Good evening, citizens of Port Smooth.

Want to welcome everyone to our public work session today on February 24th.

I want to acknowledge those who are watching us online as well.

Thank you all for being here.

Also want to acknowledge our city staff who is with us today.

Thank you for your presence.

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Present Dr.

Datson.

Present.

Mr.

Hugo.

Present.

Mr.

Moody.

Here.

Miss Thomas.

Here.

Mr.

Tillich.

Here.

Mayor Glover.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Manager Carter, sir.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, everyone.

Great day today.

Uh have a couple of presentations for you this evening.

The first one is an update on our Main Street project.

Um Mrs.

McCall, I'm not sure who's gonna be.

Both of us both of them.

Uh we have Ben McFarlane where is he?

He's in the back.

Uh he's gonna present uh some information on the uh the uh Norfolk flood wall.

So first of all, we have Main Street.

We're excited for this other day.

Uh-huh.

Wait.

Oh no, they're gone.

Okay.

Sorry about it.

No, you're good.

All right.

All right.

Well, thank y'all for having us here today.

Again, uh Michelle Wren, executive director of the Portsmouth Partnership.

And Liz Hussling, assistant director.

Yeah, and we appreciate the opportunity to give y'all an update on um the Portsmouth Partnership and our Main Street initiative.

Oh, there we go, maybe okay.

Sorry, new technology.

Um we just talked a little bit about Main Street.

Um you know, some of you may know a little bit more about Main Street than others, so we'll go through some of the basic principles of it.

Um then the impact that we're having on the district.

So one thing to really understand about the Main Street um and the ports the mobilizing main street program that Portsmouth has entered into.

So it's a two-year program.

We are a year into it, and it's a city wide program, so I think that's really important as we talk about um investment that um we are starting with the old town district, the high street corridor, but it's principles that can be applied throughout the whole city.

So um that was important in our application.

There's other areas around the um around Hampton Roads that only did small districts.

Um and so we did the entire city.

So the principles that we are using to revitalize High Street and our public-private partnerships can also be used in other districts throughout the entire city, which I think is really important.

Um the other principles that are being used, it's a four it's a four-point approach.

Um so it's preservation-based framework for revitalization of a district.

So again, it's it's strategies that are learned.

We are getting a transformation strategy that's being done by the state, and then everything's based in four points economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization.

So we'll have that kind of framed as we're giving information to y'all under each point to see as you know what we're doing with strategy, um, what we're doing to incorporate that, and then how the four points uh approach is applied, which is again a not just a Virginia Main Street, but it is a U.S.

main street um trude and triad um strategy for yeah, for um revitalizing commercial districts.

So it's something that's been proven across the United States and pieces that have been proven in the state of Virginia.

So principles that we know that will work.

Um most important piece of this is the foundation building.

So it is a public-private venture.

So the private sector cannot do it alone, and neither can the public sector.

Um, it is a grassroot organization, and so it takes community members, it takes businesses, and it also takes the municipality, uh, which is one of the principles that we love about this because it really has really strengthened relationships.

So I feel like the partnership throughout its years, um, we were founded in 1948.

We've got strong, strong um partnerships with a lot of different entities in the city and also with different city departments and also with council.

So um, but this approach also strengthened that.

So it um relays the information that we're sharing, we're meeting on a regular basis, so really the communication pieces with each of the city departments.

Um, I won't read the slide to you, but you can just see all of the private stakeholders, all the other organizations that we're working with, and also all of the city departments that we're collaborating with.

So we have monthly meetings, our main street meetings, and representatives from all of these sectors are at our monthly meetings, so they're pretty robust, and you can see that really almost every single sector of the district is being represented, and again, that's really important because that means all the voices are being heard.

So that's really really important through this process is to understand that there are a lot of voices at the table.

Another piece that I think is fantastic.

So we do have to report out.

Um, and again, we are reporting um to the DCH D in Richmond, and the nice thing about this too is we're gathering information that's coming from sits different city departments, and it's all going in one report, um, which is really nice to see because you can see what's happening in the district month by month.

So since August 2025, there's been 2,200 volunteer hours, um, 12 new units of housing placed, and um 2.3 million dollars that have gone into improvements in the district.

Most of that was from the private sector.

Um, but it is nice to see again, we're looking when we're talking about the district, we're looking from Water Street to Effingham is what we've identified as this main street district, so up the high street corridor.

So it's a small, it's a small area.

And this is just a snapshot of the types of data pieces that we're collecting on a monthly basis.

It provides us a baseline for where we are now so that we can really capture the growth that we're anticipating through the Main Street program.

Um, and we're using a data informed approach across um all of our metrics.

Uh so one of the things that we did right off the jump was do an inventory of our properties and businesses here, cataloging over 170 businesses, figuring out not just what are in those spaces but who the points of contact are.

It was um quite a bit of a deep dive there.

And we worked with economic development to do that too.

So, you know, as we go through all these data points, um, we are working with the municipality to gather information and to share information.

Sorry, go ahead.

Yeah, we also um collected 755 community surveys.

I think many of you probably participated in our outreach efforts there again, establishing a baseline for where our community thinks our district is and where it needs to go.

And then if you remember, we had Main Street America in town for three days with us.

We conducted a series of focus groups.

Many of you all participated in those, um, but brought a really diverse set of individuals to the table to share their perspectives on the status of the district.

And then when we did those, sorry, when we did those uh stakeholder focus groups, um, that was a template too that um Main Street America gave us.

So, you know, they want to hear from property owners, they want to hear from business owners, and you know, and so many from each of the categories.

So, again, you know, we had a great um great showing of 130 individuals, but they were broad-based through all different categories, and they gave us the framework for that.

Like, you know, these are who need here the stakeholders.

Can you get the stakeholders from all of these areas, and we were able to get stakeholders from every single category that they had recommended.

And they kicked Michelle and I out of the room.

Yes, they did.

So we weren't allowed to hear anybody's comments.

Yeah, which was good.

Yeah, yeah.

And frustrating.

Yes.

Um, so but moving into more of a design um side of the house here.

Uh, one of the things that came out of the surveys that we did was uh a lot of concern about safety and lighting in our district, and so we thought we'd lean into that with our first project.

So uh that was a uh again public-private partnership where we raised $50,000 from the private sector.

Uh the city was kind enough to match that for us dollar for dollar.

Uh and we deployed that in two different areas.

So one was an uplighting of all the crate myrtle trees going from the 800 block down to the waterfront.

Um, and then the second side of that was incentivizing our local business owners to make their own improvements to either their lighting and or security systems.

Yeah.

And so on the the lighting side, the crate myrtle medium side, uh, you can see some pictures here of our uplit trees.

Um the company that we worked with was great in order to get them installed before the Christmas holidays.

We were able to kind of put some red and green lights.

Uh and then traditionally throughout the year, uh, we've landed on a sort of a Kelvin number there that really uh corresponds for a historic downtown district.

Um but if you look at the right, these are uh smart powered lights, they're controlled with mobile apps that uh we have access to, uh Parks and Rec has access to will probably open up to some other uh groups as well.

Uh but the idea here is we can lean into different uh events or holidays or things just to kind of add that festival atmosphere to the things going on in Old Town.

We're also really looking forward to seeing what these will look like when the leaves come in.

So I think it'll be a little bit better.

Um they will improve in the spring and summer.

And then one of the reasons too, we went with the uplighting.

We had looked at wrapping the trees as well, but um Parks and Rec really were not in favor of that because they're crate myrtles and just the maintenance behind it for the city to having to unwrap the trees, let them breathe, and then rewrap.

Um so that's why we went with the uplighting to try to get the ambiance, but also to make it a little bit easier for maintenance on the city.

Uh and then on the the private side of the project.

So I mentioned we had 27 businesses that we're working with.

Um, and so those projects are in various stages of completion.

We have three projects that are completely done.

So you can see um Fred from the Commodore here, one of the projects was removing all of the neon lighting that he really struggled to keep his uh marquee fully lit at all times.

That's been replaced with LED lighting, um, as well as a couple other projects that added lighting and security to the district.

We have six that are in process being installed now, and then another 18 projects that are in the planning phase.

Um all of these projects are being incentivized with a 1,000 dollar grant um through our program, and then many of them are choosing to pursue EDA real property investment grant funding in order to reduce their costs as well.

So it's been a great partnership there.

And you can see these projects really go the whole length of our district here.

Uh and I should say, you know, we approached this initially with a lighting walk of our district.

So we uh I think city managers there, several of our city counselors came out to walk the district at night, look at the opportunities for improvement, uh, and we saw many of them both on the public and private side.

Um, and so this was our way of really of helping our business owners make the improvements that they um they saw necessary.

And then out, you know, and out of that walk too, I'll mention um Dominion was with us, so a lot of the problems that we were having with Dominion, they came and fixed after that.

I know the city manager had identified some of the um public buildings again, like PAC, and so put lights out there.

So it really was a great um a great community walk to where not only did we invest the city invested, but we also got uh Dominion Power to move the needle on some of those issues, which was great.

Um, and then just to kind of tease you about some projects that are forthcoming.

Um, so this is one of the larger projects that we'll be improving through this program, uh Barron's Pub right here on the corner of High and Dinredy Street.

Um but if you look at the front of their facade, the lighting across the top only goes halfway down the front.

I don't know why it's just always been that way.

Um but we'll be continuing the lighting all the way down.

It's also uplighting or he's uh lighting his sign there.

Um there's murals on both sides that will be lit through um through this through our design layout, and then improving like this is one of the kitchen access points here that just has a really sort of harsh light industrial um fixture that will be replaced uh to something that's more uh in line with the district.

And here's some of those examples of the lighting fixtures that have been selected and will be going on as part of that improvement program.

So that's working really closely with the historic design downtown design review commission to get appropriate, not just more lighting, but appropriate lighting into the district.

And then did go back.

Dinwiddie was pretty important too because that was identified in the survey, but also in the walk is a really poorly lit street with several businesses on there.

So that's why we were really excited to bring a lot of those business owners on board.

Yeah, so that's a really good point.

So the lighting that's um going on.

So this is the Dinwiddie side of Barons.

We're also have lighting that is going in on the Dinwiddie side of long boards as well as the Dinwiddie side of uh where Fort Print Fort Print Sink is there, as well as across the front of Fort Print Sink, and then doing a security camera initiative with High Street Pizzas.

So all four of those businesses are are activating for this program.

Which will also help with parking too is people park down those side streets so that they're lit up to walk through, which will be great.

Um so now we're gonna move like to economic vitality.

So I just thought it was important for y'all to see.

Um yes, the partnership is in Main Street, um, working through Main Street for the last year, but over the last two years um we've raised 528,000, just over 20528,000 total for the partnership, which includes a lot of our accelerator programs, and then you can see part of that was um the lighting project, and then a few more that we'll talk about a little bit later in the slides unlocking capital in the high street fest.

Um so again, just to know the overall impact that the partnerships having, not just through Main Street, but also through small business incubation.

Um we are constantly seeking grants to help our small businesses and help them grow, which is also a catalyst for Main Street, and it's one of the reasons that made the partnership such a great um such a great, I guess, a nonprofit to partner with Main Street, and one of the reasons they like really sought us out and accelerated us through the program was because of some of the incubation of small businesses we were already doing.

Yeah, so we'll get into some of our programmatic things that are happening under Bloom.

Uh, we've really been leaning into industry specific programming.

So this year we launched a Bloom Healthcare Accelerator.

Um, so that was a pilot program that we ran.

Um, and really it came out of looking at who was in our bloom space as well as here in the district, the number of home health companies as well as um uh mental health care companies uh that are incubating with us and wanting to do really specific programming for those uh businesses.

So, in addition to seeing just about everyone complete the program, new jobs created through the program.

We also had a an unexpected surprise, which was uh the formation of an alliance uh of some of the businesses going through the programming.

They took a look at really where federal funding priorities were moving towards and wanting to align some of the pillars of their own businesses to be able to access some of the resources they saw coming down that avenue.

Yep, which we were super excited to see that because that's one of the I mean that's one of the principles behind doing accelerator programs is putting businesses, especially when you do cohorts that are um tailored around one specific industry.

You're putting you know, groups of folks, groups of entrepreneurs that have the same industry piece and let them feed off of each other, let them learn of each other, and then even best for this one is hey, how about we work together to again to solve a problem and then write grants together to activate funds.

So we were thrilled about that.

So we're we'll be following them and see how they do.

Another program that we launched this last year was a seed capital activator.

This was uh really leaning into a step capital model, taking a look at really small and startup businesses that have not had an opportunity to access an infusion of business capital and getting them on that first rung of capital access.

And so we were working with the Kiva program, which offers uh zero interest loans to uh to commercial borrowers, I think loans up to five thousand dollars and working with uh these small businesses to gain access and build out their business credit through the program.

And then, of course, um our retail accelerator, which is another industry-specific program we've had for a couple years now.

Yep, we've been really excited to launch this.

Um, and again, this has been supported by EDA and is been fantastic.

So taking um home makers and bringing them into retail space, giving them education.

So we partnered with Retail Alliance on this, and so they did all the education for us and then gave them a space to actually show their wares and to be able to connect to the market versus just selling online.

And you know, the whole idea behind this is to help them launch and then to help them actually launch into Portsmouth.

So to give them what they need to go from being an in-home base just online to to hopefully bricks and mortar.

So, you know, we were our whole little tagline was clicks to bricks.

So figuring out how do you take that online presence and how do you connect to a market base and how do you have some experimental, like experimental, not experimental, um, expert experiential thank you.

I can't say the words.

Yes, like yeah, so um, you know, and creating that so that you can you know really have people come into a space, like we've got a candlemaker and she has groups all the time.

Come in, make your own candle, pick your own sense.

Um so it's been great.

Our juices we love.

She's called her juice bar, so people are constantly coming in looking for her juices.

Um, she uses the commissary kitchen, and we are her retail space in Portsmouth for her juices, and her business has I mean, it's gone wild since then.

Um she's been able to cut back her hours, and that's the whole idea.

A lot of these entrepreneurs are still working non-to-five.

So, why the market's been so valuable for them because we staff it.

So they have their presence there.

Um, people can get to know their product, get to know them a little bit by their story, um, but they don't have to work the whole time because they're still bootstrapping these ideas.

So they still need their non to five, and the idea is to get them enough sales so that they can give up their nine to five and actually launch out.

And then Bloom Market has launched into another partnership with the Retail Alliance through their retail catalyst program.

Um, so we're kind of leaning in a little a little harder with them.

Old Town was the first community that they selected to partner with, um, and that's gaining um again capital access to these uh to these retail businesses.

So we have a number of businesses that are either current for farmers market businesses uh are incubating with us here at Bloom as well as one property owner that are in the retail catalyst program looking to launch their brick and mortar out onto High Street.

And the nice thing with that too, and even with the Blue Market as we go forward, is um we've had a leakage study done through this retail catalyst program.

So really looking at okay, what businesses can the district support, and then how can we now attract those businesses and or incubate those businesses specific to the district, specific to the data to say, hey, this is these is what's coming in, this is what's leaving, this is what's necessary.

So super important to again, as you're incubating, look at data to make sure you're incubating the right base businesses and to make sure they can be successful.

Um then our newest um grant that we've received, unlocking capital, really excited about this.

Um it was a US Main Street grant um founded by the Robert Wood Um Johnson Foundation, and so we were selected and awarded $70,000 to actually build capacity for Main Street, which is fantastic and help us grow the program.

So we're real excited about that.

Um we're looking at a couple of different things at with that.

Um we are looking to bring on a full-time dedicated um SBD staffer.

So again, that one-on-one with businesses coming into Bloom, but also anybody in Portsmouth.

So and that's also good to remember too.

Like we we talk about Bloom, but we are not anything that we do is not Bloom specific.

You do not have to be a member.

Um, a lot of programs, you don't even have to be a Portsmouth resident.

We are attracting businesses to Portsmouth.

So we want you to come, we want you to do business in Portsmouth, and we're hoping that you stay in Portsmouth.

So everything we do is open to is open to the public.

Um we have a lot of businesses that are coming in, they don't live in Portsmouth, but they like our space.

We have free parking and um they want to open their business in Portsmouth.

So it's it's been fantastic.

Um, and so we're really excited to kind of lean into having qualified consultants, and we will have their whole entire team.

So, based on the needs of an entrepreneur, we'll have access to their entire team, whether it's a retail person, whether they need financial help, they have specific um consultants that that specialize.

So excited to bring that to Portsmouth.

That's gonna also um you know help us build capacity but from what we're doing too from a standpoint of our programming.

Um, and the other piece too is also looking at um exploring some sustainable um funding models for the district.

So we um are working with retail, um not excuse me, with Hampton Roads Alliance on that and with economic development.

So there'll be more to come on that, but um excited to have those programs.

The other piece to that um that we were real excited to launch as well is these uh rats.

So through unlocking capital, we really identified our single biggest goal is to reduce vacancies here in Old Town.

Uh, and so one of the ways we really want to lean into that was showcasing those spaces a little differently, get rid of rid of the peeling brown paper and the newsprint out of the windows and really showcase what these spaces could be.

So Michelle mentioned our leakage study, we know the types of businesses that should do well here.

Uh and so to be able to show them visually to people that are passing by either on foot or in car.

Uh and so I got just a couple designs in here for you.

This is uh the wine bar that we're anticipating at 720 High Street.

Putting in a design like this gives them cover while they do a build-out, builds anticipation for what's coming.

Um, and then for spaces that we don't have any plans for just yet, but we've learned them.

Um we also have some designs that are um being built around that, and so uh one of the key pieces here is the call to action, these QR codes we're working um uh with the marketing team to make sure we're directing all of those to economic development.

So if somebody's inquiring about a space, we don't want them to land with a leasing agent, find out it's not the right fit, and we lose that contact, right?

We want to to capture everybody and find them the right fit in Portsmouth.

Um, so we're trying to be really strategic about that, and also just improving, you know, this is a building that's been vacant for at least a decade.

It has plywood on covering up their glass windows, and um, so working with that property owner, building a relationship out, and then showcasing their business in terms of the potential is what we're hoping to achieve.

Yeah, um, so those are all in the design phase now.

We're hoping to see them really soon come to life.

And then we're entering into phase two.

Um, so we received the 70,000 dollar grant.

Uh, that is unlocking additional funding for our district.

We're guaranteed a $50,000 pre-development grant.

It can scale up to 125,000, which is what we're really hoping to bring in.

So keep your fingers crossed for us.

Um, but again, around the the effort to reduce vacancies on high street, the goal here uh is to deploy pre-development funds into a project to determine uh its feasibility and its path forward.

And so right now we're in the process of reviewing uh several options of of how best to use those funds for high street.

Yep, and it's a grant process.

So we're we've got um several folks who have kind of applied through us, and then we've given it to our grant team to look to see what's the best match according to the guidelines that they've set forth in the application.

So again, trying to get that, you know, more than the 50 that we're guaranteed.

So we're excited about that.

And then yeah, it brings us to the promotion side.

So again, we've kind of gone through all the four points.

Um, and real quick, those of you who don't know ports events, we portnership started an events company um 2008.

So we've done things like we started the farmers market, we started First Fridays, um, again, just trying to bring visitors um into Old Town.

Um, when we launched Bloom co-working in uh 2019, we kind of shelved ports events because again, just staffing um constraints.

It was me and one other person, and so couldn't launch you know, incubator and co-working at the same time as doing First Fridays farmers markets and things like that events are very time consuming.

So we um gave both of those long-running events to different entities that we thought could benefit from it.

So farmers market went to Old Town Business Association, which they in turn then created another company that the Cullins run, so that's been a nice income source for um OTBA and then first Fridays we gave to um Portsmouth Supports Public Arts again, nice fundraiser for them, um, and then also still continuing that um those events in Portsmouth.

So, but fast forward we um did High Street Fest as you know in October, and we did that under the lens of Main Street.

So again, um looking at events a little differently versus yes, pulling visitors in, but also how can we have an economic impact on the district?

So everything through Main Street is done through that economic lens.

How is their economic impact?

And so we looked at an event differently.

How can we lean into the bricks and mortar?

So if we shut down the streets, um we pulled the Dora permit, um, which allowed the containers to move throughout the district, but that also means that all of the sales go to the retail life licenses, and so we encouraged all businesses to put food on the street and to bring their um activities out on the street.

Um, and so we'll give you a little recap if you didn't come.

If you didn't come, I know a lot of you were here.

All right.

So again, the total, just to kind of go over some numbers, so you know, like, yes, it was an investment, but we also saw um some return on that investment.

Um total production cost was 142,000.

So that again was private public.

The city stepped up very largely for this in terms of marketing um city sponsorship with closing down the streets, police, and things like that.

So um we also we also raised money for that as well, corporate sponsors, and then a lot of private in-kind.

So again, collectively all together, um that's what it took to run the event.

Um, but when you look at the money spent in marketing, we did establish a strong brand.

Um, and then we had a huge campaign, so got the word out, but it also got Portsmouth out, right?

It wasn't just a high street fest, it was it was more talking about Portsmouth and Old Town and why you should come to Old Town, and so you can see we generated uh 2.3 million dollars million, not dollars, uh total impressions.

Um, and so the Davis uh agency did that for us, which again was great because they're branding for the city, they are the um city's agency, so everything you know corresponds with what the city's doing, which we feel is really important, right?

We want to support the city.

We don't want to be out there branding something different.

We want to work with the city and make sure we're all branding the same.

Um the trend data we were super excited about.

So we were able to use Placer AI, which hopefully the city will own soon.

We're hoping that I know marketing and Peter's been trying for that.

It's fantastic.

The little glimpse that we have gotten through Placer.

So put a plug in for that.

But we were really excited, um, seven almost 7,000 visitors for High Street.

So one of the largest Saturdays that um the district has seen two times the average visits, and then you can see just on the third Saturday, it you know, we were trending down in October, and so that really gave a boost.

So it's um it was great data.

The economic impact we were most excited about.

So again, excited to have 7,000 people on the street, but did they spend money?

And yes, they did.

Um, so we had 105 street vendors, 85 um doing sales, um, they reported about 97 customers and an average of 600 in sales and then total engagement that they had.

Um, why that's important that shows that okay, yes, they were vendors, a lot of them were um Portsmouth-based vendors, not all of them, but also too bringing people down, they were spending money.

So again, if we are filling some vacancies and we're using our leakage study, meaning they will spend money when you bring people down into the district.

Um the brick and mortar businesses, they averaged you know 118 in uh percent increase over what they had usually uh done.

Um Barson restaurants, 124% increase.

Um, and so here's just a little bit again, like Beer Garden, the best day they had done was six thousand and you know, during High Street Fest, they were close to twelve thousand.

So uh the numbers were incredible for our bricks and mortar, it really they really were.

Um then's another example where year over year she saw 350 cent percent 357 percent increase in her sales compared to that same day a year before the year before that, yep.

Um, and then just some little testimonies.

Um, again, I won't read them to you, but you know, what we heard from you know brick and mortar after brick and mortar, owner after owner was this was the best day they had had.

It it exceeded their expectations.

Most everybody had already done their best sales day by 11 and 12 o'clock, and they had the whole rest of the day to go.

Um Cure is probably my favorite because they outperformed Norfolk location for the first time ever, hour by hour.

So we were like super excited about that.

So, which Norfolk is their longest standing um store out of other four localities.

So yep, so we are planning to do it again October 10th.

Um, and again, why the branding was so important um and the marketing piece because it is a platform for the city to use.

So the city is using the high street fast um in conjunction with sale 250, which is great.

So plan is to pull the Dora permit again and then create that atmosphere um leaning into our bricks and mortars again and celebrating the 250.

So that's why it was so important that um the city leaned into this that created branding that they could use as well that um and that we can use and we can use it over and over again.

And then just a bit about again tying this right back to having a walkable downtown that's full of economic vitality.

That's our vision for where old town's going and why we're in this.

Why we're yeah, why we're in this space, yeah.

So yeah, we're gonna say, yeah, thank y'all for your time.

Anyway, happy to answer any questions.

Questions.

We also left you a little present today.

Yeah, so yeah, we're hoping eventually we'll have Portsmouth specific, but yeah, we're not quite there yet with the name.

So Councilwoman Thomas, ma'am.

Yes.

Thank you.

This was excellent.

Um just really nice to see, you know, you hear about some of the things of Portsmo Partnership, but like I just learned about the Bloom Healthcare Accelerator.

I think that's excellent.

Um course we know Blue Marketplace, love going in there.

Um really good work.

We were just talking about Hash Street Festival as a council.

I forgot where we were, but just talking about how positive it was.

Um I just want to make a note that not only I'm sure it generated you know the economic benefit that you just went over, but it was just a great way to get out and meet your neighbors or people you don't know.

We set having the tables out on the street from the restaurant, you know, you sit in a chair that someone else is sitting there, you get to talk and really learn people's stories, and so that was really really good.

I do want to ask my question is you mentioned this leakage study.

Uh-huh.

Give me a little bit more background.

Like so looking at businesses that are have we have a gap where we have a gap at.

What what is that really?

So the what we did with the leakage is we put a pinpoint into the district.

I think we actually use the Commodore as kind of like the central point, and then they pull a radius out and they look at where money is being spent not in your district, which is sort of the opportunity for businesses inside of your district.

Where people are spending money in other cities or just yeah, okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

All right, yep.

And we can, yeah, we can share that.

Um economic development has it.

So it was yeah, it was done through um retail alliance and um our partnership with them.

Yeah, I think that would be good to know as we're waiting for a couple of tying together even the waterfront crawford development.

Yes.

Um, and lending that to what the future high street will look like with Main Street.

Um, I think that information will be good to see.

Sure.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Vice Mayor Moody, sure.

You have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh excellent presentation.

You know, a lot of times we hear about these things, but uh really see some of the economic uh feedback uh from the business owners.

That's that's that's great.

Sounds like they're energized uh uh with the program.

Uh a few things.

You mentioned signage.

Uh you know, as as y'all know when we went to Greenville, uh how the signage was uniform, you could look down the street and and see what type of business it was.

Uh is that something that that's gonna happen through Main Street.

I think there's different ways to incentivize that.

And one of the things we saw in Greenville is we you know, there were signage that was parallel along this the front, and then they had perpendicular signage that hung out, which is what really kind of caught your eye as you were walking around.

I think one is really aimed towards drivers and motorists, and not another driven towards people walking out the streets.

Um we're just starting to get our transformation strategies.

I think we we're kind of working in advance, right?

The lighting initiative was just something that we just were we were ready to go, and so we did.

Um, but so I think that it can definitely be part of future programming for us.

But yeah, so which brings me to what what phase would you say Main Street is in.

I know early on it was the planning and uh strategy.

And we're yep, we're still in that and in the accreditation stage.

So um it it's we're kind of confusing because we we got um pushed fast tracked a little bit.

So like the unlocking capital, we really shouldn't have been eligible for, honestly, because we're not at accredited Main Street, but um because of Bloom and some of the other pieces that we were doing in our lighting initiative um and already the relationships we had with the city, they went ahead and um let us apply for that and we actually got it, so which has been fantastic.

So yes, we're still in that planning phase and getting the accreditation phase, but we're also in a you know in a programmatic stage too, and the transformation strategy that they just gave us gives us lays out for the next like three years strategies as to what what you want to see improvements, how to get that done.

Um so yeah, I think the answer to your question is we would love to take on that signage piece and work with the city and see what we can do to make that happen.

Terrific and um the success of Bloom.

Uh obviously the goal is for the uh entrepreneurs there to go to the brick and mortar uh stage.

Uh how many have actually done that?

Yeah, that's a good question.

So because we've got over we've got over 200 entrepreneurs.

I know um we've had at least 20 come out of Bloom.

And um, so it's interesting because we're kind of a mix between an incubator space and a co-working space.

So we encourage, like we um we do wraparound services, we're giving education and encouraging people to grow, right?

But we also we don't force them out either.

So a true incubator, you get six months, you get a year, and then you're done.

You launch or fail.

Um we baby step a little bit more than that.

So we've got we've got some people who we're we're edging out, you know, and trying to get them, we're expanding offices, um, and they're starting to look.

Um, and so we help them along the way.

A lot of our entrepreneurs um again, 97% of them are minority or women-owned entrepreneurs, so they don't have access to a lot of the um capital that other entrepreneurs have.

Um, like when you go to the 757 collab when they're you know high growth um entrepreneurs, so they get access to capital that our entrepreneurs don't have, so they take a little bit longer.

Um but again, you know, we've had 20 over the last couple years, which is pretty successful to where they've gone in bricks and mortar or other just larger um larger office space.

So there is no set time.

There's not no and we honestly we've got some folks that are true co-working.

They work um for corporate America and they don't want to work from home, and so they come into our space, but they add a lot of value to our entrepreneurs because again, they have a different lens of business than our entrepreneurs do, so our entrepreneurs can learn from them.

So, yeah, we're definitely definitely a mix.

Um, and we we do not exail accelerator, we were trying to we try to accelerate people out, and our accelerator programs are clearly just a set um time, but as far as just co-working space and um they can stay as long as they want.

We've talked about possibly using incremental price increases to kind of get them to move along a little bit.

Um and also to nudge businesses up to paying market rent, yeah, right, just to kind of do that gently, like gently hand them off into the so that it's not such a jump because we are we are under we're way under market, and that's to reduce barriers of entry for businesses.

So that was part of our model, it's part of our grant platform, that is why we get grants, and that is why we can stay under market value.

And my last question uh uh I know the plans uh market streets gonna um help uh like the Churchland and the Quaddock is it uh can we expect anything there soon?

Well, I don't know about soon, no, and I you know, and again, I don't know whether and that's to be determined whether it would even be the partnership, right?

Like we're creating this framework, but I mean, in all honesty, it needs to be grassroot, right?

So if you know, if there's a community group in Churchland, let's say, or in Afton who you know is dedicated to that area, then we've kind of got the playbook for them, like okay, here's what you do.

Your organization starts this, and this is what you need, and here's the tools, and we can walk them through that and help guide them.

But whether that should be the partnership or that other organization, I think that depends on the area and what their needs are and what their strengths are.

We can, you know, that's the nice thing is we lend a hand and we can be their their guide to that.

Here's all the things you need, but we don't necessarily have to be in charge of that, right?

Like somebody else can do that that's any of those uh areas reached out uh uh not yet.

And and one thing I'll say too is you know, we've worked with Virginia Main Street to help define the the space of our district, the geography of our district, and have been very intentional about having a real focused and concentrated effort on a small space.

We can continue to grow our high street district as our organization grows in strength and resources, but we really want to be hyper focused and concentrated in these initial stages.

Okay, yeah, just so you can see the progress.

But that's also that's also their framework too, right?

Like, don't we that's why you know you don't start with the whole city, you start with you know, your biggest impact, your biggest economic impact, and that's usually that small business district, and then let other areas see the see the success and then feed them and help them have success too.

Very very good.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor.

Councilman.

Thank you for uh presenting really what we um I think dreamed about as we were riding the bus back from this to uh to take off the way it has.

So well done to you guys for for leading this effort.

Uh I'm gonna start with sharing some information to my colleagues, but it ties into uh to to the main street effort.

So this morning the PPIC voted to collaborate with money with the city and with American cruise lines to install some infrastructure into the downtown waterfront, with the goal being that we encourage American cruise lines to make Portsmouth a starting and endpoint right now, it's just a stop off point because a starting and end point means hotels and restaurants, uh and so um so so agreement today uh to set that in motion.

That's great.

Um you mentioned the uh the facility improvement grants that the EDA manages.

Uh I'll share that at the last EDA meeting during the grant brief, uh the EDA set aside $350,000 this year to make those grant investments.

That money was claimed halfway through the fiscal year.

So $350,000 to do facility improvements is already been consumed, and we got half a year left to go.

And and basically because of the demand signal, we're telling everybody that's continuing to submit grant applications, sorry, uh come back after the first of July.

So kind of going back to the Greenville discussion where they told us they wanted to invest in the people who have been there with them.

I think maybe we ought to have a discussion as we build the budget to take a look at is $350,000 the right amount of money to to set aside for that, particularly given the demand signal that we've seen.

And I don't know how much of that demand signal is tied to the work that you all are doing that are kind of creating some extra demand, but but if this is gonna go, w we need to make sure that that uh that we're encouraging with resources.

And I think those grant fundings are citywide, right?

Not old town specifically.

It is, yeah, absolutely.

So yeah, but it'd be interesting to know and maybe we can find out from uh Mr.

Donahue uh how much of that grant money went into the highest.

Oh, just so lighting order.

Oh we uh the high street quarter again and the lighting project was very little because those projects were small.

But what I will see is I think some of the I again as we're out talking to businesses and as we have business owners come in to bloom, we talk about that grant a lot because it is a great opportunity.

So that that has definitely had an influx and without a doubt, because we t we send people there a lot.

Um, especially through our accelerator programs when they're you're looking for money, they're talking about bricks and mortar.

Well, you know, this is why you should open in Portsmouth.

This is a great opportunity.

Right.

So I appreciated your your uh information regarding the low interest or no interest loan capital uh thing.

EDA has done a similar thing, and so I'm sitting there, uh I mean, this is the first I've heard that you all are doing that as well.

Uh and I'm left wondering.

So are we competing with each other or are we collaborating with each other?

Uh and how are we communicating to the small business community if if you go the EDA route and there's no money left in the in the pot to uh the partnership or vice versa.

And just to be clear, so we're not a lender, so we were working with Kiva, which is a program administered through bridging Virginia locally, and so it was just connecting folks to that.

Um but to your point, you know, we are interested not not with competing, but layering capital in in programs that are complementary and that that being a good thing for entrepreneurs.

Yeah, and we've talked about that with EDA, but yeah, no, we just educated, like so that our capital access was pure education.

But by going through the program and going through the application, they got you know, their application was looked at um ahead of some of other applications through Kiva and Bridging Virginia.

Yeah.

And just getting them lender ready, that was the other thing too.

There are just so many businesses that aren't that aren't lender ready, and so going through a program to say this is what you need, which also will help EDA because again, as we educate, they are getting a more sophisticated business out of it.

Okay.

And and my last comment has to do with the lighting project.

So awesome.

I mean, every every time I come downtown after dark now, it's remarkable to me the difference in how things are lit up, the lights are working, the place has uh brightened up quite a bit.

And I appreciate your comments around the investment on Dinwiddie.

So that's gonna help one little side street for parking.

We need to work on other side streets for parking.

So I'm thinking Washington Street and Middle Street in particular, and I think when we walked, we talked about lighting up the side of 206 High Street to brighten up that pathway back to the Middle Street garage, which is still pretty darn dark.

Yeah.

And so I don't know what where we stand on on that, but uh I think uh uh okay, so uh maybe we need as we're building the upcoming budget to uh to bump that up higher on the list of uh of to-dos um and in fact I've talked to the parking authority about uh uh maybe uh working with uh you to schedule an after-dark walk along some of those side streets back to our parking areas after the weather warms up a little bit, and with and getting Dominion down there with us so that we can figure out where else do we need to be uh working with Dominion to help light the place up because uh whatever we decide to do about parking on High Street, there ain't enough parking on High Street.

We gotta push parking off the main corridor, and the only way I think from the feedback of the businesses along High Street that that's gonna work is if we make those areas lit enough so that they feel safe enough so that people aren't gonna uh uh only park along High Street.

So anyway, thanks for the brief.

It's really good.

Absolutely.

Councilwoman Brent, I need to have the floor.

Thanks, Mayor, and thank you both.

It was a wonderful brief.

I'm really excited by the fact that like you said, we can take this template and apply it to other parts of the city.

And I think that that's something that's definitely down the road, but conversations that we should be having regularly to get other people across the city informed and maybe on board with this, it creates more ownership, certainly by having other groups take the same role, but for other parts of the city.

So that's that's really exciting because it becomes all of ours rather than just the downtown.

Um curious about your conversations with folks who own vacant buildings on high street, because that's certainly something that a lot of people are very eager to solve, and it's I'm sure very complicated.

So, what can you tell us about those conversations?

Yeah, well, one thing I'll say initially is the main street framework has been great and just starting to establish the connection.

So, like when you even try and figure out who a property owner is, it's owned by an LLC, and you're contacting your registered agent, and you're just kind of in this circle trying to even get a hold of someone.

Um, but through some of these initiatives, we've been able to offer some carrots into that, like, hey, we'd love to wrap the front of your building, we want to invest in your space, and that's really helped to open the doors to some conversations.

Um the other thing that we've noticed in having those kind of heart to heart with like, hey, you know, this has been sitting vacant for like a decade now, like what's the plan?

Um, there's a real emotional attachment that some of these business owners have to their space, they have a vision for where they want it to go, but for whatever reason have not been able to actualize on that.

And so um, you know, we showcase one that you know we're wrapping the front of.

We've seen plans that were drawn up a long time ago, working with them on some roof repair, like it's I think it's it's not gonna be a quick fix, and I don't think there's gonna be one path that works for all of those property owners.

It's really um individual trust building and and figuring out kind of what their end goal is and how how we can match that with our goals for the district.

Yeah, but also too, like Liz said, opening up conversation, but we can also have conversations that economic development can't have, right?

That y'all can't have like, hey, you know what, we're we're investing in other properties.

You need to do something with this, right?

This is not okay, and we don't think this is okay.

Um, and so but we do it gently, but um, you know, and a really good example, I think, is um is Jefferson, so the owner of the little soda shop, like right across from us on the 700 block of high street, like, oh my gosh, just want someone to take that building and redo it, right?

So he's in the retail catalyst program.

So that was through, you know, meeting them, conversation, um, talking about wraps, talking about lighting.

So again, like Liz said, that carrot for him to actually have conversations with us, and then we're like, okay, well, you've got a plan for that, so here's an avenue that can help you make this happen.

And so he's got real deadlines that um retail alliance is given him, so we'll see if he comes through about emptying that building.

It's a big old storage unit, emptying that out, um, creating you know, the front and um back into a store, and so we'll we'll see.

But we're encouraging him to do it.

I'll say too, is for for some of the most problematic businesses.

What we hear from other districts is they sort of get shamed into improving their buildings, right?

So when you start to see uh individual properties invest and really kind of tune things up, they get kind of shamed into being the problem on the block.

And so we're we're told that that also works.

Yeah, so we'll think so.

We're hoping, yes.

Thank you for playing that role.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's yeah, one of our biggest goals, vacancies.

Go ahead, uh, Councilman Tillers didn't uh councilwoman Thomas.

Thank you.

Um, so one thing I I hear a lot when I speak to people from outside the city.

Um they they comment on how nice and how beautiful and how surprised they are that old town is well, downtown Portsmouth is so nice, right?

Um so my common kind of pigbacks off of High Street Festival and having increased foot traffic.

Um is part of this main street of America, is there I know High Street obviously Hot Street Fest was obviously like a pilot thing we did that has now become uh hopefully an annual thing.

Is there things that we that maybe you all have thought about to maybe not on such a larger scale, but maybe something to do to activate people throughout the year, um, and then also maybe in some of like the common areas doing more activations with um art, um history, things like that to kind of get people just to to walk down high street and also along the the side streets.

Yeah, a hundred percent.

So those are the conversations that we're having with marketing, with tourism about just that, right?

Like High Street Fest is a shot in the arm, it's a one-day uh I I will say it probably has ripple effects, right?

We brought people into the city, they'd have really positive experience, they're more likely to come back again.

Um, and then just leaning into the data, right?

So we're looking at um where people are coming from, where they were before coming to us, where they went after, how long they stayed on high street, uh using those sort of metrics to inform the types of events, amenities, experiences, activities that we should be having on the street to keep them coming back more frequently.

So 100%.

Yeah, and then the nice thing is is like it's a monthly conversation, right?

Like, so in the main street meetings and all of those people are present.

Like, so what what else can we do?

Like you said, not always on a large scale, right?

Because it takes a lot to produce that, so we can't do that every week.

But what can we do?

Um, yeah.

Yeah, so I think one thing one thing I enjoy when I go out of towns to differ uh uh downtowns is you'll hear music or you'll hear uh you'll see art on the side of the street or um you know people just outside just enjoying the downtown.

They may not necessarily be shopping, but the downstairs I mean the downtown looking, which obviously hopefully will lead them to shop, right?

But no, like I say just getting people the presence there, I think is good.

Um of course on Saturdays with the farmers market.

I mean, that's always excellent.

Yeah, um, but you know, what do we do after that one o'clock time frame?

And then you know, we just know too, like, and then how do you attract them to stay?

So that's the biggest piece, right?

Like the farmers market's getting them there, but then we know from data they're leaving.

So what do we need to do to you know to keep them longer?

And that's one of those that's one of those data points.

Um, is to once you attract them to the district, how do you keep them there, and how do you get their length of um visit to be a little bit longer, a little bit longer?

And that's for visitors and residents, honestly, it's for both.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Thomas.

Yes, thank you.

Um I I wrote down what I wanted to ask you, then forgot.

But um, I'm gonna just go to go stay on that one point that councilwoman Bryant brought up.

Um, so I used to live in Alexandria, Virginia, and on the weekend to that point, going down to Old Town, Alexandria.

You might go to a farmer's market down there, you might eat, and then you're gonna stay because there's retailers, there's shops, there's antiques, there's a bunch of other stuff, there's spas to keep you in that area, right?

So Calcommander Bryant's point about the empty shop.

They mostly own those spaces, they own the buildings.

And some of them might not want to be landlords, so they don't have to lease those spaces if they don't have their own business that they want to see in there.

Are you getting some of that feedback too where they're just not comfortable even leasing the space?

If they don't have their own business ideas, that might be the folks that aren't responding to.

Yes, yeah, but the ones that we've talked to, like they have a vision.

Yeah.

So they bought that building and they've been holding on to it and they've got a vision for it, and there it's it's and it's it's trying it's to help them then realize their vision, right?

Like, okay, if this is what you want and this matches the leakage study, so what do we need to do to get you over the finished line?

What are your what pieces are you missing?

Go ahead, and so kind of to your point where I think maybe you're going with this is downtowns will use kind of that carrot and stick approach, right?

So you can incentivize things that you want folks to do, but also you know, perhaps leaving a space sitting vacant is also something that you you need that stick to to encourage behavior in that yeah, we're hoping like the municipality is looking at that too, like okay, you know, if we've got something that's vacant, so you know, what do you do on a tax basis?

What do you, you know, for the use and then putting in permitting and zoning to not allow it, right?

Like not allow you to just to use the storage storage unit.

But that would be on that's kind of where I would go.

And we're yeah, and that's we're hoping that's you know what the municipality will will do and step up as far as and again that's that's what Main Street's so good about, right?

Like so we're all talking together, and so here's the things we're doing.

What can you do as a municipality to make sure that these things happen and move forward?

Yeah, okay.

And then the other one, um the vacancy support events.

Oh, Ports Events, you said Ports Events is uh component of Portsmouth Partnership.

It's an affiliate, yes.

Okay.

But you partner with the city for Windows events.

We yes, yes, we did.

Like High Street Fest, yes.

So the other ones we did not.

So High Street Fest really is the first um the first event that we've actually pr like produced with the city.

We've come alongside and helped the city, like we worked Sunset Thursdays forever and did all the alcohol for Sunset Thursdays.

Um we helped produce a couple events.

Well, I shouldn't say that's the first one, because we actually helped Shagging on High, and there were a couple other bigger city events that we helped um produce.

But this was the this one the big one was the yes, that is the biggest partnership we've had with the city where the city really went in um all in with us.

And even maybe do more partnership with the city um to bring some of those kind of activations towards downtown.

So and then lastly, um the I wrote down here create neighborhood ambassadors and it uh to your point about bringing the concepts that are we're learning and um employing through the main street program to other areas in Portsmouth.

Um it that is great.

The the issue that I see with that is that other areas don't have a Portsmouth partnership.

Right.

And so um I don't know if we could do like a train the trainer or establishing like a group that kind of helps other organizations or partners in those other neighborhoods, establish maybe something like a force of partnership.

We have civic leads, but they don't act as a partnership.

They're not you know, you all are going out and getting grants and using data and really implementing this program, and we I I see some opportunities for us to bring it to other neighborhoods, but the infrastructure and the organization um I think is a piece that we would have to focus on as well.

But I like the the idea of taking those concepts to place another neighborhood.

Oh, yeah, we would definitely help with that, right?

And then if it and if it works for that locality too, let's like take Afton Square, for instance, and they don't have a partnership, right?

But want to lean into that relationship, then absolutely it's just we just don't want to go in and take over that right, like and hey, here here we are, and we're gonna do this for you.

It's more, hey, we want this as a community.

Can you help us get there?

So it's kind of a different way, you know, a different approach, right?

So um, but no, we'll you know, do anything we can to help other areas make sure that um they get what they want as well.

Thank you.

So look, um, right in line with what we talked about a long time ago.

We're we're we're Portsmouth is a city that moves you and we're moving in the right direction.

I just want to say that, you know, as the vision continues to unfold, this is exactly what we're doing.

When the Main Street folks came and we did the walkthrough and we did the tour, one of the things that the young lady was saying to me, who was with Main Street USA, she was like, Mayor, you guys have an amazing city, but you gotta create a little bit more of wayfinding, right?

Because people need to know where to go and how to do it.

I think what we have put together with the Main Street program with the partnership, this is what we've always envisioned.

A city working collaboratively with other stakeholders to bring about the desired result.

What we are all working toward is our downtown is everybody's neighborhood, right?

And so you just said that in putting this together, we're gonna take the model and we can drop this model in other communities.

I was talking to James Overton who lives in the Truxton area, and we were talking about this very thing.

We can take things that we've learned and engage with citizens in the community, like they've done in their community to create a community space.

Well, how about we open that a little bit more and bring people to work on housing opportunities and other opportunities?

That model can be expanded.

We are a hysteric historic maritime port, and we will be the festival city.

And it's because as we come together sharing with private sector and public sector, building those relationships, that's how we're gonna get to be the best freaking downtown in America.

That's what the goal is, but we've got to be intentional.

One of the things we talked about was the leakage study, right?

And in the leakage study, it indicated, and correct me if I'm wrong, there's an a potential.

You know, we just won lost one of our older restaurants in this in the downtown, which was a hub for people.

It was the reality is in a leakage study, it says we got room for about 12 more restaurants.

We do.

Well, see what we need to be doing as a team, we need to be huddling up and saying who who do we want to bring?

And they don't have to be big box places, they can be mom and pops.

I mean, Cafe Europa, a great opportunity.

People talk to me all about I wish Cafe Cafe Europa was back, but at the end of the day, we can bring back whatever we desire.

That's what we're we have our hands a hold of.

And with your partnership and with everybody working, uh, I'm just excited.

Uh I wake up every morning, and when I walk downtown, I can see the vision, I can see the stores opening up, I can see more density, I can see more pride.

And as we create more opportunities and we get stuff done, like that fountain is getting ready to get done.

That fountain will be a focal point.

People underestimate a little thing as a fountain, but when we get that fountain done and we uh invite the whole city out to celebrate that achievement, what is it gonna do?

It's gonna create a focal point, a destination, but it's also gonna say to Portsmouth, we're different, and that's what's going to drive us.

So thank you guys.

Keep up the great work.

We're ecstatic and uh we're glad to be partners.

Thank y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thank you, Liz.

Thank you, Michelle.

Uh, great ladies to work with.

Uh, find them easy to deal with and all the things that we do.

Um excited about October 10th.

Yeah.

That was a great event we had, and I'm I'm excited to do it again.

Four days, right?

The next festival will be four days.

The one before June will be right.

Yes, right.

Right.

That one will be, and then the other festival and right, and right now, one thing um that kind of came to my attention.

I'm not sure we've really thought about this.

Where you know, Main Street goes from uh water to Effingham, meat goes from chestnut to 264.

Uh what about chestnut to Ebbingham?

There's a block there.

It's kind of left out of the whole picture, you know what I mean.

So, as we're developing these things, we gotta make sure we get up and give that block a little bit of love, or we're we're gonna we're gonna miss an opportunity there.

So just keep that in mind as we as we press.

Amen.

Uh Mr.

Ben McFarland.

Uh, he is the chief resilience officer for HRPDC, and he's gonna talk to us about protecting communities through foot risk mitigate uh management planning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Well, good evening.

Um city council members, manager Carter.

Um, really appreciate the opportunity to come and talk to you today.

Uh really excited to hear about some of the economic resilience activities that are underway in the city today.

Or tonight be talking about some of the coastal resilience efforts that we have underway in the region.

Uh talk a bit about our regional coastal resiliency program that we have at the PDC, um, and then talk some more about coastal farmer's management studies partnerships with the Army Corps of Engineers, and then some opportunities we have working with the state to bring in uh new investments into the region.

So, for those of you who don't know much about the planning district commission, we're the regional planning agency for Southeastern Virginia.

We work with all the communities from Virginia Beach and the East all the way out west to Southampton County, James City County, and then up north to Gloucester County.

So we work with a diverse range of communities.

Portsmouth, obviously, one of our most important partners and really again excited to be here to talk to you and answer questions you may have about some of these efforts that we have underway here in the region.

So our program at the PDC is just one of the many different programs we have housing, economics, planning.

The one I work on, I'm working the water resource department there.

So coastal resiliency is part of that.

At the top of our program, we have our board, and I want to recognize Mary Glover, he's our board chairman.

Really appreciate his leadership and service, and also Manager Carter for being on our board as well and other members of the council over the years that have been part of that board and provided the guidance and leadership that we need at the staff level to help inform our work program and what we're what the priorities our localities have that then you know really make their way into our work program that tell us at the staff level what we're doing.

In addition to the board, which provides that high level oversight and also you know approval of our work program and our budget.

We have over the years had a designated coastal resilience subcommittee that's been comprised of elected officials from some of the cities and counties who have really tried to take to pay some special attention to some of these issues, mostly at the legislative state issues, uh federal level issues, but the bulk of our work is done through our coastal resiliency committee.

Um this is our committee, it's comprised of representatives at the staff level from all of our jurisdictions.

Uh want to highlight uh participation from Miss Russell and her staff and the planning department, also Mr.

Wright and Mr.

Bodner from the engineering department, a really instrumental partnership that we have and support from those staff and other localities from around the region that really helps to let us do uh what we can to then bring that assistance, that technical assistance back to localities and come and do presentations like this and bring information to you all so that you're better better equipped and better informed to make the kinds of decisions that you want to make every day for your community.

And then we have a designated staff.

Um, I as I mentioned, I'm in the water resources department.

Uh we have a few others that are part of our our resilience team.

Uh, Whitney Catchmark, she is our principal water resources engineer.

She is the lead of all the water resources department programs.

Again, I'm the chief resilience officer, and then we have Emma Corbett as well, who's a resilience planner.

Um this is the team.

This is who does the resilience work for the HRPDC.

We do uh sometimes share resources and we partner up with other departments.

Again, I mentioned the locality staff that we work with very frequently.

Uh but it's a it's a small team, but we're small but mighty.

Uh I think we you know we bring a lot of value to the region and to our individual localities as well.

Um at the what we do, uh we work on a variety of issues.

Uh we help develop policies so that you all have something to consider when thinking about how to become more resilient from a flooding and from climate change perspective.

We help coordinate efforts with our state and local and federal partners.

Uh in the past, we've done some specific work with the city of Portsmouth.

You may be familiar with a joint land use study that was completed several years ago.

We were the project manager for that because that was a joint effort between Portsmouth and Chesapeake.

We also coordinate an outreach campaign, a campaign at the regional level, getfloodfluent.org, trying to get people to buy flood insurance.

Um flood insurance is the best way that individuals can protect themselves and their property from the risks of flooding, and so that's been a key part of our program for several years now.

Um, and then also we have on occasion we have specific projects that we implement, and one I want to highlight right now just briefly is that we're in the process of installing roadway flooding sensors across the region.

There will be three.

We have 15 localities that opted into this that we're funded by a grant from the community flood preparedness fund.

Um and so Portsmouth, as well as the other cities and counties that are participating in that will be getting three of these sensors installed on some critical roadways in the city over the next several months, and those will be transmitting data live to Ways users, but also putting that information up online so that anybody can access that data, whether they're driving or whether they're they're not.

Um, but really excited about that regional program and something that we hope to expand.

Um Army Corps of Engineers, feasibility studies.

Um these are very and very important.

Um a feasibility study or a three by three by three study, as it is sometimes known, is how the Corps identifies water resources projects for construction.

Um the way this works is that you know you go through this federal process, and if you do that, that unlocks potential federal investment in this type of infrastructure.

And if you don't follow this process, you don't go through this process.

Uh that that source of funding is is walled off to you.

And so we're at the PDC real big cheerleaders of this program.

Uh we think it's a it's a great opportunity for our communities.

Um, that three by three by three, what that means is just it's the standard model.

I say standard, but it's it's there's all these models are made to be broken in some ways.

But at least the idea is that it takes three years to complete a study.

It's three million dollars total funding cap.

That's both the federal and the non-federal side of things, and it only has to go through three levels of core coordination.

So the district division and headquarters doesn't have to go above that to get approval.

Um, and as I mentioned, you know, the these studies are the first step on the pathway to getting that significant level of funding, and I say significant, I mean tens or hundreds of millions of dollars potentially for different flood risk management projects in the region.

So what these require is first off is authorization from Congress.

This is through a water resources development act, it's an act that's a uh passed every two years, uh hopefully by by Congress that identifies specific projects or specific areas that are eligible for these studies.

Once it gets authorization, there's a process to actually get put into the Corps' annual work program.

So that's another step that we have to take to get selected for the funding.

So just authorization doesn't guarantee anything that just kind of puts you in the in the queue, and then you get put into the work program once they actually find the money at the core level to pay for the study.

And then there's a commitment of matching funds from the non-federal sponsor, whether that's the state, whether that's a city, um, a planning district, um, that there are you know different levels, different opportunities or possibilities for who that non-federal sponsor might be.

Uh, but that commitment that's the last step.

Once the corps lines up the money, then there's a clock for how long it takes for that non-federal sponsor to also line up their share of the money before the study can move forward.

At the end of the day, what these studies produce is a chief's report.

There is a report that the Army, the Army Corps of Engineers, the chief of engineers submits to Congress, which says that these are the projects that we recommend that have that federal interest in why the Congress should allocate additional funding to pay for design and construction.

This is not a slow process or not a fast process.

Um, it's a you know, we're um when we talk about study authorization, you know, that's just step two of step 17 to get to the point where you're actually done with the construction and you're at the point where you're maintaining that infrastructure over time.

Um, there's a lot of work that goes into getting through this process, years in many cases to get from from step one, which is just identifying the problem, all the way to the end of the road where the non-federal sponsors takes over maintenance.

And so I'm not going to go through all of these.

Um, but I do want to highlight those those first five there are the ones where uh are involved in the feasibility study.

That's that first kind of batch of steps that it takes to get from where you identify your problem, your your risk, and why the federal government should care about your local water resources problem to the point where you actually have that final report, that then you can use that to set yourself up for funding for construction.

So the feasibility study process includes these main four steps here.

The first is scoping.

This is where you would meet with the core.

Um whichever district staff is working, you may think that we will only work with the Norfolk district here.

Um Norfolk District has been farmed out to other regions of the country to do work.

There's a possibility that we might get staff from other district to come in here as well, but it's likely that the Norfolk district would be our partner in this to work out with the locality and kind of what gets to go into that study.

And a lot of that is dependent on funding.

So I mentioned before that the three by three by three, there's a three million dollar cap.

Over the years, the corps has found that this model doesn't necessarily work as well.

Three million dollars does not go nearly as far as it used to.

Um, and so there are um options and opportunities to expand the scope beyond what that minimum three million dollars would require or would allow.

Um at the end of the day, though, that's the where that negotiation takes place between the non-federal sponsor and the core to align the amount of funding that's available with the desired items that you would want to include uh in your scope.

And once that's done, the core uh the district staff would proceed with the initial evaluation of the different things that you're including in the project.

You finish your alternatives milestone, that's the kind of comes up with the different suite of different types of projects or measures that you would undertake, um, and then move on once you uh complete that effort, then you move on to the tentatively selected milestone, which is what you you come up with this this plan that says this is what we think we're gonna do.

This is we've we've evaluated all the options, and now we're gonna pick this one and we're gonna proceed with that one.

Then that goes through an additional level of analysis with the core, the agency, the core makes a decision about like whether or not they're gonna proceed, they're gonna move forward with that, and then that results uh it goes through a review board process, and then that chief's report gets signed.

Uh so that's a long way of saying uh that this is a long and drawn-out process that involves a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of other resources by both the core and the non-federal sponsor, whoever that sponsor might be, and other partners to get to where you have that final report.

And why is this important?

Well, if without this study, without this report, you're not eligible to get construction funding from the Corps of Engineers through a water resource development act.

And that's I think what we're all after here.

That you know, we consider Hampton Roads to be critically important, not just to our localities and to the residents that live throughout the region, but also to the state and to the nation.

Obviously, uh, you know, it goes without saying here in Portsmouth that the military presence here in Hampton Roads is critical, is large, you know, that provides that that national kind of standing for why we as a region are important and why we we deserve to have these these resources allocated to us, but we do have to go through these steps first.

And you know, we think about I guess how much money are we actually talking about here?

Um FY 2022, I think we all remember IIJA, a lot of big funding that came through from Congress, that one time funding source.

So that one's the outlier here.

But on average, for flood risk or coastal storm risk management projects, the construction of funding on a yearly basis totals approximately half a billion to 700 million dollars per year for that.

That's for the whole nation.

But that's like every year there's that much money that the Corps is spending on these types of projects.

That this is the kind of these studies line you up to potentially get a share of that amount of funding one day.

It's a long time coming.

So where are we?

Well, in Virginia, um apologize for the blurry graph there.

Uh the good news is that we actually have um we previously worked with the Norfolk district several years ago uh to get authorization uh for coastal Virginia to have these types of studies uh included in the Water Resource Development Act.

I want to say it was the FY, the uh 2018 word that we put that into.

And so that was you know a big step.

Instead of each locality having to go and work with its partners and its delegation to go through Congress and get individual authorization, that we got authorization for all of Coastal Virginia, which tease up these studies to be done for anybody in in Virginia that can really get into the work plan, which is the next kind of step, right?

It's the authorization again is one thing, getting in that work plan is another thing entirely.

Um Hampton actually, this is you know, just want to update here that they Hampton and Virginia Beach are both in the process of completing feasibility studies.

Um the Hampton study also includes part of a cousin.

I'm gonna get into a little bit more detail about that project here in a bit.

Um a little bit of a cautionary tale.

Um and really, I think you know, for all of us, you know, we know you know obviously the Norfolk project probably gets the most press.

It's the furthest along, they're in the middle of the the world, they're they're in technically in construction right now, but they're really they're at the very very beginning of that process, still designing some of the phases of that project.

Um, and then Virginia Beach is also in completing a feasibility study as well.

Um, I would say, you know, just before I get into the details on any of those projects, this has been a learning experience for all of us here in Hampton Roads.

Um, you know, Norfolk may have been the the first uh city to proceed with one of these, these feasibility studies.

Um, but you know, they're all kind of it this is a challenging process for the best equipped communities.

Um it has been, I think, for us here at the PDC, you know, to see how each of these cities has proceeded, but we're learning new things from each one.

And I hope by the time we get to the you know, the final study that we might be able to do for Hampton Roads, that we'll have this down and we won't run into any more hiccups or any more challenges.

I I'm doubtful that that will occur, but um, but the good news is that for communities that aren't already on this list, um, that there's an opportunity to learn from the experience of those other communities, and I think that puts the rest of Hampton Roads into a good spot when it comes to potentially getting one of these studies done for their communities.

So I mentioned the Norfolk Coastal Storm Risk Management Study.

This was the first one.

Um authorization, this this study um it's interesting.

So after Hurricane Sandy hit the New York City, New Jersey area in 2012, uh Congress passed legislation that led to the North Atlantic Coast comprehensive study.

This was a large scale, so the North Atlantic, so everything from the Virginia North Carolina border all the way up to Maine, uh, that directed the Corps to study that area and identify uh measures that the Corps could take to reduce flood risk from coastal storms throughout that area.

And as part of that study, uh the city of Norfolk was identified as one of nine focus areas for additional future study.

Um, and so what that does is that you know, for for us, you know, it it will for the rest of the region when we hear you know, questions like why is the Norfolk project not a regional project, or why is the virgin why are these studies not being done regionally?

Well, two regions, one two reasons, excuse me.

One is that uh the legislation specifically said City of Norfolk, right?

And when Congress says City of Norfolk, Congress means the city of Norfolk.

And that's unfortunate for us.

I and I think you know, in hindsight, having a broader authority may have been more helpful to other communities as well to look at the this challenge regionally and not just focusing on those city boundaries.

Um but you know, we can't go back and change that decision.

So now so Norfolk there, the city of Norfolk is is proceeding with this study.

Um the this study includes a number of different types of uh measures that they're looking at.

So the structural measures, things like flood walls, uh, but also non structural measures like raising homes or filling in basements, and then also uh natural based features as well.

So things like living shorelines, uh wetlands protection, things like that.

So it really is a comprehensive storm risk, uh, coastal storm risk management study.

Um I will say I want to highlight here that the the when they've finalized that study, the estimated cost for the total for total implementation was 1.4 billion dollars.

That includes both the core share, which is 65%, and the city's share, which is 35%.

Um since then the cost has gone up to 2.6 billion dollars, and it's likely to rise even more as we as these things take quite a bit of time to complete, costs are going up.

We all experienced the shock and construction costs uh that happened post-COVID, those costs aren't going down anytime soon.

So the these six these studies and implementation for these studies is only going to get more expensive over time.

Um I don't want to get into too much detail with this project right now.

I can try to answer questions if you have some later, but I do want to just highlight that this these are long-term efforts.

So the study itself may take only three years and may take a few more years than that.

Final construction for the project for the Norfolk project isn't going to be done until 2040, probably at the earliest.

Um, and it may extend even longer than that.

So these things just they take a long time to get through.

So that's why it's important for us to invest in these studies so that we can get in the line to get the funding to get construction to get that ball rolling.

Because the sooner we can get that started, then the the sooner we'll finish eventually, right?

So as long as we we can get in the queues, we can get you know in line for this kind of funding and these resources, that eventually we may actually get there.

So the Virginia Beach study, this is one is uh is is more recent.

Um this was highlighted was authorized by uh that legislation that that we helped get language into the uh the word of so the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, um the the Water Resource Development Acts, they they changed their name every other year.

Um this one is focused on coastal storm risks as well.

Uh the city of Virginia Beach is the non-federal sponsor, however, uh the scoping for this study allowed for them to look outside the city boundaries to factor in impacts to but also impacts from areas that are outside just right outside of the city boundaries, right?

Also into North Carolina as well, um, but also mostly into uh Norfolk and Chesapeake.

And so first example of a study using that authorization language that we helped draft.

I want to highlight here.

Um, this is an example here where the study was was much larger than this the typical model, right?

So instead of it being a three by three by three, it's really a six by thirteen point five by four, I think at this point, right?

That yeah, it it broke the mold for the these uh three by three by three studies, and that's I think something that is probably going to become more and more common as these costs balloon.

Um this study is underway right now.

Uh they're working towards getting their tentatively selected plan, uh, but the idea is that they would have uh Chief's report done by the spring of 2028.

So again, they've been working on this study for several years now already already, still lots of work to go.

Uh the peninsula study, so this one is it's called the Peninsula Coastal Storm Risk Management Study.

The non-federal sponsor is Hampton.

Um challenge I'll highlight here.

Um, you know, as I mentioned with Virginia Beach that they relied on the authorization language that we helped draft from that 2018 WERTA.

There was some changes in staffing at the core at the headquarters and district level or um and division level for the North Atlantic Division.

And so there was a change in interpretation of some language in that Worta, and so instead of this study using that language that we helped draft, it was intended to be very broad language, they went back to an old 1950s authorization that just highlighted coastal storms.

I do not know the reason why that took place, only that it did.

It was a we found it was very disappointing uh to us that um that this occurred, and I think you know, if in future studies we would want um to kind of to push to have a more broad authorization uh so that our communities could take advantage of different types of of resources from the core and not just focus on coastal storms.

And I think one reason for that is because we're starting to experience more and more rainfall events combined with the coastal storm event, and the coastal storm authorization doesn't really allow for us to factor both of those things in together.

And so that's a challenge with this particular study.

Um they also ran into some hiccups with their funding.

So the funding source for this particular study, you may notice that it's a federal cost of three million dollars, there's no local money.

There was some funding that they identified in the disaster uh recovery act of 2019, I think, that the Corps had.

Um I can get back to you with that exact information.

Uh but the way that legislation was written, it said that the Corps could spend the money, it did not authorize a non-federal sponsor to add resources to it.

And so right now there's a severe funding limitation for this and also uh a severe and therefore a severe limitation on the scope of what this project is.

And so instead of it being the very broad peninsula wide study that we were all hoping for, it has only focused on part of Hampton and part of Pecostan, and it's focused right now solely on non-structural measures.

And so that's I think Ben, you know, it's a it's a disappointment, I think, you know, to us at the PDC that we have been limited, or this study has been limited in such a way.

And I think you know, the reason why I highlight those things about these studies is that the language in these these measures, it really does matter.

How what the authorization is, where the funding is coming from, who the sponsor is, the these details really matter, and so for other communities that are interested in participating or or working with the core to get one of these studies on board that working out some of these kinks ahead of time, working out that precise language that they need is critical to making sure that you get the project that you want.

Um so moving on, just a couple more things here.

I want to highlight one is this the community flood preparedness fund.

This isn't if you're not aware of this, this is a state program uh created by the General Assembly back in 2020.

Um it was originally established along with the legislation that moved Virginia into the regional greenhouse gas initiative and helped it.

So that legislation allocated 45% of the proceeds from those auctions uh to the CFPF, provided funding for localities to deal with flood protection issues.

So this is a really exciting program.

Virginia is currently no longer in the regional greenhouse gas initiative.

We withdrew at the end of 2023.

But there's currently legislation that is working its way through the General Assembly to put Virginia back in to the C to Reggie, which would then bring that funding back into the CFPF.

And that's really exciting for us because this is a huge contributor.

This is really the biggest program in Virginia for at the state level to provide funding for localities that want to do flood protection projects.

Um this is just here just shows the amount of the the rate, the the price per auction and how that's gone up with over the years.

The light blue there on the right side, those are the auctions that Virginia missed out on because we had exited Reggie.

Um but the uh fiscal impact statement from the General Assembly estimated that you know, if Virginia rejoins and we just use some of the averages from the amount of money in terms of the the number of credits, but also the average uh amount for these different auctions that have been held recently.

That's another 460 million dollars coming into Virginia every year, and a little less than half of that would be going into the community flood preparedness fund.

So that's really exciting to see that another 200 or so million dollars a year of funding going into the CFPF available to localities uh to take advantage of to fund the studies, plans, and projects at the local level.

Um couple things about it.

One is that you know, the at least 25% of that of the money that's spent every year has to go to low-income areas.

Um, and priority is also given uh to community scale hazard mitigation activities.

And then in order to qualify for project funding, your community has to have an approved uh resilience plan.

And Portsmouth does have an approved plan.

So good for the city.

Um does TU up to get some funding there.

Uh I mentioned you know, the the CFPF, you can use it for different types of things, capacity building and planning work, technical studies like HH studies or other modeling work, gathering data for flooding.

You know, one of the things that we've seen over the years is that having good data is critical to doing these projects well, and then again, project money as well, uh, which is the the you know the most exciting thing I think we like to see is these projects being designed and then built uh to help protect our communities from flooding.

And Hampton Roads has really really benefited from this over the years.

I I think um I won't say we're getting more than we deserve.

I think we're getting less than you know, we should be getting all of it, but you know, we're um the region is really doing well and has taken advantage of this program, and I think that's gonna continue to happen.

Um that just over the six rounds that have been awarded so far uh that the region has brought in over a hundred million dollars of funding through grants and loans.

Um Portsmouth has been uh a recipient of some of those.

So I just want to highlight here not to make you like look like that you're not taking advantage of this program because you are, and those are two very large grants that the city was able to get for those two activities there.

Um but a few of our communities have really taken this to heart, and I think you know, when when I I see this, and I think I want all of my communities, all of our communities at the PDC to have a list as long as Hamptons on a slide like this.

Hampton is really going just all out with a CFP of taking advantage of it.

Norfolk the same.

Uh Newport News has done some great work.

Virginia Beach is doing you know great work getting these grants in to do design, construction, um, and some planning work as well.

Chesapeake, I think Portsmouth is well suited to also taking advantage of this program.

Um and I think you know, there's some of the data work that's been done, the planning work, um, but the approved resilience plan is something that really sets up Portsmouth to do well in applying for future funding, and we anticipate so there will be another round of funding open uh opening up later this year.

So grant round six was just announced uh in January, the recipients there, um, but typically they've done about one round per year.

And then the last thing I want to highlight here is that you know, it's Mary Glever, you know, and uh manager Carter through participating on our board, you know, every year the the PDC adopts a regional legislative agenda.

Uh we don't lobby, but we do kind of put out that the region as a whole supports a certain number of initiatives and and and measures.

Uh I want to highlight here um a pro we are advocating for a a state program that would provide assistance for these non-federal or for federal projects.

So right now the the local or the non-federal share for a core project is 35%.

Uh we would like the state to step up and help to uh reduce those costs for localities that are taking part, um, so to create a separate source of funding that would be out so localities that are participating in these core projects would be able to take advantage um and and not have as much of the impact or the uh the burden fall on those individual communities.

Um continuing to fund and and really increasing the amount of funding for the community fed preparedness fund again.

That's been a key plank of ours for several years now.

And then the adoption or the creation of this new uh what we're calling regional infrastructure and readiness framework uh that we think um if it passes to the General Assembly and hopefully they allocate some funding as well to help the region do this work to come up with a process to to help to uh rank and prioritize resilience projects so that we have something similar to what we do with the long-range transportation plan at the MPO, the TPO, um, that would allow us to uh really go in and and make the case for additional state investments or state enabling legislation for regional investments in resilience infrastructure um uh you know across the region.

Uh so that that's all I have.

I'd be happy to answer other questions you may have, and if I if I don't have the answers for you, I'd be happy to help direct you where you need to go.

But thank you, Mr.

McFarlane.

It we really appreciate it, and thank you and your team.

You guys do amazing work.

Is the largest construction project in in the United States?

Is that correct?

So if it's not, it's it's it's up to it.

Pretty close.

But the the price tag on the new HRBT was three to four billion dollars.

Is that correct?

Somewhere around there.

It was, I think.

I don't know, Greg, how how what's that?

Okay, help me out.

3.8 billion.

3.8, three to four billion.

So that's just to kind of wrap your head around what kind of dollars this kind of infrastructure takes.

So councilman Tilly, sir, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, so I have more of a statement, more of a statement than a question.

Um, so in 2025, um, the general I was appointed by the general assembly to serve on the um joint commission also the joint subcommittee on recurrent flooding.

And one of the uh bills that we were looking at proposing was to enhance the community fund uh community flooding fund.

And so I know Senator Williams Graves, she has a bill that is in the house now for the um for deferring interest on projects that are related to uh resiliency.

And so um I was looking at this list and um seeing you know the list of projects that we that are across the region.

And um I know we have a plan for resiliency um in Portsmouth, but to really identify these projects um and get them out here uh because attending these subcommittee meetings in Richmond, uh when I tell you our sister cities are like vultures on these projects.

Um pretty much the I don't want to name no names, but I will the city of Norfolk and Virginia Beach are swallowing these projects up left and right.

Um so for us to be able to be proactive and identifying these projects and get funding is very essential because the dollars that they were talking about adding for this year um in the budget is pretty much Norfolk and Virginia Beach have already tried to claim it, and so we really need to get on the ball on identifying these as soon as possible.

Yeah, good point.

Councilman Thomas, ma'am, you have the floor.

Thank you.

I just wanted to follow up.

So Councilman Tillich, can you share who like who do they have grant writers there?

What like who do they who do those cities have as well?

So example the city of Norfolk, they they have a department that's dedicated to resiliency to resiliency, okay.

Um Councilman Dotson, I'm just gonna he wanted to throw this out, but he had to step out for us that he asked me to mention it, but it's right in line with that.

Um regarding our need for your point a resiliency department, specialized grant writer, something to focus specifically on stepping our game up essentially to grab some of these projects and funding.

So that was something he wanted to put out there as a a takeaway as well.

Anybody else?

Well, I did have a question.

You know, looking at the list that you shared, Mr.

McFarland, um, it appears that that that we're not assertive and and and aggressive at obtaining dollars.

Um, but uh I know I can talk to the manager about this.

What do you think based on what you see coming that Portsmouth can do to be more competitive for these grants and opportunities?

Is is it a part of being competitive and putting forth your best information and your story?

So I I think that's that's a great question.

Um I would say I I think there are uh a number of of projects that have been identified in Portsmouth that would be competitive.

I think one of the challenges that we see um with several of our communities is is capacity.

I think that comes up that having the the capacity to put together the grant proposals to manage the grants, the physical responsibility to to file the reports with the DCR and to just kind of do all the the little things that it takes to actually get a grant from application development to close out and actually have a project built.

Um, you know, that's a challenge for for all of our communities.

And I I think you know, certain communities, um, you know, Norfolk and Hampton in particular have made it a priority to invest in they have resilient staff that that help put together these proposals.

Um that's I don't think that's necessary for every community to do that.

It's the kind of decision that's best made each community on its own.

Um but I think in term in terms of the types of applications that we see that are competitive, I mentioned you know, community scale, so if it has a large enough impact, right?

So not just one parcel, but something that maybe a road corridor, and I know the city has been successful in getting some DOD funding through the defense community infrastructure program, for example.

Um which not every community is eligible for that, but Portsmouth is, for example.

Um, but also um projects that have some sort of natural component, uh living shorelines, welllands restoration, other pro uh projects or or components such as that.

Um and then also you know, there's so there are I think some real opportunities in Portsmouth.

I think the you know the question is um, and I think this would apply to really anything, is that you know, where is it in the city's overall uh list of priorities, right?

And so, you know, I would never you know call out one of my communities for not applying to this because it's not my place to judge.

Um but the opportunity is there, and this is a statewide program, so it's not just Hampton Roads, really we are as a region doing very well with this, but other regions are starting to catch up, and so but the opportunity is still there, and I think with this additional funding that we see coming through, um, hopefully uh that we'll be getting additional funding, whatever the source uh for this fund, um, you know, in this year and also in in future years, uh, that the resources will be there to bring even more projects to Hampton Roads, uh, regardless of you know where in the region they are.

But I think for Portsmouth is as well suited.

There are a number of I think metrics in Portsmouth that uh would make you very competitive with certain types of projects.

That's what we needed to hear.

Um Councilwoman Bryan and then Councilman Hugo.

Thank you, Mr.

Rock Farlin.

I'm not sure if this is the right timing to ask this question, but you mentioned the Norfolk project, which is a huge project, and that gets kicked around in conversation on our side pretty frequently.

So can you give us some just basic updates and maybe inform us where we stand on how that project might impact us or even what it might look like to us on this side of the river?

That's it.

It's a great question.

Um and where they are right now.

So I will just I would like to, I guess, preface this by saying I think that a full brief on that project would probably be better to come from from Norfolk and then the core.

If so, and I think that we would be happy to help facilitate a conversation like that.

Um, based on our conversations with both the city and with the core.

Um they're right now they're in the middle of uh design, they're doing some initial kind of prep work for construction on part of the flood wall.

So that's that first phase of the uh of the kind of the phase one of the project is been broken up into several kind of sub phases.

So they're working on getting to the point where they're gonna start putting things in the ground.

The strategy there involves mostly a number of it's uh you know, flood walls, some berms and levees, um, and also some some sorts excuse me, storm surge gates across water bodies.

Um the you know, if you're if you're asking about whether or not there will be impacts to flooding in Portsmouth based on what you're seeing across the river, the short answer to that is not likely too many impacts, if any.

Now that's they determined that during that process what they I can't say now is that they're in the middle of updating some of the models that they're using to actually inform the design of that project.

And so the US Army Corps of Engineers, their engineering research and design center or development center um they are updating the the storm surf models that are used so when they actually calculate like when they determine how the water moves during a coastal storm event there's some very sophisticated models that they use for that.

They use those models in the initial uh feasibility study they're updating them to actually make them higher resolution so they'll be better so they'll be able to actually model not just kind of how uh the water moves around but also impacts to water quality um and so when they complete that work they'll be able to give us a much better determination on what if any impacts there might be outside of the city.

When when would that be it's supposed to be later this year.

I don't have an idea of of exactly when that is that that deadline is somewhat shifting but they anticipate having it the latest I've heard is sometime around uh you know Q late Q2, Q3 of this year is when they might have something together and we can try to get an a a closer date on that um for you but I think it's it's a to be honest it's a little bit of a moving target.

And so if those models reveal something that would significantly impact Portsmouth what what happens?

So I would say um that's that's a question better for the Corps um that there would be some responsibility there to mitigate whatever those impacts might be.

And I think if if they were found to be they can't just put us underwater.

No no they I don't I don't believe they can.

No I mean you gotta ask the question right CJ's in the back there and he's shaking his head so we're they they cannot just put us on you put you under the water.

I think you know one thing to keep in mind is that the amount of water we're talking about a very large Atlantic ocean that's putting water into the already the large Chesapeake Bay into the somewhat smaller Elizabeth River and then all of that water whatever water is displaced by the flood wall in Norfolk is a is a drop in the bucket compared to all of the water that we're really talking about right.

It's not just gonna go from Norfolk over to Portsmouth that that water is going to get dispersed throughout the watershed and so you know we're talking you know it may look like a lot of water when you just look at the city of Norfolk but when you spread that water around it doesn't end up being all that much in terms of additional higher elevation for the water.

So understood and thank you for that and we will certainly follow up on our side.

What about the aesthetics of it?

We're about to develop our waterfront and we have this fabulous view is it it's kind of hard to wrap your mind around what this will look like from our side.

Understood um I don't uh that's a great question.

I don't know if they've finalized the designs to the point where you would get an understanding of kind of what it would look like.

It's a much better question for the city and for the core.

I would say I think that the questions about aesthetics for these flood protection structures wherever they are touchy subjects right and so what people see and I think that get needs to be balanced against what the value is that that you or your neighbors are getting from these structures wherever they are right so Portsmouth has us there's a seawall here right we have some experience with seawalls in the region and the impacts they have on local aesthetics and what people see in their community but then again for certain areas those are the best way to protect against flooding and so it's that's that there's that balance and so I think you know in the city are the over there in Norfolk they they do appreciate that argument right they're gonna be seeing it as well.

So I think uh you know that kind of balancing that desire to protect ourselves from flooding with the desire to to maintain a community that that looks good that we are all proud to live in and that to live in and walk around and be in from an aesthetic perspective I that's that is a key thing that that residents and leaders are discussing, need to discuss further um but in terms of specifics about what it's going to look like I don't have the answer for you right now.

They are working on updating their renderings so and I know the city has produced some new ones over the last several months whether they have the level of detail to really answer your questions I don't know.

But again I think they'd be um unfortunately that so their city council also meets on Tuesdays.

And so uh but you know if if it would be of assistance I think we would be happy to try to help facilitate having the resilient staff from Norfolk come and talk to you about that project.

I can't obviously promise to have Norfolk Human do anything, but I will certainly ask.

Uh when it comes to that.

Um, there's really no guarantees on on when you might be able to get in that line to be what they call a new start.

So there are congressionally mandated limits on the number of new starts for these types of projects.

I believe the limit is 10 per year right now, and that's nationwide.

So it's very challenging unless there's some sort of special circumstance to get any new project on that list.

Um but the first step is to really to have that conversation with the district staff um to begin putting that proposal together.

And so then this so we would propose some kind of broad scope and then there would be what when we finally get the go button, then the scope gets refined.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Really appreciate you.

Thank you for having me.

If you find a couple billion laying around for resiliency, just send it to Portsmouth.

That's what that beat.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our public work session.

We do have a need to go into closed session.

And with that, um Vice Mayor Moody, would you please read the closed session motion?

Move to go into a closed meeting pursuant to Virginia Code subsection 2.2-3711 A1 for the purpose of discussion, uh the city manager regarding a personnel matter.

Second.

We have a motion and a second, madam clerk.

Would you please call the role?

Yes, sir, Miss Bryant.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Mayor Glever.

Yes.

We are in closed session.