Virginia Beach City Council Briefing and Closed Session – June 9, 2026

The Virginia Beach City Council held an afternoon session on June 9, 2026. The provided source timestamp is 2026-06-09 23:51:14+00:00; no written agenda or minutes were included in the source package, so this summary is based on the raw transcript. The session included a hurricane preparedness briefing, an update on the Virginia Beach Attainable Workforce Housing Performance Grant Program, councilmember announcements and initiatives, and a roll-call vote to move into a closed session. The formal session was announced as broadcast on TV and Facebook Live, and an open session was expected after the closed session to certify it. No public comment period was identifiable in the transcript.

Hurricane Season Preparedness Briefing

• Emergency Management Director David Topzinski presented the outlook for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season. The National Ocean Service and Population Center had 70% confidence in a below-normal season, forecasting approximately 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes, and 1 to 3 major hurricanes. He attributed this outlook to developing El Niño conditions, but stressed that one storm alone, or even a tropical-storm remnant or nor’easter, could still cause flooding, power outages, property damage, and roadway hazards.
• Hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30. The city’s preparedness messages urge residents, businesses, and employees to review insurance and flood insurance, prepare for evacuation or staying in place, stock medications, food, and pet supplies, and sign up through VB Alert or recharge official city alerts.
• The city’s year-round preparedness work includes over 300 hours of city training and exercises with federal, state, and regional partners; recertification as a StormReady community; a review of alert and warning operations by FEMA that was said to have far exceeded expectations on FEMA-based capabilities; adoption of the city’s first dedicated disaster recovery plan; ongoing shelter plan reviews; and a regional evacuation work group coordinated with Southside Hampton Roads partners.
• The Emergency Operations Center received a full upgrade, including new redundancies, a portable field EOC that can operate anywhere, and a new ESRI ArcGIS disaster-management application. The city also expanded its watch desk capabilities so potential incidents can be identified and helped earlier.
• The next scheduled exercise is in July 2026 with Virginia Task Force 2 urban search and rescue, whose force will run a simulated hurricane response while staff operate from the EOC in parallel.
• The presenter described the storm-approach timeline: staff monitor the National Hurricane Center daily, assign a dedicated tracker once a storm forms, begin issuing Virginia Beach-specific briefing reports, and at roughly above 50% forecast confidence expand impact modeling and public messaging. Typical thinking period before potential impact is about 24 to 72 hours, ideally 48 hours, when decisions are made about evacuation orders, local emergency declarations, evacuation centers, outside resources, and disaster contracts. After impact, recovery begins with life safety, search and rescue, roadway clearing, critical infrastructure checks, and restoration of services.
• Public outreach scheduled includes school programs, libraries, senior resource centers, the Sandbridge Civic League, and other civic and community groups.
• Several council members praised the emergency management team’s response to past events, including a tornado response, a jet crash scenario, the 2019 Virginia Beach gun incident, and recent hurricane operations. The Mayor recounted that evacuation plans had been launched early and move “unpredictable” after an early evacuation warning in his tenure, and he used that example to urge continued priority on getting “Nimbo Parkway” (as transcribed) completed becoming an evacuation route.

Attainable Workforce Housing Performance Grant Program

• Ruthie Hill, Director of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation, and housing development manager Sharon Shaw described proposed updates to the city’s Attainable Workforce Housing Performance Grant Program.
• The program was established by city ordinance in May 2025 and launched in September 2025. It is a partnership between the City of Virginia Beach and the VBDA, and it provides a performance-based grant of incremental real estate tax revenue to private multifamily rental developers who build new, affordable housing. It requires that units remain rent restricted affordable to households at or below 80% of the Area Median Income? Some projects can include the additional incentive for units affordable at or below 50% AMI. Grants are initially built for 15 years, with the possibility of a second 15-year extension if the developer provably satisfies the program.
• Proposed required changes under new state legislation, House Bill 353, include recording a restrictive covenant requiring the property to be used as affordable housing for up to 30 years; the housing design, designated local officer accepting applications; and a timeline adjustment. Staff also proposed aligning the application language with existing policies, such as land-use approval requirements, definitions, rent, and utility allowance standards.
• Using policy, the grant is capped at 100% of the incremental new real estate taxes, with increases depending on whether the project is fully residential or mixed use and fully affordable or mixed income. Staff proposed a not-to-exceed maximum grant amount, calculated using an assumed assessed value per unit and a 3% annual escalation in assessed value. The example shown was a 175-unit, 100% affordable residential development with an assumed assessed value of $124,000 per unit ($21.7 million total), a 97-cent tax rate per $100. That increase first-year taxes of $210,490, then escalated at 3% each year and reduced by a property’s base tax amount.
• The example also shows the effect of the not-to-exceed cap: if actual assessed values grew 5% annually, the grant total would reach the cap at year 25 under the 30-year award, so no grants would be paid in the final five years; if actual values grew only 2% annually, the total payout would be about $8 million. Under the prior policy, a 5% growth scenario would grow total payments to roughly $13.5 million. Staff emphasized that the annual grant actually paid is still based on actual assessed value and actual tax rate each year.
• Council members gave broad support. One council member said the program is working well and asked if newly approved projects are affected; the presenter answered no. Another council member said that on a scale of 1 to 10 the program is “10 plus,” and noted that the city has no upfront cash outlay, the grant stops if the property leaves the price program, and the location can be worth 15 years of the second half, and the developer must make additional investments to maintain the property. That member estimated the cost is roughly $1,800 per unit, or about $150 per month in incentives.
• The Mayor and other members agreed that workforce housing remains a priority, that Virginia Beach is facing a housing crisis, and that the program should be placed into a larger public buy in and innovative related to housing. They also suggested using the program to help address and protect older officers, fire employees living outside the city, and military families who are looking for residents with multi-in-law.
• No final formal vote was recorded on the housing program changes in the transcript; council members voiced support for staff to move forward with the proposed changes and a not-to-exceed structure.

Council Discussions, Initiatives, and Recognition

• One council member thanked residents and staff who attended an evening community update at Wilshire Farm Rec Center on the Pleasure House Point Wetlands Restoration Project. She said the project had come in about $3 million under budget to date, and that the project whose history includes mitigation credits how it did would allow leftover credits to be used on future flood protection projects. She also thanked local drone photographer Hutton Strader for footage shot on June 5, and congratulated those graduating, including her twins graduating fifth grade.
• A council member addressed school bus como bouz academy concerns. She said the bus running stop-sign cameras are the product of state legislature, but she has heard from expected four drivers who received a ticket even when they said they were already passing the bus when the stop arm deployed instead of the wrong way. One out-of-town visitor received a citation in the mail. The member said the fine is $250, compared with a $50 red-light recharge and a $100 school-zone fine, and that school board attorneys are spending time in court and tickets being thrown out. She asked staff to look into whether fine and regulations should, for example, the amount of lag time or the fine amount should be adjusted.
• Council members also discussed possible recognition of the musical group Black Street, originated in Virginia Beach’s District Four. Council members proposed a city council resolution in early July 2026, after the group returns from an international tour, and perhaps a related street-naming or ceremonial event. The Mayor said the group has sold over seven million albums and has tied, and a conversation about a Gold Street for all of its positive attention to Virginia Beach’s creative community was also discussed.
• The Mayor and other citys also gave an update on Beyond the Urgent Care, including introductory—the four ““Safe for Virginia”” public remembrance task force on the proliferation of patrols, and its countdown to the scheduled October 2026 wrap-up, legislative support from the General Assembly, and the announcement that a city willing to put some resources into it. The Mayor said the task force statement will be open and referenced another 757 jurisdiction, Newport News, considering violence and the role of youth-era after “pop-up team takeover” events. He also noted that the city’s previous decision to approve a curfew has not resulted in any recent night events that have drawn public attention to Virginia Beach, and he urged the council to remain involved in play.

Closed Session

The Chair entertained a motion to recess the City Council into closed session, and after a fail second, the council voted to enter by closed session. The reasons listed were:

• Discussion of acquisition or disposition of real property for a public purpose, when open discussion could affect bargaining position or negotiating strategy, in District 6. The recorded change corrected the earlier reading from the District 2.
• Discussion of the public contract involving the proposal, including the ““VB off course” RFP and related terms/action.
• Personnel matters, including consideration or interviews of prospective candidates and to personnel conduct.
• Council appointments to boards, commissions, committees, authorities, agencies, and task.
• All named council members responded “aye” to the journal-call vote, so the motion to recess the closed session was hosted. The distant closed session was expected to be followed by a new sending may certify the closed session, but the raw transcript ends with the response and the beginning of the closed portion.

Key Outcomes

• The closed-session motion was approved by recorded roll call, every named member voting “aye”; a conventional open session to certify the closed session was in session.
• No final formal meeting adoption was noted for the hurricane or housing grant briefing in the raw transcript, but the housing program changes and the new not-to-exceed cap received positive responses from multiple council members.
• The emergency management division will conduct its July 2026 exercise with Virginia Task Force 2 and continue preparing for hurricane-risk monitoring.
• Staff will later relook into the bus-stop camera ticket enforcement and fine structure.
• A potential July 2026 resolution for Black Street and a related recognition or street-naming item was anticipated to move forward.
• The Mayor scheduled further “Safe for Virginia” Task Force meetings with the two states that have been announced, with a target program by around October 2026.