After a year of effort by many people, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) ruled on 27 March in FAVOR of the city’s permit request. In spite of all our well founded arguments against the permit’s approval, the VMRC ruled to permit the depositing of up to 25,000 cubic yards of dredged material per year at either Crab Creek or Maple Street.
A neighbor asked me how this could be after the City Council voted unanimously for a resolution co-sponsored by Vice Mayor Jones and Councilman Wood to remove the Maple Street deposit site from dredged deposits. The City Council  approved resolution ONLY removed Maple Street from the Neighborhood Dredging Program, NOT the Channel Maintenance Dredging program.
All speakers, both those for and those against the permit readily agreed that maintenance dredging of the Long Creek Channel (about 2 miles from the Lesner Bridge to First Landing State Park) was necessary and required. Even the city Water Engineer, Mr. Phill Roehr acknowledged that the channel has lately only required maintenance dredging about 4 times in 7 years and in those 7 years only produced a TOTAL of  4,000 cubic yards of BEACH GRADE SAND, suitable for deposit on our pristine beaches. You might ask, “how does 4,000 cubic yards of beach grade sand in 7 years equate to the need of the city to deposit up to 25,000 cubic yards of deposits, beach grade and OTHER less than beach grade sand annually? Mr. Roehr stated that there was no change from the previous permit which allowed hydraulic placement of beach grade sand up to 20,000 cubic yards.

Many of us strongly believe that this permit will allow non-beach grade sand to be depositied at this site (and Crab Creek) by not only city dredging people, BUT PRIVATE parties as the city has long stated as a goal in many of their briefings. So, for all those financially adept people who have property made up in part of mud, muck, and silt, we believe this permit will now allow them to contract for a dredge company to come in and make their mudflats into a much more valuable and highly desired “deep water access” lot. These are the same people who are smart enough NOT to seek a Special Service District contract for 16 years and pay increasing SSD assessments as their property increases in its assessed value, but have the means to pay for a one time dredging up front. Now, with a much more valuable “Deep Water Access” piece of property, these savvy owners can sell it and make significant profits. Previously, the major stopping point for many mud flat owners has been where these private parties could dump their non-beach grade spoils. And, now it is solved. After all, it continues to be about special interest money. That is how SOME politicians get elected. Does an acknowledged $400,00 dollars “quid pro quo” sound familiar?

I believe the new permit will limit the spoils to be only from Long Creek and the Channel Maintenance dredging program. Should we citizens expect the city to monitor where the spoils are coming from in compliance with this new permit? As Deputy City Manager Mr. Dave Hansen stated, “the city is self-policing.”  So, that is like our police department giving itself a speeding ticket for going 20 mph over the posted speed limit. I have little faith in either Mr. Hansen or Mr. Roehrs policing the Maple Street or Crab Creek site for spoil origin and spoil quality. VMRC says that if we see permit violations we can give them a call.

We will just have to see what our VMRC permit states once it is signed. We have many options depending on the limitations stated in the permit. The Board of Zoning appeals ruled that a Municipal Dredge Spoils Transfer Facility was not an allowed use on the Maple St. parcel in R7.5 zoning. The City has appealed the ruling which names a private Citizen and the BZA board, but has not acted on it.  Note that the  city is suing this private party with our tax dollars to overturn the city’s own BZA ruling. I don’t think that we are sunk under the muck yet, but we will have much work to do to continue to spread the word to the public on these issues and to gather more residents to sufficiently emphasize to our City Council our concerns related to the potential abuse of our neighborhoods at both Maple Street and Crab Creek sites. If the Public Works Department in the City of Virginia Beach can place our neighborhoods in this jeopardy, the City Council of Virginia Beach has the power to prevent that abuse. After all, the Mayor and City Council work for the citizens of this city. The City Manager and city departments are responsible to that same City Council.

Remember, We the people, as citizens have options also with the coming City Council elections in November.