Virginia Beach Planning Commission Meeting – September 10, 2026
Virginia Beach Planning Commission Meeting – September 10, 2026
The Virginia Beach Planning Commission met on September 10, 2026, for an informal session and public hearing. The commission considered multiple items including subdivision variances, conditional rezonings, conditional use permits, street closures, and a cannabis zoning update. Key outcomes included approvals for a multifamily development on Bonnie Road, denial of a self-storage facility on Laskin Road, and approval of a bar/nightclub conditional use permit, among others.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes: Approved minutes from the August 12, 2026 meetings (informal and formal) and September 3, 2026 site visit, with Commissioner Plumley abstaining from the site visit minutes.
- Item 4 (Ashley and Stephen Donini): Street closure at 624 Surfside Avenue – approved.
- Item 5 (Jerry and Angela Foster et al.): Street closure at 512 Vanderbilt Avenue and 613 South Atlantic Avenue – approved.
- Item 6 (Pistilli's Land Trust): Street closure at 1945 Laskin Road – approved.
- Item 10 (Catholic High School): Modification of conditions to construct a 20,000 sq ft field house – approved.
- Items 12-14 (Sector Site Tower Assets LLC): Conditional rezoning, conditional use permit for mini-warehouse, and conditional use permit for bulk storage yard – approved with modifications: updated concept plan date to August 14, 2026, and condition 6 modified to allow storage of operable vehicles.
- Item 15 (Genesis Holdings of Hampton Roads LLC): Conditional use permit for bulk storage yard – approved.
- Item 16 (Southside Barbell LLC): Conditional use permit for indoor recreational facility (gym) – approved.
- Item 19 (Birchwood Mall Associates LLP): Conditional use permit for indoor recreational facility (Iron Asylum gym) – approved.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Item 1 (Masters/Osterhouse subdivision variance): Jack Harcourt (adjacent property owner) opposed, stating the 18-foot easement was intended for farm use only and that trees and drainage issues would be problematic. Benjamin Tatum III (former owner's son) testified the easement was used for parking a school bus, not for farm access.
- Items 8/9 (Prime Storage Bells Ridge): Scott Sonier (adjacent resident) opposed, citing incompatibility with residential neighborhood, concerns over flooding, lighting, operating hours, and that previous proffers prohibited motorized vehicle storage. Robert Wilson (Bells Road resident) echoed these concerns and requested deferral to allow CTAC Civic League representation. Brian Keel (owner of adjacent office park) opposed, citing incompatibility with professional office environment. Tommy Gill (adjacent homeowner) opposed, noting scale and cumulative impacts.
- Item 11 (Bonnie Road Apartments): Josh McDonald (via WebEx) – no substantive opposition reported; speaker was neutral.
- Item 17 (Real Estate Pursuits LC – Laskin Road storage): Jackie Schellberg (resident) opposed, representing over 1,100 petition signatories, citing concerns about marsh ecosystem, overabundance of storage facilities, and lack of public notice.
- Item 18 (Minx Gentleman's Club): Jake Lewis (concerned citizen) opposed, arguing the adult use expansion should not be permitted and requested a 30-day deferral for further review.
- Items 21-26 (Beach Vibe Stays LLC – short-term rentals): Mike Lancaster (applicant representative) spoke in favor, explaining the conversion of an office building to six short-term rental units on the second floor.
Discussion Items
- Cannabis Zoning Update: Zoning Administrator Hannah Sabo presented draft zoning regulations for cannabis retail, cultivation, processing, transportation, delivery, and testing facilities. Proposed regulations include conditional use permits for retail and microbusinesses, odor mitigation requirements, and security plan reviews. Public survey on hours and distances from sensitive uses to be released. Commissioner Camp suggested outreach to the Historic Cavalier CAC. Commissioner Marsh raised concerns about federal law and state preemption.
- Speaker Order Motion: In new business, Commissioner Marsh moved to amend rules to call speakers in the order they signed up rather than grouping supporters and opponents. After debate, the motion was opened for a vote but the meeting adjourned before a final tally was recorded; the outcome was not determined.
Key Outcomes
- Item 1: Approved as modified (condition 5 removed) – motion by Commissioner Plumley, second by Commissioner Schoonover; passed unanimously with one abstention (Commissioner March, due to conflict).
- Items 2/3 (Turton): Approved – motion by Commissioner Schoonover, second by Commissioner Mosh; passed unanimously.
- Items 8/9 (Prime Storage): Denied – motion by Commissioner Plumley, second by Commissioner Camp; vote 8-0-1 (Commissioner March abstained).
- Item 11 (Bonnie Road Apartments): Approved – motion by Vice Chair Biler, second by Commissioner Mosh; vote 9-1.
- Item 17 (Laskin Road storage): Denied – motion by Commissioner Schoonover; vote 3-7.
- Item 18 (Minx Gentleman's Club): Approved – motion by Commissioner Schoonover, second by Commissioner Camp; vote 9-1.
- Items 21-26 (Beach Vibe Stays): Approved – motion by Commissioner Hippen, second by Commissioner Morjanian; vote 6-4.
- Deferrals: Item 7 (Fountain Drive closure) deferred 30 days at applicant's request. Items 8/9 were originally considered for deferral but proceeded to a vote and were denied.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Planning Commissioners and Staff for your participation today. My name is John Colston, and I'm the chair of Virginia Beach Planning Commission. Welcome to the September 9th informal session of the Virginia Beach Planning Commission. All this meeting to order. Um Caitlin, you have anything for us? Just a couple quick things. Um I just discussed having a retreat following the October hearing, so I just wanted an update from this group. My understanding that Commissioner Anderson and then Commissioner Mott were working on that. So if we could get an update on that to make sure you know we plan accordingly, um like that. Then a reminder, I know we're a little early, but your November meeting is on the second Thursday, not the second Wednesday due to Veterans Day. So just gonna I'll remind you again next month. Um, and then the other thing, and Tori can speak to it a little bit more, but I wanted to touch on you've got two um proposed versions of amendments to your policies and procedures. Um as staff had discussed, and I think we've discussed it informally here, um, but that I asked Tori to include for your consideration is that when someone signs up to represent a group, it's somewhat self-explanatory when you're representing an HOA or some organization. Um, but I had some clarifying language proposed to say if you're representing a group of people, you need to um specifically identify what individuals you are representing. That way we make sure that that person then doesn't sign up to speak as well. I think we had that come up at one meeting, so that was just something for your consideration. May I ask, is that the only difference between these two versions? Well, since I'm the author of the other version, I don't object to what you're saying. So can we simplify our proceedings by dispensing with this other one? The one that you are suggesting if that's the bond the bodies will, that's fine. I was just going to bring up to you that um uh commissioner camps had also quoted additional language for consideration, so I'm gonna have um those uh printed out for you as well for you to see with the the document that you're considering. Apart from what Tori just said, which I appreciate. Is that okay? You cannot have to decide between two things, but just work from one of them. Uh so the one Caitlin of these two, one of them is like smaller font. Are we working from the bigger font one? Is that yours? Yes. Okay, so we can page three, the language for clarifying that. So we can discard the one that has the gray bar on the right side. All right, thank you. And that's all I had here. Okay. Good morning, good morning. While we're waiting, if you wanted that update, uh Commissioner Anderson and myself uh had not had an opportunity to find uh a time that would be work for both of us to meet. So we're planning on meeting after he gets back from his vacation. Reason why it's not here, so we can have an update on that, but we did decide that it should only be an hour. Commissioner Anderson retreat. Oh yeah, just commissioner Anderson just sent me a text saying he's thinking of us, but he's walking in historic Prague at the moment. What a guy. Okay, we're ready to move on. All right now item one. This was the request for a subdivision various in section 4.4B and D of the subdivision regulations to allow the creation of two lots that are deficient in lot width, street line frontage and lack of direct access to a public street. The subject properties are zone AG1 and AG2 and have access to existing private ingress egress easements along Dolly Road and Gun Bridge Road. Although the properties are shown on the recorded plats, the plats were not signed by the Princess Anne County planning director prior to recordation, as was required at that time. Therefore, the properties are considered to be improperly subdivided by D. The applicant is proposing to vacate the interior lot lines and create two new lots identified as lot X-1 and lot A-1 in order to legally establish the lots for future sale. Both proposed lots exceed the minimum one acre lot area requirement. However, neither meets the required 150-foot width or 120-foot street line frontage. Additionally, neither lot has direct access to a public sheet street.
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