250 construction jobs with more than a 15 million dollar payroll, and it will also, as you guys know, this property has sat vacant as long as probably I've been alive.

Um we saw Tom Um Mall get torn down, but this property sat vacant, and for many years it was owned by the Portsmouth Redeveloping the Housing Authority, where which the city did not get any taxes from because it was a government entity, but happily say that it's back on the tax roll, and we're just hoping tonight with the approval of the use permit and construction of this project that we'll be able to even increase more of our tax obligation to help this fine city.

Um I'm just asking each and every one of you to support this project.

As you know, this is being led by two hometown natives of Portsmouth pouring back into their city.

Um, I don't think you know, through my lifetime we have ever seen somebody come back and you know try to uplift the city.

It's because we believe in this city.

We believe Portsmouth is the greatest city.

Um I'll argue in the world.

Um look at our waterfront.

But I also want to highlight that we're not just we're not alone.

We have a team of experts that are standing right beside me and in the audience um that is being led by Breedon Company, and we also have Kimley Horn as our engineers and RBA architects as our architect.

And I did want to address um early on that the surrounding businesses and you know net store is a lows.

Lowe's has been wonderful, very excited that this project is coming to the city because that area sits vacant and I has hate to say it, but it has created somewhat of a problem with homeless um people, you know, trying to live behind the lows and even on the property.

So by developing this, we hope to you know lessen those issues, but they are in agreement of this project being very supportive with Ashley talking right now, more engineering and technical stuff in terms of some boundaries and buffers that we're gonna place across this property.

But I ask each and everyone for your support.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Are there any questions from our colleagues from my colleagues for the applicant?

Okay, so so I do have a couple of questions.

Um I did read in the notes that you you all, I guess, had conversations with the schools and increasing enrollment will come from the development, perhaps.

What amenities do you have at this particular complex that will meet the needs of families?

Well, there is a clubhouse that will be on the property that will have a computer lab in there as well and have free Wi-Fi, um, kind of like a coffee cafe lounge.

Um that you know, if students needed a place to kind of do homework.

I mean, I know me and Doris even one of our ideas was to even like maybe have like a tutoring service that could be provided.

Um, but ultimately, Mayor, we don't know how many students we will have in this property.

Um, I don't think no one right now could tell us how many students um that will live in this property, but that's kind of like a feature to do um thing, but it will have some amenities as a clubhouse and fitness center.

Very good.

Vice Mayor Moody, sure you have the floor.

Yes, uh thank you for being here tonight to uh share with us the uh details of the uh development.

My my question is uh what are the price points of the units?

Uh Ken Owen here with Breed and Company.

Um so we do have one, two, and three bedroom units.

Uh the ones currently with the current market conditions would be a 1475 a month.

Two bedrooms are right at the 2,000 dollar mark, and three bedroom units would be um probably 2800 at this point, is where we're at.

So all the units are market range.

Yes, yes, they are.

So there's no nothing indexed to uh income.

No, you're welcome.

Well, thank you both for the presentation.

Um and uh you may be seated at this time.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome, ladies and gentlemen.

This is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this public hearing item, please come forward, state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

I'm sorry, ma'am, and I'm sorry, I I I neglected to do that.

You can come up in a minute, but we have some registered speakers.

We have two registered speakers.

Excuse my my faux pas there.

Our first registered speaker is Mr.

House.

David House.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

I'm David House, I live in the Simonsdale district of Portsmouth.

There, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

So, in looking at the um at the request.

Yes, sir.

We can hear you.

Thank you, sir.

So looking at this request, they talked about it was 144 units, but in the use permit, it says the use permit request is seeking approval for up to 240 units in their actual request.

So we're looking at so is this a bait and switch where they're telling us now it's 144, but on their actual use permit, it says 240.

So if we're talking about that, so we're talking about 240, so that's an increase of 144 additional parking places that that that property will not support.

So with 144 uh units, Portsmouth the Portsmouth City uh school system says that roughly 40 percent of the units will have at least two kids.

So that's 57 units, so that means that there's 114 kids in a two two with in a uh two-family home, and then single family could be 30 or 40 more.

So we're looking at 150 kids or more.

So if we make that 240 unit development, that means we could have upwards of 235 kids.

So the activity um area shown in the project drawing does not support the activities for a hundred to 150 kids.

So where are they gonna be?

They're gonna be in the local businesses nearby.

So the property has a flagpole or a panhandle design, and this area cannot be used for calculating the land area, and thus it reduces the property from the 6.2 to 5.3 acres.

So the developer states that a formal impact um traffic impact analysis was not needed.

The developed developer states traffic uh generation generation is expected to adequately accommodate the existing transportation network, and no adverse impacts on surrounding roadways or intersection is anticipated.

So, how will public transportation support this?

What about our schools and our school kids?

How are our buses come in and out of that facility since it's uh a narrow area for egress and ingress?

V dot requires notification and a formal review process for all new housing developments.

If you look on page four, the vehicle access for the victory crossing is from Victory Boulevard.

Each side has seven lanes of traffic in each direction.

Two lanes turn opposite direction, one turns directly into Victory Crossing to the complex or to Elmhurst Avenue to Wawas.

So after after leaving the intersection, the road transitions into three lanes and then lane then down to two lanes later.

So let's talk about traffic flow at Missy Elliott Boulevard, which is Portugal Boulevard in Greenwood Drive.

As all vehicles approach the lowest intersection, all traffic stops at a three-way stop sign intersection.

So that means stop, go, you're gonna have to rotate trying to get vehicles in and out.

So stormwater management.

So stormwater management will be handled on site via one of two approaches.

This is on page five, an underground stormwater retention system or surface detention system.

So the problem is that's not shown on the drawing at all.

Anywhere in that that picture with the green space right there, so that's the only place available, and that's the 13% open space that's on the drawing.

If you go to page nine, they talk about the clubhouse and amenity.

So what type of playground outside will be in the in the amenity area for kids.

There's no no listed about what kind of playground, what kind of activity, what kind of slides or anything is going to be out there.

So we're talking between 100 and 150 kids.

So that's going to be a bit in a big impact.

So let's talk about safety and vehicular traffic with a projected of 100 to 150 plus children living on the property.

What happens when bicycles are introduced into the property?

Okay.

Children do not know or obey the rules, and they will be weaving in and out of the adjacent shopping center parking areas, driving pathways, and the four-lane road.

So if you go to the next page, page seven, this is a protect uh protected drive area.

This is actually easement on all on the property that's listed in there.

If you go to page page nine, so this is the conceptual building drawing that does not match that right there.

Everywhere you see there's three three um staircases on every building, building one type one and building type uh two.

On the on the design, it shows you only two two stairways or staircases.

So the pictorial that we have that we're looking at doesn't even match what they're showing on the on the drawing.

And when you go to the L-shaped drawing, it's almost like it's a 45-degree angle.

So one should be a long L and one should be a short L.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Mr.

Daniel House.

So if you will come forward, state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

Hello, my name is Daniel House.

I live in City Portsmouth.

Uh, I want to draw your attention to the concept up there.

Um, it says that the building is going to be 60 feet tall, and below that it's gonna say says four stories.

Above it, if you can see the line at the top of the where the um parking area is that's the line for the stormwater easement.

So you've got 28 parking spaces that are in a designated storm easement.

If you if on the the next to the last page or the last page I have it, uh can I walk up to the screen to show you?

Is that a permissible?

Can I walk up to the screen?

You walk up to the screen, sir.

Okay.

So you've got a you've got a Virginia power easement that comes right through here and comes over here that's not on the on the plot.

Okay, right coming down through here, you've got you've got a storm water easement that comes out right here that's on the last and second page on that from the previous construction for the storage unit.

This doesn't have any of the easements that the rec are required on the site application plan whatsoever.

So I really don't know how it got past planning.

But the the main thing is as I went and I got a copy of the deed yesterday.

It's it's got an 80-page uh instrument, and that instrument says that no building shall exceed one story.

So we're talking about approval of a four-story building.

That's why no building on that complex in the shopping center is above one story because PRJ is already established that it can exist.

And it says no building shall be higher than 55 feet tall.

That already that already knocks it out of the ball game.

It's 60 feet tall, and and the instrument for the deed says it's not allowed.

So let's go to page two, talk about the easement.

But in the OEA, the OEA says it has to be a 30-degree, I mean the 30-foot setback from Lowe's boundary.

So that doesn't meet the requirements of the OEA.

Additionally, we're talking about easements.

So you got VEPCO, you've got stormwater, and you've got the flagpole.

So that decreases the area by 3.24 acres, which means that it's only three 3.025 acres of available acreage for building once you once you subtract the easements.

And if you multiply that by the 32 dwelling units listed in the code, that only allows 96 units, not 144.

So we've already talked about we lost 28 spots that are in the that are in the um drainage easement that aren't allowed.

There's a hundred units, 100 over 200 on that, and city code says if you have a hundred or more parking spots, every six spot has to have a designated pedestrian walkway.

So you're gonna lose another 17 spots on that property.

Okay, do the to pedestrian easements.

And it also says in 40.2-203 C1i says nothing except grand cut grand excuse me, ground cover shall be planted or installed with in any underground utility drainage easement or within five feet of any underground utility.

So that means anything that's over top of any of those buildings, none of the amenities, building one, building two, nothing can be there because it's over topping the existing easement.

This is all in this city code.

I don't know how it passed planning, and they didn't catch it.

And again, like I said, the building club, clubhouse, the trash compactor.

The trash compactor is listed in the front left corner of the property.

Okay?

That's in violation of the city code.

City code says that you can't have any trash receptacles in the front of the front corners of the properties.

So where are you gonna put it?

It can't be there, it's gotta be in the back.

Okay.

So we talked about buffer.

The applicant says that it doesn't intend to have any walls or anything in fence.

But 40.2301 says the perimeter vehicle use area landscaping strip strip shall be a continuous opaque visual screen.

So you have to have it around the parking areas for the perimeter.

And it also says that the following development shall provide buffers around the entire perimeter of the envelopment instead of around the building, and that's for multi-building units.

So that whole perimeter has to have screening around it by trees or some of the method.

It just can't be out in the open like they're proposing.

Plus, you've got I used to work at Lowe's.

You you've got, and I'm gonna I'm gonna finish.

Sir?

Yep.

Wrap it up.

I will, I will.

But you've got all these kids in the amenities areas, which is directly beside the Lowe's customers, customer service for the for the contractors, and you've got all that traffic there, and kids running around.

And unfortunately, parents are gonna let the kids run, and that's what kids do.

But you've got no, I mean, and it's it's gonna be an issue there next to lows.

Thank you, sir.

Once again, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this item, ma'am, please come forward.

It's your turn to speak on the item.

Thank you for your patience.

State your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

Sure, my name is Brenda Porter Rockwell.

I live at 1701 Atlanta Avenue.

And my question is a pretty simple one.

It's directed to you, Mr.

Mayor and Council.

Would it be appropriate for you to ask the applicant to repeat the proposed?

And I hear that it is market value just proposed at this time, all theoretical proposed numbers for one, two, and three bedroom units.

Sure.

Um, I think I wrote them down.

Okay, can you can you repeat those out loud?

I'm not speaking for the applicant, but but but the but but but the numbers that I wrote down was for a one-bedroom, I think it was 1475.

For a two-bedroom, it was two thousand, and for a three-bedroom, it was twenty eight hundred.

Right.

Thank you.

I just wanted that for my appreciate it.

Once again, this is a public hearing.

You can come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Okay, councilman Hugel, sir.

You have the floor.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I appreciate the homework that uh David House and Dan House have done.

Um Mr.

City Manager reviewing the uh the uh the application package uh condition six says the development shall be constructed in compliance with applicable codes, ordinances, and regulations of federal, state, and local government, and all required licenses and permits will be obtained and remain in effect during operation of the development.

I assume that condition assures that during site plan review, the applicable issues will be reviewed and resolved manager Carter, you have the floor, sir.

The uh process that we're evaluating today is a zoning permit.

Well, we're what this board is being asked to do is is this a good use for this property?

There's subsequent things that has to happen after this vote is either yes or no that will pertain to all of those things that have been addressed today.

This is not that time.

The only thing that you're being asked today is is this a good use for this property?

Site uh the site plan process.

Um, and there's uh there's a couple of statements.

I think it's five and six that kind of talks about the agreement with PR PRHA and all of the rules and regulations that has to be a zoning vote yes or no does not alleviate any rules that's applied to that property.

All you're saying is hey, who think this is a good use of this property?

If so, if you say yes, all of those rules still apply.

All those things that have to happen still have to happen.

Your vote can't change those things, nor can somebody else do something that changes what your vote has been tonight about zoning.

So those two things on separate paths there.

Okay, thank you.

Madam Attorney, you have the floor.

I also want to reiterate um for the applicant and those concerned that there's an ordinance for 40-2-200 A2 that indicates and I quote that the ordinance shall not be deemed to interfere with, abrogate, annul, or otherwise affect any easements, covenants, or other agreements between parties, except that no such easement, covenant, or other agreement shall abrogate, annul, or otherwise affect the party's obligation to comply with with the restrictions, requirements, and other terms of this ordinance.

In sum, it says, regardless of what this body and what we've decided with the ordinance, those private property rights are those of the parties, and we have no effect one way or another on that.

Compliance is always the standard, and that is what this body is proceeding with.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Attorney.

And sir, if you state your name and address, you will have five minutes.

Absolutely.

Tom Retnauer, RBA Architects, uh business address 432 South Battlefield Boulevard, Chesapeake, Virginia.

We are the architects for the project.

So I wanted to go over a couple of the items that we heard from Mr.

House.

Uh, first off, in regards to the school age children.

Sir, could you please come closer to the microphone so we all can hear you?

So, in regards to school-aged children, the typical math that you do for something that, depending on if it's a one, two, or three bedroom, you use different calculations to calculate this out.

And just quickly doing this, the actual calculation for this site would be between 28 and 37 students.

So I just wanted to make sure that people didn't understand that there were going to be 200 kids running around this neighborhood at this point.

In regards to the actual number of units, we are planning for a maximum of 144.

Uh, we are not asking for the 240, we are asking for the 144.

Just wanted to make sure everybody understood that at this point.

In regards to the parking and the easements and other issues, of course, this is conceptual in nature at this point.

So, as we go through the process, we'll be developing relationships with people that have the easements, and we'll be working through the parking requirements with them.

Uh, there have been some easements that have been actually um removed during uh actually in the middle of the site, so they don't longer exist.

But as Mayor, you said uh we would work through the process with the city, uh calculating everything, making sure that it meets all the requirements at this point.

In regards to the actual site area, and I have several notes here, but I won't get into them, but we've calculated everything correctly as per the city requirements at that point.

So we are available for any additional questions.

Thank you, sir.

Ma'am, if you would come forward and speak on this public hearing item.

State your name and address you will have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor and members of city council.

Joanne Clark, Churchland area.

I did not plan on speaking tonight and addressing this agenda.

But I feel as a taxpayer, and for every other citizen that might be listening or concerned, I think it's incumbent upon each and every one of you to understand how a large complex affects every aspect of this city.

It expect and it adds to the infrastructure of traffic, sewer, water, roads, and especially our investment of 83 million dollars to schools.

It is redundant to think that after the fact that you've approved something, that you that people should understand how many children are actually going to be related to the construction of this building, the ages and what schools would be necessary to hold them and educate them.

We should have in demand a representative from schools here that tells us through calculation of applications, how many kids, what their ages are and will they be going, what schools will have room for them before anybody approves a zoning.

Now that's just me.

I know that this has been done in the past at other cities, but for some reason we've evolved to all after the fact we're going to do what is legal and prompt.

I can tell you, as a homeowner myself, that doesn't work.

They are still in negotiation with the houses in my backyard about what kind of stormwater issues will be regulated and how they'll be finalized.

And it's 10 years after the property has been begun and every tree and shrub was removed.

And I'm still waiting for the 90 trees.

So instead of doing this backwards, bring it forward.

Have somebody from schools that can tell us what is going to be generated, what the true cost to the citizens of this development will be.

Yes, we want Portsmouth to go forward and to be productive, but we want them to be fiscally responsible.

And I hold every one of you responsible for that.

Thank you, ma'am.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this item, please come forward, state your name and address, and you will have five minutes.

Just to set the record straight.

Please please come up to the microphone, sir, so we can hear you.

Thank you.

Ken Owen, bringing construction.

Um, set the record straight.

We have uh Crawford here right across the street.

We have 132 units and a total of five children are attend uh uh residents at that community as far as uh burden on the community.

This property will generate 250 construction jobs, it will four permanent jobs with annual salaries of 250,000 combined.

Um there would be 400,000 dollars of annual real estate taxes generated, and there will also be 50,000 in business tax generated.

So that's what this project will bring to the community.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and thank you for the comments, particularly related to children.

That is, of course, something that we want to consider when we're building.

Um, and I'm looking at the notes, and um we've had this conversation before about communication between the city and the schools, and um there is a note in our package that says that the the school's department finds that the development would have little to no impact.

So um that is useful information that we've gained from the planning department um and useful that the schools are engaged with us in that conversation because that is something that we've talked about in our liaison meetings.

Um, and so thank you to planning for providing that.

Um, but I I do agree that this is an important conversation to have as we build that we do make spaces for children.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Well, councilwoman Bryant just said what I was gonna respond, uh, but I think it was a fair question, and we are talking about more communication and transparency with our citizens, and so the planning, like councilwoman Bryant said the planning department does circulate this um information through all departmentals departmental um in our city, including engineering treasurer assessor like uh schools, parks and records, so forth, in each department has a chance to comment on the impact of development.

But again, as a citizen, that's a great question, and um we just have to be more transparent about those comments and in letting the citizens know that that information is out there as well.

So great comment, uh, Ms.

Clark.

But the schools did comment on this particular application, but great consideration.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, and thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a public hearing.

If you wish to come and speak on this item, please come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Seeing none, this public hearing is closed.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move forward.

Of adoption.

Second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Please vote electronically.

This item is sure.

This item is adopted 6 1.

Thank you, ma'am.

And that concludes our public hearing items for this evening.

We will now move into our next agenda item, which is city managers report.

Item 25-253.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the ordinance that we are considering for this item?

Yes, sir.

An ordinance accepting settlement funds in the amount of 194,168 and 12 cents from opiate settlements and appropriating said amount in the FY 2026 Behavioral Health Care Service Fund for use by BHS for approved abatement purposes and defined by the Virginia OPIA Fund and Settlement Allocation MOU.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move to adopt.

Second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Thank you, ma'am.

Item 25-254.

Madam Clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

An ordinance accepting settlement funds in the amount of 150,714 and 13 cents from the PFAS settlement with the 3M Company and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 Public Utilities Fund for use by the Department of Public Utilities for water supply testing and treatment and other authorized uses under the terms of the settlement.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Move to adopt.

Second.

We do have a request from our city attorney for the floor.

Ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted the council to know that this was one of our um successful affirmative um litigation matters that's led by my deputy Derek Challenger, who's here in the chamber.

This is one of many checks we expect to get close to almost a million dollars in funding back to the city for this products waste in our in our system.

And it's it's just a telltale sign of the innovation that my office is looking forward to bringing to our uh community, correcting um those things that have affected our community and using these funds hopefully to find a way to prevent future uh waste in our communities and also to correct those that we have.

So I wanted to make that known.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am, and thank you to you and your team for your hard work.

Is there any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Next item, item 25-255.

And madam clerk, would you please read the ordinance that we are considering for this item?

An ordinance accepting a grant in the amount of 564,882 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and appropriating set sum in the FY 2026 grant fund for use by the Commonwealth Attorney's Office for the victim witness program.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and they second.

Move adoption.

Second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Our next item, item 25-256.

And madam clerk, could you please read the ordinance that we're considering for this item?

An ordinance accepting funding in the amount of $30,000 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and appropriating set amount in the FY 2026 grants fund for use by the Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services by the South Side Regional Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Team.

Council members, we are in need of a motion at a second.

Move to adopt second.

Any additional discussion on this item?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 70.

Item 25-257.

And madam clerk, would you please read the ordinance we are considering for this item?

An ordinance accepting funding in the amount of 1,000 dollars for the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and appropriating said amount in the FY 2026 grants fund for use by the Department of Fire Rescue and Emergency Services in connection with the radiological emergency preparedness program.

Thank you, ma'am.

Council members, we are in need of a motion and a second.

Second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted 7-0.

Thank you.

That concludes our city manager's report.

We're now moving to new business.

Item 25-258, boards and commissioner commissions.

And Councilman Hugo, do you have any board and commissions to report?

Yes, we do, Mayor.

We have uh one uh commission reappointment uh this evening.

It's to the History Commission, May Breckenridge, and several uh new appointments to boards and commissions to the Board of Zoning Appeals, Christian Harris to the Clean Community Commission, Luis Padilla, to the Community Criminal Justice Board, Genesis Thomas, to the Economic Development Authority, C.

Ross Morgan, to the History Commission, Sharon Hoggard, Akela Chambers, and Sandra Nicholson to the Parks and Rec Commission, Wilbert Allen, to the Portsmouth Supplemental Retirement Board, Robert Porter, to the Social Services Advisory Commission, Winford Dozier, and Rakeem Reed.

And to the Wetlands Board, John Lipsey.

Those are our appointments tonight, Mr.

Mayor.

Additionally, I want to point out that that uh to our folks who may be watching, uh, we have uh three uh uh boards and commissions uh that currently have open positions, the Southampton Roads Disability Services Board, the Newport Development Authority, and the Broadband Authority.

Uh so if you're interested in serving on any of those uh uh boards or commissions, uh there are current openings uh that we're looking for qualified candidates.

Uh and then uh in anticipation of uh coming to the end of the calendar year, uh we'll have some board and commission members who potentially will be rolling off.

Uh and so now is a good time to start thinking about how you might want to serve the community uh starting in January.

Uh we'll have uh a position on the SIPSA board uh and uh and we may have needs for uh economic development authority and planning commission.

So if any of those uh appeal to you, uh please uh consider visiting the city website, uh filling out an application uh and submitting uh your interest uh to us so that we can consider you for future service to the community through the boards and commissions uh process.

That's it, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Hugo.

Our next item, item 25.

Need a second, any second.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Second, I'm sorry, guys.

I didn't mean to woe you.

No, no, no, no.

We item was we need a second.

We have a second.

Any additional discussion?

Seeing none, please vote electronically.

This item is adopted seventh zero.

Item 25-259.

Items submitted by council members.

Do we have any items submitted by council members?

Councilman Dodson, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I just want to ask that we get a report back on the uh tower zoning uh building uh do we have ordinances that cover it?

Anyone to ask for I have that as note already.

Okay, thank you very much.

Councilman Tillage, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, at the last meeting I forgot to make mention um about the great event that happened in the city of Portsmouth a few weeks ago, and that was hosted by the Portsmouth Power Boat Association.

Um so it was great for them to be able to come to our city park to see so many people come out and there were enthused by water um boat activities uh to see the water racing.

Um also having food trucks out there.

Uh it was great to see our city park active with so many people out and about.

Um in addition, uh just a few weeks ago we had Symphony on the River.

Uh Virginia Symphony came here to City of Portsmouth and they hosted a wonderful evening on our Elizabeth River and City Park.

Um a lot of people came out, uh, people from the city of Portsmouth, but also people came into Portsmouth uh to take part in that evening.

And so it's just a great sign of many things to come.

Um and as a proud supporter of the arts, I look forward to seeing more of these types of activities um come across our city um so that ports people can enjoy, especially our water area that we do have um here in the city of Portsmouth.

So uh thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Vice Mayor Moody, sure you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilwoman uh Bryant and myself uh Sunday attended the reflection walk uh dedication uh which is uh a cancer awareness park uh located in Port Norfolk on Bayview Boulevard, and kudos to Brian McHugh and the Port Norfolk Civic League.

The park was dedicated initially in 2006, but uh thanks to the civic league's uh efforts headed up by Mr.

McHugh, they've got it uh back in pristine condition.

Uh if you haven't been there, it's really a neat uh place.

The walk is uh on the waterfront on uh Bayview Boulevard, and they also have bricks that uh uh you can purchase in uh memory or in honor of uh uh cancer uh victim or a cancer survivor.

So it's really a neat place, and uh it was honored to uh to be there among the uh uh cancer survivors.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, sir.

Our next uh um the next comments will come from councilwoman Thomas.

Ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just want to say thank you to Mr.

Carter for some of the report backs.

One thing I just wanted to make sure we uh from our last work session, we had the presentation on the parking meters that we're gonna possibly invest in.

And I wanted to make sure you still had on your note to um regarding the park and enforcement um issue.

Well, implementation and kind of getting some data behind how we're gonna enforce and what that process looks like while we're doing the investment to change our meters over.

Is that still on your list of things, Mr.

Carter?

Manager Carter, sure.

You have the floor.

Yes, ma'am.

That presentation for you about parking was an initial presentation to get the feel for what this council wanted to how to how the council wanted to move forward.

Okay.

So we've taken all those notes away.

We're gonna come back with a second presentation about how we plan to implement based on the information we gathered at that meeting.

Okay, thank you.

And then one more thing.

Um I have just for some citizen input.

I've a few citizens have reached out regarding um the request to look at implementing stop signs at some of the busy traffic corners um in their neighborhoods as well as speed bumps.

And I know we've done that in other neighborhoods.

What is the process just for transparency and information to our citizens to become part of a traffic study and to have that implemented?

I know we just recently went through that with another neighborhood.

Just wanted to put that out to the public for our citizens that have requested some information.

Sir, you have the floor at a future council work session, there is a traffic calming policy that will be presented, similar to what we did about the the parking where we present that to you, get some feedback from you about how we've presented it.

Does it make uh make sense to you?

Does it suit the needs of our citizens?

And if if that is the case, then we'll bring a policy back for uh approval.

But there is a traffic calming policy already being uh created to address all of these traffic calming issues.

Okay, so if a group of citizens right now feel there's a traffic emergency based on some high traffic areas and high kids playing in that area, how do they get that concern addressed now, or do we have to wait for this policy to go through it?

Contact our traffic engineering department, their warns that that they will always look at to see if something is um just for transparency's sake.

When someone requests something as far as traffic calming is concerned, right?

There are regulations that we have to follow about whether or not we can put a stop sign there, whether or not we can put a a speed um or something like that.

With the first thing is always gonna be a traffic study.

So if they if they want if you have somebody that wants something now, make that request now.

We'll do the traffic study.

And they request that through our on through online.

No, I don't there's no mechanism for that right now because we haven't had anything like this in the past.

If all is fail, call my office.

All right.

Thank you.

Councilman Hugel, so you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

Two things to share.

Uh Thursday is September the 11th.

Uh and so at 11 o'clock at High Street Landing, we will have a 9-11 uh remembrance uh ceremony.

Uh and then uh next week, Tuesday, the 16th of September.

Uh we we mentioned at our last meeting, uh several of us visited uh Greenville, South Carolina uh on the 16th of September uh at the Portsmouth Sportsplex.

Uh we intend to review for public consumption uh feedback from that uh that Greenville trip.

And so uh if you're interested in hearing uh what we saw in Greenville and uh and how that may uh uh influence uh the direction that we have uh in here in uh in Portsmouth.

Uh please come join us uh 16 September, 5 30 p.m.

at the Portsmouth Sportsplex.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Council Mendotson, sir.

You have the floor, then councilwoman Bryant.

Thank you.

Just this past Saturday, we had the pastors pray for Portsmouth event.

It happens once on the first Saturday of every month.

Uh it's a powerful, powerful meeting uh where we get together and we just pray for Portsmouth.

If you believe in the power of prayer, we'd love to have you join us uh Saturday, first Saturday of every month.

Most of the council was there at this past morning, including the city manager and this and the police chief.

It's a very nice meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Councilwoman Bryant, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um, wanted to thank Coach Brick from Brick House Boxing for the invitation to come out to his um they hosted a boxing match at Effingham YMCA.

It was a very cool event.

I have never been to a boxing match before, so I enjoyed getting to see that and see people from other communities across the state really come out to um participate and watch.

Also, support Portsmouth Public Art, which is responsible for many of the large murals that you'll see across the city is hosting an art and yard sale at the Hill House Museum, which is on North Street, and that is this Saturday from 9 to 2.

It's a great opportunity to come out, come down to the farmers market, walk around a little bit in the fall.

It's beautiful out.

Um, and um support this group that is attempting to bring more public art to our community.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

And a couple of things uh I'd like to add real quick.

Uh, for another wonderful season of Sunset Thursday.

Uh, it's always a positive opportunity to bring out the community to celebrate with good music, good interaction, and just have a good time.

So, kudos to your team, Mr.

Carter, for once again delivering on a wonderful sunset Thursday season.

Want to want to thank them for that.

Also want to acknowledge last Friday we had the privilege of having Good Morning America come to the city of Portsmouth.

Some of you may have seen that presentation.

It was actually uh in support of our wonderful nonprofit here in the city, Mercy Chefs, was delivered over three well 30 million meals since inception across the world.

And you know, these folks do a lot of work to help people, and on last Friday morning, the city had an opportunity to show out volunteers showed up in a big way to support Mercy Chefs and the work they do in our community.

Want to thank the founders of Mercy Chefs, Gary and Anne Leblanc for all of their dedication and work in our community and their team.

They do a phenomenal job, and we're fortunate to have a group like Mercy Chefs here in the city of Portsmouth.

And so that's all we have for item submitted by council.

We'll move to the next item, which is item 25-260 report on pending items.

Mr.

Carter.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, in your package today, you do have the report back from the last meeting.

The only thing I want to add to that is our government 101 classes will begin on next Monday.

Unfortunately, it opened and closed quickly.

So there is a waiting list.

But on Monday, um September the 15th is the first evening class.

So thank everybody that signed up for that.

Thank everybody who's the alumni of that.

And we look forward to another another great season of uh government 101.

That's it, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Carter.

And I want to acknowledge Mr.

Carter for his vision on the Government 101 program.

It's really an opportunity for our citizens to learn about how their city works.

And most importantly, uh from the interaction and building of the relationships of the other folks in the room.

I think we all can agree that we become better informed, but we also potentially become ambassadors for our city.

And it's always good to have knowledge.

I want to thank you for leading our effort and bringing that that wonderful program online.

Next, we uh are gonna move to item 25-261, which is non-agenda speakers.

And Madam Clerk, would you please read the speaker's statement?

Ladies and gentlemen, city council rules require a limit of up to five minutes to speak.

As you approach the speaker's podium, you will notice the timer.

At the beginning of your five minutes, you will see a green light.

Four minutes into your remarks, you will notice a yellow light.

At the end of five minutes, you will see a red red light here beep, and we ask that you conclude your comments at that time.

While speakers have an opportunity to address counsel on matters of public concern, all comments should be made in a manner that respects the seriousness of the forum and should not be made in a belligerent, sarcastic or demeaning fashion.

Our remarks shall be directed to the city council as a body rather than any particular member of City Council, staff, or the audience, and should be limited to matters that only the Portsmouth City Council can influence.

A speaker who fails to serve this basic role decorum will be deemed out of order and not allowed to conclude his or her comments.

Thank you, madam clerk.

And our first speaker tonight is Miss Lakeisha Alston.

State your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, everybody.

Good evening.

Hi, um, I don't want no trouble.

I just want a parking spot.

So that's why I'm here.

I'm basically my name is Lakeisha Austin.

My address is 1055 Lecky Street, Portsmouth, Virginia, 23704.

So the problem is is there's no assigned parking spaces where we live, and there's all off the street parking.

And um there's a church that's you know that that's literally right beside us with the house that's connected to it, and that and that is the driveway there, but that driveway from my understanding from the landlord, that driveway belongs to that church in that house.

So I don't had the police called on me and everything.

So I'm just trying to get a parking space.

I have a husband that's disabled.

We do have a handicapped decal.

I came up here to speak to somebody about getting a handicap space.

And the first thing she said was, no, they're not gonna approve it because they don't we don't approve handicapped spaces and driveways.

So she didn't even want to hear our side of the story, so she just said that um here fill out the application, but they're not gonna approve it.

So I'm standing in front of y'all to see if we can't have that approved.

Miss Austin, um, I'm gonna turn it over.

I'm gonna ask Manager Carter to speak with you on that matter.

Yes.

Uh there's a young lady sitting to your left.

Okay.

Would you uh give her your contact information?

Uh we can try and look into this for you.

We're sounds like we're talking about parking on private property, though, right?

Um, well, it's not private prop property.

We just have street parking.

There's no assigned parking spaces for nobody.

It's it's basically the city.

I see what's happening.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Give your information to Ms.

Hogue.

She's sitting right uh on the corner there.

Okay.

And we'll contact you next week on, or this week on this.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker, Mr.

Gary Bahena.

Sir, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor, Mr.

Vice Mayor, City Manager Carter, your honor.

My name is Gary Vihena.

I live here in Old Town.

And I just wanted to come and give my annual uh recap of the Portsmouth paddle battle.

As many of you probably have heard by now, we had a little hiccup early on Saturday morning.

All of the equipment, everything, our merchandise, computers, everything for the Portsmouth Paddle Battle was stolen out for in front of uh my home.

Um I'm not here to complain about that.

I'm not here to say anything bad about Portsmouth because what happened was absolutely amazing.

If any of you have seen the reports from Wavy uh over the last 24 hours, it's now being referred to as the miracle on High Street.

Um I woke up the police chief at four in the morning.

I woke up our mayor, who's still willing to talk to me at four in the morning.

Um our mayor woke up, Jim Collins, um, at four in the morning.

Um, and by about seven or eight o'clock in the morning, we had people who hadn't even volunteered for the event showing up and asking what could they do to make it happen.

Um the mayor was very clear to me at four in the morning that there was no way I was going to cancel this event.

Um, and he said this city would come together and would make it happen, and this city came together and made it happen.

Um I'm very grateful to the city.

I'm very grateful to everybody who volunteered.

I'm very grateful to you, to Jim, uh, to uh Chief Jenkins.

The truck was recovered by about nine-ish in the morning.

Um so for any of you who have any doubts about our flock camera system, put them out of your mind.

They found our truck.

Um at the end of the day, what was stolen, and if any of you see any drunk kayakers, the kayaks and our booze.

We were covered pretty much everything else.

Um, but we are very, very grateful.

We have had um we actually had a record turnout um for the event.

We had a record number of people who walked up and signed up for the event who hadn't pre-registered for the event.

We had a record number of people from the Coast Guard and the Navy who turned out for the Challenge Cup.

Um it was beyond all of our hopes and dreams.

Um I don't know that we're gonna make any money after we reimburse Hoffler Creek and everybody else for the stuff that was stolen, but that's okay.

Um what what I said yesterday uh when Wavy wanted to do an interview was that this was community.

This was Portsmouth.

This was Portsmouth Proud.

Yep.

Thank you all.

Thank you, sir, for a great program.

I believe the children enjoyed it too.

Our next speaker is Mr.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilman Hugo.

Sir, you have the floor.

Yeah, thanks, Mr.

Mayor.

So I uh I want to uh shout out Gary and the friends of the Shipyard Museum, but uh but really from the very beginning, the the paddle battle idea was Gary's.

Uh and how many years now is this?

Five years, fifth year running.

Uh so it can't be done without uh volunteers, and especially with the circumstances this past weekend.

Uh but it also can't be done without the vision and the drive that uh uh that that Gary and his wife Jeannie uh uh provide to Gary and his wife Jeannie provide to uh this this effort.

So uh so Gary to you and and Jeannie, thanks so much for uh uh for being the uh the motive for us to make this go.

You're here.

Our next speaker, Mr.

David House.

Sir, if you will come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

I'm still David House and I still live in Portsmouth.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council.

Um so as you know, um I'm an advocate for speaking out for issues that are uh impacting the city.

Uh as you know, um I've received some information back uh recently uh and I requested a do-over uh because the information that uh that was uh looked at was only part of the picture.

So on on some of the issues that uh I received back from uh from the city manager, um I'm requesting that uh we have some some other uh follow-up information on that if if we could.

Um so um somebody reached out to me about uh uh issue at the Lexington uh height apartments, and I'm gonna uh cite the the visibility clearance at intersections code, it's 32-31, and basically says that no material uh impediment to visibility shall be placed allowed to grow erect or maintained on any parcel as to restrict uh the site distance at any um intersection of a public street.

Um and it talks about below the minimum required by the uh V dot standards for for the uh situation situated intersection.

So V dot says that you can't the eye height of a person driving is 3.5 feet, so the object height is 2.5 feet.

And if you look at this this diagram, so we're talking about Deep Creek Boulevard, so which is a 35 mile an hour thoroughfare.

So a car stopped at that intersection, this line site visibility has to be 14 and a half feet from the curb, and it can't be any closer than 390 feet from that intersection.

So if you look if you look at the next page, these are the housing the two housing developments that have fences in the front.

The first one is 390 feet, and the second one is 285 feet.

So based on the V dot based on the city code saying the it has to be the minimum V dot standard, there can be no fence along that corridor in front of those apartments.

And it talks about what a site distance means.

It says uh intersection site distance means the site distance required an intersection to allow the driver of a stopped vehicle a sufficient view of the intersecting highway to decide whether to enter or cross the intersecting highway.

Um if you go to the the next pages in the back, page four, shows the uh complex, and on page five, it shows you the fence that is constructed.

So I took these pictures sitting in my vehicle, and you cannot see ongoing traffic um at that property.

So this fence is between the curb and the sidewalk, which means it's on city right-of-way.

So the so the complex has has installed a fence, and I believe it's I believe it's five foot tall.

But like I said, if you look at the pictures sitting sitting there, you you can't see ongoing traffic, and and I think something needs to be addressed because I mean somebody somebody reached out to me and said, Hey, you know, I I go to that intersection all the time and I'm having to almost drive out into the in oncoming traffic in order to see past the past the um the fence that's been installed.

So I'm I'm just bringing it to you to your attention for for consideration, and like I said, bring it to your attention about my do-overs that that we submitted to the city.

Um requesting you know, some answer back from what I submitted back to you.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Brenda Porter Rockwell.

Ms.

Rockwell, ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Um good evening again.

Uh my name is Brenda Porter Rockwell, and this time my concern is personal.

Um, I live at 1701 Atlanta Avenue, and um I have noticed um that there are these pop-up shanty towns and hangout spots for I don't know if they are homeless and or mentally ill.

Um I've seen these people walking up and down Randolph shouting at nothing, shouting into the void, crying, having this breakdown, and my concern is that I see this increasing like disgusting amount of litter and waste.

Um I noticed on Lincoln between Camden and Atlanta, one person um there's a lot on that corner, and the lot, you know, it's empty lot, and this one person is put up a little little spot for himself, and um has a bucket for waste and um a jug of water to bathe.

Um and I I stopped going on my morning walks because I was like, I don't want to see that.

I gotta go a different way.

Um when I'm going up uh Randolph toward Effingham.

Um there's another empty lot um and it's a big shady tree spot area, and um they hang out there in the street and that little spot there, and and there's just waste um debris, and it's starting to trickle down as they walk from Effingham that from Eppingham toward Deep Creek.

Um, and I'm on the corner lot, so I see it all, and I get all the trash.

And I'm wondering what what is the protocol?

Do I report to police?

Do I like how do I address this?

Manager Carter, sir.

You have the floor.

Again, the same young lady we pointed out before.

She'll take your information and we'll do an investigation on that and report back to you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

You have the floor.

Thank you.

Um the issue that Ms.

Rockwell just brought up, I think is a uh issue that requires a bit of um solutions on our part as well.

Um, one thing I remember from I don't know if it was Behavior Health Care or was it social services, they talked about a implementing a mobile unit to go to our neighborhoods where there's maybe higher, you know, uh maybe drug use or any type of use that Ms.

Rockwell is type um sort of referring to, but the the thing is our citizens don't have a way to provide those addresses.

I mean, other than the C click figs, um, but that would be kind of odd taking pictures of citizens.

Um so can we uh Mr.

Carter, I think it would be a good idea for us to add this type of um solution to something that we look further into and see what our behavior health care social services or police how we can coordinate when we are trying to address some of these areas where you know people are hanging out or in our neighborhoods, you don't feel safe while you're going on walks.

There might be higher drug use.

We we notice, you know, we know the places right in the neighborhoods where this occurs.

If we can provide some type of policy and process, just overall solution to address this in our in our neighborhoods in our city.

So I wherever the addresses that Miss Rockwell is providing, that's great, but I think we need another avenue and solution that we can provide in a broader context to context to all of our citizens as we work to clean up all of our neighborhoods.

So I just wanted to put that out there as a report as something we add to our list of things when we talk about cleaning up our neighborhoods and our communities.

Mr.

Carter, thank you.

Thank you all for listening.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ms.

Sharon Anderson.

Ms.

Anderson, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, Attorney Williams, Miss Clark, Miss Sherrod, and the Sergeant at Arms.

I am Sharon D.

Anderson, and I am the president of Ebony Heights Civic League.

We have now resumed with holding our monthly meetings, and we're kicking off our first meeting with Commonwealth's attorney candidates form.

So I'm here this evening to remind you all and to invite those that are not aware to please come out on Monday, September the 15th at New Community Temple, 3615 Tyrannak Road, uh Bishop Thomas Way to hear about how the Commonwealth's attorney office runs.

So many people just are unaware of what the responsibility of the Commonwealth Attorney's Office is.

So as a civic league, we are about informing people, educating people.

So I hope that you all will please come out.

If you can't come out, please tell a friend to please join the Epany Heights Civic League meeting.

This coming up Monday, September the 15th.

Doors will open at 6:30.

The forum starts at seven.

So I look forward to seeing many of you there and many of those that are listening via on the internet.

Please come out.

And I will be a part of the government one on one, but I will miss the 15th, but I will be there the following Mondays.

So thank you for this opportunity, and I look forward to seeing each and every one of you.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker, Miss Serena Mann.

Ms.

Mann, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, City Council members.

My name is Serena Mann, and my property address is 3421, Portsmouth Boulevard, Portsmouth, Virginia.

And I'm the proud founder of individuals making positive active change together.

We are a 501c3 based out of the city of Portsmouth, and I'm also the Vice President for the Wilson Ward Golf Sports Civic League.

Tonight I am up here because I wanted to share our beliefs that we all want to see the community do well, and we all believe that coming together is very important.

Over the past year, we have spiraled into a movement called Safe and Sound, and we are committed to addressing the root causes of violence and building healthier and more hopeful futures for all.

Over the past year, we have helped over a thousand students with school supplies to start the school year.

We have invested over 375 hours of mentorship, pouring directly back into our youth.

We have distributed over 1,500 pieces of clothing and over 200 pairs of shoes to families in needs.

And we have also distributed over 15,000 pounds of food to fight hunger in the communities.

These are not just numbers, these are lives and families that have been touched and hope that has been restored.

And now on September 20th, we are preparing for our inaugural Beats and Pedals Bicycle Ride slash walk and roll and music festival that will take place at the Port Side Park right beside the Renaissance Hotel.

But we cannot do this alone.

Back in March, I had submitted a city sponsorship application to the city manager, and we are less than two weeks out from the event, and I still have not received any definitive answers whether the city will or will not support us.

This has been very frustrating because as I've been trying to collaborate with Parks and Rec, they are telling me that they cannot do anything without approval, yet they need to know so that they can schedule proper staff to have everything in place if it is approved.

So today I stand before you just to let you know that tonight is just not about a sponsorship.

Portsmouth is already great, so let's work together to make it even greater.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Our next speaker is Miss Dolise Whitehurst.

Miss Whitehurst, ma'am, if you would come forward, state your name and address.

You will have five minutes.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Delise Whitehurst.

I'm at 1237 Aranda Way, Chesapeake, Virginia.

I am the widow of the late Honorable Charles B.

Whitehair Senior.

I am standing in front of you with a heavy heart, filled with deep disappointment and sadness to express our feelings.

We got in the city's decision not to honor our loved one Charles B.

Why her senior.

His memory is woven into the fabric of your community, and it's simply heartbreaking to witness that his dedication and contributions go unacknowledged.

For decades, Charles gave selflessness, offering time, energy, and compassion to those around him.

His impact was felt by neighbors, friends, and even strangers, touched by his unwaving kindness and commitment.

It pains us profoundly to realize that despite all that he has given to the city of Portsmouth, his legacy will not be formally recognized by the city that meant so much to him.

We had hoped and thought that the city of Portsmouth would understand the significance of Child's contributions and the value of commemorating individuals who truly make a difference.

The absence of such an honor feels not only disappointing, but also like a missed opportunity to inspire others to celebrate the spirit of community service that Charles had embodied.

With all sincerity, we are not asking, and we are not going to beg you to make this decision.

Obviously, after eight years and trying consistently to get something to honor Charles, nothing has been done.

And that idea was shot down.

I then sent several emails and kept asking for suggestions on how I can honor Charles.

Nothing was done.

After two years after the pandemic, lo and behold, someone was honored in a street naming in 2022.

My family and I then sat down with Mayor Shannon in October 22 and explained everything I've been doing to make something happen.

You assured me that that would not take another year.

An idea came up in the meeting to have a building or park named after Charles.

We decided on the building.

We submitted the application in 2023, went in front of the parks and recreation committee that night, and they voted unanimously, and we're told that the next step finalizing was to go in front of City Council members.

One week later, I was informed by phone call that a conflict of interest had arisen.

We got in the building as another individual had requested to have their loved ones' name assigned to it after our vote.

Parks and recreation community community made communicated to me that no additional streets or buildings would be renamed after any more loved ones.

We then sat once again, Mayor Glever, and which showed you said that you were going to look into we got an app building situation.

Child's name then came up in the city council meeting in January 2024, and the acting city manager stated that she had something that the family of Charles would love.

Councilman Bill Moody, you suggested and said whatever it was going to do, you were going to make that happen.

However, I did not receive any response to what the city manager has said, despite following up multiple times via emails and telephone calls.

I emailed several committee members regarding that, but I never received a follow-up.

Then in August of 2024, a person stood up in front of the council meeting like I'm standing now and stated that she thinks blank blank deserves a street named after her, and the next month the street was named after this person.

I sent f several follow-up emails to mayor and to councilman Moody, and nothing was done.

And then in May of 2025, I was sent via email a program of having a street named in honoring after Charles.

I was given this application in May of 2025.

After looking over the application, I was informed that I need to select a street where the name could be honored and obtained a petition with signatures from all the businesses on that street.

It was given three weeks to submit the information.

After submitting my application and all that was needed, I received an email two weeks later stating I needed signatures from the owners of the buildings on the street, not the signatures from the business, not the signatures from the business.

And was asked also what connection Charles had to that street.

This was a slap in the face.

Charles Feli and I have observed streets that have been named, not honoring after individuals, but renamed.

We have concluded that the City of Portsmouth has not approved our request on anything and really does not want this to happen.

He was a father, a brother, an uncle.

He was a pillar of Portsmouth community, a man of integrity, compassion, and quite strengthened, most of remarkable, a remarkable statesman.

His contributions, whether through services, mentorship, and play of the ones who now sit on the current postal city and the ones advancing simply the way he has lifted those around him.

He deserves to be honored in a way that future generations can see what kind of man he was done for the city of Portsmouth.

Nine years may seem like a long time, but loving and legacy do not expire.

Although time has passed, our commitment by preserving his legacy has never wavered.

We remain grateful to our loved ones' legacy and the family and I will want to honor him in a way that he truly deserves.

I'm truly disappointed in the city of Portsmouth.

Vice Mayor Moody, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Ms.

Whitehurst, thank you for being here.

I share your frustration.

If I could make it happen, I would, but I but counsel, no member of council can get involved in that process other than stating our support.

There's a committee that determines that.

I'm a little mystified why the committee approved some.

Certainly had lesser contributions to the city than Charles Whitehurst.

Charles Whitehurst was the first African American treasurer elected in the city of Portsmouth.

He was a Marine who served his country.

He was a vice mayor.

And he also served on this council for uh, I believe three terms.

So I'm also mystified and frustrated that we've chosen this committee.

And I think we need uh we need to know more about this committee and more about the process of honoring uh streets after individuals.

As I said here tonight, I have no idea.

I've heard scuttle butt uh on how this committee works, but I can sit here and tell you tonight I'm not pleased at some of their works.

So I I want to know something about the process.

I don't know if you are aware, but I'm the one that first uh proposed uh honoring individuals with uh honorary street.

But uh if anybody's deserving of that honor is Charles Whitehurst.

So uh Mr.

Manager, maybe you can uh schedule a time to enlighten us on uh how that process works, who the committee members are, how they are appointed, and perhaps uh their backgrounds.

I don't know why it's not uh like a board and commission that's uh that's appointed by uh members of council, but I'm not pleased uh with this at all, uh, Ms.

Whitehurst, but thank you for being here.

And don't give up the fight, because I'm not either.

Thank you.

That was our last speaker for the evening.

If there's no other business to conduct for the good of the order, then this meeting is adjourned.

I would ask that you all drive safely, and we'll see you at the next meeting.

Goodbye.