Category Archives: Current Concerns

CIP projects info added to our HOT page

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Our HOT page is here.

Here’s what was added:

Shore Drive Corridor Improvements Projects

    2.116.000: Shore Drive Corridor Improvements – Phase II (Partial)
    This project will provide safety improvements, including pedestrian walkways and bikeways, along the Shore Drive corridor from South Oliver Drive/Waterspoint Place to Treasure Island Drive. It will also include improvements along Shore Drive at the Northampton Boulevard interchange and to the intersections at Pleasure House Road and at Greenwell Road.
    2.117.000: Shore Drive Corridor Improvements – Phase III (Partial)
    This project begins at Vista Circle, near the eastern end of the Lesner Bridge, and extends eastward through the Great Neck Road intersection and terminates at Croix Drive. This project will improve vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow and safety in the roadway and intersections; improve storm drainage; include a multi-use trail, 5-ft sidewalk and on-street bike lanes; and enhance the corridor with aesthetic elements such as landscaping and lighting.
    2.118.000: Shore Drive Corridor Improvements – Phase IV
    This project begins at the Marlin Bay Drive/Sandy Oaks Drive intersection and ends at the west end of the Lesner Bridge. This project will improve vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow and safety in the roadway and intersections; improve storm drainage; include a multi-use trail, 5-ft sidewalk and on-street bike lanes; and enhance the corridor with aesthetic elements such as landscaping and lighting. It will include improvements at the East Stratford Road intersection.

Note: projected end date of all infrastructure improvements of Shore Drive including replacing the Lesner Bridge is ~ September 2019.

The Army Corps of Engineers laid out its plans for restoring the Lynnhaven River on Tuesday

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Read the entire article and comments at the Pilotonline.com:

Council members, without committing to the city’s share of the funding, expressed support for the plan and to continuing the revival of the city’s largest waterway, on the mend after decades of pollution, over development and other abuses.

Excerpt from one comment:

Perhaps the restoration of Pleasure House Point is a part of this plan and all can be combined. Hopefully the citizens will be able to see this plan on the City’s website.

Multiple car break ins again in Ocean Park & Cape Story

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Around Clipper Bay area in Ocean Park, and from Cape Story‘s neighborhood watch email list:

Another car break in on Oak St (2200) block on Saturday night (Jan 7). Also heard from another resident that the police were going door-to-door Sunday night on Oak St. asking residents if anyone had had similar experiences and they also stayed parked on the street for at least a few hours.

Reminder, please report any and all incidents to the police. If they are not reported, the police will not know this is going on. Also, I repeat, LOCK YOUR CAR DOORS.

Please remember to call 911 if you see a crime in action and call 385-5000, option 1, to report crimes after they have occurred or to report any suspicious activity. Also, please call or email the NW Coordinator so crime reports and suspicious activities can be shared with all of our residents.

Pleasure House Point preservation gets another $1.54M grant !

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More at SavePHP.org:

$1 million grant will add 82 acres to Virginia Beach’s park and open space system
The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, partnering with the City of Virginia Beach and the Trust for Public Land, will use this grant and non-federal match of $540,000 to acquire and preserve one of Hampton Roads’ largest undeveloped waterfront properties.

Incident in First Landing State Park

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FYI, from an email to Cape Story’s neighborhood watch coordinator:

We had an individual that was jumping on a gentleman on the King Fisher Trail. The person has psychological issues and was arrested on Friday shortly after the incident. I spoke with this person on Tuesday because we had a report of an individual touching/grabbing men when they went by her along Cape Henry Trail. No one wished to press charges so the individual was told to leave the park for the day. The park will seek a court order banning this individual from park property when her court day arrives. This was an isolated incident and dealt with swiftly.

Let me know if I may be of further assistance.

Bruce

Who is Bruce?

Bruce is Bruce Widener the Park Ranger at First Landing State Park. He receives all of my NW emails and is really sensitive about what is said about any trouble in the park.

“A divided School Board agreed Tuesday to sell an acre of land at Thalia Elementary School to the city, clearing the way for dredging a channel of the Lynnhaven River.”

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Read and comment at Pilotonline.com:

As part of the deal, the city agreed to several conditions to mitigate those concerns, including promises to cease operations during student dismissal and to restrict dump trucks from crossing in front of the school.

The alternative site is on city-owned land along West Great Neck Road between the Lynnhaven Marine Boatel and Marina Shore Shoppes

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From Pilotonline.com:

Plans to build a dredge spoils transfer station in a residential neighborhood off Long Creek appear to be on hold.

The Beaches and Waterways Commission, an advisory group to the City Council, voted Thursday to recommended an alternative site.

Neighborhood Dredging Study Draft Final Report is Available for Public Comment

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The Beaches and Waterway Advisory Commission (B&WAC) has completed the Draft Final Report for the Neighborhood Dredging Study and is accepting public comments on the report.  The deadline for comments has been set for NOON on Tuesday December 6th.  See the email from B&WAC Chairman Tom Fraim below for additional details.

Tom Fraim email excerpt – “Final comments from the public will be set for noon on December 6th and we will incorporate constructive comments for the real FINAL REPORT TO COUNCIL at 5:00PM on December 8th in the City Manager’s conference room. I expect the meeting to take less than 10 minutes. We will  not take additional public comment and with the exception of approving the minutes of the last meeting, we will not have an agenda. The approved Report to Council on the Neighborhood Dredging SSD Program will be posted on the City Website on December 9th while it is being properly constructed with maps, engineering reports, cover sheet, index, binding … etc.

 As you will read in the report, we interpret the instructions from Council to direct us to find additional site options that would have less impact on the neighborhoods and does not give us the option of eliminating sites selected prior to their approval of the program. We cannot eliminate Maple Street from future consideration, but we are asking Council to do exactly that … “

Read the draft final report here  11_28_DRAFT_FINAL

 

Items in the report that may be of particular intrest:

  • An unsupported requirement that five dredging zones are needed.
  • The reasons for public opposition to Maple Street and Crab Creek sites are legimate concerns.
  • The opposition to Maple Street and Crab Creek site is a standard NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) situation and will go away when the local residents need dredging projects.
  • The Lynnhaven Drive site is a preferred alternative to the Maple Street site, but only City Council can remove the Maple Street site from the overall plan.

 

All residents in the Bayfront area are encouraged to comment on this report.  Please send all comments to the following email addresses:

Tom Fraim, B&WAC Chairman – tfraim@masacorp.com  

Jim Spore, City Manager – CMOffice@vbgov.com

City Council – ctycncl@vbgov.com

David Williams, Shore Drive Community Coalition President – David@sdcc.info

 

What Will It TakeTo Be Heard?

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Call me naive maybe, but I was taught in public school and spent my college and military years believing in our Democracy.  Even after egregious and impeachable acts of Richard Nixon, LCol Oliver North, and J. Edgar Hoover, and unnamed others who have hacked into our rights, our freedoms have prevailed somewhat intact.
The politicians of that “ill-clique”  up in Washington seemed removed from who we are and how we live our daily lives in a city like Virginia Beach.
I am reminded that all politics are local. The violations of our trust and confidence do not always occur  just from Washington.  Some of our citizens have experienced a trampling of their rights from our city staff and city appointed  “Advisory” committees. Any violations of our Constitutional rights should be directly challenged and corrected.

Should citizens be prevented from speaking at scheduled open forums or from asking the city questions concerning the safety of public projects that involve our neighborhoods? Should the city’s Public Works Department be the safety monitor and enforcer for those projects? Should a neighborhood’s rights be mauled to enable a “good ol’gal”  private business expansion? Should a neighborhood be pulped from dump truck traffic just to support  one private party who would commercially benefit? Mr. Fraim  has so stated. Ask Thomas Fraim, Chairman of the Beaches and Waterways Advisory Committee about open and transparent city staff meetings or free and open public committee meetings.

This Veteran’s Day, consider all those who have fought for our freedoms and our very Constitution. Consider this, if Hitler’s Third Reich had defeated us in WWII, or if Stalin’s communists had won the Cold War,  would our rights and our freedoms continue today? So, why should we accept any trampling on our rights,  back door politics, special deals, lack of transparency, and egregious acts from some city staff members?

Will the Mayor and City Council arrive at an honorable course of action that recognizes the mounting and significant citizen opposition to the Neighborhood Dredge (Spoils) Program?   Will city staff acknowledge the numerous serious flaws and lack of sufficient studies that exist in the Neighborhood Dredge (Spoils) Program?  We citizens will watch closely while some in City Council deliberate their fate and our  given rights.

“Each neighborhood dredging project requires City Council approval, and the Beach needs to find multiple sites to unload the dredge spoils from the barges.”

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Read entire article at Pilotonline.com.

This is about:

[A] city proposal to put a permanent dredge transfer station on Maple Street next to the Marina Shores marina.

And:

The commission, which will present its final report in the coming months, suggested that the city use the site for only 90 working days a year, avoid bringing in barges during the summer, and haul 30 truckloads a day of dredge spoils out of the site.

“There are methods of mitigation and opportunities for controls that will eliminate or significantly reduce, many of the issues of concern,” the draft report states.

The city launched its neighborhood dredging program last year to help residents deepen their channels if they agree to a tax rate increase.

Guidelines for tonight’s public meeting re:Dredge Transfer Stations

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From an email:

We have received a number of calls about this evening’s public meeting and the guidelines for those who wish to speak.

1) Anyone wishing to speak must sign up before the meeting starts

2) Each speaker will be limited to 3 minutes.

3) If a group is in attendance and has chosen someone to speak for them, that speaker will be allowed up to 10 minutes to speak on behalf of the group.

4) Any questions to the commission from the public can be submitted in advance on cards that will be provided at the meeting. Those who wish to submit a question can get a card from Rebecca Lear and submit the card to the moderator.

5) Because the commission wants to hear from as many speakers as possible, speaking time will be only for direct comments. Any questions will be addressed through the cards that are submitted to the moderator.

6) Public comments will be taken (from those who sign up) until 9:00 when the meeting will adjourn.

The Commission will answer questions and take comments on the four following topics only:

· The feasibility of alternative dredging methods, such as hydraulic rather than mechanical dredging;

· The potential for beneficial re-use of spoils;

· An analysis of the impact on affected communities (both those receiving dredging and those in the vicinity of the existing and proposed transfer stations) with a focus on identifying sites that are sufficient to support the needs of the project but have the least potential for adverse impact for the community; and

· A proposed framework with parameters for operation of the spoils sites, including potential use of the site by the public for dredging by entities or individuals other than the City.

If you wish to sign up in advance to speak, you may contact Rebecca Lear at 385-1948, or e-mail her at: rlear@vbgov.com

The meeting will be held 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Great Neck Recreation Center, 2521 Shorehaven Drive.

Thank you.

Drew Lankford
Media and Communications
Department of Public Works
City of Virginia Beach
dlankfor@vbgov.com
(O) 757.385.8062
(C) 757.409.4353

Note: Received this email at 1129a Oct 13 2011.

The Pilot article notes, ‘the city has not identified any dredging project near the neighborhood.

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Letter to the Editor about proposed Maple Street Dredge Spoils area at Pilotonline.com:

Re ‘Beach plans appeal over dredge site,’ Hampton Roads, Oct. 5: It is beyond my comprehension that the city of Virginia Beach, through its city attorney, would contemplate appealing to the Virginia Beach Circuit Court to reverse the Board of Zoning Appeals’ determination that the Maple Street site on Long Creek cannot be used for a public purpose. I was stunned to read of the appeal, especially since the public purpose intended is for the construction of a permanent, industrial dredged spoils transfer operation in the heart of a residentially zoned neighborhood.

Beaches and Waterways Commission to Hold Public Meeting

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News release at VBGov.com:

The Beaches and Waterways Advisory Commission will hold a public meeting Thursday, October 13 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Great Neck Recreation Center, 2521 Shorehaven Drive, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The Commission will answer questions and take comments on the four following topics only:

    The feasibility of alternative dredging methods, such as hydraulic rather than mechanical dredging;
    The potential for beneficial re-use of spoils;
    An analysis of the impact on affected communities (both those receiving dredging and those in the vicinity of the existing and proposed transfer stations) with a focus on identifying sites that are sufficient to support the needs of the project but have the least potential for adverse impact for the community; and
    A proposed framework with parameters for operation of the spoils sites, including potential use of the site by the public for dredging by entities or individuals other than the City.

Public comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker, ten minutes if you are representing a group.

Citizens wishing to comment may sign up at the meeting or by contacting Rebecca Lear @ (757) 385-1948, or rlear@vbgov.com.

Neighborhood Dredge Spoils Project, Our Constitutional Process

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It is our Democratic process that permits us to freely petition our elected governmental representatives to address an issue that could potentially damage our property and take away from its value. It is our Constitution and our First Amendment rights that allow us the free exercise to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Should our own Virginia Beach City government be included in this right to “petition the Government”? I proclaim most strongly “yes” and have, as have so many others, put it all on the line to support and defend our Constitutional Rights.

Should a city appointed board tasked with making recommendations to resolve significant issues accept statements from the city’s staff, but not permit assembled citizens the right to state their position or to redress staff statements? Should derogatory statements that “there is much misinformation out there” be accepted without challenge from the board when the assembled are not permitted to speak to address the sources of that information?

To many citizens, these issues may be of small importance or no consequence, but I think it is vitally important. If we do not hold our local government accountable to us, we perch ourselves on the point of becoming irrelevant as free people with the power to elect. We merely become payer of taxes, not the proponent of our Rights. The rights exercised by City government are as important to us as the headwaters of a river. We must all be engaged and involved. It is our elected government whether it be city, state or Federal. We deserve what we get.

Communications Old and New

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On 29 August, three of us, Ms Penny, Todd Solomon, and myself  had a chance at the last SDCC meeting to talk about hurricanes, near misses and some “what if”s. This conversation lead into a discussion on the way we communicate these days and some generational difference. Todd feels very comfortable with a computer and using it as a tool to connect with people and express his thoughts.  He does well with his research, his record keeping, and has contributed greatly to our efforts to keep Shore Drive connected and in the flow of  city information.

I am less comfortable with a computer, and even less trusting.  It is probably illogical, a “love-hate” relationship.  Maybe it is from using computers onboard aircraft for many years that has left me weary. I would always do my own flight calculations for essential items like fuel required, half-way point, and flight time and then check my estimates against the computer’s numbers.  The computer may have never been wrong, but that is not the point.  I used the computer as a tool and did not rely on it to keep me going in the safe direction.  Some of my fellow pilots used the computer as their only tool and it lead them away when it failed.  If this hurricane had taken away our internet, where would we have found ourselves?  To many,  the computer is much more that a tool, almost like the closest of friends.  Many would feel alone without their BFA (that’s Best friend always). If our device’s battery should fail, do we also shut down?

And then we have Ms. Penny. Intelligent, engaged, articulate, and I would respectfully estimate, a most powerful force to verbally challenge over any misplaced or misguided element of civic logic concerning Shore Drive or Virginia Beach. Citizens like Ms. Penny are the backbone and cornerstone of this city.  As for communications, she is not overly fond of computers either. As an organization (SDCC), I think we are missing out on our dialogues when we think that we can accomplish all that we need to do to communicate with just a computer. Computers may be fast and save postage, but I find so much missing without the face to face. I am telling you all these things while I write on my computer.  My computer is a tool, not a BFA yet.  Thanks for the discussion that day after the hurricane, Ms. Penny.  We will try harder to find better ways to stay connected with more people along Shore Drive.

Beaches and Waterways Commission Meeting Thursday

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I recently received on the 1st of August an email sent 3:17 PM of that day from Councilman Wood giving notice of the initial meeting of the Beaches and Waterways Advisory Commission. This important meeting will be held  4 August at 4 PM (Thursday) Building 2, Third Floor Public Works Engineering Conference Room at the Municipal Center.  This initial meeting will be our first dialog to discuss the dredge spoils removal and transfer stations proposed for the Lynnhaven basin.  SDCC and the other attending civic representatives will seek open discussions concerning  the design, scope, safety, duration, viability, and the appropriateness of this commercial project for our neighborhoods and residential roads.  More about the specific design aspects will be forthcoming after this initial meeting.

City Violates Zoning

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In a letter to the Editor entitled “City Violates Zoning” (Sunday 6/18), Ms. Lynn Hume points out rightfully that the city is ignoring (violating) their own zoning protections.  What is appropriate for one area may not be appropriate for another area and that is why the city has zoning codes. Would you want a tattoo parlor operating in the middle of a residential area?  I did not think so.  So, why should the city be allowed to operate an industrial scale dredge spoils transfer site in a residential area?  If the city can expect us to accept this zoning violation, they will continue to ignore their city laws, misrepresent us while ignoring our petitions. Do we have a right to be represented  by our elected government?  I think we already declared our right to a representational form government.  Something about “taxation without representation” if I recall.

Disaster Preparedness

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March 15 was Tornado Preparedness Day across the Country, but we know that we in Virginia Beach will probably not be hit by one. Well, except for the one that hit Suffolk and the water spout that was sighted in the Chesapeake just off the beach near the Lesner Bridge.  My point, we don’t think we will be impacted because most of us do not have a personal experience with one of these events, BUT this area has come close.  Should we also think that a hurricane will probably not hit us here?  We might want to reconsider that line of thought. I am not a weather man, but realize that the U.S. has had a very rough winter and we should most likely expect an equally rough summer.  What would it take to have a simple level of preparedness? A simple kit might have three days of food and water, basic first aid kit, and some emergency supplies, all kept in a closable plastic container for easy carrying.  And the MOST important part of your emergency kit?  Your Family Emergency Plan. More about that next month.

Lesner Bridge Now Funded

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Lesner Bridge has now been funded according to a conversation I had with a city official in Public Works. The Commonwealth of Virginia conducted an audit and found approximately $250 million dollars in unspent transportation funds. The city official stated that the bridge will have a northern alignment and the width and lane issues have been resolved. Construction should start within 12-16 months.