Virginia Beach City Council Special Formal Session – February 25, 2026
Virginia Beach City Council Special Formal Session – February 25, 2026
The Virginia Beach City Council convened a special formal session on February 25, 2026 (called to order on February 24, 2026) to receive briefings on the state legislative agenda, projected real estate assessments for fiscal year 2027, the Imagine VB 2040 Comprehensive Plan update, proposed Smart Scale transportation grant applications, and upcoming planning commission items. The meeting also included a closed session for property and personnel matters.
Consent Calendar
- No consent calendar items were voted on during the open session. Several planning items were recommended for approval by the Planning Commission on consent, including a street closure, a conditional use permit for a bulk storage yard, and multiple short-term rental and tattoo parlor requests.
Public Comments & Testimony
- During the briefing on pending planning items (March 17 agenda), staff reported receiving public comments on several items. For the Euclid Road conditional rezoning (4916 Euclid Rd), staff received 26 letters of opposition and 2 letters of support, with 2 speakers opposing at the Planning Commission hearing citing incompatibility and traffic concerns. For the Greenwell Road multifamily development, two letters of opposition and two neutral speakers were noted. For the Westneck development (Signature Drive), 278 letters of opposition and 173 letters of support were received, with 22 speakers in opposition and 23 in support at the Planning Commission hearing. No members of the public spoke directly during the council briefing.
Discussion Items
- Legislative Affairs Briefing (Brent McKenzie, Director of Legislative Affairs): McKenzie provided an update on the status of Virginia Beach’s legislative agenda items and the state budget released by each chamber. He noted that the EMS funding legislation (HB 390) passed the House 98-0 and Senate Transportation 15-0 but was re-referred to Finance. Dominion Energy plans to present a pilot program to the SCC for spot-marking utility markings at the Oceanfront (March 3). The House budget includes $5M for Atlantic Park (developer request), $2M for cancer screening, $500,000 for historic Nemo Church, $500,000 for YMCA daycare partnership, $2M for menhaden research, $2M for solar interconnection grants, $1M for sports tourism, and $150,000 for emergency management study. The Senate budget includes $2.5M for sports tourism, $43.5M for stormwater fund, $19M for transit capital, and $340.5M for HRSD treatment plant. Both budgets propose 2-3% teacher raises, school construction grants, and investments in childcare and housing. Conference committees will resolve differences.
- Real Estate Assessment Projections (Sue Cunningham, Real Estate Assessor): Cunningham reported that total assessed value for FY2027 is projected at just over $92 billion, a 6% increase from last year. At the current tax rate of $0.97 per $100, this would generate approximately $896 million in property tax revenue (each penny yields $9.2M). Residential property accounts for 95% of parcels and 78% of value. Industrial values rose 22% due to new construction (Amazon distribution center, Atlantic Park). Median residential appreciation was 5.23%. New construction value reached $719M, with 69% of new units being apartments. The number of new units built (1,000) was down 159 from last year. No new homes were built under $250,000. The land use program covers 32,000 acres with a deferred tax of $2.4M. Senior tax relief increased 5.8%, disabled veteran tax relief increased 27% with 1,321 new participants. Assessment notices will be mailed February 27.
- Imagine VB 2040 Comprehensive Plan Update (Kathy Moore and Hank Morrison, Planning Department): The plan is a guidance document with seven chapters covering citywide goals, context areas (coastal, inland, green line, rural), and place types. Community engagement included over 9,000 survey responses, 10 focus groups, 12 public meetings, and 8 Planning Commission workshops. Key themes: balance between protecting neighborhoods and allowing infill/redevelopment, maintaining the green line, sustainability, and multimodal transportation. The plan designates 40 centers (regional, city, local) and corridors. A zoning code update is recommended. Several council members expressed concerns about the renamed “green line context area,” preferring “courthouse context area” to reflect the diversity of uses. Staff was directed to ask the Planning Commission to consider the name change. Council also emphasized the need for adequate public hearings before final adoption.
- Smart Scale Round Seven Transportation Grant Applications (Stanley Smith, Engineering Support Administrator): Smith presented five projects recommended for pre-application by April 1: Alaskan Road Phase 3 (widen to six lanes, Republic to Phillips Ave, $55M total, requesting $23.5M), Lynnhaven Parkway at Potters Rd/I-264 (realignment and turn lanes, low-cost, coordination with VDOT), Pacific Avenue at 22nd Street (left-turn lane for Interstate access, $20M total, requesting $10M with $8.5M local match), Thalia Creek I-264 Pedestrian Bridge (connecting Town Center to Mt. Trashmore, $42.5M total, requesting full amount), and Virginia Beach Trail Phase 3 (2.3-mile shared use path, $30M total, requesting full amount). Staff noted that local match improves competitiveness. Council expressed strong support, particularly for the pedestrian bridge, and discussed potential letters of support. Final applications are due August 1 with awards expected January 2027.
- Pending Planning Items Preview (Miss Alcock, Planning Department): Alcock previewed items for the March 17 and March 24 council meetings. Key items included a conditional rezoning for 4916 Euclid Rd (proposed three multifamily units, staff recommended denial, PC approved 8-3), a conditional rezoning for Greenwell Road (six-unit multifamily, PC approved 11-0), and a modification of proffers and conditional rezoning for the Preserve at Westneck (143 homes on 203 acres, staff recommended denial due to density/open space, PC approved 7-3 with one abstention; 278 letters of opposition received). Other items included tattoo parlors, short-term rentals, and a family daycare. The Westneck item was deferred to a special meeting on March 24 at 5:00 PM.
Key Outcomes
- Direction on Comprehensive Plan Name: Council asked staff to request the Planning Commission to change the “green line context area” back to “courthouse context area” before final adoption.
- Smart Scale Support: Council indicated support for all five proposed Smart Scale projects and will consider resolutions of support in June. Encouragement was given to explore additional matching funds for the Thalia Creek pedestrian bridge.
- Special Meeting Scheduled: A special formal session for the Westneck development public hearing and vote was set for March 24, 2026 at 5:00 PM (following the informal workshop) to allow adequate time for public testimony.
- Closed Session: Council voted 9-0 to recess into closed session for discussions on publicly held property, public contracts (Project Pelican), and personnel matters (council appointees, sports commissions, etc.). The session was certified upon return.
- Other: The mayor noted that Virginia Beach was named the safest beach community in the nation. A moment of silence was held for fallen officers. Councilmember Amelia Ross Hammond was recognized for her Black History Month guidebook featured in USA Today.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome everybody. How are we all doing today? And we are ready to go to get things started in accordance with Virginia Beach City Code. 21 and by the authorities vested in me as mayor of the city of Virginia Beach. I hereby call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council. A Tuesday, February 24th. 2401 courthouse drive. We got a long address. The purpose of the special uh session is to allow the city council follow regularly schedule formal session as listed in the attached agenda to convene into a closed session to consider the following matters. Publicly held property. Task force and appointees. At the conclusion of the closed session, the city council will convene into an open session for the purpose of certifying the closed session. The special formal session will be broadcast on uh table TV, Virginia Beach.com and Facebook Lives your Bobby Dyer. Okay. And we're ready to go. All right. So Mr. Mayor, members of the council, the first presentation will be given by Brent McKenzie, Director of Legislative Affairs. He's in Richmond. He's gonna give City Council overview of the General Assembly's actions and where we are in that process. So Brent, go ahead. The floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. City Manager. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of city council. Um today's uh briefing is gonna cover um status of our legislative agenda items, uh update on the budget that was released on Sunday by each chamber, and then we'll give you just a quick overview of some of the where some of the legislation is post-crossover that we are still working on and keeping an eye on. Um so that's what we'll kind of cover today. So on our legislative agenda items, uh hasn't been a ton of movement since last week. As you all remember, uh, most of our legislation was had action taken on it prior to crossover, but since crossover, we have seen a couple of items. Um, our EMS four for life funding legislation uh had passed the House 98 to zero and was sent to the Senate. It was heard in Senate transportation earlier this week and passed 15 to zero, but they re-referred it to finance. We were trying to keep that from happening. It doesn't um doesn't increase funding, it just changes how the funding is spent. But any time legislation goes to the finance committee, it gets a little dicey, and so we were hoping that wasn't gonna happen, but um it followed it followed the same pattern as the Senate version of this legislation did. So we've got some uh some additional work to do on that piece of legislation. Uh later this afternoon, HB 390 from delegate ask you is going to be heard in the Senate Agriculture Committee. We're expecting a positive result there, but um we will see how that one goes. You will likely recall that as part of our original legislative agenda, we had an additional item that we had hoped to get legislation introduced on. Um, rather than seeking legislation, we decided to take it in a different route and try and administrative uh I don't know result. And so this is uh just a quick update on that. So our friends at Dominion have really taken this project on. Uh we owe them a debt of gratitude. They've done a great job with this. But on March 3rd, Dominion is going to go before the SCC damage preventing advisory committee to talk about creating a pilot program on uh using spot marking for utility markings at the ocean front. So we've been working with them on this. Um this map here, the resort area SGA is the area that we're proposing for this pilot program to take place. Um the pictures to the right are some pictures that we've shared with Dominion and with the SCC just to show to demonstrate the challenges that we're seeing at our ocean front with the markings and how we would like to try and reduce those impacts. Uh so we're hoping that the SCC will uh work kindly on this request and create a what would likely be a one-year pilot program, and then we come back next year to see how it was working, how utility lines are being protected, how the uh spot marking is is uh reducing the impacts of the markings and see if it's all working for both sides and see where to go from there. And then we come back next year to see how it was working, how utility lines are being protected, how the uh spot marking is uh reducing the impacts of the markings and see if it's all working for both sides and see where to go from there.
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