Virginia Beach City Council Special Session – March 10, 2026
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Virginia Beach City Council Special Formal Session – March 10, 2026
The Virginia Beach City Council convened a special formal session on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, to receive legislative updates, discuss public safety concerns following a weekend shooting at the Oceanfront, consider future use of a city-owned arts facility, and review early impacts of arts funding grants. The meeting opened with a legislative update from the city manager’s office, followed by a presentation from the police chief on the shooting incident and a proposed imminent threat curfew for unaccompanied minors. Council also reviewed a framework for an advisory panel on the 2200 Parks Avenue (former MOCA) building and received an update on neighborhood arts grants. The meeting concluded with a motion to recess into closed session.
Discussion Items
- Legislative Update (Brent, City Manager’s Office): The 10-1 election system legislation (charter and general law) received an emergency clause from Governor Spanberger and has been enacted. Several other bills remain in conference, including collective bargaining, prevailing wage, paid family/sick leave, cannabis, and skill games legislation. The 1% sales tax for school construction is expected to be addressed in the budget. Land use legislation that would have required rezoning 75% of commercial properties for multifamily was voted down. The “faith in housing” bill (SB 388/HB 1279) remains in conference with a four-year sunset clause; the city remains in opposition. E-bike study legislation heads to the governor; lobbyist registration (SB 50) was voted down; a transit study resolution (HJ28) was adopted. The state budget is expected to be reported out on Thursday, March 12.
- Police Chief Presentation – Oceanfront Shooting & Curfew Recommendation: The chief reported that on Saturday, March 7, 2026, at 9:52 p.m., an 18-year-old male from Norfolk fired six shots after an attempted robbery of his open-carry firearm, striking six uninvolved individuals. The suspect faces 18 felonies; other suspects are being sought. The crowd that evening numbered approximately 2,000, with about 60% minors. Officers used roving announcements to encourage voluntary curfew compliance; enforcement began at 11:30 p.m. Thirty-seven minors were detained for curfew violations; three were charged for possession of handguns (including a 15-year-old with an intoxicated firearm linked to two other incidents). The chief noted that 50+ additional officers were deployed on overtime, but such staffing is not sustainable. He recommended an imminent threat curfew for unaccompanied minors at the Oceanfront from dusk to dawn (5 p.m. to 5 a.m.) for the remaining weekends in March, with a possible extension through April. The Panama City Beach approach of closing portions of the beach was cited as a more aggressive alternative. The council expressed frustration with the General Assembly’s failure to pass requested “pop-up event” legislation.
- Future Use of 2200 Parks Avenue (Former MOCA Building): Emily LeBose, Director of Cultural Affairs, presented a proposed framework for a mayor’s advisory panel to recommend future uses of the city-owned arts facility. The panel would include individuals with arts, civic, and business experience, supported by an independent facilitator. It would review the building’s constraints, explore cultural uses or partnerships, and gather community input. Council members emphasized that the site should remain a cultural asset, that the process be transparent and budget-neutral, and that the panel include diverse perspectives from across the city. Michael Berlucchi suggested a 60-day timeline for staff to return with a detailed structure and membership framework; the council concurred. Council also discussed the need for better communication with those whose prior proposals were not accepted.
- Arts Funding Update: Emily LeBose reported on two grant programs created from a portion of the admissions tax dedicated in July 2024. To date, 74 grants have been awarded, totaling $313,000 in direct community investment, supporting 61 local artists across 13 neighborhoods. The FY2026 Creative Neighborhoods grants will fund 12 projects representing every council district. A video showcased several projects, including a mural at a volunteer rescue squad and a pump track art installation. Council members praised the program’s positive economic and community-building impacts.
Key Outcomes
- Imminent Threat Curfew: Council will hold a special session on Thursday, March 12, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. to consider and vote on the proposed imminent threat curfew for unaccompanied minors at the Oceanfront. The recommended timeframe is dusk to dawn (5 p.m. to 5 a.m.) for the remainder of March and potentially through April, with flexibility to adjust based on conditions.
- 2200 Parks Avenue Advisory Panel: Staff will return within 60 days (by approximately May 9, 2026) with a refined structure and membership framework for the advisory panel, which will then proceed to gather community input and develop recommendations for council.
- Arts Funding Continuation: The council expressed strong support for the arts grants program and its expansion to all districts; no formal vote was taken.
- Closed Session: The council voted unanimously to recess into closed session to discuss real property, contract negotiations, and personnel matters (board/commission appointments).
Other Notable Comments
- Mayor Bobby Day expressed strong frustration with the General Assembly for failing to support police tools and for the “callous disregard” shown to public safety, calling for state-level officials to visit the Oceanfront during busy weekends.
- Council member Stacy suggested a unified council meeting with the local delegation and a trip to Richmond to advocate for needed legislation.
- Council member Jennifer mentioned that of the 37 minors detained, many parents appeared inconvenienced; she also noted the need to involve school officials in prevention efforts.
- Council member Michael Berlucchi acknowledged the positive impact of the arts funding and credited Vice Mayor Rosemary and others for spearheading the initiative.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome all. Okay, folks, I have to do a reading here in accordance with uh Virginia Beach City and me as the mayor of the City of Virginia Beach I did right to call for a special formal session of the Virginia Beach City Council on Tuesday, March 10th, 2026. The purpose of this special formal session is to allow the city council following its regular schedule form formal session as listed in the tax agenda to convene into a closed session. We discuss the following matters. Number one, publicly held property, district five, public contract, project Siegel, and Tolliver Road construction participation. Uh personnel matters, council appointments, boards, commissions, authorities, agencies, task force, and appointees. At the conclusion of the closed session, the city council will reconvene into an open session of purpose of certifying the closed section. Special formal section session will be broadcast on TV. Virginia Beach.com and Facebook live sincerely. Yours truly, Bobby Day. Okay, Mr. Zane, I believe we're ready to go. McKenzie, who's live and in action in um Richmond, and he's gonna ready to talk about where we are as it relates to the action for this week as they come close to the finish line. So Brent, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Manager. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of council. It's a pleasure to be here with you today. Um as the city manager alluded to, we are in the last week of the General Assembly session, or at least the last scheduled week of the General Assembly session. We're all hoping they will adjourn on time this Saturday. Um today we're gonna provide you just a real brief update on where we are on our legislative agenda items that are still alive and on some of the legislation that we've been following. So uh the big news, as you guys hopefully saw in my emails on Friday and yesterday, is that the uh Governor Spanberger added an emergency clause to our 10-1 legislation, both the charter and the general law, and um both of those were agreed upon by the Senate and the House, and um those pieces of legislation are now uh in effect. So our 10-1 election system is now part of our charter and part of the Virginia Code, and we are um good to go on that front. So that was big news here uh over the last couple days, and uh we're excited to have that accomplished. Um the next slide. Uh you'll see on most of these pieces of legislation that we were continuing to work on and to follow. Umrew, I'm sorry, would you change the slide to the next one for me? Thanks. Uh you'll see that most of these bills are either headed to conference or they're in conference. Just as a reminder, what that means is that uh the house passed a version and the Senate passed a different version. So there's some wording that's different, some different uh points of contention, and they appoint a small subcommittee of three members of the Senate, three members of the House to um to try and come to an agreement, and then they'll bring that single agreement back to each chamber. So all of the major legislation that we've been talking about for uh I guess for the last couple months here, or almost all of it is in conference, including uh the collective bargaining legislation, where there are um big differences between the Senate version and the House version. Um, some of them uh include um uh higher education employees, some of them include, or one of them includes health care employees. Um there are a bunch of different points of contention that they're still trying to figure out. So we will see if they are able to come to a conclusion. Uh similarly, the prevailing wage legislation is headed to conference. The Senate version doesn't have local governments involved, the house version does. Um that that's headed to conference. Um similarly, the the um paid family leave and the paid sick leave as well. Um on the next slide, the legislation we've been following that provides some additional revenue streams for local governments again. Uh headed to conference on cannabis legislation and on skill gain legislation, big changes in the cannabis legislation. They should be able to come to some conclusions there. They seem to have come to an agreement on ensuring that local governments retain zoning authority and some taxing authority. But they still got some technical differences to figure out on skill games. Some some pretty big differences and just like the the number of games that they're allowing, the type of games that they're allowing. So those are headed to conference. And then we've talked about this the 1% sales tax for school construction. The House version came to the same conclusion. It's been continued to 2027.
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