City Council Legislative Session - workshop

Thank you.

Good afternoon and welcome to the Hampton City Council work session. Madam Clerk, will you call the roll, please?

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown.

Here.

Councilwoman Campbell. Present. Councilwoman Fairby. Present. Councilwoman Harper. Present. Councilwoman Ruggler. Present. Mayor Gray.

Present. And we are going to take one item out of order on the agenda and moving item number three to the first item to be presented. So I'm going to ask City Manager to introduce the first item.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor and council members for your indulgence in moving the item out of order. This item is the infill housing plan book briefing that we were going to have last time, but we're not able to because of the unavailability of the consultants to make it. They are here today to present to you and rather than sit throughout our whole agenda, we appreciate you taking them first. It's my pleasure to introduce senior architect Robert Crawshaw, who will take you through the work that's been done to date to prepare this infill housing plan book. This is not an item for action today, but rather one for information and conversation. Thank you.

Good afternoon. How you doing?

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Again, my name is Robert Croshaw. Robert, if I'm in trouble, Rob, if you want to be casual with me. We're going to recap the work to date on the Hampton Infill effort. We are a small architecture firm with an urban design component in Norfolk, Virginia. I previously lived just down the road on Charles Street near the stadium. So this effort started with community engagement back in July of last year, where we were asking general questions. Our team went out and photographed some of the existing neighborhoods. We took from that and made a report that sort of shared the styles of architecture that we found, but we didn't want to stop there. We had the engagement. We asked questions about a community vibe, if we were missing any of the neighborhood styles. um and features of the building and with the community vibe we were trying to understand the need for privacy versus connection to the community so this was translated into is your front porch forward or is your front porch pushed back do you read the front porch as transactional meaning you're just moving through your front porch to get into your house or is it an outdoor room where you sit and you participate in what's going on in the neighborhood uh... the uh... architectural styles we had identified i think about eight and reduce them down to four or five that were common through the neighborhoods that we looked at uh... in the emphasis was trying to understand the character that has been developed over the years in these neighborhoods so that we could work to uh... do something that sympathetic to that effort sympathetic to those styles uh... Recapping, we had some historic precedents for those houses that we saw throughout, but we also wanted to understand from both the builders at the time and the community members are their styles components of the architecture that are your that the community is most fond of or they identify most clearly with craftsman style or with cottage style etc. So trying to understand those fine details that kind of make the. the new designs very sympathetic to what's going on because craftsmen here is not the same as craftsmen across the country. Following that effort, we went to work by developing plans and elevations and various versions of that based on the criteria for site widths and different conditions where we wanted houses to be able to turn a corner. then we met in reverse order the first session was community three meetings and in builder at the end so that we could gather the most information from the builders before we started drawing this we reversed it we checked in with the builders first and we're at we were saying hey this is what we heard in the last meeting and this is how we've advanced it and we had three subsequent meetings with different neighborhoods throughout hampton uh... and here you can see us taking inventory at this second batch in february of uh... meetings we had three station points one cover the floor plans and the constraints and nuance associated with the sites that we were looking at The other was showing several different versions of elevations that were interchangeable with those floor plans. So trying to create common floor plans that just the front elevation could be swapped out and then you have a slightly different character, craftsman, cottage, etc. The final station that we had kind of went beyond what we were originally tasked with, but trying to understand the community's engagement in resilient features. And this is beyond coastal resilience. We code that into all of our work because we know where we live. but ideas of like rain collection and generators if we wanted to do a back feed we know we want to locate that on the back of a property that rather where it could be protected by a fence rather than the front of a property where a generator could disappear as well as fiber cement which is a more durable siding to vinyl less susceptible to wind and debris damage from the community meetings we had 37 attendees over those three sessions and then at the builder meeting we had 12 it was a combination of builders real estate agents and developers so it wasn't just builders it was it was kind of mixed and kind of reiterating, we were on the right path. It was about creating that character and maintaining that character, but also...

Question for you from Vice Mayor Bryan.

Yes, please. Thank you, sir. In the meeting with the builders and other community folks involved, what kinds of comments were you hearing about this project?

uh so we were leading some of that conversation um the what we have found in um in construction techniques in the area is there's a mix of doing what's called an elevated slab on grade and so we build up the site because we know that we have some coastal flooding we also looked at versions that had crawl space which is traditional in our area But because of our high humidity and water infiltration, we can see damage over time. In the house that I lived in, we had lost insulation because of critters or etc. We were also looking at 2x6 construction at the exterior walls versus 2x4. uh that was simply because as the house gets narrower and narrower on these narrow lots we have a more of a structural concern with overturning of the building secondary to using that two by six construction we also were looking at Once we have that in place, we can very easily clear span the first floor and the second floor. So through the life of the house, it can be renovated. This was beyond what the builders were asking, but it was what we found in other communities where people thinking about living in the house for 20, 30, 40 years and their needs might change. Another thing that came up was are we seeing a lot of age in place houses that are selling in the market? So we were asking that question, but we know in other areas that that is a concern. And you can see that came up in future slides. You'll see me talk to that. Did that answer your question?

somewhat yeah, thank you that is something that you'd like me to some what I appreciate that too, but I was kind of when you get a feel for what positive or negative that bills may have had regarding this project. You share some things about the 2 by 6 is in it that the floor that the floor plan, but the elevations though and all of that for the race or Crawl space. Appreciate that. But I was trying to figure out maybe comment they may have had or advice or input for you.

Right. So in that what we were asking for was what kind of room counts are selling? Are we looking at four bedroom houses? Are we looking at two bedroom houses? And we got some feedback on that and we were right around in most of the house layouts we were right around three bedrooms with an option on the first floor to add that age in place suite or it could be part of the original build out and then another thing that i didn't mention was we were talking about materials and cladding and long-term durability of the construction Um, there it is. Age in place, energy efficiency and resilient design. Resilient design means less about water coming in because we are already planning for that, but more about understanding that vinyl siding is inherently more damaged by wind events and debris events versus fiber cement, which is what we are advocating for. Open and flexible, there was actually a mix of responses for that in both the builders as well as the community meetings. Some of them wanted fixed rooms, others really liked the idea of clear spanning that floor to allow for future configurations. A range of the unit types we are already discussing because we are looking at different lot widths which allow for different house styles. So part of the effort to create this plan book, actually not part of the intent of this plan book, is to reduce the time and process that's involved in. You buy a lot, you come up with a design, you then submit it for review. If we can get a plan book that has these pre-approved plans You have a lot, you get the pre-approved plans, you have to do some engagement with the planning department as far as utilities and things like that, but it cuts out several weeks of that ramp up. And so we really see it as short-timing that front end and allowing construction to happen a little faster. Then to the community, it was about creating those predictable visual cues that made the neighborhoods their distinct neighborhoods, their styles of architecture, the different details that we saw around there. And then the last benefit we found is if the inspectors are reviewing these plans and doing these plans on several different neighborhoods, there becomes a familiarity rather than it's a one-off in every neighborhood because the builder. So it's kind of leveraging both what the community wants, how can we advantage the builders by reducing some of that lead up time as well as from an inspection standpoint. And then the latter points sort of reinforce that eliminating design time because design would have been done ahead of time and reduce permitting and approval times. The trade-offs, I kind of touched on some of those. While the direct cost may increase because of the two by six versus two by four or fiber cement versus vinyl siding, the long-term need for repairs of those things is mitigated by investing early in those. And we found support from the general community in that regard. So moving forward with the plan books, the pre-approved plans in all of these areas that we've identified is optional. And we understand that the city team is working to develop a minimum set of standards with us. to um if if you're building in these areas so that it can still be sympathetic so pre-approved plans are there if you want to build you have to go through a process of making sure it's sympathetic to the houses around there's currently a setback side yard setback for five feet and that's to prevent fires from moving through entire neighborhoods we're maintaining that we in other neighborhoods we were able to reduce it but here we're not um and then there's there's a requirement for um two off-street parking spaces and you can imagine as these houses narrow lots if you have two cars in the front you have very limited access to the front and the front yard experience becomes more of a parking lot than um than a yard and as a result we're working with the city team to reduce that from on those narrow lots exceptions to just a single parking spot off street and then as the lots get bigger because there's variation there's also opportunities which you'll see in here in the drawings to have a side yard driveway that will take you to the rear of the lot and a parking space or a garage excuse me we heard back in the first july community meeting about a desire for a one-story option we pursued it as part of the february version so we had the february meetings we had a one-story option as we were asking more questions we found out that this was more about age in place and living on one floor than having two floors so the idea of building brand new construction as a one story it's it's a little more problematic from a developer contractor standpoint

I have a question for you and maybe this might go to a this Michael regarding size of the lot is the 25. But why a lot I don't know the depth of it is a 40 is a 40 feet.

We we have versions which will get into and I can speak to these 25 foot is the narrowest that we found a 100 feet is roughly the shallowest so 2500 square foot lot. In some of the instance what you actually in the instance where we have a 25 foot wide lot with a 2 story. we needed a 106 feet of lot depth to get the backyard requirement as well as the third bedroom. We could eliminate a dining room and a bedroom and still use that 100-foot lot, but then it's at the detriment of the spaces that we found the community needed.

So that the 20 the a lot of that size with that fall into all for zoning or what what would the what would the zoning be for a lot for a house this and I ask that question because my I guess the next question my answer to his does does the zoning allow for a duplex on this lot. Because when you talk about the aging in place and wanting the space on the first floor, might someone want to build a unit that, let's say, has a suite or an efficiency-type unit on a second floor as a leasing option?

Yeah, so in terms of the zoning district, generally these lots, so they're substandard infill lots, generally we consider them nonconforming. So they could be in many different residential districts, not just located in the R4 district. In terms of whether a townhome would be allowed or not, I think it would depend on the specific zoning district that it falls within. But I don't think generally for these substandard infill lots, A town home would be something that would be permitted on this.

We say town home town home, I'm thinking as a single family, but I'm I was saying a duplex where you have I'm sorry a separate separate living unit on the second floor. I think one of the units was like I think is 1800 square feet. So if you had a 5 to 600 square foot efficiency unit on the top floor and the other 1200 square feet of living space on downstairs as a

as an age in place kind of uh development i mean unit with that with that pass i mean would that be allowed under this this this code or this is only yeah i think yeah that's a good question i think it does depend on the zoning district that that lot falls in and i think if the specific zoning district allows it as that would be a two family and it could meet the minimum code requirements for size of the house and that kind of thing i think it would be permitted

The second question is I think you mentioned that in these units you would require to parking spaces.

That's what currently required for any new construction. All right.

And I'm yeah, I wonder how that would. Yes to off street park to off street parking spaces so with what the state now has approved will require it now as minimum parking for maximum parking requirement. for some residential lots with this with that new state legislation affect what's what you're doing here with the requirement of 2 2 spaces.

I'm not familiar with the new state legislation, but this is Michael is

yes so the new state legislation depending on how it's implemented could potentially affect this so like rob said we are looking to reduce the amount that's required on these lots specifically the substandard and fill that so we're already trying to reduce that to about 50 of what's currently required in the zoning ordinance and what the new state legislation would also force us to reduce the parking required as well so it would be about what we're already doing with the infill lots is what the state would require.

Okay. All right, thank you.

If I could follow up a little bit on that. The original charge for WPA, the design team, was infill housing. So there was a house there. We're putting a house there. We weren't really looking at increasing density in these areas. I understand where the question is coming from. And then additionally, as we found that the lots, the narrowest lot, we had challenges with getting to the second floor because a stair has a minimum width. We actually needed to horseshoe it in the back of the house because it would just make those front rooms so narrow. So trying to accommodate that on the narrowest lots is a little bit cumbersome in that regard.

Okay. Thank you.

I believe I touched on the 2x4 and 2x6. Again, it's that structural requirement for the narrowest lots. As the building gets wider and more square, it becomes more stable structurally. But it also allowed for the clear spans. There were also other improvements associated with a two by six. We did an evaluation and found that there was a 1% to 8% increase in a total cost of the construction associated with that. Our calculations brought us to one, but we reached out to builders that were doing something similar on a 40 foot by 20 foot house. Again, this is two by six only at the exterior wall. Interior can be more traditional two by four. And so we found that that was that one to 8% overall increase in cost. But with that two by six at the exterior walls, we can increase insulation. That insulation helps with sound mitigation from any adjacency to popular streets. busy streets, excuse me, not popular, as well as the future of where our mechanical systems are going with efficiency and heat gain and et cetera. So yes, there's a cost. Initially, as I mentioned, we reached out to some builders that are doing some similar things and they've already bought into the advantage. They've found the advantage. Now there were some questions at the builders meeting that were opposed to the two by six, but a majority of the smaller builders that were invested in the community, we found that they were definitely in favor of this. Now I'm going to go through the concept plans. Here you can see this is our narrowest lot. So we have, you'll see on the top left, the lot width and usually, excuse me, the house width. And usually in the green, you'll see a lot width. So you'll see those going forward. But this is just setting up. This one has the dining room in the rear of it. And so it requires that 106 plus to get that rear yard setback requirement. um but living room kitchen dining room all on the first floor as we look at what the second floor looks like you can see the stair in the back excuse me where horseshoes around lots of concerns as we're designing this about actually moving furniture up those stairs because i've moved a lot growing up military and those become a little bit more difficult but we're still trying to understand how to make an effective third bedroom solution for this layout from the front again we're going to talk about the benefits of the siding so this imagined that narrow lot as a dutch colonial style which i believe we found in every single neighborhood except for buckrow I talked about storm damage, wind resistance. We found vinyl siding being pulled off houses as well as my old house, a branch hit the house and popped a hole in the siding and we had to replace a whole section of it. and then the sustainability just of that material in general because it's more fiber cement is stable it can be established for it's rot resistant because it's fiber cement it just needs painting like anything else on your house we need painting from time to time The trim we were trying to tie to those different, we are trying to tie to those different styles. So a Dutch colonial trim package might look different than a craftsman trim package. And in here, referencing raised slab. So this, we've seen some new construction in Hampton that is a slab on grade. So it's not four steps up, as you can see in the illustrative elevation. It was just straight on the slab. That's nothing we would advocate for. We know that it needs to be raised because of, if not tidal inundation, but major storm events that just bring in a mass of water at one time. um here is our most repeatable floor plan and a slightly different version of it the left imagines it as if it were on a corner this this arrangement compartmentalized that first floor more than we were expecting but it has to set up with the front porch being centered on the building And in those rooms that support it. The second, the center plan is that open concept plan. So this imagines a front entrance. And in the bottom right, you can see if the lot is wide enough, there's an opportunity for a drive aisle on the side of the lot as well as, excuse me, a garage in the rear of the property. I'm going to clip through these so I can try to keep you on time. But if you have any questions, please stop me. And then for both of those plans, you see them repeated on the left here. That far right image is the second floor, and it works for both of those plans. The stairs in the same location on the first floor. And it allows for that layout. In that center plan, that dining room area is where we would have an opportunity to swap out that whole dining room, laundry room, restroom for an age-in-place suite. We were also looking at an opportunity to do that as a one-story addition off the rear of the property. So you'd still have the dining room, you'd still have the laundry room and other features. It would just allow for an extension, should the depth of the lot allow. And in all of those standard plans allow for a slightly wider Dutch colonial, a Victorian, a couple versions of Victorian, and I don't see that we have our craftsmen in here. Then for planning on a 40-foot wide lot with the five-yard setbacks, that gives us a 30-foot wide house, which allows itself more for that four-square colonial-style house. And again, if there's a slightly wider property, there's an opportunity for off-street parking to the rear of the lot. You can see the four squares, the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a nook, as well as a central stair and three bedrooms, primary suite on the second floor. In that module of age in place that we talked about as a one-story element, our plan is to have that as a plug and play on this as well. So this can also have a one-story addition off the back. then here you can see the dutch colonial facade again the different pro trim packages would equate to different trims different styles of architecture and here you can see the array of the houses in context of the work that we've done So the things that WPA needs to move forward with this is to understand if there are any comments or concerns or desires strongly to be used two by six versus two by four. We've expressed kind of the advantages and disadvantages of both. And then our current plan was to have those four set floor plan types but if we go to two by four construction that's going to require us to use interior walls to structure the building and so those will be less flexible so those would need a very fixed floor plan that we can give to our structural engineer to evaluate and put plywood where plywood needs to go to prevent the building's structure yes sir

Going back to the previous one the 88 option. I know 88 would typically have you know why the doors lower cabinets and things on the inside does the idea option also include a ramp on the front.

we haven't developed a plan for a ramp and those are really site specific where the um we have in the past done those but where the we have a lower risk of water infiltration our house can be lower therefore the ramp can be shallower or less run of the ramp In the houses that we've done before, we've put the ramp on the rear of the property so that the front could be seen as one homogenous story across the neighborhood.

Okay, thank you.

from Councilman Campbell sorry sorry just a couple questions that these are I'm I'm really enjoying this car safety or so you had on your option had a one story building but you don't have any in here is there a reason why or is there time when you plan to do those.

We brought those in because of the June 25 conversation. As we followed up in February of this year, we found that that was less about the one story and more about the age in place. So we can accommodate that in a two story. We also, in the areas that we were looking at, the smallest style of house that we found was Cape Cod, which is one and a half story. Now, in The northern neighborhoods, there were some 1970s, 1980s one-story ranch house styles. While that is a perfect parallel, ranch is always broad to the street, and we're looking at houses that are narrow to the street. So a one-story house to accommodate two, three bedrooms, it's going to get very deep. So we have pulled that out of our effort. But we did investigate it as part of what we heard from the community. And as we got more information from them, that's when we determined that it was less about the one story house and more about Agent Place.

And do you know, I don't know if you or Kim know, do you know how many infill lots we're specifically talking about being able to use all these designs on? Are we talking 10 or 12, 100, 1,000?

The exact number I'm unaware of. I know we did a big inventory at the very beginning to understand the variance and widths and depths.

Do we have a rough calculation on that?

It sounds like there's no number for the lots that would be affected. And then the last thing that we need to effectively leave from this conversation is the flexibility in construction materials. And this goes to, I didn't touch on this so much, but we're finding in some communities they limit the use of vinyl windows because they just aren't standing up to time. We have experienced in multifamily projects throughout that fiberglass is becoming more prevalent, but also aluminum and wood construction. windows in historic neighborhoods is almost a requirement in some historic neighborhoods but also the idea of fiber cement which i didn't touch on also non-flammable it's a concrete product vinyl siding i've seen houses in my younger years where the grills put too close to the house and it involves some melting of the siding that wouldn't happen with fiber cement um so two by six versus two by four if we are on track with our four to five floor plans that we have or if we need to investigate

they're big so

OK, we are back from research recess and looks like we're ready to go. Everything is up and running so you can continue. Thank you.

Yeah, I would like to say that there's a great deal more, but that was really the end of the presentation. I want to circle back to these questions because these are the responses that we need to know to move forward. So I'm welcome to discuss them at length.

Councilman Campbell.

So one of the things that I had talked about was the 2 by 6 versus the 2 by 4 and the type of material for the siding and the number of floor joists and the number of sealed roof trusses. All that adds to the cost and the flexibility. I'm not against it. I just think we need to go in knowing that all those things are going to add cost to the house. You know, I know some of the houses that were built in Norfolk were all the shotgun where you'd need the extra support in Hampton. You could see by the different ones we've got all shapes and sizes. So I would be more interested kind of with Kim about the processes and and how much time, you know, is this going to shorten the time that the builders are going to have to go through the permitting process, go through the design process. So but the the stuff you've got here is great. Thank you.

um to that point the colonial style if you recall the four square that likely will have central structural wall it won't be as open as the rest so that is probably the greatest candidate for switching to two by four the others as i mentioned if we switch to two by four on those exterior perimeter walls the interior walls will um the flexibility will go away One thing I didn't discuss here but have in the community meetings, it's part of that clear spanning. We were also using open web trusses, which I believe is what you were alluding to. And the idea is if you have solid lumber and you try to do something in the future, you have to drill through that solid lumber, which defeats the structural integrity. If we have those open web joists, which are common in construction. That allows for the clear space for just running ducts and plumbing and et cetera, electrical through that without having to cut any holes in the structure.

Other questions? Council Member Muggler.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Not necessarily as many questions as comments. I really do like the concepts that you've come up with because it is a difficult kind of endeavor and project. And while I do know that there are some costs associated with some of the more expensive trim and and construction materials i do think it in the long term it should create a more valuable property as well which i think is what we're looking for um and then i really think it's you've come up with some really charming um facades and i guess i've as i've read these slides there are certain floor plans that you can do the dutch revival on and certain ones that you can do the victorian on they they're not all

interchangeable so there was there was one skip to it this 20 by 45 that allows for the most flexibility here you can see the styles as well as craftsmen in this. So all of these rely on the same footprint. um the um the two right victorian styles have a projected bay slightly different structure but from the ground up it's going to be very similar it just is going to add a little bit of room to that plan but the 20 by 45 is the standard unit that allowed for the switching out of the fronts and so this concrete fiber or

fiber cement fiber cement thank you couldn't remember whether you used concrete or cement the word um i don't know that i've does it look like the old um i don't want to bring it exciting

what so uh having lived in hampton and um living in an old old house now in norfolk there was a period in the 60s that they used a an asbestos shing yep that's what it is not that it doesn't look like it goes up like a board it's a little bit more expensive to install because it's single boards which is vinyl siding usually has three um board looks in one piece. So that would go faster and you can cut that with scissors. Whereas the fiber cement, you can set so depending on your area um you can set the the um the face of that to different depths um the the shallower the depth sorry i'm speaking abstractly so the horizontal lines there in colonial style those actually get closer together that's part of that colonial style What I have found in this area as well as in other areas, there was this movement in this late 70s, early 80s, maybe mid 70s, late 70s, to vinyl siding wrap these buildings. So now you can see some metal version over the asbestos shingle or over whatever was behind it. Sometimes it was wood that they just clad with aluminum. This is a stable product. It's available at Home Depot Lowe's. They have textured so it can look like wood grain. They have flat. They have a bead reveal, which is more common for clonale. And so it's just a more durable product.

Is it heavy?

It's heavy, but it doesn't mean you can't install this as one person. They come in 12 foot lengths by seven to, no, eight to five inches tall. So 12 foot lengths.

Well, thank you. Thank you for the presentation. It was worth waiting for you to come and hear your presentation. And, you know, the last, next to the last slide, or next to the next last slide, anyway, they're not numbered, but you have all the facades on here. It's just very charming. I really, really am very pleased with the outcome of your work. Thank you. Thank you.

Vice mayor Brown, yeah, thank you just a quick question on the lots of the 50 feet wide in larger is that a rear double car garage on the side.

We we hadn't developed plans for what that garage would look like what we could get you said to do so you would want to pocket faces correct.

for 50 foot wide or more lot to pocket spaces off the pocket basis.

That is a possibility we hadn't studied that as part of the effort that we show to the community in February. This is since we got feedback just looking at a parking aisle so on that parking all that goes on the side of your property as many cars as can fit that is what could park off street, but then you've got to be a circus performer to get the right car out the right time.

It now the 2 by 6. But you make it more durable when it comes to high wind.

Yes, it's not structurally sound to be locked down tighter. It's again as the House gets narrower with wind forces it wants to rack the building but more costly to the builder. Yes, we the analysis that we did showed 2 by 4 exterior wall construction was about $3600 there shooting 30. yeah thirty six hundred dollars for just the exterior walls and to do that out of two by six it added thirteen hundred dollars so it's inc it's a significant increase relative but over the cost of the house and the value that it provided what we're finding is that the builders are still wanting to invest that in the builders and other communities are still wanting to invest that in and i would think it would be a good selling point for those who may want to purchase these homes these these are for sale

Yes, kept purchase these homes to say listen, this is a unit to about 6 which is stronger more durable blah blah blah blah blah blah and looking at the 2 by 4. But for those who want an extra stability in their home structure, the home, I think that you know it's a win win either to a 4 to 5, 6, yeah it prices different, but you know it's not that yeah, the price is different and I would say less of

Yes, durability. It's up there. The added insulation value is something that the homeowner will see throughout the life. In fact, we had one builder that pushed back a lot on 2x6 and wanted to use 2x4. She's actually living in the house that she built off a set of plans that we did. She sent us a beautiful... It's 2x6? two by six she sent us a beautiful email one day and it was a picture of her thermostat and she said it's energy efficient it's been 50 degrees outside and our house is holding at 70. she came to the first builders meeting because we actually wanted her there to promote the idea but yeah thank you great presentation is well worth the wait thank you you know questions comments from council members

I did have one question along the same lines regarding the 2 by 6 because you mentioned that in a in a narrow 25 house 2 storey house like that there's some sway that goes on is that something that you just kind of feel if it was only 2 by 4 or is that a actual collapse hazard in a strong way.

Not if. We would do it properly. The trade-off isn't that you can't do exterior walls out of two by four. It's that you can't just count on those exterior walls as the stability for your project. And those interior walls are what need to be then engaged, transfer all the way down to a foundation. So The there's added foundation cost to make sure that low transfers all the way down to the ground, etc.

I just wonder why the current I mean the building code doesn't address that if building a narrow house with the certain height has a sway effect on it in in strong winds why wouldn't the code required the 2 by 6 versus the 2 by 4.

Well, again, it simply had to do with the racking of that house and then also not relying on interior walls. The code will govern the structural stability. A contractor has to design it and improve that math. Our structural engineer would do the same. Nothing would go up without a thorough review structurally we're not 2 by 4 will not result in the inevitable collapse. It's just the advantages of 2 by 6 we've found outweigh the cost of that. Also not our wallet, but just the advantages that we're finding from and use.

It just just look like more or less of the Congress of the question when the vice when the mayor is asking about a duplexes My experience of the former zoning expected many years ago decades ago. 20 foot lot 25 foot lots were 25 foot wide, but they could be as deep as 200 feet. They were very very deep. So I lived in a duplex on Victoria Boulevard where the date we were 2019 a 2019 be was the duplex behind us So when you look at these lots in terms of a duplex, can you go back further because of the rear yard being so deep?

So we did an inventory of the lots. It was a mathematical output of the lots that are available. We found the average to be about 100 feet deep, the average of all of those. Some definitely were 200 and more deep. So we were trying to find that piece, the design that worked for the majority of the lots. We weren't looking at this is an extra long lot, we can then do this instead. It was trying to find the economy and the design.

All right, thank you so same as I guess is this the conclusion of this process now you just looking for a. General agreement from Council that this is acceptable.

Correct just to make sure that you all are you know generally comfortable answer any of the questions you've had that full conversation on the pros and cons of certain ones of these and what we'll want to do is finalize and you can get it adopted for you.

The only concern I have is that the 2 by 6 is above code. So code requires a 2 by 4. So we are adding a higher level of requirement to the builders than code requires. So, you know, option wise, I'm not sure. Are we making this mandatory or making this optional? Where are we? I'll let Kim address that.

i think where we landed is this would not be a requirement it could be something that the builder can use otherwise we'll have some minimum design criteria in place that they would have to abide by but this would be something that they could choose to do and i just want to say to the other two by six verse two by four and please correct me if i'm wrong um you know really weighing out the benefits verse verse not we really looked at what the two by six offers in terms of flexibility of the floor plan. So as you said, you know, the floor spanning and all those kind of things, it really allows the future owner and the developer to decide, you know, if they want to age in place and create a downstairs bedroom versus a dining room downstairs. It just really gives them the flexibility. Whereas, you know, going with the two by four, it's a more fixed floor plan. And so if they wanted to make any modifications or changes to the two by four fixed floor plan they would have to essentially redesign the house and go through the whole new process whereas the two by six it would be a much easier process to to make those changes and i think that was one of the main things that we heard from the community is being having that flexibility to make those changes over time as needed

yeah in you can do that out of two by four uh construction but if it's a structural wall we have to then take into consideration that there might be the addition of steel in your house to create that large open span so the the the flexibility that kim was speaking of was just allowing right now you want a dining room in 15 years you might start thinking about aging in place or bringing in an in-law or aging parent too And the cost to do that renovation with two by six, that's clear span, is significant less than trying to restructure. You don't have to restructure the whole house, but anything that is a structural element, you have to tie that all the way down to the ground. And I did get some numbers if we wanted to reach out to the team. In Old Hampton, we found 53 available lots, Phoebus 29, Buckrow 6.

um excuse me old northampton 53 in old hampton 20 and an old with 28 so total of about 136 lots that are empty are these okay vice mayor brown you have a question uh kim on the the question uh the comment councilman campbell said they were above the code understand that but is it against the code or in it is it permissible to do two by six

It is certainly permissible that she points out I mean it is above the minimum requirements the code only you know that those are the minimum standards. But you can certainly do 2 by 6 is and we've had that you know explain the benefits of doing that in terms of insulation and floor plan and all those kind of things but it's certainly something that they could do is just going to be an additional cost.

So the the the prospective homeowner can have the option of 2 by 4 or 2 by 6 if they choose.

That that would not be the intent of the the plans we would have to develop a set of plans to a structurally engineered has to buy for you to be honest accommodate engine, whatever.

But but the homeowner could actually build a house with 2 by 6. Or 2 by 4, yes, or 2 by 4. Okay, I want to make that clear. I know it's okay. Thank you.

So if I can emphasize, I guess we need to get direction on what you want them to do, because the intent is that we have a set of plans that people can use. And so to re-emphasize what he was saying, The plan had been to develop them all with either two by six or all the two by four. If we want them to have both, it will be extra money to do two sets of each. And so that's why they were trying to get clarification on what you prefer. There is no problem. Most homes are actually built far above code requirements. But I think Ms. Campbell was just raising, you know, the point that it is above code so that we're all aware of that. And so you can choose which Since we're we're paying to have these plans developed for use by the development and public you can choose whether you want to buy 6 to buy 4 or if you want us to do both just knowing it's going to cost more money.

Councilman therapy.

I think you missed me. I prefer to design to the 2 by 6. I think I'm being above code is a good thing and I also feel that the way you laid out the architectural flexibility. when you look at the ages of the folks in our community I I really if we're only going to do one set I will recommend the two by six and thank you for um the development of these uh wonderful plans I appreciate much needed Councilwoman Campbell

If this is just recommended and not required. I'm I'm good with the 2 by 6 and I don't think we need to pay for you know 2 sets. I think the design the concept is great. I just make sure that we know when the builders come in and go this is about we know we're going to ask what happens.

I guess I want to make sure we clear on this day. If we go with the 2 by 6 plans. And the builder wants to do to buy for the bill that didn't do design, they would just design their own own plan.

It's a difference between we're giving you a set of ready made plans that you don't have to go out and get your own plans and if you want to use our plan. This is it and if you want don't and if you all choose to go with the 2 by 6 of the builder says I don't want to do to the 6 I only want to do that building code minimum Then they just wouldn't be using these plans they're coming in and using their own plans. OK, but but when they use their own plans what about all the other features they wouldn't be able to use in those kinds of things they wouldn't be able to like this project is providing efficiencies right because it's a ready made pre approved set of plan. But if you say I don't like your plan either because it's above the code or I don't like the layout or whatever then they're coming in and then they're not getting the efficiencies of that process then they just go through the normal process and that's where it kicked over to what miss michael said at that point for the infill lots there's just the criteria the lot criteria and whatever that you would meet they would just come in and start to finish the process from scratch as anybody would do if we didn't have these plants okay so a builder is going to choose do i want to use the ready-made set of plans that you have and choose the efficiencies that go along with doing that or do i just want to come into the process and develop with my own plans which have to be evaluated to whether and to the extent do they meet code that that's

okay so all right so then when the builder decides they want to use their own plans and go to two by fours there's also some other features that we said that we like on these elevations the kinds of details and so forth that are involved here so do they then get to select their own details or do we have any input on the design the exterior design of the property or can they just build whatever the basic code requires

yeah except to the extent there are any design criteria built into the zoning ordinance, but you have a very limited ability to do that you can't like for example specify building materials and the intricacies of the design.

It's everybody clear on that that well is that.

Thank you vice mayor, I thought I meant our mayor I thought the purpose was to get away from a developer to be able to come into a straight shotgun House so we leave this window open. That's what we're facing that someone to come in as bill a straight shot and House if they don't go with these plans in my career.

That's correct.

when we had this conversation previously and some of you weren't here because this has been an ongoing conversation but the council didn't want to mandate that you had to use one of the set plans so the only way to get if you're not gonna mandate set plans, the only way is to incentivize people to use it. And our approach was by having the ready-made plans, building the efficiencies in, you can go faster through permitting and all those things that that might be sufficient enough that a developer would want to use these. But short of mandating that they use something, you're not gonna be able to avoid a developer who wants to do the bare minimum. which can result in a shotgun like house. So you have to either increase your requirements and to the city attorney's point, there's some things you can't put in the code like construction materials and things like that. So this is the best way to leverage a better product because we're saving time and money. but they wouldn't be able to. I mean, I guess they could theoretically, I don't want to answer for a consultant, but maybe they like one of the plans, but they want it by two by four. Maybe they could go to the, to WPA and say, would you design it? You know, I'll pay the cost of have you designed it with the two by four instead. I mean, I'm not saying that couldn't happen. Maybe it could, maybe it couldn't, but unless we pay for two sets of plans, we would only have the two by six available for them to get that efficient process that the city attorney described.

Councilman can we talk about a minimum set of design. Standards preferences. When we talk about if they didn't want to use the plan that they would have another we would come up with a subset where did that conversation go.

Kim can address that, but we can't get as detailed as you have to do this design is what I was saying. You can't tell them what construction materials and whatnot. So why don't you give an example of what we could and would do if they didn't follow the plans?

Yeah, and I may defer to Courtney a little bit on this one. We haven't gotten super into the details to Mary's point on that one yet, but it would be less aesthetic things that we could require and it would be more about standard setbacks and um widths of houses and those kind of things it wouldn't really be about the character of the house or the building materials and we wouldn't be able to legally get into that level of detail yes

think to the last point that or one of the last points that the city manager made the idea of this is to sufficiently incentivize and to make this attractive to the builders that they would want to use this rather than go in with you know what we've called the the standard shotgun house i mean i it would be challenging for us to say you must use our plans i I'm not I'm not entirely sure we could do that to be honest.

Council member.

I feel like we're turning butter here. So just to put a fine point on this conversation. supposed to be a really a good thing that we're doing here. So I feel really good about the plan book and all the things that you came back with and I think we're we're potentially over complicating this to shoot our own selves in the foot, but and i wish you all would number these slides because i really like to refer to slide number blah blah blah but doesn't matter um there's a program goal right here it talks about the predictability of time the process the results the reduction in in indirect cost the trade-offs all those things that's the benefit of this proposal is that when people come in and theoretically buy these infill lots that are technically not even for sale at this point I don't know some of them may be but but when we're trying to as a community maintain the integrity of our neighborhoods and our housing. This is one way that we can offer up great ideas for maintaining the integrity of our neighborhoods and what they might look like when we built a home on a smaller, narrower infill lot. you know the benefit is that you know for builders to come in and get some of these lots they've got this um much more predictable timeline these um expectations and you know guidelines um but it but the trade-off and the benefit to them is that it's going to help them complete a project more quickly and more efficiently and put out a really high quality product but I think we've gotten ourselves kind of in a quandary with 2 by 4 versus 2 by 6 and all that we just need to move forward give instruction on one option or the other and let's move forward with this very very well done program.

I think it's I agree as well done. It's just my my concern is one of the complaints and accusations that we've had from some neighborhoods in hampton is that builders are building these shotgun houses with cheap construction and there's no consideration for uh requiring that they do something to better the neighborhood so we got a plan here but but it sounds to me like okay well we all agree that this is what we like to see but i guess what the city attorney is saying we can't require that they do that so i guess that's that's my rub with it right now is how do we ensure that in those areas where people have been complaining about minimum construction standards not being something that improves the neighborhood how do we get that into that neighborhood is this the only way is to incentivize them with the plan book or is there some way that we can require certain types of construction quality and standards in the neighborhood. And we saw the same thing when it came to the old Hampton neighborhood and some of the homes that were built there. There were a lot of nice homes built, but what we heard from some people who were in the neighborhood was that the quality of construction really wasn't sufficient.

So I think what I would recommend, I mean, sort of independent or parallel with evaluation of the plan book process as an optional thing if you want us to look at to what extent can we can regulate or mandate minimum design criteria for residential structures that is a legal issue that we can research to see to what extent we can do i i'm going to tell you i think the conventional wisdom legally is that i don't think we can be as specific in a mandatory environment as what this is presenting as an attractive option but we can certainly look into that how far you can go with that

To imagine and and I think I'm right and if I'm not I'm sure the city attorney will correct me if we happen to have lots that we own and that we're selling we can make at a condition of the sale but where I think we have less flexibility on what we mandate or those private already privately held properties. So a lot of times we use plan books, whether it's for infill housing or for some of the other areas like we have in the city, like Buckrow, for instance, the way we're able to ensure they get implemented is because we make it a condition of our development agreement or our sale of the land. So I assume that would also be available if we happen to have lots that would qualify for infill development, but many of them are not owned by us. And so that's where we get into some of the restrictions. you know that we typically can put in place like the separation or the setbacks and things of that nature.

I'm I'm fine with the plan book and the designs and all that they came up with but I really would like to know at least from the you know, attorney's perspective, is there any way that we can do more than incentivize this versus just allowing it, you know, to be required in infield lots that are developed. So that's all. But other than that, I'm fine with what we saw, you know, in terms of the quality of the presentations, the 2x6 versus the 2x4 and that kind of thing. So I'm okay with that part. comments from council members okay thank you sir thank you very much

next item mr mayor is the 2026 general assembly session recap that ed reed vice president of two capitals consulting will provide it would be nice if we were at a place where the state budget was complete and we could have a full wrap-up on the general assembly session unfortunately i think as you all know we still don't have a state budget but mr reed is here to talk about what what did happen um in the session so with that i'm glad to introduce him it's

Good afternoon, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, members of Council, City Manager Bunting, City Attorney Sidnor, and City Clerk Glass. It's an honor to be before you this afternoon, and to the City Manager's point, I wish I had a little bit more positive news than I do, but it's changing by the minute. You gave me a little bit more time sitting here to get a few more updates, but not huge. And so while the regular session has come to a conclusion, we are in the posture of a special session, mainly to deal with the current ongoing budget impasse with the two-year state budget. I will talk about the budget discussion towards the end of my presentation, but please feel free to stop me at any point during the presentation if you have questions. Also wanted to recognize my colleague, Sierra Pryor, who's also here today from Two Capitals. I did want to sort of start by setting the stage because we've had a little bit of change in the General Assembly since we last spoke or prior to session. The House of Delegates is still led by Speaker Don Scott out of Portsmouth. Right now, the Democrats are the majority caucus in the House of Delegates with 64 members, and the Republicans, the minority caucus with 36 members. I would say that there has been a recent resignation from a Democratic delegate out of Northern Virginia, and that resignation is effective on May 31st, so here in a couple days. And we do expect a special election to occur to fill the remainder of that term. in the state senate we see a much narrower margin with the majority caucus and democrats having 21 members and republicans having 19. you might recall that there were a number of gubernatorial appointees mainly coming out of the house but created somewhat of a a ripple effect with several new members in both the House and the Senate. And so that's caused some shakeup in committees. And so on the next slide here, you'll see that we did have new leadership in both Senate and House local government committees. And this is really important, I think, for the work that you all do and the advocacy work that we do in Richmond on your behalf. At the beginning of session, a delegate, Dan Helmer, took the helm of the House County Cities and Towns Committee. And then right after crossover at the midway point of session, Senator LaSherissa Aird became the chair of the Senate Local Government Committee. And so fortunately enough, at Two Capitals, we enjoy a relationship with both of those leaders and worked with them pretty regularly on your behalf as it relates to the General Assembly. You know the governor lieutenant governor attorney general is going much detail there, but I did want to highlight the fact that I think the governor has made it a focal point of her administration to. As she's appointed 2 members of her team to be liaisons to the local government community and I know a few of you have interacted and engage with them at different convenings over the last several months. But I think our team has found that to be a valuable resource as we advocate on your behalf in Richmond. Here is probably the most important slide, I think, in terms of people. These are members of your delegation here locally in Hampton. And I say this repeatedly, but Hampton has the smallest General Assembly delegation of any of the seven Hampton Roads cities, two delegates and one senator. While that's a smaller number, they are certainly mighty in the work that they do in Richmond on your behalf and their influence. And so I'd like to publicly thank each of them for the work that they do on your behalf and the constant communication that our team has with them on a daily basis. Senator Locke has the distinction of serving as the majority caucus chair. She's also the chair of the Rules Committee, which is a very influential committee, and on the Senate Finance Appropriations Committee and the Budget Conferee. So she's really busy these days. Delegate Juwan Ward, she serves as the chair of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, also the longest serving member of your delegation here. And then our newest member of the delegation, Delegate Virgil Thornton, who hit the ground running in January, serves on a number of different committees, but more importantly for you all, he's on the House County Cities and Towns Committee. They tackle all things local government and he is very in tune to what's happening there and him and I talk pretty regularly during session about the issues and the impacts to the city of Hampton. He takes that role very seriously. Just to give you some perspective on the sheer amount of work and bills that come through a session. The 2026 session was a 60-day session. And it's supposed to be 60 days because they're supposed to have extra time to do the budget. But 60 days is not enough anymore. But we had over 3,600 bills introduced with just over 2,300 bills passing. And then we saw 31 bills vetoed. Not captured here on the slide, but the governor did offer over 100 amendments to bills at the recent April 22nd reconvene veto session. And those amendments received a mixed response from the democratically controlled General Assembly. We'll talk about some of them here in just a second. And so, as you know, the budget negotiations are ongoing. So here are a few of the hot button issues that we've talked about for the last six months or even more the last couple of years, a couple of them. And I'll start with the retail cannabis. While Virginia has had a legalization of cannabis since 2021, there's no legal retail market for the sales of cannabis outside of medical cannabis. There were two bills that passed the General Assembly this session that would have stood up. a legal framework for that retail market. We've seen the legislation over the last several sessions. I think there was some thought that there would be more traction on it. This session, when sent to the governor, she offered a great deal of amendments to both of those bills that sought to restructure the regulatory framework, adjust the start date of the market, amend criminal penalties, and also alter the public possession limits. The General Assembly essentially rejected, through procedural motions, those amendments and sent the bills back to the governor in their original form. And so, as you saw last week, the governor did veto both of those bills. There are conversations ongoing about what the best path forward is. The governor has signaled her support for the retail market, but with the understanding that getting all the details right before signing said legislation. There is a legislative commission that's still in effect that is slated to meet on June 2nd. So next week in Richmond, we'll get a glimpse of kind of what their reaction is to the veto and kind of next steps moving forward through the General Assembly. Next, in somewhat of a similar posture, is skill games. There were a pair of bills that went through the General Assembly this session, only one of them passing. That's the Senate Bill 661 from Senator Rouse. That would have set up a regulatory framework for the regulation and taxation of skill games. That bill was also vetoed. It's important to note that on, particularly for cannabis and skill games, the veto of both of them eliminated significant revenue streams for the Commonwealth. So it does have somewhat of an impact on the budget negotiations between the House and Senate budgets, respectively, because they both tackled the issues differently. It probably caused a little bit of the delay in negotiations as well. And I'd further add that both of them had ability for local taxation as well. So we won't recognize any additional revenue at the local level through the retail cannabis legislation or the skill games legislation at this point. next on collective bargaining you will remember that we added language before the session into the the legislative agenda that sought to reserve the local option on collective bargaining the legislation we saw this session was really a band-aid on on local governments um so you know i don't go into much detail was a hot topic throughout session and continues to be a hot topic um Like cannabis, the governor offered a set of amendments to the collective bargaining legislation that was ultimately rejected by the General Assembly. Some of her amendments sought to changed employees that were eligible at the state level pushed to date the effective date to 2030 in some cases for local government so delaying other parts of the implementation of the bill as well so with the rejection of those amendments the governor did veto that legislation a couple of weeks ago on paid family medical leave this has been a topic of conversation for several years as well it's been vetoed in the past it did pass this session and the governor has signed into law with varying effective dates but more so most of the provisions of the bill being effective in 2028 and and so i know that the city and other localities are working with the email they go now this to find out exactly how state legislation will work with whatever you have locally The issue of data centers continues to be a driving issue of the budget negotiations. Data centers is sort of a two-fold conversation, because we think about it from a fiscal conversation, but also thinking through the lens of natural resources. So we've seen a lot of bills come through this session that sought to regulate water usage, consumption usage, electricity usage of data centers, but also seeking to regulate or rein in the sales and use tax exemption that data centers enjoy at this particular point. And so that is a focal point of the budget negotiations, even as I came to the podium just a few minutes ago. lastly and talked about a little bit less as it relates to housing is payer bills that we kind of coined as faith and housing bills which would would give tax exempt or a faith-based entities the ability to go through the housing process from a buy right position. And there are varying provisions on how you can enact that at the local level, but it does erode some local government authority in being able to regulate kind of where those housing entities may implement those developments. And also, not on this slide, but related to tax revenue and gaming, of the 31 vetoes, the governor did veto legislation that would have created a timeline or avenue for the Tyson's Casino in Northern Virginia. So that bill did pass the General Assembly, but was ultimately vetoed by the governor. All right, moving into some of the requested legislation from the city of Hampton and also some of the prioritized legislation in our package for the first time this year was House Bill 115 from Delegate Ward related to the waste to energy program dealing with some of the the challenges that are allowing for some credits through the DEQ process. Ended up striking that from the docket, which is a fancy way of saying continued or needs more work. There were some initial challenges with the introduced language, and so Delegate Ward just thought it'd be a good idea to kind of work with DEQ in the off season to tackle some conversations in that issue there there was ultimately a piece of legislation that passed the general assembly somewhat dealing with this issue it creates a work group over the interim and so we're going to be talking to folks at deq about how we can become part of that conversation and there's a report that's due in december of this year Under that is House Bill 778 from Delegate Thornton. This is the first year that this bill was introduced. It would have supported efforts that provide authority for localities to create a pop-up zone aimed at regulating some of these pop-up events that are occurring across our region. I think Hampton has experienced some of that here at Buckwell Beach, Virginia Beach has had some of their oceanfront. We saw some clips, I think, from here in Newport News and Richmond is experiencing some of the others. We worked through a number of issues and challenges with that bill this session, and being the first year it was introduced, they sort of ran out of time to amend the bill any further. So it's continued to 2027 with the hope that the Crime Commission will take some look at it over the interim. I know the city manager Bunting and police chief here and myself join the team over in city of virginia beach last week to meet with the secretary of public safety to discuss this legislation but also discuss the issue on a much broader context um and i would say it was a very positive meeting and convening and i think we'll we'll get some traction on that um headed into the 2027 session delegate thornton is full steam ahead and making sure that the bill is reintroduced and and looked at again next session thanks

If I may add, Mayor, Mr. Reid, just because the way it's written, it's not that we would establish zones where these pop-up events could occur, but rather we would set up zones where we have the ability to have extra public safety tools should they happen. and and just because i realize how it it's written there for shorthand we all know about it but for the public watching it this is actually an effort to try to ensure that we don't get a lot of these takeover events these virtual viral things that happen with sometimes less than 24 hours notice this law this legislation would give us more tools to be able to deal with those so i just wanted to make that clear because there was a question about how that wording what it implied thank you

uh... below that senate bill five forty three from senator aired uh... this is also a priority position in your legislative agenda uh... this amends various provisions to uh... create additional tools for public safety officials to crack down on some of the illicit cannabis him products that you're seeing in in stores across your communities i know it's been a priority for this council of the last couple of years so we're excited to see that that legislation was successful this year and give some give some additional tools in a toolbox. Lastly, on this slide is House Joint Resolution 16, which is from Delegate Commerce Fowler out of Virginia Beach, which extends the work of the Joint Subcommittee on Recurrent and Coastal Flooding. I don't have to explain to you the importance of that for the City of Hampton, but they're doing great work, and Senator Locke is a senior member of that subcommittee, so we're excited to see that the committee will continue. Also here and was in our legislative agenda, Senate Bill 84 from Senator Williams-Graves. This gives some additional authority to localities related to traffic cameras, authorizing state and local law enforcement agencies to place and operate pedestrian crossing violation and stop sign violation monitoring systems. but very limited scope so they can only go in certain school crossing zone highway work zones and high risk speed corridors which are defined in the legislation so i'm not really sure it gives you the city of hampton in this moment that much authority but it this bill was vetoed last session but it passed and was signed by the governor a few weeks ago house bill 583 is one that we've seen a couple of sessions now in your work that you do with the hampton roads transportation planning organization and the hampton roads planning district commission was really the secondary road fund um It failed to pass out of the House Appropriations Committee again this session. A lot of that had to do with the way that the fund is funded or lack thereof. It was just really the creation of a fund and without having a state budget in place, you'll see that there were really no bills related to taxation did not fare very well on either side of the coin this session. which alludes to the next one there, Senate Bill 712, which is the local tax on vape products. Again, did not make it out of the Senate Finance Committee, again, due to some of the fiscal challenges that are ongoing. Here are two bills that we will continue to monitor over, and I think we'll continue to discuss over the next couple of years, just based on their scope. The first from Delegate Askew, which creates a joint subcommittee on a two-year study for long-term sustainable funding for Hampton Roads Transit and all the modes of transit that are incorporated under HRT. And so that passed the General Assembly in effective July 1. The meetings will conclude by 2027, so November 2027. Under that is a bill from Delegate Anthony, House Bill 1241, that directs the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission to develop a infrastructure framework, a readiness. And this is aimed at trying to get a good glimpse of what the infrastructure transportation needs are across the entire region and so that's passed and is effective july 1 a report for that as you see there is due no later than december 1 2026 that's an initial progress report and then the final report due the following year in december 1 2027. So talking through some of the legislation that we did not like this session, I think as I mentioned to you last fall in our couple of meetings, we knew it would be a focal point of our work this session to defend some of the authority that you currently have and fight off some of the adverse bills. And we saw certainly no shortage of them introduced. Thankfully, not too many of them squeaking their way through, but highlighting one that continues to come back at the top of the list there, House Bill 956, related to the way B-Poll tax is received locally. That would have significantly hit your bottom line here locally, so that bill did not pass. Senate Bill 306 and Senate Bill 297 listed there. That would have basically eliminated or repealed any of your authority for speed cameras, red light cameras. So with no recourse to recoup the cost that you've invested into those programs. So very significant, but neither of those bills passed as well. Senate Bill 48 and House Bill 804, which would have mandated certain statewide housing targets, imposing these targets on localities, regardless of kind of what your housing plans were locally. Again, we saw this bill last session. I think we'll continue to see it in certain forms. It did not pass. um and then 2026 session um and then at the bottom there senate bill um 454 and house bill 816 these would have really upended your local zoning authority by allowing buy right multi-family developments in any commercial districts in your locality so we spent a lot of time um you know i think trying to amend the bill but we couldn't get to a place where it was it really um i i think workable for localities and so it ended up failing in the last days of session Few pieces of legislation of note here, and I won't touch on all of them, but we've talked a little bit about the one on the bottom, House Bill 888, related to minimum off-street parking requirements. There was a version of that bill introduced that went a little bit further in terms of eroding local authority that did not pass. The governor made some amendments that were a bit more helpful for local governments, and those amendments were actually accepted by the General Assembly House Bill 1220 sought to put some guardrails on your current photo enforcement, so your speed cameras, your red light cameras. I think as part of that conversation, we've tried to ensure that localities like Hampton remain the authority of keeping the fees for said and not going to the state the general fund understanding that the maintenance installation of those devices are very costly and over time you actually don't make any money off of those and so we were able to retain that authority for you able to keep those monies locally. All right, getting into probably where you have the most questions or unknowns, and it's related to the ongoing negotiations on the two-year budget. It is still very much a fluid situation. If you're on social media, I'm sure you're getting all the updates, just like I am, between the leadership and the governor, and so it's a lot of moving parts. But as you see here, in December, Governor Youngkin, in his outgoing budget, introduced two budgets, one for the caboose bill, which is House Bill 29, and that is for the current fiscal year ending in June 30th, 2026, so just here in a few weeks, and then the other for the two-year budget. So House Bill 29 was actually signed by Governor Spanberg on February 20th in 2026. That bill included a lot of the provisions for all the redistricting stuff that happened over the last five, six months. the house and senate budget negotiators unable to you know complete their work on the agreement thus far and again as i mentioned earlier the biggest thing revolving around the senate's proposal to sunset a costly sales and use tax exempt for exemption for data centers. That elimination would, I think, depending on who you ask, over a billion dollars at this point and additional funding into the state coffers. And so the Senate sought to use that in a number of different ways. The House, as you see here, in their budget, proposed to do several one-time limited ongoing resources as part of their plan, understanding the fiscal environment and economy that we're in. we did have three budget request and um... the city's package this session uh... and you'll see on the left here uh... safer communities uh... program so that two point five million for the addition of of the city of hampton to that program uh... something that we saw in the in the budget deal last year uh... but then governor young can uh... vetoed line item vetoed uh... that item uh... but that 2.5 million was included in both the house and senate versions of the budget which is what we'd like to see so um i think some of you were at a convening in a in a few weeks ago where i won't name the legislator but a legislator indicated very positively that that would be included in the final budget deal and so that kind of bodes with what what we've been hearing as well and so um no certainty until the the ink's dry um but i think there's a lot of effort and advocacy happening on that front. The other two, as we enter in change of administration, change in secretariats, they're going to be continued work needed with the Hampton Health District with the incoming Secretary of Health and Human Resources, as is the case with Fort Wool and the restoration there with the Secretary of Natural Resources. So we've already gotten some outreach from some of those entities and folks about scheduling meetings to see how we might be able to move those initiatives forward in the amended budget that the governor will make later this year. But we gotta have a two-year budget before we can amend it. So the work there will continue as we get through the end of the year. A few dates to consider, and the May 23rd date now has passed, but that was the deadline for the governor to act on any remaining legislation communicated to her. So all the legislation, with the exception of the budget bill, has communicated back to the General Assembly in one shape or form, either signed or vetoed. the July one, obviously the new fiscal year begins. Pre-filing for legislation will begin in mid-July. The exact date has not been set yet. And then you see the date for elections here. And then in November, all requests and drafts for legislation to be pre-filed with the Department of Legislative Services. So a lot of work to be done, particularly as it relates to the budget. I'm happy to come back when we have a budget deal to give you a quick briefing on that. I think we tried to push this presentation as far back as we could with the hopes that we would have something, but unfortunately able to provide that gift to you today. But happy to answer any questions that you might have this afternoon.

Vice Mayor Brown. Thank you, Ed. So on the health issue, what's the pushback on that?

I there's really no negative pushback more so around budget and the Virginia Department of Health. There been significant changes there commissioner number of things so it I think with the new administration in place will be in better footing to kind of be revisited correct okay, thank you.

Councilman Harper.

Thank you, Ed. I'm not so much of a question because you answered them with your presentation, but I just wanted to say that your presentation was very, very good. I really enjoyed reading it. It was an easy read, so thank you to you and your staff at your company for a great presentation that you all have provided to us. And it was very specific to Hampton and I really enjoyed that. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Any other questions for Mr. Reid? All right. all right thank you look forward to to the next update hopefully it won't be too long okay all right that concludes that so city manager want to introduce the last item

certainly mr mayor and council members our chief officer for community and economic development leonard sledge is going to be doing an update on the virginia enterprise zone this is a program that we have in hampton that can benefit businesses so we want to share with you the benefits that have been accrued to date by businesses and also make more businesses aware of the opportunities

Thank you City Manager Bunting, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, distinguished members of Hampton City Council, City Attorney Sid Noor, and Clerk Catherine Glass. Good afternoon. Again, my name is Leonard Sledge and I have the privilege of serving as the Chief Officer for Community and Economic Development for the City of Hampton. We are really fortunate at Hampton to have two state designated enterprise zones. And in short, a state designated enterprise zone gives companies who are creating new jobs, hiring employees who are being paid at least 175% of the prevailing minimum wage, the company is eligible to receive a grant from the Commonwealth of Virginia. In addition to that, companies and property owners, commercial property owners, industrial property owners, If they make a certain investment within a 10-year period, or I'm sorry, in a year, eligible every 10 years to reapply, they're able to receive a grant called the Real Property Improvement Grant. State-designated enterprise zones are coveted across the Commonwealth of Virginia, and we are fortunate to have two. And so the Virginia Enterprise Zone Program originated in 1982, and it originated as a tax credit initiative. And we've shortened the abbreviation to VEZ, and it is a collaboration between the Commonwealth of Virginia and local governments aimed at boosting job creation and investment in real property. The state-designated Enterprise Zone Program is managed and administered through the Commonwealth's Department of Housing and Community Development. Enterprise Zones seek to stimulate economic growth, improve economically distressed communities, and aid in neighborhood revitalization by encouraging businesses to expand, relocate, or start new operations within Hampton's designated Virginia Enterprise Zone boundaries. As we are out engaging in business visits with existing businesses and as we're courting new businesses, the Enterprise Zone program is a tool in our toolkit, again, to help create a financial incentive package to help stimulate the growth of Hampton's economy. And again, we have two zones. The newest of the zones, and by new, a couple of decades old now, is the Hampton Road Center Zone, which is also technically Zone 35 in the Commonwealth. And you'll see by the map that it extends all the way up to Nassau Langley Research Center and the Whiff Creek Corridor, all the way down through the Hampton Road Center Corridor. traversing Butler Farm Road and again picking up on areas of interest in Coliseum Central and also West Park. The second of the zones is the Hampton Urban Zone. This is where we see the geography of it really hug our commercial corridors, areas where we are targeting revitalization, areas where we have active master plans. And you'll see it extends every area of the city from North King Street to Fox Hill Road, Pembroke, the Phoebus area, portion of Fort Monroe, Kecoughtan Road, Pembroke, and Mercury Boulevard, and also Coliseum Central and downtown Hampton. So for a company, as I stated at the onset of my comments, the benefits to locating in a Virginia enterprise zone, again, the job creation grants and the real property improvement grants. Essentially, if a firm is creating jobs above the threshold of four that pay 175% of the federal minimum wage plus benefits, that company is able to receive a grant of $500 a year each year for five years for each new job that is created. If that wage is 200% of the federal minimum wage plus business, plus benefits, excuse me, that amount increases to $800 a year. In terms of the real property investment grant, enterprise zone grants are made up to $100,000 per building for commercial or mixed use real property investments that are less than $5 million in total value and up to $200,000 per building for qualified investments of $5 million or more. The Enterprise Zone applications are due every April. We sign off on them, but the approval is by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Again, the State's Department of Housing and Community Development. Over the past couple of years, we have been through a process to have our zones renewed. Those renewals are in effect for additional five-year periods. And as a part of that process, we provide data and information not only about the utilization of the Enterprise Zone program, but also other job growth, other economic development activity that's occurring in the city of Hampton, whether or not it occurred in a zone or not, or whether or not that company or beneficiary is receiving a grant. We also report out on infrastructure investments. We are demonstrating to the state that the city of Hampton is a vested partner in the growth of our city to coincide with the enterprise zone activity. And so activity in the zones from 2020 fiscal years 2020 to 2024. And in the table, you will see the two zones, the urban zone zone eight or the Hampton Road Center zone zone 35. Again, they have been around for a couple of decades. The urban zone being the oldest starting in 1985 and the Hampton Roads Center Zone in 1996. Again, we have been through the renewal of those two zones. We have them through 2029 and 2030 respectively. By state statute, there is a maximum number of acres that is permissible in each of the zones. One of my comments at the end is going to really lock in on that. But over each of the past five years, you see the dollar amounts that have been awarded by the Commonwealth of Virginia. And in this most recent grant cycle, fiscal year 2024, out of all of the 45 enterprise zones in the Commonwealth of Virginia, our urban zone activity ranked ninth. out of 45 and our Hampton Roads Center Zone ranked 20th out of 45. Collectively between the two zones, the City of Hampton businesses and property owners accounted for approximately 5% of the total grant dollars that were awarded by the Commonwealth. And those total grant dollars awarded by the Commonwealth of Virginia was just under $13.7 million. activity in the zones in twenty twenty five there were nine new applications all of them were real property investment grants six in the hampton urban zones on eight and three in the hampton road center zones on thirty five we have not been informed yet whether or not those zones were awarded but again we sign off on all of the applications that are submitted to the commonwealth of virginia in recent years there have been a number of companies that have benefited again through the job creation grant program and the real property grant program from organizations like versability threat tech langley federal credit union peninsula town center old point now town bank advex registrar legal cato and the list goes on and on We are ramping up our marketing efforts. Again, we continuously communicate the benefits to existing businesses and new businesses about the Enterprise Zone programs. And so we're going to continue the awareness campaign, again, via our business visits, newsletters, social media, and our website to ensure that businesses and property owners are informed of the Zone benefits. We also on an annual basis, we either partner with the city of Newport News or we have them on our own how to apply workshops. And the reason that we partner and collaborate with the city of Newport News is because there is limited staff capacity at the state to be able to come and do those sessions in person. and we create the opportunity and the space for businesses and property owners to take and participate in that workshop in person. There are also information and material that's available on the state's website that we push out to businesses and property owners as well. One of the things that we're going to be doing is enhancing our marketing activity using permit data from our community development department. It's easy. Our GIS information points to whether or not a company or a property, a property rather, is in a state-designated enterprise zone. And so we'll be working to more proactively pull data and reach out and touch those property owners and those businesses a little more aggressively. We're going to assess and explore the possibility of expanding the two Virginia Enterprise Zone boundaries within the program guidelines. And if we were to make a recommendation to do that, that is something that takes City Council approval. But we are underneath our cap. And if there is an opportunity for us to expand that, again, the available acreage in a zone in a way that makes sense, again, thinking about our long-term growth strategies, our commercial corridors, our master plans, and where we have priority redevelopment interest and activities we want to expand those boundaries and also as we've shared with city council in a prior presentation a couple of months ago about the revamp to our grant programs we have recrafted an existing business development manager position in the Department of Economic Development to focus on grants administration, data management, compliance, and research. And I am pleased to share that we have found an outstanding candidate that has accepted the position to join our team, and she will be starting on June the 8th. But in the meantime, in the absence of that person, the economic development team has been doing the lip of this. Mr. Maurice Leary was here earlier today, but he had another meeting and appointment. I just want to acknowledge Maurice's work over the past couple of years. He's been our de facto enterprise zone administrator, working with our deputy director, Mike Eskowski. Again, making sure that we're pushing the word out and getting the activity so that businesses and property owners in the city of Hampton can take advantage of this tremendous opportunity. And that concludes our presentation for today, and we're glad to answer any questions you might have.

Questions for from council members.

Councilman Muggler one very quick. Thank you. Mister mayor. So you did talk about looking to expand and I'm assuming you'll be coming forward at some time in the near future with some proposals of where you want to perhaps expand absolutely now great, OK, thank you.

And Mayor Gray, I apologize. There is one other point that I'd be remiss if I did not state. The state-designated enterprise zones, they also require a local enterprise zone program as well. And through funding appropriated by City Council, we have a local enterprise zone program as well. And there are specific guidelines and criteria that we use, and so the two work in tandem.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you. Okay, so that concludes all of our presentations for the afternoon. Are there any regional issues? Is there any new business? All right, and with that, I'm going to ask the clerk to read the motion required for closed session.

The motion required is to convene a closed session pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 to receive legal advice from the city attorney regarding proper interpretation and application of specific provisions of Virginia law pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 to discuss potential investment of public funds for the benefit of a regional transportation facility where bargaining is involved pursuant to Virginia Code Section 2.2-3711 a seven and eight to consult with legal counsel regarding legal options for dealing with the condemned structure, including potential litigation and pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711 point a one to discuss appointments as listed on the agenda.

I need a motion in a second.

So move, Mr. Mayor.

Second.

All right. We call a roll.

Councilman Bowman our vice mayor Brown Councilman Campbell I Councilman fear behind Councilman Harper Councilman Mugler I hear great.

I so we will convene in closed session in Lawson conference room at 3.15 and following the closed session Council reconvene me in the open meeting in the same location in order to certify the closed session and then proceed to adjourn the meeting so 3.15 in the loss.

Are you talking about best friends?